aka pastor guy

The Best of the Rest Games of 2011

2012-02-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Tom Vasel, Eric Summerer & the rest of the Dice Tower crew, I have some new categories to "award" with my personal blog-a-riffic recognition. There are three pages of awards on their site:

page one (the top ten games, good surprises, biggest disapointments, best components),
page two (best art, worst game, best card game, best party game, best war game, best children's game, best family game)
page three (most innovative, strangest game, best expansion, game we wish we would have played, biggest brain burner)

You'll note that there are some games on these lists that didn't appear in my Best of 2011 list - that's because I didn't get to play them until the last few weeks!

Best Game of the Year

While Eric & Tom both picked Star Trek: Fleet Captains (which is kind of an amazing thing in itself), I'll go with Tom's #7 pick - Risk: Legacy. I continue to be amazed at how much fun I'm having each time I play (win or lose) and how much I'm looking forward to the next time it comes to the table. Also kind of proud of naming the Oceania continent "Thunderdome". (BTW, I put Fleet Captains at #10 on my list.)

Best Good Surprise Game of the Year

There's kind of a tie... between two games by the same designer, no less! I'm not always a fan of Friedemann Friese's work... but both the solitaire deck-building game Friday & the streamlining of the Power Grid system as a prehistoric civ-building game with First Sparks hit me right in my sweet spot. Well done, Green-Haired Man!

Biggest Disappointment

While I wanted Small World: Underground to be, well, more something... it was still a good game. (I wish Days of Wonder would make Relics & Places for the surface-dwelling original game, btw.) And Dungeon Run fell flat in my first playing - though I've since found out that we missed a crucial rule that would have made the end game work much better. So, the jury is still out on this much-anticipated game. Sadly, I can't say the same for Reiner Knizia's Star Trek: Expeditions - which is rife with too much math and too little tension. For the guy who essentially set the bar on cooperative games with his still very enjoyable Lord of the Rings, this was a whiff. (Evidently, I'm in a minority - the expansion for Expeditions just released today.)

Best Components

For sheer ooh-aah can't-believe-they-packed-all-those-miniatures-in-the-box, I've got to hand this award to D&D Adventures: The Legend of Drizzt. It's a great one hour cooperative dungeon crawl that focuses on the coolest part of every adventure - facing the big boss in a fight to the death. (Gamer note: I have played Castle Ravenloft - which I didn't like as much as Drizzt - and have not played Wrath of Ashardalon.)

Best Art

There was a lot of great art direction/graphics to enjoy this year... but I'm going to have to honor Summoner Wars: Master Set for using evocative yet not overpowering card art that makes it easier to differentiate the cards upside-down (a real need in this game). I also want to give Colby & his gang of henchmen props for creating a graphic design for the cards that works cleanly & brilliantly.

Worst Game

For me, the worst game of 2011 was the party game Ticked Off! It's an attempt at gamer-friendly Scattegories with a nice twist (having two categories in play at one time) that is ruined by a "smart people need to play dumb & game the system" rule. An honorable mention goes to Urban Sprawl - which would be a perfectly fine game if it lasted an hour but three hours of think-y tactical decisions ruined by a bad card draw is way too long.

Best Card Game

I didn't actually discover the best card game of 2011 until the end of January 2012... and that is Tom Lehmann's splendid filler game The City. Hopefully there will be an English edition soon - but the German on the cards hasn't slowed down my sons from playing it (and enjoying it immensely). It's a simpler, quicker take on the Race for the Galaxy "pay for your play with cards from your hand" that has a variety of victory paths and a very short playing time (15-20 minutes). I played my first game on Saturday... and have played 7 more times in the following three days.

Best Party Game

This wasn't a big year for party games... but my family really enjoyed Say Anything: Family Edition. It ditches the questionable questions (those designed to invoke off-color answers), adds some more kid-friendly questions & streamlines the game a bit.

Best War Game

I'm an old-school wargamer - I cut my teeth on Wooden Ships & Iron Men, the first edition of AH's Third Reich, and the original Squad Leader - but I haven't really been a hex-and-chit wargamer for a very long time. Of course, I realize my pick for Best War Game is not going to go over well with that crowd... as I'm smitten with the Memoir '44 Campaign Book: Volume II. This wonderful book is icing on the oh-so-yummy cake of my favorite game in the Command & Colors system.

Best Children's Game

Though I think that the expansion for The Magic Labyrinth (sadly only published in Germany, so far) is delightful, the best kid game of the year is the dexterity/speed game, Monster-Falle. Whimsical art, nifty game play... and it even has easy ways to vary the difficulty & handicap the game. Chasing monsters out of the house is fun for kids - and for adults!

Best Family Game

I sometimes wonder exactly what kind of families gamers have in mind when they choose their "best family games". They certainly don't have my two gamer sons (ages 6 & 10) and my decidedly non-gamer wife. Anyway, my choice focuses on being the best game for MY family... and that is certainly Castle Panic with the Wizard's Tower expansion. We can play the cooperative version with my wife... and then the boys & I can enjoy the Overlord "1 vs the rest" version.

Most Innovative

Oh, man... 2011 was a big year for innovation. The Ares Project found new ways to portray futuristic combat in RTS style... and Ascending Empires managed to do the same thing in a completely different (and new!) way. Quarriors is the first dice-building game. But my pick of this excellent bunch is the wonder that is Risk: Legacy - come on, people! A game that insists that you deface the board, tear up cards, and reveals rules only after multiple plays... there's been nothing like this before. Nothing.

Strangest Game

Well, in Monster-Falle, you're pushing monsters into a hole in the floor. Gubs has you doing some very strange things to save your tiny slug-people. Friday is about keeping Robinson Crusoe alive long enough to defeat the pirates & get him the heck off your island. But none of those touch the weirdness that is LEGO Ninjago - which could just as easily have been called "LEGO Whirling Dervish-ago" or "LEGO License To Print Money Off the Backs Of My Children's Allowance".

Best Expansion

This was a great year for expansions: 7 Wonders: Leaders (which did added some neat twists w/out bogging down the game), Saboteur 2 (which fixed the mess that was the original Saboteur), Claustrophobia: De Profundis (which gave us more of what we wanted - a lot more!), Innovation: Echoes of the Past (some sweet new mechanics to add to the variety), Dice Town: Extension (which increased the options for clever play & chaos), and the myriad of Summoner Wars, Fresco & Tannhauser expansions. I've already mentioned Castle Panic: The Wizard's Tower - which turns a very good family cooperative into a great gamer/family cooperative - so I'll go with the one-two punch of Catacombs: Caverns of Soloth & Catacombs: Dark Passageways. The first added a dungeon full of new monsters & heroes... making the game more interesting & more varied. The second was simply a deck of cards that spiced up the system & made it less predicable - a fault if you're playing a Euro game, but a bonus for a dungeon crawl.

Biggest Brain Burner

I don't play brain-burning games much any more... but two new games managed to bamfoozle me in 2011. My problems with Eminent Domain have primarily to do when & how I learned it - mid-gaming weekend w/little sleep & inadequate nutrition - rather than the game itself. (I'd like to try it again.) But my brain is still trying to get a handle of Rails of New England - it's not the rules, per se, but what the heck I would/could do to be more successful. I know it's not a REAL brain-burner (like, say, Dia de los Muertos) but it certainly made my head spin.

Game I Wish I Would Have Played

There's a long list of games from 2011 on my "must try" list: Eclipse, Ora et Labora, Blood Bowl: Team Manager, Core Worlds, Olympos, Airlines Europe, Conquest of Planet Earth, Walnut Grove, Nefarious, Helvetia, Hawaii, Coney Island... but the one I most regret not playing is Dungeon Petz. I love the predecessor to this game (Dungeon Lords) and I think Vlaada Chvátil is a wonderfully creative designer - so I'm going to try to fix this omission as soon as possible.

Hunger

2012-02-01T15:26:00.000-08:00

Fritos (part one)

I like Fritos... a lot. There's something about their fried corn-y goodness that makes my mouth water. It doesn't hurt, of course, that they put some kind of secret ingredient that causes me to eat an entire bag of them - they're not one of those "oh, I'll just have a couple, thanks" foods.

The problem is that, well, Fritos don't like me. More specifically, they are involved in a secret plot along with my stomach to betray my body & manufacture huge amounts of stomach acid. It's not pretty.

So, I have a hunger or desire for something that is wrong for me - bad wrong. Incapacitate me temporarily & potentially do long-term damage to my esophagus kind of wrong.

I'm betting you won't be surprised by the lesson I draw from this - but that's not going to stop me from writing about it anyway: Just because you hunger/long for something or someone doesn't make it right.

And as long as we apply it to other people, it's easy to see. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that just because someone wants to cheat on their spouse - just because they feel a strong emotional attachment & a burning physical desire - does not mean that adultery is a good idea. Or even a marginally bad idea. It's sin.

But when we look at our own longings, all we can see is the gaping hole of need in our lives. All we can hear is the sound of our hearts grumbling with hunger for something that feels good right now.

And our hunger - like my hunger for Fritos - fools us into destructive choices. We make sinful decisions that, in the short term, take us away from God & those we love... and potentially destroy marriages, careers, families & our chance to tell other people about Jesus.

The Pantry (part two)

We need instead to cultivate a hunger - a desire - for the right things. And the only way that happens to stock the metaphorical pantry of our lives with "the good stuff":

Help me abandon my shameful ways; for your regulations are good. I long to obey your commandments! Renew my life with your goodness. (Psalm 119:39-40, NLT)
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matthew 5:6, NIV)
Jesus replied, I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never be hungry, and he who believes in and cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me will never thirst any more (at any time). (John 6:35, AMP)
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (John 7:37-38, NLT)

A version of this post originally appeared in the Grapevine newsletter of NewLife Community Church.

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (The BGG Top Twenty-Five)

2012-01-20T10:09:00.000-08:00

Using the BGG Top 100 games (as of Thursday, January 19th, 2012)... here's the "wide angle" graphs for the top twenty-five games that have been around 4+ years.

#1: Twilight Struggle

#2: Agricola

#3: Puerto Rico

#4: Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

#5: Power Grid (includes Funkenschlag & expansions)

#7: Brass

#10: Caylus

#13: El Grande

#14: Race for the Galaxy

#15: Euphrat & Tigris

#16: War of the Ring

#19: Paths of Glory

#21: Command & Colors: Ancients

#22: Age of Steam

#23: Princes of Florence

#24: Combat Commander

Not included:

#6: Le Havre (2008)
#8: Dominion: Intrigue (2009)
#9: Dominion (2008)
#11: Eclipse (2011)
#12: 7 Wonders (2010)
#17: Dominant Species (2010)
#18: Battlestar Galactica (2008)
#20: Steam (2009)
#25: Stone Age (2008)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Four Year Pix)

2012-01-19T09:27:00.000-08:00

These graphs cover 2010 (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

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Five Year Pix)

2012-01-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

These graphs cover 2010 (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 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Six Year Pix)

2012-01-19T09:13:00.000-08:00

These graphs cover 2010 (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 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Seven Year Pix)

2012-01-19T09:06:00.000-08:00

These graphs cover 2010 (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

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Eight Year Pix)

2012-01-19T08:54:00.000-08:00

These graphs cover 2010 (top bar) through 2003 (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 2003.

10 Days in the _____/Europa Tour

Age of Steam

Alhambra

Amun-Re

Attika

Balloon Cup

Coloretto

Fearsome Floors

Gulo Gulo

Hey! That's My Fish/Pingvinas

King's Breakfast

Paris Paris

Rumis

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Nine Year Pix)

2012-01-19T08:21:00.000-08:00

These graphs cover 2010 (top bar) through 2002 (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 2002.

Alles im Eimer/The Bucket King

Bang! (includes expansions)

Blokus

Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation

Power Grid (includes Funkenschlag & expansions)

Puerto Rico

Street Soccer

TransAmerica (includes TransEuropa)

Trendy (includes Crazy Race/Horse Fair)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Ten Year Pix)

2012-01-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

These graphs cover 2009 (top bar) through 2001 (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 2001.

Africa

Catch Phrase

Dvonn

Flowerpower

Hick Hack im Gackelwack/Pick Picknic

Royal Turf/Winner's Circle

San Marco

Traumfabrik/Hollywood Blockbuster/Dream Factory

Werewolf

Wyatt Earp

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Eleven Year Pix)

2012-01-19T07:57:00.000-08:00

These graphs cover 2010 (top bar) through 2000 (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 2000.

