Archive 7.10.2015 - 22.5.2016

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

W1815 really surprised me on the first play: I expected a dice fest with wild randomness and little control in a historical setting. But I found a quite tricky dice puzzle. Of course, everything is left to chance, but the actions of the corps with reactions from opponents (even in chains) make the whole thing interesting - I constantly have to assess which risks and opportunities arise. In addition, the corps change depending on the situation and thus change the planning situation. This quickly brings surprisingly much deliberation and planning. Which is then of course rendered useless by the dice. And the whole thing works surprisingly well solo, simply let the dice tell the story of the battle (or a possible alternative story) and influence it by selecting the corps. Very relaxing and plays in 15-30 minutes.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Analog charm in digital times: With the new M-Series camera, Leica omits the display. Through this reduction, the user of the Leica M-D should only focus on their subject

Source: Ohne Display: Leica M-D ist eine analoge Digitalkamera - Golem.de - the joke is, I would actually like that. I ignore the screen on my M8 anyway and if my camera offers it (like the GH1), then I fold away the display. But for 6000 Euros? Nope.

Here are some articles I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

USS Macon (ZRS-5) was an airship (yes, a zeppelin) used for reconnaissance and offered space for 4 converted biplanes as a "flying aircraft carrier". The Macon and her sister ship Akron are featured in Plan Orange, a game by Mark Herman about a potential conflict between the US and Japan in the 1930s. Cool.

Wielders of the Three is an interesting deck for LOTR:LCG that brings together some of the most powerful heroes in the card game. I might even go for a pure Noldor variant with Cirdan instead of Gandalf, because Gandalf with his zoo of attachments often takes up too much space in a deck that is not dedicated to him. I'm actually pondering the future of my Noldor deck at the moment, so this would be a direction I should look into.

Here's what I found worth reading over the course of the week and didn't want to link separately, collected and uncommented.

Here's what I found interesting this week, collected and uncommented:

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Got the chance to demo Trickerion: Legends of Illusion and took advantage of it. Nice event, even though we were only there for the first half. I really like the game itself - I've only played the base variant though. But I generally like games with multiple play levels. The game is a very interesting implementation of Worker Placement. With a really well-implemented theme, the actions and components all make thematic sense (ok, the action-promoting crystals only remind me of amphetamines, but the rest was consistent). Many good decision-making situations in the game, very compact gameplay with only 5/7 rounds, but still a lot to do and want to do per round. And you always have to keep an eye on the opponents to benefit from their actions (for example in the theater or with quick orders). It was a lot of fun and I'm already looking forward to October when I get the German version.

New addition to the collection: The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game. A nicely made Eurogame with only mini-cards. A brain-buster to take along. But really not a mini-game or filler - this is the full Euro program. Plus an surprisingly solid solo variant. The rulebook is a disaster, though. Various card types are mentioned during setup, but it's often not clearly stated how to recognize them. The setup is rather confusingly written - a clearly recognizable image would have been much more understandable. The images in general: way too small. The building explanations thus become a puzzle game. Really no fun during the first play. Still, it's worth it, you are rewarded with a very exciting game in which really many different strategies can run, depending on the cards that are out. Great design, somewhat weakly implemented as far as the rulebook is concerned.

What I considered worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected here and uncommented.

Imperial Settlers is the result of my first trade on BGG. And I am very satisfied with the choice, the game feels great. At first, you still think that it starts a bit slowly, but already in the second round it gets wild and in round four and five it really hums. And then it's already the end. It is a solid building game in which you build and operate your resource machine - but with interaction, to keep an opponent in check. Plus cute, friendly graphics and solid components. Setup is done quickly, also a big advantage. And everything is well visually oriented, so you don't forget so quickly what you have available. I hope Juliana will also enjoy it.

Here are some interesting reads from this week that I didn't want to link separately, collected here without comments:

Here are some interesting reads from this week that I didn't want to link separately, collected and uncommented:

We are the people!

