RamsdenCon is a homely gathering of gamers held at a special school near Billericay - luckily while the schoolboys are away.  This year that was from Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th February.  This was the first time I had been but, despite it being so far from home and despite the difficulty sleeping, I think it's likely to earn a place as a regular.

By the time I had travelled down the M1, negotiated the sheer aggression of the M25, and found the school among the Essex woods, it was getting rather late, so I wasted no time in heading inside.  I had a slight attack of paranoia as I registered when I found that Annie Shillabeer, our genial host, seemed to know who I was despite the fact that we had never met (to my knowledge). Apparently, this was simply because she knew most of the others so well that there weren't many names she had to guess at.  In any case, her warm manner soon made me feel welcome. I took my bag up to the dormitory room which I was to share with two others, who I hadn't yet met.  This might not be to everyone's taste (personally, I would rather know who I was due to share with before committing) but no-one goes to their room except to sleep anyway and the cost of the weekend including the accommodation is so cheap that it is hard to believe - £30 for three nights if I remember correctly.

Annie Shillabeer, hard pressed but ever cheerful organiser.

Next step was to check out the main games room.  As soon as I got through the door, I was drawn inexorably towards the large space taken up by SpielBar.   This is a games shop from Germany, the home of the board game, and they had brought along a minibus crammed with games for sale at the low prices they sell for in Germany.   This was one of the attractions for me and I had sent in an e-mail order some time before so that they would bring over games that I was particularly keen on.  Naturally, I didn't waste any time in getting over there, collecting and paying for my order - as well as one or two other things.

There was a chap behind the counter with a name badge saying "Holger" and during the negotiations he consulted with an accomplice who also had a name badge saying "Holger" - I surmised at this point that "Holger" is the German word for "sales assistant".  Actually, I later found out that it is in fact the German word for "Give me all your money!"   I certainly made a good attempt to do so at this first visit to the stall. After having stocked up on new games it was approaching 10pm and I muscled my way in on my first game of the day, Don Pepe.  What better way to start than with the game in which you attempt to make more money than the other players, chiefly by killing them!  I don't want to admit that it says anything about my character, but I won - probably by keeping my head down until the others had wiped each other out.

Holger Risse & Holger Hermann of SpielBar pose with their specially produced Robo-Rally board that spells out the name of the shop using board elements.

Figuring that I must have hit upon that rare treat - a group of gamers I can beat - I stuck with them while we played Medici.  This is a game that I found a bit too dry at first, but it grows on me very slowly - obviously helped by a second place in this outing.

Disappointed that I only get a second against a group that I was determined I could beat, I brought out my top card game of 1999 to teach them a lesson - Nicht die Bohne.   After round 1, I was in third place; after round 2, second;  and after round 3..., sixth.  Out of six.  Drat!  There was nothing for it, I needed to find other people to play with...

Actually, it was approaching 1am and I was pretty tired, so I decided to head off to bed.  I got to the room to find my two roommates hadn't yet returned, so I got off to bed, leaving a dim light on in the hope that it would prevent them from attempting to blind me when they returned.  After settling myself down I noticed the worst point about the room - it overlooked the loud, echoing entrance hall.  The next few hours seemed full of people either talking loudly or wishing each other good-night as they came up the stairs.  I probably didn't get any sleep until most of the others had gone to bed too.  It was also one of those nights when my regular night-time back pain decided to have a party, waking me a couple of times during the night for extended pain sessions.

So, all in all I was a little bleary-eyed when I made my way downstairs the next day.  I'm not sure how I spent the early part of the morning (dozing, probably), but I soon met up with my "regular" convention gaming partners David and Angela, who had just turned up.  We had a look over the SpielBar stall again and caught up on the chat.

We also had a look at a more physical game that had been set up on a table in the middle of the room.  Called Piratenbillard (Pirate Billiards - see picture), it consisted of a wooden grid on legs which put it about chest height (when on the table).  The spaces on each side contained wooden balls - a different colour on each side, and the bottom was made of cloth.  Finally, there were four wooden hammers with small heads and long handles.  As we were looking it over, along came Holger Hermann from the SpielBar stall and offered to show us how to play it.

Piratenbillard - another manual skill game to humilate myself with...

You take your hammer and hit one of your balls from underneath so that it pops up out of its space and lands in another.  The idea is that your balls move steadily, or even dramatically, from their starting side to that opposite.  This is easier said than done because if you hit them wrong the balls can end up coming back towards you or could land off the board - in which case that ball gets placed back on its starting side.  Even worse, if one of your balls lands in a space already occupied by an opponent's ball, that opponent gets to take that ball prisoner.  You can swap prisoners with other players to get yours back, but that requires you to capture one of their balls first...

Holger soon demonstrated his experience with the game: surrounding other players balls with his own, creating a minefield that allowed him to capture plenty of balls.  He was also able to finely judge the amount of effort needed to make his ball go the right distance in the right direction.  I, on the other hand, seem to have got it mixed up with one of those space games where you have to put satellites in orbit...  I started the day off with another last place then, but we had a lot of fun and made a new friend in Holger.

