The Sunday Miscellanea - Sushi Roll and Felithian Factories

Just before the weekend, the Lake Geneva lunchtime crew played Sushi Roll with Brad, Tom Wham, and Larry Hamilton, of Follow Me and Die, at Culver's in Lake Geneva, WI.

Then we headed back to Lake Geneva Games to playtest Tom Wham's Felithian Factories with Tom, Larry, and myself.

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Systems Saturday - Battling Space Ships by Tom Wham

Brad and I joined Tom Wham for a game of Battling Space Ships.  Recently, Dave Conant took the rules Tom has been tweaking for a while and gave them the Game Crafters treatment, so Tom would have a prototype.  Tom was quick to point out this one wasn't really quite ready but I found it to be pretty well complete.  A couple of clarifications and some physical component adjustments, along with an art upgrade, and this one will be good to go, I think!

In Battling Space Ships, each player builds a number of ship in their dock attempting to send them out on cargo runs, send them to disrupt the cargo runs of other players, or to engage in space piracy in the shipping lanes against random deck-drawn ships.  Each turn, a player collects for cargo shipped the previous turn then draw cards face up from the main deck up to the number of players plus one.  The active layer then selects a card from the cards drawn as do the rest of the players in clockwise order.  All players may they build or upgrade any ships in the space dock.  Finally, the active player may choose to send any of his completed ships on a cargo run or out to battle.  Once someone builds three complete ships, the active player finishes their turn and the round is over, so victory points are tallied.  A game consists of two rounds.  Ship size gleans victory points, as does the number of ships and some special ship parts give bonuses.  These add to whatever was gained from cargo runs and battling during turns (which are scored right away) and the highest score wins.

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Tabletopper Friday - Lake Geneva May 2019 Tabletopping

As May 2019 comes to a close, I find myself at Nexus Game Fair, which is now in Brookfield, WI.  I think this will prove to be a good move for this convention.  I've been unable to go for more than a day the last couple of years but worked out some vacation time to go for a little longer this year but more on that next week.  For this post, I want to just look back over a few of the games I played that I didn't highlight along the way.  for a few of them, I didn't get pictures but I'll be more attentive next time, I hope.  Earlier this week, Jesse broke out his newly acquire copy of Machi Koro (2012).  It's a fast, little card game with some interesting challenges, an engine-building component, and just enough ways to mitigate the dice rolling aspect to keep it from feeling like you need to be lucky to win.  Granted, being lucky can help but it can be overcome by solid strategy, so I enjoyed it.  I guess Anthony, Rick, Jesse, and I owe some thanks to Dennis for putting it in the Blind Auction for Jesse to win.

We got Rise of Augustus (2013) back to the table early this month.  I like to call this Roman Bingo.  It's amazing how tense it can get hoping your needed symbol is drawn from the bag before someone else gets what they need.  Great fun!

I've already mentioned Architects of the West Kingdom (2018) in other posts and I played it a lot the last couple of months but I don't doubt I will play it more throughout the summer.  It's a clever game but I think it is going to need some expansions to keep it fresh beyond a few more plays.  In this instance, we were happy Tom's longtime friend Mike Bell was in town to join us.  Don't ask him what the "A" on his hat stands for because it seems to change with some frequency.  Later in the month, but before getting in that game at the Pizza Ranch, Tom, Brad, and I knocked out yet another game of Architects!

There was also a good deal of Love Letter, Magic the Gathering, Stone Age, and more squeezed in at one time or another but it's time to gear up for a lot of boardgaming and card play at Nexus Game Fair, so I say, So long," to May and look forward to gaming in June.  Go, Cubbies!

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Nostalgia Thursday - Fief: France 1429 (2015)

Of course, I've played and posted about Fief: France 1429 (2015) before but it feels like forever since I've played so when I managed to wrangle a Sunday off so I could join Wayne and the gang at A Gathering of Gamers at the Elkhorn Pizza Ranch on Third Sunday, and when he further decided Fief was hitting the table, I jumped to grab one of the open seats.

The reason this under Nostalgia Thursday is because it is based on a game that was first published as Fief (1981), revised and republished as Fief 2 (1989), trotted out again as the revised and streamlined Fief (2011), then finally upgraded and published in its current rendition.  I'll describe our Fief game a bit more toward the end of this post but first allow me to recap some of what else what played at A Gathering of Gamers in May.

