New To The Hobby: Jamaica

For anyone new to any hobby with its own customs, traditions and concepts - simply picking up the basics can be an intimidating prospect. For casual or first time players of many modern Euro or Ameritrash games a certain amount of what for the designers may be assumed knowledge is alien at best, or impenetrable at worst.

For this reason many gamers talk about Gateway Games, a sort of game that can be used as the eponymous entrance into the hobby.

As an introduction to many of the more nebulous concepts involved in modern games, and as a game in its own right, I can heartily recommend Jamaica, a game of Pirate Ship racing with a whiff of cannon smoke thrown in.

Each player takes the role of a pirate captain and gets their own ship, action cards and board (representing the holds of your ship) and a little gold and food to be getting on with.

The rules are simplicity itself - each turn the first player is called the Captain. They roll two normal dice and decide which one will be used for the "morning" and which will be used for the "evening". All this does is affect the actions on your cards, which are various combinations of two from the following:

1. Load Food equal to the dice roll (i.e. up to 6)
   
2. Load Gunpowder as above
   
3. Load Gold as above
   
4. Move Forwards
5. Move Backwards

That's it. Your card shows one of these on the left (for which the morning die will be used) and one on the right (which uses the other). Each card has appropriate and amusing artwork showing a lot of investment in the concept from the makers.

You win a game of Jamaica by having the most points at the end of the race (which finishes at the end of the round when the first ship has crossed the finish line)

Points=Doubloons + Treasure + Points for your position on the board.

Now the really clever bits of Jamaica are the decisions surrounding the dice and the action cards.

Consider that you are the captain and you roll a 6 and a 1. The card in your hand shows a food loading in the morning and a forward movement in the evening - which dice do you want in the morning and evening? If you put the one in the morning you will load one food and then move forward six spaces. The problem with this is that one food is not very useful and blocks up a hold (your holds can never be topped up and new stock always replaces their entire contents) so would it be better for you to take 6 food and then move one place?

Food is exceptionally useful since on most board spaces you will need to consume food or be forced to move backwards due to shortages. The alternative can sometimes be to land on a port, which costs your precious doubloons but for which you don't need food.

The only free spaces to land on are the pirate bases, and these sometimes have treasures on, but to get to them often involves taking a longer route.

Combat occurs when you land on the same space as an opponent and takes the form of a dice roll, with your gunpowder tokens adding to this number (rolled with a special dice that goes 2,4,6,8,10 and also has a "kaboom" symbol which is an instant victory) - to victor, as is traditional, go the spoils! These will be either a piece of treasure or the contents of one hold in your opponents ship.

So getting back to my original point, what does Jamaica teach the new gamer that will come handy in other games?

First, we get the concept of combination - that is, rather than playing a card that moves you forward three spaces, or gets a certain amount of money these cards instead combine with the dice - this system is useful for understanding concepts like those in CCGs or CCG inspired games like Race For The Galaxy.

Secondly, as well as a choice of moves, we introduce the concept of the least worst choice - when you are not the Captain and the dice are not set up well for you, what do you do? What do you do when the Captain rolls a double 1 (a specialty of yours truly)? Contrast this to a simple "move as far as you roll" game, or the community chest or chance cards in Monopoly and you'll see why I find these types of decision more interesting.

Thirdly there' s no fixed route to victory. It's possible to gain 30 points through doubloons alone and if you are in a good position too you are likely to win, but those who send all their time collecting gold will suffer in position to those more interested in getting to the end first (with its 15 point bonus) and if they are significantly behind they will actually lose points. Also, while it may seem a good idea to avoid combat, if you have plenty of gunpowder cards in your hand you may decide simply to take people's doubloons away by force and win through this method.

For these reasons I reckon Jamaica is an ideal choice to introduce new folk to the gaming hobby, or to try out some of these concepts for yourself. The theme is excellent (who doesn't love pirates?) and the production values are top notch - the artwork is gorgeous and all the pieces of exceptional quality.

I highly recommend this as a fun, shortish (though the length will depend on the number of players) gateway game not to be taken too seriously. If you're looking for something that accurately depicts the life of a pirate you'll be disappointed, but as a step up in class and interest from dull roll and move race games it is a great choice!

....keep playing!

Algo

We are currently offering Jamaica at half the RRP - click here for its page in our shop

The Tower of Babel , The Library of Alexander and Reuters

For most board gamers newish to the hobby ( in my case returned) BoardGameGeek has inspired many purchases, inspired wish lists of obscure and wonderful games and provided hours of games related browsing. With over a million users and an open approah to contributions the amount of information is amazing at times bewildering. After using the 'Geek for a while we get to know which reviewers are trustworthy in their opinions and which are fan boys. It is a great resource for rules translations, player aids and debating the merits of different games, games companies and genres. It's democratic nature is both it's strength and it's weakness.

