Great Canadian Board Game Blitz 2011 Recap

I woke up Saturday morning with no sore throat so I figured I was good to go. I headed down to the convention center for Fan eXpo and got directed to the volunteer office to get my pass. It turns out I had a volunteer pass which let me in early bypassing all lines. Pretty sweet, and makes me wish I'd felt up to going down on Thursday and Friday. I had baked in some time for lines so I ended up with a lot of time to kill beforehand and learned to play King of Tokyo which seems interesting enough.

The first two rounds of the blitz have you pick games in a random order, and then in the reverse of that order. I ended up pulling the 2 of diamonds with spades picking first then diamonds, A-K. So I would be picking about in the middle of both rounds which is a pretty good place to be. The number of people playing each round fluctuated as people came and went and I think they ran 7 or 8 games each round. With only 8 games to choose from this meant pretty much every game was started.

Round 1 - San Juan

I believe I've played San Juan in the first round of every blitz thus far. It has the rare combination of being a game I really like to play and a game that I've really put a lot of thought into mastering. I ended up with a near perfect set-up in this game. My first building was a coffee roaster (with an opponent choosing to not null-trader in 4th seat, instead he crafted a coffee for me and 3 indigo total for my opponents). Then I put out a gold mine (it didn't proc for a while but eventually came home for a hero and a palace), a library, a quarry, and a carpenter. From there it was just a matter of scoring points. All 3 statues, chapel, city hall, and palace. I buried one of the guild halls, though it didn't much matter. The final scores were something like 47-26-22-16.

Round 2 - Alhambra

I didn't really want to play any of the games up in this round. My choice came down to playing Alhambra or St Petersburg which are both games which I know the rules to, and are decent at, but which I don't really like and I have never really looked into how to be good at. I decided to give Alhambra a shot this time.

I don't really know what I'm doing so basically I just start off buying things I can afford and then try to transition into having barely more than other people. As it turned out the stuff I could afford early was exactly the stuff the guy to my left could previously afford. We ended up tying on almost every colour we had early on, but I was able to overpay for specific buildings in order to just edge him out as the game progressed. Unfortunately for both of us he tried to fight back, and I had to keep staying barely ahead of him. This resulted in his score being abysmally bad, but mine wasn't quite good enough. The final scores ended up being something like 123-114-113-66. I was second by a mere point.

Round 3 - Factory Manager

I'm honestly not sure what I was thinking when I picked this game. The only other game I've really played in the round was Roll Through The Ages which I really should have picked since I at least like to play it. I was thinking it was really random (though I have never lost in person) and wanted a higher skill game. I'm certain I got a higher skill game, but unfortunately it wasn't one I'm skilled at. 

The game itself wasn't very interesting at all. It was a three player game where one guy was taught the game on the spot and the other guy knew what he was doing. I'm actually not sure how he was able to get so much more stuff than I got but it wasn't even close. The scores were something like 300-220-120.

Round 4 - Notre Dame

If we're talking about games I like and really know how to win, Notre Dame might actually be on the top of the list. It was the first game I wrote about on here, and that was back before I was looking to post a lot. 

The game itself was a three player game, but when I sat down there was only one other player. We waited a bit and she hadn't played before so I figured I'd teach while we waited and hope the third guy knew how to play when he finally showed up. Full rules explanation later, still no third opponent. Marc (the man in charge of the blitz) came over and didn't know where the third guy was. It had been at least 45 minutes from when the round was supposed to start and he asked if Notre Dame could be played with 2 people. It actually has pretty good 2 player rules, so we started with the understanding if the third guy showed up soon we'd restart.

The third guy eventually showed up, but by this point we were a third of the way done the game. (2 player games are really fast, and my opponent was a fast learner and picked the game up right away.) We sat around in a 'should we restart, should we not' holding pattern for a little bit before the decision was made to screw him since he was an hour late. We probably could have ended up delaying the round a lot if we'd restarted at that point so it was the right decision I think. Though from a scoring standpoint really awesome for the people in the 2 player game.

The game itself wasn't actually close since Notre Dame is really a game you need to play a couple times to understand which of the limited resources you can afford to skimp on. My opponent missed a couple bribes and I got a perfect minstrel of two cubes and Balki from cube house to the hospital. The final score was in the 69-40 range.

Round 5 - Agricola

I was 4th pick in this round so I was pretty sure I was out. So I picked a game I wanted to play, Agricola. If I'd been 2nd pick I probably would have attacked 1st place but with all of the top 3 picking different games I didn't really have a hope. I wanted to farm! 

Seating doesn't get randomized at GCBGB, and sometimes it works in your favour. My game featured someone learning the game, the guy teaching the game (who was the guy who missed out on Notre Dame the last round), an older woman who had played a few times, and me. I was the 4th one over, and took the empty seat. It turned out the guy teaching the game was the only one who really knew what he was doing, and he was to my left. 

I gambled early on, and built my 3rd room on the 4th turn, setting up for a turn 5 family growth. Family growth did come out on turn 5 and I was off to the races. I also built the first fireplace and the guy to my left considering first picking 3 sheep on turn 6 to spite the 6 food from me. His other options were 6 wood, or to build a room so he could family growth on turn 7. He made some snide comments about how he was screwed on family growthing anyway but ended up taking the wood. The new guy failed to build rooms as his next action which allowed lefty to build two rooms on turn 6 anyway to get in the family growth. I got the 6 food from the sheep which powered me for a few turns.

I had the card which let me build clay rooms for 2 clay, 1 wood, 1 reed. I used that to build two more rooms and got to family growth a 2nd time before lefty got his 2nd one. I then also had cards which let me plow 6 fields with 2 actions, and which gave me one of each animal when I built 4 stables. I used those to fill my farm. I failed to renovate to stone (I forgot the new guy could renovate without reed and therefore thought I could hold off on renovating when I couldn't) but it really didn't matter. The final scores were in the neighbourhood of 47-30-25-12. 

