Book Review: Characteristics of Games

I have a couple of books I *should* review first, as I've had them longer - The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design and Raph Koster's Theory of Fun. Instead, I'll cover a book that's been on my mind a bit.

"Characteristics of Games" was written by Richard Garfield, Skaff Elias, and Robert Gutschera - veterans in the industry. The most important bit about the book, is it seeks to define and categorize ideas so that they can be discussed in an accurate manner. This is more of a textbook, rather than an armchair read.

One of the up-front categorizations of games, is that they are a race or a brawl (or a mix). Races are straightforward - you run for win condition, with little or no interaction from other players. Brawls are more common in multiplayer games, where interactions and politics drive the action.

When first playing Eclipse (the most recent game discussed), it felt a lot like a race. Get the most VP. Some jockeying takes place, as you try to master the game in the most efficient way. Now, it almost feels entirely like a brawl.

• As you research, you grab techs that become no longer available for others
• You explore, attempting to take away expansion options from rivals
• Upgrading your ships is a form of politics - if your opponents don't feel like they can beat your ship designs, they are more likely to wage war on other players...or maybe you lure a fleet against you, and then do your upgrades and builds to crush for more VP
• Where you build is key for intimidation and attacking
• Who you exchange ambassadors or make alliances with, will shape the game

The victory point race comes a distant second to the political (and ship-fighting) brawl that takes place.

An early discussion that takes place, is the discussion of heuristics, or the method of play.  I can identify with their general point that players get enjoyment from mastering heuristics of a game. Flipping a coin to determine who wins a game isn't satisfying. There's nothing you've learned or done, that makes you feel more likely to win in the future. Figuring out strategies and tactics engages a part of the brain that says "this is good, this is fun".

Flipping back to Eclipse, as you play the game through, you learn different ways of playing the game. You think "Ah-ha! I think this Tier 3 explore habit is pretty powerful, especially when paired with this other thing!" Maybe you figure out how to run your economy better. You no longer wonder "how can anyone win this game by skill?" You still might not win, but it encourages you to critically think where you went wrong, and where you could improve next time.

Let's say you do get better at the game. Sadly, according to the book, you may lose more often as a result. As politics get involved, other players are more likely to pick on the perceived "winner", or at least the person who is most on track to win. (This only matters in more than 2-player games.) Maybe this requires more knowledge on the part of the players, better political skills (both overt and indirect) on your part, or to develop a new technique that is less subject to politics.

There isn't a lot of directly applicable material, if you are looking to become better at playing games. One part stood out to me, in the topic of kingmaking. Usually how it goes, is that everyone tries to take down the first place player. I'm borrowing from the book, but I won't spoil the exact math. A, B, and C are playing a game. Each player has decreasing accuracy with their ability to take someone out of the game. In usual games, B & C take their shots at A, while A takes a shot at B (the closest in skill/chances of winning). How did the math actually work out? A should take out B. C should try to take out A. B - this is the interesting part...should go for C, at least according to the math.

But the book in general is extremely approachable, if dry. I've skimmed over several topics here - the book has another 50+. The appendices offer more in-depth knowledge, and occasionally you'll think about picking up some new math skills. If you aspire to good game design, this book can help with any gaps in your background - and it's unlikely that you'll have Richard/Skaff/Robert on call to talk about these things in person.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with the world!

Eclipse, Rise of the Ancients.

As I mentioned in the last blog post, Eclipse is amazing. Lots of replay. The expansion, Rise of the Ancients, came out last December...right as I was leaving for a wintery Iowa Christmas.

It felt like a tough proposition - Eclipse, a 4-hour game, during a week of family gathering...most games are short stints where people can jump out and jump in, depending if they need to wrap presents, go shopping, help cook, etc. It was played nearly every day, sometimes twice. Let's talk about the expansion!

Sometimes expansions to board games change the strategies of the base game so much, that there can be a huge disconnect. Or rules changes, that break up poorly thought-out play balance issues. Fortunately, RotA exists primarily to add more content. New races, more discovery tiles, more hexes, some variants, and the ability to play up to 9. Maybe a little bit of anti-missile mechanics, but minor.

The expansion adds 3 unique aliens, as well as the "humans" of the expansion...basically the other side of each alien card. I'll try to limit myself to just the facts...followed by some tips.

Alien Overview
The Enlightened of Lyra (aka, the Shriners) - they get points for building and holding shrines at the end of the game. There are mini-rewards for building clusters of shrines, but one of the coolest parts is being able to spend unused colony ships to re-roll combat dice.

The Exiles (Orbitals of Death) - skip star bases...your orbitals are your starbases. Sadly, no combat speed and only 3 upgrade spaces mean that they won't be half as cool. To make up for this, you start with a rare cloaking technology - they have to block your ship with 2 of theirs...which means pinning you is a lot harder.

The Rho Indi Syndicate are chancers. They have faster combat speeds like the Orion Hegemony, and they have a built-in -1 shield which doesn't take up space. They lose out with Dreadnoughts - can't build them. They start with star bases and Gauss Shield, but it's unlikely they'll waste another precious ship space on their small ships for Gauss. They raid and pillage the best though - 4 ship activations every time, instead of the 2 for the other aliens (or 3 for humans).

