Author: Meeple Lady
Wishing I was at Essen, and other random thoughts …

Wishing I was at Essen, and other random thoughts …

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Essen Spiel is happening right now. And I am here in Phoenix. Sad face.

What is Essen? It’s actually a city in Germany but it’s home to the world’s largest board-game convention. About 100,000 people are expected to attend the 4-day event. A bunch of new games are also expected to debut there. Board-gaming is huge in Germany; it’s a part of their family life. And many of the big classic eurogames all originated from Germany. Sigh, one day I will totally make it out there!

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Board gaming and a birthday

Board gaming and a birthday

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And I’m back! I took some time off to celebrate my birthday in two states — California and Arizona. I enjoyed spending time with my family and then with my BFF kicking back to awesome bands at the Kaaboo Music Festival. We had a blast and are already seriously thinking about going next year. When I got back to Phoenix, I celebrated this past weekend with my friends by grubbing and playing board games at a house party.

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Popping into Strategicon in Los Angeles

Popping into Strategicon in Los Angeles

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I was packing for my Labor Day weekend trip to LA to visit my parents last Thursday night when I noticed on Twitter that people were getting ready for Strategicon. Whaaa …?? I have a gaming friend who had gone to Strategicon in February, so I naturally assumed that the convention had gone and past. I quickly looked up the convention online and, lo and behold, Strategicon happens three times a year! They all happen during long weekends — Presidents Day weekend, Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend — at the LAX Hilton. Well, well, I totally couldn’t pass up on that!

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Glass Road … a short Uwe game!

Glass Road … a short Uwe game!

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Let’s take a trip back 700 years ago to the Bavarian Forest where the tradition of glass-making resides along the Glass Road. This is the setting of the Uwe Rosenberg’s game Glass Road. I love, love Uwe’s games (here I talk about Agricola and Le Havre), even backing a Kickstarter campaign to get board game T-shirts. Hell ya, Uwe is my homeboy! His games are well made, and Glass Road especially has a genius mechanic of the production wheels. But Uwe games tend to be on the longer side, which I totally don’t mind but understand how that can turn off people from his games. For such a brain-burner of a game, Glass Road is actually quite short.

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A return to my gaming group

A return to my gaming group

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The summer of fun is officially over. In Arizona, fall classes start in mid-August. This means family responsibilities, classes and other priorities take the place of board-gaming time. In other words, no more holiday-weekend binge sessions and gaming with my usual peeps 3-4 times a week. I seriously think it’s been over a month since I last played Battlestar Galactica. Also, I’m super bummed that one of my oldest gaming friends is moving out of town. He patiently taught me (and countless others) how to play BSG. More importantly, he taught me how to not get caught as a cylon. Alas.

So what’s a lady to do? I recently returned to my old main gaming group to see what new games and people are out there. I love, love gaming with my usual folks (and the fact that they live nearby), but unless one of us buys a new game, we don’t get much exposure to what else is out there. Granted, we get really, really good at the games we play, so that’s always pretty awesome. But it’s always nice to mix it up every now and again. My old gaming group, who meets at a substantial distance from my home, knows that I prefer the heavier games but I’m willing to learn and play a new game at least once. This has led to some pleasant surprises at recent meetups.

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Maricopa Con 2015

Maricopa Con 2015

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Last weekend I went to Maricopa Con at the Mesa Convention Center. It was my first time going, and despite the mild funk that set in halfway through the day (it is summer in Arizona where temps hit 113), I had a lot of fun gaming.

I’m also fortunate to have gone with a friend, so I wasn’t wandering aimlessly trying to awkwardly jump into games. I’ve done that before when I went solo to BGG Con, but it’s easier when you’ve got tables upon tables to scour. Maricopa Con consisted of one large ballroom and a smaller room (which ended up being more pleasant and chilly).

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Things I backed on Kickstarter

Things I backed on Kickstarter

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Hello, friends of the Internet! I had a home emergency last week that took up a lot of time to get repaired. Board-gaming, blogging and a couple other things just fell by the wayside. My home AC broke. Ugh. In most other places in the U.S., this would not be a major issue. But in Arizona, where temps hovered around 110 degrees last week, this was a BIG. FREAKING. DEAL. So now I’m sitting in my condo, basking in the coolness of central air blasting out of my new energy-efficient unit. Woot woot! Anywhooo …

I recently backed two projects on Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a global crowdfunding platform, where creators introduce projects they need funding for, and people of the Internet pledge to give money for said project. I personally haven’t encountered any negative experiences on this (*knock on wood*), but I have only backed projects from established companies that I’ve purchased items from before either in person or online. I’ve heard horror stories of items missing deadlines by years and other shady transactions.

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Not much gaming this week

Not much gaming this week

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It’s been a busy week of not much gaming among my core group of gaming friends. Sometimes life gets in the way! But I did see Social Distortion this week at a sold-out show so life isn’t all that bad. A friend of mine mentioned that it feels weird that an entire week goes by and not one single game of Battlestar Galactica has been played among us. The game has come up more frequently the last month now that I actually own the game, and we don’t have to rely on somebody else. We did get in a game of Nations earlier this week, and I unfortunately got crushed. Ugh.

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