As it turns out, with the win in round 5 I actually vaulted ahead into a three way tie for first. After going through the tie breakers it turned out that 3 wins and 2 seconds is worse than 4 wins and 1 second so someone else came 1st. Me and the other guy were tied all the way down the tiebreakers so we tied for 2nd-3rd. I actually didn't play a game with any of the guys I tied with, just like the one in Toronto a month ago when I came 3rd but didn't play against any of the people ahead of me. The blitz is certainly a fun format, but it doesn't really offer a good way to determine 'the best' since you don't have to play with each other. 

Afterwards I stuck around and taught Innovation. I also learned Hive in the middle of the day, so there was lots of fun board gaming to be had.

And on the plus side, I wasn't the only person at the blitz in costume this year, as the girl in my San Juan game was dressed up as something I didn't recognize, probably from an anime. 

Off to Fan eXpo!

Unfortunately I came down with something this week. Probably just a cold, but it did mean I had to miss work on Friday and I didn't feel up to looking for costume materials on either Thursday or Friday. I did sleep around 24 hours between Thursday night and Saturday morning though, and I feel a little better. It's probably a mistake to go out to a convention today but what are you going to do?

Without having a new costume though I have been forced to fall back on an old one. I am a really bad Spocko!

Fan exPo 2011 Costume Update

The number one need for a red mage costume was going to be an awesome red fedora. I did a little searching and posted a picture of one on Facebook which prompted a friend of my sister's to ask where I got the picture because she wanted to get the hat just to wear. Now, I really like hats, but pretty much all my hats are dark/dull colours. My Waluigi hat from last year is pretty much the only vibrant one and I haven't worn that except as part of a costume. I decided that even if I don't dress up as a red mage I want to have an awesome red hat anyway. So I bought one online. I probably should have gone up a size but it fits reasonably well and definitely fits into the category of awesome:

On the topic of awesome red hats my sister commented about an iconic character with an awesome red hat. Carmen Sandiego. Now that I have the hat in my possession I have to say it is the perfect Carmen Sandiego hat, but unfortunately I don't think I have the legs to pull that off. Maybe a Carman Sandiego?

Continuing on the hat theme I came up with an awesome idea that would only work as a duo costume: White Spy and Black Spy from Spy vs Spy. Spy vs Spy 2 was one of my favourite Commodore 64 games when I was a kid. Hiding pieces of a nuclear missile in quicksand, building hanging traps out of vines, digging holes with the shovel and covering them with twigs... It was amazing.

Or how about Dick Tracy? He had a cool hat. A quick search shows that 'The Brow' had a red fedora though he seems like quite the jerk. 

Another idea I had while rewatching the Trogdor video was that I think I could pull off Homestar Runner, though again it would be best in conjunction with someone playing the part of Strongbad.

I leave for the World Boardgaming Championships in 2 days and will put off decisions about costumes and Magic decks until after I get back, but in case I happen across some bits on my travels I think I've narrowed my likely costume down to either red mage or Deckard Cain. I will need either:

- huge white feather, red mask, red cloak, red jacket/sweater/shirt/band uniform, black/white pants, black/brown/red boots
- grey robe, gnarled walking stick, book on a strap, sandals

I figure an outing to a Value Village should probably provide useful items for at least one costume. And maybe some cheap board games...

Fan eXpo 2011 Update

A minor correction to my post about a costume for Fan eXpo. I mentioned it was hard to top last year's guests in terms of awesomeness because Shatner was in attendance last year. They just added him to the guest list for this year, too! Sunday only, but Captain Kirk is back in town!

Also, I bought a pretty sweet red fedora online. I haven't commited to red mage yet, but I hope it's pretty sweet.

Fan eXpo 2011 Costume

Fan eXpo is a huge geek convention that happens in downtown Toronto at the end of August. It’s a combination convention which mashes together Comics, Sci-Fi, Horror, Anime, and Gaming into one large crazy event. I’m intending to attend this year for a few reasons:

• There’s a cool board game tournament of which I am defending champion.
• Awesome celebrity guests. (Uhura, Hercules, Faith from Buffy, Starbuck, Deanna Troi, C-3P0... Ok, not nearly as awesome as last year but it's really hard to top Kirk and Spike.)
• An excuse to dress up like an idiot and maybe not look like an idiot!

It’s the last part that’s of concern here today. Last year I solicited costume ideas via Facebook and asked for feedback in a post very similar to this one. I ended up going as Waluigi and thought the costume worked out pretty well. Some people had no idea who I was but they were all people who didn't know Waluigi at all. Last year I had a handlebar moustache which I decided had to be the focus of my costume. 

Great Canadian Board Game Blitz: Toronto - 2011 Recap

Yesterday was the Toronto GCBGB event held in the back room of a pretty nice pub in downtown Toronto. It was definitely a fun time with a lot of new faces in attendance. Overall 21 people showed up to play at some point during the day with a couple people only playing a few rounds. One change to the format this time is they didn't run any 5 player games. I believe the reason was time concerns (many games just take 25% longer with 5 people instead of 4) though I think for scoring purposes it's pretty bad too. Of course with 21 people we ended up playing a lot of 3 player games which have scoring concerns of their own. Oh well. Off to the games!

Round 1 - Bohnanza, 7 Wonders, Carcassonne, Wizard, Dominion, San Juan

I was randomly assigned to pick 5th. We had 18 people to start off so we were going to be playing 3 4-player games and 2 3-player games. When it was my turn to pick I could still pick any game I wanted so I went with San Juan. It is both the game I'd enjoy playing and the game I think I have the best chance of winning so it was the obvious choice. We ended up being one of the 3 player games. A 19th player showed up just before the game start and he chose to join the other 3 player game instead of ours so we were the only 3 player game in the round. One of the other players had played before, the other hadn't. In fact, the guy who had played before was in my game of San Juan last year too. He seemed vastly improved from then when I think he was pretty new to the game.

