Death of Monopoly

T. G. I. F. - a micro-review of Friday....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:24:00 +0000

In Canada, we have a long weekend in May to celebrate Victoria Day and this past one I spent out on the shores of Lake Huron at my wonderful in-law's cottage, drinking some delicious micro-brews from Toronto's great Mill St. Brewery and learning a new juggling trick, the 2-Hand Weave (which you can see me doing here). When I wasn't outdoors, I was inside glued to the kitchen table playing solitaire. Yes, solitaire. But not any kind of solitaire - I was playing Friedemann Friese's brilliant and challenging Friday. Over and over and over and over.....

Final two pirates to battle

Now I feel like I could thoroughly describe the mechanics of this fun little 1-player deck-building card game but I think it would sound rather confusing. The game isn't complicated but it does take a few rounds to get the hang of the rules and then a few more rounds to actually learn how to not die almost immediately.

Hazards which flip to fighting cards

At a high-level, you are fighting a bunch of hazards of ever increasing difficulty and every time you defeat one, you add the defeated card to your deck. However, when you lose to a hazard you lose life points but you also get the opportunity to remove cards from your deck. And you start with a lot of bad cards. And unfortunately, every time you reshuffle your deck you add another REALLY bad card. So basically you're struggling to prune your deck and build it up at the same time, all the while not losing all your life, only to face two monster pirate battles right at the end. If you survive till then.

Hazard battle in action

I've won the game only once in the near 20 times I've played it on the easiest possible level (yes, you can amp up the difficulty to insane levels) but I've seen a continuous improvement in my skill. I've gotten a feel for the cards and the hazards and started planning ahead I'm now choosy about which battles to fight to balance my deck as certain cards give you very distinct skills. In short, I've gotten smarter and more strategic and I feel like I have control over whether I win or lose the game. And I almost always lose. Yet I keep playing.

I think that's the sign of a great addicting little card game.

The final pirate battle in the only game I've won!

The movie version of Battleship opened today....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:40:00 +0000

....and not surprisingly, the reviews are coming back pretty awful. Here's the Robot Chicken take on board games as movie ideas (not sure where the last one fits in, though).

A review of Lords of Waterdeep....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:58:00 +0000

It seems like at least 5-10 worker placement games get released every year now. And rarely do they interest me. I own the ORIGINAL worker-placement game Caylus and I still believe it to be the best. Now, I have played a few like Stone Age which I enjoy due to the clever die-rolling and Agricola which pushes the tension through the roof but most just seem like rehashes of what has already been done (as an aside, I haven't played my copy of Kingdom of Solomon yet but I do plan to give it the old college try very soon).

So when someone comes along and tells me that Wizards of The Coast has created a fairly simple "Dungeons & Dragons"-themed worker placement game that steals the owner bonuses and buildings from Caylus and the escalating points on unchosen buildings kinda like Small World or Puerto Rico, I get annoyed. And then they try to tell me it's really good. Right. So I took a look at the rules and confirmed that, yes, there really is nothing all that original in this game. It's just a hackneyed mix of modern mechanics, most of them from Caylus, all wrapped up in a completely extraneous D&D package.

The awesome storage tray!!!

And yet against my better judgment, I decided to see what the fuss was about and give it a try. 3 weeks and 8 games later, I am happy to say that all the fuss is well-deserved. WOTC has released one of the simplest and most enjoyable worker-placement games yet: fast-paced, highly interactive, and just about the perfect amount of tension. And it's also one of the nicest productions I've seen in awhile considering how utterly abstract the gameplay really is. This game really feels like Caylus' younger brother in that it's hugely simplified, more tactical than strategic, and allows and even encourages players to back-stab to their heart's content.

The game itself is a breeze to pick up, even if you've never played any other W-P games. It takes place over 8 rounds with players having 2 workers (agents) to place each round in the 4 and 5 player games. In the last 4 rounds, players will get another worker to place and they can also possibly hire an extra worker by completing one of the quests. Initially the board starts with 10 buildings which do various things - take one or two of the four different types of cubes, draw Intrigue or Quest cards, get the start player marker, earn some money, etc. There is also a building, Waterdeep Harbour, which allows up to 3 workers and lets you to play an Intrigue card (note that this is also the ONLY way to play an Intrigue card). This building, much like the Gate in Caylus, allows you to play the workers on it to other buildings at the end of the round, making these spots prime real estate.

Halfway through the game....

