One more day until the Geekway 2010. Ok, the official event starts Friday at 8:00AM, but I get to leave Thursday morning and will be gaming most of Thursday. I'm excited about this year's Geekway for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I get to hook up and game with a familiar cast of characters - Nathan Winchester, Justin Easley, Jason Easley, Chester Ogborn, Steve Wicklund, John Davis and Matt Steele. Nathan of course is my local gaming buddy, Justin and Jason are guys I met in Omaha who have trekked out for the Geekway the past three years, Chester is an Omaha native who is an ingrained part of the history of the Geekway, and Steve, John, and Matt are guys I worked with at Union Pacific. I look forward to sitting at a table at some point with all of them. Justin, Nathan, and Chester are of course the other three players in my online PBEM Olympics group so I'm sure there will be plenty of bitching the whole weekend. Though the point of the convention is to play games, the point of playing games is social. A long weekend of relaxing games is Chicken Soup For the Boardgamer's Soul.Beyond getting to see (and beat repeatedly) good friends, there are the games. The first year I attended I didn't know what to expect and played a pretty good variety of games. Some new and I taught a number of games I knew. Last year we wanted to play certain games and only got in a handful of ones we planned to. What we ended up doing a lot of last year was playing the excellent selection of games from the Play to Win table. For those unfamiliar with the PTW table, here's the deal - sponsors have donated a huge selection of games that are available to checkout and play. After playing, everyone that played the game gets their name entered into a drawing for that game at the end of the Geekway. This year's table is again loaded, but I think we may actually try to play a few more of the games we've been talking about this year. I think last year's table was actually a bit more interesting - not a slight against the sponsors, rather the games that came out this past year just aren't as interesting (to me).
There are also the other events - tournaments and the trade table. This year there are a number of tourneys being run. Justin and I are returning as The Droids Ur Lookin 4 in the Crokinole tourney. I'm also planning to play in the Pitchcar tourney. Both are going to be nice breaks from the mental strain of being abused by my so called friends for three days. The trade table is a deal where you put your games up for trade. At the start of the event, a name is drawn at random. That person gets first pick from the trade table. After that, whomever's game is picked picks next and so forth. Good fun.
There are some changes to the event this year. Previous years have been in smaller venues with fairly "normal" hours (8Am-11Pm). As the event has grown, so has the need for a larger venue. This year the Geekway is being held at a hotel and there will be 24-7 (24-3) gaming. I'm not sure how well I'll hold up (its hard getting old), but I imagine I'll push through. In truth, I know that after two solid days of gaming my brain is fried. Perhaps the open ended times will take of some of the "pressure" to cram in as much playing as possible. Also, since we are staying at the same location as the actual event, taking a break whenever we like will be nice.
So, what games am I looking forward to trying (or trying to play)? Here's what I'm packing:
Amazing what you can fit into one regular sized game box.
- Q-Jet 21xx
- Edel Stein and Richt
- Fjords
- Tichu
- Landlord
- Buried Treasure
- Excape
- Sushizock im Gockelwok
- Undercut
- Senji
- Wings of War II (minis)
- Steam
- Steam Barons
- Gulf, Mobile, Ohio
- A Game of Thrones
- Twilight Struggle
- Combat Commander: Europe
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