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The role of the FLGS (FWIW)

Diposting oleh Unknown |

If you haven't been paying attention, there's a new review site in town, BoardRoomers. Headed up by well-respected Dice Tower reviewer Ryan Metzler, the boardroomers is a site wherein various members of the gamerati debate hot button topics via Google+ hangout and/or video chat. In its first show, Ryan and friends will discuss the role of the local FLGS; specifically, the purpose of the FLGS in relation to online vendors such as CoolStuffInc, Troll&Toad, and FunAgain games.

This got me thinking. As a resident of Central (technically NE) Ohio, I am very fortunate to have myriad gaming opportunities. Perhaps the biggest opportunity is the presence of CABS (Columbus Area Boardgaming Society). Yes, that CABS: one of the largest gaming clubs in the Midwest, the organization responsible for the board room at Origins, and an organization that boasts a game collection of over 1400 games. If I want to play or review something obscure and/or off-the-wall, all I need to do is attend one of their get togethers. There are also some fairly decent game stores around Central Ohio: The Guardtower being my personal favorite, followed closely by Ravenstone and The Soldiery. Problem is... my sporadic work schedule doesn't allow me to attend nearly the amount of CABS meetings that I would like. Likewise, I don't really want to drive an hour one way just to pick up a game from a FLGS on the other side of I-70W. This means, I'm generally relegated to patronizing the FLGSes by my house. Herein lies my problem(s).


The town in which I live has two gaming stores (henceforth known as FLGS #1 and FLGS #2). FLGS 1 and 2 are located no more than 10 minutes from one another. FLGS #1 has been a mainstay in the community for the past 25 years. They are predominately a comic shop, but have branched out to miniatures and CCGs with a smattering of other table top pursuits. The owners/employees are nice guys, but obviously have exponentially more knowledge about comics than games. FLGS #2 is the new guy in town. Located in an old house that has been converted into a game store, it sprung up because of the owner of FLGS #1's missed opportunities and angry customers. FLGS #2 has no comics; Instead, it has myriad miniature tables, 15-20 of them, all crammed into a dimly lit basement.

At first, I was a frequent customer of FLGS #1. The guys there seemed nice enough. The owner (we'll call him "J") always went out of his way to ask me questions about what I was playing or to tell me about the games that he was playing. If I had a prototype to work on, he always seemed genuinely interested. Even then however, it was obvious that his allegiances lay with the miniature players (Specifically Warhammer 40K) and CCG players (Magic, YuGiOh, Pokemon, etc), as game nights at FLGS #1 were dedicated to one or the other from 6pm on, M-F. As I started to gather more intel, it became blatantly clear that J, and his main employee "Z," had little to no knowledge about the games they were selling unless they were one of the 2 aforementioned genres. To make matters worse, the shop was becoming plagued with miniature players and magic enthusiasts. And not the cool M:tG players who can relate the strategy of their game to gaming as a whole. No, I'm talking about the M:tG players who think flipping a Delver of Secrets from one side to the other is tantamount to Oppenheimer discovering the secrets of the Atom Bomb.

This is my general emotional state after visiting one of the two FLGSes in my area.
This is not to say that Miniature players or people who enjoy M:tG are intolerable people. Not at all. Some of my best friends in the gaming world play Warhammer, HeroQuest, MageKnight, etc. Likewise, the minds of some people who design or play high level Magic are just fascinating to me: Zach Hill, Mark Rosewater, LSV, etc. I simply meant to say that the people who play these games at my FLGSes are intolerable. They're intolerable because the vast majority of them refuse to step out of their comfort zone and try, literally, ANY other genre of game. And before you say anything: yes, I have done my due diligence. I have brought games for them to try: Small World, Summoner Wars, Dominion, EmDo, Dominion, etc. I have played their games: Magic, Warhammer, D&D, in hopes of building a rapport. Maybe 1 out of 10 people with whom I interact actually plays a game with me. They typically enjoy the experience, but then go right back to playing a mini or CCG after the games conclude.

Look, I get it. Many online retailers have warehouses in which to store their product(s). This means they can hoc their wares at a lower price (though, with shipping, it usually evens out). Because of this, FLGSes are under more pressure to make money. So, they tend to pander to the types of games that will make them more money. This, I assume, means more reliance on sales from Miniatures and CCGs due to their price points and frequent rolling out of new material. From time to time, they might also stock something seen on Tabletop, because ya know... people are sheep; and if Wil Wheaton says a game is worthwhile, it must be worth spending money on.

But what responsibility, if any, does an FLGS have to diversify the tastes of the people who frequent it? Sure, all FLGSes are business. Businesses need to make money to stay in business so they can have an opportunity to diversify the tastes of their clientele, but to me,  the G in FLGS is indicative of a broad array of possibility. We don't call them FLWSes or FLCCGSes for a reason.  There is a world of games out there to be tried: Party games, Euro games, Ameritrash games, DBGs, Abstracts, etc.

