Jim Ginn

Moving ...

2010-07-01T21:27:00.003-04:00

I've moved my blog over to my personal web site and into WordPress. Please update your link:

http://jim.ginn5j.com/

Running in downtown Indy

2009-06-03T13:18:00.003-04:00

I typically run at lunch on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Today's run was a soggy excursion with light rain and moderate wind from the north. Fortunately, that meant a tailwind on the return leg of the journey.

Today's route and the set list:

Spin Doctors - Jimmy Olsen's Blues
The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
Sheryl Crow - Steve McQueen
Mark Knopfler - Boom, Like That
Marc Cohn - Walking in Memphis
Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb
Smash Mouth - Walkin' on the Sun
Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine
Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me with Science
Nirvana - Lithium
Blues Traveler - All in the Groove
Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London
Marc Broussard - Home
Soft Cell - Tainted Love
Crash Test Dummies - Winter Song

5.5 miles at a 9min/mile pace. :)

GTF09 - Still Going Strong After 10 Years

2009-02-25T19:32:00.003-05:00

Ten years ago, 6 friends had a meetup at Cumberland Falls State Park in southern Kentucky. The aim was to catch up with each other, play a few games and take a break from the rat race for a few days. We played Elfenland (+gold) and learned about Troy's amazing pig call. We decided that Dune was a great game for 6 but the rules suck. We learned that everyone has a limit and Jeff reaches everyone's limit. But, most of all, we had fun hangin' with each other and we enjoyed playing games.

During the intervening years, we've gotten a little older and grayer but each February, we've returned to the same spot to enjoy a weekend full of friends and games. At it's peak, GTF hosted 24 gamers over the course of 4 days. We've scaled it back a bit but we still have about 20 friends show up each year and that seems to be about the right number to be sure you're gaming and catching up with everyone. This year was no different with 18 of us traveling from Indiana, Ohio and South Carolina for the festivities.

Highlights from this year's event...

Dominion

What can I say? It's the hotness on the 'geek these days and it was hot at GTF. I opened up with this on Wednesday evening and over the course of GTF, I played 16 games of this and taught over half the group how to play. By the middle of Thursday, this gem had taken up permanent residence on one of the tables. If nothing else was happening, you could be sure there was a game of this going. I expected Dominion to be in heavy rotation since nearly everyone who attends is a former M:TG player and, to some degree, enjoyed the deck building aspect of the grandfather of all CCGs.

Werewolf

Personally, I'm not a fan. However, about half our group has really taken to this and it has grown to be a regular staple at GTF. From about 10pm until the wee hours of the morning, you can find at least 5 GTF'rs going nuts with Werewolf.

Troy's MeatFest

Every year, on Friday or Saturday, Troy grills up some burgers from his parents' farm and we supply the rest. It's the one community meal we share. Kieron uses this as an opportunity for the group photo.

New Games

Every year, this (and bgg.con) is a chance for me to try out new games (usually some of my own). This year, I enjoyed my first play of Galaxy Trucker, Pandemic, Stone Age and Key Largo. I enjoyed all of them and already own copies of Galaxy Trucker and Stone Age. Both of these are games I expect are suitable for the family and should see some play in the coming months. While I enjoyed Pandemic, I don't think it is something I'll purchase. Co-ops tend to feel samey after a few plays so I don't play them much (although I just purchased BSG...you can call me a hypocrite I suppose :). Key Largo was a hoot but I'm not sure my teenagers would appreciate it.

GeekBucks and the Auction

GTF even has its own economy! Win a game, record it and turn in the sheet to a GeekTeller and you're flush with GeekBucks! GeekBucks are a device Kieron introduced several years ago to encourage everyone to record their plays so we would have a record of (most) games played during GTF. Get a few GeekBucks and bid on something in the auction. This year we had games donated from Wargame Depot, gift certificates from ThoughtHammer and Boulder Games, and a full pass to GenCon in August. Saturday evening is always lively when the auction switches from silent to live bidding.

On to Next Year

The biggest downer with GTF is that it's now 350+ days until next year's event. Still, we plan to renew our friendships and our love of gaming again next February...

BGG.con Day 0

2008-11-20T01:27:00.002-05:00

Arrived in DFW and hooked up with Chris Brooks. Spent the afternoon helping with the setup -- bagging goodie bags, etc. Played one of the new Martin Wallace designs later in the day called After the Flood. It's a 3 player only war/economic game. Met up with Jeff DeBoer at dinner and played a couple of games of a tile laying game called Cities and wrapped it up for the evening with Race for the Galaxy.

Goo

2008-10-13T22:05:00.004-04:00

If you have a Wii and you like puzzles...pick up World of Goo (Wikipedia) from the WiiWare section of Shop Channel on your Wii. I played through about half of the first chapter tonight -- intuitive, addictive and fun!

TKD Results

2008-09-29T07:46:00.002-04:00

Caleb placed out of the medals this weekend. He recently passed the 2nd Degree test and is learning a new form. Also, since turning 14, he competes in the adult division. Needless to say, his competition is tough...time and experience will help.

Tristan competed in a group of 11 1st Degree black belts. He finished 3rd in forms (after losing a tie-breaker for 2nd) and 4th in sparring.

Both did a great job at the national level. Tristan will be testing for 2nd Degree in Oct and Caleb will be testing for his instructor collar at the same time. Logan will be wrapping up football in another week and will be back at TKD after that.

Youth Football: Week 6

2008-09-29T07:34:00.002-04:00

I was at the TKD tournament with Caleb and Tristan in Gatlinburg this weekend and didn't see this game. Another loss but the report from Jill's parents was that Logan had a great game with a lot of hits, including at least one tackle for a loss and just missed sacking the QB on another play.

Nat'l TKD Tournament in Gatlinburg

2008-09-26T14:16:00.002-04:00

Caleb, Tristan and I are in Gatlinburg until Sunday morning for one of the 2 national tournaments run by their TKD association. It's raining now but we spent a few hours this morning exploring the edge of the Great Smokey Mountains Nat'l Park via the Roaring Fork motor trail and short hikes at stops along the way. Gorgeous scenery.

This afternoon is testing for 3rd Degree and above. Tomorrow is the competition.

Youth FBall: Packers are 1 - 4

2008-09-24T21:48:00.002-04:00

Logan's team played the Steelers tonight and had a rough go, losing 0 - 21. Logan played most of the game at corner and the last few plays at nose guard. It's been a tough season. Only 2 games left -- this Saturday against the Dolphins and next Saturday against the Raiders.

Youth FBall: Packers - 6, Colts - 12

2008-09-13T17:33:00.002-04:00

The team can't seem to turn the corner this season. Lots of mistakes, particularly the false starts on 1st down handicapping them another 5 yards, contributed to today's loss. Logan spent most of the game at nose guard with occasional downs at linebacker and corner. He typically had two lineman blocking, preventing access to the backfield and had fewer tackles this game. He did recover a fumble that would've been a 1st down had the Colts retained possession. On special teams, he caught a kick-off. He went down on a knee in the process, so no return.

In general, a good effort by the team...just not enough for a win. They are 1-3 with 3 games left. Playoff possibilities are starting to fade.

Renovations

2008-09-08T20:26:00.002-04:00

We're having the floors on the 1st and 2nd levels of the house re-done right now. Everything is NOT business as usual right now. The installers were in today taking out the floor in the kitchen to prep for the engineered hardwood that will go down later this week. It'll be quite nice when it is all finished but it's a mess at the moment!

Youth FBall: Packers - 28, Giants - 29

2008-09-06T16:50:00.003-04:00

Another tough loss for Logan and the team. This time they were tied at the end of regulation and lost in double OT. Logan was in on many tackles again, including multiple solo tackles. The coach moved him around a lot on the line. I think he played nearly every position on the defensive line today. He stayed at a spot until the offense started double teaming him at that position and he could no longer get through.

Youth FBall: Packers - 0, Patriots - 6

2008-08-30T11:51:00.002-04:00

Heartbreaker this morning. Logan's game was early this morning and the dew was heavy. This meant the field was damp and the ball was often wet. Mistakes occur more frequently under these conditions and that was the case for both teams today. The Pats scored on their first possession early in the 1st half. The only other time the ball saw the end zone was a TD run by the Packers that was called back for holding.

Logan continued to play at the corner on defense and also moved into the offensive line today. He hasn't practiced much on that side of the ball and was frustrated that he wasn't blocking well. However, on the defensive side, he had a great game. He was involved in several tackles including 2 solo take downs behind the line of scrimmage.

Packers 14, Eagles 0

2008-08-23T16:42:00.003-04:00

It's the first weekend of football for Logan. He's with the Packers again this year (4th Grade league). The team has the same coaches as last year and they drafted many of the same kids again. Logan is playing at cornerback and on special teams right now. They won their first game 14-0. The play by play:

1st Half (8 minute Qtrs)
Packers - 7:47 - Loss on Downs
Eagles - 1:13 - Fumble
Packers - 2:57 - Touchdown, failed on the point after
Eagles - 3:31 - Loss on Downs
Packers - :32 - End of Half (they did breakaway for a 60 yd TD but it was called back for a holding call)

Packers - 6, Eagles - 0

2nd Half
Eagles - 3:10 - Loss on Downs
Packers - 4:50 - Touchdown + 2 pt conversion
Eagles - 4:46 - Loss on Downs
Packers - 3:14 - Ran out clock

Packers - 14, Eagles - 0

The Pack was in position to score again with about a minute to go and wisely chose to knee the ball after getting the needed 1st down. No sense running up the score or risking injury this early in the season.

Way to go Logan!

2nd Degree Black Belt for Caleb

2008-08-17T09:51:00.004-04:00

Caleb tested for 2nd Degree and his instructor collar last weekend and passed for 2nd Degree. He had a couple of missteps on 2 of the forms and will retest for his collar in October. Awards were presented at the annual school picnic this week...

UK/Ireland

2008-08-06T21:19:00.004-04:00

Spent last week meeting with folks at our sites in UK and Ireland. Snapped a few pics with the iPhone. It does a good job if the conditions are right.

UK/Ireland 2008

My favorite is the one of the Mystery Rummy deal in the pub I spent a couple of nights at in Ireland. If you are ever in Kinsale, be sure to visit the Spaniard and have a couple pints o' Guiness. If you can do that after 9pm or so, even better!

Was only able to spend a few hours in London. Went to the Imperial War Museum ... it is huge and wasn't able to do more than scratch the surface. Snapped a pic of 'Mind the Gap' because it is a fading memory. London is upgrading the Underground and making it safer for all of us by modernizing and providing additional barriers to the subway. The well known phrase, 'Mind the Gap,' is slowly disappearing from fondly remembered platforms throughout the city.

Tristan's Dolphin Adventure

2008-07-21T22:55:00.003-04:00

For Tristan's birthday, he and Jill went over to the Indy Zoo on Sunday to 'swim' with the dolphins. OK...they didn't get to swim with the dolphins, but they did learn a lot about them, be in the water with them and interacted with the dolphins using many of the techniques employed by the trainers. Since Tristan came home beaming, I have the impression that he had a great time.

Tristan's Dolphin Adventure - Jul 2008

TKD Midwest Regional - 19 Jul 08

2008-07-21T22:37:00.003-04:00

We were off to Columbus, OH this weekend for a regional tournament. Caleb was on the sidelines this weekend, recovering from multiple, non-TKD injuries (he can go into the details :). He spent the tournament recording, timing and assisting judges. Logan finished in typical style with a 2nd in sparring. Tristan, on the other hand, tied for 4th in his forms competition, losing the tie-breaker but came on strong in the sparring competition, finishing 1st in his group.

TKD Midwest Regional - Westerville, OH - Jul 2008

The Canon A95 I was using to capture the action shots just couldn't keep up so enjoy what I could salvage.

The next national tournament will be held in Gatlinburg this September.

iPhone 2.0

2008-07-10T23:44:00.003-04:00

Chris clued me in that the 2.0 software update was available. After loading it up, I wandered over to the new Apps section of iTunes to see what was there. Lo and behold, there was an ebook reader, one of the native apps I was most interested in seeing on the iPhone.

Ideally, I would be able to sync books from iTunes but we'll see how pulling them from eReader goes.

Camp Quest 2008

2008-06-28T20:20:00.003-04:00

The boys had a great time at camp again. The ride home clocked in at about 2.5 hours and it was as quiet as a mouse in the van. You could say they were worn out! :)

Camp Quest 2008

Quick Philly Trip

2008-06-19T21:54:00.003-04:00

Friend and colleague, Jason Brown, and I travelled to Philly this week on business and snapped a few pics on the iPhone along the way...

Philly: 17 - 18 Jun 2008

Business casual + backpack = modern dork :) Don't you agree?!?

McGillan's is the oldest pub in Philly and an awesome place to share a few pitchers with friends. Yards IPA comes highly recommended.

'caching at McCormick's Creek

2008-05-24T22:31:00.001-04:00

The family, dog in tow, hiked around McCormick's Creek over Memorial Day weekend. We picked up a few geocaches. Tristan and Logan traversed Wolf Cave:

McCormick's Creek: 24 May 2008

New 1st Degree Sr

2008-04-23T22:00:00.002-04:00

Tristan achieved his 1st Degree Sr rating over the weekend. The award ceremony was this evening. It took a couple of times for him to pass. He and Caleb are at 1st Deg Sr and Logan is at 1st Deg Decided. Next up is 2nd Degree. Caleb and Logan will be testing for their Jr Instructor ratings in June. Tristan achieved his instructor rating last fall (...that's the red collar on his jacket).

Spring is Sprung

2008-04-23T21:41:00.006-04:00

Good looking spring around our home....

Rails of Europe - 1st Play

2008-03-13T00:28:00.003-04:00

Game Night: Rails of Europe
Mar 12th, 2008
Host: JeffL
Guests: DanD, DaveF, BobN, JimG

BobN(67), Jim (50), JeffL(49), DanD(42), DaveF(11)

First time play of the Railroad Tycoon expansion for everyone but Bob and boy, did he school us! Very quickly, he hooks up Amsterdam to Marseilles for a major line as well as a couple of other bonuses to jump ahead into the mid to high teens while the rest of us are puttering along at about 6 points apiece. The game tightened up in the middle as we pushed hard to close the gap with Bob. However, his 10 to 15 point lead gave him the breathing room needed to develop the infrastructure he needed to continue delivering goods through the end of the game. Poor Dave was caught in a debt spiral early in the game. He made it up to 32 on the points but had 26 shares to subtract from his score and was able to complete his baron objective.

Bonus points

Bob - Amsterdam to Marseilles and Madrid to Milan major lines, Marseilles and Naples service bounties, Passenger Lines, Paris Capital Charter, King Alfonso baron
Jim - Berlin to Rome major line, Lisbon service bounty, Railroad Era Begins, Speed Record, Milan Hotel
Jeff - Paris to Constantinople major line, Constantinople service bounty, Berlin Capital Charter
Dan - Moscow service bounty, Largest engine baron
Dave - Moscow to Vienna major line, Most cities connected baron

My impression after 1 play...I liked it a lot. The board is tighter and the interaction between players in terms of competing for city connections happens much earlier and to a far greater degree than in RRT. Paying attention to the Major Lines and Service Bounties is a must. If one player picks up very many points off these early in the game, it's over (as was the case in this one). I still don't care for the turn order bidding. There's no cost to the player on the left of the start player. Still, a significant improvement in the RRT series -- something in between RRT and Age of Steam.

Rome siezes Carthage!

2007-11-25T21:34:00.001-05:00

My favorite game from BGG.con was Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage. Caleb's been interested in playing ever since my copy showed up earlier this month (he's been studying ancient Rome and Greece lately) and today turned out to be a fine day for teaching him how to play. I went over the turn structure, how we checked political control at the end of each game turn and how the cards could be used. After that, we started playing and I filled in with details (battles, interceptions, etc) as we played. He picked it up very quickly, distracting me (Rome) with a first turn 'Syracuse Allies with Carthage' (after I'd moved T. Longus and his armies to Syracuse, ugh!) and following it up with Macedonia declaring war on me. While I was trying to deal with that, he gobbled up political control for the rest of Hispania, leaving us tied at the end of turn 1. The first half of the game remained a draw and it wasn't until I wrested control of Syracuse back in the 5th turn and started making inroads into N. Africa in the 6th that things began to unravel for Carthage. In the 8th turn, I was wreaking havoc with Scipio Africanus in Africa and also brought Nero over to lay siege to Carthage. As it would happen, Caleb had no campaign cards nor any 3 ops value cards and was unable to recall any of his armies that were over in Hispania. The siege was ultimately successful, eliminating those pesky Carthaginians, once and for all...or, at least until we play again!

Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage - End Game

Jekyll and Hyde

2007-11-20T23:04:00.000-05:00

The Mystery Rummy series is one of our favorite 2-player games. I pulled out Jekyll & Hyde this evening to play during dinner (I arrived late after unsuccessfully trying to finish off some things at work so I wouldn't need to go in on Wednesday!) and was promptly hung out to dry. Jill accomplished shut-outs in the 1st and 3rd hands -- schooling me in a big way -- 100+ to 33. Ouch!

BGG.con Wrap-up

2007-11-20T08:40:00.000-05:00

BGG has hosted another terrific con. Hats off to Aldie, Derk, Vickie, Randy, et al for continuing to provide a wonderful board gaming convention. The move to the new hotel was a big improvement in the layout and usability of the space available for gaming. The only real issue at this point is the lack of dining choices nearby. I'd echo Chris' sentiments that the planners should either continue their search for another location with comparable space that has more convenient dining options or work out a way to shuttle attendees to an area with additional choices.

Having attended GenCon and Essen, BGG.con is simply, hands down, the best gaming convention I've been to where the focus is playing games. Essen and GenCon are great for their exhibition halls and access to the publishers and new releases (less so for GenCon) but are not known for their open gaming areas.

Games purchased or likely to purchase

Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage -- This was the best gaming experience I had all weekend. Part of that is Chris. He's great to game with and didn't lose his cool even when I dropped 'Hanno Counsels Carthage' on him 2 turns in a row! With the reprint, I'm hopeful this will find a wider audience. It really is that good. Yes, it is an investment in time but it is worth it. If you enjoy Twilight Struggle, you owe it to yourself to play this with someone, especially if you have any interest in ancient Rome. I already own a copy. Yes, I did preorder from VG and yes, I was frustrated with the process. They did a nice job with the reprint and I'm very glad to have a copy on my gaming shelf.

