Headin' Back Down Thunder Road

they haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets

Ways that we know that I am officially old:

• I learned to drive in a ‘69 T-bird with a 429 engine under the hood.
• My goatee is now completely white/grey.
• Spotify continually tries to get me to listen to playlists that reference the ‘80s in some manner.
• I actually was a regular poster on the Usenet group rec.games.board.
• I can remember buying Metagaming Microgames and Steve Jackson Pocketbox games from the local game store… including Wizard, Warp War, Fury of the Norsemen, Illuminati… and, most importantly for our purposes, Car Wars.

Ah, yes, Car Wars – originally packaged in a ziplock baggie in 1981 and featuring vehicular combat in the Mad Max/Road Warrior vein. Let’s be clear – while the game system spawned a BUNCH of expansions and multiple editions, I always found it to be similar in enjoyment to Star Fleet Battles. In other words, it was more fun to design the cars (or spaceship) than it was to play the game. 

But the idea of vehicular combat is pretty appealing to a kid who grew crashing Hot Wheels cars into each other… so when Games Workshop published the massive coffin-sized box of Dark Future in 1988, I plunked down a substantial amount of hard-earned cash to acquire it. Once again, the idea of the game was more fun than playing it… as was retrofitting Matchbox vehicles with guns & such.

Note: in the original version of this post on the Opinionated Gamers site, I left out Avalon Hill's RoadKill which came along in the early 90s and was yet another car racing/fighting game that had some nifty ideas but moved too slow to create the necessary adrenaline overload.

thunder road… lying out there like a killer in the sun

It was sometime in the mid ‘90s when I found a copy of Thunder Road in a thrift store and picked it up… and I was blown away to realize that I’d been missing out on the distilled gaming goodness of this Mad Max-ish silliness for more than a decade. (The game was originally released in 1986.)

Honestly, Thunder Road was caught in the same trap as a number of really solid mass market designs (Fireball Island, Screamin’ Eagles, Dark Tower, Daytona 500) in that time period – I was a “Serious Gamer” who spent my money & time on MB Gamemaster, Games Workshop, and Avalon Hill… with no time for “mass market games for kids”. (Ah,overweening pride.) So, it took me a long time to get to the ‘hidden’ good stuff.

Now, let me be clear – Thunder Road wasn’t perfect. With streaky dice rolls, it can run overly long… or be over much too quickly. The power of the big vehicles (armor level 6) is such that once you get them up on the road, they’re pretty much nightmares unless someone’s copter can pick them off.

And I wasn’t the only person who (a) loved the game, and (b) thought it could use a re-boot. As proof, I submit to you this Twitter thread from 2012 between myself and Brett Myers (fellow Gathering of Friends attendee and all-around nice guy):

And a few days later…

Fast forward a number of years, and Brett (and his partner-in-potential-vehicular-mayhem, Dave Chalker) managed to get their design in front of the good folks at Restoration Games – whose mission in life is to take older classic names and make them “as good as you remember them.” (Note: I, the author of this post, am not simply a fan of Restoration Games – I’m also a playtester for their Unmatched series… and I’ve written a number of nice things about them over the years – so it’s possible I’m a bit biased. Just thought you should know.)

When I was on the Restoration Games Zoom call for game journalists (yes, Virginia, evidently I’m a game journalist now) in July 2021, I was deliriously ecstatic to hear the news that Restoration Games was restoring Thunder Road – and even more excited that it was Brett’s “fan project” that was the base for this wonderful news. (You can read my recap of the call, including my serious fan-boying over Thunder Road: Vendetta, right here.)

roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair… well the night’s busting open… these two lanes will take us anywhere

The result is Thunder Road: Vendetta… which re-launched on Kickstarter last week and which (no surprise) I backed so quickly my computer mouse left burnout skid marks on the table. (Evidently I’m not alone – as of Saturday the 29th was already funded at over $560,000!)

While I haven’t had the privilege of playing the new version (yet!), I have taken a deep dive into the rulebooks of the base game and the expansions – and, coupled with my experience over the years with the original Thunder Road, I have thoughts.