The Magellans are the generic race of the expansion - maybe the best alien race to play. Their ships and actions are stock (except for Influence, which is slightly worse). You can turn unused colony ships into any resource; ship part (and spent) discovery tiles are worth 1 VP for you, instead of nothing; you get a free discovery tile the first time you get 4 discoveries in the same row; and you start with the 6-Energy Fusion Source. Amazing.

Tips & Strategy
The Shriners and the Exiles are tough to love. Both encourage defensive turtling strategies, which is extremely tough to pull off. Offense has its advantages in Eclipse - being able to decide where and when something is going to happen is huge. Losing the shrines or orbitals means a loss of VP and/or production, making those systems especially valuable for those folks trying to thwart you.

The Rho NEED combat, hopefully every round. If they find it, it's a pleasant game in the top finishers. If they can't find combat, they are in last place. With all of that movement capability, it pays off to have a fleet that can move. If you can move 4 ships into every battle, with just one influence disc, it gives you incredibly flexible tactics. After awhile, with a hefty armada, you can bring in a swarm of ships into each major combat (minimizing your losses).

The Magellans have some benefits that really encourage a scout/bankrupt style for the Tier 3 hexes. Ideally, every Tier 3 hex you explore has a discovery tile on it. The return is pretty good...if you discard it, you'll get a VP in addition to the perk. How does this play out? Explore 4-5 times in the first several rounds, with the expectation of not keeping any of them beyond your home planet at the end of the round due to planned bankruptcy. You get to use your colony ships for materials or science. Seriously, this is an easy thing to do. You sacrifice one, maybe two turns of the 9 that you get to explore Tier 3. Everyone else is losing discs to settling hexes, making modest inroads on a developed economy.

Other races can do the same Tier 3 sweep, but Magellans pay off a bit better with their resource-generating colony ships and VP for discarded discoveries. To counter the sweep, explore around those players, and limit their turns 3-5 expansions to their bad Tier 3 areas. Their economy is going to be dicey, depending on what discovery tiles they get. Because they aren't settling, they will have more discs handy...difficult to attack, but more likely to not get first pick of technologies. You can also try to counter their sweep of Tier 3's, by doing the same thing. Tough to pull off as well, but if they aren't hitting Tier 3 hexes with discovery tiles...it is probably richer for you.

I probably have at least a couple more discussions about the game. Maybe next time, I'll even cover design. ;)

Follow-up: Eclipse (pre-expansion), and general discussion of game duration

I wrote about Eclipse last year, and promised a follow-up article. (Link.) This is extremely delayed, and has been sitting as a draft for too long. I'll do a real follow-up about the expansion...soon?

Since that article last May, I've probably played 2-3 games a week. It's blocked out the sun, in terms of other games.

The elegance is nice, and hasn't dulled the overall appreciation of the game. Each of the alien races (except for maybe the Eradani) feel interesting, different, and balanced. The Eradani start with two less tokens, a ton of money, and 3 fair technologies. Two less tokens is painful though - you start eating your free money from the start, and you'll hemorrhage the whole game. The biggest deficit is at the end, where you have to stop playing actions because you're out...and others keep going.

Big, 6-player games can result in player combat (and betrayal) almost immediately. (I think I was hit turn 2, once.) We've had discussions on betraying people early so you don't get stuck with the -2 at the end of the game...obviously someone will betray again before it's over. Probably.

2- and 3-player games are a bit less diplomatic. Most of the points are known, and 1st place is likely going to see a couple of incursions in round 8/9.

As you explore, you get some degree of choice of how explored tiles are placed. Fencing off your area is pretty strategic, until someone grabs the expensive wormhole technology, and then you fall to pieces. Likewise, exploring in a way that cuts people off from attacking you (except through the galactic center) means that the Galactic Center is a public target - everyone can reach it, but only one at a time.

Oh, Galactic Center. It's there in every game. Slow, bulky, minorly defended Galactic Center. Your early games, it probably doesn't get hit until round 7 or 8.  If you're ambitious, maybe as early as round 5-6. It marks a turning point in the order of the universe - it's a juicy target and a super-highway to other players. Gloves are off.

Depending on the players, you might see a lot of ships crashing rival systems. While I haven't seen a player-wipe yet, it'll happen someday. What usually happens is player A takes a high-value system from B, and then C could choose...attack B, or attack A...and A has more points. Which leads us into...

Game Duration
As players, we generally accept how a game ends. There's no question of "what happens tomorrow?" Eclipse ends the game at an arbitrary 9 turns. Settlers of Catan says 10 points. Through the Ages when you run out of cards.

In the case of Eclipse, ending at 9 turns is important. You spend the first half of the game, setting the stage for the second half. What necessary technologies show up, who gets them, where the resources pop up, and how bad/good luck is distributed...with that in play, you make the best of what you can. Honestly, anything past 9 hits the "eternal strife mode" where no one gains ground...much like Risk games of old - player wipe would be the only solution.