Oct 7 RussCon Report

There were 16 of us -- 17 if you include nonhuman players... Welcome new folks Daniel and Harry. (Does anyone know Harry's email address?) Thanks to folks who brought special Halloween goodies. We must increase the Halloween factor as Oct 31 approaches. Come in costume Oct 28 and earn big Devil Points!!!

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Kevin won Cheops, and the great confusion was finally cleared up: Cheops is unrelated to Settlers, but there is some Settlers variant also called Cheops. Also, for the first time (somewhat surprisingly) I had the ratings dilemma of a position played by different players: Ken dropped and Clayton took over. Conveniently, that side came in last anyway; I've counted it as a loss for Ken and no effect for Clayton, under the philosophy that Ken resigned (I guess to play Successors), thus coming in last anyway, and Clayton simply took over that position as a courtesy to the other players, like an AI taking over a dropped human's position in a computer game. But it's not obvious that this is always the right way to handle it. Unless someone has a better idea, that's what I'll do should this occur again (partly just to discourage people dropping out of a game).

Tim won RoboRally, in an option-rich battle (thanks to the robot-mutating radioactive waste, we exhausted the option deck), with Daniel a very close second. I got the glory of being blown up by The Big One; just one square further, and I would have survived the fiery blast... Virgin robot programmer Alfred took a very extended tour of the twisty conveyor belt network on the Circuit Trap board, with subtle maneuverings rivaling the legendary perambulations of Evan "Wrong Way" Axelrad.

Jeff won the Settlers 2-player card game.

JP won Airlines, a cool German import.

Daniel won Trainsport Austria. I like this game even though I suck at it. Both times I've played, I've ended up with less money than I started with, and thus I would have done better by never building any track... The third time will be the charm, I can feel it...

James won Successors, which does not amaze me.

Marty won Elfenland -- twice! Truly he is the Elfmaster.

Jeff won Fight, that supremely clever free Cheapass coin game.

Daniel won Montgolfiere. The infamous Black Baron ended up tying JP for 4th place.

Tim got ahead in Guillotine. (Hey, it's about time I used that pun.)

William won Survive! Such a fun game, disguised as a dorky family game...

JP won Priceless, played by diehards until after 3am, sheesh! I spectated and learned that JP plays slow, William is freaked out by arithmetic, and Brady gets no respect. Tell me something I don't know. I also continue to be intrigued by Priceless and recommend you try it out. It's another dorky looking family game that actually has interesting subtle gameplay.

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Evening's Soundtrack:

The Austin Lounge Lizards, Lizard Vision
The Crow (soundtrack)
Eels, Beautiful Freak
Fish, Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors
Skinny Puppy, Last Rights

Obviously there was an animal thing happening. Jay & Brady win a prize for detecting this.

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Rank ratings:
 0.8182 Tim (3 games played)
 0.5833 James (3)
 0.5000 Clayton (1)
 0.4118 Daniel (4)
 0.3333 Marty (5)
 0.1818 Brady (3)
 0.1333 JP (4)
 0.0588 William (5)
 0.0000 JeffF (4)
 0.0000 KevinH (6)
-0.2667 RussW (4)
-0.3333 Ken (3)
-0.4000 Baron (1)
-0.5000 Doug (3)
-0.6364 Jay (3)
-0.8462 Alfred (4)
-1.0000 Harry (1)

Win ratings:
 0.7273 Tim (3)
 0.6239 Daniel (4)
 0.5763 JP (4)
 0.5464 JeffF (4)
 0.3913 Marty (5)
 0.3433 James (3)
-0.0909 William (5)
-0.2105 KevinH (6)
-1.0000 Clayton (1)
-1.0000 Brady (3)
-1.0000 RussW (4)
-1.0000 Ken (3)
-1.0000 Baron (1)
-1.0000 Doug (3)
-1.0000 Jay (3)
-1.0000 Alfred (4)
-1.0000 Harry (1)

(As always, rank rating measures how many people you came out ahead of; win rating measures pure wins vs losses without caring about 2nd place vs 3rd place.)

These ratings give a messy nonplanar partial order I won't attempt to draw with ASCII art... the upshot is that Tim is The Devil! Daniel is Vice Devil, then James, then JP.

First-timer Harry committed the rare and dangerous Reverse Brady Maneuver (playing one game and coming in dead last). He & 3 others were pipped in the ratings by the infamous Black Baron, that masterful AI player of Montgolfiere.

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"Jesus loves me, but he can't stand you."

See you next time (Oct 14)!
Russ