Boardgames To Go

BGTG 107 - Handcrafted Games (with Lincoln Damerst and Greg Wilzbach)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:03:42 PDT

I grabbed two of my artistically talented friends (Greg did my podcast logo!) and put them on the microphone to talk about their hobby-within-a-hobby: handcrafted games. These guys have both taken a known, existing boardgame or two and hand made their own copies. It might have been to create something that's hard to get, or it might have been to make a personalized, deluxe version of a favorite game. In any case, it's a labor of love, takes time & money, and takes some real craftmanship & technique. I found their stories fascinating, as much because they're so beyond anything I could accomplish myself.

Lincoln Damerst (heccubus on BGG) starts by talking about his copy of the old Parker Brothers proto-eurogame, Survive! In fact, he posted a good description and photos of the process. Greg Wilzbach (gawilz on BGG) talks about his copy of Spekulation, which Lincoln also did! Though he didn't finish the goal (and never posted images of his efforts), Greg also talks about making his own deluxe versions of Wiz-War and Up Front.

The game I tried to pimp out was Kings & Castles, but I'm not finished. It won't end up looking like the fancy games Greg & Lincoln are doing. I'm just trying to replace the boring cardboard counters with colored wooden discs, hand-inked with simple icons.

Want to see that metal version of Big Boss that Lincoln mentioned? Here it is. Whoa...

I talked about Artscow.com in my previous podcast, and here it was mentioned again. That's for images printed on things (cards, throw pillows, watch faces, you name it). For 3D objects made to custom designs, Lincoln mentioned Shapeways.com. Custom dice are just the tip of the iceberg. You could make custom icebergs!

Merchants of Venus is a handcrafted title these guys haven't done--but admire someone else's work. And someone else's. Maybe there's more of this stuff going on than I realized!

Lincoln's wife Nikki Pontius made a very clever graphic overhaul of Würfel Bingo into something that's improved for its theme: Waffle Bingo! I couldn't find any photos online yet, but I'm bugging Lincoln & Nikki to post some, because you really need to see it.

Be sure to check out Harbor Freight for your laminator and lamination needs!

Thanks to Lincoln & Greg for joining me on this show. It was like I was a member of an audience, just hearing these guys tell great stories.

-Mark

P.S. Sorry about the occasional nose-whistle going on. Not sure who that was, but I'm afraid it was me. :-/

BGTG now (also) on BGG

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 06:22:38 PDT

Got those acronyms? Now Boardgames To Go has its own existence on Boardgamegeek. This is in addition to this blog & website, which I intend to always be the podcast's true home. However, for some it may be convenient to keep up with the podcast from BGG, along with their other favorite boardgame podcasts. Like so many features that Aldie adds to that amazing site, its full potential isn't yet obvious. I remember thinking there was no point to Geek Gold, and not much more point to Geeklists.

I was proven wrong. :-)

I'm not sure what's going to happen on BGTG's page over at BGG. For now it automatically takes the same RSS feed that lets you subscribe to shows on iTunes, or keep up with my posts in a blogreader. The way BGG works, though, its users will figure out. It's community-driven content. If you're a fan of the podcast, you can help out by adding links, ideas, and information in the appropriate sections. Thanks.

-Mark

P.S. This might mean the end of the newly-formed BGTG guild over on BGG. I'm not sure yet.

BGTG 106 - SR & Feedback (Super Slapshot, Age of Industry)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:23:34 PDT

At long last, another episode, and a long-winded one at that! These session report & feedback shows are supposed to be easier episodes for me to bang out--I need to remember that! Doing them more often will work through the response backlog and make them easier & shorter. We'll see how well I do at remembering that... :-)

In addition to a lot of great comments about past shows, I talk about two games I've played recently (two games which couldn't be more different). The first is an old "beer & pretzels" card game themed around ice hockey, Slapshot, only I was playing a geek retheming by fan Kwanchai Moriya called Super Slapshot, using a deck of cards made with Artscow. The other title is a brand new game, Martin Wallace's deep game of the spread of the industrial revolution, Age of Industry. This is a reworking of the earlier title--and huge favorite of mine--Brass.

How do I feel about AoI compared to Brass? You'll have to listen to the show for a full discussion. In a nutshell, though, I felt AoI didn't offer enough of an alternative (especially a quicker, easier alternative) to prefer it over the intense history that takes place in Brass. In fact, it was the trigger to finally make me order my own copy of Brass. I really hope the online or iPhone implementation rumors for AoI prove true, because I would love to explore it as deeply as those formats would allow.

-Mark

Recent gaming (face-to-face, play-by-web, and iPhone)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:49:48 PDT

June was a crazy month at work (as I knew it would be), so I haven't managed to post shows even though I've still got a good one in the can . . . and I managed to record another one. I need to post some "normal" session report & feedback shows in between the featured episodes, though. I'll get to that.

Despite all that, I still got in some great gaming in June, especially with one big weekend in there. I can't record a podcast about it while I'm here on a plane, but I can draft a blog post.

Santa Clarita Boardgamers

Carson City - This was the local group's Game of the Month for May, but I'll still mention it here. I liked it well enough, and everyone else liked it even more, so that's a keeper. It was a very good GotM, as it has q modest learning curve (it takes one game for the scoring to sink in), and offers several variants right out of the box. There are two maps, two sets of role/special power cards, and a couple different ways to handle the random part of conflict. Worker placement is ok, I guess, but not my favorite mechanic. This was a decent twist in it, taking the linear path of Caylus and adding a thematic conflict system to handle when multiple players want the same thing. There's also those special power roles to mix things up. My only real complaint was that I thought it had a little too much going on, mechanics-wise, but what was there worked. The strongest part was the theming. Western themes always appeal to me anyway, and the boomtown development theme really works well, both in feel/story (narrative!) and some mechanics (metaphor).

