Happy Birthday to Mom

We celebrated Mom's birthday today. (The photo to the right is from our trip to Washington, DC last August.) Her birthday is February 29th, so she doesn't have an actual birthday this year. We all met at her house for dinner and games. Part of Mom's present was that we didn't force her to play games.

First we played a game of Killer Bunnies REMIX. This is the second time we've played the starter deck with six players. It seems too easy for someone to go half of the game without a bunny. I'm hoping that adding in the additional decks (from the REMIX set) will add more bunnies. Otherwise we may need to limit the game to five people. I wasn't dealt a bunny today, and it took me about five draws to get one in play. He was quickly killed by Teresa, and I then went about five more rounds without one. Andrew had two bunnies at one point, but lost them both; he then spent the second half of the game without a bunny. Gillian lost her only bunny in the third round (on an attack by Patrick) and never had another one for the rest of the game. I ended up buying two carrots at the end of the game, and one of them (the martial arts carrot) ended up the magic carrot. Dennis played and didn't like the game.

Patrick beat me in two games of Hive this morning on the iPod Touch. We brought the board version over to Mom's, and Patrick beat me while we explained the rules to the rest of the group. Patrick also beat Dennis, but then Andrew beat Patrick. Patrick is the best in the group at the game, but he's also played it the most. I would definitely recommend Hive anyone who likes abstract strategy games, especially anyone who would like something faster and easier than chess. The simplicity and portability would also make it attractive to anyone looking for a light filler game. Anyone curious about the game can try a free online version (solitaire, against the AI) at the Hive website.

Return of Killer Bunnies

We played a game of Killer Bunnies REMIX tonight at Mom's. I held the magic carrot (Remington) at the end of the game. Also playing were Gillian, Patrick, Mom, Andrew and Teresa. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Mom and Teresa want to play again with the starter deck before adding in the extra cards.

I Need Gaming Rehab

I'm thinking that I may need to check into rehab. I ordered three games this morning at Amazon.

The first game is Campaign Manager 2008 by Z-Man Games. I listened to Episode #38 this morning of Game On! with Cody and John. They had a fairly positive review of it, and I was hooked by their description. The game uses a card-play mechanic to re-create the 2008 presidential campaign, with one player managing the McCain campaign and the other managing the Obama campaign. The game was designed by Christian Leonhard and Jason Matthews. Matthews was the co-designer of one of my all-time favorite games, GMT's Twilight Struggle, which uses similar mechanics to re-create the Cold War. The pair also teamed up for 1960: The Making of a President (also published by Z-Man) that re-creates the 1960 US presidential election. Kathryn gave me 1960 for Christmas last year, but I haven't had a chance to play it yet. (Yes -- I realize the irony of buying a game because it's similar to another game that I haven't yet taken out of the box. I already said that I need rehab.) Campaign Manager is supposed to be faster and easier than 1960. I'm hoping to give it a try with Gillian in Jamaica next month.

I also ordered Hive by Gen 42. Hive is an abstract strategy game that I'd describe as 30% dominoes + 30% chess + 30% Go + 10% other abstracts. Like dominoes, players place pieces on a table (with no playing board) to build a line of play. The pieces, however, are hex-shaped, creating a bee-hive shape as the pieces are played. Like Go, each player has a "deck" of pieces -- black or white. The pieces, however, are marked with insect icons and can be moved after placement, chess-like, with each insect having its own movement rules. The goal is to surround the other player's queen bee. I had seen photos of the game at BoardGameGeek and read some positive reviews. I don't normally like abstracts, but the game's portability (as it is played without a board) and the small number of total pieces (10 per side) appealed to me enough that I downloaded the iPhone app for $3.99 last week. Patrick and I played a few games this weekend (on the iPod Touch), and we enjoyed it enough that I ordered the physical version. (The game had been listed for $35 at Amazon, but it was marked down to $25 today.)

