I'm Moving!

Driven by a need to participate in a more well-rounded blog with various viewpoints, I've started up a new blog at p4wn3d.blogspot.com. Of course I can't do that here, given the name of this blog, so now we've got a new one. Joe Belanger has joined me for starters. Hop on over and read about his obsession with Star Wars.

See you there!

- The mgmt.

Cheap Wins

Last night Charlene and I had a game of Eurorails. We use the quick play rules where you don't need to build to all but one major city. Well, I drew two deliveries to Roma, one being cork, so I started with a massive build from Spain to Italy. I ended up $16 ECU in the hole (we use the 100% interest borrowing rule) but I ran that track for the entire game with only a few minor branch-offs. The game ended after about an hour -- a record for us -- and I had won with less than $100 ECU worth of track built. Since I always lose to Charlene (and Lindsay and Adam) I should have felt good about it, but I didn't. It felt really cheap. I think next time we'll add in a minimum major city connection requirement.

Anyway, honour to the Eurorails. Tomorrow night, Australian Rails!

Super Fantastic Gaming Weekend Encore

Crikey, I did a lot of gaming this weekend. It was a long weekend here in Canada, and it was most welcome. My in-laws had our son for Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday, so we got more games in than usual. Here's what I played:

Friday, May 18th

I suggested Goa, which I'm not often in the mood for. We started without the two-cubes-down variant. It was a tense game but Charlene was all over me and I knew I was done for. Despite a very lucky flip for Calicut at the end, I lost 43-41, a typical result between her and I. We're both very competitive at this point, having 20+ games between us.

Saturday, May 19th

After doing our yearly flower-planting Charlene and I sat down with some Battlestar Galactica (or was it Reba?) to play Blue Moon. I used The Buka Invasion and she chose The Khind. She's really good with The Khind, always managing to get her gangs together. Well, I ran out my deck in both rounds, and she picked up one crystal and then another two, and at that point I forfeited. My only gripe with Blue Moon is that some matchups can run very long if only one or two crystals are awarded at a time. My opinion of The Buka Invasion rose considerably once I realized how much flexibility it has.

Our friends Angela and Tyler were over for dinner, and after an extravagant feast of steak, twice-stuffed potatoes, Caesar salad and strawberry shortcake, we played a few games. We used to game with them weekly but since Angela became pregnant she's had less energy for it. At least we didn't have to teach everything.

First up was Ticket to Ride Europe, which Tyler traditionally wins. I got stuck with frickin' Palermo - Moskva as my long ticket, and I should have known better and discarded it, but I didn't. In the end I completed my long ticket, one short ticket from the start and two that I drew later. I was just short of winning the European Express but Charlene took it instead. She already had enough points for the win and this just gave her more. Well done, Charlene.

After TtRE we fired up Ingenious, which we often play in partners. I partnered with Angela and we had something of a blowout victory. I still think 4-player team Ingenious is the best way to play.

We only had a short time left, so I pulled out Hey! That's My Fish! to introduce to them. They caught on quickly and played a very vicious game. Despite my best efforts, Angela caught one more fish than I to win with 27 points.

Sunday, May 20th

Charlene is hooked on Blue Moon City, so we played that in the afternoon while waiting for Gavin to come home. She won, of course, because for some reason I am always ready to win on my next turn. I could have kicked myself for poor play at the end, discarding my Flit 1 card in order to search for a Vulca/Aqua/Terrah 1/2 card. See, I needed one more crystal to make my 6th contribution to the obelisk, so I was hoping to move a dragon, build a piece of city and then run out the scales. But I didn't realize that Charlene still had to build and she'd do the work for me. In the end I moved too far away from the fountain and couldn't return quick enough. Well played, dear.

That evening we played another round of Medici vs Strozzi, a game which we've really gotten into once we discovered how to price the lots. I finished above $300 for a change, but Charlene finished even higher. I always flame out in round 3. The score was $328 - $321, very close indeed.

I also completed an online game of In the Shadow of the Emperor and lost that one too. I am really sick of that game at this point. It's way too dry and mechanical. Even when I win, I can't get the taste of boring out of my mouth.

