GenCon report
Daniel Blum
Well, I've recovered enough from GenCon to post a semi-coherent account
of what I found interesting.
RPGs
----
I don't really roleplay much, so I didn't pay too much attention to this
side of things. Gary Gygax was back (I saw him in passing :)). There was
also a press release announcing that WotC/TSR and Dave Arneson have settled
their differences.
I did play in one of the invitational Alternity events - Raid on Bug Central.
This was a Starship-Troopers-like hack-n-slash event - fun but not all that
exciting. The basic action mechanism of the game seemed workable but not
terribly original. To be fair, we were only using a very basic rules set
and I imagine the complete rules add a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately
I had to miss the other Alternity event I was signed up for, which was the
spaceship combat game.
Eurogames and such
------------------
Chessex was selling several Eurogames titles in actual English editions.
I looked at the Serenissima rules - they side with the "French" rules, in that
they say that you DO get money for selling to your own ports (not the bonuses,
naturally). Note that these are available at large discounts from Fine Games
and Boulder Games.
Rio Grande had a number of imports. They sold out of Mississippi Queen -
is this the next Siedler? :) I got to play Lowenherz again, and still like
it, but not enough to plunk $40 down on it. Yet.
Mayfair had their usual range, including LOTS of Siedler items - Seafarer,
the card game, everything but the Seafarer 5/6 player expansion (and no,
I don't have any more of those, sorry). They had pretty good prices on
the Siedler stuff, too. They had two new abstract strategy games -
Balanx and Gipf. Balanx had a cute tilting board but struck me as a
gimmicky chinese checkers variant. Gipf's box had mostly overblown piffle,
so I passed on it as well. Unfortunately there was no way to play either
of these unless one found a partner and rented a copy in the open gaming
area (Mayfair had a table in their booth, but it was occupied all weekend
by a huge 3D Siedler board). Mayfair also had Gambler's Paradise (looked
asinine) and Jack Jaffe's Save the President.
Games People Play was back this year, with a good selection. Their prices
were high, as usual, but to be fair, they had items that none of the other
importers carried. They also discounted their Siedler items to match Mayfair's
prices.
Auction
-------
Some reasonably good buys this year, espcecially if you're looking for things
other than TSR items and wargames (English Wildlife Adventure, anyone?).
The coolest item I saw was an original Gorgonstar Titan, uncut. With the
Battlelands expansion. Anyone know how much this would normally be worth,
so I know how much of a fool I was for not bidding higher on it (it was
purchased for $110 by one of the German regulars, Wolfgang something).
Lionheart
---------
A new boardgame from Parker Brothers - medieval miniatures on a square-
gridded board. The pieces are nicely molded knights, archers, foot soldiers,
etc., which slot into bases. You can fit several men on a base (how many
depends on the size of the unit - you can fit two knights on a base, or
ten foot soldiers, for example). The rules are simple. You get two actions
per turn - an action is moving a base one square forwards, turning a base,
or attacking. You roll dice to attack - as many as you have men on the
attacking base, with a four-die limit (this reflects the limited frontage of
a large infantry unit or whatnot). The different units have different
abilities - archers have ranged attacks, naturally, while the heavy units
such as knights roll two dice per man and take two hits to kill. You win
by killing the opponent's king (who functions like a knight) or by killing
the rest of his army.
Obviously, this is never going to replace even a simple set of miniatures
rules, or a simple board wargame. It is kinda fun, however, and allows
for tactics that at least have some approximation to those that were
applicable in real life (it's not exactly trying to be a simulation, anyway).
I preferred it to High Ground, to which it bears some similarity (in intent,
if not in game mechanics).
As a bonus, it's customizable - you can rearrange your forces on your bases
however you want before you start, so you can choose to bunch up your infantry
in tight formations, spread them in a broad line, etc. If the initial game
sells well there will be expansions with new types of units (there are already
at least six). I'd also like to see additional packs of the basic units,
plus additional stands. You'd have to have a point system to build armies
then, I expect (I gather that when you customize in the game as it stands
you both use the same units, just place them differently). This could turn
into a sort of Games Workshop-light item, obviously. I prefer it to the
GW games I've seen, but that's a matter of taste.
