2022, a year of new games, old favourites and things to come.

As the year fast approaches its end, I wanted to but a blog together that summarises my experiences in 2022. What I am proposing here for your attention is a retrospective, a look back at a complex year with a few highs and lows. I figure that if you live long enough such average years will tend to occur with some disconcerting frequency.

When it comes to board games, this year saw a few good titles become part of my collection. Whenever possible, I have chosen games that add something, an innovative mechanism, some unique artwork or just perhaps a theme I did not have yet included.

Warcraft: Curse of the Lich King – Pandemic System – I have played my fair share of the original Pandemic and won several games with my board gaming group. However, this Warcraft skinning of the game felt a bit simplified and limited. The quests are fixed, so once you play three to four games, I feel there would be a replay issue. On the plus side, this was my first Pandemic game that came with some great miniatures. The use of these minis does improve the gaming experience, especially for long-time Warcraft fans such as me.

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion – This is the smaller sibling of the monumental Gloomhaven. It also costs a fraction of Gloomhaven. “Jaws of the Lion” comes with four playable characters, minis, character specific decks, several standees, and sports the same dice-less system that has made Gloomhaven so popular. The Scenarios book that comes with the game also doubles as the actual map areas to be explored by the adventurers. Each scenario is just a matter of opening the book to the right page, placing the scenario specific standees and obstacles in their starting locations directly onto the book, and you are good to go. Overall, this game feels more manageable and easier to get to the table, while still offering some of that legacy feel that has made the Gloomhaven system so popular.

Terraforming Mars: Aries Expedition is a scaled down version of Terraforming Mars which plays in a fraction of the time of its bigger sibling. Aries Expedition still has enough of that substance you would expect but translates into a quicker, equally thematic gaming experience. Personally, I found it remarkably interesting that the designers were conscious that not all board game players can, or will, indulge in lengthy gameplay.

Lost Cities is a small two-player game I added to my collection, designed by Rainer Knizia. Though the theme is not particularly strong when it comes right down to it, it still makes the game pleasant and intuitive while also allowing you to keep track of cards played and which cards should go where. I played a few games with my son Neil, and he enjoyed it. As I said earlier, the artwork is gorgeous but what is truly striking is the mechanism that it carries elegantly. Players will contend for points in up to 6 columns or zones, seeking to ramp up their scores sufficiently to come out on top. Paying attention to what your opponent plays is key, as is a well-timed play or discard. Overall, a great little game.

While on holiday in Manchester, earlier this year, I got my hands on three games, one of which an expansion. The First one, Land & Sea reminds me visually of Carcassonne, but play could not be any more different. Players take turns to add hexagonal tiles to a growing tableau, all the while furthering the objective of their faction be it land or sea.

Undaunted: North Africa, is a two-player, World War 2, skirmish style game which uses cards and deck building as part of a combat simulation. Diverse maps can be set up from the campaign-style scenarios booklet. Each mission comes with specific objectives that must be engaged differently by either faction to win.

 

Wingspan: European Birds Expansion is the last game and sole expansion I bought from Manchester and it also happens to be the first published expansion to the game Wingspan. The European birds expansion adds a good few cards to the mix and also introduces a number of bird cards which do not carry any effects on them. There are also more automata cards and some additional objective cards which make point scoring that much more interesting.

Root: A Woodland game of right and might, which many are calling a modern “Risk” contender, is highly asymmetric game which pits four unique factions in a woodland brawl for ultimate dominance. No two factions play the same and this is what makes Root, highly replayable and challenging. One of my goals in 2023 will most definitely be to get to know this title a bit better.

The Crew: The Quest for Planet 9 is a small card game which uses trick-taking as its main focus of play. Furthermore, it successfully manages to turn the mechanism into a cooperative one. It fits into a smallish box but then packs in 50 variations, weaving them all together into a substantial campaign. You most definitely can play a few variations and stop for the day but progressing through the campaign offers an increasingly intricate experience with a gradual ramping up of difficulty.

Imhotep: Builder of Egypt is a game which made it into my collection, just in time for the holidays. Imhotep focuses on build queues; well-times moves and quick thinking to achieve point-scoring objectives. It is a very tactile game and comes with several coloured, wooden blocks serving the purpose of goods to be shipped up and down on river barges. The game's theme is extraordinarily strong and makes for a visually striking experience. It is easy to imagine yourself guiding boats up and down the river Nile, during pharaonic times, to construct magnificent buildings and majestic monuments. I have not had the chance to play this title quite yet, so I will share my experiences as soon as I do.

Now I would like to share with you some other games I upgraded or just played in 2022.

In 2022, I bought a metal coins upgrade for “Lords of Waterdeep”. The coins add an extra layer of tactile authenticity, if possible. They are beautifully crafted, and I bought them from an American online shop called “The Broken Token.” I already had everything in terms of expansions for this title, so this upgrade was the only way to truly bump up the gameplay for this favourite of mine.

This year I got to play Lords of Waterdeep with my gaming group over 2-sessions. While breaking up and following through with the game was not what I had originally intended, it was well worth the wait to finish off. I feel confident that another session or two with this gaming group will allow us all to better appreciate the intricacies of this worker placement classic. Who knows, I might eventually feel that we are good enough to add the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion into the mix.

Carcassonne also made it to the table for a couple of matches which were both challenging and rewarding. I was particularly glad that Neil joined in and played a full game netting a very respectable score in one instance.

