But the con was a pleasant surprise.  I managed to play a demo game or two, and found myself playing some unanticipated prototypes, and even bought a couple of games to round out my collection (this last item is the real shocker; I am notoriously reluctant to buy un-discounted games).

I stopped by the Fred booth to say hello to Keith Blume and look at the Railways of England and Wales board that he had on display.  I was one of the playtesters of REW, and I was happy to see that the final board is as pretty and big as other members of the Railroad Tycoon family tree.  The big innovation in REW is that there is a set of advanced rules which introduce railroad stocks into the game--making it a cousin of Chicago Express or the 18xx series of games.  Keith confirmed that REW will be available to the public in a couple of weeks.  He also mentioned that the first Railways of the World basic game will have a mapboard of the eastern United States that can be mated with a later western US map to create a mega-big railroad game. And the plastic trains in the new Railways of the World game have deliberately been given colors different from the trains in the original Railroad Tycoon so that owners of both games will have enough sets of different-colored pieces to play twelve-player games.

Keith also confirmed that he hopes to publish Glenn Drover’s semi-sequel to Age of Empires III sometime in 2010.  At the moment, I believe this game is called History.

STEAM

I played a demo copy of Martin Wallace’s Steam, another member of the huge Wallace railroad game clan.  As many others have already noted, Steam is a fine re-imagining of Age of Steam. My friend Tom Hancock was more taken with Steam than I was; I am beginning to tire of plain-vanilla cube shuttling, and am more enthusiastic when other mechanisms are added (like the stock market rules in Railways of England and Wales).  Nevertheless, those who don’t yet own a Wallace train game might consider acquiring Steam. 

PROTOTYPES

The first prototype I played was a new game designed by Richard “Arkham Horror” Launius.” I had to sign a blood pact of secrecy about this prototype, but my first-born might not have to be sacrificed if I merely mention that it is probably coming from Jolly Roger games in 2010, and that it has a zany theme.

The second prototype I played was Campaign Manager 2008.  This is an election card game from Christian Leonhard and Jason Matthews, the folks who brought us 1960: the Making of the President.  These gentlemen have done a couple of smart things with this game.  For one thing, it is purely a card game, and one that plays fairly quickly.  This will make it accessible to many non-gamers.  They have also trimmed the game by limiting the competition to only those states that seemed to be battleground states in 2008; I forget the exact number of states in the game but it was more than twenty and less than thirty.

Each player begins the game by taking his deck of cards and selecting fifteen of them to build his deck for that particular game.  This deck-building mechanism will help give the game a lot of replayability.  Then players take turns either drawing a card or playing a card to influence control of the four states that are in play at that moment.  Once a player has captured a state for good, it is removed and the winner gets to choose a new state to put into play.

Each state has two tracks with voter spaces that can be claimed by each player: an economic issue track which favors the Democrats (more of the spaces are already theirs), and a foreign policy track that favors the Republicans (more of these spaces tend to be Republican Red).  There is also an issue track which records which of these two issues is most important to the voters of each state.  Naturally, many of the cards can be used to capture voters on one of the two tracks, or to change which of the two issues is most important.  Once a player has captured all the voters on one track, he has won the state--as long as that issue is the one that is most important to voters in that state.

Campaign Manager 2008 is fun and fast-playing.  In my game against Tom Hancock, I pulled ahead early only to see Tom cut my lead time and again.  I believe the contest was decided by the battle over the last of the big states in the game.  It was quite a nail-biter.

If I have a quibble with the game, it is merely that there is little on the cards besides the photographic artwork that seems to anchor the game in the 2008 election.  Change the pictures on the cards to George W. Bush and Al Gore, and you could have a Campaign Manager 2000 game without having to change much of the text on the cards at all. 

At least, that was my impression after one play. I’ll know better after I buy the game and play it a few more times.  And I strongly suspect that this will be a game I’ll be buying.

• Cwali
Alley-Oop – Added
Factory Fun Expansion – Added
Gipsy King Expansion – Added
Powerboats Expansion – Updated

To reach the Spiel preview, head to one of the publisher links: A-D, E-M, N-R or S-Z.

A popular comment since the 2009 Spiel des Jahres nominees were announced in late May has been that Dominion is “too complex” to win. That may well be so, but a degree in computer science and ten years of teaching math have taught me that complexity is a tricky thing. If one mind can easily follow a procedure or solve a problem while another can’t, the question I always want to answer is how the computations carried out by the two minds differ.

Disappointingly, neither my classroom experiences nor the reading I’ve done on cognitive science have offered much in the way of definitive answers when it comes to adolescent minds doing algebra. Nonetheless, while I probably only have just enough knowledge to be dangerous, I’d like to offer a few thoughts about what it means for a game to be “complex”. I’m going to mostly restrict my examples to Finca, Pandemic, and Dominion; I have not played Fauna, and while Fits certainly gives some people fits, I don’t think the cognitive challenges it presents are akin to the ones I want to talk about.

A reasonably well known meme from neuroscience is that the human mind can hold about seven “chunks” of information at once, plus or minus about three, depending on the individual. Games that push up against this limit are likely to be perceived as complex. I think this is where Dominion takes the biggest hit. Every turn you need one chunk each for the number of actions, buys, and dollars you have at your disposal. Certain action cards give you other things to keep track of, and skillful play probably demands several additional chunks: what you intend to buy this turn, where you are in your long term strategy, maybe a note or two about what your opponents are up to.

Some may protest that it’s easy to organize your thoughts so it doesn’t feel like so much to remember. Easy for you, maybe, but saying it’s easy for everyone is begging the question of how minds differ. Maybe the ten chunk memory is just a four chunk memory with a good compression ratio.

With that in mind, consider humble Finca, a game I haven’t heard anyone describe as too complex for the SdJ. But for a mind with a bad “chunker”, it might be. In a four-player game, you have three meeples to move on the windmill. Assuming all are on different blades, you have to keep track of several things for each: how far it can move, how many fruit of which type it can obtain, and whether or not it can claim a donkey. I don’t claim that people generally treat each of these as a single chunk or if they do that they must store all twelve at once, but do wonder if this sort of accounting explains the “information overload” some intelligent people experience when they play our games.

Intuitiveness

Intuition probably seems like a strange concept for a supposed scientific discussion of cognition in gaming, but the fact is that the mind likes patterns and is a familiarity junkie. It’s good at noting deviations from expectations, too – that’s one of the ways we learn – but the experience of those deviations is at least mildly uncomfortable. So players familiar with other card games may find discarding your hand every turn in Dominion, or replacing the discards on top of the deck in Pandemic unpleasant and hard to remember until repetition ingrains the new pattern.

The Impact of Theme

Responding to an earlier draft of this piece, Wei-Hwa Huang suggested that effective integration of theme and mechanics can mitigate the perceived complexity of a game. His example is the infection cards in Pandemic; he says that when he points out how this models the tendency of a real infection to intensify in a city where it already has a foothold, the rule is no longer a problem. At first I didn’t entirely agree with this example – while the infection deck mechanism in Pandemic is clever, it has never struck me as particularly mnemonic – but as I have reflected further on my experience learning the game, there was a moment where realizing the thematic rational behind the rule relieved a quantum of stress; it no longer felt like “another damn rule” to remember.

In a May 2009 interview on Eric Burgess’s Boardgame Babylon podcast, designer Dan Verssen said that he develops his games to the point where they are “obvious.” His goal is that a player’s reaction to the rules should be, “Yes, of course. How else would you do that?” Now, I can think of many games that don’t produce this reaction, including many I consider great, so I don’t agree with Dan that “obviousness” should be a mandatory goal in game design. That said, I do think it is a real quality, and that games that possess it are more approachable because their actual or perceived complexity is lowered by the well integrated theme.

