Play2Relax

Skittles

Jeff Myers — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:49:14 +0000

I think Skittles are probably the perfect gamer snack. Yeah, I know they’re candy and aren’t really a part of the stupid food pyramid, but if you’ve been gaming all day and you’ve still got hours of gaming until you sleep, Skittles are the way to go.

First of all, Skittles don’t get your hands all sticky. I suppose they would if you left them in your sweaty palms for ten minutes while you agonized over which one of the two cards you have left in your hand would be better to play, but if that’s the case, you’re an idiot anyway. I once thought Cheetos would be the worst gamer snack when it came to getting stuff on your fingers that would get on the game, but I mentioned this to my friend John and he said that ribs would be worse. Well, yeah, ribs would be worse, but who in the hell eats ribs while playing a boardgame? Honey? Bring me some more of those ribs, would ya? I’ve got to take my turn in Puerto Rico.

Skittles also are pretty sturdy and don’t leave crumbs or little bits on the table. So even if Mark Jackson gets excited and dumps a his Skittles all over Alea Iacta Est, it really doesn’t matter. You just pick them up and move on with the game. The dice in the game are pretty brightly colored so be careful that you don’t eat some of the game, but you would have to be pretty tired to do that, or maybe just oxygen deprived. I suppose you can smash a Skittle if you try hard enough, but if you’re spending your time smashing Skittles, well, good luck on the whole life thing.

There’s also the great sugar rush that Skittles provide, and it’s a pure rush of sugar that’s not really complicated or bogged down with things like texture or flavor. Sure, M&Ms are tasty and all, but chocolate starts to border on food, while a Skittle is like rocket fuel. Yes, you will eventually crash, but how else are you going to get through a game of Hansa Teutonica at 2:30 AM?

Roll a d12 and taste the rainbow.

Kingsburg

Jeff Myers — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:10:16 +0000

This month’s Game of the Month, Kingsburg, is a beautifully illustrated dice roller, designed by Andrea Chiarvesio and Luca Iennaco and published domestically by Fantasy Flight games.

Kingsburg was first published in 2007 and is essentially a worker placement game with a medieval theme that’s driven by a dice rolling mechanic. It plays 2 to 5 players and should take an hour and a half, but can run longer if you have five players or if people agonize over their dice placement. It is recommended for players ages 10 and older. Kingsburg retails for $49.95 at your local game store, but you should be able to find it for $40 or less from an online retailer.

In Kingsburg, players are nobles who are sent from the king to develop the outer regions of the kingdom, using resources to create structures that will both enhance the region’s prestige and to protect the area from hostile armies. The game takes place over a series of five years (turns) that is broken up into seasons (phases). The main part of a season is the allocation of dice to a variety of court advisors 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 that was released in 2009 called Kingsburg: To Forge a Realm. The expansion includes five modules that can be added in to the the base game. I have only played with three of the expansions, so part of my goal this month is get in a play or two with the remaining two expansion modules. Kingsburg: To Forge a Realm retails for $29.95 but again, you can find it online for less than that. Remember, it is an expansion to the base game and cannot be played alone.

The point of the Game of the Month feature is not to necessarily to review a game, but to rather explore a game by repeated play over a particular month. I’m not going to choose a game for GotM if I don’t already like it. Kingsburg is a good game. What I want to do is spend some time thinking about strategies or suggestions for play.

If you want to participate in the discussion, here are some things I want you to consider as you play Kingsburg this month.

When is this the right game to bring out?
How long does it really take?
Is there a sweet spot with the number of players?
Can it be played solo?
Is there an essential strategy?
If you are using the expansions, what modules are the best?
What are some important building and advisor combos?

If you have some thoughts you would like to share, email me at gameguythinks@gmail.com, or just make your comments directly on this post. I will put everything together in a post at the end of the month.

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.

Game of the Month

Jeff Myers — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:50:22 +0000

I’ve decided to add a new monthly feature to the blog. I’m going to announce a game at the beginning of each month, try and play it a few times that month, and also suggest that you folks do the same. Then at the end of the month, I’ll do a review and I’ll include your thoughts about the game as well.

I started thinking about this a few months ago, when some friends and I got on a Power Grid kick, playing it five times over the space of a month or so. I hadn’t played it before that, and I totally sucked my first game, but I ended up winning on my fifth game. It was really nice to be able to explore the game and try new strategies over time.

I don’t intend for this feature to be an All About Game X type of project. I just want to look at a good game, play it regularly for a month, gather some feedback, and then put those thoughts out for discussion at the end of the month.

I’ll try and mix up the game selection, so that they are not all short games or all family games, but chances are not good that I will choose Twilight Struggle or something that I know is not going to hit the table more than once in a particular month.

I also have a secret motive for starting this feature, that I will reveal many months from now, when I can say, “I had this plan…” If it doesn’t work out, I will make something up that sounds like it was an impressive plan.

Boardgamegeek.com turns 10!

Jeff Myers — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:06:47 +0000

January 22 was the 10th anniversary of the opening of boardgamegeek.com, the greatest boardgaming site in the known multiverse.

