The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: 1955, Schotten Totten x 2, Race for the Galaxy.
Games are sometimes better when you play then with the correct rules; then again, sometimes they're not.
Merry pagan solstice to all of you who celebrate it.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Session Report, in which we try Navegador and love it
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: 1955 x 2, Navegador, Louis XIV, Schotten Totten, Bridge.
1955 is on kickstarter, a game prototype. I think of the game as 1960-lite; of you like 1960 and want a shorter version, get this.
We love Navegador. I must get a copy for the group asap.
Shabbat Gaming
We had our good friends David and Sharron over, and we were all invited for dinner to reps of a local synagogue also happened to be my fourth cousin. Her husband had brought back a bunch of dice from China where he had learned how to play Liar's Dice (I thought that Liar's Dice was a slightly different game, but I was mistaken). He and David and I played most of a game, and he lost badly.
The next day, I taught Tal's friend Toby how to play Settlers of Catan. Tal and David and Sharron's son Yoni joined us, and we had some rollicking fun. After lunch I taught Sharron and Yoni how to play Shotten Totten (getting all of the bonus cards wrong) and they played twice while David, Nadine, Mace, and I played bridge.
And what did you do this weekend?
1955 is on kickstarter, a game prototype. I think of the game as 1960-lite; of you like 1960 and want a shorter version, get this.
We love Navegador. I must get a copy for the group asap.
Shabbat Gaming
We had our good friends David and Sharron over, and we were all invited for dinner to reps of a local synagogue also happened to be my fourth cousin. Her husband had brought back a bunch of dice from China where he had learned how to play Liar's Dice (I thought that Liar's Dice was a slightly different game, but I was mistaken). He and David and I played most of a game, and he lost badly.
The next day, I taught Tal's friend Toby how to play Settlers of Catan. Tal and David and Sharron's son Yoni joined us, and we had some rollicking fun. After lunch I taught Sharron and Yoni how to play Shotten Totten (getting all of the bonus cards wrong) and they played twice while David, Nadine, Mace, and I played bridge.
And what did you do this weekend?
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Game Notes
I gave each of my brothers' families a copy of Jungle Speed for Hanukkah. It's currently very popular among Israeli teenagers and children.
We didn't have game night this week, owing to Hanukkah, Rachel leaving for Toronto/Boston for two weeks, and Rachel and I taking a trip up north for Limmud Galil - she taught and learned, I worked. I brought a few games with me just in case the social opportunity presented itself, but it didn't.
I sent my Netrunner collection with Rachel to Toronto; it will be picked up by someone who bought it from me (at a steal, I think). Of the other games I wanted to sell off, Binyamin of my local group bought eight of them. Rachel will bring back a few games I bought (Dominion: Prosperity, Glory to Rome, Gosu, whatever my BGG Secret Santa sent me, and a game I have to send to someone in Israel as TDT's Secret Santa).
Last shabbat I played with my downstairs neighbors' guests' kids. We played Cranium Whoonu. Each player takes a turn to be judge. The other players play a card with an item or activity that they think the judge will like. The judge arranges the items according to likes most to likes least. The players receive points for having guessed well.
Then, oddly, each player passes half their cards to a player on their left, which means that you may know later as a judge who played what. I didn't actually look at the rules, so maybe the kids added that one themselves.
After that nonsense, I ran upstairs and brought down For Sale, which none of them had heard of naturally. We played twice, and one of them wanted to go buy it.
This shabbat I went to my mom's in Beit Shemesh. After lunch I played Parade with my hostess and her 20 year old daughter. They got it quickly and liked it. I won.
Later in the afternoon I played Scrabble with my mom. I had a bingo, and I thought I was doing much better than she was anyway, but discounting the bingo I only beat her by 20 points. Hmmm.
We didn't have game night this week, owing to Hanukkah, Rachel leaving for Toronto/Boston for two weeks, and Rachel and I taking a trip up north for Limmud Galil - she taught and learned, I worked. I brought a few games with me just in case the social opportunity presented itself, but it didn't.
I sent my Netrunner collection with Rachel to Toronto; it will be picked up by someone who bought it from me (at a steal, I think). Of the other games I wanted to sell off, Binyamin of my local group bought eight of them. Rachel will bring back a few games I bought (Dominion: Prosperity, Glory to Rome, Gosu, whatever my BGG Secret Santa sent me, and a game I have to send to someone in Israel as TDT's Secret Santa).