At the Gates of Loyang - Finally played this third game in the pseudo-series. Although I like Agricola, it's not something that blew me away. Ok once in a while. Le Havre was a step in the wrong direction for me, my one play being enough for that fiddly bookkeeping game. What, then, for Loyang? Well, about like Agricola. Ok now and then. It was pleasant and harmless. The theming was fun. I thought the production was an odd mix of overproduced bits and underproduced "boards."

Snow Tails - I was very happy to play this one, but equally happy that I didn't buy it myself with hopes of playing it with family. As I suspected, it's just too calculating (and unforgiving) for that kind of fun. Still, this is the best Lamont game yet, and the theme does draw me in. As does the wonderful production.

Super Slapshot - This was my first ArtsCow project, and I started off easy. The designer (Kwanchai Moriya) of this fan variant version of the longtime convention classic Slapshot put up a shared library link on ArtsCow that made it easy to get decks of cards. It came out to about $18 or so, and still needs a few components you can scavenge elsewhere. Most important, the game was lots of fun. It has less to do with hockey than HGSB or StreetSoccer have to do with their sports, but that's ok. It's light and fairly random, so I don't want to oversell (or overplay) it, but I'm very happy to have this game.

Small World - All it did was make me wish we were playing Vinci instead.

Game weekend party

One Saturday I had friends over and we managed to play games all day. Besides another fun time with Super Slapshot, we got in the following . . .

Princes of Florence - This was planned in advance, a chance to show Tim a modern classic we hadn't played in years. I guess to be fair this one is kind of fiddly and involved, too. No matter, I still love it. I didn't when it first arrived, but it grew on me. (Kind of like Brass, that way.) Of course Dave Arnott squeaked out the win, but I gave him a run for it.

Golden City - I think of this one along with designer Michael Schacht's Valdora, two smooth as silk euros that use fictional settings to present a completely balanced board & map. I'd give up a little of that elegance for the real-world subjects he used in Web of Power or Hansa, which I prefer. As nothing more than games, though, both of these titles are fantastic.

Easy Play games - The other podcast recording mentioned above is an All About show with Dave Arnott covering this entire game series. To prep for that, I played Big Points again, and a few others for the first time. Burgen Land was the best of that group, though I like Finito best of all. We also played Dragonwurf and Los Banditos.

Notre Dame - Like Princes of Florence, this is another great Alea game that hasn't been played at all lately. I don't even consider this one old, but it can feel that way as we try to get new acquisitions to the table. Good stuff. I suffered for running out of money once (a couple of us did), but never let the rats take over.

With family
I don't play many games with my own family (my fault for lack of effort), but we've managed a few more recently, now that school is out.

Keltis Stones - A little flat with just 2 players, but a fun pastime regardless.

Flowerpower - My wife's longtime go-to, which I'm getting a little tired of but never turn down a play. (No, it's not for sale. I know what this OOP game goes for, even in Germany.)

Animalia - My daughter's go-to, which I still really enjoy. It's actually best with 2.

Thurn & Taxis - So happy this came back to the table, as I think it's just fantastic. My kind of euro exactly (see Web of Power and Hansa comments above!). We've got the northern Germany expansion (the first one), but only played on that map a couple times, and never with the modified rules. I'm curious about the Rome expansion, but heard it wasn't so good.

Telestrations - For Father's Day weekend we went to my folks' house, and so did my brother's family. I asked for this game specifically, thinking it the perfect fit. I was right! We enjoyed two back-to-back games that involved everyone from art-challenged, 77 year old father to my young reader, 7 year old nephew, with every age in between. Good laughs, just what I'd hoped for. (Funniest moment: when some good drawings of The Alamo were misintepreted as Taco Bell!)

PBW Games
A little Thurn & Taxis here, too, another mini tournament for Brass, and the occasional game of Wallenstein or Reef Encounter. But here are two I want to all special attention to:

Maori - I bought this game a while back on the strength of Ender's wonderful pictorial reviews that he posts on BGG. We played it a few times face-to-face, thinking it was pretty good. I just want to get some real shells to replace the wooden cutouts. However, now it's on Yucata.de, and it has rapidly become a great favorite of mine. I quickly finished a couple dozen games online, and it makes me want to play the physical version again.

Gonzaga - Although the title first caught my attention because I've got some relatives that went to college there, I remained interested because of it's subject (European fiefs). Once more, I refer you back to my appreciation for Web of Power! I missed a chance to play a copy around here, and lukewarm reviews didn't inspire me. Now it's available for play on YouPlay.it, though, a pbw site j hadn't visited in years. Though the site still has some limitations (why are there long delays in email notification?), I greatly appreciate the opportunity to play the intriguing game. Four games in, I'm still not sure what to make of it. I want to love it, but may only like it. Know what I mean? Still fun, though.

iPhone Games

I'm glad I switched to iPhone from Blackberry--clearly the critical mass for application development lies with Apple's platform. Though the device itself has some limitations (BB was MUCH better for text, and I miss over-the-air podcast subscriptions), it's all about the apps. For family strategy games, there are some really good ones.

Carcassonne - Never mind the gaps between the tiles. The implementation of this one sets the gold standard. I've played solo puzzles, games against a variety of multiple AIs, and online against human opponents. Superb!

