The Game Ranch

Game Awards

susanroz — 2009-06-29T09:00:27-06:00

What's the world coming to when you can neither complain about the Spiel des Jahres winner nor poke fun at the Origins winners??? While I had a slight leaning towards Pandemic, I'm still thrilled that Dominion took the SdJ. It's innovative and fresh and very addicting. It's got a bit of a CCG vibe going for it, which helps. Those Origins people finally got it right. Pandemic was chosen for best board game with Dominion taking the honors for best card game. The choice for family/party game was Say Anything and the best historical game was Conflict of Heroes: Awakening...

It's a Small World after all

susanroz — 2009-06-17T00:40:10-06:00

Ha! Can't get that song out of your head now, can you?? As I mentioned in my previous post, Ed and I were lucky to be invited to spend Memorial Day weekend playing games with three other couples. We stayed in condos on Lake Palestine near Tyler, in the piney woods of northeast Texas. This is quite near my mother's house and where I spent my teenage years, so it was very convenient to dump/drop off our boys with her for the weekend. The condos were shabby, but adequate, and the views were beautiful when it wasn't raining and we...

2009 Spiel des Jahres Nominees

susanroz — 2009-05-29T21:03:55-06:00

Ed and I spent a fabulous gaming weekend with three other couples over the long Memorial Day weekend. I played two of five newly announced Spiel des Jahres nominees there, so I thought I'd do a quick post about them. I'll write more about the weekend and the rest of the games I played in the next post. Given how behind we are in playing the new stuff, I figured that I'd be mostly clueless about the nominees this year. Surprising, it turns out that I've actually played three of the five and unlike the past few years, the list...

Game Day Report part 1: Monsters Menace America

susanroz — 2009-04-21T17:08:20-06:00

Every time we go to Gulf Games, one of my kids latches on to some game that they play there and as good gamer parents, we are obligated to obtain a copy for them once we get home. My kids know that this is one purchasing area where no arm-twisting or whining is required! Anyway, for my younger son Shea, that game one summer was Monsters Menace America. Happily, we were able to get a copy in a math trade on BGG, trading a copy of A Dog's Life that had been plucked off the Gulf Games prize table in...

Gamer's Notebook

susanroz — 2009-04-21T17:01:02-06:00

I always feel flattered but very self-conscious when my blog gets linked somewhere else or somebody I don't even know mentions that they read it. It's even worse when somebody as respected in the hobby as Mike Siggins calls attention to it in his column. Yikes! I often forget that somebody besides my local group and me might be reading it. I guess that I shouldn't be too surprised as I "lurk" on many blogs, too pressed for time or just too lazy to comment on the entries. I'm also reminded once again that I've been horribly neglecting my blog...

Oldies that definitely aren't moldy

susanroz — 2009-04-01T21:39:48-06:00

Today was a day of golden oldies in which I discovered an old gem that definitely reinforces the idea that one should not judge a game by its box. And I mean a box with really, REALLY hideous art, the kind drawn by a nerdy teenager. The fact that the game is an old Avalon Hill game with handfuls of little chits (confetti - whee!) and those typically awful black and white rules with a tiny font and numbered sections should not be a deterrent either. Well, not in this case, anyway. The game that I'm talking about is Merchant...

Would you like a little game with that wine?

susanroz — 2009-03-18T00:06:49-06:00

I was hoping that our planned D&D session on Friday night would inspire me to get back to writing that D&D vs. Descent article I mentioned, but our evening of dungeon delving has been postponed. Arrgh! It looks like we won't be able to corral our Descent players for a session anytime soon, either. Double arghh!! In better news, after I declared the monthly Meetup group dead, it has risen from its grave. Apparently, two different wine stores/wineries, of all places, contacted our Meetup host out of the blue with offers to host the group. I've seen several of these...

In which I descibe a gaming mid-life crisis

susanroz — 2009-03-01T20:30:05-06:00

Yep, it's me. I'm back! I've been suffering a bit of burnout for the past few months. Not just with blogging and writing reviews, but with the Eurogames that I've been obsessed with for the past eight or so years. What happened? I'm not entirely sure but the never ending procession of new games started feeling the same to me. I've always enjoyed games that had a puzzle-like feel to them but I started to often feel like I was solving variations of the same puzzle. When I blogged about the games, I felt like I was saying the same...

