Board Games

229 different games played.
618 times.

Time for a session report. I realize now I must do a better job of keeping details during a game.

Before heading off to meet with my game group my 10 year-old son asked if I wanted to play a quick game of Blink, by Out of the Box Publishing. All games of Blink are quick so I agreed with the stipulation that we play the game with equal decks. In the past I have handicapped him and never quite got it right. Blink is a speed game where you have a hand of three cards and a draw pile of additional cards. Game ends when one player plays all of his cards. There are no turns and as soon as the game starts players play to one of two piles, drawing cards after each play to get back to three cards. Since each player has their own draw stack you are trying to deplete the stack the fastest.
Blink cards have three elements to them. They have one to five shapes in one of five different shapes and one of five colors. In order to play a card you must match one of the three elements.
I beat him by about a dozen cards. Time to go back to handicapping the game. I think I'll try a handicap of six.

If there is one thing (there are more(the use of parenthesis are not one of them)) that sets me off in a post or blog it is the use of LITE to describe a game. San Juan is Puerto Rico-Lite. Railroad Tycoon is Age of Steam-Lite.

The use of Lite is lazy. Comparisons themselves are overused but they are useful to a point. Comparisons help establish similarities between two items and provide a point of reference for the conversation, but the use of the term Lite is disingenuous and lazy.

Lite can be defined as having less substance or weight or fewer calories. I haven't done a nutritional analasis of San Juan and Puerto Rico but I'm guessing that San Juan does have less calories than Puerto Rico.

I suppose my main complaint is that San Juan is a great game unto itself. There are more than a handful of people who played San Juan without first playing Puerto Rico who greatly enjoyed the game. Liking one does not dictate the other.

Now if San Juan were simply a stripped down version of Puerto Rico then perhaps the Lite moniker would be justified. But it is not. It borrows some mechanisms and theme from Puerto Rico, but also has additional components and mechanisms.

I haven't yet played Railroad Tycoon, but by most accounts it is the same situation. Some mechanics remain the same, others are missing and still more are added.

Stop using Lite because you are lazy. Give us a fair and informative critique.

And don't get me started about why people call The Chronicles of Narnia movie Harry Potter Lite.

Well, that didn't last long. 2.5 days into the new year and I've purchased my first game. Now if I want to have a $0 sum boardgaming hobby this year that means something needs to be sold.

The game I picked up was Acquire, by 3M, in the aqua bookshelf box. I picked it up at the thrift store for $2. I should know better but I didn't open it up. I just shook it. Sounded nice and full of pieces. Hopefully it isn't like the Dungeon of Doom Talisman expansion I bought early last year. It felt full but all my $3 got me was a box full of cigarrette smoke, number 2 pencils, and ISA cards.

Time to go tally. No review in sight.

Edit: It is the version with the wood tiles. A4 has been greatly mangled by man or beast. Blue tile is missing. Alas.

I've been aching to review Space Station Assault. It is a 2 player game with little luck (randomization of the cards) but has been greatly misunderstood by those who have written reviews. But I'm not sure I'm ready to give it a go. Best to start with more straightforward games.

In Space Station Assault each player begins with a space station and the two are three players apart. Players take turns playing ships to a spot adjacent orthoganally to another card in play. They then can shoot at an adjacent card. You can start the game playing agressively by playing next to the opponent's station, or defensively, by playing next to yours and preventing ships from attacking your station on that side.

So if a player attacks your space station and deals damage, do you blow it out of the sky? Probably not wise since all that would do would be to open up that slot for another ship to come in.

Later in the game it is possible to have exisiting ships on the table that you can move and fire. So that creates the question of whether you move them first or after you play cards. Also, do I attack existing ships, and which ones.

I've enjoyed the game. In general I like 2 player games less than multiplayer. I played chess back in the day and had plenty of stress. I don't want to relive that again.

January 1. Time for resolutions. I've never been a fan of New Years resolutions. Why make goals and plans only once a year? Then they last a few hours, days, or even weeks an then you slip back to your old pattern.

But I still make them. And after I've failed at them I will make more. But I won't wait until 2007 to make them again. We need goals and we need plans. And we need to hold ourselves to those plans.

So I will take on the standard Boardgaming goals:

• Play more games
• Play the unplayed games in my collection.
  

I might as well add:

• Lose weight
• Excerise More
• Enjoy Life more
• Get organized
  

How often do those goals come up on lists? But I still need to add them. There are things that I need to do.

Here's a few less common goals:

• Write more. That is the best way for me to achieve any of my goals. For years I wanted to be a writer but one thing held me back. It was difficult to write, so I didn't do it. So perhaps it is time to start. Again.
• Write two reviews a week. Already one day gone without a written review. Great.
• Don't spend any more money on games. Yeah, well this is a little more common. It is often coupled with the phrase "until I play more unplayed games". That's not what I mean. I have a few thrift store and other games that I don't enjoy. Not too much, but enough for me to make a little money so I can buy more games. I want to make this year a $0 gaming expense. We'll see how long I can take that. My collection now is probably close to 360 games. I have 315 games and expansions documented on the geek but I don't have a number of games I purchased just to sell. And I don't have listed many of the 25-30 murder mystery games that I hope to play some day.

So there it is. Perhaps I'll keep this up to date, but only if I Write more.

How about: Games that require time to understand - Space Station Assault, La Strada
Player interaction - the good, the bad. Leader bashing. Nothing at all.
Simultaneous play - Diamant, Dancing Dice, Category 5, Liar's Dice.