We usually start a little later on the first day so we can do some breakfast. I was worried OPH (the Original Pancake House) in Edina might be too crowded now that we’ve moved from Plymouth to Bloomington for the Con. The OPH on the way to the Crowne Plaza was always pretty hit or miss and Aeryn and I ended up at the counter most years and even congratulated Ming on missing breakfast last year because it would have been tight. But once we got there it was obvious we were post morning rush on a workday. Or people don’t have as much money. Regardless, I was glad I filled up on a big breakfast as my next real meal wasn’t until dinner. That happens at the Con more than you’d suspect. Although the longer games I had tended to get out early in a few cases creating a break where I hadn’t planned one for eating.
Our games hadn’t started yet by the time we got there, so we spent some time reading and hanging out. One of the attendees, Randy, stopped to ask me about my book (reading Joe Hill’s King Sorrow. I didn’t realize it’s his first since 2016’s The Fireman. I really enjoyed that book) and turned out to be an expert in Hive. As in he wrote and published a strategy book for Hive. I’ve been playing Hive with Sank at North 20 Brewing in Rosemount lately, so it was amusing to bump into someone trying to sell me on it as a great game. Given he was alone at his table a few times, I’m one of the few people who doesn’t need convincing. I was full up on my dance card, so even though Hive is short I didn’t get a chance to play with him during the Con. Sank will probably appreciate my inability to add some new master-level tricks to my repertoire.
My first game was Puerto Rico, an oldie in the history of board games. And number 54 on the overall Boardgamearena list. You can tell it’s from an earlier era of gaming because it has some questionable nomenclature. e.g. that’s almost always slaves, master, etc, and not in the fantasy sense. Our coordinator chose to call them citizens instead. I play it so infrequently that it’s almost like learning it all over again each time, but I remembered enough this time to have a strategy. It helps that it runs a little long (1.5-2 hours) for what it is, in my opinion, so there’s some built in time to think through what you intend to do without delaying the overall play. I focused on generating money from everyone else’s trade events via a variety of trading products rather than a commodity focus, which meant by the end of the game I was swimming in enough cash to pick up the larger point-scoring buildings and a healthy win. I noticed at home that I haven’t pulled San Juan off the shelf in forever. That used to be a favorite around our house and is Puerto Rico but with cards where the cards can be swapped as resources and money, so there’s a bit of use it for multiple purposes at the expense of another purpose tactic. I opened the San Juan box and saw the scorecards included playing with Kyle and Adam in Wisconsin when we were drinking and failing to bike because of a tornado, with Aeryn at various Cons including our first Gameholecon in Madison, and quite a few other surprising historical plays. I can see why people track their games on Board Game Geek. It’s nice to see that history and remember the context. Although I never look at my old BGG history given my anti-onemoreplacetorecord old man vibe, and I do look at the score cards I keep with the physical games because they’re right there the next time you play one, as long as you don’t trade it away.
Next up was Marrying Mr. Darcy with the Emma and Undead expansions. Erika Svanoe, the designer, used to show up at Gameholecon. She’s a local composer/conductor, so if you go to some woodwind events locally, you might see her doing her “real” job. She’s actually a bit of a polymath if you read her bio, and her husband has done the art for her game and for Distilled which I played with some UK friends on Board Game Arena. Marrying Mr. Darcy is another game I personally own (kickstarted...a Jane Austen theme is likely to catch my attention) and have played before. It’s fairly straight forward. You’re collecting and playing cards that boost your Pride and Prejudice character’s stats so that they eventually attract the best suitor/husband. Each character has a different suitor/husband priority list vaguely in line with the book. The Emma expansion adds some more book-centric thematic cards. And the undead expansion (keyed off the book/movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) throws a wrench in it by turning some characters into zombies, some suitors into zombies, and adding some ways to unzombify victims. My understanding is yes, you can marry a zombie or marry as a zombie. I don’t play that expansion much. I won, although it wasn’t because of some suitor/marriage. I became Harriet Smith, a very reputable governess, which let me double certain stats for scoring purposes. I won’t let some man determine my innate worth. If I remember right, last time I played I won as an “old maid”, so I definitely have a theme when I play the game.
Finally...Friday finally, not overall con finally, I played Age of Civilization the card game. This was one of the few sub 3-4 hours games I played at only an hour. It was also my least favorite. Klund had me play something similar at his house once that I much preferred...ah, Innovation. I definitely liked the mechanics of that one better. Age of Civilization has a good mechanic for deciding how to play your three civilizations as conquered or conquerors of your own prior civs to balance your perks as the timeline advances and changes what you can take advantage of. It would be a particularly good bar/coffee shop/travel game given the size and quick play, something I’m often watching for in a game (example, Arboretum, Love Letter, The Crew, San Juan). However, I think it lends itself to a little bit of civ / card memorization potential given the limited card set that would affect replayability, particularly if it’s an experienced player against a n00b.
Whew. Friday was the short day.
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