Battles of Westeros

Despite my better judgement, I decided to go ahead and start painting the figs for Battles of Westeros. Knowing the way I am, I chose to start with just the leaders and work from there. I've painted all the leaders from the base game now and they are ready for their dip/ink-wash. I didn't go overboard with the detailing, though some part of me rebelled and at least a couple have more detail than was necessary. I really like the way the Lannisters came out. Kevan was pretty un-interesting, but I spent a bit of time on his shield and the lions I added look really good (though you can't even see his shield in these pictures). These paint choices were mostly inspired by Giles Dorrington's paints. As I just finished re-reading A Game of Thrones, the one thing I wanted to do was make sure of a couple things. First Tywin Lannister had to be more "gilded". Giles kept to the Crimson, but there wasn't enough gold. I gave Tywin a golden cape and most of the horse's armor is gold as well. The second was Marbrand's house coat of arms. Theirs is a burning tree, orange on smoke. The other was Rickard Karstark's which is a white startburst on black. Those needed to be right. George R.R. Martin spent a lot of time detailing out the various coat of arms and house colors in his books. It seemed silly to ignore that for these. The Stark leaders were less interesting to paint even though Robb has his direwolf. I'll probably go back and dry brush a little more of Grey Wind after they are dipped.

Next up will be the armies (assuming I get there). I hope to keep the painting there as simple as possible. These figures are so small, that a splash of color should be more than enough. If I try and "detail" them (I say that because I didn't really detail these) like the leaders, it'll take forever to get through the base armies. I'm looking at the Stark foot soldiers (the guys with the axes) for the first round, but it depends on how the leaders end up looking in the end. If I'm not super happy with the results, I may just leave the leaders as the only painted guys in the set.

Collection Churn

I've been doing a bit of trading lately trying to move some stuff that I'm not likely going to play for stuff that I've been trying to acquire for a while or that I really wanted. It started with Yomi - I was able to get the Complete First Edition box in trade for Indonesia (which is a fine game, but Nathan Winchester owns it, and he's who I'd play it with anyway). There have been a couple of recent math trades and I moved FITS, Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel, Neue Heimat (I have my copy and one more still), and a load of Age of Steam maps. I picked up Oregon, Tal der Könige, Neuland, Power $truggle, Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg: New Society and Banquet Expansion, Ys, Ys+, and Combat Commander: Battle Pack #2 - Stalingrad. One of the math trades also had a copy of Lexio that didn't trade, but which I was able to followup with the owner and buy off him. Lexio isn't a killer game, but I like it and since there isn't a bunch of paper parts, it is almost ideal for taking on our week long houseboat trip later this summer (there are tons of kids and inevitably lots of water from all the swimming, so a dry spot to play is often a challenge). Those that know me probably know I don't like St. Petersburg much - it was in a bundle, so I'll likely be bundling that PoS with something else in another trade or auction.
This is sort of roundabout logic, but I want to play Neuland to figure out if I should keep Roads and Boats. I'm thinking that the value of R&B (and it's expansion) makes it time to try and get something else for it (like cash).  And apparently I'm on an anti-Splotter kick, because I'm thinking I should sell Bus as well. Right now, the only Splotter game that interests me in trying out is Antiquity (which I believe I can get Mike G or Michelle to teach me anytime).
As for CC: Stalingrad - I've slowly been grabbing all the expansions for this awesome game. I'm not through all the scenarios in the base game yet, but if Robert and I ever get back into the regular playing mode, the expansions will get played soon enough. The third is one of the bigger ones - Normandy. It is next on the list, but is plenty easy to buy still.

Geekway 2011

The Geekway 2011 came and went a week or two ago. I wrote up a Geeklist on the BGG if you want to read all about it. I don't really feel like re-hashing it, so I thought I'd just kind of summarize so random Things of No Interest. First off, Jay, Christ, Jay, and Jeff do a great job with this Con. Over the last 5 years, this has really gotten bigger and nicer without sacrificing the things that are so great about it. I really enjoy seeing and playing games with the folks I've met over the years. The library has plenty of games, and the play-to-win table always has a good selection of games. Speaking of the Play-To-Win table - we didn't. Neither Nathan nor I managed a prize (from the PTW table nor door prizes) for the third or fourth year running. The whole damn group from Omaha managed to win door prizes within the first day or so. We thought he had a good shot at Battles of Westeros since we had 4 of the 10 entries, but no luck. On a side note, the limited number of figures for the game has got me seriously considering painting the set. I resist as much as I can since I'm terrible about finishing once I start this.

