tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18978602288826541662024-02-20T06:47:31.513-08:00Just on the Other Side of Normal: GamingBoard Games and me in some orderHawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-27339043555320567272017-05-15T20:01:00.000-07:002017-05-15T20:01:00.333-07:00Granite Games.<div class="MsoNormal">
Granite Games, a local gaming convention in New Hampshire, is
a young semi-annual affair attempting to expand to three days. I went on Friday and Sunday, which with a
plethora of empty space were definitely the slower days to be there, but still
a solid selection of available games I wanted to try. There were various activities for play-testers
or people who wanted to win games, but mostly I just played games with people I
knew. With Unity Games seemingly defunct,
it’s nice to see a new entity possibly take its place. <o:p></o:p></div>
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On to the games: <o:p></o:p></div>
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Baseball Highlights 2045:<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’d
wanted to try this game for awhile, and though we played with 3 players, which
isn’t an ideal player count, for baseball or this game, it served its purpose
of teaching me the basic rules and mechanics.
It had a rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock feel to it, where every card
was counteracted by another card. It had
some cute aspects like using first/last names of different famous baseball
players, but ultimately, I wasn’t overly enamored with it. We only played some practice games, so I could
see a full tournament with a proper player count being more fulfilling. Ultimately though, I think though I’m too big
a baseball fan to fully enjoy a baseball game built for non-fans. <o:p></o:p></div>
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6.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Spector OPS<o:p></o:p></div>
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Spector OPS is a hidden movement game where one player is
trying to complete objectives, and the other players are trying to locate and
stop him. I’m usually not a big fan of
these type of games as I find them to be fiddly and stressful. Spector OPS wasn’t bad though as it had simple
rules and a nice pace. It wasn’t perfect, the steampunk art left the board
difficult to interpret, and there were a few too many turns were the optimal
play was to do nothing, but I’d play it again given the chance.<o:p></o:p></div>
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6.5<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sangrada:<o:p></o:p></div>
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A gorgeous game with a sparkling box and boards along with
shimmering dice. The game itself is
simple but elegant, players draft dice from a common pool in order create a
stained glass masterpiece. There are
various placement restrictions and rewards, but it was all pretty
straightforward. An excellent filler
that may very well end up in my collection.<o:p></o:p></div>
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7.5<o:p></o:p></div>
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Luna:<o:p></o:p></div>
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I didn’t want to play High Frontier, despite an admittedly
beautiful enormous board, so I wandered around to see what other people were
playing. Which, as it turned out, was
not much of interest, so I picked up Luna.
Luna was a holy grail game for me, the last classic Feld game I hadn’t
played. I attempted to learn the rules
from reading the rulebook for solo play, then taught a 2<sup>nd</sup> player
when they game along and two more after that who sat down right before we were
about to begin. As it turns out, going
through the rules thrice was a great way to understand them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The
game definitely felt Feldian with hallmarks like lots of actions featured, a
smaller subset of actions useable at any specific time, oodles of ways to
score, a player order wall, and a way to lose points. Unsurprisingly, I liked it a lot. There were lots of things to do, but not many
novices (this game’s name for workers) or much time to do it. So, you had fascinating decisions every
turn. Do you go for points now, or move
your guys in better position for future turns?
Do you expand your populations or focus on going up the turn order
track? Do you rush the turn end or hope
to you have time for an elaborate plan?
There is no hidden information or randomness, so you can plan ahead, but
other players’ actions can be disruptive.
Not everything worked, the area control thing was weird and out of
place, but mostly it was another fun intricate design that I look forward
playing more. <o:p></o:p></div>
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7.5<o:p></o:p></div>
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Defender of the Realm<o:p></o:p></div>
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I was excited to play Defenders, up until we passed out the
role cards which featured clever character names like "paladin" and
"wizard." The location names were equally generic, featuring
two word mad-libs of fantasy-esque terms like Monarch City and Orc
Valley. Throw in awful graphic design choices like blowup
circles everywhere, and the liberal use of the Comic Sans font, and we
were frustrated all game finding locations. Still it is a Pandemic
spin-off, so the gameplay had to be good right? Alas no, it
replaced a tightly designed puzzle with a random
dice-fest. Want to kill some enemies? Better roll well.
Confronting a big bad? Got to hope the enemy doesn't randomly move before
everyone can get these. By the end I was actively taking strategies
to ensure we won or lost quickly. It was a terrible game and an even
worse depiction of fantasy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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2<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mottainai </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think I really should accept that I’m just not going to
like any Carl Chudyk game. I find them
fiddly, unbalanced, and unintuitive.
This game was no exception. Even
when we played the game correctly, it felt like we were understanding the rules
wrong. There were concepts that just
didn’t seem to work and cards that broke the game. I won the game and haven’t a clue as to how,
other than drawing a lot of cards on the last turn. I like clean logical designs and nothing
about Mottainai fits that description.<o:p></o:p></div>
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3<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hero Realms:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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A spinoff
of Star Realms, it is basically the same game with a fantasy theme and a few
more complex complements. With unique
decks and more complex cards, Hero Realms definitely had tougher decisions than
its predecessor. This was mostly good,
particularly in the later game, but did cause the game to slow down, whereas
Star Realms usually can be played on autopilot.
Thus my only concern is if the lack of simplicity will eliminate some of
the charm from Star Realms, but will have to play it more to see. We did play with a 3 player variant, which
worked surprisingly well given the general 1 on 1 nature of the game.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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7.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game<o:p></o:p></div>
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A campaign game with a similar feel to other Fantasy Flight
LCGs like LOTR. Each player only has
four action choice, but there were plenty of tough decisions of when to help
teammates, when to heal, when to attack, and when to explore. The game was also well balanced, as we beat
the mission, but it was extremely dicey and not all of us survived. I feel like if it had a theme that I was more
interested in than Warhammer, I could get really into it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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6.5<o:p></o:p></div>
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Terraforming Mars:<o:p></o:p></div>
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My 2<sup>nd</sup> play of the game, and I enjoyed it again
despite not playing as Thor this time. The
game is highly thematic as you work to make Mars habitable. The happy and mostly silly rendition of an
environmental theme is a nice change of pace.
The gameplay features a fun collection of Euro Mechanics as you build up
a nice personal economy. Your strategy
is built around what cards you draw, but there was almost always fun stuff to
do. Mars isn’t perfect with a dull main
board and some definite balance issues.
The biggest problem though is the presence of take that attack
cards. There aren’t many of them, but a
well timed one can swing the balance of power in the game and be totally
frustrating to the victim whose plans can be crushed. Still, there easy enough to ignore, so I’d
happily play without them. I also would
be curious to try the drafting variant at some point. <o:p></o:p></div>
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7<o:p></o:p></div>
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GobbleStones:<o:p></o:p></div>
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We needed a filler to end the convention with and this
seemed to fit. The game was fine, if
unspectacular, a game worthy of playing, but probably not needing further
exploration. You play colored tiles in a
line scrabble style, and then draw 5 minus the titles played. Most decisions were pretty basic, with the
only real questions of whether you want to play the moderately scoring tiles or
save them and draw more.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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5.5<o:p></o:p></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-18923947171444954812017-03-01T18:05:00.000-08:002017-03-01T18:05:24.440-08:00Top 100 Games (26-50)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">26. Nations</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-795ee18b-8cc1-8e9e-6ff6-539c78c288cc" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like Through the Ages, Nations is an epic civ game that spans millennia. However, Nations is far more tactical than its cousin. For example, it is much cheaper to move workers between different roles, so I end up with very indecisive workers while I stall for time.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">27. Wit and Wagers</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My favorite trivia game, mostly because it doesn’t require you to know anything.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">28. Summoner Wars</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A 2 player miniature game that uses cards for miniatures. Lots of diversity between decks gives each faction a very different feel.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">29. Amerigo</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Feld + Cube Tower = Win</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">30. Linko</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A fun set-collection card game where the end-of-game rushes up unexpectedly. If you finish with a positive score, you didn’t do too badly.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">31. Patchwork</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another excellent two player game involving buying tetris shaped patches and placing them on a grid. Despite its simple rules and quick game play, there are lots of competing elements that lead to difficult decisions.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">32. Nefertiti</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of those games I really like while playing, and completely forget everything about the game an hour later.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">33. Scrabble</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yeah I wish that not every 2 letter combination was a word, but I still enjoy it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">34. Merkator</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A game of completing increasingly difficult orders. Can drag a little bit, but lots of senses of achievement throughout.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">35. Fits</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tetris the board game The official and unofficial expansions give it nice variety, though some are overwhelming.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">36. 10 Days</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The perfect filler. Plus I now know where all those small eastern Europe countries are.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">37. Ticket to Ride Family</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There have been a couple duds, I’m not overly fond of the UK map for example, but for the most part the Ticket to Ride Family has been consistently good. It is difficult to pick a favorite, but I’ll go with the Nordic Map, if for no reason other than the exquisite snow-capped train cards.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">38. Shogun/Wallenstein</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Did I mention I love cube towers? </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">39. Resistance</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don’t play it much since it is best with 7+ and requires everyone to enjoy this type of game, but has had some of my most memorable game moments.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">40. Lords of Waterdeep</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nothing spectacular or particularly innovative, but still an enjoyable D & D themed worker placement game.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">41. Mu</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A tricky five player trick taking game with rotating partners Hard to grasp, especially the bidding element, but shifting loyalties makes for some intriguing relationships.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">42. Bohnanza</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The absolutely positively best game about planting beans.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">43. Crokinole</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A dexterity game on a large wooden board. You can make some amazing shots, occasionally even on purpose.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">44. Planet Steam</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A weird steam punk themed economic game which, at least in its original form, came in the most oversized box that you will ever see. However, it handles market fluctuations really well, so i can forgive it some eccentricities.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">45. Star Realms</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A quick mostly two player deck building game. It hits the right spot of difficulty and speed to be a perfect phone app.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">46. Fairy Tale</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A drafting, game where you are making a story. It is not quite as thematic as it could be, but making combos and blocking opponents allows for some agonizing decisions.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">47. Battleline</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A two player game where you are battling your opponent along nine fronts to get the best Poker hands. Trying to plan your battles involves a lot of math and a lot of really hoping you draw that card you need later on. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">48. For Sale</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A simple auction game that shifts into a new game halfway in. Simple and fast, yet always tough to figure out just what to bid.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">49. Alhambra</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A game that almost always goes over well given its simple rules and the walled city you get to lay out in front of you.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">50. Vasca De Gama </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another worker placement with a generic exploration theme, but I like that type of game, and Vasca is a particularly good one. It does have some unique mechanics, such as its turn order bidding and sailing systems, which help it stand out. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-71643199295132894472017-02-13T07:00:00.001-08:002017-02-13T07:00:49.302-08:00Top 100 Games (1-25)<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Dominion:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The game responsible for much of my gaming circle and thousands of played games. This year has had its issues, but I can now happily play Dominion Online again, so it’s not all bad.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Codenames:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you find me on some interstate transportation, I probably had Codenames with me. Just a great simple amusing game for nearly any group.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization:</span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The new version fixed this game, which is pretty impressive given how good this game already was. An epic that feels like you are telling a story about the rise and fall of empires.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. Splendor:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our go to phone app game. I’ve played Splendor many times and feel like I’m very good at it. There are highly competitive players that have a completely divergent strategy from mine. That is amazing for so simple a game.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. Tichu:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It doesn’t get played as much as it used to, but still my go to partner game. Just filled with incredible absurd moments that are talked about long after.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6. Mage Knight:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I just bought an expansion for this game despite almost never getting to play the base game. This is how much I like Mage Knight. It is a many hour slog, even with two, but oh what a fun slog is. Anyone want to play? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7. Twilight Struggle:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The game that fixed war games for me, despite not being a war game. Fighting a war by proxy throughout all the regions of the world is just fascinating.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8. Macao:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My favorite Feld with lots of dice rolls, four billion cubes, and incredibly satisfying super turns.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9. Castles of Mad King Ludwig:/ 10. Suburbia:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two similar games designed by Ted Alspach with different strengths. Castles is much more streamlined and results in having a castle built, maybe even with a Cheese Room. Suburbia tiles are individually thematic, and it is the more strategic affair. Both great and often flip in my personal ordering.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">11. Keyflower: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Accomplishes the task of giving players lots of options without overwhelming them. It has a unique auction/worker replacement combo that feels very different from game to game.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">12. Pandemic Family:</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pandemic is a satisfying puzzle game that was my favorite co-op, but I’ve grown a little tired of it. Lately I’m enjoying Pandemic the Cure, as the dice rolling adds some much needed unpredictably to it. Pandemic Legacy is also a worthy experience about which I have a write-up to post.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">13. Catan:</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t play it much any more, but it is still a great ambassador for the hobby.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">14. Mombasa:/15. Russian Railroad:</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mombasa and Russian Railroads are the two games I utterly fail at explaining. They are complex Euro games with lots going on, which don’t tend to fit into a thematic box. They are both fantastic and filled with diverse strategic options. There are always things to do, but if you don’t plan well, you will get crushed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">16. Strasbourg:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strasbourg is an auction game where it is okay to not win auctions, because runner-ups gets stuff two. However, the game is maddeningly tight, so if you plan poorly and completely lose a needed item, the effect can be devastating. It is fast paced and exciting, if occasionally stressful. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">17. Apples to Apples:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apples to Apples gets a lot of flak from “real gamers,” but I still enjoy it. IT is the only game where I don’t try to win. I’d much rather get the inappropriate sarcastic remark in. Not really strategic, but still really funny.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">18. Black Friday:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My favorite Stock Market game featuring the joy and agony of price fluctuations. Wish I got to play it on days other than the day after Thanksgiving though.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">19: Brass:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Couldn't tell you what it has to do with Brass, but it is another medium-heavy themeless Euro game with an enjoyable progression.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">20. Risk Legacy:</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Risk Legacy is an amazing achievement; it made Risk good. I might never play it again now that we finished the campaign, but I remember more moments from it than most other games on this list.