The Hotness
Games|People|Company
Eclipse
Gunship: First Strike!
Mage Knight: Board Game
Midnight Men
Agricola: Die Bauern und das liebe Vieh
Hawaii
Star Wars: Battle of Hoth
Wiz-War
Ora et Labora
Rex: Final Days of an Empire
Snowdonia
Barbarian Prince
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
Twilight Struggle
War of the Ring
Agricola
7 Wonders
A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (second edition)
Dominion
7 Wonders: Cities
Kingdoms
A Few Acres of Snow
Risk Legacy
Arkham Horror
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization
Thunderstone Advance: Towers of Ruin
1812: The Invasion of Canada
Dixit: Journey
Elder Sign
D-Day Dice
The Castles of Burgundy
Le Havre
Kingdom Builder
Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game
Race for the Galaxy
Cosmic Encounter
Dominant Species
Dungeon Petz
Battlestar Galactica
Power Grid
Mansions of Madness
Last Will
Twilight Imperium (third edition)
Nexus Ops
Agents of SMERSH
Puerto Rico
Star Trek: Fleet Captains
Kairo
Core Worlds
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
My Problems With Euros
Beau Bailey
United States
Missoula
Montana
Why don't you believe me?
badge
Seriously, I'm a weasel.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Recommend
239 
 Thumb up
4.17
 tip
 Thumb up
I am a huge ameritrash fan. I love their themes, excess pieces, multiple mechanics jammed together, and tons and tons of dice. My FFG lovefest geeklist can attest to that http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/26206. Something about euros just doesn't mix well with me. Maybe it's my extensive reading of fantasy and scifi as a child, my love of building toys with their tons of pieces, or just the sheer joy of being able to through 90 cubes of random goodness on the table.

That isn't to say I don't enjoy euros, just that they are not my sweet spot.
Your Tags: Add tags
Popular Tags: oldnews [+] [View All]
1. Board Game: Elfenland [Average Rating:6.79 Overall Rank:433]
Beau Bailey
United States
Missoula
Montana
Why don't you believe me?
badge
Seriously, I'm a weasel.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Boring Theme

I want fantasy themes. Give me dragons, elves, orcs, skeletons, magic, and on and on. I don't want themes about delivering mail or appealing to the castle builder or farming.

I need something cool where just by describing the theme, people are already clamoring to play. I get to have slaves who grow indigo and coffee! Awesome!
15 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 45 comments [Hide]
Paul O'Connor
United States
San Marcos
California
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
When we play Elfenland, we are Elven Inquisitors, stomping out the heretics of the land. There's a heretic in every village.

We fight over who gets to use the black boot.
66 
 Thumb up
1.00
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 9:43 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Hector Lopez
United States
El Paso
Texas
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Kimball Bent wrote:
Ugh! Thank goodness for Euro-games!!! Fantasy was fine when I was fourteen.

More mature themes make games accessible to adults.


I can tell you that my ten year old son is glad that I don't share that setiment. I enjoy playing Heroscape and yelling at him from across the table that the Hulk is coming after his ork army for taking out Cap.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 7:30 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Aram
United States
Madison
Wisconsin
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Getting an Orcish postcard could be pretty cool...


 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Sat Dec 8, 2007 3:56 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Doug Wirth
United States
Cumberland
Maryland
mb
I'm not surprised to see lots of different opinions from folks who either love or loathe fantasy themes. I'm just surprised at the 'low maturity' or the 'old fogey' accusations thrown at the fantasy/realism camps. I've played fantasy themed games that are among my favorites, and some I've deeply regretted buying.

When themes work for me: the gameplay is telling some kind of story, and I feel my role in it. I can get this from Power Grid, imagining that I'm the CEO of a growing business in a highly competitive market. In many cases, though, it is easier for me to feel part of a story that has no basis in reality - where anything is possible. This is where I feel fantasy/sci-fi/horror has an advantage, but I haven't seen it exploited flawlessly by game developers.