So on a player's turn, if they have a worker to play, they must place it on an empty building space and take advantage of said building immediately. If that building happened to be built during the game by another player, then the owner also receives a small bonus (just like Caylus...) After that, the current player always has the option to complete one of their face-up quests, returning the required cubes and/or money to the pool and taking the reward on the card. In almost all cases the reward will include points which are marked off immediately and usually some cubes or money as well. In the case of Plot Quests, the player may also receive an ongoing effect for the rest of the game, such as something as slight as an extra orange cube every time they draw orange to a game changer like an extra worker to place for the rest of the game. Rinse and repeat and then at the end reveal everyone's secret bonuses, where in all but one case bonus points are awarded for completing 2 of the 5 types of quests.

Moon dollars!!!!!

And that's really most of it. Because you take advantage of the space you land on immediately, this doesn't require the same level of thinkiness as Caylus. As well, if you have a few Intrigue cards the Harbour is almost always a good play as the card will usually benefit mostly you and there will always be extra spaces to move the marker later. In terms of strategy, this is a very tactical game. It is hard to plan too many turns ahead as you don't know what quests you'll be working towards or what buildings may available to be built. However, one still feels a delightful sense of progression from the ongoing effects of completed Plot Quests and the rewards that they receive when others use the buildings they built.

Buildings available for purchase

But the key element that really makes this game shine (besides that it was extremely well play-tested) are the effects of the Intrigue cards. They do many minor and major things like allowing the stealing of resources from other players, the use of unbuilt buildings, double actions, and the trading of resources for points. But the nastiest subset of the Intrigue cards are the Mandatory Quest cards which you assign directly to other players. They must finish the Mandatory Quest before they are allowed to finish any of their other quests. And since you can only complete one quest per turn, a Mandatory Quest played during the last round can lay waste to someone's long held plans, maybe causing them to miss that big 25-pointer they finally got all the cubes for. Brutal.

Quest cards up for grab

What starts out feeling like a simple Euro-game of cube pushing and worker placement ends up turning into a nasty, thoroughly engaging American-style slugger. I've won this game by lying about my intentions and then attacking someone in the last round and I've lost it by two points due to someone's final play that benefitted the both us (her just a little bit more). Our plays of this game have sometimes felt as rowdy as a good game of Risk or Tichu which says a lot. Yet the game is short enough that the hard feelings don't last and everyone wants to play another round. It's also quite different each game as the order that the buildings come out can severely affect the scarcity resources and money, making certain quests much more appealing (and usually less than half the buildings ever get built in any one game).

I'll tell you now, this isn't the deepest game you'll ever play. The buildings can come up in many different ways and the Intrigue cards can throw chaos and frustration into even the best planning. But what it lacks in depth is made up for in simplicity and speed of play and huge level of interaction that is lacking in many other worker-placement games. Although it may be one of the most unoriginal games I've ever played, it is still brilliantly designed and obviously has been thoroughly playtested. I've played it 8 times now in the last three weeks and that's more plays than most of my games ever get. Wizards of The Coast has scored a total coup with gorgeously produced game and I daresay it's our favourite so far this year.

Today in awesome.....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:59:00 +0000

Dubstep + classic board games + stop-motion = the best thing I've seen all week.

(Thanks to Daryl for the tip...)

Local Kitchener-Waterloo game convention this weekend...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:15:00 +0000

If you live in or near the lovely, slightly dull hamlet of the K-dub in southwestern Ontario, you might want to consider what you're doing this coming Saturday afternoon. A local group is hosting an all-day board game event KGBCon and they claim to have at least 60 people going, possibly upwards of a couple hundred. And it's 6 blocks from my house! Woot woot!

You can check out the deets here.

I'm hoping to make it at least for a few hours in the afternoon.

Someone must have filmed us playing.....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:05:00 +0000

My net- and game-savvy sister points me to this must-watch video which I think must have been made about MY gaming group. Very slick and very, very funny.

You know these people, I know you know these people....

(But I still hate Settlers....)

On The Horizon: another Wallace deck-builder...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 20:16:00 +0000

One of the loveliest games for me this past year was Martin Wallace's A Few Acres of Snow. The designer of one of my all-time favourites, Age of Steam, took on deck-building and Canadian history in a very dense 2-player strategy/war game. Not one I get to play much but thrilling in its complexity. Having said that, according to many gamers (including my friends who just borrowed it), AFAOS is broken and there is a strategy that will win for the British every time. Guess I'm too dumb to have figured it out.

In any case, good old Marty has been working on a more symmetrical multi-player version in a fantasy setting and I can't friggin' wait. The new game Mythopia has been described as a cross between Risk and Dominion. Fantastic. Two suggestions if you're out there listening, Martin:

1) Could you simplify the rules just a bit so I can play it with the hubby; and

2) Not so fond of the name Mythopia. Maybe a new title?

By the way, if you've never heard the term "Halifax Hammer", I would highly recommend A Few Acres of Snow. It's brilliant even if only for a few games until you get the above term.

