Thursday, May 31, 2012

Summer Plans

So, I've got a busy summer ahead... 
  • my eldest son turns 11 next Tuesday (wow - where did the time go?!)
  • he & I leave for CentriKid camp less than a week after that
  • my wife & I celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary on June 16th
  • the church I pastor will host our annual Vacation Bible School starting the day after Father's Day
  • I reach the 48 year milestone at the end of June
  • the boys have daily swim lessons in June & July
  • my youngest son has a speech class for six weeks
  • we've got a camping trip in the planning stages for late July/early August
  • the boys have earned tickets to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom which we need to use before the summer is over
  • our homeschool year starts in early/mid-August
  • and NewLife's yearly Family Camp is Labor Day weekend
That doesn't count, of course, being a dad & a husband & a pastor & a regular host of a gaming group.

Or writing this blog... which is really where I was headed with this post. This summer, I'll be attempting to:
  • finish Mark's Top 100 Games (I got to #50 just as I left for the Gathering of Friends)
  •  write up my Gathering of Friends experience
  • do some serious ruminating about chronological snobbery, sex, and Pierce Pettis so aptly called "unoriginal sin"
  • revisit some classic older posts that need updating - most importantly, Heroscape for Beginners
  • add a couple of new posts to my series on paying attention to the man behind the curtain - in other words, your pastor
  • writing some more game reviews - including Abaddon, Dragon Valley, The Rivals for Catan: Age of Darkness, and others
Here's hoping I get some of that done!

First Impressions - 7 Wonders: Cities

  • Designer:  Antoine Bauza 
  • Publisher:  Repos Production
  • Time:  30 minutes (45-60 minutes for the team game)
  • Ages:  10 and up
  • # of players:  2-8 
  • Times Played: 3 with a pre-production copy
The real trick for any expansion is to, well, expand the scope of the game in some way that doesn’t mess up the goodness of the original creation. In the case of 7 Wonders, that means you have to add more choices to the game without adding extraneous fiddly rules and/or mechanics – the streamlined nature of the base game is a key part of its popularity.

I’m happy to say that the Cities expansion does exactly that – possibly better than the already published Leaders expansion (which I enjoy as well). 7 Wonders: Cities adds new cards to each age deck to expand the initial hand to 8 cards. These black-faced cards are the dark underbelly of civilization expansion: spies, gambling dens, mercenary forces, cemeteries, black markets & the like. Rather than adding particular cards based on the number of players (as in the base game), these cards are added randomly – shuffle each set of Cities cards and add as many cards are there are players in the game. Most of the new cards cost money – so, for example, you can ramp up your military at a faster pace if you’re willing to risk running short of cash.

Living on the edge financially may or may not be a good idea, though, thanks to one of the new concepts in the game: debt. There are now cards (and wonder steps) which cause the other players in the game to lose money – and if they go into the negative, they are forced to take on debt tokens (similar to military defeat tokens).

The other new game concept is diplomacy. Certain cards (and wonder steps) enable players to receive an embassy – which forces them to bow out of the next combat resolution. Their two neighboring players now attack each other!

Of course, there are two new Wonders in the Cities expansion: Petra (which is money-hungry) and Bzyantium (which is peace-loving). There are also new Leader cards that work with the Cities cards as well as three new Guilds.

Finally, the expansion includes rules for team play. Similar to Ticket to Ride: Asia, partners sit next to each other – but in this version, they share hand information and can plot which cards to send on to their partner. There are some slight changes to combat resolution (affected by the new diplomacy rules) but otherwise the gameplay is not substantially different than the original game.

I played one “normal” four player game with the expansion – and we never saw a diplomacy card. I found the uncertainty added spice to my decisions – until the hands had passed completely around, I wasn’t sure how or if my plans were going to work.

I also played two “team” games – one with 4 players & one with 6 players. The team rules make the game a bit longer (45 minutes to an hour) but there still isn’t a great deal of downtime. The added minutes are spent consulting with your partner and speculating about how best to maximize what you’ve been given.

As I said at the beginning of this “first impression”, I think that this is the best expansion (so far!) for 7 Wonders. Even if you’re not a fan of the 7 Wonders: Leaders expansion, I think there’s a lot to like here.

This first impression was originally published on the Opinionated Gamers website.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Five & Dime 2011: So Long & Thanks for All the Stats

The Five & Dime reports for 2011 are done – all gone, bye bye, woo hoo, see ya.

For those of you who somehow missed the deluge of posts on the Opinionated Gamers website, here’s a recap:
The  extended lists and some really nifty graphic ways of looking at games over time are right here on aka pastor guy:

Thank You!

I also need to say a huge “Thank you” to the 306 folks who made this possible – those of you of obsessive-compulsive types (like me!) who can’t play a game without jotting down something in your notebook or smart phone. Without you, the Five & Dime Lists don’t exist.