Monday, May 21st

Darren was over for gaming, and while Charlene was putting Gavin to bed, I introduced him to Taluva. He picked up on it but of course I won, being the seasoned veteran. His remark about the game: "nice tiles".

Since it was early, we had a game of Tempus with Charlene. My first play with Adam and Charlene went really well, and since it's Darren's copy of Tempus, I was hoping to play with a veteran. Darren beat us down with a strategy we had never considered, which is forgoing the Progress phases in the first half and focusing on expanding and building cities. This allowed him 4 easy points towards the Progress phase later in the game, and he won most of them. It was a landslide win, 24-15-15. I may lose my Geek creds for saying this, but I think Tempus is a great game, undeserving of the criticism it has received. I know it's not a civ game, but hey, the only people claiming it is are the designer and publisher! C'mon! I won't write too much about Tempus here right now 'cuz I'm saving it all for my month-end new-to-me write-up.

After Tempus, we played BattleLore, chiefly because Darren wanted to see just how exploitable the Hills Rumble/Forest Frenzy/Chain Lightning cards were. I was to be a Cleric 3 and we would choose Cleric 1 (among other things). Well, I drew into Chain Lightning and cast it on a chain of 7 units (I think). It fizzled on the second unit. Later on Darren kept me alive to draw Hills Rumble, and I think I took out maybe two figures between thirty-six dice. Yeah, he's far luckier than am at C&C games. In the end Darren won, no surprise there.

To close out the evening, we had a game of Blue Moon. I chose The Buka Invasion; Darren, The Hoax. It was a great game, and Darren let me in on a couple of oddities about the Buka that I hadn't clued in on. Round 1, I took 4 crystals. Round 2, he took 3. Round 3, I took 2 for the win. Awesome deck!

All in all, a pretty great weekend for games. I look forward to another of its like.

Tempus photo by Kerstin Jacob.

Miscellaneous Mutterings

Medici vs Strozzi

After some great advice from some acquaintances, I played Medici vs Strozzi again with Charlene. We priced things much more reasonably, and in the end, she came out ahead, $329 - $289. Considering we each started with $300, that's pretty good. Where I completely screwed up was focusing too much on the $20 awards for goods value and not enough on keeping the cubes on my side of the harbour. In fact, at the end of Round 2, I was ahead $50. Uh-huh. That play has raised my esteem of this game.

BattleLore

There's some interesting debate going on at BoardGameGeek and at Days of Wonder about some potentially broken Lore cards. Richard Borg piped in with a ridiculous fix, check it out. This whole debacle, coupled with DoW's lack of transparency into their future plans for all their games, really lowers my opinion of them.

Also, BattleLore dropped from #5 to #6, and a further drop to #7 seems inevitable. I'm glad to see some normalcy return to the rankings. I've always figured Richard Borg was a bit of a hack, having: a) released essentially the same game four times, with more on the way; b) "inventing" Liar's Dice; and c) releasing the turdish Hera & Zeus. After having a look at some capsule reviews for BattleLore, I'm glad people are starting to clue into a).

(For the record, I enjoy the game somewhat, but I far prefer Memoir '44, and to a lesser extent, C&C:Ancients.)

Amun-Re

After playing several more games on SpielByWeb, I'm mulling over increasing my rating from 9.5 to 10. (It used to be a 10.) Seriously, I can't think of any other game that provokes so much thinking outside the game for me. Every long-distance drive I go on with my wife, we end up discussing the game.

Taluva

I was completely mistaken when I predicted my wife wouldn't be into Taluva. We've played it five times now, and she enjoys it. The bad parts of Java definitely didn't come in the box. We had a really close game last night; each of us only had 1 hut and 1 temple left. 2er is much better than 4er.

Arkadia

This has to be the best game from my recent order, even better than Blue Moon City, which is like candy to me. It's thinky and it feels very controlled. If you haven't played it, I recommend you do. It reminds me of Reef Encounter.

Understanding Ownership Bias

You may have noticed that game owners have higher ratings for their games than non-owners. I used to think it was a simple case of people buying the games they like, but I had underestimated the number of BGGers that buy their games without playing them first. Here are the three reasons why game owners rate their games higher than non-owners:

1. They did play the game before they bought it, hence, they already liked the game to start with.
2. They feel compelled to like the game because they spent money on it.
3. They felt compelled to try the game more times than they otherwise would have, possibly discovering they enjoy a game that didn't present itself well upon first play.

