Thursday, November 29, 2012

Board Game Madness 11/29

Fun:
New Games:
  • Quarantine: Where once there was Pandemic, now there's Quarantine. Be part of the solution by building the most effective hospital in this tile laying game. Manage which rooms you build and try to prevent infections from killing your patients... or your patience. Release date March 2013.
  • Batman: Gotham City Strategy Game: WizKids is coming off their last IP games from the Star Trek universe and opening up the DC universe with their first Batman game. This looks like a Clix euro with area control and resource management mechanics. There's one big difference here though: You're the villain! Release February 2013.
  • Frenemies of Catan: Want your Settlers of Catan game to be more social? More interactive? Mayfair just released an expansion where you help out your friends to get a bunch of bennies. I'm not sure of the price of this, but it is expected to be available in the next few days.
  • Recent releases: Beer & Vikings, Plethora, Lady Alice, Roll'n Bump, Croak!, Uchronia, Gauntlet of Fools, Hooyah: Navy Seals Card Game, The Palaces of Carrara, Card City, Okiya, Legendary
iOS:
News:
  • Dominoes is being inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame
  • What happens when a board game is labeled sexist? What happens when the person calling attention to it is 6-years old?
  • One of our local game stores, The Game Table is moving to Hicksville, NY and renaming the store Game Master Games. Bigger space, more to offer! They are "almost there..." I tried to do a drive-by view but they weren't open yet.
Recently Played:
  • Two weeks worth of gaming here...
  • Gaming with the wife, we went back to one of our favorites: Core Worlds. I've already pre-ordered the expansion. Hopefully it'll come soon!
  • My sister-in-law came and we played Kingdom Builder.
  • I've been teaching Alien Frontiers a LOT lately. At least 3 times in the last 2 weeks.
  • Other friends came over and we taught them 7 Wonders and Pandemic. I spotted them at The Game Table last week looking for both games for purchase...
  • Actually Pandemic was the game of the week. My kids learned it and are now in love with the game. We played it about 5 or 6 times with different people.
  • We had a game day after Thanksgiving where we played Poo, Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game and Homesteaders
Happy Gaming!
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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Board Game Madness 11/14


Fun:
  • You know it’s funny, but when I played Talisman with my friends it always devolved into arguments. But in this case it seems to have solved sibling rivalry.
  • It’s time for taking holiday pictures. Fall leaves on the ground. Nice sweaters being worn. Your favorite board game on display…
  • What do meeples do when they aren’t playing board games? Check out this fantastic geek list of staged pics (some of the individual ones have been referenced in previous entries).
  • Pimp your game: How about redesigning the tile set from The Settlers of Catan
  • I mentioned last week that the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund Auction is up for people who would like to donate to gamers in need of some help. Or if you need to apply for assistance. It seems that Mad Men actor Rich Sommers has donated a game night with fellow actors Simon Helberg (Big Bang Theory) and Jorge Garcia (Lost). Only good for those in the LA area though.
  • Apparently Hasbro is looking to sponsor board gaming nights on New Year’s Eve. I already throw one and based on the games they are giving, I’m not sure I’d have any attendees, but their hearts are in the right place at least…

New Games:
  • Roll for the Galaxy: Tom Lehmann turns his award winning card game Race for the Galaxy (one of my favorites) into a dice building game (a la Quarriors!). We still get some good play from this one so it may be worth checking out. Release Q2 2013.
  • City of Remnants: Post-apocalyptic power grab with auctions and dice. Sounds interesting! Release early 2013.

iOS:
  • Fluxx coming in December

News:
  • How did families entertain themselves when the power went out from Sandy or Athena? Board games!
  • Apparently the board game company GMT Games is giving out free paper and pencil war games to the unemployed. Only thing is their war games take weeks to play so that’s time away from looking for a job!
  • Apparently Kurt Vonnegut designed a board game called General Headquarters, a mix between Chess and a war game. No one picked it up though.

Recently Played:
  • During the Nor’easter this past week, the family whipped out Snow Tails right after the kids had their fill of a snowball fight. Then my wife and my older son and I played some Dominion.
  • My sister-in-law stayed over for a night and we got a quick game of FITS in.
  • My son and I played some more Blood Bowl. He’s got the rules down, now it’s just getting him to sit still for long enough to play. We played only a half.
  • Friends came over this weekend and we got some Core Worlds, Alien Frontiers and Race for the Galaxy in. Apparently it was sci-fi day. I interrupted the game play to watch the Jets game. My friend didn’t understand why I couldn’t do both at the same time though.

