Prezcon 2020: Close Games

I am sitting poolside again at Prezcon, relaxing before a morning start to History of the World. Yesterday was a great day of boardgaming. It was a story of close game throughout the day. I played Settlers of Catan, 100 Gates of Torii, History of the World, Texas Glory, and Plague & Pestilence.

The biggest part of the day was heat one of History of the World. “History” is a drafting and area control game (Smallworld, published many years later, shares some of its mechanics) where you play a succession of civilizations throughout history. I derive a great deal of pleasure in playing History in spending time with the players at Prezcon. Because of the length of the game, there is time to socialize, kibbitz, and rib people when their dice rolling is exceptionally poor. There was a lot of laughter at our table. My table was a close game competitively – going into the last turn of the game, five of the six players had a chance to win, providing they drafted the right civilizations. I ended up finishing third, and had a great time.

In the evening, I played my second game of Texas Glory of the week. Texas Glory is an asymmetrical game of the Texas Revolution. Santa Anna and the Mexicans are very strong, but have difficult victory conditions. The Texans are weaker and play a delaying defense. Playing the Texans (or Texians, as I read they called themselves at the time), the high point of drama in the game came from a trap I set for Santa Anna. If the Texans can kill Santa Anna, they win immediately. Santa Anna became separated from most of his army. I engaged him, killed his escorting unit and whittled him down to one health. The next turn, I was able to exercise the “Comanche raid”. This gave me three d6 dice to roll against Santa Anna. If I rolled a 1, 2, or 3 on any of the dice, I would win the game....I rolled 4, 5, and 6! Santa Anna lives! Play continues for the last three turns of the game. The Texans are barely holding on. On the last turn, if I lose one town, I lose the entire game. The Mexican army is spent. I get a key reinforcement at Matagorda, defend there successfully, and win the game.

Settlers of Catan and The 100 Torii were also close games. I missed winning Settlers by a card and one point. I lost The 100 Torii on tiebreaker (The 100 Torii is a new tile laying game (think Carcasonne). I don't particularly care for that type of game, because I struggle to orient and lay tiles effetively, but this game plays pretty quickly).

I closed the night playing Plague & Pestilence with my friends Matt and Chandler. P&P is an old game I used to play in college. Despite the name, it is light hearted and doesn't take long to play. It was a good late night game.

Today involves heat two of History of the World, an almost assured spot playing in the Texas Glory semifinals, Puerto Rico, and other possible games in the evening. I should also have time to swim in the pool in the afternoon.

Prezcon 2020, Reflections on What Makes It Fun

It is day three of Prezcon (Wednesday), the middle of the convention where attendance starts to pick up and build into the weekend. I arrived on Monday on the official first day. It turns out that about 50 people or so arrived the day before that to hang out and play games.

I have realized that the joy I get in playing in the Prezcon game tournaments is the opportunity to have scheduled playing time for games, as opposed to any delight in possibly winning a tournament. Today, for example, I know I get to play Texas Glory at 12:00 noon. I never do better in that tournament than winning one game (and often win none), but it is a game I enjoy and Prezcon is the only place I play it. Another game I get to play exclusively at Prezcon are History of the World. These are fun games, but are outside the interest of the people I usually game with. Being a week long convention where I have few responsibilities, it is a great opportunity to play these games.

Prezcon is also largely about hanging out with friends for a week and playing boardgames, not just playing boardgames. Part of that feeling probably comes from my general performance in tournaments – I am not winning tournaments (except for one in 2016). I win enough individual games for some competitive pleasure, but I am losing more games than I win. It has taken me several years to realize the pleasure of boardgaming with people and with friends over the competitive nature of the games.

So far at this year's Prezcon, I have played one new game: Terraforming Mars. It was a lot of fun (and I understand why so many people enjoy playing it). There are a lot of symbols and a lot of mechanics going on, so the initial game is a little intimidating.

I have also played Azul, Wingspan, Texas Glory, Conquest of Paradise, 7 Wonders, and Castles of Burgundy. Burgundy is funny. I enjoy immensely, but I feel like I am out of my league in playing it competitively. Yesterday, I scored what I consider a respectable score (213) and finished last on my board. My friend Matt and I made the joke that we need a “minor league” tournament for players like ourselves.