Panama City Beach, Florida
October 15 – 18, 1998
25 games played
7 games won (it’s a miracle)
18 new games played for the first time
~ denotes winner of game
>>>signals beginning Mark’s humble opinion
Friday, October 16
Shari (that’s my wife, for those of you keeping score at home) & I loaded up the car and made the LONG trek from Nashville, TN south to Panama City Beach, FL. This, of course, meant driving through Alabama (not the most exciting state visually, though a paradise compared to Kansas or large chunks of Texas). Anyway, 8 hours later we arrived at the Beachcomber By The Sea which was (despite Greg’s problem with the credit card locks) a lovely place to stay. After a short stop to pick up provisions (diet coke & microwave popcorn) and a walk on the beach, we headed over to the meeting room for the welcome party.
Of course, the early arrivals had gone to get pizza, so we unloaded the car and met Tim & Vicki Watson (of the Jackson, MS, crew) while we awaited the arrival of the fabled Greg Schlosser. (One of the great joys of this weekend was finally connecting people with their e-mails.) Moments later, a car full of pizza-filled gamers arrived, and the fun began!
Imagine walking into a room and finding 100+ games neatly stacked on the tables… and most of them games you’ve only heard of but never seen ‘in the flesh’! Yowsa! (During many of the breaks, I’d just open up games and look inside them… oohing & aahing… a trickle of drool running down my chin… my eyes glazing over…. but enough about that!)
Two tables were set up with a CARABANDE track… (2 sets + 3 actions sets)… long straights and a trio of jumps. So, my first game of the Gulf Games II experience was getting WHOPPED at Carabande. (While I’d really looked forward to playing it, I didn’t really plan on getting plowed under.) Greg, whose opinion of the game is less than complimentary, made fun of us from across the room while 7 of us jousted for position. I spent most of the time pushing my wife’s piece forward while watching Ted Cheatham build a huge lead (thanks to a well-timed jump).
~ Ted (also playing – Tim & Vicki Watson, Peter McCarthy, Lenny Leo, Shari & I)
>>> Carabande is very cool… but it’s basically caroms on a racetrack board. I think it would go over big with my gaming group, but it would have to be late at night with a very large crowd.
The rest of the Gulf Gamers arrived during our Carabande game… thus leading into Ted “Party Monster” Cheatham’s WELCOME GAMES. One part “what’s the name of the game taped to my back?”, one part $25,000 Pyramid, one part “identify games from a set of obscure clues”… add gamers & their wives and stir. When the dust settled (after a tiebreaker), I emerged the victor with a “suitable for framing” certificate proclaiming me the Game Master of the Gulf Games II. Unfortunately, receiving this honor promptly sucked all the luck out of my body, as I didn’t win a game without a partner for the rest of the night.
The gaming began now in earnest… while Shari joined Frank Branham & Co. in a game of BARBARROSA, I gave in to the ravings of Mik Swellov and got a game of MAGALON going. Tim Watson & I both popped out in the lead, but his stop to replenish his hand while safely ensconced in the corner of the board proved to be the margin of victory. Meanwhile, we surrounded one of the treasure spots with walls, thus slowing Ted to a crawl, as he’d chosen to run “against the grain”, grabbing the opposite treasure from the side Lenny, Tim & I chose.
~ Tim; Lenny & Mark (3 treasures) Ted (2 treasures)
>>>I really wanted to like this game. The walls, pieces, boards and cards are beautiful. It’s not terribly difficult to learn. It even uses the turn order determination mechanism from El Grande, which I think is nifty. But it just doesn’t add up… it doesn’t click. I’d play it again, but not unless someone asked. NOW, it certainly doesn’t deserve the ” Global Survival-like” press it’s been getting, but it’s not one of Wolfgang Kramer’s best efforts.
A quick filler game ensued while we waited for the close of Barbarossa. We got in a hand of IT’S MINE, which continues as one of my new favorite filler games. Cut Lenny some slack on his score–he hadn’t played before
~ Ted 26
Mark 18
Tim 14
Eric 3
Lenny -2
I walked Shari back to our room… and by the time I’d returned, new games were underway. I scuttled off to the kitchen to play WALDSCHATTENSPIEL. Described as a game for 1 adult & 7 children, Eric, Frank, Ted & I certainly fit the bill as children! (Sandi West was the lone “adult”.) Throw in a lit candle, a darkened room, and a bunch of wooden trees, and the hunt for our little elves was on.
