We started our trip at 7:30am this morning, which was good as the trip is a solid 6 hours to the Seven Springs Resort in beautiful Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. We had 2 stops, one in Ohio to use the facilities and grab a fresh water and once in Pennsylvania around 1:15 to eat lunch at Wendy’s. The only mishap we had is that we missed our exit at Donigal/Ligonier and had to travel an additional 20 miles out of the way to get back.

We shot a 40-minute car video on the topic of games that we have been disappointed by in the past. These car videos have become somewhat of a trademark as we travel and this one should be pretty interesting.

We arrived at the Slopeside Hotel at around 2:15pm and immediately checked in, loaded up our cart and got settled in our room before heading down to register and meet up with Gregory M. Smith. Along the way, we met about 15 fans and chatted a bit and began to make some plans for playing games later this week.

Greg was all setup waiting for us and we talked with him for about an hour and shot a 40-minute video with him discussing 4 of his in-design games including Rebel Tide covering the American Civil War, Gotha Raider which will be a magazine game in Paper Wars covering the bombing of England during WWI, British Tank Ace and Carrier Leader all from Compass Games.

We then went to dinner with Greg and our friend John Sy from the Philippines. We had a nice dinner and chat for about an hour. Greg is a very nice guy and is just very genuine.

After dinner, we played a 6-player game of Border Reivers from GMT Games with the designer Ed Beach. In Border Reivers, each player rules over one of the Marches along the Scottish-English border as leader of one of the six major riding families of the time: Grey, Fenwick, Dacre, Maxwell, Kerr, or Hume. The goal is to increase the wealth and fame of your clan throughout the reigns of Henry and Elizabeth to end the century as the most famous Border Reiver of all time. Players gain VP’s from successful combats, amassing large herds of livestock, and by elevating their Notoriety above the other players in the regions of the map.

The game was very interesting and much different than I expected. Lots of great mechanics in play here and the game play is very engaging. We appreciated Ed teaching us and for his evident passion for the time period and subject. More to come on this game later but we most definitely want to play with friends at home.

Tomorrow starts early with a game of Fire in the Lake, several interviews and a late afternoon game of Savannah from GMT Games with designer Mark Miklos. See you tomorrow evening!

-Grant