Nov 4 RussCon Report
There were 20 of us. Welcome to newcomer Laurie, Eric's cow. (Hey, that's a Halloween reference!) The weather was obligingly cool, so the lack of AC was not at all a problem.
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Jonobie was the Devil, due to her commendable Halloween spirit. Many and various games were played... and a can of Miller Lite may even have been consumed. Brady also left a scientific experiment in progress concerning soda carbonation with squeezed bottles. How my humble refrigerator became a nexus for inexplicable weirdness is a mystery. But I digress.
Dawn won By Hook or Crook.
JonathanC (aka Sea Biscuit) and Peter each won Durch die Wueste (aka the pastel camel game).
Sea Biscuit also won Raj, the outrageous bidding game.
JeffF won a narrow victory in Elfenland, a very close 6 player game. Devil Jonobie score of 19 with 2 cards was the lowest! Very close finish indeed.
Daniel won Medici.
William won Survive!
Harry won Euphrat & Tigris.
Eric won Acquire.
James won Titan the Arena.
William won Settlers, played with the random map variation (land and water shuffled together to make an irregular island).
Sea Biscuit won Trainsport Austria. This was my 3rd time to play this, and I was happy to end up with more money than I started with for the first time. Furthermore, it was my first time not to come in last place! (Sorry, Marty!) So I'm happy to finally make some tangible progress in this interesting game...
Alfred won Ursuppe.
Tim won Mississippi Queen.
Russ won Master Labyrinth. This is a very simple elegant German game with some tactical depth to it from Ravensburger. I've owned it for years, and it's even suitable to play with kids, but good for adults too, and it's getting more and more RussCon action lately. Check it out.
Daniel won Settlers.
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Ties in Settlers!?!?
William observed that theoretically strange events could occur in Settlers:
Alf has 8 points, Bert has 9 points, and Chuck has the longest road. Bert builds a settlement which breaks Chuck's road, giving Alf the longest road. Now Alf and Bert both have 10 points: a tie!
Perhaps even more amusingly, imagine that Alf has 9 points in that situation. If Bert unwittingly builds the settlement, then Bert gets 10 points, but Alf gets 11 points and beats him!
Has anyone ever actually seen a joint victory in Settlers? I've never heard of this actually happening.
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Go:
RussCon regular Marty has been sighted at Austin Go Club! We meet Tuesday nights in Dobie Mall Food Court. If you're interested in playing or learning go, come join us! And we're hosting a free AGA-rated tournament Saturday Nov 21 (in the Food Court). Ask me about go if you're curious. Ken, summer's over so you need to come back to go club. Dave, you need to play more go.
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Evening's Soundtrack:
J.S. Bach, Goldberg Variations
Philip Glass, Glassworks
Jean Michel Jarre, Oxygene
Billy Joel, Turnstiles
Rick Wakeman, The Six Wives of Henry VIII
The common theme was the keyboard.
I'm in a New York state of mind...
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Rank ratings: 0.7857 JonathanC (4 games played) 0.6667 Dawn (2) 0.5556 Daniel (3) 0.5000 Peter (2) 0.4286 EricH (2) 0.3333 Tim (4) 0.2941 James (5) 0.2308 William (4) 0.1000 KevinH (3) 0.0714 RussW (4) 0.0000 JeffF (4) 0.0000 Harry (5) 0.0000 Brady (1) -0.2000 JP (5) -0.3846 Marty (4) -0.5556 Alfred (3) -0.5714 Laurie (2) -0.6250 Clayton (2) -0.6429 Jonobie (4) -1.0000 JonathanR (3) Win ratings: 0.8077 JonathanC (4) 0.7143 Daniel (3) 0.6000 EricH (2) 0.5385 William (4) 0.5000 Peter (2) 0.4118 Dawn (2) 0.1940 Alfred (3) 0.0588 RussW (4) 0.0526 JeffF (4) -0.0217 Tim (4) -0.0909 James (5) -0.1489 Harry (5) -1.0000 Brady (1) -1.0000 KevinH (3) -1.0000 JP (5) -1.0000 Marty (4) -1.0000 Laurie (2) -1.0000 Clayton (2) -1.0000 Jonobie (4) -1.0000 JonathanR (3)
With 20 players, the partial ordering and the resulting total order are often too cumbersome to compute by hand; such is the case here. However, Sea Biscuit is clearly the Devil! (And he swore it could never happen again...) Vice Devil is Daniel, then Dawn, then Eric, then Peter.
Brady gets the Extra Average Award. JonathanR gets the Generous Angel Award. James, Harry, and JP share the Dedicated Award.
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Cultural News:
The film to see is Happiness, at the Dobie. This is simultaneously hilarious, depressing, and creepy. Imagine John Waters and David Lynch collaborating to direct one of Woody Allen's more serious films. If you don't know much about the plot, avoid reading the Chronicle review; it spoils a major plot development.
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"I'm not laughing at you; I'm laughing with you."
"But I'm not laughing..."
Russ