Board Game - State of Play - June 2023

As a board game enthusiast, hobbyist, and modest collector, I am always on the lookout for new trends as they come to the fore. The reason is simple, I know just how expensive some of these titles are, and making a bad choice could mean getting lumped with a game you will never get to the table. Over the years, I must admit, that I have fallen victim to a few flukes that I just could not bring to the table. While in hindsight I know my decision to purchase certain titles was misguided at best, at the time of purchase I was enthusiastic and positive that the purchase was a good one.

Having said that, having indeed bought a few titles I later discovered that weren’t to my liking or playable within my social context, I learnt to look harder for any information that might help me decide on my next purchase. The internet does help in this situation, but you need to listen to competing reviews and opinions. Over time, maybe out of laziness or simply because sifting through sources can be time-consuming, I have settled on a few key sources of information. Admittedly I could do worse than refer to reviews offered by the guys at “The Dice Tower”, “Watch it Played” and “Shut Up & Sit Down”, but the truth is that their reviews can be polarising and not always in line with my own personal tastes.

To be fair the reviews and opinions I get from “The Dice Tower” feel balanced and offer a spread of opinions, which is healthy. While my own gaming tastes tend to align themselves (to some degree) with those of Tom Vasel, I find Zee Garcia’s abstract game bias and Mike Delisio’s focus on solo gaming very refreshing and eye-opening. The truth is that you need to see the same topic from different perspectives, it helps you grow.

“And why is this important to you?” you may ask me. I believe in the importance of mental health and retaining a certain degree of mental “agility” as it were, games can help achieve this goal. This is the fundamental principle behind my involvement with gaming. This and the enjoyment and socialisation derived from engaging others during face-to-face play. I am a firm believer that for a game to be worth my time, it must give me or teach me something. A good cooperative game should teach me the importance of being a team player, a legacy game should allow me to appreciate the importance of forward planning and decision-making, and solo gaming should help me develop self-motivation and consistency.

From my journey into modern board gaming, I have experienced several changes in both my unique perspective and what the market offers. My board gaming journey began a long time ago, well before the current renaissance that can be traced back to the mid-to-late 90s. Still, for the purposes of this narrative, I will focus on precisely the last fifteen to twenty years.

Back when I bought my first modern game, which was Marc Andre’s “Splendor”, I was still new to the whole Eurogame scene. The games I knew were those like Risk, Talisman, Hero Quest (the 80’s version of the game), Monopoly, Scrabble, Othello, Cluedo, Mastermind, Hasbro’s Battleships, Draughts, and the obligatory Chess. None of these has any of the elements that were to later define Eurogames, a style of gaming heralded by trailblazing titles such as Settlers of Catan, among others. It was in this scenario that I encountered the highly polished and iconic web series “Tabletop” hosted by Will Wheaton.

Being a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” fan, I knew who Will was thanks to his appearance on that beloved series. His delivery and showmanship made for a very entertaining web series; one I would look forward to watching whenever the next episode aired. It was thanks to him that I discovered several iconic games like “Lords of Waterdeep” (which I fell in love with), Sheriff of Nottingham, Tsuro, Mice & Mystics, Dixit, Tiny Epic Galaxies, Qwirkle and others. Most of the games he presented had the unique quality of being relatively easy to teach, had great table presence and almost never overstood their welcome. Most of these titles ended up in my collection by the way.

As my passion for board games gradually fanned into a roaring fire, I began to look around for other sources of inspiration for my next purchase. I found this in the Dice Tower and Watch it Played guys. As a side note, I must also include Chaz Marler’s “Pair of Dice Paradise” (which would later join forces and become part of "Watch it Played") which brought a witty brand of humour to game news and reviews that I still love to this day.

Personally, I felt that things did change a bit once Will Wheaton’s webisodes came to an end. By then the market had matured somewhat and there were more voices airing their opinions and unboxing the latest games on video. This could be both a bad and a good thing. Good in the sense that you could see what was in the box and how the rules worked, bad in that often, these reviews came with obvious biases. Furthermore, these reviews were themselves the result of the reviewers sifting through titles that interested them specifically, resulting in a somewhat blinkered perspective on what was available.

