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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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I recently attended Orccon 2012, the first of three Southern California conventions local to me here in the LA area. The Guest of Honor was Dirk Henn, and it was full of fun, friends, and great memories. I also played some great games, like Mage Knight: Board Game, Battle Cry: 150th Civil War Anniversary Edition, Wiz-War (eighth edition), Rattus, and Lifeboat.
If you'd like to read about the experience, please follow my Geeklist posted just a few moments ago: Our Best Time Yet at Strategicon - Orccon 2012. And why don't you make plans to come join us at Strategicon's next convention, Gamex 2012, on Memorial Day weekend!
     
I have acquired sponsors this year for my yearly birthday event, and I want to profile one every so often down here because they deserve it for donating games or gift certificates to us.
This time I'm going to mention Gorilla Games, led by designer Jeff Siadek. Jeff designed the game Lifeboat, which I mentioned above, and is a really neat guy. Gorilla recently came out with two games that were both highly recommended by Tom Vasel -- Hunting Party and World Conquerors. Can't wait to play a copy of both!
Fri Feb 24, 2012 12:26 am
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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I usually put together some conglomeration of game titles for my Thumb series (well, usually being the first three I've written), but I've played some outstanding games recently and I just feel the need to praise them in my own way.
So I'm going to post a picture of Mr. Thumbs Up here and you all can assume that he is sticking the same thumb up on each of the games described below.
BSG Express
One of my biggest pet peeves is owning a copy of a game that I hardly play. I don't have all the storage space in the world and so I am constantly reevaluating my game shelf for games that have either ran their course or that I hardly use. I own a copy of Battlestar Galactica, and I probably play it once a year. But I enjoy it SO MUCH for the times that I get to play it that I can't find it in my heart to rid myself of it. "I just wish it was a bit shorter, and still contained all that tension and fun," I say. Enter: BSG Express.
Wow.
So first of all, you're replacing the voting cards with dice. This is a win in itself. You're making simultaneous rolls and doing other things to speed things up. Fiddliness is gone. Things are streamlined. In fact, the overall process shrinks the game in length to 60-90 minutes. This would cause you to wonder if the tension would still be there, and I would answer with a resounding YES!!! The tension is still there! And, dare I say, more fun! The central mechanic that I am in love with is this: You must roll your dice secretly and then you have an opportunity to donate one to help the mission. If you're a Cylon, you can donate a bad die and shrug, explaining that the situation called for me to play this so I can get back my dice on my turn, blah blah blah, excuses. If you're a human, you want to play good dice, but sometimes you just have to play a bad one. You're pleading, begging with people to understand why you did that and that's all you can do. It's brilliant, so simple, and yet just amazingly designed to make people think you're lying when you're not. And at the end of the game, you feel like you played Battlestar Galactica! You really do!
Now, I am not advocating that BSG Express should replace Battlestar Galactica. For a fan of the game and series, there is a place on my shelf for both. But you really owe it to yourself to print this puppy out (or have PnP Productions do it for you) and give it a spin with your buddies. Incredible experience and with further plays, I expect it moves into my Top 25.
Power Grid: The First Sparks
I like Power Grid: The First Sparks better than Power Grid.
Now that that's out of the way, you know whether you want to geekbuddy me or not. Now I am NOT SAYING that I don't like Power Grid. I like Power Grid! I think it's fun ... until you get to the end of the game and you mire through the slogfest of adding and calculating in your head to the point that you pull out your phone to help you add stuff. That's why First Sparks wins. First Sparks is not only a BETTER game than Power Grid in my opinion, it is more fun.
From the abbreviated auction round to the board play, there is certainly enough here to differentiate First Sparks from Power Grid, but there still remains the infamous "Being Last is Good" mechanic that I enjoyed from the original. So basically, it's keeping all the stuff I liked and getting rid of all the monotonous, game-lengthening stuff I didn't like. Plus, the art is downright hilarious and it's neat to watch your cavemen "grow up" and become an efficient tribe (at least in some areas). The theme is terrific and really comes through strong. Is it a better game for the more "serious" eurogamer. Probably not -- but for the light-strategy lover that I am, it's fantastic! Shorter play time, more fun. Sounds good to me. I'd love to own a copy.
Core Worlds
Let me state up front that I'm not as excited about Core Worlds as I am about the above two titles, but I am excited none-the-less. And the reason why is NOT because it is a deckbuilder.
In fact, I'm tired of deckbuilders (again, another opportunity to geekbuddy or not).
Thankfully, there is a lot more to this game than deckbuilding, which makes it quite exciting and fun to play. While you are indeed building up a force to acquire victory points, it just plays and feels different than most of those kind of exercises. I like that you can focus on a certain strategy of attack (infantry, robots, vehicles, airborne) and build your engine doing so. I like the theme and the colonization of planets -- in fact, it reminds me a bit of Eminent Domain in that aspect, but not with all of the rest of Eminent Domain that I didn't like. There's 10 rounds and it's over, with the actual Core Worlds coming out in Round 9. So I enjoyed it -- I won in my first play, so there's some thought there that it plays and learns well for newcomers. I used infantry primarily and had fun, and I like how each deck has its own faction-specific general. The only downfall to the game for me was that starting player was a very important part of the experience. So while there was some strategy built around that, ultimately the power of the start player in a five-player game was very strong. I imagine the game is best when played with three people, and perhaps it will move onto my buy-list when that is tried. For now, I can recommend the game to you (especially if you like deckbuilders and/or space themes) and state that I did very much enjoy my first five-player game.
As I have stated before, I'm putting together a big birthday event that I call the Rickcon, and it has been growing a steady amount every year. It's invite-only, but the list is growing as I find new friends I enjoy playing with. We have acquired sponsors this year for the event, and I want to profile one every so often down here because they deserve it for donating games or gift certificates to us. I'm going to drop Asmodee's name first. I already like Asmodee, but their generosity for the Rickcon blew me away and I really appreciated the contact I had from them and their kind staff. Thank you Asmodee.
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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Two things struck me while going over the games released in 2011. First, I haven't played all the ones I wanted to play yet, and second, I don't feel like 2011 was all that good of a year. Compared to 2010, I'd even argue that 2011 was a WEAK year. But I can't sit here and write an article about that comparison because, well, I haven't played all the ones I wanted to play yet.
But what I CAN do is look back 10 years ago and see what games I still like from back then. Ten years seems like a long time, but I was introduced to these games no more than four years ago or less, so in a way they're not that old to me. And anyway, it sounded like something fun to do. So I think I'll be doing a series of these lookbacks (which is why I put 2001 in brackets above, as I expect to be doing one for 2002 and beyond, not because I couldn't expect you to count back the years correctly). Along with that, I expect to learn a few things about myself in the process.
Keep in mind that the games I list as "favorites" are ones that I rate at "8" or higher. And for good measure, I'll put in my dud game and perhaps a game or two that I'd still like to play that I missed out on.
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My favorite games of 2001
Winner's Circle - by Reiner Knizia
Total plays: 10
Getting back into the hobby around 2005, Winner's Circle was one of the first designer games I was introduced to and subsequently one of the first games I purchased. The design is so simplistic -- roll a die and move a horse -- and yet sophisticated. Although my wife and I just played it once as a two-player game (and it works), this one shines best with four players and five players. And I've found that while the theme might be a BIT dry for the occasional person, if you get enthusiastically involved during the race you can easily wipe that out. It's a boatload of fun cheering for your horse and trying to manipulate others to move your steed to the finish. I am one of those that most of the time (read: always) puts his high money on one of those all-or-nothing horses. That way, when I do get that awesome roll, I'm laughing all the way to the bank. The design holds up quite nicely through the decade, and I honestly don't see that changing for another 50 years. An absolute keeper.
Dragon's Gold - by Bruno Faidutti
Total Plays: 7
The first time I tried Dragon's Gold I didn't get it. I had picked up the game in a trade, and everything about it seemed average to me. The box was small, blue, and odd. The jewels were these little wooden candies that rolled everywhere and drove me crazy. And I got a rule wrong to top it off that led to a flat play. Thank goodness it got busted out again later. The premise of the game is really what I love about it. You kill a dragon, big deal -- now it's time to split up the treasure. And you have a minute to do exactly that! If you don't decide what happens with it in a minute, it disappears! I found out quite early in my gaming "career" that I was a fan of negotiation, and I owe that all to this little gem right here. Lucky for me, I got to meet Mr. Faidutti at our local Strategicon convention and he signed my copy. I invited him to play, too, but he politely declined and said that he "no longer enjoyed the game". Hahah!
The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow - by Dimitry Davidoff
Total plays: 21
I'm fully aware that Werewolf came out before 2001 -- in fact, it says in the BGG database that it was released in 1986, but I imagine some form of the game has been played for many years before that. I learned Werewolf as "Mafia", and have many great memories from high school and college playing the game. It wasn't until later on that I discovered the art from these cards and decided it was my favorite set. I like all the looks of the cards from this release, especially the art for the seer. Unfortunately, the names of the powers aren't on the cards, but to the experienced player this is not a problem. If you haven't tried Werewolf, don't rush out and try it with just anyone -- start with your family and friends. When I play Werewolf with strangers the experience would not place highly at all. With friends and family, though, it's terrific -- not a better feeling than being able to convince your wife or mom that you're a friend, only to end up killing them in the night a bit later.
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Well, that's it for games rated "8" and up in 2001. Yup, three. I don't consider 2001 a great year for gaming, that's safe to say. But I do have some honorable mentions.
The game I would like to play from 2001 and haven't yet
Evo
A game about the evolution of dinosaurs by Asmodee is something that immensely intrigues me. I'm really hoping to try out the reprint soon. Any thoughts from veteran Evo players out there?
My least-favorite game of 2001
Munchkin
I know some people love it, and I accept that. So you can accept that I hate it.
Next time, I take a look at my favorites from nine years ago, 2002. I have a feeling it will be a bit better of a year.
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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Yesterday I had the chance to go to the Orange County Board Gamers monthly event at the Duck Club, which was at one time literally a hangout for hunters to go and share stories about shooting ducks. That we are playing board games in such a setting, in a beautiful building surrounded by gorgeous foliage and such, pleases me. I guess playing with some good people also made it fun. And hey, I got to play lots of new games. Eventually, that dumb dirty thumb of mine started flipping and flopping around, and here's the result of that.
23
Now, if you know me, my gaming tastes does not usually include card games. Give me a board and I'm happy. But when James pulled out 23 and likened it to No Thanks!, my curiosity got the best of me. And it got a big fat thumbs up!
23 is played with a deck of cards numbered 1 to 23, with one "1" card, two "2" cards, and three each of the cards 3-23.. You are then given three green tokens, nine cards, and the game begins. The object is for the group of players to lay down cards starting at one, and work your way up chronologically to 23, ultimately desiring to run out of cards. Sounds boring so far. Well, it's not, because you have some options! First of all, you can lay down doubles or triples of a number if you have it. Also, if a 15 is laid down and you have a 17 and you want to play it, you have to take a purple token. Purple tokens are minus one (like No Thanks!) In the above example, if you had an 18 you could lay it down for two purple tokens, etc. And if you had a big gap, say 15 is showing and you have a 20, you can choose to pass by just taking one token. Okay, where's the fun still? All this gets tied together because of those three green tokens in front of you. Eventually, you're going to get to the point where you all most likely have cards that have been missed along the way. On your turn, you have the option of spending those green tokens to move back through time.
Let's say I have two 15s in my hand that have been skipped by. The pot is at 20. I can spend one green token to move the count back to 15, thereby getting both 15s out of my hand. Of course, if you save these green tokens they are worth +2 in the end to your score, which is a pretty big deal. But any cards left in your hand at the end of the game are -1 each, so it's something to consider if you have a lot of cards. Plus, you get a three-point bonus if you run out of cards by the end! So losing cards is key. Now piggy-backing off the above example, the pot is now at 15. To my left, James has three 13s he wants to desperately get rid of! So he uses his green chip to go back to 13. David is in luck, because he had one 14 that he didn't want to use a chip to go back in time to get rid of, but now can. Ralph is not in luck, as his lowest card is 23, so he takes a minus chip. Now it's back to me again, and lo and behold I had a 14 that I figured I couldn't get rid of!
Turns are fast and there's a lot of tension and wishing going on. The biggest part of the game is trying to gauge when to use your green chips, because no one likes spending points -- but to try and get rid of all your cards for the three-point bonus it's just too enticing. And of course you constantly are desiring for others to use theirs so you don't have to use your own! I've only played two plays of 23 so far, but I'm going to rate it higher than No Thanks! for now. Lord knows that I find No Thanks! tense, as I won the 7 Wonders: Leaders expansion by winning the No Thanks! tournament at Strategicon last year, but I like the game of 23 a bit more. You must try it out! Amigo has a hit with this one and I hope it gets over to the States soon.
(this was posted as a Review on the BGG 23 page, as I saw there wasn't any yet!)
Peloponnes
I'm going to clarify something right from the start: I LIKE THIS GAME. In fact, I like it a lot! But the thumb up/thumb down rating is mostly because you can't find it to buy it, and even if you did you'd have to pay an arm and a leg. For some ungodly reason, this game hasn't been picked up by a major publisher. With all the utter garbage that we get subjected to through the years, I HAVEN'T THE FAINTEST why this game hasn't been picked up and distributed. Anyway, I'm not going to give a full-scale review here because there's already been one done, but you really need to go check this game out and start preaching for it to become available again.
Maybe it's the name? The theme? David & Hannibal, the two guys I played it with, likened it to 7 Wonders as a meatier alternative, and I have to agree there are certainly similarities in theme and game length. But I feel that it stands apart quite well. In Peloponnes, you are building your own civilization (yay!) and dealing with the disasters that are sure to befall it (boo!) There is a bit of In the Year of the Dragon here as you're managing your resources and bidding on tiles to try to avoid these horrible plagues and famines around the corner. It's a bidding game, but it didn't seem as overwhelming as most bidding games do the first time (in fact, our teacher came in last). Scoring was a cinch and it wrapped up in 45 minutes or less. Fantastic game.
Seriously! Again, this is a two-thumb up game and needs to be widely distributed. Slap a name on there people can pronounce and you have a winner. Wish I had my own game company so I could do it! Please go check it out and if you've played it, let me know what you think. I'd be curious to know what you all thought of it, because without David introducing it and trusting his game acumen, I would never have given it a second look.
Bears!
Sometimes I really don't like this section, because I really like the theme, the art, and the company that makes Bears! I even like writing the name Bears! because I like writing lower-case letters after exclamation points. And it looks funny because every time I write the name of the game everyone thinks I'm really excited about it. Bears!
Joking aside, I thought I would like this little filler created by the wife of the designer of Castle Panic, a game our family loves. It's a real-time game, which I have discussed in this blog in the past and I enjoy that mechanic. It's dice-rolling as well, which I overall enjoy. Here's the game: Roll your five dice and the 20 in the middle at the same time. Quickly choose which ones match up with the ones you have to score points. Reroll your own if needed. When all tents or all bears are left, the round ends and you score. There are combos you need to land for positive or negative points. That's it. Let me comment on the game -- the game, itself, is fine. It works, it was fun on the first few rolls. After playing an entire game of 10 minutes, though, I thoroughly doubt I would ever want to pick it up again. This is unfortunate, but true! Even with an exclamation! There's just nothing pulling me back to it.
And the crazy part is, it's marketed with children in mind, but I've never seen a real-time game go over well with children. Adults just have quicker reactions. If you leave the kids to fend for themselves, as long as they're all around the same grade level, sure, it would work. But that's a small window. And that's assuming the kids would play it again, too. So I'm sorry, Bears!, but my love of sticking two punctuations together didn't save you. But a neat idea that perhaps just needed to be fleshed out a bit more.
(I don't usually do this, but I posted this as a Review in the Bears! forum as well. All the reviews there were mostly positive and so I felt I had to dampen the enthusiasm a bit...)
Lots of fun in store for this little blog in the future. I've been enjoying the 'thumb' series and writing about games in general. Planning for my birthday gameday is coming along very well and after putting in some considerable work, I've been collecting sponsors for the event. You can see the progress of the event at the website at rickcon.webs.com. I am blown away at the friendliness and generosity of the board game industry as a whole and I encourage you to check out the Sponsors page and support them by any means necessary. Their willingness to contribute to a small event like this says a lot about them.
See you next time!
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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First off, favorite title ever. Hands off my Morpork!
Time once more for the rotating thumb to cover some of my recent plays. November was an odd month full of good and bad games, and hardly anything in between. The great news is that I might have found a game that hit my Top 10 all-time, so let's get to that.
Flash Point: Fire Rescue
So, wow! I certainly do like co-ops, as evidenced by so many in my Top 25, but knowing all that I still wasn't quite prepared for Flash Point to hit the table. And this game was HYPED to heck and back, even. The Kickstarter campaign was a success, and once I got my copy I was very pleased with the components and quality of the presentation. Being a game that plays well solo has its advantages, as the first thing I did when I received it was to open it up and dig in. Ever had one of those first plays that stick with you? Especially in a co-op type, save-the-world kind of game? Yeah, my first time playing I barely got the dog out of the house before the whole thing came crushing down. It was thematic, it was tense, and it was exciting. Since then, I've played Flash Point with all the player numbers ranging from 2-6, and very few times has the game not produced an exciting experience. Flash Point is one of those games that after it's played, you sit there wondering how in the world this game hadn't been invented sooner. Rescuing victims from a burning building is a terrific theme for a co-op, and it's handled well from pillar to post so far. The expansion board, Flash Point: Fire Rescue Urban Structures, is even better than I first imagined it would be, as the high rise and duplex scenarios are varied and quite different. We finally beat the high rise the other day, and that's no small feat!
All in all, if you like having fun, and if you like co-ops, this game is for you. I don't care about random dice-rolling for fires, or whatever else people could come up with to complain about. Fires are inherently random, and any firefighter will tell you how risky and volatile the situation is. The game does an EXCELLENT job portraying the theme, and the game itself is solid and fun. My highest recommendation for what is one of my Top 10 co-op games and perhaps one of my favorite games, period.
Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game
Another co-op, this time a bit different. Well, different if you haven't played the first two D&D-based co-op games, Ravenloft and Ashardalon. This is the latest entry to the series, focused on the world of Drizzt, and I have to say that I haven't seen a lot of progression in the system. The differences between the three games is very little, mechanics-wise. But while I thought Ravenloft was okay (haven't gotten to play with the red dragon Ashardalon yet) Drizzt stands above it's older brother tall and proud. For one thing, Drizzt is less ugly than Ravenloft. Notice I didn't say "better looking". The tiles in Drizzt are illustrated much better, and even the traps have a nice-looking drawing on them, so you have an idea what's trying to kill you. The character cards are more fleshed-out, and the introduction of a few tweaks make them more enjoyable to play with. But at the heart of it, this is a continuation of the system that you're either going to like or dislike, really. I can't imagine anyone LOVING the system, unless they haven't played other co-ops. But for what it does, it does it well. My son and I will play through the quests, like we did with Ravenloft, and then sell or trade the copy. In my opinion, it's worth the "rental" -- keeping Drizzt for anything long-term, though, seems fruitless.
Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
I have to apologize for the title, but not knowing anything about the books had me stumped. And perhaps that's one of the reasons why this title did a huge bellyflop for me -- I really know nothing about Discworld. To be honest, from what a friend told me about the world as we played, I don't think I'd be very interested. I tend to take my fantasy reading quite seriously (Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, Pillars of the Earth -- needs an "of" in the title, evidently) and the Discworld universe seems a bit ... whimsical. So while the books probably aren't for me, I discovered that the game wasn't either. Oh, perhaps it's not all that bad, and I will admit that I'm sure after four or five plays it might be quite tense, but after one play I came across quite sour on it.
You see, Discworld contains something that I DESPISE in games. DESPISE, all caps. Hidden objectives. And it's not just hidden objectives, it's hidden END THE GAME RIGHT NOW THIS SECOND objectives. That means that you can do what I was doing in my game, and trying to wind down the time so all the cards get played so I can win, and all of a sudden, someone slaps down a tower 15 minutes through and proclaims the game over. To me, this is not fun. Again, if I had known every single power then perhaps I could try and stop it. That would most likely lead to someone announcing to the group, "Hey! Todd has six towers and he needs one more to win if he had that objective! We must destroy his towers now!" kind of thing. And that can have its place and be fun. But I'm just not sure there's enough in this game to even get to that place. I understand Mr. Wallace wanting to design a game that a non-gaming fan of the series would get, and to be honest, I think he wins with that. But this game, and the series, isn't for me.
All right! That's it for today. I take my sweet time in getting these things out, but I enjoy doing them when I can. Next around the corner I will take a look at 2010 (yup, not 2011) and hand out some gleaming trophies to my favorites. Expect a lot of groaning. Thanks for reading.
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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Well, it wasn't as bad as last year, but I've wound up with a fair amount of unplayed games again. I can't find if I wrote anything about it, but it was either this year or the year before I was sitting on 25+ unplayed games in my closet after all these crazy seasonal discount deals. I eventually got that number down to 0, and if I had been blogging about it it certainly would have been worth the read. I found some great sleepers in there that remain favorites today (Vikings, Space Dealer, Dragon's Gold, China) and some that reside somewhere in my 'Previously Owned' list. All in all, I had a GREAT time exploring new titles with an open mind and I don't regret those days at all.
I've tried to take care since then and not build up a big reservoir, but like I said above, oops! Here's the list of titles that I have yet to get to the table. They've been gathering for a time, now. I welcome your comments on them!
Shogun
Stronghold
Offrandes
Magnum Sal
Leonardo da Vinci
Master Builder
Dark Minions
Antler Island
Cambria
Genesis
Now, getting these babies to the table isn't going to be easy. Couple reasons for that:
1) "Group Taste" -- Not to sound high and mighty, but I feel like I have the ability to enjoy almost every type of game out there. I certainly swing one way more than the other, but there's still a shot I'll like something I initially thought I might not, and I'll most likely give it a try. Most of my groups, though, are in a particular category. I have an Ameritrash group that I adore, but forcing Leonardo Da Vinci on them wouldn't be nice. I have a Euro group that I love, but dice games like Dark Minions would be avoided like the plague. There's tons of little groups in there, most of them casual gamers that could go either way. One group is certainly a try-all kind of group, but I just don't see them enough to barge in with new games to explain, especially when they're more comfortable playing games they already know. And these aren't all "freebies" that I can knock off at home with the family.
2) Rule Reading -- perhaps this is my biggest stumbling block to getting these games played. Oh man, have I pulled a 180 since I got into the hobby. I used to take rulebooks with me in the car if I knew I would be stuck somewhere. I used to read the PDFs late-night before bed. No longer. If I'm going to learn a game these days, I need to set the whole thing up on the table, get out the rules, and go piece-by-piece through it to understand it fully. Sometimes I just don't have the motivation to do this. My son sometimes has the patience to sit with me while I do this, but some of these games won't be up his alley. So that's when I start looking for explainers! I have some Stronghold veterans in place, which is AWESOME knowing about that particular game's rules, and I have a winner for Shogun also. The rest are on me.
3) Pushing the Play -- and the last, and most dire in my mind, is this one. Except for the most confident/forward of us, pushing new games on people isn't the most fun activity to engage in. I don't think that the hobby has reached a point of saturation (yet), but sometimes these lesser-hyped games don't appeal to strongly to the common gamer. So many folks are afraid of trying out something new because they won't enjoy it. And with three kids, I don't see these people as often as I'd like -- even I feel the pressure of not spending time on a new game that might not be as enjoyable as something else we both know!
So that's where I am and what needs to get done. It really does feel like a mission -- GET THOSE UNPLAYED GAMES PLAYED. Now I just need the victims ... er, players.
FOR DISCUSSION: Those of you that have an inkling of my taste, any guesses how the above-mentioned unplayed games will be perceived? And any other sob stories about getting unplayed games to the table?
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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Luna on the left. The Speicherstadt on the right. The Castles of Burgundy on two different tables at the same time. All while I played Macao and Strasbourg back to back.
The SoCal gaming scene is forever changed thanks to Stefan Feld. I mean, he is just a ROCKSTAR right now. At the last SoCal Gamesday I attended, there was a Feld game on the table at all times -- never once could you survey the surroundings and not see one of his creations being played. And this isn't just a recent phenomenon -- this has been building steadily through the years. Along with Antoine Bauza, Feld has become one of my personal favorites as well. How is a designer with just two games in the Top 100 so popular? Let's explore.
Innovative mechanics
The first Feld game I played was Notre Dame, and I can remember vividly thinking how much I enjoyed it not just for the presentation but also for the card drafting, something completely new for me at the time. The modular board was really cool and I liked the different ways to score. My second Feld was Macao, and you really can't go wrong here if you're looking for interesting play. The dice wheel was and still is fascinating, I love the combos you can build with the cards and the gameplay is excellent -- one of the only medium-to-heavyweight euros I've played over 10 times. If there was an actual theme on this it might even push me higher, but this is one of those games that I don't need a theme to enjoy. Rare, but true.
Creative use of dice
This is a hallmark of the "new" euros and I usually instantly fall in love with any euro that can use dice in a creative way. Feld is known for doing this with Macao, Die Burgund von Burgund (I have yet to play, but I'd like to), Roma (double same), and It Happens ... (triple same). Using dice in a euro opens up that euro to an audience that I think perhaps it usually doesn't see. I am NOT a gamer that enjoys a game that is strictly no luck -- I enjoy having some chance in my games, as my favorite games most likely use dice. So these appeal to me, but they also appeal to the hardcore euro player because most of the time, there is luck in these games that the hardcore player will be okay with because there are so many other aspects that they find interesting. This sucks in a lot of folks to play together that quite possibly wouldn't, and it even attracts us dice-throwers as well, making the odds of playing these types of games even more likely.
