Observed today on 17th Avenue SW:
If December was the month of the ‘A’ Games (Acquire, Agricola and Agatha) then May is the month of the ‘S’ games. I picked up Santiago and Steam this past weekend and I’m looking forward to getting them to the table over the coming months. I’ve played Santiago in the past, but I’ve never played Steam (or any of the other incarnations of Age of Steam over the years). I think they’ll both be good additions to my collection since they’re pretty different from what I already own.
I’m curious to see what my Monday night group thinks of the games when they come up in our queue.
No I’m not talking about angsty teenage girls fawning over vampires that have cranked their bedazzlers up to 11. I’m talking about a more imperial kind of twilight.
One of my game groups and I are going to give Twilight Imperium a try for the first time. I’ve been studying the rules in some vain hope it will help me win. The good news is that of the five of us, exactly zero have played before. So we’re all be fumbling around the galaxy together.
It all goes down tomorrow at 11am. Here’s hoping I do well, or at least have a ton of fun losing.
The top ten list in the latest Dice Tower episode was the top ten games that cause you stress. I found the lists interesting, and I thought I would post my opinion.
One of the most stressful games for me, like Tom, is Diplomacy. And I agree it’s too stressful to the point where I don’t enjoy it.
Battlestar Galactica came up as one of the games people find stressful, as did Ghost Stories, but for me I find pretty much all cooperative games stressful. I’d say the most stressful for me is Lord of the Rings, followed by Arkham Horror, and then Battlestar Galactica and Ghost Stories. The rich themes in Lord of the Rings and Arkham Horror always make me feel small, insignificant, and like there’s absolutely no hope of victory.
One other game stands out for me as one that I find very stressful. Power Grid.
Don’t get me wrong, I love power grid and will never turn down a game. Maybe it’s just the group I usually play with, but I feel constant pressure during the game, and some maps (like Brazil) up the ante quite a bit. I think a lot of the stress in the game for me comes from the hidden money aspect of the game. My group uses poker chips instead of the paper money that comes with the game, partly because it’s easier to hide poker chips. I usually keep general track of everyone’s finances, but it’s hard to keep the exact numbers in my head and that lack of knowledge is really stressful for me. If I could only know for sure how much money someone had, I could probably figure out what resources they want and what cities they want and then bid them just a little too high in the power plant auction.
Another thing about my group is that we’ve all played the game a number of times, and we all play to win (read: viciously). Which again adds to the stress. And makes me enjoy the game that much more.
Last Monday, Union Pacific made it to the table again (at my suggestion). And once again, I came in second. And once again, the reason I lost is that I was tied for first on the Union Pacific shares instead of having a clear majority. And yes, once again, it was Jason B. who snapped up that crucial share and caused the tie. I lost by such a small amount that this would have made the difference.
I think I played well, but I should have been paying more attention to the UP shares than I was. Maybe my fate is to always come in second in this game. I still really enjoy the game, and it’s a shame it’s out of print.
I’ve played a large number of new (to me) board games over the past six months, both with my regular group and otherwise. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed all of the games, but a few games stand out as ones where I’m not so sure. To be perfectly fair, I’ve only played each of these three games once to date.
First up: the Farmers of the Moor expansion to Agricola. I like Agricola by itself, but I’m not sure about the expansion. The biggest issue I have is that it extends the game time by too much for too little gain. It also adds complexity and hence makes the analysis paralysis problems in Agricola even worse. Maybe the problem was that we played it with five players. I’d be willing to try it again, although only with three or four players next time. I don’t think I’ll buy it though. I can’t see playing it very often with my regular group.
Next up is Dungeon Lords. I did enjoy the theme of the game, but it seemed like things progressed too slowly and there weren’t enough interesting choices to make. I don’t know that I really want to even try it again. I think I’d rather give Galaxy Trucker a go as an alternative.
The most recently played game I’m unsure of is Primordial Soup. I finished in the middle of the pack, but the last place player finished way behind. It seemed like the game balance was tilted towards needing to stay in a somewhat tight pack to make it interesting. There was a mild “punish the leader” mechanic in the game, but it was such as small disadvantage that I’m not sure it was enough. This one I definitely want to try again now that I’ve played once, and I suspect I’ll like it better. I also wonder whether it would be better with only four players (we had five).
Aside from these three, I’ve enjoyed all of the other games I’ve tried over the past six months or so. Hopefully the trend continues through the rest of 2010.
Between Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, and some purchases on my own, I now have a number of new games to play. In the new year, I definitely want to get all of them to the table. In particular:
Aside from these new ones, I’d like to play more Descent this coming year, and I’m also long overdue for a game or three of RoboRally.
I picked up the Ticket to Ride: Europa 1912 expansion for Ticket to Ride: Europe a little while ago and have had the chance to play 3 games using the expansion.
The expansion is 2 parts. First, a whole bunch of new ticket cards and some new rules for playing with the new tickets. So far I’ve only tried playing with the “big cities” tickets.
The second part is the new Warehouses and Depots rule, which can be used with any variant of Ticket to Ride (not just Europe).
I’m very glad I bought the expansion, in particular for the new tickets. They change the game dramatically, and make it much more interesting to play. And although I haven’t tried them yet, having an additional 6 long route tickets (for a total of 12) should make for more interesting (and less predictable) games, since it will be harder to guess what someone’s long route ticket is.
