Thur Child is Full of Win – Part 2

Does anybody remember Big Trak the toy from the 80s, you gave it a set of instructions to go forward turn left, move back, fire it’s gun and so on then off it went and took you literally? Robo rally is a game of big trak with up to eight players running their big traks around the sitting room bumping into each other knocking each other into lasers and bottomless pits (I suppose every analogy breaks down sooner or later)

Richard Garfield has written some fantastic games in his day, the great Dalmuti, Magic the Gathering, Netrunner, Chess, X and O you name is he’s written it. We got to play RoboRally on Thursday night, it’s an old enough game by the afore mentioned but that’s neither here nor there when it comes to gaming. RoboRally is a fun little game, it’s fast, there’s very little downtime, it scales very well up to eight players and but above all it’s good clean no-one losing an eye fun.

Each person takes a robot (all of which are the same) and has to give it a set of instructions to navigate around the factory BigTrak Style. The factories made up of a grid of square with contain empty spaces and various traps like any good factory should. Hazards like conveyor belts, lasers, rotators, pushers, bottomless pits and so on litter the play area and it’s obvious that the same team that did the safety audit on the Death Star we’re signed up to do the one on this factory.

Each turn the player gives a set of five instructions from a hand of eight. The instructions are pretty straightforward like forward two squares, backwards one, left turn, right turn and so on. Care and consideration has to be taken of your robots current orientation, the obstacles near him and if some other dolt of a droid is going to blunder into you. It gets further complicated with conveyor belts that move you along if you wind up on them so all in all a bit like Kosmonauts if you’ve seen that other great game.

Where it becomes frantic is where you’re trying to issue your orders as quickly as possible before the others do. If you’re the last person and the very fast egg timer runs out than the others get to put whatever instructions they want into your robot. It’s a bit like having a drill instructor or in this case multiple drill instructors shouting at you while you try and strip your rifle but without the pillowcases, bars or soap and full metal jacket ammunition.

There’s a wee random element in there as well as the instructions for each robot get executed based on the priority of the card that you have, some cards that have high numbers some low so what can happen is you have a set of instructions to move forward however before you get to do that another robot has bumped into you and now of course that’s fantastic set of directions you gave your robot earlier all go to pot as you’re no longer going from the same starting point.

At the end of every move your robot fires it’s forward laser and anything in front is going to get the horns. Robots can take damage in the form of counters and as this takes it’s toll, it becomes more difficult to plot a route as certain instructions get locked in and cannot be changed. Not good.

Needless to say nobody in the group draws pleasure from other peoples problems. Seeing someone else’s robot going into a tailspin and damaging themselves even more is a time for great sadness in the group and not at all laughing. Paranoia style you get three lives and your damage resets or shutting your robot down for a full turn will cure you of damage to.

There’s a stack of maps and scenarios for the game along with extra cards for additional weapons and equipment.

The game we played was a simple get to the flag variety where each person had to run over tree flag square one after the other to win the game. Needless to say we only got as far as the second one before we all gave up or were destroyed

The whole thing plays out like an entrance exam to an insane asylum. Getting your orders in first before the other players is a head wrecker, That said if you have a logical brain this is a breeze. I like RoboRally I have one of those brains that’s messed up and lends itself to this sort of thing

With the exception of Kosmonauts I haven’t seen any games even similar to this (I stand to be corrected) it’s unique and very flexible, both in terms of length and difficulty. Even though it’s nearly 20 years old you can still get it. Like the top 100 movies it’s something you have to see (play). I’ll have it at the next Knavecon and will be happy to run through it with you. Just don’t ask me to play, I’ll beat you. Just like I didn’t do on Thur night, there were some other messed up brains at that gathering 😦

More soon

Huzzah!

Vic

June 8, 2014 0

Thur Child is Full of Win – Part 1

Why do we love zombies? There’s no denying that zombies are “in” at the moment. TV shows, movies (some of them good), games, books, marches, the real ones outside my window desperately trying to scratch through, calling me to join them in my sleep, we’ve all gone zombie mad! But what is it about zombies that we really like? Is it that they’re just misunderstood old ragamuffins that need hugs (and brains) or that we love the idea of being a survivor in a world that’s had it’s reset button pressed?

