inconsequential ruminations

Two friends came over last night and I suggested games. My wife wanted to play Settlers, so I suggested the Food Stamps variant, as Rick Thornquist reminded me of it in his blog the other week.

To be precise, we played the Poverty Is No Shame variant from the Settler’s Book.

If a player doesn’t receive a Raw Material card during the Raw Material Phase, he gets a Red Chip. If a 7 is rolled, all players get a Red Chip.
The Red Chips can be used to name the Raw Material pay-off number, instead of actually rolling the dice. At the start of his turn, a player pays the number of Red Chips equivalent to his Victory Point total (This includes Biggest Knight Army, Longest Trade Route, and Victory Point Chips. It does not include hidden Victory Point cards.) The player then names the pay-off number and all players receive Raw Materials based on the named number. If any player doesn’t receive a Raw Material Card, he gets a Red Chip.

This variant does stop people moaning about dice rolls, which is a relief, but distorts the game as it encourages players to put all their settlements/cities around the same numbers. Plus, choosing a port during the initial setup of settlements becomes more desirable, as you will be rewarded with lots of food stamps.

I am not crazy about it, but it might have been more due to a standard game of Settlers taking 2.5 hours! I prefer playing with experienced gamers…

I finally got to play Goa yesterday with the full complement of four. It was about time since this is one of those reference games so many others get compared to. It took us about 2 1/4 hours, which was not too long. I think we’ll be able to bring that down, but the 90-minute estimate on the box looks optimistic.

The mechanics are abstract, but complex and tightly interwoven. While researching this post, I thought of a term I heard a while ago called “system games”. I searched Google high and low, as it’s not the most search-engine-friendly term. In the end I was referred back to this blog and a post I made in 2004 that I had completely forgotten about. As a matter of fact Matt Horn coined this phrase specifically about Goa. Isn’t it strange the way the mind works?

This article stuck in my head all this time because it is the most important aspect of heavyweight €urogames and it had never occurred to me before Matt Horn mentioned it. It is a shame Matt Horn stopped doing Spielboy – or at least the commentary. I never saw the point in draping average looking semi-naked girls around boardgames.

Goa reminded me a lot of Traders of Genoa and Louis XIV (I have only read the rules for Louis XIV), both by Rüdiger Dorn and also System Games. The disk tower in Traders of Genoa especially resembles the tile selection in Goa. Apparently Rüdiger Dorn uses this again in Raub Ritter, so it must be a kind of signature.

Bruno Faidutti, in his Caylus review says:

Caylus is a heavy management and development game, akin with Goa, Keythedral or Puerto-Rico

I totally agree, Goa pushes the same buttons as Caylus, although less interactively, but at least it is shorter. After one playing of both, I prefer Goa.

The complexity of both games is a problem for us, especially if we do not play regularly, but I will try to play this a few times over the next month or two to reduce that problem.

Now that I know Jambo was designed by Rüdiger Dorn, I am much more keen on trying it. I am convinced a System Game like Goa would work excellently two-player with my wife. Lost Cities is too light for me, most other games I like are too confrontational. Something like this would appeal to us both. I have strongly considered the Settler’s Card Game, but two-player Goa looks more interesting. I will have to run it by her.

One problem with Goa is the lack of player aids, but there are some excellent ones at the BoardGameGeek, particularly a scoring sheet and turn tracks. A simple scoring summary and rules quick reference is also essential.

Rio Grande got the Expedition card hand limit rule slightly wrong. This came up in our game, so I will have to try it the other way next time.

I am definitely going to buy this. 7/10 after a confusing first game, but it will almost certainly climb.

It has been quiet on the gaming front recently, but I just wanted to highlight some great customer service from Rio Grande.

I recently bought Louis XIV, but on opening it, cound not find one of the character board tiles. I emailed the main address for Rio Grande and was happy to get a reply from none other than Jay Tummelson. He quickly put a replacement in an airmail evelope and I got it yesterday. I am really impressed. I could not expect that with such a cheap product.

Clippers

I have always had a softer spot than most for the little guy/omega wolf. As a result, I have always wanted to give Clippers a try, especially as I found out about it during my early infatuation with eurogames. Tonight Chris brought it over and four of us gave it a spin.

