Nothing But Games (...well almost!)

Summer Movies 2008 - Iron Man

2008-05-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

1 Down, 9 to go.

Of course I'm talking about this year's batch of highly anticipated movies for the summer and I just saw the first of them - Iron Man.

Ever since I first heard that Robert Downey Jr. was set to play Iron Man, I've had very high hopes for this movie. As a kid, I always thought that Iron Man was one always one of the cooler superheroes, right up there with Spiderman, Batman and Superman. I think that the key to a successful superhero film is how popular the comic character was to begin with. It's no surprise that Batman and Superman were probably the two most popular comic superheroes back before any movies, with Spiderman a very close 3rd. These 3 made up the "A" list of characters, while Iron Man, Wonder Woman, the Flash and Captain America were probably more of the "B" list type. Finally you have characters like the Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider that lead the "C" list in terms of popularity.

Where a character's popularity initially lies is a key to understanding how well it's chances are that a big screen adaptation will be successful. You only have to look at the big three of Batman, Superman and Spiderman to see the truth in that, while movies like HULK and The Fantastic Four have been either total flops or acceptable popcorn faire.

I'm very happy to report that the new Iron Man movie is definitely more like the Spiderman movies, than the terrible and misguided HULK disaster in terms of entertainment value and appeal. Iron Man was an exciting 2 hours of fun, laughs, cool special effects and a solid story about the origins of Tony Stark and his unorthodox superhero.

Robert Downey Jr. as the playboy Tony Stark was an inspired bit of casting, as Downey's own personal demons seem to be mirrored perfectly in his characters. Instantly likeable externally, yet distant and destructive internally, Downey nails the complexities of the character by filtering his acting through his own personal experiences of destructive tendencies and behavior. You can't help but root for him early in the film, even though you already know he's on a downward spiral. This only makes his later change in behavior more satisfying and the specifics of how he becomes Iron Man are explained in a level of depth and detail comparable only to what was seen in the early Superman films as well as the more recent Batman Begins.

I won't discuss any of the plot here or give away any spoilers, I hate when that happens to me and I'm not going to ruin your movie experience by doing that myself. All I can say is go see it SOON, before you hear too much about it (good or bad) so you can judge for yourself it's merits.

One thing I will recommend you doing is to STAY THROUGH THE FILM'S CREDITS at the end! You will not be disappointed.

With IRON MAN now out, the summer movie season has now begun and I'm anxiously awaiting to see these films:

May 9th Speed Racer
May 16th The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
May 22 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
June 13 The Incredible Hulk
June 13th The Happening
June 20th Get Smart
June 27th Wanted
July 2nd Hancock
July 18th The Dark Knight

See you at the movies!

Perfect 10's (Part 1)

2007-10-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Having been able to play a few of my most highest rated games over the past 2 months or so has led me to contemplate if they are still worthy of the "10" that I've given them at BBG. I'll attempt to evaluate them on how I feel about their merits TODAY and not let nostalgia or any other bias cloud my judgement.

First up: Colosseum - last played on 09/01/2007

Colosseum is still the new kid on the block. I played it an awful lot when it first came out and got all my family and friends hooked on it. I can specifically think of 3 people who I have directly influenced to get the game. Colosseum has many traits of other successful Days of Wonder games like Ticket to Ride, Memoir 44 or Cleopatra:

1. Its an easy game to play
2. The production values are very high
3. The game experience is varied enough to warrant repeated play
4. It's very fun to play - even if you are losing.

That being said, it's been 6 weeks since it hit the table and I find myself wanting to play something else when given the opportunity. That right there should be a warning sign, but I really think that it's more of a dynamic of the past few game nights than anything to do with the game itself. Lately the CVW has steadily been having 8-10 players show up for game night and I've been lobbying for games where we could all play at once as opposed to breaking off into two smaller groups. We had an 8 player Circus Maximus game a few weeks ago that was a lot of fun. We don't get the opportunity to play with that many very often and it was every bit the blood fest we expected and I loved it - even if I don't rate Circus Maximus higher than Colosseum.

The following week I pushed for multi player B-17 - as we had another group. Again, lots of fun was had from a game I rate lower than Colosseum - but the dynamics were just right to play B-17 on that night and we seized it.

Time will tell here. I think I'll need a few more games under my belt before I can tell if I've had my fill of Colosseum, or we've just had some unusual opportunities arise at game night.

Next up: Fury of Dracula - last played on 09/07/2007.

Where as I may be a little ambivalent about Colosseum, I'm 100% certain of my 10 rating for Fury of Dracula. I have yet to have a game of Fury od Dracula leave me wondering if my rating was too high or if I should re-evaluate it.

Fury of Dracula succeeds on many levels for me. The hunt/search mechanic feels as if it was designed specifically for Fury of Dracula - even if it has been used in other games before. The fantastic artwork and components enchance and enrich the immersive theme of traveling through old Europe as you conduct a desperate hunt for a nefarious villain. It is fun to be either a Hunter or Dracula, as each task has it's moments of tension, cunning and satisfaction when things go your way.

Update: - last played on 10/26/2007

As predicted, Fury of Dracula was played last Friday - before I had finished this post. We had a full 5 player game - one of whom had never played before. It was an amazingly close game ultimately, although Dracula had a quick 3 point lead after the first day had passed. It came down to the wire with us hunters emerging victorious after a very close pursuit across western Europe.

This game still does it for me completely. It is engrossing thoughout the entire game and even with 5 players, you never feel as if you are waiting for your turn. Still a 10.

I'll cover a couple more of my current games raed a ten in the next update... Seeya then!

Land Ho!

2007-08-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here are those pictures I promised...

"A Great Black Ark of Naggaroth waits in ambush for the Imperial fleet."

"A Bretonnian patrol along the coast of Sartosa and Pirate's Cove."

It's been very slow at work for me lately so I've had a little time to catch up on some scenery projects that have been gathering dust for a year or so. The top picture shows some Chaos scenery that I've had for a long time that has been used in many, many games. It is stored in a plastic tub and has taken a fair amount of abuse over the years. With my Man O War O Rama coming up in just over a week, I needed to spruce up this scenery and get it up to par with the rest of the stuff I'm using.

Luckily, this was very easy to do. Black spray paint to touch up the worn corners, a little white latex paint for the highlights, re-glue some of the lichen and VOILA! - it looks like new again.

This is the same photo as above - before I Photoshopped it.

The lower photo shows some brand new scenery that I've added to the mix. I uses to have a piece of scenery that had a sheltered cove in it similar to this one, but it was very thin and flimsy and the two "arms" that made the cove broke off and I eventually tossed the whole thing. This scenery was made with 4" thick solid Styrofoam and it is very strong.

The process is very simple, but a bit time consuming. I start by carving the foam into the basic island shape with a hot knife. I've never had good luck with the electric wire type so I have an old wood handled long bread knife that I just lay on the stove burner or the BBQ grill to get hot and carve a bit at a time until the knife starts to cool.

The contours and cuts make this island appear to be very real.

After the basic shape is cut-out, I use the knife to make contours, depressions, hills, valleys, cuts and other shapes to make it look like real land. For cliff areas, I'll cut in a near vertical line so they can be very steep and convey the right look. After all the carving is done, you get various types of glue - such as contact cement or model airplane glue, and brush them on to eat away at the Styrofoam and create irregular patterns. I do this on the cliff faces mostly as I want some really random rock formations. Once that is done, use a diluted mix of white glue and spray the whole thing to provide a protective coat so the spray paint won't eat through the Styrofoam as you try and paint it. (You can also you a neutral color latex house paint, but that takes longer and it hard to get into all the nooks and crannies). Let the whole thing dry for a few days before you start painting.

Painting is the easy part. Pick the darkest color overall and coat the whole thing. Once that dries, add other layers in specific areas to give different effects. New layers should be lighter in color and should be "dry brushed" on to let the previous layers show through. For my cliffs, I'll spray paint black into all the holes created by the glue, then dry brush the base color and all successive colors on top of that.

Most of all, EXPERIMENT! I had some 'textured' paint in a gallon can that we didn't use in a house project and I ended up using it as one of the upper layers. It looks great and added additional texture (from the sand granules in the paint) to the overall look that looks fantastic.

You'll then need some Model Railroad scenery items. I use "Talus" and Bird cage gravel to simulate large rocks and smaller boulders. You'll want various colors of lichen (for trees) and a bunch of colors and sizes of ground foam to cover the terrain.

This part goes fast. Pick the spots to place the largest pieces of Talus and use drops of white glue to sit them in. Don't worry about being neat. User finer Talus (it comes in several sizes) around it to show boulders - just drop these over the large pieces of Talus you placed. Don't worry about the glue just yet. Finally grab a pinch of the bird cage gravel (or fine playground sand) around/over this whole area and then do the next one.

To secure everything, you'll need two sprayer bottles - one with a 50/50 mix of water and white glue and the other with plain water. Spray a light mist of water first to just make everything damp - you are only trying to make it slightly wet so the next step flows everywhere. Next, spray the diluted glue over all the "rock" that is lying there, making sure it has soaked all around it. All the water evaporates and the glue remains to lock it all in place.

Use this same process to do all the ground foam. DON'T BE NEAT! Just use pinches of ground foam over the wet/glue areas and mix and match the colors however you want. Spray the whole thing again with the diluted glue and then add clumps of lichen in drops of full strength glue to finish it off.

A better view of my Chaos scenery - with weird steam vents (seashells mounted on Styrofoam and painted).

This is a great way to make lots of EASY, nice looking scenery.

Have fun!

Man O War O Rama - ConQuest SF 2007

2007-08-21T23:10:00.000-07:00

In just two short weeks, it's time for another fun-filled 3 full days of gaming for me. ConQuest SF will be August 31st through September 3rd at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel. I plan to be there from Friday around 12 noon through Sunday evening.

As usual, I'll be running a game - and as usual for ConQuest, it will be Man O War. I'm trying something different this year. Usually I create a special scenario for 6-8 players that runs from 6-9 hours and seldom gets finished - even with me speeding things along as the Game Master, but this year will mark the first ever Man O War O Rama!

What the heck is a Man O War O Rama you say? Well, I had a few specific goals in mind this year:

1. I wanted there to be more than 1 game.
2. I wanted the games to be 2 player.
3. I wanted the games to be fast.
4. I wanted to give the players the option to continue playing if they won.

So I decided to run 3 tables at once. Each table will have it's own scenery and will feature small fleets of up to 1000 points for each player. Games of this size should take 2-3 hours tops and some of the smaller games will be only around 500 points a side which should make them even faster.

Players will be given a similar sized random fleets (for balance) and turned loose at one of the 3 tables. I'm still working on the details, but so far I'm thinking it will work like this:

Points will be awarded by Battle Honors and you'll get the points you earned even if you lose. There will also be extra points for winning. If you win your game, you will have a good chance to stay at the table to take on the next player. A die roll will determine if you stay or go - players will roll a d20 and add in the Battle Honors they earned with the high roll staying at the table. If you are forced to sit out as a winner, you will be put into the rotation for the next available table and receive a few bonus points for having to wait.

This will continue for 8 or so hours at which time the person with the most points will be the winner and declared the "Best Admiral on the Sea of Claws". I'm hoping to be able to provide some sort of prize for the winner. Being this starts on Friday afternoon at 3pm and runs until 11pm, I'll have all day Saturday and Sunday to play whatever I want.

With all that in mind, I've been busy making some new scenery for one of the tables as well as touching up some of my older scenery as well. Making scenery is very therapeutic - it's been so long since I last did it, I forgot how enjoyable it can be. I'll add some pictures tomorrow of the work so far so you can get some idea of what the game is all about.

Until then...

Gaming Galore!

2007-08-06T22:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend turned out to be a great one for gaming - all in all I played 6 different games and one of those 6 was played 3 times.

It started off on Friday night, my sister and her family was possibly going to show up early for their weekend stay, but their plans changed and they weren't able to make it until Saturday morning. I still managed to get in a great game of Railroad Tycoon (RRT) with my wife Mary, my daughter Jenna and my friend Shawn. He had only played once before and Mary and Jenna a few more times than that. RRT is one of my Top 10 Games of all time and I really look forward to playing it every time. There is always a multitude of strategic decisions to be made and the game really captures the feel of the early Railroading Era well I think.

I also introduced my RRT Event Deck (see previous post) to the others and everyone really seemed to like it. Their response was enough to motivate me to finish up the 2nd RRT Event Deck and upload it to BBG - it's still pending at the time of this writing as it awaits approval.

Jenna and I tied for 1st place, although a minor error on her part on the last turn actually cost her some points, so it was really a victory for her as far as I'm concerned. Mary seemed to really enjoy the game too, which is very satisfying as her original response to the game was considerably cooler. I think she enjoys it more now that she is more comfortable with all the aspects of it and can just plan on a strategy instead of trying to remember how to play the thing. All in all, this was one of the highlights of the weekend for me.

Saturday my sister and her family arrived. After some lunch, shopping and chit chat, we sat down to play another awesome game of Colosseum. This game is continually a crowd pleaser and everyone was in it up to the final turn. My sister Jade ended up beating me by just a few points, but she had a good plan throughout the game and executed it perfectly. Ultimately the game came down to the Emperor being in her arena for the final show and not mine - which was only a few spaces away, just around the corner!

We had some unexpected company show up at dinner time and they ended staying late, so there was no big game, but Decio (my brother in law) and I managed to play 3 games of War & Sheep - a very underrated game on BGG if you ask me. This game has a lot of randomness to it from the deck of action cards, but the movement of the sheep and wolf is total strategy. I ended up with 2 victories to Decio's 1 and declared myself masterba aaaa aaa... um... the winner.

Sunday morning, Jade and I tried a game of Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation, something neither of us had played before. It was very interesting as the Sauron player has a completely different playing strategy than the Good player does. This one came down to the wire and Frodo made it to Mt. Doom just a few turns before the Shire was overrun.

Mid-day Sunday I convinced everyone to try another new game for us, Caylus. I had just played this the prior week at game night for the Central Valley Wargamers (The CVW) and I really enjoyed it. This was a good thing as the rulebook is a bit convoluted if you ask me and I was glad to have learned it the prior week. Teaching it to the family took about 20 minutes but I know it made more sense to them than the initial rule reading had made to me.

We jumped right in and played a couple of turns before everything became 2nd nature and then the strategies began becoming more and more obvious. Mary nailed this game as she had a lead from the midway point and never looked back. Even when she denied ending the game early from the provost moved back behind the bailiff every time on the last few turns, she STILL pulled ahead with continual points for more and more earned favors.

This one was a brain burner, but it is still very satisfying for a "Heavy" Eurogame - much like Die Macher is (which is another game I think they'd like).

Finally, we played a 6 player game of Citadels - this time with my daughter Kendra and my niece joining us. Kendra had several strong turns and quickly got to 8 districts ahead of everyone else. I think the next closest person only had 6 built. She also ended up having the most points and was happy to win the one game she played in all weekend.

The weekend was a tremendous amount of fun which is usually the case when my sister comes to visit. The kids get along great, the weather was perfect and the pool was warm. Having made gamers out of both my family and hers over the years, it was very satisfying to see that something I've always been passionate about has spread to the rest of the family and that they get as much enjoyment out of gaming now as I do.

Now to just get them interested in the German election process...

Scott

Home Grown Variants - a Hobby in Itself.

2007-08-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard of it, Boardgame News is another great site for information on the latest and greatest boardgames coming out in the near future. They also have a group of regular (and occasional) Bloggers there that comment on various aspects of the Boardgaming Hobby on a weekly basis.

One of their regular Bloggers, Kris Hall, sent me an email regarding a small expansion I made for one of my favorite games, Railroad Tycoon. He ended up doing a brief interview with me about it and it was posted on the site as part of an article he wrote about "Tinkering". Arkham Horror and War of the Ring were the other two games mentioned in the FULL ARTICLE that you should really check out as it was a very interestesting read.

With Kris's permission, I've reposted the portion that pertained to me below:

Enjoy!

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Kris: Just last week, I came across a set of Railroad Tycoon random event cards on BoardGameGeek that were invented by Scott Di Bartolo. These cards also try to create interest in the western area of the board by adding cubes there. They may also act as a subtle game-balancing mechanism. Because a card is turned up whenever the high-scoring player scores a multiple of ten, every player will probably have a chance to take advantage of an event card before the high-scoring player’s next turn. I haven’t played a game with these cards yet, but they seem promising.

I wrote to Scott to ask him about his variant. He was kind enough to respond.

