From Hell’s Heart I Stab at Thee!

Diplomacy: a Primer

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I’m still on a bit of a diplomacy binge. I’ve another guest writer in who’s going to tell you all about it.

Bob Burke is an old gaming friend of mine (I don’t know him that long he’s just old). No I’ve known Bob a long time and played manys the fine game and campaign with him not to mention lots of diplomacy.

He’s good at diplomacy is Bob, he’s also good at writing in fact Bob is an Author and has published to date three books (which lets be honest is more than you’ve done).  They’re rather good I recommend you go check them out

Anyhoe here’s what the wise Bob has to say about Diplomacy….

At first glance, Diplomacy seems very ordinary. Set in Pre-WW1 Europe, it has armies and fleets, each moves one space and the greater attacking force wins the contested space. First to capture 18 supply centres wins. So far, so very conventional.

What makes it different is the diplomacy aspect from which the game gets its title. A quick glance at the board will show that getting to the magic 18 supply centres all on your own is pretty much impossible. You will, therefore, have to engage with at least one other player to work together until such a time as one no longer needs the other. At the start of each turn a set period of time is assigned for these discussions to take place. During this diplomatic period, agreements are made, treaties may be signed and, here’s where the fun really begins, nothing you say or do at this stage is in any way binding! England needs to work with either Germany or France to get its forces on the mainland. If it talks to just France, then Germany has a reasonable expectation they’re working together. If England talks to both then one will know the other is a viable ally. They won’t find out for certain until the moves are revealed. If France and Germany then also talk, then England might get left out in the cold. Result: distrust, paranoia and downright skullduggery.

 

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When the moves are eventually made – and all moves are revealed at the same time so as not to spoil the fun of one player discovering they’ve been well and truly shafted by another – friendships are broken, seeds of mistrust are properly sown and at least one player will have discovered the folly of believing in the bountiful and somewhat incredible promises of territory from their former friendly neighbour.

It’s this combination of negotiation, simultaneous movement and lack of random events that make Diplomacy almost the perfect game. There’s no luck (other than what the players make for themselves); strategic awareness and the ability to build worthwhile (albeit short-term) alliances will determine the ultimate winner.

Diplomacy does have its weakneses: Italy is notoriously vulnerable, having no place to go after the first few turns, and Austria-Hungary – surrounded by four other nations – can make some short-term gains before becoming crushed by its more powerful neighbours. This makes it more difficult – but not impossible – to win with either country. The game can also get bogged down in a stalemate line where equally powerful forces on both sides of the map can’t make any breakthroughs while the game winds down to a slow, dull halt.

In Diplomacy, apart from actually winning, nothing can beat the satisfaction of performing the ultimate stab at just the right moment, a stab that both confirms a winning position and destroys the chances of an erstwhile ally. Ultimately, that’s what Diplomacy is all about. As to whether friendships will be maintained after a game: that’s another story!

 

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Trust me I’m a diplomat

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A previous post talked about “old school”. Well it doesn’t get more old school than Diplomacy. For many Diplomacy is the king of games. For me it’s practically unplayable because for some reason everyone I’ve ever played this game with straight away attacks me the next time we play.  Haters have gotta hate I guess

Diplomacy. “The art of letting someone have your way”. It’s well named the game is all about making deals and knowing when to break them. You cannot hope to win without the help of others so if ever there was a game you will learn life skills from diplomacy is it

Some of you are old hands at this game and I’m sure more of you have crossed swords with me in the past. In which case I apologize now, I’m not sure what I was thinking when I double crossed you and there’s no way I would do it in a future game, double cross is a very harsh term. It was a misunderstanding, let’s work together! I don’t trust that other guy he said things….

Diplomacy is a simple game. It’s not a million miles from Risk, in fact the rules are even simpler. The whole sizzle of the game is movement is simultaneous and the orders are hidden.  The classic version is played with seven players on a 1900 map of Europe. Each player starts with three units. A mix of ships and armies. Each turn you submit a set of orders which consist of move here, support A unit to move somewhere or convoy a unit across the sea. The magic here is you can support or convoy other players units so it’s all about making deals

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Dip is a long game, playable in a variety of ways. The classic is face to face where you have half an hour to take your turn. I’ll say that again, yes half and hour. The majority of this time is taken up with making deals and let’s be honest barefaced lying to your opponents.

