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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Thursday, July 12, 2012

Board Game Madness 7/12

Fun:

New Games:

iOS:
  • Haggis released (solo only for now)
  • Summoner Wars released (free with four factions – extra factions can be bought in total for $7.99 or individually for less)
  • Thunderstone nearing release
  • Café International (1989 Spiel des Jahres winner) to be released later in July
  • There’s a new iOS app for BGG

News:
  • The Spiel des Jahres, Germany’s game of the year, has been announced. This is the Academy Award for Best Picture in board gaming. Kingdom Builder, from Dominion’s Donald X. Vaccarino, beat out Eselsbrucke and Vegas. Note that this award tends to move towards the family games. So it’s the equivalent of Disney/Pixar taking best picture every year.
  • The Kennerspiel des Jahres is the strategy gamer’s version of the Spiel des Jahres and this year’s winner is Village, by Inka and Markus Brand who also designed A Castle for All Seasons. It beat out K2 and Targi.
  • Interesting to note, according to Purple Pawn: Tom Felber, chairman of the SdJ jury, complained that “many of the games reviewed this year were ‘not fully developed in all areas’”. Some have wondered if the increase in releases and boom of game designers and introduction of Kickstarter as a funding source is diluting the market.
  • Chicago has turned their streets into a giant Monopoly game
  • According to Gizmodo, a computer is now capable of watching you play a game for only two minutes, learn from your strategies and beat you senselessly. It’s only done it with abstract games, so I’d like to see how it does with Agricola.
  • Learning from Risk can help you run your small business

Recently played
  • Some gaming on my vacation included a few games of 7 Wonders and Blokus (with the parents!)

Happy Gaming!

Credits: BGG, Purple Pawn, Game Salute, Google News
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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Board Game Madness 7/3

Independence Day edition! Happy July 4th.

Fun:
  • Massive PitchCar game takes up tons of table space and a large room unto itself
  • Someone converted a bunch of beer coasters into a game of Carcassonne
  • How about playing Castle Ravenloft with the Avengers heroes: Black Widow, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man
  • Le Tour De Geek rolls on into stage 5 with the Intellectual Challenge. Chess has my vote on that one. Pandemic recently took over the Yellow Jersey from Ticket to Ride after stage 4’s thematic fit. I think that was more Settlers falling like a lead balloon on that rather than Pandemic soaring over the top. The next stage is memorability.
  • A very interesting read on how copyright and trademark laws affect the gaming industry
  • Want gaming t-shirts?
  • Someone made a LEGO version of The Settlers of Catan!

New Games:
  • Tzolkin: The Mayan Calendar: What’s the point of playing this game if the world is ending this December? Get it??? Mayan calendar? Ugh. This game is touting a “new” mechanic of dynamic worker placement where what they do depends on where they are on the board, but that changes as the gears of the calendar turn through the game. Release October 2012.
  • Goblins, Inc.: The gobbos of their big firm are looking for a new CEO. The corporation makes gigantic doomsday robots to destroy the world. This is a dice game where form partnerships, build your robots and battle it out trying to attain secret achievements. Release October 2012.
  • Suburbia: It’s SimCity the board game. Lay down tiles to build up the town into a major metropolis. No Godzilla in this game though. Release October 2012.
  • Recently released: For the Win, Red Winter, Four in a Square

iOS:
  • Summoner Wars still imminent (already submitted)
  • Haggis imminent (already submitted)
  • Kickstarter campaign for Mage Knight

News:
  • Fantasy Flight Games and Stronghold Games have resolved the whole Merchant of Venus debacle, where both got the rights to put out the same game. FFG will proceed with publishing, but Stronghold will be involved, as the board will be double-sided now. The classic game (Stronghold) on one side and the newly reimagined FFG version on the other. I assume Stronghold is getting a cut of some type.

Recently played:
  • Well, my Death Rockers have been knocked out of the LIBBL Montauk Cup playoffs. I lost 1-0 in the semi-finals to the NY Knicknevins, the eventual champions. Sad day in Blood Bowl. However, I plan to bring the team back for their second season. I’m really enjoying them.
  • Game night was this past week for our local group. I learned how to play Last Will, led a game of 7 Wonders and we broke open a new set of Cards Against Humanity, courtesy of one of our grateful regulars (thanks again!)
  • Travelling to visit friends, some gaming has occurred. So far: Blood Bowl: Team Manager and 7 Wonders. The 7 Wonders game was with the new iPad companion app that was awesome! My wife played Cupertino on a day that the Apple stock went up. She came in second.

Happy Gaming!

Credits: Board Game Geek, Game Salute, Google News
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