Wesley Crusher explains Small World....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:25:00 +0000

You may have seen this this already (possibly thanks to BGGNews) but I still think it's cool. Glad he's moved on from Star Trek to far more serious and important endeavours...

How to choose a board game....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:06:00 +0000

If you are like me you probably often find yourself staring at towers upon towers of games, feeling quite overwhelmed with the daunting task of determining what to play. This graphic may help.

(Thanks to Petr for mentioning the original larger image...)

First play: Casa Grande...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 04:28:00 +0000

This great little family game is a German-only import from Ravensburger that arrived last week. I suppose I could describe Casa Grande in detail and explain how it plays and stuff - but I kinda think the pictures will tell you all need to know about this gorgeously produced, super-fun Spiel des Jahres shoe-in. Total win.

On The Horizon: The Last Banquet...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:42:00 +0000

One major issue that always seems to occur on games night is when there are too many people for the intended games. My partner laughs at me when I invite a couple people over with a certain "4-player only" game in the back of mind. And then they ask if they can bring a friend and I laugh nervously whilst in the back of my mind I'm racing through my good 5-player games. And then he springs it on me that he's invited so and so whose bringing their partner and by then I can't hide my disappointment and anger... "Stupid party game AGAIN!"

Once you hit 7+ people there aren't that many good strategy games you can play and the last thing you wanna do at someone's gathering is split in to two separate groups. One recent find that we have pulled out a few times now is The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, a game for 8 or more players where each player is given a secret identity card which may include a special power. Most of the players are villagers but a few are werewolves. The goal for the villagers is to lynch all the werewolves during the day (when everyone's eyes are open) and the werewolves are trying to off the villagers during the night (when everyone closes their eyes). It's all very paranoid and thoroughly enjoyable, especially when you convince everyone to lynch your best friend who then turns out not to be a werewolf as they so vehemently proclaimed.

Well, another team game, The Last Banquet, looks to be released very soon and can be played with up to 24 people (the more, the merrier!) In this game the players split into two teams who secretly elect one of the members to be the assassin. One player is the King/moderator and everyone tries get their team's secret assassin to be seated beside the King by the end of the round. If so, they kill the king and their team wins the game. There's a few more rules than that, like the fact that every player has a special power to let them rearrange the players in some way, but in general it looks pretty lighthearted and a lot of fun. And it's mean-spirited and murderous so I get the feeling my group of friends will eat it up.

A review of Kingdom Builder....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:23:00 +0000

Following up Dominion has got to be one helluva tough task. The original "deck-building" card game has spawned a dynamic, exciting, and very different way to play hobby games. Whether or not you like Dominion, it's clear that its impact over the past 4 years has been a monumental game-changer (excuse the pun) unlike anything since Magic: The Gathering. So when that's your debut, expectations are pretty high for the sophomore effort. Cue 4 years later and we get Kingdom Builder from Queen Games, a beautifully produced abstract board game that I argue is clearly inspired by the modularity of Dominion but really lacks that game's originality, depth, and most of its excitement.

Now some will argue that comparing Kingdom Builder to Dominion isn't really fair as the gameplay is so different, one being an abstract network-building Euro and the other a deck-building card game. I would say, however, that the comparison is quite apt not only because they have the same designer but also because the only really original part of KB is clearly inspired by the random Kingdom card setup of Dominion. And sadly for me, this seems to be the only really interesting part of the game as well.

3 random scoring goals and the bonus castle goal

So what do you do in Kingdom Builder? Well, that really depends on the 3 scoring cards you draw at the beginning of the game out of a possible 10. One card, for example, gives points for large contiguous groups of connected settlements and another awards first and second place to players with majorities in quadrants of the board. Some scoring cards encourage spreading out while others invite you to surround certain spaces on the board. The one scoring condition that holds true every game, and hence does not require a card, is that you receive 3 points for every castle you connect to. In each game, there are between 4 and 6 castles so this is nothing to scoff at when high score sometimes can be as low as 40. So in essence this is really a connection game, much like Ticket To Ride or Through The Desert.

The gameplay itself is fairly simple, almost too simple. In fact, the first time I read through the ruleset, my immediate thoughts were, "Is that it?" and I actually avoided the purchase until I'd been swayed by some fairly positive reviews. In short, each player has 40 houses ("settlements") to place on the board to maximize their points according to the 3 scoring cards picked for that game. Every round a player draws a landscape card which designates on which of the 5 types of empty landscape spaces he MUST play 3 of his houses. In addition, if at all possible these new settlements must be played connected to one of that player's previously played settlements. And that's mostly it. But the thing is, it's these two somewhat artificial constraints that require most of the strategy and yet also provide a lot of the aggravation. Let me explain further.

