Game: Antler Island

Thread: Re: Fragor delivers laughs and fun but no tactics

shawn_low — 2008-11-06T22:32:49+00:00

I do agree with K Crocker. Lots of laughs but too much luck that it potentially frustrates. To reiterate:

1) Random placement of food and does each round. A player could luck out and end up with 2 x Food and 1 X Doe next to their stag each round. The range of token 1-3 tends to hose players who unluckily draw 1s instead of 3s.

2) Fighting. It's all too easy to retreat from a fight without losing anything (except pride and allowing opponents to gain a Wily token) . Once most players have gotten a fight token, there's no real need to fight until the end game. That's when players might try to battle for the hill position.

All these are compounded by the limited number of actions and the position in which you choose to execute them.

My 2 cents.

Still, lovely looking game and fun for what it is.

Thread: Re: Solo and two player rules for Antler Island

Wulf Corbett — 2008-10-26T21:27:22+00:00

We just used these for the first time yesterday - good work! We did give the NPS wily tiles (they used them the first time they were applicable), and only used as many food tokens as the flowchart determines were needed to make a win possible.

Maybe we were too kind to the NPS-es... one of them won!

Thread: Re: Is it worth 85$?

Al Johnson — 2008-07-19T17:30:10+00:00

I belong to a gaming group and some of the guys enjoy some light games. Although I did not try this they did. It is one of the few games they absolutely hated. In fact, I cannot remember them being so down on a game before. Unfortunately I did not play so I can't give my opinion. For that much money, I would wait until I tried it.

That's my 2 cents.

Thread: Re: Is it worth 85$?

Wulf Corbett — 2008-07-19T17:05:19+00:00

nickguay wrote:
Hello everybody, I've read through all the reviews and one thing I'm still wondering is, is it worth paying 85$ for this game right now?
Assuming that's around £43 in real money... hmm... well, probably not. Nearly though. £30-odd certainly. £40 would be pricey. £43 a bit too much.

Thread: Is it worth 85$?

nickguay — 2008-07-19T14:18:42+00:00

Hello everybody, I've read through all the reviews and one thing I'm still wondering is, is it worth paying 85$ for this game right now?

I do enjoy fun light games so I'm tempted to say yes but I'm just curious to hear from people that have owned the game for a while now, do you still play it?

Your thoughts and comments are geatly appreciated.

By the way, I do not own a Lamont brother's game yet and I'm considering this as my first acquisition. I'll probably pick up Shear Panic one of these days but I'm not a big fan of abstract strategy, even when it's well hidden.

Thank you,
Nick

Thread: Re: Make love and at least one war

daveroswell — 2008-07-14T23:25:46+00:00

I dunno. I played the game once; it just seems as though the novelty of making sounds of a rutting moose and laughing with your friends goes just so far. I don't see the joke being worth the money to pay for the game.

Thread: Re: Make love and at least one war

Morganza — 2008-07-14T17:47:12+00:00

I've only gotten to play this once, but I remember being pleasantly surprised that there was a real game under the cuteness.

Thread: Make love and at least one war

adreeve — 2008-07-14T06:28:32+00:00

Overview

Antler Island is a game with a unique theme. In Antler Island your goal is to mate your stagg with as many does as possible and hopefully end the game at the top of the hill. During this adventure in nature you'll also be competing with other neighborhood staggs which will translate to conflict to be THE alpha male.

Pieces

The Lamont Brothers have done it again. When I first saw Shear Panic I pretty much purchased the game simply because it was soooo adorable nevermind the excellent gameplay. Antler Island is no different with 4 cute little staggs that in no way look like they'd even think abut hurting one another. The board is also interesting as it consists of three levels. Personally I wish the island's mounts were a bit taller as it seemed pointless to make each level and extra eighth of an inch off the table when for minimal additional production effort they could have been half-inch levels (which would have made the game's presentation far more dramatic). The cards that antlers are built on are also kind of cool especially if you're the kind of player that enjoys stacking your pieces in interesting patterns (you know who you are!).

The Game

In Antler Island setup places the player's staggs, food, and does (females) in an evenly distributed pattern on the island. Each player starts with a food token worth 1 or 2 food (they range from 1-3) and 2 antlers.

You then have 5 action chits... 1, 2, 3, X, and -. You'll place your action chits next to the appropriate actions on your board and you'll have to do your four actions in order. Yes, four... the - is a bluff and isn't really an action. The X is a variable action that can be done at anytime, but obviously once used you're committed to performing your remaining actions in order. There are 4 different actions you can perform: 1) move - move to an adjacent space (although there are marsh spaces that does can move to, but staggs can not), 2) eat - eat any food tokens in the space you're in (you can keep up to 5), 3) mate - mate with a doe (or, if toning it down for kids it can be kiss or catch a doe), or 4) grow antlers (turn in food and divide by two and you'll get that many antlers with a minimum gain of 1 antler for 1 food).

Then, in turn order, you'll resolve your actions in the order you've committed. This may or may not go well depending on whether other staggs compete for the resources you want (meaning they enter your space) in which case a conflict occurs. Conflict is resolved by each involved player committing up to 3 food chits and adding them to your antler growth with the larger total winning. Now, this is important when resolving conflict, as we played it too loosely in our first game and realized it's something that needs to be adhered to stricty: 1) first the attacker commits food tokens, 2) then the defender chooses to stay or retreat, 3) if the defender stays the attacker can choose to retreat, and 4) finally, if both lock antlers then food chips are revealed and a winner is declared. Conflict is important as you must win at least one conflict in order to win the game (and that can be as simple as another player retreating... you don't need to lock antlers to win a conflict). Either way the 'winner' gets a special privilege in the form of a wily token, but if the winner emerged from locking antlers then the loser also loses an antler.

Wily tokens can also be acquired by growing antlers in multiples of 2 (i.e. your 4th, 6th, 8th... ). Using a wily token doesn't count as an action and can do one of six things: 1) add one to your move, 2) give you an extra food when eating, 3) allow you to mate with an extra doe, 4) allow you to keep a food token after a fight, 5) allow you to not loose an antler after loosing a fight, and 6) attract one doe from each adjacent space.

At the end of each round (all players have completed their four actions) does move up a level towards the top of the island and the base is reseeded with food and does based on a die roll. This is random, however often there's leftover food from the prior round and you can access several base level island spaces from the middle level of the island within a single move if getting somewhere quick is important.

The game ends when a player has mated with 10 (4 player game) or 12 (3 player game) does at which time the turn is finished. You can mate with more than that number of does for additional points, though. Finally, if you're at the top of the hill at the end of the game you get an extra 3 points... if you're on the middle level you get 1 point.

The game scales for 3 players by removing a quarter of the lowest level of the island and adjusting the victory conditions.

