Best of 2013 Part 5

A Study in Emerald

Neil Gaimon’s short story, ‘A Study in Emerald’ is a paradigm of literary precision whereas Martin Wallace took the 3,000 or so words and poured in the anarchist history of the 19^th century, the complete Cthulhu Mythos , Vampires and Zombies. My first three plays had left me agreeing with the question is the game a ‘Mess’ or ‘a glorious mess’? My fourth added the option ‘Glorious’.  A mix of deck building, majorities, hidden objectives, take that and a bit of cosmic chaos means that its not going to be a game for the control lover. You need to enter the game and play the players not just the game. It was only in my 4^th outing that this clicked and just in time as one agent was converted to a Vampire, a plague of Zombies was spreading across the board towards me and an obvious 'Restorationist'  was making his bid for victory…and even though I was sure he was on my team I had to cap his main agent. A little like last years 'Archipelago' you have to manage the board and deduce the other players intentions and lay false trails your self. Delicious  and my choice as best game from 2013.

4 Plays. Rated 9/10

Best of 2013 Part 4

 ‘Caverna’ is my most played game of the 2013 crop - if you did not like’ Agricola’ because ‘its no fun/you can’t’ specialize/its not got Dwarves/feeding is boring then’ fill your boots with this magnificent game.  ‘Caverna’ adds a lot to the ‘Agricola’ formula – more animals, more resources and both a farm to build and an underground chamber to carve out and fill with rooms. The addition of currency in the form of gold and rubies adds interesting timing and conversion possibilities and the expeditions a whole new way of getting all the stuff you need. The design (and difficult production) choice to make the game playable by seven dwarves gives some clue as to the best player count – the more the merrier. At lower numbers it is an enjoyable, but solitary, optimization exercise, with higher numbers you are bumping up against Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy et al for the spots you want and the tiles you need.  Magnificent yes, but after 20 plays I need an expansion - I am interested in exploring the game  with 5+ player , whereas I am still happy to explore the limitless possibilities of the E,I and K decks. Excellent game – but not as good as ‘Agricola’

20 plays. Rating 8 out of 10

Best of 2013 Part 3

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Last summer I role played for the first time in 30 years.  For a whole weekend. In a 14^th century manor house. With five friends. I was bored rigid.

Somehow the magic of years ago has turned to dust. The process of role playing has become tedium; the imagination necessary to breath life into paper has gone. But a little boy inside would love to recreate the wonder of the first encounter with Gary Gygax's world. Well Pathfinder won’t peel back the years but I had five amazing evenings taking my cleric through the first adventure pack with a like minded board gamer. Pathfinder is an easy canvas to paint with role playing memories – none too taxing, tells a story and often goes to the wire.

Played 16 times. Rated 8/10

Best of 2013 Part 2

Concordia

Quasi-deck builders were very much en vogue with the more trad.  euro designers in Euro 13 and the genius of this game is that the action cards selected also determine your victory points at the end. Otherwise the play of the game feels remarkably like Mac Gerdt’s ,other, rondel games – you are cycling through a lot of small actions with a sense that you are always one short of what you want to achieve – and whilst what you want to achieve is a bit generic and boring (Mediterranean, trade goods, houses, ….) how you do it is very entertaining. I still prefer ‘Navegador’ but I wonder if that will change after more plays.

Played 3 times - rated 7/10

Best of 2013 Part 1

I am going to post a few thoughts about the games I enjoyed most from 2013.

 Lewis and Clark

This is happening every evening in a gaming basement near you :-

 ‘The game ends – then the scoring begins. 15 minutes and a collective 1147 points later a leader is determined, after 17 categories are tallied and compared, resources behind screens divided by two and then Min maxed for majorities. 7 of the tracks are tied and need to go the 4th breaker, secret goals are revealed and the player in last comes first.… ‘

 How refreshing 1. A Complex Euro game that scores only one point. To the winner of a race. At the End.

 How refreshing 2. An abstract design was developed in to a thematically rich and thematically coherent game.

The game itself is a thunderously brain burning 120 minutes of optimization, hand management and resource conversion. But I know how why I am going up the river. Played 3 times (won all of them – I am not going to tell you that my approach is the only way to winning though), rated 8/10 Guru tip . Never play with the AP, Sweet spot 3 or 4 experienced players

Essen 2013 - Are we excited?

