Extra Credit Settlers

A couple of years ago, BoardGameGeek user Joe Wasserman created a geeklist summarizing the games he uses in his high school class to teach economics. I posted some suggestions at the time, but it got me thinking about how I could bring boardgaming into my economics classroom. Unfortunately (at least in terms of my thinking), I've spent most of the last year and a half teaching quantitative courses.

This semeseter, however, I'm teaching Principles of Microeconomics. So, I turned my thoughts from Joe's geeklist into an extra credit assignment. Students wanting the extra points can play two (or more) games of Settlers of Catan and then answer one of four essay questions. The student can buy Settlers or he or she can borrow my copy. Here are the questions:

1. There rarely is enough of any resource (let alone every resource) in a game of Settlers of Catan. What big microeconomic idea does this describe? Since there isn't enough grain for you to build everything you want, buying a development card means not using the grain to build a city or trading it away for something else. What big microeconomic idea does this describe? Describe one situation during the game when you had to make a choice of how to use a resource card. What were your options for using the card? What were the advantages and disadvantages for each option? How did you decide?

2. Describe one trade that you remember making during one of the games. What card(s) did you trade away, and what card(s) did you receive in return? Explain how you eventually used the cards you received and why you preferred this to the cards you traded away. What big microeconomic idea is described by the fact that the trade made both you and the other player better off. Suppose that a "referee" cancelled your trade because it was "unfair." Would this make you better off or worse off? Would it have made your trading partner better off or worse off?

3. Even though there aren't "prices" in the game, were all of the resource cards equally "valuable." Select one of the games you remember well. Which resource was the most valuable in this game? Which resource was the least valuable? How can you tell that a resource is valuable (or not) even though there aren't any prices in the game? What factors (either particular things that happened in your game or general factors built into the game's rules) caused the valuable resource to be valuable and the non-valuable resource to be non-valuable?

4. How many times (in total) did the robber strike during your games? Of those, how many times did you control the robber (i.e., it was you who rolled the '7')? How did you go about deciding where to put the robber? What factors did you consider in making a decision? (Note that some of these may be strategic, and others may be personal.) How did your decision-making change as the game progressed?

So far one student has borrowed the game, and another has reserved it for spring break. We'll see how the answers turn out.

Good Gaming Magazine

This weekend I discovered Win -- an online magazine (German, but with an English version avaiable) devoted to gaming. The normal subscription price is six euro per year (about $8), but for the next few weeks, you can download the pdf files of the six previous issues for free. I already printed out these issues for airport reading on my trip next month.

Choose your own review: Space Hulk Death Angel: The Card Game

I used to enjoy Choose Your Own Adventure books, and I thought the format would make for an interesting review ....

You are in the midst of a quest to a strange new land! (OK, let's say you're at the dry cleaners.) As you leave the merchant stall with your new magic rune (three business shirts, light starch), you look across the parking lot and notice a game store that you've never heard of before. You feel drawn to it -- you're sure you hear a voice telling you to visit. What do you do?

a. Walk into the store. (Go to #1.)
b. Leave and go home. (Go to #2.)

1. You walk into the store and are greeted by a kindly man. He introduces himself as Manager -- he's the Subaltern of Merchants. He is organizing his wares, and you notice a game you've never seen, called Space Hulk Death Angel: The Card Game. Noticing your interest, Manager asks if you are familiar with cooperative games. How do you answer?

a. "What's a cooperative game?" (Go to #7.)
b. "I hate cooperative games; why bother to play with people if there is no winner?" (Go to #3.)
c. "It depends upon whether there's a traitor mechanic. Without a traitor mechanic, it always seems as though one person runs the show." (Go to #4.)
d. "I enjoy cooperative games -- even without a traitor mechanic." (Go to #5.)

2. You mount your steed (get into your car) and drive home. You can't help but wonder what the voice meant, but now you'll never know. (Seriously? What kind of adventurer are you? The end.)

3. Manager answers, "You were wise to speak with me first, my friend. This game will not serve your purposes. You may want to visit a friend of mine named 'BoardGameGeek' in the land known as Internet to find other options." You are disappointed to hear this, but you feel as though you have made the correct decision. (Go to #9.)

4. Manager answers, "You were wise to speak with me first, my friend. This game will not serve your purposes." If you don't already own them, you may want to consider Battlestar Galactica, Shadows Over Camelot or Saboteur." You may want to visit a friend of mine named 'BoardGameGeek' in the land known as Internet to find other options." You are disappointed to hear this, but you feel as though you have made the correct decision. (Go to #9.)

5. Manager answers, "You may find it worthwhile to buy this game, but maybe not. Death Angel's theme involves playing out a futuristic gun battle between space marines and aliens known as Genestealers. How does that sound?" How do you answer?
a. "That sounds really cool!" (Go to #6.)
b. "That doesn't sound like something my group would enjoy." (Go to #8.)

6. Manger answers, "Very good, my friend. Death Angel is largely a card game with a few markers and one die. There is no board -- not even a player mat. There are no fancy figurines. How does that sound?" How do you answer?
a. "That's OK with me -- it makes the game more portable and keeps the price lower." (Go to #10.)
b. "That doesn't sound like something my group would enjoy. My group really likes a nice board and some components." (Go to #11.)
c. "Did you say a die? Hold on there; my group doesn't go for rolling dice." (Go to #12.)