There is also an advanced version that gives each player a number of cubes equal to the number of opponents. You are then allowed to take a cube (any color) from an opponent when you win a fight against them. At the end of the game 1 extra point is awarded for having all of your cubes at the end of the game and 1 point/cube for having a complete set of opposition cubes at the game's end.

Fun Factor

I've read several reviews here that criticize the game for being too light and pass it off as a simpler family game. This game is deeper than it may appear. It's got a light theme that detracts from the choices you'll be making. Allowing players the ability to turn in 1 food for 1 antler to play the system on antler growth is one example or a pretty clever mechanic that offers a nice balacing factor to the more obvious get lots of food to build antlers. The forcing of one fight makes for another interesting series of choices... do I keep food in anticipation of a fight? There's certainly a lot of outthinking your opponents here. In fact, even fighting can be interesting as I've initiated conflict simply to move 2 spaces at the cost of giving my opponent the right to win the game (a win in a fight) and a wily token. Fair trade? It depends on the situation. This game has thoughtful decisions in it.

Winning the game has been an interesting exercise, too... one that I have yet to achieve. We've exclusively played the advanced version and I haven't really been impressed with that addition. I doubt it's worth the effort of winning a set of opposing cubes simply because of the effort and penalty (of time wasted) should you fail. The 3 points for being at the top of the island (which may also involve fighting) seems pretty critical to me and comes down to some good advanced planning with regard to timing. I do agree with other reviews that state that this game is good for the 45 minutes that it plays in and would not have made a good 2 hour game with it's lack of variety with respect to the types of decisions being made.

So how do I rate it on the fun factor scale? There's really nothing in my collection that compares to it. It plays quickly and the rules are solid, and after playing it's been asked for again. I'd give it a solid thumbs up for being fun.

Price

My biggest issue with the game is it's price. I purchased mine at Origins with my 50% off that Mayfair provides for giving a varienty of their games a go (I won't go into details on how that works as that's beyond this review) making it $30. I'm very happy with my purchase at that price. I see it at FunAgain.com for $87.50. There's no way I can justify that for this game. As for what you can justify I'll leave that to you, but I do hope the prices I see are based on importing and that it'll be a bit less expensive and more financially accessible once really distributed in the states.

Summary

I hope gamers don't overlook this because it has cutesy pieces or a light, and unusual theme. It's quite easy to get into the mode of "I know exactly what I want to do and have to hope someone doesn't mess with me" type of play like a Roborally kind of game, but the X move chit really offers flexibility. I'm finding it quite rewarding to make the X my move so that if others mess with me I can try and get somewhere useful. I don't want to overexaggerate the game's compexity either... this isn't a heavy game by any means... it's just heavier than I think most people recognize.

Thread: Re: [Review] Antler Island

Wulf Corbett — 2008-05-06T21:58:06+00:00

Asur wrote:
"I’ve explained the game to adults and children"

How could you?
Bill Oddie's been getting away with it for years... and with Kate Humble too, lucky sod...

Thread: Re: [Review] Antler Island

Asur — 2008-05-06T21:15:50+00:00

"I’ve explained the game to adults and children"

How could you?

Image

pyr-shep — 2008-04-06T15:15:08+00:00

Two stags looking for their doeples

Thread: Re: Solo and two player rules for Antler Island

duchamp — 2008-03-31T18:22:26+00:00

Probably needed some time to get through the submission. I looked the files section up before my post, and there was nothing new. Now they are there - nice job. I will see, when to give that a try.

Thread: Re: Solo and two player rules for Antler Island

JohnnyDollar — 2008-03-31T16:56:57+00:00

duchamp wrote:
Sounds interesting. Where are the pictures? I can`t find them in the AI gallery, nor in your personal one, nor under "images --> recent" ?

Looks like they are in the "Files" section of the AI entry.

Thread: Re: Solo and two player rules for Antler Island

GranNevada — 2008-03-29T11:24:40+00:00

Me neither ...

Thread: Re: Solo and two player rules for Antler Island

duchamp — 2008-03-28T14:13:12+00:00

Sounds interesting. Where are the pictures? I can`t find them in the AI gallery, nor in your personal one, nor under "images --> recent" ?

Thread: Solo and two player rules for Antler Island

Forensicman — 2008-03-28T13:15:33+00:00

ANTLER ISLAND
RULES FOR 2 – PLAYER AND SOLITAIRE GAMES

Two Player Games
When playing with two players, the other two stags are managed according to a set of rules that govern their behaviour in a slightly random manner.

Solitaire Games
It is possible to play Antler Island, with the player controlling one stag and the other stags being controlled using these rules.

Setup
Setup according to the normal rules. The player stag is placed first, with the Non-Player-Stags (NPS) being placed afterwards.

Play order
The player stag is the first to play. Thereafter, first player cycles through the player stags and NPS, as in the normal rules.

Round Sequence
NPS do not need to use the action markers. Instead, their actions are determined by their circumstances at each round, with some random activity possible (you’ll need a die available for this). The action markers should still be used by the player(s).

I have included a couple of flow charts to show how NPS should be controlled. If there is ever a choice of a couple of spaces that the NPS can move to (for example, if an NPS has to move towards the nearest doe, but there are two adjacent does), decide which area is moved into by rolling assigning the spaces numbers and then rolling a die.

The first flow chart is the most commonly used one – it helps determine which action an NPS undertakes. The second flow chart is used to decide whether an NPS moves into an area containing another stag. It is also used to determine if a challenged stag retreats.

Food Markers
NPS food markers are only every turned over if an NPS fights another stag; if this happens, all of the NPS’ food markers are turned over and used.

Wily Counters
NPS do not win Wily counters. Rather, whenever a NPS would have gained a Wily counter, it gains 1 point on the doe track instead.

Growing Antlers
Only 1 antler should be allowed to be grown during any antler growth action. Antler growth costs 2 food points (note that if the stag only has 3-point food counters available, one of these must be used). NPS antlers can be grown by expending 1 food counter – there is no need to check the value of this counter.

(I have posted the two flow charts under "images".)

Thread: Re: Antler Island - Review

monkeyrobot — 2008-03-03T23:33:28+00:00

First of all, thanks for the nice review. Greg, I have followed your reviews ever since I started visiting this site. You always go to the point, and give me a pretty good idea of how games are played and if I may be interested in them or not. Congratulations!

I also attended Essen 2007 and was surprised to watch high piles of this game literally being sold out in real time. It took some self control from myself not to spend "just a litle more" cash and go for it, certainly not an uncommon behaviour over there.

gschloesser wrote:

Make no mistake, Antler island is more suited for casual gamers and families. It is NOT a deep game. The mechanics are quite basic, and the decisions to be made are not very taxing.

This totally just made me happy! I managed to restrain myself from buying it at Essen and four months later it pays off. I already own too many games!

gschloesser wrote:
Fortunately, the game plays to completion quickly.

