February Game-a-thon

The SWA sponsors eleven one-day Game-a-thons each year. We schedule these every month (January through September, November and December). October is reserved for Council of Five Nations. We usually shoot for the second Saturday of the month, but we're flexible in consideration of Studio availability and other regional conventions. We generally have 6-10 events, scheduled into two time slots (11am-4pm, 5pm-10pm+). We can easily accomodate games that run longer than a five-hour slot. You only pay for the games you play in. No registrations fees at the door, and no badges. GMs don't pay, and they play for free in the session they're not running.

Our next scheduled Game-a-thon is Saturday, February 13, 2010.
Here are the details.

On the morning of Nov. 5th the Allied task force, Mike, awoke to find the calm blue ocean around them teeming with Japanese ships. The battle continues as the American/Australian invasion force tries to fight off their Japanese predators on their way to the tiny island of Nauru! The Americans have been keeping the ships of "The Rising Sun" at bay; but, they are caught in a pincer of Japanese steel.
This is a continuation of a campaign and spots will be held for previous players. If there is availability at start time, it will be opened to anyone who wishes to play. 1/2400 scale ships will be used in the WWII Pacific Theater.

This is the first battle in which Frederick the Great faced the Russians in battle during the Seven Years War. Fought in East Prussia, the Prussians marched completely around the Russian army and through the still smoldering village of Zorndorf. Frederick was intent upon giving the Russian "a good thrashing".
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Volley & Bayonet which includes reviews and pictures.

A space convoy of supplies of Pepsi and John Deere parts is on its way to the Orion Subsector. Can aliens or pirates capture the convoy? Can the defenders protect the vital supplies?
Follow this link to the publisher's website which includes material for all of their games. The rules are available here.
what2bring: Dice and tape.

Considered by many to be the best Star Wars game ever, Epic Duels combines a wide variety of miniatures representing characters from the Star Wars universe, plus colorful maps and individual decks of cards. Games are brief and action-packed, so all players should be able to try out multiple characters during the session and have a variety of battles. Very simple game to learn, lots of fun to play.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Star Wars: Epic Duels which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and links to the rules.

Prepare yourself for the upcoming Northeast Titan Championship. If you've never played Titan or just need a refresher, here's your chance. We will start by going over the rules, then we'll discuss some basic strategy and play some practice battles. Depending on what people want to do we may start a practice game, maybe with exposed legions, to assist with further strategy discussions.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Titan which includes reviews, pictures, rules and other playing aids and strategy articles.

With elegantly simple game play, Ticket to Ride can be learned in 3 minutes, while providing players with intense strategic and tactical decisions every turn. Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets ö goal cards that connect distant cities; and to the player who builds the longest continuous route.
The GM will bring the base game with 1910 Expansion, allowing for 'pure' or 'expanded' play. Additionally, the GM will have the Swiss and Nordic "expansions", which are in truth standalone games, with enough additional sets of colored player pieces to allow either one of these games to be played as a separate game concurrently with the base game.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Ticket to Ride which includes reviews, pictures and playing aids.

Each player is a zoo owner who is trying to build the best zoo by collecting animals to fill his enclosures. Placing a variety of vendors' stalls placed throughout the zoo will also help the zoo. We will use one or two of the expansions, to make our zoos even more attractive for visitors.
More information at the game designer's website for Zooloretto.

Your tank unit has been ordered to support the 27th infantry Division attack on the Kakazu Ridge line. The Japanese are dug in deep and are ready to die in their bunkers. Nothing a flame tank can't take care of.

Geronimo is a game covering the last great period of western expansion of the United States: the Indian wars that occurred between 1850 and 1890. While the subject matter is serious, and often tragic, the game has been designed to give all players an enjoyable competitive experience while portraying the fate of the American Indians during this period. As the political fortunes in Washington changed with each election, so does that of the US player as each turn a (typically) new player will take the reins of the US government while the rest of the players lead the Indian tribes in their resistance movement.
The US is trying to "civilize" the Trans-Mississippi, opening the west for the farthest natural expansion of her borders. The US wants to increase the population, mine the resources and spread the communication network that will enable her to hold it all together, so she can turn territories into states. Only the Indians stand in the way. The US can civilize -- or, less politely, get rid of -- them by extermination or forcing them onto reservations.
The Indian players are trying to keep their tribes alive. In surviving, they deny the US certain points, and also avoid losing points for extinction. They also help their cause by hindering US efforts to obtain statehood by successfully attacking resources and, when necessary, US troops and/or their traditional Indian enemies.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Geronimo which includes reviews and pictures. In particular, it is highly recommended that new players review this session report for useful insight into the game and overall strategy.
Additionally, a text-only copy of the unofficial 2nd Edition rules can be found here and a discussion by fans of the game can be found at the ConSimWorld folder for Geronimo.

