When I first started this blog, one of the main ideas was to present it in a format conducive for reading on portable devices, principally Palm Pilots. Since then that field has widened to include PocketPCs and other PDAs--even Palm Pilots aren't really called that anymore. The conduit for piping these contents to those devices was (and is) AvantGo. However, it's looking to me like that's a technological dead-end, with more portable devices accessing the net directly. I know how to check my email and browse a few portals like Yahoo and CNN using my mobile phone, for instance. With Treos and inevitable copycat devices merging handheld computers with mobile communications, that will no doubt be the way we'll read blogs or their descendants in the future. The not-too-distant future, either.
None of this technological crystal ball-gazing could have anything to do with the fact that I can't get MY computer to talk to MY Palm device using AvantGo, right? Right. Sheesh, it's been this way for a while, but recently I rolled up my sleeves, determined to straighten that out. I'll spare you the blow-by-blow involving help desks, emails to company reps, missing DLL files, and such. In the end I had to admit defeat, happy to just have a mostly-functional connection between the computers. I still can't get AvantGo to work (except on my home machine), but at least everything else does.
I tried looking into Plucker, a free license bit of software used for viewing web pages on PDAs. Its interface is smoother than when I first checked a few years ago, yet it's still kind of "techy" for someone who abandoned the leading edge a long time ago. In my first engineering job I used to go down to the company library over lunch hours to read PC Magazine, but now I need my 10yo son to explain which remote buttons to push to view a DVD. So Plucker ain't gonna work. (And maybe that sheds some light on my AvantGo troubles...)
It's been a while since I've written a session report, either here or to my local group's mailing list. I've just been busy lately, and I miss writing them. This is a little catchup. We've had a few Santa Clarita Boardgamer sessions, plus Bohnanza with my son last night. He loved it! Not only that, but the reason he liked it was the different choices/strategies/tactics in the game. All the boardgaming parents understand the significance of this--could it be that I can have a mini game group in my own family?! Hope springs eternal.
Working backward through some recent SCB sessions...
Last week we made a little more progress through our Essen order from Playme.de. Well, not really. We played Geschenkt and Oltremare, true, but those had been tried last week. Despite our group ordering three copies of Reef Encounter, we still haven't tried that. But we will. We wrapped up with an oldie but goodie, Razzia (the original, not the Ra revision).
Geschenkt
Waiting for a couple other SCBers to show up, we needed a quick opener. This fit the bill nicely. We had four players, two of us having played the week before. This time the bidding was better, tighter. There are times a card is painless or even beneficial to you . . . but you shouldn't take it at the first opportunity. As long as it's poison for the other players to take, you should try to push your luck, making them spend passing chips a round or two (or more) before scooping up your "gift." But pushing your luck too far can backfire, or at least spoil an opportunity. We play 3 rounds to give the luck a chance to even out a bit--seems like the sort of game that needs it. It's definitely short enough. I like it, just like I knew I would.
Oltremare
Hey, cool! After all the hype, I half-expected to be a little let down by this one. I wasn't! Ok, the box is as flimsy as the Abacus/Rio Grande card game boxes, the harbor tokens are too small, and I don't like the prestige point tracking with cards. Hell, I'll even mention that I wish the ship tokens looked like ships instead of cubes. But those are all nits for a game that works very well, both in the rules and the very well-designed cards. If they'd messed up the cards' graphic design (as many companies have done), we wouldn't be talking about this one. As it is, I hope it'll get more than just reprinted--I'd like to see a new production by a larger publisher. Our game was a full 5-player affair that lasted a little while. It'll play faster next time, no doubt. I'm very curious to see how it plays with just 2.
Razzia
I've owned and traded this game away. Twice. This most recent outing (with Ryan's copy) didn't make me want to go out and get it a third time, but I'm glad a copy exists in our group. It's a nice closer for when you've got a lot of folks. I think it plays up to 8 or something. And though I think they made some subtle but distinct improvements in the game with the closely-related Hick Hack in Gackelwack, the theming and production of this original is top-notch.