I owe this site a great debt of gratitude. While Settlers of Catan may have sparked an interest in eurogames, it was the geek that reninvigorated my love of gaming and connected me to my gaming group, where I have not only had a crapload of fun, but I have made some great friends, lifelong friends.

I don’t even remember how I first heard about the site, but I had only been a registered user for a few months before someone in a local game group had contacted me and invited me to come check out the next meeting. Here’s where I posted about that very first experience with the Fresno gamers.

I guess I could say that I spend way too much time on the geek, but screw that! I spend exactly the right amount of time on the geek. It’s awesome. It’s free, but I choose to contribute a bit of money each year because it’s something I use almost daily. It’s more than worth it.

Here’s what boardgamegeek is all about, as per their wiki page:

BoardGameGeek is an online board gaming resource and community. The site is updated on a real-time basis by its large and still growing user base, making the ‘Geek the largest and most up-to-date place to get gaming information! There is no charge to become a registered member of BGG, although you are certainly encouraged to help improve the site by adding your own reviews and thoughts on games to the existing database!

There are reviews, ratings, images, play-aids, translations, and session reports from board game geeks across the world, as well as live discussion forums. In addition, every day nearly a hundred game trades pass through the hands of registered members, as well as transactions in the marketplace. If you are new to the site and are wondering where to begin, you might start with the Guide to BoardGameGeek.

Start wherever you want. The geek is the place to go for all your boardgaming needs. When you get there, register, and look for user gameguythinks. If you are already registered, then put that 10th anniversary microbadge up and display it proudly!

2009 in Review

Jeff Myers — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:24:20 +0000

According to the data at boardgamegeek.com, I played games 626 times in 2009. I played a game about 52 times each month, which isn’t bad at all considering these are almost all played face-to-face with other gamers. I think I played five games online at BrettspielWelt, maybe less than that. I played 235 different games over the course of the year, and more than half of those games were new to me. I cannot imagine that will be the case in 2010. November was the worst month for gaming at only 25 plays and August was a total game fest at 89 plays. 2009 was my first complete year where I was really involved in the hobby, so I’m curious to see how things change over time.

My friend, Mark Jackson, compiles a list of five and dimes for the gaming community. These are games that have gotten at least five or ten plays throughout the year. This is the first year I’ve participated, so here are my lists.

First the dimes:

[20] Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age
[19] Vs. System
[15] World of Warcraft Trading Card Game
[14] Cheese Snatching
[13] Escalation!
[12] Finito!
[12] Ra: The Dice Game
[11] Duck, Duck, Bruce
[10] Big Points
[10] Crokinole
[10] Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game

Now the fives:

[9] For Sale
[9] Monopoly Deal Card Game
[8] Cities
[8] Hop Hop Hurray!
[7] Archaeology: The Card Game
[7] Cheeky Monkey
[7] Mow
[7] Rat-a-Tat Cat
[7] Sushizock im Gockelwok
[6] Battleline
[6] Hive
[6] Power Grid
[6] Race for the Galaxy
[6] Tier auf Tier
[5] Blink
[5] Can’t Stop
[5] Hey! That’s My Fish!
[5] Lord of the Rings – The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition
[5] Make ‘n’ Break
[5] Marrakesh
[5] Sleeping Queens

Looking back on my lists, I think the biggest surprise is just how many games have an exclamation mark in their title. I wonder if that’s normal for board game titles, or if I am somehow drawn to games with an exclamation point. Come to think of it, I have included an exclamation point in the title of the game I’m designing, so maybe I am drawn to them.

If I had to make some predictions as to how this list will change in 2010, I would imagine that Roll Through the Ages and Ra: The Dice Game will be the only games that remain dimes in 2010. Race for the Galaxy will probably move into that list, since I recently taught my wife how to play. My game group usually plays RftG at the end of the evening, often after midnight, which is just too late for this guy to be out on a Tuesday night. Battleline may move into the dime category as well, since that has become a favorite two-player over the last few months.

New additions to the dime list will be Piece o’ Cake and Keltis: Der Weg der Steine, if the last few weeks are any indication of the rest of the year. Both Power Grid and For Sale will stay in the fives, I think. Cheese Snatching and Hop, Hop, Hurray! will also be in the list somewhere. Everything else is anyone’s guess.

2009 was a rough year in many ways, but I really do think that being able to play games regularly helped me get through the tough spots. I plan on playing just as much, or even more in 2010.

Funagain gives profits to Haiti

Jeff Myers — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:51:15 +0000

Online game retailer funagain.com is donating 100% of its net profits from all in-stock orders placed on Friday, January 15, 2010 to AmeriCares (www.americares.org) an organization involved in providing much needed medical care and relief for the the people of Haiti.

I think it’s a nice opportunity to pick up a great boardgame that you can sit down and play with family and friends. I was playing some games last night with my wife and a good friend, thinking how lucky I am to be able to do so.

You can also donate directly to AmeriCares.