- If a meeple falls in the forest, does it still score 2 points?
- A penny saved is a penny put aside for your next game order.
- Let a smile be your strategy.
- Don’t put off until tomorrow the game you can play today.
- Idle hands means it’s not your turn.
- Look before you leap or you’ll soon fall behind in VPs.
- Fish and visitors stink in three days but some games stink right away.
- He who lives in a glass house has a house-sized display case for his games.
- A fool and his money are soon out of the game.
- Don’t look a gift meeple in the mouth.
- A rolling stone will be chased by the cat and batted under the refrigerator before you can grab it and put it back on the table.
~~~~~~~
O.k., that’s enough of that silly stuff. What’s been on my mind lately?
Quite unexpectedly I find myself curious about other types of war games besides the C&C system. I read the rules for Combat Commander: Europe and followed some threads on BGG. This left me interested but still hesitant. A lot of people are enjoying it very much but when I asked myself what I was really looking for, here’s what I came up with:
1. Freedom. I want the freedom to move whatever units I feel the need to move and attack wherever I feel the urge to attack.
2. Short. I think 2-2 ½ hours is a good length for me and my husband.
3. Rules. I need rules that make sense so that I can remember them instead of constantly looking things up. And preferably without dozens of steps/phases in each turn.
Everything else is up for grabs: minis or counters, hexes or point-to-point, card-driven or not.
Someone pointed out the video of Tide of Iron, which I watched and found interesting enough to follow up on the Geek. A day later, the rules were posted (thank you very much, Fantasy Flight) and I’m totally intrigued by this one. It sounds like it has everything I want and more. Tanks, troop transport, specialized units, three levels of elevation, squad building and transferring men between units. And rules that, for the most part, make sense. Yep, I’m very interested!
So what happens next? The release date gets postponed, of course! Oh, well; that gives me more time to devour the rules and make sure it’s what I really want. You know the old saying: Purchase in haste; repent at leisure.
Mary
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Index for Gone Gaming 08/06 - 01/07
Index for 08/05 - 01/06 can be found here.
Index for 02/06 - 07/06 can be found here.
BGIAs: announcement / nominations / results
A six month index, Aug '06 - Jan '07 (tags are arbitrary and inconsistent):
--
Gone Gaming has been, and remains the foremost board gaming blog. It started with immensely talented people, and though the contributors cycle, there remains equally immensely talented people to carry it on. Any and all of you are also welcome to join the roll, as full time, part time, or occasional contributors.
Thank you Coldfoot for the initial invitation, and to all of my co-bloggers during the last year and a half. Thank you for all the comments.
And with this, I too must take a break from Gone Gaming. I invite all of you to continue to follow my madcap gaming exploits, poems, thoughts, and random humor on my personal blog Yehuda.
Yehuda
Index for 02/06 - 07/06 can be found here.
BGIAs: announcement / nominations / results
A six month index, Aug '06 - Jan '07 (tags are arbitrary and inconsistent):
--
Gone Gaming has been, and remains the foremost board gaming blog. It started with immensely talented people, and though the contributors cycle, there remains equally immensely talented people to carry it on. Any and all of you are also welcome to join the roll, as full time, part time, or occasional contributors.
Thank you Coldfoot for the initial invitation, and to all of my co-bloggers during the last year and a half. Thank you for all the comments.
And with this, I too must take a break from Gone Gaming. I invite all of you to continue to follow my madcap gaming exploits, poems, thoughts, and random humor on my personal blog Yehuda.
Yehuda
Saturday, January 27, 2007
14 days at the beach, 2 children, no television, 10 kid’s books, 53 plays of 16 games, 2 rainy days, 13 books read and a working washing machine.
We just got back from a fortnight (fourteen days or two weeks) at Lorne. The weather was OK, we visited the beach most days, but there were no, what we would call, hot days (35 C or more).
In retrospect we took way too many games (now there’s three words in a row that you will rarely see me use), we only played about half of those that we took with us. Daughter the Elder, eight and half, and Daughter the Younger, almost four, are both avid game players. Both of them wanted to play games and they would demand games often, when they were not demanding trips to the beach or trampolines that is.
Games
In order of appearance the games we played were:
Gulo Gulo
Daughter the Younger is a big fan of this and is very blasé about the way she just grabs eggs from bowl. Her main strategy, which seems to be common amongst three year olds that I know who play this game, is to flip the next tile. Due to her small fingers she can and does win this game against competitive adults. Six plays.
Marrakesh
This is one that Daughter the Younger learnt by osmosis, she is now fully conversant about how to play and will actually choose the red market tiles because they are generally worth more instead of the colour that she likes at the moment. She also understands the how all the tiles work. It’s a game that she and Daughter the Elder can play with one or two adults and no handicapping is required. Four plays.
Blink
Daughter the Elder plays this very fast, if Daughter the Younger is playing we need to play slower or give her less cards. She knows what she is doing, but just doesn’t have the speed of the other family members. Four plays.
Cluedo
We introduced Daughter the Elder to this a few days before we went down to Lorne. She liked it a lot. Initially we introduced a handicap where Melissa and I would wait two turns after we had deduced the answer before making our accusation. After giving her a few tips on what sort of information she would probably want to make detective notes on we have reduced that handicap to one turn and it will probably get dropped entirely in the near future. Daughter the Younger also likes “playing” this. She has her own piece, take her turn and rolls the dice and moves it around the rooms and puts weapons in the room just like the rest of us. It is good, she is pleasantly occupied and involved and the rest of us can play the game. Six plays.
Jambo
Part of Melissa’s Christmas loot, this is the only game that we actually played without children. I quite like it, although my results seem to be progressively deteriorating. Three plays.
Gopher It!
A game that Daughter the Younger will request. She seems to have better luck in the push your luck aspect than adults do, but I am sure this claim would not stand up to scientific investigation. Two plays.
San Juan
Quite often played with Daughter the Elder as a two player before bed game. She is currently favouring the Chapel and does quite well with it too. Four plays.
Connect 4
We had a little travel edition with us this year as Daughter the Younger managed to break Daughter the Elder’s set early last year. The travel set is only five by six instead of seven by six and this seems to have thrown a spanner into Daughter the Elder’s set plays as I managed to beat her three games in a row which is something I have never done with the proper set! Three plays.
Puerto Rico
Daughter the Elder has been bugging us for a long time to let her play this, especially every time she looks at the back of the San Juan box. We relented at Lorne. She has watched us play before and her background in San Juan made her familiar with role selection and the idea of the buildings giving benefits for particular roles. I wouldn’t recommend San Juan as a pre-requisite for Puerto Rico for an adult gamer, but I must admit it was worthwhile for Daughter the Elder. In the first game Melissa and I gave her a lot of tips and general advice and picked on each other instead of her, but the requirement to do this quickly dropped off. She is favouring a colonist strategy with the Hospice and University, which paid off for her in the second game, which she won. We are trying to educate her to the idea that different strategies are sometimes required depending on the situation and also what works one game may not work the next as the other players try something different. For example in our most recent game Melissa and I both went for a shipping strategy. We noticed that three player Puerto Rico is much less cutthroat than four or five players. Neither of us had actually played three player before, we usually play two or five player. In fact two player Puerto Rico is usually our standard two player game down at Lorne, but we didn’t manage a single two player play this year. Four plays.
Frank’s Zoo
For some reason we only seem to play this down at Lorne, we all like it, so should try and get it out at home more often. A full three player game does take over an hour, so possibly that is what is keeping it off the table. Daughter the Elder’s card play strategy is not quite up to that of ours, so we allow her to go out when she has one card left. One play.
Settlers of Catan
We hadn’t played this for about six months, early in the first game Melissa and I were both of the opinion that Daughter the Elder had the game sewn up, she had two cities on good numbers and was rolling in resources. However as the game progressed she concentrated on getting development cards and didn’t build any more settlements for a long time and thus didn’t manage the expected win. So as an educational and intellectual exercise we played twice more using exactly the same board layout and starting positions as the first game. The first game lasted for 89 rolls, the second abnormally short at 45 rolls and the third a more usual 77 rolls. In game three where she did not concentrate on development cards so much, she did achieve a higher score. She still favours ports and cities though. Three plays.
Flix Mix
Daughter the Elder likes this and we sometimes get Melissa to play too. This game seems to be very hard to obtain outside Germany which is a pity, it’s a good family game and more families should be able to easily be exposed to it. Five plays.
Duell
Daughter the Elder is good at this. We usually have to play the full eight rounds to determine the winner. She had the better of me again. One play.
Balloon Cup
Daughter the Elder is an old hand at this, given that she has been playing it since she was five. Another one that I lost :-) One play.
Go Fish
What’s a holiday house without a deck of cards? I don’t think Daughter the Elder and I have played Go Fish since we were down at Lorne last year. Five plays.
Catch the Match
Daughter the Younger still likes this a lot. Simple pattern matching. Two plays.
Books
Read aloud, many, many times, to Daughter the Younger (with BGG style ratings):
Albert Le Blanc – Mark Butterworth (6)
Billy Tibbles Moves Out – Jean Fearnley (7)
Fix It Duck – Jez Alborough (3) [Good cadence, but I dislike the main character immensely]
Oww! – Michael Rosen & Jonathan Langley (7)
Badness for Beginners – Ian Whybrow & Tony Ross (7)
I Want to Be – Tony Ross (8)
If you going walking in Tiger Wood – Alan Durant & Debbie Boon (7)
Zigby Dives In – Brian Peterson (6)
Wilfred to the Rescue – Alan MacDonald (8)
The Hedgehog’s Balloon – Nick Butterworth (7)
Read, not aloud - mostly science fiction or things found at the beach house:
Stiff– Shane Maloney (9)
Trouble with Lichen – John Wyndham (6)
Our Children’s Children – Clifford D Simak (5)
The Autumn Land and other Stories – Clifford D Simak (6)
The Seeds of Time – John Wyndham (7)
The Gray Ghosts of Taylor Ridge – Mary Francis Shura (7)
King Solomon’s Mines (1907 edition)– H Rider Haggard (6)
Nebula Award Stories 9 – Kate Wilhelm ed (8)
Science Fiction: The Great Years – Carol and Frederik Pohl eds (7)
Legacy of Heorot – Niven, Pournelle & Barnes (6)
Radio City the first 30 years of 3RRR– Mark Philips (9)
The Salzburg Connection – Helen MacInnes (6)
Consider Her Ways and Others – John Wyndham (6)
In retrospect we took way too many games (now there’s three words in a row that you will rarely see me use), we only played about half of those that we took with us. Daughter the Elder, eight and half, and Daughter the Younger, almost four, are both avid game players. Both of them wanted to play games and they would demand games often, when they were not demanding trips to the beach or trampolines that is.
Games
In order of appearance the games we played were:
Gulo Gulo
Daughter the Younger is a big fan of this and is very blasé about the way she just grabs eggs from bowl. Her main strategy, which seems to be common amongst three year olds that I know who play this game, is to flip the next tile. Due to her small fingers she can and does win this game against competitive adults. Six plays.
Marrakesh
This is one that Daughter the Younger learnt by osmosis, she is now fully conversant about how to play and will actually choose the red market tiles because they are generally worth more instead of the colour that she likes at the moment. She also understands the how all the tiles work. It’s a game that she and Daughter the Elder can play with one or two adults and no handicapping is required. Four plays.
Blink
Daughter the Elder plays this very fast, if Daughter the Younger is playing we need to play slower or give her less cards. She knows what she is doing, but just doesn’t have the speed of the other family members. Four plays.
Cluedo
We introduced Daughter the Elder to this a few days before we went down to Lorne. She liked it a lot. Initially we introduced a handicap where Melissa and I would wait two turns after we had deduced the answer before making our accusation. After giving her a few tips on what sort of information she would probably want to make detective notes on we have reduced that handicap to one turn and it will probably get dropped entirely in the near future. Daughter the Younger also likes “playing” this. She has her own piece, take her turn and rolls the dice and moves it around the rooms and puts weapons in the room just like the rest of us. It is good, she is pleasantly occupied and involved and the rest of us can play the game. Six plays.
Jambo
Part of Melissa’s Christmas loot, this is the only game that we actually played without children. I quite like it, although my results seem to be progressively deteriorating. Three plays.
Gopher It!
A game that Daughter the Younger will request. She seems to have better luck in the push your luck aspect than adults do, but I am sure this claim would not stand up to scientific investigation. Two plays.
San Juan
Quite often played with Daughter the Elder as a two player before bed game. She is currently favouring the Chapel and does quite well with it too. Four plays.
Connect 4
We had a little travel edition with us this year as Daughter the Younger managed to break Daughter the Elder’s set early last year. The travel set is only five by six instead of seven by six and this seems to have thrown a spanner into Daughter the Elder’s set plays as I managed to beat her three games in a row which is something I have never done with the proper set! Three plays.
Puerto Rico
Daughter the Elder has been bugging us for a long time to let her play this, especially every time she looks at the back of the San Juan box. We relented at Lorne. She has watched us play before and her background in San Juan made her familiar with role selection and the idea of the buildings giving benefits for particular roles. I wouldn’t recommend San Juan as a pre-requisite for Puerto Rico for an adult gamer, but I must admit it was worthwhile for Daughter the Elder. In the first game Melissa and I gave her a lot of tips and general advice and picked on each other instead of her, but the requirement to do this quickly dropped off. She is favouring a colonist strategy with the Hospice and University, which paid off for her in the second game, which she won. We are trying to educate her to the idea that different strategies are sometimes required depending on the situation and also what works one game may not work the next as the other players try something different. For example in our most recent game Melissa and I both went for a shipping strategy. We noticed that three player Puerto Rico is much less cutthroat than four or five players. Neither of us had actually played three player before, we usually play two or five player. In fact two player Puerto Rico is usually our standard two player game down at Lorne, but we didn’t manage a single two player play this year. Four plays.
Frank’s Zoo
For some reason we only seem to play this down at Lorne, we all like it, so should try and get it out at home more often. A full three player game does take over an hour, so possibly that is what is keeping it off the table. Daughter the Elder’s card play strategy is not quite up to that of ours, so we allow her to go out when she has one card left. One play.
Settlers of Catan
We hadn’t played this for about six months, early in the first game Melissa and I were both of the opinion that Daughter the Elder had the game sewn up, she had two cities on good numbers and was rolling in resources. However as the game progressed she concentrated on getting development cards and didn’t build any more settlements for a long time and thus didn’t manage the expected win. So as an educational and intellectual exercise we played twice more using exactly the same board layout and starting positions as the first game. The first game lasted for 89 rolls, the second abnormally short at 45 rolls and the third a more usual 77 rolls. In game three where she did not concentrate on development cards so much, she did achieve a higher score. She still favours ports and cities though. Three plays.
Flix Mix
Daughter the Elder likes this and we sometimes get Melissa to play too. This game seems to be very hard to obtain outside Germany which is a pity, it’s a good family game and more families should be able to easily be exposed to it. Five plays.
Duell
Daughter the Elder is good at this. We usually have to play the full eight rounds to determine the winner. She had the better of me again. One play.
Balloon Cup
Daughter the Elder is an old hand at this, given that she has been playing it since she was five. Another one that I lost :-) One play.
Go Fish
What’s a holiday house without a deck of cards? I don’t think Daughter the Elder and I have played Go Fish since we were down at Lorne last year. Five plays.
Catch the Match
Daughter the Younger still likes this a lot. Simple pattern matching. Two plays.
Books
Read aloud, many, many times, to Daughter the Younger (with BGG style ratings):
Albert Le Blanc – Mark Butterworth (6)
Billy Tibbles Moves Out – Jean Fearnley (7)
Fix It Duck – Jez Alborough (3) [Good cadence, but I dislike the main character immensely]
Oww! – Michael Rosen & Jonathan Langley (7)
Badness for Beginners – Ian Whybrow & Tony Ross (7)
I Want to Be – Tony Ross (8)
If you going walking in Tiger Wood – Alan Durant & Debbie Boon (7)
Zigby Dives In – Brian Peterson (6)
Wilfred to the Rescue – Alan MacDonald (8)
The Hedgehog’s Balloon – Nick Butterworth (7)
Read, not aloud - mostly science fiction or things found at the beach house:
Stiff– Shane Maloney (9)
Trouble with Lichen – John Wyndham (6)
Our Children’s Children – Clifford D Simak (5)
The Autumn Land and other Stories – Clifford D Simak (6)
The Seeds of Time – John Wyndham (7)
The Gray Ghosts of Taylor Ridge – Mary Francis Shura (7)
King Solomon’s Mines (1907 edition)– H Rider Haggard (6)
Nebula Award Stories 9 – Kate Wilhelm ed (8)
Science Fiction: The Great Years – Carol and Frederik Pohl eds (7)
Legacy of Heorot – Niven, Pournelle & Barnes (6)
Radio City the first 30 years of 3RRR– Mark Philips (9)
The Salzburg Connection – Helen MacInnes (6)
Consider Her Ways and Others – John Wyndham (6)
Friday, January 26, 2007
Complexity in the Galaxy
I recently checked out a news item on Comsimworld that announced that a gentleman named Charles Duke had designed a galactic empire game called Down with the Empire. From the description, Down with the Empire sounded a lot like Freedom and the Galaxy (designed by John Butterfield and Howard Barasch in 1979), the old SPI game which was an homage (ripoff) off the Star Wars movies.
I own Freedom in the Galaxy, but the game always seemed more fun in theory than in practice. How could anyone but an oh-so-serious grognard resist the theme? Lead an array of cute and wacky characters as they rebel against an evil Galactic Empire. Or direct the forces of oppression and treachery as they blow up whole planets in their dread quest to stamp out the fires of interstellar freedom. Old fashioned space opera turned into a strategy game. Great stuff—at least potentially.
But Freedom in the Galaxy always seemed to me to be a sad mismatch between theme and design. The theme seemed to be crying out for a beer-and-pretzels game that players could play in one sitting (maybe a very long sitting, but still…). Instead, SPI gave the gaming world an intricate simulation with a playing time estimated at ten to twenty hours or more (I’ve never finished a game). The art work was appealingly comic book, but the actual design seemed aimed more at lovers of Highway to the Reich than gamers who were looking for something only twice as complicated as Axis & Allies. Although some people were enthusiastic about the game (and it was reprinted by Avalon Hill), I always thought that SPI missed a great opportunity by not designing a space opera game that was more accessible to the casual gamer.
So it was not bad news to me that Down with the Empire seemed to be a game in the same ballpark as Freedom in the Galaxy. It’s not as if we have a whole lot of popular space games. Fantasy Flight’s Twilight Imperium 3rd edition seems to be the reigning galactic monarch, and there don’t seem to be many successors on the horizon.
I followed the links to the Dan Verssen website and learned that Down with the Empire can be bought as either a vassal download game, or as a pdf make-it-yourself game. Either version costs $20. Not bad, if you don’t mind playing on your computer, or cutting and pasting all the maps and counters that are required.
And I saw that the rules could be downloaded for free. This is always a good sign. It’s almost like being able to test drive a car before buying. After downloading I saw that the rules ran 82 pages. Well, actually, 82 pages of rules and another 30 pages or more of appendices and designers notes.
Even a quick scan of the rules revealed that Down with the Empire seemed to be a do-over of Freedom in the Galaxy. The characters perform lots of the same missions, right down to the prisoner interrogation mission. There is a secret rebel base and an Imperial planet-destroying mega-weapon. Down with the Empire seems to be Mr. Duke’s attempt to get Freedom in the Galaxy right.
Well, more than once have I found myself wishing that someone would re-design some games that are a near miss. And this re-design impulse can certainly lead to some good games. Ed Beach’s appreciation for the flawed A Mighty Fortress led him to design Here I Stand. I can’t comment on the quality of Down with the Empire because I haven’t played it, but it looks to be a labor of love. Quick rip-off games don’t have rule books that are 80 plus pages of double-column small type. There may be sci-fi gamers who end up being profoundly grateful to Charles Duke for giving them an alternative to Freedom in the Galaxy.
But why did it have to be more complex than the original? (Mr. Duke might answer: “To squeeze in all the things I thought should be there.”) The Appalachian Gamers had trouble with the 40 or so pages of Here I Stand; I wouldn’t be so foolish as to try to sell them on the complexities of Down with the Empire.
The gaming community doesn’t desperately need another Star Wars-type game anymore than it needs another Lord of the Rings game. But if Lucasfilm were to try to create a new Star Wars strategy game aimed at the same gamer audience that made War of the Ring a success, I would hope the game would have roughly the same complexity as War of the Ring. There is a huge gap on the complexity spectrum between Star Wars Risk and Freedom in the Galaxy, and maybe someday it will be filled.
Meanwhile, those gamers with a love of space opera who have a higher tolerance for complex rules than yours truly might want to check out Down with the Empire (www.dvg.com).
I own Freedom in the Galaxy, but the game always seemed more fun in theory than in practice. How could anyone but an oh-so-serious grognard resist the theme? Lead an array of cute and wacky characters as they rebel against an evil Galactic Empire. Or direct the forces of oppression and treachery as they blow up whole planets in their dread quest to stamp out the fires of interstellar freedom. Old fashioned space opera turned into a strategy game. Great stuff—at least potentially.
But Freedom in the Galaxy always seemed to me to be a sad mismatch between theme and design. The theme seemed to be crying out for a beer-and-pretzels game that players could play in one sitting (maybe a very long sitting, but still…). Instead, SPI gave the gaming world an intricate simulation with a playing time estimated at ten to twenty hours or more (I’ve never finished a game). The art work was appealingly comic book, but the actual design seemed aimed more at lovers of Highway to the Reich than gamers who were looking for something only twice as complicated as Axis & Allies. Although some people were enthusiastic about the game (and it was reprinted by Avalon Hill), I always thought that SPI missed a great opportunity by not designing a space opera game that was more accessible to the casual gamer.
So it was not bad news to me that Down with the Empire seemed to be a game in the same ballpark as Freedom in the Galaxy. It’s not as if we have a whole lot of popular space games. Fantasy Flight’s Twilight Imperium 3rd edition seems to be the reigning galactic monarch, and there don’t seem to be many successors on the horizon.
I followed the links to the Dan Verssen website and learned that Down with the Empire can be bought as either a vassal download game, or as a pdf make-it-yourself game. Either version costs $20. Not bad, if you don’t mind playing on your computer, or cutting and pasting all the maps and counters that are required.
And I saw that the rules could be downloaded for free. This is always a good sign. It’s almost like being able to test drive a car before buying. After downloading I saw that the rules ran 82 pages. Well, actually, 82 pages of rules and another 30 pages or more of appendices and designers notes.