We kept Holger with us as we were joined by Martin Wallace to playtest a new game of his called Ionia.  I won't say much about the game itself because I'm not sure what stage of development it may be in as I write this and I do know that the thought of me writing a description on the web gave him copyright palpitations!   If I remember correctly, it was basically a game of power building with a kind of ancient Greek setting (that should be vague enough).  Anyway, I came dismally last at it and our supposed new friend Holger, just pipped Angela for the win.  After playing, Martin showed us the new artwork that he's just had produced for another game.  It was very nice and, considering the amount he'd just paid to have it done, I thought he was rather more willing to get it out and show people than I would have been.  One spilt drink and ... Speaking of playtesting, Reiner Knizia was to be found off in a quiet side room most of the time playtesting some of his many designs with whoever was around.  I made a note that I must try and join in one of those sessions.  If I could just get one to coincide with me being between-games.

David tries his hands at an interesting game of skill on the SpielBar stall.   You start a spinning top from the end closest to you and tilt the board such that it runs around, through the little doors to knock over the blue pawns whilst leaving the red pawns standing.  He wasn't too successful, though, as demonstrated by the single remaining red pawn and the resolutely defiant blue in the centre.

Martin then went off to find a group to play one his more cerebral games (not us, I'm afraid - overuse of the brain makes us gibber).  We stayed together and played Campanile, an excellent gambling/control game that particularly attracted Angela and David because it was also the name of the hotel they were staying in - spooky, eh?!  Continuing the tone of the day so far, I also came last at that...

We were joined by another Martin (Walters) and I showed them the delights of Der Dreizehnte Holzwurm (The thirteenth woodworm), a game I had only recently learned how to play correctly.   Opposed to the trend of the day so far, I managed to do really well, scoring 65 points against the nearest challenger's 19 - at least that would be true if it wasn't for Holger, who scored 66!  I'm going off him a bit...

Apart from Martin, none of them knew Drahtseilakt (Tightrope) either, so I took great pleasure in introducing them to it.  It's an excellent little card game from Reiner Knizia and has gone down well with everyone I've shown it to.  And, although I didn't quite win, I did manage to beat Holger at last.   Perhaps he's not so bad after all...

I think I must have gone off to get something to eat at this stage because there is a large gap in my notes and then a conversation with David where he demonstrated his amazing powers of memory by asking if I'd played Piratenbillard yet.  Perhaps he had felt that attempting to bombard passing strangers with wooden balls didn't actually qualify as playing! Anyway, it was time to try out some of the new games that had been brought over from Germany specially for me.  Kevin Lee joined us for a game of Pool Position - the game where you battle to get your towels on sun loungers closest to the swimming pool.  I had been keen to get this game ever since I heard the description of play, even though it got some bad reviews.   I'm pleased to say that it didn't disappoint and that we all enjoyed it.  It's also worth pointing out that it's good value for money and could easily have come in a larger box for twice the price.  I also managed to come second, just ahead of the last two and a long way behind Angela's soaraway lead.

Stephen Tavener, master of Robo Rally, playing that very game (what else?) along with Rosie Tavener-Jones and others.

Flush with the success of that, I next brought out Space Walk, another that has had its detractors - for being Mancala-like.  As I had hoped, it was another hit and had all the elements of simplicity of rules and interaction that you could want.  You almost apologise for dropping someone else's spaceship down a black hole, especially Kevin's as he lost all nine of his - the signal for the end of the game.  And for only the second time at the convention, I had won!

Kevin left us at this point - probably to go and lie down after the shock of my victory - and Holger rejoined us in time for The Big Cheese.   This is probably the most excellent of the cheap Cheapass games that I have come across.   Definitely worth the £2-00 you will pay for it.  I managed another second place behind Angela.  And Holger showed that he was capable of coming last after all!

Next we ended up going off into one of the small rooms for some reason to play Eschnapur, a game with some sort of discovering an ancient civilisation theme to it - as seems to be popular recently.  The main point of the game was trading, and I don't know if it was just the lack of sleep from the previous night catching up with me, but that trading did seem particularly complex and intense.  So much so that I ended the game with a headache and the feeling of having been rather bullied during a lot of it.  As I say, it could be the state I was in and I will try it again sometime when I'm more receptive, but I do have to compare it with Chinatown where the trading is so easy-going and amicable.

"I'll have that!" - High-pressure trading in Eschnapur!

In its favour, the game does have some lovely parts - a Buddha type figure particularly sticks in my mind.  Not surprisingly though, I only managed a joint third out of five for the game and I was so worn out afterwards that I didn't play anything else before heading off for an early bed to make up for what I'd missed the previous night.

Saturday dawned bright and fresh and I threw my lot in with a Stephenson's Rocket tournament in one of the small rooms.  This was Reiner Knizia's long-awaited train game and is one I am always prepared to play although not keen enough to buy it.  Enough players turned up for three games and so the plan was that the winner of each game would go forward to a final played against Reiner himself.  A tempting prize, which I chucked away by coming joint third.  Oh well, I was still planning to join him for some playtesting yet anyway.

