Gamicon Lite, Sunday, July 16th, 2006, Critical Hit Games, Coralville

The Gamicon organizers got together and decided to run a pre-con gathering. I suppose this was for organizers and GMs to socialize, and to be a bit of a pre-registration drive. It was certainly a successful day of gaming that raised the profile of the con a little. I'm not sure if anyone actually pre-registered.

They had a nice slate of events, and I was happy to have the Sunday off to do some gaming. The first slot, at noon, provided me with a bit of a choice: Nexus Ops or Union Pacific? Nexus Ops I own and like, but don't get to play enough. On the other hand, I had only played UP once, and really liked it, and don't have many chances to play. So.... UP it is! Actually, after I arrived, it turned out it didn't really matter, as the Nexus Ops GM didn't show up and the game never happened.

Union Pacific
UP ended up being Chris S. (GM), Erin, Gare, Adam, and myself. Gare went first. I was fourth. UP is primarily a stock game, with a rail theme. Sort of like Acquire is a stock game with an hotel (or big corporation) theme. You strengthen train lines while acquiring stock in them, but there's generally a threat that someone could get more stock than you, ruining all your work, or that, if you don't lengthen a train system, you could get blocked off. A nice game with action choices every turn, with good player interaction on multiple levels.

To get into a little more detail, you have a map of the U.S., with several different kinds of track and, I think, eight different train lines. On your turn, you can lay track, expanding a train line, and acquire stock from the shares available -or- you can play stock from your hand (either two of any type, or any number of one type). There are four scoring rounds shuffled into the stock deck. Each scoring round, you get points (money) for each train (track extension) in a line that you have the most stock in, or half for second place. After the fourth scoring round, the game is over. I like limited action games, as they really put pressure on. Random scoring rounds tighten the game up even more, as you are forced to weigh your chances of expanding and getting stock you want, or needing to play stock to the table (you only score the stock on the table). There's also a chance, at the end of each turn, to trade any one stock from your hand for a Union Pacific stock, which is not tied to a train on the table and has a set (high) value in each scoring round except the first.

The opening of the game saw people growing routes for which they clearly had stock in their hands, and pushing the acquisition of UP stock. In each of the turns, as the roudn started I was really thinking about giving up on UP, but then someone ahead of me would do it, creating a loophole of opportunity to leapfrog them in the UP race. This turned out to be mostly Gare and Adam, who, it turned out, were going to compete over the largest (green) train system. With the cards I had, I decided to push the second largest, or red, system. The first scoring round came without most of us having much on the table, but I managed to earn four dollars, several less than the leader's (Adam's) nine (iirc). The round came quick enough that most people hadn't had a chance to lay much and, though most of us were clearly investing in a couple of lines, there was a lot of room to move.

With Adam and Gare both laying down multiple stocks in green, and picking up everything they could, nobody else wanted to fight with them. Erin started to get into red a little bit, pushing me to take some extra stock. She and Chris diversified trying to pick up 1st and 2nd places on numerous small lines. Chris is especially adept at this. I tried to get into the black train that Gare was really working on, but so did Chris, and they were always one train ahead of letting it be worthwhile for me to lay the stock in my hand. Instead, I got lucky and got to get in on the grey line that Erin, and Gare to a lesser extent, ended up maxing out. There are only six stocks in this line, and there were only two on the table, so the two I managed to snag were, in some ways, lucky, and in other ways a vulnerability of investment in that line - the turn I took control, I was able to make $8 (a decent amount) for a line I'd laid no track for. I'm getting ahead of myself, though, as none of this happened before the second scoring round. In the second round, I think Adam and Gare split green, and Erin took the lead, with, I think, myself in second with my growing red line.

After the second round, I noticed that Gare and Adam, who were working on green, were also working on, respectively, black and white, two lines that work up against green and can limit it expansion. They sort of stopped paying attention, I think, to their growth options (probably because there are so many for green), and I was able to sneak in and basically cut them off. From here, Erin and I fought over red and gray a little. Honestly, the timing of the third scoring round, and Gare taking some red stock, were probably the main things that allowed me to win the game. I took the lead in round three, with control of gray.

After the third round, Erin and I started adding to train lines that we didn't share, trying to make money that the other couldn't get a part of. She also grabbed another gray stock, to tie me for first. With even money in a lot of areas, and me only holding on to a $2 lead, it was a tense finale. Thankfully, the scoring round came with me still holding the lead in the red line. I've forgotten to mention that Erin and I spent the whole game tied for first in UP, which ended up being a significant factor in the two of us jumping out front of everyone, and basically fighting for first. In the end, I held onto my $2 lead, and won by that slim margin.

