NBW Report -- Sunday (2/8/09)

Got up, showered, packed, then checked out. Headed back to the ballroom to see that it was only about 1/3 full now. Sniff...

I decided to get in one final game -- a 5-player Le Havre with the Canadian crew (Robin, Jeff, Kevin, and Chris). It was a fun game and I was doing pretty well. Robin thought he was out of it, but whenever I looked at his buildings, he was doing better than I! Well, I made a BIG mistake at the end, buying the Sawmill (why????) instead if the Bridge over the Seine. Guess who bought it? Yes, that sneaky Griller guy! Anyway, once the final round was over, Robin won. The scores were: 117-104-94-73-53. I had the 94, yet if I had bought the Bridge I would have had 108 and Robin would have been at 105 (I believe I did the math correctly). Double D'oh! My mistake again (I learned a lot from Griller thrashings in Dominion and Le Havre!), one I won't make in the future...

Well, Marty had a plane to catch, so we were off. I said a sad goodbye to the guys still there. I know I'll see Art and Lembit at WBC, but guys like Don and Michael from Halifax and Marc and Francois from Montreal will have to wait until the next NBW...

Icy Niagara

The border crossing was a piece of cake, Marty got dropped off on time, and I picked up Cheyenne from the kennel. I got home and then napped for 3 hours, as I was exhausted.

Another great NBW, my favorite "little con" in the world. Already looking forward to next February!!! My only disappointment was not making either of the Three Dog Night concerts. Now Cory's going to be hassled for tickets for a while until I can make the next show!

(Oh, I still need to post the CC tourney results, I'll do that soon!)

NBW Report -- Saturday (2/7/09)

Got up a little late on Saturday, still pooped from the day/night before. After dragging myself downstairs, I headed off with Don MacIntosh and Michael Kiefte to Starbucks for some liquid life! Once we got back all caffeined-up, it was time to look for a game. Robin Griller wasn't involved in anything, so we decided to play a CC scenario. We chose a CC:Europe scenario, #6, in which an American officer shoots dead all 6 officers of a German Panzergrenadier unit before the game starts. So the Germans start slowly, as they have to recover from their loss of command & control. I was back playing the Germans, looking at an awful lot of excellent paratroopers heading my way shortly after D-Day. Well, Lady Luck was smiling on me, as we got a fairly quick couple of time checks, so my bad early command restrictions were soon lifted. The burden of the attack was on Robin, and my machine guns were getting in good (lucky!) shoots across the board. When the game ended, the Germans had the victory with 16 VPs. I was at 5-2 and the losing streak of yesterday was just a bad memory, LOL!

We decided to play another game, and Robin picked Scenario 22 from CC:Med, the Scots vs. the Germans I had played the other day against Marty. Not wanting to play the same side in a scenario twice, I picked the Germans, hoping for a better fate. Well, guess what? Lady Luck continued to smile on me, helping me roll high for my attacks while denying Robin the "Recover" orders he needed. I was able to break several Scottish squads on my left flank, where I had set up my trench line. My HMG position was eventually diluted via all the smoke Robin's mortar crew was laying down, but they had already done their damage. A last valiant attempt by the Scots to run up the German line fell a little bit short, and the Germans held the field as night fell with a 37 point victory. I figured that would be my last CC game of NBW, though who knows...

I soon got into another Dominion game with Bill Peeck, Pete Lipson, and Chris Taylor. I was able to pull ahead with a lot of treasure, getting the victory at 33-26-25-15. Have I mentioned how much fun this game is?

Next up was a Pacific Typhoon game in the "shark pool." It was me, Marty, Robin, Jeromey, Jeff H., and "The Kid." This was the game at its finest, as everyone ensured that we'd "screw the leader" each turn. We did have a disagreement about the placement of "Gremlins" while "Fog" was in play, and it turns out I was wrong -- no gloating, Jeff! Anyway, when the waves settled and Japan was nuked, the scores were: 29-29-28-26-20-11. Wow! That was a close one. I had 28, while Marty won the tiebreaker over Robin, having won more battle points. A great game, all around.