Spielkarte mit detaillierter Karte von Deutschland und Spielsteinen. Brettspielkarte von Europa mit Spielsteinen und Markierungen

We played Wir sind das Volk! for the second time on Sunday as a learning round (this time two decades). I am still enthusiastic, Juliana is still a bit hesitant, but she likes it too. The second time went much better for the East, the economy there was struggling but functioning and sustainable for the two decades - whether it would have survived the next decade is rather doubtful, because Juliana was able to drastically boost the economy in the West and I couldn't keep a federal state at a low economic level this time. It's exciting when you see the board with all the economic connections and the clear difference between East and West becomes apparent - for example, in my case a socialist stronghold in Mecklenburg-Pomerania because mass unrest kept breaking out there, central economic concentrations in Brandenburg, Berlin, and Saxony. The West is definitely easier to play, as you can primarily focus on economic development there and only occasionally throw a spanner in the works (economically) with suitable events, while the East constantly has to fight against collapse and scrap together its economy from the strangest corners, fighting growing unrest in the population with ideology and suppression. We probably only made minor mistakes in the first decade with the republic flight (there, it is alternately decided which economy disappears), otherwise the two decades ran very smoothly - which speaks for a clear rule system. The decade-end phase also went more smoothly, even though this part really seems a bit fiddly - but since you go through a checklist there, you can hardly forget anything. However, it is a small lull in the flow of the game, especially because you go through the checklist according to the instructions at the beginning (there are practical graphic checklists on BGG, which are - if you know the whole thing quite well - probably much faster than going through the text).

What I considered worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected here and uncommented.

What I consider worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected here and uncommented.

Hoplomachus: Origins has had me in its grip with its solo trials for a few days now. These are less of a full solo game and more like small scenarios with the challenge to break them - to find a solution by combining gladiators, tactics, and moves that can reliably defeat the scenario. Very quick to play and the AI for the opponents is surprisingly effective despite its very low complexity. It's quite fun and can be played quickly in between other things.

"We are the people!" came to the table for the first time with Juliana yesterday. As with my first solo round, however, only for the first decade, because that already shows all aspects of the game for the first learning, but does not immediately overwhelm you with the full program. With this game, I hope that Juliana's interest remains, because it is really very well made. It is essentially a mix of resource management with a bit of area control mixed in and - for the East - a good dose of State of Siege. Both sides play very differently, the West plays an economic development game with integrated attacks on the East with ideology and standard of living, the East is constantly fighting for survival and trying to put out all the fires, so in principle classic scarcity management. The West wins through the dissolution of the East, the East only has to survive until the end to win. From these very asymmetrical approaches and goals, a exciting tug-of-war between the two German states then results. The whole thing seasoned with a historical theme. Very cool.

zeromq/netmq: A 100% native C# implementation of ZeroMQ for .NET was completely unknown to me (the C# version, not ZeroMQ), but it is a really exciting project for .NET enthusiasts. Directly in .NET without external libraries or even servers, you can build various 1:1, 1:N, N:1, N:M communication structures with diverse behaviors (Pub/Sub, Broadcast, Req/Resp, Fifo - basically everything that ZeroMQ can do). It makes a very good impression (ok, no surprise, it is after all an implementation of the original ZeroMQ in C#, and ZeroMQ was absolutely brilliant for its purposes). And of course, it is interoperable with the original ZeroMQ.

What I considered worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected and uncommented here.

