Day three at Prezcon was a lot of fun. I awoke feeling good (no headache!) and spent five hours playing a monster game that only sees the table at Prezcon: History of the World. The game was close through the next last turn, with four of the five players being within five points of each other (in a game where scores range from 150 to 225). I played behind for much of the game with an eye toward setting myself up at the end, by choosing smaller empires, so that I would have a chance to get the "best" empires at the end. While I didn't get what I recognize as the best empires, I experienced some good fortune in getting the best situation at the end where I was able to maximize my points (getting the Ottomans followed by the Russians as my final two empires). I won with a score of 203 points, which is the first time I have outright won any HOTW games at Prezcon (I have several second place finishes). My win puts me in the HOTW finals on Saturday morning. As usual, playing with members of the HOTW Prezcon crowd was a lot of fun, and I will be playing another game just for fun this morning.
I also played a game of Settlers of Catan, which is the classic Eurogame these days. I finished in a respectable second place, but with only six points. My friend Shane M played a clever game mixing city building and development cards. Sitting at seven points and seeming to be pretty far from immediately winning, he used the Road Building development card to seize the longest road and two points, then revealed another development card for his tenth point. I had a good setup with access to brick and a brick port that enabled me to do some trading for development cards. I had three points in cards and potential to get the largest army for another two points, but I set up in such a way that I was never able to expand my settlements into cities.
I skipped playing Castles of Burgundy after History of the World, opting to grab dinner with my friend Nathan T. It was the prudent choice because I would have crashed in the middle of the game and not had fun. My friend Matt J has discovered that he very much likes Burgundy, and has played in two rounds of the tournament so far.
I also played Texas Glory. I won as playing Mexico, but I play at a glacial pace. There are many details regarding the layout of the map and how units are commanded that I need to pay attention to. My opponent Grant was gracious in telling me that only experience playing the game will speed that up, because rushing leads to mistakes. He and I both made mistakes at the end of the game. I was able to recover from mine. His mistake helped me get the win on the 11th of 12 turns. It's a fun Columbia block game that I learned at Prezcon last year and picked up my own copy. I have a 1-1 record in the tournament and plan to play in the third round.
I have to review my schedule for today. I am hoping to play Conquest of Paradise and also Castles of Burgundy, but I might need to give up one because of schedule congestion.
It is a relaxing and fun time here at Prezcon. If you enjoy board games, I encourage you to come this year or next. There are a hundred organized tournaments and a huge open gaming room. Prezcon has an extensive game library, so it is a great place to learn new games (I still need to hop into a game of Sagrada). The people here are also cool.
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