by jack208

Our annual BGC Boardgame Retreat was back on again! This time we held it at a beach resort and extended to 2 days. Over 40 different games were played among 20+ gamers. If you were not there, find out what you missed! If you were one of the participants, relive the joy of that wonderful weekend! Read on to find out what games were on the table for GAME ZERO and GAME ONE.
 

How fast time flies! Has it been a year since we did our last Retreat in Genting? Almost.
 

Click here to read last year’s BGC Retreat 2010 report

To be exact, 11-months since last July when a group of 15+ gamers were brought to Genting GICC 6,000 feet above sea level and locked themselves up in a room to do nothing but play boardgames all-day long! We did 3-4 games in a full 8-hrs stretch, took a quick dinner break and then resumed gaming till 3 am in the morning!
 

 

This year we decided to have a change of landscape – instead of the cool weather of a highland resort, we now have the calm serenity of a beach resort – and extended the gaming to two full days. That’s 16-hrs of intense gaming packed into two solid days.

 

(alamak! Didn’t take any pictures of Tiara Beach Resort!)

 

We made the Retreat package announcement only in May (however we did pre-empt the group earlier through our Facebook updates to reserve this date) after the conclusion of our Power Grid Malaysia 2011 competition. That gives less than a month’s time for us to organize things so let’s hope everything turns out fine. 😛

 

 

The Retreat package is cheaper this time around – for about the same price as last year, we are now able to throw in accommodation (obviously accommmodation at PD would be more modest than those at Genting’s casino hotel but then again, you are not going there to spend all your waking time sleeping right?) and meals (except dinner).

 

In keeping with BGC’s style of rewarding our loyal fans, we gave a 10% discount to returning participants from last year’s retreat. 🙂

 

And what do you get for this package?

– one night’s accommodation

– all meals onboard – two buffer lunches, breakfast, tea-time (dinner’s the only exclusion)

– function room for two full days’ of uninterrupted gaming

– fully organized and coordinated gaming sessions

– special BGC Retreat 2011 t-shirt

– prizes for winners and not-so-winners (hehe)

– a generous 40% discount on any one game (if you buy a game that costs around Rm300, this 40% discount is worth rm120 alone).

– and above all, a PRICELESS gaming experience!

 

 

PS: The event generated so much post-event buzz for the participants that Boardgamecafe.net decided to extend to the Retreat participants a one-time special promo of 30% discount on all the games played in the Retreat!

 

 

And I’ve to add the participants in such Retreats are the BEST bunch of gaming crowd you can possibly game with! Don’t believe me? Look at our photo albums… the FUN is all etched in their faces for an awesome gaming weekend where they get to play not just the latest new arrivals like Troyes, Alien Frontiers, Luna, Navegador, Survive, Automobile but also lesser-seen-games like K2, Havana, Acquire, Cafe International, China, Innovation, Glory to Rome – all in 2 days!

 

Without further ado, let’s dive into the session reports!!

   

Location: Tiara Beach Resort, Port Dickson

Date: 4-5 June 2011 (Sat/Sun)

Gamers: Teddy, Lee Ching, Wong LC, Wolfx, Lester, Emil, Kareem, Lee Peng, Janette Pang, Junyet Wong, Jacelyn, Swee Wan, Jun Keat, BK Woo, Nurul, Azmir, Daren Tan, SK Wong, Ainul, Waiyan, and CK Au.

Games: Hue Knew, Halli Galli, Jungle Speed, Spot It!, Slamwich, Glen More, Mykerinos, Speicherstadt, China, O Zoo Le Mio, Alien Frontiers, Lords of Vegas, Tobago, Cargo Noir, Mission Red Planet, Automobile, Navegador, Hansa Teutonica, Luna, Power Struggle, K2, Jamaica, Havana, Cafe International, Survive Escape from Atlantis, El Capitan, Fresco, Acquire, Thebes, Carson City, Troyes, Tikal, Mexica, Giants.

Games on Special After8 Menu: Serendipity, Take 6, Innovation, Glory of Rome, Race for the Galaxy.

  

 

(You can buy these games from our Web Store)

 

 

While waiting for the rest to arrive, the gamers were quick to organize some impromptu sessions… Serendipity was seen in play at one of the games (I understand this game was brought here courtesy of Afifter).

 

  

More pictures of Serendipity (above & below).

  

Race for the Galaxy was also seen. You can’t avoid this game whenever ainul is around. 😛

 

  

  

As is the norms in BGC Retreats, we always kick-off the event with a “Seating” game ie. one that’s light and fast to play yet provides a method to organize the gamers into the starting tables. For this year’s GAME ZERO, waiyan focused on “reflex action” as a theme and picked game such as Spot It!, Slamwich, Hue Knew, Halli Galli and Jungle Speed.