Roll Through The Ages - Love the game, I'm just ok with this implementation. The lack of AI is disappointing. I bought it anyway, and don't regret it, but then they lowered the price. Only a couple bucks' difference, so an annoyance more than a problem.

Settlers of Catan - My favorite implementation before Carcassonne. The AI could be tougher, but they're ok as-is. Both this one and Carc use a good trick of panning & zooming the map automatically to convey a bigger playing surface than the iPhone really has. Very polished.

Mü - Awesome. Really helps you learn the game by wiping the floor with you until you pay better attention and fight for your wins.

There are many others, of course, but these are the ones that got the most play.

New BGTG call-in number is 206-337-7401

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Sun, 30 May 2010 12:22:52 PDT

Yeah, I lost my old call-in number, the same one the show has had for five years. I haven't completely given up hope, and I may ask for your help in getting it back, but for the moment any audio feedback should instead go to 206-337-7401. Sorry for the inconvenience.

BGTG 105 - Games of the Decade (with Dave Arnott)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Sun, 30 May 2010 12:19:11 PDT

Now that the first decade of the new century & millennium is past, Dave & I reflected on what that ten-year span meant for boardgames. Back in late 2007 he & I recorded a "decade+1" retrospective for episode #75, but that had a little different focus. For that earlier show, we tried to talk about our own introduction and growth in the hobby, like what games we first learned about & played, how we used rec.games.board for scraps of information, the importance of Sumo magazine and The Game Cabinet website, etc.

For this show now, we're talking about a different time period (somewhat), and about the games themselves that are notable. What do the titles that were successful in the "oughts" tell us about the direction the hobby is going? Sales figures might be the most important data for this sort of discussion, but those aren't available. Instead, I drew from critical & popular reaction, as evidenced by Boardgamegeek ratings and boardgame awards (especially Spiel des Jahre).

I came away thinking there was a pattern emerging, especially in the latter half of the decade. I'm seeing a resurgence of some deeper, more analytic and longer duration games that took a back seat while publishers chased the commercial success associated with a family-friendly Spiel des Jahres winner. (I imagine even the games that were nominated for an SdJ get a healthy boost in sales. Don't they still get to put that recommendation sticker from the SdJ jury on their boxes?) Maybe some of the other game awards that reward deeper games have had an influence, or maybe the continued growth of the Spiel at Essen and its increasingly international new publishers can be credited.

-Mark

Comment feed working again

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:00:13 PDT

By the way, you can subscribe the comment feed in order to keep up with comments on all of this blog's posts without having to remember to check them.

Should I start a BGG guild?

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:06:01 PDT

The flurry of good comments & discussion following the recent podcast about boardgame theming was split between those posted right here on the website, and others on a Boardgamegeek thread. Though that's fine, it makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better to facilitate them more on one location than the other. And though I'd really prefer to have the comments archived here, with the podcast itself, I recognize that BGG offers some advantages. It's easier to include links and other boardgame information through BGG's forum posting interface, easier to subscribe to the comments, and there's an interactive user community over there while this is a blog (more geared toward one-way communication).

If there's going to be some good discussions relating to BGTG over on BGG, then maybe it makes sense to finally create a guild for the podcast. I'd resisted that initially because I didn't see the point, but I'm starting to cave. What do you think? I guess there's no downside. My usual "announcement" posts for new episodes would continue to exist outside of the guild, in BGG's podcast forum which sometimes makes it onto the BGG front page due to new-ness or activity. These are the posts that will probably generate the most interesting discussion, and those I can crosslink to the blog. (I'm sometimes doing this already.) I'm not sure what, if anything, would then go into the guild

-Mark

BGTG 104 - Boardgame Themes (with Greg Pettit)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:27:35 PDT

Themes in boardgames are a favorite subject of mine. I'm sure I've said before how interested I am in the themes these games of ours have. Some themes instantly attract me to a game, while others are an immediate turn-off. When I'm playing a game, I particularly enjoy historic theming on the cards, or historic notes within the rulebook. You'd think that makes me a theme-gamer. I certainly thought so. But then I thought about the games that were my favorites, and in many cases they are those elegant German-style games that are pretty spartan when it comes to theme compared to recent titles from Fantasy Flight or Days of Wonder. In fact, I don't care for the those other games. In some cases it was because I didn't care for the theme itself (e.g. fantasy battles or dungeon crawl), but in other cases I didn't like how the themes I do like (e.g. gaslight London) overwhelm the game mechanics, taking aware from their elegance.

Enter Greg Pettit, who suggested that there are two distinct types of themes in games. Some provide the evocative experience with art, special rules, a story arc, character roles, and so on. That's what Greg calls "theme as narrative." The other type Greg calls "theme as metaphor," and it usually relates the subject of the game into its mechanics. Some games exhibit both types, others skew strongly toward just one type. I imagine everyone can appreciate those few games that manage to succeed with both of these thematic types, but when it's one more than the other you'll find your gamer preferences shining through. In my case, it's for theme as metaphor, which is why I prefer Vinci to Small World, or Entdecker to Blackbeard.

In this podcast Greg & I talk all about this topic, consider several games under his descriptions of theme, bring in the topic of simulation in wargames (a little), and think about why we prefer certain games and not others based on the way they implement their themes. Over on BGG I'm also posting a poll where listeners can rate a bunch of popular games low/medium/high in theme as metaphor, and theme as narrative.

-Mark

Did it work?

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 22:35:00 PDT

Hmm, I'm not sure. Since I set this site up in the prehistory of podcasting, it's built on a complicated mix of three different hosting accounts (libsyn for the podcast files, GoDaddy.com for my webhosting, and Blogger.com for the blog editing interface). Now after five years one of those tools has changed how it works, which means I need to tweak settings I haven't touched in that long.

