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 May 8, 2008
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Kris Hall
Kris Hall's collected columns for BGN, with a new one appearing each Friday. Kris' collected columns from Gone Gaming are also available on BGN. Here's what Kris has to say about himself:
Kris Hall has been interested in wargames for decades, but his interest in designer games increased after joining the Appalachian Gamers, the small but active gaming group that is centered in Charleston, West Virginia. Kris grew up in Rhode Island, and has lived in New Jersey, Manhattan, Los Angeles; he now resides in Hurricane, West Virginia with his wife, two daughters, one dog, five cats, fish, turtle, hermit crabs, and one White’s tree frog.
Along with gaming, Kris enjoys white water rafting, although he gets to go rafting about as often as Mitt Romney goes hunting. Kris has trekked in the Himalayas and has seen (not climbed) Mount Everest.
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HeadlinesMay 9, 2008 - Kris Hall: Pirate ImpressionsMay 2, 2008 - Kris Hall: Visit the Neighbors April 25, 2008 - Kris Hall: Holes in the Line April 18, 2008 - Kris Hall: Vinci--A Game that Should Be Reprinted April 11, 2008 - Kris Hall: Acceptable Luck April 4, 2008 - Kris Hall: Smart Games vs Forgiving Games March 28, 2008 - Kris Hall: John Poniske and Lincoln’s War March 21, 2008 - Kris Hall: Times Up! Stop Laughing! March 14, 2008 - Kris Hall: Short Takes March 7, 2008 - Kris Hall: Jonathan Degann, Game Concepts, and the Tools of Victory February 29, 2008 - Kris Hall: Michael Tan and Sturm Europa! February 22, 2008 - Kris Hall: Game Review – The Price of Freedom |
Articles
Kris Hall: Pirate Impressions
By pure coincidence, my family came into possession of two pirate games in the last three weeks. Some days ago, my eldest daughter was given the game Pirateology as a belated birthday gift, and then my copy of GMT’s Blackbeard arrived this week. Both games have a fine physical production, but both play very differently.
Kris Hall: Visit the Neighbors
How many organized gaming groups are there in the USA? I have no idea, and no idea on how to find out.
Not that it matters to most gamers. A gaming group in the next county might as well be on the other side of the country for all the interaction that goes on between neighboring groups. Most gamers interact face-to-face with members of other gaming groups at conventions or not at all.
Kris Hall: Holes in the Line
There was a time when, if someone mentioned the phrase “war game,” gamers would immediately think of hex-grid maps and cardboard counters. Avalon Hill and SPI and their smaller brethren thrived for a while by churning out hundreds of games with zones of control and combat results tables.
Nowadays, I can think of at least two major sub-genres of the war game genre, and neither one is necessarily dependent on hex-grid maps or cardboard counters. I’m talking about card-driven war games and wooden block war games. Both these sub-genres are currently popular, and show no signs of becoming less so. In fact, many of the most popular conflicts for war gamers are well-covered by games in these categories. If you’ve been following my columns over the last few weeks, then you know that there are two different grand-strategic card-driven war games about the American Civil War (For the People, and The Price of Freedom) with yet another on the way (Lincoln’s War).
But today I want to talk about two popular conflicts that are not covered by games in both of these genres, and how surprisingly that is.
Kris Hall: Vinci--A Game that Should Be Reprinted
The Wednesday night meeting of the Appalachian Boardgamers turned out to be about just one game (at least for me; the night owls maybe played another): Vinci. We had six players participating in this civilization-and-conquest game. A couple of the guys hadn’t played Vinci before, and they soon joined the ranks of the game’s admirers. The worst thing that you can say about Vinci is that it is out of print.
Vinci was designed by Philippe Keyaerts and published by Descartes in 1999. I believe it has been a fairly popular game, and has some truly devoted fans who have played it dozens or even hundreds of times. Ted Cheatham likes to describe Vinci as “History of the World in two hours.” This is an accurate hint at the genre of the game, but unlike History of the World, Vinci is not a dice-fest.
Kris Hall: Acceptable Luck
Many of the Appalachian Gamers are at the Gathering, and so the woebegone stay-behinds had a smaller and shorter-than-usual meeting this week. One game we played was Pillars of the Earth. Dave didn’t exactly object to this game, but he let it be known that it has forfeited his respect because of the amount of luck in the game.
As he put it: “Two guys can play decently the whole game, and come into the last turn with the same amount of money and victory points, and the winner will be determined by whose master builder comes out of the bag first.”
I’m not saying Dave is wrong. In fact, he is probably correct, at least in some of the Pillars games we have played. But my question today is what makes luck objectionable in some games, and acceptable in others? What factors make luck an asset or a flaw in a game? I know Dave enjoys many games with a strong luck element, including Fire & Axe, a game in which a player can lose all chance of winning by a run of bad die rolls when attacking a city.
Kris Hall: Smart Games vs Forgiving Games
Wednesday night the Appalachian Gamers almost accidentally ended up playing two games that had a lot in common—at least superficially. Both games had a set number of turns, both were about gathering resources and buildings and using them to generate victory points, and both seemed to be exercises in multi-player solitaire with some interaction provided by an auction mechanism during a specific part of the turn.
What were the games? Cuba, designed by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler, and Princes of Florence, designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich.
Kris Hall: John Poniske and Lincoln’s War
The American Civil War has been on my mind a lot of late. I recently played and reviewed Renaud Verlaque’s The Price of Freedom, and that inspired me to read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, a prize-winning book about Lincoln and his cabinet. After that, it was time to read Stephen Sears’ anvil-heavy book Gettysburg.
I’ve also been playing American Civil War, a computer game by a French company called Ageod. Odd, that it would be a French company that would make the best grand-strategic computer game of this most American war. In spite of the game’s steep learning curve and glacial pace (especially on my old computer), I find it quite addictive.
So my interest was sparked when I learned that there was yet another grand-strategic game on the war in the works. This is Lincoln’s War by designer John Poniske. Mr. Poniske recently agreed to an e-mail interview on his project.
Kris Hall: Times Up! Stop Laughing!
I’m not really a party game type of guy, but I got to play one last weekend that made an impression on me. I’m talking about Times Up!, a game from 2000 that was designed by Peter Sarrett and published by R&R Games, Pro Ludo, and Asmodee Editions.
The game equipment in Times Up! consists of a deck of cards and an hour-glass timer. Each card contain two names of famous people, animals, or fictional characters. Each name on the card is associated with a particular color. Players will examine the portion of the deck that will be used in the game, and then will vote on which color-coded group of names they want to use for their particular game.
Kris Hall: Short Takes
No big developments in the hobby for me this week, so I thought I’d just comment on a few new-to-me games that I’ve encountered recently.
Rails of Europe
By now, if you are a Railroad Tycoon fan, you are probably aware that most of the reaction to this expansion has been positive. I see no reason to buck this trend. We tried this out a couple of weeks ago in a three-player game, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. The printed-on-the-board bonus points means that everyone knows from the start which routes generate the big points. The choice of Tycoon cards given to players at the beginning of the game, and the new event cards were also welcome changes.
Kris Hall: Jonathan Degann, Game Concepts, and the Tools of Victory
I had a bout of flu this week, and didn’t get to play any games. But Jonathan Degann posted a new essay on his Journal of Boardgame Design, and so I had plenty to think about.
Mr. Degann is one of the more analytical commentators on our hobby, and I learn a lot from each of his essays. A lot of the better observations I make about game design were inspired by (or directly stolen from) Mr. Degann’s articles.
This month’s essay is about game concepts. Mr. Degann defines a game concept as a “coherent system of mechanisms with a theme of its own.” Mr. Degann points out that when the mechanisms of a game are organized in an intelligent way around a game concept, the game seems to make more sense, and is easier to learn.
Kris Hall: Michael Tan and Sturm Europa!
Not all of the interesting developments in the gaming world come from professional game designers and publishers. The gaming hobby is still small enough and open enough for gifted or dedicated amateurs to have an impact. Recently I saw an entry on Boardgamegeek for a WWII block game called Sturm Europa! What I saw intrigued me enough to inspire me to contact Michael Tan, the game’s designer. Mr. Tan agreed to answer some questions about his game.
Kris :When gamers want to play a block game about the European theater of World War II, they can turn to Europe Engulfed from GMT Games, or Columbia Games series of interlocking WWII games. Why does the gaming world need another European theater block game? What will Sturm Europa! offer that these other games do not?
Posted by Kris Hall on February 29, 2008 at 01:00 AM in Columnists > Kris Hall
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Kris Hall: Game Review – The Price of Freedom
Although I’ve played a lot more Eurogames over the years than wargames, I was a wargamer long before I was a Eurogamer, and I’ve always kept an eye out for certain types of grand strategic wargames. Any game about the entire European theater of World War II is likely to grab my attention, and I own at least three games on that subject. The American Civil War has always been another subject of fascination.
So when I heard that Renaud Verlaque, the designer of Age of Napoleon, was working on a card-driven Civil War game called The Price of Freedom, I was immediately interested. Mr. Verlaque was kind enough to give me an interview on his game a few months back, and that only increased my anticipation. Now, Compass Games has published The Price of Freedom, and I’ve had an opportunity to see if Mr. Verlaque has created the kind of fast-playing wargame that he was aiming at.
Posted by Kris Hall on February 22, 2008 at 01:00 AM in Columnists > Kris Hall
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Kris Hall: Candidates for Presidential Election Games
John Edwards recently completed a successful run for the White House, besting Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and an unfortunate John McCain who received almost no votes. Mr. Edwards got out in front and held onto his lead throughout the whole contest while Mr. McCain seemed unable to garner any support at all. The other candidates stayed in the middle of the pack until Mr. Edwards’s momentum left them in the dust.
Mr. Edwards was ably assisted by campaign manager Ted Cheatham of the Appalachian Gamers, while Mr. McCain was cursed with having for his campaign manager…well, me. Senator McCain is a gentleman for not firing me in the middle of his campaign.
Posted by Kris Hall on February 15, 2008 at 01:00 AM in Columnists > Kris Hall
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Kris Hall: Can I Take That Back?
This week the Appalachian Gamers tried El Capitan for the first time. As with many economic games, El Capitan features loans which players may be obliged to take on occasion. Loans come in two types: small and large. At one point, Ted took out a small loan, and then when his turn came around again, he realized he didn’t have enough money for his perfect move. “Can I change loans?” he asked. We all agreed that he could switch his small loan for a big loan even though several players had taken their turns since Ted had been at the bank.
It later occurred to me how unusual it might seem to some gamers that we were so obliging. It also made me stop and wonder what were the exact circumstances that made Ted’s request seem reasonable to us.
Kris Hall: Phil Fry and 1805: Sea of Glory
The Age of Fighting Sail continues to fascinate many gamers, and the latest histories of the period only re-emphasize the importance of the contribution of British navy in the defeat of Napoleon (Read The War for all the Oceans by Roy and Lesley Adkins if you doubt this last point). Whether gamers first approached the period through the novels of C.S. Forester or Patrick O’Brian, or simply discovered games like Wooden Ships & Iron Men, they were probably seduced by the romance of the sea, the beauty of a frigate under full sail, and the drama of close-quarter combat.
But in spite of countless games about the period on the tactical level, I was unaware of any operational or strategic naval game on the Napoleonic naval war. Until now. Game designer Phil Fry is putting the finishing touches on 1805: Sea of Glory, a game that should eventually be published by GMT Games. Mr. Fry recently agreed to answer my questions about the game.
Kris Hall: There Will Be Oil Auctions
This year’s crop of Academy-Award-nominated movies don’t have a lot of boardgame tie-in potential. But if there is one movie of the bunch that could inspire a game, I would think it would be There Will Be Blood. And if the producers of the movie wanted a quick and proven game to slap their title on, they could do a lot worse than buy the rights to Giganten, the 1999 game of cut-throat competition in the oil industry designed by Wilko Manz and published by Kosmos.
Actually, Giganten appears to have been inspired by an earlier American film, Giant, the 1956 film about the Texas oil industry that starred Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean. The game even features a company called Jet Oil that is clearly named after the character played by James Dean. I even wondered if this was the reason that the game has not had an English language release that I am aware of; did the game designers and producers use the Giant theme without permission?
The reason that I’m writing about Giganten is that although the game is not new, it is the latest new-to-me-game that I have played. And after playing it, I wondered how come I hadn’t heard more about this game. After all, it was a finalist for the Spiel des Jahres in 1999.
Kris Hall: Loserville
The first game I played in 2008 was Manhattan. I introduced the game to my wife and a non-gamer couple that we know. I was happy to see that they all liked the game. By the way, I lost.
The second game I played in the new year was Brass. I taught the game to Ted Cheathham and Dave Gilligan, and these gentlemen are very much veteran gamers. I lost that game, too. In fact, even though every game of Brass I have played has been with people who have never played the game before, I have lost each time.
When I consider a lot of my favorite games, I realize that I have never won any of them. Age of Empires III, Reef Encounter, Struggle of Empires, Manhattan, Perikles, Union Pacific, High Society—never a victory have I seen. I seem to have a room reserved for me in the Loserville Hotel.
Kris Hall: Looking Back, Looking Forward
Yes, it’s time to look back, and look toward the year ahead.