• Bits I like that have been added to the game:
• Hazard tokens… stuff on the road that can cause problems – mud, oil slicks, mines(!), and (of course) wrecks.
• Damage tokens… no more “one hit and my car flips over like a Trabant with a bad axle” – instead, it now takes two hits to render your car inoperable… and there are interesting random things that can happen when you take a damage token.
• Custom dice… five (5!) new custom dice make resolving the plethora of craziness that much quicker and easier. (This is in addition to the 4 regular dice per player that generate movement.)
• Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make a big positive difference in a game design:
• The original game had each player rolling the three dice + a road die (that only was added to cars that stayed on the road for their entire move) and moving all three of their cars. Vendetta has all players throwing their four movement dice (one of which is used to activate a “command” power) and players in turn choosing one of their dice and moving a single car. Much more dynamic and involved! (And, yes, there’s still a road die – but it’s roll is shared by all the players.)
• The command powers (mentioned above) give players options to use a single die roll to repair a car, to push the nitro button & speed ahead, to drift through an opposing car or wreck, and to bring their chopper into play. 
• The slam rules (“ramming” in the original game) are clarified and end up with much more interesting results… as cars can go careening off in different directions. (And size of the vehicle simply enables a re-roll of the slam & direction dice rather than making it nigh impossible to take on a bigger car.)
• The game now has a reachable end – in multiplayer games, the elimination of one player triggers a “final tile” (aka ‘finish line’)… and in 2 player games, you simply work your way through the stack of tiles to the end. (And, yes, you can still win by eliminating all of the competition – cuz total domination is part of the fun.)
• And, there are the obligatory expansions:
• First, I’m not opposed to expansions, as anyone who looks at my collection on the ‘Geek will quickly understand. Done right, they can add some real oomph to a game system… and reading through the rules, I like what they’ve done here!
• Big Rig & The Final Five adds a heavily armed semi-truck with trailers and a motorcycle gang as playable teams… and the rules to both integrate really well with the base game.
• Carnage At Devil’s Run adds new road pieces, new hazards, ramps, and FIRE. Yes, you now have the rare privilege of jumping one of your cars off a ramp while it’s on fire. (I, for one, can’t wait.)
• Choppe Shoppe & Roll adds drivers and car upgrades to Thunder Road: Vendetta… again, in ways that make sense with the base system.
• And there's an Extra Ammo deck with a bunch of Kickstarter cards which add to the base game and to the expansions.

Here’s my conclusion – the team of folks behind this re-boot of Thunder Road managed to keep the basic premise of the game intact while making it new, fresh, and much more dynamic. Your mileage (get it, a car joke?!) may vary – especially if someone slams you off the board. 

it’s a town full of losers… and I’m pulling out of here to win

One of the privileges of knowing Brett for so long (we’re old, dude) is being able to ask him a couple of questions about Thunder Road Vendetta to share with y’all, our faithful readers.

First, I wanted to know what part of the original game did he not want to lose as you played with plussing/re-designing it?

Brett: In my earliest drafts of the game, I was hesitant to touch the core mechanics and mainly added layers on top; upgrade cards, a damage deck, variant boards, and obstacle tokens. Once Dave and I got the gig, Rob [Daviau] gave us the freedom to really tear it down and rebuild from the ground up. We identified a few essential elements that we felt were key to the identity of the game, though; rolling dice for movement, the switch & link board sections, a team of three cars for each player and, of course, helicopters! As you’ll see, we retooled all of these components into something modern and very cinematic in feel. We took a lot of inspiration from Mad Max: Fury Road. This game is one jaw-dropping, action-filled chase sequence from beginning to end!

Then I asked what new element he is most excited about? (I also commented that Rob seemed to be very into fire & ramps in his Tweets, which ought to concern anyone driving with him.) 

Brett: Ok, the fire rules and ramps are both awesome and I’m super excited by them, too! But, let’s talk about a thing we changed in the core mechanics that makes it really shine: the dashboard dice allocation system. In the original game, you rolled what you rolled and, well, rolled with it. If you rolled a bunch of low numbers you fell behind and it was hard to catch up. We’ve given players just one extra die to roll and that has made a huge difference in game play. You still assign one die to each car, but the fourth die can be assigned to an action space that helps to mitigate poor rolls or allows cool maneuvers when driving, that sort of thing. And just like the original game, even if one or two of your cars are wrecked or destroyed, you still roll all your dice and choose which to assign!

And Brett add this postscript (which I love):

You can tell how excited I am by how many !!! I used.

hey, I know it’s late, we can make it if we run

If you’d like to get in on the Kickstarter – or if you’re just interested in seeing what in the world I’m going on and on about – check it out at Thunder Road: Vendetta. The Kickstarter closes on Valentine’s Day… so, if you’re really desperate for something to get your significant other, this is at least one idea to consider. (Surgeon General’s warning: not recommended for significant others who dislike board games and/or were expecting something a tad more romantic.)

