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Hey Everyone. Well, My family and I had an interesting and nice weekend of gaming at Tennessee Games Day 2010.

What was it that made it so interesting. Well, let’s see.

Tennessee Game Days were held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville Tennessee. This is an amazing hotel, beautiful, and TGD was able to secure an unbelievable room rate for the convention. Those that booked early enough got a wonderful rate of about $79 a night, plus a resort fee, etc. They ended up being about $110 a night after all was said and done. However, this hotel had amazing amount of value for that amount of money.

It happens to be the largest hotel in America, (That is not a casino). TGD Was just a small part of the festivities and amenities available at the hotel. Because of this, my wife and family decided that they would come along with me.

So, I booked the family rate of the TGD Convention online and booked the room. TGD is very family friendly. The individual rate for three days pre registered was $40. The family rate, (adding my wife and two daughters) was only $50. It was a no brainer to bump up even if they didn’t want to play anything at TGD just in case. It would have been a no brainer for me at even $60, I might have thought about it for a few minutes if it was $70.

So we arrive in Nashville on Friday Morning and it is a beautiful day. We find free parking in the Opry Mills Parking lot and walk to our hotel on a short walkway which also just happened to used to be the Grizzly River Rampage ride at Opryland. It brought back a few memories back from when I was younger. It was quite interesting.

We check in at the TGD Registration Desk fairly early Friday Morning. Chat with some old friends I only see once a year or so, and get our badges. Olivia (5) and Sarah (10) are quite enthusiastic about the cool passport badges that they have…

Oh, yeah, so the theme of TGD is that it’s like a traveling theme. The badges are ‘passports’ and you can get stamps for playing certain games which gives you more chances to win from a quite generous supply of prizes from their sponsors.

Anyway, the kids love the theme, we sit around and chat for a bit with new and old friends.

Hotel Registration. Not wanting to wait to terribly long, and also wanting to explore the hotel which we were in awe of while looking around (It really is amazing.) We decided to head toward the front and see just how early we could check in.

So, after checking in, and wandering around an amazing hotel, we meandered back to the TGD Ballroom and started playing some games, Me and the kids played some Crokinole on the TGD Logo Crokinole Board. There is a local Woodworker making some amazing Crokinole Boards in Nashville, You may remember the Jupiter Board. There was also the TGD Logo board, and a Death Star which was quite amazing looking too.

After Crokinole, the wife and kids decided to check out the hotel swimming pool, while I stayed and played some games. Got into a game of Ghost Stories, where we were doing alright, but then all of a sudden about 4 cards before the Wu Feng came out, it all fell apart, and we started dying left and right. Finally succumbing to the ghost threat before we could make it to the Wu Feng.

I also played a game of In the Year of the Dragon, and Chinatown in fairly quick succession.

I played the only new to me game of the weekend (alright, maybe there was one other coming shortly, but not sure it counts) Finca.

I liked it a lot. Didn’t really see it coming, but the lightness and the quickness and ease of possibly being a nice family game and gateway quickly have put it on my want list. I’ll keep an eye out for that one and get it as soon as I can track a copy down, or make an order. I wanted my wife to try it out before the weekend was up, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

I stuck around for the Friday night drawing playing a game of Loot, While we were playing my younger daughter was called out as a winner, unfortunately, she was already asleep and since you had to be present to win, I felt a little disappointed for her.

On Saturday I woke up pretty early to get my flea market stuff ready, and set up in the game room.

I set up for the flea market trying to get rid of some unplayed stuff in my collection, and did fairly well, striking up a few deals just to get some stuff out.

I browsed others, but I really am trying very hard to restrict my game purchases and did a very good job, I was tempted by several things, I finally ended up picking up an in shrink Quiddler for $2 and a copy of Neuroshima Hex, with the expansion, and a deftly prepared (by Verkisto) DIY Expansion as well for $35, but I still came out ahead in the flea market by about $40 bucks or so.

The most interesting item sold at the flea market was the cursed copy of Fact or Crap, which was sold for -$2 (Yes, that’s a negative two dollars)

My family came in sometime during the flea market while I was manning my area and started playing some games over in the corner. I walked over finally when I gave up on the last few stragglers and me and the family headed out to Dinner and rode the shuttle bus over to the Opryland Mall (we would have walked, but it was pouring down rain all day Saturday.)

Walked around Opry Mills for a good while, and had a nice time, but made it back in time to play a few games with the kids before our scheduled matches of the Crokinole Tournament.

I played a game of Pickomino, A couple of games of Crokinole, and a game of Hula Hippos with the Family and some others that had kids there as well. Hula Hippos I guess was the other, new to me game of the weekend.