We learned a couple of lessons… 1st, it’s hard to read a die by candlelight… 2nd, it’s hard to FIND a die on the floor of a darkened kitchen by candlelight. (There’s really not a winner with this game… it’s more of a cooperative thing of the ‘kids’ getting their elves together behind one tree without being frozen by being caught in the light of the candle.)
Never the less… the ‘kids’ won… and in the words of Monty Python, “There was much rejoicing…. yeah.”
~ Frank, Mark, Eric & Ted (elves) Sandi (the light)
>>>I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: Frank has the COOLEST weird games… I’m not sure I’d buy this very odd game, but I’d certainly like someone nearby to have a copy so I could play it every once in a while. (What an excellent Halloween game!)
Speaking of Halloween games… the five of us then dove into a rather macabre quest through a horrific mansion in THE GOTHIC GAME. This reminded me a great deal of Dungeonquest… mainly because my game ended like most of my Dungeonquest games, with my character dead. It’s card-driven (though with a Clue-like board) and has dry & morbid sense of humor. I got hosed out early by Ted, who went on to win it all when Eric Wood, vainly searching for weapons to fight him off, got trapped in the Iron Maiden.
Ted; Eric 2nd; Frank 3rd; Mark 4th; Sandi 5th
>>>I felt the same way about this game as I did about Dugeonquest (only without the gorgeous miniatures)… it’s fun for a while, but I have little control, and I wouldn’t want to play it more than once or twice a year.
Sandi decided to call it a night (and the others were STILL involved in a Svea Rike game) so we pulled out FAIR PLAY. The tiles looked great, the enameled cars for this race game were gorgeous… but you have almost NO control over what happens. It was mercifully short.
Frank; Ted 2nd; Mark & Eric tied for 3rd
>>>Turkey. Add dressing. (OK, maybe there’s a great game that could be created with these components… but this isn’t it.)
Svea Rike continued ad naseaum at the next table, so we pulled INKOGNITO. A large mapboard and cute/scary pieces of masked figures, and the large mask to determine movement (very cool)… and a hidden partner system.
Mistake #1- we started this game near midnight. It’s basically a Clue variant, with secret identities to determine and secret missions to accomplish. Under the best of circumstances, it would be a little dry… after midnight it was just confusing. Frank & I were partners who quickly found each other and figured out our mission… but could NOT shake loose the right marbles in the mask (randomizer) to finish Ted & #38; Eric off.
Mistakes #2 & #3- due to exhaustion – Ted had the wrong information from Frank, thus causing him to misidentify the players, while Eric was reading the wrong chart to figure out their mission.
Frank & Mark; Ted & Eric
>>>I’m glad I got to play it once, but I wouldn’t buy it. Too Clue-like… and you can get the same kind of game effect from Conspiracy with less time and easier mental involvement.
With Inkognito & Svea Rike done, Ted, Ty & I had to get in one last ‘filler’ game, so I taught them MOLE IN THE HOLE (German – Die Malwurf Company???) It has a good balance between luck & strategy… not to mention that the multi-layered board fits right into the box. Ty got hosed early, but managed to make a decent showing by the end… but Ted’s incredible luck took hold once again as his little homeboy mole captured the golden shovel.
~ Ted; Mark, Ty
>>>This plays equally well with 2, 3 or 4 players… and it’s a nice older kids (9-12) game as well as a good adult filler game. Keep your eye out for it… Ravensburger made it an American release about 2-3 years ago.
Finally off to bed… only to find myself promising Greg that “even if no else showed up at 8:30 am tomorrow, I’d be there.” (It was 2:30 am at the time.)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17TH
I bounded out of bed (really!!!) and headed over for the meeting room at 8:25 am… and, sure enough, Greg was the only one there. Moments later, Shay & #38; Zane Douds (Ty’s wife & son) showed up. Since Greg was getting the Liar’s Dice tournament ready, the three of us played a three-handed game of BOHNANZA. Shay & I did most of our trading with 6 year old Zane, which sealed his victory. (Zane also had a tendency to collect cards he liked, despite what he had planted.) Didn’t seem to stop him from winning.
Zane 25; Shay & Mark 17 each
>>>I like this game so much… and am majorly looking forward to the La Isla Bohnita expansion. (Nice picture on Kulkmann’s website under his 98 Essen report.)
