Game Quickies - 3/3
Saga — It's the classic War, updated with multiplayer capability, resource management and region bonuses, in a nice-looking and quick-playing package.
Screaming Eagles — The board and mechanics come together well, and after some tweaking, we enjoy pulling this out when we're in the mood for light Battletech action.
Shazaam! — A card- and resource-based duel for two players that contains more depth than is apparent at first blush.
Simply Catan (etc) — One of the German staples. Some love it, some think it's not a bad way to spend some time and some are opposed (though maybe her husband should'nt've cut her off.)
Sorry! Sliders — It's basically the board game version of shuffleboard with a few variants thrown in along with the ability to handle two additional players.
Sword & Skull — It's like the roll-and-move games we grew up with, but better (read: more in-depth). Just remember: only two hands, so only two weapons.
Tangoes — It's Tangram with the additions of two larger right angle triangles with hypotenuse of sqr(2) and the ability to play an opponent.
Ticket to Ride — When coupled with the 1910 expansion, this is the game i'd blindly recommend. Use 1910's Big Cities variant for tighter two-player games.
Topple — A simple balancing game, but between the die and the scoring, it's surprising engaging. With 3p, place/score a 4th color piece on a six (if available).
Travel Blokus — For two-player Blokus games i prefer using a fifteen by fifteen area on the regular board, but this is so much easier to carry around and find play space for.
Uno — I still have the deck i grew up with, and it shows its age enough that i had to break out the spare.
Up the River — A light racer that isn't strictly role-and-move, though i recommend replacing the die with Marrakesh-based tokens.
Upwords — Basically Scrabble Lite due to the simpler scoring and more placing options. I have the 8x8 board, so think it plays best with two, though i'm not adverse to more.
Waterworks — A nice take-that pre-tile race-ish game that lives up to nostalgia, though i recommend the original rules as the reprint relaxed the challenge.
Yahtzee — One of the few games that's truly multiplayer solitaire, and so is better with less players than more. Still should be a staple, though.
Zombietown — I really like it, but i'm a fan of free-form games. The main site has updated rules, a FAQ, and my player aid: http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com/en/boardgames/zombietown.html
Game Quickies - 2/3
Dancing Dice — It's Yahtzee's cousin. The one with player elimination and "exceedingly stylistic" artwork. As an aside, think of it as losing confidence, not endurance.
Double or Nothing — The very definition of "simple fun". We flip a card at the beginning of every round - and another if it's a bonus - so that the first person has a choice.
Dragon Chess — A nice-looking chess set with a new pair of pieces and board that changes things up nicely without swinging very far away from orthodox chess.
Dragon Parade — The game needs more monies - five 10s and 20s should be enough - but is a nice light combination of tug-of-war, card play, and guesswork.
Dynasties — A quick-playing two-player area majority that reminds me of a certain battle of wits involving a small vial of iocaine powder.
Formula Dé Mini — After some tweaking, it's a rather solid role-and-move.
Hive — It scratches the same itch that chess does while being shiny and new (and a lot more portable). As an aside, it's a *baby* spider.
Hollywood Blockbuster — A decent auction game that's easy to pick up, yet there's some meat on the bone, and it doesn't overstay its welcome.
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation — It's takes Stratego and ups the ante by adding a "power" for each piece in addition to the standard ranking while providing a surprisingly strong theme.
Nexus Ops — A light combined arms wargame that's more than simply marching your armies from territory to territory and over-running the enemy.
Niagara — "Different" could go either way, but i say they pulled it off, though i only play with the Spirits expansion included.
Phase 10 Dice — A nice blending of Phase 10 and Yahtzee where you have to balance going for a higher score and keeping pace with the other players.
Pylos — Looks good, is simple to teach and learn, yet requires thought to play well. With the "alignment" rules, this is another good two-player filler.
Rattlesnake — It's Magnetic Theory 101 turned filler. When someone goes out, everyone should total their eggs, and when someone reaches (60/#players), whoever has the least is the winner.
Ringgz — Very small rule set, yet requires you to think ahead to have any hope of winning. The new checkers? Bonus points for being playable by four.
Risk 2210 — A very nice update of Risk, full of sound and fury and thwarted plans. (Are those Stealth MODs you're hoarding? Frequency Jam.)
Risk Express — It could just as easily have been named Yahtzee: Flower Collecting (and the one rule would've made more sense if it had), but it's surprisingly engaging.
Rummikub — Essentially Rummy with a twist (hence the name), you should already have an idea of whether or not you'd be a fan of this.
Game Quickies - 1/3
300: The Board Game — Quality is all over the map, but game-play is aces. There's luck in both the dice and card draw, but you play the game for the narrative you'll create.
4th Corner — A light tile-based maze game where the correct strategy isn't simply hoping that you're the one to place the exit.