Happy gaming!

Credits: Board Game Geek, Purple Pawn, Game Salute, Google News
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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Board Game Madness 11/7


For those board gamers who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy and you have lost so much, please avail yourself of the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund. They are undergoing an auction right now and here’s the writeup that Tom Vasel has posted:

**

One tragic event and two acts of generosity brought the BGG community together: the result was the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund. In January 2011, Cate Pfeifer (Cate108) posted an auction for Tom Vasel and his family to help with the unfortunate loss of his son, Jack. The generosity of the BGG community was amazing. Tom was touched and wanted to pay the kindness forward so he created the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund. He used some of the money that BGGers donated and spent to build this fund. The fund is a not-for-profit with a simple goal: raising and distributing funds to help gamers in their hour of need.

Are you a member of the public that is part of the gaming community and has suffered a personal hardship?

The gaming community's generosity up to this point has been amazing, and we anticipate you will continue to amaze us. However, we are not just here to raise money, but also to do good.

Please contact Tom (tom@jackvasel.org is preferred) if you believe you are a member of the gaming community and have suffered personal hardship. Tom and the rest of our Board of Directors are happy to work with you to explain our eligibility criteria, confirm your situation is within our mission statement, and then provide assistance.

**

For those of you who have been affected in any way, please find a safe and warm space to stay and keep a bright outlook. We will recover.

And now back to the blog…

Fun:

New Games:

iOS:
News:
  • It appears that two gamers killed another one over his collection of Magic: The Gathering charges
  • If you are interested in what took place at the Settlers of Catan World Championships, it’s over at the Unboxed Blog
  • Shut Up and Sit Down has recorded a videocast about the golden age of board gaming. I have not had a chance to view it yet, but they do good work so I’m sure it’s well done.
  • Geek Dad from Wired.com goes over history-related board games in his article this month.

Recently Played:
  • LOTS to report on here…
  • My son had a family math night at his elementary school before Halloween. We all went and played some math games and solved problems. It was really cool. We played Farkle and Diceathon.
  • We also had our Halloween-themed board game night right before the Witches Sabbath and played Zombicide, Zombie Dice, Fury of Dracula and Ghost Stories (which we won on Nightmare mode! I’ve never done that before!)
  • Some gaming with my older son brought Quarmageddon to the table
  • I also played some Dominion with my wife and friends and then we brought Yahtzee to the table. It’s been a long time since I played that one!
  • On the night that Sandy hit, my son and I were playing some Blood Bowl. In the middle of the game the power went out and we played by candlelight. The lights came back on and we finished. Emboldened by the sudden electricity windfall, we took out Zombie Dice. Then the power went out again. We finished the game again by candlelight and then put the kids to bed before the storm got really bad. Eventually the power came back on again (that night believe it or not – we were SOOOOO lucky!). So we decided to take a shot at Race for the Galaxy and were able to make it through the game.
  • With friends coming over after the storm to take showers, charge their devices, etc. we had a veritable gamefest over the next few days. We played Homesteaders, Kingdom Builder, 7 Wonders, Tichu, No Thanks and Cards Against Humanity. The last few were at a game night I called to celebrate the passing of Sandy. Really, it was just an excuse to get everyone over to play games.
  • I also had my birthday after Sandy and some gaming was had. I taught a friend Alien Frontiers and we played more Zombie Dice and Dominion
  • Finally, I kept my Blood Bowl team, the Death Rockers, undefeated last night with a 2-1 win over the Frogluks of Guk, a Slaan team. I’m now 4-0 and in first place in my division.

Happy gaming!