One of my other favourites, Wingspan, also made it to the table this year. I must admit that teaching the game to first-time players felt challenging as I could not really focus on my game. Yet it was still an extremely rewarding experience to watch friends play the game for the first time and doing so successfully following the tutorial I delivered. They also enjoyed the overall experience and were particularly captivated by the theme and sleek design of this exceptional modern board game.

2022 also allowed me to test the abridged ruleset for another board game classic, Talisman. Played following the original rules, Talisman can be an authentic time hog. As anyone who knows the game will testify, Talisman is not restricted to a finite number of rounds, so the game will often last for as long as the players continue their back and forth around the board and between regions. The traditional ruleset is also highly confrontational, so players normally contend both with monsters encountered through the event deck, as well as with other players vying to be the first to reach the crown of command. On the contrary, the adapted ruleset I obtained and played, turns the game into a cooperative experience with the board itself as the sole enemy. It also reduces the time necessary to complete the first part of the game, by randomly depositing key sites around the outer region. In this way, players can speed up the levelling of their selected characters and then proceed quicker into the middle and inner regions. Having said that, the adapted game still took the better part of an hour and a half to complete.

As was to be expected, in 2022 digital board game playtime still took the lions’ share. I played lots of Wingspan, Raiders of the North Sea, Ascension (still a favourite), Lords of Waterdeep, Backgammon, Cribbage, Fox in the Forest as well as a few games of Root. I also managed to play my fair share of Hero Realms matches, exclusively versus AI bots, but it was still a lot of fun to get my hands dirty with this fantasy deck builder.

As far as new software games are concerned, I bought two digital adaptations of popular board games in 2022. The first as noted earlier is “Fox in the Forest” and the other “Root.” Root was a necessity just to get down to playing the game right away. However, while the game adaptation is visually appealing, it tends to lessen the importance of card texts and their visibility to the player. Also, the selected factions' basic objectives are not accurately represented, or easily accessible, during play. For these reasons, the digital adaptation fails to offer a viable teaching experience to players. Going forward, I still think that to get better at playing Root, I will need a good dose of live play and more familiarity with the cards and core rules.

As an aside, though not strictly a board game adaptation, I also bought “Dune: Spice Wars.” This game turned out to be a Civilisation-like game, based on the fictional planet Arrakis, with interminable play times. The graphics are brilliant, but it is just that I can no longer put in the hours of play this one demands. Furthermore, game play feels incremental, and actions taken earlier on during a session come together, or fall apart, much later during play. At times, playing this game feels like watching two trains about to collide in slow motion. You know you are heading for disaster, but at some point, you realise that there is nothing you can do about it.

Another digital game of note I purchased in 2022 is the RPG-like “Hand of Fate 2”. This is a follow-up to the original Hand of Fate which I had bought during a Steam Sale some years back. Although this is a sequel, I still found the fighting system to be dodgy, which I felt to be irritating in certain situations, since it brings too much console-style combat to what would otherwise be a tactical D&D clone with cards.

As Monty Python’s John Cleese was fond of saying,” ...and now for something completely different.”

Shipping costs to Malta became something of a nightmare in 2022. This was the reason I ended up giving AliExpress a decent try out. I bought the trick-taking card game “The Crew” from AliExpress and it arrived within an acceptable timeframe, which was encouraging. Overall, delivered product costs through AliExpress are marginally more contained, though I cannot understand how they manage it, when Amazon and eBay are doubling the cost of almost any board game shown in their catalogues. Regardless, any board games from abroad must, at least where I am concerned, come through AliExpress. I cannot seriously consider Amazon or eBay’s offers for the near future. I would like to offer a practical example of just how much shipping is inflating costs when it comes to board games.

 

Having said that, this year I was delighted to discover that an increasing number of local shops are catching up when it comes to stocking modern board games. My copies of Lost Cities, Root and even Imhotep were all purchased locally. Prices in all three cases were very fair and reasonable when compared with online shops. In all three instances, the purchase was sensibly cheaper when you factor in shipping costs. Obviously, these local shops (The Model Shop, Warmongers, Games plus and others) avail themselves of consolidated shipping which brings down the prices of the materials they import. Something I obviously cannot do.

As a further note, this time linked to AliExpress, I would like to point out that it is not that the shipping is lower when compared to shipping costs listed by Amazon or eBay, but that the games themselves are listed with significantly lower prices. The result is that once you slap the shipping cost to the game itself, the overall cost of that boardgame is comparable to what you would expect to pay locally. The only real issue with AliExpress is that they do not specialise in board games, so finding titles to purchase from them can proved tricky or impossible.

As a practical example to my argument, I would like to share a price comparison of purchasing the board game Azul from Amazon and AliExpress. From Amazon the game has a catalogue price of €31.99 and a shipping cost of €34.24, for a total cost of €66.23. From AliExpress Azul has an eye wateringly low price of €12.77 and a slightly steeper shipping cost of €40.67, for a total cost of €53.44. While AliExpress comes with a slightly higher shipping fee, I can still obtain the same identical title (Azul) for €12.79 less than what it would cost me from Amazon.

At the end of the day however, I still feel that currently there are substantial savings to be made by buying through a local agent. Doing so, allows me to purchase more titles than what I would be able to afford should I have to source all my games from abroad. While I am not keeping my hopes up, I have heard encouraging news that shipping costs and related organisation are expected to normalise over the coming months and hopefully that will translate to more acceptable price tags when it comes to purchasing new boardgames directly from abroad.