I’ve no idea, nor could I care less 🙂

I did however get to play Card of the Dead on Thur night thanks once again to our Polish connection and it’s good solid zombie fun.

Card of the Dead is a card game by AEG with fun cartoony artwork. It’s pure filler and plays out in fifteen or so minutes. It does have the potential to drag on since your move is often a choice between strengthening your own position or screwing someone else’s up. Wild guess which was the popular choice for our group (canned laughter)

Players start with a hand of three from an initial pick of eight and during their turn they draw one card and play. Draw a zombie and you place it in front of you. Draw too many and it’s goodnight zombieville. Other cards allow you to remove zombies, more importantly move zombies to other players or generally cause them headaches. Yet more cards have a foot symbol on them with a number. Get enough of them in front of you and you get to escape leaving all the other players to their grizzly faith.

It’s fun it’s quick, it plays not unlike a whole lot of other filler card games. The artwork is nice, the production quality good and it’s cheap as chips so if you’re bored of your current filler game and a fan of zombies (as if you weren’t) then you could do worse than this. Will I rush out and buy it? Nope, I have a stack of fillers and don’t need more, but it’s certainly welcome at my table any time

More Thur to follow

Huzzah!

Vic

June 7, 2014 2

Hobby Shack in Wicklow Town to close this month

I’m sad to say that the Hobby Shack in Wicklow town will close for the last time on the 21st of June 😦

Ian who’s run the shop for the last 3 years has decided to close up and move onto pastures new and perhaps get in a bit of gaming.

He’s having a closing down sale so now would be a great time to visit. I’m sorry to see him shut down, he provided a great venue for the local gamers, not least the last chancers.

Best of luck in whatever venue you decide to go onto next and see you Knavecon in August Ian

“Hi all
So this post may come as a bit of a surprise to you but sadly the Hobby Shack will be closing it’s doors on the 21st of this month.
I have not made this decision lightly but it is the right decision for me and the shack.
The last two years have been great and I have enjoyed the time in the shack immensely.
I have a new adventure ahead and I am looking forward to getting my teeth into this.

I wish to thank so many people customers, suppliers and gaming clubs for travelling far and wide. The town of wicklow has been very good to me and a heartfelt thanks to all the business owners for there help and support over the last two years.”

June 6, 2014 1

Assemble the Fleet!

“But Mum! it DESTROYS anything it runs into, we need it ! “

Wise words from my son (who’s name is not Luke btw). I got to see the Tantive IV and Rebel Transport up close at the weekend, they’re all sorts of awesome. We NEED to have some of these at the next Knavecon for our big X-Wing game.

Being the resourceful gamers we all are, I reckon we can make it happen. I’m putting the word out, anyone who comes to the next Knavecon with a BIG x-wing ship under their arm will get a free Doughnut. There I said it, it’s now law.

I quite fancy an Evacuation of Hoth type scenario on the day. Picture it !

Let’s make it happen!

Huzzah!
Vic

June 3, 2014 2

We also played Tsuro

If Tsuro was a drink it would be a shot, something quick and giggly. Not something you’d sit and nurse for the whole night, nor something you’d savour. It’s fast, it looks good and you can be easily talked into trying it. There ends the analogy.

BGG Link

There’s a limited amount of games you can play together with eight players, too few for werewolf, too many for most table top stuff and extending a game to allow eight is a recipe for downtime and disaster. Tsuro takes eight, it works well with those numbers but it’s not something you’d play more than a few games of. It’s just too flimsy, but it’s fun while it lasts.

The game itself is beautiful, it’s got just the right amount of quality without being expensive. The artwork is really nice, it captures the feel of those old Japanese bamboo painting rolls. The pieces, all eight of them are solid and minimalist, the cards straightforward and simple. It’s a work of art.

The game itself is very simple. So much so that there’s only limited skill to it, but it’s still fun to try. Each player starts with 3 tiles with a number of paths marked on them (If you’ve play Tongianki you’ll get it straight away) and a stone (their piece) at the edge of the board. The board is a lined playing area with room for 49 tiles to be laid in a 7 x 7 arrangement. As you place your tile you move your stone forward along the path you’ve placed. If it collides with another player or goes off the edge, BONG that it. And that’s the game.