Agricola -- It's hard to say what was 2nd but Agricola is high on the list. Z-Man is taking preorders and I'm seriously considering an order. This scratches a similar itch as Through the Ages -- big, wide open and highly replayable. Like TtA, some will complain that it is just several gamers playing solitaire together. Maybe so but anything I can enjoy for a couple of hours is worth taking a look at in my book. Zev -- produce a nice English version with animeeples and I'm there!

Thebes -- Quick and well-themed, almost too good to be true. I will be picking up a copy of this.

Mission: Red Planet -- OK, the components look like they are straight from a late (Hasborg) Avalon Hill release but it is fun and and plays quickly. This would be a good purchase for me. Although the components could use a little help, the steampunk art is awfully sweet.

Brass -- Another very likely purchase. I'd like to find someone in Indy with a copy and play a few more times to be sure. Would someone tell these guys to stop with the cruddy money components. Another game that begs you to use your poker chips because the existing components for cash bite in a big way!

On the Fence...
Games I enjoyed but unlikely to purchase until I have an opportunity to play a few more times.

Hamburgem -- Do I need this more than Antike or Imperial?

Fjords -- Good game but not sure I need it with Carc: The Castle, Caylus Magna Carta, Jambo and the like.

Cuba -- Very good game. A more thematic Puerto Rico? A possibility with my group but I should play a couple more games before purchasing this.

In the Year of the Dragon -- Tense but awfully dry and abstract. I'd rather play Zepter which is also very dry and abstract but I like the theme more.

Colosseum -- I enjoyed this but just not sure I need a copy. Will gladly play someone else's copy though. :)

Hansa -- I need to put this up for trade. Although I like the game, it just isn't something that will get played often. Oltre Mare is different but seems to fill the same sort of need.

No Way, Jose...

Agora -- Simple and small but I'd choose several others before this.

It's Alive -- Good game but probably would pick something like Ra over this most of the time.

Before the Wind -- Misplaying the auctions may've really tainted this game for me. Improving the symbology on the cards would go a long way to improving the gaming experience of this title.

Oregon -- Very much a pasted on theme that just doesn't grab me.

Would like to have played...

StarCraft: The Board Game -- Would be nice to find a game to fit the TI3 niche that plays in 2 to 3 hours. This seems like it could come close but I just can't justify the cost without playing first.

Race for the Galaxy -- This may just end up as a purchase. San Juan with a space theme? Cool! And it may just be engaging enough to interest my boys.

TZAAR -- Would like to try this out. I have all the other GIPF games, including TAMSK, the game replaced by this one. YINSH and DVONN have been the most enjoyable from this series thus far.

...And then there were...

If you enjoy gaming, get to BGG.con next year...that's what it is all about. You can do other things -- puzzle hunt, game show, etc. but it's really about gaming. I plan to continue attending and you will likely find Chris and I looking for a few good gamers to try out something new...

PS...KC, whatever you do, find a way to get your bad self down to BGG.con so we can have some serious gaming. I was very disappointed that you couldn't make it!

BGG.con - Day 3

2007-11-19T21:12:00.001-05:00

Day 3

Alas, my last day of gaming (my flight on Sunday was at 10am)! After a solo run and Starbucks (again), I was off to the gaming area. Chris and I gamed until early afternoon when we joined Tim and Randy as well as a whole group from California for a road trip over to Baby Back Shak for Memphis-style BBQ. Thanks for driving guys!

Oregon

I arrived to setup for Mission: Red Planet but saw Valerie Putman and asked if she'd be interested in teaching Oregon. She was. Chris and I played this with Michelle Zentis. It plays quickly but we felt there wasn't enough control in the game. Michelle thought it would be good to add a fifth card to your hand. Chris had the right idea though of using the extra turn ability as much as possible and accelerating the end game. Provisional Rating: 6

Mission: Red Planet

Another game I checked out the night before and played the next day. After reading the rules, I wasn't sure I'd like this but we tried it out and was pleasantly surprised. Chris and I played this with Kris Wolf. It reminded me of a blending (albeit simple) of El Grande and Citadels. We played this fast and finished less than an hour. There is room for messing with other players but we didn't get into that on this play. The primary complaint was the quality of the components. Honestly, it looks like it's something that could've been published by Avalon Hill after they were absorbed by Hasbro. Everyone enjoyed it though and it will probably go on my buy list. Provisional Rating: 8

Cuba

This had some buzz from Essen and we were finally able to grab a copy and played with Tim Isakson and his wife, Carrie Ives, and Russ Moll. This is very much in the vein of Puerto Rico -- starting with very little and building up an economic engine that cranks out lots of points later in the game. The artwork and components were great and the theme felt like it fit the game. Not sure if I'll buy this one but certainly a worthy successor to PR. Provisional Rating: 7

Agricola

If there was a game everyone was trying to play, this was it. After returning from dinner, I was able to locate a copy that wasn't being used (and it happened to be owned by someone that had joined us on our road trip to Baby Back Shak, even better! -- Stephanie K). After informing Chris that I'd secured a copy, I ran into Jeff Deboer who knew the rules and was interested in playing. We were joined by Will and Melissa DeMorris. Jeff taught and we proceeded to play this for next 2.5 hours. Great game...feels like you're playing a Sim game in board game format. I understand that it scales from solo play on up which will help it sell. Many feel this is the next big thing in the board gaming world. It is very good but I think it will settle out in the 15 - 25 range on BGG. Z-Man is taking preorders and it really needs an english version to do well. We were using a great paste-up version but this cries for an english version because there is sooooo much text on the cards. We also all agreed that animal shaped meeples (animeeples) would be very cool and informed Zev of this need as soon as we were done playing. Provisional Rating: 8

Hansa

After Agricola, Jeff and Chris taught me how to play this. I bought a copy on Tanga or GameOfTheDay earlier in the year but hadn't played it yet. Very dry and abrstract. I liked it but not sure it will be played much in my group. Provisional Rating: 7

Louis XIV

After a couple of beers with Carrie Ives and Jasen Robillard, Jeff and I taught Chris how to play this. After explaining the game and getting down to playing, Jeff and I got into a competitive see-saw race for the lead. Not sure that Chris had a lot of fun with this play but it was certainly instructive! :) Chris' comment as we finished was, "that's a lot of game in a small box." I agree. Although Dorn is known for Goa, Louis XIV is an incredible game. I hadn't played in over a year and even discovered a rule that my group had been misplaying. Current Rating: 8

Favorites...

Mission: Red Planet and Agricola were the favorites on Saturday. I will likely pick up a copy of Mission and am considering a pre-order for Agricola. How far in advance of the release will Zev charge? 8 months? (wait, did I really say that ;)

BGG.con - Day 2

2007-11-18T21:31:00.000-05:00

Day 2

After a quick bite at Starbucks, I headed off for another busy day of games. Friday was spent at the hotel with lunch at Denny's again and dinner in the bar at the restaurant (well ok...appetizers and beer at about 11pm!).

The number of games was reduced a bit due to the marathon session of Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage Chris and I played in the evening...

Thebes

We started the day with the game I checked out the night before. Yehuda and Rodney Loyd (the Heroscape map) joined Chris and I in a game of Thebes. I taught but bungled a couple of rules: the length of the game (supposed to be 2 years with 4 players) and what to do with debris drawn at a dig (goes back in the bag to make it less likely to draw artifacts for later players). This is a very thematic and enjoyable game of archeology. Players research ancient sites while traveling around the major cities of Europe and when ready, travel over to one of the sites and draw tiles from the bag associated with the location. Players can use the artifacts retrieved to put on exhibitions later in the game. Points are accumulated from the artifacts retrieved, exhibitions accomplished and for some of the unused resources. I thoroughly enjoyed this game for the theme and the speed at which it is played. Very likely a purchase for me. Provisional Rating: 8

Fjords

Chris and I decided to try this when we couldn't find some of the other games we wanted to play in the game library. Neither of us had previously played. We both like the quick, tile laying game. It reminded me a little of Through the Desert. This and the previous game are titles Jill would enjoy. Provisional Rating: 7

Bridgetown Races (Prototype)

Chris brought a prototype that Carey Grayson (24/7) has been working on. It's about using different modes of transportation (bike, car, walking, bus, etc) to cross the bridges in Portland. The player who uses the most different types is the winner. Played this with Yehuda, Aaron and Zach Nabil. Light and enjoyable, I think this will be published once it has been polished up a bit. Provisional Rating: 6 (likely a 7 with a little more development)

Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage

Chris and I had been checking the library for this title from the start of the con. We finally were able to check it out. We'd both read the rules previously but hadn't played. We started in the afternoon with a review of the rules and got down to playing this monster of a game. The first couple of turns took a long time to complete as we worked through the first battles and had to get used to the procedures for battling, retreats, etc. In the end, it required a little over 6 hours for us to finish this game but WOW what an experience! Aaron Fuegi dropped by as we were finishing up the game and watched most of the last turn. Turns out he was the WBC champ for this title multiple years running a few years back. He gave us a few pointers on how to use some of the generals but was impressed with our grasp of the system for our first play. I attribute this to having played Twilight Struggle and being familiar with the card driven system. My prediction...the path to complex, card driven war games (e.g., Hannibal, For The People, etc) will become - 1960: The Making of the President --> Twilight Struggle --> Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage (or something of similar complexity like Wilderness War). Provisional Rating: 9

Colosseum

After beer and appetizers in the hotel bar, Jeff Deboer enticed Chris and I into a game of Colosseum with Carl Hurst. Carl and Jeff had played before and taught. I had tried to play this at GenCon but the Days of Wonder booth was always busy when I stopped by (maybe the sign of a good game?). I had the impression this was a light, family game but there is quite a lot going on in this game that makes it more than a casual game. Top notch components from DoW as would be expected. I enjoyed this and would be willing to play anytime but don't think I'll own a copy. Chris didn't enjoy nearly as much but we were also very tired by then. Provisional Rating: 7

Today's winners...

Hannibal was, by far, my favorite play of the day. Thebes was also high on my list and will likely be a purchase soon.

BGG.con - Day 1

2007-11-18T19:20:00.000-05:00

Pre-Con

Arrived about 7pm on the night before. After dropping my luggage by my room, I headed off to check out the setup. Ran into Aldie and pitched in on creating the goodie bags everyone received when registering. What could be more fun than listening to Derk's sharp tongue while filling bags with Employee of the Month and Fraud Squad? ;)

Afterwards, I helped Rodney & Hank Loyd with the large Heroscape map Rodney designed. The map used terrain elements from every expansion excluding the most recent (swamps from the newest base game). It was very involved and was spectacular looking when finished. However, I don't believe it received much play during the con.

Chris Brooks arrived about 11pm and after grabbing a beer, we went off to the gaming area so he could see the setup. I was able to pick out my prize table game at that time and picked up a copy of Conquest of the Empire that I'm jazzed about. Turned in soon after that to get a decent night's sleep before the first full day of gaming.

Day 1

I met Chris in the morning for a nice, medium length run and we were able to catch up a bit since Essen 06. After a hasty meal of pop tarts from the convenience store across the street (I realized there was a Starbucks in the hotel lobby later in the day!), I headed off to the gaming area.

Later in the day, Tim Isakson & Randy Shipp carted us over to Razzoo's, a local cajun eatery. The beer and the red beans and rice really hit the spot after a long, hard day of gaming. Thanks for the assist...it was great to get away for an hour or so and relax a little.

I didn't take my camera. Head over to Chris' blog or his Flickr photoset for photos.

On with the games...

Brass

First up was Brass, the new Wallace design released at Essen this year. Chris taught and played. We also had Greg Schloesser and Mark Salamon at the table. The game took about 2 hours to play but felt shorter than that. The mechanics work well together and I liked the build the canal era, score, wipe the canal era industries (level 1 buildings) and connections (canal markers) from the board and start building in the rail era process. I think it's a solid game as did everyone at the table. Provisional Rating: 8

Agora

Chris and I had lunch at Denny's (yeah, the only restaurant within walking distance of the hotel) and played a quick game of this. This is a HipPocket game. Each player takes turns placing a card (that represent shops and streets) and buying shops. Your score is the money you've collected (increases at the beginning of your turn by adding the number of unobstructed entrances for your shops to your score). It's ok as a filler. Provisional Rating: 5

Before the Wind

Another Essen release played after lunch with Chris, Aaron Fuegi and Yehuda. This is a collect and ship resources game that has some aspects of Jambo and Medici. We messed up the auction rule a little and as a result, we weren't completely satisfied with how the game played. After some discussion and clarification with Greg Schloesser, I think it would be a more enjoyable, faster game when played correctly. :) As it was, it took us nearly as long to play this as it did Brass and it really should be more like 75 minutes. Provisional Rating: 6 (probably a 7 when played correctly and if played in 45 - 75 minutes)

It's Alive

This is a design that Yehuda has been trying to get published for some time. It is a set collection/auction game. The published incarnation is themed as a build your monster (ie Frankenstein) by collecting the necessary body parts through auctions. As soon as someone finishes their monster, everyone reveals and scores the points on the tiles that make up their monster plus any money they still have. I played this with Oliver (designer of soon to be published Supernova) and Ted Harrison and Aaron Fuegi. Light, quick, horror themed game. Provisional Rating: 6

In the Year of the Dragon

This year's release by Alea is another game by Stefan Feld (Rum & Pirates). It's a Chinese-themed game. Played over 12 turns, an event occurs each turn and players try to minimize the ill effects of the event by acquiring different personages (healers, monks, warriors, etc). Played this with Tim Isakson, Keith Rapley, Randy Shipp and Chris. Everyone agreed that it felt like there was an impending sense of doom throughout the game and like most euros, there is more that you want to do than resources or actions available. Solid game and if anything, the theme feels like it is pasted on (smells of Knizia, eh?). Provisional Rating: 7

Hamburgem

The last game of the evening is the latest rondel-o-matic from Mac Gerdts. Like Antike and Imperial, players take actions by moving their token around the action rondel and stopping on the action they wish to take. This time, however, the theme is contributing to the construction of various churches around the cities of London and Hamburg (a double-sided map with London on one side and Hamburg on the other). The game is spent collecting resources and turning them into materials that can be used to build parts of each church. As would be expected, each successive level of the church requires more materials. Chris and I played this with Kevin Wilson (game designer at Fantasy Flight Games) and Eric Burgess (Boardgame Babylon podcast). Everyone enjoyed the game and felt like it was another solid entry from Gerdts. Since I already have Antike and Imperial, I don't think I need another game in this style. Provisional Rating: 7

Best of show...

Shouldn't that be the name of a board game? Brass was tops for day 1 with In the Year of the Dragon and Hamburgem also being very solid games. Of everything played on day 1, Brass would be my most likely purchase in the coming months.

Back from BGG.con

2007-11-18T15:33:00.000-05:00

Back home after 3 packed days of gaming in Texas. Bright spots for me were:

Brass
Thebes
Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage
Agricola
Mission: Red Planet

Will provide additional details in the coming days. Check out Chris Brooks' blog for a daily summary and some great pictures. A few stats from the weekend:

17 games played (including a 6.5 hour marathon/learning session of Hannibal) - 16 were games I'd never played before.
Gamed with 23 people. Of those, I already knew or have previously gamed with 8 prior to this year's BGG.con.
Assisted with the setup on Wednesday which included 3 hours of helping assemble the mega-Heroscape map designed by Rodney Loyd (hotrodqt).

Many thanks to the organizers (Aldie, Derk, Randy, Vickie, et al) for another awesome convention. Chris and I also appreciate that Randy, Tim and Carrie hauled us around for dinner on Thursday and Saturday. It was great to get away from the hotel for a couple of hours and have an alternative to the Denny's across the street!

Gone to BGG.con

2007-11-14T00:21:00.000-05:00

See y'all in a few days. Out for serious gaming time with everyone at BoardGameGeek. Will be playing the new Essen releases and lots of other games and catching up with friends like Chris Brooks. I'll let you know what I liked when I return. Ciao!

More Twilight Struggle

2007-11-02T23:50:00.000-04:00

Jeff and I broke out Twilight Struggle this evening. It's been a long time since either had played and it was slow going in the early turns reacquainting ourselves with the cards. Jeff played the Soviets. I spent a lot of influence in the early game building up in eastern Europe right along his border but he picked up a nice set of points about mid-game by shutting me out of SE Asia and several more points with OPEC.

However, I played "Ask not what your country..." not long after to dump 5 Soviet cards and drew all American or dual cards and began turning the tide for the Americans eventually scoring with domination in Africa, Central and South America.

After swinging the VP total toward the Americans and bringing in the Late War cards, I drew KAL-007 and War Games when the DefCon was at 3. Played KAL-007 as my headline. Jeff played an event that discarded a random card from my hand. I was sweating it out but he didn't pull War Games and I was able to play it as my first action to squeak out a 3 point win.

War Games feels a bit cheesy to me but with Aldritch Ames lurking in the deck, I'd rather close the door on a close game than take a chance on having the outcome scripted for me by the Soviet player.

While it runs just a tad long because we don't play often enough, this is one of my favorite 2 player games. Very elegant design that wonderfully recreates the tense Cold War era politics.

Logan and Football

2007-10-06T20:56:00.000-04:00

Logan's been playing 3rd grade tackle for the last 2 months. Their team struggled during the first half of the season. He's played a number of positions and has settled into regularly playing safety and special teams. Today, they defeated one of the 2 undefeated teams in the league, 15 to 14, and finished with a 4-3 record. This was a must win situation for the team, placing them 6th in the league and sewing up the last playoff spot. They play the #3 seed Tuesday evening and, if successful, play the team they defeated today again next Saturday.

TKD Nat'l Tournament

2007-09-23T20:55:00.000-04:00

Jill and the boys participated in the most recent national TKD tournament held in Cincinnati, Ohio on Sep 21 and 22. Jill -- 3rd in one steps (sparring), Caleb -- 3rd in forms, Tristan -- 2rd in forms, Logan -- 3rd in forms and sparring.

Cousin Roger

2007-08-04T14:54:00.000-04:00

No, I don't have a cousin named Roger but I do have a co-worker friend that fronts a band named Cousin Roger. Jill and I went to listen to him at the Champps located at Keystone @ the Crossing. It's a cover band playing rockers from the last 40 years. I don't know what they did with cousin Roger but the band is a lot of fun. If you enjoy local bands at small venues, get out and see Cousin Roger.

