Flash Point: Fire Rescure is the “new hotness” as Jason puts it (pun intended), and he got me a copy for my birthday.  To date, I think this one is only available to people who backed it on Kickstarter, which is a shame because it’s a fantastic cooperative game.  The mechanics fit the theme really well, and the game moves along with relatively little downtime.  The difficulty is adjustable but so far it feels about right at the regular difficulty level. You’re not going to win every game (it’s been close every game so far, either winning or losing), but it doesn’t grind you into the dust like Ghost Stories always seems to.  I’ve only tried the two maps that come with the base game, and haven’t yet attempted the expansion maps which appear more difficult.

As for older games, I played all three of the following with various members of my family over the break:

1. 6 Nimmt (Category 5 in English)
2. Carcassonne: The City
3. The Settlers of Catan

I have played all of them before, but I was the only one at the table who had played them.  6 Nimmt went over predictably well, and we got pretty goofy by the end of the game (a couple of glasses of red wine may have contributed).  Everyone had fun, and we all agreed the light tactics were just the right level for what we wanted that evening.

Mom and I played a couple of games of Carcassonne, and though it took her a little bit to see the strategies, she enjoyed playing the game and came pretty close to beating me both games.  This is still my favorite incarnation of Carcassonne to play, and the chance to play it with mom reminded me of why.

Finally, Settlers of Catan hit the table.  My sister wound up winning quite handily, and although it’s still far from my favorite game, I enjoyed this play of it more than previous plays.  The dice still hated me as they always do, but I started to at least get a bit of momentum in the mid-game.  It proved to be too little, too late as mom was challenging me for the longest army while my sister had somehow managed to get 4 of the VP cards in the development card deck.  I ended up in second place, but there was a lot of back and forth to get there (I was in last for the majority of the game).  I’d be willing to give this one another try, although I will stick to my vow to never play it with the 5/6 player expansion ever again.

Saturday was mostly just spent getting settled and getting my bearings.  I had a good seared tuna sandwich for supper in Andersonville before heading down to Lakeview.  I decided to skip Market Days and do a bit of wandering down Clark and Broadway instead.

Sunday morning I met a friend at the Metra station downtown and we ended up having lunch at a pub whose name I can’t recall.  I do remember the veal was really tasty and that I tried a local craft beer of some sort that was also tasty.  From there we headed to Lakeview to take in Market Days.  My general impression was that it was a larger and somewhat more fun version of the Lilac Festival in Calgary.  Lots of people but because the street is reasonably broad, it never felt crowded the way Calgary street festivals always seem to.

It was fun, but only for so long, and afterwards we did a bit of shopping on Broadway and Clark streets.  Specifically, I wanted to hit a couple of record stores.  I managed to pick up the following:

• Brian Eno / David Byrne: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (original 1981 release)
• LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening
• And a couple of misc 7″ singles.

On Sunday, my friend Arman and I went to check out a new pub that opened on 10th Avenue called the Craft Beer Market.

They opened in the space that used to be Mother Tucker’s which is quite large and in an excellent location.  They also managed to open a few weeks before Stampede, and I have no doubt that was the plan.

What makes this place different from many others in town is its focus on (and selection of) craft beers.  With 104 different varieties on tap, they’re making a serious move into a market that is (in my opinion) very neglected in Calgary.  It’s not a brewpub; all of the beer comes from other breweries, but it’s still a great addition to the Calgary scene.

The makeover from Mother Tucker’s is pretty astonishing – the main room is up a short flight of stairs from the entrance, and has huge windows and high ceilings.  The lines from the kegs (located in a huge refridgerator in the back) to the bars run through large steel tubing mounted to the ceiling and give an interesting look to the space.  There are also several  and several other rooms are off to the East and West, up a few more stairs; The East room can be closed off for private parties.  Overall, the feel is very open and spacious, not crowded like so many other pubs in Calgary are.

For my first trip, I drank several German beers that I last enjoyed 10 years ago when I was in Germany for a summer, and then had strawberry fruli for dessert, after enjoying a very tasty inferno burger and yam fries.  Arman opted for the impossibly large 20-napkin burger (totalling 20oz of meat) which he was unsurprisingly unable to finish.  I’m pretty sure a family of 4 could have split it and not been left hungry.

Another highlight of the visit was meeting the owner and being able to talk about the place with him and also gaining access to the generally employee-only beer fridge to get a closer look at the setup in there.  Very impressive and something that is long overdue in Calgary.  I suspect this place will do very well.

And will I go back?  You bet your dunkelwiezen.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1. Pure cooperative games, where all the players are on the same team
   Examples: Lord of the Rings, Arkham Horror
2. 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
3. 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.

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?

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

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.

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.

Last Friday I went shopping and bought myself a barbecue. The beginning of the adventure was fitting it in the car.

