Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Last RinCon fundraiser of the year

Over the weekend, I went to the third and last RinCon Fundraiser of 2018. The convention itself will be at the end of the month but every fundraiser is literally a micro convention. I never get tired of saying how amazing it is that I basically get three or four conventions a year ten minutes from our house.

I was there for about half the time. Found two guys who is famed with last time, grabbed a fourth and we were set for the next several hours. We ended up playing Favor of the Pharaoh, TransEuropa, TransAmerica, For Sale, Azul, Century: Spice Road and HUE. And this was my first time trying play Favor of the Pharaoh, Azul and Century: Spice Road, all games I’ve been wanting to try. (For the record, I think Favor is a superior successor to To Court the King and I really like To Court the King)

Highlights: 

I’ve been wanting to revisit the TransAmerica family, which I’ve been playing off and on since 2003. And it did not disappoint. It’s been some years since I last played and I am actually more impressed with the design now. The rules are famously simple but that simplicity still creates brutal decisions and high tension. And the board design is amazing, to support drawing any combination of cards and reliably make them a pain.

I have been very interested in trying Azul. We are a house that loves Qwirkle and Ingenious and Azul seems right up our alley. Now I’ve played it and it is very high on my buy list. And these days, that’s not an easy list to get on.

My first impression of Century: Spice Road is that it’s the love child of Splendor and Sid Sackson’s Bazaar. (Second impression: Love child of _Dominion_ and Bazaar) I don’t view it as a Splendor killer but a splendid game of its own. It’s not on my buy list but definitely on my play again list.

I went into the fund raiser with high expectations and they were exceeded. I got in a lot of solid gaming, games that might be shorter and have ‘simple’ rule sets but games that also had really interesting decisions. After five years of going to their events, RinCon keeps on delivering.

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