Game Day Report for March 17, 2007

by Susan Rozmiarek

We had a great turnout for games on St. Patrick's Day. We saw the return of Marty and a rare appearance by Tim and Mary. We had loads of good food, including some of the best BBQ in Texas thanks to Marty and homemade tarts from Mark. It was worth breaking my diet, believe me! I completely forgot about the holiday and didn't wear green. In fact, I ended up doing a couple of wardrobe changes for the day - once for an unfortunate food incidence at lunch and once for picking up a leaky, excited puppy.

Nottingham

After just a few turns into this, Mark was already complaining and wanting it to be over. I think he has lost the ability to digest fillers. I wonder if there's a pill for that. I was enjoying it just fine. To be honest though, there's been a bit of a gaming drought in the Rozmiarek household and just about any game placed before me was going to "wonderful." Today, I am much grumpier and ready to pick at the flaws.

Players are deputies for the Sheriff of Nottingham out to collect taxes. Yuck. Who wants to be on the Sheriff's side? I'd rather be one of Robin Hood's Merry Men and steal from the rich! However, theme doesn't matter all that much because this is just another set collecting card game. There are several suits of cards (various treasures) that are worth different points. The goal is to collect sets of three or fulfill special scoring conditions that are worth more points but require more cards. Each suit also has a unique power, most of which involve stealing a card from another player. On your turn, you turn over a card and can either keep it or use its special power but not both. The powers that steal a card can be very painful to the victim, especially since one of them makes him spread out his hand on the table for all to see while the robber chooses a card to steal. In our game, it was often the person with the most cards that was victimized. Therefore, it was pretty hard to collect the larger sets for the special scoring cards and frustrating to try and collect anything at all. The victim does get the card being used by the robber so it soothes the hurt a little bit. The person who manages to not get targeted long enough to lay down sets will be the winner. I imagine that this will be pretty random with more players. We played with four but the game goes all the way up to seven. I also didn't like the "ambush" power that seemed kind of weak and tacked on. I did like the way the game counted down with the pawn and board, giving a card to those with few each time the pawn moved. I'd play this again, but I'd probably need to be in another Pollyanna mood to enjoy it.

Mark, Mary, Susan, John and Ed (taking picture) play Nottingham. Mark is overwhelmed by its fluffiness.

Pillars of the Earth

I received this jewel in the same package as Alchemist and it totally blew that other game away. Pillars of the Earth is about the building of a cathedral and based on some book of the same name which I will now have to hunt down and see if it's good as well. The bits and art are gorgeous, particularly the game board which depicts 12th Century Kingsbridge and the different locations surrounding the central cathedral building site. The game play falls under the set of games where one is trying to build up a victory point engine. Different aspects of the game reminded me of St. Petersburg, Caylus, and Leonardo da Vinci. Players try to collect and convert resources and money to victory points using a pool of craftsmen that they upgrade to better ones during the game. Workers and builders are allocated to the locations on the board which are then resolved in order but much differently than in Leonardo. The mechanism is not an auction. Instead, players are competing for a limited number of spaces making turn order of utmost importance. There is a mix of long turn planning with different strategy paths as well as a healthy dose of luck. There are events good and bad and taxes to deal with along with privileges to be gained. Naturally, you do not have nearly enough workers to do what you want and you'll be competing for everything with the other players, creating lots of tension but not to the frustrating levels of Leonardo. There is quite a bit to like here and it works together very well. I will go into more detail when I write my review. As usual, more plays are needed. Like Struggle for Rome, this will be an enjoyable game to explore and review to write.

Pillars of the Earth in progress.

At this point I took a break to freshen up on the Fury if Dracula rules as Mary wanted to try it and I'd only played once a long while ago. Apparently the guys were too intimidated to play with us because it ended up just being Helen, Mary and me. Unfortunately, there are a lot of fiddly rules in this game and I was doing a terrible job trying to explain them. I could see Mary and Helen's eyes starting to glaze over so we decided to bag it for now and play something else. We got in a round of Pick Two before another game ended and Tim joined us for To Court the King. I also squeezed in a few hands of Tichu. I partnered with Ed and managed to not make any blunders that would force me to sleep on the couch. I think that I've finally played the game enough to not forget everything between plays. I'm still a bit shaky on the strategy, though.

Oh no! My super secret powers have been caught on film! Check out the levitating Pick Two tile.

Fun day! Too bad I didn't get any games off my New Year resolution list played. The month is half over so I really need to get busy on those.

Other games played: Through the Ages with a homemade copy, Amun Re, Age of Steam, and Elasund. For more pictures:Gaming Picture Gallery.

Recent Gaming

by Susan Rozmiarek

I've been too busy to write up reports for game sessions. Not that I've been to many lately. :-( So, I just thought that I'd comment on a few of the new-to-me games that I've played.