Kris: What inspired you to create the RRT event cards?

Scott: My gaming group really took a liking to RRT and we played it pretty heavily for months from the day it came out. One thing that always bugged me was that there were large areas of the board that never were utilized for various reasons. Of course being on BGG all the time kept me informed about all the various ways people were trying to “fix” this issue, but one of the things I didn’t like about most of the methods were that they were then known factors and you could plan around them. What I mean by that is if you make a rule that makes Dallas a permanent Red city and you play that way all the time, the game is really changed at that point and the dynamics of people’s overall game strategy are very different. I typically don’t like to make house rules that fundamentally change the way a game is played.

There were a lot of various things that people had done at BGG to increase competition in the “dead” areas of the board and I wanted to incorporate them somehow without making them so people could plan on them occurring. This brought about the idea of an “Event” deck where every so often a card would be turned over that would have some small effect on the game. I took some of the ideas that others had posted and put them on a card instead—the Mexican and Canadian links are examples of that. The other card effects were ideas of mine that I thought would add some nice twists to the game. Having 1/3 of the deck have no effect on the game meant that the Event Deck would not drive the game as on average every third draw would not change anything. This reminds me, I really need to add some credits in the ReadMe file for those that came up with the rules that inspired certain cards in the Event deck.

Kris: Most of the cards place more cubes on the board. I could think of lots of other potential event cards, like discounts on purchasing track or train upgrades or building the western link. Do you think you’ll make a 2.0 version of the cards?

Scott: The various card effects were meant to mostly increase player interaction in the southwest and far northern areas on the board which are usually ignored in most games. In our games, Dallas has never been linked to, New Orleans very rarely and Duluth only if the Service Bounty came up. The Major Line card from New Orleans to Minneapolis never was awarded in any of our games—not once. Part of the problem is that the game can end too early as cube depletion occurs and people don’t have any incentive to build out into those areas before the game is going to end. I made a bunch of the cards simply add cubes to a group of cities in various areas—one of the two “Growth of the South” cards, for example, adds a random cube into Tulsa, Little Rock, Jackson and Shreveport. With that card, these 4 uncolored cities now look very enticing with 2 cubes on each of them instead of just 1. The other Growth cards also add cubes to the South(east), the North and the Midwest. Two new hotel cards also made these neglected areas more interesting and the unique thing is that the first person to BUILD to the city gets the card, not the one who draws the card. Adding more cubes is a simple way to extend the length of the game.

I also tried to add some cards that would help those NOT wanting to head into the south with things like “Bustling Economy” which adds 2 cubes to the red cities of Chicago, New York and Charleston. Then there are other cards that are beneficial to everyone like the “Empire Builder” card that gives everyone a 4th round to use in a turn or the “Stock Split” card that cuts Stock Certificate interest payments in half for the turn. That can be a real boon to a player struggling to get out from under his debt.

Dallas was a real issue, too, as there were many ideas being kicked around on BGG to try and make it a more viable option for people. I took the best of those and made three Dallas cards: “Dallas Metropolizes” (Turns Dallas into a Red City), “Dallas Urbanizes” (Dallas becomes a Purple City), and the “Mexican Link” (Free Urbanization and adds cubes to Dallas for each delivery made to Dallas). Then the problem was what happened if more than 1 Dallas card came up during a game? After much debate, the simplest solution was to treat any Dallas event cards after the first one as a “No Effect” card.

I had a long list of potential card uses and this first batch were the ones that I really wanted to see how they affected the game. I definitely have a bunch of other card ideas I have been kicking around.

Some of the better ones are:

Labor Dispute: Track Construction costs are increased by $1000 per hex this turn.

Boomtime: Track Construction costs are decreased by $1000 per hex this turn.

Westward Ho!: The cost for the Western Link decreases by $2,000 per turn from this point on. The Western Link may never cost less than $20,000.

Major Line: Dallas to Charleston: 10 Victory points.

The Depression: Remove two empty city markers from the amount needed to end the game. If this would trigger the end game, ignore this event.

Change of Management: The player who revealed this card may return his Railroad Tycoon Card to the deck and randomly draw a new one.

I have a few other ideas that still need a bit of tweaking, but there are about six others at this time. One nice thing about the deck is that you can print up more “No Effect” cards to change the ratio of how often an event takes place. Those that want a bunch of new stuff can simply remove the “No Effect” cards and you are guaranteed a new Event whenever someone gets to a multiple of 10 on the scoring track. Another interesting and very strategic option is to turn over an Event card at the beginning of each turn and the player that wins the bid can execute the card or simply discard it at his option (in addition to his regular turn). I’ve found that removing all the “No Effect” cards is a good way to use this option.

Kris: Have you made variants for any other games?

Scott: Yes. It’s a weird hobby of mine. I’ve made a few other variants for the games I enjoy playing. I made a Treasure Scoring Variant for Tikal where the type of treasure depicted on the discs determine the value of the treasure. This means that the “beaded necklace” is worth much less than the “Tikal Mask”. I believe I posted this variant in the Tikal BGG entry. The majority of what I’ve made is for my favorite game of all time—Man O War! I have created over 20 additional ships to supplement the various fleets—meaning rules, templates and the miniature to go with it, for each of those ships. I’ve also made lots of new rules for the game.

I’m also working on my own game from time to time. It’s based on a day at an Amusement Park and has elements of a lot of games that I enjoy in it. It introduces a new game mechanism that I have yet to see in any other game so I’m kind of proud of that. Unfortunately, I’m going to keep the details a secret for now, as people I have shown the game to think that it is probably a wise thing to do. I expect to have a prototype completed soon and then I’ll be playtesting it at the local conventions to see what needs to be changed or improved.

Thanks to Scott for answering my questions.

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I really enjoy all the Blogs at Boardgame News and the site has a lot of other neat features (Gone Cardboard is one of my favorites!). Be sure to head on over there and check out all the Blogs and other news that pertains to this awesome hobby of ours!

Until next time...

Scott

Never Underestimate the Power of Having Fun.

2007-07-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have allowed me to play some really great games that have just recently come out. One thing that I really enjoy about boardgaming is that there is always something new to try and buy - a characteristic of this hobby that from an outward appearance may seem somewhat detrimental (You have to buy another game? What's wrong with the ones you already own?), but in actuality, is a one of the reasons I enjoy gaming so much.

Case in point. Colosseum by Days of Wonder. I was at game night two weeks ago and John (the host for the meetings of the Central Valley Wargamers), pulls out this new game that I had passed over at the dealer's booth of DoW at Kublacon. It's not that the game had anything wrong with it at first glance, the problem was that I never even glanced at it as I was drooling over Battlelore and the Memoir 44 stuff they had out.

So John sets up the game and we go through the rules in about 50-60 minutes as none of us have played - not a problem for me, but some of the guys can't sit still for more than 15 minutes at a time without fidgeting and losing focus.

Most of us treated this as a "learning" game - meaning we know mistakes will be made and just go with the flow. We play the first 2 turns and everyone is kind of getting the hang of it when we have 2 other members show up and we decide to restart the game so everyone can get in. We pair up the two new players with a couple of us that just ran through the 1st two turns to explain as we go and we restarted it.

The 2nd game went really smoothly. Basically, you are collecting tiles (assets) to produce "events" for the nobles of Rome who are travelling around the board visiting different Colosseums throughout the city. There are assets like Gladiators and Chariots and Scenery and Animals and various other things that you bid on in groups of 3 and then have the option to trade away to the other players for items you need.

Each of the 5 game turns you can produce just ONE event which can earn you points and money to expand your Colosseum, buy bigger events, or build special features which can attract the traveling nobles more easily to your Colosseum.

Colosseum has some great subtleties to it and there are various ways to work strategies even if you don't have the optimum assets to complete an event. The really cool thing is that your score is not cumulative - your score marker only is moved pass it's current location IF the event you just produce scored higher than any of your previous events. This is usually pretty easy to do, but there are reasons not to score higher which you will discover through a few plays.

We found out we still had a rule wrong in this 2nd game (we were not allowing people to produce the same event again in a later turn), but everyone still was engrossed by the game and I'm sure it will hit the table alot at our CVW game nights.

The next day was a Saturday and my sister came over (a converted gamer of mine) in the afternoon with her family to swim and spend the rest of the day with us. Food was first on the menu, and everyone wanted something different so we split up into groups - she came with me because I had told her about this "great game" I played last night and we planned to sneak over to the local game store to see if they had it. She assumed it was a purchase for me and I was pleased to see that they had a copy and I grabbed it.

Once in the car, I handed it to her and said "Happy Birthday!" which caught her off guard. I could tell she was unsure about this blind purchase (for her anyway), but she was very gracious and said I had to teach it to her tonight before they all went home.

After dinner, I punched out everything and the four of us sat down to play. My wife, Mary HATES learning a new game, but I kept the explanation short and planned to just walk through a turn and let them catch on. I went first and we went step by step through all the phases and scored the first turn of the game. My brother in law Decio took and early lead, but everyone had a good grasp of what to do and the rule questions became fewer and fewer as the game went on.

My sister seemed to be falling way behind in the points, but she had a smile on her face regardless. Success I thought! Little did I realize how off I was.

We finished the game and an amazing thing happened. THREE of us tied for 1st place. My brother in law was in "last' place by just 3 points. Now it was about 10pm on a Saturday night at this point and they live about an hour and fifteen minutes away. I asked what the thought of it and all of them, my wife, my sister and my brother in law began raving about how much fun the game was. I was thinking to myself "This never happens on a first playing of a game!"

They sat there and discussed strategy and errors and new things they'd try for 15 minutes - all the while I'm putting the game away and smiling to myself. Then the big surprise occurred when Decio suggested we play again - right now. It was 10:30 at this point and usually he is the one that is chomping at the bit to get on the road because he hates driving at night. We always offer to have them stay, but they had to be somewhere in the morning at 9am. So he's pleading to all of us to play again and that he's willing to drink a bunch of coffee and drive home after the game so they can still make their son's soccer game in the morning.

Both my wife and sister immediately sit down and start setting up the game again. I was dumbfounded.

We ended up playing until 12:15 - this game went much faster now that we knew what we were doing and it was just as much fun as the first game. I managed to be the only one to produce a "mega" event and won the game by 10 points, but nobody cared who won and the table talk continued for another half hour until 1am.

They left close to 1:30 and I felt really good about the game as a gift - I was glad they both loved it and I knew that my nephew Zach (who had been working at couldn't come) was going to enjoy it too. The final part of this story occurred last Wednesday - not even a week since our games on the previous Saturday night.

I'm working on an report here at home when my phone rings. I look down and see that it's my brother - a big surprise since he rarely calls - even if it's an RSVP to a party or something. He is not a gamer at all - he usually avoids them like the plague, but recently, I have managed to get him to play (and enjoy) both Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride. He actually got both these games as Christmas and birthday gifts from me the past year too.

Our conversation went something like this:

"Hey Jon, how are you doing?"

"I'm good, but I need some help if you have a minute."

"Sure, what do you need?"

"Well... I'm looking for this game... it's called "Colosseum", and they don't have it here."

I don't think I said anything for at least 20 seconds as I tried to get over my shock. He had showed up at my sisters the past Sunday and they literally had to force him to sit down and try the game. He and my nephew Zach both got into it and they "worked" the trading phase ruthlessly - something they both excel at!

I ended sending him over to another game store I knew about close to his house and ended our conversation with a smile on my face.

There really is something powerful in these games. I've seen it.

A Recent Trend - Part 3 (the final part).

2007-05-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

The last two posts I've made were commenting on a trend I had noticed in my gaming habits a few weeks back. In the span of three weeks, I had played A Game of Thrones, then Fury of Dracula and finally Doom: The Boardgame - all Fantasy Flight games and all rich with theme. This week's blog is about the last of the bunch I played, Doom: The Boardgame.

Doom is similar to Fury of Dracula in that it pits several players working as a team against another lone player trying to thwart the groups efforts. In Doom, up to three players are acting as the Marines, and another player is controlling all the invaders. Like the previous games mentioned, Doom: The Boardgame is dripping with thematic elements and it has some similar elements to those other games that enhance the game play, increase the overall intensity and drive the game forward.

Doom is based on the series of computer and video games of the same game and the design is such that is includes rules to simulate the experience of playing a computer game. In most first person shooter computer games, your character typically has several "lives" so if you meet an untimely death, you don't need to start the game all over again. Doom: The Boardgame is similar in that aspect as collectively, the Marine players can die ("fragged") by the Invader player a total of 6 times before the game ends. Like the video game, a sound strategy is often to take a risky action - knowing you may full well die, as you'll be able to then come back - or "re spawn" as it's called, in a better location. Most of the time however, a Marine's death is something to be avoided at ALL costs.

The Marines start out in a single room and must slowly explore the adjoining rooms and corridors to find their way out of the current "level" they are on. Only the new areas they explore are added to the actual game board (along with any new creatures) - another feature taken straight out of the computer and video games.

In the Doom computer games, alien invaders seemingly appear out of nowhere, often from corridors that you know were all clear just moments before when you were in them. This creates a level of fear and uncertainty no matter where you are, as you know there is no safe haven until you reach the end of a level. This element also makes every action of the Marines a crucial one as time is always against you and standing around and wasting it is a really bad thing to do.

Doom: The Boardgame incorporates this thematic element very nicely through the use of the Invader deck of cards. The Invader deck has many cards with a particular alien creature on them that can be spawned by the Invader player on his turn. They can be placed ANYWHERE that the Marine players don't have clear line of sight to - which is usually everywhere else on the exposed map except for the current room(s) the Marines occupy. Half the excitement for the Marines is not knowing which direction they should head and what will be waiting for them when they get there. The Invader player also scores an additional frag each time he cycles through the deck as well.

The other half of the excitement for the Marines (and the Invader too actually), comes from the combat. The Marines are all unique, each having several special abilities (cards) that they receive at the beginning of the game. They may be able to heal fellow teammates, gain extra movement and combat dice or any other of a multitude of cool attributes that can help them defeat the Invaders. Giving each Marine a personality makes each game a different experience for the Marine players too. The dice used in combat in Doom are also very cool as a single roll determines the range, damage and ammo usage for each weapon in a very clever way. There is nothing like the adrenaline rush a Marine player can get as he takes down a huge Cyber Demon knowing that a miss would most likely mean he himself would get wasted.

There are also a lot of special tokens that are used to mark new weapons, ammo, keys, encounters and other fun items on the board. All of these things help to create the atmosphere of a claustrophobic and deadly Mars research facility that the Marines desperately need to escape. Fantasy Flight took some flak when the original game came out as it was touted as being way too hard for the Marine players to win most of the included scenarios in the game. The expansion addressed all of those concerns and added new monsters, corridors and optional ways to play to an already tremendously fun game.

Eventually, the Marine players will learn the layouts and key spots of the included scenarios and be more likely able to "waltz" right through the levels, but the beauty of the design is that the Invader player is free to create his own maps and create his own story line for the Marines to follow. This is very similar to your typical RGP (role playing game) and undoubtedly this design aspect will have crossover appeal to some of those RPG gamers as well.

All in all, Doom is a very solid entry into Fantasy Flight's "large" box line of games. It is an intense experience for both the Alien and Marine players due to the rich thematic elements that contribute to the overall experience. I definately would play it whenever I can round up 3 other players who are also looking for a fun way to spend 3 or so hours in an completely immersive game.

**************

So there ya have it. Three weeks, three theme heavy games. If I were to rank the games for my favorites, I would have to place Fury of Dracula in first place as it is extremely well done in all areas and the game play is like none other. Next, I would place A Game of Thrones just slightly over Doom and only because I absolutely love the source material for it. I ran two games of the 9 player variant for it - A Feast for Crows, over Memorial Day weekend and it was a huge hit. Doom: The Boardgame brings up a VERY close third position in the rankings but I can see that changing back and forth depending on my mood.

Hope ya enjoyed my insights, see ya next time!

A Recent Trend - Part 2.

2007-05-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

If you read part 1, you already know what this entry is about, for the rest of you here is a brief summary.

I noticed over the past few game nights that I have been playing games that are thick with thematic elements that drive the game. I'm talking about each game individually and discussing what about each of them is appealing to me.

Next up is Fantasy Flight Game's Fury of Dracula.

Fury of Dracula was one of the few games I've bought without at least seeing it played somewhere first. Of course I had read about it on BBG and the original game from Games Workshop has a devoted following that were also looking forward to this one coming out. I ordered it from Boulder Games as soon as they had it available and anticipated it being a good game. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be a great game.

