Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Board Game Madness 1/31

Fun:

New Games:
  • Goa: OK, this isn’t a new game, but it’s been out of print for about 6 years now and very difficult to get. Z-Man Games has acquired the license and is going to be releasing it in April. This is a Top 30 game on BGG with an interesting auction mechanic. Yes, another renaissance trading game. But this was one of the first ones and one of the best (apparently – I’ve never gotten a chance to play it!) 
  • Aeroplanes: Aviation Ascendant: The third game in the Martin Wallace transportation series (Steam/Automobile). Does for aviation what Automobile did for cars, taking it through the beginning stages of the technology. Another economic game where you build commercial airlines and airports in Europe. Due to release in May.
  • Ticket to Ride: Germany: Yes, this is similar to Marklin edition, but without the passengers. Apparently this is a request from the German publisher, so it is rethemed for the same turn of the century setting as the other TTR games, but will only be available in Austria and of course Germany. No release date yet. 
  • Recently released: Fibonacci’s Trump, Giza: The Great Pyramid, Bang! Gold Rush expansion, Kaiju City, Lady Werewolf’s Revenge, Venture Forth, Kingdom of Solomon, Startup Fever, Feudality

iOS:
  • Bunch of updates to programs this week, but nothing new worth reporting

News:
  • MTV Geek interviewed Barnes and Noble about how games have become a big seller at the mega chain of book stores
  • A Philadelphia ABC affiliate ran a story on playing board games with your kids and reviewed Settlers of Catan, Dominion and Carcassonne.
  • Apparently Big Bang Theory featured lots of jokes on Settlers of Catan recently. I have to catch up on this show…
  • Oh my... Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison is picking up the Candy Land movie for production

Recently played:
  • Monthly meetup of the Nassau Board Game Alliance and we had a full house this month. I played Core Worlds, The Resistance, Who's Got Game, Cards Against Humanity and Quarriors! The Resistance was new and we found a flaw in it where we won waaaaaay too easily. It was fun though. Who's Got Game is a party game that we didn't realize was as adult as it was. Once we reset our expectations, it was fun. I don't like drawing my friends naked though... that's a little weird. Cards Against Humanity is as adult as they come. I needed to reset my PG-13 gamerness and finished off with a couple of games of Quarriors.
  • Saturday night was the opening of our online Blood Bowl season and my Chaos team went up 1-0 after a beat down of an Ogre team. Mmmmm... squishy snotlings!
Credits: BGG, Purple Pawn, Google News


Happy gaming!
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Board Game Madness 1/24

Fun:

New Games:
  • Locomotive Werks: This is a Dice rolling Euro that has a similar economic engine to Automobile, a Martin Wallace game from a couple of years ago. Seems interesting that it builds technology in with demand for older locomotives going south. Not so much a new game in that it was released in 2002 under Winsome Games, but Queen Games has now picked it up for wider release in 2012. 
  • Infiltration: This one has a description in the link that sounds more like an RPG setting, but I'm not familiar with the Android universe. This is a card game by DXV (Dominion) but it isn't a deck builder. It sounds fascinating as you play a thief trying to steal secrets from a corporate facility. Very cyberpunkish. 
  • Recent releases: Hello Dolly!, FAB: Sicily, Sheep, Dogs and Wolves

iOS:
  • Dominiongate – So this weekend, a free version of Dominion was released. There was anger from the community about this supposed unlicensed version, however Rio Grande came out with a statement that the app was allowed as long as it was free and that when they came out with their own, this one would be removed from the app store. It has all the artwork from the original set. It's buggy – a friend and I were trying to play a match over the Internet and it never hooked up. The AIs are moderately challenging. Rio Grande has stated that a digital version will be coming out in the first quarter this year. 
  • iOS board game of the year: Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer. Feel free to let me know if you play this as I've currently got about 12 games going right now. Ascension actually won a bunch of awards with Ticket to Ride finishing in second. Puerto Rico actually won best AI. Forbidden Island won best children's game. TTR won best family game.

News:

Recently Played:
  • Played some Quarriors! with my wife 
  • My Blood Bowl season kicked off with a glorious loss for my Necromantic team the Death Rockers to a skaven team Warpstone Rejects. 4-0. Yeah, it was that bad… After the game we played some more Quarriors! and I taught the skaven coach Blood Bowl: Team Manager 
  • Taught my wife and a friend Core Worlds. I'm really enjoying that game. 
  • Played Tom Vasel's version of Epic Thunderstone with my 9 year old son. My score was Epic… he's still learning the game. :-)

Credits: BGG, Purple Pawn

Happy gaming!
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Board Game Madness 1/17

