Quick Catch Up Post

This summer has seemed to go very fast for us.  Contrary to what the blog reflects, we have been gaming (though I more than Lissa).  Simply put, it has been too dang hot to play many games downstairs.  Hopefully that will change soon.

Last week Nick brought over his copy of Railways of the World and we played the Mexico map.  This game is yet another version of Martin Wallace's train game idea.  I consider myself a Martin Wallace fan and I enjoy Steam and to be honest there is not much difference between Railways of the World and Steam.  The basic idea of building and claiming routes and using those routes to deliver colored cubes to like colored cities remains intact. 

Railways adds several things to the basic mixture.  First, you need to take out bonds to fund your activities.  The mechanism works well and it introduces a step where you must decide if it is worth it to take out a bond to build a longer track or if you are better off trying to get by with a cheaper route.  The second change is that where in Steam you bid on various roles and sometimes you may find yourself locked out of being able to restock a city or building a new city in Railways you may choose any of the available roles on your turn.  The third major change is that instead of playing to a set number of turns you play until a certain number of cities have been exhausted of resource cubes so the game length is variable.  I like this concept as it does away with what I like to call the "Swooping Hawk Maneuver."

Ok, what is the "Swooping Hawk Maneuver"?  At one point in time the then current version of Warhammer 40k played to a set number of turns.  The Eldar armies had a fast but weak unit type called Swooping Hawks - basically, Eldar guys with wings.  SO, what often happened was that the Eldar player would "Fly Hi" with the Hawks, which according to the rules at that time made them untargetable by troops not also flying hi.  Then, on the last half of the last turn the Eldar player would drop these guys onto the board on whatever objective was available claiming the objective and often winning the game.  Realistically, had the game been extended another half turn the Hawks would have been shredded and all killed but as there was an artificial end point they could land in front of all the guns in the world safely.  So, the "Swooping Hawk Maneuver" is doing something in the last turn that is sound rules and point wise but makes no logical, realistic sense.

Back to Railways of the World. . .   Those three changes are the main differences between the two games.  The other important difference is in regards to components.  Steam is a great game with fantastic maps and pieces.  Railways of the World just goes above and beyond though.  The components in this game are amazing.  When a city is cleared of resources you place a marker on it to show that it has been used up.  These markers are little railway buildings or water towers and are very nice.  As the game progresses and you place more of these on the board the map looks cooler and cooler.

Overall, I really like the game (and I won - big plus there).  I also really like Steam.  If you have one I cannot imagine spending the money on the other.  They play very much alike as they share the core rules and as such they both "scratch the same itch" so to speak.

Other than our regular Wednesday night games I have continued to play poorly in my Fun League Blood Bowl online matches.  Having fun but playing poorly :)  This season playing poorly even in two seperate divisions with two teams!  More on that later though.

Tonight we should be playing the new Star Trek Expeditions game and For Sale!, a game that I was able to win on Twitter from Gryphon Games and that I will review soon.

Somewhat Annual Fourth of July Gamefest - 2011 Edition

Each year we try to have a small potluck & game session on July 4th - some years we are more successful than others in arranging it. This year the event went off perfectly. Ann and Todd Smith came over bringing not only Steve Jackson Games' The Stars are Right game but Ann's famous pulled pork, potato salad, corn salad, and an ice cream maker to make what was easily the best vanilla custard I have ever eaten. Nick Gillispee arrived shortly afterwards bringing his new Faux*Cabulary game and more importantly, a dish of Rosie's rice pudding. We supplied a bowl of ambrosia, scalloped potatoes, and green beans. Everything was truly amazing!

Image from BoardGameGeek

We started the gaming with Lords of Vegas by Mayfair Games. Truly, I am beginning to love this game. The combination of interesting twists on area control mechanics and a strong theme are destined to make this a long time favorite. I pulled ahead quickly as the other players watched the Aqua casinos pay out repeatedly and when the Aqua looked played out I deftly switched to silver. This continued until Ann eventually wrested control of the nine tile silver casino from me in the end game. My large early lead lessened somewhat but I still won handily. I am looking forward to playing this more as we all become more comfortable with the rules. One criticism of the game, the included turn sequence card starts out after the rather complex card drawing procedure ends. A card detailing the steps in this procedure would have been appreciated.

Image from BoardGameGeek

After a break for a fantastic lunch we continued with The Stars are Right. I had been wanting to play this for some time and everyone really liked the game. Nick pulled out the win through deft manipulation of the stars but I finished as the only one to have summoned a Great Old One.

Image from BoardGameGeek

Next up was Ingenious, which Todd and Nick had not played. This game was tight throughout and I managed to win by a single point. I do believe I may have made Dr. Kniezia at least an iPhone sale to one or both of them. I'll be expecting my cut anytime that is convenient for you Reiner :-)

Image from BoardGameGeek

Last up was the deceptively simple co-op game, Castle Panic from Fireside Games. As Nick explained, "you start feeling confident as you take out the initial group of monsters but they keep coming". Things went well early on except for a nasty series of giant boulders rolling down on our castle from the forest. A few Draw Three Additional Token chits later and we were positively overwhelmed. Luckily we cooperated well and managed to save the castle with even a few walls standing. Great game. Simple, yet challenging and easy for less experienced gamers to pick up (though our four were all veteran gamers).

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic day of games and food and friends.


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Updated 7/5/11 to add links,images, and to correct one misspelling.

