Megafest 10.0
Megafest 10.0 took place around Labor Day 2011 at monarch.festing.org.
Contents
Summary
- Date: Labor Day 2011
- Venue: monarch.festing.org
- Attendees: Yanthor, Anya, Jaeger, Kiesa, Calvin, Linknoid, Humblik, with a brief appearance by Zan Lynx
- Content:
- Jaeger: Megafest 10.0
- Jaeger: Megafest photos
Schedule
Yanthor, Anya, Humblik, and Linknoid will drive westward on the afternoon of Friday, 2 September[1], and return to Lincoln on Wednesday, 7 September.
Menu
See also the Megafest 10.0 grocery list.
Saturday, 3 September 2011
Breakfast
- Kiesa: Crepes filled with potatoes and cheddar cheese and Blueberry Blintzes
- Cleanup: Linknoid
Supper
- Kiesa: Vegetarian Pho without Onions
- Cleanup: Anya
Midnight Snack
- Kiesa: Panda Bar Brownies
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Breakfast
- Humblik: Hash browns, scrambled eggs, Morning Star Veggie Bacon Strips, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and orange juice.
- Cleanup: Humblik
Supper
- Yanthor's picnic supper
- potato salad
- Hot dogs and chips, or something
- Vegetables to dip with humus
- Cleanup: Yanthor
Monday, 5 September 2011
Breakfast
- Jaeger: buttermilk waffles
- Cleanup: Linknoid
Supper
- Anya (helped by Yanthor)
- Cleanup: Yanthor
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Breakfast
- Linknoid: scrambled tofu
- Cleanup: Jaeger
Supper
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Breakfast
- Kiesa: Overnight Apple French Toast
- Cleanup: Jaeger
Shore Excursions
There are many amusing and diverting things to do in the greater Longmont area, though many involve actually going outside[2]. Here are a few highlights, in no particular order.
Rocky Mountain National Park
Skipped due to rain.
Our friendly neighborhood national park has many trails of varying distances and difficulties. A drive to 12,000 feet over Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitor's Center shows off alpine tundra.
Pearl Street Mall
On weekends and summer afternoons, Boulder's downtown walking mall has buskers and street performers, plenty of quirky Boulderness, and more Tibetan knick-nack import stores than you'll see this side of Dharmsala.
Celestial Seasonings tour
Boulder's favorite manufacturer of herbal tea now produces 'real' tea and provides amusing and entertaining tours of its manufacturing plant in Boulder. Step into the sinus-clearing mint room and the equally-overpowering tea room. The tour is offered on weekends but is best on weekdays when the production line is actually running. Tours 45 minutes long and are offered on the hour from 10:00 to 16:00.
$EMPLOYER tour
Around the corner from Celestial Seasonings is Jaeger's employer. This ad-hoc tour features the engineering lab, where engineers develop and test software for next-generation cell phones.
Louisville's Labor Day Parade
Skipped due to lack of interest.
The city of Louisville was founded as a mining town in the second half of the nineteenth century, and has long had connections to organized labor. It shouldn't surprise anyone, then, that the city hosts a large Labor Day parade.
New Belgium tour
Skipped due to not being available.
An hour away in Fort Collins is craft brewer New Belgium Brewing, which offers an enlightening tour of its production facility.
There are also other craft brewers in the greater Longmont area, many of which offer some sort of tour.
Colorado Railroad Museum
Skipped due to lack of interest.
Fans of the Age of Rail (especially toddlers) will enjoy the Colorado Railroad Museum's outdoor collection of trains from Colorado's history.
Georgetown Loop Railroad
Skipped due to lack of interest.
http://www.georgetownlooprr.com/
This heritage rail line takes passengers on an exciting loop up a mountain valley behind a restored steam engine, with an optional (extra-cost, not-for-toddlers) tour into an old silver mine.
Game Log
Saturday, 3 September
In the evening, Jaeger, Kiesa, Yanthor, and Anya played the classic edition of Settlers of Catan. Kiesa pulled ahead for a longest-road victory mere turns ahead of Yanthor's presumed victory.
Sunday, 4 September
In the afternoon, Jaeger, Kiesa, Linknoid, Yanthor, and Humblik played Agricola (five-player, family rules). As of this writing, the game is still underway, after a brief suspension to address an unfortunate chocolate-milk-on-carpet incident. This distraction caused Jaeger to place the stage 5 action cards out for stage 4, and the stage 4 action cards out for stage 5, a mistake which was not discovered until halfway through stage 5.
