Gathering Report - Day 6

I started my day playing Deduce... Or Die! with Michael Weston, Larry Levy, and Ted Alspach. This is a really hard deduction game, and Ted and i were just learning, so we got spanked, hard, by Michael. Larry Levy is the designer of the game, but he wrote one of my answers down as an answer from Ted, and thus ended up sidetracked.

We then played an interesting poker-type game prototype called Rapscallion (not about a hip-hop green onion) that has a card drafting mechanism. Played with Jay Greer, Michael and Ted. Michael won this one as well, Jay and I tied at 60, and Ted had 45 points.

After dinner, Rob Smolka wanted to learn Sticheln, so Micheal and I taught him that while waiting for the Tichu Tournament. Michael won again, 70 points to my 54 and Rob's 28.

It was time for the Tichu Tournament. Eric Martin and I played Corbin Nash and Bryan Bowe in the first heat, winning 1020 to 980. The game was a blowout at first, with us up 830 to 370, but a 1-2/Tichu followed by another 1-2 brought things much closer. We reached 920 points but it took us three more hands to get to 1000. In the next round we faced William Attia (designer of Caylus) and John Garnett. They both played very well (they are in the finals today), and despite
some valiant efforts on our part, they won, 1160 to 640.

Noreen arrived on the Hotel shuttle, back from Washington while I was playing Tichu. You didn't think I was going to stop playing to go get her, did you?

Ended the night playing Thurn & Taxis - Power & Glory, the new expansion that I bought from Jay/Rio Grande. Bobby Warren placed first with 19 points, Noreen was second with 18, Satish Pillalamarri was third with 13, and I was fourth with 12. I really like the expansion as it gives you some options for hiding cards opponents may need, and for taking cards you don't really want while not screwing yourself over completely.

After sitting around and gabbing with friends for a while, we headed off to bed.