Dale Yu: Weekend Gaming Report / Dingalingaling

This past weekend, I was able to have some friends over for a little gaming.  We managed to get a fair number of games in during the two days: Hatu Matu x 2, Congo Line, Tempus, Princes of Florence, Canal Mania, Dinsdale (a prototype of Joe Huber’s) and a smattering of children’s games.  As I mentioned last week in the column, a fair amount of my gaming is concentrated in events such as invitationals, conventions, or specific days/weekends set aside for gaming.  I was quite happy to finally get a chance to try out two of the new releases from Stratamax Games: Hatu Matu and Congo Line.

Congo Line is an interesting take on the train game theme.  The object of the game is to collect the most money.  Money is accumulated by buying and selling shares in the five different train companies, by delivering goods on the trains, and by being the player that moves a train into a city for the first time.  The actions that you are able to take each turn are completely governed by the colors found on the four dice you roll on each turn.  The dice determine what color shares become available for purchase.  Once you purchase a share, you have the choice between moving a train or loading a train in a city with goods.  Again, the dice result determines the effectiveness of your play; i.e. how many spaces you could move a train or how many goods you could load.  Finally, depending on your roll, you get special abilities such as buying extra shares, forcing people to sell off shares at inopportune times, or removing goods from trains already in transit.  (I know that I am not giving a full review here in the column – primarily because I don’t have the game and cannot refer to it at this time!)

The dice are the central mechanic in the game, and the end result of their use is that the game becomes more of a tactical game than anything else.  Unlike most train games, most of the planning that you do can only be done once you see what the dice turn out to be at the beginning of your turn.  Unlike other train games where managing your stock holdings is paramount, it is less important in Congo Line as you don’t really know what shares will be available for you to purchase on your upcoming turn nor do you know how many shares you might be able to purchase.  Furthermore, unlike other train games, you can be forced to divest yourself of shares based on the dice-rolling abilities of your opponents.  Is this a bad thing?  Not at all.  The game brings a fresh look to the genre with all of these changes.  The game is quick (60 minutes or less), and because of the vagaries of the dice, it’s hard to really be out of the game.

Another new game I played this weekend was Hatu Matu.  I also found this game to be clever.  It breathes new life into what was previously a stagnant genre: the Easter Island game.  It takes this hackneyed genre and adds new mechanisms to it – no more racing giant stone heads here!  Seriously, the game is a resource gathering and giant head building type of game.  Each player uses his dice-rolling skills to generate the different resources that you need to eventually build you giant stone heads. Each turn, you roll three dice and designate them into three action boxes: one which gives an action only to you, one which gives an action to all players, and one that help trigger an event.  The different actions and events are each represented by a different color on the dice. 

Once you perform your actions – which allow you to accumulate the resources (poker chips) that you need, you resolve an event if it has been triggered.  The events were the one thing about the game that really prevented it from becoming a great game.  The events could be either good or bad, but regardless of effect, they were all resolved through use of the event cards.  Event cards had numbers ranging from 0 to 4; one number on each side of the card.  The ability to determine the orientation of the card was up for auction each time an event occurred.  Clearly, if the event was good, you would prefer to have a higher number come up on your side – and if an event was bad, you would like to have a low number (or zero!) on your side.  To further muddle the picture, other players could openly contribute to any player’s bid in order to get a favorable orientation of the card.  This proved to be the primary problem with the cards as players that were more wealthy in chips were often able to have favorable outcomes from the auctions.  This had the result of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.  Because if you were already leading in the race for chips, you were more likely to be able to avoid the deleterious effects of the bad auctions as well as more likely to take advantage of all of the good auctions.  Furthermore, the numbers on the cards did not seem particularly balanced.

Despite these reservations, the game itself is quite enjoyable.  It may be a bit longer than I’d like for this type of game (our 4 player game came in around 80-90 minutes), but it was fairly interactive as you were receiving chips each turn from the shared action chosen by each player as well as the fairly common auctions for the events. 

The components, like all Stratamax games, are very simple.  In the Congo Line box, there is a board, which is nothing more than a laminated sheet of paper, 5 plastic molded trains, small plastic chips to represent money, little foam bits to serve as shares and the ubiquitous six-colored dice that seem to be in every Stratamax game.  Hatu Matu has a similarly non-impressive manifest of components including: 20 plastic pawns in each of 4 colors, a laminated board, 6 multi-colored dice, a fairly large number of little plastic poker chips, and a small stack of square cards made out of 24# paper.  In both games, the components are functional – but nothing to write home about.  When you purchase a Stratamax game, you are paying more for the rules and the game idea than you are the components!

Considering these games after the weekend brought the following question to my mind – Does it really matter how nice the components are in a game?  For me, it does not.  I am happy to pay someone for the ideas contained in the ruleset.  I’ve purchased more than my fair share of games that are really not much more than DTP kits.  Most Winsome games are nothing more than a single sheet of rules, a laminated paper board and paper money/chits.  That being said, some of the winsome games that I have are among my favorites in my entire collection!

Other games that fall into this category are the Key-games from Richard Breese.  They are limited edition in nature and consist of components that were handmade by Richard and his family.  Certainly, if you were to compare the original version of Keywood, Keythedral or Keydom to more professionally produced games, the originals will not seem as appealing.  But the appearance of the game or its components takes nothing away from the brilliant games that they are. 

We will also be able to judge how nice the Queen version of Jenseits von Theben will be compared to the homemade original version.  I am lucky enough to have both editions from Prinz Spiele, and there is clearly a difference in component quality and graphic presentation between these two, so it will be interesting to see what refinements are made to the artwork and components when produced by a large house such as Queen.  But, regardless of the presentation, Jenseits von Theben is still one of my favorite games of the last year.

The quality of game components is taken to a further extreme by Cheapass Games.  In these games, you pay for the rules and a board, but you are asked to provide all of the money/dice/chits/pawns that you will need.  The upside of this arrangement is that the games are quite inexpensive as you are not paying for all of the bits.  On the other hand, it is kind of a hassle to round up the appropriate bits when you want to play the games as well as remembering to return all the borrowed components to their homes when you are done. 

I know that many people may not agree with my feelings on the components issue.  I have certainly heard on a number of occasions that “this game would be great if it had different componentsâ€?.  And to some degree I agree with those people.  But, for me, if the game idea is good enough, I’m willing to accept lesser components in order to have and be able to play a great game! 

BOARDGAMENEWS.COM Fantasy Football Update

I lost to Valerie this week.  There’s not much more to say.  She kicked my butt.
It’s going to be a long season here in Mudville unless about 15 critical players get hurt on the opposing teams!
BTW, Coach Yu should be applauded for starting Wali Lundy (2 pts) in place of Donte Stallworth (28 points.)
Good call!

KIDS GAME OF THE WEEK / Dingalingaling! (Tatu Tata!)

Dingalingaling!  Haba (2002)
Designer: Markus Nikisch
# of Players: 2-4
Ages: 4-7
Time: about 15 minutes
Can it be played by adults? No.  Not even if severely inebriated.

Dingalingaling! is a children’s game meant for the younger ones.  It is a simple race game with elements of cooperation.  It has a beautiful 2 piece board.  A frame is made from interlocking wooden dowels.  Upon this frame, two boards are put into place.  The lower board serves as the platform for the garage of the fire station.  The wooden fire truck is placed on this level.  The upper level is the living area for the firemen.  Distributed around the edges of this level are lockers with the equipment needed by the firemen.  Beds for each fireman are found in the corners.  And in the middle – like every good firehouse, there is a fire pole that the men can slide down when they are ready to take care of business!

The concept of the game is simple.  Each player is a cute little wooden fireman who is constantly awoken by the alarm in the firehouse (Dingalingaling!).  When the alarm sounds, each fireman has to get out of bed and run around the upper level of the firehouse collecting the necessary materials for the particular run.  Each fireman will need his helmet, boots, and coat for each trip.  Additionally, he will need a ladder if he is retrieving a lost cat, a hose if he is putting out a fire, or a pump if he is helping with a flooded basement.

The firemen are moved around the firehouse by a die roll.  The die rolls 1, 2, 3, or a bell symbol.  If a number is rolled, the player can move that number of spaces.  If the bell is rolled, the fire truck gets closer to leaving.  To mark this, a bell on the fire truck card is moved forward one space.  If the bell is moved to the fifth and final space of this board, the fire truck leaves the station carrying whichever firemen were able to collect the appropriate equipment by that time – and the player that rolls this is supposed to ring the bell loudly and yell “DINGALINGALING!â€? or “Alarm!Alarm!Alarm!â€?.  In our house, this action is usually accompanied by running around the kitchen once or twice while yelling “DINGALINGALINGâ€? or “Alarm!Alarm!Alarm!â€?

So, the kids roll the die and move around the board picking up equipment.  When they have collected the four pieces they need, they slide down the pole and jump in the fire truck.  Now – all they have to do is wait for the fire truck to leave (when the fourth bell symbol is rolled).  In the meantime, if they get a turn, they still roll the die.  If they roll a number, they simply move one of the other players that number of spots to help them get ready to leave for the emergency.

That’s all there is to the game.  Doesn’t sound like much?  That’s because there isn’t anything else to do.  It’s pretty much a roll and move game with nice German wooden components.  That being said, my kids love the game.  They constantly want us to set up the board for them so they can “playâ€? the game.  Sometimes I’m fairly sure that they’re not playing the game at all but merely using the board as a play fire station and using the meeples and fire truck as toys.  But, every now and then, I see them rolling the dice and collecting the cards with the equipment on them!  Therefore, on the whole, this has turned out to be a great buy for our family because regardless of how they use it, they are getting a great deal of enjoyment out of the game.

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

© 2006 Dale Yu

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(re: fantasy football) To quote your sons, “I’m winning, you’re losing, I’m winning, you’re losing...dingalingaling!” Posted by Valerie Putman on Sep 13, 2006 at 06:23 AM | #

the season is still early… We’ll have to wait and see.  But, to be honest, I’m not particularly thrilled about the prospects for my team right now.  Anyone have a RB they want to trade? Posted by Dale Yu on Sep 13, 2006 at 07:39 AM | #

Joe Huber has a prototype called Dinsdale?  It doesn’t happen to be about a giant hedgehog called Spiny Norman, is it?  If so, it would be a natural for Doris & Frank! Posted by Larry Levy on Sep 13, 2006 at 03:07 PM | #

Dinsdale is in fact about hedgehogs.... No idea is it is Spiny Norman or not.  You’d have to ask Joe.  As far as I know, there are only two people who own a copy of the game:  Joe and the one known as Larry Levy’s nemesis. Posted by Dale Yu on Sep 13, 2006 at 03:53 PM | #

Eeek!  My nemesis!  I now must track down Huber and get a copy of Dinsdale for my very own! Posted by Larry Levy on Sep 14, 2006 at 05:14 AM | #

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