Credits: BGG, Purple Pawn, Game Salute, Google News
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Board Game Madness 10/24


Fun:
  • For those of you who want to get into the holiday spirit a little early, The Dice Tower is starting up their new Secret Santa. I’ve done this the last two years and had an absolute blast. I wrote a novella to give the gift to one person and a few modified Christmas carols to give to the next. And yes, we performed the carols at their front door (two friends of mine volunteered quite resistantly, but we had a blast). Anyway, if you are interested, go listen to Dice Tower 277 and get the details. Entry by November 11th if you want in.
  • Destination gaming: Battle at Normundy
  • I’ve heard of dogs playing poker, but this is a bit much
  • Crossover – music meets gaming. From the gent who brought you the Tour De Geek (without doping), comes his delve into the greatest rock song of all time
  • If you are interested in what other collections board game geeks might have, here’s a geeklist. Some of these are very interesting. I don’t think I collect anything, other than when I was younger I had a bunch of baseball caps.
  • So here’s a lot of hate about Essen I’m reading, the major board gaming convention that just took place in Europe.
  • Want to kick your opponents around in a game of Ticket to Ride? Well Game Knight has published a free strategy guide. I guess this is the next untapped resource for the board game industry. Just wait until they release the FITS one.

New Games:

iOS:

News:
  • The Canadian Game Design award went to Paul Saxberg for Coven
  • Staying in the cold regions, what do they do to fight boredom in Fairbanks Alaska? Play board games of course! OK, there’s only 5 members, but they should be able to up that once the weather turns cold. Oh wait, it did already…
  • A great look at the upcoming election from the point of view of board games. My favorite is: “Settlers of Catan: The game is fun, sure, but only a certain group of people are absolutely obsessed with it and insist on bringing it out at parties.”

Recently Played:
  • The Blood Bowl season continued for LIBBL. My Death Rockers won two games this week, 2-1 over the Undead Presidents and 2-1 over the Bree Bashers. We’re 3-0 and at the top of the division for now.
  • At a birthday party for one of the members of our gaming group, there was a lot of gaming going on. Unfortunately that was a short time for me as I had to be up before dawn on Sunday morning. But I played Founding Fathers and Sushizock im Gockelwock. That last one was a nice little fun game that took about 10 minutes.

Happy Gaming!

Credits: Board Game Geek, Game Salute, Google News
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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Board Game Madness 10/17


Fun:
  • The biggest board gaming convention in the world, Spiel 2012, is going on in Essen right now. You can get a live stream of Board Game Geek’s booth if you are into that right on the front page of their site.
  • I haven’t mentioned the show Tabletop in a while, but Wil Wheaton just took on Pandemic.

New Games:
  • Keyflower: Bid for tiles to add to your home tile and expand your kingdom over 4 seasons. At the end of each season, boats arrive with more workers allowing you to get more tiles which give resources or victory points. Release October 2012.
  • Snowdonia: Excavate the mountain and build your train line with your work gang in the snowy peaks of Snowdonia (isn’t that redundant?). Use your works and contracts to build more of the line than anyone else. Release October 2012.
  • Nothing Personal: Tom Vasel of The Dice Tower fame is releasing his second game. This is mob-themed as you try to get the most respect to be given the position as the new Capo. Very much a “take that” game it seems. Release later this year/early 2013.
  • Recent Releases: Banditos: Hippies and an Armored Truck, Casa Grande, Indigo, Saint Malo, Urbania, Giftzwerge, Shadows over Camelot: The Card Game

iOS:
  • Dominant Species released
  • Can’t Stop released
  • Lexatron, Scrabble meets Tron, released
  • Monopoly Millionaire released
  • Qin (Reiner Knizia) releasing on iOS at same time as board game in the next week
  • Elder Sign updated and now has a new campaign “Trail of Ithaqua”
  • Phantom Leader ready to submit
  • For the Win going to beta soon

News:
  • This weekend is Extra Life, a charity which supports children’s hospitals. 24 hours of gaming, are you up to it?
  • The board gaming blog I Slay the Dragon is building an FLGS database. Register your local store.
  • The guys at Days of Wonder gave an interview at VentureBeat and explained their rather morbid exit strategy in case the gaming thing doesn’t work out.
  • The Boston Globe interviews the designer of a board game about the Salem Witch Trials, now on Kickstarter
  • Roxio and CERN (the guys with the supercollider) are creating a bunch of games and content aimed at teaching kids about particle and quantum physics. This actually scares me a little bit…

Recently Played:
  • My son has been fantastic lately in and out of school, so I decided to put together a bunch of miniatures for him to finally have his Lizardmen Blood Bowl team. Then we played. We still have to work on his strategy. I also brought one of the new players in our league up to speed with a scrimmage where he soundly beat me.
  • My wife said, “Can I go out tonight?” I said, “On one condition, when you come back, we play a game of Dominion.” Actually we played three. And for you haters out there, she knows could have gone without “my permission”. But I might as well get something out of it, right?
  • My wife took my older son to a First Lego League training session so my 4 and a half year old son asked if we could play some games. Of course! We played Zombie Dice, I taught him out to play Othello and we played one of his favorites: Incan Gold. On that last one, we even have this funny thing we do when the treasures are shown before they get mixed in the deck, we get a nice “ooooooh aaaaaaah” in unison.

