Boardgame Babylon's West Coast MeepleFest 2008 Convention Report and Session Details
E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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Another enjoyable West Coast MeepleFest has come and gone last weekend. This time, I went stag because my parents aren't currently up to watching our kids so my lovely and generous wife Christina let me go alone. Alone is hardly the word for it since I know plenty of nice people from the con last year and a few friends from the L.A. Gamerati were also coming up this year, too. So, I jetted off and had a blast in San Jose at the very nice hotel Doug and Shelly have arranged to host the 2nd Edition of WCMF.
Since I know that I'll never get the chance to cover all of these games in a podcast (and I have a backlog of shows to release anyway), I've instead spent my lunch hours this last week putting together my notes and recollections. Sorry if not every one of them is as thorough but some just didn't interest me as much as others. Also, I assume people know the rules of some of the older titles (or new versions of older titles).
I certainly had a great time at the convention and going through them again to make my session notes was a lot of fun, too. Thanks to Doug and Shelly for a great convention and to all the terrific folks with whom I had the pleasure of gaming.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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When I get to the airport, I find that Chris Johnson - who is also attending MeepleFest this year - is on the same flight as I am. We start our first game of the convention on the plane - a half-way done game of RFTG on the table tray between us (thankfully, no one dares to sit between us).
Chris remains such a skilled Racer that my goals are primarily about doing my best before he vacuums up all the victory points and alerts me that the game is at an end. Although we finished the game on a Free Speech counter in the airport while waiting, we promptly started a second game in order to summon Shannen, who was kind enough to pick us up at the airport. Oh, well, only one crushing defeat at a time.
I am now up to just under twenty plays of the game and it remains fresh but there is a lot to learn about efficient play if I am to compete with the local Racers who consistently score above fifty points a game and always are the ones calling the shots to end it.
I played Race five times over the weekend - twice two-handed with Chris, and three more times with four - including one bar play where I was three sheets to the wind and still had fun even though I probably missed a lot of what was going on, even on my own cards.
As suggested on the Agricola: In depth podcasts, I feel sure I will get Chris and Stephanie Kelleher back for a RFTG show - hopefully to coincide with the Gathering Storm expansion's release. That should be soon - right? Right?!?
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2.
Board Game: Keltis
[Average Rating:6.53 Overall Rank:788]
E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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After arriving and greeting the great folks attending the show, it was right down to the business of playing the new games! We broke open the shrinkwrap on Doug's copy of Keltis so we could give it a go. The scuttlebutt on this Spiel Des Jahres winner has been that it is "Lost Cities on Steroids" and I cannot argue with that assessment, as dismissive as it sounds. But, hey, Keltis is enjoyable if you like Lost Cities and always thought there could be a little more to it just to keep things interesting.
For me, having Keltis around would mean not having anything more to do with Lost Cities except that those lovely cards fit nicely into the travel pack that Christina and I take with us on vacations. There are few things I enjoy more in life than playing games with my wife on a hotel balcony with my kids sleeping inside.
But back to Keltis - the game has the basic mechanism of Lost Cities. You play cards in colored sets but have to be careful not to build in too many colors since you will get negative points for sets started that are too small. Here, though, you needn't worry about the math involved since each card played just moves one of your tokens up a path of Celtic stones that start with negative numbers and then continue into positive ones. Along the paths, you find bonus point markers, clovers that let you move this or another marker up one, and also clovers that you save as a collection to get points (or be saddled with a penalty if you collect one or fewer).
The other primary difference is that you can start playing the cards in ascending or descending order. Although this can occasionally confuse Lost Cities players (I once absently adjusted my descending order cards back to ascending order like a dummy and then played on it and then had to fix it - oops! I brought that on myself!) Once you grow accustomed to it, the change is a revelation. Getting higher cards early is fine now and the game is more fluid with very little discarding (after three games, I almost never saw more than one discard out) and a faster pace.
All in all, I think Keltis is a minor victory for Knizia - a redesign of a classic that works well even though it breaks little new ground. Will you need Lost Cities if you have Keltis since it plays 2 through 4? Only if you want portability, sure - and I think that's fine.
I played Keltis three times over the weekend - once with Chris, Chia, and Greg, once with Doug, Shelly and Aldie, once with Bryan, Lisa and Chris Handy. It was enough fun and quick enough to want to keep jumping in on games.