For a source of boardgame information which can be 100% trusted then i recommend you turn to Counter Magazine. It is a quarterly publication, looks like an Old Boy's magazine and is a paper only publication. Don't let that put you off - it is a gold mine of boardgame knowledge with the reviewers all being game experts with thousands of games played under their belts - if they say a game is good - believe it! If it receives feint praise then you know what means. Counter runs to about 100 pages of dense text, including reviews, industry comment and general articles about gaming. The annual subscription is £14 and is, in my opinion, the best investment a boardgamer can make. It's also quite funny in an Anciene Regime sort of way.

Counter, being a quarterly publication, is not where i turn for up to the minute industry news and for that i go to BoardGameNews - the 'Reuters' of the boardgame world, a website that gets the hot stuff before the 'Geek and you don't have to spend five hours searching for the latest snippet as it is laid out in easy to read fashion. It also has regular writers who are industry figures and have opinions worth reading.

This week's new games (9th March 2009)

New releases this week include Ilium, a Reiner Knizia game in which player archaeologists collected sets of treasure from the ruins of ancient troy. A family game, this is quick and easy to play.

Catan : German Geographies is a game released to celebrate (modern) Germanys’ 60^th birthday. It’s Settlers set in Germany with a few rules twists to reflect the subject matter.

I have added ‘One more Barrel’ to the range, this Essen 2008 release from Giochix, an Italian publisher, is a boardgame about the second Iraq war. Part-war game part Euro game the idea of the is to expropriate as much money as possible. It looks fantastic and I’m hoping to get a copy to the table as soon as possible.

For the wargamers amongst you there are some interesting new releases this week. World at War : Blood and Bridges is a game that asks what if the ‘Cold War’went hot and how would the British Army of the Rhine fare against a Warsaw pact attack. This platoon level simulation is Lock n Loads most ambitious game yet to use the World at War system and will be a must buy for fans of the system and those interested in British military history.

The second new release is Memoir ’44 Campaign book Volume one – this adds over 50 new scenarios to the Memoir ’44 system and also allows players to experience a whole campaign.

The third is the first map expansion for Tide of Iron which adds new terrain features and can be added to the existing maps to create epic battles.

Our Favourites : Canal Mania

Now I don’t know many people who have a Mania about Canals though do occasionally see bargees puffing on pipes, working complex looking locks and generally having a peaceful time on Regent’s Park canal. Looking at recreational canalistas it’s hard to imagine that Briton’s Canals were once the arteries of the early industrial revolution. They are a fascinating historical subject, both economic and social, but compared to the belching steam of the early railroad canal’s have not fired the creativity of games designers or imagination of gamers.

However, The Ragnar brothers (Angola, Fire and Axe, History of the World. Monastery) are inspired by the less trodden path’s of gaming theme and in Canal Mania they have created a game faithful to the subject and also great fun to play.

Why do I like it so much?

1) Canal Mania scales perfectly between two and five players
2) It’s complexity sits nicely between gateway games like Ticket to Ride and more complex fare such as Railroad Tycoon or Age of Steam
3) Its quick to play a 2 player game can take 45 minutes and a five player game can finish in 90
4) The rules can be understood after 10 minutes but it also provides challenging tactical game play

Canal Mania has similarities to several Train games, Like ‘Ticket to Ride’ you need to connect cities to score points for contracts (think ‘tickets’) awarded by parliament and like Railroad Tycoon/Age of Steam you move goods along your (and other players network) for victory points. There are some key differences though unlike Ticket to Ride you can’t just build canals any where you like they have to be between towns and cities that match the Parliament cards you have selected and unlike Railroad Tycoon placement of goods is involuntary if certain cards are selected and then there are restrictions on where goods can be placed.

How does it play?

Two to five players compete for victory points that are awarded for 1) completing canals 2) The type of canal counters used in completing the contract and 3) Shipping goods.


The board depicts the major industrial cities, towns and ports of England they are colour coded for goods placement and shipping. The distinction between towns and cities is only important when placing goods . Superimposed over the board is a hexagonal grid with most towns being no more than four hexs from any other, terrain type is either easy or difficult to build in and it is on these hexes you will build your canals. Each player has the same set of canal counters 16 stretch canals, 12 locks, 4 aqueducts and 3 tunnels. Each player also receives an Engineer card who will help you build your canals beware though these engineers are a fickle bunch and don’t expect to keep your starting one for long.

