CombsCon 2009

Hi all,

Allan, Joshua, Mike, and Scott got together on Saturday to eat bad food and play bad games... er, that is to say, play games badly. We got in five board games, and played exactly *one* of them without blowing at least one major rule. That's right, wicked experienced gamers mess up basic rules and throw the entire session into chaos; film at eleven. Oh well, when will we learn the most often given advice on this blog: "Read the rules!"

Anyhow, our first game was just with Allan, Joshua, and Scott (Mike was on a conference call). We played Caribbean, a light little game where you have pirate ships pick up and then deliver plundered booty. Seemed simple enough, with only a page and a half of rules, so what's to mess up, right? Well, turns out that in addition to getting paid for delivering the booty, you are supposed to get paid for picking it up! I guess that's what we get for being pirates.

It only took an hour, Allan won:

Allan 32

Scott 26

Joshua 24

The three of us promised to play it again by the actual rules. It was the first of many promises to be ignored on the day.

When Mike joined us, we tried The Pillars of the Earth, where you play builders in medieval England, trying to construct the most beautiful cathedral in the world. It started out well, with advice from the most experienced player simply not working out and lots of hilarity at bogus random events and such. Wasn't until the end that we realized that the most precious commodity in the game, metal, *cannot* be purchased at the market. But by then, it was too late -- and Allan had such a store of metal that the rest of us couldn't even benefit when the king decided to hand some out.

The outcome was preordained, and Allan converted that metal store into a four-point victory:

Allan 51

Joshua 47

Scott 45

Mike 44

Having blown a second game, we decided to play The Pillars of the Earth again, this time with the proper rules. Allan got seriously hosed by bad randomness. You don't roll dice in this game, but it was like hitting snake eyes four rounds in a row. Somehow he overcame that to come back strong. But Joshua edged Scott out for the Glassblower, and rode that to a shocking come-from-behind victory:

Joshua 50

Mike 46

Allan 43

Scott 37

Having seen enough of this game, we agreed on Power Grid next, a game of power plants that had us mostly sitting in the dark. You see, there's an auction for new plants, and for most of the game, when the auction ends you move the highest priced plant to the bottom of the deck. This guarantees that you don't get too much power capacity or spend too much money early in the game. Except, of course, when you are us and you forget to do it.

So in our version of the game, Joshua had three permanent plants before we finished a third of the game, and when we realized it, there was just no way to correct it. We concede the game to Joshua, though I am not counting it as a win. It was just too egregious of an error, so sorry Joshua, you'll have to forgo the victory on this one. Maybe we'll give *two* wins to whomever claims victory in our next game of Power Grid... the one where we READ THE RULES before starting :(

Next up, Starfarers of Catan, the space version of the classic Settlers of Catan. Starfarers has some of the coolest bits of any game in existence. Space ships that accept expansion boosters, lasers, freight rings, and fame rings. Very cool looking and very well thought out. So you might ask what mistake we made here. Well, in the very first turn, I was instructed to play without getting my free resource and without rolling for additional resources. So when I had to face a challenge, I decided not to give a resource (since I had so little) and my ships were grounded. They corrected Joshua when he did the same as I had done, but never went back to redo my turn -- which hamstrung me from the beginning.

There is some controversy about whether or not that constitutes a rules violation; but if they'd made Joshua go with his mistake I could have accepted it. But when he got a do-over... well, I vowed to use the blog to get my final say.

The game itself was a lot of fun, and even though he didn't realize it until we pointed it out, Joshua ended up winning:

Joshua 15

Allan 14

Mike 10

Scott 10

So all-in-all that is two victories for Joshua and two for Allan -- and a totally botched game of Power Grid. We never did get back to Caribbean, but who cares. If the rest of the day was any indication, we would have botched that one, too.

Besides, the best part of the day was the food -- that's all that really counted. Allan brought homemade salsa and the planet's best root beer, Capt'n Eli's. Scott brought homemade chocolate cookie dough and cooked it up during Starfarers. And Mike provided dinner. Of course, all Joshua handed out was ass-whippings, but that's about what we expect when playing with him.

A big "thank you" to our hosts, Mike & Anne. I had a great time and hope others did, too.

- Scott

PS. I updated the Overall Victories tote board.

The CombsCon Email that Started it All

In 1997, some of the gaming crew and I considered a trip to the annual AvalonCon board gaming convention in Baltimore. But after reading the game schedule and closely inspecting hotel prices, etc., Mike sent an email, and that is how it alllllll started.

