Games That I Hate Teaching

One downside to complicated Euro style games is that it's hard to learn the rules.  I know this turns off a lot of people to them, but it is totally worth it.

Still, some games just take forever to learn, and trying to teach them to other people in a clear way without forgetting anything (man, they really get mad when you forget something) is a really intensive process.

No one hates learning rules more than our good friend Mozzie the bear.  Here is a list he and I have compiled of "Games I Hate to Teach."  He was kind enough to pose for all the pictures:

1. Terra Mystica

Terra Mystica rules come pretty easy to people who had played a lot of heavy euros.  But there is a lot going on, and bringing newer players in can take a while.  I taught this to my gaming friends in probably under 15 minutes, but at a boardgame meetup we went to it took a whole hour to teach to a less euro-centered player.  So not the worst game to teach but definitely a lot of stuff and symbology to go through.

2. The Great Zimbabwe

The Great Zimbabwe is a great game by Splotter Spellen.  They are known for incredibly complex games printed in small print runs that cost about $120 per game.  The Great Zimbabwe is actually one of their simpler ones, I feel. But it is the only one I own and still very complicated.

This game is the definition of fiddly.  Trying to remember what needs to be shipped where and how far it can be shipped and wait do diagonals count and what's a hub and does your hub count as my hub and what are we doing?!

It's actually not bad once you learn the rules, but teaching is tough.  And I couldn't play this right now without reading the manual a few times again.

3. ZhanGuo

Played ZhanGuo not too long ago.  It was really really good.  The rules aren't actually that tough either, but the rulebook is pretty disorganized, which isn't surprising as there does not seem to be a logical streamlined way to glide through teaching this one.  You just got to plug and chug and this rule and that rule and this thing and that thing.  Took an hour to teach it.  Worth it, but still...

4.  Luna

Luna's rules aren't even hard.  But there are something like 14 different actions you can take!  And each one comes with it's own little set of details!  And there's a supposedly handy guide to all the actions, but you have to interpret all that symbology, which isn't clear the first time you play.
Did I mention 14 DIFFERENT ACTIONS!  And some of them are similar and I can remember how the boat action is different from the wave action.  Ever.

5.  Asgard  

Ugggh.  Asgard...  I saw this for $18 on amazon, read somes reviews and thought "Hey this seems pretty heavy and interesting and the theme is pretty cool and it's sooo cheap.  Why not?."  The idea and mechanics are quite interesting, but none of it works as well as I had hoped.  Worst of all, It took forever to set up and forever and a day to teach it. Another poorly organized (and in some cases unclear) rulebook, with lots of little rules to go over. Lots of work to learn a mediocre game.  Not worth it this time.

What's In Your Bag?

Gen Con is approaching.  Sadly, we aren't going this year :(
Hopefully we can get the time off work for a big adventure next year.
(For our big adventure last year, see this: Day 1, Day 2 and Days 3 and 4)

Last year, we got these awesome game bags for free.  They aren't super special or padded or anything, but they hold 2 games nicely.  I use it when the games get cooped up and I need to take them out for a walk.

Panda not included.

I used it just the other day.  When I got home and pulled the games out, though, I also found these.

Not my socks

These are not my socks.  They are all that's left of a gamer who had to move away :'(

But I'll see y'all soon ;)  We'll play some games!

The Lonely Boardgamer Episode 2: Nations (Solo)

A few days ago, my air conditioning went out.  So I did the only logical thing:  turned on a fan, cracked a window, and played a solo boardgame.  Follow the logic.  It's there.

This time around, it was Nations.  Nations is a civilization building game, much like Through the Ages.  The concept and theme of these two games is basically the same, but Nations is quite a bit less complicated (admittedly not quite as fun, but easier to teach and play quickly).

When time periods collide.  Abe Lincoln's face is that of a man who is judging you.

A bonus to Nations, though, is it comes with a Solo Variant.  Even better, it comes with specific pieces that are used solely for the solo game and not the multi player game.  So the solo variant is not just a random add on for kicks, it was actually planned out.  Kudos to Abe Lincoln and friends.

