Pensacola Beach, Florida
February 21 – 24, 2002
First, I appreciate all the kind words you guys have expressed towards Vickie and me. We greatly enjoy putting together the decorations, name tags, t-shirts and so forth. It give us a creative outlet. Sure there’s a little work involved, but it’s far outweighed by the joy we get from it, especially having Greg, Gail, Lindsay and Lenny visit us a few times before each GG to help prepare — and play a few games of course. As long as you guys enjoy what we’re doing, we’ll continue doing it. If it gets stale, let us know and we’ll change it up.
We both love this convention and our lives continue to be enriched with all the friendships we’ve made and hopefully will continue to make through the coming years. This is the only gaming convention we attend and I really don’t see much reason to go anywhere else since this is the best!! But I’m not the monster-gamer-fanatic-conventioneer that many of you are, so this is enough for me.
Like some others, I was a little worried that somehow this convention might be diminished with the lower attendance than usual. Boy was I wrong about that. This whole thing is about quality, not quantity. The people who come to this thing are just tremendous. Why can’t we all just live in the same city?!?
Games played:
Since I don’t keep records and my memory is not that great, I can only remember the games that made the most impression. My favorites (in no particular order) were: 5-Straight, Mexica, Volldampf, Hick-Hack-something-whack-or-gack (just ’cause it’s colorful and mindless), Vom Kap Bis Kairo (after I caught on, duh!), Atlantic Star and Crokinole. Oh, and that Subbuteo soccer game was very neat, though I’m sure we played it all wrong.
I really wanted to play Funkenschlag but the timing never worked out for it. Maybe next time.
Tonight, during my gaming group (which was only 3 of us but was supposed to be 5), I introduced Mexica and Vom Kap Bis Kairo. Both were favorably enjoyed. We also snuck in a couple of games of Carcassone. It’s hard to beat someone who has played the game 180 times on the Internet, though Jay Ouzts did it. By the way, WARD, the guy I’m talking about is Mark Page, otherwise known as Stonewall to you. He mentioned that he’s been playing and talking with you over some friendly Internet games of Carcassone. I’ll get off my duff soon, slog through the German site, and join you guys!!
The only game I really didn’t care for was Valley of the Mammoths. Oh, I had a great time playing it with the people, especially stomping on Ted a little bit and watching Greg get mauled by a mangy pack of wolves, but other than that I didn’t get much out of it. It’s redeeming factor is that if you get hosed out early you get to leave the game and go do something else. I believe Rob Wood came out on top in this one after playing much more smartly than I did (those &%@$! winters) and chasing me off the board. My hat’s off to you, Bob, uh I mean Rob.
Crokinole is growing on me. I already liked it, but the competition just makes it that much more fun. (There is a game here, GREG, believe it or not!) Bryan really carried our team, I was just along for the ride. The man can really shoot a straight shot. I tended to always want to go for the odd ricochet/bank shot with low percentage odds of making but great potential for scoring. Unfortunately my skills aren’t quite up to the task on most of them. However, my belief is that on almost every shot you make, there is a way to get either it or another of your disks into the hole — except when you are obligated to shoot for an opponents disk on the edge or on the other side of the board. You just gotta get the angles and speeds right! Of course playing this way can get you into trouble fast and is usually contrary to defensive play. That’s fine, I’m going to practice more before next time — I have a title to defend!!!
Anyway, the competition was great. One of the most memorable games for me was against Sarah and Vickie in the 2nd round (I think they gave us about 100 points putting our disks in the hole for us and still almost beat us — we were very lucky to squeak by). If we hadn’t won that round, I think it’s highly likely that Vickie and Sarah would have made the finals.
The final itself was Epic. Bryan and I took the first round fairly handily. Then Chris and Sheldon roared back to take the second. After a short stretching break, we resumed the last round which played down to the wire. I think in that game both teams discussed and analyzed just about every shot, keeping a close watch on the points, and playing extremely defensively. It really came down to who made the fewest mistakes as much or more so than who made the best shots. Bryan kept me straight and away from the crazy shots and somehow we were able to tip the advantage to our favor and grab the win. The high quality of play and skill of our opponents made the victory especially sweet! We somehow beat the best.
Speaking of title to defend —BEN— if Bryan and I are both there next time, do we get to pair up together? This is assuming of course that Bryan would even want me as a partner again. If so (and Bryan, I promise to practice more), it seems that we should be able to do this and defend our title. Just a thought and suggestion. (hey, and if somehow there is a bye in a round somewhere, we should be entitled to it 🙂 — am I going too far with this?)
I also enjoyed a short 10-15 minute discussion Sunday afternoon with Leon about science fiction. He told me about his involvement in a huge Sci-Fi convention in Chattanooga each year (they have 1200+ in attendance) and had some suggested reading for me. I haven’t read a lot of science fiction for the past several years and have lost touch with the authors and what’s good out there. When I do read SF, I usually re-read classics like Asimov’s Foundation series. As soon as I can get over to the bookstore, Leon, I’m going to pick up Peter F. Hamilton’s Reality Dysfunction. Then we’ll have something more to talk together about at the next Gulf Games.
The only other thing I have to say at this time is that I continue to be grateful that I met up with Ted a few years ago and was invited to GG2. It truly has been some of the best times of my life and I know Vickie concurs with that.
It’s getting late. When I remember more of what happened during the convention I’ll write again. Until next time, happy gaming to all!