Britt's Blog

This is a video from last year, but it gives you a sense of scale of the Board Room (which was downstairs in one of the Exhibit Hall this year (boo). Sorry the quality is so poor, but it does lend an appropriate sasquatch-film atmosphere to the three frames in which I walk past in my yeti hat at the 1-minute mark.

This year, Team Ithaca representation was weak, but we had a lot of fun with Dan, Amy and Zach.

New games played:

• Galaxy’s Edge Previously unknown to me, yet not a new game. We kinda liked it. The military control resolution is kind of brain-hurty and neat.
• Darjeeling Tea! Yay!
• Pack & Stack An all-too-eerily-accurate simulation of moving, including not being able to get the right truck from U-Haul.
• Steam Excellent new track-building, goods-delivering game.
• San Juan All the best elements of Race for the Galaxy and Puerto Rico, in one convenient package.
• Le Havre OMG too effing long.
• Race for the Galaxy: Brink of War Prestige can bite me.
• Nautilus Neat underwater exploration game with a a pretty board. Unfortunately, it just barely surpassed the fiddly-bits limit.

We never did quite manage to get into a game of Martian Rails. It was not available at Origins 2009, and we’ve been trying (in a half-hearted way) to get a copy for a while, though I’m deeply disappointed by the fact that the cities are drawn from fiction, unlike Lunar Rails, which awesomely uses actual lunar geography.

Acquired:

• Darjeeling, Assyria, Street Illegal and Dragon Parade (You get two randomly selected free games you get when you first visit the Board Room with your ribbon. This is the first time we got bumpkis in the Board Room raffle, which was a disappointment. :( However, Rio Grande Games provided free lunch and dinner for the Board Room, which was pretty extravagantly generous of them! Thanks, Rio Grande!).
• Powergrid China and Korea boards, RftG:BoW (at the Rio Grande Booth)
• Steam, Fredericus and Oriente (at the Mayfair Booth, the last two at deep discount)
• Suitors.

(Can’t wait for this week’s boardgame night: Origins Swag Edition!)

On the not-spending-all-my-time-inside front, I did manage to go running three times along the Scioto and Olentangy Greenways that follow the rivers through downtown Columbus. (Yay for Google maps, without which I would never have known that they exist.) The Olentangy Trail was especially nice.

(Via.)

_{For sticklers: No, this is not the actual TORNADO! event card. Some liberties were taken.}

Origins this year was delightful, as always.

I got a yeti hat! (Thanks Dani and Amy! Photo Credit: Zach.)

Many fun games, much fun socializing, and less than the optimal amount of sleep, as usual! Read on for details.

Read more

Hear the Ballad of Catan, by The Singing Nerd, and you can sing along too, you nerds!

Thanks entirely to Jason’s tireless efforts to a) find more local gamers, b) communicate with them, and c) schedule stuff, we’ve been playing boardgames much more regularly.

It’s so relaxing and enjoyable to sit down with friendly, smart, fun people and play a game or two. (Even when I lose.) (Unless the reason I lose is that Jason is hogging all the wood.) (Then I get cranky.)

Lately we’ve played Carcassonne, quite a lot of Agricola, Shadows Over Camelot, Powergrid, and a new game that Jason is working on.

We also have a wee little Amber game going, which I’m sure is contributing to the gentle glow of gaming well-being that I feel.

I hope that I’ll have time to continue gaming once classes start next week—or maybe I really should be making the time to game for the sake of my mental health!

Games Played:
Great Wall of China
10 Days in Asia
10 Days in Europe
Apples to Apples
Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride: The Card Game
Thurn and Taxis
Power Grid
Hanging Gardens
Carcassonne: The City
Lascaux
Yspahan
Rock!

Booty:
10 Days in Asia
Gavitt’s Stock Exchange
Rock!
Rat Hot
Halli Galli: Christmas Edition
Gone Fishing
Crocodile Pool Party
Mission: Red Planet
Times Square
Power Grid: Italy/France Expansion
Lascaux

Insanely Good Ice Cream Eaten:
Dark Cocoa Gelato
Queen City Cayenne
Lime Cardamom
Mango Lassi
Riesling Pear Sorbet
Cherry Lambic Sorbet
Sugar Daddy’s Brownie Cream Cheese

Memorable Catchphrases:
“Play the player, not the game.”
“Cameeples!!!”

Okay, usually I don’t do these quiz things, but seems like everybody’s doing this one.

I can’t say the results are much of a shock… The only word in the description that I object to is “necessary.” ;)