Solo game special tile and a die!!

The solo variant replaces event cards, which make randomizes things a bit in each round of the multiplayer game, with event tiles (which are chunkier) which determine what the imaginary friend fake faceless opponent gets each round. It also tells you how bad the famine is this round that takes your wheat away, how many architects are available for constructing Wonders, and stuff that happens on certain dice rolls.
The imaginary friend fake faceless opponent rules the die every time it is his/her's turn and stuff happens.

As you may recall, I don't like playing solo games against imaginary friend fake faceless opponents.  Mozzie was kind enough to stand in again and help me out.

Mozzie calls this his "Warmongering hat".  And his "juice bottle."

Mozzie, as always, likes hats and drinking.  That's why we get along.

The game lets you select a difficulty level that determines how many resources you can obtain during a maintenance.  I chose the easiest difficulty.

Chieftain/Easy Mode is still really hard.

The whole game setup looks like this.

Game start

There a personal player board, that determines your starting buildings and resources and is where you will build later buildings, military units, colonies, wonders, and store your leader/advisor.

Then there's a card drafting board, where new cards come out each round, and get stronger over the 4 ages (each with 2 rounds) of the game.  You buy cards with gold (1, 2 or 3 depending the row the card is in). Some cards are buildings/leaders/wonders/military while others just give you stuff.
In the solo rules, there are 4 columns of cards, and whenever Mozzie rules a 1-4 that numbered column gets taken away, so you want to prioritize card buying before he steals the good ones.

Quite the selection.

 Mozzie stole 2 columns already. 

Finally there's a main board, which keeps track of military strength, nation stability, player order, round number, and score.

Leaders and manned buildings produce stuff each round.  Buildings are manned and military units are produce by taking free workers and paying stones. Some military units require wheat to be fed each round, in addition to famine costs.  You can produce more workers at the start of a turn, but at a price of paying extra wheat every round or losing nation stability.

Your manned buildings, wonders, and colonies score points at the end of the game.  You also earn (or lose) points throughout the game through various cards, having more stability than Mozzie (+/- 1 point per round), or having more books than Mozzie (+3 per age).

I invested heavily in staying ahead on books and stability to accumulate points during play.
I also had a pretty strong military, which is required to take over colonies, but got there too late to buy more than 1.

Endgame score looked like this.

There is no winning or losing.  You just get a rank based on how many points you get.
Apparently I am at "Pericles" rank with my score.  I have some work to do...this game is hard.

I like this a whole lot as a solo game.  Multiplayer is ok, though it falls short of Through the Ages in terms of the complexity that I like (though wins in taking half as long).  But this is my go-to solo game for lonely nights when the air conditioning is broken (it totally makes sense in my mind still).  I highly recommend it for that purpose, especially if you like civ games.

My game table was kinda a mess after the game.  Mozzie was also a mess.

Dragon Go Server Tournament: Round 1

So back in January, I started playing in an online Go tournament on the Dragon Go Server.  This is a turn-based server, so instead of sitting down and playing a game from start to finish in an hour, each player plays one move then waits for the other with some long time limit so the players just play a move when it's convenient in their day.

This tournament, for example, had time rules that required you making 14 moves within 14 days, after which it would reset and you'd have another 14 days to make 14 moves.

I entered the tournament ranked as a 10 kyu (rankings go from 30 kyu to 1 kyu then to 1dan to 6 dan typically, that is from weakest to strongest.  You count backwards first then up again.  I don't know why). 

The first round just ended.  It took almost 7 months to complete, during which I was super impatient.  But, I won all 8 of my games and gained a couple ranks.  The number one player from each group advances to round 2, after which the top 3 from each group go to a final group to decide the tournament winner.

Here's a graphic of my group stats summary.  Names have been changed to protect the identities of people.  My info (the guy in first place!), however, is actually legit (for once) in case anyone who reads this blog happens to also play Go.  Hit me up for a game on DGS sometime, I appreciate your readership.

Round 2 starts tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

Aw Snap!: Why Snapchat is Stupid But I Use It for Board Games.