Potter

2007-07-22T19:10:00.000-04:00

Spent the last few weeks rereading all the Potter books and just finished #7. Good stuff!

Our new puppy...

2007-07-15T18:31:00.000-04:00

We added a puppy to our household about 3 weeks ago...as if there wasn't enough energy in the house! :)

Here are a few picks...

One week

One month

Two months
Favorite sleeping spot

His name is Darwin. He's a Cockapoo (Cocker Spaniel - Poodle hybrid).

Mt St Helen's photo published...

2007-07-14T21:57:00.000-04:00

One of the photos I took when we visited Mount St. Helens last year has been included in Schmap's Portland guide.

New Black Belt

2007-06-13T22:29:00.000-04:00

Logan received his black belt this evening! Now, all the boys are black belts (Tristan in December, Caleb in April). Logan did not break one of his boards in April and that was the only thing that prevented him from achieving it then.

Tristan also moved up during this testing cycle to 1st degree decided. 1st degree has three ranks - probationary, decided and senior. All three will be attending black belt camp in Georgia later this month.

Twilight Struggle with Kieron

2007-06-10T09:12:00.001-04:00

I had an opportunity to play Twilight Struggle (twice!) with Kieron on Saturday. He came over after the boys finished TKD testing. We started about 2:30 and finished the 2nd game around 8. Not bad for 2 games of TS!

We were able to finish 2 games in less than 6 hours because I caused nuclear war at the end of turn 3. I was the Soviets and was holding 'Duck and Cover' with the Defcon status at 2. I was planning to hold it as the card I wouldn't play that turn but Kieron played the event that caused me to discard a random card from my hand. I had already played a card to the Space Race and had to play all my remaining cards as events or for the ops points. Although I played 'Duck and Cover' for its ops value, the event still occured (degrade the Defcon status) since it was a US event. I lost and learned how important it is to know the cards in this game.

The second game lasted until the middle of the 10th and final turn. This game was a see-saw tug of war the entire game. I played the US in this game and was able to push my point total to 7 with a little help from Kieron. Once at this level, I played 'War Games' to end the game immediately without a final scoring phase. I needed 7 or more points because one of the conditions of the card is you must give your opponent 6 points. This allowed me to squeak out a 1 point victory! If it had gone to the end of the turn with final scoring, we believe it would still have been a US victory but it would have been close. Kieron, as the Soviets, was clearly leading in Asia, the Middle East and Central America. As the US, I was leading in Europe, Africa and South America.

Both were great plays. Tense all the way.

Connelly - The Overlook

2007-06-10T08:55:00.000-04:00

Just finished reading the latest book featuring my favorite fictional detective - Harry Bosch. The Overlook by Michael Connelly is a quick read, clocking in at 225 pages and the novelization of a 16 part serial Connelly wrote for the New York Magazine. All of Connelly's Bosch books (13 and counting) are good - taut, gritty and filled with lots of twists and turns. This one is not the best of the series but it is very compelling and readable in a day.

If you like mystery/thriller fiction with an interesting main character and haven't read Connelly, start with The Black Echo and work your way through all the of the Bosch novels. You won't be disappointed.

Simmons - Ilium/Olympos

2007-06-08T23:42:00.000-04:00

Just finished the Ilium/Olympos cycle by Dan Simmons. Like the Hyperion/Endymion cycle, there are a lot of interesting ideas tossed about. Unlike the other though, this series is 2 books rather than 4. In these novels, Simmons deals with genetic manipulation (on a grand scale), travel between universes and quantum manipulation. This is very much in the space opera genre/realm and uses classical literature (namely Shakespeare's The Tempest and Homer's Iliad) to drive the story.

The first book, Ilium, is excellent. The second, Olympos, is good but the story fizzles toward the end. Olympos builds and builds but never delivers a strong one-two punch toward the end. The last 50 or so pages talks about what everyone is doing after all the problems have been eliminated. This ending was a let down as it was unnecessary.

Read the first, it is very good. Read the second only if you want to get to a resolution of sorts. If you are a Dan Simmons fan, these books will satisfy.

Unplugged Afternoon

2007-06-03T22:16:00.000-04:00

Jill and I hosted an 'unplugged' afternoon today. A couple of families came over this afternoon and we played several easy to learn and quick to play games. There were nearly 20 at the house and ages ranged from about 6 to 45. We had 4 tables set up around the house that everyone rotated through playing:

Hey! That's My Fish
Ave Caesar
Crazy Derby
Circus Flohcati
Cartagena
Ra
Loot

It was a great afternoon to play a few games and hang out on the porch afterwards with burgers, dogs and conversation.

Winds of Plunder - Initial Impressions

2007-05-28T16:19:00.000-04:00

I received my P500 copy of Winds of Plunder (WoP) a couple of weeks ago and have been itching to get it to the table. Finally had the opportunity to play a couple of times last weekend. Once with Jill, Caleb and Tristan; the other with our friends Bob and Julie. WoP is a euro-style board game about pirates in the Caribbean.

I enjoyed both playings and it appeared that everyone else did as well. Although enjoying the game, Jill felt it ran too long and should end at turn 6 or 7 rather than at 9. Each turn is divided into 2 parts. In the first, everyone votes for the direction of the wind and in the 2nd, each player takes a turn sailing to a new port based on the direction of the wind. It's a bit of set collecting in some ways as you get points for accomplishing different goals -- be the first to visit all 3 ports in a region and you get 7 points; increase your points payout at the end for every 3 weapons or 2 crew or every provision collected; etc.

Although it should play in 60 to 90 minutes, one reason it may feel a little long is the repetition. There isn't a lot of variety in your turns. Most of the game is spent racing around the board trying to maximize your points (e.g., get to a port worth a lot of points this turn before someone else) and the primary sources of variation are the changing port tiles (when someone goes to a port, they collect the points and resources of the tile at the port and then exchange it for the next available tile -- so the tiles are constantly moving around the board) and the action cards you can collect and use during the game. The cards add a little flavor to the game and generally help a little or hurt someone else a little. But there is nothing really nasty that can be done to another player in the game (unless, of course, all the other players went after the same person :).

It's enjoyable but will require more plays to see if has some depth or not. For now, it's a nice, light pirate game that's not all that mean -- and that's a good thing at times. With this, Pirate's Cove, Loot, Cartagena and a couple of others, I have plenty of games for a completely pirate-themed game day on 'Talk Like a Pirate Day' this year!

GTF Recap

2007-02-28T22:00:00.000-05:00

Long overdue...here is a recap of this year's GTF. Three plus days of gaming with about 20 friends at Cumberland Falls State Park in southern Kentucky. It's our 8th year running the event and the 6 of us that started this gaming weekend still have a great time.

Over the years, the weekend has spread out - we now start on Wednesday.

Highlights!

What?!? You're playing that? With LUKE?!? - Age of Steam
This was the first time I'd played AoS. Luke taught Dan, Sean and I how to play. We started this close to midnight on Wednesday. Maybe not the best time to learn a brain-burner like this! We played the South America map and it ran into the wee hours of Thursday morning. I did well through the middle of the game but faded at the end, unable to keep pace with Luke's network. Having played several games of Railroad Tycoon, I really wanted to understand the differences and why fans of each game are so divided over their preference for one or the other. WOW! Small differences between the 2 games produce a large difference in feel and playstyle between each game. I like RT but after playing AoS, I can say that I truly enjoyed it also. I can see AoS doing well at our game nights, especially with Bob at the table. Tough decisions, unforgiving economy - great stuff!

The Russians are coming...the Russians are coming! -- Twilight Struggle
I picked up the reprent this fall and had not yet had an opportunity to play. I'd read the rule a few times. Tim had played and was interested in playing at GTF. We played early in the day on Friday. I played the Soviets and Tim, the Americans. Most of the game, Tim had the advantage on victory points but due to unfortunate rolling during one game round, Tim spent almost the entire game round stuck in my "Quagmire" pitching card after card from his hand and unable to do anything on his turn. This was a big reason why I was able pull out a victory at the very end of the game. This is a wonderful game, tense throughout and does a superb job of feeling like you are in the middle of the Cold War. Jeff and I are planning to play TS this weekend.

The 4 in 1 Kramer "round-robin"
Luke, Troy, Kieron and I spent Friday afternoon in a simultaneous play of Java, Tikal, Torres and Mexica. We each started at a different game, took our turn and moved to the next game. We completed Java and were about 2/3's finished with the others when Kieron had to leave for another commitment. We didn't finish the other games but the idea worked well with these Kramer games because of the action point based turns where the other players didn't need to be at the game when you took your turn. With 4 players that were very familiar with the rules, you could easily finish all four in 2 to 2.5 hours. I'd like to try this again.

Card Games
Late Saturday, Luke, Chris, Kieron and I sat down to learn/play Tichu. I enjoyed Tichu tremendously and will need to pick up a copy to play with Jill and her parents. Not a trick-taking game, per se, but capturing certain cards count for points and you are trying to be the first or second player to empty their hand of cards. Tichu led to breaking open the copy of Null and Void I brought back from Essen for Luke. I like this one but it is a strange trick taking game. After Null and Void, we went on to play Geschenkt (No Thanks!), Beat the Buzzard (Raj), Crazy Derby (Trendy) and Nicht die Bohne. All-in-all, a sweet way to spend a couple of hours at GTF playing a blur of card games that need only 15-30 minutes to finish.

Other Stuff
I taught Through the Ages to Chris, Tim and Luke on Saturday. We played the advanced game and spent most of the afternoon at it. Tim and Luke particularly liked it and have since picked up copies of their own (and then found out that CBG is considering a 2nd printing - ouch!). We misplayed a couple of things (mainly misinterpreting the additional workers on a couple of colony cards as additional civil actions) that seriously unbalanced our play.

Other games I taught or help explain during the weekend: Ticket to Ride: Europe, Caylus, 24/7, Die Baumeister von Arkadia, Yspahan and Thurn & Taxis. Yspahan and Thurn & Taxis were especially well received at GTF. I heard positive remarks for both from a number of people.

A couple of lightning fast fillers brought by Luke - Bounce It In! and The Payoff Machine.

5-player Werewolf was a big hit this year. I didn't play any but something in the neighborhood of 30 games were played! We also had a small, 8 player booster draft Magic tournament.

Friday's cookout with burgers supplied by Troy and his parents was the usual hit. We also had some sponsorship from some online retailers (Boulder Games, GameSurplus and Time Well Spent) in the form of gift certificates that were part of Saturday's auction (using our very own GeekBucks! -- printed each year by Kieron and distributed to game winners throughout the weekend).

The Disappointment
If there was a downer for the weekend, it was TI3. It had been a long time since I'd run a game of Twilight Imperium but I wanted to see how well running a big game at GTF would work. We had some rough spots to say the least. The number of players changed, it was the first play for several individuals and some had other games they'd committed to later in the day. TI3 is a long game regardless of how well you know how to play but it is hard not to spend a couple of hours on each of the first couple of turns when you are learning because there is so much going on and so many possible things to do. It is rather overwhelming. We did not finish the game -- it really wasn't possible. We completed 2 game turns and had spent somewhere between 6 and 8 hours explaining and playing the first 2 turns (approximately 6 to 10 individual turns for each player). For this to be successful at a future GTF, it must be played with experienced players, especially if it turns out to be a 6 to 8 player game (we had 7 and only 3 had played before!).

To help with that, Josh and I've talked about 4 player sessions during the year to keep the game smaller and shorter and use these sessions to bring new players up to speed on the game. Don't know if we'll try a massive TI3 at next year's GTF but we intend to be better prepared.

Wrap it up already!

As you can tell, another great GTF has come and gone. I was able to log plays on about 30 different games even with monster games of TI3, Twilight Struggle and Through the Ages occurring. The weather was a little cooler this year. We were there a week earlier than usual because the cottages were booked for our normal weekend by the time we made our reservations. Still, another great event and I look forward to seeing everyone again next year!

Oh, and one of the (bad) side effects of GTF is that I usually buy a few games afterwards. And this year is no different. I picked up several card games that I thought would work well with our family. In particular, Crazy Derby. I also picked up Circus Flohcati (not played at GTF but one led to the other). Both have gone over well already. Marvel Heroes was also at GTF and I heard mixed things about it but decided to give it a try because this looked like just the thing to play with my boys. Picked it up from GameSurplus (I landed one of the gift certificates in the auction). Tristan and I have played the 2 player game and had a blast. Will come back with a report once we've had more time with the game.

GTF in less than a week!

2007-02-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

The annual gaming weekend I co-host with 5 other friends kicks off next Wednesday (Feb 14). This will be our 8th consecutive year for this party. It'll run until Sunday, the 18th. We cut back on the number of attendees this year plus a few can't make it so we're at 19 this time around.

This event is primarily three and a half days of open gaming. We have a few organized events including opening night Werewolf, a small Magic booster draft tournament and simultaneous play of 4 Kramer action point games (Tikal, Mexica, Java and Torres).

We'll play a smattering of games that were released at this past Essen including Die Baumeister von Arkadia, Hermagor, Yspahan and Through the Ages. Some relatively recent releases will also hit the table including BattleLore, Blue Moon City and The Great Space Race. We also tend to pull out the classics like El Grande, Roborally, Elfenland and Settlers (of Catan).

You can see more about what we're doing this year at the web site we maintain for our group.

I maintained our site for several years using static HTML pages. A couple of years ago, I installed a wiki engine and moved the entire site over. Everyone in our group can make edits and help maintain the site and that has lead to more content being developed and a richer record of what we've done as a gaming group over the last couple of years.

The park we hold the event at has recently enabled wireless access for guests so I may even do a little on site reporting this year rather than the after the fact reports I've done in the past.

TKD - New Belts for all the Boys

2006-12-16T21:29:00.000-05:00

The boys tested last Saturday for their next belt and all were successful. Logan and Caleb are now Red Belts and are 2 tests from becoming Black Belts. Assuming they pass on the 1st attempt each time, they will be Black Belts next April. This was a big milestone for Tristan. He passed his testing to become a 1st Degree Probationary Black Belt. This is the first level of Black Belt and he must wait 4 months before he can test for 1st Degree Decided.

More Pics

One of the new things Tristan can choose to do is become a student instructor. One reason for achieving his black belt was so that he could become an instructor. He starts on Monday by attending his first instructor meeting/class. Jill and I are very proud of how well each of the boys has progressed in this sport. We hope they continue to stay involved!

Game Night North v2006.17

2006-12-07T00:52:00.000-05:00

GTF Link

Dec 6th, 2006
Host: JeffL
Guests: DanS, TroyMP, BobN, JimG

Railroad Tycoon
Jeff (74), Dan (72), Troy (56), Bob (50), Jim (50)

Jim's Perspective
Dan was in from San Diego this week so we moved game night up a week to include him. Jeff hosted and I brought my usual pile of games. Dan was interested and hadn't played Railroad Tycoon. We seem to have settled into a fairly predictable pattern in a 5 player game. Two people tend to duke it out in the northeast and along the eastern seaboard. That would be me and Jeff in this game. Another plays a quiet game in the southeast, running goods between Charleston, Atlanta and New Orleans. That was Troy tonight. The other two build up in the midwest. One usually gravitates toward Cincy - Louisville - Nashville (Dan tonight) and the other in the Chicago region (Bob). The midwest players start interacting toward the middle and end game while the northeast players are going at it from the beginning.

I made a couple of poor choices early in the game and felt like I was playing a move or 2 behind Jeff the entire game. I recognized this early on and would have been better off if I'd changed tactics and done something different but if I hadn't continued pestering Jeff, he would likely have run away with the game. Dan did a nice job of building a solid network in the Ohio Valley region and connected up with Chicago. His planning enabled him to make several 5 and 6 connection deliveries late in the game that made him the leader and looked like he would win the game.

Troy held one of the Tycoon cards that rewards you for holding the fewest shares at the end of the game. He limited himself financially from the beginning and was able to build a respectable network to finish the game in 3rd overall having issued only 1 share the entire game. Bob invested heavily in track building early in the game and took him a while before he was generating a profit at the end of the turn. He started to come on strong with decent length deliveries about two-thirds of the way through the game but was left with relatively short runs at the end.

The start player auction each turn went for relatively few dollars most of the game. The bidding did get exciting toward the end when the Railroad Executive card came up. This card allows a player to immediately take 2 actions, effectively allowing a player at the table to take 4 actions for one game turn while everyone else takes the normal 3. The start player auction was won that turn by Troy for $22K (most of the game the start player paid $3K to $5K). Another bidding war happened on the final turn between Jeff and Dan. I think this was just see who would back down first and let the other go first.

In the end, Jeff squeaked out a 2 point victory over Dan. The rest of us were playing for 3rd with Troy winning that spot and Bob and I tied for the last spot. We counted the railroad connections and Bob won that tie-breaker so I was the caboose tonight.

Some Stats
Tycoon Cards
Jeff -- Most money -- Accomplished
Dan -- First to 6 Level train -- Accomplished
Troy -- Fewest shares -- Accomplished
Bob -- Connections out of Chicago -- Accomplished (2 of the 4 possible)
Jim -- Fewest shares -- Failed

Other Events
First Delivery -- Jeff
Speed Record (First 3 Link Delivery) -- Jeff
New Train (First 4 Level) -- Dan
Raleigh Service Bounty -- Jim
Jacksonville Service Bounty -- Troy
Duluth Service Bounty -- Bob
Louisville Service Bounty -- Dan
Toronto Service Bounty -- Bob

No Major Lines accomplished

November Game Night

2006-11-14T20:55:00.000-05:00

A little slow reporting this one...

Splendid game night at our house last Wednesday. We had 10 players including Caleb and Logan who played a few games with us before going to bed.

Kieron brought Hey, That's My Fish! and taught that to Bob, Caleb and Logan. Looks neat. Didn't hear what happened but the mechanics are simple and it plays quickly. Nice little game.

Across the room, Jill played Yspahan (one of my Essen purchases) with Jeff, Christian and his son, Johann. Jill and I enjoy this game. Grouping and ordering the dice across the action board for players to choose from is an unusual use of dice and is a rather nice change. Jeff was a monster improvement builder early in the game and was able to boost his points to walk away with a substantial victory. The new players like the game. Again, the unusual use of dice and how quickly this one plays contributed to the positive comments.

