December 22 1999 RussCon Report, Xmas Edition

15 of us. Depending on your perspective, the moon looked bigger and brighter that night. Or not.

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Game Results:

Borderlands 4 Harry 3 Marty 0 RussW 0 JonathanC -3
RoboRally 6 Tim 5 JP 1 Jay 1 Clayton 1 William -3 Jerrie -5
RottenFish 5 Tim 4 JP 2 William 0 Jay -2 Marty -4
SantaFe 5 JeffS 4 Bob 2 Curt 0 Fred -2 KevinT -4
RottenFish 6 Tim 5 JonathanC 3 Marty 1 William -1 RussW -3 JP -5
FreshFish 5 JP 4 William 2 JonathanC 0 Jay -2 Marty -4
Guillotine 4 Bob 3 JeffS 1 RussW -1 KevinT -3
HongKong 2 Bob 1 RussW -1
ZirkusFlohcati 5 JonathanC 4 Bob 2 JP 0 RussW -2 William -4
Bluff 5 RussW 4 Bob 2 JP 0 William -2 JonathanC -4

Sea Biscuit found Borderlands on eBay and got it. I'd been curious about this game for years. It turned out to be ok, though I didn't love it. It's mostly deterministic, with just a little bit of chance. The dominant side ebbs and flows, with continual pound-the-leader and new leader emerging.

Special Field Correspondent Tim reports on the RoboRally game:

Another classic Roborally game last night. We went through the entire option deck and then some.

We had a three-board game, there and back, with The Core on the start/finish end and two copies of the one with spiral conveyors to a central pit. Very similar to last time in that I got a pretty large lead & was helped immensely by the flywheel (which only saves move or back-up cards, by the way). I misplayed by not announcing a shutdown (had several points of damage). Then I drove into the goo by accident. (Goo sticks you to one place for a while.

This allowed the game to continue until William could get back to guard the start/finish line by dying (he still had his original archive point). I got a couple of options on my way to the finish line, including the scrambler bomb, and decided to use it to get William out of the way. I forgot to announce a shutdown *again*, though, and my scrambled (random) program drove me off the board.

With the help of my remaining options (converter, back-up motor, reverse thrusters) and bad cards for Clayton & JP, I was able to pass them on my way from the center board (my archive) to the finish. I then used the re-engineering option to steal the mechanical arm from William & tagged the finish. At that point we stopped.

Jay and Jerrie played well out of the gate, but got turned around a little on the conveyor boards. Jay made up ground after tagging flag 1 a bit late, and was just approaching flag 2 when the scrambler bomb went off and sent him backwards. Clayton was the closest other person to flag 2, while JP was just outside scrambler range and closed in after that.

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Evening's Soundtrack:

Classical Traditions for the Season
Rent, Original Broadway Cast Recording
Bob Rivers and Twisted Radio, I Am Santa Claus
Spinach Rainwater Clown
101X-mas

Various Xmas music, of course.

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Rank ratings:
 1.0000 Tim (3 games played)
 1.0000 Harry (1)
 0.7143 JeffS (2)
 0.6250 Bob (5)
 0.2000 Clayton (1)
 0.0769 JP (6)
 0.0000 JonathanC (5)
 0.0000 Curt (1)
-0.1500 RussW (6)
-0.2308 Jay (3)
-0.3077 William (6)
-0.4375 Marty (4)
-0.5000 Fred (1)
-1.0000 Jerrie (1)
-1.0000 KevinT (2)

New Win ratings:
 1.0000 Tim (3)
 1.0000 Harry (1)
 0.4286 JeffS (2)
 0.0625 Bob (5)
 0.0000 JonathanC (5)
-0.0385 JP (6)
-0.0500 RussW (6)
-0.2000 Clayton (1)
-0.2000 Jerrie (1)
-0.2308 Jay (3)
-0.2308 William (6)
-0.2500 Curt (1)
-0.2500 Marty (4)
-0.2500 Fred (1)
-0.2857 KevinT (2)

Tim is again the Devil! Then JeffS, then Bob. Sea Biscuit wins the rare and coveted Extra Average Award. Jerrie pulled off the rare and dangerous Reverse Brady Maneuver. Kevin wins the Generous Angel Award.

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Viva La Vie Boheme!

Russ