Last note - Jay Tummelson has said that Keltis will appear in the US as Lost Cities: The Board Game. With the exposure Lost Cities now gets as an Xbox Live game, I cannot blame him but I'll miss the nice Irish theming, even as pasted on as it is. What can I do? My Irish heritage is the only nationality beside American that I've ever felt connected with - the game even designates that the last person to visit Ireland gets to go first. Now I have even more motivation to visit the Emerald Isle.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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Chris and Shannen got me to play this one rather early on Thursday. Due to my commitment to occasionally getting older games in during my game sessions, I agreed to it. Also, Web of Power happens to be a great game. We played quickly (probably fifteen minutes) and rushed to a close ending with Shannen edging us out with her French dominance. I have Kardinal and Konig myself but one of the guys at my work is dying to give his Tanga'd copy of China out so I guess I'll be playing it again soon.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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After recent mention of this game on Doug's podcast, I made a mental note to try it out. I had my chance to play it with Mark Jackson, Chris Farrell and Candy Weber - probably most of whom had heard of Doug's liking for a game that had a few knocks against it already. First, it's a licensed product and we know that with very few exceptions (say, Knizia's Lord of the Rings and Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation), they tend to be lousy. Add to that the fact that many early reviewers were not kind to this race game. Finally, I personally found the movie dull and it did not inspire me to read the books (my kids disliked it, too). I have no issue with the themes - I just thought it was kind of boring.
The game has similar problems, despite some interesting elements. Players are racing to the end of the line (who can recall what that represents?) and have to acquire a certain level of power of certain types (again, they represent something but Chris inspired us to call them "purple stuff" and "green stuff"). You also have to turn in some pips of those powers to acquire allies along the way that give you some special abilities before reaching the end, by which time you also need to buff up on those powers again. You move by playing number cards and each player has their own color. The trick is that you can only use the cards of people that are ahead of you along the path. When you are in the lead, you can only use your cards. So, turn order is a huge factor and you need to look ahead effectively to select from the right stacks (as you can draw from anyone's pile).
The spaces on the path are pretty simple - most give you a power pip for one ability, some are wild, some special places give you different prizes depending on the order in which you arrive there, and - towards the end - some are snow spots that slow down your movement (unless you get the polar bears as an ally).
We fouled up one rule (first time over the weekend but not the last!) with regard to turn order that did make a difference in the game but my assessment would be unlikely to change with that rule corrected. It's a bit too long for what it is and although some effort was put into capturing the theme, it isn't all that compelling. The other players seemed to agree - we all were in the camp of "glad I tried it". My expectation is that since the film was a flop here in the US, Der Goldene Kompass will remain an import item and one that I have no reason to buy. Push comes to shove, I'd play it one more time, but probably with less than four.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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This is more like it. Early middling to bad reviews of this Andreas Pelikan game set me up for another mediocre Alea offering (there have been a few in recent days) but I confess to rather enjoying Witch's Brew.
The silly theme has to do with the players taking roles to allow them to brew potions - which involves collecting drops of ingredients, grabbing your chance at a cauldron and sometimes just going for the money (including your opponents' stash!)
Witch's Brew is essentially a role selection game where you can cancel out what other people take or declare "so be it!' to take a lesser advantage and leave the person who retained the role with the danger of someone else stealing it away. Turn order is a big deal since you may not want to be the next person to bring up a role and because you may want someone else to brew a potion before you (since the next one may be worth more points).
There are also some thieving options and other small ways to rack up points that gives it a little bit of a feel of Citadels. However, there are plenty of chances each turn to get something done, which mitigates the problem of people spoiling your day by stealing your role.
My first game with three (with Mark Jackson and Chia) was more confrontational. There were few times when we took the secondary role and realized the value of relinquishing the chance to start the next role. When we played with five (adding Greg, Chris, and Shannen to the mix in place of the Fluff Daddy), we started to get the subtleties of "So Be It!". The nice thing is - this actually speeds up the game since your brewing days come to an end when a certain number of the cards are claimed through brewing and skullduggery.
I liked the game enough to play it twice and play number two told me that although this isn't an instant classic, it is one of the Alea games I won't just get for the number on the side. We'll play this one again soon.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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Speaking of mediocre Alea games...as it happens, I played both of the wizard-themed Alea titles at WCMF and the second one is the old title Die Sieben Weisen (number 3 in the small box series, for those keeping count). It should be noted that this title was never released in the US and my copy has been sitting on the shelf between Royal Turf and San Juan for a couple of years. However, I saw a copy of the game at last year?s WCMF and so I put in a special request to Doug for him to teach it to me this year. He was kind enough to oblige. We were joined by the delightful Shelly and Gwen Tevis - I was again lucky enough to get a particularly nice group to the table for a new game (always helps when learning something new).
DSW is a partnership tug-of-war where you can change partners every round. Players are dealt a few cards that each match one of the seven magi roles (Sorcerer, Hexer, Cleric, etc. - who knew there were so many kinds? Okay, maybe anyone who ever played D&D...) or is a wild Owl card that anyone can use. Then, players declare which magi role they are going to take in turn order that begins with the player who dropped out of the previous round first.
Once all players select a role, they negotiate to work with one of the others for the round. Once two agree, the others are pretty much forced into working together. At that time, the partners can exchange cards of just the roles they are currently inhabiting ? meaning that the negotiations are quick - "Hey, sorcerer! I have card for yoooo!" In fact, Doug and I were pretty aggressive and would either quickly partner up or grab one of the ladies to our sides - meaning that the negotiations didn't take long. Honestly, it should be pretty quick in most cases unless you have players that believe every decision is Sophie's Choice.