Battle Cry (AH)

Carcassonne (includes expansions but not stand-alone "cousins")

Cartagena (includes Cartagena 2)

Citadels

Lord of the Rings (includes expansions)

Princes of Florence

Taj Mahal

Tichu

Web of Power (includes China)

Zertz

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Twelve Year Pix)

2012-01-19T07:42:00.000-08:00

These graphs cover 2010 (top bar) through 1999 (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 first Five & Dime list in 1999.

Apples to Apples

Crokinole

Loopin' Louie

Lost Cities

Mamma Mia (includes Sole Mio)

Ricochet Robot(s)

Schotten-Totten/Battleline

Union Pacific

Zirkus Flohcati

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Thirteen Year Pix)

2012-01-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

This is Year Thirteen - and that means that these graphs continue to get better at showing patterns of repeated play. (Note: this graph - along with the rest of the 2010 graphs - should have been posted last spring. These are NOT the graphs for the 2011 Five & Dime.)

These graphs cover 2010 (top bar) through 1998 (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 first Five & Dime list in 1998, though many of them were released before that.

Acquire

Bohnanza (includes expansions)

Can't Stop

Carabande (includes Pitchcar)

El Grande

Euphrat & Tigris

For Sale

Formula De (includes Formula De Mini & Formula D)

Guillotine

Liar's Dice (includes Perudo)

Medici

Metro (includes Iron Horse & Cable Car)

Mu & Mehr

Samurai

Schnäppchen Jagd/Bargain Hunter

Settlers of Catan (includes expansions but not stand-alone "cousins")

Settlers of Catan Card Game (includes The Rivals for Catan)

Showmanager (includes Atlantic Star)

Take 6/6 Nimmt/Slide 5

Take It Easy

Through the Desert

this is not a political blog...

2012-01-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

...but every once in a while, it drops in my lap.

And, no surprise, it's the people we elected who have written a vague piece of legislation to "cure" a problem... SOPA and PIPA are like handing out flamethrowers to kill flies.

Want to know more? You can start with the EFF site.

Today is Internet Blackout Day... but I am NOT a web guru with mad skillz, so you're going to have to settle for the graphic at the top of the page.

Best New (to me!) Games of 2011

2012-01-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

I really, really wanted to make this a top ten list… but then, thanks to the magic of Christmas, I had to add one more. So, I used my board game blogging superpowers to smoosh two of the games into one entry. (Next, I’ll leap a tall building in a single bound in order to stop an argument between rules lawyers… I have promised to use my powers for good.)

You’ll notice that there’s a BUNCH of sci-fi/fantasy games on here… it’s been a really great year for those of you who like that kind of thing.

10. Battleship: Galaxies AND Star Trek: Fleet Captains

I am so glad I own both of these games… and yet, they just don’t get to the table as much as I want. In fact, after an initial flurry of play when I first received Fleet Captains, it hasn’t made it’s way out again. Battleship: Galaxies has seen more sustained play, but pretty much just because my 10 year old son loves it.

While they both share the whole sci-fi/space vibe, they’re very different games. Fleet Captains is an immersive Klingon vs Federation adventure in the Star Trek universe. (In my review here on the Opinionated Gamers, I called it “an experience game” and dubbed it “Dungeonquest in Space”.) Battleship: Galaxies, on the other hand, is a starship combat game that utilizes energy points to limit how many ships and/or action cards you can power each turn.

At the same time, they have some similarities: they both look great when they’re set up… and both take a lot of time to get set up. (Both games have some pretty serious deck-building decisions front-loaded during game prep… which makes both games tougher to teach than they are to play.) Both games have a detailed mythos that adds to the flavor… and both are lacking something.

In the case of Battleship: Galaxies, it’s a crying need for scenarios that vary up the basic “charge or turtle” decision inherent in any combat game. The five scenarios provided with the game are just not enough, Hasbro!
In the case of Star Trek: Fleet Captains, it’s the need to expand into the huge universe… it’s past due for some Romulans & the Borg.

9. Quarriors

I acknowledge that Quarriors has problems (tiny dice that are sometimes hard to read, for example)… and that it’s especially prone to slow to a crawl with gamers who want to min-max their probabilities. That said, I’ve had a blast every time I’ve played it with my son… it’s fast, it’s funny, there’s a lot of interesting things to do, you get to cheer and/or boo your dice rolls, and I find myself smiling when I play.

The new game to compare this to is probably King of Tokyo – which I also enjoyed but felt like I was much more at the mercy of the dice & the foibles of the other players. So, though it made me laugh as well, I’d pick Quarriors.

8. The Struggle for Catan

I was worried that this would be the card game equivalent of the Catan Dice Game… that it would have the thematic trappings without any of the fun of the (still wonderful) original Settlers of Catan. Thankfully, I was wrong.

It’s not a deep game, mind you – it’s a filler card game that romps along at a nice clip, with a nice mix of “take that”, hoarding resources & a few special ability buildings thrown in for good measure.

Not only does it play in under 30 minutes with 2-4 players, it also works well with 2, 3 or 4.

7. City Square Off

Do not let the fact that I’ve been friends with the designer (Ted Cheatham) for over 12 years keep you from trying this lovely two-player Tetris-y game. It’s a quick filler that everyone from my six-year-old to my mom has enjoyed.

And the most important point for many who read the website is what I said in my review: “My non-gamer wife voluntarily taught the game to one of her friends.”

6. The Rivals for Catan

I want to put this higher up on the list – I’m a long-time fan of the original game & (as I said in my Opinionated Gamers review) I think the new version improves on an already tremendous game. The problem with ranking it higher is, well, opportunities to play the game. I’ve got a couple of folks who are willing to sit down for 60-90 minutes of building our kingdoms… but more recent advances in “card game technology” make it harder & harder for that to happen.

I will say that the recently released expansion, Age of Darkness, adds some really nifty twists with buildings you can put in your opponent’s kingdom & cards that are tied to regions rather than settlements/cities.

And, yes, this is the first of three games on this list that was actually published in 2010… but I didn’t play until 2011.

5. Innovation

This new-to-me game barely made it onto the list – I only received my copy of the game a couple of days after Christmas – but I am utterly taken with this extremely random & wholly tactical civilization building card game.

That’s right, I said it: if the cards don’t fall right for you, you can be in serious trouble. But, since a 2 player game of Innovation only takes about 30 minutes, I don’t find that to be as frustrating as some other folks do. In fact, I’m willing to trade the swing-y randomness of the game for the multitude of card powers & combos… and with that plethora of options, the ability to create some truly awesome plays.

One quality of a great game, by the way, is as follows: “A great game gives players the opportunity to make moves/plays that they can delight in… even if those moves/plays don’t win them the game.” (I’m quoting myself… which is the last step before falling into the Bob Dole-ish morass of 3rd person self-referential.) Innovation is stuffed to the gills with those kind of opportunities.

I’ve played one game with the expansion, Echoes of the Past, and I think I need to back up & play with the base game a little more. There’s nothing wrong with it – I like the concepts of Echo & Foreshadow – but there’s so much to track that I found it easy to get lost.

I feel the need to say one negative thing… the special achievement cards have a horrible choice for a background that renders them unreadable across the table.

4. The Ares Project

I’m a sad, sad example of a computer gamer… the last RTS game I played was Warcraft II. I didn’t even manage to purchase the original Starcraft… which is the basis for this fantastic battle card game.

Like Summoner Wars (which we’ll get to in a minute), each faction has a distinctive feel & play style… but unlike Summoner Wars, the differences are so pronounced that each faction in The Ares Project has it’s own mini-rulebook. They produce & use power in different ways, have different units, modify those units with different kinds of cards… even create new units through various methods.

All of this complexity means you have a game with lots of variety… but you also have a game that’s difficult to teach. One of my hopes for 2012 is getting a core group of players “up to speed” so we can knock out battles in short order.

3. Ascending Empires

I’m just going to quote myself (from an Opinionated Gamers review) again:

Ascending Empires has been described by many people (including myself) as a weird & wonderful cross between a dexterity game like Carabande or Catacombs and a space civilization game like Twilight Imperium or Starcraft: the Board Game. There’s two problems with that description:

It’s really a space empire-building game with flicking rather than a flicking game with a space theme. (Flicking is used simply for movement – and unless you’ve managed to ramp up your tech, you don’t actually want to run into other people’s ships.)
Though it is a space empire-building game, it has a playing time of about 75 minutes… which is roughly 1/4 of a game of Twilight Imperium & 1/3 of a game of Starcraft: the Board Game.

And with that said, I want to recommend that you try this game. Right now, if possible.

2. Summoner Wars

Summoner Wars was a “hey, I got an Amazon gift card & I don’t want to spend it on mp3 downloads” post-Christmas purchase last year… well, at least the first two boxes were. Then I went kinda nuts… and a year later, I own everything Plaid Hat Games has published for Summoner Wars.

Which would be kind of stupid if I only played it a couple of times a year (sigh – reference me & my three Plano boxes filled with Battlelore figures)… but I managed to get in 40+ games of Summoner Wars in 2011. I wouldn’t be surprised to get that many games in again in 2012.

In my OG review of the Master Set, I described Summoner Wars as “a fantasy battle board game that involves positional board play, deck & hand management, and dice combat.” What got left out of that description was just how much fun it is to play. There’s a healthy helping of randomness to spice up the game, but there’s also some real skill in playing each faction well… and Colby Dauch (the designer) deserves a mountain of praise for getting such variety out of a simple & straightforward game system.

Even if you don’t like fantasy combat games, you should give this one a try.

1. Risk: Legacy

I’m not sure how to extol the virtues of this wonderous Risk reboot without spoiling some of its well-hidden charms, but I’ll give it a shot.

Risk: Legacy is…

…a product of nearly a decade of experimenting with this classic game system. (It incorporates ideas from Risk 2210 & Risk: Black Ops to make the game shorter & yet packed with thematic touches.)
…an innovative board game concept – something we don’t see nearly as often as we’d like to think. (The whole “open this pack of cards when this happens” way of changing the game is brilliant.)
…a reminder of what was really great about my old RPG days – we’re working together to tell a story about this new world we’re fighting over. (In our case, the founding of Great Humongustan, the DEW line populated with installations left over from the Battle of the Northern Wastes… and most recently, the Cataclysm in Southern Europe.)
…gamer catnip. (Let me explain – each time you get to open a new packet, it feels very similar to the “rush” you get when opening a new game or game expansion. And it not only gives you the “new car smell” effect, the added stuff takes the story of the game in a new direction.)
…fun even for people who don’t particularly like Risk. (One of the guys in our group – the founder of Great Humongustan – is not a fan of “dudes on a map w/dice” games & esp. not a fan of Risk. Yet he’s having a grand time playing Risk: Legacy with us… and even commented the other night when he arrived after a game had started that “it was just fun watching you guys play.”)

Kudos to Rob Davaiu… it is hitting the table EVERY week at our gaming group with people clamoring to play.

And one last thought: even after we finish the 15 game “story arc” (and someone gets to name the world), I can see this board/set being my Risk variant of choice – both to enjoy the memories/history of battles past and because the various tweaks & modifications in this game are really, really nifty. (BTW, this comes from someone who has four other versions of Risk in his collection… yes, it’s that good.)

This post originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website. Review copies were provided for some of the games on this list.

Game Review: The Wizard’s Tower (Castle Panic expansion)

2012-01-09T13:05:00.001-08:00

The Wizard's Tower

Designer: Justin De Witt
Publisher: Fireside Games
Players: 1-6
Ages: 12+
Playing Time: 60 minutes

Review by Mark Jackson on a review copy provided by Fireside Games (5 plays)

Once upon a time, in a clearing in the midst of the monster-filled forest, there sat a castle with the less-than-tourist-ready name of Castle Panic. Of course, the nearby monsters were not happy one bit about the human interlopers & their big stone monstrosity that was messing with their property values & sight lines… so they decided to take care of the problem without resorting to real capital “E” evil. (In other words, lawyers.)

The monster population was more of a do-it-yourself kind of group – Bob Villa in reverse – and so they pelted the walls with giant boulders and sent goblins, orcs & trolls to assault the defenders.

Sadly, though, the human invaders proved to be difficult to eradicate. Every time they managed to knock most of the castle into ruins, they just built it back & dared the monsters to give it another try.

