Last weekend was DiceCon West, a board-gaming event in Glasgow. There are two DiceCons held each year, the other being DiceCon East in Edinburgh, which I attended towards the end of last year.

DiceCon East is basically a bunch of people in a room with a bunch of boardgames, entirely an informal fun event. For my 5 pound entry I was included in the prize draw of a pile of superficially damaged games which had been generously donated, and won a copy of the excellent Timbuktu (more of which in a later entry). We were also persuaded to turn up at FAQ, a weekly gaming group (actually a university society). We have been doing so since then...

As I said, last weekend was DiceCon West, so we headed over to Glasgow. They run a Settlers of Catan tournament, but also have general open gaming and a "Kniziathon", where one accumulates points based on performance in any Reiner Knizia-designed games played during the day. Somehow I managed to place second in this, getting a solid trophy and a signed copy of Medici. Odd to be rewarded for sitting around playing games. I also came up in the prize draw, and was given a Mancala set.

As to the games played, there was firstly when we arrived early Mystery of the Abbey, a deduction game. Players are monks wandering around an abbey investigating the murder of another monk, putting together clues in the form of alibi cards they hold (e.g. Brother Thomas is not guilty) and information from other players ("How many bearded monks of the Franciscan order have you eliminated?"). Basically a Cluedo-done-right (i.e. not dice based). However, my favourite deduction game remains Timbuktu. More on its burgled camel-trains later.

We then had a series of Knizia games. Some were pretty poor (in particular one Simpsons-themed card game), while I think my favourite would be The Merchants of Amsterdam. This is a game with an auction component (based on a timer), where players compete to score in each of three areas, namely commodity markets, trading colonies, and warehouses in Amsterdam. Each area is subdivided into four, which are then ranked according to the total investment there, and then players score by their dominance in each one weighted according to its rank. Indeed, scoring (as well as other stuff) happens repeatedly throughout the game (at different times for each area) when the "date" reaches different points. The other interesting fact is that on a players turn they get to allocate three actions between being auctioned, being taken directly by them, or being binned—and you don't get to see them all at once, instead allocating in turn.

Nothing much else stands out at this point, other than a late game of Ra which I may discuss (and hopefully play) some other time.