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">21. Ice Cool:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">See you flick Penguins… My favorite dexterity game, I think because the penguins’ wobbles match my own. Just so neatly put together.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">22. Mech VS Minions</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The game that makes every other appear to be an overpriced piece of crap. It is just incredible. it is really silly and fun. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">23. Endeavor:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of my go to games for five players, who don’t mind historical use of slavery. The game has a nice buildup, going from a short and simple first turn, to a far more involved endgame.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">24. Notre Dame:</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A well paced tight drafting game that is easy to teach and does any player count superbly. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">25. Hansa Teutonica:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Careful with this game, cars have been known to get totaled outside during play. The game itself is great though. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a twist from most game, you really want to be attacked here, and spend a lot of time tempting opponents. </span>Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-15546633625537622972017-01-23T17:47:00.004-08:002017-01-23T17:47:27.697-08:00Mystery Hunt 2017: The One Built For Us<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last weekend I participated with in <a href="http://www.mit.edu/~puzzle/">Mystery Hunt</a>, an annual giant word puzzle competition hosted by MIT on behalf of the team Left as an Exercise for the Reader. Despite being much smaller (officially 35, unofficially who knows) than almost every major competitive team, we, for the first time ever, got to the end. There are some spoilers ahead, but not all that many, given the large portion of Hunt I barely saw. There is also probably song lingo that will be utterly meaningless to you, if you are not familiar with this type of thing.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-dee6eae1-ce17-37aa-1ed8-4a93b16f0e0e" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="368" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/QRzt60qgSuXBaiZYxJpQoMGpX4xk4KjBibgMy8rtW6ke8U6yveuLKo8BXk3dIfAiSvGHYFJ7DfHsdH8pFeHieFtYAvdvwb1y9FWHglhmvwbS5MZn8ozlyCHZni5xm5mqbzTiEUpu" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="530" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To give some background, Mystery Hunt started in 1981 as a small event, one person creating a page of puzzles for MIT students solve. It grew slowly for a while; one member of our team last won Hunt in 1991 with a team of 6. As it grew though, it became an arms race where puzzle writers tried to make larger and more difficult hunts to counteract ever growing teams and advancing technology. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I first hunted in 2010 and have done it every year since then except one. Mystery Hunt was my first puzzle event of any kind, and it was generally impossible. I’m not sure if I contributed anything of value that year, and mostly felt dumb. I’ve gotten better since then, but not enough that I don’t find Mystery Hunts to be mainly overwhelmingly difficult, with occasional satisfying moments of making a minor impact. The worst one was 2013 where the designers underestimated the strength of their play testers, and decided to make their puzzles even harder with puzzles like this </span><a href="http://www.mit.edu/~puzzle/2013/coinheist.com/indiana/50_50/answer/index.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">one</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. That Hunt lasted 75 hours and required lots of free answers and hints to end it at all. 2014 and 2015 had better balance, but 2016 was written by another large team, and was rough on smaller squads. I have found I have generally enjoyed smaller events like <a href="http://www.baphl.org/">BAPHL</a> and <a href="http://playdash.org/">DASH</a>, where I’m hitting my head into a desk less often. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Setec</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, this year’s host, is small for a winning team clocking in at around ~50. They have a few wins in the pa</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">st, but for a while were determined not to win. If they got close, they started drinking more. Eventually they forgot how painful writing a Hunt is, sobered up, and won last year. They brought with them a new philosophy in writing this Hunt -- not-impossible puzzles are even more fun than impossible puzzles. They wanted to make it challenging for the top teams too, but wanted to make sure everyone had fun, and that more teams got to progress to major milestones.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After partaking in my </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">annual tradition of getting on the MIT Campus</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I saw a cute opening sketch of a <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/index.html">role playing game themed Hunt</a>. The first puzzle I worked on was <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/puzzle/pic_of_the_litter.html">Pic of the Litter</a>, because I could identify pictures of objects and put it in a fill-in grid. It was pretty straightforward and a nice start to the the Hunt. Then I started on <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/puzzle/hexed_adventure.html">Hexed Adventure</a>, a text adventure game. Let’s see: desert to my left, mountain to my right, hills in the distance… hmm that sounds suspiciously familiar. I then spent most of the next 8 hours with a partner roaming around a Catan board. The puzzle wasn’t hard per se, but it had a lot of steps and a mountain of text as you progressed to the actual solvable puzzle part. We got stuck a couple times, most frustratingly missing where to get WD40 from, but for the most part we progressed steadily. The solving part was also a little more challenging than it could have been, since we forgot wood could be lumber, and ended up with something that looked like it should give us an answer but wasn’t. Still it was an incredibly fun puzzle, and I’d recommend giving it a try if that sort of thing appeals to you. There was another puzzle with a mock BGG page, so for a while I was work</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ing on two board </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">game related puzzles at once.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">was great. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were also visited by an economist, transfixed as Bob Barker, and played some Price is Right until we identified the exact price of a cup of our color pencils. I nibbled at a few more puzzles afters, but didn’t make much progress. My final useful contribution was standing behind someone who got stuck. He proceeded to tell us what he done thus far, tell us what he just did that didn’t work, realize that in fact it did work, corrected a minor error and solved the puzzle. Nice to know hovering works. I left for the evening while we were trying to figure out how to use semaphore on elements in a circular periodic table.*</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Spoiler-- you don’t</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saturday morning, I came in knowing Death and Mayhem had already found the coin, winning the Hunt, which was a good sign for us getting far. I bounced around a bit, trying to get back into the</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> swing of things, not all that successfully. Someone mentioned there was a Fantasy Baseball puzzle, <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/puzzle/special_ops.html">Special OPS</a>, so I joined in on that. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It involved figuring out the real components of fake stats. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We tried it both manually and through a program someone built, but we never had any success. I spent a lot of time trying to make the numbers wor</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">k, but they wouldn’t. I felt bad for striking out on a puzzle that should clearly be in my wheelhouse, but it turns almost no one successfully solved it. There were less impossible puzzles than normal, but there still was some, and even reading the solution, left me utterly confused.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Feeling dejected, I picked up a children’s book that we had received entitled </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/puzzle/the_puzzle_at_the_end_of_this_book.html">The Puzzle at the En</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/puzzle/the_puzzle_at_the_end_of_this_book.html">d of the Book</a>, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">modeled after the Sesame Street Book, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Monster at the End of the Book</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It was a small book, so I figured that it shouldn’t take too long to solve. Turned out there were a whole lot of puzzles hidden in there. It was a re</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ally cool puzzle in that everyone who looked at it found different things. If you haven’t done any puzzle competitions, but the idea sounds interesting to you, this is a really good puzzle to start with.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We celebrated our team’s birthday at noon. It was was our 10th entry into the Hunt. We had tiaras and cake and invited some teams over including our neighbor</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s, IIF, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Setec</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It went well, we even had an appropriate amount of food unlike last year, when we had to call HQ with an emergency cookie problem.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The only misstep was we accidentally sent Palindrome a blank invitation, which they assumed was a puzzle and proceeded to try to solve. Palindrome finishes the Hunt early though, so we were just giving them something else to do.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also made my biggest meta contribution that day, determining that the <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/round/criminal.html">Crafty Criminal meta</a> involved actually playing Mastermind. Before I had to time figure out how that could work though, someone else discovered the black and white letters, and an offsite supersolver submitted a correct answer.* Still, I feel good about that one.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*We don’t have a ton of off-site people but we have one who you know will solve quickly when he enters the google doc.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Late Sunday morning, I got an urgent e-mail, stating we were three meta puzzles away from the end. When I arrived, we were working on several needed puzzles for the Meta like <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/puzzle/tricky_wicket.html">Tricky Wicket</a> and <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/puzzle/hamiltonian_path.html">Hamiltonian Path</a>. I took up a beast of a logic puzzle, <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/puzzle/mirrorball.html">Mirror Mirror</a>, that revolved around figuring out where mirrors reflected light. Solving was slow, since many options were unlikely but not impossible, making it difficult to draw conclusions. Our progress hastened when we realized the numbers spelled words, but halted when we made another incorrect assumption later on. Then we solved the associated Meta, so we moved on to more pertinent puzzles. Still it was interesting, and I’d like to solve it some other time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We solved another Meta, so we were down to one final Meta in the last few hours of the Hunt. We got lot of visitors fr</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">om</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Setec</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, inclu</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ding one who hung around poker faced, as we were the only team left on the brink. I think they were both heavily rooting for us and enjoying watching us squirm. The last Meta, the <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/round/bridge.html">Broken Bridge</a>, became a large group solve as everyone worked on it or the four remaining unsolved feeding into it. We were told we had enough answers to solve it though, so we bashed our heads together on many a pointless path.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, someone realized that each word had a 4 letter word associated with it and those words could be chained together by changing one letter between each. Most of the words fit together, but there were a couple like Hugo that were way different, and we were missing some answers. I noticed that tape fit between two words we had, and someone else saw duct could also work as well as role. Aha Roll of Duct tape! Nope, not quite. We pondered other options, when <a href="http://solutions.monsters-et-manus.com/hunt/puzzle/tree_rings.html">Tree Rings</a>, one of the four remaining was solved with the answer Winter Olympics. Winter Olympics = Luge - Huge - Hugo… We entered in HugeDuctTapeRoll, and for the first time, entered the endgame. It was about 4:00 pm Sunday, 51 hours of the Hunt completed, 2 remaining.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We proceeded with almost our entire team to confront Mystereo Cantos the big bad, cheered on by IIF. We gathered around him in a circle, answering random questions with thematic answers, while he made fun of us.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We then had to do one last thing to defeat him, which we had a little trouble working it out, mostly because our participants in this quest were completely different than an earlier one, which contained a necessary step in the solution. We eventually figured it out though, gave him a “grouphug”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and turned over a giant hex which had instructions for our final run around attached. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyone who saw us, a large group of people, wandering around the MIT campus, with someone reading off D and D sounding instructions from a giant hex, would have thought we were insane. Of course if they were at MIT, they are probably used to these things. We followed the instructions which compared MIT landmarks to a fantasy setting. Eventually we came across the row of lights, where our leader found the coin at 5:53, 7 minutes before the Hunt ended. We may not have been, but we certainly had the most efficient at pacing ourselves for an enjoyable weekend.</span></div>
<br />Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-45138907933180514572016-10-13T19:22:00.001-07:002016-10-13T19:22:52.652-07:00Quick Hits: New Games July-Sept<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lots of old
games, but new to me.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Peanuts Surprise Slides Games:<br />
<br />
Now you would think a themed version of snakes and ladders would be a simple game. That the game has a small paper of folded up rules enhances this impression. Oh how wrong you are! Luckily I had a five year old to teach me. See, you spin a spinner to get a color result. Except if you don't get the color you want, you move the spinner to whatever color you would like. Luckily the five year did all of spinning, so I didn't have to figure out this complex system. Next you move your piece to some random square of the color. I'm sorry not random-- there was an intricate chosen system that I just wasn't capable of understanding. Eventually we moved towards the finish line, ending on the same square for a tie, which I thought was a sweet result. Way too complicated for me though, I'm going back to Twilight Struggle.<br />
<br />
Around the World in 80 Days:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As you may suspect, you are trying to
travel around the world in under 80 days. That isn't that difficult,
so the question is who can do it in the least amount of time. It
was a relatively straightforward action selection/card matching game.
The theme was strong despite some weird quirks, like a detective
periodically interviewing you for no discernible reason. Most player
choices were fairly obvious with the sole tough choice being how fast
to travel. Still it had some nice ups and down and a compelling
ending, which made for a positive experience.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
7.5</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Rattus:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Place guys and wait for them to die in
plagues. It it isn't the happiest theme, but it simple enough to
learn. It is okay, though too random and fluid to have much of a
strategy. There are special cards you can take that give you special
powers, but increase the odds of getting killed when plagues come.
My biggest issue of the game was that I found having 0-1 cards to be a
boring play experience, but it was the most effective against the rats.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
6.0</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
DiceMasters: Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
DiceMasters is one of those games that
has always tempted me and have almost pulled the trigger on buying it
numerous times. I love Marvel and haven't found a game with that IP
I've really liked since the Overpower CCG in the mid-nineties. Plus
is has deck building and dice, two things of which I tend to be very fond, and
it has been generally well received. On the downside, it is a spin-off
of Quarriers, one of the few games I passionately despise.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The set I played was of the turtles,
the only set that comes in a complete box rather than being
collectible. I used a dominate duo of Bebop and Rocksteady to pound
my way to victory. Dicemasters, much to my delight, fixed everything
that was wrong with quarriers. Too much randomness and a reward the
leader mechanic have been replaced with mechanics that allow for
comebacks and planning. I throughly enjoyed building a dice pool
that worked together and getting it out at the same time. I don't
plan on going crazy on Dicemasters as one certainly can, but I have
started a collection since then.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
8</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Camel UP:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I did a gateway write-up on this, so
you can see my thoughts there. In short, an enjoyable an amusing
game, but too often there was nothing interesting to do on a turn. Also
the blue camel sucks. I played with 7 players though, and think it
would have been better with 4-5.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
6.5</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
K2:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You are climbing a mountain, and then
making it back down again. Well you don't actually have to make it
back down, just make it to the end of the game without dying. There
is a bit of a push your luck element to it, how high and fast do you
want to go before turning back. It seemed relatively easy to survive
if you were careful, but if you get blocked by other players, your
plans may go array. You can vary the difficulty of the mountain and
conditions, though this game seems like it would be boring if the
course wasn't hard. It did feel a little mechanical, but it captures
the difficulty of climbing mountains quickly and getting back down
after.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
7.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
Quartermaster General – Victory or Death</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The 4 player, spinoff of Quartermaster.
Compared to its predecessor, it had much more interesting player turns.
You can now do multiple things-- playing for the present and planning
for future. The downside of the game was that all sides felt
disconnected, as if everyone was playing their own game. Knowing the
cards better might help, but I'm not sure I found it interesting
enough to get there.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
6.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
War of the Ring:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
WotR has been one my gaming white
whales. I've wanted to play it for years. In part, because I've had
a goal of playing the top 100 games on BGG. Mostly though because it
is incredibly well regarded epic LOTR game. The problem is that it
is difficult to get 4+ hour, two player games to the table.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now I have played it once, I still find
it difficult to rate, as I feel like I've only seen a fraction of the
game. I played as the Shadow, destoying the armies of the free
people, before the ring could be delivered into Mordor. There were
definite aspects I liked, the strong theme, the back and forth nature
of both the battles and the ring movement, and the straightforward
combat rules. Still though I feel there were large swaths of game
play, like the foundations movement that I barely understood. This
rating is a tentative 7, but certainly could rise if I ever get to
play it again.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
7.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Salem:
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Salem was a Kickstarter, whose 4 year
delay left many people bitter. I hadn't backed it though, so I could
come in with a clean slate. It is a deduction game that is
reminiscent of a logic puzzle. You are trying to learn which
people are witches. Each turn someone will answer a question about
some of their villagers. For example 1 is the same as 5, or 2 and 4
