Card Usage in Modern Board Gaming

 

Modern board games as we understand them, experienced a renaissance in the early 2000’s. From a hobby that was restricted to the occasional family gathering during Christmas, it bloomed into an 11 billion dollar industry as of 2022. There are several factors that have contributed to this, but what really got the ball rolling were a few innovative publications that elevated the genre from mere child’s play to an acceptable pastime for a more mature audience. Once this notion kicked in, designers became more willing to produce game concepts that went beyond the traditional roll-and-move game mechanisms which dominated the gaming experience. 

Why Cards?

Yet of all the components that are immediately identifiable with playing board games, cards are up there, with dice, egg timers and spinner boards. Cards have in fact always been present in modern board games in some form or another. Initially they served the exclusive purpose of introducing an element of randomness rather than being how a victory was obtained. Think about Monopoly for instance, here you have Community Chest and Chance cards, yet drawing them will seldom contribute squarely towards a player winning a game (unless you get “a proceed to Mayfair” card when someone else has already built it up to its limit!). They are also seldom the means through which a game can be won, no points are scored for drawing them. Likewise, the site or location cards are more of a reminder, to the player owning them, of the site they have bought. Their more obvious purpose comes into play once a site is mortgaged to the bank. 

Yet it helps to remember that card-based games actually predated many of what we can term board games in the modern sense. Owning a deck of cards denoted wealth any many of the early sets were works of art commissioned by wealthy patrons who could afford the expense. A quick search in Wikipedia mentions that in the account books of Johanna, Duchess of Brabant and Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg, we find an entry dating back to May 14, 1379, noting the payment of "...four peters and two florins, worth eight and a half sheep, for the purchase of packs of cards". So you see, not exactly a cheap item to own. It was only through the democratisation of the printing process and the increased availability of paper as a printing medium that playing cards eventually become available to the masses.

The Flemish Hunting Deck (1470-80)

Cards in modern games

Some modern card games tried to remedy this dearth of card-based mechanism, by introducing streamlined play and increasing the number of meaningful interactions, but this was achieved based on much earlier and familiar games. The popular Uno (first published in 1971) for example can be considered a rethinking of the card game Crazy Eights. Still, you do not see the level of decision making you would expect from the latest card-based board games. Uno offers limited strategic choices in terms of what cards a player sheds on his or her turn, while still relying heavily on the luck of the draw from a common stockpile.

That is why I am here focusing on games which employ cards in other ways. Cards that modify the course of a game in some manner, which create interactions or situations requiring meaningful, decision making. I am aware that there is a fine line between what is a board game or a game in which cards constitute the better part of the game, a “card-based” board game if you will. In these modern iterations, the cards behave as spaces on a composite board, establishing connections, permutations and variations that will later result in more complex, and rewarding choices. 

The main purpose to using cards is primarily, as stated earlier, to introduce an element of randomisation in the progression of a game. Yet while this has remained, cards are now employed to perform other equally important tasks. So having said this let us now look at some of the more significant mechanisms that involve the manipulation of cards in some form or other. 

The “Drafting” mechanism

Drafting, or “card drafting”, is straightforward and is normally employed as part of a more complex gaming engine. For instance, in the game Sushi Go, players draft cards from a pool of cards dealt to them, passing the remaining card to a player to their left in between turns, until all cards are drafted save one. The last remaining card is discarded face down. The drafted cards are then formed into sets and scored in line with scoring rules that are included in the box.

Likewise in 7 Wonders, players will draft cards from a hand dealt out to them to gather sufficient resources to build one of the 7 Wonders of the ancient world, achieve military supremacy or achieve dominance through the culture and science tracks. While theoretically these two games are quite different, the basic card-drafting mechanism is still the same. What is immediately apparent is just how versatile the drafting mechanism can be. On the one hand Sushi Go adopts a remarkably simple variation to the concept, making it an ideal party game. 7 Wonders on the other hand uses drafting to allow players to create intricate interactions between the cards chosen, aimed at furthering point scores which are only fully tallied at the end of a game. What is also very much evident in both these games is the fact that they both adopt a euro-style approach to game play, where no players are eliminated during the game. 

