BGG est mort!

ARGH! the insanity. It's been down now for more than 24hrs. I'm actually going to have to go back and focus on other hobbies like playing guitar, etc.

Oh, and Happy New Year!

Wargames! ....rambling.....

(start ramble)
I thought I was exclusively a eurogamer back in 04 when I officially became addicted to this. That was so until the day that I played Wizard Kings. Since then I've played a lot more wargames despite the difficult logistics: usually long on rules, long on play, and generally just 2 player.

Well, this weekend I had the chance to play not one but TWO wargames in one day: Hannibal, and Combat Commander. Wow. Hannibal, despite its age, is a TRUE beauty. It's the grandaddy of the card-driven wargames (after We the People).

Tomorrow, I'll be playing BattleLore which I haven't even opened in over a year. Yeah! War!

Lance has become my partner in crime. We've played a few scenarios of Combat Commander, Hammer of the Scots, and Crusader Rex. Sweet. Now I'm trying to convert Andy and JD.....

Seriously though, I find wargames extremely appealing mainly for 2 reasons: they are representations of actual historical events, and they are simply TOTALLY engrossing. Oh, and just like some AT games like Battlestar Galactica, the games are all about the narrative.

(end ramble)

In other news, I can't host this week. The family will be in town. Thanks for being such an awesome group. Happy Holidays to all!

YES!!!!!!!

For those that are not able to game during the holidays or just want to get more gaming in.......I am able to host on Thurs. Mike is going to a work function that evening and has Fri. off so no time restrictions. I also live in League City only 5 min. from Rob. I do not have much in the way of 2 player games so I would prefer that at least two people can commit. Just let me know and I will email you with my address.

Lewis .....I found 2 errors in our playing Le Havre. I was playing way tooooo much interest. It is 1 no matter how many loan cards. Also brick and steel can always be used in place of clay and iron. Brick can also be converted to Brick to gain money. You just lose an action and some resources. Rember how many bricks that I converted and then got stuck with? I may not have needed a loan. And you can at any time sell back a building to pay off a loan. Those 3 rules would have really changed the game for me. I WANT TO PLAY AGAIN!

NO!!!!

I can't host this week. Bummer.... Next week is looking grim, too; parents will be in town, plus it's Christmas and stuff. I'm just going to have to force them to play Die Macher with me.

If anyone could play a wargame during the day on Monday or Tuesday of next week, let me know. I might be off those days. I would do anything from BattleLore, to War of the Ring, to Hammer of the Scots, to Combat Commander, to....

Gaming last thurs... bunch o' games

This week JD, Gaming Diva, Lance, and Marty swung by for some gaming. We started things off with a game of Stone Age (JD's game). It's one of the more recent worker placement games, where players are racing to develop the best stone age clan/family/posse... I tried a completely different strategy this time around (my second game), and fared much better. Still Marty ran away with it with his super score from artifacts that only he seemed to be willing to pay anything for. Oh, and he denied me out of spite, 28 points. No, I'm not bitter...nope...

Then we played a half game of Coloretto. Ironically it was the game of the night that we most had to go back to the rules for. We played two full games. I hadn't played it in over 1 yr, so it was refreshing to see this light filler again.

Postobello Market was next (JD's game). In this game players are rushing to place markets down on the board, almost a la Ticket to Ride sans cards, but avec a 'special pawn' (because I forgot the goofy name cops in England have) that marks the available spots on the map where you can play. It also has a variable actions per turn mechanic that works well. JD REALLY schooled us on how play well.

Denise and Marty had left by this point (11p'mish), so I suggested After the Flood, the 3hr-long meaty 3 player game by Martin Wallace. Of couse, I was kidding...or was I? So I pulled out King of Siam, which works really well with 3. It's one of my fav types of game: hard painful decisions EVERY single round, area control, short playing time (~40min). In this game, players are trying to spread the influence of 3 factions that are trying to gain control of Thailand and surrounding territories in the 1800's.... yeah! FUN! Seriously though, the game is good. To win, players themselves need to have the most influence on the party that has the most influence on the board. Now that I think of it, it feels like a lightning multiplayer 1960 The Making of the President (specially because you need to play cards to manipulate influence on the board)....even more reason to like this game. Oh, and Lance schooled us on this one by 'attacking' towards the end of the game, when JD and I were completely powerless.

We then played 2 games of Race for the Galaxy with the new cards and goal VP tiles. I don't know how I feel about the goal tiles. They seem 'distracting'. The way I usually play is by looking at my starting world, starting cards, and going with the flow generally falling into a military, produce/consume for the VP tokens, or settle/develop stragey. The goal cards don't always go with my choice of these three. I learned that if you want to do well, you may need to readjust your strategy to try to claim some of these goal tiles. Needless to say I struggled to claim them, specially in the second game when I was going for a military strategy, and the goal cards were none aligned with what I was going for. They were better for a settle/develop strategy, which Lance was going for, and beat us with. Using them is refreshing, but I'll probably continue to play most of my games without them. It is still a great expansion for the extra cards and the very very nifty solitaire game.

Last but not least, we finished the night with my fav filler, Fairy Tale. Lots of fun was had as usual. It's becoming less rare for these game nights to end after 1am... with the right gaming group, that is fine with me.

Gaming Thurs 12/11

Late? Sure. Better than nothing.

Gaming on Thurs at 7pm. Let me know if you can make it.

Anyone planning to do some holiday gaming? It would be nice to set up a World of Warcraft, or Arkham with expansions, or Starcraft, or Die Macher Rematch, or...

Is Ghost Stories cool?

I want to know more about the new game Ghost Stories. It appears that Marty is hosting it at OwlCon in Feb. 2009. Anyone have experience with this game? Is it similiar to Arkham Horror or Runebound in that you play against the system? I was sort of disappointed with Avalon Hill's Betrayal at the House on the Hill.

FINALLY got to play Le Havre!

Thanks Lewis for teaching. I actually like it better than Agricola and it seems to be easier to learn but boy is it long! Three players, three hours! I do not care for the solo version like I do with Agricola. Plus I think Agricola is much more forgiving. I still have to say, Puerto Rico is my favorite.

Bay Area Games Night(12/9)

Games at Cafe Express on Bay Area next Tuesday evening.
RSVP on Meetup.com