24/7 received a couple of plays. I taught Troy. Caleb and Logan also joined in. Jill taught at the other table with everyone that played Yspahan. This plays well with 4 but I really like it with 2 or 3. With 2, you especially have a lot of freedom to set up scoring opportunities for yourself and block your opponent. Quick game and simple. Play a tile adjacent to a tile already on the board and draw a tile. Adjacent tiles in a straight line cannot add up to more than 24. Tiles that add up to exactly 24 or 7 score. Consecutive tiles (runs -- 3, 4, 5, etc) score and groups of the same tile (sets -- 3, 3, 3) score.

Troy, Bob, Kieron and I played Hermagor. Each turn of this game is composed of 2 phases. In the first phase, each player takes turns placing their buyers in the market. You work to create a majority of buyers adjacent to each goods tile you want to acquire. This can be as few as 1 or as many as 4. You also collect income when your buyers are in the alleys between tiles rather than being placed on top of tiles (placement on top of tiles break ties however). The more buyers you have in a straight line, the higher your income. After collecting goods and income, players move to the second phase, moving their agent around the board to sell goods and build a trade station in each city where a good is sold. The game is won by the player with the most cash in hand at the end of the game. This one's a bit of a thinker with movement on the board that reminds one of Elfenland.

We also had a game of Chess, Cartagena and Citadels going on at one time during the evening. Great night. Thanks to everyone that participated!

Vanished Planet

2006-11-05T21:03:00.000-05:00

I've had Vanished Planet for about a year and played it solo to get the mechanics down quite awhile ago. We decided to play this tonight during family game night. The premise is a world-consuming creature swallows Earth (center of the board) and is destroying everything in its path as it expands toward each player's homeworld on the edge of the board. To win, everyone needs to work together to accomplish enough goals to send the creature packing.

It was looking pretty grim about two-thirds of the way through the game when we stopped for dinner. We had accomplished very few goals and it seemed like we were doomed. The game is rather tense and can appear to be hopeless at times. However, when we came back to the game, we discovered we were at the point in the game when we had considerable resources and were able to improve our position such that several of us could move easily around the board. This made accomplishing goals significantly easier.

Just as the creature was reaching for some of our homeworlds, we were able to send the creature away and claim victory. Two homeworlds were destroyed in the process. The boys and Jill enjoyed it. Jill, in particular, found it an interesting game. It was a little long for Logan.

Good game but you definitely need the player aids available on BGG. In particular, there is a sheet to keep track of your current resource production level. It's a little better than the tally sheets that come with the game. There are also several sheets that break each of the technologies and upgrades into the basic resources needed to build them. This speeds up the game considerably. I only had one copy of these for this play but would recommend at least one copy to share between every 2 players.

Essen 2006 - Photos

2006-10-27T18:26:00.000-04:00

I forgot my camera. But others didn't. Here is Chris Brooks' set on Flicker.

Updated with a link to Erik's photos. No registration required.

Essen 2006 - Part 3

2006-10-27T12:18:00.000-04:00

Here's what I brought back...

Played first:
Yspahan
Die Baumeister von Arkadia
Il Principe
24/7
Arche Opti Mix + expansion
Wayfinder

Not played first:
Hermagor -- Another by the designer of Oltre Mare. Purchased after explanation by designer.
Through the Ages -- Czech Board Games. A lot of buzz. Looks to be good.
Graenaland -- Another by CBG. Faintly Settlers like.
Null & Nichtig -- Played back in the States. Unusual trick taking game. I like it!
Relikt -- Retheme of earlier Rudiger Dorn game. Boys and I played this week. They liked it. Plays quickly.
TtR 1910 -- Primarily purchased for the larger cards but glad to have another Ticket to Ride variant
Havoc - Card Expansion -- Only had the BGG.con expansion. This has all the extras.
Blue Moon City expansion (spielbox) -- Adds 2 additional buildings to the game. There is another expansion coming in the December issue of Spielbox (9.50 euro to the US).
Thurn & Taxis expansion (spielbox) -- Adds a way to perform more than one special action per turn.
Power Grid - Benelux/Central Europe expansion -- New boards.

To consider down the road...
Leonardo da Vinci -- played at Essen and liked. Some are complaining about the basic setup. Will watch the 'geek to see how this develops. Still seems to be a good game.
Perikles -- Possible purchase once it makes its way to the US
Pillars of the Earth (Saulen der Erde) -- Supposed to be released in the US next year.

Essen 2006 - Part 2

2006-10-26T10:57:00.000-04:00

20 Oct - Day 2

Justinian -- New offering from Leo Colovini (Cartagena, Carolus Magnus, Magna Grecia). Players influence members of the emperor's court by placing face down tokens to move characters higher or lower in the court. When scoring, players add together the current value of the characters in the color chosen by the player winning the vote. First play felt like there wasn't much control but I suspect this is deeper than at first glance. Had a very Colovini feel to it.

Die Baumeister von Arkadia -- New big box from Rudiger Dorn. Easy to play. Either place workers on the board or place a new buildin on the board. When a building is surrounded by workers, it is finished. The player finishing the building collects the token on the building and adds a tower section to the middle of the board. Every player with one or more adjacent workers collects tokens equal to the number of workers adjacent to the building. Tokens can be converted to money 4 times during the game and again at the end by multiplying the number of tokens being converted times the number of seals of the same color currently being shown on the tower being built in the center of the board. Excellent game. Not sure when/if it will be released in english.

Salamanca -- Chris and I played this in the afternoon with one other person. This game is divided into landscapes and buildings. Water and forests match up with castles. Meadows and fields match up with farms. And grape growing areas match up with vineyards. Each turn new tiles are turned up and each player bids with a card from his hand to be the first to play. In general, you pick tiles in bid order but some of the cards allow you to do other things. As the regions become larger, you accumulate points at the end of each turn. You also have a limited number of tokens to show ownership of the buildings. If you want to move a token to a new building, you have to sell an existing one. The game is well designed but didn't grab me or Chris. We wanted this one to be over with about halfway through. This may appeal to those who like Hacienda or similar games. I think Hacienda is probably the better game though.

Elephant in the China Shop -- In the US, this should be Bull in a China Shop but in Europe, it's not. This is a quick filler card game we played at the hotel in the evening. On your turn, you either pick a face up elephant card or purchase a face up china card. If you take an elephant, it destroys a certain type and amount of china in your shop (e.g. a big, blue elephant destroys all blue china in your shop) and you get a money card. If you have 2 money cards, you must buy a piece of china. There are 4 scoring rounds and you choose to score one of 4 ways (a little like Yahtzee) -- largest of each color, smallest of each color, sum of all, sum of one color.

Taluva -- Tile laying game. Basically, add a tile to the playing area and place buildings if possible. Tile laying feels a little like Java as you can build up as well as out. You do want to get at least 3 tiles since temples can only be built on this level. Potentially a decent game for those that like tile laying. It was late when we started this one so it's hard to say if our lack of enthusiasm for the game was the game or how tire we were.

21 Oct - Day 3

Walhalla -- Hung around the Amigo booth until a demo person was free and could show me a couple of games. Had an explanation of Walhalla (Valhalla). Tiles are layed out to form long fjords that you send viking ships into. These are loaded with warriors that unload on either side of the ship as it stops within the fjord. If there is another warrior at this location, they fight and one will go to Valhalla. If not, the warrior moves into the location. Each location provides some benefit or resource to help in the fighting and moving warriors to Valhalla and then on to Asgard. Points are scored after all the ships have been moved into the fjords. Points in Valhalla are based on majorities. Looked interesting but did not pick up a copy.

Il Principe -- Released last year by the designer of Oltre Mare. Like Oltre Mare, this has to do with set collection and majorities. Picked up a copy of this and Hermagor (Ornella's new release).
Fiji -- Blind bidding game to see who can collect the most shrunken heads by Friedemann Friese. We missed the rule that you are limited in your bid to 1 - 4 gems and made the game seem busted. However, even playing correctly, I don't think I'd like it much. But then, I'm not a big fan of blind bidding.

Yspahan -- New release from Ystari (Ys, Caylus). Easy to play. Current player roles a handful of dice. The dice are group by each number and arranged from lowest to highest on the action board. Highest grouping (i.e. usually the 6's) are always placed on the money action. Each player picks an action and gets to take as many of that action as dice for that action. Plays quickly with no down time. This one ended up #1 on the voting at the Fairplay booth. I liked it a lot and brought back a copy.

Wayfinder -- Another of the games being demo'd at the Sunriver booth. This is by Ben Corliss. This is an abstract game with some similarities to Mancala. The idea is members of different tribes (i.e. the colors) are scattered across the islands (i.e. 6x6 grid). On your turn, you place your wayfinder (pawn/token) and pick up all the people at that location and redistribute them across the islands. As tokens of the same color come together at a location, villages are formed and points scored. This is a nice abstract game and it comes unusually packaged -- the playing mat is flexible and is rolled up and stored in a tube.

22 Oct - Day 4

Die Saulen der Erde (Pillars of the Earth) -- This ended up at #2 in the voting at the Fairplay booth. Played over 7 rounds, you place workers around the board to collect resources and special abilities. At the end of each round, you spend resources to contribute to the building of the next section of the cathedral and collect victory points as a result. Had a little of a Caylus feel to it in that you walk the board (like walking the road in Caylus) to resolve each of the special abilities or resource collection actions. I liked this one a lot. I'd say it was in the top three for me. Didn't pick up a copy as there was considerable german on the cards used in the game. Not a big issue since these are all face up. However, and english version is expected in Jan/Feb.

Notre Dame -- Prototype of Alea's next big box game. Interesting action selection mechanic. Each player draws three cards from their own set of action cards, drafts one and passes the remainder to the left. This repeats until everyone has 3 cards. Then each player plays 2 of the 3 cards as actions. The game appears to be very unforgiving and you must play very carefully early on. I was spread too thin amongst the different actions and couldn't really do much past the halfway point in the game. Should be a good game but may turn some off if it is rather easy to be out of the game early and it is obvious you cannot catch up.

Essen 2006 - Part 1

2006-10-25T10:58:00.000-04:00

I've recently returned from Essen, the pilgrimage every gamer should make at least once. The game fair at Essen is the largest of its kind in the world. GenCon in Indianapolis is probably the closest thing to it in the US. However, GenCon dedicates only one area of the convention center to the exhibition hall while Spiel (the Essen game fair) is all exhibition space, 9 halls worth. RPGs, miniatures, CCGs and comics are all present but they take a back seat to table top gaming.

Here's a run down of the games I played at the show....

18 Oct - Setup

24/7 -- Played the new game from Sunriver (I was a booth monkey all week demo'ing the game) with Greg Schloesser. 24/7 is an abstract game using tiles numbered from 1 to 10. Each turn, you play a tile from your hand adjacent to a tile on the board and draw a new tile. You score points if with the tile layed you can sum a column, row or diagonal of all adjacent tiles to 7 or 24. You also score points for runs (straights) of 3, 4, 5 or 6 tiles and sets of 3 or 4. Plays in about 20 to 30 minutes. Nice game for those who like abstracts.

Tara - Seat of Kings -- Another abstract played in the evening with some of the folks (Erik Oliver, Lorna Wong) staying at the Hotel Arosa. In this game, you are trying to occupy the king position in two regions. Advancement toward the king position is done by placing tokens adjacent to each other on the same level. This allows promotion to the next level (token placement in the next higher row). Placing tokens on the board to set up adjacent tokens for promotion is done by playing a card that specifies rules for how you can place tokens on the board. Again, interesting game for those who like abstracts. We messed up a couple of rules so the game didn't feel quite right. After discovering our error the next day, we thought it would be a much more interesting game than our first play indicated.

On the Underground -- Erik, KC and I played this in the evening. Lightly themed game about the London subway. On your turn, you can place up to 4 segments of one of your subway lines. Then you have to move the passenger token to a destination. The passenger takes the route where he must walk the fewest segments and then changes the fewest subway lines. Owners of the travelled subway lines score points. Nice game and may pick up a copy sometime in the future. Enough similarity to games like Ticket to Ride that I really didn't need it.

19 Oct - Day 1

Perikles -- This is the new Martin Wallace design. Played this with 3 other guys from the US. Martin Wallace was teaching the game which was cool. The game is played over three turns. We played a complete turn and talked through how final scoring is done. In the game, you select tiles that allow you to increase your influence in different ancient Greek cities (Sparta, Athens, etc). You also propose leaders for each of the cities. After all the influence has been placed and 2 leaders have been proposed for each city, votes are taken and leaders elected. For each city you lead, you take the military forces and can use them to fight in one or more of the face up battles. Any battle won rewards victory points. At the end of the game, you also gain points for each city you lead and for influence markers in cities. Good game. Would like to play again and may try to pick up a copy before GTF.

Take Stock -- This is a card game by Simon Hunt with a stock market theme. I met Simon last year at BGG.con. We each played our first game of Railroad Tycoon together at the Eagle Games booth. Played Take Stock with Simon. Easy game ... you draw a card and either raise the price of one of the stocks, invest in a stock or play the market. You play until the market closes (someone plays their last card, the 11 or 12 price is played on a company or the close market card is drawn). Each player multiplies his holdings of each stock against the current price. In the full game, you play through 4 market closings. I picked up a copy and have played it again with Caleb. I think this will be best with 3 or 4. It's a little dry with 2.

Leonardo da Vinci (Maestro Leonardo) -- Later in the day, I played this game that was getting some early buzz. Each player competes to build different inventions. As each one is built, you receive money. The player with the most money at the end of the game is the winner. The game will appeal to those that like games like Puerto Rico, Caylus, etc. It's a nice game and will keep an eye on it to see how does on the 'geek. Mayfair is publishing the english version.

Experiment -- Played this with Chris, Lorna, Jeff and Paul. This game was published as a result of a game design contest that was won. Simple card game about drawing ingredients to create potions (objectives). Not bad but not sure I'd play again except to play with kids.

Silk Road -- Got an overview of this game from Simon Hunt. This game is divided in 2 halves. In the first half, you are mostly collecting resources and the second, you are trying to sell for the most money. It's a caravan game where you travel from city to city. At each city, players choose an action to take. The action will allow you to collect more resource, trade resources and do other things. The game seems ok but felt like it was too fiddly or possibly too distracting. The initial board setup has all of this tiny markers on each city to represent the actions available there.

Panthers Fall in Hard Fought Game

2006-10-14T22:11:00.000-04:00

Undeniably, the two best teams in the 6th grade youth football league played today. They were also the most evenly matched teams. The final score was 9 to 6. The Dolphins scored late in the 1st quarter and were held to a handful of 1st downs for the remainder of the game. The Panthers missed opportunities in the 2nd half with two turnovers in the red zone. They tied the game as time expired but missed the point after to send the game into overtime. Each team was given 4 downs to score from the 10. Neither team was able to capitalize resulting in a 2nd overtime. During their second possession, the Dolphins used their final down to kick a field goal, winning the game.

Both teams put forth tremendous effort in their final game of league play. Sadly, it was not the Panthers' day. Still, they had a terrific season and most of the players will continue to play in Jr High with 3 schools in the district fielding teams next fall. Jill and I've been extremely pleased with the coaching staff this year. While winning games is certainly on everyone's mind, they're emphasis on teaching and getting all the kids involved was refreshing.

Panthers to battle Dolphins

2006-10-13T20:56:00.000-04:00

Caleb's team won 29-12 over the Packers last night. Dolphins won 13-2 over the Steelers. Both are undefeated and will meet tomorrow afternoon to determine a victor.

Tristan advances to Sr Red

2006-10-11T22:30:00.000-04:00

Tristan was awarded his senior red belt in Taekwondo tonight. He will be eligible to test for his probationary black belt in December. He's worked hard to get this far. We are proud of his accomplishment and are excited at where he's going. He wants to become an instructor and will be able to begin that once he has passed his first testing after becoming a black belt.

Caleb and Logan will resume their TKD studies as football ends and Logan's cast comes off. They are at senior brown and should become black belts next year.

Panthers #1 Seed into Playoffs

2006-10-08T20:42:00.000-04:00

Caleb's team (the Panthers) took over 1st place this weekend. They won their last game - 28 to 12. The other undefeated team (the Dolphins) also won but allowed 16 points to be scored. Both teams tied on the season for points allowed at 32 which meant they had to go to the 3rd tiebreaker to decide who plays in the 1 seed. The Panthers will do that on Thursday against the Packers.

Football update

2006-09-30T21:52:00.000-04:00

Caleb's team remains tied for 1st and undefeated with 1 week left to play. At this point, his team would be the #2 seed in the playoffs. They've allowed 20 points and the other undefeated team has only allowed 16. Assuming positions do not change next week, Caleb's team will play the #3 seed. The #3 team is coached by the same gentlemen that Caleb's team lost to in the championship game last year.

The last conference game is Saturday, Oct 7. The top 4 teams play for the championship. The playoffs are Thursday, Oct 12, with the championship and consolation games on Saturday, the 14th.

Whiskey Runners!

2006-09-25T20:33:00.000-04:00

We fired up the family still, loaded a few crates of the best sour mash this side of Fall Creek and dropped it by the local speakeasy for some quick cash. Shhh! Don't say nuthin' to the coppers!

We played Bootleggers with the boys last night. It's a Prohibition Era themed game of producing and supplying crates of black market whiskey to the speakeasies in town. It was designed by SDR Games and produced by the mostly defunct Eagle Games.

The game is played over 12 rounds and your goal is to have the most cash on hand at the end of the game. Players take on the role of gangsters vying for control of several speakeasies in town, producing whiskey at their still, shipping it to one or more speakeasies and selling it for a profit. This game is a produce and deliver game with a 'take-that' aspect to the game (in the form of cards that allow you to mess with other players' plans).

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the game. The gameplay, components (little gangster figures, trucks) and mechanics all work together to evoke a 1920s gangster era mood. Tristan finished as the big winner by having more than $100K at the end of round 9, ending the game early. Jill, Caleb and I finished with $65K each and Logan had $61K. Perhaps Tristan's nickname should be Al Capone!

Here's a shot of us getting ready to unload our goods at the speakeasies in round 8. I was playing the red pieces. Notice the truck with the red gangster figure next to it? .... No? .... Me neither! Jill hijacked my truck on the way into town. How d'ya like that?!?

