tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30086462024-03-08T00:42:44.778+00:00nimrodsI spent my pension on board gamesPeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.comBlogger1477125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-42455584203138502892022-03-18T15:05:00.000+00:002022-03-23T10:53:48.748+00:00Nimrods away<p>Last weekend I got together with a group of old boardgaming friends that I made (mostly) back in the 90s when I lived in Salisbury. We hired a couple of cottages in rural Somerset, bought bags of unhealthy food and drink, shut the doors and windows to keep the fresh air and sunshine out, and spent a long weekend playing boardgames.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8se2zO3CrEKB3BNKApuGIiCtCFXFgg9wfomcDSJGPO-_EUDRZC39zy7K4jmLVmvhuIMAtv2OgD8yZgdCcfLjho2hVAERTX50wmsGzHwOeYxbRBWs88iDGeReQxhAxjLVULSpDo3_F7b7mTscNFLKQPrK7jGnKWfPy9nLk0xqmnPo_1mEIsQ/s4160/IMG_20220311_170251960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8se2zO3CrEKB3BNKApuGIiCtCFXFgg9wfomcDSJGPO-_EUDRZC39zy7K4jmLVmvhuIMAtv2OgD8yZgdCcfLjho2hVAERTX50wmsGzHwOeYxbRBWs88iDGeReQxhAxjLVULSpDo3_F7b7mTscNFLKQPrK7jGnKWfPy9nLk0xqmnPo_1mEIsQ/s320/IMG_20220311_170251960.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kicking off with Wingspan</td></tr></tbody></table>First off was Wingspan, which was new to me. This kind of read-the-detail-on-every-card game is inevitably a bit bewildering first time through, and I was duly bewildered. But I like other read-the-card games in particular Oath, so it might grow on me if I ever play it again, who knows?</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLYWPriLAooKfsRGlrjTiyNnoRfO6vLi5DwxexGw-1cByrEGikZgFPD9wcnscdfsyvkvICox3CUkYnVDXsRHylCrQ2lKN4uS9_EHM6f8ow8DMLyr04DBUky3CIvrHvl6Prr0zgQnkPUp4sPFb4cqoMB_oU57LFvy06jzD0ozWAlyFGp4z3izQ/s4160/IMG_20220311_183420850_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLYWPriLAooKfsRGlrjTiyNnoRfO6vLi5DwxexGw-1cByrEGikZgFPD9wcnscdfsyvkvICox3CUkYnVDXsRHylCrQ2lKN4uS9_EHM6f8ow8DMLyr04DBUky3CIvrHvl6Prr0zgQnkPUp4sPFb4cqoMB_oU57LFvy06jzD0ozWAlyFGp4z3izQ/s320/IMG_20220311_183420850_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First railway game of the weekend</td></tr></tbody></table><div>Next up was Irish Gauge. This was my copy so it was the first of several teaches I did over the weekend. I'm not sure if my teach was any good, despite hours spent preparing for such eventualities, but the game went down really well. This is such a clever yet compact business game, I'm really impressed. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQb8dd5PV1rw-Y8qwMeVHj6qlh7UpN9cxQD3T1KOYxbaHrzw_R-z4bVwscEfJblxg12XdP-tmq0Z3_gowu56bt0k3aXXbjn7QArRJrtSF9geFt9SW9a3W05qYoK3Kx0JhUuZfdp-nsdgAAx4WI3ERLRG2dmAk-YEIR-joIEdCiadEtCRiDbY/s4160/IMG_20220312_143135905_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCQb8dd5PV1rw-Y8qwMeVHj6qlh7UpN9cxQD3T1KOYxbaHrzw_R-z4bVwscEfJblxg12XdP-tmq0Z3_gowu56bt0k3aXXbjn7QArRJrtSF9geFt9SW9a3W05qYoK3Kx0JhUuZfdp-nsdgAAx4WI3ERLRG2dmAk-YEIR-joIEdCiadEtCRiDbY/s320/IMG_20220312_143135905_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Five hours of 18Chesapeake!</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Next morning, after a visit to the local ParkRun with Simon and Dave (where I made my best time in years, mainly thanks to Dave shouting encouragement in my ear) and a fried breakfast, three of us consented to play an 18xx game with me. Thankfully they were all familiar (if a few decades ago) with 1830 and so teaching 18Chesapeake was very easy. 18Ches is supposed to be a short game in the genre, but we went to nearly 5 hours. On reflection, I didn't push the loot and train rush as hard as I should have, and in general we're a fairly slow group. But you know, it was a holiday weekend after all, so no need to rush.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnUQU8aoWJ_FDpawEHmHNUxEZW8RLu2-3ETyQuVgTUB-10U23N1tTfygxgIblWgiWGmlmQrCzXQjIzFRroAOnrzc47bklOPcJRysiqJ544YVx1rZtXX1kg27ZljRMRPDYuwuio9pR43oF9F6JapBPVBQhBzypBJH8lc2LU-YtBgsxhZinVNyA/s4160/IMG_20220313_125308238_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnUQU8aoWJ_FDpawEHmHNUxEZW8RLu2-3ETyQuVgTUB-10U23N1tTfygxgIblWgiWGmlmQrCzXQjIzFRroAOnrzc47bklOPcJRysiqJ544YVx1rZtXX1kg27ZljRMRPDYuwuio9pR43oF9F6JapBPVBQhBzypBJH8lc2LU-YtBgsxhZinVNyA/s320/IMG_20220313_125308238_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cosmic Encounter – surprise hit of the weekend?</td></tr></tbody></table>Sunday morning six of us sat down to play Cosmic Encounter. It must be about 25 years since I last played this one. In spite of preparing for this in the week before, my teaching of this classic was embarassingly hamfisted. However, playing it was a <b>lot</b> of fun! Wish I had more opportunities to play this in everyday life.