The game pits 1 player as Dracula against up to 4 others who control the group of 4 hunters tracking Dracula across Europe as he tries to sire more vampires to dominate mankind. Dracula moves in secret using a deck of cards that correspond to every possible space on the board. These cards are laid out in sequence along the edge of the board - one card per turn (Dracula's Trail). As each new card gets added, the other cards shift to Dracula's right and the new card goes into the left most spot slot - which is Dracula's current location. Each turn, the hunters get to move individually to a new location as they scour across Europe to search for Dracula. If they end up on a space that is the same as one of the cards Dracula has already played on his trail, they have to resolve the encounter there before anything else occurs.

The encounters are actually small chits that Dracula can play from his hand on top of each card as he places that card on the board. Most encounters are only meant to hamper the Hunters, while a few of them are actually Vampires that Dracula is trying to mature to gain points. Whenever a location card is shifted off the board (as a new card gets placed), Dracula can either mature the encounter chit on top or place that card and encounter into the catacombs - meaning they stay active and are additional threats to the hunters if they land on them. Vampire chits that mature earn Dracula 2 points and considering he only needs 6 points to win, letting one mature is fairly risky for the hunters.

This is a really clever mechanism as Dracula is trying to stay one step ahead of the hunters and evade them long enough to mature Vampires as well as let enough time pass to gain points. The longer the hunters fail to sniff out his whereabouts, the more time passes and the more chance that one of the maturing encounters will be vampires and score points for Dracula. This cat and mouse game is what drives Fury of Dracula and it creates some of the most intense moments I've ever experienced in ANY game.

Thematically the game is even richer than A Game of Thrones is. There is a time marker that is half day and half night and Dracula is much stronger at night than during the daylight hours. The hunters desperately want to catch him somewhere when the sun is out and because of this, they often will overlook some key element when trying to deduce where he is, as they they know time is running out as Dracula gets an additional point for every full day that passes.

Dracula on the other hand, must use his cunning and stealth to avoid the 4 hunters as they track him down - he only wants to fight them in the black of night when he can use all of his devilish powers to weaken them. The momentum in the game is constantly changing back and forth in favor of each side and there has yet to be a game played that wasn't talked about for hours after it was all over.

The hunters have item cards they can collect and there is an event deck that can help both sides as well. The cool thing about this deck is that only the hunters ever draw from it - the deck is 2/3 cards for them and 1/3 for Dracula. The other really neat twist is that the cards are drawn from the bottom and any Dracula cards must be given to the count!

There are all kinds of card effects, some make Dracula reveal cards in his trail, other cards let each side gain allies (alter an existing rule), and others let Dracula slip through the hunters fingers to name just a few. The flavor text on each card is very appropriate to the card's effect and as the game is played, it really feels more like a fantastic story is being told than a board game being played.

For me, this is Fantasy Flight Game's best effort so far, BY far. My gaming group is a bunch of 30-50 year old men and it quite amusing to see them argue over who is going to play Mina (who can be hypnotized to reveal Dracula's location from their unholy blood link). The graphics and artwork REALLY contribute to the dark atmosphere in the game and FFG is to be commended for such a fantastic job.

I've played 4 times as Dracula and 3 as the hunters and I've enjoyed myself immensely each time. Our group leader ended up buying his own copy so he wouldn't have to depend on me to bring mine each time. Fury of Dracula is a great game that I can't recommend enough. As a matter of fact, last week Fury of Dracula was played again by half of our group while the rest of us played DOOM: The Boardgame.

Which is what the next entry is about. See ya then.

A Recent Trend - Part 1.

2007-05-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

Taking a look at my most recent played list over there on the right and you'll notice that for the past 3 weeks, I've been hitting the Fantasy Flight games pretty consistantly. First was A Game of Thrones, then Fury of Dracula, and finally DOOM: The Boardgame this past game night on Friday. One thing I realized that all three had in common was a heavy theme to each of them. I think I can safely say that this is probably my biggest draw to a new game - a good theme.

Of the three, A Game of Thrones is probably the weakest theme-wise, but only just barely. Set in the land of Westeros from the fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin, up to 6 players each represent one of the major Houses fighting over control of the right to be King and claim the Throne. The theme in this game is brought to life through the various abilities of the individual Houses. Each House starts in a unique area, with varying troops and resource, and each set of House combat cards are unique with different strengths, weaknesses and abilities.

There are a few other game mechanisms that contribute greatly to the implementation of the theme, most notably the gradual build-up of a threat of a Wildling attack, the constant struggle for better positions on the Game of Thrones track, and the use of the order tokens to hurt others and help yourself. The heavy politcal intrigue and backstabbing from the books naturally finds its way into the game during the brief impromptu, negotiation phase that usually occurs before everyone places their order tokens.

Although not required for enjoyment of the game, the enjoyment level soars to new heights if you have read the series as characteristics from the characters in the books inevitably get brought up and players will tend to make comments to each other in a context from the books.

"A Lannister always pays his debts" usually gets uttered after the Lannister player retaliates against some other players transgression against them. "Winter is Coming" is often heard from the House Stark player.

A Game of Thrones is simply a great game when you want some conflict, diplomacy, and intrigue all tied up into an appealing package that you can immerse yourself in.

REVIEW: The Settler's of Catan Card Game

2007-04-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

I found myself with some free time last Saturday and the wife and I decided to play the Settler's of Catan Card game - something we hadn't played in probably 18 months or so. I had purchased both the original expansion as well as the most recent one that adds a 6th theme deck as well as replaces a bunch of cards in all the decks to newer versions for clarity and improved game play.

I spent a few minutes replacing the affected cards in the main deck and then quickly perused the rules to re-acquaint myself with the way the game works.

Basically, each player has a series of small, square cards laid out in front of him that represent his principality. You have two settlements with a road in between and 6 regions that each produce a different resource based on the die roll. The regions get placed on the 4 diagonal corners to each settlement leaving a space above and below each settlement (and in-between each set of 2 regions) that is used to make buildings or add knights to each settlement.

Settlements can only have 1 card above or below them , cities (which like the board game are upgraded settlements) can have 2 cards above or below them. Also, the cards are color coded red and green and the red cards can only be built in the cities.

Each turn two dice are rolled, 1 production die (the number rolled determines which region in each player's principality produces a resource) and 1 event die (various things happen depending on who controls certain tokens or an event card is drawn from the stack between the players).

Resources are marked on the square region cards as a 0,1,2 or 3 and the card is simple rotated as the resources are gained or spent - very simple.

Finally there are 5 stacks of cards which contain all the green and red cards (buildings and knights) as well as yellow cards which can be used to directly hinder an opponent or help you in some way. Yellow cards once played are removed from the game.

The game is very similar to the Settler's board game as you collect resources from your lands, you build roads to expand your principality and you build settlements and cities to gain points (again 1 or 2 points like the original). The game is played to 12 points and there are certain buildings that will either give you direct victory points or will help you improve, defend or maintain your settlements and cities. There is no robber, instead one face of the event die is the Brigand Attack which means each player counts up all resources on all of his region cards - if you have over seven total, you lose ALL of your ore and wool! This is a little harsher than the regular game, but then again you are guaranteed a resource on every roll in this version too.

Trading amongst players is pretty non-existent, but that is OK, there is plenty more you need to concentrate on during your turn anyway.

Instead of the Largest Army or Longest Road bonuses, some buildings have a windmill (commerce) point on them and whoever has the most gains control of the Windmill Token which is also on a face of the Event die. Whenever it is rolled, the player controlling the Commerce token steals a resource from the other player. A similar thing happens with the building of the knights in the game except that now you are totally up their "Tournament Points" which is one of two values on each Knight card. Instead of stealing from your opponent you get a free resource of your choice from the "bank".

That's basically it. There are some other rules that don't come up a whole lot, but this hopefully gives you the general idea of the game.

Now about that game we played...

We both muddled through our first few turns as we slowly remembered how to play. Mary took an early lead as the resources she needed kept coming up on the die again and again. Yes, I was gaining resources too, but the "6th" resource in this version is gold which is pretty useless until you get certain buildings or until you have 3 to trade in. Guess which number kept coming up? Yep. I had a lot of gold that I couldn't use, while she received a lot of clay which is very useful early on. Within a few turns she already had 5 points to my original 2.

We also went without a 1 coming up for nearly 3/4 of the game (believe it or not!) - and since this was wheat for me, I was hurting! Mary was sitting confidently in the lead the entire game as I was playing catch-up from the very beginning. This game has plenty of ways to mess with the other player however - something which I really like in a 2 player game.

The yellow action cards can destroy opponents buildings, force knights to leave a player's principality, steal an opponents cards and various other things to hurt an opponent. When you initially start the game each player selects one of the 5 stacks of cards to pick the 3 cards they will begin the game with. You may look through the stack and take any 3 cards you want without disturbing the order of the cards. This method also allows you to see if what cards are in that stack as at the end of each turn you replenish your hand back to a minimum of 3 cards. Knowing what other cards are out there can be very important!

I was lucky to know that 2 of the 3 yellow SPY action cards (which allow you to look through your opponents hand and take any 1 card and use it) were on top of the stack I had initially picked from. As I replenished my hand, I grabbed both of these and waited for the right opportunity to use them (I had already built an Abbey card which increased my hand size to 4 so it wasn't like I was at a disadvantage in hand selection either).

I picked the prefect opportunity to play my initial SPY card too, as Mary had just drawn the 3rd one in the deck. I selected hers and then immediately played it to steal a 2nd card from her - much to her chagrin. I grabbed a high value Knight card and then was able to build it. This gave me more Tournament Points and I stole the Knight Token from her and tie her in Victory points at 9 each. I already had the Commerce Token at this point by the way.

The tension was building as we neared the end game and things were pretty even - although 2 of my points could be taken at any moment. I made a mad dash to build the last settlement hoping to get an even larger advantage on resource production, but Mary managed to get the resources she needed first and she built the settlement before I could.

The last few turns I did all I could with Action cards to try and slow her down, but she was able to rebuild a building that doubled all of her commerce points that were from her fleet cards which stole the Windmill Token from me and gave her the 12 points she needed to win.

This game is every bit as much fun now as it was when I first got it back in 2003. There are a lot of different paths to victory and the game play is fast - there is very little down time when your opponent is taking their turn. Some have criticized the game for being too long or for the lack of trading amongst players, while others have called it "multi-player solitaire" as you have few ways to affect the other player during the game.

I personally don't see most of these issues in our games - we took about 90 minutes to play and in the last 1/4 of the game the victory point tally went up or down each turn for one of us. Granted there is little or no trading, but there are other elements that make up for that that are not in the original game. The many different effects of the buildings give lots of variety to the game play and there are combinations of buildings that are very powerful if you are lucky enough to pull them off. I really think that being different in some aspects from the board game makes this version a better one in some ways.

All in all, the Settler's of Catan Card Game is a lot of fun and after a few games, players will have all their rule questions answered and be able to just play and enjoy it. Strategies will slowly develop and the many subtle tactical nuances will become more apparent as players become more familiar with the many different cards.

If you are looking for a great 2 player game with all the flavor and fun of regular Settler's look no further than this great alternative.

What to play? What to play?

2007-04-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

I've been itching to play a few games lately and I wanted to jot them down as a reminder to myself. The Central Valley Wargamers (The CVW) meets tomorrow nite, so maybe I can squeeze one or two of these in then.

I'm going to be running our 9 player miniatures version of A Game of Thrones at KublaCon over Memorial Day weekend, so a good practice game is in order to get my gamemaster skills up to speed so I don't make any major gaffes. We also need to figure out what else we need to do to finalize the props and miniatures in the game.

Since I also ran the above game at February's DunDraCon in Dublin, I did not run my usual Man O War game - and that will most likely be the case at KublaCon as well since Im only there Friday nite and Saturday. I need to get the CVW over here and run another MOW fest - last time I had 3 games going with 8 players - but its been at least a year since we played here at the house. I did run MOW last Labor Day at Conquest, but I do have the desire to take to the high seas and kicks some Bretonnian butt!

For some lighter fare, I have a few boardgames I wouldn't mind seeing hit the table. Fury of Dracula for one. The last two times I played, Dracula got away (and won) so I want to extract a little revenge. Doom is another Fantasy Flight game that I'd enjoy playing soon. We've only played a few times and it really has a lot of theme to it.

I recently played Die Macher at DunDraCon, so that's out of my system, but El Grande would sure be fun instead - maybe I'll bring it to game nite tomorrow. My sister gave me Taluva for my birthday and I have yet to play it and I ordered The Traders of Genoa (Finally!) with a birthday gift certificate that should make it here by tomorrow as well. It's too bad little things like earning a living and house payments get in the way of my gaming!

On a side note, I've actually slowed DOWN a bit on my BF 2142 playing time (see the last Blog entry below). I don't want to get burned out on it, so I have been not playing it during every waking moment of free time.

Decisions, decisions!

Digital Addictions or How I Became a 21st Century soldier!

2007-04-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

Wow. It's been MONTHS since I last wrote a blog entry here. Is there anyone out there who still may be reading this? Probably not, but that's ok, I'm going to post anyway.

So what has kept me from here?

Alot!

I have MANY, MAAAAANY interests. Boardgames first and foremost, but I'm also an armchair Model Railroader, Miniature's Painter, Web Surfer, Wii (and PS2) player, and a Computer Gamer. It's that last one that has been the big time hog lately - well, at least since Christmas.

My lovely wife and I were doing some Christmas shopping at Target just a few days before the 25th and we're walking through the video game section as we were looking for the latest discounted PS2 games to consider getting. We walked past all the computer games and I pointed out a few titles that interested me in case she was looking for something to get me for Christmas.

"Sid Meyer's Railroads looks good." I said, cleverly combining two of my interests into one potential present. "Uh-huh." she said as she kept on walking.

"Oh this looks good too!" I said as I showed her something she was sure to be more interested in. "It's the new Lord of the Rings game for the PC - Battle for Middle Earth II." "Don't you already have that?" she asked? "No, I have the original only." She still kept on walking.

Then I saw it. My enthusiasm must have registered within her as she stopped, turned around, and came back to where I was as I announced with a bit too much excitement "BATTLEFIELD 2142!!". I spent the next few minutes explaining to her how this was the new game that was from the same guys that did Battlefield 1942 (which I also loved). I didn't mention the disappointment that was Battlefield: Vietnam or the next one that I never got, Battlefield 2.

She looked at me with an amused look on her face and we continued on our way. So much for that, I thought.

Well, Christmas morning came and after all the mayhem I had all THREE games sitting there. Gotta love the wife. I was most interested in Railroads initially as the graphics are stunning and it really is like building and operating a railroad in miniature. That basically took me took the New Year and around that time I decided to try BF2142.

For those of you who have never played this kind of game, it's what is called a "1st person shooter", meaning your screen is what your man sees as he moves around the battlefield in real time. You move with the keyboard and look around and aim with the mouse.

Set in the future after a new Ice Age occurs because of global warming, BF2142 pits two factions against each other in the fight for control of the last few places on Earth that are still habitable for the planet's dwindling population. There are multiple maps that you play on that range from cat and mouse games on wide open plains and deserts to claustrophobic and intense firefights in abandoned cities that are now just frozen remnants of what they used to be.

As you play, you move around the battlefield trying to "capture" control points by moving within their vicinity and survive long enough to raise your flag. Once it's under your sides control, anyone on your team can "spawn" (come back if you are killed), at any spawn point on the map - which are always the bases your side controls as well as certain vehicles and beacons that your side has in play. This makes it convenient to get back into the fight quicker instead of always starting over all the way back at your home base. It is the fight for possession of these control points that is the meat of the game.

(All pictures are actual screenshots DURING GAMEPLAY and are not staged or doctored in any way!)

You have several styles of play available too. There is the standard conquest map, where each side controls one "uncap", or uncapturable base to start from and each has to take over the majority of the neutral bases to start their opponents "ticket" count to dwindle. Ticket's really just mean the number of times your side can die before the game is over. Each time you die costs a ticket for your team and if your side is losing on captured bases, they count down an extra ticket after so many seconds as well. Not good!

Assault maps have only one side with an "uncap" - they are the attackers, and the defenders control all the remaining bases. The attackers have more tickets initially, but the ticket count is already counting down against them as soon as the game starts. The attackers MUST gain control of a few bases very quickly or they may never catch up before their ticket count is expired.