Even a quick scan of the rules revealed that Down with the Empire seemed to be a do-over of Freedom in the Galaxy. The characters perform lots of the same missions, right down to the prisoner interrogation mission. There is a secret rebel base and an Imperial planet-destroying mega-weapon. Down with the Empire seems to be Mr. Duke’s attempt to get Freedom in the Galaxy right.
Well, more than once have I found myself wishing that someone would re-design some games that are a near miss. And this re-design impulse can certainly lead to some good games. Ed Beach’s appreciation for the flawed A Mighty Fortress led him to design Here I Stand. I can’t comment on the quality of Down with the Empire because I haven’t played it, but it looks to be a labor of love. Quick rip-off games don’t have rule books that are 80 plus pages of double-column small type. There may be sci-fi gamers who end up being profoundly grateful to Charles Duke for giving them an alternative to Freedom in the Galaxy.
But why did it have to be more complex than the original? (Mr. Duke might answer: “To squeeze in all the things I thought should be there.”) The Appalachian Gamers had trouble with the 40 or so pages of Here I Stand; I wouldn’t be so foolish as to try to sell them on the complexities of Down with the Empire.
The gaming community doesn’t desperately need another Star Wars-type game anymore than it needs another Lord of the Rings game. But if Lucasfilm were to try to create a new Star Wars strategy game aimed at the same gamer audience that made War of the Ring a success, I would hope the game would have roughly the same complexity as War of the Ring. There is a huge gap on the complexity spectrum between Star Wars Risk and Freedom in the Galaxy, and maybe someday it will be filled.
Meanwhile, those gamers with a love of space opera who have a higher tolerance for complex rules than yours truly might want to check out Down with the Empire (www.dvg.com).
Thursday, January 25, 2007
The News in Thongs / Old Puzzler / New Fortnightly Puzzler
The News in Briefs will be replaced today with the News in Thongs. This is due in large part to my overall obliviousness of today's date and its implications with regards to my writing this column.
Ahem.
I woke up today at 8:30am, ate the breakfast that Annie had made for me (cereal, bananas), and walked to work. On the way, I read Gandhi's autobiography and realized that he too was totally lost in his twenties. I got to World Games of Montana, opened it up, and did a few chores around the store. I then ate lunch and read The Order of the Stick (www.giantitp.com) web comics. Holy geez. This is one funny strip. And, yes, it seems I bounce from genre to genre, from serenity to stupidity. But I ask: how is this different from anything else in this twisted life? I finished lunch and worked on a new game which is rapidly turning into a kind of maze. I'll just go where it takes me. I rearranged part of the store (much better now), cleaned it, and when Jonathan relieved me from duty, went off into
***********************************************************************
The News in Thongs is real. Anyone offended by my mundane life should
really appraise their own mundane life.
***********************************************************************
***********************************************************************
Old Puzzler
Q: What's the worst opening move in a 1 through 9 Shut-The-Box if any first roll is possible?
A: Best I can tell, it's rolling a 12 and knocking down 1, 2, 3, and 6. This increases the likelihood of failure to 11 over 36 (that is, 36 possible dice combinations).
***********************************************************************
New Fortnightly Puzzler
What pronoun (pronoun in this case is meant to encompass every possible variation, not just the personal pronouns) is also a group that people tend to fear?
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
The Gone Gaming 2006 Board Game Internet Awards
The Gone Gaming: Board Game Internet Awards results are in. A big thank you to the tireless staff at Gone Gaming for their work in selecting the winners, and especially to Shannon for tabulating the votes and creating the award images.If your site has won, you may display the "Winner" image here on your site with a link to this post's URL or the main Gone Gaming URL.
Here are the results:
Best game resource site
Winner: Board Game Geek
Surely no surprise to anyone, Board Game Geek is the behemoth of board game websites, with information on over 27,000 games, hundreds of thousands of registered users, and everything from player aids to online contests. Scott Alden, Head Geek, quit his job at the beginning of 2006 to run the site full time, and this year saw many new improvements and features to the site.
Having won two years in a row, Board Game Geek becomes our first Hall of Fame winner, and will be ineligible for this category next year.
Runner Up: Bruno Faidutti
Best publisher site
Winner: Days of Wonder
For the second year, Days of Wonder wins this award for providing a user-friendly all-comprehensive site with everything that anyone could want, from rules, to forums, to online play.
Days of Wonder is our Hall of Fame winner in this category, and will be ineligible next year.
Runner Up: Fantasy Flight Games
Best game club site
Winner: East Tennessee Gamers
Once again we pick Greg Schloesser's East Tennessee Gamers club site for it's clear navigation, rich session reports, complete bios, and other game information.
East Tennessee Gamers is our Hall of Fame pick for this category and will be ineligible next year.
Runner Up: Long Island Boardgaming Organization
Best online magazine
Winner: INDEPTH
INDEPTH is a complete full-color monthly magazine full of session reports, reviews, product information, and bonuses galore, and is our pick for best magazine or journal.
There is no Runner Up in this category.
Best online gaming site
Winner: SpielByWeb
SpielByWeb continues to be an easy-to-use online gaming site with great games and no problems.
SpielByWeb is our Hall of Fame pick for this category and will be ineligible next year.
Runner Up: BrettspielWelt
Best blog
This year's winner was a tie vote.
Winner: Gathering of Engineers
Sadly ending mid-year, Gathering of Engineers was a joint blog with weekly discussion topics by some of the best game bloggers. Lucky for use, some of these bloggers continue to write elsewhere on the web.
Winner: NYC Gamer
NYC Gamer has a rich gathering of reports, reviews, analysis, and interesting writing. It jointly earns the win in this category.
Best podcast/videocast
Winner: Board Games With Scott
BGWS sneaked in with a win at the end of last year, but this year really came into its own, with useful, humorous, and fluid videos about games.
Board Games With Scott is our Hall of Fame pick for this category and will be ineligible next year.
Runner Up: The Dice Tower
Best new site (2006)
Winner: Mike Doyle's Art Play
Mike Doyle's Art Play is not only a unique blog about art and form in board game design, but an incredible gallery of his unique and beautiful designs and redesigns for existing board games.
Runner Up: Journal of Boardgame Design
Best strategy article (2006)
Winner: The Tao of Gaming: Six thousand words about Caylus
A huge, comprehensive, and enjoyable strategy guide to the year's hottest heavy Euro-game.
There is no Runner Up in this category.
Best review article (2006)
Winner: Board Game Geek (Tom Rosen): Carcassonne as heavy as Tigris and Caylus?!
Tom writes a clear and useful review of one of the core games of the decade, along with two of its expansions. With pictures.
Runner Up: Board Game Geek (Tom Rosen): Power Grid – Friese’s Fiddly Funkenschlag Flop
Best session report (2006)
Winner: Board Game Geek (Diane Close) : How To Play Doom Like A Girl!
A surreal, humorous, and engaging first play of Doom by a woman who would prefer to go to sleep.
Runner Up: Board Game Geek (Tom Rosen): Pappenheimer Surprise
Best industry article (2006)
Winner: Chris Farrell: Here I Stand, and big decks
A thorough and interesting analysis of the effects on a card-driven war game by varying the size of the decks.
Runner Up: Boardgamers' Pastime: Fill in the Blank
Runner Up: My Play: An Introduction to Elegance
Best humorous article (2006)
Winner: Board Game Geek (Diane Close) : How To Play Doom Like A Girl!
I didn't forget to mention humorous, did I? Diane wins again for this great session report.
Runner Up: Gamer's Mind: Meeting of the Minds
Best article series (2006)
Winner: Board Game News (Jeff Allers): Postcards From Berlin
Jeff Allers writes from a unique perspective about what it's like to live and game as an American in Berlin.
Runner Up: Board Game Babylon: The Demise and Rise of the FLGS
Best downloadable board game
Winner: Scott: Pocket Civ
What more could you ask for than a portable pocket-sized game of Civilization? Thanks, Scott!
Runner Up: Axis and Allies.org: Axis & Allies Revised Historical Edition
Congratulations to all the winners and runners up. And thanks again to all of our readers for participating in the nominations.
The Gone Gaming Staff
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Spread the Joy
For most of my life, I have been the preeminent “gaming guru” of my social circle. That doesn’t mean I’m the best player, but it does mean I’m the most enthusiastic about games. There are many advantages to being the local guru, as I tend to be the game supplier on any given gaming night I can be sure to bring games that I want to play. This also means I tend to be the game teacher, so have a slight leg up on the competition as I’ve spent more time thinking about a game before it comes to the table for the first time. However, there are some drawbacks. As the designated guru, it falls upon me to find the next interesting game. Now, this isn’t too bad as I enjoy spending some of my time researching new games on the internet and trying to calculate if it is a game that I would enjoy and would be one that could be brought to the table for playing. Any hardcore game fan will realize both of those conditions are necessary for a good game. It doesn’t matter how much I think I will like a game if I won’t be able to ever arrange a time and a place to play it. The biggest drawback comes in as the supplier of boardgames. While it is nice to have a bit more control over what gets played on any given evening, it also means that if I don’t own a game and can’t afford adding it to my collection, I just won’t ever get to play it. This also means I tend to never get to play some of the older classics, as I typically have my eye on the newest and brightest stars on the horizon and don’t have the cash to go back and pick up some of the older “classics”.
With the creation of a regular gaming group over the summer, I have found myself with an excellent opportunity to observe the birth and growth of several new gamers as they enter the fold of full-fledged gaming enthusiasts. After several months of playing games primarily from my collection, the Christmas season hit and a wealth of games has entered into the homes of members of our gaming group. In fact, one has even gone so far as to try to establish a definitive beginner collection of boardgames. You can read his thoughts over at a very well-thought out GeekList at the boardgame geek: Starting Your Game Collection - A Guide for Advanced Newbies . Not only do I now have access to several titles that I have never played before, but I have a real paternal sense of having brought a new gamer into the fold. Introducing folks to boardgaming is always fun for me as it brings me new opponents and thus more opportunities for gaming, but in the case of our fledgling gaming group, I feel as if I got to watch the entire life cycle of a gamer unfold. First there was the wonder and enjoyment of finding out about “these games of ours”, next came a hunger for testing the waters of various new games combined with a desire to give a few select games a really good work-over to explore their depth. We’ve now reached the final stage of acquiring and establishing a game collection so that they can independently propagate the joys of gaming.
Everyone have a virtual cigar, on me!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Recent games played:
With the second edition/printing of Twilight Struggle by GMT Games I’ve finally had the chance to give the game a try. Surprisingly, it was actually a pretty good hit with my wife. While she is highly intelligent (being a physics professor and all), she is not much of a game fan and typically plays only to spend more time with me (isn’t she so nice). While one might thing a quasi-wargame based on the cold war wouldn’t be the ticket to draw her in, she actually enjoyed the game quite a bit despite falling behind early and never being able to catch up. I attribute this to two main reasons. First, even though she was behind on points, there was always something for her to do. Just because I had more points didn’t mean she wasn’t able to significantly affect positions on the board. In fact, due to the way some of the cards work a player who is behind will often get a greater benefit from card events than if they were ahead. Secondly, the game is highly historical. Both my wife and I enjoy learning just about anything and taking a stroll down recent historical events in the last century was a blast. The rules thankfully have a short paragraph explaining the event(s) associated with each card, giving players a handy resource to learn more about that interesting era.
My only beef with the game comes in the randomness. There are die rolls that can really make or break you, but typically only affect things in the short term and they tend to average out over time. A larger problem was if one player was dealt less valuable cards (values of all 1’s and 2’s with no cards worth 3 or 4) for an entire hand. That meant an entire hand of cards could go by while one player felt rather impotent to significantly change their position on the game board.
On the whole, we both enjoyed the game and look forward to future plays. I am anxious to show it off to the social studies teachers at our local high school where I teach. I can see why the game won several awards last year.
With the creation of a regular gaming group over the summer, I have found myself with an excellent opportunity to observe the birth and growth of several new gamers as they enter the fold of full-fledged gaming enthusiasts. After several months of playing games primarily from my collection, the Christmas season hit and a wealth of games has entered into the homes of members of our gaming group. In fact, one has even gone so far as to try to establish a definitive beginner collection of boardgames. You can read his thoughts over at a very well-thought out GeekList at the boardgame geek: Starting Your Game Collection - A Guide for Advanced Newbies . Not only do I now have access to several titles that I have never played before, but I have a real paternal sense of having brought a new gamer into the fold. Introducing folks to boardgaming is always fun for me as it brings me new opponents and thus more opportunities for gaming, but in the case of our fledgling gaming group, I feel as if I got to watch the entire life cycle of a gamer unfold. First there was the wonder and enjoyment of finding out about “these games of ours”, next came a hunger for testing the waters of various new games combined with a desire to give a few select games a really good work-over to explore their depth. We’ve now reached the final stage of acquiring and establishing a game collection so that they can independently propagate the joys of gaming.
Everyone have a virtual cigar, on me!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Recent games played:
With the second edition/printing of Twilight Struggle by GMT Games I’ve finally had the chance to give the game a try. Surprisingly, it was actually a pretty good hit with my wife. While she is highly intelligent (being a physics professor and all), she is not much of a game fan and typically plays only to spend more time with me (isn’t she so nice). While one might thing a quasi-wargame based on the cold war wouldn’t be the ticket to draw her in, she actually enjoyed the game quite a bit despite falling behind early and never being able to catch up. I attribute this to two main reasons. First, even though she was behind on points, there was always something for her to do. Just because I had more points didn’t mean she wasn’t able to significantly affect positions on the board. In fact, due to the way some of the cards work a player who is behind will often get a greater benefit from card events than if they were ahead. Secondly, the game is highly historical. Both my wife and I enjoy learning just about anything and taking a stroll down recent historical events in the last century was a blast. The rules thankfully have a short paragraph explaining the event(s) associated with each card, giving players a handy resource to learn more about that interesting era.
My only beef with the game comes in the randomness. There are die rolls that can really make or break you, but typically only affect things in the short term and they tend to average out over time. A larger problem was if one player was dealt less valuable cards (values of all 1’s and 2’s with no cards worth 3 or 4) for an entire hand. That meant an entire hand of cards could go by while one player felt rather impotent to significantly change their position on the game board.
On the whole, we both enjoyed the game and look forward to future plays. I am anxious to show it off to the social studies teachers at our local high school where I teach. I can see why the game won several awards last year.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
What would Buffy do?
What Would Buffy do?
It may not be a thought to live your life by, but it's one of those vexing questions that has been known to trouble me in the early hours of the morning, especially at the beach, where my life is ruled by the trivial: What boardgames would the fictional characters in your life enjoy?
Of the Buffy crew, Jonathan would play the Buffy game with a custom Jonathan figure. Xander would be more a Finstere Flure kind of guy, and Giles would have a secret collection of some sort of collectible game like Creepy Freaks (but he would only play it by himself when no-one was looking). Buffy would prefer something like California, I should think.
I think the cast of Coupling would enjoy Bausack. Patrick would get all the really BIG bits, Jane would build her own tower, and Susan would win and try (unsuccessfully) not to look smug. If we were really lucky, the losers would do the Spiderman dance when they finished. For Sally, we could retheme Arkham Horror as a fight against old age and sagginess.
The cast of that really bad DaVinci Code-esque archaeology show with the Philiminator look-alike would play Mystery of the Abbey, I'm sure. They'd probably study the cards for hidden messages.
As for the kids' shows, well Bob the Builder and his gang would surely enjoy a good game of Make'n'Break. And the colourful Wiggles and their pre-school audience seem perfectly suited to Gulo Gulo - now there's a marketing opportunity!
We already know that the Desperate Housewives play Poker when they are all together, but what about other times? I think Edie would be a shark at Acquire, and Susan and her daughter probably play Carcassonne. Lynnette and Tom would play some really evil 2-player game where they could pick on each other ruthlessly.
The cast of Lost are trickier to settle. We know that Locke plays wargames (I'm thinking, block wargames or those older ones like World in Europe or Campaign for North Africa that take nearly a week just to set up but Fraser says he would prefer Axis & Allies or another miniatures game). Jack would probably enjoy a game with a physical component like Dart Wars; Kate would be a shark at Tichu; Charlie might enjoy Schrille Stille; Hurley strikes me as someone who would love a good round of Diamant; and Sawyer, we know, goes for gambling and bluffing - he might be a natural at something like Can't Stop.
On Battlestar Galactica, I reckon they play Settlers of Catan. Starbuck picks on Apollo relentlessly (and vice versa), but, depending on where they're at in the storyline, they vary between helping the other win rather than letting anyone else get to 10VP first, and ruthlessly kingmaking to block the other's victory.
And Captain Jack Harkness? Chrononauts, for sure.
-------
It's raining at the beach today, so we should get a fair bit of gaming in. So far, I'm averaging just under 3 games a day. The winners (by a country mile) are Gulo Gulo and Cluedo.
See you next time!
xx
Melissa
It may not be a thought to live your life by, but it's one of those vexing questions that has been known to trouble me in the early hours of the morning, especially at the beach, where my life is ruled by the trivial: What boardgames would the fictional characters in your life enjoy?
Of the Buffy crew, Jonathan would play the Buffy game with a custom Jonathan figure. Xander would be more a Finstere Flure kind of guy, and Giles would have a secret collection of some sort of collectible game like Creepy Freaks (but he would only play it by himself when no-one was looking). Buffy would prefer something like California, I should think.
I think the cast of Coupling would enjoy Bausack. Patrick would get all the really BIG bits, Jane would build her own tower, and Susan would win and try (unsuccessfully) not to look smug. If we were really lucky, the losers would do the Spiderman dance when they finished. For Sally, we could retheme Arkham Horror as a fight against old age and sagginess.
The cast of that really bad DaVinci Code-esque archaeology show with the Philiminator look-alike would play Mystery of the Abbey, I'm sure. They'd probably study the cards for hidden messages.
As for the kids' shows, well Bob the Builder and his gang would surely enjoy a good game of Make'n'Break. And the colourful Wiggles and their pre-school audience seem perfectly suited to Gulo Gulo - now there's a marketing opportunity!
We already know that the Desperate Housewives play Poker when they are all together, but what about other times? I think Edie would be a shark at Acquire, and Susan and her daughter probably play Carcassonne. Lynnette and Tom would play some really evil 2-player game where they could pick on each other ruthlessly.
The cast of Lost are trickier to settle. We know that Locke plays wargames (I'm thinking, block wargames or those older ones like World in Europe or Campaign for North Africa that take nearly a week just to set up but Fraser says he would prefer Axis & Allies or another miniatures game). Jack would probably enjoy a game with a physical component like Dart Wars; Kate would be a shark at Tichu; Charlie might enjoy Schrille Stille; Hurley strikes me as someone who would love a good round of Diamant; and Sawyer, we know, goes for gambling and bluffing - he might be a natural at something like Can't Stop.
On Battlestar Galactica, I reckon they play Settlers of Catan. Starbuck picks on Apollo relentlessly (and vice versa), but, depending on where they're at in the storyline, they vary between helping the other win rather than letting anyone else get to 10VP first, and ruthlessly kingmaking to block the other's victory.
And Captain Jack Harkness? Chrononauts, for sure.
-------
It's raining at the beach today, so we should get a fair bit of gaming in. So far, I'm averaging just under 3 games a day. The winners (by a country mile) are Gulo Gulo and Cluedo.
See you next time!
xx
Melissa
Friday, January 19, 2007
Investor Wargames
The Appalachian Gamers played Britannia last weekend, and while we all enjoyed ourselves, when we next met, some of us talked about how unenthusiastic we were about the game once we had some perspective on it. There seemed to be few interesting decisions in Britannia; the game lists which territories provide each tribe with the most victory points, and so each player’s course of action is programmed into the game. This might have been alright if the game had a complex combat system or a production system in which a player chooses which type of unit to create. But combat in Britannia is plain vanilla die-rolling, and only a couple of nations have anything other than simple infantry units.
For us, Britannia pales when compared with two new sophisticated euro-wargame hybrids that share similar mechanisms: Perikles and Imperial. Both Perikles and Imperial are what I call investor wargames because players are not assigned nations or forces at the start of the game. Instead, players use mechanisms to gain influence over nations in the game, and they only control armies once their influence dominates a particular nation. Control of nations can shift during the game, and the games treat nations like companies that players can invest in to get a payoff.
Perikles is Martin Wallace game, and it is a rather abstract version of the Peloponnesian War that is played in three turns. Each turn, players place influence markers in various Greek city-states. Once leadership in each city has been determined, some random tiles are drawn that represent contested areas in the war. Players then use the armies they control to attack or defend these tiles in order to get victory points. In the subsequent round, leadership of each city-state is likely to shift, although players still have a sort of investment in the success of cities they have once led. Perikles has a mounted game board, but it is not a map. Armies do not maneuver; they are simply placed on opposite sides of contested tiles.
At first glance, Imperial (from Mac Gerdts who also designed Antike) looks like a conventional wargame, or maybe a redesign of Diplomacy. The mapboard shows Europe and North Africa in the pre-World War I era divided up into six super-power nations and several smaller countries that are available for conquest. Players represent international financiers who loan money to the super-powers, and who then take control of the nations where they are the biggest investor. A rondel gives players a choice of actions that can be taken each turn; the main choices are production of armies and navies, maneuver, taxation, and investor payout. Nations that grow and conquer gain power points that increase the value of investments in these nations.
The Appalachian Gamers played Perikles a couple of weeks ago, and we played our first game of Imperial on Wednesday of this week. (For Imperial, we used a much-discussed variant I spotted on the Boardgamegeek that gives any player who doesn’t control a nation one million dollars when the Investor card is activated. This variant makes it less likely that a player will be stuck without control of a nation for long periods of game time. I recommend it). Reaction to both games was positive, although Imperial garnered the most praise. I can’t remember when our group has responded so enthusiastically to a game. In spite of my dismal performance in Imperial (I came in dead last in a six player game) I enjoyed Imperial immensely, and it may become one of my favorite games.
How do Imperial and Perikles differ? Possibly the biggest difference is that Imperial is a luckless game with no dice and no cards and with perfect information available at all time, while Perikles has a good amount of randomness built in, and hidden placement of armies. Gamers who prefer to avoid luck-factor games will enjoy Imperial more than Perikles.
For me, another thing that Imperial has in its favor is the conventional map board and standard army units. It looks and feels more like a wargame without the complexity that usually drives euro-gamers away from wargames (in combat, units simply eliminate each other in mutual destruction on a one-to-one basis). This is not to say that conventional wargame tactics are the path to victory in Imperial. My attempt to use to the might of the British navy to conquer the northwest corner of the board wasted huge amounts of time and resources while other nations used taxation to gain the power points that made their nations triumph.
