Red Dead Winter - 2014 Gaming Year in Review

As has become a tradition at WAGS, my gaming year in review:

Last year I played ~136 times (136 "plays") allowing me to play an average of about a game every three days.

I played 60 different games, of which 29, or almost exactly half, were new to me.

My most played game was, surprisingly, Warfighter by DVG, at ten plays, followed very closely by Band of Brothers: Ghost Panzer and Red Winter, tied for second at eight plays each. Yes, I love wargames.

My most played eurogame was 7 Wonders with four plays, and my most played heavier euro was Archipelago, with three.

In 2013, I had played 139 games, and in 2012, I played 165, so the overall trend is down, but not a significant amount, and my statistical sample is poor, with only three years recorded. From 2012 to 2013 the difference is statistically insignificant, and considering I took two significant vacation breaks this year, I don’t think I did too badly. I also think I’ve probably missed recording about a half-dozen to a dozen plays, but I can’t be certain.

Of the eurogames that were new to me, I think I enjoyed Dead of Winter the most, though some might term it more thematic than euro. Interestingly, when I tried to go through and look at games that were new to me, I played very, very few new pure euros this year. In fact, I knew that was the case, but it was interesting to see just how much of a trend it was. The list is so short, I can easily write them all out: Red7, Hanabi and Nothing Personal (and even Nothing Personal has some very thematic elements), and Red7 and Hanabi are both very abstract set-collection-type card games as opposed to traditional table-top euros. Everything else I played was either a wargame or had really strong thematic aspects.

Which is not to say 2014 was necessarily a bad year for euros – I’ve just apparently missed some interesting games: Five Tribes, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Splendor, Imperial Settlers, Istanbul, Sheriff of Nottingham, Abyss, Alchemists, Panamax, Deus, Fields of Arle. Despite these being some of the highest rated for 2014, I’ve entirely missed hearing about Splendor, and only heard peripherally of some of the others (I did see Imperial Settlers, Five Tribes and Sheriff of Nottingham on the tables at TABSCons).

Interestingly, only two games published in 2014 have squeaked their way into the BGG top 100, Dead of Winter and Splendor (which makes me think I should check out Splendor).

I’m sad to say that there haven’t been any real blow me away moments in 2014. I really did enjoy Dead of Winter, but it wasn’t spectacular as other games have been for me in the past.

Two games which did surprise me this year were Red Winter and Warfighter, both of which were wargames that I had been watching, but had not expected to be my cup of tea. Both turned out to be satisfying, quick-playing games which are readily replayable. Another late-in-the-year surprise was Eklund’s Greenland, which I was entirely uninterested in based on its theme, but turned out to be a really engaging game.

A game that I had been eagerly anticipating last year, Canadian Crucible, arrived, but unfortunately, I’ve had difficulty finding people to play it with. After two plays, I feel like I want to play it more, but I can’t label it as the best of the year by any stretch.

The game I most enjoyed playing this year has been Dead of Winter – in only three plays, we’ve had some really fun moments. The wargame which was the standout this year for me was Red Winter, which combines an interesting setting, well-balanced scenarios and a intuitive design with engaging and fast play. Yes, the coincidence of name is not lost on me, nor is the irony that the winter of 2014 has been, thus far, something of a no-show.

An honourable mention should go to Clash of Cultures, which, with the Civilizations add-on, has become for me the best ancient/classical-world civilization game out there. Another honourable mention is given to Greenland, which as mentioned above, I was entirely willing to pass on. Thanks to Miguel for saving it from the abyss!

In 2012, Miguel had mentioned innovative games. For me, some of the interesting stand-outs for innovation have been Tragedy Looper, for its interesting take on deduction puzzles, and the War Stories series, which features great aspects of fog of war at the tactical level while still having some significant design issues at the same time.

So, it was a relatively quiet year for gaming for me. In some ways, it’s been a return to the roots of what attracted to me to gaming in the first place – thematic games with a lot of wargaming on the side.

Here’s to a more adventurous 2015!

The World-Ending Year in Review: 2012

Well, the world didn't end for many reasons, not the least of which was that the Mayans never said it would end, but that didn't stop the breathless media frenzy... it never does!

