Randy Cox visited me in my dreams last night.

I had received Blue Moon City in shiny paper this yuletide, and played it with 3 veteran gamers the eve before last. We all rather enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, Randy owns my soul just now. This vile scum, this progenitor of the Agricola-so-not-funny-you-can't-call-it-prank-much-less-offhanded-remark debacle, this stat-loving-gaming-forefather whose seemed to be an authority on gaming a decade ago already when I thought I was a early adopter, apparently put a mind-tracking device into the GeekGold he recently donated me for losing his fantasy football league superbowl. Now, when I like a game which he has derided previously in a controversial review, he shows up to tell me the error of my ways.

The components of Blue Moon City make little sense. Sitting down and reading the rules makes perfect sense. Explaining the game makes little sense (and then, see, the yellow card special power is....while the white card here see does this...but remember that the green card...). But playing the game does make perfect sense. Blue Moon City is an enigma, but I really can't figure out quite to review it. But review it I must. Just don't plan on understanding much about "how to play the game" here.

Strangely enough, Steve Weeks was there too. "On behalf of the whole of the Ameritrash movement" he said. Something was stirring in my mind about Blue Moon City...perhaps it was cube confusion, perhaps just the penne vodka sauce I had with leftovers.

Blue Moon City, designed by Reiner Knizia, is a classic Eurogame in so many ways, both good and bad. Pasted-on theme unrelated to gameplay and mechanics? Check. No direct confrontation? Check. A nonexistent storyarc which yields a focus-on-the-decisions-and-not-on-the-experience experience? Check. Sure, I'll admit to all that. But a game based on decision-making? Check. Opportunities for clever card play and resource management? Check. Simple, 5 minute rules playable by casual gamers both young and old? Check. Subtle player interaction existing on every turn of the game? Also check. This paragraph is getting repetitious? Uh yeah, let's stop this now.

Rounding out the dream was an episode of Boardgame Babylon, playing Cukaloris loudly and repetitively, to give the nightmare a decent soundtrack.

I am reminded of an interview I heard with Reiner Knizia. He seemed to indicate that the theme for this game was decided by the publisher as a cost-savings kind of move. Reuse the artwork and the bits, as much as possible, from the Blue Moon card game. To me, this explains so much. In fact, I wonder how far Kosmos took this idea. It would explain not just the theming and artwork but also:
-size of box and plastic insert. Leftovers from some game where they actually worked. As in, why in the world does the obelisk not fit into the box?
-color of the cubes. I certainly don't mind unique player colors. But gray and white? As contrasted with light blue and purple? It just screams factory surplus, doesn't it?
-I've got to wonder if even the dragon scales and crystals were taken from somewhere else. Then things would finally start making sense. "Hey, we've got all this stuff in this box, Reiner...make us a game!"

"Why? Why me?" I shouted while the wind of malcontent swirled all about me, "I am a simple farmboy, a lurker who only makes his presence known when offended by suggestive avatars! What have I done to deserve such a fate? And why couldn't Reiner at least have shown up?"

BMC, despite a lot of this strangeness, ends up being a game I look forward to playing multiple times, and rating pretty highly. It doesn't feel like "just another Eurogame." It is everything that I like about Knizia games...the mechanics, despite being unique and quirky, work and make logical sense. As you play the game, the mechanics become familiar almost immediately and then the fun of finding surprising card combinations takes over. All the parts come together to make a very playable, tense, subtle whole. The kind of game I could use to introduce newcomers to boardgames, to prove to them that "these boardgames" are different than anything they've played before. The kind of game that seems rather odd and puzzling at first, surprisingly easily by the second or third turn, and then just a kick in the pants to finish and declare "oh, that was actually fun!"

But the spirits simply pointed to the shimmering Obelisk of the Blue Moon, demanding my sacrifice. Fortunately, I had some spare crystals on me, enough to fill the current void labeled "9" in the alcove high above my head. And then, to spite them all, I pulled out my ultimate surprise...a yellow "1" card which I had cleverly pocketed in my trench-coat ere my departure from a previous dream involving Derk which I promised to say not a word about. Yes, I could make a second sacrifice! This, they were not expecting. This was too much! Yes, it did take an extra crystal.

I do wonder about the long term viability of the game. Isn't there a few obvious strategies to keep in mind and the rest is just go with the flow? Wouldn't you always keep a "move anywhere" card and a "make an extra sacrifice" card in your hand for the end game? Beyond that, it all comes down to timing. But it still seems like I could play it for a while before tiring, even with these "limitations." Plus, I am probably wrong.

But scurrying up the obelisk, bitter cold stone damaging my fingers every move, grasping at cracks with desperation, my feet kicking and fighting to keep me aloft, I felt alive. Alive! And as I shoved my crystals, most earned through collecting the majority of dragon scales each resource-cycle but sometimes through paying attention to the building rewards of completed buildings orthogonally adjacent to my current contribution, the wind died down. The Obelisk grew warm to touch, the ledge I clung to expanded to let me rest at last. The tortuous ghosts retreated. And quietly, whispering now, I concluded.

"This! This is why I like this game, OK? Clever card play! Unexpected moves! No, it is not direct confrontation! It does come in the midst of sub-optimal design and cost-cutting. But it is fun! For Me! And fun is why I, for one, play games!"