The Tao of Gaming

Chris Farrell has a new post, so back onto the blogroll.

For a minor celebrity, Rich Sommers has pretty good taste in games. On an almost related note, there's the "Brushes with Fame" geeklist.

Time's up gets a deluxe edition. I'm not sold on the "fourth round" (with pantomiming) ... it's a good idea, but difficult. We tried making the 4th round simultaneous. All players on one side close their eyes and the other side poses. That stops any problems with trying to quickly open and close your eyes over 30 seconds. Still didn't quite work.

I do think that the "Titles" (instead of Celebrity names") idea is good, although everyone seems to want to put in a title that is also a name. (I liked "Tom Jones," personally).

I read the three-way discussion with Michael Barnes, Ryan Bretsch, and Eric Martin a few days ago. There was one good point (by Barnes):

That whole “different strokes” approach winds up undermining the whole point of having an opinion, discussing it, and defending it. That’s fine in day-to-day life and that’s how I live in pretty much all respects, but when it comes to opinion-making and criticism that shouldn’t be the de facto defense.

BGG has polls. Now they need to stop having so damn many (A geek-dime fee per poll. You heard it here first).

Thanks to a tip by David, I went to the Container store and got a baseball card holder ... this holds up to 15 card games (sans boxes sometimes), depending on how many decks each game has. So now I can put Kutschfahrt, Vom Kap bis Kairo, Twilight, Flauschentuefel, and whatever in one long (solid) case. I'll probably take Bohnanza, Fairy Tale and a few other games out of their boxes.

Walking through the Container store was ... impressive. Lots of bit boxes, and some very nice stuff. (I didn't find a good way to organize my Strat-o teams, though). A 4x6 Index card file?

David, did you ever post a thread on how you pimped your Agricola set?

Anyway, this has been geeky even by my standards, so I'll stop.

Since I played Wabash Cannonball at the Gathering with Ted Alspach's set, I've never actually set eyes on a 'real' board until mine arrived this week.

And it wasn't that bad. The map is quite functional. The paper money needs to be replaced, but that's what poker chips are for. Clinky coins would be nice; but I'm not willing to spend $100 or so investing in them. Yet. I may print out nicer stock certificates, but overall I think the component quality is just fine (considering the print run, etc).

Finally, a fantasy baseball thing I can follow: Each day you pick one player to hit for you, and try to keep your hitting streak alive. First person to 57 gets $1M (they have a home run hitting game, too, but that doesn't seem to be working right now).

Last night I got in my second game of Lost Valley. I think it went better ... this is still an "OK," but positive.

I don't know about you, but I celebrated by going to work. I have already gotten in my first March games of Race. So let's look around the web:

I liked this comic on BGG.

Pitchers and catchers have reported .... and so have cards. I think we're leaning towards a novel draft idea (at least, I've never heard of it applied to this format).

The Ticket to Ride card game is making the preview rounds. (Boardgamenews, Bruno Faidutti). Designers hate it when I say "That game sounds like X mixed with Y", so I'll just think X and Y really hard and let ya'll guess in the comments. (Or suggest others).

I'll eventually go to the MSC and pick the answers I like. As usual, I don't like my answer at the table. I still think Wei-Hwa's 110% is the best answer.

"Time are bad, Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book" -- Cicero

$100 for Axis and Allies?

I mean, it adds Italy (insert joke here).

Lots of people love A&A ... but $100 worth? (I guess the people who love A&A probably have lots more disposable income than when they started playing).

Regarding race, You should read Alex'sGeneral Strategy Guide and Frunk's "The Poker of Race" articles. (This note was just in case any of my reader's don't follow race obsessively).

I've also got a correction (two actually) on my spreadsheet. I'll update it later. But we're definitely in the point of well-diminished returns for my writings. I've said everything I can say clearly about Race. Perhaps when I double my game total I'll have more to add. (I may still write, I just won't necessarily be coherent).

Fortunately for me I just got Starcraft. I remember being very intrigued by the previews (the Ameritrash game with definite Euro influence ...). The rules look good. We'll see if it gets to the table.

I played Cranium Hoopla last night, a "cooperative" party game. That just means everyone's on the same team. I think that's a good idea -- the game is basically charades and variants. And (according to the advertisements on BGG) this is a sub-$10 game.

Just to boggle the mind, I had a game of Geshenkt last night where everyone conceded to me after five cards. (I took the 8 with two or three chips, then the 10 hit, which I took with four chips. Then the 11, which I took with four chips. Then the 12, four chips. Then the 13, four chips). [And yes, it took me longer to type this than the game.] Apparently one of our group has a reverse shuffle technique ... he shuffles cards back into order. He's wasting his life on science instead of three card monte and other cons.

