SoCal Games Day 2 Report

SoCal Games Day 2 Report | Back to SoCal Games Day

March 24, 2001

Burbank

Who was there

Scott Alan Woodard, Mark Johnson, Ken Miller, Dave Arnott, Neal Sofge, Steve Carey, Chris Richardson, Rick Jones, Bob Claster, Alan Stroud, Fen Yan, Jonathan Degann, Roger Lighty, Jennifer Schlickbernd, Bruce Schlickbernd, Todd Schlickbernd, Daniel Hurley, Jon Schultz, Janet Sorrentino, Mike Mayer, Amanda French, Mike Kelly, Rob McDiamard, Dave Gaarsoe

What was played

Carcassone, Merchants Of Amsterdam, Advanced Civ, San Marco, Mississippi Queen, Kremlin, Evergreen, Java, Lord Of The Rings (x2), Down In Flames (Bi-Plane edition), McMulti, Mamma Mia!, Brawl (at least x2, possibly much more), Groo, Through The Desert, Tigris & Euphrates, Lost Cities, Ivanhoe, Werewolf, Viva Pamplona!

Event Report

Like the previous Games Day, this one was held at a Petco Community Center. This time, however, the host Petco store was in Burbank rather than Santa Clarita, a more central location for most attendees. Beyond that, the room was a bit nicer, too, and the store staff was very helpful, even happy to have us there. We returned the favor by buying some pet supplies, and doing a better job of getting packed up a little before closing time. We've already planned to hold Games Day 3 here as well, and may stick with this store as long as we're welcome and have enough room.

The gaming officially started at 11am, but main organizer Scott Alan Woodard was there at 9:30, setting up. I arrived a little before 11, and gamers started trickling in after that. (Next time I think we'll offer a start at 10am, for those earlybirds who wan to get in the most gaming they can.) Again we had nametags and a signup sheet. I can see that half of our attendees had been to Games Day 1, the rest were new. We even had one walk-in, Debbie, who was shopping at Petco, then came in to learn about the games! She couldn't stay, but signed on with the SoCal-Boardgamers mailing list, and will hopefully attend GD3.

Once again we enjoyed a prize drawing. This time, in addition to the gift certificates again provided by Boulder Games, some folks had brought other games to donate to the prize table. Also, Neal Sofge of Fat Messiah Games donated two copies of Shapeshifters.

This time I cannot personally describe many of the games played. Though I may be familiar with them, I didn't play any--I spent the entire time playing Advanced Civilization, my first try at this classic. In fact, it was the first long boardgame I'd played all the way through! I enjoyed it, but it's not one I'd need to play more than once a year. More comments are posted to SoCal-Boardgamers, just click on the links below.

Mike Mayer's report | Jon Schultz' report | Mark Johnson's report | Jonathan Degann's report

-Mark Johnson

Gamer Map

Jon Schultz took the signup sheet from Games Day 2 and created this map indicating graphically where everyone comes from. If you're wondering who that is way out in Crestline, that's Jon!

Photo Album

Here are a variety of photos snapped throughout the day. Names given are to be read left-to-right within the picture. Most of the time I disabled my camera's flash, to not disturb the people playing the game. Unfortunately it means some blurring on occasion, too.

Like the previous SoCal Games Day, SCGD3 was held at a Petco Community Room, this time in Burbank.

I forgot to take a photo of the room during Games Day--this was taken a couple days later when the room was dark & unoccupied. But on Saturday it was filled with games and gamers!

Ken, Steve, and Jonathan share the wealth in San Marco

Mike, Alan, Dave, and Scott play Beat The Clock (no, Merchants of Amsterdam)

Jennifer, Roger, Bruce, Daniel, and Mark (taking photo) play Advanced Civilization, while Todd plays a computer game.

Todd set up the Carabande track, but we didn't play the combined set on a table as planned. Next time.

Kremlin, played by Alan, Rick, and Neal.

Stacking them high in Java are Mike, Scott, Jonathan, and Ken.

Dave ponders the unreachable dock in Mississippi Queen, along with Mike, Bob, and Amanda.

This was a nicer, cozier room than what we had for GD1.

Bruce maneuvers his Minoan civilization to dominate the Aegean and Greece.

Neal, ??, Dave, and Rick explore chaos theory with Groo, while Mike K., Rob, and Jon play Lord of the Rings.

Mamma Mia! That's a spicy pizza! Mike M., Ken, Chris, Jonathan, and runaway winner Dave play.

Ahh...the Mayfair reprint of Tigris & Euphrates looks so nice. ??, Mike, Chris, and Dave are playing.

Fen and Janet play the 2-player modern classic, Lost Cities.

Another go at Lord of the Rings, this time by Dave, Rick, Chris, and Mike M.

Ack, a blurry picture (no flash), but you can make out the crowd enjoying Viva Pamplona. Dave, Alan, Rob, Scott, Bob, and Amanda.