Finally, I ordered the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #2 from an Amazon reseller, Old Fort Games. As I discussed in my February 18th posting, I was getting a little disgusted with the length of time that it has taken Multiman Publishing to ship my copy of the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1, which I ordered on February 8th. I finally got ahold of a human being today at MMP, and she told me that my order would probably ship in the next couple of days. I had already decided that I was going to order the second starter kit after I received the first -- figuring that it would arrive about the time that Andrew and I finished working our way through the first. But I really want to have the rulebook to take with me to Jamaica. And the way MMP is going, I didn't know if they would make it in time. (The second starter kit's rules include the first kit's rules, plus additional rules for mortars and big guns.) At this point, I'm not a happy MMP customer.

Renaissance Gaming

Without realizing it, Patrick and I chose a Renaissance theme for our Monday afternoon gaming. First Patrick won two games of Renaissance Go Fish for Art. Then I won a game of chess using my Renaissance-style pieces.

Teresa gave us the Go Fish game a couple of years ago. Published by Birdcage Press, it's essentially a deck of 30 high-quality playing cards with photos of works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli and Fra Angelico. The rules suggest playing either Go Fish or Memory with the deck. Birdcage Press also makes decks with Impressionists, Van Gogh (and friends) and modern artists. I'd recommend it as a fun way to learn the works, but it's still Go Fish and Memory. I'm the first person to report a play at BoardGameGeek.

I got the Renaissance chess set for Christmas when I was in grade school. I remember that when I was five or six, Dennis's friend Gary Holder would come over to Mom and Dad's house to play chess with Dennis. Gary had a Renaissance set, and I would "battle" with the eliminated pieces. So, I always wanted a Renaissance set, and it was on my Christmas list for several years before I got one. I really do not enjoy chess, but everyone has to own a set, and this set has a lot of sentimental value to me.

Two Killer Bunnies Quests

We played Killer Bunnies REMIX at Mom's last night and again this afternoon. Both games were a lot of fun. We're starting to get the hang of it, using the starter deck, but I don't think we're ready to use the full deck yet.

Teresa won last night's game. I spent most of the game without a bunny in the circle. Yet only one of my bunnies was killed by an attack -- the other three bunnies were killed by Terrible Misfortune cards. So, when the game ended, I lost my one carrot to Teresa, giving her a total of two. Mom and Andrew had three apiece, while Patrick had two. The magic carrot ended up being Tucker the Pirate Carrot -- held by Teresa (giving her the victory). It took everyone awhile to figure out the rules, and get comfortable with the idea of attacking each other without feeling guilty. Well, to be honest, it didn't take the boys long to enjoy attacking each other, but Mom and Teresa felt guilty for most of the game.

Andrew, Patrick and I played another game this afternoon. While Andrew had the most bunnies for most of the game, he wasn't able to get many carrots -- and one of them was stolen by Patrick. At the end of the game, Patrick had six carrots, I had three, and Andrew had only one. Patrick had the magic carrot -- Butch, the construction-worker carrot -- and won the game.

It's a hard game to explain to someone. Killing bunnies isn't a theme that attracts most people. Mom described the game to Non, who said it "sounded awful." But it is fun if you can get past the silliness. I'm also sympathetic to those who complain that the game is too driven by luck. In Friday night's game there was literally nothing that I could do, since I didn't draw a bunny after the first ten minutes. Also, while I like the mechanic that allows anyone with one bunny and one carrot at the end of the game to have a shot at winning, it may be overly frustrating for some folks to lose despite having a majority of the carrots. In short, while I enjoy Killer Bunnies, it probably is a game that should be tried first before buying.

Special (and Not-So-Special) Delivery

The good news is that Descent: Journeys in the Dark (which I ordered on February 15th) arrived yesterday. Amazon Prime comes through again. Hopefully I can skim through the rules this weekend.

The bad news is that the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1 still hasn't arrived. (See my February 8th post.) I was hoping to have it show up this week, so that Andrew and I could give it a try this weekend. Al volunteered to come over and help us up the learning curve. I'm not optimistic, since Multiman Publishing posted this message at their web page:

Maryland was hammered with snow over the past weekend, with our office receiving over 30". Since this is more than Maryland may see an entire winter, you can imagine the problems the state has clearing roads and getting back to work/school. So, we are likely to be closed the first few days of this week.

Please be patient as we strive to ship preorder copies of Doomed Battalions, Journal #8, and the recent rush of orders for the Winter Offensive Bonus Pack.