On maturity: I don't know how everyone else feels, but I've been fourteen inside for about three decades. My personality was basically forged in my teens, and very little of that has changed in me as I've aged to 43. Being older does not mean I have any natural reason to like fantasy any less. That said, I feel the stigma of my hobbies. Have you seen the movie The 40-Year Old Virgin? As if his virginity wasn't enough of an anomaly, did you notice the guy's hobbies are video games, comic books, and painting miniature soldiers? That's me, pretty much. Real Men are supposed to have hobbies like golf, fantasy football or baseball leagues, hunting & fishing, and channel surfing. You don't invite your boss over to play Runebound, do you? It has been hard to discover other adult males willing to come 'out of the closet' and reveal their willingness to play XBox or Warhammer 40K.

On the other hand, I've seen stodgy old fogeys go hog-wild over role playing activities. I've been to Halloween costume parties where accountants and engineers and gruff Harley-riding pipefitters transform into hilarious pranksters. Throw one of those How to Solve a Murder mystery parties, and adults will show up in costume and act in character, and these aren't professional LARP geeks. I believe a majority of people are fourteen inside, but need the right supportive environment (i.e. an excuse) to show it among other adults.
2 
 Thumb up
1.00
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Sat Dec 8, 2007 4:26 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Brad "Real Men Stand in the Rain and Play This" Redfield
United Kingdom
Under a DVD Collection, Scarborough
North Yorkshire
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
I can't believe some of the things said in this first section!
Games aren't meant to be fun!? Fantasy gaming is for kids!? What!? surprise

Of course games are fun- otherwise why would anyone play them? It's the fun of the challenge, the strategy, watching your opponents fall, the feeling of a hard earned victory.
I find I'm more inclined to ameri-trash games with the fantasy/horror/sci fi genre then to euro-games for one reason more then any other; escapism. I get such a rush from getting away from the gripes of real life. It doesn't matter if I'm an evil wizard, an investigator or a barbarian hobbit- sometimes it is just better then being me in my normal, boring brick-in-the-wall exsistance. Euro style games just don't get you away like that. Sure, you can be engrossed in a good game of chess, but you won't be immersed in it.
You can funnel anger into Ameri-trash too. If I have a bad day, it doesn't matter if I'm taking a load of monsters to shread someone else's in Horrorclix or to tommygun a god in Arkham Horror, I finish the game and feel good. I'm no longer stressed, I feel relaxed, I've vented my frustration on my now battered opponents. You can't take out a bad day planting crops and controlling your resources.
And fantasy gaming can only be described as "for kids" if you mean "for kids of all ages". I'm with badweasel and many others on this one, euro games just don't do as much for me as ameri-trash does goo
6 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:08 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
2. Board Game: Glenn Drover's Empires: The Age of Discovery [Average Rating:7.70 Overall Rank:44]
Beau Bailey
United States
Missoula
Montana
Why don't you believe me?
badge
Seriously, I'm a weasel.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Generic Wooden Pieces

I want beautifully scuplted pieces representing everything. Who cares if it is too hard to tell everything apart? I want the feel of toys when I play my game.

None of this, that color cube is coal and this color cube is indigo and that color cube is peasants. I want finely sculpted sheep, how else can I put my units in awkward compromising positions?
21 
 Thumb up
0.02
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 18 comments [Hide]
Curt Collins
United States
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
While I agree with the sheep, I like my wooden blocks. It gives my games that "it really IS worth the $40" feel to it. Plastic makes me think "cheap", not high quality.
30 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 9:54 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Darren M
New Zealand
Nelson
Avatar
I've got wood just reading these comments.
3 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 8:34 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Bruce Glassco
United States
Charlottesville
Virginia
designer
Avatar
Or at least, if we must have cubes, I'd like them to actually REPRESENT something. Like when I play Age of Steam:

A: At last! The train has finally reached us!
B: That's great! What is it laden with?
A: Umm...big red wooden boxes.
B: Splendid! We've been desperate for those. Wouldn't want any of those green boxes, no sir.

Much more satisfying to provide Whynoums with Impossible Furniture in Merchants of Venus.
2 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 3:52 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Ray Brown
United States
Palm Bay
Florida
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
W4st wrote:
Quote:
I want finely sculpted sheep, how else can I put my units in awkward compromising positions?