There’s a little skill in

1. Staying away from other players

Eh, that’s it.

If you do get near another player prey you have a card that will send them off to an early shower and you to continue on your way.

On the plus side it’s easy to teach new players and kids will love it. There’s a newer version called Tsuro of the sea, I’ve never played it but I’m sure it’s better and seemingly it’s got sea monsters so win win.

Try it at the next Knavecon, I’ll bring it along

Right that’s enough of that, serious boardgames next time

Huzzah!

Vic

June 1, 2014 4

Kneedeep in Seamen

Having played Serenissisma a number of times I thought I had heard every possible Seamen joke, I had been misled….

We had a big group on Thur night and we tried our best with an eight player game of Tsuro but when it’s that size the only thing to do is split into two groups. Our group played this.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232/serenissima-first-edition

Serenissisma is a nautical game of trading in the Mediterranean in the 14th Century. Integral to the operation of your fleet are your seamen. Being a group of 16yr old schoolboys at heart and mind, the game very quickly became a series of jokes about the aforementioned lads. So what follows now is review of the proceedings liberally infused with seamen ‘jokes’…..

“Let’s not beat about the bush (you see what I did there), I’m a big fan of Serenissisma, My copy has been knocking about for a long time and only occasionally do I get to whip it out and play with it with unsuspecting gamers”

The game is played out on a map of the Mediterranean with up to four players taking control of a major power. The map is made up of a number of ports that each supply one of seven goods Wine, Iron, Wood (of course), Cheap Plonk, Knock off CDs, (well maybe not but you get the idea.) and around 30 or so sea square Each of these ports that produce a particular good want goods of the other types so you’re job is to zip around in your ships full to the gunwales of goods and seamen and drop them off like a merry postman, sticking your flag down to claim ports as your own and getting into or avoiding fights with other players doing the same. A Pat Mustard of the waves if you will

There’s a limit of five spots in a ship, so the balance (and there’s always a balance in games) is between how many goods you stick on board and how man seamen you ram in there. More seamen means more protection and speed for your ship but less space for valuable trade items. Even more fun as you probably guessed it is to attack other players ships and take their ships and goods as prizes.

In all the games you’ve played THIS is the most unforgiving of plays. You build up a fleet of ships, buy some goods are thinking about your Ferengi profit and BAM! some savage steams in, pistol whips your swimmers and gets all familiar your very expensive goods and ships, THEN to add insult to injury, sails off and sells your previously owned goods. Pirate code me hoop. This is not a safe game, once you get tangoed like this you’ll never forget it so guard your stuff well.

“The key to the game is your seamen… (waits for laughter to subside), you need seamen, lots and lots of seamen, if you’re going to succeed (oh err missus) and come out on top, you’ll need more seamen than the other fella (canned laughter). “

Once again the old puzzle, which comes first the chicken or the egg problem is evident here. You can’t afford lots of seamen if you don’t sell lots of goods, you can’t protect your goods without lots of seamen. So you do you’re best. A Gamer worth their salt does this sort of thing the whole time. Still hurts when you get holed below the keel and your plans evaporate.

The other thing I like about this game is you don’t really have time for vengeance. Go after someone who’s wronged you and you’ll probably lose the game. You need to pull up your big boy/girl pants and get your house back in order and then ON YES then you get to exact a revenge on them IF you have time. So in essence get your vengeance in first and make sure you do it so they never recover.

The game ends after eight turns (more if there’s less players) and rattles along for a good 2+ hours depending on players. There’s a good range of decisions to be made each turn and there’s very little downtime as everyone else’s move can have a big impact on you. Some of the mechanics like getting a monopoly on certain goods and setting the prices for them can really rankle players so if you’re militarily weak it’s often a case of appeasing other players but ultimately if you don’t hire seamen and plenty you’re goosed good and proper. As the game progresses it becomes more and more crowded with ships and it’s very much a powder keg waiting for the spark that’s most beneficial for you. This game can be very tense at times, mostly towards the end. It’s also possible to be really petty, sacking a person home city just because, even though you’ve got them on the ropes already.