Subject: CombsCon 1997

Does taking 3 days off work and flying to Baltimore for gaming sound fun but hard to justify to your boss?

Were you disappointed to find that in three days at AvalonCon you'd only get to play 5 games you really liked?

Do you have better things to do with your money than pay for airfare and a hotel?

Try the local alternative: CombsCon!

Conveniently located in Cambridge, CombsCon 1997 offers more!
-- More gaming time
-- Less time away
-- More of the games you want to play
-- Less expensive (no fee, no travel time)
-- Gaming celebrities, including:
---- Scott O'Neil, star of the infomercial "Make a million with the
Canadian Pacific RR"
---- Allan "I never rolled a 6, unless it was bad" Wright
---- Mike Combs, master of lose-lose negotiating

WHEN:
Friday, August 1st at 9am through Saturday, at midnight. 39 Hours!

WHAT:
Games! Each attendee gets to name the games they want to play for a 4 hour period.
LaserTag! We'll go Friday AM for the discount rate, and longer play times.
Bolo! Bring your Mac for a massive network Bolo session.
Food! Lori has offered to create a special treat.

HOW:
Tell your boss now that you're taking next Friday off.
Send everyone on this list an email to confirm.
Let me know if you want to stay the night.
Bring a six-pack of your favorite beer.

See you there!
--
Mike Combs

When replying with great enthusiasm for CombsCon, some of us showed off our ultra-geeky signature files.

Mike:

"How will it end?" -- Centauri Emperor
"In fire" -- Ambassador Kosh
==== don't miss babylon 5 ====

Allan:

You fell victim to one of the 'classic' blunders!

Scott:

"WE must play some time."
"Certainly we must -- by POST!"
- Live from the Green Dome...

Then began a debate over whether to play certain games.

Joshua: I'm in (as long as we try to get at least some sleep).
PS. So are we going to play a few Dune games a few Railroad games and Bolo or are we going to try to squeeze in one game of Civilization?

Mike: If your requirement is that we get some sleep, then we probably can't play Civilization. CombsCon 1997 is only 39 hours long, you know. Actually, Scott has a new game, Age of Renaisance (sp), which is supposed to be Civilization with the rules improved.

I'd also like to play a game of Republic of Rome. Every time I go to a
game shop and tell them which kind of games we like to play, they
recommend RoR. The game deserves another chance.

Scott: This would be a great opportunity to play Age of Wren-Uh-Sance (sp?), if anyone wants to set aside 4 hours to try it out. It'll probably take longer than that to play, but if it's any good, we could just continue with it. I'll bring it, in any case.

Allan: I've seen Age of Renaissance played at a con - I'm interested in trying it.

Mike: I bought Air Baron today. Here's a list of games we own, that we haven't played much, that are worth revisiting:
* Air Baron
* Age of Renuhsawnce
* Ransom
* Mediteranian
* Republic of Rome
* Lords of the Sierra Madres (Just like RoR, people keep recommending this highly. With the rules clarifications Allan found, we should try it again sometime.)
* Speed Circuit (well, i thought i'd try to sneak this in)

Allan: Don't forget Eurorails!

Then the celebrity guests chimed in.

I'm proud to be one of the celebrity guests at the inaugural CombsCon, and even prouder to announce that I've chosen CombsCon 1997 to preview my new 1830 book: "Why It's Called 'The Erie': Strategies that Win You Praise When You Lose the Game." Program note: during the autograph sessions, I do NOT sign body parts.
-- Scott "Make a million with the Canadian Pacific RR" O'Neil

Well, I went to HistoriCon, gamed for three days straight with 'normal' luck (instead of my usual bad luck), wow what a great three days... The van I rented for the trip died in the middle of the Tappan-Zee bridge at 5:00 in the middle on Sunday rush hour traffic. We had to get three rental cars and leave the heap in NY. I was supposed to get home at 8:00 p.m. but instead got in at 3:00 a.m. the next day. Looks like my Karma is back in balance now.
- Allan "I never rolled a 6, unless it was bad" Wright

The first deal of the 'Con was struck.

Mike: Allan, please bring me two six-packs of Oregon IPA at NH prices. I'll reimburse you. (Unless you'd like to die roll for it.)

Allan: I'll gladly do that and import additional beer at NH prices upon request.

One of the core crew bailed out, but still made a contribution.

