Foot Foot '08: 9 Geeks, 9 Days, 68 Games!

Where we live in Michigan real men (non gaming geeks) are awarded a certain birthright: hunting. That is to say, real men are not only allowed to spend a week in the woods away from their spouses and children where they drink beer and shoot guns with their friends, but they are expected to do so. It's what they do and God help you if you stand between them and their hunting trips.

As you may have guessed, I am not a real man. I'm a gaming geek. So are my friends. We may drink beer, but we don't hunt. Instead, we play games. Lots and lots of games. The sad part of this is that we were somehow left out of the part where we get to leave home with our friends for days at a time to pursue our hobby without distraction from spouses, children or jobs.

A few years ago our group got together and decided that the madness must end! So, we designed the Foot Foot Gamers Annual Retreat (named, of course, after The Shagg's 1969 international hit My Pal Foot Foot). The first year we had the retreat was 2006. That year we rented a cottage on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron and gamed from early one Friday morning until about 2pm the next Sunday. Last year we took things a bit further. We arrived at the same cottage on a Wednesday night after work and played through Sunday. (You can read about those retreats here and here.)

For our retreats we designed a scoring system, logged all of our games and awarded a grand prize to the "Best Overall Gamer". The prize is a plaque with 12 blank name plates on it. If you win the plaque you get to have your name engraved on it and you get to keep it for a year. Jake won our inaugural event in '06 and Paul won it last year in '07. There are enough name plates on the plaque to keep us doing this until 2017! After that, we buy a new plaque.

My lovely bride with the coveted prize.

Anyway, this year we decided to take things a bit further. This year we rented a different cottage for 9 days from 4pm on Saturday, August 2nd until noon on Sunday, August 10th. Not everyone could show up at the same time, though, so we broke the week up into segments. From Saturday to Wednesday morning would be a free for all in which any of us could use the cottage and invite our spouses and children. Sunday, specifically, would be "family fun day". Then, from 12pm on Wednesday until 12pm on Sunday would be gamers only time. The entire week would feature a lot of gaming, but the official scoring wouldn't begin until Thursday morning at 6am and would last until we left on Sunday.

The following is a narrative of how the week went, what games we played and the other fun things that happened.

Saturday, August 2nd
Barb and I, along with Simon and Gwen (who are 6 and 3 years old), arrived at the cottage at about 4:30pm on Saturday. We were the first ones there and Paul was the only other Foot Foot member we expected on that day. While we waited for him we took some pictures of the cottage, which was much nicer than the place we rented the previous two years. Here are some of our pictures:

Here is the front/side of the cottage we rented.

Here is the back yard as seen from the patio door. Because there would be so many guys in the house for the week I opted to bring our tent along. That's chateau Hawksbill there on the left. This picture must have been taken later because Lake Huron isn't visible in the background. Must have been a bit foggy at the time.

This is the view from the edge of the bluff overlooking the lake. We spent a lot of time between games standing out there looking at the water and telling gaming war stories.

At 5pm, before Paul arrived we decided to take the kids down to the water to check out our beach access. I don't have pictures of it, but our path down to the water was by way of a very long staircase. About half way down we reached the first landing and I noticed a few bees flying nearby. I foolishly said "stand still kids... don't scare the bees." That's when the 2 or 3 bees disappeared under the stairway and came back moments later with 15-20 bees. Then they attacked! Seriously! The swarmed all over us and we all ran back up the stairs yelling. Simon and I both got stung three times. Gwen got stung twice. Barb escaped being stung at all. Nature sucks!

A little while later, at 6pm, Paul showed up and we helped him unpack. Then he and I went out and bought 2 big cans of some bee-killing chemical that sprayed 2o feet away. We went back down the stairs to investigate. We found that we could get fairly close to the bees without causing them to swarm and that we could figure out where the hive was based on their activity. It turns out it was right under the staircase. So, we planned to crawl under the staircase with the cans of Raid and hose them down from about 8 feet way. That's when we noticed something else. The entire hillside was covered (completely!) with poison ivy. Ugh!

So, our plan was this: To return to the cottage and cover ourselves completely in clothing from head to toe and then to return to the staircase where one or both of us would crawl through the poison ivy, under the staircase and kill the bees, all the while hoping that the bees didn't launch a full on counter attack.

At 9pm this is what we did. I put on long pants, tucked my pant legs into my socks, put on a hooded sweatshirt which I pulled over my face trekked back to the staircase, ready for battle. Then we decided who would crawl through the poison ivy to kill the bees. For some reason I volunteered. I don't know why I did this. I knew I was very allergic to poison ivy (A few years ago I got a horrible rash after chasing a black bear into the woods, but that's another story). Anyway, I hopped over the railing, crawled through the poison ivy on my knees and elbows and finally located the hive. Then I emptied two large cans of Raid on it. The bees didn't know what hit them. They not only didn't counter attack, they merely fell and died instantly. It turns out that, although bees may have a huge dodge bonus to melee weapons, they have a profound weakness to chemical attacks. Score one for the good guys.

After this Paul and I want back inside where I stripped off my presumably diseased clothing and took a very hot shower. Then we all took a walk down to water with the kids. I was very interested in seeing the beach because our gaming retreats are often filled with drunken midnight swimming. Here are some pictures.

Gwen and Simon on the beach.

Gwen, me and Simon admiring the big rocks.

After this it was time to prepare for the arrival of more gamers the next day. We went back up to the cottage and organized our games.