I think Snapchat is pretty dumb.  I don't need to see a selfie every time you have a successful bathroom break, or a pic of your dog every half hour.

Unless your dog is a corgi, in which case I would like more frequent snaps, please.

For me, there are limited reasons to use Snapchat:

1.  For showing people the board games you are playing (and they aren't)
2.  For showing people the delicious food you are eating (and they aren't)
3.  For corgis doing adorable things.
4.  For pandas doing adorable things.

Nobody has sent me any pics of their corgis or pandas yet, so I'll focus on number 1.
You can take pics of your board games as you play them and send them as snapchats which mockingly say "Hey, I'm playing games without you!  Aren't they pretty."  And then they disappear forever so they can't stare at the beautiful board pic you just sent and be too jealous.

I've taken some screenshots of some potential snaps you could try out for yourself:


I. You can mock your friends whenever you are playing a new game without them.  Or because they were lame and said they couldn't play because they had a puzzle to finish (Worst excuse ever.  You will never live it down.  You know who you are.)

Because I have other friends besides you!

II. You can brag about how you have so many great games that they aren't playing with you right now.

 

I'm bragging to you right now.

III. Or you can even play a solo game and let them know that you don't even need them.

Couldn't resist the joke.

 IV.  Though nonsense is always appreciated.

Screenshot of a Snap of Mozzie Playing Shogi in a Mirror = ART

Some Games (or "I've Been Neglecting This Blog Too Long"): Istanbul, ZhanGuo, and Deus

I'm Batman.

Ha, had you fooled for a sec.  No, even though I use the Batman excuse whenever I've been negligent about updating this blog, I'm really just busy/lazy/generally unmotivated.

But you deserve an update.  Even though nobody reads this except my best friends.  
But if you are reading this, then we are best friends.  Hello friend!

So without further ado, here's a brand new and much needed Blupdate (that's a blog update, don't they teach you anything in school these days?....)

I got some gaming in with my brother this weekend at a family event.  We played three new games that I had acquired.  He's always my guinea pig for testing out new games.  I wouldn't want to embarrass myself at public events with crappy games.

I'll give you a quick simple run-through of them.  You can thank me later. 
Here they are, in play order:

Istanbul:

 

This guy offers you gems, but the guy in the back has pineapple!

Istanbul is a the 2014 Kennerspeil des Jahres game award winner.  It isn't super heavy, nor is it super simple or stupid.

The goal of the game is to get 5 rubies, or 6 rubies in a 2 player game like we played.  We decided that was a pointless goal.  Instead, we decided that the goal of the game was to acquire this man's fez, which costs exactly 6 rubies.  So get rubies, say "Hey, I'd like to buy that fez," and win.

Quality fez, costs more than you would think.

 On your turn, you move your merchant around the board, up to two spaces.  You then can drop on of your assistants off at the space and take an action, pick up an assistant that you previously dropped there and take an action, or do nothing if you do have any assistants left to help you (because you are worthless human being without your assistant labor).  Actions involve getting money, getting goods, selling goods, buying tiles, your typical collecting and buying stuff mechanics.

You get gems buy buying them (for money from the jewelry guy, for goods from the sultan's palace) or accomplishing other goals (like visiting all the mosques or getting the super deluxe max size wheelbarrow for carrying your goods). 

There are also some minor rules, like getting bonus cards that let you do extra stuff, or running into the smuggler or governor pieces which give you bonus stuff, or sending people's family members to jail...all routine activities. 

Nice components.  Nice table cloth.

I was one turn away from winning, but a super combo snagged my brother the win.  Seems like this game is either going to be very close or someone will run away with it, no in between.

With Splendor being my go-to starter game for teaching people new the world of awesome games, I think Istanbul is a nice step up on the way to teaching heavier games that I so much enjoy.

ZhanGuo:

Behold my Great Wall and Great Beard!

In ZhanGuo, you are building up China by doing lots of stuff.  The rules are fiddly and it takes forever to learn.  But it is fun.

