rich likes games

Hey, I suspect LOTS of folks are looking for your experiences at BGGcon.

richsommer — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:44:05 -0800

Good idea. Will try to post something today.

my solo games odyssey: Ingenious

richsommer — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:25:00 -0700

I played Checkers as a kid. And I went through a Chess phase in my first year at college. But since getting into The Hobby, abstract games weren’t really all that interesting to me.

Ingenious was one of the games that re-piqued my interest in abstract games. Along with Hive, Ingenious made me understand that an abstract game could be more than a theme-less puzzle.

When played with other people.

Played solo, Ingenious is kind of… a theme-less puzzle. Sort of. I don’t think it’s necessarily solvable, but your choices are pretty cut and dried.

Your goal is to create strings of symbols. When you place a tile, you receive points for matching symbols in lines out from your tile. This picture from the rules explains it better than my words do.

Anyway, your final score is equal to whatever your lowest color’s score is at the end of the game.

I played it twice. Both times, I ended up with 18 points. I think I would have needed some pretty miraculous tile draws to get above 18.

It’s a great game, with more than one player. And it’s a fantastic gateway game for people new to The Hobby. As a solo exercise, I think I’m unlikely to play it again.

Ingenious score: 18

Running TWIP: 1928

POST SCRIPT:

It’s a good thing I’ve had a little run of light-ish games, because I’m about to embark on a couple of doozies. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game isn’t THAT cumbersome, except that I plan on trying it couple times, while re-building my deck along the way.

But Mage Knight: Board Game? That’s a biggie. Gonna take some learnin’ time.

So it may be a few days between posts here for a bit. Just an FYI.

my solo games odyssey: If I'm Going Down...

richsommer — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:25:13 -0700

Most zombie games are based in the idea that if you can survive, you win.

Not If I’m Going Down….

IIGD is referred to by the designer as a “Dying Card Game,” because no matter what you do, your character will die. Your goal is to take as many zombies out as you can before that happens.

It’s fun.

I mean, you can’t take it too seriously. I think when I started playing it, I was taking it a little too seriously. You can only maintain so much control over what’s happening. There’s a shit-ton of luck involved, since both your weapons and the strength of the incoming zombies are determined by flipping cards off of several decks.

But it’s fun. The game builds up pretty quickly, and makes you feel overwhelmed. You can do what you want, but you’re going down.

It can end a little quickly, which can be a bummer. But it’s fast to reset, so it’s not that big of a deal.

There are a couple scenarios included, and optional stories you can add in for flavor. You can also choose which character you want to use for the scenario. Each character has a different special ability.

I love scenario-based games. I love that kind of included variety.

I did the Intersection scenario for my first two plays (6 and 8 points, respectively), without a story attached. It was fine, but playing the third game was far more fun.

I went with the Shack scenario, and included the first available optional story. It was a totally different experience. I’m glad I started with the vanilla game to get to know it a little before I dove in for the full-fledged game.

This round, I started off strong. Got my hands on a rifle, and picked off a handful of zombies. Right when my ammo was about to run out, I happened upon another rife, so I swapped out my old one for a new one and got a few more. When they really started to gang up on me, I grabbed a flamethrower from the ground and blasted six dudes, twice. Awesome.

I almost triggered a story event (part of the optional add-on stories (which I, again, highly recommend once you know the game a little)) — I WAS SO CLOSE — but it didn’t matter. It’s a super fun game. Check it out.

If I’m Going Down… score: 19

Running TWIP: 1910

my solo games odyssey: The Game of Shakespeare

richsommer — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:29:48 -0700

Well, they can’t all be AMAZING.

The Game of Shakespeare is one of several games that I bought hoping My Lovely Wife would learn to play games with me, if only I could find the EXACT RIGHT GAMES to bring her into the hobby.

This plan has not worked. I understand now that some people like games, and My Lovely Wife does not. I get it now.

Anyway, that’s why I own this game.

It’s a trivia game, basically. A roll-and-move trivia game.

I don’t like trivia games. I hate roll-and-move games. But I’m an actor and a nerd, so I have to kind of shrug at a Shakespeare-based-game, rather than dismiss it immediately.

There’s really not much to say, except that it will shock no one who knows me that I performed very poorly in this little exercise.

The rules say that getting 100 points labels you a, “Master Thespian.”

I had 37 points.

Here’s one example of how stupid I am.

One quote who’s play (5 points) or genre (2 points) I had to identify:

“The course of true love never did run smooth.”