My first COIN (Counter Insurgency) game is Cuba Libre - and it came to the table for the first time yesterday. What a great system. It is complex with many elements, but the material (board, player aids, sequence of play aid) makes it easy to follow the flow of the game and not forget in the middle whose action it is, who is next and what they are allowed to do. Thematically, the game is also very well connected with the mechanics - the Syndicate builds casinos and grabs money where they can, but are relatively locally active, the Directorio forms many smaller cells across the island and tries to disrupt both sides and position itself in many parts of the country, Batista squanders his money (which he gets from the USA and the Syndicate) on massive police and military actions against the rebels and Castro's side tries to convince the regions of the revolution and to motivate as many regions and cities to oppose. My game was Castro against the rest (controlled by bots) and unfortunately was not successful - the Syndicate had corrupted the country too much. The bots showed quite well the character of the other factions. Ok, the whole thing took 5 hours, but it was also the first game. Next time it will run more smoothly. And there will definitely be a next time, the game is simply fantastic. And I am already looking forward to the upcoming expansion and the two upcoming COIN games about the Gallic Wars and the American Revolution. Cuba Libre only has about 56 cards, so I am already thinking about translating them - then I would also have a chance to play it with Juliana. More complex than our usual gaming fare, but worth it.

After a long break, I played Sentinels of the Multiverse again. It's still a really entertaining game. But I'm increasingly noticing that while it's a lot of fun, keeping track of various effects in the paper version really takes away my desire to pull out the cards, so I prefer to play it on the PC or tablet instead. Which is a shame, but I notice even in the digital version that there are moments of "oh, I didn't think about that modifier anymore," and in the paper version, it becomes really annoying. Even the many markers don't really help. On the other hand, it's a purely cooperative game without decisions for the opponent, so it can also be well implemented on a computer. For a solo game, this is perfectly fine and much more convenient.

I received Hostage Negotiator a few days ago and tried it out. A very interesting implementation of an exciting topic. It has the classic wargame structure: decide on a plan and the dice tell you whether the plan succeeds. The chances for this are not particularly good. Therefore, it reminds me of the State of Siege games like Soviet Dawn or Cruel Necessity, where it is the same. Here, too, you always have to keep an eye on the risk, but luck plays an even greater role than in the SoS games. Therefore, I don't know if it will stand the test of time alongside Soviet Dawn (which is even faster to set up) - but it has the advantage of higher variability. Compared to Space Hulk: Deathwing, it stands up well in my opinion, the box is also small, a series of expansions bring variety, so it will at least have a place as a travel pack. And it will certainly spend some rounds on the table.

Soviet Dawn is another State of Siege game. This one was included in C3i 27, a real bargain. Thematically very dense, as with all State of Siege games so far, the playtime is much shorter than in Cruel Necessity. I like it very much, despite the dice fest it is already noticeable that you have a chance, but only very narrow. Thanks to the short playtime, good chances to hit the table more often, just because I find the theme (early Soviet Union after the revolution) exciting. Nice solo game for in between.

Junior General is a very interesting website with many (free!) paper "miniatures" for classic miniature-based wargames such as Professor Sabin's Lost Battles: Reconstructing the Great Clashes of the Ancient World. Easy to produce (print, fold, glue, done) and give the battlefield a 3D feel with minimal time and money investment.

What I considered worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected here and uncommented.