Just a few weeks ago, the monsters decided to get serious. They recruited a plethora of new creatures to their cause, as well as absconding with a trebuchet & the technology to make flaming boulders. Finally, by sacrificing their previous goblin army as dragon snacks, they managed to attract some really big brutes to fight on their side.

At the same time, though, the humans ramped up their defense system by building the local wizard a tower of his own & recruiting him to cast spells on the advancing horde.

The battle lines are set. The forest is teeming with beasties. The wizard’s tower hums with potential power. The game is on.

—–

Here at the Jackson home, we’re big fans of cooperative games. Shari (my wife) and I have been playing Minion Hunter (a classic GDW co-op game set in the Dark America universe) for a long, long time… and we’ve recently taught our boys to join us at Knizia’s Lord of the Rings co-op game. Pandemic & Forbidden Island are also favorites.

So the addition of Castle Panic to my collection a year or so ago was welcome – it was easier to set up than most cooperative games, played quickly and was simple enough that my then-5-year-old could play with the rest of the family. The tile draw/dice roll to place monsters made for a random but very enjoyable cooperative experience.

We also began playing Castle Panic using the “overlord” rules, where one player takes on the role of the evil genius behind the castle attack while the other players try to thwart him. (One of the nice things about the game system is that it works quite well this way with only a few minor rules tweaks.)

So when The Wizard’s Tower showed up on our doorstep, we were predisposed to like a way to expand a well-loved game… and we were not disappointed. In fact, I think the expansion is better than I expected it to be – color me pleasantly surprised!

Monsters

When “installing” the expansion into the game, you dump all of the Goblins (1 hit point monsters) and most of the Orcs (2 hit point monsters) & Trolls (3 hit point monsters) in favor of a wide variety of new monsters: Centaurs, Cyclops, Gargoyles, Golems, Ogres, etc. Many of those monsters have special powers – including invincibility at certain ranges and the power of flight!

Imps have also appeared… based on some monster powers and tokens in the bag, Imps are 1 hit point monsters that can appear in large groups, basically flooding the field of combat.

As well, some of our old “friends” are back with new capabilities – there are Climbing Trolls (who ignore walls) and Goblin Calvary (who move at double speed). There’s also a Trebuchet (which flings a Giant Boulder that hits flying creatures but misses those on the ground)… and then there’s…

Fire!

If you need a soundtrack for this portion of my review, I strongly suggest humming “Burning Down the House” (by the Talking Heads) to yourself.

It turns out there are a lot of flammable items in the game: castle towers, castle walls, Flaming Boulders, the Phoenix… and pretty much every monster out there. (I love the smell of roasting Ogre in the morning.) Fire can damage the attackers… but it also makes your fortifications weaker (monsters attacking a wall or tower on fire don’t take a hit) – sometimes to the point of collapse. Fireside Games has thoughtfully provided a bunch of fire markers that slide onto the side of whatever object is currently engulfed in flame.

Mega-Bosses

One of the niftiest additions to the game is the Mega-Boss concept. Six new very tough monsters can potentially enter the battle:

the Basilisk (who causes players to lose cards & keeps them from drawing Wizard cards
the Chimera (who breathes fire while spiraling toward the castle)
the Dragon (who breathes fire & moves in random ways)
the Hydra (who sprouts Imps every time you hit him)
the Necromancer (who puts dead Monsters back into the draw bag)
the Warlock (who is impervious to Wizard cards & moves in random ways)

All of them have 4 or 5 hits… which means they have special tokens for the playing field. They also have Harbinger tokens in the same shape as the rest of the monsters. When preparing to play you randomly draw 3 of the 6 Harbinger tokens and dump them into the bag – meaning each game you’ll be facing a slightly different crew of Mega-Bosses.

The Wizard’s Tower

With all of that firepower coming in, the players need some kind of way to counteract the badness… and that’s where the Wizard’s Tower comes in to play. One of the regular towers from the base game is replaced with a taller (and cooler looking!) Wizard’s Tower – and as long as it’s still standing, players may use their “discard & draw” action to draw a card from the Wizard deck. This deck of 22 cards has a wide variety of high-powered actions that you can use to slow down or destroy the attackers.

Other Stuff

There are 10 new cards for the Castle deck (with some nifty new powers) as well as some helpful reference cards.

And there’s a draw bag – with monster eyes. (I know, I know… it’s not that big of a deal – but it’s a really cute draw bag & I’m glad they stuck it in here.)

In My Ever-So-Humble Opinion

First, I’d like to say a big “thank you” to Fireside Games for creating an expansion that is actually worth the dollars you pay for it. (Yes, Fresco #7: The Scrolls, I see you grinning sheepishly in the corner.) This box is packed full of stuff that, with the exception of the draw bag (which I’ll once again mention I really like) is not just cosmetic fluff.

On the other hand, while Castle Panic with The Wizard’s Tower isn’t a complicated game by gamer standards, it’s definitely a bit more challenging to learn with a number of special rules. The icons on the monster tokens work well… once you’ve played 2-3 games… but there are a lot of small details to remember.

But since I’m playing mental ping pong writing this, I want to point out that my boys (ages 10 & 6) have done just fine with the expansion… which leads me to believe that this expansion will work best with at least one experienced player and/or gamer at the table to help the group work through the rules on the fly.

I’m personally taken by the art on the new tokens – there’s a lot more color here. In fact, the greater level of variety between the powers of the monsters & the visual look of the game is a big plus for the game system.

My only gripe is that we have found the game a bit too easy as outlined in the rules… and so have begun experimenting with adding 4 Mega-Bosses to the bag at the beginning of the game. Our first game played this way was a nail-biter!

If you enjoyed the original game but wanted more variety from game to game, this expansion will provide that by the cartload. I’m glad it’s a part of our collection!

This review originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

Five & Dime 2011: This Time It's Personal

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

Here's my own personal Five & Dime list (the games I've played 5+ and 10+ times in 2011). As I did last year, I decided to break the games into three categories. (Games with an asterisk [*] were on my Five & Dime list last year... and games with two asterisk [**] have been on my list for the past two years.)

Face-to-Face (not predominately with kids)

DIMES

Summoner Wars 41 (10 with the Master Set)
Memoir '44 27 *
7 Wonders 19
Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age 16 **
Numeri 15
Race for the Galaxy 12 *
Abandon Ship 10
City Square Off 10
Heroscape 10 *
Scrabble 10

NICKELS

DungeonQuest 9 **
Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game 9
Tannhäuser 9
Claustrophobia 8
Castle Panic 7 *
Catacombs 7 *
Flowerpower 7
Small World 7 **
Ticket to Ride 7
Ascending Empires 6
Cargo Noir 6
The Downfall of Pompeii 6 *
Loopin' Louie 6
The Ares Project 5
Battleship Galaxies: The Saturn Offensive 5
Clash of the Gladiators 5
Fresco 5
Pandemic 5
Risk: Legacy 5
The Rivals for Catan 5
The Struggle for Catan 5
To Court the King 5
Zooloretto 5

Online (games played versus online players through yucata.de, mastermoves.eu, brettspielwelt.de & Michael Schacht's site)

NICKELS

Web of Power/China 6

Kids (played primarily with kids)

DIMES

GUBS: A Game of Wit and Luck 13
Animal Upon Animal: Balancing Bridge 11

NICKELS

Monster 4 9
The Magic Labyrinth 8 *
Funny Bunny 7
Heckmeck Junior 7
Kinder Bunnies: Their First Adventure 7
LEGO Heroica 6
Hop Hop Hooray! 6 **
Inspektor Hase 6
Cars 2 Sorry Sliders: World Grand Prix Race Edition 5
Gib Gummi! 5
Knock Your Blocks Off 5
Walter Wick Can You See What I See? 5 **
Whoowasit? 5

Five & Dime 2010: Recap

2012-01-01T12:18:00.000-08:00

I realized this morning that as I got ready to post about the 2011 edition of The Five & Dime Report on BGG that I hadn't posted the recap for last year. So, here it is.

I first began keeping track of the Five & Dime lists back in 1999... and here it is, 2011. Meaning I've been doing this for thirteen (13) years. Either I'm very thorough or verging on OCD. (You choose.)

Here's the all the links for the 2010 Five & Dime reports (which are scattered between this blog & the Opinionated Gamers website).

Kid Game Review: Robin Hound

2011-12-14T15:28:00.000-08:00

Robin Hound

designer: Eugene Wyss
publisher: Haba
date: 2010
BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/6.33
olayers: 2-5
ages: 6+
playing time: 20 minutes
print status: in print
cost: $10.79 (maukilo.com)

It appears we've been sold a bill of goods when it comes to the legend of Robin Hood. Evidently, he is not a human (as portrayed brilliantly by Errol Flynn & much less brilliantly by Kevin Costner) nor is he a fox (as the Walt Disney Company tried to convince us)... he's a dog. A hound - Robin Hound.

And if he's going to loot the castle at Nottingham, he's going to need to gather a band of merry, um, animals. Or, in the case of the game, you're going to have to gather five of them with the help of your fellow players.

The "board" is actually a layout of tiles - a circle of forest tiles with a larger castle tile as the start space/goal. Players place their hound markers on the space, the card deck (with 6 different kinds of animals) is shuffled and two cards are dealt face up in the center of the table.

In turn, players pick up one of the two face-up cards and either

keep it in their own hand (if it doesn't match anything they already have) OR
give it to another player

A number of the cards have shields on them which denotes that they can only be given to another player.

If you give a card to an opponent that doesn't match any of his cards, you get to move your hound through the forest as many spaces as he has cards in his hand. If, however, you give a card to an opponent that matches one of his cards, the card is discarded and you get nothing.

When a player's hound passes the castle on the forest track OR a player collects a set of five different merry animals, they immediately draw a treasure chest card - which has one, two or three bags of gold on it. The first player to either (a) collect five treasure chests or (b) get 10 bags of gold wins the game.

This is the part of the review where I strongly recommend that you skip to the "professional rules" with all but the youngest players, which are:

There is a penalty for giving another player a duplicate animal - they get to move their hound!
You can choose to discard a card rather than giving it to another player.

Both of these rules make for a more interesting game by giving you choices... and giving your choices a consequence.

This is a light, fast game of memory with a nice blending of cooperative & competitive elements. The art is very cute, the box size is perfect for making it a stocking stuffer, and all the members of our family (ages 6 to 47) have had a good time playing it. It's not going to take the board gaming world by storm like Animal Upon Animal or Maus nach Haus (both Haba games that have very positive feedback from gamers) - it's a solid & very enjoyable game for kids & families.

The box says Robin Hound plays with 2-5 players... and I was skeptical about the lower end of those numbers when I read the rules. However, my 6 year old son & I played two-handed and had a great time, so I was forced to rethink my objections. While I like the game better with more players, it also works well as "just the two of us" parent & child game.

Finally, because there are 6 different suits of merry animals, you could increase the difficulty (and length!) of the game by requiring players to get all six cards in order to grab a treasure chest. (Note: we haven't tried this yet.)

Merry Holidays? Happy Christmas?

2011-12-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

We all get "those emails" - you know, the ones where you are instructed to either pass the message on or forward it to five friends or whatever. (I've sounded off on this before here on the blog - go back & read my post Forward, Christian Soldiers.)

And I got another one today.

I will be making a conscious effort to wish everyone a Merry Christmas this year ...
My way of saying that I am celebrating the birth Of Jesus Christ.
So I am asking my email buddies, if you agree with me, to please do the same.
And if you'll pass this on to your email buddies, and so on...
maybe we can prevent one more American tradition from being lost in the sea of "Political Correctness".

You may sit now, as I did, for a moment of stunned silence at this bit of ridiculousness.

OK, silent time is over.

Elton Trueblood once said:

“There are those places in ministry and theology that you must draw the line and fight and die; just don’t draw the lines in stupid places!”

Here are three reasons that the above email (and the philosophy behind it) are clearly one of those stupid places:

Please, please, please... any time you are tempted to use the phrases "celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ" and "American tradition" in the same sentence, you should use some of that cutesy holiday-themed scotch tape to shut your mouth. The celebration of Christ's birth is NOT an American tradition - it's a Christian tradition... and being an American doesn't make you a Christian, any more than walking into McDonald's makes you a hamburger. (Credit to Keith Green for that analogy.)
"Happy Holidays" is not a frontal attack on Christianity... it's an attempt by people (and businesses) to be inoffensive in a season in which there are two major religious holidays (one Christian & one Jewish), one cultural holiday (Kwanzaa), and New Years Day as well.
A methodological problem: email forwards tend to go to people who already agree with you - meaning you've created feedback loop of people who become belligerent about the way they wish people "Merry Christmas" because they're sure that everyone who doesn't do the same is opposed to all that is good & right in the world.

