August 2 2000 RussCon Report

Game Results Evening's Soundtrack Ratings Links RussCon Report Archives Russ Zone

THERE WILL BE NO RUSSCON WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9! That's NEXT WEEK. I'll be on my annual pilgrimage to the US Go Congress. There will be the traditional Sans-RussCon at Dobie Mall instead. The following week (August 16) there is RussCon As Usual. 26 people played 22 games. There were a couple new visitors (Claire and Schneck, pals of Carly and Jeffles). This was, of course, a record-breaking RussCon. The previous high attendance was 25. Furthermore we had 6 women, which I believe is a record-breaker (previous high was 5). Furthermore, 2 police cars showed up, which I believe is a record-breaker (previous high was ZERO). The cops never actually came in to RussCon; they seemed to be examining cars near the fire hydrant. I don't really know what that was about, but I'll just caution everyone to Park away from the fire hydrant Park close to the curb Please be quiet and courteous, especially if leaving late at night Don't litter or throw eggs at my neighbors' houses or leave flaming bags of dog turds on their front steps in case this has to do with neighbors complaining or something. Perhaps it was just an ordinary murder or burglary or something. Who knows. Perhaps it's a good thing there is no RussCon next week; we'll be spoiling the secret stakeout. Perhaps we'll have to start making bumper stickers that say Boardgaming Is Not A Crime. The questionable food of the week remains those curiously stinky "Waffle Snacks". Somebody, please eat them! William also brought fresh figs which a few of us sampled: when sliced open, their cross-section is eerily reminiscent of a sci-fi horror movie, when you slice part of an alien's tentacle off! I'd slice one open now and scan it in to show you the picture, but I'm too lazy and don't want to get fig juice on my scanner.

Game Results

It had been many moons since I'd played Medici. The newer edition has harder to distinguish art, and they added "5" slots below the "10" and "20" slots on the pyramids. But it's still a fun game!

William fulfilled his dream of finally playing Boggle. With REAL LETTERS, even! One of the Boggle games had 9 players, which I think is the largest game played at RussCon. (If memory serves me right, there have been 9 player games before, including one game of Outpost.)

That damn Web of Power game. Last time I didn't place enough cloisters and was crushed like a bug. This time I didn't place enough advisors and got crushed like a bug. Still, I find it interesting and want to play it again.

Brady & I had a couple of good tense Battle Cry games. Those of you who haven't played 2 player wargames will perhaps not understand the waves of nostalgia that washed over me playing this. I think the last time I had the wargaming experience was about 10 months ago, playing Victory (the cool wooden block game from Columbia Games) with "Dirty" Harry (you know, that guy who carries a badge in Athens, Texas). I do miss good old historical wargaming, especially a Civil War game (like Battle Cry). I've drifted away from wargaming toward German-style games due to the greater complexity and playing times of traditional wargames. Now Battle Cry makes it possible to have the best of both worlds because it is a German-style wargame! And it has the terrific toy value of a miniatures game.

Evening's Soundtrack

Ratings

Rank ratings:
 1.0000 Dan (1 game played)
 0.7619 Marty (4)
 0.6667 JonathanC (2)
 0.6250 Susan (5)
 0.5000 JeffF (3)
 0.4167 Jayson (3)
 0.3750 RussW (6)
 0.3333 Fred (2)
 0.2308 Clay (3)
 0.1818 Kara (3)
 0.1429 Schneck (2)
 0.1111 Matt (4)
 0.0000 Carly (4)
 0.0000 Clayton (1)
 0.0000 JP (3)
-0.0303 William (8)
-0.2000 Allen (4)
-0.2000 Brady (3)
-0.2143 Jeffles (6)
-0.2800 ChrisH (7)
-0.3182 Mindy (5)
-0.4167 BobR (3)
-0.5500 WendyWhe (5)
-0.7143 Claire (2)
-0.8750 RussD (2)
-0.9167 Drew (2)

New Win ratings:
 1.0000 Dan (1)
 0.5000 RussW (6)
 0.4762 Marty (4)
 0.3750 JeffF (3)
 0.3333 JonathanC (2)
 0.3333 Matt (4)
 0.2857 Schneck (2)
 0.2308 Clay (3)
 0.1818 Kara (3)
 0.1667 Susan (5)
 0.0833 BobR (3)
-0.0714 Jeffles (6)
-0.0909 Mindy (5)
-0.0909 William (8)
-0.1667 Drew (2)
-0.2000 ChrisH (7)
-0.2000 Clayton (1)
-0.2222 Carly (4)
-0.2500 JP (3)
-0.2500 Jayson (3)
-0.2500 RussD (2)
-0.2500 WendyWhe (5)
-0.2667 Allen (4)
-0.2857 Claire (2)
-0.3333 Fred (2)
-0.6000 Brady (3)

I am Devil! Marty is Vice-Devil. This will be in 2 weeks. Next week is Sans-RussCon at Dobie Mall, remember.

Links

John Foley's Battle Cry Page has many links and resources for Battle Cry.

You Damn Kid is the funniest most interesting webcomics I've discovered lately.

Oh, Speed! You were wonderful!

Russ