I guessed Romeo & Juliet, or, and I quote from myself speaking out loud to no one, “at least a tragedy.”

It’s from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A comedy. Which you probably knew, as a person who is alive and conscious.

How the hell I survived any schooling is beyond me.

The Game of Shakespeare score: 37

Running TWIP: 1891

my solo games odyssey: Friday

richsommer — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 08:22:18 -0700

(I am doing what I can to look like the characters in the games I play. This is the only one where I am actually succeeding.)

Since I started this little project, there is one game that many nerds have been asking if I was planning to play, more than any other.

Friday.

I picked Friday up from The Compleat Strategist in New York (it’s awesome) while I was shooting one of my worst performances EVER. Even though I beat it exactly zero times, it kept me from completely sinking into the hole of despair my terrible acting was creating.

Anyway.

You are Friday. You have to help ready Robinson Crusoe to fight the pirates. You know, buy building the best deck you can against hazards like animals and cannibals and such.

It’s a deck-building solo game. I love it.

I sat down this time after recently having played Dominion: Dark Ages, which is often about culling the shit out of your deck, so I fared slightly better than I had in NYC.

I played three games, increasing my score incrementally each time.

First game: -23 points. Ugh. I got halfway through the red level (the third and final level of the deck-building portion of the game, just before you get smashed by the pirates). This was still better than most of my games back when I bought it.

Second game: +7 points. I made it to the first pirate, who smoked me pretty quickly. I had figured out how to stop fighting hazards more quickly — it’s a requirement to play at least one card against hazards as you’re working your way through the game, but you can stop once you’ve beaten them. Before, I had placed the maximum amount of cards. Don’t know why. I’m an idiot. Made me age much more quickly than necessary.*

Third game: +35 points! I beat the first pirate, and came THIS CLOSE to beating the second one.

Long story short: I still haven’t beaten the game on its easiest level (there are four levels), but I am improving each time. This is easily my favorite of the solo games I’ve played thus far. From what I hear, Mage Knight may be pretty amazing too… But for a quick, relatively light solo game, I can’t recommend Friday highly enough. Buy it. It’s like $20, tops. So fun.

Friday score: 35

Running TWIP: 1854

*— Sorry for using language you’d really only understand if you’ve played the game. Just play the game. It’s really good.

my solo games odyssey: Field Commander: Alexander (and Napoleon, sort of)

richsommer — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 08:28:12 -0700

I bought this game when I was in Miami for eleven days shooting an episode of Burn Notice. I spent a lot of time in my hotel room playing Field Commander: Alexander, and watching the Evil Dead movies so I’d have something to talk to Bruce Campbell about.

Anyway.

FC:A is a very simple solo wargame. I’m not sure wargamers would even call it a “wargame,” but that’s what I’m calling it.

Your goal changes with each scenario, but in general, you have to get Alexander’s army to a certain area of the board, having conquered a bunch of certain places on the way.

I played the Granicus campaign covered in the rulebook. The goal there is to have conquered every stronghold on the map, either through battle or intimidation, and end with Alexander’s army in Lycia. Of course, that means you have to win a battle in Halicarnassus, which is terrible and difficult. Enemy forces build up each and every turn, and every so often dump into Halicarnassus.

My point: You have to spend some cash to build up your army before heading there. That can take time. The longer you wait, the fewer points you get at the end.

I waited for a bit.

I ended up winning, and peacefully governing five areas on the map. You can raze or govern a place you take control of. Razing gets you fast cash, but loses you some esteem across the board. Governing gets you less up-front money, but pays you throughout and keeps people respectin’ you.

At the end of the game, you add up some stuff to get your Immortality Points, which dictate how long history will remember your efforts. Or something. Then you can go on to play further campaigns with your beefed-up Alex.

I stopped here.

Governing five areas on the map got me 30 points. I had a single unspent “Glory” counter, netting me 4 more points. I built two cities along the way for 5 points each, and I won in the winter of 335 B.C., for 10 last points.

So we take my 54 Immortality Points, cross-reference this handy little chart in the rules…

Huh. 50 years.

Maybe could have done a little better.

Sometime, it’d be fun to link some campaigns together and go for the full experience. But not now. I have too much to do.

Field Commander: Alexander score: 54

Running TWIP: 1819

AND NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS:

Field Commander: Napoleon has been sitting on my shelf for about a year. When I first got it, I eagerly punched out all of the pieces, and gave the rules a cursory read.