My stack of games. (Note the kids games up front... ready for family game day!)

Paul's stack of games. Lots of good stuff!

In addition to games, Paul took steps to make sure that nobody would be thirsty this week.

At 10pm Paul and I sat down to our first game of the week: Saint Petersburg. He and I had been playing this one fairly often on Yucata.

It was nice to play it again in person. It was my turn to win this time. After this we all turned in for the night.

Sunday, August 3rd:
For most of this day Paul and I were the only gamers on site. After a nice breakfast of egg sandwiches and bacon we settled down for a 2 player game of Aton before heading out to explore the beach some more. After that Simon, Paul and I chilled out to a game of Blokus, which is one of Simon's favorites. Then Paul and I played some Babel and 3 games of Blue Moon. I won Aton, Blokus and Babel, Paul won 2 out of the 3 games of Blue Moon.

Around 3pm that afternoon our pal Mark and his family arrived and after getting them all settled we all went back down to the beach for some swimming. At about 6pm Mark made us all some burgers. Then around 6:30pm Mark, Paul and I settled down for a game of Nefertiti, which I totally didn't grok. Mark took 1st, Paul 2nd and I came in last. Then, to wrap up this first day, Paul, Mark, Angela (Mark's wife) and I played a game of Settlers at around 9pm which Paul won.

Monday, August 4th:
This was a very rainy day and we were stuck inside most of the time. This morning Larry arrived and we opened up the gaming day with round of Gulo Gulo. Playing were me, Paul, Larry, Mark, my son Simon and Mark's kids Kip and Athea. Simon beat us all. He's pretty good at the Gulo Gulo! Then me, Simon, Athea and Mark&Kip (teaming up) played some Blokus and the Mark&Kip team cleaned all our clocks. Around 11am Paul and Larry played We the People (Paul won) while Mark and I played some Babel (I won). At 2pm Larry, Mark, Paul and I played some Saga, which Larry won.

At 3pm I showed Angela how to play Castle Keep in case she and Mark wanted to pick up a copy for their kids and at 3:30 me and Mark conducted a teaching session of Chateau Roquefort with Athea, Kip, Simon and Gwen.

At about 4:30 that afternoon Mark's family left and me, Mark, Paul and Larry played a game of California. I came in 1st. I'm glad to get some milage out of some of those Tanga deals!

At 6:30 Paul made us a great dinner of short ribs. Here's a shot of Paul, Larry and Mark around the grill.

At about 8:30 Paul, Mark, Larry and I sat down for our first heavy game of the week: Wealth of Nations. This is probably one of my favorite new games of the year. It is still on my wishlist. I really do need to get myself a copy.

Wealth of Nations (that's me in the middle, flanked by my minions Gwen and Simon)

About midway through the game, around midnight sometime, Paul and I did some late night swimming in Lake Huron. Midnight swimming is one of my favorite parts of the retreat. We halted the game for the night, to be complted the next day.

Tuesday, August 5th:
This morning Barb, Simon, Gwen and I went out for breakfast while Paul, Larry and Mark played some St. Petersburg. (Paul one).

After that we finished up Wealth of Nations. Mark kicked arse with a total of 103 points. I was close behind at 102. Around 1:30 that afternoon we played some Tichu, which is one of my all time favorite games. Mark and Paul beat Larry and I handily. Later we played some Magic: The Gathering (sealed deck). My notes don't say who won, but I know I choked badly. I think Paul won, if memory serves, but I could be wrong.

Later that evening, around 8:30 I played some O Zoo Le Mio with Barb, Larry and Simon. As usual, Simon won. As with Gulo Gulo, he's pretty good at this one. After that Paul, Larry, Simon and I played a round of Hare and Tortoise, which Paul won. (Hm... this is not the best picture of Gwen, I think. :)


Late this night, around 11:30 we played another of my favorite new games of the year: Primordial Soup. Larry, Mark and I played with Larry coming in 1st. Good stuff. Who doesn't love a game about poop?

Wednesday, August 6th:
The next morning Paul introduced me to the game Tamsk, which I'd never heard of before. I managed to win dispite that, though. Then I went off to breakfast with my family again while Larry, Paul and Mark played some Aquaretto with Larry taking first place. I like Zooloretto, but I still haven't played this spin off.

Then from 1pm to 5pm we played another heavy. Paul brought out Perikles which he and I and Mark and Larry played. I don't think any of us had played Perikles before and I don't think any of us liked it very much. Someone quite accurately described the game as being very much like spending several hours doing someone's taxes. Not very interesting. I won anyway, but it would have been a more satisfying win if I'd actually enjoyed the game more.

A little before 7pm that evening our buddy Steve arrived and we all sat down to a game of Glory to Rome. Mark took 1st with me coming in a fairly distand 2nd.

Then, around 9pm Eric showed up and we jumped into a 5 player game of Relationship Tightrope (with me, Steve, Eric, Paul and Larry... Mark didn't join us for some reason.) I really like this game. It has quite a silly theme, but it is fast, entertaining and pretty challenging. Larry took 1st place with only 10 points! Go Larry!

Finally, we wrapped up the evening with a 6 player game of Hoity Toity, another one of my favoirites. I really like the simultaneous reveal mechanic. Somewhere in the middle of the game Eric spilled his glass of Red Bull and coconut rum all over the table, which made quite a mess, but the rest of the game smelled quite nice. In the end Mark won and Steve came in 2nd.

