Foot Foot Retreat 2007

Here's the deal... In our fair state of Michigan real men hunt. At least once a year they leave their wives and children behind and drive to secluded areas of the north where they carouse and shoot guns. Those of us who aren't real men are left behind to wonder why the evolutionary randomness of machismo abandoned us and failed to provide us with a good excuse to engage in wilderness revelry with our fellows. Simply put, since my friends and I play board games obsessively but we we don't hunt, we were left out and damn it, we wanted in!

So, after months of planning, organizing and counting down the days, this past weekend was the 2nd annual Foot Foot Gamers Retreat (Named after The Shagg's 1969 international hit My Pal Foot Foot). I think it is safe to say that this year's event was even bigger and better than last year's, especially since last year's retreat was Friday through Sunday and this year many of us arrived on Wednesday night and left around noon Sunday. By rough count, that's 87 hours of gaming paradise, including the few hours here and there we found time to sleep.

This year we rented the same cottage as last year, but this year there were ten of us instead of a mere seven. The cottage is on a bluff overlooking Lake Huron and is relatively secluded by a wooded ravine on one side and a privacy fence on the other. And, as a plus the beach offers fantastic swimming and even about 200 yards out the water is still only 5' deep.

Also this year we planned to use the same scoring system as last year so that we could keep track of game wins and losses. Last year Jake was the "Best Overall Gamer" and was awarded the official plaque upon which he had his name engraved as the "Inaugural Winner". There are 11 more blank nameplates on that plaque so we plan to keep this up for a while.

In our gaming group Steve and FunPaul are the primary game collectors and in the week leading up to the main event they brought me box after box and tub after tub of board games to pack away in my mini van. In the end I had to fold down my third seat and remove one of my middle seats to pack everything in and I barely had enough room for my own lonely box of games, my suitcase, food and cooler. I also brought my inflatable mattress and my tent as I had pre-planned to sleep out in the yard. (The cottage has 2 beds and 2 couches. Ten guys were coming for the weekend. You do the math. To me, sleeping outside was the best option.)

As I write about the weekend, I may not get all the facts straight, but I will do my best. If you were there and you see an error in my description of the events, please forgive me. My only excuse is, well... Hell, I was drinkin' for three straight days! You of all people should know that. I can't be expected to remember everything!

Wednesday:
FunPaul and Steve drove up right after they got off work, but I had to wait a bit later since Barb works later than they do and I had to wait for her to get home. I had also arranged to caravan up there with my attorney. He got to my place about 6:30 and Barb got home not long after that. By 7:15 we were on our way.

My attorney and I got to the cottage a little after 9pm because we got caught up in horrible construction traffic, but to our delight FunPaul had pre-heated his deep fryer and was prepared to serve us fried cheese sticks, butterfly shrimp and jalapeño poppers. We also started a game of Age of Steam, even though we agreed that it wouldn't count towards winning the plaque at the end of the weekend. The "official" event would begin at 8am the next morning.

Mark showed up Somewhere in the middle of Age of Steam and the five of us chatted, ate and drank. I think Steve won this game. I know that I was not in the running. After that it was well after midnight and we all went outside to celebrate the fact that we were facing four days of a complete and absolute lack of responsibility. No wives, no kids, no jobs, no school. Just gaming, eating, drinking and, oh yes, swimming! We remembered that last part at about 3am so we grabbed our towels and headed down to the beach.

That was an amazing swim. The air, even at 3am, was remarkably warm and the water was about the same temperature as the air. To top it all off, the sky was completely cloud free and we could clearly see about 100 times more stars than we were used to seeing in the city. In fact, it was so clear you could see the blurry sweep of the Milky Way as we looked through the galactic plane. Truly a beautiful sight.

After that we were off to bed and asleep by 4am or so. I started off sleeping on my air mattress out under the stars, but I kept waking up, so I eventually wimped out and hauled it into my tent where I slept like a baby until morning.