The different blocks of landscape are all large and connected to each other so when you place 3 settlements in the desert, for example, you could decide whether to place at the edge of the desert next to, say, a patch of forest. This will allow you to continue onto that forest if you draw a forest card later. More often, though, you are trying not to connect to that forest region so that if you draw that forest card later and you are forced to play on a forest, you can start anywhere as hopefully there are no empty forest hexes next to your played settlements. Notice how both of these moves depended mightily on that certain card you drew later. But what happens if you played in the desert and then you drew another desert card and had to stay connected and play more houses in the desert. And you had no choice but to play your houses adjacent to the fields which you don't feel like expanding into. Then the next turn you draw a field card and, well, there goes another turn as you are forced to play into the fields. Yeah, lame. There are some turns in this game that almost completely play themselves and usually not in the way you want them to either. Considering you get at most 14 turns in the game (and that's if you play really poorly), wasting 3 or 4 on bad cards draw does not feel good at all.

No harbour for anyone else. Sorry!

Not to say there aren't some ways around this. Certain locations on the board when connected to provide an action token which you can use repeatedly to do things like add a settlement to a certain terrain type or move one settlement 2 spaces, the latter being very useful. And like the scoring cards, only 4 of the 8 different action tokens are available every game providing more of that Dominion-style modularity. And sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Clever plays can be made when certain tokens are played before your landscape card allowing you to make a connection your previously couldn't. But this does lead to some major down-time when one player has 5 tokens and a landscape card and is scratching their head trying to optimize their move according to the four different scoring possibilities. Even worse, as in our last game, one player could get a field card then a chasm card on the first couple turns, completely surround the harbour action space, and basically lock everyone else out of the win in the first 5 minutes. Geez, wish we'd drawn either of those cards.....

So why is Dominion such a success whilst Kingdom Builder just falls kind of flat? Both games start with a very simple base game and build upon it using a subset of rules possibilities. Out of that modularity comes the interest in the game. The big difference is that base game of Dominion is unique, exciting, and very different and the cards there tweak that formula in very different ways. Kingdom Builder is not unique and really not that interesting. Flip a card, play houses on that type of space, remain connected if possible. The variety introduced by the actions usually does little more than let you play another house and the scoring opportunities are in general rather dull ("score for majority", "make the biggest connected group", "connect locations together on the board"). All of these goals have been done before many times, and I daresay better in most cases, so randomly combining a few of them doesn't really add that much tension.

In addition, unlike Dominion which is a fairly balanced game (yes, it really is, everyone can buy the exact same cards), KB is totally unbalanced and rather luck-driven by the landscape cards. One only has to go to the BGG threads to see how some players have tried to fix this aspect of the game. When you have a strategy but you have to waste turns ignoring it and just playing what the card tells you to, there is something seriously wrong.

Finally, and I think this is the biggest issue with Kingdom Builder, Dominion provides rewarding moments throughout its play-time. Every time you draw and cleverly chain together enough cards to purchase a Province in Dominion, it's that emotional payoff, that reason to continue. Other much better connection games have these mid-game rewards, too, like Ticket To Ride when you connect two cities to finish a ticket or Through The Desert when you surround a group of point chips and pick them up immediately. The problem with KB is that all of the scoring occurs at the end of the game no matter what scoring cards you're playing with so the most interesting part of the game for me is the last two minutes when we tally it all up. Too bad we played for 45 minutes to an hour just to get there.

I'm surprised that something this light and luck-driven has been released by Queen Games who in the past few years have released some of my favourite games. I kind of feel like they saw the runaway success of Dominion and its and decided to just accept the next thing from him to come along. Not to say that others couldn't enjoy this game, as it's not awful or unplayable. I mean, there is definitely a following online of people have house-ruled this game to shit trying to make it more strategic. But I'm kind of stubborn about house rules as I treat games like I do art, movies, and music. I want to experience a game exactly as the designer and company intended me to experience it, good or bad. And even if one is able to fix the random "you win, you don't" aspect of the landscape card draw, I just don't find the game all that interesting. I think the next time I'm in the mood for a good connection game, I'll just go back to Knizia's classic Through The Desert which is a helluva lot more fun.

I probably should have just listened to my gut when I first read the rule-set. Ah well, you live, you learn.

On The Horizon: Uncharted The Board Game....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:22:00 +0000

When I have free time from work and board gaming (very rare), I do enjoy playing video games as well. And the best video games I think I have ever played are the Uncharted series on the Playstation 3 system. If you've never heard of them, just imagine the pure cinematic joy of the Indiana Jones movies combined with the cocky attitude and humour of some Bruce Campbell films and you'll get the idea. In addition to that, the main protagonist in the series, Nathan Drake, is the most swoon-worthy pixellation ever to climb his way on to a console (yes, my name is Eric and I have a crush on a video game character).