Once cards are passed, the players simply start playing them in turn order or passing. There is a little wooden cone that gets moved up and down the zig-zaggy tug-of-war path until the players all pass. There are also some spell cards that are handed out that let you break rules, too, and they go to the losing team each turn. The winners take victory points that range from 7 to 2 - and the magi role that is higher ranked on the card (each has a varied list of the seven) gets the big one. The winner that takes the lower value tile gets to choose which of the next two upcoming tiles will be the location of the next brawl (which already has the victory chits). Somewhere amongst the last five tiles is a ending tile and that's how you wind this one up.
DSW definitely falls into the category of lesser Alea titles - probably the reason why Jay never did it (although listeners to BGB probably know that he now regrets not taking them all since people do love their numbered boxes - yours truly included). If you do not like negotiations, even as minor as these are, you will not enjoy the game much. The order of the magi on the tiles determining things is nice and the magic cards are fun but overall, this is hardly up to the Alea line's best. Shelly openly disliked it, Doug was reminded why it doesn't come out much and Gwen appeared to have the response I did - glad I tried it but I won't call for it again. I should get the shrinkwrap off my copy just so I don't look too much like a collector but I will probably wait until someone else asks me to play it.
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7.
Board Game: Toledo
[Average Rating:6.35 Overall Rank:1222]
E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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Three were three Martin Wallace games I wanted to play at WCMF and I only got around to this one. Tinners' Trail was played extensively but I never seemed to grab a spot. Railroad Tycoon never came off the game library table. So, I was left to Toledo - something he's done for the folks at Kosmos.
Let me say first that I was put off by the lackluster artwork. The board is extremely busy and the simple line drawings on the cards lacked the kind of beauty that I have come to expect from games these days. I realize that when a Warfrog title is done, they do what they can. But I would have expected Kosmos to do more.
Even with that knock against it, I quickly liked Toledo - a lighter Wallace item that can easily be played in under an hour. Players use their five helper pieces to try and gather the materials to build swords from a limited number available, put them together at a sword-making shop and then deliver them to the castle on the hill to gain points.
The players are also shop owners that can place their steel, jewelry, sword-making and fencing-trainer boutiques along the boulevard through the town and up the hill. Cards are used for movement through the town and if you can manage to land on your own shop (they are placed as a turn, generally in the early rounds of the game), you don't pay anything. Otherwise, you pay the other players. There are only one or two spaces on each shop so if the spaces are full when you land, you will have to duel one of the players in a card drawing duel (the cards have results on them - and it's essentially a two out of three draw). Bizarrely, you can also stop on the workshop of El Greco to buy paintings which also are worth victory points. You can even buy a horse that helps with movement but costs you victory points because - well - I guess that is supposed to balance things out! These extra little rules feel like the Wallace 'chrome' that sometimes throws off casual gamers. They don't really cloud things here but they also don't feel completely necessary.
Does it sound like Caylus? Both fans and detractors of Wallace (I count myself among the former) will probably think Toledo sounds like something Wallace tossed off after playing Caylus one time, perhaps a couple of years before. While Toledo certainly lacks the depth of Struggle of Empires, Princes of the Renaissance, or the recent and utterly terrific Brass, it has its own minor charms. The shop placement provides a nice means of interaction and planning (even if the ownership makes perhaps even less sense than Caylus), the race to claim the limited swords (the best ones only come in ones or twos) works nicely to keep things moving and planning your movement to include multiple moves by playing the same numeric value is enjoyable, too.
Toledo is hardly a top-tier Wallace design but it is a nice diversion that I will certainly play again - although it won't go on the buy list. Here's a good case where the Mayfair pricing is working against them. If it were a little cheaper, it would probably creep onto my list.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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Mark Jackson had the two newer Entdecker games on hand so we decided to give them a go. Mark's a big fan of the series so it was nice to have them explained by an enthusiastic fan since I've always been a little cold to them. The original is fine and all but we've ended up just playing Oceania around my house because we never found the full game that compelling (full disclosure: I had Die Neuen Entdecker).
However, the new ones came with fresh new themes and Mark said that Desert Suns was more 'gamery' than Jade Goddess so that was the one we chose.
So, yeah - it's desert Entdecker. But there are some nice touches. The scouts are different heights to govern order of taking treasure and one of them even gets a turban to make him taller than everyone else. The 'gamery' aspects include the fact that you also have water (instead of gold) that you can spend to break rules and the collection system is interesting. You collect various treasures but also extra water and rumors tiles (hey, they look like ears!) that can secretly affect the value of the treasures.
That's about it. If you know Entdecker, this isn't really new but the theme is nice and the new factors were enjoyable to play. I'm still not convinced I need another Entdecker in my collection but I did find this version more entertaining than the original.
For some reason, Mark, Chris and I left Shannen to wander to the other side of the board and mop up TONS of treasure worth gobs of points while we duked it out over small finds. As you might guess, she ran away with it.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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The next day, we broke out Jade Goddess - again with Mark Jackson ready to teach us. As he had said, Jade Goddess (which is about a year old so it's unlikely to see a US release) is more of a family game with simpler rules and more random choices.