Although some of the gamers in my group may prefer Imperial to Perikles, I’m not going to claim that Imperial is a better game. At least one member of our group said that he liked Perikles more, and it is possible that even those who liked Imperial more may be expressing a slight preference, not a large one. Ted Cheatham said that Perikles reminded him of Liberte, another Martin Wallace design, in that he finds it hard to devise a strategy in a game where armies or political parties shift from one player to another. But this very difficulty may appeal to gamers who enjoy the challenge of games with depth.
In one of my first essays for Gone Gaming, I wrote how the blending of wargames and euro-games are resulting in interesting hybrids. I think that both Perikles and Imperial are good examples of this trend. I hope that more designers will go down this road. I hope that Perikles and Imperial are merely the vanguard of an approaching army of interesting hybrid wargames.
For us, Britannia pales when compared with two new sophisticated euro-wargame hybrids that share similar mechanisms: Perikles and Imperial. Both Perikles and Imperial are what I call investor wargames because players are not assigned nations or forces at the start of the game. Instead, players use mechanisms to gain influence over nations in the game, and they only control armies once their influence dominates a particular nation. Control of nations can shift during the game, and the games treat nations like companies that players can invest in to get a payoff.
Perikles is Martin Wallace game, and it is a rather abstract version of the Peloponnesian War that is played in three turns. Each turn, players place influence markers in various Greek city-states. Once leadership in each city has been determined, some random tiles are drawn that represent contested areas in the war. Players then use the armies they control to attack or defend these tiles in order to get victory points. In the subsequent round, leadership of each city-state is likely to shift, although players still have a sort of investment in the success of cities they have once led. Perikles has a mounted game board, but it is not a map. Armies do not maneuver; they are simply placed on opposite sides of contested tiles.
At first glance, Imperial (from Mac Gerdts who also designed Antike) looks like a conventional wargame, or maybe a redesign of Diplomacy. The mapboard shows Europe and North Africa in the pre-World War I era divided up into six super-power nations and several smaller countries that are available for conquest. Players represent international financiers who loan money to the super-powers, and who then take control of the nations where they are the biggest investor. A rondel gives players a choice of actions that can be taken each turn; the main choices are production of armies and navies, maneuver, taxation, and investor payout. Nations that grow and conquer gain power points that increase the value of investments in these nations.
The Appalachian Gamers played Perikles a couple of weeks ago, and we played our first game of Imperial on Wednesday of this week. (For Imperial, we used a much-discussed variant I spotted on the Boardgamegeek that gives any player who doesn’t control a nation one million dollars when the Investor card is activated. This variant makes it less likely that a player will be stuck without control of a nation for long periods of game time. I recommend it). Reaction to both games was positive, although Imperial garnered the most praise. I can’t remember when our group has responded so enthusiastically to a game. In spite of my dismal performance in Imperial (I came in dead last in a six player game) I enjoyed Imperial immensely, and it may become one of my favorite games.
How do Imperial and Perikles differ? Possibly the biggest difference is that Imperial is a luckless game with no dice and no cards and with perfect information available at all time, while Perikles has a good amount of randomness built in, and hidden placement of armies. Gamers who prefer to avoid luck-factor games will enjoy Imperial more than Perikles.
For me, another thing that Imperial has in its favor is the conventional map board and standard army units. It looks and feels more like a wargame without the complexity that usually drives euro-gamers away from wargames (in combat, units simply eliminate each other in mutual destruction on a one-to-one basis). This is not to say that conventional wargame tactics are the path to victory in Imperial. My attempt to use to the might of the British navy to conquer the northwest corner of the board wasted huge amounts of time and resources while other nations used taxation to gain the power points that made their nations triumph.
Although some of the gamers in my group may prefer Imperial to Perikles, I’m not going to claim that Imperial is a better game. At least one member of our group said that he liked Perikles more, and it is possible that even those who liked Imperial more may be expressing a slight preference, not a large one. Ted Cheatham said that Perikles reminded him of Liberte, another Martin Wallace design, in that he finds it hard to devise a strategy in a game where armies or political parties shift from one player to another. But this very difficulty may appeal to gamers who enjoy the challenge of games with depth.
In one of my first essays for Gone Gaming, I wrote how the blending of wargames and euro-games are resulting in interesting hybrids. I think that both Perikles and Imperial are good examples of this trend. I hope that more designers will go down this road. I hope that Perikles and Imperial are merely the vanguard of an approaching army of interesting hybrid wargames.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Last Season's Hot Games: A Top Ten (or so) from Nurnberg 2006
Last year I posted a list of ten games worth watching from Nurnberg '06. I'd been hoping to post some followup on all ten games to talk about what was good and what wasn't, but it took forever for the Nurnberg games to actually hit the U.S. shores, and to date there's still a few that I haven't gotten to play.But, before the next Nurnberg rolls around I wanted to post my notes on the 8 games that I had gotten to try out. So: Nurnberg 2006. Some of these games are a bit old by now, but they nonetheless represent some of the more interesting games of last year, and if you haven't tried them out yet, here's some more info.
#1: Blue Moon City (A)
My Thoughts: Review (11/06)
Authors: Reiner Knizia
Synopsis: card management, city development, majority control
Background: Blue Moon City, after the war
U.S. Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
I was expecting to like Blue Moon City, and I wasn't disappointed. It's an interesting Knizian resource-management game that doesn't have quite the weight of his classics, like T&E and Samurai, but is nonetheless one of the deepest games he's released in the last few years (up there with Beowulf and before that Amun-Re).
You're constantly managing a hand of cards that you can alternatively use to build up Blue Moon City or to take advantage of certain special powers. At the same time you're trying to manage the topography of the board (because your limited movement always seems to result in you being opposite where you want to be) and the limited resource of time. There's a lot of thoughts, and a lot of tactics, but not too much of each either.
By the by, if it weren't obvious the mechanics have nothing to do with the Blue Moon card game.
The theming, on the other hand, does, and it's wonderful. You get beautiful cards because of all of the art already being produced for the card game. Further, you get to see the return of the various Blue Moon races, each of which has a special power which is reminiscent of how they were portrayed in the original, but not the exact same thing.
I'd originally ranked this below Thurn and Taxis, which you'll find next, but I think it stands up better to long-term play. Strategies are more different from game to game, and more dependent upon board positioning and how other players interact, thus giving the game more staying power.
This is a strong Knizian release; what more need be said?
#2: Thurn & Taxis (A)
My Thoughts: Just this article.
Authors: Andreas Seyfarth & Karen Seyfarth
Synopsis: connectivity, set collection
Background: Germany, recent centuries
U.S. Publisher: Rio Grande Games
I had really high hopes for Thurn & Taxis. Much as with last year's Around the World in 80 Days I really wanted it to be another Ticket to Ride. Around the World with 80 Days was an entirely fine game, but without the tension needed to get it to the table. This one, however, it's a contender, and thus one of my top rated games from last year's Nurnberg.
T&T has a simple set of mechanisms. You're trying to create long routes by collecting cards, and you're doing so in such a way as to get to place houses in certain cities, and thus gain bonus points for placing everywhere in a region (or in each region). For an additional factor there are also four roles, which basically act as resources because you only get to use one each turn to give you a slight edge.
As with any truly good game there's a set of choices that are constantly in contention. Do you build long for quick bonuses or short to get more houses out? There's also some great tactical management as each turn you figure out how to make the best use of various limited resources (those roles, your cards, what you can keep in your hand, etc).
T&T isn't quite as deep Ticket to Ride because there's not such a wide-open variety of choice. In TtR you'll often ignore some fraction of the board each game, while in T&T you usually have paid attention to most of it by the time the games over. However, it's a lot deeper than Around the World was, and like both it's got the same strengths of good cardplay, a bit of press your luck, and some interesting and at-odds resource management.
With time this game has faded a little bit, because of that lack of depth, but it's still a top contender from last year, and well deserving of its awards.
#3: Ticket to Ride: Marklin Edition (A)
My Thoughts: Review (03/06)
Authors: Alan R. Moon
Synopsis: connectivity, delivery, set-collection
Background: Germany, recent centuries
U.S. Publisher: Days of Wonder
The new Marklin edition of Ticket to Ride was one of my starred releases from Nurnberg which I had the highest hopes for, and it didn't disappoint. Though I'm a bit burned out on Ticket to Ride, having played 81 face-to-face games of all the variants since the release of the original, I can still recognize the elegant design of this new edition.
The map is Germany, and the graphic design is more colorful and vibrant than any of the others to date. Every time I get a new Ticket to Ride game I feel like it's a little better tuned than the ones that came before, and this is no exception. The map works like clockwork, and a split of the tickets into two halves, representing long and short routes, really helps the development of the gameplay.
The big new element is this version is passengers. Every city has merchandise on it, and you can place passengers who rush around and pick this up. It turns out to be another subgame of brinkmanship, because you constantly have to figure out when to take advantage of your limited passenger moves, and whether other players are going to swoop in and pick up the merchandise. Thanks to the passengers, merchandise, and split tickets, I also think this game is more strategic than Europe, which was in turn more strategic than the original (perhaps following the same trend that I noted for Carcassonne, where as the SdJ gets more distant, the publishers slowly retrofit the game for a more gamer's market).
When I was six months into my play of the original Ticket to Ride I would have killed for another map, and this fits that bill and more. Thus, it's highly recommended for Ticket to Ride enthusiasts. Because of the strategic improvements, it's likewise recommended for more serious gamers who have been leery of the franchise thus far, but curious. If you have burned out on Ticket to Ride, this probably won't be enough to get you back, but that's my only caveat.
#4: Augsberg 1520 (B+)
My Thoughts: Just this article.
Authors: Karsten Hartwig
Synopsis: auctions, economics, resource management
Background: Germany, 1520
U.S. Publisher: Rio Grande
Everyone goes into the newest Alea game hoping it's going to be the next Ra or Taj Mahal, and we're perpetually disappointed because Alea just isn't making games like that any more. However, though I personally found Augsberg to be a bit dry--to the point where I'd trade it away if it didn't fit into my Alea collection--I'm delighted to say that Augsberg is actually the next Louis XIV. They're similarly dry yet well-designed economic and auction games, and if you like one you'll probably like the other.
Augsberg 1520 is a game that I've labeled "brutal". And, that's not necessarily a bad thing. There are lots of really tough choices. You're engaging in strangely baroque auctions (where you first bid a number of cards to bid, then blindly bid those cards, then reveal them, then grant victory to the player who bid the single highest value among the set they played) for various resources. The resources can grant you privileges, but those can later be taken away, thus you have to balance what you can win, what it costs you, and what the chances are of losing it afterward.
A particularly innovative element is the fact that you can't exceed certain scores without building certain structures, and the game is so tightly designed that it's another brutal choice when to try and make those leaps.
As a logistical game, Augsberg is great, and it's also hard to complain about it as a gamer's game if you like this type of deep challenge. I'm suprised it hasn't gotten more commentary since its release.
#5: Gloria Mundi (B)
My Thoughts: Just this article.
Authors: James Ernest & Mike Selinker
Synopsis: card management, resource management
Background: Rome, c. 500
U.S. Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Gloria Mundi is another example of a good indy game design that could have been great with some more professional development. To start off with, the theme is engaging. You're fleeing Rome while Goths slowly stomp toward Rome, destroying everything in their path. The mechanics are Settlers of Catan turned on their ear: you produce resources based upon your lands (represented by cards), but it's those exact lands which are in danger from the Goths. Add on to that a building system that is reminescent of San Juan--you get to place these new buildings on your lands, and they can give you new special powers when you produce.
The game overall has some very innovative mechanics, particularly in deciding when to pay off the Goth, and the blend of tradition resource-management and special buildings is well done. My only complaint with the core mechanics is that they run too long. At 1.5 hours, the game is a bit lengthy, while at 1 hour it would have been entirely delightful.
And then we come to the development: not only was there no good development work to polish up the buildings, which would have resulted in a simple and consistent set of powers, but in fact decisions made during publication notably damaged the game. The rules are, to start off with, bad: overly complex, confusing, and not careful enough about their wording. Worse, the iconography on the cards is some of the worst that I've ever seen. For example, "resource = resource", "resource -> resource", and "resouce : resource" all mean different things, and some of the explanations are outright confusing. Our whole first game through we were never sure that we were playing some cards right. Our second game through we had a reference sheet that showed every card. It's the only way to rationally play that game, but we found at least one mistake on the reference sheet too.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed both of my games of Gloria Mundi. And, if you're an anti-Ernest snob, let me further say that this is different than anything else he's done (though all of his high-end games have actually been moving toward European design for a while). But I'm a bit sad that this game didn't end up at Hans im Gluck or Alea where it would have received top-notch development, and have been one of the games that everyone was talking about last year.
#6: California (B)
My Thoughts: Review (12/06)
Authors: Michael Schacht
Synopsis: house development, resource management, tile laying
Background: California, modern-day
U.S. Publisher: Uberplay
I've been really enthusiastic that Uberplay has been publishing these long, thin Michael Schacht games, a series that also includes China and Hansa. Of the three, California turns out to be my least favorite, but it's nonetheless a game that I enjoy and find original.
The object of California is to rebuild your house, and you do that by refurnishing rooms and putting furniture into those rooms. Generally rooms are a worth a point each, and furniture can be more than that, depending on whether you're able to grab bonus tiles and guests that are wandering the premises.
California's most interesting feature is a (totally non-thematic) method whereby you choose whether to take money or a building tile each turn, but where doing the first makes tiles cheaper for all the other players, thus creating another interesting variant of the Dutch auction. Since everyone is drawing from a central pool of tiles and money there's also considerable ability to engage in brinkmanship and to screw your neighbors when they do the same.
If this game fails, I think it's ultimately in its sameness. Though I can take a chance and curse an opponent when he foils my plans, there's no opportunity for particularly great moves, and that ultimately keeps the game at a more pedestrian level. Nonetheless, it's clever, it's fun, and it's fairly short.
#7: Cleopatra & The Society of Architects (B-)
My Thoughts: First Thoughts (05/06), Second Thoughts (05/06), Review (05/06)
Authors: Bruno Cathala & Ludovic Maublanc
Synopsis: card management, palace development, brinkmanship
Background: Egypt, 1st century BC
U.S. Publisher: Days of Wonder
When I first wrote about Cleopatra last February, I said that I expected the production would be superb, and that I'd be perfectly happy with the lightness of the game. I was right on the production. The game is full of beautiful plastic bits that are quite evocative and add a great visceral feel to the game. Yes, it's overproduced, but on the other hand I've got plenty of $50 games which give considerably less bang for the buck.
In short: the game's about collecting cards to build various monuments, but besides balancing your card resources, you also have to balance corruption which some cards (and some other actions) give you, because whoever has the most corruption at the end loses, no matter how much money they made.
I can enjoy purely light games without problem, but this game actually ends up combining high randomness with brain-burning tactics in a combination that I find very uncomfortable.
On the lightness side you have: partially hidden card draws which you don't have a lot of control over, and which do control what you build; as well as the chaos of what other players might do between your turns, which really cranks up if you play this with 5 players.
On the brain burning side you have: six different types of monuments which can be built; a handful of cards which often allows you to build a large number of permutations of those monuments at any time; and a geometrical pentomino-based tile placement system which rewards very careful cutting off of empty spaces.
It's not a combination I like, and I think it contributes to a feeling of uneasiness about this game. I also have issues with downtime in a 5-player game and the opaqueness of not really knowing what's a good move.
Don't get me wrong, this is a perfectly OK game. I enjoyed my 4-player play, though my 5-player play lagged. There are also some clever systems, particularly the corruption system, and the card dealing system which involves flipping half of the cards upside down. However as a serious game player it's too awkward and too creaky for me to be able to truly lose myself in the game.
I think it might be more enjoyable to casual gamers or to serious gamers who can turn their gamebrain off, but I suggest keeping it to 4 players or less.
#8: Tempus (B-)
My Thoughts: Just this article.
Authors: Martin Wallace
Synopsis: civilization building & warfare
Background: Generic Hexland
U.S. Publisher: Cafe Games
Tempus was actually on my 2005 Essen list, but it finally made its way to the game store shelf last summer. Thus I've given it space alongside other hot games from 2006.
Tempus was widely hyped as a Civilization Light, a tag that was also used for Antike and Parthenon over the previous years. Indeed it's a war game where you manage resources and you advance up a technology track while trying to capture territory, so it meets some of the criteria. However, as I wrote in Give Me a Light ... No, Civ Light the lack of real technology and trade really drops it out of contention.
Instead Tempus is actually a resource management game where you try and take advantage of minor differentials with your opponents by temporarily jumping ahead in technology or making better use of resources than them.
The game's got lots of clever elements and the resource management is engaging. It's suffered somewhat from overhyping, because it turns out to be good, but not brilliant. However, I also find it pretty staid with not a lot of real choices, but instead a slow, monotonous expansion that isn't necessarily interesting or strategic. Worse, I think a rule implemented to avoid player elimination actually offbalances the game. My rating has thus dropped from interested to unenthusiastic over two plays and at this point I think only the serious resource manager will like it ... but then that's the same large group that probably likes Power Grid too.
The three games which I had on my original Essen list but which I've never played are Bison, Emira, and Leonardo da Vinci, all by Mayfair. The first two never appeared in any of my gaming groups, while I was unlucky enough to miss out on plays of Leonardo da Vinci. I've heard pretty much nothing about the first two, while I suspect the third would have made my top five list.
I also listed a few games in my original Essen list that had almost made my top-ten. One was Mykerinos which is an interesting majority control game with very low emphasis on luck and very high emphasis on brinkmanship and thoughtful play. It's relatively pretty and interesting and would get a "B" on my scale here. Reiner Knizia's Double or Nothing generally fizzled, and earns a "C"; for press-your-luck style games, his Pickomino is much better, despite the silly theming. And speaking of dicing games, Tom Lehmann's To Court a King was also on my "almost" list from Essen. I found it a little long, and pretty complex to calculate options at the end, but the idea of a Yahtzee-like game with super powers is entirely innovative and the game is quite pretty, thus earning it a "B+", despite my reservations.
Overall, the ones that are "B+" are better are the ones that I'd recommend most from last year's Nurnberg, and which I'd most consider buying. That's: Blue Moon City, Thurn and Taxis, Ticket to Ride: Marklin Edition, Augsberg 1520, and To Court a King.
Now let's see what Nurnberg 2007 brings!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Women At War
Over the weekend my husband and I found the time to play Command & Colors: Ancients three times and I’ve come to the conclusion that this is my favorite 2-player game in my collection. If I could keep only one 2-player game, this would be it. After reading a thread on BGG about women and war games, I started to wonder what makes me (and a handful of other women) different from the majority who wouldn’t even contemplate playing a war game.
Is it genetic as some suggest, a left-over from prehistoric times when men were the hunters and women took care of the caves? Maybe, but even then I bet women had to have a strong survival instinct combined with a confrontational attitude. All through history there have been strong-willed women who weren’t afraid of going head-to-head with anyone: man, woman or country. Of course, all of these strong-willed women could be descendants of Ghengis Kahn or Joan of Arc.
Is it environment, being raised to think for yourself and stand up for what you want? I grew up in a, let’s call it a rambunctious household. Five children, myself the oldest. Oh, yeah, there was confrontation happening all the time. But I was a typical girl of the 60’s, playing with Barbie dolls, jacks, jump rope, tag and hide-and-seek. I never even knew there were games that were themed around fighting a war.
Is it learned? Can someone with no experience or inclination learn to think of a war game as a simple head-to-head battle of wits with movement options like any abstract game and resource management (cards, movement points, whatever) like rummy. For myself, I think spending months playing Risk with my husband where he initially taught me how to see strategic plays and think beyond my roll-and-move experience was an important step. But maybe I had the genes and the environmental factors already in place and that just gave me the push in the right direction.
In the end, all of my thinking has left me no closer to the answer than when I started. The one thing I know is that I hate hearing women put into a category just because they are women. We are not all satisfied to simply keep house and raise children and take care of our men. This should be obvious from the direction women have taken in the last fifty years: from the kitchen to the factory to the boardroom. So please, gentlemen, if your wife won’t play war games, don’t say it’s just because she’s a woman and women don’t like confrontation.
Mary
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
No News is Bad News
The Board Game Internet Awards results have been delayed, owing to various reasons of sickness, travel, and so on. I apologize for this. I expect that the results should be in by my next post, next Tuesday.
I'm actually doing work at work, so I have less time to sneak my minutes in here and there to post.
But this evening, while playing Puerto Rico with my wife as we sometimes do, our eighteen year old came in with a few friends from her post high school seminary, two of whom were said to be "from Germany", although it turns out they had been in Germany for only three and five years respectively.
They took a curious look at our game when they walked in, and I asked them if they are familiar with the game, coming from Germany.
No, they weren't. And what's worse, one of them had the temerity to say, "Oh, you know what the best board game is? Risk."
I know I'm following on the heels of DW's last post about respecting your elder games, but really. I wouldn't walk into the house of someone playing Halo and say "You know what the best video game is? Pong."
When queried, my assailant claimed that the reason something thirty years old could still be "the best" is that there haven't been any other good games in the last thirty years. When I pointed out not only the very game I was playing, but a nearby closet full of games, he seemed suspicious but interested. But then my daughter swooped him away before the conversation could continue.
Sometimes it's an uphill battle. But Risk? Sure, I guess I enjoyed it when there was nothing else around. But long game, early elimination, lots of dice, lots of downtime, ganging up on weaker players. Ugh. Spare me.
Risk violates the most basic rule of board games: poor narrative. Even Chutes and Ladders does better than it.
At the beginning of Chutes and Ladders, people are on the lower levels, trying to hit the ladders. In mid-game, they are trying to hit ladders and avoid chutes. At the end, they are trying to catch up to the leader or hope he hits a chute before he gets just what he needs. It's nail biting.
Monopoly has an early game of development and paying small fees. It had a mid game with higher fees and trading to form monopolies. And it has an end-game of waiting to see who hits that expensive hotel and goes bankrupt.
Risk has an early game of player elimination. It has a middle game of jockeying for advantage. But the last third of the game is generally a foregone conclusion. No suspense. No narrative.
Makes you wonder.
Yehuda
I'm actually doing work at work, so I have less time to sneak my minutes in here and there to post.
But this evening, while playing Puerto Rico with my wife as we sometimes do, our eighteen year old came in with a few friends from her post high school seminary, two of whom were said to be "from Germany", although it turns out they had been in Germany for only three and five years respectively.
They took a curious look at our game when they walked in, and I asked them if they are familiar with the game, coming from Germany.
No, they weren't. And what's worse, one of them had the temerity to say, "Oh, you know what the best board game is? Risk."
