Amazon Game Day: Part One

Posted on October 19, 2018 by nathanbeeler

By Jonathan Franklin

“Something in the board game world is happening at Amazon, and the fine folks there invited us over to not talk about it.”

After weeks of planning, Nate Beeler and I showed up at a fancy new Amazon building at 2:50pm on October 11, 2018.

After a security process and greetings, we were ushered up to a conference room for a late lunch (Jonathan) and an early dinner (Nate).  The motley crew was made up of Nick and Kenny from Amazon, several well-known local audio/video stars, a team from a radio station, and two Opinionated Gamers.

Nate and I have been puzzling about this event since we arrived, expecting there to be ‘news’ about Amazon and board games. The day, described below in more detail, felt unformed yet not pointless.  So we kept asking ourselves, what was the point. What were they trying to say to us that they could not say directly?

Here are our guesses – they are supported only by the few tea leaves and bread crumbs Nick and Kenny left us with.  They could be completely wrong, counter to Amazon’s plans, or spot on and visionary. Only time, Nick, and Kenny can tell.

Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | 4 Comments

Dale Yu: First Impressions of The Forgotten City

Posted on October 19, 2018 by Dale Yu

The Forgotten City

  • Designer: Anton Liu
  • Publisher: TWO PLUS
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: 60-75 min
  • Times played: 1, with review copy provided by TWO PLUS/TBD

 

In the Forgotten City, player work to recover lost memories from the past – by building monuments, translating messages or creating miracles.   There is a central game board, on which terrain tiles are placed in setup. In a 4p game, player order is randomized and markers placed on the monument track in order.  The final 6 spaces are filled with monument tiles. Each player gets their own player board, and their leader meeple is placed on the central space of the main gameboard.  Players also start with 2 each of the 4 different resources as well as 6 coins. Miracle tiles and nightmare cards are randomly chosen and placed on the appropriate spots on the board.  One nightmare card is revealed to start the game. Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2018, First Impressions | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: First Impressions of Symphony No. 9

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Dale Yu

 

Symphony No. 9

  • Designers: Frank Liu, Hung-Yang Shen
  • Publisher: Moaideas Game Design
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 14+
  • Time: 60 minutes

Symphony No. 9 places you back in the world of classical music when it was not classical but rather the pop music of the time.  You are a wealthy person who patronizes the different major composers of the time.

There are 2 board areas in the game, the Royal Concert Board and the Career Tracks board.  Each row on the career tracks board is seeded with a composer on the left as well as a scoring tile on the right.  They can be randomized or there is a setup which allows you to have a fairly historical overview of the different composer’s careers.

Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2018, First Impressions | Leave a comment

Dale Yu: First Impressions of Mystical Seeds

Posted on October 18, 2018 by Dale Yu

 

Mystical Seeds

  • Designers: Chang Yu-Di, Gu Chun-Wei, Wang Liang
  • Publisher: TWO PLUS
  • Players:2-4
  • Time: 30-45 mins
  • Times played: 2, with review copy provided by TWO PLUS/TBD

Mystical Seeds is a new resource management game coming out at SPIEL 2018.  I was sent a preview copy, and while I’ve only played it twice – given the time crunch prior to the show, I thought that I’d go ahead and write it up now.

The game is one of resource management, players are trying to mix/match/graft together the seven different mystical seeds in order to gain prestige.  The seven different seeds are placed in the garden. The three Level 1 seeds (ovals) are found near the indentations in the exterior. At the start of the game, one of the Fairy markers is placed in each indentation.  Between each of these are the cross-shaped Level 2 seeds. Finally, in the middle are the star-shaped Level 3 seeds. Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2018, First Impressions | Leave a comment

Voices in Board Gaming: Interview with Talia Rosen

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Chris Wray
About Today’s Guest: This is the second interview in our “Voices in Board Gaming” series here on The Opinionated Gamers.  We’re starting the series with a couple of writers from this site.  Longtime readers will be familiar with today’s guest, Talia Rosen, who is one of the most-read writers in the history of this site.  Talia first started writing as NYC Gamer, then DC Gamer.  When I was getting into this hobby, Talia was one of the insightful voices that I loved reading, and I think many of the best articles to ever appear on OG are her work.  She took a sort-of break from gaming in the past few years, but she recently returned.  Below we talk about how Talia got into gaming, blogging over the years, and what’s changed on the game scene.
 —–
(1)  When did you get into the hobby?  What’s kept you in it?

I was always the kid trying to get family and friends to play board games with me growing up — games like Monopoly, Risk, Life, and Clue.  My dad also taught me Diplomacy as a child, which was another formative gaming experience. And of course I was friends with another kid in town mostly because he owned Fireball Island and its oft-overlooked cousin Crash Canyon…

I’ve just always loved strategy games.  They bring me such joy and engagement. In the mid-1990s, I got very much into Magic: The Gathering, which led me to a weekly club.  That’s where someone brought Settlers of Catan and I fell in love with German-style games. I ran out and picked up this ancient copy of Settlers shortly thereafter at the local comic book store.

From there, I studiously worked my way through almost all of the Spiel des Jahres winners before eventually falling in love with epic, narrative games like War of the Ring, Through the Ages, and Twilight Struggle.  I’ve stuck with the hobby for 20+ years because it’s simply my favorite way to spend time with friends and family. Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Interviews | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Voices in Board Gaming: Interview with Talia Rosen

Congratulations to Voodoo Prince, winner of the Trick-taking Guild’s 2017 “Golden Trickster” award!

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Chris Wray

Voodoo.png

A couple of months ago, I created the Trick-taking Guild on BoardGame Geek with the goals of (1) having a forum to discuss trick-taking games, (2) giving an annual award to the best trick taking games of that year, and (3) enjoying the camaraderie of enthusiasts of the genre.

After discussion and nominations, the Guild — which now has more than 120 members — opted to give an annual award to the best trick-taking game of the year.  All trick-taking games released in 2017 were eligible.  The guild’s annual award is called The Golden Trickster, a nod to David Parlett, who called games in the genre “tricksters” in his book A History of Card Games.  Continue reading →

Posted in Best Of, Commentary, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments