Piecepack Session

by Susan Rozmiarek
All the recent activity on the Piecepack Yahoo group following the results of the latest contest, Solitary Confinement, compelled me to finally finish throwing together my own homemade Piecepack. It's nothing fancy. I simply downloaded the graphics from the Piecepack website and printed them out on Avery sticker sheets. I then stuck them on wooden discs from Hobby Lobby and squares cut from some scrap 1/4" plywood. Voila! Instant access to a hundred games. I really would like to make a nicer set. As Ed pointed out, given the amount of time and dollars spent on just this quick and dirty set, wouldn't it just be easier to buy a nice commercial one? He's right, of course. I guess it is just the satisfaction of creating one yourself.

I first tried out a few of the solitaire games available, while waiting for dinner to cook:

PieceGaps: A nice little puzzle game by Chris Brooks that is based on a solitaire card game, Gaps, which I've never played. This turned out to be much harder than it looks. I nearly won on my first try, but then couldn't even come close. I can see that there are some definite strategies involved that I am still trying to figure out.

Fujisan: Next I tried this game by James Kyle, simply because the staircase looked neat. Another puzzle game, but quite a bit easier. I won the basic game every time, but it was enjoyable figuring it out. I then tried the variant a few times and was unable to win.

Tula: Finally, I tried this older game from James Kyle. It reminded me a bit of card solitaire games like Pyramid, where being able to win simply depends on how the cards fall. There is only a very little skill involved, but it was a fun exercise. I only won one of the half dozen games I played.

I enjoyed all three of these games and am looking forward to trying out some more, especially the contest winner, Piece Packing Pirates. The rules to that one looked a little too long and involved for the time I had.

Froggy Bottom: After dinner, Ed and I played this two-player game by Clay Blankenship. It's a race game between frogs trying to visit their lily pads and get back home. It is another puzzle-type game, where you try to set things up for clever moves that allow your frogs to cover more distance in a turn. Ed wondered if it was a little too easy and wants to try using only one neutral color instead of two. I won, but barely. This game had some really good ideas and was better than many published games I've played.

The priest have almost reached the summit of Mt. Fuji in Fujisan.

Frogs try to hop from lily pad to lily pad in Froggy Bottom.

Session Report for January 22, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
With soccer season approaching, we are now back to the familiar conflict between game night and Kevin’s practice. For now we have decided to keep the games on Thursday night with Ed and me taking turns missing the first half of the evening to take Kevin to his goalie practice. Ed decided to take him tonight, leaving me to hold down the fort. We had quite a number of people show up on time, and immediately got two tables going.

Mark now has his own shelf on our game shelves where he keeps several of his newer games, hoping to get them to the table. While one group sat down to play Industria, I decided to join Mark, Helen, and Rick to play one of Mark’s games.

Great Walls

I had never even heard of this game until Mark brought it over. I’m not familiar with its designer, Benjamin Cedarberg. It appears to be a self-published game with a number of similarities to Go. The game comes with small bits of crushed gravel in four different colors. The board is a fairly large vinyl mat with a grid of squares. Players place their rocks on the board, one per square, forming walls to surround territory. Cards determine the number of stones and the configuration in which they are placed. These cards depict 1-5 stones in a wide variety of orientations, which reminds me a lot of the plastic shapes in Blokus. Each player holds a hand of five cards. On his turn he plays one and places the stones as depicted. He then gets to draw a new card. Play continues until everyone passes due to not being able to make a play. Players can opt to discard their entire hand on their turn and draw a new one instead of placing stones. The idea is to completely surround territory with your stones, each surrounded square being a point at the end of the game. Enemy stones that are surrounded during the game are removed from the board. Unlike Go, these are not scored, just removed. Another difference is that the edge of the board itself is not a wall, you must place stones in those spaces to form a wall.

Mark and Rick began the game by staking out corners, while Helen and I both played near the center. We both soon drifted toward our own separate corners though, and the game started becoming a race to see who could surround the biggest corner area first. As we built more towards the middle, we started taking the opportunities to invade each other’s potential territories. I had been the greediest, and had started roping off the largest area. I wasn’t able to get it closed off before Rick was able to drop a line of rocks down the edge of the board into it. Then, as the others finished off their corner territories, they began to look for open space where there were still legal plays. Unfortunately, the only spots left were in my yet-to-be-enclosed area where I was still fighting Rick. The game finally ended when the space ran out.