Then we set up for our rounds of the Crokinole Tournament. My wife and daughter made it through to the second round of doubles, I was eliminated in the first round in singles, but regai and I managed to make it to the third round in doubles.

I let my kids stay up during this, because I felt bad about Olivia missing her chance to ‘win’ from the prize table. So I took the kids and wife over to the prize table to discuss strategy. Talked about the five games we really wanted off the Saturday table, (Warlords of Europe, Mystery Express, Genoa, a new Tigris & Euphrates, and something else, can’t remember) and Sarah (My older daughter) said if she won she was going to pick up the copy of 7 ate 9 first.

Wouldn’t you know it, she won and took the copy of 7 ate 9 that she wanted, I don’t know what was left when she went up there, but I was happy for her. I actually read the rules, it looks fun, I’m sure it will get a lot of good play in our family!

Went to bed shortly afterwards on Saturday Night.

Woke up early Sunday morning and walked down to go to the Take it Easy Tournament, My favorite time of the TGD Weekend. Unfortunately, I didn’t do so hot when the inept caller never called the numbers he should have, and instead kept calling stuff that kept messing up my board even more.

Finished with a 76.

After that, picked up my games and was going to pack up the car and get them out so It would be easier to check out and come back to play games that afternoon. Went to go out in the pouring rain to get my car out of the Opry Mills parking lot (It was still raining!!!) When I noticed the Mills parking lot was a lake, I decided hmm, maybe it’s not such a good idea to stay here after all. I was listening to the radio, and according to it, I40 was still open, so I got the car around and took it to the hotel lobby and we loaded it up. Deciding to get out instead of staying around. I left kind of suddenly, but tried to go say bye to people real quick before I left. The room was pretty sparse though.

Anyway, Started going west on I40, got directed by officers through standing water on I40 at Exit 201, and then it was clear, for two more miles, where it was gridlock somewhere near Exit 199.

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/category.asp?C=125220&aut…=

We finally after a couple of hours, got off at 199, and were stuck in the Bellvue area of nashville for several hours trying various little roads going west seeing if we could find a way home. Finally, after giving up and deciding to sleep in the car in a parking lot of a Target Store, we went into the store to kill time and met a couple saying they were trying to get to St. Louis, but couldn’t get West or North, but told us I65 south was open. So we got back in our car and drove around trying to make it that way without using I40. Although we got through some roads which were at or very near flooding, we never got stuck and finally found a way to hit I65 fairly far south of Nashville and managed to get home via Birmingham and Tupelo.

It took a lot longer than we expected, but I’m glad we made it out safely. I hope that everyone else at TGD 2010 is able to get home safely too!

written by Chris \\ tags: Disaster, Flood, Nashville, Tennessee Game Days

Yayy, Cities and Fits just came in this morning. This is my first game purchase of 2009!!! (I made it all the way till June.

Both of these are imports (sorta, I got em from Boards and Bits). It was the first time I bought something right after playing it in a very long while too. Nothing I’ve played in like a half a year has really interested me enough to actually make a purchase. But these two did, even though they aren’t really heavy games. In fact, they would both be in the Extremely Light category. Perhaps that is why they became an instant purchase. Heck, Cities only takes like 15 minutes to play. Perhaps it’s just that I’m not enamored with the super fillers anymore The 45 minute to 1 hr game that has no soul (I’m looking at you Stone Age and Dominion!)

As far as Cities and Fits go; They would both make excellent gateways. I want to try them both with my wife and kids. Cities is a bonus as well, in that there is three different types of scoring you can choose depending upon how deep you want to make the game.

Granted, this does not go well with my permanent goal of purging my collection. But I did make some headway on doing that at Tennessee Game Days a couple of weekends ago, so I don’t feel to badly.

When I look at my shelves now, it looks pretty lean; like I don’t know much on there I would want to get rid of any more. Maybe I should go over it with a finer comb, there are a couple of games I know I would like, but I haven’t been able to get to the table for various reasons, and that’s what is preventing me from getting rid of them even though they have not been played.

I need to clean up my shelves anyway and redo my collection photo, it has been a while…

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Boards and Bits, Cities, Dominion, Fits, Stone Age, Tennessee Game Days

Another Tennessee Game Days has concluded, and I had just as much fun at it this year as I have in the past.

I stated before the event that I really didn’t have any idea what I wanted to play. Had no plan at all for the weekend. Lately I’ve become jaded with the typical Euro’s and find them to be not as much fun as I used to find them.

If I had a goal for the weekend, it was to not really play any new games unless I thought I might find them interesting, or perhaps, unless they were really quick filler type games while waiting for something else to happen.

