Thor's Hammer gaming - Before the Wind

Ed and I are trying to play more games this summer while we have more free evenings. So, we decided to check out the Wednesday game group at a local store, Thor's Hammer. At about 20 miles away, this is the closest weekly gaming and a quick and easy shot down the toll way. It only took 25 minutes to get there, which is not bad. The store had a pretty poor selection of games for sale, but it had a HUGE area for gaming that was brightly lit and had many, many tables, mostly filled with Magic players. There was also a smaller, back room which was where the boardgamers were setting up. We were greeted by a small crowd of both familiar and new faces. Ed and I immediately jumped into a game of Before the Wind with Paul. We wanted to get home at a decent time so this ended up being our only game of the evening, but we plan to go again next week.

Before the Wind

Note: This was a early review copy of the game. The Mayfair edition isn't out yet.
Despite Phalanx's shaky track record with me and the tired, old theme of acquiring, storing and shipping goods, I found my first playing of Before the Wind to be completely engrossing and tense. The game appears to have many subtle tactics with timing being crucial. The mechanism by which players choose actions is very clever, and the whole game is very interactive. You have to constantly watch your opponents and try to keep track of what they have hidden in their hand. Many of the decisions you make have to be balanced between what you want to do versus what you may allow your opponents to do. There are lots of chances for clever plays and the fact that some of them will hose your opponents makes it especially satisfying. I burned quite a few brain cells trying to be vigilant. The game does have some lucky elements but the luck certainly does not dominate. There was very little down time in our game and the 75 minutes (exactly what is stated on the box!) flew by quickly. Excellent, excellent stuff! I look forward to playing this one again and writing a comprehensive review very soon.

I started out slowly and was unable to ship anything in the first round. All the lovely apples in my hand and my warehouse spoiled. The second round was fabulous though, and I was able fill multiple ships with one action. This left my warehouse empty for the third round and I started building up for a hopefully good fourth round. I was really frustrated because I had numerous opportunities to place two spices from my hand into my warehouse and I had a special card that would keep them from spoiling. I was hoping to carry then into the next round. However, both Paul and Ed each had the special card that would allow them to exchange a good from their warehouse with one in another player's warehouse. They both desperately needed spice so I didn't dare put mine out. It didn't matter. Ed was able to fill a ship anyway and get the 50 points needed to win and end the game. Paul and I were both taken off guard. The hidden victory points are yet another thing you have to watch!

Review of Pillars of the Earth (boardgame)

This review has been hanging around in an almost completed state for a ridiculous amount of time. Here it is, finally. Pillars of the Earth is easily one of my favorite games of the year so far. It's a nice mix of theme, strategy and luck. Check it out right here.

Game Night Report for June 7, 2007

Ed and I were determined to go to Mark's on Thursday so when yet another soccer conflict came up we stood our ground. (The season is OVER people!). We abandoned our kids to an evening of computer gaming and whatever kids do when left alone (I don't want to know) and headed down to Round Rock.

Dancing Dice

I was amused to walk in and find the four guys getting a girlie game of Dancing Dice going. I'm not really sure why I was amused as it's been played many times before in our group. At least they saved the pink dice for me. Mark was grumbling about "fluff" from the moment I sat down to the game's end. I can't argue that Dancing Dice isn't a very fluffy game but it's nice to play a nearly mindless warm-up while waiting for others to show up. The luster has worn off the game some now and I felt a bit bored but maybe it was because nobody else was really getting into it. But since I have a thing for dice, especially unusual dice, our copy is safe from the trade pile for now.

Vikings

John came toting a container full of all kinds of new gaming goodies. Since Ed and I have been responsible adults lately with our money going for things like car repairs and home maintenance, we have severely curtailed our game buying which, I can tell you, is no fun at all. So, I wanted to try them all. We settled on Vikings which is a new game from Rio Grande and Hans im Glück. After playing Fire & Axe a few times recently in which I got to do all kinds of Viking things, this game was rather lame as far as the theme goes. This game could have been about nearly anything. Vikings are all the rage this year, like pirates before, and I guess this was not lost on the publisher and/or designer. At any rate, behind the transparent theme is a pretty solid Eurogame with some of the usual stuff - a little luck, an auction for start player, tile placement, and resource management, all of which provide some interesting decisions. The new twist is a clever system for purchasing tiles with a rotating wheel that while not exactly the same, reminded me a tiny bit of Pillars of the Earth with its decreasing costs. I felt a little frustrated and constrained the whole game, though. Jon snagged an early goldsmith with very few others coming out until toward the end of the game. Because of that, John and I were strapped for cash most of the game, while Jon monopolized the start player position and got first pick of the tiles with the ability to pay for any of them. For an entire round I had zero money and was forced to take free tiles which, given the tight limits on placement, I couldn't use and was forced to throw out. It was really frustrating. Jon walloped us.

A few years ago, I would have had to have this game but our collection has gotten bloated with this sort of smooth, clever, medium-weight Euro. How many do we need? My tastes seem to be running lately more towards theme-heavy, fiddly games with dice. Lots and lots of dice. I've finally overdosed on games like Vikings and my ho-hum reaction is part of the backlash. Still, it seems to be a solid game and I'd certainly be willing to play it again.