Thank you,
MMP

I'm especially concerned for two reasons: (1) Even though the storm ran through Maryland on the 6th and 7th (and the message is dated the 7th), the message wasn't actually posted at their web site until the 15th. (2) They are likely focused on getting their new products out the door, so a lowly single order for an old product may sit in the in-box for awhile.

I'll just have to hope for the best.

Killer Bunnies Experiment

Patrick and I played an experimental game of Killer Bunnies this afternoon. By experimental, I mean that I was trying to read the rulebook at the same time as we were playing. Upon re-reading the rules this evening, there were a few things that we were doing wrong. But I'm still counting it as a play, and Patrick is still claiming his victory.

I'll need a couple more plays before I'm ready to give it an official review, but I definitely enjoyed it. Patrick gave it a thumbs-up as well. The few things that troubled me are likely to be improved by playing with more than two people. I plan to bring the game to Mom's Friday night, where we'll be able to try it with a bigger group.

I Ordered Descent from Amazon

Amazon has most of its Fantasy Flight games on sale this week. After staring at Descent: Journeys in the Dark for the last few days, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered it.

While I've enjoyed a number of role-playing game (RPG) sessions over the years, I'm usually frustrated at the number of rules that many of the game systems have. I've often wanted a game that captured the theme and cooperative nature of a good RPG, but with a less open-ended feel. Milton Bradley's Heroquest (published in 1989) fit the bill, but the copy I acquired in a trade last year was missing a number of pieces. In addition, I'd prefer a game with nicer components and a more modern feel.

I've read a lot about Descent (since it was published in 2005), and I even downloaded the rulebook about a year ago. As in Heroquest, one player acts as a sort of narrator (much like the Dungeon Master in Dungeons and Dragons) and controls the various traps and creatures. This person is called the Overlord in Descent, and in some groups it seems as if the Overlord works as hard as possible (within the limits of the rules) to defeat the players. In our group it's more likely that the Overlord will simply try to make the quest challenging, without actually trying to defeat the players. The game is popular enough that many expansions have been published, providing many more creatures, settings and quests. I'm hopeful that Descent will fill a hole in our gaming group. It's supposed to arrive on Wednesday.

Killer Bunnies on Clearance at Target

I was shopping at Target last night, and Killer Bunnies REMIX was on clearance for 30% off. The game is regularly $24.99, but I was able to pick it up for under $18.

The Killer Bunnies series started in 2002 with Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot. I've never played the game (or seen it played), but the idea of a silly card game appeals to me. In Killer Bunnies, players try to manage a group of bunnies and acquire carrot cards. Players can play cards to slow down other players' progress and protect their own bunnies. The cards have funny artwork and (somewhat) clever titles. While the game's ratings at BoardGameGeek aren't all that strong, the game was popular enough that a series of expansion packs have been published over the last eight years -- adding more cards and more silliness.

The set that I picked up at Target -- REMIX -- is a collection of 310 of the best cards from the various sets (as selected by the designers). It's sort of the greatest hits collection of the series. I'm not sure that the game will be that great, but I thought that it would be worth a try for $18. My only concern is that I may have pulled the trigger too fast; my Target had about six copies, and I wouldn't be surprised if a week or two from now I could have picked it up for 50% or 75% off.

Game Recommendations for the Garden

Gillian and I visited the Missouri Botanical Garden today. Although the Garden isn't as beautiful in February as it is in the spring, we always enjoy the scenery along with the brisk walk. We make a point of visiting once per season.

The Garden has a nice gift shop that sells books, decorations and plants. Of course, my game-radar immediately locked in on the stack of games for sale. But, alas, the entire stack consisted of six version of Monopoly -- including Garden-opoly, Earth-opoly, Bird-opoly, St. Louis-opoly, Chocolate-opoly and Wine-opoly. It's interesting that Monopoly is consistently derided by boardgamers, yet there are hundreds of versions. Of course, just because the BoardGameGeeks don't think much of the game (as of today, it's ranked #5,935 at BoardGameGeek) doesn't mean that the average American can't like it. Also, part of this reflects the copyright situation for Monopoly. (If companies started making knockoff versions of Puerto Rico, Rio Grande Games would start filing lawsuits.)

