There may be a better friend to Gaming than Jay Tummelson, but I’m not sure who it would be.  His tremendous contributions to the hobby and his continual generosity leave me speechless.

Thanks, Valerie!  ...and of course, thanks, Jay!

One of the games missing from your list is In the Shadow of the Emperor.  I got that one and Knights as my two freebies.  Unfortunately, I missed the cake and ice cream.

I was there for the tornado evacuation.  They sent us to a downstairs hallway.  In our group, someone pulled out their free copy of Toppo, which we played while waiting for the all-clear.

I didn’t think the cold was too awfully horrible this year.  Long sleeves were sufficient to keep me warm.

Unfortunately, I did miss playing Dominion at Origins.  Dale asked me once if I wanted to play, but I had to say “no” for some reason and I didn’t get another chance.  But I did get to play it this weekend at CABS.  Thanks, Valerie!

We decided to drive back to our hotel home when they announced the tornado warning.  It was a great light show, 4th of July a bit early.

Thanks for the chance(s) to play Dominion, Valerie!  I believe you are correct with the hottest new game description.  I spent too much time playing that to try some that were on my list. :) (Good problem to have.)

FWIW, it didn’t get nearly as cold in the Boardroom and on Saturday late evening, it was almost stuffy.

Thanks to Jay for the nice games in the board room - I got Funny Friends and Fiji plus a free pop. Thanks to you Valerie for the warning about the air-conditioning. This was my first Origins and I brought a long-sleeve t-shirt and it was used every night (and most of the days). Sorry I didn’t get to try Dominion, but perhaps at Great Lakes Games? I enjoyed the tornado warnings from my hotel room out in the hinterlands (next year I will make reservations downtown a little earlier :-)) I didn’t use the CABS library much (Ice Flow and Stone Age) because I brought several of my own new games - Tinner’s Trail, Confucius and Monastery. All got played at least once and Tinner’s Trail got at least 6 plays. Looking forward to next year with great pleasure. Perhaps we will see each other at the Tennessee Games convention in August?

John

Also missing from the free game list are Guatemala Cafe, Times Square, and Halli Galli.  I’d been wanting to try Guatemala Cafe, so when I got it for free, that was a great deal for me.  I enjoyed Dominion, it was certainly getting a lot of buzz at the con.  I kept trying to demo Toledo and Gangster at Mayfair, but they were constantly full on all their demos, so I never got a chance.  FFG didn’t bother to have anyone demo their games inside the exhibit hall, so I didn’t get to try Tribune either. 
My friend tried Wealth of Nations at BGG.con, and several others tried it at Origins.  Everyone seemed to like the economic engine, but every single one of them said it took longer to play than they thought it should.  I wonder if that would improve significantly on repeated plays?  I don’t

Also missing from the free game list are Guatemala Cafe, Times Square, and Halli Galli.  I’d been wanting to try Guatemala Cafe, so when I got it for free, that was a great deal for me.  I enjoyed Dominion, it was certainly getting a lot of buzz at the con.  I kept trying to demo Toledo and Gangster at Mayfair, but they were constantly full on all their demos, so I never got a chance.  FFG didn’t bother to have anyone demo their games inside the exhibit hall, so I didn’t get to try Tribune either.

My friend tried Wealth of Nations at BGG.con, and several other friends tried it at Origins.  Everyone seemed to like the economic engine, but every single one of them said it took longer to play than they thought it should.  I wonder if that would improve significantly on repeated plays?  I don’t like to judge games for length purely based on one learning play, so I’ll have to try it next time I see it, then play it again to see if it moves faster.

Val,

If you want to try Wealth of Nations at the next CABS meeting (that you’re at), I’ll be happy to do a sit-down-and-play.  God knows I got in enough games the two days I was there.

@Sean - Play time does improve with repeated plays, partly due to the teaching time on the first play, but it also has a lot to do with familiarity with the system.  Trades are easier to calculate as people grow more accustomed to market forces.  Also, sometimes, first-time players do not build and generate a lot of resources in the early game, leading to a shortage of resources that hurts them (fewer negotiable goods) and the other players (more scarce resources and fewer ways to acquire them).  Once they get the hang of it and ramp up production, things run more smoothly.  The one thing you have to watch out for is the “fire sale” phase to end the game.  That can drag as people cash out their resources, without some advance planning on ways to streamline the process.

Sounds like a good time at Origins, it is on my list to attend “some year soon"…

Hopefully I can catch up to you sometime at Gencon, will you still be demoing Dominion there?

Regarding teaching, things could be worse, our school week starts in full the day _before_ GenCon… if only they would move it back by one weekend I’d be able to stay for the whole ‘Con.  (It is always amusing to see the administration’s face when I tell them I’m asking for vacation day(s) the very first week of school!)