As 2022 slowly ends, I have some additional games in the pipeline which I am interested in obtaining for my collection. I have nominally booked/pre-ordered the third expansion of Wingspan (Wingspan: Asia) which should arrive by the end of January to mid-February. I have also signalled my interest in obtaining “Splendor Duel” though it will most likely arrive by the second quarter of 2023.

Before signing off on this last blog for 2022, I wanted to spare a few minutes on ComiCon Malta 2022, held at the end of October. The event was indeed very well attended, and I was quite frankly surprised at the crowds I found there. However, the event was not effectively managed. Areas were not properly segregated, and cut-off rooms for specific discussion panels were poorly insulated from the constant brouhaha that epitomised the main hall. I tried attending one D&D panel and all attendees struggled to understand what the speakers were saying. Likewise, areas dedicated to live boardgame play-throughs were not properly segregated from the flow of patrons and they felt crammed in corners as afterthoughts.

The real shame however was the space allocated to some established comic artists who were exhibiting their works on site. The event was about Comic Culture and these artists should have been afforded better focus. One thing I found deplorable was that there was no proper signage highlighting the works of these same artists. I would have expected at least a display of sorts running a PowerPoint or a brief video highlighting their work and achievements. As set up, these professionals were difficult to approach by patrons, who may not recognise them, or even mentally associate them with some of the most iconic comic book creations of the past several decades.

I do sure hope that these shortcomings in Malta ComiCon 2022 will be properly addressed going forward, as there is a strong local community of enthusiastic and avid comic book fans, who would appreciate the effort put into organising such events. Furthermore, I also think it is about time to start considering specific conventions focused on board games, war gaming and roleplaying games. These could take the shape of live play throughs of the latest games, gaming tutorials as well as discussion panels with perhaps a few gaming tournaments thrown in.

That is all for 2022! I am hoping that next year will bring interesting developments when it comes to board gaming, as well as more opportunities for live play. I also hope to be able to meet up more frequently with my gaming groups and to share more experiences around the table. To all those who have read my blogs this year, I wish you all a good year end and may the new year ahead treat you all kindly.

A prosperous New Year 2023 to all.

 

Piatnik 1352

It’s a regular deck, it says 55 cards on the outside box which is a mix of blue and white. On one side the name of the brand “Ferd. Piatnik & Sons VIENNA”. The trade mark, a mounted jockey on a stationery racing horse. At the very bottom of this side of the tuck box “MADE IN AUSTRIA”. Now this isn’t one of the decks I would have handled as a child, the fact that at the bottom of the tuck box you find www.piatnik.com clearly positions this deck as one printed in the modern era of internet but the livery, the designs are the same. On the opposite face of the tuck box, a replica of the card backs, a kind of mesmerizing circular mandala, squared just enough to fit the rectangular bridge-sized cards. For some reason this pattern always reminded me of the stained glass of some ancient cathedral.

More importantly, this deck, this very particular, mundane deck is my first memory of a deck of cards. Simple, regular, reassuring like the embrace of a loved one. In my case the sentiment is tied inexorably to games  of Rummy, “Trent e un” (albeit 31) and Bella Donna played with relatives now long gone. It’s this strong nostalgic aura that permeates this deck and which transports me back to a time when life was forever, joys and pleasures simple and worries few if any.

The deck itself is loaded with meaning for me. The Joker on this deck is simply charming, his smile not threatening in the least. He simply sits there with a deck of cards in his left hand as he shows you, the happenstance bystander, the ace of clubs. His headdress has the crest of a rooster and then two dangling points with golden bells attached. He smiles benevolently as though beckoning you to sit at the table and play his mysterious game. The joker reminds me of Uncle Victor, this is not a pejorative association, on the contrary, the joviality Victor used to bring to the table was most welcome and lightened the mood with relentless laughs all coming from a good place.

Then, for some uncanny reason, the King of spades reminds me so much of my maternal grandfather, somewhat sombre, yet poised and ever alert. He was the product of his times, a man who had lived through the war and served in what were called the Territorials back then. He was a simple man, set in his ways. Right to the later years of life he would still recall stories from his younger days of service and he would recall them over and over in exactly the same way never failing to recall the slightest of details.

In similar fashion the Queen of Diamonds reminds me of my maternal grandmother, a woman whom I loath to forget and who loved me from the moment I was born. A fiery and temperamental woman with a heart of gold, that is how I want to recall her. The Queen of hearts then reminds me of her sister Aunty Betty, a devout and energetic woman, always willing to help and lend a hand. She was there when we needed her. Again she, like my grandmother, grand father and her husband Uncle Carm were survivors. They had seen the ugly side of a war battered Malta back in World War 2 and they had beat the odds, surviving to rebuild from what was left. That generation was indeed a generation of unsung heroes, of men and women who would carry the scars of war etched deep into their collective minds. They were those who raised my parents, who would see times of peace like the rest of us.

These were the same players who would, after a hearty Sunday lunch, help clear up the table and deal out the cards. Often it would be rummy, and given the number of players, two decks would be used. We learnt by watching, observing what the elders did and what seemed to work. I recall my mother as having an uncanny ability when it came to playing Rummy, she always seemed to make the right moves and pick the right discards or make the best draws. Inevitably she was also among those who tended to win the most hands.