Last shabbat I played with my downstairs neighbors' guests' kids. We played Cranium Whoonu. Each player takes a turn to be judge. The other players play a card with an item or activity that they think the judge will like. The judge arranges the items according to likes most to likes least. The players receive points for having guessed well.
Then, oddly, each player passes half their cards to a player on their left, which means that you may know later as a judge who played what. I didn't actually look at the rules, so maybe the kids added that one themselves.
After that nonsense, I ran upstairs and brought down For Sale, which none of them had heard of naturally. We played twice, and one of them wanted to go buy it.
This shabbat I went to my mom's in Beit Shemesh. After lunch I played Parade with my hostess and her 20 year old daughter. They got it quickly and liked it. I won.
Later in the afternoon I played Scrabble with my mom. I had a bingo, and I thought I was doing much better than she was anyway, but discounting the bingo I only beat her by 20 points. Hmmm.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Session Report, in which Nadine wins a lot and we try 5 player Power Grid Benelux
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Dominion Intrigue/Seaside, Power Grid - Benelux, Phoenicia, Bridge.
First play of Benelux. We inflict Phoenicia on some newbies.
First play of Benelux. We inflict Phoenicia on some newbies.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Session Report, in which we play a close game of Age of Empires III
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Parade, Age of Empires III, Vegas Showdown, Bridge.
We had a nice, close game of Age of Empires III.
Earlier in the week, Rachel and I played Scrabble. Rachel was tired, but still beat me 322 to 314. She had only two scores in the 200s, jumping from 199 to 224 to 261 to 304.
We had a nice, close game of Age of Empires III.
Earlier in the week, Rachel and I played Scrabble. Rachel was tired, but still beat me 322 to 314. She had only two scores in the 200s, jumping from 199 to 224 to 261 to 304.
Do You Need Game Expansions?
Some game expansions are worth buying, and some are not. Before buying, consider:
- How frequently you play the base game
The less frequently, the less you require an expansion.
- How often you have already played the base game
If you don't play the game frequently now because you're tired of it, but you played it to death when it first came out, an expansion might rekindle interest in the game.
- How rich is the game play experience of the base game?
A game that's already wildly imaginative and plays differently each time doesn't necessarily need an expansion.
- How much game play the expansion adds
The price should be proportional to the change in the game play.
- How disruptive the expansion is to the base game
Does it offer more options, or does it entirely change the game mechanisms? More options is good if you like the base game but need more to keep it stimulating. New and changed mechanisms means a new game, which you must want to choose to play in place of playing the base game.
All of these questions lead to the ultimate question: how often will this actually hit the table? My track record for expansions varies wildly:
Age of Steam, Power Grid, etc. (maps): Train and other connection games that don't come with a randomized board setup can use expansion maps. These don't hit the table often in my group, so a few expansion maps is sufficient for us. Beyond that is a waste.
Agricola: Agricola comes pre-packaged with expansions, including the various decks. It needs no further expansions. I have successfully avoided them.
Alea Treasure Chest: This is a box with small expansions for seven Alea games, of which I own six of them. We use to play a lot of Puerto Rico, and I created my own expansion buildings for it, so I was open to playing the Nobles expansion. It's good, and will probably come out again.
I haven't tried the other expansions yet, but I suspect we will get to them. We don't play the other games all that often, so I don't know how often the expansion will come out even if the base game does ... unless the expansion significantly improves the game. In which case we will no longer play the base game without the expansion.
Apples to Apples: If you play often, additional cards can be fun. However, A2A is designed well, so that you don't really need expansion cards. No two hands are the same.
Blue Moon: I didn't find the base game all that interesting. I didn't try the expansions, but I doubt that you can play the base game too often without them.
Carcassonne: The standalone games such as Hunters and Gatherers and The City don't need - and don't have - expansions (there's a very small tile expansion for H&G). The base game required some expansions to spruce up some imbalances in the scoring. I don't know much about them, however.