are different. The numbers represent real people, but it never feels
especially thematic. The information is slow to be useful, but
eventually you will hit a turning point, where you can do a long
series of deductions. If you accomplish that slightly faster than
the other players, you win. I only played the base game, and is was
interesting, but I don't have much desire to play it much more.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
6.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Master of Rules:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I was excited to finally play Master of
Rules because I had traded for it a while ago, but hadn't yet brought
it to the table. I traded a game that was larger and terrible, so
the bar Master needed to cross was pretty low. It was a cute
game and managed to sail over the bar. Each round consists of each
player playing a numbered card and a rule card. If there rule card
ends up between true, they get a point. There were some significant
turn order and balance issues, but it was kind of neat getting your
rule to work while sabotaging someone else. So you think the
experience would have been a positive, but unbeknownst to me,
there was yet another game stuck in the bag, so I'm no closer to
having everything played.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
7</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-40820547538471054192016-09-06T19:48:00.000-07:002016-09-06T19:48:13.155-07:00Resistance<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIhuZf-Ynv_1Ok_ZimV0UJUCz3G7_rNaJ_qTkVdYjCcqgbYGx9XGlHvQz5UiKLivX96_U4ICxG5yspmNO015VCAYQlUligB1KWupcW4_oW-JhBZv6x9tC6ZEH-wpEn-fNgfYdwjvB499az/s1600/IMG_20160423_122241807.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIhuZf-Ynv_1Ok_ZimV0UJUCz3G7_rNaJ_qTkVdYjCcqgbYGx9XGlHvQz5UiKLivX96_U4ICxG5yspmNO015VCAYQlUligB1KWupcW4_oW-JhBZv6x9tC6ZEH-wpEn-fNgfYdwjvB499az/s320/IMG_20160423_122241807.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I never can tell which gnome is lying</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-9d18811d-0207-5634-7421-bc43c33178a1"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is generally frowned upon to call people lying, traitorous scum in polite society. Resistance is a pleasant diversion from that norm as you wildly accuse people of being vermin filth. The game doesn't work well for people who can't tell a lie or are sensitive to that type of thing. For people who only think their spouse can't tell a lie though, it’s perfect.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Indie Board and Games</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:</span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<br />
Don Eskridge</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-9471-db85-9de3-dba53d685925"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-afed-5572-f862-cd64f226151a"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-9d18811d-0207-b38d-c4d1-931551675129"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You start the game by getting a secret role, either you are part of the rebellion or a spy, with the spies knowing who is in their crew. Each round, a group of players is selected to perform a mission. Good players must succeed on missions, but spies may secretly choose for them to fail. Resistance players have to determine who the spies are while spies need to avoid being caught while sabotaging missions. </span></span></div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-9d18811d-0207-7df3-ce70-fc8f0ebb1293"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I quite enjoy Resistance, but I don’t always want to play. It is intense and it requires the right group to shine. It is a social deduction game, so if the group isn’t very social it falls flat. It can be aggravating as trying to determine the quiet one in the corner or the one who does the same thing every game regardless of role. However, in a group of loud-mouthed opinionated folk who don’t take themselves too seriously, it is a blast. Most of my plays have been with the Avalon set or the base game without the cards, given a consensus that the cards were dumb. The roles from Avalon tend to make it more interesting for the people with roles, but diminishes the fun a little of everyone else.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing with<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<br /></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-afed-20d5-5b0f-a6ede3a64e1a"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With toy cars that you raced across the living room and recorded elaborate statistics detailing which car went further without flipping… or was that just me?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-9d18811d-020e-2e45-879c-49cc650977bd"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learning the rules is very simple. Figuring out how to distinguish between resistance and spies, well, I'll let you know when I figure it out.</span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-9d18811d-020e-6bd0-f932-9f539bdb31ba"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nothing much to play with except the precious feelings of the rest of the assembled.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZjRmUJEsX691jOsQGj1WprviFtY9EdjiowYJf59m-ZFt9mW_4iHUYVButl_RJ-mKDMw3OrEFaeOK_qAHirLAS8H-6CRM-n_MVyz-HFNvmIifreNdqlqf8YhcpN6_GORwUvOQ_wGbgCl4/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; line-height: 1.2; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBZjRmUJEsX691jOsQGj1WprviFtY9EdjiowYJf59m-ZFt9mW_4iHUYVButl_RJ-mKDMw3OrEFaeOK_qAHirLAS8H-6CRM-n_MVyz-HFNvmIifreNdqlqf8YhcpN6_GORwUvOQ_wGbgCl4/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:</span></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-7485-aa60-6339-2a69260a5628"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-9d18811d-020e-be5e-8dff-78e74cd3a2bf"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are thematic social deduction games, but Resistance was designed to be simple and quick, so it had to lose things like having a coherent story. Half the time I forget if the “Resistance” are the good guys or the bad guys. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3rHJUi4hGBSkGH29jlheP-D-Ybny1gKT5cU2QVJN-1ca147x8oSdb_jGpzCsbAJGfM_1hXPZnc0VGl8T146PE8qUEm6gUE-cdKyCXwQrXjJCRsz2UUGRDlpSBbpD7K-JauLb00QQSZA3q/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3rHJUi4hGBSkGH29jlheP-D-Ybny1gKT5cU2QVJN-1ca147x8oSdb_jGpzCsbAJGfM_1hXPZnc0VGl8T146PE8qUEm6gUE-cdKyCXwQrXjJCRsz2UUGRDlpSBbpD7K-JauLb00QQSZA3q/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" /></a><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b><span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-9473-d000-9f95-034e910ad63c"></span>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-9d18811d-020f-8710-e8bc-97fbbe2fba65"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5-10. Works best somewhere in the middle. Five players games limit the player options,,while at 9-10 it becomes difficult to keep track of everyone and get them involved. The game is fast, playable within a half hour. It is one of Resistance’s main selling points compared to previous social deduction games.</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hidden Agenda adds the Avalon roles discussed below to the base Resistance as well as some other goodies.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hostile Intent adds three new modules to the game giving additional ways to play.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hidden Agenda & Hostile Intent amazingly enough includes the previous expansions as well as a couple new modules.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Promos offer additional possible roles.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:</span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e6cfd396-0622-cc4a-ccf1-ea5e3df7fb22" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resistance Avalon is essentially the same game with a King Arthur theme. However, it replaces the cards in the base game with roles. You can choose which roles to use in each game based on interest and balance. Each player then may get a specific role on their loyalty card in the beginning. For example, Merlin knows who all the traitors are, but if the traitors figure out who he is, they win the game even if they lose 3 missions. Currently you can get all of the Avalon roles as expansions or promos to the base Resistance, but the Resistance cards and expansions are not available for Avalon.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-9d18811d-0213-0741-f688-82c410e8bb6f" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One Night Revolution is a meld between One Night Werewolf and Resistance though more the former than the latter. The game takes place in one night, so all you do is take an action, discuss and vote for the traitor. I liked it though it felt more like a logic problem than a social deduction.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coup is a bluffing game set in the same universe. You have two roles and may take actions based on what roles you claim to have as long as you aren’t called out for lying. I found it okay, but not as gratifying as Resistance. I prefer the binary problem of good vs evil rather than the need to re-determine whether someone is lying each round.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-aff1-36cb-6722-4addfa81709a"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-9d18811d-0213-4d45-425f-b4fa6d908307"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Don't pick on them too much. Or not enough.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-2add08ff-0213-9340-05b8-0adfa9c0cd89"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">None to play the game, but there are companion apps to aid in the opening spiel as well options to play Resistance online through forums. </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.miniaturemarket.com/ibcres2.html?gclid=COb0_oyC_M4CFddbhgodF00GSw">Buy Online</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41114/resistance" target="_blank">Learn More</a></span></span></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-72376396029937227742016-08-21T19:27:00.001-07:002016-08-21T19:27:28.916-07:00Camel Up<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD5SSRBDC9mN7f79ZlGiuOJJDL0hZRclNkOdlaYgdKdmsmXiT1u2HPCyVbxQTsH61blm_q3bv2n2s0xHdW_FyIPbHKrEjCj1C8-e3JavPVr0hfB793ngQNVXbRrlmzbe-KxbMFvVSDOCTU/s1600/camel+up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD5SSRBDC9mN7f79ZlGiuOJJDL0hZRclNkOdlaYgdKdmsmXiT1u2HPCyVbxQTsH61blm_q3bv2n2s0xHdW_FyIPbHKrEjCj1C8-e3JavPVr0hfB793ngQNVXbRrlmzbe-KxbMFvVSDOCTU/s1600/camel+up.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camel Up or Camel Cup? One the great debates of our time.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: 12.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the first race of the game I bet on the blue camel only to see him surpassed by his brethren. I bet again on blue for race two, but he fell short.The third round I bet on blue as he was due. Blue did not in fact win. The 4th race I would have bet on him again, but he managed to eliminate himself from contention before I got a turn. There is a gambling lesson to be learned here. Blue is a slow lazy camel.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Pegasus Spiele</span></div>
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Steffen Bogen</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-afec-e6d9-0717-b78d446524b1"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Camel Up won the precious </span><span style="color: #545454; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spiel des Jahre </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">award for best family game. While I don’t think it is as good as the runner-up from that year, <a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/splendor.html">Splendor</a>, it is an entertaining game. The ups and downs of the Camel race make for an entertaining experience. Desert cards give players enough control to potentially nudge the results a bit. The downside of this game was that it often felt like all the good options were taken before I got a turn in each round. I only played with 7 people though, so I imagine this would be less of a concern with less players.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing with<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-afed-20d5-5b0f-a6ede3a64e1a"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With toy cars that you raced across the living room and recorded elaborate statistics detailing which car went further without flipping… or was that just me?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A straightforward and simple game that shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to teach the basics. Players have a limited number of options on their turn and none of them are difficult to understand.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhCeQekwRnvxq7OKPCIpDMCIL99KMXs9xeMuOk1qnx3xMoplb3fnfsN88LEKTEzKaYkgk4lTvHpUxInA7ywiFeqEwVvH4B8sAImoXY0IlGwiFz6lz4V9ZlKJssqxxa1CDe7900Jl-wFqPG/s1600/unnamed+%25286%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; line-height: 1.2; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhCeQekwRnvxq7OKPCIpDMCIL99KMXs9xeMuOk1qnx3xMoplb3fnfsN88LEKTEzKaYkgk4lTvHpUxInA7ywiFeqEwVvH4B8sAImoXY0IlGwiFz6lz4V9ZlKJssqxxa1CDe7900Jl-wFqPG/s1600/unnamed+%25286%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-afee-d188-c0a6-7489ab439e15"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Players don’t have many pieces to play with, but the toy factor is high, The climbing camels are fun, and the dice rolling pyramid make it the preferred action choice of kids and child-like adults.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nVwg9XWFeWsdm4pNOyqMG5wUaJegapNXWOYJWDlVU-I_1NMrkZT460704LAe9cNfo74Hbfd1udM0Gw9wzmMfeqEoPlZftFJ2152_QrJdmtSTHkROfELO7W4hp0HjWF0qG_DFU9eadC2u/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; line-height: 1.2; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nVwg9XWFeWsdm4pNOyqMG5wUaJegapNXWOYJWDlVU-I_1NMrkZT460704LAe9cNfo74Hbfd1udM0Gw9wzmMfeqEoPlZftFJ2152_QrJdmtSTHkROfELO7W4hp0HjWF0qG_DFU9eadC2u/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-7485-aa60-6339-2a69260a5628"></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-afef-5ba6-4ba7-5b1f032b9e3b"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who can’t relate to that time they raced camels. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIvL82QjGRC73bOxrlPX5xi0qSUSOc1RfEDU9glIc3JZBpWUTUjvvhspYeDfO1gkfsiUxttuONgJ1tn8WHpiylIypgLFLw6Z6Eys8dxsDYf6Z9OfSSJwBsVPm5tZoZlajK2_sKk5VWujY1/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIvL82QjGRC73bOxrlPX5xi0qSUSOc1RfEDU9glIc3JZBpWUTUjvvhspYeDfO1gkfsiUxttuONgJ1tn8WHpiylIypgLFLw6Z6Eys8dxsDYf6Z9OfSSJwBsVPm5tZoZlajK2_sKk5VWujY1/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" /></a><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b><span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-9473-d000-9f95-034e910ad63c"></span>
<br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-aff0-43d8-db92-d084abd0a522"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2-8 One of Camel Up’s main appeals is the large player range. It probably is best with 4-5 participants, but is functional on all counts. The expansion increases the max up to 10. With any player number it shouldn’t take more than 30-45 minutes to play. </span></span><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-aff0-88bc-5d42-090568e87762"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Supercup adds several modules to lengthen the race, extend the player count, and add more player action options.</span></span><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:</span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e6cfd396-0622-cc4a-ccf1-ea5e3df7fb22" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 12.6667px; line-height: 15.2px; white-space: pre-wrap;">None</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-aff1-36cb-6722-4addfa81709a"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I suppose you can talk about the various probabilities of each camel winning. For the most part though, this game is too simple, balanced, and chaotic for knowing what you are doing to be much of an advantage. </span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e6cfd396-0624-1635-a05d-4f45258859ae"></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e3785477-aff1-5c01-042a-2b960daee5f7"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is an app for IOS/android. I haven’t tried it, but it has gotten reasonably positive reviews.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.miniaturemarket.com/zmg71480.html">Buy Online</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/153938/camel" target="_blank">Learn More</a></span></span></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-21554595125831598622016-08-16T20:05:00.001-07:002016-08-16T20:05:51.442-07:00Hosting A Game Night Part #1<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We host a biweekly game night where we
invite people over to play games and eat tastiness at our place. We
started our game night about four years ago. Previous to that we had
hosted game days every now and then, but not on a regular schedule.
The direct impetus for starting a game night was that I was going to
start having class on the night of my regular gaming. So if I didn't
host my own gaming night, I might not to get to play at all. That
would be sad. How would I know if I was superior to my brethren
without games?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were other reasons hosting a game
night made sense. Previously deciding when to have gaming was just
too stressful. What days worked best for us? What other event was
going on? When should we send the invite? Was it too late? Would
anyone come? Do we really feel like having people over? A regular
game day doesn't fix all of those issues, but it does help.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Also, one of the things that I realized
quickly with going to school at night is that it killed my will for
social interaction. I was pretty sure if I didn't force myself to
have some human contact, I might curl in a hole for three years.
This proved true, there were plenty of times that I kind of hoped no
one would show, so I could crash, though I was usually glad that it
didn't happen.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were lesser reasons too. It
minimized confusion. Prior to this we had someone show up a week
late to gaming once. It was weird. We are also, by nature,
homebodies, preferring to have visitors then venture out into the
cold dark world (or the hot bright one). I was also acquiring a number of games that I hadn't gotten to play. Without a dedicated game time, it is it difficult to get in those three plus hour heavy euros*<br />
<br />
<i>Also difficult with a game night.</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So Cherry Gaming was born. We made it
Friday night, as I wouldn't ever have classes then . Also, I don't
mean to stereotype, but the venn diagram between gamers and bar
hoppers has a minuscule inner circle. Now we just needed people to
come.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-8142751282061829262016-08-08T19:09:00.003-07:002016-08-08T19:09:44.308-07:00Olympics!I love the Olympics. I love the Winter Games for bobsleds flying down mountains and speed skaters crashing* into competitors. I love the Summer Games for its sheer size and scope of sports. I love the pageantry, the stories, the talent, the competition. The opening ceremonies with their fascinating look at nations that I can never can find when playing 10 Days. I love that, for two weeks, there is always sports on TV from when I wake up until I go to bed. If I'm not interested in an event, I can change the channel and something else enthralling will be on. Not that there are a whole lot of sports I won't watch. I don't understand them all, but I'll watch them. I'm currently viewing diving and I couldn't tell you what separates a good dive from a bad, except splash is bad. <br />
<i><br /></i><i>*I'm hoping surfing adds some of the enjoyment of watching people fall to the summer games.</i><br />
<br />
Sure there are the downsides. The corruption, the cheating, the economic devastation that host cities have suffered*. There are certainly better ways to run the games, perhaps having a permanent host city so the infrastructure doesn't have to be built each time. All in all I think the Olympics does good though. It is one of few things that bring most of the world together. Countries forget their differences for a little bit while competing in Badminton and Archery.<br />
<br />
<i>*I was disappointed that Boston gave up its bid to host the Summer games. Sure the crumbling infrastructure and bankrupt civil services can't support its current citizens let alone a large influx of tourists. It would have been an absolute disaster that would have taken the city decades to recover from, but still, it would have been fun. </i><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
In the first couple of days I've seen table tennis, water polo, and volleyball, things I'd never watch any other time of year. I've seen men and women's cycling with horrific crashed and stunning finishes. I've caught up on four years of swimming, which is kind of like watching a T.V. show again after a long hiatus and being amazed at the unrealistic story-lines. I've learned about rugby, which compacts the action of a 3 hour football game into a half hour game. My favorite sport though is beach volleyball, a game that is easy to follow and played with utter exuberance. I'll happily watch anything* though as long as I have someone to root for. And the Olympics always gives me someone to root for. I live and die for an athlete that I hadn't heard of yesterday and will have forgotten about tomorrow.<br />
<br />
<i>*Okay, maybe not synchronized swimming, that is just weird.</i><br />
<br />
