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| Designer Ta-Te Woo |
A longer second day at the convention as it was Saturday, but fewer games played as I spent a lot of time at the flea market and chatting with others. I did get to spend some time with Ta-Te Woo, another game designer who is from here locally in Southern Cal and attends some of the SoCal Playtesters group that I have attended. He has a current game on Kickstarter (a groupfunding site) called The Battle of Red Cliffs and I was able to play some of that. It is a card game where you try to match sets of different numbers and colors on cards, and you keep one card from each set for a final scoring in each round to help you move up different levels. Fairly simple with some strategy, but not too exciting and I didn't feel in control of my choices. Also completely abstract with no real connection to the theme which is a let-down for me. In the little tournament we played I did ribbon by coming in first place.
I was able to play a game that I actually purchased last year and have always wanted to play but never found the time, the 2006 Spiel des Jahres award winner Thurn and Taxis. What better way to learn than to enter an official tournament for it! Thankfully they took 10 minutes to explain how to play, and I could tell I was among grizzled veterans. The guy running the tournament tried to help me with my first turn, but I caught on pretty quick and could manage. The game has you creating postal routes of a specific city length in the 17th century in Europe. You must create them by collecting city cards and placing postal houses in lengths from 3-7 and collect various bonuses due to regional colors and combinations. I was pretty aggressive and surprised them by winning and ending the game quicker than they thought. I moved onto the finals and took 2nd place overall! The game is not too complex, but more meaty than Ticket to Ride. I'm glad that I have it!
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| Beginning my winning route |
Due to my run at T&T, I missed out on the Village tournament I wanted to be in. But I did get to play another game that I own, but have not played, Antione Buaza'a Mystery Express. I thought it was like Clue, but I was wrong, and Antione was there to teach us. It is a deductive game where you need to solve a murder on a train, but you need to find out who, where, with what, why (motive) and even the time! It uses some good mechanics in tracking cards by you selecting actions on each leg of the journey. It actually plays pretty smooth, I had the most trouble with the time part. I actually did pretty well and tied for second.
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