I'm not asking the Mini players or the CCG enthusiasts to give up their normal fare, I'm simply asking them to try something new on the off chance that they might find a game they like or play a game whose strategies can be employed in their game of choice. Additionally, I'm not asking FLGS owners to completely scrap their normal schedule of high-grossing events. I just think it would behoove them to have ONE night a week where variety is encouraged. And, by variety, I mean THEM...actively getting out from behind the counter and playing games with their customers, getting to know the people who come into their stores, and getting to know the product they sell. I don't think that's asking too much.

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Don't drown in the hype...

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Lords of Waterdeep is the newest in a line of Dungeons & Dragons themed games released by Wizards of the Coast.  The three previous games in the line were large box, miniature-heavy, dungeon crawlers very much in the vein of the original source material.  Lords of Waterdeep also mines the D&D mythos, but in a much different way.  Waterdeep tries to shoehorn all of the action of a D&D campaign into a European style worker placement game.  Waterdeep is very successful at being a Euro, but falls pretty flat at being a Dungeons & Dragons game.

For the record,  I am not a Dungeons & Dragons player.  I attempted one game and it went something like this:

DM: "You walk into this village, the townsfolk move in on you inquisitively.  The leader walks towards you with both arms raised above his head."

Me: "I slice the leader in half, and begin torching the village."

DM: "..."

*10 minutes later*

DM: "OK, all the villagers are dead, the town is ablaze..."

Me: "Awesome, I run back to the beach and steal their boat, and sail off for the treasure island."

DM: "Which direction is the treasure island?"

Me: "Uhhhh....left? I guess I should have looked for a map or something, huh?"

DM: *Sighs, closes notebook, grabs Star Trek CCG deck*  "You seed first, ok?"

Thankfully, you don't really need to know the Dungeon & Dragons brand at all to enjoy Lords of Waterdeep.  In Waterdeep, you play as one of the titular lords; these lords each give some sort of endgame bonus, and can help in directing your strategy as you play.  For example, the lord I played as in my first game gave a 4 point bonus for each Arcana and Warfare quest I completed.

As this is a worker placement game, you can expect that a game turn is pretty simple.  Each player starts the game with two workers...er, "Agents." You will gain a third after four turns.  When it is your turn, you place one agent onto a building and take the benefit of that building.  The board is laid out very well, there is a logical and clearly marked place for each building and card deck in the game.  The illustration on the board is supposed to be Waterdeep, but it looks more like a finished Carcassonne map to me.

The inn is probably the most important building in the game.  As you may suspect in a game themed from role-playing material, the inn is where you can gain more quests.  Since finishing quests is the way to gain points, you'll be visiting the inn quite often.  Each quest requires a number of adventurers to complete, so several of the other buildings on the board are various "adventurer's clubs" where you collect the appropriate people to take along with you.  You may also choose to go first in future turns, get some gold, draw an intrigue card (which may harm the other players), or even build a new building from the Building Hall.  These extra buildings are more powerful than the base buildings.  Unfortunately (for you) they are usable by all players; however, you will gain a small benefit if an opponent uses your building.

Poor attempt at a painfully artistic board shot
Overall, Lords of Waterdeep does the Euro thing extremely well.  Lords of Waterdeep is definitely a light-middle weight game.  There aren't many tricks up this game's sleeves.  The only gotcha moments come from the Intrigue cards.  These are pretty standard "take-that" cards that can help slow your opponents down.  All of this makes Waterdeep a great gateway game into the Euro / Worker Placement world. Where the game fails, for me at least, is in bringing the Dungeons & Dragons theme to the forefront.

As I said before, I'm not a D&D player (or a role-player of any type, to be honest), so I came into the game fearing that I would not "get" what was really going on.  However, that was not an issue at all.  In fact, since I was taught the game, I had no idea what most of the stuff I did actually meant in the world of D&D until I went back and read the rules myself.  Sure, your lords all have funny names, and the quests have text that tells you what your quest is all about, but none of that affects the game in the slightest.  It could have just as easily been a trading in the Mediterranean game.

With that being said, I did enjoy Lords of Waterdeep for what it is.  It is a beginner's Euro.  It's a great gateway game both for new game players, and for people looking to branch out from the role playing world by trying something with a comfortable theme.  Lords of Waterdeep is a fun game, but ultimately not one that I would add to my collection;  because I already have other games that do what this game does, but better such as Stone Age, Agricola, and even Leonardo da Vinci (a game I am more fond of than many, it seems)..



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Just like Camping, these games are "in tents."

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Camping.  We've all done it at one time or another.  Whether it's sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories and eating s'mores in your backyard, or whatever these guys are doing...


we have all had that glorious feeling of being at one with nature.  Interestingly enough, in recent months several games have hit my personal radar with some aspect of camping as a theme.  This time, we are going to take a quick look at three of them: Scavengers, Let's Take A Hike, and Bears!
=======================================================

Scavengers by Zombie State Games


In Scavengers, each player has a set of four food cards (Chili Dog, Omelet, Kabob, and S'mores).  Players then play animal cards to one of three campsites in an effort to gain control of said campsite, which allows you to steal all the food carelessly left out.  Most of the animals have some sort of special ability as well.  Some of the abilities let you steal food bits out of turn, they might restrict which animals may be played at that camp for the rest of the round, or even move food from one camp to another.  The goal of the game is to collect the specific food bits required on your food cards.  The first player to complete all four cards wins.

