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  • There Will Be Games Act V: But Is It Heaven or Las Vegas?

    This has got to be the best postcard I've ever seen
  • There Will Be Games Act VII: Endless Summer of the Damned

  • There Will Be Games Epilogue: Where Are Your Friends Tonight?

    friends.jpg
  • There Will Be Games IX: Police and Thieves

  • There Will Be Games VI- The Change Will Do You Good

    I always knew that it would
  • THERE WILL BE GAMES X: WAITING FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

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  • There Will Be Games- Act I

    There Will Be Games
  • Think of the Poor Europeans: Why Ameritrash Isn't Just America

    Sure I've had a bad run for a while trying to come up with some decent threads and something decent to say about my hobby, but here's some shiz that went down if not a week ago then very recently that slipped under the radar. Some of you may not be interested in the whole international aspect of what I'm talking about but I think it's interesting and important enough to really get a handle on, as it explains the problems that occur to a games company that ignores an international audience. I'm talking about why Ameritrash isn't just America any more, and in a way should never have been focused on just the USA.

  • This Fall's Worst-Dressed


    What are the worst box cover designs, among the Essen '08 crop of games? Why does it matter? Here's a countdown of ten of the worst offenses to art and beauty that were displayed at the Messe, accompanied with technical and aesthetic analysis from a real, live art school dropout.
  • This Game Is Not Yet Rated - Imperial

    About a month or so ago, I traded for the very excellent game, Imperial. I’ve played twice now, with another game to come this weekend. So far, I’ve been really impressed with what I’ve seen. It’s tight, nuanced, intense, and very rich. It’s got loads of interaction, but it’s not so open that the game is fragile. So as I do with any game that has gotten a few plays, I go on Boardgame Geek to rate it, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what rating it should get.

  • Those Other Hobby Games

    reaper_minis2This week at Gameshark I'm talking about those other hobby games, but more specifically why I don't talk about them much. Miniatures and RPGs are almost completely a non-interest for me at this point in my life, and as such I almost never cover them unless it's something like SPACE HULK or a prepainted thing where you have an actual board and you don't have to get involved in that nerd version of model railroading, terrain building. No, I don't give a rat's ass about painting miniatures anymore nor do I want to spend an evening talking like an elf. I had my time with those kinds of games- good times indeed- but I've more or less left those game formats behind. Gaming takes up enough time as it is, I can't imagine spending hours and hours getting figures ready to play or writing a campaign. I think that's one of the biggest strengths of board gaming, you can have elements of these game formats but without the overhead.

    So let's argue, I'm sure somebody will take offense to all this.

  • Those Who Don't Play Board Games

     

    A few weeks ago I sat down with some non-board gaming friends and introduced them to Last Night on Earth. Thematically it was a natural fit – this was a group of metal-loving horror fans (three sets of couples in their thirties) and as soon as they saw the box they were excited.

     None of these folks were new to gaming – we all play D&D on occasion, and two of the guys are still slavishly devoted to Games Workshop products. But this was a big deal to me as none of these people are ever willing to cross a line (that remains hidden to me) to play board games. We all sat around a table, alcoholic beverages in reach, and as soon as I opened the box I saw faces fall. “It’s got a lot of pieces,” someone said, as if pieces were a problem.

     

     

  • Thoughts on greatness and failure

    Reading some posts on the fading appeal of a few recently published Ameritrash games made me think about what actually "makes" a good AT game, and in a broader sense, a good game in general. Yes, I do think about these things, in between sessions of Tibetan humming (therapy for my angst of card based combat) and binge drinking (helping me to get through the occasional euro that hits my gaming group's "Friday-anything-can-happen" nights).

  • Through the Ages: How to Properly Design a Euro-Civ Game

    “To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.”
     - Bertrand Russell

    This is going to be a pseudo-review/pseudo game design discussion.  I hope it generates some interesting comments.  This game has been reviewed to death, so I am going to look at some of the design choices.  I assume you know how to play.

    Through the Ages is a great game that I have only played once.  I'm also not an experienced civ player, so I hope more experienced players smack me down if I say anything incorrect about the game.   