Other folks began straggling in as our game of Bohnanza drew to a close, so we looked for a game to play that we could finish before the Liar’s Dice tournament. Frank (Master of Wacky Games) pulled out KAPTAIN WACKELPUDDING. Imagine Blockhead… except you build on top of a boat that must move around the mapboard. Every piece that falls off is yours. A couple of nice mechanisms keep game play fresh – 1st, one of the destinations has no pieces, only cards that alter play and/or allow you to hose other players; 2nd, if an island runs out of pieces when you have to load up, you can use pieces you’ve acquired to fulfill the requirement… or be forced to use pieces from other’s storehouse. Greg and I managed to collect a number of items, while Frank & #38; Sandi’s experience led them to tied win.
Frank & Sandi; Tim 1 piece; Mark 8 pieces; Greg 18 pieces
>>>Run, do not walk, and pick up this game. Nice bits, good fun, 30 minute playing time… it has all the enjoyable parts of most stacking games + a lot of color & tension. One of the finds of the weekend.
Despite some question on my part (and Tim’s) on whether our wives would appear in time for the LIAR’S DICE tournament, they strolled in together at 10:30 am on the dot. After Greg quickly went through the rules (some of us had only played Perudo), we got down to some serious dice-shaking. I managed to lie low in my first game, closing out the game with 4 dice for the win.
The second game (and final!) was not so pretty… I was the first one knocked out… in fact, of the first six dice lost, 5 of them were mine!
1st game: ~Mark; Kim 2nd; Tim 3rd; Greg 4th; Peter 5th 2nd game: ~Ted; Lenny 2nd; Shari 3rd; Shay 4th; Kim 5th; Mark 6th
>>>The rules changes (show & reroll, loss of dice equal to the difference of the challenge & bid, calling an exact bid causing all other players to lose one die) make the game quicker and more enjoyable… not to mention that the board makes it much easier to explain the whole “bidding aces/stars” thing.
As people were knocked out of the competition, other small games sprung up. Frank & #38; Sandi taught Shari & I TWILIGHT, a very unusual trick-taking game from Germany. In the game, the opposite players are partnered. Sandi & I were the Moon Cult, while Shari & #38; Frank were the Sun Cult.
The deck consists of two identical sets of Sun & Moon cards, which are mixed together and dealt out to the players. If you are unable or don’t want to play the appropriate card on your turn (the Moon players must play Moon cards, the Sun players Sun cards), you can ask any other player to play a card on you (which must be one of your cult’s cards.) Scoring is done by the number of ‘souls’ you capture, times the temples you acquire. (If you don’t take any temple cards, you don’t get any points.) The higher cards are worth only one soul, the soul cards are not ranked (1st one played wins), and the temples are the low cards. Each cult has one Purgatory card, which ‘wins’ the trick and sets it aside, to be taken by the winner of the next trick. Shari & Frank jumped to an early lead, and Sandi and I never quite caught up.
Frank & Shari 660; Mark & Sandi 518
>>>The mechanism is VERY interesting, but the game is long for what it is. I’d play to a lower point total next time. During our game of Twilight, we did hear the funniest quote of the weekend, as Ariel & Zane Douds and Timothy McCarthy were playing together nearby: “Let’s not use toothpicks… they hurt. Let’s just punch and kick.”
After time with Shari, I returned to scarf down my lunch and get in on a 4 player game of THE VERY CLEVER PIPE GAME, which could easily be renamed the “Very Eye-Straining Pipe Game”. We played floors and pipes, which meant that my early control of the white pipes and continual clearing of the board left the floor people with little or nothing to work with. Timothy McCarthy (young ‘un) started playing with Vicki as a team, but dropped out due to boredom. We adults could see the end in sight and hung in there.
Mark 23; Lenny 10; Vicki/Timothy 9; Ted 8
>>>Don’t play the floors version… period. Ted had a great suggestion: when playing 4 player, have partners play pipes… ooh, ooh, and you could have a pipe passing mechanism of some sort… ie, I can set down one card to for my partner to pick up, but I can’t draw a new one to replace it if I do. Would that work? Otherwise, quite enjoyable little game, but heavy on the eye strain.
One of the games on my “must try” list was then put on the table – IN TEUFEL’S KUCHE. What incredible bits… and not a bad game as well. No one took the retreat option during duels, which probably contributed to our very quick playing time. Greg & I, seated next to each other, got in hat-knocking-off contest and promptly fell behind in the scoring. I managed to bring in one pot, but Kim and Ted stayed out of each other’s way for the most part, allowing Ted the win (AGAIN! – was anyone else tired of him winning by this point?)