Thursday, August 7th:
This morning marks the beginning of our official scoring to win the fancy plaque! From here until noon on Sunday all the games count for the big prize!

We started off splitting into two groups. Paul and Steve played some We the People (Paul won by killing Washington). Me, Mark and Larry got started with a game of Amazonas. Mark won this one. Amazonas is a fairly nice little game, but the tie breaking mechanism is terribly flawed. If I ever play again I'll push for a tie breaking system similary to O Zoo Le Mio.

Eric spent the morning sleeping it off.

Since Paul and Steve were still paying We the People, Larry, Mark and I played a game of Stone Age, which I won.

Steve and Paul playing We the People.

Mark and Larry prepping our game of Stone Age.

At 11:30am we all gathered together again for a game of Tribune. Well, all of us except Eric who was still asleep. Larry won very handily with a strategy of acquiring laurels, favors of the gods and cold hard cash. At 2:30 we split into two groups again. Steve, Larry and Mark played Antike (Mark won) while Paul, Eric and I played some Caylus (I won). After that, around 5:30pm or so Steve made us all dinner by serving up his amazing pulled pork sandwiches. Good stuff!

Then, at 6:30 Paul, Larry and I played Hollywood Blockbuster (Larry won) and Erik, Mark and Steve played Metropolis (Mark won).At 8pm Jake and Ben arrived, bringing our total now up to 8 players. We split into two 4's with Ben, Eric, Paul and Mark playing Notre Dame (Paul won) while Steve, Jake, Larry and I played some more Primordial Soup (I won). What can I say? I just can't get enough poop related gaming!


At 11pm everyone but George jumped into a game of Pow Wow, which was madcap and crazy. I took 1st while Paul came in 2nd. Then we split into 2 groups again and Larry, Eric, Steve and Jake played Situation 4 (Eric and Jake won) while Paul and I teamed up against Mark and Ben in another game of Tichu (Paul and I won). After Situation 4, Eric, Jake, Larry and Steve played their own game of Tichu with Larry and Jake winning.

That brought us all to about 3:00am in the morning and we all passed out exhausted from a fantastic day of gaming.

Friday, August 8th:
Early this morning at around 3:30am our friend George finally arrived from New York and our group hit its peak of 9 gamers. When we woke up Mark made us a fine breakfast and Paul served us up some delicious mimosa.

At around 7:30am Jake, Paul, Steve and Ben played a game of Nefertiti. Later, at 9:30am Larry, Paul, Ben and Steve played a game of Friedrich which Ben took 1st in as France. At the same time I sat down to another game of Wealth of Nations with George, mark and Jake. Mark cleaned up with 80 points and I took 2nd with 71. Mark played brilliantly. He managed to get an operational bank on turn 3 and spent the game totally focusing on money. Good stuff!

Mark and Jake planning their Wealth of Nations conquests.

At around 1:30 on Friday Larry, Eric, Steve, Ben and Paul sat down to some Puerto Rico, which Steve won and Paul came in 2nd. At 3pm, Me, George, Mark and Jake finished Wealth of Nations and tried out Caribbean, which I totally sucked at and George dominated.

Later at a bit after 4pm two new games started. Paul, Steve, George, Jake and Larry played El Grande which Paul won and Jake came in 2nd. Also, Mark, Ben, Eric and I started up a game of Stone Age. Mark took 1st while I came in 2nd.

A beautiful sunset overlooking Lake Huron on Friday night with my own personal barracks in the foreground.

At 8pm Steve, Paul, Jake, George and Eric played a game of Quo Vadis?. Steve won this one and George took 2nd place. At the same time, Ben, Mark and I played Midgard. Once again Mark took 1st place and I came in 2nd. By this time I was getting crazy tired after being up so late the night before. My ability to think coherently was seriously diminished and I went off to bed at 11:30.

After I went to bed Larry, Jake, Paul and Steve played some more Relationships Tightrope. Larry and Jake took 1st and 2nd respectively.

Then around 10:30pm a big game of Antike formed with Eric, Steve, George, Jake, Ben and Paul. Sometime around 12:30 I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep so I came back inside to watch the action unfold. Finally, around 1am Steve completed his Antike domination and Paul followed him with 2nd place.

Around 2am we all packed it in and went to bed.

Saturday, August 9th:
Wow, our last full day of gaming before returning to the real world.

This got off to a bit of a slow start this morning. The gaming didn't really begin until 10:30. George, Paul, Larry, Steve and Eric played a game of In the Year of the Dragon, which Paul and George took 1st and 2nd in. At that point I hadn't played this game yet, but in the last year I've had the chance to play it many times and have even picked up my own copy. I like it quite a bit.

At the same time Jake, Ben, Mark and I played a game of Vikings. Once again Mark took 1st and I came in 2nd. Vikings isn't the best game in the world, but I find it very pleasant. I like the way it mixes a number of familiar game mechanics in a pretty interesting way.

Later on, George and Paul took 1st and 2nd in a game of Modern Art. Good auction fun.

At 1:30 on Saturday another game of Settlers broke out between Jake, Ben Mark and myself. I took 1st and Jake came in 2nd.

Then, at 3:30pm we played yet another game of Primordial Soup. I just couldn't get enough of that poop eatin' fun! Since the retreat I've purchased my own copy of this game along with the 5-6 player expansion set. I really like it quite a bit. I took 1st place while Ben came in 2nd.