Instead of selecting specific treasures, you end up mostly drawing tiles to try and complete four-part idols. In a nice touch, the idol pieces come in both preserved golden and rusty brown varieties. Players are given a little easel to put them on so you can even line them up secretly to keep track of which ones you still need and if you can complete an all gold one, you get more points than those that are part or all scruffy. But even completing an idols garners a bonus anyway. While most treasures are blind draws, players can also do trading with a hand of five face-up idols or do two for two trades with the face down pile at a cost (the game has gold that you can claim, too) and it uses up a turn.
That's about it. Jade Goddess is lovely to look at (like Desert Suns) but offers even less extra chrome than its sandy sister game. Although it was a nice diversion and pretty quick, I think the Desert Suns was more fun and more likely to see me return for another play.
I somehow managed to win this one by claiming a solid share of the idol pieces and completing two idols - although none were pure gold.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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One part That's Life! and one part Tutankhamen, Big Points is a simple filler that many had picked for a slot in the SDJ nominees. It ended up getting a recommendation and I'll recommend it, too, if you want a fifteen minute game that you can play with kids easily.
Players move any of five little differently colored pawns along a line of similarly-colored disks towards a staircase with victory points on them. Along the way, players obtain disks next to the pawn they moved to a color that matched the pawn's. There are also black and white disks (black ones can be sacrificed for a second turn and white ones generate a bonus equal to the number of different colors the player claims).
There isn't much more to it. You can move each pawn forward (except you can move back with the black discs) and the game ends when they all reach the staircase. Then you get points based on the discs times their point marker.
Schmidt Spiele did provide some nice components, too. It's even in a cute little square box sure to annoy the OCD game shelf stackers.
As a fifteen minute filler that I got to play and forget, I thought it was just fine. As a game to add to the collection and play long term, no. Still - I'd never refuse to give it another go.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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This two-player game from Abacus Spiele was on my list purely on the basis of co-designer Michael Schacht because I believe that few others make such interesting short games. Yes, it gives in to the dice mania of the last couple of years and, yes, it does feel a little bit like Roma, a wonderful Stefan Feld title from Queen. But Shanghaien is also just a light set collection game that I can easily see playing with my kids and my wife in fifteen to twenty minutes. Around the Burgess house, we have much use for these since you can get one in before bedtime.
The theme is fun, too - pressing folks of various nationalities into service for your ship. The theme is very thin but it means you get amusing art and pirate captain meeples - so that's a good thing.
The game is exceedingly simple - you have a deck of cards with various factions and ranks (plus some 'dirty tricks' cards), a set of dice and captain meeples for each player. Each round, you lay out six cards between the players and then each turn, a player rolls two dice. The player then assigns one die to a card in the position to match the dice roll. So, if you roll a three and a five, you can assign a die to the third or fifth card on the row. Players continue to do this until either one player is down to a single die or a player calls "Shanghai!" (okay, you can just say it) at some point after placing two dice. Then, players claim the cards for which they have committed more dice than the opponents (unclaimed cards are discarded). If there are ties (and there will be), you look to see who has the most dice on neighboring cards. So, if you are battling out for the third card, the number of dice you commit to the second and fourth cards are the tiebreaker. In that case, pips can matter, too.
Of course, you'll be trying harder to get the high rank cards because once you've planned eight rounds of play, points will be awarded to the player with the highest number of points in each faction (they are nationalities, actually). The winning player in each faction will get points equal to the losing players total. Thus, it is pretty easy to turn the other player's huge advantage in a color against her/him by simply taking one small card in the faction being dominated. Thus, if you have eight points in Frenchmen and I claim one point - all you get is that one point. So close wins are the best - or shutting out the other player completely, which gives you your own cards instead.
Although that scoring system is obviously Schachtian (see Web of Power/Richelieu), it works really well here to keep the game a tense fight over items with a small difference in value. Yep - Schacht all the way.
I should mention the "dirty trick" cards, which are simply cards you can acquire like the others that affect the die or add to your factions. They are one-time plays and you can only use one per turn. When you play one, you put your captain meeple up next to the row of cards to show you cannot use another dirty trick this turn. Hardly justifies having the tall, peg-legged captain meeples but who cares? They are cool.
I played Shanghaien once with Mark Jackson, who was kind enough to teach me, and once with Chris Handy. Although I narrowly lost both games, I had a lot of fun and the game went right onto my buy list (despite the fact that it may not be coming out in the US).
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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I'm always happy to play this one and I had the chance to sit down with Ric, Matt and Paul to play it. Paul bailed on us while I was explaining and another fellow stepped in to play the Medic role.
It was a first go on the game for Ric and Matt but I always encourage people to play on Normal because I think it is better to lose your first game (unlikely on Easy with even one experienced player).