Mike B: Mike, It's wonderful you're doing this. I must, reluctantly, stay away and work. I hope to hear stories. I have Republic of Rome here. If you need it, just let me know and I'll drop it by on Thursday evening or Friday.

Mike: Yes, can I get RoR from you? Drop it off whenever is convenient. If you pick Thursday evening and we're not home, put it on the back porch. Do not try to slide it through the mail slot. The SlobberDog thinks that everything that comes through the slot should be treated as food.

And with all that, we were off and running. IIRC, I was less than three weeks away from a new job, so taking that Friday meant saying I was too sick to work -- though I wanted to say I was too *well* to work :) -- and then giving my notice less than a week later.

Over the years, we not only learned how to spell "Renaissance", but the group morphed from gaming every other weekend to occasional mini-convention style gaming. CombsCon 1997 was the first of many of these, and I'll post what information I have about them, including who won the 'Con and updates to the Overall Victories tally.

Our History in Boardgames

Some friends and I have been gaming off-and-on for the past 12 years. Mostly board games, some video games, and a few online games. I unearthed the 30 or so boardgame summaries I wrote in 1996 and 1997, when we first started up.

I've posted them here, and here for your viewing pleasure. Please excuse the crudity of my writing (and the few typos) -- I was busy writing less important stuff... like college papers and grant proposals :)

I'll have more about our history as gamers and gaming together. I've kept track of many of our gaming sessions over the years, though I did not write updates at the time. But I'll be able to give you a general flavor and some impressions/thoughts about when we were able to game.

And of course, I'll keep a running "Overall Wins" list (see the sidebar), to keep those competitive juices flowing!

(Note: the "Overall Wins" list only includes games and gaming sessions posted to the blog. As I fill in more games, Joshua's seemingly insurmountable lead will vanish -- trust me!)

CombsCon 1997

As detailed in the email, we convened at Mike's house at 9:00 am on 8/1/1997 for the inaugural CombsCon. Mike surprised us with T-shirts in honor of our first 'Con, with a 1997 CombsCon logo, shown in photo. (Note: I made the *ultimate* sacrifice to get this picture -- I pulled out the ironing board to make sure it wasn't wrinkled. Now *that* is commitment!)

Joshua showed up first, so after he and Mike finished their game of Twisted Metal 2 (for the original PlayStation), Joshua had the honor of choosing the first game of our first 'Con. Ironic indeed that he chose Mediterranee, because he refuses to play it any more. Something about Mike blockading him in his home port... but who really remembers these things?

The game has some cool pieces, but the initial setup and reading through the rules gave us a 10:00 start time. Allan made the first bad pun at 10:40 ("Always keep a sailor in your galley or you sink, which would be a 'Titanic' mistake."), and after three hours, Mike said, "You know, after every move, I realize I screwed *that* one up, too!" And in what would become a running theme with us, it took us almost five hours to play a game that takes most human beings two.

In the end, Allan skimmed out a win over Scott ($18,000 to $16,500), with Mike and Joshua totally checked out and playing Twisted Metal in the other room. Come to think of it, that's yet another running theme -- but more on that later.

At 3:45, Scott chose RoboRally, a very cool game that involves strategy, luck, and skill -- something we were sorely lacking. In the middle of the first move, at 3:52, Mike exclaimed "Oh shit," so I think it wasn't going well for him. Not much detail except that Scott got to the flag first, followed by Joshua. But Joshua won because his robot pushed Scott's off the board before the end of the turn. Strangely enough, that's yet *another* running theme :)

We moved right into Ransom (Allan's choice -- more bitter irony, if you ask me), a card game where you try to make money building some of the skyscrapers in New York. Emphasis on "try to." You start with $50 million, and often our winners have ended the game with less than that. Guess it's a good thing none of us went into real estate development. Anyhow, halfway through the game (at 5:25), Joshua said to Allan, "$40 million?! That's like *all* my profit." Allan's rejoinder: "That's Ransom!" Naturally, those two ended up third and fourth. Scott crushed the competition, winning by 44% over the next competitor with $95 million (Mike had $66 million, Joshua had $59 million, Allan $41 million).

