Another year, another Gathering. The Gathering of Friends, a small invitation-only game convention organized by game designer and FX Schmid muckety-muck Alan Moon, is an essential event on the calendars of most people who have attended. It's not just that the Gathering offers a rare chance to play dozens of European games unknown to most Americans, or that the caliber of gameplay is so high. What brings people back year after year is the welcoming atmosphere and friendly people. I spend almost as much time schmoozing with friends—many of whom I met at past Gatherings and see only once a year—as I do playing games. The two activities are often concurrent, making the Gathering a uniquely enjoyable week-long slumber party of gaming.
The Gathering proper runs from Wednesday morning to Sunday afternoon. This year I opted to risk burnout and attend Opening Days from Saturday to Tuesday as well. That turned out to be a mixed blessing. It was wonderful to have three and a half days of open gaming without any tournaments or schedules to get in the way. I got the chance to play a lot of new games from this year's Nuremburg show which might have been hard to squeeze in during the Gathering proper. But I did turn into a zombie sooner than usual and had to turn in early Thursday night and sleep in on Friday to reenergize.
I managed to win three tournaments this year, making me the poster boy for How to Win Friends and Influence People. My first win was in the first tournament of the Gathering, Bohnanza. I won my first game by a point and barely squeaked into the finals thanks to the tiebreaker rules. For the curious, I didn't buy a third field in any of my games. I would have, but never had the opportunity early enough to make it pay.
My second win came later that day in Mü, which must surely be the best card game on the planet. It's also a very difficult game for new players to play well, which is why I don't get to play it much—folks in my group still don't feel like they understand what makes a good hand and how to bid it. That wasn't a problem at the Gathering, where the two-round tournament was intense and hard-fought. Even had I lost, it would have been an immensely satisfying experience. I own three Mü sets, two of which are still in the shrink. My first deck is starting to get worn, and when I decide I need a new deck I don't want to find the game has gone out of print.
My last win came when I successfully defended my Santa Fe title. I prefer Santa Fe to Wildlife Adventure, as poor cards in the former can be overcome by skillful play for bonuses. As usual in tournament play, the Pacific Northwest remained isolated from the rail network (except for one solitary spur to Portland in the first game) while the southwest, despite resistance, managed to pull in a line or two.
Perhaps the most unique tournament was for Take it Easy. Immediately before the prize awards, Alan distributed a bunch of Take it Easy sets around the room (the American edition, which accommodates up to eight players). Everyone played in one massive game with Alan calling out the tiles. The winner from each table took home the game.
Speaking of the prizes, this year's table held prizes of impressively high quality. Every attendee must bring something for the table, and many people clear out their basements and drop an armload into the hopper. Multiple copies of Euphrat & Tigris, Elfenland, Medici, Mississippi Queen, Lowenherz, Entdecker, Dune, Dallas, Caesar & Cleopatra, and others were on offer. DTM Nurburgring and a shrinkwrapped Really Nasty Horse Racing Game got snapped up early. Sadly(?), I already owned all the best stuff on the table! I walked off with a new wooden Cathedral set, Campanile, Groo, and Perudo (you can never have too many colored dice). There was really very little garbage on the table this year, with good selections remaining well into the third round.
Quite a few game designers attended this year's event. Many of them (Alan Moon, Richard Borg, Aaron Weissblum, etc.) took advantage of an eager audience and playtested some of their prototypes. Easily the hit of the show was one of Aaron's prototypes, a head-to-head game of manual dexterity which could have sold a dozen copies on the spot had they been available.
Aaron was also the mastermind behind this year's treasure hunt. Always a popular event, this year's hunt was absolutely the highlight of the Gathering. Approximately sixty people in teams of six competed in a three hour puzzle fest which sent them scrambling all over the hotel grounds. Clever electronic gizmos, inks visible only under ultraviolet light, mysterious recordings, and perplexing props kept everybody intrigued throughout. I know that everyone on our team was constantly involved, with nobody ever feeling useless or frustrated.
One clue was written on a disc hidden on the bottom of the swimming pool. I took the hit for my team and jumped in for it, but another team was more reluctant to get wet. They found a pair of binoculars and trained them on the clue from the pool's edge, only to discover that the writing they could see directed them to read the clue on the other side of the disc.
Teams who got stuck could play 'Elfentroll" for hint coupons. Similar to the toadstool game featured at many carnivals, players tried to flip a troll figure into a basket on a platform.
I think the most appreciated puzzle involved the pen each team was given at the start of the hunt. We were instructed that only answers written with this green, disposable Bic pen would count, and that only players holding the pen would be eligible to play the bonus game for hint points. So this pen was in use throughout the hunt. Eventually answers from a string of puzzles joined together to form a message: DISASSEMBLE OFFICIAL PEN. Slackjawed, we opened up the pen to find a clue wrapped around the ink tube.
I agreed to run the hunt for next year, and I've got quite an act to follow.
One of the best things about the Gathering is the opportunity to play new games— games which have just been released, or which you've never had the chance to play before. Here's a quick run-down of some of what I played:
Blindes Huhn (Blind Chicken): A trick-taking game in which you try to avoid taking the cards with chickens on them. At the start of each hand players order their hand as the wish, but may thereafter play only one of the two end cards (so players work their way from their end cards to the middle of their hand). While not awful, there was nothing to recommend Blindes Huhn over similar card games.
