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  • Thrower's Tallies: Wargames

    CPWriting about wargames for the Shut Up Show made me think a bit about my opinions on this particular section of the hobby. Strangely, perhaps, for someone who doesn’t identify exclusively as a wargamer and indeed finds the concept of simulation in games often leads to excessive baggage, I have some pretty strong opinions on the genre.

    The first of these is that, unlike any other classification, I have a cast-iron definition of what makes a wargame. If it’s based in history or near-history and attempts a passable stab at realism, it’s a wargame. If it doesn’t, then it isn’t.

    That means very war-like games made by wargame publishers such as Space Empires 4X are excluded. And to me this makes perfect sense. If Space Empires 4X is a wargame, what makes TI3 and Eclipse different enough to be not-wargames? Some people think that any game with conflict is a wargame, and that’s fine. My definition is fine. Anything in between fails.

    The other thing I feel powerfully is that there’s a distinct group of “top” wargames for me. So while I normally think it’s cheating to list near misses when making these lists, I’m going to do it here for that reason: I felt they all needed naming because they’re head and shoulders above their peers.

    So the also-rans, and the reason they missed the top five despite being excellent games are as follows. Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage (too capricious), Napoleon's Triumph (too much like hard work), Commands & Colors: Ancients (too much like a Commands & Colors game), Here I Stand (too long).

    Finally, most of you know that Twilight Struggle is my favourite game, and that it would make the number one slot, so I’ve skipped it to make the list more interesting. Not everyone agrees it’s a wargame after all. Although it is under the definition I’ve already presented.

    Before I make the list I feel compelled to note that none of them are traditional hex and counter games. I make no apologies for this, however much it might outrage dyed in the wool Grognards, because most hex and counter games are either too long, or feel lacking to me without the additional layer of interest provided by blocks of cards.

    There are some very good hex and counter games: my favourites are the Standard Combat Series games from MMP and Victory Point’s Napoleonic 20 series. But the former suffer terribly from a lack of moderate length scenarios - most seem to either offer introductory or campaign games and nothing in between. I have no idea why. The Victory Point games are a little bit too small scale: I realise that’s a key point to their design, but it’s still a limiting factor.

    So, with that out of the way, here’s what’s left after my savage winnowing of candidates.

    #6 Phantom Leader

    Although this is a top ten game for me, I almost rejected it from the final list due to its solitaire nature. The clashing of competing strategies for supremacy is a key part of the appeal of wargames, after all. But when I thought about it I realised this does something unique, that no other wargame ever has: it actually makes me feel like a commanding officer.

    It’s easy to see why. You have to plan your mission in quite meticulous detail if you want to win, considering payloads, targets, defences and all the things a CO would need to think about. And once your planes are unleashed your control of what happens is realistically limited, but not so limited as to make it a mechanical exercise. Every moment over the target offers seat of the pants thrills.

    I haven’t played any other Leader series games. But I’m happy to put this in the top ten because it’s entirely historical and not, like the other more modern entries, dependent on third world war or other potential future scenarios to give it enough replay value. I believe there’s a deluxe version in the works implementing some of the mechanics from the more recent games: really looking forward to that.

    #5 Combat Commander

    I’m not going to spoil this one, because it’s my next review for SUSD. But after ignoring Combat Commander for years because it didn’t have tanks, I got it, played it and fell in love with it. Screw strategy and tactics, this is simply the most astonishingly evocative re-creation of combat I’ve ever played. Better even than most films and video games. It’s the game on the list that’s newest to me, and so the least played, and it could well creep higher on this list after more plays.

    #4 Hammer of the Scots

    Like many people, this was my “gateway” wargame, the title that made me understand that wargames didn’t need to be absurdly detailed, or long, or heavy. It remains possibly the best introductory wargame that there is in spite of being over ten years old, not least because so many people saw Braveheart and loved the characters and the history, in spite of the factual garbage the film actually represents.

    The game is better history, although still lacking in some respects. But much like the movie it’s hard to care when it’s just so much fun to play. The asymmetry between the Scots and English sides is implemented simply but runs deep, adding vastly to replay value. Combat is terrifyingly chaotic, but careful consideration of overall strategy tends to win the day. And larger-than-life historical figures like Wallace, Bruce and Longshanks loom over the board.