And for that reason if any friend from my gaming group buys it, I will still try it.

Thread: Re: Winning stag token - obtained even if other stag retreats

Yollege — 2008-03-01T02:02:26+00:00

Crap. Played this wrong and it did screw the game. Of course, I was the ONLY one in our game with no token .

But I spent alot of time desperately attacking when I didn't need to...

Thread: Re: Antler Island - Review

RacingHippo — 2008-02-19T19:42:16+00:00

gschloesser wrote:
The theme of Antler Island, while perfectly natural, may also be a bit too mature for younger audiences.

The first time I played this was at the Lamont Bros stall at Essen 07. My opponents were a German family - mother, father (who watched) and two daughters aged about 7 and 10.
Whether or not they knew the exact meaning of "rutting" was entirely irrelevant; they played well (let's just say I didn't win and leave it at that, eh?) and didn't once ask why the stags had to catch the does.
But then, would they ask why big boys "go out with" big girls? It's just something they do.
No need to wonder what they actually do or why they do it

gschloesser wrote:
Make no mistake, Antler island is more suited for casual gamers and families. It is NOT a deep game.
Whilst it's certainly not a deep game, it still holds interest for our hardcore gaming group as a time-filler. And there's a marked difference between games I play with my family and those with gamers - merely by the position of your stag, there is inevitably a game of bluff and counter-bluff over that top space on the island.

gschloesser wrote:
Fortunately, the game plays to completion quickly.
Yes, I believe that is the Lamont's forté. Like Shear Panic before it, it's just right for the family, and just right as a fairly lightweight under-an-hour gaming snack!

Thread: Antler Island - Review

gschloesser — 2008-02-18T12:47:53+00:00

Design by: Gordon and Fraser Lamont
Published by: Fragor Games
2 – 4 Players, 45 minutes – 1 hour
Review by: Greg J. Schloesser

The always jovial and friendly Lamont Brothers have developed a reputation of using clever and adorable components in their games. Their first release, Leapfrog, featured colorful rubber frogs, while their last two releases have included wonderful three-dimensional sheep and rats. Their latest release is Antler Island, wherein player’s pieces are whimsical stags. The presence of these special components never fails to generate considerable excitement amongst gamers, and no doubt helps boost sales.

The theme of Antler Island, while perfectly natural, may also be a bit too mature for younger audiences. Players represent stags whose main purpose is to mate with does, called “doeples” in game parlance. Victory tends to go to the player who is most successful in this task. Along the way, stags must gather food for sustenance and antler growth, both of which help in the inevitable conflicts with opposing stags. The theme is certain to cause some sophomoric chuckles and jokes from most males, but can be changed to “kissing” as opposed to mating in order to make it kid-friendly.

The game is played on a three level board, with each level divided into various territories. Each turn, all does move up one level, and a die is rolled to determine the territories that will receive new food tokens and does. Players then secretly plot their actions for the turn on their player mat, allocating three tokens valued 1 – 3, one “x” token, and one bluff token amongst four possible actions: move, eat, rut, and grow antlers. Players can perform the same action multiple times, but must execute them in numerical order. The only exception is the “x”, which can be executed at any time, thereby interrupting this order. Thus, players must pre-plan all of their actions, and hope situations don’t arise to spoil those plans.

Players alternate taking one action at a time until all actions are performed. When moving, a stag may wander to an adjacent territory, moving up a level if desired. Stags cannot enter wetland territories, all of which are scattered about the second level, so does are temporarily inaccessible when they are on these territories. A stag may mate with a doe if it is located in the same territory and the “rut” action was chosen. The doe is removed, and the player tracks his “mating” progress on the doe track. Moving up on this track not only progresses one in terms of victory points, but is also the source of some good-natured boasting! The “eat” action permits the stag to eat all food tokens present in his territory. Food tokens range in value from 1 – 3, and can be used in conflict or to grow antlers. Players cannot possess more than five food tokens, so excess hoarding is not possible. When the “grow antlers” action is chosen, the player may surrender as many food tokens as he desires, and add an amount of antlers to his mat equal to half the value of the food tokens surrendered. Players can get creative adding the antlers to the picture of their stag, creating an impressive or bizarre rack. This is reminiscent of Phillip Keyaerts’ Evo, wherein players can get creative when placing new body parts on their dinosaur caricature.

If two stags occupy the same territory, a conflict results. The strength of a stag is determined by adding its number of antlers to the value of food tokens committed to the attack. Players can commit a maximum of three tokens to an attack. Either player may retreat prior to revealing food tokens, thereby conserving those tokens and preventing the loss of an antler if defeated. The aggressor still wins a fight token if his opponent retreats. If an “antler lock” ensues, the player with the greatest strength wins a “wily tile”, a fight counter, and places the losing stag on any empty space. The losing stag also loses one antler. A player cannot win the game without earning a fight counter, so a completely pacifist approach cannot be pursued.

Some spice is added to the game with the “wily tiles”. These grant special abilities to the stags, such as extra movement or food, calling does in adjacent spaces into a stag’s territory, or even mating with multiple does with one action. That last tile is humorously titled “Rut your Stuff”! These tiles are earned when winning a conflict, and every time a stag’s antlers are increased to an even number. They are quit valuable, so it is wise to attempt to collect a few of them.

The game ends at the conclusion of the round when at least one player has successfully mated with twelve or more does. Players receive points for the number of does with whom they have mated, as well as points for the level of the island they occupy: three points for the top level or one point for the second level. The player with the most points wins.

An advanced version of the game adds fighting cubes, which are confiscated from opponents when conflicts are won. Points are earned for capturing cubes from each player, as well protecting your own cubes. This version does place a greater emphasis on conflict, and makes for a more interesting and interactive game.

Make no mistake, Antler island is more suited for casual gamers and families. It is NOT a deep game. The mechanics are quite basic, and the decisions to be made are not very taxing. Turns generally consist of quick movements to adjacent territories in order to gain food and mate. Amassing numerous food tokens and growing antlers relatively quickly are important tactics, as one must earn at least one fight token in order to be eligible to win the game. Due to the generous placement of new does each turn, there is usually an ample supply of females with which to mate. Food can be a bit scarcer, but there usually isn’t a dire shortage.

Fortunately, the game plays to completion quickly. Otherwise, the basic strategies and mechanisms would likely cause it to grow stale. Even using the fighting cubes, there isn’t much here to entice gamers seeking deep strategies or tough decisions. Rather, the game is much more likely to find its home in the family setting, where it should shine.

Thread: Re: Winning stag token - obtained even if other stag retreat

peacmyer — 2008-01-29T15:43:40+00:00

Thanks, Gordon!

Thread: Winning stag token - obtained even if other stag retreats

diceman — 2008-01-29T11:13:51+00:00

On a couple of comments we have seen players playing with a wrong rule that totally kills the game.