(And, stupid me, I waited until the final 48 hours to make these changes I've known were needed for weeks, even months.)

If this entry is correctly posted to the blog, I think that will mean I've done everything right. But I'm still not quite sure, and won't be until the weekend when an old service I've been using is shut down completely. If BoardgamesToGo.com goes down then, that's why. I'll get it restored, but hopefully there won't be any interruption at all.

BGTG 103 - SR & Feedback (Pandemic On the Brink, Caylus Magna Carta, Patrician)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:35:20 PDT

First of all, please consider bidding in my latest Geeklist auction. It ends mid-day on March 24, and has some great, unusual, and/or out-of-print games. Titles like Zoff in Buffalo, Basari (the good version!), Krieg und Frieden, and a pair of games from an original Chinese publisher & designer.

I'm back with another session report & feedback show. These episodes are usually only about some games I've played recently. However, in this one I found another common thread between all of the games discussed, which makes this sort of a themed podcast, as well. In this case, the common thread is boardgame expansions. You may have heard me say before that I generally don't care for expansions...or at least I find them unnecessary. Here are three titles played with expansions that include that reaction, but also some others. I found it interesting to consider, and I hope you enjoy listening to it.

If you want to read Jeff Myers boardgame blog Play2Relax, you can find it here. I'd forgotten about his excellent subtitle to the blog, "Play a game. You'll feel better." Be sure to share with me other recommendations for boardgame blogs, and someday I'll do a podcast about those.

-Mark

BGTG 102 - Games Played in 2009 (with "Davebo" Gullett)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:33:50 PST

For more than a decade now I've kept track of the games I played over the course of a year. For nearly as long I've reviewed those lists after each year passed. First I posted on Usenet or my own website, later boardgame mailing lists, my blog, and lately this podcast. Like a lot of you, I find it interesting to look back over the stats from the previous year, noting increases or decreases in the number or variety of games played. I'm also looking to see whether I'm making the time & effort to get my favorites to the table--if you're not careful they can get crowded out by the steady advance of (sometimes forgettable) new titles.

This year I again have a guest on the podcast to help me recap the year with his own stats. "Davebo" Gullett has been on the podcast before, and we have some similarities--both of us play in some similar groups or get-togethers, we have roughly similar tastes in games, and we're both dads of multiple kids old enough to play boardgames with us. But while Dave has been successful getting his kids (especially his oldest) to play plenty of boardgames, I do that much less often.

On the other hand, I play a lot of online boardgames, both realtime on Brettspielwelt, and even more via play-by-web sites such as Mabiweb and Brass Online. We have some discussion about why I choose to include those online plays in my yearly stats, while Dave does not. It goes to the nature of those online plays, whether they're against friends or strangers, and what's the point of tracking plays at all.

-Mark

Twitter, Facebook, and now Buzz?

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:56:50 PST

I've been making little updates between major blog entries about boardgaming using Twitter. You can find those at twitter.com/BoardgamesToGo. This blog and its podcast will always be my main content, but if you want little tidbits in between the irregular episodes, that's where to find them. Just recently I also created a Facebook page for the podcast, at (you guessed it) facebook.com/BoardgamesToGo. Right now it's primarily another way to view those Twitter "tweets," since I have the accounts linked. You can reply to them if you want, but I don't foresee these become a BGTG community or message board, just a little extra something.

-Mark

P.S. And now here comes Google Buzz. Haven't done anything with that yet. As long as there's an easy way to link everything together I might do just that. But I'm not about to keep up with four separate "identities" for the podcast. If nothing else I'll stick with the blog. Signed, the grumpy old man! ;-)

BGTG 101 SR & Feedback (Dog, Keltis Way of the Stone, Sorry Sliders)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:34:11 PST

First show of the new year, and it's another session report & feedback episode. Though I originally just picked three games I played recently & wanted to discuss, as I prepped for the show I found a number of related points between them. That's why I mentioned this could also be called "The Crossover Show." Maybe I should ask Shannon Appelcline to produce one of his snazzy relationship diagrams like he's done for designer ludographies and other relationships he's mapped. :-)

Dog has a Canadian heritage, along with handmade boards displaying real craftsmanship . . . like Crokinole . . . which is like Sorry Sliders in its gameplay . . . even though its in the franchise family of traditional Sorry . . . much like Keltis: Way of the Stone is in the new Keltis franchise family . . . though there's still some connection to Sorry . . . which is itself a "circles & cross" traditional boardgame form, like Dog . . . but Dog is a partnership game, like Crokinole . . . and both Crokinole and Sorry Sliders depend on some quality production and design so that their physical play can really soar.

Once Knizia comes out with the physical flicking game of Keltis Stones, I'll have to revisit this. :-)

I neglected to mention that this Keltis game is also listed as the Keltis Mitbringspiel, the latter word being German for "travel edition." (I suppose a more literal translation would be "take-along game.") I happen to be using Mitbringspiel as a search term as my friends & I are placing an order from Amazon.de.

-Mark

BGTG 100 SR & Feedback (Tobago, Numeri, Polar Derby)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:00:33 PST

Yea! When I started this podcast nearly five years ago, I had no idea I'd still be doing it now. The pace certainly slowed down from the early days, but I'm so pleased to have stumbled across the finish line to episode 100! Except that this isn't really a finish line--I'm going to keep podcasting, and I hope you'll keep listening.