Results: Rick 43, Mark 39, Helen 37, Susan 22

My feelings for the game are rather mixed. I’ve been learning to play Go recently and can’t help but compare the two. It feels a lot like Go because they share the same objective, surrounding territories. The fact that stones are played on the squares rather than the intersections as in Go doesn’t change the general feel. The big difference is, while Go is entirely devoid of luck, it is very much a factor in Great Walls. While it’s easy at first to start your walls, as the game progresses and the board gets crowded, you are often dependent on drawing the right card. I often knew what I wanted to do, but was unable to get the card to do it. This got very frustrating, especially toward the end. The game also seemed rather boring the first half, as we built up our territories. It only got really interesting when we finally started bumping into each other. Perhaps with experience we would play more aggressively early on. Another, more minor quibble, is with the rock bits. This is a very nice idea, but in practice it doesn’t quite work. The gravel bits vary in size but are generally much smaller than the squares on the board. It is rather difficult to easily see the continuity of the walls. Glass stones of uniform size would work much better. Also, a few of the colors are hard to distinguish.

Mark and Rick discuss the fine art of building rock walls in Great Walls

The finished Great Walls.

So all in all, I’d have to say it wasn’t a bad game, but not a great one either. I’d play it again, but really, I’d rather just play Go instead.

Fabrik der Träume

We’ve played Ra several times recently, so it was only natural to move on to another Knizia auction favorite. This is probably my favorite of the trilogy that includes Ra and Medici, so I was more than happy to bring it out and explain the rules to Helen and Rick, both new to the game.

After looking over the tiles available the first quarter, I focused my energy on quickly completing Gone with the Wind. This depleted my initial contracts early, causing me to sit out of the bidding for a while, but it paid off handsomely. Not only did it get an award for First Drama produced, it also was the Best Picture, at 15 stars, for the first two quarters. I then worked on producing a “worst” picture, grabbing up poor quality actors that others weren’t interested in this early. This gave me first pick at the parties, a privilege I enjoyed at for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, Rick was able to make an even worse picture than mine, but I was able to see it coming before completing mine and I gave it a boost before completion. John and I tied for Best Director at the end, canceling out the award. Helen ended up with the overall Best Picture, but I was able to get at least Best Picture in one of the categories and a total of four movies completed, giving me an easy win.

Results: Susan 90, Helen 63, Rick 55, Jon 54, Mark 50

My, my, will you look at that? Jon has only one contract left in Fabrik der Träume.

Flaschenteufel

Another outing for this bizarre trick-taking game. Mark and Jon had played it at lunch that day and were itching to play it again while it was fresh. I was feeling much more confident in my understanding of the game, having been given some helpful strategy advice on an online gaming forum. Helen was having a hard time understanding the rules though, so I’m not sure the results are valid. We only played two hands before moving on to an easier game. Just getting a little taste was not nearly enough for me tonight and I’ll be pushing to play it again next week.

Results: Susan 57, Mark 49, Jon 37, Helen –19

Trendy

We play this with lightning speed nowadays. I’m starting to get burned out on it, just in time for the new edition coming out. I expect I’ll have to play it a lot more.

Results: Mark 102, Susan 82, Jon 77, Helen 63

Yet ANOTHER game of Trendy.

Guillotine

We decided to squeeze in one more game and Helen suggested this old favorite. Since we had subjected her to a couple of new games with which she was not impressed, we obliged. Noble heads were soon rolling.

Results: Mark 23, Helen 20, Rick 17, Susan 17

This game is purely tactical in nature. You simply play your best action card when it is your turn. Anything can happen in between so there isn’t any planning. With a humorous if tasteless theme, it still makes a decent, light filler to end the evening.

Other games played: Industria, Amun Re, King’s Breakfast

For more pictures from this gaming session and others, see our Gaming Picture Gallery.

Session Report for January 15, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
The plan for tonight was to play some longer games. With that in mind, Ed sent out a stern note warning latecomers that we would be starting on time and they might miss out. So, while Ed brushed up on the rules to Ursuppe, I tried to plough my way through the rules for my choice, Mare Nostrum. Good grief. I finally gave up in frustration. After reading the rules, the FAQ, and the many long discussions on BoardgameGeek, I still don’t feel confident enough to try and teach the game. As it turned out, though, we never got around to playing a long game. Instead, we were distracted by a surprise delivery.