Just to clarify, a stag obtains a winning stag token even if the other stag retreats (does not lock antlers). See page 6 of the rules re getting a winning stag token and the part marked in brackets just above the section wily tiles stating "(through the other stag retreating or after locking antlers)".

If you do not play this way then other players can prevent you from obtaining a winning stag token by simply moving away and never fighting. This is just an exercise in frustration

Cheers,

Gordon

Gordon Lamont
Fragor Games

Thread: Re: 2 player variant

firewizard — 2008-01-10T16:58:46+00:00

I guess it wouldn't be too hard to come up with some way of randomly assigning the actions of the neutral stag. There would even be a chance that by random luck it won the game!

Off to think about it...

Thread: Antler Island - Session Report

gschloesser — 2008-01-05T18:04:26+00:00

NOTE: My full review of Antler Island will be published shortly. What follows is an abbreviated version.

The always jovial and friendly Lamont Brothers have developed a reputation of using clever and adorable components in their games. Their first release, Leapfrog, featured colorful rubber frogs, while their last two releases have included wonderful three-dimensional sheep and rats. Their latest release is Antler Island, wherein player’s pieces are whimsical stags. The presence of these special components never fails to generate considerable excitement amongst gamers, and no doubt helps boost sales.

The theme of Antler Island, while perfectly natural, may also be a bit too mature for younger audiences. Players represent stags whose main purpose is to mate with does, called “doeples” in game parlance. Victory tends to go to the player who is most successful in this task. Along the way, stags must gather food for sustenance and antler growth, both of which help in the inevitable conflicts with opposing stags. The theme is certain to cause some sophomoric chuckles and jokes from most males, but can be changed to “kissing” as opposed to mating in order to make it kid-friendly.

The game is played on a three level board, with each level divided into various territories. Each turn, players then secretly plot their actions for the turn on their player mat, allocating three tokens amongst four possible actions: move, eat, rut, and grow antlers. Players can perform the same action multiple times, but must execute them in numerical order. Thus, players must pre-plan all of their actions, and hope situations don’t arise to spoil those plans.

Players alternate taking one action at a time until all actions are performed. A stag may mate with a doe if it is located in the same territory and the “rut” action was chosen. The “eat” action permits the stag to eat all food tokens present in his territory. Food tokens range in value from 1 – 3, and can be used in conflict or to grow antlers. When the “grow antlers” action is chosen, the player may surrender as many food tokens as he desires, and add an amount of antlers to his mat equal to half the value of the food tokens surrendered. Players can get creative adding the antlers to the picture of their stag, creating an impressive or bizarre rack. This is reminiscent of Phillip Keyaerts’ Evo, wherein players can get creative when placing new body parts on their dinosaur caricature.

A conflict results if two stags occupy the same territory. The strength of a stag is determined by adding its number of antlers to the value of food tokens committed to the attack. Players can commit a maximum of three tokens to an attack. Either player may retreat prior to revealing food tokens, thereby conserving those tokens and preventing the loss of an antler if defeated. If an “antler lock” ensues, the player with the greatest strength wins a “wily tile”, a fight counter, and places the losing stag on any empty space. The losing stag also loses one antler. A player cannot win the game without earning a fight counter, so a completely pacifist approach cannot be pursued.

Some spice is added to the game with the “wily tiles”. These grant special abilities to the stags, such as extra movement or food, calling does in adjacent spaces into a stag’s territory, or even mating with multiple does with one action. That last tile is humorously titled “Rut your Stuff”! These tiles are earned when winning a conflict, and every time a stag’s antlers are increased to an even number.

The game ends at the conclusion of the round when at least one player has successfully mated with twelve or more does. Players receive points for the number of does with whom they have mated, as well as points for the level of the island they occupy. The player with the most points wins.

An advanced version of the game adds fighting cubes, which are confiscated from opponents when conflicts are won. Points are earned for capturing cubes from each player, as well protecting your own cubes. This version does place a greater emphasis on conflict, and makes for a more interesting and interactive game.

Make no mistake, Antler Island is more suited for casual gamers and families. It is NOT a deep game. The mechanics are quite basic, and the decisions to be made are not very taxing. Turns generally consist of quick movements to adjacent territories in order to gain food and mate. Amassing numerous food tokens and growing antlers relatively quickly are important tactics, as one must earn at least one fight token in order to be eligible to win the game. Due to the generous placement of new does each turn, there is usually an ample supply of females with which to mate. Food can be a bit scarcer, but there usually isn’t a dire shortage.

Fortunately, the game plays to completion quickly. Otherwise, the basic strategies and mechanisms would likely cause it to grow stale. Even using the fighting cubes, there isn’t much here to entice gamers seeking deep strategies or tough decisions. Rather, the game is much more likely to find its home in the family setting, where it should shine.

While I was busy finding and mating with does, my opponents concentrated on using their food to grow bigger and stronger antlers. So, I had to take a break from more pleasant activities to also grow antlers so I could better compete in combat. I was forced to run away twice, losing both of my fighting cubes. I was ready to pounce on the loser of the conflict between Rhonda and Lourdes, but Lourdes opted to retreat instead. Thus, I was never able to win a fight, and was therefore ineligible to win the game.

Lourdes reached the magic mark of twelve on the doe track, thereby ending the game. Rhonda had only mated with eight does, but earned three points for being on the top level, and another point for having the correct combination of fighting cubes. Both ladies tied for the most antlers, but Rhonda won on the second tie-breaker by having her stag located on a higher level.

Finals: Rhonda 12, Lourdes 12, Greg 11

Ratings: Rhonda 6.5, Lourdes 6.5, Greg 5.5

Image

chezzilla — 2008-01-02T06:44:28+00:00

Image

Ceryon — 2007-12-20T23:00:33+00:00

I'm the one on the top - girls come on

Image

Ceryon — 2007-12-20T22:57:24+00:00

Oh my deer - you are only 2D.

Image

Ceryon — 2007-12-20T22:55:50+00:00

Hard to choose...

Thread: Re: 2 player variant

vintermann — 2007-12-19T22:11:09+00:00

I suspect a 3-stag variant with one of the stags neutral somehow would work better. Like 2p-Alhambra. Of course, like 2-player Alhambra, it probably wouldn't be nearly as much fun...

Thread: Re: [Review] Antler Island

Yollege — 2007-12-19T04:11:06+00:00

I can't wait to finally get this one...

Thread: [Review] Antler Island

TomVasel — 2007-12-19T02:02:17+00:00

In an email from Gordon Lamont, he mentioned to me that “we certainly cannot be accused of unoriginal themes!” And certainly that is the truth, made evident once again in Antler Island (Fragor Games, 2007 – Gordon and Fraser Lamont). In Antler Island, each player plays a stag that is preparing for the rutting season, the player who breeds with the most does, while fighting the other stags is the winner! An interesting theme to be sure (if interesting to explain to young children), and with simplicity of play to match earlier Fragor Games’ offerings.