OK, I've got more games to mention, but this blog entry has waited three days already so I'm posting it now. More later, hopefully.
Rats, I was invited to game party today. In fact, it's still going on as I write this. I really wish I could've gone--besides all of those new games that recently arrived, this would've been a chance to play games with some folks I haven't seen in some time. Unfortunately for the boardgaming, this was also the weekend that my in-laws came down to visit. No getting away for me. The in-laws aren't game players themselves. Well, except for Mexican Train Dominoes. I know that game gets some flack from serious hobbyists, however I would've even been happy playing that. Although my mother-in-law suggested it, the game never happened.
The silver lining, though, is that I played a few games with my kids. Not only were they not bad, the games were generally well received. Even better, my son said he really liked a couple, and made some game requests. Wow! I still wish I could've gone to that game party today, but that helps take the sting away. (And has a lot of potential!)
First was Mission Command:Sea. I'd purchased all three of the Mission Command series during a KB Toys sale, but they'd remained in shrinkwrap for months. Now I needed to decide which to open & keep, and which to donate during a holiday toy drive. He expressed some interest in the air-to-air game first, but I steered him elsewhere. We've owned Screaming Eagles for a while, so I already know that one. (Though if he's interested, we'll definitely keep it and send Screaming Eagles back to ebay.) MC:Sea turned out to be pretty decent. Not great, but certainly entertaining. The production is nice, particularly for the price, and I like the missile rules.
That was yesterday. This morning I got both my kids to try King's Breakfast with me. I prefer Coloretto to this one, but I like it well enough. Recently I figured out that the theme and presentation may appeal to kids, so I thought it was time to buy one. Sam warmed up to it pretty quick, but Molly's interested faded about as fast. I think stripping some of the cards out when playing with two kids might've been a good idea. Now I'm just hoping they'd be willing to try again in a little while, especially Molly. Sometimes I think these games may be more fun after they've had a while to sink in. I know Cartagena didn't go over well with them when I borrowed a friend's copy, then some months later Sam requested it.
Before King's Breakfast I played two quick games of another new arrival, Rumis, with Sam. This we both liked straight away. Blokus is good, but a bit longer and more challenging. Rumis may not really be any lighter or shorter, although it felt that way to us. I'm looking forward to trying it with 3 or 4 players--this looks like a winner.
I'm just as excited about a couple games we didn't play. Both kids picked out a game to play with grandma & grandpa, in case we did that. Well, we didn't, and Molly's pick was our old staple, Apples to Apples Jr. Sam, however, picked Drunter & Druber. I'd tried it with the kids earlier in the week. Here again, I didn't think it really succeeded, but now here was Sam asking to play it. Wow! And if that weren't enough, he said he wanted to learn how to play "the bean game." That's Bohnanza, of course, which he heard the adults playing during Thanksgiving.Could family game sessions be in my future? I'd almost given up on that.
I've sort of stopped asking for games at Christmas. Not that my family won't buy them for me--Candy likes doing that, I think. But often the games I really want are OOP or only available overseas. Even when there's a domestic source, it pains me to pay such a premium (i.e.Funagain), even when I'm getting the game as a gift. For me, what works better is to just buy the games myself. Then I can be happy with a new pair of pants on Christmas morning. :-)
This week our post-Essen order from Playme.de arrived, so did one I placed at Gamefest, and I even sprung for a couple small wargames. It's meant a relative deluge of new arrivals. A couple were played at our recent Santa Clarita Boardgamer session, but I'm missing a great chance to play lots of new goodies at a game party this weekend. I'm stuck at home with visiting in-laws, rats.
The Essen order contained four copies of Reef Encounter. We made out like bandits on this one. Relatively speaking, I mean. Our net price, shipped from Germany, was just under $60 per game. That's more than I've ever paid for a game, but quite a bit cheaper than the $100+shipping that Funagain charges. (I sort of understand that Funagain still provides a service, it's just not a service for me. Not at those prices.) My copy of Reef Encounter has a packing error, unfortunately, and not the one the publisher already knows about. They included spare tokens for the known omissions, but I'll need to write them to ask for a couple more yellow cubes. The game looks great (I love the subtle, individual artwork on the many coral tiles), but we haven't tried it yet. I was even inspired to track down a copy of Blue Planet on DVD through ebay. I want to watch the same coral reef episode that inspired Richard Breese to design Reef Encounter.
