Pensacola Beach Florida
February 19 – 22, 2004
Here I am with a notepad full of names of games I played and people I played them with, so what else can I do but write up my report of yet another fabulous Gulf Games in Pensacola, Florida?
Jim Cobb and I arrived from Atlanta about an hour quicker than we expected — no, we weren’t fooled by the time zone change! — which was a bonus, and before long, even though Gulf Games wouldn’t “officially” open until the next morning, Thursday, we were greeting friends and playing games.
My first game of the week was Res Publica with Larry Levy, James Miller, and Leon Hendee. I’ve been quite charmed by this set-collecting game with its curious trading protocol, taught to me by Joe Huber at the last Gulf Games, and have taught it myself to a dozen people since buying my own copy a few weeks ago. (I got the Queen Games “butterbox” edition, same size and shape as the game Don, in case you have that one, and everyone seems to agree that the artwork from Queen is far preferable to that of the Avalanche Press edition. I do want to say, though, that Avalanche has at least provided us with an extremely good English rendition of the rules.) This session finished in a tie between Larry and James, and I easily maintained my record of never yet having won this silly game.
James Miller and Joe Huber then graciously agreed to try Indian Chief, a card game of my own invention which is essentially an exercise in hand management. Joe won the game and said nice things about it when we were done, commenting that hand management is one of his favorite things in a card game.
Kevin Gonzalez then sat down to learn the original SdJ winner, Hase und Igel, from Leon Hendee and me. I’m more used to playing this game with six players than with three, so the board felt a little empty… but your turn sure came around quicker! Leon took the win with his opponents nipping closely at his heels.
Next out was Freibeuter with Leon, Ian Borthwick, and Dave Vander Ark, and Dave finished with a nice margin of victory, 108-96-87-67. Chris Comeaux was the Gulf Gamer who requested I bring Freibeuter but never managed to get into a game. Maybe in Gatlinburg!
Chris did, however, get in on the game of Jumbo Grand Prix which was my next diversion. This is a Reiner Knizia exercise in “building a race car” (actually collecting one card each in four different colors) which Leon and I are particularly fond of despite its simplicity. Ed Rozmiarek outscored his wife Susan as well as Leon, Chris and me in four races.
Tongiaki was one of the hot new games, just out from Uberplay, and Chris Comeaux and I joined a table with Greg Schloesser, Jay Jones, and Jay’s brother Chris. I won’t go into a big description of the game’s mechanics (you can find that elsewhere) but will remark that this is one of those games where the board position changes so completely from player to player that there’s really nothing to do between turns but wait for it. Greg and Jay, who had played before, targeted each other and let me sneak through for a 28-25-22-20-8 win.
I cracked open my new copy of Galloping Pigs so that Jim Cobb, Michael Weston and I could play something quick and was dismayed to find that the colors of the little plastic pigs didn’t always match the colors on the cards! I guess I’ll be painting racing stripes in black and white on my orange and green pigs. We brained through it, though, and Jim scored in all three races to edge past me (I only scored in two races, but I scored well) by a mere point or two for the laurels.
Calling it a night early because I’d only had one hour’s nap in the last 36 hours or so, I made that my last game of Wednesday.
Coming tomorrow: Libert, Oasis, the welcome party, and I win at last at Res Publica!