To correct this, there was and still is one thing a hobbyist like me can resort to, you need to seek out further opinions, further reviews. You need to expect that these additional reviews will at times be conflicting, or contradictory but ultimately you will have a better understanding of whether a game is for you or not. You will also discover that different reviewers will tend to focus on different board game types or characteristics, increasing your overall exposure to what is on the market.

Going back to the changing landscape in board gaming, in recent years we have seen an increase in some specific categories of board games. One such category which has grown in popularity is cooperative board games. In these games, players will often work together to achieve a common goal. These games encourage teamwork and communication and are often seen as a more inclusive and less cutthroat alternative to traditional board games. Indeed, they are also ideal in situations where you have a mixed table of experienced and casual players, with the latter finding these types of games less intimidating.

Another category of games which has gained traction over the past few years is legacy games. Legacy games are board games that evolve over time as players make decisions and progress through a campaign or story. These games often have a finite number of plays and are meant to be played over multiple sessions with the same group of people. Legacy games can create a unique and immersive gaming experience that is different from traditional board games.

While I am not particularly fond of them, Solo games have also become increasingly popular. The recent COVID-19 pandemic helped in this genre's growing popularity on account of the lockdown and social-distancing experienced in most of the Western world. In fact, many board game publishers are now releasing games that are specifically designed to be played alone. These games often feature puzzles or challenges that can be tackled independently and can be a great way for people to enjoy board gaming even when they don't have a group of players available.

Almost an extension of the above, the last few years have also seen a rise in the number of Board Game Apps. Many modern board games have been adapted into mobile apps, allowing players to enjoy the game on their phones or tablets. This trend has made board games more accessible and convenient and has also introduced the hobby to a new generation of players. I have personally acquired a significant number of these adaptations including titles like Everdell, Wingspan, Raiders of the North Sea, Lords of Waterdeep, Sagrada, Mysterium, Hive, Ascension, Star Realms, and others.

Yet nothing has had a more accentuated impact on game design and development than the onset of crowdfunding. While there does not appear to be an established link between a boardgames popularity over time, or commercial success, several of the most popular game of the last decade have been crowdfunded (e.g., Cards Against Humanity and Gloomhaven). Through crowdfunding, game designers could pitch their ideas directly to the end consumer, board game enthusiasts and hobbyists. What this meant was that now designers could be ambitious, gamifying their proposal to the market in line with the uptake of funders. The more funders committed their cash to the project the more features are unlocked as part of the final product. As a result, some of the projects become substantial, multi-box offerings, replete with an assortment of premium components and extras. Obviously, this also means the final box set will cost a pretty penny, but that comes with the territory, I guess. 

In addition, crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo have allowed independent game designers to bring their ideas to market without the backing of a traditional publisher. Understandably this has led to an explosion of new board games being produced. Crowdfunding effectively allows game designers to take more risks and produce games that might not have been viable through traditional publishing channels.

Overall, the impact of crowdfunded games on the board gaming industry and its popularity depends on various factors such as the quality and appeal of the games being produced, the success of the crowdfunding campaigns, and the ability of game designers to effectively market and distribute their products. Some games produced through crowdfunding will be duds and, in some instances, some crowdfunded projects do not see it through to development and delivery. One area which appears to suffer consequences to the rather accelerated development cycle of some gaming titles is game expansions.

In the past, board game expansions were never guaranteed. If a game was successful, then the company and game designers would dig in and see if they could come up with a valid expansion idea. Expansions usually came out much after the original game was published. To an extent, this allowed for a better-quality expansion with fewer errors once published. Contrary to this, some crowdfunded games have seen expansions being rushed into production while the campaign itself was barely over. Let us say that some of these expansions are of questionable quality. 

Yet despite all the pros and cons I have listed, crowdfunded board game projects still constitute a respectable proportion of all crowdfunded projects. This appears to indicate that going forward we will see more crowdfunded board game projects not less.

