tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-138450742024-03-04T22:45:43.040-06:00Monkeys With TypewritersThis is a blog about a whale. No...Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.comBlogger163125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-90603994400359315852010-06-11T08:31:00.003-05:002010-06-11T08:55:13.843-05:00MeepleTown has launched!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX_NiKeewxqkcNku20bDkuVpQAqn7_mSmcnXLABg8ynpCuhC_cguUVW4RuPRii1qdmXEWyCqKf_T66M5xV4Nd-SHBOzxYdBGR_G67bGNTDGdiUDTsmL59NiMnNex8YCi-TIF4e/s1600/meeplelineup.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX_NiKeewxqkcNku20bDkuVpQAqn7_mSmcnXLABg8ynpCuhC_cguUVW4RuPRii1qdmXEWyCqKf_T66M5xV4Nd-SHBOzxYdBGR_G67bGNTDGdiUDTsmL59NiMnNex8YCi-TIF4e/s200/meeplelineup.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481510698409537954" border="0" /></a>Monkeys With Typewriters started out as my personal blog, but over the months it has somehow evolved into a delicious disaster of boardgame coverage. Over time, I found that I had a lot more people reading for my gaming-related posts than my personal musings. I've decided that it's time to spin off the gaming content onto its own site so I can give those topics the attention they deserve.<br /><br />Therefore, I am happy to announce the launch of <a href="http://meepletown.com/">MeepleTown</a>, a new site for boardgame reviews, editorials, event recaps, and more!<br /><br />If you've been following this blog for a while, you may notice occasional "classic" (okay, old) articles re-posted on the new site. The goal is to bring fresh, new updates on a regular basis, but until I have a few more contributors, I'm going to use existing content to fill gaps.<br /><br />Which brings me to my other plea: I need more contributors! If you're a gamer and are interesting in writing articles (occasionally or as a regular column), I'd be happy to consider your submissions for MeepleTown. I can't pay anything (hey, this is costing me money!), but if you're passionate about games and like to write, it's a good forum for your thoughts on the hobby. Toss me a message on Twitter (username <a href="http://twitter.com/whitehowler">WhiteHowler</a>) or send me an E-mail and let me know what you'd be interested in working on for the site.<br /><br />I'm excited to be a part of this new project and hope you'll all come along for the ride.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-52545402072213537162010-06-07T08:01:00.003-05:002010-06-07T08:43:30.833-05:00Arkham Horror: The Story Begins<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPbl4u2dckrraPNPAdGDrZgukhHsnJH-DD0ZLC6qKdnbOoBS04MZE0ruCwBlwjgQ6_dWh4zLreqfayFxC0zb-FUjs778a0zLVFRwsa4kOOtDjFuskdVZkBvBmOdVXhx1K-2YjF/s1600/arkhambox.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPbl4u2dckrraPNPAdGDrZgukhHsnJH-DD0ZLC6qKdnbOoBS04MZE0ruCwBlwjgQ6_dWh4zLreqfayFxC0zb-FUjs778a0zLVFRwsa4kOOtDjFuskdVZkBvBmOdVXhx1K-2YjF/s200/arkhambox.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480025822936702498" /></a>A group of my fellow gaming friends and I have decided to embark on an epic multi-session campaign of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror">Arkham Horror</a>, each week facing a new Ancient One and drawing one step closer to a final showdown with Cthulhu.<br /><br />We started by using only the Dunwich Horror expansion, along with the character and item cards from all sets, and the Personal Story cards. As the campaign draws on, we'll be adding the small-box sets and alternating out the different big-box expansion boards. Eventually we'll have all rules from every expansion in play, and for the battle against Cthulhu we may actually use all four game boards.<br /><br />Here's our starting roster (this will probably change as adventurers get devoured):<br /><b><a href="http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Diana_Stanley">Diana Stanley</a></b> the Redeemed Cultist (Christian)<br /><b><a href="http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Lily_Chen">Lily Chen</a></b> the Martial Artist (Joe)<br /><b><a href="http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Patrice_Hathaway">Patrice Hathaway</a></b> the Violinist (Hillary)<br /><b><a href="http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Kate_Winthrop">Kate Winthrop</a></b> the Scientist (Chris C.)<br /><b><a href="http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Jim_Culver">Jim Culver</a></b> the Musician (Franklin)<br /><br />(What can I say? The female characters tend to be better.)<br /><br />We've instituted some house rules to make the campaign (hopefully) flow more smoothly.<br /><br /><b>General Campaign Rules:</b><br /><br />- Seven random Ancient Ones are selected and placed in order of difficulty from easiest to hardest. Cthulhu will take the eighth and final spot. Each week we'll play a game against the next successive Ancient One.<br /><br />- Investigators that are Devoured before the Ancient One awakens are gone forever. History. Toast. Grab another one and start over.<br /><br />- Investigators lost (even "Devoured") in the final battle are considered to be knocked out or temporarily insane. They'll be available for the next session.<br /><br /><b>After a win:</b><br /><br />- Investigators gain one Skill card, which will carry over to the next game (along with all previously-collected Skills).<br /><br />- Investigators reset all money, spells, and items to their initial starting values. However, Investigators may keep items and spells collected in a previous session rather than a random starting item. (For example, if my character starts with a random Common Item, and I collected a Carbine Rifle this game, I may choose to bring that in as my "random" Common Item for the next game). All extra items and spells over the starting values are lost.<br /><br />- Investigators may trade items or spells freely between games (again, remembering that you're limited by your initial starting possessions).<br /><br />- Investigators keep all memberships, titles, and rail passes. Discard bank loans, retainers, blessings, and curses.<br /><br />- Investigators may discard all but one Injury or Madness card. If the player only has one of these cards, it may be discarded. All Corruption cards are discarded as well.<br /><br />- Personal Stories "reset" each game.<br /><br />- If the party won its first attempt at a given Ancient One, the next game will begin with a Herald in play. Ouch.<br /><br /><b>After a loss:</b><br /><br />- The obligatory "it was all a dream" clause. Five unused investigators are discarded from the available pool, and the players will face the same Ancient One for the next session.<br /><br />- The next battle with the same Ancient One will have a Guardian in play.<br /><br />- If the investigator pool runs out and we lose a game, the campaign is over. We decided that we'll probably play out the final session against Cthulhu just for fun, and call it a draw if we win.<br /><br />My plan is to post a quick recap after each game. I'm not yet sure how often we'll be able to play, so this may stretch out for a while.<br /><br />We're all excited to be embarking on the campaign and hope you'll follow our triumphs (and grisly deaths) as we attempt to save Arkham from the Elder God menace once and for all!Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-59198709751031359522010-06-03T08:45:00.004-05:002010-06-03T09:26:04.997-05:00Atlanta Game Fest Wrap-Up Part 3Welcome to the third and final part of my Atlanta Game Fest wrap-up! There are just a few more new games that I haven't covered yet, so let's tackle those first:<br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43015/hansa-teutonica">Hansa Teutonica</a></b> - I don't think this has even been widely released in North America yet, but it seemed to be the big hit of AGF. It's a straight-up worker placement game, but the different things you can do through the placements are interesting and varied. There are several "tracks" on the player board that can be gradually unlocked to provide more options each turn (more actions or placement options, easier worker replenishment, etc.), which allows for several strategies for victory. I enjoyed the hell out of this game, and it's definitely on my short list for my next big game order. Rating: <b>8/10</b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/55670/macao">Macao</a></b> - The other hit of AGF, there must have been half a dozen copies of Macao present. It's a resource collection game with a rather unique planning element. Each turn dice are rolled to determine the available resources, and players must allocate them to an upcoming turn (for example, a blue four and a green two are available, which means you can have four blue resources four turns from now, or two green resources two turns from now). Players can use their resources in a variety of ways, buying and selling trade goods, jockeying for turn order, or investing in infrastructure to allow more resource flexibility. There are huge penalties for having no resources on a given turn, so there's a lot of forward-thinking strategy here. The game mechanics are all extremely innovative, and the only knock against it is that my first session seemed to take forever. Our four-player game lasted nearly four hours, which is a bit longer than I wanted to spend on this type of game. I definitely want to give it another shot; if we can get the playtime to a reasonable length, I can see this becoming a favorite with my group. Rating: <b>7/10</b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65244/forbidden-island">Forbidden Island</a></b> - I picked this up shortly before the Game Fest started, so it wasn't completely new to me. Designed by Matt Leacock (who also created Pandemic), Forbidden Island shares many concepts and mechanics with its predecessor. It's a pure cooperative game, where players are attempting to recover four treasures from an island. Unfortunately, the island is sinking rapidly, and there isn't much time to recover the treasures and escape the island. The game takes some knocks as being "Pandemic-lite", and while the description is appropriate, Forbidden Island plays much more quickly and has a strong enough theme that it never feels same-y. If you're a Pandemic fan and want something similar that plays in half an hour, this is a very good option. Rating: <b>8/10</b><br /><br />I also had the opportunity to playtest two unpublished prototypes created by Richard Launius, designer of Arkham Horror. I won't go into too many details, but one was a thrilling cooperative sci-fi themed survival game, while the other was a frantic dungeon escape where players tried to one-up each other without getting the entire group killed. Richard loves giving players unique, well-defined characters and tons of dice to roll, and these prototypes were no exception. Both were a lot of fun (though the co-op game was decidedly more polished), and I hope to see them in a game store soon.<br /><br />Oh, and I did mention my acquisition at the AGF flea market, right?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXA5kEGAgTzo7cGWVGgRE2186uSb5-2_1wY7MVBSangRUNWCvl5T5YBOxgt-GQ_ldILI88DomOsvPXQX7xdfNGytKgvOwJSizxLv5W31vrhiDB6IPtep1E69An2JjScmcwAcYN/s1600/arkham.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXA5kEGAgTzo7cGWVGgRE2186uSb5-2_1wY7MVBSangRUNWCvl5T5YBOxgt-GQ_ldILI88DomOsvPXQX7xdfNGytKgvOwJSizxLv5W31vrhiDB6IPtep1E69An2JjScmcwAcYN/s320/arkham.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478550887817217506" /></a><br /><br />It's a complete Arkham Horror set, including all six expansions. Not only is the entirety of the Arkham Horror universe included, but the set is pimped-out with custom dice bags, plastic containers for all of the counters, nice printed tuckboxes for all of the cards, and extra printouts of player aids and "cheat sheets". And naturally, since Richard Launius was present at the event, I just had to get him to sign it, right?<br /><br />And at long last, I think it's finally time to conclude my coverage of Atlanta Game Fest 16. The event was a success in every conceivable way. I had the opportunity to try tons of new games, and more importantly, I made several new friends.<br /><br />I'm sure AGF will stand as one of the highlights of 2010 for me, and I can't wait for the next one!Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-59572145547548532392010-05-27T11:13:00.003-05:002010-05-27T12:01:22.823-05:00Atlanta Game Fest Wrap-Up Part 2<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ygDxZYAXed182yeoUEWfMTGntwSQb0IhEiOTExhVv2MUobYjqndm4xHaZplfHw6a4XTF-EAgUTai1hOC_2h1HG3rEXA199e1J2Bgz8sd9CdbDGNt8o-3eDb7jRHpBbscTgn8/s1600/summoner.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ygDxZYAXed182yeoUEWfMTGntwSQb0IhEiOTExhVv2MUobYjqndm4xHaZplfHw6a4XTF-EAgUTai1hOC_2h1HG3rEXA199e1J2Bgz8sd9CdbDGNt8o-3eDb7jRHpBbscTgn8/s200/summoner.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5475992883930266930" border="0" /></a>Welcome to the second installment of mini-reviews for new games I tried out at Atlanta Game Fest 16. Note that I only managed to get in one play for most of these, so it's quite possible that my early impressions were wildly off.