News Bits: 12/9/2013

As promised, this week's NEWS is back to business and bursting at the seams. Without further ado, the NEWS:

Gravwell release date set for December 20 [Link] This according to the game's designer, Corey Young. For those not in the know, Gravwell was one of the best games I played at Gen Con. I've played it several times since on Futurewolfie's copy he purchased there, and I still like it quite a bit. Review forthcoming, closer to the release date, and it will be a nemesis review (that is, Wolfie and I will both provide an opinion). In the meantime, set phasers to "preorder."

Top Ten Lunch Games

I've written on the subject of lunch games many, many times, but probably most completely here. The category of lunch games--games that can be played and in most cases taught in an hour--is near to my heart for several reasons, not least of which is lunch when I am most likely to have time free to play a game. The pressures and responsibilities of home prevent me from attending more than one game night a month. But over lunch? Then I am free.

In my earlier post, I listed several criteria for ideal lunch games. They are:

• Goldilocks playtime (neither too short nor too long)
• Simple rules
• Simultaneous (or near simultaneous) play (in other words, there's always something to do)
• Chaos factor (players have an opportunity to break gameplay conventions)

So which games am I most excited to play over lunch? Here's my list.

A Guide to Pressing Your Luck

King of Tokyo: a very popular dice game with elements of Press Your Luck

How far can you go? How long can you last? How much can you take?

These are not questions of endurance or strength, but of luck and risk.  These are the key questions of a game mechanism known as "press-your-luck" or "push-your-luck."

Let's talk about that.

News Bits: 7/1/2013

As we approach GenCon, there seems to be more and more NEWS available:

Z-Man unveils scenarios for Pandemic [Link] This is an excellent way to increase the mileage of an already great and oft-played game. I hope they continue! (Also, check out the new Pandemic insert that will be available in the reprint of On the Brink.)

What's It Worth to Ya? (a Guide to Auction Mechanics)

It's no secret around these parts that I love auctions. Love them. Love, love, love them. In games, in real life. If I can find a way to maximize the value of a deal, I'm in. So I jumped at the chance to write about auction mechanics.

Are you curious about auctions? You should be, because auctions are awesome. And you've come to the right place to find out more.

For Czar and Country (a review of Saint Petersburg)

Somewhere in Russia, a man sits atop a horse. Thankfully, he is not glowering, as in other Euro games, nor is he a medieval. No, he is the czar--Czar Peter, Czar and Carpenter, Czar Superstar--and he sets the hopeful tone for the city of Saint Petersburg, about to be built up despite the scarcity of rubles available to its Russian tycoons.

You are one such tycoon. Do you have what it takes to build this great city? Find out below.

Adventures on the Tabletop (an interview with Doug Morse)

Board game publishing is a fascinating beast, and--like traditional publishing--it can be a hard area to break into. An interesting project currently on Kickstarter is Adventures on the Tabletop, a documentary that details the board game design process, from prototyping and pitching, through development and the publishing process, and into the finished product. We spoke with Doug Morse, the filmmaker behind Adventures on the Tabletop, to discover more about his project.

Brown-Bag Games

Especially now with a new baby in the house, most of my gaming takes place over my lunch hour at work. There's a pool of around six of us to draw from where I work, and usually somewhere between three and six of us are interested over any given lunch hour when a game is proposed.

All of this lunchtime gaming has got me thinking about my favorite lunchtime games, as well as what I value in a lunchtime game. See my thoughts below!

DeNile Is the First Stage of Sheaf (a review of Nile Deluxor)

 [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!]

At Christmas when I was a kid, I always wanted to unwrap the big presents first. My line of reasoning went like this: toys are in big boxes, clothes are in small boxes. There are some toys small enough to fit in small boxes, but these aren't as cool as toys that come in big boxes. If I open the big boxes first, then I'll have something to play with once all I have left to open is small boxes.

Sometimes we don't grow out of these things.

It's easy for me, now that my toys are disguised as board games, to continue in the "bigger is better" mind-set. Bigger box: better bits. But this is not always the case, which brings me to Nile Deluxor.

What did I think of this small-box game? Check out the review below!

FDQ: What Gaming Moment Was Epic?

You don't have to be playing an epic board game to have an epic board gaming moment, a moment when time seems to stand still, when all of the universe conspires together, when the stars align, producing a scenario that could not be repeated even if you tried. So that's today's question: what was your epic gaming moment?

@FarmerLenny speaks his mind:
I'll admit it. What brings this question to mind is last Friday's game of Ra.

