May 21 2003 RussCon Report

News

The new russcon mailing list at russcon.org seems to be working fine, yay. Thanks again PJ for setting that up.

A cow-orker Greg and I discovered that in recent versions of Mozilla you can right click text and view properties to see what language it is, if the page uses lang attributes appropriately. Fun!

Possibly somebody at RussCon "accidentally" recorded a strange answer message on my answering machine...? It was humorously strange but I didn't know about it for several days, so if perchance the perpetrator is reading this, please try not to do it again...

Game Results

Clans	4	Tim 3 JP 1 Sarah -1 Fred -3
Tichu	2	( Dan MarkH ) 1 ( Ben MarkG ) -1
CarcassonneHunters	3	Clayton 2 RussW 0 Steve -2
Blokus	4	Dan 3 Justin 1 RussW -1 MarkH -3
DasAmulett	3	Steve 2 Justin 0 RussW -2
Transamerica	3	Tim 2 Clayton 0 Sarah -2
Barbu	4	MarkG 3 JP 1 Fred -1 Ben -3
DasAmulett	4	Steve 3 RussW 1 Justin -1 RussD -3
Transamerica	6	RussD 5 RussW 2 Justin 2 MarkG -2 JP -2 Steve -5

We had a very exciting game of Carcassonne Hunters and Gatherers... The lead fluctuated around a bit, then it seemed Steve pulled ahead when he weaseled into the large water network, nullifying my and Clayton's advantage from it, and he pulled ahead in the farms race in a huge field. I had a desperate farmer I placed late to try to weasel into that field, but it would require me getting a 3-way intersection tile. Then on Clayton's last turn he placed a farmer which would also get into that field if mine did, and on my turn (the last of the game), the tile I drew was the tile I longed for, the 3-way intersection! Clayton and I rejoiced as we both pulled ahead of the leader Steve. Clayton was already ahead of me, so I didn't win, but at least I went from a distant last to a close second.

Dan managed to win Blokus perfectly, placing all his pieces, and his singleton was placed last.

More Das Amulett action... it seems that my first-game win a few weeks ago was a fluke, and in reality I suck at this game. The first game today ended with Steve winning (yet again) with me having zero (0) (nul) (nada) (zip) jewels! What a debacle. The second game (which Steve won yet again) I did better at least.

Ratings

New Multiplicative Rank Ratings:   
 2.4849 12.0000 Tim (2)
 2.0794 8.0000 Dan (2)
 1.0986 3.0000 Clayton (2)
 0.5108 1.6667 Justin (4)
 0.4055 1.5000 RussD (2)
 0.3001 1.3500 JP (3)
 0.1823 1.2000 MarkG (3)
-0.4055 0.6667 Steve (4)
-0.5878 0.5556 RussW (5)
-0.6931 0.5000 MarkH (2)
-1.5041 0.2222 Sarah (2)
-1.7918 0.1667 Fred (2)
-2.0794 0.1250 Ben (2)

New Multiplicative Win Ratings:
 2.4849 12.0000 Tim won 2 of 2
 2.0794 8.0000 Dan won 2 of 2
 1.8971 6.6667 Steve won 2 of 4
 1.5041 4.5000 RussD won 1 of 2
 0.6931 2.0000 Clayton won 1 of 2
 0.5108 1.6667 MarkG won 1 of 3
 0.4055 1.5000 MarkH won 1 of 2
-0.5754 0.5625 Fred won 0 of 2
-0.6931 0.5000 Sarah won 0 of 2
-0.7577 0.4688 JP won 0 of 3
-0.9808 0.3750 Ben won 0 of 2
-1.1632 0.3125 Justin won 0 of 4
-1.5686 0.2083 RussW won 0 of 5

Tim is the Devil. Dan is the Vice-Devil. Steve, RussD, Clayton are Co-Vice-Vice-Devils.

Meta Game

Fina was the Meta Devil. Here is the Meta Game she mailed out:

Would you be my neighbour?

Well, I was having so much fun making my way across the map from Bag End to Mt Doom, that I completely forgot that success would mean having to design the next meta game!

Simple one this time: I've listed the places I have lived in my life, and assigned point values to each. I have also assigned points for countries in which I have close family. Anyone who has spent more than a day in the appropriate location scores the highest # of points that location can give. Points are cumulative: If you have ever been to England (but not one of the named locations) you get .5 points, London or Sussex would be worth 1+.5 pts, and Bexhill, E. Wanstead or Balls Cross would be 2+1+.5 pts total.

Highest point total wins, 1st tiebreaker goes to whoever has been to my birthplace (Kampala, Uganda), further ties broken by Russ in whatever random fashion he deems appropriate.
See y'all next week
-Fina

Australia (.5)
Brazil (.5)

British East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania) (.5)
Uganda (1)
Kampala, Uganda (2)

England (.5)
London (1)
E. Wanstead, England (2)
Sussex (1)
Bexhill-on-Sea, England (2)

Germany (.5)

India (1)
Jaipur, India (2)
Mussoorie, India (2)

Mexico (.5)
San Miguel De Allende, Mexico (2)

(USA)
Missouri (.5)
Kansas City, Missouri (1)
New York State (.5)
Syracuse, New York (1)
Ohio (.5)
Bowling Green, Ohio (1)
Texas (.5)
Austin, Texas (1)
Dallas, Texas (1)

Venezuela (.5)
Barquisimeto, Venezuela (1)

Wales (.5)

Some answers came flooding in by email (in the order listed here):

Clay 5.5
Jay 7.5
Marty 7 ("Ah, Jay, you pipped me. If only I'd actually gone into Wales for a day when I had the chance, I could have tied you.")
BradS 12
MarkG 10.5
TimG 6.5 (Fina rules "Sleeping through Wales on the bus does not count as spending at least a day there!")
Dan 7 ("I did have a college roommate, Joseph Mayanga, from Kampala, Uganda. Does that score me some Idi Amin bonus points?")
JimG 9.5
JP 7 (reduced from his original claim of 7.5: "Um... Upon closer inspection of the rules, I discovered that I only have 7 points since I did not stay in Mexico for at least a day. I was in Mexico for just long enough to step off the raft, step behind a bush, and take a leak...")
Jeffles ("I don't beat Jay")
William 8
Matt 7.5
Whendy 7.5

BradS is clearly the most suitable neighbor for Fina, so Brad is the Meta Devil and will design next week's Meta Game!

May 21 2003 RussCon Report

News

Game Results

Ratings

Meta Game

Evening's Soundtrack

Links