The Tao of Gaming

Just noticed I missed this, so here's my "Early '07" summary article.

Reviews/Initial Thoughts:

• Space Dealer
• Yspahan
• Imperial
• Ruse & Bruise
• Garden Gnomes & Candimir
• Glory to Rome thread
• Through the Ages
• Notre Dame
• Phoenicia

Strategy :

• To Court the King
• Glory to Rome Building Analysis

And, of interest, my Combat Commander Thoughts (chain of posts).

Before I moved I played ~100 titles a year. In '06, around 150. Now I'm over 170 (although some of those are just expansions, so the 'true' number is probably 165). Most of those titles were, as usual, single plays. Thankfully few of them were games I bought (although a few were owned as trades, briefly).

1. No points awarded for a correct guess. If I get in a few more games before New Years, Race will get 75 plays.
2. I'm declaring an upset at number two, with Glory to Rome. I suppose it's really just a tie with ...
3. Phoenicia, but I think G2R will have more long term potential in our group. Or I may be biased in that I've been playing Phoenicia for years, and I played a ton of it online when I was between jobs.
4. Notre Dame, which also grabbed some online time (via BSW) is one of those mildly addictive inoffensive games. I'm willing to play even though I don't think it has unexplored depths, because it does reward skill but has enough luck to keep my interest. I'll probably get to 25 plays eventually.

Ordering is already pretty arbitrary at the #2 spot, so lets just go with categories:

Other games I liked:

• Caylus Magna Carta -- Good enough to make me wonder if I'll ever play Caylus again, except against the uber-strong.
• Kutschfahrt -- Really only got in a few games (over about two weeks), so it's hard to call this a glowing recommendation, but this is worth checking out.
• I played the games of Through the Ages at the Gathering. I'd like to play again, although I'm not nearly as desperate to buy, thanks to the delay. (And I haven't tried Agricola).

Looking back at my '06 choices: I'm generally happy with my picks. They all had the fall-off of second year games, but I played all of them (I think). I'm even happy with most of my '05 comments.

New Games I won't miss:

• Antler Island
• Garden Gnome Society
• Imperial
• Neuroshima Hex!
• Portobello Market
• Ruse and Bruise (although it had it's moment)
• Space Dealer
• Struggle for Rome
• Venedig

One of the nice things about skipping Essen/BGG.CON/etc is that my wallet avoids all those trap games. I almost added Zooloretto, but I'm sure someone will offer to play and its not bad. It just lacks oomph. On the other hand, I want to play Galaxy Trucker again, but when our local sold his copy (?!) I wasn't heartbroken. Time has cooled my desire for this, too.

The Monster Games: I played 7 Ages twice, Mare Nostrum twice. My PBEM game of Here I Stand is approaching its first birthday, may it never reach two.

... To be continued ....

I'm not sure how important these are, but they are things that I'm noticing more and more as I play. Some of these are listed by Mark as Beginner's concepts, so I'm slow.

• Classifying cards as "Play or Money" means don't play cards just because. If you only hold cards that aren't terribly useful, then save them for cash. (Obvious exceptions: if your plan isn't clear and a card provides income, or you'll end up discarding anyway). But in several games last night I thought — "Well, I can play this" quickly squashed by "No rush ... if that's the right card I'll know it after I trade, and my timing will be fine."
• Timing trumps discounts. I lost one game (I believe) because I developed some Investment Credits, so that I could discount my crucial development next turn. This cost a turn I couldn't afford. If you miss a discount for a card or two, but it lets you trade your windfall (or start your produce/consume cycle) a turn earlier, giving up the discount is a minor price. You can always drop it later, if you like.
• Flexibility. One of the nicest feelings is being able to call a phase and have choices based on what phases are coming up. Here's the most synergistic opening I've seen in a while. Investment Credits, Space Marines, Robot Alien Sentry, Avian Uplift Race. You call Develop, and if there's a settle you drop the Space Marines (I'd personally pay with the Credits, but I'm not entirely convinced). If not, you drop the Credits and then Develop again for Space Marines. If there's still no Settle, you hit it on Turn 3.
• Some engines are luckier than others. Setting up multiple Alien Worlds and calling Produce/Trade/Trade hoping for the Tech Institute is fragile ... you need one card out of the deck for big VPs (although you can also score by getting Research Labs, and a few other cards while you wait). Setting up a consume/trade cycle with one alien world and two novelty goods has you aiming for a few cards. (Consumer Markets, Diversified Economy + a rare/gene world, Free Trade Association, and others). When building your economic engine, build a lucky one (unless you already hold the critical cards). [This requires an idea of what cards are out there, definitely an intermediate concept.]
• Consuming multiple goods (with one) is powerful. You need to get lots of production goods (with maybe a windfall), but they save you a card or two of development. Consumer Markets is a 'strategy in a card.' Not just because of the income — it consume 3 worlds. Assuming you trade a rare good, you have a 2 turn cycle of 6 cards income, 3 VPs for 5 cards in your tableau. By my count only 4 cards both produce a good and consume it. Barring multiple consumption 3 VPs with a trade good often requires 7 cards (3 Production worlds, 1 Windfall or Production, 3 consumption powers). (Galactic Trendsetters counts here, since it consumes a single good for 2 VP)
• Tableau size is a restriction. An engine that takes two less cards will take less time to get going. A corollary.

Anyway, Merry XMas. Time to open presents!

I played a game of Power Grid! On the Central Europe Map! With the new Deck.

It broke up Race for the Galaxy into two blocks, totaling roughly six hours. As Eric said, this is the Race Blog until further notice.

Power Grid was good — I like the new deck, as the order is a bit more mixed some "High cost, many cities" options right next to "cheap and clean" ... a less orderly progression, and fewer "I can't imagine buying that" choices. There was a time when Power Grid was my "Yeah, let's play that" game of choice. Partially because it was online, but it's just inoffensive.

I was thinking about it yesterday, and how much more Power Grid do I need? I've got four expansion maps, two decks and a nice version of the Atolla Modulis (actually, two copies of that). Even if I play Power Grid once a month, that's only twice a year for each map (assuming I ignore the Atols). That's enough variety. Age of Steam is the same way (and I haven't even gotten a game of that in this year ... the shame). I long ago decided that I have more 18xx games than I need (although I'd still like to try some of the new ones).

Some expansions toss stuff in, but the "New Map" expansion seems limited for all but the most hard care of people. Just an idle thought while I wait for the Race expansion.

Anyway, I've finally gotten Research Labs to work, although I still consider slapping it down early a desperation move (unless you tagged a small Alien world and are producing/trading). Using the Labs in a Pioneer role (by constantly exploring) just gives up too much timing control. So you have to slap it down, explore 1-2 times to deduce what the cards are telling you and build up a hand, and then go ahead. Not a stunning insight, but still satisfying to win with.

There's a thread on the Merchant Guild that left me wondering ... which is the least useful big (6-cost) development? Obviously they all require you to go in a specific strategy ...

New Economy, I'm looking at you. Discuss.

(Incidentally, the rulebook says 15 developments consume one or more goods. I count 16. Given all developments come in pairs, save the sixes, I make the "Big ones" as Mining League, Free Trade, New Economy and Trade League. Trade League does have a consume (as well as trade) power, right? Is that a typo in the charts?)