<br /><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnN0K8g5x5zJKhE9Rmold-EdptUh5mue0pDZGa_WtWjjg-Ebrnur4I4fxWyr_QIfA-k6k1_Oc6d7eXN4SCbgmxM32aHxpeXT2DZLztx6fFvi6slQGuvepDVUF0uZdezXVHsr2WkjyuT2mZJKHzCe5aYMlGalmv_bcT3-oV4d825U3C0GgA_vo/s4160/IMG_20220313_162718626_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnN0K8g5x5zJKhE9Rmold-EdptUh5mue0pDZGa_WtWjjg-Ebrnur4I4fxWyr_QIfA-k6k1_Oc6d7eXN4SCbgmxM32aHxpeXT2DZLztx6fFvi6slQGuvepDVUF0uZdezXVHsr2WkjyuT2mZJKHzCe5aYMlGalmv_bcT3-oV4d825U3C0GgA_vo/s320/IMG_20220313_162718626_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More Irish Gauge!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>After a carvery lunch at the local pub, the weekend finished with another Irish Gauge session, introducing Nick to the game. I love it when a new player twigs to how the bag works. It's so clever and yet simple. Oh yes, and there was a quick game of Jump Drive with Dave after everyone else had left for home.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks to Simon, Fiona, Dave, John, Les, and Nick for a really enjoyable weekend. I've been so starved of FTF gaming these last two years, this was like water in the desert. Results-wise, I didn't win a single game, and came last in most of them. The teacher's curse, that's my excuse.</div>Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-9777172434234052262022-03-09T21:19:00.004+00:002022-03-10T14:05:33.063+00:00This is the way (is it?)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWFFgOldK5vbd1jf5BrAjgVG8UYVHF_SGQEgFmnaaYWEKRUZqTp8BmOVpQrSIixBfUoz0Qu_3_QjiylGbeKcHy1NbFkXUpkcIc36NCZHCP8bwPm-DOhXn-lOIZ05HJRPSqx-8o_Yh9zo1n-SnkJz4Rh9HA4bKzBWHvXsIzdhPTHeZ4zrD1iX0=s4160" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWFFgOldK5vbd1jf5BrAjgVG8UYVHF_SGQEgFmnaaYWEKRUZqTp8BmOVpQrSIixBfUoz0Qu_3_QjiylGbeKcHy1NbFkXUpkcIc36NCZHCP8bwPm-DOhXn-lOIZ05HJRPSqx-8o_Yh9zo1n-SnkJz4Rh9HA4bKzBWHvXsIzdhPTHeZ4zrD1iX0=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My squadron of X-Wings about to (unsuccessfully)<br />take on the Mandalorian and his dodgy friends</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Last week I finally returned to our local Star Wars: X-Wing club after a break of 2 years! That's a long time to be away from the game and I was more than a little rusty. Moreover, the game is currently going through a period of turmoil since Asmodee transferred it from from Fantasy Flight Games to little known Atomic Mass Games, who have seriously rattled many of the fans with some pretty extensive changes coupled with some clumsy PR. One of the biggest changes is to list-building, which now strongly favours named pilots kitted out with lots of upgrades. So my swarm of 5 generic X-Wings that I proudly took along was swimming clean against the tide, and was punished accordingly.</p><p>Back in 2017 I wrote a <a href="https://nimrods.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-couple-more-thoughts-on-x-wing-fatigue.html" target="_blank">post</a> wishing that FFG would introduce scenarios into X-Wing to relieve the monotony of endless death-matches. Well AMG have listened to my advice (haha!) and made scenarios central to their vision of the game's future, not as an option for casual play, but as the core structure of tournament play. Well my experience of the new scenarios amounts to a grand total of one play, but I have to say I'm not impressed so far. The idea of the scenario was to collect crates of "supplies" which had been carelessly left floating around in space. As someone quipped, it's not so much Star Wars as Star Garbage Collection. I admit I played badly – got so carried away with the idea of shooting up the other side's ships that I forgot to use my X-Wings as zero-G pickup trucks, but... isn't the pew pew shooting the whole point of the game? I'm no longer anywhere near being a hardcore fan of this game, so my opinion does not carry much weight, but the scenarios we have seen so far just seem a bit lame. I hope AMG will quickly develop some scenarios with a bit more <i>bite</i>.</p>Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-44797721054646781192022-02-14T17:59:00.001+00:002022-02-21T16:47:58.325+00:00Time of Crisis<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxdN8lXcRZjYeSFdjehIYY5JAcWpw17ivmsvoKdcrDvHhq0z0QPub28zVy0eF5UqscUqPAdNlEfJ3_OQB00VLdJo0VhaMbSQVu_RYTnMPQ6zkSuWjnTexlqTMxW09Vb-ptnvXeNB9Bvc9ZQfVUYMbu0IgNRqfMFr8IbTk3yJwGiW8c9S4AtK8/s4160/IMG_20220204_172259230_HDR.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxdN8lXcRZjYeSFdjehIYY5JAcWpw17ivmsvoKdcrDvHhq0z0QPub28zVy0eF5UqscUqPAdNlEfJ3_OQB00VLdJo0VhaMbSQVu_RYTnMPQ6zkSuWjnTexlqTMxW09Vb-ptnvXeNB9Bvc9ZQfVUYMbu0IgNRqfMFr8IbTk3yJwGiW8c9S4AtK8/w320-h240/IMG_20220204_172259230_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Actually not that much of a crisis.