At 6:00, we played another round of Ransom. This time we read the rules first and were impressed that we were only breaking two or three of them in the first game. However, the result was the same, Scott won with $110 million, and Mike ($96 million), Joshua ($72 million), and Allan (still stuck on $41 million) marveling at his real estate empire. Maybe the point is only *I* could be a real estate developer :P

At 7:20, we started a game of Settlers of Catan, which has too much die-rolling for Allan's taste. At 7:21, Mike regretted his first move :( At 7:55, Allan promised revenge against Joshua for setting the Robber on him. And the Robber obliged by coming three turns in a row -- ending up on Joshua, Joshua, and then Allan. By 8:30, Mike almost had it won, and was naturally shunned for it. He did pull out the win a few turns later, just eking by Allan 10 to 9. Joshua and Scott pitched a heated battle for last, with Scott ending up at 5 to Joshua's 6.

9:30 pm, and we made our first critical mistake. Never start a game of Eurorails that late at night, especially if you aren't playing the "fast game." By 11:00 the board was a bloody, multi-colored mess, and by midnight, Mike, Allan, and Joshua had fallen so far behind that they were playing tag-team Twisted Metal between turns. That was sort of annoying, though it did give Joshua a chance to say, "I love this, Allan. You're so much easier to kill than Mike!" The end was long, slow, and inevitable: Scott $280 million, Allan $124 million, Mike $108 million, and Joshua $102 million.

It was 2:00, and the sane among us (Joshua and Scott) headed off to sleepyland. But being the gluttons of the group, Mike and Allan played Air Baron until 3:30. Then they quit for the night, satisfied with 7 games in 17 hours.

Day Two (8/2/1997) began with a 10:00 game of Ransom, which Joshua won with $106 million (to Allan's $96 million, Scott's $95 million, and Mike's $86 million). It seemed we were getting the hang of that game, as all the scores were higher and closer together. So of course, we never played it again during the 'Con.

Then we tried Lords of the Sierra Madre, starting at 11:00. I don't know who called for the game, but we tried it multiple times over the years. It was expensive, and we kept hearing how great it was. But by 11:45, Mike was crying out for a mercy kill of the game, and Allan declared, "Lords wins again!" We just never got that game. Something about our competitiveness or maybe a misinterpretation of the rules. But it seemed that no matter what, no one was allowed to make any money except the Ruales and strikers. Whatever the case, if you want to pick up a copy cheap, make us an offer.

Allan won a one-hour game of Air Baron, and Mike said he didn't want to play that game again. As you can see, we were slowly whittling down the games we would play.

We then played a few games of Speed Circuit, a racing game that is much, *much* better when played without the Chance Table. But at this point, we still used that aberration, which puts a lot of luck into the game. Interestingly, with more luck involved, Allan won two games, with he and Joshua each winning on the Monza track and Allan taking the rubber match on the Monaco track. Note: Mike and Scott struggled to finish the races, with each failing to do so once. I'd blame that on luck, but it might sound like sour grapes. So congratulations to the winners -- here's hoping you injure yourselves in the post-race celebration ;)

Mike and Allan tied on the final game, a five-hour marathon of Mediternee, with $11,500 each; while Joshua and Scott tied for last with $8,000 apiece.

Allan was declared CombsCon 1997 Champion, and the final victory totals were as follows:

Allan 4.5
Joshua 3
Scott 3
Mike 2.5

And that was about it for CombsCon. If we'd gone to AvalonCon, it would have cost hundreds of dollars each and we would have gotten in five or six games. The totals for CombsCon 1997:

26 hours of gaming
13 games
no offensive smell from un-bathed geeks
hundreds of dollars saved
Countless bad puns

It was one hell of a good time for all involved, in fact, more fun than I could possibly convey here. For proof, consider this post-CombsCon 1997 email:

Mike, Anne, Joshua and Scott,

I just wanted to drop a quick E-mail to all of you to let you know how
much I enjoyed getting out for the weekend and gaming - what a blast! Great
company, food, games and T-shirts that will draw the envy of every GQ model
out there!

Sorry I faded towards the end - I can truely say we gamed until I dropped
this time!

See you all in the sand,
Allan

See you in the sand... man, we never played Dune!!

BTW, Check the Overall Victories tally now, and you'll see that Joshua's 4 victory lead is down to 3.5 victories. Trust me, that will dwindle more as we go along -- I believe Allan won the first three 'Cons we held!