    #3 Washington’s War

    Twilight Struggle was my first ever card-driven game, and it remains my favourite. But once I’d played it, I became hooked on the idea of finding a maneuver based card-driven game that seamlessly blended both aspects of play into one glorious whole. I’ve yet to find it: most of the contenders are too chaotic or too long. But Washington’s War is the closest yet.

    After about ten plays, I’ve started to see patterns in the strategy, but it’s still incredibly fluid for a map-based game. And I still bemoan a dearth of actual historical events in the deck, but all those ops cards do quicken the play time to an amazing 90 minutes. The simulation of the fearsome but inflexible British and their resolute but raggedy Patriot foes is done brilliantly and important battles are nail bitingly-tense.

    Plus of course, I get to repeatedly change history and keep America where it belongs, as a British colony.

    #2 Conflict of Heroes

    So this is it, the game that takes second place to my beloved Twilight Struggle. And it’s a close run thing: it’s hard to know where to start professing my love for this game.

    It’s in the gorgeous components that you get when you open the box: the mounted boards, the chunky counters with rounded corners and glorious art. It’s in the cleverly design rulebook and scenarios which allow you to learn a moderately complex game piecemeal, yet leaves the early scenarios as fun as the last. It’s in the four-player scenarios, in the pared-down way infantry against armour is simulated.

    But most of all it’s in the play. The way every scenario needs a plan and calls on you to respond and adjust your plan when things inevitably go awry. The way nothing is every obvious and the game traps you between the powerful hammer of uncertainty and the vicious anvil of opportunism. The way dice and cards are incorporated to add thrills, but are used to add to the strategy and the simulation.

    Magnificent. I’ve loved both games so far although Storms of Steel is my favourite simply because I find the history and the vehicles more interesting. But I’m still hoping there will be more, a western front version at some point. It’s long been promised, but has yet to surface. When it does, it may be a long time before I do.

  • Time is On Your Side, Yes It Is.

    What is both free and priceless at the same time?  You cannot keep it, but you can spend it.  Once you've lost it, you can never get it back.  Answer?  Time.   

    On F:AT, we talk about the things you should consider when acquiring games.  We review games, we talk about what makes games good, bad, fun, boring, or otherwise.  We also talk about the financial considerations of acquiring games.  Barnes and Ken have both done articles about trimming your collection or trading to save some money when gaming.  One aspect of acquiring games, which I have found to be a major factor, which we haven't talked about very much, is time.  For most of us, gaming time is a limited commodity due to the intrusions of real life into our leisure time.  Time can fly when you are having fun, but if you have the right games, you can make sure very little of that precious gaming time is wasted.

    time-flies-clock-10-11-2006.gif

  • Tiniest Epics, vol. 1: It's good to be the king

    Beginning a new series of deep dives, we start at the top with the first of the TE series: Tiny Epic Kingdoms.

  • Tips for Surviving Disasters

    The continuing nightmare saga that started with my son lighting my house on fire is coming to a close, and has allowed me to come up with a few tips for potential disaster victims that I would like to share. Hopefully most of you will never have any need of these little tips, because hopefully none of you will have something terrible happen to your house that forces you to live in a crappy rent house owned by an Armenian immigrant who thinks 'slumlord' is a term of endearment.

  • To-Do List


    Anyone who claims to have any authority on a subject needs to do  their homework. Would you trust a film critic who had never seen The Wizard of Oz or Casablanca? How about a rock columnist totally unfamiliar with The Who? Well, I’ve fashioned myself as something of an authority on board games (cue laugh track), but I must confess some gaps in my own knowledge of the hobby. So I thought about what games are among those that I feel I should have played by now and haven’t?