</td></tr></tbody></table>I've been playing Time of Crisis solo against the bot from the Iron and Rust expansion. The bot is clever in the way that it abstracts the deckbuilding, so you are not fiddling with a deck and hand of cards for each AI player, which would be a pain in the neck. However, in the way that many of these bots work, it has a priority list of actions that you have to work your way down every turn, and the wording of this list is both expansive and sometimes unclear. However, I got the hang of it after a few repetitions, and had a fun game. My AI opponent was Gordian III whom I beat by a wide margin. I hope I was playing it right! I got Emperor fairly early in the game, and Gordian took a long time getting organised to challenge me. I wonder if one of the others would play more aggressively.<br /> <p></p>Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-11393542907091551102022-02-14T16:46:00.007+00:002022-02-15T15:56:31.745+00:00Shades of a classicMarc Reichardt's recent article over on There Will Be Games, <a href="https://therewillbe.games/articles-essays/8907-the-question-of-consumption" target="_blank">The Question of Consumption</a>, hit a nerve for me, especially this sentence: "If it brings someone more joy to have Root and all its expansions sitting on a shelf in pristine condition, rather than actually on a table being used by them and their friends, hey, knock yourself out." This is me in fact – I do indeed have Root and all its expansions sitting on my shelf unused, with more to come via Kickstarter. However, this is not a situation that brings me joy, so I have made a start on actually learning and playing the expansions. Over the last few days I have played a couple of 3-way solo games with the aim of learning the Riverfolk company. In both games they came in a distant third against the Cats (who won both times) and the Alliance. The Riverfolk are very different, and playing them solo it is difficult to get a realistic sense of the trading that is central to their distinctive character. This week I plan to try them again against the Cat and Alliance bots, this time using the updates from the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2068034/better-bot-project-6th-june-update-final-cwe2-upda" target="_blank">Better Bot Project</a> which allow the bots to buy Riverfolk services.<div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgc55irzZ5Q6_aztvuI54nkKbUXOHGo0-BZzzB8J3FydeJY74zso67an2IroB1Ttz-zXwE6vXsqgrIiTjhfhU5EyWnPI0OdjGMqsP-EeUuJHtdYICTIUJY4nI5FBnLuuke1NqYrDexNFGkGor7Y5NQoPZKREfFNeOTDbXcQ_nqZR3Z1JXu6krM=s4160" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgc55irzZ5Q6_aztvuI54nkKbUXOHGo0-BZzzB8J3FydeJY74zso67an2IroB1Ttz-zXwE6vXsqgrIiTjhfhU5EyWnPI0OdjGMqsP-EeUuJHtdYICTIUJY4nI5FBnLuuke1NqYrDexNFGkGor7Y5NQoPZKREfFNeOTDbXcQ_nqZR3Z1JXu6krM=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is what money looks like.</td></tr></tbody></table><div>Anyway, when I was playing the Riverfolk Company I got into the habit of placing warrior pieces on their board face down, to indicate that they are functioning as currency. And this reminded me of a similar situation in Civilization where the playing pieces have two faces – one represents potential population, and the other face represents currency which can be used to help buy civilization cards. But you have to be careful – if either face starts to dominate you can run into trouble. If you can't pay your taxes (2 population tokens per city converted into currency) you suffer a Revolt, or if you run out of population pieces then you can't expand on the map. This is reminiscent of the way the Riverfolk's economy works – too many of your own pieces in Funds restricts your presence on the map. But not enough Funds and you won't be able to take the actions you want to. I wonder if Cole Wehrle was thinking about Civilization when he designed the Riverfolk Company?</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOGwBVdeL_V054pUaom3gOSE4YbKbR47hC7TLm-fghoZcgYA3Qiw5g0BMLigFoPOYGkBVXPdfU5XB4ATsxsCpWzqrFN03E6o3lnxyUUovYA95GDWcViiOUapGDzfouz2Zz6JyfrUR0wEFtGNaZo4VT_1mlOkvgSRzVVjYd-XwJvn-xq1e7wXw=s4160" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4160" data-original-width="3120" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOGwBVdeL_V054pUaom3gOSE4YbKbR47hC7TLm-fghoZcgYA3Qiw5g0BMLigFoPOYGkBVXPdfU5XB4ATsxsCpWzqrFN03E6o3lnxyUUovYA95GDWcViiOUapGDzfouz2Zz6JyfrUR0wEFtGNaZo4VT_1mlOkvgSRzVVjYd-XwJvn-xq1e7wXw=s320" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the shoulders of giants?</td></tr></tbody></table>Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-56553084105684034572022-02-08T13:54:00.003+00:002022-02-09T11:59:34.007+00:00The past is another country<p>Blogger informs me that nimrods boasts 1,482 posts! Reading back over my past writings is a bit cringe-making, actually. Many of my attempts at jokiness come across as a bit silly. My comments on politics and current affairs seem naive or derivative, and don't really belong in a blog which is supposedly about board games (I feel especially ashamed when I look back at my comments on the so-called war on terror.) Likewise my occasional attempts at proselytising. Then even worse, there are occasional phrases which strike me now as unacceptably sexist. (Thankfully I haven't encountered anything racist or homophobic – yet!) As I come across such stuff I am feeling free to revise or excise as appropriate; I don't feel any obligation to preserve my words as originally written.