On The Horizon: the latest Friedemann Friese project...

The ever-strange and creative inventor of Power Grid and Black Friday has decided to create a board game using mechanics from the top ten board games of all time on BGG.  That would include the worker placement from Agricola, the card purchase from Through The Ages, deck-building from Dominion, the card-drafting from 7 Wonders, turn-order from (you guessed it!) Power Grid, and the action selection from Puerto Rico.  Huh.  Okay, I'll bite.  I'm interested to see how all this comes together....

You can see him talk about his schizophrenic design here.

Spiel des Jahres winners 2011!

Looks like I was right on with my guesses on SdJ this year.  Qwirkle took the win with 7 Wonders garnering the "gamer's" award.  Nice.

Quick thoughts on some of the Spiel des Jahres 2011 nominees...

Only three this year:

Qwirkle - a new favourite of ours and we taught my partner's mom just this weekend.  Fun, super, super simple, and much subtler than you think.  Read how much I love the game here.

Forbidden Island - Oh my god, I've owned this for months and I have yet to play it (I know, GamerChris, I know!)  I am certain I will love this game but the co-op aspect makes it a no-go in my house.  Blame the partner....

Asara - Haven't played this but now I must.  Kramer/Kiesling is not always successful, but they're always interesting.









I actually kinda hope that Qwirkle takes it.  It's such a simple and elegant game/pastime and it's really quite enjoyable for all the members of a family.  That, and Matt Leacock has already won tons of awards for Pandemic.

As for the special (more strategic) prize, I've only played one but I know it deserves it:  7 Wonders. Read why I think so here.

More images from upcoming 7 Wonders: Leaders....

The Geek points us to new images of cards and pieces from the upcoming expansion to my favourite game of 2010.  Take a look....

It's hard to say whether this will change the game all that much or bring a little more depth of strategy, but I'll probably pick it up anyways. We're still playing 7 Wonders and a little more variety sure wouldn't hurt.

Mannequin piss?!?!? What the....

No, no, no, 'Manneken Pis', which is the 8th wonder from Belgium that can be played with my favourite new game 7 Wonders.  Although Wikipedia describes it as

...a small bronze fountain sculpture depicting a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin.

Okay.  So maybe the name is kinda appropriate.  In any case, boy, was I excited to receive this (nearly) free expansion.  I'm really loving the Geek right now.  With it, I also ordered a new card for Dominion, the Stash, all for a cost of ten bucks, most of which covered the shipping.  You should really check their online store.  I can't wait for the Power Grid expansion cards to arrive.  Definitely will be worth the five bucks!

Best of 2010...

So I'm starting to look back at this year and thinking about what some of my favourites are of 2010.  Movies are easy (Inception, Black Swan) and music as well (The xx, Janelle Monae, Sufjan Stevens).  Games, on the other hand, are a bit tougher.  I bought a lot of games this year (now THAT's an understatement!) but a lot of them weren't released this year.  Agricola, a release of 2007, has quickly become one of my top five absolute favourite games but I only started playing it a couple months ago.  And with so many games being released now each year, it's near-impossible to play them all.  So I can only hope to mention the ones that I've enjoyed personally and maybe pick some stellar choices from there.  So without further ado (of the games I actually got play this year):

Best family game of the year:  7 Wonders - You can read more in my review of the game but this was an easy choice.  Accessible rules, games in 30 minutes, endless strategies to try out, and scales amazingly well from 2 to 7 people.  If you enjoyed Dominion at all, I imagine the speedy play of this fun, fantastic card game will also appeal.

Almost best family game of the year:  Lords of Vegas - Not many strategy games can have such crazy swings of luck and still be enjoyable for me.  This one is.  Maybe because it feels a bit like Acquire played in a high-stakes casino.  This one definitely doesn't have the staying power of 7W but the last couple games have been a hoot.

Best heavy game of the year: Inca Empire - I have to admit that I've only played this once due to the lengthy play time since our group doesn't usually last more than two hours anymore.  But that one play of this reprint of Tuhuantinsuyu was a brilliant experience.  The route-building that I love so much from train games combined with a clever, nasty action card mechanism to affect the other player's games make this a worthwhile purchase.  This modern classic really is THAT good and deserves more recognition. 

Best filler: Mosaix - Like FITS and Take It Easy meets X's and O's, this little game in a lovely tin case is seconds to learn but surprisingly challenging due to its extremely clever scoring mechanism.  Grab a copy cheap and take it everywhere you go.







