Winter StabCon '99 was held in Manchester on the weekend of 7/9 January 2000.  I'd come to the same convention last year with Steve Ogden.  This year I headed back with Chris Dorrell - which was handier as this time I didn't have to drive.  We missed out the Friday and went up for the Saturday and Sunday only.

On arrival, we had a bit of a look around until I found Richard Spilsbury looking through his new copy of Andromeda and offered to show him how to play it.  Before we had got started, my regular convention accomplices, David and Angela, had shown up and we all joined in together.  It gave Chris another opportunity to ridicule my explanation of the rules of the game; and opportunity he seized - as usual.  As I recall, this was one of those times when my luck was really out: no matter what I did, I just couldn't seem to get my cubes to emerge from the 'ashtray'.  I hardly managed to get onto a satellite at all during the whole game.  It was a good game to get the ball rolling, though, and gave me an opportunity to properly introduce Chris to Angela and David.

It transpired that they had not played Space Beans at all yet.  We agreed to supply this deficit - I'm keen for people to play the game to counteract some of the bad publicity it seems to have gained.  Richard had a prior commitment (or a good excuse) so he left the other four of us to it.  I have no idea who won, but given the tone of the day, I'm sure it wasn't me.

At this point, we were joined by David Carlisle for a game of Overthrone.   We had played this at the club once and I had a vague recollection that I hadn't thought a lot of it.  It didn't take too long for me to remember why.  On that previous occasion, the problem had been that I had become very powerful by getting a revolution card at the right time, leaving the others unable to do much about me.   This time the problem was the opposite, I was left weak by some bad luck at the beginning which meant I was unable to stand a chance.  I remember it being quite an event when I scored my first three points (the leaders were on at least ten to twenty times that by this point) - so much so that I wrote it down on the score pad as a very big number.  The thing is, I recall, that you seem to have very little room for using your brain: there is usually only one course of play each turn - especially if you're miles behind - and the game definitely favours the leader.  This would be so bad if the game didn't drag on for about three hours with no hope of catching the leaders.   Angela, likewise, did rather badly.  After the said three hours were up, the leaders had scored 136, 130 and 112, Angela and I had scored 37 and 30.  I would recommend you leave this one on the shelf if you see it.

We all stuck together afterwards for a quick game of The Big Cheese, the excellently simple bidding game from Cheapass.  As always, this quick, light game went down well.

At this point there was a mass-migration to the Greek restaurant for a meal,... of the Greek variety.  The restaurant made a good attempt at the world record for getting the most people around a table and our end of the table, at least, indulged in a round of joke telling whilst waiting for the meal.  Trouble was, by the time the starters came, I couldn't remember what I'd asked for and, when prompted by the waiter, all I could come up with was "It's got a 'TH' in it".  This caused much laughter and merriment from our end of the table (led by Chris) due to the fact that 90% of the menu had a 'TH' in it!  The meal ended on a bit of a sore note though, when I refused to contribute as much to the bill as those who'd had desserts and copious amounts of alcohol during the meal.  Geoff Brown gallantly headed off argument by supplying the shortfall himself - also not exactly what I was after, but perhaps politic.  I offered to split the difference with him later but he wouldn't have it.

Anyway, back at the university, we had a go at one of Martin Wallace's new games, Mordred, from Warfrog.  The game is set in Arthurian Wales with each player trying to place as many of their pieces on the board as possible.   Each turn you roll dice to determine how many pieces you can place on the board.   But you must also place a number of Mordred pieces and these count against you if Mordred 'wins' the game.  This happens if Mordred gains control of most of the board.   The plus side is that you can use Mordred pieces to attack your opponents.   Like most of the Warfrog games it is produced on a budget, but we had the luck to play on a special copy of the board beautifully drawn as a map of Wales and also the luck to play against the artist herself - Angela Cäunce.  As for the game, it was intriguing, but I'd need to play more before I can say whether or not I like it.

Chris had been pondering buying a copy of Elchfest for some time.  This is the game where you flick wooden stepping stones about in order to get your Elk from one side of the table to the other - not your usual gamer fare.  He finally succumbed to buying a copy and we decided to end the day with a quick knockout tournament.  Although sceptical at first, we all laughed so much during the game that we promoted it from 'silly' to 'essential'.  The final was between David and me and all was pretty neck-and-neck until, in a sudden spasm of clumsiness, I dropped my Elk, gaining a penalty and losing the game.  Drat!  An excellent game, though, and David pointed out that he had bought two copies at Essen and would let me have one - great.

Then it was off to our rooms in the university halls of residence for sleep.  At least that was the plan.  I had a great deal of difficulty getting to sleep - perhaps because of drinking Pepsi-Max half the day and being buzzing with caffeine.  And then I woke early with my regular back pains, leaving me rather tired for the next day.

The same four of us met up again after breakfast, ensuring a high degree of insularity - we could just all have gone to one of our houses instead of a convention.  Still, as long as we had a good time...

First up for Sunday was Reiner Knizia's new biggie from Essen, Stephenson's Rocket.  Lots of people have been looking forward to this meeting of probably the most popular games designer with one of the most popular games subjects.   Typically of Reiner, the mechanics are much stronger than the theme and the game plays in about an hour (if everyone gets a move on).  There are many things to think about and many ways to score points for a win and some people find it necessary to have one or two 'training' games.  On the whole, though it doesn't take long to get your head round the rules, but can take many games to refine your tactics.  This is a good game that I'll play any time, but, having so many Knizia games already, I probably won't buy it.  It didn't grab me with the same urgency as Ra and Rheinlander, for example.

We followed this up with T-Rex and King of the Elves, the latter giving a remarkably close finish with six points separating the first three places after four rounds.  We finished the day with a new card game for me, Olé.  I can't remember a lot about it now except that it is a trick taking game where the suits have a particular heirarchy which can be reversed by turning the cards upside down.  Definitely worth a try.

By this time, most people had gone and we followed suit, having had an excellent time.

A much smaller list of thank-yous this time, due to our insularity: Chris Dorrell, Angela Caunce, David Blowers, Richard Spilsbury and David Carlisle.

Bye for now.

Trev.