Fun:
  • MUST SEE: Analysis Paralysis: The Movie (trailer) This one should come out in time for Christmas...
  • Thunderstone players (and even those that are rather luke warm on the game) – I've been jonesing for a game of this for a few weeks now and just finally listened to Tom Vasel's new Epic variant and I'm very eager to try it. It sounds like it changes the game in a positive way.
  • Good eats: Dixit cake
  • Bits, bits and more bits! Please, don't make me clean this up...
  • The awards season has begun and MTV is first in: Confusion wins GOtY
  • A very interesting analysis about board game buying and the lifespan of a game
  • This is something I'd expect in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
New Games:
iOS:
  • Caylus released – interface is a little confusing (probably because I've only played the board game once in the last 6 months) but very attractive design
  • Alien Frontiers dev continues, demo released
  • Thunderstone nearing completion of dev
  • Le Havre pushed back to March
  • Through the Ages pushed back to May
  • El Grande pushed back to October
  • Red November under contract for development
  • Shadow Era, a Magic:The Gathering clone originally for iOS is now being ported over to full-fledged card game
  • Cadwallon: City of Thieves to be released soon by Cyanide, same people who did the Blood Bowl PC game
News:
  • City Weekly, a Utah paper produced an article with a writer claiming that 2012 was the year of the board game. Unfortunately, all he was really playing was old games he brought back to the table like HeroQuest. We should get him to try more recent games of that ilk like Castle Ravenloft and Descent
Recently Played:
Happy Gaming!
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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Board Game Madness 1/10

I just did a math trade with NerdNYC board gamers. I gave up Cuba, Ticket to Ride: The Card Game and Odin's Ravens. In return, I got Last Night on Earth (to go with Invasion from Outer Space), Ubongo Duel and Quarriors. My wife's actually more excited than I am!
Fun:
  • "Men, this is pretty hairy terrain. I suggest we keep on the look out for anything fishy." "Hey sarge? What's the big eye on the horizon?" "Aaaah!!!!!"
  • In this economy, it's sometimes difficult to figure out where your next meal is coming from...
  • Apparently someone found exception to some of the rules/mechanics to the Lord of the Rings card game. They've put up some very humorous dialogs (1, 2 and 3) highlighting their frustrations
  • Ack! Now I'll have nightmares...
  • Pimp My Game: I profess my undying love to this incredible Runebound board complete with REAL terrain!
  • Obviously biased geeklist, but a funny read nonetheless about comparing Kirk and Picard from Star Trek fame
New Games:
  • Star Wars: Battle of Hoth: LEGO is coming out with a new game patterned after the ice planet from The Empire Strikes Back. The components look really cool. No write-up right now, nor timing of release.
  • Thunderstone Advance: Yes, another expansion for the deck builder. This one seems to be more of the same, but with new concepts in the village and something involving card frames. Release date currently not solidified.
  • Oz Fluxx: Yes, the Looney Labs folks have taken their chaos to the realm of the Emerald City. Release date unknown.
  • Recently released: Star Trek: The Next Generation (deck building game), Why?, Ora et Labora, Santiago de Cuba
iOS:
  • I found a site that reviews iPad Board Games and they are looking for more raters if you are interested.
News:
  • Lebanon, OH (isn't that where Klinger is from?) is having an antique show that will feature hand crafted board games from the 19th century. I wonder if this will mean I now have to go to antique shows. I always avoided them like the plague...
  • The Portsmouth News in the UK has released their top 10 modern board games. OK, I get it. It's a mainstream view. But their only inclusion of a "hobby game" is Blokus. No rants... just wish they had more vision to the other games. Even if they discounted them.
Gaming Log:
Happy gaming!
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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Board Game Madness 1/3

Happy New Year everyone!

This is the time of resolutions, so of course as people set goals to lose weight (check), clean their house (check), pay more attention to their family (er… um… check?), I of course want to log a couple of gaming resolutions:

1. Economy being what it is, the pace of game purchasing has slowed down to a trickle. So, my goal is to play more of the games that really have hit it in either my or my friends collections. I’ve even started with an awesome game of Power Grid on New Year’s Day!
2. Get a few new people into the hobby. Or at least into more of the “designer games”. Got friends into Ticket to Ride and talked up Space Alert to budding gamer who will buy it immediately.
3. Let other people pick games more often. Sometimes in bringing games over to people’s houses, I determine the direction of what games are played. Other people’s games are just as good as… well maybe they aren’t [insert smiley here], but it’s still the nice thing to do.

Anyway, here’s the regular sections of the weekly blog with a new section of what I played this week.

Fun:

New Games:

iOS:
  • The app store has been closed for the last couple of weeks so about all that’s happened is some price shifting. I picked up Medici for .99 which some friends and I went nuts on on New Year’s Day.

News:
  • So after my “tirade” about Kickstarter a few weeks ago, they released that they’ve funded $2mm in game-related projects this year. According to Purple Pawn, “110 board game, card game, dice game and [Role Playing Game] projects were successfully funded in 2011.” Of course, there’s much more than games on Kickstarter, but this is quite an accomplishment.
  • Also from my friends at Purple Pawn, the Top 10 Game News Stories of 2011

Gaming log:
  • A friend of mine brought over his holiday present this year: The Ares Project. Considering I had a hand in the recommendation (uninformed though), I was interested. We played the basic and it was interesting. I’d definitely give it another play, but I found the card design extremely confusing
  • New Year’s party was awesome, played the beginning of a Pandemic game (had to vacate due to hosting duties), Ticket to Ride, Dominion, and Elder Sign. Then played Rock Band for the rest of the night – always fun!
  • Power Grid on New Year’s Day. Would have won too, if it weren’t for those pesky kids… er… $4 short for that 18th city to light up.

References: Board Game Geek, GameSalute, Purple Pawn, Google News

Happy New Year and Happy Gaming!
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