I've played a couple more games since then...
My second game, my Romans faced off against the Egyptians and Germans, as the fourth player couldn't make it. It was a tough thing, as both players are generally demonstrate excellent war-maker skills. I decided to go for an okay military, combined with culture gain...the Germans jumped to a strong early start, with their extra military cards. I traded a little with the Egyptians, giving me some flexibility with culture cards - which managed to bounce/kill Germany's unit flags that were coming to kill my capital, while I eeked out a Culture win. 4.5 hours.
The third game, we planned for an early start at noon, with things set up...4 players. Again, we only managed 3 with a 12:45pm start, but we cleared it in 3 hours. I played the Egyptians better than I did the first game, against the Russians and Chinese. The Russian player had one game under his belt, and the Chinese player had nearly crushed me militarily (before winning with gold?) in that initial game.
It seemed like a tough start - the Chinese player was wiping huts and villages as a fast & early culture beginning. The Russians were slow to start - he clearly wanted to steal technologies by crashing his guys into our cities, but it is a slow beginning. My start turned out to be a powerful engine - Egypt gets a free building (that they have the technology for) - no production points needed, while it takes up the city action for that city. It also starts with a free Wonder, which this time was the Hanging Gardens. A free unit flag (no production, no action needed) every turn. This is like 4-6 free production each turn, without spending a precious city action.
The China player dried up on his raids against the enemy huts...he didn't really refresh his military cards, as he was racing towards culture. Russia was having a slow start still, as I started flooding the world with unit flags. The other players started working together to dull my edge - my capital was producing culture and trade points, while my first non-capital-city had 12 production points a turn...the second non-capital city picked up some trade and had a little production. (The heavy production city also made the Himeji Castle, which is a free +1 for all of your units!)
I drew enough culture cards to dull the worst of the Chinese player's anti-military culture cards, while my military units marched on his capital for my military win.
Some things learned: If you split your military unit flags up, they can't move together into the same space the next turn. Stacking flags, quite good (you get to take more military cards into combat - even 4 to 3 is generally a win). Even if your opposing side has no units left at the end of combat, they can still win if they have enough Barrack buildings, or famous people with bonuses. Game rule: you can spend culture points during City Management, even if you don't choose culture generation for the city's action.
A pure culture win is probably next to impossible - maybe if there are 4-players, and the culture players band together enough to stop the military player.
Anyhow, it's a fair-to-good game. My friend Regan is heading off to Spokane for a spell, and he spotted me a copy of Civ as a leaving-gift...I'm sure I will see some more plays!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Civilizations, galore!
I've been doing a fair amount of civilization building lately.
Through the Ages is getting regular play at the biweekly (once every two weeks version of the word) Thursday game night.
I've played a couple of games of Sid Meier's Civilization, which I'll be talking about in a bit. 7 Wonders is a nice, quick drafting game which I got as a gift this season - played someone else's copy already, which speeds up my tutorials once my copy gets opened. Finally, playing a bit of Civ 5 on the computer - outside my normal scope of game discussions...essentially as addictive as ever.
Sid Meier's Civilization is a game put out in 2010 by Fantasy Flight. They do a lot of licensed games. If it hasn't been clear in the past, there are some design differences that I wouldn't choose to do for fun. (I would do it as a job, sure.) They put a lot of bits and counters in their games, utilize a verbose rulebook, and generally have cards in the game that provide a lot of swing in the game.
The appealing part is the alleged 2 hours for a Civ game. So far there was a 6-hour game, and a 4-hour game...each time, the players thought that 'with time' they could get it down more. I really doubt that there will ever be a 2-hour game, unless someone just gets wrecked by an early rush.
I read the rulebook for the first game, and the 6-hours includes the tutorial. Some parts just weren't expressed in the rulebook, but we were lucky enough to have a person at the game store's game night who had played a bit already. (Thanks Justin!)
The cool part is the multiple paths to winning - science, military, wealth, and culture. If you're not working on military, a military player will crush you down. Everyone needs science to get the better units/buildings/gold. Wealth is a handy thing for anyone to have, but not crushing if you're behind on it. The culture track nets you crazy chance cards, as well as Great People - essentially cheap buildings.
There is a rock-paper-scissors approach to combat - basically first strike against some other type of unit...sadly, there isn't a reliable way to guarantee what units you bring into the combat. On a more difficult note, if there wasn't first strike or random units, the combat system would be just numbers against numbers. Overall, the combat is pretty crazy and random. Technology boosts are about the only reliable ally against random cards, but it will cost you.
