The Tao of Gaming

And the answer is -- yes, they do have a business center! Anyway, it's hours aren't as convenient as I'd like (closed from 11pm to 6am? What gives?), so I'll keep this brief.

Played my first game of Hacienda, which seemed fine. There are apparently multiple rule-sets (basic, advanced, and it sounds like plenty of options that people can mix and match ... possibly at their peril). Anyway, played the basic game and it seemed fine. I'd like to try it again, but I wonder if this game isn't fundamentally too Tikal-like for my long term tastes. Arguing for Tikal is the three action points per turn, arguing against is card and money management. I think that the cards (and cash) move this game far enough away from Tikal-ness for my tastes. But I liked all of those games well enough after one play, too.

Played two games of Roma (with a variant rule). It's a nice, short- to middlin- game. Players take turns rolling three dice, and have a card (building or character) that they've assigned to each number, some numbers being empty. You spend dice activating those cards, or earning money, or drawing cards, but you can only keep one card per turn.

You lose a VP for each number you don't have covered, but many of the cards force your opponent to remove their cards. You win when either player runs out of VP or the bank breaks (most VP wins). Seemed nice, although I have plenty of short games. One hint for future game designers. When you have the reference section of cards that explain all their semi-obscure symbols: Alphabetical order.

I know, I know, random order seemed like a good idea at the time. But trust me.

Another dice game -- Um Krage or Kronen (that's not exact). Her you start with three dice, and have to roll certain combinations to get you more people. For example, a roll of a pair gets the bauer, a total of 15+ gets the schnitzengruben, etc. These people provide powers (like more dice and dice manipulation). These let you get better people (like the guy you need a five of a kind to get). Eventually someone gets the king (who needs 7 of a kind). Then you enter an elimination round where you are just trying to make the best X-of a kind, and whoever makes it wins.

Krage is a mid-length game. Perhaps 30-45 minutes. Although with fewer players (we played five) it comes down I imagine.

And, of course, I played that game I won't mention. Three times. And Caylus. And even a quick game of Twilight Struggle.

If you want a full report, Rick Thornquist is typing next to me. He was here when I got in. He's still here now that I've finished published. So I guess he has more to say. And pictures!

A few new games:

Ticket to Ride Marklin -- Alan Moon has described Ticket to Ride as a game of chicken. 'Everyone wants to keep drawing cards to get to long routes, but wait too long and you get cut off.' I certainly see that with Marklin. Whenever you place a route, you can place a passenger. And you have a fourth turn type ... move a passenger along the board, picking up scoring chits. You also have a card that lets your passenger take one leg on an opponents train. So now you want to build a nice long route with lots of stops (since the tokens are based on stations), but if you wait too long other passengers can swoop in and take the better tokens. Tickets are split into long and short routes, several destinations are foreign countries, that have several stations (but serve as endpoints) that are equivalent from a ticket standpoint. And a very interesting board, with half the map being small grey routes. It's still Ticket to Ride, but didn't add the randomness of Europe. It may not be to everyone's tastes, but my gut feeling says that those who like TTR but thought it was a bit light may like this. I may buy it.

Yesterdays long game was Indonesia, which I loved at the three hour mark and merely liked when it ended at five hours. Our game had a two turn pause that most games won't, so I suspect that it was an oddity. One player has now played roughly a dozen times, and said all the games felt different. An amazing accomplishment, if true. (As with Caylus, all the luck is in setup).

Roma adds another filler to my growing arsenal. After my initial few plays, I think I've played ~8 more times. So it's already on the 10+ list. We do play with house rules, but I'll almost certainly be getting this.

Thurm und Taxis appears very popular. I got to play yesterday and I can respect that opinion. One player compared it to showmanager (with respect to drafting cards), but you pick up locations and have to build a long chain of routes, with lots of different scoring constraints. That's a good description, but here's what I'm thinking -- in showmanager (et al) you don't have much forward planning. But here you have quite a bit of planning ... what routes you want, how you are going to get scoring chits (which you can earn for filling areas with houses, putting at least one house in each area, making long deliveries (which take time but don't necessarily give more houses), and optimally handling the timing of routes. A planning game, but you have the showmanager card drawing mechanic. I think there's a dissonance there, but it was enjoyable enough. I think this will eventually trigger my Tikal reaction and I'll stop playing after my 3rd or 4th game. [Tikal Reaction -- a game that I think has strategy but that doesn't hold my interest when it's not my turn.]

More later ...

Since Doug asked, the Roma house rules (from Mark Delano & Mike Fitzgerald, although I don't know if they developed them).

1. The second player gets an extra VP at start (to compensate for attacks they may suffer on the first turn).
2. No player may place more earn more than $6 or draw more than 6 cards per turn.