So what garden-themed games do gamers like? The highest-rated game at BoardGameGeek with a garden theme is Garden Competition by Toccato Games. I've never played the game, but Tom Vassel has a review at BoardGameGeek. As for other games, Peer Sylvester has created a GeekList of garden-themed games. Another GeekList focuses more heavily on flower-themed games. Overall, the category seems a little weak, but it would be great if the Garden's shop started carrying some of these games. I think garden-lovers deserve better than Monopoly.

Friday Night Dominoes

Dennis won a game of dominoes tonight at Mom's house. The final score was 360 for Dennis, 195 for me, 175 for both Patrick and Teresa and 125 for Mom. It was the first time that we had played dominoes in several months.

According to the Wikipedia, the game we play is known as Muggins. In standard dominoes the goal is to be the first player to go out (play your last piece). Points are scored based upon the number of pips in the opposing players' hands when you go out. In Muggins, players also score points when the number of pips on the endpoints is a multiple of five.

According to the rules posted at the Wikipedia, we should start with a hand of seven when playing with two or three players, and a hand of five dominoes when playing with four or more. We usually play with a hand of seven regardless of the number of players.

iPhone games

Gillian and I picked up our new iPhones today, so I thought it would be a good time to write about a few of the games that I have on my iPod Touch (and which I'll add to my iPhone this weekend). The definitive list was created by Alexander Zhang at BoardGameGeek. As of today there are 61 games on the list.

One of my most-played is a Risk-like game (shown above) called Lux. I also have several traditional games like chess, checkers, spades and solitaire. Patrick plays a Farkle-like game called 10,000 Lite, and Gillian's favorite is a word game called Word-Fu.

There are a couple of popular board games that I've never tried that have inexpensive apps. I'm thinking of downloading them just to try them out. These include a Blokus clone called Kibosh, Zooloretto and Hive.

Finally, there are a number of dice-rolling apps. Users can select the number of dice (and even the number of sides) and watch the virtual dice roll.

Diplomacy Deck for Here I Stand Arrived

The Here I Stand 2-player Diplomacy Deck arrived in the mail on Monday. (See my January 31, 2010 posting.) I finally had a chance to thumb through it today. It looks like it will make for a fun two-player version of the game.

Labyrinth

GMT posted a production update with some exciting news. Labyrinth: The War on Terror has been given a production slot of August. Labyrinth uses a card-driven event mechanic to simulate the US battle (military, political, economic and diplomatic) against Islamic Jihadists. The description of the game suggests that it borrows a lot from Twilight Struggle, which was one of the most innovative games of the last decade. (Twilight Struggle simulates the Cold War.) Unlike Twilight Struggle, Labyrinth can be played two-player or solitaire, which makes the design even more innovative. (One of the curiosities about wargamers is that most of us are forced to play games solitaire at one point or another. So, a game that's designed to be played solitaire always has an audience.)

Now that the game is placed on the production schedule, gamers only have a short time to pre-order it at the reduced price ($38), as opposed to the regular retail price ($55). Since I'm sure that I want this game, I added it to my pre-order list so that I can lock in the lower price.

The other advantage of pre-ordering it is that GMT generally offers a special 50%-off Christmas deal for those who pre-order at least one game during the year. So, this should allow me to buy a GMT game half-off this December.

I Ordered ASL SK#1

I ordered the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1 (also known as ASLSK#1) this afternoon from Multi-Man Publishing. It should be here in about a week. But, let me give the whole story ...

I'm lucky that Andrew is very interested in history, which means that he's a ready-made opponent for trying out wargames. He's especially interested in WWII history, so it was natural that I'd get him the popular (and light) WWII game Memoir '44 several years ago. Memoir '44 is based upon Richard Borg's Commands and Colors system that originated with Avalon Hill-Hasbro's Battlecry (released in 2000) and continued with Memoir '44 (in 2004), GMT Games' Commands and Colors Ancients (2006) and Fantasy Flight's Battlelore (in 2006). Commands and Colors: Napoleonics is currently on GMT's P500 list, and is likely to be published in the next year or so.