My rooting interests are actually a bit convoluted. I don't tend to root for Americans, because it feels like rooting for the Yankees, a team of heavy favorites who have all the advantages. I also don't usually root for countries where athletes tend to be stoic, like Russia, Germany, and China. I tend to root for for athletes in countries I want to visit. I've never found a New Zealander I didn't like as well as Australian, Italian, and much of Western and Northern Europe. I root for individuals whose success means a great deal to their countrymen. Ginny Thrasher, who won the first U.S. metal of the games, was famous for a day. Hoang Xuan Vinh, who won Vietnam's first ever gold, will be a national hero. And of course, since it is the Olympics, I'll root for a particularly compelling story or charismatic contestant*, like the <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/08/06/yusra-mardini-syria-olympics/">Syrian refugee</a> who used her skills to tow a boat to safety over open water.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Or in the case of Katinka Hosszu, the contestant's exuberant husband.</i><br />
<br />
I'm excited for what happens next. Go that guy. You can do it. <br />
<br />Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-44769732266362686102016-07-19T19:40:00.001-07:002016-07-19T19:40:38.351-07:00 Carcassonne<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jOiHDVisQuTCHPmIXFOOVn5a3HWfJU9Ooyzk_25dOtcRfLMjY9l4C_wuINxRAI9YKbtVQ70ramHgHhWzMhOGC3DnGBEIskDO5JIcueJ6nX_yfdYohQ2EUnTzhA4gco3Fi78CyXHXIMmS/s1600/FullSizeRender+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jOiHDVisQuTCHPmIXFOOVn5a3HWfJU9Ooyzk_25dOtcRfLMjY9l4C_wuINxRAI9YKbtVQ70ramHgHhWzMhOGC3DnGBEIskDO5JIcueJ6nX_yfdYohQ2EUnTzhA4gco3Fi78CyXHXIMmS/s1600/FullSizeRender+%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It is fun to build a landscape even if you aren't actually playing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carcassonne is a historically important game if for no other reason than it coined the term “meeple” for little game-piece people. It was also one of the first modern Euros we played. Becky bought it for me along with a number of expansions*. Then we realized that not all expansions make games better. </span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-e6cfd396-0616-0df6-c208-38fca47c97fc"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> *those 8 days of Hanukkah add up</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Rio Grande (Newish Edition Z-Man)</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:</span></b></div>
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Klaus Jurgen Wrede</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e6cfd396-0628-bef5-d4a2-4c84ec118b19"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You lay down tiles in a communal landscape and try to gain and maintain control of and finish cities, roads, cloisters and farms.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e6cfd396-0616-9a2c-96df-0c3c50cb07a4"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t have particularly strong feeling on Carcassonne. I’m happy enough to play but it usually isn’t my top choice. Adding more tiles makes things more interesting, but lengthens game play. It is fun to go back and forth for control or of a board section or draw that perfect tile, but it can also be frustrating to be blocked or stuck. Often I care as much about making the scenery look pretty then winning the game.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing with<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 12.6667px; line-height: 15.2px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jigsaw Puzzles</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e6cfd396-0619-4152-ee4c-5ab9928a959e"></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:</span></span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQuAtBz16GmSVOVsM7ydiLwk1bPrj3oaJqBNsZHSs_m64Q4dImuhlbBVtM5d3mhCB3tuYocjIJWt3ap2Lf8m82MFzQ3bSuFL0i3QpGlvqA4r6VmSxvAbuB7k7i3aNAvoyPwp5eiig70sn/s1600/unnamed+%25286%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; line-height: 1.2; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQuAtBz16GmSVOVsM7ydiLwk1bPrj3oaJqBNsZHSs_m64Q4dImuhlbBVtM5d3mhCB3tuYocjIJWt3ap2Lf8m82MFzQ3bSuFL0i3QpGlvqA4r6VmSxvAbuB7k7i3aNAvoyPwp5eiig70sn/s1600/unnamed+%25286%2529.png" /></a><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">-5. Expansion adds option of 6 players. Works fine with all counts, though there can be a lot of downtime at higher player counts. To speed things up, consider drawing tiles at the end of a turn instead of the beginning. The base game can be played in 45 minutes, but it can be much longer with expansions mixed in.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; font-style: italic; line-height: 15.2px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carcassonne, as one of those rare games that made oodles of cash, has a large number of expansions and spin offs.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inns and Cathedrals: Adds ways to double down on roads, cities, and farms, a 6</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">th</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> player, and a super meeple along with some interesting new tiles. It adds a lot life to the base game and is well worth getting.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Traders and Builders: Gives bonuses for finishing structures and allows double turns creating alternate incentives for gaining points.. The 2nd and final must own expansion.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Princess and Dragon fundamentally changes the game into an aggressive chaotic mess. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Tower gives a nice visual, but it similarly disrupts play in a way that ruins the game’s original charm.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Abbey and Manor in a collection of mechanics that add new ways to score. It doesn’t ruin the game unlike the previous couple of expansions, but it doesn’t add much either.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Catapult is... um... a well named expansion. You use a catapult to, I don’t know, does it really matter? This has become the gaming equivalent of jumping the shark. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bridges, Castles & Bazaars and Hills & Sheep are the newest two large expansions. I haven't tried them, but don’t have great confidence for ideas that were behind catapult in the pecking order.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are also more than a dozen mini expansions. Some of them have cool pieces, but none are essential except for the rivers, if your base game comes without it. </span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hunters and Gatherers adds an animal theme and eliminates the complex farmer rules of the game. It’s many people’s preferred way of playing Carcassonne.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ark of the Covenant is good if you want be both a gamer and a good Christian.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Castle offers an interesting 2 player only variant. Plus Castle!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The City is the coolest looking version of a game adding city walls to the festivities.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cardcassonne is a card version of the game.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kids of Carcassonne is an intro scenario for children</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Discovery, New World, South Seas, Gold Rush, Wheel of Fortune, and Over Hill and Dale are additional spin-offs that change a feature or two, and that is all I have to say about them. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars Carcassonne is a thing that exists. Really. It simplifies farmer rules and adds some combat.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e6cfd396-0624-57ba-d1ea-7d2f214daf11"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consider playing without the farmer rules. Try to share a small city with an opponent to show how it works, but don’t aggressively block or steal a large feature.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e6cfd396-0624-1635-a05d-4f45258859ae"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At $10, Carcassonne is one of the more expensive board game apps. It is also perhaps the best built app and well worthy of the price. The game features intuitive controls, exceptional AIs, a fascinating solo game puzzle, pass and play and online play. There are also options to buy add-ons for the first few expansions.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/208513">Buy Online</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne" target="_blank">Learn More</a></span></span></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-68472566960827912022016-07-11T06:01:00.002-07:002016-07-11T06:01:33.083-07:00Top Ten Disappointing Games<br />
There are games that you expect to be bad and live up to those expectations. Exploding Kittens is a hideous use of cardboard, but I could at least enjoy the pain of others as everyone tried desperately to lose first. There are other games that are generally considered good, but aren't the type of games I like, such as Race for Galaxy or Power Grid. The frustrating ones are the ones I expect to enjoy, but fall flat. Onward to the negativity in no particular order.<br />
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Civilization<br />
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Past me, a person who was halfway into this game, was a big fan. It had exploration, a tech tree, civ based special powers, and 4 distinct paths to victory. Then we reached the end game, where two colluding players and a stupid rock paper scissors combat system destroyed my hard built empire. I gave the game a 2nd try at 2 players, but it ended in an equally aggravating fashion. The combat system is bad enough that an expansion completely replaced it, but I don't imagine I'll give this a third try.<br />
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Steam Park<br />
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A game I bought on sale due to a cool theme -- building an amusement park, and mostly positive reviews, but it failed before it was even ready to play! The pieces were such poor quality, an x-acto knife was necessary to separate them from their moorings. Even the theme was disappointing, as it turns out you are building a theme park for Robots. Mainly though, the game was just dull. I cared so little about what other players were doing on their turns that I found myself wandering away from the game to see what else was going on.<br />
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Kingdom Builder<br />
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Kingdom Builder was Donald Vaccarino's attempt to be known as a Game Designer rather than The Dominion Designer. Well it turns out I'm more of a Dominion fan than a Donald Vaccarino fan. Like many on this list, Kingdom Builder was just boring. You get to do so little on your turn, and often it was obvious what to do. <br />
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Trajan<br />
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Trajan, at the time, was the top rated game by my favorite designer, so the odds were I was going to like this one. Sometimes you roll snake eyes though. The game revolved around a Mancala inspired mechanic that allowed you to play a series of mini-games. It was trivial to manipulate ones pieces in the Mancala section to take whatever action you wanted. It didn't matter though as all the actions were uninspired, tedious, and disconnected. For people who do not like Stephen Feld games, this must be what playing one of them feels like. They still are mostly wrong, just not on this one.<br />
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Stone Age: Style is the New Goal<br />
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This expansion for Stone Age strives to add complexity to a simple game, but the additions undo the simple elegance of the original version. In Stone Age, one of the key decisions is to pick which resources to get, but the new trading mechanic makes it meaningless. The other editions were either unbalanced or uninteresting. I was hoping that Style would add life to a game I'd grown a little bored with, but it utterly failed on all accounts.<br />
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Catan Trails to Rails<br />
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A Catan spin-off with a cool looking map. Sadly it missed much of what made the original great, like exponential growth and multiple paths to victory. The game was repetitive and went on well past its welcome as each player did slight variations of the same thing. There was a time where I wanted to own every Catan game, but I have seen a number of duds over the year, none more so than this one.<br />
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Great Snowball Battle:<br />
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I don't fund a lot of Kickstarters, but I couldn't resist one with a snowball fight theme. The artwork and card names are cute, but it couldn't overcome terribly designed game mechanics. Players ganged up on an unlucky participant or the game falls into an endless loop of attacking and running for cover. I was tempted to try to redesign the game completely, as I do still love the theme, but I'm lazy, so I traded it away instead.<br />
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Haggis<br />
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Marketed as Tichu for 2-3 players, I was automatically intrigued. It lost me quickly by giving players 3 wild cards every hand, resulting in a game that is based much more in short term tactical advantage and repetition than its predecessor. <br />
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Nations Dice Game<br />
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Nations is a neat game. Nations the Dice Game takes nothing from the original beyond the name and symbolism. Most purchases are similar and way too often you have dice that you can do nothing with.<br />
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Labyrinth The War on Terror<br />
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From a designer of Twilight Struggle, it is the first attempt to game-ify modern conflicts. Sadly, it fails to capture what makes Twilight Struggle great. While TS had two opponents battling back and forth, in Labyrinth the two sides feel disconnected. More problematically, while TS has lots of die rolls that allow luck to balance out, Labyrinth has a few crucially important ones. Either the bomb goes off and you win or it fails and you don't, which is way too big a swing for one roll.<br />
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Dishonorable mention<br />
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Founding Fathers: Squarely in the cool theme, poor execution category.<br />
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Troyes: I didn't think I could dislike a dice game quite this much.<br />
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VS System: I enjoyed the CCG, so was hopeful for a streamlined version, but it streamlined away the good parts.<br />
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Bananagrams: I am a big fan of both word games and bananas, so I had high hopes for this one. I like making cool words though, and Bananagrams doesn't care as long as you do it fast.<br />
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Quarriers: Dominion with dice. The randomness of dice rolling added to the randomness of picking dice from a bag, made planning utterly pointless. <br />
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<br />Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-1311966020522235312016-07-04T08:10:00.001-07:002016-07-04T08:10:01.306-07:00What I've Been Playing: May & June<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw5-KbmRvvTOz9J-njGCWprOEG0rbVkTC4sUrXNh2EMR_1illToQgchKvj3qY6xyNRfzO9XD3w6N1WGPkzKWBNqBHd-QXWwDID7XkJM3oEZDQ8od4cCSA21NL_EdbnhcGNA0topJc5_0Xt/s1600/IMG_0416.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw5-KbmRvvTOz9J-njGCWprOEG0rbVkTC4sUrXNh2EMR_1illToQgchKvj3qY6xyNRfzO9XD3w6N1WGPkzKWBNqBHd-QXWwDID7XkJM3oEZDQ8od4cCSA21NL_EdbnhcGNA0topJc5_0Xt/s1600/IMG_0416.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A not untypical turn in Dominion Empires</td></tr>
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PitchCar:<br />
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PitchCar is a game involving flicking a disk around a race track. The flicking part I can handle, but keeping it on the track is not my strong suit. The last time I played, I finished well behind the people who showed up 20 minutes late, and that is for generous values of finished. The host setup the track in advance and was excited to play the game again, but mostly excited to watch me play again. I showed up late, but not quite late enough to avoid playing.<br />
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I went first, the advantage of being terrible, and flew off a side railing. My 2nd attempt was much better; I got slightly farther before sailing into the abyss. Other players slowly made it around the track and towards a large ramp in the middle, while my token remained directionally challenged. Finally, with a clear track in front of me, I managed it to the next section. The next few flicks weren't great, but I made forward progress. Meanwhile most of the other player were having trouble getting over the ramp, knocking into each other and falling off repeatedly. I reached the base of the hill with only two players having surpassed it. Amazingly, I made it to the top of the ramp on my first shot. Going down the other side took a little longer, but the people in front of me were going slowly, and the ones behind me were still stuck. I made it around the final turns and into the final straightaway while others still struggled. I centered myself with a short flick and then sailed over the final railing to land on the edge of the track with half my token hovering over nothing. I finished an astonishing 2nd, just ahead of the person who played the whole game while holding a baby. It may have been my greatest gaming achievement.<br />
QuarterMaster General,<br />
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A 90 minute, 6 player, World War two game, where players team up as the Allies and Axis. The 90 minute time-frame makes it much more playable than most Axis vs Allies type games, but it did lose something in the distillation. You can only play 1 card a turn, so often you are going back and forth with an opponent without making any progress. For particular players, you can even get stuck with little to do on your turns. Given the positive reviews, I'd try it again, but I wasn't especially enamored with it.<br />
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Millenium Blades:<br />
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A game that was designed to feel like collecting a collectible card game without the need to take out a second mortgage. Players buy packs (the game uses stacks of money for individual bills which is great), and build decks and collections to compete in in-game tournaments. For better or worse, it captures that feel very much, both in the excitement and frustrations. Despite the happy nostalgia, the game overall though felt long and overwhelming, with players receiving too many cards to be able to analyze them all. More problematic was that the in-game tournaments were dull and lacked complex decisions or interactions. Making cool decks isn't that much fun if you don't care about the deck you are making. Like many Kickstarter games, the concept was great, but the execution needs some work.<br />
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Dominion Empires:<br />
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The 10th Dominion expansion, and the 2nd one after the "last" expansion, is every bit as good as its predecessors. The set features a number of new and expanded concepts such as events, landmark cards (items that give/take away points for achieving certain things), gathering cards (cards that collect victory tokens), and debt (getting cards and paying for them later). The quality of the game components are as good as they have ever been, with heavy and shiny new victory and debt tokens. <br />
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As with other recent sets, I hosted a tournament to get to play a bunch of games with recommended sets. 9 people came, which is a nice number for such things. I enjoyed how the new cards changed player goals turning normal Dominion decision making on its head. Alas I fell short in the tourney, needing 1 more copper to win a decisive qualifying match. We did get our fifth different tournament winner in five tries, which is neat. I have played a number of games of it since with my wife who is a big fan of the set. She has built super-turns from cards such as the Villa (a card in the village family that allows a player to jump back to the action phase from the buying one.) and Royal Blacksmith (A debt card that lets you draw 5 cards and requires discarding coppers). She has won a number of these games quite handily, but I did heroically buy the last two provinces and a duchy in one such contest to lose 63-32.<br />
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Jaipur:<br />
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Jaipur is a popular two player card game where players buy, sell, and trade gems and camels. I played it first online and enjoyed having simple turns that still had multiple compelling options. I bought a copy in a game store in my wife's hometown though that was partially to support a neat looking store while getting something that would fit in a suitcase. I still haven't figured how much of the game is skill vs luck, but I'm curious to keep exploring. My initial opponents were not as enamored with the game though, so I might have some difficulty finding opponents.<br />
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Above and Below:<br />
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I wanted to try Above and Below mostly because it looked pretty. And pretty it was, though it could have used clearer visuals to distinguish between different types of cards. The game combines an action selection game with a story telling one. Players can explore the "below" which result in mini choose your own adventure style adventuring. The game had some interesting concepts and fun stories, but ultimately lacked focus and ended before much could be accomplished. For example, there was a nice tension between using common resources early to get money, or saving them for later to maximize points, but you got so few resources until the end that it didn't matter all that much. The stories were amusing but repetitive, always having similar requirements and rewards. <br />
