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Dale Yu: Games from the Gathering of Friends
I’m still trying to catch up from being gone for 10 days at the Gathering of Friends, but I thought I’d try to give my short opinions of the games that I managed to play during the event… Before I get there, a few other things to note. First, the Gathering is becoming more about hanging out with friends than playing games. I had a great time going out to dinner with my friends and spending time catching up with them. Second, the Gathering is getting to be so big that it’s hard to hang out with all of my friends eventhough there are 10 days! But, the more the merrier! Finally, I don’t think that any of the Nuremberg games will ever make the Top 10, but there were a number of solid entries – though it took a bit of weeding through to find them! Now, onto the games… Please note that I’m leaving out most of the details/mechanics of the games as I’m sure that you’ve read about that somewhere else (and I really don’t have the time/inclination to regurgitate them here)
Stone Age x 2
My first game at the Gathering was the new release from RGG/HiG. It’s not a bad little game – using the new “standard” mechanism of role selection. It’s a solid game though there really isn’t much new. It is very similar to Pillars of the Earth, but I find that the involvement of the dice as well as an element of long term planning make Stone Age a superior game when compared to Pillars. Pillars always felt like 6 turns of the same as you tried to maximize you resources for a given turn and spend as best you could given the minimal amount of resources that you could carry over. However, Stone Age allows you to have a few different long-term strategies which I think will help it last.
Stone Age does win an award for crappiest insert at GoF. The insert simply doesn’t hold the bits well. The top lid is off-set by about 2cm from the bottom in order to hold the dice cup. I liked the game enough to acquire a copy of it this week, and I’ll have to see if all the bits fit in the box if I just throw out the insert. My OCD-ness really requires the gamebox to be of the same size as all the other games that it sits next to on the shelf…
Game X* x 25
The Gathering served as the coming out party for the Rio Grande prototype that Valerie and I have been developing over the past year. I would have to say that the reception to the game was better than I could have hoped for. The two copies of the game were constantly in play, and the playtest sheets show that there were many gamers who played it at least 5 times! The game is headed for publication, and we’ll give you more details as they become available. I spent a great deal of the week teaching the game to others, and I thank everyone who played it during the week. Your feedback was invaluable and will help make the game even better than it is now. And, of course, we still need to find a better name for it than Game X… (though “Game X” is kinda catchy and mysterious at the same time!)
Einfach Genial Bringmitspiel
Brian dragged me into this newest game in the Einfach Genial line – this one in a Bringmitspiel sized box. It’s a simple matching game which frankly was quite dull. There is a little push-your-luck element to the game, but overall there just wasn’t much to do other than hope that it ended soon. As usual, we played with the wrong rules initially (wrong end-condition), but blissfully we found the correct rules which allowed us to end the game sooner. Despite that, I brought a copy of the game home. I’ll have to see how it goes over with the kids. The depth of the game feels just about right for my five-year-old.
In the Year of the Dragon
Played this one again, and I must admit – I really don’t like this game at all. It’s just not fun. To me, the choices seem straightforward once you see the pattern of the disasters. Of course, I’ve only won the game once (out of four), so I do not claim mastery of the game in any way. Luckily for me, I was able to trade this for Stone Age which suits me much better.
Modern Art
Surprisingly, we found a gaming veteran who had not played this Knizia auction classic. It has probably been four or five years since I last played it, but most of the strategy (and by “strategy”, I really mean “math” came back to me quickly). The game was tense and came down to the last auction to decide the winner. But, it’s still really just a math exercise to me, and I wouldn’t be sad if it were another five years before I played it again.
Change Horses
The new horse racing game from Eggertspiele where you try to be the horse in last place. Each player gets to play cards to try to move the horses and there is a fairly clever mechanic where horses don’t move if their total count is even. However, the game didn’t grab me at all – it just didn’t feel that there was much control over the action – but I can see this fitting in nicely for a family or a more casual group of gamers.
