2011 Retrospective

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Talia Rosen

As the end of the year approaches, it’s a good time to look back at the past year in gaming.  2011 got off to a disappointing start with a slew of underwhelming Nurnberg releases that I discussed back in June.  Fortunately, the year recovered nicely during the summer and fall from the earlier depths of Artus, Strasbourg, and Pergamon.  2011 was helped out nicely by the belated yet very welcome release of the Master Set for Summoner Wars, along with a nice Essen crop in October, featuring great Czech, Polish, and French designs to complement the German staples.  And of course 2011 has been capped off by the 2nd edition of War of the Ring finally being released, which should help get this masterpiece into many more hands and onto many more tables.  While it’s too early to pick a game of the year since there are still new releases to be tried and many to be played at least a few more times, I’ll handicap some early favorites along with a brief look through the games that saw the table most frequently.

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A Party Game Fan’s Ultimate Holiday Party Game Guide

Posted on December 24, 2011 by nathanbeeler

By Nathan Beeler

Makin’ a List
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, if you are a party game fanatic like I am.  With friends and family around and gay happy parties to attend there are plenty of chances to rejoice in the lighter, sillier side of gaming.  Gone for the moment are strategic considerations, look ahead, and analysis paralysis, as they are replaced by quick thinking, creative energy, and hopefully a whole lot of laughter.  Party games offer a chance to create memorable moments and to revel in a kind of competition where the points don’t matter but good players will still give their all in pursuit of them.

Not all party games will elicit the proper response, however.  There are a whole lot of options out there to choose from, and the overwhelming majority of them are merely mediocre, if they aren’t actively painful.  As you are probably the person your non-gamer friends look toward to spice up a gathering, it is your responsibility to sift through the morass for those perfect gems and hidden treasures and bring them along to the party.  At the very least, as game sommelier you’ll want to tote enough good options to fit the mood and configuration of the attendees.  You owe it to your friends to come properly prepared.

So what should you take to a holiday party?  Standbys like Electronic Catchphrase and Electronic Taboo (if you are lucky enough to have one) are always fun, and should be included in any party game kit to act as a universal catchall.  Beyond that it is a matter of taste, of course.  What follows is an alphabetical list of what I would would use to line the edges of my party game bag of holding, and hopefully a bit of why these and not others.

Note: I’m not going to try to define what a party game is, nor am I going to defend any of these choices as party games.  For the purposes of this article, a game qualifies if it is anything I would take to a gathering where light entertainment was more important than anything else.  My tastes tend toward creativity and quick thinking based games (but not speed games, per se), but there should be plenty of options in here for everyone. Continue reading →

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EPIGO: A REVIEW by Mitchell Thomashow

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Dale Yu

I have always found great enjoyment playing abstract games. I am not a particularly good player, and I am more interested in observing the patterns, aesthetics, and game design than I am in revealing a penetrating analytic assessment. I appreciate the relative simplicity, elegance, and legacy of a great abstract game.

In the mid-1970’s when I had my first full-time job (and a bit of disposable income), and I discovered that my girlfriend (now wife of 32 years) would play games with me, I rekindled my childhood interest in games. When I discovered the British magazine Games and Puzzles, I was thrilled to find an assortment of British, French, and German games, many of which were abstract designs. Simultaneously I located Sid Sackson’s Gamut of Games in a used bookstore. The hunt was on! Over the next decade I tracked down what seemed to be the most interesting and unusual abstracts. I wasn’t obsessed, merely interested as any thorough researcher should be. Continue reading →

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iBoardgaming – Fall 2011

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Matt J Carlson

Yep, here in the US we have one more day before Winter officially starts, that means I squeak by with my Fall iBoardgaming column. There has been a huge influx of boardgame and strategy-related titles coming out on the app store this season, so much so that I’m a bit behind. Expect to see the “winter” edition coming in just a few weeks (I expect to catch up a bit on my portable gaming during holiday travel.) But don’t worry, if you scroll down to the end of the report, I’ll list some of the more notable recent releases and in-app expansion purchases that will get a bit more coverage next time around. While there are limits on how well a small electronic screen can recreate a boardgame setting, every time I reflect on how many great boardgames I have available to me, simply by picking up my iPad, I’m floored. When I go visiting this Christmas I may bring one or two recent titles I’m currently enamored with, but I know I’ll have dozens of extremely good eurogames on hand as a backup on my iPad.