Note: there is not (somewhat obviously) a solo mode for this game – which makes sense when you work your way through the rules. As I’m kind of the go-to solo gaming guy for the Opinionated Gamers, I’ll point out that there is an upcoming vehicular mayhem solo game coming from the folks at Renegade Games Studio called Wreckland Run… and I’ll be writing about it in February. 

In case you were wondering, all of the section titles are borrowed from the Bruce Springsteen classic, “Thunder Road” (which is a much better rock’n’roll song than Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero” from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome). Yes, liking this song is yet more evidence that I’m getting old.

This post originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

#16: Baseball Highlights 2045 (Mark's Top 50 - 2020)

Baseball Highlights 2045

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 421
• rating: 7.75

Print Status

• in print

Why It's On The List

• The name implies the genius of the design - with a six card hand, you aren't simulating a whole baseball game... you're just showing us the highlights. Set in a future timestream where robots are batters and pitchers have cybernetic arms, this wonderful game melds deck-building with hand management in clever and interesting ways.

Tips & Tricks:

• Drafting well is key... and part of that key is paying attention to the types of players your opponent is drafting.
• Losing a game on your way to the World Series can be beneficial, if you stack your team with popular players that enable to get higher quality draftees.
• While I'm not a fan of the three player variant in the rulebook, the 2 player game is great and the 4 player tournament is amazing with 4 experienced players.
• The expansions that add players have some nice twists - the coaches and ballpark expansions are just for variety (aka non-essential).

Extras

• Strangely enough - for being a complete non-fan of most baseball (unless I'm there watching it live) - this is the second baseball-themed game in my top 50 list.
• This is the second of two Mike Fitzgerald designs on my top 50 list.

Return to Dark Tower OR How I Learned to Love The Tower

At 55 years young (or old - depends on which day you ask), I'm the wrong age to be excited about the original Dark Tower board game. By the Christmas of 1981, I was deep into AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons)... running a multi-year campaign. (The technical term is "dungeon mastering"... yep, I was one of those kids with a well-worn copy of the DMs Guide and a big pad of graph paper.) One of my good friends had a copy of Magic Realm, which both frustrated and fascinated us... and we played countless games of Wizard's Quest.

With all that old skool gaming firepower, Dark Tower was an expensive toy that made noise - and we were interested in headier gaming pursuits. (Yes, I know how pretentious that sounds - and we were so very Serious Gamers. Not even Orson Welles impressed us. Sigh.)

I don't actually remember playing Dark Tower until years later... and being distinctly underwhelmed. The technology of the tower - innovative in 1981 - is still pretty nifty... but the gameplay is pretty uninspired. This explains my BGG rating of the original game as a 3. In other words, I wouldn't refuse to play it again... but there are literally thousands of games I'd rather play first. As a game collector, I've found the ridiculous prices for the towers (working or otherwise) to be an interesting curiosity - but I never felt the need to own it.

So, the news a couple of years back that Restoration Games would be working their magic on Dark Tower was, well... no big deal. I was thankful that Rob & Justin and their merry band were going to cash in big-time on GenXer nostalgia, but I wasn't interested for me.

This last summer, videos of the prototype being played at various conventions began to surface... which looked cool. I liked the idea that they had shifted to a cooperative mode of play - you could mark my interest as "cautiously optimistic". Edit: the Restoration Games team added competitive play as a part of the game this week after successful playtests - even better!

And then, just a few weeks ago... the Kickstarter appeared.

I could feel my resolve melting... like I was the Wicked Witch of the West and Restoration Games was Dorothy & Toto all rolled into one. My resistance to the seductive charms of this game was weakening.

The final straw? My younger son looking at the Kickstarter video and saying, "That looks awesome! I'd play that." (Note to Justin & Rob: get more kids to look at the page. Seriously - skulls, light-up tower, cool fantasy minis... I'm just sayin'.)

I realize that not all of you have my (very persuasive) son whispering in your ear, so let me outline some of the reasons that I finally broke down and opened my heart (and my wallet) to Return to Dark Tower:

• In an excellent interview on The Ascent of Board Games podcast, Rob commented that "We wanted it to be as good as you remember, which doesn't necessarily mean it's as good as it was...a lot of people who played it haven't played it in 30 years would go back and go 'Oh... well, it's still fun for me cuz I played it as a kid' but it hasn't lived up." I love that the Restoration Games team was clear that the game needed more than a reprint... it needed - wait for it - a restoration. 
• I appreciated the draft version of the rulebook - it helped me get a clearer picture of the game that they are creating.
• While I usually rank viewing a live playthrough of a board game just above watching paint dry for excitement, it was instructive to push my way through The Dice Tower video. Two things I really stuck out
• The tower is unbelievably cool... even in prototype form. The lights, the sound, the skulls spitting out, the glyphs turning behind the doors - wow.
• The player turns are actually pretty short and straightforward. (There's a lot of variety in the design that could lead you to the mistaken impression that the game doesn't move along... which is not the case.) Use your banner power, move your hero, take an action somewhere along the way, and reinforce - simple enough to teach to kids and/or rules-averse gamer buddies.
• The various blog post updates in the Kickstarter do a great job of fleshing out the design and development of the game. Especially intriguing was the post from Tim Burrell-Saward, the engineering wizard behind the development of the tower itself.
• One of the biggest concerns (for others) early on was the viability of the app long-term, since the game relies on the app to communicate with the tower (and vice versa). Having Geoff Englestein, another favorite designer of mine (who is also a computer guy) agree to hold the app code in escrow was perfect.

This is the kind of game my boys and I love. It's the kind of game that I will happily play solo (and they've specifically designed the game to work with 1-4 players). It's the kind of game that begs for completely unnecessary miniatures for thematic reasons - and the Restoration team (along with Punga Miniatures) is making that a reality. It's the kind of game that my regular gaming group will dive into willingly... and often.

I hate that I have to wait a year to have it hit my table. But I'm happy to jump in and support a great company with an innovative spirit and the willingness to "go big".

If you'd like to "charge the tower", you can do so on Kickstarter for the next 7 days. Edit: make that 3.5 days... the KS ends early Tuesday morning, Feb. 4.

Note on my tiny potential for conflict of interest: 

I have playtested games for Rob Daviau in his roles as a designer for Hasbro and for his own design studio... and have playtested Downforce for Restoration Games. In that capacity, I was given a copy of SeaFall (since my boys and I were early playtesters) and a rather nice package of lava-related Heroscape stuff (since my game group in Fresno playtested Heroscape), including a Heroscape T-shirt that still hangs in my closet though it's likely to disintegrate the next time I try to wear it. I am not receiving a discount or a promotional copy of Return to Dark Tower for this blog post - I'm actually plunking down my own hard-earned cash to get the Askol's Fortune package and even springing for the complete overkill of the neoprene mat game board.

Rob D. fanboy note (unrelated to Return to Dark Tower, unless you count Hasbro as the center of all gaming evil, which I don't):

If you haven't had a chance to play Monopoly DVD: Tropical Tycoon, you need to remedy that as soon as possible. The DVD part is a little silly - but the innovations that Rob added (new types of buildings, victory points, etc.) are really great. I'd love to see those twists used with a Monopoly game that doesn't have a DVD.

Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Bloodsworn Arena

The boys & I are big fans of the cooperative superhero card game Sentinels of the Multiverse... we own all of the current physical expansions, we've sponsored the upcoming "final" Kickstarter for Oblivaeon, and we have the full digital version on our iPad. Son the Younger even has a plushy Mr. Chomps (see above).

Yes, it's a sickness. Let's not dwell on that.

When we (and when I say "we", I actually mean "I" - but it sounds better when I included my sons) pledged for the Season 2 Kickstarter of the digital version of Sentinels, one of the things we were most excited about was a Bloodsworn Arena mode. (What follows is the description from the Kickstarter page...)

How many villains can you defeat in a row with the ultimate hero team? Make your own storyline with this randomized campaign mode and last as long as you can. Fans of the game have made several versions of this idea on the tabletop.

If we can reach this goal, Handelabra Games will create an “Arena Mode” for the video game. The details and options of the new mode will be worked out when we get to the design and development stage, and we’ll be getting your input at that time. Some ideas and options include a single fixed hero team with no HP recovery; a drafting mechanic where fallen heroes are replaced; ramping up difficulty with advanced and challenge modes; and more! No matter what, this new mode will keep you on your toes.

Sadly, while the Season 2 Kickstarter was successful, it wasn't successful enough to reach this particular stretch goal.

So, after fruitlessly searching the InterWebs (Homer Simpson: "Oh, they have the internet on computers now!") for some home-brewed Arena rules, we made our own. We offer them here for you as an early Thanksgiving gift. (Homer Simpson: "And Lord, we are especially thankful for nuclear power, the cleanest, safest energy source there is—except for solar, which is just a pipe dream. Anyway, we’d like to thank you for the occasional moments of peace and love our family has experienced. Well, not today, but you saw what happened! Oh, Lord, be honest! Are we the most pathetic family in the universe or what?!")

Enjoy.