Happy Gaming!

Credits: Board Game Geek, Game Salute, Google News
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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Board Game Madness 10/9

Fun:
  • It’s nice to see the men and women of our armed forces getting R&R with some deck building action
  • Destination gaming: King Philip’s War
  • Accessibility is always an option in gaming. This group added braille to their pieces in a game.
  • Some gorgeous shots of backgrounds for the new X-Wing miniatures game: Here and here

New Games:

iOS:
  • Alien Frontiers released
  • Can’t Stop release imminent
  • Marvel War of Heroes release imminent
  • Cadwallon: Citi of Thieves due in November
  • Dominant Species still in development, DS:The Card Game has also started development
  • Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization still in development but progressing
  • Da Vinci’s Art of War (based on Magnifico) in development
  • Playdek will be developing Looney Labs titles, first will be Fluxx

News:
  • How many points for the word “cheater” in Scrabble? BTW, read the article, it’s very interesting. It talks about some of the history of cheating in Scrabble.
  • A woman in South Carolina killed her fiancée over a dice game. That’s just sick.
  • Game Salute, a partnership of FLGSes banded together to promote the game industry and improve distribution channels, has now acquired Clever Mojo Games (most known for publishing Alien Frontiers). This strikes me as interesting. I imagine they’ll be a little less objective in their reviews now.
  • A Staten Island paper touts that it’s time to start playing board games with the family instead of letting the kids play video games. 
Recently Played:

Happy Gaming!

Credits: BGG, Purple Pawn, Game Salute, Google News
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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Board Game Madness 10/2

A few weeks off due to increased demand at work.

Oh by the way, 79 days until the end of the world. Make sure you get your gaming in…

Fun:

New Games:
  • The Lord of the Rings Dice Building Game: Wiz Kids expands the Quarriors! Brand over to Tolkien’s world. Same game engine, now with literary connections. Release in January 2013.
  • The Cave: Explore a newly discovered cave. As the cave develops in this tile laying game, you’ll refill your backpacks with the right tools. The goal is to explore the cave with “the biggest effort in the most spectacular way”. I’m not sure exactly how that’s measured, but the game is due out at some point later this year.
  • Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar: This game takes the worker placement mechanic and adds a dynamic element based on the worker’s current position on a gear where you draft them from. The goal is to pay homage to the Mayan gods with actions by the workers. Release in October 2012.
  • Legendary: Cooperative deck builder in the… wait for it… Marvel Universe (does anyone get that joke???). Decks draft from hero decks from Spider-man to The Hulk. But there’s a mastermind villain that gets modified by the villain’s strategy. The goal is to enlist heroes and pump up their fighting ability and defeat the villains. Release in November 2012.
  • Oddville: Become a city planner by placing workers to get resources, money or projects. Build the city for points. Release in October 2012.
  • Ticket to Ride: The Heart of Africa: The third map collection has been released for Ticket to Ride and it goes right through the continent largely ignored by gaming with the exception of the multitude of games designed for ancient Egypt. Now there are different terrain types and the colors you play have to match the terrain. There’s also terrain-specific locomotives which can increase your score in some circumstances. Release in December 2012 (hopefully before the end of the world).
  • Recent releases: Seasons, Circus Grandioso, Andantino, Equinox, Mage Wars, Level 7 (Escape), Spooky Spells, Star Wars: X-Wing, Phantom, Heptalion

iOS:
  • Alien Frontiers has been submitted – release imminent
  • Talisman in development, but broken into multiple games. PC coming this year. Phones and tablets afterwards.
  • Stone Age for iPhone in beta, release by end of 2012
  • Dominion has been released after the debacle last month. It’s HTML5, so it requires a connection to the Internet, but is therefore platform-independent. Unfortunately it’s buggy as hell. I get disconnected regularly via iPad and get very frustrated.
  • Ironically, Thunderstone came under similar fire in that people were very disappointed with how it was developed as non-iOS native and requiring a connection. However they seem to have fixed most (not all) of the issues that were plaguing players and I’m actually really enjoying my T-stone experience.
  • Dominant Species close to release
  • Summoner Wars tournament has been announced. Signups.