  • Top 5 Adventure Games: The Definitive List

    “Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.”
    ― Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers

  • Top 5 Family Card Games

    When you have a family of six, as I do, getting everyone on the same page or interested in gaming on the same night is a rarity. When the stars do align, the number of interested or attending members can vary, along with how long they will be engaged in actually playing. Card games have virtually zero set-up time, don't require a huge time commitment and can accommodate a flexible number of players. The following card games are the ones that consistently provide the best experience for my family.
  • Top Ten Fantasy Flight Games - PART ONE

    As we all know, Fantasy Flight Games was purchased by Asmodee last year.  Well, as of April this year they are no longer a publisher, but rather a Design House within Asmodee.  They will be under the Asmodee North America umbrella or something.  So as a tribute to the FFG brand I thought it would be fun to run through their catalog and pick out their best games ever.  

  • Top Ten FFG Games - PART TWO

    Welcome back.  This is part two of my "Ode to FFG".  In this week's episode we will be looking exclusively at games that the company brought back from the dead.  For a bunch of nerdy guys in Minnesota, their Necromancy skills are quite high.  Yes, FFG really started making a name for themselves by bringing many beloved games back to the market.  Some were really terrific.  They were games that made you weep a little because you never thought you'd get your hands on them.  Others were a little less well received.  Hey they can't all be winners! 

    Just to be clear, this list will only cover FFG's reprint and workings of other company's games.  This list won't cover games made by other companies that FFG simply distributed.  With that little caveat out of the way... onward and upwards we go! 

  • Toward a (Sub) Cultural Literacy

    falltv_sarahconnor.jpgF:AT Looks Back: This article was originally published Jan. 13, 2008.

    I wrote this last year for my own blog, which has a readership of about...oh, none.  The piece was inspired by one of Ubarose's columns on F:AT, and I thought some folks here on the site might find it interesting.

     Thanks,

     Paul Hedrick

  • Training Wheels

    Being the guy who reviews games means that I’m usually the guy teaching them. This was the case even before I started writing about games regularly, since I was one of the buyers among my friends. I would decide what I wanted to play, buy it if no one had it already, and then teach it to everyone else. Teaching is something that most gamers need to figure out, and I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at it. But lately I’ve grown weary of being the teacher. I’m not sure if it’s a function of too many games, or a growing sense that more and more games require “training wheels” to enjoy the experience. But either way I’m tired of learning and teaching games. I’d much rather play them.

  • Transparency

    This week's Cracked LCD is one of those highbrow theory articles that I like to write every so often about the way I think games ought to be. I tried really hard to piss someone off in it by calling game designers fascists, but Bill Abner stepped in and judiciously excised that indictment. Rudiger Dorn and Andreas Seyfarth can rest easy, safe from Godwin's Law.

    So it's about transparency as Claude Rains (pictured) suggests. And by transparency, I mean rules and mechanics that vanish when you're actually playing a game. And why games where this happens are better than those like, say, CAYLUS where the structure is printed on the board because the game is really just a process of following rules and making a couple of decisions than it is actually playing with the game or with other players.

    This week's article was supposed to be a review of DUNGEON LORDS, but I realized that I just wasn't really ready to write about it. And interestingly, I like DUNGEON LORDS even though it is almost a point-for-point refutation of everything I put forward in this article. Maybe the review next week will sort out why.

  • Trashfest UK 2011 Session Report

    HeaderSaturday is the day I get stuff done. Cook some food to put in the fridge for the week ahead. Do the washing, vacuum the carpets, clean the bathroom. Maybe take the kids out for the afternoon to give Mum some peace, or occasionally destroy something in the house by perpetrating DIY. But not this Saturday. Oh no. This Saturday was the inaugural Trashfest UK.

    Trashfest UK was the brainchild of F:AT user Jazzbeaux, otherwise known as Sam Marsh. He and I hold the record for the two F:AT users who live in closest proximity (about 16 miles) but have never actually managed to play a game together in person. That’s because we both have kids. But anyway, a little while ago a new games shop opened in his home town. It was a miniatures gaming outfit but they did something a bit different. Rather than getting cramped premises in the town centre, they hired space in an industrial unit on the outskirts. They turned the main office space into a shop, the smaller office space into a cafe and the main workshop floor into a gigantic gaming cavern, full of games tables, painting stations and even a comfy corner with a sofa, coffee table and a stack of gaming magazines. It’s calledTriple Helix Wargames and it’s a really neat idea - although it’d be better if they sold board games too, obviously. Local community seems to think so two, as they’ve apparently won two business awards in the single year they’ve been open!