I was playing a three-person game, and one of the players (that is, not me) had taken a pretty sizable lead that seemed all but impossible to overtake. In the final epoch, my highest bidding sun was a 7 (for those who don't know Ra, the highest in our game was a 13; 7 being my highest did not bode well). My tableau was mostly Niles (10 of them!), but I couldn't for the life of me win a flood tile in the last epoch.

Well, to speed things up, both of my competitors had used all their bidding power and were out of the epoch. It was just me, the draw bag, and my 7 sun. The Ra track was almost full: only one Ra tile would trigger the end of the game. The 13 sun was in the middle of the board. I still had no flood tile.

My dilemma should be obvious, but I'll lay it out here: if I called an auction on an empty track and traded the 7 sun for the 13 sun, I could easily seal the highest sun category in the final scoring, but I was fairly certain I wouldn't have enough points to win the victory. Then again, I could draw a tile, trying to reach a flood or another point-scoring tile, but the bag was primarily Ra tiles (the other rounds ended before the Ra track filled). If I drew a Ra tile, I not only lost my chance at more points; I lost the 13 that would seal highest suns.

I decided it was all or nothing. I reached into the bag and pulled out...a flood. The table erupted (or, at least what you can imagine a table of editors erupting to be). The tile was the difference between first and second place. Apparently we were a little rowdy because a coworker stopped to say, "What game are you playing? It certainly looks like you guys are having fun." That, my friends, is why Ra is awesome.

@Futurewolfie grunts:
You don't necessarily have to play an epic game to have an epic moment, but the epic moments in those epic games are pretty excellently epic.

Take the last game of Twilight Imperium I played. Bryan was making a bid for victory, with a huge fleet and a large army controlling the central planet, Metacol Rex. The other five players launched their fleets in a desperate bid to stop him. One by one, each player sent every ship within range to attack; one by one, Bryan's ships took hits but fended off the invaders. The final player that had any chance sent a large fleet, complete with War Suns, and took out every single one of Bryan's ships - except 1.  That last ship held, all invading fleets were destroyed, and Bryan was able to claim the point for controlling Metacol.  It was a space battle worthy of Return of the Jedi.

Admittedly, my contribution of 6 fighters and a carrier was fairly weak

Speaking of Metacol, we had another epic moment in the prequel game to Twilight Imperium, Rex. Bryan and I formed an alliance after about 5 turns to make a bid for victory.  We had to control 4 strongholds at the end of the round.  I had a stronghold but its shield was destroyed and in danger of the incoming Sol Bombardment Fleet; I also controlled the spaceport - another stronghold.  Bryan had another stronghold solidly controlled.  So I sent an army after the 4th stronghold, and Bryan sent his after the 5th.  The vulnerable stronghold was ignored as the Bombardment Fleet would have destroyed it; and the spaceport was targeted by another player.

In Rex, combat works by essentially "bidding" from your current army since in a particular location.  If you bid higher than the other player, you win the battle but sacrifice all the troops you bid.  (There are also leaders and cards to adjust the totals).  In the first combat, I bid all my troops but 1 and emerged victorious, taking over the 4th stronghold.  Bryan tried to take his stronghold but just couldn't make the numbers and was defeated by overwhelming force.  His other Fortress was unthreatened.  So, we had 2 fortresses secured, one under threat of bombardment, and one about to face a battle against outnumbering forces.

My opponent and I set our bids, chose our leaders.  Neither of us had action cards to play.   We revealed our numbers... and my opponent was winning by 1 point.  Until I revealed the traitor card from my hand matching her chosen leader, meaning that her leader betrayed her and she lost the battle.  Immediately after, I played a card to set the bombardment fleet movement to 0.  If we hadn't pulled out the victory, we would have had very limited troops in deployment and a very weak position on the board, but instead we just squeaked out a victory!

The Name on the Box Top: Reiner Knizia

My favorite Knizia game. Indeed, one of my favorite games.

I am almost certain that those who participate in the board gaming hobby who have tried to tell others about it have, at one point or another, been met with a response of, "Oh, is that like Clue and Monopoly?"

What separates hobby board games from the majority of mass-market titles, aside (arguably) from fun, is the name on the box top. Like the byline on books or the signature in the corner of a painting, hobby board games typically bear the name of their creator. But more than their name, hobby board games typically bear the style of their creator as well. Just like you might expect different things from a book by Kurt Vonnegut than you would from Graham Greene, you can expect different things of a game depending on whose name is on the box top.

The Name on the Box Top may become a regular series about game designers, their trademarks, and what I think of their designs. Or it could die here. In any case, I want to talk today about one of my favorite designers: Reiner Knizia.

