FallCon - A Cornucopia of Gaming

With the end of August and summer holidays a mere weeks away, I wanted to remind our faithful readers of 2 important dates:

• Voting for the People's Choice Game will end on August 23rd.

Vote now via comments, emails or the list of nominees on BGG to make your vote count. We have several great games nominated and we have 5 clear leaders:

• Castle Ravenloft
• Race for the Galaxy
• Egizia
• Cyclades
• Homesteaders

It's an extremely tight race so I wouldn't be surprised if a dark horse came from behind to win it. Mobilize your friends and get out the vote!

• Early Bird Pricing will end on August 31st.

Early bird registration gets you reduced prices on weekend passes as well as priority registration for game events and our new auction registration system. With 2 months to go before con day, we already have our first full event: FallCon Classic Circus Maximus! Following closely in its footsteps are the following games: Chaos in the Old World, Tobago and Dungeon Lords.

Folks have also been taking advantage of our new auction registration system and we expect our 500 auction slots to be filled by early September. With that in mind, if you want to guarantee your spot in your favorite game event or wish to participate as a seller in our auction, I'd heartily recommend you register before the August 31st deadline.

Jasen
 
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For those of you unfamiliar with our past schedules, the EuroTourney was the only multiple game tournament at FallCon. A selection of 4 "classic German-style" boardgames were selected by FallCon in advance and 16 players would compete against each other in 4 consecutive rounds in hopes of achieving the highest aggregate ranking. After a 2 year hiatus, this perennial favorite is finally making a return to our Sunday schedule but with a bit of a twist.

That twist is what we're calling "The Blitz", or more specifically the Great Canadian Board Game Blitz.  The Great Canadian Board Game Blitz (GCBGB) is a circuit of board game tournaments held at Canadian game conventions. You can find more information at their official webpage.

Because the format was so similar to the EuroTourney, we felt it was a good fit for our con. The major difference from a game experience perspective is that the selection of games has expanded from 4 games (4 copies each) to 16 games (1 copy each) and the players themselves will be picking the games they wish to play over the course of four rounds.

Here are the basics:

1. The 16 participants will be assigned a random initial rank.
2. In rank order, players will decide which game they wish to play in from the 4 available selections until all slots are filled.
3. In subsequent rounds, rankings will be recalculated based on aggregate scores and game selection will again be based on rank order.
4. Each player will play one(1) game in each of the four(4) rounds. The person with the highest aggregate rank at the end of the fourth round will be crowned champion.

So think open gaming in a tournament setting and I think you'll get an idea of the format. Below you'll find the games we'll be running as part of the Blitz. It's a balanced mixed of FallCon events from years past and Calgary gamer favorites.

*Round 1 * (each player will play 1 of the following)
Yspahan
Roll Through the Ages
Samurai
Ingenious

*Round 2 * (each player will play 1 of the following)
Bohnanza
San Juan
Blue Moon City
Thurn & Taxis

*Round 3* (each player will play 1 of the following)
St Petersburg
Medici
Alhambra
Notre Dame

*Round 4* (each player will play 1 of the following)
In the Year of the Dragon
Chicago Express
Vikings
Citadels

We hope you'll like the selection! Don't forget to sign up and register if you do!

Jasen
 
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I came across this awesome Dixit video review that I just had to share on the blog. If you're curious about this year's German Game of the Year, do yourself the favor of watching the video below. I'll warn you that there are a few f-bombs in the mix, but Robert truly captures the essence of what makes Dixit a game great. I'm looking forward to seeing Dixit played at the con in a couple months.

Have a great long weekend and enjoy the show!

DowntimeTown - Dixit from Robert Florence on Vimeo.

Jasen

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A few weeks ago, I let slip a little hint about a new online auction registration system. Well, it's now time to spill the beans and introduce our online FallCon Auction Manager.

Probably the most consistent feedback we received in our survey last year, was frustration with our auction, especially from those of you who traveled from afar with games to sell who didn't get a chance to submit their games. Well, this year we're taking the guess work out of the process for all involved by implementing an online submission process.

Our new FallCon Auction Manager will allow convention registrants (only) to submit up to 20 games each, up to a total of 500. Here's a breakdown on how to use the system:

1. Register for FallCon using a unique email address (only registrants will be able to gain access to the Auction Manager).
2. Go to the FallCon Auction Manager and create an account using the same unique email address you used to register.
3. Confirm the account creation via the email link we send you and login to the FallCon Auction Manager.
4. Once logged in, you will be able to add, modify and delete your 20 entries, as well as view all submissions from other registrants.
5. The Manager also allows registrants to download a CSV of the auction items and all relevant info including (name, reserve price, game type, condition, language, completeness, punched state and seller comments). We figure this might be handy for some of you at the auction.
6. At the convention, all games will need to be submitted before Saturday at 12:30pm. In the unlikely event that the auction limit of 500 isn't met by Saturday at noon, we will open the floodgates to anyone with extra games.

All of our other auction rules will remain in place.

So if you have games you want to auction off this year, best to register early and get your games in before we reach that magic number 500.

All of this nerdy coding goodness is courtesy of our resident Code Monkey, Jordan Pratt. He's earned our collective respect, good karma and certainly deserves a few wins at the game table. Jordan, just let us know when you want to redeem those favors.

Jasen
 
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