    So Sam saw all those tables, and thought that they’d be just as good for putting board games on as miniatures. They cost £4 a day, so he hired two and between us we picked a date. And trashfest UK was born.

    KoTInevitably I roll up late, but not too late as it turns out. Five people made the start line of 10am and they’ve just started a game ofKing of Tokyo and as luck would have it, they’ve just that minute finished the first round so I can slot in as a sixth player with no disruption other than a quick rules run down. I have to take the last monster that no-one else wanted: cyberbunny. Which marginally irritates me until I realise the art actually includes a tiny but amazingly malevolent looking jet-black bunny piloting a giant mecha. And then it suddenly becomes cool. The first few round proceed to script with people jumping in and out of Tokyo, hoarding energy and the occasional victory point. My first cash-in is for the promo card reflective hide which is great - any damage you take is inflicted back on the user. So I sit in Tokyo for a whole round (and a massive 2 vp) and giggle uncontrollably while everyone else suffers catastrophic damage alongside me. By the end of the round people are starting to think about re-rolling their claws if it means damaging me which is where I wanted to be, although I’ve been reduce to about 2 health for them to learn the lesson. Meanwhile someone else has picked up a healing power and is sitting pretty in Tokyo, taking damage but regenerating some of it. Until I pick up the dice and roll five claws.Five. And he goes crashing out of the game. Outside of Tokyo, three of the five remaining players are on low health and when the monster inside rolls a few claws himself there is mass death. Suddenly there’s just two left: me and the Kraken. This wasn’t supposed to happen, it’s my first game! She’s got a lot more victory points than me, but we’re tied on health. So the obvious thing to do is sit in Tokyo with my reflective hide and rack up the points, since she can’t destroy me without killing herself. Two rounds pass where she desperately re-rolls claws looking for hearts and gets none. I’m one round away from winning and she needs 2vp to get there before me so she picks up the dice and rolls one 2. Picks up the other five and gets another 2. Picks up the other four and … the final two rolls out! So she gets a deserved win.

    I’d never played before. In fact three of the four games I’ll play today are new to me. I really liked King of Tokyo: it’s a fun filler game that’s thrilling to play and squeezes a ton of theme and atmosphere out of some very simple rules. At first I thought six was too many as the initial rounds were slow, but as soon as the monsters started to drop it sped up. Four or five is probably ideal. Having seen the components I still think it feels overpriced for what you get, but the entertainment value is big and that’s what really matters. You need the promo cards for Reflective Hide and Throw a Tanker - they’re great. Goorder a copy now, I’ll wait.

    Back? Good. While we were busy playingKing of Tokyoanother four gamers had arrived and set up on the other table. And what were they playing?Dominion. At a trash fest. Unbelievable. And to add insult to injury when we were trying to pick what to play next, they refused to consider abandoning their non-trashy game and help us balance the numbers by splitting into two groups of five.

    CPSo we had to pick something else that was good with six. And about the best everyone could come up with wasCastle Panic. That was another new one on me, but it’s very simple to learn and play and being co-operative it was guaranteed to go wrong from the very first turn. Which it duly did with the initial draw leading to both extra monsters and monster movement and dumping us up shit creek without a paddle from the get go. It only got worse. Monsters moved just as we were setting up attacks, massed in the regions where we didn’t have matching cards and we drew two boulder tokens that missed all the monsters and knocked down our castle walls. The game ended with such startling rapidity that I think only one player had actually killed more than one monster and he was duly declared the winner. I can’t say I was terribly unhappy about this: I’m not a co-op fan, as you know, and I have to say that I thoughtCastle Panic was poor even by the standards of the genre. Decision making seemed obvious, the theme was pretty thin and it lacked both sufficient variety and narrative to make it interesting. I understand it’s aimed at younger gamers and perhaps it would work as a family game. But I’d rather slot inWrath of Ashardalon for that.

    So the group playingDominion were heaping further ignominy on themselves by continuitng to playDominion.And, again because my gaming time is so limited and precious nowadays, I flat out refused - hopefully not rudely, although it probably was (sorry) - to playCastle Panic again orZombies!!!or anything else six player we had. So we had to split. I’d bought my copy ofNexus Opsbecause I knew Sam wanted to try it, and we roped in a third player while the other three started a game ofRoborally which eventually sucked in some of theDominion players. So ifRoborallycan manage to get people away fromDominionit obviously has some value after all.