Please note that the list that follows is of my favorite games of the year, not my list of the best games of the year. I am deeply suspicious of my own lack of objectivity in judging games, especially when they fall into genres I don’t care for (dice games or pure card games). I am more comfortable talking about my preferences (meat-and-potatoes though they may be) than pretending to be objective about fine designs that somehow don’t appeal to me.
Kris Hall: The Year of the Worker-Placement Mechanism
So what will gamers remember about 2007 in years hence? The coming of Agricola Fever? Perhaps. The plethora of Viking-themed games? Quite possibly.
But the lasting impact of the year on the game designers and games of the future might just be in the popularity and innovations that have taken place in the worker-placement mechanism. The time may have arrived when the worker-placement mechanism is regarded like the area majority mechanism--that is, as a standard tool in the game designer toolbox, and not as something borrowed from Caylus or any other specific game.
Posted by Kris Hall on December 29, 2007 at 01:00 AM in Columnists > Kris Hall
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Kris Hall: The Dale and Valerie Essen Roadshow
Recently Dale Yu and Valerie Putnam visited the Appalachian Gamers with their traveling road show of Essen games. We were all were grateful for a chance to sample the wonders of Old Europe in the wilderness of West Virginia. I have some comments on a few of these games, but they are mere first impressions rather than thoughtful reviews. That said, I have found that favorable first impressions are usually reliable while negative first impressions sometimes are not. I cannot remember any game that I enjoyed the first time I played which subsequently proved to be a dog.
Posted by Kris Hall on December 15, 2007 at 01:00 AM in Columnists > Kris Hall
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Kris Hall: Endgame Mechanisms
In my last column, I wrote a little about story arcs and endgames, and this week I’d like to continue the discussion. If my list of endgame mechanisms is incomplete, I’m sure readers can fill in the gaps:
Set number of turns: The easiest way to limit the length of a game is to give the game a set number of turns. Mission: Red Planet and Struggle of Empires are two games with a pre-set number of turns. This mechanism alone can generate some suspense if only because players can see when they are running out of time.
Timing mechanism: A lot of games use a timing mechanism to determine when the game ends. Ticket to Ride ends when one player has only two train pieces (or fewer) left to play. Railroad Tycoon ends when a certain number of cities (which varies according to the number of players) no longer contain cargo cubes. The advantage of this mechanism is the game length can vary according to how fast the players are progressing toward their goals.
Kris Hall: Emira, Mission: Red Planet, and Story Arcs
This week the Appalachian Gamers tried two games that were new to us, although both have been around for a year or two. One was Emira, the harem-building game designed by Paul Van Hove and Liesbeth Vanzeir, and the other was Mission: Red Planet designed by Bruno Faidutti and Bruno Cathala. Most surprisingly, I won both games, although this was probably due at least as much to everyone’s inexperience with the games as to any particular strategy I may have had.
Posted by Kris Hall on November 17, 2007 at 01:00 AM in Columnists > Kris Hall
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Kris Hall: Chris Janiec and PQ-17
This week I am interviewing Chris Janiec about his naval wargame PQ-17 which is on GMT Games pre-order list. PQ-17 is not a card-driven wargame, but a block game which simulates the Allies efforts to supply the Soviet Union during World War II with convoys in artic waters, and the attempts of the German Navy to sink the Allied ships.
Kris: What drew you to the subject of arctic convoy warfare, as opposed to, say, the U-Boat war in general?
Chris: Originally I started out trying to devise a naval system that would be compatible with Columbia Game’s East Front system, with named capital ships and groups of smaller ships. I soon realized that wasn’t practical, but that the nascent system might make a good stand-alone game with a more desirable level of detail. I chose the arctic for the initial tests because of the lesser unit density in that theater, and stuck with it because it “stressed” the design the most with its distances and environment.
Actually, neither PQ-17 nor the system as a whole centers on convoy warfare per se. This is a game of operational naval-air warfare, and while operations focus on objectives, protecting and interdicting convoys are only two of several potential objectives (though certainly the most common one in the arctic). Transfer, strike (air or naval bombardment), and minelaying are other missions in the game.
Kris Hall: Ted Raicer and Stalin’s War
This week I continue my series of interviews with designers of card-driven wargames with an interview with Ted Raicer. Mr. Raicer is perhaps best known as the designer of Paths of Glory, a classic card-driven wargame that managed the near-impossible feat of turning World War I into an exciting game. Mr. Raicer’s latest project is Stalin’s War, an eastern-front strategic World War II game that may soon appear on GMT Games’ pre-publication order list.
Kris: There have been lots of games about the eastern front in World War II. Why another? What will make Stalin’s War stand out from the pack?
