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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2008.03.12
Posted in Board Games, Food, Friends at 7:52 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
When I moved to my current address, one of the many upsides was that the balcony had a gas hookup for a barbecue on the balcony. I had always intended on buying one, but somehow I never quite got around to it. Until now.
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.
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2008.03.03
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 8:22 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Jason, Chris, Meela, and I played a four-player game of Thebes on Saturday. The game was very satisfying and a lot of fun. I managed to win with 59 points, but it was a very tight race – Chris wound up with 57 points and Meela had 55. In the end it was luck that saved me – I managed to sneak in a 5-point exhibition on my penultimate turn that jumped me from third to first.
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.
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2008.02.04
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 7:19 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
On Saturday I had Jason, Brian, Pam, and Arman over for a game night. We warmed up with some Zooloretto, since Brian, Pam, and Arman were new to the whole Eurogame thing. It went over very well, with everyone remarking that they liked it. Then we moved on to Power Grid, which was definitely the highlight of the evening for me.
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…
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2007.08.08
Posted in Friends, Parties, Travel at 6:17 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
For the second year in a row, I spent the August long weekend in Kelowna, BC visiting friends. And for the second year in a row, the weather was good, the water was warm, and there was way too much food.
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…
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2007.07.31
Posted in Board Games, Friends, House and Home, Parties at 8:34 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
In mid-July of 2006, I took possession of my condo. Just over a year later, I finally managed to have a housewarming party. Though I’m not sure it can still be called a housewarming party since it’s a year later.
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:
- 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.
- Almost nobody ate the veggie dip, but the veggies themselves went quickly.
- Coffee flavoured beer is disgusting (yes, Brian, it really is).
- 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.
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2007.06.20
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 12:49 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Maharaja, one of several board games designed by the well-known Kramer / Kiesling duo, is a game I had only ever tried with two players until very recently. I’m very glad I did, because as a two-player game, it’s just not very good.
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.
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2007.06.11
Posted in Board Games, Friends at 7:31 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Jason and I tried Dungeon Twister for the first time last night. The rules are well laid out, if a bit lengthy, but we still got started reasonably quickly. Since neither of us had played before, we did the game setup completely randomly, just picking characters for our starting line at random and distributing the other tokens randomly into the rooms.
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.
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