Looking forward to playing some more of these games in the new year as the many companies move on from Essen and the Christmas season.  I'm currently looking forward to reprints of Alien Frontiers and Scripts and Scribes (now Biblios) which should be arriving the first-quarter of this year.

Have a happy new year and enjoy what's left of the holidays....

A review of 7 Wonders...

Every year or so for the last little while a game has come out that is deep enough to offer long-term playability but also short enough to be addictively replayable, usually more than once per gaming session.  For our group of friends, recent examples of this have been Race For The Galaxy but more so Dominion.  Well, I was worried this year but I am happy to say that a game to rival these two modern classics has just been released right before the end of 2010.  Antoine Bauza's 7 Wonders plays like a cross between RFTG and that great little Japanese filler Fairy Tale but manages to handle up to 7 players without jumping outside of it's 30-40 minute time frame.  The mechanics in 7W are hardly original but are put together so well that the resulting experience is quite addictive and absorbing.

The entire game takes place over 3 ages in which each player plays 6 turns.  Each player starts with a hand of 7 cards and everyone picks a card to play at the same time.  Once everyone has played their card, the players pass their remaining hands to their neighbours (clockwise the first and third round, counter the second).  This is repeated 6 times until players play one of their last two cards and discard the other.  It's all pretty simple, especially if you've played Fairy Tale.  Where it gets interesting is how the cards can be played and their effects on the game.

Many cards, especially in the first age, produce one or more of the 7 resources for you once they are played face-up to your tableau.  Since you only start with one of these resources and most cards require certain resources to be played, er... "built", one often starts the game by building up resources.  And this brings me to the first interesting little twist in the game.  You can actually always purchase resources that your direct neighbours have available.  So there is often exchanges of money as well as continuous appraisals of the cards laid by one's neighbouring cities.  As well, certain cards provide discounts, extra coins, and some even lead to free plays of upcoming cards in later ages.

In the final age, a randomly determined subset of the 10 purple "guild" bonus cards show up (think 6-Dev's from RFTG).  If you literally play your cards right, you may be able to build one or more of these for an average of an extra 6-10 points each.  In a game where final scores are usually between 40 and 50, the guilds can often determine a winner.  There are also many other ways to rake in points:  every three coins gets you a point, building levels of your monument gets you a big bonus, and many of the cards lead to huge points depending on how you play them.  As well, at the end of each of the 3 ages every player checks their military might (red cards) with their direct neighbours and points are awarded or taken away according to who is the strongest, lending some much-needed interaction to the game.

In a single game, everyone usually plays about 18 cards and all players play them at the same time.  So the whole game is over fairly quickly.  But that quickness does not imply a shallowness of play.  There are many streams to victory in this great little game: heavy military red cards, green science cards, blue culture, or even building certain resources so your neighbours have to pay you tons.  But unlike RFTG where one plays a relatively singular strategy, it seems that players have to construct a more well-rounded city by building some military for protection, resources to help with building and earning money, and then at the same time take advantage of the opportunities that are passed to them.  In fact, the game feels a bit more like Agricola in that sense, just without all that agonizing, brain-burning pressure.

And herein lies the difficulty that some have with the game.  For those who say it isn't deep, I think you're wrong.  One can definitely learn the cards and their build patterns and be able to play quite well.  But it really all depends what you are dealt and also what is passed to you.  And I think this is what actually takes the game from good to great.  Players require versatility with their choices and strategy as they don't have complete control of what cards they will end up seeing in their hands.  You can plan for a certain card but in the end your neighbour may use it to build their monument or play it themselves.  It makes the game feel a little more relaxed and, in my opinion, far more enjoyable.

So what do I think of the game? Well, I like it a WHOLE lot.  The game is easy-to-teach unlike RFTG, but still has a great amount of depth.  It is super-quick whether you have 3 people or 7 people, because your play really only depends on the two players adjacent to you.  It's lots of fun, especially when you get that one great card handed to you and actually have the resources to build it.  As well, the 7 different monuments have 2 different sides to play with so the starting choices add some real variety to each game.   All in all, this may not be my absolute favourite game of the year (I have yet to play Isla Dorada and I have high hopes) but given the play-time and awesome scalability, I think this is probably the best game of 2010.  Buy it, I don't think you'll regret it.

Merry Christmas....

I am looking at copies of Bauza's 7 Wonders and Faidutti's Isla Dorada on my kitchen table right now.

It's going to be a really fun Christmas...  That is if I can stop playing Agricola long enough to get 'em both out of the box!

What do you think the chances are...

...that I can get a hold of a copy of the first printing of 7 Wonders before they run out? 

I'm crossing my fingers but I still say the chances are pretty low......