After a late lunch/early dinner, I headed back to the hotel and Marc G. and I finally hooked up for a game! We had talked online about playing Warriors of God, so we decided to do it. I offered Marc his choice of sides, and being of good French heritage he chose...the English! (He later informed me that his background also included Irish, so it all began to make sense!) We played the 100 Years War scenario -- I had played the game many times, this was Marc's first go-round. Marc got off well early on, and had English VPs up to 15 (30 is an auto victory) 3 turns into the game. Then he was hit with a nasty "die off" of most of his leaders, and this gave me the opening I needed to crawl back into the game. By Turn 6 or 7, we were hovering around 0 VPs, but my board position was good. I was able to consolidate large tracts of land the next 2 turns -- including when Joan of Arc (or is that Jeanne d'Arc?) won a big battle for me in Normandy. We ended after Turn 9, as the French were up over 20 VPs. It was a very fun game, and, as always, it's the friends one meets in this hobby that makes it so much fun, not the winning or losing. I am sincerely happy that Marc and I finally got to play a game!

Joan

Ending the night was a game of Dominion with Robin, Don, and Michael. I didn't write down the score (I had 0, Don and Michael were both in negatives, and Robin had >10), but Robin won handily, brutally cursing us with his witches, over and over again. Lesson learned -- when there's a witch in the game, get in on that action ASAP!!! Off to bed, then homeward bound tomorrow. The saddest time of NBW, the ending...

NBW Report -- Friday (2/6/09)

Woke up on Friday and decided to try the breakfast they were cooking up for us in the hotel. A huge plate of potatoes, eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast awaited. Too much food, ugh!

Gaming started off with Marty and me playing Scenario 22 of CC:Med. It is dusk, and a group of Scots Guards are approaching a small hamlet held by rag-tag German troops (it's 1945), but the Germans do have a heavy machine gun (HMG) and a mortar, and the Scots are advancing over a wheatfield and begin the game suppressed, from harassing fire. For the first time at NBW, I got to play a non-German nationality, taking the Brits (Scots). I began by placing as much smoke as I could from my light mortar, and some lucky attacks soon broke the Germans manning the HMG. With the night getting darker, I hastened my approach and with assault fire was able to hurt the German line. Marty ran into some extremely bad luck, as his mortar broke and his HMG was useless, so the Germans decided to surrender before the men in kilts could slit their throats. I had made my 4th game of CC and was 4-0. Figured I was doing OK!

Marty and I wandered around and 3 gents were getting a Le Havre game going. Now, I want to say that Marty had done something really nice for me -- he sent me a "thank you" box prior to the con for picking him up at the Buffalo Airport. There were several treats for Cheyenne (which she's since devoured!) and the game Le Havre for me! That was mighty kind of him, if I do say so... Well, I had read the rules, but like many of the "heavier" euros, they didn't make a lot of sense until one actually sat down and played. So that's what we did, playing a 5-player game. Basically, the game has you buying goods at the docks and then using these goods to buy buildings, make money, and feed your workers. It's a real balancing act. I really took to the game, and things were looking good for me. On the last turn, I had run out of food, so I had to pay another player 2 francs to use his "Shipping Line." The usual cost is 2 food. At the end of the game, one counts up their victory point (VP) buildings and adds in their francs, with the total being their score. I had 139 points. The winner had 141. the winner was the guy I paid 2 francs to! D'oh! If I had had 2 food I would have won the game! Final scores were 141-139-139-108-88. A game I really enjoyed, and will be playing a lot over the years, I believe.

After hanging out and chatting with folks for a couple hours, Nels Thompson and I squared off for another CC game. Now, Nels is the guy who first taught me the game, and we've played quite a few times, usually having good games. Giddy with my British victory, I decided to pick a scenario with no Germans, choosing #15 from CC:Med, Rumanians blundering into a town in Russia in 1941 that is more heavily defended than they bargained for. Nels took the Soviets, and we were off. Now, the Rumanians had a ton of troops, but most were of questionable quality. Several Soviet units got to set up hidden, popping up on Turn 2. My initial plan was to flood my right flank, make a breakthrough, and try to send as many squads as possible off the board before Nels could react. Well, the best laid plans and all that... In the first 8 hands, we had 3 time advances, so before my guys even got moving, Nels was able to reinforce his left flank. Just as bad for me, my reinforcements had nowhere to go, and the board was full of juicy Axis Minor targets. I fought it out as hard as I could, even killing a few Soviets, but Nels just kept mowing my boys down, ending up with an 18 point Soviet victory. My undefeated tourney record was now officially history!

Nels and I were looking for something lighter now, and Marty and Jeffrey "The Kid" joined us for a game of Dominion. Light it may be, but this was one fun, and close game. Final scores rang out as: 27-26-24-23. I had the 27, so some of the sting of my humiliating Rumanian defeat was washed away...