I've played ten games (and watched several more) and we usually see losses from lack of VPs, instead of running out (via the Forum). The forum is certainly powerful, but there are 6 of them out of 52 cards.

As for yesterday's games, I forgot to mention Mauer Bauer, described as "A Colovini game you won't hate." And what do you know, I don't hate it! [I find most of his games cold and dry]. Players take turns dividing a triangular grid by placing walls, then rolling dice to indicate what color tower you place, and what two colors of buildings you place. But if you have two open tower spots (at the intersection between walls) you pick which space the obligatory tower goes, and can pick the other space. You also get to decide which side of the wall to place each building (they must be on seperate sides). When the walls form a city (via a closed loop), each player scores.

The trick here is that each player has a hand of cards that indicate how you score. These run the gamut, for example:

• Score two points for each white tower in the recently completed city,
• Score 6 points if the city is only one triangle big,
• Score based on the number of colors in the city,
• Score for each [wall/ white tower /etc] that is not part of a city,
• Score houses [of a certain color/in a certain region] not in cities

And, each time there is scoring, you can play one or two cards, but you only draw one, decreasing your hand size for the game. Or you can decline to score, and discard a card to draw two. When a city finishes, before scoring the player who closed it can merge it with an adjacent city, too.

And there are a few other complications, but that's it.

Overall, Mauer Bauer has enough randomness (via dice, and scoring cards) to keep it from registering as an abstract. And it fills the 'mid-length' niche fairly well (I think our game took 45-60 minutes, but it was everyone's first game). I played with four, and I think it would be better with three. Is it a great game? No, but I'd certainly play it again. Of his thirty odd games (listed on the geek), I've played exactly one game multiple times (Europa 1945-2030, two or three plays). I doubt I'll play it again. No other game got a repeat play. It's safe to say that I'm not Colovini's biggest fan. After one play, I consider Mauer Bauer a cute 45 minute game. Not mindless, but not too heavy.

Nothing new today (other than TTR: Marklin, which I already discussed). However, I have cast stones, read the stars, and generally asked around. And I see Here I Stand in the future.

• Times Square, the latest 2 player game in the Kosmos line (I believe), is a weird two-player tug-of-war card game where you are tugging five people (towards your bar), but the people are all special. I only got to play once, but it was intriguing. Have to try again.
• The Architects of Cleopatra -- looks stunning, plays average. Now, we had played with five players and I've heard that four is best. I personally think three would be better. It's not quite a fixed-fun game, but it's probably better with fewer players.
• California played well, but we only played with three, which I think helped. I hadn't heard of this, and not sure how to describe it. But it has a novel theme. You furnish your houses to impress your guests & neighbors. Apparently California has a higher class of guests and neighbors.
• We got in a teaching game of Here I Stand. Despite the clean looking rulebook, we did get a few questions that we had to just shrug and move on. My opinion of the game is dropping, but I'd like to try again (possibly the shorter 3-turn game that starts with people in a more advanced position) to see if my suspicions about this are confirmed.

In any case, this is all single playings. I'd play all again and I'd consider buying any of them (for different reasons).

... since I don't have time for a full review.

• Time's Square -- Fun tug-of-war where you sometimes push the rope. Part of the Kosmos 2-player line, by Knizia. Suprisingly strong theme, at least for me. Review later.
• Jumpin Monkeys -- Fling things. Leaping Monkey Style! Something to cleanse the palate before ...
• Thurm und Taxis -- Played again, won handily with the 'play five routes and end the game'. Inoffensive game, but I suspect that strategy executed efficiently will dominate. Others have had the same thought, tested it, and found otherwise.
• Um Krone und Kragen -- I like Tom's new dice game (which I had saw several years ago) and have played ~10 times. Not with the right rules, mind you.
• Guns 'N Cash -- Another palate cleanser, oozing theme. And styrofoam guns.
• Blue Moon City -- We hit an endgame problem, which seems odd for a Knizia. Perhaps it works if everyone's at the same level. On the other hand, I have no strong urge to play again.

More later? Probably not. I'll start writing full reviews after I get home and recover. (I'll also look over my notes, which I don't have with me).

Over on spielfrieks, the yearly discussion appears. "Am I Jaded?"

People play games for a variety of reasons:

• Hanging out & socializing — In this case, the game doesn't matter, although good beats bad. Lighter works better. Nobody considers Die Macher a party game.
• System Analysis — "What if I go here?" "What if I do that?" Lots of Euros have an interesting system; but often it's a small variant. Tbe Puerto Ricos and Caylii of the world get praised to high heaven for having an interesting system that feels fresh. Or at least fresher.
• Telling a story

Over the last week, I've realized that story matters much more to me than I'd credited. I've always known that my tastes don't run to pure abstracts, but my internal monologue matters more than I thought.