New Games
Here are the new games I learned:

• Stone Age - pretty standard worker placement / gather resources to turn into points.
• Yomi - this was the hit of the Geekway for me. It is 10 decks of cards that let you play a souped-up rock-paper-scissors battle. It is fast and a load of fun.
• Zombie Dice - this is a five minute press your luck dice game.
• Ilium - Another middle of the road Knizia. He's done better
• Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel - this is a two-man-squad mini's board game from back in the day. Nothing special here.
• Cargo Noir - this is a nice family game that seems like it plays best with three.
• Tikal II: The Lost Temple - this was pretty disappointing. None of us cared for it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really fun either.
• Battling Tops - this was a 20 minute diversion run one night. I will admit it was more fun than Beyblade my son plays.
• Nightfall - easily the worst game of the con (until I played Innovation). There seems like there should have been a couple of cool things, but there just were not.
• Code Omega - a puzzle game ala Ubongo, but I don't think it was as good.
• The Resistance - another really good game, this is like Werewolf "lite"
• Aargh!Tect - not sure this is a great game, but it was fun enough dancing around and grunting like a caveman.
• Princes of the Renaissance - I get the same feeling after playing most Martin Wallace games for the first time. Its interesting, but I'd have to play it again to know for sure if I care for it.
• Innovation - its a Civ card game with none of the elegance and speed of 7 Wonders. It also suffers from the same issue the Through the Ages does - the rich get richer and the poor suffer the whole time.

The Trade Table
The Geekway Trade Table runs like this: random person starts and picks a game. Whomever's game is picked gets the next selection and so forth. This year I had 4 entries: Wok Star, Arkham Horror bundle, bundle (Trias, Feurio, Clans), Command And Colors Exp1. The Trias bundle was taken like 3rd, I pulled Wok Star off the table and then took Grind. I pulled the one game because there wasn't a whole lot actually submitted that I wanted. When the C&C:exp got taken, I grabbed Arkham back and a bundle that had Blue Moon City in it and called it a day. I don't know if the recent glut of crap in the game market or what skewed my interest in the submissions, but I just didn't see much I wanted. And though it wasn't part of this trade table, when I got home I traded Indonesia for a complete first edition set of Yomi.

Dominant Species

Friday night saw my third playing of Dominant Species. We played a five-player game with Matt Longieliere (mammals), Nathan Winchester (amphibians), Robert Bolan (birds), and Morgan Burt (insects) - I was Arachnids. Five players was an interesting change of pace from 4-players. With only 4 actions each, some of the choices each turn felt a bit "required". In fact, the first three turns only saw a handful of Domination(scoring) events. However, once everyone had some space carved out on the board, things got interesting fast. Matt was everywhere on the board using his mammal powers to live everywhere. Morgan and I were carving out different sides of the boards with Nathan and Robert in between. At the end of the game, you could see how close the scores were going to be. Matt had a crazy amount of action on the tundras, but wasn't going to score much in domination nor land. Morgan I were the opposite. I wasn't sure I had enough steam at the end, and even with two scorings in the domination phase and two wanderlust actions, I fell two points short of Morgan and Matt. Matt "walked" away with a mammal victory. A couple observations about why I love this game:

• Matt didn't adapt to anything for the first 4-5 rounds. In fact, you wouldn't have thought he was trying. Then he surged and flooded the tundra and held it at the end of the game. This was bolstered by the fact that not many competition actions were happening.
• Cards make a lot of difference in the flow of the game. It was a while before we gained an extra action which made the first 4 rounds or so quite different. The other two cards that give you more actions? Last round.
• We had blight and catastrophe and the other nasty cards in the first two rounds.
• Water was not en vouge - nobody was adapting to it and so it kept hitting regression - a vicious cycle. With the Tundra and other cards, the end board was mostly covered with seeds. This really hurt Nathan (Amphibians).  There is such a neat balance between fighting other players off, and carving out the world so you can thrive.
• I definitely thing I want to play this by removing 5 cards from the deck. It just makes the game more manageable time-wise and I can't see how it would make the game worse.

