Well, after a perfect storm of complications including: laptop issues, Internet connectivity issues, lack of sleep and a serious lack of free time – I’m finally getting a chance to write a bit about my week here at the Gathering of Friends in lovely* Niagara Falls, New York.

I will hopefully be able to file short reports for the rest of my time here (through Friday afternoon), and I’m also hoping that the other writers will be able to chime in either during the week or when they get home.

I arrived here last Thursday morning, and I was amongst the first people to arrive here.  So early, in fact, that when I set up my games, they were the first games to be placed in the ballroom!

Here are my lonely games:

For those of you unfamiliar with how the Gathering works, there is a huge ballroom with long tables around the outside.  All of the invitees bring games from their own collections, and leave them on said tables.  Gamers then can peruse the stacks and choose anything they want to play.  When they are done, they simply return the game to where they found it.

Here’s what some of the tables look like when they’re full. Imagine about 20-30 pictures worth of this to complete the outside of the ballroom

So, in later posts, I’ll talk a bit more about the touristy stuff and some of the games I played earlier in the week.

But while I’m trying to make sure that my connection works, let me just start the posts with what I’m doing right now… playing one of the new prototypes from Czech Games Edition – Mayan Age.

I’ll leave the full description and review to Tom Rosen – who has already planned another roundup of the new Czech games after the Gathering.

But, in short… It’s a worker placement / resource collection game.  Oh, and did I mention that the gears move?! Check it out here!

OK. this is short because I want to make sure that the system works. More later!

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor