Game: Seismic

Thread: Re: Earthquakes Mean Bad Traffic

Big Tiki D — 2008-06-22T23:09:32+00:00

OK, now that I have managed to regain my composure after laughing myslef damn near unconscious reading the first three paragraphs of you review, I must say the following:

1) Thanks for the best laugh I've had in days!
2) Having spent a decent amount of time in Florida and thereby considering it some black hole attractant for weirdos and the generally ignorant, you have convinced me to never set foot in Texas or California.
3) Thanks for helping me keep the money I may have spent on this game in my pocket.

Thread: Re: Earthquakes Mean Bad Traffic

VixenTorGames — 2008-06-04T14:34:31+00:00

Hendal wrote:
Well, you call them like you see them. The best part of the review has nothing to do with the game, but is very entertaining. At least I know not to get this one.

So do you not like Carcassonne?
No, I like Carcassonne. It's the exception to my tile-laying dislike, because it's a very good game.

Thread: Re: Earthquakes Mean Bad Traffic

rsjrev — 2008-06-04T14:04:46+00:00

I bought this at a STEEP discount to play with my 10 year old. He was bored. I doubt this will get played again unless we have even younger kids visiting.

Thread: Re: Earthquakes Mean Bad Traffic

Hendal — 2008-06-04T11:32:48+00:00

Well, you call them like you see them. The best part of the review has nothing to do with the game, but is very entertaining. At least I know not to get this one.

So do you not like Carcassonne?

Thread: Earthquakes Mean Bad Traffic

VixenTorGames — 2008-06-04T01:11:25+00:00

I'm from California. I was born there, grew up there, graduated high school and college there, and lost my virginity there (not all in that order). I live in Texas now, which is too hot, has no beach, and yet still suffers from the same number of stupid broads with fake boobs, but now I have to live with hick accents and too many NASCAR fans.

And yet, even coming from there, I think the concentration of idiots is higher in California than nearly anywhere I've ever been (and that's saying something, because I've been to Florida). For starters, people don't seem to be the least bit concerned about the fact that they're on top of one of the world's weakest building foundations, the San Andreas fault line. These slack-jawed dingbats have more money than sense, and think being rich will save them from all the natural calamities that seem to hit Southern California more often than anywhere outside Southeast Asia (which, as anyone can tell if they watch the news, is the natural disaster capital of the world).

You can drive up the coast and see houses built on cliffs, extending out over the beach below. Have these dopey bastards never seen a mudslide? All it would take is a little ground jiggle, and your living room washes out to sea on the next tide. And tall buildings - why would anyone build anything taller than two stories? I've seen enough earthquake movies to know what happens when the ground starts flopping around like a jello shooter at a frat party, and you couldn't pay me enough to work on the top floor of one of those skyscrapers in downtown L.A.

Apparently, the creators of Seismic agree that Southern California is a little bit accident prone, because they want you to act out the creation of a freeway system in a city that's more or less destined to slide off into the ocean. You place all these little hexagonal tiles with roads coming off every direction, and then you put work crews on the roads to claim them.

Then, at irregular intervals, earthquakes hit San Andreas and pieces of freeway disappear. The frequency of the earthquakes is 100% random, and could happen anywhere from six times a game to none at all, which gives you just about the same amount of notice that those drooling buffoons get, the ones who live in Newport Beach and build houses on stilts.

At the end of the game, you count up all the roads where you have work crews, and if you've got the most connected road segments, you win.

Seismic is a tile-laying game. It feels a lot like Carcassonne, where you place tiles and then place scoring markers. Normally, I don't like tile-laying games, and as fate would have it, Seismic doesn't change my mind. For one thing, it's really ugly - easily the most unattractive game I've seen from Atlas Games. For another, it's not deep at all. For one more thing, it's a tile-laying game, and like I said, I don't tend to like those.

I won't be playing Seismic again. I didn't like it, my family didn't like it, and I doubt I could talk my friends into it. I'll hold onto it until I do another contest and then give it away. Maybe someone else will like it - probably the same kind of person who would decide to build a rickety home on a fault line.

Summary

Pros:
Really easy to learn and play
Beautifully illustrates the dangers of living in precarious housing in Southern California

Cons:
Shallow
Way too basic
Some of the most boring art I've ever seen in a board game

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Meeple1 — 2008-05-03T16:21:05+00:00

Road worker markers

Thread: Re: "Complete" highway sections

Denis Arnold — 2008-03-08T17:33:59+00:00

Many thanks, Dave.

That makes sense and is what I half-expected. It is also more logical, as it could be difficult reconnecting to San Andreas when other players don't want you to.

Denis

Thread: Re: "Complete" highway sections

etherton — 2008-03-08T17:25:35+00:00

Remove all road crew markers from in-
complete highway sections. A section is
complete only if each end of the highway
finishes in an intersection or San Andreas,
or if both ends finish in the same intersec-
tion or San Andreas. A “loop” section that
is not attached to an intersection or San An-
dreas is considered incomplete.

That's directly from the rules here on bgg. A highway is complete if it is terminated on both ends by intersections. It doesn't matter if the intersection is San Andreas or not, and the highway can connect back to the same intersection.

-Dave

Thread: "Complete" highway sections

Denis Arnold — 2008-03-08T16:39:02+00:00

The rules state "A section is complete only if each end of the highway finishes in an intersection or San Andreas....."

Does this mean one end must be in an intersection and the other end must be in San Andreas? Or can each end be in two different/separate intersections?

Clarification would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Gamesden

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moose4mom — 2008-01-04T20:49:29+00:00

Check out the bag I made for drawing tiles.

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jdhawk — 2007-11-25T01:01:11+00:00

Comparing the size of a Seismic cube to a Meeple.

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jdhawk — 2007-11-25T00:59:07+00:00

The cubes were too small for us, so we used Meeples instead.

Thread: Re: Our first crack at Seismic

cgund — 2007-05-09T15:42:56+00:00

Gnomekin wrote:
I really should look for a place online where I can buy meeples in bulk.

www.meeplepeople.com

Thread: Re: Tile printing glitch?

catfood — 2007-01-08T18:26:52+00:00

lol, could have been

To follow up, Atlas Games sent me the replacement sheet for free. It got here pretty quick too, so props to them!

Thread: Re: Tile printing glitch?

EvilTimmy — 2006-12-31T20:32:42+00:00

Must've been a quake during that print run!

Thread: Tile printing glitch?

catfood — 2006-12-31T20:06:45+00:00

Has anyone else encountered a tile printing glitch with this game? I unfortunately received an entire sheet that was off-centered, leaving 10 tiles uniquely marked. I just emailed support (at least I think I did; the contact address wasn't clear) at Atlas Games asking them what I should do.

Thread: Problems that cropped up in four player game

Gnomekin — 2006-12-11T04:02:24+00:00

Today, I tried my first four-player game of Seismic, introducing it to three new players. During the course of the game, there were a couple of things that made the game a little less than fun.

First, we quickly realized that if we built outside the six lines of San Andreas, the Earhquakes would never touch us. Yes, that meant that we ended up shunning the juicey six points that San Andreas offered but most of the Earthquakes successfully avoided hitting anyone's real infrastructure, only hitting the intentional Earthquake bate we built.

Second, and what proved to be a bigger problem, is that we found that with four players, it was possible for someone to never end up with an itnersection in any of their draws. I literally did not have a single intersection in the three tiles I could choose from during the entire game. I had the longest and most Earthquake free stretches but scored no points, even though I tried to loop into other people's intersections, save through the winning player giving me a pity connection.

That seems to be a fairly big problem, that luck of the draw can have that big an impact on your ability to compete in the game.

Has anyone else had problems like this or was this just bad luck an unnaturally enimic Earthquakes?

Thread: Our first crack at Seismic

Gnomekin — 2006-12-07T19:00:53+00:00

Bryan and I tried out Seismic for the first time last night. I had gotten it about a month ago but I really hadn’t had a chance to try it out before and I wanted to see if it was anything more than a simplified Carcassonne with Earthquakes.

Well, to be honest, we really didn’t find the game to be anything more than that.

The large hexes were a nice change of pace for a a tile laying game and did allow us to explore different kinds of patterns. The tiny cubes to mark which roads were ours, however, proved to be something of a disappointment. It was a struggle to make sure we didn’t lose any. I really should look for a place online where I can buy meeples in bulk.

We did play with the variant that put the Scale 6 Earthquake tile in the bottom five tiles. If we were going to play with Earthquakes, I wanted to make sure we would have Earthquakes and the big one would end the game!

In fact, every single Earthquake hit California in the game. We had three in a row during the mid-game, which devastated Bryan’s build up.

Having learned from that lesson, Bryan proceeded to make sure that he built up the row that led to my main stretch of roads so that the last quake of the game did me some serious damage. Have to remember that the next time I play.

When the rubble cleared and we stepped out to see the ruins that we laughing called a highway system, Bryan had nineteen points to my seventeen. That last Earthquake, which he made sure hit me, won him the game.

All things considered, Seismic isn’t a bad little game. I like Carcassonne better but it does play simpler and faster and I like the way the hexes look. We’ll definitely play it again and next time, I’ll just shuffle all the Earthquakes in with the six in the bottom. It might take some of the uncertainty away but it guarantees the devastation!

Thread: Seismic -- Session Report

gschloesser — 2006-11-01T21:20:26+00:00

We use a variant in setting-up this game of Ted Alspach’s Seismic. As in the set-up, we mixed six regular tiles with the six earthquake tiles, but only removed four from the game (as opposed to the six called for in the rules). Our hope was that this would increase the number of earthquakes, and it succeeded. While our past games were categorized by only one or two earthquakes, this time we experienced four. Sadly, three of the quakes didn’t surface until the final four tiles of the game. I am still not satisfied with the number and timing of the quake appearances.

Sheila succeeded in grabbing lucrative routes, thank in large part to drawing the majority of intersection tiles. She also managed to survive the quakes relatively intact, which resulted in a commanding victory.

Finals: Sheila 53, Greg 32, Ray 28

Thread: Re: Quake clarification

leoesu — 2006-10-26T13:21:57+00:00

I thought so. It just happened that we were playing on this silky table cloth and the mon=mment a highway broke off the pieces would slide and we constantly had to reposition them. It was a good game though and I enjoyed.

Thread: Re: Quake clarification

Sexy Amy — 2006-10-26T03:54:24+00:00

It's not unusual for the network to be split by a quake, and, yes, you can add tiles on subsequent turns to rejoin the broken highways.

Thread: Re: Quake clarification

EvilTimmy — 2006-10-26T03:44:44+00:00

Absolutely! I can't imagine anyone would want to play the game if you couldn't

Thread: Quake clarification

leoesu — 2006-10-26T03:22:41+00:00

What happens when the quake causes the highway network to be split? Can I add another tile at a lter turn in order to rejoin the broken highways?

Thanks

Leo

Thread: Seismic

ValentineS — 2006-10-19T23:40:13+00:00

Overveiw:
Seismic is a tile laying game that many people compare to Carcassonne, which is actually a fairly good comparison. The game play consist of choosing one of 3 available tiles, and placing it on the board in order to build roads. These roads net you one point per tile plus the points printed on the intersections.

The Bits:
The tiles in this game are large with colorful graphics ,and are very sturdy.the box is rather flimsy ,and the directions look like a black & white print out. This games version of a meeple are tiny colored wooden cubes. the color choices for these are terrible and the cubes just feel cheap especially compared to the nice tiles. When I'm teaching this game to a new group some one in the crowd will inevitably point out that it would be cool if the cubes where replaced with little traffic cones, and I must say i agree.I can understand wanting to keep cost down but the cubes really make the game feel cheap and thrown together.

My Own big fat opinion.
After the first session with this game i was very alarmed that i had bought a simplified version of Carcassonne.After many subsequent plays i discovered i was right. The game is very very straight forward and the best strategy seems to be simply building quickly into the areas where the earth quake doesn't remove tiles and just build a ton of small twisty roads and intersections. Another disappointment is you never run out of workers! You have a ton of them,and if one is removed you get it back to put out again. So instead of having to manage how many roads you have going you just lay a tile and put a worker down. the earth quake tiles themselves show up so infrequently that they have little effect on the game.
On the up side this game seems like it would be great for small children that have trouble with Carcassonne(so long as you make sure they don't swallow any of those little cubes),and some of the variants rules help the game a bit.

