August 18 1999 RussCon Report

14 of us. Ex-Austinite RussD (now exiled to Dallas) was among the attendees! And this was Jeffles' last RussCon for a while, as he's moving to Seattle this weekend. But at least he's going to Seattle, where everything is cool.

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New Email Address:

For future reference, Russ and RussCon Management may be reached at xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx (which forwards to my new account xxxxx@xxxxxx.xx.xxx). Use either, your choice. My io mail is now being forwarded, so it will continue to work for a while.

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Puffing Billy Train Tournament Next Weekend!

Come by next weekend, Saturday and Sunday (August 28 & 29) from noon onwards to play train games! The winner of this little free mini-tournament, like our Settlers tournament a few months back, will get free admission to the next Laser Quest outing we do! Play 4 different titles to be eligible for that grand prize... but come by to play just one game if that's all you have time for. All train games welcome, even those stupid Mayfair Empire Builder ones... Games include:

1830, 1856, 1870, 18xx
Empire Builder, Iron Dragon, etc
Dampfross
Rail Baron
Colorado Rails
Trainsport Austria
Ferrocarriles Pampas
Santa Fe
Union Pacific
Freight Train
Iron Horse
and more!

...and I hope somebody brings Uncle Happy's Train Game!

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JeffS & KevinT Housewarming Party:

Sorry for the late notice, but some of you know Jeff & Kevin (from Go club and RussCon over a year ago, not JeffF & KevinH who are current RussCon regulars). They're have a party tonight, Saturday August 21, and asked me to pass this along. Address is xxxxx Endicott Dr. Food, and magic tricks, possibly with some pro magicians! xxx-xxxx for info. Here's directions:

Directions from IH-35:
Go north past Hwy 183
Take Pflugerville/Wells Branch/FM 1825 exit
Left at light (Wells Branch Pkwy)
Right at light (Wells Port)
Second left (Klattenhoff)
Right just past park (Alpha Collier)
Third left (Great Willow)
Third left (Wood Chase)
Next right (Endicott Drive)
Fourth house on left (xxxxx Endicott Dr)

Directions from Mopac:
Go north past Parmer Lane
Right at Wells Branch Parkway (Third traffic light)
Left at second traffic light (Wells Port)
Second left (Klattenhoff)
Right just past park (Alpha Collier)
Third left (Great Willow)
Third left (Wood Chase)
Next right (Endicott Drive)
Fourth house on left (xxxxx Endicott Dr)

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Game Results:

OrcsAtTheGates 5 Jeffles 4 Marty -1 JP -1 Steve -1 Carly -1
Transsib 5 Bob 4 William 2 RussW 0 RussD -2 Clayton -4
ZirkusFlohcati 5 WendyWhe 4 William 1 RussD 1 RussW -3 Bob -3
ZirkusFlohcati 5 William 4 RussW 2 Bob 0 RussD -2 WendyWhe -4
IronHorse 4 Carly 3 Jeffles 1 JP -1 Steve -3
FreightTrain 3 KevinH 2 Tim 0 Marty -2
TitanArena 3 KevinH 2 Tim 0 JonathanC -2
Twilight 4 JP 2 Carly 2 Steve -2 Jeffles -2
GhostParty 6 WendyWhe 5 RussW 3 William 1 Marty -2 Bob -2 Tim -5
Medici 5 WendyWhe 3 RussW 3 William 0 Marty -2 Tim -4
Twilight 4 WendyWhe 2 Marty 2 William -2 Carly -2
LostCities 2 William 1 Carly -1
LostCities 2 Carly 1 William -1
LostCities 2 William 1 Carly -1
Dampfross 3 RussW 2 Jeffles 0 JP -2

Orcs at the Gates is the game from the people who bring us the Knights of the Dinner Table comic. I got to play the game the next day, and it appears to be more of a silly entertainment than a great game. And the Hackmaster (gamemaster) seems to be pretty able to kill off the other players...

In the Brit gaming mag Counter, someone wrote that they'd played over 50 games of Ghost Party and only lost once. So there (to people who think it's all luck!)

Dampfross (aka Railway Rivals) continues to be cool. We played the Germany map with 3 players, and it turned out to be quite balanced and fun. (Initially we thought whoever started alone in one of the 2 starting cities would have an advantage from the start, but JP ended up coming in last.) There is still a problem in games with a large number of players if a large number is rolled in the first round or 2, I think, based on the one 6 player game we played last time.

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Evening's Soundtrack:

Big Black, The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape
Wendy Carlos, Clockwork Orange Complete Original Score
The Alan Parsons Project, I Robot
Spoon, Telephono
Toad the Wet Sprocket, Fear

The theme was gadgets.

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Rank ratings:
 1.0000 KevinH (2 games played)
 0.5000 WendyWhe (5)
 0.3043 RussW (6)
 0.2593 William (9)
 0.2500 Jeffles (4)
 0.0625 Carly (7)
-0.0588 Bob (4)
-0.1667 JP (4)
-0.2500 RussD (3)
-0.2778 Marty (5)
-0.6000 Steve (3)
-0.6923 Tim (4)
-1.0000 Clayton (1)
-1.0000 JonathanC (1)

New Win ratings:
 1.0000 KevinH (2)
 0.6500 WendyWhe (5)
 0.0625 Carly (7)
 0.0588 Bob (4)
 0.0435 RussW (6)
 0.0000 Jeffles (4)
-0.0741 William (9)
-0.0833 JP (4)
-0.1667 Marty (5)
-0.2500 Clayton (1)
-0.2500 RussD (3)
-0.3846 Tim (4)
-0.4000 Steve (3)
-0.5000 JonathanC (1)

Kevin is the Devil, with 2 complete victories! Wendy is the Vice-Devil! Russ, Carly, and Bob are Co-Vice-Vice-Devils. Sea Biscuit pulled a Reverse Brady Maneuver (which used to look better with the old Win ratings definition). William wins the Dedicated Award.

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Big train, big train.
Do you want to ride my big train?

Russ