Ludus

Enlightenment XI

March 28–30, 2008, Days Hotel, Timonium, MD

Age of Renaissance and Manifest Destiny

The Boardgame Players' Association is pleased to announce the 11th annual meeting of its Age of Renaissance mini-con gaming conference. Coming off its smallest attendance ever in 2007, Enlightenment will go to a new format in its effort to draw a minimum of 25 players or host its farewell performance in 2008. Manifest Destiny will join the program as two four-round events are held in three full days of gaming. Only one of the eight rounds will conflict on Friday evening—giving players a choice as to which event they want to play the extra round. Note that it will be possible, but more difficult, to win both events since each tournament allows players to drop one of four scores.
Manifest Destiny play will begin promptly at 9 AM Friday with rounds at 2 and 7 PM later in the day. The fourth and final round will be Saturday at 2:30 PM.

The Age of Renaissance action begins Friday night at 7 PM and continues with two more rounds on Saturday at 9 AM and 6:30 PM. A fourth round will be played Sunday morning. The winner for the weekend will be that player with the highest total for any three of the four rounds.

Only the Friday 7 PM slot conflicts and forces players to make a choice which of the two events they'll play for all four rounds.

Enlightenment uses a unique scoring system that keeps most players in contention for a prize throughout the weekend rather than being eliminated by a poor showing or relegated to the "losers' table". Every player scores points as a percentage of the winner's score. This provides a real incentive to play against the leader to prevent run-away victories. In subsequent rounds, players are grouped according to their finish in the previous game ... with all Round 1 winners paired in Round 2, all second-place players together, and so on. The winners compete with each other—earning a bonus point for each other table's winner in that round they best by posting a wider margin of victory. Slow play is discouraged by penalizing all scores in games that take more than five hours. This scoring mechanism has resulted in nearly all Renaissance games finishing in under five hours, with some ending in less than four.

Tonight we played Gloom with both expansions, TransEuropa, and Dead Money.

• Craig won Gloom, beating John, Jim, Justin, and Dana.
• Tony, Ty, and Sallie played TransEuropa.
• John won Dead Money, beating Dave, Jim, and Craig.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Rachel and Jim "Blaise" Trigg, Sallie, Dave and Tony Montuori, Dana Leader, Justin Clapp, Ty Umeno, and John McMahon.

We spontaneously decided to have friends over for dinner (french bread, beef and noodles, turkey and noodles, chocolate cake) and ended up playing Power Grid:

• Germany: Dave kicked ass on Craig, John, Tony and Dana.
• Italy: Craig narrowly beat John.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Sallie, Dave and Tony Montuori, Dana Leader, and John McMahon.

Tonight we played Coloretto:

• Craig won at 97, followed by Carrie at 93, Dana at 90, Tony at 85, and Sallie at 83 -- a pretty close game.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Sallie, Dave and Tony Montuori, and Dana Leader.

Tonight we played Ticket To Ride: Switzerland and Ticket To Ride: Europe.

• Fuzz beat the pants off of Craig and Sallie at Ticket To Ride: Switzerland.
• Dave easily creamed Fuzz, Sallie and Craig at Ticket To Ride: Europe.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Sallie and Dave Montuori, and John McMahon.

Tonight we played Zombie Fluxx, Fluxx, and TransAmerica.

• The Zombies won Zombie Fluxx.
• Dave won Fluxx.
• John and Craig tied in TransAmerica, followed by Sallie; Dave plunged into Puget Sound.
• Dana showed everyone her new blue rose.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Sallie, Dave and Tony Montuori, Dana Leader, and John McMahon.

Tonight we played Cities and Knights of Catan.

• Sallie won, followed by Craig, John, and Dave.  We used the Catan Event Cards instead of rolling dice, and were pleased -- the cards even out the strings of bad dice rolls that have plagued previous games.  We ignored the events themselves -- the simulated dice rolls are all the randomness we need.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Sallie and Dave Montuori, and John McMahon.

Some updates on EuroQuest V:

• I am definitely going to be refereeing the Power Grid tournament, with Kathy Stroh assisting.
• The schedule is now online; Power Grid will have one heat Friday evening, two more heats Saturday, with the semi-finals Saturday evening and the finals Sunday morning.
• The hot, new, full tournament game is Imperial.
• The current games for the Wild Card tournament are: Age of Empires III, Alhambra, Blue Moon City, Can't Stop, Carcassonne, Leonardo da Vinci, Lost Cities, Louis XIV, Notre Dame, Pillars of the Earth, San Juan, Traumfabrik/Hollywood Blockbuster, Vegas Showdown, Yspahan, the best new game from Essen 2007, and one more to be named November 1st.
• The Days Hotel room block is almost full; the convention rate of $79/night is significantly better than local rates, so book your room fast!
• Pre-registration will end on November 1st, so save yourself $10 and pre-register.

So if you're not doing anything for Veteran's Day weekend, come to Timonium and play games!

