Melissa Rogerson: A New Beginning, and Favourites of Last Year

First, thanks to Eric for the new site for Gone Gaming. While we were sorry to leave our home of the past two-and-a-half years, his suggestion that we move our posts to Boardgame News came at the right time, as our pool of regular writers was dwindling and no new ones had stepped up. Our older posts will be copied over here as well, but you can still read them at the Gone Gaming site (which is going nowhere).

We each have our own focus, although the range of topics can vary. I often write about gaming with our daughters Otto (who will turn 5 in March 2008 and is starting school at the end of January) and Biggie (who turned 9 in August 2007), my involvement with games at school, translating games, and—well, whatever steals my attention as I happen to be writing. I’ll be alternating Tuesdays with my husband Fraser, so you’ll sometimes see us both giving our take on a game or event, usually at least one with the benefit of hindsight.

With 2007 behind us, I thought it would be interesting to have a look back over the year’s highlights. Thanks to some family issues this year, I’ve not had as much time to devote to gaming this year as I would have liked. There were still some stand-outs, though.

Highlights of the year were, for me:

Cluedo (Clue in the US)
Biggie is at just the right age to enjoy this, but we found a way for Otto to participate as well. With nearly five years between our kids, it can be hard to find the right game to play with both of them, but a few special “Otto rules” made this a winner. She doesn’t play with cards, but still gets to move her pawn and call other people to join her in the various rooms. It adds an element of chaos to the game, but it’s the good kind of chaos.

Bamboleo
We find that dexterity games are popular and easy to explain to our non-gaming friends. This was a hit and was played for at least an hour each time it was brought out. Biggie was a little concerned and uncomfortable about the naked man on the front cover—not something I even particularly noticed. I guess I am going to have to get used to these sensitivities over the coming years.

Notre Dame
After taking a looooooooong time to reach Australia (I saw a physical copy at the Australian games Expo in June but I think it was July before this was in the shops), this was a solid addition to our game library. I really like it as a two-player game but suspect it shines with more. I must confess, though, that I don’t get our copy out very often—as with Thurn und Taxis (166 plays), I am much more likely to play this on Brettspielwelt (91 plays and counting) than in person.

Princes of Florence
I finally learned this game earlier this year (or possibly late last), and it was an immediate favourite. Princes of Florence comes close to the pinnacle of game design for me—it is simply outstanding. I really think it is the best-designed game I have played. It’s also enormously fun; I want to try the two-player rules, but suspect that there are other games Fraser would rather play.

Crayon Rails
Fraser finally persuaded me to try some crayon rails games this year. I enjoyed them, but they left me wondering what I was doing wrong—I never even came close to winning, but could not see where I was making mistakes. I’d like to try a multiplayer crayon rails game, but only when the children can’t see us drawing on the game board! Tried so far: Australian Rails, Lunar Rails.

Thebes
Thebes was another game that was new to me this year. I like it a lot, and hope it goes on high rotation on our regular game nights. It’s light enough for the non-gamers and the theme is engaging and familiar.

Carcassonne
A strange one for this list, maybe. I played a game of Carcassonne on a whim in September, expecting to be as bored as I had been the previous time(s) I played it. Whether it’s the wisdom of passing time or just me exercising my prerogative to change my mind, Fraser and I have played this quite a bit since then. I’d like to try it with Otto, as I think this is a game that the four of us could play together.

Ingenious
Speaking of games that we could play with Otto, I couldn’t possibly not mention her favourite. For a long time, we had to play this every night at bedtime. Whether online or offline, it’s a favourite for her, and something that she’s actually pretty good at too. The scoring is tricky for her, so I look forward to Ingenious Junior.

Agricola
And so, in a strange but not entirely unrelated leap from Ingenious Junior, I come to this one, of which so much has already been said. I’m really very lucky that Fraser will play this with me, as for a long time he would only refer to it as “That game which is sucking all your waking moments.” I’m just glad that the game lives up to—and exceeds—my expectations; it would have been an awful disappointment to have disliked it after all that time! I could go on about how much I like this game but if I did, I think Boardgame News might have to rename itself The Agricola Zone. Let’s settle for “an awful lot” and move on.

I said earlier that I think Princes of Florence is the epitome of good game design. We often see discussion on BGG of what game would earn the single 10 (or 11) if each person could give only one. For me, that would depend on the criteria. For game design and elegance, Princes of Florence would get the nod. But if we use “always want to play this” as the criterion, Agricola would win hands down. My other games are starting to complain that they feel neglected because I want to spend my available game-playing time with Agricola. Intriguingly, so does Biggie—even muddling through a solo game on her own.

Meanwhile, it’s time for me to start my New Year preparations, and by the time this is posted, I’ll be well into 2008. I wish you all the happiest of New Years—may your 2008 be rewarding, safe, and filled with your old (and new) favourite games and some wonderful surprises. I hope mine will be, too.

Melissa

© 2008 Melissa Rogerson

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free!

Welcome to the club! It’s nice to have you here -- make sure you learn the secret handshake from Eric! happy new year Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Jan 1, 2008 at 10:35 AM | #

Crayon rails games have a lot more skill than is evident at first glance.  I thought I was a pretty good player at one point, but when I played stronger players I got demolished.  I watched them and asked questions to learn to play better.  There’s no obvious “aha!” moment in which you see where you made a huge mistake; weaker play simply dribbles away potential in small increments so you can’t see it. We played crayon rails with our children from fairly young ages.  These games are concrete and allow everyone to make progress, albeit at varying rates depending on skill.  The only thing we had to do is help the children make sure they didn’t spend too much money without reasonable hope of being able to deliver the next load.  We do use a house rule which we call “Alms.” This allows a player who has less than $50MM to spend an entire turn taking $1MM from the bank.  It reduces the sharp impact of miscalculations or unexpected disasters. Posted by Eric Brosius on Jan 1, 2008 at 10:43 AM | #

Great to have you here, Agricolette, and thanks for starting out with the kind of article Gone Gaming fans had gotten used to.  You’re absolutely right about Princes, it’s a brilliant game and a superb design.  And that Agri-whatever game is pretty good too. Whatever you do, though, do NOT let Dale show you the secret “handshake” or the secret ANYTHING!  Particularly if it’s inflatable!  :-) Posted by Larry Levy on Jan 1, 2008 at 12:34 PM | #

I’m glad I don’t have to pick an “11” based on what game I want to play all the time.  That’s usually whatever is the new game of the moment and I’d have to keep changing it all the time. I agree Princes of Florence is a very clean game and would definately be a contender for best game design.  My only reservation about the game in my personal rankings is the combination of a tight play (unforgiving of mistakes) and an auction mechanism (often unforgiving and semi chaotic for inexperienced players) would prevent me from ranking it as best game ever. Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Jan 1, 2008 at 01:24 PM | #

Dale: is *that* what the avi file you sent me was? Funny - I thought those people were doing something quite different. Eric: How old were your children when you started playing rails games? I think they’re well beyond my elder daughter still (she’s not much of a planner) although I could imagine they’ll be on the list for the next couple of years. Larry: that’s a very well-crafted comment that could go either way :-) Matt: You’re quite right. Princes is extremely tight and unforgiving, which can unbalance it when played with new players. Solution: Train ‘em up! :-) Posted by Melissa Rogerson on Jan 1, 2008 at 04:59 PM | #

[vote Melissa] Posted by Brent Mair on Jan 1, 2008 at 05:59 PM | #

I think they were about 9 and 6.  My daughter is the older one, and she really wanted to play the adults’ games, and my son wanted to play whatever his big sister was playing. Posted by Eric Brosius on Jan 1, 2008 at 11:00 PM | #

< Back Home