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Quadropolis:<br />
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Days of Wonder's latest production is a light-ish tile laying game where players draft tiles and place them in a tableau, scoring points for getting combinations of buildings together. At times drafting choices were severely limited or unimportant, while at other points players were overwhelmed with information. Compared to Between Two Cities, it had more interesting scoring rules, but was slower and accommodated less players. I'd be interested in trying how the advance rules changed the dynamics of the game.<br />
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-29038850408579878942016-06-28T16:03:00.001-07:002016-06-28T16:03:10.622-07:00Alhambra<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOrfbBX6-IQNTQuiprC3AbDpEs29gPToh9ESgQ3Asu1gpVXiWL3-VKNbZbjHALO1LhK_5zbDYf75R2C8Rx3ZwUYG5Wj7TnRhD9zYCrez-PH-QCI4OITe2WQa0mlmEgOBWQFZQzTdm67THw/s1600/IMG_0412.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOrfbBX6-IQNTQuiprC3AbDpEs29gPToh9ESgQ3Asu1gpVXiWL3-VKNbZbjHALO1LhK_5zbDYf75R2C8Rx3ZwUYG5Wj7TnRhD9zYCrez-PH-QCI4OITe2WQa0mlmEgOBWQFZQzTdm67THw/s1600/IMG_0412.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A beautiful, completely stuck, Alhambra</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of my Alhambra sessions can be broken down into two parts.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Queen Games</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;">Dirk Henn</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-9471-db85-9de3-dba53d685925"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You are building an Alhambra. Each turn you take money or buy land tiles with exact purchases allowing for extra turns. Tiles get added to your Alhambra in a way that aligns walls. Three times throughout the games players score based on their wall size and by having majorities in each land types.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are plenty of games that I adore, but rarely get to play. Alhambra is kind of the inverse. I enjoy it just fine, but am never dying to get a game in. However, it fits a lot of groups and situations well, so I end up suggesting and playing it quite often, and am glad to have it in my collection.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing with<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e026-0462-119f-269fb1e8cc67"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blocks</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e027-cfda-2068-856ad7ff2a6c"></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-9473-6448-35a1-314978e834c8"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Players have at most 9 possible actions they can take on a turn, but even that overstates the complexity. Usually all a player needs to decide is if they want to overpay for a building and if not which money they want to take. New players should be able to get into the flow of the game very quickly and be able to score competitively in their first couple games.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQuAtBz16GmSVOVsM7ydiLwk1bPrj3oaJqBNsZHSs_m64Q4dImuhlbBVtM5d3mhCB3tuYocjIJWt3ap2Lf8m82MFzQ3bSuFL0i3QpGlvqA4r6VmSxvAbuB7k7i3aNAvoyPwp5eiig70sn/s1600/unnamed+%25286%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQuAtBz16GmSVOVsM7ydiLwk1bPrj3oaJqBNsZHSs_m64Q4dImuhlbBVtM5d3mhCB3tuYocjIJWt3ap2Lf8m82MFzQ3bSuFL0i3QpGlvqA4r6VmSxvAbuB7k7i3aNAvoyPwp5eiig70sn/s1600/unnamed+%25286%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-9472-774c-0c26-c6e5144d7612"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well you get tiles, but you can’t move them. Besides that, you get one lousy game piece whose only purpose is to remind you what color you are.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPE5hvkaT5nvKjmc5d90CWWANemS4eGgbx7P3HbVcBV-o89hms4CphTzSzbubKOJk0CdZAG8TSLnxe6KBoJTlKjvAYUgnAQFBv0P00ToZKc4DMSFppKmE4mcps2H8LiGRC9yizTBRmn-kV/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPE5hvkaT5nvKjmc5d90CWWANemS4eGgbx7P3HbVcBV-o89hms4CphTzSzbubKOJk0CdZAG8TSLnxe6KBoJTlKjvAYUgnAQFBv0P00ToZKc4DMSFppKmE4mcps2H8LiGRC9yizTBRmn-kV/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" /></a><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:</span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-7485-aa60-6339-2a69260a5628"></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-94bb-bbc5-c21b-5c839b8bc68b"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You get to build stuff which is fun. However, given that the game was able to be re-themed to New York without any significant changes, shows the theme isn’t too strong.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNat1BDpfQGO5UkOwFC3OX0o2kNcoWKGP87aMo6_K82wdGier6iLTy5gc-hwgK-hCRXDmkQGttCdDAcCv8S4-FWVDlSDqjCIOXn-kjD8pTP_NITmZK4yRpCouekD_8TkMP50n1LsCd7mzx/s1600/unnamed+%25285%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; line-height: 1.2; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNat1BDpfQGO5UkOwFC3OX0o2kNcoWKGP87aMo6_K82wdGier6iLTy5gc-hwgK-hCRXDmkQGttCdDAcCv8S4-FWVDlSDqjCIOXn-kjD8pTP_NITmZK4yRpCouekD_8TkMP50n1LsCd7mzx/s1600/unnamed+%25285%2529.png" /></a><br />
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-9473-d000-9f95-034e910ad63c"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2-6 though the 2 player game requires the use of a dummy player, which is a little awkward The game can also be frustrating at higher player counts as the cards you want often disappear before your turn. Sweet spot is around 4. The game moves fast and is playable in 45 minutes of so regardless of player count. </span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"></span>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are currently 6 main expansion to Alhambra and a couple of promos. Each expansion contains a few modules that can used separately or in conjunction. You can combine modules from different expansions, though some are mutually exclusive. Most individual modules have a small impact on the game. Generally when we have access to all of the expansions, we roll a d20 to choose a few modules to add to increase variety.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-94b5-d7b9-9dac-c8d1473f7418"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alhambra the Big Box: contains the first five expansions, The Vizier’s Favor, The City Gates, The Thief’s Turn, The Treasure, Chamber, and Power of The Sultan, along with the base game. If you are interested in the expansion the Big Box is a much more economical option than buying the expansions separately. Otherwise just purchase the ones that sound most interesting to you. </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">New York is Alhambra re-themed with Manhattan skyscrapers replacing Spanish architecture. It is the same game, albeit it one which doesn’t have all those expansions.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-94b5-5e9e-4cfd-29b77aa3aeb2" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Granada is another similar game with slightly more complex rules.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is also an Alhambra dice game and an Alhambra card game, though neither has been as well received.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-94bc-99a2-ad59-48cf30130ebc"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Watch new players to make sure they don’t build themselves into a corner. Suggest good tiles for them.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b>
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-6be4ef7a-94b6-47c8-b01d-927032daac9b"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a universal app for the iphone/ipad, but I have not gotten it yet. The reviews have been poor mainly due to bugs and crashes, and it hasn't been updated in quite a while.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-j27ida3yaRtBubmtEleUFQPKS2V4rmuHpE3uiLSvGEv4Ke7TsiGjAHhdKU5kelDhsMWKhoAQt4N5Pf0o3uL5zVkALXd93CC-DUzLHmjeaZbXqKZv9Dc5r_SrrxGXBt4dgdO8PGKrpc0/s1600/unnamed+%25284%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-j27ida3yaRtBubmtEleUFQPKS2V4rmuHpE3uiLSvGEv4Ke7TsiGjAHhdKU5kelDhsMWKhoAQt4N5Pf0o3uL5zVkALXd93CC-DUzLHmjeaZbXqKZv9Dc5r_SrrxGXBt4dgdO8PGKrpc0/s1600/unnamed+%25284%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/135973?gclid=CKniu_rpy80CFcokhgod7NYLLQ">Buy Online</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6249/alhambra" target="_blank">Learn More</a></span></span></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-63404548987025408422016-05-30T18:15:00.000-07:002016-05-30T18:15:55.199-07:00Tales of Gaming Part 1: World at War<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I didn't play a lot of wars games
growing up. There was the occasional game of Risk, or Castle Risk,
its speedier cousin, but nothing complex. It wasn't until I go to
college and I joined the Medieval College Society that I came in
contact with War Gamers. Having lots of time on my hands and loving
all things epic, this held great appeal for me.</div>
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<i>I never did figure out what was
Medieval about the society, but I did later become president for
failing to show up to elections so I couldn't say no.</i></div>
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</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gathered in our cramped student office,
the first war game I played was World at War . World at War was
an Axis and Allies spin-off that adds country specific rules and costs
to increase Historical accuracy. For example, the U.S. And Russia
aren't allowed to declare war until they are attacked or a certain
number of turns have passed while Japan can make one sneak attack
during the game, which basically meant they could attack twice in a
row.</div>
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</div>
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Looking at the game now on BGG, it has
the sort of mix of reviews you would expect from a game that was
deeply flawed but filled many with nostalgia. My favorite comment,
“<span style="color: #191919;"><span style="font-family: LatoWeb, Arial, serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">My
one and only play almost ended in a fist fight. I was being a dick. I
see that now.</span></span></span> “ This didn't
occur in our group, but it certainly could have.</div>
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I played the U.S., so I had lots of
money and little to do. I loaned what I could to Britain, and spent
the rest buying random stuff, waiting for Japan to attack or me to
figure out some sort of strategy. So I got a fighter here, a
destroyer there, and ooh how bout a nice shiny battleship. Meanwhile
Japan is slowly sailing around me, avoiding any conflict that would
allow me to declare war, and heading North towards Britain.</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
An hour or two in, Getting kind of
bored with being unable participate in battles, I took a bathroom
break. The following is recreation of the conversation that occurred
next.</div>
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</div>
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"Japan attacked."</div>
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"Oh great. How is Britain doing?"</div>
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"No... Japan attacked you."</div>
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"Oh, okay. How is my fleet doing?"</div>
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"No... Japan slipped around your fleet,
invaded the Eastern U.S. Through the Gulf of Mexico, took it over,
and are now using their sneak attack to attcak the Western U.S. And
win the game."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And that is how,“Damn you to
Hell for invading the U.S. Through Texas!!” became a greeting.</div>
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Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-45512947811510468362016-05-23T19:15:00.001-07:002016-05-23T19:15:44.288-07:00Wit and Wagers<span id="docs-internal-guid-2c40dd76-e024-d235-7533-998d0e3b3ce7"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvhWgiCsvk_LnVZcmLpgGTL6lLNDLZXysfnglPsCzB09Z3Ia1Y5lDrB5cbD-4KL_vdXRVsTtTx2W-8IAWu7e51zj0aLCNmHHt9nS5Dyx1RRPNGAESghtpxdaIpIdyPjF1sidc_f7r3A0DL/s1600/IMG_0408.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvhWgiCsvk_LnVZcmLpgGTL6lLNDLZXysfnglPsCzB09Z3Ia1Y5lDrB5cbD-4KL_vdXRVsTtTx2W-8IAWu7e51zj0aLCNmHHt9nS5Dyx1RRPNGAESghtpxdaIpIdyPjF1sidc_f7r3A0DL/s1600/IMG_0408.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Wit and Wagers Layout. Irrelevant math equations are not required, but also are not not required</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wit and Wagers is a trivia game that fixes the genre’s biggest problem: having to know stuff. In this game it is much better to have a wife who has lots of random knowledge and a terrible poker face.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">North Star Games</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.6667px; text-indent: 48px;">Dominic Crapuchettes</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e027-71ae-ee0a-e13d93c1b886"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A player reads a trivia question that will have a numerical answer. Each player writes down an answer on a card, usually a complete guess, and then flips them over. The answers are revealed and each player bets on which answer is closest without going over (Price is Right rules). The process repeats for 6 more rounds where questions from different categories are asked. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e025-a123-bd22-b1bcc6f1a1e8"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t have a good memory for details, so trivia games aren’t my strong suit. Wit and Wagers asks questions I shouldn’t remember, which makes for a much more enjoyable experience. Sure I am still sometimes off on questions by several magnitudes. Sometimes though, I know something random, which is pretty exciting.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQuAtBz16GmSVOVsM7ydiLwk1bPrj3oaJqBNsZHSs_m64Q4dImuhlbBVtM5d3mhCB3tuYocjIJWt3ap2Lf8m82MFzQ3bSuFL0i3QpGlvqA4r6VmSxvAbuB7k7i3aNAvoyPwp5eiig70sn/s1600/unnamed+%25286%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpQuAtBz16GmSVOVsM7ydiLwk1bPrj3oaJqBNsZHSs_m64Q4dImuhlbBVtM5d3mhCB3tuYocjIJWt3ap2Lf8m82MFzQ3bSuFL0i3QpGlvqA4r6VmSxvAbuB7k7i3aNAvoyPwp5eiig70sn/s1600/unnamed+%25286%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQB04oun66albVLIAa-QUmpJhxVFWM6kDzA2E4CWad2dywQjgBf_n6NAxzuAdphlNByoK04DQXVj3qqDc5nKbu1lyDxHt5Iyv5aDSO9WJb0BLIbAjHkhi5O0sVD5SaDI2T5c0lm6bPe_Wn/s1600/unnamed+%25289%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQB04oun66albVLIAa-QUmpJhxVFWM6kDzA2E4CWad2dywQjgBf_n6NAxzuAdphlNByoK04DQXVj3qqDc5nKbu1lyDxHt5Iyv5aDSO9WJb0BLIbAjHkhi5O0sVD5SaDI2T5c0lm6bPe_Wn/s1600/unnamed+%25289%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e028-24b9-42a2-bb69ce24ef30"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You get an erasable marker and a small white board to draw on. Have at it. (Get your own erasers. A scrap of a paper towel will do, but we’ve found great success with pom-pom balls from the craft store.) </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztzJYsCZbrHDuVuQG-OlvRn86M3VyHB15F2-UJf1nn3xdToYDP83YPRxay-r5gcgstuCSU7gFIQDrrspgyCq25HkGE9HtHAcknmHTM_A3FK2RKZD1xFZXsekJk0BIYs8lUPH4LsY7H5eU/s1600/unnamed+%25288%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztzJYsCZbrHDuVuQG-OlvRn86M3VyHB15F2-UJf1nn3xdToYDP83YPRxay-r5gcgstuCSU7gFIQDrrspgyCq25HkGE9HtHAcknmHTM_A3FK2RKZD1xFZXsekJk0BIYs8lUPH4LsY7H5eU/s1600/unnamed+%25288%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:</span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e028-7df2-1e0e-6320337c0cf7"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like most trivia games, doesn’t really bother with the concept of theme.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-j27ida3yaRtBubmtEleUFQPKS2V4rmuHpE3uiLSvGEv4Ke7TsiGjAHhdKU5kelDhsMWKhoAQt4N5Pf0o3uL5zVkALXd93CC-DUzLHmjeaZbXqKZv9Dc5r_SrrxGXBt4dgdO8PGKrpc0/s1600/unnamed+%25284%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; line-height: 1.2; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-j27ida3yaRtBubmtEleUFQPKS2V4rmuHpE3uiLSvGEv4Ke7TsiGjAHhdKU5kelDhsMWKhoAQt4N5Pf0o3uL5zVkALXd93CC-DUzLHmjeaZbXqKZv9Dc5r_SrrxGXBt4dgdO8PGKrpc0/s1600/unnamed+%25284%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e028-e687-fd9d-079f7c238ea8"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3-7 though can it go higher if you play in teams. At any count it is fast to play and shouldn’t take more than half an hour to get through.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Expansion Pack offers more questions when you use up the original ones.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wit & Wagers Family makes the game more family friendly, not that the original isn’t. It removes the gambling aspect of the game, which to me is a pretty vital part.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e02a-1797-c1cb-c57f0604bb9c"><br /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wit & Wager Party takes the lighter questions from the expansion pack and makes a game of it. Not sure I see the point of this one either, but it is likewise supposed to be more kid friendly.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e029-1a55-8cd5-e87d0bfec888"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No advice needed here. Experience, beyond remembering answers, is not helpful.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-a30a2394-e02a-68a8-0beb-ee947df9cad2"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Given the social nature of the game, making a good app for Wit and Wagers is a challenge. The app created is a noble effort. The ai uses players’ answers to questions as ai answers in future games. So you can play against your friends, but not in real time, which limits the effect.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNat1BDpfQGO5UkOwFC3OX0o2kNcoWKGP87aMo6_K82wdGier6iLTy5gc-hwgK-hCRXDmkQGttCdDAcCv8S4-FWVDlSDqjCIOXn-kjD8pTP_NITmZK4yRpCouekD_8TkMP50n1LsCd7mzx/s1600/unnamed+%25285%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNat1BDpfQGO5UkOwFC3OX0o2kNcoWKGP87aMo6_K82wdGier6iLTy5gc-hwgK-hCRXDmkQGttCdDAcCv8S4-FWVDlSDqjCIOXn-kjD8pTP_NITmZK4yRpCouekD_8TkMP50n1LsCd7mzx/s1600/unnamed+%25285%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/218253">Buy Online</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20100/wits-wagers" target="_blank">Learn More</a></span></span></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-7196826699898828902016-05-09T05:00:00.000-07:002016-05-09T07:59:41.440-07:00Blog Mailbag: Take That<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ooh I got mail. Well, I got a comment,
which caused me to get an e-mail notification,
so close enough. This one didn't even tell me I screwed something up
(though I appreciate those comments too). Now I can do a mailbag post!</div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222;">“<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">I
have mixed feelings for Small World. Just a few years ago I couldn't
get enough of Vinci, Small World, and (Brief) History of the World.
Now I think the gang up on the leader mechanic is souring me to the
game - to the point where I'm thinking of getting rid of some/all of
those. </span></span></span> “</i></div>
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I mostly agree. Attack the leader is
definitely not my favorite mechanic and over time it is becoming
increasingly more so. In these games I feel like my decisions are
meaningless. All I'm really trying to do is convince the rest of
the players that I'm not winning, so they go after someone else. The
person who deflects best wins.</div>
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When I hear of upcoming games that use this mechanic, I'm less likely to give them a try. It is often just a lazy design choice. You don't
need to ensure a game is balanced and fair if you have a strong "take
that*" mechanic, because the players will just take care of it themselves.
Munchkin is a prominent example of this with uber powerful cards and
completely worthless ones. Munchkin at least has humor, but many
don't even have that.</div>
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<br />
<i>Take that is a game mechanic where players can choose to attack an opponent of their choice. This lets players gang up on the perceived leader.</i><br />
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Still, I think "take that" games can be enjoyable. They can work well when the skill level
of players is vastly different. I can make optimum decisions without
worrying I'll crush new players. They just bring me down if I
get ahead. I don't own many "take that" games, but they occasionally come in handy.<br />
<br />
They have to be really good though, which for me means adhering to the below rules.</div>
<ol>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It is fairly simple.
Don't make my head hurt optimizing moves, if they don't really
matter.</div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It is relatively short. Nothing
makes me despise a game a 3+ hour game that is decided at the end by
a player being ganged up on.</div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You can do fun stuff. Since
efficiency isn't important, at least let me have some neat plays.</div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There is a drawback to always attacking the player in front. If a player has to give up something to attack the leader, it will vastly reduce the frequency of attacks.</div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Being attacked can cost you
victory points, but doesn't cause you to be stuck. I don't want to
pass 3 consecutive turns waiting to be able to play.</div>
</li>
</ol>
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Small World passes these tests for me.
It doesn't take too long and turns don't require that much thought.