       

  • Thrower's Tallies: Games of the Year 2014

    bolt-throwerAnother year, another end of year wrap piece. Time to reflect on the past 365 days as you force down another sweetmeat and another glass of cheap sherry and then to wonder what the future holds.

    This has not been the best gaming year for me, personally. Not just in terms of titles released but in terms of finding opportunities to play. For one reason and another, I just haven't spent the time at the gaming table I'd have liked.

    That makes me sad. Real life is important, of course, but you only get one shot at it, a thing I've become increasingly aware of as the years slip past. Since gaming is one of my favourite things to do, I ought to be able to find more space for it. Other things just always seem to intervene.

    altSo I look at my collection, much of which is gathering dust in the attic, and wonder if I'll ever play most of them as many times as they deserve. Or that one day I might look back and regrest not making more time for my favourite things, which so often get lost in the push and shove of family life.

    I guess that's a game in and of itself.

    Anyway, enough of the melodrama. This long preamble is setting up the point that a lot of the games I've played this year just haven't lasted beyond the required review plays. Not because they're bad games, just because they weren't quite good enough to elbow their way in to a very crowded itenerary.

    But when I looked back on what I'd played this year, I conveniently found that there were exactly three games that had broken that trend. Three games that had forced themselves back onto the table after I thought I was done with them by virtue of their brilliance. I was also exceptionally surprised by what they were. Can you guess?

    Before I reveal all, I wanted to mention something that's been bothering me more and more in recent years. I'm just not seeing as much fun in new titles as I used to. I still want to game as much as I ever do, but that itch of excitement when you read a preview or tear the shrinkwrap has gone.

    The problem, I think, is that game design has become a process of iterative improvement rather than fizzing creativity. When I got back into board gaming at the turn of the millenium, the design community was still buzzing with the influx of ideas from Germany. Over the next few years, recombining this new paradigm with the traditional American model of gaming proved a fertile furrow.

    Now, those ideas seem to have run dry. Genre-breaking games seem to be few and far between. I think this is because, with the market glutted by kickstarter titles, we're near the limits of what can be done with mere card, wood and plastic. Newer titles are, for the most part, still a step up on older ones. But the improvements are so small, it's not worth the money or the effort to acquire and learn them over existing games.

    We're done with the misery. On to the awards.

    #3 Band of Brothers: Ghost Panzer

    Don't judge games by their boxes. I was put off the original game in this series, Screaming Eagles, by the small publisher and the bad art. Then, while it had its supporters, it didn't seem to gain much fan traction either, so I wrote it off.

    That was a serious mistake. I enjoyed its perfect blend of realism, accessibility, tactics and excitement so much that I played it solo, something I never do. I enjoyed it so much that I went right out and bought Screaming Eagles second hand in case it never got reprinted. The components still suck, but these may be the best tactical wargame rules ever made.

    #2 Splendor

    This was the real shocker. In many respects, Splendor represents a lot of what I dislike about modern game design. But it keeps coming off the shelf, again and again. And it keeps finding its way into friends collections, again and again. It's a keeper and, on reflection, one of the best Eurogames I've played.

    While everyone was mistakenly raving about the way Five Tribes had cross-hobby appeal, Splendor was quietly doing just that in the background. It has one page of rules, can be played competently by my 8-year old, yet is challenging to win at consistently. It's got gorgeous pieces, a smidgen of interaction and can be completed in 30 minutes. When you step back, what's not to love?

    #1 Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition

    Ok, so I'm cheating slightly. But in terms of table time, this is the undoubted winner this year. I thought I was done with role-playing games. I thought over-heavy rules and anti-social players had ruined the genre for me forever. Then fifth edition came along and reminded me of just how amazing, how limitless and soaring, role-playing can be when it gets things right.

    I have never seen a rules system which achieves so much with so little. Yes, there's still lots of spells and magic items and stats to remember. But the actual play mechanics are lean and mean, yet manage to cover almost any situation, allowing groups to mine whatever rich seam of fantasy they choose. I'm so looking forward to where this system is going to go next year. More so than any board game in the pipeline.

