tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61801579552535352532024-03-17T13:25:15.588-07:00Reports from the Front LinesFrancis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-53823649633143787862024-02-18T14:44:00.000-08:002024-03-17T13:24:42.834-07:00Wargame review — Downfall<p><i style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><i></i></span></i></p><h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Axis & Axis & Allies</span></h1><p><i style="font-family: verdana;">Designers: Chad Jensen & John Butterfield<br /></i><i style="font-family: verdana;">Player count:</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> 2<br /></span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Publisher:</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> GMT Games</span></p><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQL3GMHsvMTiUJAQE1klaQuU_Eit5Y5yC86VBkhGxCD1vPhGDYlua7Fxm1zsq4vEELMXVb7lh33GZt-bW4D7hAr_zZbLlKWexeU8vxTnbEzzTebAVYchdqEMREmy4ECm1e6AMRYfBfslTmCNt314IbpticA8RJ4l_ppEOwKU0d8EIijW7dTrSJnN7qLaQ/s600/Downfall.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="449" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQL3GMHsvMTiUJAQE1klaQuU_Eit5Y5yC86VBkhGxCD1vPhGDYlua7Fxm1zsq4vEELMXVb7lh33GZt-bW4D7hAr_zZbLlKWexeU8vxTnbEzzTebAVYchdqEMREmy4ECm1e6AMRYfBfslTmCNt314IbpticA8RJ4l_ppEOwKU0d8EIijW7dTrSJnN7qLaQ/s320/Downfall.webp" width="239" /></a></div></div></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When
my friend Chad Jensen passed away, he left behind several designs he never had
time to complete. One of them was <i>Downfall</i>,
a two-player strategic-level wargame that models the collapse of the German war
machine in the last act of WWII. There was a lot of potential in that work-in-progress,
so veteran designer John Butterfield took up the torch and, with the help of
Chad’s widow Kai, completed the design for GMT Games to publish.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(No
small feat, considering no rulebook existed: John and Kai reconstructed the
game based on detailed prototype components and Kai’s memories of playing </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Downfall’</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">s many incarnations with Chad.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now,
if you play any mid- to late-WWII east front game, you’re either at the wheel
of the Soviet juggernaut, or you’re handling a retreat of German forces—not the
most exciting of propositions. (Which is why east front games often focus on
the brutal stalemate of the front line, until it crumbles one way or another.
The drive back to Berlin by Soviet forces is like watching an hourglass inexorably
counting down time.)<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">And
if you play a similar game covering the western theater of operations, sooner
or later—after explosive situations like the Normandy landings—you’ll find
yourself either driving the Allied bulldozer, or handling a retreat of German
forces. Again, not the thrill of a lifetime for the German player.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What
the designers are proposing here is a framework where one player handles the
Allies </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">and</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> the Germans fighting the
Soviets, while the other player joins in as the Soviets </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">and</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> the Germans fighting the Allies.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">While that basic conceit is not exactly new, the game’s many inspired design
decisions coalesce into an exciting tug of war between east and west, with a disintegrating
Third Reich caught in the middle.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <br /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVPa7gy1IGiNNdCzY5mEse__HYqsmREPqMN1psOj9DlbDMQfmMPmq8zFpFDUMIQo2t9yAu1EOSfAiZNkxxRTuL_pm5mIezggpoYqIaE8ub87fG-xOD1lFA4oJ2wUeE6flxfgFQ7q1jGMXII5o9tx2uyzcvGdrdeo7Pt3sVRI2p77NN4DNNoBnf8vaBME/s3841/IMG_3339.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2260" data-original-width="3841" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVPa7gy1IGiNNdCzY5mEse__HYqsmREPqMN1psOj9DlbDMQfmMPmq8zFpFDUMIQo2t9yAu1EOSfAiZNkxxRTuL_pm5mIezggpoYqIaE8ub87fG-xOD1lFA4oJ2wUeE6flxfgFQ7q1jGMXII5o9tx2uyzcvGdrdeo7Pt3sVRI2p77NN4DNNoBnf8vaBME/s320/IMG_3339.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And the campaign game is underway!</td></tr></tbody></table><i style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"><br />Downfall’</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana;">s main engine is the initiative
track that runs halfway around the huge game map, and which determines who
plays next. Each faction (Western, Soviet, and both German groups) is
represented there by an initiative marker, with whoever’s currently last on the
track getting a go. That faction selects an available order (more on that in a moment)
and pays the cost of said order—in initiative points—by moving their marker
forward along the track, to the tune of one space per point. Then it’s the turn
of the faction that’s now in last place on the initiative track, and so on.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Available
orders fluctuate from turn to turn, as markers are drawn at random and laid out
on the action track. Whenever a faction picks a marker, they pay the associated
cost—which is not the same for all factions—execute the selected order, then
slide down the remaining orders (towards space #1) and draw a new order marker
at random to fill out the row. The cost of an order (in initiative points)
increases by 1 for each eligible marker the active faction skipped over,
starting with space #1; so if you really want that Reinforcement order </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">now</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> but it stands behind a handful of
other markers in your color, you better be prepared to pay for it—and
subsequently wait a while before that faction gets to play again.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">All
of the order markers will show up on the action track before the end of the
game year, but in exactly what order remains to be seen. Maybe your orders to
embark for Calais or to march on Moscow will have to wait, and you will need to
do the best with what you have in the meantime.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">And
this is one design quirk (of many!) that will delight some wargamers—myself included—while
irking others, depending on whether you think such a mechanic models the
vagaries of war or else just feels “too gamey” for something like a wargame.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Orders—once
you do get to play them—allow you to move units, conduct attacks on neighboring
hexes, bring much needed reinforcements into play, engage in strategic warfare,
and generally make life difficult for the other guy. (There’s a nasty little
order that, as the Germans, you can use to make the </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">other</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Germans—the ones facing your main faction—waste precious
initiative points. Played at just the right time, that order tastes like
honey.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
want to point out that “moving a unit” is not dictated by an individual piece’s
movement allowance (as is traditionally done) but rather by the order marker
itself. For instance, one of them will allow Western units to each spend 4
movement points, whether they be mighty armored units glinting in the North
African sun, or mud-stained grunts suffering the elements in the Caucasus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Combat
is resolved using a table that compiles step advantage (I’m attacking with 7
steps worth of units while you defend with 4 steps, so I’ll roll on the +3
column), and die-roll modifier advantage (my planes and a card I played grant
me a +5, but the weather and your fortress throw a -4 into the mix, and so I’ll
end up adding 1 to my roll), with results expressed in hits that must be
distributed amongst attacking and defending units.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Those
hits are absorbed by rotating a unit so that its top edge displays fewer steps
(pips), and in some instances by retreating one or more hexes away from the location
where combat took place. You can also decide (or be forced!) to flip one of
your armored units back to infantry, which has left more than a few scars on my
already troubled soul.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
progression of weather (and, ultimately, game years) works in a fashion similar
to initiative markers, with a dice roll moving the weather marker along the
initiative track each time a faction begins their turn with the weather marker
behind of flush with them. (The 2d6 roll is capped at wherever the leading
marker stands on the initiative track, so true runaway weather cannot take
place; although beware of sudden bursts, for they do happen.) When the weather
marker crosses into a new “weather zone” on the initiative track, fair can turn
to mud or mud to snow, which creates logistical problems in strategic
locations.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Once
the weather marker reaches the end of the track and loops back to the start, a
new game turn begins! All used order markers are returned to the mix, new cards
are added to their respective decks, possible reinforcements make an appearance
and, naturally, the weather wheel gets another crank.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Event
cards throw in some uncertainty that will affect the ebb and flow of the entire
campaign. Events are present in three places: face up on top of the draw pile
(the upcoming event, not yet active), face up as the current event, and face up
on top of the discard pile—each showing an actual event, along with variable
numbers of card, airplane and die icons. Together, these three face-up event
cards determine how many aircraft each faction can deploy to the map (hoping
their range will be sufficient to positively affect critical battles) as well
as bonus dice-roll modifiers and the influx of action cards.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">For
their part, action cards allow factions to surprise their opponents with extra
steps or modifiers in combat, plus a host of assorted effects that move units
in special ways, provide free combat opportunities, cancel a card play (or a
dice roll!), allocate reinforcements, launch paratroopers…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
main goal of the game is to score victory points, normally accomplished through
the capture of strategic objectives on the map. At game end, after a set number
of turns, whoever has the most points wins—Western or Soviet. (Germany cannot
win.) It can’t hurt to take Berlin, mind you, since that achievement, worth 1
VP, also doubles as the first tiebreaker. (The second tiebreaker grants victory
to the player who holds the most action cards; and yes, one of my games ended
with my being the lucky beneficiary of this rule, which my partner and I
learned together while digging through the rulebook, looking for salvation.)<br /><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>WAR
PRODUCTION</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Downfall</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana;"> comes in a slim and sturdy box
that’s deep enough to accommodate a counter tray and all of the game’s 110
cards in sleeves. That’s with the two paper maps that make up the game board,
and which you’ll be fine with if you have enough yardage of Plexiglass at your
disposal, or if you resort to sticking the two halves together. (Post-Its on
the back side can work surprisingly well.)<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Should
you be so inclined, you can purchase a pair of mounted maps that come with
their own 3-inch box. They’ll take some time to lie flat, but once they do,
you’ll be cooking with gas.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
rest of the equipment is pretty straightforward: a myriad of counters (with
beautiful rounded corners), useful player aid cards, handy setup cards, a rulebook
and a handful of six-siders.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s
all the game needs to blow you away.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>RULES
OF ENGAGEMENT</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
rulebook clocks in at 40 pages, with plenty of illustrated examples throughout.
It’s a pleasant document to read and acts as an effective learning tool—even
away from the map—but stumbles a bit when it comes to looking up specific
topics in the heat of battle. Some pieces of information are not found where
you think they should be (such as the initiative cost for the Re-seed order)
but it mostly comes down to a fledgling index that’s missing some key terms like “reinforcements.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nevertheless,
it’s a very good rulebook you’ll rapidly find yourself using less and less,
thanks to rules that have been streamlined like a bullet train. The game
presents very few special cases, shifting to a different system instead of
trying to stick round exceptions into square holes. It simplifies all it can
without losing its grip on the essence of each situation, like the way terrain
costs are handled: moving into clear terrain costs 1 movement point, while
everything else costs 2, for all units. Sure, weather will play havoc with
swamps and mountains, and you’ll bless rail lines when you can use them, but
you’ll take one look at the terrain chart and be done with it.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Naval
and aerial rules have also been boiled down to essentials, which doesn’t mean
they have a marginal impact on the business at hand. On the contrary, they
influence everything under the sun, and in different ways as the game soldiers
forward (as they should). But those rules don’t get bogged down in minutiae and
as a result fade into the background after a few turns.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For
all those details you fear you might forget (What happens exactly when a new
turn begins? How does mud weather meddle with combat again?), the game’s
various player aid materials have your back. I hardly ever look at the rulebook
anymore, except perhaps to look up an obscure tie breaker when the game is
insanely tight.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>FUN
FACTOR</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
only point that makes people shriek when I tell them about </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Downfall</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> is the length of the game. Fair enough: 12 hours for the
campaign game is a far cry from the two-hour </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Combat Commander</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> sessions most Jensen fans will be accustomed to.
(Hell, even the “short” game in </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Downfall</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">,
the Overlord scenario, will require at least six hours of your time.)<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">But
the key thing here is not to confuse </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">long</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">
with </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">slow</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">No
matter which of the three scenarios you decide to tackle, you’ll never
experience downtime. At all. Even when your “main” faction has relatively few
things to do—like the Western faction at the start of the campaign game—you’ll
still have your hands full trying to contain the opponent’s attack using your
allotment of German forces. You’ll keep an eye on the cycling events that’ll
impact many of your endeavors, trying to put in place the conditions that will
trigger the replacement of card A with card B in the stack (the surrender of
Italy, for instance) and keep History moving forward. You’ll track your
opponent’s expenditure of initiative points, because that’ll determine when’s
the next time they get to act. And you’ll watch that weather forecast like a
hawk, lest unforeseen snow derail the crucial counterattack you spent your last
few moves setting into motion.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My
most recent game, an Overlord confrontation, lasted seven hours (which,
considering my opponent had never played the game before, was surprisingly
fast). When all was said and done, we both felt like we’d been sitting at the
gaming table for two and a half hours—three on the outside. The game is that
fascinating. And if Life hadn’t decided that we had other matters to attend to,
we might have set up the damn thing anew and started again right there and
then.<br /><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>PARTING
SHOTS</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana;">As
much as there is to love in <i>Downfall</i>,
my biggest infatuation lies in the uncertainty that permeates most systems. The
game goes beyond dice-based combat resolution (a wargame staple) to ensure that
while you may elaborate meticulous plans, you can’</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">t know for
certain how or when things will start to unfold.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’ve
already talked about order counters, and how all orders for each faction will
eventually land on the action track but still keep details that pertain to
timing and quantities shrouded in relative mystery. Likewise, weather likes to
keep to itself: you know what the weather will turn to when it does change, but
can’t be sure of when that will be. (Educated guesses are your best friends
here.)<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reinforcements
are not handed down with each new game year: they move into a holding pattern
from which only one event—High Command—will free them. But when, exactly, will
that event pop up? You’ll see it one turn early (when it’s revealed, face up,
on top of the event draw pile), but that’s all the advance warning you’ll get.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
same can be said of every single event in the game, or indeed of the event
trigger itself, which comes into play when a faction’s initiative counter
reaches its own event space on the initiative track. So while you exert some
measure of control over the timing of events, the balance is left in the hands
of your opponent. Also, all events come from a single deck, which makes it difficult to know whether the event you're about to reveal will help you or not. (But remember, you have until the <i>next</i> event trigger until this newly revealed event becomes active.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Still, is the game length a deterrent? It could be, but not if you can spare a long
day to get through a scenario, or if you have access to an out-of-the-way table
where the game can idle like the engine of a T-34 running low on diesel, between
sessions sprinkled over a couple of weeks.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I myself
am not a fan of long-winded, overly heavy wargames. I often see guys playing one such
game at some convention, where they spend the morning setting everything up
and, upon being asked where things stand at the end of Day 1, reply something
along the lines of “Oh, we’re just getting started, you know, our units haven’t
met on the battlefield yet.” Rest assured this is definitely not the way </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Downfall </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">unspools. Every scenario—yes,
even the campaign one—launches both players right into the action and never
slows down. Remember that Overlord game I mentioned above? The conclusion to
our game day (at the tail end of a seven-hour stretch) was so electrifying that
</span><i style="font-family: verdana;">we played our last few turns standing up</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Everything
in the game moves like a well oiled clock, with systems engaging each other the
way precision-made cogs mesh together. The game flow is so engrossing that at
some point I mentally took a step back just to watch the machine in action, and
I couldn’t help but break into a smile.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In point
of fact, I’m still smiling.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"># #
#<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-67407838333966985512024-01-06T11:59:00.000-08:002024-01-06T14:42:56.695-08:00A Year of Boardgaming, 2023 Edition<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdGPXXkc8h1rhE_39oAQLz8mg_Mb9YE3Sut7A-vJTOoprR359PrEqOEh42W5DAQJbnoP_bIlitqm1xS_3IAi76lyhvTfxqk4nxlGvb8325HpL4TfH3p3GT4Se_hqilGtzFw0bzwObSKznm1zmApDXYuSOwQoZ-FSznT5c_23Df4ioAuqd1JkX-Md5Xvtw/s2016/IMG_3281.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1134" data-original-width="2016" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdGPXXkc8h1rhE_39oAQLz8mg_Mb9YE3Sut7A-vJTOoprR359PrEqOEh42W5DAQJbnoP_bIlitqm1xS_3IAi76lyhvTfxqk4nxlGvb8325HpL4TfH3p3GT4Se_hqilGtzFw0bzwObSKznm1zmApDXYuSOwQoZ-FSznT5c_23Df4ioAuqd1JkX-Md5Xvtw/s320/IMG_3281.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One more year to look at in the rearview mirror, and kind of a change in how I see boardgaming</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">in that I decided to include online plays going forward. </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Why the change, </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">when I was pigheadedly against it in my previous yearly reports? The pandemic made me realize there were friends out there with whom I'd <i>only</i> get to play boardgames online (essentially on Board Game Arena). And I thought that, when all was said and done, those interactions should count.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course, I also happened to be playing online boardgames with players I <i>did</i> see in person on a regular basis, what with someone launching a game of, say, <i>Great Western Trail</i> and each of us playing a turn or two each day. (Only to launch another one as a matter of fact, when that first game wrapped up, and so on.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The net result was an uptick in games played, but I knew I was looking at an artificial inflation: I hadn't spent all of that time sitting down face-to-face with family and friends to push cubes around and slap cards on the table.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So I decided to do the only thing I could: split the main stats in two categories.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><b style="font-family: verdana;">GAMES</b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I played 145 different titles (up from 127 in 2022) for a total of 602 plays (better than the previous 380, although a third of the 602 plays were online). I spent 588 hours playing boardgames in 2023, versus 430 hours in 2022, which is quite an</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> improvement, virtual or otherwise: t</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">hat's 24.5 full days devoted to boardgaming bliss.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Out of those 145 titles, 68 were new to me (slightly up from 62 in 2022), and </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I ended up playing 15% of my collection (against 17% last year).</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here are the 10 physical games I played the most in 2023:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/12/flash-review-heat-pedal-to-metal.html" target="_blank">Heat: Pedal to the Metal</a> </i></b>(27 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">F1 racing in its most distilled form, and an absolute thrill. The first expansion (More tracks! More cars!) is coming out in February, and it'll be a great birthday present to myself.</span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. </span><b style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Friday </i></b><span style="font-family: verdana;">(26 plays)</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">One of the few Friedemann Friese games I truly enjoy, <i>Friday</i> is always good for a fun, short time battling the elements and trying to survive just one more year. Twice I've given away my own copy now: time to order a third one!</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2020/11/flash-review-arkham-horror-card-game.html" target="_blank">Arkham Horror: The Card Game</a> </i></b>(21 plays)</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The last two campaigns published for this delicious nightmare were of dubious quality, and so I went back to explore the early volumes anew. I'll still give the next cycle a shot, but if it's as bad as its two predecessors, I'll stop buying new material for the game and just replay what I already own.</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">4. <b><i>Combat Commander: Europe </i></b>(20 plays)</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">I can't stay away from this tactical take on WWII for long, and it always shows in these end-of-year reckonings. In 2024 I'll have an exciting reason to spend even more time on this gem of a game—more on that soon.</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">5. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/08/flash-review-qawale.html" target="_blank">Qawale </a></i></b>(20 plays)</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Despite my undying love of abstract games, they rarely make an appearance in here. <i>Qawale </i>broke the mold in 2023, and for good reason: it's quick, very clever, and offers the most refreshing twist on the old "four in a row" trope since <i>GIPF</i>.</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">6. <i><b>At</b></i><b><i>tack Sub </i></b>(14 plays)</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Fast and furious game of Cold War submarine warfare, to which we've made a couple of tweaks to lift it out of its '90s origins and bring it (a little more) into the 21st century. Great closer after a long evening.</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">7. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/11/flash-review-sky-team.html" target="_blank">Sky Team</a> </i></b>(12 plays)</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Considering this brilliant cooperative game</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—about landing a passenger plane at airports around the world</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">unfolds in just 15 minutes, it's a real shame I didn't play more of it last year. I promise to do better in 2024.</span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">8. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2015/08/rise-to-occasion-review-of-wing-leader.html" target="_blank">Wing Leader</a> </i></b>(11 plays)</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Still working our way through WWII using this astounding aircraft warfare system, playing scenarios in chronological order; we're coming up on April 1941, with Operation Retribution in Belgrade. All of our aircraft are now equipped with radios, at last!</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">9. <i><b><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/01/boardgame-review-charioteer.html" target="_blank">Charioteer </a></b></i>(11 plays)</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A Roman-themed racing game that's always a blast, and for which I've put together a set of <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/01/solo-ruleset-charioteer.html" target="_blank">solo rules</a>. Never again play without a full complement of chariots on the track!</span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">10. <i><b>The Search for Planet X </b></i>(11 plays)</span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I really enjoy deduction games but it took me a while to discover this one. Scan the skies and determine where everything is! Great, original stuff.</span></div><div><br /></div></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And these are the 10 virtual boardgames I played the most in 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(These games are here mainly because they're easy to play through online means, so I'll just stick to a dry list.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. <b><i>Memoir '44 </i></b>(43 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. <i><b>Great Western Trail</b></i><b><i> </i></b>(25 plays)</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. <b><i>Applejack </i></b>(24 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">4. <b><i>Qawale </i></b>(15 plays)</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">5. <i><b>Sky Team</b></i><b><i> </i></b>(14 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">6. <b><i>Patchwork </i></b>(10 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">7. <b><i>Viticulture</i></b></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> (7 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">8. <b><i>Heat: Pedal to the Metal </i></b></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(7 plays)</span> </div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">9. <b><i>P.I. </i></b>(6 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">10. <i><b>Azul </b></i>(5 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />PEOPLE</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">During 2023, I explored the boardgaming world </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">alongside 51 different players, up from 28 the year before. Much better! But also, not all in person; win some, lose some.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here are the 10 people with whom I played the most face-to-face last year:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">1. Jean-Luc S. (140 plays)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">2. Suzie D. (88 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">3. François P. (39 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">4. Héloïse K.L. (25 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">5. Gustavo R.A. (21 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">6. Serge R. (15 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">7. Ophélie K.L. (8 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">8. Robert L. (6 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">9. William L. (6 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">10. Dominick L. (6 plays) </div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here are ALL the people with whom I played the most online last year:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">1. Fil M. (76 plays)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">2. François P. (65 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">3. Jean-Luc S. (53 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">4. Héloïse K.L. (12 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">5. Gustavo R.A. (9 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">6. Béatrice V.K. (7 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">7. Angelo W. (1 play)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">8. Niko S. (1 play)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">The GF lost her crown in 2023, and by a wide margin. Will she try to win it back in 2024? We (really meaning *I*) can only hope.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">All four kids are on the list(s) again, including Béatrice who's overseas. Hell, even my dad is making an appearance this time around! I'm a lucky man.</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />LOCATIONS</span></b></div></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The number of different places where I played boardgames rose to 17, from a mere 11 in 2022</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—a</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">lmost back to pre-pandemic numbers. </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">43% of my gaming was done at home (compared to 60% in 2022), 32% online, while the rest was scattered all over the neighborhood.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br />OTHER MUSINGS & RAMBLINGS</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My H-index went up, from 8 to 11. Not a mammoth improvement, but I'll take it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(In this context, my H-index is the number (h) of games which I've played a number (h) of times. So 11 means there are 11 games that I played 11 times each in 2023.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My self-imposed challenges didn't go great, but I still managed to accomplish the following two:</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Play 5 games 20 times each (the 5x20 challenge)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Log in 90 wargame plays (I'm jacking this one up to 100 for 2024)</span></li></ul></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">These three ended up in the gutter, though:</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Alphabet challenge (play one game for each letter of the alphabet—so <i>Attack Sub</i> for A, <i>Black Fleet </i>for B, and so on)<br />I didn't make any effort to complete it but rather watched if "the thing would happen." It didn't, and I'll be happy to drop this particular challenge going forward.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Log in 50 abstract game sessions<br />I racked up <i>48</i> of them and I could just have thrown in two quick things, such as the aforementioned <i>Qawale</i>. I'm an idiot.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">12 x 1 Named Games Challenge<br />This is where you basically list 12 games that you would like to play in the coming year and, well, you try to get there. I failed. (Only 7 out of 12.)</span></li></ul><div><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My very first game of 2023 was a play of the short-but-tense <i>Twilight Struggle: Red Sea</i> with the GF, and I closed out the year with a fun play of <i>No Thanks!</i> that involved my dad. No complaints here.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Out of the games I was looking forward to in 2023, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Oranienburger Kanal</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Atiwa </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">and</span><i style="font-family: verdana;"> </i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Great Western Trail: New Zealand </i>all ended up on my <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/12/my-top-10-boardgames-published-in-2023.html" target="_blank">Top 10 list</a>. I never did try <i>Undaunted: Battle of Britain</i> and I don't feel any urgent need to do so: I'm not getting great feedback from friends and acquaintances. </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Still no trace of <i>Dutch Resistance</i>; perhaps 2024 will finally make that one a reality. <i>Skyrise</i> is also supposed to show up this year, and that'll be a fun one to dive into. And dare we hope for <i>I, Napoleon</i>? </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But enough of maybes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">GMT's <i>Downfall</i> is already set up in the war room and should see some action before long, with <i>The Plum Island Horror</i> not far behind. I'm also very keen on trying my hand at <i>Evacuation</i> by Vladimir Suchy, whose <i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/09/flash-review-messina-1347.html" target="_blank">Messina 1347</a></i> left quite an impression on me. Next fall will also give us <i>MATRX GIPF</i>, the conclusion to the seminal <i>GIPF Project</i></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">and let me tell you that designer Kris Burm didn't keep the easiest one for last.