2004-05-12 RussCon Report

Game Results

EinfachGenial	4	Daniel 3 MarkH 1 RussW -1 Ben -3
ZirkusFlohcati	4	MarkH 3 RussW 1 Daniel -1 Ben -3
CarcassonneHunters	3	Whendy 2 Marty 0 Clayton -2
Exxtra	3	Ben 2 Clayton 0 MarkH -2
EinfachGenial	4	RussW 3 Marty 1 Daniel -1 Whendy -3
Carcassonne	2	MarkY 1 Clayton -1
Bluff	5	Clayton 4 Daniel 2 RussW 0 MarkY -2 Whendy -4
Blokus	4	Clayton 3 RussW 1 Daniel -1 MarkY -3
RicochetRobot	4	RussW 3 JP 1 MarkY -1 Ben -3
Tichu	2	( Ben MarkH ) 1 ( William JP ) -1
TakeItEasy	4	Ben 3 MarkY 1 RussW -1 JP -3

Einfach Genial is the hot new Knizia game; it's much more of a pure abstract strategy game than most of his designs. Daniel is good at it; last week in his first game he maxed out all 6 of his scores at 18 (the best possible), and this week he got 5 18s and 1 15. But then I came back and won the second game of the evening, woot!

I was also pleased to win Ricochet Robot handily, wreaking robotic vengeance upon MarkY who crushed me like a bot 2 weeks ago. Poor Ben wasn't in top form; perhaps he was still demoralized after calling "gala" in Zirkus Flohcati, only to come in last place... (I don't feel bad mocking him about that gala since I've done the same thing!)

Take It Easy hadn't been played much lately, and it was fun to play this game of simultaneous solitaire which reminds people of bingo even though it's not really like bingo (for instance, it actually has important decision making!)

Ratings

Rank Ratings:     
 2.7726 RussW
 1.3863 MarkH
 1.2040 Clayton
 0.8630 Daniel
 0.4055 Marty
-0.6931 William
-0.9808 Ben
-1.3863 MarkY
-1.6740 JP
-1.8971 Whendy

Win Ratings:
 2.3150 Ben won 3 of 6
 1.4917 Clayton won 2 of 5
 1.3987 RussW won 2 of 7
 1.3863 MarkH won 2 of 4
 0.5878 Whendy won 1 of 3
 0.3001 Daniel won 1 of 5
-0.3930 MarkY won 1 of 5
-0.6931 Marty won 0 of 2
-0.6931 William won 0 of 1
-1.2685 JP won 0 of 3

Ben, Clayton, and I are the Co-Devils! MarkH is Vice-Devil!

If you are confused how the ratings work, you could peruse the FAQ.

I used GraphViz to generate the graph image.

Meta Game

Matt was the Meta Devil and emailed out the following Meta Game:

I won't be at Russcon tomorrow - I'll be in San Francisco - so this metagame is about California!

THE CALIFORNIA METAGAME

For each game you bring that features all or part of California, receive one metapoint. If it's never been played before at Russcon, get an additional metapoint!
For each game you play that features all or part of California, receive one metapoint. If it doesn't feature any other states, get an additional metapoint!
If you wear one or more items of clothing relating to California, (t-shirts, OP shorts) receive 3 metapoints!
If you bring one or more items of food to share relating to California (sourdough, Ghirardelli, California roll, etc), receive 4 metapoints!

Each metapoint is a ticket in the metagame lottery. Russ is the final arbiter of any ambiguities.

I believe I was the only one to wear anything California-related (my Pizza-a-gogo t-shirt, acquired during a gamedev conference in San Jose many years ago during the Age of Kinesoft.) But Daniel brought fried artichokes (arguably a California food, and since they taste great I'm sure not going to dispute the point) and 5 different games with California. (Curiously no California games actually got played.) So Daniel easily gained the most meta points and is the Meta Devil and will design next week's Meta Game!

Evening's Soundtrack

Camper Van Beethoven: Cigarettes & Carrot Juice: The Santa Cruz Years

Telephone Free Landslide Victory
II & III
Camper Van Beethoven
Camper Vantiquities
Greatest Hits Played Faster

A Californian theme (which perhaps also continues the key lime pie from last week...) This is a neat-o orange box full of 5 early Camper Van Beethoven disks. One even includes a cover of Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive. Yay!

2004-05-12 RussCon Report

News

Game Results

Ratings

Meta Game

Evening's Soundtrack

Links