Another thing about the new tickets is that, playing the big cities variant in a 2 player game of Ticket to Ride: Europe was much more interesting than playing a 2 player game with the regular tickets. It wasn’t quite as tense as playing on the Switzerland board, but it was still a definite notch up from the original.
The warehouses and depots rule is interesting, but it’s not one I’m sure I’ll play that often. I felt it unbalanced the game a little more than I wanted, although I’ll have to try it a few more times to be sure. The problem I had was that in the game we played, I managed to pick up cards from both warehouses pretty early in the game, giving me a huge hand advantage. I was able to very quickly pick up most of the routes I needed for my network and ran away with the game.
The expansion has definitely added some new life to an already great game, and I’m looking forward to playing it more often.
I’ve been a Mac user for quite a while now, and there are a few applications that I don’t think I could do without now that I’ve started using them on a regular basis. Of the four applications I’m going to mention, only one has a Windows version. In the case of two of them, they’re almost worth switching for on their own. Yes, they’re that good.
OK, I’ve been using this one for a while, but it bears mention here. I use MindManager almost every day for one thing or another. I use it to collect my thoughts, analyze documents I’m reading and reviewing, brainstorm ideas, and numerous other things. Fundamentally, it’s a mind mapping application, but for my money, it’s the best one. Mind Mapping applications live and die based on their user interface, and on that basis, you’re better off buying one than using FreeMind (sorry, FreeMind).
Worth the money because: Very easy to use UI, can export to OPML, compatible with the Windows version.
Pet peeve: DEVONthink can’t automatically index MindManager documents
Windows Version: YES
Alternatives: NovaMind, FreeMind, others.
DEVONthink is one of those applications you have to use for a little while first to realize why it’s worth the money. I picked up the Personal edition 1.0 for free during a MacHeist giveaway, and recently upgraded to the Pro version 2.0. This is an application for collecting, organizing, searching, collating, and mining information. I use it to organize the random stuff I run across on the web, cross-reference that with book references, and sort and search the growing number of PDF e-books in my collection. The PDF search, PDF annotation, and cross referencing features are worth a lot more money than I spent on this application. Search alone is worth the price of admission. If you have a lot of PDF e-books, stop reading and go download a trial right now. Oh, and Windows users, this one is worth switching for.
Worth the money because: PDF Search, fantastic AI and research support
Pet peeve: Import Web Site feature needs a lot of improvement; doesn’t play well with FireFox
Windows Version: Unfortunately not
Alternatives: None that I am aware of.
Scrivener is an application for writers. If you’re an essayist, journalist, novelist, or short fiction author you may want to take a look. It has some of the same features of DEVONthink but it’s oriented towards the writing process as opposed to the research process. For writing short fiction, I’ve started to use DEVONthink to collect up all of my ideas and do some of the research heavy lifting, and when I decide to launch a writing project, I move into Scrivener. The Edit Scrivenings feature makes writing from an outline work the way it should, and I can always reorganize my thoughts later with the corkboard. Brilliant.
Worth the money because: Makes writing from an outline or set of ideas easy, collects all of my writing ephemera right next to the manuscript itself.
Pet peeve: Doesn’t do PDF search like DEVONthink does.
Windows Version: Unfortunately not
Alternatives: The vendor has a comprehensive list.
I like pretty pictures, and OmniGraffle lets me draw them. For anybody who has ever used Visio and wishes there was a Mac version, this is what you are looking for. If you’ve never used Visio but have the need to draw diagrams of any sort for work, school, or your volunteer projects, you should take a look. As a basic example of what OmniGraffle does, when you draw a line between two shapes, then move the shapes, the line stays attached (Visio does that too).
I use it to draw diagrams for work, from UML Diagrams (be careful, this is a diagram tool, not a UML Modeling tool) to User Interface wireframes to flowcharts and everything in between. The automatic alignment and spacing guides save tons of time, and the ability to do things like “copy the color of this circle to that square” quickly is another huge bonus. One of its coolest features is its support for linked layers. If I have a collection of drawings in the same document and I edit part of one of them, linked layers lets me automatically ensure that the changes happen in all of the other diagrams as well. It’s not a feature everyone needs, but once I discovered it, I almost immediately remarked that OmniGraffle just paid for itself. If you’re a Windows user, this one is worth switching for.
Worth the money because: It’s Visio. For the Mac. Actually, it’s what Visio aspires to be. Seriously.
Pet peeve: Can be a little tough to do with a trackpad – a mouse works much better.
Windows Version: Unfortunately not; Visio is about as close as I’ve seen, and it doesn’t measure up.
Alternatives: None that I’ve seen.
Of course, I also do other things with my Mac like audio recording and photo editing; a discussion of those applications will have to wait for another post.
Full disclosure: I own all of these products and use them regularly. I received absolutely no compensation or consideration from the vendors for writing this article.
My Halloween costume made its debut at Rob Somers’ excellent party this past Saturday. All is now revealed.
Jeremiah Wittevrongel lives in Calgary, Canada. Though he works as a software developer and loves what he does, this blog isn't about that. It's about the rest of his life, which tends to revolve around board gaming and cooking.
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