While we were playing Primordial Soup, George, Paul, Steve, Jake and Larry played a game of Wallenstein. I was glad to miss this one. I never really liked Wallenstein. There are some heavy games my head flows naturally into. Wallenstein isn't one of them. It just makes my skull hurt. Ugh!

Primordial Soup and Wallenstein both took quite a long time to play. The next set of games didn't start until 8:30 Saturday evening. Eric, mark, Jake and Paul sat down for a match of Age of Steam while George, Ben, Larry and I played a nice game of Ra. Paul and Mark took 1st and 2nd in Age of Steam while George and Larry tied for 1st place in Ra.

Age of Steam took a lot longer to play than Ra, so while those guys were still playing that one George, ben, Larry and I played a quick round of For Sale (I won) and then another game of Pizarro & Co. (George and Ben came in 1st and 2nd). I have to say, Pizarro & Co. is one of my favorite auction games. I'm always happy when this one hits the table.

Then, around 1:30 in the morning Mark and I teamed up against Jake and Ben in a game of Tichu. Mark and I got our hats handed to us. It's tough sitting down against Jake in a game of Tichu. He's just plain good at it.

After that, it was once again time for bed.

Sunday, August 10th:
Ah... our last day. We all got up around 7:30am and started cleaning up. For some reason I stopped taking notes at this point so I'm not exactly sure what happened this day. I was getting a ride home from Jake and he had to leave a bit early, so I don't think I got in any gaming on this day.

I'm pretty sure that several of the guys stayed until noon and played the customary final game of Ticket to Ride, but I don't know who won or anything.

What I do remember is that on the ride home my neck started itching like crazy. By the time I got home I had a crazy, itchy, scratcy rash on my hands, neck and cheeks. It turns out that I had contracted poison ivy the Sunday before when I'd crawled around in the underbrush to kill the bee hive. I didn't know it had such a long incubation period, but it waited to hit me until the ride home a full week later. I spent the next 3 days trying not to scratch my skin off and taking lots of Benadryl. Ugh!

The next day Paul tallied the final game results and it turns out that he took the overall grand prize for the 2nd year in a row. I came in 2nd place while Mark took 3rd.

Well done Paul! Next time we will crush you!!! :)

Here's a couple of pictures of the last game of the week, with several of us in our official Foot Foot T-shirts, designed by Larry.

From left to right: Paul, Eric, George, Mark, Ben and Jake.

Me, Mark and Paul.

My thanks to the whole group for all the fun and good times. I hope we can keep this up for many years to come!

Jungle Queen - full color

I'm getting closer. I touched up the eyes some more and then threw down a base coat on the clothes, jewelery and hair. The next step in the process is to begin highlighting everything. I'll probably start with the skin first. I plan to use the overhead lighting technique where you provide highlights that would exist if the light source were coming from straight overhead.

All the paint currently on the figure is the darkest shade of each color. During the highlighting process I'll be adding a medium shade for slightly brighter areas and a bright shade for the most lit areas.

Here's what she looks like as of today:




The black hair is totally lost in the black background. Highlighting the hair should help that out a lot. Of course, a lighter background or something of a different color wouldn't hurt either. One of these days I'll construct myself some decent photo space. Right now I just take pictures on our dining room table and I don't bother with a background at all. But, it turns out that focusing on the figure turns the surface of the table pitch black, so it works out for my rudimentary purposes.

Queen of the Jungle - Part 4 - Eyes

Here's the latest. I worked on the eyes today. I'm not very happy with them, though. They just seem sloppy. I've been getting better at many parts of mini painting, but the fine details still escape me. I'm going to leave the eyes alone for now, though, and come back to them near the end of the process and try again. Gotta even out those eyebrows, too.


EDIT: Ok, I lied. I worked on the eyes one more time.

They are a little darker this time, but you can tell that one pupil is a bit larger than the other. It's more obvious in the picture than in real life. I'll have to think about whether or not I can tolerate it. It is better than before, though.

Queen of the Jungle - Part 3

Last night I put the first layer of skin on the Jungle Queen. Here are current front and back shots.



I'm painting the skin a bit differently than I have in the past. Previously I would start with a medium coat and then give a dark wash followed by medium highlights and then light highlights. The other day I read this tutorial and decided to follow its advice. So, I started with as smooth a coat of dark skin (RMS Golden Shadow). That's all that is on there right now. A coat of Golden Shadow plus a wash of Golden Shadow to smooth things out. I see from the picture I missed a couple spots, like on the underside of the right wrist. (also, the eyes aren't yet painted because that's a bit of a separate process.)

Next I'll try to follow the tutorial's advice and apply layers of gradual highlights using RMS Golden Skin and RMS Golden Highlight. I left these pictures large and in a fairly high resolution so that I can see the way that the light falls on the muscles and highlight appropriately.

So far I'm pleased with it. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy painting while we sit around and watch TV. Very relaxing.

Queen of the Jungle - Part 2

I did some more highlighting and a bit of drybrushing on the log to finish the wood and moss. Here are the latest:



Next I can get started painting the skin.

Queen of the Jungle - Work in progress

My new mini, the Queen of the Jungle arrived in the mail last week (Reaper model #30001). I thought I'd post pictures of it as I work on it.

It came in several pieces, which I had to super-glue together. I didn't take any pictures until after I assembled and primed it. Here's my first picture of the freshly primed figure.


After priming it I wanted to bring out some of the details so I gave it a dark ink wash.