I am guilty of #3 with regard to Taluva. My first play (4er) was miserable, and I certainly wouldn't have agreed to play it again did I now already own it. (I'm not your typical buy-before-you-try gamer, but it is from the Attika dude, so I risked it.) After 5 plays of Taluva -- the last 4 plays being 2er -- I am really impressed by the game.

What have I learned from this? Play a game twice, even if you're not impressed. Even if you don't own it. Play it with a different number of players. You might be surprised.

New To Me, April 2007 Edition

Not too many new games in April, but it's picking up! I'm willing to try anything and everything but Munchkin these days.

Ace of Aces - Handy Rotary Series

Darren introduced me to this game, and I'm still in awe that such a thing was ever conceived, let alone implemented. As I understand it this game was invented in the days when acid was supplied on the back of every postage stamp so maybe that explains it. This game is really fun, although much of that fun may derive from the fascination you experience when you flip the page and realize that the game really works. I'd love to play this game on a car trip some time, but I'd probably be driving, and then I'd wind up causing an accident.

Mr. Jack

Played five games of this so far on mrjack.biludi.de where it's very well implemented. It's two games in one, really. For the first few turns (or maybe even two turns) the investigator is trying to deduce the identity of Mr. Jack by locating characters near to or away from gaslights, while the Jack player is trying to a) keep most characters near gaslights, and b) keep Mr. Jack in that group. There is quite a bit of luck involved in the card draw, meaning the investigator can sometimes deduce Jack's identity by Turn 3, sometimes by Turn 2, but sometimes not until Turn 5 or Turn 6. Once Mr. Jack has been identified, the game changes to the much easier task of trying to move a character on top of Mr. Jack. Once again, this is won and lost based on the draw of the cards. As Mr. Jack, you can't really invest into making your eventual escape easier. The game isn't broken per se, but it is completely limited by the draw of the cards.

If nothing else, Mr. Jack is fun and original, but it lacks depth and you'll tire of it quickly.

The Pillars of the Earth

I only played Pillars on BSW but ended up acquiring it in May. It left enough of a favourable impression that I had to take the bait. Comparable to Caylus? On a shallow level, sure, but it's different enough. In Caylus you build the track, but in Pillars you're defining your own exchange rates. Freakin' snazzy components, even if one of my blue workers came with a leg snapped off. He was stained that way, too. I was thinking of whittling a little Tiny Tim crutch for him, maybe a tiny little cast. What do you think?

Is there really a problem with the Master Builder randomness? Sometimes it sucks to be pulled early, sometimes it's great. If you wanna hold the bag, place on the Cathedral. The passing mechanic is a perfect solution to the problem that you can't pay to place all your Master Builders all of the time.

The game is fun, but it's entirely derivative. If you like to shuffle little decks of cards, this is for you! The 2er game -- the only one I've tried -- doesn't seem to feel the effects of the 7-out-of-9 resource cards mechanic, since the odds of you and your opponent both gunning for the same resource while two of the three are unavailable is mightily slim. I am very eager to try this as a 3er and 4er. If I can't pull that off, I'll likely get a few more plays out of it.

Pueblo

This has long since been a desire of mine to play, and when Adam finally procured a copy (by trading the marginal Evo, of all things) I was enthused. We played it on an Ikea lazy susan, which helped immensely. Even though we did the endgame scoring incorrectly, I had a great time. This game is already superior to Rumis, which I discovered was broken after 20+ plays. (Two of the four boards, anyway.) There's a lot more strategy here, and it's funny to see the classic don't-take-the-last-penny puzzle presented here in the form of the Chieftan. Beautiful components, but a big shake of the head to Ravensburger for limiting two of the colours for use in the 3er/4er game. When Rumis put more pieces in the box at a lower price point, you know Ravensurger was just being cheap.

Venedig

Initial impression on BSW wasn't favourable but then it grew on me. Definitely one of Klaus' lesser works, and I think he's destined for mediocrity after snoozers like Pompeii and the half-baked Carcassonne standalone variants. I won't be seeking this one out in cardboard form.