Moral Considerations

Compared to my earlier points, this is mere speculation. However, we certainly have a social/moral component to our minds that is brought to bear against some problems but not others. Responding to the impulses of this module, some people choose not to play “take that” games or games with themes of death and destruction. But among those who choose to play such games, I wonder if the social brain doesn’t still subconsciously intrude on and complicate efforts to play dispassionately. Does the life-or-death, real world theme of Pandemic impact the way people play? How much does playing an Attack card in Dominion feel like an attack, even when everyone acknowledges it’s the rational play?

So, what do you think? How do the brains you know best approach games, and which aspects of these games influence the brains’ perception of their complexity?

Bibliography

A number of books have influenced my thinking about thinking, but these are two I referred to while writing this piece:

• Lehrer, Jonah. How We Decide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.

• Pinker, Steven. The Stuff of Thought. New York: Viking, 2007.

Want to get something off your chest? Want to tell the world what you think? Boardgame News welcomes your article submissions at contributions@boardgamenews.com

If you visit those pages and see only introductory paragraphs not followed by huge tables showcasing publishers and their promised new releases, then either you’re not logged in or you’re not a BGN member, which makes it impossible to log in! The Spiel preview is available only to BGN members as their financial support allows me to put in as much time on the preview – not to mention the site as a whole – as I do. Some of the extensive game write-ups included in the Spiel preview will be published later on BGN as standalone items, but if you want to see them all now in one place, you can become a member now for the low, low price of $25.

Still not convinced of the awesomeness of the BGN Spiel 09 preview? Then consider this: If printed in its entirety, the Spiel 08 preview would reach 400 pages, and I fully expect the Spiel 09 preview to reach that size by the time Spiel opens on October 22. To fully appreciate the scope of the Spiel 08 preview, you should visit the Convention Previews page, click through to one of the Spiel 08 pages, and start reading. Even I’m amazed when I look over those files – and I’m the one who put it all together!

On another topic, my spring membership drive is over, and the bottom line is that there’s no way I can remove ads from the site. My goal was 400 new members, which would permit me to adopt the Consumer Reports model of relying only on member support, but the count barely crossed 100, with roughly twenty of those payments coming in the weeks prior to the debut of the Spiel preview.

While I appreciate the support of each member, whether new or renewing, those payments on their own aren’t enough to allow me to ditch the ads. Heck, even with the ads my yearly income is less than what I’d earn from writing for magazines and other clients. Thus, the ads will stay in place, and I’ll start adding other writing work to my schedule when possible. If you run a game publishing company and need someone to edit your rules and other material – and I think you do – write me and we’ll work something out.

While I spent the bulk of the evening with my partners from Rio Grande Games and Hans im Gluck, it was also nice to talk to some game designers (Vlaada Chvatil, Nick Kellet from Gift Trap, Reiner Knizia, Andrea Meyer, and Friedemann Friese) as well as some of the SdJ jury members and other industry folk.  It was nice that most people could speak English, and we were generally included in most of the conversation.  The evening also turned out to be a great night to try out some of the local beer – at least 2 glasses each of the 4 varieties on tap as well of one glass of the best alcohol-free beer I’ve ever had.

After having the 8 (or so) beers, it was clearly time for bed – but it was definitely a sleepless night as dreams of poppels dominated the night.  Lucky for me, we had to be up by 8AM in order to get ready for the “dress rehersal” which started at 9:30 on Monday morning.  We were ushered into the press room and we quickly reviewed the protocol for the press conference which was to start in an hour.  The room itself was a good size, with a large stage/podium at the front of the room.  The left side of the stage was devoted to the SdJ and there was a table in front of the stage which held the five Nominate games as well as the 2 special prizes (Space Alert and Gift Trap).  The right side of the stage had the podium and backdrop for the Kinderspiel des Jahres.  There was also a display of the five finalists for that award on that side of the room.  Then, there was probably seating for 80 in the front half of the room.  Like any good wedding, the first two rows were reserved for the folks involved with the finalists for each award.  The back half of the room was filled with long tables for the press and then a camera stand at the very rear for cameras (both still and video).

The rehearsal did not take very long (as the actual presentation would only take about 25-30 minutes), so when it was done, Valerie, Jay and I went out the hotel lobby to nervously wait for the award. Bernd Brunnhofer from Hans im Gluck came to join us.  This turned out to be quite nice as Bernd was able to explain the details from the rehearsal to us (as it was done completely in German, I only had a general idea of what, if anything, I would be expected to do at the press conference).  This little coffee break turned out to be the longest half an hour of the week.  We all tried to make small talk, but it was clear that everyone was preoccupied with the increasing excitedness/nervousness of the morning. One double espresso (and two bathroom breaks) later, it was time to return to the room for the big press conference.

While we were sitting outside trying to enjoy our coffee, the surprising large press corps had managed to assemble in the room.  I would estimate that there were at least 30 newspaper/magazine reporters there as well as at least 4 radio crews and 6 television cameras/crews.  I think that I recognized the logo of every TV channel I remembered from surfing the hotel TV (except Eurosport and the soft-porn channel).  Every seat in the room had been taken and there were still at least 40 to 50 people standing around the edges of the room.  It was frankly amazing to see the level of coverage for the award – and if I hadn’t have been so nervous myself, I would have paid a lot more attention to the amount of press that were there.  It certainly dwarfs any amount of coverage I’ve seen for gaming back home.

Anyways, we had to shimmy our way through the throng of reporters to take our seats in the very front of the room.  Bernd had comandeered seats in the very front right corner of the room.  As Bernd had the honor of having two games on the short list, he sat between Jay and Ralf zu Linde & Wolfgang Sentker, the designers of Finca.  It took a good ten minutes to get everyone in the room and situated, but soon the program was underway. 

After a short introduction by the speaker of the Jury (and translated by Fritz Gruber into English), they moved right into the Kinderspiel des Jahres award.  The five games were announced alphabetically.  When each game was announced, the game designer and a representative from the publishing house came up to the podium.  At the same time, a short video (maybe 2 minutes in length) about the game was shown to give the journalists a brief idea of what the game was like.  All of the videos were produced by the jury, and I must say that they were very well done.  The videos all followed a similar format – they showed some actors playing the game while there was a narration over the top which described the gist of the game.  The final bit of each video was how many players could play the game, the recommended ages and the MSRP of the game.  Though I was familiar with 10 of the 12 games prior to the press conference, I could see how these well produced videos could quickly introduce non-gamers to the games.  Even though I couldn’t understand much of the German narration, I got a really good feel for the two games I hadn’t seen before.

At the conclusion of the video, the speaker of the KsdJ jury then handed the designer/publisher a certificate proclaiming the nominated status for Kinderspiel des Jahres.  Finally, it was time for smiling, handshakes and pictures for the press.  This same protocol was followed for all five Nominated games.  After all the games had been announced, it was quickly onto the award.  There was a large poppel on the stage (at least 1 meter in height) which was covered by large black cloth.  The cloth was removed, and the game box for Das magische Labyrinth from Schmidt/Drei Magier Spiele was revealed as the winner followed by three or four minutes of exuberant cheering and another presentation.  The game designer and the Schmidt representative again came on stage.  This time, they each received a folder with a new certificate congratulating them on the Game of the Year.  Additionally, they were each given a huge wooden poppel which is the official trophy for the Spiel des Jahres.  The speaker of the jury then asked a few short questions of the designer and publisher, and then the KSdJ presentation concluded.

