FallCon - A Cornucopia of Gaming

This quick note is to thank all our attendees, sponsors, moderators, auctioneers and other volunteers for pulling this Con together. We simply couldn't do it without you.

We'd love to hear your feedback about the Con so we've setup an online survey for you to fill out. Whether you attended or not, please take the time to take our survey and let us know what you think. Any and all comments are truly welcome - we're gluttons for criticism of all kinds. Of course, you can always send us comments throughout the year via our Contact Us page.

Thanks again and we look forward to seeing you across the gaming table soon! Perhaps at the next Meetup?

The FallCon Gaming Society

 

Tichu was published in 1991 and is designed by Urs Hostettler. It's a trick-taking, race game where the goal is to get rid of your cards before your opponents!

Tichu:

• Designed by: Urs Hostettler
• Published by: Rio Grande Games
• Number of players: 3-6
• Playing time: 60 minutes
• Player ages: 12+

In Tichu, there are rules for 3-6 players but it is best to play with 4. The four-player version of the game pits two teams of two players in a race to get rid of their hand of cards by playing tricks.

The winners are determined by the values of the cards won in tricks. A typical game will continue until the first team scores 1000 points or more.


Tichu uses a deck of cards (four suits) with four special cards (Dragon, Phoenix, Dog and Mahjong) for a total of 56 cards. All 56 dealt out to each player; in a 4 player game, each player will get 14 cards.

Players then must give 1 card to each of the other 3 players and then the game begins.

The player with the Mahjong card leads with the first trick and can play from any of the following combinations:

• Single card
• Pair
• Consecutive pairs
• Three of a kind
• Full house
• Straight of 5+ cards

Play is done in (counter)clockwise fashion with each player trying to match the number of cards played (instead of the suit).

The goal of Tichu is to go out first and then have your partner go out after you. These kinds of combinations are what score points.

Each hand of Tichu is worth 100 points. Each "10" and King is worth 10 points for a total of 80. Each "5" is worth 5 points.

Unlike other trick-taking games, in Tichu, the round is over if there is one player with cards left in their hand. This player then must give all cards in hand to the opposing team and give all won tricks to the player who went out first.

The special cards, Dragon, Phoenix, Dog and Mahjong and the calling of "Grand Tichu" and "Tichu" are what give this game that bit of oomph! The "Tichus" are the most potent way to gain points; but if you fail to make Tichu, it becomes the most poten way to lose points!

This makes play very exciting and builds tension!


Tichu is a fun game and is very portable. It can be played anywhere and can be taught easily. As far as strategy is concerned, it is probably more suitable for a slightly older age group but I have still had great success with kids as young as 9 or 10 years old.

Tichu is about team-play and the partnership aspect is very appealing to kids. And if you have an excellent partner, you can easily gain 200+ points per round.

Happy gaming.
Thushyanthan

A quick reminder that I will be closing the online preregistration sometime after 8pm this evening. If you intend to preregister and possibly prepay for the con, please do so sometime today. Otherwise, registrations will take place throughout the convention this weekend.

Did I mention FallCon is THIS WEEKEND?!

The members of the FallCon Gaming Society had a quick meeting last night to discuss some last minute details and I gotta say, we are all really pumped for this weekend. We hope you are too!

See you on Friday,

Jasen

Designed by Leo Colovini, Clans is a board game that was published in 2002. This game uses a bluffing mechanism where players try to score points for their "Clan" color by creating villages.

Clans is:

• Designed by: Leo Colovini
• Published by: Rio Grande Games
• Number of players: 2-4
• Playing time: 30 minutes
• Player ages: 10+

The game comes in a nice small box with a 6-fold board, 60 huts in 5 different colors, 5 player-hut tokens and 12 village markers. The map consists of 12 regions of 5 different terrains/territories. Each region will have 5 different colored huts placed before the game begins.


Each player in the game is the leader of a particular "clan", or color, and try to form villages with other colors in various terrain.

In order to prosper, the leaders of each clan seek to form mutually beneficial villages with other players. Be careful not to form villages with all 5 different colors as this would cause strife!

Each leader also has the power to move any clan's hut to any other adjacent area!

The game is about strategic movement of clan huts such that your particular clan scores the most points.

At the start of the game, each player is randomly dealt a color specifying which clan they belong to. This information is kept secret from other players.


This is a quick playing game. On a player's turn all that can be done is to move one hut, from a particular terrain/territory, to another adjacent terrain/territory.

At the beginning of the game, each terrain only has one hut on it. As the game progresses, each terrain may have several huts on it.

Movement is restricted to adjacent, non-empty terrain. Huts can be moved across rivers but huts cannot be moved across lakes!

Also, if there are 7 or more huts present in a territory, that grouping of huts cannot be moved.

A village is formed when all adjacent territories around a group of huts is empty. Once a village is formed, the player takes a "village creation" token from the board and scores points for all the clan colors represented in the newly formed village.

A clan scores points for the number of huts in a village. For example, if a village is formed that consists of 1-blue, 3-red, 1-yellow huts then the blue, yellow and red all score 5 points.

Any "village creation" tokens are added to that player's clan color. The winner is the one whose clan has the highest number of points.

The "village creation" tokens also serve as a game clock and provide dynamic bonuses for formed villages depending on when a village was formed.

Only 12 villages can be formed during the course of the game. Once the twelfth village is formed, the game ends.


I really enjoy playing this game because it is quick. At first the rules may appear to be a bit counterintuitive. After a couple of turns, however, players will find that game play is quite simple.

The biggest draw of the game is that players attempt to score points for their own color without giving away what color they represent. This is the bluffing mechanism of the game that I enjoy very much.

Happy gaming.
Thushyanthan