Countdown to the Geekway 2011

Some folks have THE GATHERING. Others have - Essen, Origins, BGG Con, WBC, whatever. I attend the Geekway. The last few years, Nathan Winchester and I have gone and we always have a good time. Besides just the general "sit and play games for days on end" thing, I get to see a number of friends I've made over the years through this hobby. Jay Moore (one of the guys that currently host this event) was actually my BGG Secret Santa the year before my first Geekway. It was nice to get to meet him and since he is an MU fan and I'm a Husker, you'd think we wouldn't have hit it off, but Jay is such a nice guy I forgive him. I also met Chester Ogborn at the Geekway - Chester grew up in Omaha, so he's something of a kindred spirit. I've enjoyed gaming with and chatting with him over the years. Of course, every year I've gone, so have Justin and Jason Easley. These two guys (brothers, not partners) are great and I enjoy just hanging out with them as much as playing games with them. Justin and I have partnered up each year in the Crokinole Tourney as "The Droids Ur Lookin 4". We suck, but laugh the whole time at how bad we are. Last year, I talked a crew of people I knew at Union Pacific into making the trip out from Omaha. They had a good time and are coming back this year (and bringing another couple as well). And then of course there are all the locals I've enjoyed meeting each year - Mike Silbey, Jason Little (though he was only local the first year), Chris Darden, Jeff Hiatt, Justin Heimburger, Timothy Hunt, The Zambos etc etc.
This year, I'm trying something a little different. Every year, I list about 50 games I want to play and I play like two of those. This year, I'm scheduling some longer games in advance to try and actually get stuff in. On the agenda so far? Dominant Species, Mutant Chronicles: Siege of The Citadel, A Game of Thrones, Combat Commander, Crokinole, Princes of the Renaissance and  probably a game of Ca$h and Gun$. Two weeks left.

Combat Commander

In September 1944 the Allies, after successfully landed in Normandie (D-Day), conquered the north of France and Belgium. There were now two opinions about continuation the battle. The Americans wanted to attack Germany over a long and wide front. The English Field Marshall Montgomery wanted to advance right through Holland to the Ijsselmeer and then proceed eastwards into Germany. That way, the German troops in West Holland would be isolated. In addition, the Allies wouldn't have to face the heavily defended Siegfried line. After a lot of discussion, Montgomery was authorised to execute his plan "Operation Market Garden." The plan existed of two parts.

Market: by means of airborne landings of the 1st Corps of the 1st Allied Airborne Army to conquer the most important bridges between Eindhoven and Arnhem.

Garden: The advance of the 2nd English Army of General Dempsey from which the 30st Army Corps had to push from Neerpelt in Belgium through Eindhoven over the conquered bridges to Arnhem.

On September 17, 1944 between 13:00 and 14:00 hours the airborne landings began. The American 101st Airborne Division "Screaming Eagles" landed near Son and Veghel, the American 82nd Airborne Division "All American" near Grave and Nijmegen and the 1st English Airborne Division near Arnhem.

For many reasons, the operation did not proceed as planned. The advance of the army from Belgium was seriously delayed by unexpected resistance and because the bridge over the Wilhelmina channel was blown up by the Germans. The Allies first had to build a Bailey Bridge making the advance of the army 36 hours behind schedule. Poor radio connections prevented good communications, especially near Arnhem. Bad weather conditions delayed the dropping of necessary reinforcements. The presence of two SS divisions at the Veluwe was fatal for the British troops at Arnhem.