This was a little effective, but I'm not sure it was worth doing on future minis.

After that I decided to start working on the log she's standing on. Here's what it looks like currently.



First I panted the wood of the log. I gave it a medium brown base coat and then a dark brown wash. Following that I gave it a straight black wash. Then I did the same with green. A base coat of mossy green and two washes, first of a dark green and then black.

What I should do next is some highlighting with lighter brown and green, respectively. Highlighting is not a skill I'm very good at yet. I may decide to call the log finished and proceed to the figure herself, but I haven't decided yet. I may just drybrush some lighter tones, but that feels like cheating for some reason.

The Crypt and the Barbarian Giant

I haven't painted in almost a year, but I recently go the itch to get back to it. Since the last time I posted we got our own digital camera and I painted two more minis. Here are two that I painted in the summer of 2007:

The crypt:



The Barbarian Giant:
I'm pretty proud of them both, but the camera sure picks up all the flaws in my paint job. Still, I'm looking forward to picking up my brushes again. I just ordered this model and am waiting for it to be delivered:

Foot Foot Retreat: 2007

Here's the deal... In our fair state of Michigan real men hunt. At least once a year they leave their wives and children behind and drive to secluded areas of the north where they carouse and shoot guns. Those of us who aren't real men are left behind to wonder why the evolutionary randomness of machismo abandoned us and failed to provide us with a good excuse to engage in wilderness revelry with our fellows. Simply put, since my friends and I play board games obsessively but we we don't hunt, we were left out and damn it, we wanted in!

So, after months of planning, organizing and counting down the days, this past weekend was the 2nd annual Foot Foot Gamers Retreat (Named after The Shagg's 1969 international hit My Pal Foot Foot). I think it is safe to say that this year's event was even bigger and better than last year's, especially since last year's retreat was Friday through Sunday and this year many of us arrived on Wednesday night and left around noon Sunday. By rough count, that's 87 hours of gaming paradise, including the few hours here and there we found time to sleep.

This year we rented the same cottage as last year, but this year there were ten of us instead of a mere seven. The cottage is on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron and is relatively secluded by a wooded ravine on one side and a privacy fence on the other. And, as a plus the beach offers fantastic swimming and even about 200 yards out the water is still only 5' deep.

Also this year we planned to use the same scoring system as last year so that we could keep track of game wins and losses. Last year Jake was the "Best Overall Gamer" and was awarded the official plaque upon which he had his name engraved as the "Inaugural Winner". There are 11 more blank nameplates on that plaque so we plan to keep this up for a while.

In our gaming group Steve and FunPaul are the primary game collectors and in the week leading up to the main event they brought me box after box and tub after tub of board games to pack away in my mini van. In the end I had to fold down my third seat and remove one of my middle seats to pack everything in and I barely had enough room for my own lonely box of games, my suitcase, food and cooler. I also brought my inflatable mattress and my tent as I had pre-planned to sleep out in the yard. (The cottage has 2 beds and 2 couches. Ten guys were coming for the weekend. You do the math. To me, sleeping outside was the best option.)

As I write about the weekend, I may not get all the facts straight, but I will do my best. If you were there and you see an error in my description of the events, please forgive me. My only excuse is, well... Hell, I was drinkin' for three straight days! You of all people should know that. I can't be expected to remember everything!

Wednesday:
FunPaul and Steve drove up right after they got off work, but I had to wait a bit later since Barb works later than they do and I had to wait for her to get home. I had also arranged to caravan up there with my attorney. He got to my place about 6:30 and Barb got home not long after that. By 7:15 we were on our way.

My attorney and I got to the cottage a little after 9pm because we got caught up in horrible construction traffic, but to our delight FunPaul had pre-heated his deep fryer and was prepared to serve us fried cheese sticks, butterfly shrimp and jalapeño poppers. We also started a game of Age of Steam, even though we agreed that it wouldn't count towards winning the plaque at the end of the weekend. The "official" event would begin at 8am the next morning.

Mark showed up Somewhere in the middle of Age of Steam and the five of us chatted, ate and drank. I think Steve won this game. I know that I was not in the running. After that it was well after midnight and we all went outside to celebrate the fact that we were facing four days of a complete and absolute lack of responsibility. No wives, no kids, no jobs, no school. Just gaming, eating, drinking and, oh yes, swimming! We remembered that last part at about 3am so we grabbed our towels and headed down to the beach.

That was an amazing swim. The air, even at 3am, was remarkably warm and the water was about the same temperature as the air. To top it all off, the sky was completely cloud free and we could clearly see about 100 times more stars than we were used to seeing in the city. In fact, it was so clear you could see the blurry sweep of the Milky Way as we looked through the galactic plane. Truly a beautiful sight.

After that we were off to bed and asleep by 4am or so. I started off sleeping on my air mattress out under the stars, but I kept waking up, so I eventually wimped out and hauled it into my tent where I slept like a baby until morning.

Thursday:
We slept in a bit this morning, finally getting up around 9am. FunPaul made us a fine breakfast of bacon, eggs and mimosa, which I'd never had before, but was a quick convert. Larry showed up about this time and was able to join us for a game of Power Grid, which would be the first official game of the retreat. Power Grid is one of my favorite games but it doesn't seem to hit the table very often so I'm always glad to play it whenever I get the chance. FunPaul won this one and I came in 2nd.