On hotter summer days, the roof area which made part of my grandmother’s house, would be set up with adequate shades and a table would be setup out there. Card games there, would often be pleasurable, while also allowing everyone to enjoy a most welcome respite from the summer heat and stuffy indoors. As day would give in to night, lights would be lit, and the games could be allowed to continue until it was time to put the cards away.

Then for some reason unfathomable my memories fall upon uncle Carm (Carmelo), a quiet gentleman in the true sense of the word, as he would spread a copy of this same deck on the kitchen table at my grandmother’s house, and then proceed to reorder them, first by suit and later by rank. As I ponder that action I draw parallels with Tibetan monks, painstakingly building intricate mandalas with coloured sands, only to sweep the floor clean once they are done. In much the same way, the ordered deck of cards would once again be shuffled repeatedly and then dealt out for yet another card game. For uncle Carm, the exercise was more a simple necessity to check that the deck was complete in between games and then prepare that deck for the next in many games played on that same kitchen table. Yet the quiet concentration he poured into the effort held a sense of peace which quite simply went beyond the mundanity of it all. To this day, I do catch myself doing that same exercise, sorting a deck with the excuse of checking that it is whole, but part of me eases out as my mind stretches back in time.

As I type this at my keyboard, I have a copy of that same deck in front of me. I cannot help but thinking that it was this same deck of cards that contributed to my lifelong passion for card and board games. The enjoyment I used to derive from either playing with my relatives or just watching them play, kind of set the theme that would see me pick up other games as I grew up. Not only, but to read into the history of games, their significance and their lasting attractiveness. These are all games that come without batteries, whose rules need to be memorised and which demand an alert mind to fill-in the gaps and build mesmerising worlds of conflict, cooperation, strategy and luck. I hate to use the word luck in the old, superstitious sense, as I have long since abandoned the folly of anthropomorphising what is but a dance of variability and constant change. Yet this four letter word is one of the sweet ingredients that makes any game that much more palatable. Mind you, I do not enjoy games that are purely driven by luck but games that have but a taste mixed in, are among those I love best.

More importantly, these games are games only in so much as the opportunities they offer to socialise and meet those we care about. For indeed, life is ever so fleeting and every card or board game we fail to play with those we love, will inevitably become those we will most regret never having played.

 

The Game of Life

I have played countless computer and board games to date, but I have never really set down to play this old classic called “The Game of Life” (aka GoL). It’s an interesting though dated game which does show its age when you look up closely. Still, it does warrant some attention, not so much as because it attempts to simulate the progression of life, but because it dares to do so in a naïve way.

The notions of life, fate and our individual legacies have beleaguered humankind since time immemorial. We struggle to understand our purpose in life, to give meaning to our actions and goals. Finding this purpose, this meaning, defines our very existence, failing to do so makes us feel lost and listless. So, when a game such as the GoL posits simulating the achievement of these goals, allowing us to investigate these notions, one should stop and if anything, ponder what is being attempted.

GoL will not offer you the meaning of life on a proverbial platter, it will not grant the player wisdom or some other lofty revelation. It does, however, force the player to stop and consider the stages of life and how these impact our actions as we grow, age and ultimately hand down our legacy to those who will go through the process after us. Ultimately what Gol does is paint life mechanistically as a series of events that somehow intertwine into a crescendo of contingent events forming an arabesque as complex and as intricate as any.  Simple processes are therefore seen to offer complexity only when in sufficient quantity as to force the viewer to forget the individual elements but attempt instead an overall appraisal.

Let me explain that in another way. It is like listening to a hundred-strong orchestra. Each musician can be seen as representing an event, a complete process embodying both experience and mastery over one instrument. Had an onlooker focused on that one instrument alone, he or she would only see one, simple process in action, beautiful, but elementary in nature. However, the situation changes when the onlooker now expands his or her consciousness to embrace the whole orchestra, playing as one. What the onlooker experiences will transcend the elements that the orchestra is made up of. It becomes an overpowering experience, majestic, spectacular, memorable even. This is what we all hope to achieve in our lifetimes, something that ends up being, at the very least, memorable.

I think that it was Socrates who said that the contemplated life is the life worth living. I think what he might have meant was a life that is lived intensely, reviewed, and savored in all its parts. Yet as I can attest from all my exposure to diverse philosophies, this meaningfulness or value cannot be summed up from just one point of view.

Going back to GoL, what the game fails to capture is that life is only given the meaning we consciously decide to give it. That personal meaning, in many ways, will often fail to conform totally to norms or custom, it will however blend in, like an instrument in an orchestra. We only have control over the instrument we play but by playing, by focusing intent on playing the instrument given to us, we will inevitably affect the performance. This affectation is our legacy, the beating of a butterfly's wing stirring up a hurricane halfway around the world.

At 50, life takes on a distinctive nuance. I acknowledge that I now have a total of years ahead of me that will more likely be smaller than the total of years behind me. This awareness is enough to create a sense of alertness, a sense of urgency that never existed before. You ponder the ultimate mortality that guides us, making each passing day much more precious and unique. More importantly, you start to appreciate just how petty some of our worries in life are. You start to realistically assess the need or even the utility of burdening our minds with the worries of others, of embracing unwarranted struggle which would otherwise dissipate into nothing the moment we put them down. 