Those of you who know me, and know what I drive, are probably wondering how I managed to fit a regular-sized barbecue in my car. It turns out that it fit perfectly well when everything was removed from the box, and divided between the back seat and the trunk.

In any case, my friend and coworker Brian used to work in a store that sold barbecues, and he has assembled many in his time. He offered to help me put it together, and I countered with dinner if he did. So, it was set. He and Pam (his wife) would come over for dinner on Sunday, and Arman would join us (he helped me carry the pieces in from the car). Brian arrived Sunday afternoon, and I had already perused the assembly instructions, figured out what was what, and had the first part of the base assembled.

We soon discovered that the cap the builder put on the gas hookup was pretty much welded to the nipple. The nipple came apart from the valve easily enough, but the cap wouldn’t budge, so I made a last-minute run to Home Depot to buy a replacement nipple. Aside from that small snag, everything went together quickly and painlessly. By the time I got back from the store with my $0.69 piece of pipe, Pam and Arman had arrived and taken over my sofa, and Brian had all but finished the assembly.

I had the foresight to set the steaks marinating in the morning, and had prepped the couscous salad in the afternoon, so there was little to do but assemble some veggie skewers and grill it all up.

It was delicious.

After dinner, we broke out Ticket to Ride: Europe, which none of the others had played before. We played in about 90 minutes, which is typical for a four-player game with new players. Everyone enjoyed the game, and it was definitely an interesting one. Pam set about hoarding locomotives, Brian played spoiler to Arman’s plans, and I managed to wiggle and weave my way from Lisbon to Stockholm to complete a number of tickets.

After we finished, the group wanted to play some more, so I got out Blokus and we played a few quick games. I’m not sure who gave it the name “the anti-Tetris“, but it stuck for the rest of the evening. Blokus is one of those subtle games where you pick up the basics really easily, but which can take a while to learn all the tricks. I had a large advantage, being the only one who had played before, but the others picked on me so it evened out somewhat.

And so it was that Sunday was a day that combined three of my favorite things: good food, good company, and good gaming.

The more games of Thebes I play, the more I appreciate it. There is a strong luck element to the game, but like most games that feature luck, it feels like a more skilled player will win more often than less skilled players. There were many points when I felt like I wasn’t doing as well as the others, but I focused on making the most of each turn, taking the best choice that presented itself.

Chris pushed his luck at the end by going fishing for a seventh Congress card, which he did manage to find due to his persistence, and it nearly won him the game. It would have had I not also pushed my luck and turned up a 5-point exhibition I was able to do.

Part of the trick to Thebes is knowing when to take a risk and push your luck, and when to simply make the best of what’s available at the moment. I haven’t fully figured it out yet, but I’m getting there.

After supper, Jason and I took on Yog-Sothoth in a game of Arkham Horror, using the King in Yellow expansion. We wanted to toughen the game a little, so we played with the expansion in Touring Performance style. We decided not to use a Herald, though, because we didn’t want it to be too tough.

Ahem. We got our asses handed to us. We lost the game in about a dozen turns, hitting Act III of the play. I had managed to close only a single gate, and couldn’t seal it.

What really sucked is that I had a really cool character with neato weapons and things for a change. Of course, that hardly mattered when I spent two of my turns delayed in Other Worlds, and then got smacked by some random mid-level monster because I couldn’t roll the dice to save my life. 3 successes on 8 dice is a bit of a challenge (slightly below the odds), but I managed to roll 0 successes on 6+ dice several times during the game. If only I had been playing Axis and Allies instead. Sigh.

So, a mere 60 minutes after setting up the game, we were shaking our heads and putting it away. We’ll get you next time, Yog.

I’ve played Power Grid numerous times in the past, but never before have I played a 5-player game of Power Grid. The level of tension was much higher throughout the game, and the bidding for power plants got downright ugly at times. It was also unusual in that people were tending to spend less money. Even I departed from my usual “spend ‘em if ya got ‘em” strategy and saved some Electro up to buy a nice juicy power plant later. With the way the bids were going, it was almost a requirement.

Power Grid worked extremely well with 5 players. In my experience, it was more fun than any of the 4-player Power Grid games I’ve played in the past. It’s definitely something I’d like to do again, although 5-player Fury of Dracula is also high on my list…

This year seemed a bit more laid back than last year, but I still had a great time, and Sunday was pretty high-activity for me. Probably the highlight for me was getting out on the lake in a kayak again, even though it was only for a short while. I also met some new people who live only four blocks away from me in Calgary (small world).

Now all I have to do is catch up on my sleep before this coming weekend…

In any case, it was a fun evening. A total of about 20 people showed up during the course of things, and somehow I managed to end up with more liquor than I started with. Funny how that happens.