I sort of succeeded in my goal I guess, as really I only played like 4 new games.

FRIDAY
So I decided for once, I was going to take off on Friday and go early, so that I didn’t arrive so late on Friday and lose one whole day of gaming. (Plus, I had a vacation day at work that I would lose if I didn’t use it before June 30, so that worked out well).

So Val and I packed up early in the morning and headed out, putting me in Nashville around 10:30 or so.

So I immediately registered and started looking for a game. Found a couple of guys also looking for a game and we selected San Juan.

After San Juan, I hooked up with a different crew that was around the “Learn to Win” (LTW) table, with games where you could write your name on the sheet if you played it, and at the end of the event, they would give the game to someone on the sheet.

We grabbed Gem Dealer, a game I had heard a tiny bit about, but it was quick so I agreed to play it. Unfortunately, I didn’t really enjoy it all that much there was a little bit to much luck of the draw, and not much going on as far as strategy.

The group I was with after trying Gem Dealer wanted to stick with the LTW table, and I didn’t have much else to do, so I stuck with them, we played two games of For Sale. I have played For Sale before and like it very much, so I taught the game to the crew, and they signed up for the Learn to Win.

That put this crew in the mood for more Auction games, so D asked to play a game of Modern Art. Another game I know pretty well, not that I like it all that much, but I don’t dislike it. I’d just rather play some other auction games more. Anyway, I taught them the game.

After that we played Acquire, another great classic

I decided I wanted to play something with a little more guts. I found another person D (different D) and he wanted to try 1960 the Making of a President. So I taught him that game.

I filled out the rest of my evening with two games I had not played before, but were quick easy to learn games. Fits, which I thought was quite interesting, and 10 days in Asia, which I was luke warm on.

SATURDAY
So, Saturday started with me setting up my table for the Flea Market. I of course took this opportunity to purge a little bit of my collection. My constant goal to try to keep the number of games in my collection small but still robust. I think I sold Dominion, the Revised Axis & Allies, Onslaught, Hellas, Elfenland, maybe a few others. Had an interested party in Formula D, but ended up not taking my price, and I didn’t really want to come down. Picked up a copy of Trans Europa though for 5 bucks. Which turned out to be quite a popular pickup.

So, while the flea market was still going on, there was no sense in wasting our time, so I set up and started playing a game of Trans Europa. I don’t really consider that a new game, since I’ve played quite a bit of Trans America. I’m not a big fan of it, but for five bucks, I thought I’d pick it up and see if Val and the Kids might like it. If they don’t, I’m sure it will be in the TGD Flea Market next year again if I go. (Of note, though I don’t really like either Trans America, or Trans Europa, I think America is slightly better).

I had set up a game of Die Macher for Saturday Morning which of course, turned into Saturday Afternoon. I love this game though, and enjoyed every minute of it, though I kind of got pushed out of the sixth election which kind of killed my plans. Ended up losing to T, actually, ended up in 4th place. I blame the loss on having to play the Grune Party instead of FDP.

After that I went out for an extended dinner after that, and returned late that evening to find L asking me about 1960: the Making of a President, after finding out I had taught someone on Friday and asking if I could teach him as well. I of course agreed right away and off we went.

After playing my second 1960 game, I found a crew trying to LTW the game High Society. I enjoy this filler, and they needed to be taught, so I volunteered.

I finished off the night with a few rules of Zendo. Of which I purely stunk it up after a long day of trying to win two elections.

SUNDAY
I walked in Sunday Morning with a few people just wanting to fill out the time before the Take it Easy tournament. So someone grabbed Cities, which was a Very nice game for the amount of time that it took. I very much enjoyed that one, Thanks goes to J for teaching it.

After a couple of games of Cities, it was time for the Take it Easy tournament. I was determined to not only not come in last place this year, but to actually try to win it. I thought I had a great shot too, and after calculating my final score of 219. I was sure I had it. But then, someone good at math double checked me and found out I actually had 171. Unfortunately, this was not enough

After that, I jumped into my second game of Small World. I like the game, but I’m not sure how much I like it or not yet, and I’m not sure how many plays it will be worth, and whether or not I actually want a box that big on my shelf. Enjoyed my second game of it very much, and coupled with the Variant Map rules which have just been posted recently, I am becoming more and more interested.

While I was playing Small World, T came up to me and asked to play a game of La Havre. But I don’t really like La Havre all that much, or at least, I don’t think I do, but T was persistant that he wanted to play a game with me besides Die Macher that weekend, so I suggested a game of Roads and Boats, T jumped at that, and we found one other interested party, and played that till the Conclusion of the Con.