I'm not telling you to stop saying "Merry Christmas" - in the words of Reggie McNeal, "Don't hear what I'm not saying." Go right ahead & wish people "Merry Christmas"... you are celebrating the birth of Christ in this season. The sincere hope of those who are followers of Jesus is that more people would discover that for themselves.

However, I do want to give you a few tips in how to fulfill the command of Scripture while you're spreading holiday cheer:

Stop correcting salespeople who are obligated - in order to keep their job! - to say "Happy Holidays". It's not their fault. And arguing with them or chiding them is not going to bring anyone closer to embracing the true meaning of Christmas.
When you say "Merry Christmas", make sure you sound like Bob Crachit rather than Ebenezer Scrooge. Seriously, there are some folks out there who spit the traditional greeting at people like it's a bullet aimed straight at their pitiful heathen hearts. If you can't wish someone "Merry Christmas" with a heart filled with Christlike love, then don't say anything at all.
Remember that the (gosh, I hate this cliche) "reason for the season" is Jesus Christ... not the preservation of tradition or winning the "War on Christmas". The Incarnation is about God clearly & completely expressing His love for us - Immanuel means "God with us". When we are just working to accomplish a cultural agenda, we are communicating the exact opposite message... what we're saying is "if you don't accept my particular way of celebration & the theological beliefs that go along with it, I'll simply stuff it down your throat."

And, since I'm a pastor, a Scripture to prove my point:

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossian 4:5-6, NIV)

BTW, Merry Christmas!

Game Preview: Memoir '44 Campaign Book Volume 2

2011-12-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

I love movie previews, so much so that I refuse to buy a ticket to a film unless I know I'm going to get to see the trailers before it starts. And that's my function here today, to act as a movie trailer for the upcoming release of Memoir '44: Campaign Book Volume Two from Days of Wonder.

Previews have targeted audiences, one excellent current example being the differences between the first American trailer for The Adventures of Tintin (which pretty much keeps Tintin hidden throughout) and the European trailer for the same film, which both has a different name (The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which sounds like a typical Tintin graphic novel) and manages to highlight Snowy, Archibald Haddock and Dupont & Dumond (all classic Tintin characters). The people promoting the film know their jobs...

...and I know mine. Obviously, the audience for a preview of an expansion for a game system with the words "Campaign Book" and "Volume Two" in the title is going to be limited to those who already own Memoir '44 (and some or all of the numerous expansions) – or, hopefully, some of you who are wondering whether it's worth jumping in based on this addition to the franchise.

Let's answer some questions you might have:

What is a campaign?

The Campaign Books (along with the additional web-released campaigns, The Vercors Campaign and Audie Murphy's Campaign) offer a way to chain Memoir '44 scenarios together in order to experience a series of battles or, well, a campaign. Two added game mechanisms – Reserves and Victory Rolls – combine with scenario and campaign specific effects to give a unique feel to each series of battles and reward the victor with some "spoils of war" to enhance his chances in the next battle.

Campaigns vary in length, usually consisting of 4-6 battles, but Grand Campaigns exist as well, tying together multiple campaigns to cover larger sections of World War II.
Which expansions do I need to use this book?

Obviously, you need a copy of the Memoir '44 base game. Beyond that: •

The Island Hoppers Grand Campaign (which consists of four campaigns: Guadalcanal, Marshall Islands, Marianas & Palau Islands and Home Islands) requires a copy of the Pacific Theater expansion.
The Bicycle Blitzkrieg & Fall of Poland campaigns require tiles from the Terrain Pack expansion (although you could do without those in a pinch).

The Breakthrough Normandy Grand Campaign requires the Breakthrough map boards (which could also be the paper Breakthrough map from the Campaign Bag) as well as tiles from the Terrain Pack (in such quantity that faking your way through would be tough). Though not required, it would also be great to have a copy of the Winter Wars expansion for the Breakthrough command card deck; the extra fluidity of movement makes the Breakthrough scenarios flow better.
The Air Aces campaign requires the Air Pack expansion.

Wait a minute, I thought Air Pack was out of print. Why did Days of Wonder include a campaign in a new book for something that's difficult to acquire?!

DoW's Eric Hautemont explains what's going on in the Memoir '44 forums on the Days of Wonder website:

No, we have no plans to reprint the Air Pack (in this form or any other), as the costs to do so would be prohibitive.
The reason we went ahead and included this (small) Air Aces campaign at the end of Volume 2 is because the other campaigns in the book ran longer than initially planned, so we had to increase the page count in this volume from 112 pages to 128 pages (due to the way pages are bound, the page count in a book like this go up in 16 pages increments).
The Air Aces campaign was short enough to fit in the few remaining pages we had, so we added it in as a bonus for people that own the Air Pack.
For those of you that were not able to acquire the Air Pack while in print, we will post a free PDF of the Air Rules on our web site at the same time the Campaign Book Volume 2 ships.

Do I need Campaign Book Volume One in order to use this one?

Nope – the Campaign and Grand Campaign rules work the same way in both books. What you're getting is 46 new scenarios tied together into eleven different campaigns.

So, what do you think?

I'll be writing a full review for The Opinionated Gamers in the next couple of weeks, but so far we've played the first three Breakthrough Normandy scenarios – a hint based on my son's mistakes: the 82nd & 101st Airborne need to secure the area before attempting to grab objectives – and the first two Bicycle Blitzkrieg scenarios (where my younger son is trampling over my pathetic British defenses), and we're having a great time!

The scenarios are all top-notch, I love the variety of theaters of operation, and I especially appreciate the suggestions in the rules for "making do" if you don't have a particular expansion. (Example: The paratroop drop scenarios both use the Night rules, but offer an alternate way to have the same effect if you don't own the Night rules board.)

A review copy was provided by Days of Wonder to this reviewer. This preview originally appeared on BGG as a BGN article.

I Had A Dream

2011-12-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

And boy oh boy, was it a weird one.

Somehow, a bunch of us had decided that the only way to do [some important thing that was extremely fuzzy in my dream] was to travel across the United States on foot through a long set of cavern-like tunnels. We were staying in a hotel somewhere in [another fuzzy part] and I was packing my backpack full of food for the trip, worrying about the batteries in my head lamp. The entrance to the tunnels was in the sub-basement of the hotel... and every time I went near the opening, I could feel the weight of the earth pressing down on me.

The crowd of people in the dream was a wild mix: gamer friends (both local & far away), folks from my church, and even a couple of teams from the current season of the Amazing Race. Shari was there as well... though she wasn't going to be traveling with us.

As the time for our departure grew nearer, I began to think about how long it would take us to walk to New Mexico - evidently Albuquerque was an exit point from the tunnel system. I worried about how much food we were carrying. I wondered if we could pull roller luggage with us or if the ground would be too rough. I continued to feel like the caves would collapse and leave me buried choking for air, dying beneath the deserts of Arizona.

And then I woke up.

This morning, while I was shaving, a thought popped into my head: "Why were we going through the tunnels? Why didn't we just rent a car or take a plane?" (Obviously, this level of clarity is not always available to you in dreams.)

From there, it was only a short mental hop/skip/jump to an actual meaningful insight: how often do we decide to "walk across America underground" because it was the first idea that came to us? Regardless of resources & common sense, we plow ahead... unwilling to examine our decision or explore the alternatives.

in our personal lives, where we hang onto dating relationships that are clearly bad for us spiritually & emotionally rather than risk being alone
in our business lives, where we follow a strategic plan that has been eclipsed by changes in the economy
in our family lives, where we plod along on autopilot, doing marriage & parenting just like our parents did without heeding the consequences to ourselves or our kids
in our church lives, where we're unwilling to try something different because "we've never done it that way before"

So the question I'm asking myself today is this: "What decision needs to be remade? What in my life smells dangerously of musty caverns?"

Because I know some of you will be interested, possible sources for some of the elements in my dream:

cave tunnels - too much D&D as a teenager
head lamp - Amazing Race + last week was "Black-Out Nite" at Awana and a bunch of the kids had head lamps
hotel - looking forward to a vacation in a week or so
Amazing Race - well, we watch it each week
Albuquerque as tunnel exit - Bugs Bunny... "should have taken the left turn at Albuquerque"
cave collapse - this last week's episode of Hawaii 5-0, which had kids being buried alive in a panel truck

Gaming With Kids: The Answers

2011-11-30T17:25:00.000-08:00

Grant Rodiek (who blogs at Exiled Here and Tweets as Herrogrant) is working a blog post about gaming with kids & sent out a list of questions... which he's graciously allowed me to post & answer here on my blog. (BTW, if you're a "nerd parent" - as Grant so accurately typed me - you might want to drop him a line & join in!)

How old is your child? (This question will be used to sort the answers you give below)
What is the gender of your children? (This question will be used to sort the answers you give below)

My boys are 10 and 6...

What are your children's favorite games?

My 10 year old LOVES Summoner Wars & Dungeonquest. My 6 year old has recently developed a fascination for Loopin' Louie... but his big game of the year is Gubs.

What are YOUR favorite games to play with your children?

I'm a huge fan of Haba games. I think that Kayanak is absolutely brilliant & Kaseklau! (English name: Cheese Snatching) is an excellent press-your-luck game with a fun "Tom & Jerry"-ish theme. I'm also enjoy Duck Duck Bruce & Gulo Gulo... but one of my favorite recent dad/kid gaming innovations in our home that makes me happy deep down to my toes is both of my boys wanting to play Memoir '44 with me!

What are the most important factors for YOU when you purchase a game for your children?

I want the game to have (a) great gameplay, (b) easy enough for kids to learn, and (c) not make me want to get a frontal lobotomy rather than play the game. Example of (c): Kinder Bunnies: Their First Adventure... shudder.

What seems to be most important for your children when buying a game? (I'm not sure if you take them to the store or shop online with them when you make purchases)
What themes seem to excite your children the most?

It's all about the theme for both of them... my youngest tends to like economic games (he wants to get money) while the older one likes fantasy, sci-fi & combat themes.

Do your children seem to enjoy a particular mechanic more than others? (i.e. dice rolls)

I haven't really noticed any one particular mechanic.

Do you want your children to learn something when playing a game? Do you prefer a game to be overtly educational, or is it okay for it to be more subtle (i.e. counting, chance, social skills integrated)?

Most educational games aren't very good games... and often do a poor job of teaching their subject matter. I think my boys have learned more in subtle ways (reading, math, logic, social skills, etc.) with "regular" games than they would have with a force-fed diet of "educational" games.

Anything else you'd like to add? Anything I forgot to ask? Any insights you have as a parent are greatly appreciated.

I just love that you're asking the questions!

Game Reviewlet: Ticked Off!

2011-11-29T12:50:00.000-08:00

I will not – though every bone in my body tells me I should – make the obligatory “ticked off” title pun joke to go with my less-than-positive comments about the game. You should feel no such limitations.

We had the opposite problem from Greg’s experience with Ticked Off! – our game (with four players) only lasted 3 rounds. The bidding didn’t get pushed high enough in the first category, giving me the opportunity to score 25+ points on the first turn. I was Start Player once more (for another 20 or so points), then scored another 15 with someone else as the Start Player. Game over.

And then we come to my particular beef with the game: Ted’s self-proclaimed “awesome rule that prevents a living encyclopedia from running away with the game!” (This quote is from his BGG comment on Ticked Off!.) Until I saw Ted’s comment, I wasn’t sure whether the rule was serious or not – the rules are written in a jaunty style with a number of witty asides about questioning the mental fitness of the Start Player and taunting others about their lack of knowledge.

The rule in question?

“IMPORTANT! If the player with the most points at the end of the game is more than 15 points ahead of the next highest scoring player, he is disqualified for cheating (really, how else could he be that far ahead?), and the player in second place wins.”

This may be a great game for some people – but if you’re good at trivia games, the “game” for you (thanks to this rule) is gaming the system to stay in front but not too far in front. In other words, you have to “play dumb” in order to win – underbidding, intentionally leaving off answers, picking categories you aren’t good at, etc. This is decidedly not a “game” I want to be playing.