Abalone — A nice little two-player abstract that seems to slip right from the opening moves to the endgame. Use the daisy and pillar set-ups to mix things up a bit.
Ark of the Covenant — A very solid tile-laying game which tweaks Carcassonne just enough to make it even better than the game that spawned it (excluding expansions).
Ave Caesar — The no-final-6 and ramming variants give it just enough of an edge to keep things interesting. Really needs 4+ chariots (and quick turns).
Backgammon — One of the classics. What you can do is dependent upon the dice roll, but it's not simply a dice-rolling game.
Battleship Express — A very nice Yahtzee variant that is even better with simultaneous damage and going from Admiral to Captain to Davy Jones' locker.
Battletech — For me, more than the sum of its parts, though if i hadn't gotten interested in the game back with 2nd edition, the current incarnation's pro-miniature stance would keep me away.
Blokus — A good-looking, easy-to-learn, surprisingly cutthroat abstract with shades of Tetris. We prefer 15x15 and 17x18 for two- and three-players, respectively.
Bolide — It's vector racing with rules, charts, and mounted courses (though the box can't hold all the expansions). The English rules deserve to be written better, but http://www.bolide.it/ has a FAQ and question form at least.
Bottle Topps — It's in the same category as Jenga, but offers more choices to place your piece in exchange for the "remove it first" aspect.
California — It's casual fare, but the decisions aren't as cut-and-dry as they appear at first blush. It loses something with only two players.
Can't Stop — A simple dice-rolling push-your-luck game with just enough strategy that it doesn't overextend its welcome.
Carcassonne — The base game stands on its own, but one of its strengths is that the gameplay can be tailored by adding an expansion or two (or five).
Chess — Really needs players of similar level. Every gamer should have at least a passing familiarity of tournament and blitz style.
China — It's probably as quick-playing as an area majority game can be while still being more than simply having the majority in a given area.
Clue: The Great Museum Caper — Don't let the Clue name put you off: this is a very thematic game of cat-and-mouse. Just make sure you're using the correct rules.
Crokinole — Somewhere between marbles and shuffleboard, it's easy to pick up, yet rewards skill. Oh to have had this during my VG Days...
Formula Dé Mini
Formula Dé Mini is a racing game in which strategy takes a back seat to the press-your-luck and roll-and-move aspects. In the scheme of things, i'd say it's closer to Ave Caesar than Bolide. Below is our ruleset, though some things aren't listed, such as you being able to shift one gear up or down at the beginning of your turn without taking damage and that the longest corner of each track is two stops. Two additional changes are that you can slip the clutch every turn (like the official Formula Dé variant) and we've decided that you can pit after every lap. We're pretty happy with what we have, but it's not carved in stone.
before the race
starting position is based on reverse season standings (roll black d20 for ties)
choose pit stop in reverse starting order
starting the race — roll black d20
1 : poor start - first gear, but no movement
2-18: normal start - roll first gear as normal
19-20: quick start - first gear + additional spaces based on starting grid row
on the first lap, all spaces between the start line and first turn are double-spaces
ways to take damage
overshooting a corner
one per space per required stop (stops stack)
can't change lanes or pass when overshooting
if life ends at -1*, a spin-out occurs
begin next turn in first gear; set life to zero
* this is the only exception to -1 damage = elimination
one per space for braking / being blocked
taking seven blocking damage at once = elimination
three for slipping the clutch (add one movement point)
one per downshift after the first (four gears max)
one for upshifting two gears
roll black d20
1- 4: turn ends; two additional damage
5-16: two additional damage
17-20: no additional damage
one for slipstreaming
you must be in third gear or higher
gearing must be equal/greater than the car you are slipstreaming
gain three spaces, though you may brake (via damage) to gain less
collision
when pulling next to or behind car(s), all roll black d20
when stopping next to multiple cars, the car that moved must roll for each car
1- 4: take one damage
5-20: no damage
eliminating a car via collision results in automatic damage
two for redlining engine
automatically for running in sixth gear (fifth gear +10)
roll of 1-4 on black d20 in following situations:
12 on d12 (fourth gear), 20 on d20 (fifth gear), 30 (20+10) in sixth gear
pit-stop
you must pull into your pit-stop with exact count or brake as necessary
there is no blocking-damage in pit lane BUT
you can't enter pit lane unless you have clear spaces equal to gear's minimum
no upshifting in pit lane unless you have clear spaces equal to gear's minimum
may roll any "gear" die to regain health from your damage
if you would gain more than your damage, you gain none
quick pit-stop
roll first through third gear die (d4, d6, d8)
may immediately exit the pit no higher than third gear
full pit-stop
roll fourth or fifth gear die (d12, d20); turn ends
next turn, may perform a quick pit-stop OR
may exit the pit prior to those performing a quick pit-stop
if multiple cars cross the finish line in the same round, calculate finish order as a percentage of distance traveled related to speed (ie 10spaces, roll of 20 = 50% of turn).