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40770/the-golden-city">The Golden City</a></b> - A very elegant worker-placement game with a light bidding element. Each turn players bid on sets of two cards. These cards are then used to claim villages and city sections, which can both score points and give some other boon (extra money to bid with, extra cards, or most importantly, a golden key). The city itself consists of an outer ring that anyone can enter (scoring points for being the first or second player to place in a given section), and the inner Golden City. The latter requires one of a very limited number of available keys, but scores many more points for placement. I'd never heard of this game before it was pulled off the shelf to play, so it was a very pleasant surprise to discover such a excellent game. If I have one major complaint, it's that the rules are possibly a bit <i>too</i> simple, and I feel like there's plenty of room for another play mechanic. Still, there's enough depth of strategy to keep coming back, and the game runs quickly enough that it should never feel drawn-out or tedious. Rating: <b>8/10</b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54998/cyclades">Cyclades</a></b> - My most-anticipated game of the weekend, and I was not disappointed. Cyclades is part area control game and part auction game, with just a dash of wargame thrown in for good measure. Claim the favor of a specific god, then use its powers to amass power, gain wisdom, or simply smite your enemies. When we first set up the game, I was concerned that the combat and territory capture element would ruin what otherwise looked like an intriguing and well-themed eurogame. However, this didn't happen, at least in our playthrough. There was very little actual combat, and while several players built up militaries, this acted more as a deterrent than as an invading force. There seems to be plenty of room for disparate strategies, too: a couple of players build up their armies and navies, one went for stable income and buildings, while I slowly collected a small fortune with which I performed a <i>coup de grace</i> to plunk down two metropolises in one turn and win the game. I absolutely can't wait to try this game again (and to be fair, I was having a great time even when I thought I was in dead last place). Rating: <b>9/10</b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/66214/samarkand-routes-to-riches">Samarkand: Routes to Riches</a></b> - I'd read a little about this on <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/">BoardGameGeek</a> and wanted to give it a shot, despite hearing less-than-favorable reviews from other folks at the Game Fest. We finally got a session together, and it turns out that the negative buzz was correct. Samarkand is an odd mash-up of route building, tile collection, and politics. Think Through the Desert, only up to two people are controlling one caravan (by investing in the family that owns it), and you have to visit <i>specific</i> tiles -- which happen to be useless to the other player invested in your caravan. You can also score bonus points "marrying" two families by making two caravans run into each other for the first time. Samarkand is not a bad game by any means, but while the concept is sound, I feel like the different mechanics don't mesh together as well as they should. Rating: <b>6/10</b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46/medici">Medici</a></b> - This is actually a fairly old game, one that I'd been generally avoiding because I don't tend to enjoy most games with a heavy auction component. Since bidding is 99% of Medici, my opinion is fairly predictable: I didn't care for it at all. It didn't help that I was with a group of players who had played Medici dozens of times previously, some of whom were actually counting tiles. I did alright for myself, not knowing exactly how the scoring worked or what the distribution of tiles was, but I don't think I'll be wanting to play Medici again anytime soon. Rating: <b>4/10</b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/58281/summoner-wars">Summoner Wars</a></b> - Wow, I hate to post three negative (or at least lukewarm) reviews in a row. However, my wife and I tried out Summoner Wars for the first time, and I really didn't like much of anything about it. I'd heard that the game appeals to Magic: The Gathering fans who want more of a tactical/spacial element, but most of the mechanics fell flat for me. Movement is oversimplified (move two spaces), units tend to be too same-y, and the balance of the set we played (Elves versus Orcs) felt off-kilter, with wild swings in either direction that seemed almost random. It wasn't exciting, and we were both wanting the game to end well before it did; I actually sent my leader in a suicide charge, figuring it would be over one way or the other. Rating: <b>2/10</b><br /><br />That's it for now! I have one more Atlanta Game Fest wrap-up entry to come, in which I'll give give my initial impressions of Hansa Teutonica, Macao, and Forbidden Island. I'll also give my final thoughts on the overall event (and probably take the opportunity to shamelessly boast about the awesome purchase I made at the AGF flea market). Stay tuned!Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-77934271027471526542010-05-24T07:32:00.006-05:002010-05-24T08:40:21.035-05:00Atlanta Game Fest Wrap-Up Part 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlcdoaw4MQH8SPE7Ri9polhTjB4jwvFNJgOqorzlK5PEigUhzZ8-2ul6Pyv0NSGZRtJRyf4tvIaJeO-fuV3tOgWIfOrR10NAvnAtXb7WCqBi04WLXshgJuQ2NykMsfj7s87qRK/s1600/agf.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlcdoaw4MQH8SPE7Ri9polhTjB4jwvFNJgOqorzlK5PEigUhzZ8-2ul6Pyv0NSGZRtJRyf4tvIaJeO-fuV3tOgWIfOrR10NAvnAtXb7WCqBi04WLXshgJuQ2NykMsfj7s87qRK/s200/agf.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474827458415149042" border="0" /></a>I just returned from <a href="http://atlantagamefest.com/">Atlanta Game Fest</a>, so it seems like the perfect time to resume blog updates. The event consisted of four days of wall-to-wall boardgaming with far too little sleep in-between. Over the course of the weekend, I played a quantity of games that can only be properly described as "a crapload".<br /><br />The final tally looks something like this:<br />31 total game sessions played<br />20 different games<br />14 games that were new to me<br />2 unpublished prototypes<br /><br />In the coming days I'm going to post a few sets of capsule reviews of the new games I tried. It's difficult to form a solid opinion from only one or two plays of a game, but I'll give it my best shot.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/57925/havana">Havana</a></b> - A light resource-management and action selection card game. Players secretly choose cards to play from a set deck. The cards allow players to gather resources, steal from each other, and ultimately acquire the victory point tiles that inhabit the middle of the table. The unique thing here is the method of choosing turn order -- each player's pair of cards in play forms a two-digit number, which determines who gets to perform actions first. Each new card will cover up an existing one, resulting in an ever-changing number. The higher numbered cards are much more powerful, but going early is the only way to maximize resources. This trade-off mechanic is relatively simple, but the game is short enough (around 30 minutes) that it doesn't get stale before a winner is determined. Rating: <b>7/10</b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42910/peloponnes">Peloponnes</a></b> - Resource-management is one of my favorite themes, while I'm not generally a fan of games with a heavy auction or bidding component. This left me a bit torn on Peloponnes, as both elements factor heavily into this game. Improve your city and cultivate the surrounding lands, while making sure to feed your citizens and prepare for the upcoming, inevitable disasters. Sounds cool, huh? Unfortunately, the bidding mechanic feels too limiting, as once a player bids on anything, he is committed to paying exactly that amount for <i>something</i>. This constraint probably helps the game from devolving into an all-out bidding war every turn, but that may be just what this game needs. I didn't hate Peloponnes (and actually ended up winning by two points), but overall it left me a little flat. Rating: <b>5/10</b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/43443/castle-panic">Castle Panic</a></b> - In this semi-cooperative game, players work together to protect a castle from an onslaught of orcs, trolls, and other nasty critters. Attack cards are continually dealt out to players, which allow them to attack the rampaging hordes based on their current position (for example, archers can hit monsters that are far away, while swordsmen have to wait until the monsters are almost upon the walls). If the castle is destroyed, all of the players lose. However, unlike most traditional cooperative games, there is a "winner": the player responsible for slaying the most enemies. Honestly, I don't know that this element is necessary. The game is already difficult, and not helping the other players to the best of your ability seems counter to the spirit of a co-op game. Of course, this point was moot for our session, since the Orc King showed up with his buddies and trashed our castle quite effectively. Castle Panic is fun, but I doubt it would ever be my first choice when looking for a co-op game to pull off the shelf. Rating: <b>6/10</b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/94/union-pacific">Union Pacific</a></b> - I know. <i>Everyone</i> has played this except me. However, I'd never had the opportunity until this weekend, and I was excited to finally give it a try. I wasn't disappointed; while UP ultimately a stock investment game, players have a lot of control over their own fortunes, and there's a lot more depth than I expected. There's a fine balance between enticing other players to invest into improving routes that help your stocks while attempting to keep a majority share on as many companies as possible. I can see why this is my wife's favorite boardgame, and I look forward to playing it again (I only wish it were possible to actually buy a copy without paying an arm and a leg). Rating: <b>8/10</b> (and may go up with more plays)<br /><br /><b><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/33154/wasabi">Wasabi</a></b> - Pick up ingredients and place them on the board to create sushi combos and score points -- the bigger the combo, the more points scored. There's nothing really revolutionary about this tile-placement game, but it is light, fun, and well-themed. The special action cards make Wasabi just deep enough to keep me interested, and I'd definitely try it again in the future. Rating: <b>7/10</b><br /><br />That's all for now! In the next installment I'll cover The Golden City, Cyclades, Samarkand, Medici, and Summoner Wars.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-28956514350690125242010-02-10T14:28:00.007-06:002010-02-10T15:56:10.076-06:00You got your Ameritrash in my peanut butter<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkrG_OVGh3rzG2hxaG3gPL3rYWM56JFP9V2CjFN9Rzck5-_zV4TYZAr41KphT1nsMSx7CX9kU4U218GK0q94jmQU4bWJcXroDOHdjitlWJAnIO9bg6hyeJJCM_6-05hgzyUrBG/s1600-h/nodice.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkrG_OVGh3rzG2hxaG3gPL3rYWM56JFP9V2CjFN9Rzck5-_zV4TYZAr41KphT1nsMSx7CX9kU4U218GK0q94jmQU4bWJcXroDOHdjitlWJAnIO9bg6hyeJJCM_6-05hgzyUrBG/s200/nodice.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5436734837710297026" /></a>In recent years, a clear distinction has formed between two different styles of boardgame.<br /><br />Eurogames tend to be characterized as "design-heavy, theme-light". You'll find elegant designs requiring few rules. Luck (and dice) are a rarity in most cases, requiring players to win solely through strategy and smart play. Player interaction is often light or nonexistent, and the most opposition players have to contend with is being blocked out of an auction or a space on the game board. The theme often feels tacked on, and a Eurogame set in medieval times would usually work just as well with a prehistoric or science-fiction setting.<br /><br />The other category is widely known as "Ameritrash". It seems to be a derogatory term at first glance, but fans of this genre have embraced the title as their own. Ameritrash games tend to be theme-heavy, with a lot of direct conflict and tons of dice to roll. Game mechanics are tied closely with the theme; <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54625/space-hulk-3rd-edition">Space Hulk</a> or <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29368/last-night-on-earth-the-zombie-game">Last Night on Earth</a> would have to be completely redesigned if the setting were shifted to a stone-age village or a 17th century sailing ship. Many Ameritrash games have a "last man standing" winning condition, in which players are gradually eliminated until only the winner remains.<br /><br />While I enjoy a wide variety of games, I tend to gravitate toward titles with a more Euro-style design. I like to experience some measure of player interaction, but I find constant direct opposition to be either stressful or monotonous. I don't enjoy seeing a string of bad luck ruin a well-laid strategy (even an opponent's). And I feel that player elimination is the worst design element in the entire boardgaming universe; the penalty for doing poorly should never include not being allowed to play.<br /><br />However, I absolutely love games with a strong theme. <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18602/caylus">Caylus</a> and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2651/power-grid">Power Grid</a>, while being quite strong from a design standpoint, often fail to grab my attention. I enjoy the mechanics, so I don't usually shy away from playing these, but I don't find anything particularly engaging about either of them. They're just too bland and dry. A lot of my love for games like <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15987/arkham-horror">Arkham Horror</a> and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/714/talisman">Talisman</a> originates with the art style and solid theme.<br /><br />Unfortunately, there seems to be a common misconception that Euro-style concepts and a strong theme are mutually exclusive.<br /><br />Vlaada Chvatil's designs really stand out for me in this regard. They generally play more like "pure" Eurogames*, but the setting is inseparable from the gameplay. <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31481/galaxy-trucker">Galaxy Trucker</a> simply wouldn't work outside the frantic space-junker universe, and I find <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/45315/dungeon-lords">Dungeon Lords</a> to be an almost perfect balance of heavy theme, highly-stylized art, and well-integrated play mechanics.<br /><br />I'd love to see more game designers explore this concept, because I think both Eurogames and Ameritrash can bring can bring something wonderful to the table.<br /><br />* Except <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38453/space-alert">Space Alert</a>. That one's impossible to categorize. It transcends mere labels and becomes something unique and beautiful. And terrifying.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-26162898358137873472010-01-28T10:36:00.004-06:002010-01-28T10:53:09.052-06:00Only a master of evil, Palamedes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgngAXIRP5g6NQoEF8MDvidQ0jLpWKenN_ZVM52kevs4Xj1zufuQVLFETeey8LMrt-_2gnUGlXpcWa3OQmSWkd6FgBSySVUaGv9p3ZIYygk6jJCCUmpC7SacCfaiZBG2RPrUwTf/s1600-h/shadows.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgngAXIRP5g6NQoEF8MDvidQ0jLpWKenN_ZVM52kevs4Xj1zufuQVLFETeey8LMrt-_2gnUGlXpcWa3OQmSWkd6FgBSySVUaGv9p3ZIYygk6jJCCUmpC7SacCfaiZBG2RPrUwTf/s200/shadows.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431832414841572018" /></a>I finally had a chance to play <a href=http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15062/shadows-over-camelot>Shadows Over Camelot</a> for the first time last night.<br /><br />The rules were explained, and then the Role and Loyalty cards were dealt out.<br /><br />Aha! I am Sir Palamedes... the traitor.<br /><br />Wonderful, how am I going to pull this off having never played before?<br /><br />I decided to play completely straight, sacrificing cards and life points several times in order to help the cause. The only slightly shady thing I did was place siege engines whenever possible. Our first few turns resulted in an extremely poor position on the Excalibur board, so not wanting to play a black card didn't look too suspicious.<br /><br />I was lucky enough have a hand completely full of Fight cards, which I showed off with an almost solo victory over the Saxons. We finished off the Grail quest, and things were looking good for the heroes. I volunteered to start destroying siege engines while the other players attempted to complete more quests.<br /><br />Suddenly, we had a string of misfortune, and we found ourselves at ten siege engines (twelve is an immediate loss for the good guys) as the player before me started his turn.