Once all the celebrating and picture taking were finished for the KSdJ, the program then moved on to recognize the two special awards from the jury this year.  The designers of Gift Trap and Space Alert were up on stage – along with representatives from CGE and Heidelberger.  Again, a short video was played for each game, and then all of the folks up there were given their poppel, certificate and a hearty handshake.

With the special awards out of the way, now it was time for the main award.  By this point, I’ll admit that I was really having time keeping my palms dry.  I really didn’t think that I was nervous when the morning started, but the anticipation kept building throughout the morning.  Now that the time had come for the award, I was pretty sure that I was hyperventilating with a heart rate in the 120s.  The only comforting fact was that Valerie looked to be in the same shape (or maybe worse?!) as me.  I couldn’t really see how Jay was doing (as he was sitting in front of me), but he seemed pretty fidgety as well.

As it turned out, Dominion was the first game alphabetically, so it was introduced first.  Donald Vaccarino, the designer of the game, was unable to make the press conference, so Bernd from HiG and Jay from RGG were invited up to the stage while the Dominion video played.  Now, I’m sure that my view of the video is a bit skewed because of my involvement with the game (and because I couldn’t understand too much of the German narration) – but the video sure seemed to focus on a lot of shuffling!  I started to panic because one of the most common complaints I hear about the game is on the frequency of shuffling, and I was worried that the jury would take the same stance.  However, the video (and shuffling) were blissfully over soon.  Once Jay and Bernd had received their certificates of nomination – all that was left to do was wait!

I’m pretty sure that the other four games were announced in alphabetical order and the appropriate people came up on stage, but I don’t remember any of it.  All I could focus on at this point was the huge cardboard poppel and trying to figure out what game box was affixed to it.  I spent what seemed like a good hour or so trying to decide whether I could really see a square shaped box hiding underneath the black covering cloth.  I was using all of my energy to try to see through that damned black cloth that I almost didn’t realize that all five games had been announced…

However, the complete and total hush that fell over the assembled crowd made it clear that something big was about to happen.  Oh, right – it was time to announce the winner of the Spiel des Jahres!  Hopefully I won’t be spoiling the surprise, but in what may have been the longest three seconds of my life – the cloth was removed and Dominion was the game affixed to the poppel!

There was pretty much mass jubilation in our little corner.  I remember giving just about everyone in our corner of the room a huge hug, and some friends who were seated closeby also joined in.  Then, before I knew it, Valerie, Jay, Bernd and myself were whisked up on stage for the presentation of the actual award!  Once up there, I was given one end of the SdJ certificates to hold onto and then all I remember is being blinded by about a thousand camera flashes.  Not being able to see anything, I just tried to make sure that I was smiling and spent a fair amount of enegry making sure that I wasn’t going to faint from the excitement.

Jay and Bernd were each asked a few questions about the game, and then before I knew it – the ceremony was over.  In fact, I was still standing in the middle of the stage with the rest of the team when I realized that half of the room had already stood up and was leaving through the back door into a small reception area.  We were instructed that we should also go out into the room, but Bernd was held up with multiple TV and radio interviews.  Valerie and I were approached by at least one TV crew for an interview as well, but sadly since we couldn’t speak enough German, they had to pass on interviewing us as apparently it would make for bad TV.

Once it became clear that we (Jay, Valerie and myself) were not necessary for the interviews, we pretty much just stood at a table near the Dominion booth.  The reception room was a large square room with booths for all of the nominated games as well as the two special awards.  Each booth had a copy of the game on display.  Press kits were available for the media to take for each game, and there were plenty of review copies there for the reporters to take home and get a better look at them.  There was also a nice buffet spread provided for a light lunch.

I spent most of the rest of the day in a daze.  For those of you that have met me before, you’ll probably know that I’m generally never at a lack of words.  But for much of the rest of the morning, I’m fairly certain I was standing in the room dumbstruck at the fact that Dominion had won the SdJ!  Valerie and Jay were in the same state of mind – so at least the awkward silence at our little table wasn’t just because of me!  As we were generally standing around the Dominion booth, most people found us there to offer congratulations.  Plenty of people came up to me and seemed to know me by name – which I was at first quite confused by (as I had NO idea who many of these people were) – but I was later reminded that not more than 10 minutes ago I had been standing in the middle of the stage having my name announced to the crowd.  Anyways, the reception was pretty open-ended, and it seemed to dwindle to a conclusion in about an hour.  To be honest, I think the real reason why people left was the buffet had been completely emptied of food and all of the booths had likewise been emptied of review copies of games.

That pretty much wraps up what happened at the Spiel des Jahres award ceremony.  I apologize for not taking any pictures, but it was kind of hard to concentrate that much on the journalistic stuff this year! Well, now it’s time to get to bed (have to be at work Wednesday morning!) and then I have to find a spot on the shelf for the big wooden poppel!  Before I forget, let me make sure to thank those people who helped me have one of the best experiences of my life (after marriage and the birth of my 2 kids)—Valerie for working with me as my partner, Donald for designing the game, Jay for asking Valerie (and I) to help take part, Bernd and the HiG crew for all their work making sure the game was viewed correctly by the German gamers, the playtesters on our side (esp. Sir Shufflesalot), and to all the gamers that have enjoyed the game and helped spread it to other gamers!  I’m not sure when I’ll ever make it to Berlin again, but it will be quite difficult to ever top this trip!

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
Publisher: Mayfair Games / Phalanx Games
Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Rules Language: English / German
Price: $30
Links:

The ancient Native Americans who lived and prospered for hundreds of years in the early 1000s are a fascinating people. Their legacy includes a litany of intriguing buildings constructed in the deserts and on precipitous cliffs of the American southwest. After flourishing for centuries, the civilization vanished rather suddenly, leaving a mystery that endures to this day. This mystery is the stuff of legend and makes for a wonderful story, and perhaps even an outstanding board game. Sadly, Anasazi by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede, is not that game.

As I learned on my recent vacation to the area, there is no recorded record of the actual name of this group of Native Americans. Modern historians initially adopted the term Anasazi for the group, but this name is now out-of-favor, as apparently it can mean “enemy” in modern Hopi dialect. The name is still used, however, and was even adopted by Wrede for his game.

Each player receives seven campsites, of which two will be placed onto the table between the mesa tiles to begin the game. Six base camps are also placed along the perimeter of the mesas. Expeditions will begin from these base camps and meander their way to the various mesas. Players also each receive one secret goal card, which indicates the color of treasure that will be doubled in value for that player.

Game play is quite simple. Each turn, a player perform two actions, including, if desired, performing the same action twice.

• Build a campsite: A campsite is placed onto the table between mesas. After placing a campsite, the player may secretly look at the color of one of the towers. This information can be quite useful when playing expedition tiles.

• Guide an expedition: The player takes one expedition tile and places it onto the table. Expeditions begin at the base camps, and extend from there. The slender, rectangular tiles are laid end-to-end, with each one slightly overlapping the previous tile. The tiles may be turned at various angles, allowing the path of the expedition to be redirected at the whim of the players. The idea is to reach pueblos and collect the treasures – and perhaps towers – located thereupon. A treasure or tower (or both) are taken if the expedition tile touches the pueblo. Treasures are kept by the players, while towers are revealed and placed upon the scoring tile.