Yet despite these realizations, I am no guru, nor do I feel enlightened in any way. What these realizations have offered me is the clear strength to refuse to carry what is inconvenient for others. Wherever possible I will walk away from such things, I will do mine instead, I will live a life that will not be unnecessarily burdened with the drudgery others refuse to carry. This does not mean I will not be compassionate, just that I will not add the avoidable pain of others to my own, making my lot worse. I will however acknowledge the pain of others and, wherever possible, offer support commensurate to my means and capabilities.

It is useless to offer to carry the burdens of others, if we cannot even carry our own loads. We need to understand our limitations and offer help in line with those limitations. When we do so, we can really be of service and be there whenever that service is truly needed. Whether this is the secret to both living a good life and creating a memorable legacy is something I still need to assess and maybe someday I will be able to offer my final say on the matter. For now, the jury is still out. 

In its own way, through a mix of rules and turn taking, GoL tries to recreate this dynamic in the game itself. Choices are offered weightings and events a sense of variance, of causality that is not always linear. Obviously, this being a game, the flow cannot truly be random. If the game were to embrace the full complexity of the real deal, we would end up with a game that would last several hours if not days. 

What is particularly interesting about GoL is that there are no dice, just a spinner with ten possible outcomes. Interestingly the original designers opted for a spinner and not dice, a sort of Wheel of Fortune, something that is both ancient and whimsical at the same time. I cannot but draw a parallel between the spinner we find in this game and the 10th Major Arcana of the classic Tarot deck, which also refers to a "Wheel of fortune”. Indeed, the similarities between the Tarot deck and GoL do not stop there. Both GoL and the classic Tarot deck try to model the progression of life from cradle to grave.  Both hint at the unforeseen, the importance of knowledge and the ephemeral nature of life itself. All this is condensed in GoL through the cadence and turns of the spinner, the movements around the board, the decisions taken throughout the game.

 Ultimately the greatest lesson learned is that life can only be managed (to a degree) but never truly controlled. The greatest illusion would be to believe that we have control over the outcomes. As in GoL we cannot force the outcomes we aspire to obtain, we can only try to stack the odds as best we can through diligent preparation and planning, then leave the rest to variance...or in common parlance...to chance.

Interestingly the trigger which led to this article was not life but death. Death has this sobering effect, it uncompromisingly exposes our frailty, shedding a glaring and unforgiving light upon our petty squabbling and relentless worrying. What makes it the ultimate equalizer is that nothing will sway its action or judgement. Whether you be king, president, CEO or a janitor working some feckless job, all will answer the summons once it is made. In this context the ending of our lives is very much akin to the final turn in a board game. 

The endgame is a moment of reckoning, all the plays have been made, all the dice rolls have given their verdict, all the cards have been turned. Especially when you play a Eurogame, you then start to ponder and speculate whether you have enough points to win, whether you will make the cut. Yet now it is no longer truly in your hands, no more decisions can be made. Then the points are scored, slowly they pile up until there is none left. You win, you lose, euphoria, regret, curtains fall...the Game of Life ends. 

In memory of Rita Fabri – Beloved Daughter, Mother, Grandma and Aunt (12.03.1967 - 10.11.2022)

Board game News Q4 2022

Hi fellow Board Games & Co. Members! This blog is going to take the form of a news brief concerning an upcoming local event, board games and board game expansions I’m looking forward to. So here we go!

Before diving in into all things related to board games, I would like to begin with a quick note on Comicon Malta 2022, which will be held on Saturday the 29th and Sunday 30th of October 2022 at the MFCC in Ta Qali. This will be the first convention of its kind, post pandemic. For most of us the last two years were some of the weirdest we have experienced in our lifetimes! Yet it was during these past two years that I think my appreciation for boardgames grew stronger. Forced periods of quarantine and serious social limitations, highlighted the flexibility and enjoyment you can derive from sharing a physical boardgame experience with those closest to you. As we gradually returned to what has been defined as the “new normal”, the memory of this board gaming epiphany remains relatively strong. For this reason, I believe that Comicon 2022 will be a celebration not only of comic culture but of all subcultures that have fantasy (in all its expressions) and more generally play at their core. 

As has been the case in previous editions, I expect Comicon this year to bring us a lot of comic-related fun but also showcase local suppliers offering all things related to comics, fan collectables and... boardgames. Several local importers and distributors are expected to attend this year, including Agenda, Forbidden Power, Malta Comics, Games Plus, Gamebreaker, “MC Toys and collectables”.  These retailers will be showcasing their goods during the two-day event and attendees will be able to purchase merchandise straight from their stalls. A few comic book artists will also be making an appearance as well as some interesting guests including actors and actresses. 

I will be attending on Saturday the 29th of October, and I will be taking my son along for the ride, fingers crossed he will enjoy it! Initially I was hoping to take part in a short, D&D style roleplaying session, with a cyberpunk theme. However, due to forces beyond the organizer's control this will have to be cancelled. There are, however, plans to hold this session at the W.A.R.S. club in Floriana, later this year.

Speaking of “Games Plus”, I was very much surprised and delighted when I actually paid this little shop a visit a little over a week ago. The shop, situated in San Gwann is chock full of all manner of items fans might desire and when I say chock full, I mean really packed, floor to ceiling. You will find everything from Marvel merchandise to Dragon Ball, Minecraft and even a corner full of all things related to Harry Potter. On the downside, their in-store board game selection is smallish for my tastes, but the available titles are noteworthy. I saw five or six versions of Ticket to Ride among others, as well as the modern asymmetric masterpiece “Root” including several expansions. 