The game will be available in September, initially only through hobby
stores (Chessex is the exclusive distributor for now). Eventually it may
be available in Toys R Us and so forth. The price will probably be about
$35, which seems reasonable for the quantity of plastic pieces you get
(cheaper than Axis & Allies at list - this game was designed by the same
person who designed A&A, I was told, by the way).
In short - not great, but good fun in its way. Might be a good way to
introduce someone to miniatures gaming.
Groo: The Game
--------------
I can't add much to Steffan O'Sullivan's review of this, except to emphasize
that it is quite silly, and if you're not either a Groo fan or a silly card
games fan you probably won't like this (I myself am not the world's biggest
fan of silly card games, but I love Groo, so I like the game well enough).
Sergio Aragones was there and was signing people's Groo cards.
Titan: the Arena
----------------
I can't add much to the description that was posted of THIS game, either.
Based on a reading of the Grand National Derby rules, T:tA is identical
except for the following points:
1. In T:tA, a round is not over until all monsters have at least
one card and there are no ties (there is no tiebreaker
as in GND).
2. T:tA has secret bets allowed in the first round, which GND
does not.
3. Biggest difference: in T:tA, all the monsters have powers,
which can be used by the person playing a card on them,
if that person has the greatest total of bets on that
monster.
It seems to me that you could play GND with a set of this game by simply
ignoring the special powers and using the GND rules on the other two points.
Makes me sorry I traded for a copy of GND just recently. :) In any case,
T:tA is fun - the powers seem to work fairly well.
Ferrocariles Pampas
-------------------
An interesting little game. I felt there was something slightly wrong
with the gameplay, but I can't put my finger on exactly what. It may well
be my imagination. It's certainly worth playing again and it's cheap, so
I'm not sorry I bought a copy.
TransSib
--------
This did not appeal to me at all. Most of the moves seem to be very obvious
and the bluffing element didn't seem to add much - especially since in our
game there were too few duels for the money involved to mean much of anything.
Even the fact that I won handily didn't sway me.
Freight Train
-------------
I finally got around to playing the Mayfair edition of this. Very good
little game, sufficiently different from Reibach & Co. that I think it's
worth owning both - they both have the same basic "plot," but Reibach
is shorter and punchier, while Freight Train is longer and generally offers
more options when you have to make a decision. They're both cheap, anyway. :)
On the Edge
-----------
Atlas was giving out massive numbers of cards to people who tried this, so
I played a game. :) I thought it was cute, but not terribly special. The
gameplay really feels too much like a Magic variant for it to grab me (I
LIKE Magic well enough, but I don't want more games like it). I will try
to play a few games with all my new cards, though, and see if it grows on
me at all. Certainly the background is inventive enough.
Rainbo
------
A little abstract strategy game. The pieces are identified by a color
(the colors of the rainbow, natch, minus indigo) and a size - there are three
sizes for each color (each piece also has a base color - black or white -
to identify the player). The colors take each other in Stratego/Jungle Game
fashion - red takes everything but violet, orange takes everything but red,
etc., down to violet, which only takes red. Within a color the sizes take each
other from largest to smallest.
So far so dull. The interesting bit is the movement. Large pieces make one
rookwise move. Medium-size pieces make up to two rookwise moves (i.e., they
can turn one corner), and the small pieces make up to three at once. You
capture a piece by ending up next to it, whereupon you remove it and put your
piece in its space (you can only capture one piece a turn, and you can't
capture yourself by moving next to an opponent's larger piece, although I
think that would be a good variant rule).
I'm not really sure how much long-term potential there is for this (I rarely
am, with abstract strategy games), so I didn't pay the $25 asking price.
I was told that next year they should have a mass-produced version for more
like $15, at whoch price it's probably worth getting (unless one of the
abstract whizzes can find a flaw in it).