Seriously, though, the gameplay and puzzle-solving in all the Uncharted series is unparalleled and the writing and stories are top-notch. The games truly feel like cinematic experiences and are far better than most action flicks coming out nowadays. So now that I've read that Bandai is releasing a board game version, I can't help but be curious. I own the Resident Evil Deck-building Game, also from Bandai, and despite its level of chaos, it's very thematic, quite fun, and true to the video game. I'm excited to see what they do with my favourite series.

(Thanks to BGN for the link...)

First Play: Last Will...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Haven't posted in awhile due to time and other things. Kinda feel like I've been neglecting this here bloggy thingy. Part of this has been practicing for my driver's test (yes, my name is Eric, I'm 31 and I have no driver's license).

But I have gotten a little bit of game playing in and we tried out Last Will this past St. Patrick's Day. If you haven't heard, Last Will was one of the darlings of Essen 2011 and a release from Czech Games Editions and Rio Grande. CGE is known for producing most of the Vlaada Chvatil games so they have a record of fun and beautifully produced yet extraordinarily complex games.

Last Will, designed by Vladimir Suchy, is quite an unusual bird in that the goal is to get rid of your money as fast as possible. Yes, it's a race to be the first to bankruptcy. Story goes that your rich uncle wants to leave all his wealth to the person who will enjoy it the most so you're all given a sum of money and you need to be the fastest to squander it all go into debt (Hmmm..... I should be REALLY good at this one!) What it ends up being is a very cleverly constructed engine-building card game with some worker-placement and action selection. It's all rather more complex than I expected, not in a rules sense, but in the way the cards interact with each other and the symbology involved.

And the theme is integrated quite well, I must say, as this game would be dry as a bone without the feeling that you're going on a wild spending spree. For example, one particularly powerful event card 'Wild Party' costs you an action to bring the value of one of your estate homes down three levels (get it? You party like crazy and destroy your mansion so you can sell it for cheap later). In the driest sense, you spend one action to decrease the marker on one of your cards by three but in play we were laughing out loud and scrambling to capture the card. You see, the idea of buying and selling real estate with real expenses and hired help makes this game a fascinating experience, especially when you have to sell low to earn the LEAST amount of coin. In fact, this is one of the most integrated themes I've seen since a game like Galaxy Trucker, yet another great CGE release.

It's clear to me that this game has levels and nuances that we haven't even thought of after one round and yet it's all wrapped up in a really enjoyable package. And now that I've played it once it should be a much easier experience explaining it to others. Definitely worth a look if you get the chance as spending tons of money has never been this challenging. At least not for me. Ha.

First play: Oltre Mare....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:43:00 +0000

The classic trading game Bohnanza is a bit hit-or-miss for me. I recognize the genius of it but I find it rather long and exhausting and I tire of all the haggling about halfway through every game. And since the game really is nothing but haggling, well, there you go. So I have been searching for awhile for Emanuele Ornella's Oltre Mare from 2004 as I had heard it was a bit like Bohnanza in terms of set collection but with a more fleshed-out game surrounding all the trading.

Beautiful little unnecessary ships....

And boy was I right! What an elegant and lively game. Oltre Mare combines the trading of the bean game with more hand management, a simple economy, and cleverly integrated action selection. And there is even a light memory element incorporated into the play that is reminiscent of one of my favourite card games, Mamma Mia. And okay, one could argue the gorgeous ships and board are superfluous to the gameplay but I think they add greatly to the theme of trading in the Mediterranean.

I love this delight of a game and can't wait to play it again. It's not too deep but still thoughtful, fast-paced, and very interactive. I feel like this one will pair perfectly with bottle of fine Italian wine, some tapas, and a few very animated friends. Definitely glad I finally picked it up.

A review of Chaotic Connections....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:40:00 +0000

I must admit I have quite the affinity for network-building games. Unless this is the first post of mine you've ever read, you'll probably know that I think Ticket To Ride is the cat's pajamas. In fact, any sort of train game, simple or complicated, in which the goal is to connect various locations, usually sits pretty well with me. Another quick and simple game of network-building, TransAmerica, has also been very well-received in our group. So when a copy of Chaotic Connections was offered to me for review, I took a look at the description and thought, sure, why not. (I tend to be wary of indie games offered for review lately as I have had at least a couple completely unplayable games sent my way - games whose rules were so incomplete, sketchy, or just contradictory that they had to be aborted 5 minutes in. I just can't review that.)