Chess: Changing anything in Chess means playing a different game; Chess is Chess. Chess means memorizing openings and very specific evaluation strategies. Any and all expansions to Chess are simply abstract games played on a Chess-like board with similar rules to Chess. I prefer the variants.
Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic was built to have expansions, since the game is designed to be wild and full of surprises. The more the merrier. However, I don't like several of the expansions, notably the ones that disrupt the game play (moons, variable hexes, ...).
Cuba: The designer sent me a few tile expansions to the game. I don't play frequently enough to judge these. They don't disrupt the game, but I wouldn't have gone out of my way to buy them, either.
Dominion: Dominion is already a fantastic game, and several of the expansions are fantastic, if slightly-less balanced. There comes a point, however, when you have enough already to make every game different; at that point, the only reason to buy expansions is for the same reason you buy packs of Magic cards: you want a particular card. Don't do it. Pick two expansions and no more.
I'm going to violate what I just said by buying Prosperity; however, I could easily give up Seaside.
El Grande: I tried the King and Intriguant variant several times. The concept wasn't inherently bad, but some of the cards were annoying, and wouldn't you know it, every player played on of those cards at least once a round. In the base game, those cards can only come up once or twice. So I banned those cards in the variant.
Turns out that we simple didn't play El Grande enough to warrant the expansion at all.
Homesteaders: An amazing game space which I haven't come close to exhausting. But I think there's room for a set of expansion buildings. Just one.
Magic: the Gathering: This game, as all TCGs, is built around the concept of expansions. Luckily, making some cards rare meant making other cards common, and thus worthless. You can pick up thousands of "worthless" cards for a song, after which you don't need any more expansions.
The Pillars of the Earth: I bought the expansion, and the group played it once. We don't play the game enough to warrant it. Actually, I've grown sour on the master building drawing mechanism, so, unless this expansion fixes that, I probably won't be playing it.
Power Grid (deck): Unlike the maps mentioned above, the deck provides variant plants to acquire during the game. While it did, it had hardly any noticeable effect on the game.
Puerto Rico: I've already created half a dozen expansions to this game, and they keep the game from going stale.
Setters of Catan: The expansions to this game were a mix of additional options (Seafarers) to disruptive (Cities and Knights). I like C&K, but it's a different game, which doesn't come out all that much anymore (we played it to death). I didn't think Seafarers was worth the money, after playing it once. The 5-6 player expansions made the game long and cumbersome.
What's the moral of this post? While the Tribune expansion looks tempting, I don't need it.
- How frequently you play the base game
The less frequently, the less you require an expansion.
- How often you have already played the base game
If you don't play the game frequently now because you're tired of it, but you played it to death when it first came out, an expansion might rekindle interest in the game.
- How rich is the game play experience of the base game?
A game that's already wildly imaginative and plays differently each time doesn't necessarily need an expansion.
- How much game play the expansion adds
The price should be proportional to the change in the game play.
- How disruptive the expansion is to the base game
Does it offer more options, or does it entirely change the game mechanisms? More options is good if you like the base game but need more to keep it stimulating. New and changed mechanisms means a new game, which you must want to choose to play in place of playing the base game.
All of these questions lead to the ultimate question: how often will this actually hit the table? My track record for expansions varies wildly:
Age of Steam, Power Grid, etc. (maps): Train and other connection games that don't come with a randomized board setup can use expansion maps. These don't hit the table often in my group, so a few expansion maps is sufficient for us. Beyond that is a waste.
Agricola: Agricola comes pre-packaged with expansions, including the various decks. It needs no further expansions. I have successfully avoided them.
Alea Treasure Chest: This is a box with small expansions for seven Alea games, of which I own six of them. We use to play a lot of Puerto Rico, and I created my own expansion buildings for it, so I was open to playing the Nobles expansion. It's good, and will probably come out again.
I haven't tried the other expansions yet, but I suspect we will get to them. We don't play the other games all that often, so I don't know how often the expansion will come out even if the base game does ... unless the expansion significantly improves the game. In which case we will no longer play the base game without the expansion.
Apples to Apples: If you play often, additional cards can be fun. However, A2A is designed well, so that you don't really need expansion cards. No two hands are the same.
Blue Moon: I didn't find the base game all that interesting. I didn't try the expansions, but I doubt that you can play the base game too often without them.