Memoir '44 is a nice introductory wargame and can be a lot of fun. Suffice it to say that there are about a dozen expansions available to meet the demand of folks who love the original game so much. On the other hand, it has some problems as a simulation -- some wargamers aren't convinced that it should even count as a wargame. (One of these days, I'll post an entry giving my full take on the "realism versus playability" debate.) While Andrew played the game a lot four years ago, he hasn't seemed interested in taking it off of the shelf lately. When I asked him why, he mentioned several of the issues related to realism. So, for several months now, I've been trying to pick out a more advanced version of Memior '44.

One option is Fantasy Flight's Tide of Iron. Al owns Tide of Iron, and while I haven't played a game, I've watched Al play a few times against Steven and Drew. Tide of Iron has plastic infantry, tanks and vehicles similar to Memoir '44. It also is a significant step up the ladder of wargaming. Different units have different capabilities, and units have multiple options while firing -- including pinning fire and opportunity fire. I described it to Andrew as "Advanced Memoir '44." Al has mixed feelings about the game (with one of his biggest complaints being the thirty minutes that it typically takes to set up a scenario). I offered a few times to buy it from him, but Drew likes it enough that Al wants to hang on to it. (I also found a guy in St. Louis looking to sell his copy on Craigslist, but, while I offered him $40, he's holding firm on $50.)

At the opposite end is Multi-Man Publishing's ASLSK#1. Advanced Squad Leader was first published in 1985 as a sequel of sorts to Squad Leader (published in 1977). I had owned Squad Leader in the early 1990s (but sold it on EBay about ten years ago). ASL is extremely plain looking -- it has small, fairly unattractive cardboard counters and maps that look a little cartoonish. But the rules are extremely detailed. There are actually rules to handle squads moving in sewers for battles that take place in urban areas. The game has a hard-core set of followers. In fact, when Avalon Hill was absorbed by Hasbro, a group of gamers bought the rights to the ASL catalog and continued publishing the games and scenarios as Multi-Man Publishing. One of the group's best decisions was publishing a starter set (ASLSK#1), with six introductory scenarios to give gamers a chance to play the game with the core rules and decide if ASL was right for them. Al owns ASL, and ranks it as his only '10' at BoardGameGeek. If we picked ASL, Al would be thrilled.

GMT's first entry into the category was Combat Commander Europe (published in 2006). I haven't played Combat Commander, but I've listened to and read a number of reviews. My sense is that Combat Commander's rules are about 75% as detailed as ASL, but that the game introduces more chaos into the battles. This probably does a better job of reflecting a commander's actual control over the battlefield, but seems to frustrate a number of players. In addition, there are no vehicles in Combat Commander. While many were turned off, the game is a good seller, and GMT has published a number of expansions. I like GMT, and I usually like a little more chaos in my games than most wargamers, so in some ways it's the game that I "root for" in the debates.

The newest option is Conflict of Heroes by Academy Games. Again, I haven't played it, but I've read many reviews at BoardGameGeek. My sense is that it is somewhere in between Tide of Iron and ASL. It has bigger and more attractive components, and some folks who find ASL too difficult enjoy Conflict of heroes as an alternative. But hard-core wargamers feel that the simulation has more than a few holes. The positive spin is to say that it's ASL with easier rules and prettier components. The negative spin is to say that it's uglier than Tide of Iron and not as good of a simulation as ASL.

So, after reading everything I could about these four games, I still couldn't decide what to do. Realizing that Andrew would need to be excited about the choice in order for it to work, I gave him my quick description of each game and sent him to BoardGameGeek to pick one out. I said I'd buy whichever one he picked out, with the only requirement being that he'd have to promise to give it at least three tries. (I'm sure that I could trade any one of the four, if we don't like it.) Andrew usually has a soft spot for plastic pieces, so I was guessing that he'd go for Tide of Iron. Thus, I was totally shocked when he said he wanted to try ASL because of the deep details.

The game is on its way, and I'm sure that Al will be thrilled.

Super Bowl XLIV Preview #2

Patrick and I finished our second Pizza Box Football version of SuperBowl XLIV, and the Colts defeated the Saints 33-17. Most of the reported games at BoardGameGeek seem to be going to the Saints, which is interesting because the Saints are 5 1/2 point underdogs. We'll have to wait until tomorrow night to find out who's right.

What is That Game Worth?

I found a cool web site today. The creator (known as Spielboy) wrote an Adobe Flash program that searches the BoardGameGeek sales database and presents a time series plot of prices for any game.