After that we played two quick games of For Sale, which is a great light game to play after such a heavy. Mark won one of these and FunPaul won the other.


At some point this afternoon many of us went for another swim, this time by day. The air and water were still both incredibly warm. After swimming I decided it was time I started drinking.

I had some pre-retreat debates with myself about drinking over the weekend. Not "should I drink?", but "what should I drink?" I've never been a big fan of beer. In any given gaming evening I'm perfectly happy having a beer, or maybe two, but that's about my limit. I just don't like the taste that much. I used to be a big fan of the Capt'n & Coke, but for some reason I've lost my taste for it over the last couple of years.

So, before the retreat I settled on my new drink of choice. I found the wikipedia entry and a couple of different recipes, finally settling on one that both sounded good and was affordable. So, on this afternoon I busted open the vodka, rum, tequila, triple sec and sour mix that I'd brought along and set about to perfect the alchemy that is the Long Island Ice Tea. It turned out quite well, indeed. The alchemy of this drink is that it contains a shocking amount of alcohol, but tastes unlike anything alcoholic. To me, that's a perfect drink.

Drinkwise, my goal for the weekend was not to get very drunk, but to reach a point of giddy bliss and then to maintain that for as long as I could, without ever having a hangover the next day. This turned out to work out well, except for Saturday night when I couldn't keep my eyes open any more. No hangovers though, which I'm still pleased about.

Over the course of the weekend both Jake and my attorney joined me in my new discovery and Jake and I agreed that this was a drink that could really kick you in the ass if you weren't paying attention. Good stuff! It also has an interesting history, which you can read about by clicking on the wikipedia entry above. Apparently one original recipe involved 4 ounces of pure maple syrup. Crazy.

After this Steve brought out Cash n' Guns, a new action packed light he'd recently ordered. It is a quick game, and it has a unique mechanic involving pointing foam guns at each other. Basically it is a simultaneous reveal / bluffing game. As such, it is best played with alcohol. We played two of these. I won one of them and my attorney won the other. My first win of the weekend. Woot!

Next up my attorney brought out his copy of Ruse & Bruise, which is an entertaining medium card game with a fairly unique play structure. My attorney won this one and I came in second.

Around this Jake arrived so we now had seven, which meant it was time to split up into two groups. Steve Jake Mark and Larry went off to play Thebes while FunPaul, my attorney and I sat down in the garage for a game of Niagara. I won the Niagara game. Jake won at Thebes. If memory serves we finished Niagara quite a bit before the Thebes game ended so the three of us went swimming yet again while waiting for the others to finish.

I think it was about this time that FunPaul announced that he had made dinner for the group. This was a surprise since I didn't actually see him prepare anything, but, as if by magic there was suddenly a delicious pork loin being dished up in the kitchen. I swear, if your gaming group doesn't have a resident gourmet, you don't know what you're missing. Cheers to FunPaul!

After dinner I got to try out Thebes myself and was very impressed. It is a great medium where you play archaeologists collecting historical knowledge in Europe and going on digs in Egypt and the Middle East. FunPaul won this one and I came in 2nd.

Following this we pulled out Ra, which is one of our old standbys but it doesn't see a lot of play anymore. It is still a fine auction game, though. Before it we used to play Medici, but Ra (which is also written by Reiner Knizia) is so much better we just switched over. For this game I decided to adopt my attorney's traditional strategy of focusing on the Pharaohs rather than my own (usually pointless) strategy of playing chicken at the auctions and going for monuments. And, it turns out, I won. Who'd a thought?

It was pretty late on Thursday night by this time. At some point in the evening George and Eric showed up. Eric went off with the other guys to play a few rounds of Cash n' Guns, while George joined me, my attorney and FunPaul to play Modern Art. One of these days I'll get around to reading strategy essays on the Geek about this game. Steve tells me there are fairly simple yet precise calculations for telling you how to bid in the auctions which aid considerably in determining winners over losers. George won this one... I came in dead last. Damn those Long Islands.... whose idea were they anyway???

That wrapped up my Thursday game-wise. I played in 10 games between 9am until somewhere after midnight. After this many of us ambled / staggered down to the beach for another late night swim which was, again, fantastic with a beautiful clear sky and warm, warm water. There's nothing like a series of board games punctuated by midnight swimming to make a guy feel like he hasn't a care in the world.

Friday:
I woke up Friday morning feeling refreshed. Once again the tent/air mattress combination turned out to be a wise choice. If memory serves, I think several of us went down for a swim straight away at about 8am or so. After that FunPaul served up more bacon & eggs and we got down to gaming.

I, Mark, Larry and my attorney started off the gaming Friday by sitting down to Caylus. Along with Power Grid, Caylus is one of my all time favorites which I'd played many times in regular gaming nights with Steve, FunPaul, Jake and Eric. This gave me an advantage over the guys Friday morning who hadn't played it before, but I did try to explain many of the strategic aspects of the game along with the rules. I ended up winning and my attorney came in 2nd.

Caylus is an economic city building game with multiple paths to victory and a heavy portion of resource management. It is very similar to Power Grid, but without the auction element and also to Puerto Rico and countless others. In all it is my favorite type of game. Usually, but not always I find this type of game to be fairly intuitive, unlike area control games. Area control games make me feel like I'm trying to write a full length novel with my left hand. For some reason my brain just doesn't work that way.

After Caylus the same four of us brought out Puerto Rico because we'd all played it before. Apparently I blew my strategic planning wad on Caylus because I completely failed to make intelligent decisions in Puerto Rico. What can I say? A loser is me!