I thought about some big celebration or other special show for my 100th episode, but after talking with friends (some of whom you've heard on my podcast before), I decided instead to keep it simple. After all, that's what Boardgames To Go has always been: a simple, no-frills podcast that reflects my own interests in analyzing what it is about these games that makes them fun (or not), along with some good feedback. It's the feedback that has always kept me going, so it's a real pleasure to include it on episode 100. In future shows there will still be more opportunities to discuss special topics, have guest co-hosts, and maybe even some more All About episodes.

In this episode I start with some discussion about my favorite new Essen game, Tobago. True, it's the only real Essen game I've got my hands on yet, but I like it so much I'm confident it will remain a favorite even after I've had a chance to try the others, perhaps finding more keepers. It was a title that jumped out at me during my annual pre-Essen anticipation, and it was easy enough to order domestically right away. Another new Essen title is Numeri, which I've at least played in its online incarnation on brettspielwelt. This is a modern reprint in Schmidt's fun Easy Play line that had a much earlier life as a boardgame. In between there was an edition with some particular theming that I'd like to know more about--does anyone have it? Finally, I discuss Polar Derby, a kids' game from Gamewright that feels like a Knizia game . . . because it IS a Knizia game. Hear about how the clever folks at Gamewright put a German game design through the American-izer.

-Mark

MJ's Games played in 2009

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:24:15 PST

I'll do a show recapping this information later, but while I can't record a podcast right now with family visiting, I can squeeze in a blog post. Throughout the year I keep my games-played statistics on Boardgamegeek (the "cloud" of our hobby), which makes it so easy to pull that data out now.
Here are the raw stats, and below I'll offer a little commentary.

"Quarters"
Dominion 47
Brass 44

"Dimes"
Dominion: Intrigue 23
Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm 19
Race for the Galaxy 17
Animalia 15
Hansa 10
History of the World 10

"Nickels"
Schotten-Totten 9
Dominion: Seaside 8
Numeri 8
Pandemic 8
Harry's Grand Slam Baseball Game 7
San Juan 7
Stone Age 7
The Downfall of Pompeii 6
Finito! 6
Industrial Waste 5
On the Underground 5
Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age 5

The rest (single plays unless noted)
Arkadia 4, Bohnanza 4, Chicago Express 4, China 4, Powerboats 4, Tally Ho! 4, Aton 3, Balloon Cup 3, Cold War: CIA vs. KGB 3, Finca 3, In the Year of the Dragon 3, Kakerlaken-Poker 3, Keltis 3, Kreta 3, Maori 3, Marrakech 3, Monty Python Fluxx 3, Mr. Jack 3, Piece o' Cake 3, Reef Encounter 3, Rosenkönig 3, The Settlers of Catan 3, Walk the Dogs 3, Yspahan 3, Acquire 2, Africa 2, Amun-Re 2, Arbos 2, Bang! The Bullet! 2, Battle Cry 2, Big Points 2, Carolus Magnus 2, Cities 2, Container 2, Crokinole 2, Excape 2, Figaro 2, FITS 2, Fuzzy Tiger 2, Ghost Stories 2, High Society 2, I'm the Boss 2, In the Shadow of the Emperor 2, Ingenious 2, King of Siam 2, Long Shot 2, Medici 2, Metropolys 2, Money! 2, Musketeers 2
Polar Derby 2, Roll Through the Ages: The Late Bronze Age 2, Saint Petersburg 2, Santiago 2, Spekulation 2, Steel Driver 2, Strozzi 2, Thebes 2, Tobago 2, Tulipmania 1637 2, Vinci 2, Agricola, Automobile, Basari, Big City, Byzanz, Canyon, El Capitán, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, Chang Cheng, Cheeky Monkey,
Dancing Dice, Dice Town, Drachen Wurf, Dragonland, Entdecker, Fauna, Fearsome Floors, Fire and Axe: A Viking Saga, Flowerpower, Fluch der Mumie, Formula D, Get the Goods, Go, The Hanging Gardens, Haste Worte, Le Havre, Hey! That's My Fish!, High Score, Ice Flow, Im Reich der Wüstensöhne, Jet Set, Krieg und Frieden, Lightning: D-Day, Modern Art: The Card Game, Monastery, Mykerinos, Napoleon: The Waterloo Campaign, 1815, Puerto Rico, Ra: The Dice Game, Rabbit Hunt, Richelieu, Risk, Risk Express, San Marco, Schnäppchen Jagd, Schrille Stille, Sleeping Queens, Small World, Squad Seven, Svea Rike, Take it to the Limit, Take Your Best Shot, Through the Desert, Thurn and Taxis, Ticket to Ride: Switzerland.
Tigris & Euphrates, Tikal, Tohuwabohu, Tonga Bonga, TransEuropa, Turn The Tide, Uruk: Wiege der Zivilisation, Vikings, Wallamoppi, Wallenstein, Wyatt Earp, Zeus on the Loose

I see that I played 148 different titles for a total of 485 plays. Seems to me that my numbers in prior years were closer to 100 titles & 300 plays, so this was an up year for me. I think most of that increase came from more online plays, though, as I don't recall more game sessions, games days, or other face-to-face gaming. In fact, I think my games days were down last year, but maybe not.

Something that isn't so easy to pull out of BGG stats is which games were online versus face-to-face. By the time I record a podcast on this topic I'll make my own estimate of pulling those numbers out to make the comparison. Some online games don't feel like face-to-face boardgaming, but a lot of them really do for me--especially when I get to play against long-distance friends I see rarely, or mid-workweek games with my local friends. Another wrinkle I'd like to look into later are the new titles I played this year. Both to make sure I'm spending enough gaming time on my older favorites, and to take note of which new titles I played more than once (perhaps they're new favorites?).