Five starting contracts are placed face up on the table to be selected by the players and the rest of the contracts are shuffled and then a sixth starting contract is placed on top of the pile. Each contract will command you to construct a canal between two towns, sometimes they instruct you to connect the two via an intermediate town each contract specifies the victory points awarded for completing the canal which also doubles as a maximum length in hexes for the canal (Parliament doesn’t want you greedy early capitalists stretching the Canal’s unnecessarily). The contracts represent real Canals and add to the thematic fidelity of the game. Each player is given one junction contract (anywhere to anywhere maximum two hex length) which he can use later in the game, and he will because their use is crucial to completing high scoring networks or sneaking into other peoples. More on this later. The build cards are shuffled and five are drawn and placed face up by the board.

The build cards depict a length of canal and they match the starting canal counters of the players. There is also a Surveyor build card that acts as a wild card and some of the build cards have a colour block on them matching the colours of the towns and the cities. Like Ticket to Ride players will have the option of either choosing three face up build cards or using cards in hand to build a canal. If a face up card is selected that has a colour block on it then the player must place 2 goods tokens of the appropriate colour on matching cities or towns their being a hierarchy in which they can be placed (connected cities, connected towns, unconnected cities, then unconnected towns). Choosing where to place goods tokens and knowing that goods are most likely to appear in cities is a key part of the strategic process in building a network.

To build a canal stretch cards are played from hand. The same canal type can never be placed next to another of the same type and must be able to be placed in the map terrain. So for instance a nice easy two hex canal from London to Maidstone would need a Stretch and a lock piece and to play them you would need a stretch and a lock card. Easy. With canal pieces that need to be cut into more difficult terrain you need more cards to play them. An aqueduct requires 2 marching cards and a tunnel three. A surveyor card can substitute for any other type of card.

So you need to collect a fair number of cards to make your build actions efficient. Never fear because the engineers make the process that much easier, one allows you to substitute a lock or stretch card for each other, 2 others reduce the card requirement by one for ,respectively, building aqueducts and tunnels, one chap allows you to use a surveyor card as two other cards and the last allows you to take four build cards. I mentioned earlier that these engineers are fickle at the beginning of your turn one of your possible actions is to swap your engineer for any other players which they can’t refuse.

If a contract is fulfilled by building the canal then points are awarded for the value of the contract and the type of canal used in the build - stretches are worth zero points, locks one, aqueducts two and tunnels three.

The other actions available at the beginning of your turn are to select a new contract from the face up tile (or one of your two available anywhere to anywhere contracts). You can only ever have a maximum of two contracts in play. You can also swap engineers or you or you can discard the five face up build cards (ala Thurn und Taxis)

The second part of your turn I have described take build cards or build a canal.

In the last part of your turn you can ship goods. Shipping goods involves moving goods along a network of canals as far as you can with the restriction that it can not go through the same colour town twice. You score points for the number of towns or cities the goods travel thorough including the start and the destination. If you use another person’s network they score points for towns they connect to on the goods travel route.

In any phase you can, instead of taking an action, take blind a build card from the top of the build draw stack.

Fittingly, the end of game is reached when a player passes the ‘Railway’ age marker the end is nigh for players and canals. Play continues until one player reaches a pre-determined number of points (for example 50 points in a five player game), then the current round finishes and two further complete rounds are played. Then players move goods in turn until no more can be moved.

Scoring contracts provides the bread and butter points in the game with success going to the player who has best managed to create an efficient goods shipping network, partly by having a monopoly on some goods, partly by having the longest canal routes and by being able to deny points to other players by shipping goods available to a number of players. The ‘junction’ contracts are vital to strategy as they allow you to either complete your network or even better tap in to other players to siphon off goods they were hoping to keep to themselves.

I thoroughly recommend Canal Mania as a next step up from the Ticket to Ride series , for train games enthusiasts who like to try something a little different or for anyone who loves games where the theme is an integral part of the game.

Essential Expansions: The Dunwich Horror

Welcome to our new series on game expansions. For some people, us included, games are even better when they get more pieces, rules and ways to play. While not all expansions are created equal, and some disappoint, this series will only concentrate on those we believe add value and longevity, as well as the crucial factor - fun, to all your favourite gaming experiences.

For fans of the excellent Arkham Horror, Fantasy Flight have really pushed the boat out on expansions.

The original game blends RPG elements with the control and reliability of board game rules, your investigators co-operate to fight off the forces of evil and win through against terrible odds.