My attorney, Larry and Mark came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively with me bringing up the rear. It seems that I forgot to choose a strategy in the beginning of the game. I mean, there's shipping, there's building and usually a combination of the two. My attorney took a shipping strategy, with a little building. Larry took a building strategy with a little shipping, Mark combined the two fairly evenly. All of these were smart choices. Me? I managed to play the entire game without committing to anything and constantly trying to shift gears to try something new. Great game though.

Around this time the sun was setting and everyone else was either busy or not interested, so my attorney and I went down to the beach for an evening swim. It was especially nice because it was right around sunset and also because the waves had picked up a bit. It was strikingly pleasant, after a long day of gaming, to stand up to our necks in the warm water, watch the stars just start to peek through the deep blue/black of the sky and let the waves push us around as we bobbed and floated in Lake Huron.

My attorney and I both grew up on the west side of the state and I, for one, have always preferred swimming in Lake Michigan. I still maintain that the beaches of Holland, Muskegon and those of the northwest like around Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Lelanau Peninsula are far nicer than anything Lake Huron has to offer, but this particular beach that our cottage was on does come close. It still seems strange to me that the sun should rise and not set over the water. I spent so many nights watching sunsets over Lake Michigan horizons in my teenage years that it seems almost sac religious that it should be any different. After the sun was fully down and darkness had set in we climbed the stairs back up to the top of the bluff for more gaming.

After this the order of games is a bit muddy, but I believe this is when Larry brought out his copy of Fist of the Dragonst Ones. No one but he had played this one before. It is a simultaneous reveal bluffing / auction game. The big twist of this one, imo, is that you lose your resources even if you do not win the auction. This means you have to be durn sure you're going to win the auction before you even try. I took this to mean that you should wait until others have depleted their resources, and then commit everything you have on the one card you want to win that round. This may well be completely incorrect, though. FunPaul won this game, with Steve coming in 2nd and me, Mark, Larry and my attorney all tying for 3rd.

Dinner this night was on Jake. He threw a huge pan of mostacolli in the oven earlier in the evening and the smells of it baking permeated the cottage. By the time it was ready we were all ravenous and polished it off lickity damn split. You da man, Jake!

After this we were all starting to get a bit tired so we turned to another game of For Sale to get our second wind. Mark took 1st and I came in 2nd, but also playing were Eric, FunPaul and my attorney.

Next up I had the chance to play my favorite game of the weekend that I'd never previously played. Some weeks ago my attorney had picked up a copy of Colosseum based, he claims, purely on the fact that the box looks cool. Colosseum is a set collecting, trading, auction, building game in which each player is putting on a series of shows in ancient rome. Each show requires a specific set of ingredients which you have to either buy at auction or trade for with the other players. It really has all the elements that I love in a good game and is well put together. Earlier in the day George, Mark, Larry and my attorney all had a chance to play it and were raving about it. This time I played it with my attorney, Mark, Ben and Larry. I ended up winning with my attorney and Larry coming in at 2nd and 3rd. Unlike Puerto Rico, it was one of those games where all the many parts just flowed together for me.

The only downside to Colosseum was that we misunderstood an important part of the rules and were playing it in a way that made resources considerably more scarce than the rules intended. We discovered our error about half way through but decided to play it through as is anyway. Other than our own mistake it is a well designed and very entertaining game. It will be nice to try it again sometime and play it properly.

I have to say that one of the funnest aspects of Colosseum is presenting your performance piece to the other players. My attorney mastered this element of the game and each of his shows left everyone else rolling around on the floor in drunken giggles. My favorite was: "Perhaps you remember last year's failed performance of 'Circus Minimus'... well this year we've learned from our mistake..." Ah, a good time was had by all.

After this we played one last round of Cash n' Guns before calling it a night game-wise. Me, Mark, Ben, Larry and my attorney again, since the other guys were busy playing Zooloretto or something.

There was some more talk of another round of late night swimming, but the air seemed to have chilled a bit and it didn't sound quite as pleasant as it had on previous nights. A day well spent by any measure, however.

Saturday:
This day was a bit slower than those previous. I only played in two games and the weather was starting to turn chilly and damp so I didn't swim at all. I think my attorney and FunPaul got in an early morning swim while it was still nice, but I missed out on that one by sleeping in past sunrise.

FunPaul fed us breakfast once again, but I think the champaign was gone by this point so we had to do without the mimosa. Then we lounged around a bit and didn't start gaming until after 10am.

My attorney brought out another new game he'd picked up recently called Emira. In it players take on the role of Sheiks who are vying to make themselves more attractive than the others to seduce beautiful and talented women to join their harems. It is a very amusing game, but suffers from being too long for what it is. We played it from about 10am until after 3pm or so, which made it play like a heavy like Power Grid, when it should only have been a medium like Ra or Thebes. This, combined with the fact that we were all starting to suffer from exhaustion made the game a bit tense and we were all happy to see it end. In the play itself I made a terribly foolish over bid on turn one which left me resource short until the late game so I was never really competing for the win. Jake took an early lead, but in the end Mark over shot him to come out in first place. I see on the Geek that there is an unofficial variant to address the game length issue. If we bring it to the table again perhaps we should check that out.

