Fun with BGGcon

So there is this BGGcon thing. I went, and here are some comments. 

The Con: Amazing. 1200 people and it all runs like clockwork. There aren't problems. Much of this is that it is mostly a large open gaming con. But the integration of the vendor areas with open gaming is seamless. That there is a library and lots of new games keeps the stacks of unruly personal games at bay. The best move is putting Jeff Anderson as coordinator. He's freakishly OCD, proud of it, and plans everything to death. 

One of the more amusing aspects as the con grows is the attitude towards slightly unruly guests. People not returning games to the library...badge sharing. Derk plays the con bastard, publicly calling out offenders. By name. Loudly. 

The Game Library: Great for Euros and Essen titles. Needs tailoring otherwise. Sure you can check out Warhammer Quest, Mutant Chronicles, MoV, Mc Multi.... The AT library is much more heavy game focused. As I drifted to Friday/Saturday late and wanted fluff, I found the lack of King of Tokyo (?!?!?!?WTF!?!?!?!), Thunder Road, Millionenspiele, Grade up to Elite Cow and the like a bit disconcerting. But two copies of Horus Heresy. Yay.

People: Great. I ended up spending probably the most time with Ron Magin (formerly from Eurogames/Cafe Games) who I've not seen in a few years, and the inestimable Morgan Dontanville. Sadly I didn't get to play any of Morgan's protos, but I want to play two of them badly. Morgan himself is kind of a madman, and we have pretty similar tastes. 

Events: I didn't take much part in the few published events. One problem is that much like the con, you have to get in early. The Game show filled up long before I got there on late Wednesday. Given the pedigree, I'm sure they were good. 

The only event I did participate in is the Battling Tops tournament. Before anyone dismisses it as the mark of childish gamers, it was made into sheer awesomeness by the introduction of a ton of Luchador masks, wrestling challenges, clans, baiting. I think the only real rule is that you can't hit anyone with a chair. And probably the most AT event at any con anywhere. 

Games: I played lots of new stuff. 

Giza: (early Mayfair pre-production). This is cute, but way euro. It also has a lot of blind bids. Given those two aspects, I didn't hate it. In fact one set of blind bids actually has a nice prisoner's dilemma punishment aspect that is quite fun. 

Crazy-Ass Brazilian game: Some strange Brazilian recycling game. Also way Euro, but a little sloppy. Basically competent, but not overly thrilling.

Eclipse: I enjoyed myself even with a pair of AP players and a 5 hour length. Played with 4 and a 2-3 hour length, this is an awesome game. There are some oddly Euro resource things going on, but they are simple and obvious without weird abstractions and worker placement. Combat is of course pure AT, but with small fleets and quickly resolved. The fact that much of the game centers on building ship fleets helps a lot. 

Dr. Shark: A simple set collection game by the Ghost Stories designer. The amazing bits are the totally groovy 60's spy theme, and the fact that the backs of the tiles are all funky different textures. And you are pulling them from the bag by feel. 

Carre: Very light abstract about building 3d structures out of tiles. Feel oddly old school 70's, and so I was all over it. Bought a copy at the flea market, and will finish the translation. 

Dark Horse: I finally got to meet Don Lloyd after many years of emails back and forth about Shadow Wars. Dark Horse is kind of a mix of Settlers and Kingsburg. So a definite resource + build game. But the designer has gone through and added quite a bit of character powers, event cards, and action cards as chrome. Definitely the best Euro I played. I've always liked Kingsburg, but found it to be kind of dry. 

Space Bastards: No. Great ideas, but the game just doesn't hold together well. 

Welcome to Walnut Grove: Worker placement, Carcassonne tiles, special victory point tiles. Fairly decent in spite of all of this, and it feels like a shorter Agricola. It threatens people nicely with the various penalties. 

Nefarious: Cute mad scientist game. Gain money, invest on other people's actions, and cash for research cards that do simple things and get you victory points. Donald Vaccarino is the designer, and he takes the Dominion key feature by adding a massive deck of rules cards that introduce key changes affecting each game. The game would be an utter light throwaway instead of the resulting rather nice. It would be worth of a purchase if (cough) they hadn't been asking $65 for it. 

Mage Knight: Made it through 2 rounds of a 3 round game. Definitely not for AP players. You will need to kill them and dump the bodies somewhere. It also plays like a hyper-complex Prophecy with no combat dice, a strong puzzle-like planning aspect to it. It ends up as kind of a cross between Prophecy and Runebound. It might be brilliant, but people who are worried about the dice-moving aspect from Runebound are going to be melted by this level of complexity and planning. With some practice, it will be easy to bend your brain around, but the first game is going to always suck hard. 

I'm thinking there is a Magic Realm sort of thing going here in that this is a fantasy game that is going to need to be absorbed over time. Still can't tell if it is good or not. 

Hinkel & Stein: This is probably my favorite new to me game, sadly. This is a pretty abstract and gorgeous game from Chili Spiele that only supports 4 players. No more. No less. It consists of a giant balance beam and 20 or so precision cast stones. It requires players competing to be on the side which is heaviest or lightest with some amount of betting and special powers. Kind of a fluffy game, and expensive at $80/copy shipped to the US (as long as you order two copies at a time). But you can guess why I know that number so well. 

The game is designed by Klaus Zoch. You may have heard of Zoch Spiele. Chili is his company for games that really aren't terribly commercially viable, but that he wants to do anyway. So they do miniscule runs with crazy components.