In my opinion, nothing beats the wooden Robber from Catan for creating soft-core tabletop naughtiness with stray action figures.


I guess you have never played "Rheinlander". The wooden Bishop in that game has driven many a player(male and female) insane with phallic envy.
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 1:10 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Joe Baptist
United States

California
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Did I just hear someone say that they've got wood for sheep?
2 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Sat Dec 8, 2007 8:46 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
3. Board Game: Agricola [Average Rating:8.25 Overall Rank:2]
Beau Bailey
United States
Missoula
Montana
Why don't you believe me?
badge
Seriously, I'm a weasel.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Lack of Cards

I want tons of cards that allow for a randomised game and differing player abilities. I know plenty of euros use tiles in place of cards but they don't have the same effect. Everyone knows that a card is only good when it has nineteen different things on it and can be used for multiple purposes like in Arkham Horror or War of the Ring. Why haven't euros discovered the simple goodness of having tons of cards?
8 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 15 comments [Hide]
Mike Ricotta
United States
Norfolk
Virginia
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Now, talk about themes that sound revolting...who wants to be a poor farmer! Sign me up baby! Does this game include player elimination though starvation? Ohh no, no more green cubes to eat!
13 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 10:40 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Kenneth Bailey
United States
Ypsilanti
Michigan
Avatar
mbmbmbmb
Why is it when I hear about this one, I think:
"To plow it in the winter...sow it with as many Oxen..."
"There's evidence....evidence....."
"Oh it's written in the village rolls...."
"What about World War noises?"
"Was that the Runettes?"
"No..NO...the French and the Germans."
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 5:53 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Darren M
New Zealand
Nelson
Avatar
Well you can always play Bridge, Euchre and Poker simultaneously while playing Caylus and Puerto Rico... that should give you a few more cards to play with and a few more things to think about.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 8:31 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Michael Plach
Germany

Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
shake Everybody over there in the USA tends to think that Euro-Style-Games have their origin more often than not in Germany or not far away from there.

But that's not all Europe !

If you want tons of cards with umpteenth random effects, especially regarding the right time to play, with every game therefore developing totally different I only can advise to try this gem from Sweden:





...and you will get a completely new view of Euro - Games !
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 9:44 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
John Haley
United States
Dallas
Texas
mbmbmbmbmb
Then you'd best steer clear of Agricola. Every card is littered with text (I dare you play in under 3 hours without pasteups) and there is a significant difference in the power/value/synergy of various cards and card combos.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:08 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
4. Board Game: The Settlers of Catan [Average Rating:7.51 Overall Rank:79]
Beau Bailey
United States
Missoula
Montana
Why don't you believe me?
badge
Seriously, I'm a weasel.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Extremely Low Randomness

I want to have to overcome unforseen events or just have the game decide it hates me. That way each time I play it is extremely different and I get a completely new experience.

No one remembers that one time in Puerto Rico where the first draw was 2 corn and 3 indigo, but you probably remember when you died repeatedly within the first two turns of DungeonQuest.
18 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 19 comments [Hide]
Curt Collins
United States
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
I don't want to participate in a choose your own adventure book. You know, when you chose things like "should you go in the left or right cave"? You didn't really know what you were choosing and the results had nothing to do with your play. Just like with those 7 people I have tied up in my basement, I need to have control.
35 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 9:57 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Kenneth Bailey
United States
Ypsilanti
Michigan
Avatar
mbmbmbmb
Driver 8 wrote:
Playing a game for 3 hours, just to have it come down to a couple random rolls at the end to decide the winner? No thanks.

Usually the winner was decided before that point. The dice roll at the end was the coup de grace.
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 5:57 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Jeff Khoury
United States
Coulters
Pennsylvania
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Spleen wrote:
I don't want to participate in a choose your own adventure book. You know, when you chose things like "should you go in the left or right cave"? You didn't really know what you were choosing and the results had nothing to do with your play. Just like with those 7 people I have tied up in my basement, I need to have control.