The game opened with righty going first and building. I played a tobacco storage. I never crafted or sold myself and it remained my only trading related card for the game but just having it in play meant I wasn't falling behind when they were crafting and selling either. I followed it up with a carpenter, a cycled archive, and then a quarry. With the purple building combo in play I went into playing lots of purple buildings and actually ended up building almost all the good ones. Chapel, then library, then prefecture. I didn't end up with a large building but I did build all 3 statues as well as putting 6 cards under the chapel. I ended the game and was multiple buildings ahead of the other players, I think. One had a zumft hall with a good selection of production buildings but it wasn't quite enough as I won by 7.

Round 2 - Alhambra, Ra, Roll Through the Ages, Saint Petersburg, Medici, Glen More

This round featured 2 games I've never player before, one I've played exactly once, and one I really dislike. Picking 5th last meant I might have been in a bad spot but fortunately one of the two games I like and know was still available. I hadn't played it in like 2 years (since WBC2009 I think) but figured I could pick it back up again. The game was Saint Petersburg and featured 2 new players, myself, and the guy from San Juan who seemed like he really knew the game.

I opened up in the noble seat on the first turn and we ended up only taking 1 building off the board in the building phase. That meant I got the only noble on the first turn which was a pretty big boost to my game. I then managed to manipulate the board such that we'd get 6 workers on the second worker turn when I happened to be 2nd. Those two things combined meant I was making 15 gold a turn compared to 12, 9, and 9 from my opponents. After another turn I pretty much stopped generating more income and focused exclusively on victory point buildings, managed to snag the 7 point per turn building pretty early on. I ended up winning very handily 84-65-58-55.

Round 3 - Ingenious, Ticket to Ride, Two by Two, Ticket to Ride: Europe, Thurn and Taxis, Yspahan

I got to pick first in this round which seems like it should be good. Unfortunately there isn't a single game in this selection that I both know and tolerate. If I'd been thinking ahead I would have played some T&T on BSW last week to refresh myself on the game so I could have played it. I don't really like the game though, and since I didn't know it either I stayed away. I ended up picking Ticket to Ride which is the only game from the set that I thought I knew.

I was doing pretty well for myself in the game and was in a good position near the end of the game. I counted my cards in hand and trains left and figured out I could end the game in like 3 actions. Instead I went for more tickets. Now, I had 6 yellow cards in hand and was connected to the 6 yellow and the 5 yellow so I had a pretty good chance of pulling a ticket near my track worth a fair amount. Observant people will note I said I had 6 yellow in hand and there was still a 6 yellow track in play. I could have taken it and ended the game in 2 turns. That seems strong. Instead I went for tickets. One I could do trivially, building just one 3 track. Great! Then there was another I could do with the same 3 track, and the 6 yellow, and a singleton. I decided to keep it as well despite knowing fully well that I could have ended the game in 3 turns and therefore someone else probably could have too. (One guy built a bunch of 6s and didn't go for tickets ever either, so it should have been obvious that I wasn't getting 3 more turns if he didn't want me to.) He then immediately built the 6 yellow, dropping down to 4 trains in stock. The game ended one turn later, so I both only got 2 turns and didn't get to build the 6. I ended up coming a pretty distant 3rd place. In fact I was exactly the negative point value of the route I took, so I could have tied for 1st if I'd just taken the 1 ticket. Probably I just win if I build the 6 yellow myself instead of taking tickets at all. The guy who came last was actually the guy building all the 6s. It turns out he got spited out of a critical piece of track and failed to do all of his tickets.

Round 4 - Egizia, Puerto Rico, Santiago, Stone Age, Settlers of Catan, Container

By this point we were up to 21 people so we were playing 3 3-player games and 3 4-player games. All 6 games were now included. I was tied for 3rd at this point, with Duncan. This round featured 3 games I've never played before, 2 I have played a ton but don't like, and 1 I both like and know. Stone Age time! It ended up being a 3 player game. In fact only 2 people had chosen it when the last person was to pick and she was forced to play it. Neither of them had played before but both seemed interested in playing it and both seemed like they wanted to play again later so that's good. The game itself was less good. There are things about Stone Age that you just can't know until you've played it at least once, like how to properly value the different cards. I ended up winning by over 100 points.

Round 5 - Agricola, Power Grid, Caylus, Tigris & Euphrates, El Grande, Steam

Everyone ahead of me or tied with me lost in round 4, so I was back at the top of the pack. This round had lots of interesting options, and I almost wish I was 2nd going into the round instead of 1st. Someone asked me what I'd do if I was 2nd and I said I'd go to whatever game 1st picked (unless they picked the one game I didn't know). Sadly no one else seemed to feel that way as the top 6 all chose a different game. As for what I was going to pick, well, Steam was out since I've never played it. I think El Grande is terrible with 3 players and didn't want to risk it. I just don't like Caylus and would never pick it over Agricola since I think Agricola solved the problems Caylus has. So it was down to Agricola, Power Grid, and Tigris & Euphrates all of which I like to play and think I'm pretty good at. I went with Tigris & Euphrates since I never get to play it and wanted to practice for WBC. It ended up being a 3 player game with 1 new player which was a little unfortunate. I would have prefered a 4 player game. In retrospect I probably should have gone with Agricola since I like it a lot with 3 or 4.