Scavengers reminds me of a family friendly version of Blood Bowl: Team Manager.  The mechanics of playing cards in order to gain control of a specific camp in Scavengers is almost exactly the same as battling over a highlight in Blood Bowl.  One issue I do have with the game is that many of the cards, and the rule book itself are extremely text heavy.  It may be overwhelming, if not downright intimidating, at first glance for new players.  Fortunately, most of the abilities, and the rules, are pretty easily understood after one read through. 

Scavengers says it plays 2-4 players.  I found my 2-player game to be too dry.  This game lives on chaos, and there's not enough of that in a 2-player game.  I've played it a couple times with 3 players, and have found that to be a fairly good number.  Four player games tend to be extremely chaotic...you have to know your group to see if that little control is acceptable.  I rather like that lack of control here because it's not a game meant to be taken seriously, but it can cause the game to overstay its welcome for some.  
===============================================================

Let's Take A Hike by StrataMax Games


Ok, ok... hiking isn't camping.  I know, but one sometimes leads to the other, so I'm lumping this in.  Let's Take a Hike is a push your luck style card game in the vein of Cloud 9, Diamant, and Incan Gold.  2 to 5 players will be dealt a hand of cards.  The goal of the game is to score as many points as possible on a series of hikes.

These cards depict items you may want to bring along for a long hike such as a sleeping bag, socks, flashlights etc.  On your turn, you will be placing these items into an invisible backpack which resides on the table in front of you.  Each card has a small icon which shows you exactly where they can go in your pack.  After a few turns, someone will declare they want to go for a hike.  Each other player determines if they want to go along.  

At this point, the lead hiker (the player that started the hike) will flip over a card from the deck. If any of the hikers has that exact card in their pack, they are fine.  If a hiker does not have that card, they must discard a card showing the number of boot prints on the flipped card.  At this point, hikers decide whether they are dropping out of the hike, or carrying on.  If a hiker drops, they get to take a card from the flipped stack as a prize.  If the hike gets to a point where there is just one hiker left, when that hiker drops out, he or she gets all remaining cards in the prize pile.  Be careful though!  If you are ever caught without the ability to discard enough boot icons, or are hit by a hazard you cannot deal with, you are sent home with NOTHING!  The winner is the person with the most boot prints in their prize pile when the card deck is exhausted.

Of the three games I'm reviewing here, this one is my favorite.  I think building the pack generates a few interesting choices (although picking the right items mainly comes down to luck).  I especially love the artwork on the cards. The art has a retro style to it that I find extremely charming.  Let's Take a Hike is a cute game that kids of all ages should find enjoyable.
===================================

Bears! by Fireside Games


So, you've hiked all the way to the campsite, you've put the tent up, and suddenly the growl of a bear rises up behind you.  What do you do?  You can run, you can pull out your gun and shoot the bear, or you can just ignore the whole thing and sleep through the attack in your tent.  Those are the choices available to you in this fast paced dice game.

Each player is given five black player dice.  Each of these dice contain icons of a gun, a running person, or a sleeping person.  In the center of the table are a set of white "camp" dice.  There are five of these dice for each player as well.  Each of these dice have just two icons, bears and tents.  When players are ready, all of the camp dice are rolled.  At this point the players roll their dice, and the fun begins!  Players are quickly trying to match up their player dice with camp dice in an effort to score points.  

There are only three legal pairs that can be made in the game.  First, players can match a gun and a bear for 1 point.  Second, you can flee the scene by matching a tent and a runner die...this nets you 2 points.  Or, you can be brave (stupid) and match a tent with a sleeping bag.  If you make this match, and all of the bears that were rolled are taken down, you score a whopping 5 points.  However, if you try to sleep through the attack, and the round ends with even 1 bear alive...you lose 2 points.  Players are allowed to re-roll their player dice as many times as they want, but the round ends immediately once either all the bears or all the tents are gone from the camp dice pool.  As the rules are written, the first player to 100 points wins.

I put that last line in because, though fun, Bears is a game I need to play in smaller doses. I tend to play games to 50 points.  I don't do this because I dislike the game, but simply because speed games fluster me, and I don't enjoy that feeling for longer than a few minutes.  I'm sure there are people out there willing to play this game to 500 points, and are grandly disappointed when someone hits that goal.  I'm not one of those people.  

I want to lodge one complaint against Bears!  It's minor, almost to the point of being silly.  But when I bought the game, I assumed, based on the size and shape of the box, that there was a dice cup included.  It's not necessary, I mean, the box lid is close enough that I use it to roll all the camp dice.  I just felt a little let down when I opened the box, and there was no dice cup.

I hope you've enjoyed this look at three recent games related to the theme of camping.  If there are any other themes, or a series of games you'd like to see an article of this style about, please email us at gamesandgrub(at)@gmail.com, and we'll see what we can do!







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A pleasant surp-RISE!