Basari: Stealing a page from Adel Verpflichtet's book, this game has players choosing from three possible actions each turn. Solo choices get carried out, tripled or quadrupled choices don't, and doubled choices lead to a bidding war. Players offer up gems to each other until one player accepts the other's offer. The loser takes the gems while the winner performs the contested action. Bonuses are awarded each round for the players with the most gems in each of the four colors, and high score after three rounds wins. Concern was raised about a possible kingmaker problem, but I think that's actually at the core of the game's mechanic and so players must take that into account in their planning. Thumbs up from me, and hopefully a full review to follow.
Blindside: An Oh Hell variant with a special deck with duplicated cards. The catch here is that unlike most such games, the last identical high card takes the trick. Interesting twist if you're looking for another Oh Hell variant. From Hangman Games (410) 730-9437.
Cheops: Dreadfully deterministic game from Hans im Gluck. Players pluck treasures from a pyramid, choosing to sell them immediately or hold onto them for potentially better profit later. The problem is that all too quickly a player's choices are reduced to nil, making for a rather mechanical game. Perhaps it's better with fewer players, but Cheops was almost universally panned. The only game to fare worse was...
Durch die Wüste: Knizia's newest gamer's game after Euphrat & Tigris. Full review elsewhere this issue.
Edison & Co.: A game with such beautiful pieces that you really want to like the game. But just a couple of turns in the game falls apart and you start praying for an early end. Three of four players choose a direction, distance, and pair of vehicles, while the fourth decides which of the two vehicles moves that direction and distance. Each player has a hidden scoring agenda favoring some cars over others, but scoring happens so infrequently that nothing you do seems to matter. Having only 25% influence over what happens each turn further dilutes any feeling of control. Rules fixes were being batted around like fly balls, but I haven't heard of any home runs.
Freibeuter: A nice game with abstract play but enough of a theme that my automatic defense systems didn't engage evasive maneuvers. I heard some people compare this to Acquire, but the only similarity is that each player's play on a grid is limited by their hand of cards with grid coordinates on them. On each turn you can board an empty cargo ship of your choice (on the grid vertices) or play a card to drop a pirate ship into a grid space. When all four grid spaces surrounding a cargo ship are occupied, the ship gets taken by whoever boarded it. It'll be worth money at the end of the game, but the pirate has to immediately pay a share of the booty to every other pirate ship which helped capture it. It's a family-friendly game with enough scope for strategic play to make it a keeper for me. Watch for a review next time.
Grusel Wusel: Maybe it was too late at night. Maybe I was punchy. Or maybe I just stink at it. This frenetic game of pattern matching left me cold. A bunch of dice get rolled in the middle of the table. Each die shows a jack o' lantern with varying facial characteristics. Players try to grab dice which exactly match the pumpkins showing on the cards in front of them, passing a matched set to a neighbor. When someone runs out of cards the round ends and you score for each card you passed on. One for the kiddies, perhaps?
Ido: Attractive German abstract game with an innovative twist. Each player tries to get a number of his pieces across an irregular grid. Tall pieces can only move into 2x1 spaces, while short pieces can only use 1x1s. The more pieces you have in play, the more spaces you can move. But instead of moving at all, you can opt to shift the plastic framework. This frame sits on top of the board, altering the dimensions of the board's spaces. Moving it not only changes how big each space is, but it can carry pieces along with it. Slick and attractive, Ido's Mondrian-like appearance makes it an ideal candidate for museum shops. And it's even a decent game.
Iron Horse: This is the game we all wanted Linie 1/Streetcar to be. No fiddly racing here— just play tiles with wickedly twisted railroad track onto the board to make the longest possible routes for your own trains, while screwing up the routes of opponents. Each copy is hand-made by db Spiele, which isn't to say they're shoddy or cheaply done. In fact, they look surprisingly professional for such a small outfit. But they are rather hard to come by. If you like this sort of game, this is one of the best examples of the genre I can think of.
Just in Time: The other card game from Hangman, this one's strictly for the family— especially one with kids. There's very little decision-making involved here. The deck runs from 1-7 with some jokers, with the distribution heavy on the low end and light at the top. See something you like in the discard pile? Drop a bunch of 1s and draw the same number of discards. The goal is to meld triplets from your hand— the higher their face value, the better your score.
Kraut & Ruben: Quite possibly the worst game I played at the Gathering— at least, with the rules we used. Rules were translated on the fly, so it's entirely possible we got some wrong (it certainly happened with some other games). If not, though, this gardening game is one to avoid. Each player gets a secret scorecard showing which veggies they like. Players draw a tile and play it to any of the many gardens on the board. Eventually players claim one of those gardens as their own. When they're all full, players score points for their good veggies and lose points for weeds and other pests. A dull game with insufficient information to make intelligent choices. If I learn we got it wrong, I'll let you know.
Scrabble Up: A head-to-head anagramming game using Scrabble tiles and a simple marble timer. Fast and light, this came out on the last day of the Gathering and worked well as a king-of-the-hill competition. I'm not sure how much play it will get at home, but if you're getting a bunch of wordsmiths together it's a good diversion.
Spekulation: Another one from db Spiele, but this time we're in the stock market. Sort of. Players have a pack of cards corresponding to various stocks. Each turn a die is rolled and everyone plays one of their cards, increasing the stock's value by the value of the die— unless anyone played a spoiler card, which stops all stocks from increasing. Each card must be used before any can be reused, and players only have a couple to choose from at any one time. There are ways for stocks to decline in value as well. You want to buy low and sell high, but there isn't enough of each stock to go around. As each round advances, stocks with unplayed cards tend to get bought in anticipation of their increase while played-out stocks get sold. Definitely chaotic, but entertaining.