I know I'm following on the heels of DW's last post about respecting your elder games, but really. I wouldn't walk into the house of someone playing Halo and say "You know what the best video game is? Pong."
When queried, my assailant claimed that the reason something thirty years old could still be "the best" is that there haven't been any other good games in the last thirty years. When I pointed out not only the very game I was playing, but a nearby closet full of games, he seemed suspicious but interested. But then my daughter swooped him away before the conversation could continue.
Sometimes it's an uphill battle. But Risk? Sure, I guess I enjoyed it when there was nothing else around. But long game, early elimination, lots of dice, lots of downtime, ganging up on weaker players. Ugh. Spare me.
Risk violates the most basic rule of board games: poor narrative. Even Chutes and Ladders does better than it.
At the beginning of Chutes and Ladders, people are on the lower levels, trying to hit the ladders. In mid-game, they are trying to hit ladders and avoid chutes. At the end, they are trying to catch up to the leader or hope he hits a chute before he gets just what he needs. It's nail biting.
Monopoly has an early game of development and paying small fees. It had a mid game with higher fees and trading to form monopolies. And it has an end-game of waiting to see who hits that expensive hotel and goes bankrupt.
Risk has an early game of player elimination. It has a middle game of jockeying for advantage. But the last third of the game is generally a foregone conclusion. No suspense. No narrative.
Makes you wonder.
Yehuda
Monday, January 15, 2007
GAME STORE CONFIDENTIAL ~ What's good?
With all the recent turmoil on BGG regarding the rating/moderation system I have begun to question the perception of what is and isn't good and why some games are viewed poorly.
Take Monopoly as an example - what's so bad about this game? We've all played it. And, if you think about it, we've all enjoyed it at some point in our lives. The same is true for Risk, Scrabble and any of a couple of hundred other poorly rated games.
I am one of the proponents of a purely positive rating system. It's hard for me to explain why except to say that I feel a more clear sense of what is and isn't considered good when I can see how many people respond positively to a game, an article, a review or some other contribution to a site like BGG.
Perhaps the board gaming "elite" (I guess that's what we consider ourselves to be) have progressed so far from our gaming roots that we've forgotten them? Didn't most of us start out playing simple games and having an inner sense that our leisure time would be served well by playing as many games as time, money and convenience allows? I recall looking forward eagerly to the Friday night Risk game... or cheerfully setting up Scrabble and rubbing my hands in anticipation. Everything from Feudal to Pente to the long hours spent playing titles like USAC Auto Racing, Regatta and Speed Circuit... all of those games played a role in honing my appreciation for game design and the joy of sitting down with a group of like-minded souls and rolling dice, shuffling cards or attempting to outwit my friends.
The same gut feeling I have about what is positive about this hobby holds true with interacting with people FTF or via the internet and sites like BGG. I'm eternally curious as to what people think. It's often suprising to me how critical some people can be about games that played such a pivotal role in their own evolution as a gamer.
I'm not suggesting that all board games, no matter how crude, lousy or rudimentary they are, somehow rate a high feedback or a overly positive review. It's just that when people who are game lovers assemble it's annoying to me that there is a sense that some games - and those who enjoy them - need to be put down. That some viewpoints must be negated. It doesn't deeply bother me really... human nature being what it is... but it points up one of the things about human nature that is fallible - that being the ease with which so many people forget their own history and how they came to arrive where they are at this moment.
The people who are collectors tend to rise above this a bit, at least I think so. The collector loves board games so much they are willing to commit time, space and money to the acquisition and care of large numbers of games... and ( I suppose) see the worthiness and place every title has in the gaming world.
I'm not a collector nor am I particularly critical of any board games. Yes, yes, there are some which I just won't play and many that I poke fun at... but getting right down to it - if I was stuck with nothing but a Monopoly set to play and no means to create make-shift copies of better games - I'd be gleefully playing Monopoly and trying to coax you into the game.
I guess it's like the guy in the Armani suit who sneers at you on the elevator... because he knows you shop at Macy's. Wasn't there a point in that joker's life where he didn't have the money, knowledge or even need to buy a $1500 suit? Is an Armani the right suit of clothes for every setting? Just because he has the money and read magazines telling him what is good, does that mean he automatically has better taste? And that anyone who doesn't buy and wear what he does is somehow less than? And, of course, deserving of a negative strike against them.
* Yes, I have actually experienced Armani discrimination while wearing a suit purchased at Macy's, so I'm not making this up.
I don't know about you, but for me I really do tend to enjoy most board games and given that we have so many choices I have gravitated to those that suit me. My brain works the way it does so I am better at some genres of games than I am at others... but that doesn't mean to me that the others aren't as good. They just don't satisfy. I don't really have a point today, just some idle thoughts about board gaming and how critical some people can be regarding not only certain titles, but also about the people who like those games and their quality as people.
For me, when I decide to poke fun at people who I associate and identify with I like to keep it fun... as opposed to an actual value judgement. Whaddya think? Are we too critical of the choices others make? Or not critical enough?
Take Monopoly as an example - what's so bad about this game? We've all played it. And, if you think about it, we've all enjoyed it at some point in our lives. The same is true for Risk, Scrabble and any of a couple of hundred other poorly rated games.
I am one of the proponents of a purely positive rating system. It's hard for me to explain why except to say that I feel a more clear sense of what is and isn't considered good when I can see how many people respond positively to a game, an article, a review or some other contribution to a site like BGG.
Perhaps the board gaming "elite" (I guess that's what we consider ourselves to be) have progressed so far from our gaming roots that we've forgotten them? Didn't most of us start out playing simple games and having an inner sense that our leisure time would be served well by playing as many games as time, money and convenience allows? I recall looking forward eagerly to the Friday night Risk game... or cheerfully setting up Scrabble and rubbing my hands in anticipation. Everything from Feudal to Pente to the long hours spent playing titles like USAC Auto Racing, Regatta and Speed Circuit... all of those games played a role in honing my appreciation for game design and the joy of sitting down with a group of like-minded souls and rolling dice, shuffling cards or attempting to outwit my friends.
The same gut feeling I have about what is positive about this hobby holds true with interacting with people FTF or via the internet and sites like BGG. I'm eternally curious as to what people think. It's often suprising to me how critical some people can be about games that played such a pivotal role in their own evolution as a gamer.
I'm not suggesting that all board games, no matter how crude, lousy or rudimentary they are, somehow rate a high feedback or a overly positive review. It's just that when people who are game lovers assemble it's annoying to me that there is a sense that some games - and those who enjoy them - need to be put down. That some viewpoints must be negated. It doesn't deeply bother me really... human nature being what it is... but it points up one of the things about human nature that is fallible - that being the ease with which so many people forget their own history and how they came to arrive where they are at this moment.
The people who are collectors tend to rise above this a bit, at least I think so. The collector loves board games so much they are willing to commit time, space and money to the acquisition and care of large numbers of games... and ( I suppose) see the worthiness and place every title has in the gaming world.
I'm not a collector nor am I particularly critical of any board games. Yes, yes, there are some which I just won't play and many that I poke fun at... but getting right down to it - if I was stuck with nothing but a Monopoly set to play and no means to create make-shift copies of better games - I'd be gleefully playing Monopoly and trying to coax you into the game.
I guess it's like the guy in the Armani suit who sneers at you on the elevator... because he knows you shop at Macy's. Wasn't there a point in that joker's life where he didn't have the money, knowledge or even need to buy a $1500 suit? Is an Armani the right suit of clothes for every setting? Just because he has the money and read magazines telling him what is good, does that mean he automatically has better taste? And that anyone who doesn't buy and wear what he does is somehow less than? And, of course, deserving of a negative strike against them.
* Yes, I have actually experienced Armani discrimination while wearing a suit purchased at Macy's, so I'm not making this up.
I don't know about you, but for me I really do tend to enjoy most board games and given that we have so many choices I have gravitated to those that suit me. My brain works the way it does so I am better at some genres of games than I am at others... but that doesn't mean to me that the others aren't as good. They just don't satisfy. I don't really have a point today, just some idle thoughts about board gaming and how critical some people can be regarding not only certain titles, but also about the people who like those games and their quality as people.
For me, when I decide to poke fun at people who I associate and identify with I like to keep it fun... as opposed to an actual value judgement. Whaddya think? Are we too critical of the choices others make? Or not critical enough?
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Some games I played in 2005 but not in 2006
Salutations from sunny Lorne where as we move from 2006 to 2007 public internet access is a) less available, b) more expensive and c) no longer wireless.
However we are here to talk about games. During the process of compiling data for my 2006 games played - an Annotated List, I found a number of games that had been played at least once in 2005 but had no plays in 2006. Many of these would fall into the "Don't Own" category - we don't own a copy of the game so any repeat plays are reliant on somebody who owns the game bringing it along to somewhere games are being played and probably with the intention of it being played. Others were for different reasons...
Alhambra: The Vizier's Favour
From memory there are four different expansions in this set. I thought that two were good and two were not. We don't own it and with a 50-50 hit ratio and a fairly expensive price it doesn't seem worth purchasing it. I would play it if a copy was around.
Around the World in 80 Days
We own it and we like it. Daughter the Elder likes it and we even got Melissa's parents to play it, yet it didn't get played in 2006. I have no real explanation for this.
Atlanteon
I have only played this once and it seemed like we were heading towards what I call a "coin toss" ending, i.e. it comes down to the last move or two and there is a 50-50 chance either player will win. Perhaps it is just that Reggy and I are too evenly matched. We do own this, I just have had no great urge to drag it off the shelf. Since this is a (semi) abstract it may be worth giving it a go with Daughter the Elder.
Bang! A Fistful of Cards
Mr Skeletor is the only person I know who owns this, so it requires him to bring it to a Gamers@Dockers session for it to be even available for use.
Buasack
Don't own, given the price in Australia it will require a lottery win to even think about buying it. I would happily play it again though.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
It was OK, but when you need an errata that is longer than the published rules and there are other unplayed games it would have to be a pretty special game to play it again and, to me, it just wasn't special enough.
Big Idea, The
A good game with the right group of people, would probably fall flat with the wrong ones though. We played the official CheapAss Demo Monkey's copy, so replaying opportunities are limited.
Blue Moon
Played this a few times in 2005 and felt it was OK. I'm not going to rush out and buy it and the other copies that I know of rarely appear for play.
Bootleggers
Don't own it and the copy I played hasn't been sighted for a long time. I am starting to see a trend here, Reggy quite often brings in a game for one or two sessions and then it dissappears back into his vault not to be seen again. If it was around I would certainly play it again (and whinge about the lack of markings on the vans).
Bridges of Shangri-La, The
I would certainly play this again, but don't own it. I wouldn't buy it without getting Melissa to try it first though.
Carcassonne - Hunters & Gatherers
This is my preferred Carcassonne, so I am at a loss to see it listed here.
Carcassonne - The Castle
Actually I blame BSW for this. Two player games at home with Melissa have taken a hit and we haven't introduce this to Daughter the Elder yet.
Checkers
Too many other options. 'nuff said.
Citadels
Don't own. Slim chance that I didn't log some lunchtime plays, or maybe they were in 2005 after all.
Coloretto
The best excuse I have is that we have lost the rules to our set. It's not really a very good excuse is it? Let's just move along shall we?
Cosmic Encounter
The insurance policy requires expensive armed guards to accompany the Eon set out of the house, so it just doesn't happen very often. Don't believe it? Umm, the bus got a flat tire? I don't know Melissa and I are big fans though.
Crocodile Pool Party
Tom Vasel is paying me not to play this. No, OK maybe not. Realistically this is just another victim of the drop of two player games in our house. Admittedly it has one of the worst back stories evar, but it is an OK mathematical abstract game.
Das Zeptor in Zavandor
We didn't own this until Christmas 2006, so it is a possibility for 2007.
Dwarves and Dice
This game fell victim to Daughter the Destroyer and is unlikely to see the table again. The truth be told it wasn't a very good game anyway above building colour matching skills for small children.
Elfenland
We own it, we like it, yet we didn't play it. No idea why.
Enchanted Forest
I think the main reason for this being on the list is that Daughter the Elder prefers to play other games like Ballon Cup, Stock Market, San Juan... In other words it is a "inbetweener" game, Daughter the Elder is a bit too old for it and Daughter the Younger is a bit too young for it.
Euphrat & Tigris
I was a little shocked to find this here until I remembered that I played about 50 games of this via the BGG interface, I just only log face to face games.
Expedition
We don't own it and it doesn't seem to appear at Games nights.
Feurio
Don't own. I would certainly play it again though.
Fishe Fluppen Frikadellen
Don't own it. On my only play it didn't grab me as special, but I could be convinced to play it again. In 2006 nobody tried to convince me though.
Fish Eat Fish
I liked this enough to buy it, but since then it has just sat on the shelves.
Game of Thrones, A
I think this just comes down to the fact that it is not easy for me to arrange a three to five hour game. I like it and own it.
Gargon
We liked it as a three player card game. We didn't own it for most of 2006.
Go Away Monster
Another vitcim of Daughter the Destroyer.
Go Fish
An "inbetweener" game.
Gunslinger
This must have been early 2005! It was OK, but I don't own it and haven't see a copy available to play since.
Hansa
It got a couple of SBW plays, but no face to face. I don't know why.
Igloo Pop
We found that this didn't work well with a mixture of adults and children, there was a distinct skill difference in favour of the adults. This is marked down as an "Anna" game so will make it to the table at least once in 2007.
Illuminati New World Order
You may think that Illuminati is a long game, will it looks like a filler compared to this. Not likely to hit the table again, but since I don't own it that shouldn't be a problem.
Industrial Waste
Don't own this, but would be happy to give it another go.
Junior Labyrinth
Another inbetweener game.
Lawless
Tried this once as two player. It was OK, but is not really a great two player game but should work better with more. I just haven't got around to trying it though.
Liar's Dice
An interesting dice/bluffing game which I would happily try again, we just don't own any of the various incarnations of this though.
Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation
This always seemed to come down to a coin-toss ending when I played it. Some people have told me this isn't always the case, but none of them have challenged me to a game.
Die Macher
It's jut difficult to arrange, or we are slack about arranging it. We own it and we like it and there's plenty of people around willing to play it.
Mag-Blast
Superceded as a lunchtime work game.
Members Only
I like it, but not enought to pay $55 for it.
Modern Art
I only played this once three player and got destroyed. I should try it again at some stage, we do now own it, so that is more likely to happen.
Nautilus
This is quite a good game, and would be better if ran 60-90 minutes or less, the problem is that it runs close to two hours.
Naval Battles
Don't own and really only liked it two player.
Perpetual Commotion
I played this for a fair portion of a day in a tournament. I figure I have filled my quota for this game for about a decade!
Pirate's Cove
It's not a deep game sure, but it is fairly quick and fun. We must get Daughter the Elder playing this during 2007.
Railroad Tycoon
One of Reggy's stable of games. We don't have a playing surface at home big enough for this, so there is little point in me buying it!
Risk 2210 AD.
Played it once, won it, little interest in playing it again.
Samurai
Don't own it is my only excuse. I like it, even though I am never entirely sure if what I am doing is useful.
Santiago
Played it, liked it, bought it, didn't play it again.
Snakes and Ladders
Another inbetweener game. This will come out in 2007 with Daughter the Younger though.
Shear Panic
I like this, there's a lot more to it than just the pretty sheep, just haven't played it.
Starship Catan
I prefer this to Settlers of Catan the Card Game but it is just too long to get a lot of play.
Titicaca
Don't own it and it just hasn't come back for a visit.
Trias
It has nothing to do with the fact I keep coming last, I'd play it again (and again) to improve my position. It just doesn't seem to have been suggested.
Union Pacific
I suggested this in 2006, but it fell of deaf ears. It was even part of our Museum Exhibit. I like it, but seem to be in the minority.
Uno
Daughter the Destroyer again.
Vinci
It got a couple of plays on Ludagora.net, but no face to face plays. Not sure why.
However we are here to talk about games. During the process of compiling data for my 2006 games played - an Annotated List, I found a number of games that had been played at least once in 2005 but had no plays in 2006. Many of these would fall into the "Don't Own" category - we don't own a copy of the game so any repeat plays are reliant on somebody who owns the game bringing it along to somewhere games are being played and probably with the intention of it being played. Others were for different reasons...
Alhambra: The Vizier's Favour
From memory there are four different expansions in this set. I thought that two were good and two were not. We don't own it and with a 50-50 hit ratio and a fairly expensive price it doesn't seem worth purchasing it. I would play it if a copy was around.
Around the World in 80 Days
We own it and we like it. Daughter the Elder likes it and we even got Melissa's parents to play it, yet it didn't get played in 2006. I have no real explanation for this.
Atlanteon
I have only played this once and it seemed like we were heading towards what I call a "coin toss" ending, i.e. it comes down to the last move or two and there is a 50-50 chance either player will win. Perhaps it is just that Reggy and I are too evenly matched. We do own this, I just have had no great urge to drag it off the shelf. Since this is a (semi) abstract it may be worth giving it a go with Daughter the Elder.
Bang! A Fistful of Cards
Mr Skeletor is the only person I know who owns this, so it requires him to bring it to a Gamers@Dockers session for it to be even available for use.
Buasack
Don't own, given the price in Australia it will require a lottery win to even think about buying it. I would happily play it again though.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
It was OK, but when you need an errata that is longer than the published rules and there are other unplayed games it would have to be a pretty special game to play it again and, to me, it just wasn't special enough.
Big Idea, The
A good game with the right group of people, would probably fall flat with the wrong ones though. We played the official CheapAss Demo Monkey's copy, so replaying opportunities are limited.
Blue Moon
Played this a few times in 2005 and felt it was OK. I'm not going to rush out and buy it and the other copies that I know of rarely appear for play.
Bootleggers
Don't own it and the copy I played hasn't been sighted for a long time. I am starting to see a trend here, Reggy quite often brings in a game for one or two sessions and then it dissappears back into his vault not to be seen again. If it was around I would certainly play it again (and whinge about the lack of markings on the vans).
Bridges of Shangri-La, The
I would certainly play this again, but don't own it. I wouldn't buy it without getting Melissa to try it first though.
Carcassonne - Hunters & Gatherers
This is my preferred Carcassonne, so I am at a loss to see it listed here.
Carcassonne - The Castle
Actually I blame BSW for this. Two player games at home with Melissa have taken a hit and we haven't introduce this to Daughter the Elder yet.
Checkers
Too many other options. 'nuff said.
Citadels
Don't own. Slim chance that I didn't log some lunchtime plays, or maybe they were in 2005 after all.
Coloretto
The best excuse I have is that we have lost the rules to our set. It's not really a very good excuse is it? Let's just move along shall we?
Cosmic Encounter
The insurance policy requires expensive armed guards to accompany the Eon set out of the house, so it just doesn't happen very often. Don't believe it? Umm, the bus got a flat tire? I don't know Melissa and I are big fans though.
Crocodile Pool Party
Tom Vasel is paying me not to play this. No, OK maybe not. Realistically this is just another victim of the drop of two player games in our house. Admittedly it has one of the worst back stories evar, but it is an OK mathematical abstract game.
Das Zeptor in Zavandor
We didn't own this until Christmas 2006, so it is a possibility for 2007.
Dwarves and Dice
This game fell victim to Daughter the Destroyer and is unlikely to see the table again. The truth be told it wasn't a very good game anyway above building colour matching skills for small children.
Elfenland
We own it, we like it, yet we didn't play it. No idea why.
Enchanted Forest
I think the main reason for this being on the list is that Daughter the Elder prefers to play other games like Ballon Cup, Stock Market, San Juan... In other words it is a "inbetweener" game, Daughter the Elder is a bit too old for it and Daughter the Younger is a bit too young for it.
Euphrat & Tigris
I was a little shocked to find this here until I remembered that I played about 50 games of this via the BGG interface, I just only log face to face games.
Expedition
We don't own it and it doesn't seem to appear at Games nights.
Feurio
Don't own. I would certainly play it again though.
Fishe Fluppen Frikadellen
Don't own it. On my only play it didn't grab me as special, but I could be convinced to play it again. In 2006 nobody tried to convince me though.
Fish Eat Fish
I liked this enough to buy it, but since then it has just sat on the shelves.
Game of Thrones, A
I think this just comes down to the fact that it is not easy for me to arrange a three to five hour game. I like it and own it.
Gargon
We liked it as a three player card game. We didn't own it for most of 2006.
Go Away Monster
Another vitcim of Daughter the Destroyer.
Go Fish
An "inbetweener" game.
Gunslinger
This must have been early 2005! It was OK, but I don't own it and haven't see a copy available to play since.
Hansa
It got a couple of SBW plays, but no face to face. I don't know why.
Igloo Pop
We found that this didn't work well with a mixture of adults and children, there was a distinct skill difference in favour of the adults. This is marked down as an "Anna" game so will make it to the table at least once in 2007.
Illuminati New World Order
You may think that Illuminati is a long game, will it looks like a filler compared to this. Not likely to hit the table again, but since I don't own it that shouldn't be a problem.
Industrial Waste
Don't own this, but would be happy to give it another go.
Junior Labyrinth
Another inbetweener game.
Lawless
Tried this once as two player. It was OK, but is not really a great two player game but should work better with more. I just haven't got around to trying it though.
Liar's Dice
An interesting dice/bluffing game which I would happily try again, we just don't own any of the various incarnations of this though.
Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation
This always seemed to come down to a coin-toss ending when I played it. Some people have told me this isn't always the case, but none of them have challenged me to a game.
Die Macher
It's jut difficult to arrange, or we are slack about arranging it. We own it and we like it and there's plenty of people around willing to play it.
Mag-Blast
Superceded as a lunchtime work game.
Members Only
I like it, but not enought to pay $55 for it.
Modern Art
I only played this once three player and got destroyed. I should try it again at some stage, we do now own it, so that is more likely to happen.
Nautilus
This is quite a good game, and would be better if ran 60-90 minutes or less, the problem is that it runs close to two hours.
Naval Battles
Don't own and really only liked it two player.
Perpetual Commotion
I played this for a fair portion of a day in a tournament. I figure I have filled my quota for this game for about a decade!
Pirate's Cove
It's not a deep game sure, but it is fairly quick and fun. We must get Daughter the Elder playing this during 2007.
Railroad Tycoon
One of Reggy's stable of games. We don't have a playing surface at home big enough for this, so there is little point in me buying it!
Risk 2210 AD.
Played it once, won it, little interest in playing it again.
Samurai
Don't own it is my only excuse. I like it, even though I am never entirely sure if what I am doing is useful.
Santiago
Played it, liked it, bought it, didn't play it again.
Snakes and Ladders
Another inbetweener game. This will come out in 2007 with Daughter the Younger though.