When I arrived just after 11 am, Wayne had Francis Drake (2013) ready to go with Curtis, Creed, and Rob.  I've never had much luck with this game, so I didn't jump in on it and opted to join some others for an early game of something else, planning to rejoin that table for Fief in the second half of the day.

Instead, my day began with a game of Architects of the West Kingdom (2018), which I've played quite a bit lately but still enjoy quite a bit.  I played with Tom Wham along with Julie and Chris who I love gaming with whenever I can.  They're both tough opponents whether we play something we've played before or even something new to them!

Robie had a crew playing Clank! In Space! (2017) which I have yet to play but looks like a lot of fun.

Rich, Carl, and John joined one another for some Root (2018) which John can't seem to get enough of.

Laura, Nancy, Joe, James, and Brad were adding in some tech to a game of something, perhaps, Cthulhu-esque, or maybe horror-oriented, I am not sure.

Wendy presented a mystery game to Harold and company a bit later but first played some Power Grid (2004).

But, finally, Wayne got Fief: France 1429 (2015) to the table and I crowded Wayne's opening position to pressure him into an early alliance.  My penchant for only drawing female nobles, and the lack of them early on elsewhere in the game, helped me convince him to wed one of his lords to my first lady.  Because he also had military pressure from the far side of the board, he never thought it would suit him to break our alliance, and we wound up with a shared victory.  Creed and Curtis both played great for their first time but were severely hindered by bad dice rolls both during conflicts and when resolving events.  I think their lead units were either decimated by famine or stymied by bad weather two out of every three turns.  It left Wayne and me the opportunity to build a tremendous economy in the west and top out our armies, then seize the throne for a final victory point.  It was a trial by fire for those two fellas and I dare say they will be out for blood when next we meet.

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The Sunday Miscellanea - Alien Frontiers (2010)

We've had another go at Alien Frontiers (2010) recently with just the basic set.  Of those of us who had played before, we agreed that having at least the Expansion of the Agenda cards would be a good thing to keep the final push of the game less of a foregone conclusion.  But we played two in a row and it highlighted some of what this game does well because the expansions were not available.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Do you have what it takes to be a deep space colonist? An alien frontier awaits the brave and daring! This new planet will be harsh, but if you have the skills to manage your resources, build a fleet, research alien life, and settle colonies, the world can be yours.

Alien Frontiers is a game of resource management and planetary development for two to four players. During the game you will utilize orbital facilities and alien technology to build colony domes in strategic locations to control the newly discovered world.

The game board shows the planet, its moon, the stations in orbit around the planet, and the solar system’s star. The dice you are given at the start of the game represent the space ships in your fleet. You will assign these ships to the orbital facilities in order to earn resources, expand your fleet, and colonize the planet.

As the game progresses, you will place your colony tokens on the planet to represent the amount of control you have over each territory. Those territories exert influence over specific orbital facilities and, if you control a territory, you are able to utilize that sway to your advantage.

The planet was once the home of an alien race and they left behind a wondrous artifact in orbit. Using your fleet to explore the artifact, you will discover amazing alien technologies that you can use to advance your cause.

Winning the game will require careful consideration as you assign your fleet, integrate the alien technology and territory influences into your expansion plans, and block your opponents from building colonies of their own. Do you have what it takes to conquer an alien frontier?

Roll and place your dice to gain advantages over your opponent and block them out of useful areas of the board. Use Alien Tech cards to manipulate your dice rolls and territory bonuses to break the rules. Steal resources, overtake territories, and do whatever it takes to get your colonies on the map first! Don't dream it'll be easy, though, because the other players will be trying to do the same thing.

What I feel was noted when experienced players play the basic game on its own is the importance of the midgame and a need to keep all players in check lest one see find an inexorable path into the end game with an advantage.  Mind you, it will happen anyway, but that player will need to be more subtle setting it up, something I hadn't been aware was possible because the basic game is seemingly as transparent as any game could be.  There is no hidden player knowledge except for whatever strategy they have in mind.  If you have the game, even with expansions, try the basic game again with fresh eyes.