championship points
one championship point for the leader of every non-final lap
to earn the point, the leader must be on the track proper
points count towards both drivers' and constructors' championships
finish position points earned
1 7
2 5
3 3
4 2
5 1
6-8 0
eight-race series (four on each course)
three laps, as normal
two laps, no pit-stop available
three laps, third and fourth straights don't exist
two laps, all corners are double the number of stops
War 20XX
War. Possibly the best example of a game that you play solely for the experience. Of course, that implies that the main reason we play a game isn't *always* for the experience, but that's a topic for another time. As anyone who remembers playing War can tell you, the actual wars are pretty much the only reason to play. Granted, there's naturally some satisfaction in taking a card with a not-much-higher card, but that part's basically filler. Despite that though, i've found myself hankering for a game not long ago, but knew that nostalgia could use a bit of a boost in this case. So, to that end, i've updated it. As a placeholder, i named it War 20XX (twenty exty-ex).
Even more so than Risk 2210AD, War 20XX is based on the parent game, but i'll go ahead and list all of the rules just for the sake of completeness (though not in a "describe how to tie a shoe" way).
0- One player is Black (Spades/Clubs); the other is Red (Hearts/Diamonds). Jokers are one step above aces (assuming you play ace-high) and should be divvied evenly. (my go-to deck is missing them, which means i should choose another go-to deck, but i like its style.)
1- Each player plays a card face up.
2- Compare the ranks of the (top) face up cards. If the cards are more than one rank apart, the winner gets all the recently-played cards. Go to Step 1.
3- If the cards are exactly one rank apart, a Small War occurs. Each player plays a card face up**. Go to Step 2.
4- If the cards are of the same rank, a Big War occurs. Each player plays two cards face down and one card face up**. Go to step 2.
A- All captured pairs go on top of the player's inactive pile, face down. (i feel the hidden Big War cards should remain so.)
B- When a player empties his active pile, his inactive pile immediately becomes his active pile. At this time, the other player places his inactive pile underneath his active pile and begins a new inactive pile.
** If a player doesn't have enough cards to complete a Small or Large War, that player has just succeeded in failing to win the game.
Now, some people will read that and go, "well that's not all that different", and they would be absolutely correct. Of course, that's why i named it War 20XX and not SomethingCompletelyDifferent. Still though, don't underestimate the Small War. I was surprised how often they occur, and they sometimes set up some nasty chain reactions. I had a game end Double Small War > Big War > Small War > Big War > Red ran out of cards. Had it been played with those same cards using old school rules, Red would've had six left, one of which was an Ace. My longest combo is Small War > Big War > Triple Small War > Big War > Small War. Not surprisingly - though not guaranteed - that game clocked in below fifteen minutes.
Time-wise, War 20XX *can* be a barn burner, but it could just as easily last near the half-hour mark. (Even the winner isn't too thrilled about a five-minute rout, so i recommend considering those a skirmish.) For the full War 20XX experience, you definitely need the entire deck, but playing with less cards would be good when little kids or a time crunch is in the equation. Around the twenty-minute mark of a particular game i was comfortably ahead, but then the pendulum swung the other way and i couldn't pull it back in time. It ended with me losing a Double Small War.
I chose to go Black vs Red because while losing a queen to an ace is bad, losing a queen to an ace of your own color is even worse. That and it just seemed to make sense. I added Rule B as a way to keep people from using a just-won card and to stir the leader's deck ever so slightly. I've noticed that with won pairs, we tend to grab *our* card first. It's minimal tactics, but mixing that up would keep your deck from alternating low/high, though the Small Wars play a role in that as well. And that's about it. Well, one more thing: if you get the grail Quad Big War or any super-interesting combos, let me know. I had a Quad Small War once. That was pretty cool.
And so it begins...
The Kingmaker Situation is the sister site of Michael Malley's Logs @ Blogspot. As the title might imply, things written here will involve games in some way. Or at least that's the plan. You know how plans are.
Some of what is to come will be catholic in nature, such as my update of War, while others will very much not be, such as my rant concerning how i would have preferred that the Classic Battletech Introductory Box Set released by Catalyst Game Labs included, instead of two dozen average-quality plastic miniatures, twice that number of pressed paper BattleMech stand-ups along with counters for vehicles, infantry, protomechs, power armor, fire/smoke, buildings, and faction symbols. In short, everything that FASA did, but with more current forces. (pause) Actually, i guess i could skip that rant now. For a while, anyway.
The other significant difference between the two sites is that this one will be updated sporadically. Unlike MMLaB, there will not be weekly updates, though a spate of posts down the road should not be completely unexpected, so you'll just have to keep checking every so often.