The “Deck Building” mechanism

Deck building is another interesting card-based mechanism. It had been explored through several extremely popular titles but one of the first games to embrace it was most certainly Dominion (First published in 2008). In all deck builders, you will start off with a basic hand which contains two types of cards, those I refer to as “purchase cards” and those I refer to as “attack cards”. Normally this starting hand is weighted heavily towards purchase since this is what will help the player build his or her deck. Cards are then purchased from a market comprising several face-up cards. Some purchased cards will then allow a player to shed the less important cards in a deck, streamlining it in such a way as to ensure that the better cards will be better represented during play. In these games, card synergies and interactions are also strong contributing factors towards victory. This is what makes these games so interesting and popular.  This is also the reason the more popular deck building games have sizable communities of avid players keeping them alive. 

The “Pattern Building” mechanism

In Pattern Building, players will use cards or cardboard tiles  to create point-scoring patterns on their personal tableau. While not strictly speaking “cards games”, games like Carcassonne, Tsuro and Kingdomino all use pattern building mechanisms to score points. In Carcassonne and Tsuro, cards are drawn from a common pool while Kingdomino also adds Card Drafting into the mix. Two other games I own,  and which employ this mechanism are Codex Naturalis and Kodama. In Codex Naturalis, cards are drawn from a common stockpile and then played to a personal tableau in certain ways to achieve personal or game objectives. A similar mechanism can be seen in Kodama, with players adding cards to a “tree base'', essentially another large card,  to create a composite “tree” with the highest point-scoring opportunities. The nature of these games tends to remind me a bit of older games like Tetris, since the emphasis is normally more on the nature and position of specific pieces to achieve an objective. 

The “Engine Building” mechanism

I think of Engine Builders as a variation to the deck building mechanism. What changes, often, is the quantity of cards available to a player throughout a game. Most engine builders I have played with have a constraint on the number of turns, making each decision taken increasingly more important. Another peculiarity is that once an engine is started, an early mistake or a moment’s hesitation could have disadvantageous effects on the outcome of a game. If a player gets on the right track from the start, he or she will most probably win the game. Catchup mechanisms are not common here. Res Arcana and Century Spice Road come to mind here. Res Arcana uses a very reduced number of cards, yet the card interactions are intricate and provide surprising synergies once the right cards fall into place. The rulebook tends to be a bit unclear in areas, which increases the learning curve of what is otherwise an exceptional game. As for Century Spice Road, which is part of a trilogy of games from designer Emerson Matsuuchi, it is an engine building game embedded within a larger game engine.  

In these types of games, cards selected to create the in-game engine become vital linchpins towards generating and upgrading resources. Particularly in Century Spice Road, early mistakes tend to haunt you later in the game, you really need to weigh your choices carefully. Another extremely popular engine-builder is Wingspan. Here the cards themselves represent birds. Each card offers both points scored directly for the bird itself as well as additional point-scoring actions which can take place during a turn, after a turn or in between rounds. The constraints on the number of turns are very pronounced here with the number decreasing from one round to the next. Interestingly, in Wingspan the cards are not the actual engine components though they serve to activate aspects of the in-game engine. The mix of engine-building, personal, turn and round objectives, make wingspan one of the best examples of this genre.

The “Set Building” mechanism

Set Building is one of the older mechanisms employed when cards are involved. At a quite simple level, you can see a practical example of set building in any rummy inspired card game. Players will here make sets or runs of cards to be the first to complete their hand and secure victory. Some modern boardgames embrace this mechanism within the overall game play making the final product quite easy to teach. For instance, one such game is Ethnos. Here players put together sets of cards depicting fantasy creatures to subsequently lay claim to territories on a common map. Interestingly then, once a set is used to claim a territory, it does not end there. If  another player creates a bigger valid set, he or she can then grab control of that same territory. Indeed, it is likely that certain valuable territories exchange hands a few times due to this mechanism. The more territories you lay claim to by the end of a game, the higher your chances of winning.