Robert Bolan came over on Thursday night to play a bit of Combat Commander. I wanted to start trying to get in a playing of each of the WBC Combat Commander Tourney scenarios from 2009. There is a tournament I've signed up for at the Geekway next month, and I'd like to not suck too badly. At any rate, this particular scenario was called A Bridge in Belgium (001) and setup the German forces vs the British forces. The Germans held a bridge in the middle of the map as the defensive force, while the British goal was to capture the two ends of the bridge. There were a couple of other interesting factors - no scoring for exiting off the opposite side of the map and night rules were in effect. I chose the Germans and bunkered myself in, determined not to play as the aggressor, but to simply outlast the Brits. It wasn't going to be easy. The British forces advanced into melee combat and devastated the group holding one side of the bridge. On the other side, the Germans held the high ground. The problem was, the Germans only had a single light machine gun and the distance to the targets at night made it nearly impossible to hit anything. I shot at the British every chance I could, knowing the futility, but needing to chew through cards for both sides. Fortunately for me, time was on my side - in this case, time events and running through our decks but a quick end to the scenario. Much as history played out, the Germans held their ground (and blew up the bridge).

My Top 10

I covered what I thought about the BGG Top 50 and here is my top 10. The last couple fall into a bucket of games that could round out the top.

1		Samurai	7.405	Far and away my favorite game. This game is so interesting to me. I suppose it is interesting in the way that Chess is interesting to a Grandmaster - there isn't too much information that you can't take it all in, but there is enough going on to make it interesting. The game plays 2-4 players and is subtly different with each number of players. If there is one flaw it is that an inexperienced player gives a huge advantage to the player that follows.
2		Tichu	7.561	This is the king of trick taking / climbing card games. This is really just a standard deck of playing cards + 4 special cards and yet those 4 cards make this a special game. The best partnership game out there.
3		Combat Commander: Europe	7.649	First, I'm not a WWII enthusiast - I don't read everything about it nor know all about it. However, this isn't just a game, it is a method of storytelling and an experience. It is Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers all rolled together. It would be easy to glance at the game and suspect that the scenarios are all similar or that they all play similarly. They do not. It never ceases to amaze me how different every single playing of this game feels. Each army has a different feel because of the card decks and unit combinations. The scenario setup and postures also change things every time. I haven't had a chance to play the random scenarios, but I've read nothing but good things about it. I can see playing this for years and years.
4		Power Grid	8.061	As I mentioned last time, this one has a bit of fiddlyness, but is such a fun playing experience that I've always overlooked it. It combines an auction with resource planning and positioning. I really don't know anyone that thinks its a bad game. It has seen a lot of plays over the years and some players may be burnt out on it a bit, but I'd still play it almost anytime.
5		Steam	7.769	The original - Age of Steam was my favorite game for a long time. I never even wanted to try this game. Once I did, I realized that it was probably the better game. The changes Martin Wallace made were not significant enough to completely change the experience, but really cleaned the game up. The new method for restocking goods makes planning so much more straight forward and the money management is much much better. The game is also quicker by eliminating some of the little things that caused the game to drag on (like building a bazillion little pieces of track).
6		Torres	7.123	There is something really cool about this action-point game. There is a ton of chances for clever play and outsmarting your opponents. I really enjoy the spatial play too - building castles and thinking in multiple dimensions makes this a unique experience. This might be a bit dry for some tastes, but I really like playing this.
7		Carcassonne: The Castle	7.027	There are a lot of Carc variants and expansions, but this one struck a certain chord with me. Maybe it is the "frame" which reigns in the board while still retaining the essential feeling you get from playing a Carc game - building a world. I also love the bonus chips and how you have to manage your scoring tactically to snatch up bonus opportunities. This is a great two-player game.
8		Chaos in the Old World	7.027	Four asymmetric forces duke it out in a dice fest? Well, not entirely. This is a great marriage of Euro and Ameritrash. It is a tactical fun fest and each side plays differently enough to make each game just a little different. The play time on this is limited so it won't overstay its welcome and force someone to sit around for hours on end.
9		Dominant Species	7.592	I hesitated to throw this in hear after only a couple plays, but for a game to play in 5.5 hours and for me to play it week after week and not need a break says something. I just enjoy myself the whole time I'm playing. There is just enough complexity that you feel like you have a lot of control amid the chaos. The game rewards good tactical play, but can swing to someone else just as quickly. I think you can cut off 20% of the playing time by taking out cards and would still get a great experience.
10		Medici, Through the Desert, Antike, Chicago Express, Age of Empires III, Steam Barons, Battles of Westeros, A Game of Thrones, Ave Caesar, El Grande, Java, Ticket to Ride		Too many choices to round out the top 10. Each has some reason for belonging and frankly needs to be played.