Not everything is peachy however, there are aspects of the boardgame production cycle that can suffer if the network they rest upon is disrupted in some way or another. For instance, logistics play a significant role in the manufacturing and distribution of board games. The board gaming industry has experienced significant growth in recent years, with more and more games being produced and sold worldwide. This growth has led to increased pressure on manufacturers and distributors to efficiently manage the supply chain and deliver games to customers in a timely and cost-effective manner. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on logistics in the board gaming industry, with disruptions to global supply chains and shipping delays.

Manufacturers face logistical challenges in sourcing raw materials, producing games in large quantities, and ensuring quality control. Many manufacturers are in China, which can present logistical challenges due to transportation and customs issues. Distributors on the other hand also face logistical challenges in getting games from manufacturers to retailers and consumers. This can include issues such as warehousing, shipping, and managing inventory levels. Additionally, board games come in various sizes and shapes, which can make shipping and storage more complicated. Tying back to the crowdfunding board games, one can now see why the larger games with unconventional package formats can give distributors nightmares when it comes to getting them from source to destination.

Yet what I have listed here are all aspects of the gaming industry that are somehow affecting what we find available in the stores. Not only that, but also what price points we should expect and how this will, in turn, affect what we purchase, and how frequently we purchase new titles. This is because not all board game enthusiasts have deep pockets, the contrary is more often true. At the same time, many of these same hobbyists have become increasingly discerning when it comes to the quality of the products they purchase. What this means is that unless buyers purchase titles blindly, they will expect decent quality in whatever they ultimately purchase.

For instance, through personal experience, I have come to notice that KOSMOS tends to use very average materials for its products. For example, last year I bought a Reiner Knizia title I had been intrigued by called “Lost Cities”. This title was carried by KOSMOS and happened to be available at a local hobby store. I obviously went for it as the price was not prohibitive. Yet when I played a few games, I realised the card quality was poor. The cards are, in my opinion, too susceptible to being damaged while handling them. The point is that the whole game revolves around a deck of cards, so the cards are rather important. Instead of focusing on the box art, I felt they could have spent a bit more on card quality and less on the box itself which serves no purpose other than to hold the deck and a small board used to help player organise their play area.

While quality is something modern board game hobbyists expect these days, it’s not the only aspect which they look at when purchasing their new titles. There is another, equally important aspect, game mechanics. Euro-style games have evolved considerably over the first two decades of the new millennium. While player elimination games are still part of any publishing house’s portfolio, euro-style games have garnered an ever more commanding proportion of these same companies’ portfolios.

What Euro-style games brought is a focus on point scoring and doing away with player elimination altogether. Yet how this is achieved has increased and diversified substantially, leading to the creation of many new mechanisms which have gained popularity over time. Others enjoyed popularity for a time only to be absorbed into newer and perhaps more sophisticated mechanisms. So, we get gaming mechanisms such as: -

• ·         Worker placement
• ·         Action Selection
• ·         Card Drafting
• ·         Deck Building
• ·         Area Control
• ·         Action rondelles
• ·         Auctions
• ·         Leapfrogging
• ·         Set Collection
• ·         Cooperation mechanisms
• ·         Asymmetric mechanics / Variable player powers
• ·         Action programming
• ·         Story Telling
• ·         Dice rolling
• ·         Take That
• ·         Push your luck
• ·         Tile placement
• ·         Trading
• ·         Hand Management
• ·         Pickup and Deliver
• ·         Route Building

The above list is anything other than exhaustive, but it allows me to illustrate the diversity of the mechanisms that can now be found in board games. Furthermore, some of the latest titles to hit the market tend to combine two or more mechanisms to create an innovative synergy. These create more compelling and rich experiences for players. Players who have evolved to playing these latter games will find it increasingly more difficult to go back to blander, simpler titles. I’d dare say that exposure to this growing list of game mechanics has created a new type of jaded board gamers that are way harder to please, or at least surprise, and therefore equally harder to draw in.

I personally blame this emerging scenario as the main reason for the rise in complex, campaign-driven, legacy-type games. I am here referring to the heavyweights of modern board gaming like Gloomhaven and Descent, the newer Frosthaven and other similar titles. It’s almost as if, to attract this growing niche of players, designers have decided to engage in increasing the duration and complexity of the titles they come up with.