The Arena Rules

• We selected a number of the weaker villains
• Akash'buhta
• Ambuscade
• Baron Blade
• Deadline
• Omnitron
• The Ennead
• After choosing our team and environment, we shuffled the villains and put the first one into play.
• We played a normal game of SotM... and when we defeated the first villain, the following things happened:
• The current hero finished their turn.
• All defeated Villain cards were removed from the game.
• All Hero and Environment ongoing cards stayed in place.
• Heroes retained their current card hand & discard pile.
• Heroes do not refresh hit points.
• A new Villain was taken from the stack and set up as usual.
• The new Villain went first... skipping any Hero turns and/or Environment turns.
• Lather, rinse, repeat... until the team goes down in a blaze of glory.
• Possible variants we didn't try:
• giving each hero back X number of hit points when a villain is defeated (X = number of heroes in the game + number of villains successfully defeated)
• allowing each player to choose one "backup" hero that jumps in when their hero goes down - would need to decide if incapacitated heroes still get to use their power

How We Did

• Our team (in player order):
• Parse
• K.N.Y.F.E.
• Unity
• The environment:
• Madame Mittermeier’s Fantastical Festival of Conundrums & Curiosities
• The villains we defeated (in order):
• Omnitron
• Ambuscade
• Akash'bhuta
• The Ennead
• The villain who took us out:
• Deadline (but he only had 15 hit points left)
• Most impressive attack:
• Unity's team of robots managed to inflict 56 points of damage on Deadline in one turn... and then catastrophe(s) struck and destroyed them all.
• Our "review" of our own rules:
• While it runs a little long, we had a blast playing this way. Particularly with heroes that pile up ongoing cards, you can make some pretty spectacular plays - and that's always fun.
• The boys & I are concerned that this might not work as well with the tougher villains.
• We also wondered how this would work against Vengeance-style villains.
• Overall, we had a lot of fun... and are talking about trying it again soon.

Abaddon: Shattered Command

Some ways back I wrote a mini-review of Richard Borg's Abaddon:

======

Abaddon

review copy provided by the publisher

Extremely Short Summary:

What we have here is your standard “giant robot armies skirmishing on the surface of a valuable but forbidding planet” scenario – filtered through a fog-of-war command system designed by Richard Borg that is a cousin to the Command & Colors system.

Thumbs Up:

• very nice minis
• options for play with 2, 3 or 4 players – all of which work well
• variety of scenarios (with different objectives)

Thumbs Down:

• the rules could use a polish (though I appreciate the willingness of Toy Vault to include an errata page when the game was published)
• as in almost all multi-scenario battle games, the introductory/teaching scenarios do a lousy job of showing off how the good the system can be when it’s firing on all cylinders

The Verdict (a year later):

When I played Abaddon on a pre-production copy last year (4 times in a week!), I was delighted by the awesome miniatures and the fast & furious game play. I understood why some gamers didn’t like it – it is more chaotic due to the use of both dice & cards for command than any of Richard Borg’s C&C games. At the same time, I could see it really appealing to my elementary age boys.

Two other observations from a year ago:

• Mike Gray (from Hasbro) passed by the table while we were playing and remarked that Richard had shown him this game as a prototype a number of years ago.
• I was given the opportunity to play one of the first “web” scenarios – and both the reorientation of the board and the interesting choices that both players are forced to make from the beginning gave me great hope for Abaddon.

======

We've continued to play Abaddon - I still think it's a lot of fun and enjoy bringing it down for some rough & tumble battling.

So imagine my excitement when I saw that Toy Vault is launching a Kickstarter to expand Abaddon... with Abaddon: Shattered Command!

The expansion will add Command Bunker tokens (minis if they get enough $$ pledged), Unit Upgrades, rules for building scenarios and entering terrain... and, of course, more scenarios.

The expansion is $15 in the U.S. - and if you missed getting the base game, you can do that with the expansion for just $40. (That's an excellent deal, btw.)

The Kickstarter goes through mid-December - but you should jump on now.

Note: I am not being paid or reimbursed for this blog post. I was given a review copy of the game right after it was released... but I just found out about this new expansion project thanks to the folks at BGG.

How To Shrink a Universe Into A Great Two Player Game

This isn't exactly a review - it's more of a "hey, I playtested this game and it's awesome" kind of love-fest. I am not paid by Tasty Minstrel Games, I have received no swag and/or sample product, and I spent my own hard-earned dough on inkjet ink to mock up the prototype to play. Not only do I not have any dog in this fight, I don't even own a dog.

Well, that's not entirely true. I want to see Tasty Minstrel succeed, because I enjoy a good number of the games they are creating and publishing. I want Seth Jaffee (the designer) to design more games. And I want a copy of this game that doesn't consist of my hastily printed-on-inkjet slips of paper shoved into low-quality sleeves with foreign-language Magic: The Gathering cards as backing.