Replayability
One of the other hallmarks of Feld designs is that every game can be played tons of times without having the same game twice. The use of dice of course helps this, but he also puts so many tracks to victory and so many strategies in each game. His highest ranked game, In the Year of the Dragon, gives you so many painful decisions each round it hurts. Whether through cards or dice, there is always something that is going to be drastically different game to game. Obviously, this does a lot to keep games hitting the table.
Feld, in my opinion, has been a great source of fresh air in an area of gaming that has gotten a bit stale for me through the years. It seems like there is just a small handful of euros coming out recently that I want to try (let alone buy) -- most seem to be rehashes of mechanics, dull of theme, or just way too heavy for me to enjoy. With every release, Feld gets me excited. Somehow, he finds a way to put complex mechanics and an ease of entry together to make something great. I mentioned Luna above -- when I first sat down for Luna (at 2 am at a convention, haha) I was more than intimidated (if you've seen the player aid for it, you know what I mean). One round through, everything flowed. That is MAGIC, ladies and gentlemen. Stefan Feld stands out as one of the very few designers that when he makes a new game, I HAVE to try it. And I have yet to be disappointed by any of his offerings.
FOR DISCUSSION: As I mentioned above, Feld has only two games in the Top 100. He also has two in the Top 200, and the rest fall down quickly. Obviously my opinion is in the minority, but I'm having a tough time putting a lot of games ahead of these titles. Why does it seem like Feld has a bunch of 'good' games for folks, but has yet to launch that uber-powerful "recognition" title like 7 Wonders for Bauza, Ticket for Moon, etc? If I had my way, a lot of these titles would be a LOT higher rated on BGG. Here's my ratings for the Feld games I've played:
Luna - 9
Macao - 8
Strasbourg - 8
The Speicherstadt - 8
Notre Dame - 8
In the Year of the Dragon - 7
Any idea which one I should try next?
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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Hi! Remember me?
I must take a moment and thank you for subscribing and reading this blog in its heyday. I really enjoyed it for a time. Oh, the plans I had for this thing! And so I have to apologize for letting it go for so long. Having great plans and then having reality dawn on me so much that I knew those plans wouldn't come to fruition gave me quite the downer. It really came down to this question:
"Do I want to play games or write about them?"
It was getting to be that much of a decision. I liked putting time into the articles and the big plans would have added a LOT more time. But I've come to terms with this whole thing. I love playing games, and I just like writing about them. So when I can write, I will. So on to the next adventure ...
So I'd like a vehicle to discuss what I've been playing recently and how I feel about it. The Incredible Rotating Thumb will magically provide me some space to discuss one recent exciting game (the thumb rotates up), one good game with perhaps some flaws (the thumb rotates sideways) and one that comes up less memorable (the thumb rotates down). Now that I'm a full-fledged geek I'm starting to know what I like and putting down a game isn't too hard for me to do these days. At the same time, discovering a lovely gem out of nowhere gets me more excited than anything (well, almost anything). On to the thumbing!
 - Memoir '44 Online
Absolute insanity. Let me just say that Days of Wonder is my favorite board game company. They put out some awesome work. Okay, Cargo Noir wasn't so good. But I love so many of those great, iconic titles. Now, I played a lot of Ticket to Ride online. I don't have an iPad, but if you just discovered the game on there, yeah, I know the feeling. It's a good feeling, right? Days of Wonder did it again with Memoir.
It took them years to program this and it shows. It just works. Great sound effects and music, too. What's more, they give you enough credits right off the bat that you can play literally 50 games without paying a cent. I haven't even gotten to the point where I would have to decide if I wanted to pay for the service, and I've played enough to know that I would. It's just a very intuitive system, user-friendly and a bunch of fun. The online client works without a hitch, it's easy to challenge other users to a game. What's more, it's really reminded me how much I love the Memoir system -- easier to get into than Battlelore, and yet there's a complexity there that I really enjoy. The funny part about all this is that I had absolutely ZERO expectations going into this. I logged onto it pretty late after it was released, even, just to see what it looked like. I'm a believer. It's a blast, and if you enjoy Memoir at all, you owe it to yourself to get online and try this sucker out. Great way to spend 30 minutes to wind down after a long day. A huge, giant thumb up for Memoir 44 Online.