Speaking of “Root”, this is officially the newest game in my collection. It is a game that marries well-honed game aesthetics with some witty gameplay. In this woodland-themed battler, you play as one of four possible factions, all vying to achieve their specific goals before the rest. There is combat and there are clashes with some randomness thrown in (there is some dice rolling). All in all, Root is a very thought-provoking, highly enjoyable game. What’s more, the factions themselves are anthropomorphic animal clans, from birds, to cats, to mice, rabbits and foxes. Visually the graphics are very appealing, allowing the game to serve as an excellent, friendly springboard to other combat-related board games. Yet I don’t want to mislead you here, this board game is not all about combat. You will need to make tactical decisions based on your chosen faction, and your faction-specific game objectives will lead you to make equally specific choices, which may not always involve direct conflict. Being asymmetric also means that you can look forward to experiencing this game from very different points of view, making each game unique with its own set of challenges.

Another game I am looking forward to adding to my collection when it becomes available is “Splendor Duel”. This is a two-player-only variation of Splendor, the original game designed by Marc Andre back in 2014. In this two-player version, co-designed with renowned designer Bruno Cathala, game play is fine-tuned to specifically leverage the two-payer dynamic. I would like to invite you to have a look at the game review published by Dice Tower to get a better feel for what this game brings to the table. 

Another game I am particularly keen on bringing into my collection when it becomes available is both an expansion and a stand-alone game, Wingspan Asia. This third expansion to the Wingspan series from designer Elisabeth Hargrave, focuses on birds from the Asian continent.  Yet what this expansion also adds is a new two-player gaming variant called “Duet”, as well as a further option to play the game with up to 6 or 7 players in what is called “flock mode”. “Duet” introduces some interesting twists to the game including additional ying-yang style game pieces, player boards and duet specific game objectives. Flock mode on the other hand allows you to scale up a standard game of Wingspan to six or seven players without increasing game time significantly. This ingenious, time reducing trick is achieved through simultaneous play.  On a specific turn, two players will play their actions and cards simultaneously thus reducing playtime overall. A special turn-taking dial helps facilitate this process by indicating which two players are next during any given turn. As with the base game and previous expansions, this expansion also comes with all the necessary cards to play the solo version called “Automata”. Also, in line with previous expansions, Wingspan Asia will allow players to mix its cards with both the base game as well as the other published expansions for a richer gaming experience. With regards to Duet mode, all you will need to play is just a copy of Wingspan Asia, previous expansions or the base game are not required. 

As an aside, the publishers of Wingspan are also releasing what they have called the “Wingspan Nesting Box”. This special box is beautifully designed with some great artwork and is aimed at housing all Wingspan components once all expansions are published. What is more, the “Nesting Box” also comes with a full copy of Wingspan Asia inside, so you won't need to buy this expansion separately. While the idea may sound attractive, the box itself is quite big, so you would need to think seriously about where you will be storing it. Also, once fully loaded with all the planned Wingspan material, I can almost guarantee the Wingspan Nesting box will end up weighing in at around 3.5 to 4 kilograms.

As a last-minute board game related news item, “Dune Imperium” is also getting a second expansion later this year called “Dune Imperium – Immortality”. This expansion will feature the “Bene Tleilax”, an insidious faction within the Dune universe with expertise on genetic manipulation and the production of clones.  I am not sure whether I will be getting this expansion. Currently I still have very little information regarding what one should expect from this add-on. The previous expansion “Rise of Ix” received a lot of praise from the board gaming community, some venturing to remark that they cannot envisage playing the base game without it. For now, I will have to take their word for it as I have yet to get my hands dirty with a few runs of the base game. 

So that is all the news I have for you today, but I do plan to get back to you with some Comic-Con Malta 2022 news later in November. As always should you have any queries related to board games, your next game purchase or perhaps parts of this or other videos present on our Facebook group, just drop me a line, WhatsApp me or otherwise get in touch. I’ll gladly oblige!

Are Board Game Web Reviews Relevant?

I decided that it was about time I wrote something regarding board game “Web Reviews” and the reviewers behind them. From my own personal experiences with the hobby, these are an essential reference when it comes to deciding whether or not a game is for me. Without these video expositions, judging new publications from an article or a few screenshots would be near impossible. Not impossible mind you, just very nearly so. It’s hard to believe, that coming by such reviews, is indeed a very modern phenomenon which could have only ever happened thanks to established video streaming platforms like Youtube. Yet before we step into the thick of things, let’s take a step back, to a time before the Internet, web browsers, video streaming and dial up connections. 

I don’t know about you, but back when I was a boy, coming by new board games to play was difficult. Back then advertising was mostly magazine or TV based; it would be years before the internet even got into our homes. In the early 80’s computers were starting to make headway as something you could have at home and computer gaming was in its infancy. Locally, access to television was mostly via aerials installed strategically on our roofs and what we got were several Italian stations as well as the one local national TV channel. Satellite television was a luxury few brought into their homes. 

I’m saying all this to better frame the sources of information available to me at the time. It also sets the stage for the meagre offering of board games which was available locally. You could, of course, get your hands on the various classics like Chess, Draughts, Backgammon, Ludo, Parcheesi, Snakes & Ladders, Risk and of course Monopoly, but anything more exotic was difficult to come by. I do recall visiting toy shops in Valletta and Sliema but the general spread of games you found there, other than those already mentioned, involved car and plane model sets, dolls, toy soldiers and a slew of other dexterity games like skittles. 