Unfortunately, our newly added medic seemed to be motivated to go his own path and 'take some risks', which cost us in the end since we lost on Outbreaks. The other three had a second go but as much as I like Pandemic, I wanted to get to the next new game.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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I know I'll be showing off Tribune at the Gateway 2008 next month at the end of the month so I was curious to try this out. My only recollection of the game was watching a very long game of it at BGG.con last year as I was chatting up Kevin Wilson. All the time I spent recording with him for the podcast, plus the hour or so we chatted afterward about some of the exciting project he was working on, the same group of folks were playing Tribune. Knowing it was Karl-Heinz Schmiel responsible for the game, I figured that perhaps he had come up with another epic game along the lines Die Macher (well, at least in length if not depth).
However, as Tribune was getting plenty of play at WCMF (at least two copies were present and it seemed like at least one was always in use), I'd already overheard many people talking about the game and there were numerous mentions of short playtimes (including one game that ended on turn three and only twenty-five minutes in). That was enough to get me interested in making sure I got a play over the weekend.
Tribune is a worker placement game but it has enough interesting elements to rise above that description. Players are charged with claiming a certain number of victory conditions spelled out on one of a series of cards with varying options. The collect those conditions, players use their workers to claim cards and take over factions in Roman society. There are always more victory conditions than the number you need so you can pick and choose which ones make sense for you and write one or two off. You can vary the length of the game by agreeing to go for more, if the players so choose.
Like most worker placement games, there are a variety of ways to claim cards and they are resolved in a certain order. Some cost money, some are potential blind bids, some are for exchanges, while others are secret until you make a selection. I won't go into the specifics but suffice it to say you get cards (just about every option gives you a chance to do so) and the cards themselves are colored to match certain factions (e.g., Gladiators, Senators, Vestal Virgins, Praetorians) and each has a value on it. You then use these cards to play melds of at least two cards to claim the corresponding faction. Only one player may have control at a time so if someone else has a meld down for the faction you are interested in taking over, you need to have either more cards than the other player or a higher total on your cards.
And losing a faction isn't the end of the world either, although you gain an advantage when you retain control, because gaining a faction marker for taking one over is the means of getting to a victory condition. In fact, they should change hands a fair amount because you also get a nice bonus when you take over a faction. The act of taking over a faction is also one of the things you can do with your workers (along with the chance to get some money - which is always available). In fact, up to two players can choose to attempt a takeover of each faction and in that case, the second person to place their worker has to go first - giving the player who first placed a piece a chance to override them (or hold back their sure-to-lose meld). Order of placement and turn order are huge in this game. The last thing players do is bid for the chariot - a big 3-D piece of the game that almost seems out of place. It's a blind bid and the player with the highest bid may lock a certain faction so that no one can claim it - whether or not the player has control of it currently.
Your goals are many - victory conditions include a sufficient amount of money, laurels (obtained through faction control/takeovers and a space on the board where you can discard a pair of like cards to claim them), legions, faction markers, or a favor of the gods (given to the controller of the Vestal Virgins) and even the mighty Tribune. This last one is a real pain to get and requires a lot of work to get it. On some victory condition cards, there is an obligatory condition as well, meaning no one can win without that one. Further, the game includes a variant to just count up points for everything to win.
I yawn strongly at that last idea, as I think it robs the game of the compelling idea that if someone gets enough victory conditions, they win - hands down. I think this is part of Tribune's appeal and one of the reasons I think so highly of the game. I've played it subsequently and I was just as excited about it because I again saw moments when people were on the verge of victory and someone managed to slip in and stop them - only to have the same thing come up again the next turn.
I find the game very compelling, full of interesting choices and yet not that terribly complex. The victory conditions make me think it will continue to have good replay value. Why do we have to wait so long between Karl-Heinz Schmiel games? Someone needs to be assigned to keep him working on new games. I'm sorry I didn't play this in 2007 (did it REALLY come out then?) because I would have found a spot on the "Best of 2007" list for it.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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The first and main stinker of the weekend for me, Lascaux was one that I was interested in trying but I didn't like it at all. It has elements of Geschenkt (No Thanks) in the mix and not a whole lot more.
First, you pick a color from a selection of them that appear on a series of cards - two to a card. A set of cards are then laid out as the lots for the turn. Players then do a round of Geschenktian bidding (throw in a bidding chip - in this case, lovely little stones - or out you go) where you collect all the bids when you pass. Then, your chip is placed in a stack that will allow you to collect all cards with that color on them - if anything remains by the time your chip is turned up. As you might guess, the players that stay in the bidding longer get put on top of your chip (and get their shot first). So, it's a bit of a guessing game as you hope to select a color of cards that are still available when your chip turns up.
My problem with the game is the chaotic nature of the picks people can select. It is quite easy to be the second highest bidder (and have essentially shot your wad) and have ended up picking the same color as the highest bidder - meaning that it isn't too hard to get seriously fouled up and to leave plenty for lower bidders that got lucky with their picks. Once, I picked the second most populous color up there and so did the guy who won the bid. Third place was then given more cards than first and second place. That just does not compute for me. At least in Geschenkt, you often can make a nice comeback with a lucky turn of the card that lets you milk the others for chips. Once you are behind on chips in Lascaux, it is much harder to get more back because of people playing a chip-collecting, low-demand color-picking strategy. I was bummed five minutes into the game.