Don't spread your hate-mongering here! Choose your own adventure books were the greatest literary achievement of the late 70's, early 80's. [They certainly beat anything on Oprah's book club today.]
4 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 9:31 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Fritz T. Cat
United States
Atlanta
Georgia
Avatar
mb
Driver 8 wrote:
Playing a game for 3 hours, just to have it come down to a couple random rolls at the end to decide the winner? No thanks.


As opposed to Settlers, which is decided by random rolls in the first 5 or 6 turns.
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 2:55 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
The Seal of Approval
Austria
Vienna
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
ZeroZilla wrote:
Yesss..... that's called "Poor Number Choice". Sorry to have to be the one to tell you.
shake


Let's say I had settlements on 3, 4, 6, 10 and soon also on 11.
How poor's that?
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:12 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
5. Board Game: Bohnanza [Average Rating:7.13 Overall Rank:199]
Beau Bailey
United States
Missoula
Montana
Why don't you believe me?
badge
Seriously, I'm a weasel.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Low Player Interaction

There is almost no player interaction in most euros. It's just a multiplayer solitaire game. I play board games because I want to interact with other people, I want to be able to effect what happens to others.

The joy of being able to claim your opponent lost because you chose not support their attack of England is just priceless.
15 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 23 comments [Hide]
Curt Collins
United States
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
I want to lose because i screwed up, not because someone else decided I should lose.

What If I decided you were only going to have three walls on your home this winter? Is that fair that your gas bill goes way up because you can't contain the heat in your house?
12 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 9:59 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Myke Madsen
United States
Salt Lake City
Utah
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
If you (by which I mean the general "you") are perverse enough to enjoy someone else losing because you went out of your way to screw them over, you can enjoy any game, Thurn & Taxis and Princes of Florence included. You'll probably also ensure that no one enjoys playing games with you.

I'm constantly baffled by the claims against Euros that there is no player interaction. I think that Euros often have subtle player interaction which may not be very noticeable during casual play; but subtle doesn't mean unimportant or nonexistent. The Thurn & Taxis argument is a great example, so is Princes of Florence. In PoF, a large portion of the game is an auction for limited commodities (only one of each type available during a round). It's during those auctions where the game is won and lost.

Also, as others have alluded to, subtle player interaction can make for a more social gaming atmosphere than something with more direct conflict. Of course, YMMV.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Wed Dec 5, 2007 8:30 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Ingo Schildmann
Germany
Stuttgart
Baden-Württemberg
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
grimstuff wrote:
MerricB wrote:
... the option of taking cards that I need - or refilling the grid to deny me important cards.
...


It still doesn't constitute "interaction." It's multi-player solitaire with simultaneous observation, hence the "multi-".


Aren't the options that MerricB mentioned interactive enough?
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 8:37 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Richard van Vugt
Netherlands
Amsterdam
NH
mbmbmbmbmb
Four player solitaire? No, no; this honour goes to 'CardChess' by His Royal Shillness! hehe
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 8:51 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Michael Leuchtenburg
United States
Sunderland
Massachusetts
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
callidusx3 wrote:

1. Games that have some player interaction (i.e. are more than muli-player solitaire) allow you to loose due to three causes:

a. your opponent's screwed you,
b. you screwed yourself up,
c. the game screwed you (i.e. luck, against you or for your opponent).

2. Games that are multi-player solitaire allow you to loose due to two cause:

a. you screwed yourself up,
b. the game screwed you (i.e. luck, against you or for your opponent).

I hold great store by 1.a. Interacting with others was the biggest draw that brought me into boardgaming.


Many of the games I play fall into category 3.

a. you screwed yourself up,
b. your opponents screwed you.

e.g. Roads and Boats, 1856, Imperial, Antike, Rumis, Tutankhamen, Torres (with tactical variant).
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 9:32 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
6. Board Game: Imperial [Average Rating:7.72 Overall Rank:43]
Beau Bailey
United States
Missoula
Montana
Why don't you believe me?
badge
Seriously, I'm a weasel.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Not Epic

I want to see countries rise and fall. The battles of a single hero against hordes and hordes of monsters. Most euros just have you building something or laying out the countryside to have the most picturesque land scape.

