JeffCon 2016 Recap

We held the annual JeffCon up at Jeff's cabin at Lake Kachess last weekend.  We always bring a mix of old classics and new games to try out.  Here are some of the games we played this year:

• Colt Express - This was the 2015 Spiel des Jahres winner and I was excited to play it.  I wasn't expecting a pre-programmed move game, which I typically don't enjoy.  For what it is, it works well.  I enjoyed the random nature of the game, but also found it incredibly frustrating.  Part of the fun is the 3D cutout train, but I found it hard to see what was inside each car and would have preferred a normal board.  
• Deception: Hong Kong - This is a social deduction game where the players need to pick a pair of cards out from a huge supply.  One of the players is assigned to be the murderer and selects two of his or her cards to be the targets.  There is a overseer who presents clues to the team so they can pick out the cards.  It was fun (and we were successful in finding the items most of the time), but the game could be much faster and straightforward than the rules as written.
• Isle of Skye - This is a game I already reviewed.  I still enjoy it - good length of time, and hard decisions to make.  My only complaint is that if you make some bad decisions on bid prices early, it can be hard to recover.  However, the game does have a built in benefit if you are behind, which really helps.  On turn one, I had two great tiles, but each were purchased after my time to buy, so I ended up with no new tiles.  I did get extra cash, but was still playing catch up for the rest of the game
• Dark Moon - I was hoping this could be a faster-playing Battlestar Galactica, but so far, it has been hard to replicate the fun associated with the old classic.  It feels a little clunky, but I'm hoping to get a full game as we needed to cut the last game off early.
• Stockpile - This was the highlight of Jeffcon gaming this year.  This stock trading game is fast, fun, with good decisions.  It has some clever mechanics, and a great bidding mechanism.  It might replace Acquire as my favorite stock trading game.  The bidding phase makes the game really fun and interesting - there is bluffing and hard decisions to make.  My only suggestion would be a bidding mechanic for the character selections - I think some of the roles are more powerful than others.

Isle of Skye

A few weekends ago Sund brought Isle of Skye, a tile-laying game from Mayfair Games, to our gamenight.  Not being a huge fan of Carcassonne, I was a little suspect.  However, there is much more going on in this 2-5 player game than the simple old classic.  I very much enjoyed how the scoring worked and what really made the game fun was the auction phase, where you have to make very difficult decisions on what price to place on two of your tiles.  Too high of a bid and you are forced to buy your own over-priced tile.  Too low, and another player gets a great deal.  The end game is frantic and even with all of us making some early less-than-optimal decisions while learning the rules, the score was quite close at the end.  With the myriad of different scoring options and tile placement, you will have a unique game each time.  I'm looking forward to playing it again.

Star Wars: Rebellion

This morning Strom came over for a morning game session to try out our first game of Star Wars: Rebellion from Fantasy Flight Games.  I was the Empire and Strom was the Rebellion.  We used the Quick Start rules to quickly jump into the game.

Strategy - My strategy was to split the map in half and have one large force on each side of the map capable of destroying the Rebel Base, once located.  I would concentrate on running through the Probe Droid deck to try and quickly locate the Rebel Base.

Early Game - General Rieekan had been captured and frozen in carbonite on Mandalore.  We both recruited leaders and slowly built up our forces.  Strom never got Obi-Wan during the game and only received Han and Chewie just before mid-game.

Mid Game - There was a failed attempt by the Rebels to blow up the first Death Star.  Luke was completing his Jedi training with Yoda on Dagobah, while far overhead the planet Moff Jerjerrod was overseeing the building of the second Death Star.  Chewbacca was captured after completing a mission on Malastare, but did not succumb to my attempt at turning him to Dark Side....

End Game - With the second Death Star completed, I now had two armed and fully operational Death Stars.  I had winnowed down the possible locations of the Rebel Base to one of three systems:  Dantooine (in lower left section of the board), Tatooine, or Ryloth (which were both in the upper right section of the board).  I only needed to send my forces to find the Rebel Base and destroy it.  Meanwhile, the Rebel forces were assembling at Naboo, while my large Imperial fleet at Dagobah prepared for an attack on the Rebel fleet.

Dantooine was taken... only to find no Rebel activity on the planet!  The Rebel Base was on Tatooine or Ryloth.  However, it was too late - the Rebel forces and their expert diplomacy has taken their toll. The game ended, the Rebellion successful at persuading the galaxy that the time of the Empire was at its end.

Summary - In all, we had a fun time.  Setup took about a half-hour, but the game itself was almost four hours to complete.  We found that combat really slowed down the game, especially the Tactics cards, which seemed a little fiddly.  However, the game is cinematic, fun, and oozes theme, (Star Wars music playing in the background is a must).  I look forward to re-reading the rules and seeing what I missed for our next session.

Moff Jerjerrod oversaw the construction of a second Death Star over Dagobah.

General Rieekan was captured early in the game on Mandalore, and later frozen in Carbonite.

Wedge bested Admiral Piett over Geonosis.

General Veers versus "General... Madine" on Ord Mantell.  Veers won this one.

I captured Chewbacca after his sabotage mission, but failed to turn him to the Dark Side....

Both fleets prepared for a great battle that never ended up happening.

I took Dantooine, but found no Rebel Base!

End game - the Rebel Base ended up being on Ryloth - in the upper right of the map....

Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game

We played Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game last weekend.  It is a four player card game (with dice) from Fantasy Flight Games.  We only got about 75% through it since it was the last game we started and it was getting late.  I played the Warrior Priest, my character from the original Warhammer Quest back from the 1990s.  I even brought out my old miniature to hang out while we played....  The game is fun and similar to other card/dice combination games from Fantasy Flight, such as Blood Bowl: Team Manager or the Space Hulk: Death Angel card game.  We got down the mechanics and are ready to go for our next gaming session.