Kris Hall: CharCon 2009

The other gaming convention of last weekend was a big success.  For the first time CharCon (the con in Charleston, West Virginia) was held for three days (Friday was added), and for the first time there were over 500 attendees.  I met two gamers who drove from the Washington DC/Baltimore area to attend (a seven-hour drive), and I believe they are indicative that the con is attracting gamers from further away now.

The boardgame tournament was a winner for a second year in a row, thanks again to major sponsorship from Rio Grande Games.  And for the first time CharCon sponsored a game of Killer, that old assassinate-your-friends game that is popular at colleges around the nation.  Tom Hancock, who ran that game, promises that next year Killer will be bigger and even more elaborate.

I managed to try four games at the convention that I had never played before. I played each of these only once so these are first impressions rather than reviews.

Space Hulk.  This may be an old game, but it was new to me.  Frankly, I can’t see what all the excitement is about.  The physical production of the game is fine, but I didn’t find that managing space marines in generic corridors to be all that much fun.  I’ve always liked strategic games more than tactical, and that proved very true here.  If you like Space Hulk, good for you.  I’m just relieved that I have no desire to try to acquire this $100 game.

Ad Astra.  I read the rules of this light space game and was not impressed.  It seemed thin compared to most space games.  But then Ted Cheatham told me to stop regarding it as Twilight Imperium lite and start thinking of it as a diceless version of Settlers of Catan in space.  And on that basis, the game is a success.  In AA, players use action cards to collect resources, build colonies and spaceships, fly their ships, and score victory points.  This is an engine-building game in which players can use actions played by other players, not just their own.  Perhaps my opinion was influenced by the fact that I won the game by one point (a fairly unusual occurrence, at least with first-time plays), but I liked Ad Astra.

Last Train to Wensleydale.  Martin Wallace’s latest train game is different from most train games in a couple of ways.  First, each turn starts out with an auction for sets of influence points, and the outcome of this auction drives the entire turn.  The player with the most government influence points is the first to build his railroad.  The player with the most engine points gets to buy his train and ship his goods first.  And the influence points for the green and red railroads allow players to sell their track at the end of the turn.

This leads me to the second major difference: players usually try to sell their railroad track on the same turn they build it.  Ideally, a player will end the game owning nothing.  This is because each link of track is a fixed expense that can only be eliminated by selling it to the big non-player red or green railroads.  Sometimes players may want to hold on to some track to position themselves for the next turn, but a player who ends the turn with a lot of track on the board has usually miscalculated. 

My suspicion is that Wensleydale will prove to be a solid game.  I don’t know that it will become one of my favorite Martin Wallace games, but it is almost luckless and rewards careful planning, and what else do you want in a strategy game?

Homesteaders.  A gamer at the con had a playtest copy of Homesteaders, the debut game from new company Tasty Minstrel Games.  Homesteaders was designed by Alex Rockwell who may be familiar from his postings on BGG. 

Homesteaders is a pure engine-building game with an old west setting.  For ten turns, players bid on the right to purchase building cards with one player each turn being left without a building card but with some other compensation.  Buildings usually require resources to build, and they generate income, resources, or other benefits each turn. 

Homesteaders is a little like a simpler and faster-playing version of Le Harve, and that comparison is both a compliment and a concern.  I suspect that Homesteaders will be regarded by most as a decent game, but how many build-a-building games do we need?

I also noticed that players need a trade token to do any buying and selling of resources.  More than one type of building early in the game creates trade tokens, but if a player somehow finds himself in the mid-game without a source of these trade tokens, he has most likely lost the game.  Just something for first-time players to keep in mind.

If Homesteaders is any indication, then the Tasty Minstrel crew have some skill at picking good games to publish.  I look forward to trying more games from them.

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