FDQ: Do You Add Bling to Your Games?

*Our weekly FDQ is your chance to share your stories or thoughts on various boardgame topics. We love to hear your comments!  And, if you have a question or an idea for an FDQ let us know on Twitter, in a comment below, or just e-mail us!*

When scrolling through the pictures on Board Game Geek, it doesn't take long to find gamers taking matters into their own hands. Custom Crokinole boards. More evocative minis. Carved, knitted, painted: whatever a person's other hobby, it is combined into the hobby of gaming to create something of beauty. So that's today's question: do you add custom bling to your games? Answer in the comments!  Feel free to share pictures.

@FarmerLenny holds forth:
I'm not very good with my hands, so often custom bling is beyond me. However, I do like to make my games special where I can. I sometimes follow my sister's lead in Canasta Caliente, allowing the winner of the previous round to wear the coveted chili pepper necklace. I had great plans to pimp my copy of the 1962 version of Acquire...until I found the 1999 one at a reasonable price. How do you improve upon those skyscrapers?

It's not exactly a case of adding bling, but I did create a new storage solution for Dominion to make all of my expansions fit in one box (just like everyone else). And if a game is complex, I'll usually make (or find) an aid so players know what options are available to them. (Though I eschew aids for something like 7 Wonders because the aid can easily become a crutch; the iconography is easy enough to master after one game.)

I do have two bling dreams for my games: a custom draw bag for Ra and a new carved king for El Grande. If these projects ever come to fruition, you can be sure you'll see them here.

@Futurewolfie mutters:
When most of the games you buy are from Days of Wonder and Fantasy Flight, everything is pretty blinged out already.  Most of the "bling" I've considered adding is in the way of storage solutions - trying to find good plastic storage for SmallWorld tokens, or card boxes to keep Twilight Imperium organized (neither of which has been successful or completed in any fashion...).

However, I do have lots of minis, and the best way to bling out minis is to paint them.  I'm no minis painter - I have neither the patience, nor the dexterity.  Fortunately, a good friend and fellow gamer has invested some time into minis painting.  I hope to get my Battlestar Galactica minis painted next week, and eventually my Star Trek: Fleet Captains minis detailed.  Unfortunately none of this has been done yet, so I have no pictures to share.

FDQ: What Is Your "Vegetables" Game?

"Eat your vegetables," your mother used to say (or might still say if you are still at home). And while she knew what was best for you, dang it, vegetables were (are?) gross! Like eating brussels sprouts or reading Ulysses, some gaming experiences have the feel of drudgery even if you recognize their genius. Which brings us to today's question: what board game for you is like eating vegetables? Answer in the comments!

@FarmerLenny answers:
Ha! You probably thought from the title of this post that I was going to ask what your favorite game involving vegetables is (if that's the case, mine is probably At the Gates of Loyang, unless beans count, in which case it's Bohnanza). But that is not the question!

The game to me that is most like eating vegetables is Glen More. I recognize that the game has some excellent mechanics, especially the warehouse buying/selling system, but each experience with the game feels dry (maybe like the whiskey in it?). It feels in many ways like the kind of game I should enjoy: it's got a very Euro feel, a novel turn-order system, multiple scoring options, and an interesting spin on tile laying, but the game just hasn't connected yet for me. Maybe I need to turn on some Monarch of the Glen and drink Irn-Bru to get the full effect of it. (Then again, both of these feel like vegetables-eating experiences, too, so...)

@Futurewolfie answers:
Well I actually liked most vegetables I was fed growing up... so there you have it.  But I'd hate to ruin @FarmerLenny's metaphor, so the game that I don't really like that other people seem to rate highly is, you guessed it, RA.  Apparently it's a cleverly implemented bidding game with a unique scoring system that offers strategy and replayability... but it just doesn't do it for me.  Doesn't click.  Does not cause me to have fun.

Incidentally, it seems that I don't actually own any games with vege-meeples.  Sad day.  Gotta work on that collection.

My Year in Games

Apparently I played a lot of 7 Wonders this year...

I'm something of an archivist and always have been. I enjoy documenting and tracking both collections and the things I do. For several years I've kept a logbook of every book I've read throughout the year. Around April 2011, I began tracking my board game plays on Board Game Geek. Since that time, here are my "nickels and dimes," games I've played 5+ and 10+ times:

iSlaytheDragon's GAME OF THE YEAR

Now that 2011 has come to a close, we can safely look back at all the games we played and loved. We love to hand out kudos to those who deserve it, and the new year is our chance to point out the games that stood above the crowd, at least to us. We're only picking games that we played, and games that released in or around 2011, so if you think a different game deserves the top spot... well, go ahead and let us know in the comments. Now, without further ado...

