By the end of Game of Thrones, we had a sixth player show and we broke out Around the World in 80 Days. This was new to me, but several of the others had played it in the past. I faired much better in this one and managed to pull out the win by one day in the end.

After Around the World we decided to conclude the day with a lighter fair of games. We played Great Wall of China for the first time and I think I won that one as well. Again, John has a nice session report up summarizing the event. I think after that we played a few games of Category 5 and called it a night.

Looking forward to doing it again sometime soon, most likely over the Christmas holidays.

The retreat took place in a smallish house/cottage on Lake Huron. It was an almost ideal site for the retreat. It just needs a bit more game play space and a few more places to sleep. Although camping in the back yard near the lake did help fix some of the housing issues (that and camping in the back of the Outlook).

I arrived on Thursday morning, with a few people having arrive the night before. From the way most of them struggled out of bed, it was a heavy night of drinking beforehand and I was told 2am swimming in the lake.

Once I arrive and got settled in, game play started in earnest. We began the ‘official’ games with a few light games to get everyone started. From then on, it was an intense weekend of gaming. Unfortunately, I came down with a nasty migraine headache late Friday night and it was just worse on Saturday morning. I decided the best course of action at that point was to head home and not spoil what remained of the weekend for everyone else.

In total, I played 17 games, 13 of them being different. I only placed 1st in one game, and 2nd in a few and overall for the weekend I ended up dead last. Exactly where I expected to be. From there, one can only improve in the years to come. The games played, in no particular order were: Power Grid, For Sale (2 times), Cash ‘n Guns (3 times), Ruse and Bruise, Thebes, Kahuna, Caylus, Yspahan, Kingdoms (my only 1st place finish), Colosseum, Puerto Rico, Zooloretto, Fist of the Dragon Stones.

My overall favorite for pure fun was Cash ‘n Guns. How can you not have fun playing a game that involves pointing foam guns at people! As far are ‘real’ games are concerned, I liked Colosseum out of the lot of new games I tried this weekend. The overall theme is building an arena and hosting plays to impress the emperor. He with the largest crowd drawn to one of his plays is the winner. Interesting mechanics (although we got a few things wrong) and overall joy to play. This will move into my wish list of game to be purchased.

All in all a grand time and I look forward to next year, hopefully at a slightly larger facility.

And now, a few picture of the event!

Cash ‘n Guns in progress. Mark aims at Steve, who aims at JD. JD aims back!

Mr. Hilla before a game of Colosseum.

JD, Mark, Myself (in the hat) and Paul play a light game of For Sale.

Two piles of the games at the retreat. One with a bonus JD!

My attempt to feign surprise as I draw a tile in Puerto Rico.

Two lake shots from the backyard of the retreat getaway.

I enjoy PvP (or RvR as Warhammer calls it) to some extent, but the way it is implemented in WoW leaves a lot to be desired. Having the game designed from the ground up with RvR being an integral part of leveling and game design makes sense and should help solidify the RvR content. But, alas, only time will tell if they are able to get the game to match the ideas.

I will most likely be playing the game (depending upon final spec requirement *crosses fingers that DX10 is NOT required*). Looks like I will end up on the Chaos side of the conflict even though I’m attracted to the Dwarven Runepriests. But, I will follow the will of our current WoW guild into what we will initially play in Warhammer. And if Thrillhouse has any say, we are Chaos. Chosen lover!

You can check them all out here.

The original intent of flying your ship from inside along with your bridge crew interested me. I could image 5 – 10 people manning a ship (bridge crew and engineering), working together over voice chat to fly the ship and manage combat. I could see the Captain being in charge of overall resource allocation and everyone else having to manage the resources the Captain has assigned to them. I would love to play an engineer and say things over voice like “We need more power down here Captain if you want the shield to remain intact.” Then, having the Captain need to make instantaneous tough decisions about where to allocate power. Shield? Phasers? Speed? etc.

I think the above scenario would be a blast to play with a group of friends and would really bring about the Star Trek feel and differentiate it from other MMOs on the market. From recent announcements, it appears that you will fly the ship from an ‘outside’ view. Thus, the ship simply becomes your avatar in game. You just fly around like you would move an avatar and pew pew things. This would seem to immediately lose the immersion feeling of being in the Star Trek universe and make it feel like you are just playing a space fight video game.

Needless to say, I’m rather disappointed with this direction. Until Bill Gates or someone bestows me with untold riches, the MMO I would really like to play will probably never get made.