Scott Tepper: The Gathering of Friends 2008

If you are one of the two people who read my column(Hi mom!), I owe you an apology.  Due to some crazy scheduling, I wasn’t able to finish last week’s column in time to post it before deadline.  I plead poor time management, your honor.  The first part of my excuse was due to the fact that a week and a half ago I was in Florida celebrating a friend’s birthday.  Scheduling the travel was a challenge due to The Gathering of Friends the following week.  My friend Nataline, who now lives in California, was also going to The Gathering, had her own travel issues as well.  She was having trouble finding a direct flight to Columbus.  Our resultant travel plans ended up rivaling the programming decision planning needed to play RoboRally.

I left work early for my Florida flight on Thursday, and left my car in the short term parking garage.  Nataline flew in to Chicago late Thursday evening.  Using the house and car keys that I FedEx’d to her, she picked up my car, stayed at my place over the weekend, and even loaded up my car with the games I had set by at the back door to play during the week and to sell at the flea market.  Sunday afternoon, Nataline picked me up at O’hare, my car now filled with luggage and games and food(this latter item will be important in a bit) and we then drove straight through to Columbus, arriving around 11:00pm.

This was the latest I had ever arrived at The Gathering, and even though it appeared that many attendees were still on their way, as they had not yet picked up their guest bags that contained their name tag and miscellaneous goodies, the tables that surround the convention room were already almost completely filled with games.

I’m not going to bore you with details about every game I played during the week, although this task would be easier to do because my list is certainly shorter than in previous years since I was out of commission for about a day and a half from food poisoning.  On Tuesday my body was trying to expel every iota of food that I had consumed between Sunday and Monday.  The culprit was either something Nataline picked up at the Asian market, or the chicken sandwich I ate at Steak & Shake.

One of the best things about The Gathering for me is that it allows the turnabout where I get to be the recipient of rules explanations from others who like to teach games, but I have the time and opportunity to play longer games as well.  I have always wanted to play Dune, and was lucky enough to be invited to play a game of it.  I nearly pulled off a 2nd turn win, but ended up losing in the 9th round when 3 of my opponents joined forces and were able to seize total control of the strongholds.  I also learned how to play Twilight Struggle, which, even though Lorna Wong trounced me heartily, I still enjoyed.

Some of the other games I played were: Gipsy King, Dry Gulch Junction, Stone Age, Metropolys, Hanging Gardens, Ming Dynasty, Witches Brew, Eketorp, Brass, Agricola, Pandemic, Extrablatt, Twilight Struggle, Dune, Cockroach Salad, Animalia, Ticket To Ride: The Card Game, Uptown, and Mermaid Rain.

Agricola is just as engrossing to me now that I’ve got about 15 plays under my belt.  Of the games that were new to me this week, I was most impressed with, Ming Dynasty, Hanging Gardens, Extrablatt, and TtR: The Card Game.  Ming Dynasty was thinky and challenging, and it will take me several more plays before I can figure out the best way to maximize your score in the game.

Hanging Gardens and TtR: The Card Game were both winners for me in the category of lighter games that can be played in a half hour.  Extrablatt is an older game that I’ve been wanting to play for quite a while now, and I was lucky enough to have Ken Hill, who also does demo work for Rio Grande Games, teach it to me.  I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit that I didn’t 100% understand how the game was scored until we finished the game.  The theme of Extrablatt, competing newspapers are struggling to organize their editions with the largest layouts of stories and sections of the paper, is unique and fits the game’s mechanisims.

As I spent most of Sunday driving back to Chicago, I’m going to close here for today, but stop back next week when I talk about the Game of the Afternoon, the Prize table, and possibly about what happens when water and cardboard mix…

© 2008 Scott Tepper

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Comments:

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Are you dissing the Asian food?  I hope not!  And thanks for not seeking medical help during the Gathering… I probably got in an extra two or three games as a result dale Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 14, 2008 at 07:07 PM | #

I’ve been itching to try Extrablatt.  I assume my first chance will be Valley Games’ edition of it, but if Ken has a copy.... Posted by Nathan Morse on Apr 15, 2008 at 06:44 AM | #

Nate, i’ve got one too just remind me the next time i’m coming up to cabs dale Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 15, 2008 at 08:04 AM | #

You can’t possibly be blaming Chinese food for your gastrointestinal woes!  We raided that same box of Chinese snacks around 3 am later that night and everyone was fine!  Mario, Stefan, Terry, Scott and I ate every single last BBQ pork filled bun.  18 hours at room temperature only improved them. And COME ON, do you really expect us to believe you were “celebrating a friend’s birthday” in Florida?  Fess up, you were trying to get onto the Girls Gone Wild bus. Posted by Nataline Viray-Fung on Apr 18, 2008 at 12:30 PM | #

Nataline, I’m sorry, but I have to challenge your logic.  If you’re going to look at this scientifically, we have to make sure that your control group did indeed eat the same foods.  Did Maro, Stefan, Terry & Scott also eat a full bag of those purple pillow things with the gooey centers?  They would have also each had to eat a full bag of the vinegar-y bacon-rind-puff-like thingies too.  I’m guessing they didn’t.  (laugh!) Posted by Scott Tepper on Apr 18, 2008 at 12:41 PM | #

Jeez, Scott, I don’t think you were the victim of food poisoning--I’d say your stomach was paralyzed over all the crap you were stuffing into your mouth!  :-) Your real problem was that you weren’t eating enough Sliders.  Those suckers will kill anything in your tummy! Posted by Larry Levy on Apr 18, 2008 at 02:34 PM | #

Actually yes.  We finished off the bag of purple gooey things that same night and everyone ate the vinegary puffies all weekend long.  Face it: Either you’re a wimp or it was the Steak and Shake.  :) Posted by Nataline Viray-Fung on Apr 18, 2008 at 03:43 PM | #

Ok, so there’s already a Food-Fight game, but has someone made a game out of intenstinal fortitude? Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Apr 18, 2008 at 10:40 PM | #

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