Over the 8 days that I was at the Gathering of Friends, I managed to get in 74 games.  And, no I did not plan that.  When you take out short fillers (less than 15 minutes), the total comes down to around 50ish games played.  Generally, when I am at the Gathering, my goals are to play as many of the new games as I can get to as well as finishing up my “to play” list from the previous Essen.  After that, I like to spend time looking at the new prototypes of the games to come in the next Essen crop.  I was able to play almost everything there that was new to me (I wasn’t able to get to the new Queen games as I couldn’t ever find them).

I also had another goal of playing/demoing Suburbia, the new game from Bezier Games that I happen to be the developer of.  We had the chance to show the game to a number of foreign publishers, and I think that it was well received by them – as well as from the gamers who tried it.

Here is the list of what I played…

Thurs 4/12
Suburbia
Tichu
Wizard extreme
Zooloretto wurfelspiel

[The first day was a little slow – not many people were here until dinnertime, and there was a bunch of setup going on to boot!  I did have the honor of playing the first game in the ballroom with Suburbia.]

Friday 4/13
Wizard
Suburbia
Keltis wurfelspiel
Bohnaza wurfelspiel
Two by Two
Dr. Shark

Sat 4/14
Suburbia
Santa Cruz
Last will
Wurfel Bohnaza
Zooloretto wurfelspiel
Wanzen tanzen
Unpublished Prototype A x 3
Unpublished Prototype B
Sun 4/15
5 vor 12
Unpublished Prototype B
5 vor 12 x 3 plays
Famous forehand
Unpublished Prototype A x 2
Unpublished Prototype B x 3
Unpublished Prototype A
Dragon rampage

Monday
Rapa Nui
Kissenschlacht x 2 games
Wanzen tanzen
Hunt and peck: proto by brad fuller
Neighborhood Planner: proto by luke hedgren
Arabesque: proto by Jonathan Franklin
Pix
Einauge sei wachsam
Rapa nui
Africana
Werewolf
6 nimmt
Santa Cruz

Tuesday
Mayan Ages: proto by CGE
Santa Cruz
Aqualeia
Das labyrinth des minotaurus
Ringo flamingo
Kissenschlacht
Dungeon star
Waka waka
Indigo
5 vor 12
Kreuz & quer
Lords of waterdeep

Wednesday
Pizza theory
Guild
Village
Kalimambo
Vegas
Mare balticum
Famous forehand
Famous fastball
Famous fairways
Famous 500
Famous first downs
Le patissier
Pret a porter
Guild

Thursday
Africana
Famous fairways
Famous forehand

Friday
Fremde Federn (Friday)

So, as you can see, there was a distinct tendency towards the new-ish, though a few oldies snuck in.  I’m going to try to fit some time in this week at work to talk a bit about the new games.