Scoring is another slight annoyance. Only the player with the most of a particular animal gets points. Thus, a lucky turn can just wipe out a hard-earned majority. Further - you can collect cards all game and get no points at all!
I would say that the one saving grace for me is the components, which contain nicely-produced cave-painting style art and the aforementioned stones. However, the drawings of the animals are pretty similar and that is all that distinguishes them since the colors are independent of the animals. If they had included some tastefully done symbols on the cards, I think it would have helped (even if they lost some theme). At least once, I saw the wrong animal on a card and suffered for it.
Thankfully, the game is short but I was late for the next game even before its short duration was up. Although I'd be willing to try the game again with a smaller number of players, it is far too random with five.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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It's always fun to play this card drafting game from Z-Man. We played a quick game of this just to pass the time and we taught it to some new people (I think it was new to Chia and Greg). I was again struck by what I think is unattractive artwork but the game remains fun and a favorite among our friends. I need to bring this one in for work because it is easy to finish over a lunchtime break with time for eating/chatting, too.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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On Friday night, Doug always has a meet and greet to get everyone at the con to play a game together. This year, it was two games - one simple name-gathering activity (which is a lot of fun) and a couple of rounds of Take It Easy. The first time I played Take it Easy, I thought people were nuts to like it. It seemed kind of boring and pretty simple. But after a few more plays and a trial (and purchase of) its big brother, Take it to the Limit, I'm a fan.
Although I tried to use my psychic powers to force Doug to draw the tiles I wanted, he didn't seem receptive to my attempts! I scored solidly in the first round and quite well in the second one - even enough to tie for first place at my table. However, others did better and so I didn't win. A nice choice for a large scale event for all seventy plus attendees.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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Hype can really work against a game at times. I've heard so many people singing the praises of Jamaica, it was probably never going to live up to all of that. I'd even balked at a chance to play it a couple of months back because although the game is undeniably beautiful, watching some other people play it did not inspire me. I like pirates nearly as much as the next person and a well-themed fun romp with them will always appeal to me. Pirate's Cove is not a favorite but I'll play it now and again. Same goes for Rum and Pirates and certainly the clever Pieces of Eight. So, I approached Jamaica with hope and high expectations.
Sadly, I found it underwhelming. It's a race game and although it has a few nice flourishes, I found the design to be lacking in qualities that I'd find appealing. It's very lucky and you can get way behind without much chance to catch up, which can get a bit boring.
Players are pirate captains sailing around a watery rectangular race track. Each player draws from a hand of the same cards and plays one per turn to help them move, gain money and perform other actions. You have a set number of holds where you can store your spoils - be they food, gold, or cannons. Various spaces require one or the other type of resource to move there and there is a nice ordering mechanic where each card has an action for the morning and one for the nighttime. Interestingly, we learned that each player plays both of their actions in order while Doug later pointed out that they have been playing all players' morning actions first and then all players' nighttime actions afterward. Thematically, Doug's sounds better but I need to check the rules again to see who is actually right.
The actions may move you forward or back or allow you to take something - always governed by the roll of the dice. The starting player rolls two dice and assigns them to the morning and the evening - which will then affect the speed of your movement or number of resources you claim on your cards. Then, you react to spaces which may provide you with treasure or require something to move there, or you may even land on another player. Much like Pirate's Cove, if there are two players in the same spot, they fight! The combat's easy - commit cannons and then roll a die with even-numbered values and a instant kill side. If you lose, your opponent claims the contents of one of your holds.
And you pretty much keeping doing this until someone crosses the finish line. Bonuses are given for doing so or getting close (I believe) and then you add that to your gold. It is supposed to be about an hour and our game ran a bit over that.
Why didn't I like Jamaica? Well, I'll admit that our group wasn't getting into calling each other 'scurvy dogs' and I didn't hear "Yo-ho, Yo-ho, a pirate's life for me!" even once. This is in direct contrast to another game of it I observed later in the weekend where there were many salty old pirates that felt no need to wait for September 19th to talk like a pirate. So, maybe that's it. As it is, I found Jamaica to be a little tiresome, very lucky and unsatisfying. I wouldn't say it is any worse or better than Pirate's Cove (a game that I keep thinking I should trade away).
What I will give them is that Jamaica is a wonder of lovely graphic design. The cards are gorgeous, the tiles and pieces are nice and the board, although the lines to cut off spaces can be confusing, is a pleasure to behold. Too bad I didn't find the game to be more fun. Maybe next time, if I play alongside people with peglegs and parrots it'll work better for me.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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I had a chance to play two unpublished prototypes, both of which are pretty much ready for market. I can't comment on the designers or the games themselves but suffice it to say that both were games people will be very excited to see when they come out. I hope to get a chance to review them both in the near future and tell you more. I'm always happy to play prototypes because I find the process interesting and love to hear about the choices the designer has made to refine things and how they often have to give up things they love to make the game work. It's hard but looks to be enormously rewarding.