The last of those desires is taken care of, as Eminent Domain: Microcosm is fully funded - all any of us have to do is plunk down our $10 and set our clock radio for the spring of 2015. You have until Friday night (October 17, 2014) to join in and get not only this splendid little 34 card game but some nifty extra cards for Eminent Domain, Dungeon Roll & the upcoming Eminent Domain: Battlecruisers.

So, with that introduction taken care of and way too much discussion about hypothetical dogs & Korean M:tG cards, let's move on to the question and answer portion of this blog post.

Is this just a shrunken version of Eminent Domain?

No. I'm a huge fan of Eminent Domain (and I'm enjoying playtesting the upcoming Exotica expansion)... but this is not Eminent Domain: the Dice Game. (Yes, I know it's a card game... what I'm suggesting is that Microcosm is emphatically not just a simplified version of the original game, created to cash in on the brand.)

10 minutes? Really?!

Not on your first play or two - but those won't be longer than 15-20 minutes. Once you know how the game works, 10 minutes is very realistic. 

Only 34 cards? Really?

Yes, really. Players begin with no cards in their hands and draft a card each turn, then either:

• play a card from their hand, OR
• pick up all of their played cards and put them back in their hand

Each of the cards has multiple functions:

• the action you take when playing the card
• an icon that affects the power of your actions (most cards)
• instructions on how you will score influence (victory points) at the end of the game

With that few cards, doesn't the game get "old" quickly?

Absolutely not. There are multiple ways to build your influence over the galaxy, even with the short playing time & limited number of turns. Tactics can be affected by what cards are available to draft - or what planets your opponent has colonized or conquered.

My oldest son & I have played 6+ games of this... and the scores are getting tighter each time. We're learning how to sabotage the other player by drafting to steal points, as well as making strategic "reloading" turns at the right time. Each game is more exciting rather than less... and the playing time has tightened up as well.

How do I order this and be as cool as you are, Mark?

Glad you asked. Follow this Kickstarter link.

Seriously, Eminent Domain: Microcosm a great 2-player game... even if you're not a fan of science fiction games. This is a splendid design.

Kickstarter Thoughts for A Monday

Some thoughts on Kickstarter and some projects I've backed:

1. While I wish that both Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes and Coin Age were on time, I do NOT begrudge the good folks at Tasty Minstrel Games taking copies fresh off the boat to sell at GenCon this week. GenCon is the largest gaming convention in the U.S. and as a publisher, it just makes sense. There are some whiny folks out there... and, in the words of Lloyd Dobbler: "You. Must. Chill!"
2. Running late is not the sole province of board game companies - I'm still semi-patiently waiting for the new CD ("Goliath") from Steve Taylor & the Perfect Foil. I will admit to being entertained by Steve's very humorous backer updates.
3. If anyone at Gamelyn Games is paying attention to this, my son & I would be happy to playtest/print-n-play review Tiny Epic Galaxies for y'all... because we've backed both of the previous Tiny Epic games after trying the print'n'play versions. (Here's my thoughts on Tiny Epic Kingdoms, which should be showing up in mailboxes across the world this fall.)
4. I think I'm most excited about Baseball Highlights 2045... I do so love Mike Fitzgerald's game designs.

Anyone want to chime in?

Tiny Epic Defenders

Some of you will remember that I was an enthusiastic supporter of the Kickstarter for Tiny Epic Kingdoms... and won't be surprised that I've chosen to back Tiny Epic Defenders.

I'll write more about the game later - but for now, you simply need to know:

• it's cheap ($16 for the game, $24 for the "deluxe" version)
• it's cooperative (in other words, it's the players together against the game system)
• it plays well (I've played both solo and with two players with the print-n-play version... and so far we've only won one time)
• it's fast (30 minutes)

And, most importantly, you've only got 21 hours to jump on board. 

What are you waiting for? 

It's a Hit! - Baseball Highlights 2045

I am still very skeptical about Kickstarter... but there's been some really cool projects from some really reputable folks coming down the pike, so you'll have to put up with my boosterism at least one more time.

Of course, Baseball Highlights 2045 is designed by a favorite game designer of mine (Mike Fitzgerald) who was the creator of the wonderful Mystery Rummy series of card games. Mike is also a very nice guy and a joy to play games with...