    Well, except XCOM, perhaps.

    Speaking of which, I guess I spend enough time iOS gaming nowadays to make a best of year list for that platform too. I have an odd love-hate relationship with my iPad. Part of me longs for the hours and hours of total engrossment that only a AAA PC or console game can provide. On the other hand, in a busy life I'm grateful that I can now enjoy such excellent bite sized gaming.

    It feels like 2014 is the year mobile gaming came of age with meaty franchises and big studios finding their way to the app store. But these are the top of the pile for me, staying installed long after their peers have been deleted.

    #3 Hoplite

    I'm a big fan of rogue-like games but the classic model doesn't tend to port well to tablets. It's too involved, too stat-heavy. Hoplite hit the nail on the head by reducing the genre to a kind of puzzle game, with role-playing elements. It sounds dull, but isn't, because the procedural generation ensures every puzzle is unique.

    #2 FTL

    FTL may be the most perfect game in the most perfect genre ever devised, an endless story generator with strategy and role playing thrown in for free. I've yet to beat it, even after about twenty hours of play time. And I'm still trying, even after about twenty hours of plat time. This might be number one, were it not marginally better on PC than tablet.

    #1 Hearthstone

    FATtie Erik Twice has asked me several times why I complain about it all the time on social media, when I profess to love it. The answer is simple: it's the same reason drug addicts complain about crack. Addiction is a terrible thing, but it doesn't make the high point of the trip any the less sweet.

  • Thrower's Tallies: Top 5 Christmas Games

    sanity-clawsThe thing that reminds me most of Christmas is not a tree, nor hot chestnuts and mulled wine. It’s an open fire. When I was a teenager the holiday season would see family members emerge, blinking in the golden half-light of winter, from bedrooms, sheds and kitchens and assemble in the living room which was rarely otherwise used. Decoration would be put up, food cooked and a fire laid in the grate and kept burning for the hours of wakefulness for two whole weeks.

    And in front of that lovely blazing fire, gentle scenting the room with woodsmoke, we would do the thing that reminds me second most of Christmas: play games. Not the games I liked best then and now but others with wider appeal. Traditional playing cards were popular, as were word games and mahjong. We would sit and play into the small hours, rolling our eyes good humouredly at my Gran, who never understood scoring in games in and would just get her cards down as fast as possible, eager for another hand.

    And down the road in my Aunt and Uncle’s house there would be freely-flowing drink and party games all through the season. This was different fare entirely, loud, raucous and occasionally brutal but furiously entertaining. I never got those when I was younger, but by the time I was old enough to enjoy a generous glass of vodka and coke on Christmas eve, they suddenly began to make sense.

    This lengthy slice of personal nostalgia is not here merely as an indulgence to my fond memories of Christmas past but to serve a purpose. I am not sure, really, how to define what I mean by “Christmas games” but I still have no hesitation in picking games for this list. It’s not traditional family games, nor modern accessible European games, nor lightweight but aggressive Ameritrash. My picks are united merely by a sense that they are light-hearted, gentle, amusing things that suit the qualities we associate with Yuletide.

    I was also inspired to make this list because I figured that a lot of the games I’ve enjoyed over the festive season year after year might be better known here in the UK than the US, or even perhaps relatively obscure to most other than those who’ve already enjoyed them. So here they are.

    5. Taboo

    I probably rate this game, where you have to explain to the other players what word is on the card you’ve just drawn without using any of the related “taboo” words also listed, higher than I should do. That’s because of one single incident. The word in question was “Ambulance” and after several unsuccessful attempts to get the idea across, and with time running short, the card drawer stormed over to the guesser, pointed a finger in his face and shouted “You’re going home in a fucking …” and still no-one got it. I laughed so hard I almost needed one myself.