Finally, there is the ultimate version of the game, which is new to this version: Titan Mode. Here the game play is two-fold and it is really where the game shines. Each side has a huge hovering ship over their end of the battlefield that acts as a hanger for their gunships and troop transports. The Titan is the only safe spawn point for each side as there is an energy shield that protects the Titan from all attacks that you can inflict upon it.

"What's the point then?" you might ask. Well, instead of bases to capture, there are 5 missile silos around the battlefield instead. They are indestructible and can be captured like a base can. Once you capture a silo, it will continuously launch "anti-Titan" missiles at the enemy Titan to continually pound on it's energy shields. They are the only thing that will harm a Titan while it's shields are up. Control the majority of the silos and the enemy Titan's shield swill drop before yours does. Once those shields drop, the game takes a dramatic turn.

The Titan is basically a huge hovering cargo ship/hanger with gun turrets underneath and anti-aircraft guns on top. There are 4 interior corridors that can be accessed from the cargo bay (which in turn can be accessed from one of the two landing areas on the rear of the Titan). These corridors contain the reactor consoles which protect the reactor core which is what is powering the entire ship. The 4 consoles must be destroyed to gain access to the reactor core and the very vulnerable main reactor. The consoles must be destroyed in sequence too, console 1 must be blown up to lower the shield to console 3 and the same goes with consoles 2 and 4. Once the final console is blown up, enemy troops have a straight assault to the reactor core itself.

Of course, that is easier said than done. You have to get up to the Titan to begin with and you have several ways to do that. You can fly a troop transport over and land on the rear flight decks - watch out for those AA guns waiting to shoot you out of the sky. You can also hop into an APC (All Personal Carrier) on the ground and drive it near the enemy Titan. Once close enough, you can launch yourself up in a self contained "Pod" that can be somewhat controlled to land up on the Titan! Then the fun begins...

The enemy team WILL have many men defending their Titan and their troops will fight you everywhere - on the flight decks, it the catwalks, in the cargo bay, in the access corridors and especially in the reactor core. This it where some of the most intense fighting (and gameplay) will occur. Some of the firefights that occur on the Titan's look like they are right out of a Hollywood movie. Oh and by the way... While you are trying to destroy the enemy Titan, they are doing the same to yours!

How does one make sense of all this during the game? What prevents it from being just a bunch of un-coordinated attacks back and forth that would quickly get old and boring?

BF2142 utilizes a command stucture during gameplay. Why run around and try and do everything on your own, when you can have 5 other guys helping you? Enter the Squad leaders. Each player can join up into an existing squad or make their own if they desire. Squad leaders give out basic commands and direct the squads to attack or defend bases and silos or simply to move to certain spots on the map. Members of their squad can '"spawn on them" so they can quickly get back into the fight in the right area if they die. Experienced squad leaders can also select special upgrades to further help his men.

Supervising the entire battle on each side is the commander. He has access to a special screen that allows him to scan the battlefield, drop supplies, order EMP strikes or orbital bombardments and give out orders to each squad as to where they are needed most. Commanders can also MOVE the Titan to pit the big behemoths against each other directly too. Most of these abilities are based on a physical structure at your home base (on the battlefield) that can be destroyed by the enemy. Luckily they can also be repaired!

A good commander can win the game for your side, a bad one can lose it just as easily. Commander's are selected by the game system at the start of each battle based on the rank of the applicants that apply for it. Ranks? Yes, in another brilliant twist to the game, players can earn "unlocks" - which are special items that can be selected for each of the 4 types of player "kits" you can select during the game. You earn points for kills, for following orders and you can also get various pins, badges, ribbons and medals during the game to further increase your score as you play. Initially, you start as a recruit and only have to earn 40 points to get your first unlock - and rank of Private. As you get better, the amount of points to get to the next level increases and it gets much harder to earn them . There are 51 unlocks available and almost as many ranks. Your rank is shown as a small icon next to your soldier as others on your team see your guy on their computers.

You can select one of 4 kits any time you die and are waiting to come back (you can also select a spawn point if you want to change where you'll re-appear).

You can select the Recon kit - good for snipers and demolition experts. This is a great kit when you want to take out the enemy's commander "toys" or better yet, the enemy consoles and reactor cores. Earn unlocks to get special items like a super sniper rifle, scope stabilizer and an "active camo" package to virtually make you invisible as you run across the battlefield!

The Assault kit, is the basic soldier kit who gets the best basic anti-infantry weaponry and the potential to earn some really cool stuff to make them like Arnold in T2. The assault kit also is the medic of the 4 groups and you can drop medical hubs to heal friendly players that are wounded for extra points (and even more if you heal fellow squad members!) Be sure to get the defibulator unlock to revive "dead" teammates before the have to repsawn.

The Engineer class is the best for taking down enemy vehicles. Specialized weaponry like anti- tanks guns, AA rifles, portable enemy vehicle beacons and motion mines (mines that CHASE enemy vehicles that move nearby!) are just a few of the cool unlocks for this kit. The engineer is also able to conduct in field repairs to just about anything that can take damage - vehicles, commander toys and Titan guns - all of which earns him extra points during the game.

Finally, there is the Support kit. This is a good all-round soldier that has good weaponry and the ability to supply fellow soldiers similar to the Assault kit with the medic ability. You can drop supply crates to re-arm tanks, weapons and other items that your team may need. Popular unlocks for the Support kit are the shotgun (one shot kills if you are close enough), as well as the portable enemy infantry scanner, sentry guns (drop them to automatically protect an area) and energy shields to block incoming small arms fire.

Each kit offers a different style of gameplay and you can change them on the fly during the game as your team needs or your desire changes.

Topping it off is the latest addition to the game - the $10 add-on called Northern Strike, available as a download only from EA games. This adds 3 new maps, another style of play called Assault lines (you can't capture the last enemy base unless you have ALL the others under your control), two new vehicles, and more awards and unlocks to earn.

Did I mention that although you can play this at home, the game is meant to be played online with as many as 64 players (32 per side) fighting it out at once in real time? EA games has a master server that you log into that collects data on your soldier during the game to track your points, rank, earned unlocks, and a bazillion stats to obsess over after you are done. The EA server lists all the current games being played on all the other official "partners" servers so you can jump into any game you want at any time - specifically to your desires at the time. Want to play a 64 player Titan game on the Suez Canal map? Click on one from the list. There are usually 3 to 4 HUNDRED servers going at any one time.

Your online profile also allows others to see how you are doing and you can have other players become your "buddy" so you can join them in a game when you sign on. You can send and receive messages - even during the game!

So there ya have it. This is the reason I'm not blogging as much as I should be, or why I've been absent at times on BBG. This game is like digital CRACK. I have several friends that I have got to buy the game and we get online nightly to play. There is a built in, IN GAME, voice interface so you can talk to your squad members during the game - they have really made this easy.

The graphics and sounds will put you in the smack dab in the middle of a futuristic war that will be unlike anything you have ever played! Go buy this game now!

By the way... Add me as a buddy... my nickname is DEATHnMAYHEM.

Conquest San Francisco 2006 (Fri/Sat Report)

2006-09-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been about a week and a half since I returned from Conquest SF over Labor Day weekend and I wanted to write down some of my thoughts and experiences for the 3 days I was there before they faded away. I was fortunate to be able to attend the con for most of the day Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday (well, until about 8pm actually).

First off, I want to thank some of the Conquest staff for getting my Man O War game into the schedule at the last minute. I realized that I had missed the deadline for GM submissions a few days after the cutoff and I sent a frantic email to Kevin O Hare asking about the possibilty of squeezing me in somewhere. Kevin was very helpful and assured me it wasnt a problem and then put me in touch with Maksim-Smelchak who was in charge of the Fantasy/Sci Fi miniatures games. "Max" went above and beyond the call of duty to fit me into the Sunday morning schedule. When I showed up, he gave me one of the most prominent tables at the entrance and then even helped me arrange the tables to suit my needs. Max is a very friendly fellow and he has a great Blog of his own at 6mm Minis. Stop by, check it out and say hi. Finally I need to also thank Kevin Ellingson as he read about my scheduling issue at BGG and sent me a private email making sure someone had helped me. Thanks again Guys!

I also found the staff at Conquest to be very helpful and friendly, everyone seemed to be having fun keeping things organized and on time for those at the con. Unfortunately, my impression was that attendance was down a bit this year for reasons that may be simple to explain (or not). The most obvious one was the closure of the Bay Bridge for earthquake retrofiting over the weekend. This probably scared away many attendees from the east bay (and beyond) and I can think of quite a few regulars I know from those areas that were not in attendance.

The bridge closure is only part of it I suspect however and the rest is purely speculation as to what the cause(s) were. I heard several people complaining about the high price of getting a spot at the flea market ($20 for a 10'x10' area PER day). Several sellers commented on this being their last flea market if that was going to be the policy next year. The other was the auction. I may be wrong, but I heard that there was a bigger cut to the con for items sold than in previous years, which also steered several of my local gamers away from bringing things to sell at the auction. The overall impressionI got from those buying/selling at Conquest was that it was no longer desirable to do so and the con had been turned into a money making venture instead of a gaming venue.

In defense of Conquest however, I think that at least they have the seller's in mind when scheduling the flea market(s) (even if overpriced) as there was one every night, unlike KublaCon over Memorial Day weekend, which from some strange reason picked Friday nite (late) as the only time for a flea market. Their thinking was to "reward those that came to the con early" and give people a reason to show up on Friday. As a seller, I wouldn't have been too happy having a limited customer base on the slowest night of the con myself, and I told some Kublacon staff members that are friends about my opinion.

At any rate, the flea market had a decent turn-out and my friends sold almost everything they brought, I just think that some kind of multi-day discount would have gone a long way to mend some of the ill feelings I observed about the flea market policies. Was this a reason for low attendence however? I doubt it.

Regardless of how many people were there, I still had a great time. I've been going to gaming cons 3-4 times a year since the last few years of Pacificon at the Dunfy Hotel and I have made a lot of friends and gaming aqquaintances over these past 12 or so years. It is great seeing them in a familiar venue and catching up on what they've been up to since I last saw them. In fact, most of my Friday night was spent being social and wandering the con talking to people I knew. I can't recall playing a single game that night.

I do recall having some appetizers and drinks with my friends John (from Modesto) and Kris (who works up at the Lick observatory). We sat in the lobby and yapped and drank and ate for at least an hour and a half. Good stuff.

Friday was for socializing... Saturday was for some games!

Having already perused the dealer's room on Friday night, I didn't feel the need to be there right at 9am when they opened again so I was able to check out some of the games being played. The Miniature's room always has a treasure trove of things to see and today was no exception. For the history buff, there were games of Flames of War, Brother Against Brother, Tactica and Fire and Fury (among others), while the fantasy and sci-fi buff could get into games of Starguard, Full Thrust, Babylon 5, Star Blazer and a large Warhammer 40K Tournament. I missed most of the start times being a bit late in getting up so I headed down to the Boardgame room to see what was goin on there.

Boardgames take up much less space and consequently there were a lot more scheduled for Saturday am. I saw games of Age of Steam, World of Warcraft, Caylus, a Diplomacy Tournament, a Victory in the Pacific Tournament, Shadows Over Camelot, Wellington, an on-going drop in game of Down in Flames, Advanced Civilization, Command and Colors Ancients, an Axis & Allies Tournament, and the game I ended up starting with, Thurn and Taxis.

Two other BGG'ers were playing, (both named Greg if I recall correctly) . I had seen both of them at the various cons over the years and the 2nd Greg had played in the HUGE Starship Troopers Miniatures game I was in at KublaCon. I really enjoyed getting to know them a bit more and I had a lot of fun even though I was trounced. Thurn and Taxis is definately one of those games I want to play again as there is alot going on and many ways to score points. After this initial game, I gave up my spot to watch them (and two others) play a game of Reef Encounter. I have this game and have attempted deciphering the rules a few times, but it REALLY is much easier to learn this from someone who already knows the rules pretty well - which Greg #1 did.

Reef Encounter made sense after a few turns and I think I could now get the game out and muddle through it well enough. Unfortunately, I was supposed to meet some friends and I couldn't stay to watch the rest, but they were having a good time when I left.

It was now about noon and I was supposed to go to lunch with some other members of the Central Valley Wargamers in attendance. John's game of Victory in the Pacific was taking a bit longer than he had expected so I went upstairs to kill some time while I waited. I came across several cool games being played in the open gaming area in front of the registration desks.

First up was a game of Firefly- the RPG. The guy running it had a very cool set-up with props, sounds, music, detailed maps, a 3-d deck layout of Firefly and miniature terrain for the planet. My wife is a big Firefly fan and I know she would have enjoyed playing in that one. I saw them playing for at least 6 hours that day but I think it must have been more like 10. They were having a GREAT time and whenever I saw them I thought that that was what game conventions were all about... passion for the games you love. The Firefly GM obviously loved the show and the level of detail he went to for the enjoyment of his players was astounding. I'm sure the game was the highlight of the con for most of them.

The 2nd game I saw that blew me away was simply a boardgame. Not just any boardgame, but a game of War of the Ring... FULLY painted. I'm talking detailed painting too - authentic colors from the movie, washes, drybrushing, the whole nine yards. I have painted a lot of miniatures for Man O War and I can appreciate how long it must have taken them to paint all those. It was definately a labor of love for these guys, but you could see how much it increased their enjoyment of the game. Many people came by while I watched for a few minutes and commented on how cool it looked. I wish I had taken more than just a few pics of it.

Actually there was a real cool 3rd thing too, The Battle of Squidway Island, a PIRATES! game by Flagship Games. Think "The Battle of Midway" with Dwaves, Orcs and Elves on large scale fantasy ships. This was both visually stunning and hilarious to watch. Check out these pics:

It's weird how time flies at the cons. One minute it was noon and I was just wandering about seeing all the cool things, the next it was almost 3:30 and John had finished his game. Bob (also from the CVW) joined us and we took a short walk down the street to The Elephant Bar for lunch and watched the planes land at SFO while we ate. I think Conquest is the best of the 3 major Bay Area Con's for local scenery - Kublacon is across the street btw , but you can't really see the bay or the airport at all.

Around 5:30 we headed back and realized it was nearly time for the Flea Market. John and Bob shared a booth and I helped them get set-up in the half hour we had. The Flea Market was fairly well attended and I picked up a bunch of stuff at fairly good prices.

We had all signed up to play in a Dune game at 7, but didnt make it in time because of the Flea Market. John and Bob went off to play other things and I hooked up with some other friends to play the classic Con game of all...Cosmic Encounter! Kevin had played before, but the two Andy's hadn't and I took a few minutes to teach them the game (I dont know what it was with all the double names in the games I played).

We used double powers (hidden until used) and ended up with a joint win between Andy 1 and I after 90 minutes or so. Feeling that they now had a good grasp of the game's possibilities, everyone wanted another game right away and we increased the number of Alien powers that were dealt to us to increase the chances to get some powers that would be really interesting. We got them!

If you have ever played CE before, you know that there are certain powers that are very powerful unless you have other powers to stop them. We had 2 of them. Void was picked by Andy 2 and he immediately started winning challenges and sending the rest of us to the Void. Luckily, Kevin had Silencer and used it effectively to limit Void's power as best he could. Andy 1 had Changeling which then confused matters more as he swapped for Void, who then swapped back as the game went on. My powers were Deuce (play a 2nd challenge card) and Sniveller (whine about being behind to catch up), which were fun, but not the kind of powers that the current owner of Changeling ever wanted. Ultimately, Void was in Andy 2's control most of the time and he and Kevin eventually made a deal to get a base for a base and win the game. The guys LOVED the game and asked me to bring it next time.

It was now about 11:30 and I wandered around the Con until about 12:15 before I headed up to the room to recharge for the night.

Overall, Saturday was a blast for me, not too many games played, but again, I hooked up with 3 different sets of friends and had a lot of fun. Sunday was to be my game of Man O War, and I'll detail that a bit more next time.

See ya at Dundracon!

Dead in the Water (Part 4 - Final) - A Man O War Session Report from KublaCon 2006

2006-08-15T23:44:00.000-07:00

(The following is PART 4 - the final part, of a session report of my Man O War game run at KublaCon 2006 over Memorial Day weekend. I took notes throughout the game and have converted those notes into a narrative to tell the tale of the battle. Individual turns are marked with the **** and I’ve tried to keep events chronological for the most part. Each paragraph is basically ONE ship's/squadrons battle phase and after all ships have gone the turn is over. Magic attempts occur at the beginning of each turn. I've tried to write it so it makes sense yet be chronological as this is the way the game played out. I hope you enjoy it!)