Wealth is achieved by getting gold coins in a variety of ways - some on Great People, or parts of the map...usually by certain technology cards that give you access to gaining up to 4.
Culture is pretty straightforward - get culture chits and points of trade. Try to skimp on everything else once the engine is started. Every time you advance on the culture track, you gain either a 'chance' card or random great person - hopefully the great person nets you culture, and the chance cards misdirect attackers. If there's only one warmonger at the table, you might draw enough cards to stop them cold while you limp in from the marathon.
Science is probably the easiest one to do 'for sure'. 15 technology cards, which is 15 turns if you're getting enough tech for one each round. Each science nets you something good, with the higher-level ones being powerful in proper circumstances.
The game also includes wonders, exploring, huts and barbarian villages - it's a pretty fair representation of the computer game...I just wish it had the elegance of Through the Ages. Worth picking up if you like the Fantasy Flight game design ala Starcraft or BSG...otherwise a long investment of time to recapture the magic of playing Civ on the computer.
Through the Ages is getting regular play at the biweekly (once every two weeks version of the word) Thursday game night.
I've played a couple of games of Sid Meier's Civilization, which I'll be talking about in a bit. 7 Wonders is a nice, quick drafting game which I got as a gift this season - played someone else's copy already, which speeds up my tutorials once my copy gets opened. Finally, playing a bit of Civ 5 on the computer - outside my normal scope of game discussions...essentially as addictive as ever.
Sid Meier's Civilization is a game put out in 2010 by Fantasy Flight. They do a lot of licensed games. If it hasn't been clear in the past, there are some design differences that I wouldn't choose to do for fun. (I would do it as a job, sure.) They put a lot of bits and counters in their games, utilize a verbose rulebook, and generally have cards in the game that provide a lot of swing in the game.
The appealing part is the alleged 2 hours for a Civ game. So far there was a 6-hour game, and a 4-hour game...each time, the players thought that 'with time' they could get it down more. I really doubt that there will ever be a 2-hour game, unless someone just gets wrecked by an early rush.
I read the rulebook for the first game, and the 6-hours includes the tutorial. Some parts just weren't expressed in the rulebook, but we were lucky enough to have a person at the game store's game night who had played a bit already. (Thanks Justin!)
The cool part is the multiple paths to winning - science, military, wealth, and culture. If you're not working on military, a military player will crush you down. Everyone needs science to get the better units/buildings/gold. Wealth is a handy thing for anyone to have, but not crushing if you're behind on it. The culture track nets you crazy chance cards, as well as Great People - essentially cheap buildings.
There is a rock-paper-scissors approach to combat - basically first strike against some other type of unit...sadly, there isn't a reliable way to guarantee what units you bring into the combat. On a more difficult note, if there wasn't first strike or random units, the combat system would be just numbers against numbers. Overall, the combat is pretty crazy and random. Technology boosts are about the only reliable ally against random cards, but it will cost you.
Wealth is achieved by getting gold coins in a variety of ways - some on Great People, or parts of the map...usually by certain technology cards that give you access to gaining up to 4.
Culture is pretty straightforward - get culture chits and points of trade. Try to skimp on everything else once the engine is started. Every time you advance on the culture track, you gain either a 'chance' card or random great person - hopefully the great person nets you culture, and the chance cards misdirect attackers. If there's only one warmonger at the table, you might draw enough cards to stop them cold while you limp in from the marathon.
Science is probably the easiest one to do 'for sure'. 15 technology cards, which is 15 turns if you're getting enough tech for one each round. Each science nets you something good, with the higher-level ones being powerful in proper circumstances.
The game also includes wonders, exploring, huts and barbarian villages - it's a pretty fair representation of the computer game...I just wish it had the elegance of Through the Ages. Worth picking up if you like the Fantasy Flight game design ala Starcraft or BSG...otherwise a long investment of time to recapture the magic of playing Civ on the computer.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Macao, Part 2 (Alien Frontiers)
If you missed my earlier Macao review, you can click on the label below to find it.
Alien Frontiers follows the "dice is your life" mechanic, that Macao and Stone Age adhere to. You don't know how the game is going to play, because your dice do their own thing...and so do other people's dice.
It was funded as a Kickstarter project - interesting. It's already sold through the first print run on a small press, so they're going back again. The first print run has some unique things to it, and the second one will have some cleaned up parts. Fun. (As of this article, first printings go for $100, preorders for second run are $39, for sometime in 2011.)