 - Torres
Torres is bordering on the lines of an abstract strategy game, which means that right from the start, it had a disadvantage. My favorite abstracts are thematic ones, like Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation (Deluxe Edition) and Taluva, so after reading the theme on this one (the king is dying and he encourages his royal lot to try and build the nicest castle in his name before he croaks, with absolutely no ill will involved) I wasn't too excited or crazed to play. What I discovered from my two plays was an attractive abstract that included some special powers and different ideas that won me over.
Torres has lots of those little castle thingies also seen in Arcadia, and you get a certain amount per round to build with. Players will be building their own castles and are allowed to sneak over to others to "help" build with them, all the while stealing victory points along the way. So there WAS some interaction here, a good amount actually, that was disguised upon first glance. You get the most points for putting your pawn at the highest point of the tower, along with getting points for the size of the castle in width and height. It's rather exciting watching your opponent build a castle up and getting to steal the top point from him next turn after all his hard work!
In the end, I enjoyed the game and would play it again, but decided to let my copy go due to a few flaws. For one, I'm not sure how much "fun" it was. It was interesting to be sure, and a very quality presentation, but I'm not sure I socialize with the correct type of gamers for this game. Another flaw for me was all the points you end up dealing out during the course of the game. Now I'm all for collecting victory points after a round, but counting out and doing tons of math and scoring every round isn't a joy of mine. The scoring track is one of the longest I've seen (look at the track above!) and you're hitting that thing a lot of times. I think we got into the 200s. Perhaps a silly complaint, but there you go.
So Torres gets the awkward "sideways thumb" for today. A good game for sure, and I'd definitely play it again, but just not enough for me to keep in my collection. A true "7" rating if I ever had one. And now for the stinker.
- Navegador
So the only rondel game I've played before this was Finca, and I'm not sure that really counts in the genre. I heard a lot of good things about rondel games, in which you have a wheel of different actions and can move a certain amount of spaces each turn to obtain them (1-3 in this game). It's a swell idea! One look at the board, which is quite stunning, and I went for it. Whoops!
My first mistake was not knowing how much of an economic game this is. Yeah, I'm not a big economic game fan. The first stock market-type game that I played that had a moving monetary value was Hab & Gut, and I thought it was pretty good. The next one I remember was Container, and while I loved the pieces and some of the way things worked, I can't say I was in love with it. So, this one actually intensified what I really don't like about the "moving market" in these types of games. It seemed to me that the market was determined in the first couple of rounds, depending on which good people decided to buy. We played a five-player game, so there was going to be three people getting gold and two people getting sugar at the beginning. Immediately, those two people jumped to the lead and it stayed that way throughout the game. They finished first and second. They were able to generate money quicker and buy improvements. That bugged me.
Beyond all that, though, is just the methodical way I was forced to approach my turn. It didn't really matter what kind of future planning I did, because the market was mostly poor for me by the time it was my turn. And then I was picking about the same actions every time around the wheel ... I haven't been bored with a game for quite a while, and I just don't understand the excitement about this one! I was truly bored by the end and wishing for someone to reach Japan to end the game. A big disappointment and this really sours my ideas to try out Hamburgum (dude on the cover notwithstanding), Imperial, etc.
Unless I missed something here? I'd love to know!
So that's the first of the IRT series -- and we're out for now. See you next time for more discussions.
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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Here's the third installment of my son's birthday geeklist, where he picks his favorite 20 games and I write about it. It's a neat way to get into a young boy's head, and a nice way for me to reflect how much fun I have had gaming with him.
Greyson's Annual Birthday Geeklist - Year 6!
Thanks for reading.
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Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
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What the heck? Who the heck is this again? Why am I subscribed to this blog again?
Okay, I'm a bit back. A bit. I was rolling along like nobody's business for a while there and then the big rock struck. Between newborn, occasional work, kids home for summer, blah blah blah, I had to choose between writing about games or playing them! But I want you guys to know that I DO miss the blog and I'd love to get back here sometime.
Between you and me, I was actually planning on launching a video series that seems so far away at this point that I'm not sure it will ever happen, but if and when it does, it will be awesome!
In the meantime, if you're bored and would like to see what I say about 20 games or so (and check out what happened at the recent LA-based con, Strategicon Gateway) click on the link below and see the Geeklist. Thanks for being such loyal readers in the past and don't unsubscribe just yet, I have hopes and dreams to visit you all again soon!
Our Best Time Yet at Strategicon -- Gateway 2011
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