BGG.Con 2008

Had a really nice time again at BGG.Con 2008. Thanks to Derk and Aldie and all their helpers for putting it together. Highlights for me were probably trying and beating Tom Lehmmann (Race for the Galaxy designer) at a prototype of the second expansion 51-50 (and we had to count my score like 4 times to be sure of it - had 3 6s that were all very high scoring and a bit tricky to count - they were like 32 of my 51 points) (chatted, played and really enjoyed a bunch of other stuff with Tom as well) and another great Puzzle Hunt by Aaron Weissblum and Dave Arnott which our team won in a very tight finish as we found the bonus puzzle to avoid losing the tiebreaker to another very strong team that otherwise scored the same as us and finished a bit earlier. Also got to play a bunch of fun games of Tichu with lots of people and thanks to Marty for grabbing me for a game of Titan with experienced players on the new Valley Games board. Thinking I will offer to teach (but not play) people in one of my regular groups the new version too to see if they might like it this next Tuesday - if reading this and interested, let me know.

None of the brand new games I played rise to my buying level (generally an 8+ of 10 rating) but still enjoyed Battlestar Galactica, Space Alert, Le Havre, Oregon (which isn't new but played for first time and is closest to being a buy for me), and Carcassonee: A New World (despite some serious rules questions in a simple game - C- for rules). However, front on expansions is better. I will definitely buy the Galaxy Trucker and St Petersburg expansions and of course the Race 2nd expansion when it comes out.

750 people is definitely getting to be kind of too much though, not that I actually want them to restrict the numbers more. There were a bunch of friends I didn't get to play anything with and a couple of people who I only know from the Internet that I wanted to meet and realized after I got there that I really just had no way to arrange it - will exchange cells or something next year. Was nice to at least meet/talk briefly to Jonathan on the shuttle there and thanks to Chris and Jim for the beer at the Dallas airport before I rushed off to sit on my plane for 1.5 hours before getting taken off and put on another plane. Hotel a bit of a jinx for me too as I left my iPhone charger there - realized that while sitting on the broken plane and called hotel and have it back now - pretty cool too that can use the iPhone to Google the hotel number and all to call them about it. Anyway, fun trip.

The Big Picture again - Venice under Water

Venice under Water - amazing just how casual most of the people look. This continues to be a must-see blog.