It is a fantastic game in its own right, and we are proud to stock it.

you can pick up Arkham Horror here

So good is it, in fact, that to date there has been sufficient demand for Fantasy Flight to deliver five whole expansions (three smaller boxes and two larger) with another on the way in 2009.

Dunwich was the first of the big box expansions for Arkham released, and while the smaller boxes like Curse Of The Dark Pharaoh added cards, rules and excitement, the Dunwich Horror expansion adds a whole lot more.

We are pleased to offer this expansion for a a very special price - check it out here

The main addition you get is the small town of Dunwich itself, represented by an additional board that sits above the original to increase the playing area. To reach Dunwich an investigator has only to go to Arkham's train station and pay a dollar for a ticket. Once they have done so, Dunwich awaits them with all new locations and events to face.

Chief amongst these events is the rise of the Dunwich Horror, a super-nasty beasty with variable strength which presents extreme peril and great danger for the investigators. It awakens if too many monsters are absorbed by the many wormholes around the town, so keeping the monsters at bay in Dunwich is crucial. If the Horror does awaken, defeating this abomination will give great rewards, and while it is awake the doom track hastens toward awakening the Ancient One itself, so the players are well advised to vanquish it as soon as possible.

The set contains more of these Ancient Ones for you to face, too. My personal favourite is Shudde M'ell, a giant worm like creature (think "Tremors"!) that destroys parts of town as he stirs in his slumber, meaning somewhere you wanted to go could well be razed to the ground before you get there. Even something as basic as changing the Ancient One you face can have far reaching consequences for the way your game goes, so getting four more in this set really gives a little bit extra.

The rest is mainly additional things for the main game, but there's so much of it included, I'm not sure where to start...

Well, you get eight new investigators like the Psychic and The Expedition Leader who give new ways to play as well as excellent new powers for your use. You also get many new items, unique items, allies and spells as well as all the mythos cards necessary for opening gates in Dunwich.

The new "injury and madness" cards give you the option to take a chance when temporarily insane or unconscious - where you would usually lose half of your equipment and clues you may now choose to take one of these cards instead, but beware! Some of them can cause major trouble and all of them put you at a permanent disadvantage, such as not being able to use a hand, or not being allowed any allies.

Another key introduction in Dunwich Horror is the Gate Burst mythos cards. In the original game, once a gate was sealed that was it - no beasties coming through there any more. With this addition, a sealed gate bursts open and must be resealed. These are easily identified by their red backgrounds and can be removed if you find the dynamic they present a little too long-winded.

Even more new bits in the form of new monsters and the introduction of tasks and missions for the investigators mean that this expansion is more or less essential for anyone wanting more fun from the Arkham system.

Frankly, I own all five expansions and am already saving up for the sixth when it is released. The Arkham Horror game more than any other captures, for me, the ideal cooperative feeling of desperation and victory against the odds, as well as being incredibly tough.

It's fair to say The Dunwich Horror adds a extra difficulty to the game, being as it creates a whole lot of new drains on an investigator's precious time and as it adds the gate bursts.

I would definitely say, though, that if you are planning to purchase just one expansion for Arkham - this is the one to get, though of course I'd recommend all five as worth the investment!

...keep playing!

Alec Chapman for The BoardGameGuru Team

Our Favourites: Settlers Of Catan

Ask many gamers what their first experience of Eurogames was and more often than not you will hear this classic mentioned.

Now in its Fourth Edition it is one of the most enduringly popular games on the market, and along with its expansions such as Cities & Knights Of Catan or Seafarers of Catan it provides scope for you to customise your own favourite way of playing.

On reflection it is easy to see why this title has been so popular, since it features many of the best features for new gamers, many of which were introduced in yesterday's "What Are Eurogames?" article, such as no player elimination, shorter playing time and several ways of scoring.

The game is extremely simple to play, and set up is easy, either using the suggested arrangement for your first game or randomly setting up in future.

The board is made up of hexes, made into a circular island shape - each player starts with two settlements and two roads along the edges of certain hexes. In the suggested set up the decision is made for you, but in later games you can choose your starting location.

On each hex is a picture showing what resource is harvested from it. That may sound intimidating ("harvesting resources? Oooo er...") but it takes the form of a dice roll - each hex has a number placed on it during set up and it produces goods whenever the number is rolled. Simple.

Anyone who has a settlement bordering the hex(es) that show the right number gets a card representing that resource whether it is their turn or not. These cards can later be traded for more roads, upgrading your settlements to cities or new settlements etc. The reason for expansion is simple - with expansion you get new resources and trading opportunities as well as those all important victory points.