<br /><br />Knowing that many of the black cards could result in more siege engines, he considered paying one of his two remaining life points to avoid the risk. He asked if I could get an automatic win against a siege engine during my turn.<br /><br />Yes! They trusted me!<br /><br />"I can handle it," I answered enthusiastically.<br /><br />A Grail card came up, adding an eleventh siege engine to the board. The other player used his turn discarding to try to save the Lancelot's Armor quest, which was starting to look bleak.<br /><br />Barely able to contain my evil grin, I placed the twelfth siege engine on the board, ending the game. There were several seconds of stunned silence before I turned over my Loyalty card. Nobody had ever suspected me!<br /><br />My first foray into Shadows Over Camelot was an absolute blast, and I'd definitely play again.<br /><br />I've heard that the game can easily turn into a micromanagement nightmare, where one or two players give extremely specific orders, and anyone who doesn't follow them to the letter is obviously the traitor. I hope it never comes to this -- I like the idea of coordinating strategy a bit, but it should probably be limited to vague suggestions ("Camelot is in trouble, but we're also at risk of losing the Grail").Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-38739807303521109592009-10-26T08:35:00.011-05:002009-10-27T08:16:00.524-05:00Puzzle Party!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1AWlRV0LxqktpuOlSnzQ0etaCRbqJXUhUwZ73Io3kr9nuFkzyPNWc2OveJd-MPCH2MTiXmKNTOEVQ9HlWvdu1NHEK5pr_Y674QyLGTh6knemoQ1IZkslRd_289WFER1QeBrWn/s1600-h/sliding.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1AWlRV0LxqktpuOlSnzQ0etaCRbqJXUhUwZ73Io3kr9nuFkzyPNWc2OveJd-MPCH2MTiXmKNTOEVQ9HlWvdu1NHEK5pr_Y674QyLGTh6knemoQ1IZkslRd_289WFER1QeBrWn/s200/sliding.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397004100572818002" /></a>Over the weekend some friends and I drove down to Auburn University to participate in the Auburn Puzzle Party, a semiannual team-based puzzle-solving event. Because some of the puzzle elements required knowledge of area landmarks, we merged with an existing group of Auburn locals to form an eight-person team.<br /><br />Our team, one of six competing in the event, established "base camp" in an off-campus Burger King (this would come back to haunt us later) and met over at the party organizer's house for the introduction.<br /><br />After reading a comic posted on the door of the house, the teams were herded inside and treated to a live-action sketch. The premise was that we had been touring the Large Hadron Collider, but had stumbled into the laboratory for a secret time-travel project (dubbed, appropriately, Quantum Leap -- the "host" character even carried a colorful hand-held computer named Ziggy).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEM0xnqgBB4mjeSXzfry58CEmOUb4AX147HugcGCkKrz69xrRIq1LIJh9XFV3TIbE-ilv0hCCj3ZPw12JuqJqK_KyaFfAkRRmCtyTX80e7s_Bs0s8_iT3YiTuXu022X1eg-T0d/s1600-h/80s-crew2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEM0xnqgBB4mjeSXzfry58CEmOUb4AX147HugcGCkKrz69xrRIq1LIJh9XFV3TIbE-ilv0hCCj3ZPw12JuqJqK_KyaFfAkRRmCtyTX80e7s_Bs0s8_iT3YiTuXu022X1eg-T0d/s200/80s-crew2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397003300791921010" /></a>According to the background story, we had traveled back to the 1980's. The entire house was full of 80's paraphernalia, complete with costumed characters who could have jumped straight off the Flashdance DVD (sorry, VHS tape). The participating teams were tasked with solving puzzles that would help us figure out the identity of a Russian gangster/killer/terrorist. The exact details of the storyline were a bit hazy, but rest assured that the plot would have fit perfectly into an episode of MacGyver.<br /><br />With the introduction complete, the team captains were given large envelopes containing three the first three puzzles, each beginning a separate chain. Each solution led to an new envelope containing next puzzle in the chain, a number of victory point tokens, and few puzzle pieces that, when fully assembled, would create a pictogram/rebus leading to the final envelope -- and, presumably, the identity of the villain.<br /><br />The puzzles themselves were enjoyable, all heavily 80's-themed with some requiring a fair amount of 80's pop culture knowledge. Extensive use of the Internet was also invaluable for many of the solutions.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMLU7QH5H_30N1T8ldSGFzpxs2QfzbD0PmTgMNAVzcOcjcnZEVwgqIiyQPfCim09a2BOx1yZLPDIe5TCH6V7sWxoXwzd719fordHc2cBffaKe1Am-bHHWQVzl30NAMAyBGVtLp/s1600-h/qbert.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 166px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMLU7QH5H_30N1T8ldSGFzpxs2QfzbD0PmTgMNAVzcOcjcnZEVwgqIiyQPfCim09a2BOx1yZLPDIe5TCH6V7sWxoXwzd719fordHc2cBffaKe1Am-bHHWQVzl30NAMAyBGVtLp/s200/qbert.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396929378925456146" /></a>For one early puzzle, teams were required to solve a cryptogram consisting of Q-Bert swear-word characters. The solution led to a metal pyramid at one of the campus buildings, under which the next envelope was hidden.<br /><br />Another puzzle came in the form of an audio CD, from which players had to identify short snippets of 80's songs (fortunately, mostly hits) in order to spell out the location. The answer seemed fairly straightforward: "TOOMER'S COFFEE, FIND WAR AND PEACE, SAY WORD UP". We headed to the coffee shop, only to find that there wasn't a copy of War and Peace on the shop's bookshelf. After scaring most of the patrons by wandering around and randomly yelling "Word Up", my team spotted a young woman reading a book. You can probably guess what it was. After confronting her directly and saying the magic code phrase, we were awarded the next envelope.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyF1rHMCXE2qKxIfnj6dl3mk8uPLfNY50hnWm7FdDuGzrzstIa-uFhoc3vADldFXocVzHBXOnCTMJcM1WId-BZ_kWrI865FS-bTSRyh39z4qZpjD-CLY_Xdt0iRpzXdPK0XP57/s1600-h/pacman.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 147px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyF1rHMCXE2qKxIfnj6dl3mk8uPLfNY50hnWm7FdDuGzrzstIa-uFhoc3vADldFXocVzHBXOnCTMJcM1WId-BZ_kWrI865FS-bTSRyh39z4qZpjD-CLY_Xdt0iRpzXdPK0XP57/s200/pacman.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397004819302570002" /></a>Other puzzles weren't quite as elegantly designed. One that kept us stumped for over two hours consisted of a Pac-Man maze full of dots, power pellets, and ghosts, along with rules on movement through the maze. We correctly assumed that the dots spelled out morse code characters, but none of the valid paths through the maze made any sense. The spacing was ambiguous, and it was difficult to figure out where the breaks were. After banging our head against the puzzle for hours, we called the party organizer for clarification. Apparently all of the teams were having trouble with this one, and the key was to ignore spacing altogether (which would have been more intuitive if several groups of dots/dashes hadn't been spaced tightly together in valid morse code groups).<br /><br />Another puzzle required identification of stars on a provided star chart. Connecting the correct stars would spell out part of the solution. The problem was that the puzzle creator had used a specific computer program to generate the star chart, and it was nearly impossible to match up with any publicly-available resources from the web.<br /><br />It was unfortunate that we ran into snags like this, because both puzzles were extremely interesting in concept but failed somewhat in design. Still, most of the puzzles were quite fun, if occasionally a bit too easy.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqivySfm5HjcVdVhTRfwkN4QGqwnetYw2GWC1Js28wvVblKQhtnVr_ui3tnNVCyujYN8K4h26BYwGJgH4_t5kqZBBuDdSCdtjjOof-jtcNj50d7wWOLExb3T-K8ilIbF6rr-8C/s1600-h/blinded.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqivySfm5HjcVdVhTRfwkN4QGqwnetYw2GWC1Js28wvVblKQhtnVr_ui3tnNVCyujYN8K4h26BYwGJgH4_t5kqZBBuDdSCdtjjOof-jtcNj50d7wWOLExb3T-K8ilIbF6rr-8C/s200/blinded.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396930076066957810" /></a>Unfortunately, due to getting stuck on all three puzzle chains at approximately the same time, my team didn't manage to finish. My small group at "base camp" solved the rebus pictogram with only 10 minutes left before the final deadline. We were carrying the group's victory points (cleverly disguised as Russian currency) that had to be turned in before the deadline, so there was simply no time for us to pick up the final envelope.<br /><br />Even though we didn't quite finish, we had a great time with the event. Everyone contributed to the group effort; from my encyclopedic knowledge of 80's pop music to our team captain identifying braille patterns within seconds of seeing a puzzle, every player was valuable.<br /><br />As close as we were to grabbing the final envelope, I think we would have easily finished on time if we hadn't made a couple of key mistakes:<br /><br />Most significantly, using Burger King as our base camp was a terrible idea. A sticker on the front door touted free Wi-Fi internet access, but it wasn't working correctly. Despite having three laptops with us, we were forced to tether to my friend's cellphone to get online. When he left to pick up a puzzle piece, we were stranded without web access for nearly an hour. We also didn't have access to power for our electronics -- the restaurant had plenty of outlets, but none of them were turned on. The Burger King was several blocks from the university proper, while most of the puzzle solutions led to campus locations. We could have saved a lot of time by choosing an on-campus headquarters with reliable power and internet access.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_cuuOjkJpy11iehI3frXEto7jKiHqSReGNnBZxh5NF0fEh9tHA75x3svDFXeKshCChTJclo8GTOKu74TVKoPjBPfHzyUUb29lmAlpRjPtVyzEMe5-uGDXeF5qBEK2CvTxX7ib/s1600-h/differencestrokes.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_cuuOjkJpy11iehI3frXEto7jKiHqSReGNnBZxh5NF0fEh9tHA75x3svDFXeKshCChTJclo8GTOKu74TVKoPjBPfHzyUUb29lmAlpRjPtVyzEMe5-uGDXeF5qBEK2CvTxX7ib/s200/differencestrokes.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396929771450045346" /></a>Also, we spent far too long stuck on specific puzzles when we could have called for clarification much earlier. It was my understanding that we had to spend victory points to receive clues for anything we were stuck on, but it turns out that clarifications were free in some cases. We didn't see an actual copy of the event rules until pretty far into the day, so this could have saved us an hour or two of solving time.<br /><br />Fortunately, both of these problems are easily remedied. If we go back for the next event in the Spring (and we're definitely planning on it!), I have no doubt that our team will put in an even better performance.<br /><br />I'd like to give a huge "thank you" to everyone responsible for organizing and running the event. The amount of prep-work involved seemed incredible, from the 20ish unique puzzles and custom-developed website to the human-sized wooden sliding puzzle and free pizza and drinks at the end. It all made for an absolutely amazing Saturday that I will remember for a very long time.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-41718390633335078522009-08-14T08:20:00.003-05:002009-08-14T08:23:45.761-05:00Quick updateI apologize for the lack of posts recently. I'm planning on spinning off the boardgame content into its own blog, but that process probably won't begin for at least a few more weeks.<br /><br />I do have a pretty huge queue of games I'd like to talk about in upcoming posts. Just off the top of my head:<br /><br />- Space Alert<br />- Dominion: Intrigue<br />- Ghost Stories<br />- Queen's Necklace<br />- Citadels<br /><br />And lots more! No lack of ideas, just a lack of time at the moment.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-25393144336650188332009-07-10T14:10:00.008-05:002009-07-10T15:37:03.142-05:00Tales of a grizzled MechWarrior<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhYVBx7ugDgWZbnKvYvtWbbg-tCIQDkbVV2SFDRUrkK7ectV3NEEHR34NKc-ypRm_ZXXdCSD4SU4mFE2O0iRUhCjFhRAIaSmUn5TIoPRwr7YKcLY2Vk-swLH0N0Thc3_Eh-02/s1600-h/3025_bmaster.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhYVBx7ugDgWZbnKvYvtWbbg-tCIQDkbVV2SFDRUrkK7ectV3NEEHR34NKc-ypRm_ZXXdCSD4SU4mFE2O0iRUhCjFhRAIaSmUn5TIoPRwr7YKcLY2Vk-swLH0N0Thc3_Eh-02/s320/3025_bmaster.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356932818601661186" /></a>The focus of Monkeys With Typewriters has shifted to boardgames over the past few months, and it's a direction in which I'd like to continue.<br /><br />Still, I'm a gamer in the most general sense, and the <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/100/1002164p1.html">news that a new MechWarrior video game is in development</a> -- headed by the original BattleTech creators -- is just too exciting for me to pass up.<br /><br />As most gamers probably know, MechWarrior is heavily based on <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1540">BattleTech</a>, which was conceived as a tabletop miniatures game but quickly gained popularity through its video game translations. In BattleTech's violent universe, huge robots called "mechs" are the unrivaled war machines of the future. Imagine hundred-ton walking tanks with a dizzying array of weapons, stalking across the battlefield, easily laying waste to anything they encounter -- short of another mech.<br /><br />Rather than rehash the few details we've learned about the upcoming game, I'm going to relate a story. If you you're new to the BattleTech universe, this may inspire you to check out the games -- whether tabletop or computerized. If you're an old mech nerd like me, perhaps your love of the game will be rekindled.<br /><br />Back in the mid-90's, when the Internet was still in its infancy, dozens of mech enthusiasts played on the BattleTech 3056 MUSE. The MUSE was a text-based, real-time online mech combat simulator. It faithfully recreated all of the rules from the tabletop game, translating game rounds into real minutes and seconds, and updating players with ASCII-drawn sensor scans and terrain maps. Players represented a pilot -- a MechWarrior -- each assigned to a unique mech. Entire large-scale wars were fought "in-character" between the different factions in the game, with dozens of mechs taking the field for a single fight.<br /><br />Sit back, kids, and let this grizzled old BattleTech nerd tell you a war story...<br /><br />My personal mech on the 3056 MUSE was a heavy assault unit called a BattleMaster. Aside from a healthy mix of short- and medium-range weapons, the thing had insane amounts of armor. My mech, in particular, seemed to be nigh unkillable, lasting through several battles that it really had no right surviving. Despite taking massive internal damage on several occasions and having more than a few arms and legs blown off, nothing could ever quite knock out my BattleMaster's main reactor.