Ted: Two things (I hope). One it is a card-driven design--in fact a hex-based card-driven design, which hasn’t been done for this sort of linear land campaign. (Mark Herman’s Empire of the Sun used hexes, but it covered a mainly naval/air war.) And second, the scale is somewhat different than most games on the subject. The hexes cover over 60 miles, and Soviet units are fronts and armies, while German units are armies and corps, but all the German mechanized units are corps (unlike WWII: Barbarossa to Berlin where most of the German armor is represented by army-level units). Of course in large part that comes from the difference between using hexes and point-to-point (as in BtB).
Kris Hall: CharCon and the Travis Reynolds Interview
One of the newer game conventions in the USA is CharCon, the West Virginia con. I don’t have any investment in CharCon except an emotional one, but I think it deserves wider exposure in the gaming community. So I recently asked the Appalachian Gamers own Travis Reynolds for an update on the second year of the convention.
Kris: Last year Charcon debuted in Charleston, and was something between a moderate success and an amazing success. How much bigger is this year’s convention?
Travis: We attend Origins and some guys go to GenCon. Those shows have tens of thousands of people. We had just over 375 last year. When I think about it in that context, it gets a little overwhelming. However, West Virginia is a very gaming depressed area. We never see anything new until long after everyone else has it. Charleston, the capitol city and host city for CharCon, only has one game store and their product selection is limited to Collectibles and Warhammer. So, considering those things, 375+ is a great turn out. Sean Patrick Fannon, who was a guest of honor last year, used to work for GAMA and he told me it was one of if not the best first year conventions he had ever attended. So, I guess the success level is based on your perspective. I was absolutely thrilled with it. Lots of gamers came out that I had never met and I like to think they all had a blast.
Kris Hall: Brad Stock and Pursuit of Glory
Today I continue my series of interviews with designers of card-driven wargames. Today’s guest is Brad Stock, designer of Pursuit of Glory, a game about World War One conflict in the near east.
Kris: You have a Ph.D. in strategy. What exactly does that mean?
Brad: I earned my PhD at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. My primary studies were in the International Security Studies Program, and the subject of my dissertation was “Ethics and Strategy in Foreign Policy: Building a Stable Peace.” It was a broad examination of basic strategic theory, an examination of post-Cold War strategies, and an outline of the dynamics confronting us in the post-Cold War era.
Posted by Kris Hall on September 22, 2007 at 01:00 AM in Columnists > Kris Hall
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Kris Hall: Bob Kalinowski and Clash of Monarchs
Today I continue my series of interviews with designers of card-driven wargames by talking with Bob Kalinowski, designer of the upcoming GMT game Clash of Monarchs.
Kris: Why such a labor of love about the Seven Years War? What is special about this time period that attracts you?
Posted by Kris Hall on September 8, 2007 at 01:00 AM in Columnists > Kris Hall
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Kris Hall: Charles Vasey and Unhappy King Charles
This week I continue my series of interviews with designers of card-driven wargames. Today’s guest is Charles Vasey, designer of Unhappy King Charles.
Kris: I must admit to being fairly ignorant about the English Civil War. The name “Cromwell” comes to mind, and I know there is a religious element in it. Can you give us a little background on the issues of the war, and why you are interested in it?
Kris Hall: John Firer and Card-Driven Wargames
This week I continue interviewing designers of card-driven wargames. John Firer agreed to give me a preview of his new designs.
Kris: You seem to be one of the busiest designers around. You are working on Age of Bismarck for ComsimPress, Spartacus for Compass Games, Successors III for GMT, and Ides of March. Any other game projects that have escaped my notice? Has Ides of March been accepted by a game company yet?
John: I would like to start off by thanking you for the honor of being interviewed and for your kind words above.
Kris Hall: Renaud Verlaque and The Price of Freedom
This week I am starting a series of interviews with designers of forthcoming card-driven wargames. First at bat is Renaud Verlaque, the designer of the well-regarded Age of Napoleon. I asked him about The Price of Freedom, his upcoming game of the American Civil War that will be published by Compass Games.
First, a word about card-driven wargames (CDWs) for the non-wargamers. CDWs are a popular group of wargames that use cards to drive the action of the game. Designer Mark Herman is usually considered to have fathered the CDW genre with We the People, a low-complexity game of the American Revolution. Because CDWs are often moderate complexity games, many of them can often be enjoyed by people other than wargame fanatics. Twilight Struggle, the popular game of Cold War conflict, uses CDW mechanics. It is often considered a bridge between the Euro-gaming and wargaming worlds.
But enough introduction. Here’s what Renaud Verlaque had to say:
