2010.04.11
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 11:16 am by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
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.
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2010.03.11
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 10:47 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
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.
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2009.10.01
Posted in Friends, Parties at 8:10 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I admit to enjoying Halloween. It gets my creative juices flowing when I start thinking about putting together an interesting costume, and even though getting together a good costume can be a lot of work, I always enjoy it.
I had ambitious plans this Halloween. It turns out that as I originally envisioned my costume, blowing my budget was unavoidable. Like most creative processes, though, the additional constraint forced me to get even more creative and explore other possibilities.
My new concept is in the same vein as my original idea, but is both more fun (in my mind) and I found a way to cut the cost down to something more acceptable. As a bonus, I also gain more confidence that the costume will work for more than a single use this Halloween season (so far: 3 planned uses).
I don’t really want to spill the beans, but this will be a lot of fun as a costume and I’ve never seen anything quite like it in the past.
I really hope that shipment from Toronto gets here soon so I can finish building the costume. It shipped a week ago so will hopefully be here tomorrow.
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2009.09.04
Posted in Board Games, Friends, Parties, Writing at 8:38 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
As most of you probably know, I have had a very busy summer. Lots of traveling, lots of time with friends and outdoors, and working 2 jobs has kept me off the blogosphere for the most part. Now things are settling down and I’m embarking on some autumn projects, new and old. I’m also trying out some new things and challenging myself.
First up is my Halloween costume. I have some lofty ideas and I’m not sure how (or if) it will all turn out. I may have to revise my budget somewhat. Without being too specific, it involves my largest Photoshop document ever (36″ by 80″ when printed) which is a challenge in and of itself. Once that’s done and printed, I have to build and buy the remainder of the costume. This will involve at least one trip to Home Depot, one to Cat’s Eye, and quite possibly some time with the sewing machine. So far it’s a fun project. I’m really excited to see how it comes together.
Next up are some writing projects. I posted a short story last month in the form of a letter, and I’ll probably get around to recording the audio version of it later this fall. I haven’t done much with my audio gear in a while, and I’m getting excitied to do more work now that I can do it on the laptop as well as my main computer. Recording will be easier since I can be more portable.
The other writing project I have on the go is an RPG scenario for Call of Cthulhu. I have a lot of notes already written, and I’m going to give some new writing software a try. The software is called Scrivener, and so far I like it. It works well with my existing writing workflow in MindManager and I like the ability to work with my research materials alongside my own text within the same application. I think I’m going to wind up purchasing it – the RPG scenario is a test to see how it goes. The free trial is very generous (30 days of actual use, not consecutive days) so I’ll be able to know for sure that i like the software before I buy it. Very unusual, and very cool.
Beyond these projects, who knows. I’ve got lots of ideas.
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2009.05.10
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 10:31 am by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Last night, Jason and I finally got around to trying one of the league scenarios that Fantasy Flight produced for Arkham Horror. We’ re only now starting on the first set of scenarios, so we’re a little behind.
We played “A Tide of Serpents” and won without things getting too out of control. Part of it was luck, but I felt that we played well overall and managed our resources carefully as a team. What I found most interesting was actually the game setup. In keeping with the way the scenarios are intended to be played, we only used the base game, and removed all of the components from the expansions. I had forgotten just how much stuff the expansions added to the game – in many cases, the investigator card decks were less than half of their full blown size. I suspect this also reduced the randomness factor quite a bit, and made the game easier than playing with the expansions included.
In any case, I’m looking forward to the next scenario.
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2009.05.09
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 1:50 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
As part of my board game hobby I enjoy playing a variety of cooperative games, and roughly speaking, they fall into three categories:
- Pure cooperative games, where all the players are on the same team
Examples: Lord of the Rings, Arkham Horror
- Known-adversary cooperative games, where one player is “the bad guy” and the other players are cooperating against him
Examples: Scotland Yard, Fury of Dracula, Descent, Lord of the Rings w/ Sauron expansion
- Cooperative games where all of the players appear to be on the same side, but one or more may secretly be working against the team as traitors
Examples: Werewolf, Shadows over Camelot, Battlestar Galactica
I find all three enjoyable, but I find the games that involve a traitor to be the most difficult for me to play. I recently purchased Battlestar Galactica, and both times I’ve played it, I’ve been the traitor. Depending on the group, the game can become intensely political, and while it’s not a friendship-ruiner like Diplomacy, it’s still tough to sit around the table with your friends, look them in the eye, and lie to them. It’s also difficult to walk the fine line of appearing to be helpful generally while trying to sabotage things where possible. Particular to Battlestar Galactica, there’s an additional agonizing decision of whether to reveal yourself as a traitor or try and hide the entire game. The “big reveal” can be devastating if timed correctly, and there’s always the temptation to do so before you’re caught.
Many years ago my favorite tactic in Risk was best described as “Let’s you and him fight” and it earned me the nickname of Bismarck. Maybe with practice I’ll regain those metagaming skills, although hopefully without pissing off all of my friends in the process.
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2009.03.29
Posted in Food, Friends at 4:36 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Recently, a coworker and I were discussuing how our generation seems to have lost the knack of cooking. It seems like a lot of people my age don’t cook as often as I do, and they also don’t seem as creative in the kitchen.
Why is this? I ‘m betting the reason is that they don’t have the time (or make the time) to cook a good meal. It’s really not that difficult to do, and there are tons of cookbooks and web sites full of recipes to try, so it’s got to be the time factor.
The pace at which we all move through life can make it difficult to make time to cook, but it’s a big part of my life and I really enjoy it (and I eat very well too).
I feel pretty strongly that sometimes we need to just slow down and take the time to enjoy the simple things, like a home cooked meal with family and / or friends. This is one of the ideas behind the Slow Food movement, and resonates strongly with me.
If you don’t take the time to cook regularly, why not?
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2008.10.19
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 6:29 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Last Monday I had Brian and Pam over for dinner and board games. It had been a while since I last had them over, and so I felt it was time. We only played one game: Thebes.
Thebes has been criticized for having too much luck. There is luck involved both in which cards are drawn and in which treasures you find when you excavate, but I think that skilled players will still manage to win more often than not.
In fact, I can’t imagine playing Thebes without the luck factor. Luck plays two very important roles in the game:
- It levels the playing field. Thebes is meant as a fairly light family-oriented game. New players, less experienced players, and young players all stand a reasonable chance at winning even against seasoned veterans. For me, this means I’m more likely to play the game and teach it to new people. If new players make poor decisions for the first part of the game while they are still learning, they are not penalized to the point where they can no longer win. It also makes it a good “learn as you go” game – I teach the game by giving a brief intro to the general aims of the game, the time-based turn system, and then I just explain the cards as they appear.
- The presence of luck is key to the fun factor in the excavation mechanic. When you make a long journey to the heart of Mesopotamia and spend months excavating, there’s a definite tension as you draw the tokens out of the bag to see what you uncover. You might leave the dig site with more riches than you could have imagined, or you could head back to Paris with a pocket full of sand and tales of the one that got away. If the excavation mechanic were instead changed to use a table-based, deterministic method of awarding points, the game wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to play.
Even though luck plays a factor, as a player you have access to enough information to make informed decisions and to maximize your chances for success. Since all of the player’s cards and treasures they have obtained remain visible at all times, experienced players will be able to make a call as to what their best options are. For example, if there are only 3 treasures left in Egypt, each worth only a single point, you may be better off going to Greece even if it means you have to spend more time there to be able to pull a reasonable number of tokens.
If anyone out there is waffling on the decision to purchase Thebes, I would suggest you take the plunge, or ask very nicely at your friendly local gaming store to see if they have a demo copy you can try.
The best endorsement I can possibly give the game is that Brian and Pam decided to purchase a copy for themselves even before we finished playing the game for the first time. It’s a very worthy addition to your Eurogame collection.
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2008.06.14
Posted in Board Games, Food, Friends at 2:15 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Last night, one of my friends turned the corner, as it were. I had Arman and Ben over for dinner and drinks, and Arman asked to play a board game. And not just, “Hey, let’s play a game.” He requested a specific game.
I guess this is the second time I’ve corrupted him since I’ve known him. First, I introduced him to tea. His experience with tea in the past had primarily been with well-known mass-market store brands, and high-quality tea is an entirely different beast altogether. Now, he’s addicted to board games.
And this is a good thing, since it’s sometimes hard to get a really good group together for a game night. More people are always welcome.
The game he asked to play? Kingdoms. Apparently he was missing his Dragon fix.
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2008.04.13
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 6:51 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
On Saturday, Jason, Suzy, and I gave Vikings a try. Jason picked it up a couple of weeks ago, but this was our first time playing the game.
I’ll have to play it again before I can really give an opinion on it. I enjoyed the first game, but there’s a lot going on under the covers in that game that I still don’t fully understand. I managed to win, though I think luck had a large part in that. We played with 3, and while I think it would be fun with 4, I don’t know if I would like it as much with 2. I guess we’ll have to try it and see.
After Vikings, we played a game of Tongiaki. Up until this point, Tongiaki and I have had a love-hate relationship. I love playing the game, and it hates to see me win. I was very happy to finally win Tongiaki for the first time ever last night. I’m sure luck played a part in that win too, but I think I played the game fairly well. Certainly I did better through the mid-game than usual, although my start felt a little sluggish. Maybe it doesn’t hate me after all.
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