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.

If there was to be any game that would be described as a hit of the Gathering, I would say it was Thurn und Taxis.  No one thought it was super great, but everyone seemed to think it was quite good.  The only one that I would describe as a miss was Diabolo.  Most of the games seemed to be either slightly above average, average, or slightly below average. 

There weren’t any of what I would call real gamer games (Twilight Struggle aside).  The vast majority of the games were light to middle weight (strangely enough, the weight of game that the Spiel des Jahres committee likes).

Interestingly, the only games that people were really raving about were some prototypes that were there.  Hopefully the publishers that saw the games at the Gathering will be picking up some of those.

Here’s a summary of the new games that I played during the Gathering.  I’ll list them in descending order by my rating of out 10.

9 - Twilight Struggle
8.5 - Thurn und Taxis / Thurn and Taxis
8.5 - Augsburg 1520
8 - Blue Moon City
8 - Mauer Bauer / Masons
8 - Iliad
8 - Kreuz und Quer / Zig-Zag
7.5 - Carrousel
7.5 - Dragons of Kir
7.5 - Aton
7 - Nottingham
7 - Jericho
7 - Aquadukt
7 - Seismic
7 - Marvin Marvel’s Marvelous Marble Machine
7 - Hart an der Grenze
7 - Um Krone und Kragen
7 - Cleopatra
6.5 - California
6.5 - Chinesische Mauer
6.5 - Crystal Faire
6.5 - Fischmarkt
6 - Seeräuber / Buccaneer
6 - Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb zwei / Times Square
6 - Women & Men
5 - Diabolo

There were two games that I probably should mention.  I didn’t play them during the Gathering but had played them previously.

8.5 - Ticket to Ride - Märklin
6.5 - Um Ru(h)m und Ehre

Five notable games were at the Gathering but I didn’t get to play them - Fiji, John Silver, Bolide, Carcassonne - Der Turm / Carcassonne - The Tower and Celtica (Celtica I avoided on purpose - the buzz was really bad on that one).  Four more didn’t make it to the Gathering (at least I didn’t see any copies) - Cincinnati, Just 4 Fun, Alhambra - Die 4. Erweiterung and Mykerinos.

A few notes on some of the games.  Twilight Struggle is a bit wargamy, and some of the dice rolling and production mistakes are annoying, but the game is so good that I think it deserves a 9. 

Hart an der Grenze is a hard game to rate - I don’t think the game itself is that great, but the gameplay and the theme lend itself to a fun game.  Um Krone und Kragen is also a hard game to rate - the luck and the downtime with four or five players can really drag it down for me, but with three players and if everybody’s in the mood for a dice game, it can be fun.  Women & Men is a hilarious game (for those who don’t mind more adult content) but is completely undone by the ‘math test’ scoring. 

And that’s it for The Gathering of Friends 2006.  See you next year!

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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Comments:

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Thanks for all the great reports Rick. The videos were also terrific. Well done Posted by Mike Pennisi on Apr 18, 2006 at 08:14 PM | #

Yes, thank you for all the hard work Posted by Olivier Reix on Apr 19, 2006 at 01:20 AM | #

Great stuff.  I saw no reports and Tempus, either it’s still under NDA, or MIA.  Also, nothing on Stonehenge, so it must be pretty far out. Posted by Jonathan Greisz on Apr 19, 2006 at 08:03 AM | #

I thought there would be at least one copy of Tempus there, but the Pro Ludo guy didn’t show, so I guess it stayed home with him.  Drat!  I also think that Stonehenge is a ways away. Posted by Larry Levy on Apr 19, 2006 at 01:03 PM | #

The buzz surrounding Celtica was indeed quite bad.  Precisely why I played it.  It is a very attractive alternative to Candyland. -MMM Posted by Matthew Monin on Apr 19, 2006 at 03:33 PM | #

Still no Tempus??  Sheesh! Posted by Phil Schwarzmann on Apr 21, 2006 at 11:43 AM | #

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