Over all:
This game will always be under the shadow of Carcassonne ,and feel unpolished by comparison, but it is a light interesting tile game that is good for a quick distraction from heavier games.

Thread: Seismic -- Session Report

gschloesser — 2006-10-12T18:01:19+00:00

Note: My full review of Seismic will appear in Knucklebones Magazine

Carcassonne in California. Well, sort of. You see, players are supervisors of road crews constructing roadways around San Andreas, California. Sadly, they are either blissfully unaware of the massive fault line that runs beneath the city, or worse, they just don’t care. At any moment the earth can shake, sometimes violently, causing roads to buckle and crumble. This does have the ancillary benefit of keeping the road crews employed, so perhaps they really don’t mind the quakes after all!

Seismic is yet another tile-laying game. Most tiles depict section of roadway, with 13 depicting intersections. These intersection tiles are quite valuable, as they serve as a terminus for a section of highway and trigger scoring. Herein lies one of the major problems I have with the game, as the player who is fortunate to draw a sizeable number of these tiles has a tremendous advantage.

There are also six “quake” tiles, with a magnitude ranging from 1 – 6. The greater the magnitude, the more sections of roadway potentially destroyed. Before beginning the game, all six quake tiles are mixed with six random tiles, and half of these are removed from the game without revealing their face. Thus, no one can be sure just how many quakes will occur, which does add a level of tension to the game. Unfortunately, quakes shake things up, so-to-speak, and if too few appear, the game can be quite dull. I recommend discarding fewer tiles, which will allow more quakes to occur.

Game play is exceedingly simple. Each turn, a player chooses a tile and plays it to the board. Roadways and grasslands must match; no dead-ends allowed … assuming, of course, you are not counting the road crew employees! Ala Carcassonne, the active player has the choice of placing one of his road crew markers onto a roadway depicted on the tile just played. If there is already a road crew marker on a connected section of highway, a marker cannot be placed. One of the tactics is to merge sections of highway so as to maneuver your markers into larger sections of highways, possibly usurping control of those sections from your opponents. This is virtually identical to the tactics present in Carcassonne.

When a quake tile is drawn, the board is examined to determine which side of the San Andreas tile has the most tiles extending from it in a straight line. A number of tiles in this line equal to the magnitude of the quake are removed, beginning with the tile next to San Andreas and extending outwards.

The game ends once the final tile is placed. Incomplete highways to do trigger points. All completed highways are examined, and points are awarded to the player with the most crew markers on that section of highway. The player with the most points rises to the level of company Vice President and wins the game.

While the theme of Seismic is novel and fun, I have some problems with the game. As mentioned, quakes add spice to the game, but it is quite possible they will be rare. In the two games played this evening, one game had two quakes, and my game had only one quake. That was disappointing, and made for a very dull game. The second concern I have is that the player drawing the most intersection tiles has a large degree of control over the termination of a road section. This often means that player will be the beneficiary of scoring. If quakes are scarce, there is nothing players can do to disrupt this.

There doesn’t appear to be any deep strategies or clever tactics to be employed. The game is quite vanilla. One of our players declared that it would be an interesting game to use in order to teach others how to play Carcassonne … but who needs that? Carcassonne is easy enough to learn as is. Standing on its own, Seismic is a light, tile-laying game that is likely suitable for families with young children. Most adults and gamers will likely find it a bit bland.

Game 1: Characterized by only two earthquakes.

Finals: Gail 120, Russell 81, Alison 67, Rhonda 59
Ratings: Russell 7, Rhonda 7, Gail 6.5, Alison 6

Game 2: Only one quake appeared. Jim was fortunate to draw a sizeable majority of intersection tiles, which proved unbeatable.

Finals: Jim 81, Greg 50, Kevin 34, Jared 28
Ratings: Greg 5, Jared 5, Kevin 5, Jim 4

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Brain — 2006-10-04T01:45:23+00:00

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Brain — 2006-10-04T01:06:04+00:00

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Brain — 2006-10-04T00:54:02+00:00

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Brain — 2006-10-04T00:39:34+00:00

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Brain — 2006-10-04T00:39:31+00:00

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Brain — 2006-10-04T00:39:26+00:00

Thread: Relatively quake-free!

etherton — 2006-09-10T03:51:42+00:00

After finishing up a game of Vegas Showdown, it was 10pm and we decided to give Seismic a quick try since it was rated 30-60 minutes.

I went over the rules to the game and we sorted out the quake distribution and formed the draw "pile" in the box lid after taking two starter tiles out.

Tam started, and drew the 1.0 quake on the first turn of the game! So the law of averages says that there are probably only two quake tiles remaining in the game.

The rules are pretty simple -- you score points by controlling roads that connect intersections. There are the inevitable comparisons to Carassonne -- my wife prefers that game because it's prettier and she loves that era. I think I actually prefer Seismic myself though, because the farmers in Carcassonne always pissed me off.

Anyway, we all got off to a decent start, and a large rash of intersections came out relatively early, leading to a large number of quick point scores as people put a +6 next to a +4 and claimed a quick ten points. The intersections are just worth too much relative to long road segments to pass up quick scoring opportunities.

In fact, I'd argue that whoever drew the most intersections would be at a slight advantage, but luck should average out since there are 14 insersections out of a possible 74 in-play tiles.

During the early part of the game we grew out a quite sophisticated road network lobsided on one half of the central San Andreas tile. I eventually started building out some other roads, mostly to protect my own interests elsewhere since the quake always hits the longest run.

Somebody drew the 4.0 quake tile about halfway through the game, and it hit Derek's network pretty hard. Marci didn't like how a bunch of tiles were stranded in the middle of the board by the quake (I'm pretty sure we played that correctly though) but they were quickly reconnected again.

There were quite a few places where people ended up sharing a road network, and one instance where a shared network eventually became wholly owned by one of the players. During the final scoring, there was more than one occasion than I said "Everbody but ___ gets __ points for this road".

There is also ample opportunity for aggressive play in this game. Just to try it out, I messed with Derek a few times by placing a road in such a way that he'd have to include me in the run or otherwise have a really hard time completing a segment. I noticed that all road tiles have an even number of road connections, although the intersections didn't suffer from that restriction.