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What are you waiting for? Get boardgaming!</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-78599488128530266422023-12-24T09:44:00.000-08:002024-02-04T05:45:58.530-08:00My Top 10 Boardgames Published in 2023<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjvs3nspJ_h-xz4kE0giIiomy9VSiXjMNYK4JRVPr6jg_VzLHL37PkJCdhTmsuSDITrvMrzpMEv2agJpfOrmYo379fIHxHp1gE6Ejw09Kk_9xPmXf2ckqLGQ0bSLOyAJq_nqHiyL42HFzBTVwLIN_K85oqLy8w6wg_C4NYfw3IOoc3LTSzl7L8jXyNwxk/s414/TopTenLogo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="414" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjvs3nspJ_h-xz4kE0giIiomy9VSiXjMNYK4JRVPr6jg_VzLHL37PkJCdhTmsuSDITrvMrzpMEv2agJpfOrmYo379fIHxHp1gE6Ejw09Kk_9xPmXf2ckqLGQ0bSLOyAJq_nqHiyL42HFzBTVwLIN_K85oqLy8w6wg_C4NYfw3IOoc3LTSzl7L8jXyNwxk/s320/TopTenLogo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Here's a look at my 10 favorite games published in 2023.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">(Or else made available in North America so late in 2022 that there was no way to really play them before the calendar flipped.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">#10</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCEyRdhDZyMavzkT_1mU005dFiIjFdM9fdoO19oX2WWkk_94m1Bw5rh2Jd0WYyzr0AA-eUriLc6wARcOFGV9pEk-0UhzXaSDbJV5BbMVHhWeh0GdZybcEMgCMf2sm2VpVXjJtv2l2TnEX0JpmDuqp6ELfTmv3fdRie8fwHvSe9bLW8wVLJ5Ewo8WXuDMc/s600/Atiwa.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="428" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCEyRdhDZyMavzkT_1mU005dFiIjFdM9fdoO19oX2WWkk_94m1Bw5rh2Jd0WYyzr0AA-eUriLc6wARcOFGV9pEk-0UhzXaSDbJV5BbMVHhWeh0GdZybcEMgCMf2sm2VpVXjJtv2l2TnEX0JpmDuqp6ELfTmv3fdRie8fwHvSe9bLW8wVLJ5Ewo8WXuDMc/s320/Atiwa.webp" width="228" /></a></div><br /></div></div></div><b>ATIWA</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;">First of three (!) Rosenberg games on the list. Much simpler than most of his "big box" games, with a cute theme and adorable bat meeples. You're building a village, tending to families and their environment, all the while trying to grow and maintain the fruit bat community.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><i>Atiwa</i> features a very original turn-to-turn mechanic that morphs the main action into another and—together with other design levers—ensures that each play shows a different aspect of the game's personality.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-large;">#9</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOCDnVMr3W4B37nPBneDPO5yWHIMD8igxJQ3nBXWHQJTC2LUstSf-aSKdgL8IUG2XDPC3VKx6yRO7Y57nY7OCxMOOZ48JcOiEfVTuVCzK8evbcEzSE9a4foRQTPD2n9_sYIywcSnoJfUHF9A6-05I38BFwQR2-3nQmpD30GrK7CJKqHxeBxTNGp8-VKPI/s600/MindUp.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="441" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOCDnVMr3W4B37nPBneDPO5yWHIMD8igxJQ3nBXWHQJTC2LUstSf-aSKdgL8IUG2XDPC3VKx6yRO7Y57nY7OCxMOOZ48JcOiEfVTuVCzK8evbcEzSE9a4foRQTPD2n9_sYIywcSnoJfUHF9A6-05I38BFwQR2-3nQmpD30GrK7CJKqHxeBxTNGp8-VKPI/s320/MindUp.webp" width="235" /></a></div><br /></div></div></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>MIND UP!</b><br /><i>Mind Up!</i> is very much in the <i>6 nimmt!</i> mold—complete with exclamation point—but it takes things one step further without making the rules more difficult to master.</div><div class="MsoNormal">A row of cards is laid out on the table, in ascending order. Players simultaneously select and then reveal a card from their hands, grabbing from the tabled row the card that matches the position of the card they played. So if you want to grab the first card in the row, because its color is worth more points to you, then you need to play a card with a low value; but if someone else plays a <i>lower</i> card, well then you're stuck with the 2nd card in the row...</div><div class="MsoNormal">Not only do the just-played cards become the new row of cards up for grabs on the table (think ahead!), but all the cards you win (and score at the end of the round) form your hand for the <i>next </i>round.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Cleverer and cleverer.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#8</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc79m2TooweuhGsXDFGeSY3dRR_KQfxNZmKy2s6-1K-7aUxPR3SBK5RSkTjWQ8vMXfjrtO-1R3pTkOGbU-5t7R2OIxBHoTLSwJZeejiiQyetjWJMwv9fx8xK5pOLWB6CKHkOUQDdX8s_rGpQ53bhBSsqx7DVg9j3286K59MXSWROswWF8SwYfaF9v4sCs/s600/Applejack_cover.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc79m2TooweuhGsXDFGeSY3dRR_KQfxNZmKy2s6-1K-7aUxPR3SBK5RSkTjWQ8vMXfjrtO-1R3pTkOGbU-5t7R2OIxBHoTLSwJZeejiiQyetjWJMwv9fx8xK5pOLWB6CKHkOUQDdX8s_rGpQ53bhBSsqx7DVg9j3286K59MXSWROswWF8SwYfaF9v4sCs/s320/Applejack_cover.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div></div></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span lang="EN-CA"><span><b>APPLEJACK</b></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Designer Uwe Rosenberg does <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2021/03/flash-review-hallertau.html" target="_blank">big & complex</a> and <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2020/12/flash-review-patchwork.html" target="_blank">short & sweet</a> equally well, always offering a challenging and rewarding experience. This time around, players are invited to each create their own orchard, making sure they have enough connecting apples of each color when it comes time to score that variety. </div><div class="MsoNormal">For a game that clocks in at 30 minutes and can be explained in five, the depth of the decision space boggles the mind.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/09/flash-review-applejack.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#7</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixE2tqIgIuRlXW0EID8eoYWKxxYMFvmvxY0B7nnBDDWPgx8ltD6iZV2NSJHFiA-FsXBtEI7lwU7oeJvMUEpe0hdIOwS6OFUdm5eamNvQzm2kgqTw4vqbRDZ7aGbMkaF5Yzm6AlDSRo-spw8YNgqhhtUMsBRk7LLZO7jOj-CFtsm2ildeMsNGGqLTTyK0Y/s600/GWT_NZ.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="598" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixE2tqIgIuRlXW0EID8eoYWKxxYMFvmvxY0B7nnBDDWPgx8ltD6iZV2NSJHFiA-FsXBtEI7lwU7oeJvMUEpe0hdIOwS6OFUdm5eamNvQzm2kgqTw4vqbRDZ7aGbMkaF5Yzm6AlDSRo-spw8YNgqhhtUMsBRk7LLZO7jOj-CFtsm2ildeMsNGGqLTTyK0Y/s320/GWT_NZ.webp" width="319" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>GREAT WESTERN TRAIL: NEW ZEALAND</b></span></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal">Herding sheep—instead of cows—in kiwi-land, you hire builders to construct your buildings, shearers to profit from the wool before you ship off the actual livestock, sailors to move your ship around and open new markets, and shepherds to handle the beasts themselves. Throw in a little deck-building and a lot of planning ahead, and you've got another winner.</div><div class="MsoNormal">This third and last incarnation of the <i>GWT</i> engine is an excellent game, but it falls a little short of its two older brethren. Call it less elegant or slightly more convoluted: there's a little something that prevents it from reaching the dizzying heights of the <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/10/flash-review-great-western-trail-2nd.html" target="_blank">original</a> game or the <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/12/flash-review-great-western-trail.html" target="_blank"><i>Argentina</i></a> incarnation.</div><div class="MsoNormal">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/12/flash-review-great-western-trail-new.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">#6</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvHcbfBW1SCeP9LU9OT7MyF-wXiPL0mFtw5DiXnGAK-EbFZNci_bqp64I6Jcy86lnyi6DaHUb6bxsc99RZqEQ4O66pvWReYDOm_4Ps2WKLahWgAM8bnwfWqcb0WZEbL1kAQb_dUdceZ3NMAiKvA94vW-OcOovgktFj1IIIx5ov9eOep_DKpmwd7nX8ZV0/s600/Britain.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="449" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvHcbfBW1SCeP9LU9OT7MyF-wXiPL0mFtw5DiXnGAK-EbFZNci_bqp64I6Jcy86lnyi6DaHUb6bxsc99RZqEQ4O66pvWReYDOm_4Ps2WKLahWgAM8bnwfWqcb0WZEbL1kAQb_dUdceZ3NMAiKvA94vW-OcOovgktFj1IIIx5ov9eOep_DKpmwd7nX8ZV0/s320/Britain.webp" width="239" /></a></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>SKIES ABOVE BRITAIN</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Five years ago (already!?) I reviewed <i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2018/08/wargame-review-skies-above-reich.html" target="_blank">Skies Above the Reich</a></i>, a brilliant solo wargame about breaking up formations of Allied bombers flying towards Germany with ill intent. And while designer Jeremy White said that he didn't see how he'd adapt the system to cover the Battle of Britain, Gina Willis showed him how and jumped in as co-designer.</div><div class="MsoNormal">This new incarnation of the system turns the tables and sends hordes of German bombers over Britain, which the player must defend at all costs. The rules overhead is slightly heavier but well worth the additional investment, for a game that's every bit as thrilling as its predecessors. (Yes, there were two!)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#5</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimoZIHQ2TmOCyWFliyewN51P6YSEv9fjsjWZH5zYSe9ybqchIefEDDMhnsGxQUwAvp5hckrTluL01pJMQS4tyCdF3zgr8RME1h_FoASJ0DARO6MIJO-T7GXrC5XgpzcZP05DGgenQ9Q8EES6NETVBGlrdAsbVR_DUZ5thTNFA-YXcZqB7ul7lzRx3TGlc/s600/Hegemony.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimoZIHQ2TmOCyWFliyewN51P6YSEv9fjsjWZH5zYSe9ybqchIefEDDMhnsGxQUwAvp5hckrTluL01pJMQS4tyCdF3zgr8RME1h_FoASJ0DARO6MIJO-T7GXrC5XgpzcZP05DGgenQ9Q8EES6NETVBGlrdAsbVR_DUZ5thTNFA-YXcZqB7ul7lzRx3TGlc/s320/Hegemony.webp" width="320" /></a></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span><b>HEGEMONY</b></span></span><br />I've been burned by enough Kickstarter projects to learn to disregard any kind of hype surrounding a new game being peddled on that platform. Most of the time I'm right; once in a while I'm wrong.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Hegemony</i> proved to fall in the latter category.</div><div class="MsoNormal">It's an ambitious design, pitting asymmetrical roles against each other: the Worker Class, the Middle Class, the Capitalist Class, and the State. Everyone plays by their own rules but must come together to make it all work, and the game truly shines. I don't own a copy myself, something I'll remedy as soon as the 2nd edition comes out.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#4</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1uXHYtWEYGk1N8AIwy0QICP3iD98NdwsbqbpN3MhSQoia-KIUsh6E0fyZfXiO3byjiJBs-FZ9QkNMCu8ABDBmenGJC5H4Dwl2PRI9U6_SGr5Bp_dhb52N-gUpwBkAtaUcLkuGGSc3d6YD6vKEKlHxptmrQXm_WSl5oAZHm7Ympr7cisNvbzidAtXz2UQ/s600/Kanal.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1uXHYtWEYGk1N8AIwy0QICP3iD98NdwsbqbpN3MhSQoia-KIUsh6E0fyZfXiO3byjiJBs-FZ9QkNMCu8ABDBmenGJC5H4Dwl2PRI9U6_SGr5Bp_dhb52N-gUpwBkAtaUcLkuGGSc3d6YD6vKEKlHxptmrQXm_WSl5oAZHm7Ympr7cisNvbzidAtXz2UQ/s320/Kanal.webp" width="320" /></a></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span><b>ORANIENBURGER KANAL</b></span></span><br />Third and final Rosenberg game on the list; I'm frankly surprised something like this hasn't happened before. Now this might be his driest looking game ever, what with its generic cards and sterile grid of a game board, but I think it might also be one of his best. It's strictly a two-player game, with each opponent attempting to outbuild the other while optimizing the paths, roads, canals and railways that connect everything together. </div><div class="MsoNormal">The game borrows the clever resource wheel from <i>Ora et Labora</i> and offers a real brain burner, with surprisingly few rules and a play time (90 minutes) that's more than fair for a game of this depth.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#3</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAR0-lnVoRLwrVUo5J7Y2EAcKtlrrAyPtuCvDYGFTUQAeQIF4_waHNfBIlxV8hjH1uPuVaxT9K2Fb4IFcESwjLte2Li_4m-xayo_JGiIqVc7wsYziKcQbDBBjSlE4iNcwj9xYNp_VAd_V6TQ1tggYxJXnsu_aapN6FZk9EHbezEvjvPA95PxhfI56Xr0/s600/Plantagenet.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="451" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAR0-lnVoRLwrVUo5J7Y2EAcKtlrrAyPtuCvDYGFTUQAeQIF4_waHNfBIlxV8hjH1uPuVaxT9K2Fb4IFcESwjLte2Li_4m-xayo_JGiIqVc7wsYziKcQbDBBjSlE4iNcwj9xYNp_VAd_V6TQ1tggYxJXnsu_aapN6FZk9EHbezEvjvPA95PxhfI56Xr0/s320/Plantagenet.webp" width="241" /></a></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"><span><b>PLANTAGENET</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">The Levy & Campaign series of games has long fascinated me, but there were always a few irritants that prevented me from truly loving what was on the menu. <i>Plantagenet</i>, the fourth L&C title, fixed them all.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Levy troops, raise money, gather food—then go to war! Of course, it won't hurt if you manage to convince a handful of lords and vassals to join your cause, and gain control of critical towns and cities.</div><div class="MsoNormal">(You can read my review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/10/wargame-review-plantagenet.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">#2</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2sFTir-fPXZ1bL7ojDeuk6fte7vb9yt2xpbgeGTtzArBldjxsuUkrE2UcrOfrdRUKnJdTMcUXkfNBxPuLt67_h7v9UOBVZFAubDPsdPuu4StSUMygDoO-owNUuOyEOtT02MtbT1l_zoDsp28Asa0OdxzQM0ZYROb67ITJT1EbdmxU8P9ss-Oqvix-uO8/s600/Sky%20Team.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="435" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2sFTir-fPXZ1bL7ojDeuk6fte7vb9yt2xpbgeGTtzArBldjxsuUkrE2UcrOfrdRUKnJdTMcUXkfNBxPuLt67_h7v9UOBVZFAubDPsdPuu4StSUMygDoO-owNUuOyEOtT02MtbT1l_zoDsp28Asa0OdxzQM0ZYROb67ITJT1EbdmxU8P9ss-Oqvix-uO8/s320/Sky%20Team.webp" width="232" /></a></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"><b>SKY TEAM</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">How many cooperative games do you know that play in 15 minutes, offer meaningful decisions, feature a generous helping of scenarios in varying levels of difficulty, come with fantastic components, and prove to be a nail-biter to the very end?</div><div class="MsoNormal">Just land the plane. Everything's going to be fine...</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/11/flash-review-sky-team.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-large;">#1</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPcsOOIHpLYyRpb9l2HZXUHGg6Kt7E5_Xcm5KfFw4JlOZb_YIBlU6mGvqFJELc6JPvbJBcIMurJeWe2ZUTcmcXHkYUN2EY4d0O17mi_aygFrLMECF_Z_K5oNSO3DccgXiScuf9w9TVhRHqDYULYL6BemxwcP7o0ENj8PHyr2pZGLbTeNad0VN8kw3PD4/s600/MrPresident.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="453" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPcsOOIHpLYyRpb9l2HZXUHGg6Kt7E5_Xcm5KfFw4JlOZb_YIBlU6mGvqFJELc6JPvbJBcIMurJeWe2ZUTcmcXHkYUN2EY4d0O17mi_aygFrLMECF_Z_K5oNSO3DccgXiScuf9w9TVhRHqDYULYL6BemxwcP7o0ENj8PHyr2pZGLbTeNad0VN8kw3PD4/s320/MrPresident.webp" width="242" /></a></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormal"><b>MR. PRESIDENT</b></div></span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The most complex and longest game on the list, <i>Mr. President</i> puts you in the White House right after inauguration. Can you deal with everything your cabinet, your country, and indeed the world can throw at you?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I'm amazed at the scope of the package, at the stories it tells, at the palpable tension it generates from beginning to end. Yes it takes at least 10 hours to finish, and yes it's a solo game (which means you're sitting alone in your corner for those 10+ hours), but if you enjoy the sort of engine roaring under this particular hood, you're in for a ride like no other.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">(You can read my review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/07/boardgame-review-mr-president.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">* * *</div></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span><b>DISAPPOINTMENTS</b><br /><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I define <i>disappointments </i>as games I expected a lot from, and which failed to deliver.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here are the "top" three from 2023.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgccq9TuPCA4KRn91u05Xr-CgddyJoSGtr8HkGt2EZ_pdZQbUpjeQR0BT6j9dDQwBYC0996TLh_T9oxqADt-JZNXvxp3gSXm3BUqdIlBD122ydq_I7bQjFvQaWNKBzyWd2ffJSb3tGnmkju3xg5L5X06fKbXLNgWtlrTdqlOdJs-3J56-LPXB8GoNhbcM0/s600/Rummy.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgccq9TuPCA4KRn91u05Xr-CgddyJoSGtr8HkGt2EZ_pdZQbUpjeQR0BT6j9dDQwBYC0996TLh_T9oxqADt-JZNXvxp3gSXm3BUqdIlBD122ydq_I7bQjFvQaWNKBzyWd2ffJSb3tGnmkju3xg5L5X06fKbXLNgWtlrTdqlOdJs-3J56-LPXB8GoNhbcM0/w200-h200/Rummy.webp" width="200" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm a big fan of Mike Fitzgerald's other rummy games, namely <i>Jack the Ripper</i> and <i>Wyatt Earp</i>. So this one sounded like a great new variation with a fun theme.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Turns out the game's tortured mechanics barely manage to avoid the "broken" label, and the whole thing's a sad and sorry bust. I played one game and knew this was going on the trade pile. Fast.</div></div><div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh5pJY3WeN2WXWIzjhaKHL79k30ZoxP0MIUgn_tPs4yNO6ZM_rhI2nKidjOz5etFXAkReTGFnlijroijc4aJtvFqYK5Km32op34Uf2L7vW-uOyTu-AohqTxvcKlPwyK37Zn1ld5xjaLCeTLT7Gp3jKkxlS_7CyAAkRANrg_ZvItFq494Qoc0EKBzd34uE/s600/Ark.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="493" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh5pJY3WeN2WXWIzjhaKHL79k30ZoxP0MIUgn_tPs4yNO6ZM_rhI2nKidjOz5etFXAkReTGFnlijroijc4aJtvFqYK5Km32op34Uf2L7vW-uOyTu-AohqTxvcKlPwyK37Zn1ld5xjaLCeTLT7Gp3jKkxlS_7CyAAkRANrg_ZvItFq494Qoc0EKBzd34uE/w164-h200/Ark.webp" width="164" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This case was a bit different: I felt no real desire to play <i>Ark Nova,</i> but the hype surrounding it was so over the top that I just had to see what everyone was talking about. </div><div style="text-align: left;">And sure, it's a fine game, but it's not doing anything all that different from what I can get out of <i>Terraforming Mars</i>, for instance. I understand if you like the theme better, but people treated this like the Second Coming, which I thought it was not.</div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTTvqUgYSVjYtn55y-0ea-CYa74sxXw17b5MNiYY0EAcQHGWeA8i3ma3XeoY0N0bmtEKsqu0goN8mFqW5-yWEntGkcBMGsAh0tU_DtNEqzQXzq2mzcKEFa_WXJqwkAlhOXNgUaJ6xfRbPDMQ3WsqA7g1quNlVCrZ5MmvoegIxNFxNw6vlpdjmqk6TliMo/s600/Earth.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTTvqUgYSVjYtn55y-0ea-CYa74sxXw17b5MNiYY0EAcQHGWeA8i3ma3XeoY0N0bmtEKsqu0goN8mFqW5-yWEntGkcBMGsAh0tU_DtNEqzQXzq2mzcKEFa_WXJqwkAlhOXNgUaJ6xfRbPDMQ3WsqA7g1quNlVCrZ5MmvoegIxNFxNw6vlpdjmqk6TliMo/w200-h200/Earth.webp" width="200" /></a></div><br /><br /></div></div></div>This is another case of "best game ever" that I had to investigate. And once again, it's a fine game with good-looking components, but it's another tableau builder that falls flat for me. I found myself missing the feeling of shared construction I enjoy in—yes, that one again—<i>Terraforming Mars.</i></div><div>Hey, maybe I'm just not a tableau builder enthusiast? <i>Wingspan</i> also left me pretty meh.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">* * *</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>STRAGGLERS</b></span><br /><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Let's end on a high note with three games that would have made the list had I encountered them back in the year when they were published.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5sA8-k7OCvmi_S7kLsDqLNyQCULB7Nq6AJ2B4MkoiynvuEMnR1-BAgc1SMqPmE1e5PfCTacn4DjHS6HKTOTcfrMgUk1_U9jMLFKwMq1DbytZM7-rHiX-S9_vUIl7sJ1TTm3ePTASkELdvDTaio-Ve_JTtMjVgrcHIbaQoS1hSizEe-2w6-rV8AITdk_k/s600/Combat.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="472" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5sA8-k7OCvmi_S7kLsDqLNyQCULB7Nq6AJ2B4MkoiynvuEMnR1-BAgc1SMqPmE1e5PfCTacn4DjHS6HKTOTcfrMgUk1_U9jMLFKwMq1DbytZM7-rHiX-S9_vUIl7sJ1TTm3ePTASkELdvDTaio-Ve_JTtMjVgrcHIbaQoS1hSizEe-2w6-rV8AITdk_k/w158-h200/Combat.webp" width="158" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A solo WWII tactical war game with a bunch of scenarios, tons of units, and an automated opponent that—while pretty random—generates fun situations and gives the human player a run for their money. Why didn't I play this sooner?</div><div style="text-align: left;">Granted, my being late to the party meant that I could benefit from the revamped maps of the 2nd edition, and spare my retinae some graphics-induced searing.</div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIVPxufAxSFWiCJIKuvHsz-QTxs7PJJxTGGehMbTz7EJNCnvE2j2f7mk-s7iR0pdml-BI8cfmunKNxK4-BNfJr7k9KjeSCEt-6Pp7Hqxg7s4kma1acdOUOUTcu2ddvkcaFYAo7K-iuk5hDVJtLt_Iwryu_ShzBu6T1mYkKf059nEOJzse9exRqBSjeYU8/s600/Merlin.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIVPxufAxSFWiCJIKuvHsz-QTxs7PJJxTGGehMbTz7EJNCnvE2j2f7mk-s7iR0pdml-BI8cfmunKNxK4-BNfJr7k9KjeSCEt-6Pp7Hqxg7s4kma1acdOUOUTcu2ddvkcaFYAo7K-iuk5hDVJtLt_Iwryu_ShzBu6T1mYkKf059nEOJzse9exRqBSjeYU8/w200-h200/Merlin.webp" width="200" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Merlin</i> feels the way great Eurogames did back when they were simple and efficient. While I love complex games, there's something satisfying in a well designed system that's straight to the point and super fun. </div><div style="text-align: left;">A classic Feld that's a blast with just the basic game, and which becomes a tasty feast when you start mixing in some of the expansion modules.</div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGV__Cj5iIsGbcS8zBEqP8JZ_6YQGsm1YLDV3uvwEyJuh63BNV8SqmCn-BIB3S1vxR-xIM9fDXNSlwxorD2mdxraxHMZzFPh48ApkOa0BC7t8UETKkSjRs4QXQK5HvOpoFMGrZ9b4pPhjlmfCgAs_vfxx88zBP-T_JwKZ5yGa87AxT8n521Em6_PR7PUk/s600/Diamonds.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="450" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGV__Cj5iIsGbcS8zBEqP8JZ_6YQGsm1YLDV3uvwEyJuh63BNV8SqmCn-BIB3S1vxR-xIM9fDXNSlwxorD2mdxraxHMZzFPh48ApkOa0BC7t8UETKkSjRs4QXQK5HvOpoFMGrZ9b4pPhjlmfCgAs_vfxx88zBP-T_JwKZ5yGa87AxT8n521Em6_PR7PUk/w150-h200/Diamonds.webp" width="150" /></a></div><br /><br /></div></div>I really enjoy trick-taking games with a twist, and <i>Diamonds</i> delivers in spades. You earn diamonds in four different ways that correspond to the suits of each trick you win, but you also trigger the suit ability of a card you play when it doesn't match the current trick!</div><div class="MsoNormal">It's a great example of what designer Mike Fitzgerald can do when he's not busy destroying his rummy legacy.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"># # #</div></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-45697599021529275032023-12-18T10:18:00.000-08:002023-12-18T10:18:54.837-08:00Flash Review — Great Western Trail: New Zealand<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxpK0R8yTRjnUvSodSvrMuymUVMMZdn12Rfdzjo3WGXqdzlh-GqZaszP01wNxhFWNKTaztSvQkrhtDIwpUywr5wFSgVcCOge8rvaFvuNGAOsjpWnuarPEYXhbq9-f_bVlhFpm6RxCetK9gRJDlLvTlAoIpYGuIggdcVG9KrQee1EIELAwn_3yPdAlVo1c/s600/GWT_NZ.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="598" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxpK0R8yTRjnUvSodSvrMuymUVMMZdn12Rfdzjo3WGXqdzlh-GqZaszP01wNxhFWNKTaztSvQkrhtDIwpUywr5wFSgVcCOge8rvaFvuNGAOsjpWnuarPEYXhbq9-f_bVlhFpm6RxCetK9gRJDlLvTlAoIpYGuIggdcVG9KrQee1EIELAwn_3yPdAlVo1c/s320/GWT_NZ.webp" width="319" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div>Players</b>: 1-4<br /><b>Works well with just 2</b>: Yes!<br /><b>Age</b>: 12+<br /><b>Playtime</b>: 75-150 min<br /><b>Complexity</b>: 8/10<br /><br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">As a fan of both the original <i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/10/flash-review-great-western-trail-2nd.html" target="_blank">Great Western Trail</a></i> and its <i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/12/flash-review-great-western-trail.html" target="_blank">Argentina </a></i>variation, I had very high expectations when it came to the third and last entry in the series, <i>New Zealand.</i><br />Did it live up to its pedigree? Yes and no.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Cattle is replaced by sheep, the workers you pick up on your journey don't exactly behave the way their predecessors did, but overall you're playing <i>GWT</i>. The main differences are as follows:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. You can shear your sheep (instead of shipping them off), using their wool value to gain cash and eventually victory points.<br />This addition works really well, introducing the shearer to your roster of workers, and making it possible to </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">earn quick cash while you're still on the trail, before you get to Wellington (your shipping-off port in this game).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. Your train is replaced by a ship that travels to open up new business avenues (similar to the <i>Rails to the North</i> expansion for the original game).<br />The more sailors you hire, the farther your ship can move; and although you are not required to move your ship, it can provide you with significant benefits you'd be remiss to ignore.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. Your deck can now be home to a variety of cards that are not sheep, adding a bit more of a deck-building feel to the proceedings.<br />And it's <i>this</i> change in the rules I'm not convinced I really like. It sure adds variety (the cards are not the same from game to game), but what they actually do is lukewarm at best. Some are sheep (admittedly sheep types you can't get anywhere else, but still), some are objectives (again, exclusive ones, but hey) while others are cards that you play for some resource (gain 1 pound, earn one certificate, etc.) before discarding them and drawing a replacement.<br />You might see why I'm dubious here: after a handful of plays, I still don't know if those cards bring a vital new mechanic to the game or just add noise to the system, providing resources players could have garnered through other means.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">So two excellent gameplay twists, and a third one that leaves me a bit cold.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>GWT: New Zealand</i> is still a solid game, but it doesn't feel as refined as its <i>Argentina</i> brother—which to me stands as the pinnacle of the whole series.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Most easily forgotten rule</b>: Contrary to both previous <i>GWT</i> games, you don't have to reveal all of your sheep cards when you reach Wellington. The cards you <i>do </i>reveal all need to be different, but you can hold some of them back if you want.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div><p></p></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-27457235451131980282023-11-21T06:06:00.000-08:002023-11-21T06:06:54.735-08:00Flash Review — Tesseract<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg02-mOezGNnCVSEFpbL5YRxyij0QPHeSLOCSKviHYR1LqIPeH8Kq8GMpyLNV0T7SIgTh438EhoCa93eBPnQ99wEGqQobOCjlvcvTxO9kGtdl4lpAPoAwjUstte_3x2uCnukAxiy3ehHDf_uV9M1spWGvzkWqMQK388vI9MovKNRRz8oPuCiSXss1Z3Mas/s615/Tesseract.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="615" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg02-mOezGNnCVSEFpbL5YRxyij0QPHeSLOCSKviHYR1LqIPeH8Kq8GMpyLNV0T7SIgTh438EhoCa93eBPnQ99wEGqQobOCjlvcvTxO9kGtdl4lpAPoAwjUstte_3x2uCnukAxiy3ehHDf_uV9M1spWGvzkWqMQK388vI9MovKNRRz8oPuCiSXss1Z3Mas/s320/Tesseract.webp" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br />Players</b>: 1-4<br /><b>Works well with just 2</b>: Yes!<br /><b>Solo quality</b>: fine<br /><b>Age</b>: 14+<br /><b>Playtime</b>: 60 min<br /><b>Complexity</b>: 5/10<br /><br />A tesseract (a four-dimensional cube) has appeared in the sky, and a bunch of scientists must work together to disarm it before it destroys our universe.<br /><br />Forget the thin sci-fi conceit: <i>Tesseract </i>is a cooperative game where players slowly dismantle a (three-dimensional) cube made out of dice they then manipulate to perform a variety of tasks. Get the job done before the tesseract finishes counting down, and you win.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQFQHM2Q5xDkPpEsgslLHfIN4WZRWLyWFp6wuKXzgsa0xo5sYtGprL3iZjtJO3XpdT1riTEDysDLizltoB2a6Buezr7-u3NpvACuyYs9MyIAocrPoFrd8L2phe5UizYtfsdDdn2hR5aZrianmSC94gkBVn1AW7leuzDc3LYuYphoF_HnQE0D6z5bAiZTw/s1512/IMG_3083.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQFQHM2Q5xDkPpEsgslLHfIN4WZRWLyWFp6wuKXzgsa0xo5sYtGprL3iZjtJO3XpdT1riTEDysDLizltoB2a6Buezr7-u3NpvACuyYs9MyIAocrPoFrd8L2phe5UizYtfsdDdn2hR5aZrianmSC94gkBVn1AW7leuzDc3LYuYphoF_HnQE0D6z5bAiZTw/s320/IMG_3083.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pretty colors can kill you!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The menu of operations available to players is a mix of classic (rotate a die, flip a die, change a die’s color) and innovative (exchange dice with a collaborator, manipulate a die to affect another die remotely, put a die <i>back </i>in the tesseract), all aimed at completing an array of 24 tasks before time runs out.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_8f_RyXvmmMe_A3RyhXNsJviQXiskUsEg9Ng0DR9ZNnbcocLBzYO5hxQ5jHCU9NJvgqwP9s-996lTSmnkBKwThTrJnk3y6K1NwIS1y_LrfJu7smKUlWzF03WqVlokPHfcqJRgWV4k6eQ8ts6sYXCGPdDI7LkYp8RdUFm2MbdoMsKmI3YBEFLHkVddjpU/s1512/IMG_3085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_8f_RyXvmmMe_A3RyhXNsJviQXiskUsEg9Ng0DR9ZNnbcocLBzYO5hxQ5jHCU9NJvgqwP9s-996lTSmnkBKwThTrJnk3y6K1NwIS1y_LrfJu7smKUlWzF03WqVlokPHfcqJRgWV4k6eQ8ts6sYXCGPdDI7LkYp8RdUFm2MbdoMsKmI3YBEFLHkVddjpU/s320/IMG_3085.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">7 tasks down, 17 to go</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The tesseract eliminates at least one of its own dice every turn, and whenever a column is empty, it triggers the base-plate symbol just revealed—and those are no good. Also, if the tesseract ever runs out of dice, the game is lost. But the fascinating thing here is that the raw resources players must use to defuse the ticking time-bomb are the tesseract’s dice themselves. So you <i>have </i>to speed up the timer if you ever hope to stop it. There’s no playing it safe.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUlqckCROCvj1xNNDCs3ZFvku81vRkBpppUkuofbjxK7epzIM8AUNXIbIP-0R0xYP8Z3wbehy5vTC5UXyyQwrDgGxZUPgeWNEii-pWbQwZAvsFiWWPeVNcxH_v31ZM3XDFwNOtE5VlVcQMmwrVMnNIgSfrHTgUKRzbcvAB1iZIj7x519kj_4wVf9wkq8Q/s1512/IMG_3084.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUlqckCROCvj1xNNDCs3ZFvku81vRkBpppUkuofbjxK7epzIM8AUNXIbIP-0R0xYP8Z3wbehy5vTC5UXyyQwrDgGxZUPgeWNEii-pWbQwZAvsFiWWPeVNcxH_v31ZM3XDFwNOtE5VlVcQMmwrVMnNIgSfrHTgUKRzbcvAB1iZIj7x519kj_4wVf9wkq8Q/s320/IMG_3084.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That orange symbol removes an additional die from the tesseract. Sorry.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The components are great fun, the lazy susan (gentle!) the tesseract rests on works like a charm, and you do feel the mounting pressure throughout the game. With four different difficulty levels and a gazillion possible starting setups—just look at that cube—the experience should remain challenging for a long time.<br /><br />Solo gameplay involves a single player going at it two-handed. It’s not my favorite solo system, but it works well.<br /><br />I’ll just add that the official age suggestion seems out of line here: an interested 10-year-old could certainly play <i>Tesseract </i>without any problem. (Maybe even at 8; kids are sharp.)<br /><br /><b>Most easily forgotten rule</b>: When you contain a die from the tesseract, you get to destroy an identical die (color and value) from the Primed Area.<br /><br /><br /><br /># # #<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><br /></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-35397002546079542882023-11-15T09:10:00.000-08:002023-11-15T14:24:06.100-08:00Flash Review — Framework<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwT1CT4rdZF0a9GcLM872Bd-rILCtzbpxBjnEdr2hlF1hUhEpsNNrPTlj461tgJRvVF8_CeE9HwOuMrOPaRfhwTR45lOLDtGU8qTf4Tv4P1SFe0TMx_Hi4Ze9hf-dPdG6gs98qBUlIGzoocC7elwVL5OqjOxJKH_8wiwzqbASjXS_cDME_PJrgTrkls-U/s600/Framework.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwT1CT4rdZF0a9GcLM872Bd-rILCtzbpxBjnEdr2hlF1hUhEpsNNrPTlj461tgJRvVF8_CeE9HwOuMrOPaRfhwTR45lOLDtGU8qTf4Tv4P1SFe0TMx_Hi4Ze9hf-dPdG6gs98qBUlIGzoocC7elwVL5OqjOxJKH_8wiwzqbASjXS_cDME_PJrgTrkls-U/s320/Framework.webp" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>Players</b>: 1-4<br /></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Works well with just 2</b>: Yes!<br /><b>Solo quality</b>: a bit boring<br /><b>Age</b>: 8+<br /><b>Playtime</b>: 30 min<br /><b>Complexity</b>: 3/10<br /><br />Just like <i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/09/flash-review-applejack.html" target="_blank">Applejack</a></i>, this is one of Uwe Rosenberg’s simple-yet-clever designs, albeit under a more abstract guise: you’re just building a series of interlocking tasks that you try to complete.<br /><br />The game is played with a huge variety of tiles that players organize in rows and columns, with no predefined grid to adhere to. When it’s your turn, you pick one tile from a limited selection on offer and add it to your structure, making sure the new tile orthogonally touches at least one other tile. Then you check if you’ve completed some of your tasks, and put one of your wooden markers on each of them that’s done.<br /><br />Some tiles will display one or more tasks, in the form of a number on a colored background; other tiles will show one or more colored frames (used to complete the aforementioned tasks); and a third category of tiles will sport both bits of information.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyA2CiBkIZHX5O4K7GVafTnUqlCNAkSZs6r9x7Vq42c9f_GYgFeCLqjMaJR7CeTiu3gORPEb6vFj7k3ET-fkCKjlHeC4PFH9e4U0BJeagbEzFfEmK4NQl-S7kDCO9iJ2uLP_rzzZ6qjZBuozu9bZrJePl55FTZfhtH642xVPV6kVQJ06w2muEBcEEwiKU/s1487/IMG_3063.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1487" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyA2CiBkIZHX5O4K7GVafTnUqlCNAkSZs6r9x7Vq42c9f_GYgFeCLqjMaJR7CeTiu3gORPEb6vFj7k3ET-fkCKjlHeC4PFH9e4U0BJeagbEzFfEmK4NQl-S7kDCO9iJ2uLP_rzzZ6qjZBuozu9bZrJePl55FTZfhtH642xVPV6kVQJ06w2muEBcEEwiKU/s320/IMG_3063.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Which would you pick?</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>To complete a task, you need the required number of frames in the requested color, arrayed in a continuous chain where at least one link in the chain is in direct contact with the task at hand.<br />In the example below, the 5-yellow task is done (I should put a wooden marker on it), but the 3-gray task is still missing one gray frame</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—a</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">nd the 4-brown/orange task has nothing going for it. Yet.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVijoZ3sQ_xYhpxQhuqkZtGA7RF4fKk_VV2ilX9ZjoHYEvwWJdSUpnJ6MMp77qbcPABJ7qS-THmSlLHr_wkRu_6g8SiKVrnm3Ra9RVab5nN2fFujyRZ9y-0UIruxuCuXkGNXJPyohceiuazUew1T7s7tY6Ce50Kz-V0wWXMa0jQY6f-LLhqHHaeE-JB80/s1510/IMG_3064.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="1112" data-original-width="1510" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVijoZ3sQ_xYhpxQhuqkZtGA7RF4fKk_VV2ilX9ZjoHYEvwWJdSUpnJ6MMp77qbcPABJ7qS-THmSlLHr_wkRu_6g8SiKVrnm3Ra9RVab5nN2fFujyRZ9y-0UIruxuCuXkGNXJPyohceiuazUew1T7s7tY6Ce50Kz-V0wWXMa0jQY6f-LLhqHHaeE-JB80/s320/IMG_3064.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Some tiles are self-fulfilling (like a 5-green task that also shows a green frame), which makes them easier to pull off and kind of a no-brainer. Where things get twisted (and interesting!) is when you have to deal with, say, a 7-brown task surrounded by a yellow frame: Do you place that tile next to your group of brown frames, or would it be more effective to forsake the 7-brown task and instead use the yellow frame to complete a bunch of yellow tasks elsewhere?<br /><br />The first player who completes 22 tasks (i.e. runs out of wooden markers) wins the game. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll just want to play it again, and again. It’s amazing how much gameplay Rosenberg can pack in a 30-minute game with two and a half rules to learn, with something addictive thrown in for good measure. So don’t be fazed by the apparent simplicity of Framework: it’s dead easy to learn, yet damn fun to play.<br /><br />The solo game is, as with most of Rosenberg’s designs, a beat-your-own-score type of puzzle. So the first time you play it, you don’t win nor do you lose: you just set your own benchmark</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—<i>t</i></span><i style="font-family: verdana;">hen </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">you try to do better. Not my kind of solo experience, but it’s over in five minutes and it’s not an unpleasant exercise.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>Most easily forgotten rule</b>: In this case it’s not a rule you’re likely to forget, but rather a completed task you’re just not seeing. Keep your eyes peeled!</span><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-81112781552078475272023-11-06T05:54:00.000-08:002023-11-06T05:54:40.839-08:00Flash Review — Sky Team<p><b style="font-family: verdana;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2N_OmGYyW46_joiYdezBK56A_1elT1ArI1QbQALLG_dpic-ye_p4LYUWPdz4gkCmSZFE3bPOA0LqIkKkpX1InBZDHLmhLv_yxRo_1nBDhpMMO5QcH0E6K4Gd1Jj5uati8YROupTSNfQKVe8qeUEJ54_W5EVDuGUUmKabPxfLPyH4LU_-oNWYc8lC2hKw/s600/Sky%20Team.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="435" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2N_OmGYyW46_joiYdezBK56A_1elT1ArI1QbQALLG_dpic-ye_p4LYUWPdz4gkCmSZFE3bPOA0LqIkKkpX1InBZDHLmhLv_yxRo_1nBDhpMMO5QcH0E6K4Gd1Jj5uati8YROupTSNfQKVe8qeUEJ54_W5EVDuGUUmKabPxfLPyH4LU_-oNWYc8lC2hKw/s320/Sky%20Team.webp" width="232" /></a></b></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>Players</b>: 2<br /><b>Age</b>: 12+<br /><b>Playtime</b>: 15 min<br /><b>Complexity</b>: 4.5/10<br /><br />It’s been an uneventful flight across the ocean, the airport is in sight, and all you and your co-pilot need to do now is safely land that behemoth. Shouldn’t be any problem, right?<br /><br /><i>Sky Team </i>is a cooperative dice-placement game that, despite its slim 15-minute play time, manages to generate thrills galore throughout and then enthusiastic high fives when the wheels finally touch ground. <br /><br />Each turn, both pilot and co-pilot roll four dice and assign them one by one (without talking to each other!) to critical systems. Two dice placements are mandatory—engine power and horizontal axis—but you’ll have to take care of the rest eventually. However, will you have the right dice values at hand when you decide to deploy the landing gear, lower the flaps, or apply the breaks? And don’t forget to stay in touch with air traffic control so that they can clear the runway as you start your approach…<br /><br />The starting scenario, Montreal, uses only the basic functions of the plane, and it’s <i>still </i>a blast to play. As you fly from one airport to the next, new challenges will include fuel management, ice worries, wind problems, further traffic headaches, and even a pesky intern stealing some of your precious time away from vital maneuvers. (And publisher Le Scorpion Masqué keeps adding new, printable scenarios to <a href="https://www.scorpionmasque.com/Skyteam/">their website</a>.)<br /><br />At the very least, it’s worth 15 minutes of your time to give the game a shot.<br />But I’m convinced YUL love it.<br /><br /><b>Most easily forgotten rule</b>: Axis and engine power are resolved as soon as their two dice are in place (and not at the end of the turn).<br /><br /><br /><br /># # #<br /><br /></span><br />Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-649657134118273372023-10-31T11:32:00.002-07:002023-10-31T11:36:37.267-07:00Wargame review — Plantagenet<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Don't Mind the Thorns</span></h1><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></span></div>Designer: Francisco Gradaille</i><br /></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Player count:</i> 2</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Publisher:</i> GMT Games</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YdS3rNAD0kt0XshB1GykIHDI4f9woTBIeQJuJJr0d7Nydb8khXq8VE8Imj-SWaPfNpIl3Urm2Qeudz0IlOz7XbcxpEw6Nq-O1VN2w-uVEvj4SKz-dKMWOC6T8azvh7MNXbPeR0dmGU_1ygh55sAh_WGVESo-gIjgZzkvwKqeGrCC-HJZrhxmqmv_Pxk/s600/Plantagenet.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="451" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YdS3rNAD0kt0XshB1GykIHDI4f9woTBIeQJuJJr0d7Nydb8khXq8VE8Imj-SWaPfNpIl3Urm2Qeudz0IlOz7XbcxpEw6Nq-O1VN2w-uVEvj4SKz-dKMWOC6T8azvh7MNXbPeR0dmGU_1ygh55sAh_WGVESo-gIjgZzkvwKqeGrCC-HJZrhxmqmv_Pxk/s320/Plantagenet.webp" width="241" /></a></div><br /></div><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sometimes
