PrezCon Day 1 [Boardgames]

Well, I'm only a few weeks late in getting this out, but I figured I'd finally get a write-up of my time at PrezCon!

For those who don't know, PrezCon is a boardgame convention that takes place in Charlottesville, VA, in the DoubleTree hotel.  This year, it ran from February 19th to February 25th, although I only was there from the Thursday (the 22nd) to the end.

There are a bunch of tournaments, auctions, and various other things going on, but in general, we just bring games and play what we feel like.

This year, I brought a slimmed down selection of games (normally I bring a ton!).  I limited myself to the following:

• The Great Game (my newest arrival from Legion Wargames)
• Chariots of Rome (a Chariot racing game from Victory Point Games)
• Old School Tactical (WWII Tactical Combat, from Flying Pig Games)
• Millennium Blades (a CCG Simulator game from Level 99 Games)
• Mansions of Madness (exploring a haunted mansion, from Fantasy Flight Games).

Considering the fact I've brought over a dozen games before, I did pretty well.  I've learned- I almost never play anything I bring (this year, I played one).  Why bother?  Plus, it's much easier to carry in and out.

Literally, everything I brought

Rob, my normal PrezCon gaming partner, brought a bit more!

Every year, I take these pictures, haha

He also trimmed down significantly!

This year was different in that we knew other people who were coming who we were planning to games with (although normally we do play games with Mark, who also attends, but this time was a larger commitment). AJ, Dan, and Jesse were soon to be our frequent opponents, and we as a group were eager to get down and get to gaming!

We started the convention playing Blood Rage, from CMON/Guillotine Games.  This is a game where each player is a Viking clan, and you're attempting to gain VPs from various things- Pillaging, winning battles, having your guys go to Valhalla, among other things.

The game also involves drafting cards for abilities/upgrades, and takes place over three ages.

In Age 1, we draft, and not really knowing what I'm doing, I end with the following.

I decide to start with Frigga's Chosen, giving me a Mystic on the board that I can generally keep alive. I try to focus on the Yellow provinces, in order to complete my quest.

I end up winning two Pillages on the turn, both going to battle, gaining me a few Glory and two clan stats, but the second Pillage involved a player playing a card to steal my last Rage for the turn, and I don't have the action I need to play the quest (meaning I don't score it).  Curses!

I end the first Age with three guys in a Yellow zone, and at 14 total Glory, with Dan leading at 24.

We start the second Age, and draft.  I end up with the following.

I actually think I have a decent shot at all three quests, and begin by trying to Pillage, but the challenge by people causes me a Rage and Glory loss. I try to spread out to get in on some fights, but space is tough to find at this point. It clears a lot when Dan attempts to pillage the center, causing a large fight for everyone, but he ends up winning.

End of the second Age.  Valhalla is really filled up, if you can't tell (on the left)

I make way too many mistakes this turn, and end up completing zero of my three quests (I think I misread one, forgot about the ships for one, and messed up placement on the one?). Anyway, with no successes, this turn was tremendously disastrous, and I end with 20 total Glory.  The leader is Jesse with 65, and Dan is in second with 49.

The third Age is really rough for me- without the clan bonuses, I don't really compete in any arena, so I try to do what I can to grab a few points (with my Loki's Eminance upgrade).  The leaders kept rolling, others did a good job of keeping up... and I floundered.  End result was me in dead last with 47 point (Rob was 2nd last, at 57).  Winner was Dan, I believe, with 158 points. 

This was a pretty fun game! I don't think I'll end up getting it, but I like how they gave quite a few ways to go for victory, and how easy the game was to sit down and play. I'd definitely play it again.

We all took a break to go get some drinks before getting some more PrezCon in (it was about evening at this point). The hotel has beers in a size called 'half yard', which we couldn't turn down.

The first of... a few

We decided to set up and play Terraforming Mars next, a game that everyone really likes (and I freaking love). We got dealt our corporations, and I ended up being Inventrix, the corp that lets me be a bit more flexible in the Oxygen/Temperature requirements/limits for cards I play- an ability I used twice, all game.  We also played with the Venus expansion which.. was just okay, really (didn't really add all that much in our game).

I didn't really have anything exciting in my early cards, so I wended up going for a energy/heat generation strategy, moving to straight heat generation.  I actually do pretty good on this, raising the temperature pretty quick (which is worth some points), but I really didn't have a good end-game idea at this point.

I finally get a Development Center built, which gives me a way to turn some energy into card draw, which is great.  I then manage to get a card that lets me turn energy into points, and I decide to go heavy into energy, and hope for the best. I quickly get what I need to get that energy production up to seven.  Then nine...

Then fourteen.  However, I once again neglect putting pieces on Mars itself, which once again bites me some.

Still, I feel like I managed to get back into the game, which was an improvement for how much of the game felt!

We did the final scores, and I ended up dead last, again, with 57 points.  The winner was Dan with 82 points (the next lowest score was someone at 61).

Despite my poor showing, this is a game I love. And as I felt after the first time I played, I really want to try a new strategy, to see how it went. People ignored all the animal/bacteria cards again, for the most part. Maybe I can try using them next time?

At this point, we decided to call it a night- we had all traveled down here during the day, and I had worked in the morning. Determined to get an early start tomorrow, and getting nice and rested so we could get a lot more gaming in. Thus ended Day 1!