<br /><br />My unit was the Eridani Light Horse, a well-known mercenary group consisting of several dozen pilots. I remember our first in-character engagement: a long, running battle through the forests of some godforsaken Draconis Combine planet. What began as a light, company-level skirmish slowly degenerated into a war of attrition as both sides ran low on ammunition.<br /><br />My BattleMaster represented itself well, dishing out punishing shots from its energy weapons even as the ammo supply for its rocket launchers dwindled. I managed to destroy a nearly undamaged enemy Awesome (another Assault Mech with three devastating Particle Projection Cannons), emerging from heavy woods and firing a couple of point-blank volleys into its back. <br /><br />Still, I was taking a lot of hits, most notably from a particularly pesky Griffin. The Griffin is a somewhat smaller medium-class mech, but its lighter armor and firepower is more than compensated for by its incredible mobility; not only could it run circles around an assault mech like mine, but it was fitted with jump jets that would allow it to make huge, fiery leaps over difficult terrain.<br /><br />I'd been trading shots with the Griffin for the better part of ten minutes when my opponent finally got a break. With a blazing volley of firepower, he finished off the internal structure in my BattleMaster's right torso, destroying most of its functional weapons and snapping off the left leg. My mech fell hard to the ground, severely damaging the actuators in the remaining leg. I was prone and immobile -- and facing away from the Griffin.<br /><br />As I lay helplessly on the ground, the damaged but still mobile enemy mech closed in to finish me off. Enlightenment hit me like a lightning bolt: the Griffin was standing in my rear firing arc! I triggered my remaining rear-facing medium laser. Headshot! The Griffin's head, already missing much of its armor from our earlier exchanges, offered little resistance. My beam of coherent light sliced right through the cockpit. The enemy mech slumped to the ground, its pilot dead.<br /><br />My BattleMaster unable to stand, I knew I was out of the fight at that point, but my teammates quickly cleaned up the rest of the enemy unit. We loaded back onto our dropship with millions of credits in salvaged equipment -- including a nearly-intact Griffin, absent one head.<br /><br />And that, in a nutshell, is the essence of BattleTech.<br /><br />Oh, sure, I was playing a primitive text-based game, and this new version of MechWarrior promises to be a beautiful, state-of-the-art simulation. But it's all the same game at its core, whether on a tabletop, an ASCII-based text window, or a fully-rendered 3D world.<br /><br />I'm hopeful that the upcoming MechWarrior game will live up to its BattleTech pedigree and can bring this type of incredible, adrenaline-filled experience to a new generation of gamers -- and to some of us curmudgeonly old ones, too.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-68775585789874673112009-06-30T14:11:00.003-05:002009-06-30T14:25:45.788-05:00No time for love, Doctor Jones<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHfDUc7vmdki9CKD_voUIaEGbpnfrYT2nvywBBfL2nUVszp7n1uGAJ8yK7IfGUeKy42YOQjiMWLWHzKBPYzhTcyyxEHQL7T08Vv-3TX3wiJa9x2DTFQwCUd0mARSZ0AqEG5bnN/s1600-h/thebes.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 142px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHfDUc7vmdki9CKD_voUIaEGbpnfrYT2nvywBBfL2nUVszp7n1uGAJ8yK7IfGUeKy42YOQjiMWLWHzKBPYzhTcyyxEHQL7T08Vv-3TX3wiJa9x2DTFQwCUd0mARSZ0AqEG5bnN/s200/thebes.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353200616457469106" /></a><b>Thebes</b><br /><i>Designed by Peter Prinz</i><br /><br />In <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30869">Thebes</a>, players take on the role of competing archaeologists who are trying to earn fame and fortune by discovering ancient artifacts from long-dead civilizations.<br /><br /><b>Gameplay</b><br /><br />The board depicts a map of Europe and North Africa, set at the beginning of the 1900's. Spaces on the board include major cities such as Paris and London and ancient ruin sites ranging from Mesopotamia to Greece to Egypt. Players move between these areas, collecting research, supplies, and team members from modern cities, and then using these resources to dig for artifacts among the ruins.<br /><br />Four cards rest face-up on the board. While the cards have different functions, each has two common elements: the city where that card can be obtained, and an amount of time (in weeks) it takes to pick up the card.<br /><br />The edge of the board contains a 52-week time track with a token representing each player's progress throughout the year. Every action takes a variable number of weeks, so the players will rarely occupy the exact same time slot. The track also determines the players' turn order; the person currently "earliest" in the year moves first, which means the order is constantly changing.<br /><br />Each turn, a player can make one movement action, moving anywhere on the board -- spending one week for each "hop" traveled -- and then perform one of three actions:<br /><br />- Pick up a card located in the current city, spending the number of weeks shown on the card.<br /><br />- Dig for artifacts. If a player is at a dig site and has any knowledge about the civilization in that location, from one to twelve weeks can be spent on a dig expedition. The amount of time spent digging increases the number of tiles the player draws from that dig site.<br /><br />- Discard and replace all face-up cards. A player must be in Warsaw to perform this action.<br /><br />There are several different cards, each important in its own way:<br /><br />- Knowledge - These colored "books" represent research performed on a specific civilization. The more knowledge a player possesses, the more tiles that can be drawn from the dig bag during an expedition. There are also General Knowledge cards that count as any color (but take longer to research) and Rumor cards that act as one-shot Knowledge for a single dig.<br /><br />- Legislature - These are straight "victory point" cards. Picking one up has no effect until scoring at the end of the game. However, the points awarded by each Legislature card increases exponentially as more cards are collected by any one player -- a single card isn't worth much, but eight or nine will award a player with a flood of points at the game's end.<br /><br />- Shovels and Research Assistants - These represent supplies and staff. Possessing shovels allows a player to draw extra tiles from a dig bag, while research assistants act as bonus research of all colors.<br /><br />- Automobiles and Zeppelins - These allow a player to move around the map more quickly.<br /><br />- Exhibitions - These cards have colored dots representing artifacts from different civilizations. If a player possesses the right combination of artifacts, these cards can be collected simply by going to the city on the card and spending the requisite number of weeks exhibiting the artifacts.<br /><br />Digging allows a player to draw tiles from one of five canvas bags, representing the different dig sites. Each bag contains several artifacts, a few "bonus knowledge" tiles, and several empty sand tokens. The number of tiles drawn is determined by the level of knowledge of the civilization, as well as the number of weeks spent digging. A small cardboard wheel is supplied for each player, printed with a cross reference between knowledge points, weeks digging, and the number of tiles drawn.<br /><br />Artifacts and knowledge drawn from the bag are kept by the player, while any empty sand tiles are returned to the bag. This means that over the course of the game, each bag will gradually contain fewer artifacts, reducing the likelihood of good returns from a given dig.<br /><br />The game ends after a predetermined number of years. Once the last player's token has passed the year-end mark on the time-track for the final time, scores are tallied. Each artifact collected from digs has a point value printed on the token. Add in any points given for collected Legislature and Exhibition cards. Finally, compare amassed knowledge: the player with the most knowledge points of each color gains a bonus 5 points (which can have a huge effect if a single player can master two or three -- or more -- knowledge categories). The player with the most points wins.<br /><br /><b>Review</b><br /><br />As you may have gathered from my previous reviews, I tend to avoid very heavy games, rarely wanting to delve too deeply into a huge multi-hour boardgame or deep economic simulation. Because of this, when the game's owner began introducing the rules for Thebes, I held my breath as the dozen or so different types of cards in the deck were explained. <br /><br />However, the complexity began and ended with the cards, and the rest of the rules turned out to be quite streamlined and intuitive. While each player will amass a huge number of cards throughout the course of the game, almost none of them have to be "used" -- most are simply a display of available resources. Each turn is a simple "move and act" process, so once a player understands the individual cards, there's not much else that has to be memorized.<br /><br />Gameplay flows quite well. The time-based turn system is quite innovative, and it allows for some unique strategy -- for example, if you're a few weeks behind the other players, you can sometimes perform a few quick actions all in sequence before anyone else gets a turn. It's also very easy to figure out when the game will end, so strategies can be formed to fit one or two last digs or exhibitions in before the end of the year.<br /><br />The only downside to the variable turn order system is that when performing a very long action (say, a 12-week dig), it may be a long while before a player will get to act again. During my second game, I initiated some very long digs -- at one point, I got up, went to the restroom, bought a cookie from the newsstand, and sat back down… and it wasn't even close to being my turn yet.<br /><br />I am quite impressed by the different strategies that are available to the players. Gathering several Legislature cards can allow one to run away with the game (as I gleefully discovered during our very first session), but only if the other players don't stop it. Doing early "quick digs" may only allow a few draws from the dig bags, but with the best chance of drawing artifacts. A slower, research-heavy strategy can allow a player to draw an insane number of tiles from the bags, but the bags won't be as well-stocked because the draws are made later in the game. And Exhibitions are always a strong option for a player lucky enough to hold the correct combination of artifacts.<br /><br />If there's one element of Thebes that doesn't appeal to me personally, it's the complete lack of player interaction. In true Euro-style, there's no way to directly interfere with anyone else's actions. At best, you can try to swoop in to grab a desirable face-up card before an opponent, or try to perform preemptive digs to try to deplete the dig bags. Once it becomes apparent that an opponent is in a position to win, there isn't much that can be done to stop him, even through collaboration by the other players. Your only option is to take a few risks and try to boost your own score before the game ends.<br /><br />While the design is solid, the physical game components are very hit-and-miss. The board is serviceable but not beautiful, and the cards are thematically appropriate but can sometimes be hard to read at a distance.<br /><br />However, the other bits and pieces add a lot to the game. The wooden player pawns, which have more than a passing resemblance to Indiana Jones, are perfect for the setting. The "dig wheels", which determine the number of tiles drawn during a dig, are both attractive and useful. The dig bags, in particular, are a very fun element -- reaching into the bags to randomly draw out valuable artifacts (or, more often, worthless colored sand) is much more exciting than it has any right to be.<br /><br />My initial impression of Thebes is very favorable. The theme is original and meshes very well with the gameplay, while the rules are easy to learn without sacrificing depth. The strong balance between random factors and strategic elements is perfect to keep the game interesting without being too dry for more casual players to enjoy.<br /><br />I can definitely see why Thebes was nominated for the 2007 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiel_des_Jahres">Spiel des Jahres</a> award, and I look forward to my next opportunity to play.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-1499306111462783642009-06-16T12:04:00.006-05:002009-06-16T12:11:43.824-05:00June game round-upHillary and I met up with our local group last night, and I got through four different games in about three hours. Most were pretty lightweight, so I figured I'd just write a quick paragraph on each rather than trying to review four games (three of which were completely new to me).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQduseQVOBAfDlbd8HkzwVEcBxS2Q5AiXgFf35OtnPtJPtKtwxT1t9zRGVQhtB_yIp8dPBOhyphenhyphentZpschg5L7b_kjLI2Ghv8HIFgxGrzMEAbAS3-22_XrBDxL1CjCc5dul4qYptR/s1600-h/incangold.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQduseQVOBAfDlbd8HkzwVEcBxS2Q5AiXgFf35OtnPtJPtKtwxT1t9zRGVQhtB_yIp8dPBOhyphenhyphentZpschg5L7b_kjLI2Ghv8HIFgxGrzMEAbAS3-22_XrBDxL1CjCc5dul4qYptR/s200/incangold.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347973337532782066" /></a><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37759">Incan Gold</a> is a fun little filler game that we'll sometimes break out while waiting for more gamers to arrive. Players take on the role of archaeologists who are searching for treasure and valuable artifacts hidden inside an ancient Incan temple. Unfortunately, the temple is also full of dangers, such as poisonous spiders and rockslides. Gameplay consists entirely of a "press your luck" style decision every turn (no whammies!), where each player must either hightail it out of the temple and keep what he's carrying -- and pick up any undistributed treasure on the way out -- or press on further and risk losing everything to one of the aforementioned hazards. Incan Gold is not a deep game by any means, but it's a quick and fun distraction. It can also support up to eight players, which is great when you have a larger gathering of gamers that wants to play together before breaking up into smaller groups for more involved games.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm6lXiL9Tf22JWDY6_SqbubhTWopcDNRklXBkDTN3TM9nafN1hoEX4B-Qr21azRwMUlVS9GbzBVm_C6UehyphenhyphenrnABH46tn6yZ-t7zIGVe1MlKdVsYki__315NAPI_XFisbEUIT98/s1600-h/freshfish.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm6lXiL9Tf22JWDY6_SqbubhTWopcDNRklXBkDTN3TM9nafN1hoEX4B-Qr21azRwMUlVS9GbzBVm_C6UehyphenhyphenrnABH46tn6yZ-t7zIGVe1MlKdVsYki__315NAPI_XFisbEUIT98/s200/freshfish.