Emira was so long that we took an extended break until 6pm or so. Then me, Mark, Ben and my attorney settled on playing Industrial Waste, while Steve, Jake, George and FunPaul brought out Settlers of Catan. The others played two games of Settlers while we played one of Industrial Waste, not because our game was a long one, but because we watched the Borat movie in the background while we played. Very fun, as I hadn't seen it before.

I like Industrial Waste, but I think it plays better for two than for four. Not that it is bad, but just that there are almost always better options. But, maybe that's because I came in last to my attorney, Mark and Ben in that order.

By this time it was 8pm or 9pm and I was disappointed to note that I'd only played two games this day. I was also bummed that I'd missed out on playing Settlers. Like many board game fans this was the first real Eurogame I'd ever played, and was the one that hooked me for more. (They don't call it a gateway game for nothin') I was kind of looking forward to giving it another go since its been a few years.

However, I was overjoyed to learn that, while we were playing Industrial Waste FunPaul had been busy in the kitchen making the largest roast sirloin I'd ever seen. It was truly mammoth. So, a bunch of us hauled the picnic table out to the edge of the bluff and prepared it for dinner. Then, when the roast was finished FunPaul brought it out and the 9 of us remaining (Larry had to leave earlier in the day) ate roast sirloin outside well after dark.

George had been smart enough to pillage the nearby ravine for good firewood and had stoked a nice big fire for us ahead of time. Good food, good drink, good company and at this point many good memories of a successful gaming retreat. What could be finer? It was a bit sad that this was our last night, but I for one was starting to really miss Barb and the kids and was feeling ready to get back home.

For the preceding days of the retreat I had managed to drink to the point of a giddy sort of bliss without actually being drunk, but this evening the exhaustion took hold and after dinner I could barely stand. I was so, so tired.

After cleaning up dinner many of the group felt like I did and went off to bed. George, however, stoked the fire back up again and he, Steve, Jake, FunPaul, and I lay down in the grass around the fire pit and talked for an hour or two. At some point I couldn't take it any more and I crawled off to my tent where I fell asleep quickly and deeply, dreaming of getting home to snuggle with my lovely bride.

Some time before dawn it started to rain a bit and I peaked out of my tent to find that the others had slept next to the fire, but were now staggering back towards the house to escape the rain. Then I fell back asleep until sunrise.

Sunday:
This morning was overcast and a light rain settled in not long after waking. My attorney had left for DC before anyone else woke up and Eric and Jake left early as well. There were six of us left and I proposed that we sit down for a game of Ticket to Ride before packing up, hoping that we'd then have time for one or two games of Settlers before calling it quits and driving back home, which everyone agreed to. We actually set up two games side by side. George, Ben and Steve played Ticket to Ride: Europe, while Mark, FunPaul and I played the original.

This is a great semi-light, semi-medium game which we'd played out on the bluff Sunday morning of last year and returning to it this year seemed somehow appropriate. George won the European version while Mark stole the game from FunPaul and me.

Then we cleaned the cottage up from top to bottom, but as we were finishing the landlord / cottage manager arrived and told us that a new tenant was arriving soon and that we'd have to make way for them. Sigh... Settlers will have to wait again. Too bad.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and even more fun than last year, I dare say. In fact, in retrospect the weather really turned in our fortune. It was cloudy and wet the entire week preceding the weekend, and its been cloudy and wet since then. It appears that the gaming gods were smiling on us.

In the end FunPaul took home the grand prize and will get to engrave his name on the plaque and has bragging rights until next year.

Overall an amazing total of 34 games were played, 19 of which I got to play in myself. Hm... I feel like I missed out on half the fun.

Wrap up:
A couple of days after getting home my attorney sent me the pictures he'd taken. Here are the highlights.

Here's the mountian of games in the living room.

And here's me with the mountain of games in the kitchen.

Here's me, Mark and Steve prepping for Cash n' Guns.

Here's my attorney posing after his Cash n' Guns win.

This is Larry and George sitting down to Colosseum.

And here's Mark, me and Ben sitting down to the same game later that night.

This one is FunPaul, me, Mark and Larry indulging in For Sale.

Below is FunPaul, Jake, Eric and George playing Imperial. I didn't have a chance to play that one.

Below is FunPaul slicing up the roast sirloin. Mmm... Steak!

And here are some shots of the lot of us gathered outside at the picnic table to feast.


Here's Eric Relaxing at the end of the weekend. This is how we all felt on Sunday morning. My attorney titled this pic: "Gaming the Eric Way."

Finally, here are a couple of scenic shots from outside the cottage overlooking Lake Huron.

Many thanks to Steve and FunPaul for planning and organizing the weekend, and again to FunPaul for his amazing gourmet talents. Oh, and also to Jake for dinner Friday night and to my attorney for bringing his fancy, new fangled digital camera! Thanks also to everyone for taking time away from real life for a long weekend to pretend that we're back in college and don't have a care in the world.

Only 349 days until Foot Foot 2008!

Thigra, Angel Archer

John was over last weekend with his digital camera so I got a chance to take a picture of my latest mini. This one is from Reaper's Dark Haven Legend series #3120.




I've been practicing my black lining, which is where you draw a thin line of ink in the crevice where clothing meets flesh, or where the belt wraps around her waist. This has been a bit of a frustration because its so tough to get the line to look both very thin and very even. This is especially true in very small areas like in the straps of her boots.

I like the way her wings turned out, but I wish I'd had it in me to do some more highlights. Its just a series of alternating purples and blues with a dark purple wash to bring out the details.