Ted 13; Kim 8; Mark 5; Greg 0
>>>This jumps onto my MUST HAVE list… with fast & furious play, great bits (including the overdevil’s oven), and the chance to whack each other all over the board, it’s a keeper and deserving of it’s semi-legendary status. It’s a kids game, but just barely. Four gamers could play this thing to a hard-fought conclusion (I do like the variant I read about suggesting that you play to 11 points to avoid a player being able to win with two ‘5’ pots.)
It was “let’s fulfill Mark’s every wish” afternoon… so we got to play SHOWMANAGER next. The advance word on this game was so positive… so I was a little underwhelmed when they opened the box and pulled a pile of game money, a deck of cards, some player aids, and two small boards (a scoring table & a card track). This is $40? (Someone has informed me since that it can be had through Adam Spielt at a much better price.) Anyway, we plowed ahead… the rules are brain-dead simple, but the choices are VERY hard. After thinking about it, it’s essentially a complicated version of Can’t Stop…. no, stop and think about it for a minute. I have a hand limit of cards based on which show I produce… do I take that great actor and hope that the right ones come up later to finish this show, or do I settle with what I’ve got? Do I take a loan out of this show before any others come in, or do I wait & see? I got a solid King Lear on the board, then put up the stinkiest Ballet known to man in order to burn cards and pick up cash. My Queenie & Wolf both placed solidly and took me to a win in my first game!
Mark 62; Kim 47; Peter 43; Tim 40
>>>I’d love to see this republished in English… it would be a great introductory game for non-gamers. The short playing time makes it enjoyable (over 90 minutes and this would be TOO long). Still think it’s a little expensive for the components you get, but a good game nonetheless. Anyone wishing to ditch a copy at a reasonable price may contact me!
After wife-time & dinner at the country buffet (edible, but nothing to write home about), we returned for more gaming! BIG BOSS was the next game out, and it’s a beautiful one to look at. Smoked plastic tower pieces, a board with a grooved track, counters for tracking $… oooh, ahhh. The mechanics are pretty simple (Acquire-like, but with some changes which I’m not sure about, since I’ve never played Acquire). In fact, that’s one of the problems. As beautiful as the game is, it’s pretty mechanical. Interaction is somewhat limited (since it’s all based on your available cards). I invested too heavily in companies that never took over another company, while Peter managed to be the main shareholder in “the company that ate 1/2 the board.”
Peter 517; Eric 484; Tim 434; Mark 367; Lenny 344; Ted 303
>>>I’m guessing that it’s business games that do it… but I was underwhelmed by Tycoon and now by Big Boss. I’m afraid to try Acquire or SCHOKO & Co. now.
Timothy McCarthy & #38; Zane Douds had been eyeing what they called my “big boat game” since I brought it in Friday night, so I took them to a corner of the room and we played TORPEDO RUN. They were bothered that they couldn’t move the ships, but with a little help from moms & sisters (loading their subs for them) we had a knock-down drag-out battle.
Timothy (I think) but only by one ship; Zane
>>>The box (MB game) says “Floor Wars SERIES”… so, folks, were there any other floor wars games? This one’s a hoot.
Staying in the childlike mood, I coaxed 7 other adults into a 3 round game of MIDNIGHT PARTY. Experience has taught me that people get into this more than you’d ever guess, especially as Hugo the Ghost hunts down the last couple of guests in each round. Lenny lost big early and never regained his momentum. I tried to put myself in position to win (with the +3 rooms) at the end but that failed (as is reflected in my score.)
Tim -15; Eric -18; Mark & Kim -21 tie; Ted -25; Peter -27; Vicki -29; Lenny -43
>>>It’s not rocket science, but it’s an involving kids game that’s a joy to play with the right group of adults. It’s still one of the most played games in our home.
Another most played game in our home (along with Can’t Stop) is FAMILY BUSINESS, and we used it as a filler game while waiting for the “main event” of Kohle, Kies & Knete. While Greg complained about not getting a turn (probably the weirdest mechanism in the game), he still managed to lie low and pull off a victory.
Greg; Eric 2nd; Ty 3rd; Mark 4th; Larry 5th
>>>Yes, it’s better than GUILLOTINE… for one thing, I’m not tired of playing after 3 years—and I could go a long time before I’d want to play GUILLOTINE again (having only played it three times.) Moreover, I feel like I have some control over the results of Family Business, while GUILLOTINE is entirely too random. The anonymous designer at Mayfair deserves a medal for making an interesting system idea into a full-fledged game.