Nexus Ops

2006-09-22T23:12:00.000-04:00

Played Nexus Ops this evening with Caleb and Logan. Picked this up online at TRU for $20 and free shipping. It's a light science fiction themed war game that is simple to play and works surprisingly well. Each player represents a mining corporation that hires units to explore, mine and take control of the surrounding area. As you play, you accumulate mission cards that award victory points when you achieve the goal on the card. Most of these are related to winning a battle against another player. The first player to 12 points wins.

The actions performed each turn are

Hire new units
Move units
Reveal newly explored areas
Fight in contested areas
Collect income
Draw new mission (and 2 energize cards if controlling the monolith)

Each unit has a different cost to hire and different abilities. A rock strider can move 2 spaces when traveling to or through a rocky space. A crystalline hits on a 4, 5 or 6 when fighting in a crystalline space instead of only on a 5 or 6. Just enough to make each unit slightly different and keep the game interesting.

The boys and I had a blast for the 90 minutes or so it took to play this. Logan hired all of his rubium dragons by the end of the game. They were all sitting on top of the monolith ready to pounce on anyone even thinking about challenging his domination in the middle. Both of them ganged up on me when they saw me pick up several points early in the game. Very enjoyable. Recommended for a light battle style game that can play in very little time.

As an avid gamer, I tend to turn my nose up at the mass-market games that Hasbro pushes at the public through Wal-Mart, TRU, etc. However, their Avalon Hill division is managing to publish a some titles with cross-over appeal. Nexus Ops is certainly one and Vegas Showdown is another. They are also great value when you find them on sale for $20!

Football and Games

2006-09-17T21:39:00.000-04:00

Caleb's team is still undefeated after 4 games. With the exception of their first game, they have manhandled every other team they've come up against. With 3 games left, the chances are looking good for another undefeated regular season. Two other teams are still undefeated in the 6th grade league but are not on the Panthers' schedule and may only meet in the playoffs.

On the other hand (literally!), Logan's football season has ended early. Last Friday, he fell off the monkey bars during recess and fractured his left wrist. He's now in a bright green cast for the next 6 weeks. Tristan is the only one who has not broken anything this summer (Caleb fractured a finger a couple of weeks before football camp).

I played a couple of my unplayed games this weekend. On Saturday, Jeff and I sat down to play Bonaparte at Marengo. I've been through the rules several times but there was still some uncertainty in how to handle some situations that arose during the game. We worked through it though and had a good time. Jeff was the French and I the Austrians. Jeff picked up quickly on idea that the French should conduct a deliberate withdrawal and leave only enough forces behind to slow down the Austrians. His strategy nearly worked but I was able to engage and defeat enough of his forces to cause his army to become demoralized on the last turn of the game. We enjoyed the game. Now that we have the basics down though, we need to peruse the forums to get a better understanding of the rules and mechanics.

Sunday afternoon/evening is family game night at our house. The kids have to be completely done with chores, homework, etc by 4pm. We play a couple of games, order pizza and generally have a good time. Tonight we tried out Ticket to Ride - Marklin with the boys. They said they liked it better than the original TtR. Logan was the big winner. He was a little apprehensive at first but we marked the cities on the board he need to connect with pairs of like colored dice.

Afterwards, Caleb, Tristan and I played (half) a game of Mexica. It's an older action point based game by Kramer and Kiesling (same duo that designed Tikal). You move your token around the board and subdivide the island with water tiles to create canals. Areas completely enclosed by water can be "founded" as a district if the appropriate district tile is available (a district can only be founded if the size [in land squares] matches the size stated on one of the district tiles). Players score points when districts are founded and during the scoring turns for having the most valuable buidings in the districts. Somewhat dry, but an enjoyable mid-weight euro. It plays quickly. We got through rules and the first scoring round in about 30 minutes. Shouldn't take more than 45 - 60 minutes for 3 or 4 players that have played a couple of times.

I'm currently sitting at 22 unplayed games that I own. 16 are standalone games and 6 are expansions for other games I have. I will be able to get through some more of these in the coming weeks but the list is going to also grow. A few items that I've preordered from GMT and Columbia are still expected this year and I'm sure to pick up a few things at Essen! Still, I've played through 50 titles that otherwise would be sitting on the shelf.

Caylus at Game Night

2006-09-14T19:58:00.000-04:00

Game night at my place last night. 6 others showed up. Jill also played giving us 8 for the evening. Kieron gave us an overview of The Great Space Race and he taught Leroy, Denise and Troy how to play. They played a 1 lap race and sounded like they were enjoying themselves. Leroy won with a commanding lead.

The rest of chose to play Caylus. Jill hadn't played for a long time. Jeff hadn't played before so we went through the rules for him and a refresher for everyone else. This was a slow moving play of the game with noone pushing the Provost ahead to speed up the Bailiff's movement. Jeff and I jumped out to early leads but Dan's good use of the resource tiles and efficient castle builds soon put him in the lead. As we went into the last couple of turns, he and I were tied on points. In the end, he was able to hold me off with a 2 point victory. His castle builds and use of the purchase favor tile allowed him to pick up a lot of points on the victory point favor track (25+ I think). Well played by Dan. Jill mined the most gold and built the large blue building worth 25 points but didn't have enough to catch me or Dan. We like Caylus a lot but it seems to last a little longer than it should.

Troy and Leroy took off after The Great Space Race. Kieron taught Denise to play Memoir '44. She was interested in learning this so she could decide whether to purchase M44 or wait for the fantasy-themed version of the system that Days of Wonder is planning to release later this year called BattleLore. The initial marketing on BattleLore looks very exciting. Will have to wait and see as more information is released. However, all of Mr. Borg's other releases of this system (Memoir '44, Battle Cry, Commands and Colors: Ancients) are well done so I would expect similar play quality from BattleLore.

Opening Weekend of Football

2006-08-28T22:05:00.000-04:00

Caleb and Logan played their first football game on Saturday. Logan is in his second year of flag and his last. He wants to play tackle sooooo bad. Caleb is playing his 3rd year of tackle and has another great set of coaches this year.

Logan pulled the first flag on the first play in his game. He also recovered a fumble later in the game.

Caleb's game was tough. They were without their running back and the other team went up 6 - 0 in the 2nd quarter. They answered with 8 points in the 3rd (point after kicks count for 2pts in this league). In the 4th, Caleb's team gained control of the ball with just under 2 minutes to play. They fumbled on 3rd down with 50 seconds to play. The other team got off a couple of plays and nearly scored in the final seconds but Caleb's team held on for the win.

Pictures

Invading Britain at Game Night

2006-08-26T12:05:00.000-04:00

Last night, we celebrated the midpoint between our annual gaming weekends at Dan's place. It's been approximately 180 days since the end of GTF'06 and another 180 days until we open GTF'07. Nine people showed to play games. Nelson, Patty, Denise, Heather and Bob played Vegas Showdown. I picked up a copy at GenCon in the WotC prize area. I've read the rules a couple of times but have not played. I walked through the game with everyone and they took it from there. They finished after about 90 minutes. Heather was the winner I heard with a well designed casino. Nelson was tied with Heather in fame but lost the tie-breaker with less cash on hand. Sounds like it was well received by the group. This group also went on to play a couple of games of Time's Up. Not really Nelson's cup of tea but he was a good sport about it!

The rest of us (Josh, Dan, Troy and me) dug in for a good long session of Britannia. I picked up a copy of the FFG edition earlier this year and have been itchin' to play this for most of the summer. There are a lot of rules and it seems overwhelming reading and explaining it but once you get into the rhythm of play, it is not all that complicated. Most of the problems arise from the exceptions and special treatments of certain nation's armies and leaders. A good player aid would speed play a bit. I'm looking at one on BGG that's not bad but I may work on improving it some.

Britannia is a game about all the invasions that occurred to Britain from the first Roman invasion around 50 BC to William the Conqueror in 1066. The game starts with Britain controlled by various factions (Welsh, Brigantes, Picts, etc) and a major invasion (2 attacks) by the Romans. Troy played the Romans and we goofed/forgot the major invasion rule on his turn. By the time we realized what happened, we were too far along to undo it so he had 2 attacks during turn 2 to compensate for it.

One of the funniest exchanges of the evening was sometime during the 2nd or 3rd turn. Josh (playing the Welsh) struck a deal with Troy's Romans on how to divide up the 'neck' of Britain heading north toward Hadrian's wall. The Romans would take the eastern areas and leave the western areas open for the Welsh. The Romans marched north, 'civilizing' the barbaric populace and leaving only a token force (Roman forts) in each southern area. The barbaric Welsh, having no qualms over a little backstabbing, saw an opportunity to plunder and pillage the Roman fortifications. That upset the Romans (a little :-) causing them to abandon their northerly conquests, race south to push the Welsh back toward Wales and force them into subjugation.

We played until the end of the 2nd scoring round (Turn 7). That was roughly half the game but it was pushing midnight. We estimate it would've taken another 2-3 hours to finish. However, with familiarity of the mechanics, I'd say 4-5 hours for a 4 player game. The first play was enjoyable and interesting. Time flew by. Josh likes games with a lot of conflict. It was hilarious to play Britannia with him and watch him goad us into attacking each other, including himself.

If you play, go in with the realization that the point of the game is to conquer territory and eliminate opposing armies (possibly even armies of another nation that you control). Deal making is expected and deal breaking is encouraged (the rules even talk about/encourage the backstabbing aspect). With this in mind, you can have a great time with Britannia. If you find the prospect of conflict frustrating, stay far, far away!

What I've been reading this year...

2006-08-21T18:20:00.000-04:00

A mish-mash of stuff so far...mostly science fiction and some fantasy mixed in for good measure. Oddly enough, no non-fiction yet this year. Hmmm...I see a couple of things on the bookshelf that could remedy that.

Halo: The Flood
William C. Dietz
Halo: First Strike
Eric Nylund

Books 2 & 3 of the tie-in novels for the Xbox game, Halo. I read Halo: The Fall of Reach last year and enjoyed it. These were 2 for 1 at a bookstore going out of business in December of last year. The Flood covers the same material as the game -- not as good as The Fall of Reach (especially since I'd played through the game) but it was readable. First Strike covers events after the game and may coincide with events from Halo 2 but I haven't played through that. Nylund also wrote The Fall of Reach. All are quick reads -- eye candy SF adventure.

The Briar King
Gregory Keyes

The Briar King is the first in a fantasy series by Keyes. The 'lost colony' of Roanoke, Virginia figures into the premise of this book. There are interesting ideas in the book. In particular, the faneways -- a series of important sites to a particular saint -- when walked in the proper order imbue the walker with some of the power of the associated saint. However, something about the story or the author's writing style didn't grab me. I don't have any interest in the later books.

Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A. Heinlein

Considered Heinlein's best work and one of the best science fiction works from the 50s and 60s. He coined the term 'grok' (to understand, to be one with) with this book. I read the uncut version published by Heinlein's wife after his death. Although it was nice to read what was left on the cutting room floor the first time it was published, I don't agree that this version is the best. At the very least, it needed a small amount editing to fix a few things (spelling, grammar, at least one continuity issue).

The Adventures of Pip and Flinx
Alan Dean Foster
0 - For the Love of Mother-Not
1 - The Tar-Aiym Krang
2 - Orphan Star

I also picked these up at the 2 for 1 sale. I've read a lot of other work by Foster (namely, the Spellsinger series) but not this. For the Love of Mother-Not is a prequel written after the first several books were published. It tells of Pip's early years, being raised by Mother Mastiff and finding Flinx, the mini-dragon that becomes is pet/friend. The other 2 are adventures Pip has a a late teen, young adult. Not bad but not great either.

Dune - The Battle of Corrin
Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

This is the third book in the second prequel trilogy by Herbert and Anderson. They've done a good job telling the back story that leads up to the Dune series. The Battle of Corrin tells of the final showdown between man and thinking machine and the final destruction of thinking machines. We also continue to see the development of the factions that become the powerful houses, groups and corporations later in the series. Although I've enjoyed the prequels, I am happy they've come to a conclusion. However, I read that they've written 2 more volumes that occur after the original series based on outlines and notes from Frank Herbert. Maybe I will, maybe I won't!

The Dark Elf Trilogy
R. A. Salvatore
1 - Homeland
2 - Exile
3 - Sojourn

Fantasy trilogy set in the Forgotten Realms world of Dungeons & Dragons. It's the story of the drow elf, Drizzt Do'Urden, and tells of his upbringing, his choice to split from his heritage and eventual move to live on the surface. Drizzt was originally a character in the Icewind Dale trilogy and this was written afterwards to provide Drizzt's back story. No new ground is broken in these novels but Salvatore moves the story forward at a good clip. I enjoyed them well enough that I've started The Crystal Shard, the first novel in the Icewind Dale trilogy.

Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Another classic novel by Indianapolis native, Kurt Vonnegut. It's a cynical anti-war novel and quite an appropriate read with all the nasty stuff going on in the Middle East this days.

I'm waiting on A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin. It doesn't look like it will be published any time soon. Something in the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold or another Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly would be nice. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

GenCon 2006 - Days Three and Four

2006-08-14T21:41:00.000-04:00

Saturday ==========

Caleb had football practice and Tristan and Logan were testing for their next belts in Taekwondo Saturday morning. I didn't arrive at the convention until early afternoon. I only spent a couple of hours trying out a few games before heading home.

First, I went to the FFG booth and watched an in progress playtest of Tide of Iron. The prototype was a hex map with lots of counters and dice. I decided to forego participating in a 2 hour playtest although I am interested to see how the game turns out. Instead, I wandered over to the Days of Wonder booth and played Cleopatra and the Society of Architects. The mechanics are simple. On your turn, you either add cards to your hand or use cards in your hand to build something on Cleopatra's palace. Once a section is completed (obelisks, sphinxes, doors, walls, throne or mosaic), Cleopatra takes a step closer to the palace. Once 5 of the 6 sections are finished, the game ends and the victor is player with the most talents (i.e. victory points). There is a bit more to it than that but it is a very simple game to play and I felt like it was a very nice family game. The components are great as you would expect from a DoW game but they were offering it for $50 at the show which is a little steep for this game. Retail of $40 seems more appropriate. I liked it and would've picked up a copy to play with the kids if it wasn't quite so expensive.

I didn't play Ticket to Ride - Marklin but I did listen to an explanation of the differences between it and the original version of TtR. I thought the changes were intriguing enough to pick up a copy Sunday afternoon.

After a little more looking, I ended up by the FFG booth again and an explanation of Drakon, 3rd Edition, had just begun. I sat down and after a quick run through the rules, we played. It's a quick, tile laying game where you are trying to be the first adventurer to collect 10 gold. Drakon, the dragon, is lurking about and may steal some of your gold so be careful. On your turn, you can either play a tile or move your adventurer. Some tiles have special abilities that are activiated when you enter the tile. I found the game mildly interesting. Given that it plays in 15 - 30 minutes, it's a decent little game.

There were no gaming events I was interested in hanging around for so after stopping by the Asmodee booth -- still no sign of Mission: Red Planet, I called it a day.

Sunday ==========

On Sunday, Logan and Tristan accompanied me to the final day of the convention. We arrived mid-morning, went over to the Rio Grande booth and grabbed an open table of Thurn and Taxis. I wanted to try this one out and the boys were game. I'd read the rules on the previous evening and just as I was starting to explain it, one of the RGG demo team came over to give an explanation. It turned out to be Scott Russell who I met last year at GenCon while playing the Havoc prototype with Chris Brooks. He remembered me as well, explained the game to the boys and sat with us during the first few turns. The boys grasped the game fairly well although it was a little long for Logan to sit through. I liked it and can understand why it feels like a Ticket to Ride game. However, it is very different from those games. A good game and one that would fit well with our gaming friends. I picked up a copy of this and TtR - Marklin on Sunday.

Scott suggested we try out Zig Zag at one of the other tables. After finishing Thurn and Taxis we found the table with Zig Zag and I was going through the rules when Jay Tummelson walk over and helped us get started with the game. He was very nice and was also appreciative of the GeekGold I donated to him earlier this year to buy an avatar for his user account on BGG. Zig Zag is a racing game where you flip over cards in the middle of the table and pick up cards with a background that matches the next step that you need to travel along your 'obstacle course.' When one of the players yells, "Stop," you turn over the cards you've collected and play them one at a time to move your player along your course. If you cannot move, you cannot play any more cards. It's a nice, short memory style game that would be good to play with kids.

The RGG booth was right next to the Ban Dai booth and the boys wanted to play the Naruto CCG again (even though they each purchased a deck on Friday :-). Each played a young adult who was part of the demo team. I don't think either of them won their games but their opponents were complimentary of Tristan and Logan's play. They thought they'd picked the game up nicely since learning it on Friday. They received another promo card for playing on Sunday.

After lunch, we browsed for a bit and stopped over at FFG to try out the Game of Thrones CCG. This table was busy every time I stopped by so we waited around this time. The boys played a demo of a miniatures battle game, Anima, I think until a spot opened up. Tristan and I played the CCG. The object is to collect power (as in overall strength or might of your faction). In the demo, we played to 10. Power can be gained a number of ways but most commonly by winning challenges or having the dominant force at the end of a turn. It's a nice CCG and I'm glad I was able to give it a try. We didn't purchase any product but we each received a starter deck from an older expansion for trying the game. We plan to play with these and see how well we like it.

The boys played even more Naruto! I also picked up a couple of Dreamblade starters to play with the boys. The game is interesting. It's an abstract with miniatures and some dice rolling so the boys will find it enjoyable.

That was GenCon 2006 for the Ginn family. Had a great time and the boys each said they had fun. I'm certain we'll do it all again in another 12 months!

GenCon 2006 - Day Two

2006-08-11T22:13:00.000-04:00

The boys and I made the trek to the convention center for the 2nd day. I rolled for my prize at the WotC booth (after finishing my card yesterday, the line was closing). I rolled high enough to pick from all the prizes and selected a copy of Vegas Showdown. From the general buzz on BGG and other sources, Vegas Showdown sounds like a good game from the Hasbro/WotC/Avalon Hill behemoth.

The boys and I played Knizia's Great Wall of China at FFG's booth. It's another light auction style game from Reiner that reminds me of Loot. Decent little game but it's too high at $20. Fifteen feels more like what this game should cost. A table of Blue Moon City finished just as we wrapped up Great Wall and I wanted the boys to try it out but they wanted to move on.