You can find interesting combos regardless of how other players are
treating you. Sometimes attacking the leader is an optimum move for an individual player, but sometimes it will cost you excess units. If
your race gets too beaten up, you can always put it into decline and get a new one, so you are never stuck. Vinci, and though I haven't played it, I'm sure Brief History, would fail #2.</div>
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Lastly, I think it can be an important mechanic for legacy games. Since it is difficult to balance a series of games dependent upon each other, "take that" can be an important tool. Risk Legacy heavily used "take that" to keep the game fair, while players took the design in any number of ways. Pandemic Legacy, as a co-op, didn't have that option, so it tightly controlled the story limiting the impact of player decisions. While I'm enjoying Pandemic Legacy, it feels like the game is playing the players rather than the other way around as in Risk. I prefer the Risk model, but to do so, some degree of "take that" might be necessary to keep wild shifts balanced. Seafall sounds like it will be somewhere between its predecessors, so will see how that goes.</div>
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Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-55291618152224345802016-05-02T19:57:00.003-07:002016-05-02T19:57:54.676-07:00Codenames<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyhyI-KOx_f3pzOB0XUkefRTtCkpSQ34OjN36QzCJ6qTePnwF12pJwSLZUBvW9y2gUFVSPle_C2ugIonltDgE2moJSFHPPyqH7LeK-2Z8pjj6ZckXeZtvpDbpK3sqXErVu_8XP7Rj0a09N/s1600/FullSizeRender+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyhyI-KOx_f3pzOB0XUkefRTtCkpSQ34OjN36QzCJ6qTePnwF12pJwSLZUBvW9y2gUFVSPle_C2ugIonltDgE2moJSFHPPyqH7LeK-2Z8pjj6ZckXeZtvpDbpK3sqXErVu_8XP7Rj0a09N/s640/FullSizeRender+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Codename board</td></tr>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-747f-e475-ad8d-2dbf29e5b06a"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Codenames arrived in 2015 and has quickly taken its place in the pantheon of great social games. I usually don’t get excited about new games until I get to play them, but Codenames was an exception. I’ve been looking for a good word game for a while and Codenames had gotten rave reviews from the start. Vlaada Chvatel has made some of my favorite games though none was anything like Codenames or any of his others for that matter. When I spotted the game brought to a party*, I was desperate to play. I quickly explained the game rules, which really confused people shortly thereafter when I told them I hadn’t played before.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-748a-90b2-bc31-f3145339b2ff"><span style="font-size: 12.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">*Yes, this is the kind of parties I go to.</span></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> </span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Czech Games</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.6667px; text-indent: 48px;">Vlaada Chvatil</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-7482-a3c0-188f-0eec4c052c19"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a grid of 25 words where 8 or 9 belong to a red team and a blue team. The rest of the words are neutral except one assassin which results in instant loss. Taking turns, a Spymaster says a single word to clue a selected number of words of their color. For example, a spymaster might say apple (3) to clue New York, lemon, and pie, in the picture above. Field Operatives on the spymaster’s team guess words from the 25 until they run out of selections, pass or are wrong, and the play passes over to the other team. First team to have all their words guessed without choosing the assassin wins.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-7483-a7ce-26eb-904f2e2b5bfd"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It would be hard to match the hype I had given Codenames, but the game absolutely delivered. Games are meant to be fun and everything about Codenames is fun. It is fun to give clever clues matching disparate words with multiple meanings, only to be thwarted by your team’s inability to understand your brilliance, or more often, missing that different word was even more appropriate for my clue. It is fun to discuss which word has been clued, while the spymaster sits silently exasperated at your logic just waiting to burst. If it fun to watch the opposing team guess as you explain how every answer, no matter how absurd, would be completely appropriate. It is fun to kibitz the game, playing along or laughing at participants. And it is fun to tell stories of after, like the time robot clued rock and sock, or when in a player’s first game they happily called Tennis (3) only realizing their mistake when Court, the overlooked assassin was selected.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQB04oun66albVLIAa-QUmpJhxVFWM6kDzA2E4CWad2dywQjgBf_n6NAxzuAdphlNByoK04DQXVj3qqDc5nKbu1lyDxHt5Iyv5aDSO9WJb0BLIbAjHkhi5O0sVD5SaDI2T5c0lm6bPe_Wn/s1600/unnamed+%25289%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQB04oun66albVLIAa-QUmpJhxVFWM6kDzA2E4CWad2dywQjgBf_n6NAxzuAdphlNByoK04DQXVj3qqDc5nKbu1lyDxHt5Iyv5aDSO9WJb0BLIbAjHkhi5O0sVD5SaDI2T5c0lm6bPe_Wn/s1600/unnamed+%25289%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-7484-5173-9baf-2a2b597675a9"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Password or other word games</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b><br />
<span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-7484-842f-f629-dde0a6f2d439"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Very simple to understand what you are trying to do. There may be some questions on gameflow or the legality of plays, but they can be answered as you go along. Worst case scenario a round gets screwed up and you just begin again. </span></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nothing to play with, but you can always heckle your opposition on their turn to pass the time. Just be careful not to accidentally give them any good ideas.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSP6sWV87cvmU_hDsLONZw9WRCDu2AIYLk8yKeuS9AINVZDi5n2TrO4HD9AU1w2K94NHDdM_DhDX3xD2kLlfoY9iXQM14JWSjBjtJ-AxZMs5Xeb_nCtepstWGBV83DDG5ObWJ_Zm-StkTD/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSP6sWV87cvmU_hDsLONZw9WRCDu2AIYLk8yKeuS9AINVZDi5n2TrO4HD9AU1w2K94NHDdM_DhDX3xD2kLlfoY9iXQM14JWSjBjtJ-AxZMs5Xeb_nCtepstWGBV83DDG5ObWJ_Zm-StkTD/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPE5hvkaT5nvKjmc5d90CWWANemS4eGgbx7P3HbVcBV-o89hms4CphTzSzbubKOJk0CdZAG8TSLnxe6KBoJTlKjvAYUgnAQFBv0P00ToZKc4DMSFppKmE4mcps2H8LiGRC9yizTBRmn-kV/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPE5hvkaT5nvKjmc5d90CWWANemS4eGgbx7P3HbVcBV-o89hms4CphTzSzbubKOJk0CdZAG8TSLnxe6KBoJTlKjvAYUgnAQFBv0P00ToZKc4DMSFppKmE4mcps2H8LiGRC9yizTBRmn-kV/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-f8d6a749-7486-4301-fb8c-0255cf6e7118"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2-8+ There is a co-op version to play with 2 or 3 which works okay if you aren’t too concerned about scoring. With at least 4 players you can divide into teams with at least one spymaster and one guesser per side. After that just keep adding to teams. You can play with any number, but after you hit 8-10, teams will start getting unwieldy. A round takes about 15 minutes, so length is a question of how many rounds you wish to play.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/218253">Buy Online</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900/codenames" target="_blank">Learn More</a></span></span><br />
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Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-54520616370831759212016-04-19T10:31:00.001-07:002016-04-19T10:31:21.701-07:00Stone Age<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">The most authentic thing about Stone Age is the dice rolling cup, but you can't quite appreciate it without smell-o-vision</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Stone Age is a pleasurable introduction to worker placement games, one of the hallmarks of modern Euro games. As an owner of an MBA, I heartily endorse the concept of getting others to do your work for you.</span></div>
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Bernd Brunhofer<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Build up a civilization by using workers to gather resources, food, and tools, build huts, collect cards, and of course making babies in the “love shack”</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up <strike>Playing</strike> Smelling <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Weird things on the ground<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Players have a lot of options on their turn, but most are basic and similar to each other, so they don’t take long to explain. New players should be able to develop a basic strategy almost immediately, though the timing and more focused strategies take more experience.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztzJYsCZbrHDuVuQG-OlvRn86M3VyHB15F2-UJf1nn3xdToYDP83YPRxay-r5gcgstuCSU7gFIQDrrspgyCq25HkGE9HtHAcknmHTM_A3FK2RKZD1xFZXsekJk0BIYs8lUPH4LsY7H5eU/s1600/unnamed+%25288%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztzJYsCZbrHDuVuQG-OlvRn86M3VyHB15F2-UJf1nn3xdToYDP83YPRxay-r5gcgstuCSU7gFIQDrrspgyCq25HkGE9HtHAcknmHTM_A3FK2RKZD1xFZXsekJk0BIYs8lUPH4LsY7H5eU/s1600/unnamed+%25288%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">A few meeples and dice to play with. Components are too few and general to be much fun.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNat1BDpfQGO5UkOwFC3OX0o2kNcoWKGP87aMo6_K82wdGier6iLTy5gc-hwgK-hCRXDmkQGttCdDAcCv8S4-FWVDlSDqjCIOXn-kjD8pTP_NITmZK4yRpCouekD_8TkMP50n1LsCd7mzx/s1600/unnamed+%25285%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNat1BDpfQGO5UkOwFC3OX0o2kNcoWKGP87aMo6_K82wdGier6iLTy5gc-hwgK-hCRXDmkQGttCdDAcCv8S4-FWVDlSDqjCIOXn-kjD8pTP_NITmZK4yRpCouekD_8TkMP50n1LsCd7mzx/s1600/unnamed+%25285%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">You are building up your civilization in the Stone Age. That sounds exciting, but the game-play and components are too generic to feel like you are doing much more than acquiring cubes to turn them into points.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSP6sWV87cvmU_hDsLONZw9WRCDu2AIYLk8yKeuS9AINVZDi5n2TrO4HD9AU1w2K94NHDdM_DhDX3xD2kLlfoY9iXQM14JWSjBjtJ-AxZMs5Xeb_nCtepstWGBV83DDG5ObWJ_Zm-StkTD/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSP6sWV87cvmU_hDsLONZw9WRCDu2AIYLk8yKeuS9AINVZDi5n2TrO4HD9AU1w2K94NHDdM_DhDX3xD2kLlfoY9iXQM14JWSjBjtJ-AxZMs5Xeb_nCtepstWGBV83DDG5ObWJ_Zm-StkTD/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">2 to 4. Works fine for all counts, but more cutthroat with two. Takes 1 - 1:30 hours to play. Expansion adds pieces for a fifth player, but I wouldn't recommend it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Style is the New Goal is a dumb expansion with a dumb name (So bad that the newest edition is just called Stone Age: The Expansion), which is unfortunate as Stone Age could use a quality expansion. The main addition, jewelry, removes one the main tensions of the game, getting the right resources you need. The new huts are interesting, but can be overpowered if they come up early. And adding a fifth player to game not designed for 5 players is usually not a good idea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">None. Settlers of the Stone Age is a Settlers game and not a Stone Age one. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Encourage other players to take the farm/babies/tool actions early and focus on buildings/cards late. Don't use the "starvation" or a rush strategy. Don't take spaces that you know your opponent needs, but you do not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">There is universal app, which is amongst the better ones. It offer solo, online, and pass-n-play modes. The interface is different from the board game, and can take a little getting used to, but it makes sense once you pick it up. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLlrUS_kALYQWTbv6W6i168N6kFiuRypQzfB7sdEVEEdDYR_z8ubyrRCKk9aoI11kO599nlzxtvUaxv29ZibNl6Lpv92nXr2bT0bf7nXqyafY0Qs-tNPrHvXr2qo5E4Cxk-BTwpZ6OfAA/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a></div>
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<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/187167">Buy Online</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34635/stone-age">Learn More</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div>
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</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-26255690262343950152016-03-27T19:50:00.002-07:002016-03-27T19:50:15.737-07:00Dove Hunting<div class="MsoNormal">
As you can tell, I like playing games. And while losing can be fun, I’m really fond
of winning. However, if I lose every
board game for a year, but win Dove Hunting, my annual fantasy baseball league,
I’d be okay with it<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I started Dove Hunting in my freshman year of college. I played in a different league in high
school, but it didn’t survive the diaspora of graduation. Dove Hunting was named after a pitch by Randy
Johnson, a 6-10 left-handed behemoth, that exploded an unfortunate dove which
flew into the pitch’s path. The league
started with nine members in its rookie year and has hovered between 11-13
since. <o:p></o:p></div>
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</div>
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One of the things that makes the league unique is an all-day
online auction draft in March. The draft
is an absolute pain to schedule and is by far the most stressful part of
running the league. We always get
through it, but some years have been dicey.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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This year’s draft started twenty minutes late as a couple of
members had technical difficulties which resulted in a near mutiny before we
even began. The draft featured about
400 Trump jokes, a dozen “Dammit Joel’s”, significant lagging issues, and a
participant storming off in anger over a near meaningless commissioner decision.
It ended nearly eight and half
hours after it began with a tired, hungry and irritable crew. All and all it was a pretty smooth year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course with these things, a league is only as a good as its
members. Despite being a rather active
league, there has been a good deal turnover over the years. New people join, veterans leave, and others
come and go as their schedule allows.
Only two others have participated in all 15 previous drafts. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
One them is Alex, one of the
kindest, gentlest, persons you will ever meet.
His team has virtually always been named Jose Mesa, a bit of nostalgia
that I doubt either of us fully understands.
When, after years of being
runner-up, he finally won a title last year, everyone was happy for him. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Then
there is Deryl. There are others in the
league that bring out my competiveness. There is my
childhood friend who I’ve been trying to beat at everything , since the 7<sup>th</sup>
grade. Relatives whose success I
have to hear about more than I like. However,
if there is nothing I care about winning more than fantasy baseball, then there
is no one I care about beating more than Deryl.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It
isn’t that Deryl wins, has been the most successful member in league history,
or that he has won 6 titles where I have squeezed out only two victories over
him, each requiring the season’s final day. No, I can accept losing. When Alex finally won with strong keepers and
logical moves, I understood it. Deryl drafts
irrationally, erratically and not exactly sober, vastly overpaying for mostly
local or young guys he has fallen for. He
gets obsessed with his guys and gives up on then a week later after a poor
stretch. He is overly emotional,
berating and praising other league members as he tries to work out deals. He breaks every rule of how one should run a
team. I have no idea how he beats me and everyone else, and yet he has done it
over and over again. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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Unsurprisingly,
Deryl is as competitive as me, and really enjoys beating me too. We can’t make trades with each other, since
we both think the other has a secret ploy.
I consider Deryl my greatest rival, so it may surprise you that we have
never met. Deryl and I met playing
Overpower, a ccg, online. When I started
Dove Hunting, I asked him to join. It
isn’t that I haven’t tried to see him.
We were supposed to meet at comic con, but his plans fell through. When my family visited Oakland and San
Francisco, I reached out to him about meeting up or seeing a game, but it never
quite worked out. I’ll be honest though,
I never tried too hard. The imagine of
our two decade long rivalry is a hard thing to live up to, and I’m not sure I
want to handle the shock of an actual face-to-face meeting. I
think I’m good with Deryl being that elusive alter-ego, always challenging me
to bring my best.<o:p></o:p></div>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-9272055308759305472016-03-27T19:48:00.000-07:002016-04-10T18:57:38.331-07:00Small World<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxwKp3HRoB7BgCVhyJNHaIvO3wojfRiZuhhyX0OJa4BjlIBug7T42ZEkX8C2I92eX5oCxVeccj_baUko1NnYZF6gouU3gMi5Vsljrme-81jPP6Yif7RMS506G_gVOArRJGYeuLy0K8CFCX/s1600/IMG_0015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxwKp3HRoB7BgCVhyJNHaIvO3wojfRiZuhhyX0OJa4BjlIBug7T42ZEkX8C2I92eX5oCxVeccj_baUko1NnYZF6gouU3gMi5Vsljrme-81jPP6Yif7RMS506G_gVOArRJGYeuLy0K8CFCX/s1600/IMG_0015.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wonder what the historian ghouls study</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><i>Editor note: The Small World app as well as Ticket to Ride and Splendor are currently on <a href="http://blog.daysofwonder.com/2016/03/25/enjoy-our-easter-promotion/">sale</a> for Easter. </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Most gateway games are family
friendly affairs. They leave everyone,
wins or lose, satisfied and on speaking terms.
While this is nice for most people, some individuals have much different
associations with what games should be.
Those whose strongest game memory is taking over the world from a secure
bunker in Western Australia. Those who
discovered that Japan had sailed around the US fleet and invaded Texas through
the gulf of Mexico, while they were in the bathroom, and the allies are about
to lose, and they didn’t even know that was possible and… sorry where were
we? Oh right, Small World is for the
more aggressive gamer who enjoys direct conflict, but still wants the
improvements that modern gaming offers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;"> Days of Wonder</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #323232; font-family: "latoweb" , "arial" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.9px;">Philippe Keyaerts</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">You select a paired
fantasy race and special power attempting to conquer a piece of the world not
big enough for everyone. When your race
has outlived their usefulness, put them in decline and storm the board with a
new pairing.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">There was a time where
an ongoing epic war game occupied my basement.
We will call that junior year.
Now my time and taste for unending games has diminished, so I appreciate
games that take some of those aspects and put them into a more condensed affair. Small
World lets you have cool powers and aggressively attack opponents while keeping
a brisk pace and a set end point. The
decline mechanics eliminates the issue of a player being too weak to have fun,
though the turn skip can be annoying.
Plus you can discover all sorts of neat power combos. Who amongst us didn’t want to be a flying
skeleton? There are some downsides to
this approach, the fact that many options provide similar points means you
might as well gang up on the perceived leader, which is problematic if you are
said leader and can’t do anything about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GeEOUdF052WzJIUTeM_lfpJvR0sNQD0D1wjIHQBItvxDxn_CiSMFtZiSZOsVNOjsv2BdCo9ZFwtD5ypsNvVJTju7wClNeSuMaPibiCFIOn4aO2SerGcnQxjawFlfgk5hE0QB2ItX_atb/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GeEOUdF052WzJIUTeM_lfpJvR0sNQD0D1wjIHQBItvxDxn_CiSMFtZiSZOsVNOjsv2BdCo9ZFwtD5ypsNvVJTju7wClNeSuMaPibiCFIOn4aO2SerGcnQxjawFlfgk5hE0QB2ItX_atb/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Risk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">For a gateway game it is reasonably
complicated, but for a “war” game is it exceedingly straight forward. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">To take a territory, you need two units plus one
more for each piece of cardboard in the location.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">It the easiest combat system this side of
checkers.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">The tricky part is remembering
what all the special powers do, but you only need to know a few of those at a
time.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoqsNqAzU6GXXp1KCRywCl6mvYTLIaTBAG4xd8i_yW9IhkofInMqyBzNx-s11wbTU0tZprmC5EsWqZFvOyAn_ebIbXfL9i_8fb6vbuigNO2IjEOLJwNq1ONkFwQn-9eX6Nezfagby-s9J5/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoqsNqAzU6GXXp1KCRywCl6mvYTLIaTBAG4xd8i_yW9IhkofInMqyBzNx-s11wbTU0tZprmC5EsWqZFvOyAn_ebIbXfL9i_8fb6vbuigNO2IjEOLJwNq1ONkFwQn-9eX6Nezfagby-s9J5/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">This is game is chock
full of little bits with interesting artwork, though it easier to make a mess
than a work of art.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoqsNqAzU6GXXp1KCRywCl6mvYTLIaTBAG4xd8i_yW9IhkofInMqyBzNx-s11wbTU0tZprmC5EsWqZFvOyAn_ebIbXfL9i_8fb6vbuigNO2IjEOLJwNq1ONkFwQn-9eX6Nezfagby-s9J5/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoqsNqAzU6GXXp1KCRywCl6mvYTLIaTBAG4xd8i_yW9IhkofInMqyBzNx-s11wbTU0tZprmC5EsWqZFvOyAn_ebIbXfL9i_8fb6vbuigNO2IjEOLJwNq1ONkFwQn-9eX6Nezfagby-s9J5/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">It is fantasy which is not for everyone, and it is a dark weird version
at that. Still if you can embrace it,
then it is fun to think about the combination created, and what they would be
like.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHb-gsV1va6-LOsPAfgOdEe09bvyfErklIhljH5abTqNmaXJh2PUTirmb-0L2iuododUuJQLrXk9x4t2nveBbDCmtlIxjDdfMfPtbVQqBWa-tbkTMYwX2pREj8J7-58vYcT2UR7VbP4Brl/s1600/unnamed+%25288%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHb-gsV1va6-LOsPAfgOdEe09bvyfErklIhljH5abTqNmaXJh2PUTirmb-0L2iuododUuJQLrXk9x4t2nveBbDCmtlIxjDdfMfPtbVQqBWa-tbkTMYwX2pREj8J7-58vYcT2UR7VbP4Brl/s1600/unnamed+%25288%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">2-5. Board changes based on player count to ensure
things are always crowded. Game length
is about an hour half regardless of player count as larger games last fewer
rounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Grand Dames, designed
by a contest winner, balances out the gender ratio of the base game adding
Gypsies, Priestesses, and White Ladies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Cursed, also a contest
winner, adds Kobolds and Goblins along with several new powers. These items are a bit more situational than
the ones in the base game, but used right can be quite powerful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Leaders as the name
would suggest add a leader to each race.
The leader gives you an extra token, but does have a tendency to get
kidnapped and ransomed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Be Not Afraid adds
five new races and five new powers and perhaps more importantly a storage
container to fit itself and other expansions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">A Spider’s Web, part
of a kickstarter campaign, Spider’s web offers three new races and powers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Royal Bonus is another
mini-expansion originally given to backers of the Small World digital campaign
on Kickstarter features three more races and powers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Necromancer adds one
against many element to the game. One
player, the Necromancer, battles against the other players.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Tales and Legends is
an event deck that impacts game play each round. It is good for changing things up a bit<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">6 Player board is
doublesided with the other one used for the Underground spinoff. It changes Small World into a team game where
three sets of partners compete.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Realms adds variety to
the map setup. Also usable by
Underground, Realms also you to design your own map <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Tunnels was originally
a promo that allows the Small World base game and the Underground to be
connected<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Vinci: In this case Small World is the spinoff
regimenting Vinci with a fantasy theme.
Some people prefer the historic theme and more interesting maps of
Vinci, but I like the streamlined faster Small World more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Small World Underground: A stand alone Small World that can be
combined with the original one using tunnels.