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19.
Board Game: Blox
[Average Rating:6.57 Overall Rank:1451]
E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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Finally on Saturday, I managed to get to Blox. Chris Handy (of Gateplay.com) and I tried it out with two and I think the game really needs another play to see it shine as it obviously did for the SDJ jury.
Kramer and some collaborators have come up with another themeless, open-ended game that can put the wrong gamer into massive AP mode. Players use cards in four colors to move their conical pieces around the board to break down towers of the Blox pieces or build them back up (or, in some cases, just move to set up a future smash/build). The board is seeded with towers of various statures, which is important since you can only smash and build towers of certain heights until all of them are destroyed and you can go for the bigger ones. This restriction is fairly easy to deal with as the game starts easy (knocking down single blox towers and build two blox towers) and then gets harder when you need to use the blox from the towers you destroyed to build taller towers in the future that you will decimate in the next round as you begin building the next level of towers. You get points equal to the tower you bust up as well as the same number of points for building. Elegant, ain't it?
Just kidding. Actually, you can also bump off your opponent's coneheads for three points but they can put them right back on the board the next turn. Movement is restricted by the colored spaces on the board - if you have a black card, you can move any orthogonal direction to the next black space. If the black spot you want is beyond the first one, well, that'll be a turn and a card each, my friend.
And that's all, as they say, he wrote. While I do think the game will be better with four people, I did find it dry and encouraging to AP behavior (much like Kramer's Action Point games - notice they share an abbreviation...) and only a little bit fun. My least favorite of the Spiel Des Jahres nominees that I had a chance to play (and I'm up to four of five now).
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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I'd been wanting to play this party-style game with gorgeous components for a while. Plus: the theme is hilarious. Players try to sneak illegal stuff over the border past the sheriff (one of the players each turn). The game even comes with individual metal suitcases (themselves nicely themed - there's even a Settlers of Catan case) that you use to hide your goods when trying to sneak past the sheriff.
Each turn, you get more cards that have goods on them. Some of them are legal items like sombreros and jugs that can garner you points without danger even if you are searched. As you might guess, you get more from smuggling illegal stuff like cigars, booze and idols. Players put their stuff in their suitcase and then the sheriff asks each player to declare what they are bringing in. You can lie or tell the truth to influence the sheriff.
If you are searched and you have nothing but the legal stuff you stated, you keep it all and the sheriff has wasted his/her turn. If you are caught with the illegal stuff, you lose money and your goods, although you can bribe the sheriff before he looks in the case to turn his attention elsewhere. Stuff that gets by is banked and you can also put aside some extras for a double-score bonus at the end but that is restricted a bit.
There are some more details but that's the gist of it. The game is good fun, especially when people use accents or play it up a bit (as Kendall was gamely doing). However, it wasn't compelling enough for me to think it needs to be added to the collection. Gorgeous though the production is, the game lacks a spark that makes it interesting enough for me to think we'll play it regularly but I'd always be willing to try it again - especially with the full complement of six players.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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I was tired when we started this one so I'll put that right up front. I also had been doing some other things while the rules were explained and I came back just in time to hear the end of them. I was told I could learn the rules from the first round of play, which sounded fine to me. Hey, it's just another euro, right?
Actually, that is right. The previous night, I'd heard Aldie complain on Doug's podcast that he was experiencing 'euro ennui' - which had driven him to find entertainment in the new 4th Edition D&D (his drug of choice for most of the weekend). Three turns into League of Six, I started to feel what he was talking about. LOS has a few ideas that are not immediately traceable to another game but it also lacks a spark to make the proceedings feel unique or, more importantly, much fun.
Players are trying to get victory points by bidding for cities tiles that will give them resources, bidding capital, and turn order in the resource placement round. My least favorite part of the game is the tit-for-tat bidding. It has Evo/Amun-Re style bidding but there are so many options with five players that it can end up being a long series of back-and-forth bidding before the round is up. The problem lies in the fact that if you duke it out with one player, it ends with them giving you money - which means you now have the dough to go walk over and fight someone else. Waiting around for that to resolve sure is fun!
After the bid wars, players drop their resources onto these shelves which gives them victory points. Each shelf has a group of requirements and if you cannot fill the one you select, the next player in order HAS to do so with their resources. They get something out of it but since the former player can control this - it is easy to make others drop their hard-fought resources for piddly points. This is also enormous fun!
There is more to it (I admit to liking the little dials on the cities which determine what you get) but I can't go on any longer. I found the game tiresome and even got to the point where I was looking up the bad reviews for it on BGG.com and reading them aloud (hey, it was late and did I mention you get three free drinks per night at the bar when you stay at the hotel?) It was me at my most obnoxious but they wouldn't end the game early (yes, it's another game where you do the same thing X number of times - another aspect of euro design that is frequently criticized) despite my pleas!
Notice I didn't mention the theme? It has something to do with horses and Leagues of Six but I couldn't tell you. I think someone said we were tax collectors but that wasn't worth much attention, I figured. Another common euro game knock - and here, I would agree with that complaint.