Age of Discovery

I really, really wanted to get the secret mission card that people have been moaning about being too hard. This is the one that requires a player to own all of the ships on an expedition to get bonus points. I'd been thinking about an effective strategy to accomplish its goal and was eager to try it out. Lucky, lucky me, I got my wish! Alas, I fell victim in the beginning from another situation that has been griped about online. I was dealt initial trade cards that did not match my flagship. Plus, they were expensive trade cards and part of my strategy hinged on getting cheap, quick trades completed. It has been suggested by some to allow players to exchange bad initial cards for different ones, but since there were a few matching ships available for sale, I decided to accept my fate.

Despite my initial bad luck, I was able to claim two cheap expeditions fairly quickly. Then I concentrated on acquiring and completing cheap expeditions by just committing my ships for a quick turnaround. Doug saw me doing this and started doing it as well. He had the mission card that requires the player to have at least half of the ships on an expedition. I ended up doing pretty with my secret mission, owning four expeditions and completing five contracts. I also managed to throw a few ships on valuable expeditions here and there. However, I came nowhere near Doug in points. Even had I maxed out my secret mission bonus points, I wouldn't have been close. Had I focused on trying to slow him down, I'm afraid it would have been at the cost of my goals and I still would have lost. John had what is perceived as the easy secret mission, that of just having at least one ship on expeditions. He ended up in a distant last. I'm starting to think that that mission isn't all that great because even though it is easy to achieve, it doesn't award many points. Sigh. I'm still not sure what to think of this game. I like the game play well enough and the designer and playtesters insist that the cards are balanced, but I just don't know. Now that the game has hit the stores, I'm hoping to hear more people's experiences with it.

As I write this, I am missing this week's game night due to some severe thunderstorms that hit just as I needed to leave for the journey down to Mark's house. I opted to stay safe and dry at home, especially since I had the hope of continuing an ongoing game of Runebound already in progress with my son Shea. Unfortunately, Shea spent last night at a friend's birthday sleepover that was apparently lacking the sleep part. I have been unable to pry him off the couch where he is watching some boring documentary that would make me drowsy too. Oh, well.

Game Day Report for May 28, 2007

Summer break from my kids' school and soccer has finally arrived, hopefully freeing some evenings to play games and giving me something to write about here. Not to mention the time to write that has been in short supply these past few months. That's actually been a positive thing really, as I'd gotten burnt out on thinking about games and picking them apart. At least I never seem to tire of actually playing the games. Even when I do get bored with the samey-ness of the endless supply of new Eurogames that our group trots out, a dose of an old favorites or a shot of Amerigames keeps things fresh.

To kick off the summer, we hosted our annual Memorial Day game day. This is really no different than any of our other monthly game days other than we make it a cookout. This was also Adam's last game day here as he is moving far, far away, leaving behind an empty seat at the meaty gamer table.

Fire & Axe

The highlight game of the day for me was this game of marauding Vikings which I have actually gotten to play twice this month. It's a re-make of the older game that I already loved, Viking Fury. This new version is drop-dead gorgeous, turning the frumpy, homely original into a supermodel but with the same great personality. Call me superficial, but the nicer components and beautiful art really adds to my pleasure. And I do really enjoy this one every time I play. It requires careful planning, well-timed card play and a dose of good luck. Yes, LUCK. This game has a hefty amount of dice-rolling that can make or break your carefully executed tactical maneuvers, sometimes sending your ship back home full of corpses. But, I like it. A lot. The luck seems to even out for the most part and it fits the battle theme. As long as I play my best, I can shrug my shoulders at bad luck and inwardly jump around with glee when my Vikings do kick butt. I love a game with a good story. I can see how this sort of thing will bug the heck out of some gamers, though.

My game earlier this month taught me not to ignore settling and the resulting avalanche of endgame points. I was concentrating too much on Saga card majorities which were cruelly stolen from me by a clever Rune card combo played by the winner. This time I did well with a more diverse strategy. Traci was quite amusing, aggressively raiding hapless villages the entire game. Her marauding horde was relentless and had easily clinched the Bloody Axe award by the second era. I won, but it would have gone Ed's way if the dice had been kinder and John hadn't taken over one of his settlements near the end.

Modern Art

It had been almost six years since I'd played this classic Knizia auction game. I disliked it back then but that's not surprising as it took a long time for me to warm up to auction games in general. However, I found that I still don't care for this one. I bought a single painting during the entire game and came in second. Yes, ONE painting. And, if I hadn't made that stupid purchase (it was my own painting), I would have won the game by doing almost nothing. The only interesting decisions I had were deciding which paintings to put up for auction that would fetch me the most money. Yawn. I'd much rather play Medici or Ra.

I also played Gemblo, in which I learned that it is not as good with five players as it is with six due to there being too much real estate on the board with only five. At least, that's what the three players who tied for first thought. I wasn't one of them, of course. No board is big enough for me, I'm afraid. As usual, I had no problem boldly moving forward and fencing off territory. But, once things got crowded, my lack of spatial skills became apparent and I missed the clever placements that would keep me alive.