I found my notebook, but I'm still blogging from a computer without picture uploading. I'm not reading anyone else's reports, so you're probably getting their pictures anyway.
I found my notebook. To fill you in: yesterday's FF game was called Felix, and he's puching it a lot at the con.
Thursday morning showed long lines for the registration. The first to register, the first to pick your free game from the pile. There were some issues getting the Pirate Trading game off the ground, as the rules were nowhere to be seen for a while, and some people wondered what the cards they got in their bag were all about.
Eventually rules were hung, and then eventually available for perusing. I went around pushing it, too. It may be picking up some steam. We'll find out when people try to hand the cards in Sat night.
I played way too many new games, which just makes my head hurt:
Wabash Cannonball, a pure math train game, where I whined on turn three that I already calculated that I had no chance to catch up and tried to prove it, much to the other player's annoyance. I was right, but still. Rating: not sure, but not good if I'm right. The mechanics were otherwise good enough.
Crokinole, which I had played at the last con. Fun, but hurts the fingers the first time you play.
Tamsk, the orphaned GIPF game, which was ok, but not really that interesting, even with the timers. Meanwhile, Tamsk's replacement Tzaar, was excellent, on par with Dvonn and Yinsh.
I listened to someone explain a prototype to me from one of the one-game game companies, and about five minutes into it I told him he was terrible at explaining games. Maybe rude, but I then proceeded to systematically ascertain the rules and give him pointers on how to explain the game in a more cohenrent manner. I met the guy later in the evening and he thanked me and said that I really helped him. The game was an area control game in Great Britain.
Antler Island, the deer mating game by Lamont, creator of Shear Panic, is pastoral, but didn't inspire great love. It did inspire a lot of rude jokes. However, we didn't play with the full combat rules. It's on the level of Shear Panic, and may be even better with more intense combat. And not too long.
Before the Wind, was essentially Puerto Rico lite, maybe even more so than San Juan. It was really a nice game, but we did something wrong with the bidding, because something was ridiculous and ruined the game. We had a post discussion and discovered that the way that we originally though that it should be played, but then thought otherwise, was in fact correct. So in the end, it seems to be a really good game.
Airships, a game by Andreas Sayfarth, is also a neat game, but it's main mechanic is lots of dice rolling. But but but but .... why? If you don't mind dice rolling (prety controlled rolling, but still dice), the game is a good marriage of dice to Eurogame.
Catch-a Fish is a marriage between Bohnanza and Ra. Keep flippinf up fish cards until someone rings the bell and buys them, which he then has to plant into his three fish fields without changing the order. On his turn, he can harvest a lot of fish to free up a row. Basically.
I finally got tired of new games and wanted to play something I knew already, so I taught three other people how to play Puerto Rico and we had a nice foursome. I won, of course, but they really seemed to enjoy it.
Geominoes is another game from a one game company that seems around the same niche as 24/7, a cute game of tile laying and scoring points, although points here are bad for you, and you have to rotate the shapes to score the least points.
My only other note is that the hit game seems to be something called Agricola, which is supposed to be the next Caylus-killer. I might give it a go if I have a chance.
Yehuda
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