The game itself featured me beating up on the new player and the 3rd player building an empire with 2 monuments in it. I screwed up a blight and failed to take over one of the monuments when I really needed to, and after that failure (using my last blight) it was very hard to stop him. I managed to set up one chance where we would do an external red fight. Red was both of our lowest numbers by far and the winner of the fight was going to score up 5 or 6 red points. He ended up having enough to successfully defend (I had to attack since he was guaranteed to win since he had a red monument) and as such won by an incredible margin. 16-8-7.


Coming second in the last round meant a lot of people could pass me with a win. It turned out two people did so. Sara and Duncan. Both of whom already have passes to Fan Expo since they're volunteering for the gaming convention. So while I didn't end up actually winning (exclusively to that screw up in Ticket to Ride!) I did get the prize I wanted. And as an added bonus I got to play 2 games on Roll Through the Ages with Sara and Duncan afterwards. Fun game. I'll probably try to pick it up since it's short and similar to Ra! Dice but better.

Great Canadian Board Game Blitz Recap

Last weekend was Fan eXpo and with it came the Great Canadian Board Game Blitz which I made a brief post about last week. A lot of that post centered on the format and how getting a lucky seed in the first round was very powerful. It turns out the format had changed between the event I won in July and the one last weekend to try to fix that problem.

What they did was they randomly seeded everyone for round 1, and then they reversed that seeding for round 2. So if you had one of the very good spots in round 1 you'd end up with a very bad spot in round 2 and vice-versa. Or if you're picking in the middle you're never in a great way or a bad way. You won't get to start a game in either round but it's pretty likely most if not all of the games which were chosen will still have spots left. If everyone always picked their best game, were comparably skilled at their best games, and had similar drop-offs as they progressed down their list in order this seems pretty balanced. People at one extreme rate to win a game and come last in a game and people in the middle rate to get a second and a third. Under the scoring system those are worth the same amount and if you outperform your expected value you'll place highly going into the game selection in future rounds.

Of course, those assumptions aren't likely to hold, but this format still seems pretty fair. I'd be tempted to extend this format across the whole event, and just rotate selections every round instead of reseeding by record. Then everyone would progress through each of the potential spots and have the same chances of getting 'screwed' or not. (Maybe keep the last round seeded to open up interesting game choices as people try to gang on the leader?)


The event itself had 23 people play in it, though not everyone played in every round. They'd prepared the game list to accommodate many more people than that by having 9 games available for each round. 5 games were played of those 9 each round so not getting to start a game had the potential to be pretty bad here. Your top 4 games in a given round might not even get started... Oh well!

I end up getting dealt the 9 of diamonds, with game choices going A-2-...-K in clubs then in diamonds. Not every card was dealt and I believe that put me picking 3rd last in round 1 and 3rd in round 2. (Woo, new format!)

Round 1 Game Choices - Bohnanza, Citadels, Dominion, Ingenious, Modern Art, Roll Through the Ages, Saint Petersburg, San Juan, Three Dragon Ante

Picking so late in this round was potentially disasterous for me as it has a lot of games I haven't played or actively dislike playing. Bohnanza, Citadels, Ingenious, Modern Art, Roll Through the Ages, and Three Dragon Ante all fall into this category. Note that only leaves Dominion, Saint Petersburg, and San Juan as games I want to play. Fortunately all 3 were picked, and even more fortunately when it was my choice there was a seat of San Juan open. (Along with 2 seats of Citadels.) So, I went to play San Juan which was by far my best game of this lot.

I was at a table with my friend Duncan (the only other person playing who I knew) and two people he was teaching the game to. I believe one had played the game once and the other was completely new to the game. I was seated in third chair and the first round started with builder (aqueduct, tobacco, tobacco, prefecture), craftsman, prospector (me), and mayor (Duncan). I think prefecture is the best building in the game in a 4 player game so I was immediately worried that Duncan was in a strong position. I was in a good seating position though, as the guy to my right was a big believer in crafting and selling. The first two turns he crafted and sold and I prospected. (Note: selling indigo + tobacco = 2.8 cards, selling tobacco + 2 prospectors = 3.8 cards...)

My second building was the library, which I think is the best building in the game in a 2 player game. (It's only really good when you pick prospector or builder which you're guaranteed to do in a 2 player game. In a 4 player game you're often forced to call something else which devalues it a little.) As it turned out I actually got to builder or prospector every turn but 1 over the course of the whole game, so it was very strong.

Eventually both myself and another player build prefectures of our own, which hurt Duncan's position. He also wasn't truly abusing prefecture the way I like to, which is to not call mayor. Count on someone else to mayor for you, giving you 2 cards on their action, and just call prospector or builder yourself. Sometimes they won't but often they will and I think you really want to give them rope to hang themselves. If they steadfastly refuse to mayor the whole game then maybe you need to call it yourself but probably then I'd just try to build silver and piggyback on all the crafting and selling that has to be going on. (To be fair, I value the extra card selection at almost nothing and tend to just look at things from a strict card advantge standpoint.)

My buildings ended up being Indigo, Tobacco, Library, Quarry, Poor House, Prefecture, Statue, Archive, City Hall, Palace, Hero, Guild Hall. I built the archive to proc Por House but it actualy ended up coming home in a big way. The turn after I build the archive I was forced to call something that wasn't prospector or builder. I called mayor and looked at 8 cards thanks to the library. I kept hero, city hall, and guild hall from what I looked at, to go with the palace that was already in my hand.

Duncan had a chapel early on and put a lot of cards under it (9 I think, maybe only 7?) but he didn't build a single big building. He was 12 points behind me so he would have needed 2 good big buildings to hope to catch up but it was a little unfortunate for him as the guy who kept mayoring to never build a big building. (I don't know if he drew some early on and discarded them though. I help my palace for most of the game which made my poor house pretty terrible but did let me build it eventually.)

Final scores ended up 42-32-30-22, with me being the 42.