And while I understand that Ted & Frank are going for a smart-alecky vibe in the rules, the “disqualified for cheating” crack gets under my skin. I reserve accusations of cheating for, well, cheating. (Yes, I know, I know – I’m the butt of this particular joke… but that doesn’t make it any funnier.)

This is not a shot at Ted or Frank as designers or publishers – while I love Time’s Up & Smarty Party (both published by R&R Games), I have the same issues with another R&R game designed by my friend Stephen Glenn (You Must Be An Idiot). Both YMBAI & Ticked Off! punish players with more trivia skills in the name of fun for the rest of the table – which is not fun for those players.

I will say in the game’s defense that one of the players at the table really enjoyed it (granted, he came in second). As well, the production is very well done – with the exception of the gold & yellow pawns, which are way too close in color.

This, as you can tell by now, is not a full review - thus the "reviewlet" title. It's actually my comment on a full review published by Greg Schloesser on the Opinionated Gamers website.

I also need to note that a review copy was provided by R&R Games.

Kid Game Review: Knock Your Blocks Off

2011-11-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

Knock Your Blocks Off

Designer: Rebekah Bissell
Publisher: Gamewright
Players: 2-4
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 15 minutes
Review by Mark Jackson (6 plays w/a review copy provided by Gamewright)

The word "off" in the title is not the only thing that Knock Your Blocks Off & yesterday's review (City Square Off) have in common - both are thematically city-building games. However, Knock Your Blocks Off allows - nah, encourages! - you to destroy your opponents' cities.

Each player has a set of 6 dice "blocks" which have a variety of two-color patterns on them. Simultaneously, the players roll their "blocks" and then build them into one of six different "structures". The first player to finish his structure places his king block on the top of his creation then grabs the destruction die from the center of the table, meaning he gets to go first when the attacking begins.

Once all the players have finished their structures, the starting player chooses one of his neighbors to attack & rolls the destruction die. The result determines whether the player will have to flick the die (boulder), throw the die underhand (ogre) or drop it from above (dragon) in his attempt to knock the king block to the table. If he's successful, he gets a point... but if he fails, the defender gets a point!

Now the die passes to the defender and he in turn attacks the next player. After each player has attacked and been attacked one time, the turn is over and players get ready to roll their blocks & build a new structure. The first player to reach 8 victory points wins immediately.

There are a few wrinkles, of course:

each of the five structures (tower, wall, fort, stairs, gate) have a special power - some give you extra points for attacking or defending successfully, while others make it easier to attack or defend.
the player who finishes their structure first not only gets the destruction die but also a victory point... unless they build the wall or the tower, in which case the ease of building means they don't get the point.
completed structures must match - in other words, the color on the edge of one block must match the color of the block(s) it is next to... and if they don't, the player doesn't get the special power of that structure

So, you ask, how's the game play? Well, it's quick... slightly faster with 2 players than with 3 or 4, but even with the full complement of players, it moves at a nice clip. (I think I like it best with 3.)

There are some tactical decisions, particularly as one or more players get close to winning. Do I build one of the quick structures to keep the the victory point away from another player, or do I work to maximize my own power? If I do get to decide the order of attack (by being the start player), which player should I attack?

Obviously, there's a bit of dexterity involved - the game rules specify that attacks take place from about a foot away, which is not as easy as it sounds, especially for younger players.

And that brings me to my one real caution about the game - while it's very attractive to my 6 year old son, he can not compete with his 10 year old brother or his dad in getting his structure built first. He's also not as able to attack successfully... which can be really frustrating for him in a game that he thinks is cool.

At the same time, Knock Your Blocks Off isn't substantial enough for gamers unless they approach it as an enjoyable short filler. I'd say that the sweet spot for the game is older kids (8+) and families... and in that context, it's been a great 15 minute game of construction & destruction.

This review originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

Kid Game Review: City Square Off

2011-11-17T14:20:00.000-08:00

City Square Off

Designer: Ted Cheatham
Publisher: Gamewright
Players: 2
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 15 minutes
Review by Mark Jackson (8 plays w/a review copy provided by Gamewright)

My wife likes this. Let me rephrase that... my non-gamer wife likes City Square Off. Heck, my wife voluntarily taught the game to one of her friends - a casual family gamer - who went out & bought a copy.

For some of you reading this, that's really all you need to know. This very straightforward Tetris-like two-player game is winningly produced (nice molds for the starting cities, Gamewright production people!) and the game play is simple enough that my six-year-old can play... though not competitively. And my very significant other likes it!

Ted Cheatham (note: Ted is a long-time personal friend) has created a game that's squarely (unintended pun - once again, my apologies for going OFF on a tangent.... dang, I did it again!) in the mode of FITS without being an identical gaming experience.

Here, players begin with non-identical city center pieces, an identical set of city "blocks" and their own gridded city board. (If you own a copy of Blokus, it's the same set set of tiles.) One of the players turns up a card which indicates which city block must be placed on the board... and that block has to go adjacent to the city center or an already placed block. The first player to be forced to play outside the grid loses... unless both players do so on the same turn - then the player with the largest single open area wins.

There are four variants listed in the rules - I especially like the "sprawl" version that lets player have city blocks hang off the edge - and there are four different city center pieces to increase the variety in the base game.

Like Take It Easy or Cities or FITS, there's really no limit on the number of players for City Square Off IF you have enough game sets... but the game is a lot of fun just with two players. As I said earlier, kids as young as 6 can figure out the game, but the ability to play well seems to develop a bit later.

Honestly, I'd be a fan of this game even if my friend hadn't designed it... but I do have give props to Gamewright for making it a classy & non-gamer friendly production.

This review originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

Prayer Space

2011-11-16T12:13:00.001-08:00

Prayer Space.JPG Originally uploaded by bhsher

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve;

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity, that I might be happy.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy;

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need for God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for;

But everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

(Author unknown - quoted by Neil T. Anderson in his book, Who I Am In Christ)

Word Bible Design

2011-10-31T08:20:00.000-07:00

OK, the reason I'm blogging about this today is that Jim is running a contest (that you can enter, too!)... but I've been following his Word Bible Design project for quite a while.

Head over to the Word Bible Designs page to check out what he's done - more than once, I'd have picked a different image or a different emphasis for a book, but Jim's thoughtfulness about the project has caused me to think & pray about the Scripture... and that's a good thing.

See Movie! See Movie!

2011-10-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

Kid Game Review: Hit the Throttle

2011-10-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hit The Throttle

designer: Wolfgang Dirscherl
publisher: Haba
date: 2010
BoardGameGeek rank/rating: not ranked/6.00
age: 4+
# of players: 2-5
print status: in print
cost: $10.88 (maukilo.com)

Over the years, I've heard Haba's Monza touted as a great introductory racing games for young kids... and I've even personally praised the game as "a great introduction to proper sequencing for young gamers"... but I think it's time for Monza to let another Haba game pass.

That would be Hit the Throttle (not to be mistaken with the great Haba puzzle card game, At Full Throttle). While it's a simple roll'n'move, it's tons of fun for young players, has some simple decisions, and is mercifully short so that parents and older siblings can dive in as well.

Each player is given a secret card at the beginning of the race showing two of the six colored cars - the cars they now will work to get to the end of the race track. On your turn, you roll three color dice and pick one of them, moving that color car one space forward. You then set that dice aside and roll the remaining two dice, picking one of them & moving the respective car. Finally, you roll the last die and move the car indicated. When both of your cars cross the finish line (even if it isn't your turn), you flip your card over & declare your victory!

So, with a game that simple, why do I like it?

it's extremely accessible for young players - no number skills are required (just color matching)
races are close - we haven't seen a blowout yet
the pieces are chunky wooden cars on a colorful track
every kid who has played it (including my ten year old son) wanted to play it again

When we talk about "teaching our kids how to play games", Hit the Throttle is an excellent choice for ages 4-5... and the small box footprint would make it an excellent stocking stuffer.

Everybody Dance Now!

2011-10-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

I am thankful for a number of things.

The first is that I am not the guy in the lobster costume (or the other one which I can't recognize).

I'm also thankful that DJ Chuang was kind enough to let me verbally spam everyone in his breakout session Monday afternoon with the address of my blog. (BTW, welcome to any newcomers... be sure to say "Hi" in the comments!)

Both of these things (the costuming of a bunch of youth interns & the blog shout-out) occurred at an amazing conference, Sticky Teams 2.0, which I'll be blogging about in the upcoming weeks.

Stay tuned.

Kid Game Review: Gubs

2011-10-13T18:23:00.000-07:00

Gubs: A Game of Wit & Luck

Designer: Alex & Cole Medeiros
Publisher: Gamewright
Players: 2-6
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Review by Mark Jackson (11 plays w/a review copy provided by Gamewright)

I’ve played a lot of kid games in my life – some good (Family Pastimes’ The Secret Door), some great (Klaus Teuber’s Kinderspiel-winning memory game Hallo Dachs, soon to be reprinted by Mayfair as Badger Badger), and some downright awful (Reiner Knizia’s Nimbali – the ONLY Haba game I refuse to recommend). With all those years of experience sitting Indian-style next to our coffee table, I’ve learned that there are two keys to making a successful kid game that families can enjoy:

It doesn’t cause the adults or older siblings involved to run away from the table in revulsion. (We will not speak of Pokemon Master Trainer again for fear of causing my gag reflex to kick in.)
It does cause kids to ask to play it over & over & over again.

Everything else (good artwork, high quality pieces, a clear ruleset) is gravy.

And by that measure, Gubs is an absolute success. This clever little “take-that” card game has a well-written set of rules, beautiful cards in a tin box (similar to but smaller than the Forbidden Island tin)… and there are enough interesting things going on in the game so that I’ll gladly play it with my two boys… a lot.

According to the color text in the rulebook, the Gubs are a peaceful lot – but what with the Spears and the Lightning and the various natural disasters (Flash Flood, Rumor Wasps, the Gavock Plague, etc.), it doesn’t sound like these little guys have a very peaceful life. They hide behind Mushrooms or ride toads or Velvet Moths… and try to avoid being Lured away by precious stones (and Rings – these guys have a real weakness for rings).

I pretty much picture the Land of the Gubs as my front yard – like A BUG’S LIFE (delightful film) or THE ANT BULLY (decent if forgettable) or ANTZ (a pretentious waste of time & celluloid). This fast-paced war is taking place in miniature right beneath my feet – and until the card game was released, I was unaware of it.

Or, should I say, re-released. Gubs has a long history: the first version of the game was created by the designer back in the early 90s. In 2005, he began the long difficult process of self-publishing his creation – with the game finally reaching the market in 2007. In the spring of 2011, Gamewright published a new edition of the game with new artwork – and that’s what I’ll be reviewing for you. (If you’d like to read the whole history of Gubs – complete with early artwork – you can check out the gubcards.com website.)

The objective of the game is simple: keep the largest group of Gubs safe when the timer runs out. (In other words, have more Gubs than anyone else.) If there’s a tie, the tiebreaker is which player has the Esteemed Elder Gub in play. (I picture him as kind of a Morgan Freeman type – the Gub steeped in wisdom & a voice dripping with gravitas.)

Game play is equally simple. On your turn, you:

MAY draw a card (there are reasons not to draw in the late game)
play as many cards as you like
discard down to 8 cards (we have NEVER had to use the discard rule)
say “Go” so the next player knows it’s their turn

There are a wide variety of card types (Hazards, Tools, Barricades, Interrupts, Events… and, of course, Gubs) – and the meat of the game is figuring out how to use the cards you have to protect your Gubs & make life difficult for the other Gubs at the table.

In this way, Gubs actually belongs to the same gaming family as Fluxx & Munchkin – “take that” card games where players attempt to build a winning tableau in front of them while fending off the attacks of other players. For some of you, that last sentence is a glowing recommendation of Gubs. For others (including myself), it’s a warning that echoes in a Dante-ish fashion: “Abandon all hope, ye who agree to play this game.”

There are a couple of things, however, that set Gubs head & shoulders above the other games I mentioned:

It’s fast. Really, really fast. A long game of Gubs is 15 minutes, with 10 minutes being more typical. That’s due in no small part to…
…it’s got a wertung timer mechanic. (“Wertung” is German for scoring/valuation – and is a common way to refer to a gaming innovation found in a number of Alan Moon games.) There are three Event cards in the deck that spell out G-U-B (or, as my 6 year old noticed, B-U-G). When all three cards appear, the game is over & the player with the most Gubs wins.