We got down to the last few tiles, expecting a quake to massively disrupt our tiles just before the end -- but it was not to be. We finished the game with only one actual quake! Including rules 'splaining and setup, our first game took 90 minutes. The ladies were casual gamers and there was a lot of chatting all around, and there was the occasional downtime when people had to think about their move for a little while.

Like Tom Vasel, we also had more than one occasion where we had three of the same tile out. I'm not sure that's really a problem, since at least in our game there were always plenty of places you could dump a tile in a pinch.

I also can't imagine ever running out of control markers in a four player game, but since we probably used about half of them, it could certainly be closer in a 2p game. I don't think the rules specifically stated that you were limited to the number on hand, but they didn't explicitly say the contrary either.

I believe the final scores were 68, 68, 69, and 79, so it was a pretty close game. We all enjoyed it and I'd definitely play it again.

-Dave

Thread: [Review] Seismic

TomVasel — 2006-09-07T21:05:37+00:00

One of my favorite internet browsing stops is Board 2 Pieces, one of the very few online comics that has to do with board games. The author, Ted Alspach, is an all around excellent person to converse with about games, and I was pleased to see one of his designs picked up and published. Seismic (Atlas Games, 2006 - Ted Alspach) is certainly an interesting theme - that of the earthquakes around a fault line in San Andreas. Upon first glance over the rules, it looked similar to Carcassonne but with hexes. If this was the case, I thought, why get it?

And, indeed, the game plays like a faster, easier form of Carcasonne with only the roads. Except that there are hexes. And quakes. And no farmers. You know, the games aren't that similar after all! I will say that I enjoy Seismic as a fun little filler. It is possible for a player to sit there and overanalyze the board, spending a long time on their turn; but I feel that ruins the game's charm. It's neat how it can be played in a short period of time, and watching the growing networks (with the present danger of earthquakes causing tension) is rather fascinating. On a light level, Seismic really works well.

The hex containing San Andreas is placed in the middle of the board, with the remainder of the hexes being shuffled. There are six "quake" tiles, numbered from "1" to "6". These are mixed with six normal tiles, and then six of these twelve mixed tiles are removed from the game, with the remaining six mixed into the other fifty-four tiles. Each player takes a pile of wooden cubes in their color - their road workers. The top two tiles are turned face up next to the board, and one player (sitting closest to a solid doorframe - although I would imagine that Ted would want players to use his custom Start Player) goes first, with play proceeding clockwise.

On a turn, a player flips over another tile so that three are face up on the table. That player may then choose one of these tiles and place it on the board, connecting to any tile already there. Each tile has one to three roads on it, connecting in different combinations from the six edges of the hex. Some tiles have an intersection in the middle of the tile, with a certain amount of points on it. After placing the tile, players may place one of their road workers on one of the roads that has at least one section on the tile placed, as long as no other workers are already on that road at any point.

Tiles must be placed so that they extend one of the highways on the table; and if none of the three face-up tiles can be placed, they are discarded and three new ones drawn. When a quake tile is revealed at the beginning of a player's turn, an earthquake occurs. Starting with the San Andreas tile, each of the six lines of tiles that extend directly from it are examined. The line that has the most tiles (in case of ties, the drawing player chooses) has an amount of tiles removed from the game equal to the number of the quake, starting with the tile closest to San Andreas. Any road workers that are caught in the quake are returned to their owners. Another tile is flipped over to replace the quake tile, and the game continues.

When the last tile has been placed, or there are no incomplete highway sections left (unlikely), the game ends. All players must remove their highway workers from any "uncompleted" roads - ones that do not have both ends in San Andreas and/or an intersection (the same spot can be at both ends). The remainder of the roads are scored. Each highway is worth the sum of the numbers on both intersections, as well as one point for each highway section. If more than one player has road workers on the same road (due to clever placement of the tiles, joining existing roads together), then the player with the most markers score the points, with ties giving all the points to all involved players. The player with the most points is the winner!

Some comments on the game…

1.) Components: The hexagonal tiles, which are almost identical in size to the Settlers of Catan hexes, fit together well and are functional, if a little bland. In fact, I wondered why there wasn't any variance in how the roads looked, or some background scenery? - It would have added to the theme. And the cubes, while they worked fine, were awfully small - with the pink ones looking like cubed ham. Still, these are only minor annoyances I had, and everything really was fairly good quality, in a nice sturdy box with humorous (in a twisted way) artwork.

2.) Rules: The rules are on a single page (there is a four page rulebook with four different languages) and very clearly explain the game. They are formatted slightly poorly, with small print, and only two illustrations, but I still had no problem understanding and explaining the game. People easily picked it up; as connecting roads to each other is an intuitive action and rather easy, since roads are the only things people are dealing with.

3.) Carcassonne: One must be careful when mentally comparing games, but I have yet to show Seismic to someone who hasn't thought of Carcassonne (and has played both games). At first blush, Seismic may appear to be a simpler version of Carcassonne that only includes the roads; and while that's partially the truth, Seismic is different enough in its own right to warrant playing. It has hexagons rather than squares, there are earthquakes which destroy tiles, and incompleted roads score nothing at the end of the game. It's faster than Carcassonne, but I would hesitate to call it better - it's simply different.

4.) Earthquakes: The theme of the game is what is likely to attract people (disasters always do), and the earthquakes in this game can often be rather devastating to a player. I suppose it's possible for a game to have no earthquakes (the odds are staggeringly against it), although games can have several large earthquakes or only a few minor ones. What makes the game interesting is that while there are only six lines of tiles that are affected by earthquakes, there is the possibility to wreak great havoc regardless. In the games I've played, the winner often could contribute their victory to a swing in fortune due to an earthquake. Sometimes a long, lucrative road is broken up, and another piece that fits the spot of the devastated tiles never shows up again. Other times a road worker is destroyed, and another player gets to swoop in and snag the road for themselves. One could attempt to build tiles and place road workers in such a fashion as to avoid all possibilities of earthquakes, but that's practically impossible and rather futile if you're trying to win the game at all.

5.) Time and Fun Factor: Seismic can easily be played in thirty minutes to forty-five minutes. I have played it with folks who tend to take a long time on their turn, and I think that could have a ruining effect upon the game. It seems to be best played as a "filler", in which players quickly place one of the three face up tiles, then the next player, etc. (side note: I don't like when all three face up tiles are the same; it happened to me five times in one game) As long as everyone is playing with an attitude that the game is "light", I think Seismic will remain enjoyable.