Round 2 Game Choices - Alhambra, Blue Moon City, Carcassonne (with river), Medici, Ra, Race for the Galaxy, Thurn and Taxis, Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride: Europe

I got to start a game this round due to the reverse draft order (though with a win in round 1 I would have gotten to anyway). I started Race For The Galaxy, which is seriously the only game from this list I both like to play and know how to play. I'd be willing to play Alhambra but everything else gets a big thumbs down from me. Good thing I got to start a game!

I sit down at the table and it's a guy who knows how to play teaching 2 other people how to play. I don't think either of them had played before. The guy that knew how to play suggested using alternate starting rules for just the two new players, giving them the 'default' hands for their start world and having us draw the real way. This is both against the rules of the tournament (no house rules) and just not fair. I could see setting it up so we all used the default hands or so none of us did but having just some people do it rubs me the wrong way. As such, I kiboshed the suggestion. The other guys didn't seem to mind too much. He also wanted to remove the Gambling World from the deck because he thinks it sucks and is confusing. I made him keep it in. As Pounder says, when you're learning Race and find a card confusing, just discard it to build something else!

I don't remember much about the game, except that I ended up actually building the Gambling World because I needed a way to ship a good for a VP. The gambling portion actually came home (I named 6, of course) and gave me the alien 6-cost building when I already had a couple alien planets in play.

Final scores ended up 39-32-29-9, with me being the 39.


Round 3 Game Choices - Carcassonne (with River, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders), Galaxy Trucker, Hansa Teutonica, In the Year of the Dragon, Notre Dame, Power Grid: Factory Manager, Settlers of Catan, Stone Age, Vegas Showdown


I was the only person with 2 wins, so I got to start the first game this round. Now that we're into a round that's longer than an hour I like many of these games. I'd feel pretty confident playing any of Hansa Teuetonica, Notre Dame, Factory Manager, Settlers, Stone Age, or Vegas Showdown. Notre Dame was removed from WBC this year so I haven't had a chance to play it in a while and I really like it, so I picked it.

It ended up being a 5 player game where none of the other 4 players had ever played before, so I taught them the rules. One of the players was obviously a hardcore gamer (he missed the first two rounds and hence picked last in this round and had to play the only open game) but the other three were more casual which made teaching the game a little tricky. He picked everything up immediately but I like to expound on certain things to drive important things home to the other new players. He got a little antsy at that and I'm a little worried the explanation ended up a bit rushed but like most games Notre Dame is something you need to play a few turns of to really understand the flow.

All three of the more casual players missed at least one bribe and 2 of them got plagued by rats. Not terribly unexpected, really, since Notre Dame is all about juggling many limited resources and you need to play a bit to get a feel for what you can afford to skimp on. The hardcore guy was sitting to my left and drove his car around a lot. (I don't like driving my car very much, so he got a lot of car cards and scooped up all the 4 pointers I think.) I minstrelled 3 dudes into the park from the cube house and played 3 in there of my own by midway through age B, so while I had almost no VPs at that point I was scoring 3 extra on every action for the rest of the game. It ended up being a lot closer than I would have liked but the park came home.

Final scores ended up 75-70-41-29-23, with me being the 75.


Round 4 Game Choices - Acquire, Amun-Re, Container, Endeavor, Kingsburg, Nexus Ops, Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico, SmallWorld

With 3 wins I got to pick first again. This round had a number of games I'd like to learn or play again because I've only played once (Amun-Re, Container, Endeavor, Nexus Ops) but no games I both really want to play and am good at. I was in good position to finish highly in the event so I opted to play something I'm good at but don't like a lot... Puerto Rico.

I end up in a 4 player game of Puerto Rico with 3 people who have either never played before or have only played once so I am again teaching the rules of the game to all of my opponents. The lady who ended up going first asked what she should do which put me at a bit of a quandry. I know what the generally accepted default action is (settle for quarry) but I rarely if ever do it. I like building a small market or settling for corn but I'm not sure if I should offer strategy advice I don't believe or if I should teach people to play games the warped way I do. I end up telling her the common opening is to settle for quarry but that people sometimes do other things like buying a small market. She settled for a quarry (a strong general action for sure, I just hate to give up on early plantations) and I took a corn. Then I built the small market.

As the game progressed I built the first coffee and got to sell it. This bought me a harbor, and I ultimately bought a wharf as well. I skipped crafting one turn to sell coffee to build a large building, which ended up being a pretty pathetic Guild Hall. (Only 4 bonus points.)

The game dragged on for a long time with none of the end conditions rapidly approaching. The second harbor didn't get purchased so VPs were slow to move. No one bought a bunch of extra production buildings with lots of holes (typical of a building Guild Hall strategy) so guys weren't threatening to run out. And buildings in general were slow to get built (the lady with all the quarries frequently had no bucks during builders and couldn't build anything). Eventually we ran out of shipping points. I had 51 of them, which is more than half of the starting number.

Final scores ended up 72-53-51-39, with me being the 72.


Round 5 Game Choices - Agricola, At the Gates of Loyang, Caylus, El Grande, Pillars of the Earth, Power Grid, Steam, Tigris & Euphrates, Tikal

With 4 wins I again got to pick first. It turned out a lot of people dropped out before this round (it conflicted with the masquerade at Fan eXpo which is really impressive; I would have dropped out to go to it if I wasn't in contention). We ended up with 15 people which split into 5 games of 3. At the time I made my choice I didn't know this was going to be the split. I'd have assumed with 15 people we'd do 3 4s and a 3. Certainly at the event I played in in July the last round lost people and they actually played a 4, a 5, and a 6 with 15 people. As such I made my choice pretty much solely based on maximum number of players and went with Tigris & Euphrates. It's actually not great without 4 people so I'd have gone with Agricola if I knew it was going to be a 3er.

