Good News and Bad News

Today I made my weekly Friday foray into town to catch up with old friends and run my errands. After a boring week of trying to ignore revival attempts of discussions flogging dead horses on BGG*, I'm unplugged from the internet on the day that the real interesting news is announced. Both are from companies that already receive a steady steam of our gaming dollars. Shoot, they probably should have their own categories in our budget software. Anyway, here is the news that you've probably already read about:

Exciting, earth-shattering Good News: Fantasy Flight Games has gotten the rights to most of the old Games Workshop Games.

<beg>Please, please, puh-leeeeeeeese publish a new, gussied-up version Dungeonquest!!!!!!!</beg>

Enough said.

Not unexpected Bad News: Days of Wonder is increasing its prices. I think I read somewhere recently that Rio Grande raised some of their prices as well. Sigh. We all knew this was coming and combined with other companies' price floor policies we are really going to have to get even pickier with our purchases. Oh, well. We have plenty of games to play.

*Ah the first sign of Spring - a Gathering of Friends discussion posted to stir up controversy. Then there is the good, old standby - AT vs. Euros. Do people ever get tired of these topics? Fortunately, neither has spiraled out-of-control. Yet.

Through the Ages

Ed and I had planned far in advance to spend Saturday attending games at one of our local stores (Great Hall Games) for the first time. Alas, the weather did not cooperate. The cold and the rain were bad enough, but the possibility of severe thunderstorms and tornados was the deal breaker and deciding factor to stay closer to home. Of course, the dire predictions never materialized, but we spent an enjoyable late afternoon and evening giving our new copy of Through the Ages a go in spite of our failed plans. I had played my first game (a full game) back in January and this was Ed's first ever. I was especially interested in seeing how it played with just two since it is more likely to get played if it is just Ed and I and we can leave it set up to play over more than one evening.

Well, Ed should be happy because he beat me by some outrageous number of points (40?) in his very first game. Not that I had any real clue what I was doing either, as I am still at the point where I am more concerned with keeping my people happy and fed than with figuring out how to actually win the game. In fact, that is one of my main problems - I get so engrossed with short term goals that I forget the long term one. In the beginning, I focused a little too much on getting farms up and going and overshot the amount of food I would need each round. I was scrambling to use up my food to avoid corruption but this meant increasing my population, forcing me to have to also deal quickly with happiness. I did manage to get a jump on Ed on the culture track, but that only lasted until he was able to get Michelangelo and start generating some nice culture bonuses. He quickly started leaving me in the dust on the score track. I was able to get Maximilien Robespierre early in Era II and I used him to upgrade my government to a Republic, giving me a generous seven civil actions each turn. I also got the Architecture technology which enabled me to quickly complete the Kremlin to boost my culture. I actually felt like I was in a pretty good position to start Era III as I was also was cranking out a good amount of iron. With the discount on building from Architecture, I was set to rapidly expand, I thought. Ed would also be losing Michelangelo and his culture output would plummet so maybe I could catch up. The problem was that we were only playing the advanced game and it ended at the end of Era II. So for me, it was all over just as I felt like I was cranking up.

I did like the fact that with the advanced game, several Era III event cards are turned up at the beginning to be resolved at the end of the game. This lets you know in advance what will get bonuses. Too bad I was too distracted during the game to pay much attention to them until it was mostly too late!

Neither one of us built up our military much. Ed got a little ahead of me, but I wasn't worried since I was holding some defensive cards in my hand. What he was able to do with his superior forces though, was win a few territories. Besides the immediately benefits, it also gave him some nice bonuses at the end.

Science was quite a limiting factor for both of us. I think I peaked at around 5 or 6 per turn and Ed's output was even less. There is just so darn much to do in this game!

This seems to be as excellent of a game for two as it is for more. Pacts will not come in to play, of course, and perhaps the military will not play as much of a role but that is fine with me. I like building things up more than tearing them down. I'm now looking forward to trying the full game with two. As long as the components hold up, this game should have a lot of replay value with all the possible card combinations.

A crafty gaming weekend

You may have come across Universal Head's excellent game rule summaries and player aides on BGG but did you know that they are all in one place on a website, Headless Hollow? I stumbled across the link when I was looking at StarCraft files. I went crazy and have been printing, cutting and laminating all weekend. Too bad I have no interest in applying these skills to a proper woman's hobby, scrapbooking. Some of my friends would be thrilled to find out that I was normal after all. :-)

Anyway, these summaries are great for quick rule refreshers when you decide to actually play a game that isn't new. There are some good player aides as well.

Besides all the crafty stuff, Ed and I also played a game, Kingsburg. It worked okay with just two, but there wasn't enough competition on the board even though the rules have you roll and place for two "dummy" players. Since they are automatically placed according to the total they roll, you don't have to consider how they could split their dice up as might a real player nor do they compete on the soldier track. Of course, that made it feel a little less frustrating and it eliminated a lot of the downtime that was present in the five player game that I played. I suspect that it will be best with three or four players. I really like the game. The clever dice mechanism makes it different from our 800 other games which is quite an achievement these days with all the new games being cranked out.

I must agree with the many of the posters on BGG that the component quality of the new edition of Through the Ages is very disappointing. The game ended up being $80 at the local store. It may be worth that price in game play, but the game itself looks like a $30 game. It's setting on a table right now next to StarCraft which has the same retail price and the difference between the two is appalling. Bland art, flimsy cards, and tiny wooden bits - they could have made this so much better. I think our next crafty game project will be making tuckboxes for the cards. The wells in the insert aren't deep enough and I'm afraid to use hair bands as they might damage the cards.

January 2008 Game Day Report

This was quite the productive game day for me. I played a game that has been sitting on our shelves, unplayed by me, for six years. I got to try a game that I've been curious about for over 20 years, and I got to play a game twice that I wanted to review.

Dampfross
This game won the Spiel des Jahres in 1984 while I was in college and long before I knew or cared anything about German game awards. It's been sitting on our shelves unloved for about six years although Ed managed to take it for spin once. Since it involves drawing rails with crayons, I really, really needed to play it. Alas, I was a bit disappointed. It wasn't a bad game by any means. The first part involved everyone drawing their routes on the map and connecting cities. (Hint: ditch the crayons and use plexiglass and dry erase markers). We used a fix that had the start player roll the dice once with the result being everyone's building budget that round. I think the original rules have each player rolling for their own money and thus possibly getting hosed by a bad roll as compared to everyone else. This was the best part of the game. Once most of the cities are connected, this phase is over and the game gets rather odd. Players now race their trains. Two cities are drawn randomly and players race their trains between them by rolling the dice and moving along their routes. You can use other people's tracks but you have to pay them. The first and second place finishers get a payout. This is repeated over and over until all the cities have been in a race. You don't have to participate in each race if you don't want to and you can also join another player and race together. If you do that, you share your tracks and split any payout. While the racing was kind of fun, it dragged on way too long and was so very luck-based compared to the more strategic track building phase. The game was okay and I'd certainly play it again, but I would much rather play an Empire Builder game.

Apparently I'm taking so long to build my track that Mark and David have fallen asleep. Either that or they are blinded by the glare of the plexiglass.

Talisman

Back in college, I wasn't a gamer at all, but I skirted around the fringe due to my great love of fantasy fiction. Several fantasy games made their way into my possession due to their tantalizing theme and art. Most turned out to be duds with Dungeonquest being the only real gem from back then. Poor Talisman was the game that stayed on the store shelves, a victim of my meager student budget. To this day, I've wondered what I've missed. When this latest edition appeared, I was secretly longing to get it even though my gaming peers sneered at it in disgust. I would have gotten it too, but one of those peers was Ed who seemed to think we didn't need to waste our money. I thought I was going to have use some wily, female ways of persuasion to get my way, but new guy John brought it to our game day. So, I got to "try before I buy," a mantra that we've wisely taken up again.

Verdict: It's a fun check-you-brain-at-the-door beer and pretzels game for about an hour. Unfortunately, it drags on for more hours. I loved the art in this new edition although it was a little hard to see. It wove a great story although you had to be willing to accept the very unlucky bad things that happened. You've probably heard about the witch that turns players into a frog. Of course that had to happen to me. Thankfully, I managed to hop around unharmed until the spell wore off. It did come down to an exciting finish with all of us up on the last level. But, with all the other, better fantasy game we have, we really don't need this outdated, clunky one. Even so, little part of me still wants it for the collection. Sshhh. Don't tell Ed.

Jeff Jones and John's son look for a Talisman.

Lascaux
This is a neat set collecting game that is clever and plays quickly. I really, really liked it and would have gladly played it a third time after playing it twice. You can read my review, linked in the previous blog entry, if you want to know more about it. I'm too lazy to repeat again it here.

Paul, David, Lauren, Susan and Ed (taking picture) plays Lascaux.

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

Recent Reviews

Since webmaster Ed is swamped at work, I haven't had anyone to take my latest reviews and "do them up" all nice and pretty to post here. I'm too lazy to figure it out myself. So for now, they'll only be posted over at BGG.

The recent ones are Lascaux and Kragmortha.

Lascaux has a shot at overtaking R-Eco as my current favorite filler. It gets a big thumbs-up from me. If I ever see Kragmortha being pulled out again, I'm going to run and hide.

Game Shopping

I'm usually thrilled when my son's soccer practice gets canceled because it means I get an unexpected free night at home. However, I'm not too pleased with tonight's cancellation. Our FLGS called and our copies of Through the Ages and Rails of Europe are in. Yes, the "price floor" (or whatever it's called) scheme is working with us. Without the online discount, we decided to give our local store the business. With all the talk about TtA being sold out, I was wondering if they had managed to secure us a copy. The store is right by the soccer fields but a 25 minute drive from our house. Rats. Maybe tomorrow. People are sure in an uproar about some component goofs over on BGG, though. I was almost hoping we'd have to wait until the next, and hopefully fixed, printing to get a copy. I also hope that I survive the shock of handing over that much cash for a card game.

Speaking of buying games, Boulder Games is Pure Evil. They keep throwing up daily "lost leaders" on their front page. We usually buy online from our friends at Game Surplus but Kingsburg for less than $30 was too hard to resist. Plus, they had just gotten in some more Runebound crack, The Island of Dread expansion. We also got Race for the Galaxy and Felix: The Cat in the Sack. That last one is pure speculation as neither of us has tried it. It looks kinda cute.

And finally, we built up some credit at another FLGS by being frequent shoppers if you call being frequent making ten purchases over a four year period. They average every ten purchases and give you that in store credit. It's very nice that they do this but the store is pretty far away so we don't get down there often. I used the credit to buy Last Night on Earth which happens to be sold out everywhere online. So, I was very happy to get it and continue my descent into the dark side of Ameritrash. This game will be fun to play with the family.

Good grief. As you can see from every one of these purchases, our shopping habits are way too easily manipulated!