*****

I looked to the skies above the Black Ark as they suddenly grew ominously black and ice blue. The wind whipped my hair and I knew that foul magic was afoot. I dreaded what was most surely about to unfold, not for the sake of the evil spell itself, but for our lack of stopping it. Again, fate was kind to us as I watched the ominous portents in the sky suddenly dissipate harmlessly from my sight.

Sensing the battle would be decided soon, the captain of the Hellhammer flagship ordered all three ships to attack the Thunderfire Battlebarge in an attempt to finally sink the accursed ship. With a mighty roar the 1st Hammer hit home and tore 2 large chunks from below the waterline of the large ship. It almost immediately began to list to one side and I watched the 2nd Hellhammer close and fire. A great gout of water burst into the air and for a moment I thought they had succeeded in striking into the heart of the dark vessel, but the great cannon shot had gone wide and had just barely missed the aft of the barge. Unable to get a clear, shot, the 3rd Hellhammer skirted around the Wolfship blocking its line of fire and would have to wait for the right opportunity to catch its prey.

Throughout the battle, there had been a small, strange ship staying close to the rest of the Undead fleet. Being mostly a small barge with a few small towers on it, it appeared to have no weaponry, and had pretty much been ignored throughout the fray. As the ship began to pulsate in an eerie green glow, I feared that our inaction was going to be regretted – and soon. The green glow increased in intensity and it began to coalesce into a large upright image that towered over the seas. Each passing moment made the image clearer and clearer until suddenly we were looking at an immense skull that was as tall as the masts of my very own Wolfship. Even though I was far from the terrifying sight, it took every ounce of my courage to stand my ground and continue to fight. The green grinning skull seemed to be looking directly at ME and followed my every move with its black, empty eye sockets. This was dark magic at its worst and I knew that any closer ships in its line of sight would be hard pressed to do anything but cower in fear.

Ordering the Wolfship squadron into action, I quickly devised a plan to take advantage of our situation. With the Wolfship Alliance without any cannons left to fire, I ordered her to close on the Undead Specter, getting in as close as possible. Captain Midden rallied his crew and they were unaffected by the monstrous apparition, and moved into position. With the Alliance blocking our view of the Undead Specter, my crew jumped into action as its effect of fear and terror only seemed to work if you could actually see the hideous thing. We headed straight for the Alliance, using her to shield us until the last possible moment. With a hard turn to port, our fore cannons found a more tempting target in their sights – the Thunderfire Battlebarge!

We were at close range and I prayed that our shots would hit home. I heard the cannons roar and saw the shots tear into the main rocket tower of the black ship. With a huge explosion, the ship tore in two and lifted out of the water! Explosions continued to pulverize the ship and I knew that we had hit its magazine room where all the highly volatile fuel and warheads were kept. We didn’t even bother to look for survivors as the largest piece of debris was no larger than a powder keg. The crew cheered as we gained the upper hand.

Off to starboard, the Wolfship Justice dealt out pain and misery to not one, but two Thunder-rollers! Her fore cannons splintered the top decks of the first and the crew nearly mutinied before regaining their senses and returned to their posts. Then, her broadside cannons blew two large holes in the hull of the other Thunder-roller and within seconds, it slipped under the waves and went straight to hell.

Further behind the still flaming wreckage of the Thunderfire sat the Great Leveller and it slowly rotated until its immense gun was again aimed directly at us. Something inside told me that we were for this world for merely moments more. I saw the muzzle flash and a split second later I heard the deafening roar, but instead of striking the Royal Endeavor, the wreckage of the Thunderfire was reduced to even smaller bits as the shot deviated off our bow, missing us completely! I grinned in amusement as I pictured the fury that their captain must be feeling as he watched his crew attack us with such obvious impotence.

Our Dwarf allies quickly got off another round of cannon fire at the Black Ark from the Monitors, destroying a large tower filled with the ship’s rum stash and knocking some crew into the sea as well.

In an unusual lapse of judgment, the Necropolis moved too close towards our Elven and Dwarf friends and all the shots from the screaming skulls arced harmlessly over the Dragonship and Dreadnought.

Quickly taking advantage of that error, the Mighty Dreadnought turned in place and lurched forward as it massive ram crashed into the Undead monstrosity ripping at least 3 huge holes in the area below the waterline. Somehow the ship stayed afloat as the crew of the Dreadnought could only watch in disbelief.

Goaded by its Dark Elf masters high in the tower perched on his massive back, the Sea Dragon carrying the Death Fortress closed on the High Elf Eagle ship, its reaper batteries primed and ready to fire. Something was amiss however as the reapers remained silent even though they had the Eagleship dead in their sights. The Dragon unleashed it’s fury at the Elf crew, as it engaged in a deadly attack to try and kill the crew on deck. Several brave Elves were snatched by the beasts gaping jaw but the Elf crew beat the beast back and pushed the Eagle ship away from the foul creature.

Retaliating with the Hawkships, the Elf commander order the squadron to attack the Black Ark again and hit home with several direct hits as the crews did not flinch from the protection spell surrounding the hideous ship. A fire broke out from the attack and the mammoth ship began to burn heavily.In another surprising maneuver, the Undead Ghostship faded in and out of reality as it moved across the sea, but like the Necropolis, it moved too close to its targets and again the shots sailed over the relieved crews of the Dwarf fleet.

The small Nautilus silently slipped below the sea and headed at the Necropolis to try and put the cursed ship at the bottom of the Sea of Claws. Armed with a clockwork torpedo, it moved to nearly point blank range and fired the small projectile into the hull of the Undead ship. The torpedo hit the ship but was only a glancing blow, knocking the Undead Captain into the sea and the Necropolis had to make a quick turn to pick up the shaken commander.

The battle was winding down at this point and many ships were already heading away from the fray to head to safe waters, assess the damage and start repairs. In a final act of desperation, the other Death Fortress moved in close to one of the Dwarf Monitors, and was forced into making an attack from its cruel masters high in the tower. Apparently the beast had had enough however and it suddenly turned and sped to the nearby Deathship as it went out of control from the Dark Elves! It killed the lone crew and then suddenly plunged under the waves as it pulled the helpless Dark Elves down with it, never to be seen again.

With both sides retreating, I finally had time to assess the damage. Many ships had been lost on both sides and determining a victor would be left to the historians and politicians. All I can say is that we fought bravely and without quarter, for none was given to us. As this had been my first encounter with the Undead fleet, it was a victory of sorts for us, for valuable information was gained about the strengths and weaknesses of the strange, unearthly fleet.

We shall be prepared for revenge when we meet again.

GAMEMASTER NOTES:

This game came down to the wire and the final Battle Honor tally was 24 for the Good side and 23 for the Evil, hardly a major victory, but a win none-the-less. Everyone had a blast playing and it was a big crowd pleaser with all the ships on the table.

Another GREAT game of Man O War into the log books!

Dead in the Water (Part 3) - A Man O War Session Report from KublaCon 2006

2006-06-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

(The following is PART 3 of a session report of my Man O War game run at KublaCon 2006 over Memorial Day weekend. I took notes throughout the game and have converted those notes into a narrative to tell the tale of the battle. Individual turns are marked with the **** and I’ve tried to keep events chronological for the most part. This report is expected to be spread out over several parts and I will attempt to complete it all as soon as possible. Each paragraph is basically ONE ship's/squadrons battle phase and after all ships have gone the turn is over. Magic attempts occur at the beginning of each turn. I've tried to write it so it makes sense yet be chronological as this is the way the game played out. I hope you enjoy it!)

The 1st two parts previously posted should be read before this one:

****
By this time I could again see our Wizard standing on the bow of the Royal Scepter, which was now listing to starboard slightly as she struggled to stay afloat. She had several fires on the ship and the black smoke was thick and pungent as the mighty ship was slowing falling to the relentless attacks of the Thunderfire Battlebarge. I was still pondering that thought when suddenly the entire sky darkened across the sea. Great storm clouds rolled in suddenly from nowhere and the air felt heavy and wet. With a great clash of thunder the heavens opened up and a torrential rain fell from the sky. I could still see our Wizard on the Greatship, his arms stretched to the heavens as he continued his incantation. All 3 fires on the Greatship went out one by one. Far to stern, the Ironclad that had also been burning from the flame attacks of the Sea Dragon also went out. The rain continued unabated for several minutes and then suddenly the clouds quickly parted and vanished, leaving the bright sunshine to begin its task of drying out man and vessel.

The successful casting of a magic spell by our wizard must have infuriated the enemy Necromancer as the foul words of an evil incantation could be suddenly be discerned far across the waves, impossible as it should have been to hear them. Whatever spell he attempted was not successful in harnessing the winds of magic and again a brilliant flash of light signaled its failure.

Seizing the initiative, two of our Hell-hammers fired at the flagship of the Chaos Dwarfs, the Thunderfire Battlebarge. Hoping to cripple the powerful ship before it could attack the Royal Scepter again, they ultimately fired in vain as one shot missed completely and the other failed to do any damage.

As the men’s hopes of sinking the deadly ship were dashed, we could see the Black Ark move ominously towards one of the High Elf Hawkships and let loose with 3 Reaper Batteries. The little ship exploded in a splinter of wood shards and debris as the shots tore into her midships and aft castle, where she lost one of her Eagle Claws. With its broadside reaper batteries also in range of a Dwarf Monitor, the Black Ark again seemed destined to destroy the much smaller vessel. Luck was on the Dwarves side as again the Reapers jammed and the opportunity passed.

With part of her crew aboard from the Dragonship, the Elves on the Eagleship quickly sprang into action and pushed off from the other ships. They shot around the enemy ships and closed the distance on the Black Ark. Firing her three broadside Eagle Claws at the immense ship, two hit their targets but were unable to cause any significant damage.

To starboard, we heard a horrific screech, and we turned to see the terrible Sea Dragon again launch gout of flame point blank at the Ironclad. Even locked inside their metal casing, the screams of agony could still be heard across the waves. Time was running out for those brave sailors and quicker than they realized as another fire started from the beast’s attack.

I could see another Thunder-roller ahead and to starboard and I turned the ship to bring it into the range of our fore cannons. Not wanting there to be any chance of their survival I steered the Endeavor directly into the path of the Thunder-roller, bumping her askew as we collided. “FIRE!” I yelled and our cannons let loose at both her and another Thunder-Roller to port. The Thunder-roller to port took some superficial damage, but it was the one ahead I wanted. The fore Thunder-roller took two direct hits causing extensive damage, but that was no matter. I drew my sword and shouted to the men “HAVE AT HER!” and swung across a mizzen line onto the decks of the Chaos ship. Within seconds, my entire crew was aboard and we outnumbered her easily. No quarter was asked and none was given and in just a few minutes, the boarding action was over and the ship was ours. “Knock some holes in the bilge and let’s get out of here!” I ordered and the men quickly set at the task of scuttling the foul ship. Back on board the Endeavor, we only had the briefest of moments to watch the ship began to list to one side as the water poured in.

It was then that the sky again had two suns momentarily and I shielded my eyes from the furnace that was the Great Leveller. Up until now, our luck had held as every attack from this awesome weapon had deviated away from the fleet.
Not this time.

We were the targets – the Endeavor, the Justice and the Alliance. Luckily I had veered away from the other two Wolfships to take out the Thunder-roller or else we would have been caught under that horrific blast. Both Captain Hooker and Midden’s ships took structural damage and one of the main masts of the Alliance had been snapped clean in two. With both Wolfships still afloat, I considered the men lucky and thought no more of it. Unfortunately, one of the Hell-hammers had also been caught in the blast radius and their captain was instantly killed in the inferno.

Recovering from the Black Ark’s movement moments before, the two Monitors that had been caught up in the swell of its wake as the Ark had moved, finally managed to get themselves free of the quagmire that was the ocean surrounding the Ark. They then attempted to fire upon the massive ship. You would think that it would be impossible to miss such a vessel at such close range, but such is the magic that the Dark Elves control that even looking upon the foul ship can cause men to turn away in dread and avoid making any attack. One of the Dwarf Monitors did just that, failing to take the fight back to the demons before them. The 2nd Monitor was much more determined as its crew managed to gather the courage they needed and fire the Monitor’s cannon at the fore Reaper Battery, destroying it completely!

[b]Fate was against us on this dreadful day[/b] as both the Thunderfire and Great Leveller had fired numerous times and not once had there been a misfire. The next few moments seemed to occur in slow motion and I’ll never forget the brave command team and crew of the Royal Scepter. As the battle had raged on around us, the Thunderfire once again pivoted in place to line up her sights on the badly wounded Greatship of the Imperial fleet. We only counted 4 rockets this time, but it was all that was needed. Two hits simply caused minor structural damage, but the other two caused serious critical damage and the Greatship’s bow exploded and suddenly there was a hole large enough for 10 men to climb through. She started going down bow first and quickly her stern was out of the water as the ocean sucked her under. Admiral Sigmar and our Wizard were nowhere to be seen in the wreckage and I immediately raised the fleet command flag on the Endeavor’s main mast.

The Royal Scepter had sustained twenty-two direct hits from the Thunderfire Battlebarge over just 3 attacks. No ship could have survived that kind of onslaught and Admiral Sigmar should be commended for fighting on as long as he had. Even in it’s last moments afloat, the Admiral had been seen giving the order to close and board, especially courageous as all of the Greatship’s cannon’s had already been lost.

To the east, the ultra fast Hawkships skipped across the seas and quickly closed the gap on the Black Ark. Each had direct hits on the mammoth ship but none failed to cause any damage.
The Undead Deathships finally got into the fray at this point as well as they advanced on the 3 Monitors but either failed to hit their targets or cause any damage if they did. The sound of the Screaming Skull’s still haunts my mind late at night.

Seeing an opportunity to strike at the towering Black Ark to starboard, the Dwarf Dreadnought turned in place, its front turrets lining up on the bow of the immense vessel. Her crew was able to see past the maze of spells protecting it, but again, no damage was caused to the damned ship of the Dark Elves. To the rear of the Dreadnought was the terrible battle of the Sea Dragon and Ironclad, both locked in a struggle to the death. Taking a chance of hitting their comrades, the captain of the Dreadnought fired at the Sea Dragon in a desperate hope to end the battle before they lost another ship. Two shots tore in the great beast, one a killing blow to the back of its immense neck. With a final cry of agony, the huge creature quickly sank into the sea and was gone forever.

As if to strike back for the loss of one of it’s own, the Sea Dragon with the Dark Elf Death Fortress on it’s back, moved directly towards the Eagleship, which had just re-crewed the Dragonship. The Reaper Batteries high in the tower struck hard at the lithe Elf Ship, and it sustained damage from all five bolts, losing two of it’s broadside Eagle Claw batteries.

The last of the Doomreavers then moved in towards the nearest Hawkship, moving in direct contact as its masters attempted to whip it into a Frenzy. Whatever they tried did not work at all as the foul creature went completely berserk and turned away from the small Elf vessel. Much to my surprise, it moved directly towards the nearby Ark and lashed out with all its fury. A big chunk of the hull tore away and it was obvious the ship had taken some below the waterline damage.

The forces of evil continued to attack, the Necropolis maneuvered so it could launch screaming skulls at two different targets to port and starboard, a Hell-hammer and a Monitor. I watched in amazement as 3 skulls screeched though the air only to all miss the Hell-hammer as it bounced on the waves. I swear I could still hear those skulls as they sank to the bottom of the sea bed. The Monitor was not as lucky however, as the other 2 skulls all hit the doomed ship, 2 in the same location and went straight through the hull, sinking it.

With a brief lull in the battle, I looked around to see many crews attempting to put out the fires, but it looked like a losing battle to me.

End of Part 3 (The 4th and final part to be posted soon).

Dead in the Water (Part 2) - A Man O War session Report from KublaCon 2006

2006-06-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

(See my previous post for Part 1)

****

It was at this point I used a viewscope to peer across the sea at the high towers of the Black Ark. I could see a figure in the forecastle, motioning to the heavens, while the wind whipped his long black hair around his face. “Black Magic” I muttered and for the briefest of moments the wind went deathly still on the entire seascape. For a moment I thought the Dark Elf wizard may have succeeded in turning the ocean into a Sea of Glass, but there was a brilliant implosion of yellow light and the winds immediately picked back up again. Whether our wizard had had anything to do with the spell’s failure or the Dark Necromancer had simply failed to harness the flow of the magic ether, I shall never know.

