Back to one of my favourite conventions, still at the Royal Highland Centre next to Edinburgh airport.

This year I found the on-site hotels pretty expensive, so I stayed on the other side of the Forth Bridge in Rosyth. It was about 15-20 minutes' drive each way, but much cheaper.

The main gantry at Rosyth Dockyard, visible from my hotel room window.

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The hidden benefit of the hotel was that it was in the same building as the Rosyth Fish Bar, a good honest local omni-takeaway (fish, pizza, burgers, kebabs, etc.). Here is my haggis calzone. (I think their portion size is based on Wee Jimmy at the dockyard who holds the aircraft carriers together while the other workers weld them.)

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And this is a "small" doner.

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Friday

The hotel itself was decent, though one has to order breakfast rather than having a buffet.

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Gaming began with some Sea Salt & Paper.

Only the most subtle and sophisticated games at this show.

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Then on to Turing Machine

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and a substantial game of Imperium: Horizons (another poor showing for me as Vikings, versus Egyptians and Atlanteans).

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A quick Flip 7 (and I suspect another person who'll buy it), then on to Compile: Main 1. This is clearly the sort of game that needs a lot of play in order for me to get vaguely competent at it, but I find myself enjoying it more than I do most such games.

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Then a surprisingly low-scoring game of Morels in which very little went right.

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Lemminge, easy to teach and good fun.

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Project L, which felt as if it had ended almost before it started.

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A very brief game of Tinderblox Sunset as tired fingers made fumbling easy.

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And finally for the night VOLT,- the first time I've used the Killbots in a face-to-face game. Not too complex to run, and therefore by my lights a good automated opponent.

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Back to the Fish Bar for late supper: red pudding, spring rolls.

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Saturday

The gaming day began with more Morels, then Sea Salt & Paper with the new "Extra Pepper" expansion. This gives a different rule-changing event card per round, then awards it to the player with the highest or lowest score. I suspect I wouldn't teach the game with this to a new player, but it'll probably be in most of my games hereafter.

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A logic puzzle game I haven't played for a while, Turing Machine. I think I have finally found the secret to explaining it, and it is this:

The small Criteria cards (at least numbers 1-25) let you ask one of several questions. For example, card 4 compares yellow-square (the second digit of the solution) with the number 4: you can ask it "is yellow-square less than 4", or "is yellow-square equal to 4", or "is yellow-square grater than 4.

The way you choose which of those questions you're asking is with your input number. If your yellow-square card is 1, 2 or 3, you're selecting "less than 4"; if it is 4, you're selecting "equal to 4"; if 5, "greater than 4".

You're never directly testing whether your number is correct or not; you're just asking that single question. (And once you have learned, for example, that yellow-square is less than 4, there's no point consulting that verifier again; it has no more to tell you.)

The higher-numbered Criteria cards are different; they talk about "a specific" whatever, and in that case only one of the possible whatevers will be relevant. But this will work for the easier cards.

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Onward, in any case, to Steampunk Rally Fusion: Atomic Edition, with a new player who picked things up quickly. (

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One of these days I'll work out how to make a small machine effective. Not today.

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More Imperium: Horizons next…

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as the Great Beetle eats Nunavut.

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and then another game I'm trying to play more, Small Islands. (Which ran to the end; I had a choice on the last turn of ending the game by placing my boat, or playing a tile and letting the stack run out.)

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Always a favourite, Xenon Profiteer.

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A new game to me, Strange World Above the Clouds. It's a tableau builder a little like Pixies: place things next to the right sorts of other thing and try to get points in various ways. (Honestly I suspect I'd rather play Between Two Cities again. Ooh, it's been a while.)

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We finished off the evening with more Flip 7, and more Compile.

Flick Fleet is a very imposing game, and now has the obligatory tentacle aliens, but it's both expensive and space-consuming…

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No Fish Bar tonight; I'd tried one of the food trucks earlier since it's been a long while since I had tacos. It was all right, but nothing special. Should have held out for the fish bar.

Sunday

More Compile with fresher heads this morning.

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Then some more Sea Salt & Paper, and Turing Machine.

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We dragged in another player for Courtisans, and I did terribly.

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More Tinderblox.

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And more Steampunk Rally.

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Another bash at Morels; I think this was the game that went best of the ones I played this weekend.

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More Sea Salt & Paper, with Extra Pepper.

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Amd Small Islands, a very tight game.

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Some more Project L…

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and to finish off, a couple of rounds of Kabuto Sumo.

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Helping a friend shift some boxes. Nothing is too much for the Portable Games Library.

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One last trip to the Fish Bar, a small (!) fish supper and cheesy garlic mushrooms. (The layer of refractory cheese was spread over the top.) Spork for scale.

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Then home, via the Moffat Toffee Shop, and Tebay services for their excellent sausage rolls.