Tons of Dominion, especially when you add in the Intrigue and Seaside plays. I still absolutely love this game, and would be happy to play it face-to-face as much as I play it online. I can't see myself keeping up with (or buying) all of the expansions, but I don't really need to. There's so much variability and replayability in the original game, and just buying a single expansion adds to much to that. The other night we almost played a game with more than 4 players, something I still haven't tried. Some of the card effects are even more fun with more players, so that's something to look forward to.

Look at all of those plays of Brass! A few of those were face-to-face, but so many more were online. This game is outstanding for online play, having a limited number of really thoughtful turns and mostly indirect player interaction. I thoroughly enjoy this game and look forward to nearly as many plays in the next year.

Similar to Dominion, my plays of Race for the Galaxy are inflated by online plays once the Genie site became available halfway through the year. I already liked RftG, but my appreciation for it shot up once I had the opportunity to play so much. It has to be said that the game has a learning curve unlike most of my collection, and it's been a minor obstacle to getting it played face-to-face. Still, we've played it some, and the availability of Keldon's incredible RftG AI downloadable program has helped us tackle that learning curve.

(By the way, I don't count plays of games against the computer, only human opponents. However, I really appreciate these programs for the opportunity to play on an airplane, on business trips, or when disconnected from the net.)

In contrast my other high-play games, Animalia is played face-to-face. (I think I had a single online play this year.) This is my go-to when my daughter & I play a game, and some of my gamer friends enjoy it, too. I own two copies (one of each version), which is another strong sign that this is a permanent favorite for me.

I also own two copies of Hansa (one for work, one for home), but that hasn't meant I got to play lots of ftf games. These were mostly online last year. Which is ok, but unlike Brass, Hansa is a game that's really better face-to-face.

History of the World was one I only played online (at GamesByEmail.com). Years ago I played HotW in its first (non-plastic) licensed publication by Avalon Hill, and the experience was horrible. It soured me on ever playing the game again. Then I found this online clone, and it has sparked my interest again, right when the original designers/publishers Ragnor Bros. come out with a new, possibly streamlined edition. I hope to try that sometime, though I'm lured by the deluxe plastic pieces edition by H/AH. (Luckily, some of my local gamer friends already own that, since it's too pricey to buy on the secondary market.)

My "nickels" list has a better spread of games played ftf as much or more than online. It shows my preference for the shorter games. (I know most "Five & Dime" lists favor shorter games since they're easier to play multiple times, but I honestly prefer the shorter stuff all the time.) Pandemic and Roll through the Ages were new acquisitions, and I finally picked up my own copy of Downfall of Pompeii, which I think is often overlooked. On the Underground is the game my wife enjoys to play with me (reminds us of our London vacation! unfortunately Notre Dame doesn't invoke the same nostalgia about our Paris trip). And, of course, Harry's Grand Slam Baseball is a favorite I'll play for the rest of my life.

Among the rest, some quick comments...
Bohnanza - A good indicator that I'm playing my favorites, not "falling for" the cult of the new. :-)
Chicago Express - A Game of the Month for our group, and new favorite
Aton - Need to get my own copy, since it's a great filler. (And another great Queen production.)
Finca - Ehh... I've now tried a few times, and I don't care for it. Fits & Fauna were better, but Dominion & Pandemic easily the two best games for SdJ.
Maori - A late December acquisition, may prove to be a good family game
Monty Python Fluxx - I tweeted about this. A gift for my son, and the source of great laughs for us.
Piece o' Cake - A gift from a podcast listener! Will hit a nickel next year, for sure.
Reef Encounter - Three plays isn't enough! Love this one.
Settlers of Catan - The Wired article sparked some interest at work, where we played over lunch.
Walk the Dogs - Finally got my hands on a copy of this oddly distributed game. Fun.
Svea Rike - I've had this grail (for me) game for years, and finally played it.
Medici, Thebes, Vinci, Crokinole, Tigris & Euphrates - All longtime faves that I'm pleased to have gotten in last year, but hope to play as much or more next year.

-Mark

P.S. One of these days I need to upload my nearly decade-long stats of games played into BGG so that I can have fun poring over the data and extended reports available at friendless' site. Snoozefest even sent me information on how to use a spreadsheet to do this in a more automated way, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

BGTG 99 - Ten Years of Essens

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:16:29 PST

Chris left a comment after the previous podcast (anticipating this year's Essen), asking what games were my favorites from past Essens. That was the idea behind this show--my favorites, BGG's favorites, and what seemed liked the favorites at the time (Fairplay ratings). I looked up the past decade of Fairplay rankings, compared it against current BGG rankings, and also figured out my favorites from that same Essen. In addition to BGG, the original German boardgame database Luding was very useful, since it allows searches for a particular Essen year.

My favorites from all these years are mostly "superfillers," but there are some heavier games as long as they aren't particularly long. A few kids' games and card games, too.

What are your favorites from these years?

-Mark

BGTG 97 - All About Brass (with Stephanie Kelleher)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:20:28 PDT

If you pay attention to the episode numbers, you'll see this one actually belongs before the previous show about Essen. I only needed to hurry that one out in time for the big game fair in Germany this week. I'd recorded this episode focusing on Martin Wallace's Brass with guest Stephanie Kelleher (songlian on BGG). Stephanie is at Essen right now helping with the BGG/Geekdo booth!

We both really enjoy this game. Stephanie has played more face-to-face games, while I've got a lot more online plays. I tend to prefer lighter/shorter games, but Wallace's games always have a strong appeal for their historical themes. Stephanie is more of a fan of heavy games. The interesting part is how much we both like this one.