Is it any good? Yes. It is. Iv’e got an older copy, a new revamped version two came out and I haven’t tried it but I understand it’s a bit different from the original but opinions are divided as to which is superior. Will I play it again soon? Wellllllll… probably not. I’ve played a good bit of this game and whilst not bad it’s not as good as some newer stuff out there. Worth getting. Welllll again there’s better out there but that doesn’t make it bad. Try it at the next Knavecon. I’ll bring it along and you can join in a chorus of comments about seamen.

Don’t get me wrong I like this game but if you get overrun by someone else seamen, it can leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Sorry.

More of that next week

Huzzah!

Vic

May 30, 2014 2

Steam Streaming Beams

Since a number of boardgames are available on Steam I’m going to talk about something new just launched on that platform and I’m very excited about (I don’t get out much). Streaming.

Recently Steam launched a new feature quietly and matter of factly. Streaming.

There I said it twice so it’s real. Streaming is remotely playing a game on another PC. “So what” says you we’ve been able to remotely access PCs for a long time now. True but it’s never been fast enough to play a game on. Now it is. The only caveat is you need to do it over your local area network. Although I reckon a decent enough internet connection would let you do it remotely remotely too.

It’s all sorts of awesome now that you can open steam on a fairly basic PC/Laptop/Mac and then run a game that you haven’t installed and definitely wouldn’t run on this basic set-up by accessing a kick ass PC somewhere else on the network (Possibly surrounded by flashing lights and dry ice) . This is (pardon the pun) a game changer.

The idea has been around for a while, a few companies have tried it via the web with limited results and remote play via a Sony PSP and a PS3 has been done. So far it’s been limited although a lot of companies have seen the future and tried to make it happen. I think Steam are really onto something. I like Steam, always have since the Half Life 2 days. I wish them the best with this and am curious to see where it goes next when they release their own OS.

The whole thing is so simple, you just install Steam on another PC and login to it. It shows you all the games installed on any machine in the mix and you pick it and hit the stream button, BAM It fires it up on the games machine and you get all the gaming goodness from a safe distance.

If you have Steam installed, try this, believe me you’ll be impressed

Huzzah!

Vic

May 28, 2014 2

Pirate Ninjas Rule

I got to play a game I’ve seen a few times lurking on the edges in Amazon also boughts. Smash Up by AEG

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122522/smash-up

I had very few expectations going in, I figured it was going to be a bit like King of Toyko but it’s not. It’s borrows from a number of different games. I’m not sure where exactly it stands. Definitely a filler game, definitely as good as King of Toyko but it needs more play to be sure and I intend to give it some.

The game I played was a two player and it allows up to four which I suspect would be as crazy as after eights eaten at 7:30.

It’s quick to learn. A player starts with five cards which are of two types either actions or minions. On the board are a number of bases with all very colourful titles (Monkey lab anyone?) a completion value (from say 18-24 or so), a score value for first, second and third positions and a special ability.

Each turn a player gets to place a minion against a base, use the minions special ability (which could be kill another minion there, increase some variable, do something, I dunno else, it varies quite a bit from faction to faction) and also play an action, which could be Kill another minion, increase some variable (you get the idea). Each minion has a strength value or say 2-5 and when enough minions in total from everyone are at a base the based is scored, the highest strength of minions from one player gets the first scoring value and the next gets second prize and so on. You obviously want to be first if possible to snag the highest score. Once it’s scored a new base is wheeled out and the process repeats until someone scores 18 points or more, then pulls their jersey over their head and does their winner dance/slide/gesticulation

What makes for an interesting game is that at the start you pick two sets of factions from a base game of around a dozen or so. These vary a good bit so you have some colourful stuff, like Pirates, Zombies, Ninjas, Cthulu and so on. I opted for the obvious awesomeness of Pirates and Ninjas whilst my opponent went with Time Travelling and Zombies. You then carefully blend the play decks of your two choices together and wind up with a combined deck of 40 cards and play begins.

It was surprising fun, the theme of each it very well done, Ninjas are sneaky and good at assassination, Zombies just keep coming back again and again. Mixing two factions together makes for a different experience each time. Maybe even 132 different combos, (though my maths may be off)

Would I recommend it? yes, I would. I wouldn’t rush out and buy it, but I’d definitely play it if it was lying around. It’s not getting bumped up on my must buy list, but it’s good fun and if you have a spare 20 minutes and this at hand you could do a lot worse

Huzzah!

