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!

Crystal Faire
My first game of the day was the newest game from designer Alan Ernstein and Hangman Games - Crystal Faire.  Those familiar with Alan’s last few games will find this one somewhat different than his usual gamer fare - this one is a much lighter game.

In Crystal Faire, players are collecting and selling gems for money. Players start the game with some gems which are hidden behind a player screen. Then a set of rounds are played. 

In each round there are a few phases.  Firstly, each player in turn takes a set of random gems from a bag and then makes up two offers of gems.  The other players make one counteroffer.  Note that the offers don’t show every gem that’s to be offered - only a couple are actually shown - if the offer is taken then the rest will come from behind the player’s screen.  If an offer is accepted then the gems are exchanged.

The prices of the gems are then adjusted.  After that, players bid to sell their stones - whoever bids the most stones of a particular type gets to sell them and get the cash. 

And that’s the round.  Further rounds are then played and at the end of the game whoever has the most cash wins.

As mentioned, this is lighter fare.  There is a fair amount of luck in the game - the gems you draw and the gems given as an offer from behind a player’s screen can be great for you or they can be bad.  There is definitely some strategy - by watching what other players are offering and taking you can gauge which are the better gems to go for.  At the end I found the game moderately enjoyable, but I really need to play it again to make a final opinion on it.

Tichu
Next up was the Tichu tournament.  Though I don’t really do tournaments at the Gathering anymore, my girlfriend Christine has been getting into Tichu lately and wanted to give this tournament a try.  I’ve been enjoying the game lately as well and consented to join her.

All the Tichu tournament players gathered around Alan Moon’s table to find out the matchups.  Frank DiLorenzo, who was running the tournament, assigned Christine and I to play against Ulrich Bauer and Georg Wild.  Ulrich and Georg are both from Germany, obviously, Ulrich works for Schmidt and Georg works for Hans im Gluck.

We started playing and though Christine and I got a couple of good scores, but it wasn’t too long before Ulrich and Georg pulled ahead.  Christine and I made a couple of bonehead beginner moves during the game and in the end Ulrich and Georg beat us by a fair margin.  We did expect to be beaten but we did have fun and learned some new things about the game.  We’ll be back next year!

A bit about the tournaments at the Gathering.  Though 99% of the Gathering is open gaming, there are a few tournaments sprinkled in - perhaps four or five a day.  These tourneys consist of some games that have been mainstays for years - like Can’t Stop and Crokinole, along with new ones, like Caylus.

I played in a couple of tournaments in my first year, but since then my participation in tournaments has dwindled.  In a tournament you could end up playing the same game over and over for hours and that doesn’t really interest me that much.  Me aside, the tournaments do get a lot of attention and many people join in.  One big advantage of being in a tournament - if you win you get an early pick of the games on the prize table (Hmm… maybe I should enter more tournaments).

The rest of my day was taken up with some older games along with some newer games that I’ve reported on previously.  Some quick notes on these games:

Christine and I played a game of Password against Alfonzo Smith and Sandy Borg.  Password is quite an old game but in my opinion still a classic.  In it you simply give one word clues to your partner to get them to say a certain word.  It can be a bit of a brain burner as you search for words in your head, but I think it’s still fun.

I played another game of Thurn & Taxis.  Christine was one of the players and she commented after the game that she thought turn order is a bit of a problem in the game.  Namely, those who go first have an advantage over those who go last.  I actually agree with what she’s saying and we threw around a few variants to try to fix it.  The game still plays very well and I’d play it like it is, but if we are going to play it really competitively I think a variant is in order.

Next was a game of Credit Mobilier from Stratamax.  I played this game last year at a convention - it’s a train game with stocks.  I like a great deal of the game with one exception - your actions are governed by dice rolls and if you roll great that’s fabulous but if you roll bad you are screwed.  Hmmm… perhaps another variant is in order.

That’s Life was my next game - a silly, light dice rolling game.  Decent filler.

Next up was Scnappchen Jagd.  This is an old trick-taking game that I’ve played once before.  It’s interesting, but I spent most of the game trying to wrap my head around what should be the best strategy.  I must have done something right because I ended up coming in second.  It was interesting, but there are so many other trick-taking games that I like better.

My last game was Klunker.  This is another old one that I’ve actually never played before.  Again I spent most of the game trying to figure out what was the best way to do things.  This one will need another play to figure out whether I like it or not.

And that’s it for today!  Come back tomorrow for reports on more games including the all new Dave Arnott Game Show!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	My games played today… Crystal Faire with designer Alan Ernstein and Eric Martin
	Crystal Faire
	A Tichu tournament game with Ulrich Bauer, Christine Simundson and Georg Wild
	Thurn & Taxis with Larry Levy, Sheldon Smith and Christine
	Credit Mobilier with Christine, Larry, Mary Prasad and Michael Weston
	That’s Life! with Sheila Davis, Sheldon, Frank Wimmer and Ed Jones
	Some pictures from around the Gathering… David Fair takes a picture of me teaching That’s Life!
	Greg Schloesser and Ted Cheatham play a game

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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No tournaments?  Not even Loopin’ Louie?  Where’s that old competitive spirit? I remember when, “… I’m all outta gum.” Posted by William Field on Apr 15, 2006 at 06:02 AM | #

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