-Mark

BGTG 98 - Essen Anticipation 2009

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:56:11 PDT

As before, I've managed to squeeze in a show just before the Essen game fair Spiel that shares my anticipation for the event and a number of games. Nope, I'm not going there, just living vicariously through the preview information about the games about to debut at this enormous event in our hobby. All of this ~~may~~ will change after we start hearing (and seeing!) more about this games from firsthand gamer experience, first at Essen itself, and especially after a month or so at BGG.con. (Unfortunately, I won't be there, either.)

If you want to follow along to the titles I run down that I find interesting, you could look through this private geeklist. It's not a polished thing ready for others to comment on. In fact, I disabled the comments, preferring instead to include a link back to this blog entry. Please write your comments here, or else send email/audio feedback to the usual destinations. Thanks.

-Mark

Last & next month's games

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:03:59 PDT

I'm in the middle of more business travel than I've ever had to do before. I know a lot of people have to travel more than I, so I'm not complaining. I'm just experiencing the impact it has on your life, especially your time with family & friends. The family part is my deal, but the friends parts relates to games, which is why I'm writing about it on the blog.

Last month I did play some games. You can see them over to the right in the sidebar. The biggie I played was Le Havre, semi-sequel to Agricola, and just recently the winner of the International Gamers Award.. Now, I missed almost all the excitement about Agricola, but when I finally played it almost a year after the buzz started I kind of liked it. By that I mean I liked it well enough, about the same as many new titles--happy to play now & then, but it didn't displace one of my favorite (say top 20) games. No shame in that--these are my top games after more than a decade of boardgaming, so it's pretty unusual for a new game to be that much better than some proven favorites. Besides, I play more new games in that general category than old favorites anyway. Agricola was in good company, even if it wasn't one of my new favorites.

I figured the same would happen with Le Havre. Like Agricola, I didn't play it when it first came out--I only just played it for the first time last month. I was in no hurry to play it, but I wasn't avoiding it, either. I just knew I'd play it eventually. Now that I have, wow!, I'm not sure why people like this game so much! That's not true--I do understand it . . . kind of. I felt about Le Havre like I felt about Sid Meier's Civilization, Sim-City, or the Realtime Strategy computer games that came shortly thereafter: fun to see how everything works, fun to fiddle with it for a while, but before I finished a single game I was turned off by the micromanagement. Am I the only one who feels this way?

That's why I say I do and I don't understand the appeal. I understood the initial appeal of those computer games, but not their broad success and staying power. To me, Le Havre is a micromanagement boardgame, and that's not a good thing.

To me, of course--to each his own. However, I remember when wargames got too complicated for their own good in the 1980s. I was a borderline wargamer (esp. for the historic stuff), but interested enough to watch it all take place. It's not like gamers & designers suddenly decided complexity and length were good qualities. They just ended up on a slippery slope, where it seemed better to add more "stuff" to a game in order to make it more realistic, more involving, or offer a more rewarding experience. In retrospect it looks like the whole hobby just about went off the rails then, but not everyone thought so at the time. I'm not saying Le Havre is a dramatic lurch in the "wrong direction" for boardgames, but I'm pretty sure it will be a game looked back on in ten years and gamers will wonder why it was so highly regarded.

Or maybe I'm completely wrong. Some complex games like 18XX, Advanced Civ, and maybe Republic of Rome have had staying power. Closer to home, Die Macher and Roads & Boats have their diehards. Through The Ages is perhaps the most recent heavy eurogame with a large(?) group of fans and critical success.

It didn't help that Le Havre was the first eurogame I can recall where I had trouble reading "the fine print" on the game components (resource counters). I could see the ones right in front of me or my nearby opponent, but the stacks across the table I had more trouble with. Some of the resources have distinctly different icons on either side of the counter, but others don't. Mostly that's a problem with the physical design/production of the game (well, that and my 43 year old eyes!), but I think it's also fair to say it's a limitation of the game itself. Ours was the part of the hobby that used to get by (and look classy, by the way) with wooden cubes in a few colors that had no text on them at all! I'm getting old, I guess! :-)

Besides that one game of Le Havre, I've played a fair bit of Race for the Galaxy. Between the online server and the amazing standalone AI download, this has been my go-to game when doing all of this traveling. My record at the game is pretty horrible, but that's what you want in a program with AI opponents--a real challenge and chance to learn. I've always liked RftG, even though I like San Juan (and Dominion) more. Most of all, I think Race is not an easy game for newbies, or to relearn after you've been away from it for a while. Neither of those limitations even shows up when I play it on the computer, though, whether against those sharky AI opponents offline or the sharky human opponents online. It was clear this is a game that rewards experience, strategic thinking, and good tactical decisionmaking. How amazing that both of these implementations are free! My own copy of Race sits comparatively unused at home, but I'm getting its money's worth out of the computer implementations. :-)

Plus I can also go back and read Brian Bankler's strategy articles, now that I can understand them.

-Mark

P.S. Next month? Oh, I'm not sure what I'll be playing next month, but it should be some face-to-face games with my buddies. Maybe we'll even try Le Havre again!