There are a couple of cards that can extend the game (the Flop Boat can be used to shuffle one of the letter Events back into the deck – and the Cricket Song – the one wild card in the game – can be used as a Flop Boat)… but the discards are never shuffled back into the deck, so you know that the end is coming.

And while I will occasionally play Fluxx (most recently, Pirate Fluxx) under duress and have sworn off playing Munchkin ever again (ranking it just above – gag – Pokemon Master Trainer), the speed & whimsy of Gubs has me even asking to play this game with my boys.

The game is pretty easy to teach – the card text does an excellent job of explaining what each card can do and the goal of the game is simple enough to grasp. I’ve fallen into teaching the game “as you go”: deal out the cards, give the objective & away we go! However, it’s been my experience that kids deal with the random/chaotic nature of the Event cards much better than adults (and particularly gamer adults) the first time they play. If you’ve got gamer blood in you, you may want to thumb through the deck & see the possible craziness that can ensue – and the various ways you can counter it through card hoarding & smart play.

While the recommended age is 10+, my six year old (who reads well) does just fine with the game. I think success with younger kids will depend on reading level & ability to hold the cards.

The game box says it will play 2-6 players… but I think it’s probably best with 2-4 players. In fact, I enjoy it most with 3.

"You Gotta Fight Your Way Through"

2011-10-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

Ira is talking about making video pieces... but I think this applies equally well to preaching. (Think about it.)

The video interview that this was taken from is available on YouTube.

“The best diplomat that I know is a fully-loaded phaser bank.” – a review of Star Trek: Fleet Captains

2011-09-30T09:27:00.000-07:00

Designers: Mike Elliott. Bryan Kinsella & Ethan Pasternack
Publisher: WizKids
Ages: 14 and up
Players: 2 or 4
Time: 60-90 minutes

Review by Mark Jackson (review copy provided by WizKids)

Do they just let anybody review Star Trek games? What are your Trekkie credentials?

I’ve seen all of the original series as well as the all of the animated series. (Thank you, Saturday afternoon reruns… but why did I have to see the episode about the creepy teenage girl on the all-kid planet so many times?)
I’ve seen most of the films, though I’d erase the first Star Trek movie (yawn) and ST V: The Final Frontier (blech) from my memory banks if I could.
I gave up on Next Generation after the first crushingly boring season (there’s a Wesley pun hidden in there somewhere), though I did come back & catch the Borg arc (which was excellent). Yes, I know, real Trekkies, I left just when it was getting good.
Sadly, I have never watched DS9 or Voyager.
I still think the “Get A Life” SNL sketch with William Shatner (“You, you must be almost 30… have you ever kissed a girl?… I didn’t think so!”) is one of his greatest moments.
The quote in the title is from Mr. Scott, btw.

Could you summarize the rules… briefly?

Shortest version: read the rules posted on the WizKids website.

Shorter version: score victory points by destroying enemy ships, completing missions, surviving encounters & building starbases.

Long(er) version: players take turns moving their ships, adjusting the power settings (stats) for those ships & taking three actions: attacking, scanning, exerting influence, transporting away parties, building installations, etc.

In summary: the base system is pretty simple, with some fiddly rules for cloaking & use of cards. I think it’s possible for the Federation player to “learn as they go” – the Klingon players will have a little tougher time.

May I have a pithy & quotable comparative description of the game that people can argue about, please?

No problem… in fact, I’ll give you two:

it’s Dungeonquest in Space
it’s Tales of the Star Trekkian Nights

You need to know that I love both of the games I referenced – so I don’t consider either description to be pejorative.

But I think it’s important that everyone realize going in that Star Trek: Fleet Captains is an “experience” game rather than a strategy game. Yes, there are lots of interesting tactical decisions to be made and your Missions will help you figure out some long-term strategic goals… but you can be smacked around by bad Encounter card draws or abysmal dice rolls. By the same token, you can benefit from streaky card draws. (I managed to score 5 victory points in one turn: 2 due to destroying a Klingon ship that also completed a mission and 3 due to fulfilling the conditions on the next two Mission cards I revealed.)

There’s nothing wrong with building a game that works this way – but you need to know that you’re going to be playing a theme-heavy game with a variety of random elements (which Command cards you draw, the Missions you get & the order you get them in, the Encounters you run into & the layout of the board… and let’s not forget our pesky friend, the d6) rather than a Euro where player decisions comprise the majority of the chaos.

An aside: Frank Branham pointed out to me that there actually is a “Tales of the Star Trekkian Nights” game – Star Trek: The Adventure Game – and cast aspersions on my character for not having played this paragraph-based experience game. The next time we’re together, Frank, bring it along… it can’t be worse than S.P.I.V.’s.

Spock: “Random chance seems to have operated in our favor.”

McCoy: “In plain, non-Vulcan English, we’ve been lucky”

Spock: “I believe I said that, Doctor”

(Original series: The Doomsday Machine)

Can you name some things you really like about the game?

There’s a lot to like here:

Although my initial reaction to the random set-up was negative (“I want to pick the ships for my fleet!”), in practice I’ve found that the variable fleet structure and the way it’s tied to the Missions you’re assigned and how you chose your Command deck to make for very different gaming experiences each time Star Trek: Fleet Captains has hit the table.
I was also worried about the sheer number of options for a player each turn – moving all your ships, making power adjustments, taking actions, cycling cards, etc. – but now that I’ve got a few games under my belt, turns seem to move along at a nice clip and I really like how many different things your fleet can do.
I love the Command decks – having each deck of 100 cards divided into 10 sets of ten cards (connected by theme) and requiring players to pick 4 sets based on their mix of Missions allows for chances to customize your play experience without devolving into the tedium of deck building. (The design of the cards is also nice – very readable.)
I know I sound like a broken record – but the theme comes through so strongly from every element of the game. This is especially true for the power adjustment mechanic, which allows you to vary your stats to send power to Sensors, Shields, Weapons or Engines… which makes me feel like I’m sitting in the captain’s chair myself.

How long does it take to play?

I was pleasantly surprised to find that all three teaching games that I played took about 90 minutes (using the recommended 10 victory points for a win and 5×5 board). With experienced players, I can see this coming in at 60-75 minutes.

There is provision in the rules for making the board bigger and/or upping the victory point total needed for a win (which would up the size of your fleet as well)… but I’m concerned that doing so would increase the game length noticeably. (I have the same concerns about the 4 player rules, but I have not played the game that way yet.)

You can also make the game shorter by shrinking the board and/or dropping the victory point total.

Age 14+? Really?

My 10-year-old did just fine with Star Trek: Fleet Captains… of course, he’s a gamer kid who loves Summoner Wars & Heroscape, so your mileage may vary. I would note that his total lack of familiarity with the Star Trek universe didn’t diminish his enjoyment of the game.

Note: one of my fellow OG writers pointed out that the “age 14+”on the box may have something to do with the new child safety rules for toys. I’ll say this – I’m actually more afraid of some adults I’ve played with putting pieces in their mouths than my 6-year-old son doing the same

Is my favorite ship from Star Trek in the box?

How the heck do I know? While I loved the old school series, I didn’t keep up with the later iterations of the show and so I found myself wondering “who is that guy?” and “I know this is a reference to the mythology but I have no idea what it means” when playing the game. And that’s just playing the Federation – on the Klingon side, I’m almost totally clueless.

That said, there’s a wide variety of ships in the game (12 on each side)… they may have missed a ship or two, but I think all the key “wessels” are available.

I’m mad that the miniatures are unpainted. Aren’t you?

Oh for crying out loud, talk about a tempest in a very small & geeky teapot. (Ladies & gentlemen, I give you the lovely lunacy of the BGG forums.)

Pick something reasonable to whine about already. If not having the minis painted keeps you from enjoying the game, either paint ‘em yourself or find another game to play.

Sigh.

Is this better or worse than Star Trek: Expeditions?

Much, much better… while I found Expeditions to be math-y and lacking in the necessary tension to make a cooperative game work, I think that Fleet Captains does what it sets out to do and does it well – the game gives you a great big Star Trek sandbox to play in and fills it with a truckload of thematically appropriate “toys”: ships, encounter, crew, etc.

A note: I don’t hate cooperative games… and I certainly don’t hate Knizia designing them (Lord of the Rings is still a personal favorite) – but Expeditions is not his best work.

Is it bigger than a breadbox?

Well, the MSRP certainly is… $99.99.

But you do get a lot of stuff in the very big box for your hard-earned gaming dollars – the ships alone (24 ships with a good level of detail on Clix bases) would be $60+ if you could get them at retail. And then there’s nearly 300 cards as well as tokens & the 50 hex cards that make up the board…

Want to complain about anything?

Sure. While I understand that WizKids is invested in the Clix base system, it’s not easy for those of us with aging eyesight to figure out the various numbers settings on the bases… and you might as well forget about playing this in a low light situation for the same reason.

I’m also a little iffy about the card quality – it’s the same weird finish on thin cardstock as the cards in Star Trek: Expeditions. I don’t think they’ll tear easily but they do feel like it wouldn’t take much to fold one of them.

And, since I’m being picky, I would have really liked it if the ship cards were larger.

How about a summary of your thoughts on the game?

With three plays under my belt, I can safely say that:

I’ve really enjoyed all three plays of the game
The one opponent who didn’t like Star Trek: Fleet Captains is not a fan of “experience” games
I look forward to playing it more in the near future
I am a bit concerned that none of my three games were close – I do wonder if there is a small “runaway leader” problem. (Note: I taught all three of my opponents the game & beat them, so this may well disappear with experience.)

This post originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers blog.

Sticky Teams: Review & Highlights

2011-09-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

I've blogged a good bit about Larry Osborne's excellent book Sticky Teams... but now, thanks to the Shameless Commerce/Conference Promotion/Win Mark & NewLife Something Free Division of this blog, I'm going to pull those threads together so you can see 'em all in one place.

First, my Goodreads review of Sticky Teams:

Fantastic book on recruiting, training & leading church leadership teams - both boards & staff. The author assumes you've already done your Biblical homework & instead focuses on practical wisdom on dealing with team leadership.
I especially liked the "sitting around, talking with a mentor/friend" tone - the honesty, the humor & the insight make for a readable, helpful & indepth look into the subject.

Then, some highlights from a series of posts I did late last year on selected quotes from Sticky Teams:

Chapter One:

me: I bought my copy of the book at the conference & promptly devoured it - it's chockful of amazing insight into church leadership, staff dynamics & following God as a pastor. Usually I'm the guy who reads a book once & then puts it on the shelf for reference... but I'm in the process less than 2 months later of reading through it again, which ought to tell you something about the impact it's having on me.
larry: Most church fights aren't over theology or even ministry goals; they're over priorities & methodology.

Chapter Two:

larry: Our rotating board did more harm than good. Imagine a corporation that changed one-third of its leaders every ten to fifteen meetings... When, by definition, thirty-three percent of the board lacked a corporate memory, it was hard to build on past decisions.

Chapter Three:

larry: The most common breakdown I see in terms of relational fit happens when we allow superior Bible knowledge or spiritual zeal to trump an obvious & serious lack of social skills or a bristly personality.

Chapter Four:

mark: I can not recommend Larry's explication of team dynamics/growth using the sports team metaphor highly enough... nor can I condense it down to a few pithy quotes. I won't even try.
larry: I knew that despite all the "sin words" that both sides had thrown around ("arrogant," "self-willed," "unaccountable," "not a team player," "boundary queen," and "inflexible," to name a few), the real issue was not sin so much as deep hurt & discomfort that came with our changing organizational dynamics.

Chapter Five:

mark: Nothing say "rewritten leadership talk" like the title "Six Things Every Leadership Team Needs To Know"... but when the quality level is this high, who cares?

Ignore your weaknesses.
Surveys are a waste of time.
Seek permission, not buy-in.
Let squeaky wheels squeak.
Let dying programs die.
Plan in pencil.

larry: Most squeaky wheels keep right on squeaking, for one simple reason: they don't squeak for a lack of oil; they squeak because it's their nature to squeak.
larry: Church harmony is inversely related to the amount of time spent oiling squeaky wheels.

Chapter Six:

larry: If I hadn't previously submitted to their decisions that I didn't agree with, there's no way they would have listened to me when I played the "God told me" card. It would have been seen as just another creative ploy to get my own way.

Chapter Seven:

larry: I've found that "You don't listen" often means "You didn't do what I suggested."