Then I put it back on the shelf.

And that is where it has lived since then.

I pull out the rules once in a while and give them a read. Then my eyes glaze over. I realize it is probably a fantastic game. But the added mountain of rules on top of what the system already does with FC: Alexander… It seems like something I’m just not willing to embark on.

I think I’m gonna trade it. I know I’m missing out on something, just like I am with Ambush!. But I am not excited enough to spend time playing it, when there are a bunch of games I am very excited to get to.

Onward.

Field Commander: Alexander score: TBD (something terrible, I’m sure)

Running TWIP: 1819

my solo games odyssey: Dungeon Run

richsommer — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 08:30:35 -0700

My favorite game of the last year, hands down, is Summoner Wars. It’s a fantastic two-player game with tons of replayability. I am not a fan of fantasy themes in games, usually. But Summoner Wars won. me. over.

Dungeon Run, while nothing at all like Summoner Wars, is set in the same universe. Many of the characters and abilities are direct ports, and there are lots of little tips of the hat throughout.

I’m pretty sure this is a game built to be played by more people. It plays from 1-6, but I hear four is the sweet spot. Before today, I had only played a two player game. We liked it fine, but knew it’d be better with more.

Now that I’ve played two solo games, I can say again (in case you didn’t hear me): This is a game meant for more people.

THAT BEING SAID: It’s fast and cute. I actually could see myself playing it again solo, although I’m not sure I could do much to shift the outcome. It’s heavily luck-driven, and I imagine the luck increases with each fewer player you have.

My first game, I chose to play as Birodin. You know Birodin, right? He’s the Mountain Vargath Aspirant? ANYway, I was able to dispense quickly with the mummy I encountered. The arrow trap? Disarmed. Zombie? Kaboom. Then I found the big boss: Gra Bogga. He has this neat “kick” ability, with which he dispensed of me tout de suite.

For the second game, I grabbed Addolgar Vayne. He’s the Questing Knight of the Vanguard, y’see. He cruised quickly through the dungeon, right up until he bumped into Ra-Alal and his rotting zombie friend. This fight went a little better than the first one, but ol’ R.A. rolled a stupid amazing attack, and it was over in two shakes.

Look, it’s not a perfect solo game. But it’s still pretty fun. I enjoyed playing it more than I have several of these other suckers. And I am eager to get it to the table with more players. I have a hunch it’ll be a ton of fun that way (see above).

And seriously: Get Summoner Wars. It’s so great.

Dungeon Run score: 500

Running TWIP: 1765

my solo games odyssey: Decathlon

richsommer — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 08:29:03 -0700

Another game by Reiner Knizia. Reiner Knizia is the German Sid Sackson. By which I mean: The guy has designed a billion games.

Decathlon is one of those games, but it’s maybe not the game he’ll be most remembered for. I’m just guessing here.

The rules are on his website, so feel free to download them and get eight dice and have at it. It’s light fare. The only time I’ve played it with other humans was at a cabin in Minnesota, which is maybe the most perfect setting anywhere for this game.

Basically, it’s ten dice-driven mini-games. Each one is supposed to emulate a decathlon event.

“Emulate” may be a strong word. Maybe, “each one is printed next to the name of a decathlon event,” would be more appropriate.

I played two rounds today. My worst event was the shotput, which I scored a big fat zero in both times. My 1500-meter kicked some ass, though.

If you can make out my terrible handwriting (you can’t), you’ll see that I scored a sweet 218 points overall. PUT ‘EM ON THE BOARD!

Decathlon score: 218

Running TWIP: 1265

BY THE WAY: An excellent two-player Knizia game, Lost Cities, came out on iOS a coupla weeks ago. I highly recommend it. Super slick implementation.

my solo games odyssey: The d6 Shooters

richsommer — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 08:27:44 -0700

When I said that there’s no game that does anything quite like D-Day Dice, I may have misspoken.

That’s in no way meant to suggest that The d6 Shooters comes anywhere near DDD in complexity or fun or chrome. But it does trip some of the same triggers in my brain when I play it.

This one has never been published, and is fully available to Print and Play. I raided my copy of Perudo to get the dice. There are two scenarios out there, and they play pretty differently from each other. Long Road to Reno is the version I had played before, and it’s a bit of a slog. Unless you’re brand new to this type of game, I’d suggest skipping it. Ghost Town Showdown, terrible pop culture references aside, is a much more enjoyable version.