Turning the viewscope towards the decks of the Royal Sceptor, I could see the brilliant Jade robe of our magician and much closer than I had the Dark Necromancer. He was obviously casting a spell and he thrust his hands into a basket of serpents and pulled out two handfuls of the irate creatures. They bit and coiled around his hands and arms and suddenly he hurled them out towards the Black Ark. “Serpents of Doom, of course!” I thought. He was trying to entangle the Ark from moving or attacking but again I saw a flash of light and the spell dissipated harmlessly across the waves. So much for the powers of our wizards!

Hearing the launch of rockets was a sound I was becoming all too familiar with and my attention was drawn back to the Thunderfire Battlebarge as at least 10 rockets again raced towards our mighty Imperial Greatship. “Mercy from the Gods!” I cried out, as surely this would be the last I would see of Admiral Sigmar and the brave crew of the ‘Sceptor’. Just a single shot would have been enough to nearly cause a mutiny, but the men held fast and not a single man left his post. It was obvious that there was a lot of damage and I could count 4 more areas that were in critical shape. A blaze broke out miships and I could tell that there was some below the waterline damage now as well. To my dismay, I could see the men rapidly turning the ship to port for some reason that was not yet clear. As the bow came into view again, I could see someone in the water…along with all the navigation maps… Ye Gods! It was Admiral Sigmar! Curse those foul Dwarfs!

I was incensed at this point and I ordered my squadron into action again. Moving in perfect unison, all three Wolfships went after the Chaos Dwarf fleet. Off to starboard the Wolfship Justice rammed another Hull Destroyer, again sinking a smaller ship of the line in a single blow. Maneuvering closer, we let loose a broadside volley into the nearest Hull Destroyer at close range, blasting a massive hole in the hull where it had been hit earlier. This critical damage was all the ship could take and it plummeted out of our sight with appreciated haste. To port, the Wolfship Alliance’s single broadside volley was ineffective on the Thunder-roller that had been in its sights.

Across the sea on the opposite side of the battle, the Dark Elf Death Fortress had recovered from the earlier Dragonship attack and the giant Sea Dragon was goaded into attacking the High Elf ship that had nearly destroyed it. Reaper batteries launched several waves of the iron tipped barbs at the vulnerable Dragonship and it was quite clear that one of the fore, as well as a broadside Eagle Claw had been lost.

Seizing an opportunity as the battle raged on around them, the squadron of Dwarf Monitors turned into the path of the Black Ark itself! Say what you will about our stunted allies, but they are some of the bravest I’ve seen yet. As the threat of the Monitors became evident, the Black Ark immediately began to shimmer and waver on the sea like an oasis in the desert. “More dark magic” I said to no one in particular. Targeting a ship under those conditions would be tough and 2 of the Monitors completely missed their mark, while the 3rd one hit the massive stone hull of the wretched thing, doing no damage at all.

Not wasting a moment, the Black Ark ominously moved in between two of the Monitors, its Reaper batteries firing at any and all available targets. As it slid forward into place, it seemingly turned in place, ignoring the natural laws of momentum and physics. It was if it was being held by a gigantic magical hand that could turn he ship as desired, the swell of the waters surrounding the Ark pushing the puny Monitors around at will. It was a sight that will haunt me for the rest of my days. One of the Monitors took a direct hit on the bow and there was no doubt that the objects falling into the sea were Dwarf bodies. I must say that those Monitors are tough ships as I saw the 2nd take several direct hits from the magical Reapers, yet no damage was sustained. I would think twice about ever taking the ‘Endeavor’ up against one.

From the front of the Ark still more Reaper batteries were ready to fire. Dead ahead was the Dwarf fleet’s flagship, the mighty Dreadnought - Hammer of the Sea. Something must have gone wrong as the Reapers did not fire and the Dreadnought sailed by unscathed.

The battle raged on all around me and there were numerous things that I failed to see in the thick of the fight. I looked past the Ark to see the Majestic Elf Dragonship unfurl its sails and leap forward across the waves. The sun caught the enchanted metal of the Dragonblades and I could see their brilliance quite easily from the opposite side of the battle. I had never seen a ship move so quickly across the sea yet the crew was calm and disciplined, as if the events unfolding around them were everyday occurrences. With a quic, unexpected turn, the Dragonship veered into the path of a Dark Elf Doomreaver. “That is suicidal!” I called out yet the sleek craft didn’t deviate an inch and collided with the terrible creature. What happened next is something I still don’t believe, as the Dragonship barely slowed down as it cleaved the beast and ship in half. One moment it was there… and the next there was a spray of blood as the giant beast split in two. The Dragonship headed towards the 2nd Doomreaver and I expected its fate to be the same as its former companions. This time however, the Dragonship lurched to a halt as the blades failed to find their target. Immediately, the Elf crews were fighting the Doomreaver in a twisted version of a boarding action. Fate was unkind that day as one by one the Elf crew was slaughtered, leaving the mighty Dragonship abandoned and vulnerable. My worst fears were coming true.

Before I could even process the loss of such a magnificent vessel, I again saw the sky ignite as the Great Leveller targeted the Hell-hammers bearing down on it. Again, the gods were kind to us as the shot fell behind the fleet, killing all aquatic life in the blast radius.

The high Elves were not going to give up the Dragonship with out a fight and immediately the nearby Hawkships raced across the sea to engage the remaining Doomreavers. Only 1 of the 6 total Eagle Claw attacks managed to do any damage however and the Doomreaver thrashed about in agony as the shot hit home.

Back to port, the gigantic Sea Dragon and Ironclad were still locked in a death struggle to which there could only be one victor. Each time the Dragon reared back it’s head, you knew that it could be the last of the Ironclad as the corrosive fire did it’s deadly work. Amazingly, the Ironclad stood fast from the attacks but I did notice another fire had broken out in the bow.

Sensing an opportune moment, the Captain of the Dreadnought turned the mighty metallic ship into the gap between the Sea Dragon and the Ark itself, firing all broadsides and turrets at these two foes. Nary a shot hit the dreaded beast as it thrashed about by the ironclad, but all 4 were successful against the Ominous Black Ark! One shot caused a huge chunk of stone to splinter and fall into the sea and we could see the sea rushing in to fill the gap! To the rear of the Ark, the giant portal that allows the Doomreavers and Death Fortresses to enter the Ark was now a twister, burning hulk of black metal, useless for a long while to come. Several Reaper batteries were also destroyed from the looks of things; all in all, the Dreadnought may have turned the tide of battle right then and there.

Having never seen a Floating Necropolis before, I must say that its size was every bit as large as the portion of a Black Ark that is above the water. Seeing it move with such ease and precision was unnerving and took some convincing by my senses towards my brain. The Necropolis had a weapon the likes I hope I never encounter again – the Screaming Skull catapults. These catapults fire lead filled human skulls that have been enchanted to scream as they tear through the air causing many to panic and flee. Over the next few minutes, that very thought occurred to me several times.

The first volley of 3 ended up falling through 3 decks and tore two holes in the hull and we began to take on water – though not enough to threaten us going under. We thought we’d be safe for a moment but some foul magic must have allowed them to immediately fire at us again but fate was kind as none of the 2nd volley had any effect on the ship.

Seizing an opportune moment, our Hell-hammers retaliated immediately against the Necropolis, firing at close range at the monstrous ship. The shots appeared to be direct hits but did no damage as the ships bulkheads appeared to be re-enforced and the heavy shots bounced harmlessly off the sides.

As if to drive home the apparent futility of attacking the Undead fleet, an Undead Ghostship materialized out of thin air and launched it’s screaming skull catapults at one of the Dwarf Monitors in range. The magical shots ran right through the tough armor and went clean through the hull, sinking the smaller vessel with just a single shot! “Damn you all to hell!” I shouted at them across the waves. But ironically, they all already were.

Admiral Sigmar’s Greatship at this point was heavily damaged and I half expected him to pull the ship to the rear of the battle where we could help protect it. He would have none of it however and gave the order to engage the enemy again. With only one working broadside of cannons left, the Royal Scepter headed directly at the Thunderfire Battlebarge yet kept a Thunder-roller in sight for its cannon attack. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Not only were they still attacking, but they meant to BOARD the Battlebarge if they could survive long enough! Unfortunately, the Thunder-roller took no damage from the cannon attack and I prayed that the Greatship would last long enough to make a difference in the battle.

The near miss of the Greatship’s cannon attack stirred the Thunder-roller into action. Swinging in a wide turn to port, the vessel closed on Captain Hooker’s Wolfship, Justice. She took a direct hit in the bows, and a large chuck of the forecastle fell into the sea, carrying several cannons and their crew with it.

My attention was drawn away again to the aft of my ship where the death struggle of the Ironclad and Sea Dragon continued as it had for the entire battle. I could not imagine the terror the Dwarf crew must be feeling as they fought the foul beast from the depths of the sea for their very lives. Just then, another shot exploded out of the front cannon turret and hit the Sea Dragon directly in the chest at point blank range! That must have done it in! I thought, but against all reason and logic the beast fought on, bleeding profusely all over the hull of the Ironclad as it continued to attack.

The battle had ranged on for some time and already our nerves were frazzled and frayed beyond the limits of what men should have to endure, yet no reprieve was in sight. I wondered if we had already seen the worst and hoped that little by little, the horrors filling my unbelieving eyes would soon dissipate. It was folly to think such thoughts, as I immediately discovered.

The Undead fleet thus far had consisted of the gigantic Necropolis, the Ghostship and a small squadron of Deathships that were no larger than our own Hell-Hammers. There had been another smaller ship off by itself, but it was really only a barge of some kind with two small towers, not even large enough to hold a single catapult. I hadn’t even thought of it as a threat. I could not have been more wrong.

With a storm of dancing green lighting bolts arcing across the bow of the ship and the cackling of 10,000 dead souls in my ears, the barge seemed to come to life. I believe my heart must have stopped for several beats when I saw the terrifying vision that appeared at the front of the vessel. Lit with an unholy green light, a large skull the size of my SHIP materialized over the barge, a giant grinning Specter that looked directly into MY eyes, following my every move as I tried to avoid its terrible gaze. It was not after the fleet… it was not after any other ship… it was after ME!

I am ashamed to say that I nearly froze in place and cowered on the deck of the Endeavor, but only the thoughts of my family and friends back home gave me the courage to continue to fight. This Undead Specter was more than most men could handle, of that I was sure. I worried how others would react once they saw it.

On the eastern edge of the fight, the High Elf Eagleship came alongside the abandoned Dragonship, sending over several squads of men to re-crew her, leaving just one the Eagleship herself.

Losing the Dragonship, the Dark Elves attacked again with the Doomreavers, the first a boarding action against the lesser manned Eagleship that wounded the horrific creature before driving it back. The 2nd Doomreaver came alongside the Eagleship and was goaded into a frenzy by its keepers and trainers high in the tower of the ship it pulled. The beast must have went completely mad as suddenly it turned and headed back against the nearby Ghostship, attacking it instead and killing a crew from it’s multiple claw and biting attacks. The Elf crews on both the Eagleship and Dragonship rallied and cheered as it attacked on of its own.

Forgotten by nearly everyone in the fray, the lone Nautilus then surfaced at point blank range next to the Floating Necropolis, unnoticed by its damned crews and too close to be attacked by the screaming skull catapults. The single cannon mounted on the turret at the top of the ship, fired directly at the nearest tower and destroyed it completely!

Recent events seemed to indicating that perhaps we were winning the battle at this point, in time, but there was still plenty of fight left in the fleets of the Damned, and I only could pray that we would all live to see another sunrise.

End of Part 2.

Dead in the Water (Part 1) - A Man O War session Report from KublaCon 2006

2006-05-31T15:21:00.000-07:00

(The following is a session report of my Man O War game run at KublaCon 2006 over Memorial Day weekend. I took notes throughout the game and have converted those notes into a narrative to tell the tale of the battle. Individual turns are marked with the **** and I’ve tried to keep events chronological for the most part. This report is expected to be spread out over several parts and I will attempt to complete it all as soon as possible. I hope you enjoy it! Man O War is a naval miniature's game by Games Workshop and is set in the fantasy world of Warhammer. I have tried to capture some of the flavor of the game in this narrative. It should be mentioned that I was the moderator of the game and not a player - a role that is almost as much fun for me as playing!)

Field Report of Wilhelm Magnus III,
Captain of The Royal Endeavor, Flagship of Wolfship Squadron Franz
In the year of our Emperor, 2543, as told to the Royal Archivist, Leopold Bellinger.

Dead in the Water.

The ocean churned beneath my feet like the gullet of some immense beast in a digestive stupor, tossing both man and vessel about with equal ease. Anything man made and not lashed down would be thrown overboard in a matter of seconds and any man who let his mind wander for the briefest of moments would suffer the same fate. Unlike the cargo however, a man would have plenty of time to ponder his impending demise as the ship continued on with out him. The wind bit into my flesh like the spines of a sea urchin, chilling me to the bone as I stood at the helm of The Royal Endeavor. It was times like this that I was thankful for joining the Imperial Navy and I was bursting with pride to have been chosen for this particular mission. It was, indeed, another glorious day on the sea for the Emperor.

Having been under way from Altdorf for three and a half weeks already, my time to enjoy the above mentioned pleasantries of a long sea voyage would soon come to an end. Nearly a month ago the call for volunteers for an unknown mission with Vice Admiral Sigmar came down through the barracks and I immediately jumped at the chance - I was astonished - Sigmar! His glorious history with His Majesty’s fleet was quite well known and most of the men would be happy to just SEE the famous Greatship he commanded – The Royal Scepter, much less sail with her! We set sail under utmost secrecy immediately and began the long trek down the River Reik to the Sea of Claws. Once on the open waters, I expected to hear more of what our destination was and who our target was going to be. But for weeks, the Admiral was silent and reclusive, nary a word about our fate was told to his Lieutenant, and it had been only yesterday morning that the signal for a command meeting for that evening had been given. Last night’s dinner with the rest of the fleet command had been both a blessing and a curse, and up until the after dinner brandy, I had been thrilled to dine with Vice Admiral Sigmar as he filled the rest of us captains on where we were headed and what our mission was.

The news was shocking to say the least.

Over the past several months, merchant ships had been disappearing off of the coast of the Tilean Sea with alarming frequency. Normally, pirate raids from Sartosa were an expected part of the shipping business and usually the captains carried substantial bribe money to ensure their safe passage. Once pirate ships started to vanish however, word spread quickly to both Bretonnian as well as Imperial ears. His Majesty sent two squadrons of Wargalleys to patrol the shipping lanes provide some relief from the rogue bandits. All was quiet for several weeks until only two of the Wargalleys were found abandoned just 2 miles from the shores of Fool’s Point, with not a living soul aboard and no hint of their fate given.

The Emperor was both furious and yet perplexed as to what should be done, as attacking an Imperial Wargalley was an act of war and even the Pirates wouldn’t be so bold. How do you retaliate against an unknown aggressor?

It wasn’t until a week later that word came from the mighty Dwarf sea fortress of Barak Varr that the Emperor found out the truth and immediately jumped into action. That was when I had been recruited and last night when Admiral Sigmar finally told us of our suspected foe, my blood ran cold.

I’ll never forget the words he used. “When the water is black like the night, when the seas are flat and the winds are calm, the only ships that sail will be the Dead in the Water.” At first I thought he had misspoke, he must have meant “that all ships will be dead in the water.”, but then the meaning of his words hit me…he meant the Undead!

At once the room was in chaos as all of us tried to fathom what he was implying and many cries of disbelief and denial were heard, but Admiral Sigmar held fast and filled us in with all the evidence too gruesome to mention here. Suffice it to say that there was not one of us that slept well that night.

And here we are, less than an hour from the mouth of the Mortis River and the shores of Zandri and the Land of the Dead. Off to port, I can see the glint of metal low in the waves and I have an odd feeling of comfort knowing that support from the Dwarf fleet at Barak Varr has arrived yet it also makes me feel somewhat uneasy as it lends an air of credulity to the situation. The Dwarfs don’t ally easily which makes me think this situation is as grim as it sounds. On the other hand, our so-called Bretonnian allies declined to participate in this little escapade citing the lack of credible proof that the Undead, indeed, had again been seen in the Black Gulf and Great Ocean. I suppose that once a bony hand comes knocking on one of those foppish Bretonnian Lord’s castles, they’ll have all the proof they need.

As much as I wished that all this talk of the Dead was mere rumor and exaggeration, I knew in my heart that time was running out.