I (personally) played 86 different games in 165 discrete sessions this year, up by around 30 sessions from the year before, which surprises me. Curiously (and coincidentally), almost exactly the same number of different games. Of those, 39 games were new to me. I have no idea how many we played as a WAGS group - probably between 60-70 different games - I'm only going from my BGG played games stats log, and I've recorded all the games I played this year, not just WAGS sessions.

Although it was technically published in 2011, I only received my copy of Band of Brothers: Screaming Eagles in 2012, and I would have to call it my wargame of the year, in terms of number of plays and originality of system.

On the Euro/Designer side, I played 7 Wonders most often, with Kingdom Builder a close second. I can't say that 7 Wonders was the game that impressed me the most this year, though it is pretty solid even after multiple plays. The game that was a pleasant surprise for me was Netrunner, for which I had only watched sessions being played before.

The "Euro-like" game (some may argue that it's more a "thematic game") that I enjoyed most that I played for the first time this year was BIOS Megafauna. If we're talking "pure" Euro, I'd probably say Ora et Labora, with Castles of Burgundy a close second.

In the Thematic category, I played Summoner Wars most often, but I enjoyed Risk: Legacy as well. Overall, I'd say I'd take Summoner Wars over Risk: Legacy.

It was a slow Euro year for me, not much new, nor much that impressed me. I did get a lot more wargaming in, though.

I enjoyed and appreciated Mage Knight for what it is/was, but it's not my ideal quest/adventure game. I see that it's clever and I won't turn down a game, but I'm not running out to buy a copy. It certainly got a lot of hype, not altogether undeserved. Once again, good game, just not my cup of tea - too deterministic and pre-plotted.

Overall game of the year? Band of Brothers, for me. I cannot recommend it enough to other wargamers.

The game coming up that I'm excited about is the next module in the TCS series, Canadian Crucible: Brigade Fortress at Norrey. I'm sad to say that nothing currently on the horizon for Euros is particularly catching my eye, but often it's been a case of things sneaking up on me as I haven't been looking too far ahead. For example, I wasn't really looking at Netrunner seriously until I got a chance to play it. I was also completely dismissing the Star Wars: X-Wing miniatures game until I actually played it. On the other hand, I was disappointed somewhat in the reboot of the Panzer game system despite looking forward to it and am currently in the process of debating its merits at BGG with a loyal fan base. I am looking forward to the new Smash Up expansions.

I missed out on playing Village, which is apparently one of the best of the most recent crop.

Well, here's to the old year, 2012 and the new, 2013!

Boring Old Record Keeping

The record keeper blew the dust off the ledger and laid open the cracking spine. The pages waterfalled like October leaves.

Brushing a gnarled hand over the pages, he made some very boring notations in a spidery hand:

The March 1st and March 29th sessions were cancelled due to lack of attendees. The February 2nd session was also cancelled (I'm noting that in case anyone has to forensically reconstruct their play list at BGG for the year, as I had to go back and correct some notations).

On April 5th we played two sessions of 7 Wonders (victors unremembered), followed by a session of Panic Station (Agent Easy was original bug(?), David and Shemp joined them, bugs were victors.). On April 12, we played Risk Legacy (curiously, I can't remember whether Shemp or Agent East won; it was one of them - I think it was Shemp, which would make it two for two for him), Beowulf (strangely, once again, I can't remember the victor, though I think I was up there) and Jungle Speed (Kozure won).

Last week, April 19th, there was only Shemp and I. We played Dragon Dice with my son Daigoro. I don't have a lot of time for commentary on the game except to say it was actually "deeper" as a playing experience than I was expected - there's some difficult and interesting play choices to be made, and there's enough chrome to keep it interesting. Still not sure about long term replay-ability apart from the customization aspect of it, but willing to play again. We had to call it for time (Daigoro had to head to bed), but Shemp was well on his way to victory.

We finished the evening with two games of Jungle Wars - Deep Dwarves (Shemp) vs. Mountain Vargath (Me) and Sand Goblins (Shemp) vs. Jungle Elves. (Me). I won both games, more from my greater experience with the game than through any stellar play. Shemp was starting to pick up on the flow by the end.