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 Before it even arrived in our mailbox, Crash Games's Rise! had built up a sort of infamy of its own, much like "The Bulge of Origins 2012," or "The Legend of some Dutch Guy." There was the story about "Mini-Rise" that came from an oblivious Arizonian observer; there was also the ill-fated first game against my wife, in which I failed to erect a singular level of a tower while Rori mercilessly wiped the hexagonal floor with me. So, when the game actually hit the table, there was a palpable amount of anxiousness.

For those not familiar with the game, Rise! is the successful Kickstarter campaign from Patrick and Michael of Crash Games (AZ). It is an abstract strategy game of tile and worker placement/movement/removal. As an abstract strategy game, it is both in my wheelhouse (as abstracts are some of my favorite games) and subject to harsher criticism than normal since, as one friend put it, "[I] obsess over abstracts." That being the case, let's cut to the chase and see if Rise! deserves a place on my shelf alongside some of my other favorite abstracts.


To begin the game, Players set up the board as follows (Four connected hex tiles with a "bridge" of 4 tiles between them.). Red goes first and may take one action. From then on, players alternate turns, taking 2 of an available 7 actions on each subsequent turn. 
These actions are:


  1. Place a land tile adjacent to any other tile on the board
  2. Place one of your workers (circular pieces) next to any other worker you control
  3. Move one of your workers a maximum of one space onto an unoccupied tile. 
  4. Jump a worker in order to remove it from the board 
  5. Sacrifice 2 of your workers to eliminate 1 of an opponent's workers
  6. Sacrifice 2 of your workers to place a worker on any open tile
  7. Remove a tier from one of your buildings (used very sparingly)
If a player manages to completely surround an unoccupied tile, they place a building tier on the unoccupied space. Continue to surround  this piece, and the building will continue to grow. Each building consists of 3 tiers; and, once 3 buildings are constructed, a player achieves victory. As a completely viable, but much rarer option, a player also achieves victory if he/she can eliminate all an opponent's workers from the board.

From a design standpoint, the availability of 7 different options and two available actions is almost a complete antithesis to most abstract strategy games, which consist of taking a solitary action, then passing the turn to your opponent. The options in Rise! are certainly not difficult to remember by any means (as they boil down to Place/Move/Remove) but it's a little overwhelming at first. As a big positive because of this number of options, game play is deep. You will need to adeptly balance offense and defense while thinking multiple moves ahead to consistently win at this game.

Because of this, or perhaps because my wife's preternatural talent for this game... Rise! also gets the unique distinction of being one of very few abstract games at which I completely and utterly suck (the others being Go and Ubongo). If you've read this far, please don't take that previous comment to be an indicator of Rise!'s quality. If anything, it's another reason to have this game in your collection: you're not going to master it in a few days, a few hours, and truthfully... probably not even a couple months. That's a good thing in my opinion. Yes, I'm abhorrent at this game, but there's still a stubborn part of me that wants to put the game back on the table, play again, and start picking up subtle strategies. At some point, this game is going to click for me, and it will be a glorious moment.

And after that fleetingly glorious moment has passed, I can break out the Ballistics expansion. This small but mighty add-on to the base game introduces 3 new pieces 
  1. The Anchor - a neutral and immovable piece that quickly becomes a thorn if placed strategically near an opponent's foundation. 
  2. The Flash - a piece which, upon placing, wipes out all workers on the tiles surrounding it. Nice for clearing out clogged areas quickly.
  3. The Vortex - a swirling pool of dooooom <ominous music>!!! Upon activating the Vortex, a d4 is places on an empty tile with the number set to 4. At the start of the player's turn that placed it, subtract 1 from the face value of the die. When it reaches 0, it obliterates the tile it's on and literally everything else on the 6 surrounding hexes (even the hexes themselves). The only way to disarm the vortex is to sacrifice 5 workers. On the bright side, the detonation of the Vortex cannot cause the board to be split into two separate islands, something to keep in mind when placing your tiles. 
There are some very minor, nit picky things I would change about Rise!.  I'd like the bridge between player islands to be a tad shorter in order to force player interaction a little sooner in the game (note: Crash Games does have alternative starting layouts on their website, so definite brownie points for that). I also wish that placing a tier of a tower had to be taken as an action rather than given as an instantaneous bonus, but these are simply personal preferences that serve as a testament to my affinity for player interaction and lean toward defensive type games/strategies  rather than offensive. House rules can certainly be made to tweak the game to your liking.

As a whole, and house rulings aside, I think Rise! is a well designed abstract strategy game and one I look forward to playing more and more over time. If you backed this on Kickstarter, it should be arriving soon. If you didn't and you're a fan of the genre, head on over to CrashGamesAZ.com or GameSalute and pick up a copy for yourself. 

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The Dark (Chocolate) Knight Rises

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I'm a big fan of fellow blogger Tara Theoharis and her website Geeky Hostess. So, when she posted these Dark (Chocolate) Knight inspired brownies, I knew I had to follow up with my own blockbuster-inspired sweet tooth treats. And what says summer better than Ice Cream? Even now, I'm fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood where the siren's call of an ice cream truck can be heard going down our street. Sadly, I don't run the truck down with nearly the frequency I do in my younger days. Nonetheless, I hope you find the recipes that follow fit your your palate or Mr. Wayne's. Thanks, as well, to David Lebovitz, Jeni Bauer, and Angie McKaig for the basis of these recipes: 

#1. Angie's "Best Dark Chocolate Ice Cream" Ever...