</p><p>On the other hand, the short session reports scattered through the blog's early years are a really enjoyable trip down memory lane for me, recalling many long-forgotten happy times around the game table. May there be many more such times to come!</p>Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-67486515386806838132022-02-07T12:20:00.004+00:002022-02-14T17:58:11.915+00:00Blogging about board games since 2001<p style="text-align: left;">My very first entry on <b>nimrods</b> was posted on Thursday, April 19, 2001. Two posts actually – the first was a session report on a weekend-long play of<i> Krieg! </i>with my wargaming buddies Dave and Nick. We actually played it twice; I guess I had more stamina back then! The second post expressed worry that my games collection was overflowing the available shelf space, and shared a list of candidates for disposal. Some things never change – I recently posted a very similar entry on Instagram!</p><p><b>Nimrods</b> was actually a very early entry into the board game blogging field. In fact I don't actually know of an earlier one. Mikko Saari started his excellent GameBlog in August 2002. Chris Farrell started blogging around that time, I'm not sure exactly when. So it's possible I was the first! However, unlike Mikko and Chris there has been a lengthy hiatus in my blogging career. My posting frequency slowed down a lot from 2007 onwards, and completely dried up by 2011. When I started blogging it was partly as a distraction from the boredom I was feeling with my career. However, in 2007 I made a new start, with a masters degree in neuroscience at King's College London followed by a PhD at University College London and a post-doc at Oxford. Neuroscience was pretty well all-consuming, and didn't leave much space for blogging. But I retired last year, and so have a little more free time and energy. So perhaps <b>nimrods</b> will come back to life. Let's see.</p>Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-85014322874986579452017-06-14T14:05:00.002+01:002022-02-06T21:58:09.587+00:00The wayward genius of Phil Eklund<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJh1fpYBvv7pImhS5YKRH9Ut5-K7CYE6_exbcI-CvTM0Ha6JMkagsXESrTrE4zNA2171T2_O3jKW5Zuq9f9-OSYLgWfJUk-SXzPEtPY6u4YlBuUt4C6F6RLlX413Cg8_IKOHQErA/s1600/IMG_0577.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJh1fpYBvv7pImhS5YKRH9Ut5-K7CYE6_exbcI-CvTM0Ha6JMkagsXESrTrE4zNA2171T2_O3jKW5Zuq9f9-OSYLgWfJUk-SXzPEtPY6u4YlBuUt4C6F6RLlX413Cg8_IKOHQErA/s400/IMG_0577.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
I've just been playing Pax Renaissance, the latest masterwork from Phil Eklund at Sierra Madre games, playing it through solo to get the hang of the rules, and what an experience it has been! Deeply immersive, intriguing, satisfying, full of historical interest. Best of all, like all Phil's games, it is a game of ideas, the polar opposite to the idea-free mechanism-driven designs that dominate Euro-gaming, or indeed the high-fantasy miniature-bloated big boxes that Kickstarter regularly produces.<br />
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As you can see, I'm a bit of a fan of Phil Eklund games. And this isn't even my whole collection. I've just said that a big part of their appeal for me is that his games are games of ideas. They give you something to think about. That doesn't mean that his ideas are necessarily very palatable. For example, Phil seems to be some sort of American libertarian. I'm all in favour of personal liberty, but the Ayn Rand style libertarianism that Phil seems to champion is more about liberty for corporations. The entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism operating in free markets is the great driver of human progress. At least that is what the rule booklet for Pax Renaissance tells me. My response to that is – tell that to the people in Bhopal. Pax Porfiriana, Phil's epic game of the Mexican revolution, teaches us that the world is divided into makers and takers, in other words taxation is simply extracting money with menaces. I prefer to think of taxation as a (very imperfect) common purse, to which we all contribute for the common good. Bios Megafauna, Phil's simply magnificent game about the last 250 million years of evolution, has a throwaway line in the rules about mankind's heroic efforts to avoid the next "snowball earth" by digging up and burning as much fossil fuel as possible. So much for the scientific consensus on climate change.<br />