On each turn you play a card from your hand.  You either play it on your player board or out on the main board.  Playing on the main board let's you take an action of your choice (building things on the board, getting cubes, moving cubes around, the normal things).  Then, if the number on the card is either above or below the last card played (it depends which symbol we are looking at) you trigger symbols that appear on your player board (from cards you played there instead of playing them on the main board) and get bonus points or actions.

 There is a lot going on.  You collect some kind of cultural tokens corresponding unifying China, and majorities for these each round grant you bonuses.  You are also trying to build parts of the Great Wall, which get you multipliers for completing tasks by endgame.  And you are trying to secure governors in the provinces, where majorities at the endgame score lots of points.  And you are trying to put these walls and governors in places that match up with certain randomized goals that also score you endgame points.

The real idea is balancing between building your tableau and taking immediate actions, choosing how to use your cards most efficiently.  But with a lot of tiny little rules to fill in the gaps that make this game both obnoxiously hard to learn but more interesting to play than it initially sounds.

I lost in a close game.  Really liked this one though.

Deus:

"Deus": from the Latin word meaning "6-pack armor abs"

Deus is another card-based tableau building game with a center board building element.  It is, however, much lighter than ZhanGuo and relies a lot more on luck of the draw (as many card games do).  

In the game, you either play a card with the necessary resources to a build a building of a certain color/category and place it on the board (there are production buildings which make stuff, military buildings which fight stuff, and some other things) or you discard some cards and choose the color of one of the discarded cards to activate a special favor from the associated god (like, for each discarded card take money, or for each discarded card add a new building to your supply).

The coolness comes in that whenever you actually build a building, you activate all building special abilities of that color already on your tableau starting from the bottom up.  So the game really really ramps up as you build more cards.

This may not sound too terribly new, but it feels pretty different from most games I've played.  Also, I think the board and components are super cool looking, always a plus.

Deus board, Deus cards, and a teddy bear in the background for whatever reason.

I liked it, would play it again for fun, but it doesn't feel like I know well enough what cards exist yet for me to go into this game with any sort of plan or idea of what to do.  Still cool looking though.


That sums up this past weekend.

In other news, DID YOU KNOW THEY MADE A KUNG FU PANDA 3!!!!!

The Lonely Boardgamer, Episode 1: Luna (Solo)

Things get lonely sometimes for a boardgamer.  Friends move away, and while there are ways to play games online or via Skype (still need to try the latter, by the way), options are limited.  Both because because there aren't many games available online and playing  via webcam doesn't lend itself to games with hidden information or a lot of piece manipulation. 

It makes me sad.  Sometimes it gets so bad that I start hearing voices, though it's usually just my stuffed panda talking to himself so no real worries there.

Sure, there are other things to do.  But you can't play guitar when you've sliced your finger wide open with a surprisingly sharp ceramic knife (seriously, I still can't get over how sharp these things are.  It's a gift and apparently also a curse).  And you can only play Resident Evil 4 on your computer in the dark for so long before you're convinced that there are zombies clawing at your front door and have to stop and turn the lights back on.

Because of these setbacks, I decided to play Luna solo tonight.

Yeah, some board games have solo versions, and they are always welcome.

Moon Priestess.  Lives by the sea.  Has a magic staff.  Dyes her hair white.

Luna is one of Stefan Feld's more thematic games.  It's also been out of print for a while, but I found a reasonably priced copy a while back and snagged it, mostly because out of print games call to me in a very enticing fashion.
In Luna, players control acolytes trying to make their way into positions in the temple while following the beautiful moon priestess around like puppies trying to win her blessings.  Or something like that.

The game comes with a pretty neat board that fits together like a puzzle.

 

The assembled board consists of a central temple area and an outer ring of Holy Isles that your acolytes travel to and from to activate different actions.  The positioning of the islands is random every game, as are the tiles placed in the temple and the starting positions of some of the pieces, adding a bit of random variety to the game on setup.

A Holy Isle.

Acolyte meeples have robes. Or dresses.  Or maybe ghost tails.

I've played this one 2-players a couple of times with some enjoyment.  However, the game instructions also come with a solo variant that I thought I'd give a try.  So here we go:

Step 1 to playing boardgames solo is music choice.  There's no one else at the table to talk to and no one to get distracted by the sound, so blast the music all you want.  Something really heavy, face-melting, awesome ...