I fall in love with an engine and find myself waiting for someone, somewhere,
to create just the right game to go along with it.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That’s
what happened with </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Dominion</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, the grand-daddy
of deck-building games. As a veteran TCG player who wanted to spend more time
playing with friends and less time huddled alone in a corner tuning my deck, I
was blown away by the idea that you could build your deck of cards </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">during the game</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">. What a genius concept! Except
I found the game itself dry as powdered bones, and I waited eagerly for new
games built on that magnificent engine to come around and win me over. (It did
happen, of course, and I’m still discovering great new deck-building games
today, 15 years down the line.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
experienced something similar with GMT’s Levy & Campaign series. The first
of those titles I played was </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Inferno</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">,
three times, quickly followed by a handful of games of </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Nevsky</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Those sessions left me absolutely taken with the L&C
system, so very different from any other wargame I’d played before. I loved the
levy part, with Lords calling upon one other and amassing matériel in
preparation for war; I was thrilled by the campaign part, where each player puts
together a stack of cards—and commits to a specific order!—that will activate
one Lord after another, launching them on perilous travels and heroic feats of
arms. Add a cool combat system on top of everything, plus weather to contend
with, and what’s not to love?<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yet
I always came away from the experience somewhat unsatisfied. The system felt a
bit too heavy to me, and I could never quite get my Lords to where I wanted
them in time. If they managed to reach their destination before starving to
death, then a siege usually stood in the way of a good old-fashioned fight,
supply lines became a nightmarish puzzle, and anything short of the campaign
game tasted like a game-convention demo. Which models medieval life in a
faithful way, I suppose, even though it wasn’t what I was looking for in a game.
But I loved the engine under the hood, and I was determined to keep trying new
titles in that expanding series until I found the one that was tailor-made for
me.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That
game is </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Plantagenet</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Two
families, York and Lancaster, tore each other to pieces for most of the 15</span><sup style="font-family: verdana;">th</sup><span style="font-family: verdana;">
century, as they competed (to put it politely) for the throne of England. The
War of the Roses—pitting two coats of arms that each bore the delicate flower—would
lead to upheavals and rebellions, betrayals and broken promises, and a
veritable festival of tragedy all across the land until the Plantagenet dynasty
tore itself apart.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That
rich history is alive again in </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Plantagenet</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">,
as York goes up against Lancaster in a series of escalating clashes. The board
is crowned with a calendar where a marker moves forward to regulate turns, and where
players can track the effectiveness of their Lords and vassals. (How long
before Fauconberg decides he needs to get paid again, otherwise he and his men
will desert my army and go home?) The rest of the board depicts England as well
as a few of the surrounding territories, together with an influence track that
wraps around the play surface.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9p24NxJE8xQSBYbj8GynnOEcqHkzAHFNtAbU6KEiyAoC4fRzDmIHyAzpIEqJRqknBtXTaUrIcEJf6Zy4MBwIfTULYws06XuoRLvzCqX6oBs3zNoPFB4pQC2g34zCyN56QRWmL6Ap9ZMeztVkkd63KGlVPKRVo-RT8YZk1Gw1j_BqHpCQrc_tv6Heq8QA/s3206/Planta_Calendar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1548" data-original-width="3206" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9p24NxJE8xQSBYbj8GynnOEcqHkzAHFNtAbU6KEiyAoC4fRzDmIHyAzpIEqJRqknBtXTaUrIcEJf6Zy4MBwIfTULYws06XuoRLvzCqX6oBs3zNoPFB4pQC2g34zCyN56QRWmL6Ap9ZMeztVkkd63KGlVPKRVo-RT8YZk1Gw1j_BqHpCQrc_tv6Heq8QA/s320/Planta_Calendar.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pay day for a couple of vassals is just around the corner.</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Each
turn is divided into a levy phase and a campaign phase. During levy, players
use their Lords already in play to try and convince other Lords (and a bunch of
vassals) to join their forces, attempt to influence locations into favoring
their cause, or else stockpile whatever they’ll need to reach the enemy and
attack them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then
the turn marker on the calendar is flipped to its campaign side, and it’s time
to get in gear. Each player assembles their own stack of command cards,
secretly programming the order in which their Lords will act, up to a number of
cards limited by the current season. Summers are the best, as you can stack
seven of those cards—meaning seven lord activations will take place. (But since
each Lord only has three command cards to his name, you can’t activate the same
Lord more than thrice on any given turn.) Harsh winters severely blunt dreams
of conquests, though, as only four command cards can be used on those turns.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When
they act, Lords need to keep an eye on everything. They can parley (curry favor
with a nearby municipality), supply their troops (provided the supply line is a
chain of locales that favor their side of the conflict), forage if supply
proves impossible (albeit with mixed results), tax their own seat or that of
one of their vassals (the more vassals on your side, the easier it becomes to
raise money), or else march, sail and generally get closer to some guy who’d
rather not see you show up.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Almost
every one of the actions listed above depletes a location’s resources, so it’s
only a matter of time before you can’t pilfer this or that town to satisfy your
needs anymore. Plan accordingly.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When
armies do meet on the battlefield, the outcome is determined via an ingenious
battle system where hits inflicted upon each army are known in advance and it’s
the </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">defense</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, in fact, that’s up in
the air. You need to absorb 3 hits? Pick a unit to suffer the first one and
roll against that unit’s protection rating—from 1 for the lowly militia all the
way to 4 for valiant knights—with the unit surviving if the roll is equal to or
lower than its rating. Further hits can be inflicted on the same (surviving)
unit if you so choose: it all depends on which forces you’d rather keep in
fighting order. Your knight enjoys better odds of survival, but he’s also a
much more potent attacker than that poor militia. So do you want to risk him
again and again to absorb hits?<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Defeated
Lords go into exile or outright give up the ghost, but either way, they lose precious
influence that will alter the course of the campaign.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Speaking
of which—remember that influence track? At the end of each turn, players accrue
influence there for control of various locations on the map. It’s a net
computation: whoever has the most influence subtracts from it their opponent’s
influence and marks the result (in their color) on the track. Not only is
influence a measure of success on the part of one player or the other—indeed a
victory condition set at different heights for each scenario—but it’s also a
currency you’ll need to spend with care throughout your diplomatic endeavors. Want
to convert a neighboring city? Pay some influence. Intent on bringing some
vassal over to your side of the conflict? Pay some influence. Desperate to keep
Lords and vassals fighting for you once their time is up? PAY SOME INFLUENCE.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(I’m
not even talking about forking over vast quantities of food each time your
forces execute the slightest of maneuvers, or disbursing actual cash to keep troops
in your employ. But fear not, you’ll be required to manage those aspects as
well, or suffer the consequences.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
winner is the family that reaches the influence threshold set by the scenario,
or that’s got the influence marker on their side when the game concludes its
last turn.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>WAR
PRODUCTION</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Plantagenet</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana;"> ships in what’s
fast becoming the new GMT standard: the sturdy double-sized box you can use to jack
up your car when a tire needs changing. Inside you’ll find a generous stash of
wooden pieces in various shapes and colors, two decks of cards (one York, one
Lancaster), a variety of cardboard markers for several purposes (including that
damn coinage your Lords will keep running out of), a pair of handy player aid
folders that sum up everything you need once you’ve got a couple of sessions
under your belt, rulebook, background book, and a mounted four-panel board
where all the action takes place.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
game also includes generic Lord mats used to hold each Lord’s card, vassal
markers and troop pieces. Previous volumes in the series used dedicated mat
with a Lord’s stats printed right on it; but since <i>Plantagenet</i> allows for Lords to replace each other, it made sense to
provide blank mats together with a deck of Lord cards players could cycle
through. (I wouldn’t be surprised to see future L&C titles use a similar
idea.)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeTeWE6HjSW5-bgsBZF7LcqcFzoU6E1UZVu5-6C_AKd7hENYV5XoVQ7qPPqM55x9BtrRhzgMBi8oRYWOhE1Cnq0oFgkp9d6zXJGEcMC4dr1_Cu9fQMNM0KkKv9j4VBVqK-XXnvHoy0l8PeutAJ-YGKH0E1XkuKGyMhpmHuyPdmmuNnVbGNMBBBkEFGl2k/s4030/Planta_Mat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2204" data-original-width="4030" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeTeWE6HjSW5-bgsBZF7LcqcFzoU6E1UZVu5-6C_AKd7hENYV5XoVQ7qPPqM55x9BtrRhzgMBi8oRYWOhE1Cnq0oFgkp9d6zXJGEcMC4dr1_Cu9fQMNM0KkKv9j4VBVqK-XXnvHoy0l8PeutAJ-YGKH0E1XkuKGyMhpmHuyPdmmuNnVbGNMBBBkEFGl2k/s320/Planta_Mat.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Nevsky</i> on the left, <i>Plantagenet</i> on the right</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
board may look cluttered at first, especially when compared to earlier titles
where the map depicted vast expanses dotted with the occasional stronghold. Here,
the territory is more compact, generously irrigated with roads of all kinds, and
offers a host of tantalizing targets within a short radius. Yet, even with several
armies on the march—and seat markers scattered across the countryside—the map
remains perfectly legible.<br /><br /></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEOUjP1XpVOgilBB0x4ivpg8mNLXRRtK6U2FXWkb-y9xWuFJGYxlCtR3cUcfufvJXb6IUv4z1wxl_YnHV_2ZRe0PRUhTXvrxNjqC1v2HEssZYE7pjbqptIfm9pM9v8ePNFMz6TXaBhJGpMA_qgGK4aPoNYk0E-BD8IwWyT5JnTUzrr7DMGtNArW1pEUE/s4032/Planta_Board.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEOUjP1XpVOgilBB0x4ivpg8mNLXRRtK6U2FXWkb-y9xWuFJGYxlCtR3cUcfufvJXb6IUv4z1wxl_YnHV_2ZRe0PRUhTXvrxNjqC1v2HEssZYE7pjbqptIfm9pM9v8ePNFMz6TXaBhJGpMA_qgGK4aPoNYk0E-BD8IwWyT5JnTUzrr7DMGtNArW1pEUE/s320/Planta_Board.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: verdana;">Nevsky</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> on the left, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Plantagenet</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> on the right<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>RULES
OF ENGAGEMENT</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At
18 pages, <i>Plantagenet’</i>s rulebook is
the shortest one within the L&C family, and for good reason: every system
has been streamlined and tightened, with exceptions filed off and unnecessary
chrome discarded.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gone
are sieges, for instance, and although there are those out there who will mourn
their removal, I for one rejoice in the heightened immediacy of battle. Stop
hiding behind walls and let’s get down to business!<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Also
dispatched is the Call to Arms, a once-in-a-while über-armament phase which provided
interesting possibilities, but at the price of dealing with an additional
sub-system that players needed to factor into their every decision.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">And
let’s not forget the laden/unladen distinction, now a thing of the past. The
types of pathways Lords use to move around the map—and not the weight of their
baggage trains—determine how costly marching will be.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This
doesn’t mean that the game isn’t injecting some new material of its own in the
series. One of my darlings is the addition of influence points, used both as a new
currency and as a means to assess victory. Capability cards are also assigned
to specific scenarios, which means that your favorite asset will not always show
up. And whereas defeated Lords would previously see their service markers shift
left on the calendar—thereby shortening their usefulness—they can now die in
battle and vanish from your plans of conquest entirely.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Several
other rules differences round out a package that, for me, accomplishes what I
was hoping the L&C system would deliver to begin with.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
game comes with one battle mini-scenario (handy to learn the ropes of violence
on the medieval field), five standalone scenarios of various lengths (with
Lords often switching sides from one scenario to the next, owing to the
historical context), and one three-part clash with branching outcomes,
depending on what side proves triumphant each step of the way.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
extensive background book is replete with gameplay examples, strategy tips, historical
references and a host of other resources, including detailed family trees for
the House of Lancaster as well as the House of York. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Might
as well know whose legacy you’re cutting short.)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>FUN
FACTOR</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As I
made clear with my comments above, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Plantagenet</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">
is the most fun I’ve had so far with the Levy & Campaign series. I think this
time the system feels a little less like a simulation and a little more like a
game, which is exactly what I was looking for. The turns fly by and things keep
moving, with plenty of battles and enough fealty shenanigans to keep even the
most impatient players engaged.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">While
vassals used to be assigned specific allegiances in earlier volumes (they belonged
to one opponent or the other), I love that this time around they can be
recruited by either side. This makes it sort of a race when it comes to reaching
and persuading a specific noble before the other side gets to him. And while
each vassal comes with his own retinue, their main appeal lies more often than
not in the fact that you can tax their hometowns—a significant advantage when
money becomes scarce, and it will. Troops that go without coin payment, even
for a single turn, go on a rampage that not only damages your reputation
(resulting in the loss of precious influence points), but also flips the
loyalty of their current location to your enemy’s side.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
decision space widens with bountiful replenishment options, where you can use a
location’s resources to stockpile food, raise money or even levy additional
troops on your way to war. However, those temptations are shaded with a hefty
price tag. The first time you squeeze a locale to satisfy your needs, it’s
marked “depleted;” the second time, it goes to “exhausted” and can no longer
provide anything. A growth turn will put locations back on their feet, but
those only come by once in a blue moon, and by then it might very well be too
late for your Lords and their not-so-merry men.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>PARTING
SHOTS</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Amongst
all of the newfangled elements that make their brilliant debut in </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Plantagenet</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, the one that excites me the
most is the reworked currency system.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Previous
titles ran on coin (spent to keep Lords in your employ) and food (doled out to sustain
marching and fighting troops). Players could earn victory points by defeating
enemies in battle and occupying opposing strongholds, and whoever had the most
VPs at the end of game took the crown.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">In </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Plantagenet</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, food is still used to
maintain troops that move or battle, but coins are required at the start of
each turn to keep those same forces happy, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">even
if they did nothing at all</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Sure, you can amass that gigantic army and
threaten to march it all the way to London and unseat your opponent; but will
your pockets prove deep enough to keep everyone on the payroll until the job is
done? Especially if you stop a few times along the way to gain more food or—God
forbid—raise some new troops? The clock is ticking.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Influence
is the final nail in that delicious coffin. You can spend it to do most
everything in the game, and it’s a powerful tool—hell, you can even use it when
you technically don’t have any influence left to spend, pushing that Influence
Points marker further down your enemy’s side, tug-of-war style. But don’t
forget this game is won on influence: sooner or later, you’ll have to win those
IPs back or else lose it all. So will paying three influence (which you might
not have to begin with) to win over that Essex dude be worth it in the long
term?<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">There’s
only one way to find out.<br /><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTWtixJwTMe-zXN3U-DJd37PUVa-rrPFLl8i5Br7__OEjho63cYV_jWF8_yGeHAmvwbTQTVch5CrM-dxjPoG1c4Q2t0rc9rk2hflUkXFayNL_KQVUGbFnTIjPfsVCuw7QQvvE4gdOWijKz9nO6pmeal4YMDOtzxzBQYq0eBOqszafUdUZnJeld4PO-H4/s3024/Planta_IP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTWtixJwTMe-zXN3U-DJd37PUVa-rrPFLl8i5Br7__OEjho63cYV_jWF8_yGeHAmvwbTQTVch5CrM-dxjPoG1c4Q2t0rc9rk2hflUkXFayNL_KQVUGbFnTIjPfsVCuw7QQvvE4gdOWijKz9nO6pmeal4YMDOtzxzBQYq0eBOqszafUdUZnJeld4PO-H4/s320/Planta_IP.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Victory's a long way up when it comes to influence points...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"># #
#<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-7595031932087077672023-09-12T09:14:00.006-07:002023-09-12T10:23:59.684-07:00Flash Review — Applejack<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1h3O82FdYPo40sMW-c8Wy70cOlufpnXlO0mEVfQqQn70DzQP9_P0IfD3qteYN7hC5gVe4Pl2ncu04aw7I12roF5gY9KQTlzaUhrGsPssLGouWMKtAaxGUOVZxk781_p3s1NGEMbgylRaEokpaazCr-3kDtecehW_ppmkYSYYpeylQPm6tsZTtd1AToPI/s600/Applejack_cover.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1h3O82FdYPo40sMW-c8Wy70cOlufpnXlO0mEVfQqQn70DzQP9_P0IfD3qteYN7hC5gVe4Pl2ncu04aw7I12roF5gY9KQTlzaUhrGsPssLGouWMKtAaxGUOVZxk781_p3s1NGEMbgylRaEokpaazCr-3kDtecehW_ppmkYSYYpeylQPm6tsZTtd1AToPI/s320/Applejack_cover.webp" width="320" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><b><br /></b></b></span><p></p><p><b style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Players</b>: </b><span style="font-family: verdana;">1-4<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Works well with just 2</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: Absolutely!<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Solo quality</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: Okay<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Age</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 8+<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Playtime</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 30-60 min<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Complexity</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 4/10</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Another Uwe Rosenberg game about farming? You bet.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">This time we're running an orchard and harvesting apples, using honey as currency.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div>The game's timer is a die that steps its way around the central board. On your turn, you pick an apple tile from one of the stacks on either side of the die, and add it to your own orchard. Then the die takes one step forward, and it's your neighbor's turn.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9izC_PD7JMCc7B4Ts3Fr4KnL_md5r9APL85J0Lx7TOL9x92SGTOxPtR7ayTyqHCBct_zYREt4TRUycJ7XnroQ52X3ZU4Xv_5XAi5i1vnxy8798qkpLzwGliPSxr4wiRz-RlqH4gn1E4tup6hTtnpVjIxVSCEkhWiejAUnZSD6yBvB_ZaISpBj9pzpO8/s3024/Applejack_central.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9izC_PD7JMCc7B4Ts3Fr4KnL_md5r9APL85J0Lx7TOL9x92SGTOxPtR7ayTyqHCBct_zYREt4TRUycJ7XnroQ52X3ZU4Xv_5XAi5i1vnxy8798qkpLzwGliPSxr4wiRz-RlqH4gn1E4tup6hTtnpVjIxVSCEkhWiejAUnZSD6yBvB_ZaISpBj9pzpO8/s320/Applejack_central.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Right after the start of the 2nd circuit</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>If the die passes an apple icon, each player scores that particular apple variety: add up all of your apples of that color displayed on tiles that touch each other in your orchard, and subtract the number on the die (which starts at 1): that's how much honey you earn. There are seven different apple varieties, so pay attention!</div><div>When the die has done a complete circuit on the central board, it rotates from 1 to 2 and starts moving again—but this time your apple groups need to be larger to score. After a second complete circuit, the die rotates from 2 to 3, and the game ends halfway through the third and last circuit.</div><div>Perform some final scoring shenanigans, and the player with the highest score wins.</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS5Ypw1zvIR8WHfs0elxlvINgsx3UttcoJS_fv3yrr_3NXqDq5rcmjdo4KL0a-dobJJBTP6YeJ5gp38A5iZUzlPH2OfnGUIdUQjbSNIsmbN6xzeTZt3P0hfNqMgG9ONIW8hrlehrTjkxQUzRXBYI-WUuRDbmQUV3z6J2XzmMc_OtelzxA2bEuQ8Fp2-ZQ/s2884/Applejack_orchard.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2884" data-original-width="2881" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS5Ypw1zvIR8WHfs0elxlvINgsx3UttcoJS_fv3yrr_3NXqDq5rcmjdo4KL0a-dobJJBTP6YeJ5gp38A5iZUzlPH2OfnGUIdUQjbSNIsmbN6xzeTZt3P0hfNqMgG9ONIW8hrlehrTjkxQUzRXBYI-WUuRDbmQUV3z6J2XzmMc_OtelzxA2bEuQ8Fp2-ZQ/s320/Applejack_orchard.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My personal orchard, about halfway through a game</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>If you're familiar with Rosenberg's work, the scope of <i>Applejack </i>can be compared to that of <i>Patchwork</i>. While they don't play the same way at all, both games offer a surprisingly deep decision space, despite shipping with very simple rules and a short playtime. And they're fun!</div><div><br /></div><div>I've found the game works best with two players: the solo goal is fixed (score 65 points with no one to give you trouble), while multiplayer outings tend to overstay their welcome (60 minutes for a game of <i>Appeljack</i> would test my patience).</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Most easily forgotten rule</b>: Flowers do<i> not</i> need to touch when scoring. Just count the number of flowers in your orchard, no matter where they are.</div><div><br /></div></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-14944255667630512022023-08-29T13:07:00.008-07:002023-09-03T08:02:49.509-07:00Lucas Land: ID Please<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <span>(Previous chapter: <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6180157955253535253/176103821633322146" target="_blank">Stag Night</a>)</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0yByJnATzlta4fDTE-U5QKlZQ_qI5XqA1a6uOvTThlYZaPJb_ZGRT7UBLlwAWhbIk4SkDxQFMPFQnyizZ-U9wNpo9B7oBy1Z7V5bhbeSGBSMDkt23yibzUNfHP2eTnpsk-Mca0nIBiOcam7TbrOyLmg4kcHnyj-cYC4PKFO2nTrvZRwxaUf41zKCRBXY/s2371/IMG_2778.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="2371" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0yByJnATzlta4fDTE-U5QKlZQ_qI5XqA1a6uOvTThlYZaPJb_ZGRT7UBLlwAWhbIk4SkDxQFMPFQnyizZ-U9wNpo9B7oBy1Z7V5bhbeSGBSMDkt23yibzUNfHP2eTnpsk-Mca0nIBiOcam7TbrOyLmg4kcHnyj-cYC4PKFO2nTrvZRwxaUf41zKCRBXY/s320/IMG_2778.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />One
of the things I was looking forward to the most when I first started working at
Lucasfilm, stupidly enough, was to get my employee card. I wanted to hold in my
hand a piece of laminated cardboard with my name on it, along with my picture
and the Lucasfilm logo. To me that would be “proof,” somehow, that I hadn’t
just dreamed up my new life. (Let’s set aside for a moment the fact that I was
driving into Skywalker Ranch on a daily basis—I told you it was stupid.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
wanted to be asked for my employee card at the gate, and then produce the
little thing like a magic key that would throw open the doors to the kingdom
for me. (This isn’t how any of this works: when you show up, either you’re on
The List or you’re not. </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">They know</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> if
you’re meant to be there.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So
I waited anxiously for that morning when my boss or HR or anyone, frankly,
would tell me where to go to get my employee card minted, forged, hammered into
shape, handed down by divinities—whatever it was that LFL launched into motion
for that precious document to come into existence.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">And
I waited.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">And
waited some more<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">When
it became clear the wheels wouldn’t start turning unless I gave them a push
myself, I asked a colleague about </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">his</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">
employee card.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“What
employee card? They stopped making them almost a year ago.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“Oh,”
I said, trying to camouflage my disappointment. And then, after a beat: “Where were
they done?”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“Over
at the Fire House.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Located
at 5858 Lucas Valley Road (no relation, if you can believe that), Skywalker
Ranch sits in the middle of nowhere. The closest fire engine would arrive too
late should a fire break out in one of the many buildings on the Ranch
grounds—which, considering what’s housed in many of them (we’ll get around to
that eventually) would be a catastrophe. So the decision was made early on to
build a fire station as part of the Ranch itself, and to staff it with men and
women who are not only trained firefighters, but also certified paramedics. In
short, George decided he’d have a bunch of superheroes on the premises, and
built them a house to live in—complete with sexy fire engines.</span></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnBXsdsYLmGzi2HO6L2aDg6OaD8JNRt3wQDzs87s3xKhqEXPaRGJm6TgB92ZrmywYQ5lNsaJZ5-_tQTgcLcAokuoRAojGBuECBIda4Yg_NRLrZFNwYASQamG-ja9iuCet3vzG8vRbw1_9SPdL7yz384w-NRozBlpYIQil0J6cbKNuz7zdetSg1lKN4HSs/s4032/SkywalkerFireEngine.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnBXsdsYLmGzi2HO6L2aDg6OaD8JNRt3wQDzs87s3xKhqEXPaRGJm6TgB92ZrmywYQ5lNsaJZ5-_tQTgcLcAokuoRAojGBuECBIda4Yg_NRLrZFNwYASQamG-ja9iuCet3vzG8vRbw1_9SPdL7yz384w-NRozBlpYIQil0J6cbKNuz7zdetSg1lKN4HSs/s320/SkywalkerFireEngine.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The one and only picture I took of those beasts.<br />I love that shade of red.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />The
Fire House stands off to the side, assuming a low profile while keeping a
watchful eye on everything around it. It’s big, but at the same time so
discreet that it took me a while to notice it was even there—which is all the
more bizarre, since the Fire House is rather close to the front gate, and
enjoys a direct access to it. You see, Skywalker Ranch is not the only property
to exist in the middle of that particular nowhere, and George didn’t want to
keep his posse of superheroes to himself: he intended for them to be his </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">neighbors’</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> superheroes as well.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Which is why it’s not uncommon to spot one of the Skywalker Ranch fire engines
somewhere down Lucas Valley Road, putting out a blaze or, less dramatically,
helping a driver and their vehicle out of a ditch. And if you’re ever struck by
a </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">malaise</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> strolling along Lake Ewok,
the fire brigade’s got your back—or any other part of your body that requires
medical attention.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
morning after I was told employee cards weren’t a thing on the Ranch anymore, I
hopped onto one of the purple bicycles employees could borrow to ride around
the Ranch, and pedaled my way to the Fire House. I resisted the impulse to
knock on what looked like the door to a private residence; instead I turned the
handle and walked into something like a living room where half a dozen people straight
out of a gym commercial were handling equipment or having a snack. One handsome,
mustachioed gentleman looked up and gave me that trademarked California smile.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“Hi!