Our first sighting of Skull Island came at daybreak around 5:15am. There were no sounds on the sea, no birds, no fish, and no movement in the water. With the Royal Scepter dependant on the wind, both the Imperial and Dwarf fleets had slowed to accommodate her. As we closed, the wind picked up slightly allowing her to move at full speed as we closed on the massive rock formations jutting out of the water. Sometimes when a natural formation looks like something else, it takes on that name - though usually some explanation would be required to point out the similarities to the casual observer. Skull Island needed no such explanation – it looked EXACTLY like a huge skull resting on the seas. Its gaping mouth was at sea level and opened up into a deep cave that disappeared deep into the depths of stone and rock. To either side of Skull Island stood huge spires of black obsidian, rising out of the sea in unearthly formations. The water was covered with a thick grey fog that hung eerily in place, seemingly immune to the natural laws of nature as the wind blew past it.

Something was amiss.

****
(Turn 1)

Admiral Sigmar led the fleet into the small bay in front of Skull Island, closely followed by our Dwarf Allies. Our fleet consisted of the Imperial Greatship, The Royal Scepter, a Wolfship squadron under my command and a Hellhammer squadron in case we needed some serious firepower. Our bearded friends had brought along a massive Dreadnought, bristling with broadsides and turrets, another Man O War Class Ironclad, a squadron of Monitors and a lone Nautilus. Not much considering we had no idea what we were about to encounter, and with no word from the High Elves nor any help from the Bretonnians, we were hoping that whatever we did come across would be minimal at best. Just then, strange sound bellowed from our stern and suddenly, our world was turned upside down.

I’ll never forget that horrible sound that came from behind the fleet. The sea behind us boiled and steamed and a great beast rose from the depths. Like the screeching of a 1000 elephants being slaughtered, the war cry of the mighty Sea Dragon froze me in place as it came to the surface. Was this some Undead magic at work or had we merely passed over this creature’s territorial waters? Most of the Imperial fleet had passed over its lair already but the Dwarves were not so lucky. The great Sea Dragon began to swim towards the nearby Ironclad. May the Gods help those poor souls.

Any thoughts of this event being a mere accident were quickly dashed as several of the large fog banks suddenly disappeared revealing two sights almost as dreadful as the Sea Dragon – a Chaos Dwarf Thunderfire Battlebarge and a Great Leveller Battlebarge! Although I couldn’t see inside the Dwarf ships, I was sure that our allies would be spiting venom once they saw their hated cousins were again terrorizing the seas. Maybe the stories about the Undead were speculation after all!

Suddenly, the sky lit up like a thousand suns and an earth shattering roar echoed across the waves. The Great Leveller was pointed right at us! We’re doomed! Much to my surprise, the sea exploded far to starboard away from my squadron and in front of the Dwarf Dreadnought. I had heard stories of the Great Leveller from some of the veteran’s of the Imperial Navy. It fired a massive projectile that exploded on contact usually obliterating any ship caught in its massive fire arc. Luckily, the Leveller is prone to great deviation or even better, misfiring at crucial times, often destroying it or the ship completely. We had no reprieve as we advanced into range as the Thunderfire Battlebarge pivoted in place and took aim right at the Royal Scepter! There were only 2 rockets launched from its decks but only 1 hit the Greatship’s large forecastle, obliterating it into a thousand shards of wood. I could only pray that Admiral Sigmar had not been standing there moments before.

****

I wondered where our Wizard was during these initial moments. Shouldn’t he be doing something to help us? I could see no sign of him on the Royal Scepter and suddenly realized that it was possible we had lost by our command and our spellcaster in one fell swoop.

Another fogbank disappeared and suddenly we had 3 Chaos Dwarf Thunder-rollers being straight down on the fleet. Thunder-rollers only have a single bow mounted cannon and normally are not a big threat, but if you happen to be directly in their path as they use their Thunder-roller attack, you could be in some serious trouble. I looked up to see our Hellhammer squadron straight ahead of their incoming ships, watching in disbelief as the Thunder-rollers churned the water.

I barked out the order for ramming speed to my first mate and our Wolfship lurched forward in the water as the men pulled the oars with a vengeance. These Chaos Dwarfs were about to taste some sweet revenge for attacking the Admiral – Wolfship style! Our very own Royal Endeavor’s mighty ram head bit into the thin hull of the Thunder-roller with ease, shattering the cross-supports and allowing the sea to rush in and quickly fill the hull. In mere seconds it was beneath the waves, its crew in the water trying to grab something to stay afloat. Without a 2nd thought we bore down on them and drove them under the bow. The other 2 Wolfships in our squadron were unable to ram and the Chaos Dwarfs managed to stay out of their broadside fire arcs for the moment much to the frustration of Captain’s Hooker and Midden.

Sensing opportunity, the Thunder-rollers closed into our fleet and attacked the Wolfship Alliance, with 4 attacks, 2 of which caused any damage. The 2nd Thunder-roller made a last second turn towards our Greatship and made a single cannon attack that punched a perfect round hole through the sails and we could hear the cheers of her crew from as far away as we were. The last of the Thunder-rollers ineffectually ran into the Wolfship Justice, much to our amazement!

As the smoke cleared on the Royal Scepter, my spirits soared as I could see the brilliant blue uniform of Admiral Sigmar on the stern of the ship, giving the order to fire the starboard cannons. The 3 broadside attack merely did cosmetic damage to the nearest Thunder-roller but it lifted the men’s spirits none the less.

Another series of brilliant flashes appeared on the Thunderfire decks as 8 more rockets took off and crashed onto the decks of the Royal Scepter. Curses! How could that thing have reloaded so quickly? The mighty Greatship was not so lucky this time as 4 of the rockets appeared to do major damage, one being a critical hit that started a fire.

My attention was drawn to aft as I heard the mighty turreted cannons of the Dreadnought fire upon the Sea Dragon that was almost upon the smaller Ironclad. Their aim was true as the great beast bellowed in agony as it took several wounds before finally reaching the Ironclad. While we watched transfixed as the beast descended upon the Dwarf ship, again the sky lit up like the very furnaces of hell itself and I knew that the Great Leveller had again fired. It appeared to be still aiming at our Wolfship squadron but again the shot deviated far from our ships. I was wondering how long our luck would hold out.

As the mighty Sea Dragon reared its massive head back to attack, the Ironclad’s front turret was able to get off a single shot in an attempt to drive the foul beast away. With all the confusion and chaos, the shot was wide and the crew waited momentarily for the coming inferno. With a great screech, the beast open it’s gaping mouth and a vile liquid spewed forth, igniting instantly as it came in contact with the air. The bow of the ship took the brunt of the attack and I’m sure no one was surprised to see it ablaze as the beast’s head swayed to and fro.

The Captain of the lead Hell-hammer gave the order to fire at close range to the nearest Hull Destroyer and the massive cannonball literally blew the Hull-destroyer out of the water. From my observations, that already was two Chaos Dwarf ships sent to the bottom and we hadn’t lost any!

Some of our Dwarf friends disappeared beneath the sea as the strange looking Nautilus submerged under the seas, only it’s small periscope visible to the untrained eye. I could see the underwater trail of one of the Clockwork torpedo’s as it left the Nautilus and headed towards the Great Thunderfire Battlebarge. My hope that the torpedo would bite home and send them to the deep depths were quickly dashed as the torpedo cut through the water to the rear of the ship’s stern… so close!

Suddenly I heard cheering and shouts and several crews of nearby Imperial ships were pointing to the south east. I couldn’t believe my eyes! It was an Elf fleet from Ulthuan coming to our aid in our moment of need! I could see a squadron of Hawkships on the horizon and further east was an Eagleship! We might survive this day after all!

Our good fortune quickly turned to doom as one of the most terrifying sites you will ever see appeared out of the mist... an Undead Floating Necropolis! I had only heard stories of such ships when I was but a small child. A Floating Necropolis is a small city afloat, a repository of all that is unholy and evil. I now knew where all the missing crews had ended up from those earlier merchant attacks – no doubt they were now aboard the Necropolis, serving their new lord without any life coursing through their dilapidated bodies. I had friends on some of those ships… would I encounter any of them in the next few hours? It was a thought much too painful to consider. The Necropolis seemed to eerily float across the waves as it went directly into the wind and towards the High Elf fleet. Definitely, not a good sign.

Again, I heard cheering and far off could see the unmistakable outline of a High Elf Dragonship. Impossible! Dragonships are seldom seen at sea and even then they are only sent in times of war as no more can be built with the loss of the great Starwood forests from which they were made. I wondered if the stories of the great Dragonblades mounted on the twin catamaran hulls were true – was it actually possible to slice right through an enemy’s ship? I may get a chance see that for myself!

When the Great Black Ark of Naggaroth appeared, I thought I might actually go mad. It was nearly too much to take in at once and the maze of spells protecting it made me grimace in pain whenever I even as much as looked its way. This was insane. How could our small fleet of ships destroy this unholy alliance? My courage was shaken to its very core and I wondered (not for the first time of the day) if I would even see the sun set that night.

Apparently the Dwarf fleet was also concerned with these new developments as the Monitor squadron closed directly onto the Black Ark! Either they were very brave or very stupid. As each ship fired its single cannon, none of the attacks made it though the maze of spells as the Ark appeared distorted and misplaced to the crews of the Monitors.

From behind the Black Ark came another foul creature, a Dark Elf Death Fortress. Picture a Sea Dragon that is carrying a large castle strapped to its back and you’ll have some idea of what these incredibly large creatures look like. It quickly swam towards the nearest Hawkship and unleased its Reaper batteries against it. Although hitting the small and frail Hawkship 3 times, no damage was sustained and the Hawkship sailed on.

The Dwarf Monitor squadron fired upon the Black Ark as it had begun to head right at them and there were hopes of a lucky shot or two taking the foul ship down in a flash of burning glory. Unfortunately, not a single shot hit home, as some of the crews were confused by the protection spell and other successful attacks were just ineffectual against the Dark Elf armor.

Seeking revenge, the Black Ark sailed boldly into the middle of the Dwarf fleet as if to taunt them. “Here I Am” it seems to say, “Come and make what efforts you think you can.” All 4 shots against the Monitors hit their targets, but the heavy armor of the ships proved to be too much for the Reaper Batteries and once again, things appeared to be going our way.

Under any other circumstances, it would be a magnificent sight to see an actual Dragonship at sea. Today was an exception. I didn’t want my only memory of one to be that of it going down in a hail of enemy fire. I hoped all would go our way and my spirits lifted as the Dragonship attacked the nearby Death Fortress, nearly killing the crew that controls and trains the great beasts themselves.

To be continued...

Railroad Tycoon - The best train game ever?

2006-05-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

Things have been really busy this last week as I've been constantly working or studying for my upcoming State License Exam for Real Estate Appraisers. I plan to take the test in May and have been cramming every spare minute I have and so games (and this Blog) have taken a backseat.

I have continued to game on Friday nights with my regular gaming group, the CVW (Central Valley Wargamers) - I'm not going to stop gaming completely! Lately there has been a lot of Martin Wallace's Railroad Tycoon (RRT) hitting the table and I figure it's about time to talk about it.

First of all, this game is GREAT. Really. I have yet to play a game where everyone wasn't having fun regardless of how many points they had or whether they even had a chance to win. People like to play this. Visually, RRT is a beautiful game to look at. The board slowly builds up over time as routes and locomotives are placed, empty city markers begin to appear while the good's cubes slowly disappear one by one. It's like you are building a model railroad in a lot of ways and that is appealing on many levels.

The game itself is both highly strategic and tactical yet you never feel overwhelmed or intimidated from the many options each turn presents to you. There are many different roads to victory and I have found myself trying a strategy I saw somoeone else use in a prior game to see how well it will work for me. I've seen people win many different ways - some expectedly and others completely by surprise. Some people will jump into an early lead, attempting to pull way out in front and then they'l try and end the game quickly by emptying cities wherever they can. Others try and capitalize on the Major Lines and service bounties whenever possible, and still others try and deliver as many cubes as possible from all over. Whatever your pleasure, RRT delivers.

The game components themselves are top notch. The box is very heavy and is crammed with tons of plastic miniatures, wooden cubes, cards, trains (and more!) making the hefty price tag seem well worth it. I have had NO problems with board warpage and only a few problems with the Blue/Purple city confusion. I have since printed out the replacement stickers but it still can be confusing in low light.

Everyone I've introduced the game to has enjoyed it and I expect it to be heavily played for years to come. The game is easy to teach and just begs for expansions... hopefully Eagle Games will come up with some great ideas to keep the replayability high on RRT for a long, long time.

If you haven't tried it, find someone who has a copy and beg them to play! Go to a convention and sit in on a game or just break down and buy it for yourself! You won't be disappointed.

Miniature games - the good, the bad and the ugly.

2006-04-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

I love miniatures games.

Show me some cool scenery or terrain and give me some nice looking figures to push around and I'm a happy camper. Miniature games appeal to me on many different levels and I can often be found at the local gaming conventions either running, playing or just observing the wide variety of miniature games usually being played.

Obviously, the main thing that draws me into a miniatures game, it the way it looks. Scenery and miniatures go hand in hand. As a kid, I enjoyed plastic models and took great pride in building and painting WWII fighter planes & Ships, Star Wars vehicles and Battlestar Galactica Viper and Cylon fighters. I also had a model railroad and loved recreating the world in miniature for my trains to run through. The operation of my tabletop railroad empire was overshadowed by my enjoyment of building it. I derived much more pleasure from making the mountains and trees and building the structures on it, than I ever did from running the trains on it. I've never outgrown this fascination for seeing a well built model railroad and I still have plans to someday build my own world in miniature.

Miniature games are also played by a different type of gamer it seems. Most games with miniatures are wargames of one type of another. You control a ship on the high seas, or maybe a spacecraft in the blackness of space, or maybe a squad/platoon/regiment of troops marching into battle. Miniature gamers like being the commander in charge. They enjoy seeing their men ambush another squad or outmanuevering another skilled admiral with their magnificent Ship of the Line in the thick of battle. These gamers like the additional information gleaned from seeing the battlefield in 3D, not just from hexes mapped out on cardboard or vinyl mats. To us, getting down low to verify that line of sight is essential to declaring a target to fire upom and watching your troops march across the board in perfect formation never fails to warm our hearts.

I think that the people that enjoy miniature games are also satisfying their creative talents as well, as the vast majority of them spend countless hours painting and detailing their miniatures in addition to building elaborate terrain and landscapes to fight upon. Some players are very fanatical about this and many of the historical miniaturists will detail their figures down to the exact color of that Civil War era belt buckle in an effort to be completely accurate. Flags and banners and other markings all need to be correctly painted or attached, tanks and other vehicles must be appropriately weathered for realism and even incidental counters or markers get "the treatment" as the miniaturist replaces that "out of ammo" counter with a miniature empty ammo box to place next to the unit.

For someone who enjoys miniatures, no game is safe. My gaming group is full of players like this and they have "miniaturized" many games that would normally be considered boardgames. Off the top of my head, I can think of Circus Maximus, Samurai, Kingmaker, B-17 and Mississippi Queen have all been "blown up"- as we call it, by our group.

After I introduced them to the 1st edition of Twilight Imperium, immediately we were discussing how big to make the hexes, what types of space miniatures would we need to get and all kinds of other details to make the game a "centerpiece" at a gaming convention.

Maybe those that collect and play miniature games thrive on the attention and praise that they are sure to get any time they run a game of it. I know that when I'm running a Man O War game, I do enjoy having people comment on how cool everything looks or how nice the paint jobs or scenery are, but - for me at least, it's definately not why I spent the untold hours painting and building everything. The truth is, I did it for ME, not for them!

Most miniature gamers would call themselves wargamers, but many wargamers don't like playing miniatures. You would think that the two types would be interchangeable, but I've found it to not be the case at all. I would venture to guess that it's because of the "fudge" factor that is inherent in most miniatures games. Typically, movement and combat is done in inches (though there are a lot of games with exeptions), and players usually use turning, movement or combat templates to determine where, how far and to what extent a figure can move, turn or shoot. Whenever a system like this is used, it's a given that disagreements over whether or not a unit can or can't do something will arise.

"Discussions" usually take this form...

"Hey! You can't turn that ship that much, you only get a single turn and it won't be tight enough to fire upon my flagship - I purposely moved to avoid that last turn and checked it when I was done!"

"What are you talking about? It's obvious I can fire upon you - you are WELL within my field of fire. I only made a single turn."

"Well, yes...NOW you can, as you turned too sharply. If you hadn't changed your mind about where to go 3 times already, your ship would have been in it's original place and then you would see that my ship is out of your turning arc."

"I let you slide two turns ago when you did your ram attack- which I still say was under the minimum range."