I played two games, over a Buy Nothing day game celebration. The first one was a 4-player game, where I struggled to build ships. You start off with three - represented by your 3 six-sided dice. You can build 3 more, each one costing slightly more...but they are your game. A person with 6 dice (maximum) is doing slightly more than twice as much as someone with 3. The extra dice give you better number spreads to do bigger things...as you can see, building ships is mandatory.
The goal is to place colonies on a moon. Each colony is a VP, and if you have the most in a territory, you get another one as well as a special ability unique to that territory.
There are methods for stealing from other people, varied alien technologies to research, getting fuel and rock, and a couple of ways of building colonies...all of which use your ships/dice in different ways. Triples, doubles, 3-dice runs, as raw dice, as numbers...and you'll block up those choices for others, until your turn comes around and you remove your dice from where they were.
I think 90% of this game is the interaction with other players. Yes, rolling your dice and getting good numbers is necessary for a smooth game. But placing your colonies to mess with other players, or bumping people around...destroying another player's ship - the interaction feels like little bumps as you nudge your way through the racecourse. (Destroying a ship is more like shooting out their tire, but it's almost like bumping.)
It's fun with the right people. And the table circles around tearing down the current 1st place player, which has its own issues. And if you believe that you have bad dice luck, you'll be suffering the whole time. But I won't turn down playing it another 2-3 times, for sure.
Alien Frontiers follows the "dice is your life" mechanic, that Macao and Stone Age adhere to. You don't know how the game is going to play, because your dice do their own thing...and so do other people's dice.
It was funded as a Kickstarter project - interesting. It's already sold through the first print run on a small press, so they're going back again. The first print run has some unique things to it, and the second one will have some cleaned up parts. Fun. (As of this article, first printings go for $100, preorders for second run are $39, for sometime in 2011.)
I played two games, over a Buy Nothing day game celebration. The first one was a 4-player game, where I struggled to build ships. You start off with three - represented by your 3 six-sided dice. You can build 3 more, each one costing slightly more...but they are your game. A person with 6 dice (maximum) is doing slightly more than twice as much as someone with 3. The extra dice give you better number spreads to do bigger things...as you can see, building ships is mandatory.
The goal is to place colonies on a moon. Each colony is a VP, and if you have the most in a territory, you get another one as well as a special ability unique to that territory.
There are methods for stealing from other people, varied alien technologies to research, getting fuel and rock, and a couple of ways of building colonies...all of which use your ships/dice in different ways. Triples, doubles, 3-dice runs, as raw dice, as numbers...and you'll block up those choices for others, until your turn comes around and you remove your dice from where they were.
I think 90% of this game is the interaction with other players. Yes, rolling your dice and getting good numbers is necessary for a smooth game. But placing your colonies to mess with other players, or bumping people around...destroying another player's ship - the interaction feels like little bumps as you nudge your way through the racecourse. (Destroying a ship is more like shooting out their tire, but it's almost like bumping.)
It's fun with the right people. And the table circles around tearing down the current 1st place player, which has its own issues. And if you believe that you have bad dice luck, you'll be suffering the whole time. But I won't turn down playing it another 2-3 times, for sure.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The flood of games, aka PAX.
I haven't posted in the past several weeks - too busy.
First, the Penny Arcade Expo. Crazy busy. 3 days of games and gamers. Friday: everyone walks around and sees things. That must have been where Richard Garfield was, because he didn't make it to the Game Design 101 panel. James Ernest filled in, and he's fun. Steve Jackson was there, and wasn't a king-high know-it-all this time...he was actually pretty cool. James Portnow was a good moderator, keeping the topics moving. Nichole Lazzaro presented a strong "emotion" emphasis to game design - lots of focus testing. I left early to go sightsee, and the panel wasn't exciting me. (I still need to check out Lazzaro's master-powerpoint slide. Too dense for a normal slide though.)
I wandered. A lot. Exhibition Hall, trying to catch up with friends, canvassing for guests in Dragon Quest 9...I did get a half hour of multiplayer in with a new player. We tried tackling a grotto in his game, but he didn't bring along companions...he wasn't quite strong enough, and in the end we had to let him die, while I battled it out mano a mano with the end boss. (Finished with 5 of 700 hp, and dregs of my magic pool.) But we won, and it was kind of thrilling for the first run.