What can I do for you?”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“I—
</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’m here for my employee card.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
man raised an eyebrow. “Your what?”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Someone
laughed in the background.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“My
employee card,” I repeated, as if that clarified anything at all.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
wondered whether my plan was just about to explode in my face. If it did, I was
certainly in the right place to have the deflagration taken care of by experts.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“We
closed up shop last year, son. We’re not issuing them anymore.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
kept up the charade. “Oh—I had no idea. I was just told to come here and get
mine done. Today.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
same voice laughed once more from the back, and Mustache Man looked at me the
way I imagined a gunslinger would at high noon, his shooting hand hovering near
the butt of his revolver.</span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There
was a tumbleweed-crossing-the-thoroughfare kind of a pause.</span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“Alright
then!”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
man turned toward the hallway to his right, calling out to a space I couldn’t
see. “JOHN! Could you bring up the photo equipment from the basement?”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“Say
that again?”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“You
heard me!”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">He
looked at me with a grin that lit up his face, and winked.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
duel was off.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(To
this day I still don’t know if I they believed me or not. For a while I thought
they did… and then grew to feel like it would be even cooler if they <i>didn’t</i>, and decided to play along because
they were just awesome people. Don’t tell me: I’ll hold on to the mystery,
thank you very much.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
heard heavy, steady footsteps traveling a staircase in both directions, and
then the man called John walked into the living room holding a large cardboard
box and a black tripod. He dropped his cargo and gave me a quick once over
before stepping back into the netherworld he had been happy to inhabit until I
showed up.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">A
tough-looking lady was already setting up the equipment, and Mustache Man
pointed to a blank wall behind me.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">“Stand
right over there.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">His
voice was strong, his tone commanding; my legs walked the rest of my body to
the indicated position on their own initiative. “Smile if you feel like it.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Oh,
I felt like it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
shutter worked its magic (we’re talking 1998, remember), and then another
device—the laminating machine—whirred to life. A scant two minutes later, I had
my employee card with me. It technically did not exist, nobody would ever ask
to see it, and the little plastic rectangle would not gain me admittance
anywhere I wasn’t supposed to be. But it didn’t matter: I had my Lucasfilm
employee card. What was more, nobody else would ever have one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Not
on the Ranch, at any rate. I’m sure that when the bulk of Lucasfilm relocated
to the Presidio in 2005, some sort of ID worked its way back into the daily routine
of the ex-Ranchers. But I can’t imagine any plausible scenario where my employee
card wasn’t the last one ever made within Skywalker Ranch.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
thanked whoever happened to be in the living room when my evil plan had reached
its </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">dénouement</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> and made my exit
before a curious witness (the laughing man, perhaps) started asking questions—any
one of which would have poked lethal holes into my flimsy story.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Outside,
the air was crisp and electric, but the bike I’d ridden on the way in was gone.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Win
some, lose some.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gripping
my newly minted card, I started walking back towards the Brooke House, smiling
like a kid who’s just met Santa Claus and got the best present of all.</span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3zf295fnHaMvj0g3Vi1Dnq9c-djVMrToNIHPs98qGdlWQh6D1HNXdXPuHnFqzC-nW9cqj-IBdulr6FCP2YEiWgFH3MxeV72-AgnBIK0JcQWqYWCiH8LH6ZFC1QCx-kjnq30DGp-ysTNc0sSz5JfCANdaNOYL6LfiILl6DFRPlwUNFTQImadrab73n9yo/s1600/FrancisLFLemployeeCard.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3zf295fnHaMvj0g3Vi1Dnq9c-djVMrToNIHPs98qGdlWQh6D1HNXdXPuHnFqzC-nW9cqj-IBdulr6FCP2YEiWgFH3MxeV72-AgnBIK0JcQWqYWCiH8LH6ZFC1QCx-kjnq30DGp-ysTNc0sSz5JfCANdaNOYL6LfiILl6DFRPlwUNFTQImadrab73n9yo/s320/FrancisLFLemployeeCard.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was taken six years later when I went back to the Ranch for a visit. Still looked like a nerd.</td></tr></tbody></table></div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Next chapter: Hero Worship – </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">coming soon!</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">)</span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>(Full series </span><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/search/label/Lucas%20Land%20series" target="_blank">here</a><span>)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></span></p>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-16108278999431963422023-08-09T10:45:00.001-07:002023-08-09T10:45:57.330-07:00Flash Review — Qawale<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfVfS3hkpCNZB_uAfnCIMP67i1xmLc6t4-_Wa48miNHlxeS3DgvYFiPo9oovSwr4LMSo56O_LZaR1QLr_-SmJrX0GzWzIG2NWYdRgMn2UZIfKTsaeCxgzeYre-oA0DmYwa-ISFVlDy8rwN2h_hZDJzhswR1mejUdPFuplTIbJsdRt7WZa47cd0iEQEazM/s600/Qawale.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfVfS3hkpCNZB_uAfnCIMP67i1xmLc6t4-_Wa48miNHlxeS3DgvYFiPo9oovSwr4LMSo56O_LZaR1QLr_-SmJrX0GzWzIG2NWYdRgMn2UZIfKTsaeCxgzeYre-oA0DmYwa-ISFVlDy8rwN2h_hZDJzhswR1mejUdPFuplTIbJsdRt7WZa47cd0iEQEazM/s320/Qawale.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p><b style="font-family: verdana;">Players</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 2<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Age</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 8+<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Playtime</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 15 min<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Complexity</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 1/10</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Abstract games</span>—with simple rules, even simpler pieces, and zero theme—come and go, most of them rehashing previously attempted concepts with little success. Once in a while, however, a new abstract design just grabs me, and I need to keep playing it.</div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><i>Qawale</i> couldn't be any simpler. It's played on a 4x4 board with eight dark-colored pieces, eight light-colored pieces, and eight neutral pieces. On your turn, put one of your pieces on top of a pile (which could be just one piece), then pick up the entire pile and move it around orthogonally while dropping the bottom piece on each space you reach, mancala-style.<br />For example, if you play one of your pieces on a two-piece pile, you'll then pick up the three-piece pile and start moving. Move one step and drop the bottom piece there; move another step and drop the (new) bottom piece there; move a third and final step, and put the only piece you still have in hand there.</div><div><br /></div><div>You win if you manage to make a row of four (visible) pieces in your color, either orthogonally or diagonally. (In the picture above, the Light player just won.)<br />If no line exists after both players have run out of pieces, the game is tied.</div><div><br /></div><div>While it runs on crazy-simple rules, <i>Qawale</i> is full of nuances and surprises. And despite its 16-move limit (8 per player), you can definitely feel an arc to the game: openings, mid-game tactics, and closers.</div><div>And what's not to love about wooden boards and playing pieces?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Most easily forgotten rule</b>: Although you can win by making a diagonal line, you can't <i>move</i> diagonally.</div></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-9448421423364133532023-07-30T05:45:00.004-07:002023-07-30T07:14:51.198-07:00Flash Review — The Barracks Emperors<p><b style="font-family: verdana;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB1gfZRO0wiFHgvnnf0BmfIVsCfiVQo3KioZxfvyIV014cjnPTITXnbAda0tI9oaVk8z4YP-WnNMOllcBqgEWVQyiYHaL9Nd3QKXAWWBO3wZb_qbAkRjRYYWdT2tUFgaG12Vm7sxAOBsdOrItrYhz5tYgqovZqcNddCE0COMzEj3WoW0gMfGx_tarpY8g/s500/IMG_2635.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="369" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB1gfZRO0wiFHgvnnf0BmfIVsCfiVQo3KioZxfvyIV014cjnPTITXnbAda0tI9oaVk8z4YP-WnNMOllcBqgEWVQyiYHaL9Nd3QKXAWWBO3wZb_qbAkRjRYYWdT2tUFgaG12Vm7sxAOBsdOrItrYhz5tYgqovZqcNddCE0COMzEj3WoW0gMfGx_tarpY8g/s320/IMG_2635.jpeg" width="236" /></a><br /><br /></b></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b style="font-weight: bold;"><b>Players</b>: </b>1-4<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Works well with just 2</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: Fine<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Solo quality</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: Puzzle-like<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Age</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 14+<br /></span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Playtime</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 30-120 min<br /><b>Complexity</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: 4.5/10</span></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">It's from GMT and it's a large box and there's a big board and it looks serious as all get-out BUT it's a fairly simple trick-taking game, and a fun one at that.<br />Hear me out.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The goal of this three-round game is to capture as many emperor cards as possible: each is worth 1 point, plus 3 points for each set of three emperors (blue-red-yellow) you manage to assemble.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Random emperor cards start the game already on the board, in the following configuration: </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRF0ZPcZfrtnWGKGOipNW2zkKDnoAKZqLc7xOGfbLhdQFUTX7g9Ht_WYKOo_oxIAZKeexYUDr_oLaMT127Ag3CmMKKsjAGaSgZlkzXZSwafQ-5PJWSoxShMJxIkERJ6w4mUORL8T8I-uGUQC8mv6pNKKBOsIhEGwwBIT4ryizmFvC8smj8zPW5qr1OAkU/s3595/IMG_2639.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2971" data-original-width="3595" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRF0ZPcZfrtnWGKGOipNW2zkKDnoAKZqLc7xOGfbLhdQFUTX7g9Ht_WYKOo_oxIAZKeexYUDr_oLaMT127Ag3CmMKKsjAGaSgZlkzXZSwafQ-5PJWSoxShMJxIkERJ6w4mUORL8T8I-uGUQC8mv6pNKKBOsIhEGwwBIT4ryizmFvC8smj8zPW5qr1OAkU/s320/IMG_2639.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Only colors matter: text on emperors just historical info</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">On each round, players take turns playing square-shaped influence cards, which are numbered from 1 through 8 in the three colors mentioned above. A card goes next to an emperor, on the side the player was assigned. So the Sword player can only play on the Sword edge of an emperor card, while the Laurels player can only play on the Laurels edge of an emperor, and so on. But the board layout makes it so that playing to the right of one emperor will also often mean playing to the left of (or above, or below) another emperor.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">An emperor is resolved when it's surrounded by four cards: cards of equal value cancel each other out, and among the cards left, the highest value matching the color of the emperor wins (or else the highest-valued card, if none of those left match the emperor's color). The winning card is removed, and the emperor goes to the player whose edge the winning card had been played on. In other words, if the winning card happens to be on the Laurels edge of the emperor being resolved, the emperor goes to the Laurels player</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—no matter who actually played the card that ended up winning.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Each card also sports a special ability that allows for some funky moves such as flipping another card face down (cancelling it), moving a card away, or adding an emperor to the board. You'll learn them by heart eventually, but I wish GMT had gone with a simple iconography instead of text, as well as a background of a different color for ongoing effects.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3E9i0CCqtZUq1GrZ7BShUxxdjMdeNNFDSyGdN1iFxyRANIGQs_kcydLGIlGpuPuPlOWhFMnt7LJyJu_0ZHjMciyyhn3A4g7KN6nrrsbkzCJDuPjb_z36seIspPZr45TqMvwHBvWlERwpliW72-_tYB7G8OSDfCw2YhXQWt71QYpVqka0voT08RJzatg/s3452/IMG_2641.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2218" data-original-width="3452" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3E9i0CCqtZUq1GrZ7BShUxxdjMdeNNFDSyGdN1iFxyRANIGQs_kcydLGIlGpuPuPlOWhFMnt7LJyJu_0ZHjMciyyhn3A4g7KN6nrrsbkzCJDuPjb_z36seIspPZr45TqMvwHBvWlERwpliW72-_tYB7G8OSDfCw2YhXQWt71QYpVqka0voT08RJzatg/s320/IMG_2641.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, that’s my luggage combination</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The cool thing here is that all of a rounds tricks are "available" on the table from the start, so you're playing on multiple ones every time you add a card to the board (because it'll likely touch more than one emperor). The system might prove brain-twisting at first, but give it time and it'll become second nature.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">I highly recommend the game at the 3- or 4-player count, but it loses some of its charm with only two</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—although it's a great way to learn the rules. The solo version feels more like a puzzle than a tactical game, but it works pretty well.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><b style="font-family: verdana;">Most easily forgotten rule</b><span style="font-family: verdana;">: Barbarians can deploy AND move only to spaces adjacent to emperors.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div></div></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-5792794583489580732023-07-22T12:48:00.009-07:002023-10-10T07:37:28.631-07:00Boardgame review — Mr. President<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;">The Toughest Job in the World</span></p><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Designer: </i>Gene Billingsley</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Player count:</i> 1</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Publisher:</i> GMT Games</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_SHD7VPCjpiOUNocmC4NxVe9GY3oRZRkckbRfr7J_qrLBMryaIS59SJnMvNB1EeC8mhMLRSfiaubRKg5Ii-rMEKf-UyjCSCoSU6lseQfofemwAU0_VXxUMGi-ypfPQZ0rd5BtF9atj7j8_MFEZLYVLnogBrJ4K-c4NID-RXYyZz8zIBS3Itcf1s41p8c/s600/MrPresident.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="453" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_SHD7VPCjpiOUNocmC4NxVe9GY3oRZRkckbRfr7J_qrLBMryaIS59SJnMvNB1EeC8mhMLRSfiaubRKg5Ii-rMEKf-UyjCSCoSU6lseQfofemwAU0_VXxUMGi-ypfPQZ0rd5BtF9atj7j8_MFEZLYVLnogBrJ4K-c4NID-RXYyZz8zIBS3Itcf1s41p8c/s320/MrPresident.webp" width="242" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ever
heard the call of a higher duty, or felt the pull of the Resolute desk?<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">If
you believe you might cut it as the leader of the free world, now’s the to time
test your mettle: the year is 2000 and you’ve just been sworn in as President
of the United States.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Mr. President</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana;"> is not an
election game: you’re already sitting in the Oval Office while your country awaits
your guidance, and the world your leadership. From now on, crises will rule
your every waking moment. Environmental catastrophes, terror attacks, White
House scandals, media blunders, legislation snafus—it’s all in there, and so
much more.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The solo game unfolds over four turns, each of them representing a year of governance,
and each requiring two or three real-life hours to complete. Yes, this makes
for a roughly 10-hour-long commitment. (And you can double that if you get
reelected.) What, did you think being President would be easy? Of course, few
people will steel themselves to take that much abuse in one sitting—although I
can tell you right now the game’s fascinating enough that I’m tempted to go for
it.</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If
a game ever deserved the “not for everybody” label, it’s </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Mr. President</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">. You’ll need three essential things to emerge
unscathed from all of this: a table that can hold about 3’ by 6’ of gaming
materials, a room where you can leave said table fully loaded for a few weeks,
and enough grit to power through nested procedures within nested procedures
until you reach a conclusion. Interestingly enough, having the patience to read
the 50-page rulebook isn’t a requirement in this case, because you don’t need to
read much of anything in order to get started.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana;">As
daunting as the game may look—and photographic evidence does paint a scary
picture—GMT made it easy on us mere mortals by deciding to go with a flipbook.
(A first for them, as far as I can tell.) That’</span><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">s</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana;"> a
spiral-bound book telling you exactly what to do for each of the 50+ steps that
make up the turn sequence. So no need to worry about actual rules: your first act
as commander-in-chief will be to set up the massive board with its myriad
gauges and levers. Where’s the State of the Economy track? What’s a UN Goodwill
marker? Since you’ll need to figure out what everything is and where it goes,
it’s not unusual for your very first setup to take upwards of an hour. (Which
is its own fun, if you’re the sort of gamer who’ll enjoy this game.) And then
you’re off, taking your first steps under the guidance of the flipbook.<br /><br /></span></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGw-Qzs35QVyv2ggbyZxscOY3eC5fVwwFpXcm-Eoex2J183FOa1w3K3NdEmgVbeI99VLuoG62tBLi97xDBfakyiIX097y9DIiFNMfQfjoC1WHbA00v4Opp2MqLQJLr0PAeAfRrO5aGLzPb99D7yLnAsT4KHkBNKY3VmI1UkqDD7UKrk-nH3iT7SMJS9UI/s2015/MrPresTurnSequence.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1287" data-original-width="2015" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGw-Qzs35QVyv2ggbyZxscOY3eC5fVwwFpXcm-Eoex2J183FOa1w3K3NdEmgVbeI99VLuoG62tBLi97xDBfakyiIX097y9DIiFNMfQfjoC1WHbA00v4Opp2MqLQJLr0PAeAfRrO5aGLzPb99D7yLnAsT4KHkBNKY3VmI1UkqDD7UKrk-nH3iT7SMJS9UI/s320/MrPresTurnSequence.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turn sequence in full swing</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
turn sequence is organized in four activation phases that each allow you, the player,
to proceed however you see fit, while also leaving ample room for the game’s
various bots (Russia and China, of course, but also a host of US allies and adversaries) to do their own things. When it’s your turn to spring into
action, you’ll find yourself torn between repairing damage done to the word and
working towards your objectives—and never accomplishing quite enough of either.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What
happens during a typical turn? You have access to a wide menu of options: domestic,
diplomatic and military. Each involves its own procedure where you check on
various aspects of the game state (stability level in the Middle East, your
cabinet effectiveness, the health of China’s economy, etc.) and input that data
into the computation of what you’re trying to accomplish. The result—most often
obtained with a die roll after all is said and done—leads to the adjustment of
yet more gauges around the board, in a sort of domino effect where everything
can be bright and shiny one moment, and dark and rotten the next. Do be
careful.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">When
the “others” get an opportunity to act, they follow their own, mostly automated
procedures and either wreak havoc (in the case of enemies) or provide
assistance when it comes to allies. Then again, if a friendly country like India
finds itself under too much pressure (given form in the game by an actual stack
of scary red counters), it might do something reckless that will not necessarily
help matters. That’s one more aspect you’ll have to manage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Several
of the turn sequence boxes—the brown ones—have you draw a crisis chit at
random. In turn, that chit triggers a problem you’ll need to solve, and which
is established either through a dedicated procedure, or by revealing crisis
cards from a face-down deck.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">That
deck is prepared ahead of time, with a sprinkle of natural disasters, a
peppering of terrorism events, a smidge of cascading events (that you might
need to deal with over and over again), and also a few positive things liable
to give you just the boost you need to get up in the morning. There is one
crisis deck for each year of your presidency, and unused cards from the
previous year are shuffled into the deck for the next. Remember that devastating
terror attack you knew was in deck 1 but which never popped up? Don’t worry:
it’ll be waiting for you in deck 2.<br /><br /></span></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1MZTyNx0_udBrrvI8oz_o39u5CT8TC7Z3GrSHHG4d2efKtURpfxSOtjxhUMNAMPpHTeO_p208vbmu9Za_2-fkRt0F-VAbQ8u0HNPiz1WjqF868ndVB1UZZr6u9FE6Ud9bzl-62Y3rzV8AzvVsKkBqgPm2V_lwR8FuFC_ALuI0jHUcjCeZaRP6q6gTBHI/s2015/MrPresEvents.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="2015" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1MZTyNx0_udBrrvI8oz_o39u5CT8TC7Z3GrSHHG4d2efKtURpfxSOtjxhUMNAMPpHTeO_p208vbmu9Za_2-fkRt0F-VAbQ8u0HNPiz1WjqF868ndVB1UZZr6u9FE6Ud9bzl-62Y3rzV8AzvVsKkBqgPm2V_lwR8FuFC_ALuI0jHUcjCeZaRP6q6gTBHI/s320/MrPresEvents.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some crisis cards are friendlier than others.</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A
reckoning takes place at the end of each turn, where you and the bots reap what
you have sowed throughout the year—and let’s be honest, the harvest usually
stinks. This sets you up for a subsequent year with your work more than cut out
for you, and where you can only hope you’ll be up to the challenge.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You
tally up your score after four years, aiming for a sufficient total of legacy
points in the core scenario or else trying to hit specific targets if you’ve
gone through one of the historical scenarios on offer. (Yes, re-election is a
possibility.) You’ll find out whether you win or lose but it’s really more
about the journey, as cliché as this may sound.<br /><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">RULES</span></h3><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before
we get any further, let me state for the record that </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Mr. President</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> was one of the easiest complex games I ever learned
to play.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Good?
Okay. Now I can say that the box comes with 10 rulebooks.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">However,
the only one you’ll probably read cover to cover is the slim “How to Play”
booklet that provides a general overview of what makes </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Mr. President</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> tick, what you’re trying to accomplish, and the fact
that the game will keep you up at night with </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">fifteen</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> different ways to lose. Other than this, the flipbook is
your friend. Just sit down and do what it says. It’s as a simple as that.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
other rulebooks cover scenarios, examples of play and designer notes, as well
as a variety of charts and procedures you’ll reach for in order to make sense
of whatever the world throws at you. But each time, you’ll be told what section
you need to look up and when. No need to read it all ahead of time.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lastly
we have the actual rulebook—termed “Governing Manual”—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">which
I recommend you </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">don’t </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">read until you
have at least one full game under your belt. By then most things will make
sense and you’ll just add a detail or two to your repertoire of international
best practices.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-6AW_13Qw9HrVqXdsVkaNESAs8exbGQmJCoWTttpOYqA_7EJEb8v_i9V16qmklV6q1Ap9gio47-Rcbl13OepeRz_tHpJjV72N3G4eduyprdfloRVvBmmjlATS2NqIQHyCf3tjrrYUJr0nYdR9eDJRPz0ocOkd2Ef4eCgG4ok67wdb6Kd69m6JYvxyCCY/s1512/MrPresRulebooks.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-6AW_13Qw9HrVqXdsVkaNESAs8exbGQmJCoWTttpOYqA_7EJEb8v_i9V16qmklV6q1Ap9gio47-Rcbl13OepeRz_tHpJjV72N3G4eduyprdfloRVvBmmjlATS2NqIQHyCf3tjrrYUJr0nYdR9eDJRPz0ocOkd2Ef4eCgG4ok67wdb6Kd69m6JYvxyCCY/s320/MrPresRulebooks.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rules? Where we're going we don't need rules!</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
can’t stress enough how helpful and powerful that flipbook is. What I love the
most about it is not only that it makes learning the game an easy and engaging
experience, but also that when I pick up <i>Mr.
President</i> again after playing other games for a while, I won’t have to
spend an afternoon relearning everything. I’ll just crack the flipbook open and
get going.</span></p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My
one nitpick would be about wars, where I thought the whole sequence could have
been clearer. All of the required info is in there somewhere, but I ended up
looking for clarity online. Which doesn’t take anything away from the fact that
GMT bent over backwards to ensure everyone could hit the deck running with this.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">So
rest easy: you’ll be juggling West Wing scandals and rogue states wielding weapons
of mass destruction in no time.<br /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">FUN
FACTOR</span></h3><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even
though I’d been waiting for </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Mr. President</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">
for a long time, I wasn’t convinced I’d find it all that fun. I mean, it’s a </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">lot</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> of procedures. And sometimes
procedures within procedures within procedures. On its own, each of them is no
more complicated than what you’d expect from a bot opponent in your average
solo game; but since we’re talking about the whole world reacting to your
actions here (and initiating a bunch of stuff on their own), it’s a lot of problems
you need to resolve with tables and charts.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And
yet, despite all of the above, the game is thrilling, frustrating, fascinating.
It’s damn addictive, too: I’ve gone to sleep way past my bedtime on several
occasions since that big blue box entered my life. You start playing, and
before you know it, you’ve been sitting there for four hours without moving.
(“I can’t come to bed, honey—there’s just too much crap going on in Eastern
Europe right now!”)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuI10wuU2auYry02hiiiCsh0i5IrRQnDzUwGieZClzJ3F9lgByIa9HGkL5CeoYCBAuI7FGdsOk_2nF8qPamsttCV3KhV7Q4ekY4okwRngS-x5jzUZW-OFvh_IDLSuU-Gwalkd89sOvcjDN_oRVpTu-iuxFTMB8FUyFvLj2-U8Ie7e9472cky1ScTHYinI/s2016/MrPresAfrica.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuI10wuU2auYry02hiiiCsh0i5IrRQnDzUwGieZClzJ3F9lgByIa9HGkL5CeoYCBAuI7FGdsOk_2nF8qPamsttCV3KhV7Q4ekY4okwRngS-x5jzUZW-OFvh_IDLSuU-Gwalkd89sOvcjDN_oRVpTu-iuxFTMB8FUyFvLj2-U8Ie7e9472cky1ScTHYinI/s320/MrPresAfrica.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Africa wasn't faring much better, to be honest.</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Mr. President</i></span><span lang="EN-US"> is as much of
an experience as it is an actual game. It offers more than enough agency for
players to plan out a strategy (or try to), but the fact remains that I had
even more fun with the game I lost on year 2 when a rogue state detonated a WMD
in Israel, than with the early game I won ‘cause I was such a great president.
(I was playing on easy difficulty, while die rolls and crises decided to be
very nice with me. Won’t happen again, I’m sure.) The story the game unspooled was
just more compelling when everything went to hell in a handbasket.</span></span> </span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">PRODUCTION</span></span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><i style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Mr. President</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana;"> ships in the
biggest box I’ve ever seen for a GMT title, a massive trunk that holds the 10
aforementioned rulebooks, plus two mounted boards (along with two smaller,
cardstock ones), 180 sturdy cards, a couple of dice, and markers galore.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Once
all laid out, the game makes grown men whimper and women swoon.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <br /><br /></span></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKhjD9hjKD7mBCnifi8w0LEtiFj9gFH4j5PTJX2ynDmggKCKhiSbS1WeYfkMboIPS8kgcruURUvg1JsD5uKi8goh3D1-XGoHB62cs8HquHj19L8i94PIq8VxKajvMAhbdvxKiJu7aFYpksnFim34buXQO5PFPGNedLkCVKIHCjb0tSO2Hij7UDN3K3tj4/s1944/MrPresBoard.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1944" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKhjD9hjKD7mBCnifi8w0LEtiFj9gFH4j5PTJX2ynDmggKCKhiSbS1WeYfkMboIPS8kgcruURUvg1JsD5uKi8goh3D1-XGoHB62cs8HquHj19L8i94PIq8VxKajvMAhbdvxKiJu7aFYpksnFim34buXQO5PFPGNedLkCVKIHCjb0tSO2Hij7UDN3K3tj4/s320/MrPresBoard.jpg" width="249" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The game ain’t exactly small. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Despite
the display’s impressive footprint, all of the information becomes easy to find
once you’ve grown familiar with it—which happens surprisingly fast. (Kudos to
the graphic designers who, somehow, made this possible.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’ve
seen online complaints about errata, and sure, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Mr.
President</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> is not immune to that plague. But given the sheer amount of
documentation required to play the game (over 200 pages), I’m amazed even more
mistakes didn’t slip in, and with much more dire consequences. I played a
couple of games before even looking at the errata, and once I did I kind of
shrugged. Sure, I’ll incorporate those moving forward, but I’m not convinced
they would have altered the outcome of my games so far.<br /><br /></span></p>
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">PARTING
SHOTS</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There
are two different ways to play </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Mr.
President</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">: going into the core “sandbox” scenario where all the crisis
cards are potentially in play, or opting for one of the four historical
scenarios, each of which requires a specific crisis deck construction and
operates according to special rules and unique victory conditions.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Both
approaches and valid and interesting, but I think I slightly favor the core
scenario. While I’m intrigued to face a specific geopolitical context (let’s
pretend 9/11 just happened—what do you do?), I love not knowing what lies ahead
and letting the gears and cogs of the game engine create a unique landscape for
me to navigate. There’s an emergent quality to the whole thing that really
talks to me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
rarely go for a “one of the best” turn of phrase, but I feel forced to say here
that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mr. President</i> is indeed one of
the best solo games I’ve experienced, and I’ve played several of those
contraptions (going so far as creating <a href="http://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/search/label/ruleset" target="_blank">a couple of them myself</a>). With a scope
and ambition that boggles the mind, the game was clearly a labor of love for
designer Gene Billingsley, who finally realized a vision he’d been carrying
around for decades. And the work’s not done: GMT has already put up a new
scenario on their website, with a promise to provide more of them down the
line.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
can only hope the game is successful enough for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mr. President</i> to spawn an actual series. After all, this volume
does bear the subtitle “The American Presidency, 2001-2020.” Can you imagine
taking the wheel in 1960 and dealing with the impending Cuban Missile Crisis?