...all of which make it even easier to tout his newest creation, Baseball Highlights 2045. I love how Mike has designed a baseball game that:

• plays quickly
• has strategic (drafting new players) and tactical (playing baseball games) elements
• reflects a love for baseball without being sucked into the need for "simulation"
• uses the sci-fi theme to help make game play "make sense" thematically

Much like some of my other favorite sports board games (for the record, that would StreetSoccer, Harry's Grand Slam Baseball and 1st & Goal), the game system gets the feel of the sport right without bogging down in detail and chrome. (No, I haven't played the game - but the videos do a great job of explaining it.)

BTW, this is the first time I've watched all the videos for a Kickstarter project. Normally, I just don't care that much, but I'm always intrigued by the design decisions Mike makes... and, well, Mike's voice is so dang radio-friendly that I can't help but listen. (Yes, Mike's "day job" is in radio - it shows. He reminds me a bit of Vin Scully announcing the Dodgers games.)

As of this writing, you've got 8 days to jump on board. Celebrate Opening Day by throwing some cash towards Mike & Gryphon/Eagle Games. $32 + $5 shipping (yeah, it's a weird way to do a board game Kickstarter, but that's how they roll) buys you the game & all unlocked stretch goals... and you can add on some of the later stretch goals as well as copies of the original four Mystery Rummy games!

Character Meeples

I am the first to acknowledge that these are NOT NECESSARY to enjoy your board games... but at the same time, we are the family that has appropriated tiny football player toys to use as replacement markers for the generic plastic pawns in one of our favorite games, Fast Food Franchise.

So, when I figured out that:

1. you didn't have to buy "sets" of meeples & could instead pick the ones you wanted
2. there were three "extra" meeples being included, courtesy of Miniature Market, BGG & Tasty Minstrel

...I jumped on board the Kickstarter campaign. I am looking forward to being able to play as the Luchador or the Mariachi. (Perhaps we can play Dia de los Muertos or Caramba!)

There are four days to go until the campaign is done - take a look.

Tiny Epic Kingdoms: First Impressions

At first, the name of the game put me off. While I'm intrigued by the new push towards "micro-games" in game design (as evidenced by my Kickstarter pledge for Coin Age), the words "tiny" and "epic" shoved together seemed to be an oxymoron designed to sell games.

We take this moment to pause & offer our English grammar lesson for the day: an oxymoron is not a particularly clean idiot - it's a figure of speech that is essentially a compressed paradox. (Humorously, the word itself is an oxymoron - it's the combination of the Latin words for "sharp" and "dull".)
 
Some of my favorite examples:

• army intelligence
• crash landing
• freezer burn
• devout atheist

And, after chasing that rabbit, we're back to board games. (Don't you feel smarter now?)

Specifically, we're back to Tiny Epic Kingdoms - the new game design by Scott Almes. (He's the guy who designed Kings of Air & Steam and Martian Dice... neither of which I've played. That's not a knock on him.) His objective in designing TEK (the abbreviation we will all agree to use for the rest of the review to avoid the unwieldly actual name of the game) was to create an inexpensive 4X micro-game.

We take this moment to pause & offer our Gaming nomenclature lesson of the day: a 4X game is not four times the game - as if the small game itself grew three sizes that day. (Tip o'the cap to the Grinch.) It's a particular style of game design, maybe best typified by board games like Clash of Cultures, Space Empires: 4X & Runewars... and by computer games like Sid Meier's Civilization and Masters of Orion.
 
A 4X game has four elements:

• eXpand (take over territory)
• eXplore (find stuff)
• eXploit (use resources to become stronger)
• eXterminate (kill other dudes on the map)

Another rabbit successfully tracked down. (Now we have a brace of coneys. Seriously. Look it up.)

In order to build up fan support & drum up Kickstarter business/flow, Gamelyn Games released a print-n-play prototype file... and what with the buzz beginning to develop, I figured the worst thing that could happen is that I'd be out 5-6 sheets of paper & some inkjet printer ink. So, I printed it out & my boys and I played it.

And then we played it again.

And then again.

So, with three plays under your belt, Mark, did Scott & Gamelyn Games accomplish what they set out to do?

• inexpensive? Yes! (The basic price point is $16 shipped... with the "deluxe" version clocking in at $24.)
• 4X? Yes! (There's a simple tech tree, interesting choices for the harvesting & use of resources, multiple land grabs... it's got all of that 4X-y stuff right out there in the open.)
• micro-game? Yes! (It plays in 30-45 minutes and the original prototype has just 14 cards & 53 small wooden cubes.)