2 cup heavy cream
4 heaping tbsp good cocoa (I use Valhrona)
6 1/2 ounces good dark chocolate 62% or more (I use Callebaut chips, but you could use chopped chocolate too)
1 cup milk
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
In a medium pot, heat 1 cup of heavy cream with cocoa; whisk well to ensure the cocoa gets integrated properly. When cream is bubbling at the edges, remove from heat and add dark chocolate. Wait 30 seconds then give it a good stir until it's all incorporated.
Add remaining cup of cream to pot, stir to combine, then pour the contents into a medium sized non-metal bowl, scraping out the pot as well as you can, and place a strainer over the bowl.
Place the pot back on the stove, and add the cup of milk, 1/2 cup of sugar and your salt. I prefer more salt (1/2 tsp.) because I think it makes the chocolate taste amazing, but if it's your first go and you are not yet a devotee of salt-to-chocolate ratios, try the 1/4 tsp and then tweak your second batch to taste.
Heat the milk and sugar gently on the stove while you get your egg yolks ready. Whisk the egg yolks together and then grab the pot from the stove. SLOWLY drizzle warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking the entire time (this is called tempering) until everything's all combined. Then dump the liquid back into the pot. Stir constantly (so you don't cook the eggs) with a wooden or other heat-safe spoon or spatula over medium heat until the eggs thicken a bit, into a custard. You'll know it's done when you can hold up the spoon and run your finger through the egg-milk mixture and the line you drew with your finger stays there.
Pour custard through the strainer into the bowl. Add vanilla extract and stir to combine the chocolatey goodness. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the bowl, literally touching the entire surface of the ice cream base. 
Refrigerate for at least 6 hours then prepare according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
Once you've got it into your final container, freeze again for at least 6 hours - trust me this stuff tastes WAY better cold, cold, cold. Remove from the freezer 10-15 minutes before eating so it has time to soften a bit before serving.
Makes many small servings - like fine truffles, this ice cream works best in small doses. Rich, chocolatey, creamy yummy decadence
 

#2. Jeni's "Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE ICE CREAM BASE: 
2 cups milk
4 tsp. cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
3 tbsp. cream cheese, softened

FOR THE CHOCOLATE SAUCE: 
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup brewed coffee 
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 oz. bittersweet chocolate

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make the ice cream: In a bowl, stir together 1/4 cup milk and the cornstarch; set slurry aside. In a 4-qt. saucepan, whisk together remaining milk and the cream, sugar, syrup, and salt; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 4 minutes; stir in slurry. Return to a boil and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Place cream cheese in a bowl and pour in 1/4 cup hot milk mixture; whisk until smooth. Then whisk in remaining milk mixture.

2. Make the chocolate sauce: Bring cocoa, brewed coffee, and sugar to a boil in a 2-qt. saucepan over high heat; cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate.

3. Stir sauce into ice cream base. Pour mixture into a plastic bag; seal, and submerge in a bowl of ice water until chilled. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker; process according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer ice cream to a storage container and freeze until set


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The Stars and Their Places

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Admittedly, Kickstarter has produced some great success stories: D-Day Dice, SotM: Infernal Relics, Pixel Lincoln, Viva Java, etc. etc. However, to only back projects on one crowdfunding site is to overlook myriad worthwhile projects. For some hidden gems, head over to IndieGoGo.com, the European equivalent to KS.

No, IndieGoGo isn't as streamlined or organized as Kickstarter (though it seems many believe KS's new layout to be a step backwards): there's not really a way to separate board/card games from digital games, and there's no obvious marker to designate the level at which you backed a project (leaving you to wonder if your transaction truly went through). But... despite these flaws, I'd argue that the quality of games are equivalent to anything you find on Kickstarter.

One of those high quality games is Among The Stars by Artipia Games, makers of the well received Drum Roll and soon-to-be-released Briefcase. Among The Stars tells the story of a Galaxy recovering from the attacks of "The Black Ones" (apparently Greeks can get away with blatant racism more easily than Americans). In the aftermath of this war, alliances have been formed; alliances which dictate that space stations must be built in order to both protect against future attacks and return some semblance of normality into the lives of the myriad races who fought valiantly.

 

Construction of these space stations will be done by players via drafting certain locations from a hand of 6 cards dealt at the start of each year. Using credits, the main resource in the game, players will then pay for the construction of said location and gain VP either immediately or at the end of the game, depending on that location's abilities and bonuses. In addition, some locations will require you to pay not only credits, but energy as well, a secondary resource produced by purchasable power reactors. The catch? Tile placement matters in this game, and cards which require energy cubes must be placed within two squares of a reactor, thus taking up the space of a location that may have netted you more VP were it in the same space.