Your goal is to reach Hoodia by the 30th day (1 day = 1 roll). Once you get there, you have to survive a final showdown. I played twice, and got to the showdown both times.

The first time through, I only had one member of my posse left, versus fourteen bad guys. I lost the second I crossed into Hoodia.

The second time through, I did a little better. However, a few feet from entering Hoodia, one of my posse members revealed that was a bad guy in disguise. I blame him for the fact that I lost again, although I made it a little further into the fight.

It’s fun, I guess. There are choices to make throughout. It’s a pretty thematic game, for a bunch of dice. (although the Ennio Morricone I played in the background probably helped.) And the black/red/white dice mechanics are pretty cool. But I couldn’t muster up the energy/interest to try a third time.

So I’ll accept my zero points and mosey on over the the Decathlon in Reiner Knizia’s backyard.

The d6 Shooters points: 0

Running TWIP: 1047

my solo games odyssey: D-Day Dice

richsommer — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 08:30:10 -0700

As far as dice games go, there aren’t many I can think of that do anything quite like D-Day Dice.

Originally available as a Print-and-Play game, D-Day Dice had a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign last year, and I got in on it. Since the game arrived a few weeks ago, I’ve gotten to play it quite a few times.

In a way, it’s got some similarity in mechanics to Catan Dice Game. But the execution is way, way better. There are maps you are trying to make your way up. You can discover items in the field, and use them to affect your situation. You can enlist Specialists who have permanent effects on your unit.

It’s pretty great.

Now, I have beaten the game before. It’s never very easy, but I’ve certainly done it.

Today? Um. It was REALLY NOT VERY EASY.

I bet I played ten games of it. Maybe more. And I got ripped apart each. and. every. time.

I tried to be conservative. I tried to be aggressive. I switched maps. I couldn’t get ANYWHERE.

The way you win? You enter the bunker at the top of the map, and survive the ensuing firefight with at least one soldier left. I couldn’t even get to the bunker.

The kids were waking up from their naps, so I thought, forget it. I get 90 points for making it to Sector 9. That’s more than I’ve gotten for any non-Sackson game in this stupid thing.

About seven hours passed. I was about to go to bed.

I couldn’t do it. I had to give it one more shot.

This time, I decided to make it slightly easier on myself by including the Badges expansion. Basically, the Badges expansion gives you a little leg up here and there. You end up losing 10 points per badge you have in play at the end of the game, but if I could get into that bunker and mess some Germans up, a few badges wouldn’t be a concern.

Through some careful play and some pretty lucky rolls, I finally got there. I stormed that bunker. I CHARGED.

And I got immediately mowed down.

After deducting 10 points per badge, I was left with 50 points.

I think I have lost my D-Day Dice mojo. I still love the game, but I don’t think it cares much for me.

I’ll be sticking with my 90 points from earlier, thankyouverymuch. Which still pushes my Total Worth In Points over the thousand point hump, which is pretty much all I cared about today.

D-Day Dice Score: 90

Running TWIP: 1047

my solo games odyssey: an update, and back for more.

richsommer — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:49:32 -0700

Hi.

Remember when I told you that My Lovely Wife left town? And then she came back?

Now she left again. So I am back to drowning my sorrows in solo board games.

The list from the initial post has shifted a bit. Some games have been dropped (Blokus x2, Book of Classic Board Games), and some have been added:

If I’m Going Down… is a zombie game where the player’s little dude will die. For sure. There’s no getting out of it. But you try to stay alive as long as you can.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a pretty spectacular card game version of the books, and beyond. I used to own it. I donated my copy to a charity auction. This was the perfect time to get it back.

Swing States 2012 is a solo election game. You can play as either side’s nominee. I love election games, and this’ll be my first time playing one designed for one player. I’m excited to get to it.

Yggdrasil is a cooperative game for 1-6, and I’m told it’s great. It’s about mythical gods and stuff. Not my usual cup of tea theme-wise, but I hear very good things. The cardboard version doesn’t include a way to score the game, but the iPad port has scoring rules created by the designers, so I’ll be using those.

Here’s the updated list, along with my points earned so far, per game.