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347973541286434098" /></a><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1017">Fresh Fish</a> is an odd spacial management game unlike anything I've played before. The board is a nearly empty grid of undeveloped lots, starting out with just four marketplaces (power, fuel, fish, and... board games). Players must claim land and build factories to supply the marketplaces. The closer a factory is to its corresponding marketplace, the better a player's score -- however, distance must be measured along the road. This is tricky, because the road hasn't been built yet! Placement of the road has a few rules: it must touch every factory and marketplace, and it must have access to any claimed but undeveloped lots. Also, road tiles are only placed when they <i>have</i> to be -- for example, if there's only one open exit from a marketplace left, the road has to go there. At the end, the player with the lowest <i>total</i> distance to market, minus the money he has left (low scores are good), is the winner. This game is pretty darned confusing the first time through. Our session had several new players, and none of us really understood how road placement worked until we were well into the game. The whole thing made my head hurt, but I'd like to try Fresh Fish again now that I (sort of) comprehend how everything fits together.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUIMTYCVbpQ6ssOh1Jb0Mb5voDUuBvzWxR8XvkvzOIF2pF6uspzeXgmcWXcf9LgRbMBEnDaZYEkh3tIUW6IxL45eAbqImcheRgNKmTvJET1iozW4Sr7sJxUa8vboZXfT6BNI75/s1600-h/witchsbrew.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 138px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUIMTYCVbpQ6ssOh1Jb0Mb5voDUuBvzWxR8XvkvzOIF2pF6uspzeXgmcWXcf9LgRbMBEnDaZYEkh3tIUW6IxL45eAbqImcheRgNKmTvJET1iozW4Sr7sJxUa8vboZXfT6BNI75/s200/witchsbrew.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347973704062291106" /></a><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34084">Witch's Brew</a> is a light card game where players score points by creating potions. Each player has an identical "deck" of character cards and must choose five of these each turn to form a hand. The beginning player shows a card (for example, "I am the Wizard!"), and play goes around the table with all other players either passing (if they don't have the card that was played), stealing the role ("No, <u><i>I</i></u> am the Wizard"), or conceding the role ("So be it!"). The player winning the round gets to perform that character's action, while anyone who conceded gets a lesser reward. Roles generally allow players to collect gold and ingredients in various ways, or to manufacture potions from these materials. This was my first play ever, and I'm already a big fan. The game mechanics are unique and clever, and the theming is excellent. Games tend to flow very quickly, and newbies should have no problem picking up the rules. Witch's Brew would be a perfect "gateway" game for most non-gamer friends.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hETly6cxk35Ki9moptcPXKG3cJdc7MtVacY-PmZA3e1x2P1Q7llrZNh2aXdJX64goHFRULgjRNcxQjiVWg_FjO2J4rnCJ85hcLcL94pBqId2BLj_RNQzBMkDQDI9-bTmkZSZ/s1600-h/scripts.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 126px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hETly6cxk35Ki9moptcPXKG3cJdc7MtVacY-PmZA3e1x2P1Q7llrZNh2aXdJX64goHFRULgjRNcxQjiVWg_FjO2J4rnCJ85hcLcL94pBqId2BLj_RNQzBMkDQDI9-bTmkZSZ/s200/scripts.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347973849686594754" /></a><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34219">Scripts and Scribes</a> is another short card-based game that revolves around suit collection. There is a deck containing five colored suits (along with gold and Popes). Players take turns drawing five cards from the deck, deciding what happens to each card: three go "up for grabs", one stays hidden and goes into the auction stack, and one stays hidden and is kept by the drawing player. After the drafting round, the auction stack is turned up card-by-card, with players bidding gold cards in an attempt to improve their hands. Each of the five suits is won by whichever player has the highest total points in that suit. Suits are worth a certain number of points, which can be altered throughout the course of the game by playing Pope cards. I'm lukewarm about this game after a single play -- there's nothing inherently wrong with the mechanics, but there weren't any unique elements that I hadn't seen before in a dozen other games. You try to draft well, make smart purchases in the auction, and then someone wins. Scripts and Scribes is fine for what it is -- a simple filler game -- but I doubt I'll be begging for anyone to pull out the box when other games are available.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-31037174904422241252009-06-12T13:02:00.004-05:002009-06-12T13:24:16.105-05:00Burning at the stake would be more fun<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUMWINvCUrfF_KR552TEGpyQf97Nz8wHXWZzhv5GIGAFoKyEL7Buh2IuSPK3lWhLyDaHUeQkFnRYv_7MNMWMtwdwFvs0jHMfmBZB3sUvpeK2Aoj-ITrj0dI3MfwDaJ6mPiXo53/s1600-h/joanofarc.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUMWINvCUrfF_KR552TEGpyQf97Nz8wHXWZzhv5GIGAFoKyEL7Buh2IuSPK3lWhLyDaHUeQkFnRYv_7MNMWMtwdwFvs0jHMfmBZB3sUvpeK2Aoj-ITrj0dI3MfwDaJ6mPiXo53/s200/joanofarc.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346508042480663762" /></a>One of the guys from our gaming group brought <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/64">Joan of Arc</a> last week, and boy, was that a giant, festering three-hour turd of a game.<br /><br />Yeah, it's going to be one of <i>those</i> reviews. Buckle up, kids.<br /><br />I'm not going to waste time giving an overview of the game like I normally would. Just know that it's a medium-weight territory control game, hampered by the worst design decisions, most poorly-written rules, and largest amount of "dumb luck" moments of any game I've played in recent memory. That's all you really need to know to enjoy my review.<br /><br />Let's start with the rules. The English rulebook is only eight pages, which you'd think would make for a nice, simple, streamlined game. Instead, the game's owner brought pages of printed-out errata from the Internet, and we still had trouble making sense of some of the mechanics. There was a lot of flipping back and forth to find a given rule, and huge amounts of information seem to be almost willfully omitted. Keep in mind my group contains several serious gamers, who have no problem understanding much heavier-weight games.<br /><br />A lot of the comprehension problems stem from the fact that there is very little text on the game components, presumably in an effort to make it cheaper to publish internationally. The deck of "battle cards" consists of yellow number cards (simple: you add the number to your attack roll) and several different "special" red cards. Each of these red cards has a completely unique (and often complicated) function, yet there is no text at all on the cards themselves -- not even the <i>name</i> of the card. You have to find the picture of your card in the rulebook and figure out what it does. Some cards even have a table or two that you'll have to roll the dice against, but none of this is printed on the card itself.<br /><br />The game itself seems like a cumbersome mishmash of mechanics pulled from different games. Each turn starts with the players voting on "War" or "Peace", which you'd think would have a pretty big impact on things, but it really just determines the number of attacks you can make and possibly cause an extra Event. Then there are the Events and Foreign Intervention. These are both completely random mechanics and there's usually very little player response that can occur -- it's more a matter of "roll the dice and see who gets screwed".<br /><br />Then there's the meat of the game: expanding and conquering territories. It's pretty standard: each player can use some Battle cards, then you roll the dice and add the result to your battle cards and any defensive fortifications. The higher number wins.<br /><br />You may have noticed that I've said "roll the dice" quite a bit. Virtually every element in Joan of Arc is randomized. I'm not opposed to a bit of luck-based play in lighter games, but for a multi-hour game that claims to be strategy-based, the number of random factors is ridiculous.<br /><br />Here's a list of completely random elements:<br /><ul><li>Turn order (100% random, HUGELY important in this type of game)<br /><li>Events (randomly changes gameplay for a turn)<br /><li>Foreign Intervention (random chance to lose a territory)<br /><li>Battle Cards (random deck, determine your battle strength/abilities)<br /><li>Combat (roll dice, pray)</ul><br />We played this stupid game for nearly three hours and didn't even get to finish. I think maybe somebody won, but by that point I was happy just being done with it.<br /><br />If you read my blog regularly, you know that I've never bashed a game so completely (the only other boardgame I've enjoyed less is <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/805">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a>, and that's a distant memory that I won't be revisiting with a review). However, Joan of Arc contains exactly zero redeeming factors for me.<br /><br />To paraphrase Spinal Tap: How much more could this game suck? The answer is none. None more suck.<br /><br />If you're looking for a light-to-medium weight territory control game, skip this one and pick up <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692">Small World</a> (<a href="http://whitehowler.blogspot.com/2009/04/disney-rides-would-be-better-with.html">my review</a>) instead. You'll be getting a fun, accessible, streamlined product, rather than a horrible jumble of half-formed game design.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-84322479721737308342009-06-01T15:55:00.004-05:002009-06-01T16:11:57.008-05:00Guest review: Diplomacy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD249EO_urlIDgR3LCtJps6XC3jIe4nDf3xAzprxHHN8UPykF-XJ9-efOboVbTkB1Fcgw9jMJLQnYo1i-0aCaKNT800xQgnMnWX6ogBSLl3SnrkwAJ49wNVly9YMUtWtI5Hzmi/s1600-h/diplomacy.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD249EO_urlIDgR3LCtJps6XC3jIe4nDf3xAzprxHHN8UPykF-XJ9-efOboVbTkB1Fcgw9jMJLQnYo1i-0aCaKNT800xQgnMnWX6ogBSLl3SnrkwAJ49wNVly9YMUtWtI5Hzmi/s200/diplomacy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342466846852896786" /></a>During <a href="http://playoncon.com">Play On Con</a> last weekend, Hillary and I went looking for late-night gaming. A full seven-player game of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/483">Diplomacy</a> was starting up, and we were invited to play. I had a crushing headache at the time and bowed out in favor of a quick nap, but Hillary stayed on to fight her way through the all-out warfare and cutthroat politics.<br /><br />She wrote up a nice review of Diplomacy from a newbie's point of view, and so I present it here...<br /><br />__________<br /><br />Diplomacy is a strategy/war game that is very easy to understand, but can be very hard to play, depending on your skills and the skills of those you are playing with. There is no luck element to this game and the outcome relies solely on the interactions of the players.<br /><br />Here's how the game goes:<br /><br />There's a map of Europe. You draw markers to decide which country you are and get a predetermined number of units (the same for everyone). You can do a handful of things each turn: move a unit, hold a unit, support another unit's move, support another unit's hold, and convoy a land unit to another land via a ship in the area. On each turn, you write your orders and then hand them in to one person who makes sure they get executed correctly. Every "year", there is a spring turn and a fall turn. The number of units you get in the spring is determined by the number of supply centers, cities marked by a star on the map, you had in the previous fall. If you ever have 18 supply centers in your possession, you win. Simple, right?<br /><br />Keep reading.<br /><br />Here comes the fun part -- I mean that both literally and ironically. What makes Diplomacy Diplomacy is the negotiation of treaties, the forming of alliances, and the inevitable betrayal of said alliances. During the "writing orders" phase, players go off to the side or leave the room to negotiate with other countries. This is what makes the game truly interesting, because you have to decide what you want, how to get it and who to trust. A game of Diplomacy can get very cutthroat depending on the players and the circumstance. In the game I played, I had to leave for about 20 minutes because of an emergency with my hotel room and when I came back, one of the players was eliminated and looked rather put out. The player who had been the main impetus for this happening apologized by explaining why he did what he did and then saying "sorry you got screwed". He added "you've got to check your friendships at the door with this game."<br /><br />My idea, for about 2 turns, became to figure out any way I could to screw this particular player because he was cutthroat and he was absolutely going to win. That idea went away when I realized that I was terrible at the game because I lack any ability to visualize military tactics or any notion of how to be cutthroat. So instead, I became said player's bitch. He told me what orders to execute to bother another country, and I moved wherever he needed me to, even if that meant that he took supply centers from me. I probably didn't live up to the group's expectations for the perfect adversary for the 7 player Diplomacy game some of them had been wanting to play all weekend, but I honestly gave it my best shot -- I am just not cut out to be a diplomat.<br /><br />Some games like this can end up being a "kingmaker", where you figure out you're not going to win, so you then have to figure out which "horse" to back. Diplomacy doesn't necessarily have to be that way for a couple of different reasons. First of all, In the game I played, it was considered completely acceptable to say "I can't do anything else" and put all your units on hold indefinitely. In addition, the game can be voted a draw by all players left in the game, which is what the last 3 players decided upon long after I left the game.<br /><br />Pros:<br />Easy to understand, different from most games, no blowing on dice or crossing your fingers, and involves "the human element" more than any game I've played.<br /><br />Cons:<br />It's LONG (I played for at least 3 hours and the game went on long after I left), not for the sensitive soul, and requires a very specific skill set for planning moves and "negotiating" with other players.<br /><br />Overall impression: <br />Diplomacy is very cool and I understand why it is highly rated on <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com">BoardGameGeek</a>. I had a blast despite realizing after 2 or 2.5 hours that I could not play this game well. I actually really like how much it involves the human element -- every game could turn out very differently depending on who you're playing with, what their aim is, etc.<br /><br />Conclusion:<br />If this game sounds like the type of thing you would like, step up to a table next time you see someone get out the box. If it doesn't, step away from the table and go grab your <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/74">Apples to Apples</a> box, you hippie pansy. If you're not sure whether or not this sounds like fun, grab a chair and some popcorn and watch the drama unfold... if you like what you see, join them next time.