I have been to F:AT Mecca!

With apologies to any and all Muslims here at Fortress: AmeriTrash, I have been to our AT equivalent of Mecca, the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center.

I was running errands in the area on Saturday, one of which brought me within one block of the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center (FFGEC) around 11:00 AM. I was planning to just stop by and size up the gamers there and ask about the upcoming Arkham Horror expansion, and also find out if they had anybody playing Twilight Imperium there once in a while. Then I was going to go hit the gym for workout and head home.

As it turned out, they don't play Twilight Imperium once in a while there. They play every Thursday and Saturday. And sometimes the Saturday group plays two games, with a short break for a meal. There was a four-player game going on right then and there, but they had started at 10:00 AM. I watched for a bit and found out about the regular play schedule, then shopped around for a bit. The retail area was very well-stocked. I picked out Cosmic Incursion and was ready to buy it, when one of the FFG guys asked me if I was interested in learning Twilight Imperium.

Sure, I thought, I can sit down for maybe an hour just to learn the rules, and then I will be ready for action next time I can make it here on a Saturday, in a month. But as Andrew was setting up the game to teach myself and one other guy how to play, a couple of other guys showed up ready to play Twilight Imperium. They had both played once before, so I figured this was the perfect way to learn, with an FFG employee there to guide us through the rules and during play, and all of us new to the game.

Seven epic hours later, we finished.


The game actually played out just the way I thought it would, once I saw the starting positions after we built the map. I had the Barony, which was perfect for me. The guy on my left (Matt) played some race that was allowed to peek at cards and skip once during the turn. The guy across the table (Carl) was playing some turtle space merchants. And the guy on my right (Nick) was playing some collective that always had first initiative.

I got a decent amount of planets near me at the start, plus Carl played one end of a wormhole near me after I played the other end near him. Nick had lots of good planets near him, plus he played a supernova between us, to protect him from my space vampires, and both ends of the other wormhole on his other flank. Matt and Carl had fewer planets, and several planets were right in between them. So I expected Matt and Carl to battle it out for their sparse pickings, while Nick would build a big empire and waltz up to Mecatol Rex. It seemed too predictable that I would use the wormhole to attack Carl, but my secret objective was to seize all of a player's homeworlds, so I ended up doing just that.

By the way, there were other games going on that day. After the other guys finished their TI3 game, they started playing Android. Another group was playing Marvel Superheroes. There may have been some other stuff going on as well, but I was oblivious for the entire duration of TI3. On the rare occasions I looked up from the game, I was slightly hypnotized by a nearby fancy glass museum case display of Horus Heresy.

Everything went as expected, and Nick won an easy first place while the rest of us tied for second at 5 VP each. Still, it was a lot of fun, and I will definitely be back for more. Great game, great facility, good players, and a special thanks to FFG's Andrew for teaching us to play. Around 7:00, I finally bought Cosmic Incursion and left. I actually had a headache at that point, which is really rare for me, apparently due to the sheer brain-burning power of that first game of TI3. Still, it was great day of TI3, and I look forward to playing again soon.

Sounds very cool.

I thought F:AT Mecca was Dan Baden's game room in Atlanta.

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote:

I thought F:AT Mecca was Dan Baden's game room in Atlanta.

I had to leave Atlanta before I got to check out that warehouse--but I think any game event with Steve Avery present provides enough entertainment, AT plasticky goodness, and alcohol (well, maybe some more alcohol)

Though I gotta say, FFG is only four hours away compared to 20 something hours to Atlanta!

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote:

I thought F:AT Mecca was Dan Baden's game room in Atlanta.

I'm guessing there are too many EuroGames in there defiling the AT-ness.

Shellhead wrote:

Ancient_of_MuMu wrote:

I thought F:AT Mecca was Dan Baden's game room in Atlanta.

I'm guessing there are too many EuroGames in there defiling the AT-ness.

What, like Through the Desert? Citadels? Middle-Earth Quest?

The free month's membership I got for showing up to the Grand Opening expires in 2 days. I've stopped in just twice, and neither time was I able to stay for more than a couple minutes. They were lousy times to show up, just a half hour after it opened for the day, so they were just setting up tables for the evening. They let me pop open the demo copy of Android to ogle it for a while.

Until the school year is over and my wife has the summer off, I don't think I'll be able to make much use of the FFGEC. Even when that comes, I'll probably want to be golfing or hitting the lake with friends.

Sounds like the GW stores, except there's more going on than Warhammer/40K and painting. I'm definitely jealous. Hope you still got around to working out.

NeonPeon wrote:

Sounds like the GW stores, except there's more going on than Warhammer/40K and painting. I'm definitely jealous. Hope you still got around to working out.

FFG is now affiliated with GW, so along with all the FFG games, they are selling GW products at the Event Center. A couple of the tables had elaborate battlefields for GW miniatures, including one for Warhammer 40K.

It was only going to be a light workout. I only do three hard workouts a week, and I didn't skip my Sunday workout.

Shellhead, ride your bike from St. Paul to Roseville - workout solved! Some of those hills don't mess around.

Might point out too - one can still golf/be out on the lake until sundown, and the center is open plenty late after that.

I leave work, and run the gauntlet of the painters and I'm so tempted to give it a try. I know a few of them (this city is SO SMALL at times, at least with the geeks) and hang out and chat while they paint. I'm frustrated by my ability to not spring into the hobby immediately as awesome as most of the regulars out there though. I need to suck it up and bring in some and look like a finger painting 3 year old (I expect I can learn alot from them).

Oh, 2 cents as well - I work in the 'lair' in back of the EC, so for anyone dropping by, I can leave replacement parts up at the counter with your name on it. Previously I've had to mail out parts to people who wanted to stop by the office, and we had a closed door policy...

Shellhead wrote:

FFG is now affiliated with GW, so along with all the FFG games, they are selling GW products at the Event Center. A couple of the tables had elaborate battlefields for GW miniatures, including one for Warhammer 40K.

Hmm, sounds like the best of both worlds!

Nah. Swamp Castle has Dan's collection beat for AT.

He got his ~5000 games mostly in one giant haul. That means that for every AT classic, he has a dozen collector-y valuable licensed games. He does have an amazing 3M collection, and copies of Crude and Discretion, as well as a ton of great 60's business games, and some oddities that are just on no one's radar.

On the other hand, my 3500 games were all picked out by me over 30+ years. Lots of Euros (although my Euro collection drifts more toward classic Ravensburger than Hans im Gluck. Ravensburger isn't really all that Euro), but tons of old GW, AH, Mayfair, and Eon stuff, and a couple of filing cabinets with all of the Ares and a ton of other 70s and 80's ziplocked games.

I think the only two classic cheesy licensed games I have are a copy of The Beatles Flip your Wig, and my beloved copy of the Electra Woman and Dynagirl game.

moofrank wrote:

He got his ~5000 games mostly in one giant haul.

Where does one come across a haul like that?

Infidels!

~ Mohammed "15,000 board games in heaven" Schweig

I think the only two classic cheesy licensed games I have are a copy of The Beatles Flip your Wig, and my beloved copy of the Electra Woman and Dynagirl game.

Don't forget the powerpuff girls action adventure game.
..which I still haven't had a chance to play :C

Steve"MojoJojo"Avery