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But I don't really mind all that. The great thing is that Phil Eklund reads widely and deeply, and builds his often heterodox conclusions into the structure of his truly excellent games. Giving me not only something great to play, but some truly interesting ideas to chew over and disagree with. Give me that over the latest idea-free Euro-deckbuilder any day.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-76272337453784203712017-05-02T20:14:00.002+01:002017-05-02T20:45:12.978+01:00A couple more thoughts on X-Wing fatigue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My gaming background is in board wargames, I was a teenager back in the heyday of Avalon Hill and SPI, and more recently I've played a lot of GMT or Columbia ar MMP wargames. In a typical board wargame you will get, as well as the main event, a handful of usually smaller scenarios. These specify starting positions and order of battle – a list of exactly which units each side gets to play with – and victory conditons, special rules etc. In a good quality game each scenario will have been carefully playtested to make sure it is more or less balanced, so that given players of equal ability victory will go to either side roughly the same number of times. So for example Up Front, one of the the finest wargames I have ever come across, has a dozen or so scenarios printed on the back page of the rule book. Each one is a little gem of compression, specifying the exact composition of your squad and their weapons, the setup conditions, the kind of terrain you are likely to encounter, and the victory conditions. Each one (remember this was back in the golden age of Avalon Hill when they had big print runs and plenty of resources) was thoroughly polished and playtested, so you could be sure you were getting into a fair fight with your opponent.<br />
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Star Wars: X-Wing in contrast went for a points-based build-your-own-squad approach. I can understand why, after all many people thoroughly enjoy the meta-game of squad building, the obsessive poring over lists which can fill the fan's leisure hours (and some of his working hours too!) But the price of this is a certain rock-paper-scissors flavour to one's encounters down at the local club. Your obsessed-over squad is quite likely to meet an opposing squad which simply steamrollers yours, with no possibility of playing skill or luck rescuing what is from the start a hopeless situation.<br />
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Interestingly, even Up Front, which I am holding up as a shining example of balanced scenario design, gives every personnel and weapon card a points value, so points-based DIY scenarios are very much possible, and were a lot of fun whenever I tried it, back in the nineties when I was playing a lot of Up Front.<br />
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Stll, it would be nice to see FFG produce some proper balanced and playtested scenarios. I think it's unlikely, the current structure of the game with numerous upgrade packs marketed as single (or sometimes pairs of) ships, would make it difficult. The missions are a step in that direction, but you are still choosing your forces on points value, so the meta-game intrudes even here.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-25611980267006690722017-04-16T17:48:00.001+01:002017-04-16T17:48:37.878+01:00X-Wing Fatigue<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2QALtGGbYEorKkqaicXcS1hIIr03MpcvYQHpJ7l4KoTMa9kMCXwtRsQjGpJ7FHjyR_nj1Jdc2yxwbTDp4NiqlUCxi1l6k7grqMZLiCdCyuazn2UpQWr45gw3VIXRPJWXqFGUPNg/s1600/IMG_0157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2QALtGGbYEorKkqaicXcS1hIIr03MpcvYQHpJ7l4KoTMa9kMCXwtRsQjGpJ7FHjyR_nj1Jdc2yxwbTDp4NiqlUCxi1l6k7grqMZLiCdCyuazn2UpQWr45gw3VIXRPJWXqFGUPNg/s320/IMG_0157.jpg" width="320" /></a>I think I need a break from <i>Star Wars: X-Wing</i>.<br />
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I've been playing for about 15 months now, benefitting from the regular group that meets every Wednesday at Thirsty Meeples in Oxford. Great group of friendly guys ( and yes it is 95% guys), I've really enjoyed learning the game, building up my collection of rebel space ships (including 2 yes 2 Millenium Falcons!), reading the blogs, watching the matches on YouTube, listening to the podcasts, and even going to a few tournaments.<br />
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But... the last 3 weeks, taking a beating in every single game, from squads with such complicated shenanigans that I have <i>no idea</i> why you get to reroll that attack a third time! OK so I need to fly better and perhaps I'm not putting the hours into understanding this game and the multitude of upgrades and pilots available, but I dunno... I think I just need a break. Maybe only a short break, I'll probably be back with my tail wagging in a week or two. But for now, I think I want to think about something else. Maybe <i>StarFarers of Catan</i>.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-85920263762784951622011-11-13T20:32:00.001+00:002011-11-14T09:22:55.645+00:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So I finally got to play "High Frontier" on Saturday. I persuaded Nick Simon and Iain to come over to Wood Green for a Big Games Day, and spent weeks preparing for the big day by studying the rules over and over.<br />