Shear Panic
I like this, there's a lot more to it than just the pretty sheep, just haven't played it.
Starship Catan
I prefer this to Settlers of Catan the Card Game but it is just too long to get a lot of play.
Titicaca
Don't own it and it just hasn't come back for a visit.
Trias
It has nothing to do with the fact I keep coming last, I'd play it again (and again) to improve my position. It just doesn't seem to have been suggested.
Union Pacific
I suggested this in 2006, but it fell of deaf ears. It was even part of our Museum Exhibit. I like it, but seem to be in the minority.
Uno
Daughter the Destroyer again.
Vinci
It got a couple of plays on Ludagora.net, but no face to face plays. Not sure why.
Friday, January 12, 2007
On Not Playing a Game to Death
I was never a music person. It’s not that a good song couldn’t get me tapping my toes, it’s that I always preferred spending my kopeks on books and games. A nice side effect of this lack of enthusiasm was that most of my favorite songs never seemed to get old. If you have to wait for the Stones’ Start Me Up to show up on your classic rock station, you’re probably not to going to get burned out on it pretty fast. I’ve been listening for that song for decades and my enthusiasm for it hasn’t waned yet.
This un-jadedness applies to my gaming habits as well, because I don’t get to play my favorites that often. The Appalachian Gamers usually meet at the home of Ted Cheatham where we have convenient access to Ted’s large game collection. And Ted’s policy is to encourage us to play new games, or games that one or more of us has not tried before. During my first year with the group, at least one game per session seemed to come from my games-I’d-like-to-try list. This year, one or more games we play each session is likely to come from Dave’s (the new guy) list of games-I’d-like-to-try (along with some from my old list that we still haven’t gotten to yet).
The result of this bias toward trying something new is that I’ve played a larger variety of games than I would have if I’d been allowed to focus on my favorites. The vast majority of the games I’ve tried I’ve found to be decent middle-of-the-road games that neither excite me nor repel me. There’s only been a few that I’ve hated (Liar’s Dice is an exercise in frustration for someone who doesn’t have a mathematical mind). There have been a few that have impressed me even if they aren’t the kind of game that I would buy (Modern Art and Rumis are too abstract for me to love, but I appreciate the ingenuity of their design). And there have been a handful that have been unexpected delights (Just last week I discovered that Big Boss is a fine sibling of Acquire with enough unique elements to keep it from being a pointless clone).
Of course, you have already guessed that my main point is that it is impossible to become jaded about my favorite games when I play them so infrequently. Sometimes when reviewing a game Chris Farrell will say something like This game will be good for another five or six plays, but it isn’t a keeper. I suspect that if he spaced those five or six plays over a two or three year period, he might never get tired of the game.
I am generally in favor of the pro-variety policy. But there is a downside to infrequently playing a challenging game: it can be impossible to get a handle on a game if you only play it twice a year. The first time I played Age of Steam, I went broke. Instantly. Maybe the fastest loss in the history of the game. That was over a year ago. If I played it again, my performance would likely be equally terrible. Unless our gaming group changes its ways, I will never even become a competent AoS player.
It’s hard to keep rules in your head if you only play a game two or three times a year. Many gamers can sit down and play Caylus or Puerto Rico or Union Pacific without ever opening the rule book. Not me. I remember the gist of these games, but I have to refresh my memory of the rules if I want to play them again.
And there is a certain low level of frustration in playing a great new game and then packing it away for months because it isn’t likely to get played again any time soon. I enjoyed my first game of Perikles a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t win. Heaven knows when I’ll get a re-match. (But there was at least one member of the Appalachian Gamers who wasn’t there that night, so maybe I can get Perikles added to the to-be-tried list).
In spite of the pro-variety policy, there are a couple of games that I have played a lot. I play Ticket to Ride with my in-laws so that game has hit the table frequently. And I was one of the playtesters of the War of the Ring expansion so I have played that a lot.
And I haven’t tired of either of those games. I’d be happy to play them again tonight.
That makes me wonder if I really would become jaded if I played El Grande three or four times a year instead of just two. Maybe play Caylus twice in one month. Play two sessions of Perikles back to back. Could my gaming enthusiasm withstand such decadent over-indulgence?
Nah. Better not risk it. Some games are too cool to spoil by playing them often.
This un-jadedness applies to my gaming habits as well, because I don’t get to play my favorites that often. The Appalachian Gamers usually meet at the home of Ted Cheatham where we have convenient access to Ted’s large game collection. And Ted’s policy is to encourage us to play new games, or games that one or more of us has not tried before. During my first year with the group, at least one game per session seemed to come from my games-I’d-like-to-try list. This year, one or more games we play each session is likely to come from Dave’s (the new guy) list of games-I’d-like-to-try (along with some from my old list that we still haven’t gotten to yet).
The result of this bias toward trying something new is that I’ve played a larger variety of games than I would have if I’d been allowed to focus on my favorites. The vast majority of the games I’ve tried I’ve found to be decent middle-of-the-road games that neither excite me nor repel me. There’s only been a few that I’ve hated (Liar’s Dice is an exercise in frustration for someone who doesn’t have a mathematical mind). There have been a few that have impressed me even if they aren’t the kind of game that I would buy (Modern Art and Rumis are too abstract for me to love, but I appreciate the ingenuity of their design). And there have been a handful that have been unexpected delights (Just last week I discovered that Big Boss is a fine sibling of Acquire with enough unique elements to keep it from being a pointless clone).
Of course, you have already guessed that my main point is that it is impossible to become jaded about my favorite games when I play them so infrequently. Sometimes when reviewing a game Chris Farrell will say something like This game will be good for another five or six plays, but it isn’t a keeper. I suspect that if he spaced those five or six plays over a two or three year period, he might never get tired of the game.
I am generally in favor of the pro-variety policy. But there is a downside to infrequently playing a challenging game: it can be impossible to get a handle on a game if you only play it twice a year. The first time I played Age of Steam, I went broke. Instantly. Maybe the fastest loss in the history of the game. That was over a year ago. If I played it again, my performance would likely be equally terrible. Unless our gaming group changes its ways, I will never even become a competent AoS player.
It’s hard to keep rules in your head if you only play a game two or three times a year. Many gamers can sit down and play Caylus or Puerto Rico or Union Pacific without ever opening the rule book. Not me. I remember the gist of these games, but I have to refresh my memory of the rules if I want to play them again.
And there is a certain low level of frustration in playing a great new game and then packing it away for months because it isn’t likely to get played again any time soon. I enjoyed my first game of Perikles a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t win. Heaven knows when I’ll get a re-match. (But there was at least one member of the Appalachian Gamers who wasn’t there that night, so maybe I can get Perikles added to the to-be-tried list).
In spite of the pro-variety policy, there are a couple of games that I have played a lot. I play Ticket to Ride with my in-laws so that game has hit the table frequently. And I was one of the playtesters of the War of the Ring expansion so I have played that a lot.
And I haven’t tired of either of those games. I’d be happy to play them again tonight.
That makes me wonder if I really would become jaded if I played El Grande three or four times a year instead of just two. Maybe play Caylus twice in one month. Play two sessions of Perikles back to back. Could my gaming enthusiasm withstand such decadent over-indulgence?
Nah. Better not risk it. Some games are too cool to spoil by playing them often.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
The News in Briefs / Last Puzzler Answer / New Fortnightly Puzzler
Time-Traveling Egyptian Visits German Game Store
"Holy pharaoh poop," he says
Essen, Germany – Ancient Egyptian Ali Abdoulah arrived in downtown Essen, Germany early Wednesday afternoon. Aside from his transportation, a stone time-traveling machine, a few have which have cropped up around the world, what made his trip different was his purpose: find a new game for the king.
Abdoulah traveled forward through time on behalf of his leader Tutankhamun. His mission was simple: to bring back a futuristic game that was better than Senet. He brought only a simple stone translator to get by.
Not wasting any time, Abdoulah approached one pedestrian and said with the aid of the translator, "Take me to your game maker." Not knowing exactly what to make of the odd situation, what with the smoking stone capsule lying in the distance, the local indicated a shop around the corner.
Abdoulah quickly found the store. Upon entering, he said via the translator, "Holy pharaoh poop." He took in the hundreds of games and vibrant colors of products of the 21st century. Baffled by games like SceneIt? and Axis & Allies based on technology and events not-yet-transpired for the ancient Egyptian, Abdoulah reached out for familiarity.
He walked slowly around the store until he discovered one copy of Senet. Recognizing the writing on the box, he said, "I can't believe this camel turd is still around. I have been sent forward through the ages to replace this."
The store clerk recommended Amun-Re and Cleopatra, as well as demoing Tutankhamen. Abdoulah replied, "I don't want pictures. I have all the pictures I want on the palaces and Great Pyramids of my time. Please, something else."
After hours of looking, Abdoulah picked out a backgammon board. "This is perfect," he whispered.
Not understanding the concept of currency, Abdoulah insisted on leaving his stone translator. "This is no crocodile fart," he said. With that, he left the store, entered his stone machine, and vanished.
Essen authorities are still trying to piece together Ali Abdoulah's history, but not too much has been found.
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The News in Briefs is completely fictitious. Please don't sue me.
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Old Puzzler
I'm thinking of a game in two words. Drop the first two and last letters of the second word to get a famous comic character. What's the game and who's the character?
Answer: AQUA ROMANA / AQUA MAN
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New Fortnightly Puzzler
I'm no mathematician. I don't claim to be. But this puzzle is another one of my challenges (no answer, that is, that I have figured out).
Take the game Shut-the-Box (the one with the numbers one through nine on the tiles). If you're not familiar with this old sailor's game, then here's how to play: roll two dice, add the numbers, then knock down as many tiles as you can that add up to the same number, repeat until not possible. The object is to knock all of them down, or if you're betting, more than your opponent(s). In our case, your score at the end is your remaining tiles (for example, if 1,7, and 9 are left up, then your score is 179).
The worst thing you can do is roll a double one, then roll a double one again. You're instantly out of the game. But the odds of this happening are very low. Perhaps you already know where I'm going with this one...
I want to know what the absolute worst thing a person can do in their first turn according to the odds. Imagining that you could hit any first number and knock down a terrible combo of tiles, what increases your chances of losing by the most for your second turn? And why?
I'll publish your name and findings in the next post. Write smattathias@gmail.com. Thanks!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Behind the Scene of the BGIA
After several days of reading, listening and having long talks with myself, I’ve finally turned in my votes for the BGIA to Shannon, who will be doing the magic that turns everyone’s top 5 choices into one final decision. Shannon is also the one who created the logo for the BGIA and it’s so cool, I want a pin or a hat or a t-shirt—something with that logo on it! Maybe a tattoo. Just a small one right on my a..*cough, ahem*…arm. Well, probably not a tattoo. Thank you, Shannon, for the extra work and time you’ve put into these awards.
When I first saw the long list; the long, long, long list of nominees, my mind had a small seizure. I have HOW long to read all of these and decide?! But I found some truly excellent writing and in the end, it was no chore at all to read all the session reports, reviews, thought-provoking or humorous articles, and some blogs I hadn’t been aware of before. The hard part was trying to rank the nominees in each category.
Then there’s the podcasters, which I think are a special breed because it must take a little something extra that the rest of us don’t have to put yourself out there for hundreds of people to listen to. I don’t usually listen to podcasts so I had a lot of catching up to do. I listened to at least two episodes of each of the nominees while trying to determine what my qualifications are for a great podcast; how I could separate the very good from the great in an impartial way. Like a judge at a dog show, I called back a few for another walk around the ring and re-arranged their standings a couple of times before handing out the blue ribbon.
I want to thank all of the readers who placed nominations, and all of the brilliant writers whose different voices were so much fun to discover, and all of the podcasters and videocasters (o.k., Scott stands alone here for now) who give so much of their time to entertain us. You have made my job as a voter both a pleasure and a torture.
I hope you readers have found time to check out some of the sites and articles that you may have overlooked and had even more fun than I did (since you didn’t have to pick a favorite). After all, that’s what these awards are all about: highlighting some of the best information on games to be found on the internet. From what I’ve seen, it’s been a great year.
Good luck to everyone!
Mary
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Encounter 7/9
Encounter
By Yehuda Berlinger. Copyright 2006, Yehuda Berlinger. All rights reserved.
(Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6)
Chapter 7: Schizoid
Everything is black and white, or shades of shadow.
She doesn't know where she is. On the heels of this discovery comes the first rush of panic that she also doesn't know who she is.
She looks at herself. Arms, bare feet, the nondescript gray rags she is wearing, are covered with dirt and something dried and blackened. She feels her face; it is filthy. Something tugs at her ear; she feels a heavy earring. Her hair is dark gray, wiry, and tangled.
She is crouching. She stands.
She is inside some sort of tent. The tent is overflowing with laboriously embroidered pillows and painted hangings, metal pots and clay jugs, all in black and white. There are smells of spices, roasting meat, and baking bread. It is an enormous tent, with four openings, one on each side. Outside, she can only see a blinding white.
People dressed in arabesque tunics sprint around her. They enter from one opening, disappear behind a curtain, re-emerge with jugs and huge plates of food, and exit the same opening. They are mostly adults, but one is a small boy of about twelve; he is moving the fastest, carrying the most. He disappears out the opening.
An old woman with a small wrinkled face pokes her head and torso out from behind the curtain. Her dress is the only thing in color: sharply defined oranges, greens, and yellows. She is dripping with gold jewelry.
The old woman notices her, and holds out a platter of figs in her direction. "Hurry! Take this!" she says, firm, but smiling.
She answers, with some effort, "Who are you?"
"Tsk. What a question! I'm Sarah. Hurry! Take this! The guests are waiting. Abraham is waiting."
She tries to speak again. It is hard to talk. "Sarah," she manages to say.
"Yes, Sarah," the old woman replies. "Once I was Sarai, now I'm Sarah."
She tries to move forwards, but her legs won't move. She tries to reach for the tray, but her arms won't move. She wrestles out, "Why?"
"Why?" The woman stands for a moment looking into space, colored clothes swaying around her with a faint jingling. People - servants, she realizes - continue to hurry to and fro. "Because Abraham asked me to. He asked for my 'Heh'. He needed a 'Heh' for his own name. I gave him my 'Heh'." She is no longer smiling. "I gave it freely. But it was supposed to be in exchange."
The old woman looks off. Sounds of bustle continue.
And then the boy rushes in, out of breath. "Sarah! Sarah! Father says," he huffs, his young dark face sheened with sweat. "Father says that you are to have a baby! A baby! That you will give birth to a baby next year! The guests told him so! He told me to tell you!" He stops and pants.
Everything stops. Sarah looks at the boy astonished.
And begins to laugh. And laugh.
From an unnoticed corner of the room starts a scream. Another woman, dark like the boy, sits and wails. Sarah turns to her and laughs again, seemingly eighty years younger in the space of a moment.
The sitting woman wails even louder, ululating like an ambulance siren. The woman reaches up to her ear and yanks hard, but she feels it in her own ear. The bloodied earring is ripped out of her ear and thrown across the tent. The pain is unbearable and she screams.
Her body has forgotten how to step and she falls. Her arms are incapable of stopping her from falling on her face. She hears the ambulance approaching, its siren and wheels growing into the wail.
There is an unearthly noise and a flash.
An alarm sounds in Barbara's head, and she bolts up in bed.
With a primal yell, she tears out of bed, and runs out the door, barely grabbing her nightgown on the way. She struggles into it as she dashes up the stairs. Bursting into her daughter's room, she finds Sarah lying on the floor beside the bed, a pool of blood slowly spreading out from the ear where her NetMind, now smashed and broken against a wall, used to be.
By Yehuda Berlinger. Copyright 2006, Yehuda Berlinger. All rights reserved.
(Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6)
Chapter 7: Schizoid
Everything is black and white, or shades of shadow.
She doesn't know where she is. On the heels of this discovery comes the first rush of panic that she also doesn't know who she is.
She looks at herself. Arms, bare feet, the nondescript gray rags she is wearing, are covered with dirt and something dried and blackened. She feels her face; it is filthy. Something tugs at her ear; she feels a heavy earring. Her hair is dark gray, wiry, and tangled.
She is crouching. She stands.
She is inside some sort of tent. The tent is overflowing with laboriously embroidered pillows and painted hangings, metal pots and clay jugs, all in black and white. There are smells of spices, roasting meat, and baking bread. It is an enormous tent, with four openings, one on each side. Outside, she can only see a blinding white.
People dressed in arabesque tunics sprint around her. They enter from one opening, disappear behind a curtain, re-emerge with jugs and huge plates of food, and exit the same opening. They are mostly adults, but one is a small boy of about twelve; he is moving the fastest, carrying the most. He disappears out the opening.
An old woman with a small wrinkled face pokes her head and torso out from behind the curtain. Her dress is the only thing in color: sharply defined oranges, greens, and yellows. She is dripping with gold jewelry.
The old woman notices her, and holds out a platter of figs in her direction. "Hurry! Take this!" she says, firm, but smiling.
She answers, with some effort, "Who are you?"
"Tsk. What a question! I'm Sarah. Hurry! Take this! The guests are waiting. Abraham is waiting."
She tries to speak again. It is hard to talk. "Sarah," she manages to say.
"Yes, Sarah," the old woman replies. "Once I was Sarai, now I'm Sarah."
She tries to move forwards, but her legs won't move. She tries to reach for the tray, but her arms won't move. She wrestles out, "Why?"
"Why?" The woman stands for a moment looking into space, colored clothes swaying around her with a faint jingling. People - servants, she realizes - continue to hurry to and fro. "Because Abraham asked me to. He asked for my 'Heh'. He needed a 'Heh' for his own name. I gave him my 'Heh'." She is no longer smiling. "I gave it freely. But it was supposed to be in exchange."
The old woman looks off. Sounds of bustle continue.
And then the boy rushes in, out of breath. "Sarah! Sarah! Father says," he huffs, his young dark face sheened with sweat. "Father says that you are to have a baby! A baby! That you will give birth to a baby next year! The guests told him so! He told me to tell you!" He stops and pants.
Everything stops. Sarah looks at the boy astonished.
And begins to laugh. And laugh.
From an unnoticed corner of the room starts a scream. Another woman, dark like the boy, sits and wails. Sarah turns to her and laughs again, seemingly eighty years younger in the space of a moment.
The sitting woman wails even louder, ululating like an ambulance siren. The woman reaches up to her ear and yanks hard, but she feels it in her own ear. The bloodied earring is ripped out of her ear and thrown across the tent. The pain is unbearable and she screams.
Her body has forgotten how to step and she falls. Her arms are incapable of stopping her from falling on her face. She hears the ambulance approaching, its siren and wheels growing into the wail.
There is an unearthly noise and a flash.
An alarm sounds in Barbara's head, and she bolts up in bed.
With a primal yell, she tears out of bed, and runs out the door, barely grabbing her nightgown on the way. She struggles into it as she dashes up the stairs. Bursting into her daughter's room, she finds Sarah lying on the floor beside the bed, a pool of blood slowly spreading out from the ear where her NetMind, now smashed and broken against a wall, used to be.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Beyond Nickles and Dimes
No, I didn’t drop off the face of the Earth. December was a busy month: a new baby, holidays, and several grandparents to visit. However, I’m back now and hope that some regularity will resume with my biweekly scrivening.
It’s a new year and since many of the big boardgame conventions are in the late summer and fall, gamers tend to take the time to look back at the past year rather than ahead to games coming down the pike. Since the end of the year is often a bit heavier on game releases than the start, there is much less information to discuss than might otherwise be the case. In fact, some people consider the game year cycle to start and end in mid to late summer so that the ‘year’s’ worth of games can start and end with the fall crop.
Not one to buck too many trends I thought I would join in with the discussions, but I just couldn’t do it with a vanilla style. The games that I played the most over the past year are as follows:
- No Thanks!
- Bang!
- Tsuro
- Fairy Tale
- For Sale
- Puerto Rico
- Caylus
- Dragons of Kir / Darter
- Poison
- Bohnanza
- Eiertanz
- BattleLore
- Pepper
- Zendo
- Cartagena
- Citadels
- Nexus Ops
- Shear Panic
- World of Warcraft - The Boardgame
Unfortunately, that is a very unsatisfying list for me. The top five games were indeed played many times (for a total of 82 games), but they are all fairly short filler games. Clearly any game that is played the most throughout the year should indicate something significant, but should Poison be ranked just as high as Bohnanza just because I played it almost the same number of times? Poison takes much less than half the time to play than Bohnanza. In an effort to make a better evaluation of my gaming habits, here is a list of games for which I spent the most TIME playing. Now, I’m not so organized as to be able to log the time it takes me to play a game, instead I made an estimate average playing time for each game and multiplied it by the number of times it was played this past year. Lets take a look at the results:
1350 min Caylus - Coming in at #1 is quite an accomplishment for this game, as I purchased it in August at GenCon. It hit a sweet spot for me and the rest of my gaming group and it started a huge burst of boardgaming far and above our biweekly meetings.
1320 min Puerto Rico – This classic got in a number good plays, and it is also one of my most favorite games. Its ranking is slightly padded by a few online games played with friends. I included those games as they were all played with voice communication software, making it almost like playing the game together in the same room.
720 min World of Warcraft - The Boardgame - It doesn’t take many plays of this game to get a good time ranking. With a long setup time, it is hard to get this game to the table, as a couple quality shorter games could
450 min No Thanks! - I can’t believe I spent over seven hours playing this game. While I’ve now grown more abivalent to the game, I still carry it with me on many trips and outings as it is one of the first games I’ll try to teach to non-gamers.
450 min Bang! – This cardgame with Mafia/Werewolf style elements is a hoot to play, but I don’t care for larger games as they tend to wear on and individuals are eliminated early and end up with long wait times. However, it is a huge hit with the students at school and most of this time was logged last spring playing with the high school game club.
450 min BattleLore - Just released in December, I enjoyed this game enough to play it repeatedly. I’ll be working on a review soon, but it is my favorite of Borg’s wargame systems so far. There are indications of big plans for the game in its future, leaving many to wonder just what those might be. There are many potential directions the game could go.
450 min Axis & Allies (Revised) – I enjoy this game when played with a full five players. The ability to pick and choose what units to purchase as you plan your strategy is always fun for me. The game length is still a bit long, but is far more manageable now that the revised edition is out.
360 min Bohnanza - A great trading game that is often pulled out when playing with newer gamers. Has good opportuntities for socializing.
360 min Nexus Ops – I really enjoy this game and recommend it highly, particularly since it can currently be found at blowout prices. It contains many of the elements I enjoy in Axis and Allies (buying various specialty units) but can be easily played in just over an hour.