As well, I want to thank the good folks over at Board Game Geek for building, maintaining & riding herd over the wonderful site that helps a lot of us feed the obsession… ahem, enjoy our hobby to the fullest!

Finally, thank you to the Opinionated Gamers writing staff & our Chief Surgeon/Editor/Bottle Washer (Dale Yu) for letting me eat up a week plus of OG time with this stuff – you guys are the best!

Five & Dime 2011: Wide Angle Lens (The BGG Top Twenty-Five)

Using the BGG Top 100 games (as of Wednesday, May 30th, 2012)... here's the "wide angle" graphs for the top twenty-five games that have been around 4+ years. (To get to 25 games whilst skipping those with a shorter track record, I actually ended up listing 36 games. Sue me.)

Yes, I just did this a few months ago with the 2010 stats... but it was worth updating.

#1: Twilight Struggle








#2: Agricola






#3: Puerto Rico

#4: Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization







#5: Power Grid (includes Funkenschlag & expansions)











#6: Le Havre





#8: Brass






#10: Caylus








#11: Dominion





#13: El Grande














#14: Race for the Galaxy






#15: Euphrat & Tigris














#16: War of the Ring








#20: Battlestar Galactica





#22: Paths of Glory














#24: Command & Colors: Ancients







#25: Age of Steam










#26: Princes of Florence













#27: Twilight Imperium (all editions)








#28: Stone Age





#29: Combat Commander






#30: Goa









#32: Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage














#33: Crokinole














#36: Here I Stand






Not included:
  • #7: Eclipse (2011)
  • #9: Dominion: Intrigue (2009) - play stats compiled w/Dominion
  • #12: 7 Wonders (2010)
  • #17: Mage Knight: Board Game (2011)
  • #18: Puerto Rico: Limited Anniversary Edition (2011) - play stats compiled w/Puerto Rico (of course)
  • #19: Ora et Labora (2011)
  • #21: Dominant Species (2010)
  • #23: Steam (2009)
  • #31: The Castles of Burgundy (2011) 
  • #34: Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game (2010)
  • #35: Troyes (2010)

Five & Dime 2011: Wide Angle Lens (Four Year Pix)

These graphs cover 2011 (top bar) through 2008 (bottom bar). The bar is the percentage of players reporting who played the game 5+ times in the given year. The games here first appeared on the Five & Dime lists in 2008.
 
Battlestar Galactica





Dominion





Ghost Stories





In the Year of the Dragon





Le Havre





Roll Through The Ages: The Bronze Age





Sorry! Sliders





Space Alert





Stone Age




Five & Dime 2011: Wide Angle Lens (Five Year Pix)

These graphs cover 2011 (top bar) through 2007 (bottom bar). The bar is the percentage of players reporting who played the game 5+ times in the given year. The games here first appeared on the Five & Dime lists in 2007.
 
Agricola






Bananagrams






Brass






Galaxy Trucker






Kingsburg






Notre Dame






Pandemic






Race for the Galaxy






Vikings






Zooloretto





Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Five & Dime 2011: Wide Angle Lens (Six Year Pix)

These graphs cover 2011 (top bar) through 2006 (bottom bar). The bar is the percentage of players reporting who played the game 5+ times in the given year. The games here first appeared on the Five & Dime lists in 2006.
 
Battlelore







Blue Moon City







Command & Colors: Ancients







Mr. Jack







Pillars of the Earth







Qwirkle







R-Eco







Thebes/Jenseits von Theben







Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization







Thurn and Taxis







Tier auf Tier/Animal Upon Animal







To Court A King







Twilight Struggle







Yspahan






Five & Dime 2011: Wide Angle Lens (Seven Year Pix)

These graphs cover 2011 (top bar) through 2005 (bottom bar). The bar is the percentage of players reporting who played the game 5+ times in the given year. The games here first appeared on the Five & Dime lists in 2005.
 
Ca$h N Gun$








Caylus








Diamant/Incan Gold








Hacienda








Pickomino/Heckmeck im Brautweck








Railroad Tycoon/Rails of Europe








Shadows Over Camelot








That's Life/Verflixxt








Ticket to Ride: Europe








Tsuro








Ubongo








Vegas Showdown








Wits & Wagers (includes Family edition)







Five & Dime 2011: Wide Angle Lens (Eight Year Pix)

These graphs cover 2011 (top bar) through 2004 (bottom bar). The bar is the percentage of players reporting who played the game 5+ times in the given year. The games here first appeared on the Five & Dime lists in 2004.

Blue Moon









Goa









Hansa









Heroscape









Ingenious/Einfach Genial









Memoir '44









No Thanks/Geschenkt









San Juan









Santiago









Saint Petersburg









Ticket To Ride (does not include Marklin or Europe)









Tongiaki