There needs to be more drama, the game needs to have something that would make a nice 3 hour long epic movie that is too bloated for its own good.
4 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 19 comments [Hide]
Curt Collins
United States
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
At this point I see that I'm a tool. Though I can continue on....

42 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 10:03 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
paidoniai ludendae est
United States
Howard County
Maryland
Avatar
mbmb
Helmet Lampshade wrote:
You can't compare two kinds of, of.. well let's call them mediums.
A blockbuster is just about showing cool car crashes, stunts, shootouts. Not very sophisticated stuff.
But to play Amerigames, for example Tide of Iron, some intellectual effort is needed. You have to read the rules, play it by yourself play it wrong and than read the rules again to discover what you have done wrong. A game like Tide of Iron is quite complex and for a beginner hard to grasp. Same goes for Starcraft.


He's making an analogy, not comparing. The important thing is the relation of one style in a medium to another style in the same medium.

As this thing is to that thing, this (other thing) is to that (other thing)

So a "blockbuster" movie requires less thinking than an artsy film, you just have to sit and laugh at the pretty explosions, whereas in a foreign film or something you have to read subtitles, contemplate on "themes", and look deeper into it than "LOL EXPLOSSISONS!"

In the same way when I play "Ameritrash" games I spend less time thinking, "is this move optimal" and more time thinking, "OH MAN IF THIS INFANTRY UNIT DEFIES ALL ODDS AND TAKES OUT THAT TANK THIS WILL BE AWESOME!" I'm thinking on a more abstract level, on a less detailed or organized level. I'm focused more on the narrative, the metagame, the laughing at Brian for getting his Daimyo crushed by my lucky dice rolls, the mindless blathery that makes these games we play seem more like children's toys.

For euro games I am usually very contemplative, quiet, calculating, thinking in layers. In Powergrid, my favorite euro, I will sit for 10 minutes just staring at the board and stacking my chips, and this is fine because we're all doing it. We're all running efficiency patterns in our head, running through those "if then" in case Brian the second property in Dusseldorg, organizing, optimizing. It's a completely different gaming experience.

So just as blockbusters are less thought provoking than artsy films, so to do ameritrash games focus on a different "experience" than euro games.

I think the analogy is very good, actually
3 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 9:22 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
M C
United States
Orem
Utah
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
BagpipeDan wrote:
[q="Helmet Lampshade"]

For euro games I am usually very contemplative, quiet, calculating, thinking in layers. In Powergrid, my favorite euro, I will sit for 10 minutes just staring at the board and stacking my chips, and this is fine because we're all doing it. We're all running efficiency patterns in our head, running through those "if then" in case Brian the second property in Dusseldorg, organizing, optimizing. It's a completely different gaming experience.


I think the term we're looking for is "tactical accounting."
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 2:29 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Kenneth Bailey
United States
Ypsilanti
Michigan
Avatar
mbmbmbmb
bark40oz wrote:
is it just me, or do ameritrash games (i really hate that term) seem like they are trying to emulate videogames? the majoriy of euro games just seem more thought out and original.

Many of the games in the Ameritrash category pre-date video games.

To me, many of the Euro games seem like variations on each other. Some are well thought out and some are not.
2 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 6:03 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
United States

New York
designer
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
mikoyan wrote:
[
To me, many of the Euro games seem like variations on each other. Some are well thought out and some are not.


Omigods. That has to be the most profound statement I have ever heard expressed on the Geek.
2 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 10:41 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
7. Board Game: Thebes [Average Rating:7.26 Overall Rank:166]
Beau Bailey
United States
Missoula
Montana
Why don't you believe me?
badge
Seriously, I'm a weasel.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
One Mechanic

"Okay so I bid in the first phase, and then I bid in the second phase. What about the third phase?"

"You bid in that one too?"

-- OR --

Lay a tile, lay a tile, lay a tile, place a meeple, lay a tile...
3 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 12 comments [Hide]
Hunga Dunga
United States
Portland
Oregon
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Layering mechanics - you can create a masterpiece, or a mess.
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 9:41 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Richard van Vugt
Netherlands
Amsterdam
NH
mbmbmbmbmb
'I recall seeing a singular mechanic in some ameritrash games too.

