December 5, 1998

Tonight we tried three new games, plus played a few old favorites. First up, we played Mag-Blast. Carol’s special ability allowed her to draw two reinforcement ships at any time during the game. This turned out to be critical as she was able to keep her flagship protected the entire game. Eric’s special ability was that each of his fighters was worth three instead of the normal two; unfortunately he never drew a carrier, which is necessary to use fighters. Glenn’s special ability allowed him to draw two ship cards and take the best one, whenever he was allowed to draw a ship. Bob’s special ability allowed any of his scout ships to fire a mag-blast (usually only dreadnoughts can fire mag-blasts) but, at the cost of discarding the scout ship.

Eric, Bob and Glenn had trouble getting enough reinforcements. Carol was able to eliminate both Bob and Eric on the same turn. A few turns later, she eliminated Glenn with a Direct Hit/Catastrophic Damage combo.

Next we tried Mississippi Queen. The game was fairly close. Glenn picked up both of his passengers early which gave him an advantage but, despite that, only won by one hex. Eric finished in second. Bob finished in third and, Carol in fourth, each only a turn behind the person in front.

After that came Monsters Ravage America. During the game, Carol, playing the Swamp-Lasher and the Army, managed to take a huge lead in health (over 40 while everyone else was in the 20 to 30 range). Combined military attacks by Eric (the Snake God and the Marines), Bob (Konk, the Great Ape and the Air Force) and Glenn (the Carnosaur and the Navy) managed to knock her down a little but, she still had a lead going into the final battle. She chose to fight Bob first, as he had the least health. She won but, because of Bob’s mutation, which allowed him to hit more often than normal and, some unlucky dice rolling, she came out in a weakened condition. Next she fought Eric, but Eric’s mutation allowed him to do more damage per hit, and he won, but just barely. Then Eric fought Glenn; unfortunately for Glenn, neither of his mutations were useful in the final battle. Eric won.

Honor of the Samurai: Eric declared himself Shogun very early in the game and managed to keep it for a whole round. However, Bob then took it from Eric and, because of a lack of ki, Eric was never able to recover. Bob was able to hold the Shogunate for two rounds before Glenn took it away. Glenn developed a very respectable lead in military strength and held on to the Shogunate until he won the game.

Silent Death: At this point, Carol went to bed leaving just Bob, Eric and Glenn to play. We decided to have a three-way battle with each side having 100 points worth of ships. Glenn chose a Sorenson and two Kosmos, with 5s for his gunners. Eric chose two Lance Electras, with 5s and 6s for gunners. Bob took a Pharsi, with 10s for his gunners. Bob’s 10s proved decisive as neither Eric nor Glenn were able to roll high enough to do much damage to Bob. Glenn was also hurt by the fact that the Sorenson has no point defense against missiles.

Titan: the Arena - Eric was able to make three bets and a secret bet in the first round. He was able to keep his secret bet and two of his three first round bets alive, winning him the game.

November 8, 1998

Glenn and Dan arrived around 1:00. First played was a card game called “It’s Mine”. Rachel won.

Eric arrived around 1:30. The next game up was Medici. Carol took the lead early and pretty much held it throughout the game. Glenn came in second, Bob in third, Eric in fourth, Dan was last. In all fairness, this was the first time Dan had played Medici.

Then came a game of Formula Dé on the San Marino track that Eric had just bought. Dan got the pole position, followed by Glenn, Carol, Bob and then Eric. Eric blew the start. Glenn quickly fell into fourth place. Carol took the lead from Dan going into turn 2. Eric took fourth from Glenn. Carol’s lead continued to increase. Eric caught up to Bob and Dan in turn 3. Bob and Eric pulled ahead of Dan going into turn 4 but, Eric just missed the turn and had to downshift. Glenn managed to pass Dan and Eric. At turn 7, Bob just about caught up to Carol. Dan passed Eric. Bob shifted into 6th gear and passed Carol but, ended up at the end of a 2-stop turn having made only one stop. Glenn crashed in turn 6. Bob downshifted to 3rd gear and barely survived. Carol wiped out in turn 7 trying to catch Bob. Bob cruised to an easy victory. Three die rolls later, Dan crossed the finish line second. Two die rolls after that, Eric crossed the line third.

