Valerie Putman:  Prose on Cons--Gathering of Friends wrap up

The goodies on the prize table have been collected, many attendees are saying their goodbyes, and the Gathering of Friends begins to wind down.  I just wanted to give a brief report of what I’ve been playing this week that I really liked.  These are roughly in order of preference, but for the most part based on only a single play.

Prototype This is a prototype for a real gamer’s game by Kevin Nunn.  Everyone I talked to who was lucky enough to play it agreed that it might just be the best game of the week.  I loved it when I played an earlier version at BGG.con and Kevin has improved it considerably since then.  The game is fabulous and if he offered his prototype for sale I would buy a copy today.  This game needs to get picked up by a publisher soon!!!!!

Prototype Alan Moon had a prototype that was a clear must play for me--and I loved it.

Augsburg 1520 This meaty auction game held my interest from beginning to end, but I learned later that we had several rules wrong.  All of the changes will only improve the game, I think, so this will remain in my top 5 of the week--but I certainly need to play it again correctly!

Aquaduct While at first glance this looks like Santiago, the game play is completely different.  On each turn you can roll a 20 sided die (up to 3 times) to place tiles on the game board in a numbered section, place a water source, or extend a water source by two places.  If a section fills with tiles (which have 1 - 4 buildings on them), any that are not irrigated are removed from the game.  When the Santiago-like water sticks run out, the winner is the player with the most irrigated building points.  The game is interesting and fills a nice niche as it is a very fun 30 minute game with more depth than the average filler.  It really is a nice big box game when you are short on time.

Thurn und Taxis I mentioned this last week as it was my first new game of the week.  After a second play I still enjoy it.

Honorable mentions Other games that I enjoyed for the first time this week included Um Krone und Kragen, Blue Moon City, Il Principe, and Geshenkt (a game that my fellow players couldn’t believe I hadn’t tried before).

Back to the games!
Valerie Putman

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