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22 of us! 17 games.
A crowded night again! |
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| Great Hall Games (the folks doing the upcoming Millennium Con) has opened a game store in Dobie Mall! They are hosting gaming nights there every Friday night. Apparently some of y'all have already visited them, because when I went in Tuesday (before seeing Once Upon a Time in the West), the lady behind the counter heard my name (that's "Russ" in case anyone isn't sure) and said several people had mentioned me already that day! I had no idea I was so famous! I would have bought a game except that would, like, cost money or something. Plus I don't buy games any more anyway since all these nice people bring games to my house every Wednesday night. |
| ZirkusFlohcati | 6 | WendyWhe 5 Clay 3 Fred 1 Clayton -1 RussD -3 RussW -5 |
| Zero | 3 | Fred 2 Clay 0 DaveB -2 |
| Zero | 3 | Clay 2 Fred 0 DaveB -2 |
| Drunter&Drueber | 4 | Dan 3 BobR 1 William -1 JP -3 |
| Frank'sZoo | 5 | Carly 4 Susan 2 Dan 0 BobR -2 JP -4 |
| Vampire | 4 | ChrisH 3 Mindy 1 WendyWhe -1 Steve -3 |
| Bluff | 5 | DaveB 4 Steve 1 WendyWhe 1 Clay -2 ChrisH -4 |
| LostCities | 2 | Fred 1 Mindy -1 |
| LostCities | 2 | Mindy 1 Fred -1 |
| TrainsportSwitzerland | 3 | RussD 2 RussW 0 Clayton -2 |
| Vampire | 3 | WendyWhe 2 JeffF 0 Jonobie -2 |
| Vampire | 3 | JeffF 2 Jonobie 0 WendyWhe -2 |
| Drunter&Drueber | 4 | Steve 3 William 1 DaveB -1 Clay -3 |
| Tikal | 3 | JonathanC 2 PJ 0 Matt -2 |
| Mu | 6 | ChrisH 5 JP 3 Carly 1 Susan -1 Dan -3 Jeffles -5 |
| Wizard | 5 | JeffF 4 William 2 Steve 0 WendyWhe -3 Jonobie -3 |
| Drunter&Drueber | 4 | JonathanC 2 Matt 2 PJ -1 Jeffles -3 |
| Andromeda | 4 | RussW 2 BobR 2 RussD -1 Mindy -3 |
| Guillotine | 4 | RussD 3 BobR 0 RussW 0 Steve -3 |
| ButtonMen | 2 | William 1 ChrisH -1 |
| Zero | 5 | William 4 Matt 1 Jeffles 1 PJ -2 RussW -4 |
| Bluff | 4 | RussW 3 PJ 1 Matt -1 William -3 |
| Drunter&Drueber | 4 | PJ 3 William 1 RussW -1 Matt -3 |
| LostCities | 2 | Matt 1 William -1 |
RussD, Clayton, and I tried out Russ's new Contrack expansion kit for Trainsport Switzerland. It really changes the feel of the game! Instead of players competing for the same set of contracts, each player has their own set of contracts! Quite different. Trainsport fans should try it out; it is, as they say, a whole new ball game. Not sure if I like it or not -- it's arguably a bit too much like playing solitaire with other players, but there is still some interactivity and competition for the routes (again I got locked out of the main east/west corridor) even though there is no longer competition for contracts.
Ja, ja, there was much enthusiasm for the new (to RussCon, but actually 10 year old) Klaus Teuber game Drunter & Drueber (which William seems to call Drunken Drumsticks). It involves stupid city planners building roadways which plow down the buildings in their village, except that paving over an outhouse requires a vote! Very weird and clever. It suffers from unclear game ending conditions however, as it says the game ends when no one can make a move, which, if interpreted literally, raises the danger of an infinite loop (one player could keep proposing a build which fails to get passed by vote). We were not able to come up with a fully satisfactory or mutually agreeable rewrite of that rules paragraph. If one of my minions or henchlings wants to search the web for alternate translations or clarifications, go for it! I want to play more of this game.
