I feel for ya, Valerie.  I’m surrounded by moving boxes, and my games are in some of them (O.K., MOST of them!)

Misery loves company, right?

If it makes you feel better, you’re not the only one stuck in Columbus. I’ve been to the last six or seven PrezCons, but this year I couldn’t go because the auditors are in town and I’m the accountant. And as I type this it’s about 2PM Sunday and I’m at work.

One good thing: the weather cleared up yesterday and I drove to Circleville to play GMT’s Wellington with Bud Sauer and John from Circleville. I won. :-)

I had a busy 2 weeks of gaming. First was Mittencon in Okemos, MI. From Fri at 4pm until Sun at 9pm, I got in 16 plays of 13 games. Got in 3 plays of Rails of Europe. Definitely an improvement on Railroad Tycoon. Fixed a lot of the problems with the original and added a few new twists. Also got in plays of Kaivai, Vino, Wabash Cannonball and PiratenBillard?, all new to me. Next weekend was ROBA, our local group in Detroit and Wolverine Games at the Univ. of Michigan. Only excitement was playing Kaivai again after chewing on the rules all week.

Many players are enjoying Oregon, which you taught me at BGG.con. Also, In the Year of the Dragon is fast becoming a hit.

Forgot to mention, Through the Ages got a lot of play at Mittencon, although the length of the game turned me off. I was expecting a relatively short Civ-type game, but it seems that it is much longer than I expected. 4-5 hours was about normal. I think my copy will be on the sale/trade list real soon.

Thanks for the reports, John!  By the way, you can probably play a 2-player game of Through the Ages with the Advanced rules instead of the Full game in about two hours (or less if you are fast players).  That might give you the chance to get a taste for the game and decide if it’s your kind of thing or not.

Everyone plays at different speeds, of course, but we can play a Full 2-player Through the Ages game in barely more than 2 hours, and we can finish with 3 players in 3 to 3 1/2 hours.  I’ll admit that a 4-player game is a long game.

At Mittencon, I played three full games of TtA, the only one without new players clocked in at under 4 including setup/teardown for three of us.  Last Saturday, after ROBA, three of us did it again. And my son used the withdraw from game with honor as Age III was starting during a two player and we were on track for well under three hours.  I think four hours is a fair estimate for three experiences players.

Check my Geeklist
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/29187
for more details of what I played and be green with envy. :) (Only fair to play turnabout occasionally.)

My big gaming event of the weekend was putting in shelves in the mechanical room in the basement to open up a bunch more game storage.  (To get the games out of the rec room floor and off the floor of my office...)

I’m sure I’ll fill up the shelves immediately, but at least the rest of the house will be cleared up for a little while.

Gulf Games mini review - strong game play with tons of theme. I arrived Wednesday evening, which was a day early, but the game room was already decorated with ghosts and goblins, you see Huntsville AL was now Hauntsville USA. The organizers had huge 8 ft spiders from the ceiling and a very annoying talking severed head at the entry table among other decorations. I played 23 different games through 2:30 am Sunday morning, enjoyed some nice meals (thumbs up to the Blue Willow in Scottsboro), and hung out with some wonderful folks. The highlights for me were Indonesia, Kingsburg, Brass, and Khronos. Some games that need another play before I decide were Oregon, King of Siam, and Cuba. One new game that got a lot of play was Pandemic. It is a cooperative game that is a challenge every time. If the players don’t communicate well, they will lose, but if one player tries to dominate all the play, no one has any fun. Another big hit was this farming game, Agricola. It saw a lot of play. Through the Ages got a lot of play also. As this is an invitation event based on families, there is a lot less competition and more friendly give and take but believe me, my 3 victories were hard fought. After much hugging and shaking hands, I left Sunday morning with some great memories. These smaller invitational events are a wonderful way to learn a bunch on games and have a great time. I hope all the readers can find or start a get together in their neck of the woods. It is a lot of fun.

>If it makes you feel better, you’re not the only one stuck in Columbus. I’ve been to the last six or seven PrezCons, but this year I couldn’t go because the auditors are in town and I’m the accountant. And as I type this it’s about 2PM Sunday and I’m at work.

Pete, you are not supposed to use the internet for private purposes ;-)