inconsequential ruminations

We finally got to play Taj Mahal yesterday. We played with four players and it went down fairly well. I was expecting the Second Coming, so I am not surprised that I was a little disappointed.

Bruno Faidutti wrote this about it in his review of Ivanhoe:

When my gaming group tries Taj Mahal, one of the big monster board games by Reiner Knizia, we were unanimous in finding it really bad. An artificial and badly pasted theme, a scoring system so convoluted that it became absolutely obscure and uncontrollable, and, above all, an overlong, tedious and repetitive gameplay.

It was basically this paragraph that made me hesitant to try it. Now I have, I think it’s overly harsh. The theme is artificial, but this didn’t bother me as the components are quality. I agree that the scoring system is convoluted, but that’s the whole point. You have to master it to win. I cannot think of an example of a big game like this where the scoring system is so intertwined with the play. Despite that, I agree that it is a bit slow and tame. This is not as good as Knizia’s masterpieces, but it’s still pretty reasonable – 7/10. Bruno prefers Ivanhoe, a much more dramatic, exciting game, and so do I.

My friend Giles came over last week for another bout with Wizard Kings.

I agree with the accepted wisdom that WK would be much better with some more included scenarios. The basic two-map 100GP fight is fun, but will quickly become bland. At least there are plenty of scenarios available.

A lot of people hate the retreat rules which effectively give flyers two moves. There is good discussion about it here. I am not keen on the feel of the retreat rules, but agree that they add fluidity. I have not played many wargames, but some can get tied up in boring wars of attrition with a few huge stacks dominating. I’ll stick with Chris Farrell’s advice for now, and stick with the rules as written.

We’re looking forward to playing some more of this. I’ve been getting bored with my monotonous gaming diet of multiplayer German games, so more Go and Wizard Kings is good. I’ve ordered the Undead and Dwarf armies.

One annoying thing about WK is the diversity of resources. There’s a MSN Group with an FAQ and other resources, the Columbia Games forum, Consimworld and the Boardgamegeek. It’s a shame people can’t agree to discuss WK in one place. Although Consimworld has the most chat it has a horrific interface. My choice would be the Columbia Games forum, as the designer, Grant Dalgliesh, answers questions.

Chris Brook’s excellent blog often has pictures and session reports of prototypes from his friend KC. The pictures are always impressive and Chris always give them glowing feedback.

There is a possibility that these will be made available for download, but Chris needs to gauge demand. You can register your interest by posting a comment at Chris’s site.

I’ve been getting a bit obsessed with Go recently.

I am playing Mikko Saari on the Dragon Go Server, although it’s hard to keep continuity going when you take only one or two moves per day. For me, Go is definitely not suited to play-by-web.

I have also been playing at KGS, which I am more interested with. The Java client is superb, probably the best Java program I’ve used. The only problem is that I keep losing horribly. If you want a laugh and have an SGF viewer, check out my comical losses. I’m normally fine until 3/4 through the game, and then something goes awry and I lose by a mile.

My friend Ali came over the other day, on the way home from work, and we played a 13×13. Face to face gaming is definitely the best. We are enthusiastic about playing more. He’s even going to introduce his Dad to KGS.

I also played a superb tutorial and have done some problems, in order to improve my pathetic abilities. I still think it’s going to be a while before I’m winning games.

Our game of Bus died. One of the players joined and then stopped playing.

Let’s try again?

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