There and Back Again: A Farmer's Tale

This is my first post in a while. Sorry about the silence from my end; I've been traveling all over creation to celebrate Christmas with family. And I've come back with a tale or two about what I played...

My bags were packed with fun games—both for under the tree and for general consumption. I brought some old favorites and some new, and here were the results.

Christmas Gift Guide 2011

Even dragons love Christmastime.

Christmas is right around the corner, and this means that gift-buying season is in full swing. Rather than giving those special someones on your list another sweater or novelty Monopoly set (Monopoly: The Tacky Christmas Tie Edition!), why not try giving them something they'll really enjoy? Look below as @Futurewolfie and I make gaming suggestions for the people on your Christmas shopping list. If you'd like more details about any of these games, we've linked to our reviews, or you can ask us questions in the comments. If we haven't covered someone on your list, post a comment, and we'll recommend something fresh. It's that simple.

(Oh, and so you know, we're not the only ones doing this. Check out other great lists on Dice Hate Me, Gamer Chris, Games and Grub, The Board Game Family, The Game Aisle, and of course, Board Game Geek. Their lists differ significantly from ours, but they have good suggestions, too.)

Auctions in Egypt (a review of Ra)

[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 difficult to spend time in the board gaming hobby and not hear the name "Reiner Knizia." His name is a staple in the industry, and depending on your gaming sensibilities, that can be a good thing or a bad thing. For my birthday, my sister gave me one of Knizia's flagship games, Ra. And while for me Knizia's fame is a very good thing, not everyone agrees with me (namely, @Futurewolfie). Read on for an explanation of the game and our review. Spoiler alert: lots of disagreement ahead.

Gaming Weekends and First Impressions

Living as I do on the edge of civilization (or at least far away from the rest of my kin), I try to spend my birthday among family, and this year was no exception. I traveled to the exotic land of Nebraska to spend the weekend with my sister and brother-in-law, and true to Nebraska's landscape, there wasn't much to do except game. All told we fit in eleven plays of eight unique games (three of them mine, two already reviewed—El Grande and Eminent Domain—and our 7 Wonders review coming this week), four of which were first-time plays for me. I also got to try a new game I got for my birthday and attended open gaming at my local gamestore this past Saturday (I went with friends, so I didn't chicken out this time). Needless to say, this would be considered gaming overload for most, but I took it in stride, and now I'll give you my first impressions of all the new games I played.

(First plays of Midgard, Glen More, Puerto Rico, Resident Evil Deck-Building Game, Ra, and Stone Age)

FDQ: What Game Is on Your Radar?

Conventions, blogs, and BGG—they seem like an endless source of inspiration (and temptation). This leads to today's FDQ: What new game is on your radar? Or, if not new, what game is at the top of your wish/to-play list? Answer in the comments!

@FarmerLenny answers:
As a huge Dominion fan, I'm obviously pretty stoked about the new Donald X. Vaccarino titles, Nefarious and Kingdom Builder, to see if lightning struck twice. (Admittedly, Kingdom Builder's name is lame.) I'm also pretty curious about Ora et Labora from Uwe Rosenberg. I love Bohnanza, Agricola, and At the Gates of Loyang, and this one—combined with a theme that interests me—is one I will follow with interest.

As for games on the to-play list, Fresco is at the top. It looks like a beautiful game, an interesting twist on worker placement. I'm quite excited about trying Glory to Rome—with schnazzy new art! I had avoided the older version because of the kiddish artwork, but I kickstarted the black box edition. I am anxious for its arrival. And thanks to The Card Gamer, I'm pumped to try out Ra. If any of you have a copy and are holding out on me...

@Futurewolfie answers:
This is pretty easy for me to answer.  Rex is the number one title I'm looking forward to right now. As a huge fan of Cosmic Encounter and the designers of that game, I've had my sights on the impossible-to-find-if-you-don't-want-to-spend-hundreds-of-dollars Dune game for a long time, so imagine my excitement when I learned it was being re-released in a new form in the Twilight Imperium universe. Incidentally, though Twilight Imperium isn't new, I haven't had a chance to play it yet, so it's also high on my want-to-play list.

I also really want to get my hands on Star Trek: Fleet Captains. I'm a huge Star Trek fan, but as there have been a number of pathetic excuses for star trek games milking the franchise, I was apprehensive. After trying it at Gencon, though, I found it to be excellent. 

Apparently I really like Space-themed games.

See, Nemesis, I can put in a bunch of random hyperlinks too!