After my last post there was a natural lull in my gaming activity, but then my project manager came down with a nasty case of appendicitis a month before our go-live date. He is the kingpin of our project, so I was deluged with work. He came back last week, so work has finally returned to a manageable level.
I will discuss the games I have played briefly:
Manifest Destiny
I played this at my friend Michael’s house. We all enjoyed it very much. The theme is a little rocky at times (how can developing Pro-Sports make you better at capturing cities?). It is also long, 4.5 hours, and a badly worded card, the Internet card – funnily enough, wrecked my game. Otherwise, this was rewarding. It is not particularly dense, after a while it actually felt quite freewheeling. I would rather play Die Macher, but it was still a lot of fun.
Dungeon Twister
If it were not for the swivelling floors, this would be a vanilla arena-brawling game, but having to think ahead to see how a shifted floor could make or break your game is fascinating. Maybe a sci-fi theme would improve it. I kept thinking that something along the lines of Warhammer 40k would have been a more suitable backdrop. I am suprised Bruno Faidutti has not put this in his Ideal Games Library. It is French and just the sort of game he enjoys.
Traders of Genoa
After a second playing, this was still long, dry and bitchy. I like negotiation games, but this one seems to involve a long stream of low-grade nastiness. I respect this game’s design, but I will not suggest we play again.
Age of Steam PBEM
I have cut out all my pbem games, except for Age of Steam, which has gone up to three simultaneous games.
Havoc
Chris Brooks asked me to help playtest Havoc, a prototype he has mentioned several times on his blog. It is a poker-like variant on Ivanhoe, which arrived in perfect time after my group’s disillusionment with their favourite light game. The components were of fantastic quality, and superior to most professional games. With the last few months’ lack of gaming time, I only played it once, but we all enjoyed it. The rules could do with a bit of polishing, but otherwise it is ready for publication. I will certainly buy a copy.
I am going to Swiggers tonight. I have not been to a games club since I was about 17, so I am looking forward to it. Unfortunately, it is on the other side of London, so I doubt if I can go often, but it is worth a look.