  If an expedition tile touches a mesa for the first time, the player may secretly look at the tower on that mesa, noting its color. It is important to remember the identity of the towers, as players will want to avoid collecting towers that match the color of their “goal” card. Having as few of these colored towers placed to the scoring tile as possible is highly desirable, as it will increase the value of that treasure.

  When a player places an expedition tile that touches one of his own campsites, he may steal a treasure of his choice from an opponent. This is the major incentive to placing new campsites as this theft can deny several points to an opponent and increase your own victory point tally. There is a rule that prevents the placing of an expedition tile over a campsite that was just placed on the same turn. Otherwise, this would be too easy of a task and would not allow opponents the opportunity to attempt to divert the expedition away from a campsite.

Each player tallies the value of his captured treasures, doubling the value of the treasures that match his goal card. The wealthiest player is victorious. They also gain the ignominious distinction of being the most prolific looter of ancient treasures.

In spite of its appealing subject matter, Anasazi falls flat on several levels. First, it fails to evoke the rich mystery of the culture. There really isn’t much atmosphere here. Further, it is difficult to balance the slim expedition tiles when overlapping them. They constantly slide off, causing the tiles to move and shift. In a game where centimeters are critical, this is quite problematic. The art on some of the tiles is also difficult to discern. Expedition tiles depict a tiny human figure atop a ladder, but it is a bit too diminutive for my aging eyes. The color of the base camps is also difficult to discern. Brighter colors would certainly have been easier.

Unfortunately, game play is also lacking. Players are hesitant to move an expedition close to a treasure lest an opponent use his turn to reach and claim the prize. Sadly, there really aren’t many alternatives, as inevitably someone will eventually begin moving the expedition towards the treasures. More often than not, being able to grab a treasure is due to the tile placement of the player immediately preceding your turn. There is no disincentive to collecting treasures, so players will grab any treasure within reach. Perhaps if certain treasures were harmful to a player, then there would be an incentive to exercise other options. As is, there aren’t any.

Fortunately, Anasazi plays to completion in 30 minutes or so. Its short duration, however, cannot overcome its flaws and general blasé feel. There simply isn’t anything exciting here. It is truly disappointing that the game couldn’t have done more justice to such a fascinating culture and subject.

New developments include Preservation, which allows you to spend pottery to double your food, and Shipping, which lets you build ships from wood and cloth, then use those ships to trade goods for other goods. To adjust for these changes, some existing developments, such as Medicine and Religion, have had their costs and values altered. Every monument can be built in the Late Bronze Age, no matter how many players are in the game. New score sheets that incorporate all of these changes are available for download on the rules page.

As with other Ubongo titles, Ubongo 3-D comes with both easy and difficult puzzle cards. Unlike previous game, the building materials are all wood instead of plastic cardboard. The game has a September 2009 release date.

Alcazar, coming from Kosmos in September 2009, will finally be that new version of Big Boss as one can tell be looking at the upper-left corner of the box and reading the words “Das neue Big Boss.” One thing different about this new game is the setting, which has players building castles and villas rather than auto companies, and placing builders and grandees within those buildings rather than buying stock. The takeover mechanism of the game remains the same: As castles build and expand, they’ll grow closer to one another, and should they touch, the smaller will be “incorporated” (wink, wink) into the larger one. The nobility from the smaller castle then heads home, after first converting all of their candelabras and Persian rugs into silver.

This game doesn’t go to six players as Big Boss did, so that’s one change to the game. That promising upper-left corner also mentions variants, so it will be interesting to see what Kramer has to offer when he revisits a fifteen-year-old design.

(HT: Tric Trac)

Dominion, Vaccarino’s first published game, has players build a deck of cards – comprised of money, actions and victory points – on the fly during the course of the game. Each player’s deck changes with each new card acquired, so players need to keep those changes in mind as the game progresses. Do they have too little money? Are they buying victory cards too early, clogging their decks with valuable, yet unplayable cards? The game includes 25 Kingdom cards, only ten of which are used in each game, so the game provides a huge amount of variability. Breaking tradition from Spiel des Jahres past, the first expansion for Dominion – Intrigue – was released earlier in June 2009. (Vaccarino wrote about the design of Intrigue and Dominion expansions in a recent article on BGN.) More expansions are in the works. Tummelson noted at the SdJ press conference in Berlin that Vaccarino had presented him with 35 games when they first met, so don’t be surprised to see a few more games with his byline over the next twelve months…

When the SdJ nominees were announced in May 2009, two special awards were given: Space Alert, by Vlaada Chvatil (Czech Games Edition), in the category of “new game worlds” and Gift Trap, by Nick Kellet (Heidelberger Spieleverlag) for “party games.” The SdJ jury creates these special awards as needed to recognize games that hold some special appeal outside of the mainstream titles recognized as SdJ-nominated and -recommended games. Kellet and Heidelberger’s Harald Bilz, as well as Chvatil and Czech Games’ Petr Murmak, were in Berlin to receive their awards.

The Kinderspiel des Jahres – the children’s game of the year, which is announced at the same time as the SdJ but chosen by a different jury of experts – is Das magische Labyrinth, designed by Dirk Baumann and published by Drei Magier Spiele. In Das magische Labyrinth, Baumann’s first published game, players have magnetized magicians who are trying to collect objects hidden below the gameboard and move them to a certain destination – but a labyrinth underneath the gameboard can cause you to lose your grip on an item unexpectedly while toting it to your goal. Pay attention to such “accidents” and you’ll be able to memorize where the hidden walls are located.

Wieland Herold, the jury coordinator for the KsdJ, announced that in 2010, for the tenth anniversary of the award, the Kinderspiel would be presented at a separate news conference in a different location. (Prior to 2001, the award was a special prize for best children’s game and not its own freestanding award.)

Congrats to all the winners!

I started the year with a big splurge in spite of trying to keep new purchases down. And for many months, I was as good as gold, not buying anything new at all. But then I got hit with the Artscow bug, which lead me adding a number of self-made games and expansions to my collection. Then, shortly afterward, I found myself compelled to shell out for the wargame Bastogne: Screaming Eagles Under Siege because I’d played it multiple times on Vassal, and loved it, and it seemed unfair to MMP not to pick up a copy in spite of it being an eight-hour monster that I’ll probably never play face-to-face. And with it came Dunwich Horror because I managed to find a very attractively priced copy and I was sure I’d play it, solo at least.  We’re only half way through the year - there will undoubtably be more in the months to come. Like the Pitchcar Extension because my daughter has just started playing that, and quite possibly Last Night on Earth when it gets reprinted because, well because it’s short and easy and is bound to get played sometime. I’ve got my eye on some of the newer titles due out as well, but I’m usually content to wait until the hype has died down on those, so I can probably hold off until next year.

No more stats for the rest of the article. But there is one more thing about this particular personal quest that I wanted to highlight because it’s had wider ramifications for the way I think about games as a whole. The way that John has set his system to calculate the values, you get very little back for playing a game more than ten times. So it’s encouraged me to get in several plays of some titles that have sat gathering dust on my shelves for some time, most notably Traders of Genoa which proved quite a big hit at my local gaming group. But on the flip side it’s actively discouraged me from playing most of my favourite games, because in many cases I’ve already played them more than ten times, so in the pursuit of my fairly abstract goals you could say that what I’m actually doing is playing more of games I like less. So, although on balance I’m probably getting more entertainment out of checking out new titles than I’m loosing from not playing my favourites, it’s not entirely a good thing at all.