Overall scores going into this round (amongst people who could catch me) were 25-22.5-21.5-21.5-18-17.5. A win or a second place in this game and I win the event for sure. 3rd place only gives me 4 points, so the next 3 people could pass me if they won. A 4th place is worth 2, so all 5 could pass me with a win. Now, it turns out both 21.5s and the 18 dropped out and we only played 3 player games so only the guy in 2nd could pass me. He opted to start Caylus instead of sitting down at my table so his destiny was not in his own hands.

Ultimately I end up in a game with a gentleman who had played once before and one who had never played before so I was once again teaching the rules of a game to all of my opponents. Tigris & Euphrates is a game I don't even really understand how to win and had absolutely no clue until I'd played like 5 or 6 times which makes it hard to teach other people what they need to do to win. I explained the rules and went over how to score points a couple times but I feel like I didn't do the greatest job. Both opponents formed an early monument (good for scoring points) but built them with only one matching leader in the kingdom. I was able to drop in uncontested on both monuments to score up extra points.

A third monument got built in similar fashion (I already had a leader of the second colour in the kingdom) and I used a disaster to kill off the other leader and move in on my own. For a couple turns I scored a monument point of every colour. We ended up building 5 monuments over the course of the game and on the last turn I got 3 green points from monuments. (All 3 green monuments were in 1 kingdom!) The game ended on treasures and I had 5 of the 8 which were taken.

Final scores ended up 12-9-6, with me being the 12.


So, overall I came first with a win in every round but it honestly doesn't feel very satisfying. I had 15 opponents across 5 games (some duplicated) and only played against 2 people who knew the rules of the game going in. I didn't play a single game against the people who finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th overall. I think the problem there is that my approach to the event differed from other people's.

For example, I played the same guy in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Tigris & Euphrates and he said afterwards that he was picking games to learn them and was glad he kept playing me because he got to pick up some tricks for each game. The people I played Notre Dame with gained a big appreciation for the park because of my plan there. A lot of my opponents were just there to have fun and learn some games and they seemed to have a great time.

I was there to win a big tournament. I guess I did, but I want to win by being the best of the best, not by having no competition. That isn't meant as an insult, but I don't think someone that just learned the rules to Tigris & Euphrates, Puerto Rico, or Notre Dame has a very big chance of winning. If Duncan had played in every game I'd picked and I'd still won the tournament I'd have felt like I really did something since he knows the rules and is pretty good at all of those games.

There were good players there. They had 5 winners of smaller events show up, so clearly people who can win games were in attendance. They finished 1, 4, 5, 7, 11 but other than Duncan in round 1 I didn't play against any of them. I don't know if they intentionally avoided me, or if I just picked games they didn't want to play, or if wearing a Waluigi costume kept them away. Ultimately I ended up missing the Q&A with Spike and the masquerade event at the con (along with a bunch of other stuff) and didn't really come away feeling satisfied. I don't know that there's any way to fix this either, since I doubt they'd get a big enough turnout of just hardcore gamers. (And even then, if I'm not picking a game every round I could easily end up as someone who is playing games for the first time and then hardcore or not I'm not going to be a challenge.)

I'll definitely be on the lookout for other events run stand-alone like the one in July but I'm not convinced I'd play again at Fan eXpo.

Great Canadian Board Game Blitz

This coming weekend (Aug 28th-30th) is Fan eXpo and one of the things going on there is a board game tournament called the Great Canadian Board Game Blitz. They've been running a series of preliminary events over the last while (I think they launched at Fan eXpo last year but I didn't go so I'm not sure) with the same general tournament format with a grand prize of entry to Fan eXpo to play in the main event. It looks like entry is open to anyone who goes to Fan eXpo but space was saved for the winners. I won the tournament in Toronto a month ago so my entry to Fan eXpo is free, woo! Other people can show up to play though, so I'm going to talk a bit about the format in the hopes of getting other people to go. (Probably would have worked better if I did this a few weeks ago but I'm lazy and you all knew that.)

The tournament is 5 rounds long and each round has a list of games that can be played. They rank everyone in order (by current record first and then randomly as a tie-breaker) and the person at the top of the list gets to choose one of the available games to play. They take the game and go to a table to set it up. Then #2 on the list can either choose one of the other games and start a table of it or they can sit down with #1 and play the game they chose. Go down the list repeating for each person in turn with a couple restrictions:

• each game can only be chosen once, so if there's already a table up you can't make a new one of it
• games can fill up, so if a game is chosen and fills before you get to pick then you just can't play it
• you can only start a new game while there isn't room for all the remaining players to play existing games (so if 20 people are playing and 4 5-player games have been chosen no new games can start; you have to sit down at an existing non-full table)

As a consequence of these rules picking in the first n players (where n is the number of games to start) is very powerful. Picking early enough to guarantee a spot in your best game is very, very good. (You need to be in the first 4 to guarantee this since it's possible the first 4 people will all play the same 4 player game which you really wanted to play too. Unlikely, but possible.) Picking last is terrible because you may not get to pick at all. There's one empty seat, go sit at it.

The first round is ordered randomly but after that it's be record. This means winning the first round gives you a lot of power going forward and losing it badly could scuttle your chances of doing well. For example, in the event I won the first round games were:

• Bohnanza
• Ingenious
• Modern Art
• Roll Through The Ages
• San Juan
• Ticket To Ride

Of these 6 games I'd say I'm an expert at one of them. (San Juan). I'm decent at Ticket To Ride. I know the rules to Bohnanza and Modern Art but I'm not very good at either. I have never played Ingenious or Roll Through The Ages. I'd give myself good odds of winning at San Juan and of placing top 2 at Ticket To Ride, but after that I don't like my chances. If I was forced to play Modern Art I'd probably come last every time.