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It was a partial success I would say. It took an awful long time - 6.5 to 7 hours I would guess altogether. I was the only one who had read the rules, so the first few hours I had to answer a LOT of rules questions for every turn. I felt like I was planning everyone's missions at one point! It's not that it's a complicated game - every one of us has mastered more complicated games - but it's unfamiliar, so not much in the way of conceptual landmarks.<br />
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Having said that - I loved it! Such a fascinating game, the time just flew by for me. I did very poorly, possibly because I was so busy answering rules questions that I didn't have time to think very clearly about what I was doing. Towards the end I did make some good progress claiming asteroids with a 4.1/3 thruster and a raygun, but too late to get back into the running.<br />
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Simon and Nick both seemed to enjoy it too, both expressing a willingness to play again. But Iain, having enjoyed the first few hours, seemed to lose the will to live a few times when he was trying to figure out how to organise his next mission. He won by a good margin (lots of glory points), but his final verdict on the game was "overwrought", "a prog-rock game"! So I don't anticipate persuading Iain to play it again any time soon.<br />
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So, this is a fantastic game, but not for everyone. And I'm sure it can be played a lot quicker than we managed by even slightly experienced players. A serious contender for my top 10 list.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-25974966086375309712010-12-25T17:02:00.003+00:002010-12-25T17:09:39.985+00:00Christmas CivI'm spending Christmas with Sue's family in a luxury barn conversion buried in the snowy Herefordshire countryside. Even better, I've been playing Civilization with Sue's 12-year-old nephew Tom. We're using my old Gibson's edition, where the playing area for 2 players (Greece and Asia Minor) is helpfully colour-coded. The 2-player game is surprisingly challenging. Space is in short supply so Tom and I have been clashing for room regularly. We had an easy ride to start with, but then the calamities started coming thick and fast, and we are just emerging from a chaotic dark age of civil war, eruptions, epidemics and revolts. Love this game, still my number one.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-54125289575371005252010-12-17T12:13:00.003+00:002010-12-25T17:15:58.319+00:00Peaceniks at warAnother game of Struggle of Empires last night with the Mennonite boys. Just the three of us, and we were a little worried about the odd-man-out possibilities, but it seemed to work fine, and no-one felt their chances were closed down early in the game. Still, it doesn't matter how many times I play this game, I don't seem to be able to get the hang of how to win. One of my favourite tricks was much in evidence last night - buying a nice tile (such as Reserves) and then forgetting to use it at the critical moemnt. That re-roll could have spared me a lot of pain! <br /><br />Darren was so inspired by the game that he resolved to buy it immediately, regardless of the OTT prices being achieved on eBay these days.<br /><br />We finished with a round of Race for the Galaxy, where I managed to scrape a last-turn win against Sam's Spartan war-machine. Very satisfying.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-72845973303785224872010-12-09T10:56:00.004+00:002010-12-25T17:13:01.786+00:00Caucasus CampaignI've been going quite slow on the game acquisition front - still money left in the 2010 budget - but I recently bought Caucasus Campaign (Mark Simonovitch, GMT) after reading very positive comments from Chris Farrell. Maybe I give too much weight to Chris's opinions sometimes, but I'm very pleased I followed his recommendation on this one.<br /><br />I'm becoming a bit of a sucker for East Front panzer-pushers, accumulating a small stack of them on the shelf (Roads to Leningrad, Stalingrad Pocket, Von Manstein's Backhand Blow), but this one looks at first sight a little bit special. A beautiful map with large hexes, a small number of large attractive counters, 16 pages of clearly laid out rules printed in colour, and colourful and clear player-aids, all combine to make a very appealing first impression. <br /><br />It's all laid out on the table awaiting my first solo play-through. Looking forward to it.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-25398640240382979702010-10-01T11:46:00.003+01:002022-02-09T12:02:56.553+00:00The month of gamingI am having the most amazing month of gaming! And it's all a bit of a misunderstanding.