Polis: Fight for the Hegemony was recently available at a real bargain price (15 Euro) at the Spiele-Offensive, so I just couldn't say no and grabbed it. Polis is a game that balances interestingly between war game and Euro game. The mechanisms are very clearly Euro - but the structure has strong echoes of war games, specifically the more strategic "1000 Miles View" variant, in which individual moves refer to large actions (entire troop movements on land or sea). The whole thing is designed as a pure 2-player game with a great map, many wooden parts, project boards for the special abilities that some cities can achieve, an event stack that stamps its mark on each round and a stack of combat cards, through which wars are processed. Also a 4-sided die for adjusting market prices (yes, trade is an essential part alongside the wars, just like diplomacy) and rolling siege successes. The whole thing gives a pretty interesting mix - the first learning game was only a snapshot of the overall game (scenarios are offered that are played faster than the full game), but it already gave good insights into what to expect. And after that, I'm really eager to get the game on the table more often - even solo could be interesting, although the wars are decided by card choice, there's still a bit you can do to make it usable in solo play. Everything else is open and thus easily playable "left hand against right hand". What excites me: how well the historical background (Sparta against Athens after the end of the Persian Wars) is captured and depicted. Athens has sea supremacy, Sparta is superior on land - but this is only reflected in who of the two starts a battle. Wars are not directly disastrous with huge losses, but instead are much more geared towards prestige gains, only occasionally losing one or two phalanxes or galleys. Opponents always have the option to flee (pursuit by heavily armored hoplites was not really practical, giving up the formation would have been their end), albeit with a loss of prestige. Taking over cities is much safer to accomplish through bribery and inciting civil wars than through sieges, so trade - as a supplier of silver and raw materials for troops - plays a very central role. Cutting off trade routes can strongly block one side (especially Sparta, as its trading ports can be captured by Athens). Wheat to maintain one's own poleis usually has to be traded, so again a strong focus on trade, which can of course be strongly impaired by sea and land blockades. Athens usually wants to cut Sparta off from trade to weaken them, while Sparta wants to break blockades and gain access to trading places and rather seeks the military conflict (and in the early game definitely wants to control Sicily). A beautifully designed asymmetry of the participating polis, without overloading the whole game massively with special abilities. Instead, the asymmetry is integrated into the game setup, area and resource distribution (and very small imbalances in the rules, see starting fighters). Great.

Currently, I am dealing with the Macedonian armies and the strategies of Alexander the Great for reasons (Great Battles of History: Alexander). Apparently, excerpts from the History of the Art of War by Hans Delbrück are still one of the best first points of contact to learn more about this topic.

Great Battles of History: Deluxe Alexander I need to read through, as the box should arrive at my place soon. I just don't know how to occupy the table in the living room for several hours without causing marital crises ...

Here are some interesting reads from this week that I didn't want to link to separately, collected here without comments:

What I considered worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected here and uncommented.

I finally managed to bring Mage Knight Board Game to the table for a solo learning game. Still with reduced walkthrough rules to get a feel for the ruleset first, then next time I'll dive into the full walkthrough rules. There are quite a few corners to consider, and unfortunately, the setup is a bit more involved (though not much worse than, for example, The Gallerist). I still need to come up with something for organization. But overall, it's already an impressive game. I like these more puzzle-oriented cooperative or solo games, and the theme definitely appeals to me. This will definitely be repeated. And I'm also looking forward to the re-releases of the expansions, especially the Lost Legion and the brand new expansion, which offer a lot for solo play.

Here's what I found worth reading this week and didn't want to link separately, collected and uncommented:

7 Wonders: Duel I pre-ordered for Essen and then - because of my cancellation - had a colleague bring it for me. As with Tides of Time, I'm fascinated by the idea of a two-person drafting. Here, especially interesting is the open drafting - you see the opponent's choices and at least parts of the upcoming cards. Then there's a reveal mechanism like Jaipur, where you have to be very careful not to give the opponent too many options and interesting side paths to win with military or science. Buildings build on each other and form chains like Progress and then there are the Wonders of the World, which all offer powerful effects. And the scientific achievements, which can provide decisive advantages for a player. All of this in a compact package with manageable playtime and - despite the many options - quite compact rules. I already like it after the first practice game and I hope that after a few games Juliana will too.