Midgard

A year or two ago pirates were all the rage while I was quite enchanted by the game Viking Fury. I was complaining then that there weren't enough Viking games. Now they seem to be falling everywhere from the sky. Here is another one I've played recently, following on the heels of the very enjoyable Walhalla. I was eager to try it, not just because of the Viking theme, but because it uses a nifty card drafting mechanism like that in Fairy Tale. It's not surprising that it is popping up in other games. I was kind of hoping it would, in fact. The first part of a round in Midgard consists of every player being dealt a hand of cards from three different stacks. The stacks are separated based on how powerful they are. Since everyone receives the same number of random cards from each stack, this ensures that the hands dealt are fairly even nicely mitigating some of the luck. Now each player chooses one of the cards to keep for their hand and passes the rest to his neighbor on the left. This is repeated until only one card is passed and everyone has their hand for the round.

The second part of a round is just another area majority game. Yawn. I actually liked it however, because it felt a bit different than the usual thing I was expecting. Players are trying to place pawns (Vikings) on a map of Midgard and get majorities in the various regions. Cards from the players' hands drive the play and do various actions to achieve this. There are multiple ways to score. What's neat is that you can try getting immediate points at the end of a round, setting yourself up for even more points in future rounds (hardest to do, I thought), or trying for yet another way to score points at the end of the game, or a mix of all of those different ways. One of the biggest differences in the feel of the game from other area majority games was the constant turnover on the board. Protecting and holding majorities for long was very difficult as some of the cards have huge effects. Some players in our group thought it to be way too chaotic but I enjoyed trying to milk all the possible points I could each round with my hand of cards. There is a big advantage to going last in a round and here is where I do have a bit of a problem with the game. The person who is holding the most powerful card has to go first and then play goes in normal clockwise order so there is some randomness on who gets that last player advantage. Still, I found the game to be quite fun and I loved all the choices on which strategies to pursue. I chose not to go head-to-head with other players often over the region majorities during the game but rather just tried to have presence in certain regions. This allowed me to collect tokens. During the game, I fell way behind in points but my sets of collected tokens shot me out ahead for the win at the end of the game. Great fun! This game is now on our buy list. I was a little disappointed in the components. The Vikings are just wooden pawns and the art is just so-so.

Midgard vikings riding their dragon boats in preparation of battle.

Top Race

This is an older Wolfgang Kramer game that Paul has been bringing to our game days over and over without successfully getting it to the table. It kept getting lost under the avalanche of shiny new games to play. I'm glad he persisted in bringing it, because it's a fine car racing and betting game. I could see shades of similarities in other racing games that have been published since which is not surprising. Players get dealt a hand of cards that will be played to move the cars during the race. Then, they bid on which car they want to own, basing their decision on the cards they have been dealt. During the race, when the first car crosses certain checkpoints, players bet on which car they think will win. The earlier the checkpoint, the larger the payout is for correct predictions. At the end of each race, players get points for having their car place as well as for their correct bets. Since you often find yourself betting on other players' cars, you have to balance helping them as well as trying to get you own car to place. I enjoyed working out how to best use my hand of cards.

Dennis, Helen, Susan, Mike, Paul and Ed racing and betting during Top Race.

Qwirkle

This is like Ingenious but different. Now doesn't that tell you a whole lot? The first similarity is that the box is full of black tiles with pretty, colorful shapes on them. Qwirkle comes with 108 thick, square, painted wooden tiles. I was afraid they would get scratched up and marked, but so far the hard finish has held up well. Each tile depicts one of six shapes in one of six colors. Players have a hand of six tiles and place one or more on their turn to a grid and then drawing back up to six. Lines of tiles that all either share the same shape or the same color are created. Only one of each color can be added to a line sharing the same shape and only one of each shape can be added to a line sharing the same color. This means that a line can be a maximum of six tiles. On his turn, a player can add as many legal tiles to a single line as he wishes. The player then gets a point for each tile in any lines that he added to in his turn, including the ones that were already there. Clever placements often put in a tile in more than one line so the player can get points for multiple lines. In addition, a player gets a bonus of six points for placing the sixth tile in a line. If a player doesn't have a legal play or doesn't like his tiles, instead of placing tiles on his turn he can discard any number back to the pool and draw new ones. After all the tiles are drawn, play continues until a player places their last tile. That player gets a six point bonus and the game ends immediately.

Ed thought that the end was too abrupt and that the round should be finished so that every player gets the same number of turns. I'd have to agree and we'll try that the next time we play. I thoroughly liked the game though. Finding the best placements seemed a little more challenging than in Ingenious but maybe that is because the game is still new to me. I have heard the game compared to Scrabble, of all things, but I don't really see it. I suspect that is because I'm a poor Scrabble player and I'm too focused on just trying to form a word, any word, rather than how to play the board. I wonder if Qwirkle would play well with partners like Ingenious? At any rate, it is my younger son's New Favorite Best Game Ever so we'll probably be playing it quite a bit more.