    NOIt has passed 12pm so I cracked open a beer (the shop had told us it was okay to bring our own), set upNexus Ops and explained the rules and we got underway. Because I knew how the game worked I got to be first player so everyone could see how I structured my turn. It also meant I was first onto the Monolith. At this point, because I wanted to be fair and have as fun a game as possible I pointed out that those two Energise cards I just drew were likely to be very powerful, and that the Monolith is a desirable spot so someone should come along and push me off with some urgency. Finding myself unmolested on the second turn I underlined my point by playing a very handy Energise card that adds two to a dice roll after it’s been rolled, and said again that they were brilliant cards and someone ought to kick me off the Monolith. No-one did. The other two players got sucked into a revenge match on their border, leaving me free to hoard energise cards that I proceeded to use to grant myself enormous amounts of rubidium, extra fungoids and to kill off their human and crystalline units. Still I remained atop my ebony tower. I even took all but one troop off the Monolith and no-one took the bait. So of course I ended up with a sack full of victory points and a win but I had a fantastic time playing the evil overlord and gloating over the board, while my opponents seemed to have a fantastic time perpetrating their grudge match so everyone had fun, and that makes us all winners.

    I can’t believe I just wrote something that cheesy, and am actually considering leaving it in the piece by writing this sentence as an excuse. Anyway, Sam liked it enough that he wanted to try it again with four, paying a bit more attention to the Monolith, but we didn’t get the opportunity. He’s wondering if any of you kind folk out there in the states might be willing to sell or trade a copy as it goes for silly, silly money in the UK now?

    CitOWHaving shown Sam a game he really wanted to play, it was time to him to return the favour withChaos in the Old World and the horned rat expansion. No, I really haven’t managed to play this game up until now, although I’d been desperate to have the chance and I own a copy. I just haven’t managed to find three other gamers and a two hour slot at the same time. Being an old Warhammer buff and knowing the background I immediately picked Nurgle as my all-time favourite chaos god, ignoring well meaning warnings about it being a difficult power to play. What did I care as long as papa Nurgle had a hand full of “filth” cards? Nothing. As you all probably know it’s a moderately complex game and Sam sensibly outline the rules and adopted a learn the rest as you play approach so we could get stuck in. I noticed my hand of cards included several that were dependent on me “dominating” a region so from the outset I picked one to make mine, and keep. I chose Bretonnia since it was reasonably central but had a low enough points value to make it not worth my companions scrapping over. And it worked, brilliantly. Each turn I clocked up domination points for having all my daemons there, plus a dial tick for dropping enough corruption there and was able to use my cards to sow corruption in neighbouring regions so that I picked up points when they were ruined. And I streaked into a big VP lead early on. But then, in a typically Nurglesque fashion, I got greedy. I split my forces just so I could get more dial tokens from adding corruption to more regions and that was successfully for precisely one turn before the Khorne player spotted what I was up to and picked off all my cultists, leaving me high and dry and stacking him up a ton of VP to go into the lead. To add insult to injury I’d totally taken my eye off the ball as regards ruination and forgot to use my cards to sneak in corruption into regions that were about to pop, denying me further vital victory points. As the old world went down in flames, it was Tzeentch who racked up the ruination points for the win, with Khorne riding on his coat tails for second and no-one else in sight. But I’m convinced I’ll do better next time - a sure sign that this is a great game that I’m going to want to play a lot. I didn’t take all that much notice of how the Skaven affected the game overall (especially not having seen a game without them for comparison) but they did reasonably well, and to be honest I felt it was a pretty impressive achievement to design a fifth player expansion for a massively asymmetric game that added yet more asymmetry whilst apparently retaining a reasonable balance. So I’ll be picking that one up on my next game order, for sure.

