Tabletop Day

I realize I didn't get a post up in advance of International Tabletop Day this year, but I did head to my FLGS to participate.  And I had a great time.

I got to play Deus (which has reportedly gone out of print, which is a shame), with the Egypt expansion (which I really like).  I won by one point. It was a very close game, and my opponents seemed to enjoy it. It's a light tableau-builder with minimal direct player interaction. The expansion adds more interaction, but doesn't make it overly-complicated like so many expansions do.

We followed that with a game of Splendor.  I don't know if I've discussed it much here before, but Splendor is one of those games that is simple enough to serve as a gateway game but that has enough meat to it that experienced gamers won't be completely bored off of their rockers.  I never do well at this game.

Well, usually.  On Saturday, I won pretty big. I scored eight points in one turn to trigger the endgame, and I was ten points ahead of second place.

And I wrapped that up with a game of Tokaido.  I know I haven't mentioned that one here before, but it's another of those painfully simple games that has just enough strategy to keep it entertaining. I lost this one. Badly.

Many thanks to Fantasium for hosting the event. I was afraid that no game store after Phoenix would feel like home, and they have really stepped up. And they did it without doing anything specifically for me - I just needed to warm up to them.  This is extra-weird for me to say, because they're not a "focused" game store. They're a comic book store with a (growing and good) game section. Honestly, it's the first time I've seen a combo store like that that has handled the game part of the equation well.

The day after ITTD, I was able to talk Steph into playing Guild Ball with me. We didn't get through a full game, but that game is really growing on me. To the point where I had to tell Steph that she is in charge of the Guild Ball expenditures in the house, because I will spend all the moneys on it.  It's fun. I'll be writing more about it at another time, I think.