7. Manager answers, "A cooperative game is one where the players work as a group to defeat 'the game.' The group either wins or loses as one team. Does that sound like something you and your companions would enjoy?" How do you answer?
a. "That sounds cool." (Go to #5.)
b. "That doesn't sound like something my group would enjoy." (Go to #3.)

8. Manager answers "You were wise to speak with me first, my friend. This game will not serve your purposes. If you don't already own them, you may want to consider Pandemic, Shadows Over Camelot or Saboteur." You may also want to visit a friend of mine named 'BoardGameGeek' in the land known as Internet to find other options." (Go to #9.)

9. You leave Manager's merchant stall. You feel good about the decision you made. As you mount your steed (start your car), you look up to see that the stall has disappeared -- it now appears to be a seller of poor-quality armor (a Radio Shack). You stare in disbelief, but then hear Manager's voice. "Do not fear young adventurer. I will return again when I am needed." You ride away, vowing to return to the wise merchant in the future. (The end.)

10. Manager answers "It sounds as though you and your companions would enjoy Death Angel. Furthermore, Death Angel is enjoyable solitaire if necessary. Please meet me at the front of my merchant stall if you would like to complete your purchase." (Go to #9.)

11. Manager answers "You were wise to speak with me first, my friend. This game will not serve your purposes. If you don't already own it, you may want to consider Shadows Over Camelot." You may also want to visit a friend of mine named 'BoardGameGeek' in the land known as Internet to find other options." (Go to #9.)

12. Manager answers "You were wise to speak with me first, my friend. This game will not serve your purposes. If you don't already own it, you may want to consider Pandemic." You may also want to visit a friend of mine named 'BoardGameGeek' in the land known as Internet to find other options." (Go to #9.)

Happy Valentine's Game

I've put myself on a gaming-buying moratorium to try to slim my spending. So I was especially thrilled that Gillian gave me two games for Valentine's Day.

First up, she gave me No Thanks! from Z-Man Games. It's a card game with fairly simple rules. The boys and I were able to learn the game quickly when we played two games Tuesday afternoon. I managed to win both games.

She also gave me Loot by Gamewright. I haven't had a chance to read the rules, but it looks like a fun little game.

I'm planning on taking both games to Jamaica next month and trying them out with Gillian's family.

Thinking about Jamaica

The snow has me thinking a lot about my spring break trip to Jamaica. Taking a stack of games isn't an option, so I'm thinking of card games that I can take.

I'm planning on taking Space Hulk: Death Angel, since I can play it solitaire. I'm also planning on taking Chrononauts or Early American Chrononauts and EcoFluxx, since they're easy to teach and fast to play.

I'm considering picking up a new card game or two prior to the trip. I'm especially intrigued by Fairy Tale by Z-Man Games. A couple of other Z-Man card games, Archeology and No Thanks also seem interesting and get good reviews at BoardGameGeek. Asmadi Game's Innovation is one of the hottest titles at BoardGameGeek. It may be a little too complex for relaxing in the sun, though.

I'll also bring a couple of decks of cards for traditional card games. I've been wanting to learn to play cribbage. If Gillian's parents are interested in joining in, I told Gillian that I'd teach them whist.

Aside from card games, I'll probably play some solitaire games at Wargameroom. If Al has some spare time, I'd like to try to connect online and play. There are a lot of good choices there.

Start Getting Counted

Like most other web pages, Blogspot records all kinds of information about visitors. As of today, I've had over 1,000 page views from all over the world -- Germany, China, Spain and, of course, the US. Yesterday I decided to add a visual representation in the bottom right corner of the page. The Flag Counter tracks visits and shows them with the visitors' countries' flags. Unfortunately, the counter started fresh when I installed it yesterday, so the numbers will be a little depressing for awhile. Hopefully, I'll have lots of flags soon.

Death Angel

Not much gaming going on -- too much work and too much bad weather.

I did have a chance to try out Fantasy Flight's Death Angel: The Card Game. The game allows for solo or cooperative play in the Warhammer 40k universe. The player(s) control space marines fighting their way through a ship filled with Genestealers. I had picked the game up the first week of January using a 50%-off coupon at Borders. With the coupon it was about $10.

I'll write a more complete review after I've had a chance to play a few more games, but it was tension-filled and fairly streamlined, which are the two most important factors in a solitaire game. Patrick was playing Wii while I was playing the game, and the tension must have been evident in my grumbling, since he kept asking "Dad, did you die?"

I haven't played Space Hulk (which is what the game is loosely based upon). I think Space Hulk looks like a cooler game (for any groups wanting a game with the sci-fi-dungeon craw theme). But it only supports two players, plus it's out of print and quite expensive (over $100) on the secondary market.

Death Angel: The Card Game also lacks the traitor mechanic, found, for example, in Shadows Over Camelot, Battlestar Galactica and Saboteur. Cooperative games without the traitor mechanic, such as Pandemic, run the risk of becoming group puzzles, where one player takes over, telling the others what to do during their turn -- and ruining the fun. The traitor mechanic not only keeps this from happening (since players are required to maintain a certain level of secrecy), but it adds a psychological demension that resembles poker.

So, while I had a good time with the game, I don't know that it's a must-have for most gamers.