 

 

The gamers were quickly organized into five tables, rules were taught (the plus point with Game Zero games are the relatively quick teaching of rules usually in 5 min), and off they started!

 

Table	Game Title	P1	P2	P3	P4
1st	Hue Knew	ainul	emil	nurul	azmir
2nd	Halli Galli	lester	ken yen	lc wong	sk wong
3rd	Spot It!	teddy	lee ching	lee peng	janette
4th	Slamwich	jacelyn	junyet	jun keat	swee wan
5th	Jungle Speed	kareem	bkwoo	jonathan	daren

 

Ainul and Emil (above) trying to create their own rules for Hue Knew while waiting for waiyan.

 

 

The HUE KNEW gamers.

 

 

SK Wong teaching Halli Galli in Table 2. Ken (right) listening attentively in the beginning….

 

  

… but soon he was starting his own gambling Galli variant. LOL

 

 

And after Gambling Galli was done, Ken scouted around the other tables and on seeing Hue Knew, “Wah… Wong, I think this one can make an even better gambling game than Halli Galli!“

  

Waiyan at Table 3 with Spot It.

 

 

Janette, first-time Retreat participant enjoying herself with Game Zero’s Spot It!

  

Lee Ching was pretty serious with this game. I saw her standing up through out the game…. paying full attention to the cards drawn. Well, she did win this session. 😛

  

 

Swee Wan & bro, Jun Keat who hail from Seremban.. Also first-timer to our Retreat and already slamming each other in Slamwich.

  

 

Sweet couple, Junyet and Jacelyn in Slamwich.

 

Did this group self-taught themselves Slamwich? Hehe… Not surprising since it’s a very easy game to learn/teach.

 

 

Jacelyn (probably after getting her hands slammed in hard by others): “Wait, wait.. let’s lay down some ground rules. No. 1 – don’t SLAM so hard la!”

 

 Kareem’s teaching Jungle Speed at Table 5.

 

 

Getting Jungle Speed started….

 

You can hear the laughter ricocheting through out the room as everyone was enjoying themselves immensely on Game Zero.  The gamers were then re-grouped according to their finishing position within the tables. No score is yet allocated at this stage. We use Game Zero as a seeding round.

 

More photos for GAME ZERO

 

Game One represents the proper start of the Retreat where scores were now tracked for each game round, culminating with the top scoring gamer winning the top prize for this event, which is a copy of LUNA, one of our recent new arrival from designer Stefan Feld.

 

 

Part of the appeal of our Retreat is the mix of new-vs-old games. While two of the games in this round are recent arrivals – Glen More and Speicherstadt – we’ve added three older games (one of them no longer in print/stock) such as Mykerinos, China and O Zoo Le Mio.

 

Table	Game Title	P1	P2	P3	P4
1st	Glen More	lee ching	jun yet	nurul	sk wong
2nd	Mykerinos	teddy	ken yen	ainul (bgc)	bk woo
3rd	Speicherstadt	emil	jacelyn	lc wong	jonathan
4th	China	azmir	kareem	lee peng	swee wan
5th	O Zoo Le Mio	lester	jun keat	janette	daren

 

 

Arguably the most complex of the five games in this round, GLEN MORE was introduced in Table 1 to the “winners” of Game Zero. Do not be misled by the size of the game box.. this game while playable in under 60 min packs quite a lot of whoop in its gameplay.

 

 

Table 1 gamers trying to get their head around the “activation” mechanic of this game of Men in Kilts & Sheeps. 😛

 

 

The placing of your newly acquired tile and the activation of your “chief” are key concepts you need to get right very quickly to do well in this game.

 

 

Looking at the board above, you would think the game is simple. A small circle of tiles, one meeple per player, how complicated can it get? Aha… that’s what you think. 😉

 

 

Everyone appeared so intense in this table! Phew….

 

This game is part of the new trend where the games play relatively fast but pack a lot of oomph in that short playing time.

 

 

It is also a fave of one of our retailer partner FND Mindspot in TTDI having received a very warm welcome there after it was intro-ed by Emil & his gang.

 

Junyet came out as winner for this round with Nurul second. They shall remain in this table while Lee Ching and SK Wong moved down to table 2 for the next game. J

 

 

This game is about Egyptology and archaeologists constant search for  treasures in the sands of Egypt.

 

 

Gamers (as archaeologist) carry out excavations in parcel of land (top tiles) while at the same time, preparing their “discoveries” to be exhibited in the Museum of Mykerinos (below).