At the start of the game, A racial ability is given to each player and objective cards are dealt. Racial abilities are equivalent to power-ups and alter the way the game plays for each player. Some abilities grant you extra credits at the beginning of each year, while others might give you the option to build locations from the discard pile. Each objective gives players a side goal that, if achieved at end game, will grant them extra points. Most of these simply involve having the most locations of a single color, but some mix it up and reward players for being thrifty with their credits, building the most total locations, or hitting 50VP before any other player.

In addition to the Objectives and Racial abilities, each player receives 10 credits, a main reactor with 2 energy cubes placed on it, and a hand of 6 cards. Each turn, he/she has 3 actions available:
  1. Choose a card to be added to your station - if this is chosen, the player pays the requisite amount of credits (and/or energy cubes), places the location adjacent (i.e. non-diagonal) to a tile already in play, and collects an amount of VP indicated in the lower left of the card.
  2. Get a Power Station - A player choosing this option must discard a card from their hand and pay 1 credit. When this is done, an additional power station is placed adjacent to a location already in play, and 2 energy cubes are placed on that reactor.
  3. Discard a card to get 3 credits - This is exactly what is sounds like. Players discard a card from their hand and take 3 credits from the bank/communal pool. 
When there are no more tiles in a player's hand, the round ends and the year marker is moved forward. At the start of the next year, 6 more cards are dealt,  each player receives 10 more credits (unless a racial ability alters this), and play progresses as described above. After 4 rounds, known in the game as "years," the game ends. Players tally up their VP, add VP granted at end game (indicated by text in a yellow box rather than a white box), determine Objective bonuses, and add VP based on exhausted power reactors (1VP per) and leftover credits (3credits = 1VP). The player with the most VP wins. In the case of a tie, the player with the most locations in his/her station wins.



After reading the description, Jones Theorists and other gamers might claim that AtS resembles 7 Wonders, another popular game that involves card drafting. While there are many similarities, I think this game has enough differences to merit a spot in your collection.

The most glaringly obvious difference is the area in which you play cards. As opposed to 7 Wonders, there is an additional layer of importance based on WHERE you play your cards, not just WHAT and WHEN.  Secondly, resources seem to be a lot more scarce in Among the Stars. In 7Wonders, a lot of cards produce resources that can be utilized to build other things that provide other resources. There are very few locations in AtS that provide credits. With the average cost of a location being 3-4 credits, you will typically only get to play 2-3 locations in a round. So, care must be taken in deciding what action to take an when. Lastly, the distinction of color is a little looser in AtS than in 7Wonders. There are color distinctions in AtS; for example: Red bordered cards are military and typically cost more, give more VP, and require energy cubes. However, color is primarily used for end-game VP bonuses. So, a player in AtS may benefit from building a monochromatic space station, but in doing so they leave themselves open to active hate drafting from other players AND pass cards that reward diversity. 

I should also not that, instead of simply divvying up the cards into 3 ages, players in AtS shuffle a number of Special Cards (designated by a "S") into the main deck equal to 6x the number of players. In doing this, you add a level of unpredictability into the game. You might place something in your grid hoping for a special card that isn't even in the main deck. If all this weren't enough, there are also Conflict cards that may be added or removed from the main deck so that players may customize the level of direct aggression they want. It's actually a great addition that lets me play the game one way with my wife and another way entirely with my game group. 


From a personal standpoint, I really liked Among the Stars... for many of the same reasons I like 7Wonders. The addition of a grid-like layout only served to add another layer of strategy to the game. For those trying to decide between this and 7Wonders, I will note that this game seems to work better when played with 2 or 3 than 7W. In my experience, it seems to be a little less intimidating to casual and non-gamers as well, so it might be worth taking into consideration.

As of today, the Among the Stars IndieGoGo campaign has reached approximately 300% of their 8,000$ goal with 11 days left. The 25,000 stretch goal was just hit, meaning all backers will get resin miniature spaceships to use as player markers. At 35,000$, players will get even more additional promo cards, objectives, and racial abilities.

If you'll be at GenCon and would like to play this (or any other game for that matter), feel free to send me a message on Twitter. If you'd like to check out the game before then, here are links to their

IndieGoGo Campaign Site
--and--
Official BGG site 

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Arrrrrgh ya ready for a fun family game?

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There's a lot I admire about designer Chevee Dodd. First, the guy has been going to Origins even longer than I have. If you do a bit of research into the history of Scallywags, you'll note that the spark for what would later become Scallywags was planted at the convention all the way back in 1997. Chevee and I also share an unhealthy, fanboy-esque love for designer James Ernest.  Finally, Chevee has his roots in Print & Play design, an area I think is wholly unappreciated and rife with fantastic games.
Admiration aside, I was initially introduced to Chevee on Twitter several weeks before Origins 2012. Here was a guy who dove into social media headfirst; starting dialogue, networking and connecting one potential designer to another, and prolifically prototyping and blogging his efforts every step of the way. And I bought in to what he was selling, eventually convincing my wife to play in the inaugural release tournament at the convention that year. Communication with Chevee has continued to this point, and I was happy to comply when he asked if I would be willing to review his game on our website.
Scallywags 001


Considering the game has won several awards from family focused groups (Parents Choice, Dr. Toy, Tilliwig Family Fun), it should come as no surprise that Scallywags is a light-hearted, family oriented game. For those unfamiliar with how the game plays, Scallywags is essentially a game of who can use their cards to most efficiently collect resources from the center of the table. The crux in all of this hilarious gameplay is the mix of public and private information. At the onset of the game, the coins are strewn on your table; however they land is how they are played. What this means is that you will initially only know the score to be had from  25-50% of the coins at the beginning of the game.