News:
  • The 2012 Deutscher Speile Pries gaming awards were given and the reason why I mention it is because an entire family swept the two big awards. Village, designed by Inka and Markus Brand won for game of the year. Meanwhile their children Emely and Lukas won the kids game of the year for Mogel Motte. That’s quite amazing!
  • Days of Wonder has released a Halloween themed add-on for Ticket to Ride called Halloween Freighter. It comes with pumpkin trains and Halloween stations (for TtR:Europe). Sells for $12.
  • Games Magazine, one of my favorites for a very long time, releases a usually dubious awards at the end of the year. I believe it is just the gaming writer’s picks for the year, so there’s no “jury” involved. Anyway, their game of the year is Trajan. Matter (by Simply Fun) won best abstract, Village won advanced strategy, Decktet took card game (actually released in 2008???), Takenoko for family game, Pluckin’ Pairs for party game and Kerflip! for word game.
  • With Zynga’s stock falling like a brick, they’re teaming up with Hasbro to release board game versions of their online games FarmVille, CityVille and Words with Friends.
  • It seems that a Swedish airport found a suspicious package in a garbage bin. When they examined the package, it turns out the package was in fact a board game called Sundsvallsspelet.
  • Fun Again Games is partially sponsoring a spaghetti game night in their local area. That sounds so cool!

Recently Played:

Happy Gaming!

Credits: BGG, Game Salute, Google News
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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Board Game Madness 9/4

On vacation last week, so no entry.

Fun:
  • Babywear!
  • Can’t get the minis done in time? Indenture the kidlets.
  • Destination gaming: San Juan
  • A really interesting read on what BGG has seen over the last 10 years and how the board game industry has reacted
  • For those who went to GenCon this year, you’ll be happy to know that you were one of over 41,000 unique attendees, more than 12% over last year according to the largest gaming convention in the United States
  • If you are interested in getting your favorite games nominated for the “Golden Geek Awards”, Board Game Geek’s annual game awards, get your nominations in now!

New Games:
  • Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island: Another new story game, a la Tales of the Arabian Nights and Mice and Mystics. This one is by the designer of Stronghold. You’ve been shipwrecked on a deserted island and you need to build a settlement. There’s exploration on the island which adds to the story line. Will it be Lost or Gilligan’s Island? Cooperative game, due to release in October 2012.
  • 1984: Animal Farm: Board gaming has gone Orwellian on us. Instead of growing sheep and pigs on our farm, the animals have now taken over in this area control/negotiation game. Machiavelli would be proud of this game apparently. Scheduled for European release at Spiel 2012, but US release my guess will be some time later.
  • Saqqara: Another auction/build euro hitting the markets sometime in Q4 2012. This one has you building an Egyption province. Use merchants to get goods, recruit workers and build your province better than the next guy at the table.
  • Shadows Over Camelot: The Card Game: Days of Wonder is releasing a smaller version of their megahit semi-cooperative game. The knights have had children and have to deal with solving quests similarly to the board game, but this is a more compact game mechanic. Release in October 2012.
  • Recently released: Leviathans, Action R.P.S., Essence: Archetypes & Emotions, Wind Runner, Ali, Slavika

iOS:
  • Thunderstone Gateway still having market problems (stay away for now!)
  • Nightfall Martial Law ready soon
  • Civil War: 1863 Released

News:

Recently Played:
  • Li’l Zuk and I played some Blood Bowl. I’m no longer dumbing down the rules of this complex game. He’ll come around. He loves the lizardmen team.
  • We got a nice delivery from Amazon from some gift certificates that I got from family members. So in came Dominion: Dark Ages and Hinterlands and Quarriors: Quarmageddon. Dark Ages plays very well as it is all about trashing cards. My favorite mechanic. Hinterlands has some mechanics that happen when you gain cards, but I didn’t get as much feel for these cards yet. I did not get to play Quarmageddon yet.
  • We took a trip to my in-laws and taught them Ticket to Ride: Europe. They enjoyed it somewhat, but I think it overwhelmed my wife’s step mother. She watched the rest of us play.
  • My wife and I got some cards in and played some Spades after we put the kids to bed one night on vacation. Nice to go old school every once in a while.
  • Also on vacation we taught my father No Thanks. He liked the simplicity of it, but called it quits after two hands.
  • Another game of Core Worlds with my wife. We can’t wait for the expansion.
  • One of the things I love to do is tell the kids stories. We usually make them up from scratch and every once in a while we use Rory’s Story Cubes. They’re a blast and the kids love rolling the dice before the bedtime yarn.
  • Our monthly game group met this past Friday night and lots to play: No Thanks, Agricola, Cards Against Humanity and a Tichu game until 3:30 in the morning!
  • More Dominion with the Mrs. over Labor Day weekend

Happy Gaming!