    I’d bought along my copy ofHorus Heresy to sell to Sam, and the box size and components drew a lot of admiration from the assembled crowds of both miniatures gamers and board gamers. So much so that I began to regret flogging it off. But as someone that loves historical CDG’s, I just couldn’t ever see a time that with just two players, I would ever choose to play it over a card-driven wargame. So off it went to a more caring home, and it was time for me to pack my bags and get on my own way to relieve my wife of an extra days’ childcare.

    But the gaming didn’t stop there. Oh no.

    THWhile we’d been absorbed inChaos in the Old World a couple of games of FFG’s reprint ofDungeonquest had been going on. I’d have liked to try this, just to compare it with my beloved original version: the production quality on the original is inferior (those oddly shaped cards annoy me) and I was interested to see what they’d done to improve the Catacombs. But there we go, you can’t do everything. There were also simultaneous games ofLord of the Rings: The Card Game(love the theme, totally put off by 2-player limit and co-operative structure) and a strange home-brew version ofHeroquest, called Mortisquest by its creator, a dog-collared gentleman who also apparently likes to be known as Mortis, that was supposed to have heavier role playing element and which absorbed the players for most of the afternoon. Reports of quality were mixed, but then again the players sat it out for four hours, so that must say something, possibly about British politeness if nothing else. The day closed with sessions ofMag-Blast,Magical Athleteand more King of Tokyo.

    And it was pretty much an enormous success, aside from the fact that it included those sessions ofDominion. Everyone had a great time. The only fly in the ointment for me was that out of the  (admittedly small) UK FAT crew, only Sam & I turned up. We invited 26, and a third turned up so not a bad turnout. One of the gamers, who had no kids, apparently asked Sam if we could do it once a month! Sadly most of the people there didn’t have time for that, but we’ll be chalking it up again for next year you mark my words. And this time, FATties, you better be there. I don’t care what it takes: walk, drive, fly over the Atlantic or the Irish sea, but be there. And bring a cushion, since Triple Helix didn’t have any. You have been warned.

  • Trashfest UK 2012 Session Report

    trashfest-2012-01The second annual UK festival of trash didn’t get off to the best of starts for me. On a cold and brittle autumn morning, we stopped in a garage atop one of the many steep hill surrounding my home city of Bath to pick up a couple more attendees and I went in the shop to get my afternoon’s supply of beer. But time was tight and the queue was long. We left with our two new gamers, but no supplies. It was shaping up to be a long day.

    Trashfest 2011 was a relatively low-key affair, even if those who went did have a great time. A few boardgamers round a couple of tables in the corner of a miniature game shop’s gaming floor. But word had spread. When we got to the Triple Helix car park at 10am sharp the shop wasn’t even open but there was a large crowd of caffeine-fueled board game fans raring to go. Twenty, all told by the time the stragglers had rolled in and started rolling dice. The miniatures guys didn’t know what hit them. I was perplexed as to why so many people had bought cushions with them until someone pointed out that I’d dispensed that advice at the end of last years’ session report. Advice which I’d completely ignored myself.

    Sam (Jazzbeaux) who organised the event stepped right in and directed the shop staff to move some tables to better suit our requirements while everyone else stood around sheepishly wondering what to play and who to play it with. Wanting to play with my two friends, Graham and Jake, who’d given me a lift, and having bought Wiz-War along for Sam to try it seemed an easy pick to me, so we set up a four player game of battling mages.

    And here a funny thing begins. Because last year, after the event, I remembered all the games I’d played in startling detail. I could recount the twists and turns of each session, the dice rolled, the alliances made and broken, the cards played. But that didn’t happen this time around. I don’t know why. Perhaps I was a little more tired. Perhaps after another year of ageing by brain isn’t quite so up to the task as it once was. But my theory is that I was just having too much of an awesome time to care.

    So the best I can do for Wiz-War is this. Graham and Jake immediately dashed into my section of the board and tried to steal my treasures, earning fireballs and power thrusts in return. In the meantime, Sam merrily pillaged one of their treasures and then cunningly set up a win. By the time we’d noticed he was dashing for home with a second treasure it looked too late. We ran after him in frantic desperation with our best power cards and ranged spells but he played a wind rider, or some similar movement spell, and breezed back for the win.

    trashfest-2012-03Tables nearby had got stuck into longer games. One was Talisman, the other was Dominant Species which might not be the most suitable fare for a trashfest but hey, it’s long and complex so we’ll give it a pass. So we pulled out King of Tokyo. I almost didn’t bring King of Tokyo: it was a last minute choice foisted on my by my daughter who wanted to tell Graham and Jake all about it when they arrived at my house and who were intrigued enough to want to play. I assumed there would be a copy around somewhere.