I should really try it again with perhaps three players and when I'm not tired and liquored up. But then again, life is probably too short to give every mediocre game its due consideration.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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I've developed a fondness for this game since about a year ago when I played a 1 AM tournament of it at Gateway 2007 with Tom Jolly and some others where we were victorious despite us having a fair amount to drink beforehand.
Since then, I've acquired a copy and played it a few more times - even becoming quite good at it. The game's simple - two teams compete in trying to get the other members of their team to repeat five words by saying, well, 25 words or less. The trick is - each team's active player bids something lower than twenty-five and they go back and forth bidding lower until one of the players passes and then the other one has his/her go at it.
It was quite late on Saturday night and I was contemplating going to bed so I could get an early start the next morning. However, a party game was suggested by Chia or Shannen or someone else charming enough to convince me to stay up and I thought - "okay, one more..."
At first, I was happy with this suggestion but after about ten minutes, I realized that as much as I like this game, 25 Words or Less has a heck of a lot of downtime with a large group if you have players that are REALLY trying to figure out their minimum possible bids. The last few times I've played it, my wife Christina and I played against another couple and so the game went pretty quickly.
This time, even with a shortened 'only to six cards instead of ten' stipulation included, the game dragged while we waited for the bids (I was no better - I had a lot to consider when I bid '6' one time). Still, we had fun (even in crushing defeat!) with it but I got even sleepier as we played and didn't make much of a contribution to the team.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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Next, I agreed to play Exxtra for the simple reason that I needed something peppy or I was going to fall asleep in my meeples. We found a copy buried under some other games, broke it out and explained the game to everyone. Often called Reiner Knizia's answer to Can't Stop (in fact, I think Chris said that out loud as we prepared to explain it), Exxtra has become a reliable even starter/ender at our game days since it scales nicely up to six and takes little attention. Players roll two slightly different dice (both dice have an X, a 1, 2, and 3 - and the remaining two spaces on each has either a 4, 5, 6, and 7. Doubles score pure points while any other non-X score can be placed on the betting bars (0 to 5 points) in the hopes that no one will roll higher and claim a lower rung. If your dice are still on the betting bar by the end of the game, you get those points. Roll an X and you lose one point per X.
I think Chris and I were the only ones that had played the game before and while I played an off the cuff game, Chris played more for higher scores to assure a point victory. The others were learning and playing pretty loosely. Shannen and Chia pulled ahead but they could not outdo my lucky streak.
Later on in the evening, when I was chatting with Lincoln and Aldie, Lincoln reminded me that the first time I played Exxtra, I pretty much hated it. Last year at WCMF, I played it again (oddly enough, with Aldie) and I found it more enjoyable when the luck didn't completely go against me. Now, I enjoy it even when the dice are not rolling my way because it is fun and over in twenty minutes tops.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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After 25 Words or Less and Exxtra, it was way too late. But the LA gang managed to get me into one more - Get Bit! Chris had been contemplating purchasing the game, although he was put off my their very glossy box (he assured us that he's spoken to them about it!), so he wanted to try before he bought. The box said fifteen minutes and how hard could it be - it was just a stack of cards with a bunch of little plastic figures that could be pulled apart. Players are swimmers trying to get away from a shark (represented by a card in the game but some industrious owner had the good sense to add a Lego shark in place of the shark card) but they are all in one line ahead of Mr. Great White.
Each turn, all players play number cards and any duplicate cards are ignored. The other players move to the head of the line in numerical order of the cards. Once a card is played, it cannot be used again until the player cycles through their cards. Each turn, the player at the back of the line gets bit - and loses one limb. The bitten player also gets to pick up their cards and then they can use any of them again.
That's about it, although the actual figures in the game to invite confusion. Although we played it so that each player only had about five parts (I think), the figures could actually lose more if you broke off the hands and feet, too. This allowed for a shorter game, though, which is good because Get Bit is fun for fifteen minutes but I can't imagine it maintaining the fun for any longer. On the other hand, it was good fun to end the evening and I even managed to squeak out a win with just a head and a torso.
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E.R. Burgess
United States
Glendora
California
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The first of the Haba games I got out when we heard Mark Jackson was leaving soon, Kayanak is all about ice fishing. Players poke holes in a fresh piece of paper (yes, you need a new one each game) and use magnet-enhanced fishing rods to 'fish' for little metal balls (I mean, "fish). You roll two dice beforehand to see what you can do and how much of that activity you can do (kind of odd - I want to walk somewhere this turn but I MUST FISH).
There are also ways to foul people up by making the ice floe unstable or by covering up their freshly drilled fishing holes. Despite getting trapped in the corner by the other players (here, Chris Handy, Lisa and Bryan), I fished the heck out of that corner and came away with the victory.
Although the game won the Kinderspiel Des Jahres in 1999, I think it was more on novelty than anything else. Would love to play it with my kids but not for the price it is commanding these days.
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Posted Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:01 am
Edmonton
Alberta