Deals are non binding. I remember teaching a group of newbies this game at a con years ago in UL and saying just that. Two of them grinned a little. One of them won it

Half an hour may seem like a lot for a turn but it’s not. A week when playing by email is more like it. I’ve known People to play it with a months turn. Bare in mind this is before you send in orders to move chances are three units from one region to another

The objective of the game is to capture territories some of which start neutral. Some of these contain supply centers (cities) and you gain extra units the more supply centers you control. Capture enough and you win. Easy as that. Not

This game is hard. There’s six other players gunning for you and you have to trust them at some stage or you won’t get anywhere. Get your revenge in first.  Actually I’m terrible at this game and I’m going to let better (all) guest writers have their say on this game later on

Volumes could and have been written on strategies for this game and make no mistake there are no games more strategic than this.  It’s all about the planning.

I love this game. It really is the king of games and if you have never played it then I’m going to give you a chance to soon otherwise you’ll be missing out and I can’t have that. I might even throw a prize for the eventual winner.

Keep a eye out for my next post on this. It’s going to be fun. Trust me*

Huzzah

Vic

*If you Trusted me there, you’ve already lost

 

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Games sans frontières

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Occasionally I take a trip outside of the normal framework of Boardgames to examine something gaming related but not Boardgaming per se. As ever I ask you to indulge me and particularly for this post because by the dark gods this is so very very cool

I’m a Tech fan always have been. Not tech obsessed but I do like something clever and I’ve been keeping a weather eye on virtual reality and augmented reality for a very long time. Probably long before your dad stuck on the Barry white CD. My story started on Friday when a buddy of mine (there are no friends in gaming) texted me a picture with the caption “Buwahahhha”. The picture was a simple card board box with the words DEV 2 written on it

I rang straight away. “Is it setup yet?” “I’ll be around straight away”. As it turned out it was Saturday night before I could visit. Picture Indiana jones getting a text saying “Grail” that’s pretty much what it was like for me

Getting to my buddies house is no small feat. He lives Near the middle of nowhere, making it harder to get to that just old middle of nowhere. Up a hill along a goat track that passes for road. The bumpers and skirts of manys the foolish road car litter the path to his house. Several stalls and good run ups I stood outside his camouflaged house (it’s true) and coffee in hand (instant) we ascended to look at a new worlds

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Ok my lead is a bit over the top but I’ve been waiting to see the Oculus rift for a long time and it would have been an anti climax if it has have been simple to attain.

The unit itself is surprisingly simple, lightweight and worldly. I slipped it on and WHAM!

I’m looking at a desk in relatively low Rez with a guy in a picture telling me the score.

My first impression was. Ok I can see the pixels. My second was holy shit I’m not in Kansas anymore.

I rolled through the demo. I’d say it was shocking but it wasn’t, my mind just accepted it. What WAS shocking was how the mind was tricked straight away into this new world. Now don’t get me wrong I knew it was a simulation. The resolution is just too low but it’s still startling.  The demo was something so close to horror I was waiting for something to jump out at me, it didn’t need to it was suitably creepy without the jolt.

Next up was Elite Dangerous. This was something else. The virtual cockpit blew me away and coupled with voice commands for the various Systems I really was in a different world. A very robust believable one.  Mental Note : Buy Elite Dangerous

A trip around the solar system in a different demo was very educational followed by a not so scary because it was early days walk around the ship in Alien Isolation.  The smoke effects and standing in front of other characters was stunning.

This is the future. I’ve know it for a long time along with the dogs on the streets. This is the reality we are going to game and inhabit in in the very near future. I got a brief glimpse and I wanted one straight away

The immersion was incredible. The resolution a tad disappointing but this was just a beta. It’s due for release next year. I’m delighted I got a preview. I’m still in awe

In the words of Billy Idol in the album you didn’t buy, Welcome to the future. Cyberpunk

Huzzah!