Credits: Board Game Geek, Purple Pawn, Game Salute
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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Board Game Madness 8/21

Fun:

New Games:

iOS:
  • The big news this week was the release of both Dominion (kind of) and Thunderstone. Both are free but charge you for expanding the basic set
    • Dominion was released on HTML5 platform by Goko, but the launch was first on the Internet and at the time of this sending is still not through the iTunes store. Also the launch did NOT go well. Inaccessible sites tormented the fledgling company. The latest news as of yesterday though is that Goko has taken their game back into beta explaining that “it wasn’t able to scale fast enough to support the load.”
    • Thunderstone Gateway’s release also didn’t go well. The market is inaccessible until a released update hopefully this week so you have only the subset of the original cards. In addition, there was a lot of backlash from the board game community because it’s tied into the Facebook Thunderstone app. If you have the cards on Facebook, you have them on the iPad. But Facebook is a very controversial app for some and they avoid it at all costs. With Playdek having such success with Ascension, players wanted a similarly self-contained app for Thunderstone and that didn’t happen. The gameplay is really good, but I’m getting bored with the cards I’ve got. Also, there’s no pass and play which is upsetting. And there’s no option for playing the “Epic” mode that is available on Board Game Geek (although that’s not official, it would have been nice to see it).
  • LeHavre is 99c!
  • All Playdek games reduced in price through 8/23
  • Stone Age in development
  • Catan update has been submitted to the iTunes store and it contains the Cities & Knights expansion
  • Ascension: Immortal Heroes expansion later this year

News:
  • Pandemic is going to be released to Toys ‘R Us stores for a wider distribution starting in September

Recently Played:

Happy Gaming!

Credits: Board Game Geek, Google News
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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Board Game Madness 8/14

Fun:

New Games:
  • P.I.: Martin Wallace is coming out with a pure deduction game. Over three cases, the winner is the best at solving their crimes. You manage the details for the player next to you. Players investigate locations on a map by narrowing dow the choices available based on evidence cards and use of investigators (workers). Release Q4 2012.
  • Jungle Ascent: Build a path up the infamous Cliff of Frab in the jungle of the Oobydoobies (yes, that’s really the name). Grab all the treasure and stick it to the other adventurers. Action points a la The Adventurers. Release Fall 2012.
  • Recently released: Montana, Plato 3000, Quills

iOS:
  • Dominion (the official Donald X version) due out approx. August 16th. The old one has been pulled from the store.
  • Cutthroat Caverns will be demoed at GenCon
  • Smash Up! in development
  • Can’t Stop in development
  • Lost Cities due 8/23

News:
  • Target will exclusively be carrying a dumbed down version of Fluxx. The more “difficult” version as well as the expansions will still be carried by game stores.
  • Days of Wonder (Ticket to Ride, Memoir ’44, Shadows Over Camelot, etc.) CEO Eric Hautemont was interviewed by GigaOM on how his company can flourish in the era of video games when big firms like Zynga are falling apart.

Recently Played:
  • My family made a trip to some friends in New Jersey and it unexpectedly turned into an overnight gaming party. They all fell in love with Jungle Speed. We must have played that at least a dozen times. We also played Eye to Eye and Curses, the latter of which may be the single silliest game I’ve ever played. At one point, it had me barking out orders at the top of my lungs, swatting at imaginary mosquitos, and clucking like a chicken all at the same time; much to the amusement of the rest of the table.

Happy gaming!