Through shrewd use of the cards in the game, you will be able to steal, peek, etc. at various cards in the center pile. Once you've collected 8 coins (or 6 in a 4-6P game), you can't collect anymore. When all players have 8 (or 6 in larger games) pieces, the game ends, players count up the total number of points granted by their chips, and the highest total wins.

In my opinion, the sweet spot of the game is about 3 players, perhaps 4. With anything larger than four, the game tends to drag on a bit longer than the 15-20 minutes intended, even with the reduced number of coins required for end game.

Scallywags 002

"So...", you may be asking, "Is the game fun?" Admittedly, it's a lot lighter than the games I typically play. This, however, is not the say that the game isn't enjoyable. Scallywags was designed to be a light, family friendly game; in that regard it squarely hits the bull's eye.  It should be noted that this designation shouldn't be seen as synonymous with simplistic, there's quite a number of decisions to be played in regards to the order in which you'll play your cards. In my first game, I decided to play it safe: I took only coins that were face up and tried to filter through the face down cards to give the 1s or skull and crossbones to my wife. This worked quite well for me, as I won the game by a score of 24 to 15. I thought I had found a dominant strategy, and was pretty eager to test it out again to prove my pirate-y, doubloon collecting superiority. My wife, however, was having none of this. She saw through my plans, stockpiled her "Hands off me Booty" cards, waited for me to amass some treasures, stole them cold-heartedly, and then prevented me from doing the same. Needless to say, I did not win that game. 

Overall, Scallywags is a game that succeeds admirably at what it set out to be. If your game group is full of adults who want something complex, this game is probably not for you. If, however, you have some budding gamers in your household, this game is certainly worth checking out. It's a great addition to the Gamewright family and might be a great addition for your family as well.

If you'd like more information about Scallywags, feel free to order the game HERE

You can also get more information about designer Chevee Dodd by
Following him on Twitter
Reading his Google+ Posts
and checking out his blog/website

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...On Ham Hocks and Rolls

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Disclaimer: Games&Grub received a copy of Sandwich City personally from the designer, Jason Tagmire through an under the table deal involving an early prototype of Pixel Lincoln and a plastic duck painted to resemble the 16th president of America. Because we didn't pay for said game, this review is completely invalid and shouldn't be read by anyone, anywhere. Thank you for reading this far. </sarcasm> 

   

The hipster in us likes to say that we knew Jason Tagmire before he hit it big with Pixel Lincoln. However, we quickly feel dirty for having any part of our being be hipster and remind ourselves that this simply amounts to meeting Jason at Origins this year, 2 days before he launched the PL campaign. 

Before THAT, though, Jason won an award on The Game Crafter for a little game called Sandwich City. As you might have guessed, this game about grub was something we wanted to get to the table badly. Lucky for us, Jason is a pretty generous fellow and traded us a copy for a plastic duck that looks like Abraham Lincoln. Yes, seriously.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Sandwich City is a resource management/set collection game in which you play cards from your hand to gain money. Money collected allows you to purchase various vegetables and meats from the market (i.e. the game board) ; the closer to the center of the market, the cheaper the item is to purchase. Purchased items may then be placed on the counter, in the fridge, or in the freezer, with each of these respective places giving the food placed there a certain shelf life. Keep an item on the counter too long and it gets discarded. Keep an item in the fridge too long and it starts growing mold. Sure, you can always keep the food indefinitely in the freezer, but then you have to account for thawing. It's all a precarious balance that works out pretty well.

If you manage to balance your resources properly, you can build one of 52 sandwiches in the game. Jason and his crew have come up with a wide array of sandwiches: from "The Salad,' (a carrot between two slices of bread) to "The Carnival" (Chicken, 2x Fish, a Carrot, Pork, and a Brick). Obviously, the more ingredients in the sandwich, the more points its worth. 



To me, Sandwich City is an enjoyable, lighter game to break out as a starter to the evening or to use with Family members in order to teach them about certain aspects of set collection and resource management. Curiously, my favorite part of the game has nothing to do with collecting the custom wood pieces or making sandwiches. Rather, it's the end of turn bonuses given by making three of a kind with the various colors. As you discard cards in your hand for money, you place them in one of three piles. If, in discarding a card, you create a row whose top cards are all one color, you get an end-of-turn bonus that lets you do anything from taking a free 1$ item from the board to taking a card from an opponent's hand, to major screwage via mold outbreak or freezer failure.

I also enjoy the watercolor-esque artwork style in the game. Admittedly, it's not super detailed, but I think it evokes the feeling of the game's open air farmer's market; it feels "Natural" for what that adjective is worth. I might add some clouds to the blue exterior so it doesn't look like the farmer's market is occurring on a circular island floating in the middle of nowhere, but that's a VERY minor qualm.

