News Bits: 7/30/2012

Ticket to Ride: Europe Now Available for iPhone
I'm an Android man myself, but Days of Wonder announced last week that Ticket to Ride: Europe—my favorite of the Ticket to Ride maps I've played—is available for iPhone. If it's as good as their implementation of the USA map, it's almost reason in itself to get an iPhone. Or to lobby for an Android counterpart...

7 Wonders: Cities Rules Posted
7 Wonders took the board gaming world by storm (a strategy game for seven players in under an hour?!), and the new expansion, Cities, is coming soon. Originally slated for release in July, the expansion will be released in the United States in August. Until then, you can drool over the rules. This one really intrigues me and looks like it adds more than Leaders (though I enjoy Leaders quite a bit).

Bullies, Buildings, and Beauty (a review of Carcassonne: Inns and Cathedrals)

What comes in the box

[Editors note: The following is a Nemesis Review, featuring opinions from our in-house eurogamer, @Farmerlenny, and his deadly enemy the thematic space-loving @Futurewolfie.  Make sure to read both opinions to get a better overall picture of the game!]

It's hard to imagine a time when Carcassonne didn't have a million expansions available, but seriously, there was one. There was a time when medieval city-building enthusiasts were drumming their fingers on their gaming tables, waiting for the next Klaus-Jurgen Wrede brainwave. And before Carcassonne jumped the shark, there was Inns & Cathedrals.

So what do I think of this expansion-before-the-others? Find out below!

European Vacation (a review of Ticket to Ride: Europe)

As I usually play with green, I am the tall man with a top
hat, cane, and monocle. So, basically Mr. Peanut. Just
like in real life...

[Editors note: The following is a Nemesis Review, featuring opinions from our in-house eurogamer, @Farmerlenny, and his deadly enemy the thematic space-loving @Futurewolfie.  Make sure to read both opinions to get a better overall picture of the game!]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a board game in possession of a large fan base must be in want of a spin-off. Or an expansion. Or something else that allows the company that produced said popular game to capitalize on its good fortune. Such is the case with Ticket to Ride, a game that @Futurewolfie and I uncharacteristically agreed upon and raved about here. But spin-offs and expansions can be of variable quality. For every Prosperity, there's a Catapult. So where does Ticket to Ride: Europe (a standalone game) fall on the spectrum? Find out below!

On the Horizon: 2012

New years are great. New Year's Day may be a seemingly arbitrary holiday to some, but I think it marks a great time to look back and reflect on the past year, and at the same time look forward to new and excellent things on the horizon.

The same is true for games. It's a good time to be a board gamer. The hobby is growing and getting noticed, and a lot of high-quality, excellent games are being produced. Kickstarter has become a major launching pad for independent and small-time game publishers to find an audience and succeed. And there's no shortage of awesomeness coming in 2012 (especially as Essen 2011 releases s-l-o-w-l-y make their way to the States). Here are some of the games we're excited to see.

FDQ: Expansions or new games?

Board gaming is a pretty great hobby. You get the benefits of getting away from a screen for a while and interacting face-to-face with friends and family. You get your brain a little exercise. And you have a whole variety of experiences to jump into and out of for a few hours at a time.

Not only can you buy new games to get this variety, but you can often buy expansions to your favorite games to change up or deepen the experience. Of course, most people have pretty tight wallets and can't just buy whatever they want. So today's question... which do you like the most—buying a new game, or buying an expansion to one of your favorites? Answer in the comments!

(P.S. You'll definitely want to check back for next week's FDQ. It's a super special surprise, and I don't think you'll regret it. And I'm not giving any hints; you'll find out what it is next week!)


@Futurewolfie answers:
 This is probably a tough answer for most gamers. The call of new games is always strong, but at the same time, my favorite games deserve a little love as well, and most of the time new expansions add variety and excitement to an already great game. With limited money, it's always a tough choice between buying an expansion or going for something totally new. Not to mention the fact that I'm somewhat of a completionist, so when I have a game I love I feel like I want to get every expansion just to complete the collection. I bought waaaay too many Heroclix in high school for that reason. Still, I think at least at this point I prefer buying new games. There are a lot of unique experiences out there that I haven't had a chance to get my hands on, and as a blogger of games, I'm pretty willing to risk my money on a game that I don't know much about just to try something new. Whereas with expansions, it's just a variation on a familiar experience; not necessarily a bad thing (Dominion expansions, you rock my world) but just not necessarily my first priority.

