Gathering Report - Day 10 & 11

The last day of the Gathering started out with Noreen and I driving 4.5 hours round trip to get the kids, hoping we would be back in time for the Can't Stop Tournament, which I was the GM for.

In fact, we had plenty of time, and I got back to the hotel in time to play Alchemist with Kevin & Rhonda Bender and Bobby Warren. It was an interesting set collection game, but I am unsure how much control there was there, and how much was illusory. Bobby spanked us, winning 69 to my 58, to Rhonda's 56, to Kevin's 52. I liked it well enough, and if I get a chance to play it again and I feel more in control, then I will pick it up, but I won't buy it without another play first...

I then ran the Can't Stop tournament, which had 60 players. We had 8 boards, so there were a few who had to wait, but the games were not too bad, and everyone seemed to have fun. At one table, a player locked the 6 & 7 on her first turn, but then could not get any advancement for the next 20 minutes, she just kept crapping out by rolling 3-3-4-4 or some other roll that did not help her.

Noreen lost in the first round, and the eventual winner was Jeff Goldsmith, who ran the Duplicate Tichu tournament. I can't wait to see his choice next year.

After the tournament, I played a game of Yspahan with Jay Bloodworth, Noreen, and Rhonda Bender. I gave everyone a quick rules refresher, but I must have been asleep, as they all reminded me of stuff during the game that i forgot to mention. Sigh. Still, it worked out well for me as the scores were Dave 100, Jay 77, Noreen 74, Rhonda 70. That caravan can be a killer....

Next up was dinner. Sundays at the Gathering are capped by dinner on Alan at the Hunan House, a very nice Chinese place with excellent food. This year, 90 people attended. We sat at a table with Bob Downing, Jim MacDanold, Craig Feldmann, and Kevin and Rhonda Bender. Dinner was excellent as always, and we had a great time, reminiscing, planning, and talking.

After dinner, we met back at the hotel for a few final games. Kevin and I joined Sterling Babcock, Marcia Babcock, and James Davis (who has more than 12,000 games in his collection!) in a game of Colosseum, the new release due soon from Days of Wonder. I liked the game a lot. It is basically a game of set collection, but it has trading, auctions, and takes a great deal of planning. It feels a lot like a more interactive version of Princes of Florence. I held back until the final round, and then used a double-build tile I had collected earlier to acquire a new work card, and get a 5-point bonus "season-ticket" tile. I then acquired one of the three musicians I needed, and used a wild-tile to count as the second of those three, and put on my show one musician short, for 40 base points. I had two four-point bonuses from my Orators and Priests, I had three 5-point bonuses from my previous shows, I had two of the 5-point Season Ticket bonuses, and I got lucky on my dice rolls and was able to get the Emperor, a Senator, and a Citizen all to attend my show (15 total bonus points), and finally, I turned in two medallions for 6 more bonus points, netting 94 points, 25 points ahead of Marcia, who had 69, Kevin was third with 56, Jamed fourth with 52, and Sterling, who taught the game, had a terrible set of tile choices in the last 2 rounds, and ended the game with 40.

I went to bed after that. How could I have improved on that?

Today we got up at 10, got packed, and left the hotel by 11:30, and arrived home at 6:00pm. We are all exhausted, happy, and well. We can't wait to see you guys Friday.