"That was completely different. My ship was moved accidently, there was originally plenty of distance between our ships."

(Continue this arguement for 15 minutes at least)

When dealing with inches, fractions of an inch can turn a game drastically in your favor or tragically towards your opponent's. Most miniaturists accept this and make the best of it. Someone who likes the absolutenes of a hex and counter game will find this frustrating to no end. In a typical wargame, it's usually pretty obvious whether a unit can move 4 or 5 hexes and whether or not an enemy unit is defending at 2:1 odds or 1:1. Miniatures games...not so much.

I have run my Man O War game (Fantasy Navel Battles) at 2-3 conventions a year since 1994 and have found that usually the games go much better when I am being a referee rather than a participant. That's not because I would change my standing on a ruling during a game any differently as a referee than as a player, but simply because as a referee with no vested interest in the outcome, my decision seems fairer - although it's really not.

I have seen players totally lose it over whether or not a ship is at a 3" range to the target or if it's 2.99". Seriously. In situations like that, I have often found that a die roll works much better than me expressing my opinion, but some players will hold a grudge regardless of the outcome throughout the game. Players like this obviously are difficult to deal with in any type of gaming situation, but it seems like miniature games have a much higher percentage of them than other game types.

These rules lawyers can suck the fun out of a game as fast as a broadband connection and pointing out that they are doing so usually only raises the "I'm just following the rules of the game!" defense in full force. It's usually then I make a vow to not find myself across the table from them again in another game if I can help it.

Finally I think the biggest detriment to miniature gaming is what I call the "disparities of scale". I'm not talking about what scale the miniatures are, but how well the game plays by increasing the army size or number of players. Using my Man O War game again as an example, the best games are always 2 player, 1500 points to a side. With experienced players, these games are usually over in 2 hours at the most and there will be a definate, clear cut winner. Logic would dictate that adding 2 more players and cutting the fleet size down to 1000 points per player should only extend a game by 33% at most as you now have a 4000 point game instead of a 3000 point game. You would expect a game of this size to run at most another hour ( a 50% increase in time). Unfortunately, most games of this size are now in the 5-6 hour range - which is long by any definition.

My gaming group played a 9 player game of Fire and Fury the other night, which is a fun and well designed Civil War miniatures game. The scenario was a "meeting" encounter where both sides entered from different roads on the same table edge and raced across the 8 foot table to get control of the main junction where the two roads intersected. Each player had several units at their command and I was 4th in line to enter the game table on the Union side. Things got off to a quick start with Bob's calvary racing across the table and engaging the Confederates who had managed to secure the road before we could arrive, but then things changed. As each of the players brought on their units, things bogged down. At the beginning of the game, 2 players each had to move 3-4 units to complete their side of the turn. Three or 4 turns went quickly at that point. when the 2nd player per side arrived, it was now taking twice as long to get a turn down as they each had as many units as the 1st players did. The 3rd players got on the board eventually and with little room on the board to actually manuever, slowed down in the area where everyone would first deploy as they came onto the board.

When it was finally my turn to enter the board, it was literally 3 hours since the game had started! After several more excrutiatingly slow turns at this point, I was able to get into position and make my first few attacks by the time it was time to call it a game as it was 2am - 6 hours after we had started. Woohoo.

Was it still fun? Yes, in a way. I am a social gamer and the banter that occurs during these types of games is always fun. I like the group of guys I game with and these types of games are few and far between, so I can always "take one for the team" as it were. It's not that I didn't care for Fire and Fury - it's actually a really cool game, it's just that it doesnt scale well for more than 4 guys or so.

So there ya have it, my take on why I love (for the most part), miniature games. They aren't perfect - though some do come real close for me, they are open to rules lawyering - though often it's unavoidable due to the nature of the game, the look absolutely fantastic - no denying that! and they provide a appropriate outlet for my creative tendencies that is satisfying and appealing.

How about you? Do you enjoy miniature games? Have you had the same kinds of experiences? Do they appeal to you for the same (or maybe different) reasons? Have you played with a miniature rules lawyer?

I wanna know!

Boardgamegeek Frustrations & My Solution

2006-04-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

Time to vent...

If you have done any significant kind of searching on the internet for information on Boardgames, chances are you have run across www.boardgamegeek.com - which is quite simply the most comprehensive database and community concerning boardgames you will find.

Boardgamegeek (or BGG as we affectionately call it) has listing on over 25,000 boardgames. Each listing has the standard information like the name, publisher, year it was made, ect... but it also has pictures of the game and it's components, files you can download like FAQ's, player aids, player made variants, BGG member ratings and comments, links to related web sites, marketplace and eBay listings and much, much more. You can enter all the games you own into the database and keep track of them and how you much you like (ordislike) them. Looking for missing parts? There is a section for that. Need a rule interpretation? Look into the game's individual forums for your answer. Wanna trade away a game you no longer play? Click the "For Trade: box for that game in your collection. There is so much more too, I'm only hitting the tip of the iceberg here.

Anyways, the site has continually been growing and changing in the last 5 years. New features, new changes - all kinds of things to make the site better and better. BGG quickly became my "home" page years ago and up until recently, it's been the ONE page I'd check 5 or 6 times a day to see what's new. It was like gaming Nirvana.

Yes, I said was. What has changed you ask? Unfortunately, I'm afraid the site is becoming less and less useful as it becomes more and more overloaded by the continually increasing demand on it's servers. Just this past weekend I tried continually to access the front page and the server gave me nothing but errors or "Database Busy" messages. Accessing the "Geek" this past month or so has continually been hit or miss with the constant "server not found" errors as well as experiencing painfully slow page loading - I'm telling you it feels like Im on a really bad dial-up service, and I know my DSL is faster than that!

I feel bad for the site's main administrator Scott Alden (or "Aldie" as he is affectionately known) as he is continually trying to keep things operational while still adding new features from the hundreds of member requests he gets weekly. He also has to continually be tweaking the existing ones to just keep everything running - yes just running at this point, I think the equipment is far too taxed to hope for "running smoothly".

Aldie quit his programming job to dedicate himself to BGG full time and his salary comes strictly from member support (of which far too few seem to do). He has slowly had to find other methods of generating income to pay for upgrading the hardware and adding new servers. The site is a behemoth at this point, too large for one guy (no matter how good he is!) to maintain and keep operational, yet I suspect there is not enough income to support him, let alone another dedicated employee. I think he must be very frustrated, as he is constantly against the 8-ball and appears to be losing a race to upgrade the hardware faster than the demand on it increases.

Maybe I'm over-reacting. Maybe it's just bad timing and once the new equipment is in, things will be ok again. I really hope that is the case. BGG is an extremely valuable resource for those in this hobby and losing it would be catastrophic. If the influx of new users continues as it has in the past and the percentage of supporters stays the same, I predict that it will be impossible to keep up with the demands of it's members under the present system of membership, there just wont be enough money to do so.

So what's a guy to do?

How can Aldie save his baby?

I think it's time for Draconian measures...

If you aren't a supporter of the Geek through a minimum $25 donation, you can't have full access to BGG.

Period.

New users who stumble across BGG through Google or somewhere else will only get to see the (as yet to be created) simplified game entry pages. You'll be able to search and find any game you want, but, you'll only see the basic information, a description, a rating or two and a few pictures. THAT'S IT.

If you can't fork over $25 bucks then you don't get access to the forums, you can't get to the marketplace, you can't have geekbuddies (friends whose opinions and comments you value and can track), you can't collect Geekgold (the site's funny money used to buy badges and avatars), you can't block any ads and most of all, you can't make comments and suggestions for more features, since you haven't paid for any of the existing ones.

$25 bucks is VERY Cheap for what the site provides and if everyone was a supporter, there would be a lot fewer problems, as money wouldn't be an issue. Aldie (and Derk too come to think of it) DESERVE to make a great living doing this, as it is - like any other great invention, something that filled a void that nobody knew existed.

BGG has a LOT of members. I'd say that there must be at least 10-15k members out of the upwards of 50k unique people that visit the site (per month), that would be willing to pay to make things better. At $25 a pop, 15 thousand members is $325,000 dollars a year. The wayI see it Aldie and Derkshould be pulling in 100k each, leaving 125k for equipment. It's that simple.

The truth of the matter is, the other 35k or so that come to BGG each month really don't care too much about how the menu's work, or if they can customize modules or not. Give them a 30 day free trial membership to see if they want to keep it. You wont keep everyone, but should that matter? I have many gamer friends that are heavily into games who only come to BGG once in a blue moon. When they do come here, they could care less about how many columns the game pages have or whether or not their post was moved to another forum.

They just want the site to load quickly like it should when they click on it.

Like me.

So, these things may not happen this year, or even the next. But when these changes are made, just remember where you heard it suggested first.

Long live the Geek!

(And special thanks to Aldie and Derk for bringing the Geek to life and making it what it is today).

How to Make a Gamer - A Work in Progress

2006-04-04T17:46:00.000-07:00

It's always somewhat amusing to me to see how people react when they find out I like to play games. I'm sure they think I mean kid's games - at least until I explain what kind of games I'm talking about. I always use it as a way to see if I can get another person into playing some of these great games and further grow the hobby. Just today, I was at Fed Ex sending some appraisal files to the home office. The lady behind the counter and I always chat for a few minutes and I mentioned that I had gone to Tahoe over the weekend to spend time with the family. After being surprised that we didnt go skiing, she asked what we did all weekend. The conversation continued on like this...

"Well, we watched movies, went sledding, played a lot of games... just kind of hung out as a family."

"Games? You mean like Monopoly or Life?"

"Well, not exactly. I like a lot of Euro-games that you probably have not heard of, but you'd most likely enjoy if you had played one."

"What's a Euro-game? Do you have to speak another language or something? "
*Laughs*

"No, a Euro-game is kind of an overall name that applies to the style of games that I play. Unlike a typical American game where you roll a die, move your token and do whatever it says on the space you land on, Euro-games offer you many choices each turn on what you can do and how you can work towards winning."

*Her eyes glaze over*
"That sounds complicated."
*Slight pause as she thinks about it*
Are they any fun?"

"They are a LOT more fun than your typical Monopoly or Life game. They just work a little differently. Usually the other players have something to do when it's not their turn. There is a lot more interaction and they are pretty easy to get into. I've converted most of my family and friends into fairly serious game players with them."

"Really?"

"Yep. They are really addicting - but in a good way. My sister and her husband started playing these a few years back when they would visit. Now she has a fairly large collection of favorites and is always letting me know of games she has seen and asks my opinion of them. Five years ago, you couldn't have forced her to play a game of Monopoly. My brother on the other hand, actively hated these games. He'd make comments as we'd play along the lines of Why are you wasting your time?' or That looks stupid!"

*Slight bemusement, but still a bit wary*
"So you didn't convert him I take it?"

*I laugh*
"No, he finally caved in and tried one after a few glasses of a good Merlot. Now he'll try almost anything and he actually went looking to buy a few for himself. He was really touched to get a game from me for Christmas."

*She cracks up at this, but definately was curious now*
"You're kidding. That's really cool."
*She thinks about it for a second and adds*
"My kids don't like playing games with me, I'm way too cutthroat with them - especially in Monopoly!"

*Both of us laugh*

"It's no fun to get eliminated in a game and have to wait for everyone else to finish. Maybe you should try one of my games."

"I'd have no idea what to do."

"Do you like playing Rummy?"

"The card game? Yeah, it's a lot of fun."

*Pulling out a pen to write some stuff down*
"Go to this store, and buy this game."

*Reading my note*
"Ticket to Ride? That's a game?"

"Yes, and a great one for you and the family. It's easy to learn and I'm sure you will enjoy it. It won't cost anymore than taking the family to a movie and you'll have the game to play again and again."

*Smiling brightly*
"Ok, thanks. I may just get this."

And I walked out. I don't know if she'll go get it or not. I hope so, but it might take a bit more persuasion. She was interested - especially after hearing that nobody gets eliminated during the game. I've decided to make her my next vict...errr... project.

We shall see.

I think this experience kinda sums up the way that most Americans feel about games. All they know is Monopoly or LIFE or some trivia game. The thought that there might be something else out there is intriguing. It's a tough nut to crack, but I have converted nearly everyone I know that had never heard of a Euro-game into a Boardgame geek.

Like me.

By the way...here's a picture of the game I recommended... Ticket to Ride.

Do you invest in the Stock Market? Do you like Movies? Have I got a game for you!

2006-04-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd start off by giving you a "free game".

Really.

It's something a little unusual and maybe calling it a game is a bit of a stretch, but the truth is, it's a lot of fun, it combines two of my favorite pastimes (Games & Movies) and it's addicting - which is always the sign of a good game.

I'm talking about the Hollywood Stock Exchange. It's a really odd combination of movies, movie stars and investing in the Stock Market. The premise is real similar to the actual Stock Exchange in Wall Street that you are most likely familiar with. You buy stocks in indivual movies or movie stars (actors and actresses) and hope that they go up in value instead of down. It's that simple.

(I'll leave out the part about the obsession with wondering how much "money" you've made and how you'll be checking it multiple times a day to see how well (or how poorly) you are doing!)

You simply need to click on the link at the right and sign up for a free account. Don't worry about spam or them selling your name or anything, like I said, I've been doing this for a looooong time and it's never been anything but fun. Pick a good username and be sure to change your password to something you'll remember right away as the one they give you will easily be forgotten.

Once you have an account, you'll get a gift of $2,000,000 to start investing with. You simply search for a movie title and when you find one you like you can purchase up to 50,000 shares of it.

Moviestocks come in a few catagories:

Concepts - Typically, they are drawn from whispers and rumors about a "new" project. These are pitches or ideas which are not in active development, and may not ever be turned into real movies.

Development - This is the second phase in the life of a Moviestock. Development begins once a project has attracted interest. Producers commission a script, talents are attached, and funds are being spent. There is no guarantee that the movie will be made simply because it has reached the development stage, but it definitely has a good chance.

Production - This is the third phase in the life of a film. Moviestocks that fall into this category are currently being filmed and has an excellent chance of reaching a theater near you.

Wrap - This is the fourth phase in the life of a Moviestock. Movies that have been "wrapped" have completed filming and post-production (effects, editing) is taking place. MovieStocks that are wrapped for three years without a release date will cash out at with a value of zero!

Release - This is the final phase in the life of a Moviestock. Movies in the release phase are currently in theaters. This is where traders put their money where their mouth is and find out what the buzz was about.

Of course, the earlier you buy a Moviestock, the cheaper it will be and the more potential profit you will earn. Then again, it could tank before it ever gets off the drawing board and then you are out of luck! (I've lost 1.7 million alone on the never to see the light of day sequel... Spaceballs 2!)

Moviestocks get put on "hold" the weekend of their release and all trading is suspended while the HSX (Hollywood Stock Exchange) awaits the Box Office returns late Sunday night. Moviestocks usually get adjusted to the rate of 2.8 times their box office take for the opening weekend.

For example, Basic Instinct 2 opened this past wekend and here are the numbers:

Basic Instinct 2 (BASC2) This is the HSX stock name.
Halted: H$19.73 (This was what it was selling for when the price was halted on Friday morning)
Weekend: $3.2M (This was the abyssmal weekend box office take)
Adjusted: H$8.96 (This was what the Moviestock adjusted to on Sunday night)

If you owned 50,000 shares on Friday, by Sunday you had lost H$ 538,500! (That H$ is HSX dollars by the way).

The fun is in trying to pick the winners and avoid the losers. Of course everyone owns shares of Spiderman 3 (currently being sold for H$203.16 per share, but not everyone can say they bought it for H$95.50 like I did!!)

The movie Starbonds work differently and there are other types of investments that you can make too. The HSX site is a real community as there are forums, reviews, discussions, market analysis tools, ect to help you get the most out of your time there. It really is a one of a kind website that will keep you ahead of your friends when it comes to hearing about the latest movies in the works in a real fun and interactive way.

Everyone starts with the same $2,000,000... the trick is to make it grow! (I'm currently at $343,000,000 and still going!).

Check it out, you'll have some fun.

Welcome to Nothing But Games!

2006-04-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

*Turns on the Light*

Hey! There you are. Welcome to Nothing But Games. I'm Scott and I'll be the one babbling about just about every game related topic I can think of. If you aren't sure what to expect, don't worry, you aren't the only one - I'm new to this too. I'll do my best to keep you interested and coming back for more.

I see they've just about finished the painting and the rest of the decor in here, so I'm gonna come back after they've cleaned up and get things going. Hope to see ya back in here in a little bit!