<br /><br />One last note:<br />The fact that this is essentially the "anti-Hillary" game and I still had a lot of fun definitely says something. I wish I could play again, but I am solidly in the "step away from the table" crowd given that I am a sensitive soul, am not good with military tactics, and my attention span lasts all of 30 seconds. I don't think you'll ever see me near a game of Diplomacy again... unless it's with popcorn.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-8651333616223158262009-05-29T12:08:00.006-05:002009-05-29T14:36:38.877-05:00Play On Con 2009 wrap-up<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivhq-Jbitb1_dqUn3vNhAo9pHO5R92Z_jVOI5CAAXIM7UlrEGoS3BG4fAlJ4_7nAiyiVIU-5FbgJAXjto1D42lq4k0S5dk6ZxG1l9ScmC_LFSIfT-UU_hdL-j-cyl4xc0D-0Kr/s1600-h/poc2009final1.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 155px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivhq-Jbitb1_dqUn3vNhAo9pHO5R92Z_jVOI5CAAXIM7UlrEGoS3BG4fAlJ4_7nAiyiVIU-5FbgJAXjto1D42lq4k0S5dk6ZxG1l9ScmC_LFSIfT-UU_hdL-j-cyl4xc0D-0Kr/s200/poc2009final1.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341306461965742818" /></a>As I mentioned in my <a href="http://whitehowler.blogspot.com/2009/05/16-reasons-you-should-have-attended.html">previous post</a>, Hillary and I had an absolute blast at last weekend's <a href="http://playoncon.com/">Play On Con 2</a> convention, held at the Alta Vista Hotel and Conference Center in Birmingham. It wasn't a huge con (estimate was around 250-275 paid attendees), but there was rarely a lack of things to do, people to talk to, or games to play.<br /><br />I touched on the traditional gaming side of things in my last blog entry, but I wanted to write about some of the other experiences we had over the course of an amazing weekend.<br /><br />On Friday night, we cleaned up at the Blackjack table during the charity casino event. Over the course of two hours our chip totals stayed fairly static, so we decided to go "all-in" on the last hand. The dealer busted, and we cashed out for some pretty good prizes.<br /><br />Next up was the Chick Flick Trivia Pajama Party. Neither of us know a damned thing about chick flicks, so we attended more for the spectacle than a desire to actually participate. We both surprised ourselves by answering one question each for our respective teams: me with my unexplainable (and somewhat embarrassing) knowledge of "Spanglish", and Hillary with her spot-on Thriller dance from the scene in "10 Things I Hate About You".<br /><br />Saturday was all about gaming for us. Morning featured a live-action game of Wiz-War, complete with life-sized board, costumes, props, and oversized spell cards. I heard a few people mention that it was their favorite event of the entire weekend, and I can't disagree. Hillary entered the game as a wizard and did very well; I ended up helping the organizer by handing out kill trophies and occasionally entering the map as a summoned bat or fire imp, yet I had no less fun than the participants.<br /><br />The evening capped off with a hypnotism show in the main programming area, which drew a lot of laughs. Sadly, none of the participants was ordered to act like a chicken.<br /><br />As everything moved upstairs for the night, we discovered that a few events had been delayed or canceled without notice, causing us to miss a couple of things that we'd wanted to attend. I was a little bit annoyed about the nighttime programming breakdown (hence <a href="http://twitter.com/WhiteHowler">my unhappy Twitter post</a> that night). I mentioned it to a director, and he was very understanding and apologized profusely (so much so that I felt kind of bad about bringing it up).<br /><br />Sunday featured a patio picnic and hula hoop party, complete with live surf music. <a href="http://www.myspace.com/daikaiju">Daikaiju</a> was awesome, as expected. I wish they could have performed a longer set, but they were playing the con as a courtesy and were double-booked for a "real" show later that evening.<br /><br />The main programming for the evening was a Rock Band tournament. This was not a question of "how good are you at Rock Band" -- there was a Guitar Hero event for the score whores earlier in the day. This was "how much of a spectacle can you make of yourself?", and the answer is "huge". Great costumes and an energetic crowd made the event truly memorable, with a Jimmy Buffett cover band ("James Tiberius Buffett and His Enterprising Young Men") coming out on top.<br /><br />Monday morning brought a Dance Dance Revolution tournament, which attracted an impressive <i>three</i> participants. Note to organizers: maybe no physically-taxing events on the last morning of a con. It was decided that the three of us were all winners for actually being awake and ready to dance after such a long and sleepless weekend, so we just played DDR for fun until we could barely stand up.<br /><br />This did not take long.<br /><br />A "con in review" session and a short Memorial Day ceremony on the patio overlooking the city wrapped up the weekend nicely for the walking zombies who made it through the weekend.<br /><br />To keep from going over-the-top with praise for the con, I should definitely point out two significant (as compared to the Saturday night programming breakdown) problems that arose over the course of the weekend.<br /><br />The hotel had opened up a jazz club sometime after the convention organizers booked the place, which meant that nighttime programming on Friday and Saturday had to be moved upstairs. This wasn't a huge issue, but the upstairs areas (especially the RPG/boardgaming area) sometimes felt cramped. Also, it would have been nice to have the restaurant and patio available for gaming or audience-friendly programming.<br /><br />A somewhat larger issue was the hotel's Sunday double-booking with a local hip hop radio station's "Wet 'n' Wild Pool Party". We had more problems with this conflict, because the downstairs areas became extremely crowded, and the participants of the party kept wandering into our events. There was a bit of culture clash too, but we gaming nerds tend to be very open and accepting, and I didn't hear of any real altercations between the two groups.<br /><br />Despite these problems, the Play On Con directors and staff were extremely friendly and helpful, and someone was usually on-hand to help or answer questions. The weekend was a shining example of the old "when life gives you lemons" proverb, and the con staff handled every obstacle masterfully.<br /><br />This post has grown much longer than I originally intended, so I'll wrap it up.<br /><br />I will say that we've already preregistered for Play On Con 3 sometime in 2010 (dates and location should be announced in the coming weeks), and I strongly urge our gaming friends not to miss it.<br /><br />If you haven't been convinced yet, let me offer two little words that might do the trick:<br /><br />Free alcohol.<br /><br />See you next year!Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-42887247568050746092009-05-26T10:25:00.004-05:002009-05-29T13:16:59.312-05:0016 reasons you should have attended Play On Con<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4YWKxtIdrTJiKcpm2207Dpj8R_ouB2OmdSNV-L8Br3eW0eSZYsaTp-AZ261VmknXyRQZqpZCwVSC_NGiiCLxJrO5-H5D-nD2clMN47ntSFuQhmjjp2kMCJ9L8fFCWMQRHXBU/s1600-h/poc.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 149px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4YWKxtIdrTJiKcpm2207Dpj8R_ouB2OmdSNV-L8Br3eW0eSZYsaTp-AZ261VmknXyRQZqpZCwVSC_NGiiCLxJrO5-H5D-nD2clMN47ntSFuQhmjjp2kMCJ9L8fFCWMQRHXBU/s200/poc.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340159746425769682" /></a>Hillary and I spent the holiday weekend at <a href="http://playoncon.com">Play On Con 2009</a> in Birmingham. If you're not familiar with Play On Con, it's a small (but growing) gaming-themed convention that just finished up its very successful sophomore event.<br /><br />I'll do a more extensive write-up of the weekend later, but I wanted make a quick post to say that POC2 was the eleventh convention I've attended, and it was far and away the best experience I've ever had at a con.<br /><br />I know a lot of our friends were on the fence about attending and ended up not going. To give just a taste of what you missed, here's a list of games, contests, and tournaments that we played over the course of the weekend:<br /><ul><br /><li>Blackjack (charity casino)</li><br /><li>Chick Flick Trivia (and pajama party!)</li><br /><li>Live Action Wiz-War</li><br /><li>Pandemic</li><br /><li>Arkham Horror</li><br /><li>Citadels</li><br /><li>Diplomacy</li><br /><li>Balloon Cup</li><br /><li>Virulent</li><br /><li>Scarabs and Scorpions</li><br /><li>Gamer Triathlon (Suicide Chess, Dice, Memory)</li><br /><li>Bang!</li><br /><li>Munchkin Bites and Star Munchkin (tournament)</li><br /><li>Small World</li><br /><li>Dance Dance Revolution (tournament)</li><br /><li>Rock Band 2</li><br /></ul>Quite a list, huh? And it doesn't include the programming we attended... or all the events we missed because we were too busy gaming (there was an entire floor of the hotel dedicated to nighttime parties and drunken revelry that we didn't even venture onto).<br /><br />I'll give a more coherent look back at the con once I've recovered a bit (I'm still rocking an awesome sleep/nutrition deficit), but hopefully just seeing the sheer amount of gaming opportunities available will inspire you to attend next year.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-63775511842973753212009-05-19T10:15:00.003-05:002009-05-19T10:21:34.143-05:00Tell me what's on your mind<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIEaDgskQOKhuwPQPdnxCBw135yEQVrkbgSY7Ls4_Z263iAh8ozAwABcTruah7BeO2b9zJZz_qOsxizD2s5KKLFerZ9U-in2Mhyh148g4EF_OnStzUXuBmXF3VGQmR-JEGxzq3/s1600-h/powergrid.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 146px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIEaDgskQOKhuwPQPdnxCBw135yEQVrkbgSY7Ls4_Z263iAh8ozAwABcTruah7BeO2b9zJZz_qOsxizD2s5KKLFerZ9U-in2Mhyh148g4EF_OnStzUXuBmXF3VGQmR-JEGxzq3/s200/powergrid.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337554766126742658" /></a>(Hmm... I think maybe my title references are getting a bit too obscure.)<br /><br />Last night Hillary and I met up with the area boardgaming group, and we got to try <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2651">Power Grid</a> for the first time.<br /><br />I'm not going to post a full review, since this is a heavier-weight game than I've been covering, and a single play isn't enough to get a solid feel for it. I'll just give some quick thoughts.<br /><br />The first thing I noticed is that there's a lot to remember. Even the experienced players were referring to the game turn cheat sheets pretty often. The actual decision-making mechanics are pretty simple though -- there's an auction phase, a resource-buying phase, and a building phase. We've done all of these things before in various games, just not necessarily in the same one. At the end of each turn, players' powered cities pay off, and there's a "maintenance" phase that evolves slightly as the game progresses.<br /><br />The only real criticism I have from my first play is that it's incredibly easy to get behind early on, and it seems very difficult to catch up. I was struggling to upgrade and fuel my power plants while trying to save enough cash to expand. Meanwhile, the lead player was able to throw around cash like a... cash-throwing-around machine. It's frustrating to find yourself in a deep hole fifteen minutes into a two-hour game.<br /><br />The game mechanics attempt to balance uneven games by rearranging turn order (the lead player has to go first in bidding and last in building), but in my game the leaders were always able to extend their lead just enough that there was no real hope of catching up.<br /><br />I definitely want to give Power Grid another spin and see how possible it is to catch up after poor decisions (or bad luck) early on. The theme is solid and the mechanics are engaging, so nobody will have to twist my arm to get me to play this one again.<br /><br />On another note, we also played <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37759">Incan Gold</a>, which is becoming one of my favorite "filler" games. It often gets panned for being too simplistic -- the only decision players face each round is "stay" or "leave" -- but the games I've played so far have been quite fun. It's kind of like Apples to Apples: ridiculously simple, but everyone is laughing throughout the game. I should write up a full review in the near future.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-34693864653568004752009-05-15T14:47:00.004-05:002009-05-15T14:56:12.054-05:00PlayOnCon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr3z2yv4GFCE1y1n03tveO5g_aclEkWa7KyChHJDrgL7d4X0TTESXB7EiSQ7GW4GuhnfAmJyGkciu4m4BAYjbY3IS6I6wm_ndX-GHUEF4V9gsXdrkjPWXcVmccuZ8Jb_RCulPG/s1600-h/daikaiju.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 177px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr3z2yv4GFCE1y1n03tveO5g_aclEkWa7KyChHJDrgL7d4X0TTESXB7EiSQ7GW4GuhnfAmJyGkciu4m4BAYjbY3IS6I6wm_ndX-GHUEF4V9gsXdrkjPWXcVmccuZ8Jb_RCulPG/s200/daikaiju.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336141932353828162" /></a>I really didn't mean for this to turn into a boardgaming blog, but it's what we've been into the last few weeks. Maybe I'll surprise everyone and give my thoughts on the finales for Lost, Dollhouse, and Star Trek in an upcoming post.<br /><br /><a href="http://playoncon.com/">PlayOnCon</a> is coming up Memorial Day Weekend. It's a gaming and "fandom" convention in Birmingham and was apparently fairly successful last year. I'll probably spend most of my time in the open gaming area (24 hours of random boardgames), but I'm looking forward to the programming as well.<br /><br />Aside from several panel discussions and gaming events, Daikaiju (a crazy psycho-surf band from Huntsville) is playing on Sunday night. After seeing them at WorkPlay, I can wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone who enjoys fun, high-energy music.<br /><br /><a href="http://playoncon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009programming.pdf">A draft of the programming schedule</a> is now available. There will also be 24-hour open gaming, room parties, and more.<br /><br />Today is the last day for preregistration, but weekend and daily passes will be available at the door for a slightly increased price. I know a ton of people following my blog are Birmingham-area gamers, so hopefully a bunch of you will come check it out!Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-52570370706715405532009-05-07T13:07:00.004-05:002009-05-07T13:41:54.742-05:00Generic reference to the bad guys on Deep Space Nine<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoND9MLwQqCYQ0a12j9e2bYzqiiFsXMKy-oT31idTZvj1yv9OUZgX0tI3-URfpV7gjIP9L_zLfgSTKaoTtBX9_cusNX6k2RHA1ylv0R9MGxqTP2AITLgqHlwK_wxNI5dhgsKv/s1600-h/dominion.