And the moment we’d all been waiting for arrived… six of us gathered around the table to wheel, deal, cheat & steal… of course, we were playing KOHLE, KIES & KNETE. We’ve discussed this game a good bit–suffice it to say that this was the best game of this I’ve ever played (and I’m not saying that just because I won!). We laughed, we threatened (Peter and his card), we lied (Lenny told me at one point I “had an honest face”), and we hosed each other’s deals with abandon. Ty started out VERY slow (in fact, he just wanted the whole thing to slow down) but benefited later as everyone was willing to deal with him. I had my investor stolen early on and never got one back… but judicious play of cousins & “no, I’m the boss” cards enabled me to win… thanks to Ty’s roll of a ONE on the first possible game-closing deal. I fully believe I wouldn’t have seen another penny the rest of the game.
Mark 33; Ty 29; Peter 22; Eric 18; Greg 16; Lenny 15
>>>This game is a classic WITH THE RIGHT CROWD. For example, I wouldn’t play it with my wife. On the other hand, my normal gaming group LOVES it… Jay Tummelson: once again, I beg you to buy up U.S. rights from Sid and publish this thing!
People began to tire out now… in some cases, this was their 3rd late night in a row, but I was still ready to go. Greg suggested MONSTERS RAVAGE AMERICA and we went for it. This was also new to me… and I’m not sure I was entirely pleased. The components & board were better than I’d heard on r.g.b.–but the game play was pretty straightforward and a little long for what it is… Monster Dice Fest. As posted before, the Tentacle card must go… or something bad must happen with it (ie, tentacle falls off on the roll of one -use different colored die for Tentacle- and causes 1d6 damage). Essentially, Lenny’s Tentacle mutation made him almost unstoppable. Greg’s Brontosour (or whatever he was called) managed to mangle the eastern seaboard, but Peter and I kept him pinned down with Army & Air Force. My strategy of focusing on mutations didn’t work, and the other players surrounded LA with national guard units + other stuff, thus effectively shutting me out of big health rolls. Early on, I tried to knock Peter into captivity in Hollywood, but a couple of good health rolls ended that plan after I’d sacrificed a couple of turns worth of air force units on it. Oh, well. Lenny swept the Monster Showdown clean with his 3rd tentacle. (Greg & #38; Peter, I wonder if we’d have been better off to let Peter be the showdown guy… or was that Lenny’s play that kept him out? I don’t remember, it was getting late.)
Lenny; Greg 2nd; Peter 3rd; Mark 4th
>>>This is another game I wanted to like much more than I did. I used to LOVE ‘The Creature That Ate Sheboygan’ (what did I ever do with that game?!)… it’s length was MUCH more appropriate to the subject matter.
Finally, Ted, Tim & I were the only ones left (it was roughly 2:45 am)… so we dug in Frank’s pile of wild niftiness and came up with ZUM KUCKUCK! (The rules didn’t look too tough and there’d been some nice posts about it.) We should have tried this earlier in the evening… and with more players. It looks to me like there’s a very good game there, but it isn’t a 3 player game. (As you can see, Tim didn’t do so hot… it was just too darn late to make sense.)
Ted 13; Mark 10; Tim -3
>>>A twisted trick-taking game… with the nasty “pass the hands” mechanic. I need another run at this one with more than 3 players.
To bed… and back up EARLY in the morning?!?
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18TH
Greg invited me to hold a non-denominational service that morning (in “real” life, I’m the pastor of a small recently started church for people who never connected with church). Of course, with the late nights, we were the only two that showed… which turned out to be great, as we got to talk for 45 minutes about our lives and God and church and all that stuff.
After heading off to get Shari breakfast and other stuff (thanks again for the loaner, Ted), I returned and agreed to go through a test play of DIE MACHER. Note: I used to love long games, but that was some 10+ years ago when the thought of set-up taking a 1/2 hour – hour was not intimidating and/or off-putting. So, Die Macher, as you can guess, was not my cup of tea. It had lots of very nice but fiddly systems… and would require at least of couple of plays through the game to figure out what the heck was going on. (Tycoon, which I don’t like, at least becomes somewhat clear after the 1st play.) Peter did a great job of walking us through the mechanisms, but I still wasn’t clear what my objective was at the close of the 1st round. As we only finished one round (in 2 hrs), there was no winner. playing: Ted, Eric, Mark, Peter, Ty
>>>I’d rather play 2-3 games in the time it takes to play Die Macher. A beautiful game with an interesting subject, but not my idea of a good way to ‘waste’ an evening. (And, no, I’m not interested in ‘trying again’… once was enough, thank you.)