Falling behind (7 wonders, Robo-rally, I'm the boss!, King of Tokyo, Diamant, El Grande, Cosmic Encounter)

I haven't been updating this regularly, but for the sake of posterity I'm going to record the games played in the last two weeks.

Honestly, it kills me to let the triumphant return of El Grande to the WAGS table pass without more comment, but so it goes. For the record, Shemp and I tied.

(stealth update)
Just wanted to comment on El Grande. If El Grande shows it's age at all, it's in downtime. Between turns, players are not involved in any way and this is something that more recent games have largely eliminated. Still, the gameplay remains extremely engaging for me. There's a simplicity to the process. Many of today's games,as fun as they are, appear to me to be a) variations on "cards with text that breaks rules" or "creatures with powers", or b) "games with so much going on that optimal play is not possible without AP". In the first case, the gameplay itself is usually not particularly interesting... The fun is in finding and creating combos between cards. In b) for many sessions there is no knowing whether the challenge is just doing better than the other guy at understanding the system. You're not necessarily just playing against other players, you are also just struggling to understand the games space. Many games appear interesting, but it's only an illusion because once you become familiar with what is going on and understand the good and bad moves are, you realize the choices are actually pretty obvious and it becomes dull. Anyway, in my mind El Grande is not one of those games. The interface is easy but the choices are always difficult. Great game.

Bilkis' sacks of sand (Roma 2: Arena, Macao, 7 Wonders + Leaders expansion x2)

Roma 2: Arena

When I purchased Roma, I actually thought I was purchasing Roma 2: Arena. I remembered reading that one had text instead of icons, and that the same one had more paths to victory, but I didn't know which was which. When I saw Roma at j&j cards in Waterloo, I looked at the back and saw that the cards were text based, not icons, and purchased it. Unfortunately, the picture on the back of the box is of the German version, which uses text, but the north American version of Roma 1 uses icons. I purchased the wrong one. Anyway, figuring it couldn't matter that much, I opened it and we played it anyway. As it turns out, me and Shemp liked it quite a bit. Sure, many games are lopsided and the only likely path to victory is having Forums, but it was quick and enjoyable. Shemp decided to purchase Roma 2, figuring that at the very least we could try the variant where the decks from both games are pitted against each other. This week, we got a chance to fruit out (the base game, not pitting the decks against each other). It's good. There are definitely more paths to victory, and the game seems less fragile (less games will end because they couldn't get their engine going before they went broke), but the tradeoff seems to be a significantly longer game. I'd say I did like it better than Roma 1, but not by a wide margin.

Shemp won the game by emptying the vp pile, scoring one "phantom point" (I.e. The vp pile was exhausted, but the bank owed him one more vp). The phantom point broke the tie, making the game 19 to 18. Well played.

Macao

I was in the mood to play Macao again, just to see if Shemp's streak is truly over. In short, it is. The game was very close, between me and Kozure, though. A miscalculation left Shemp 1 cube short of scoring big,leaving him behind. Between me andKozure, it came down to the bonus end game points, and I had more.

About 4 rounds in, I activated the artisan. This card allows you to activate one card per turn without spending the cubes (as long as you have the necessary cubes in your supply). Between that card and the various mistressesthatgaveme a free cube in their co our every turn, I was flush with goods cubes. I either played very poorly or Kozure played extremely well, because I should have killed the other two with that combo so early in the game.

7 Wonders: Leaders expansion

We capped of the evening with 2 sessions of 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. It's a simple expansion that introduces a new deck of cards representing famous leaders throughout history. There is a pre game draft to deal each player 4 leader cards and before each age players choose which leader, if any, players want to pay to put in play.

The end result is not terribly different from the base game. The leaders allow a little more long term strategy, which is nice, that's pretty much it. Shemp commented that the downside to having these leaders is that it predetermines a strategy for you and reduces the interaction as players concentrate on their cards instead of blocking opponents.

The art continues to be very nice, and the game remains a very fun and fluid despite the additions. I'll probably keep playing with the addition in future sessions but I'm sure I won't really miss it if I play someone else's copy.

I won the first game using a combination military and science victory (as Rome, led by Ceasar, the guy from 300 and Alexandre the Great). Kozure won the second with a more focussed military strategy that apparently also involved burying all the brick in order to prevent others from building.