It adds races and powers that you would expect in the underground as
well as relics that provide additionals benefits. All in all it plays pretty similar to the
main game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Designer Edition For those who like turn large amount of green
paper into shiny things. Everything is
deluxe here , wooden tokens for each race, metal coins, custom art, minatures
etc, but you could also buy a substantial game collection for the cost to track
this down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Being that Small World
is at least kind of a war game, the entire premise is that the world isn’t big
enough for all of us, being nice to opponents isn’t workable. The good news is that new players have an
easy an obvious way to balance the scales.
Just gang up on the person who knows what they are doing. You might still try to kind around the edges,
attack neutrals over other players and not taking the almost broken race combo,
but mostly the game and social dynamics should take care of things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The Small World app has gone through a few phases. It is one of the first designer board game
apps made for ipads and was fantastic for its time. However it was neglected for a time and its
flaws like inability to play with more than 2 players stood out over time. In 2014 Days of Wonder rectified it with a Kickstarter. This led to Small World 2, a great implementation
that does pretty much everything you want an app to do. It allows you to learn
the game, play solo, locally, or online, and across platforms. The interface is logical and smooth and the
ai can be challenging, and there are expansions available for purchase to
increase variety.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.cardhaus.com/catalog/board_games/small_world/193790">Buy Online</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692/small-world">Learn More</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-79560685321932963702016-03-21T05:22:00.000-07:002016-03-27T19:54:13.322-07:00Tichu<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC-HYKjo9EIBkINuDfEBNNU0p0Vkhz3Pd_srtusnwZupQGuK9mPxyItxaWHbZDwapPt3TPdn3nN34Gwy4mMagwxiT4k6bwFmiKekg3telgSvLKowZ6XKsplJhzV9bW7mElRO1ZWiWW_r73/s1600/IMG_0013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC-HYKjo9EIBkINuDfEBNNU0p0Vkhz3Pd_srtusnwZupQGuK9mPxyItxaWHbZDwapPt3TPdn3nN34Gwy4mMagwxiT4k6bwFmiKekg3telgSvLKowZ6XKsplJhzV9bW7mElRO1ZWiWW_r73/s1600/IMG_0013.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our well used set</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Tichu is a partnership game, so it is key to
have a good rapport with your partner.
For instance, my aggressive style works well with my wife’s
conservatism. With partners I consider
rivals, it is a little trickier. It is difficult
to properly celebrate their Tichu getting thwarted when they are on my
team. I mean I will still do so, but it is
a challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;"> Abacusspiele</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/11547/jean-louis-roubira" style="background-color: #e7ecf1; box-sizing: border-box; color: #323232; cursor: pointer; font-family: latoweb, arial, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.9px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.1s, 0.1s;">U</a>rs Hostettler</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Tichu is a partnership card game that uses a
themed deck of cards plus 4 special cards.
A player leads with a legal play such as a single card or a full house,
and all subsequent cards played that round must be of the same card grouping
but higher. The main goal is to ensure
you and/or your partner empty your hand first, particularly when you made a bet
called Tichu that you will do so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Tichu is a solid 9 for me. I have fond memories of playing cards growing,
and Tichu is comfortably the best card game I’ve ever played. I have played hundreds of hands and still
find the decisions fascinating. What
should I pass? Is this a Tichu
hand? Do I break up my straight to play
consecutive pairs? Do I save my best
cards or sell out my hand to stop an opponent now? It is type of game that can be as fun to
postmortem as to play. I have plenty of
stories that will have you shaking your heads as soon as you know what it means,
like when I wished away my partners ace bomb.
The only issue I have with Tichu is that I know several people,
including one that chose to marry me, who rate it a 10+. People who, if we have 4 people, always want
to play Tichu, and if we have some number other than 4 want to know how to get
to 4. So while I quite like Tichu, you
might see a pained look upon my face after we hit the three hour mark, and
there is a chorus around me saying “let’s go again.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidtGqyUL5Us6nYr0uSqQ8jnJavlhxfleJZbgALg2YZUOWIML8zivWpx8K2m3gGrg2-k7hkrZjAQWMcrWqbwxuneyJxIwMOp8qSxHF4rcXLiLlKUsJJ5HZDTeMbmDgSIRGP_PxY0cLXIOw_/s1600/unnamed+%25289%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidtGqyUL5Us6nYr0uSqQ8jnJavlhxfleJZbgALg2YZUOWIML8zivWpx8K2m3gGrg2-k7hkrZjAQWMcrWqbwxuneyJxIwMOp8qSxHF4rcXLiLlKUsJJ5HZDTeMbmDgSIRGP_PxY0cLXIOw_/s1600/unnamed+%25289%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">General card games with a
standard deck of cards. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">If you are with someone who hasn’t played many
card games, then Tichu is probably too complex for them to pick up quickly, and
I would try something else. However, for
card players, particularly ones who have played climbing and/or trick taking
games, a lot of the gameplay will feel natural.
There will still be a lot to learn, and they likely will have questions
throughout the first play session, but they will probably enjoy the
process. I have taught this game to many
players who were eager to try again shortly thereafter.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqaZrfXAorJ1QsAATIthgXwrndxhcUE1EiTvxC046SXcAJdL2yJjmUbfwp9opVs9KZyNtkNAMdKQEiqYOVvsXmdhbIU0tFzjlt7DjthDD53Lx4QmTKfo2-0BowFS39YHfFycWLEDwgwbwx/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqaZrfXAorJ1QsAATIthgXwrndxhcUE1EiTvxC046SXcAJdL2yJjmUbfwp9opVs9KZyNtkNAMdKQEiqYOVvsXmdhbIU0tFzjlt7DjthDD53Lx4QmTKfo2-0BowFS39YHfFycWLEDwgwbwx/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">It comes with two decks so you can constantly
shuffle the deck not in use if you want. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqaZrfXAorJ1QsAATIthgXwrndxhcUE1EiTvxC046SXcAJdL2yJjmUbfwp9opVs9KZyNtkNAMdKQEiqYOVvsXmdhbIU0tFzjlt7DjthDD53Lx4QmTKfo2-0BowFS39YHfFycWLEDwgwbwx/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqaZrfXAorJ1QsAATIthgXwrndxhcUE1EiTvxC046SXcAJdL2yJjmUbfwp9opVs9KZyNtkNAMdKQEiqYOVvsXmdhbIU0tFzjlt7DjthDD53Lx4QmTKfo2-0BowFS39YHfFycWLEDwgwbwx/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Takes a traditional 52 card deck, and changes
the suits to stars, jade, pagodas and swords to try for a culturally Chinese
feel, but it’s fairly irrelevant.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPhrKTlkG5S1MN8b2pc_xwHnenv9Dg7EVkCAQW8gdMT3cVsVWdO_qNqqrMQgoXHgE21ftVJwEdxpoa84_72Y8U_u2Aduk9-q7d1J3nOYkMCfAeHAmzQ8BSXx0zifGD9i_0ZHmmIFhNklfN/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPhrKTlkG5S1MN8b2pc_xwHnenv9Dg7EVkCAQW8gdMT3cVsVWdO_qNqqrMQgoXHgE21ftVJwEdxpoa84_72Y8U_u2Aduk9-q7d1J3nOYkMCfAeHAmzQ8BSXx0zifGD9i_0ZHmmIFhNklfN/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Strictly 4 players. There are variants
for some other numbers, but they aren't worth playing. Game length
depends on what score to which you want to play. We tend to play to a thousand points, which
can take a couple of hours depending on how successful Tichu calls
are. You can play to any number though, and it is easy to put away and
pick back up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Nope</span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 13.55px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Gang of Four: Is a similar enough game
that some people refuse to play it and Tichu to avoid confusion. I personally find it terrible, I despise the
mechanic that punishes you for losing and the non-linear scoring that screws you
on a bad hand, but your mileage may vary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Haggis: is billed as a Tichu game that works
for 2 or 3. It is more tactical than
Tichu as special cards mean every play has bombs every turn, so the question is
when to use them. I found the game less
strategic though and it failed to scratch the Tichu itch for me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Partner new players with experienced
ones. Try to match a passive player with an aggressive one as well.
Consider playing a hand or two open-handed and without scoring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">There is a decent app . The ai is a
little weak on normal levels. It gets harder on more difficult levels,
but does it by cheating (knowing your cards), which can be frustrating.
Your ai partner, Becky, will likewise drive you crazy. Works reasonably
well on local internet with multiple devises although the connection gives out
too often. There is also an app that we always use to keep track of the
scores of real live games.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GeEOUdF052WzJIUTeM_lfpJvR0sNQD0D1wjIHQBItvxDxn_CiSMFtZiSZOsVNOjsv2BdCo9ZFwtD5ypsNvVJTju7wClNeSuMaPibiCFIOn4aO2SerGcnQxjawFlfgk5hE0QB2ItX_atb/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GeEOUdF052WzJIUTeM_lfpJvR0sNQD0D1wjIHQBItvxDxn_CiSMFtZiSZOsVNOjsv2BdCo9ZFwtD5ypsNvVJTju7wClNeSuMaPibiCFIOn4aO2SerGcnQxjawFlfgk5hE0QB2ItX_atb/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/135219">Buy Online</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/215/tichu">Learn More</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-14215613467032586122016-03-06T12:04:00.002-08:002016-03-06T12:04:30.772-08:00Dixit<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvWzEuUiDgd-VtyBng-UmQ0d21Qcd_YLs5rSIGaps6Rh6HNsr-1Ce6fspfSk0ZyLYqP48Juwey0Zln6lhMhxrX9fa5wHAtGkDX1j5ydf6hyaC8nKfAgqo73rAEe-A02nzcG3-WgEyoIRs6/s1600/IMG_0009+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvWzEuUiDgd-VtyBng-UmQ0d21Qcd_YLs5rSIGaps6Rh6HNsr-1Ce6fspfSk0ZyLYqP48Juwey0Zln6lhMhxrX9fa5wHAtGkDX1j5ydf6hyaC8nKfAgqo73rAEe-A02nzcG3-WgEyoIRs6/s1600/IMG_0009+%25282%2529.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aren't they pretty?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m generally good at games,
but Dixit involves skills like noticing small details and understanding pop
culture references, which are absent from my DNA. Even when clues are specifically meant for me,
I have a 50/50 shot at getting them right and about a 10% chance of it being
for the correct reason.</span></div>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;"> Asmodee</span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: left;">
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/11547/jean-louis-roubira" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(41, 46, 98, 0.298039); background-color: #e7ecf1; box-sizing: border-box; color: #323232; cursor: pointer; font-family: LatoWeb, Arial, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.9px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.1s, background-color 0.1s;">Jean-Louis Roubira</a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Describe a card of abstract
artwork anyway you like. Each other
player takes a card from their hand and tries to match your description. Shuffle them together and have each other player
try to figure out which one your original card was. If at least one, but not all get it, success!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There is fairly strong
correlation between games I like and games I’m good at, so the fact that I like
Dixit despite my terribleness at it is high praise. It is fun, though sometimes frustrating to
come up with the right clue for a card, or try to figure out someone else’s
reference. Once in a while when I do
nail it, it feels pretty sweet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GeEOUdF052WzJIUTeM_lfpJvR0sNQD0D1wjIHQBItvxDxn_CiSMFtZiSZOsVNOjsv2BdCo9ZFwtD5ypsNvVJTju7wClNeSuMaPibiCFIOn4aO2SerGcnQxjawFlfgk5hE0QB2ItX_atb/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GeEOUdF052WzJIUTeM_lfpJvR0sNQD0D1wjIHQBItvxDxn_CiSMFtZiSZOsVNOjsv2BdCo9ZFwtD5ypsNvVJTju7wClNeSuMaPibiCFIOn4aO2SerGcnQxjawFlfgk5hE0QB2ItX_atb/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a></div>
</div>
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</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Pictionary</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Elevator pitch is
pretty much all the rules, minus scoring.
It is not a difficult game to teach.
It does however require players be able to look at the abstract art and
let their imagination run, which not everyone can do or enjoys doing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidtGqyUL5Us6nYr0uSqQ8jnJavlhxfleJZbgALg2YZUOWIML8zivWpx8K2m3gGrg2-k7hkrZjAQWMcrWqbwxuneyJxIwMOp8qSxHF4rcXLiLlKUsJJ5HZDTeMbmDgSIRGP_PxY0cLXIOw_/s1600/unnamed+%25289%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidtGqyUL5Us6nYr0uSqQ8jnJavlhxfleJZbgALg2YZUOWIML8zivWpx8K2m3gGrg2-k7hkrZjAQWMcrWqbwxuneyJxIwMOp8qSxHF4rcXLiLlKUsJJ5HZDTeMbmDgSIRGP_PxY0cLXIOw_/s1600/unnamed+%25289%2529.png" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The art is absolutely
fascinating. You can stare at it all
day. Nothing to play with though.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dixit fits in the
party game realm, which generally don’t do theme. Dixit is no exception.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3-6. Works better on the higher player counts
where there are more cards to choose between.
Game takes about 45 minutes to go around the board, but is easily
shortened or lengthened. Expansions add
components for up to 12 players, but I have not tried it with that many.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">After a while you are going to get repeat clues, so it is
good to expand your Dixit. The easy part
of choosing among Dixit expansions is that each expansion is just more cards,
so you can pick whichever set has artwork you like. The tricky part is that some expansions come
in multiple forms and names. The
expansion called Dixit 3 is just an additional pack of cards, however it is
also available as a standalone under the name Dixit Journey. Meanwhile Dixit Odyssey comes in two forms,
under the same name: one is a standalone game with components to expand to 12
players, and the other is just the cards.
For the completionists, there are numerous promos as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Dixit Jinx in rotten stepchild of the Dixit family. It adds a speed element that is out of place
and ruins the core of what makes Dixit great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Mysterium is what happens when you turn Dixit into a co-op. It technically isn’t a Dixit game, but it is
close enough in style and artwork that you can replace the cards with those
from Dixit and it works just fine. It is
tough game, particularly if you are the Ghost trying to clue the rest of the
players, but it can be nice to work together. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Don’t try to game the
system. Don’t use clues that are
completely random, from a previous game, or that only one person could get,
like “the place we went for our 5<sup>th</sup> wedding anniversary.” This isn’t really a suggestion for playing
with newbies as much as it is just making it an enjoyable game. Otherwise you will annoy your opponents and
be mad at your spouse for forgetting your glorious evening at Morton’s
Steakhouse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.6667px; line-height: 13.5533px;">Technically there is an app, but it hasn't been updated in 5 years and wasn't especially usable then. It is just as well though as Dixit isn't really something that translate well to the digital world.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/134921">Buy Online</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/39856/dixit">Learn More</a></span></span><br />
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Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-656529115598977862016-02-28T20:36:00.000-08:002016-02-29T07:49:55.288-08:00Bohnanza<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQItteNUw-m1qZ3IpI6jtkAH0MEiWoaKvjOpiaUf_gDuezc3iY6rUvTCHaocD7ZWNemVYI0u02-UefZhcc_dXkpD9jrbuP-TiSi5aCLS_GCn_VSnKpzVVX6dKlnuWqtZ6ksBfdhFBOavdu/s1600/IMG_1133.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQItteNUw-m1qZ3IpI6jtkAH0MEiWoaKvjOpiaUf_gDuezc3iY6rUvTCHaocD7ZWNemVYI0u02-UefZhcc_dXkpD9jrbuP-TiSi5aCLS_GCn_VSnKpzVVX6dKlnuWqtZ6ksBfdhFBOavdu/s1600/IMG_1133.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mmmm beans</td></tr>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Trading games are good for
determining who your real friends are.
You know, the people who offer your wife cards just so she doesn’t trade
with you. Or your wife who happily
accepts. Maybe I should switch to a
series on solo games.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;"> Amigo</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.66px;">Uwe Rosenberg</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">You are trying to harvest
sets of beans that you have planted for gold.