I enjoyed finally playing Andromeda, the Alan Moon abstract/economic space game. Pretty nifty, with some weird mechanics. I would enjoy playing it again certainly. I've heard some people moan about the "ashtray" (device which randomly lets you select one cube from a set of players' colored cubes). It seemed to work fine to me and seems fundamentally no different from dice, cards, or other physical randomizing devices.
I must report on Steve's impressively ignominious last place Guillotine finish: he came in last despite having 4 (four!) Palace Guards! Having the Hero of the People and the Tragic Figure didn't help his score, but still. 16 points from the Guards alone, and yet... last place!
Meanwhile William got knocked out of Bluff before anyone else had lost a single die! He says I lie in Bluff a lot, but the final 2 rounds (me vs PJ), I said "four fives" and was telling the truth (I had four fives!) and then I said "four twos" and was again telling the truth because I had 'em! I felt as if I was truly the God of Gambles.
Brady & that Devil JP played Battle Cry, leaving me out in the cold to build roads over outhouses. I am glad to see the Battle Cry meme spreading, however. Brady & I have been discussing Battle Cry over on rec.games.board, where there is a fair amount of talk about the game, including the usual debates of simplicity/playability vs realism/simulation.
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A Fistful of Dollars, An Original Soundtrack Recording
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Once Upon a Time in the West, The Original Soundtrack Recording Triology, Plays Ennio Morricone U-Turn, Music from the Motion Picture |
At the Dobie theater these past few days, I saw For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (therein hangs a tale), and Once Upon a Time in the West. I felt it was time to pay homage at RussCon to the master of spaghetti western (and many other) soundtracks: Ennio Morricone.
Rank ratings: 0.8000 JonathanC (2 games played) 0.7500 JeffF (3) 0.5556 Carly (2) 0.2727 Fred (5) 0.2308 ChrisH (4) 0.1818 William (8) 0.1111 Susan (2) 0.1000 WendyWhe (6) 0.0769 RussD (4) 0.0769 BobR (4) 0.0667 PJ (5) 0.0000 Dan (3) 0.0000 Clay (5) -0.0909 DaveB (4) -0.1176 Steve (5) -0.1250 Matt (6) -0.2174 RussW (7) -0.2500 Mindy (4) -0.3333 JP (3) -0.4286 Clayton (2) -0.5833 Jeffles (3) -0.6250 Jonobie (3) New Win ratings: 0.8000 JonathanC (2) 0.6250 JeffF (3) 0.4615 ChrisH (4) 0.3333 Carly (2) 0.1538 RussD (4) 0.1500 WendyWhe (6) 0.0909 DaveB (4) 0.0833 Dan (3) 0.0000 Fred (5) 0.0000 RussW (7) -0.0455 William (8) -0.0588 Steve (5) -0.0625 Matt (6) -0.0769 BobR (4) -0.1250 Clay (5) -0.1333 PJ (5) -0.2222 Susan (2) -0.2500 JP (3) -0.2857 Clayton (2) -0.3333 Jeffles (3) -0.3750 Mindy (4) -0.3750 Jonobie (3)Sea Biscuit is the Devil! JeffF is Vice-Devil. Then ChrisH, then Carly. Jonobie is the Generous Angel.
Battle Mail Kung Fu has obsessed Daniel and William, and they're trying to drag me down with them. Well, it's free, so that's better than Everquest! It's a cute little PBEM game where you give 6 attack and 6 defend orders (each High, Medium, or Low), and the results are played out in an animated little duel. My favorite character is of course Holly (the Catholic schoolgirl). Sorry Mac/Unix/etc people, it's Windows-only.
Surely this has been done before... using an Eliza chat bot on unsuspecting chatroom visitors.
Hey, go read that Ko Fight Club thing of mine!
What is it about a schoolgirl's innocence that intrigues us?
Russ