Vic

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Be my Guest

As a follow on to an earlier post I’m delighted to have my first guest writer here today.  Harvey O’Brien. A lot of you will know him already, especially if you game in Dublin.  He runs with the South Dublin Gamers and UCDGamesoc.  I had the pleasure of gaming with him a few years back in his house with some of his gaming group (a great bunch of lads) and got to play a couple of games I’d never tried before.  Harvey is a real gentleman and I’m looking forward to saying hi ho at Gaelcon and getting in my gaming revenge early :).  Anyhoe, here what he has to say about a game I never really got my head around….

 

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I love this game…

Dungeon Lords
Designed by Vlaada Chvatil
Publisher: Czech Games Edition
Review by Harvey O’Brien, South Dublin Boardgamers and UCDGamesoc

Top of the BGG hotness when it broke at Essen in 2009, Dungeon Lords is Vlaada Chvatil’s fiendishly fun adaptation of the old PC game Dungeon Keeper, in which you play an evil Overlord working hard to keep your traps clean and deadly, your monsters fed and happy, and your minions in good standing while the Ministry of Dungeons looks constantly over your shoulder making sure you cover your expenses. All would be fine except for the annual invasion by pesky human adventurers, drunk on tales of your fabulous wealth (greatly exaggerated) and heinous evil (it’s all a question of perspective, isn’t it?), not to mention whatever noxious concoctions the local barman was serving them as he filled their heads with this nonsense. Worse; there are a couple of burly paladins wandering around that have also begun to hear stories, and might, just might, join the party. It’s up to you to build a better dungeon to defeat the capture the heroes. Of course then there are other Dungeon Lords doing the same thing, and there’s only so many resources to go around. How will your dungeon hold up? Will your monsters stay loyal, or stomp off across the countryside complaining about your management style to anyone they don’t eat?

This last line comes from the rulebook, which is peppered with Chvatil’s goofy sense of humour, and pretty much sums up what’s on offer in Dungeon Lords. It’s a difficult euro-style worker placement game in which you have a limited number of actions per turn and an awful lot of things that need to get done. The game is totally fair, but extremely difficult: you’re not surprised by what’s going to happen because you can see well in advance what’s coming (which heroes are coming to pillage your home, what expenses you’re going to have to cover), but that doesn’t make it easier to get things right. Timing is everything, and every choice matters. Though other players aren’t directly messing with you, if you don’t watch what they’re doing, you’ll end up in very big trouble. A couple of wrong decisions and you’ll be looking at the business end of a serious trouncing. But get it right and you have that extraordinary buzz that comes from knowing you’ve got this down.

Dungeon Lords is a brain burner, and intimidating at first. It’s like a puzzle in many ways, as you try to match your monsters, traps, and tactics to the particular party of adventurers hitting you. Mages cast spells (which you can inspect if you take the appropriate action), Priests heal (but only when you attack with monsters, not traps), Thieves disarm traps (and block damage), and Warriors are just tough and lead the party (tanking particularly when thieves and healers help them out). Paladins do everything all at once. Different monsters have different skills, different kinds of traps work well against different classes. Everything has a cost, in food, gold, or ‘evil’. The more ‘evil’ you are, the more interest you attract from the toughest heroes, and there’s endgame rewards for everything you do well, including becoming Lord of Dark Deeds (evil). There is, as the rules say, no Lord of Sucking Up to the Villagers.

This is a hugely entertaining game that is brilliantly themed in spite of being built on a very smooth euro-game engine. Every choice you make is explained in thematic terms (check out the narrative around how you get food from the village), and you feel a sense of ownership of your tunnels, rooms, monsters, minions, and imps as you build your dungeon. It’s a euro, but it generates a great sense of story, and you’re completely at the centre of it. Every decision counts, and you know when things go wrong, you were maddeningly close to being right. The art by David Cochard is great, and the whole thing has a light, humorous feel that contrasts with the razor sharp gameplay rewards your concentration with a sense of fun. It’s best with four players, which is the max, though it scales rather cleverly for three and two players as well. An expansion adding a fourth ‘season’ to the dungeon year was released, as well as a follow up companion game Dungeon Petz. Recently the card game Boss Monster has taken the core experience and transferred it both to the design of 8-bit computer gaming and to card laying, but Dungeon Lords is a masterpiece of contemporary board game design that stands alone and has proved a reliable favourite in our group for five years now. I lose a lot, but I love it.