The evening started rather routinely. Collin was already here, and Jason dropped by around 5:30 so we could get a bite to eat. My choice of a black tank top proved to be very poor given the stifling heat. I nearly melted by the time we got to Thai Thai, and it’s only a few blocks away. The bubble tea helped to cool me down a bit, and after we got back to the condo, I set about doing last-minute preparations (mostly dealing with food). Dave called at about 7:30 to say he would be late, then showed up at the door at about 7:50, which was technically 10 minutes early (the party officially started at 8:00). I had just gotten out of the shower, and Jason and Collin were playing Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation while I finished up with the food prep. Dave started playing against Collin after that, and they finally put the games away only when about 12 or so people had shown up.

The majority of folks showed up fashionably late around 9:00 or 9:30 (as I expected), and by 10:00 the place was pretty full. For my part, I spent the evening showing people my place, trying to keep tabs on food (thanks Collin and Jason for doing this), and trying to socialize with everyone. I invited a number of different groups of friends, many of whom had never met each other before, and it was interesting to see how people mixed.

A few things about the party stand out in my mind still:

1. We went through nearly 1kg of trail mix,. Some people (I’m looking at you, Michael) were picking out the Smarties and leaving the rest. Others ate only the cashews. So at the end of the night I was left with 200g of peanuts, raisins, and almonds.
2. Almost nobody ate the veggie dip, but the veggies themselves went quickly.
3. Coffee flavoured beer is disgusting (yes, Brian, it really is).
4. A new cocktail was born. Kristi has dubbed it “Blue Steel”. I have to say it was quite tasty.

Thanks to everyone who came by and shared in the fun.

With only two players, it feels a little too much like a race game with very few options that matter. It’s also a little boring since there’s not a lot of incentive to head to cities that are far away – if a given city is currently inaccessible, it’s very likely that neither player will bother with it.

With four players, however, it’s a totally different game. The board is much more open, there are many more choices that can lead to victory, and the mechanics of turn order and city scoring order become much more relevant.

Jason, Chris, Dave, and I all pursued different strategies, and the game wound up being quite close. I was surprised at how many times Dave generated a substantial amount of income when other people traveled through villages he controlled. It was a lot more money than I would have expected.

My strategy was a little more focused on manipulation of the city order, but I just didn’t generate enough income quite quickly enough to keep up with Chris and his infernal “oh, it only costs 9 for me to build a palace” ways.

I would definitely play it with 4 or 5 players, but I don’t think it would work as well with three, and with only two players, there are so many other games I would rather play that I don’t think this would have much of a chance of hitting the table. According to what I’ve read on the geek, the sweet spot seems to be 4-5 people, and I would tend to agree.

As we figured out the game a bit more, I started to enjoy it a bit more. Jason took an early lead, getting his wizard safely out of the dungeon, and I started to figure out my initial priorities. I had the Thief and the Goblin together on my starting line, and there was a rope in the first room, so I used the thief to run and grab the rope then gave it to the goblin so he could progress on his own without the thief helping him over pits.

Things slowly started to click for me as I shifted a couple of rooms around and made some more progress into the middle of the board with my thief and goblin. I had my goblin make a run for it and get the hell out of the dungeon as fast as he could, earning me 2 points and bringing the game to 3-1 since I had slipped another character out a few turns earlier. My Thief stuck around to support my other characters, notably my Mechanork. Jason uncovered some treasure and grabbed it, starting a run for my end of the board with it. He also started advancing his goblin up the board towards my end. I managed to give his cleric a good thumping in the mean time, earning a fourth point, and then had my troll smash his goblin right before the finish line to end the game.

Even though it was our first time and I had very little grasp on the strategy of the game, I still enjoyed it a lot and want to play again. A couple of things stuck me as being very interesting features of the game:

1. The ability to rotate rooms, even (in some cases) rooms that you do not currently have any characters in. This proved key to my success as I managed to trap a couple of Jason’s characters in such a way that it would have taken him ages to rotate them out.

2. The way that you place your opponents pieces when rooms are revealed. This is very key, as it’s also how I managed to trap some of Jason’s characters – I simply started them out in a bad position.

3. The need for judicious combat. My Cleric was surrounded by a number of Jason’s characters, yet he didn’t attack my Cleric. In my mind, he should have – it would have been an easy point. I wouldn’t have even tried to put up a fight, so hopeless was the situation.

Jason also made the observation that the game feels a little like RoboRally. The games do have similarities in that you have to pay attention to the board and the way your characters can maneuver around it, although for me at least the games feel different. When I play RoboRally I spend a lot of time focusing on small details of the board layout, since they make a huge difference. In Dungeon Twister, the board is somewhat more benign (though there’s still lots going on), and I’m able to look a little further ahead than the current turn. For a two-player game, I would prefer Dungeon Twister to RoboRally, although I have trouble imagining how chaotic a 3 or 4-player game of Dungeon Twister would be. RoboRally works well with 4 people, with an appropriate amount of chaos.