Credits: BGG, Purple Pawn; Google News
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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Board Game Madness 8/7

Fun:
  • Le Tour de Geek is coming to a close in the final stage asking the simple question: What do you want to play? The competition has been fascinating. In the style of the Tour de France, different stages have been created to evaluate games on many different levels from ease of learning to strategic depth. The yellow jersey (leader) is currently held by Pandemic, but only by the thickness of a card. Ticket to Ride and even Agricola have shots at the title. Twilight Struggle and Dominion round out the top 5 with Dixit barely outside. Vote in the last stage if you want to have a hand in crowning the winner!
  • Destination gaming: Carcassonne in Carcassonne
  • Pimp my Game: The baker’s in trouble after causing the great fire of London in 1666!

New Games:
  • Autokrator (a.k.a. Emperor): This one blurs the lines of war game and Euro apparently, simulating the wars between the Christians and Muslims in the 7th-10th centuries. You have specific abilities with your characters that you can use. You distribute your armies through card management and try to overbalance each area of the map. Release date unknown
  • Archipelago: Colonize the Caribbean as one of the European powers. Explore, harvest and negotiate with the natives and foreign powers. The designer is touting this is a “theme-rich” and interactive euro game. Release in September 2012.
  • Heroes of Metro City: Superhero deck building. For some, that’s all I need to say. For the rest of the world, you are trying to stop your archenemy from destroying Metro City. You build your powers and energy sources with the Dominion mechanic and battle the baddies. Release March 2013.
  • Recently released: Sewer Pirats, Siege Master, Spectaculum

iOS:
  • Ticket to Ride: Legendary Asia map released
  • Puerto Rico HD now has Asynchronous multiplayer – ok, now I’m in.
  • San Juan released

News:
  • A couple of Scots tried to break the longest game session record just set in June by a couple of Strat-O-Matic Baseball players. They’re trying it with Small World. Apparently they went 54 hours and 45 minutes. I believe that’s the record.
  • Blewt! seems to be the name of the new game show that is based on Telestrations.
  • From Purple Pawn, a study was published from the American Journal of Play that states that adults like to play, despite having learned all the skills that kids would gain by play. So why do we do it? Apparently desirable traits in mates are a playful attitude, a sense of humor and a fun loving nature. It differs between males and females to some degree, but everyone loves a gamer!
  • Starting on August 9th in Lille, France, the 2nd annual World Mind Sports Games will be held. This is a competition where players battle in games of bridge, chess, draught, go and Chinese chess. Note that they also have a position on “doping” and discourage the use of Ritalin and Adderal.
  • Wired.com contributor Erik Wecks (Geek Dad) is very concerned that stores like Target, who just signed a deal with Geek & Sundry (I mentioned last week) and Mayfair games for exclusivity/marketing arrangements may begin to have an effect on the local FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store). Other developing pressures that face the FLGS are publisher exclusivity arrangements with distributors (Alliance being akin to McDonalds in this respect) and the ever-present threat of online retailers mean that tough times could be ahead for the owners. The solution in my opinion is ingraining the store into the local community. Work with schools, social organizations and local gaming groups to get events sponsored by the stores (even hosted in some cases) and get the players exposed to new games. That’s the new world order as I see it.

Recently Played:
  • Friends over the other day and we got a game of Pillars of the Earth and I taught Kingdom Builder. KB went over well and my thoughts on the original play seem to be correct. This game needs four players in order to have some level of contention.
  • Also played some with the Mrs. this week – Ubongo Duel (which surprisingly she’s not really hot on anymore) and Quarriors!

Happy Gaming!

Credits: BGG, Game Salute, Purple Pawn, Google News
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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Board Game Madness 7/31 - Olympics Edition

I was on vacation last week, but back this week with another entry. The Olympics is gaming, right? Just more sports than sitting down and moving meeples...

Fun:
  • From the Spiel podcasters, a 43-minute video documentary on the manufacturing process of board games
  • Interested in opening a game store? I had been seriously toying with the idea about 6 or 7 years ago. Game owner Michael Bahr published his 5 biggest mistakes made by game store owners.
  • Pimp My Game: Someone made a custom Blood Bowl pitch that has blown everyone’s mind. It looks dangerous!
  • Pimp My Game II: If you want to replace your paper money in games, then feel free to order these industrial resource chips (glorified poker chips) from I Will Never Grow Up.
  • Good Eats: Settlers of Catan birthday cake
  • Funny geeklist featuring comments from the lowest raters of some of the most highly rated games. My favorite is Puerto Rico: “Played 4 times........annoying is the nicest thing I can come up with. Only way I play this again is if a table of swimsuit models asks me to join them.”
  • Fun “Name That Game” contest. Oh and I haven’t the foggiest idea on some of these!
  • Some fun board game title mashups. My favorite is “Kitty Admiral”, also “Monster for President”