Flower of the Lotus/China Moon

My local game store has a shiny new copy of China Moon that’s been beckoning to me (buy me, buy me!) every time I go in. So, when I stumbled across the rules for its predecessor, Flower of the Lotus, at The Game Cabinet on a search for something else, I printed them out to try. After a little research, I found the rules to China Moon on Bruno Faidutti’s website and noticed a few significant changes, including the number of spaces frogs move each turn (2 vs. 1, 2, and 3) and the addition of “springs” on the board. I decided to use the newer rules and simply added the springs to the board. With some colored cubes for the flowers, and Carcassonne meeples as frogs, we were set to go.

Doug shot out to an early lead, gathering most of the early flowers. Mark was not far behind, due in part to my blunders, which set him up to collect several of the remaining flowers. Mike, Ed and I found it nearly impossible to catch up after that. Although we were able to force them to drop or trade a flower, breaking up sets, it wasn’t nearly enough to stop Doug. Mike and I found out the hard way that frogs in the back of the pack were quickly stranded and not able to “leapfrog,” which reminded me a little of Cartagena. I was able to get a cube at the finish line, which completed a set and put me in a surprising second place.

Results: Doug 9, Susan 6, Mike 5, Mark 4, Ed 2

Opinions of the game were pretty mixed. All new to the game, we were not seeing the optimal moves at the start. The lack of opportunities to catch up to Doug’s lead was very frustrating. With most of the flowers picked up quickly, the second half of the game dragged, with it coming down to a race to the finish with only a few opportunities to hurt someone else. However, because I had heard good things about the game, I did a little more research afterwards, thinking that perhaps we had gotten a rule wrong. Lo and behold, I found a better picture of the China Moon board which shows two extra “butterfly” spaces on the board that are not present on the Flower of the Lotus board. This could have had a big impact on our game, giving more opportunities to force the leaders to drop flowers for the frogs in the rear to pick up. Sigh. This is what I get for being cheap and trying to make a homemade copy. I definitely want to try it again and give it another chance.

Our homemade Flower of the Lotus / China Moon.

In the middle of our game, the doorbell rang. Instead of being another latecomer, it was the UPS guy, making a delivery at the unheard of hour of 7 p.m. The delivery was our Game Surplus order, a day earlier than expected. More importantly, it contained Attika, which everyone was eagerly anticipating playing. All thoughts of playing a long game were dropped. Those of us who didn’t exert ourselves enough to get in on the first game of Attika, sat down to play Ra, instead.

Ra

I’m beginning to feel pretty comfortable with this game. I don’t always win, of course, but I at least feel like I know what I’m doing.

This time around, the first epoch started slower than usual, with the Ra tiles taking longer to come out. I was able to jump out in the lead for Pharaohs but ended up only tying for the most with Jon and losing the lead in the second epoch. My score got a boost from getting the only Flood tile to come out that epoch and several Niles. The last epoch was very odd. Everyone but Helen snagged what he wanted and bowed out early. Helen was left with one sun tile with which to bid and only four Ra tiles on the board. So, she was able to file the board with tiles from the bag until the row filled and she was forced to stop, picking up a pretty nice haul without any competition.

Results: Jon 39, Susan/Rick 31, Robert 30, Helen 28

Ra gets another playing with Helen, Robert, Susan, Rick and Jon.

Attika

The first Attika was finished, so a few more of us had the opportunity to play. I had had a taste of it, playing once on BSW, but there is no substitute for playing with a real copy face-to-face. I sat down with Mark, who had just played, and Jon and Helen, both new to the game.

I made the mistake of building my city tile too early, and in the middle of the board. I was soon surrounded and only able to build one building next to it for free. As a matter of fact, the board got really crowded before the first new game board tile was added. Helen got fairly close to connecting two temples, but Jon was able to block her. Then it was Mark threatening to join the two other temples by laying down three roads in one turn. I was able to block him, but only by founding a new and expensive settlement. By placing new board tiles, Mark was again close to connecting, as the rest of us were racing to get all our tiles built. This time I did not have the resources to stop him and nobody else stepped up to the plate, so he took the victory.