I’ll have to play Dungeon Twister at least a couple of more times to get a better feel for the game, but so far I like it.

As examples, consider two of Dr. Reiner Knizia’s games, Blue Moon City and Samurai. With their tile-driven wooden-block-pushing mechanics, I can’t imagine anyone would doubt their Eurogame provenance, yet they’re both almost purely tactical games in my experience.

Many of Knizia’s other designs also feel quite tactical to me – Kingdoms and Through the Desert come to mind, as do Lost Cities and the Blue Moon card game, and the list goes on. Dr. Knizia certainly does not have a monopoly on tactical Eurogames, either. Tikal and Java by Kramer and Kiesling are quite tactical, as are Wrede’s Carcassonne and Rauscher’s Tongiaki.

There are also eurogames with deeper tactics and heavier strategy such as Caylus and Tigris & Euphrates, though they both play longer than the more family-oriented Eurogames as a side effect.

One thing most of these tactical Eurogames have in common, and this is perhaps what Jason was picking up on, is that their tactical palette is sometimes a little limited. When I’m playing Blue Moon City, for example, there are only a limited number of single-turn and two- or three-turn tactics I can use. The choices aren’t usually easy, but there aren’t all that many options, either. On the other hand, Wizard Kings gives players a wide range of tactical options, owing a lot to the variety of terrain and units. The strategic framework present in the game also provides a richer environment in which to explore those tactics (or just make them up as you go like I do).

While I don’t agree that Eurogames lack tactics, I do think that in many cases they limit the tactical options. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as they can create tension and interest in many other ways. I can think of dozens of games of Ingenious where I could easily agonize over a single tile placement for more than a minute (a long time in a 20-30 minute 2-player game), even though Ingenious really doesn’t have that many tactical options.

Wizard Kings produces tension more on the tactical and strategic side of things, and this kind of variety is the reason I play (and own) such a large number of different board games.

By random chance I ended up with the elves, while Jason commanded the evil army of the undead. Since the elves only have ten turns to win the game in this scenario, I decided to strike straight out of the gate. I moved all three of my flying elven characters (which were at full strength) to the nearest city on the Island, and proceeded to roll so brutally I was wondering if the dice were fixed. In three rounds of combat I failed to score even a single hit, while Jason’s zombies ripped me to shreds. That setback was so severe I already knew I had lost the game, though we played it out just to get a better feel for the rules.

I did wind up losing rather badly in the end, as expected, and Jason and I were both questioning the game at that point. I enjoyed the mechanics but really didn’t like the way the scenario was constructed. Jason wasn’t sure he liked the combat system, but we both agreed to give it another shot (though with a different scenario). We were, however, both pleased that the game played quickly once we got started.

After supper, we played a second game of Wizard Kings, this time with my Amazons defending their noble land against Jason’s invading Barbarian horde. I got lucky enough to destroy Jason’s only naval unit early on. This gave me an advantage since several of my cities were difficult to reach over land, and the land offered some natural choke points through which Jason had no choice but to pass. Even still, there was a point on turn 4 where I thought I had lost for certain.

The way the scenario was constructed, the Amazons can win by attrition, but only if they survive beyond turn 6. Since I spent most of the first few turns running away from the barbarians as fast as I could, enough of my units survived into the mid-game that I stood a fighting chance. I managed to turn things around enough in turns 6 and 7 to actually come out victorious by wearing Jason down slowly over the following turns.

We both agreed that the second scenario played a lot better, and we both enjoyed the game. Having played it twice, I’d be interested in playing again for sure. Columbia did a great job with the maps and the game plays well.

Following Wizard Kings, we decided that it was time to play an abstract strategy game, something we haven’t been doing much lately. Several games were proposed, but we settled on Sid Sackson’s Realm. This blast from the past is well worth digging up, or alternatively, it would be fairly straightforward to make your own set out of wood if you’re so inclined. Realm is all about territory control, but there’s also a bit of a race aspect to the game that adds an interesting dimension. The rules allow for some interesting self-sacrifice plays that can be rather devastating since your “dead” pieces stay on the board, immobilized, and block movement.

This time around, I managed to box Jason into a corner, and edged out a victory during the final few turns. It was a very tense game, and it definitely made me think.

I think I’ll have to try getting some of the Gipf project games back to the table soon, since it’s been a while since I played any of those. Maybe this coming weekend…

It was refreshing to play the game as two of the hunters this time. It’s a very different game than when you play as Dracula.

It was also interesting to see how Jason played as Dracula. He kept using Bats encounters (much to my annoyance), which is something I never really used when I played Dracula. We also had very different styles of play, though I don’t think either style was more or less effective – just different. I’ll have to play more often and see how my impressions change over time.