360 min Shadows over Camelot - I’ve mellowed in my liking of this game, as I also begin to see some of the limited choices. Still fun in the right group, but there isn’t as much strategy here as I would typically like. For cooperative games, I think I prefer the pure co-op of Lord of the Rings.
360 min Arkham Horror - While it was played only a few times, it was able to hop onto the chart due to the length of time needed to play. A fun co-op roleplaying style game, but simply must be played with four or fewer players or the length of the game gets far too long.
300 min Railroad Tycoon – I haven’t played Age of Steam, but I do enjoy this game. Easy to explain and then get playing, there is some definite randomness to the bonus points on the cards, but still a strategy game that will continue to hit the table (if the table is large enough.)
270 min Vegas Showdown – This has some nice strategy, and goes for a good price nowadays. Simple enough that it makes a pretty good gift to a more casual gamer. I like the auction mechanisms, although the theme and depth aren’t may personal favorites. (I like games just a tad deeper.)
240 min Citadels - This game got some good play simply due to its ability to accommodate a large number of players and the fact it can be played with many players in a reasonable amount of time. There is a fair bit of chaos due to the secret role selection, so some strategy purists aren’t fond of it. I enjoy it enough to play occasionally.
240 min Shear Panic – The cute pieces had this abstract game hit the table quite a few times. The theme and the pieces are enough to help this game to the table even if you’re playing with non gamers. My rural family enjoyed the game immensely even though developing a long term strategy can seem quite impossible at times.
240 min Goa – Another of my favorite games, it doesn’t hit the table often mostly due to the non-interactive style of gameplay and its use of auctions (which a few in my game group do not care for…)
225 min Tsuro – This is one great game. It is very short to play and is one of my favorite fillers. It would easily compete with No Thanks! For best filler this past year, but its box (which is actually reasonably small) keeps it from going everywhere with me.
220 min Fairy Tale – If I need a very portable game to play with gamers, I will bring this. A colorful deck of cards, drafting mechanism, and an moderate level of strategy combine into a fun game.
180 min Around the World in 80 Days – While I initially considered this game to be so-so, I’ve now placed it into the gamer-introduction category and it is a great fit.
180 min Dragons of Kir / Darter – When these two games are combined into one, they just make it onto the list. A fun two player game that has a lot of the feeling of RoboRally – one of my wife’s favorite games but not that fun unless there’s a crowd of players. I look forward to keeping this programming abstract game in our two-player rotation.
180 min Memoir '44 – Lots of expansions over the course of the year helped to ramp up my play time with this card-driven boardgame. With BattleLore now out, I think this one will tend to fall onto the back burner most of the time.
As a quick glance at the two lists can show, there are some dramatic shifts when time played is taken into account. However, I was surprised at how well the top few games held up when compared to much longer games. While I rarely played any of the lighter, filler games several times in a row, the short length of some of those filler games allowed them to be brought to the table (or bench or whatever) far more often. Looking forward to the new year, I am happy to have a regular boardgaming group that should help the number of plays for some of the longer games – we meet biweekly to play games in an open session and then on the off weeks tend to try to play particularly meaty and involved games with a much smaller subset of players.
I think ranking games by time played is far more fair than just counting games played. While shorter games will lose out on one hand, better games will make that up by coming to the table more frequently. The largest fault in the system probably lies in newer games that take a long time to play. One long game that takes hours to play might be tried several times before given the boot. In such a case, it might garner enough time to show up on a particular year’s time-based list. However, it would then fall off the next year’s chart.
As can be seen from the games I’m playing, I’m also ‘behind the curve’ when compared to the bleeding-edge Eurogame players. Many of the newer games I played this year actually appeared on the scene last fall. However, I tend to only play games once they’re officially released in the US. Some might also claim that is the result of a weaker year for new boardgames. While that might be true, I found more than enough new games (or new games to me) to keep me happy and gaming for some time to come. Hopefully I’ll be ready when the next big crop of games appears on the US gaming horizon….
Saturday, January 06, 2007
A misplaced bout of scepticism
I was going through some of my dad's books with him today, and came across one from 1975 called Modern Board Games.
I'm ashamed to say, I snickered a little on the inside. "Yeah right," I said to myself, "Monopoly, Battleship, Scrabble, ..."
Well, with a cover like this, could you blame me?
If I were better read, I would have recognised the name of the editor. David Pritchard was a very distinguished writer on games of all kinds, in particular on chess variants. An obituary written for the British Chess Variants Society is a particularly interesting read.
The book, too, is quite a gem.
Chapter 1, by "leading player" Daryl Francis, discusses Scrabble in considerable length (15 pages). The article is, primarily, an overview of gameplay with some notes on tactics and a very brief history. Interestingly, the article credits James Brunot as the designer, where BoardGameGeek lists Alfred Mosher Butts as the holder of that honour.
Quotage: "[G]ood offensive play is an art. If an inexperienced player attempts offensive play, opening up premium squares for his opponent, he may well end up giving the game away."
Chapter 2 discusses Diplomacy, and is written by Allan B. Calhamer, the game's designer. Again, there's a discrepancy, with BGG attributing the game to 1959 and the book noting that the game's development was completed in 1954 (maybe it just had a really, really long time to market).
The article gives an overview of play of the game and of strategy and tactics, as well as the different playing styles that can evolve. It also includes notes on the gaming landscape at the time. Of all the articles in the book, I think this is probably the most interesting.
Quotage: "Every year sales of the game go up, its popularity probably due to the fact that it is unique among adult board games for its free negotiation between players in which (almost) nothing is barred."
"Diplomacy has pioneered, among games of this type, the introduction of simultaneous moves, as well as the use of unstructured negotiations, permitted deception, independent parties, asymmetrical starting positions, conflict on a continental scale, and significant weight given to both land and sea forces."
Chapter 3, also by the game's inventor, focuses on Terry Donnelly's Decline and Fall. I have to confess, I haven't played this one; it gets a 6.7 on the Geek, but most of the comments seem to refer to its status as a relatively early 'classic'.
This article starts with notes on the development of the game, including some interesting geological developments "in the search for compromise between geography and the demands of a workable grid. The course of the Danube was altered several times; islands were squeezed and shoved and made to fit neatly.". The author discusses the concept of the game, showing a clear link between theme and game structure, then moves into gameplay and strategy, giving strategies for each player.
Quotage: "Decline and Fall is not just a simulation, of course: it is a game. It is usually played in good spirits with lots of bantering among the players, ranging from serious bargaining to an imaginative commentary on the events on the board. This banter is an integral part of the gamem and playing partners should be chosen with this in mind."
Chapter 4, by David Parlett, discusses Dr Eric Solomon's The Sigma File (released in the US as Conspiracy). Parlett is "a games researcher, inventor and established writer" and is the author of several articles in the book. His style is approachable and descriptive, and highlights the more unusual features of the game while still giving an overall feel for the game itself. As with Decline and Fall, this article successfully uses the game's strong theme to explain the rules.
Quotage: "The Sigma File ... has all the ingredients of long-lasting success : easy to learn and play, no complicated rules or terminology, and simple, clear-cut objectives. Yet despite its simplicity, the game gives rise to intriguing situations and last-minute revelations, and rewards careful observation and calculation. And it is primarily a game of bluf - which calls for skills that transcend the age barrier. Play it with friends, and you'll soon be wondering who your friends really were!"
In Chapter 5, the book returns to a more traditional boardgame: Mastermind.
The article's author, David Wells, "specialises in abstract games" and was, at the time of writing, Puzzles editor of Games & Puzzles magazine, the book's publisher. As well as giving an overview of the gameplay, therefore, this article focuses on the game's "solubility." Wells gives plenty of tips for new and more experienced players, and claims that any combination of 4 colours can be solved, without chance, in 5 rows. He discusses the role of chance and also lists common variations for the game. The most interesting of these, to me, is to vary the amount of information which is given to the player who is "guessing" - Wells lists four different possible rule variations that give this.
Quotage: "it is possible to list all the possible distinct positions in the game and determine the winning move, or moves, in each. ... it is not impracticable, but takes long enough to be an instructive exercise for, say, a sixth form mathematics student or a problem fanatic, while being a little too complex and time-consuming for almost everyone else."
Chapter 6 is the chapter this book had to have - on Monopoly. This article, again by David Parlett, explains the rules clearly and simply, but also notes the many other factors that contribute to the gameplay experience. Parlett's approachable style makes the article a real delight to read and I confess I almost wanted to go off and play Monopoly, just so that I too could gaze on "the piece of waste space labelled 'Free Parking'". Parlett's tips for a good game of Monopoly include prior agreement on how long the game is to last (he suggests 2 hours is a reasonable amount of time)
Quotage: "Monopoly is not just a game, it is also a clash of personalities. You will look in vain for openings and conventions and strategies such as befit gentlemanly pursuits like cricket, chess and snooker. Once you have been dealt your first £1500, you're on your own. If you sit back and 'play safe' you deserve to lose, and probably will. If you sit on the edge of your seat and play recklessly you will do no better."
In Chapter 7, we return to an abstract - this one Twixt, reviewed by David Wells, the book's go-to-guy for abstracts. Twixt is an Alex Randolph design first published (according to the Geek) in 1961. Like Wells's earlier article, this is a very theoretical and mathematical article which focuses more on solving than on explaining the game, although a rules overview is included.
Quotage: "Notice that in order to break your opponent's double joint it is necessary to have one of your pegs in the near vicinity but not on or too near to the line joining the pegs (type AB excepted). Conversely, therefore, if you wish to leap round an opponent's peg, try to leap more or less straight across it."
In Chapter 8, the last of David Parlett's articles, he discusses Cluedo - or "Murder at Tudor Close" (Clue to our american readers). He gives a run-down of the game and its strategies as well as the skinny on some personality traits of some of the people in the game (did you know that "Miss Scarlett" probably ISN'T her real name?). The notes on how to make detective notes are particularly detiled.
Quotage: "Cluedo is a splendid introduction for children to games of deduction through question and answer. The dressing up as a board game (in essence, it is really only a card game) sugars the pill without detracting from its success as a sociable form of mental exercise for adults."
Chapter 9 is concerned with Tri-Tactics; author John Humphries is "an authority on proprietary games, a games inventor and writer". This is another early game (circa 1932/5) which does not seem to have lasted as well as most of the other games in the book. This article is relatively brief, but discusses gameplay and tactics for deployment and movement.
Quotage: "Tri_Tactics is a very good initiation to wargaming. It is simple in concept, yet experienced players can employ a wide variety of strategies and tactics not all that dissimilar to 'real life' war."
Chapter 10, by journalist and game enthusiast Josie Matthews, covers the game Speculate. This was a relatively recent release when this book was published (released in 1972; book published 1975) and sounds like it has similarities to Stock market, which Fraser and Biggie play when they can. The theme and goals are fairly familiar - be the player "who, after a predetermined number of rounds, has the highest capital" - and the article's author suggests additional equipment for playing the game - a pocket calculator.
Speculate was modelled on the South African Stock Exchange in Johannesburg.
Quotage: "It is [the] element of surprise, while sometimes infuriating, that captures the spirit of real-life market trends."
Chapter 11, the third article from our Super Abstract Reviewer David Wells, discusses the abstract conflict game Ploy. This game barely scrapes a 6.04 on the Geek, although I think the article is probably Wells's most approachable.
Quotage: "The pieces are actually coloured coral and green - attractive without being too pastel and 'pretty'. For convenience we shall call them Black and White..."
Chapter 12 sees the return of our "authority on proprietary games" John Humphries with an article on Confrontation.
Humphries reviews overall strategy as well as specific responses to certain situations.
Quotage: "Although [Confrontation] is a serious game, it can provide a great deal of fun, particularly when overkill occurs, or if a player is unable to launch his planned attacks because of a pre-emptive strike."
Chapter 13, the book's final article, and John Humphries' shortest, features Escape from Colditz - a game that we own and I have still never played AFAICR, although of course Fraser has many times. A brief overview of gameplay is followed by a discussion of tactics and strategy - with a strong emphasis on the fun factor that the game can offer.
Quotage: "Escape from Colditz should be played for fun and in fact can be very amusing as well as frustrating and tense at times."
So that's just one of the books we found today. Others include a book about my parents' honeymoon (sort of - well, they get a mention), another on game theory and statistical decision making, and a program of a 1970 australian tour by the American Bridge Team complete with signatures of many of the luminaries who attended. (My mother was quick to point out that this tour nearly caused the breakdown of the marriage that had been celebrated with the honeymoon). My reading shelves are filling up - and meanwhile, I want to play all 13 of the games in the book so as to validate the articles for myself.
If only time were more easily stretched.
Meanwhile, don't melt the meeples
xx
Melissa
I'm ashamed to say, I snickered a little on the inside. "Yeah right," I said to myself, "Monopoly, Battleship, Scrabble, ..."
Well, with a cover like this, could you blame me?
If I were better read, I would have recognised the name of the editor. David Pritchard was a very distinguished writer on games of all kinds, in particular on chess variants. An obituary written for the British Chess Variants Society is a particularly interesting read.
The book, too, is quite a gem.
Chapter 1, by "leading player" Daryl Francis, discusses Scrabble in considerable length (15 pages). The article is, primarily, an overview of gameplay with some notes on tactics and a very brief history. Interestingly, the article credits James Brunot as the designer, where BoardGameGeek lists Alfred Mosher Butts as the holder of that honour.
Quotage: "[G]ood offensive play is an art. If an inexperienced player attempts offensive play, opening up premium squares for his opponent, he may well end up giving the game away."
Chapter 2 discusses Diplomacy, and is written by Allan B. Calhamer, the game's designer. Again, there's a discrepancy, with BGG attributing the game to 1959 and the book noting that the game's development was completed in 1954 (maybe it just had a really, really long time to market).
The article gives an overview of play of the game and of strategy and tactics, as well as the different playing styles that can evolve. It also includes notes on the gaming landscape at the time. Of all the articles in the book, I think this is probably the most interesting.
Quotage: "Every year sales of the game go up, its popularity probably due to the fact that it is unique among adult board games for its free negotiation between players in which (almost) nothing is barred."
"Diplomacy has pioneered, among games of this type, the introduction of simultaneous moves, as well as the use of unstructured negotiations, permitted deception, independent parties, asymmetrical starting positions, conflict on a continental scale, and significant weight given to both land and sea forces."
Chapter 3, also by the game's inventor, focuses on Terry Donnelly's Decline and Fall. I have to confess, I haven't played this one; it gets a 6.7 on the Geek, but most of the comments seem to refer to its status as a relatively early 'classic'.
This article starts with notes on the development of the game, including some interesting geological developments "in the search for compromise between geography and the demands of a workable grid. The course of the Danube was altered several times; islands were squeezed and shoved and made to fit neatly.". The author discusses the concept of the game, showing a clear link between theme and game structure, then moves into gameplay and strategy, giving strategies for each player.
Quotage: "Decline and Fall is not just a simulation, of course: it is a game. It is usually played in good spirits with lots of bantering among the players, ranging from serious bargaining to an imaginative commentary on the events on the board. This banter is an integral part of the gamem and playing partners should be chosen with this in mind."
Chapter 4, by David Parlett, discusses Dr Eric Solomon's The Sigma File (released in the US as Conspiracy). Parlett is "a games researcher, inventor and established writer" and is the author of several articles in the book. His style is approachable and descriptive, and highlights the more unusual features of the game while still giving an overall feel for the game itself. As with Decline and Fall, this article successfully uses the game's strong theme to explain the rules.
Quotage: "The Sigma File ... has all the ingredients of long-lasting success : easy to learn and play, no complicated rules or terminology, and simple, clear-cut objectives. Yet despite its simplicity, the game gives rise to intriguing situations and last-minute revelations, and rewards careful observation and calculation. And it is primarily a game of bluf - which calls for skills that transcend the age barrier. Play it with friends, and you'll soon be wondering who your friends really were!"
In Chapter 5, the book returns to a more traditional boardgame: Mastermind.
The article's author, David Wells, "specialises in abstract games" and was, at the time of writing, Puzzles editor of Games & Puzzles magazine, the book's publisher. As well as giving an overview of the gameplay, therefore, this article focuses on the game's "solubility." Wells gives plenty of tips for new and more experienced players, and claims that any combination of 4 colours can be solved, without chance, in 5 rows. He discusses the role of chance and also lists common variations for the game. The most interesting of these, to me, is to vary the amount of information which is given to the player who is "guessing" - Wells lists four different possible rule variations that give this.
Quotage: "it is possible to list all the possible distinct positions in the game and determine the winning move, or moves, in each. ... it is not impracticable, but takes long enough to be an instructive exercise for, say, a sixth form mathematics student or a problem fanatic, while being a little too complex and time-consuming for almost everyone else."
Chapter 6 is the chapter this book had to have - on Monopoly. This article, again by David Parlett, explains the rules clearly and simply, but also notes the many other factors that contribute to the gameplay experience. Parlett's approachable style makes the article a real delight to read and I confess I almost wanted to go off and play Monopoly, just so that I too could gaze on "the piece of waste space labelled 'Free Parking'". Parlett's tips for a good game of Monopoly include prior agreement on how long the game is to last (he suggests 2 hours is a reasonable amount of time)
Quotage: "Monopoly is not just a game, it is also a clash of personalities. You will look in vain for openings and conventions and strategies such as befit gentlemanly pursuits like cricket, chess and snooker. Once you have been dealt your first £1500, you're on your own. If you sit back and 'play safe' you deserve to lose, and probably will. If you sit on the edge of your seat and play recklessly you will do no better."
In Chapter 7, we return to an abstract - this one Twixt, reviewed by David Wells, the book's go-to-guy for abstracts. Twixt is an Alex Randolph design first published (according to the Geek) in 1961. Like Wells's earlier article, this is a very theoretical and mathematical article which focuses more on solving than on explaining the game, although a rules overview is included.
Quotage: "Notice that in order to break your opponent's double joint it is necessary to have one of your pegs in the near vicinity but not on or too near to the line joining the pegs (type AB excepted). Conversely, therefore, if you wish to leap round an opponent's peg, try to leap more or less straight across it."
In Chapter 8, the last of David Parlett's articles, he discusses Cluedo - or "Murder at Tudor Close" (Clue to our american readers). He gives a run-down of the game and its strategies as well as the skinny on some personality traits of some of the people in the game (did you know that "Miss Scarlett" probably ISN'T her real name?). The notes on how to make detective notes are particularly detiled.
Quotage: "Cluedo is a splendid introduction for children to games of deduction through question and answer. The dressing up as a board game (in essence, it is really only a card game) sugars the pill without detracting from its success as a sociable form of mental exercise for adults."
Chapter 9 is concerned with Tri-Tactics; author John Humphries is "an authority on proprietary games, a games inventor and writer". This is another early game (circa 1932/5) which does not seem to have lasted as well as most of the other games in the book. This article is relatively brief, but discusses gameplay and tactics for deployment and movement.
Quotage: "Tri_Tactics is a very good initiation to wargaming. It is simple in concept, yet experienced players can employ a wide variety of strategies and tactics not all that dissimilar to 'real life' war."
Chapter 10, by journalist and game enthusiast Josie Matthews, covers the game Speculate. This was a relatively recent release when this book was published (released in 1972; book published 1975) and sounds like it has similarities to Stock market, which Fraser and Biggie play when they can. The theme and goals are fairly familiar - be the player "who, after a predetermined number of rounds, has the highest capital" - and the article's author suggests additional equipment for playing the game - a pocket calculator.
Speculate was modelled on the South African Stock Exchange in Johannesburg.
Quotage: "It is [the] element of surprise, while sometimes infuriating, that captures the spirit of real-life market trends."
Chapter 11, the third article from our Super Abstract Reviewer David Wells, discusses the abstract conflict game Ploy. This game barely scrapes a 6.04 on the Geek, although I think the article is probably Wells's most approachable.
Quotage: "The pieces are actually coloured coral and green - attractive without being too pastel and 'pretty'. For convenience we shall call them Black and White..."
Chapter 12 sees the return of our "authority on proprietary games" John Humphries with an article on Confrontation.
Humphries reviews overall strategy as well as specific responses to certain situations.
Quotage: "Although [Confrontation] is a serious game, it can provide a great deal of fun, particularly when overkill occurs, or if a player is unable to launch his planned attacks because of a pre-emptive strike."
Chapter 13, the book's final article, and John Humphries' shortest, features Escape from Colditz - a game that we own and I have still never played AFAICR, although of course Fraser has many times. A brief overview of gameplay is followed by a discussion of tactics and strategy - with a strong emphasis on the fun factor that the game can offer.
Quotage: "Escape from Colditz should be played for fun and in fact can be very amusing as well as frustrating and tense at times."
So that's just one of the books we found today. Others include a book about my parents' honeymoon (sort of - well, they get a mention), another on game theory and statistical decision making, and a program of a 1970 australian tour by the American Bridge Team complete with signatures of many of the luminaries who attended. (My mother was quick to point out that this tour nearly caused the breakdown of the marriage that had been celebrated with the honeymoon). My reading shelves are filling up - and meanwhile, I want to play all 13 of the games in the book so as to validate the articles for myself.
If only time were more easily stretched.
Meanwhile, don't melt the meeples
xx
Melissa
Friday, January 05, 2007
Games I Hope to Play in 2007
Looking back on my 2006 gaming year, what springs to mind is not so much the games I played, but the other benefits of devoting considerable time to the hobby. I mean the deepening of friendships inspired by gaming, the conviviality of attending gaming conventions, and the thoughtfulness necessitated by writing a blog about the hobby. If playing games only created a momentary intellectual pleasure then it would seem to me to be an emotionally sterile activity. But the social aspect of gaming makes it so such more than just a weekly exercise in plotting strategy.
But enough sentimentality.
I’m grateful to Gone Gaming readers, especially those who make comments. I judge the success of an essay by how many remarks it generates, and one that inspires five people to write You’re dead wrong is more successful to me than an essay that causes one person to comment that I’m right. I don’t always reply to readers’ comments--chiefly because I have nothing intelligent to add to my original remarks. But I try to read every comment offered.
But let’s now look to the year ahead.
Here’s a list of some of the games that I hope to play in 2007. It may not be of any interest to many, but maybe I can point out some upcoming or newly-published games that some are not yet aware of. If this list seems to contain more wargames than euros that is because wargame companies are more likely to have pre-publication lists. I’ll probably be playing many more euros than wargames in 2007, but I know a lot less about what euro-games are on the horizon.