On a personal level, this amalgam of factors and the ensuing issue posed by increased costs when it comes to purchasing goods online, have further accentuated the issues I face when sourcing new titles. On the one hand, purchasing new titles from abroad has become prohibitive with final price tags twice the cost (if not more) of the board game’s retail price. On the other hand, I am faced with a stronger reliance on local shops willing to import board gaming titles. This limits my selections squarely to what they have on offer. Few of these local retailers are then willing to risk importing new titles that are nothing but sure bets, no one wants to lose money.

I feel that it is high time that something is done to address the elephant in the room. Shipping costs need to be brought down again, either through direct legislation aimed at mitigating the negative impact on the final price of products delivered, or else an increase in 3^rd party consolidated shipping agencies who can, in turn, spread the shipping costs making deliverables more affordable. While there are some local operators trying to address this, I feel that the efforts are notably disjointed and rather difficult to use effectively.

In conclusion, board gamers like me will still be purchasing new titles for their collection, while staying on the lookout for upcoming trends and new gaming mechanics. The only limitation we will continue to face is sourcing these titles at an affordable price. I feel that the first company or companies capable of achieving this will dominate the local market for such games. Let’s hope someone out there will succeed in hitting on the right strategy as I am sure it will be a godsend for the hobby and local hobbyists alike.

In the meantime, signing off from BG Haven, have a great week! 

Touching Base

So Here I go again, bringing you a new blog the first of 2023. My intention was to push out a blog much earlier this year, but circumstances did not allow it. So, what’s new with BGHaven you might say, what has been going on since the 1st of January? I think I will divide this into three parts, the new games that have become part of my collection, upgrades to my existing games as well as plays that I have shared with family and friends.

New additions

So, the first game to become part of my collection in 2023 was Explorers of the North Seas (aka Explorers) by Shem Philips, the same guy who brought us the still popular Raiders of the North Seas (aka Raiders). “Explorers” shares the same artwork you find in “Raiders” as well as the same universe but that as far as the similarities goes. In Explorers players take on the role of Viking crews intent on establishing outposts and bringing back hard-earned resources from new localities they visit. While Raiders had a fixed gaming board, Explorers comes with a procedurally grown board that is made from hexagonal tiles which players play to the table on their respective turns. This feature in and of itself is a strong predictor of substantial replay value when it comes to this game. 

As the game progresses, Explorers will see players move their Viking longboats around the gaming board intent on colonizing and bringing back resources they find. The gaming pieces for this game are fantastic. You have wooden Viking meeples like those in Raiders, plastic Viking longboats as well as wooden animal meeple representing the animal resources exposed on the growing map. You also get wooden outpost tokens which players can call upon in certain circumstances to further their objectives.

Undoubtably Explorers is a game that has its own charm while offering a scenario that is moderately confrontational as one would expect from these games. There is, as can be expected, a certain amount of thug-of-war between players vying for resources but this is a Eurogame at heart and one that focuses squarely on final, end-of-game, point scoring rather than player elimination. 

Another game which I obtained just the other week is the latest expansion to the immensely popular Wingspan by Elisabeth Hargreaves. This expansion is focused on the birds of Asia and comes with the same impeccable production values of its predecessors. However, “Asia” brings some new ideas into the mix. It is the first Wingspan expansion to cater for a 2-player, stand-alone game, out of the box. You don’t need the previous expansions or the base game to play the “Duet” (2-player) version, just the Asia box. Additionally, thanks to this newest expansion, the game now offers the possibility for playing with up to 7 persons using a method that the expansion calls “flock mode”. 

Obviously, you will still be able to play traditional Wingspan using the cards that come with this expansion. So, if you are not inclined to try the 2-player “Duet” or the 6-to-7 player “flock mode”, you can skip all that and use the new cards by just adding them to the base game, with some card adjustments. Asia also comes with some additional bonus and automata cards (for solo play) that you can tap into to make game play even more interesting. This variety of gaming options is what makes this expansion perhaps the best one I have seen for this game.