On returning to the main room I found that Holger was in the process of starting a Robo Rally tournament and I quickly joined the eleven other players set up around the giant board.  For some reason, I've got this first round down as lasting three hours!  I can't understand why, unless we had a break in the middle for some reason.  I came about sixth in this round, despite playing my cards in the wrong order once, and I was pleased to see that the first eight were to go through to the next round.  I was totally destroyed in that round, though, picking up seven damage points in one turn, and then another two before I could power down my robot.  We had been playing without extra lives and so I was out - in seventh place.  Holger had a strange method of giving out prizes, though: starting from last place he allowed players to pick their prizes from a set of Robo Rally robots that were due to be in the German expansion for the game - the first few places got vouchers for SpielBar as well.

On being knocked out of Robo Rally, I went and joined a group about to begin Reiner's latest 'top' game, Taj Mahal.  This is another that I haven't bought yet and may not.  It's not that I don't like it (I do), it's just that I have so many Reiner games that I get tempted to other authors for more variety.   The game is generally pretty popular, but for me doesn't have that bit extra that games like Ra and Rheinlander do.  Mark Jones was in the game at the beginning but had to go for some reason, so I called over David, who had also been knocked out of Robo Rally, and he took that place.  Anyway, I didn't do too well, coming fourth out of five again.

Taj Mahal, during the last turn.

We were hungry by now, so we phoned through an order to the local Chinese restaurant who made deliveries.  Whilst waiting, Angela and David introduced me to For Sale.  This is quite an interesting bidding game in two rounds. In the first, you buy houses worth varying amounts and in the second, you sell them to raise money.  Or is it the other way round?  I can't quite remember.   The game was fun anyway and only lasted twenty minutes.  I made a note that I had totally messed up the first round and got them all to start again (setting a precedent?).  It didn't do much good anyway as I still came third out of four.

The food soon arrived (including the tiniest spring rolls I had ever seen) and we found the distinct lack of anything to eat it from or with.  If you're planning to go to this convention, I would advise you to take camping type eating irons - or else disposable ones, which would have the added benefit of not needing to be washed up.

Anyway, replete with our nosh, we got stuck in to a game of Stimmt So!, another one that I had bought from SpielBar.  I had played this game some time previously and been quite impressed by it but was always put off by having to pay the price of a big box game for what was essentially a card game.  Buying at German prices allowed that gap to be bridged.  We played with six players but we all felt at the end that this was too many and made the game something of a lottery.  Next time I shall play it with less - four seems good.

The same six of us stuck together as I got my first taste of Canyon.   I had previously dismissed the game as simple nomination whist - and to some extent it is.  But using the points gained to propel canoes around the board adds a suitable element of fun to the game and really does result in a good game.  I think I shall end up buying it at some stage now - especially seeing as I came second. By now it was after midnight again and, after a bit of winding down,  I made my excuses and set off for bed again - for another noisy night... Sunday was the last day, and like most last days, it didn't last nearly long enough.   We began with my 'Game of the Year 1999', Chinatown, which Angela and David hadn't yet played.  I really do like this game and I'm pleased to say that it has gone down well with whoever I've played it with - this being no exception.   And I couldn't have chosen a better game for my third win of the weekend!

Gavin Kenny turns into a T-shirt salesman whilst waiting to start in the Arabic Scrabble tournament - one of the lighter hearted events.

Before we'd had a chance to finish, we were interrupted by the auction - held every year to raise funds for the school.  There were all kinds of interesting and exotic things on sale - including a 'bum care kit'!  There was only one game I was keen on bidding on - I forget its name now - but I found that Holger was keen on buying it too.  As such, I dropped out of the bidding early and suddenly found that Holger had dropped out too and Kevin McGowan had got it for £7 - drat!  Oh well, back to finish off Chinatown.

With the interruption of the auction it was now 1:30, so I bought some more stuff off the SpielBar stall, packed my stuff up and had time for one more game.  Holger rejoined us for a game of King of the Elves, the card game version of Elfenland.  I almost made my fourth win except that Holger beat my 87 by one point again!  I think he does it on purpose...

While we were having this game, Reiner Knizia was having his last playtest over by the window.  I just hadn't managed to link up there at all, despite the fact that I had gone over to see how the current game was progressing almost every time that I was between games myself.  Drat!  Better luck next time I guess.  Still he kindly signed a couple of copies of Schotten Totten that I had bought (one for Chris at the club - "from your old school friend..."), so all was not lost.

Playtesting with Reiner.

So I finished packing, said my goodbyes, escaped from Holger who had noticed that I still had some money left, and headed off up the highway for home, keen to come again next year.  It will be nice to see whether they have added a third Holger to the team.

Thanks for the games: David Blowers, Angela Caunce, Holger Hermann, Chris Boote, Mark Jones, Julia Iskett, Timothy Hunt, Hilary Jones, Martin Wallace, Martin Walters, Kevin Lee, Bill Michell, Alan Foad, Mark Derrick, Gavin Kenny, Chris Bullock, Kevin McGowan, Martin Draper, Mike Taylor, John Neeve, Geoff Brown, Stephen Tavener, Clive Palmer, Alan Beaumont, Michelle Dalton, Mike Eggleton and Jay Cutmore.

See you next time.

Trev.