Or in 1860, on the eve of the American Civil War?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now
if you’ll excuse me, I have to wipe the drool off my keyboard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><br /><p></p>
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">POST
SCRIPTUM</span></span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
can’t in good conscience stop before I provide new players with a few
hard-earned tips.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Play the core scenario first. It’s got no special
rules and the victory conditions are straightforward.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Play your first game on “easy.” You’ll have
plenty on your hands, believe me. (The game offers some sort of “super
easy” difficulty level where you get a -1 on most die rolls. I didn’t find
this necessary.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Don’t punch out all the counters to begin with. Perform
your setup and punch counters as you need them. You’ll cut down on your digging-in-piles
time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Add two spare, brightly-colored pawns to your
game equipment. I’m using one of them on the Prestige/Action Point track
to remember the number of actions left (for you as well as for your allies
and opponents), and the other on the world map to indicate where the
current action/check/crisis is taking place. Together they speed things up
tremendously.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the big world region boxes, always put
specific counters in the same spots. For instance, you could put the China
influence counters in the upper left corner, the terror group counters at middle
top, the civil war counters at bottom, and so on. Because the game will
ask you to scan those boxes repeatedly (“For each civil war on the board…”),
knowing where to look within each box will cut down on your playtime.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When you do move on to historical scenarios,
you’ll be required to build the four crisis decks according to a precise
roster of cards (listed by number). Picking each of them out of the
shuffled deck is a pain, and so is reorganizing the entire stack in
numerical order so you can then find the required cards more easily. What
I do it divide the shuffled crisis deck into semi-sorted piles: one pile
for cards 1 through 9, one pile for all the 1X cards (10-19), the next for
all the 2X cards, and so on. Even though the cards won’t be arranged in
order within each individual pile, this method makes it much faster to
then assemble the listed crisis decks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Spend a few minutes learning how to tell whether
you’re holding a die-cut counter face up or face down from touch alone. That
skill will come in handy for pieces like the tensions counters: you’ll be
able to throw them in a cup and draw them randomly instead of trying to
constantly shuffle them face down on the table. (Plus you’ll be able to
use your new superpower in countless other games!)</span></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7ih1x4-LMhoSEuy2GtF1Sw9WKfK2OnY8ndhBX2N770iU45nO-5bYx5DthjwBTTFZrorQvHbJvb7VZ5eLcDQtvIQ4eRzE2X5s6w2NlD-byAKSjdC6k4D23A0K_LKr5usodiEI6TuGp0VLQvx9n5MdkQx_8pp9G1o6MTMG9jxXXi-Insm3e3Syxl7lPxk/s1831/MrPresLetter.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1831" data-original-width="1511" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7ih1x4-LMhoSEuy2GtF1Sw9WKfK2OnY8ndhBX2N770iU45nO-5bYx5DthjwBTTFZrorQvHbJvb7VZ5eLcDQtvIQ4eRzE2X5s6w2NlD-byAKSjdC6k4D23A0K_LKr5usodiEI6TuGp0VLQvx9n5MdkQx_8pp9G1o6MTMG9jxXXi-Insm3e3Syxl7lPxk/s320/MrPresLetter.jpg" width="264" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first thing you see when you crack the box open</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"># #
#</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /></div></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-47916834415134725092023-07-07T06:18:00.018-07:002023-07-11T05:36:59.092-07:00Designer's notes — Proteus(This article was originally published in Steve Jackson Games' own<i> Pyramid Magazine</i> back in 2001, a faraway era when print publications still thrived. I thought I'd revive it here—in a slightly edited format—to celebrate the 2nd edition of <i>Proteus</i>, arriving this summer.)<br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_R-yswuZ_m2DndrN3nv3pVOTCNy3d2TN6XIm004wP6RJWItKutUsw7zXoMYH_Jdg4gW4PHy-poWDQdzpXVEvu-LN6ebPKVz3lbAbljK9i9k73dBz9xoq4Akmw8CPCWwYLhXj2eoNnMSlTYpDnfIkh0Ep1WM0gqd36EBDaMZzt8p-z5ORO8lkUDnmnN4o/s1500/Proteus2ndEdCover.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="808" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_R-yswuZ_m2DndrN3nv3pVOTCNy3d2TN6XIm004wP6RJWItKutUsw7zXoMYH_Jdg4gW4PHy-poWDQdzpXVEvu-LN6ebPKVz3lbAbljK9i9k73dBz9xoq4Akmw8CPCWwYLhXj2eoNnMSlTYpDnfIkh0Ep1WM0gqd36EBDaMZzt8p-z5ORO8lkUDnmnN4o/s320/Proteus2ndEdCover.png" width="172" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><i>“And Proteus began at once with his old tricks, first changing himself into a lion with a great mane. Then suddenly he became a dragon, a leopard, a wild boar; the next moment he turned into running water, and then, finally, he was a tree.” </i><br />Homer, <i>The Odyssey</i>, Book IV <br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">I designed the basic mechanics of <i>Proteus </i>while waiting in line for the <i>Back to the Future</i> ride at Universal Studios, in California. <br />Seriously. <br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">For some time I had been toying with the idea of playing a game with dice for pieces and the rules of chess for movement, but I had never sat down to figure out how such a game might work. I don’t really like chess: I find the frame of the game too restrictive (and I don’t mean the edges of the chessboard), but I’m fascinated by the movement possibilities of chess pieces. As a result, I oftentimes contemplate chess but rarely play it. I had tried my share of chess variants, but somehow I felt that my “dice chess” idea would create something interestingly different. If I could only figure it out.<br /><br />Things stayed pretty much status quo for about two years. My brain might have been polishing up some </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">concepts on its own, but I didn’t consciously work on the game until I found myself stuck in line at Universal Studios.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">You see, I was alone in Los Angeles for work and, with a free afternoon ahead of me, the temptation of the Universal Studios demon proved too great to resist. So I went. At some point I ended up trapped in line at the </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Back to the Future</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> ride, and since I had no one to talk to and hadn’t brought a book </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">or a smart phone (we're talking 1999 here...)</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">, I thought it might be worth my while to start laying down the foundations of my dice-chess game. In my head. In any case, it would be a lot more productive than staring at the Hawaiian shirt in front of me for an hour. By the time I got on the ride, I already had a good idea of the inner workings of the game. And when I stepped out of my rigged Delorean (great ride, by the way), I couldn’t wait to get back to my hotel room and write everything down. But the day wasn't done yet, so I used the rest of my in-line waiting sessions to run a few mental tests and do some basic math.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />At the end of the day, I drove back to the hotel with my head full of sketches and design notes. I knew that my game would be a two-player affair and that player turns would alternate. I also knew that each player would start with eight dice, that those dice would show a different chess piece on each face, and that the goal of the game would involve capturing several pieces (as opposed to neutralizing one particular target). Furthermore, a player would perform two actions on their turn: move a die and rotate a die (to change the identity of that piece) one step at a time. Most importantly (hey, we all have our fixations), I also had a name for the game: Proteus, the Greek god of ever-changing form. <br /><br />I had trouble falling asleep that night, as Morpheus was always bumped by Proteus who thought some of his needs still had to be addressed. <br />And he was right. <br /><br />First of all, I didn’t know how you were supposed to win the game. I entertained a vague notion related to taking out as many of the opposing pieces as possible, but somehow that felt wrong. Moreover, I still hadn’t found a balancing mechanism that would prevent powermongers from rotating all of their dice up to queens. There was also a delicate matter: I didn’t know what to do with the king. Since I was hellbent on eliminating the concept of checkmate from <i>Proteus</i>, did it make sense to keep the king in there?<br />I eventually managed to switch off, despite having resolved none of the above problems. I did try to refine and complement my notes the next morning on the flight back, but somehow I didn’t make much progress. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then, in one evening, I answers practically all of my questions.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />For the sequence in which the chess pieces would "evolve," I chose to adhere to the traditional chess value sequence, with one exception: I placed the bishop in front of the knight, because I felt it would open up the game faster. That gave me pawn -> bishop </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">-></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> knight </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">-></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> rook </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">-></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> queen. Still no idea about the king, though. But it became obvious that a player would have to move a die and then rotate a different die; infiltrating the enemy camp as a bishop and immediately transforming into a knight smelled of overpowered tactics.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Interestingly enough, the problems of game balance and victory conditions were vanquished at the same time, using the same solution. Back then I was playing the game with standard six-sided dice, remembering that the 6 was the queen, 5 the rook, 4 the knight, 3 the bishop and 2 the pawn (1 could have been the king, but meh). I thought it might be fun to win a game of <i>Proteus </i>by scoring the most points, with each piece being worth a certain number of them. In assigning point values to the pieces—I simply chose the number of dots on each corresponding die face—I discovered that such a scheme would also balance the game, because the stronger pieces would be worth more points upon capture.<br /><br />Still, what about the king? Well, since you achieved victory through points, there was little incentive to keep it in the game. Without its essential function</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—keeping you alive</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">the king just becomes a limping queen, and that’s just boring given the morphing nature of game pieces in </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Proteus</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">. I could just have thrown the king away, but this was an opportunity to inject another new concept into the game. So instead of eliminating the king, I replaced it:</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> the new piece would not move at all, but would also be impossible to take. I named that piece the fortress.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />With these problems handled, I could sit down and play a few “real” games against myself. Everything was going rather smoothly: the game was simple, played fast, yet retained its potential for deep strategy. And then I hit a brick wall wearing an evening dress and a crown.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The queen. <br /><br />Because of the mathematical progression of piece values, and because of the similar progression of their respective powers, the game was pretty balanced—except for the damn queen. The problem resided in the power of the queen being much greater than its point value. Between a rook and a queen, the difference in power is immense; yet the difference in point value was only one. That couldn’t work. One solution was to raise the point value of the queen, which meant assigning it some </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">ridiculous value</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">say, 12 points. But then a player capturing a queen would probably win, which would sort of take me back to the issue I had with the king in the first place. So instead I gave the queen a weakness: you could capture it by moving to the square right behind it</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—stepping on the queen's gown, as it were.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">But would that work? I played some more test games and, sure enough, it did.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">It was time to take <i>Proteus</i> out for a spin. <br /><br />I brought my prototype<i> </i>to the Santa Rosa game store I frequented back then, and a couple of friends expressed interest in the game. We played it over and over again, and while I kept fearing that some obvious flaw would blow up in my face, no such thing happened. Then more people played it and the game still held up. We did toy around with a few things. For instance, we increased the number of pieces each player starts with (up to 12), but we only succeeded in creating quite a mess of a traffic jam, with games that would take more than an hour to completion, which was way too long for me</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">. We also experimented with fewer pieces for each player, but the game became boring and predictable. Eight</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—my original number</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">seemed to be just right.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />At that time I had just finished translating both <i>Illuminati </i>and <i>Tile Chess</i> into French for Steve Jackson Games, so it was an easy matter for me to tell Steve about <i>Proteus</i>. I briefly described the game and asked him if I should just publish the rules in a gaming magazine, or try to find a publisher. He asked to see the rules, and wrote back the next day with a question: "Would you let me me publish it?" In-house testing would take place, naturally, but he asked for only one change up front: </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">that the fortress become the well known "eye in the pyramid" Illuminati symbol that also doubles as the Steve Jackson Games logo. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">And before I knew it, my game was on the list of upcoming Steve Jackson Games titles.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">So I got to work.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJejGOUpelqGwA9JpFtLYujs4a1KsMJ_qS8wTBkrlDgxT-SdZT-DEiB1bM-VtjJ0IIBDfNFd26xGigsHHrv7o3ImxrGcpkJeZku1M0NznL5qbXlJAqdn1YZTCmoCO0lhPYdttPFkET30CqXBBn3Y704OqiHDArYHp0atcy6vWDp5hhJxaoA_sRNlYU3iA/s2076/ProteusDice.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1614" data-original-width="2076" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJejGOUpelqGwA9JpFtLYujs4a1KsMJ_qS8wTBkrlDgxT-SdZT-DEiB1bM-VtjJ0IIBDfNFd26xGigsHHrv7o3ImxrGcpkJeZku1M0NznL5qbXlJAqdn1YZTCmoCO0lhPYdttPFkET30CqXBBn3Y704OqiHDArYHp0atcy6vWDp5hhJxaoA_sRNlYU3iA/s320/ProteusDice.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You want dice? We got dice.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">The thing was, I hadn’t really planned on selling </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Proteus </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">to anyone; I was just playing around with the game for my own enjoyment. But now that it was going to be out there in the wild, I thought the door was wide open for a series of intriguing variations on the basic rules. So </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I designed and tested a handful of variants, four of which ended up in the finished game: Trade-Off, Russian Roulette, Wall Street and Polarity. That’s actually five if you count the two different setups for Wall Street. Steve also suggested an additional way to play, which we ended up calling Warhorses, for a total of six variants.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Where did the discards go? Right this way. <br /><br />RANDOM SETUP <br />This was the shortest-lived of the variants I came up with. Rolling your dice to see what pieces you'd start with was the dumbest idea this side of the sun, and it only survived for about half a setup phase—I realized pretty fast there was no way I could make this work. Still, the concept of rolling pieces (because they <i>are </i>dice, after all) appealed to me, and that eventually became the Russian Roulette variant. <br /><br />PYRAMID <br />The idea here was that pieces could only capture opposing pieces that were of equal or higher value. So a pawn could capture everything (except the pyramid, but that’s a given), and a queen could only capture other queens. This didn’t work because no player wanted to upgrade to stronger pieces. <br />“So what if you have a knight? I’ll just stay with bishops and the only thing you’ll catch is a cold.” <br />I tried playing the Inverted Pyramid (capture downwards) but it only succeeded in destroying the effectiveness of the weaker pieces and handing a flak jacket to the stronger ones. <br /><br />BLACK & WHITE <br />Whenever you capture a piece, its point value is the standard one if it was captured on a black square, but is whatever’s on the bottom face (or 7 minus top face) if it was captured on a white square. <br />Pretty inventive, right? This one I did send to Steve, but in the end it was not included with the rest because it didn’t add all that much to the strategy. Plus, the configuration of the <i>Proteus </i>dice would be different from that of regular six-siders in order to facilitate the upgrade/downgrade procedure, and that would throw the point balance out of whack. <br /><br />There were other variant possibilities, but most of them involved complicated rules, and I didn’t want to burden <i>Proteus </i>with unnecessary weight.<br />There was only one thing left to do, and that was asking Steve for a favor: I wanted to dedicate the game to one of my oldest friends, whom I’d known since we were both nine years old, and with whom I’d shared a universe of close games, hot matches, and gaming disputes. I gave Steve two versions of the dedication, with the short one ending up in the game. Here’s how the long one read: <br /><br />“This game is dedicated to my dear friend Alexandre "Le Brown" Boivin, who started bugging me about designing my own game over a decade ago and hasn't stopped since. I'm as happy to see my first game published as I am to finally shut him up.” <br /><br />There is a final variant, which Steve came up with right after he played his first game of <i>Proteus</i>. It didn’t make it in the game because of space considerations, but since there’s no limit on electrons (yet), here it is:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">DICTATORSHIP <br />This is played with regular chess pieces and two <i>Proteus </i>dice. Each turn, roll the two dice. You must move one of the two pieces showing on your dice (pyramid=king). If you can’t make a legal move with one of the indicated pieces, you don’t move. <br />If this is too hard, roll three dice to give yourself more options. Or play with a handicap: the stronger player gets only two dice, and the weaker player gets three.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now, what about my next game? I do have a few ideas floating around in my head; I’m trying to arrange a trip to Disneyland to sort them out.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">* * *</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div> P.S.: Just as I was about to push this article live, a delivery guy handed me my advanced copies of the new edition! So here is the new <i>Proteus</i>, in all its glory:<br /><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZ2kDQgkRoBmcPB7hNaf_k52cQIu4_uollZkuB8V5Ucc8kCslAsYMINIJHujMqqMMglpGA4jstar1fu5Xa2Jdo4-8YL1tjWZSwFLwzceQuJkukUvY5ZpjKeIqHizkwdk7meOZaQrdU7dWEL5RRv0f5uBaM_XhmoMZ0NIt-NRYW9W9INdtVA8g4HZvf4k/s2995/Proteus2ndEd.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1970" data-original-width="2995" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZ2kDQgkRoBmcPB7hNaf_k52cQIu4_uollZkuB8V5Ucc8kCslAsYMINIJHujMqqMMglpGA4jstar1fu5Xa2Jdo4-8YL1tjWZSwFLwzceQuJkukUvY5ZpjKeIqHizkwdk7meOZaQrdU7dWEL5RRv0f5uBaM_XhmoMZ0NIt-NRYW9W9INdtVA8g4HZvf4k/s320/Proteus2ndEd.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, it now comes with a board!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <br /> </div></div><div><br /></div><div># # #</div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-5713180570264206422023-06-30T12:37:00.002-07:002023-06-30T13:20:53.906-07:00Expansion review — New Tracks for Grand Prix<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: xx-large;">Are We There Yet?</span></p><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Designers:</i><span face=""arial" , sans-serif"> Carla & Jeff Horger</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Player count:</i> 2-11</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Publisher:</i> GMT Games</span><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUmHA-3yjZBj7GEz_g1Nm2TNcmbDmJZ7_AgB1shjSqOcXHxWXW24XRx6vW0WQM8pZUVpn3r-Ml7jFZoFMAMCUx0D75Ce7bt_nk6ZakY7b8esmvffN8lwcZhl1bJCdOs6JMR7qy2-x2giuE1W_zlwQNiLanmza84pjz6CH_-MEGdfhupp9iimGGwLIavA/s3731/IMG_2546.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3731" data-original-width="2872" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUmHA-3yjZBj7GEz_g1Nm2TNcmbDmJZ7_AgB1shjSqOcXHxWXW24XRx6vW0WQM8pZUVpn3r-Ml7jFZoFMAMCUx0D75Ce7bt_nk6ZakY7b8esmvffN8lwcZhl1bJCdOs6JMR7qy2-x2giuE1W_zlwQNiLanmza84pjz6CH_-MEGdfhupp9iimGGwLIavA/s320/IMG_2546.jpg" width="246" /></span></a></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">While
it only took one year for GMT Games to publish additional tracks for their
NASCAR racing title <i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2016/05/boardgame-review-thunder-alley.html" target="_blank">Thunder Alley</a></i>,
fans of the F1 incarnation of that system—<i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2016/10/boardgame-review-grand-prix.html" target="_blank">GrandPrix</a></i>—had to wait six years before they could start burning rubber on brand
new racetracks.<br /></span>Were
those four additional circuits worth the long wait? You bet your chassis, they
were.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">AND
THEY’RE OFF</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 140.8pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
aptly named “Expansion Tracks for <i>Grand
Prix”</i> package offers four new tracks on two mounted, double-sided boards. The
whole thing ships in a big ziplock bag, with a reference card that lists a
sprinkling of special rules for each track.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 140.8pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Overall,
the tracks in this new batch feel much tighter than the original four. Whereas
the number of bottlenecks (one-space sectors where cars can’t pass each other)
averaged 11 in the base game, they’ve now grown to a spine-tingling 18!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let’s
take a quick look at each of these fresh offerings.<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDywfDjk2fSeM9Lk3zg2ecHCpF96LwlG7RUayewF-vdZedR7bqAzeBfOUempHAfDHot6BwJNM4vEA8UfL4CSGU8CwB8CuVfQL31BvJnfv9G04soO9nu0ymigqeQi_hVIOr_rWFePLfdhfr9Fv10Jwl_TjaXQpb4UlCRkKrvFAGJPxxmzlpC3miZbZK4vk/s1903/IMG_2541.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1213" data-original-width="1903" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDywfDjk2fSeM9Lk3zg2ecHCpF96LwlG7RUayewF-vdZedR7bqAzeBfOUempHAfDHot6BwJNM4vEA8UfL4CSGU8CwB8CuVfQL31BvJnfv9G04soO9nu0ymigqeQi_hVIOr_rWFePLfdhfr9Fv10Jwl_TjaXQpb4UlCRkKrvFAGJPxxmzlpC3miZbZK4vk/s320/IMG_2541.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">With
its 11 bottlenecks, Tieran Raceway not only feels looser than its brethren, but
also more easily adaptable to the other two games in the system (<i>Thunder Alley</i> and <i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2020/11/boardgame-review-apocalypse-road.html" target="_blank">Apocalypse Road</a></i>). That’s because it offers two overlapping circuits—an
oval and a road course—that can also connect to form a longer, combined course.
Each option comes with its own prescription as to number of laps, depending on
the game you’re playing.<br />If
you’re sticking to <i>Grand Prix</i>, I
recommend racing on the combined course; anything else doesn’t quite feel like
a full meal.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /><br /></p></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSSVx6ihX63m49o6LmNSbApKwQK28fSnJXliepipWq39GOlRb3BySX5D-tGlgEyaMt78f89ey8nZqkiC2hDnBFqHOjV5GU3Tq5VNdCmLGVhK4QTGK9lgVMzR9PttjTiRP0ZILIBP_YfeAW4ciigET2VvJ_3NB9jiyB1Q3KJSbL2LxCTNhCrGun--JrP8k/s1927/IMG_2539.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1239" data-original-width="1927" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSSVx6ihX63m49o6LmNSbApKwQK28fSnJXliepipWq39GOlRb3BySX5D-tGlgEyaMt78f89ey8nZqkiC2hDnBFqHOjV5GU3Tq5VNdCmLGVhK4QTGK9lgVMzR9PttjTiRP0ZILIBP_YfeAW4ciigET2VvJ_3NB9jiyB1Q3KJSbL2LxCTNhCrGun--JrP8k/s320/IMG_2539.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just
about as loose as the previous entry (what with its 13 bottlenecks), Knight
Kennedy Speedway promises one harrowing hairpin turn through which even Overtake
cards cannot be played—ensuring that there’s absolutely no way to pass another
car until the pack unspools in the straightaway that follows. It won’t affect
your games all that much, but when it does, I guarantee you’ll remember it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih4tClaeHZfNWzltlZyCjWfP8FyuLaBxhLoPHEptNuBzN7vOADbeoOK7CwXYsYbSnvD0KJgOsJqCXjKbpO05Jjd7WTNTQPcfSBCZC1_gZFo47q6QiF8UpU_689UNXqCQh7LrRYh45FLABgUnDuQ71_NlO82j60FeF5Xx5pZcixohkJlUD6SmI-BlkIJ04/s1907/IMG_2536.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1218" data-original-width="1907" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih4tClaeHZfNWzltlZyCjWfP8FyuLaBxhLoPHEptNuBzN7vOADbeoOK7CwXYsYbSnvD0KJgOsJqCXjKbpO05Jjd7WTNTQPcfSBCZC1_gZFo47q6QiF8UpU_689UNXqCQh7LrRYh45FLABgUnDuQ71_NlO82j60FeF5Xx5pZcixohkJlUD6SmI-BlkIJ04/s320/IMG_2536.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Circuit
de Chevas might appear to offer a typical <i>Grand
Prix</i> experience, but with 21 bottlenecks, it’s tighter than even the
tightest of the original tracks (Circuito Dr. Tomas Gomez, with 16
bottlenecks). This configuration affords stragglers much fewer opportunities to
catch up to the pack; on a track like this, there’s only so much a Clean Air
card can accomplish.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXLsMYOnPQfpfe9M6_Hi9rij7bGEiw4od_-mJgFqcsYsxa_4kYlvbAS0x_E84jdw6y0JPyoLFw4IjMSCtXhv_bSaGitkYVXAT1rTJTsiY-tDHjI--tqPinOqPAfX55nwEa4GgS_rx7ZQwNdjjzHcCuk-KBksXrsHvv1PXh1lsngaeQZguiau7S5O5iHk/s1931/IMG_2537.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1226" data-original-width="1931" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoXLsMYOnPQfpfe9M6_Hi9rij7bGEiw4od_-mJgFqcsYsxa_4kYlvbAS0x_E84jdw6y0JPyoLFw4IjMSCtXhv_bSaGitkYVXAT1rTJTsiY-tDHjI--tqPinOqPAfX55nwEa4GgS_rx7ZQwNdjjzHcCuk-KBksXrsHvv1PXh1lsngaeQZguiau7S5O5iHk/s320/IMG_2537.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
Leviathan is the king of tight circuits, with a whopping <i>25 bottlenecks</i>. No special rules required: you’ll feel this one in
your bones. Seriously, you have to play it to believe it. It can get a bit
frustrating at times (make sure you play those neutral cars like there’s no
tomorrow) but when you do manage to get ahead, it’s like watching the sun rise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />PIT
STOP</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As
much fun as I’m having with the new tracks, I’m doing so playing <i>Grand Prix</i>. Sure, you can give the other
two games a go on those same circuits, but your mileage may vary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In
the case of </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Thunder Alley</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, tightness
becomes the main impediment. Original </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Grand
Prix</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> tracks were a bit more forgiving in this regard, but the new boards
prevent any significant lateral maneuvering from taking place—which is a staple
in </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">TA</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">. While constrained situations
become fun puzzles to unravel using the conditional linking rule in </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">GP</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, you can’t do that with </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">TA</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">. So unless you can whip out a leader
movement card at just the right time, you’ll keep pushing the car(s) blocking
your way, and sometimes right into the next bottleneck.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When
it comes to </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Apocalypse Road</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, the fact
that the game also uses conditional linking allows you to navigate the new
tracks without too much trouble. But multiple bottlenecks mean much fewer targets
within range, and that might take away from the intended experience.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">More
importantly, the new tracks lack a rough section and a jump section, which come
into play on 1 in 5 Movement Event cards and are a big part of the </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">AR</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> fun. Also, no chute from where to
launch new cars!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">To
be fair, in the entire system, no tracks outside of <i>Apocalypse Road</i> itself sport those very specific features, and rightly
so. But I was hoping GMT would print small cardboard markers players could use
to decide where such sections start and end on non-<i>AR</i> tracks.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Something
like these homemade ones:<br /><br /></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCnlGyYOwuA-QspwSUFnM_nh3KSVIOukEV29rLbOEE2HTnoEY3yFOjD1HDCM_113F5jLN2MEFdfbcpZc52-cCDGZszzn24dVYGcs9M__igEHWOR8PbFqUuXRF00REwanIRW813VlkRPcIbPwgOvNBwsMpnU16_BOSNB6quH9_OUPa1uy4-0B6u107i6Hg/s2015/IMG_2544.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="2015" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCnlGyYOwuA-QspwSUFnM_nh3KSVIOukEV29rLbOEE2HTnoEY3yFOjD1HDCM_113F5jLN2MEFdfbcpZc52-cCDGZszzn24dVYGcs9M__igEHWOR8PbFqUuXRF00REwanIRW813VlkRPcIbPwgOvNBwsMpnU16_BOSNB6quH9_OUPa1uy4-0B6u107i6Hg/s320/IMG_2544.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBvxcTDHgHe4uEKGkyf6SldJeO5RMBfhIG_wpu1WsKaC3-Da1T6UTv_pDU1B4Qj5jj9ns4Z2TMF2ACIjC6PrO24RnuY-Au1eMbQlehtEYCPuXMP97PWRoQWW4KNlg08ARi8HZazJZcV_ytuZI3kaLkzyb_nkM7lvSKJzQK2ojNYkOAPFf5jAEr5O59ZF8/s1478/IMG_2545.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1325" data-original-width="1478" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBvxcTDHgHe4uEKGkyf6SldJeO5RMBfhIG_wpu1WsKaC3-Da1T6UTv_pDU1B4Qj5jj9ns4Z2TMF2ACIjC6PrO24RnuY-Au1eMbQlehtEYCPuXMP97PWRoQWW4KNlg08ARi8HZazJZcV_ytuZI3kaLkzyb_nkM7lvSKJzQK2ojNYkOAPFf5jAEr5O59ZF8/s320/IMG_2545.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">CHECKERED
FLAG<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We
can finally run a respectable season of <i>Grand
Prix</i> and never play the same track twice! Each new circuit gives off its
own vibes, and they’re all a blast to zoom around.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And
I’d be remiss not to mention how good the new boards look—especially The
Leviathan, whose blue hues should stop many a passerby in their tracks.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: verdana;"># #
#<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-85292769741721696942023-03-20T19:16:00.001-07:002023-03-20T20:04:03.441-07:00Boardgame review — Banish the Snakes<p> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;">This Ain't No Parade</span></p><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Designers: </i>Kevin McPartland & Jerry Shiles</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Player count:</i> 1-6</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Publisher:</i> GMT Games</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nsysCm1wb2lsIjLUN30A5kfDjh_hFc_5NQkqs5HASDdGex8uIXy7GD64kJvf2slj3UB9dSNBV1caCn075vsTqd5zu25shebEdKvRfRG0KmQNa8dg9PmO4xA7_x5kdkBbEQQaQ3bMSkN0ywKd8L9gZCCovDSl7mymk-72u4DvwevP9V1Jrc5lRWcM/s600/Banish.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="426" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nsysCm1wb2lsIjLUN30A5kfDjh_hFc_5NQkqs5HASDdGex8uIXy7GD64kJvf2slj3UB9dSNBV1caCn075vsTqd5zu25shebEdKvRfRG0KmQNa8dg9PmO4xA7_x5kdkBbEQQaQ3bMSkN0ywKd8L9gZCCovDSl7mymk-72u4DvwevP9V1Jrc5lRWcM/s320/Banish.webp" width="227" /></a></div><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""><br />Most
scholars agree that the titular snakes were probably druids who maintained the
pagan faith that was prevalent throughout Ireland until the 5</span><sup style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">th</sup><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> century. Another
element they agree upon is that around 400 AD, right when the Western Roman
Empire was falling by the wayside, the figure of St. Patrick well and truly
existed. His dedicated work—and that of other like-minded individuals—led to most
of Ireland converting to Christianity.</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Banish the Snakes</span></i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US"> casts 1 to 6
players back to that rarely gamed moment in history, and invite them to
recreate the exhausting exploits of several saintly figures in their religious,
cooperative quest. Oh, your starting saint <i>will</i>
die—it’s only a matter of when and where. But a follower will pick up the staff
(in some cases, literally) and keep the faith (also literally).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">The
game board displays the four provinces of Ireland, each divided in two or three
areas. At the start of the game, every area is populated by a druid, a chief,
and between three and five “regular” people—all of them pagan, and in need of a
good conversion. A High King keeps tabs on four (lesser) Kings, each of which
presides over his own province. This hierarchy creates a cascade of influence
that players will try to manipulate in order to achieve their pious goal.<br /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_JXj1PeQ5Z-4dTkxKPLbeWNQ5acapIBOJmW_014L0My8gALCjjBuuGxvOf9bX7ZVbCIpqDIKgMaQLOzGIkVHzgPeiXCvlGdKbHSHJPMGLZvZKofVrs31v3mZSZcjraCFH2OzwB9LfrsZqTDPgX0ceRO8rhwaooIp6BhB8681U-2p2mlNE8DrGsKbD/s1280/IMG_2168.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1280" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_JXj1PeQ5Z-4dTkxKPLbeWNQ5acapIBOJmW_014L0My8gALCjjBuuGxvOf9bX7ZVbCIpqDIKgMaQLOzGIkVHzgPeiXCvlGdKbHSHJPMGLZvZKofVrs31v3mZSZcjraCFH2OzwB9LfrsZqTDPgX0ceRO8rhwaooIp6BhB8681U-2p2mlNE8DrGsKbD/s320/IMG_2168.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stuck in Osraige with a crappy relic, but I've seen worse</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""><br />On
your turn, you flip the top card of the event deck and brace for impact. Because
while some of them will resolve in your favor, most will trigger happenings your
saints could have done without—with wars pushing Kings off their seats, tearing
down freshly built churches, and replacing converted populations with new