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Patrick Brennan: My Best Of 2011

Posted on December 20, 2011 by pfbrennan

Before I start gabbing on about the year just been, I should explain how I can whip out my end-of-year numbers before end-of-year. My gaming year ends (and re-sets) on my mid-December birthday. I used to strive to hit 100 new games each year, and usually managed to creep over the line each December. Because I’d only just make it, I’d then worry about hitting 100 next year (all in a good-hearted , don’t really care, but it’s fun to have a goal type way) so any games bought for my birthday and Christmas would sit on the shelves waiting for New Year’s Day. Much to the angst and chaffing of my gaming buddies who were denied the goodness of newness for the somewhat whimsical satisfaction of meeting an arbitrary number. When the suggestion came from said buddies to declare my birthday as year end, it was met with acclaim as a beautiful compromise – gaming pleasure wasn’t delayed, numbers could be met! As it turned out, that was the last year I ever struggled to hit 100 new games. But the tradition remains.

Anyway, my 2011 numbers are nearly all face to face and don’t include expansions: 182 new titles played, 477 different titles played, 1006 games played.

Games I’ve played 10+ times (8, in order): Lord Of The Rings: The Card Game, Memoir’ 44, 7 Wonders, Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Bluff, The Resistance, San Juan, Pandemic.

Games I’ve played 5-9 times (28): Eminent Domain, Dominion, Claustrophobia, Backgammon, Castle Panic, Schnappchen Jagd, Rallyman, Innovation, Villa Paletti, Mousquetaires du Roy, St Petersburg, Ascension: Chronicle Of The Godslayer, Cities, De Vulgari Eloquentia, Ra: The Dice Game, Geschenkt, Fairy Tale, Dragonheart, Puerto Rico, Roma, Valdora, Tichu, Lords Of Scotland, World Without End, LotR: The Confrontation, Feurio, Finito, Luna.

With that as a background, of those games played for the first time this year, let’s dole out some awards. Some of this replicates a write-up earlier in the year that was covering 2010 releases, but so be it. It also doesn’t include a lot in the way of current Essen releases. Sorry about that. It takes a while for these to trickle their way down to Australia. On the upside, by the time they get here, most of them have been reviewed enough to allow you to pick up the cream and avoid the duds, so that’s a bunch of money saved. Anyway, to the awards …

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Japanese Duo – Dazzle & Khmer

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Talia Rosen

The Japanese games that tend to make a splash in the U.S. market are those with zany themes and components.  Games like String Railway, Gra Gra Company, and Magical Athlete are the ones that get people’s attention.  But I’d like to draw your attention for a moment to two excellent Japanese card games that are neither wacky nor well-known.  They are Dazzle and Khmer, both released by the publisher Saien in 2010.

Both are two-player card games and each takes roughly 20 minutes to play.  I’d consider them in the same vein as games like Jaipur, Biblios, Lost Cities, Odin’s Ravens, and the like… except that far fewer people actually own them or are even aware of them.  I’d like to do what I can to rectify this by explaining what you’re missing by not having these two gems readily available.

Dazzle

Game Play.  Dazzle is played with a deck of 48 cards in four suits (Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue) with cards ranging in value from 1 to 3.  Before the game begins the deck is divided in half through a slightly funky method such that each player has the same number of cards of each value in his or her stack.  The players each draw 8 cards from their stack into their hand.  On your turn you pick any 2 cards from your hand to give to your opponent face up.  Your opponent then selects one of the cards to add to the VP value of that card’s color and the other card to add to his or her own strength toward winning that card’s color.  You then refill your hand back up to 8 cards and go back and forth until all cards have been used in this manner.

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