Bring Your Games: Prezcon 2016 Day 4 Review

The Prezcon website, promotional emails, and program book all tell you that anyone who brings their own copy of a game is guaranteed a spot in a game tournament.  I imagine other boardgaming conventions say the same thing.  As such, I brought copies of several games that I own from lesser known titles like Lewis & Clark and Conquest of Paradise to popular games like Puerto Rico and Settlers of Catan.  In all but one game, the tournament game master has had me set up my board for play.


I had decided yesterday to skip the third heat of History of World -- which takes five to six hours to play -- and play two games in its place:  Commands & Colors:  Ancients and Conquest of Paradise.  Arriving at the location of the Commands & Colors tournament, I found that they were woefully short on game boards.  I didn't bring my copy.  This meant that I couldn't play.  Happily, I was able to jump back into the History of the World game.  The message is clear:  if you have any interest in playing a game a boardgaming convention, bring your own copy.


Gameplay Summary

• History of the World:  I didn't have a great game here, but managed to avoid finishing last (4th of 6th)
• Isle of Skye:  I played this as a pick up game with my friend Mike.  Isle of Skye is a tile building game that contains an auction bidding element.  I like the auction bidding, but I do not like tile building games.  I have to think hard on all of the spatial relation combinations to get things to work.  It was a quick game, taking about 40 minutes to play, and I enjoyed it more than Carcassonne.  I suppose it helped that I was able to win
• Puerto Rico:  I tried a one dimensional strategy of shipping for victory points.  This didn't work for me, and I finished 3rd of four
• Codenames:  this is a great party game that I have played on several occasions recently.  I was able to drop into a game while waiting for my next tournament to start.  It is a team game where people must guess which word tiles are their "codenames" while avoiding guessing the tiles that are the codenames of the other team.  I will most likely pick up a copy
• Lewis & Clark:  I was able to win this game and advance to the finals.  Prezcon introduced to this game last year.  I love the game because it captures the feeling of the struggle to explore the west and cross the Rocky Mountains, it high quality artwork, its combination of worker placement and engine building mechanics, and the fact that there are many ways to put together a winning expedition