6.) Variants: The rules list four variants, three of which are quite interesting (the fourth requires a second game of Seismic - yeah, right!). One ensures that the level "6" quake is always in the game and places it near the bottom, which avoids the anticlimactic large quake on the second turn of the game. Another allows players to place two tiles rather than a tile and a road worker. After my game with three of the same tiles to choose from, I always play with this option now. The third option, and quite possibly the most interesting, allows all players to legally rotate one hex after an earthquake. Talk about a changing board! I personally like all three of these variants and will use them in my games.

Seismic is not "Carcassonne with earthquakes", although that descriptor will give you a feel for what the game entails. It's a good light game and allows players to control a spaghetti-like network of roads. The earthquakes themselves add a level of tension to the game, as players worry that they'll hit their roads; and the game is usually fairly competitive down to the end. A nice design by Mr. Alspach!

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
www.tomvasel.com

Thread: Re: Scoring clarification.

toulouse — 2006-09-06T01:56:52+00:00

You are correct. The fragments on the San Andreas tile are NOT counted, just like the other intersection tiles. Not sure how that "red" sneaked in there...

Thread: Re: Scoring clarification.

EvilTimmy — 2006-09-05T22:48:26+00:00

That's been my understanding.

Even though the rules only explicitly state that you don't count fragments on red intersection tiles I assume it's the same with the yellow San Andreas intersection.

Thread: Scoring clarification.

etherton — 2006-09-05T22:00:08+00:00

From the rules:

Don't add points for the small fragment of highway projecting from an intersection's central red hexagon. If a highway begins and ends at the same intersection or San Andreas, count the intersection or town twice.

So if I played two "tight curve" tiles against San Andreas, it would score one point each for each tile, and then six points twice for the endpoint bonus, for a total of 14 points? (But *not* 16 points)

This seems pretty clear, just sorta overanalyzing it I guess.

-Dave

Thread: Re: Components Review and mini game review.

EvilTimmy — 2006-08-27T22:24:43+00:00

Cool game but those tiny cubes are difficult to manipulate with adult fingers and have quickly becoming annoying
I've replaced mine with old wooden Risk cubes.

Ted: Please make the cubes bigger in the 2nd edition! (hoping you get there)

Thread: Re: Seismic - Shaking Up the Tile-Laying Genre

scooterb23 — 2006-08-15T16:26:58+00:00

I picked this one up the day before I made it into Gencon, and my gaming buddies really liked it. They are big time Carcassonne fans, and they said this played like Carcassonne with earthquakes. I'm happy because I was feeling a little burned out on Carcassonne myself, so this will still scratch their itch, while being different enough to keep me happy.

Thread: Re: Seismic - Shaking Up the Tile-Laying Genre

Sexy Amy — 2006-08-15T15:48:44+00:00

The price tag on this one had scared me away ... but Seismic seems to be getting solid press ... it is now on my "to buy" list.

Thread: Seismic - Shaking Up the Tile-Laying Genre

MUKid — 2006-08-15T05:19:14+00:00

Have you ever been playing Caracssonne, and someone puts out that one tile that just totally screws you over? You know, you're building the big ole city, the one with the extra-special super bonus tile in the middle of it, and there's just one more tile to go before you close it off and score so many points that you'll lap around the scoring track four or five times? And then some hater comes along and plays a tile that makes it impossible to finish that city? Do you ever wish that you could just take a little Meeple, arm him with a laser cannon, and go blast that tile into smithereens?

Then you're going to love Seismic!

COMPONENTS

Seismic is a tile laying game, so of course it has tiles. And these are good tiles, too - nice, thick tiles with a hefty weight to them. The tiles are glossy and slick, and look nice all layed out on the table. They're hexagonal, and most of them have roads printed on them. Each road segment enters one hexside and leaves a different hexside, so there are up to three road segments on a tile, and anywhere from two to six used hexsides. The roads don't connect on a given tile, but they do crisscross. A few of the tiles have one or more road segments that terminate in the middle of the hex - these are called interesections, and each has a value from +1 to +6. And six of the tiles have earthquakes on them. There are six earthquakes, each uniquely numbered from one to six.

There's also a bag of cubes which isn't nearly so much fun to painstakingly describe. They're, well, cubes. They're made of wood. They're painted different colors. You've seen them before. Move along.

The rules are printed in tiny print that reminds me of a Steve Jackson game. Honestly, the rules are the one component that could have used a little work. They're clear enough, but they're a little intimidating, which is too bad since this is such a simple little game. I can imagine a casual gamer picking up this game, glancing at the rules sheet, and immediately giving up because it looks too hard. But hey, that's a pretty minor complaint for hard-core gamers like you, Dear Reader. (If you're not a hard-core gamer, and you're online reading a review of Seismic on a website called Board Game Geek, perhaps you should reassess your own personal view of yourself, because dude, you're a hard-core gamer.)

GAMEPLAY

First, you have to set up the deck of tiles. You take all the earthquakes, all six of them, and mix them with other tiles. You shuffle them up, and then discard six of them without looking. You might, therefore, discard all six earthquakes, but probably not. Then you take the tiles that are left and mix them with all the rest of the tiles. Turn the top two over, and the first player takes the first turn. (In one of the more creative ways to start a game that I've seen, the designers suggest the person sitting closest to a sturdy doorframe begin - clever!)

On a turn, the player starts by turning over one tile, which will give them a choice of three to play. They choose one and play it so that it touches an existing tile and legally connects all the roads that it touches - in other words, no creating dead-end roads.

If one of the roads you've created does has not yet been claimed, you may claim it by putting a cube on that road on the tile you just placed. This allows you to take ownership of the road and get points for it later. If your tile makes it so that two people now own a single road, the person with the most cubes on that road gets the points for it. If the owners have the same number of cubes, they all get all the points for it.

The trick is that the road is worth nothing unless it has two ends to it. End hexes - the intersections I mentioned before - have a number from one to six on them, and one or more road fragments that terminate in the center of the tile. If both ends of a road have a terminus, then you count one point for each non-end tile that the road crosses, plus the total number of points from both ends of the road. So you can make a road as long as you want, but until you end it, it's worthless.