    And I was right. There was another copy. In fact there were at least two other copies. King of Tokyo was the most-played game of the day with three sessions running independently. Just as we were about to begin, who should arrive but Simon (DukeOfChutney) resplendent in a F:AT t-shirt which drew admiring and jealous glances from the assembled throng. Or from me, at any rate. I really should have bought one, but too late now. He knew the rules so we dealt him straight in. My cyberbunny (always cyberbunny - that black and malevolent head! those hideously curved and ebon ears!) had a chance to eliminate someone on about the third turn but chickened out as I thought it might spoil the game to go out so early. But I needn’t have worried. As befits a true trashfest it was a vicious, brutal and rapid game with monsters falling left right and center. I don’t think anyone got much over 10 victory points.

    It came down to Sam and I. He was entrenched in Tokyo, I was nursing a near-useless card that gave me an extra turn on set of 1’s. He cut it fine on staying in the city and what do you know - I got a set of 1’s and a couple of claws, needing only one more to kill him for victory. So I picked up the dice for my extra turn and rolled no claws. For the second time and rolled … no claws. The third time, chanting wildly, palms sweating, muttering silent imprecations to the random number God, and the dice fall out with one single, solitary claw. But it was all I needed. Sweet victory was mine.

    You may recall that last year someone rudely turned up late and started playing Dominion. In quite unbelievably poor taste, the same people turned up and did the same thing again! My dismay was tempered by the observation that another attendee had kindly brought along an entire crate of beer, and dispelled entirely when he freely presented me with a tin to enjoy. So I consumed my lager and lunch together as Simon did a quite excellent job of explaining our next title, which most of us had not played before: the second edition of A Game of Thrones.

    trashfest-2012-06Indeed such was the thoroughness and clarity of his explanation that I can find no excuse for what happened next. As house Baratheon I boldly sallied forth and captured the three strongholds next to me, while building units in my home castle. Sitting next to Graham (as Martell) I knew full well he’d attack me at any opportunity and stocked that castle with a maximum of three troops. Then a series of catastrophes befell. First, an event card allowed recruitment but all my castles were already full. Then house Tyrell stole a supply territory off me just before a resupply card came up, limiting my troop distribution. Finally I went into a track auction with about two tokens and ended up last pretty much everywhere.

    Tyrell then used the frankly pathetic excuse that I’d “once attacked him” to basically wipe me off the board. Momentarily, I lost interest in the game before wading back in determined to ensure that at the very least, Tyrell wouldn’t claim victory. Which he didn’t, but no thanks to me - I didn’t even get a successful attack in against him. Simon, as Stark, took a deserved victory by conquering the north.

    I enjoyed the game, but not enough to keep it on my wish-list. It seems a well-designed and delicately balanced title but it sits on that awkward fence where it offers sufficient depth to encourage players to analyse carefully but can then suddenly shaft you with an unexpected random event. It also seems to have far too many moving parts for my taste, but that’s a personal thing: I found it very difficult to try and balance all the different factors in the game and weave a useful strategy. Finally, I found it frustrating that when I looked back on the game I couldn’t see that I’d made any particularly bad choices which had lead to my being marginalised, and that’s not a great inducement to future plays. Perhaps it was the beer. Still, I’m glad I played and if someone popped down a copy before me, I wouldn’t refuse to do so again.

    trashfest-2012-05I’m not sure how long that took to play to completion. About two and a half, maybe three hours. But when I looked up, everything had changed. Talisman had morphed into Roborally. Dominion into King of Tokyo and Dominant Species into a rather delightful-looking deluxe edition of Discworld: Ankh-Morpork which was so lovely that I was disappointed not to get a photo of it. In the interim people had also been playing the old edition of Escape from Atlantis, The Resistance (twice, including one epic 9-player session), Divinaire and Small World. All in all, a pretty satisfying lineup for trash-lovers.