With beautiful components (typical from this company these days), Antler Island is an easy game to explain to folks, as they simply are programming their stags to move, eat, fight, and – well, rut. The game has similarities to more complex programming games, such as Robo Rally, but falls into a much more friendly category, even though a player is highly encouraged to go head to head with other players. It’s sometimes difficult to stop a runaway leader, and strategy is often obvious; but the game works on an easy, enjoyable level – and I’m glad to see Fragor Games returning to the fun game methods that made them popular in the first place.

The game board, which changes if there are three or four players, has three levels of an island – with several outside spaces, each denoted with either a yellow, red, or blue spot, six middle spaces (three of which are marshes), and one center spot. Each player takes a control mat of their color and places two antler pieces onto the head of the stag pictured there. Several “doeples” are placed near the board, as well as some piles of food tokens (which range from “1” to “3” in value). A colored die is rolled, and a food token is randomly placed in each spot with that matching color on the lower level; and then it is rolled again for a different color – on which players place their stag piece. A doeple is placed on the remaining empty spaces, as well as the three non-marsh spaces on the second level. Players take one random food counter and place it below their control mat. A pile of “wily” tiles are shuffled and placed in a pile, with the top one flipped face up. The player with the most money on them gets the starting marker, and each player places a scoring piece of their color on the bottom of the “doe track” (which goes to “12”). Players are given five action tokens of their color, and the first round is ready to begin.

At the beginning of each round, players place their five action tiles next to four different options on their control mat. Three tiles are numbered, showing the order in which they will be played, while one is an “X” – meaning it can be played at any time; and the last is blank, which is used simply as a bluffing device. Once everyone has placed them, play starts with the first player. That player turns over their “1” tile or their “X” tile, whichever they like. However, once they have played their “X” tile, they have no choice but to go in numerical order. The actions that occur are:
- Move: The player moves their stag into an adjacent area – either on the same level – or up or down one level. Stags may never go into marshes. If two stags occupy the same space, they will fight.
- Eat: The player may take one face down food token from the space their stag occupies, adding it to the area below their mat, although they may not have more than five food tokens there.
- Grow antlers: The player may spend as many of their food tokens as they want to add another antler piece to their stag. Two points of food is worth one antler, although a player may cash in a single food chip for one antler piece. If a player grows to an even number of antlers, they may take the face up wily tile, flipping a new one on top of the pile.
- Rutting: The stag may enjoy life with the doe in their tile, removing it from the board, and moving their scoring marker up one space on the doe track.

Players continue taking actions (although they may be unable to take an action, depending on where they are) in turn order, until each player has taken four actions. At this point, new food tokens are added to the ground level; and all does still on the board move directly up one level, staying at the top if there. New does are added to the bottom, and the game continues.

Fights are fairly simple, as first the attacker places an amount of food tiles in front of their card. The defender places a similar number of tiles (both players are limited to playing three tiles maximum). Each player has a chance of retreating; otherwise, the players flip the tokens, adding the number of food there to the number of pieces in their antlers. The player who wins the fight (or didn’t retreat) wins, and any played food tokens are lost (except if someone runs away like a liver-hearted coward). The winning stag gets the top wily tile, and the losing stag (in battle only) loses one piece from their antlers.
Wily tiles are played to allow players to take a one-time special action. The different tiles are:
- Speed: Move one additional space
- Greedy: Eat one additional food piece
- Rut your stuff: Make out with two does.
- Diamond antler: Don’t lose an antler piece when losing a fight.
- Roar: Attract all adjacent does into your space
- Rope-a-dope: Retain one food token after a battle.

The game continues until one player reaches twelve (three player game) or ten on the doe track. This signals that the current round is the final round. After that round is over, players get one point for the space they are on the doe track, plus one point for any additional does they may have snagged the last turn, three points if they are currently on the center space, and one point if they are currently in the middle section. However, a player may NOT win unless they have won at least one fight with another stag during the game (even if that stag simply turned tail and ran).

The advanced game gives players cubes of their own color, which are captured by other players if they lose a stag battle. At the end of the game, players get one point if they have all of their own cubes and additional points if they have one cube of each other player’s color.
Some comments on the game…

1.) Components: Antler Island is simply gorgeous, from the box cover to the board, which actually sets up three dimensionally (slightly) if only to add a thematic level to the game. The stag pieces look like Christmas ornaments, and the doeples are simply little wooden does. The antler pieces are brown wooden sticks (like the roads in Settlers of Catan), and the other tokens are cardboard tokens that are thick and easy to handle. There’s even an overlay piece for the board in a three player game. The only thing that I find odd is the use of an “X” for a wild, as an “X” often symbolizes cancelation for me. This is no big deal, and the game is sure to elicit a lot of looks when you bring it out; it conveys the theme quite well.

2.) Rules: An excellent rulebook is included with the game, with six pages of examples, illustrations, and clearly formatted and simple rules. I’ve explained the game to adults and children; and even though the box says “10+”, younger children can likely grasp most of the concepts, except the programming part. The game elements match the theme perfectly, and it’s simple and engaging.

3.) Theme: As much as I like the theme and don’t have any problem with it, it IS certainly ripe for players' innuendo; and I wouldn’t even attempt to play the game with a group of teenagers, because it would get old quite quickly. Kids won’t have a problem with it – the rules themselves mention explaining “kissing” rather than “rutting”. Still, I challenge you to play the game without smirking at least once, as the double entendres will surely unintentionally and perhaps intentionally arise. It’s probably not a big deal, but could cause problems amongst those who are juvenile.

4.) Programming: For some reason, there exists a category of people who just don’t get programming games, even one as simple as this. For this reason, I often recommend playing through an example turn if you have someone like this in your group, just so they can see that they may need to move first, then eat, then move, etc. On the other hand, people looking for a cousin to Robo Rally are going to find this game much simpler and perhaps with too few choices. For the level that the game is going for, I think it works out just fine, and the entire experience is easy and friendly.

5.) King of the Hill: At first I thought that three points for being on the top of the hill wasn’t that big of a deal, but it certainly has decided more than one game! The problem is, a player who spends their time simply rutting as many does as they see will find themselves unable to defend that position (unless they are crafty in their maneuvering) near the end of the game. So a balance must be sought. Sure, you could build a ten piece antler and have a pile of food, but the likelihood of that happening AND you snagging many does on the way is slim. Not only that, but to get to the top of the hill (which is a great place to meet the female deer, since they head that way) is far from the food, and a stag with no food will get trounced by one that is well fed.