Yanthor seemed to have a strong position going into the final round, but Linknoid pulled ahead with a strong lead. Point totals:
| Linknoid | Yanthor | Humblik | Kiesa | Jäger | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fields | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Pastures | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Grain | 2 | 3 | -1 | 1 | 4 |
| Vegetables | 4 | -1 | -1 | -1 | 2 |
| Sheep | 1 | -1 | -1 | 1 | 2 |
| Wild boar | 1 | -1 | -1 | 1 | -1 |
| Cattle | 2 | -1 | -1 | 1 | -1 |
| Unused spaces | -2 | 0 | -1 | -3 | -3 |
| Fenced stables | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Clay hut rooms | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stone house rooms | 8 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Family members | 12 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 9 |
| Points for cards | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| Bonus points | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Total | 36 | 29 | 25 | 23 | 27 |
The next day, Humblik disclosed that he had been inadvertently cheating by executing the 'bake bread' action as a free action, which could be taken at any time (specifically during harvest) rather than an explicit action. This suggests our counterparty surveillance protocol is weak.
Labor Day
In the afternoon, while Calvin was being baby-sat, we split our group of six into two groups of three. Both of these games actually fit on the dining room table at the same time.
Agricola
Humblik, Linknoid, and Yanthor played Agricola. Yanthor came away with a clear victory. Linknoid proved that an all-field only strategy is a very bad strategy. Humblik still doesn't seem to have a good hold on strategy in this game.
Cities and Knights of Catan
Anya, Jäger, and Kiesa played Cities and Knights of Catan, and tried to remember, in time, to defend their little island from the marauding barbarian hoards. Jäger upgraded a city and promptly got it sacked. Kiesa grabbed the settlement spot Jäger was going for, thwarting his attempts at getting sheep at a reasonable price. This spawned a feud that lasted the duration of the game. Kiesa ended up accidentally winning by getting the citadels of coin and paper on the same turn.
Agricola II
Jäger shifted to Agricola. He, Linknoid, and Yanthor played the regular (non-family-game) variant with minor improvements and occupations (from the 'easy' set), at Linknoid's suggestion. Yanthor figured out how to combine his minor improvements and occupations to get 7 points for cards and 14 bonus points, giving him a commanding victory over Jäger's basically-family-game strategy (which netted him 39 points) and Linknoid's poorly-executed attempt at using the minor improvements and occupations (which netted him 31 points). Linknoid did enjoy using the Plow minor improvement, which let him plow three fields every time an action let him plow one field.
Puerto Rico
Anya, Kiesa, and Humblik played Puerto Rico, and tried desperately to remember how to play. The game did not meet the traditional ending conditions due to the end of game condition of the babysitter leaving and Calvin needing full attention. We tallied the score at the end. Anya had 38 points, Humblik had 36 points, and Kiesa had 33.
Tuesday, 6 September
In the evening, after a full day of shore excursions to Gunbarrel and dinner at Watercourse Foods, Yanthor suggested Agricola but no one else felt sufficiently awake to actually pursue the game (especially in a five-player configuration).
Carcassonne
Anya, Humblik, Jäger, Linknoid, and Yanthor played the river variant of Carcassonne. Playing with the river made it easier to connect epic farms. Anya and Linknoid worked on a large city near the center of the map that they were never able to complete. At the end of the game, after completing partial scoring but before scoring farms, Jäger and Yanthor were tied with 51 points each, but Yanthor managed to get four farmers on the über farm so he scooped up 28 points for 7 cities and finished with a commanding lead.
Carcassonne II
A rematch ensued. Most festors elected to fight the last war and go for an early pro-farm strategy, which failed as fewer cities were completed and the farms failed to connect. Humblik eschewed the farm-lobby strategy and finished the game with a commanding victory with 59 points. The closest contender was Jäger with a weak 40 points.
Wednesday, 7 September
Having finished breakfast just after 10:00 MDT, the Lincoln-based festors decided they could play one final game as long as they could still leave around noon. They declined Jäger's suggestion of a Cities and Knights of Catan variant in which each time the barbarian hoard attacks the island of Catan the game break into a Dungeons and Dragons battle in which the outcome of the barbarian hoard attack in determined by the outcome of the D&D round. The strength of each side is determined by the number of cities and the number of knights in the Catan game.
Settlers of Catan
There being only two games available for six players (Settlers of Catan and Cities and Knights of Catan), only one of which could actually be expected to be completed within two hours, the festors elected for the former. Linknoid won the initiative roll and had first placement.
Linknoid and Kiesa gained a commanding lead by the middle of the game. Kiesa acquired Longest Road until Yanthor built a long unconnected road to take the Longest Road. Kiesa managed to eek out a narrow win by acquiring Longest Road. Jäger thinks he screwed up his game, despite getting a good spread of resources, by failing to get the best numbers: 5, 6, and 8. The whole game, including setup (but not including teardown), took one hour, twenty minutes. And then Yanthor talked everyone else into running a few more turns 'just to see what happens'. The extra turns failed to provide a decisive runner-up.