At times, hidden in a magazine or interspersed within the pages of a comic book, I would spot an advertisement for something like Talisman or Hero Quest. Likewise, Italian channels would regularly air adverts for some of the more iconic games that came out in the eighties. Forget all about web game reviews and reviewers, those were decades away.

Occasionally I would get lucky when some friend would manage to get his or her hands on some unusual board game and I would be offered the opportunity to try out something I could otherwise not get my hands on. The Internet obviously changed all that!

I have always considered myself to be an avid gamer but obviously, you get to play what you manage to get your hands on. In the late 80’s and more so in the early 90’s, it was computer games. Back then D&D adaptations or Advanced D&D adaptations for PC were particularly easy to come by. They had clunky graphics by today’s standards, but they did a decent job of transposing the rules of the pen-and-paper classic into something you could play on your own, with the computer as your impartial DM. In fact, the feeling I get is that those early games were all about adventure and fantasy, crafted by whizz kids who had grown up playing D&D or choose-your-own-story books.

However, if we really must identify the advent of board gaming reviews, we need to wait till that moment when dial-up modems gave way to faster ADSL connectivity and to the birth of the platform that, to this day, still dominates the video blog and product reviews arena. YouTube was what really set the ball rolling. Board game enthusiasts the world over could finally come together and see what the new board games were about, assess component quality, go over the rules and watch as someone, somewhere, played the game for them in front of a camera.

 Obviously, there were several websites doing board game reviews before YouTube, but the immediacy of the video review can be considered as a strong contributing factor to the growing popularity of board games and the subsequent market growth. As of today, you can find several established board game reviewers hailing from various countries, each one of them reviewing hundreds of games per year. The competition in this arena has also grown exponentially over the years with reviewers refining their presentations and delivery, using the latest tools and streaming technologies. It’s no longer a matter of just rigging up a camera to your laptop and recording your opinions. The better reviews now have exact video editing, great studio lighting, as well as well-designed backdrops and studio props. Obviously, all this tech needs to be paid for and most of the better reviewers get sponsored for the materials they air on their YouTube channels.

These sponsorships are what keep these guys producing more material, together with their subscriber base, which in turn is what attracts the sponsors in the first place. So, what does this say about the authenticity or reliability of these reviewers, should you trust what they tell you about a given game? How can you be sure that what they tell you comes from a good place rather than being just paid advertising by the sponsor?

These are not easy questions to answer. I am sure that if you, like me, have watched hundreds of board game reviews, you will have noticed that reviewers often have Kallax-type shelves behind them highlighting hundreds of game titles. I for one tend to scan these boxes, especially if they happen to be standing behind a reviewer I trust or value over others. I do so because, in my mind, I want to see what else this reviewer likes to play when he gets the opportunity. I am sure that, while not in every instance, these reviewers do place some of those titles strategically on the shelves behind their backs as they present their next game review.  To an extent, this is viewer manipulation and akin to classic product placement. Nothing wrong with this, I am watching these reviewers because I intend to buy at some point. Still, you need to bear this in mind when you tune in to watch a game review. 

So, given that advertising is an important contributor to the ongoing success and commercial viability of game review channels, how can you at least guarantee that you will get access to a wide spread of titles, rather than those jockeying for your attention and strategically placed in front of you by the big players of the board gaming industry? This is because it makes sense that a board game review channel will tend to promote and highlight sponsored games over those which do not benefit from this extra push. 

As I see it, this is where you must use your better judgement to discern the quality reviewers from those who are simply more concerned with attracting sponsors. Mind you, the better reviewers are aware of all this, and they do their best to ensure that their reviews are balanced and as fair as possible. Now let’s have a look at how they address these matters and how they succeed (or don’t) in coming across as balanced, or at least as unbiased (if that is even possible).

A tactic that I have seen employed is to insert the sponsored product as a highly visible slot within the review itself. It’s normally a short insert, around 3-to-5-minutes in duration, and mostly unrelated to the review at hand. In so doing they ensure that viewers perceive the review as distinct from the sponsor while giving the sponsors the space they deserve and have paid for. 

Another tactic employed and which I tend to like personally, is getting the same game reviewed by more than one reviewer. It helps if the chosen reviewers have distinct proclivities when it comes to selecting games they like, as this makes the overall judgement feel more balanced. To attain this a review channel needs to have several reviewers with different tastes and sensibilities. So, as you can imagine, not all game review channels can pull this one off.

Other tactics which appear to work to some degree or other, include making specific reviews for games that don’t make the cut or are considered inferior by the reviewer in question. Negative reviews if you will. Personally, I don’t think that this does much for the hobby. If a game is blatantly bad, a brief note or comment should more than suffice. I am a firm believer that there is no such thing as bad advertising so I would refrain from advertising something that is inherently inferior. On the other hand, you could see these negative reviews as a necessary counterpoise to the positive ones. Think of it as balancing your accounts to ensure that the debtor and creditor columns tally. 

Another tactic that has become possible mainly because of the sheer volumes of games put on the market, is to review games either by publisher or by designer. This gives an extremely focused and in-depth investigation into the styles embraced by specific publishers or game mechanisms developed and refined by specific designers. This is also used as an opportunity for the reviewer to display his or her level of exposure and expertise. Personally, it is when you get to this level of gaming maturity that you can really start appraising games more closely aligned with your own personal tastes. 