A Gamut of Games (book) — 156 pts.
Agricola — 34 pts.
Ambush! — skipped
At the Gates of Loyang — 16 pts.
Blazing Aces! A Fistful of Family Card Games (book) — 13 pts.
BuyWord — 660 pts.
Catan Dice Game — 78 pts.
D-Day Dice
d6 Shooters
Decathlon
Dungeon Run
Field Commander: Alexander
Field Commander: Napoleon
Friday
The Game of Shakespeare
If I’m Going Down…
Ingenious
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
Mage Knight: Board Game
Pizza Box Football
Race for the Galaxy (with The Gathering Storm expansion)
Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age
Sorry! Sliders
Space Alert
Swing States 2012
Tumblin’ Dice
Walnut Grove
The World’s Best Dice Games (book)
Yggdrasil

So here we are. I am excited to get back into the swing of things. There will be a couple breaks here and there (Emmys, trip to NYC to see My Lovely Wife’s play), but I think I can get through the list before she’s back for good in mid-October.

If I can survive being a single dad. These kids. Man oh man.

my solo games odyssey: BREAK TIME

richsommer — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:30:11 -0700

My Lovely Wife is in town for a bit, so I am not stuck at the kitchen table playing games by myself all night.

More solo games in about a week.

BECAUSE YOU MUST BE DYING TO KEEP READING THESE.

my solo games odyssey: Catan Dice Game

richsommer — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:30:00 -0700

There’s this game, see? It’s called The Settlers of Catan. It’s lots of people’s introduction to the netherworld of the board gaming hobby. And a lot of people LOOOOOOOOVE it.

I have played Settlers. A lot. But I have also played a bunch of other games. I have a feeling that those people who LOOOOOOOOVE Settlers would be even happier playing something else, but they get sort of stuck on Settlers for some reason.

I think it’s pretty meh. It came out in 1995, I think, and it already feels fairly dated. There have been lots of games to come out since then, and many of them have refined what Settlers was trying to do, and made it much more fun.

Like Bohnanza. Anything I like about Settlers, Bohnanza does better. Its dice version is even better than Settlers’.

All of that being said, I am not a game snob. I think you should play whatever the hell you want to play. If you love sitting around with your pals and playing Monopoly or Risk or Settlers, I think it’s just great. I just hope that you’ll consider looking just beyond them, as well.

Anyway. On to my first of five heavily dice-based games in a row…

Catan Dice Game is the super simplified Settlers you’ve always dreamed of!

It’s actually not that bad. It’s just very basic. Much like the board game, you collect resources of different types, and you use those resources to build roads and settlements and cities and whatnot.

The good news for me is that the dice game gives you crazy points for doing this. There’s a variant floating around boardgamegeek.com that makes it slightly more like the board game — and limits you to ten points. I played the straight-outta-the-box rules. And that allowed me to get way more than ten points.

It’s fine. It’s light, it’s quick. I think I would have loved it so much I’d have shit my pants, when I was twelve.

Catan Dice Game score: 78

Running TWIP: 957

Getting close to that millennium mark!

my solo games odyssey: BuyWord

richsommer — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 08:26:01 -0700

BuyWord is my second Sid Sackson entry on the list, and it’s a goody.

I always say that board games are basically prettied-up math problems. This one BARELY counts as “prettied-up.” It’s a straight up math game, trying real hard to look like a word game.

The solo version is just about identical to the multiplayer version. You get some tiles on the table and evaluate them. Each letter has a dot value, and you add up the dots visible on the letters in front of you and square the total. That’s how much the letters cost. Then you sell them in combination with others purchased earlier, hopefully for more than you paid for them.

Buy low, sell high.

Do that a bunch of times, then count up your “money.”

Sid is my best friend on this list. He loves giving you lots and lots of points. Bowling Solitaire netted me the most points so far, and BuyWord has blown it out of the water.

You start the game with $200. Sid says in the solo rules that ending with $800 is a fair game, $900 is good, and $1000 is outstanding.

Guess what. I am none of those.

But I don’t care. Compared to the rest of the games so far, I did AMAZINGLY WELL. And with an exchange rate of One BuyWord Dollar = One Point toward my Total Worth, I just got a whole lot more worth-y.

BuyWord score: 660

Running TWIP: 879

That’s more like it!

my solo games odyssey: I BLEW IT

richsommer — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 08:30:12 -0700

What did you expect? When someone is this bad at all games period, he’s bound to screw up even the simplest attempt at measuring his Total Worth in solo board game points.

The next three games on the list, Blokus, Blokus Trigon, and The Book of Classic Board Games, don’t work for my little adventure. None of them have official solitaire versions which give you a score at the end.

So I am going to remove them all from my list of games.