Chit-chatting away with others for a bit, then I got into another CC:Med game, this time with Francois Petitclerc from Montreal. Francois had come down with Marc Guenette, a CSW friend who I had been asking to come to NBW for several years. Well, he finally made it, and we actually even got a game in (more on that later). But today it was vs. Francois, and we were fighting Scenario 23 -- British vs. Italians in the Western Desert, 1942. I took the Italians. Both sides had trench lines, artillery, and the British had a forward machine gun post in an abandoned truck while the Italians had many more men. There was no terrain here (just a lot of sand and trenches), so Francois began by laying down smoke and aggressively taking a couple of objectives, forcing me to react to his moves. I did, and the game bounced back and forth for several turns, with neither of us more than 2 VPs ahead. I finally cleared out the machine gun, but Francois got a squad and leader to take over the position, and this new force dominated any advances I tried to make for the rest of the game. We ended with a 4 VP British victory, and I learned that Francois is an excellent opponent (not to mention a very funny guy!). Great game, but I was now on a 2-game losing streak...

Defending the Western Desert

I was ready for another lighter game, and when Pete Lipson showed up with Race for the Galaxy (RftG), he, Francois, "The Kid" and I sat down for a game. I love RftG, yet hadn't played much since the 2008 NBW -- my fault. But we got right into the game and it soon became obvious that our Montreal ringer was going to win this one pretty handily. He did, with the final scores being: 45-20-18-16. I had 18, so at least I wasn't last...

7 of us went out to dinner, back to Carpaccio's. I had a really nice egg noodle and mushroom dish, as well as a huge salad, as I was craving greens! We spent a long time in the restaurant shooting the shit and laughing at a table of drunk older ladies celebrating a birthday... Stopped at a Beer Store on the way back, and I bought some Tankhouse Ale and Lager. The Ale was delicious, the Lager was disappointing. But it was still beer, so we were happy...

To end the night, I got into an Atlantic Storm game with Clint from Northern Ontario and a bunch of newbies. It was late, and the game went too slowly, so I just drank a few beers to pass the time. By the time it had ended, the scores were 36-30-30-23-18-15. I had a "30" and didn't even care that I didn't win. I just wanted to get to bed...

NBW Report -- Thursday (2/5/09)

Rolled out of bed around 7:30, showered, and headed to Tim Horton's afterward with Marty, to get my morning caffeine fix. When we got back to the ballroom, it seemed warmer, but that was only because the doors to the hall were open, so the frigid air was mixing with the warmer hall air. We were beginning to go into crisis mode, as the herd would be showing up soon and we were told the heater was broken. A "man" had been called, and should be there any time to fix it. Yet the morning wore on, and it didn't get fixed. Art, being the consummate businessman, got the hotel to go out and buy some space heaters, as a temporary fix. These worked well enough (though they kept on blowing fuses!), and by Noon we were gaming away, in relative comfort.

(Addenda: The heater did get fixed and, if anything, the room eventually became TOO warm -- so we had to prop open a door to let cold air in, LOL!)

First up was my initial game in the Combat Commander scenario. As there were still relatively few people here, Marty and I decided to play a game. I won the coin flip, and chose Scenario 14, Poles trying to break out through the German lines in 1939. I figured Marty would take the Germans, but he surprised me and took the Poles. So I had to switch my mentality to the defense... After a brutal firefight, the Germans were able to keep most of the Poles from breaking out, and won with 8 VPs in a close game. There was a stretch of bad cards for the Poles, and the 1 card discard hurt them for several turns, and this helped the Germans turn the tide. A well timed German "walking wounded" reinforcement really caused havoc with the Polish rear.

Cory came by and wanted to play some Combat Commander, so, since I love this game AND was running the tourney, I sat down to another game. This time we played Scenario 4, American Paras trying to root out tough German units from a chateau in Belgium after the Bulge fizzled out. I got the Germans again, and set up my infantry gun in some woods, waiting to plug advancing Yankees. Alas, on Cory's first activation, he broke the weapon team manning the gun, and, believe it or not, I was unable to get a single shot off the whole game -- and about 2/3 of the way through, the gun was eliminated. Groan... The battle did go better for me elsewhere, and some quick time checks slowed down the American reinforcements, so I didn't have to face much fire from the engineers with flamethrowers. This game had something happen that I'd never seen before -- multiple blazes that morphed (breezed?) into a huge fire that filled about 1/4 of the board. The blaze closed down Cory's advance lanes on his left flank, and allowed me to concentrate my firepower on his right. Once the dust settled, the Germans had a convincing 34 point victory.