I think the next time we play this game we will be more aggressive in preventing the temple connections. I rather like the dual victory conditions as it adds a layer of challenge. It adds an additional threat to contend with. One thing we did do, which I think helped a lot, was to mark our player mats with cubes to indicate which buildings we had built. A quick glance was all that was needed to see what your opponents were trying to build as well as to help remember your own building goals. I got this idea from BrettspielWelt.

Almost everyone who played Attika tonight really liked it. I can easily see it nudging out the current favorite with our group, Alhambra.

Results: Mark in first, followed by Jon/Susan/Helen

Another playing of Attika as Helen, Jon, Susan and Mark take it for a spin.

Mark (red) makes a flanking run during Attika.

Other games played: Space Walk, Exxtra, Trendy, Pueblo.

For more pictures from this gaming session and others, see our Gaming Picture Gallery.

Looney Sunday

by Susan Rozmiarek
The folks from Looney Labs were at one of our local game stores, Dragon's Lair, this past Sunday demonstrating some of their games. I am interested in Ice Towers, an Icehouse game that is soon to be released in its own edition. Unfortunately, they were mostly playing Fluxx and Chrononauts.

Despite the bashing it receives by many "serious" gamers, Fluxx is a game I enjoy once in a while as a very light filler. My kids are my usual opponents, as they really love it. The downside is the occasional game that drags on endlessly. Fluxx used to be the game of choice for Ed and me when we were waiting for a pot of pasta water to boil. Yes, I'm serious!

My youngest loves Aquarius, but the game is ruined for me by some really random cards that can totally screw up your progress and hand it to someone else.

The real gem in the Looney lineup is the colorful Icehouse pyramids. There are several games I enjoy with these, including Zendo, Martian Chess, and Volcano. They had a Volcano game set up on a really nice acrylic board. Not usually for sale, they did say they had a few available right now on their website.

Anyway, it was really cool getting to meet them, even if I couldn't stay long enough to play any games. The demo area was quite crowded and they drew an interesting assortment of gamers that included several wild hairdos and body piercings.

Family Gaming - January 16, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
Kevin wanted to play games after school today. This was a rare request, given that he's been engrossed in the new video and computer games he got for Christmas. I was happy to oblige. He chose LOTR: The Confrontation as our game. I'd only played this once and it had been awhile, so I brushed up on the rules before he got home.

 

LOTR: The Confrontation

This game has gotten extremely high praise and was the recipient of the 2003 IGA award(www.internationalgamersawards.net/) in the two-player category. Nonetheless, I've pretty much shunned it. I played it once and it just seemed like Stratego but with every piece having a different ability. I usually detest games with fussy, unique abilities and rules exceptions. That's probably one of the reasons I don't care for miniatures games. However, this is exactly the kind of game Kevin likes. And since it's a Knizia game, and since there had been overwhelming good buzz about it, I was willing to give it a second chance.

Kevin, my evil child, claimed the Dark Side right away. He immediately pushed his monstrous troll forward to wreak havoc on the countryside. Valiant Boromir met the challenge and defeated the monster but at the cost of his own life. The Good Side then proceeded to try to clear a path for Frodo to sneak across the mountains. Unfortunately, many of them met their death at the hands of marauding orcs, but were able to defeat Saruman, the Black Rider and the Witch King. Frodo was able to struggle over the mountains safely, only to be slain by a waiting Warg on the other side, giving the Dark Side the victory.

As suggested in the rules, we switched sides and I played the Dark Side. The game progressed very much like the other one, with the Good Side eventually succumbing to the might of the powerful Dark Side. This time the Orcs killed Frodo. However, I later realized that we had been playing a rule wrong. When playing text cards, the Dark Side's card is applied first. I thought this rule included the text on the characters as well, but it doesn't. So, Frodo should have been able to use his ability and retreat from the orcs. I think the Dark Side would have won anyway, as they should have easily been able to invade the Shire before Frodo made it to Mordor. However, Kevin and I tied overall, with five points each, which might have been different had we played correctly.