Then came Air Baron. We discovered an error in our interpretation of the rules that made this a much more competitive game than the one we played on 9/27/98. We previously had been playing such that, if a hub was drawn, only the player who dominated or controlled that hub got any money. The correct way is, players on the hub who do not dominate or control get $3. Bob took an early lead, controlling most of the central US and, came within $4 of winning. However, now out of cash, he couldn’t continue the attack and his position began to erode. His position was made worse by a fuel hike that hit while he still had a large market share and little cash. The other players quickly took advantage of Bob’s weakened position with Dan and Glenn being the main beneficiaries. Dan came within $8 of winning. Bob was completely wiped off the board. Glenn finally won the game.

One more game of It’s Mine. Once again, Rachel joined in. This time, Bob won with 28. Rachel was right behind with 27. Eric finished in last with 1.

At this point, it was about 7:30 and Dan and Glenn had to leave. Another new card game was brought out: Kwa-Do. Eric won by a large margin.

September 27, 1998

Bob, Carol, Eric and Glenn were there. We played a game Bob picked up this weekend, Medici, Air Baron, which Glenn finally bought, and Euphrates & Tigris.

Medici was designed by the same guy who did Modern Art and Euphrates & Tigris. It’s a quick, fun, little bidding game for up to six players with simple rules and a lot of complexity. Definitely a keeper.

Air Baron was a good game save for the curse of bad luck which hit Eric early. If you get burned early by bad draws, it can be very difficult to recover. He never really did. (See 11/8/98.)

As usual, Euphrates & Tigris was complex and challenging. It looked like it might go quickly but some desperate end-game strategies drew out the conclusion.

We’re looking forward to our next session.

September 7, 1998

We played Advanced Third Reich. Bob was Germany, Steve was Italy, Glenn was Great Britain, Dan was France and Eric was Russia. The Reich did so-so. When we ended, they were ahead economically (big deal, they start there) and would’ve taken France within the year, but were getting slowly creamed on the Russian front.

We drew options at the start of play. France drew the “Maginot line becomes armored units” option which makes it harder for Germany to break through. Then England drew the “French and English cooperate” option which means that England can land troops in France with impunity to defend against German aggression. Germany drew the “better armored units in 1942” option which, of course, we never reached. This combined with German inexperience, resulted in a tough time for Germany. (Translation: Germany was almost defeated by Poland!)

It was fun and, hopefully we will play again, now that we all know most of the rules.

August 27, 1998

It was a fun time. Bob, Carol, Eric, and Jay played Acquire, Robo-Rally, Titan: The Arena, and 3 (yes, 3) games of Euphrates & Tigris.

July 11, 1998

It was a fairly early evening (2:15AM). Here are the results:

• Acquire: Jay $34,100, Carol $31,300, Glenn $26,000, Dan $21,800, Steve $20,000, Bob $19,400 (ouch).
  • Bob: Carol made a couple of mistakes that cost her the game. Also, Dan and Steve made a couple of bonehead moves. Bob sucked.
• Wiz War: Bob (who else?)
• Risk: Carol
• Awful Green Things (Bob and Dan): Bob
• Settlers of Catan (Jay, Bob, Glenn): Jay
• Settlers of Catan (Jay, Bob, Glenn): Jay

Jay had a good night. In both games of Settlers, Bob set up on no ore. Didn’t work. The first game he was boycotted for most of the game, the second game Jay kept the robber on him the whole game.

Babycon V

Usually Babycon starts at noon on Saturday. This year, we opened on Friday night when six of us went to the local seafood restaurant, Pelican Pete’s, and porked out big time. We then returned for some late night gaming.

At Babycon we always try to learn a couple of new games. This year, both Euphrates & Tigris and Air Baron were big hits. Also, please see the results of our Formula Dé championship and Team Robo-Rally.



One thing we did differently this year was to offer a few prizes to the winners of individual games. After a group had set up to play a game, we randomly determined whether or not that game would be for a prize. We also had a grand prize for the Formula Dé champ. The prizes and their winners were:

• Pass the Pigs - Bob
• Wizard - Eric
• Kill Dr. Lucky - Paul
• Give Me the Brain - Eric
• Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond - Erik
• Alibi - Bob (ceded to second place finisher, Eric)
  

See more photos of Babycon V here.