The fun comes in when somebody flips over an earthquake tile. When this happens, some roads are gonna go the way of the Bay Bridge! You start off by finding out which of the six rays that extend straight out from the center tile is the longest. Once you figure that out (which hopefully won't take you too long - we're talking counting to six or so, and we've already established that you are a Hard Core Gamer) you remove a number of tiles from that row, starting with the one closest to the center. If there's a tie, the person flipping the earthquake gets to decide which row to affect among those tied. The number of the earthquake is the number of tiles you have to remove. If there's a cube on one of those tiles, tough! It gets blasted along with the tile. I find it is fun to make little screaming sounds as you dump the cube off the tile back into the owner's pile. After the earthquake is resolved, the player's turn continues and they still get to play a tile.

After an earthquake, roads that were formerly complete, valuable, and claimed, are none of the above. Holes litter the playing field, and new tiles can be played in the now-vacant spaces.

Eventually you'll run out of tiles to play, and then the game is over. Scoring is simple. First you take off any cube that's on a road that doesn't have two end points. Then you count points for all the roads that are left. High score wins!

(I'll briefly note that the designers provides a few variant rules that I think will keep the game fresh after it wears out a bit, including a cool-sounding variant that actually requires two boards. I haven't tried these variants, but they sound neat.)

IMPRESSIONS

This is one of those great games that has a neat, easy to understand concept, but plenty of good strategy. At its simplest, it's a luckfest, with you just putting down tiles that make your roads longer, hoping to get a terminus that will give you some points, and hoping that the earthquakes don't hurt you too much. But playing like that is no fun at all.

Because the earthquake only affects the longest row of tiles, it makes a lot of sense to concentrate your own cubes on one side of the board, and try and extend your opponent's side of the board so that it's longer than yours, thus making it more vulnerable to quakes. Naturally your opponent(s) are trying to do this to you, too. But it's harder than it sounds. As the rows get longer, there's more space in between the cardinal rays to play tiles, and those in-between hexes are always safe. If you play carefully, you can keep your cubes on the safe hexes, and when the main rows are destroyed, you can quickly snag those spaces with tiles that give your cubes the most points. This means that lengthening the row where your opponent is concentrated might hurt them a little bit, but if they play cleverly, they can really turn it to their advantage.

Additionally, there are always lots of choices when your turn comes as to which tile you will place. The tile you need is sitting there, waiting for you to grab it next, when your turn comes around. But you draw a juicy four-point intersection. Do you drop in the tile that fits your road network just right, hoping to score more for your roads later, but leave the intersection for the next player to grab? Or do you take the sure thing and end one of your shorter roads (if you have one)? If the only place to play that perfect tile is in a long row straight out from the center, is it better to leave it for someone else to take and possibly claim roads on, hoping that tile gets destroyed in an earthquake soon?

CONCLUSION

Seismic is a very solid tile-laying game with a lot that's familiar, but enough new to make it feel fresh. Fans of Carcassonne and the like will love it, especially if Carc is a bit played out. Those who enjoy spatial-relation games (like Blokus or Ta Yu) will really appreciate this game as well - my engineer wife thinks it's just great. Thirty bucks is perhaps a tad high for what is basically six sheets of tiles, but the production value is so high that I didn't really feel cheated at all. Strongly recommended.

Thread: Re: Your Move Was Truly Stupid (But Sorry for Getting Mad)

mabell_yah — 2006-08-14T20:37:25+00:00

Despite enourmous help from the "wildcard player", I managed to come in third out of four players. My only motivation in hurrying the game was to end it as quickly and civilly as possible. Having decided that the wildcard's moves had pretty much invalidated the outcome, I just wanted to see how it played out.

Martin

Thread: Re: Limit supply of cubes?

maelic001 — 2006-08-14T16:41:19+00:00

Always nice to get a quick response from the game's designer. Got the game yesterday and played two 4-player games. Cube supply was never really an issue, although the orange player did get close in the second game (lucky thing my copy got packaged with 21 orange cubes). It was only after two of the players had to leave and we tried a 2 player game that the issue came up. I actually did run out of cubes that game, so just ended up using another color. I think it was a combination of me getting all the quakes, and the other player playing sub-optimally (building along the fault lines) that created the problem though. I could see how in a more even game the issue probably wouldn't come up very often. Thanks again for the quick response.

Thread: Re: Your Move Was Truly Stupid (But Sorry for Getting Mad)

ed95005 — 2006-08-14T14:43:41+00:00

I'd say Seismic is different enough from Carcassonne that I certainly wouldn't rule out getting Seismic because I already have Carcassonne. The earthquakes are a whole new concept and a pretty cool one at that.

Thread: Re: Limit supply of cubes?

toulouse — 2006-08-14T13:56:15+00:00

The cubes are considered to be an "infinite supply" in the standard game so if you would happen to run out in a 2 player game, you could then use cubes of a color that aren't being used by any player. Mathematically, it is possible to run out of cubes during a two player game, but it isn't likely (it never happened during the bazillions of playtests of the game).

I asked Atlas Games to include an infinite supply of cubes with the game, but they kept saying something about cost-prohibitive, and weight issues with the box (apparently UPS doesn't have a set fee for infinite weight).

Thread: Limit supply of cubes?

maelic001 — 2006-08-14T06:30:45+00:00

Are the cubes a limited supply in this game (i.e. you only get 20 road workers the entire game)? This seems too small a number (especially in a 2 player game) since until the end of the game, the only way you get your cubes back is if they're taken out by a quake.

Thread: TVB - 4P - Slipping and shaking along the highway.

RPardoe — 2006-08-14T05:48:09+00:00

With a bit of time left, Rich brought out Seismic - a game based on building roads in an earthquake prone area. The basic game is one of laying routes and claiming them for end game scoring. The twist is that some of the tiles are "earthquakes" that will remove tiles connected to the central start tile. The tiles themselves have a variety of road patterns on them - some a single road, others with 2 or even 3 roads connecting various edges of the hexagonal tile. In addition, some tiles have additional cities with a number of connections (1 to 6). A road will only be scored if it starts and ends at a city. Incomplete roads are worth nothing at game's end.

