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Friday, February 18, 2011

HOT BOX - "Haggis" (What's in the Box?)

Hello! You're here!

Have you seen Haggis!? I've been really interested in this card game for a while. I've played and enjoyed Tichu but it requires 4 who want to play which isn't always possible. It has been said that if you like Tichu you will also like Haggis, but the advantage is that you can play with 2 or 3! There is some dispute as to how similar it is to Tichu. Frankly, I don't care how close it is as long as it's a good game. There appear to definitely be similarities which certainly begs comparison.

Anyhow, I picked up Haggis from the Jack Vasel auction. Wow, I just checked and it had 543 items, has brought in over $30,000 so far, and has another $7,000+ left to collect! Amazing!

Well, Travis Worthington sent me my copy of Haggis (2nd printing) which I received earlier this week (before anyone else got it!). Thanks Travis!

Haggis was designed by Sean Ross and is published by Travis's independent publishing company Indie Boards and Cards. They also publish Triumvirate and The Resistance, the latter of which was very popular at the EGG convention a couple of weeks ago. I'm considering pre-ordering copies of both from the next print run.

In anticipation of Wednesday gaming I opened the box and took some pics. I was hoping to get a game in Wednesday, alas, it didn't happen. I'm hoping to get it learned and played within the next week.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

EGG (Eugene Games Gala) 2011 - My EGGxperience (Part 5)

This is my final installment for EGG 2011. I had a great time even though I missed out on part of Saturday. I hope Lorna continues to run EGG for years to come.  I think it's really starting to come into it's own and beginning to attract some good attention.

Between some of my turns I made sure to get up and take some pictures of other games going on around the convention. Here are some shots of what I saw:

RoadZters set up and ready to play.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

EGG (Eugene Games Gala) 2011 - My EGGxperience (Part 4)

I forgot to mention yesterday that on Saturday I missed out on the game giveaways! Lorna contributes some games of her own for the drawing and FunAgain also provides some games. Early Saturday tickets are distributed and then throughout the day they were drawn from a cannister. If yours is drawn you get to go pick any game you like! My friend Bob got a copy of Onirim which he was very excited about. Three years ago I won a copy of Hoity Toity. Unfortunately I still haven't played it yet :(

Speaking of three years ago (2008) apparently that was the first year of EGG as a full 3-day convention! I had thought EGG had been running for longer than that, but apparently it had only been 1 or 2-day sessions up to then. SO, I can proudly say I was an inaugural member of EGG!

Sunday, Feb 6th - 8:00am
Despite getting home late and going to bed even later, I managed to pull myself out of bed at 8am. EGG started back up @ 9am and with it being the last day and having missed out on most of Saturday, I wanted to make sure I got started early.

One small issue this morning - I woke up with a headache, probably from not enough sleep and possibly not enough hydration. I took some Advil but never quite was able to shake it the whole day. I hate gaming with a headache, but nothing  was going to stop me today.

Because I hadn't really played any of the games at the top of my 'to play' list I had resolved to only playing new games as much as possible.

EGG (Eugene Games Gala) 2011 - My EGGxperience (Part 3)

Day 2 - Saturday, Feb 5th - 7:00am
One the 2nd day of EGG I got up pretty early after staying at EGG until midnight, then driving home, doing a bit of preparations for the morning, winding down a bit, and finally heading to bed. Pretty much a normal day for me actually (except the EGG part)!

Anyhow, our Scout Pack back in November rescheduled the snow day trip to HooDoo near Sisters, OR, to Feb 5th, 2011. At the time I didn't have my calendar with me as the online service we track our family calendar on no longer worked with my older phone, and so I didn't (couldn't) object. Little did I realize until later that this fell smack dab in the middle of EGG! Well, by the time I realized it was really too late to veto that weekend. Grrrrrr. Ah well, I will know better for next year.

And, because we had such a great time last year I knew I couldn't suggest backing out. Being a Den leader doesn't help in this regard either. There is this really nice snow park just before you get to HooDoo ski resort with this decent sized hill that drops about 50 feet at maybe a 35-40 degree angle, then has a gentler slope at the bottom and a berm at the end to help slow you down.

Catching some air!

There is no cost other than the snow pass for parking. Last year the weather was bright and sunny with a nice fresh layer of snow - perfect for sledding!