After schmoozing with folks for a while, I got into another Dominion game, this time with Marty, Grant LaDue, and a youngster, Jeffrey Wilson. Jeffrey came with his father and turned out to be an excellent game player, and a quick learner! Though he had never played the game before, he ended up winning by one point! I finished a distant 3rd, but had fun (37-36-21-15). What a great filler this game is!

Next up was a 6-player Pacific Typhoon game with Michael and Don from Nova Scotia, Marc and Francois from Montreal, and Michel Boucher from Ottawa. Most folks had played before, though a couple had only played the game's older cousin, Atlantic Storm. I had some good cards, and even though the table turned against me -- get Winslow! -- I was able to hold on for a victory. Final scores were 44-30-30-25-18-11.

Back to WW2 Europe, and Michael Kiefte and played Scenario 28 from the Paratroop Battle Pack. This has American and German paras fighting it out in "Hedgerow Hell" on June 7th, in Normandy. Once again, I drew the Germans... We both had good units and several machine guns. I also had some off-board artillery and a mortar. Well, I have to say that, in a nutshell, this may have been the most exciting game of CC I ever played. We went back and forth all game, with victory points never getting to more than 4 for one side. There was a big dead pile, and we were both able to protect our objectives. The game was coming down to a shootout, and we were absolutely plastering each other. I held the initiative when a time check came up that ended the game with VPs at 0. I smiled at the initiative card, and breathed a huge sigh of relief, pulling it out by the tiebreaker. Michael played a great game, and it really was one of those games in which there really were no losers. Man, that was some game...

The Bocage

Later on, I went out to dinner with Cory and Marty to a Vietnamese place. The Pho there was pretty good -- not great, but not bad, either. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner, and more guys from NBW showed up there later. It was relaxing, and I was beat once dinner ended. And it was freezing outside. Some silly Celsius number that translated to about 5F...

Played a final game of Pacific Typhoon before hitting the sack. This one was a 5-player with Robin, Jeromey Martin, and 2 of the 3 Jeffs who made it up from Rochester (Heideman and McBeth). Those bastards ganged up on me (what's new? LOL!) and Jeromey ended up winning a close one over Robin: 33-32-29-23-19. Yes, I had the 19. Game was played quickly, which is a good thing, so it was fun. Off to bed, as there were still 2+ days of gaming left!

NBW Report -- Wednesday (2/4/09)

Last Wednesday, I left school at around 2:30, heading to the Buffalo Airport to pick up Marty Sample. The drive was pretty uneventful, hitting about a 10 mile stretch of heavy snow (where speeds dropped to about 40/45 MPH due to near white-out conditions), but good driving otherwise. Listened to Lord of the Flies on CD, which I finished up on the way home. Got Marty a little before 4:00 PM, and we headed to the Great White North. The border crossing was a piece of cake, though the Canadian Customs guy was a bit of a prick when Marty told him we didn't have any alcohol to declare, snapping at him, "I didn't ask you that, answer my question." Sheesh... Got to the hotel 5:00ish, checked in, and found Art Lupinacci, Robin Griller, and Lembit Tohver playing Dominion in the ballroom -- the ballroom with no heat, so it felt like about 45F, if that! I crashed for a bit, then Marty came by and we headed out to grab dinner.

After a good feast at Carpaccio's, we went back to the hotel and met up with Art, Robin, and Lembit in their room. Cory Wells called, and then he came by. A few folks headed out to grab a quick bite, while we pulled a table into the (warmer) hallway to get ready for a game of Battlestar Galactica (BSG). Now, I have never watched the show, so I was dubious that I would enjoy the game, but it was the only game in town, so to speak...

As we were waiting for the rest to get back from dinner, we taught Cory how to play Dominion, and got in a quick game (so there was more than one game in town, after all!). Marty ended up winning a close 3-player game, with the scores 24-21-15. Cory took a few turns to understand the mechanics, then he got right into it. I think Dominion will be a very fun "filler" game for a long, long time.

