Gameguythinks

Kingsburg for the iPhone

October 1st, 2010

I recently purchased the iPhone application of Andrea Chiarvesio and Luca Iennaco wonderful board game, Kingsburg, which is published domestically by Fantasy Flight games. I don’t actually have an iPhone, but we have an iPod Touch, which runs the same applications. Regular readers (all four of you) may recall that Kingsburg was my first Game of the Month, and remains one of my favorites, so I was pretty excited about trying out this new version.

The application uses all of the great graphics from the physical production and the game looks great. Game play is the same as well, and the app features both single player and multi-player mode, where opponents can just pass the device back and forth as they take their turns. After one game, I disabled the annoying hints and tips that kept popping up, but it didn’t eliminate as much of the interrupting frames as I would have liked. I also turned off the sound effects after the first game, but found that I actually missed them later, so I turned them back on.

The application captures all of the important elements from the physical version of the game, and for fans of the game, like myself, who don’t get to play it as often as we would like, and don’t feel like going online and playing it at BrettspielWelt, the application is well worth the five buck download.

The only real problem with the application is that I cannot see how anyone who is not very familiar with the game could hope to make any sense out of this thing. One of my favorite things about the board game is that huge board that has all of the advisers, where you place your dice. In the application, the advisers only appear as you assign values to them, and this makes it much more difficult to think about where and how you want to place your dice. It didn’t make a big difference to me, but I am very familiar with the game. I imagine that the game is very frustrating for new players.

I still prefer to sit down and play the real version, but I think they did a nice job with this. I’m just happy to have way to enjoy one of my favorite games.

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Blogging? What?

August 31st, 2010

I have no idea why it’s been so hard to write for the last couple of months. Sure, I could say that work was crazy, and then I took some vacation time, but I don’t know if that had anything to do with my blogging block.

I know that part of the problem has been that a good portion of my creativity has been preoccupied with other projects, like running a Dungeons and Dragons game. While my players get to just show up, roll dice, and say things like, “I attack the zombie to my right,” I spend hours of time thinking about things like why that zombie is there, and how that zombie fits into the story arch that I have in my head. I spend time creating puzzles that may or may not get solved and non-player characters that may be killed before they get a chance to speak. This is the way of the dungeon master, and I do get a kick out of it, but I need to figure out a quicker way to develop encounters.

I’ve also been involved in the longest online game of Friedemann Friese’s Fearsome Floors in the history of online games of Friedemann Friese’s Fearsome Floors.

If you spend any time at all on yucata.de, I advise you to avoid this game at all costs.

For a game that is supposed to represent groups of people running in terror from a horrible monster, it’s moving along at a snail’s pace. I will never play this game again, online or otherwise. Maybe I can get something good for my copy in a math trade.

I did play a great deal of Roll Through the Ages this month, both in person and on the iPhone. It’s a very solid dice game in my opinion, and I’m not sick of it. I just checked my stats on BGG and I’ve played it 33 times. I remember the first time I played it in January of 2009, when Doug Garrett taught me to play, and I’ve played it regularly ever since then. I played it nine times this month, and I wouldn’t turn down a game tonight. Obviously, this game does not suck.

However, I don’t think Roll Through the Ages was a very good pick for Game of the Month. It’s a great game, and I had a nice time playing it this month, but I don’t think my repeated plays lead me to any new thoughts regarding strategy or to a new appreciation for the design. I didn’t learn anything new; I guess is what I’m trying to say.

September will be better, right?

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Rolling Through August

August 4th, 2010

August is a month where I usually take some time off, so I wanted to choose a Game of the Month that I could take with me when I travel. I chose Matt Leacock’s Roll Through the Ages, because not only is it easy to carry, but it also has a relatively new iPhone application.

I reviewed this mini-civilization dice roller quite some time ago. You can read that through this link, Roll Through the Ages, which includes an overview of the game if you are unfamiliar with it.

This is one of those games that still sees regular play even though the newness wore off a long time ago. This is just one of those games that is rarely denied if someone feels like bringing it out. There isn’t a lot of player interaction, but nobody seems to care much. You roll the dice. You make some decisions, and then you chat until it’s your turn again. Simple and fun.

Here’s some of what I would like to consider as I play the game this month:

• There is a free expansion, called The Late Bronze Age, that I tried once and forgot about. I would like to give this another try.
• The game travels well, but can I travel with the dice only? Those wooden peg boards are really cool and all, but they do take up space. Is there a paper and dice only version?
• We just got the iPhone app. I will try both solo and multi-player modes.
• What are some essential strategies?

Post some of your thougts and experiences with this game as the month goes by, and we’ll discuss them at the end of the month.

Happy gaming!

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