New Games:

iOS:
  • Ticket to Ride: Europe Pocket (iPhone version) – hopefully they’ve fixed the notification issues that the original pocket has which makes online asynchronous play unmanageable
  • San Juan release beginning of August
  • Café International release end of July (wait, that’s today, isn’t it?)
  • Can’t Say That! (a.k.a. Taboo) released
  • Sixes (a.k.a. Quirkle) released
  • Pandemic in development
  • Race for the Galaxy in development
  • Through the Ages due September
  • Age of Industry due 2013
  • Dominion in Alpha testing
  • Alien Frontiers kickstarter funded and game due in August (?)
  • Agricola due this fall
  • Eclipse in development
  • 7 Wonders in development

News:
  • Geek and Sundry (Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton) have teamed with Target stores to feature TableTop games in Target with a sticker saying “As Seen On…”. This is pretty amazing for a fledgling Google investment.
  • For those familiar with the TED talks hosted by Google, Spoiled Flush Games recently gave a talk about board games. I have not had a chance to preview it yet though, so I don’t know how good it is.
  • The Games in Education Symposium is going to be in Troy NY this week

Recently Played:

Happy Gaming!

Credits: Board Game Geek, Game Salute, Purple Pawn
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Board Game Madness 7/17

Thanks:
This past weekend I celebrated my 500 month birthday. Do the math if you like, but it was done because I thought that 40th birthday celebrations were too much the norm. So I decided to do something a little different and celebrated it with my own 2-day board gaming convention. I thank all of my guests and hope that they had a great time. I know I did!

I also need to thank Dave V., the owner of The Game Table in Mineola, NY. I am a firm believer in establishing a relationship with your local game store. While I do pepper my support around to the different game stores in the area as well as some online, I am very excited by what The Game Table has done for the local community and therefore they are my go-to store. We host our Blood Bowl league there and one of these days my son will probably have his birthday party there. Dave came to the party and told me he wasn’t giving me a gift (which I told everyone not to do), but thanking me for being involved in the community and of course for bringing him business. It is not often that a retail owner establishes a personal relationship with his customers, but he and his staff really make the store accessible and are strengthening the gaming community on Long Island. The game of Kingdom Builder that he brought was played and covered below. Thank you Dave and please keep up the great work you are doing for Long Island gamers!


Fun:

New Games:

iOS:
  • Nightfall expansion Martial Law due in August
  • San Juan coming soon
  • Medieval Merchants (straight to iPad) due end of summer 2012
  • Lost Cities coming in late July/early August

News:

Recently Played:
  • Whoa, 500 months old! At the party we played quite a few games:
    • On day one I learned Merchant of Venus (original edition). Pick up and deliver game that is a little more accessible than Age of Steam. It was a bit fiddly and there was a decent amount of downtime, but all the players kept the game moving for the most part. I’m interested in what the new print will look like.
    • Pandemic was next on the list and we taught a new player but still won with 5 virulent strain epidemics and the purple mutation cards.
    • We didn’t get enough of Pandemic, so we decided to play Forbidden Island afterwards
    • After dinner, we decided to play Core Worlds and I badly misplayed it, although I still got 33 points.
    • Day two started with an attempt at Wok Star, but unfortunately a couple of friends of mine had a son that wasn’t really letting them play and this game requires full attention. We eventually abandoned it and went for Qwirkle which is a bit easier to play under those circumstances
    • The next game that came out was Kingdom Builder, the recent Spiel des Jahres winner, courtesy of The Game Table. Everyone commented on how much it looked like Hacienda, a game I’m not particularly fond of. However this game was very intriguing. It’s got tons of replay potential and while I only rated it a 6 on BGG, I believe that this is because we played with 3 players and there wasn’t nearly the amount of competition for resources that I thought it would be. I am very eager to play with 4 players, where that contention will be more pronounced and there is where I believe the game will shine and likely raise my rating.
    • We finished off the party with an epic game of Power Grid on the Korea map with the expansion power deck. I haven’t won this game in quite some time, but two of us built to 18 cities and I came out with more money and took the game. It was very exciting and everyone played really well.

Happy Gaming!

Credits: BGG, Purple Pawn, Game Salute News, Google News
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