In a nutshell, it is very similar to most of Alan Moon’s games. It is a remake of Santa Fe and Santa Fe Rails and it shares elements with at least Elfenland and Ticket to Ride. I have not played Union Pacific, but I cannot believe it is too far away either. Having said that, the game it most resembles to me is Expedition. I just checked Bruno Faidutti’s review of Clippers, and he agrees with me as he has listed all those games as similar.

Unfortunately, I believe all those games I listed are superior to Clippers and, at a glance, the ratings on the Geek seem to agree with me. However, the problem is not the legendary poorness of Clipper’s components, it is in the gameplay.

Some of the reviews, particularly Greg Schloesser’s, are scathing about the component quality and even Alan Moon himself apologised for it in a BoardGameSpeak. I disagree that they are that bad. The flag circles and counters are too small, but they are not terrible enough to reject the game outright. We found Greg Aleknevikus’ quick set up charts pretty superfluous. It only took a few minutes. Setting up Cobra and discerning the Tiger battalions was far harder, just to mention the last game I played. In addition, the board itself is very attractive, and the route markings are visible enough.

On the other hand, the gameplay was too slow for the chaos caused by the other players. In that respect it reminds me of Maharaja, but that is a more interesting, original game. Towards the end of the game Clippers slowed right down as everyone min/maxed their placements. A timer might improve this, but I would still rather play Expedition any time, even though the German rules translation has big flaws. In fact, playing Clippers reminded me of how much I would like to play the latest English language National Geographic Expedition version, as they will have probably fixed the rules.

In this case, the hype was overstated, but I agree it is an average game. – 5/10

We finished with a relaxing quick game of San Juan. I still have not got this one’s strategy tied down in my head yet. I think I need to play it on BSW a few times in a row, so I can get it fixed.

My new wargaming friend popped over to play Cobra yesterday. We did not finish, but had a good time anyway. We were really just familiarising ourselves with the rules and how the game plays.

Cobra simulates Operation Cobra, the breakout from the Normandy beaches in 1944. It was sold in Strategy and Tactics magazine in 1977. As well as the game, the magazine describes the campaign in a lot of detail. John Prados wrote these historical notes and they are very readable and fascinating.

Target Arnhem was a good introduction to Cobra. Both are traditional hex and counter wargames with CRTs. Both have extra moves for mechanised units and both have column shifts for different terrain types.

Unfortunately, Cobra is a big step up in complexity, both in terms of rules and strategy. My friend was struggling with both. He will definitely get there, but right now it is an unequal battle. Next time I think I will ask him to play the Allies as the Germans seem to have a harder task in trying to slow down the massive force of the Allied reinforcements. Interestingly, combat seems to be fairly non-lethal, resulting in many retreats. Initially all the units are located at the top of the board and I can see the German forces gradually withdrawing and thinning out in the face of Allied advances, which was pretty much what happened in 1944.

Unfortunately, the promise of three hours playing time seems unlikely. There are 200 counters, 14 turns and a large board to navigate. This is a big black mark against Cobra, as I am so busy with family commitments. I hope I can get a whole weekend afternoon to try it out properly, but it is difficult to see when I can make it happen.

Bruno Faidutti has posted a refreshingly candid editorial on his front page about cronyism. He defends his right to spotlight his friends’ and aquaintances’ games and I cannot disagree with him.

The lesson is that you always have to bear a reviewer’s motivations and tastes in mind. Whenever Bruno reviews a light, chaotic game by a French designer, who is one of his friends, and likes it, I take the review with a pinch of salt. Whenever he reviews a complex, long, computational wargame by Reiner Knizia (!) and likes it, I pay extra attention.

I am not picking on Bruno at all, but he is honest enough with himself and with his audience for me to use him as an example.

Mikko invited me to be an editor for Best of Board Games, a linkblog replacement for Alfred’s Best of the Blogosphere posts and I accepted.

I am excited, because it is the sort of blogging I enjoy most. Of course, that means I will have even less to update here, but I will still do session reports or make comment if I have something I want to say.