_______________________________________________________________________
Dan Blum to...@mcs.net
"Let it be granted that a controversy may be raised about any question,
and at any distance from that question." - Lewis Carroll
Daniel Blum
As I far as I know, the only English-language games were from Chessex -
everyone else had German versions with English translations.
In rec.games.board Craig Good <cag...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> >Mayfair had their usual range, including LOTS of Siedler items - Seafarer,
> >the card game, everything but the Seafarer 5/6 player expansion (and no,
> >I don't have any more of those, sorry). They had pretty good prices on
> >the Siedler stuff, too. They had two new abstract strategy games -
> >Balanx and Gipf. Balanx had a cute tilting board but struck me as a
> >gimmicky chinese checkers variant. Gipf's box had mostly overblown piffle,
> >so I passed on it as well. Unfortunately there was no way to play either
> >of these unless one found a partner and rented a copy in the open gaming
> >area (Mayfair had a table in their booth, but it was occupied all weekend
> >by a huge 3D Siedler board). Mayfair also had Gambler's Paradise (looked
> >asinine) and Jack Jaffe's Save the President.
> >
> Does the Settlers card game have english language cards or is Mayfair
> just selling the german language edition?
Kevin J. Maroney
to...@MCS.COM (Daniel Blum) wrote:
>On the Edge
>-----------
>The
>gameplay really feels too much like a Magic variant for it to grab me (I
>LIKE Magic well enough, but I don't want more games like it).
Not to start a Trading-card-game discussion in r.g.b, but I've long
felt that Over the Edge did an excellent job of recreating the depth
and variety of Magic: the Gathering while fixing a lot of Magic's
broken mechanisms.
Games Magazine listed it as the best of the CCGs in at least one Games
100 list, which is proof of nothing, of course.
>Certainly the background is inventive enough.
Astoundingly so, which actually may have been a point against its
success.
--
Kevin J. Maroney | Crossover Technologies | kmar...@crossover.com
Games are my entire waking life.
James Droscha
kmar...@crossover.com Kevin J. Maroney wrote:
>
> Not to start a Trading-card-game discussion in r.g.b, but I've long
> felt that Over the Edge did an excellent job of recreating the depth
> and variety of Magic: the Gathering while fixing a lot of Magic's
> broken mechanisms.
I'll tie this post into this newsgroup by stating that Atlas Games,
publishers of On The Edge, are working on publishing their first board
game (this is still tentative, according to them) called "Cults Across
America" or somesuch. I'll tie this post into the current thread by
stating that I played in the On The Edge world championship tournament
at GenCon and got smoked.
Now for the brief comparison of OTE to MTG, begun above. The game
play has only slight similarities. They don't _feel_ anything alike
when you're playing. For me, the second most important difference is
that OTE is designed to be a multiplayer game (at which, IMHO, it
rocks), while MTG is designed to be a 2 player game (at which, again
IMHO, I think it is fair). The _most_ important difference between the
games is that in MTG, the object is to reduce the opponent's Life, while
in OTE, you attempt to increase your own Influence (a similar score).
It doesn't sound like that big of a difference, but in multiplayer
games, it means _everyone_ plays until someone wins; no one gets
eliminated from the game (unless you run out of cards, which very rarely
happens).
--
Game On,
James Droscha
Avalon Comics and Games
http://198.109.166.109/
Craig Good
>Mayfair had their usual range, including LOTS of Siedler items - Seafarer,
>the card game, everything but the Seafarer 5/6 player expansion (and no,
>I don't have any more of those, sorry). They had pretty good prices on
>the Siedler stuff, too. They had two new abstract strategy games -
>Balanx and Gipf. Balanx had a cute tilting board but struck me as a
>gimmicky chinese checkers variant. Gipf's box had mostly overblown piffle,
>so I passed on it as well. Unfortunately there was no way to play either
>of these unless one found a partner and rented a copy in the open gaming
>area (Mayfair had a table in their booth, but it was occupied all weekend
>by a huge 3D Siedler board). Mayfair also had Gambler's Paradise (looked
>asinine) and Jack Jaffe's Save the President.