Months ago Sue booked up for a mediation course, which meant she would be away from home all weekend every weekend in September. So like any boardgaming partner would, I got my diary out and started booking the gaming sessions. Huzzah!
Then her course was cancelled.
But Sue is lovely, and so the gaming sessions still stand. And I'm getting convention-scale amounts of gaming done.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-43948989789593805932010-09-24T14:02:00.005+01:002010-09-24T14:48:56.604+01:00Sunday part 2It was probably a mistake to follow Maria with another "big beast" like After the Flood. It didn't help that I did not do a great job of explaining the rules, and everyone's brains were a little fried by this stage, I suspect. And to be honest, After the Flood did not benefit from the comparison. After Maria it seemed - well - unpolished. A little bit fiddly, and lacking in drama perhaps. <br /><br />I still rate this as a very good game indeed, probably an 8, but a game of this complexity and length needs to be the main event. Definitely not a wind-down game. (Chicago Express or Nexus Ops might have been a better choice.)Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-88179271743203245312010-09-23T09:04:00.006+01:002022-02-06T21:00:41.148+00:00There's something about MariaI finally got the chance to play Maria on Sunday. I've been excited about this game for a while, bought a copy a couple of months ago, and have been itching to play ever since. Iain "the acceptable face of gaming", and his friend John agreed to try it out last weekend.
I loved it.
As Prussia/Pragmatic I played very poorly. Not really thinking about the implications of what I was doing, I hammered into Austria with the Prussians and into Northern France with the Pragmatics. Won lots of battles, but handed the game to the French. But this game is a beautiful beautiful thing. I love the subtleties of hand management interacting with the suits on the board. I love the positional play and the simple way that the flavour of 18th century siege warfare is captured. I love the look of the board and the pieces. Maria is currently well on the way to joining my exclusive 10-rated list, alongside timeless works of art like Civilization, 1830, and Tigris & Euphrates. When can we play again?Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-84974981522734977352010-09-16T11:44:00.004+01:002010-09-23T15:48:34.176+01:00In which we plays Blackbeard, me lads.Something else we played at Nick's last weekend was Blackbeard (GMT's new edition). Danni easily beat Nick and me, storming ahead in notoriety and booty after sacking Portobello. This is a fun game, though poor Nick spent most of the game scanning the rules for us. He was effectively a full-time GM so it's hardly surprising he came in last.<br /><br />I have the 1st edition and used to play it solo quite a bit (back in my lonely bachelor days). A couple of things that struck me about the 2nd edition - first, dumping the hexes is no great loss. It always felt a bit anomalous cruising around the hex-grid with no regard for wind direction. Second, the cards are considerably simplified (and prettied up). However there's a cost - a lot of complexity is offloaded onto the huge player reference card. <br /><br />Let's face it, Blackbeard is all about the chrome. In fact there's hardly a game there at all - it's all chrome. So not a satisfying collection of graceful interlocking mechanisms. More a chaotic pile of historical accidents. Like a roleplaying game, it's all about imaginative immersion.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-88095676917861161432010-09-13T14:39:00.004+01:002010-09-23T15:48:34.176+01:00A happy time with the Unhappy KingI had an epic game of Unhappy King Charles with Nick last weekend. I was the godly faction, and things were looking pretty bad for my foppish long-haired opponent by the end of 1643, after a series of disastrous attempts to take Bristol. But he hung on to the end, and I scraped home with 13 points. Excellent fun! 7 hours of really first-class wargaming.<br /><br />This is the second time I've played UKC. The first time I felt pretty lost, and a bit grumpy too with some of the complexities of the game. This time round I pwas better prepared, and I'm beginning to see that this game is a real classic, with serious intellectual muscle under the surface. Whatever you might think of Charles Vasey's online persona, you can't deny that he has put a lot of thought into this design. I can't wait for another chance to play.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-39585884751824305812010-09-10T12:22:00.001+01:002010-09-13T14:31:39.913+01:00Our Island StoryWell I'm off to Cardiff today to meet Nick for a weekend of unbridled wargaming. As we are both Englishmen and wargamers, it seems highly appropriate that we plan to spend the weekend playing games about Englishmen killing each other, namely Unhappy King Charles and Richard III.