Octopus's Garden

Issue Seventy-Seven

28th October 2012

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Sub-editorial

HELLO, good evening and welcome to Octopus's Garden, the subzeen with its very own Railway Rivals game. It's a subzeen to Jim Burgess' The Abyssinian Prince, which is now a subzeen to Douglas Kent's Eternal Sunshine. Produced by Peter Sullivan peter@burdonvale.co.uk. It's also available on the web at http://www.burdonvale.co.uk/octopus/.

MIDCON NEWS

The "big two" in terms of the British board games convention scene have been Manorcon and Midcon, pretty much for the last thirty years. Midcon originally hosted the National Diplomacy Championship, but this died away some years ago. (Although there will be a Diplomacy tournament this year as part of EDC.) It also continues to attract a significant number of "post-gamers," people who no longer play many, or any, games, but who like to have a cheap weekend in a reasonable hotel with a reasonable bar, and talk to old friends - the gamers' equivalent of the science fiction convention scene's "relaxacon" concept. But that's not to say that there aren't also significant numbers of serious gamers. For them, the attraction has traditionally been Midcon's place in the calendar, usually just a few weeks after the massive Spiel games fair in Essen, Germany. Given that not all games can afford a trip to Essen every year, Midcon is the first opportunity for those that have been able to make it to share the spoils of their adventure. And for those who haven't, to get their first glimpse of the new tranche of games. Modern classics like Settlers of Catan, Carcassone and Modern Art have all had their first significant British exposure at Midcon, over the years.

This year's event, the 34th of the series, is fast approaching. Just in the same way that Manorcon moved from Birmingham to Leicester some years ago, Midcon has gone through a similar migration. After moving between several hotels in Birmingham, last year saw them bite the bullet and move to a completely new location, in Derby. The move seems to have been a good one, and revitalised the convention to a significant extent.

This year's event is over the weekend of 9th to 11th November 2012, at the Hallmark Hotel in Derby (nice and close to the train station for those of us who don't fancy driving all the way there.) More information, including detailed instructions on how to tell apart a Nepalese restaurant from a non-Nepalese restaurant, is available on the website at http://www.fbgames.co.uk/Midcon/default.htm.

Round 9 — "Hannibal Hamlin"

Railway Rivals Map FR

15) (@4-25) Switzerland - Orleans: NERTZ 20-4-2 ; FWOGGIE 5+4+3 ; FRAK IT 5-3+2.
16) (32-@5) Dunkerque - Italy: LOSER 20-2-7+1 ; FWOGGIE 10+7+6+2+2+2 ; FRAK IT 0-2-6 ; RENAISSANCE 0-1-2.
17) (24-65) Nantes - Toulon: FRAK IT 20-5 ; NERTZ 10-4+5 ; RENAISSANCE 0-2 ; FWOGGIE +4+2.
18) (66-41) Nice - Strasbourg: NERTZ 20-5-1 ; RENAISSANCE 10+5+1.
19) (53-13) Toulouse - Paris: LOSER 20 ; FWOGGIE 10.
20) (45-56) Lyon - Lourdes: NERTZ 20+1+2 ; FRAK IT 10-1-2 ; FWOGGIE 0.
21) (14-36) Paris - Nancy: RENAISSANCE 20, lOSER 10.

Builds:

NERTZ (William Whyte, USA.) [purple]: (X17) - X16 - V15 - U16 - T15 [-1 L] - R16 [-1 Fr] [-1 Fr]. =-7-3
LOSER (Geoff Challinger, UK.) [blue]: (Lille) - N61 ; (S11) - V9 [-1 Fw]. = -4-1
FRAK IT (W. Andrew York, USA.) [black]: No builds.
FWOGGIE (Brendan Whyte, Aus.) [green]: (Lourdes) - C11 ; (S21) - S18 [-1 Fr]. =-9-1
RENAISSANCE (Robin ap Cynan, UK.) [yellow]: (L61) - M62 ; (Y10) - Z9 [-1 Fr]. =-2-1

Scores on the Doors:

Company	B/fwd	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Builds	C/fwd
NERTZ	79	14		11		14	23		-07-03+00	131
LOSER	48		12			20		10	-04-01+01	86
FRAK IT	131	4	-8	15			7		-00-00+04	153
FWOGGIE	145	12	29	6		10	0		-09-01+01	193
RENAISSANCE	129		-3	-2	16			20	-02-01+00	157
Totals	532	30	30	30	30	30	30	30	-22-06+06	720

Races for Round Ten:

22) (23-33) Rennes - Lille
23) (36-64) Nancy - Marseille
24) (65-54) Toulon - Bordeaux
25) (55-22) Bayonne - Cherbourg
26) (13-@1) Paris - England
27) (@2-45) BeNeLux - Lyon
28) (44-14) Lyon - Paris

GENEVA: For Round Ten, you may enter up to four of these races, and then build up to 8 physical points of track (i.e. payments to rivals don't count against the limit; although of course you still pay them.) The deadline for Round Ten orders is SATURDAY, 17th NOVEMBER, 2012 to Peter Sullivan, peter@burdonvale.co.uk

That was Octopus's Garden #77, A Startling Press production.