Memoirs of a Board Gamer

As many of you know, my parents own a condo in Las Vegas and spend most of the year out west. For the last few years we've been celebrating Christmas with them and my sister's family during the summer when the logistics of getting us all together is easier to manage.

Well, Christmas is coming soon and I've begun my search for a few games I can put on my wishlist. In the past, this has been relatively easy for me but this year, I'm struggling. My game collection has reached the point that I have many games I rarely play, several games I've never played, and a few that have only been played once. For various reasons I'll not delve into right now, my opportunities for gaming have been dwindling and lately it's not uncommon to go weeks without playing a game.

In my quest for a few games this year, I'm only choosing games that I expect to get played multiple times. This may seem like common sense but in the past, I've been known to choose games that just looked good, had some buzz going, had high ratings, etc. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I'm now at the point in my gaming 'career' that I can no longer justify buying a game for the sole purpose of adding it to a dusty collection. As I perused BGG last night I've determined I have two show-stopper mechanics that turn a game that piques my interest into a game that I'll never buy and in most cases would rather not play:

• Auction
• Negotiation/Diplomacy

I don't mind an auction/bidding mechanic if it's not core to the game as in Amun-Re and I suppose I'm a hypocrite because I do enjoy an occasional game of Ra but in general, I'm not a fan of outright auctions that you'd find in games like Power Grid. I detest the auction cards in Jambo so much that I've often thought of just removing them from the deck.

Negotiation/Diplomacy is a real turn off for me. Games where you strike verbal deals with other players only to renege later or games with open negotiation/debate about the merits of some play or trade just ruin the game for me. There's probably some social and/or personality trait, quirk, or gene that I lack that would allow me to enjoy games like Settlers of Catan, Bohnanza, and The Traders of Genoa. All that said, I greatly enjoyed my single playing of I'm the Boss (Kohle, Kie$ & Knete). We had a great time with the free for all nature of the negotiation.

Do you have any mechanics that instantly turn you away from a game?
Do you have any mechanics that you dislike but strangely tolerate some game that falls in that category?

Noah and I played a game of Oceania tonight. We started out sailing on every other dotted line down both sides and across the bottom. We kept placing tiles with the land facing inward and the dotted lines facing towards the sides of the board making our lives more difficult in the future. By the time we started in on the tougher spots I was getting worried that we'd really have a tough time getting out into the middle of the board. A few placed tiles later and we broke out into the middle of the board and the race was on.

In the end, we tied at 4 points (10 - 6) with me having one three-scout tile left and Noah had no scouts. There are no stated tie-breaker rules so we both celebrated our win.

I've been curious about Nexus Ops for quite some time but I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger on a dice-fest. The game has gotten some great reviews but I didn't seriously evaluate getting it until now. Amazon has it for $10.99! The MSRP is $45 and Game Surplus has it listed for $31!. That's just too good to pass up.

Images courtesy of BGG

We started out with a round of Coloretto waiting for our fifth but by the time he arrived we dealt him and played a round. If you'd like to try out an online version against bots to make a decision about purchasing your own copy, you can try it out here.

We thought we might have a sixth player coming soon so we pulled out China making it 2 for 2 for playing games by the same designer Michael Schacht.

I've played China many times and find the strategy pretty two-dimensional but it still remains a game worth pulling off the shelf. The pain of opening up a new territory only to have the player to your left plonk down an emissary before you can is a real 'joy'. I think the game plays best when all players play at the same skill level. Sitting to the left of a novice player has definite advantages if they're constantly placing houses bumping up the emissary limit for subsequent players.

Our sixth called to cancel and we lost a player around 9:30. We thought long and hard about pulling out Caylus but one of the was worried that it would run too long for a work night so we instead pulled out my new and unplayed copy of Arkadia. I played too conservatively but most of us did as well granting the most aggressive player the win. I enjoyed my first playing of Arkadia quite a bit. I'm not sure how it sat with the others at the table but I'm anxious to play it again. I'm still struggling with understanding how to juggle the decisions of when and what kind of building to build; when to place workers and how to evaluate the number, type, and position of those workers; when to 'complete' a building; how to evaluate the value of the exposed draw deck; and how best to manipulate the 'seal' market when placing castle pieces.

I also found it difficult to judge which seals to shoot for and I'm unsure if that's even really a possibility given that you're at the mercy of the cards you have and the moves of the players plonking down the Tetris-like buildings.

One aspect of the game I did notice was that it started out very slowly. Most players were placing buildings around the castle in order to gather the most neutral colored workers. As soon as the juicy tent camps were covered, the battle began for seals and the castle pieces started coming out onto the board. I misinterpreted the rate of castle piece placement as linear and because of this I misjudged how much time was left in the game. It's my belief that when the first floor is covered you're more than half done with the game as the likelihood of multiple building completions goes up as the board fills up. This upward trending rate curve for castle placement caught me with my proverbial architectural banners/pennants around my ankles. My first play felt abbreviated. I'm not necessarily sure I want the game to last longer but I did come away with the feeling that I was just getting into my stride when it came to an abrupt end.

All in all I like Arkadia and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

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After several attempts at getting together we finally had a few die-hards make it out for May's game night. It been such a long time since we've been together that we ended up just talking for awhile and didn't get started going through the rules for Caylus until almost 8pm.

It was only my third time playing and teaching the game but the rules are pretty straightforward and I felt like I still had a good grasp on how to teach the game. Mat ended up having to leave early though. He'd injured his back and was in quite a bit of pain sitting for so long.

I like Caylus quite a bit. I always feel like there are so many options during your turn that it's difficult to get trapped into a completely wasted turn. Every game I have managed to get myself into a position of needing a coin or a cube to 'buy' a king's favor or build a building only to realize that I don't have the necessary resources because they will be activated after the point that I need them. I've been bitten by that many times but I'm not seeming to learn from my mistakes.