I ended up picking 2nd overall (go random!) and got to start a game of San Juan, but if I wasn't in the top 4 people I don't think a San Juan game even would have started. I pretty much got stragglers at my table (people who didn't want to play San Juan but didn't have much choice) so I doubt anyone else would have started a game of it. Winning the first round meant I got to start a game in round 2 (which I then won) which meant I got to keep starting games. By getting lucky to start the event (and then actually winning the game I picked) I got to control my destiny the entire tournament. In most of the game pools there were only 1 or 2 games I've played very much (if that) so it was a strong factor in how well I actually did. If I don't win my first round I don't get to start a game of Puerto Rico and probably end up having to play Endeavor (which I've played once) or Princes of Florence (which I actively hate).

It's a little unfortunate that people who do poorly in round 1 have little control over what they get to play for the next couple rounds and maybe the whole tournament. If you keep getting forced to learn new games or play things you're bad at (stay away from me, Ra!) then you're going to stay down at the bottom of the list. I'm really thinking if that happens to me this weekend I'll just drop out and do other Fan eXpo things rather than be forced to play a game I don't enjoy/don't think I can win.

They're expecting a big turnout this weekend, so there are 9 possible games each round. Every round has a couple games I've never played before, so I could be in for a rough go at it. (Though at least then I get to learn new games... Having to play Carcassonne or Settlers really doesn't appeal.)

But I don't know what to do to 'fix' it. It's a fun format as far as getting to spend a day playing a bunch of different games with different people. It's just not the best for competitive balance, I don't think.

At any rate, it should be fun, and you should go too!

Waluigi Wins!

As talked about here I'm going to Fan eXpo and was looking for a moustached costume. Almost everyone who chimed in on the subject thought Waluigi was the best of the provided options. Andrew kept trying to find something better (Von Kaiser from the Punch-Out series was his best find) and the King of All Cosmos holds a special place in my imagination. I don't have any muscles at all though, so I really couldn't pull off the bare-chested beatdown look. If the thought of pastel spandex was bad, this would probably be worse. Waluigi wears a lot of baggy clothes!

So, with Waluigi as the winner, what do I need? Well, the Mario Wiki describes Waluigi as follows:

"Waluigi usually wears a purple undershirt under black overalls, orange shoes, and a purple cap that covers short, brown hair. He has a large, pink nose, a thin mustache which is straight (horizontal) and pointed up at the edge (forming an L much as Wario's forms a W), and gray eyes, surrounded by rings that appear to be a result of insomnia. He also has long legs which sometimes work to his advantage in sports. The yellow symbol on his hat and gloves is a vertical mirror image of Luigi's "L" which forms a "Γ", just as Wario wears a "W" in contrast to Mario's "M". The "Γ" is actually the Greek letter Gamma, which is pronounced similarly to "G" (as in go)."

I placed an order with a Hong Kong company last week for a hat and gloves and they came in today. With the time zone difference they would have gotten the order on Thursday, so the fact it was here in Canada early this morning was pretty remarkable.

The hat's not perfect (it's a cross between a newsboy and a baseball cap while Waluigi's is more of a greek fisherman) but it's pretty close and it's definitely a lot better than anything I could have done on my own. The gloves are puffy and clearly designed as Marioesque gloves but are pure white so there's no yellow gamma on them. It'll be nearly impossible to play board games in them (small wooden cubes + big puffy fingers = disaster) but overalls should have a pocket in them for storing gloves. What's left after that?

• purple undershirt - matching the hat colour may be tricky (guess I need to wear it to the mall one day) but should be doable
• black overalls - getting big yellow buttons might not happen, but I figure a Mark's Work Wearhouse or some such should have black overalls of some kind
• orange shoes - I actually looked in every store in the nearby mall and the only orange shoes I found of any kind were for a 4 year old. I think my best bet is to go to the Crocs store, they have lots of ugly shoes...
• purple cap - CHECK!
• large, pink nose - I may try to find some Hallowe'en makeup
• thin moustache - CHECK!
• grey, insomnia eyes - my eyes aren't grey but I can definitely get the baggy part down
• white gloves - maybe I should find some fabric paint and add my own gammas, probably I will just run with what I have
• pointy ears - CHECK!

A trip downtown to find some Crocs, a shirt, and some overalls and I should be mostly good to go. Then I should probably find some games he's in and play them to get mannerisms of some kind down. Some internet searching did find that he pulls out the D-X crotch chop when he scores a goal in both of the Mario Soccer games. I haven't watched wrestling in 10 years or so, but back in the day I was a big D-X fan so I get a real kick out of Waluigi copying them.

Fan eXpo 2010 Costume

Fan eXpo is a huge geek convention that happens in downtown Toronto at the end of August. It’s a combination convention which mashes together Comics, Sci-Fi, Horror, Anime, and Gaming into one large crazy event. I’m intending to attend this year for a few reasons:

• There’s a cool board game tournament.
• My sister is flying in from New Brunswick to attend.
• Awesome celebrity guests. (Spike, Al Calavicci, Batman, CAPTAIN JAMES TIBERIUS KIRK, Worf, Chewbacca, Leslie Nielsen, etc…)
• An excuse to dress up like an idiot and maybe not look like an idiot!

It’s the last part that’s of concern here today. I asked for options on Facebook for moustachey costumes I might be able to wear and got a couple responses (all from Tom P). Now, I’m not one to just make a decision, I need to make the right decision. I can’t really use a spreadsheet here, sadly, but I can set out some rules for what I’m looking for, provide the options I’ve found so far, and solicit feedback for better options. There is definitely a front-runner in my mind right now, but I’m open to other suggestions for now. Here's what I look like today:

To start with, what am I looking for? Well…

• I don’t intend to shave my moustache and don’t really want to trim or dye it. As such, the character should have a handlebar or related moustache.
• I don’t even have a stapler let alone a sewing machine, so the costume would either have to be readily available for rent/sale at a costume place or be relatively trivial to put together. (Especially since there’s only a month or so to go and I’m spending over a week of that at WBC!)
• If I’m going to look silly, I want to look good silly. This means it should be something many people would recognize (this is many people AT Fan eXpo, not the general population. I don’t care if people on the subway have no clue what I am) and be a reasonable attempt at a portrayal. Two years ago I wore a Star Trek uniform but didn’t have any Spock ears so I wasn’t really much of anything. That’s not cool and not the goal here.
• It would be nice if it was a character I actually like.