To make up for their removal, I am adding at least two games to the list.

The kind folks at Van Ryder Games have been following my progress, and have graciously offered to send along a copy of their brand spankin’ new If I’m Going Down… !

I’m excited to give it a whirl. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the game from people who had the chance to try it at this year’s GenCon.

I told them that if they could get it to me before I got to that spot in my alphabetical list, I’d play it. So here’s hoping.

I’m also keeping an eye out for solo games that fit the criteria later in the alphabet. Not that I need more to do with monsters like Mage Knight coming up, but, you know, I like games. I just ordered a copy of Swing States 2012. I’m a sucker for election games, and it fits the criteria. So that’ll be on the list, too.

That’s that. BuyWord tomorrow.

my solo games odyssey: Blazing Aces!

richsommer — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:10:38 -0700

I almost wrote this entry in the same nightmarish vernacular this book uses, but I thought way, way better of it.

Blazing Aces! A Fistful of Family Card Games is a book by mega-designer Reiner Knizia. According to boardgamegeek.com, he has published more than 500 games and books about games.

That’s, um, a lot. I think he’s what you might call, “prolific.”

Anyway, Blazing Aces! is his book of poker variants. Not really poker variants you would want to play with your friends for money, but poker variants you might play with your kids, or that kids might play with other kids.

It’s not a real complex collection, is what I’m saying.

That being said, I did once hole myself up in a hotel room for a few days of games with a buddy, and we worked our way through most of the two-player games in the book. It wasn’t too bad. Of course, we also played War of the Ring twice, which kinda helped swing up the average difficulty for the weekend.

Anyway.

There are two options for solitaire play in the book, and both are fairly annoying. I chose the more innocuous of the two, Oregon. It’s a very basic solitaire game in which you try to assemble the best poker hands you can, each of which are ascribed some points.

Doesn’t the crap below the points just make you wanna punch that book? Ugh.

I played five times. Well, four. I had one rage quit in the fourth game (a busted full house in the second row that just WOULD NOT GET THERE). The most I was able to get in a game was 13 points.

Basing my Total Worth on how many points I can get in games may not have been a very good idea, self-esteem-wise. I’m not worth much.

Oregon score: 13

Running TWIP: 219

my solo games odyssey: At the Gates of Loyang

richsommer — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:24:10 -0700

Another Uwe Rosenberg game, only four games in.

At the Gates of Loyang is part of Rosenberg’s “Harvest Trilogy,” the other two games being Agricola and Le Havre (which I thankfully traded away before having to learn how to play it solo for this little odyssey, which would have made my brain melt).

I have played Loyang several times before as a two-player. I really dig it. It’s a fun little economic game, where you are constantly trying to squeeze every last coin out of the sales you make.

Also, you plant stuff and harvest it. Like in Agricola, sort of.

I’ll bet money that non-gamers think games about farming sound REALLY BORING. There are plenty of gamer-gamers who feel that way, too.

I like them. At least these two games about farming.

I mean, I like playing them. I’m not good at winning them, so I don’t know yet if I like winning them. I bet I’d like it.

According to the solo rules in Loyang, a score of 17 classifies you as “good.” 18 gets you a “very good” rating. 19 mean you’re a Loyang “master.”

I played two games of it today. First game, I got 14 points. That did not satisfy me. I was a little rusty before the game. Worth a second shot.

Second game: 16.

I was only able to eke out two more points. I’m not even good.

This does not surprise me (or any of my math teachers (or anyone I’ve ever played games with)). It’s still a great game.

At the Gates of Loyang score: 16

Running TWIP: 206

my solo games odyssey: Ambush!

richsommer — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 08:13:53 -0700

This was supposed to be a happy post. This was supposed to be where I told you that after three other failed attempts over the last eight years, I FINALLY got over whatever weird grudge my brain has against this game.

This is not a happy post.

Ambush! is a game I am supposed to love, according to all of my other gaming interests, and according to everyone who’s ever played it ever. It’s a scenario-based WWII game, where each move you make triggers a “paragraph check,” which is where you look up a paragraph in this book, and the paragraph tells you what happens.

Sort of like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

All of that sounds awesome to me, in concept.

BUT FOR SOME REASON: Every time I have gotten this out to play, I have blown it somehow.

It always begins the same way: Two-or-so hours of rules study. Setting up my squad. Carefully following the setup, step by step.