Chapter Eight:

larry: Like most leaders, I love the idea of servant leadership & putting others first, as long as no one actually cuts in front of me or starts treating me like I'm a servant.

Which reminds me... I need to finish blogging my way through the book. (He says, grinning sheepishly.)

The motivation behind this (as I mentioned earlier) is an opportunity to blog & win a free ticket to the Sticky Teams conference... which I attended & thoroughly enjoyed last year. (I was impressed with the practicality of the advice, the willingness to show their rough edges & the excellence with which they pulled off the conference. NewLife is using the Church Unique vision process that I was first taught at Sticky Teams in a great pre-conference session w/Will Mancini.)

So, a to-do list for my ministry-type readers:

read the book - seriously, I don't know of a better book on church leadership structures.
consider attending the conference... it's well worth your time (and it's near San Diego, for crying out loud)
keep reading my blog - I might say something interesting

A Tale of Two Hats: Board Gaming & Ministry

2011-09-26T11:23:00.001-07:00

I am not a hat guy.

Really – on some guys, hats make them look cool & sophisticated. (See, for example, Neil Caffrey on the TV show “White Collar” or Indiana Jones.) Hats make me look like Elmer Fudd on a bender.

With all that said, I’m a guy who wears many figurative hats:

I’m a husband (proudly married for 21 years)
I’m a father (I have two boys – ages 10 & 6)
I’m a gamer (with over 1000 games in my collection, I may well have crept into “obsessed gaming nerd” rather than the generic term “gamer”)
I’m a follower of Jesus Christ
and I’m a pastor (of a small Southern Baptist church in the Central Valley of California)

The question Dale (the Grand Poobah & Chief Bottle Washer for the Opinionated Gamers) asked me was essentially this:

“What’s the intersection of your hobby – board gaming – and your calling – being a pastor – look like?”

How I Use Gaming As A Pastor

I use boardgaming as a way to meet people and build relationships… both inside and outside the church. I’ve been running game groups for nearly 15 years – the last 6 years my regular Tuesday night group has actually met in the social hall of my church.

Gaming also enters into my sermon illustrations – for example:

I’ve used game translating as a metaphor for getting to know the Bible. In short: I can read a whole lot more German now than I could 15 years ago, even though I’d had 3 years of German classes in high school & college. Actually having to work with the German language for something I wanted – translating rules to games - changed the way I approached the language, instead of just learning it for a grade.)
In the same vein, I’ve talked about the language of the gaming subculture (newbie, TGOO, SdJ, DSK, etc.) and compared it to the language of evangelical subculture (born again, walk the aisle, “fellowship”, etc.). Both sets of words have valid usage, but they don’t adequately speak to the world outside those subcultures. We (speaking both to gamers & Christians) need to use language that communicates truth, rather than using it to build walls that close others out.
John Ortberg has a wonderful book entitled It All Goes Back in the Box in which the metaphorical anchor for the book is a story about his grandmother teaching him how to play Monopoly. This excellent illustration on giving became the heart of one sermon & the inspiration for entire series of messages themed around board games:

Game On! – Monopoly: Rule #1 (Luke 12:16-21)
Game On! – Gin Rummy: How Do You Keep Score? (Philippians 2:5-11)
Game On! – Liar’s Dice: Play By The Rules (Matthew 5:1-30)
Game On! – Scrabble: Fill Each Square (Matthew 6:33, Romans 12:1-2)
Game On! – Risk: Roll the Dice (Hebrews 11)
Game On! – Pit: More Will Never Be Enough (Ecclesiastes (selected), Philippians 4:12)
Game On! – Chess: The King Has One More Move (1 Corinthians 15:55, John 11:25-26)

How Being a Pastor Affects My Gaming

No surprise – there’s a difference in how my profession affects my gaming hobby and how my personal commitment of my life to Jesus Christ affects my gaming hobby. I try very hard (not always successfully) to NOT choose my activities & actions solely based on my job as a “professional Christian.” Still, I’ve made the choice in the past not to play some games more out of a concern for church member’s opinions rather than my own personal convictions and tastes. Hopefully, I’m done with that, except where my gaming choices could cause a fellow believer to stumble in their faith. (I’m not getting to the exact details of this Romans 14 based practice in this article. Anyone interested can contact me personally.)

OTOH, my strongly held beliefs in Jesus Christ and the authority of the Bible obviously play a role in my hobby. (If strongly held beliefs don’t play a role in your whole life, then they’re not strongly held beliefs.) There are certain games I choose not to play (Hellrail, Lunch Money, etc.) and other games I’m glad they re-themed (Twilight -> Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde) based on what I believe.

I’m a little bothered about how “I”-centered the last couple of paragraphs sound. They don’t fully indicate my conviction that moral choices are not subjective… but again, that’s a conversation for another day.

Gaming Groups & Churches

There’s a lot of ways to use games in a church ministry:

create opportunities for families to connect (Family Game Night)
open the doors of the church to people outside the church (regular game group)
use games as ways to break down walls & encourage communication in non-gaming events (small groups, Sunday School classes, youth groups)
and much, much more…

Some advice from a guy who’s “been there, done that, got the T-shirt & the free expansion”:

The first thing is to remember your audience… while (as I mentioned above) I’m not bothered by certain games & themes, I realize that some folks in my congregation would have a hard time with them. So I choose not to bring those for our family game nights. (My guess is that some of your readers will want examples: I don’t bring Bang! or Family Business due to the violence… and I usually keep the heavily themed fantasy games to a minimum.)
The second thing is to remember your audience. No, I’m not repeating myself. The vast majority of non-gamers are not ready to appreciate longer games, even those we would consider “light”. Here in Fresno, Tsuro, Smarty Party, Carabande, Abandon Ship, and Say Anything have all been very successful at our family game nights. So, choose games that fit the gaming “experience” of your crowd.
The third thing is to remember what you want to accomplish. If the point of the evening (be it a club or a game night or whatever) is social interaction, choose games that will help that happen. If you’re appealing to a particular demographic, then pick games that fit their interests. (When I had the 4th-6th boys over for an afternoon of gaming, we played Battle Ball, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars: Epic Duels.)
The fourth thing is to train others to lead & teach games… that way you don’t have to carry the whole load. We played a lot of games after our small group on Wednesday nights, and those folks were a great help at our game nights in teaching games. (Yes, I had to help make some rulings and correct a missed rule or two, but that’s par for the course.)
Finally, don’t count on what you start in a church context to satisfy your gaming/gamer itch. At our last game night, I spent about 50% of my time teaching games & making sure folks got involved. But that’s OK – my purpose was not to play games non-stop, but to give people an enjoyable evening together. String a lot of those kind of evenings together, and it makes it much easier to create a loving church community.

This article originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

I Have A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore

2011-09-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a complete James Emery White fanboy - constantly recommending his blog posts & books - but there's a reason: he's really, really good. And when I say "good", I mean insightful, relevant & unafraid.

In last week's post on his Church & Culture blog, he strongly suggested that "we have moved from an Acts 2 cultural context to an Acts 17 cultural context." Which is, of course, right on. (For those not so familiar with the book of Acts, Acts 2 is Peter preaching to the Jewish audience in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Acts 17 is Paul discussing theology & philosophy with the Greeks on Mars Hill in Athens.)

But the genius of the post is that he doesn't stop there:

[Barna] reports that four out of five self-identified Christian adults (81%) say they have made a personal commitment to Christ that is important in their life.

So far, so good.

Yet less than one out of those very same five (18%) claim to be invested in spiritual development. About the same number (22%) say they are actually dependent upon God.

Let’s state the obvious:

America is becoming increasingly secular and losing whatever Christian moorings it once had.

We are standing on Mars Hill, not Jerusalem, and need to wake up to our true cultural context.

But let’s not forget the rest of the story.

If those who claim to follow Christ do not actually follow Him, then we will have nothing to offer the world it does not already have.

Read the whole thing.

Marryin' & Buryin': How Much Should I Pay the Pastor?

2011-09-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

I decided that the best time to write this post was when I didn't anticipate anyone in the church I pastor needing it. Yeah, I know, that sounds silly - but I wanted to make sure that no one felt as if I was critiquing and/or counting on a particular dollar amount from them.

With that said, I'll try to answer some questions you might have about the odd strange world of "honorariums" and "love offerings".

Honorarium is a weird word - it sounds like "aquarium"?! - so what does it mean?

Merriam-Webster defines honorarium as "a payment for a service (as making a speech) on which custom or propriety forbids a price to be set."

And it has nothing to do with tropical fish.

OK, that makes sense - but what in the world is a "love offering"?

Generally, a love offering is a collection of money above & beyond the church's normal giving to help out a particular ministry or individual. Jon Acuff's Stuff Christians Like blog does a lovely (if sarcastic) job of explaining how it works:

For those who don’t know, a love offering is kind of a “volunteer offering” the church takes up during special occasions like when a puppet group from Guam (named Strings of Mercy) is performing at your church. It’s really not that voluntary though because if you don’t contribute anything you’re essentially telling everyone you’re sitting near that your heart is not full of love. By not putting a couple of bucks in the offering plate you’re actually putting in a big fistful of hate. I wish when the ushers collected a love offering they would say out loud when someone didn’t give, “Oh, you don’t have any love for the magical world of puppetry? I guess love your neighbor doesn’t mean anything to you. Fine.”

In the particular situations we're talking about (paying a pastor for a wedding or a funeral), the phrase "love offering" is used as the spiritualized equivalent of "honorarium".

Isn't the pastor already paid by their church?

I hate to say "it depends" - but, well, it depends. While many pastors (including myself) are full-time (meaning that leading my church is my only job), many others are bivocational - meaning they work part-time for the church while working part- or full-time at some other job as well.

In addition, you have to remember that weddings & funerals are interruptions in a "normal" ministry schedule.

Interruptions?! Seriously? Do you know how offensive that sounds - as if you can't be bothered with this celebration or crisis in my family!?

Yes, I do realize how offensive it sounds... so let me explain.

The day-to-day leadership of a church - preparing to speak once (or more) per week, contacting visitors & those who are in need, counseling, meeting with key leaders & staff, etc. - is a full-time job. (For example, my preparation time for each weekly sermon/message - which is spread out over several weeks - usually runs between 8-15 hours... and that's before I get up to speak.)

While the honor of being asked to officiate at a wedding or a funeral is one of the great privileges of ministry, the time it takes to prepare & perform those duties has to either shortchange my regular ministry work and/or my time with my family.

How much time?

It differs from situation to situation, but I can give you some rough estimates.

For a wedding:

4-6 hours of premarital counseling with the couple
3-4 hours of preparation of the wedding sermon
2-3 hours to officiate at the wedding rehearsal & attend the dinner afterward
2-6 hours to officiate at the wedding & attend the festivities following

That's a minimum of 10 or so hours... with 12-15 hours being the most likely for in-town wedding.

For a funeral:

1-2 hours meeting with the family prior to the funeral
3-6 hours of preparation for the funeral message(s) & service(s)
1-6 hours to officiate at the funeral and be with the funeral (timing dependent on the number of services & wake/meal following)

That's a minimum of 5 or so hours... with 10-12 hours being the most likely for in-town funerals.

So, like I pointed out earlier, your average pastor loses either a work day or a day off in order to do a proper & respectful job of officiating at these events. And if the wedding or funeral is out of town, that just adds to the time he gives to the family.

It takes you that long to prepare a funeral or wedding message? Don't you just trot out the same thing each time?

Well, yes, it does take me that long, and no, I don't reuse the same messages over & over. While I often return to the same passages of Scripture (1 Corinthians 13 is a favorite of mine at weddings), I try to personalize each message to fit the couple "gettin' hitched" or the life of the person being buried.

For example, I did a wedding last year where I knew the bride & groom because of boardgaming - so I made references to marriage being the ultimate cooperative game (along with other connections & references).

So, back to the original question... based on what you've told me, how much should I pay the pastor?

As a starting point, you should think about paying him for his time - in California (the state where I live) the minimum wage is $8.00/hour. So, a bottom-end low-ball number for 10 hours of work would be $80.

Of course, that's the same amount that someone would get for running the fryer at the local McDonald's... and you definitely don't want a high school kid performing your wedding. So, you should also consider his experience & training. Unless you have a younger minister, chances are pretty good that they've officiated at a number of weddings and funerals & can offer a level of wisdom & background that has some kind of dollar value.