Tonight we played On The Underground and Ticket To Ride: USA 1910.

• John won On The Underground, followed by Dave, Craig, Sallie and Tony.
• John won Ticket To Ride: USA 1910 followed by Craig, Dave, and Sallie.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Sallie, Dave and Tony Montuori, Dana Leader, and John McMahon.

Tonight we played TransAmerica and Betrayal at House on the Hill.

• John won TransAmerica, with pretty much everyone else getting wet.
• Dave betrayed everyone in Betrayal at House on the Hill; John died, but Craig, Tony, Dana, and Blaise survived to be betrayed another day.  We were all betrayed by discrepancies in the original rules, but the revised rule books worked OK.  Craig found the Underground Lake while looking for the attic.  Again.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Rachel and Jim “Blaise” Trigg, Dave and Tony Montuori, Dana Leader, and John McMahon.

Tonight we played Cities and Knights of Catan and Fluxx:

• Cities and Knights of Catan was nasty, brutish, and (not) short. The first wave of barbarians wiped out one city; the second wave took down three more. After a mind-numbing streak of black seven rolls for everyone, Craig finally won out over Dana, Sallie, and Dave.
• Dave, Carrie, Sallie, and Carrie (again) won Fluxx; Craig also played.

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Dave, Sallie, and Tony Montuori, Dana Leader, and John McMahon.

Tonight we had two tables going, so we played a lot of games:

• Domaine -- Blaise beat Dana, Craig, and Tony.
• On the Underground -- Sallie (first time) beat Fuzz, Dave, and Rachel.
• Cineplexity -- Everyone played in one of several games, and much fun was had.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Rachel and Jim “Blaise” Trigg, Sallie, Dave and Tony Montuori, Dana Leader, and John McMahon.

The Boardgame Players Association and Games Club of Maryland

proudly present

EURO QUEST V

A European-Style Gaming Conference featuring a new Veteran's Day Friday - Monday format November, 9 - 12, 2007 Days Hotel 9615 Deereco Road Timonium, Maryland 21090

What?

Euro Quest is a unique blend of tournaments and open gaming.

Why?

Euro Quest will provide a competitive forum for the play of popular "European" style boardgames in a focused, in-depth format not available elsewhere. All tournaments will be run to provide multiple opportunities to compete in the same game with a minimum of three preliminary heats preceding the elimination rounds.

Tournaments

Tournaments included: Caylus, Goa, Power Grid, Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico, Ra, St. Petersburg, Settlers of Catan Combo, Ticket to Ride Combo, Thurn und Taxis, and Imperial. A Wild Card event that will include 14 games. The first eight titles included are: Alhambra, Can't Stop, Carcassonne, Lost Cities, Louis XIV, San Juan, Traumfabrik / Hollywood Blockbuster, and Vegas Showdown. Six more titles will be selected in September. The last Wild Card title, the Hot new Essen game, will be selected on Nov. 1. BPA plaques will be awarded for each event, best team and best overall individual performance - providing plenty of laurel opportunities for those who want to improve their standings in BPA's annual Caesar competition.

Open Gaming

Dedicated open gaming space will be provided in the main gaming hall during the entire duration of the convention.

Tonight we played two 3-player games of Ticket to Ride: USA 1910.

• For the first game, we used the Big Cities variant; Sallie won, Craig placed, and Dave got brutalized.
• For the second game, we used the 1910 variant; Dave won, Sallie took second, and Craig was last.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, and Sallie and Dave Montuori.

Tonight we played On the Underground and Cineplexity.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Rachel and Jim “Blaise” Trigg, Sallie, Dave and Tony Montuori, Dana Leader, Frank "Grayhawk" Huminski, and John McMahon.

Tonight we played a 5-player game of Ticket to Ride: USA 1910, using the Big Cities variant, and Cineplexity.

• Ticket To Ride got brutal because everyone was getting in everyone else's way. Craig won by making all 4 of his routes, followed by Sallie, Blaise, John, and Tony.
• Cineplexity was more relaxing; Craig, the film geek, won both games. One suggestion from a BGG review is that instead of passing the directorship clockwise, it should go to whoever just won a card -- this might balance out the film geek factor. Something to try next week?

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Rachel and Jim “Blaise” Trigg, Sallie and Tony Montuori, and John McMahon.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across a mention of the World Boardgaming Championships, to be held in Lancaster, PA, during the first week of August. After a little investigation, I decided to go and see if it was interesting. Overall, I found it quite enjoyable, and will probably return next year. Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight we played Attika and Puerto Rico.

• Blaise beat Craig 2 games to 1 at Attika.
• Dana won her first-ever game of Puerto Rico, with Craig, Tony, and John also playing.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Jim “Blaise” Trigg, Sallie, Dave and Tony Montuori, Dana Leader, and John McMahon.

Tonight we played Vegas Showdown.

• Dave won, with Tony close behind, and Craig trailing.

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, and Tony and Dave Montuori.