 

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OLD School

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I remember discovering Risk when I was a strip of a lad. I was hooked. It was exotic and fun. There wasn’t a whole lot of non mainstream games out there and there was no Internet, so this was like a glass of iced water to a man in hell

Some years later I was in the UK working for a brief spell (and bored so very very bored) and whilst visiting a buddy and his then girlfriend in London (strictly a non gamer) he asked me “oh what’s that you’ve got in the bag?” before telling me of the pubs and clubs we would be frequenting that night shortly after dinner.  Still curious about the game of risk sticking out of the bag he asked to have a quick look at it….

We never got to the pub. Somehow a game of risk started and a few others joined in. At four am I had to politely decline the third game and get some sleep. They were hooked, four total non gamers.

Fast forward a few years and I’m visiting the self same friend and his now wife for dinner in their house. On arrival they point proudly to their well worn copy of Risk. There’s more to this story but it would take a full post and I digress.

Make no mistake Risk and it’s ilk are great gateway games. You quickly move on from it to better things but you’ll always remember your first game of Risk. More so if and lets be honest more likely When you get double crossed

A similar game has sat on my shelves for a long de long time now…ATTACK! This Thur I think it’s about time we went old school, dusted it off and let slip the dogs of war

Huzzah!

Vic

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I don’t like the look of yours

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I tapped Jane Fonda, my opponent tapped mother Theresa. To each their own…

KGB v CIA Is a fairly simple two player game where opponents duke it out for world dominace (what else is there?) in the cold war era.

The game comes in a small box and consists of a stack of

BOOM!

Objective cards (worth points)

BOOM!
Groups (various groups you deploy to exert influence on the objective and hopefully claim it all with abilities and variable influence points)

BOOM!
Agents (your operatives who have special abilities)

The game is split into rounds where an objective is revealed showing a place and how many groups can operate in that theater along with the “ah now stop lads you’re taking the piss” level of influence that can be exerted before the region rebels and hands the win to the other player. Often a region will have a global affect as well that affects the round so every time you play its nicely different.

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each player picks an agent to do their dirty work for that round and you take it in turn to draw and place groups from a face down stack up to the max that can be shoehorned into that objective. It’s awfully like blackjack where you want to get close to the max level of influence for that region but not go bust. Go bust and your opponent wins. Unlike black jack however you have a lot more control of the cards once picked and it’s quite possible to recover from a losing position

The cards you play in addition to exerting influence each have a special once off tap ability like remove or steal an enemy card. Tap any card and so on

It’s quite the little plate spinning exercise trying not to bust, keeping under the pop limit, trying to mess up your opponents play and planning which agent to employ in the next round not to mention drinking coffee and sledging your opponent “PAH! Call THAT an army I’ll show YOU an army”

Each round of the game yields roughly 5 – 15 points and first to 100 wins it.

You won’t go through the whole deck in a given game and I’m always a fan of this sort of thing when it comes to replays

I like this game. It clever it’s snappy and as two players games go it’s one of the better ones. Now it’s not twilight struggle it’s not even twilight lite it’s a different animal altogether and to a certain extent the setting has been tacked on. It is a solid game . It’s very tasty. Earning points is s struggle and anyone can be a winner in any given round. In fact losing a round convincingly is a valid tactic too when assassins are used.

For what you get its a great value game. Shop around and you’ll pick it up for a tenner

If you’re looking for a good two player game that will play out in under an hour has pictures of both mother Teresa AND Jane Fonda this is definitely the one to go for

Huzzah!

Vic

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Something Evil This Way Comes

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In the run up to Knavecon V I’m going to be calling on a variety of gamers (some of them literate) to do a weekly  “I like this game” short review of a game they really like or just a rant about something, either’s good.  Probably.

Watch this space…

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