There were board games day and night - some Race (practicing for the tournament the next day), and some Dominion-clone that Dan Tibbles tricked us into playing. (Slow game.) The Race tournament the next day turned out weak - the organizer wasn't familiar with scoring for it...we did base set, 3 rounds for 24 players - no finals. Match points were 3/2/1/1 and tiebreaker was total points. 5 of us tied at 7 points, top 3 got medals. (I finished 1st, 1st, 3rd. 3rd place overall finished 1st, 1st, 4th.) I either finished 4th or 5th, because the two games I won - players closed out the game when they were losing. There's only one way to score big points in base set, and that means you have to be a consumer, every time. Even if you win with military, you lose on tiebreakers. (As a recommendation, go 4/2/1/0. Winning is the most important thing. You can weight the tiebreakers in different ways, depending on how you want to encourage play. And a final table.) BUT! One of the cardinal rules, is to talk about scoring and number of rounds before the tournament with all of the players. I'm looking at you, Mr. Organizer from Games & Gizmos. :)
Saturday was much like Friday...more games. More DQIX. I played a painfully long game of Settlers of America: Trails to Rails at the Uncle's Games section (they did demos for Mayfair). Demo person: you didn't relate to the table, instead focusing on winning the game. SA is a mix of Settlers and a train game where you deliver goods. It's one of those awkward things to see - Settlers (let's also include Seafarers and Cities & Knights) is a great game. But repeating the mechanic over and over is beating a long-dead horse. If I'm going to play a train game, I'll fit in a train game. I missed a panel on Saturday night because of it, so I made plans to see the same (GeekNight podcast) people on Sunday. After the missed panel let out, I met up with friends and played more board games - Tigris and Euphrates, as well as Galaxy Trucker.
Sunday was the winding down day. I checked out a little more of the exhibition hall, chatted with some of my friends at their less-busy booths, went out to a relaxed lunch with my friend Chris to talk about game design...and played some more games. Dragon Quest IX has a bunch of event-only maps that players could trade, so I tracked more of those down, as well as exchanging contact information with my new friend Keegan.
Late Sunday afternoon was the second GeekNight panel, Egregiously Unrealized Potential...basically a panel talking about how sequels to video games generally suck, and how game companies don't take advantage of all the material available to them. Board games and RPG were fine (as long as it wasn't D&D, Shadowrun, or GURPS). I disagree with board games being exempt, and they singled out Nintendo as the most grievous offender. (I loved Zelda Four Swords and FF: Crystal Chronicles too, as a disclaimer.) I'm trying some of their podcasts, but not sure for how long. Egos aren't always practical things.
I think some of the side discussions were the best part of PAX. A how-to for *organized* organized play? Practical game design. How players can lock themselves into playing a game just one way.
Every year is better, without making the previous years look bad. In the end, I was glad to wrap things up at PAX...Labor Day has become the relaxation day, post-PAX. You definitely need it.
First, the Penny Arcade Expo. Crazy busy. 3 days of games and gamers. Friday: everyone walks around and sees things. That must have been where Richard Garfield was, because he didn't make it to the Game Design 101 panel. James Ernest filled in, and he's fun. Steve Jackson was there, and wasn't a king-high know-it-all this time...he was actually pretty cool. James Portnow was a good moderator, keeping the topics moving. Nichole Lazzaro presented a strong "emotion" emphasis to game design - lots of focus testing. I left early to go sightsee, and the panel wasn't exciting me. (I still need to check out Lazzaro's master-powerpoint slide. Too dense for a normal slide though.)
I wandered. A lot. Exhibition Hall, trying to catch up with friends, canvassing for guests in Dragon Quest 9...I did get a half hour of multiplayer in with a new player. We tried tackling a grotto in his game, but he didn't bring along companions...he wasn't quite strong enough, and in the end we had to let him die, while I battled it out mano a mano with the end boss. (Finished with 5 of 700 hp, and dregs of my magic pool.) But we won, and it was kind of thrilling for the first run.
There were board games day and night - some Race (practicing for the tournament the next day), and some Dominion-clone that Dan Tibbles tricked us into playing. (Slow game.) The Race tournament the next day turned out weak - the organizer wasn't familiar with scoring for it...we did base set, 3 rounds for 24 players - no finals. Match points were 3/2/1/1 and tiebreaker was total points. 5 of us tied at 7 points, top 3 got medals. (I finished 1st, 1st, 3rd. 3rd place overall finished 1st, 1st, 4th.) I either finished 4th or 5th, because the two games I won - players closed out the game when they were losing. There's only one way to score big points in base set, and that means you have to be a consumer, every time. Even if you win with military, you lose on tiebreakers. (As a recommendation, go 4/2/1/0. Winning is the most important thing. You can weight the tiebreakers in different ways, depending on how you want to encourage play. And a final table.) BUT! One of the cardinal rules, is to talk about scoring and number of rounds before the tournament with all of the players. I'm looking at you, Mr. Organizer from Games & Gizmos. :)
Saturday was much like Friday...more games. More DQIX. I played a painfully long game of Settlers of America: Trails to Rails at the Uncle's Games section (they did demos for Mayfair). Demo person: you didn't relate to the table, instead focusing on winning the game. SA is a mix of Settlers and a train game where you deliver goods. It's one of those awkward things to see - Settlers (let's also include Seafarers and Cities & Knights) is a great game. But repeating the mechanic over and over is beating a long-dead horse. If I'm going to play a train game, I'll fit in a train game. I missed a panel on Saturday night because of it, so I made plans to see the same (GeekNight podcast) people on Sunday. After the missed panel let out, I met up with friends and played more board games - Tigris and Euphrates, as well as Galaxy Trucker.