6.) Fighting: It’s interesting that players must win one fight to win the game. This isn’t hard to do, but sometimes it will mess up your best laid plans and force a weaker stag to attack a stronger one just to get that single victory under their belt. The advanced rules push even more fighting, although I’m not sure it’s necessary – I’m fairly happy with the basic game – there will be at least four fights (likely more), and that seems enough as it is.

7.) Fun Factor: The wily tiles aren’t superbly powerful, but they can help a player get ahead in a round, which keeps them constantly sought after by players. Antler Island is going to be a simple fun game for families, as they attempt to outmaneuver one another on the hill. Many people will be attracted to the game because of the cute pieces; but the rules are basic enough to classify Antler Island as a “gateway” game, since it’s the kind of game that offers a little depth for a small amount of work.

Antler Island is not going to be a breakout hit, I think – like Shear Panic was. But it is engaging and may have a wider audience, if only because the entry level is very low. The pieces are tremendous, and the theme flows throughout (snickers included). I personally would prefer to play a game that offered a few more tactical decisions; but this is a great family game, so it will see more play in my household. Besides, my kids like trying to see how many does their stags can kiss. If they only knew…

Tom Vasel
“Real men play board games”
www.thedicetower.com

Thread: AI gone SOLO

MacTele — 2007-12-15T23:38:16+00:00

Antler Island with its bluffing mechanics is not best suited to solo play, maybe, but… i like the game very much so i wanted to try it.

At the Scottish island the rutting season has started. Four stags appeared to fight for does. But as We would see, fighting is not the activity most favored by stags.
Four animals with double antlers waited, each in its own corner of the island. There was a grass nearby every stag and the island was full of does, waiting. Early on, every stag ate food and take the doe. Blue and Yellow came into second level of the island hill, to wait for a doe to come up in the beginning of the next round. Grass and does appeared at the same places with another does nearby. Every stag ate and got points for does. Tactics of eating and rutting in each ones corner was chosen until Yellow had had 7 does (points) and 3 antlers and the rest had 6 points and 4 antlers. An that time (round 5) all does appeared at the island and considerable number of them were at the top. No stag had won the fight. The tension was bigger with every moment because every stag knew, that there would be the big fight which would decide and every stag was fully prepared (eaten). The Blue decided to go at the top at the end of the round. Yellow had 8 does (one more then the rest still) but no fight won. At the beginning of the next round the blue, surprisingly, escaped from the top. He had not the best food numbers, it was his mistake to went uphill before and another going down now. As there are not much place at the second level of the island, the Blue had to stop near a stag. It was the Red, which attacked the Blue, and won without even locking antlers. The Blue had some points and decided to wait for others to lose some energy in the fight. Green and Yellow was running toward the Red but It used +1 doe special power and reached nine points/does. The next round started with Green and Yellow locking antlers at the top. The Yellow won, rutted and was the winner at that moment, having 10 does, the same as red, but standing at the top of the hill. So Red attacked the Yellow which was exhausted. They locked antlers at epic struggle for victory and Red won. It used special power and returned “3” food token. The only thing Green could do was an attack at the Red at the top. They locked antlers (Red wanted to have top position) but it was a draw. In the last action the Blue returned, fully prepared, attacked the Green and got third place.
1. Red: 10 does + 3 position + 1 all own cubes = 14
2. Yellow: 10 + 1 + 0 = 10
3. Blue: 7 + 1 = 8
4. Green = 0 did not won the fight.

As You can see, all stags were building their position at the lower parts of the island, rutting does, gathering big grass token numbers and growing antlers using ones. You can think that it was because of solo play, that every stag had the same strategy but i assure You, that the game invites to such tactics. But if You let it, You are lost. What decided in the game was that the first fight was won by the red without losing tokens and that it used special actions in right moments. But it was not his tactics, but mistakes of the Blue.

In the second game I have plaid that evening, the situation was quite similar until the Yellow in the 3rd round (!) went at the top and grew two antlers. When it had 7 points, it was attacked by the Red, which was attacked by the Blue and so on. When Yellow was rutting at the top, the rest were getting food tokens. When Yellow went down, the rest were fighting at the top and the Yellow was eating. They lost their food tokens and the Yellow came back, winning the fight, finishing the game by taking 10th doe and taking 3 points for position. The thing is, that when other stags were fighting at the top, the grass was not eaten, so Yellow could come back quickly and with full power.
This game is all about momentum or timing if You prefer. It is very tight so a little things can have great impact. If You let the game lead You, then the game would decide, but if You can play against the game, You can gain control of the timing and win. I think that future plays can give some info about good tactics in AI. Bluffing element can be very important but at these two solo sessions it was not existent. It is difficult to use it solo but I would try it and report it here.
To play solo Antler Island is a fun, rather light – medium game. Trying to be at the position of the stags is funny experience. You have to think what is the best for the stag to do in the round, have to consider what others might do and the most obvious tactics is often not the best one. The mechanics, outlook and spirit of Antler Island makes it near simulation of the rutting season by… the Stags, which is very good solo board game time.

Ps.: this is my first session report and I have plaid the games knowing I would write it. I am sure that my stags were just as nervous as I was about, and they were a little bit defensive

Thread: Re: Antlers Island review - my roaring

MacTele — 2007-12-12T20:36:15+00:00

i play solo with 4 stags. When i plan their moves i do it along the turn order not knowing (and trying to not remember) what others have planned
It leads to funny situations when i have to check which move should be executed cause i do not remember exactly what i planned for them all.
In the matter of food tokens i pretend that i do not know their values and that they "should" be 2es. In the game You can see all used tokens and it helps to fair play. But really, it is not that difficult to think as red stag, calculating chances of winning. I try to play fair and do not remember what other stags have.
I recomend it it is a lot of fun, more like a simple simulation

Thread: Re: Antlers Island review - my roaring

Wulf Corbett — 2007-12-12T19:13:13+00:00

MacTele wrote:
Tastes may vary, but for me, Antler Island is very fun ang rich gaming expirience. I even play it alone
I already own Antler Island (preordered), and I've been thinking about this, as I do most of my gaming solitaire. How do you do this? Part of the clash of antlers is hidden food-point bidding. So how does it work solo?

Thread: Re: Antlers Island review - my roaring

MacTele — 2007-12-12T18:54:57+00:00

Duchamp: It is my first gold Thank You very much

Thread: Re: Antlers Island review - my roaring

MacTele — 2007-12-12T18:49:42+00:00

I like Shear Panic but it is a little dry. AI is not dry, it is very climatic ( the best word here is wet, but... i won't use it). Tastes may vary, but for me, Antler Island is very fun ang rich gaming expirience. I even play it alone It makes me smile.

Thread: Re: Antlers Island review - my roaring

wittdooley — 2007-12-12T17:57:34+00:00

so.... If I like the Fraggor Games Shear Panic, should I get this? I've been teetering on it, and I love the theme and components. I just wanted to make sure the game plays okay.