    But there was still time for more, and I knew Sam wanted to try Cadwallon: City of Thieves, so I set that up and explained the rules. It was the first time I’d played it with four and boy, is it a striking thing with all the figures and cards in play at once, one of the best looking games ever made in my opinion. Gameplay isn’t so stale either, although I began to understand some of the complaints about it being boring when playing with four. It’s a very random and unpredictable game and with a full complement there’s just a bit too much downtime.

    Still, we all sallied forth to begin to claim our treasures and at the start, no-one could claim enough of a monopoly on one item type to make the available missions worthwhile. Once we’d looted the city, we started looting each other. Jake went on the offensive but had a dreadful run of dice rolls which lead him to losing most of his treasures and then to getting his thieves trapped in the city when the law arrived as they hunted round for more. Sam had better luck gathering treasures but also got some thieves stuck so it was down to Graham & I. It was a pretty tense ending for us two, which made up for those slightly dull bits earlier in the game, and he won by the relatively slight margin of 4 gold.

    trashfest-2012-02Sam was in the hunt for a relatively quick, thematic four player title hence his interest in Cadwallon and Wiz-War. He decided he preferred the latter so we opted to close the day with another game of that. This time, for a bit of variety, I played with the entire card stack of spells and it became a game about bushes. Graham came to steal my treasures and I sealed him in place with a thorn bush. Jake made for the win with a second treasure but meanwhile, Sam also got his second treasure and suddenly the game became a race. Graham and I did what we could: I cast two rose bushes in Jakes’ path but he transformed into a Big Man and swatted them out of the way like dry grass in the wind. But the delay was crucial: it gave Sam time to make it home for his second Wiz-Win of the day.

    It was time for us to leave, a little before the wrap-up. But not before I’d had a good look at the second game of Descent 2nd edition that had started up on one of the tables. I really wanted to play that, but there wasn’t time. I felt a bit bad about having to extract our two liftees from the middle of a session of Zombies!!! but, as it turns out, they were grateful for an excuse to escape from that train wreck of a game. It was really great to meet Simon but the event was still dominated by local gamers: F:ATtie sfunk37 was planning to come but was sadly taken ill at the last minute. But I can’t believe it’s just the four of us who want to get our trash down here on this sceptered isle? Come on out of the woodwork, UK readers, and come on down to trashfest 2013.

  • True Family Games

    GAMES-1As you read this, I will have just arrived back from nearly two weeks in Michigan and Ohio visiting my extended family. This trek to see relatives is one that happens annually, and it’s one of my favorite times of the year. I’m sure a big part of that is because I don’t have to work, but it’s also because there is joy in renewing and re- forging relationships that used to be daily part of my life. I’m different now than I used to be when I was in college or living with my parents, and it’s good to reflect on just how different things are for me and for everyone else.

  • True Stories from the Bleachers

    “If you swing at junk, what’s that pitcher going to throw you?”

  • Tunnel Vision

    tunnelPerhaps it’s just me, but I seem to be noticing of late a lot of people bemoaning the fact that modern game design - particularly in the great American tradition - is lacking in innovation. A little while ago Micheal Barnes caused something of a stir when he proclaimed design had hit a ceiling. More recently I’ve seen several different comments about upcoming ‘dudes on a map’ games bemoan that the genre is stale and uninteresting. For my own part I’ve devoted column inches on the lamentable state of fantasy adventure games. So what’s with all this negativity from the fan community? Have the games I love really hit the end of the road?

  • Turn Order

    After you, Alphonse. No, you first, my dear Gaston!

  • Turn to 300- Dinner with the Lizard King

    You are standing in the eerie hollow of a cramped cavern, an icy wind whips at your back as your torch flickers, sputtering wildly and throwingshadows upon the ancient stone. From here the path forks in two directions. To the right, the passageway evolves into a winding arc, furrowing deeper into the living mountain, from the left you can hear a guttural muttering and the sound of heavy machinery breathing its sinister industrial magic.

    You must choose your path. If you choose the left hand path, turn to 34. If you go right, go to 130.

  • TWBG ACT VIII: MERRY CHRISTMAS (I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT TONIGHT)