We wandered a bit mostly window shopping the booths. Eventually we settled at the Ban Dai booth where Tristan and Logan learned how to play the Naruto CCG. It's based on the Japanese martial arts cartoon currently airing on Cartoon Network. Naruto is Tristan's favorite show right now. Watching and helping Logan play, I found the design to be clean, straight forward and different enough from what I'm used to seeing in Magic that it held my interest. Caleb and I played a game and enjoyed it. I don't think I'd play regularly but an occasional match with one of the boys will be fun. Each of them purchased a different starter. I found out later that this game is not in general circulation yet. You can only purchase product at tournaments and conventions right now.

The unfortunate part of GenCon being hosted in Indy is the fact that the office building I where I work is connected to the mall that is connected to the convention center where GenCon is held. And I did have to make a quick side trip to the office for a couple of tasks. We had a long lunch with Bob & Dave, a couple teammates and lunch time running buddies.

After lunch, Caleb and Tristan tried out the Full Metal Alchemist CCG. This one seemed more fiddly and not as straight forward. The boys said they enjoyed it but we didn't purchase any product. After a little more browsing, they went home with Jill and I was solo for a couple of hours.

I went back to the FFG booth and played Blue Moon City. It's a Blue Moon themed board game by Knizia. You move around Blue Moon City using cards from your hand to contribute to the reconstruction of the buildings in the city. Whenever a building is restored that you contributed to, you receive a reward, usually some number of crystals. The crystals collected can be spent to pay tribute to the obelisk in the center of the city. The first player to pay the required number of tributes (4 in 4 player; 5 in 3 player) is the winner. Another solid game from Herr Reiner but it is a tad dry. Most (all?) of his designs are pretty dry but I generally find them very interesting. This one didn't grab me right away. Maybe I need to play it a couple of times to pick up on the subtleness that is sure to be there. Regardless, this one is really pricey at $40. The components are top notch FFG stuff but it sure doesn't seem like a $40 game to me. Retail should be $30 in my mind. Is the price of oil pushing up the price of new games that much?

There are a few more FFG games I wanted to try but all the tables were busy. I ended up at the AEG booth and decided to give L5R (Legend of the Five Rings) a go. I've always been a little interested in this CCG for as long as it has been around. The asian/samurai story and theme is a draw and it is one of the older CCGs still actively being published. Played the demo with the one of the staff and enjoyed the game. Different than Magic but intelligent. I normally wouldn't purchase any product but they were selling the starter kit at half price. It contains 2 full size decks. Since Tristan (and Caleb and Logan but to a lesser degree) enjoy martial arts style cartoons right now, I decided this was something we could try as an alternative to Magic.

I went over to the Asmodee booth to see if Mission: Red Planet had arrived yet. I would like to try this game but it still has not arrived. Ironically, the same thing happened to this group last year with the english version of Dungeon Twister. Ran into Kieron near the Asmodee booth and we talked for awhile before heading back out to the convention.

I went to see if I could get into the Britannia event at 6pm but it was full and nothing was a strong enough draw to keep me around so I called it a day and headed for home. Tomorrow I'll be solo at the con but I won't arrive until late because Caleb has football practice and the other 2 are testing for their next Taekwondo belts. I'd like to get in plays of Cleopatra (DoW), Britannia (FFG), Game of Thrones CCG (FFG), a playtest of Tide of Iron (FFG) and Mission: Red Planet (Asmodee).

GenCon 2006 - Day One

2006-08-10T23:06:00.000-04:00

The boys and I made our way to GenCon this morning. We spent most of our time in the exhibit hall today doing WotC demos to fill up our cards for the prize area. We had 8 items completed by early afternoon and the boys decided to roll for their prizes. Tristan and Logan picked up some Magic cards. Caleb opted for the D&D miniatures. Caleb opened them on the way home and there is a fair amount of figures in the pack. His rare was the Hunched Giant which looks like the Cave Troll from Fellowship of the Ring.

The WotC area was impressive as usual but not nearly as over the top as last year with the full size displays of the military vehicles for the Axis & Allies Miniatures game and the huge Hecatomb display. The focus this year is very much on fantasy -- D&D and their new CMG, Dreamblade, in particular.

Many of the demos are the same as those we played last year (Heroscape, Star Wars Minis, Magic, Magic online, Axis & Allies Minis). D&D Minis was something new we tried this year. Can't remember if it was there last year or not. It works much the same as the Star Wars Minis game but set in the fantasy world of D&D. There are differences but each game has comparable mechanics. In a way, the ability to cast spells in D&D Minis is similar to the Force powers some of the characters in the Stars Wars Minis game. Each acts like a special ability with a limited number of uses during the game. D&D Minis also uses other rules from traditional D&D gaming that will be familiar to RPG players such has movement on a diagonal (1 - 2 - 1 - 2 ...), critical hits, morale checks and attacks of opportunity. This makes sense since D&D Minis is all about encapsulating the combat aspect of RPGs into a game and adding the collectibility of the figures to keep you coming back for more (and one of the reasons not much of this product has made its way into my house!).

The other game we played which is brand new was Dreamblade, another CMG. Dreamblade was rather interesting. You play on a 5x5 grid with miniatures that spawn onto the board each turn. At the end of a turn where you've scored more points than your opponent, you gain a victory point. The first player to 6 victory points is the winner. You score a point (for your 'turn' score, not victory points) for each character killed on your opponent's team. There are also sqares on the grid that are worth varying points to one of the players. If you control (i.e. only your characters are in the square) a square that is worth points to you at the end of a turn, you add those points to your score for the turn. The player with the highest 'turn' score receives a victory point. The turn consists of an initiative roll, spawing new characters and two actions. The actions are either shift (move one square) or strike (combat characters in the same square). It's a little bit of abstract strategy mixed with dice rolling miniatures combat. Unfortunately, the collectible aspect reduces my interest. The starter kit is $30 and the boosters are $15 each.

Hecatomb was one of the games last year that dominated the WotC booth. While I was playing the D&D starter game and talking to the gentleman running the demo, he told me that Hecatomb more or less imploded. There is no demand for the product. It was noticeably absent from the convention -- especially considering the attention it was given last year. I checked the event catalog this evening and there are no tournaments scheduled either. Another trading/collectible card game bites the dust. I have not played Hecatomb so I have no idea if it was any good or not.

Photos I've snapped at the convention.

Ack! BoardGameGeek is Down!

2006-08-10T01:38:00.000-04:00

Apparently they lost the database server early on Wednesday. I didn't see or hear about it until I went to look up a couple of games played at game night. I'm so used to it always being there that it was a little disconcerting for it not to be available and being forced to use other resources to find the same or similar info. Yikes!

Gaming on the eve of GenCon

2006-08-09T23:50:00.000-04:00

GenCon starts in the morning. The boys and I will spend time over the next several days checking out the vendors, playing some new games and meeting some fellow BGG'rs. But tonight was game night at Jeff's. We had another good turn out with 9 gamers showing up to play. Part of the group chose to play Super Munchkin.

The rest of us sat down to learn how to play Taj Mahal from Denise. Taj Mahal is by Reiner Knizia and the players are vying for dominance in different areas (political, social, military, spiritual and economy) in each of 12 provinces. This is done by bidding with cards from your hand. Once you withdraw from the bidding process in the current province, you claim any of the tokens you hold as a majority based on the cards you've played. These tokens allow you to place palaces on the boards, take special cards or score points.

Every time you collect a token with some type of good on it, you score a point for every token in your possession with that good on it. Collecting sets of goods is a great way to score many points. You also score a point if you place at least one palace in a province. You score more points if the palace you place is connected by road to another of your palaces in one or more adjacent provinces. Creating a long string of connected palaces on the board is another great way to score lots of points.

I created a couple of palace networks in provinces on the outer edge of the board and was able to win a bid later in the game that connected them into one large network pushing me into a lead that was difficult to overcome. At the end, Troy finished a close second, trailing me by 2 points. This was the first time everyone had played except for Denise who brought and taught the game. The group felt it was a quality Knizia title. I liked it and would willingly play again.

Super Munchkin finished while we were still playing Taj Mahal and several at that table decided it was late enough to call it a night. After we finished Taj Mahal, Bob and I stuck around. Jeff joined us for a learning game of Domaine. I picked this up a couple of months ago and finally was able to get it to the table tonight. This is a very simple game to play. Everyone has 4 castles that are placed on the board at the beginning of the game and you spend the rest of game placing borders on the board and trying to isolate your castles from the others on the board in order to create an enclosed space (a Domaine) with only one of your castles in it. Whenever you do that, you score points for all the forest and village spaces within that Domaine. Your turn is simply play a card or sell a card. If you play a card, you pay the cost of the card and take the action represented on the card. This may be placing borders, adding knights, expanding a domain, etc. When a player reaches the victory point total for the game, they win. If you run out of cards before that happens, whoever is leading after the last card is played is the winner. We all liked this game too. It plays fast. There isn't any real player interaction but there is almost no down time between turns so you are constantly involved in the game. It looked like there was a big disparity in the scores as we went into the end game but they tightened up right at the end. Bob won with 34. I had 30 and Jeff had 29. Domaine was designed by Klaus Teuber who is most well known for designing Settlers of Catan. I've played a few of his other games and I'd say Domaine was more enjoyable than some of the other games he has published.

Friday Game Night in July

2006-07-28T23:00:00.000-04:00

Finally able to hold a game night at Bob's! The previous two attempts were cancelled for various reasons. We actually had a nice turnout for a Friday game night -- 7. In addition to Bob and myself, Kieron, Troy and Heather all turned out for a spot of gaming. Jill and Bob's wife, Julie, also joined us later in the evening for a game or two.

The first game to hit the table was Havoc. It is a game that is played with some frequency at our game nights. It was the first time playing for Heather. We used a 6 battle (the odd numbered battles plus #8, Formigny) setup for a shorter game since Julie and Jill would be joining us later. Heather was the peacekeeper and everyone was heavily recruiting early in the game causing peace and harmony to reign without the battle of Sluys ever occurring. Heather had good cards and won battles at Poitiers and Agincourt. Troy prevailed at Orleans while Bob crushed Heather and me at Formigny. Kieron dominated Castillon but Heather's early victories earned enough points to win the day and be crowned King.

Afterwards, we split into two groups. Heather, Troy and Kieron played Traumfabrik while Jill, Bob and I played Ra. Two great Knizia games going at once! First play for everyone of Traumfabrik. I explained the game while Bob set up Ra. They picked it up quickly and only had a few questions during the game. I didn't have much opportunity to monitor the game but everyone said they liked it. We talked about the fact that Uberplay is releasing an english version of this game called Hollywood Blockbuster. My understanding is that the actors, directors and movie titles will be replaced by fictional names to avoid any copyright, licensing or other legal issues. Even though the game isn't materially changed, I feel like it won't be quite as interesting as it is now with all the famous classic movies, actors and directors. Seriously cool as it is and glad I have the original version.

Jill, Bob and I are experienced Ra players. I picked up the reprint last summer (also by Uberplay) and it's one of my favorite games to play with 3 players. I did get away with a couple of nice large sets of tiles that included many different monuments. Bob and Jill had long rivers but I continued building sets of monuments that paid off well at the end of the game.

We wrapped up the evening with a game of Time's Up. Jill and I were a little behind in the first 2 rounds but finished strong in the final round taking 15 of the cards and winning by 2 points. This is my favorite large group/party game at the moment. The last round with no words -- only gestures or sounds is hilarious.

Runebound with 4

2006-07-18T22:04:00.000-04:00

I had an opportunity to teach Runebound to three new players on Sunday. Nelson, Patty and Jeff came over and we played for about 5 hours before finishing the game. I added in 4 small expansions to add additional flavor to the market and adventure decks since I'd played several times before. This game was a little strange in that we did not draw an event card until the game was about half over. This led to adventure counters being quite scarce. Fortunately one was drawn but it was the only one for the entire game!

The artifacts and runes in the expansions allowed us to create a couple of combos that made the more difficult challenges significantly easier in the end game. Nelson had a rune that he could power by taking points against his stamina characteristic. If he passed a skill check, it prevented all damage for X rounds where X was the number of points taken. This usually meant he had 3 or 4 rounds of combat with no threat of damage. Very powerful! He also had an artifact that removed the points during his next movement step allowing the cycle to occur at the next adventure. It was a nice setup.

I also had rune that could be powered using my stamina characteristic and if I made a successful magic attack, would damage the opponent with X damage where X was the number of points I took against my stamina. I could easily do 6 to 8 points of damage before going into combat usually defeating my opponent before the battle had even started. Another very nice combo.

In the end, I was able to defeat 3 of the dragonlords before anyone else did. Jeff ran into the big bad guy, Margath, but wasn't at full strength when the battle began and was unable to defeat him for the win. Nelson had defeated one dragonlord and was ready for his next when I defeated my third.

Everyone enjoyed the game even though it is long. Jeff particularly liked the theme and the feel of the game. He thought it would be a great game to play with his son. I certainly agree since my boys like it a lot.

Game Night - July 12th

2006-07-16T20:34:00.000-04:00

I hosted game night this week on Wednesday. We had an excellent turn out this time -- 9 players. Dave, Lynn, Bob and Dan played Louis XIV. Bob had played twice and Dave once before. This game is prone to slow playing and this was the case on Wednesday. It took them 4 hours to finish the game. Everyone liked it but thought it would be much more enjoyable if you could finish in about 90 minutes. Bob walked away with the win.

The rest of us (me, Kieron, Leroy, Nelson and Patty) played Mississippi Queen, Oltre Mare and multiple plays of Fairy Tale in the same amount of time. It was the first play of Mississippi Queen for all of us. We played the advanced game. It was a light game with enough decisions to make it interesting. I can see why this game won the Spiel des Jahres in 1997. Jill, Logan and I also played it today (Sunday) and had a great time with it. Logan grasped the game easily although he burned through his coal quickly and had to be very careful during the last half of the race. On Wednesday, Leroy came from behind to win. Jill applied a similar strategy today by picking up her passengers early, seeing how the river developed and planning her moves with more available information. She was also the winner today with Logan and I finishing right behind her on the same turn.

The group also enjoyed Fairy Tale. I taught the game to Kieron and Leroy previously but, again, the drafting mechanism reminiscent of Magic: The Gathering tournaments seems to be some of the appeal to this game.

Not sure what everyone's reaction was to Oltre Mare. In general, it seemed well received. Jill and I have played this several times recently but this was the first time playing with more than 2 players. The dynamics (especially the trading) of the game changed tremendously with 5 players and felt considerably different to me.

GeoCoin

2006-07-16T18:00:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine and avid Geocacher, IndyMagicMan, recently gave me one of his GeoCoins after helping him on one of his Geocaching adventures. This is number 24. Only 100 were made. Pretty neat, eh?

Coast to Coast

2006-07-10T18:05:00.000-04:00

Back in April, we visited Chris Brooks' family and explored Portland and the Oregon coast. Last week, we drove over to the other coast and spent the week on the Outer Banks in North Carolina with our friends, Bob & Julie and their kids.

Most of the week was spent relaxing, playing games and catching up on a bit of reading. We did take in a few of the sights in the area. At the northern end, near Corolla, Mustangs (wild horses of Spanish descent) roam free. We spent a couple of hours in 4x4's traveling the beach and unpaved trails learning about the origin and history of the area while searching for groups of the beasts. We did see quite a few. Logan counted 40+. Very impressive sight, especially the adult/child pair at the water's edge when we were returning from the trip.

We also spent a day on Roanoke, the location of the first English colony in America. There is a living museum (not unlike Conner Prairie in Indiana) called the Festival Park. Sights included a seaworthy replica of the Elizabeth, one of the ships that delivered the first load of colonists from England, and a working blacksmith.

On the way to and from Roanoke, we drove through Kill Devil Hills. The national Wright Memorial is located there and is visible from a distance. We did not stop to visit the park but the memorial is impressive sitting atop a very high dune at the site.

Games we played during the week: Havoc, Time's Up, Wits and Wagers, Commands & Colors: Ancients, Hammer of the Scots, Blink (the kids ran a Blink tournament one evening), Bang!, Fairy Tale, Blue Moon, Lost Cities, Cartagena and Louis XIV

I think it's safe to say everyone had a good time. The kids spent a lot of time outdoors -- at the beach, pool or riding scooters around the neighborhood. The adults plowed through more than 10 books during the week.

Games by the Pool

2006-06-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

We went to the neighborhood pool this afternoon with the boys. While they swam, Jill and I did a bit o' gaming. We played Jambo and fretted as the sky darkened and threatened rain. Jill had several Utility cards including the Kettle and Drums while I played with a single Utility card, Supplies. My strategy for the game was to use up to my first 2 actions to try and draw a Ware card and then use my Supplies card to pick up another Wares card. If I had 2 matching Ware cards, I'd use my last 2 actions to purchase and sell, usually netting 7 additional gold. This worked reasonably well as Jill had difficulty finding Ware cards that matched or cards that could manipulate Wares into the kinds she needed so that she could turn a profit.

My good fortune did not continue when we switched to Corsari. I had multiple hands where I had to take 20+ points per hand putting me over 100 with Jill having considerably less.

Game Night at Kieron's

2006-06-24T16:15:00.000-04:00

Friday was our regularly scheduled game night. Kieron hosted this month and we had a small gathering. Kieron, Leroy and I played Fairy Tale followed by Duel of Ages. It was the first play of Fairy Tale for Kieron and Leroy. They liked the drafting mechanic (former Magic players :-) and thought it was a nice filler.

Leroy had to leave early (about 9:30) so we played a medium length game of DoA. We played with 3 platters and 8 characters on a side. Kieron and Leroy were one team and I played the other. They were heavy on future characters while I had more colonial and modern characters. The points total went back and forth a couple of times and it was 2 to 1 in favor of Kieron and Leroy when Leroy left. Kieron and I played for another hour and I was able to take the lead back but Kieron won on the last turn. The final score was 4 to 2. They spent much of the game trying to eliminate my survivalist character who started the game with 8 equipment cards but he kept getting out of one scrape after another. He is a survivalist after all! Kieron did eliminate him on the final turn and became one of their victory points.

I have only played DoA a couple of times but I do enjoy it a little more each time. There is so much stuff in the game that it is overwhelming to play the first few times. I need to play a lot more to become comfortable with all the cards that are available. DoA is a neat system. It would've been nice if the platters (and therefore, the hexes) were larger so the character counters could be larger (or miniatures could be used).