Vic

May 27, 2014 6

Running Rings Around – Thur

Thur night was a night of stealth and deception. First up we played something that’s been on my shelf for a long time but never dusted off

Lord of the Rings – The Confrontation

I’ve never been a massive fan of Reiner Kniza’s LOTR games, they’re fine but the whole happy happy co-op thing just doesn’t work for me. They’re also a bit too simplistic. The Confrontation is another in the same style. Same sort of box, same type of artwork but this time it’s a two player game and it’s very much not co-op (The name does sort of give it away)

The Confrontation is like a cut down version of Stratego with only nine pieces per side and the addition of combat cards. That pretty much sums it up, so feel free to get back to your life and not read the next bit.

Ah thanks for joining me again.

The game is played out on a stylized map of middle earth with Mordor on one side and the Shire on the other and a dozen or so locations in between. Each player gets a set of nine characters and work to get either Frodo to Morodor OR the Witchking to the Shire. Now I have no idea why the Witch King wants to get to the shire, maybe he’s heard the food it good, Maybe he’s going to take the waters, maybe he wants to buy a T-shirt that says something like “I Soured the Shire and all I got was” but if he gets there or Frodo gets to Mordor it’s game over. Equally if three of Saurons forces make it to the shire together like a bunch of beered up soccer hooligans it’s a win for the forces of evil too.

Here’s where it gets a bit more interesting. Your opponent (via a nice set of plastic blocks you insert the cards into) can only see the back of your cards so they have no idea where your key players are, more importantly they have no idea where your hard hitters and wimps are in your mix.

When two opposing characters bump into each other they reveal their characters, each of which has a combat value and a special ability. The special abilities are resolved straight off (Boromir in keeping with Sean Bean dies in his first combat but takes the enemy with him, The Orcs win their first battle automatically and so on), if the two characters are still standing they secretly pick an attack card with a combat value from their limited set of cards and the highest combined combat value wins. The cards are limited btw. It’s simple, it’s neat, it’s cheap, It’s FAST, A game can easily be played in 20 minutes and it’s good fun. There’s also a number of variants to it, like alternative characters and abilities, extra magic cards and so on. As two player games go, this is a goodie and so far I’m liking it a lot. It’s also quite a simple game and plays quite well with younger players. All in all a winner I reckon

Next up was another game of Fury of Dracula. (Show him your cross!)

It’s great how with fresh players games can get a new lease of life. One of last weeks players (not me) decided to take their chances as the snappy dressing Transylvania….. and he lasted about as long as those 5 dots back there. BOOM, staked, good and proper. So after a quick bit of pointing and laughing we decided to have a second game with the same vampire and this one was way more interesting.

Dracula is a great game, I think the most fun is to be had as Dracula himself although it’s good to be a hunter too. Dracula led us a VERY merry dance and unlike most other games he was popping out lady vampires to beat the band or more accurately beat we the hunters. There are two cards in the game that are real show stoppers. Hypnosis where you can find exactly where drac is and eh… something else that effectively lets Dracula teleport to another spot on the map.

Mid game Dracula got the first and despite our best efforts (and our worst) we didn’t get so much as a sniff of colonge of our target. It was looking bad and after extensive searching we finally reckoned (a scientific measure) he was masquerading around England far from the maddening hunters. With little time to go before he completed his dastardly plan and scored his six points we finally tracked him down (via hypnosis) to London and one of our number confronted him cook report style. After a ‘robust discussion’ with Dracula he finally slipped our net and having lost more blood from his body than John Holmes he staggered off confident of a quick win. Then I arrived, grabbed him and renditioned him right off a cliff. Bye bye Vlad. You came close but no cigar.

Great game. Always fun and absolutely no shame should be be attached by us to the Dracula player for losing.

Twice.

In a row.

More of this sort of things soon

Huzzah!

Vic

May 24, 2014 4

Interview with Victor Gannon and Krystian Czekalski

I recently took part in a video interview along with the Krystian from the boardgameguys to talk a little about boardgaming.

May 18, 2014 2