In any case, I still really enjoy playing and can't see myself tiring of it for quite some time.

A few weeks ago, Noah's 4th grade class was informed that they would have the opportunity to design a boardgame. At the beginning of the target week, they would participate in standardized testing but at the end of the week, they'd have some free time to work on the project. Noah was understandably excited about the prospect of creating the game concepts, mechanics, theme, and the physical components of the game. Noah loves projects and this one was made to order for him; pushing just the right buttons.

Noah class is a specialized 4th/5th grade, mixed-age, gifted & talented classroom with ten 4th graders and ten 5th graders. His accelerated curriculum usually keeps him heads down most of the time but the atmosphere of the classroom, working in small-groups at tables rather than individual desks, and the generally elevated levels of imagination and self-motivated drive from most of the kids foster the desire to really go after a project like this. When he told me about the project, I found it hard not to get involved but I held back to the best of my ability to see what he could do. I tried to ask questions more than provide direction.

As the days passed, Noah really honed in on his game design. His game sounds like a mashup of M'44/BattleLore and HeroClix. His game comprises a hex-based board with variable setup terrain parameters with some fixed obstacles and travel conduits (bridges, rivers, and forests). He's got twelve character types (e.g. trolls, etc.). He's drawn them in the rules and defined hit points for battle. He's defined travel limitations based on character types. He'd defined rules of navigation for terrain types. He's defined winning conditions. He's defined battle scenarios. He's defined special powers situations. He's got it all.

Then...he came home yesterday with bad news. Apparently, the game has to be an "opoly" game covering some topic they've studied in the past. He was understandably crushed. He's going to do a Mythology-opoly but he's going to whip that out quickly and try to do his game anyway. I understand that boardgames are mostly misunderstood in the general population but I'm amazed that a classroom of this nature would place such huge limitations on young imaginations. I can't think of a much better way to squash the desire to learn or to squash the desire for self-motivated drive than to impose needless limitations on imagination or scope.

Go for it Noah. Build what your heart and mind desire.

"I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it."
--Harry S. Truman

Over the last few months, BGG users have been aligning themselves with one of five groups: 1) The Ameritrashers, 2) The Eurosnoots, 3) The "Why can't we all just get along"s, 4) The "I don't give a crap"s, and 5) The "Hunh? We're dividing into groups?!". I don't usually get involved in BGG politics because I see it as mostly pointless. In heated debates, email and forums are a horrible medium for expressing one's views unless one is a very adept writer. Whenever I try to make a point, I usually end up sticking my keyboard in my proverbial Submit button so I've learned to keep my distance.

One particular user has, in my opinion, been the most ardent instigator of this battle and today, Aldie banned him from the site. It's the first time that has happened in the history of BGG-dom. It seems it was a big thing for those that care. For me, I'm moderately glad in hopes that it will usher in the return of more game related posts.

The back story is that he'd been asked several times to stop being so harsh towards people and to focus on the games. He publically refused. Left with no choice (from Aldie's perspective) he was banned. After the news broke, the forums filled with mud slinging, avatars being flipped to "Long Live...", harsh words being exchanged between users, mud slinging towards Aldie, mud slinging over the worthiness of some users, cries of freedom of speech, etc. You'd have thought the sky was falling.

It's all really quite silly. Get a life people. Get some perspective. It's a website about boardgames. It's not about global warming. It's not about a stock market crash. It's not about a new form of incurable brain tumor. It's about boardgames people. Go out to eat with your family...take a break...play a game. Come back tomorrow and life will be the same.

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Games, Boardgames, Eurogames, Game Night

This past weekend I played my first two games of Caylus and I was extremely impressed. Yes, I know the game has been around for a very long time and I'm probably the only guy left on BGG who hasn't formed an opinion of it but I just couldn't get it to the table.

I've owned the game for almost a year now and sadly this is the first time I've been able to crack open the box. My gaming group chides me for buying so many games but I deserve it. they never get a chance to play any particular game more than once or twice before I'm pushing some new bauble in front of them.

My first two plays of Caylus were very different from one another although there was a common thread; I didn't win either of them. The first game was new to all four of us and one player blew us all away when he went on a building frenzy placing all of the juicy stone buildings. We all needed to place our workers in them on subsequent turns for any of us to do much of anything. For the most part, he ignored the castle and just took his lumps for not delivering any batches. Lesson one, don't let players build all of the 'good' buildings.

The second game was played with three-players: two from the first game and one new player. In the first game, the provost was jerked around quite a bit. Almost every turn was enjoyably agonizing. Should I spend an extra coin or two in hopes of being last to pass to guarantee final control over the provost or should I pass now and keep those extra coins for the bridge. In contrast, the second game was a race to the finish with the provost being pushed past the bailiff on most, if not all, turns. The buildings were pretty evenly divided between us (we'd at least learned a little bit from the first game) and in the end, the new player won by batching well and choosing his favors wisely. I came in a strong second with my last two turns requiring a long litany of transactions that had to occur perfectly allowing me to convert an optional building into a residence and then into a prestige building.

I really enjoy the game and thought the board artwork functional. The box cover art left a lot to be desired but I was more interested in the game...until I saw the new artwork Mike Doyle has lined up for the new premium edition due out at Essen later this year. If this version makes its way to the states I won't be able to resist it. This premium copy is even going to have metal coins! I've never bought an updated copy of a game but this may very well be my first. I just hope I can get my hands on a copy.

All images taken from Mike's sneak preview. Full-sized images are available by following the link above.

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Games, Boardgames, Eurogames, Game Night