The image to the right, for example, shows the results from a search for Avalon Hill's Kingmaker. Each dot represents a Kingmaker sale at the BoardGameGeek martketplace, with the dot's color indicating the game's condition. Based upon this plot, for example, most of the sales during 2009 were of copies that were in "very good" condition, and they sold for between $20 and $50. One new copy apparently sold last year for $80.

Regarding the trade I'm finishing, acceptable copies of LeMans sell for between $25 and $35, while new copies of the Here I Stand 2-Player Diplomacy Deck sell for about $20. So, I guess, in theory, I'm getting the short end. But I'm still happy with the trade.

My Dice Got the Boot

The best gaming item among my Christmas gifts wasn't actually a game, but a new dice boot. I've been wanting one for a long time, so when Gillian gave me an Amazon Gift Card, I knew the perfect thing to spend it on.

If you're not familiar with them, a dice boot is a tall box with an opening on top. Gamers drop dice into the opening on top, and, as the dice fall, they tumble through a series of ramps until exiting through a hole at the bottom into a small tray. The tower-like box and the tray at the bottom give the apparatus a boot-like appearance. (They are also known as "dice towers.") The boot I got from Amazon is relatively inexpensive (less than $20) and is made of plastic. Others are made of wood and are quite elaborate. VixenTor Games is known for making beautifully-thematic dice towers. I'm very happy with the functionality of my boot, although I'm considering putting some stickers on it to make it a little more attractive. It took about 10 minutes to assemble, and I followed the advice of a reviewer at Amazon, who suggested adding a few rubber bands around it, in order to reduce the noise cause by the plastic pieces not being perfectly snug.

Most of the games my group plays have too many pieces to roll dice on the board, and the boards are so large that there isn't much room left on the table. When playing the old Avalon Hill games, we used to roll into the box lid (which could easily be passed around). About ten years ago we started using a metal brownie pan. (Incidently, if you're hosting game day for my group, you can be out of snacks, the air conditioning can be broken and the cable box can be stuck on the Oxygen Network; but by God you'd better have a brownie pan.)

So, why did I want a dice boot? The problem is that a brownie pan (or a box) is susceptible to one of my gaming pet-peeves -- people who simply "drop" the dice without actually having them roll. The irony is that this isn't an actual problem with my gaming, since no one in my regular group is guilty of this. The real problem, I'm sad to say, is me: since I know that I get angry when anyone else "drops" the dice, I overcompensate when I roll by launching my dice in the air with various spinning motions. While this bolsters my credentials of sportsmanship (at least in my imagination), it's really bad for my aim -- the dice too frequently bounce out of the pan or miss the pan altogether. (Incidently, Preston Fuller has an hilarious Geeklist at BoardGameGeek about "people and their dice issues.") That's why I wanted a dice tower. Dropping the dice into the tower eliminates any suspicion that I'm "dropping" the dice while almost eliminating the "dice rolling across the kitchen floor" situation.

The only problem is that now Patrick is trying to figure out how he can cheat with the thing. Sigh.

February 2, 2010

A BoardGameGeek user named Tor has posted a nifty computer version of Delve the Dice Game (which I reviewed in a January 24th posting). It's still a work in progress, but it's worth a look for anyone who has played and enjoyed the board version. Tor says that he'll be fleshing it out in coming days.

I do find it a bit comical that, within days, several users posted messages challenging the programmer on everything from the functionality of various parts of the interface to his choice of the programming language. A guy in Norway writes a freeware program in his spare time that is based upon a freely-offered board game designed by a American gamer during his spare time -- yet the "community" still feels entitled to complain. More evidence of two things I already knew: (1) gamers love to complain and (2) we live in a rich world.

February 1, 2010

Patrick and I started another "preview" game of Superbowl XLIV using Pizza Box Football. We traded sides, with Patrick taking the Saints, while I took the Colts. So far, the game is a defensive battle (especially compared with the game we played on Saturday). With about five minutes left in the first half, it's tied at 3-3.

Having played a full game just wo days ago, this game is moving much faster. It took us only half an hour to play nearly the entire half.

I discovered the other 2009 playoff teams online, so we may play some other games this weekend.