Chris had purchased the brand-new Goa reprint, and was very excited to play. I would really have liked to have gotten in on the game, but felt I should wait for the Game of Thrones draft. I've spent a lot of time with the AGOT community, and figured this might be my last time to play with them. Unfortunately, only three of them showed up...

A Game of Thrones CCG
So, we had a four person booster draft with Jeremiah, Sarah, Chad, and myself. I first picked Forever Burning, and second picked Dothraki Sea. This put me pretty firmly in Targ. Unfortunately, it wasn't really followed up with any strong characters. Oddly, there weren't a lot of neutrals either. I wandered into Martell, and ended the 1st pack with a pretty sorry looking set of cards. In pack two, I moved further into Martell with Student of Subtlety. I picked up a multi-influence producer in Doran's Palanquin. Unfortunately, I never got the big Targ removal I was hoping for. I grabbed some big armies as the packs went around, including two of the Martell army that draws when it strength is raised or lowered, which would turn into a machine with Dothraki Sea and/or Forever Burning. When the packs were all done, though, I was pretty character-lite, and ended up putting in a couple of attachments and locations I wouldn't normally play with.

First game vs. Chad - He was playing the same houses as me, and had gotten better cards, as simple as that. He played Red Viper on turn one, and the game was pretty downhill from there. I played my copy of The Wall, and Cotter Pyke, hoping to set up to kill the Viper. I held off a turn, as I could Student away his one military icon, lose noone, draw two cards off the Martell army that draws with a NW in play, and then kill the Viper next turn (as opposed to losing a good character to a military icon, killing the viper right away, and not drawing two cards). Of course, he drew removal for Cotter next turn, and the game was all downhill from there, and he locked it up with the attachment that gets him a power every time he loses.

Second game vs. Sarah - Sarah had a slow start, my deck came out, and it was a slow, steady battle to victory for my men.

Third game vs. Jeremiah - I suffered a deadly combo of drawing no reducers and having a bunch of five cost armies in my hand. He drew plenty of reducers, and wasn't thin on characters. I had one turn to maybe get back in when I Wildfire Assaulted, but he just drew two dudes off the top, and I could still only play one man. Oh well. Third place out of four, and a Robert's Deathbed for my troubles. Since I probably wouldn't be running any more tournaments myself, I gave away a bunch of the extra promo cards I had left over, and then gave the rest to Jerod.

Memoir '44
Nobody wanted to play constructed at six (the tournament I had scheduled), so I talked to Drew about playing Memoir '44. He very kindly taught me the rules, and we were off to battle in France. I had played Commands & Colors: Ancients with Kurt, and this was pretty similar. I have to say, I like CCA better. The wider unit variety is a big plus. There's something about just having one type of generic vehicle and infantry that left a little bit wanting for me.

On the other hand, this was a fun game. I like the card system these games use, as it seems to simulate the limited options available to the combat commander during the course of battle. It seemed to me that when I played CCA, the cards were a little more limited, with each of us generally moving only 2-4 units per turn. In this game, Drew really got to press me hard with multiple Assault cards, which allowed him to move all the units in an area. In the early game, I drew mostly Probe cards, that allowed me to move 2, or sometimes 3, units in one area. Even with that advantage, though, we were fairly even, with each of us managing two trophies. I drew a card that let me attack with four armor units, with each of them getting an extra die in close assault. I managed to get three more trophies, and would have gotten the fourth, and the win, except I rolled two flags on my last attack, pushing the one remaining piece in his unit back two spaces, where I couldn't follow up. I was still in fairly good shape, though. On his turn, Drew countered with, I think, another Assault card, and was able to make several attacks. He was pretty successful, and took three trophies with two units left to attack to take the fourth. His tanks failed to eliminate my unit, and it came down to his last infantry. They had a shot with three dice at one of my infantry units with three pieces in it. Drew took a shot, and the dice came up three hits, giving him the win! This was a nice, exciting conclusion to the game. Honestly, I was happy just to be in it after the very slow start, and to be so close to winning on two turns was very nice.

Out of pure luck, Nate, whom I used to coach wrestling with, was in town from Maryland and happened to wander into the store. We ran down to the Vine for some food, and stayed up way too late talking. Overall, a great day of gaming and fellowship.

GG, GL