Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006

By Rick Thornquist

Here are my reports from The Gathering of Friends 2006 which took place from April 7-16, 2006 in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.

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Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: Wrap-Up

By Rick Thornquist
April 18, 2006

Sadly, the Gathering of Friends 2006 is now over. As usual, I had a fantastic time and got an opportunity to play many new games. Here’s a wrap-up of those new games.

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 18, 2006 at 07:00 PM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (6) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 16, 2006 (Day 10)

By Rick Thornquist
April 16, 2006

This is my report for the last day of the Gathering of Friends 2006. Today’s events included the Lost Cities tournament, games of Twilight Struggle and Marvin Marvel’s Marvelous Marble Machine, and the final dinner. Here we go!

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 17, 2006 at 11:34 PM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (3) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 15, 2006 (Day 9)

By Rick Thornquist
April 15, 2006

This is the report for day nine of the Gathering of Friends 2006. It’s already the second last day and, as usual, the week has rocketed by. The report for today concentrates on two big Gathering events - the Flea Market and the Prize Table Ceremony.

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 16, 2006 at 07:53 AM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (2) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 15, 2006 (Day 9) - Video

By Rick Thornquist
April 15, 2006

Here’s another video - this one is from day nine of The Gathering of Friends 2006. This video captures the flea market in the morning, some gaming in the afternoon, and the prize table ceremony in the evening. I missed the last part of the prize table ceremony where everyone comes up to get their games (I ran out of memory on my camera) but you can get an idea of how the prize table ceremony works and what it looks like. The video is available in WMV format and is also available in a smaller file that is in a lower resolution.. You can download the video file to your computer by right-clicking on the link and selecting ‘Save As…’. Here it is:

The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 15, 2006 (Day 9) (WMV Format - 58.4MB)
The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 15, 2006 (Day 9) Small (WMV Format - 23.8MB)

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 15, 2006 at 08:24 PM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (1) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 14, 2006 (Day 8)

By Rick Thornquist
April 14, 2006

This is the report from day eight of the Gathering of Friends 2006. After this there’s only two days left! Today’s report features two very nice prototypes, the upcoming Cleopatra game from Days of Wonder, as well as Dave Arnott’s Game Show. Here we go!

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 15, 2006 at 01:24 PM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (2) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 13, 2006 (Day 7)

By Rick Thornquist
April 13, 2006

Editor’s Note: Today’s report is being posted a little later than usual. The Internet service at the hotel wasn’t working and I had to go somewhere else to post this. Apologies for the delay!

Here is my report from day seven of the Gathering of Friends 2006. Today I played an eclectic mixture of games - the new game Crystal Faire, the Tichu tournament, some old games and some new games. Here we go!

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 14, 2006 at 12:33 PM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (1) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 12, 2006 (Day 6)

By Rick Thornquist
April 12, 2006

It’s day six of the Gathering of Friends 2006. Today I played a game which is a yearly tradition for me at the Gathering - a big game of Die Macher. I also played Seismic, an upcoming game designed by Ted Alspach as well as an interesting newer game that you may not have heard of - a Dirk Henn game called Cherubim. I also played a new game from Asmodée in France called Carrousel. Here we go!

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 13, 2006 at 10:42 AM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (3) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 11, 2006 (Day 5)

By Rick Thornquist
April 11, 2006

Here’s a report of my experiences from day five of Gathering of Friends 2006. Today I played a number of interesting new games including Dragons of Kir, the upcoming Alea game Augsburg 1520, the upcoming Asmodee game Iliad, Blue Moon City and the new party game Women & Men.

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 12, 2006 at 09:57 AM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (1) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 10, 2006 (Day 4)

By Rick Thornquist
April 10, 2006

This is my report for day four of the Gathering of Friends 2006. Today I played a number of new games plus today was the day for the Spiel des Afternoon game design competition.

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 11, 2006 at 11:56 AM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (0) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 10, 2006 (Day 4) - Video

By Rick Thornquist
April 10, 2006

Here’s something new that I hope you’ll like - I’ve put together a video report from the fourth day of The Gathering of Friends 2006. I’ll still be doing the regular written report and pictures, but today I thought I’d post a video report as well. Note that this isn’t by any means a professional job, I’m not even using a video camera, I’m using a small digital camera with movie capability with a basic movie editor. Hopefully it will give you an idea of a typical day at the Gathering. The video is available in WMV format and is also available in a smaller file that is in a lower resolution.. You can download the video file to your computer by right-clicking on the link and selecting ‘Save As…’. Here it is:

The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 10, 2006 (Day 4) (WMV Format - 60.5MB)
The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 10, 2006 (Day 4) Small (WMV Format - 21.6MB)

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 11, 2006 at 03:15 AM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (9) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 9, 2006 (Day 3)

By Rick Thornquist
April 9, 2006

It’s the third day of the Gathering of Friends 2006 and my second full day. Today was another great day - a little lighter on the new games an a little heavier on the not-so-new games (calling them older games just wouldn’t be right - some of them just aren’t that old!).

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 10, 2006 at 08:30 AM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (1) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 8, 2006 (Day 2)

By Rick Thornquist
April 8, 2006

This is the second day of the Gathering of Friends 2006 - my first full day at the event. Today was a great day - I got to connect up with a lot of old friends and got the chance to play lots of new games. Here we go!

After waking up and having breakfast, I headed down to the ballroom to see what was going on. The place was already buzzing - lots of people were already there and many games were in progress. I spied Alan Moon playing Twilight Struggle and said hi. Every time I saw Alan throughout the day he was playing Twilight Struggle. I guess he likes it!

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 9, 2006 at 07:57 AM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (9) - Link

Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 7, 2006 (Day 1)

By Rick Thornquist
April 7, 2006

It’s April in Columbus, Ohio and that can mean only one thing - it’s time for Alan Moon’s Gathering of Friends! The Gathering is a very special gaming event - 300 gamers get together and just play games for ten days. The name of the game here is open gaming - just grab one of the many games that are sitting around, grab some opponents and away you go. Many familiar gamers attend the Gathering and it has become for me not only a place to play games but an opportunity to meet up with old friends and to make new ones.

The Gathering is also perfectly timed - many of the games that were introduced at the Nuremberg game fair in February are now available. Quite a few Germans and other Europeans make the trip to North America for the Gathering and they are bringing over quite a few of the new games for us to try.

Posted by Rick Thornquist on April 8, 2006 at 07:51 AM in Special Features > Convention Reports > Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006 - Comments (7) - Link

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