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Systems Saturday - Roll Through the Ages - Iron Age (2014)

Here's one I hadn't played before but often wished I had (so many games, so little time!) called Roll Through the Ages - Iron Age (2014).  It's from a small but potentially growing line of similarly named Roll Through the Ages games and, from what I've heard, this does a great job of reimplementing the simple mechanics introduced in the Bronze Age version, adding some complexity though it sacrifices some time on the altar.  I'm fine with that.  I prefer a more complex game and don't mind a game taking more than a half hour.  I'm not often rushed for time to play a game and prefer a quick card game for when I am.  This is mainly a dice game but with the small resources board and reference sheets, it really becomes a board game as much as other wise.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age, a sequel to the highly-awarded Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age, lets you build an Iron Age civilization in under an hour! Do you build provinces, raise armies, and conquer barbarians or build ports and ships to gain trade goods? Explore the strategies of Greece, Phoenicia, and Rome as you erect monuments, fend off disasters, and strive to feed your people.

Roll Through the Ages: The Iron Age gives players different ways to build their empires: the Trade and Naval strategies of the Phoenicians, the conquests of Alexander the Great, and the engineering prowess and gradual absorption of new provinces by the Roman Republic.

Grab those dice — including the Fate die — and prepare to build the greatest empire as you continue to roll through the ages!

Build fast and strong is the strategy I adopted in this game, forgoing the comfort of my population to gain might and dominate militarily.  It's works pretty well but neglecting the monuments early on is unwise as a handful of points for getting one first can be the difference in the final scores.  This is a winner.  I'll be watching for more of these too.

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A look under the hood of various Games, Rules and Systems.

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Tabletopper Friday - Colt Express, Steam Park, & Seasons

Three games (of many!) we have on the shelf at Lake Geneva Games that I do not know how to play include Colt Express, Steam Park, and Seasons.  I've heard good things about each of them so I thought I'd collect the how to play videos on each from The Dragon Table YouTube channel to familiarize myself with them.  First up, Colt Express (2014).  Enjoy!

Also, have a look at the video on Steam Park (2013).

Finally, check out how to play Seasons (2012).

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Nostalgia Thursday - Not-So-Forgotten Games

Over on mentalfloss.com, they share "14 Justifiably Forgotten Milton Bradley Board Games" here.

Also, on metv.com, they remind us of "13 wacky, forgotten board games from the 1960s" here.

Finally, on theblaze.com, they tell of "The Awesome Story About a Group of Men Who Have Been Playing a Single Game of Tag for 23 Years" here.

Nostalgia Thursday on MFWARS.com 

Focusing on the roots of current tabletop gaming
with an eye toward the last century and before.

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Wargaming Wednesday - Glass Chess Set

I've mentioned before that I am looking to eventually pick up a set of chess playing pieces but I have found something extremely affordable to tide me over.  Recently, when stopping in a Goodwill Store to check for gaming and book bargains, I stumbled across a glass chess set for two dollars.  I've seen these before but had ignored them yet this time I looked more closely.  It was complete and intact, so I grabbed it and brought it home, setting it up on top of the board I already have, since it fits.  This isn't the set I plan to get eventually but it is something for the time being to have handy.

Although some sets of glass chess pieces can run $50 or more like here on Amazon.

A quick eBay search shows sets similar to the one I picked up running less than ten bucks apiece here.

Wargaming Wednesday on MFWARS.com 

A closer examination of board and miniatures Wargaming.

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Tabletopper Friday - Alien Frontiers (2010)

Back to the basic game of Alien Frontiers (2010) but with four players, two of them new.  Worked out great and everyone seemed in the running until the end when someone made that final push.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Do you have what it takes to be a deep space colonist? An alien frontier awaits the brave and daring! This new planet will be harsh, but if you have the skills to manage your resources, build a fleet, research alien life, and settle colonies, the world can be yours.

Alien Frontiers is a game of resource management and planetary development for two to four players. During the game you will utilize orbital facilities and alien technology to build colony domes in strategic locations to control the newly discovered world.

The game board shows the planet, its moon, the stations in orbit around the planet, and the solar system’s star. The dice you are given at the start of the game represent the space ships in your fleet. You will assign these ships to the orbital facilities in order to earn resources, expand your fleet, and colonize the planet.

As the game progresses, you will place your colony tokens on the planet to represent the amount of control you have over each territory. Those territories exert influence over specific orbital facilities and, if you control a territory, you are able to utilize that sway to your advantage.

The planet was once the home of an alien race and they left behind a wondrous artifact in orbit. Using your fleet to explore the artifact, you will discover amazing alien technologies that you can use to advance your cause.