Sunday was the winding down day. I checked out a little more of the exhibition hall, chatted with some of my friends at their less-busy booths, went out to a relaxed lunch with my friend Chris to talk about game design...and played some more games. Dragon Quest IX has a bunch of event-only maps that players could trade, so I tracked more of those down, as well as exchanging contact information with my new friend Keegan.
Late Sunday afternoon was the second GeekNight panel, Egregiously Unrealized Potential...basically a panel talking about how sequels to video games generally suck, and how game companies don't take advantage of all the material available to them. Board games and RPG were fine (as long as it wasn't D&D, Shadowrun, or GURPS). I disagree with board games being exempt, and they singled out Nintendo as the most grievous offender. (I loved Zelda Four Swords and FF: Crystal Chronicles too, as a disclaimer.) I'm trying some of their podcasts, but not sure for how long. Egos aren't always practical things.
I think some of the side discussions were the best part of PAX. A how-to for *organized* organized play? Practical game design. How players can lock themselves into playing a game just one way.
Every year is better, without making the previous years look bad. In the end, I was glad to wrap things up at PAX...Labor Day has become the relaxation day, post-PAX. You definitely need it.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Collusion, Part 2 - Fighting it
Collusion is the bad form of cooperation, as discussed previously.
I started actively fighting collusion as its evil self, when I was active as a Magic judge. Players would collude to set a certain match result - maybe Alice pays Bob to lose to her, or maybe Bob offers her packs of cards to draw so that they both make it into the top 8 cut. It had to be secret, because it was illegal.
It was illegal, because it cheated others of a fair chance to get into the finals. It was illegal in the finals, because it cheated the system of its purpose - get the best player.
Fighting collusion took a lot of time and energy. It's secret, so you have to puzzle out if collusion is happening. It helps to know what benefits players would get for colluding, who would gain benefits from collusion, when collusion would take place, and where the bargaining would take place.
If there is still a large event going on, there won't be collusion at the lower-finishing tables. It won't affect prizes - they're playing to play. The top tier and near-top tier players are the ones who could possibly gain from collusion. Collusion will typically take place at the end of the event, so that settles the when - the colluding players would need to know what their odds are, and they can't know until the end. This also limits the "where" - they need it to be secret (as it is illegal), which generally means if you see pairs of players heading away from the event, it's not because they both just got a phone call.
Sometimes collusion happens because the players don't want to beat each other. Some top competitors might think, well...if we draw intentionally in round 1 when we're paired up, maybe we can still both make it in the finals. (Or they're friends, and don't want to knock their other friend out of the running.) A lesser form of collusion, and not always illegal.
A story - in high school chess, I remember playing a 30-minute round against a good friend of mine. The tournament director told us we weren't allowed to take a draw (it was okay in the rules, but he wasn't as well-versed in the tournament rules). So we played. During the event, he came by and insisted that if we weren't playing to win (we were), he would kick us out of the tournament and report us to the USCF for cheating. With 5 minutes left on the clock, we both started playing lightning-fast chess, making bad plays left and right. And several minutes into it, he came over and stopped the clock, calling it a draw. Ugh. Compounding his lack of rules.
So what happens when collusion isn't spelled out in the rules of the game? If you're playing in a tournament, you can call over a judge/referee - there's a higher authority. The average board game, you're playing with the people at the table.
1. Public discussion. Collusion requires secrecy for it to be effective in a game. Players can stop their collusion, or others could join forces for their own collusion.
2. Private discussion. It's possible that the players are not colluding on purpose. Talking with one or more of the participants could end it without a fight.
Either way, it's a tough sell. The players might not even think they're colluding, if they didn't have a verbal agreement. This can happen in war games - I attack Alice, Bob thinks "Jimmer is weak after his war efforts on Alice." Bob joins in when Alice counterattacks. And possibly Alice and Bob don't attack each other, because they perceive the other one as slightly better, or an even match. The result ends up with Jimmer always being tag-teamed. In a 3-player game, a recipe for bad games.
If players are actively colluding, there might be a measure of denial just to preserve the gaming atmosphere. Nobody wants to play with cheaters, right?
You'll have to work out what's best for you - indirect discussions, direct discussions - you know your group of friends better than I do. And hopefully the game spells out what limits exist for collusion. ;)
I started actively fighting collusion as its evil self, when I was active as a Magic judge. Players would collude to set a certain match result - maybe Alice pays Bob to lose to her, or maybe Bob offers her packs of cards to draw so that they both make it into the top 8 cut. It had to be secret, because it was illegal.
It was illegal, because it cheated others of a fair chance to get into the finals. It was illegal in the finals, because it cheated the system of its purpose - get the best player.
Fighting collusion took a lot of time and energy. It's secret, so you have to puzzle out if collusion is happening. It helps to know what benefits players would get for colluding, who would gain benefits from collusion, when collusion would take place, and where the bargaining would take place.
If there is still a large event going on, there won't be collusion at the lower-finishing tables. It won't affect prizes - they're playing to play. The top tier and near-top tier players are the ones who could possibly gain from collusion. Collusion will typically take place at the end of the event, so that settles the when - the colluding players would need to know what their odds are, and they can't know until the end. This also limits the "where" - they need it to be secret (as it is illegal), which generally means if you see pairs of players heading away from the event, it's not because they both just got a phone call.
Sometimes collusion happens because the players don't want to beat each other. Some top competitors might think, well...if we draw intentionally in round 1 when we're paired up, maybe we can still both make it in the finals. (Or they're friends, and don't want to knock their other friend out of the running.) A lesser form of collusion, and not always illegal.
A story - in high school chess, I remember playing a 30-minute round against a good friend of mine. The tournament director told us we weren't allowed to take a draw (it was okay in the rules, but he wasn't as well-versed in the tournament rules). So we played. During the event, he came by and insisted that if we weren't playing to win (we were), he would kick us out of the tournament and report us to the USCF for cheating. With 5 minutes left on the clock, we both started playing lightning-fast chess, making bad plays left and right. And several minutes into it, he came over and stopped the clock, calling it a draw. Ugh. Compounding his lack of rules.
So what happens when collusion isn't spelled out in the rules of the game? If you're playing in a tournament, you can call over a judge/referee - there's a higher authority. The average board game, you're playing with the people at the table.
1. Public discussion. Collusion requires secrecy for it to be effective in a game. Players can stop their collusion, or others could join forces for their own collusion.
2. Private discussion. It's possible that the players are not colluding on purpose. Talking with one or more of the participants could end it without a fight.
Either way, it's a tough sell. The players might not even think they're colluding, if they didn't have a verbal agreement. This can happen in war games - I attack Alice, Bob thinks "Jimmer is weak after his war efforts on Alice." Bob joins in when Alice counterattacks. And possibly Alice and Bob don't attack each other, because they perceive the other one as slightly better, or an even match. The result ends up with Jimmer always being tag-teamed. In a 3-player game, a recipe for bad games.
If players are actively colluding, there might be a measure of denial just to preserve the gaming atmosphere. Nobody wants to play with cheaters, right?
You'll have to work out what's best for you - indirect discussions, direct discussions - you know your group of friends better than I do. And hopefully the game spells out what limits exist for collusion. ;)
Friday, August 27, 2010
Collusion, Part 1
Collusion - it's not a word I was familiar with when I was a kid, but it happened often.
The definition from my Mac: "secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, esp. in order to cheat or deceive others"
You can talk about collusion in games such as Diplomacy. Actually, Diplomacy could just be renamed to be Collusion: The Board Game, because that's pretty much the entire game mechanic. But collusion is generally considered cheating, if not just really bad form.
1. It's generally secret, which means you established some kind of alliance even before the game started.
2. If it's not secret, it's illegal - if not by rules, by general game conduct.
2. It's generally an alliance, which is not how most games are played - one winner.
My friend JW and I were debating this topic over beers and pool the other night. He hates collusion, in most of its forms. Specifically, in Settlers of Catan - you know, the point in the game, where the last place player also has longest road. The person who has a solid shot at winning is closing in on longest road. Everyone makes "friendly" trades to last place, so that they can keep longest road away from the potential winner.
For me, the secret alliances bug me. They might even be secret to the players themselves, that they key-in on the same things in the same way. I remember my first game of Twilight Imperium - be the best aliens you can be! It's a longer game, with the standard (what I call) Risk-diplomacy. You know the kind - "Attack this other guy, not me, for these reasons..."