Yahtzee for geeks (Alien Frontiers, Vikings, 7 Wonders)

We finally had a nearly normal week at wags, with three people in attendance and everything! It was my pick, but we weren't sure how long we would have so I kept it to relatively short games.

Alien frontiers

Shemp hadn't played this yet, but it,s rather simple so it didn't take too long. Alien frontiers has been a bit of a disappointment for me.... I enjoy it, but not overly. I hadn't yet played it with more than two, and the added interaction and blocking was welcome, but the downtime that comes with it was not so great. In this session I felt that the interplay on the planet was somewhat missing, though. In my last game with Kozure, we had taken advantage of the alien tech cards and their abilities to move space colonies around on the planet and this had added substantially to the game in my opinion. This session, we were mostly just placing them and leaving them be.

Anyway, Kozure managed to win this one. I was in the running, and Shemp was going the "tech king" route which probably would have payed dividends if the game had a lasted a little longer.

Vikings

Tonight was also our second session of Vikings and WAGS. I had been looking forward to playing this again because I had enjoyed the design. Shemp has built his collection out of games that are simple yet engaging straight euros (Carcassonne, Acquire, Transamerica, Santiago, etc). There is a nice mix of straightforward design and tough decisions that makes it a light puzzly auction game.

This one came down to the wire. Kozure and I were tied on points, but he had more left over coins for the win. Shemp looked like he was running away with it at the beginning, but this is one of those games that leaves much of the points for endgame bonuses so it can be unpredictable.

7 wonders

Another game of 7 Wonders. This is consistently enjoyable and I don't see that changing. I might sleeve the cards, because they are starting to show wear ( a problem in hidden card selection games!). We all played uncharacteristically, with me going after military and eschewing science, Shemp doing science and Kozure competing with me in military. It's one of those games where you are rewarded for not doing what the others do, but at the same time once begone down a path it's hard to change it.

With no one else going after science, Shemp managed to accumulate quite a bit. It,s hard to beat an unopposed science strategy.... Shemp won.

Ooops, you win (Yomi, Cyclades, 7 Wonders)

It's going to be a short post this week...

Shemp and I started out by trying out Yomi. I purchased the Grave/ Jaina two pack, and I played Grave. Yomi is a card game that simulates Street Fighter type videogames, and has been getting great buzz so I was happy to try it out. I'd say I enjoyed it, but given our unfamiliarity with the rules I think it could definitely get better with practice. The mechanics do a good job of replicating what goes on in the games, allowing combos, feints, special powers, etc, while still being rather simple. I'll keep bringing it for a while and hopefully it will be easier to get a feel for it. For the record, Grave crushed Jaina, having landed his super mega move and dealing 45 points of damage... she never stood a chance.

We played Cyclades first (after an interesting email exchange about Kozure's fickle game moods). Everything was progressing normally, with maybe a little more combat than usual, and then Shemp won. No one saw it coming, and he made a huge bid on Athena so we should have been suspicious at least, but we weren't. Shemp took her unopposed, purchased his fourth philosopher and won. In Kozure's defense, he didn't have the funds to stop him. In my defense, I'm an idiot (I forgot to collect incom that round, so even if I had noticed he was about to win, I would have thought I couldn't stop him... even though I could have)

It was a bit anticlimactic, but bravo to Shemp for the stealth win!

We ended with 7 Wonders. As usual, I favoured science and completely ignored military, Shemp ignored science and Kozure was balanced. Shemp did a better job following through and beat Kozure by a hair. Me? Not close.

The long and the short of civilization building (Sid Meier's Civilization, Ra: The dice game x2, 7 Wonders x2)

I'll be wrapping up two week's worth of session reports into one post again this week. If anybody reads this, sorry!

Civilization

Last week we finally got the new Fantasy Flight Sid Meier's Civilization to the table. This game has just about nothing in common with the Eagle games version of the same name, but according to Kozure it has a very tight relationship to the videogame. In fact, as I was going over he rules with him, he was predicting what I was going to say based on his experience with the computer version, so it seems like the relationship is definitely there.