individuals raised in the pagan faith.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Once
the event is dealt with, you can take as many actions as the current zeal level
of your saint will allow (between 2 and 4). Move to a neighboring area, build
or upgrade a church, transform a tomb into a relic (a surprisingly effective
move under the right circumstances) and—most importantly—convert an unsuspecting
member of the community to Christianity.<br /></span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Or
rather, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">attempt</i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> to convert the guy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Each
individual is affected by a handful of factors that determine how difficult the
conversion attempt will prove to be. Add the negative and positive modifiers
together, and you get your target number: if you roll—on a six-sided die—higher
than that number, the conversion was successful. Roll equal to the target number
and nothing happens. But roll </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">lower</i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">
than the target number and your saint loses one zeal—which will eventually mean
his or her death. (A dead saint is replaced by another saint card you might
have obtained, or else by an acolyte—a sort of sub-saint with limited
capabilities. But hey, he doesn’t eat much.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">The
hierarchy evoked above will invariably create waves in the proceedings. You
see, while lowly people will sport a negative modifier between -6 and -1, the
chief will add (negatively) to that number with his own pagan rating. So you
might want to deal with the chief first, hoping that when you convert that official
(and flip the block that represents him), he’ll contribute a positive modifier
to your subsequent attempts at convincing the people under him that their way
is not the right way. Should you go that route, however, the province’s King
will contribute his own negative modifier to your attempt at converting one of
his chiefs. So perhaps you’d be better off converting the King himself? Well
then the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">High</i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> King will want a word
with you. And who’s keeping the High King grounded in paganism? His druid, of
course.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Hungry
for some good news?<br /></span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Before
you launch into a conversion attempt, each action you spend “preparing”
modifies your target number by +1. And if you play your cards right, other
effects (your saint’s special abilities, a bonus conferred by an artifact, the
actual tomb of a previous colleague) will also contribute positive modifiers to
your target number.<br /></span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">You
just weigh the plusses and minuses, say a quick prayer, and roll the bone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">The
game ends in one of three ways: when all people in Ireland are converted, when the
event-powered Paganism marker reaches the last spot on its track, or when an
acolyte gives up the ghost. Enough points will make your victorious—and revered
for centuries to come.<br /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""><b>WAR
PRODUCTION</b></span></h3><p></p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Banish the Snakes</span></i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US"> is right up
there with the best-looking games in the GMT stable, starting with its
evocative box cover. Inside, a host of wooden blocks (stickering time!) stand
for the individuals of Ireland, and make for easy manipulation when flipping
them and moving them around.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">The
game board is mounted, large and beautiful, with plenty of breathing space for
all the components. The event cards are printed on thick and sturdy stock, and the
big six-sider is a nice-looking, hefty custom item—although I wish the shamrock
stamped in the plastic replaced the 6 instead of the 1.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">I
have only one additional minor quibble: I would have loved for the package to
include a pronunciation guide so I could </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">not</i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">
sound like a complete idiot when I tell the guy next to me I’m moving Ciaran to
Eoganacht because the druid in Osraige is too powerful.<br /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b>
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT</b></span></h3><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">This
is a simple game. (Not to be confused with boring! More on that later.) Accordingly,
the rulebook clocks in at 13 nicely laid out pages, with large illustrations. Even
the most rulebook-resistant among us will have no problem parsing the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Banish the Snakes</i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> instructions and get
cracking in no time.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">That
said, a couple of rules are left a bit vague, which in this case really feels
like those responsible for the document were just so familiar with the game
that they couldn’t see the fog creeping over some of the basics. Specifically,
the rule for converting people and leaders is never stated; rather, its
workings are implied with “Unlike People and Leaders, you do not know the value
of a Druid when you first try to Convert him.” Now if you look at the examples right
after this in the rulebook, the whole sequence clicks into place; but it would
have been nice to have an actual rule to refer to.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Another
slight omission involves the large wooden blocks placed under the various Kings
of Ireland. The blocks are used as visual supports—literally like thrones—to make
the Kings pop up on a map that can get pretty busy, but they are never
mentioned in the rules <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">per se</i>, which
had me and other apprentices wondering what happens to those big blocks at
different points in the game. (Spoiler: nothing.) The large blocks are not even
mentioned in the setup section, although you can spy them on the large
illustration if you do look for them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Other
than that? Fantastic stuff all around. I’m talking detailed index, which is
something I rarely expect in a game of such low complexity, plus a long example
of play. And let’s not forget my favorite feature: over 10 pages of historical
background, mixing legends and facts in a pleasant prose you won’t put down
until you’ve consumed the entire thing.<br /><br /></span></p><h3 style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><b>FUN
FACTOR</b></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">I’ll
be honest: When I finished my first game of </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Banish
the Snakes</i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">, I figured I’d play it a couple more times and be done with it. I
mean, it’s so simple, right? There can’t be much meat on the bone. So I played
it a second time. And immediately played it a third time. And then talked my
girlfriend into playing it with me. (Now </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">she</i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">
wants to play it again.) Six games in, I’m looking for an excuse to set up that
big green board again.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
The thing is, once you’ve figured out the whole web of conversion influences,
you find yourself doing pretty much the same thing over and over again. The
decision space is a bit on the narrow side: move around, give yourself a
handful of bonuses, then attempt to convert. And that’s it.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
Ah—but this is when the mechanics get completely out of your way and you start
wondering what you could have done better to smooth things out. Should you
start with the High King? I mean, he’s just a -2 right now so he’d be an easy
convert—but do you need him? Some of the current Kings could also be pushovers,
and by the time you get to the tougher cookies, the High Dude might have been
replaced anyway. Now about that -6 druid in Laigin…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I
experienced something similar with the events, most of which feel similar to
each other—usually switching out converted blocks for pagan ones, or bumping
off some King to trigger a chain of replacements that shuffle leaders around
the board until all thrones are occupied once again. Two games in, I didn’t
care for the events. But just one session later, I was trying to use them to my
advantage, and even pinning some tactical hopes on specific cards. “If we could
just get a solid invasion from Scotland, that bugger on the Ulster throne would
likely be replaced by someone I can actually talk to.”</span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Banish the Snakes</span></i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> is a game of
fine-tuning. Give it time: it’s an experience somewhat akin to Patience, and
I’m not saying this like it’s a bad thing. The locks are randomized, and it’s
up to you to turn them all in the right position so that the door to
Christianity can swing open, slowly but surely.<br /><br /></span></p><h3 style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><b>PARTING
SHOTS</b></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">The
game runs on a brilliant event selection engine that made me wish I’d come up
with it. (I swore out loud when I saw how it worked, and started laughing as I
shuffled the cards. The men in white lab coats can’t be far, now.)<br /></span><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Each
card features up to five variations on the same event, and the variation you get
is determined by the position of the arrow printed on the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">previous</i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""> card.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2kVuDJXgUTOuFBoydvCJRzTIjWtOQVzsnVd0deuDX18BRJpZEocGktX9TVJSeJebgwo0-4BBqSi4JDVwgtKNfceWpxJU3khBju4Fix1WAUg4nYvI31kNMqpYpsgzSmVBlA2s1ri1we4m_8Q_obg0V04hFNuGbiMtUxXM3F1ni5hHIA7vaVB4ig4V/s865/BanishEvent.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="865" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2kVuDJXgUTOuFBoydvCJRzTIjWtOQVzsnVd0deuDX18BRJpZEocGktX9TVJSeJebgwo0-4BBqSi4JDVwgtKNfceWpxJU3khBju4Fix1WAUg4nYvI31kNMqpYpsgzSmVBlA2s1ri1we4m_8Q_obg0V04hFNuGbiMtUxXM3F1ni5hHIA7vaVB4ig4V/s320/BanishEvent.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Green level for today's event? I can live with that.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""></span></div><span face="Arial, "sans-serif""><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">How
cool is that? Not only does it introduce variety in the most organic manner (so
much better than, say, rolling a die), but it also allows you to plan for the
road ahead, because you have a good idea of just how closely the next card flip
will be flirting with disaster.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Banish the Snakes </span></i><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"" lang="EN-US">is the
furthest thing from a wargame, and it’s all the better for it. So grab a saint
(or six—the game plays just as well solo as multiplayer), get out there and
convert those unwashed masses.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face="Arial, "sans-serif"">Just
watch out for banshees.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span face=""Arial","sans-serif"" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"># #
#<o:p></o:p></span></p>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-26971454935952745202023-01-08T10:41:00.002-08:002023-03-20T16:21:49.638-07:00Boardgame review — Charioteer<p> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;">Is This a Whip Which I See Before Me?</span></p><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Designer: </i>Matt Calkins</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Player count:</i> 2-6</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Publisher:</i> GMT Games</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkXll_xBxOpYCSbyjlbhcXzpliEZ6jd7m2VzqsjU_c_5vlOoL13Gq_F8wd3X1Pm7WLqNiFngA7ZMghKsdsE7_UnA-gpP_t7HHtumDbXc_QcqlJEaTQ_pi7eWL30kCbM9tTr3ofNI8WcN6bqme1mZwSFUicSI1ys-0BCAMl4Cn58IbX3c0lOnL6Zjml/s600/Charioteer.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="453" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkXll_xBxOpYCSbyjlbhcXzpliEZ6jd7m2VzqsjU_c_5vlOoL13Gq_F8wd3X1Pm7WLqNiFngA7ZMghKsdsE7_UnA-gpP_t7HHtumDbXc_QcqlJEaTQ_pi7eWL30kCbM9tTr3ofNI8WcN6bqme1mZwSFUicSI1ys-0BCAMl4Cn58IbX3c0lOnL6Zjml/s320/Charioteer.webp" width="242" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">For
dedicated GMT customers, the setting will be familiar: ancient Rome, with all
that that implies. However, once the box lid comes off, the game found inside
is not an elaborate wargame with the usual bells and whistles, but rather a
thrilling chariot racing game—clever enough to please elements from the
hardcore crowd, yet simple enough to bring casual players along for the
eventful ride.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">(As
far as I can tell, this is the fifth racing game published by GMT, after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Formula Motor Racing</i> (1995), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thunder Alley </i>(2014), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grand Prix</i> (2016), and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Apocalypse Road</i> (2020). One could even
argue in favor of a sixth entry, if you decide to count the chariot racing mini-game
found in Reiner Knizia’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rome</i>
triptych, from 2001. Impressive
for a wargaming outfit!)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">On
a long and narrow oval of a dirt track, two to six players attempt to drive
their chariots through the traffic and mayhem, in the hopes of crossing the
finish line before anyone else at the conclusion of three laps.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Movement
is achieved by playing sets of cards with matching symbols, which in this case
means matching numbers in the same color. For instance, a bunch of red 3s, or
yellow 4s, or green 6s. (All other colored symbols on the cards are ignored.)<br /><br /></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgnz2fDDR0b4xt5jCs52HCg8jc_89YVMXw24uXgxpfJqHBOrsNi2riIAbPZ47SlmKCkCHH11fCPdnTLZSbY1t4z35ZFm3KVWVL_CtWwnEj3XeTLiP5AOEHTCJ-qsXDH7-NW0d15KhDbWanN_XiSCBwh9jQmLIPZsrYRjdTBjD0koeqZiCCmcJ5p4a/s1512/Hands.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgnz2fDDR0b4xt5jCs52HCg8jc_89YVMXw24uXgxpfJqHBOrsNi2riIAbPZ47SlmKCkCHH11fCPdnTLZSbY1t4z35ZFm3KVWVL_CtWwnEj3XeTLiP5AOEHTCJ-qsXDH7-NW0d15KhDbWanN_XiSCBwh9jQmLIPZsrYRjdTBjD0koeqZiCCmcJ5p4a/s320/Hands.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three valid hands</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />In
the middle of the board sits the Crowd Card, available to any player who
matches it with at least one card from their hand. (Think of it as a community
card in Texas hold ‘em poker.) Players are allowed to play up to three cards,
plus the Crowd Card as a potential fourth.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Each
player’s chariot movement is then tallied by adding the number of matching symbols
on the played cards, plus the actual number inside those matching symbols. So
four red 5s (4+5) would add up to a movement of 9.<br />Since
each player holds a hand of eight cards <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i>
can see future Crowd Cards two turns in advance, the game quickly becomes a
hand-management challenge.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">But
what about the racing itself?<br />The
track is made up of a series of wide spaces—each able to accommodate any number
of chariots—laid out in a straight line. Yes, the track includes two curved
ends so the chariots can double back, but it remains a single-space-wide
succession of steps. In other words, positioning is not an issue and each move
is a question of distance, with no maneuvering involved. Which makes sense:
chariot racers evolved in spaces so vast that—apart from how you approached the
next corner—they didn’t have to worry much about blocked lanes.<br />And
this is where things get very interesting.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">Each
space contains a potentially infinite series of spaces, much like a fractal. If
a chariot reaches a space already occupied by another, it’s placed to its
right; it must then spend a movement point to pass that chariot (by moving to
its left), before it can leave that space and keep moving forward.<br /></span>So
if my chariot is the fourth one to land on a space, I’ll need to spend three movement
points to pass each of my competitors before I am allowed to surge ahead once
more.<br /><br /></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9rzg4IUwPCpAoaMaZxJbicVX31dhiP6CkCspIr7QVpjaOVmJNCkVbms0hqHx4jH6Tbj_7V4TN9Mutm3GOFJVHsRhdkneKPVtf2gAhSEeSPlesnNKbT92zPOATCfgwUwSgqzNoK3_VXSK-4Erm1W8NBqqtyU542kzESsu1pLmJ7IG_epjbZO0kqJzD/s2016/Passing.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9rzg4IUwPCpAoaMaZxJbicVX31dhiP6CkCspIr7QVpjaOVmJNCkVbms0hqHx4jH6Tbj_7V4TN9Mutm3GOFJVHsRhdkneKPVtf2gAhSEeSPlesnNKbT92zPOATCfgwUwSgqzNoK3_VXSK-4Erm1W8NBqqtyU542kzESsu1pLmJ7IG_epjbZO0kqJzD/s320/Passing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yellow has a lot of work to do.</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />Corners
are also handled in a clever way: a black move (which incidentally features the
lowest possible numbers in the game) allows a chariot to round a corner using
the inner (pale) spaces, whereas a move in any other color forces the chariot to
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">also</i> count the outer (dark) spaces,
in a zigzag move that makes the corner much longer to clear. (And yes, chariots
still pass one another using the mechanism highlighted above, no matter the
color of the space on which the jockeying happens to take place.) <br /><br /></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirW76ZC9u7R47fteEtEFHkHGTIAEdxoYBGOz5gr1F8fCsK0YmsKeqawBwoqyTXCRcRh0nFJbGQCT4RWyH5bU8woQTaxWhdCh11n83UfCsLumcR3tt4B5242sMVqzTtLIMI9lIPS_ZN-rApUChcVwISWariynl68IadUdILZajEou1kowKxhQ9JnKdW/s2016/Corner.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2016" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirW76ZC9u7R47fteEtEFHkHGTIAEdxoYBGOz5gr1F8fCsK0YmsKeqawBwoqyTXCRcRh0nFJbGQCT4RWyH5bU8woQTaxWhdCh11n83UfCsLumcR3tt4B5242sMVqzTtLIMI9lIPS_ZN-rApUChcVwISWariynl68IadUdILZajEou1kowKxhQ9JnKdW/s320/Corner.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue and Gray taking the long way around</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />So
what special effects do the other colors trigger?<br />Red
represents an abstracted “attack” on all other chariots—think of it as debris
on the track, horses getting spooked, maybe a spoke breaking on a wheel or two…
A three-card red move inflicts one damage on all competitors, while a four-card
red move inflicts two points of damage. Until gotten rid of, damage is
subtracted from each move an afflicted chariot makes.<br />Yellow
repairs/heals/shrugs off damage, by removing half of the damage (round up) from
your chariot.<br />Green
doesn’t grant any special capabilities, but it features the highest numbers in
the game—up to a whopping 6! After playing a big hand of yellow 0s to get rid
of some damage, you’ll appreciate how fast green can get you to the next
corner.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">A
hand of six or more matching symbols grants its player a random, colored token,
which is added to the five everyone starts the game with. Played alongside a
matching hand of cards (red on red, yellow on yellow, etc.) they grant their
chariot an additional ability: move faster, avoid any damage this turn, heal
half of your damage, or change the color of an odd card! Similar symbols also
appear on cards, next to colored symbols: use them well.<br /><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZoJtLt39AyeCbRU3yIYRzWh_C0zBRCmqghU8rqa0Uud89QokhybrjNutEF2agE4UG1X-J_nFhZS6r3TJAOQtUXHkxihz1TBfw6ylVZT0ZnOVJmaN4HtbCLvGzwG4wXyS5BUjNhjm-2CkSFJ3DYSGEtemnZRMbTKKVWzUeAwN0UfZlcsQCk1_gbNs/s1512/Tokens.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzZoJtLt39AyeCbRU3yIYRzWh_C0zBRCmqghU8rqa0Uud89QokhybrjNutEF2agE4UG1X-J_nFhZS6r3TJAOQtUXHkxihz1TBfw6ylVZT0ZnOVJmaN4HtbCLvGzwG4wXyS5BUjNhjm-2CkSFJ3DYSGEtemnZRMbTKKVWzUeAwN0UfZlcsQCk1_gbNs/s320/Tokens.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A smattering of tokens</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Each
move grants one experience point in that color, advancing the relevant cylinder
forward one step on that player’s board. (If the Emperor’s die, rolled each
turn, matches the color you decide to play, you get <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">two</i> experience points!) While in the central zone, each cylinder
grant a +1 move bonus in the corresponding color; and when a cylinder reaches
the end zone, it is locked in place for a juicier move bonus, albeit one that
will most likely be of service just once more before the race is over.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Experience
is hard-won.<br /><br /><br /><b>RULES
OF ENGAGEMENT</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Charioteer</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> comes to life
with only 10 pages of rules, which shouldn’t scare away modern eurogamers. The
game can be taught in about 10 minutes, with very few exceptions or
out-of-character wrinkles.<br /></span>That
being said, for a relatively simple game aimed at the general public, the
rulebook commits some explanatory faux pas—from illustrated examples that don’t
resolve the one question newcomers are most likely to ask (“Can I count my red
3 amongst all the red 5s?”) to a missing turn sequence that would have shed
some welcome light on the exact timing of actions.<br /><br /></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihR6V5MvYkZN1EUKaurrg9YlcFr0Dfb0sWcnwXE7nzvDxJm1jAU2RMl4zdlRVJccZzSHowwL5lIiEb3PHOQRnjIXdZ2wtY1FWph7gr78QKuUSvjBTSoscp0BPj6LLYGsrp_5ykFtrPtBszuPYfKzCHNzAjmBuJQ8LSlLPSKNXP_XE5J17irjxaqLKi/s1512/Hand%20example.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihR6V5MvYkZN1EUKaurrg9YlcFr0Dfb0sWcnwXE7nzvDxJm1jAU2RMl4zdlRVJccZzSHowwL5lIiEb3PHOQRnjIXdZ2wtY1FWph7gr78QKuUSvjBTSoscp0BPj6LLYGsrp_5ykFtrPtBszuPYfKzCHNzAjmBuJQ8LSlLPSKNXP_XE5J17irjxaqLKi/s320/Hand%20example.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original example & what I think would have helped</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />The
worst offender in this regard concerns the experience track. Cylinders that
start on the lower spaces of a player board (per a randomly assigned skill
card) must first climb to the top before they can start moving laterally and
produce their +1 bonus.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Yet this isn’t stated anywhere in the rules: you have to deduce the procedure
from a line about some skills being more advanced than others at the start of
the race, together with the subtle visual hint on your player board.<br /><br /></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1GafrB2K2_bgfjbTkLVg4YvFo18n-dTochRJW-gT3U_Y-OYlAk-4Gnj84fYfRNSnmrKay1jSZiSvMvsd_4Evys4FPsYI_SEM_3VuiMZdr_CA9VC80Ie2BvjV7sT7rwC_86bFaZdjMQLk-VE7WJu_-8-JSo8HxUb3FqnDEnMOmqKXIn7faejjGXmHS/s1512/Skills.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1GafrB2K2_bgfjbTkLVg4YvFo18n-dTochRJW-gT3U_Y-OYlAk-4Gnj84fYfRNSnmrKay1jSZiSvMvsd_4Evys4FPsYI_SEM_3VuiMZdr_CA9VC80Ie2BvjV7sT7rwC_86bFaZdjMQLk-VE7WJu_-8-JSo8HxUb3FqnDEnMOmqKXIn7faejjGXmHS/s320/Skills.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moving up before moving right</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />Now,
although unfortunate, none of those issues would harm a wargame, whose target
audience almost enjoys looking up answers and clarifications online (it’s how
we interact socially). But it’s a sin for a game with mass-market appeal and
where, if you convince casual gamers to put aside their fear of that red,
square logo—I’ve heard this many times—you must then explain the game in a way
that is perfectly clear, so as to prove to them that they were right to trust
you. And that the red logo doesn’t bite.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">As
I said with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2020/11/boardgame-review-apocalypse-road.html" target="_blank">Apocalypse Road</a></i> two years
ago, my hope is that non-wargamers will grab the box off the shelf, admire its
stunning cover image, then get into the action and realize they really should look
into GMT games more often.<br /><br /><br /><b>FUN
FACTOR</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Novel
movement mechanics and clever hand management will only take you so far: is the
game any fun? You bet your horse’s ass, it is. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Charioteer</i> can be all at once fast, exhilarating, frustrating,
headache-inducing… Everything you want in a racing game.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The
Crowd Card will throw a wrench in your decision-making process: should I take
advantage of it (and possibly score a bonus token), or should I stick to my
plan to play a black move going into the next corner? The fact that future Crowd
Cards are revealed two turns in advance allows you to plan accordingly—of fume
over your bad hand when the planets stubbornly refuse to align.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I’ve
found the Emperor’s die to be the most disruptive element of all. Since it
grants an additional experience point whenever you play the color asked for, it’s
oftentimes really hard <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to acquiesce,
despite your best intentions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The
absence of direct player attacks will no doubt irk some gamers out there, but
not everything is a wargame! And the red-moves-damage-everyone proposition creates
tense situations where you need to keep on your toes even when no other chariot
is physically near yours. Especially when the Crowd Card is a red one, or when
the Emperor rolls red on his die. And if the two should occur at the same time,
you better hope you’re in a position to play one of those cards with a shield
icon (or else a shield token) to block all damage for the turn.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Player
count plays a big part in the fun that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Charioteer</i>
can generate. The game is rated for 2-6 players, but with just two or three
chariots kicking up dust around the track, a lot of the excitement fades away. I
wish GMT had provided us with a bot system to make sure we always had a full
complement of chariots in every race—something that didn’t seem too daunting to
me, given that the track is essentially one long stretch of single-lane spaces.<br />Well,
it took me a bit longer than I anticipated (fine-tuning never ends!), but I
came up with a dice-based bot system that satisfies my needs, and might also do
the trick for you.<br />You
can find it <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/01/solo-ruleset-charioteer.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br /><br /><b>WAR
PRODUCTION</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The
big <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Charioteer</i> box (which is quickly
becoming the standard GMT box size) comes with two mounted boards that combine
to create the extra long racing track. The boards look nice enough, but are
missing that extra oomph you wish they had, so that passersby would stop and
take a closer look. As one friend put it, “They do the job really well, but
they’re very brown.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The
racing cards—a towering stack of ‘em—and the skill cards are cut from the thick
cardstock we’ve come to expect from GMT, and I can attest to their resilience
under heavy and repeated shuffling. (Those babies don’t need no sleeves.) The
Emperor’s die is not engraved, but the color printing seems strong enough to survive
many a racing season.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The
rest of the components are made out of wood, from the skill markers to the big
bag of bonus tokens, up to and including the chariots themselves! True,
plastics didn’t exist in ancient Rome.<br /><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>PARTING
SHOTS<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I
love the puzzles players are tasked with solving throughout each race. How can
I best use the hand I was dealt? Should I play two consecutive, mediocre hands,
or just bite the bullet this turn and try to make a break for it next—assuming I
draw the symbol I desperately need? The wheels never stop turning, both on the
dirt track and between your ears.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US">A
category of gamers will decry <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Charioteer</i>’</span><span lang="EN-CA">s
simplicity (“What do you mean, no Combat Result Tables?!”) like it’s a bad
thing. But I see it as a sort of thinking man’s party game, which is as close
as you’ll get to a casual game while keeping things challenging and exciting. How
many racing games can you teach in 10 minutes, and then go on to enjoy between
60 and 90 minutes of nail-biting decisions?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I
initially questioned the inclusion of skill cards, used to determine the order
in which each player’s skill markers begins the game. After all, you could just
shake your four markers in your hands and put them down on your player board in
a random order. (And who cares if two players happen upon the same combination,
out of 24 possibilities.) But it’s exactly the kind of production move you make
to grab the attention of more casual gamers: reduce friction, both before and
during the game. It’s the same reason you go for wooden meeples and not
cardboard counters, or for a board that’s super easy to read, perhaps at the expense of some visual pizzazz.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">Now
just give me an ironclad rulebook, and even the Emperor will have to bow down.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"># #
#<span face="Arial, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /></span></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-15713590848991759382023-01-07T15:18:00.007-08:002023-07-10T07:47:28.147-07:00Solo Ruleset: Charioteer<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Version 3.2</span></h3><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwJKhTHKSWYeI0YZDw5CFutWOtr-NkI7_ablGzB4xzsGxYq8JMgCn8DK-RAvkYY1Gl5GM4mfMONGw1hJ1c2uHsEutXyX2wE_qlqTI_ulfSo7xJryAF9r346m0Zx2MG0og4mYzlc3AgySvUAaATWVFgUogbyGDeiWPw2RUo5xvkWYea3frFScVdmfQ1/s2345/CharioteerSoloDice.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1686" data-original-width="2345" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwJKhTHKSWYeI0YZDw5CFutWOtr-NkI7_ablGzB4xzsGxYq8JMgCn8DK-RAvkYY1Gl5GM4mfMONGw1hJ1c2uHsEutXyX2wE_qlqTI_ulfSo7xJryAF9r346m0Zx2MG0og4mYzlc3AgySvUAaATWVFgUogbyGDeiWPw2RUo5xvkWYea3frFScVdmfQ1/s320/CharioteerSoloDice.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0X7cEqI0TCf9-PM0IO8lFDDUmFqeiDcb1NJauambDNJDkodITcrskuv6BEC2NIrbL_K3aYO03nN8Y-131fEBJARMbhYhOVkH9MyCthV6ANy0vCzlFvkTjeU6pInC0TY-D7JP8HbT4Gh6CEhLDGTlmeTSYgo01qVP5KUynirBtXQjWVpEF-iXxrlnw/s600/Charioteer.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="453" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0X7cEqI0TCf9-PM0IO8lFDDUmFqeiDcb1NJauambDNJDkodITcrskuv6BEC2NIrbL_K3aYO03nN8Y-131fEBJARMbhYhOVkH9MyCthV6ANy0vCzlFvkTjeU6pInC0TY-D7JP8HbT4Gh6CEhLDGTlmeTSYgo01qVP5KUynirBtXQjWVpEF-iXxrlnw/s320/Charioteer.webp" width="242" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #6aa84f;">NOTE: You can download a PDF<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19t6rMM66s-JrfMwTYbxJt1ye8DfFdTLt/view?usp=share_link" target="_blank"> right here!</a><br /><br /></span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Building on the Roman chariot racing game published by GMT Games, this
system allows for 1 through 5 bots to race around the track along with one or
more human opponents. (For that matter, you could even let all six bots loose
and just watch them race each other, if this is your idea of a pleasant
evening. No judgement.)<br /><br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">THE DICE</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You
will need three six-sided dices (d6), and you can come at this in two different
ways.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Use three
regular d6, but make sure they are of three different colors. One die will be the
“1</span><sup style="font-family: verdana;">st</sup><span style="font-family: verdana;"> movement d6,” another die the “2</span><sup style="font-family: verdana;">nd</sup><span style="font-family: verdana;"> movement d6,” and
the third die the “bonus d6.”<br />When you roll the dice, use the conversion column below (in purple) to
determine the result you actually obtained on each die.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Customize
three d6 (using the tan columns below) either by applying printed stickers on
each face—or by using a sharpie to add pips, cross out the extra one on each 6
face, and indicate in some way that one movement die has four black faces,
while the other has a single red face. Likewise, customize the bonus die in any
way you see fit. </span></li></ul><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(It is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">by far</i> easier and faster to use custom
dice, even if they’re just three regular d6 with sharpie marks on them. I
highly recommend you go that route.)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx0OViU5DxOQPiRyNjDPHyig5a7wCemxtKCS9Ab2W-EqtvkonkA_18yXPLdxGLsJyn3R7rSZVnBeaTt-wdFF5338cYlkPwfMNy5G78KL6F34iJGj6amIEcnoWhbAtM5Ay7N9fYKwV0T5S0-7m0BpnTgkmHTK1Ea35i7LjHlrDmytKf1xLgDoXpNQwQ/s336/CharioteerSoloDice.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="336" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx0OViU5DxOQPiRyNjDPHyig5a7wCemxtKCS9Ab2W-EqtvkonkA_18yXPLdxGLsJyn3R7rSZVnBeaTt-wdFF5338cYlkPwfMNy5G78KL6F34iJGj6amIEcnoWhbAtM5Ay7N9fYKwV0T5S0-7m0BpnTgkmHTK1Ea35i7LjHlrDmytKf1xLgDoXpNQwQ/s320/CharioteerSoloDice.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">THE RULES </span></h3><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now
don’t be afraid if what follows looks complicated: it’s really not. After a couple
of turns rolling dice for the bots, you’ll know everything you need to know.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />BASIC BOT WORKINGS</span></b></span></h4><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">All normal
rules apply, unless contradicted by a bot rule.</span></span></li><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bots ignore skills and don’t have a player board, and never use any kind of
tokens, or damage cubes.</span></span></li><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On its turn, a bot rolls all three dice. Its total move is determined by adding
the values of the two movement dice, with a potential +3 from the bonus die—and
perhaps even damage for its opponents!</span></span></li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />BOT MOVEMENT & DAMAGE<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If one die
shows a black face, the bot move is considered a <i>black move</i>.</span></span></li><ul><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If the bot moves through a corner, it will use the regular (pale) spaces.</span></span></li></ul><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If one die shows a red face, the bot move is considered a <i>red move.</i></span></span></li><ul><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first time this happens in a turn, each human player takes one damage cube.