There is a problem to be overcome before you get to confident, and that is that it is highly unlikely that you will be able to get all the resources you need without help. To get every bit of brick, stone or grain you need, you'll have to be prepared to trade cards with your opponents. This can lead to some intense wheeling and dealing as players try and balance the benefits of gaining goods in trade against the benefit of what they are giving their opponents - you must be careful not to help them more than you help yourself!

The winner is the first to get to 10 VPs, and this can be scored in many ways; each settlement is worth 1 vp, each city is worth 2 vps and there are bonuses for certain cards (1vp each) and having the longest road (2vps) and largest army (2vps).

While it has been around for a long time this game still feels fresh and exciting every time, partly due to the random set up and partly due to each group you play with having different dynamics when you try and trade. One player may be very hostile to trading at all, preferring to be aggressive in their expansion and gain independence that way, but others may prefer the softer touch approach of mutual assistance - you get to find this out as you go.

I have a soft spot for Settlers Of Catan anyway for a couple of reasons - first, it was my Gateway Game - the game that opened the door to other great experiences. Secondly, it was the game with which I got many of my friends to play with me - an easy to teach game that still gave an excellent challenge to all concerned.

I highly recommend this game to not only anyone who is wanting to get into gaming but also to everyone. It can be played by 3-4 players straight out of the box, though I purchased the 5-6 player expansion to give my bigger game group a chance at it.

Add to this excellent system the new ways of playing introduced in Seafarers, which allows you to play across a series of islands instead of one big one - with ships to build and pirates to worry about and the mutual fight against the Barbarian hordes in Cities And Knights, and you have many games all using similar systems that will bring fun and excitement to your home for game after game.

And who could ask for more than that?

...keep playing!

The BoardGameGuru team

New To The Hobby: What are Eurogames?

Many people have preconceptions and expectations of all boardgames based on childhood experience with such games as Monopoly and Risk etc.

Certainly speaking for myself for many years these two games, and the Warhammer series, very much coloured my ideas of what games were.

There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but recent years have seen a major increase in games from Europe that are very different from these and also different to common party games such as Balderdash, Pictionary etc.

The name coined for these games is "Eurogames" though many popular examples are by American authors (most notably Alan R. Moon's Ticket To Ride).

So what is a Eurogame? And how is it different to those long dull games of Monopoly I remember from childhood?

Firstly, like all such terms, the blanket nature of the word Eurogame is slightly misleading in that all sorts of settings, or 'themes' are present and the games very wildly. I anticipate many will disagree with one of my definitions or descriptions of what it means. This is a function of how varied the choice of Eurogames is.

I maintain though, that there are some factors more common to Eurogames than in traditional games;

No player elimination
Firstly, the worst part about those long games of Monopoly for me were when you were the first to be eliminated, meaning you were excluded from the next two hours of fun. Many, if not most Eurogames get rid of elimination altogether, favouring a points scoring system of victory rather then a last man standing approach. This means that no-one should be sitting on the sidelines during a game while their friends continue playing.

Less (or no) dice:
Victory at many games is determined by dice rolling more than anything else, and while random elements are common in Eurogames, they are greatly reduced from the "roll and move" games like Monopoly in which a bad roll may well mean the whole difference between victory and defeat. Most Eurogames attenuate the role luck plays in your games by either having the same rolls affect all players or the whole game (such as in Settlers Of Catan) or keeping the rolls to a minimum.

Multiple Paths To Victory:
The use of an abstract Victory Points system enables designers to incorporate several different ways of achieving victory, creating points through different methods so that when you play multiple times you can do different things each time and keep the fresh feeling of your first game. In fact, think of it like this; if you win by having the most money, how are you going to make the most money? Sell your own goods? Make something out of them and sell that? The second option will be more expensive, but may be more lucrative...

Shorter Playing Times:
Thirdly, Eurogames tend to take less than two hours and since everyone is involved all the way through no-one should feel bored by the end. This is a crucial improvement on the games from my youth. A four hour game from which you got eliminated three hours before the end? No thanks!

As time has gone on, various of the boundaries in gaming have become blurred, and many games have been designed that share many ideas and mechanics with more "Ameritrash" style games (notably Conan) and could probably be dubbed "hybrids", but to my mind there are only two types of game - Good and Bad.

While you may have a hankering after more Eurogames, there are so many great games around at the moment, I wouldn't limit myself by sticking to one type - try something new and you may find all new ways of having fun and excitement!

A

(I apologise for the negative attitude to Monopoly, I realise many people like it.)