But Chaotic Connections, cleary inspired by TransAmerica, seemed like a silly enough mashup of that game and your classic card-based game Sorry. Now that I've played it, I can say it feels a bit more like the classic but dated game of chaos, Nuclear War. I must be honest right now and say that this game just isn't for me. But considering the outstanding success of something as god-awful boring and chaotic as Killer Bunnies (which really is just a bloated rip-off of Nuclear War), I think this game may be enjoyable for many. It's definitely a lot shorter and simpler than KB, which already makes me think it is a much better game.

Before I discuss the gameplay, though, I really need to mention the main issue I have with the game and the thing that may just hold it back from getting a wider audience: the production values. To say this isn't your usual Days of Wonder production would be an understatement. The graphic design is not only very bland but it also works against the game. The square player chips don't actually fit on the spaces that well and we found ourselves rearranging them a bit mid-game to try and fit them all on a path between cities. The cards have no indication on them of where on the board the cities lie (unlike, say, TransAmerica or Ticket To Ride) so we searched a little at the beginning. Besides this, the cards are very, very cheap stock. One of our city cards got a little wet in the first 5 minutes started to warp immediately. No glossy protection for you! The worst offenders, though, are the standup signs which get placed on the board to mark detours, road closed, and intersections. They come with some generic black stands (which don't fit) to hold them up but unfortunately they are printed only on one side. So unless you're all playing on one side of the table, half the people can't make out the signage. This could have so easily been fixed by either printing on both sides of the card stock or maybe offering a fold at the top so it would be folded into a two-sided piece.

Having said all that, once the coloured chips were all punched out (and a few lost forever due to the really crappy cutting job of the card stock) the setup and explanation of the rules was a breeze. The game itself is quite simple. Like TransAmerica, all players are given a set of cities to try and connect to using their own and other players markers. But unlike TA, everyone marks their cities at the beginning so you know exactly what your opponents are going for. And I actually like that. What I didn't really like was that the cities are randomly dealt and only one of your goal cities is picked by an opponent. So basically you pick the 3 of 5 city cards that are the closest on the board and then the player to your right picks the 4th from the two cards they have left (clearly they pick the one farthest from your other cities...)

Then the game proceeds with players playing 1 of 4 cards from their hands every turn, some of the cards being a forced play if you have them. Cards allow players to add mileage markers (chips), take away opponent's markers, block routes temporarily or permanently, or even add or remove cities from a players goals. It's all quite random, and, well, yes, chaotic and players continue adding their chips and removing their opponent's until someone connects all their cities and wins. The game moves quite quickly and our games averaged 20-30 minutes.

It is fairly clear to me that I am not the target audience for this game. The choices are very simple - "player A is going to win. I should remove his markers", "I have add 300 and add 500 miles cards. I should play the add 500 miles", etc. - but the board play is rather interesting. Connecting to someone else's network will get you further but also may help them with their goal. These are some great lessons for kids but a bit simplistic for adults. As well, the frustration of being randomly handed more cities to connect to while the player beside you gets to remove his is, well, chaotic. And having all your cities spread across the board while the other players manages to start his within 10 spaces of each other is also, well, chaotic. And to add 4 mileage markers and then have them removed by others before your next turn, and then add them again, and then have them removed, and then added again. And then you win! Well, that is pretty chaotic. I think you get the idea.

One of the comments from another player is that this game could be house-ruled tons to make for a much better experience. Other ways to determine cities would make for a much better game, I think. For example, you pick one of your cities and then the other players pick 3. That would make for a much better experience and a far more interesting game. In fact, it's something I think I'd like to try.

Still, the fact is the very similar and much better-produced TransAmerica offers a way more balanced approach to the game set-up and removes the chaos completely by not using cards and giving each player the same number of plays a turn. A game of TA is usually very close each time and offers much tougher decisions. But maybe that's not what you're looking for. Maybe you enjoy the randomness of a classic like Mille Bornes or the nasty take-that of Sorry and you think that would improve a game like Ticket To Ride or TransAmerica. Then I actually think you may enjoy Chaotic Connections. Hey, on the website they even advertise that a game could take 5 or 45 minutes. If that's okay by you, and you've got some young kids to play with, this could actually be a decent one. For my money, though, I prefer a much more balanced game - I like to feel like my decisions aren't entirely obvious each turn and that I have some semblance of control over whether I win or lose.

But hey, extremely chaotic games like Killer Bunnies sell tons of copies. If you like chaos, and you want something to play with the kiddies, you might want to consider this one. Just don't get the cards wet......

Randoms from the last couple game nights...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 23:17:00 +0000

Some great games got played the last couple weeks. On top of that, as of last week we've moved our Monday night games to the Grad House, UW's on-campus pub. That means there's beer. Lots of beer. And some hella good food, too. Awesome.

