I wish I could remember the name of the hobby shop where I used to get my games back then, maybe some of my old Bakersfield friends will help me out on this one. It was a small store out in Oildale, which at the time was still very rural, with lots of open fields and dirt roads. I think the store specialized in ceramics, but there was a very small area over to right as you entered that was dedicated to games. There was a large wooden rack that held everything from Dungeon & Dragons modules to historical miniature gaming magazines. I seem to recall that there was a display case with a lot of those smaller scale historical miniatures for war games. Maybe that was something that interested the owner and he or she just decided to make it a part of the business?

I can’t remember if this was something I discovered on my own or if someone told me about it. It was just the place you had to go if you wanted anything related to gaming. It had a cement floor and an unfinished ceiling like an old warehouse. I have a very vivid memory of what this place looked like and what I bought there. I also remember what I didn’t buy there. I used to look at these thumbed through copies of Advanced Melee and The Fantasy Trip RPG, which was a precursor to Steve Jackson’s GURPS. I hesitated for so long on buying them, that when I finally went in to get them, they were gone. I ended up getting them on eBay years later. It had bugged me for twenty years.

The first actual game store I remember was somewhere in the Los Angeles area. We took a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm and the Movieland Wax Museum, and at some point we went to this mall. I have no idea where this was. It could have been near Knott’s or even in Downey, where my aunt lived, but I do remember that it had two stories and a western theme with big wagon wheels on the walls. Somewhere in this place was a real game store, with racks of games and bins of polyhedral dice. This was where I bought my copies of the microgames Melee and Wizardry produced by Metagaming. I only went there once, but this was the store that set itself in my memory as gamer heaven.

I realize that I’m rambling and waxing nostalgic, but I’ve been making an effort to visit game stores for the past few years whenever I’m traveling. I’ve wanted to write about some of these visits, but to be honest, I don’t want to write anything bad about a game store, and I’ve been to some pretty lousy stores. Recently, I visited Endgame in Oakland, California and I thought that Endgame was everything a game store should be, so I will be writing about that next month if possible. I had such a great time there that I want to go back again before I write about it. It’s really that great.

What is the first game store that you remember visiting? I would be really interested to know other peoples experiences, and I would love it if someone remembers the stores that I do.

TransEuropa will play from two to six players, although I’ve never played with more than four. The entry for TransEuropa on Board Game Geek suggests that the game is best with five or six.

TransEuropa was designed by Franz-Benno Delonge and first published in 2005. The recommended age is eight and older, which is about right, but I think you could go a bit younger with some kids.

TransEuropa plays pretty quickly and the rules are extremely simple, which is exactly why I chose this particular game. Players draw cards from five different regions across Europe. On your turn, you can lay down one or two pieces of track. The board is a map of Europe with major cities connected by a triangular grid. Most of the grid lines are a single line [ - ] but some are double lines [ = ], which represent an area where it is more difficult to lay track.

You start by placing a marker of your color in a particular city and then on your turn you can start building track from that location. Once your track is connected with another player’s track, your network of travel then expands to include all of their track, and they have access to yours as well. A round ends when a player has managed to connect all five of their cities. That player will score no points, but all of the other players will lose points equal to the number of tracks they would have to lay down to connect all of their cities. [ = ] Double track lines count as two tracks when making this determination. Those players then move their locomotive up on the scoring track accordingly.

I also have the expansion Vexation, which I’m pretty sure is now included as part of the base game. The expansion gives each player three special tracks of their color that allow them to make connections that can only be used by them, so if the rail networks are linked other players may only use the combined rails up to the point that they reach a rail of an opposing player’s color. No particular intersection of the grid can have more than two colored rails adjoining it, which prevents a player from being locked out of a region. We almost always play with this expansion, but I think it’s important to teach the game without it, especially when playing with younger children.

TransEuropa is actually a re-implemented version of TransAmerica, which is the same game but is played on a map of the United States. TransAmerica was first published in 2001, and was a Spiel des Jahres Nominee in 2002.