Dominant Species

Yeah, I HAD six tundras, but Matthew is about to remove a
load of my cubes and take the Survival card and points.

Dominant Species hit the table again Friday night. The players? Dion Garner - Birds, Matthew Frederick - Insects, Amelia Boli - Mammals, myself - Arachnids. We discovered two rules we played wrong the first time - turn order starts out in REVERSE food chain order. The second is that ALL VPs that are earned for glaciers, Wanderlust, and the last round Dominance are scored on the Bonus Point scale (ie triangular scoring). This makes the last round of the game much much bigger than we had planned for.
I had started the game as we all did - just trying to carve out our niche. Unfortunately for Dion, Matthew grabbed the Blight card, which removed all the resource markers from one tile (except one). During the extinction phase, Dion lost a whopping 21 species (half his total). This devastated him, though to his credit, he found a lot of points the rest of the game. With Dion having next to no cubes to put on the board, I started pushing the glaciers and taking over the tundra to score survivor points. I managed to grab a huge score about 2/3 through the game and painted a large target on my chest. Matthew used the Catastrophe card to make me pay dearly and took the tundra from me. With a lot of help, we kept Matthew from fully catching me with survival. But the last round... With no more cubes to place, I started methodically placing my actions onto the competition areas - I needed to wipe Matthew off of a lot of place to score decent Dominance. I unloaded 4 attacks (plus my single Animal ability) and switched dominance all over the map. The dominance bonus and my position let me pull away from everyone in the final scoring.
We talked and I think the game might be BETTER if you take 5 cards out of the game (at random). It would not only lop off 45-60 minutes, but it would also add a small amount of mystery to the game (is blight coming?). Still a good game despite its length as it is engaging the whole time. Amelia didn't care for it as much as the rest of us, as their is a good bit of "Diplomacy" involved. Some points are easy to see, but there are so many things you can do to fix positions and score points, that nothing is obvious.

The Top 10 Games of the BGG

And finally, the Top 10 games of all time (on the BGG)

1		Twilight Struggle (2005)	8.199	This is the King of CDGs. It isn't the first or most original, but it is perfectly executed and as a child of the 70s-80s, the theme is well matched to the game in every respect. This is one that gets better after you've played through the cards a couple times and have a feeling for the flow of the game. A little luck can swing a tight game, but the experience is so good, I never really mind (exception: Bear Trap card).
2		Puerto Rico (2002)	8.185	One of the Kings of modern boardgaming. I wont' gain any friends by saying this, but this one doesn't hold up. Sure, it was original at the time, but the game is flawed. The person after the newbie (or guy that screws up all the time) is going to win. The strategies have all been played out and the game is just understood. Sorry, it just isn't all that fun - even with the expansion.
3		Agricola (2007)	8.182	This game came out of nowhere to dethrone Puerto Rico. As a worker placement/build A to get B to get points game, it is ok. Better if everyone knows the game so it'll move a bit faster, but this one just doesn't scream for me to play it. You have to know what your cards mean and the winner is the one that can interpret their cards and execute the related manipulation the best. Despite this, this game won the 2011 Geek Madness Tourney over Power Grid.
4		Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization (2006)	8.170	I discovered this game last year and fell in love. Then I played it some more - quite a bit lately. I'm over my infatuation with this game. One the one hand, it really feels like playing Civ the computer game in boardgame form. On the other hand, this is a "rich get richer, poor get poorer" game and it is not the least bit fun to be on the losing end. There is no catch up mechanism (I did say rich get richer) and so the first person to bash someone is likely to be the winner. I think most people haven't realized this because it is so long that they likely haven't played it much.
5		Power Grid (2004)	8.061	This is one of my favorite games of all time. Though a bit wonky/fiddly in the phases, the combination of auction and position management is top notch. I'd never suggest someone try and figure this out from the rules, but if you can get someone to show you how to play (not hard), you are in for a wonderful game. Don't believe me - this game has won 4 of the last 6 Geek Madness Tournaments
6		Le Havre (2008)	7.989	Le Havre was the followup to Agricola and there was such excitement that a group of us ordered this from overseas. DHL and Germany decided to lose our package for months and we finally got the game a week or two after the game was released in North America. That coupled with a game that felt a bit mechanical/dry and is a worker placement/get stuff to build more stuff game and I was less thrilled. This is a good game, but one I'm not dying to play.
7		Dominion: Intrigue (2009)	7.967	See #8 below.
8		Dominion (2008)	7.927	Dominion was a revolution in recent gaming with its deck building mechanic. Yep, that's all I can say about this boring boring game. Sorry, it just is not thrilling. It is the same boring thing as you try to build a faster engine than everyone else. Despite the variance in cards and the multitude of expansions, the games all seem the same (yes, boring). **Note, it is not the mechanic, as I LOVE Thunderstone and all it's expansions. Anyone that says I only like to play the soulless Euros is wrong.
9		Brass (2007)	7.906	This Martin Wallace game is supposed to be excellent (though only four-players) game. This one was revised as Age of Industry, which means I'm less inclined to learn this. Martin tends to revise his game and he really gets them right the second go round. That being said, I have played neither of them and would enjoy it.
10		Caylus (2005)	7.883	I have not yet played this game. I have played its little brother - Caylus Magna Carta. I'd be interested in giving this a go, but not with Steve Bauer, who has played this a bazillion times online.