Day Four of Origins

Day four of Origins is a wrap for us. We played several new games today. First up was Lords of Vegas. This was a great game with a lot of interesting mechanics that are not present in the rest of our collection. I'll detail game play later but suffice it to say, we used one of our 50% off Mayfair coupons on this one.

Next up, after an amazingly long wait, was the Settlers of Catan dice game. Not a bad game and one I enjoy playing on occasion on their website but fir us really it was a way to try a new game and get the Clay ribbon we needed to complete our quests to become Knights of Catan. Thanks to Mayfair for running this fun promotion again this year. It is always at the head of our to do list for Origins.

On the way to the board room we stopped and played the deck building game, Ascension. We both liked this game, especially Lissa, and we plan to grab this on our way out tomorrow.

In the board room we checked Word on the Street out from the CABS library. I expected to enjoy thus one and after playing it I hope to grab a copy tomorrow as well.

Also, thanks to Rio Grande Games we each were given a free game for being in the board room. I received Asteroyds and Lissa got Loch Ness. We look forward to trying these out.

Over the next week or so I intend to flesh out these posts and add some links and pics and the like. Stay tuned.


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Origins Day Three

Busy day today as we began our annual quest for our Mayfair Games Knight of Catan badges. We began by playing Lemming Mafia. This is a cute little game for a younger audience that has you betting on which of the lemmings racing towards the docks would be given a pair of concrete sneakers (thus the mafia) and drowned horribly. The pieces for this were really cute though and it does have some interesting mechanics in that you were not playing one of the lemmings but were instead standing on the sidelines betting on the outcome. Neither Lissa nor I were really impressed with this one.

Next up we played a nice little cooperative game called Van Helsing. In this one one player plays Dracula while the others team up and play the usual suspects including the titular Van Helsing and poor Mina. The game includes a measure of hidden movement for Dracula with the room he has moved to being recorded on a pad. It is imperative that the players cooperate as any one character stands no chance against Vlad. Lissa and I both liked this one a lot. The only drawback is that the game board, while beautifully rendered, is needlessly small. The gameplay would be vastly improved if the map were increased in size by 25% or so.

Our last game for the day at the Mayfair area was Martin Wallace's London. In this game you are trying to rebuild London following the great fire. While doing this you are also trying to make lots of money while avoiding attracting any more of the peasantry to your area as possible. Mechanics for thus game are card driven and the game moves quickly. Lissa and I both enjoyed this game quite a bit and it has made it onto the likely purchase list.

Next up we played a game of Castle Panic. This is a very light but difficult to win cooperative game where you attempt to defend your castle from various marauders coming from the surrounding forest.

The play area is divided into color coded zones and the zones are divided into concentric rings denoting how close to the castle the attackers are. Players use cards that denote a colored sector and ring (such as red archer or blue swordsman) to attack the creatures. The creatures are triangular chits and when they take damage they ate rotated towards the central castle. On each turn a player will draw a card, discard and draw another card if they like, trade with another player, and then play as many cards as they like against the monsters. They then move all surviving monsters forward and draw two additional monsters, rolling to see what section of forest they appear in.

This was a big hit with us both. It seems very much like a gateway cooperative game similar in weight to Ticket to Ride. Very likely to be coming home with us.

The final game of the evening was the latest from our friend Ted Cheatham, City Square Off. In this game each of the two players has an identical set of colored pieces reminiscent of Tetris blocks. The players choose starting blocks that differ slightly but occupy the same area. Cards are then turned over one at a time with both players placing the corresponding piece on their grid. This continues until one player cannot place a piece that is drawn.

Lissa and I both liked this quick little game a lot. A copy would be coming home with us but we have not found any vendors selling the game.

We are looking forward to tomorrow morning when we can start anew.




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Day Two at Origins

Day two at Origins has been all about shopping. We were able to pick up a number of items from the top of our wishlist including Tichu, the 10th anniversary Carcassonne box, and some odds and ends like deck boxes and box bands.

I did have a chance to demo the forthcoming Star Trek constructible card game. Think Star Trek TNG meets Dominion with Thunderstone like challenges drawn randomly from an encounter deck. This will not be out until Fall but we will be buying this on release day!

Day One at Origins

Day one at Origins 2011 is shaping up to be pretty exciting. We have spent most of our time in the Board Room which is ran by CABS (Columbus Area Boardgame Society).

First up was Reiner Knizia's Through the Desert. This is a fantastic, light little route planning game. Lissa and I both liked this one a lot.

Next up for me was a game of Seven Wonders. Lissa passed on this game that I won.

Finally, we played a game of Dominant Species.





While I like this game ok, Lissa liked it much less. It is an interesting game system but is a little heavier and longer than our usual fair. As good as the game is, we will be sticking with Primordial Soup for our evolutionary adventures.

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Location:N 4th St,Columbus,United States

Cargo Noir

BGG Link

I tried out Cargo Noir by Days of Wonder at Lost Legion Games: the Riflemen yesterday. I did not have high hopes for it as my friend Ted Cheatham of the Opinionated Gamers had said online that "The game works fine, I just found no joy and was glad for it to be over." I believe that Tom Vasal and Scott Nicholson had given the game poor reviews as well.

Thanks to Dave G. and Travis R. for teaching and encouraging the game and Doug and Ann J. and the other folks who played with me. Great game!

This is a great, light game with components that are just amazing. Basically you bid on goods in various ports using coins. The number of bids you have is limited to the ships you have available in your fleet. Goods are collected and then traded in for cards worth victory points. The game runs quickly and is very easy to learn.

I picked up a copy at the store and brought it home. Lissa and I played it last night and it plays very well with two as well as the five we played at the store.