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Welcome to the first online-only RussCon Report. Nobody objected to this experiment, so here we go...
There were 20 of us, and we played 15 games. The long-lost Squeaky returned, bringing his SO Kara along for the first time! And Daniel brought his son Alex, who is now the youngest RussCon attendee! And Clay finally made it to RussCon; Clay used to game with us at William's back in the old days when Settlers of Catan and Magic: The Gathering were new games... |
Let's start a new Fantasy War game! Six months ago, Brendan, JP, RussD, Sea Biscuit, and I played some Fantasy War. Jay & Bryan (our Pacific Northwest Contingent) expressed interest as well. Let's do it again! It's a web-based turn-based strategy wargame. The client is Windows-only. Log in once a day, submit your orders, check back the next day. Cockroach riding dwarves! How can you resist? Email me if interested; Brendan & I want to get a new game going soon (so it can complete before JP & I leave for the Go Congress.)
| HoneyBears | 5 | RussW 4 Marty 2 Clayton 0 Jeffles -2 JP -4 |
| HoneyBears | 5 | WendyWhe 4 Dan 1 Kara 1 JonathanC -2 JonathanB -4 |
| SchottenTotten | 2 | Mindy 1 ChrisH -1 |
| Prick | 5 | Jeffles 4 JP 2 Clayton 0 RussW -2 Marty -4 |
| BigCity | 4 | Clay 3 Steve 1 Tim -1 BobR -3 |
| Frank'sZoo | 5 | JonathanC 4 JonathanB 2 Kara -1 WendyWhe -1 Dan -4 |
| Frank'sZoo | 5 | Steve 4 Clay 2 Tim 0 BobR -2 PJ -4 |
| Zero | 5 | ChrisH 4 Daniel 2 Mindy 0 William -2 Alex -4 |
| Restaurant | 5 | Jeffles 4 Kara 2 JP 0 Clayton -2 WendyWhe -4 |
| Vampire | 3 | RussW 2 JonathanB 0 JonathanC -2 |
| Vampire | 3 | JonathanB 2 RussW 0 JonathanC -2 |
| Bluff | 4 | BobR 3 JonathanC 1 WendyWhe -1 RussW -3 |
| HedgehogsInAHurry | 5 | JP 4 Jeffles 1 Steve 1 William -3 PJ -3 |
| Samurai | 3 | RussW 2 BobR 0 JonathanC -2 |
| OhneFurchUndAdel | 6 | Marty 5 Jeffles 3 William 1 Steve -1 PJ -4 JP -4 |
Jeffles being the Devil and all, we played HoneyBears! Go Red Bear!
Marty brought Prick, the 3rd game in the wacky trick-taking trilogy that includes Mit List und Tucke and Hat Trick! It was enjoyably strange like the others. We decided to quit after 3 instead of 5 rounds after waiting a while for Marty who was being tormented by his Marty-torturing device (his cell phone repeatedly beckoning him to administrate networks). Jeffles: "I'm the Devil and I want to play the Waiting For Marty Game!" Prick is yet another card game with no distinguishing symbols for the different color-suits, leading to further confusion and utter humiliation for the color-impaired.
I continue my reign of terror in Vampire, although Squeaky beat me in our second game. Playing Vampire with only 3 players is quite different from 4 or 5. The places tend to get a lot more vampires piled up in them before someone takes them. Bringing out a set of only 3 or 4 heads just feels much riskier!
Again I was struck by the coolness of Samurai and wondered why we don't play it more; it used to be played a lot! (Amazing fact: Samurai and Acquire are currently tied for 14th place on the most-played-games list, each having been played 27 times at RussCon!) This is one of the Knizia tile placement games with unusual scoring at the end. If you liked Euphrat & Tigris or Durch die Wueste, check out Samurai.
Ohne Furch Und Adel is a new card game of Marty's that looked like an upscale cross between Hoax and Groo to me. Each player was trying to build up their city by buying various buildings, and each turn everyone takes one of 8 possible roles 5. It also had very nice-looking paintings on the cards. It seemed to drag on a long time with 6 of them. I'd be interested in playing it, but probably with fewer than 6 players I think.
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Pink Floyd, Meddle
70s Floyd! |
Rank ratings: 0.7143 Clay (2 games played) 0.6000 ChrisH (2) 0.5000 Daniel (1) 0.4762 Jeffles (5) 0.3125 Steve (4) 0.2308 Marty (3) 0.2000 Mindy (2) 0.1765 RussW (6) 0.1667 Kara (3) 0.0000 JonathanB (4) -0.0952 JP (5) -0.1333 WendyWhe (4) -0.1429 Tim (2) -0.1667 BobR (4) -0.1667 Clayton (3) -0.1765 JonathanC (6) -0.3077 William (3) -0.3750 Dan (2) -0.8462 PJ (3) -1.0000 Alex (1) New Win ratings: 0.6000 ChrisH (2) 0.2941 RussW (6) 0.2857 Clay (2) 0.2381 Jeffles (5) 0.2308 Marty (3) 0.0667 WendyWhe (4) 0.0625 Steve (4) 0.0000 Mindy (2) 0.0000 JP (5) 0.0000 BobR (4) -0.0588 JonathanC (6) -0.0833 JonathanB (4) -0.2308 PJ (3) -0.2308 William (3) -0.2500 Daniel (1) -0.2500 Kara (3) -0.2500 Clayton (3) -0.2500 Dan (2) -0.2500 Alex (1) -0.2857 Tim (2)Clay and Chris are Co-Devils, then me. Sea Biscuit and I share the Dedicated Award.
Erratum: Last week Jay was accidentally omitted from the elite ranks of those who have played at least 100 RussCon games. Thanks to JP for pointing out the error. The RussCon Management begs Jay's forgiveness and will make it up to him by saving a special place for him at the Children's Table in the ArmadilloCon Gaming Room.
Gabe of Penny Arcade did the art for a fun Gamespy Arcade Flash animation. I think it's like a gen-X computer gamer version of the Oscar-winning Geri's Game.
Another reminder of The Second International RoShamBo Programming Competition. Deadline July 10. Program an AI in C to play Rock-Scissors-Paper (which Jeffles, JP & I were playing a lot during lulls in the Waiting For Marty Game) and become internationally famous. I came in fourth in last year's competition!
I've started my 
site for my ever-growing collection of comics related to go and RussCon games. Thanks to those who've given feedback and encouragement.
Russ