    4. Boggle

    I’m fond of word games. Perhaps it’s not surprising that a writer should be. It’s a popular genre and the quality varies widely, even to people like me who are predisposed to give it an easy ride. But word dice classic Boggle is somewhere close to the top of the pile. It’s a Christmas game because it’s so easy and so quick, making it ideal for family play. I have many fond teenage memories of playing this with adults even though I lost every game, just for the pleasure of trying to beat my own previous tallies or just trying to spot a long word that no-one else had got.

    3. Mhing

    You may well never have heard of this game, but I’m certain you’ll have heard of its close cousin, Mahjong. Mhing is effectively that game, tightened and lightened up a little and translated to cards. And what cards they are, most editions featuring heavy duty cardstock with lavish illustrations embellished with gold foil. The game itself is a rummy-type affair with the added twist that only the first player out gets to score, and that score is based heavily on certain stacks of meld being worth more than others. The need to plan for specific combinations, along with the ability to freely pick up discards, adds a lot more strategy than the average rummy variant but it still sits on that fantastic weight balance that offers wide appeal to all ages.

    2. Once Upon A Time

    Here in the UK a recent craze amongst parents is Rory’s Story Cubes, a set of dice with various symbols on which you roll and attempt to construct a narrative from. It’s got a lot of possibilities, a lot of creativity and a lot of charm. It’s also got nothing on Once Upon a Time.

    The principle is similar except you have a hand of cards that you “play” by weaving their concepts into a verbal story, while the other players attempt to snatch the teller role by matching one of their cards to something in your narrative. It’s not a game in the traditional sense as the rules need to be enforced flexibly to ensure the play keeps running and the winner is almost irrelevant compared with the act of playing. Endlessly creative, often hilarious and rarely anything less than wonderful the stories that emerge from sessions of this game are so marvelously rich that they bear transcribing and retelling. I’ve often wanted to do just that, but lost in the sheer joy of participating in the game I always forget to press record.

    I reviewed it a while back.

    1. Balderdash

    There are several editions of this game, such as Beyond Balderdash and Absolute Balderdash but the name is of little consequence. What’s important is that it’s the best party game ever made, a game that I have never had a bad session of and which I have never known anyone to not enjoy. Indeed such is the colossal appeal of this game that I’ve known rooms full of people devastated by drink to the point where they were barely conscious ask to play it twice, even though it takes a good 90 minutes to finish.

    The concept is simple. Each turn one player takes a card and from it chooses something unusual: a bizarre word, unlikely legal statute or obscure acronym. The other players must then write their own definitions of this, returning them to the reader who reads out all their answers plus the correct one. Players then choose which they think is right, scoring a point for every other player who picks their invention, and the reader scoring if no-one gets it correct. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s hard to overstate just how damn funny this can be, especially after a couple of game. So I won’t try, but instead link to an episode of a UK game show based on the same concept, the incomparable Call My Bluff.

  • Thrower's Tallies: Top 5 Dungeon Games

    3d-dungeonDungeoneering is stamped firmly into my subconscious, my brain imprinted with its labyrinthine corridors from obsessive childhood exposure to Dungeons and Dragons. Later those pathways got re-enforced by the consumption of countless gamebooks and video games. It’s a wonder I don’t see the whole world overlaid with a faint tracery of flickering torchlight.

    So it was inevitable that when I re-awakened my interest in board games a decade ago, I’d go seeking for dungeon delving adventure. It should after all be an eminently suitable subject for the genre. Rooms and corridors can easily be laid out on a board, whereas open environments always seem a trifle fake when translated. The tactical nature of dungeon combat offers a solid strategic base. The physical beginning and end of the map bookend the quest well and make a single play satisfying so there’s no need to focus on long-term play.

    Sure enough there were plenty of titles to investigate. But I was disappointed at what was on offer at the time. Most seemed to be bloated with excess complexity or play time or both, and none were better than my favourite designs from my teenage years. The problem, it seemed was the desire to try and shoehorn character development, variety and player interaction into the same design. Once all those variable were in the mix trying to keep a lid on balance and play time with spiralling player powers, a rich get richer set-up and a wide range of possible situations seemed impossible.