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZoND9MLwQqCYQ0a12j9e2bYzqiiFsXMKy-oT31idTZvj1yv9OUZgX0tI3-URfpV7gjIP9L_zLfgSTKaoTtBX9_cusNX6k2RHA1ylv0R9MGxqTP2AITLgqHlwK_wxNI5dhgsKv/s200/dominion.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333147302264787410" /></a>I wrote up a review of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36218">Dominion</a> last week and forgot to post it. Oops. Hillary and I also got to try out <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27588">Zooloretto</a> with our local gaming group, so I'll get a quick review of that one up too.<br /><br /><b>Gameplay:</b><br />Dominion is a medieval-themed card game where each player attempts to build the best personal deck by buying cards from various face-up supply piles in the center of the board. Gameplay flow is simple: play an action from your hand, buy a card from the supply area (which goes into your discard pile), and then discard both your hand and all cards played this turn, drawing five new cards to replace them.<br /><br />Yeah, you read that right. You chuck your entire hand every turn. Use it or lose it. I was a bit confused when the rules said that any card I bought from the supply area would immediately go into my discard pile. It didn't take long before the dynamic made sense, though; as soon as a player's draw deck is empty, the discard pile is shuffled to form a new deck. Since players are going through cards so quickly, all purchased cards will end up in the draw deck within a few turns.<br /><br />Ideally, you want to find a balance between buying Treasure cards (the currency that allows you to buy everything), Kingdom cards (which grant special abilities or bonus resources), and Victory cards (which score points at the end but are absolutely useless when drawn into your hand). Everything you buy ends up in your deck, for better or worse.<br /><br />Winning conditions are simple. Once any three supply piles are empty, or as soon as the high-scoring Province supply deck is gone, the game is over. Players go through their deck counting up Victory Point cards, and the player with the most points is the winner.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br />The rules are clear and simple; no complaints there. We figured out the gameplay flow within the first few turns of our initial game and rarely had to consult the manual while playing. The language on the cards is very clear, and it's easy to tell a Kingdom card's benefits at a glance.<br /><br />There's not much to say about the physical components; you get several decks of cards that are fairly standard CCG-style quality. The artwork is decent (but not spectacular), and the cards are visually distinctive enough to tell them apart at a glance. The game box contains a plastic tray that keeps the individual card types separated -- it works well, but future expansions might complicate this a bit.<br /><br />I've heard complaints that Dominion suffers from the "game playing the player" syndrome, and I can't completely disagree. In a given hand of five cards, the best play is often obvious. Still, with sixteen supply piles on the table, there are always decisions to be made. Maintaining a good deck balance is key -- victory cards are useless when drawn into a player's hand, but they directly determine the winner. It seems contradictory to say that a game offers so many options every turn and yet lacks strategic depth, but this has been my experience so far.<br /><br />My main problem with Dominion is that there isn't much player interaction. You're building your own deck, and your actions (other than the occasional "Attack" card) don't affect your opponent. The supply piles are large, so there's no danger of resources running out until toward the end of the game.<br /><br />It would be nice if there were more options for interfering with your opponent's plans. I can imagine situations where an obvious winner would emerge halfway through the game, yet the other players would be powerless to do anything about it.<br /><br />I posted a draft version of this review over on the <a href="http://forums.somethingawful.com">SA forums</a>, and several posters mentioned that Dominion works much better with three or four players. After seeing how well <a href="http://whitehowler.blogspot.com/2009/04/you-know-how-hard-it-is-for-me-to-shake.html">Pandemic</a> scaled down for two players, I had hoped that Dominion would do the same.<br /><br />Having been <a href="http://whitehowler.blogspot.com/2009/04/disney-rides-would-be-better-with.html">absolutely blown away by Small World</a> (admittedly a very different type of game) barely a week ago, it would take a lot to impress me; Dominion isn't quite there yet, but I'm optimistic for future plays. And replayability should be high, since the game comes with 25 different Kingdom card types, of which only 10 types are used each game.<br /><br />I'll report back once we've tried a game with more players, but for now I give Dominion a very reserved "thumbs up".Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-62388331043876804422009-04-29T10:16:00.003-05:002009-04-29T10:25:04.426-05:00Disney rides would be better with Berserking Skeletons<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg34GgvFeS0yzf82JqTmA0SMFgfxukPEvIbq-lxeMts60Prp_ifivdH2yxDmOFVGOOSVQFITG9d3nxpEoEwpaTT9WnZomGcNTSdwc0UnpsKT-1PShZZJ6CzYEQ3S-zoiv-FYtdV/s1600-h/smallworld.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg34GgvFeS0yzf82JqTmA0SMFgfxukPEvIbq-lxeMts60Prp_ifivdH2yxDmOFVGOOSVQFITG9d3nxpEoEwpaTT9WnZomGcNTSdwc0UnpsKT-1PShZZJ6CzYEQ3S-zoiv-FYtdV/s200/smallworld.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330134137702482626" /></a>Hillary and I met up with the Birmingham group of boardgamers again this week. One of the attendees had brought his copy of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692">Small World</a>, which was just released this month. I'd read favorable reviews of the game, so we quickly jumped into the group and gave it a try.<br /><br /><b>Gameplay:</b><br />Small World is a light civilization-style territory control game with a few minor wargame elements. I've been told that the game is basically an updated, fantasy-themed cousin of Vinci (which I've never played, so that description didn't mean much to me).<br /><br />Each player takes on the role of a civilization, one of several fantasy races (orcs, giants, humans, tritons, etc.), each having its own unique ability. Each race is also randomly paired with a special attribute that grants another ability (such as Merchant, Flying, or Diplomatic). The attributes are fairly powerful, and can create very effective combinations with a race's built-in ability.<br /><br />The gameboard is a colorful map consisting of a few dozen regions, several containing symbols that denote natural resources. Although not laid out in a hex pattern, the board reminded me a bit of Catan; each region is distinctly a field, or a mountain, or a swamp, etc. Scattered around the map are remnants of a "dying" civilization that once controlled the area, but otherwise the lands are clear and ready to be settled.<br /><br />Players colonize and conquer by placing the unit tokens for their race on the map. Taking a clear area requires two units (barring any special abilities), while conquering an inhabited area, or one with a mountain, will take more. The simple rule of thumb is "two units plus one per piece of cardboard already on the space" (a piece of cardboard being any token: an enemy unit, a defensive emplacement, or a mountain).<br /><br />Combat is neither random nor contested -- if enough units are used to attack, a player can force enemy units out of a space and take it. For the final move of a turn (usually when only one or two units are still available), a player may roll a die and add the result (0-3) as "bonus" units, only useful for determining the attack's outcome. When a stack of units is defeated in battle, one is removed from the game, and the rest are returned to the owner to redeploy among other territories. This causes attrition among each civilization as battles are fought, since most races can't replace a unit token once it is lost.<br /><br />At the end of each player's turn, that player receives victory points based on the number of spaces currently controlled, plus any bonus points granted by special abilities (for example, Humans get an extra victory point for each field they control, while Orcs get a bonus point every time they conquer an occupied region).<br /><br />A key game element is the ability to "decline" a civilization and choose a new one. When declining a civilization, each unit stack is reduced to one unit, and the civ can no longer move, use special abilities, or conquer territory. However, the race still scores points for the controlling player as long as it continues to exist. A common strategy is to make a quick land-grab with a populous or unusually mobile race, put it into decline, and then choose a more combat-oriented race to either defend the now-declining civilization or simply start conquering more territory while the declining race continues to score points.<br /><br />Gameplay seems to run about 60-90 minutes. With five players, our first game lasted around two hours, but the second was over within about 75 minutes. Each game only runs eight rounds (at least for the five-player version), so at any point you've got a good idea of how far into the session you are, and how much time you have left to set up a win.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br />After two games of Small World, I have to say I'm very impressed. The random combinations of races and attributes keep the game fresh, and the combat dynamic is so light and simple that conquering territory never becomes cumbersome. At first I was worried that the imbalance between the different race and attribute abilities would be a problem, but this wasn't the case in the sessions I played. Civilizations move up a "stack", and players can pay victory points to take a more desirable combination that's a bit further down. Even if a player lucks out and gets a very powerful combination, chances are good that there's something else on the stack that can counter or defend against it.<br /><br />Player interaction is moderately high. While there's no way to immediately respond to another player's action, you can directly affect their units and territory on your own turn. For example, during one game Hillary controlled nearly half the board and had a great race/attribute combination. It was obvious that she would win handily if left alone, so I started a new civ as a heavily militant race and blitzed through her borders, conquering nearly her entire territory within a couple of turns. (I'm lucky I didn't have to sleep on the couch that night.)<br /><br />I do have a few minor complaints about the game design. The first problem concerns turn order. There's a distinct advantage to going first, especially later in the game when removing enemy units (and their potential to score points) is as important as capturing your own territory. Since players score at the end of their own turn, moving earlier in a round is beneficial -- especially during the last round. I've already seen a suggested rules variant for fixing this (keeping victory points visible and ordering turns from lowest to highest current point total), and I'd be interested in trying this out to see if it balances the game a bit better.<br /><br />My other complaint is that the gameboard gets very busy, and it can be hard to keep track of everything that's going on. The unit counters don't have very distinct color schemes, especially when a race is in decline (tokens are flipped over to a "grayed out" side). This can make it difficult to spot units of different races and count up victory points at the end of a turn. It would have been nice if the designers had given each unit counter a unique race-specific colored or patterned border.<br /><br />Aside from this, the game components are well-made and the artwork is appropriate to the theme. The cardboard counters are thick and seem like they'll hold up well during multiple plays. The game's plastic box insert keeps all of the dozens of tokens separated perfectly, and hopefully other game publishers will use it as an example of how to design built-in component storage.<br /><br />Most importantly, the game is fun. After finishing our initial two-hour session, the owner of our copy asked "Do we want to play again?", and the answer was a quick and unanimous "Yes!". I can't think of too many hour-plus games that get this kind of reaction.<br /><br />Overall, Small World is an excellent game, and I would have already bought my own copy if my wife hadn't already threatened to kill me for buying Dominion this week.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-55706375449315920632009-04-27T08:33:00.003-05:002009-04-27T08:44:02.528-05:00A plethora of games<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1uZgIr_ZT64b6JmpNQCubpFuaaJwUbJ0xnKtBdSXHXRqRJRBV1ECYpW00m-ijPOj2_GLgHlEg_a0bAtvQLFKzYFTxMALF7W_dmNNYQ-9uZR70K64ur18Zj5GW4X6JXRbTrSzS/s1600-h/DON'T-F-WITH-MEEPLE.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 164px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1uZgIr_ZT64b6JmpNQCubpFuaaJwUbJ0xnKtBdSXHXRqRJRBV1ECYpW00m-ijPOj2_GLgHlEg_a0bAtvQLFKzYFTxMALF7W_dmNNYQ-9uZR70K64ur18Zj5GW4X6JXRbTrSzS/s200/DON'T-F-WITH-MEEPLE.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329365400122805474" /></a>Welcome to my boardgame blog! Well, not really; it's just the only interesting thing that has been happening lately.<br /><br />Over the weekend, Hillary and I visited a couple of friends that we don't get to see very often, so the four of us spent an afternoon hanging out and playing games.<br /><br />First up was <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10547">Betrayal at the House on the Hill</a>, which our hosts had played but my wife and I were new to. I liked the house-building dynamic, and it seems like every game will go differently, which keeps things fresh. I did notice that until the haunting occurs, the players are pretty much on their own, and anything I did had no real effect on anyone else. The particular haunting we got seemed to be heavily skewed against the traitor (my lovely wife), but I'd have to play more to decide whether the game has real balance issues.<br /><br />Our friends hadn't played <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549">Pandemic</a> yet, and we'd been wanting to try a four-player game. Since we had two newbies, we decided to play the "easy" mode with only four Epidemics in the deck. The game plays a bit differently with more people, and we found that the individual Roles are much more important. As the Dispatcher, I spent most of my actions each turn shuttling people around the map. Likewise with the Researcher; most of his turns consisted of slinging cards out to the other players. We won pretty handily, and I kind of wish we'd started on the "normal" difficulty. The game seemed to be a hit, and we're looking forward to trying it with more Epidemics in the deck next time.