I actually don't have a definite number in mind - I personally have been paid as little as, well, nothing (zero, zilch, nada) and as much as $500. And while those numbers sometimes have related to the size of the ceremony and/or the wealth of those participating, some of the most generous honorariums (and some of the least generous) have been a complete surprise to me.

The church we're using has a fee for the pastor. Won't that be enough?

It could be - but that depends on the amount of the fee. I've seen some churches charge as little as $50... my own church has a "suggested amount" of $100.

You might want to consider giving the pastor something above & beyond that set number.

I've invited the pastor & his wife to the rehearsal dinner - isn't that part of his payment?

Not to put too fine a point on it... but no. There are two issues with rehearsal dinners:

Unless the pastor is someone who would have already come to the rehearsal dinner (a family member or close friend), you have created for them another ministry opportunity. It's not a nice meal out (and sometimes, depending on the caterer, it's not a nice meal period) with his spouse - it's another 90 minutes or so of work.
In some cases, pastors officiate at services where they know only the bride & the groom and/or a family member or two. Again, this is not a night on the town - it's hard work to strike up conversations & make connections.

By all means, invite your pastor to your rehearsal dinner - particularly if you have a strong connection with him. But don't be offended if he has to decline or slip out early... and don't count that meal as part of his payment.

In a related subject, please pay your pastor's travel expenses (for an out-of-town ceremony) without counting that as a part of the honorarium. (Note: I've had a number of very pleasant experiences with this - staying in hotels much nicer than I would have chosen for myself or being flown to alternate destinations to help me out - I'm not speaking from personal bad experience here.)

I'm a member of his church - shouldn't I get these services for free?

Before I try & answer that, I want to ask you a question - are you giving to the church? In other words, when you say you're a "member", do you mean that you attend that church & throw a couple of bucks in the plate each week... or are you someone who gives generously of their time, talent & treasure?

Now, I start there because I've found in my nearly 30 years of ministry that folks who support their churches financially almost never ask this question. The people who want the church and/or the pastoral staff to "provide services" are usually the least likely to give on a regular basis.

With that said, it's really up to the individual minister. I don't require anyone to pay me - if asked, I explain that they are welcome to give me an honorarium, but the amount is up to them.

Any final thoughts?

This is going to sound really "church-y", so I'll just note that, apologize (sorry) and go on. I think you should prayerfully consider how you can bless the pastor that officiates the wedding or funeral for you.

I welcome your thoughts, questions & comments on the subject.

Game Review: Ascending Empires

2011-09-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

If you’re a fan of “games… in… space… “ (yep, gratuitous Muppet Show reference), 2011 is a very good year. July gave us the newest opus from the creators of Heroscape & Summoner Wars, Battleship: Galaxies. (I’ll be reviewing that pretty soon, btw.) Of course, we’ll talking more about Ascending Empires in just a moment…

And coming in the next few months are:

Space Empires 4x (a sprawling space/civ game from GMT)
Race for the Galaxy: Alien Artifact (a new expansion for the beloved card game that strips it down to the base deck & heads off in a new direction)
Battle Beyond Space (Frank Branham’s long-awaited masterpiece – a massive battle of spaceships that manages to play in about an hour… note: I’m a long-time playtester on this game)
The Ares Project (a card-driven battle game with four asymmetrical factions that works to bring the feel of real-time computer gaming to the board game table)
Eclipse (a resource management space/civ game due to be released at Essen 2011)
Core Worlds (a deck-building space game from Stronghold Games)
Star Trek: Fleet Captains (using Clix models to do space combat w/the rebooted Star Trek universe)
and a reprint of the classic space game Outpost

That’s some mighty fine space gaming ahead for all of us who cut our teeth on Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (yes, both the book & the original Avalon Hill wargame) and Buck Rogers: Battle for the 25th Century (yes, both the TV show & the TSR board game)… and it doesn’t hurt that the first one out of the gate, Ascending Empires, is a keeper.

That’s right – after 6 plays (3 with four players, 2 with two players & 1 with three players), I’m prepared to call this one of the top games of 2011. (I’m not the first to do this, of course – designer Bruno Faidutti named it his 2011 Game of the Year.)

That said, I need to get something really important out of the way – Ascending Empires has been described by many people (including myself) as a weird & wonderful cross between a dexterity game like Carabande or Catacombs and a space civilization game like Twilight Imperium or Starcraft: the Board Game. There’s two problems with that description:

It’s really a space empire-building game with flicking rather than a flicking game with a space theme. (Flicking is used simply for movement – and unless you’ve managed to ramp up your tech, you don’t actually want to run into other people’s ships.)
Though it is a space empire-building game, it has a playing time of about 75 minutes… which is roughly 1/4 of a game of Twilight Imperium & 1/3 of a game of Starcraft: the Board Game.

Players begin with a home planet (which, thanks to some kind of unexplained technological marvel and/or diplomatic agreements, can not be attacked by other players), a small army of soldiers/settlers and a couple of starships. In turn, player begin to explore the board, settle planets, build stuff (colonies, cities & research stations), advance their tech levels… and, as time goes on, attack other space empires. Various actions give you victory points (destroying starships, capturing planets, improving your tech & mining valuable resources) during the game, while building up your infrastructure & expanding your empire is worth points at the close of the game. The player with the most points wins.

OK, a gamer-y aside: I just typed the sentence: “The player with the most points wins” after describing how to get victory points & it has occurred to me that is the one of those moments that belongs in the Department of Redundancy Department. Who else is going to win? The guy who has the least points? Sheesh. Alrighty then, moving on…

Many space empire games have long player turns where you do all of the things listed above – but Ascending Empires limits players to one action per turn, which has a couple of neat effects on game play. First, the game moves along at a blistering clip (once you’ve got a game or two under your belt) – there is very little downtime. Second, players have the opportunity to react to the actions of other players (or the perceived plans of other players) quickly… while it’s not a real-time game, the quick turns & ability to react makes it feel that way.

As well, players are limited on their resources: to launch a ship, you have to return a soldier to your supply. To land on a planet, you have to do the same with a ship. To build a colony, city, research station or mine, once again your soldiers go marching off to your supply … and since you have only 2 starships & 6 soldiers to start with, the management of those finite resources is a key part of how your space empire develops. (Building cities & increasing your tech levels give you access to more soldiers & ships in supply… thus allowing you to expand a greater rate.)

As mentioned before, movement & combat are dependent on flicking – but with an occasional exception, most of those flicks are short hops rather than attempts to cross the board in a single jump. While there are times when you want to ram the starship of another player (this is a cost-effective way to get rid of an enemy battleship, normally worth 2 starships in combat), losing your own ship is costly and so finesse is important. As well, certain tech modifications can give your opponent points for being rammed – another reason to avoid spectacular collisions in space.

Here’s some things I’ve really enjoyed about the game:

As mentioned by Bruno Faidutti in his review of the game, each playing has had a wonderful story arc – the beginning is (mostly) peaceful as the empires begin to build, then the empires begin investing time into research stations & tech advancement, which sets them off on different development paths. Finally, war can no longer be avoided and the various empires do battle for scarce resources.
Both the mix of the planets (which makes it easy to play 2 or 3 player games on a 4 player board) and the amount of victory points in the pool (by which you can vary game length) are adjustable.
The designer, Ian Cooper, has published two great scenarios (a 2 player “Lost Empire” scenario that introduces a neutral empire and “Wormholes” variant board that takes planets off the map to introduce black holes) on the Geek… and has promised more.
The game just looks cool mid-play with all the pieces out & the planets flipped up.

If you’ve heard of Ascending Empires before, you’ve also heard of the one possible problem with the game: the puzzle-cut board.In a game with flicking, the optimal way to have published this game would have been to sold each game with a one-piece Plexiglass board – but then NONE of us would have been able to afford it. After much testing, the puzzle-cut board was found to be the best solution that balanced cost & usability.

Personally, I have had very few problems with the puzzle edges interfering with movement – and board warping just isn’t an issue in the dry hot climate of the Central Valley. (For those of you in less arid climes, Z-Man has thoughtfully provided a bag to seal the pieces in between games.) There are a number of “fixes” proposed by users on BGG – here are a few that I like:

be CAREFUL when putting the board together – there is an optimal way for the pieces to go down (this is true & works like a charm)
allow players to hold down sections when flicking across them (we actually help each other out with this)
accept the imperfections as “space turbulence”
replace starships with glass beads (from a craft store) placed upside down
make your own board out of wood or plexiglass (this seems extreme… but very, very cool)

Please, don’t let allow the moaning & groaning about the board keep you from buying Ascending Empires… or any “I don’t do flicking” prejudice keep you from trying it. This is a well-balanced & fast-playing space empire-building game that isn’t quite like anything else you’ve ever played… and is worthy of time on your gaming table & a place on your game room shelf.

This review originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

#80: Tobago

2011-08-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

Tobago

designer: Bruce Allen
publisher: Zoch/Rio Grande
date: 2009
BoardGameGeek rank/rating: 184/7.25
position on my top 100 in 2005: did not appear
age: 10+
# of players: 2-4
print status: out of print (which surprises me!)
cost: used copies are not difficult to find through BGG

It's a treasure hunt on an island populated by Easter Island heads... and some of the buried treasure has been cursed. How can anyone not immediately engage with that theme?!

I certainly did. And the amazing bits (the aforementioned statues, the wooden palm trees & huts, the gorgeously illustrated 3-piece multi-sided board) only added to my enjoyment of this innovative family game.

That's right: it's a family game. Yes, there are things you can do to better your position. (Strategy tip #1 - make sure you're helping to locate all of the treasures - don't put all your eggs in one basket - ahem, treasure chest.) But the treasure dividing process has a lovely push-your-luck/luck of the draw whimsy about it that can cause your plans to"gang aft agley" (in the words of Robert Burns).

The creative method by which you find the treasures (players add to the map by narrowing the location of a treasure with card play) has a similar effect on the game - you can exert some control but you're often at the mercy of the actions of the other players.

Those who insist on treating Tobago as if it were yet another Tikal (a game with a similar theme but much more gamer-y gameplay) are going to be sorely disappointed. The rest of us will enjoy the mad dash to build the treasure maps & race for the treasure.

aka pastor guy

The Best of the Rest Games of 2011

Hunger

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (The BGG Top Twenty-Five)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Four Year Pix)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Five Year Pix)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Six Year Pix)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Seven Year Pix)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Eight Year Pix)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Nine Year Pix)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Ten Year Pix)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Eleven Year Pix)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Twelve Year Pix)

Five & Dime 2010: Wide Angle Lens (Thirteen Year Pix)

this is not a political blog...

Best New (to me!) Games of 2011

10. Battleship: Galaxies AND Star Trek: Fleet Captains

9. Quarriors

8. The Struggle for Catan

7. City Square Off

6. The Rivals for Catan

5. Innovation

4. The Ares Project

3. Ascending Empires

2. Summoner Wars

1. Risk: Legacy

Game Review: The Wizard’s Tower (Castle Panic expansion)

Review by Mark Jackson on a review copy provided by Fireside Games (5 plays)

Monsters

Fire!

Mega-Bosses

The Wizard’s Tower

Other Stuff

In My Ever-So-Humble Opinion

Five & Dime 2011: This Time It's Personal

Five & Dime 2010: Recap

Kid Game Review: Robin Hound

Merry Holidays? Happy Christmas?

Game Preview: Memoir '44 Campaign Book Volume 2

I Had A Dream

Gaming With Kids: The Answers

Game Reviewlet: Ticked Off!

Kid Game Review: Knock Your Blocks Off

Kid Game Review: City Square Off

Prayer Space

Word Bible Design

See Movie! See Movie!

Kid Game Review: Hit the Throttle

Everybody Dance Now!

Kid Game Review: Gubs

"You Gotta Fight Your Way Through"

“The best diplomat that I know is a fully-loaded phaser bank.” – a review of Star Trek: Fleet Captains

Designers: Mike Elliott. Bryan Kinsella & Ethan Pasternack

Publisher: WizKids

Ages: 14 and up

Players: 2 or 4

Time: 60-90 minutes

Review by Mark Jackson (review copy provided by WizKids)

(Original series: The Doomsday Machine)

Sticky Teams: Review & Highlights

A Tale of Two Hats: Board Gaming & Ministry

How Being a Pastor Affects My Gaming

Gaming Groups & Churches

I Have A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore

Marryin' & Buryin': How Much Should I Pay the Pastor?

Game Review: Ascending Empires

#80: Tobago