June 23 1999 RussCon Report

15 of us in attendance. Jeffles the Devil was not here due to a prior engagement in Minnesota.

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Clandestine Reminder:

Friday June 25 1999 -- Clandestine at the Cactus Cafe in the southwest corner of the UT Student Union building, across the drag from Barnes and Noble. Be there or miss out on the cool bagpipes, fiddle, guitar, and ethereal vocals of this fun band.

I recommend getting there by 8:15 to ensure admittance and decent seat.

Dinner beforehand at 7:00 at Veggie Heaven.

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Game Results:

HighSociety 5 RussW 4 Doug 2 Jay 0 Marty -2 Clayton -4
Rheinlaender 5 Doug 4 RussW 2 Marty 0 Jay -2 Clayton -4
Wettstreit 3 JP 2 Steve 0 Fred -2
UnionPacific 6 JonathanC 5 Curt 3 Tim 1 James -1 Alfred -3 Harry -5
Rheinlaender 5 Marty 4 Jay 2 Doug 0 RussW -2 Clayton -4
TitanArena 5 James 3 Tim 3 Doug -1 Steve -1 JonathanC -4
Settlers 3 Fred 2 Alfred 0 Jay -2
Chinatown 5 RussW 4 Marty 1 Curt 1 Harry -2 JP -4
Samurai 3 James 2 Steve -1 Doug -1
Acquire 4 Marty 3 Harry 1 James -1 Doug -3
Money 4 Doug 2 Harry 2 Marty -1 James -3
UnionPacific 4 JP 3 RussW 1 Brady -1 Curt -3
Money 4 James 3 Harry 1 Doug -1 Marty -3
Raj 4 RussW 3 Brady 1 Curt -1 JP -3
LostCities 2 Marty 1 RussW -1

Note: the Samurai game reported here was recorded in the book as Shogun; I'm guessing it was actually Samurai. Let me know if I guessed wrong!

Rheinlaender is pretty cool. It has some Acquire-like elements to it, and is also vaguely reminiscent of go or the pastel camel game.

Chinatown was fairly enjoyable (though I'm not sure I liked it as much as the others did). It is one of those games that has a free-for-all deal-making phase. These sometimes dragged on a while, and could get frustrating. Very pretty components.

UnionPacific, the new Alan Moon train game, is similar to Airlines. It seemed pretty cool, and I want to play it more. It's got a high luck factor (due to an unpredictable payout schedule, like Ferrocarriles Pampas), but it's also got some cool mechanics and decision making.

Lost Cities was a nerve-wracking 2 player Knizia game. Marty kicked my butt 135 to 36, but we both enjoyed the game.

Fred may be the only person in history to have played Settlers with the Seafarers expansion without ever having played standard Settlers -- and he won!

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Evening's Soundtrack:

Bettie Serveert, Dust Bunnies
Faith No More, Angel Dust
The Flaming Lips, Hear It Is
In Dust We Trust industrial compilation
Midnight Oil, Diesel and Dust

Why are the Flaming Lips in this list? Their CD is published by the Pink Dust label.

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Rank ratings:
 0.4783 RussW (7 games played)
 0.4444 Tim (2)
 0.1500 James (6)
 0.1154 Marty (8)
 0.1111 JonathanC (2)
 0.0741 Doug (8)
 0.0000 Fred (2)
 0.0000 Curt (4)
 0.0000 Brady (2)
-0.1429 Jay (4)
-0.1667 JP (4)
-0.1667 Harry (5)
-0.2500 Steve (3)
-0.4286 Alfred (2)
-1.0000 Clayton (3)

New Win ratings:
 0.3333 JonathanC (2)
 0.3043 RussW (7)
 0.2500 Fred (2)
 0.2500 JP (4)
 0.2222 Tim (2)
 0.2000 James (6)
 0.0769 Marty (8)
-0.0370 Doug (8)
-0.1111 Harry (5)
-0.2500 Clayton (3)
-0.2667 Curt (4)
-0.2857 Alfred (2)
-0.2857 Jay (4)
-0.3333 Brady (2)
-0.5000 Steve (3)

RussW (hey, that's me!) and Sea Biscuit are Co-Devils!

Marty and Doug share the Dedicated Award. Clayton gets the Generous Angel Award.

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German Games by Email:

Marty told me about a site with a mailing list and people who moderate RussCon-style games. He & Curt have already played a game here:

http://www.geocities.com/~pbemesis/

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Activist News:

Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is upcoming legislation which the RussCon Management encourages you to support.

It remains legal in 39 states to fire someone simply because they are lesbian, gay or bisexual. Decisions should be based on a person's ability to do the job, not someone's sexual orientation. ENDA would provide basic protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Emailing your senators and representative is good, but paper letters and phone calls are possibly more effective.

Most of you live in Austin, Texas, so here's info (which you can find at www.congress.gov and www.senate.gov):

Representative Lloyd Doggett
328 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4865
http://www.house.gov/doggett/contact.htm

Senator Phil Gramm
370 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2934
phil_gramm@gramm.senate.gov

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
284 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5922
senator@hutchison.senate.gov

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Tasty morsels of luscious goodness...

Russ