Winter Weirdness 2011: Rocking the Undercroft
Posted Monday, January 10th, 2011 at 11:05am
Rail-riders gather for the Ticket to Ride tournament.
Saturday, January 8th, gamers from Vermont, Quebec, New Hampshire and other further points convened at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Barre for twelve hours of gaming goodness, . Even in spite of less than ideal weather conditions, lots of people made it out for some or all of the day’s festivities. And not only were games played, but fun was had in great quantity.
The centerpiece of the day was the Ticket to Ride tournament sponsored by The Book Garden of Montpelier. Organized by Bob Menzel (@bobmenzel), the tournament saw twenty participants vying for the glory of first place — plus the $50 gift certificate to the Book Garden itself. Congratulations go to Rick Scoles for winning the tournament and Rick Powell (@rickpowell) of the Book Garden for his generous sponsorship of the event.
One of the more extraordinary things that happened on Saturday was what seemed to be eleven hours of Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, including the new Exodus expansion. Carlo (@vorpalgens) can say for sure, but I’m pretty sure they played from 11:30 AM to 10:30 PM. Talk about a heavy dose of paranoia, mistrust and betrayal.
Please share your thoughts about the day in the Winter Weirdness forum thread. What was your favorite game of the day? Did you get to try something new?
Additionally, Bethany (@zadularia) started a game day feedback thread. With three of these under our collective belt, Green Mountain Gamers wants to know what you’d like to see in future game days. If you’ve already been to one, what do you want? If you haven’t been yet, what would entice you to attend?
Winter Weirdness 2011 Photo Gallery
To my shame, I can’t identify every game being played in the pictures below. So let’s crowd-source the identification. Comment on a picture below with what’s being played, who’s there or even something fun you remember about that moment.
If you have photos to share, you can link to the album in the comments below, or send us the photos and we’ll host them here with the rest.
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- Joe, Ericka, Vince and Noah become Defenders of the Realm.
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- This was just the beginning of the selection of games to play. Later we filled up a third table as big as these combined.
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- Kaye teaches two newcomers to Uptown.
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- Plying the seas as Merchants & Marauders.
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- Carlo gets ready for what turned out to be elevenish hours of Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game
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- Hanging out at the sofa before a little Mille Bornes action.
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- Joe, Nicole, Andrew and John hit the road in Mille Bornes.
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- Respect the fez — and the sonic.
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- They’re going down to Gamma World, gonna have themselves a time.
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- The Settlers of Catan explore their island.
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- Rail-riders gather for the Ticket to Ride tournament.
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- The competition for top of the Ticket to Ride heap continues.
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- The Battlestar Galactica cadre has some opinions as to who is a Cylon.
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- Ticket to Ride just doesn’t stop.
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- Sarah, Joe and Nate all had to practice their throaty consonants to play Le Havre.
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- There’s that third table of games.
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- Guy in fez provided for scale.
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- Building the rails in TransEuropa.
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- Andrew supervises the rail barons.
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- Back in the days of Memoir ’44.
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- The world always seems cheerier from underneath a fez.
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- Alex teaches Fantasy Flight’s new version of Civilizaton to Matt, Noah and Neil.
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- Noah and Neil consider their options.
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- Carlo’s pretty happy about his position in Battlestar Galactica.
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- Rule Britannia — is what these guys are trying to accomplish.
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- Dominion was the pick-up game of choice at Winter Weirdness.
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- Andrew oversees the development of Elasund: The First City.
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- A wider angle on Elasund and its players.
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- Sarah seems possessive of her cards.
Rachel said on January 10, 2011
Well, technically, the first BSG game didn’t start until a bit after noon, and there was at least a short pause between the two games, so I don’t think it was quite eleven hours. Still, more than enough paranoia and betrayal to go around!