I just noticed you can see photos from Nuremburg. (Commentary in French). Apparently Shadows over Camelot has an expansion coming out. Also spotted ... Neuland, the new Titan, the new Chinatown. A few that I'm guessing from the photos (a Metropolis remake?). An Auf Achse remake?

And some new games, too.

Courtesy of Jeff and Amy, Desktop Tower Defense. Protect your spare change (etc) from bacteria and other malevolent lifeforms using small pellet guns, squirt towers, and air defenses. Annoyingly addictive. Keeps me from posting.

for being named Best Blog by Boardgamenews. I particularly like the comment that "A vote for Brian is a vote for Race."

Just to be ornery, I'll have to post something non-Race soon. Other than that I'll be the same blog, except with more groupies. I promise to keep my scandals interesting, and I'll inspect my hookers for Adam's apples.

In between games of Race, I noticed Age of Gods on the shelves of the local pusher. Reading Bruno's entry (in his Ideal Game Library) intrigued me a year (or two?) ago.

A cosmic-style "everyone fights and dies" game with hidden tribes? Could be fun. And (unlike many new titles) it's only $40 MSRP (instead of the increasingly common $60). That practically makes it an impulse purchase.

But since I'm unlikely to get it to the table soon, I figured I'd see what the Taoers said ...

(And just to make sure that I actually do get comments, I'll just note that I'm 23 songs through Hard on GHIII, and am pleased with the Muse CDs I bought).

I got my new edition of Glory to Rome a few days ago. The designer had graciously agreed to trade anyone who had a prior edition. This is a huge cost (as he spent $7+ in shipping for me, and presumably every other person who took advantage of this).

In any sane year Glory to Rome would be my "Game of the Year" pick. With Phoenicia and Race hitting the streets ... Anyway, the new cards are much nicer, and I'll comment on gameplay changes at some point. Chuck also tossed in a copy of Aapep, which I'd never heard of. So I'll try to get that to the table, too.

Boardgamenews is hosting the Boardgame Internet Awards, and the San Antonio Board Gamers have been nominated. (So have I (twice) ... I knew those incriminating photos would pay off).

Let me say even I'm surprised to see Race in the BGG Top 40. (I was hoping for Top 100, and figuring it might just edge the Top 50. I even told J a few days ago it would peak in the mid-40s). Has the first printing really sold through (like one comment on BGG indicated?). (This fulfills my contractual obligations to mention this game in every post).

Due to holiday family gatherings, I have nothing to write about, save for the "game" of Dreidel.

Bah-roh-ken. It's all about the Gimmel.

Carry on.

Ladies and Gentleman, courtesy of Wei-Hwa Huang, the Race for the Galaxy periodic table.

[The other games can have this blog back when they pry it from Race's cold, dead hands].

Update: Oh OK. Frank, I thought Galaxy Trucker was much better than mediocre.

The bluebird of happiness sings that the To Court The King expansion will be coming, but is not yet officially unannounced. Good enough for me.

Race for the Galaxy has broken the Top 200, which pleases me to no end. Hopefully that will translate to sales, so the expansions will get printed. There are now ~4 copies in San Antonio, and I still don't have one. Even more annoying, the so-called 'owners' keep showing up to game nights without their copy. Cruel, Cruel Fate.

I'll almost certainly be pre-ordering Agricola, based on the discussions that have been had. This surprises exactly nobody.

It's not too late to get in on the Festivus Math Trade.

Thanks to my bad back, I spent BGGcon at home.

I guess it worked, since someone watching my gait would peg me at 50, instead of 85 (last week). But that means that I missed trying out Agricola before making the pre-order decision. So I am appeal to faithful TaoGaming Readers (especially those who know me) to supply me (and the other readers) with their thoughts.

After careful deliberation I'll go ahead and order, but appearances have to be maintained.

Ooh, V is for violence! -- AlphaOops, the Day Z went First

(Pictured) Thomas Ewert, co-designer of Container, signing a copy. Not pictured: Miss Canada Aleisa Fieldberg, crown nicely in place, filling baggies with plastic containers as the games arrived in the late afternoon to a desperate and fevered crowd

I'm not there, but if you have any thoughts you want to share with us, go ahead.

I just added Kulkmann's to the weblog. And I notice (via Iain) that Richard Heli's site just had it's tenth anniversary.

I just noticed (via Bruno Faidutti) that Adam Spielt is closing up! Wow. I haven't ordered from A.S. in a long time, but I my first real order of games was back in '93 from them (several of us went in together, and probably spent $600 or so. Quite a bit for a bunch of students). For several years you had to order from Adam Spielt, or Just Games (in London ... I think they closed up shop a few years ago, too), or from one of the few individuals who imported games for resale. Nowadays we have companies importing all over the place (and Rio Grande Games producing for the US market), which undoubtedly hurt those stores that did business shipping to the US.

Anyway, according to their frontpage they'll be starting a clearance sale soon ...