She's everywhere to me...

With the mood set, it was time to get into the game.  Solo Luna pits you against an AI who follows a few set rules every turn.  I don't like the idea of playing a faceless opponent though, so I gave it a familiar face...

Mozzie is back with a new hat and a new drink.

Today Mozzie is sporting a thermal beanie, because it's very cold and snowy outside, and a Stone IPA.  I hate IPAs, so he's the only one who will drink them now.  He's also discovered that airline pillows make great seat cushions.

Now back to the game.  On each turn, you use active acolytes to carry out actions.  These consist of a a few options, including moving acolytes from isle to isle, placing them in the temple, picking up action tiles that give you special actions, gaining more acolytes to work with, moving up in position in the temple council, building shrines...you know, just a few options.
Summarized on this super easy to read, not confusing at all player aid:

Once the acolytes are used, they are spent for the turn and apparently have to lie down in the ocean.

Besides the acolytes, there are a few more characters at play.
There's the Master Builder.  If you have a shrine action tile and acolytes on the same space as him, you can build a shrine.  Shrines count as free acolytes for performing some actions, help with area majority on islands, and are worth 4 points a piece at endgame.

You can tell he's a Master because of the beard.

Shrine.

There's the temple guard.  He shows you what temple spaces are available to sit in each round and how many points putting acolytes there is worth.  Placing acolytes in the temple scores a point per at the end of each round, plus an additional amount upon placement depending on the round, with these values diminishing as the game progresses.

Temple Guard

 
There's the apostate.  He whispers sweet nothings into the ears of any acolytes near him, turning them to the dark side and making you lose points.

Severus Snape

When I played this 2-player with my brother, we decided apostate was too hard to say.  So we called him "the prostate."
This then led to 30 straight minutes of prostate related humor.

"The role of the prostate in this game is a bit enlarged."
"Yeah, the prostate really restricts the flow of the game."

We had a million of 'em.

Finally, there is the Moon Priestess herself.  Whoever has a majority of active acolytes on the isle she is on at the end of the turn wins her favor and scores a bunch of points.

Moon priestess.

The three characters move from isle to isle at the end of each turn.  So part of your time is spent running your acolytes away from the prostate and toward the builder and priestess.


So you score points from the Moon Priestess, having shrines, and placing acolytes in the temples.

You also get points by bumping people out of the temple by sitting down next to them with a higher numbered tile.  Unless of course they are protected by a Book of Knowledge, then they are too smart to get kicked out.

And if you don't use all your action tiles, you score a point for each unused one at the end of the game.

Herb tile.  Normally used to revive passed out acolytes.  That's some good herb.

Finally, you score endgame points for your position in the temple council.

The seats get squishier the higher you go.

So in the solo game, the AI does stuff and you try your best to also do stuff and hinder the AI from doing his stuff.  Your final score is the difference between your points and the AI points.
The instructions come with 3 levels of difficulty.  I played at Level 2 because easy level seems lame and Level 3 was brutal last time I attempted this game solo.  Basically, the difficulty levels affect what the AI does and what you are allowed to do, with Level 3 being very restrictive (basically freezing all actions on the island occupied by the prostate with no option to move him.  That makes the game hard).

Here was my stack of points at the end of the game.  There's no point track, so you just stack these things up.

Favor tokens

Final temple status.

At the end of the game, the temple was pretty segregated, with everyone kicked out along the border of conflict.  Our acolytes didn't like each other.

I had more than the AI by a score of 88 to 73, so a score of 15.  I don't know if this is good or not, but the game didn't seem particularly tense so I'm going to say Level 2 is too easy.

Overall, the game is pretty decent with multiple players, and just kinda okay solo.  I'd play it again for something to do, but even with all the action options it just doesn't seem brain-burning enough to be a great solo game.  Maybe at Level 3 I'll have to think a little harder.

It is a really pretty game though with some cool pieces.  So there's that.

Oh, and in the end Mozzie refused to accept defeat.  He even made his own trophy.