I liked the game a lot better this time. I'm wondering if it is weighted toward the Dark Side, but I'm starting to see some strategies for the Good Side to try. At any rate, the bluffing was very tense and enjoyable. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I can't imagine the amount of time it must take to playtest and tweak a game like this to try and make it balanced. A whole lot, I'll wager. I guess I'll have to revise my initial opinion. I'm eager to play it some more, if I can drag my son away from the Playstation and his Harry Potter books-on-CD.

Session Report for January 8, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
With the holidays over and everyone back in town, we were expecting a pretty decent turnout. We guessed correctly and ended up having three tables of games going most of the evening.

 

Flaschenteufel

This is yet another quirky trick-taking game. These have been all the rage with some in our group lately, including me. Since this one is out in a nifty new edition, I was eager to give it whirl to see if it is unique and worthy enough to add to our collection. As it turns out, Mark has a copy of the old version, so we sat down to play an inaugural three-player game with Ed while another group started Alhambra at another table.

Fortunately, Ed seemed to have a pretty good understanding of the rules, which were bizarre enough to take every brain cell I possess to digest as I listened to his explanation. By the end I had decided that I would really have no clue how to proceed until we had played a few rounds and I had seen how the unusual mechanisms played out. This of course guaranteed that I would be the owner of the Imp (think “Old Maid”) at the end of the round. As-a-matter-of-fact, I ended up holding this foul creature at the end of two of the three we played. Guess in which place I finished?

Helen arrived while we were playing, so we quit at the end of three rounds. I felt nowhere near figuring this game out and was just barely starting to see a few strategies. It seems to be one of those chaotic games where you have a few basic strategies, but are usually reacting to dramatic changes to the situation, the main change being the Imp’s value. I’m looking forward to exploring the game further. Right now I’d be hard-pressed to give my opinion of it, but I’m definitely drawn to its weirdness.

Results: Mark 129, Ed 94, Susan 13

6 Nimmt!

With the appearance of Rick and Robert, we decided to pull this filler out while waiting for Alhambra to finish up. We only got to play one round for which I was very thankful. I like it better with fewer players where you at least feel like you have a little more control.

Results: Roxana 1, Rick 2, Ed 5, Robert 7, Helen 12, Mark 31, Susan 40

We now had quite a crowd and enough for three tables. One of our group’s problems is deciding on which games to play and with this many people it was looking like it was never going to be settled. So, I picked up my first choice, Magna Grecia, set it up and started reading the rules. Having a game out and ready seems to attract players. Mark and Ed decided to join me.

Magna Grecia

We were slow to get started, with Ed running off to explain the rules to another game before coming back and explaining Magna Grecia. Unfortunately, the yelling and laughter of kids playing video games nearby drowned him out. After shooing them upstairs, we were finally able to get down to business.

I thoroughly enjoy several games by both Leo Colovini and by Michael Schacht, so I was really looking forward to this one, a dual effort from both. I was not disappointed. This game reminds me a bit of two of Schacht’s other games, Paris Paris and Web of Power, in that scoring occurs through the building of networks with a majority mechanism thrown in the mix as well. However, Magna Grecia feels heavier than the other two, with much more thinking and calculating. The game is very dry, but that is not necessarily a detriment in my book. As far as the appearance goes, while the colors aren’t my favorites, they are nowhere near as bad as people make them out to be.

Early on, I could see that having a presence in the center of the board was important, so I staked out some claims there. I also worked on developing the right side of the board, which included a few oracles. The frustrating thing, of course, is you never have enough actions to do what you want. Then you have to spend precious actions replenishing your supply of tiles from which to work. On top of that, you also have to be careful to not run out of money. And since money is what wins the game, you must speculate that you will get a good return from your purchases. Combine that with the fact that you are never quite sure, but only have an idea, of turn order and number of tiles allowed on a given turn and you get a game with plenty of tension and tough decisions.

There is much more speculating early in the game and it gradually tends towards more obvious decisions as the board fills up. Still, we had some maneuvering and clever plays over oracles near the end and the game remained interesting. The last turn did drag a bit with players maximizing their score, but the time spent wasn’t really excessive. I was pleasantly surprised with my score and was left with a very favorable first impression.

Results: Ed 58, Susan 55, Mark 48

Mark and Susan play Magna Grecia

Two thirds the way through Magna Grecia. Can you spot the mistake? (It's very hard to see).