And the new batch of Euros? There are some interesting systems. And the themes aren't just tacked on. I think Thurm und Taxis feels like setting up routes in Europe, etc etc. But when I'm playing a game, I don't say "Ooh, I just set up Bavaria!" Mechanics? Fine (if a bit shopworn). Theme? Yes. Story? No. There's no growth, no arc. I'm just winning or losing.

A few examples from last week.

I played War of the Ring (with the Will of the West Variant). The fellowship tap-danced to Mordor. The game neded up closer than I imagined (since I slowed down to play it safe), but in looking back at the game, I can say "Frodo and the fellowship went through Moria while Isengard went after the Grey Havens (!!!). Bypassing Lorien, Gandalf sacrificed himself to keep the fellowship safe and then the Witch King showed up to finish of the Havens and then Rivendell...." I can discuss the game without reference to the mechanics, although people who have played can fill in the blanks.

I also played 7 Ages. A long, chaotic game (with lots of take that) is a recipe for disaster, and I forgive all. One player founded the Romans and I promptly started the Saxons and the Goths, only to have the Goths switch from barbarians to housekeepers. Then my Persians got evicted by the Babylonians. The right play would be to end their empire and start another. The fun play? Vow vengence and destroy Babylon. After a few turns of buildup, I caught the Babylonians napping (I switched them from a production to another turn, perhaps destiny). I got to proclaim "You forgot you are scheduled to be conqured." and then took their homeland, when a volcano wiped them out of Persia. Thus vindicated by the gods themselves, I returned home.

This, by the way, took five hours. I enjoyed it. And I enjoy retelling the story.

I enjoy Twilight Struggle even though it has flaws (and boy did they show up in spades last week). Here I Stand gave me 3 decisions per hour and I still want to try it again because of theme. [I think 3-player would work nicely for face-to-face].

My two "I really want this from the prize table" picks were a very mechanic heavy game (Indonesia), and a good story/party game (Cash 'N Guns). [I got the latter].

I'm not going to play a greatly themed game with a system I actively dislike. But a good story with mediocre gameplay trumps a good game with no story. Mechanics certainly matter, but I've played hundreds of games with reasonably good mechanics.

Does this make me an "American" style gamer? I don't know. Right now I've been more fond of games that avoid the 60-90 range. The shorter games have more bang for the buck, and the longer games have better stories. Mechanics are also easier to get right. Story is a taste.

I'll try to do a final summary later tonight or tomorrow, and then I'll review some games.

Update: Welcome people sent by Alfred. When groveling under his gentle dictatorship, consider how best to correct his minor mistake. I did not get a copy of Indonesia. I wish.

I've entered my games played into the geek (and initial ratings). But here's the list:

Unpublished Prototype	23
Roma	                12
Maus nach Haus	        5
Um Krone und Kragen	5
Caylus	                4
Times Square	        4
Twilight Struggle	3
Ca$h'n Gun$	        2
California	        2
Geschenkt	        2
Thurn und Taxis	        2
TTR - Märklin Edition	2
7 Ages	                1
Ark	                1
Ausburg 1502            1
Blue Moon City	        1
Bolide	                1
Crokinole	        1
Diamant	                1
Hacienda	        1
Here I Stand	        1
Indonesia	        1
Masons (Mauer Bauer)    1
Nexus Ops	        1
Poker	                1
Target	                1
Time's Up	        1
Up Front	        1
War of the Ring	        1

I can't tell you the prototypes, but the vast bulk should come as no surprise to most people.

Overall I thought many of the new games were fine, but felt no strong urge to play them again, although I'd play them if others wanted to. I'd try Hacienda again. I'll probably get Roma and Um Krone und Kragen (by sometimes co-blogger Tom Lehmann) good fillers. I'm tempted to spring for Indonesia, since it's a long, relatively luckless business game (like 18xx).

The funny game above is Target. Jeff suggested it as a nice filler and I looked at the box and thought "I own this." Sure enough, I do. Had never played, though.

Overall, most of the new games were inoffensive. Play and forget. Only a few were not to my tastes. Lots of 5s and 6s according to the BGG scale.

The games that I thought stood out were: Roma, Times Square, TTR: Marklin, Cash 'n Guns (if you like the blustering theme), Krone und Kragen. There could be more to Hacienda or California or especially Indonesia, but they need more plays. Marklin is Ticket to Ride with more meat. So many of the games depend on your tastes, I suppose. Ausburg I only played once, with a rule wrong. I wasn't taken by the theme, but it may be good.

So there you have it.