Note:  My photos for BGG.CON are being hosted at Flickr.  You can find them here.

 

Flea Market
I got to bed at a decent hour on Friday night (around 12:30) so I wouldn't be a walking zombie on Saturday.  I was also hoping I would have enough energy to wake up in time for the flea market on Saturday morning, as I was hoping to score a couple of deals.    Fortunately I was able to get my butt out of bed, showered, and to the hotel in plenty of time.  There were easily a dozen tables filled with games from the sellers, with a decent collection.  The buyers started showing up at 8:30 (or maybe before), circling the tables like hawks looking for prey.  The moderator made sure that general bargaining didn't start until 9 on the dot, so there weren't unfair advantages.

 

The offerings were mixed, with several good titles but nothing spectacular.  I had brought my spare in-shrink copy of Die Macher, hoping to trade it for a couple of other out-of-prints, but nothing caught my eye.  I had several people walk up and ask how much I would sell it for, but I couldn't part with it for cash.

 

I did manage to secure Oasis and Return of the Heroes for $30.  Those were my only purchases.  I wanted to get a copy of Keythedral, but he was only interested in trade.  I also had my eye on a copy of Wizard Kings, but I didn't think $35 was the right price.  I was happy with what I got.

 

Taj Mahal
After the flea market, I sought out Tim Kelly for a game.  I specifically requested Taj Mahal, as it is currently at the top of my acquisition list (even though I haven't played it).  He was happy to oblige, and we got Dave and Jeff Lee to play with us.  Taj Mahal is a Knizia game in the Alea series, and is currently out of print.  Players are acquiring cards in 5 colors, with each card having 1-2 symbols on it.  The most common symbol is an elephant, followed by viziers, generals, monks, princesses and crowns.  These cards form the player's bidding hand.  Each turn, a particular region in India is up for bid.  In turn, players choose a card to start their bid.  They note the color (or suit) of the card, and may only make successive bids using that same color.  The exception are white-colored cards, which may accompany any other color.

 

When a player passes, they look at their bid and determine whether they have a majority in any of the symbols.  If they do, they receive the corresponding reward for that symbol.  For the vizier, general, monk and princess, the players receive a single palace in the region, plus a token that corresponds to that symbol.  Two of these tokens may be exchanged for control of a special white card that may be played every turn and taken back into the hand at the end of the round.  The reward for the crown is only a palace (no token), but the palace may be played anywhere, even on a space occupied by another player.  When palaces are placed, the player is rewarded with 1 point, unless they make a contiguous "chain" of palaces that span multiple regions, in which case they score 1 point for every region connected by the chain.  The reward for the most elephants is a trade good tile.  The goods tiles score 1 point for each good on the tile (usually 2), plus the player scores any previous tiles that match the goods.

 

 

Once all of the rewards have been bid on and distributed, the players draw 2 new cards (or 1 for the last player playing cards) and the next region is up for bid.  In typical Knizia fashion, there are multiple ways to score points.  In our game, I concentrated on making chains of palaces, noting the order in which the regions came up for auction, choosing to save my cards for important regions.  This won me a distant second place to Jeff Lee, who took on a strategy of scoring matching trade goods and ignoring palaces for the most part.  He kept scoring gems and tea, wracking up multiple points for each tile.   He won easily.

 

The game is fantastic.  It's easily explained and easy to grasp.  However, there are a couple of ways to score points.  The players must manage both cards in their hand and scoring opportunities carefully.  I will definitely be looking to pick this one up off eBay or a BGG trade, if possible.

 

Final Scores:
Jeff L. 60, Jeff C. 41, Dave 40, Tim 24

 

Hammer of the Scots
Last month I finally picked up this Columbia block game.  HotS had long been on my radar, and with the second edition on the shelves, I decided to snag a copy.  My friend Dave has also been wanting to try it, so we decided on Saturday morning to sit down and try it.  Derk graciously offered to teach us the rules, and after about 20 minutes we had enough info to start.  Unfortunately, we quickly stalled.  The rules are very confusing.  The layout is poor and unorganized.  There are references to special units without first telling the player how to identify the special unit.  There are rules hidden in the sidebar, which I thought were reserved for historical commentary.  At one point, the rules explain that the defender becomes the attacker when defensive reserves come into play.  But we were mystified trying to determine how the defender would even have reserve units.  (we eventually worked it out, but still couldn't find an example in the rules)  The special action cards are never explained and left us with questions on how to execute them.

 

 

To add to the disappointment, the board is very flimsy.  It's a shame that in a game with such great wooden blocks, they couldn't give you a mounted board.  Nor could they avoid printing mistakes in the second edition.  One of the noble's identifying shields was left off the map.  Columbia provided a sticker that can be cut-out and applied to the map, but it was still disappointing for a second printing of the game.