Thursday:
We slept in a bit this morning, finally getting up around 9am. FunPaul made us a fine breakfast of bacon, eggs and mimosa, which I'd never had before, but was a quick convert. Larry showed up about this time and was able to join us for a game of Power Grid, which would be the first official game of the retreat. Power Grid is one of my favorite games but it doesn't seem to hit the table very often so I'm always glad to play it whenever I get the chance. FunPaul won this one and I came in 2nd.

After that we played two quick games of For Sale, which is a great light game to play after such a heavy. Mark won one of these and FunPaul won the other.


At some point this afternoon many of us went for another swim, this time by day. The air and water were still both incredibly warm. After swimming I decided it was time I started drinking.

I had some pre-retreat debates with myself about drinking over the weekend. Not "should I drink?", but "what should I drink?" I've never been a big fan of beer. In any given gaming evening I'm perfectly happy having a beer, or maybe two, but that's about my limit. I just don't like the taste that much. I used to be a big fan of the Capt'n & Coke, but for some reason I've lost my taste for it over the last couple of years.

So, before the retreat I settled on my new drink of choice. I found the wikipedia entry and a couple of different recipes, finally settling on one that both sounded good and was affordable. So, on this afternoon I busted open the vodka, rum, tequila, triple sec and sour mix that I'd brought along and set about to perfect the alchemy that is the Long Island Ice Tea. It turned out quite well, indeed. The alchemy of this drink is that it contains a shocking amount of alcohol, but tastes unlike anything alcoholic. To me, that's a perfect drink.

Drinkwise, my goal for the weekend was not to get very drunk, but to reach a point of giddy bliss and then to maintain that for as long as I could, without ever having a hangover the next day. This turned out to work out well, except for Saturday night when I couldn't keep my eyes open any more. No hangovers though, which I'm still pleased about.

Over the course of the weekend both Jake and my attorney joined me in my new discovery and Jake and I agreed that this was a drink that could really kick you in the ass if you weren't paying attention. Good stuff! It also has an interesting history, which you can read about by clicking on the wikipedia entry above. Apparently one original recipe involved 4 ounces of pure maple syrup. Crazy.

After this Steve brought out Cash n' Guns, a new action packed light he'd recently ordered. It is a quick game, and it has a unique mechanic involving pointing foam guns at each other. Basically it is a simultaneous reveal / bluffing game. As such, it is best played with alcohol. We played two of these. I won one of them and my attorney won the other. My first win of the weekend. Woot!

Next up my attorney brought out his copy of Ruse & Bruise, which is an entertaining medium card game with a fairly unique play structure. My attorney won this one and I came in second.

Around this Jake arrived so we now had seven, which meant it was time to split up into two groups. Steve Jake Mark and Larry went off to play Thebes while FunPaul, my attorney and I sat down in the garage for a game of Niagara. I won the Niagara game. Jake won at Thebes. If memory serves we finished Niagara quite a bit before the Thebes game ended so the three of us went swimming yet again while waiting for the others to finish.

I think it was about this time that FunPaul announced that he had made dinner for the group. This was a surprise since I didn't actually see him prepare anything, but, as if by magic there was suddenly a delicious pork loin being dished up in the kitchen. I swear, if your gaming group doesn't have a resident gourmet, you don't know what you're missing. Cheers to FunPaul!

After dinner I got to try out Thebes myself and was very impressed. It is a great medium where you play archaeologists collecting historical knowledge in Europe and going on digs in Egypt and the Middle East. FunPaul won this one and I came in 2nd.

Following this we pulled out Ra, which is one of our old standbys but it doesn't see a lot of play anymore. It is still a fine auction game, though. Before it we used to play Medici, but Ra (which is also written by Reiner Knizia) is so much better we just switched over. For this game I decided to adopt my attorney's traditional strategy of focusing on the Pharaohs rather than my own (usually pointless) strategy of playing chicken at the auctions and going for monuments. And, it turns out, I won. Who'd a thought?

It was pretty late on Thursday night by this time. At some point in the evening George and Eric showed up. Eric went off with the other guys to play a few rounds of Cash n' Guns, while George joined me, my attorney and FunPaul to play Modern Art. One of these days I'll get around to reading strategy essays on the Geek about this game. Steve tells me there are fairly simple yet precise calculations for telling you how to bid in the auctions which aid considerably in determining winners over losers. George won this one... I came in dead last. Damn those Long Islands.... whose idea were they anyway???

That wrapped up my Thursday game-wise. I played in 10 games between 9am until somewhere after midnight. After this many of us ambled / staggered down to the beach for another late night swim which was, again, fantastic with a beautiful clear sky and warm, warm water. There's nothing like a series of board games punctuated by midnight swimming to make a guy feel like he hasn't a care in the world.

Friday:
I woke up Friday morning feeling refreshed. Once again the tent/air mattress combination turned out to be a wise choice. If memory serves, I think several of us went down for a swim straight away at about 8am or so. After that FunPaul served up more bacon & eggs and we got down to gaming.

I, Mark, Larry and my attorney started off the gaming Friday by sitting down to Caylus. Along with Power Grid, Caylus is one of my all time favorites which I'd played many times in regular gaming nights with Steve, FunPaul, Jake and Eric. This gave me an advantage over the guys Friday morning who hadn't played it before, but I did try to explain many of the strategic aspects of the game along with the rules. I ended up winning and my attorney came in 2nd.

Caylus is an economic city building game with multiple paths to victory and a heavy portion of resource management. It is very similar to Power Grid, but without the auction element and also to Puerto Rico and countless others. In all it is my favorite type of game. Usually, but not always I find this type of game to be fairly intuitive, unlike area control games. Area control games make me feel like I'm trying to write a full length novel with my left hand. For some reason my brain just doesn't work that way.

After Caylus the same four of us brought out Puerto Rico because we'd all played it before. Apparently I blew my strategic planning wad on Caylus because I completely failed to make intelligent decisions in Puerto Rico. What can I say? A loser is me!

My attorney, Larry and Mark came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively with me bringing up the rear. It seems that I forgot to choose a strategy in the beginning of the game. I mean, there's shipping, there's building and usually a combination of the two. My attorney took a shipping strategy, with a little building. Larry took a building strategy with a little shipping, Mark combined the two fairly evenly. All of these were smart choices. Me? I managed to play the entire game without committing to anything and constantly trying to shift gears to try something new. Great game though.

Around this time the sun was setting and everyone else was either busy or not interested, so my attorney and I went down to the beach for an evening swim. It was especially nice because it was right around sunset and also because the waves had picked up a bit. It was strikingly pleasant, after a long day of gaming, to stand up to our necks in the warm water, watch the stars just start to peek through the deep blue/black of the sky and let the waves push us around as we bobbed and floated in Lake Huron.

My attorney and I both grew up on the west side of the state and I, for one, have always preferred swimming in Lake Michigan. I still maintain that the beaches of Holland, Muskegon and those of the northwest like around Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Lelanau Peninsula are far nicer than anything Lake Huron has to offer, but this particular beach that our cottage was on does come close. It still seems strange to me that the sun should rise and not set over the water. I spent so many nights watching sunsets over Lake Michigan horizons in my teenage years that it seems almost sac religious that it should be any different. After the sun was fully down and darkness had set in we climbed the stairs back up to the top of the bluff for more gaming.

After this the order of games is a bit muddy, but I believe this is when Larry brought out his copy of Fist of the Dragonst Ones. No one but he had played this one before. It is a simultaneous reveal bluffing / auction game. The big twist of this one, imo, is that you lose your resources even if you do not win the auction. This means you have to be durn sure you're going to win the auction before you even try. I took this to mean that you should wait until others have depleted their resources, and then commit everything you have on the one card you want to win that round. This may well be completely incorrect, though. FunPaul won this game, with Steve coming in 2nd and me, Mark, Larry and my attorney all tying for 3rd.

Dinner this night was on Jake. He threw a huge pan of mostacolli in the oven earlier in the evening and the smells of it baking permeated the cottage. By the time it was ready we were all ravenous and polished it off lickity damn split. You da man, Jake!

After this we were all starting to get a bit tired so we turned to another game of For Sale to get our second wind. Mark took 1st and I came in 2nd, but also playing were Eric, FunPaul and my attorney.

Next up I had the chance to play my favorite game of the weekend that I'd never previously played. Some weeks ago my attorney had picked up a copy of Colosseum based, he claims, purely on the fact that the box looks cool. Colosseum is a set collecting, trading, auction, building game in which each player is putting on a series of shows in ancient rome. Each show requires a specific set of ingredients which you have to either buy at auction or trade for with the other players. It really has all the elements that I love in a good game and is well put together. Earlier in the day George, Mark, Larry and my attorney all had a chance to play it and were raving about it. This time I played it with my attorney, Mark, Ben and Larry. I ended up winning with my attorney and Larry coming in at 2nd and 3rd. Unlike Puerto Rico, it was one of those games where all the many parts just flowed together for me.

The only downside to Colosseum was that we misunderstood an important part of the rules and were playing it in a way that made resources considerably more scarce than the rules intended. We discovered our error about half way through but decided to play it through as is anyway. Other than our own mistake it is a well designed and very entertaining game. It will be nice to try it again sometime and play it properly.

I have to say that one of the funnest aspects of Colosseum is presenting your performance piece to the other players. My attorney mastered this element of the game and each of his shows left everyone else rolling around on the floor in drunken giggles. My favorite was: "Perhaps you remember last year's failed performance of 'Circus Minimus'... well this year we've learned from our mistake..." Ah, a good time was had by all.

After this we played one last round of Cash n' Guns before calling it a night game-wise. Me, Mark, Ben, Larry and my attorney again, since the other guys were busy playing Zooloretto or something.

There was some more talk of another round of late night swimming, but the air seemed to have chilled a bit and it didn't sound quite as pleasant as it had on previous nights. A day well spent by any measure, however.

Saturday:
This day was a bit slower than those previous. I only played in two games and the weather was starting to turn chilly and damp so I didn't swim at all. I think my attorney and FunPaul got in an early morning swim while it was still nice, but I missed out on that one by sleeping in past sunrise.

FunPaul fed us breakfast once again, but I think the champaign was gone by this point so we had to do without the mimosa. Then we lounged around a bit and didn't start gaming until after 10am.

My attorney brought out another new game he'd picked up recently called Emira. In it players take on the role of Sheiks who are vying to make themselves more attractive than the others to seduce beautiful and talented women to join their harems. It is a very amusing game, but suffers from being too long for what it is. We played it from about 10am until after 3pm or so, which made it play like a heavy like Power Grid, when it should only have been a medium like Ra or Thebes. This, combined with the fact that we were all starting to suffer from exhaustion made the game a bit tense and we were all happy to see it end. In the play itself I made a terribly foolish over bid on turn one which left me resource short until the late game so I was never really competing for the win. Jake took an early lead, but in the end Mark over shot him to come out in first place. I see on the Geek that there is an unofficial variant to address the game length issue. If we bring it to the table again perhaps we should check that out.

Emira was so long that we took an extended break until 6pm or so. Then me, Mark, Ben and my attorney settled on playing Industrial Waste, while Steve, Jake, George and FunPaul brought out Settlers of Catan. The others played two games of Settlers while we played one of Industrial Waste, not because our game was a long one, but because we watched the Borat movie in the background while we played. Very fun, as I hadn't seen it before.

I like Industrial Waste, but I think it plays better for two than for four. Not that it is bad, but just that there are almost always better options. But, maybe that's because I came in last to my attorney, Mark and Ben in that order.

By this time it was 8pm or 9pm and I was disappointed to note that I'd only played two games this day. I was also bummed that I'd missed out on playing Settlers. Like many board game fans this was the first real Eurogame I'd ever played, and was the one that hooked me for more. (They don't call it a gateway game for nothin') I was kind of looking forward to giving it another go since its been a few years.

However, I was overjoyed to learn that, while we were playing Industrial Waste FunPaul had been busy in the kitchen making the largest roast sirloin I'd ever seen. It was truly mammoth. So, a bunch of us hauled the picnic table out to the edge of the bluff and prepared it for dinner. Then, when the roast was finished FunPaul brought it out and the 9 of us remaining (Larry had to leave earlier in the day) ate roast sirloin outside well after dark.

George had been smart enough to pillage the nearby ravine for good firewood and had stoked a nice big fire for us ahead of time. Good food, good drink, good company and at this point many good memories of a successful gaming retreat. What could be finer? It was a bit sad that this was our last night, but I for one was starting to really miss Barb and the kids and was feeling ready to get back home.

For the preceding days of the retreat I had managed to drink to the point of a giddy sort of bliss without actually being drunk, but this evening the exhaustion took hold and after dinner I could barely stand. I was so, so tired.

After cleaning up dinner many of the group felt like I did and went off to bed. George, however, stoked the fire back up again and he, Steve, Jake, FunPaul, and I lay down in the grass around the fire pit and talked for an hour or two. At some point I couldn't take it any more and I crawled off to my tent where I fell asleep quickly and deeply, dreaming of getting home to snuggle with my lovely bride.

Some time before dawn it started to rain a bit and I peaked out of my tent to find that the others had slept next to the fire, but were now staggering back towards the house to escape the rain. Then I fell back asleep until sunrise.

Sunday:
This morning was overcast and a light rain settled in not long after waking. My attorney had left for DC before anyone else woke up and Eric and Jake left early as well. There were six of us left and I proposed that we sit down for a game of Ticket to Ride before packing up, hoping that we'd then have time for one or two games of Settlers before calling it quits and driving back home, which everyone agreed to. We actually set up two games side by side. George, Ben and Steve played Ticket to Ride: Europe, while Mark, FunPaul and I played the original.

This is a great semi-light, semi-medium game which we'd played out on the bluff Sunday morning of last year and returning to it this year seemed somehow appropriate. George won the European version while Mark stole the game from FunPaul and me.

Then we cleaned the cottage up from top to bottom, but as we were finishing the landlord / cottage manager arrived and told us that a new tenant was arriving soon and that we'd have to make way for them. Sigh... Settlers will have to wait again. Too bad.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and even more fun than last year, I dare say. In fact, in retrospect the weather really turned in our fortune. It was cloudy and wet the entire week preceding the weekend, and its been cloudy and wet since then. It appears that the gaming gods were smiling on us.

In the end FunPaul took home the grand prize and will get to engrave his name on the plaque and has bragging rights until next year.

Overall an amazing total of 34 games were played, 19 of which I got to play in myself. Hm... I feel like I missed out on half the fun.

Wrap up:
A couple of days after getting home my attorney sent me the pictures he'd taken. Here are the highlights.

Here's the mountian of games in the living room.

And here's me with the mountain of games in the kitchen.

Here's me, Mark and Steve prepping for Cash n' Guns.

Here's my attorney posing after his Cash n' Guns win.

This is Larry and George sitting down to Colosseum.

And here's Mark, me and Ben sitting down to the same game later that night.

This one is FunPaul, me, Mark and Larry indulging in For Sale.

Below is FunPaul, Jake, Eric and George playing Imperial. I didn't have a chance to play that one.

Below is FunPaul slicing up the roast sirloin. Mmm... Steak!

And here are some shots of the lot of us gathered outside at the picnic table to feast.


Here's Eric Relaxing at the end of the weekend. This is how we all felt on Sunday morning. My attorney titled this pic: "Gaming the Eric Way."

Finally, here are a couple of scenic shots from outside the cottage overlooking Lake Huron.

Many thanks to Steve and FunPaul for planning and organizing the weekend, and again to FunPaul for his amazing gourmet talents. Oh, and also to Jake for dinner Friday night and to my attorney for bringing his fancy, new fangled digital camera! Thanks also to everyone for taking time away from real life for a long weekend to pretend that we're back in college and don't have a care in the world.

Only 349 days until Foot Foot 2008!