Go "vote" on the À La Carte card game award

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:14:40 PDT

I've always enjoyed reading through the results of the best card game award given in Germany, the À La Carte. Kind of like the Spiel des Jahres or International Gamers Awards, this award is given by an editorial board. However, this year they've opened up an online poll--not to decide or change the outcome of the award, just as a fun check between what the game-buying public thinks is the best game, compared to that editorial board thinks.

http://fairplay-online.blogspot.com/2009/09/la-carte-2009.html

Gamewright euros (and testing Twitterfeed)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:56:56 PDT

Gamewright is mostly known for mass market kids' games that are notably better than what you usually find on the shelf at Toys R Us or Target. They also do an amazing job at sneaking a little educational value into some of the titles (often math), while others are just silly fun.
Another sneaky move they pull off is bring eurogames by award-winning designers to America by skillful retheming of the games. That's how we got Turn the Tide (aka Zum Kuckuck by Stefan Dorra/FX Schmid), Loot (aka Pirat by Reiner Knizia/Amigo), and Ka-Ching (aka Combit by Palesch & Rösner/Winning Moves). That's fantastic! Our only quibble might be that they keep the designers of these games almost a secret, putting their credit in small print at the end of the rules, and on the back of the box.

I just received a batch of new & old Gamewright games, many of which I hope to try soon and discuss along with previously played Gamewright titles in an upcoming podcast. While reading the rules to one, I thought how the mechanics sounded similar to Circus Flohcati or Cheeky Monkey. Sure enough, I looked hard and found it was designed by Knizia. Another one is an American version of the newest game in the Schmidt Spiele EasyPlay line.

Has someone made a Geeklist of these clandestine eurogames brought over by Gamewright? I didn't find one.

(With this post I'm also testing my new Twitterfeed linkage. Could be the best of both worlds if I can do a "full" blog post here and have it picked up on twitter.)

-Mark

BGTG 96 - Translations, Editions, and Revisions (with David Gullett)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:43:52 PDT

Let me clear about this--most of the explanation for the delay in this podcast (recorded almost two months ago) is simply that I never got around to finishing & posting it. Part of that is because the show is longer than usual--longer than fits on a CD--and I thought I wanted to edit it down considerably. But as you know if you're a longtime listener, I don't really do that kind of editing. I don't do much editing at all, truthfully. (Feedback welcome on that, by the way.) After I gave up the idea of editing out so much content, I figured I'd just post the show in two parts, spaced about a week apart. Now that it's taken me another few weeks to even do that much, I'm giving up, deciding to post the whole thing. I don't think hardly anybody burns these onto CDs in 2009 anyway, and some gaming podcasts are even longer. So this is part procrastination/laziness, part experiment. Let me know what you think. Whew!

This is a topic of interest to the truly geeky, the ones that care a little too much about their games. That's me, and it's probably you, too. (After all, you're reading a boardgame blog, listening to a boardgame podcast! You've got it bad . . . ) You won't be in this hobby very long before you encounter some opinions, including your own, about which version of a game is best. The original? The one where they changed the artwork & components? Or the one where they redeveloped the game into something just a little different? Small World is the game that triggered me to record this episode. I'm a huge fan of Vinci, which was Small World's differently-themed predecessor.

Do I like Small World? Yes.

Do I prefer it to Vinci? No way.

Why not? Because of the theme. Vinci has a historic theme and map, while Small World has a fantasy theme and map. You know my preferences. I've heard some say that Vinci has no theme, but I don't understand that at all. Clearly we have very different ideas of what constitutes a game theme. (That's another podcast I'd like to tackle some day.) Of the several design modifications in the latter game, I prefer the original, but they're not a big deal. It's the theme that is driving my opinion, more than anything.

Which do I recommend? Well, it depends on the gamer, but I have to admit that most will probably prefer Small World. Certainly you can easily buy Small World, while Vinci is now, sadly, Out-Of-Print (OOP).

We talk about a lot more than Small World as I tried to generalize what's going on here. All those versions of Settlers, Cosmic Encounter, Medici, and even Careers make it in to the discussion.

-Mark

BGTG 95 - SR & Feedback (Container & Chicago Express)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:35:10 PDT

Whoops! I almost let two months go by since my last show. I've been playing plenty of games, so here's a session report & feedback show to describe my inability to play economic games with any skill! But as badly as I've been doing at them, I'm still interested. In fact, I'm even more interested in the games because it feels like there's something everyone else understands about their strategy . . . that I don't! Two plays of one game, four plays of the other, and I'm still struggling. What I really need is for someone to make a play-by-web version of either of these games, then I could really practice. (I've gotten pretty good at Brass that way.)

The previous few episodes generated a ton of great feedback, and that's what I really wanted to share on the podcast. Keep 'em coming--all of your podcasters love feedback.

BGTG 94 - Are any of our games Classics? (with Greg Pettit)

BoardgamesToGo@gmail.com (Mark Johnson) — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:33:29 PDT

It comes up from time to time in discussions about our hobby--will any of the games we're playing now achieve "classic" status? There are commercial classics like Monopoly, Risk, and Scrabble, as well as cultural or timeless classics like Go, Chess, and Poker. That's an awfully high standard for any game to achieve, even ones we think so highly of on our game nights and gamesdays. What does complexity or availability have to do with it? And is the world just so different today that games have a different path to achieve that status?

The conversation is long, but a particularly good one. I think so, anyway. I told my guest, Greg Pettit, afterward that this is just the sort of subject I enjoy tackling in the podcast. Because I always enjoyed reading about it from the likes of Peter Sarrett, Mike Siggins, or Greg Aleknevicus. That's good company to be in!

We go back & forth between philosophical descriptions of classics, and considerations of individual titles. Partway through the show, Greg poses a wonderful question about what games we might put in a 50 or 100-year time capsule, wanting to show future generations how wonderful, entertaining, and creative these games are . . . even if those future people are used to playing virtual reality, holographic, full-sensory "videogames" and zipping around in their flying cars. :-)

-Mark