May 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, May 8, 2010.
Here are the details.

Enjoy an adventure with the author of Dragons at Dawn, the new retro tribute to the original rules played by Dave Arnesson before the publication of the original Dungeons and Dragons, which he co-authored.

A beginning level adventure - The Haunted Keep - will be featured for this game and both experienced and beginning role players are welcome. We will be rolling characters at the table.

The war in China vs the Japanese, has been going on for a long time. The Japanese attack and grab land, and in general take what they want, and then make peace. Only to do it all over again, once they are ready. Is this the time the Chinese will be ready for them?

Power Grid fans, come and try out its spiritual successor: Factory Manager, the new stand-alone game in the world of Power Grid. Each player owns a factory and tries to earn the most money during the game, by using his workers to buy the best machines and robots at the market, and then running those machines most effectively in his factory. This game features a clever market mechanism for choosing the supply of factory tiles in the market.

Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Power Grid: Factory Manager which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and rules.

Twilight Struggle is a 2 player card-driven game of political and military struggle, which covers the 40 year period of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. The entire world is the stage on which these two titans fight to make the world safe for their own ideologies and ways of life.
It is a quick-playing, low-complexity game. Players exert influence in attempts to gain allies and control for their superpower. Subsystems capture the prestige-laden Space Race as well as nuclear tensions, with the possibility of game-ending nuclear war.

Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Twilight Struggle which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and rules.

If you have a copy of the game, please bring it, and we can expand the registration to beyond 4 players.

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.

Through the Ages is a civilization building game. The goal is to develop your civilization, not to destroy other ones. Military strength is just one aspect of your nation, as well as population, production or science. It is up to you which aspect you will concentrate on, more or less, but you should not underestimate any of them while building your civilization.

Victory is achieved by the player whose nation produces the most culture during the game. However, there are many ways to produce culture: through religion, literature or drama, by building wonders, by utilizing cultural persons, etc. Considerable amount of culture can be gained even via wars or aggression.

Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Through the Ages which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and rules to the game.
Multiple tables available.

The Princes of Florence involves developing medieval and renaissance cities to attract various professions - such as astronomers, organists and architects - which enriches the cities culturally. Each player is given a city grid and reference chart and attempts to gain the most victory points after seven rounds.
Scoring victory points can be done in a variety of ways although most will be earned by playing profession cards to generate work points. Each is attracted to a particular combination of building, landscape feature, and social freedom. The more the player can match these preferences then the more work points are generated. If a player satisfies the minimum requirement of work points, which increases each round, then the work can be created and the player can then trade the work points for cash and/or victory points.

Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for The Princes of Florence which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids as well as the rules.

Inside the Armor is a 2-player tactical game of damage control onboard a warship during a battle. One player controls the damage control efforts for the ship, trying to manage resources, control flooding, and containing fires in an effort to save the ship from capsizing, sinking, and/or exploding. The other player controls the threats against the ship - attempting to spring leaks, spread fires, damage equipment, and otherwise cause the loss of the ship. Players must constantly weigh relative risks during this game of constant action.

Please note: This is an unpublished game (anticipated release by Compass Games in 2011) in an advanced stage of development.

Based off of the same system first used in Avalon Hill's 1998 Atlantic Storm, Pacific Typhoon is set during the naval and air war in the Pacific theatre during World War II. The game depicts the history of the air-naval battles of the Pacific War with 40 battle cards, each of which represents a historical naval or air battle such as Pearl Harbor, Midway, Surigao Strait, etc. Players compete by fighting a non-sequential series of twenty of these battles. A battle lasts for one round of play, so each player gets to play once per battle. Players are not assigned sides but may choose which side to fight for in each battle. If they are on the victorious side, they may earn spoils from the battle which may include victory points and/or additional resources.

Follow these links to the BoardGameGeek entry for Inside the Armor and the BoardGameGeek entry for Pacific Typhoon which includes reviews (PT), pictures, player aids (PT), rules (ItA) and links to the other resources for the games.
This Double Feature will be a play of each game back-to-back in the same slot for a single session fee.

The Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition will feature the debut of Italy as the third Axis nation, the introduction of the cruiser unit to the naval lineup, and the largest Axis & Allies board to-date measuring 24x46 inches. With over 600 pieces, players will be able to recreate and decide the outcome of WWII like never before.

Follow this link to the BoardGameGeek entry for Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition which includes reviews, pictures, playing aids and a link to the rules, FAQ, and errata on the designer's website.

We will play either the 1941 or 1942 scenario. Some experience with the Axis & Allies game system is preferred, but we will teach the changes in this game from previous versions.
This event will likely last until midnight or later.

Though your allies are bloodied and decimated, you remain determined to quench the threat. Tracking the remains of the cult to Imdolphyn you find aid in short supply as the final reckoning approaches.
A Living Forgotten Realms adventure and the challenging finale of the Embers of Dawn mini-campaign set in Imdolphyn for characters levels 1-4.
It is recommended that you play the Embers of Dawn mini-campaign adventures in sequential order with one character for the best enjoyment and play possibilities within the mini-campaign, but it is not required.

For other adventures by request and arrangement, email Jonathan Choy. Requests for June and beyond gladly discussed!

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.