Yes we are. I'm off to Essen next week for three days of intensive socialising, game playing and I might even purchase a game or two The hype about this year's show has been muted compared to previous years. I suspect it's because there is not a single game that has got Geeks losing sleep about not being the first in line at 10am on Thursday to buy a copy - no 'Dominion', '7 Wonders', 'Agricol'a or 'Eclipse'. The theme for 2013 seems to be expansions and reprises. The only expansion I will be purchasing (for personal consumption) is for Suburbia. Of the reprises Caverna (Agricola : Cave Farmers)is probably the one I will purchase. There is one type of game that I can't resist and that is Civilisation builders. So Nations will be bought on the first day. I am a little concerned about the lack of conflict on the game but early reports are good. I have pre-ordered most of the Japanese games at Essen; I managed to play a few of them in Tokyo in May and I think the Japanese designers are making the most interesting games at the moment.

School Boy Errors

When I returned to the hobby in 2007 my first reaction was ‘wow look at all the these wonderful games’ and my second reaction was ‘Wow Look at all these wonderful games that I missed....’. Like so many people who returned to board gaming after a hiatus or those new to the world of hobby board games I threw myself in whole heartedly, purchased a ton of games (of which not that many do i still own). Looking back at 2007 I can see I made a lot of mistakes in the games I purchased and played. I’d like to share the lessons I learned and maybe you might not befall the same traps. The best games are the in the top ten on Boardgamegeek, I need to buy the best! The top ten games on Boardgamegeek are the highest ranked but by a very small population of hard core hobbyists. They are for the most part, not beginner friendly and are only really appreciated after you have worked your way up the complexity spectrum and started to find the gateways not challenging you. I shudder to think about my early encounters with Puerto Rico, Caylus and Brass. I’s go as far to say that they are incomprehensible to non-gamers and they left me completely non-plused – I could see there was cool stuff going on, I could even follow the rules but the bigger question of why was I doing these things was left unanswered. Understanding and appreciation followed – but after seeing the mechanics and multipliers in lighter games and returning to these classics. Also by playing with experienced gamers who will at the least show you by demonstration what’s what in complex games. So if you are new to the hobby look at gateways and next step games – don’t start by diving in to the deep end! You can’t have enough Bargains I bought a lot of bargains in my first year and a bit back into the hobby. In summary this was a big and costly mistake. There is a golden rule for buying a discounted game – ‘Only purchase if it is a game you wanted before you saw it a bargain price ‘. My 2007 self would have scoffed at this advice ‘But it’s only a matter of time before I start enjoying obscure economic games or rediscover my love of Ameritrash’ – believe me it won’t happen. Games should provide experiences to be treasured and that’s why it’s better to buy one full priced game that you are going to love than any number of games that you are just going to play – they are not like the economy range at Sainsbury’s that provide fuel for the body – a great game is food for the soul and in most cases you need to pony up for the real deal. Don’t become a board gaming cynic ‘ The player who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing’ New games must be better than old – right? When I buy a new TV or car or Fridge I expect it to be better than the one I am replacing -;time has moved on, technology has improved. It might not be a bad assumption for white goods and computers it does not work for board games though. Board games are a little like books – most of the best one’s were created some time in the past. The best Area majority Game was published in 1996, the best political game in 1986, the best Worker placement game in 2007.... Look to the past for your new games not to the recent past or the future. My mistake was to believe the hype about new releases – but look who is creating this clamour; board gaming roués whose cardboard taste buds have been killed by an overdose of mediocrity or semi-professional reviewers whose next free game depends on praising the last free game. But if I don’t buy it now it will go out of stock or print – I might never get a copy! Yes that is true you might miss getting a game that you will enjoy – but for every gem that you miss you will acquire 8 cow pats. If a game is great then it’s worth waiting for – whether it be a second print run or a trade or even pay over the odds on ebay – it will be cheaper than having to offload a lot of ill advised purchases. Try and play games before you purchase, whether at a games club or at your ‘cult of the new’ friends house. Try before you buy and you will seldom if ever own a game that does not work for you. I really need to build a collection – the guys at my club have hundreds of games and I need one for every occasion... Oh no you don’t! Either these guys are collectors, or they have been slowly buying games over the decades, or they could be the 2007 me who purchased 20 games a month...A little like jokes there are very few gaming archetypes, and within genres there are mainly only subtle differences. If you own much over a hundred games you are probably not playing most of them very often and if you own four hundred games (Mea Culpa) most likely you are not playing most of your games most of the time, if ever. They then become not so attractive wall hangings. Silos are for storing grain – they don’t make good play areas In 2008 I played 37 new worker placement games; most set in medieval Europe, most efficiency games. The diet became a little monotonous. In the last two years I have made a conscious effort to broaden my gaminbg horizons – short games, long games, interactive, solitaire, negotiation, push your luck, set in the glory days of the med or set in space – the wider my gaming experience became the more I came to enjoy and appreciate the subtleties of my favourite genre (worker placement games...). More school boy boardgaming errors to follow...