(I suggest you place the cube below the
attack boxes on your player board to remember the damage came from a bot.) The
second time this happens in a turn, each human player takes two damage cubes.
Bot damage moves to the damage box at the end of the turn just like normal damage,
and human players cannot suffer more than three damage cubes during a turn, no
matter the source of the damage.</span></span></li></ul><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Whenever a bot executes a red move, lay every other bot that’s still standing
on its side. (If a bot is already on its side, nothing happens.) A bot on its
side must pay one movement point to stand up, and then moves normally; a bot on
its side that’s in first place (leading the race) must pay TWO movement points
to stand up, and then moves normally.<br /></span></span><i style="font-family: verdana;">NOTE: This is not the “most advanced bot”
regardless of human players—the bot really must be in first place.</i></li><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If a human executes a red move that involves three or four red cards, lay all bots
that are still standing on their sides. (It doesn’t matter if it’s a 1-damage or
a 2-damage: the bots are either damaged or not damaged.)</span></span></li><li><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A bot move can be both black and red (they’re not humans!), or neither.</span></span></li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />+3 MOVE BONUS<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">A bot can only use a +3 move bonus if it’s not
stepping onto any corner space during a BLACK move. If the bot <i>is</i> stepping onto a corner space during a
black move, or if the +3 move bonus would make it step on a corner space, then
it can’t use the bonus (at all—this is NOT like the whip that takes you up to the next chariot
but no further).</span></span></li><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">A “corner space” is any regular space that’s touching one of the outer (dark)
spaces throughout the corner.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">If a bot going through a corner is <i>not</i>
executing a black move, it’s allowed to use the move bonus if it rolled it.</span></span></li></ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">A bot in first place (leading the race) NEVER gets the move bonus. Don’t even
bother rolling the bonus die for that bastard.<br /></span></span><i style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 11pt;">NOTE: This is not the “most advanced bot”
regardless of human players—the bot really must be in first place.</i></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">A bot in last place ALWAYS gets the move bonus.</span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><br /></span></span></span><i>NOTE: This is not the “least advanced bot”
regardless of human players—the bot really must </i><i style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">be
in last place.</span></i></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">During the first turn, the move bonus die is rolled by all bots. (Yes, even if the
bot goes first.)</span></span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">And that's it!<br /><br /></span></span></div><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">DESIGN NOTES</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You’ll find
that the bots tend to stay together, and that the system rarely produces a runaway
leader of a hopeless straggler. The little rascals sometimes spend turns without
causing any damage whatsoever, and then unleash all manners of blue cubes for a
turn or two (or three). Be prepared for those eventualities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Don’t give up
if the bots pull ahead and you’re having trouble catching up: if you play your
cards right (ha), at some point your skill bonuses will kick in and let you jump
right back in the race. Conversely, don’t get too confident if you take the lead
early on: the bots have a way of sneaking up on you real fast (and especially
in those corners).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’ve playtested
this as much as I could on my own and found version 3.2 to be pretty reliable, producing
challenging races that I absolutely don’t always win. (Hey, I don’t always finish
dead last, either!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That said, please
keep in touch if you decide to try this out.<br />
If enough people out there come back to tell me that this or that aspect of the
system is too strong/weak, I’ll be happy to make adjustments and produce a new version
of the document.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></p>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-74743410700427817882023-01-06T05:58:00.006-08:002024-01-06T11:59:05.359-08:00A Year of Boardgaming, 2022 Edition<p> <span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzsqB23uTWz40cu-Lm_D3uRymw5yveYoDS6FqvV6varvVZtHWSec27bOGXAvYBALQqWK_oZCVXzlxurXuT5W9yVTQppNbAIxHxLm1TclnhDqWSm4KNIJWFlEbmzPR2FevD7hkfiy4g_9g/s2048/IMG_6136.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXXfbhJqNexkAG_QBOMM2u71ON8KClnKkgModKvmJFI9Ci1yABIbyl2omzLvAO9BjDXs4P_SQxu6MVtyn8bVNf6GueF523ilisio62MhfsjK56yY9xsAT13Ku10V_pwz-HYPrq1rDZkys_0SMxFRbDGRqG8n4mmxqam7MgAusJSIGqUL4erJzMn9Tf/s3961/IMG_1878.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="3961" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXXfbhJqNexkAG_QBOMM2u71ON8KClnKkgModKvmJFI9Ci1yABIbyl2omzLvAO9BjDXs4P_SQxu6MVtyn8bVNf6GueF523ilisio62MhfsjK56yY9xsAT13Ku10V_pwz-HYPrq1rDZkys_0SMxFRbDGRqG8n4mmxqam7MgAusJSIGqUL4erJzMn9Tf/w400-h194/IMG_1878.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Another year down the hatch, with one of my worst boardgaming performances ever, and the reasons for this are pretty clear: t</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">he pandemic</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">that's a given</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">and a rocky start to 2022 because of my concussion. But also a serious step back vis-à-vis boardgaming in my home, where a variety of factors meant that the kids and my girlfriend all played much fewer games throughout the year.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So how does this all translate into numbers?</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>GAMES</b><br /><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I played 127 different titles (<i>way</i> up from 87 in 2021, so I'm apparently out of that death spiral), for a total of 380 plays (better than the previous 356, but still a far cry from the 500+ plays I used to hit in a single year). I spent 430 hours poring over mapboards in 2022, versus 399 hours in 2021</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">a slight improvement. T</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">hat's almost 18 full days devoted to boardgaming bliss; I'll be aiming for more this year.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Out of those 127 titles, 62 were new to me (up from 49 in 2021), and</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—new data point this year</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—I ended up playing 17% of my collection. It'll be interesting to see how this metric evolves going forward.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here are the 10 games I played the most in 2022:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. <b><i>Combat Commander </i></b>(31 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span>This WWII tactical game never seems to stray far from the top, does it? I</span></span></span></div></span></span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span>was hoping to hit a total of 500 overall plays this year, but I fell 13 short.</span></span></span></div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. <b><i>Snow Tails </i></b></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(20 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">These are all solo plays, back when I was working on my <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/02/solo-module-snow-tails.html" target="_blank">solo ruleset</a> for this fun dog-sled racing game. (Yes, also part of my concussion recovery.)</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/10/flash-review-nemesis.html" target="_blank">Nemesis</a></i></b> (16 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">The most <i>Alien</i> boardgame that's not officially <i>Alien</i>: fast and furious gameplay with a tense atmosphere, and colleagues who might or might not be trying to help/whack you. </div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">4. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/12/flash-review-heat-pedal-to-metal.html" target="_blank">Heat: Pedal to the Metal</a></i></b> (12 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">My <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/01/my-top-10-boardgames-published-in-2022.html" target="_blank">favorite boardgame of 2022</a> and one of the all-time great racing games. Also one of the easiest games to explain in my entire collection, which I find astounding. </div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">5. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2020/11/flash-review-arkham-horror-card-game.html" target="_blank">Arkham Horror: The Card Game</a> </i></b>(15 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">Cthulhu and his tentacled friends still make for an amazing card game, but the latest cycle, <i>Edge of the Earth</i>, was the weakest of all those published thus far. Let's hope <i>The Scarlet Keys</i> make us forget this misstep.</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">6. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2015/08/rise-to-occasion-review-of-wing-leader.html" target="_blank">Wing Leader</a> </i></b>(10 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">Still fighting my way through the entire Second World War using this air combat system, and loving it as much as when I first tried it out. (Even though the dice hate me.)</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">7. <b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/10/flash-review-great-western-trail-2nd.html" target="_blank">Great Western Trail</a></i></b> (9 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A mix of 1st and 2nd edition here, but delivering head after head of cattle to Kansas City never gets old.</span></div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">8. <i><b><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2020/11/player-count-2-to-4-5-with-expansion.html" target="_blank">T</a></b></i><b><i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2020/11/player-count-2-to-4-5-with-expansion.html" target="_blank">he Quacks of Quedlingburg</a> </i></b>(9 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;">This witch-themed push-your-luck game will most likely be an evergreen with my family. And I have yet to teach it to a new player who didn't enjoy it.</div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">9. <i><b>The Fields of Normandy </b></i>(8 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>It's an interesting little solo book-game, but I can already tell I'm done with this.</span></span></div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">10. <b><i>Azul </i></b></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(7 plays)</span></div></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>My youngest daughter Ophélie was quite taken with this brilliant tile-picking abstract game early in the year, and then dropped it altogether. :D</span></span></div></span></span></div></blockquote><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">PEOPLE</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">During 2022, I explored the boardgaming world </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">alongside 28 different players, up from a paltry 13 in 2021. Things are improving!</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here are the 10 people with whom I played the most last year:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">1. Suzie D. (76 plays)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">2. Jean-Luc S. (75 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">3. François P. (72 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span lang="FR-CA" style="font-family: verdana;">4. Gustavo A. (37 plays)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">5. Ophélie K. L. (27 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">6. Héloïse K. L. (24 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">7. Niko S. (12 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">8. Fred B. (12 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">9. Doris L. (10 plays)</div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">10. William L. (9 plays) </div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">For some reason, the GF felt like playing games a lot less often throughout 2022, which means she <i>barely</i> held onto her 1st place for the sixth consecutive year (whereas she'd log in about twice that number of plays on a typical year).</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Again, three of the four kids are on the list, with Béatrice ending up 11th</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—not too bad considering she now lives in Switzerland!</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And yes, my mom made the list again, which makes me really happy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></div></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">LOCATIONS</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The number of different places where I played boardgames rose to 11, from a mere eight in 2021. It's still a little low, but much closer to pre-pandemic stats in this department. FaceTime remains one of those locations, and since I realized there were some people I would <i>only</i> play with through something like Boardgame Arena, I decided to include digital plays going forward. I'm not thrilled about it, but hey, there are worst things in life. I guess.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">60% of my gaming was done at home, 21% over FaceTime and BGA, and the rest was scattered all over the neighborhood.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>OTHER MUSINGS & RAMBLINGS</b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My H-index went down again this year, from 9 to 8. Not a great trend.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(In this context, my H-index is the number (h) of games which I've played a number (h) of times.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My self-imposed challenges didn't go great, but I still managed to accomplish the following three:</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Play 5 games 20 times each (the 5x20 challenge)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Log in 55 solo plays</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Log in 80 wargame plays</span></li></ul></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">These two ended up in the gutter, though:</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Play 10 games 10 times teach (the classic 10x10 challenge)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Log in 100 abstract game sessions</span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">I think I'll drop the 10x10 challenge: 5x20 is more in line with how I operate when it comes to repeat plays. (Translation: I love to play <i>many</i> different games, and only get obsessed with a handful of them on any given year.)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">And now that the pandemic is somewhat receding, I believe I can also let go of the solo challenge. Good riddance, I say.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My very first game of 2022 was the wallet-sized <i>Sprawlopolis</i>, a tiny solo affair even my concussed brain could handle. And I closed out the year with GMT's new racing title, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Charioteer, </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">just as the clock was striking midnight.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Last year, I was looking forward to three games that made my Top 10 list for 2022: <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/12/flash-review-weather-machine.html" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Weather Machine</a>, <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/10/flash-review-boonlake.html" target="_blank"><i>Boonlake</i> </a>and <i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/09/flash-review-messina-1347.html" target="_blank">Messina 1347</a></i>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Not everything was great, however, as <i>303 Squadron</i> and <i>Free at Last</i> both showed up with terrible rulebooks in desperate need of a rewrite.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2023 is already winking at me with a stack of GMT games delivered just a tad too late to count for 2022: <i>Charioteer</i> (an instant hit in my household), <i>Twilight Struggle: Red Sea</i> and <i>Skies Above Britain</i> (already set up on the war room table!).</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm also excited about Rosenberg's new titles, <i>Oranienburger Kanal</i> and <i>Atiwa,</i> as well as the third and last (?) chapter of the <i>GWT</i> trilogy, <i>Great Western Trail: New Zealand</i>; and I'll have a hard time not trying out <i>Undaunted: Battle of Britain</i> because I'm a sucker for that famous WWII engagement.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Plus, who knows, maybe the long-delayed <i>Dutch Resistance: Orange Shall Overcome </i>will finally shake off its publishing chains and make it to the free world.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What are you waiting for? Get boardgaming!</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-1970000388808867312023-01-01T08:37:00.002-08:002023-12-24T04:02:29.747-08:00My Top 10 Boardgames Published in 2022<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixQX-K_Slq7iefepcBBSPNNOYnUDAYYDJ3lcN0OoWxOQ89yAiDXKDrwsZZtKgYTEsYPSCQELgmTNydMDzB9VWoyDelyKj-mXpThxKHllZ0BkWf77UM9isLvcgateTRU5M510NLB5VjxyAyMWn0S7RfRE0XNrgSB7zzpuIH5XpJxnOjI9ZGH7ujHX05/s414/TopTen_2022_b.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="414" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixQX-K_Slq7iefepcBBSPNNOYnUDAYYDJ3lcN0OoWxOQ89yAiDXKDrwsZZtKgYTEsYPSCQELgmTNydMDzB9VWoyDelyKj-mXpThxKHllZ0BkWf77UM9isLvcgateTRU5M510NLB5VjxyAyMWn0S7RfRE0XNrgSB7zzpuIH5XpJxnOjI9ZGH7ujHX05/s320/TopTen_2022_b.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Here's a look at my 10 favorite games published in 2022.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">(Or else made available in North America so late in 2021 that there was no way to really play them before the calendar flipped.)</span><br /><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#10</span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBxTPPczrghKy7YAR6pO7OxQUQDAzXjocq5Dqt5xMxPMZpb4ZWScIxIFWekAmgkqdbaI1LsfnoN2Si4JFU83lpoFhNYaGVzp47jnVPVPeMnwLg6Ujn5hj9tIFn-EJNIVpPBuyv2AacSvTFMao00cPZlHUxOZlU4ZOUxTZHm0av60Wwu5OLcT_xVq-5/s600/Turing.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBxTPPczrghKy7YAR6pO7OxQUQDAzXjocq5Dqt5xMxPMZpb4ZWScIxIFWekAmgkqdbaI1LsfnoN2Si4JFU83lpoFhNYaGVzp47jnVPVPeMnwLg6Ujn5hj9tIFn-EJNIVpPBuyv2AacSvTFMao00cPZlHUxOZlU4ZOUxTZHm0av60Wwu5OLcT_xVq-5/s320/Turing.webp" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>TURING MACHINE </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by Fabien Gridel & Yoann Levet, published by Le Scorpion Masqué)</span></span></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal">Think of <i>Turing Machine</i> as a multiplayer <i>Mastermind</i>: the machine is holding a code of five digits (each of them a number between 1 and 5) and players try to figure it out. But they're not asking each other for clues—they're questioning the machine itself. No app is required, it's all done through punch cards made out of cardboard, and it really works.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The only reason <i>Turing Machine </i>doesn't sit higher on this list is because I know it's not the kind of game I'll be playing all the time. But it is without a doubt one of the most clever designs I've encountered in my entire boardgaming life.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">#9</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgReWMsx95GkhTodVzjW3gYAxYpcAdMTLWgKlBVXxn3WKyiAWg8otfwy5delLEfljO_U90Hw12_7fRmUEQzao8R7bPfMLbQx-6l4g0n0dq03sfkEVacjskEPWDDYhBljahyS6GhzWBqnLuk_oVt86KbmZqqVJ21DYz0L1nnkdaP8EkNqyS5kC5HeQ4f/s600/Clank.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgReWMsx95GkhTodVzjW3gYAxYpcAdMTLWgKlBVXxn3WKyiAWg8otfwy5delLEfljO_U90Hw12_7fRmUEQzao8R7bPfMLbQx-6l4g0n0dq03sfkEVacjskEPWDDYhBljahyS6GhzWBqnLuk_oVt86KbmZqqVJ21DYz0L1nnkdaP8EkNqyS5kC5HeQ4f/s320/Clank.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>CLANK! CATACOMBS </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by Paul Dennen, published by Direwolf)</span></span><br />I remember instantly liking the original <i>Clank!</i> when it came out, because it combined two mechanics I love: dungeon crawling and deck building. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the fixed board, which always provided the same layout, game after game. What I really wanted was a cross between the deck-building fun of <i>Clank!</i> and the "let's venture into the unknown," leap-of-faith sort of dungeon crawling one experiences in a game like <i>Dungeonquest</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Well, I got my wish!</div><div class="MsoNormal">Quick and always fun to play, <i>Catacombs</i> is begging for expansions. And I'll be first in e-line to buy them when they come out.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#8</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfBBTLUQgVJhYxbKHuUaVCaNCdR9cEM9bXyO93iU6GkuxREVsgDzAIlJi8846XLXWef-Fw669MVUQsRSjfZjcZehOqO0daNEfZ9G_bXeFhrG5VLPYSDXen6RSWILvFXp01prUbD9upYUrJ7dMHMSrkLgx2Dhv1PlvkzIhZ0wPSBhW7PdQt0iE4mUO4/s600/Kharkov.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="470" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfBBTLUQgVJhYxbKHuUaVCaNCdR9cEM9bXyO93iU6GkuxREVsgDzAIlJi8846XLXWef-Fw669MVUQsRSjfZjcZehOqO0daNEfZ9G_bXeFhrG5VLPYSDXen6RSWILvFXp01prUbD9upYUrJ7dMHMSrkLgx2Dhv1PlvkzIhZ0wPSBhW7PdQt0iE4mUO4/s320/Kharkov.webp" width="251" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span lang="EN-CA"><span><b>ENEMY ACTION: KHARKOV </b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by John Butterfield, published</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> by Compass Games)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">John Butterfield was already creating exquisite solo wargames when I was still a wee lad, b</span>ut he's not done creating classics, or entire new series of incredible games, for that matter. And for this second dish on the <i>Enemy Action</i> menu, chef Butterfield proposes the tank-heavy battle of Kharkov, which is really three games in one: you play solo as the Russians, or solo as the Germans, or even a two-player game against a flesh-and-blood opponent (if you still have one of those lying around). <i>Kharkov</i> is a little simpler to grok than its sister game <i>Ardennes</i>, so I would recommend new players take a bite of this one before moving on. The solo engine is a masterclass by itself, and the game is a blast.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Tough, but oh so tasty.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">#7</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDQus23jYOA_3IJXXSDTHzZj3sYCUPCf-S0G8Nz9-PKDKpuY1NVFjYQZDfRq7lnvbH81EJY0OPAPdlw5E95hs9eHC9TIa3AFpPYRVQYeeiLQSdmJeEgLGPczMmcF3HiKitC0Asj0Q5R6GzcFWlBLmCwXLMsvVpf3d84N39ucJl1vcoIzh0gqwf2cc/s600/AMFS.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="411" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDQus23jYOA_3IJXXSDTHzZj3sYCUPCf-S0G8Nz9-PKDKpuY1NVFjYQZDfRq7lnvbH81EJY0OPAPdlw5E95hs9eHC9TIa3AFpPYRVQYeeiLQSdmJeEgLGPczMmcF3HiKitC0Asj0Q5R6GzcFWlBLmCwXLMsvVpf3d84N39ucJl1vcoIzh0gqwf2cc/s320/AMFS.webp" width="219" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>A MOST FEARFUL SACRIFICE</b> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by Hermann Luttmann, published by Flying Pig Games)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">I have yet to meet a Luttmann design I didn't take a liking to, and this is one of my favorites.</div><div class="MsoNormal">The game introduces the Black Swan system, a card-based "chit-pull" engine that makes playing the entire battle of Gettysburg a thrilling and fairly painless experience.</div><div class="MsoNormal">But beware, for <i>AMFS</i> is one of those sprawling American Civil War games. My ACW buddy has a massive gaming table<span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">—the kind you build your house <i>around,</i> and then never move out of the room it's trapped in</span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">—and the full board barely fits</span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">! </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Thankfully, most scenarios only use part of the map.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#6</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoUZFc2CGmJ-FZo0PV-Izv4xDQERk_pG-Q6JhXbHYtThb8exZSsYTN9G5TGrKpIbrcEqPhbzAzTga-p_GEhNqkgP6HFfjDG5boVZhty6nVRoefwairoxy1OBoXgrKWrABNFK2qtRHtDyjIEHT6ZIF8PVaRD947KfKPfSaCNtU5buht8vsWnu1iNRRH/s830/Messina.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="830" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoUZFc2CGmJ-FZo0PV-Izv4xDQERk_pG-Q6JhXbHYtThb8exZSsYTN9G5TGrKpIbrcEqPhbzAzTga-p_GEhNqkgP6HFfjDG5boVZhty6nVRoefwairoxy1OBoXgrKWrABNFK2qtRHtDyjIEHT6ZIF8PVaRD947KfKPfSaCNtU5buht8vsWnu1iNRRH/s320/Messina.webp" width="320" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span><b>MESSINA 1347 </b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by Vladimir Suchy & Raul Fernandez Aparicio, published by Delicious Games & Rio Grande Games)</span></span><br />Care for sick people, get rid of the plague, and rebuild (and repopulate!) Messina, all in a day's work.</div><div class="MsoNormal">It's a great game that was plagued (...) by a bad rulebook, which drove scores of players away. But it's a real shame: <i>Messina 1347</i> is both fresh and brilliant, and deserves a much wider audience than it ended up with. </div><div class="MsoNormal">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/09/flash-review-messina-1347.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal">(You can also <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/file/download_redirect/f98be071e5c2d679cc671de36f0fc01e533a39a0b470acc6/Messina1347_errata%26clarifications_v1.2.pdf" target="_blank">download the errata</a> I compiled.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#5</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQGT78L3Wvy6YG_hUADiPxO_R4Zk9FJd00u6irLy-Jwnpxe27R0NXLigMT4JRK9EJ4H0j2Mjxzzu3r9BTovkMTC1jIH7Ytr561WHkRWA68gPYreeQonRTdvNvpUM5bwtbN49Le2AUnWuKd-EH3Th9BxQVFTKdm_8fPQkamyuMK1QenA1NzEBbxq-jg/s600/Boonlake.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="429" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQGT78L3Wvy6YG_hUADiPxO_R4Zk9FJd00u6irLy-Jwnpxe27R0NXLigMT4JRK9EJ4H0j2Mjxzzu3r9BTovkMTC1jIH7Ytr561WHkRWA68gPYreeQonRTdvNvpUM5bwtbN49Le2AUnWuKd-EH3Th9BxQVFTKdm_8fPQkamyuMK1QenA1NzEBbxq-jg/s320/Boonlake.webp" width="229" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>BOONLAKE</b> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by Alexander Pfister, published by Capstone Games)</span></span><br />The first of two Pfister designs on this list (!), <i>Boonlake</i> is an action-selection game that feels like a blend of many favorite mechanics<span face="Calibri, "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 11pt;">—</span>each with a clever twist on top. It's got that classic Pfister feeling of "going somewhere" while offering innovate options when it comes to the simplest of decisions, such as producing resources. </div><div class="MsoNormal">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/10/flash-review-boonlake.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#4</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju0seL7BgY8CumthOoUKGUDrfsGOjH3TAS7K4qs7eGRYYHV1m6lAXhRNXVNyGzjvnaGIbnnfd66tgLMIPvPsZ8G5gVwMV8sNjq9hmWAOC47CuJBbtibdNOBRNCuecgnv7tX8FCpPEA4hNRufVipmXsr69OUkrwuosU802Kcn8zcAHmPy_d8lh6Ui03/s600/WeatherMachine.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="484" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju0seL7BgY8CumthOoUKGUDrfsGOjH3TAS7K4qs7eGRYYHV1m6lAXhRNXVNyGzjvnaGIbnnfd66tgLMIPvPsZ8G5gVwMV8sNjq9hmWAOC47CuJBbtibdNOBRNCuecgnv7tX8FCpPEA4hNRufVipmXsr69OUkrwuosU802Kcn8zcAHmPy_d8lh6Ui03/s320/WeatherMachine.webp" width="258" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"><span><b>WEATHER MACHINE </b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by Vital Lacerda, published by Eagle-Gryphon Games)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">(Yes, two "machine" titles on the list...)</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lacerda is back with his usual mix of brain-bleeding and adrenaline-pumping mechanics, this time wrapped up in a fantastical theme: what if you could control the weather?</div><div class="MsoNormal">It's another winner in my little worn out book, and definitely a game you don't pull from the shelf with slightly inebriated family members during the holidays; just setting up the game would induce spasms.</div><div class="MsoNormal">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/12/flash-review-weather-machine.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">#3</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ZdJLfmruPzQ95tqHQiceUriOpnJWNy0ZzFZj4BQCKmwkW-n4szr1LUa4bmmcgmciKKO6RFjxtVEfMptDQUy6qJTyb4EsWxgmei_0DgWvPNNNkFuZzMW2fvrextOBxcOhN-u959ybPDTpmF4e1sS-UanPZvOVxHccdc4sW3_-0stUmGgqrs58rklS/s600/Brothers.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="471" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4ZdJLfmruPzQ95tqHQiceUriOpnJWNy0ZzFZj4BQCKmwkW-n4szr1LUa4bmmcgmciKKO6RFjxtVEfMptDQUy6qJTyb4EsWxgmei_0DgWvPNNNkFuZzMW2fvrextOBxcOhN-u959ybPDTpmF4e1sS-UanPZvOVxHccdc4sW3_-0stUmGgqrs58rklS/s320/Brothers.webp" width="251" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA"><b>BROTHERS AT WAR: 1862 </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by Christopher Moeller, published by Compass Games)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I've played my share of American Civil War games, and not many of them manage to model those old engagements in such a (relatively) simple, exciting and dynamic manner. This chit-pull title is as close as you'll get to a tactical ACW game at the brigade level, with innovative mechanics and four complete battles in a single box!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I hear an <i>1861</i> version is in the works, and I'll be looking forward to it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/11/flash-review-brothers-at-war-1862.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: x-large;">#2</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwOisMh_TLCp6IDcu15jNeJpha267YRvHtVWn9Jy_gfRMFRKPJ0rQlwAg3nCz1WkwRFffrgTYWsXAMmjkFuzjL3s5yCGZ86vZmcjVJ2UWR8JZ4kXE85C5LX9jsbO7shfbG6Bz7no140pdxi8lW_j0XCduLf5UVsx0GCC3m9IEG8gEtFj7MHt6gqKn/s561/GWTArgentina.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="559" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwOisMh_TLCp6IDcu15jNeJpha267YRvHtVWn9Jy_gfRMFRKPJ0rQlwAg3nCz1WkwRFffrgTYWsXAMmjkFuzjL3s5yCGZ86vZmcjVJ2UWR8JZ4kXE85C5LX9jsbO7shfbG6Bz7no140pdxi8lW_j0XCduLf5UVsx0GCC3m9IEG8gEtFj7MHt6gqKn/s320/GWTArgentina.webp" width="319" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>GREAT WESTERN TRAIL: ARGENTINA</b> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by Alexander Pfister, published by eggertspiele)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">The original <i><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/10/flash-review-great-western-trail-2nd.html" target="_blank">Great Western Trail</a></i> has long been a favorite of mine, so I had doubts about this new take on the system. What would change? Would it be better, or just different?</div><div class="MsoNormal">Turns out it's both. <i>GWT: Argentina</i> makes a few clever tweaks to the solid engine introduced by its older sibling, and adds a handful of new mechanics that elevate the entire game. You're still driving cattle across the land, but this time there's more to do once the cows are shipped off.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I think I like <i>Argentina</i> a bit better than the original <i>GWT</i>, but don't tell it I said that.</div><div class="MsoNormal">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/12/flash-review-great-western-trail.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: x-large;">#1</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7CrlioQnRek1p2eWcK_vAdY4Tlt__qK38pYviE577xAR7ONLwvLnvC1ZZ_Rgk68TF2e4toWe2Mandx_NYeM8pjfdKDefcg9kAnJt8r15FVqnYGWM5HLZOxsfe3Cu0NFURoIHIKLmvIINZSMttCHvdk8sVrJnZQrctct9DnqK-2VvsnzpkRb1jQ_KL/s600/Heat.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7CrlioQnRek1p2eWcK_vAdY4Tlt__qK38pYviE577xAR7ONLwvLnvC1ZZ_Rgk68TF2e4toWe2Mandx_NYeM8pjfdKDefcg9kAnJt8r15FVqnYGWM5HLZOxsfe3Cu0NFURoIHIKLmvIINZSMttCHvdk8sVrJnZQrctct9DnqK-2VvsnzpkRb1jQ_KL/s320/Heat.webp" width="320" /></a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormal"><b>HEAT </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(designed by Asger Harding Granerud & Daniel Skjold Pedersen, published by Days of Wonder)</span></div></span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">My #1 usually ends up being some deep, complex game with intricate moving parts and a mind-buster factor in the high 90s. Not so this year: this is the simplest game on the list!