You can check out a terrific video about these games created by Scott Nicholson over at Board Games with Scott. Yay Scott!

Disclaimer: I have recieved no review copies of this game. I have included links to funagain.com, an online retailer that I support by including affiliate links to games. If you purchase something from Funagain, and include my affiliate code, P2RX, then I get a few pennies of store credit so I can buy more games.

In Patrician, the players take on the role of master builders who create magnificent towers for wealthy patrician families throughout Italy. If you can take credit for building the most floors of the tallest tower in a particular city when all construction is completed, then you claim the greatest reward.

Patrician features a double-sided game board. One side for games with two to four players and the other for five player games. The board shows ten cities with two spaces in each city where towers are to be built. The city will be scored when the indicated number of floors are completed. There are two prestige tokens for each city that are awarded to the player who has built the most floors of a tower, or if there is a tie for number of floors, then the tied player with the floor closest to the top of the tower is awarded the token.

Players build towers by playing building cards. Each player starts with a hand of three cards. Each player takes up to five actions on their turn:

1. Play a building card.
2. Place tower pieces. (One or two depending on building card.)
3. Take a special action if allowed by building card.
4. Take a building card. (Usually from the city where you placed towers.)
5. Draw a replacement building card.

There are two types of special action cards. One allows you to move the top floor of a tower to the other tower in that city. You may not move the floors of a tower in the city where you just placed a floor, nor may you move a floor in a city where you have built no floors. The other special action card allows you to take a building card from any city on the board, not just the city where you placed a floor.

Additionally, many of the cards feature one of three portraits of important patricians. At the end of the game, a player will score an additional six points for each set of three matching portraits.

So why did I choose Patrician for Game of the Month? Well, with the exception of the three initial cards that the players are dealt, there are no random elements to the game. Since last month’s GotM was a dice game, I thought a perfect information game would be appropriate. Also, Patrician can be played by email via Michael Schacht’s website, which I thought would allow me the opportunity to play the game not only face-to-face with folks here in Fresno, but also online with folks both near and far. Since things are a little difficult at home right now because of my wife’s illness, I thought being able to play a game by web would be a good idea. Please watch the announcement widget for information on how to join in on one of the online games.

Feel free to comment on your experience with Patrician, or if you have some questions about the game. My goal for the month is to get in at least five face-to-face games before the end of the month, with as many online games as I can accommodate.

Disclaimer: I have recieved no review copies of this game. I have included links to funagain.com, an online retailer that I support by including affiliate links to games. If you purchase something from Funagain, and include my affiliate code, P2RX, then I get a few pennies of store credit so I can buy more games.

The main part of a season is the allocation of dice to a variety of court advisers that can provide the player with valuable resources, soldiers, victory points, and information about the invading army that attacks at the end of each year in the winter.

There is an expansion set called Kingsburg: To Forge a Realm.

I only managed to play Kingsburg three times this month, but I did get to play all of the expansions, and I will discuss those a bit later, but first I want to answer the questions I had asked people to consider as they played Kingsburg this month.