On the other hand, VOLLE HUTTE, the next game we played, was my other “FIND” of the weekend (along with Kaptian Wackelpudding). ” Full House” (the english translation of the title) is a game of restaurant management in a cafe district (where lots of eateries are close together.) Each player has a restaurant board upon which he lays 3 initially dealt tiles (the size of Entdeckerer tiles). Each board is themed–I had Mamma Mia’s, an Italian place, while Eric was on right with Cafe Le ????, a ritzy French place. The tiles are different kinds of fixtures–fine dining, terrace dining, bar, dance floor, pool table, & foosball table. Unfortunately, you only have limited space in your restaurant, so you can’t build everything you’d like. During a turn, you may either take a tile to build with (two are exposed) or take a card that sends patrons to your establishment. After 10 customers are out, you must also play an action card, which causes customers to seek another kind of amusement… for example, if they were playing pool, they are now looking for a bar. If the establishment they are in doesn’t have what they are looking for, they’ll go next door to find it! Most of the time, customers leaving pay their bill, but some action cards keep that from happening. There are also tip cards, which cause everyone’s bill to be settled and add a tip to the player using it, but those did not come into play in our game, as we used an alternate rule that required all establishments to have patrons before a tip card could be played.
Eric and I competed for the lead for most of the game, and only a very wise set of plays on his part on the last turn turned the game into a tie.
~ Mark & #38; Eric 380 (I had two dance floors); Ted 270 (Ted’s joint was one of those places with lots of terrace dining); Tim 210 (Tim concentrated on indoor seating, but we kept stealing his customers); Lenny 120 (Lenny’s place had lots of pool & foosball table)
>>>Wow! It played fast (1 hour), it was fun (tile-laying, card play, required hosing of other players, taunting each other with what nice “joints” we were building, laughing about the customers who were dropping a bundle in every place they went into)… and the game looks nice, too. Unfortunately, the current price at Funagain is $49. Ouch! Well, looks like I’ll be saving my pennies.
Greg took Ted & #38; Eric to the airport, so we awaited his return for a final game by teaching Tim & #38; Vicki ENTDECKER. Lenny started slow but built his score in the middle game, finally just closing off islands to keep anyone else from building on them. Very few big islands, as you can see from the score–and Lenny’s Entdecker chips just made his margin of victory bigger.
Lenny 37; Tim & Vicki 31 each; Mark 28
>>>Thank you, Manu Soeding, for the variant. It raises this game from an enjoyable random map-build to a tricky game of exploration. Hats off to you, Manu! I’ve this game to be one of the best to introduce non-gamers to German gaming… gorgeous components, simple strategy, but not like anything else they’ve ever played.
Greg returned… and a toss-up between MarraCash & Cheops was decided– MARRACASH. This game had not interested me from it’s description on the ‘net, but I found myself having a very enjoyable time. (This would be the correct moment to note that Greg retaught me how to teach games this weekend. His enthusiasm and encouragement to get into the spirit of the game — bad Arabian accents in MarraCash, showtunes during Showmanager, monster noises in MRA, and screaming devils in Teufel’s Kuche — help bring games to life.) Anyway, with our burnooses strapped on, we brought the market to life. Lenny ran a number of tourists to an inner shop he purchased early on, and while we valiantly fought back, we couldn’t catch him. I experimented with the balance between commissions & paying customers, and think I’d do better next time. (And isn’t that mark of a really great game? The thought that “if I’d just do this, or maybe this” next time… mulling over new options… wanting to give it another go… the game has sucked you in.)
Lenny 4700; Mark 4075; Tim 2850; Greg 2425
>>>I really enjoyed this… even if the tourists did stay away from my shops in droves. It was not only much better than I’d expected, but a very enjoyable game!
‘Nuff said. (Congratulations to those of you who’ve read this far… I’m amazed you stuck with me!)
Once again, big thanks to Greg Schloesser for his hard work and gentle spirit; to Ted Cheatham for being the crazy party monster leader that he is; for Vicki Watson providing food & drink above & beyond the call of duty; for Frank & Ty & Peter for hauling immensely valuable collections 100’s of miles for our enjoyment; to the families who put up with all this gaming… and especially my wife, Shari, who not only enjoyed herself here but wants to come back next time!
See you this spring, Gulf Gamers!