When the Canadian contingent returned from dinner, we got blasted off into space. Picking "Galactica" characters, I got some cowardly politico type (Gaius something or other), and found right away that I was a Cylon. My job was to sabotage the ship's voyage. Early on, I didn't want to do anything obvious, so I'd only play a few cards that hurt the humans every now and then (sometimes it worked), while performing innocuous actions that weren't going to alert the humans as to my true calling. When we got 1/2 way through the game, Art's character turned out to be a Cylon sympathizer, and he was the president! So the presidency passed to me -- little did those humans know what were getting into... As the game wore on, it seemed that Robin (the admiral) was not helping the cause very much, and, lo and behold, he turned out to be a Cylon, as well. When I revealed myself, it became clear that the humans would not make it, and the big ship crashed, only half-way home. A brilliant Cylon victory! Overall, the game was a lot of fun, though I think I would have enjoyed it much more had I known the story line and the characters. But I'm not a sci-fi fan, and my TV watching consists mainly of sports and cartoons, so...

A Cylon

Off to to bed, then, hoping we'd have a warmer ballroom tomorrow, when others started arriving...

Veggin'...

Tonight will just be an evening of veggin' out, correcting papers, and watching the Sabres game, as I am pooped! All those days off and sleeping in spoiled me -- now I can't get to sleep at night, yet I have to get up at 5:55 when my alarm starts going off.

Ugh...

Looks like no gaming this week, though our group's monthly meet at Millennium is on Saturday. So, once Friday hits, I'll have the Sabres' game that night, then gaming all the next day. Not a bad deal, just have to get through 2 more days...

Mike and Bill are playing Third World War on Thursday at Mike's, so I'll probably stop by the see that. I'm not really interested in the game (too many damn hexes!), so it'll just be for the beer and to shoot the shit. Haven't seen Bill in ages, actually!


And on the Niagara Boardgaming Weekend front, spoke with Marty Sample last night and it looks like he'll be coming in from New Hampshire! Too cool! Looking forward to NBW even more, now. Mmmmmm... Niagara Falls in February!

Y'all should be coming, ya know...

Gaming Conventions...

One of the fun aspects of the gaming hobby is heading out to conventions -- basically big gaming get-togethers -- and renewing old acquaintances while playing games, games, and more games. This summer, in early August, I'll head off to 5 days of gaming at the "World Boardgaming Championships" (WBC) in Lancaster, PA. I've been doing this since the late '90s, when the event was held in Hunt Valley, MD.

The other get-together I go to is the "Niagara Boardgaming Weekend" (NBW) in Niagara Falls, ON in early February. Had a great time this year, and am looking forward to 2009.

At WBC, I have 100+ friends who I see and game with each year. There are competitive tournaments and open gaming galore -- each year I cut back on the competitive stuff and do more friendly gaming. It's a fun time, and, coming in the middle of summer, it's easy for this teacher to make plans! Niagara is much more laid back, with perhaps 75 attendees. No tourneys, just a ton of open gaming. For the most part, different friends attend NBW, and between the two "cons," I see almost all my gaming buds and get in more than my fill of games. Remember, we have a very active group here in the Rochester area, so I'm never lacking for opponents.

So, why post about this? I guess because another get-together just ended, "Consimworld Expo" (CSW Expo) in Tempe, AZ. I have fun joking about this with the few friends of mine that go, as all the "rah-rah, we're the best" stuff is something I find very funny -- old men counting down days and all that... CSW Expo is one place I have no interest in going to, for several reasons.

1. Very few of my friends attend -- I could count them all on both hands and have a few fingers left over.

2. The "con" is dedicated to monster-gaming (big games that teams play and that take days to complete) -- not the kind of games I enjoy.

3. The "con" now boasts people (and even a dedicated room!) playing shorter games -- like I need to fly to Arizona for what I can do at my house any night of the week? And with friends, not strangers in the Arizona desert, no less...

4. I'm an east coast guy for this kind of stuff -- spending money to fly across the country doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me (see: "I can do this from the comfort of my own home, with friends, not strangers").

5. The "con" is always at the end of May/beginning of June -- I'm a teacher, we don't get a week's vacation then!

So, I'm truly happy for the (few) friends I have that go to Tempe for this. Having a good time is what it's all about. But I don't need (nor even want) a fancy hotel, seminars to cut into my gaming time, or a bunch of strangers around to have fun. In fact, I go for the opposite, and am much happier for it. So, I really don't need to be persuaded what a great time this is -- I know it ain't for me. Your mileage may vary...

Until next year at this time.