• When is this the right game to bring out?
• I wouldn’t bring this game out too late in the evening, and I wouldn’t suggest it for a group of slower players. I would also not treat this as a gateway game because of its length. So if you have experienced gamers who want to roll dice for a couple of hours, Kingsburg is a great choice.
• How long does it really take?
• The box says 90 minutes, but it’s probably going to take 2 hours or more. This is my only complaint with this game. I wish I could figure out how to play it in under 90 minutes.
• Is there a sweet spot with the number of players?
• I think three is the sweet spot for me, but four is good too. The two player version seems clumsy as you have to simulate a third player, and hey, there are quite a few two-player games out there that are much better. I don’t plan on ever playing this again with five. It makes it way too long and frustrating.
• Can it be played solo?
• This really isn’t a good game for solo play. I’m not sure why I asked such a dumb question.
• Is there an essential strategy?
• I don’t think there is a single strategy that’s better than any other, but I think you do need to complete at least one row of buildings to have any chance of winning. I’ve won with the Wizard’s Guild, but I’ve seen the Merchant’s Guild used very effectively. If you can finish the Merchant’s Guild before the end of year four, the extra gold generated allows you to build the Church and Cathedral for lots of victory points.
• If you are using the expansions, what modules are the best?
• The expansion modules are:
  1. Additional building rows
  2. Alternative building rows
  3. Governor Cards
  4. Destiny Cards
  5. Soldier Tokens
• The soldier tokens are the only essential expansion in my opinion. I don’t ever plan on playing the game again without them, and they are easy to add to your own copy if you want to try them without purchasing Kingsburg: To Forge a Realm, which I recommend you do anyway, because it really does add a lot to the game. However, you could use a set of markers or cards in place of the soldier token to the same effect. I used cards from my copy of Rat-a-Tat-Cat. In the base game, you roll a die to determine how much help you get when you fight the monster. The soldier tokens remove this random element.
• The destiny cards are probably my least favorite of the expansions. I really don’t think they add that much to the game, although I do think they help tell a sort of story about the five years of play. That would be great if Kingsburg was a game that depended on an interesting narrative, but it’s not. If anything, it just slows things down, which is exactly what I don’t want happening in Kingsburg.
• I think the Governor cards are fun, and I imagine that I will almost always use them. They give you the opportunity to form an initial strategy, even if that strategy can be totally hosed with bad dice rolls.
• The alternate and additional building rows are good, but I don’t know that I would need to use them every time I play. I like them. They are big. Tarzan like big.
• What are some important building and adviser combos?
• The only building/adviser combo I can think of is the use of the Stable and the advisers on the five and ten spots, which will get you an additional soldier. The queen will also get you additional soldiers. I only recently discovered that there are complex strategies for Kingsburg that are discussed over at Boardgamegeek.com. They have cool names like Super Defense and the Turtle. I play most games like a mad scientist experimenting with random chemicals in hopes that I will accidentally gain super-powers. If I have to research a strategy for a dice game, then that’s going to take some of the fun out of it. Maybe I will read up on them and give one a try the next time I play.

My friend Davebo answered each of the questions in his comment on the introductory post, which is exactly what I wanted. Yay, Dave!

Even though I didn’t get to play the game as often as I wanted to over the month, I think that it will hit the table a bit more often as a result of being GotM. It’s a good game, and I just might play it tonight. If you have anything to add, please post your comments. I know some friends played a two-player game recently, and I would like to hear how that went. Another friend plays regularly on BSW, and I would like to hear about how that works. Please feel free to contribute.

Disclaimer: I have recieved no review copies of this game. I have included links to funagain.com, an online retailer that I support by including affiliate links to games. If you purchase something from Funagain, and include my affiliate code, P2RX, then I get a few pennies of store credit so I can buy more games.

I don’t know how many of you get to go to gaming conventions like BGGCon, KublaCon, or any of the Stategicon events, but those of you who do go know how tiring it can be to play games hour after hour until early in the morning. You want to make the most of your time while you’re there, right? Who wants to do something lame like sleeping, when you can play another game of Galaxy Trucker? What’s a dedicated gamer to do? Energy drinks!

I decided to try a few of the more popular energy drinks and write down my thoughts on taste and such, because I’m just that kind of a guy.

I tried the 16oz. Red Bull even though I had already had that before. Red Bull tastes like chemicals to me now. It does give me a boost, but it certainly did not give me wings. In fact, I think I crashed harder after drinking this one more than any of the others. I’ve heard that this tastes much better if you add alcohol to it, but that seems a little silly to me, like storing matches next to the gasoline.

The 16oz. Rockstar is my energy drink of choice. It looks like bad pee if you pour it into a glass, so just drink it out of the can. You really don’t want to look at this while you’re drinking it. I really like the taste of this stuff. I don’t really know how to describe it. It tastes like how I imagine an electrified cactus would taste. A couple months after having one of these, I was driving back from a day at the coast and got rerouted because of the wildfires. It added three hours on to my trip home, and Rockstar kept me very alert until I got home at 3:00 AM.