Pirate Games. I believe the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is at least partly responsible for the fleet of pirate games sailing our way. Soon to come from GMT games is Winds of Plunder, a low-complexity euro-style game. Also on GMT’s pre-publication pledge page is Blackbeard, a Richard Berg’s redesign of his old Avalon Hill pirate game. Sea Rovers is a pirate game (published in 2006) designed by a gentleman named Van Overby that has received respectable reviews on Boardgamegeek. Merchants & Marauders is another upcoming pirate romp from Bloodline Games that has also been getting (or manufacturing) a lot of attention on Boardgamegeek.
Samurai-era strategic wargames. The classic euro-wargame Wallenstein has just re-appeared as Shogun, a Rio Grande game, and I hope to be getting a copy in the not-too-distant future. Multiman Publishing has two Samurai-era wargames on their pre-publication page. Both are American versions of games that originated in Japan. Samurai Lords is the bigger and more comprehensive game that will come with a multitude of scenarios which can accommodate varying numbers of players. A Most Dangerous Time is a more focused two-player game that concentrates on one crucial fourteen-year period of Japan’s history. And GMT has a game called Sekigahara on their pre-publication page. This seems to be a low or medium complexity two-player wargame.
Investment Wargames. I got the Martin Wallace game Perikles for Christmas, and I hope to acquire Imperial (from Rio Grande) soon. I think of these games as investment wargames because they both use variations of the same game mechanism: players are not assigned any nations or military forces to command. Instead, players acquire influence in the nations or city-states they wish to command. Players have the same relationship to the nations of the games as players do to train companies in the 18XX series of railroad games. I think Perikles is a fine game, and I look forward to comparing it to Imperial.
Long Games. The Appalachian Gamers own a large number of games with long-playing times that we want to get to the table, but so far have not been able to do so. These include Arkham Horror, Die Macher, Britannia, and Age of Renaissance. We managed to play Struggle of Empires once last year, and some of us would like to try it again.
Pillars of the Earth. Caylus lite. Enough said.
Lord of the Rings: Battlefields. Fantasy Flight’s production of Knizia’s Lord of the Rings game was one of the first euros I ever played. Even if the token–collection mechanism at the heart of the game seems very abstract, the we-are-all-in-this-together feeling of this cooperative game captures the comradeship at the heart of Tolkien’s trilogy. I look forward to Fantasy Flight’s new expansion.
Stephenson’s Rocket. Rio Grande Games has been promising to reprint this Knizia train game for some time. Let’s hope it finally happens this year.
Hermagor. Another Rio Grande Games import that got lots of favorable coverage at Essen this past year. This appears to be another medium-complexity resource-conversion game.
A War of the Ring mystery project. On a recent Boardgamegeek post, Roberto Di Meglio of Nexus games commented that although Nexus was not going to be producing any full-fledged expansion to War of the Ring this year, they have “another special thing” in the works. War of the Ring fans began speculating about what this could be. I would be happy just to get bigger and easier-to-read decks of cards.
Happy New Year.
But enough sentimentality.
I’m grateful to Gone Gaming readers, especially those who make comments. I judge the success of an essay by how many remarks it generates, and one that inspires five people to write You’re dead wrong is more successful to me than an essay that causes one person to comment that I’m right. I don’t always reply to readers’ comments--chiefly because I have nothing intelligent to add to my original remarks. But I try to read every comment offered.
But let’s now look to the year ahead.
Here’s a list of some of the games that I hope to play in 2007. It may not be of any interest to many, but maybe I can point out some upcoming or newly-published games that some are not yet aware of. If this list seems to contain more wargames than euros that is because wargame companies are more likely to have pre-publication lists. I’ll probably be playing many more euros than wargames in 2007, but I know a lot less about what euro-games are on the horizon.
Pirate Games. I believe the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is at least partly responsible for the fleet of pirate games sailing our way. Soon to come from GMT games is Winds of Plunder, a low-complexity euro-style game. Also on GMT’s pre-publication pledge page is Blackbeard, a Richard Berg’s redesign of his old Avalon Hill pirate game. Sea Rovers is a pirate game (published in 2006) designed by a gentleman named Van Overby that has received respectable reviews on Boardgamegeek. Merchants & Marauders is another upcoming pirate romp from Bloodline Games that has also been getting (or manufacturing) a lot of attention on Boardgamegeek.
Samurai-era strategic wargames. The classic euro-wargame Wallenstein has just re-appeared as Shogun, a Rio Grande game, and I hope to be getting a copy in the not-too-distant future. Multiman Publishing has two Samurai-era wargames on their pre-publication page. Both are American versions of games that originated in Japan. Samurai Lords is the bigger and more comprehensive game that will come with a multitude of scenarios which can accommodate varying numbers of players. A Most Dangerous Time is a more focused two-player game that concentrates on one crucial fourteen-year period of Japan’s history. And GMT has a game called Sekigahara on their pre-publication page. This seems to be a low or medium complexity two-player wargame.
Investment Wargames. I got the Martin Wallace game Perikles for Christmas, and I hope to acquire Imperial (from Rio Grande) soon. I think of these games as investment wargames because they both use variations of the same game mechanism: players are not assigned any nations or military forces to command. Instead, players acquire influence in the nations or city-states they wish to command. Players have the same relationship to the nations of the games as players do to train companies in the 18XX series of railroad games. I think Perikles is a fine game, and I look forward to comparing it to Imperial.
Long Games. The Appalachian Gamers own a large number of games with long-playing times that we want to get to the table, but so far have not been able to do so. These include Arkham Horror, Die Macher, Britannia, and Age of Renaissance. We managed to play Struggle of Empires once last year, and some of us would like to try it again.
Pillars of the Earth. Caylus lite. Enough said.
Lord of the Rings: Battlefields. Fantasy Flight’s production of Knizia’s Lord of the Rings game was one of the first euros I ever played. Even if the token–collection mechanism at the heart of the game seems very abstract, the we-are-all-in-this-together feeling of this cooperative game captures the comradeship at the heart of Tolkien’s trilogy. I look forward to Fantasy Flight’s new expansion.
Stephenson’s Rocket. Rio Grande Games has been promising to reprint this Knizia train game for some time. Let’s hope it finally happens this year.
Hermagor. Another Rio Grande Games import that got lots of favorable coverage at Essen this past year. This appears to be another medium-complexity resource-conversion game.
A War of the Ring mystery project. On a recent Boardgamegeek post, Roberto Di Meglio of Nexus games commented that although Nexus was not going to be producing any full-fledged expansion to War of the Ring this year, they have “another special thing” in the works. War of the Ring fans began speculating about what this could be. I would be happy just to get bigger and easier-to-read decks of cards.
Happy New Year.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Nickels and Dimes: 2006
There are any number of ways to review games and say which are best. I regularly write gameplay reviews at RPGnet. Here on Gone Gaming, I've written previews, yearly lists, and more.However ultimately I think one of the best guides of "what's good" (or, at least, "what's good for me") is what gets played. No matter how beautiful and elegant a game is, if it never gets played because it's ten hours long, it's hard to count it as a good game. Hence the yearly "nickel and dime" lists where people talk about what games they've played at least five or ten times.
In past years my nickel and dime lists have been somewhat uninteresting. They tended to focus on the 2-player games that I played with my wife. Alas, my wife has largely stopped playing games this year, but on the upside my 5&10 list is a more accurate reflection of my gaming tastes (with perhaps too much emphasis on fillers).
Here's what 2006 brought:
Unpublished Prototype x17
A bit of a cheat since this refers to at least six different games that I can remember: two prototypes that I've put together with my partner Christopher Allen; two prototypes belonging to a friend I regularly game with; one prototype by a local company; and one by a friend of a friend. Most of them got one or two plays, but two (including one of mine) are probably nickels.
There's not really a lot to be said about unpublished prototypes, since they're innately somewhat confidential. I'm pretty sure at least one of them will see print in the next year, though I'm not sure which one. I'd be surprised if more than two or three of them did.
Rumis x9 [ review ]
I write every year about the hottest new fillers that come and go. Fairy Tale, No Thanks!, and Hey! That's My Fish! are some of the ones the last several that had a spike in play right after release. However Rumis is a rare filler with long-term sticking power. It's fun, it's colorful, and it's quick. I'm still not convinced there's a lot of strategy in it; I feel like I somewhat randomly win or lose based upon a few moves. (Though when I told this to a friend last night, he said, "Well, I always lose, so some people must always be able to win.")
The only deficit of Rumis as a filler is that it's a big box. I wouldn't typically haul it around in case I ended up with 15 extra minutes. The main reason it continues to get played (for me at least) is that there's a public copy over at my local game store.
Blue Moon x8 [ review ]
Here's a rare 2-player game that's on my list, but it's only here because I've slowly been writing reviews of all the expansions. Right now 2-player games aren't really a part of my gaming, so it's a push to get this played. If I played more 2-players I'd certainly like to play this regularly, as it's relatively deep for a 2-player game, yet not excessively long.
Through the Desert x8 [ review ]
I don't know that I'd say that this is my favorite Knizia game, but I'm certainly not surprised to see it at the top of my list. It's light and it's fast, but there's a lot of meanignful strategy to it. And, it has the benefit of being really small in its new edition, and thus often goes into my gaming bag. I find it kind of funny that some of my most played games, like this or Rumis, are the ones that happen to be available at my game store for various reasons--but that doesn't stop them from being great games.
Coloretto x7 [review ]
I suppose this is another filler game with staying power, since it's been two years since it was in constant-play-before-gaming mode with my group. On the other hand, I'm not terribly excited by it any more, and I suspect all of this year's plays were because someone else suggested a game. It's clever, and it's simple, but after five or ten plays you've mainly seen what it can do.
Hey! That's My Fish! x7 [ review ]
These seven plays were probablly all new-game-smell plays, as I can't remember the last time Hey! That's My Fish! hit either my game bag or the table. Nonetheless, it's a great filler, mainly by the fact that it's very different from the ubiquitous card games that tend to fill the genre. It's light and not very deep, but it's pretty original.
Memoir '44 x7 [ review ]
BattleLore x5 [ review ]
Commands & Colors: Ancients x4
In short: Richard Borg has created a superb system with his C&C mechanics. Despite the fact that I have almost no interest in war games, these games do continue to interest me, and have year after year. Either Memoir '44 or BattleLore is the best of the lot, depending on whether you want casual or more serious. Ultimately C&C:A just isn't well developed enough to stand up to the superb Days of Wonder releases.
Thurn and Taxis x7
This is the only fully original full-length game from 2006 to make my nickel list, which goes partway toward explaining why I wrote that the releases in 2006 were somewhat disappointing. Thurn and Taxis is not very deep, and I don't think it has the tactical breadth of Ticket to Ride, which it was clearly trying to emulate. Nonetheless it's a fine game that I've been happy to play and still goes into my bag occasionally. However, I also suspect I'm not going to buy the expansion when it comes out this year.
Arkham Horror x6 [ review ]
I don't play long games, so for Fantasy Flight's new edition of Arkham Horror to make my nickel list is nothing short of astounding. It basically means that my RPG group spent 6 of our ~35-40 weeks of gaming last year playing Arkham Horror instead of an RPG. Granted, Arkham Horror may not be that amazing to folks more used to Euros, but as a crossover game into the RPG crowd, the new edition does a very, very good job.
Fairy Tale x6 [ review ]
Yup, it's another filler. I was obsessively fond of it when it was released, and though the ardor has now cooled, I still think it's a fine game. However, like others that I've already mentioned in this category, I'm not convinced that winning or losing is based on good gameplay. It seems pretty random, but getting there is still fun. (And it's already racked up one play in 2007 too.)
Dead Man's Treasure x5 [ review ]
Another filler, this one by Reiner Knizia, and surprisingly not as good as the other fillers on my list. It's an enjoyable game, but it's only particularly notable because blind bidding isn't a common filler topic. I think it has more depth than some of the others, but I also think I'm about done with it.
Hacienda x5
Kramer's Hacienda was nearly a 2006 release. I think I got it with just a few days left in 2005 and may not have played it until 2006. As such it's notable because it's another heavier game that's original and is a great design. I expect it to outlive Thurn & Taxis as one of the better games of this last year-or-so, though it just doesn't quite have that uniqueness to drive fanatical play.
Ingenious x5
Another Reiner Knizia game. I've increasingly realized this year that he's designed many of my favorite games, and if they don't all appear on my five and dime list, it's because he has so many to choose from. Ingenious is a rarity: an abstract that I truly adore. I'm surprised to have played it four times this year before I got a copy at Christmas. It promptly hit the table a fifth time on December 30, the day after my dad gave me my copy. This will surely get more plays in the New Year; it may hit the table tonight.
Knights of Charlemagne x5 [ review ]
Another Knizia and another filler--and another Knizia that doesn't excite me nearly as much as his more full-length pieces. I think this is a clever game, particularly in its 4-player configuration, but I also feel like Knizia did this genre better with Battleline.
No Thanks! x5 [ review ]
Honestly, Geschkent! only gets play any more when we're got 5 minutes because we're waiting for someone, and we don't care if we finish the game or not. Which isn't a particularly strong endorsement--but I suppose it's nice to have rather than sitting around for those five minutes.
Almost There (4): Blue Moon City, Great Wall of China, Havoc: The Hundred Years War, Lost Cities, Mission: Red Planet, Pickomino, Ra, Res Publica, Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride Marklin, Vegas Showdown.
When looking at the good games from 2006 I have to highlight Blue Moon City and Vegas Showdown which were definitely two of my favorites this year. The story of Vegas Showdown is a bit tragic, with Wizards remaindering it just before it won the Games 100 award, but that's what happens when you sell your soul to the Hasbro devil. I was surprised to discover that Mission: Red Planet really fills the El Grande urge--in half the time and with less beating up on the leader.
You'll also note another few of my favorite Knizias.
Also Ran (3): Alexandros, Beowulf: The Legend, Bohnanza, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, Circus Flohcati, Dungeon Twister, Funny Friends, Hollywood Blockbuster, King of the Beasts: Mythological Edition, Ostia, PUNCT, Seismic, Tikal, Winner's Circle.
Funny Friends and Hollywood Blockbuster were another couple of great releases this year--the first as a totally original game (with a terrible, terrible rulebook, sadly) and the second as a reprint.
Dungeon Twister is a game that I lauded after its release in 2005, and I continue to think it's the bee's knees. It'd get a lot of play if I had an opponent who liked it.
And I'll finally mentioned King of the Beasts: Mythological Edition as a game that doesn't deserve to be on this list. It got three plays only because we were so dumb-founded by the game that we had to keep trying it to see if it got any better. (It didn't.)
And that was my last year in gaming. I'm looking forward to what 2007 brings.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
No good title springs to mind.
First an update:
The last time I made an appearance on Gone Gaming I pointed out that a money-related blog The Simple Dollar was counting down the top five financial boardgames of all time. Number five was The Game of Life and number four was Monopoly. At the time the top three games were yet to be named. I foresaw a train wreck in The Simple Dollar's future and could only shake my head as I wondered what their top three picks would be.
Surprise!
Turns out the top three were Modern Art, Acquire, and Puerto Rico.
I will grant you that the definition of "financial game" may have been stretched, but it did my heart good to see TGOO (These Games of Ours) getting mentioned in an unexpected source. None were games that would make my list of top financial games, and the games on the top of the list were so different from those on the bottom that it left me scratching my head. I find it likely that the writer has only dipped his toes into the ocean of fine German games and is unaware of many games we geeks take for granted. Perhaps by this time next year he will be counting down Knizia's 25 best financial games.
-----------------------------------
It is on that note that I have to bid you all a fond farewell. Even though I have cut back to every other week, I find that the deadline for Gone Gaming posts is arriving long before I am ready. As I am writing these pieces I find myself wishing I was either a) spending time with my family, or b) in bed.
I am working many more hours than when we first started this blog, and time for blogging has greatly diminished. Even more importantly I haven't been able to play games as often as I would like. There have been months in the recent past when I have only gamed one or two days the entire month. There haven't been any weekly game nights at the Boys and Girls Club for months, and my old schedule of gaming with the guys on most Mondays and Fridays is but a fond memory.
I hope to be back to a more sane schedule with a regular game day in the near future, but I have been vainly hoping that for several months. It's time to throw in the blogging towel.
I wish you all a Happy New Year filled with many BattleLore expansions, and offer a special thank you to the other bloggers (past and present, regulars and guests) who have contributed to Gone Gaming.
Brian
The last time I made an appearance on Gone Gaming I pointed out that a money-related blog The Simple Dollar was counting down the top five financial boardgames of all time. Number five was The Game of Life and number four was Monopoly. At the time the top three games were yet to be named. I foresaw a train wreck in The Simple Dollar's future and could only shake my head as I wondered what their top three picks would be.
Surprise!
Turns out the top three were Modern Art, Acquire, and Puerto Rico.
I will grant you that the definition of "financial game" may have been stretched, but it did my heart good to see TGOO (These Games of Ours) getting mentioned in an unexpected source. None were games that would make my list of top financial games, and the games on the top of the list were so different from those on the bottom that it left me scratching my head. I find it likely that the writer has only dipped his toes into the ocean of fine German games and is unaware of many games we geeks take for granted. Perhaps by this time next year he will be counting down Knizia's 25 best financial games.
-----------------------------------
It is on that note that I have to bid you all a fond farewell. Even though I have cut back to every other week, I find that the deadline for Gone Gaming posts is arriving long before I am ready. As I am writing these pieces I find myself wishing I was either a) spending time with my family, or b) in bed.
I am working many more hours than when we first started this blog, and time for blogging has greatly diminished. Even more importantly I haven't been able to play games as often as I would like. There have been months in the recent past when I have only gamed one or two days the entire month. There haven't been any weekly game nights at the Boys and Girls Club for months, and my old schedule of gaming with the guys on most Mondays and Fridays is but a fond memory.
I hope to be back to a more sane schedule with a regular game day in the near future, but I have been vainly hoping that for several months. It's time to throw in the blogging towel.
I wish you all a Happy New Year filled with many BattleLore expansions, and offer a special thank you to the other bloggers (past and present, regulars and guests) who have contributed to Gone Gaming.
Brian
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Gone Gaming: Board Game Internet Awards nominations are closed
The 2006 Gone Gaming: Board Game Internet Awards nominations are now closed. A big thank you to everyone who participated in the nomination process. You have nominated a diverse range of excellent material. The nominations in each category are listed below.If your site was nominated, you may display the "Nominee" image here on your site as follows:
<a href="http://boredgamegeeks.blogspot.com/2006/12/gone-gaming-2006-board-game-internet.html"> <img src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1983/123/400/481528/bgia-nominee.jpg"></a>
Some nominations were not in the correct category, and I moved these to a more appropriate category.
The Gone Gaming staff will now retreat to our secret location to discuss and vote on our picks for each category. The results will be published around January 13, 2006. Good luck to all nominees.
The valid nominations are as follows:
Best Game Resource Site:
AxisandAllies.org
http://www.axisandallies.org
Board Game Awards
http://boardgameawards.blogspot.com
BoardGameGeek
http://www.boardgamegeek.com
Boardgame News
http://www.boardgamenews.com
Bruno Faidutti's Game Site
http://www.faidutti.com
Rick Heli's Spotlight on Games
http://spotlightongames.com
Best Game Publisher Site:
Days of Wonder
http://www.daysofwonder.com
Edge Entertainment
http://www.edgeent.com
Fantasy Flight Games
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com
Mayfair Games
http://www.mayfairgames.com
Wizards of the Coast (and Avalon Hill)
http://www.wizards.com
Z-Man Games
http://www.zmangames.com
Best Game Club Site:
Columbia Strategic Simulation Society
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/csss
East Tennessee Gamers
http://www.easttennesseegamers.com
Long Island Boardgaming Organization
http://www.libogroup.com
San Antonio Board Gamers
http://saboardgamers.blogspot.com
Best Online Game Magazine:
INDEPTH
http://www.libogroup.com/indepth.htm
Journal of Boardgame Design
http://www.jbdgames.blogspot.com
Best Online Gaming Site:
BrettspielWelt
http://www.brettspielwelt.de
FlexGames
http://www.flexgames.com
Little Golem
http://www.littlegolem.net
MaBi Web
http://www.mabiweb.com
SpielByWeb
http://www.spielbyweb.com
Super Duper Games
http://www.superdupergames.org
Best Game Blog:
Boardgame Cafe Community
http://boardgamecafe.net/community/blogs/default.aspx?GroupID=6
Chris Farrel's Gaming Blog
http://homepage.mac.com/c_farrell/iblog
Gamer's Mind
http://ekted.blogspot.com
Gamer's Notebook
http://www.funagain.com/control/viewblog?contentBlogId=1
Gathering of Engineers
http://pdxgaming.blogspot.com
Journal of Boardgame Design
http://jbdgames.blogspot.com
Mike Doyle's Art Play
http://mdoyle.blogspot.com
Musings and Mental Meanderings
http://www.thesmerf.com/blog
NYC Gamer
http://www.columbia.edu/~tir2101/nycgamer.html
Pawnstar
http://fellonmyhead.blogspot.com
Playing With Myself
http://sologamer.blogspot.com
The Tao of Gaming
http://gaming.powerblogs.com
Yehuda
http://jergames.blogspot.com
Best Game Podcast/Videocast:
Boardgame Babylon
http://boardgamebabylon.libsyn.com
Boardgames to Go
http://boardgamestogo.com/
Board Games With Scott
http://www.boardgameswithscott.com
Garrett's Games & Geekiness
http://www.garrettsgames.com
Into the Gamescape
http://www.thegamescape.co.uk
Point 2 Point
http://point2pointsource.com
Roll 2d6
http://www.roll2d6.com
The Dice Tower
http://www.thedicetower.com
Best New Site (2006):
Board Game Awards
http://boardgameawards.blogspot.com
Board Games - Creation And Play
http://creationandplay.blogspot.com
Gamer's Notebook
http://www.funagain.com/control/viewblog?contentBlogId=1
Journal of Boardgame Design
http://jbdgames.blogspot.com
Mike Doyle's Art Play
http://mdoyle.blogspot.com/
NYC Gamer
http://www.columbia.edu/~tir2101/nycgamer.html
The Battlelore blog
http://blog.battlelore.com
Best Strategy Article (2006):
Board Game Geek
A Treatise On Dice Rolling Strategy
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/114580
Board Game Geek
Probability and Game Theory
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/124805
The Tao of Gaming
6,000 Words about Caylus
http://gaming.powerblogs.com/posts/1136415294.shtml
Best Review Article (2006):
AxisandAllies.org
Axis & Allies: D-Day Review
http://www.axisandallies.org/node/15
Board Game Geek
Perikles: First Play, First Impressions
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/130493
Board Game Geek
Carcassonne as heavy as Tigris and Caylus?!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/133252
Board Game Geek
Friese’s Fiddly Funkenschlag Flop
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/136370
Board Game Geek
What's all this then?