    In the intervening years and the accumulation of design experience, trimming down this roiling cauldron of mechanics has come to seem a bit less improbable but it remains difficult. The rise of cooperative games has been a huge boon. I don’t enjoy most co-ops but the dungeon setting is one situation where it feels right and proper, mimicking the traditional model of a party of heroes teaming up to brave the subterranean horrors together.

    But I can’t really list my favourite dungeon game without specifying a bit about what I feel is specific to the genre. I’d say in addition to an underground setting it needs one of exploration and character building (even if only through loot collection). Ideally it’ll have both. That disqualifies games like Dungeon Command, and rightly so since that’s purely a tactical miniatures game. So without further preamble, I present my five favourite dungeon games of all time. Two are very old, two are very recent but what I really found surprising is that even after all my investigation and play time in the genre, there were only really ever five candidates for this list. They stand head and shoulders above their peers.

    #5 Warhammer Quest

    Warhammer Quest is a flawed game. It’s fiddly, slightly over-long and excessively random. But it remains a cult favourite, commanding vast sums on the second hand market, because its such a comprehensive treatment of the genre. Basically any situation you could imagine encountering in a standard dungeon is possible, if unlikely, in Warhammer Quest. And if you have an unusually good imagination, or an unusually broad experience of things found in dungeons you could probably find what you wanted somewhere in Games Workshops’ world and add it to WHQ with a minimum of fuss. The planned iOS version, which will cut down the administrative overhead and the play time, has the potential to be absolutely amazing if it’s done right.

    #4 Claustrophobia

    This is probably the game that pushes hardest against the dungeon game definition. Character advancement is minimal, combat isn’t real tactical (although the game is), and the faux-renaissance setting doesn’t conform to the fantasy stereotype. But it’s underground, and involves plenty of exploration, and there are demons. It’s also one of the best looking games around with its pre-painted figures, hellish artwork and chunky tiles. Gameplay is thrilling but also curiously strategic, especially for the monster player who tends to get short shrift in games like this: compare it with the relatively simple choices facing the Genestealers in Space Hulk or the Zombies in Last Night on Earth.

    I was irked slightly by the expansion, because as things stand the varied scenarios offered in the base game and online haven’t been playtested with the expansion content. So theoretically you’re not even supposed to mix in the new corridor tiles and power cards, let alone use the new demon and character class. So unless you separate the components, once mixed in you’re stuck playing expansion scenarios. If, like me, you bought both base and expansion at the same time, that sucks pretty badly.

    #3 Descent 2nd edition

    I’ve played this relatively little compared to the other entries on this list. Unsurprisingly, becauses it’s still relatively new. And I’m still a little uncertain as to how much depth and balance it has, or whether the splitting of quests into two encounters is really worthwhile. But I do know it’s an awful lot of fun to play. And I appreciate that it’s the only multi-player game on the list that offers direct, head to head competition. And I also know that the campaign system offers a surprisingly high level of narrative and customisation to both sides and is quick enough to be a realistic prospect. Whatever future flaws I discover in the game, those are lofty goals to have achieved.

    And I’ve also had the chance to play and review the conversion kit. Which I suspect is worthwhile for anyone that intends to play a lot of this new edition, regardless of whether they own the old one or not.

    #2 Dungeonquest

    This is a strong candidate for the game I’ve played the most times in my entire life. Blindingly fast, stuffed to the nines with variety and detail and more unforgivingly brutal than anything else in my experience, it never ceases to be a joy. Not even when, as not infrequently happens, you die in the first turn. In what other game could that possibly be seen as a good thing? But in Dungeonquest, it’s all part of the charm. I never understood the furore over the FFG edition. They should have been celebrated for bringing this brilliant classic back into print, not hauled over the coals for a slightly over-complex combat system. Especially not when they made a number of minor improvements to counteract it.

    And it also gives me an excuse to remind you all of this session report. Which I still think is one of the better things I’ve written.