>
Does the Settlers card game have english language cards or is Mayfair
Scott D Slomiany
In article <33FA0D...@worldnet.att.net>,
James Droscha <AvalonComi...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
in discussing a the comparisons of MTG and OTE...
>The _most_ important difference between the
>games is that in MTG, the object is to reduce the opponent's Life, while
>in OTE, you attempt to increase your own Influence (a similar score).
>It doesn't sound like that big of a difference, but in multiplayer
>games, it means _everyone_ plays until someone wins; no one gets
>eliminated from the game (unless you run out of cards, which very rarely
>happens).
This statement above is what I find that almost all German board games have.
Even when you are a losing, you are still building SOMETHING, and you do wind
up with something at the end, no matter how small that might be. I think that
this is a big reason why the people I play games with prefer Settlers, Acquire
(yeah, I know it's American), and Manhattan to games like Monopoly and Risk. There's
something cool about seeing a board start from nothing and helping it grow.
Kevin J. Maroney
Scott D Slomiany <do...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>I think that
>this is a big reason why the people I play games with prefer Settlers, Acquire
>(yeah, I know it's American), and Manhattan to games like Monopoly and Risk. There's
>something cool about seeing a board start from nothing and helping it grow.
Hey, in Acquire, you really have to go out of your way to lose money!
Hard to get much happier than that!
Basically, you have to deliberately buy stock in a defunct chain that
won't be re-opened; otherwise, all of your holdings will be worth at
least as much as you paid for them.
Or, to quote from the rule to _Venture_ (a Sackson card game with some
similarities to _Acquire_): "Player with the largest grand total is
the winner. The others are simply multi-millionaires."
Chris Dickson
Scott D Slomiany (do...@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: This statement above is what I find that almost all German board games have.
: Even when you are a losing, you are still building SOMETHING, and you do wind
: this is a big reason why the people I play games with prefer Settlers, Acquire
: (yeah, I know it's American), and Manhattan to games like Monopoly and Risk. There's
: something cool about seeing a board start from nothing and helping it grow.
We have a winner!
I completely agree, personally, and suspect that this attitude may not be
all that rare. Other favoured games along the same lines are Modern Art
(all players start with an amount of money and almost certainly make a
profit each round - winning is all about making a bigger profit than
everyone else!) and Outpost (again, no conflict - players buy improvements
to their position, and earn more and more as the game goes along; the
method of making sure that the game snowballs, but only at a controlled
rate, is an elegant one).
If you're talking literally about helping the board grow then I can
recommend Missississi-lots-of-"s"s-and-"p"s-I-can-never-spell-though
Queen, where every time a boat reaches uncharted territory you roll a die
to decide where the next bit of land hooks on. I suppose Entdecker comes
along the same lines, and, er, whisper it, Mousetrap too.
Personally I really rate McMulti, though, as having both these advantages.
Not only does the money spiral up and up throughout the game, you've got
all the fun of fitting all the equipment that you buy onto your island on
the board. Great game, now if only I could find a copy...! :-)
Take care
Chris
--
Chris M. Dickson, Keble College, Oxford University, residing in Middlesbrough
Mail to ch...@dickson.demon.co.uk please. WWW http://users.ox.ac.uk/~kebl0110
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Brandon Freels
>this is a big reason why the people I play games with prefer Settlers,
>Acquire (yeah, I know it's American), and Manhattan to games like Monopoly
>and Risk. There's something cool about seeing a board start from nothing and
>helping it grow.
I think this is the reason why GOLEM has been selling so well. You play a
mad scientist who starts with nothing on his slab and acquire the parts to
build your creation and bring it to life. Then you send him out into the
world, recall him back to the lab, rebuild him, lather, rinse, repeat.
Players say it has that Lego/Mr. Potato-Head/Rockem-Sockem Robots kind of
creative energy.
--
Domo. Ja na.
Brandon Freels
(bra...@rhinoventures.com, ICQ#: 2695168, Online-Gaming: Spittledung)
"I'm witty naturally. I don't need quotes!"
GOLEM Web Slab: http://www.rhinoventures.com/golem/