My second game of A Few Acres of Snow was far more interesting and tense. A new classic and a fascinating design.

Ghost Stories at the other table. Looks VERY confusing....

Friday, it's Friday, gonna play Friese's Friday! Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.....

Age of Steam. Always amazing. 'Nuff said

Kingdom Builder at the Grad House. Notice the delicious beer.

Alien Frontiers, the Kickstarter darling, is a game I do not play enough. Fun and fast-paced and one of the best dice games ever. And more beer.

Second round of Quebec. No beer as this was not played by me.

My mother's son...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:27:00 +0000

This past weekend I was on the phone with my mother back in BC and she was rather exhausted. I guess her, my Dad, and my sister and brother-in-law were up playing Dominion on Saturday night till 2 am. My sister and father even went out for an ice cream and potato chip run at 11:30 to stay fueled up. My mother says she woke up in the middle of the night with sugar hangover. Ha. Didn't discourage them, though, because I guess they played a few more rounds the next morning.

Uh huh. That's my family.

Oh, Risk: Legacy, how I hate thee...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:33:00 +0000

So my current favourite game has got to be Risk: Legacy. Take a simple classic game system which suffers from some epic flaws and add a brilliant story arc, real emotional investment, and the options for players to choose how these flaws get fixed over a campaign of games. It's brilliant and I can't seem to get the campaign we're playing out of my head. This is the best Ameri-trash game to come out in years and a must-own for anyone who can handle all the aggression. It is also a wholly new gaming experience that rivals the original excitement that Dominion brought a few years ago.

Having said this, despite the ongoing emergence of new rules in our campaign of games, there is still a wild amount of dice rolling. The good thing is games don't usually last past 90 minutes so if you're losing the pain is over pretty quick. And it turns out I'm not the best sport either. Two games ago I threw a soldier piece at a dear friend of mine as she kept rolling 6's against all my attacks. Last night I nearly ended my almost 5-year relationship when I called my partner a "disengenuous, manipulative pig".

Um, yep, same old Risk.....

A review of San Francisco Cable Car...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:03:00 +0000

Tile-laying games can be kinda hit-or-miss for me. I've never really enjoyed the very well-received and endlessly expanded-upon game Carcassonne as I found the aggravation of utterly random tile draws totally outweighed the enjoyment of seeing the land take shape. And yet I've recently fallen back in love with the nastily strategic and abstract Tantrix which could also fairly be accused of being a bit too random. Maybe the difference in Carc is that you always are looking for that certain one tile to complete your scoring and you just never draw it. Whereas in a game like Tantrix (or even Ingenious, for that matter) you try and make do with what you have and usually a clever move exists. San Francisco Cable Car (a reprint of the older Dirk Henn title Metro) is an excellent little board game that seems to fall somewhere right in between. The choice of what tile you play each turn is quite limited but exactly where you play that tile can make all the difference.

The gameplay of the basic game (which is exactly the same as Metro) is quite simple and, as in most Queen games, very clearly explained. Each player has the same number of cars in their colour which are placed on designated spaces around the outside of the board. Players take turns either playing their hidden tile onto the board or draw a random tile and play that one instead. Tiles must obey a few rules: all tiles must be oriented in the same direction, they must be connected to the outside of the board or another tile, and if at all possible they must not cause a car to score only a single point. If after the tile is played any player's car is connected in a continuous line of track to a station, then that player's car scores a point for every tile its track runs through. If that station happens to be the power station in the centre, then the points are doubled.

So in the basic version, players add tiles trying to extend the tracks of their own cars while running all of their opponent's cars into stations as fast as possible. It's pretty nasty stuff but a fairly short game so players don't tend to get too upset. Now, the big difference between Cable Car and its predecessor Metro is the new stock variant which in my mind takes a very light game and makes it much, MUCH more interesting. It is also, I think, what makes Cable Car so worth the purchase.

In the stock variant none of the coloured cars are owned by the players. There are now 8 companies with 4 cars each and each player is given a random set of 4 stocks in values of 10, 20, 30, and 40 percent. In addition to a regular play of a tile, on your turn you can instead exchange one of your stocks with one of equivalent value from the face-up stock or random from the top of the pile. This stock exchange is available only until one company manages to score 25 or more points and then all players' stocks are locked in till the end of the game. Once the final tile is played and all the cars have scored, players stocks are valued according to their percentage times the relative rank of the company. (For example, if the black company placed first out of the 8 companies and I had a 30 percent share, it would be worth 3x8=24 points.) In addition, there are some small company bonuses for players with majorities. Once the tally is done, high score wins.