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i>Heat</i> is F1 racing 1961-style, with a basic game that can be explained in minutes, while remaining super tense and fun. Throw in a few "advanced" modules on top (weather, car customization, sponsors!) and <i>Heat</i> becomes much deeper, without adding any real complexity at all. A brilliant (and again, very simple) bot system rounds out the package, which turns solo races into exciting sessions, and makes running races with a full roster of cars a no-brainer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">A well deserved #1 spot, and the first time in ages I've been seduced by a Days of Wonder title.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/12/flash-review-heat-pedal-to-metal.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span><b>DISAPPOINTMENTS</b><br /><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I define "disappointments" as games I expected a lot from, and which failed to deliver.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here are the "top" three from 2022.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOTdnH3UFNnL28GIcs5rCznh06c3wiXwsoXLPbOvP0JkZIWSwgTexuzqVRlS_1dYk7Umv1ikvQmOaHCxq_EfvIeH-sjLxjri3vjU74LgjLcPWRFmKIHNtmPhFOPH3OxWabDQVG9vZSsaER2Vo7jKycUJkqRHBXgcBpZvRunQc_NtWMP_DlBizqmbl/s600/Gutenberg.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOTdnH3UFNnL28GIcs5rCznh06c3wiXwsoXLPbOvP0JkZIWSwgTexuzqVRlS_1dYk7Umv1ikvQmOaHCxq_EfvIeH-sjLxjri3vjU74LgjLcPWRFmKIHNtmPhFOPH3OxWabDQVG9vZSsaER2Vo7jKycUJkqRHBXgcBpZvRunQc_NtWMP_DlBizqmbl/w200-h200/Gutenberg.webp" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The subject matter was really speaking to me, and the components were stunning<span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">—I mean, you're using inks and actual reversed types to "typeset" the print jobs you have to get done! </span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Turns out the game design itself is uninspired, with the promising "interlocking gears" system broken by a stupid rule that lets you remove a gear and put it back in any position you like.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Feel free to let this one go out of print.</span></div><div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4VrSi4zRbUk-_bTVfol7y2WBqFIRNwLhis2B5mE6zludfFdz64y3ZyAHEJk40YkmGhVWr8Gr27C4R9C43TuYPt2PVKk5fiDqYIxDiLbIHITZGNJUdknwsEFxZ0hoWfEY0uf1_dfadePUzo1obK3TszVoJSkDWotmLuG7d07xn9Dpe4wjS2uKd_sK/s900/303.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="900" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4VrSi4zRbUk-_bTVfol7y2WBqFIRNwLhis2B5mE6zludfFdz64y3ZyAHEJk40YkmGhVWr8Gr27C4R9C43TuYPt2PVKk5fiDqYIxDiLbIHITZGNJUdknwsEFxZ0hoWfEY0uf1_dfadePUzo1obK3TszVoJSkDWotmLuG7d07xn9Dpe4wjS2uKd_sK/w200-h131/303.webp" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">With a fresh take on the Battle of Britain, <i>303 Squadron</i> seemed like a slam dunk to me. But no amount of inventiveness could make up for the truly messed up rulebook that shipped with this.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Still, it feels like there <i>is</i> a good game underneath all the wreckage, and that's the only reason I haven't gotten rid of it yet. But my hopes for a v2 of the rules are diminishing as we speak.</div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_SxV0DamjQZ6cAzFVVXuuJ2taqmLLtP_JeY_KCQSELkCTzJj-f2n8eVyka60cp7NACDsjxVgSnrFLdRHSp9BDKyhkcXr61N9rzRT0C0Z1ti7IUhQnHPR2xt7jPI2fwTVw75Y04q-i71KohixOJ_CXT8nRqv9d4cgZ6gRq9_74p76z-omiIHtID1PO/s600/Bridge.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_SxV0DamjQZ6cAzFVVXuuJ2taqmLLtP_JeY_KCQSELkCTzJj-f2n8eVyka60cp7NACDsjxVgSnrFLdRHSp9BDKyhkcXr61N9rzRT0C0Z1ti7IUhQnHPR2xt7jPI2fwTVw75Y04q-i71KohixOJ_CXT8nRqv9d4cgZ6gRq9_74p76z-omiIHtID1PO/w200-h200/Bridge.webp" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I thought this one would be a fine, comfy, classic eurogame. But I should have learned my lesson by now, right? Leo Colovini has nice ideas, but his games are never really great. So you play them for a while and have fun, and then you wonder why you should keep playing them at all. (The best ones I played from him, <i>Carolus Magnus and Cartagena</i>, hit that wall just like the others.) </div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Old London Bridge</i> was falling down from the get-go.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>STRAGGLERS</b></span><br /><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Let's end on a high note with three games that would have made the list had I encountered them back in the year when they were published.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPz0ouLIFbtOPNH2cDO3gc8Ci5upZKc2jDUAr0fNShc7zlVE8Kk6zrqVeGgRKwyyqlgsR_aumBYpvKz9N8-5CjSyl0b8DJYmQyx9uLE4TcY50dkKNhWqaR64DKRbKm9k9c48aOMUtH5g8xTrPz31OyjC8odcRy-oy-OIh_i83AVLRCXKlr6PqwapUk/s608/Nemesis.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="608" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPz0ouLIFbtOPNH2cDO3gc8Ci5upZKc2jDUAr0fNShc7zlVE8Kk6zrqVeGgRKwyyqlgsR_aumBYpvKz9N8-5CjSyl0b8DJYmQyx9uLE4TcY50dkKNhWqaR64DKRbKm9k9c48aOMUtH5g8xTrPz31OyjC8odcRy-oy-OIh_i83AVLRCXKlr6PqwapUk/w200-h198/Nemesis.webp" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">When I first heard about this one, it sounded like a rip-off of the <i>Alien</i> franchise, bloated with plastic miniatures just for the hell of it.</div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal">But I discovered this year that I had been very wrong.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Oh, it's definitely an <i>Alien</i> rip-off, but it's the best damn <i>Alien</i> game out there. Stop wasting your time with licensed crap designs like my <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/01/my-favorite-boardgames-of-2021.html" target="_blank">top disappointment of last year</a> (<i>Another Glorious Day in the Corps</i>) and start playing <i>Nemesis </i>right this minute.</div><div class="MsoNormal">(You can read my flash review <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/10/flash-review-nemesis.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br /><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTuz1uqqDtJXK8DdYKiKuh5A6uADnsNnXDJ6sCpJFHuWDRokx5V75x8xfTvquimyazhs4WNtWpuUb0M_jwso2IvtcZwaU2FcstEy8FvsehQSz2MHMEuvtBA4Mp4X3bJ2_9Ts3hLiBecUYl6LX1DjHlTmdv5gA-4E64_nu_Dp0d7_kGTQ9TR8eeusc/s600/Ardennes.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="477" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTuz1uqqDtJXK8DdYKiKuh5A6uADnsNnXDJ6sCpJFHuWDRokx5V75x8xfTvquimyazhs4WNtWpuUb0M_jwso2IvtcZwaU2FcstEy8FvsehQSz2MHMEuvtBA4Mp4X3bJ2_9Ts3hLiBecUYl6LX1DjHlTmdv5gA-4E64_nu_Dp0d7_kGTQ9TR8eeusc/w159-h200/Ardennes.webp" width="159" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">This game languished on a shelf for years before I played it, and I only dove into it after suffering a severe concussion and having my doctor say I should try learning a complex game to retrain my brain.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal">Again, I'd been a fool for not playing it sooner. And I was so impressed that I grabbed of copy of <i>EA:Kharkov</i> (see above) as soon as it hit the streets. If Butterfield keeps making 'em, I'll keep buying 'em.</div><div class="MsoNormal">But I'll pass on the concussion next time.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6K0ASRfMW53gvJd-2yt9zXpqijNV4bktmzr5toaYC0-M8l-MeLRIkfbEDDa55S3HxrLWDNIWSAmT733ddHq27d_fTE2P3f45sbGE7d-R5R1kYiYSAMfkgG_Mx4VFdzmDB56i4Xp34E7k3BrwWM0ElhEMyQ11LvD67meHBpxdMhtpxWf1S_hpS7el/s600/AttackSub.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="435" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6K0ASRfMW53gvJd-2yt9zXpqijNV4bktmzr5toaYC0-M8l-MeLRIkfbEDDa55S3HxrLWDNIWSAmT733ddHq27d_fTE2P3f45sbGE7d-R5R1kYiYSAMfkgG_Mx4VFdzmDB56i4Xp34E7k3BrwWM0ElhEMyQ11LvD67meHBpxdMhtpxWf1S_hpS7el/w145-h200/AttackSub.webp" width="145" /></a></div><br /><br /></div>No, I haven't owned my copy of <i>Attack Sub</i> since it was first published, back in 1991. But it was gifted to me by a friend a few years back, nonetheless... We finally got around to trying it this year. And it's a lot of fun!</div><div class="MsoNormal">Think of it as the <i>Up Front</i> of submarine combat (by the same designer) and with components that take you way, way back to the early '90s. </div><div class="MsoNormal">Can't wait to play it again.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"># # #</div></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-69086137849204335682022-12-15T06:30:00.005-08:002022-12-15T06:53:24.718-08:00Flash Review — Weather Machine<div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiO4n_Pz4gaqi4mjoU65e2DThCiNbuWtdftiXXJLsre8yLEcn6EHadPK7xz9eEDKymglju7wtEihB-eb86iEw2AAFSzFNe7aS6B0yiYJm-mluQiDkSoVOm41K0_b0ppACqd1peOkXp7y6x1AhBf8RL0Sv0GXX2mUDVbG3RwYpDmz5jzjYLDa7ADiT/s600/WeatherMachine.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="484" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiO4n_Pz4gaqi4mjoU65e2DThCiNbuWtdftiXXJLsre8yLEcn6EHadPK7xz9eEDKymglju7wtEihB-eb86iEw2AAFSzFNe7aS6B0yiYJm-mluQiDkSoVOm41K0_b0ppACqd1peOkXp7y6x1AhBf8RL0Sv0GXX2mUDVbG3RwYpDmz5jzjYLDa7ADiT/s320/WeatherMachine.webp" width="258" /></a></div><b><br /></b></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><div><b>Players</b>: 1-4</div></b><b>Works well with just 2</b>: Yes!<br /><b>Solo quality</b>: [unplayed]<br /><b>Age</b>: 14+<br /><b>Playtime</b>: 60-150 min<br /><b>Complexity</b>: 8.5/10<br /><br />While Professor Lativ’s wondrous invention is successful in controlling local weather phenomena, the machine also causes extreme “butterfly effect” disruptions elsewhere. There is much to do!<br /><br />A new game by Vital Lacerda is a yearly cause for celebration within my gaming group. The Lisbon-born (Lisborn?) designer has a knack for coming up with heavy games that play like a massive, well-oiled clock: each element interacts superbly with everything else, and all you need to do is figure out how best to pull the levers at your disposal in order to achieve a resounding success.<br />Ha.<br /><br />In <i>Weather Machine</i>, players secure government subsidies, expand their workshops, run experiments using Professor Lativ’s machine, build new prototypes to fix the screw-ups caused by those experiments, publish their findings in academic papers, and build cute little robots to help them do it all. (You can even quote previous papers on the same topic to help get yours published. How about that?)<br /><br />As you can expect with Lacerda, the design reuses some of his mechanical darlings while injecting novelty in other areas. Overall, the game is not that difficult… but it’s a real challenge to learn, and even worse to <i>teach</i>. (God help me.) Hence my 8.5 complexity rating. All I can say is, don’t give up: the end result is well worth the effort. There’s a special satisfaction to be found in seeing all those intricate mechanics come together and WORK. Plus the little gears (even the cardboard ones—I think the metal upgrades are overkill) are just a joy to play with, and the entire package is gorgeous.<br /></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;">For the Lacerda fans out there, <i>Weather Machine</i> feels to me closest to <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2021/06/flash-review-kanban-ev.html" target="_blank"><i>Kanban</i> </a>out of all his previous designs</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">—</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">if that can help push you off the fence.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Sadly I cannot comment on the solitaire module provided with the game, as I have not had a chance to play it yet. But it’s pretty intricate and not for the faint of heart.<br /><br /><b>Most easily forgotten rule</b>: When you build the prototype (in the R&D department), all of the gears you use must come from the same row in your workshop.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div></div></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-71253546997320327362022-12-07T08:55:00.000-08:002023-12-17T14:14:01.591-08:00Flash Review — Great Western Trail: Argentina<div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT8w2gjLG6BHA5clNxS-4VhxOXpvBQkEnuir57-HHTTgZS43PUa1_gdSyEXYv53q4UtV8fiI7VN_Ti7isyyf2UPUDhA-shMU0mzHs702HEABde1wRTU6lRjVih0y0xs-ztAtNxrtiptcvuKyHomlqbvEvya9L5CZKjpBLyKnNj4Ydys8Flv5aoNwN1/s561/GWTArgentina.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="559" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT8w2gjLG6BHA5clNxS-4VhxOXpvBQkEnuir57-HHTTgZS43PUa1_gdSyEXYv53q4UtV8fiI7VN_Ti7isyyf2UPUDhA-shMU0mzHs702HEABde1wRTU6lRjVih0y0xs-ztAtNxrtiptcvuKyHomlqbvEvya9L5CZKjpBLyKnNj4Ydys8Flv5aoNwN1/s320/GWTArgentina.webp" width="319" /></a></div><b><br /></b></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Players</b>: 1-4<br /><b>Works well with just 2</b>: Yes!<br /><b>Solo quality</b>: Good<br /><b>Age</b>: 12+<br /><b>Playtime</b>: 75-150 min<br /><b>Complexity</b>: 8/10<br /><br />Just a few weeks ago, I wrote a flash review of the excellent <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/10/flash-review-great-western-trail-2nd.html" target="_blank">second edition</a> of <i>Great Western Trail</i>, the original version of which had earned first prize in my <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-personal-top-10-boardgames-published.html" target="_blank">Top 10 for 2016</a>. <br />Now comes a new setting with slightly modified mechanics, and I’m falling in love all over again.<br /><br />This time around, you’re driving cattle in Argentina, intent on getting those cows aboard ships bound for Europe. Once again, the board depicts the land players need to traverse on their way to Buenos Aires, with buildings that offer new actions as well as some familiar ones, and farmers instead of bandits. Incidentally, players can help those farmers if they have sufficient strength (a new resource) on their cattle cards and player boards; in return, farmers can be enlisted as workers to help supply the players with grain.<br /><br />Grain is also a new resource: whereas in <i>GWT </i>you pay money to ship cattle to faraway cities, now you need to pay grain to load them onto ships (placing one of your discs on the ship you selected). At regular intervals, groups of ships depart for Europe, carrying with them player discs they’ll drop in three major ports. From that point on, whenever you’re shipping cows, you can also perform an “extra delivery”—provided you can pay for it in grain—that reuses one of your discs now in Europe, for a juicy bonus in points or pesos.<br /><br /><i>GWT Argentina</i> is certainly different from its older sibling, but not different enough to warrant owning both versions of the game, unless you’re a <i>GWT </i>maniac. But if you enjoy the original, I can’t imagine you wouldn’t like this new spin on the same robust system. (I just wish the enclosed plastic tray was usable; as it stands you can’t even keep it if you aspire to put everything back in the box at the end of the game.)<br />The solo module introduces Pedro, a bot with its own cards and little player board who plays against you. Pedro can operate according to three different difficulty settings; either way, you'll soon learn to hate him (in a good way!).<br /><br />After a few plays, I think <i>Argentina </i>is superior to the classic version, but I’m not ready to get rid of my beloved <i>GWT </i>just yet. What I am ready for, though, is the final title in the trilogy, coming out sometime in 2023—<i>Great Western Trail: New Zealand</i>. <br /><br />Can’t wait to start herding those wild kiwis. Hee haw!<br /><br /><b> Most easily forgotten rule</b>: If you have exhaustion cards in your hand when you reach Buenos Aires, you remove them entirely from your deck—you don’t just discard them. </span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-76138243442105579712022-12-01T10:26:00.005-08:002022-12-01T10:26:48.819-08:00Flash Review — Heat: Pedal to the Metal<div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPw3cm7OfhNeoQlq9MOnl1bcSUmW5-1HFAyFMV83VK02L6fPrL843yvV_vZ0UXJNH2KQ5DUhyNyORTEsElxM0V_gtT8Qj6LEW3vonYQFnLhAHeOMmX8-fXbP4yGQ9f7Q0PVLG63rQcJ2ynxpf5ZxipVq8CwdVcm5VUzIvDHo8cKtdmNmaeb0s9FKJe/s600/Heat.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPw3cm7OfhNeoQlq9MOnl1bcSUmW5-1HFAyFMV83VK02L6fPrL843yvV_vZ0UXJNH2KQ5DUhyNyORTEsElxM0V_gtT8Qj6LEW3vonYQFnLhAHeOMmX8-fXbP4yGQ9f7Q0PVLG63rQcJ2ynxpf5ZxipVq8CwdVcm5VUzIvDHo8cKtdmNmaeb0s9FKJe/s320/Heat.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Players</b>: 1-6<br /><b>Works well with just</b> 2: Yes!<br /><b>Solo quality</b>: Outstanding<br /><b>Age</b>: 10+<br /><b>Playtime</b>: 30-60 min<br /><b>Complexity</b>: 5/10<br /><br />It’s Formula 1 racing in the ‘60s, and you’re at the wheel of a powerful machine barrelling down the speedway. Everywhere you look, the track is filled with brightly colored cars. But hey, what’s one more hairpin turn at breakneck speed?<br /><br /><i>Heat </i>comes with four different race tracks, six cute little cars and a deck of speed cards for every player, with each card showing a different speed—from 0 all the way to 5. The basic game couldn’t be simpler: shift up or down into the gear you want, play that many cards (from 1 to 4), and move your car as far as it’ll go without getting blocked. If you negotiate a corner during your move, check your speed (total value of the cards you played) against the corner’s speed limit, and pay 1 heat card for each speed increment over that limit.<br />(You’re rounding a 3-corner at speed 7? That just cost you four heat cards.)<br /><br />Those heat cards start on your player board and represent your engine’s capabilities to “give a little more.” You begin the game with six, and gradually move them (“spend” them) to your discard pile to move faster or reach a gear you couldn’t normally shift into, in addition to overshooting corners as described above.<br />You’ll want to rid your deck of heat cards for two reasons: because those become clutter in your hand (possibly causing an overheat situation where your car doesn’t move at all for a turn) but also because if you no longer have heat cards on your player board, you can’t ask your engine for that extra kick you just needed to pass that green bastard on the straightaway. So make sure you shift down to gear 1 or 2 once in a while: those let you discard heat cards back to your player board. (And if you can time that with slowing down for a difficult corner, all the better!)<br /><br />The game also features a solo mode where the flip of a single card drives all of the pilotless cars (from one to all 6, which means you could just watch the race unfold if you feel particularly lazy one evening). And they’re competitive, too! So much so that there’s no reason not to use a full complement of cars on the track, no matter the number of human players. Even the solo races are proving fun and tense, which is no small achievement.<br /><br />And there are more options to explore: the garage module (customize your car!), the weather module (you afraid of a little snow at 290 km/h?), and the championship system (one race isn’t the whole story…).<br /><br />I’m a big racing game fan, and <i>Heat </i>just might make it all the way to the top of my list. It manages to strike a death-defying balance between simplicity, meaningful decisions and excitement, all the while making the whole thing <i>feel like a race.</i> I can’t recommend it enough.<br /><br /><b> Most easily forgotten rule</b>: You can decide to use adrenaline before <i>or after</i> you boost.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-1761038216333221462022-11-23T07:48:00.005-08:002023-09-03T08:03:33.991-07:00Lucas Land: Stag Night<p> <span style="font-family: verdana;">(Previous chapter: <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2022/08/lucas-land-its-in-cards.html" target="_blank">It's in the Cards</a>)</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ubkbdRbDPg-oQKNRkaQgfsrTPeegtY1iou6Vh-JMvramr1rPBghPCKwybZ6-S2282oLOYqKmr6YNcnMWM1MjbmIxar-0eEKYNByES0FKrZ9brskriPM7_PvOKPbwJTDhH5r0uJjVp-2CkBhdcVhgB-w5AYsmnhMmVKorYIkG1pPAuzVNIS_BhhHO/s1200/SSound.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="1200" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ubkbdRbDPg-oQKNRkaQgfsrTPeegtY1iou6Vh-JMvramr1rPBghPCKwybZ6-S2282oLOYqKmr6YNcnMWM1MjbmIxar-0eEKYNByES0FKrZ9brskriPM7_PvOKPbwJTDhH5r0uJjVp-2CkBhdcVhgB-w5AYsmnhMmVKorYIkG1pPAuzVNIS_BhhHO/w462-h241/SSound.jpg" width="462" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“Hey,
wanna go see </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Raiders of the Lost Ark </i><span style="font-family: verdana;">on
Friday night?”</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Standing
tall behind an actual vineyard, Skywalker Sound is a big winery-looking, red
brick building that’s home to everything and anything that has to do with sound
within Skywalker Ranch. Recording studios (large enough to hold an orchestra),
foley studios (footsteps and slamming doors), mixing studios, editing suites,
plus a litany of actual offices... you name it, it’s all in there.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And
there’s one more thing you can find here: a private screening room called the
Stag Theater. With its 300-soul capacity, it’s about the size of your average
multiplex theater. And it’s not especially luxurious either, instead coming
across as a very nice room, but nothing spectacular. The truth is, you can’t
see what’s mind-blowingly incredible about the Stag.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">But
you sure as hell can </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">hear it.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Back
in 1983, Lucasfilm deployed the THX system to ensure that showings of </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Return of the Jedi</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> would conform to
certain audio standards. So in high-end theaters, the movie soundtrack sounded
exactly the way the mixing engineer intended—or as close to it as technical
limitations and architectural concerns allowed. The system took its name from
George Lucas’s first feature film, </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">THX
1138</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, but also from its inventor’s namesake, hence the Tomlinson Holman
Xperiment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(During
my orientation day at Lucasfilm, a sweet HR lady asked my small group of new
employees if anyone knew how the THX system got its name. A few hands went up,
and when one of them was selected to offer an answer—</span><i style="font-family: verdana;">THX 1138</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">—all the others fell back down, deflated. The cocky,
25-year-old me had been waiting for just that moment to raise my own hand, and
mention Tomlinson Holman when called upon. Our HR lady was quick to congratulate
me on my erudite answer, but a quick look around the room sufficed to confirm
that I had just marked my territory with the smell of absolute dorkness.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">THX
went on to certify more than theaters: home sound systems, computer sound
cards, physical movie releases (VHS, Laserdiscs, DVDs...) and so on. But its
original intent had always been the theater experience. And so the Stag was
built around THX.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Think
of the Stag Theater as the king of THX: it’s </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">the</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> reference theater, built according to the exact specifications
the THX system requires. Its equipment not only provides the greatest surround
sound you can experience at the movies, but it also perfectly reproduces what
the mixing engineer heard in his or her studio. In other words, the Stag is
what every other movie theater around the world tries to be. And if they come
close enough, they get the THX certification.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">So you can imagine what it sounds like when you step into that sonic temple.
The room is neither too muffled, nor too echoey; neither too velvety, nor too
wooden. It’s just a perfect balance between liquid and solid. Pure aural bliss.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When
I walked in there for the first time—with permission to take a quick peek on my
way to lunch—the whole thing felt like a religious experience. My own breathing sounded
like the most expertly mixed gust of wind in the history of cinema, my own
footsteps altogether like the start of something wondrous and the end of
everything. It brought tears to my eyes and I never wanted to leave.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Those
who know me and my hyper-acute hearing will tell you I don’t exaggerate about that
stuff: nowhere else have I heard such perfect acoustics, even when the room was
empty and no sound was playing. It was beauty at a level that causes pain.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">About
a month into my Lucasfilm tenure, a coworker asked me if I wanted to go see </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Raiders of the Lost Ark</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> with him at the
end of the week. He proceeded to explain that, once in a while, Lucasfilm held
screenings for employees... at the Stag Theater. Not usually LFL productions,
either: it just happened that this time around they were showing </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Raiders</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">, one of my favorite movies</span><i style="font-family: verdana;">.</i></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So, would I go?<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">A
few expletives later, we had a date.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Friday
night couldn’t swing by fast enough. When it finally did, I showed up early to
make sure I could sit in the exact center of the Stag Theater, grabbing the
sweet spot to end all sweet spots. The room filled up quickly, sometimes with
faces whose owners I’d had a chance to meet, but usually with friendly
strangers I </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">hoped</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> I would get to
know. (It would soon dawn on me that my role as internal reporter meant that I
could meet whomever I wanted on Skywalker Ranch—though I </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">did infiltrate ILM a few times—but I hadn</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">’t yet made that realization.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Right
before the movie started, I looked ahead and noticed I was sitting behind
George Lucas. (I would later hear that Steven Spielberg was supposed to join
him for the showing, but couldn’t make it at the last minute.) He was actually
one seat over on my left, which meant that during the entire evening, I watched
</span><i style="font-family: verdana;">Raiders</i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> with one eye on the screen,
and one eye on George. I saw him smile, nod his head, then press his lips
together and furrow his brow, in sync with what I assumed were scenes he was
still enjoying—almost 20 years down the line—and others he wished had turned
out better. (He reacted strongly to the end sequence where Nazi heads melt and
explode, but whether his body language expressed revulsion or pride, I’ll never
know.) He would sometimes lean over to laugh or whisper something in producer
Rick McCallum’s ear, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.</span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">
Remember we were watching this thunderous adventure in the Stag Theater, where
the soundtrack was LOUD yet perfectly defined. I had frankly never heard a
movie sound like that, and I fear I might there and then have forever damaged
my aural enjoyment of cinema: it would all be downhill going forward. From the
rumble of that giant boulder bearing down on Indiana Jones, all the way to the
hissing of snakes (so many snakes!) and the crack of our archaeologist’s whip,
every frequency was just right, everything mixed together into the perfect
mélange. I felt enthralled, as if some alchemical process had transmuted sound
into a hypnotic compound delivered straight into my brain.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There
was a round of applause at the conclusion of the movie—on that ominous shot of an
endless warehouse where the titular ark is re-buried, this time amongst a
million anonymous crates—and every single spectator remained in their seat
until the last note of the end credits had died down. (Which it did with perfect
grace.)<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">As
the lights came on, we all stood, George turned around while putting on his
sports jacket—it was a chilly evening—and we nodded a greeting to each other. I
blinked hard: </span><i style="font-family: verdana;">George Lucas had gestured a
“hello” at me after a showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark</i><span style="font-family: verdana;">. I said
something—I like to tell myself it was “Still a great movie!” or some other
enthusiastic compliment, but to tell the truth I can’t remember what crawled
out from between my lips. It might not even have been intelligible: George
smiled politely and we all ambled towards the exit.</span></p>
<span style="font-family: verdana;">The hallway between the actual theater and the exterior door only took a moment to cross, but for that brief swatch of eternity, I forgot where I stood: I was just one moviegoer amongst many, walking out after an entertaining evening. So when I stepped outside and looked around, the realization that I was at Skywalker Ranch hit me like a road sign flung around by a tornado.</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wonders
within wonders.</span><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
would soon find</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> exciting new reasons to go b</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">ack to the Stag, but as a first introduction, it left a mark I don't think will ever wash away.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Next
chapter: <a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/2023/08/lucas-land-id-please.html" target="_blank">ID Please</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Full series </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://reportsfromthefrontlines.blogspot.com/search/label/Lucas%20Land%20series" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: verdana;">#
# #</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6180157955253535253.post-40937517323450060392022-11-11T09:00:00.006-08:002022-11-11T09:00:58.274-08:00Flash Review — Brothers at War: 1862<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJjTwIhvczXBOJbM29vz6uBL1ufmDCTMuYIwI56Jd10zTpMsyeVaYPq6HdkZh8xrLXCsgwITFlePscdgo8ofIR_jl5b0xXQn2jEgjInavYB8j3rwsjks90fEURZgJ1lEtB7-_NdUpjQx05X6yJpMziK2CM8xNbSqlP-IaWHbzo9kA6Zn9yc1Qg89p/s600/Brothers.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="471" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJjTwIhvczXBOJbM29vz6uBL1ufmDCTMuYIwI56Jd10zTpMsyeVaYPq6HdkZh8xrLXCsgwITFlePscdgo8ofIR_jl5b0xXQn2jEgjInavYB8j3rwsjks90fEURZgJ1lEtB7-_NdUpjQx05X6yJpMziK2CM8xNbSqlP-IaWHbzo9kA6Zn9yc1Qg89p/s320/Brothers.webp" width="251" /></a></div></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div>Players</b>: 2<br /><b>Age</b>: 14+<br /><b>Playtime</b>: 60-240 min<br /><b>Complexity</b>: 8.5/10<br /><br />Over the years, I played a lot of games covering the American Civil War. Many were excellent, but most proved too difficult to crack for the average boardgamer out there. (Hence my ongoing silence about those games in my flash reviews.) <i>Brothers at War</i> stands out in that crowd: not only does it run on an intuitive and exception-free engine, but it also features a host of short scenarios that will make newcomers feel welcome instead of sending them screaming into the night. <br /><br />Those scenarios—there are 13 of them in total—pit Union and Confederate brigades against each other on four different maps: Antietam, South Mountain, Mill Springs and Valverde. The hexes are big, the counters on the map are few, and the whole thing is powered by a chit-pull activation system. This means that a cardboard chit is selected at random, and the identity of that chit determines which brigade gets to act. That brigade’s various units might move, fire at the enemy, or assault an adjacent hex—a dangerous proposition, but you know, desperate times call for crazy fools who get the job done.<br /><br />One of the game’s innovations concerns that chit-pull mechanic. In classic chit-pull designs, each used chit is set aside before moving on to the next one, and once two Time chits (out of two or three in the pool) make an appearance, the turn is over. In Brothers at War, however, a turn starts with just one Time chit in the pool, and each chit drawn from the pool is placed on the next space of the activation track. Many of those spaces are blank, but some will grant players additional strategy cards (useful to surprise your opponent with a twist they were hoping wouldn’t come), while other spaces will throw an additional Time chit into the pool, increasing the odds of the turn screeching to a halt next time a chit gets fished out of the pool.<br />And the fact that each map comes with its own activation track really helps give each battle a unique vibe, with a distinctive ebb and flow. Have Time chits added lazily to the pool, and you get a drawn out engagement; but make sure the Time chits get thrown in at a furious pace, and you end up with that snowball feeling of a battle, where the end is always around the next corner—and will your artillery cross that river in time? (I’m looking at you, Valverde!)<br /><br /><i>Brothers at War</i> doesn’t get talked about much, and it deserves a much better fate.<br />I heartily recommend it, whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a wet-behind-the-ears recruit still struggling to load their musket rifle.<br /><br /><b>Most easily forgotten rule</b>: An attacked unit gets one additional save roll if its attacker moved before firing at it.</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"># # #</span></div>Francis K. Lalumierehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207579800488766376noreply@blogger.com0