Tides of Time I bought because microgames always fascinate me, especially when there's actually a real game behind them. It's also a drafting game, and even for two players, although drafting often doesn't work so well with two. But here it really fits well and the game offers surprisingly many decisions where you really have to think. It requires much more consideration than other typical fillers, but it still plays very quickly. It also has a compact box (could be even more compact with standard cards instead of the monster cards that Pegasus chooses for "Microgames") and a really compact setup that also fits on café tables. Cool. Because of the really good illustrations, I even forgive the huge cards.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a regular guest on the table, at least when I play solo. Not every round is remarkable, even though the games are usually fun. But yesterday, I sent my renovated Ent deck into the race for the first time, this time against the first scenario of the Black Rider. And the result was impressive. The deck didn't run smoothly at all - only a few Ents, only one of the Ent Grave events (where you can take all Ent cards from the top 5). No Shadowmane for Gandalf. So not really optimal - and yet the deck held up extremely well. The situation never really became dangerous, the black riders (though also with a lot of luck, none of them got their mount) were not a real threat, as I could almost always pull them out of staging to block them cleanly and then shred them with a few Ents. Thanks to some Quick Knots, the Hobbits were always available to send them to hiding tests and in case of emergency they could be improved with Ents. And Treebeard was soon there as a solid defender and quester and additional resource source. The switch away from Treebeard as a hero to Gandalf definitely gives me a good piece of control over the player deck, which helps a lot with a sluggish start of the deck - especially with poorer development in the first rounds, the old version was quickly overwhelmed and here I had to face 9-11 threat in the lineup very quickly. A really nice deck and I think I can let it run against the whole campaign.

The Gallerist hit the table for the first solo game today. Wow. It's almost like work. But it's a lot of fun, even though I made way too many mistakes in the first solo game - the game system was already quite recognizable. The actions make sense and are thematically very well founded, which makes learning much easier. And the best part: it's really fun. The two hours flew by. This will definitely be repeated.

Selection for the next big game that Juliana and I learned together was over the weekend The Golden Ages and we have the first learning game behind us. It was still a bit bumpy, the game has significantly more moving parts than anything we have played so far. But it was fun and the structure is quite logical. You just have to think about a few things during the change of epochs. All in all, however, a really beautiful game with a lot of possibilities and variable setup, that should keep us busy for a good while. But I don't think Progress will be dethroned so quickly.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Progress: Evolution of Technology has become a total hit with Juliana in recent times. We've practically played it every day, even 2-3 times a day during the time I was sick. And we're both still having a great time with it. The advantages of the game are manifold, but apart from the interesting theme, the highlights for us are that all actions make sense in the context of the game theme. Cards that build on each other are logically connected (in most cases, at least), and the improvements that come along are indeed connected to the card. Additionally, the cards themselves have no text except for the name - you don't have to read long to understand what's happening, everything is marked with clear symbols. On top of that, all the cultural improvements you earn are clearly visible on the player board. The same goes for the position in the cultural areas (prestige, population development, and military) on the additional board. The available aids are easy to use and understand. All of this helps to ensure that you can really just play casually without being held back by questions of understanding (especially for Juliana, the language difference is crucial). On top of that, a really exciting game theme for us, and our evening entertainment is secured. We've now reached 1-1.5 hours, although we always play with the fourth age. Milestones and philosophers are not yet included in the program, but it might become interesting soon, but with 20 games together, we haven't yet felt that we've exhausted the base game.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Why Twitter’s Dying (And What You Can Learn From It) — Bad Words — Medium is an interesting article about what the author sees as the core problem of social media, which is ignored by the operators: abuse, or (since "abuse" doesn't translate trivially) the antisocial behavior of many in these media, which drives away normal users and turns some networks into pure self-promotion machines for press organs. The latter part of the article, about the digital revolution, is then somewhat too dreamy.

What I consider worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected and uncommented here.

The Lord of the Ice Garden I backed and received through Spieleschmiede. And the game is a visual masterpiece - great graphic design and excellent miniatures. Plus, it's a very interesting game with a truly non-trivial solo variant that actually retains a lot from the original game. However, it's very high in complexity, it will take a few more rounds until I really understand it to explain it to someone. But it offers a combination of worker placement and area domination together with variable player abilities and upgrade options like I've never seen before. Absolutely wow.

Holy Smokes, Per6 is officially out!

Quelle: The Night Larry Wall Unveiled Perl 6 | 10 Zen Monkeys