Winning the game will require careful consideration as you assign your fleet, integrate the alien technology and territory influences into your expansion plans, and block your opponents from building colonies of their own. Do you have what it takes to conquer an alien frontier?

Roll and place your dice to gain advantages over your opponent and block them out of useful areas of the board. Use Alien Tech cards to manipulate your dice rolls and territory bonuses to break the rules. Steal resources, overtake territories, and do whatever it takes to get your colonies on the map first! Don't dream it'll be easy, though, because the other players will be trying to do the same thing.

I love the basic game for teaching but don't think it is too much to add in the agenda cards if nothing else, even with new players.  We'll have to try this out going forward.

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Tabletopper Friday - Glass Road (2013)

Enjoyed another game of Uwe Rosenberg's Glass Road (2013) earlier this week.  I still feel it is one of the best of the Harvest Series but now I want to go back and play a game or two of Le Havre.  Maybe even a game of Caverna, though I dread the setup for the latter.  Agricola seems a great starter game for the series but I am not sure it has the legs to see the game table much once the others have been introduced.  I still have yet to play At the Gates of Loyang (2009) but since that one is early in the series, I am wondering if it will interest me as much as the later games.  I still have high hopes for Fields of Arle (2014).  Ora et Labora feels like my favorite, though Glass Road is a dlose third (with Le Havre in second).

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Glass Road is a game that commemorates the 700-year-old tradition of glass-making in the Bavarian Forest. (Today the Glass Road is a route through the Bavarian Forest that takes visitors to many of the old glass houses and museums of that region.) You must skillfully manage your glass and brick production in order to build the right structures that help you to keep your business flowing. Cut the forest to keep the fires burning in the ovens, and spread and remove ponds, pits and groves to supply yourself with the items you need. Fifteen specialists are there at your side to carry out your orders...

The game consists of four building periods. Each player has an identical set of fifteen specialist cards, and each specialist comes with two abilities. At the beginning of each building period, each player needs to choose a hand of five specialists. If he then plays a specialist that no other player has remaining in his hand, he may use both abilities of that card; if two or more players play the same specialist, each of them may use only one of the two abilities. Exploiting the abilities of the specialists lets you collect resources, lay out new landscape tiles (e.g., ponds and pits), and build a variety of buildings. There are three types of buildings:

1. Processing buildings 

2. Immediate buildings with a one-time effect 

3. Buildings that provide bonus points at the end of the game for various accomplishments

Mastering the balance of knowing the best specialist card to play and being flexible about when you play it – together with assembling a clever combination of buildings – is the key to this game.

The double-rondel mechanic is very intriguing though I find it might distract me a bit from the acquisitions and the playing areas of my opponents.  Not a fault of the game, just me getting too deep in my own head space and not watching down field.  It didn't actually hurt my game play this time because we played two players and we were not competing for the same things.  In a game with more players I would have likely missed getting a few things and been scooped by others.

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Tabletopper Friday - Legendary Encounters (Alien, 2014)

It had been a while since I had played a full-on deckbuilding game when Norm busted out Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game (2014).  A few of the guys were playing the first couple of scenarios for Open Boardgaming Thursday at Lake Geneva Games and then I tagged in for the third round for Grant, to join Norm, John, and Dennis.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game, based on the four movies of the Alien series, is a fully cooperative game with original art. While based on the Marvel superheroes version of Legendary, the two games will be compatible but cannot be fully integrated.

Legendary Encounters is a deck-building game in the same family as Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game, but now players must cooperate in order to survive against hordes of aliens. Taking on the role of protagonists such as Ripley, Dallas, Bishop and Corporal Hicks, players take turns recruiting cards for their deck from a central selection in order to improve their deck and defeat Xenomorph cards that are added to the central game board

This seems like a very balanced game with tension throughout.  There was no point at which I thought we would get out ahead of the ongoing crisis nor where I lost all hope.  In the end, it came down to some well-played cards and timing but we managed to eke out a victory in the final moments.  I'll need to play this again, perhaps a different themed version of it, to really understand more of the nuances but my gut reaction from a single play is that this needs to see the tabletop more often.