@FarmerLenny answers:
This is a tough question. Buying new games can be a mixed bag, whereas expansions to a game you already like generally seem like a safe bet (except maybe some Carcassonne expansions, which seem to have jumped the shark). Because I like new shinies, I usually opt for new games (after copious research), but I'm rarely disappointed when I decide on expansions. For Dominion, I think the expansions are what keep the game so exciting, but there are other games that seem more complete in themselves, making expansions less necessary (Agricola, for example). Really, I'm open to any purchase that brings exciting plays to the table.

The Plethora! (A Review of Dominion: Cornucopia)

Without a doubt, my favorite Dominion box art

[Editors note: The following is a Nemesis Review, featuring opinions from our in-house thematic-loving @futurewolfie and his ferocious opponent, the stodgy euro-loving @Farmerlenny.  Make sure to read both opinions to get a better overall picture of the game!]

One of the great things about Dominion is the wide variety of new cards that can be added to keep things fresh and always keep players on their toes—new cards added to the mix always changes up the strategy a bit.

Speaking of variety, the expansion Cornucopia adds a series of cards that reward you for having a variety of different cards in your deck. Being a Dominion expansion, Cornucopia plays functionally the same as Dominion (if you are unfamiliar with Dominion, start there first. Read our review and then buy yourself a copy!), but the cards added can drastically change up the strategy involved.

Bigger, Richer, Shinier (A Review of Dominion: Prosperity)

[Editors note: The following is a Nemesis Review, featuring opinions from our in-house thematic-loving @futurewolfie and his ferocious opponent, the stodgy euro-loving @Farmerlenny.  Make sure to read both opinions to get a better overall picture of the game!]

Prosperity is the fourth expansion to Dominion. Unlike Intrigue, Prosperity is not a standalone expansion; it requires Dominion or Dominion: Intrigue to play.

In a Kingdom by the Sea (a review of Dominion: Seaside)

Seaside: It's Dominion...with bits!

[Editors note: The following is a Nemesis Review, featuring opinions from our in-house eurogamer, @Farmerlenny, and his deadly enemy the thematic space-loving @Futurewolfie.  Make sure to read both opinions to get a better overall picture of the game!]

Dominion: Seaside is the second expansion for Dominion. It is a straight expansion and does not include all of the bits you need to play; in order to use Seaside, you must have Dominion or Dominion: Intrigue.

A follow-up to Intrigue - too many cooks? (A mini-review of 6-player Dominion/Dominion Intrigue))

8 player dominion is highly NOT recommended

In the past week I had a chance to play the 6-player variant of Dominion made possible when one possesses both the base game and the Intrigue expansion.

The reason for creating this variant is obvious:  sometimes you have more than 3 friends over to play a game, and Dominion is one of the best games out there.  It's fun, it's easy, you never know what to expect, and it's fast.  Games are meant to be a social experience, after all, and why should such an experience be limited to 4?

Unfortunately, adding more players creates a problem that just about EVERY game has to face - downtime.  Waiting for 3 people to take their turns? Not so bad.  Waiting for 5?  Now that's a different story.  In addition, the more players you have, the more likely that one or more of those players will talk a long, slow turn, thinking too hard when they should have been planning ahead during the other players' turns.

Dominion Gets Shifty (a review of Dominion: Intrigue)

Those villagers are up to no good...

Dominion: Intrigue is the first expansion for Dominion. It adds twenty-five kingdom cards (the random cards that vary from game to game) as well as rules for five- and six-player games (and even seven- and eight-player games). Intrigue is a standalone expansion, meaning that while it expands the base game of Dominion, everything you need to play the game is inside the box. This review assumes basic knowledge of Dominion. (If you don't know about Dominion, first of all, get out of the Dark Ages [Ed. note December 2012: is it ironic that the latest big-box expansion to Dominion is, in fact, "Dark Ages?"]. Then check out @Futurewolfie's review or @FarmerLenny's review.)

A Two Part Post, Part II: Expansive

Today I played a good game of Dominion Intrigue with my arch-nemesis.  Fortunately I ended the game at 2 points above my opponent for the win, but this was my first time playing with any Dominion expansion.  One thing I noticed, in general, about the expansion.  While the core game has actions that are, mostly, +1 Action or +2 cards, simple stuff like that with an occassional card that requires a full sentence to explain its purpose, Intrigue's cards are filled with "Choose between this" or "Do this.  If this happens, then do this, otherwise do this."  In short, the game builds on core concepts we already know, and twists them up, adding complication and variety.

I think that's awesome.  It's one of the coolest things about the world of Euro- or Hobby gaming.