Attack, roll some dice. Repeat.'

...You forgot to swear inbetween...
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Edited Thu Dec 6, 2007 8:57 am
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 8:56 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Timothy Pinkham
United States
La Palma
California
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
If you want a euro with layered mechanics, try out Oltre Mare, if you can get past the boring theme. Also, try Citadels. The theme there should work for you.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 11:40 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Lou Seelbach
United States
Huntington
West Virginia
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Thebes has one mechanic. Draw a tile from a bag and hope for a big number. Everything else is just icing on a turd.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 7:33 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Bill Barksdale
United States
Mountain View
California
mbmbmb
Sounds just like that really old game with the black and white stones where all you do on your turn is place one piece. Occasionally some pieces are captured but it's rare. No depth to that one at all.
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:28 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
8. Board Game: Tigris & Euphrates [Average Rating:7.89 Overall Rank:15]
Beau Bailey
United States
Missoula
Montana
Why don't you believe me?
badge
Seriously, I'm a weasel.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Low Player Conflict

Most euros are extremely passive lovefests where all the players try not to irritate their opponents. If no one is irritated at the game's end and is smugly satisfied with their mediocre enjoyment, then the game was a success and everyone can rest assured that they won. They have now all grown as individuals through their shared learning experience. This is communism.

If I can't somehow kill my opponent during the game, then the game is just not fun. I need to be able to completely upset their carefully laid plans by destroying their little powerplants or bombing the hell out of their perfectly laid out trains.
11 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 20 comments [Hide]
Curt Collins
United States
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
I find that there is no game in which I can't kill my opponent.

1. Ask if anyone would like to have anything to drink.
2. Go to the kitchen.
3. Find a suitable weapon such as the pruning shears I keep in MY kitchen.
4. Calmly enter the game room and (this is important) jerk the victim AWAY from the board. You don't want it getting bloody.
5. As the victim is removed from the board proceed to send him into the afterlife while singing "hey hey hey... goodbye...."
6. Laugh with the other players
7. Take the victim to a secluded area and dispose of the body.
8. Dispose of the witnesses.

Important aside: Don't game with people you LIKE.

39 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 10:07 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Mark C
United States
Ypsilanti
Michigan
Avatar
bigmop wrote:
It really bothers me when I can't actively attack another player. Oh how I wish TTR would come out with a version that included trains blowing up... Maybe have it set in the middle east?


Just like real life. Get upset, blow something up. Repeat until everyone is dead or interrogated or jailed.

This is why real men and women don't play games in the first place.

Ameritashers are just sissies playing with their dolls. Euros, even be worse.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 9:12 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Chris Johnson
United States
Salisbury
North Carolina
mbmbmbmb
I have to agree with this entry. Communism works well in real life, not in a board game.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 9:44 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
E J
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Kaleljorson7 wrote:
Your avatar indicates you already have.

Perfectly said!
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Mar 6, 2008 5:37 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
E J
United States
Tucson
Arizona
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
HappyProle wrote:
Philip Thomas wrote:
On the other hand, as the British Liberal Democrats are more leftwing than the American Democrats, his ignorance, if it was ignorance, was not important.


By almost any other Western country's standards, American Democrats are to the right of center.


Compared to Labor, oops I mean Labour, you are exactly right. Way more left. Where have all the Thatchers and Churchills gone? Could sure use em.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Mar 6, 2008 5:44 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
9. Board Game: Lord of the Rings [Average Rating:6.91 Overall Rank:324]
Dane Peacock
United States
Stansbury Park
Utah
That tickles
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
You can't tell one Euro from the other.

There is not enough difference in gameplay to separate the experience from one Euro to the next. Especially that Knizia guy. Played one, played em all.
21 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
Ernesto Cabrera
Mexico
Mexico
D.F.
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Me: "Hey let's play Lord of the Rings!"

Friends: "WOW, is that something like the movie? With blood, war, magic, adventure, life-threatening situations, dice rolling (oops!), Gandalf-killing creatures and Orcs-killing-Elves-even-though-there's-nothing-like-that-in-the-books!?!?"