The more important question, of course, is are we having any fun while we're playing it? The answer to that is an emphatic "Yes!" as well. While it moves along at a nice clip, there are some tricky decisions to be made about attack & defense - and balancing those considerations with increasing your tech (aka "magic abilities") and building the tower. As well, the various factions (only the initial four are included in the print-n-play) offer a great deal of diversity in conjunction with the random territory maps.

What blew me away is how you are forced to juggle four different things in such a small game space:

• resource management (you must expand to get more resources + you have to forego actions in order to harvest)
• expansion (you need food to build more units... but spreading out makes you vulnerable to attack)
• building the tower (you need ore to build the tower... but ore is also useful in attack & defense)
• magic abilities (you need mana to raise your "tech" level... but mana is even better than ore in combat)

In addition to that juggling act, you have a similar action selection to Eminent Domain... you pick the action (which you carry out) - then the rest of the players choose to do the action as well or harvest resources based on the territories they control. Then, like Puerto Rico, that action is marked and can not be chosen again until all five action markers have been played.

Two of our three games have been decided by a point or less - with players choosing to emphasize different things (building the tower, expanding their forces, delving deeply into magic.) Last night, I lost a three player game 14-14-13 (I was the middle one) on the "who has built more on the tower" tiebreaker. I mention this loss not so you can feel sorry for me but so you can see that the much-desired design ethic "multiple paths to victory" is actually true for TEK. Well, not in my case... but in the words of Maxwell Smart, I "missed it by that much."

For those of you who worry about dice & randomness & chaos ("mass hysteria - cats & dogs, living together"), the dice included in the game are not for rolling off - they are a clever way to indicate your resource investment when going to war. In fact, besides the initial set-up (which territory & faction you get), this is a non-random kind of game.

But wait! That's not all! (I feel like Ron Popeil trying to sell you a Chop-o-matic.) The Kickstarter drive for TEK has blown through all 17 of the original stretch goals - adding upgraded pieces & cards, more territories & region types, and 8 new factions. It's a great deal for $16.

The expected delivery date is September 2014 - which puts it right in the "game lull" between the summer conventions here in the U.S. and Spiele in Germany - the perfect time to have a package drop on your doorstep with a brand spankin' new game to play with family, friends and random strangers who you coax into sitting around the table.

So, click the Kickstarter TEK link below and check it out - you can download the print-n-play files and try it yourself. Or you can just trust me, plunk down some of your hard-earned gaming budget and get in on this deal while you can.

I'm good either way...

5 Reasons You Should Back A Board Game With Only One Card

The game is Coin Age... and if you really want to know more about it, you can head over to the Kickstarter page. I'm just here to give you five reasons to jump on board before the pledge window closes.

1. There's an actual game here... seriously. I sacrificed my paper & ink in order to give it a whirl - and was pleasantly surprised that the designer had managed to create a sneaky little area control game that reminded me a bit of Web of Power or Eight Minute Empire... just in a much smaller package. (You can also download the print-n-play file on BGG.)
2. By waiting until the last minute, you've made sure that all of the stretch goals (cardboard coins, credit card map, 2 extra maps, stickers for actual currency, etc.) have been reached so you'll get 'em all.
3. It's a "pay what you want/can" pledge system - so you can get in on this for as little as $3. I promise you, you've paid a lot more for a lot less game. (I'm looking at you, Schleck und Weg!!)
4. It will not cause your significant other to complain about how much room your games are taking up.
5. The guys at Tasty Minstrel are really good at this Kickstarter thing... they are not a fly-by-night operation. (And a good experience here might convince you to give their games a second look - especially one of my personal favorites, Eminent Domain. Which, by the way, is about to get an awesome looking expansion - Escalation.)

I'm posting this with 38 hours to go before the Kickstarter ends. What are you still doing here?!

Kickstarter: Dungeon Roll

Up till now, I've avoided Kickstarter like the plague... while there's been some good games come out of the crowdfunding model (Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Eminent Domain), there's been some real stinkers as well (Carnival & Dragon Valley, to name two that I've played). 

But Dungeon Roll grabbed me, both with the basic mechanic (a push-your-luck dice game) and the theme (stripped-down dungeon crawl). It didn't hurt, of course, that the price was a mere $15. So, I backed it.

Now, one of the perks of backing was getting access to print & play files for the game... so Braeden & I mocked up a copy and have played it multiple times. Without getting into detail, let's just say that the game delivers exactly what the designer & publisher promise - a light & very enjoyable dice game with some interesting decisions. Couldn't be happier I'm on board.

If you'd like to jump in at a $5 discount (the actual MSRP will be $20) and get the Kickstarter stretch goal goodies, you've got about 38 hours. What are you waiting for?!

Kickstart Dungeon Roll