Thread: Re: Antlers Island review - my roaring

duchamp — 2007-12-12T17:35:27+00:00

Wholeheartedly seconded.

Thread: Antlers Island review - my roaring

MacTele — 2007-12-12T15:30:39+00:00

I would not write about rules here, You can read about them elsewhere, You can even download them here at BGG. I want to write my thoughts about the game.

“Antler Island” is a game centered around its theme, which is:
Stags and does during the rutting season somewhere at one of many Scottish Islands. Oh, and You are “The Stag”!
You ,as The Stag during the rutting season, want to “rut” with as many does as possible. Biologist would say that it is because You (The Stag) want to give Your genes to as many children as possible and some of them (biologists) would even say that it is because your genes want it. But, leaving biologist for a moment, for You, as The Stag, only one thing is important: DESIRE. You feel it only once a year but it is the feeling stronger than anything in Your life, stronger then hunger, pain or fear. So, You want as many does as possible but what does doe want ? As left and now taken back biologist would say, doe wants best genes. Every doe can have only one father for her children so it wants it to be as clever or strong as possible. There is a hill at The Scottish Island and every doe goes to the top of it to wait there for the best genes to mix with hers. After few turns most does wait at the top of the hill for the best father. A stag which stand there is in the rutting season heaven. All those does are for him… or for his rival stag which appears at the top shortly after the first one. Stags driven by desire cannot be together in one area, they know that they are rivals to all those does waiting for them, so they want to check/show which one is the best and has “right” to rut all those does. The fight begins. First stags show how big their antlers are and how furious they are for that fight. Then one of them retreat or they “lock antlers” in epic struggle. The winner gets his glory and position , the loser lose his antler and have to retreat. To grow antlers and to be furious during fights stags have to eat grass. The problem is that grass do not grow at the hill. So if You want to win position at the top You have to go down and eat. At the same time other stag would be there. But without food You have no chances. In this beautiful and fearful way of nature the game lives.
Be most clever or strongest, but somehow, You, as The Stag, have to have all those does !!
Biologist would say: pure nature.
As I would say, as a gamer: pure fun.
This is one of rare games which, in my opinion, let player to feel (see , hear and even roar) its theme as fully as it can be possible. Very Beautiful components, and very well designed rules let You play as the stag. You simultaneously (with other players) plan and then execute your actions, bluff before “locking antlers”, use tactics and some strategy during all the game. Is it complicated brainstorm with AP every round, every player ? NO. But life of the stag during rutting season is not also. In this game You have to be alert all the time because one lost fight in a bad moment can ruin Your plans, and it would be hard to go back to the top, or if You let another stag be there too long, or… but do not worry, the rutting season is 45 minutes so even if You would make mistake… another rutting season starts few minutes later.
The life of rutting season stag is full of choices, emotions, and very, very fun.

Thread: Re: Available at Game Surplus!

Walt Mulder — 2007-12-07T03:55:23+00:00

Thanks for the notice. This is the best price I've seen so far on it. Picked it up along with a Brass to get the free shipping.

Thread: Available at Game Surplus!

mmarshallmd — 2007-12-06T21:13:23+00:00

https://www.gamesurplus.com/site/product.cfm?id=97AAB40B-137...

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" - "The ScottishItalianChinese Connect

duchamp — 2007-11-27T14:00:39+00:00

Adrian Bolt wrote:
duchamp wrote:
On the box back ... it says: "Some Parts Made in China"Could this, perchance, be referring to the material of which the Stag is made? Mrs Hudson is always scolding us about our chipped china is she not?
Not "of China, Watson, "in China".

Adrian Bolt wrote:
It's 1137 of the next day, have you perused the manuscript?
Not so hasty, good friend, I will take volumes IV and V back home tonight, than you can have a look for yourself.

Adrian Bolt wrote:
My friend has replied and I'll post his comments in the other thread if he hasn't already.
Well, the photo is already in our dossier thread. Well done, good ol` friend.

Adrian Bolt wrote:
duchamp wrote:
I can see a crime at the horizon, Watson, I dare to say.Other than the crime of the game not being published, I'm at a loss Holmes.
Time will show you, but maybe - and I do hope so - I am not correct this time, and my suspicion will not be confirmed.

Adrian Bolt wrote:
He did so I wrapped him thrice. Postie is parcelled, stamped, and posted. Laird Lamont owes me thruppence.
Very well done! I see you in good humour, and I am very glad not to see you in the morgue.

Adrian Bolt wrote:
The porcelein pussy's poisoned?!?!!
Watson, pull yourself together, please. Of course there might be a trap, particularly, if you play the role of the "mouse".

Could you tell us more about the damage of the antler? Where exactly is it, and how does it look like? Could this be part of the code?

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" - "The ScottishItalianChinese Connect

duchamp — 2007-11-27T05:59:07+00:00

Ah, my brave "Baker Street Irregulars"! Unfortunately, translating from a far east language and spotted writing is not one of the favourite kinds of investigation for urchins in the London Streets ...

But one more detail, Watson, that makes me doubt the "Japanese" theory: On the box back of your very, very impure boardgame (well, scotsmen and welshmen are of a special kind ...) it says: "Made in Germany / Some Parts Made in China" - Now I cannot think of a Japanese working for some substandard currency in China, painting 10,000 stags. This would be an even deeper mystery than the whole case so far, wouldn`t it? But does this lead us to Germany, after all? We still have to think in every direction.

But right now (5:50 London time), I sit here at the desk of Professor MacIver (an exceptionally scotsmen), who is working on his "English-chinese dictionary in the vernacular of the Hakka people in the canton province", which should be published not later than 1902, and who is one of the most outstanding experts for the Chinese language and writing at the British Museum, responsible for the artifacts of its Collection of ancient chinese works of handicraft and pottery.

We will see. I can see a crime at the horizon, Watson, I dare to say.

I have to close, MacIver needs my amateurish help checking coloumns and coloumns of radicals.

Holmes.

P.S.: Don`t open the door to any "Postman", even if he rings thrice!

P.P.S.: Don`t check your Hameln cat (please select your words more carefully the next time) without gloves - it might be poisoned.

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" - "The ScottishItalianChinese Connection"

diceman — 2007-11-26T22:00:04+00:00

sotto voce to Fraser "He doesn't know he is in possession of the fabled stag of Fragor - to whom riches, happiness and D6 rolls are guaranteed............let's dupe him under the guise of customer service"

Adrian,

Of course we will be delighted to replace your er....chipped stag. A replacement is on its way. If you could just return the "faulty goods" to the following address we would be grateful.....

Indiana Jones
Priceless Artefacts Ltd
Maximum Insurance Value Division (Don't Break or We'll Go Out of Business)
Switzerland

A bit of bubblewrap to err...protect the postman would be a good idea.

Hope you enjoy your now fully working copy of Antler Island....

to Fraser "if this works we will be rich beyond our wildest dreams...muhahaha......"