Gaming Upgrades

This first quarter of 2023 saw me upgrade some components for a game I was gifted in December called Imhotep – Builder of Egypt. The base game comes with several cardboard cut-outs to represent boats and player resource cards. While functional, these components come across as bland especially when you use them in conjunction with the coloured wooden blocks used to represent stones. Tapping into AliExpress, I found a 3D printed set of plastic boats and player resource cards for a good price and bought them. The 3D printed plastic tokens really made the game pop. Ironically, when I told the players joining me for a game that these plastic components did not come with the base game, they were very surprised. The 3D boats are well produced with special recessed areas for each stone token you can load onto them. They Also have markers at the prow end to mark the minimum stones necessary before the ship can set sail to a designated port. The plastic player resource boards are also well produced, mimicking wooden pallets and painted in the colours attributed to each player.

Another simple upgrade I bought was for a card-based game I own called Lost Cities. In this instance the upgrade was merely card sleeves tailored for the specific card size used in this game. Even though this does seem like a trifle thing, in truth the cards were in desperate need of these sleeves. The card stock used by Kosmos for this game is questionable at best and the cards were already showing some serious wear and tear after perhaps a total of a dozen plays. I am hoping that with these sleeves I will be able to get more mileage out of this game. As an aside here I must say, from my experience with Kosmos games, the quality of the materials they use is indeed cheap and mass-market. While substantial effort is evident in terms of the artwork itself, the choice of cardboard for inserts as well as card stock is disappointing. 

Board Games played.

2022 ended on a good note in my books when I had the great pleasure of hosting my first, live, Wingspan game with some great friends. The game truly flowed, and everyone was very much into it, almost from the start. I am eager to propose this incredible game to other gaming groups should the opportunity arise.

The first game of 2023 was a bit of an experiment with a group of players I am fond of playing board games with. We have been playing board games together for several years now and their genuine interest in the games I table has always encouraged me to find new titles they might find interesting. However, as is to be expected, in the intervening years there were marriages and kids. 

For this reason, putting board gaming events together became a bit of a complicated matter. We never seemed to be able to finish a game or to find the right “mix” to ensure that we eventually did. After some duds and various aborted attempts, I can finally say that I have managed to find the optimal event timeline to board game meetups, given my current reality as it were. I am a bit amazed how it never really occurred to me before, but there again, as with most group-focused epiphanies, you need a perfect combination of circumstance and approval from all those concerned. 

For past gatherings, eating or snacking was given precedence over the actual game itself. This meant that we would meet up, open bottles of wine or pour out drinks while snacking on an assortment of nibbles. Then we would have lunch or supper, following which we would play the board game. Since we have kids in the equation, this often meant that we never finished the game we intended to play. This happened more often than I care to admit. 

This time round, we decided to turn things around. In agreement with all those involved, we first laid out the Board game, set out a few nibbles and some drinks and started playing. For better or worse, this worked! While I did not manage to wedge in the two games I had planned, we did successfully complete a board game and that is something!

Through this experience I also learnt the importance of ensuring that a game or games don’t overstay their welcome during any given event. The reason is that, in most instances, players will have a moderate tolerance to game duration. Lengthy sessions or back-to-back games are not everyone’s idea of a perfect games' night after all. Furthermore, the purpose of the board game itself should be to foster socialisation in a pleasant atmosphere, if players feel stressed out because of game duration you could lose them as potential players for future events. There is an element of diplomacy you also need to factor in, a kind of give-and-take worked around a degree of compromise. Yet now let me focus a bit on the game that was played and which, to my knowledge, was thoroughly enjoyed by those at the table.

The game in question was Imhotep – Builder of Egypt. It is not the newest of games out there, it came out in 2016 after all, but one of the more entertaining I have played in a while. There is an element of “take that” in it but overall, the game flows and there is little perceived downtime in between turns. What makes Imhotep so interesting is the fact that there are various ways you can score points and not all points are scored during play. At times you will take actions that will result in points being scored at the end of the game. This mix of diverse point scoring strategies can prove to be a bit distracting as I realised during the game I played. Putting it bluntly, I literally threw the game with a very misguided move right towards the end. Obviously if I were to play it again, I would not repeat that mistake again but this time round I did.