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/119271
Board Game Geek
Deflexion vs. Laser Battle
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/120826
Cameron Turner
Miscellaneous Musings - 11 Best Geek Board Games
http://www.camturner.com/archives/11-best-geek-board-games
Gamer's Notebook
Emira and Canal Mania
http://www.funagain.com/control/viewblogpost?contentBlogPostId=10030&contentBlogId=1
Pawnstar
Canal Mania - An Overview
http://fellonmyhead.blogspot.com/2006/07/canal-mania-overview.html
Best Session Report (2006):
Board Game Geek
Pappenheimer Surprise (Wallenstein)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/135957
Board Game Geek
Heart stopping action and excitement
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/94166
Board Game Geek
A Session with the Doctor (Poisson d'Avril)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/129537
Board Game Geek
So You Think I Can't Dance?
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/123409
Board Game Geek
How To Play Doom Like A Girl!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/101526
Board Game Geek
Once more into the blocks, dear friends.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/94155
Board Game Geek
A Round of Torture Followed by a Round of Carcassonne
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/93324
Board Game Geek
Starting a Game of Caylus
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/94332
Tom Vasel
Invasion of the Little People
http://www.thedicetower.com/blog/index.php?/archives/26-Invasion-of-the-Little-People.html
Best Industry Article (2006):
Board Game Geek
Board Game Geek Gift Guide
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Gift_Guide
Board Game Geek
Essen - Reflections on New Releases
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/132001
Board Game Geek
So You've Always Wanted to Know What an 18xx Game is Like
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/99300
Board Game Geek
How to Ask for a Wargame Recommendation
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/111674
Board Game News
The Unknown, the Mysterious, the Unexplainable / Verticon
http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/frank_branham_the_unknown_the_mysterious_the_unexplainable
Boardgamers' Pastime
Fill in the Blank
http://boardgamerspastime.com/?p=33
Chris Farrell
Revisiting Republic of Rome
http://homepage.mac.com/c_farrell/iblog/C2097221587/E20061004171213/index.html
Chris Farrell
Ra vs. Beowulf
http://homepage.mac.com/c_farrell/iblog/C2097221587/E20060726170425/index.html
Chris Farrell
Here I Stand and Big Decks
http://homepage.mac.com/c_farrell/iblog/C1070818615/E20060501180817/index.html
Gamer's Mind
So You Play Games?
http://ekted.blogspot.com/2006/08/so-you-play-games.html
Gamer's Notebook
Essen 2006 Report
http://www.funagain.com/control/viewblogpost?contentBlogPostId=10041&contentBlogId=1
Journal of Board Game Design
Taking Care of Business Games
http://jbdgames.blogspot.com/2006/04/taking-care-of-business-games.html
King Lud IC
Calvin and Hobbes Blur The Magic Square
http://kingludic.blogspot.com/2006/06/calvin-and-hobbes-blur-magic-square.html
My Play
An Introduction to Elegance
http://linnaeus.wordpress.com/2006/08/14/an-introduction-to-elegance
The Tao of Gaming
A theory of semi-cooperative games, applied to Shadows over Camelot
http://gaming.powerblogs.com/posts/1142104317.shtml
Yehuda
Learn to Love Board Games Again: 100+ Ways to Rejuvenate the Games You Already Own
http://jergames.blogspot.com/2006/10/learn-to-love-board-games-again100.html
Yehuda
No Thanks - A Study in Mechanics
http://jergames.blogspot.com/2006/08/no-thanks-study-in-mechanics.html
Yehuda
The Four Challenges That Games Provide
http://jergames.blogspot.com/2006/07/four-challenges-that-games-provide.html
Best Humorous Article (2006):
Board Game Geek
Agincourt - In Which I School a Sixth-Grader, If Only Just
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/139690
Board Game Geek
A Session with the Doctor
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/129537
Board Game Geek
A Treatise On Dice Rolling Strategy
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/114580
Board Game Geek
So You Think I Can't Dance?
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/123409
Board Game Geek
How To Play Doom Like A Girl!
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/101526
Board Game Geek
All I Did Was Drop A Meeple - A Valentine Tale
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/99627
Board Game News
'Twas The Week Before Christmas
http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/scott_tepper_twas_the_week_before_christmas
Gamer's Mind
Meeting of the Minds
http://ekted.blogspot.com/2006/04/meeting-of-minds.html
Pawnstar
Halloween Horror
http://fellonmyhead.blogspot.com/2006/10/halloween-horror.html
Yehuda
An Interview with the Designer
http://jergames.blogspot.com/2006/01/interview-with-designer.html
Yehuda
Green Eggs and Tom
http://jergames.blogspot.com/2006/03/green-eggs-and-tom.html
Yehuda
The Ballad of a Game of Dvonn
http://jergames.blogspot.com/2006/03/ballad-of-game-of-dvonn.html
Best Article Series (2006):
Axis and Allies.org
Saburo Sakai's A&A Pacific Essays
http://www.axisandallies.org/node/118
http://www.axisandallies.org/node/224
http://www.axisandallies.org/node/228
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=7581.0
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=7627.0
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=7674.0
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=8082.0
Board Game Babylon
The Demise and Rise of the FLGS
http://boardgamebabylon.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=104576
Board Game Geek
The Lamont Brothers: Hameln - Designers' Notes
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/136722
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/137735
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/138999
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/140339
Board Game News
Postcards From Berlin
http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/C71/
Gamer's Mind
ASL Primer
http://ekted.blogspot.com/2006/05/asl-primer-i.html
http://ekted.blogspot.com/2006/05/asl-primer-ii.html
The One Hundred
The One Hundred
http://fluffysnoop.blogspot.com/
Best Downloadable Board Game:
3J Games
Dueling Nobles
http://www.freewebs.com/3jgames/duelingnobles.pdf
Axis and Allies .org
Axis & Allies Revised Historical Edition
http://www.axisandallies.org/node/223
City of Timbuktu
Web of Power: The Cardgame
http://spiele-aus-timbuktu.de/downloadkkk.html
PiecePack Wiki
Hanging Gardens
http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/HangingGardens
Scott
PocketCiv
http://home.comcast.net/~doho123/games/PocketCiv/html/index.htm
The Gone Gaming Staff
Monday, January 01, 2007
GAME STORE CONFIDENTIAL ~ A matter of perspective
Even though I understand that calendars, the counting of years and other such measures of time passing are somewhat arbitrary... when I ponder board games and how deeply I have been involved with them during my own years, I'm astounded at thier impact on my life.
This year will mark the 44th since I saved up a whole $5 and begged my mother to take me to a store in downtown Dallas. The store specialized in magic tricks, hobby supplies and a few boardgames. I bought my copy of Milton-Bradley's Dogfight and then spent the entire rest of the day waiting in her beat up old Volvo sedan until she got off from work.
The fact that I've been playing board games... or what those of us who are passionate about board games call "real" board games... for longer than most fans have been alive doesn't make me in any sense a better gamer than say Ro-Bee, who will turn 21 this year. Or Jumbo, my main opponent, who will turn 24. Or, for that matter, any of you who probably range in age from the mid-twenties to my age... or nearly so.
But, having been a gamer for the better part of five decades does give me one thing that not everyone has just yet.
Perspective.
What got me thinking about perspective are my daily visits to sites like BGN, various blogs that many who read this write, publisher web sites and, of course, the venerable BGG. The current I sense when I read the excited gamer's praises of newer, better, flashier games... as well as the unspoken, but blatent disregard for the goodness of what passes for "old" in our niche, is that board gamers have become somewhat driven more to consume than to delve. By that I mean there is an undercurrent that smells like consumerism as opposed to what I have to call joy. I may not be describing you, but I'd bet if you think about it, you'll see it as well.
In December I purchased two new CDG titles. CDG means card driven game, for those who may not know the acronyms of this subculture. BattleLore and Combat Commander: Europe were the two titles I bought. Both are highly rated, beautiful, well designed, professionally produced and they are truly wonderful, wonderful board games. Chad Jensen and Richard Borg, the designers, have the touch. As well as a healthy dose of the perspective I mentioned earlier. Borg is probably my age or perhaps older, so I'm pretty certain he has even more of a seasoned viewpoint than Jensen, who is a damned good designer no matter what his age is.
But anyway, back to CDGs and, of course, Dogfight. Oh yeah, and how perspective fits in. You see, Dogfight is a CDG. And it's old, old, old. I'd go so far as to say that Dogfight is still, after 44 years, a damned good CDG. I'd play it. And I'd enjoy it. Not just because I like old things either, but because it's a solid game design. So solid that it's either at or at least close to, the inception point of a design mechanism that has since been developed into one of the major mechanics in a suprising percentage of recent best-selling and/or highly rated board games.
Early CDG design. Each squadron has a set of cards that allow specific actions. Not so different really from modern CDG mechanics.
Looking closer at Borg's Commands & Colors system there is another striking similarity to Dogfight and it's sister game: Broadside. In Dogfight when you score a hit on an enemy airplane you remove a part: a wing or propellor. When there is nothing but the fuselage left, the craft is killed and you get an Ace token. In Broadside it's the same mechanism, only sails are removed from ships that suffer hits. Now look at the C&C system. When you score a hit, one of the "parts" of the entire unit is removed from play. Like Dogfight, this doesn't affect the unit's combat capability. When there are no more parts of the unit left you are awarded a victory token.
Not so different from the modern Commands & Colors system. In Broadside a sail is removed for each hit on a target ship. When they're gone, so's the vessel. Ships with fewer sails are faster and agile, but more vulnerable. Sound familiar?
Both Dogfight and BattleLore are essentially the same thing, only the latter is evolved and the former is seminal. Newer, in game terms, isn't always better. Usually newer means it has more aspects to it's play, it's more attractive, it's often smoother playing and it has the attention and love of modern board game fans. I could write all day comparing modern board games to older titles ranging from Kings & Things to HeroQuest to Settlers of Catan and on and on... but you get the point I'm sure. Older games, those that in most cases are the foundation of what are considered fantastic games in this century, just don't get the love or respect they deserve.
Having perspective means, at least for me, that I can play and appreciate a game that isn't shiny and still under warranty. My other passion in life is motorcycles and from where I am now, I see that source of joy as having similarities to board game evolution. Here's an example ...
30 years ago I bought a Harley-Davidson from a dealer in El Paso, Texas. He had about 15 of this odd-looking model and couldn't sell a one of them. I rented a trailer and hauled it back home with me. After riding it for a year or two, a fireman I was acquainted with offered me $1500 more for the bike than I paid for it new. My frame of mind back then (in my late 20's) was that Ducati, Moto-Guzzi, BMW and several of the Japanese manufacturers were making far superior big twins to what Harley was doing. So, I took my profit and the fireman rode away.
The CR1000, a radical design for the struggling Harley-Davidson company. Perhaps 4,000 to 5,000 total units made? It's easy to see that this design germinated a lot of the current crop of what are considered state-of-the-art motorcycles.
It's also easy to see that I was very much a 70's kind of guy. With that snazzy haircut, tight pants and smokin' leather jacket, John Travolta had nothin' on me... dude.
To make a long story short, two of the Ducati's, two Moto-Guzzi's, a Yamaha and a BMW, all of which followed that particular Harley in my stable of motorcycles, are now, in today's market, worth squat... perhaps $1200 to maybe $2500 each. Perhaps. That particular Harley though, that I had paid under $2500 for, can't be touched in good condition today for under $12,000-15,000.
Why is that? I think it's because of people like me... people who have the desire to attempt an understanding of where certain designs originated and have a particular affinity for the whole process. While it's true that I'd almost always rather play BattleLore or Memoir '44 than Dogfight, it's not true that Dogfight is less of a game. That'd be like saying George Washington was less of a man than Jack Kennedy because, while both were historical giants, Washington was a cruder, less developed version of a later, more modern man. And while I'd usually rather ride my current Harley than the old one I mentioned... because it's a more evolved motorcycle in the modern sense, I'd dearly love to have the old one back and I'd get real joy in riding it if I could.
So I'm back to the concept of joy. That's what hobbies and toys are really all about, at least to me. A board game is good if I feel satisfied, have a sense of elation, or if it somehow engenders a feeling of happiness in me, both during play and through the post mortum of the game session.
Saturday night several of us played two older games, older at least in their earlier, cruder forms. I hauled out my copy of Lord of the Rings: Risk and we all experienced joy. It was surreal... gamers who have so many modern, and arguably, better designed games, just sitting there rolling dice, moving plastic orcs and dwarves around, turning in card sets and laughing our asses of at the sucky die rolls, the see-saw fortunes and the crappy luck. Risk. The game everyone loves to hate but that is the seed of so many popular modern games that the same crowd pays high dollars for and blathers endlessly on the Net about how innovative and unique they are.
An excellent Risk variant. Yes, it takes 2-3 hours to play. Yes, there are dice. And yes, it is fun to play... so long as you don't have a bunch of whiny little pukes playing who don't know thier arse from their elbow and think so highly of themselves that even the sound of their annoying voices puts you into a bad, bad frame of mind.
We all wanted to play another game after LOTR: Risk and I remembered how disparaging one of my friendly counterparts down in Texas (you know who you are) is about one game in particular... so, I hauled out Wizards, did the mandatory 70 seconds of explaining the rules and guess what? Joy ensued. From a crappy old title that is nothing more than a variation of Oh Hell!, a game I played thousands of hands of during the dark years I spent as an illegal alien in England.
Perspective. I like that concept. Especially when it comes to things that aren't life and death pursuits. For me that would be games and motorcycles. For you it might be games and snowboarding, or golf, or dancing the polka. Whether you think I'm crazy for enjoying a Risk variant or comparing a low-rated oldie to a BGG Top 10 new game matters little. Especially if you don't yet have perspective.
Perspective is not something that is automatic with aging... because lots of people never get it, and I will attest right now that Jumbo and a few other youngish gamers I know already have healthy doses of it. In the long run though, I think new is not always better. It's often just extra parts and prettier components along with a few superfluous mechanics attached to a really great, but old, design. And sometimes, if you've never played a formative design of a game genre you love, you'll get instant perspective by doing just that. A gamer doesn't have to have bought their first CDG 44 years ago to get a long view on that genre any more than a guy who buys a 2007 Harley needs to have owned an old one to properly appreciate his purchase.
But having a more historical view on a passion, whether because you're long in the tooth or just an adventurous sort, does have the very real bonus of delivering unexpected quantities of joy into your life.
Speaking of joy... have a joyous New Year... hopefully you'll get some frickin' perspective and snap up a bunch of older games on eBay while they're still cheap.
This year will mark the 44th since I saved up a whole $5 and begged my mother to take me to a store in downtown Dallas. The store specialized in magic tricks, hobby supplies and a few boardgames. I bought my copy of Milton-Bradley's Dogfight and then spent the entire rest of the day waiting in her beat up old Volvo sedan until she got off from work.
The fact that I've been playing board games... or what those of us who are passionate about board games call "real" board games... for longer than most fans have been alive doesn't make me in any sense a better gamer than say Ro-Bee, who will turn 21 this year. Or Jumbo, my main opponent, who will turn 24. Or, for that matter, any of you who probably range in age from the mid-twenties to my age... or nearly so.
But, having been a gamer for the better part of five decades does give me one thing that not everyone has just yet.
Perspective.
What got me thinking about perspective are my daily visits to sites like BGN, various blogs that many who read this write, publisher web sites and, of course, the venerable BGG. The current I sense when I read the excited gamer's praises of newer, better, flashier games... as well as the unspoken, but blatent disregard for the goodness of what passes for "old" in our niche, is that board gamers have become somewhat driven more to consume than to delve. By that I mean there is an undercurrent that smells like consumerism as opposed to what I have to call joy. I may not be describing you, but I'd bet if you think about it, you'll see it as well.
In December I purchased two new CDG titles. CDG means card driven game, for those who may not know the acronyms of this subculture. BattleLore and Combat Commander: Europe were the two titles I bought. Both are highly rated, beautiful, well designed, professionally produced and they are truly wonderful, wonderful board games. Chad Jensen and Richard Borg, the designers, have the touch. As well as a healthy dose of the perspective I mentioned earlier. Borg is probably my age or perhaps older, so I'm pretty certain he has even more of a seasoned viewpoint than Jensen, who is a damned good designer no matter what his age is.
But anyway, back to CDGs and, of course, Dogfight. Oh yeah, and how perspective fits in. You see, Dogfight is a CDG. And it's old, old, old. I'd go so far as to say that Dogfight is still, after 44 years, a damned good CDG. I'd play it. And I'd enjoy it. Not just because I like old things either, but because it's a solid game design. So solid that it's either at or at least close to, the inception point of a design mechanism that has since been developed into one of the major mechanics in a suprising percentage of recent best-selling and/or highly rated board games.
Early CDG design. Each squadron has a set of cards that allow specific actions. Not so different really from modern CDG mechanics.
Looking closer at Borg's Commands & Colors system there is another striking similarity to Dogfight and it's sister game: Broadside. In Dogfight when you score a hit on an enemy airplane you remove a part: a wing or propellor. When there is nothing but the fuselage left, the craft is killed and you get an Ace token. In Broadside it's the same mechanism, only sails are removed from ships that suffer hits. Now look at the C&C system. When you score a hit, one of the "parts" of the entire unit is removed from play. Like Dogfight, this doesn't affect the unit's combat capability. When there are no more parts of the unit left you are awarded a victory token.
Not so different from the modern Commands & Colors system. In Broadside a sail is removed for each hit on a target ship. When they're gone, so's the vessel. Ships with fewer sails are faster and agile, but more vulnerable. Sound familiar?
Both Dogfight and BattleLore are essentially the same thing, only the latter is evolved and the former is seminal. Newer, in game terms, isn't always better. Usually newer means it has more aspects to it's play, it's more attractive, it's often smoother playing and it has the attention and love of modern board game fans. I could write all day comparing modern board games to older titles ranging from Kings & Things to HeroQuest to Settlers of Catan and on and on... but you get the point I'm sure. Older games, those that in most cases are the foundation of what are considered fantastic games in this century, just don't get the love or respect they deserve.
Having perspective means, at least for me, that I can play and appreciate a game that isn't shiny and still under warranty. My other passion in life is motorcycles and from where I am now, I see that source of joy as having similarities to board game evolution. Here's an example ...
30 years ago I bought a Harley-Davidson from a dealer in El Paso, Texas. He had about 15 of this odd-looking model and couldn't sell a one of them. I rented a trailer and hauled it back home with me. After riding it for a year or two, a fireman I was acquainted with offered me $1500 more for the bike than I paid for it new. My frame of mind back then (in my late 20's) was that Ducati, Moto-Guzzi, BMW and several of the Japanese manufacturers were making far superior big twins to what Harley was doing. So, I took my profit and the fireman rode away.
The CR1000, a radical design for the struggling Harley-Davidson company. Perhaps 4,000 to 5,000 total units made? It's easy to see that this design germinated a lot of the current crop of what are considered state-of-the-art motorcycles.
It's also easy to see that I was very much a 70's kind of guy. With that snazzy haircut, tight pants and smokin' leather jacket, John Travolta had nothin' on me... dude.
To make a long story short, two of the Ducati's, two Moto-Guzzi's, a Yamaha and a BMW, all of which followed that particular Harley in my stable of motorcycles, are now, in today's market, worth squat... perhaps $1200 to maybe $2500 each. Perhaps. That particular Harley though, that I had paid under $2500 for, can't be touched in good condition today for under $12,000-15,000.
Why is that? I think it's because of people like me... people who have the desire to attempt an understanding of where certain designs originated and have a particular affinity for the whole process. While it's true that I'd almost always rather play BattleLore or Memoir '44 than Dogfight, it's not true that Dogfight is less of a game. That'd be like saying George Washington was less of a man than Jack Kennedy because, while both were historical giants, Washington was a cruder, less developed version of a later, more modern man. And while I'd usually rather ride my current Harley than the old one I mentioned... because it's a more evolved motorcycle in the modern sense, I'd dearly love to have the old one back and I'd get real joy in riding it if I could.
So I'm back to the concept of joy. That's what hobbies and toys are really all about, at least to me. A board game is good if I feel satisfied, have a sense of elation, or if it somehow engenders a feeling of happiness in me, both during play and through the post mortum of the game session.
Saturday night several of us played two older games, older at least in their earlier, cruder forms. I hauled out my copy of Lord of the Rings: Risk and we all experienced joy. It was surreal... gamers who have so many modern, and arguably, better designed games, just sitting there rolling dice, moving plastic orcs and dwarves around, turning in card sets and laughing our asses of at the sucky die rolls, the see-saw fortunes and the crappy luck. Risk. The game everyone loves to hate but that is the seed of so many popular modern games that the same crowd pays high dollars for and blathers endlessly on the Net about how innovative and unique they are.
An excellent Risk variant. Yes, it takes 2-3 hours to play. Yes, there are dice. And yes, it is fun to play... so long as you don't have a bunch of whiny little pukes playing who don't know thier arse from their elbow and think so highly of themselves that even the sound of their annoying voices puts you into a bad, bad frame of mind.
We all wanted to play another game after LOTR: Risk and I remembered how disparaging one of my friendly counterparts down in Texas (you know who you are) is about one game in particular... so, I hauled out Wizards, did the mandatory 70 seconds of explaining the rules and guess what? Joy ensued. From a crappy old title that is nothing more than a variation of Oh Hell!, a game I played thousands of hands of during the dark years I spent as an illegal alien in England.
Perspective. I like that concept. Especially when it comes to things that aren't life and death pursuits. For me that would be games and motorcycles. For you it might be games and snowboarding, or golf, or dancing the polka. Whether you think I'm crazy for enjoying a Risk variant or comparing a low-rated oldie to a BGG Top 10 new game matters little. Especially if you don't yet have perspective.
Perspective is not something that is automatic with aging... because lots of people never get it, and I will attest right now that Jumbo and a few other youngish gamers I know already have healthy doses of it. In the long run though, I think new is not always better. It's often just extra parts and prettier components along with a few superfluous mechanics attached to a really great, but old, design. And sometimes, if you've never played a formative design of a game genre you love, you'll get instant perspective by doing just that. A gamer doesn't have to have bought their first CDG 44 years ago to get a long view on that genre any more than a guy who buys a 2007 Harley needs to have owned an old one to properly appreciate his purchase.
But having a more historical view on a passion, whether because you're long in the tooth or just an adventurous sort, does have the very real bonus of delivering unexpected quantities of joy into your life.
Speaking of joy... have a joyous New Year... hopefully you'll get some frickin' perspective and snap up a bunch of older games on eBay while they're still cheap.
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