And it always ends the same way: I realize an hour-and-a-half into the game that I have made some gigantic rules error, that all my work is for naught, and that I don’t have the heart to start again. Not to mention that I now know that [this certain thing] happens once I enter [this certain hex], so that part of the game is ruined until I forget it and try the game again in like two years.

Every. Single. Time.

This time, I forgot that even in Action Rounds, you have to do paragraph checks for every hex you move into. So, about an hour into a firefight, I realized that I had glossed over about a thousand paragraph checks, each with a potential event.

I mean: Shit. That’s kind of a big rule.

I considered, briefly, starting over. But the fact of the matter is that it got late, and I have to get up with the kids somewhere between 5am and 6am.

Part of my goal with this thing was to learn more about the games I own. It’s possible that I’ve learned one very important thing: For some reason, my brain cannot, or will not, handle Ambush!. It’s frustrating. I feel like I should hole up in a cabin some weekend when my kids are in college and FORCE IT.

Or I could give up on it.

So here I am, only three games in, already taking a pass. Maybe I’ll get back to it later in the odyssey (I won’t). For now, I will pack the game back up and drink this egregiously overpoured glass of Jameson.

Hmph.

Ambush! score: TBD*

Running TWIP: 190

* — Like I said in my initial post, I will average out the points per game, and deduct that many points for each skipped game. So I don’t know yet how much this hurt me, points-wise. Oh, I know how much it hurt me time-wise. ugh.

my solo games odyssey: Agricola

richsommer — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 08:16:22 -0700

I hadn’t played Agricola since November 8, 2008. I know this because I log all of my games played on a website because I HAVE A PROBLEM, OKAY?

Anyway, it had been a while. So I re-read the rules this evening and dove in, not remembering a single thing about strategy or how anything works, but remembering that I loved it when I used to play it.

Basically, it’s a game about farming. A very complex and cool game about farming. It plays 1-5 players, probably most smoothly with 3-5. There are two versions included, the “Family Game,” for new gamers, and the “Experienced Game,” for the rest of us.

One of the things I look for in a game is that it moves along in a semi-intuitive way. Lots of folks may disagree with me, but I think this is a pretty intuitive game. I have X family members on my board, so they need 3X food at every harvest phase.* I can get them food by planting grain, which I then harvest and bake into bread.

Et cetera.

I mean, that’s how it’s supposed to work. What I actually end up with — every time I play it — is a little pile of the hairs I’ve ripped out because there is never enough game time to make all of the moves I need to make.

Which is another thing I look for in games. That tension.

My point is: I couldn’t get much done. I mean, I did some stuff. I upgraded from a wood home to a clay home, added a room, then flipped up to stone. That was fun. And I kept my family fed — both parents AND their stupid kid — for the entire game. But I had grand ambitions that fell flat. Had to cut some corners right at the end that pissed me off. If you know the game at all, here’s how it all looked at the end, so you can evaluate for yourself:

Anyway, for my two-or-so hour investment, I netted a meager 34 points toward my Total Worth. Not much compared to the score from my fifteen minute game of Bowling Solitaire. But I reacquainted myself with a pretty great game. Hoping to get it back to the table with a group very soon.

Agricola score: 34

Running TWIP: 190

* — in the solo game. it’s 2X per family member in the regular game. just to head off the rules lawyers.

my solo games odyssey: A Gamut of Games

richsommer — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 08:41:00 -0700

It’s all starting off so easily. I love this book.

A Gamut of Games is a collection of games mostly created by Sid Sackson and some of his pals.

If you don’t know who Sid Sackson was, just know that he designed about a billion games, and most of them are super-duper good. He was kind of the shit, game-wise.

It’s really a great book. It’s actually mildly entertaining as a straight read, if you’re a huge dork who likes games as much as I do.

Of the three solitaire games in A Gamut of Games, I chose Bowling Solitaire.

It’s scored exactly like bowling, which is to say I had to start over twice in order to get the scoring right, and only after Googling to re-teach myself how to keep score in bowling.

PS: I took bowling in college. I am a zero in the retention department.

Anyway, I’ll leave you to track down a copy of the book (currently $9.95 on Amazon) to get the rules. Suffice it to say, this is a fast-playing card-based solitaire game, and it’s a kajillion times more interesting than the regular solitaire game you’ve played so very many times.

Also, I am much better at bowling with playing cards than I am at bowling with a ball. Which is NOT SAYING MUCH.

Bowling Solitaire score: 156

Running TWIP: 156