I tried both the regular and lo-carb versions of the cool looking 16 oz. Monster energy drinks. I wanted to like this one because it’s looks scary and there are tons of ads for it all over the Vegas monorail, which makes it somehow cool to me. Unfortunately, it totally sucks. Both versions, like some of the others, look like pee if you pour them in a clear glass, but this looks like pee from someone who has some serious problems. The regular Monster had this really unpleasant taste that made the inside of my mouth feel icky. It gave me a huge energy boost, but it wasn’t a good energy. It made me all shaky and gave me a horrible headache. The lo-carb version didn’t give me any of the jitteryness or headache, but it tasted so damn-awful horrible, I couldn’t finish it.

I tried a 16 oz. can of Amp, which tasted very light in comparison to the others. It had a pleasant citrus flavor and a nice color. It gave me a good amount of energy, but it made me extremely jittery and irritable. I was seriously ready to rip someone’s head off because they were taking forever to take their turn. It’s too bad, because it tasted pretty good, but I don’t think an energy drink defense would stand up in court if I injure someone who takes too long to make decisions in Thurn and Taxis.

The 16 oz. NOS energy drink tasted sort of like a super caffinated version of a Cactus Cooler, which is one of my favorite soft drinks of all time. It looked like some radioactive liquid right out of a Simpson’s episode. It gave me a fair amount of energy, but I didn’t finish the whole thing. It just got old after a while. I would certainly choose this one over all of the rest, with the exception of the Rockstar.

There are a bunch of other brands out there. I may try some more as time passes and let you know what I think. If you have any favorites, and would like to share your thoughts, I would love to hear what you think.

GAME ON!!! with EXTREME energy!!!!!

I’ve had a lot of trouble reading anything other than magazines and boardgames rules for the last year or so, and that’s something I’m working on changing. There’s nothing wrong with reading magazines or rules, but I really do miss getting involved in a good novel.

I started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
a couple of days ago, which is a bit of a departure for me. I usually read science fiction novels or non-fiction books about science or history. I like it a lot so far, and it feels good to be reading something other than rule booklets.

Reading the rules to a board game without having the game itself in front of you is kind of like reading a cookbook. You can learn the procedure for making flan, but unless you’ve tasted flan, you’re not really going to know what to expect just by reading the recipe. I picked up a copy of a game called Aquadukt last month. I got it from a friend who had never played it, so it was still unpunched. It’s a pretty simple game, so even though I haven’t set the game out, I think I have a good sense of how the game will play, because I’ve played similar games. I think I also see why my friend hadn’t played it and why he sold it to me for so little. I may be wrong about the game. I won’t really know until I play it.

Most games are not that easy to wrap your head around. I think it’s important to first read through the rules and identify some sections that may seem confusing. Then set the game up as if you are going to play, and then work your way through a turn or two paying special attention to those actions that seemed confusing in the rules. You’ll be taking on the role of all of the players, so your goal is not to necessarily make the best moves, but rather to make some interesting moves that might need clarification.

If you’re lucky, the rules will be well written and broken up into easily identified sections. There’s usually a section that explains how to set up the game for your first play, and another section that breaks downs what each player can do on his or her turn. There should be a section that explains the endgame and scoring procedures.

If you’re really lucky, the rules will be filled with plenty of examples. I think that’s one of the things that can make a huge difference. Examples are extremely helpful when you are trying to figure out a new game. I also appreciate it when designers or publishers create a simplified rule set off on the right or left margin of the rules. This allows players who have already played the game a few times easy access to some key information that will give them just a quick reminder, allowing them to get right into the game.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that some designers create some very entertaining rule booklets. Vlaada Chvatil, the designer of Galaxy Trucker and most recently, Dungeon Lords, writes rules that are absolutely hilarious and tell a story while explaining how to play the game.

Enough on that for now, go play!