G&G XIV: A Good Long Time

It feels like it's been a good long time since we last got together for Gaming & Guinness, and at eleven-and-a-half months, I suppose it has been. Eight of us finally reconvened (for the fourteenth time!) for a weekend dedicated to playing games, drinking beers, staying up too late and laughing a lot

Well, it started out as a weekend. Then one year, I suggested the miniature gamers get together on Thursday so those who didn't have an army could opt out if they wanted, but everyone came anyhow. Then people started showing up on Wednesday evening so we could get an early start on Thursday.

This year, early arrivals by the out-of-towners and favourably oriented work schedules for everyone else had us all on-site at Totty's place by 1:00 Wednesday afternoon, a new record. After a quick lunch, we kicked things off with the upsized, drinking version of Jenga (also known as JenG&Ga).

We moved on to a series of smaller games, including Anomia, Zombie Dice and Timeline.

The next day we played a game of X-Wing Miniatures set on a meticulously recreated Death Star trench. 

Best of all, I got be Luke Skywalker! (That's me in the lead X-Wing.)

Just like in the movie, the timely arrival of the Millennium Falcon enabled the Rebels (Scott, Mike, Pete and I) to deploy a proton torpedo into the fabled exhaust port and destroy the Death Star.

Everyone agreed that Scott outdid himself and that this was the best-looking gaming table we'd ever played on. Most importantly, everyone had a good time while decked out in appropriate t-shirts.

...and in Pete's case, thematic bedding. (And also a Death Star waffle iron!)

At the other end of the spectrum of gaming esthetics, Vintage Miniatures Deathmatch returned that evening for the third time, pitting (mostly) old-timey miniatures against one another in gladiatorial combat! This year we added power-ups tokens to the field which not only kept things moving, but also made them more fatal in a few instances.

Sadly, Brother Cadbury was unable to repeat his victory from the year before, falling to Scott's war-maiden Katilinia, the eventual champion.

After a delicious dinner of Maui ribs grilled up by Jeff, it was time for some asymmetric gaming in The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31. This game is so well done that I can briefly overcome my dislike of social deduction mechanics and just throw myself into the scenarios presented. We played well, defeating the creature handily when we encountered it, but despite reaching the helicopter, we lost the game when we stranded Pete (a hapless human) and took Scott instead, who turned out to have been the second imitation spawned in the game.

I made breakfast the next morning, and afterwards, Earl entertained us with enough Wits & Wagers trivia questions for two whole games, and Scott won both of them handily.

Then it was downtown to GTFO for a competitive escape room experience. Jeff, Pete and both Mikes managed to beat the Scott, Earl, Rob and I into Europa 4836's sole escape pod.

Win or lose, at least we all look good, right? I was very happy with how the shirts I'd ordered turned out.

I didn't take any pictures of our game of Captain Sonar, the brilliant team submarine game that Island Mike introduced us to last year, nor of Rock Band, but it's an interesting contrast as the former requires sobriety and concentration and the other actually discourages it, at least for most of us.

Saturday afternoon was our Battletech game, and I had selected sides with equal tonnages and re-acquired my original maps from the person I had traded them to (cheers, Jay!), but was dissatisfied with the idea of a straight-up slugfest. 

I threw out the barest bones of a scenario to the group, and within a half hour, we had a great one all doped out: diagonal deployment zones, with three objectives spread across the middle of the board. Spending a complete turn on the objective let you claim the equivalent of 70 tons of destroyed enemy 'mech, and the first team to end a turn with 210 tons or more would be the winner.

It was a real back and forth affair, and although Scott, Mike, Rob and I played our House Steiner forces very strategically, the balance shifted when Earl's battered 80-ton Zeus emerged from the river it had submerged in to cool off and blew the head off my 95-ton Banshee with a single shot from a particle projector cannon.

Saturday night means two things: Pete's exquisite green roasted chili with pork and our premier game: Circus Maximus. 

It's an unforgiving game, and although there were no fatalities this year, two three players ended up not finishing. Scott and I whipped Pete's horses one after other when he was in the corner and ended up with an unsurvivable speed of 35, flipping his chariot and stranding his driver. Rob took the same corner too quickly on the final turn and his double sideslip smashed him into the wall. The corner also finished Earl as he attempted to make up ground.

Jeff outpaced everyone again and took the trophy for the fourth time! Totty was in close pursuit (again), and Island Mike got third place despite having the second slowest horses in the game. Well done, gents!

 

Normally Sunday afternoons are just Totty, Pete and I squeezing in one last small game before I pack up all the crap I've brought, but with Rob's flight leaving just before supper, we had time for something a bit more involved. At my request, Totty brought out his Kickstarter edition of GKR: Heavy Hitters (GKR standing for Giant Killer Robots).

This is a brilliant-looking game (pre-painted figures too) with a fantastic set of card-based mechanics and a scoring system that effectively prevents someone from parking their mecha. Despite taking a hammering from Pete's blue beast, my orange Heavy Hitter managed to destroy four buildings and win the game. If only it supported 8 players so we could have it at G&G proper!

We finished just in time for Pete to bring Rob to the airport. 

I continue to be astonished and touched by how committed we have all become to this silly event, and by just how gratifying it feels to commit to camaraderie among such excellent fellows for the better part of a week. By my figuring, G&G XIV ran for about 99 hours, its longest iteration yet. It was truly a good, long time.

And I already can't wait for next year.