Me: "Well, actually you're only drawing tiles and moving a pawn in different stages, expecting not to be eliminated by... well.. another pawn"

Friends: "Let's watch the movies, do you have the DVD?"
17 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Edited Wed Dec 5, 2007 7:06 am
  • Posted Wed Dec 5, 2007 7:05 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
ocean
United States
fayetteville
Arkansas
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
leave it to us americans to let our own materialism decide if we play a game or not.surprise
3 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Wed Dec 5, 2007 7:33 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Chris Snyder
United States
Selinsgrove
Pennsylvania
designer
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
I have to agree with you on this one. But I suppose the same can be said of many books, movies, songs, etc. There are a finite number of original ideas that exist. After that, it all starts to remind you of something else.
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Wed Dec 5, 2007 2:56 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Ed Sherman
United States
Colorado Springs
Colorado
Avatar
mbmb
bark40oz wrote:
leave it to us americans to let our own materialism decide if we play a game or not.surprise


 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 3:39 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
niels s
Netherlands
Unspecified
Unspecified
mbmbmb
Me: "Hey let's play Lord of the Rings RISK!"

Friends: "WOW, is that something like the movie? With blood, war, magic, adventure, life-threatening situations, dice rolling (oops!), Gandalf-killing creatures and Orcs-killing-Elves-even-though-there's-nothing-like-that-in-the-books!?!?"

Me: "Well, actually you're only moving little dolls around while throwing a lot of dice, trying to occupy the most important sections of the board."

Friends: "Let's watch the movies, do you have the DVD?"

And you thought that ameritrash games contained more difference? it's probably just a point of view

edit: stupid smileys
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Edited Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:24 pm
  • Posted Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:06 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
10. Board Game: Puerto Rico [Average Rating:8.26 Overall Rank:3]
Lexingtonian
United States
Unspecified
Massachusetts
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Colonialism--Eurocentric Eurogames

Let's dominate some foreigners so we can enslave them and rob them of their natural resources and cultural treasures. No wargames, though. War is bad.
6 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 0 comments
11. Board Game: Caylus [Average Rating:7.97 Overall Rank:11]
Lexingtonian
United States
Unspecified
Massachusetts
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
Sucking Up

I'm the best lickspittle! I win!

This has nothing to do with an infatuation with authority. The Germans have distanced themselves from their authoritarian past by asking their government to forbid their having swastikas.
1 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • 0 comments
36 comments [Hide]
Post Comment
Ben Lott
United States
Mason
Michigan
It's time to play the music, It's time to light the lights...
badge
Wocka Wocka Wocka!!
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
It took me a minute, but...
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 9:25 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Ian Andrews Madsen
United States
Logan
Utah
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
I was quite oblivious to the whole setup, because I'm not familiar with most of these games.
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Thu Dec 6, 2007 11:54 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Matthew Watson
United Kingdom
Edinburgh
mbmbmbmbmb
dbuel wrote:
cggritt wrote:
Why do Ameritrash banners and images seem to be associated with scantily clad women?


Something to do with heterosexuality


Hehe, sexual insecurity, more like.
4 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 9:44 am
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Mark C
United States
Ypsilanti
Michigan
Avatar

Great list, but the subtlety?

Don't you think you're feeding the stereotype that AT crowd is too thick to see anything more subtle than the pips on a die and death-themed minis?
 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Posted Fri Dec 7, 2007 9:10 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Brad "Real Men Stand in the Rain and Play This" Redfield
United Kingdom
Under a DVD Collection, Scarborough
North Yorkshire
Avatar
mbmbmbmbmb
That Ameri-trash banner is perfect because of the stero-typical association with Ameri-Trash board games to "tits and guns" style films/TV/games. And it does look pretty cool. goo
5 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Thumb up
  • Edited Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:23 pm
  • Posted Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:12 pm
    • Choose your Dice
      • Roll
      • Comment (Optional)
    • Reply
    •  
    • Quote
Front Page | Welcome | Contact | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Advertise | Support BGG | Feeds RSS
Geekdo, BoardGameGeek, the Geekdo logo, and the BoardGameGeek logo are trademarks of BoardGameGeek, LLC.