My Thoughts of No Interest on the BGG Top 50 (11-20)

Getting close to being done. Here are the bottom half of the top twenty.

11		El Grande (1995)	7.840	This is quite possibly one of the best games around. Area control and various powers with something of a bidding mechanism. Really a great 5-player game. This one can cause a little AP (analysis paralysis), but is worth the effort.
12		Race for the Galaxy (2007)	7.832	RFTG is the card version of Puerto Rico, but re-themed in space (seriously, that's how we ended up here). The original design for San Juan was basically RFTG. At any rate, it is a decent (though as far as I'm concerned, far too highly overrated) game. I disliked that luck of the draw can pretty well determine the winner early in the game. There are plenty of strategies, but if you start down one path and never get the cards you need, you are screwed. No way to catch up.
13		Tigris & Euphrates (1997)	7.828	I only ever played this once a while ago. I don't remember it being a bad game, but about half the local group doesn't care for it. I think its one that I'd enjoy if I played it some more.
14		7 Wonders (2010)	7.797	This is a card drafting game where you are trying to build your civ/empire. The beauty of this game is that it is fast/short and interesting. It also plays well from 2-6 players. I nice recent hit.
15		Steam (2009)	7.767	Steam has taken over from Age of Steam (#20). Steam cleaned up the re-stocking phase, introduced a new action phase to replace the auction (though you can still do the auction if you prefer) and offered up a gentler way to manage stock/money. Combined, the systems make the game faster and more streamlined. One of my favorite games.
16		War of the Ring (2004)	7.763	At one time, I had a copy of War of the Ring, but wasn't all that interested in even trying it and traded it away. This is the same "game" as #26, but the original version. Erik has claimed this is a great game - maybe I'll get a chance to try this out someday.
17		Commands & Colors: Ancients (2006)	7.736	Until Battles of Westeros came out, this was probably my favorite of the Command and Colors series. The system "grew up" and was more complicated by just enough. The block system really works here. Minis aren't necessary for enjoyment of this game. A good game with tons of expansions. The only down side is that all the scenarios feel a lot alike, except for the unit distribution.
18		Battlestar Galactica (2008)	7.731	This co-op has a twist - not everyone is on your side. Some of them "have a plan". Though I enjoyed some of the show, I never really wanted to sit down and play this. Probably because I'm not good at deceiving the other players and easily deceived.
19		Paths of Glory (1999)	7.718	This card driven game about WWI doesn't hold as much interest as other periods and has a really really long playing time. If someone I knew had this and really wanted to play, I might indulge, but haven't gone out of the way to try this.
20		Age of Steam (2002)	7.695	For a long time this was my #1 favorite game. I still own it and 15+ expansion maps (including a number of print & play maps). When I first heard about Steam, I figured it was just going to be more of Raiload Tycoon. Then I played it a couple times and realized that as much as I love this game, I liked Steam more. This is a great great game, but Steam has cleaned up a few things that make it more streamlined.