Welcome Back Me

This is how blogging works apparently. You get wrapped up in other things in life while your blog starts to just sit around, waiting patiently for you to reappear.

I guess I'm going to try to once again get back into the swing of blogging about my boardgame experiences!

Most recently, I've gotten really into trying to get good at Agricola. I was able to play two games of it this week online with this fantastic website: http://www.boiteajeux.net/ while using Ventrilo to voice chat the other players. What a fun way to play! We played with draft so it took a bit longer to play than usual. I came in third in one and second in the other, which I was happy with since these were more experienced players than I usually play against.

Last week the TotalCon people had a one-day event at the same hotel TotalCon is in February. I got to play a game of Tigris & Euphrates which I hadn't play in a LONG time. Rob K. barely beat me - if the final conflict of the game had worked out, I would have squeaked by him. I played the new Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small, which was cute but not that interesting. I got to play Andy in Labyrinth and I clearly still am not sure how to win with the Jihadists.

Andy then taught me and two others The Castles of Burgundy. I liked it but didn't love it, and would be psyched to play it again. Andy's assessment that it's a bit long in playtime for what it is seemed on the mark to me. You don't really get a sense of building up - there's a lot of sameness over the game, but it has some cool mechanics and ideas. It enters the category of "Euros that I might consider buying, but I'm not convinced yet" alongside Egizia and Macao.

I also got in a game of Puerto Rico with Andy, Richard, and his son Rich. I took it home with unopposed coffee leading into a maximized Guild Hall. A good warm-up game in case I can squeeze some heats of Puerto Rico in at the upcoming WBC.

The week before that was SNEWFest, a yearly get together for an all day wargaming extravaganza. I'll put a retroactive report on that up here some time soon!

Also, I am currently at the WBC and decided to play Through the Ages instead of Paths of Glory or Hannibal. I'll report on my two games of TTA later tonight!
 

Chris