CONCLUSION
It was another great Tennessee Game days. If it wasn’t for the fact that Ole Miss was in the Super Regional, losing out on another bid to Omaha for the College World Series at the same time, I would have said it was the perfect weekend.

written by Chris \\ tags: Baseball, Boardgames, Ole Miss, Tennessee Game Days

It looks like the stars have aligned, and I’m going to be able to go to the Tennessee Game Days again this year. You may remember that I’m not all that interested in gaming as much as I have been in the past. But the people at Tennessee Game Days are so nice, and I’ll get to meet up with some people that have become some very good “con” friends.

Plus, the cons typically reinvigorate me. Make me think about games again. But I’m not playing any of the crappy games that have gotten me in this funk lately. In fact, I’d like to stay away from new games completely. Maybe stick with some old classics that I know I’ll like and have the degree of interest and fun that I’m looking for.

The only new game I think I’m interested in playing is Planet Steam. I’ve been wanting to try it seeing as how I’ve been told it’s the best board game implementation of M.U.L.E. A game that I spent at least a few weekends of my youth playing.

Other than that, I imagine I’ll play Power Grid, Age of Steam, etc. I think I would like to get in a game of Die Macher. I wouldn’t mind playing a game of Samurai Swords. Perhaps I should add that to the geeklist.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, M.U.L.E., Planet Steam, Tennessee Game Days, Video Games

This past weekend was the aforementioned Tennessee Game Days that I had mentioned earlier.

I packed up the Girls on Friday afternoon and headed that way. It’s not to far. I was meeting Judy (Val’s Mom) in Mt. Juliet in order to drop the girls off for the weekend with Nana. Plus it left All of us out of Mom’s hair for the weekend while she set up for a Yard Sale.

I mainly went to hopefully go a long way toward helping me on a board game purge. I think it’s safe to say I accomplished my mission there. I sold almost everything I took. Ended up making enough money to pay for the hotel and any food I ate. As well as the gas there and back. Also had a few extra bucks to put into the bank account and pay off a few bills. But the main goal. I dropped about 40 games off of my shelves and closets. This was the key.

I had some problems. Alot of the stuff I had put higher prices on, in order to have them not sell so that I would have to bring them home, ended up being the first things to go. That was a little bit disappointing. But of course, I didn’t take anything “mission critical” or the like. Everything I took that I was interested in. I have some ability to be able to play should I really want to. Either here, or in Memphis or the like.

As far as the games. I had a great weekend filled with lots of games.

Race for the Galaxy got played a couple of times. I really like Race more and more. But it is getting played alot, just because it fills an almost perfect niche. I still don’t have a copy for myself. That’s one of the things I am looking for eventually.

I tried a couple of notable new games. Through the Ages, Brass, and Wabash Cannonball.

Through the Ages was really good, albeit a long game. I really liked it though, and it did feel like a nice build your engine civ style game. But again, still took a long time, and the pieces are quite fiddly with all the tiny bits of wood and stuff you have to use to acknowledge your people and advances.

Brass was kind of meh to me. I didn’t think it was all that great. I had not really been wanting to play it all that much. But I love Martin Wallace games typically and it was being played, so I figured why not. Well the card draw kind of felt limiting to me. And it had a lot of similar feeling that Canal Mania did. A game which I did not enjoy at all. It was only okay. I would play it again, but beyond another time or two, I’m not sure this one will be a clear staple that a couple of the other Martin Wallace Games have become (*cough* Age of Steam *cough*).

Wabash Cannonball on the other hand. Was a 45 minute melding of a game concept that I absolutely enjoyed. A train themed economic game, you buy and sell shares in railroad companies in the coal area of the U.S. during the industrial age. Streamlined to the nth degree. What you are left with is pure economic maneuvering and gameplay with complex diplomatic set ups which make a person your friend one turn, and your enemy the next. This game is sparse on the components, only a paper map, a few wooden cubes, and some cut out pieces of paper. But the design of this one is great, and one I could see becoming a truly fast filler with all kinds of meat behind it. However, Replayability with the same people over time might suffer because of the lack of random elements in the game.

A few other things got to the table as well. I love these game weekends, because though I slow down and like to chat and talk to people, and friends I haven’t seen since the last convention. You still get way more gaming in than you hoped or even cared too. I got to play Breaking Away, Medici, Survive, Crokinole, Um Reifenbrite, Attika, Java, Pandemic, Ra, and a couple others here or there. Had a blast, I hope circumstances will allow me to make it back again next year.

written by Chris \\ tags: Game Collection, Kids, Play Statistics, playlists, Purge, Tennessee Game Days