what is the best mouse for gaming

Thanks to the scheduling gods and the gracious invitation of InD20's Larry Fettinger to let me stay at his house (thus saving 900-1000$ in hotel fees), I'll be going to Gen Con again this year. This time, however, should prove to be quite a different experience, as I'll only be in a booth for a few hours of the convention instead of 8-9 hours a day like 2011.

Coupled with the fact that I'll be arriving at Larry's on Tuesday and sharing space with prominent and promising publishers (Seth and Michael from Tasty Minstrel, Josh & Adam from Chip Theory), reviewing royalty Ryan Metzler, and Ascension Archnemeses James and Jacob McCarthy. I'll have plenty of time to play games and wander around the vendor's hall and open gaming area. While doing so, I hope to meet up with some of the people with whom I interact frequently on twitter and play some of their games as well as some of the big name games that will be released at the convention. Listed below are but a few of the many games and things I hope to play and accomplish at this year's convention as well as the ones Scott hopes I bring back for us to play together.

GAMES TO BE RELEASED AT GENCON:

As you might imagine, a lot of our posts in August are going to be Gen-Con related. Pre-GenCon, we'll be posting a lot of things pertaining to things we're excited for at the convention; and post GenCon, we hope to write reviews of all the games we plan on purchasing.

However, it would be a little myopic of us to assume ALL of our readers have the opportunity to attend the get together in Indianapolis. So, we're giving them some options too. Two in fact, listed below:

I love the Olympics.  The national pride, the pomp and circumstance, and the events you never see outside of the Games (seriously, we need more Team Handball!).  My favorite event to follow is the decathlon.  I am always astounded at the sheer amount of athletic ability it takes to perform 10 very different events in a semi-short amount of time.  You absolutely cannot be a specialist in just one or two events, you have to be amazing at all ten.  To me...the winner of the decathlon is truly the greatest athlete in the world.

Drab, and not very useful, but it gets the job done

Our champion

At a recent CABS meeting, a few people asked me to play Hawaii.  So I said, "sounds ok, tell me about it."  The response I got was "It's the game Tom Vasel threw in the trash."  For those not familiar, here's the video...

In my mind, that's not exactly the way I would normally try to get someone to play a game, but I was intrigued to see why Tom would hate the game so much, so I sat down to play anyway.

At its heart, Hawaii is a village building game, using tile laying mechanics.  The main conceit of the game is very similar to the game Vikings, right down to having a similar "island border" piece for each player, although game play is quite different.  After playing the game once, I can hear what Tom is saying, but he's completely wrong.*

(*He's not completely wrong, that's just a line from the Filmspotting podcast I love that I've always wanted to use)

The first thing I can say about Hawaii is that you get a metric crapton of stuff in the box.  There are three different types of big chunky wooden tokens used as various currencies, there are well over 100 tiles that will be placed on the board, there are 10 modular board pieces, and even shields to keep your resources hidden.  Given the fact that the game has an MSRP for $40, I can safely say Hawaii is a good value, based on pieces alone.  But, does the game stack up to the contents?

The main board (shaped like the large island of Hawaii) is made of a series of large tiles (allowing a random set up each game), on each tile is a place for a specific type of building.  At the top of each tile is a series of spaces for price tokens.  These price tokens serve two purposes: 1. To show how much stuff on that space will cost (duh) 2. How many of that item is available for purchase that turn.

At the beginning of each of the five game turns, each empty price token space on the board gets a random price token placed on it.  Once all the empty spaces are filled, one more price token is drawn for each tile.  On one of the price token spaces on each tile is a pre-printed number...if the total of all drawn price tokens for that tile is higher than that pre-printed number, that token is not placed on the board.  Instead it goes onto the beach, upside down, and becomes fish a player can collect.  This led to the line in the title of the article of "8+5=fish"  This also means that there is one fewer of that item available that turn.  I will say that this pricing mechanism is horrifically fiddly, and it makes very little sense thematically.

Once those tokens are placed, it's time to play!  Players can move around the island (playing feet tokens for movement, buy stuff (paying shells), and boating (which is movement, which requires feet).  There's nothing terribly new with this section of the game.  I love the idea of feet being a resource that you can spend and save.  The buying section does have a twist or two.  First, when you buy a building, you can either pay the price on the token, or pay double the price and flip over the building.  This flipped building is much more powerful (usually worth twice the benefit of the main side).  Second, you collect the token, and place it in front of you.  This becomes important at the end of the turn.  The boating mechanic plays exactly like the bonus cards in Stone Age.  You pay a number of feet to go out on your boats, and gain one of the tiles out in the water.  You'll score some points, and get some other bonus (another building, bonus points etc).  You can also "go fishing."  Remember the discarded price tokens from earlier?  You can take a number of fish tokens equal to the number of feet you spend.

My resources...7 feet (on left) and 13 shells (right)

At the end of the turn, there's an end of round scoring phase.  On the board, is a tile showing players how many resources they get at the beginning of each turn.  There is also a larger "goal number" listed.  If your price tokens + fish icons is equal to or bigger than this number, you'll score some points.  If you have the highest or second highest number, you'll get even more points.  This continues for five turns, when end of game scoring happens.

End of game scoring is basically all the bonus point stuff you acquire throughout the game.  Certain buildings give bonuses, there are kahuna tokens that will give you other bonuses, there are even surfer girl tokens that will score for each building in a certain village.  In my game, I scored more bonus points than I did actual points throughout the game.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  It seems to diminish the importance of the main part of the game.  Of course, I suppose if my strategy focused on other sources, I might not have felt this way.

Overall, I moderately enjoyed Hawaii.  I hate the token setup phase each turn.  Absolutely hate it.  But, I loved the random board set up, the movement, and I just felt the mechanics of the game fit really well together.  With that being said...Hawaii won't find a place on my shelf.  I don't find the game shines in any meaningful way.  It does everything quite well, but not well enough to knock out a game like Vikings, which it shares so much with.  I already own Vikings...and I find the roundel mechanic at the heart of that game to be far more interesting than anything found in Hawaii.

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.

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)..