Snidely Whiplash

The stereotypical moustached villain. When I started posting pictures of my moustache on Facebook I got multiple comments about how I needed a tophat, a cape, and to start tying damsels to train tracks. How does Snidely (the character, not the rogue in my WoW guild) fair?

• My moustache is pretty much just what I need for this. The colour is wrong since Snidely has pure evil black hair, but that’s not a deal breaker.
• Top hats are surprisingly hard to find (and NOT cheap) but I’ve always wanted one so it wouldn’t be a waste. Beyond that I need some sort of trench coat or cape. A suit would also work, but I’d need a pitch black tie. I have black pants and black boots, so I’m good there. Nothing to really put together and just a few purchases makes this one very plausible.
• Does Snidely actually fit any of the Fan eXpo categories? He’s from an American cartoon from the 60s. He’s tangentially related to Comics and Anime I guess… I suspect he’d be recognizable, certainly I’d imagine most people would know who I was after I told them.
• I don’t really care for or against Snidely as a character. He’s just some guy from a show I kinda watched 20 years ago.

Random.Klingon

Klingons don’t curve their moustaches upwards, and most of them have beards. But they do tend to have long moustaches waxed to the side, so I think it would look factually correct. (General Chang had a moustache with no beard, for example, but he’s also bald with an eyepatch and grey hair…)

• Klingons tend to shave right under the nose, and they curl downwards into more of a fu-manchu than a handlebar. Also: black hair again.
• An awful lot of makeup work goes into becoming a Klingon. Andrew and I found a sci-fi store a while ago that I think sold ridges, so it would be doable. Getting the leather suit/armor would probably be a lot more complicated. It’s certainly possible a costume shop (or the sci-fi store) would have a Klingon suit, but if I couldn’t find one premade I doubt this could be done.
• Done right, everyone would know what I was. I bet there will be other Klingons there though, so done wrong I’ll just look silly silly instead of good silly. Certainly sci-fi.
• I am a huge Star Trek fan, but I never really liked the Klingons. Vulcans, Ferengii… Awesome! Klingons… Meh.

Waluigi

Luigi’s arch-nemesis from many Nintendo puzzle/sports games.

• Waluigi’s moustache takes a near 90 degree turn that’s simply not possible to replicate. I can make my hairs curve, I can’t make them shoot off in a random direction. His moustache is thin and points up though, which are the two things my moustache does well. Also: black hair again.
• I have pointy ears. Beyond that, I’d need to get a purple hat with a L logo. A purple shirt. Black or deep purple overalls. Orange pointy shoes. White gloves, also with L logos. The shoes I have real doubts about but the rest should be doable with a little effort. Also, bright pink nose? Really?
• Who doesn’t know who Waluigi is? He definitely fits into the gaming category.
• Waluigi was introduced to the Mario games after I stopped really playing them, so I never really formed an opinion of him. One thing I can say, though, is I have always hated Luigi with a fiery passion…

The King Of All Cosmos

King from the Katamari Damacy series. He’s a little over the top…

• As a cartoon his moustache looks painted on, but it definitely is a handlebar. Downside, the Knig also has a soul patch and mutton chops which I can’t feasible get so I’d either need to go with fake beard/real moustache or be a little unauthentic with just the moustache. Also: black hair.
• Wow, there’s a lot going on here. The second image above is from a couple that actually made their own costumes well in advance with actual sewing and such. (Aside: I really wish I had a Queen Of All Cosmos…) I’d need to build a gigantic coloured tube to attach to my head, and find a really flamboyant collar. Speaking of flamboyant, that shirt and those pants are so far over the top they’ve circled all the way around. I might be able to find pastel coloured shirts and spandex at some thrift store that would be half-decent, but I have real doubts about getting authentic enough.
• Fortunately, as long as the tube is good enough and the rest is close I have no doubts anyone who’d played a game in the series would know who I was. (And random people on the subway would have NO chance, which is sweet in its own way.) I’m not actually sure I’d be comfortable enough to wear spandex pants in public, but I could see being willing to try.
• Katamari Damacy is an amazing game. In every sense of the word. The King of All Cosmos is awesome. Playing in the board game tournament with a gigantic tube on my head might be hard, though, and if I took it off I’d just be a dude in pastel tights…

Don Paolo

The bad guy from the Professor Layton series of Nintendo DS puzzle games.

• He’s from the DS, so he’s not in a lot of detail. Most importantly, he has the handlebar moustache. Less good, he has a soul patch and a really insane hair style that would be hard to replicate without a wig. The only option that doesn’t demand black hair, but it’s still darker than my hair.
• Black gloves, shirt and tie, purple overcoat, orange pants… All things I can probably buy pretty much anywhere. The lack of detail from the DS means I can probably get a way with a lot of things as long as I have the broad strokes right. Unfortunately, one of those strokes is that crazy hair! Without the hair, I just wouldn’t be Don Paolo.
• I have doubts that even people who have played the first game would know who I was. Definitely obscure, but the people who would get it would probably think it was awesome. I’m just not sure how many people that would be. A failure to get the broad strokes right would really relegate me to silly silly land.
• I’ve only played the first game and didn’t really remember he was in it. I really liked the game (it was a little easy) but not so much the bad guy.

Any opinions or other suggestions? I’m open to ideas here!