What this made me think about is why I maintain a wider collection of games at all. Why don’t I just pick my absolute favourite games and stick with them over and over again? Some of the answer is simply logistical - one of my favourite games is Twilight Imperium which only gets played on the rare occasions we can organise the time for it, and on the flip side it’s useful to have a few games that are very fast and simple. Some of it is the inevitable fact that even for the very best games the shine will wear off eventually and the game will start to seem a little dry. But beyond that, the honest truth is that all that’s making me want to keep a bunch of the games that I’m keeping is the sense that someday, sometime, I might want to play it. And frankly, that’s a pretty poor excuse to be sitting on top of ninety-odd boardgames and continually agitating to play those I’ve not played before just in case they’re any good, when I could be lavishing my time on stuff that I know is brilliant. When you add expansions for those favourite games into the mix, extending their longevity, it becomes an even more compelling case.

The same thought is what’s behind my occasional rants about the difficulty of picking out “good” boardgames in advance of playing them, no matter how many reviews you read. I end up investigating a game and buying it, only to find that for one reason or another it never hits the table and then suddenly I’ve been holding on to a game for months on end on the off chance that when I finally get to play it, it’ll turn out to be brilliant. So again, time gets taken away from games I know I love just so I can check out other games that might have the potential to join that hallowed club. Looking back on my board game collection, this issue is what’s driven me to acquire the majority of games that I own, and is certainly what’s behind the majority of purchases that I’ve got lined up. I really wish there were some better way of finding out in advance what games are going to be for you, some sort of all-time classic standard we can agree on like there seems to be for video games. But there isn’t.

The picture is further complicated by decisions to make about what, exactly, passes as a favourite game. I adore Titan. But I’ve long since stopped attempting to play it face-to-face: it’s become a play-by-email only excercise. And even then a small part of me thinks that since the game occasionally throws up situations in which players can get into a loosing position through little fault of their own, can it really be quite as good as some more modern titles in a similar mold that avoid this trap? That line of thought is, if pursued too far, the same chain of ideas that leads to the sterility of some egregious examples of over-controlled, interaction-free Euro games, but there are sensible balances to be struck along the way. Fortunately for me, Titan remains, in my opinion, unique and challenging enough to justify play time in spite of its flaws. But can I really call it a favourite? Can I really justify owning a copy that will almost certainly never see face-to-face play? Whatever the answer I hold on to it, and many similar games, simply because my tastes might change and one day I might regret ditching it. It’s an unfortunate reactionary attitude, after all, there will always be other great games around to play, but it’s partly what’s behind my keeping of so many games that see so little table time.

Of course you might argue that I ought to keep a copy of any game I continue playing on the internet, as I undoubtedly will with Titan, because otherwise I’m doing a game publisher somewhere a disservice. I don’t really think you can counter that argument - publishers need support. But there is an unfortunate manner in which the availability of on-line play can actually influence your game acquisition in a very negative manner. An example is Santiago. I bought a copy of this after playing it on SBW a couple of times because I was intrigued by the mechanics and I could see that it would likely be a much superior game played face to face. There’s a negotiation and screw-your-neighbour element to the game which is entirely lacking in the on-line experience. But of course having got the game, I’ve never got it to the table. Having played it on-line, the novelty value of bringing it to a group as a new game has worn off for me. So in spite of its merits, it has become another dust-gatherer which can never quite seem to get enough impetus to see it ahead of other, genuinely unplayed titles.

We all do this. All of us. The lure of new games is always too strong, in spite of the best intentions, and there’s never enough time to play them all. So I’d like to hear about how you deal with this issue. Do you have the time and the willpower to keep on bringing back your favourites time after time and still find space to slot in the occasional new title that you buy? Do you perhaps only restrict yourself to games you’ve played before somewhere and know are good - I guess this is part of the lure of going to conventions and getting to see demo copies? Are you happy to see yourself as much, if not more, as a collector of games rather than a player of games? Or is this all just so much hot air and if so, do you have any good suggestions to stop me being so damn careful and indecisive about what games I choose to pack up and bring out for game nights?

Race games seem to hold a special appeal for Bauza, and Pocket Rockets has racing elements as players are trying to complete rockets quickly before the limited fuel supplies run out and the game ends. As in many games, efficient building in an inefficient factory will be key to your victory. Six cards comprise the factory, with a launch site and a recycling workshop sitting opposite one another, while a conveyor and three assembly plants (white, red, yellow) take up the other four locations. On a turn, a player has four action points with which to move her token in the direction of the conveyor, draw a rocket card – whether base, fuselage or tip – from one of four decks near the factory, or use the power of one of the factory cards. The assembly plants let you play a card of the appropriate color, the recycling workshop lets you trade a card in hand for another one (which is needed due to a three card hand limit), and the launch site gives fuel with which to launch a completed rocket.

The game ends when fuel is exhausted, and players score two points per fuselage card in their completed rockets as well as 1-4 points for the fuel used. Rocket tips provide players with special powers, such as an additional action point and the ability to move either direction on the conveyor.

Pocket Rockets is for 2-4 players, ages 10 and up, with a playing time of 20 minutes. The publisher, Hazgaard Editions, will release the game in July 2009, and Asmodee Editions will distribute it in North America and elsewhere. Rules are available in German, French and English on the Pokcet Rockets website. This game has been updated on Gone Cardboard.

Pandemic
Disclosure: I traded for this game via a BGG trade, but have sometimes received discounted games from Z-Man games in past years.  I have also met Zev personally at GenCon.
I was very happy to see Pandemic get a nomination this year.  I’m a big fan of cooperative games as they fill a needed niche within the hobby.  Some folks just don’t take to the forced competitiveness of a standard boardgame and it is nice to have options where everyone can win or lose together.  Pandemic stands out for me in this category as it is easy to explain and plays in a moderate amount of time.  Most importantly, rather than having a rigid story or path for the players to follow on a set board (as in Lord of the Rings, Arkham Horror, or perhaps even Shadows over Camelot), Pandemic’s board ebbs and flows according to the order of the cards making some games a race against outbreaks while others are more of a struggle to collect the right cards for a cure.  Rather than rely on cards or events to drive changes to the board, all the rules and effects are known at the start of the game.  This means beginners have a better chance at making reasonable decisions and lessens the likelihood of other players running the game for the new players.  Pandemic has also earned my respect as it functions very well as a two-player cooperative game.  It has served me well for game evenings with my wife, and I know it is popular with other couples.  It may be just a cult of the new showing through, but I feel it has better long-term replay ability than other cooperative games I’ve tried.

