After having a great time at last year’s SorCon, it was great to be able to head back to Basildon for SorCon 10. The event is held in a Holiday Inn from Friday lunchtime until the last stragglers head off early on Sunday evening, with a nominal entry fee presumably covering the cost of the conference facilities.

Most of the gaming is done in a large, well lit room with good-sized tables and very comfy chairs (there’s an over-spill room too, if you want to get away from the hubbub). There’s an average of just over 100 attendees per day, making it a comfortable size, while the food and drink is pretty good as well as reasonably priced (but as it’s a hotel, don’t expect any cask ales).

But more importantly, it has a great atmosphere. The organisers are friendly, while I’ve not been to a con where people seem as comfortable asking if there’s space in a game than they do here. It would probably benefit from some ’empty slots’ cones, or similar, but it’s nice that people feel everyone is approachable enough anyway.

There’s not much going on beyond open gaming though. That certainly doesn’t bother me, but people wanting variety may struggle. That said there is the gamer oriented Saturday night quiz-a-hunt, a bring-and-buy table and a local board game retailer on hand – as well as loads of chain restaurants and a cinema on the doorstep.

A quick shout-out to old friends Keef and Claire for driving me to the con and humouring me throughout. And it was great to have Sarah with me for the first night (her first con and a successful one), as well as seeing old friends such as Matt (Creaking Shelves), John (LoB) and the rest – sorry I didn’t get to play with many of you!

Will I be going back? Absolutely – the date will go straight in my diary when it’s announced. Behind LoBsterCon this is my favourite UK event of the year – and one I’d suggest any gamer should check out if looking for a small, friendly con with a good variety of games – from party to the epics (I saw full games of both Colony and Mega Civ played).

Gaming highlights

• The Oracle of Delphi: This was comfortably my game of the weekend. I’d been needing to get it to the table to review it, but was lucky to be expertly taught it here (thanks Phil!). Expect the review in the next month or so – but it’s a classic Feld that removes point salad for a race mechanism. There may be a little too much luck for some, but it’s also relatively short. And the play was super tense at the end, with me losing to Claire on the second tie-breaker (Keef and Phil were a turn behind us).
• Castles of Burgundy: Another Feld, another highlight. This old favourite is always fun, but all the more so with experienced players. Claire, Keef and me are all fans and as always the game ebbed and flowed. As we neared the end it looked for a while that I’d run away with it – but once again Claire came back and just pipped me on end-game bonuses, taking the win on 206 to my 204.
• Celestia: We closed Saturday night out with this great, and beautiful, little filler – and it was well received by everyone. It’s so simple to teach and immediately gets people chatting around the table, which is perfect when people are a little oiled. We ended up playing back-to-back games – the second with the recent expansion – with wins for Claire and SorCon buddy Craig. The expansion adds individual player abilities, which were a bit underwhelming, and a bunch of new cards that were great fun. Expect a review of the expansion soon.

The other ‘new to me’ games

• Glass Road: I’d managed to miss this Uwe offering somehow, so was happy to give it a go. I liked the resource wheel mechanism in Le Havre: Inland Port, while not enjoying the game, and it turns out it is used to much better effect here. This is classic mid-weight Rosenberg – you have no idea what the hell to do at first, faced with a plethora of similarly weighted options, but after a few rounds it starts to make sense. But unlike games such as (proper) Le Havre it is pretty quick and the choices never become overwhelming once you’ve got the basics down. A good game that I’d play again, but not one I’ll be seeking out to buy.
• Railroad Revolution: This was another game on my review shelf I’d brought along in the hope of being taught it – and once again Phil (with help from Keef) came to the rescue. While I quite enjoyed my play – and ended up winning – it was a little underwhelming overall; basically some of the scoring sections didn’t seem very fair for what you had to do to get the points. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve played it a few more times (again, review incoming), but it seems a common complaint from those who’ve played it a few times. On the plus side, mechanically it was very enjoyable – lots of interesting decisions and very tricky resource management.
• Steampunk Rally: Our last game of the con, this seemed a good choice for our frazzled brains – but was actually thinkier than I’d thought it would be (thanks to Paul for teaching). It’s a clever puzzle of a game, with a solid mix of dice, drafting and racing – but with the real key being engine building. I kind of missed this, building a sleek machine that got over the line – but only in joint last place. The game was OK, but definitely had that slightly shonky Kickstarter sheen – and was sadly lacking in player interaction (there are some screwage cards, but not many).
• Ticket to Ride – Rails and Sails: I’d heard bad things about the most recent Ticket to ride offering and my fears were sadly borne out. As the title suggests this version adds boats to the mix – but only really adds fiddliness via an extra set of cards. This just proved to be a painful lesson in irritating admin rather than an interesting innovation on a system I love – and I wouldn’t seek it out again (but would play if someone really wanted to. Seemed particularly irksome with five players.

Games I’d played before

• Can’t Stop: Always a winner, as two more highly entertaining four-player games (jumping variant) proved once again. Sarah grabbed her second win in her second play of the game, while Keef took the win the following evening.
• Ulm: It was nice to play this four-player, and find it stands up nicely to all player counts. We played with the roof tiles face-up, which is meant to be the more ‘gamer’ version, but I just found it added a level of extra information that didn’t really add to the game – if anything it made it more cumbersome without really adding much to the experience. That said, I still really enjoyed the play – expect a full review of Ulm on the blog next week.
• Voyages of Marco Polo: My second ‘real life’ play of this, more than a year after the first, saw me teaching it from the rules to Keef and Claire. Despite one cock up I must’ve explained them reasonably well, as they wiped the floor with me! I still think this is an OK game, but don’t really see what all the fuss is all about – overall, it’s very average. While I like the amount of variety in setup, the things you’re doing just aren’t interesting enough to make it fun over time regardless of this.
• Castles of Mad King Ludwig: My third play of Ludwig, and my third comfortable win. No, I have no idea why I keep winning either – and I still don’t really like it. The castle building part is right up my street, but the bit where you have to set the values of the rooms is absolutely horrible (for me anyway). We played with the moats/swans expansion, which I enjoyed as an extra set of challenges/options – just give me a different option for choosing values each turn and I’d be converted.

Overall, I had a fantastic time throughout the convention (even the sausages at breakfast were good, and the Guinness reasonable). And I enjoyed every play of the weekend, even if I wasn’t sold on the game, and I didn’t play anything below average – or with anyone other than really nice gamers. Bring on SorCon 11!