Descent Campaign 2 - Session 4

edroz — 2009-02-02T13:13:45-06:00

Previous session reports: Session 1 / Session 2 / Session 3 Week 9: A quick recap of our cast: Overlord Conquest: 35 total / 35 unspent Upgrades: Snipers. Party Conquest: 28 Money: 2250 Upgrades: Bazaar, Enchanted Boat Nanok of the Blade: 22 XP. Taunt, Axe, Leviathan Varikas the Dead: 22 XP. Leadership, Plate Mail, Iron Shield, Sword Landrec the Wise: 22 XP. Quick Casting, Ghost Armor, Elven Robe, Ring of Protection, Immolation, Gauntlets of Power Grey Ker: 22 XP. Eagle Eye, Great Bow, Crossbow, Iron Shield Flametail River Level 3: 11 - The Mine This was sure to be the...

Descent Campaign 2 - Session 3

edroz — 2009-01-14T13:10:51-06:00

Catching up with our Road to Legend campaign, our third session was played this past weekend. The report is below. Previous session reports: Session 1 Session 2 Week 9: Our story picks up as the heroes are in the Flametail River dungeon after level 1. With the Overlord sitting at 22 conquest, they have a decision. Should they quit the dungeon and try to get to another before I can upgrade the eldritch monsters to silver or stay and get what they can in the last pure copper dungeon. After some discussions, they decide to stay. I shuffle up the...

Descent Campaign 2 - Session 2

edroz — 2009-01-12T11:18:17-06:00

Over the holidays our Descent group got together for a little dungeon delving. Took a bit to get this report done, but better late then never. Previous session reports: Session 1 Week 7: The heroes had just arrived in Dawnsmoor with Nanok hurting from their last encounter. They stuck with their plan from the previous session to heal Nanok before taking on Sir Alric. Healing Nanok leaves them with 25 gold. Of course, prior to this happening I got my weekly conquest handout and Sir Alric placed his fourth and last siege engine. The heroes' decision to not attack Sir...

Road to Legend Campaign 2 - Session 1

edroz — 2008-12-17T14:07:33-06:00

Introduction: Welcome to our second Road to Legend campaign. Our first campaign, won by yours truly, was documented here. This time I will be just reporting the events with comments. We actually set up this campaign at the end of our previous one so we are able to jump right into the action. To review, here is the party of heroes that will be attempting to save Terrinoth: Nanok of the Blade with Taunt Varikas the Dead with Leadership Landrec the Wise with Quick Casting Grey Ker with Eagle Eye As I told the heroes when I saw this group...

Excerpts from the Diary of a Mad Overlord - Part 5

edroz — 2008-11-17T13:52:01-06:00

Previous ramblings: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 < Week 8 > < Garden of Tarn dungeon, level 3, "Pit Fiend (23)" > Dear Diary, Ah, Diary, It seems like it has been months since I last had time to record my thoughts here. These pesky heroes must have been lost in a time warp going from the second to third level of the Garden of Tarn dungeon. Whatever the cause was, they finally showed up knocking on the door of the Pit Fiend's lair. The heroes were very cautious and set up a defensive...

More colorful beasties

edroz — 2008-11-13T09:17:57-06:00

With the plan of getting together this coming Saturday and playing Descent (after a 2+ month break), I have been finishing up several more sets of Descent miniatures. Pictures of the latest sets are below. As always, you can click on the thumbnail to view the larger image. I must say that I am making much better progress on the figures than I originally thought. In my first post about painting the minis I thought it would take 9 to 12 months to finish them. Now about four months later I find myself with a large majority of them done...

Yes, I would like a little cheese with my whine.

susanroz — 2008-11-11T10:56:23-06:00

Wow, has this been a bad few months for gaming. We missed this month's Meetup group, the first since it started. The previous two have been less than stellar and I didn't want to write about them because all I'd be doing is whining. Other than that, we've hardly had any time for games at all. Okay, so I've changed my mind and I'm going to whine a little now. :-) Last month, with it just before Halloween, I brought Last Night on Earth to the Meetup in hopes of a fun, spooky game. I set it up on the...