    #1 Wrath of Ashardalon

    This entry is really dedicated to all the D&D Adventure System games: WoA is simply my favourite of the three but since they’re modular, the more the merrier. It deserves top spot because it is, simply put, the very essence of everything fun about dungeon delving distilled down and packaged into a simple, short game. You get to explore the unknown, fight monsters, loot treasures, avoid traps, encounter NPCs, develop characters, plot basic tactics and enjoy an overarching quest narrative in under an hour, rules explanation included. I’ve taken stick for loving these games as much as I do, and will probably get more for slotting this in at number one, but I’ve had about 25 plays out of these games so far, and there’s plenty more. I haven’t even tried a full campaign yet.

  • Thrower's Tallies: Top Eight Designers

    All the discussion about "great designers" that we had a couple of weeks ago left me dissatisfied. Rather than just throwing out names that I thought were good or great, I wanted to put some meat on those bones, some rigour to the process. It wasn't hard to do. And I found the results startling.

  • Thrower's Tallies: Top Horror Games

    I have an uneasy relationship with horror. Perhaps that's appropriate. To me, there's a clear dividing line between the chilling supernatural and gruesome gorefests. I detest the latter, and love the former. To have a book, film or video game slowly convince me there are mysterious shades flitting beyond the veil of night is a special pleasure.

  • Thrower's Tallies: Top iOS & Board Games 2012

    2012-smallIt’s the time of year for lists. Lists of things from the year that’s about to end. Most especially of things that you’ve found to be of surpassing excellence. I am no dissenter, no maverick, not strong enough to resist the pull of seasonal traditions. So here is mine.

    Thanks to my slot at Gamezebo I feel, for the first time ever, qualified to make not one list but two. Both in the same article, o lucky reader! First there will be my favourite iOS games of the year, and then my favoured board games. With so much to write there is no longer time for seasonal waffle and chit-chat. On with the picks.

    alt

    5. Blood of the Zombies

    The Fighting Fantasy franchise was something I remember fondly from my childhood 25 years ago, so it's astonishing that author Ian Livingstone and studio Tin Man Games have managed to ensure it remains relevant and thrilling today. It turns out that Blood of the Zombies makes a superb candidate for the app treatment, having a stripped down combat system and more inherent challenge and replay value than the bulk of the series. And Tin Man didn't disappoint with their implementation. It's all spelled out in detail in my Gamezbo review plus more.  I've enjoyed previous iOS gamebooks but this is the first that was truly special, and made me excited about more Fighting Fantasy and Sorcery adaptations coming next year.

    4. Punch Quest

    Endless runner games are, in my opinion, a showcase for everything that’s wrong with mobile gaming. Shallow and repetitive, they offer little but the pavlovian rewards obtained from completing arbitrary goals and leaderboard positions. It is therefore a bit of a shock that Punch Quest turned out to be so brilliant. What makes it so is simply depth: there is tremendous variability and enormous skill in this. With a cavalcade of different enemies, items, terrain, bosses and branching paths and the ability to buy and recombine power ups to suit your play style, I’ll quite possibly be running this one endlessly.

    3. Summoner Wars

    Playdek rarely disappoint in terms of their apps, but I still think this game redefined the bar for board adaptations to mobile. The underlying game is a superb candidate for the treatment in any case being short and having perfectly encapsulated player turns to reduce to-ing and fro-ing. But the app built over it is flawless, looking good, playing smoothly, offering all the functionality you could possibly want. We might have had to wait post-release to actually get a copy but boy, was it ever worth it.

    2. Battle of the Bulge

    I’ve really said everything I can about this in my Gamezebo review, so go read that. I will add that what makes it better than Summoner Wars is just that Shenandoah Studios didn’t adapt a board game to iOS: they took board game mechanics and created something amazing that actually worked better on a tablet than it would in real life. Can you imagine fiddling with all those ever-changing VP combinations and goals in a real-life game? No, and that’s just the thin end of the wedge in terms of how this app does all the heavy lifting, leaving the gamers totally absorbed in the experience.

    1. Battle Academy.

    reviewed this one too, on F:AT. There was never going to be another choice for number one slot: I’ve played this game regularly, as in several times a week, since it was released in late spring. No other game on any platform has managed that feat. It might be expensive, but it’s so, so worth it.