Boston Wanderings

2006-06-20T20:48:00.000-04:00

Jill flew into Boston at the end of the week and we stayed through the weekend to do a bit of sightseeing. We did sightseeing activities during the day and and gaming (Lost Cities, Carolus Magnus, San Juan and Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper) in the evening at the Starbucks in the hotel. Whenever we played Carolus Magnus, we had someone stop by and ask about the game. They usually walked away with the name of some games to try and the address for BoardGameGeek. :-)

On Friday afternoon, we walked over to the Museum of Fine Arts and spent a couple of hours wandering the galleries. We spent most of the time in the European galleries (Jill likes Impressionism, in general, and Monet, in particular).

We spent much of Saturday walking the Freedom Trail. The National Park Service gives a nice discussion of the history of Faneuil Hall. We ended at the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"). We discovered that the local gaming store, The Compleat Strategist, was only a couple of blocks from the hotel and visited in the afternoon. They cram a lot of product in a very small space.

On Sunday we went to Cambridge and toured the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow house. This is also run by the National Park Service and they provide a very good walking tour. Washington used this house to organize the Continental Army and direct the early stages of the Revolutionary War. We also walked around the campus of Harvard before heading back to Boston and having lunch at the Bull & Finch (the inspiration for Cheers).

Bus Drivers Strike

2006-06-15T09:05:00.000-04:00

Late Tuesday, the unionized bus drivers (Teamsters, I believe) decided to strike. Lovely that they chose TechEd to inconvenience, eh? Although, if I were union and wanted to make a point, I'd use a large convention like this to get attention. That doesn't change the fact that it's rather irritating to us attendees when many of us are located at hotels that take 30 minutes or more to travel to and from the convention center by bus. I walked back last night and it wasn't any faster. The convention ends tomorrow and the folks driving the buses have done an admirable job putting up with the nasty comments and gestures from the striking workers in front of the convention center and the hotels.

Hanging out at TechEd

2006-06-12T22:06:00.000-04:00

TechEd (Microsoft's annual technical conference) is this week in Boston. It's been a couple of years since I've gone and was able to swing a trip this year. Arrived last night after being delayed in Boston air traffic. I was still able to make it over to convention center for registration last night (which is better than Monday morning when everyone descends upon the conference).

As usual, the quality of the sessions varied quite a bit. None so bad that I left to seek out one of my alternative choices. Although David Chappell's superb session on building modern software undoubtedly colored my reaction to later sessions that were quite acceptable but not as polished as his talk.

I took the GPSr out this afternoon and thought I'd tag a geocache or 2 while I was out walking. I ended up at the Public Garden (next to the Boston Commons) sitting on a park bench attempting to surreptitiously locate a magnetic cache underneath the bench. The muggles were out in force tonight so I had to walk away empty handed.

War of the Ring

2006-06-03T20:15:00.000-04:00

After GTF, Brian left his copy of War of the Ring at my house in hopes that it would see more playing time here than in Chicago. It took a few months but I got around to reading the rules again this week. Tristan and I sat down to play this afternoon. He wanted to be evil and took the Shadow Peoples (Sauron). That left me with the task of holding back the tide of darkness and destroying the ring before Tristan's armies and minions took control of the land.

Tristan focused on building his forces in the southern and eastern areas around Mordor and made several runs at wresting control of Minas Tirith and Helm's Deep from my valiant forces in the area. I pushed the Fellowship as quickly as I could toward Mordor to destroy the ring while reinforcing Gondor and Rohan. My defenses at both strongholds held, repelling Tristan's hoards on repeated occasions. At the same time, I slipped the Fellowship into Mordor with only 3 corruption. I figured it would be a close race between the increasing corruption and throwing the ring into the Crack of Doom. And it was. By the time I was on the last step before the end, the Fellowship had moved to 9 and 3 or more corruption on the final step would mean that Tristan would gain the ring and win the war.

He used an event to add more dice to the hunt pool so that if he drew an "Eye," the Fellowship would take more corruption damage. I moved and he drew a 3 which was just enough to destroy the Fellowship just as they were on the verge of destroying the ring. Tristan won the first round of War of the Ring playing as Sauron. Pretty cool.

I had already moved the Fellowship twice that turn and could've played more conservatively by not moving again that turn and drawing more event cards to see if I could've healed some corruption damage. Hmm...I also wonder if I could've revealed the location since Gollum was the guide and avoided the last point of corruption. But, could the Fellowship have still moved in that situation? Looks like it's time for additional rules study! :-)

We both enjoyed the game. It took us 3.5 hours for the first play. I put on the soundtracks from the movies and we finished just as 'Into the West' ended. Neat, eh? Caleb is interested in learning and I can see this coming out a few times a year. We used the turn summary by SalladDazed. It is very well done and kept the need to reference the rulebook to a very small number of times.

Play by Web -- Wally and E&T

2006-05-31T08:51:00.000-04:00

Chris initiated the last couple. Here's a game of Wallenstein at SpielByWeb for any interested:

Name: Can we finish b4 GTF Wally?
Password: molasses

Poking a bit of fun at the other game I've been playing since the middle of March!

Also a game of Euphrat & Tigris over at BGG:

Game ID: 24549
Name: London Calling
Password: doifeellucky?

Gaming over the Holiday and Fairy Tale

2006-05-30T20:27:00.000-04:00

I picked up copies of Maelstrom and Mystery Rummy: Al Capone late last week and enjoyed a pleasant long weekend of gaming. We didn't get to any monster games but we did break out some new titles.

Jill and I tried out the new Mystery Rummy (new to us anyway, #5 - Bonnie & Clyde is supposed to be published this year by Rio Grande) on Friday and a couple of other times over the weekend. As a 2 player game it was ok but felt it was much more interesting as a 3 player. The gavel cards in this version are significantly more powerful with multiple players (e.g. Raid collects the layoffs from all the other players for one of your gangster melds). Jack the Ripper (#1) is still our favorite 2 player Mystery Rummy.

Jill and I also tried out a Colovini design that's been around for quite awhile -- Carolus Magnus. There are 5 different paladin clans (colored cubes) that the players place in their court or on the 15 regions representing Charlemagne's empire. Control of a region is checked whenever Charlemagne stops in the region with control going to the player with the largest paladin force in the region. When a player gains control of a region, they place one of their towers (out of 10) on the region. The first player to place all 10 towers on regions is the winner. An interesting game and a bit of a brain burner at times, it moves quickly and I'd like to try this with 3 players.

On Sunday, we were at Bob & Julie's for small cookout. The kids played Bohnanza and the adults were able to squeeze in a game of Traumfabrik. Jill crushed us with something like 92 points. She likes to slowly hoard all the contracts and finish her 3 original scripts while the rest of us try to finish as many scripts and go for the awards. She does well at this game.

On Memorial Day, Tristan and I got in a little Blue Moon. He likes to play and is about the only one I can get to play that with me. He's also uncannily good at it and wins most of the time when we play. Caleb and I tried out Maelstrom. I picked this up because I was intrigued by the use of hexagonal tiles to create the board but with a style of play similar to a CCG ala Magic. We found the game engrossing and will be playing some more.

Jill and I also turned in a play of another Colovini game we've been playing off and on for the last couple of weeks - Corsari. It's pirate themed card game that's classified as a set collection game. I think of it more along the lines of push-your-luck. Basically, how long do I continue to try and improve my hand vs. going out? Essentially, the person with the most points that don't match (i.e. cards that aren't part of your crew or your prisoners) takes those points for the hand. The first player to 100+ loses. It's interesting enough that we continue to play and I think it will end up as one that is enjoyable enough to pull off the shelf every once in awhile and play.

The gem of the weekend was Fairy Tale. The boys and I played this a lot. I believe I've found something that they truly enjoy playing. They have wanted to play every day since I introduced them to it. The fantasy theme and the card drafting appeal to them. This very well could be what Lost Cities is to me and Jill -- something light, quick and enjoyable that we'll play frequently in the months ahead. The first time I played Fairy Tale was with Chris and KC while we were in Portland over spring break. I'd thought about it off and on since and finally picked up a copy about 2 weeks ago. I'm glad I did!

TKD Tournament in Ohio

2006-05-27T19:38:00.000-04:00

I've been lax in my posting lately. Jill, the boys and I travelled to Westerville, Ohio (Columbus 'burb) so the boys could compete in a TKD tournament last Saturday (5/20). They participated in an in-school tournament and another sponsored by their school within the last 6 months or so. This was the first one we've travelled to outside the Indianapolis area. We left about 7am to arrive in time for the demonstration between the black belt (morning) and the color belt (afternoon) competitions. Good thing we did since we forgot to load their uniforms! We realized the goof near Cambridge City and lost an hour retrieving them. Thankfully, Jeff was able to meet us part way or we would've lost more time. We missed the demo but made it in time for them to compete.

Only Caleb did well enough to place. He received a 3rd in Forms within his group. Everyone that doesn't place in either competition receives a Spirit medal. Tristan and Logan received these. They had great attitudes which can be difficult to maintain if you don't place in any events.

It's been a long time since I've seen The Karate Kid but I sure felt like I was right in the middle of one the competition scenes from the movie. Those scenes must be reasonably representative of the feel of a martial arts competition. No Daniel-san or anyone pulling off the Crane Technique, though. ;-)

On the way home, we stopped and spent a few hours in Dayton. We drove around the base and showed the boys where we lived while I was stationed there. We also stopped by the Air Force Museum but only walked around the planes on the grounds since it was nearly closing time. We hooked up with a former co-worker and good friend, Greg, and his family for dinner at Marian's, a local pizza joint we frequented while living in Dayton. Greg and Tish have 2 boys a little younger than Logan. I generally only see Greg at GTF so it was nice to see his family and catch up a bit.

More pictures from the tournament.

"Myth"-ing VCRs => Tivo for a Geek

2006-05-15T20:56:00.000-04:00

With apologies to Robert Aspirin. :-)

Our VCRs haven't gone missing but they have been replaced with a digital video recorder (DVR -- also known as a personal video recorder or PVR). As with most things in geekdom, I wasn't satisfied with buying one off the shelf (e.g. Tivo or ReplayTV). Instead, I built my own. Essentially, that's assembling a mostly standard computer and adding at least one TV tuner/capture card and software to perform the DVR tasks.

I selected MythTV as the DVR software to use. It's Linux based and appears to be the most mature and full-featured of the open source projects currently available. In particular, I used the KnoppMyth distribution, a single disc version that takes all of the fun (translation: a lot of the headache) out of the installation by automating most of the install tasks.

The device has been running for the last couple of weeks and I'm happy with it. Jill really likes it (after first experiencing a Tivo while at Chris' place, her response was, "If you're such a geek, why don't we have one?!?" Always playing to my ego...works every time...almost). Most of the use falls into the traditional realm of Tivo-like devices: setting up recording schedules of all our favorite shows, being able to pause live TV and the like.

I'm playing around with the ability to serve my music collection through it as well. I only have a partial copy transferred but it does an adequate job. The selection functions are very basic. To get the most out of this feature, I will need to build a set of playlists to use. Managing those may be more effort than I'm willing to expend. We'll see.

There are also weather and news feed modules that work out of the box. Weather provides a quick summary and the current radar. The news module is not easy to read from across the room. I may be able to adjust the font size on those screens but haven't dug around enough to know yet.

Still need to take a closer look at the DVD player, video management and games module.

Stability of the device has been reasonable. The system has locked occasionally. I haven't tracked this down but seems to happen when buttons are pushed in rapid succession on the remote (i.e. when the kids have the remote).

For inquiring minds....components used:

Case - Antec Sonata II
Mobo - MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3200
Memory - Crucial 1GB DDR400
HD - Seagate 300GB UATA
DVD-RW - Plextor PX-716A
Tuner - Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 350

I started this post a couple of weeks ago and then life intervened. Last Thursday, the hard drive died after 2 weeks of operation. Hmmm...smells like a defective drive. Sent it back over the weekend and a replacement is on the way. In the meantime, I put in another drive I had at the house. Also, the need for an extra tuner has already occurred and I dropped in a PVR 150 on Sunday.

Why did I do all this? Mostly, because I can and the challenge is fun.

The Golden Age of Greed, uh, Steam

2006-05-11T20:35:00.000-04:00

Game night occurred at my place last night. I planned to give Domaine a go but 5 showed up so we decided to play Railroad Tycoon instead. We've played this at a couple of other game nights so everyone but Dan was familiar with the game. After setup and a quick explanation for Dan, we were off building our railroad empires to become the best rail baron of all!

Bob won the bid and took the New York hotel to start. Just about everyone at the table proceeded to take one card or another -- hotel, land grant, etc. Strange...plans within plans I guess. Me? I plunked down $2K for the New York - Philly link. Two red in Philly and at least one blue in NY...cheap, easy points in my book. Of course, Bob happily piggy-backed on my New York deliveries with that slum of a hotel he was running.

What did I say at the outset? There ought to be 2 or 3 players going toe to toe along the eastern seaboard! Bob built New Haven to New York but then he bugged out for peaches and pecans around Atlanta. Dan hung around longer, building Philly/Baltimore, New York/Philly and Boston/Providence but then, he too, sought warmer weather in the South. Troy has a fascination with the Midwest -- he likes building along the corridor between Pittsburgh and Louisville and quickly settled into familiar territory. Jeff had a date with a golden spike and started snatching up routes in the Chicago area. So what's a fledgling rail magnate to do? Why, meander along the coast buying up all those lovely routes and hook into to the handy network them good ol' boys had been building in the meantime.

In all fairness, Dan fought the good fight. He was trying to make things work in the East but I gained control of the first player spot and was aggressively buying up the best routes along the coast. The situation was frustrating and the South was wide open. Bob, though, was just as merciless -- stealing the service bounty into Mobile just as Dan was planning the same move.

Further west, Jeff and Troy jockeyed for points around Chicago. Troy was the ultimate slum lord, owning hotels in Chicago, Baltimore and Charleston(?). Not only did Jeff build the Western Link (in Des Moines), he built both of them! My, the goods flowed through Chicago. Did I mention the sleazy boarding house Troy passed off as a hotel?

While they were playing for the long term and building up infrastructure, I was emptying out cities and accumulating points as quickly as possible. They knew the score though and as the city markers dwindled, shouts of 'Urbanize!' spread across the land. And so the game lasted another three or maybe four turns longer. By then, I was slowing down while others where still accelerating deliveries (particularly Troy). In the end, the East Coast Corridor strategy (is there such a thing?) was good enough to secure the win.

Jim -- 101 (106 - 5 shares + 0 from Tycoon goal [fewest shares, Jeff had 3])
Dominate the eastern seaboard, service bounties and other bonuses, major line from Richmond to Atlanta
In general, I think it's good to find a cheap link early in the game to build a few points and get the cash flowing. Usually that's somewhere between New York and Richmond. Depending on how folks play, building in the East usually makes the early service bounties a little easier to attain.

Troy -- 88 ( 87 - 6 shares + 7 from Tycoon goal [most cash])
Dominate the Midwest, build a solid network for a lot of 4-6 point deliveries late in the game, hotels
Troy's play was the most interesting of the group. He could've gone into the death spiral but managed his way around it by conserving cash and careful play early on. He came on strong at the end and vaulted into 2nd place. He picked up a fair amount of points with the Chicago hotel since Jeff had to deliver the Western link cubes there to make his strategy work.

Bob -- 81 ( 78 - 5 shares + 8 from Tycoon goal [consecutive links])
Primarily southeast with a late run toward Chicago, hotels in New York and Atlanta
Originally, I thought Bob should've stayed along the coast to scoop up more routes but I can see why he left. The longest railroad goal awards the most points of any of the Tycoons (unless you have the Chicago goal and can control all 4 connections, then it's also worth 8). Still, this may have been served just as well by leap-frogging down the coast (around Richmond/Raleigh) and building toward the south.

Jeff -- 64 ( 62 - 3 shares + 5 from Tycoon goal [Western link])
Chicago, Western link
I think there are more points in this strategy than it shows. To make this worth it, you need to build up the infrastructure as quickly as possible without going into the death spiral and open up the Western links so that you have as much time as possible to deliver the cargo. That means heavier investment and more than just 3 shares. Jeff had great cash flow management but the Western link developed too slowly.

Dan - 61 ( 67 - 6 shares + 0 from Tycoon goal [NY - Chicago])
Initially northeast, then south, major line from Boston to Washington
New guy hazed by the experienced players! :) Inexperience here...one of the main things when you are one of two players fighting for control of an area is to play before the other guy. And that means winning the start player bid or make it expensive enough so that the other player has a harder time messing with your plans or doesn't have the resources to remain the start player turn after turn.

I enjoy Railroad Tycoon a lot...and not just when I win! Even with the frustrating parts, Dan enjoyed the game and would like to play again. Everyone has played before and all like the game. We ran about 3.5 hours. I'd say 3 hours with 5 players would be just right but anytime it hits the table is a good time. I hear there is a board warping issue but not at my house...a monster piece of Plexiglas on a monster board...no worries!

Logan Turns 7

2006-04-22T15:17:00.000-04:00

It was Logan's 7th birthday this week. Happy Birthday Logan!

Games that start with the letter 'H'

2006-04-16T19:46:00.000-04:00

Taking a little longer than usual to report on our regular game night. This week we were at Jeff's home and we had a total of 6 -- a tricky number for game night. We decided to stick with one table and played Havoc. It was the first time for Dan and also for Troy (I think). I was able to win this one by winning Agincourt (8 to first place and no points for anyone else in the battle) and then calling Havoc on each of the last few battles right after each other so that noone had an opportunity to draw any cards. In 5 and 6 player games, I find that collecting sets (2, 3 and 4 of a kind) works far better than attempting to complete a straight and particularly a straight flush. There are fewer opportunities to draw cards (2 levels to the Peacekeeper card vs. 3 in games with 4 or fewer players) and with that many people in the game, it's all too likely that you'll be missing a key card in the middle of a straight because someone else is collecting a set of the number you need. Everyone in the group continues to enjoy this game and it is often suggested when we're deciding on something to play. Personally, I think Havoc works best with about 4 players. More than that and the wait time between turns is a little long.