The “Trick-taking” mechanism

No exposition dealing with card games can be complete without a mention of trick-taking. This is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, card mechanism ever designed. The earliest card games on record frequently featured trick-taking as the sole mechanism. The most popular exponent of this mechanism is Contract Bridge, though other games such as Hearts and Spades also feature trick-taking as the basis of their point-scoring method. Even some modern board games have espoused this mechanism with varying degrees of success. 2017’s The Fox in the Forest and both games in “The Crew” series (2019 and 2021) use trick-taking. Their ongoing popularity, with the former (Fox in the forest) having a popular digital adaptation, and with 2019’s “The Crew” getting a sequel two years later, further extols the undying appeal of this mechanism. Ironically however, trick-taking happens to be my least favourite mechanism.

Infinite Combinations 

Game mechanisms are constantly evolving with every new game published. For this reason, no reasoned inroad into the subject can be considered definitive, indefinitely. Indeed, I don’t even claim that this blog is, by any stretch of the imagination, a comprehensive list of card game mechanisms. Still, I think I have successfully brought together the most popular mechanisms based on the success of the games they are found in. I have intentionally left out Collectable Card Games or CCGs as these belong to a separate and vast sub-genre of card mechanisms. One day I will write a blog exclusively on them. 

At the end of it all, cards are still a resilient and malleable tool used by game designers to render their abstract visions into modern cardboard masterpieces. Cards have been with us from the very moment it became convenient and cheap to produce them in volumes. For what they are, they take up truly little space, while still offering themselves as compact platforms from which imagination can soar and ideas can come alive during play. Personally, few gaming components are more compelling.

Planning a Great Board Games Night

We live with our limitations
 
I decided to write this blog almost as a reaction to little problems I have faced in the past while setting up board gaming sessions with friends. I am here referring to things that if allowed to accumulate can just as well derail an otherwise pleasant evening. Make no mistake, these matters will frequently surface in some form or other and tackling them, while not impossible, requires a willingness to solve them.

So let’s set the stage in the hope of establishing the possible contributing factors that could lead to these situations. We are assuming that all invited players are married couples with kids. Furthermore, these couples may or may not have kids who are still “dependents” at the time an invitation is sent out.
 
 

Where?

Location is the first problem that needs to be tackled. Deciding where to hold the gaming session can strongly affect how successful the event will be. Ideally the place is somewhere central, preferably requiring minimal to moderate commute.

Guests should also have no problems parking their vehicles or perhaps provisions could be made to pool cars if possible. If on the other hand you intend to host at your own house, just make sure that enough time and advance notification of the event is offered to all potential guests. A simple invite with an RSVP could also help establish both who will be in a position to attend and as well as offer a discreet way to manage the event and plan for it.
 
 

It’s all about timing.

When it comes to timing, I can identify two aspects that could affect an event. First there is the aspect of how much in advance you should issue your invitation and the second the actual starting time for the event. Both will have an effect on how guests will manage themselves on the day.

Starting with the idea of invitations, an invite should ideally be sent out between three week to a month before. This should offer a good time-window for all willing guests to block their calendars and make their preparations for the event. From experience, this is a good amount of time, some guests will guarantee their participation outright, others will confirm and then cancel closer to the date..it happens, just make provisions for these eventualities.

 

When it comes to the actual starting time for the event, you will need to take into consideration whether kids will factor in the equation. Parents with young kids in tow could prefer earlier starting times on account of sleep patterns they might be trying to enforce. 

On a different level, a comfortable and relaxing environment is also important, including how easily a gaming session can be set up. Adequate table space commensurate to the size of the board games being played is also a factor. Playing card based games will normally not require large surfaces (there are exceptions!!) but games that came with large boards will need equally large playing surfaces. As a rule of thumb, each player should have enough space to allow them to spread their game pieces or game resources comfortably. Ambient temperature and lighting are also important contributing factors in this instance. Poor or inadequate lighting could make it difficult to read instructions during play, while uncomfortable temperatures may cause players to focus poorly on their actions during play.