Fantasy Flight Games' new epic board game of conquest, adventure, and fantasy empires for two to four players. Runewars pits players against each other in a strategic game of battles and area control, where they must gather resources, raise armies, and lay siege to heavily fortified cities.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Runewars which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and links to the rules.

Eliminate your enemies and become Shogun of Japan in this game of strategy, secrecy and diplomacy! The time is the 16th century, and five warlords engage in a violent struggle for land and power. Protect your growing empire by forming alliances with other warlords, but be constantly wary of the knife in the back.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Shogun which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and links to the rules.

This classic game of the Fantasy Monster Slugathon is a standby from the Avalon Hill of yore. The game is divided into two realms, the masterboard and the battleboards. On the masterboard, legions of mythical creatures roam about trying to recruit bigger and badder monsters and kill opposing legions in the process. When a combat occurs, the space is 'blown-up' by moving the action to the corresponding battleboard type. After lots of dice are tossed, the victor is returned to the masterboard with the spoils of war: points. The Titan is the player's alter-ego, and the Titans' fate and the players' fate are one and the same.
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Titan which includes reviews, pictures, rules and other playing aids and strategy articles.

This game is the new deluxe edition Axis & Allies with new rules and new units. One interesting aspect is that the Pacific starts out mostly at peace and that both sides have big decisions to make to prepare for the coming conflict and on when to start it.
Some knowledge of at least one version of the Axis & Allies game system is highly recommended--this version is definitely not the basic setup, and time needs to be spent teaching the intricacies of the new additions and not the fundamentals of the basic game system.
The game may take a while due to teaching the new changes from the other versions, and will probably go until 11PM or midnight, so bring your caffeine!
Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Axis & Allies Pacific : 1940 Edition which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and a link to the rules on the publisher's website.

Location

As usual, this Game-a-thon will be held at the Studio of Bridge and Games, in Schenectady, NY. If you need directions, you can click here, or send an email to: mailto:directions@swa-gaming.org An automatic reply will immediately be sent to you with detailed directions.

The number at the Studio is: (518) 346-3773

Session Fees

Show up and play one game session = $4.00

Show up and play both game sessions = $6.00

GMs play all day for free.

Full-time students get in for free. For our purposes, "full-time students" are people in Kindergarten through college. Our intent here is to help allow younger games/"new blood" to participate at SWA events, and the gaming hobby in general.
The student discount does not cover working adults who happen to be taking a Continuing Education class. Please help us fulfill the spirit and intent of this policy.

Registration

Our Game-a-thons have generally been pretty casual events; people stroll in and sign up for the event of their choice on-the-spot. Lately, however, attendance has been increasing and more events are filling to maximum and beyond.

If you would like to greatly increase your chance of getting into the game of your choice, you can now formally pre-register online. Payments will be handled through PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal account, you can still pay with your credit card.

Online pre-registration is not required. You can still just stroll in and get into a game. But pre-registering is now an option for those who want to take advantage of it.

Follow this link to go to the online registration page. We'll sign you up, but your spot's not guaranteed until we get your payment.

Swap Meet Tables

If you've got merchandise you'd like to sell, please consider renting a table or three at our Game-a-thon.

This is meant to be more of a Swap Meet / Garage Sale atmosphere, and not really intended for full merchant setups.

Each attendee can rent a maximum of three tables. The first costs $2, two cost $10, and three cost $20. As you can see, the price structure encourages individuals to rent few tables. We will have a maximum of eight tables available at each Game-a-thon.

Each table is (2.5' x 2.5'); a standard card table. Some of them are kinda old and thus not very sturdy. Please keep this in mind when planning what you'll bring for sale.

You can reserve your table(s) ahead of time by using the online registration form. You will see the prices repeated there. Please list your table request in the 'Comments' field. Please also note that you have to pay the Game-a-thon registration in addition to the table rental fee.

You can also rent tables on a walk-in basis, but please remember we'll have no more than eight available for the day; first come, first served.

We suggest that you use our Forum discussion boards to announce what you will/might bring. We suggest posting in the "What's happening this week" category where the Game-a-thons are announced.

(Here's our secret agenda... Not only do we want to help you get rid of gaming stuff you're not using, but we'd also like to see this generate some more walk-in traffic.)

Questions or Comments?

Events at Future Game-a-thons

If you'd like to run a game at a future Game-a-thon, please click here to submit your event online.

You can also email us at your convenience.

You can even call Bill and tell him about your event over the phone - we're flexible!

If you'd like to see a particular game run at a future event, let us know by filling in a Game Request Form here.