The other much-anticipated game in the Essen order is Oltremare. The game comes in a flimsy little box, and with tiny components that recall the Clippers complaints. The cards are very nice, and that's the bulk of the game. My copy had strong solvent fumes coming from the cards--they need to air out! This was played at SCB this week, but I was at the other table. I'll get to it soon enough. I notice the rules say it plays down to 2 people, and Rick Heli's writeup recommends fewer than four people in the game. Does that mean it'll really work with just 2? Candy always liked Bohnanza, so I'm wondering if it might work as a couples' game.
I like getting the one good Adlung game each year. I've been very happy with Die Fugger, Canal Grande, and especially Meuterer and Verrater. This year the one worth getting is supposed to be Im Auftrag des Konigs, about the Knights of the Round Table. Struggling through 11 pages of Adlungese didn't sound fun on game night, so we didn't get to it just yet. (In fact, I didn't even skim the rules--maaaaybe they've improved their mastery of the English language.) I didn't think too much of the artwork, but others liked it.
One of the only new arrivals I did play was Geschenkt. I enjoy the clever, numeric fillers, like Coloretto, For Sale, 6 Nimmt, Flinke Pinke, etc. (Except Don--never liked that one.) Yeah, I know you can made this game yourself easily, using just cards & chips from some of the other games in my list! But I wanted to own my own, self-contained game. And support the publisher & designer. Sure enough, I liked it quite a bit. I didn't order it, but we also played Typo, the word game/6 Nimmt hybrid.
The Gamefest order hasn't even been unpacked yet. I ordered Alhambra, the German edition on supersale. Then I was on the slippery slope, needing to get a few more items to make the shipping cost worthwhile. Soon enough, I'd also ordered Carcassonne:The City, Rumis, King's Breakfast, and The Count of Carcassonne. I'm thinking maybe Alhambra could work with Candy, and I like it anyway. Carc:The City was a must-buy for me, it being a game I already like in a deluxe wooden edition (mostly). The Count I just got since I'm on a roll, owning all of the Carc expansions except The Cathars. (Truth is, I'm not too wild about Builders & Traders, preferring the original game or with Inns & Cathedrals.) We've had pretty good fun with Blokus, so I figured Rumis was another good buy (I might prefer it to Pueblo, too). And then King's Breakfast is one I should've bought a long time ago--I think my daughter will like it.
The wargames I picked up were lightweights, the kind I like best. First was Sergeants!, by S. Craig Taylor's and his "boutique" publisher, Lost Battalion Games. I found this through one of those BGG text ads, lured by the ultra-low price. Sure, you only get a paper map and few counters, but they're die-cut cardboard counters, reasonably well-done, and even comes with dice. Most of all, I recognize the designer's name from my favorite Smithsonian/American Heritage series from Avalon Hill. The guy knows how to make good, light wargames.
Later my RSS reader picked up the Consimworld announcement of a new issue of Panzerschreck. This is a really unique magazine, combining some insightful wargame commentary with one or two (or three!) mini-games built into each issue. Yeah, the components are minimalist, but the treatments and subjects chosen are thoughtful. The latest issue now has color maps, and three games. The "main" game is a tactical simulation of a Russian Civil War battle that took place outside Tsaritsyn (later Stalingrad). Next is Assault on Cherbourg, a mini wargame with just 36 counters (though Tsaritsyn only has 90). In the couple Normandy games I've played, Cherbourg is a mop-up operation after the Allies established their beachheads, take Caen, and push to St. Lo. I figure a game where this peninsula is the centerpiece more than an afterthought could be interesting. I'm bound to learn something, at least. There's more in the magazine, including an interview with Richard Berg. Even though I don't care for any of the guy's design style, he's still a very notable figure in wargaming. In fact, he may be the most notable figure remaining.