Plaque Buildup: Prezcon 2016 Day 5 Review

All of the Prezcon tournament winners get plaques.  If the tournament has enough participants there are second place plaques, and even third place plaques in the largest tournament.  Yesterday I won my first Prezcon tournament ever by winning a nailbiting Lewis & Clark final game.  I also managed to make the finals of the party game Liar's Dice for the third year in a row and finish third.  My friend Nathan also won his Britannia tournament to add a plaque to his second place plaque in Roll for the Galaxy he acquired earlier in the week. 


In addition to tournament games, I played a some pick up games in the Open Gaming Room (when I don't play History of the World, I have all sorts of time to play other games).  I tried Five Tribes again, which is a worker placement game that is okay.  I think what turns me off to the game is the artwork and color choices of the game (teal, orange, pink, black, beige, and gold).  My friend Tara also introduced me to Patchwork, which is a tetris like boardgame where you are scoring points for making a quilt (great for my fiber working friends who like to game).  We also pulled out a Prezcon copy of the new game Murano.  Murano is a game where the rules were not clear until we started playing the game.  It has an action selection mechanic that is driven by gondola boats you move from space to space around the edge of the board.  The game was pretty cool, and I think I would like to try it again with more than two players.


Gameplay Summary

• Lewis & Clark:  I played two games of this, the second heat and the finals, and won both.  For the heat, I ran a large, complicated expedition (8-10 cards) to get over the mountains on the board.  In the finals, I ran an extremely slim expedition (4 cards) to do the same thing.  I found a little bit of luck in the game and moved forward extra spaces based on the placement of the other players' tokens.  Another player missed winning by one space just before I achieved the win
• Patchwork:  I lost based on the large uncovered patches of my quilt.  For a tile placement game, I rather enjoyed this
• Murano:  As we went through and figured out the rules, I managed to win.  in the game, you build roads, shops and glass factories in Venice.  You also recruit characters in Venice who provide you goals and bonus points.  I didn't love the game, but found it interesting enough to want to try again
• 7 Wonders:  This has become a classic game for me that I thoroughly enjoy.  I ended up focusing on science development as Halikarnnasos and finished third of six.  We had some score calculation problems that almost made me miss the first game of Liar's Dice
• Liar's Dice:  I won my heat on the last throw of the dice.  In the finals, I slowly lost my dice on exact number guesses where other people had bid correctly (which is what I tend to aim for).  My third place finish is actually my worst finish ever at Prezcon -- I finished second the last two years.

I have 7 Wonders and Settlers of Catan today, and then it is my return home.