Nashville, Tennessee
August 2 – 5, 2001
For all the hard work it takes to put this together, I wanted to extend a big thank you to all the people who made it happen…
Greg for making it all happen joyfully and seemingly effortlessly.
Tim & Vickie for countless hours of work, decorations, refreshments.
Lenny for all the great album covers.
Derk & Vanna ( Ken), for giving us something special to look forward to on GG Saturday nights
Gail & Lindsay: for putting up with all the time we take Greg away from them.
To Mark Jackson for sharing all his games and hospitality.
And Chris Lohroff for his great prices and lots of donations to the prize table.
And to Greg and Vickie for their incredible hospitality that the South is famous for. Never have I felt so welcome.
And to everyone who comes to Gulf Games for their special humanness and intimacy that they share with all of us and our children If only we could all live in the same town. Sigh.
Richard, Toni, Michael Boone, Jeffrey Glanzer
Favorite Games and observations
AQUARIUM DERBY
It took a few turns to wrap my head aroung having to turn backwards to move forward…but after a while I got it. Clever BIG game about racing around an aquarium by Frank Branham. It’s being released in a couple of weeks as War Hamster Rally and will be sold by Funagain.
You have a hand of five card. One card is placed face down after you move (which is your move for next turn) and you draw to replenish. You can’t plan much more ahead then that.
You can change the shape and the length of the race however. You use action points (actually mini seashells) to pay for this. The warped thing about this, is that you can change the course (longer shorter, narrower or wider) to be more suitable to your movement cards. Of course everyone else is trying to do the same thing.There’s also Octopi that get in your way and seaweed to trip you up.And sometimes you start the game by moving backwards.
A wonderful mind bender of a racing game.
Initial rating of 7.75 (I’m on the line). I’ve already backordered my copy at Funagain.
BONGO
Amazing how a little dice game can be a fun filler that actually makes you think, and think fast. I played with Kyle, Toni, Jeffrey. Kyle ran away with the whole thing. What a sweet young man. And very good at this. Maybe my eyes don’t move as fast anymore 😉 It has the same kind of time pressure as Pick Two. I like it better than games like Scan or Tobu Wabahu where you have to find matches among many different tiles. Here, you have to find matches amongst a few different dice. And you sometimes have to find out what’s missing when there are too many matches.
Rating: Who cares?. One of my favorite fillers of all time to go along with For Sale and High Society.
EDEN
Eden was a game I had never even heard of. You’re building up your garden and irrigating it. Or so that’s the theme. It played more like a “German” type war/negotiation game. I rather liked it and can’t wait till Chris sends me my copy so I can play again. Basically you build up plots in your garde and decide how many of your plots want to use to attack your enemies adjacent plots. You bid by bidding a dollar amount for the plots (which have strength numbers up to 3). The winning bidder pays his bid times the number of spots on all the enemies plots. So in fact, when you win a battle, you make yourself poorer and the enemy richer. Nifty mechanism. Also what’s kinda cool is that you decide how many plots to attack with and how many plots to attack, and thus set the course for the final battle “payment” A game of tile placement, battle, and money management.
Initial rating 7.5. An unknown little gem for me.
DAY OF THE DEAD
Frank taught this one to me and Toni. Love the theme of feeding the dead and the bizarre graphics. But most of all this is a fun partnership card game. Each round had lots of little nuances that either made the game interesting, tense, or exciting. I can’t wait to teach more people how to play. I hope it holds up to long term playing. I think it will. Cards played remain on the table so there’s no need for card counting. When you win a trick you trade cards with the person on your right. There’s a swap card to pass a card to your partner. There’s also an ask card. You get to ask anyone in the game a question that can only be answered with a Yes or No or the numbers 0 – 10. I asked Toni if she loved me. She told me that’s not a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. The game was so good I almost missed our checkout time at the hotel.
UM REIFENBREITE
Love bicycle racing. Love racing games. Love the idea that you control 4 riders and your success depends on how well your entire team does, not just the top rider. There is dice rolling. That was okay with me as it gave the game a too and fro feeling amongst the riders which kept the excitement level up. I always felt like I had a chance to win if only… Great for racing fans or families due to its ease of play. Don’t let the long manual turn you off. It just explains everything very clearly with lots of examples. If you haven’t tried it, give it a chance. And unlike most racing games that need lots of players, this plays with a max, of 4.
Rating 8.0. But I’m a sucker for racing games.
DIE MAGIER VON PANGEA
I really went ape over this game. I loved the concept of producing resources. I loved the concept of using your spell token to keep land masses from being moved (to help you or jam the other players). I liked the variabled winning conditions and the fact that there’s one more round after the first winner has been determined. A higher victory level can beat out the first winner.
The game plays wonderfully with lots of choices. There are different land types that make up the variable board. Each player has different people that only manufacture goods in a certain land area. And each land area can only hold a certain population. So you want to get the right people to the right area to produce goods and get the wrong people to your opponent area so they become overpopulated and can’t produce goods. Every turn I would go ‘ AHA‘ as I learned more nuances of the game.
There is one “neutral” player in a game with 4 players. He is controlled by the current player. There are 2 neutrals with 3 players. These neutrals can play a pivotal role in the game. The game plays fast, taking about 1 hour. Juicy decisions. Lots of ways to approach victory.
So give this one a provisional 8.0 and I really hope it gets better with time. Seldom do you find a game with so much going on in 60 minutes.