 

 

At its heart, it’s a mix of area majority game (excavation parcel), set collection (treasure) and VP multiplier (museum exhibition).

 

 

Four archaeologists – ainul (bgc), bk, teddy and ken – competing in Mykerinos.

 

 

Ainul (representing BGC) making the correct calls in where to excavate and as a result, won this game and moved up to Table 1 with Teddy (runners-up) for the next session.

 

 

Ken, hard at work excavating the sands but found mostly junk… so didn’t make the cut to move up the ranks in the next game. He – and BK Woo – moved to Table 3 for the next round. 😛

 

 

 

The trend of unpronounceable game titles started with this – The Speicherstadt (or roughly translated as the Warehouse in German). Why can’t they just call it “The Warehouse”? I suppose it’s less sexy compared to “The Speicherstadt”. LOL

 

 

It’s an auction game featuring an unique bidding mechanism. Money is tight and the winning bid depends on how many competitors put their legs into what you want.

 

 

DerChef Emil setting up the game before teaching the rules to this group.

 

 

Wong grumbling to himself as he “hates” bidding games. 😛

 

 

Jonathan kept a serious face as he remained focus on the task at hand.

 

 

Everyone seemed uber-serious now…

 

 

Even the jovial Emil was quietly contemplating his next move.

 

But with derChef around, you can’t hold the seriousness too long…. we all soon hear cackling laughter from that table…

 

Emil: LOL LOL LOL

 

Not sure what made them broke into laughter but they were enjoying themselves… yet Jonathan remained dead serious with the task at hand.

 

Emil: Okie okie.. Got to stop laughing. Need to focus on the game la. I think I’m losing.

  

And Jonathan continued to remain dead serious.

 

  

Emil enjoying himself. Must have snagged a bountiful auction! As Sifu of the game, he won comfortably.

 

 

Do not let that sweet smile deceive you… she plays tough. And deservingly ended up as runners-up in this game and moved up to Table 2 together with Emil.

 

 

 

Table 4 had the opportunity to play an old fave that’s out-of-print – CHINA.

 

 

China is a simplified area majority game (not unlike El Grande just simplified) where players compete to build houses (links) and appoint emissaries to grow their influence.

 

 

Four over China…

 

 

Azmir trying to lord it all over the rest in China.

 

 

Colorful board and nice wooden components make an eye-pleasing game.

 

 

Kareem in action in China.

 

  

Hmm… China while remaining a simplified El Grande and not as confrontational is still usually competed fiercely. Strangely in this session, everyone seeemd to be cooperating and keeping to their own province! Alamak… MYOB ka?

 

According to Azmir, this was the pre-Three Kingdom era.

 

 

Well, Azmir (green) did manage to sneak in a side-shot  in the Chin province but he said he did it too late in the game to influence the final results.

 

So there we have it, a pre-3Kingdom China ended with Kareem and  Swee Wan emerging victorious (both of them were tied on points) and will join Ken & BK in table 3 next.

 

 

 

While the rest of the tables were doing global trips – Scotland (Glen More), Egypt (Mykerinos), Germany (Speicherstadt) and China (China) – this table was relatively down to earth with a visit to the zoo. J

 

But if you ask Ken Yen (wolfx) – ex-Porky Park zoo director – he’ll tell you this zoo is not for the spatially-challenged gamer. Kekeke.

 

 

CK Au explained to new zoo directors how to run their zoo parks.

 

 

As Zoo Directors, your objective is to bid for the various improvements offered by the City Council to build up your zoo to be the most attractive to visitors (well, an empty zoo is not much useful, yes?). In line with today’s eco-theme, you’ll also get a bonus if your zoo is the most green.

 

 

New zoo directors – Jun Keat and Daren – pondering over their zoo’s expansion plan.

 

 

It’s a blind bid … so LC Wong’s probably thankful he’s not in this table. J

 

Lester, newly appointed zoo director taking over Porky Park managed to turn it around and made Porky Park the zoo of choice for this year. As a reward, he’ll get a trip to Macao (Cargo Noir) with Daren, while Janette & Jun Keat remained here for the next session.

 

More photos for GAME ONE

 

  

 

Scorecard after Game One. Scores in the 2nd number.

 

For Game Two, we’ve Alien Frontiers, Lords of Vegas, Tobago, Cargo Noir and Mission Red Planet. Stay tune for our next report (click here to read).

 

BGC Boardgame Retreat Announcement (click here)

BGC Boardgame Retreat Photo Albums – Game Zero, Game One