Carcassonne: The standalone games such as Hunters and Gatherers and The City don't need - and don't have - expansions (there's a very small tile expansion for H&G). The base game required some expansions to spruce up some imbalances in the scoring. I don't know much about them, however.
Chess: Changing anything in Chess means playing a different game; Chess is Chess. Chess means memorizing openings and very specific evaluation strategies. Any and all expansions to Chess are simply abstract games played on a Chess-like board with similar rules to Chess. I prefer the variants.
Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic was built to have expansions, since the game is designed to be wild and full of surprises. The more the merrier. However, I don't like several of the expansions, notably the ones that disrupt the game play (moons, variable hexes, ...).
Cuba: The designer sent me a few tile expansions to the game. I don't play frequently enough to judge these. They don't disrupt the game, but I wouldn't have gone out of my way to buy them, either.
Dominion: Dominion is already a fantastic game, and several of the expansions are fantastic, if slightly-less balanced. There comes a point, however, when you have enough already to make every game different; at that point, the only reason to buy expansions is for the same reason you buy packs of Magic cards: you want a particular card. Don't do it. Pick two expansions and no more.
I'm going to violate what I just said by buying Prosperity; however, I could easily give up Seaside.
El Grande: I tried the King and Intriguant variant several times. The concept wasn't inherently bad, but some of the cards were annoying, and wouldn't you know it, every player played on of those cards at least once a round. In the base game, those cards can only come up once or twice. So I banned those cards in the variant.
Turns out that we simple didn't play El Grande enough to warrant the expansion at all.
Homesteaders: An amazing game space which I haven't come close to exhausting. But I think there's room for a set of expansion buildings. Just one.
Magic: the Gathering: This game, as all TCGs, is built around the concept of expansions. Luckily, making some cards rare meant making other cards common, and thus worthless. You can pick up thousands of "worthless" cards for a song, after which you don't need any more expansions.
The Pillars of the Earth: I bought the expansion, and the group played it once. We don't play the game enough to warrant it. Actually, I've grown sour on the master building drawing mechanism, so, unless this expansion fixes that, I probably won't be playing it.
Power Grid (deck): Unlike the maps mentioned above, the deck provides variant plants to acquire during the game. While it did, it had hardly any noticeable effect on the game.
Puerto Rico: I've already created half a dozen expansions to this game, and they keep the game from going stale.
Setters of Catan: The expansions to this game were a mix of additional options (Seafarers) to disruptive (Cities and Knights). I like C&K, but it's a different game, which doesn't come out all that much anymore (we played it to death). I didn't think Seafarers was worth the money, after playing it once. The 5-6 player expansions made the game long and cumbersome.
What's the moral of this post? While the Tribune expansion looks tempting, I don't need it.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Session Report, in which we play La Citta for 4 hours
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Nile, La Citta.
Yeah, four hours for La Citta. We enjoyed it, thought we also remembered its (non-fatal) flaws.
This shabbat we said farewell (again) to our friends Bill and Shirley who are going back to the US for a year. Nadine hosted 21 people for shabbat lunch, after which we played.
I taught Homesteaders to Cliff, Mace, and Adam. Still one of my favorite games. The final scores were me 63, Mace 43, Adam 41, Cliff 34 (or something like that), but the others still really liked the game. Though I won by a landslide, I still feel like I'm not playing anywhere near optimally. I took both 10 point buildings, though I took five debt to do so; I only managed to pay off two of those debt at the end of the game.
Other games played include Castle Panic, Race for the Galaxy, and Ticket to Ride.
Yeah, four hours for La Citta. We enjoyed it, thought we also remembered its (non-fatal) flaws.
This shabbat we said farewell (again) to our friends Bill and Shirley who are going back to the US for a year. Nadine hosted 21 people for shabbat lunch, after which we played.
I taught Homesteaders to Cliff, Mace, and Adam. Still one of my favorite games. The final scores were me 63, Mace 43, Adam 41, Cliff 34 (or something like that), but the others still really liked the game. Though I won by a landslide, I still feel like I'm not playing anywhere near optimally. I took both 10 point buildings, though I took five debt to do so; I only managed to pay off two of those debt at the end of the game.
Other games played include Castle Panic, Race for the Galaxy, and Ticket to Ride.
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