After Havoc, Troy headed out for the evening leaving us with 5. We played Hoity Toity. Needless to say, I may have ruined the game for Dan, Jeff and Leroy by recounting the introduction Chris Brooks gave us to the game back at BGG.con last fall. It's about his least favorite game and it sort of rubbed off on Jill and I. A lot of folks like this one but the 'rock, paper, scissors' aspect can be rather frustrating at times. Kieron won with Jeff finishing second. General consensus was a thumbs down from the group. Could have been my story or it could just be the game.

Spring Break in Portland, Oregon

2006-04-08T00:50:00.000-04:00

We are usually warm weather spring breakers (Florida, that is) but decided to visit our friends the Brooks and the Humphreys way out west in Portland, Oregon instead. We flew out last Thursday and proceeded to have a wonderful experience exploring Portland, the surrounding environs and mucho gaming with our friends.

Photos - All

Friday

On Friday, we spent the day in downtown Portland with the Brooks. We visited OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). OMSI is very hands-on and engaging for all ages. If you are ever in Portland, you need to visit this place, especially if you have kids. Following our visit to OMSI, we parked downtown, walked, had lunch and visited Powell's -- the largest independent book store in the world. I don't know if it is truly the world's largest or not, but it is big! They sell new and used books. Our local Half Price Books pales in comparison. In the evening, Chris and I met KC for dinner. Chris ran out to the airport to pick up Jacob who was returning from Space Camp.

Games Played: Roma, Rocketville, Fairy Tale, Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper, YINSH

Saturday

We packed up and headed out to the coast with the Brooks for a long weekend of gaming and sight-seeing. Saturday was mostly games. The kids played a scenario from Descent while Chris and I worked through a play of Rommel in the Desert. In the evening, we played a short game of Duel of Ages. We called it early because the kids were completely exhausted.

Games Played: Loot, Samurai, Rommel in the Desert, Duel of Ages

Sunday

Photos - Aquarium

We intended to hit the tide pools at Yaquina Head, but the weather did not cooperate. We also planned to visit the aquarium in Newport and moved on to that instead. This is the aquarium that was once home to Keiko. Another pleasant facility, the aquarium has hands-on areas and walk-thru tanks with fish swimming above and below you as you walk through the tunnels that pass through the tanks. We had lunch a 50's style diner called Flashbacks before heading back to the house and more games.

Games Played: Industrial Waste, DVONN, Plunder, Caylus, Time's Up

Monday

Photos - Yaquina Head - Newport

After closing up the house, the Brooks headed back to Portland while we went back to Yaquina Head for another go at the tide pools. The weather was more cooperative this time. We spent the late morning exploring the tide pools. There are lots of sea critters to view including starfish, urchins and anemones. After the tide pools, we ventured back into Newport for lunch at a local seafood restaurant and some exploration along the harbor in Newport before driving back to Portland.

Games Played: Dungeonville, Traumfabrik

Tuesday

Photos - Mt St Helens

Jill, the boys and I drove into Washington to see Mt. St. Helens. It is a spectacular sight to behold up close. Even after 26 years, the scars left by the eruption are readily visible. This was the first mountain the boys had seen up close. In the evening, Chris and I went to his group's game night and met some of his gaming friends. We had a fine time playing Vinci and followed it up with a quick game of High Society where I was creamed when the end condition was suddenly triggered after I bid big in an auction. Rats!

Games Played: Magic, Vinci, High Society

Wednesday

Photos - Multnomah Falls

We spent the day closer to Portland. We visited the End of the Oregon Trail museum. We saw a demonstration on how cedar was used for many things (including building shelter) by the Native Americans and the pioneers that settled in the area. We toured the museum and saw a short film about the Oregon Trail before heading northeast into the Columbia River Gorge. We visited Multnomah Falls. Tristan, Logan and I hiked about half the trail to the top of the falls before returning and driving over to the Bonneville Dam and visiting the fish hatchery where the fish (salmon, sturgeon and rainbow trout) population for the Columbia River basin is managed. Jill visited with Rita in the afternoon and we all had some great pizza and games with KC in the evening.

Games Played: Walk the Dogs

Great vacation! It was a nice mix of sight-seeing and just plain relaxing with friends. A special thank you Chris and Julie for opening your home to us -- your hospitality was fantastic!

Game Night canceled...Talked media distribution

2006-03-25T06:47:00.000-05:00

It was bound to happpen at some point. We cancelled last night's game night. Only a small number was planning to play and our host (Bob, not me :) developed back problems late Thursday/early Friday. He's getting around but the prospect of sitting for an extended period of time was not appealing. Instead, he and I talked about serving up media throughout his house. He already has some distribution capabilities and wants to add a server to the mix. He just picked up a fairly powerful Wintel machine with Windows Media Center on it. It looks like it could do some of the heavy lifting for serving media from a computer but there are things about it that we do not know if it can do and some things we don't like.

Anyone have suggestions regarding software used to select/control/serve media (both audio and video) from a computer? Selection/control needs to be able to occur via a handheld device such as a universal remote that is wireless or can be pointed at an IR repeater in a room or a client running on a wireless PDA, etc.

Any good websites that talk about this subject would be most appreciated too!

A couple of things we're going to look at is how Media Center adds media external to the application into its library and whether there is any ability to control the application via web technologies.

I store all of my music in MP3 format so that I am less constrained on the playback devices I can target. That's mostly computers and iPods but I also have a Rio Receiver that is best suited for MP3 playback. Bob is looking along the same lines of being able to serve up music to his whole house audio system as well as being able to share music with other computers in his house and sync with multiple playback devices which may be iPods or other MP3 devices.

Caylus is on its Way!

2006-03-23T21:15:00.000-05:00

Just received notification that my copy of Caylus is on its way...Woohoo! Or, is that Jill's copy?!? I pre-ordered this last November but not soon enough to catch a copy in the first printing. That was fortunate in a way since they decided to replace the money tokens for the 2nd printing. And that was the one thing about the bits that left me wanting about the game when I played it at BGG.con. It's a very good game and I can't wait to play again.

Drac is Back!

2006-03-19T20:38:00.000-05:00

Finished our play of Fury of Dracula this evening. We needed to wrap it up so Logan could get to bed. I moved into the same city as Mina Harker (Jill) and we proceeded to battle. It was a rather long battle. I didn't win many of the early rounds so I was leaking blood like a sieve. I was finally able to win a round with Mesmerize and sneak in the bite I needed to win the game.

The theme works great but the amount of cards we had to read in the first play made it a bit rough. There are also some clarity issues around the rules. FFG has a preliminary FAQ up and there are more questions being asked in the forum. A couple of well designed player aids would help a lot with the first few plays.

Overall, I enjoyed it and I think the boys did too. Jill is on the fence right now. Need to smooth out the play and see how long this really takes when comfortable with the rules. Two hours or less would be great.

Another run at Runebound...

2006-03-18T23:27:00.000-05:00

Tristan, Logan and I squeezed in a play of Runebound today. The game only lasted about 3 hours this time but was set up most of the day because they took a couple of breaks to play laser tag and other outdoor activities with friends. The duration of the game was much improved since we were more familiar with the game and because we attempted harder challenges earlier in the game. One of the keys to this game is the number 11. You roll two 10-sided dice for all combat and skill checks. Since 11 is the most common combination that will be rolled, you're chance of success is 55% when you need an 11 or better (you are trying to equal or beat the value being checked) versus 45% when a 12 or better is required. This generally means that easy challenges (green) can be won more than half the time without any skill advances. Moderates (yellow) are slightly more difficult and can be won without any advance but are easier with an advance or the aid of an item or ally.

The strong get stronger and the rich get richer in this game. The faster you can get to the harder challenges, the faster you will level up and be able to buy better equipment with the increased coin earned from those challenges. Getting to this realization lowers the playing time and increases the tension in the game. How much are you willing to push your luck to stay with or ahead of the other players? At 2 to 3 hours, I like this game a lot. It's even better since the boys are actually requesting the game.

We're also in the middle of Fury of Dracula right now. We set it up after dinner and are through about a third of the game. The explanation and set up took longer than I expected so we had about an hour of actual playing time. We stopped around 9pm because everyone was tired and learning a new game after dinner wasn't the wisest choice. We did leave it set up and plan to finish it tomorrow. Dracula (me) was found early in the 2nd day (about 6-7 turns into the game) and is currently on the run.

No real misstep on the rules but I am looking stuff up a lot more than I thought I would. Still, I believe this game has a lot of potential with the family once we are comfortable with the rules. The theme and cooperative nature are pluses. Time could be an issue if it consistently goes more than 2 hours but turns are quick so there isn't much down time.

Runebound

2006-03-12T17:20:00.000-05:00

I think I finally found a game that the boys really like -- Runebound, 2nd Edition -- by Martin Wallace. I picked up a copy at my FLGS on Saturday while the boys were sparring at TKD.

Played a couple of partial games yesterday and a full game today. The mechanics are incredibly simple -- move, adventure (if you're on an adventure counter) or go to market (if you're in a town), and level up (if you have enough experience). You spend most of the game wandering through the wilderness building up your character so that you are strong enough to seek out and defeat the dragon lords. The first player to defeat 3 dragon lords or the big baddie, Lord Margath, is the winner. The only real knock is the time it takes to finish. Even playing the "shorter" variation (3 experience/level for 4 players), our game clocked in at over 4 hours today. Still, it fills the roleplaying niche that the boys so enjoy.

Although somebody will get hosed by the dice in a future game, everyone had an opportunity to win during today's game. Logan and I each defeated 2 dragon lords and only needed 1 more to win when Lord Margath started showing up. Everyone took a run at him and some more than once until I defeated him in the Crimson Forest with my battle mage.

This game will see play on the weekends. Logan is already asking to play again. I'll be looking for additional suggestions on how to speed up the game so we can finish in 2 to 3 hours (or split the game over two play sessions perhaps).

Another game I'm seriously considering is Fury of Dracula. Been reading the rules and it looks like another game the boys would enjoy. Originally published by Games Workshop, Fantasy Flight has tweaked the game and the few changes appear to have improved the game.

Game Night at My Place

2006-03-09T20:14:00.000-05:00

My group's regular game night is each month on the 2nd Wed and 4th Fri this year. I'm hosting on odd month (Jan, Mar, etc) Wednesdays. Last night I had a eight players. We split into two tables of four to play Louis XIV and Duel of Ages.

Kieron, Dale, George and Leroy were at the Duel of Ages table. I'd say this is K's hot game right now. He's playing quite often and is willing to teach others how to play. Kieron and Dale were team white while George and Leroy played team black. Each controlled 4 characters. As I understand it, there was some action with Genghis Khan of team white using a flamethrower to take out team black's Bladed Terror.

As the 3 hour time limit passed, each side was tied with an equal number of points. George and Leroy won in sudden death overtime by destroying Kieron and Dale's HQ.

Across the room, Bob, Troy, Jeff and I played Louis XIV. Second full game for me and the first time for everyone else. Both games I've played have lasted between 90 and 120 minutes and feels like about the right amount of time for this game. An experienced group ought to be able to finish this consistently in about 90 minutes. The mechanics in Louis XIV aren't anything stunningly new or different. However, the way they've been assembled give the game a feel quite unlike anything else I've ever played. In this game Jeff and I worked hard at fulfilling multiple missions each turn. Since we were scooping up an above average number of mission chips, Troy and Bob were shut out of some chips. However, we weren't paying close enough attention to Bob's growing pile of coat of arms chips. Even Bob didn't think he was in the game but as it turned out, he walked away with the win due to that advantage. Troy took second with Jeff and I tied for last. The scores were clumped together at 40-37-36-36. I like this game a lot right now would like to play more.

Troy took off after we finished. Duel of Ages was also finishing up about the same time. Jeff, Bob and I played a quick game of For Sale before calling it quits for the night. Jeff ran away with this one with a score in the 70s while Bob and I trailed in the 60s.

GTF 2006 - Day Four

2006-03-02T20:37:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, I ran some playtests of a prototype by KC Humphrey (designer of Havoc) called Tres Amigos. It's a card game loosely themed on the movie, Three Amigos. I ran two 4-player sessions in the morning and a 3-player session in the evening. Everyone liked the mechanics of the game including a couple of suggested variants. Most of the feedback centered around improving visual cues to aid telling 3s and Amigos apart.

After the playtesting, I played a couple of new games. First was Traumfabrik, Knizia's Hollywood themed auction game. I played with Tim, Jeff Carey, Luke and Dave. After losing a couple of bidding wars to Luke early in the game, I had a difficult time regaining any ground. Dave handily won the game with a 21 star/point version of Harvey. I enjoyed the game and would like to find a reasonably priced copy to have at home. Jill would like it and we have some friends that like classic movies and would enjoy this game.

Everyone but Jeff moved on to play Goa. First time playing this for me and Dave. Luke scorched us by improving his ability to draw expedition cards early in the game and efficiently used them to reduce the cost of other improvements. Tim was hamstrung early on without any plantations but was able to regain a lot of ground later in the game. However, it wasn't enough to surpass the early lead that Luke had built.

While I was waiting for another game to finish up, I taught Ryan how to play Blue Moon. I need to find a couple of players around here because I don't play it enough to do a good job explaining the mechanics. I usually need to refer to the rulebook for a couple of items. We got through the game OK. Ryan won in the end after he influenced a dragon to his side on our last battle. I still had several cards left but didn't have any characters left to start another battle.

The game I was waiting to get into was a 3 player session of RA with Bob and Tim. Tim and Bob collected a lot of the points in the first 2 scoring rounds with pharoahs and rivers. I scored a few points off rivers and gold but built up a nice collection of monuments during the game. The monuments brought me within striking distance but it was not enough. I did have the largest total on bid chips and took 5 points from Tim, making Bob the winner. If Bob'd had the fewest points on his bid chips, Tim would've been the winner. Pretty sure that's the first time I've seen the winner determination depend on the scoring from the sun/bid chips.

Bob and I split a couple of games of Quarto and then played Havoc with Dave, George and Greg. This was the first game for George and Greg. This was another play of this game where I was able to do well (in a 5-player game) collecting only sets (2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of a kind) rather than straights or flushes.

Wrapped things up with a play of Citadels with George, Dale, Dave and Greg. I like Citadels every now and again but you need the right crowd. We had a pretty good natured bunch so everyone was having a good time. I was picking last on roles most of the game and eventually got behind on building. It was late and I decided to play outside the meta-game by picking my role at random one turn. Everyone got a kick out of that. Turned out that I picked the thief who was then assassinated so I didn't get a turn anyway -- so much for stepping out of the meta-game! Needless to say, I didn't reveal my role when the Thief was called and when I still didn't reveal after the Warlord was called, everyone burst with laughter again when they realized my randomness got me stabbed in the back.

Saturday is the last full day of gaming. Sunday is mostly packing, everyone saying their farewells and parting ways until next February. Before I went to bed on Saturday, I packed up my games and loaded them in my car so that I could get going quickly the next morning. Brian rode with me and he had to drive home to Chicago after we returned to Indy so we planned to get going as early as possible.

Favorite old (to me) game played: RA
Favorite new (to me) game played: Goa
Game I want to play again: Duel of Ages
Game I most wanted to play but didn't: Keythedral and Friedrich

It was another great retreat and we're already looking forward to #8 in 2007. :)

GTF 2006 - Day Three

2006-03-01T17:54:00.000-05:00

I got a little more sleep but not much after Day 2. And my butt's been draggin' at work this week in the afternoons because of it.

On Day 3, I learned a few and taught a few. First up was Havoc. This was a 5 player game with Jeff McGowen, Josh, Jeff Lovelace and Sean. Havoc is a card game themed on the Hundred Years War. Players collect cards and will use them in a battle whenever a player cries, "Havoc!" instead of drawing cards. The battle hands are evaluated based on hand rankings from Poker. Havoc is seeing regular play with my group and hit the table several times during GTF. I played twice in 5 player games each time. In larger games (5-6 players), I'm finding that collecting sets (i.e. three, four and five of a kind) and picking only 1 or possibly 2 early battles to participate in is a recipe to do well in the end game. The use of straights and flushes are better used in smaller games (3-4 players) when you've had the opportunity to draw more cards.

Afterwards, I learned how to play Hacienda. A tile-laying game in the vein of Through the Desert themed in South American ranches. Points are scored with terrain tile chains (3 or more adjacent terrain tiles), for each connected market, for haciendas and for tiles adjacent to water. Played this with Luke, Leroy, Tim and Chris. First time for everyone but it clicked with Luke right away. He outdistanced all of us in points by a good measure. I thought it was a good game and would play again.

My first game of RA for the weekend was with Jeff McGowen, Bob and Sean. RA is one of my favorites at the moment. I really ought to update my Hot 10 on the 'geek and replace something I'm not as excited about right now. This was a learning game for Jeff and Sean. Bob and I have played several times before. This was one of Jeff's favorite games all weekend. A little unusual since Jeff likes 'take that' games and it's not often to see him this excited about a pure euro-style game. Very cool.

Lightened up and played a couple of games of Wits and Wagers with Troy, Jeff Lovelace, Jeff McGowen, Bob, Sean and Tim. I was looking for this game a couple of weeks ago when Jill and I were having her sister and husband and our friends, Bob and Julie, over for games. Didn't find it so we played other games. I was glad to see this appear at GTF because I wanted to check it out. I liked it a lot. Good trivia game where you don't have to know the answer to be in the game.

In the evening, most of the group participated in two, large Duel of Ages games run by Tim. Tim has been running demos of DoA and brought extra copies to give away to a few lucky participants. Each table had 8-10 players and ran 2 to 3 hours. Some liked it, some didn't. It was very chaotic and distracting with so many players playing at once and all of us for the first time. I could see that it had potential and that I would most likely enjoy this game with 4 players (2 per team) in a quieter setting.

Played San Juan after DoA with Jeff Lovelace, Tim and Dave. Everyone was an experienced player so nothing exceptional to report. I squeaked out a win with a Guild Hall and a lot of production buildings.

The last game of the evening was another new one, Australia. Tim taught Dave, Bob, Sean and me how to play. Light, interesting game of deploying your Rangers around Australia to collect points for development and conservation projects in different sections of the continent. Dave made efficient use of his Rangers late in the game for the win. I would like to play again but I'm not sure it would have legs in the long term.

Favorite game of the day was RA but could've been Duel of Ages with a smaller group. Favorite new game up to this point was Louis XIV.