Priceless Game (5/31/1997)

Players: Allan, Joshua, Mike, Scott

Three games of Priceless; three winners; and the gaming gods smiled on Scott, dealing out two cards and a coin and facilitating a trade (with Mike) for another of each. Mike was stuck with antiques (expensive at game's beginning), Joshua and Allan with nothing connected, in fact, Allan passed his first turn to better his hand. A lot of trading in this game, and to the betterment of most players. Scott vaulted to an early lead, with Mike a bit behind and the rest of the riff-raff on the fringe, but around mid-game, Joshua caught Scott in points, and Allan started stringing together a collection of toys and cars. Mike rounded out his antique collection, but had to split his team and built in pewter next, whereas Joshua invested in timepieces and musical instruments (with a possible connection to artwork). Scott's luck extended to jewlery, but when he and Mike bid against each other on diamonds, it was clear nothing was going to come easily for the rest of the game. Opposition on gold coins cost Scott too, and Allan looked formidable with a three-category chain and checks galore. When Allan went for 1890s toys to end the game (last frame), he scooped up mega-points (somewhere in the 40 neighborhood -- nice neighborhood, I've always thought), and that put him over the top for the game. Final tally was something like Allan $1.3million, Scott 1.2, Mike 1.05, and Joshua 850,000. Thus was broken the symmetry that the gaming gods had devised for the night, and I'm sure Allan will suffer great losses in the future for shunning their obvious wishes. BTW, good game, Al.

A word from our winner Allan
"This win had more than a little luck involved. A last minute blackmail of Scott had him giving me the fourth toy (for my final frame) to keep me out of bidding for Chineese coins. He would probably have won if he could have just outbid me or stuck me with the bogus coin. But to the tip: I took my first turn as a pass to avoid having to spend 2 checks to get my game started and get my check value up. The 2 cards I pulled allowed me to trade for what I needed to make a chain in a non-contested part of the board. Sacrifice whatever you have to to save checks. If you can build slower, but still make good purchases without spending checks, do so. My extra checks. Sacrifice whatever you have to to save checks. If you can build slower, but still make good purchases without spending checks, do so. My extra checks really paid off in the end."

Scott's words to live by:
- Next up, Combscon 1997!!!

Settlers of Catan Game (5/31/1997)

Players: Allan, Joshua, Mike, Scott

You never saw the number 5 so many times in a two-dice Settlers game -- Mike and Allan being the main beneficiaries of that odd twist of luck. Allan drew four special cards before anyone built anything, and when the building began, Mike went for the longest road. Joshua and Scott waited and waited for the dice to come up anything but 5 (seemed like eternity), but when it finally began happening, most roadways were clogged and the best areas were developed. Joshua went for cities, with Scott desperately trying for longest road and a 3-fer port; meanwhile, Allan and Mike had two cities each and enough sheep to keep them company for many a winter, and when it became obvious the battle lay there, Joshua and Scott tried to help Allan (after all, Mike won Speed Circuit). However, when that strategy failed to help Allan, the two leaders were left pretty much on their own. Mike went after the largest army, got another settlement (which hindered Allan's progress) and appeared to be on the way. But Allan just had too many cards, and when he finally built the settlement he was after, he revealed 3 victory points in his hand and that was game. Mike had 8 or 9 points, Joshua 6, and Scott a paltry 4. Says here that Allan is now a legitimate threat in dice rolling games -- won one a few weeks back, too. Will the Earth ever be safe again?

A word from our winner Allan

"The moon was full, Jupiter aligned with Venus, the tide was high and I was scorched, some thought from the fires of hell when I made my deal with the devil: 2 wins in one night? I could get struck by lightning any minute now! "I'd like to revise my previous tip of looking for settlements that produce groups of commodities that work together (like wood and brick) to specificly any combination of your first two settlements that produce ore, grain and sheep. I was lucky that my cards drawn were heavy on the VP type of cards, but I still see the cards as the fastest way to get victory points. There's the often unclaimed largest army bonus in there plus the knights to move the thief for you. I got about the same number of resources that everyone else did, but while they were building roads I was hording advancement cards. I think I pulled 7 or 8 before I won."

Speed Circuit Game #2 (5/31/1997)

Players: Allan, Joshua, Mike, Scott

Second game of Speed Circuit, same track, different cars. Mike actually stalled at the start, and once again, Scott blazed out to an early lead, and burned much of his wear in the first lap, while Joshua coasted behind him, "slipping" and braking to avoid the wear that was killing Scott. Desperate to make up ground, Allan tried an insane turn and crashed. Mike followed him, and the race was all but over, with Joshua's car coasting in comfort and Scott's spitting bolts all the way. Eventually, Scott crashed on the same turn Allan and Mike hit, and Joshua literally coasted to victory (in fact, we didn't even make him before declaring him victor -- actually, that means he finished neither race, what a wimp).

Happy to report that Joshua did not submit a winner's tip :P