Cheers,

Gordon

Gordon Lamont
Fragor Games

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" - "The ScottishItalianChinese Connect

mitnachtKAUBO-I — 2007-11-26T21:43:57+00:00

duchamp wrote:
Mediocre Quality!

Interesting, perhaps it's:

中格 - zhong ge

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" - "The ScottishItalianChinese Connect

RacingHippo — 2007-11-26T20:30:28+00:00

Adrian Bolt wrote:
I love the idea of my Stag having a Chinese good luck charm on the bottom, unfortunately it hasn't worked as the figure has a chipped antler. (Sob!)

I say - that's rutten luck!

Adrian Bolt wrote:
I wonder how many BGGers are checking underneath their Stags even as we post...

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" - "The ScottishItalianChinese Connect

duchamp — 2007-11-26T20:07:38+00:00

A CHIPPED ANTLER!

Very important and interesting detail bringing us very, very close to the solution, my best friend! I can smell it like the tobacco from my pipe and the fire in my chimney.

Probably you own one of the few, absolutely rare and very valuable stags that went through the quality check without being identified - although the chinese painter wrote his note undernath: Mediocre Quality!

Fraser, confess! Whatever!

And, Watson, don`t speculate on big money because you are in the property of this unique - piece. Better keep it closed away and be very careful for the next years of your life!

[BGCOLOR=#000000]There is more behind this, I`m sure![/BGCOLOR]

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" ?!

duchamp — 2007-11-26T18:25:55+00:00

News, Dr Watson, news again and sooner than we hoped.

才
cái
- just / not until
- ability / talent / endowment / gift / an expert
- only (then) / only if / just

Mr Wang was so kind to tell me, that the second character COULD be this. Now, let`s build up a first hypothesis:

Imagine the probably rather poor chinese manufacturer handpainting silly stags for an italian artist, who designed them for some nordish boardgame designers - is he happy with his job? However, for one or another reason he paints these signs under one of them, - or were there more than a single stag with these signs, Watson?

Well, so far it could be a part of one of the following:

- Finally, the middle piece (of all the 10,000 stags I have to paint!)
- Middle-weight talent (this italian artist!)
- This copy is only of medium quality
- This stag should stay in the middle of the board ("in the centre" up the hill) - I made it so fantastically superb!

Watson, we definitely need more information! Go ahead and take some more pictures of this single copy and up-load it to your personal gallery at 221b Baker Street and we should solve this riddle in the next couple of days ...

Fraser, don`t b(r)other us again, or we we will send the Hound of Leapfrog Island to your guaranteed displeasure!

Here is the appeal to the whole Chinese people to solve the mystery:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1884132

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" ?!

duchamp — 2007-11-26T17:49:24+00:00

Adrian Bolt wrote:
duchamp wrote:
If you turn it 90 degrees to the left, so the text is correctly aligned, you will easily recognize the left character meaning "middle" or "centre".Being perverse I'm going to turn my head 90º to the right... Hmm, the left character also looks like the Red Dragon from Mah Jong.

Well, Watson, a brief look into Bruce Lamonts` "Western Guide to Symbolism in Chinese Games" from 1878 will enlighten us to our perfect satisfaction:

"Red Dragon
Chinese Character: "Chung"

The true name of this tile is represented by the Chinese character "Chung" which means centre or middle. The "Chung" character represents interpretation an arrow striking the centre of a target. The meaning of this tile is therefore - success or achievement.

This tile is the counterpart of the "The Green Dragon" tile which show the arrow about to leave the bow. It is commonly called "The Red Dragon" in western Mah Jongg sets because the "Chung" character is generally drawn in red ink."

You see, there is sometimes more and sometimes less in what we see, than meets the eye, as you, as a physicist, should have learned as a scholar some forty years ago.

BTW; my dear Watson, it`s more commonly spelled "Jongg".

But this impertinent "Fraser" plays a wicked game with us. I am not absolutely sure yet, but Dr Moriarty has many faces, and even more names!

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" ?!

dicemanjnr — 2007-11-26T17:09:04+00:00

duchamp wrote:
"Well, not quite, Watson. If you turn it 90 degrees to the left, so the text is correctly aligned, you will easily recognize the left character meaning "middle" or "centre". The right one(s?) are not that clear, but we will find out consulting our friend from the East-Indian Company, Mr Wang, the gentleman I purchase my weekly dose of opium from ...

Maybe this is a secret message not meant to be read by everyone - then we are in a kind of situation, Watson, Dr Moriarty would silently laugh about if he new about it."

The two of you already know too much.

The stag will self destruct during your next game.

Disclaimer: Fragor games does not accept responsibility for any damage caused due to exploding pieces.

Fraser

Fraser Lamont
Fragor Games

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" ?!

duchamp — 2007-11-26T16:09:37+00:00

"Well, not quite, Watson. If you turn it 90 degrees to the left, so the text is correctly aligned, you will easily recognize the left character meaning "middle" or "centre". The right one(s?) are not that clear, but we will find out consulting our friend from the East-Indian Company, Mr Wang, the gentleman I purchase my weekly dose of opium from ...

Maybe this is a secret message not meant to be read by everyone - then we are in a kind of situation, Watson, Dr Moriarty would silently laugh about if he new about it."

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" ?!

duchamp — 2007-11-24T19:25:15+00:00

None of mine got this !?

What do you think of this mysterious occurence, my dear Watson?

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" ?!

duchamp — 2007-11-23T23:13:02+00:00

Great!

Looks quite similar - have a look at his Chess games!

Did he the other stuff for "Hameln" and "Shear Panic", too?

And - how did you find out ???

Thread: Re: Who is "P. Chiari" ?!

Thosw — 2007-11-23T20:01:31+00:00

I daresay it's this guy...

http://www.paolochiari.it/

Thread: Who is "P. Chiari" - "The ScottishItalianChinese Connection"

duchamp — 2007-11-23T19:29:29+00:00

A question to the Lamont Brothers up in the Scottish Highlands - who is "P. Chiari", signing the stag`s bottom?

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This question arises, if you have a decent, but indiscreet look at certain areas, while a stag is distracted by female beauty ...

Does this mean, all these stags are fled all the way up from Italy ??? No does there at the river Po?

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duchamp — 2007-11-14T17:57:47+00:00

Foldable promo-"flinga" frisbee for pre-orderers and (I guess) some Essen attendees. It fits into the small bag!

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duchamp — 2007-11-14T17:50:40+00:00

Longing stag signed by "P. Chiari"

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duchamp — 2007-11-14T17:48:46+00:00

Example for a 3-player starting position

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duchamp — 2007-11-14T17:44:58+00:00

Unpunched 3-player island cover

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duchamp — 2007-11-14T17:33:10+00:00

The 4 player cards