To add some variety to the game - the 6 earthquakes are mixed with 6 simple tiles (2 straights, 2 gentle (120°) curves, 2 tight (60°) curves) and 6 tiles are removed from the game. Therefore, the number and magnitude of earthquakes will vary in each game. The remaining 6 tiles are then mixed with the rest of the tiles to form a draw pile (but we just used a cloth bag as it was easier). The start tile (San Andreas - a city w/ 6 road connections) is placed on the table. Three tiles are turned face up and play begins. A player chooses one of the three face up tiles to connect to the road network. If desired, they can place a road crew on one of road sections on the just played tile to claim that road as their own. That ends their turn and the next player begins by turning another tile face up to once again have a choice of three possible road tiles.

Should an earthquake be drawn, tiles will be removed from the network. The earthquake strikes along the longest of the 6 rows of tiles emanating from the start (San Andreas) tile. The magnitude of the earthquake (1~6) dictates how many tiles are removed.

As we started the game, we drew the M5.0 earthquake as one of the initial start tiles. Per the rules, this was discarded and replaced, so we survived at least one earthquake as it wouldn't occur. Kern went for an early, quick build strategy connecting drawn cities almost immediately to San Andreas to gain San Andreas's 6 points. But these roadways were also on one of the possible fault lines so were at risk should an earthquake be drawn. But such would not happen. Kern managed to help direct some of the building in another direction making that the longest row for when an Earthquake struck. In fact, as the network developed, a lot of the building was in one of the "hexants" between the spokes coming from San Andreas as those tiles would be safe and unaffected by any earthquake.

Our road network was fairly developed when the first earthquake struck (M6.0 - the big one). Kern's quick scores were protected as the earthquake radiated away from those points taking out 6 tiles impacting a open roads along the way - meaning that most of the roads were yet to be closed and worth points.

Dave W was working on a longish connection and had in hand the tile to close the road, but it would have meant sharing the road points with Kern, so he opted not to do so. A wise choice as a 4-city emerged with let Dave W score his points on his section while given Kern a few points for his connection on the other side.

As the hextant was being built out - Dave managed to draw the other 6 city (worth 6 points if connected) and managed to make a few roadways to that city. Rich tried to tie in also, but Dave helped Rich out by attaching a straight road to Rich's road sending him away from the city and needing to work a bit more to try to connect back. (Rich did call this a Metro move as it was reminiscent of the type of connections that can be made in that game also.)

As the game neared its conclusion - the smallest earthquake struck (M1.0) which removed a 6 connection tile next to San Andreas. But as Dave W draws the last tile from the bag - it is the 3-straight 6 connection tile and it fits right back in the damaged spot with the added bonus of joining Dave W's road not to 4 City, but to San Andreas itself.

With all the tiles played, we removed markers on incomplete roads and set about scoring the remaining roads:

[c]Rich: 8+ 6+ 7+13+12 = 46
Kern: 7+ 8+ 9+ 9 = 33
Dave W: 10+10+ 6+16+ 9 = 51
Dave: 9+11+ 9+10+14+13 = 66[/c]

So Dave pulls out the win with an impressive (or so it seemed to us) 6 completed roads.

For a first play, we did enjoy the tension of when (if) earthquakes might strike. The careful reader will have noticed that only 2 earthquakes struck our game. Three were removed during the tile removal phase and another during the initial face-up tile set up phase. So in the end, we worried a bit about a minor threat. Of course, none of us had studied any sort of tile distributions. We were aware how many cities remained, but studying the developer's website afterwards (http://games.bezier.com/seismic.html) I also see that each city tile is a unique layout. Therefore, we should keep track not only of what cities are missing but also their likely layout as we can then avoid hoping for a city that is already on the board. The same can probably be extended to a bit more knowledge of the tile distribution also.

I did like this game and look forward to trying it out again. I remember well that my enjoyment of Carcassonne increased once I had learned the tile distributions so could make a better choice about tile plays knowing the types of tiles that were remaining. Making those intelligent choices will be key to network games like Seismic.

Speaking of Carcassonne, there are obious similarities to the roads in Carcassonne, but I like what Seismis offers. The Hexagonal tiles offer more options for connection as does the draw 1 from 3 tile choice mechanism. The earthquakes (and their variety) add a nice tension to the placement decisions, but still one that can be strategized around. A game that I hope I will be able to play again soon.

Thread: Re: Your Move Was Truly Stupid (But Sorry for Getting Mad)

sevorges — 2006-08-09T00:34:07+00:00

There are heaps of games that fall into the category of being unbalanced by an inept player and I guess this is a reason for seating positions to be randomised - that may be the factor that determines the winner. Puerto Rico stands out and I have been the victim of Power Grid meltdown where a player made a sub optimal move that completely lost him the game and pushed me into the also-rans. Clans is the one that has caught me the most with this which actually puts me off putting it on the table.

As the original poster said though, just get over it, they are just games after all and at least you have an excuse for losing other than wearing the stupid hat. If you have wildcard players (those who do not always play optimally) you just have to lighten up and focus on coercion as your strategy. After all it's the interaction that makes boardgaming special and rise above computer gaming.

Seismic sounds interesting. Does it differ enough from Carcassonne to consider owning both?

Thread: Lunchtime Session w/Newbie

ptsuk — 2006-08-08T20:48:31+00:00

Today played at lunch with a mix gender group and an absolute newbie to the game. General feel for the game was that everyone enjoyed the game. In the end what won the day was playing the other 6+ intersection in a "safe zone" and then capitalizing on the tile with tight turns and loops. The score was:

Jim:85
Ha:51
Me:47

There was much building early on with no quakes, then a 1.0 hit and there was much contention over that spot that was vacated. Then the magnitude increased to a 3.0. Then there was a lul and building commenced once again. Then to our supprise a 4.0 hit! Much gnashing of teeth was had by me since it was the fault line which hurt me the most that was chosen amongst the two to choose from. However the very next tile that was fliped was the 5.0!! WOO HOO! This took down the other route which hurt the player who was fliping the tiles. The remainder of the game was with out another quake and we raced to build and cap our roads but the only thing that was left were road tiles and a 1 or 2 city cap.

It was very exciting once we were built up and it was rather funny to see the quakes go up in magnitude rather than get a 5.0 early on which may not change things that much if your only built out 1 or 2 tiles deep.

It was a fun and enjoying lunchtime and the newbie player easily picked up on the gameplay and stragey quite quickly.