That aside, there are some things about the game that make me scratch my head ever so slightly. First is the random but not-so-random placement of the tokens onto the board. Per the rules, players are dealt cards and then place tokens onto the board. What this means, to some degree, is that experienced players can place their pieces in a way that will give them the most benefit from materials sliding toward the center. This is certainly easier said than done, but the possibility is there, and the ability of a player to choose which material replaces a purchased token later on in the game just bugs me for some inexplicable reason. Personally, I'd rather have a random chit/token pulling system to determine what goes where. Start the game by placing on grey squares in a clockwise fashion, then blue, then purple, etc. Yes, this takes control away from players (which I generally hate) but it serves to make things a little more equal in my opinion. In either case, I'm sure Jason had a reason for making the system this way, and I'd love to hear it.

Secondly, I'd like there to be a way to manipulate your hand more than just discarding a card for money. If there's a horrible shuffle, one player may get all 4$ cards and another play may get all 2$ cards. To some extent, the player with all 4$ cards is stuck trying to make larger sandwiches, which will take longer, but there's nothing to say that he/she can't discard a card, buy 4$ worth of items, and then draw into a 2$ card that uses the resources he just purchased. This isn't to say that there isn't a good balance of cards from 2$ to 8$, there is, I just wish there were a few more ways to manipulate your hand. Again, pretty minor worry.

Lastly, is the implementation of the mold tokens (and I know this is something Jason has been concerned with and actively working to "fix"). Currently, for each turn an item stays in the refrigerator and is not moved to the counter or the freezer, it gets a green mold token. After 3 mold tokens accumulate on a token, it is discarded. Mechanically, I like the mold tokens. They make it harder to play a balanced game, because they skew decisions toward instant gratification (counter) or long-term planning (freezer). From a thematic standpoint however, it's a little questionable. Most chefs, at the earliest sign of mold on a food object, would throw the food in question away (in order to prevent any backlash from a customer who may get an overlooked item). Cheese is handled a little differently, but there's no cheese in this game, so that's not a concern.

I'm still thinking of possible solutions to this mold mechanic however. My initial solution was to have the player take the mold chips with the item, and any mold chips collected by the player at game's end would be worth -1 points, but that doesn't really provide any more thematic accuracy than the current rule. Likewise, forcing the item in question to the counter or into the freezer (thereby pushing out other items) doesn't really work either. Truthfully, the mechanic itself works, and if I had to choose between theme and mechanics I'm going to choose theme EVERY.TIME. That said, if you can get mechanics and theme to work together seamlessly, you should aim for that; but I digress.

So, though one might interpret the long winded paragraphs about minor mechanical tweaks as an indictment of this game, I find it enjoyable as a filler and gateway game. Stacking the pieces after obtaining the right materials for your sandwich provides a great tactile experience, and concocting a meal with carrots, bricks, sheep, fish, et. al is goofy enough to bring a smile to anyone's face. If anything, I'd simply say that Sandwich City is a good game with the potential to be a great game. Based on the reception and success of his latest project, I'm eager to see the directions Jason takes this game and what he comes up with in the future. 

If you'd like to read more about how Sandwich City came to be, check out links HERE and HERE

If you'd like to purchase the game from TGC, click on the link HERE 



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Curt Shilling

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As a general rule, I hate shilling for any particular game or company on this blog. This space is meant for honest reviews about games and the fewer "advertisements" we can include, the better. That being said, I'm about to break one of my own rules and call your attention to the Kickstarter campaign for Alien Frontiers on iOS.  With roughly 34 hours to go in their campaign, Clint, Fred, and David need roughly 435 dollars in order to make this game a reality. 


You may ask why I've chosen this particular project to shill; and in the spirit of full disclosure I'll admit that I'm a beta tester for the game. I've also met Fred and Dave at various conventions in the past few years and can attest to the fact that they are good people dedicated to making great games. I'm a fan of Sunrise City, Forge is making great strides from what I hear, and Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge has been on my "must play" list since Origins 2011. This aside, Alien Frontiers is their flagship, and is firmly entrenched in my Top 5 favorite games.

The campaign is also now offering an "a la carte mode" that lets backers pick and choose the rewards they want based on the amount they pledge. You can do something as simple as add pink or grey bits to your Alien Frontiers game for 5$ . If you don't have Alien Frontiers (and seriously, you NEED this game), you can pick that up for 50$. Already aware of the awesomeness that is this game? Fork over an additional 25-35$ for the Alien Frontiers Factions pack and add a whole new level of strategy to the game. Heck, for a relatively low price of 10$, you can get reserve a copy of the app when it comes out; and, thanks to your contribution, the speed at which you will receive that app will increase.

So that's my short shill for what I believe to be a great game. I've been playing it extensively and I can tell you that it's coming along very nicely. Clint Herron has programmed a formidable AI and put together a sleek looking interface that should please even the most hardcore of iOS gamers.  

If you'd like to help bring this project to the public, please visit via the link below and contribute any amount you feel appropriate.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/clevermojogames/alien-frontiers-for-ipad

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