Other games played: Alhambra, Mississippi Queen, Euphrat & Tigris, Alles im Eimer

For more pictures from this gaming sessions and others, see our Gaming Picture Gallery.

2004 Formula Dé season kicks off

by Ed Rozmiarek
The third season of racing for our Formula Dé league kicked off today with our race at Hokenheim, Germany. With the arrival of three new comers this season, the league has swelled and we fielded a full grid of ten cars today. Although this resulted in a much longer race then the previous seasons (clocking in at 3 hours and 40 minutes), everyone seemed to have a great time and the racing was close.

Highlights from today included:

• First time racer (but experienced Formula Dé player) John Clark's attempt to run the full three laps without pitting. Even after spinning out just before the pits on lap 2, he ran the third lap with no tire, brake or fuel points. After spinning out again on the first corner of lap 3, he cruised home in low gear. However, he came in ahead of Doug who crashed on the next to last corner of lap 3.
• Kevin's mistake of rolling the 6th gear die without noticing the corner he was heading to was completely blocked. He barely survives by using three brakes and three tires (his last points of both of those) to screach to a stop and avoid a nasty pileup.
• Another "Which die did I roll?" opps, this time by Roxana as she rolls a 5th gear die by mistake going into the final corner of lap 3. With a 14 or higher (70% chance) she crashes and lets Ed coast home for second. Instead she rolls a 12 and avoids spinning out allowing her to keep a slim lead over Ed and finishes second for the day.
• 2003 points champion Jon starts the new season off by winning yet again. OK gang, repeat after me... Get Jon!

See our Formula Dé webpage for the detailed results of today's race or visit the picture gallery for the pictures from the race.

Session Report for January 1, 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
We wanted to start off the new year right so we decided to hold our regular Thursday gaming night on the holiday, despite the potential for a light attendance. As it turned out, we had a perfectly respectable showing of seven, more than enough for a fun night of games.

 

Lucky Loop

Mark wanted to try this new Essen release from Queen so I agreed, although I hadn’t really enjoyed my first playing of it that much a few weeks prior. This playing was a bit better, probably because we were playing a three-player game as opposed to the four-player one I had played previously. This meant there was a bit less downtime between turns, which is one of my problems with the game. There simply isn’t anything to do on your turn but watch other people roll dice, which is just plain boring. To compound the problem, Lucky Loop lacks the push-your-luck tension of other dice-rollers like Can’t Stop and Exxtra. In those games, you gain something with each roll and have to decide whether or not to stop rolling or to keep going, perhaps improving your position but also risking completely losing your gains for that turn. In Lucky Loop you get three rolls to try to achieve your goal for the turn and there is really no risk for attempting them all.

There are a few decisions to make in this game, but for the most part I find the game too long and dull for the type of game it is.

Results: Mark 81, Susan 68, Jeff 64

Jeff Sims makes a fancy maneuver in Lucky Loop as Mark and Susan look on.

Finstere Flure

We wanted to play a game with everyone and there just aren’t too many games in our collection that can handle seven players. We’d played a couple of good ones, Turfmaster and Bang! the week before, so we decided to pull out another new Essen release, Finstere Flure. We were afraid it would be too chaotic with seven and indeed it was, but it was also a lot of fun. To add to the chaos, three of the players had never played before. The newbies would often move their victims without fully understanding the ramifications of their placements on the monster’s movements. This really made it hard to predict where the monster would ultimately head. We also added a few more advanced elements of the game this time, including the glass pillars that the monster can see through and the pillars that turn him to add to the challenge.

The highlight of the game came from an inadvertent (or perhaps not) newbie placement that caused the monster to move through the wall and then plow through a dense group of frantic victims crowded around the exit trying to escape. This resulted in six casualties!

I like this game more and more each time I play. I think it will get even better and more vicious as everyone gets more familiar with it.

Results: Doug in first, followed by Ed, Mark, Susan/Rhonda, Helen, Jeff

A wild and crazy seven player Finstere Flure.

It's a jail break. Run! It's the monster!

Emerald

We were left with five players for the final game of the evening and we something fairly short and light but not too mindless. Emerald fit the bill nicely, with its almost equal dose of luck and tactics. This is an excellent game for families as well as a nice filler for gamers.