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Systems Saturday - Glass Road (2013) Revisited

I just posted about Uwe Rosenberg's Glass Road (2013) but it's been seeing the table a lot in quick succession, so let's look more closely at it.  We swiftly got to play another four player game of this gem and it proved out tremendously.  Gameplay was swift even with two new players, it was simple to teach, and scoring turned out to range about the same as the previous game.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Glass Road is a game that commemorates the 700-year-old tradition of glass-making in the Bavarian Forest. (Today the Glass Road is a route through the Bavarian Forest that takes visitors to many of the old glass houses and museums of that region.) You must skillfully manage your glass and brick production in order to build the right structures that help you to keep your business flowing. Cut the forest to keep the fires burning in the ovens, and spread and remove ponds, pits and groves to supply yourself with the items you need. Fifteen specialists are there at your side to carry out your orders...

The game consists of four building periods. Each player has an identical set of fifteen specialist cards, and each specialist comes with two abilities. At the beginning of each building period, each player needs to choose a hand of five specialists. If he then plays a specialist that no other player has remaining in his hand, he may use both abilities of that card; if two or more players play the same specialist, each of them may use only one of the two abilities. Exploiting the abilities of the specialists lets you collect resources, lay out new landscape tiles (e.g., ponds and pits), and build a variety of buildings. There are three types of buildings:

1. Processing buildings 

2. Immediate buildings with a one-time effect 

3. Buildings that provide bonus points at the end of the game for various accomplishments

Mastering the balance of knowing the best specialist card to play and being flexible about when you play it – together with assembling a clever combination of buildings – is the key to this game.

This time around I focused less on developments that gave me set points during end-of-game scoring and more on points for resources at the end.  I also dabbled a bit with the private stock of developments though I used them to fuel a blue-backed action creating a nice private engine.  I might try to do more of this next game as it helped keep me from scrambling during play for certain resources.

Systems Saturday on MFWARS.com 

A look under the hood of various Games, Rules and Systems.

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Tabletopper Friday - Glass Road (2013)

The Uwe Rosenberg Harvest Series of games have been particularly popular around here, in large part because Tom Wham finds them challenging but mainly because we all find them so.  While he enjoys a good solo game, and says this one works very well in that capacity, Tom loves pressing us to try new games and play the heck out of the ones we all like.  Most recently, Tom added Glass Road (2013) to his collection and we all gave it a go.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Glass Road is a game that commemorates the 700-year-old tradition of glass-making in the Bavarian Forest. (Today the Glass Road is a route through the Bavarian Forest that takes visitors to many of the old glass houses and museums of that region.) You must skillfully manage your glass and brick production in order to build the right structures that help you to keep your business flowing. Cut the forest to keep the fires burning in the ovens, and spread and remove ponds, pits and groves to supply yourself with the items you need. Fifteen specialists are there at your side to carry out your orders...

The game consists of four building periods. Each player has an identical set of fifteen specialist cards, and each specialist comes with two abilities. At the beginning of each building period, each player needs to choose a hand of five specialists. If he then plays a specialist that no other player has remaining in his hand, he may use both abilities of that card; if two or more players play the same specialist, each of them may use only one of the two abilities. Exploiting the abilities of the specialists lets you collect resources, lay out new landscape tiles (e.g., ponds and pits), and build a variety of buildings. There are three types of buildings:

1. Processing buildings2. Immediate buildings with a one-time effect3. Buildings that provide bonus points at the end of the game for various accomplishments

Mastering the balance of knowing the best specialist card to play and being flexible about when you play it – together with assembling a clever combination of buildings – is the key to this game.

The rondels (resource wheels) are used similarly in this game to Ora et Labora but there are two and they each have competing elements.  We immediately were intrigued with how this enhanced gameplay and it took only a little getting used to.  This is one of the quickest of the Rosenberg games but doesn't feel like you only got started when it ends, as I felt with Agricola.  While there is less direct interaction during play, everyone is building from the same pool of land development tiles so it can be competitive.  Timing is key.  Great game.  One of my favorites of his games.

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Nostalgia Thursday - Dungeon! (1975)

It's been over 40 years since Dungeon (1975) was first published by TSR.  I've written a bit about it before but wanted to share some pics of the 1992 version we have on the games library shelves at Lake Geneva Games.

I think this needs to hit the table soon, perhaps later today, when some of the gang shows up for Thursday Open Boardgaming.

Of course, if Ernie is in the house, he might be tough to beat since he probably played it even before it was published.

Nostalgia Thursday on MFWARS.com 

Focusing on the roots of current tabletop gaming
with an eye toward the last century and before.

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