Agricola x 2
I’m up to around 125 plays of Agricola now, and I had a delightful game with Zev. I was dealt a bunch of cards that didn’t do much together and was forced to spend most of the game playing off the actions on the board as opposed to Occupations and Minor Improvements. It was very nice to see that the cards are not necessary for success as I still managed to score 49 pts despite Zev playing the Ratcatcher and seriously hampering my ability to do anything in Round 12. (Of course, it also helped that we all forgot to apply the card in Round 10!) I also had a set of the Z-deck for preview, and the cards in that set are quite interesting indeed. The 24 cards provided an interesting game and will be a nice addition to the game.
Agricola was the other game (other than Game X) that I seemed to always see in play. It was amazing to see the number of different pimped out sets of Agricola that gamers had managed to come up with. The only modification missing at the Gathering was a full FIMO set, but otherwise the inventiveness and creativeness of the gamers was quite amazing.
Serendipity
This is a new game from Drei Magier Spiele that I had brought over from Germany. It’s an beautiful tile laying game where you try to connect tiles of your color together to score points. I’ve only played it once, but the gameplay seems a bit static. You get to flip one tile each turn, and you do get a choice of what to do with the tile – but the choices were usually obvious. But, it looks so pretty that I’ll try it again soon and hope that the game has more depth with repeated plays.
Big Points
This is a new release in the Schmidt Easy Play line. It’s a nice little filler that evokes some of the feel of Verflixxt. There is a line of wooden bits (think Tutenchamun) of different colors and a set of pawns that match those colors. On your turn, you move a pawn and then take a wooden disc on either side of the pawn that you moved. Generally, this means that you can’t collect the color disc that matches the pawn you moved (unless there were two in a row). The value of the different colors is determined by the order of finish of the colors. So there is a bit of nice tension figuring out how to collect the right colors while moving the pawns towards the finish. This clearly isn’t SdJ material, but it is a nice 15 minute filler and one that will see more play in the months to come.
Der Golden Kompass: Duell der Panzerbaren
The newest addition to the 2-player line from Kosmos (though it doesn’t have the 2-player logo on the box) – and perhaps the only game that I’ve ever played based upon fighting polar bears. The game is pretty much a UFC style duel between the two bears. Each player gets an identical set of cards and uses them to try to beat the fur off of the opposing bear. At the end of the game, the bear who inflicted the most damage wins. There are a few special abilities which are unique to each bear, but they seemed to be well balanced.
The game itself was average. There were some swings in the game where I didn’t have many good defensive cards while Brian was killing me with nice attack cards – but since the decks are identical, it seemed to even out in the end. Brian ended up winning by 2 or 3 points, and I’m glad to have played it once. I’ll likely not play it again though – it wasn’t that good.
Hanging Gardens x 2
This was the best new game that I played all week. I liked the puzzle aspect of manipulating the garden cards to try to create sets for scoring opportunities. I can certainly see where people have felt that the random appearance of the scoring tiles can be an issue, but I don’t mind this sort of luck in my games. In fact, I tend to prefer it as it keeps everyone on their toes and helps each game be a little different as you have to adjust to the luck.
Password
An oldie-but-goodie. Lost the sudden death tiebreaker (Again). Sigh.
Im Reich der Jadegottin
This is a new take on Entdecker – I didn’t care for it at all as it seemed that the choices were obvious and that the winner was going to be the player who had the best luck flipping up the right tile when he was exploring. Of course, this is the identical take that I have about Entdecker as well. So, if you like Entdecker, you’ll probably like this one. I don’t like Entdecker, and I didn’t like this one either.
Factory Fun
I managed to pull out a win by basically ignoring the convoluted pipe strategy and just trying to place the factories that fit my board. I only placed 6 on the board, but almost all of them had multipliers. I still like this one a lot
Tichu x 4
Winless all week. I’d say it was always the fault of my partner(s), but their only fault was likely choosing me to play with them. I was clearly off my Tichu game this week.
Oregon x 2
I hadn’t played this one yet as it kinda slipped under the radar from Essen. I had in fact received a copy for Christmas, but just never seemed to find the time to play it. Well, I’ve played it twice, and I must say that it’s a nice little game. I’m not sure how much depth it has, but it’s a nice one to pull out when you’ve got 30 minutes to get a game in and you don’t want to play Carcassone again.
I’ve played it twice – once with four players and once with two – and I think that I really liked it more with two. The tactical feel of the two-player game was very nice. With two players, there was less downtime between my moves and I felt that I could plan ahead a lot better.
This also was my first mis-played game of the Gathering. In my first game, Ted A. somehow neglected to tell us about the scoring rule for cowboy sets of three or larger. Sigh.
TTR: Nordic
It’s a Ticket to Ride game. It plays two or three players. It’s hard to read because it’s not in English. But other than that, it’s a Ticket to Ride game. If you like T:TR, you’ll like it. If not, stay away. I would have gotten a copy but Trond said it would cost about 400 Norwegian krones – which given the sad state of the dollar is close to the annual GDP of Ohio. Maybe I’ll get it off a prize table someday…
Arcana Arcanissima*
This is a Frank Branham prototype that I’ve now played two or three times… I was excited about it long long ago when it looked like Plenary Games was going to publish it. Anyways, it’s a brain burner of a game and I hope that it finds a new home. I’d tell you more, but it’s a prototype, and you should know the drill by now about that… I know that Frank was shopping it around, but I didn’t hear if he got a deal for it or not.
Merchant of Venice*
A prototype that was being shown by Frank D. and R&R Games. I liked this one a lot and I hope that Frank decides to publish it. It’s a nice economic game and that’s about all I can say for now unless Frank lets me talk more about it .
Code Omega
A new one from Nuremburg that I had Henning bring me. It’s a puzzle game – sort of Ubongo lite. In this game, each player has a matching set of cardboard chits. Each round, a player takes four of these chits and then tries to place them on a puzzle board so that the symbols on the chits line up in a single straight line across all four chits. This process sounds a lot easier than it is to accomplish (just like Ubongo). It’s cute for what it is, and I’m glad to have a copy – but I suspect that most people would rather play Ubongo when given the choice between the two.
Knot Five*
Another prototype – this one by James Miller. This game also won the prestigious Game of the Afternoon contest. It’s a deduction game, and it’s fantastic. And I can’t tell you more about it unless James allows me.
Metropolys
Well, I’ve tried it twice now, and I’m just not sold on the game. A lot of people liked it at the Gathering, but I found it to be quite repetitious and abstract. Auction here, auction there. Here an auction, there an auction, everywhere an auction, auction. And to boot, I found the board a bit garish. I know that I might be in the minority here, but I just don’t like the artwork. It’s reminiscent of some Mike Doyle stuff, and I find the artwork in those games to detract from the game itself. In any event, if you like auctions, you should try it.
Toledo
This is the new Martin Wallace game, and it’s interesting. You move along the serpentine path of the board trying to collect enough raw materials to make swords. The value of your swords increases if you are able to get your pawns all the way to the end of the path. You do all of your actions on “stores” which are placed by the players. Similar to Caylus, the owner of the store gets a kickback when you use his space. There’s nothing new here, but everything works fine. I’d be happy to play it again, but I don’t know if I need to own it.
Combat Commander: Europe
I’ve been meaning to learn this one for about a year now, and Tyler was gracious enough to sit me down to teach me the rules and then to kick my butt. We played a quick scenario pitting the Russians (me) against the invading Germans (Tyler). I think I had a decent initial setup, but I was completely hosed by the dice (well, the cards that represent the dice). In the first two skirmishes, both of my machine guns were damaged and one of my leaders went down. Needless to say, it was a downhill fight from that point on. I managed to make it interesting by hanging around long enough to get to the time tie-breaker, but I wasn’t able to score enough points to win the scenario. Eventhough I was completely hosed by the dice, it was still a good experience, and I look forward to my next chance to play. Subsequent games should be better as I won’t have to go thru the rules again.
Dragon Parade
A light filler from Knizia. I rejoiced in a shared victory, and that’s all I remember about it.
Aquaretto
Hmm. I just don’t get the fuss about Zooloretto (or Coloretto for that matter). Aquaretto really felt no different. It uses the basic mechanism seen in Zooloretto and it was just as much fun for me. But now I know the rules, and given the general acclaim this game is likely to get, at least I will be able to play along.
Puzzle Hunt
The puzzle hunt this year was great. It was styled a bit differently than some of the previous hunts as there was no meta-puzzle per se. This was more of a raw puzzle-solving contest. The designers had a great idea of using laminated puzzles that could be done with dry-erase markers. This cut down on the total number of puzzles that were needed.
My team was composed of myself, John Palagyi, Richard Spoonts, Frank Dilorenzo and Dave Arnott. Conveinently enough, we have all organized puzzle hunts at the Gathering in the past. The team’s score was calculated by taking the total score and dividing it by the number of people on the team. Though we had five, our average still came out on top. Yay for us!
Luke Hedgren’s Prototype* x 3
This is a new game that my good friend Luke is working on. He pitched it to a number of game companies and got some positive responses. It’s not quite ready from prime time, but I think it has good potential.
Klaus Jurgen Wrede Prototype* x 2
Wow. More prototypes – which means… more games that I can’t tell you about.
Capt Kuck
This is a new one from Haba. It’s a cute memory game where players try to remember what pirate treasures are laid out on the map. The catch is that you only have about 30 seconds … and you have to use a little handheld pinhole tube to look for the treasures. A bit basic for adults, but the kids will love it. More details to come in a full review in the coming weeks.
Giganten der Lufte
One more play of “Blimpy Dice”. I still really like this game. There’s a little bit of strategy as you decide what course you’re going to take, but in the end, it all comes down to the dice. It’s a fun game that you can play in 20 minutes.
2F Prototype
Can’t tell you more about this one either, but I will say that I am continually impressed with the breadth of ideas that come out of Friedeman’s green brain. I really enjoyed this one and hope that it comes out at Essen.
Prize table
Finally, I am happy to say that I got the game I most wanted off the prize table: the EnBW edition of Funkenschlag. It has a new map (which according to Friedemann – will be released eventually as an expansion set) as well as a modified German map which will only be available in this limited edition. I was lucky enough to have an early pick due to my Puzzle Hunt winning team, and I had a lot of nice things to choose from.
The other choices I considered included: Risk Black Ops (taken first overall), Carabande action set (taken second over all), a pristine copy of 1853, a nice painted set of Hirsh Arts Descent bits, T:TR Nordic, a Descent base set, and a sweet “podcast-in-a-box” set which included all the hardware that one would need to do a podcast. As we were able to go thru the list more than twice, there must have been about 900-1,000 games total available on the prize table. I almost took the podcast set, but I realized that I simply don’t have time to do a podcast regularly and that the donor of that prize surely wanted it to go to someone who would be able to contribute to our hobby.
So, time to wrap it all up…
Hit of the show #1a: Game X. Ok – full disclosure time – I’m intimately involved with Game X as I’m helping develop it. But it was the one game that I always saw in play and heard people talking about. Now, did I see/hear all that because I was looking for that info? Possibly. But I’m hoping others will confirm that it’s a great game. It was played at least 150 times by at least 100 different people, so I think many of the folks at the Gathering were at least able to give it a go.
Hit of the show #1b: Agricola. This was the other game that it seemed was always out in play. Admittedly, I’ve also been fairly involved with this game in development as well, so that might not be fair either… So…
Hit of the show #1c: Heads of State. Funny. I didn’t mention this one above. Well, I didn’t mention it because I didn’t get a chance to play it! It’s a new prototype by Peter Hawes, and I believe it got picked up by a company during the week. I really only heard good things about this one, and the table that it was on was constantly occupied. I watched about half of a game and it seemed really interesting. But, I can’t tell you more about it since it’s a prototype and I can’t learn any more about it because no one else will be able to write about it either! But it was the one other game that there was a lot of buzz about…
Well, that’s about it for now –
Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor
Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 16, 2008 at 01:00 AM in Columnists, Dale Yu / 1819
Comments:
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Good grief, Dale. Congratulations; you’ve just managed to play more games than I will play in the next 25 years. (LOL) 125 times just on Agricola? Wow. PS It will be interesting to see what you and Valerie have put together. I’m guessing a Euro-type game, as opposed to a Gateway type game. It seems like it got a good reception. Always good news. Good luck. Posted by Ryan Bretsch on Apr 16, 2008 at 07:16 AM | #
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Game X was my favorite of the show as well. And I’m sure it’s even more difficult for you not to talk about it then it is for me. Posted by Dave Chalker on Apr 16, 2008 at 08:26 AM | #
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Ryan, the number of games played at the Gathering is a far cry from what I used to play… Lots of time was spent socializing and hanging out this year! As far as Game X goes - I’d love to give you more details, but not quite yet… In any event, whenever the time is right, Valerie will likely be the one to break the news as she is the lead for this project. Dave, thanks for your support! Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 16, 2008 at 08:52 AM | #
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In the interest of fairness I must note that we played Im Reich der Jadegoettin slightly wrong: you don’t pick a side of the tile and then flip one, you flip a tile and then decide which side to place it on, as in Entdecker. Also moving to a newly-placed all-jungle tile lets you go again. However, that just makes the game essentially the same as Entdecker, except with opportunities to get stuck on the board (due to the brown movement lines) and swingier random scoring (from the mask draws). So I don’t see a reason to play it. Posted by Dan Blum on Apr 16, 2008 at 09:35 AM | #
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What Dale neglected to tell you about his prize table pick was that when his name was called, he sprinted full speed from the back of the ballroom to the front where the games were stacked, grabbed his precious Funkenschlag variant, and sprinted back, waving his newly won prize above his head like a conquering hero. It was quite hilarious, although not nearly as memorable as one of his earlier entrances into the room five years ago. It also inspired a number of other folks to run up to the prize table, but they lacked Dale’s panache. Posted by Larry Levy on Apr 16, 2008 at 09:57 AM | #
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Dan, the correct tile rules unfortunately do not change my overall impression of the game. I’m still not looking to try it again. Larry, I don’t seem to remember any other memorable prize table appearances… Perhaps your memory has gone faulty again? <g> D Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 16, 2008 at 10:00 AM | #
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I think you should call Game X “It Takes a Village” ! ;-) Posted by Kevin Wood on Apr 16, 2008 at 11:17 AM | #
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Kevin, maybe.... but most likely not. I’ve come up with a good idea but I still have to run it by the rest of the team and see what they think… Maybe we’ll at least have an announcement of the new title by Valerie’s column on Sunday! dale Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 16, 2008 at 11:55 AM | #
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ah… rejected again! :-( Posted by Kevin Wood on Apr 16, 2008 at 11:59 AM | #
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Nice report, Dale! My hits of the Gathering: Tribune - released at Essen, but still no English version. Sigh. Lots of interacting mechanisms and tough choices. A mild concern about the power of the “Vestal Virgin” leader card, but otherwise a top-notch design. Heads of State - Brilliant game from Peter Hawes. I’m lobbying to give the game 2 names: The first half would be called “Heads of State”, while the last half would be called “Heads will Roll.” Stone Age - Really nice adaptation of the Pillars of the Earth system. Easier to learn and play. I’m not as big a fan of Hanging Gardens, though, as the luck of the tile acquisition did turn me off. I didn’t have chance to play Game X, but I did play it back in the summer of 2007 at Gulf Games. I enjoyed it then, but it didn’t grab me as much as it seemed to captivate many others at the Gathering. Posted by Greg Schloesser on Apr 16, 2008 at 01:27 PM | #
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Greg, you’ll have to try Game X again soon. It’s better now than it was back then… And thanks for avoiding me all week - though I see you were able to get plays in of Heads of State and Tribune which I never managed to find myself… Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 16, 2008 at 01:31 PM | #
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Yeah, curse that Chris Lohroff for telling me that the “Avoid Dale Yu” contest was being held. I thought I did a bang-up job in the contest, only to discover later that it had been cancelled. Sigh. Posted by Greg Schloesser on Apr 16, 2008 at 01:35 PM | #
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At first, I also felt that the Vestal Virgin faction was overpowered. However, in the game where I focused heavily on this faction in the early game, I found that I had given up the lead in other areas. All of the factions can be quite powerful… it’s just up to the other players to make sure no single players gets too many of them! I cannot wait for this game to come out. It was a lot of fun to play! Posted by Kevin Wood on Apr 16, 2008 at 01:38 PM | #
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I’m surprised by the Tribun love. It felt like a mush of 9 card acquisition mechanisms, 27 special powers (9 x take over, leader, and control bonuses), and 7 easy to reach victory conditions. Where was the coherence for those who found it? For example, all money paid goes to the bank, except for the 4-3-2 look at five cards-draw one, which does to the Colosseum for the gladiators. Maybe it gets easier, but I could see using those four pages of cheat sheets for at least the first five to ten games. What is the leader bonus for the lawyers again? Which victory conditions card are we using, and is that an obligatory or optional condition for the card we are playing? I enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but if it is the star of the show, I think that says more about all the other games than about Tribun. Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Apr 16, 2008 at 06:08 PM | #
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Well, for the record Dale: Everyone knows I am more of a “Gateway Game” type of guy. I pine and pine for them. (LOL) But I think it is important that good “Eurogame” designs come out each year. I think it is also important that good “Ameritrash” designs come out as well. So even if this is a “Euro” design, I hope your’s and Valerie’s design gets a very receptive public audience. Given that the both of you have a supreme breadth of experience with playing and understanding the design of games, I think it will be exciting to see what you put out and how well it is received by the game community at large. And wouldn’t it would be thrilling to see a design that you and Valerie put together become the next Agricola? I think it would. I think Greg needs to give it another shot. : ) Cheers! Ryan B. Posted by Ryan Bretsch on Apr 16, 2008 at 06:16 PM | #
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Ryan, it’s hard to truly peg Game X right now… I wouldn’t consider it a “gateway game” but I certainly think that it has a good chance of being played in many different types game groups—more than just Eurogamers, for sure! And if that happens, it would be bigger than Agricola… And, I’m happy to say that Game X almost has a new name… More details on that soon! Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 16, 2008 at 06:34 PM | #
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Ryan,
Posted by Valerie Putman on Apr 16, 2008 at 09:19 PM | #
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Game X was the hit of the event for me as well. Nothing else came close (except maybe Celebrities, but that’s always a favorite). I was unimpressed with Hanging Gardens, liked Stone Age enough to buy it, and successfully avoided Aquaretto all week (big fan of Coloretto, not so much with Zooleretto). I missed out on Tribune, CC:E (which I was dying to play) and Toledo. Oh well, next year maybe.... Posted by Joe Casadonte on Apr 17, 2008 at 09:43 AM | #
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Joe, I agree that the prototypes were better than the new published games, but there were several excellent prototypes along with Game X, so I predict a promising Essen. It also might be that we are just in the trough of the gaming year, as TtA, Agricola, and Brass all have legs, but already seem ‘old’ to some. Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Apr 17, 2008 at 09:54 AM | #
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Joe, thanks for your support… And Jonathan, not to be nit-picky, but I would content that TtA has legs. It’s been around since October 2006! It should seem old! Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 17, 2008 at 11:43 AM | #
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Yeah, for you Essenites and your beautiful CBG copies. I think a tiny release, followed by the mass release a year later means it is still new for most. I’d bet more people have their first play of TtA in 2008 than in ‘06+’07. Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Apr 17, 2008 at 11:49 AM | #
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Jonathan, true (to a degree). But my copy has been played at 5 conventions since Essen 06 by a fair number of people. My argument also holds true for Thebes which is 4 years old in my book ;) dale Posted by Dale Yu on Apr 17, 2008 at 11:55 AM | #
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Just played Thebes last night. It definitely has legs, although there are ambiguities galore in the English rules. Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Apr 17, 2008 at 12:00 PM | #
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Nice report Dale. Rather keen to hear about Game X! Posted by Mike Siggins on Apr 18, 2008 at 01:41 AM | #
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