Results: Ed 23, Susan 15, Helen 12, Doug 11, Mark 10

Note: The dragon figure in the photos is a custom upgrade

Emerald: The dragon eagerly awaits as dinner approaches.

Run! Run! There's too many of them!

Other games played: King’s Breakfast, Paris Paris, and Coloretto, rounding out quite a fluffy night of games.

For more pictures from this gaming sessions and others, see our Gaming Picture Gallery.

RSS feed

by Ed Rozmiarek
For anyone looking for an RSS feed, it is now available. (Actually, it was always there, I just didn't know about it.) The URLs are:

•  http://www.rozmiarek.info/games/index.xml for an RSS version 0.91 version
•  http://www.rozmiarek.info/games/index.rdf for an RSS version 1.0 version

I have also added links to the feeds under the calendar on the right hand side.

StreetSoccer Online

by Susan Rozmiarek
I started playing Streetsoccer online at www.littlegolem.net and am now totally addicted. I had previously played my own copy of the game a few times, mostly with my kids. I thought it a pleasant little luckfest of a game, but nothing spectacular. Roll the dice and try to kick the ball as far as you can toward your opponent's goal and if you're lucky enough you might score.

Wrong!

I'm finding that the game has some nuances that aren't so obvious at first blush. Just as in the real game of soccer, it's all about positioning and passing. The boardgame is mostly tactical in nature in that you are always reacting with the result of a random die roll to your opponent's move. But, you also have to plan ahead and try to position your players to take advantage of a high roll when you do get one. And just as in the real game, it is all too easy to get drawn out of position and allow your opponent to score.

One nice thing about playing it online is that you can fiddle with your move before sending it, looking at all the different possibilities. When moving a player or kicking the ball, the computer highlights all the possible legal placements for you, which is nice. I don't think I was seeing all of these in my face-to-face games and I now have a much better understanding of the rules.

I highly recommend checking it out. If anyone wants to play, look me up! I go by SusanRoz.

Gaming Resolutions for 2004

by Susan Rozmiarek
January 1st. A time when many people reflect upon the past year and think of ways to improve the upcoming year. I always enjoy making New Year resolutions. I don't get all stressed out about keeping them to the letter, rather I think of them as ideals to be working towards. I decided to make a few resolutions pertaining to gaming this year, as it has happily become my main hobby and takes up large amounts of my free time. So without any further ado, here they are:

1. Halve the amount we spend on games. After doing a little number crunching with Quicken, some illuminating information about our expenditures this past year was revealed. While I refuse to disclose how much we spent on games in 2003, suffice it to say that we spent more on games than we did on clothing for a family of four, more than gas for a year, more than.....well, you get the picture. It's not just a matter of money. We make sacrifices in other discretionary areas to feed our gaming addiction. No, what bothers me is the fact that we've gotten in the habit of buying every game that interests us right away, with nary a second thought. The result: a vast collection of mediocre to decent but not spectacular games that only get played a few times, if that, because there are so darn many of them. It's time to go back to "try before we buy" instead of "buy so we can try." Given the fact that we are planning to attend no less than three big gaming events this year, this should not be hard to put in to practice.

2. Play all the unplayed games on our shelves and revisit some older ones. This ties in nicely with my first resolution. Less new games = more play for older ones.

3. Keep up with writing session reports. I'm going to try to simplify them so I can churn them out quicker. I plan to shorten them to just a quick summary and/or comments and leave out detailed descriptions of the game. I also plan to put them right here on this blog. Several other people do this and I really like that format. Check out one of my favorites, Chris Brook's blog: http://www.chrisbrooks.org/

4. Play more two-player games with Ed. We used to play games together at least two evenings a week. After getting a regular weekly group going, our two-player evenings have gone by the wayside. Time to remedy that. We've added many fine two-player games to our collection this year, such as those in the excellent Gipf series, and it's time to explore them further.

5. Write more reviews. These are a lot of work but I enjoy writing them because it requires me to explore a game more fully than usual and think about it in greater depth. I hope to combine it with resolution #4 and write reviews for some two-player games.

6. More gaming with my kids. Gotta raise 'em up right!

Well, that's certainly enough to shoot for. I'll visit this entry a year from now and see how I did.