This game has all the usual trappings of civilization games: a tech tree, trading, politics, various paths to victory, combat... and game length. Compared to the Eagle version, the playtime is a very reasonable 1 to 1.5 hours per player. For a typical game night, it's right at the top end of doable.

The game board consists of several large square tiles that are arranged in a rectangle or triangle pattern (based on # of players) and revealed as the terrain is explored. Each player draws a political power from amongst the 6 available ones (Rome, America, China, Russia, Egypt and the Germans). Players really only have two kinds of units: Scouts and Armies. Scouts are used to found cities, and armies fight wars. The map is littered with symbols representing trade opportunities, natural resources and labour pools. When a player has a city, all the surrounding spaces are considered the city's outskirts and all things produced by those squares are available to the player who controls it. As the game progresses, wonders, buildings and great people will be placed in the city's outskirts and replace what they used to produce with the symbols on the token in question. All these resources are used to try to achieve one of 4 distinct victory conditions: Cultural, Financial, Military or Scientific.

Overall, the game quite impressed me in our initial playing. Many games of this type owe their game length to the time required to fiddle with purchasing military units, upgrading, trading or navigating the tech tree. In this version of the game, much of this fat is trimmed and the resulting gameplay is surprisingly efficient. The tech tree is very well done: a level 2 tech can only be placed on two level 1 techs. It's literally a pyramid. Simple, and works well. Resource gathering, building constructions, military advancements, wonders, styles of government and wealth are all dealt with in a manner that works, feels thematic yet requires very little overhead. Quite an achievement.

Still, it's not perfect. Chief amongst my complaints would be the combat system. Each token on the board represents an army, but the actual units are represented by cards and when a battle occurs a mini card game sub-system kicks in which didn't really click for me in our fist game. You draw a random set from your deck (why am I sending out random troops again?) and then play a series of rounds of establishing "fronts" and resolving combat "rock/ paper/ scissors" style. I can't say it doesn't work, but it's fiddly and introduces unnecessary downtime in a game that otherwise avoids most of these traps. Also, the culture victory condition involves dedicating your city to the arts and advancing your token along the culture track. Along the way, cards are drawn that give the player the ability to take some "take that" style actions on other players. I don't know, but it felt a little tacked on and random to me. "Take that" actions are rarely satisfying and can punish the receiving player arbitrarily (a similar problem I have with the church effects in Warrior Knights). I'm hoping that when we play again we will see more negotiating and hopefully these attacks will work better in the context of deal making and threats.

Lastly, the streamlining did come at a cost. Although the different factions are present, and different ages are represented by their technologies and wonders I couldn't help but notice that the progression from one era to another felt muted and diffuse. Modern day americans going against the egyptians, researching an ancient technology late in the game to make room for an additional modern one doesn't make sense and somewhat disrupts the thematic continuity/ atmosphere. It's not a big deal, but there it is.

Otherwise, a very solid addition to the civ building genre. Probably my favorite to date for it's combination of playability, play time and overall strategy and fun.

In this session I was the Americans, Kozure was the Russians and Shemp was the romans. I expanded like everyone else, but quickly saw that the Russians would overpower me so I concentrated on a cultural victory. Along the way, I watched as the germans and russians pulled away militarily and scientifically. Somewhere, I realized that I wouldn't get there in time but saw that an economic victory was attainable. I was one turn away from winning when Kozure took advantage of his steam technology to send a large force to destroy Shemp's capital (for a military victory). Just before the battle took place, Shemp declared a financial victory. In fact, it was a little anticlimactic because he only realized he could win that way as he was scrambling to find a way to fend off the incoming russian threat. He realized he could simply spend trade to add a coin to an existing tech and win the game.

Still, it was very close. I assume that such "accidental" realizations of victory will diminish with subsequent plays!

Ra: The Dice Game

I missed the first game since I arrived late (stupid work!), but participated in the second. It's a fun game, but not the equal of it's parent. Another difference: I do well at RA. I suck at RA: The Dice Game, if this session is any indication.