Dominion
Disclosure: I bought this game with my own money, but I did play the game when Dale Yu (one of the developers) was in the same room sitting a few tables away.  I also once played the game In the Year of the Dragon with Dale’s brother.
Of all the games I’ve played this year, Dominion is still my favorite.  I don’t’ often get to play games over and over again, but I have played more Dominion in the past 9 months or so than any other game.  It helps that it was a favorite at the high school game club as well as the local club.  Dominion hits a sweet spot for me as it seems to me to pack nearly everything I want out of a game into as short a time frame as possible.  I love building up an economic engine (also why I like gardening) which is then turned into points.  I also like having multiple choices for a path to victory.  Sometimes a set of 10 cards will have only one or two recommended victory paths, but there are usually a few different options.  The many different combinations of available cards helps to keep the game fresh after many different plays.  I’ve even made the game one of my most portable ones by placing the entire deck into a box for trading card games, complete with dividers I made to keep them separate.  (I plan to upload the dividers I designed to BGG someday, they have the rules info for each card right on the dividers so I don’t have to cart the rulebook around either…) There are some drawbacks to the game, primarily the constant shuffling which can grate on the nerves of those who find it too fiddly.  (I don’t mind.) It can also be a bit much for a non-gamer to jump into for their first taste of eurogames.  Thus, I don’t spring it on anyone who hasn’t already played a few of these games of ours.  Finally, Fate can be a harsh mistress in the game with the luck of the draw giving a player a significant boost or hindrance in the early game, stalling out the game for that player while others forge ahead.  This doesn’t happen too often, but often enough to be a little frustrating.  I love going through a game in my head after finishing to think about what might have gone wrong, but I will occasionally have games of Dominion where I lose fairly seriously and have very few of my own poor decisions to blame.  Despite these minor drawbacks, I really enjoy the game and still bring it out to play as often as I can.  I look forward to the upcoming sequel with anticipation, although I was a bit disappointed with the recent BGG 2-card expansion.  The one was somewhat interesting for variety, but the Black Market card was fun but also slowed down the game immensely as players had to pause to peruse which of the three cards they were interested in purchasing.

So, which game do I think will win?  I don’t have enough information to guess.  If I were going by my personal favorite, I think Dominion is unique enough and definitely fun enough for the win, however it is a bit more of a stretch to play for those who aren’t already into the gaming hobby.  Finca is a solid title and is a good family game, but is a bit abstract and dry for me.  Pandemic is great all the way around, but I fear some might accuse it of having less replay value and the cooperative nature may put some folks (judges?) off.  If I’m forced to guess what’s in a German judge’s mind, I’d go with Finca as it is most like games that have won previously.  If they’re not afraid of a little innovation, I’d love to see Pandemic or Dominon take home a win.  Best of luck to all the publishers, designers, (and developers!) for the final announcement next week!  Feel free to chime in with your own opinions below (if you haven’t already burnt yourself out on the discussion.)

In other, videogame news, I’ve been playing a bit of Hey, That’s My Fish on the Wii console as a download game and a lot of Magic: the Gathering as an Xbox 360 download.  Both are fairly well implemented, with Hey, That’s My Fish having very cute graphics and Magic having a decent computer AI.  I haven’t played either enough for a good review yet, however I have enjoyed my Magic games despite most games vs the computer coming down to who draws better cards and the game’s too harsh of restriction on deck modification.  I hope to let everyone know my thoughts on them in a future post.

Kris: Sturm Europa! is now going to be published by Academy Games.  Congratulations! How did that happy event come about? When is SE likely to be published? When is it likely to be available for pre-order? Does Academy Games even do pre-orders?

Michael: I was contacted directly by Uwe Eickert at Academy Games who saw my design on boardgamegeek.com.  A TON of interest was generated by previewing game components such as event cards and block labels.  I was very fortunate to receive offers from three major publishers.  I felt each would have done a fine job publishing my design but the clincher was Academy’s commitment to a large print run with no P500 contingency and the assurance that Sturm would have the same first rate production value as Conflict of Heroes.

SE is likely to be published by the end of this year.  The original target was in time for Essen, but Uwe and I both agree it is better to wait until I am thoroughly satisfied with the design than to rush something off to the printers.

Academy Games does pre-orders but the timetable has not been set.  One thing that has been discussed is a limited edition bonus item to ship with pre-orders like custom dice or optional cards.

Michael: I’m excited about both the production and technology rules because I believe they offer a fresh and unique approach for the WWII genre.  The production system is reminiscent of a “euro” as players collect colored cubes representing cadre, capital, manpower, steel, and oil and spend them to produce units.  It’s a distinct departure from the traditional Third Reich / Axis & Allies style system that emphasizes the accumulation of huge production point totals through territorial expansion – to me that’s just not a very realistic model.  It was often the case that vast territorial expansion created more of a strain than a boon for the Nazi war economy.  The real life shortages in manpower for the Brits, oil for the Germans, and cadre for the Soviets, present unique challenges for players to overcome that can’t be simulated with generic production points.

Technology played a very important role in World War II, and it will also in SE.  Tech cards are played face down with development often taking years.  There is a great deal of suspense because opposing players don’t get to see what you are researching and you don’t even know if it will work until it hits the battlefield.  With sufficient investment every new technology will be successful, but the temptation to rush new designs into production may result in delays, teething problems, or even total disaster.  Events cards can also force your opponent to reveal his tech research, allowing you to copy his designs or even strategically bomb his research.  The latter can be critical in games where a two-way race for the a-bomb develops.

Also of particular note is that the Battle of the Atlantic really hinges on the technology race.  The Axis have a decided advantage early on but the convergence of ASW efforts, ULTRA code breaking, RADAR, and the long range B-24 Liberator usually lead to the demise of the U-boat fleets unless Germany offsets Allied technologies with their own developments like Triton Enigma code changes, Schnorkel technology, and the Type XXI u-boat.

Kris:  How has the card play aspect of the game changed? What numbers of cards are you dealing with now? Does each player have his own deck?  Are the decks divided into early war, middle war, and late war sections?

Michael: Players used to draw from 3 separate decks representing military, political, and tech events but that has been eliminated.  Each side now draws from their own dedicated deck of 55 cards but the military, political, and tech cards are all mixed in.  With 3 sides, there are 165 cards in total.  Each deck is divided into 30 early, 15 mid, and 10 late war cards.  After experimenting with many alternative systems, I eventually settled on the CDG ops or event mechanic which is really an excellent system.

Kris: The Sturm Europa! page on the Academy Games site says the game board will likely be made of two mounted 22” x 33” mounted maps. As a fan of large maps I approve. Academy Games was often commended for the physical production of Conflict of Heroes, and I assume that Sturm Europa! will have the same quality physical production. But I also assume the quality comes at a price. Is it too early to know roughly what the game will cost?

Michael: As I mentioned previously, the production quality of CoH was one of the critical factors in my decision to have Academy publish my design.  It will absolutely have that level of physical production if not better.  Price has not been set but it should be right in line with Awakening the Bear or Storms of Steel.

Kris: One of the things that makes the card system of SE sound attractive is the ability of players to change of the course of political, economic, or technological history through the use of cards. Can you list some of the alternative events players can create in the game?

Michael: I’ve made every effort to design SE to be as open ended and unscripted as possible.  It’s conceivable that the Germans and Soviets never go to war.  Given the right circumstances, a successful Sea Lion invasion is possible.  Spain can join the Axis and although unlikely, even Turkey might.  It is feasible for Germany to develop the a-bomb if the Allies ignore Axis research.  The Soviets can build a sizeable navy and develop advanced technologies if they are never invaded.  There are many fringe strategies and outlier results that aren’t possible without the correct combination of cards but one of my design intents is to keep players “honest” by allowing for their possibility.  Just the mere threat discourages players from employing extreme strategies like emptying the West and overloading on the Eastern Front or ignoring tech or politics altogether.  For example, in a recent play test the Allied player redeployed the British forces normally stationed in the Middle East to North Africa to shift the balance against the Afrika Korps in his favor.  When the Axis player played the Muslim Uprising event, there were no British forces to suppress the Golden Square coup in Iraq.  By the subsequent season Axis influence spread to unoccupied Egypt as well and all the British forces in the North Africa were cut out of supply.  One unit left in the Middle East would have prevented all the mayhem.

Many event cards were very specific in nature when I first conceived of them and were inspired by a particular historical event that I wanted to pay homage to.  Over time, most of those cards have become much more generic in nature.  For instance, there used to be a Gran Sasso Raid and Operation Panzerfaust event to allow Germany to retain control of Italy and Hungary after Allied and Soviet coups respectively.  Now those events have been combined into a single replayable Otto Skorzeny card that allows the Axis player to retain control of ANY ally nation if played after a coup.  That way if Turkey or Sweden join the Axis, even those nations can be protected against Allied coups.

Kris: Thanks for the interview.  Sturm Europa! may be available this Fall.

Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
Publisher: Rio Grande Games / Hans im Glück / Filosofia Games / others
Players: 2-4
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Release Date: June/July 2009
Price: $45
Links:

When W. Eric Martin asked me to write a Dominion: Intrigue preview, it seemed like a daunting task, since I’d already written a “Secret History of the Intrigue Cards” thing for posting at BoardGameGeek around the time the set came out. I didn’t want to just repeat myself, so what did that leave? Then someone spoiled all of the Intrigue cards. A preview became impossible; at best I could write a view. Then I waited and waited, and now the set is out some places and the only option left is a postview.

And I’ve written one! I’m just assuming that as I type these words, but you in the future reading this know it to be true because why would W. Eric Martin just post these two paragraphs? No, there must be a postview coming.

So there are the cards, and now I will say some stuff about them that isn’t just stuff about how they changed over the years since that’s covered in that other article, which I would link to only I haven’t posted it yet. I see this postview as falling into say four sections. I can talk about What You Get in the expansion: an overview of the set, for people who haven’t run any statistics on those images yet. Then there’s Anatomy of an Expansion, explaining the way in which different kinds of cards contribute to making a Dominion expansion work. And then, naturally, The Throne Room Variations. But wait, first:

Do You Even Know What Dominion Is?

You probably do, to be reading this, but I might as well make sure. Dominion is, uh, this game I made. You build a deck while playing it. It being the deck. Dominion‘s been previewed already on this site, so let’s just have that link.

Dominion: Intrigue is just like that only with different cards. If you haven’t played Dominion before, I recommend starting with the main set. It’s simpler and not in a bad way. If you’ve played Dominion with friends but don’t own it, you can start with Intrigue because hey, you can play it by itself, and when you get together with those friends you can mix the two sets. Or you can still start with the main set. I don’t mind. If you already own the main set, then at this point I recommend getting Intrigue. Two copies of the main set, that’s just silly.

What You Get

Physically, Dominion: Intrigue is the same as Dominion except that the 25 kingdom cards have been replaced with 25 new ones (at 10-12 copies each, as with the main set). Intrigue includes Copper, Estate, Curse, etc., just as Dominion does. This means it stands alone; you can play Dominion with just Intrigue, or you can combine the main set and Intrigue. Of course the rulebook is also different since it needs to explain the new cards instead of the old ones. Also the placeholder cards for Copper, etc. are gone because people didn’t tend to use them, and you can use blanks there anyway. There are still placeholder cards for the kingdom cards, although now we refer to them as randomizers since that’s what they are really.

Because Intrigue comes with Copper, etc., you have enough components for playing with five or six players, and we provide rules for doing so. Alternatively, if you have both the main set and Intrigue, you can split into two groups of up to four each and still have everything you need to play with both sets in both games. You won’t be able to have the same kingdom card in both games at once, but that will be fine.

Anyway: 25 new cards. What that means is variety. The number of card interactions shoots up; it should take way longer to feel like you’ve seen everything than with just the main set.

The main set doesn’t really have a functional theme. It had the game itself to offer up; it didn’t need to go further. The closest thing the main set has to a functional theme is “simplicity.” For example the main set has six cards that just have some +s on them – no additional text. Intrigue has only two. With Intrigue we are assuming you’ve played already and are ready for some more complex cards. Not that they get too complex. They are a good amount of complex. Man, these articles are tricky.

Intrigue has two main functional themes: 1) victory cards that do something, and 2) decision-making.

In the main set, victory cards are useless until it’s time to score. That is still mostly true with Intrigue; you still have those starting Estates and those eventual Provinces. However Intrigue adds three new victory cards that actually do something useful. Great Hall just replaces itself, but that means it effectively doesn’t take up space in your deck. Harem doubles as a Silver. And then Nobles is a card-drawing engine by itself.

The main set was purposely low on decision-making on cards in order to keep the game faster for new players. There’s plenty of decision-making just in picking what to buy. The main set does have decision-making cards, but you know, not a ton of them. Intrigue has a ton of them. More than half of the cards in the set involve a decision. Sometimes you make the decision, and sometimes your opponents do. Decisions all around! You might be thinking, uh-oh, that means it will play slowly. It doesn’t play slowly. Okay, there’s one slow card, Pawn, but that’s it. The main set plays really fast with experienced players; there’s room to slow it down a little with Intrigue and still be shuffling when your turn comes around.

The victory-cards-that-do-something theme is supported by a pair of cards that care what types a card is (Ironworks and Tribute), and another card that specifically looks for victory cards (Scout). And it’s joined by two cards that get more use out of the base victory cards: Baron likes Estates and Duke likes Duchies.

Another thing of note is the ways to trash opposing things. The main set provided just one way to trash cards from an opponent’s deck: Thief. Intrigue contains three cards in that vein, and they don’t stop at Treasures. Saboteur can trash anything costing three coins or more; Swindler can replace anything with something else with the same cost (not too effective on Provinces, but pretty good vs. Coppers); Masquerade makes players pass a card left, which early on just makes Estates dance around, but later on can be painful.

The cards have a variety of costs to ensure that dealing out ten at random probably gives you a good mix. Of particular note here is that the set has two cards that cost six coins, further reducing the number of situations in which you might automatically reach for Gold with six.

Flavor-wise the expansion is, well, intrigue themed. This came about due to the functional themes, including one that isn’t in the set. Originally, the set also had a one-shot theme. Cards that do something just once and are then trashed, like Feast. It turns out this isn’t a good theme. One-shots are a sometimes food. Some people just don’t like the idea; if you build a Feast deck, in the end it has no Feasts and that bugs them. Other people don’t like penalties, and only getting to use a card once sounds like a penalty. Anyway it didn’t work as a theme and it’s gone. There is only one one-shot left in the set, Mining Village, and even that one’s optional.

But once, there were many one-shots, and what is a one-shot flavor-wise? It’s an event; a one-time occurrence. Like a Feast, which was originally in this set.

At the same time the set had a lot of “choose one” cards, and those often got named after underlings. People who might scurry about doing different tasks for you. Put underlings and events together and there it is: Intrigue. Then the events left, but well, what can you do. I stuck with the intrigue theme.

One final thing about “what you get.” What you get, really, is more Dominion. Intrigue doesn’t try to veer things off in an unusual direction. It doesn’t try to change the game. It’s true to the main set, with new mechanics that any expansion might dabble in rather than exotic things. I felt this was important for the first expansion. Suppose instead that the first expansion took the game off in a radical new direction. Well for a while all there is is the main set and the first expansion. So half the cards would be the radical new thing. It seems much better to me to have a solid base of game before veering off. So that’s what we’ve done!

Anatomy of an Expansion

From the start, I knew the expansions had to work by themselves. (I mean once you add Coppers and Estates and so forth; they don’t all need to include those.) There are two reasons for this. First, I knew that many people would want to play sets by themselves when they first bought them. Let’s see nothing but new cards! Second, if you have multiple expansions, you aren’t necessarily playing all of them; and whatever combination you have, that combination has to work. If a set needs two or three ways to get +2 Actions to work by itself, then every set needs that in order for the game to still work when you combine sets. Making expansions work by themselves is necessary for making expansions work when you mix all the ones you have together.

So what makes an expansion work by itself? The big thing is, when you deal out ten random kingdom cards, there should be a variety of strategies possible. The more basic to the game a particular type of strategy is, the more cards that have to support it.

One way to categorize strategies is, how do you deal with the one-action-per-turn rule? It looms large over how you build your deck. There are four main ways to address it, plus a way not to:

• Only play with two or three actions. Then you probably don’t draw them together too often. To do this you need “end” actions with big effects; those 2-3 actions have to count. Saboteur, Torturer, Trading Post, Tribute, and Nobles can fill this role, and to a lesser degree some cheaper cards: Baron, Bridge, Coppersmith.

• Play with “free” actions, actions that give you +1 Card and +1 Action. You can play as many of these as you draw. Intrigue has a lot of these. Wishing Well, Mining Village, and Upgrade are all straight free actions. Pawn and Great Hall are free but don’t do anything when they are. Scout and Minion are basically free. Shanty Town and Nobles are free in combinations. Conspirator and Tribute are sometimes free. Those of you that like to play a line of cards will get a lot of ways to do it.

• Play with ways to discard or trash actions usefully, things like Cellar and Remodel. If you draw an action you can’t play, there’s still something you can do with it. Intrigue provides Secret Chamber in the Cellar role and Upgrade in the Remodel role. Also Courtyard and Secret Chamber can hold an extra action for next turn.

• Play with cards that give you +2 Actions, like Village. These directly let you play more actions. Intrigue has Shanty Town, Mining Village, and one of the functions of Nobles.

• You can just live with drawing actions you can’t play. This usually isn’t the move, but certain strategies make this okay. I don’t specifically feel the need to support drawing too many actions and just living with it, but Ironworks can let you build that kind of deck.

• Estate: For people who want the cheapest of Victory cards, Intrigue offers up Baron explicitly and Bridge less so.
• Duchy: Duke provides a reason for Duchies to be your thing.
• Province: The most common strategy, needing no specific support.
• Curse: Torturer and Swindler provide new ways to dole out Curses.
• Special victory cards: The main set just has Gardens; Intrigue has Duke, Great Hall, Harem, and Nobles. Great Hall provides another way to go for fast victory points; Harem and Nobles are stepping stones to Provinces that give you victory points on the way.

• Add good cards. Gaining more than the usual one card per turn helps you drown out your weaker cards. Intrigue has three +1 Buy cards – Bridge, Baron, and one of the tricks Pawn does – plus Ironworks as a Workshop variant.

• Take out bad cards. Those initial Coppers and Estates aren’t so hot, and it’s usually great to get rid of them. Steward and Masquerade both let you trash cards.

• Improve your cards. Taking out a bad one and adding a good one at the same time. Trading Post and Upgrade do this.

• Draw more cards. You can make do with weaker cards if you draw lots of them. Minion can put you up as many as +4 Cards; Torturer and Nobles give you +3 Cards; Masquerade and Steward give +2 Cards; Courtyard effectively gives +2 Cards; Shanty Town sometimes gives +2 Cards; Wishing Well is sometimes a Laboratory; and Scout and Tribute, who knows.

• Muck with your draw. Skip past the weaker cards to the better ones. Scout can be one way to do this. Courtyard and Secret Chamber let you improve how your cards show up between this turn and next turn.

• Attack! Attacks slow down your opponents. Intrigue has Swindler, Minion, Saboteur, and Torturer, letting you trash opposing cards, put bad cards into opposing decks, and make the other players discard. Masquerade can also sometimes hurt.

• Defend! Avoiding being slowed down is almost like speeding up. There are lots of ways to defend from attacks, but Secret Chamber is a blatant one.

• End the game. At the end of the game, only victory cards matter. While your opponents are building up spiffy engines, you can scrounge up some points, then try to cut the game short. Baron and Coppersmith are examples of cards that let you quickly get some victory cards, while Ironworks, Bridge, and Upgrade are examples of ways to quickly empty stacks.

The Throne Room Variations

Finally, some Throne Room combos. I wanted to actually talk about some of the specific fun to be had with the cards. At the same time I didn’t really want to spoil anything. It’s fun to find the combos for yourself. I’ve compromised by only looking at combos with the card Throne Room. Throne Room gives you some of the most obvious combos, and in some cases some of the most confusing combos. So let’s just see what you can get.

Baron: With two Estates in hand, that’s $8 right there. Baron can offer you the chance to buy Provinces at earlier points in the game than you’re used to – as soon as turn three, off of a Baron / Silver start. Do you actually want a turn three Province? Well, sometimes…

Bridge: This is one of the ones you really want to Throne Room. One of my playtesters had a turn that went, Throne Throne, first Throning Bridge, then Throning Bridge… buy 5 Minions. Minion costs $5. Maybe it’s a better story if you know what all these cards do. Anyway Throne Room / Bridge, that’s one people really go for.

Conspirator: Throne gets you all the way there. You played Throne Room, that’s one action; you play Conspirator, that’s a 2nd action; Throne makes you play Conspirator a 2nd time, that’s your 3rd action, so you get your +1 Card, +1 Action from Conspirator.

Coppersmith: Coppers worth $3 each! Not shabby.

Great Hall: The beauty of this combo is just that it’s insurance. You don’t want to draw Throne and have nothing to Throne with it. Great Hall helps you reduce the risk of drawing a dead Throne.

Masquerade: The second time Masquerade goes off, everyone just passes the card they got passed the first time. It’s certainly fine to be drawing four cards and trashing two things and passing two things, but it doesn’t hurt the other players any extra the second time.

Mining Village: This is a confusing one. Mining Village says, you may trash Mining Village, “if you do...” If you Throne a Mining Village, and trash it the first time you play it, you won’t manage to trash it the second time. It’s trashed already. The “if you do” test fails; you did not. You can Throne it and trash it once, but you can’t get $4 from one Mining Village this way.

Minion: Probably you take +$2 for the first one, then get a new hand with the second one and take it from there. There are other options though. Minion is a combo with itself, so Throne / Minion is a fine path to be on.

Nobles: This is a strong one. Typically you take +3 Cards the first time, then pick Actions or Cards based on whether or not you have more actions to play.

Pawn: Throning Pawn lets you pick one of everything, and get Market the hard way. I don’t really recommend that. Throne the most expensive card you can, that’s my advice. Still, you work with what you’ve got.

Saboteur: Expensive attacks are usually some of the more exciting things to Throne Room. If you can get enough Saboteurs played, you can stop the other players from getting anywhere. Of course that doesn’t just happen easily because well, what fun would that be.

Torturer: No one wants to get Tortured twice, but when it happens at least you can gain a Curse the first time, then discard the Curse with something else the second time.

Tribute: This could get you anything from nothing (hitting four Curses) to +8 Cards +4 Coins +4 Actions (Nobles / Harem twice). You may get unlucky and hit duplicates, or hit actions when you can’t use them, but this turn is probably going to be pretty impressive.

Throne Room is certainly fine with Courtyard, Ironworks, Shanty Town, Steward, Swindler, Upgrade, and Wishing Well; it’s not so hot with Secret Chamber or Trading Post, and can’t be used at all on Duke or Harem. It’s sometimes good with Scout but often not. That’s everything!

So there you go: there’s a Dominion expansion out, it has 25 new kingdom cards, they support a variety of strategies, and hey, you can Throne Room most of them. I hope this has been informative!