 

Despite the early disappointments, the game itself is a lot of fun.  Due to time constraints (mainly due to fumbling through all the rules questions), we only managed to play 2 complete years.  Things looked good for the English early, but Edward I rode out to the middle of the map to face off against Wallace, who sent him home early.  The Scots wound up winning many of the nobles to their side at the end of the second year, letting them muster lots of reinforcements for the third year.  The English levy was strong, but the Scots controlled most of Scotland.  It would have been interesting to play out that full third year, but Dave had to go meet up with some friends of the family.

 

 

I'd like to sit down with an FAQ before I play again and clarify some rules.  I think this will be a fun game, but will probably take a solid 3 hours to play.

 

Pyramidis
For a quick filler, Tim Kelly brought out Pyramidis.  I played with Tim, Robert and Cristoph, with Tim winning.  This game was unremarkable with terribly dated artwork and a tacked-on Egyptian theme.  It was by far my least-favorite of the con.

 

Final Scores: 
Tim 5, Cristoph 4, Jeff 3, Robert 2

 

Manila
With the hold-em tournament starting at 8, we had time for one more medium-length game.  Tim had checked out Manila from the game library, so we added Jim to the Pyramidis players for a 5-player game.

 

In Manila, players start the game with 2 stock cards out of a possible 5 commodities.  The goal is to end the game with the most money, counted as money-on-hand + the value of a player's stock cards.  Each turn, players bid money for the role of harbor master, allowing them to purchase 1 stock card at the current stock's value, and begin play.  The harbor master chooses 3 of the 4 commodities to load up on boats, and starts the boats down the river (a track from 0-13).  The players then take turns around the table placing three pieces.  The pieces may be placed on the boats, awarding money if the boat makes it to the end of the river after 3 turns, or place them on various "bets".  The bets are generally odds on what will happen to the boats.  For instance, if a player thinks that all 3 boats will make it to the end of the river, they pay 2 dollars to place a piece on that bet.  If the boats all make it, they get paid 15 dollars.

 

 

At the end of each "betting" round, dice are rolled for each boat, and the boats move along the river that number of spaces.  After 3 rounds, the bets are paid out in cash.  Each good that make it to the end of the river has its stock price bumped one space (which results in a $5 or $10 increase in value).  Then the board is cleared and another round is paid.  If any good reaches a stock value of 30, the game is over and money is calculated.

 

Jim took an early lead by being frugal with the bidding, letting other players outbid for harbor master, as well as getting lucky with a "pirate" role selection.  If a boat lands exactly on the last step of the river without going over, the player on the pirate space may take the ship for himself and decide whether to dock it or not.  Jim successfully pirated twice, giving him a large money advantage late in the game and causing 3 other players to mortgage their stock.

 

This was a nice game with fantastic components.  (the money was awesome!)  I would certainly play it again, though I wasn't interested enough to purchase the game.

 

Final scores:

Jim 104, Christoph 87, Jeff 82, Robert 46, Tim 40

 

Texas Hold 'Em Tournament
The last event of the night was the poker tournament.  Nearly 100 players entered, making it a nice-sized tournament.  I must first comment on how well-run the tournament was.  The guys in charge did a great job of keeping things running, reseating tables, changing out chip values, and keeping the blinds moving.  Well done!

 

I fared well, making it to the last 2 tables with an average-sized stack.  There were 11 players left, with 10 spots for the final table.  Here's the hand that knocked me out:

 

I'm in 2nd position at a 6-handed table with 200 / 400 blinds and ~$6,000 in chips.  1st position folds to me, and I check my cards.  I get A-2 suited, which isn't bad, but isn't good.  I raise to $800 to see where everyone is at.  3rd position folds, dealer calls, and small & big blind fold.  The flop comes out J-8-5 one card matching my suit, my action.  I was 2-handed against Wil Upchurch, who I made as somewhat of a loose player.  The fact that he called my 800 make me think he was in a draw hand, but my move was poor.  I should have made a modest bet with the first action, giving him the chance to get out (leaving me the blinds + 800) or commit, in which case I was probably beat and could fold, not losing much.  Instead I made a move all-in.  Wil agonized over the call for a what seemed like an eternity before calling and showing me a Jack.  I was drawing to an Ace or two runner cards (hearts or deuces), which left me a big underdog.  There was no help on the turn or the river, and I was out just short of the final table.

 

I wasn't disappointed, having played some pretty good poker.  I could have sat on my stack and made the final table, but I went down on a hand I thought I had a shot at, which isn't a bad way to go out.  I didn't get a chance to stick around for the final table action, so I'll have to email Wil for the final report.

 

 

After my tourney exit, it was 11:30.  I decide to collect my stuff and head for home, exhausted from 3 days of gaming.  I knew I wouldn't make it back on Sunday, so I made the rounds in the open-gaming room and said goodbye to all the wonderful gamers I had met over the weekend.

 

Thus ended Day 3.  I have some final thoughts on the convention in general, but I'll save them for another post.