    What’s the overarching theme here? Strategy. The strategy genre might be (XCOM excepted) pretty much a dead duck on other platforms but its undergoing a massive renaissance on mobile. That’s not surprising: touch screen interfaces are actually pretty clumsy for most twitch games but they’re perfectly suited to strategy. I suspect there’s going to be some more stellar work in this area in 2013 from the studios behind my top three picks, plus Games Workshop finally entering the mobile market with Space Hulk and Warhammer Quest. Going to be an exciting year.

    So, on to the board game picks.

    5. Lords of Waterdeep

    I’ll probably get some stick for this, but I don’t care. It’s not the cleverest, most innovative game on the block but it made a sterling demonstration of how building on previous designs in a genre, looking at what words and what doesn’t then skimming the cream off the top and recombining it into a single game can create a brilliant thing. Balancing accessibility and fun with some solid strategy, and bringing dreadfully needed interaction into the staid, dull worker placement mechanic, it’s easily the best European-style game I played this year. More details in my review.

    4. Android: Netrunner

    This earned its slot on the strength of its emergent theme. When you’ve got games like City of Horror that can stick some zombie pictures on top of a generic negotiation mechanic and calling it a theme, Netrunner offers a primal lesson in communicating a sense of place and being through mechanics alone. Playing this you’re no longer a gamer, but for 60 minutes are transfigured into a global corporation or sly hacker. The other stuff, the clever intermarriage of strategy and bluff, the customisation and deckbuilding, is just gravy as discussed in my full review.

    3. X-Wing

    And from one game with wonderful emergent theme to another. It’s much more of an ephemeral thing here, but it’s odd how this game simply *feels* just as it should. Pitch perfect in terms of weight, production, theme and ship handling. Opponents have remarked how they suddenly find themselves humming the Star Wars theme or imagining green and red laser bursts as they play. Personally, every time those little plastic ships come out I’m a child again, even if only for a moment. The game might be a money pit, but how do you put a value on that? If you like, you can put a value on my review instead.

    2. Merchant of Venus

    I’m still kind of reeling from the fact that thirty years ago someone managed to design an interesting pick up and deliver game and yet virtually everything that followed in its wake was dull as arse. Thus, old as it was, this game came as something of a revelation and a breath of fresh air. That’s why I’ve enjoyed it so much. That and the wonderful manner in which it offers a variable setup that ensures both rich narrative and keeps repeat strategies at bay. Every game re-engages both your logical centers and your imagination anew. Amazingly, here is my review.

    1. Wiz-War

    Remember this, from back close to the turn of last year? I do. It’s so easy to forget early release games when compiling these yearly lists but this has stayed with me, popping out again and again with different groups and in different places, the only game I’ve probably collected a physical dime of plays this year. And every time it’s been ridiculous fun. Hilarious, enthralling, varied, entertaining. Every single time. It’s ticks all the boxes I could want for a short, light game, even offering just enough strategy in the card and position combinations s to keep your brain engaged. An absolute joy: itching to see an expansion. You will be unsurprised by now if I link to my full review of the base game.

    The overview on the board game front is a little more troubling. Three out of the top five are reprints. They’re nicely modernised with streamlined rules and high production values, but they’re still reprints. So while it’s great that Fantasy Flight are getting their act together as regards their updating of classic games, and its great to see old material back in the limelight, it’s a bit alarming that so many of the best games I’ve played this year have been reprints rather than fresh designs.

    I’ve never been one much for the hype machine. But what I’d like to see in 2013 is some more quality new designs. A deep, interactive deck-builder would be a nice start, something that really makes good on the achingly unfulfilled promise of that genre. In terms of actual titles, my most anticipated is the  story-telling game Story Realms which looks both fresh and interesting.  Others I’ve got earmarked at the moment are Bowen Simmons’ long awaited Guns of Gettysburg, the world war 2 tactical block game Courage from Columbia and the multi-player card driven game Cuba Libre from the designer of Labyrinth. Seeing as it’s felt like a relatively lean year for wargames this year, that’s a nice slice of history for the near future.