These are some of the strategies employed by the established reviewers to further consolidate their role as ambassadors of the hobby. They use them to ensure that they do not seem as biassed or as supporting one publisher to the detriment of others. Doing so would tarnish their reputation and credibility. Still, these are waters they must tread carefully because they are constantly being scrutinised by thousands of viewers. 

As you can imagine, given that some of the more established reviewers have been on the review circuit for over 10 years or more, it has become increasingly difficult for new reviewers to succeed. I feel that a lot of the positioning and jostling for the attention of subscribers has already been done at this point and I cannot see how anyone can step in to grab a share of that viewership. It could happen, but it would be an uphill battle for the newcomer/s. 

Just to paint a clearer picture, I did a quick survey of reviewers, and those who got the most mentions as preferred reviewers. Around thirty-six respondents provided data for this assessment. Having tallied scores, I identified five reviewers (English speaking) which were frequently cited by those interviewed. The list in order of popularity (highest to lowest) are as follows: -

1. Dice Tower

2. Shut Up and Sit Down

3. Radho

4. No Pun Included

5. John Gets games

Both Dice Tower and Shut Up and Sit Down did not come as a surprise to me since the quality of their reviews and spread of reviews are second to none. It was however interesting that in the case of Dice Tower, Zee Garcia stands out as the preferred reviewer over the plethora of excellent reviewers that make part of the outfit.  From my own earlier memories of Dice Tower, Tom Vassel squarely handled the channel, then came Sam Healey and finally Zee Garcia. As I have noted in other blogs, Healey brought war-gaming and similar games to the fore since he was particularly fond of the genre. Zee on the other hand brought a more focused foray into gaming mechanisms that verge on the more cerebral and abstract. This standpoint however does not keep him away from exploring other games though his preferences will lead him to the formerly described types. As I have also said in other blogs Rodney Quinn (Shut up and Sit Down) is passionate about games and big box productions which never appear to unfaze him, unlike myself. Over the years he has also reviewed some games I have eventually bought and still love, including the abstract game Hive (which thankfully isn’t one of the larger games).

Radho’s channel is chock full of materials from short reviews to playthroughs and members only offerings. Many cited him as offering comprehensive and objective reviews. I will have to rest on their opinions, for now, as I have not viewed sufficient materials to be the judge of that. The last two on the list received a respectable number of mentions though nowhere near the top three mentioned above.

Before I conclude this part of the blog, I would like to mention Watch it Played. This channel, originally founded by Rodney Smith, focused on instructional videos which he still does impeccably. When I doubt how a game should be played, I check if he has done a video about it and watch that. His delivery is clear, concise and to the point, you could not ask for anything more. Many of those who submitted their preferences in fact mentioned Watch it Played as primarily an instructional videos channel rather than a review channel and I think they are right. This channel does stir away from scoring board games or offering pros and cons for any game they mention. However, due to their popularity I had to mention their work and the ever-growing compendium of game videos they have on their channel. In recent years, the channel brought more game reviewers on board (can’t think of another title for them), including Pair of Dice Paradise’s Chaz Marler, Paula Demming and Matthew Jude. In addition to offering the latest in gaming news about up-and-coming games and viewer preferences, the channel has now also included playthroughs as part of their offering, moving them away from being squarely about instructional videos.

Given the obvious popularity enjoyed by game reviewers, the importance or relevance of this source of gaming information can hardly be put into question. What is evident is that the industry as a whole and the reviewers which support it, have evolved over the years with some quality channels standing out as being both exceptional and reliable reviewers. Yet before I sign off, a word about gaming preferences.

When it comes to board games, no number of reviews can ever replace actual playtime. Not even the best filmed playthroughs can replace sitting down and going through the paces of playing a real, live game. There will always be elements of game upkeep between turns, procedurally executing the rules such that they make sense and ensuring that key steps are not glazed over inadvertently. As a quick example I would like to bring to your attention a game of “Castle Panic” I played with friends recently.

 

We played most of it correctly except the early instances where the first “invaders” made it to the castle walls. We were playing it such that when an invader in the Swordsman circle advances, he simply breaks the wall down (if it is still standing) and penetrates the castle defences immediately. While semantically this sounded right, we failed to read the details. The invader or aggressor does indeed break through that wall but when he does, on that turn, he loses one life point and stays in the Swordsman circle until the following turn. As you can imagine executing the action our way almost cost us the game.

What I want to get at is, that you cannot fully appreciate or learn a game from a video review. Board games are physical creations that ideally require a hands-on approach to be fully appreciated. The more you play a game, the more you start to appreciate what it is all about. This in a way can be taken as a call to play those games one might already own rather than resort to purchasing several titles that will never make it to the gaming table.

While watching or reading gaming reviews can be both entertaining as well as an informative exercise, we should never rely exclusively on these reviews for our gaming fix. At a certain point you need to commit to a title, crack open the actual box and go through the experience that drew you to this hobby in the first place.

Still, to conclude, board game web reviews have become an important tool in understanding what you might like and  what you might not. The truth is that there are way too many board games published on a monthly basis so finding that one gem you will love for life can be a daunting task. My take from all this is to use game review as part of your selection process but keep your eyes open for unsung games that might just satisfy your gaming requirements. Keeping an open mind is indeed key.