Alchemist

This is a soon-to be-released (if it hasn't been already) game from Mayfair about collecting ingredients to make potions for points. I'm not quite sure what to make of it so far. It's short enough at 30-40 minutes to be a filler and it may end up being one of those games that pack a solid punch in a short time. The problem is, I can't decide yet how much control one truly has and whether or not there are different ways to approach the game. After three plays, the strategy seems a little scripted. This is highly irritating because I'm usually able to get a pretty solid opinion on a game after that many plays. There are a few clever mechanisms as well along with one that seems entirely unnecessary (drawing cubes from the bag for anybody who's played the game. This seemed an obvious choice on the first few turns and the bag was quickly emptied). Despite the neat theme and nice art, the game really just feels like shuffling cubes around though that doesn't necessarily bother me if the game play is decent. Give me some decent decisions and a few puzzles to solve and I'm happy, theme or no theme. Normally, I'm very forgiving of fillers. I can enjoy myself for 30 minutes even with just the illusion of depth in the game and so wouldn't be worrying over this one. However, this is a review copy that I plan to review so the game needs to be picked apart mercilessly until I come to a satisfactory conclusion. So before I say too much more, I need to get a few more plays in. Stay tuned.

New Year Resolution Progress Report For February

by Susan Rozmiarek

Once again, I was successful at keeping my New Year resolution and knocked three games off the unplayed list. The three games were a very mixed bag, to say the least.

Twilight Struggle

This game has had gamers singing its praises before it even came out and has since been buried in awards. I was curious to see if I liked it. The rules did not seem that hard, although they were organized in that intimidating numbering style of many wargames. What was hard though, after sitting down and starting the game, was figuring out what to do. Deciding what parts of the board to concentrate on and when and how to use the dual-purposed cards was mind boggling. I had to admit that I was very intrigued even though I felt like I was in way in over my head. We were only able to slog through about three turns in one evening. By this time things were already looking pretty good for Ed playing the U.S.S.R. We left the game set up for a week hoping to get back to it but we never had time. This is the problem for us right now and makes it unlikely that long games will ever get played to a finish. Someday, someday.....

Run For Your Life, Candyman!

Since he discovered World of WarCrack about a year ago, it has been hard to drag my eldest son away from it to play a boardgame. However, he got in trouble and lost his computer privileges for a weekend this month. Never one to harbor a grudge against his cruel parents, he agreed to join his brother, Ed and me in game that Saturday night. We chose this silly game that we had seen being played at Gulf Games. It's a satirical knockoff of the children's classic, Candyland. Players are gingerbread men trying to be the first to escape a candy land, similar to the original. This is not a friendly little kiddie race, however. Players attack each other as they run by or force other players to fight them in cage matches. Who'd have though those smiling gingerbread men could be so vicious?! Movement is almost identical to that in Candyland. Players draw a "Dash n Bash" card on their turn and move to the next spot on the track that matches the card. Instead of colors though, the card and spaces depict different types of candy. The types of candy also correspond to regions of the gingerbread men's bodies. Each player has a sheet of paper showing a gingerbread man with boxes of damage to check off when they are attacked. If you land on or pass a space with another player you can attack them and draw another card, dealing damage to the part of their body that corresponds to the type of candy on the card. Certain spaces on the board allow a player to draw a "Special Treat" card. These are special attacks, weapons, defenses, etc.

We had a blast. We were laughing so hard I was practically crying. This game could be totally ruined by a bunch of serious gamers intent on winning. If players were to hang back and try to avoid contact with anyone the game could go on forever. However, that sort of playing style is totally against my kids' nature. Shea forced everyone into a cage match at every opportunity (special spaces on the board allow this). He and Kevin then ganged up on Ed and me. I had a wicked Licorice Whip until I lost the arm holding it. By the end of the game I was just a gingerbread torso crawling along the path before being taken completely out. Ouch! This is really a bad, bad game but we sure had a great time with it. I can't really bring myself to actually recommend it to anyone. It cries out to be played with real gingerbread men, though. Eating a head or leg would be so much more satisfying than checking off little boxes.

I got to be "Stinky." Lucky me. "Mr. Crumbles" won the game by being the last surviving gingerbread man.

Elkfest

This game is a little two-player dexterity "flicking" game in the vein of Crokinole or Carabande but on a tiny scale. Players have an island, a moose and some stepping stones. The goal is to flick the stones so that you can walk your moose over them to the other player's island. It's cute, but like most dexterity games it just feels like an activity to me to pass the time. I wasn't all that impressed. The wooden bits are nice and chunky but there isn't a whole lot in the box for the price. Meh.

As far as my other resolutions go, we didn't buy any games this month unless a few Hersocape boosters from WallyMart count. We did make huge strides in solving our gaming storage problems. We broke down and bought five "Billy" bookcases from IKEA. We put two height extensions on each to raise the height up to something like nine feet. They aren't the fanciest shelves in the world but they are sturdy and cheap, cheap, cheap. They didn't look too badly once the games were placed on them. There is now actual EMPTY shelf space! Woohoo! We are also going to get a couple of "Benno" shelving units for small games and card games when IKEA gets them back in stock

Two of the five new bookcases in the loft.

See the other bookcases here.