Despite my questionable gameplay, I still did not feel taken aback once the dust settled. I still could tell myself that I had enjoyed the experience and that I would gladly play another game of Imhotep if the occasion ever arose. I was also glad I invested in the 3D printed boats and the coloured resource player boards. For one, once the “stones” were loaded onto the 3D printed boats, docking them at the selected harbours was easier as you could not accidentally drop pieces during the movement.  This also led me to muse about some minor reservations I have with the game.

Mind you, these issues are very minor, but they can be a bit irritating if you happen to have an unsteady hand. Three of the point scoring locations require that you stack stones in some configuration or other. The stacking having a direct effect on scoring. Knocking some of these stacks over can be very unnerving. The worst among these must be the Obelisks scoring card. Here players will pile up any stones shipped there, one on top of the other, to score points at the end of the game. While the “stone” pieces are not particularly small, it is easy to knock a stack over while trying to place further stones nearby. The second worst one must be where you must build a sort of wall that ends up being around 5 stones across and several layers high. Again, here knocking a wall over could be detrimental to end-of-round point scoring. The one which proved the least difficult to topple over from among these three, was the one where players stack tiles into a small, square-based pyramid with a 3-by-3 base, followed by a second 2-by-2 layer with a singleton piece topping the structure. 

To be fair, I don’t know whether there could be any better way to go around these stacking issues. You could use larger or heavier pieces, or a mix of both, but that would make the game significantly larger if not perhaps unwieldy. A further option could be to use interlocking pieces that would reduce accidentally toppling over, I am sure that there are some decent options out there. However, I must stress that this game is not a dexterity game by any stretch of the imagination. In practice you can always get over these issues above by allotting the placement of these "stones" to that player at the table with the steadier hands. 

From a gaming mechanisms perspective, Imhotep is all about keeping track of stone queues as they are loaded onto boats. Timing and placement of said stones are key to scoring, but players also need to weigh potential moves other players will most likely make on their turn. For you might think you are loading your pieces to head for the obelisks site, only to have another player take that same boat and dock it in the marketplace. True you will get to choose cards from the marketplace cards but that may not be in your best interest pointwise.

Interestingly, I figured that the best play should be one where you posit landing favourably on at least two out of the four locations that will be visited during a given round.  Think about it, if you know that a stone you have just placed stands to earn you points in at least two locations, you would have effectively reduced unfavourable dockings by 50%. To do so, you need to tie your stone placement with that of others. So, for instance, if say opponent A is more likely to visit the Obelisks or the Tomb locations, and those are sites you are also interested in, then playing your stone on the same boat could be a good plan. Balancing all these hypothetical scenarios on each turn is not an easy task and personally I think I would have to play several games to determine whether it is possible to achieve this kind of play consistently.

It could well be that someone will opt for a purely disruptive play against you that offers no benefit other than the reassurance that you will not score as many points. I have seen two such moves during the game I played. On the other hand, you need to consider that there are very few moves performed per round, so each action taken by a player becomes significant. Basically, you cannot really afford to waste a turn just to stop someone else, there must be some benefit in it for you also.

To be fair I don't believe I have other games in my collection that come close to this one. In Imhotep, you do not build any point-scoring engines, nor do you reap any direct benefit by placing a particular stone within a queue, that comes later. Also, even when you do score points for placing a particular stone or stones within a queue, it's often directly impacted by whatever countermovement your opponents will execute on their turn. 

At the end I must say that I highly recommend this game. It offers some interesting decisions, plays smoothly and you get the feeling that there is very little downtime in between plays. Also, it can be played easily within 60 to 70 minutes. Having said that the first time you play this game ensure you factor in an extra 15 minutes to explain the rules because you will need them with new players. As for upgrading the gaming pieces, I am aware that this is not for everyone and that it comes at a cost. Yet, if you can afford to upgrade the boats and player resource boards, you will most likely enjoy the game a bit more.

So that’s all for this blog, I hope to be able to get back to you with other game-related news and updates some time soon. For now I will sign off and wish you all...great plays and favourable rolls!

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)