So the stock rules don't add too much complexity to the game but they allow for players to focus on increasing the length of paths for multiple companies. They also shelter players a bit from being directly attacked although it's almost guaranteed that early on someone will make your 60 percent share company score a 2-point car. But at the point you just exchange your 40 percent share for one from a different and hopefully better company. Of course, this can only occur before one company scores big and then everyone's assets are locked in. And this adds a delicious tension and makes the speculation that much tougher as not only can exchanges only be done early on but you must also give up an opportunity to add track to the board. And since only 60 tiles can ever get played in a game, your options to influence the tracks are already fairly limited.

We played the original version once with everyone being their own colour and have only played the stock version since. The rules aren't much more complicated and the depth added to the game now feels like it should always be there. The stock game feels a bit lighter than say Ticket To Ride but plays much quicker and works perfectly well even with the 6 players. The satisfaction of completing that 20-point track in a company you've got investments in is quite satisfying and watching the board take form is pretty cool. I'm not surprised at how enjoyable and satisfying this game is considering it was designed by Dirk Henn whose credits include the classic Alhambra and the tense and tricky Atlantic Star. I was lucky enough to receive this as a Christmas gift (you have to be VERY careful when buying me board games as gifts) and boy am I glad I did as I probably would have overlooked this little gem. If you want a family strategy game that includes tile-laying, stock options, and a little bit of delicious nastiness, I don't think you could do better than this game. Easy-to-learn, fun, and very quick. But you gotta play with the stock variant....

On The Horizon: the latest Friedemann Friese project...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:39:00 +0000

The ever-strange and creative inventor of Power Grid and Black Friday has decided to create a board game using mechanics from the top ten board games of all time on BGG. That would include the worker placement from Agricola, the card purchase from Through The Ages, deck-building from Dominion, the card-drafting from 7 Wonders, turn-order from (you guessed it!) Power Grid, and the action selection from Puerto Rico. Huh. Okay, I'll bite. I'm interested to see how all this comes together....

You can see him talk about his schizophrenic design here.

First Plays: Fealty and German Railways...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:51:00 +0000

There was a full-frontal nerdity again last night at UW games night and, as usual, I forced people to play some of my new games that have been waiting patiently to be played.

We started with Fealty, a sharp, nasty, tactical game that is remarkably short. 8 turns and you finish and score. It was an interesting experience and a relatively simple game but figuring out the right play seems nearly impossible. I think it'll require a few games to get a handle of but I imagine it'll be just excellent with 2 players.

Final layout with scoring tokens. Colourful. I lost horribly.

We also got German Railways to the table. It definitely felt like the successor to Chicago Express but different enough to stand on its own merits.

The clever turn-order mechanism made this one feel a bit like Power Grid, you know, all about the timing, and the winning condition (most money overall, stocks worth nothing) made correct bidding paramount much like a great game of Modern Art. In fact, in our game the top 2 players at the end ended up owning the least amount of stock. This is a very, very interesting game - quite devious and very much open to table-talk and coercion. Definitely a favourite of the new year and in my mind an even better game than Chicago Express.

One caveat, though: Queen really messed up this design by leaving one thing out. There are 8 different railroads each with a unique power and in the original Winsome title these powers were clearly laid out ON THE BOARD! In this reprint, Queen stupidly removed that and just left it on the back page of the rulebook. This was a horrendous oversight and something we kept screwing up over and over. We had to continuously check the rulebook throughout the game every time we went to make an action. I'm really not sure what the hell they were thinking and I'm actually considering taking a Sharpie to the board and writing them on myself. Painful.

Dude, I think you drunk my Battleship...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

How to make a classic game WAY more fun!

Click on the pic to embiggen

(Via Geek Sect...)

A particularly mathy way to determine first player....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0000

At games night at UW, the mathematician friends of mine have a particularly quick and clever way to determine who starts each game which they call "Shoots" (don't ask me why...) Anyone who has done any studies with modular arithmetic or group theory should be quite comfortable with it.

Okay, so here's how it goes: one player calls "Shoots!" and on three, everyone reveals a random number of fingers, rock-papers-scissors style. Now add up all the fingers and count that many around the circle of players clockwise starting with the player who called for "Shoots". Ta-da. Whoever you finish with is the start player.

Of course, in math terms, if x is the total number of fingers and the players are numbered clockwise as 1,...,n where 1 is the caller of "Shoots" then the start player is simply x modulo n. See, easy!

Or I suppose you could just grab Ted Alspach's cute Start Player deck of cards. But I think math is WWWAAAAYYYYY more fun.....

Daily dose of awesomeness....

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Martin) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Big Bang Theory catches on to the age-old "Wood For Sheep" joke from Settlers.... Only for the highly immature and severely dorky. Um. Like me.

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(Link thanks to the other Eric at BGGNews...)