<br /><br />Wish me luck.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-76951243843780233862010-09-09T10:58:00.002+01:002010-09-13T14:31:32.501+01:00Homeopathy at OK CorralWe visited Phil & Laura in their new den in Whitechapel last night. Highlight of the evening was Phil's amazing savoury pastry slices, but I also got to try out Red Dead Redemption. (Aside: why has my son got a PS3 and a huge telly when I have neither of these good things??) It must have been difficult for Phil watching my incompetent attempts to walk into a saloon without getting shot. But I have to say I was disappointed by the importance of herb-gathering in the game. <br /><br />Herb-gathering??!<br /><br />I don't believe I ever saw John Wayne gathering herbs. Did you?Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-33883291352869663422010-09-07T11:40:00.005+01:002010-09-13T14:31:52.118+01:0045...then you're dead!Wow! I just won an online game of Shadow of the Emperor. I thought I was swimming with sharks. Turned out they were all sticklebacks like me.<br /><br />It's a nice game online. Takes a while, but it's thoughtful, interesting. I've never actually got my copy onto a table - there's always something else more compelling. Shame. Underrated I reckon - possibly because of its small box!Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-56002870013468603562010-09-07T11:23:00.006+01:002010-09-08T10:38:07.095+01:00Time enough for RaThe other evening I persuaded my lovely wife to play Ra: the Dice Game. She's a Roll Through the Ages girl really, but she agreed to give it a try. I wasn't sure she was enjoying herself so I was mortified to realize, half-way through, that we were starting Ra from the 4-player spot, thus tripling the play time! <br /><br />Anyway, in the end she won 69 to 64. And agreed to play again - provided that is that we stick to the long "version" (i.e. rules mistake). Turns out she doesn't like too much time pressure in this sort of game - she likes to have enough time to finish building her little cube projects.<br /><br />Hmmm....maybe I should try her with Civilization? Plenty of time there.....Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-8429533375990154742010-09-07T10:51:00.004+01:002010-09-07T11:07:47.950+01:00Our pledge to youNo sooner was Phil yesterday taken off the road by <a href="http://philsbrains.blogspot.com/2010/09/bastards.html">the theft his beloved bike</a>, than I picked up the baton and cycled through the morning sunshine and traffic into town. Our pledge to you - every day, somewhere, there will always be a Haslehurst on his bike.<br /><br />I was impelled by the (as it turned out mistaken) belief that the tube would not be running. It was quite a nice experience - only 3 people made a serious attempt to kill me (one of whom was a cyclist - they are always the worst). London was looking its best, and there was lots to see along the way (like the "daring" despoilation of Arundel Square currently nearing <a href="http://www.ptea.co.uk/projects_urban_regeneration_arundel_square.html">its grotesque conclusion</a>).<br /><br />This morning, out on my bike again - this time the tube really is closed in earnest. Streets a lot busier, crowds of cyclists - some of them quite bad-tempered. And worst of all - day 2 bum, that painful sensation of getting back in the saddle the next morning after a long ride. Still, it was fun to be peddling through Clerkenwell, admiring the quaint streets and dodging iPod-absorbed pedestrians.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-17382451917819648752010-08-19T08:46:00.004+01:002010-12-25T17:14:00.963+00:00What a lovely surprise - World War 2!I have the loveliest wife imaginable. She has no interest in military history - in fact I suspect she is rather appalled by the idea - but yesterday she presented me with Anthony Beevor's "D-Day". What a great gift! I have to admit I have put my current read ("Last Night in Twisted River") on hold for the time being - I had a quick look at my new book last night before bed, and before I knew it I was at the end of the first chapter. He has a great way of getting on with the story and drawing you in from the first page. The opposite of stuffy.<br /><br />Must get <span style="font-style:italic;">Breakout Normandy</span> on the table again!Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3008646.post-35981620422670713032010-08-03T16:33:00.001+01:002010-12-25T17:13:18.845+00:00Well I just beat Keldon Jones' Race for the Galaxy AI. OK it went to the tie-breaker, with 33 points each, but I beat the **** thing at last. I think this is worth blogging about.<br /><br />Key to my victory - thinking hard.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10825350227973550098noreply@blogger.com1