Each turn you may plant and harvest beans, trade or donate cards to
opponent, and draw replacements. The key difficulty in the game is that you can
never rearrange your hand, but must play cards in the order that you drew them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Bohnanza is the type of game
that is very group dependent. Find a
group that will negotiate until they “win” every trade, and it will drag on
endlessly. Or with another group of
quiet and shy people and the game will be a bore. However, in a group that enjoys dealing, but
doesn’t overanalyze every opportunity, it is a blast to play. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GeEOUdF052WzJIUTeM_lfpJvR0sNQD0D1wjIHQBItvxDxn_CiSMFtZiSZOsVNOjsv2BdCo9ZFwtD5ypsNvVJTju7wClNeSuMaPibiCFIOn4aO2SerGcnQxjawFlfgk5hE0QB2ItX_atb/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GeEOUdF052WzJIUTeM_lfpJvR0sNQD0D1wjIHQBItvxDxn_CiSMFtZiSZOsVNOjsv2BdCo9ZFwtD5ypsNvVJTju7wClNeSuMaPibiCFIOn4aO2SerGcnQxjawFlfgk5hE0QB2ItX_atb/s1600/unnamed.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">In the dirt or trading cards.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">It
will take some time to get into the flow of the game. There aren’t a lot of rules to remember, but
the sequence of play is unique and not always intuitive. Expect new players to
break rules on the first few turns until they get the hang of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FKtJM3j4LVgvfN69x-mjX-kwZh7FNDY2wr77Uug-TJ8b-x6q5xEkgeb4ptLnmE7Bj88h2Bkmfc4y48CCeOKtiM1ZDbveAFO8LiMAwAMB6NKK-9AZG2uXMQ0euHN8s8G_03ZeTyTNIYUj/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FKtJM3j4LVgvfN69x-mjX-kwZh7FNDY2wr77Uug-TJ8b-x6q5xEkgeb4ptLnmE7Bj88h2Bkmfc4y48CCeOKtiM1ZDbveAFO8LiMAwAMB6NKK-9AZG2uXMQ0euHN8s8G_03ZeTyTNIYUj/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Nope. All you get is cards and you can’t ever
rearrange them.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjltPHZwjvsbU-fgIswJTH0_cAsAjpYU87vQBSgEwQchNGLt_Ahr4YRoFnhviGIMJe15ZUgzxo3BFiUONQylCItVpXfQ1DaeI_6dYufjwupgkS6qtlWSzkIP-qev1IYeXT7BwdQtrD9tj4N/s1600/unnamed+%25284%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjltPHZwjvsbU-fgIswJTH0_cAsAjpYU87vQBSgEwQchNGLt_Ahr4YRoFnhviGIMJe15ZUgzxo3BFiUONQylCItVpXfQ1DaeI_6dYufjwupgkS6qtlWSzkIP-qev1IYeXT7BwdQtrD9tj4N/s1600/unnamed+%25284%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">You are planting beans! I can feel your excitement through the
interwebs. Sadly, even those who
appreciate a good stalk will not find this game overly thematic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-7uPGjp6-OYYR-BGHpZx3LmRQkZIgYMd5XqmURN8nFqjfQ7d0PfneVMW0PoWcQAgQwRWdZA5QFIhKcJl2-Hkqv-oXJjauhq1mj_mv669Ey4QtbwylES-rKK3Z5r_IAo4qX8lK6pSCkMz/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB-7uPGjp6-OYYR-BGHpZx3LmRQkZIgYMd5XqmURN8nFqjfQ7d0PfneVMW0PoWcQAgQwRWdZA5QFIhKcJl2-Hkqv-oXJjauhq1mj_mv669Ey4QtbwylES-rKK3Z5r_IAo4qX8lK6pSCkMz/s1600/unnamed+%25282%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">2 to 7. The two player variant is fun, but it is
almost a completely different game from its brethren. 3-7 all work fine, but more players leads to
more interaction. Game speeds up
considerably in later rounds and you should be able to finish within 45 minutes
or so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">There are numerous
expansions, but many of them are only in German and I haven’t played any of
them, so I can’t give much advice here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Uwe Rosenburg has designed
many other Bohanza and bean games well, also with the majority in German. However, in this case I have and thoroughly
enjoyed one of them, Wurfel Bohnanza.
This is a simple dice game that other than the name has nothing to do
with the base Bohnanza. What it does do
is provide players a strong reason to pay attention to the dice other players
roll, which makes it more interactive and interesting than many of its
brethren. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Pay attention to make sure they are following all
the rules. Agree to any trade that is at
least neutral for you.</span></div>
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</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">I was excited that there was
a Bohnanza app before quickly remembering this is the type of game that makes a
terrible application. The app failed to
live up to my limited expertise, so I deleted it off my phone after a couple of
plays. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-m3xJK9tgigDABLBoFGzdnk_wuybjAy7rlNyIU9nk2ksIo3NnsGdhyb2hOXivuvRrcAEGn1NSJtKQfZ_maSmQWrDEfakZhbIlIxIejU7kRNFyJt-vEQI7R2_smyjefh-_QOsCkDo5rpRL/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-m3xJK9tgigDABLBoFGzdnk_wuybjAy7rlNyIU9nk2ksIo3NnsGdhyb2hOXivuvRrcAEGn1NSJtKQfZ_maSmQWrDEfakZhbIlIxIejU7kRNFyJt-vEQI7R2_smyjefh-_QOsCkDo5rpRL/s1600/unnamed+%25281%2529.png" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://jotosong.blogspot.com/2016/01/gateway-category-explanations.html">Gateway Game Index</a></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/135620">Buy Online</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11/bohnanza">Learn More</a></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-30299969863361059582016-02-21T20:36:00.001-08:002016-02-21T20:36:24.589-08:00Dominion<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs9r32FbPGe7Viw-cZwJXteR5sxJLUScZZX9Mbq9fpIC_PmlHUaNd_hQauSQ2OR6M0i9xjRkzj13o-ZIAJJPrmITdar5zl9yqzVIUKU8r02XefujyycH6DVduIi6WZnfYSMXL9frgUooY1/s1600/IMG_0005+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs9r32FbPGe7Viw-cZwJXteR5sxJLUScZZX9Mbq9fpIC_PmlHUaNd_hQauSQ2OR6M0i9xjRkzj13o-ZIAJJPrmITdar5zl9yqzVIUKU8r02XefujyycH6DVduIi6WZnfYSMXL9frgUooY1/s1600/IMG_0005+%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Dominion Storage System</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.6667px;"></span></div>
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Dominion takes the concept of building a de<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">ck and makes it into a game. Way cooler an invention
then figuring out how to slice bread.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Rio Grande Games</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.6667px;">Donald Vaccarino</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Each game of Dominion
is a puzzle: Which cards should you buy,
and in which frequency to make the most efficient deck possible. Then when to switch to buying victory cards
which are worthless in your deck, but do make you win.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most of my Boston
gaming life, and a good deal of my social circle, can be traced directly to my
first game of Dominion. Which means that
I would really be thankful for Dominion even if I didn’t like it, but Dominion is my favorite game. I have always loved building decks and Donald
Vaccarino built a game that revolves around it, which is incredibly elegant yet
dynamic. Cards that are worthless in one
setup, can be incredible in the next.
With expansions there are trillions of game setups that can be used, yet
the game has and needs no errata. There
have been many copycats of Dominion, but playing them mostly makes me wonder
why I’m not playing Dominion instead. I
don’t get to play it as much as I used to, but I’m always happy to play. In fact, I run periodic tournaments for it,
which are mostly an excuses to play a full day’s worth of Dominion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">*Conveniently named Periodic Dominion
Tournaments</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt;">Magic or other </span><span style="font-size: 12.6667px;">collectible</span><span style="font-size: 9.5pt;"> card games. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The basic rules of
Dominion are pretty straightforward, though the timing of when you do things
can be a little confusing if you haven’t played similar games before. Most of the complexity is in what cards you
use (you pick 10 kingdom cards to play with each game), so you can choose how
difficult you want the game to be. There
is the added difficulty that after you learn how cards work, you will likely be
using at least some different ones in the next game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How much do you like
shuffling? If the answer is constantly
you are in luck. Expansions add some
more little shiny things to play with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As much as I like
remodeling villages into mines, Dominion is one of those theme in name only games. Reading the thematic text in the rule books,
though is highly amusing.</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2-6 though I wouldn’t
recommend 6. It varies depending on
cards used and player’s analysis paralysis tendencies. Let’s say 20-45 minutes with perhaps another
10 minutes to setup and take down the cards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>I am morally obligated
to buy every Dominion card ever made.
Your god may not require such an obligation, but still having an
expansion or two will greatly increase replay-ability and strategic depth. The base games is not as well balanced as
future sets, which allows for some boring strategies to prevail. Basically any expansion fixes this problem.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Intrigue: The first expansion and the only one to
include all the base cards, which allows it to be playable out of the box. When combined with the base set it allows for
up to 6 players if you want (you don’t). It adds interactivity which is good, but some
of that comes in crippling attacks, which can be less enjoyable. It also introduces cards with multiple
choices. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seaside: Seaside
provides cards that affect the current turn as well as the next, called
duration cards. Once you understand the
duration mechanic, the cards are simple to use. If you are going to get one expansion, this
is the one I’d recommend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Alchemy: The most controversial expansion, Alchemy is
a mini-expansion that provides another currency called potions. It features
some powerful game changing cards, though the changes aren’t always fun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Prosperity: Essentially, Dominion on steroids. Prosperity
lets you do insane things as you go for platinum and colonies. It is great fun, though you will probably appreciate
it more if you play some other sets first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cornucopia: A mini-expansion that encourages variety, so it’s
good if you are the type of player who likes to try everything.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hinterlands: Has cards
that have an effect when acquired. This
originally was going to be a starter set, so the cards are on the more basic
side.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dark Ages: The last expansion designed before Donald
Vaccarino was done. It is filled with
cards that change into other cards or have trash or upgrade related
effects. And Rats. A huge set and a fairly complex one, so
including them can slow the game down dramatically even for experienced players.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Guilds: Designed before Dark Ages, but released
after, guilds is a mini set that features cards you can overpay for and cards
that let you save up money. It is fun, but
the fact that you can pay any number for specific cards greatly increases the
amount of options.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Adventures: The first after Donald Vaccarino decided he
wasn’t actually done making Dominion Expansions. Donald originally planned on making Dominion
spinoffs, but mostly gave up on that idea.
Instead he threw everything in here.
This is the kitchen sink expansion.
Fun, but probably not for a new player.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Base Cards: The money and victory cards of dominion with
alternate art. These allow multiple games
to be played by different groups simultaneously, or for the expansions to be
played without first acquiring the Original set or Intrigue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Promos: A half a dozen
or so other kingdom cards. I especially
like the black market, though it is a pain to setup.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.6667px;">There are hundreds of deck buildings game now. With few exceptions, when these other games, I wonder why I'm not just playing Dominion.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Choose a simple set
that has a little of everything. Try the
crazy strategy you always wanted to try rather than the most efficient. Avoid buying devastating attack cards. Buy cards your opponents aren’t to show how they
work. Try not to end the game before
opponents’ decks can get going.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once upon a time there
was a website named isotropic. It was
free and glorious and I spent countless hours playing thousands of games
there. Then it went away and was
replaced by something less free and far less wonderful. To give you an idea of the problems, in the current app, which has been years in the making, you have to purchase in-game currency to buy expansions, but the units of the in-game currency you can buy do not match expansion prices, forcing you t overpay already ridiculous prices. Of course if the product was good, I'd pay whatever the cost. It is not, it is terrible, lacking standard features like ability to play offline. Thus ended my online play of Dominion. There are some knock off apps (Android has a
pretty good one) to hold you over until the Dominion license reverts to someone who knows what they are doing. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.miniaturemarket.com/zmg71100.html">Buy Online</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.miniaturemarket.com/rgg370.html">Learn More</a></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><a href="http://dominionstrategy.com/">Dominion Strategy</a></span><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
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Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1897860228882654166.post-13419646882803617142016-02-14T16:32:00.001-08:002016-02-14T18:18:10.186-08:00Pandemic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hvE69hjs-dD3cw92CB7vNELZEe8vnPmFx8-CsZ2g_gAxyHiHQCyDd1hSkF7h1nVQ6OssofsYypRyHLeKTVWsTXi_UG853KLyJMm9DbN9-5MxFI3iLjev8GR75JFRpLcwb3AT_kqivOMS/s1600/IMG_0002+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-hvE69hjs-dD3cw92CB7vNELZEe8vnPmFx8-CsZ2g_gAxyHiHQCyDd1hSkF7h1nVQ6OssofsYypRyHLeKTVWsTXi_UG853KLyJMm9DbN9-5MxFI3iLjev8GR75JFRpLcwb3AT_kqivOMS/s1600/IMG_0002+%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like a good time to go on long trip to Asia</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Or as it is referred to in
our household, “World Go Boom!”</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Pandemic
is co-op game which means all players are on the same team trying to defeat the
game itself.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">It is good for individuals
who are not that competitive or those that want to join a mob to strike down
colored cubes.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Publisher:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Z-Man Games</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designer:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Matt Leacock</span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Elevator Pitch:</span></span></b><br />
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<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">There are diseases spreading around the world that threaten humanity. That is bad. Mostly. Like 99.7% bad. Your job is to, with your fellow players, race around world slowing down the spread of the diseases while also developing cures. Cure all four diseases before any number of bad things happen you win, but if too many outbreaks occur, one disease gets to prevalent, or you run out of time, you don’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Personal Impression</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">One of the things I
like about games is that give a focus to my competitiveness. While I have developed a number of rivals and
frenemies over the years, not everyone wants to be cutthroat. And as experience has shown me, crushing my
wife at games is definitely not worth the long term consequences. Pandemic and other co-ops allow me turn that
competitiveness away from my opponents and on to the game itself. While there are a lot more co-op games out
there now, Pandemic remains a star.
Highly thematic and engaging, you are filled with tense decisions as you go
from coasting along, to utterly hopeless and back again several times throughout
the game. Variable player powers and
card randomization allow each game to feel different with expansions adding
even more variety. </span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Good for People who Grew up Playing:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Team based games and
sports.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #222222; text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ease of Learning:</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Pandemic is on the
more complex side for a gateway game.
Some of the game play steps, like shuffling used cards and putting them
back on top of the deck, are unusual if you haven’t played this type of game
before. Pandemic also has a very tight
rule set, so one mistaken rule can cause the game to be super easy or
impossible. On the bright side, an
experienced player should be able to take care of the setup and game flow,
leaving new players only to worry about what actions they need to take, which
is pretty straightforward.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Fidgety Index<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">There are lots of
cubes though they aren’t too interesting to play with. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FKtJM3j4LVgvfN69x-mjX-kwZh7FNDY2wr77Uug-TJ8b-x6q5xEkgeb4ptLnmE7Bj88h2Bkmfc4y48CCeOKtiM1ZDbveAFO8LiMAwAMB6NKK-9AZG2uXMQ0euHN8s8G_03ZeTyTNIYUj/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FKtJM3j4LVgvfN69x-mjX-kwZh7FNDY2wr77Uug-TJ8b-x6q5xEkgeb4ptLnmE7Bj88h2Bkmfc4y48CCeOKtiM1ZDbveAFO8LiMAwAMB6NKK-9AZG2uXMQ0euHN8s8G_03ZeTyTNIYUj/s1600/unnamed+%25287%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Universal Theme:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Pandemic oozes
theme. You can feel the pain of the poor
infected people of Santiago as you leave them to die lonely deaths while you take care
of outbreaks in Eastern Europe. Plus
there are vials! And petri dishes!</span></div>
</div>
</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Player Count and Length:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">2-4. Fine in any count, but it little more difficult with more players. Game lasts about
an hour and a half, but it can be much shorter if you die horribly early on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Expansions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Pandemic expansions are mainly modular, which
lets you pick and use the parts of them you are interested in and ignore the
rest.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><b>On The Brink</b> adds
purple cubes which can be used for game variants. We use these occasionally to change the game
up and increase difficulty. Mostly
though we use the new roles and events of the expansion to increase variety. Brink also adds rules for a bio-terrorist who
plays against the rest of the players.
For us this changed the feel of the game too much to be worth using. Finally, it includes rules for 5 players.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><b>In the Lab</b> takes the
very simple cure action of the base game and makes it much more involved. It makes the game even more thematic and
allows for some tough decisions, but the added complication might scare off
players. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><b>State of Emergency</b>
adds some more challenging ways to play.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Spin Offs:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><b>Forbidden Island</b> and
<b>Forbidden Desert</b> are similar games to Pandemic also designed by Matt Leacock. They are in many way simpler versions of
Pandemic which makes them good introduction games for children or non-gamers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><b>Pandemic Contagion</b>
lets you play as the disease trying to wipe out humanity. It is the only Pandemic game not designed by
Leacock and thus the most different.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><b>Pandemic the Cure</b> is a
dice version of the game. It is more
portable and faster to setup and play.
It is more random than its big brother diminishes the Alpha player
problem. Highly recommended.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><b>Pandemic Legacy Season
One</b> is the newest Pandemic game. The
game comes in two versions, red and blue.
They are different in that one has a red box and one has a blue
box. A legacy is a game system in which your
actions in one game affect future games.
You play a series of 12-24 games with a narrative that ties them
together. There are hidden elements of
the game that only get revealed when certain conditions. Thus far the game is wildly popular, reaching
the status of number #1 rank on board game geek. We are currently in August of our campaign, and
while my personal ranking doesn’t have it quite that high, Legacy adds a
compelling narrative arc and many surprises to an already great game, so there is little
to complain about.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Introducing the Game to New Gamers: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">Most criticisms of
Pandemic revolve around the concept of the Alpha player. An alpha player is a person when the most
experienced or aggressive player at the table tells everyone else to do. Since in Pandemic everyone is one the same
team and there is little player specific hidden information, it is susceptible
to this problem. Thus your job as a
teacher is to make sure everyone makes their own decisions, even if they are
suboptimal. You can provide options or rationales,
but do not tell players what actions they must take. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Apps:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;">There is an ipad version
of the game, which is okay. The graphics
and mechanics are fine, but it doesn’t give me the same excitement to beat it as
when it is on the table.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkiycMCt9SAPMKZexzXXnT_xCveOgNNz9NudZ7AG9frZvqwim6yfbhL9EChsfm0tuoTh9EwOes2nLbr17RfBRKg-w6UKX2vbi-xK-ACvYNx5oY442f21D1thQylOjcaru72bpdzU-lmXb/s1600/unnamed+%25288%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12.8px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkiycMCt9SAPMKZexzXXnT_xCveOgNNz9NudZ7AG9frZvqwim6yfbhL9EChsfm0tuoTh9EwOes2nLbr17RfBRKg-w6UKX2vbi-xK-ACvYNx5oY442f21D1thQylOjcaru72bpdzU-lmXb/s1600/unnamed+%25288%2529.png" /></a></div>
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<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Links:</span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.miniaturemarket.com/zmg71100.html">Buy Online</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic">Learn More</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
</div>
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Hawkeyeophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18424259754738064936noreply@blogger.com0