Alfred Wallace: Luck of the Draw

Now that I’ve graduated, I’ve found that I have a significant amount of free time on my hands.  This...is kind of a new thing.  The first few days after graduating, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself.  I’d get up...wander around...do a little reading...take a nap...stretch...maybe eat a little something.  Without school or work or moving to structure my day, I was kind of lost for a little bit.

Thank heaven for gaming, boy howdy.

Around the apartment, I’ve been working through some of my wargame collection.  I’ve developed an interest in the Battle of Chickamauga recently (as my MA and PhD advisors are leading a tour of the battlefield this fall), so I’ve been reading up and seeing how the battle’s been simulated over the years.  About two-thirds of my collection is still wargames; euros have been gaining, but have quite a ways to go yet.  The major problem wargames have in terms of simulating history is that, back in real life, one’s underlings do not always (or even typically) do what you want them to do, when you want them to do it.  It’s curious to see how (or if) games attack this problem.  It’s hard to really do it well.  In a game I’m playing now, “Chickamauga: The Confederacy’s Last Hope,” certain generals will simply do less than you want, but they’ll never just decide to ignore your commands and just follow their own dream.

In euros, the player’s will is usually law.  That meeple, by golly, is going to go onto that road, and he’ll stay there until he’s supposed to leave.  Luck is usually a bigger problem for euros than wargames; wargamers expect a certain amount of the “friction of war” to come through, but euros are expected to be more of a test of wills.  Luck can exist in terms of what choices you face—that is, what cards you draw, what tile comes up—but not in terms of outcomes, as in wargames.

And then there’s Monkey Madness, but that’s in its own little part of Nirvana.

On Tuesday night, I got in a few games over at Metagames.  First up was Tikal--one of my favorites when it first came out, but I haven’t had it on the table in a while.  Among the store employees, though, it’s found something of a new vogue.  I sat in with Allan, the store owner, Terry, one of the managers, and Al--a fellow lay-gamer. (Seriously: If you live in the Springfield area, and are named Albert,
Alex, Alexis, Al-anything, come by on Tuesday nights.  I want the all-Al___ table going.)

I diddled along for a while, but then got lucky when I got a perfect tile for an advanced camp.  I put some good stuff out there, got some big points, had a capped ten-point pyramid, etc.  With all that, I only eked out a win by a point.  I’ve always liked Tikal because it feels very thematic, and as an erstwhile archaeology major that’s always good.  I also like to imagine that all the small player pieces represent grad students, and the big one is the hot-shot swaggering professor. 

Next up was Hollywood Blockbuster.  Terry left to do “work” and was replaced by another customer, Evan.  This was the first time I’d played the Hollywood Blockbuster version.  I was surprised by how easily I managed to ignore the cutesy fake names for everything.  I just called them all by what they really were, and that seemed to work fine.  As the guy who refuses to play another Uberplay reissue because of its irritating renaming of Adel Verphlichtet, this came as something of a pleasant surprise. 

In this game, I managed to make the worst movie, which always pleases me.  Three points!  It’s not a great strategy, though; it ties up a lot of effort.  Evan won—I came in second, something like sixteen points behind.  Evan’s secret: “I tried to make good movies.” Sinister!

Evan and Al had to go at this point.  Terry came back, and we played Pillars of the Earth.  I’d played it earlier two-player, with another Metagames manager.  This game is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  The rules are pretty simple—especially considering how much stuff there is when you open the box.  The play’s still pretty subtle, though; it seems as though (he says, after two plays against first-time players and reading a few forum posts) that there are various strategies that could work.  For instance, I’ve liked to have a lot of money early on; that gives me a lot more flexibility, and I can buy my way back up in later rounds when the more powerful craftsmen come out.  You could also focus on having a lot of workers around, picking up craftsmen opportunistically.  I’ll be interested to see how my play develops with this one.

I like how the games will feature different mixes of events and privileges (cards that bestow certain Very Good Things), and at different times.  This seems like a theme and a game that could use some uncertainty in it.  I think this is how people call it Caylus Light.  I was not overwhelmed by Caylus, personally; I never bought it, and I don’t intend to play it again.  I guess Pillars seems like a game that could have more variety to the play, depending on the “environment” created by the cards.

It’s interesting how the chance element can affect one’s appreciation of a game.  Like many bored people with a PC in their office, I’ve played my share of Minesweeper.  After a while, I got frustrated by how, most of the time, you eventually “run out of logic,” and have to make a pretty blind choice among a few squares to click.  So, I downloaded a version of Minesweeper that only created puzzles that were entirely solvable logically.  I discovered, to my horror, that the games were completely boring!  The logic behind Minesweeper is really pretty basic; once you learn a few simple rules the only way you can screw up is by having the mouse slip on you.  The All-Logic Minesweeper was a purer, fairer puzzle—but without that element of danger, it didn’t have the same hook. 

So I’ll stick with Pillars over Caylus, is what I’m saying.  Pillars and Taluva are my most recent game purchases, and I’m exceedingly pleased with them both—two winners in a row that I’ll be playing for some time to come.  Can I keep it up?  We’ll see—tomorrow, Age of Empires III comes to Metagames.  According to the early buzz, AoE3 is the game God plays; a BGG rating of just over 9.  The rules look good, I’ll say that much.  And I’m a sucker for discovery games.  (Although AoE3 has one of my discovery game pet peeves—the map is fully known, which is rather different from the Real Thing.  I may need to concoct a variant.)

Another gaming accessory I picked up: some of the new miniatures for Wings of War.  These things are insanely spiffy; the colors and details are extremely nice.  One thing I’d kind of like to see, though, are blank ones we could paint ourselves.  They’re apparently selling fast, so if you have an interest act now.  I plan on using them for other WWI air combat games, like Canvas Eagles. 

So that’s what’s been getting me out of bed, in the absence of school, a thesis, or the time clock.  Tomorrow, I’ll be working on some miniatures painting—just to make sure I hit all the various kinds of gaming out there.

Right—there’s also online gaming.  Spielbyweb.  Amun-Re.  “School’s Out for Summer.” p/w “bgn”.  Be there.

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