W & K were the primary gamers in this circle of friends. They knew what buttons to push, what they could get away with, and who they could wipe out. Sitting in on Twilight Imperium, was a clear game of "their sandbox". Imagine a table of 6 players...2 hustlers, 2 regular victims, and 2 outsiders (where the outsiders are not aligned together). It quickly evolved into 4 on 1 on 1, where W & K maneuvered their semi-willing tools into place. At the end of the game, there were only two possible winners - guess who they were?
I've called it Risk-diplomacy for other reasons as well. Risk was really my first board game exposure to how someone can play favorites inside a game. Secret alliances happen amongst kids, where they do it to find boundaries...or even just to mess with their friend(s). It's a practical secret, not the secret that has no effect.
Alliances don't even have to be secret, but they work better that way. If W & K had made a pact in the beginning of the game in front of the others, it could have changed the dynamic into 2 on 4. W & K probably didn't even have to make a secret pact, if they always play games that way - it could have become a regular habit in that group.
So there's the illegal part, the secret part, and the alliance part. Next, we'll talk about fighting collusion...this bit was short, but fighting collusion is its own thing!
The definition from my Mac: "secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, esp. in order to cheat or deceive others"
You can talk about collusion in games such as Diplomacy. Actually, Diplomacy could just be renamed to be Collusion: The Board Game, because that's pretty much the entire game mechanic. But collusion is generally considered cheating, if not just really bad form.
1. It's generally secret, which means you established some kind of alliance even before the game started.
2. If it's not secret, it's illegal - if not by rules, by general game conduct.
2. It's generally an alliance, which is not how most games are played - one winner.
My friend JW and I were debating this topic over beers and pool the other night. He hates collusion, in most of its forms. Specifically, in Settlers of Catan - you know, the point in the game, where the last place player also has longest road. The person who has a solid shot at winning is closing in on longest road. Everyone makes "friendly" trades to last place, so that they can keep longest road away from the potential winner.
For me, the secret alliances bug me. They might even be secret to the players themselves, that they key-in on the same things in the same way. I remember my first game of Twilight Imperium - be the best aliens you can be! It's a longer game, with the standard (what I call) Risk-diplomacy. You know the kind - "Attack this other guy, not me, for these reasons..."
W & K were the primary gamers in this circle of friends. They knew what buttons to push, what they could get away with, and who they could wipe out. Sitting in on Twilight Imperium, was a clear game of "their sandbox". Imagine a table of 6 players...2 hustlers, 2 regular victims, and 2 outsiders (where the outsiders are not aligned together). It quickly evolved into 4 on 1 on 1, where W & K maneuvered their semi-willing tools into place. At the end of the game, there were only two possible winners - guess who they were?
I've called it Risk-diplomacy for other reasons as well. Risk was really my first board game exposure to how someone can play favorites inside a game. Secret alliances happen amongst kids, where they do it to find boundaries...or even just to mess with their friend(s). It's a practical secret, not the secret that has no effect.
Alliances don't even have to be secret, but they work better that way. If W & K had made a pact in the beginning of the game in front of the others, it could have changed the dynamic into 2 on 4. W & K probably didn't even have to make a secret pact, if they always play games that way - it could have become a regular habit in that group.
So there's the illegal part, the secret part, and the alliance part. Next, we'll talk about fighting collusion...this bit was short, but fighting collusion is its own thing!
Monday, August 2, 2010
When is too many?
I've recently been on a kick to trim down my game collection. I had more than two closets full of games, and established a fast goal of 1 closet. I don't think I'll make it though.
Criteria for what games to trim down:
* Games that were played several times, but stopped soon after
* Unopened games that never made the cut to being opened
* Games that hadn't been played in several years
* Games that require a huge chunk of time to set aside
I'm keeping 2-3 games that take more than a couple hours to finish - more than that...most of my gaming time is limited. Hopefully we could play two games of something in the time it takes to play the super-endurance games.
Some of the older games just seem dry, when compared to some of the more recent games - they lacked the uniqueness to start. They had enough of something for me to pick it up, but the mechanics aren't elegant or engaging enough to drag it out of the dustbin.
Unopened games, really shouldn't exist. Sometimes I'd pick up a game to get free shipping or a game-design friend tells me to get it. I picked up a copy of Siena in Essen, based on what I witnessed of the demo - maybe I won't sell it. (Based on this, I think the packaging didn't sell me on the game that I had already bought on other criteria. Tough love!)
The largest category is the 'several times played' category. It was good enough to try again, but in the end not addictive enough to keep. Ideally a game has something to bring a player back to the table with it. I'm not a super-fan of Agricola, but it has a lot of replay value with the amount of occupations and minor improvements. It could also be a case of playing the game - let's face it, not all mechanics have the same kick to them...and perhaps I sometimes buy a game before it's been thoroughly reviewed.
Reading over that, you can see some emerging criteria on how to buy games.
1. Check for reviews, and play it with friends several times if possible. Some stores have demo copies lying around...less of a financial risk for you, and saves on shelf space. (And the employees might know the game if you get stuck on a rule.)
2. Don't buy games that won't get played immediately. Buying online means that you sometimes pay extra, just to get free shipping - if you're going that route, talk to friends if they're looking for anything. Not quite as good as buying at your local game store, but people do it. And by immediately, I mean something in the next several weeks - you might not keep the passion you had when you picked up the game.
3. This is a hard one. Older games can completely be an equal to anything put out today. Caylus led to Le Havre - both games are solid in their own right. But average games from 5 years ago will not improve. Check out BBG for game reviews, and it'll save you questioning your value system.
4. Long games are fine, if you have the gaming crowd that likes that kind of thing, and have time to play it. If you're all young professionals with boyfriends/girlfriends/Xboxes and 8-5 jobs, you'll find yourself with less and less time for heavier games. Having a collection of 10, playing 1 every two weeks means that you might get 2-3 plays of each game in a year.
With those ideas in mind, it affects what type of games I like to develop on my personal time. A strong set of mechanics, good replay value, attractive to the eye, and 2 hours or less to play.
Overall, board games have solid entertainment value - you might spend $30 for movie tickets/snacks for two...2 hours of enjoyment, compared to multiple plays of a good board game...I know which one I'll choose.
Criteria for what games to trim down:
* Games that were played several times, but stopped soon after
* Unopened games that never made the cut to being opened
* Games that hadn't been played in several years
* Games that require a huge chunk of time to set aside
I'm keeping 2-3 games that take more than a couple hours to finish - more than that...most of my gaming time is limited. Hopefully we could play two games of something in the time it takes to play the super-endurance games.
Some of the older games just seem dry, when compared to some of the more recent games - they lacked the uniqueness to start. They had enough of something for me to pick it up, but the mechanics aren't elegant or engaging enough to drag it out of the dustbin.
Unopened games, really shouldn't exist. Sometimes I'd pick up a game to get free shipping or a game-design friend tells me to get it. I picked up a copy of Siena in Essen, based on what I witnessed of the demo - maybe I won't sell it. (Based on this, I think the packaging didn't sell me on the game that I had already bought on other criteria. Tough love!)
The largest category is the 'several times played' category. It was good enough to try again, but in the end not addictive enough to keep. Ideally a game has something to bring a player back to the table with it. I'm not a super-fan of Agricola, but it has a lot of replay value with the amount of occupations and minor improvements. It could also be a case of playing the game - let's face it, not all mechanics have the same kick to them...and perhaps I sometimes buy a game before it's been thoroughly reviewed.
Reading over that, you can see some emerging criteria on how to buy games.
1. Check for reviews, and play it with friends several times if possible. Some stores have demo copies lying around...less of a financial risk for you, and saves on shelf space. (And the employees might know the game if you get stuck on a rule.)
2. Don't buy games that won't get played immediately. Buying online means that you sometimes pay extra, just to get free shipping - if you're going that route, talk to friends if they're looking for anything. Not quite as good as buying at your local game store, but people do it. And by immediately, I mean something in the next several weeks - you might not keep the passion you had when you picked up the game.
3. This is a hard one. Older games can completely be an equal to anything put out today. Caylus led to Le Havre - both games are solid in their own right. But average games from 5 years ago will not improve. Check out BBG for game reviews, and it'll save you questioning your value system.
4. Long games are fine, if you have the gaming crowd that likes that kind of thing, and have time to play it. If you're all young professionals with boyfriends/girlfriends/Xboxes and 8-5 jobs, you'll find yourself with less and less time for heavier games. Having a collection of 10, playing 1 every two weeks means that you might get 2-3 plays of each game in a year.
With those ideas in mind, it affects what type of games I like to develop on my personal time. A strong set of mechanics, good replay value, attractive to the eye, and 2 hours or less to play.
Overall, board games have solid entertainment value - you might spend $30 for movie tickets/snacks for two...2 hours of enjoyment, compared to multiple plays of a good board game...I know which one I'll choose.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
