The Tao of Gaming

... while waiting for a lunch group ...

Just tried Airships, yet another new dice game. (Are dice the new hot thing? Are they the old hot thing, like retro? Anyway, Airships was amusing, but it seemed like one or two early busts killed you. To be fair, you rarely win if you get a Jester in Court the King. This has manipulate dice powers (to very the type of dice you roll), but no dice manipulation powers. You just want to roll high. One local vendor sold out (and not many other games), so I guess the buzz is reasonable.

Late night/Kids game -- Rattlesnake. You have to put (reasonably strong) magnets on a small board without having them snap together or roll off. Did I mention they were ovals? Yes? Did I mention powerful? If you try to slowly lower a new magnet in the others start shivering and shimmying, which resembles a pit of snakes...

Played a prototype baseball game. Nice, and had a hell of a game.

Another quick/amusing/fast game was Jamaica.

I think I may pick up Galaxy Trucker ... I keep playing it once a day instead of trying new games. We'll see if Jacqui likes it. Played several more games of Agricola, including several two player games to explore specific issues. Full review post-Gathering.

For now, lunch.

Detailed thoughts later:

Memo to self -- when Ted Alspach's decaying body finally washes ashore on the Olentangy, loudly proclaim that I did not murder him for his nice copy of Wabash Cannonball. Ditto David Fair/Agricola.

I had put a "I'll trade for this" on Wabash, figuring that the reviews were a fast, brutal economic game with the feel (if not the rules) of the more cut-throat 18xx games. It delivers all that and more. Little downtime, important decisions, no luck, auctions, and complex stock valuations. Amazing.

I stopped playing Age of Renaissance even though it's fun. Why play a 5+ hour game when one or two card deals will decide it. This flaw clearly applies to Agricola -- both games saw the person with the better starting hand run away with it. Still, I enjoyed AoR the first dozen times I played it ... and Agricola is only 1/2 as long. I think most of the people who obsesses over this recognize the flaw and I'm not sad about it ... yet. Ask me in another 10 games.

Everything I've ever written about Brass is suspect. I don't know if we got any rules right. More later.

I'd never heard of Palastgefluster, but it's another good little game in a tiny box. Only got to play half a game, but I'll probably pick this up. It's only $6, after all.

I've noticed a nice (and commendable) trend of upgrading games you love with custom components (see -- estate sale of tragic victims, above). I think I'll have to look into this. I'm definitely moving towards fewer, better games.

More later.

Got in three new-ish games.

King of Siam is a partnership abstract with no communication. 'Abstract' means that I'm not likely to play it again, although the 'partnership' part intrigues me. But I'm working on squashing that thought.

Oregon has you placing meeples (w/Cowboy hats) and buildings on a grid. Each 2 rows (and three columns) are grouped by a symbol, and you playing two symbols (one for row, one for column) gives you 12 (or six) potential placements. I didn't particularly care for it, but it wasn't bad. I may play it again.

Stone Age was good enough to play twice, and I think I'd play it another 10+ times, but then I'd be done. It uses a "place your workers" idea, but there's no order to resolving places and you can place one group at at a time. (Six of the spaces allow multiple workers, with most of them capping it at seven).

Anyway, it reminds me (in my reaction, not mechanisms) to St. Petersburg (also by Tummelhoffer, or part of him). I'll explain more later.

I won 3 out of 5 games of Race yesterday, lost a close one and came in second (with 43 points) by over 15 points. Guess which one was a tournament game? Ah well, more cake for me.