7 Wonders

We played this twice. This was our first try with more than 3 players (with Bharmer around, we were four). Early impressions continue to hold... this is a great, quick, engaging and clever game. 30 minutes with 4 players, lots going on, very fun. With 4, it's already noticeable that the free upgrades are harder to come by (of course, as Shemp pointed out that may also be because we are getting better at blocking). This week we saw a science win and public building win. There is no question that science is strong and needs to be watched, but clearly other strategies are viable as well. I bet that with time the winner will be the player who manages to eek out the most points in many categories that will win, due to other players blocking the obvious strategies.

Also, this was our first playing with the "B" sides. Not a huge difference, though since the wonders are less consistent in their VP allowances you need to play to their strengths or else you can fall behind (in the second game I lost badly despite having built the three stages of the Hanging Gardens. Only the first stage was worth VPs, with the other two allowing me to play the 7th card in a round and giving me a bonus science symbol. Alas, I was denied most science cards and didn't capitalize on the ones I did get). Typical scores are quite close. Lots of fun.

I wo-wo-wo-wo-wonder (Clans x2, Vikings, 7 Wonders)

Shemp went on a rare buying spree and purchased three games recently. Clans, Vikings and Acquire made it under the tree for Christmas. Tonight, we played Clans and Vikings, as well as my christmas present: 7 Wonders.

Clans

Clans is an older euro that was released in 2002. It's ostensibly about the formation of clans in early human history, but it's really just a pasted on theme. It is played on a board broken up in several small terrain sections (plains, mountains, etc). Wooden huts in 5 different colours are seeded across the board, one per space. On a turn, players must move all the huts in one space to an adjacent space with at least one hut (the clans are consolidating into bigger, more populous clans). Once a grouping is no longer connected to a space with any other huts, it is scored. All colours present receive the same number of points UNLESS all colours are present, in which case any singles are eliminated before scoring. The game is played over a couple of different eras and each features a terrain where bonus points are gained, and a terrain where no points can be gained (because that clan is DOOOOMED). The catch is that each player is secretly dealt a colour at the beginning of the game, so no one knows which colour is benefiting which player at the beginning (and, even at the end, in our case). There is therefore a requirement for bluffing if you don't want other players to start hosing you because they know who you are.

Clans reminds me of China, in the sense that it feels like a lot of game in just 30 minutes. It's extremely simple, but the combination of secret roles and possibility for screwage made it quite enjoyable. We actually played twice, and in the second game we were already seeing some layers to the strategy... scoring groups of huts in the doomed terrain to get the tokens off the board, moving groups of huts into combinations that encouraged other players to make your moves for you, etc. Good game.

Vikings

Vikings is also a kind of old school euro. It's central mechanic is an auction where players have to bid for a combination of vikings and land tiles. The vikings and land tiles are then placed on a player's tableau, where vikings in different places gives money, victory points, etc. There is too much to explain here, but it's essentially an efficiency game that feels like a more forgiving Princes of Florence. There is a nice mechanic where pirate ships must be guarded by warriors, or they nullify al the vikings placed in that column. It was a fun game that I would gladly play again, but it's not a stand-out either.

In this session, I went for fishermen vikings early and didn't get much else other than warriors. Although the fisherman did net me a huge number of points at the end, I was so far behind that I still ended way last. Kozure was far in the lead. Clearly he nurtures his inner viking.

7 Wonders

7 Wonders is quite popular right now, so I won't bother describing it much other than to say that it's a card drafting game with a theme of building civilizations. Cards can be used to gain money, to build a wonder of the world, or build a building/ develop a technology. Remarkably, it plays in 30-45 minutes even if played by 7 players.

The trick to making the game work so quickly even with large number is that each player is only able to interact with their neighbor on the right and left. In other words, no matter how many players are playing it's alway essentially a series of discreet 3 player games going in a circle.

In my opinion, this game is pretty slick. There are many things to consider, and many different paths to follow (production, science, wonders, etc). Although I felt dissatisfied with Fairy Tale, 7 Wonders feels substantial enough while you are playing. It's obviously been seriously playtested... it plays very smoothly. Also, the card art is extremely well done.

Overall, this game seems really good. There aren't many good 7 player games out there that play quickly, and even fewer that play as well across the entire player range (from 3 to 7 players).

Our first game was extremely close. I was forever the whipping boy as my military might was forgotten in favour of going for scientific achievements. I did managed to get quite a few and the big points made at the end gave me the win.