<br /><br />At this point we wanted to play a quick filler game or two, so next up was <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22465">On the Dot</a>, which I had picked up before the weekend. We were all new to this odd little puzzle-solving game, so it took a few rounds before we got the hang of it. Hillary wasn't a big fan of this one (she later complained that she had to play a logic game against three engineers), but at least the games are short. The rest of us enjoyed it for what it was -- a quick little time-waster with no real player interaction.<br /><br />Since the group was divided over the previous game, we broke out one of my wife's favorites, <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/74">Apples to Apples</a>, for a bit. I am terrible at this game, but it's always fun either way. Something "Adorable"? How about "Chainsaws"! Our friends own several custom cards with lots of inside jokes (which we're mostly in on, fortunately) so the game generated a lot more laughs than usual.<br /><br />We decided to continue our string of lighter games with a couple of rounds of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1231">Bausack Noir</a>. Not much to say about it -- each player builds a tower out of a collection of differently-shaped blocks. We'd all played before, so we stacked up our towers and spent most of each game trying to screw over our fellow players with oddly shaped blocks. Always fun.<br /><br />The girls both had things to do, so my friend Bill and I opted for a two-player game to finish off the night. He suggested <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25417">BattleLore</a>, which I'd never played before but was interested in trying. It was about what I expected: a very light wargame with simple combat. We played a starter campaign (Battle of Agincourt) and didn't add in any of the expansion elements. I took on the role of the English, and managed to eke out a very close win by being incredibly lucky with my archers' attack rolls in the first couple of rounds, taking out most of my opponent's cavalry before they could get in range. I enjoyed our battle, but it didn't seem deep enough with just the basic rules -- at least with something like <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11170">Heroscape</a>, each unit has unique stats and special abilities. It sounds like the game will be more interesting if we try it with the more advanced rules and start adding in magic and expansions.<br /><br />Everyone had a great time overall (excepting Hillary's distinct dislike for On the Dot), and it reminded me why I got into this hobby into the first place. Hopefully we'll get another chance to do this again soon!Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-37257679606038043172009-04-22T08:21:00.004-05:002009-04-22T08:40:03.023-05:00You know how hard it is for me to shake the disease<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHpt-CWC2OPsrU8tK-culFkHLuxM-UQJ1Ovc7I74hyqvlljjrYEjTjyfiOb5eRMRIWW4gZqNIXYgULf_ctIda5mV0uM2nvtNJ8oCG8MZTmFoiMHKlGlXwfhDNaR97AMhoLMM-/s1600-h/IMG_1827.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHpt-CWC2OPsrU8tK-culFkHLuxM-UQJ1Ovc7I74hyqvlljjrYEjTjyfiOb5eRMRIWW4gZqNIXYgULf_ctIda5mV0uM2nvtNJ8oCG8MZTmFoiMHKlGlXwfhDNaR97AMhoLMM-/s200/IMG_1827.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327507052922938594" /></a>I'm a bit late on the post, but we got to play three games of <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549">Pandemic</a> over the weekend, and it has already jumped onto our "favorites" list.<br /><br />This was our first taste of a 100% cooperative boardgame (aside from a really screwy Lord of the Rings game I was in several years ago that I later discovered we hadn't been playing even remotely correctly). We weren't quite sure what to expect, since it's pretty rare that a game that isn't specifically designed for two players scales down correctly.<br /><br />The players take on the role of scientists from the Center for Disease Control, responding to simultaneous outbreaks of four deadly diseases around the world. Players have to balance treatment and containment of each disease with searching for cures; you can't win without discovering all four cures, but you lose if any of the diseases get out of hand or if there are too many regional outbreaks. Each character has a different role with its own special ability (for example, the Medic can treat an entire city in one turn, while the Dispacher can instantly move players around the world), so players have to use teamwork and communication to contain and ultimately cure each disease.<br /><br />The game design feels like it's heavily stacked against the players, with several Epidemic cards seeded into the player deck that both cause new infections and intensify the existing ones. There's only one criteria for winning the game (finding all four cures), but a multitude of ways everyone can lose (eight outbreaks throughout the course of the game, running out of disease tokens of a specific color, or exhausting the player card deck). Even though it can be frustrating, the level of difficulty is a good thing for the longevity of the game. After all, if we knew we were going to win every time we pulled Pandemic off the shelf, it wouldn't come out very often.<br /><br />Our first three games were on the "beginner" difficulty (four Epidemic cards in the deck). We quickly lost the first game to mass outbreaks as we figured out the rules. Our strategy formed pretty quickly, as we managed to win the next two games (barely -- at the end of one game there were only three cards left in the player deck, one of which was an Epidemic that would have put us over the outbreak limit). We're going to start stacking the deck with more Epidemics next time and see how the difficulty scales; I've read that five is hard, and six is absolutely brutal.<br /><br />Pandemic is definitely going into our regular rotation of two-player games, and it looks to scale very well up to four players as well. It's definitely worth checking out if you want to take a truly cooperative game for a spin.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-60627264736486415842009-04-21T10:28:00.003-05:002009-04-21T12:11:27.027-05:00Game Night... with Strangers?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3fMbXLtjxFE1fysMjNl8diSF9yNfYNCyLoa0m2i5V_k_AWr6dAFu6rCVCcLIt7ckID7aN-8ptZkVNAb0VXCsuxx7m8AdPwZszVmN3INILS1hKydQVfOLelQA0ag0lwAu-aIt/s1600-h/windsofplunder.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 167px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3fMbXLtjxFE1fysMjNl8diSF9yNfYNCyLoa0m2i5V_k_AWr6dAFu6rCVCcLIt7ckID7aN-8ptZkVNAb0VXCsuxx7m8AdPwZszVmN3INILS1hKydQVfOLelQA0ag0lwAu-aIt/s200/windsofplunder.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327167295870526642" /></a>Last night Hillary and I met up with a group of local gamers we'd found through <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com">BoardGameGeek</a>.<br /><br />The group has been playing together weekly for quite a while, but it was our first time attending. I'm always a little hesitant to meet new people who are into gaming and other geeky stuff, because... well... if you've ever met random people at a sci-fi or gaming convention, you know what I mean. Everyone was very friendly though, and it was a fairly diverse group of people from an age/profession standpoint. There was a good turnout, so we ended up splitting into three groups, each playing a different game.<br /><br />My group's first game was <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7571">Winds of Plunder</a>, which is a pirate-themed resource collection/control game. You play a pirate captain, sailing between Caribbean ports and collecting crew, weapons, and provisions. Each commodity gives you a different advantage during the game (and a bonus ability if you have the most of a given item), as well as being worth victory points at the end. Players bid on the wind direction each turn, which determines where you can sail -- the only way you can go against the wind is by burning ALL of your actions for that turn. Players can explore new ports to gain bonus points for visiting all ports in a region, and the occasional treasure map gives the opportunity to score a progressive (and potentially huge) amount of victory points for digging up booty.<br /><br />I like the game for the most part, although there are a few game elements that didn't seem quite balanced. A few of the player cards (which can be played as one of three actions on your own turn) seem overpowered, while a few are only useful in very rare and specific situations (for example, a card that gives you a free movement against the wind if you're in last place -- given a four-player game, this is only going to be useful 25% of the time at most). Also, while you can attack and plunder an opponent's ship, combat is too simplistic and consists of "whoever has the most guns wins". Cards can only affect the outcome of a battle if played before combat; this greatly benefits the attacker, as you can only play cards on your own turn.<br /><br />Regardless of any minor criticisms of the rules, the game was very enjoyable. I should mention that the game feels sufficiently "piratey" -- a theming element that a lot of pirate boardgames seem to lack for some reason. I somehow eked out a victory during the final point count-up by controlling the largest arsenal and most provisions. The victory point total was hotly contested throughout the game, so there's decent balance regarding the outcome, even if individual elements might seem a bit skewed.<br /><br />It was getting late by the time we were done pillaging, so we opted for a quick "filler" game, <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29223">Marrakech</a>. It's an extremely simple game -- players move Assan (a big fat token wearing a fashionable fez) around the board (an outdoor marketplace), laying down carpets of their own color. If Assan lands on another player's carpet, the controlling player has to pay the owner a certain amount of money -- think paying rent in Monopoly. The strategy is a overly simplistic; the "best" move is usually obvious, and options are pretty limited on a given turn. Still, the rules are short (one page), the turns are fast, and the game ends when the last carpet is played. All of this makes Marrakesh is a good option when time is very limited.<br /><br />Oddly, I won this game too, which makes me feel a little guilty. I generally try to play my best (and would hope that my opponents will do the same), but I'm always worried that I'll come off as an overcompetitive asshole when I get a winning streak going. I'm more concerned with having fun, and I enjoy a hilariously disasterous loss almost as much as pulling off a clever victory.<br /><br />Still, everyone seemed to have a good time, and I look forward to meeting up with these folks again.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-47149548226598423612009-04-14T10:51:00.003-05:002009-04-14T10:54:45.308-05:00Settlers of Catan, but not the good one<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMwrqSDEfrMPjk4bP6mXJQGlQIH4wchV2NPA4m2xIWXBrPVWgdwJmRnyO7cA3U3vgWHPkJDgb40jaSt0QfdCI1Zwvlbm0XjCiDv3JlRxMEMbohQSs2wmxYXxhPMPr4LejpxNY9/s1600-h/catancg.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 152px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMwrqSDEfrMPjk4bP6mXJQGlQIH4wchV2NPA4m2xIWXBrPVWgdwJmRnyO7cA3U3vgWHPkJDgb40jaSt0QfdCI1Zwvlbm0XjCiDv3JlRxMEMbohQSs2wmxYXxhPMPr4LejpxNY9/s200/catancg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324575963483355954" /></a>(Adapted from a review I posted over on the SA Traditional Games forum.)<br /><br />Hillary and I received a copy of the Settlers of Catan Card Game for Christmas, and we finally got around to breaking the shrink wrap a few nights ago.<br /><br />Being a long-time fan of Catan, I had high hopes after reading the rules. The concepts behind the card game are very similar to the board game, right down to the costs of settlements and cities. You build roads and settlements, which can later be upgraded to cities (allowing different and more powerful buildings to be created). If you're familiar with the board game, you'll recognize familiar elements like the bandit, the "largest army" token, and the victory point system.<br /><br />Once we started playing, though, we found the game to be painfully slow. Most expansion cards (which consist of buildings you can create in your settlements/cities or actions you can play during your turn) tended to be completely useless in most situations. For example, I started the game with two city-only building cards (which is a problem since you don't start with a city) and an action card that only applied to a very specific situation that wasn't likely to appear until much later in the game. It seemed like we never had the resources needed to do anything, and because it's a two-player game, trading didn't seem like a good idea in most situations (unlike the rampant, marketplace like atmosphere in the 3+ player board game).<br /><br />The resource system is both better and worse than the board game. You start with six regions, each corresponding to one of the faces of the single die that you roll during the production phase. This means that you'll get one resource every turn, which lessens the "random string of bad luck" problems that can absolutely cripple an otherwise good Catan board game player. The problem is that you can't set yourself up to cash in, either, so both players tend have a similar number of resources at any given time.<br /><br />We also found that a few of the cards are really, really imbalanced. The Mint, especially, which is a city building that allows you to trade one gold for any other resource. The problem is that the rules explicitly let you do this an unlimited number of times per turn. If you luck out and get a second gold mine, the Mint pretty much can't be stopped. There are several other expansions that range from overpowered to virtually useless, and there's very little middle ground.<br /><br />As the game drug on, we found that victory points are surprisingly hard to come by; even after cherry-picking the point-awarding buildings out of the expansion decks, we were both short of the 12-point victory total after what seemed like an eternity of play. We finally agreed on a house rule that only ten points were required to end the game. I won a few turns later, but it was a hollow victory.<br /><br />I doubt we'll be playing this one again. The flow is just too cumbersome for what, at the surface, seems to be a fairly lightweight two-player game. I love my multi-hour Talisman and Puerto Rico sessions, but two-player games really need to be quick, engaging, and fun. Sadly, the Catan Card Game is none of these.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13845074.post-74563326047973281332009-03-25T07:39:00.002-05:002009-03-25T07:41:06.034-05:00TweetFor you Twitter... uh... ers, I've set up a <a href="http://twitter.com/WhiteHowler">Twitter account</a>.<br /><br />I'm not sure how often I'll update it, but probably more often than this thing.Christianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210140553523100164noreply@blogger.com0