Well, that's it for April, and May's looking great! So far I have tried Taluva, Arkadia and Medici vs Strozzi.

Ace of Aces photo by David Thompson. Friggin' amazing Pillars photo by Jacek Nowak. Pueblo photo by Will M. Baker.

Rediscovering BSW

Lately Charlene and I have been hitting BSW, trying out some new game. Heck, that's where I discovered Notre Dame... have I mentioned that I love it? :)

Earlier this week, Charlene and I tried out Klaus-Jürgen Wrede's Venedig on the advice of The Metagamers, who seemed to enjoy it. We quit after a few turns because of the clumsy, confusing interface. A couple days later, I tried it out with Adam, and we quit near the end from boredom. However, I was not to be dissuaded, I insisted on trying it out again with Charlene, who kindly obliged me. Last night we completed a full 2er game of Venedig.

These were my comments after my aborted game with Adam:

Completely unoffensive and uninteresting. To Klaus' credit, the scoring track mechanic is a novel way to move the building focus from one area to another. However, the accompanying shared building mechanic doesn't really fit in as well as it does in Knizia's Tower of Babel. It's incredibly difficult to construct the 3-hex building because you clear swamp *after* you build, and once you clear a triangle-shaped area, your intentions are clear. It's so easy to disrupt a large build -- all you need is a single Casa card -- that your chances of succeeding in it are essentially random. The gold draws are so random, when you couple them with the leapfrog element of the scoring track, you end up with a potential swing of 2-4 points from a single random pull. After 90% of a 2er game on BSW, I'm pegging this at 5.5.

These are my comments after my completed game with Charlene:

UPDATED: Played a 2er on BSW to completion. There's a lot more to consider than first glances reveal, BUT the randomness of the treasure/swamp draws can decide the winner. I like how the different buildings are scored, and the subtle rule about not putting an existing card in the card pool adds some tricky decision points... do I play a card I want to use to build, or do I save it to discard so I can draw 3 cards? Another note about the 2er game: the 2er mechanic of allowing "Klaus" to draw his card *after* you clear swamps introduces the possibility of building out of phase... consider that Klaus' draw completes a building that would not have fit *prior* to your clearing, but does *after* the clearing. You pays your money, you takes your chances. This is a good game for BSW but I think it would be too physically fiddly in person. 5.5 -> 6.5.

So, as you can see, I appreciate Venedig a little more now. I'm unsure what I'd do differently the next time I play it. To those more experienced Venedig players out there... is the 2er game a lot worse than 3er, 4er, 5er?

Charlene says about Venedig: "I thought it was pretty good, I liked how other people could help you build, it was a neat component. Even with two players, it was neat how you could choose how Klaus could go before you or after you."

Last night I asked Charlene to try out Michael Rieneck's The Pillars of the Earth. If I recall, this was the darling of Essen 2006. At first I wasn't too interested, as it looked like yet another trade-cubes-for-VPs game. That, and the book was terrible. But I figured, hey, I read the book in preparation for the game, so I'm invested.

Thanks to Melissa's righteous rules translation, we dove in. It turns out most of the BSW implementation is in English, and you can swap in English translations of what little is left in German. We really didn't have any troubles playing the game. We royally screwed ourselves in the first round, but after that it went really smooth. I really liked how you define your own exchange rates and how they improve as the game goes on, sort of like how the power plants become more efficient in Power Grid.

Both Charlene and I enjoyed Pillars more than Venedig, but not as much as Notre Dame. I think I'll pick it up since it's a good 2-player game that plays quicker than Caylus and has a lot more variability to it.

So what's next on BSW? I still haven't tried Rüdiger Dorn's Emerald, which looks to be a fun game to play with Gavin were I to acquire it. I suppose I should also check out Carcassonne - Hunters and Gatherers, although I've been mostly disappointed with all the standalone Carc variants so far. I'm told Diamant is awesome, but I think it needs 4 players to start up. Medina also looks good but it's impossible to get a game going. I already love Sticheln, maybe playing online will improve my skills.

Anyway, it was nice to drop back into BSW after a long absence. I lost my house in The Great White North, but then, I never saw the point in having one in the first place. :)