game at the HSBC. There are about 10-12 Gatherers headed to the game… Can’t wait!

Monday 4/18

Dale Yu: An early start to Monday – I guess I’m too excited about new games to play and/or the hockey game tonight.  It’s always interesting to see who is in the gameroom around 9am.  Lots of earlybirds here, as well as the insomniac West Coast group who are just wrapping up late night Tichu, Werewolf or whatever.  Still, about 35-40 gamers are up and moving in the gameroom at this hour.

Just got in a quick game of Airlines Europe. It’s like Airlines or Union Pacifoc, but better. Unlike the Scotland Yard series that I talked about yesterday, I find that each later iteration of the series gets a little better. The mechanics feel a little cleaner, and I like the fact that there is only one set of rules for the game (thus far). While UP is in my alltime top 10 games, the fact that it’s so cumbersome to setup a game of UP sometimes with discussions on how to set up the deck and then argue over how to collect UP shares

Valerie Putman:  I played Airlines Europe twice today (once with 3 players and once with 5 players).  Like Dale, UP is an all time favorite game–except for the part that no 2 game groups play with the same rules.  Airlines Europe is absolutely my UP series game of choice now.  Some of the differences I like include:
    No more track cards–instead money is used to limit your expansion.
    When you expand, the increase in value is not the same–the more expensive the addition, the more value it adds to the airline.
    You can build 2 links in a turn
    There is no monopoly bonus (an award for 1st and 2nd place)
    There are only 3 scoring rounds
    You must turn in shares for the AA shares (the equivalent of UP shares)–a common variant in UP.  But…here you can turn in 1 share for 1 AA or 2 shares for 3 AA.  Also, you can turn those shares in from your hand or from the shares played to the table in previous turns.  If no one has challenged your 6 share lead in the green airline (named after FF of course–they are all named after game companies), you can turn in a couple of them for AA shares.  Also, when people get desperate (or cocky), they risk turning in too many and end game takeovers become possible.
    Overall impression?  Airlines Europe is the new Union Pacific and I’m thrilled.

Tom Rosen

first time at the gathering and first time typing on an ipad.  Its a morning of firsts.  Even more so, 9 games played for the first time in the first day.  Some of them were older like zendo and inklings.  But the newer ones i will talk about a little.
first up was cargo noir.  Not a whole lot there, but its pretty and playing confirmed sdj potential.  Round and round auctions got a bit tiresome, and some predetermined potentially necessary buildup is worrisme.  
Mondo was one i was excited to try since i tend to love speed based puzzley grabbing games, like factory fun, ubongo, and galaxy trucker.  Mondo is in that fine, but im not so sure about it now.  Except that it seems very likely to get sdj nominated.  Even on the advanced and expert level the games seemed possible too simple.  Not really simple, but lacking depth and replayability.  These feelings on cargo noir and mondo just confirm their sdj potential.
Artus up next and sadly another strike out even tho Alea and kramer and kiesling.  I wanted to like it and liked some elements, but it was so chaotic, and there was essentially no reason to pay any attention on someone elses turn.  Could make more sense as a two player game but with more its a prettty sillu exercise.  
die burgen von burgund, finally a game to dig my teeth into.  The newest Feld Alea combo is very interesting.  Will take more plays to see if it has staying power, but some here have already played upwads of five times which is great sign.  Another Feld Alea using dice in an interesting way, but less infuriating than Macao thankfully and harder decisions.
puzzles strike followed – bag of chips.  A game that is such a Dominion clone that it makes Thunderstone look like a very distant relative of Dominion.  The mechanics, the terminology, and the boredome have all been repackaged in a shiny pink box.  I’ll still pass.
but ending the day with the fabulous String Railway was a treat.  Wish i could track down a copy of this awesome, funky, quirky Japanese rail game.  
now it’s time for my third game of Luna – its really growing on me…

— Apologies for the formatting.. there are some serious connectivity issues here, and I’m just trying to get something up on the blog today.  No pictures either – it’s taking forever just to get text up!