Again Great Game!

Thread: Components Review and mini game review.

ptsuk — 2006-08-07T21:59:28+00:00

This is a quick review of the components for the game Seismic with a little game review at the end.

The game comes in a nice sturdy box to hold all your goodies in. I removed the white "inner organizer" so I could keep my tiles in the bottom without having to keep them in the cardstock punch outs which I'm sure only the anal retentive will do .

The tiles them selves are 62mm wide, and there are lots of em too! They are also made of very heavy card stock, just shy of 2mm thick and well made for heavy play. No flimsy or warp'age with these tiles.

The tiles are clearly marked with the appropriate highway, road, and quake markings. There is no confusion here with what is what.

The "road crew" are 5mm square wooden cubes, and are nicely colored, bright yellow, orange, pink and green. As you can see there Won't be any mix ups where people will be wondering "who's colors is who" which can occur in other games where purple and blue are confused. The only aspect you have to watch out for is if your green! The color is close to that of the green on the tiles so its imperative that you place your "road crew" directly on the patch of highway that your claiming, which you have to do anyways so you don't miss that cube.

The rulebook is multi-lingual with the English instructions right on the front page. They are clear, concise, and even include a couple of variants to play!

The game, as I have stated before, is a simple game to learn but offers some deep strategy. There is fun for players of all gaming levels. It also plays quickly so one can mix up the tiles and start all over in a matter of minutes!

I for one highly recommend Seismic and will be bringing it to the weekly gaming sessions/and lunch time sessions for sometime.

The best part of playing seismic is the anticipation of when/if a quake will hit. Even more so if it's "THE BIG ONE!".

Great Game.

Thread: Re: Your Move Was Truly Stupid, But Sorry for Getting Mad

Red Dragon — 2006-08-07T03:28:59+00:00

ed95005 wrote:
Sorry, Nameless, for telling you how stupid your move was. I shouldn't have gotten so upset over a game. Next time we play together, just be sure to sit on my right, will you?
When I saw the title of your session report, Power Grid was the only game that came to mind. Perhaps now you have a better idea of what it is about Power Grid that I hate so much. The player effectively 'on your right' can change each turn, and a completely brain-dead play by that player, rather than always benefitting you, can often completely destroy your plans as well as the brain-dead player's lack-of-plans, because your plans depended on him doing something at least slightly intelligent. I, too, should not have gotten so upset the last time I played Power Grid (and I do mean the last time), and have apologized to those players I have located.

And now back to the discussion about Seismic...

Thread: Your Move Was Truly Stupid (But Sorry for Getting Mad)

ed95005 — 2006-08-06T16:59:07+00:00

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you should make a point to check out Bay Area Games Day. It's an open gaming session held every month or so at the Los Altos Library that starts at 10 a.m. and goes until around midnight. It's a great way to learn new games, to get the games that your regular group won't play with you out on the table (hello, Java!), and to meet other gamers.

Of course, in an open event like this, the gamers are of widely ranging skill level. I'm certainly far from being a master strategist, but some people are truly awful at board games. Bless their hearts for supporting the hobby and trying, but they seem to miss the point of games altogether and set goals that have nothing to do with winning, like: "Here's the only tile in the deck that will fit into this hole on the map. Let's put it there even though it scores me nothing and scores one of my opponents a ton of points. Why? Because it fits." Arrghh!

That's brings me to Seismic. In retrospect, it's a good game even though I wasn't too happy with how things progressed last night. For those of you who haven't played yet, it's very similar to Carcassonne, with a dose of Metro thrown in (of course if you haven't played either Carcassonne or Metro, this will mean absolutely nothing). Players build and claim roads to score points. The twist is that certain tiles in the deck will trigger earthquakes that will destroy tiles along one of the six fault lines originating from the city center. The number of quake tiles in the deck is determined randomly at the start of the game, so you never know exactly how many quakes to expect. The quake always strikes the fault line with the most tiles, so it's possible to infuence where the next quake will strike through a careful placement of one's tiles.

Last night, I had the privilege of having the game explained to me by the designer himself, Ted Alspach. After his brief explanation, he left the four of us to our own devices. As the game progressed, I started getting nervous about the fact that the main fault line just so happened to run through my main cluster of completed roads. I started adding tiles to another fault line to steer the impending quake away from me, but too late.

Two of us got rather irritated when the Bonehead Move happened, but Martin, the beneficiary, hurried us along before we could finish verbally beating the crap out of the offending player. In the end, though, the Move wasn't enough to give Martin the game. I don't remember the exact score, but I believe Martin finished with 60-something, I finished in the 50's, the Player Who Shall Remain Nameless finished with 24 (I do remember his score). However, it was Shaya who took the game with 70-something points.

Having a weak player in a group of competitive people can diminish the experience, but Seismic is a nice game. Sorry, Nameless, for telling you how stupid your move was. I shouldn't have gotten so upset over a game. Next time we play together, just be sure to sit on my right, will you?

Thread: Re: Seismic is shipping! 7/27/2006

JeffyJeff — 2006-08-03T17:22:12+00:00

And it's now in stock at retailers:

$19.47 at http://thoughthammer.com/product_info.php?products_id=1621

which is interesting because funagain does not have it in stock yet:

$23.95 http://www.funagain.com/control/product/~product_id=015829

Thread: Seismic is shipping! 7/27/2006

toulouse — 2006-07-27T12:59:49+00:00

Atlas Games is shipping Seismic out to distributors and retailers today! I've posted some additional Seismic-related information (variants, tips, other stuff) on my website at http://games.bezier.com/seismic.html. The official Atlas Games Seismic page is http://www.atlas-games.com/seismic.

Thread: Re: Glad to see this getting published!

kvn299 — 2006-03-15T13:34:47+00:00

Yeah, I had fun playing this game at BGG.Con. Congrats, Ted!

Thread: Glad to see this getting published!

ptsuk — 2006-03-14T19:06:11+00:00

I helped play test this little gem and thoroughly enjoyed it. Simple rules, yet there is depth and strategy as well for more experienced players. You'll never know when the "big one will hit, but it's gonna be big!" I'll be picking up a copy as soon as it comes out in July! I'll post a review as soon as I get the product in my hot little hands!

Now I'll just have to get the author to sign my copy

-david c.