With or without kids

Now the matter of kids. When you reach the “family” stage in life, you must expect that there will be kids in tow so any event needs to be approached tactfully if it is to succeed. The first option would be an event that is child free. To organise such an event, all participants need to be in a position to leave their kids with family or a babysitter. Not everyone can do so, so you would need to assess the matter before suggesting a no-kids event. There are obvious advantages to sessions where kids are not in tow but the likelihood is that most of your events will include kids and this is what we will consider next

Kids in attendance can increase the challenges of setting up a gaming session, especially if they happen to be very young. All players must feel confident that they can handle the needs of their dependents if they will be tagging along. When kids are small, there will be emergencies, there will be a need to ensure they are taken care of. The trick here is to have, readily available, resources that could help. For instance, you could prepare a variety of accessible, child-friendly foods as well as create a safe play area. More importantly children should be guided towards not disrupting the main board gaming area, in most instances this will entail offering them alternative activities and/or distractions at an acceptable distance from the main gaming table. 

 

Kids onboard!

If on the other hand, kids are within the eight-year-old to early tween bracket, then this will present other challenges. Normally you will try to include them within some of the games (if not all of them), particularly if they happen to show some aptitude towards board games. The main challenge will be to select games that are appealing to them while also being engaging for the rest of the players. Personally I would tend to choose games which are fairly simple to teach, with a clear (and short) turn structure. 

 

 

You should definitely favour shorter games which resolve in around 30 to 45 minutes. If you are not sure how well they can handle competitive play, then ideally you should opt for cooperative games that would allow them to act within a team structure. Cooperative play will tend to offer fewer antagonising moments (if at all) with a sharper focus on beating the game. However don’t exclude competitive games in those instances where the kids can handle them.

 

Food and Refreshments
 

Another aspect that could impinge negatively on any gaming session is determining what food arrangements will be best, given the type of games played. Long games will require some form of snacks distributed at intervals, while playing, but these should preferably be light snacks, possibly non-greasy so that game components are not compromised while being handled. Ideally snacking should not detract from gaming time. Equally important is ensuring the availability of absorbent napkins, wipes as well as access to a bathroom with adequate supplies of hand wash and towels.

 

Dinner anyone? 

The situation becomes more challenging if you intend to host a dinner before the games themselves. You would here need to prime expectations and ensure that there is no overindulgence on particularly heavy, carb rich foods. The reason being that these, while notably cheaper to prepare, could lead to players feeling sluggish or tired afterwards. Good choices could include vegetable based dishes, pasta salads that emphasise vegetables. Light roasted meats like chicken or fish, soups, or vegetable or dairy-based dips or entrees. This does not mean you go zero carb, just that the carb and fat content should be kept low.

 

 

Continuing on the idea of a light dinner or lunch before a gaming session, you also need to ensure you have sufficient time for such a setup. You need to set aside at least one and a half hours for eating and at least 15 minutes to clear up the dining table if this will also double as a gaming table. If you have a separate table for the gaming session, even better. 

 

Drinks on the house!

Alcohol should be consumed in moderation as this will definitely affect game-play. As a host you should offer lighter alcoholic drinks like beers or wine. Alternatively you could agree to serve  just soft drinks if that’s fine for everyone. 

 

Commitment.

Commitment is another critical limitation when it comes to organising gaming sessions, especially when it comes to multi-episode campaigns as one would find in legacy games. It is vital to ensure that players are committed to the sessions, while at the same time avoiding the trap of making each session feel like an obligatory grind. This is the hardest to handle as gaming groups will fluctuate over time with players falling by the  wayside and others stepping in. You will need to be the session champion, the person who will at all times enthusiastically propose the next meet-up, even when feedback or response rates would be low. More importantly, fine tune your ambitions to the realities of your gaming group, it will spare you disappointments later.

 

 

That just about sums up the main aspects you would normally have to face while organising a games night in the marital period of your lives. Sure it's more complicated to organise a games night once you have a family and kid/s in tow but don't let that dishearten you in any way. With sufficient commitment and advanced planning you can still organise a board game party that your guests will remember fondly for years to come.

 

 

 

Terrforming Mars : Ares Expedition - A Review

 In many ways, a good euro-style game can be considered a model or perhaps a simulation of a concept or real-world scenario. A model therefore, which can be interacted with by players through their choices and decisions. In most cases, these games offer me the most enjoyment. Primarily because I can play with concepts or ideas that are dear to me or for which I have a personal affinity. In doing so, I use the tools that come with the game, as part of its ruleset, subscribing to the limitations imposed. A good simulation will embrace a strong theme within which the decisions and choices made will further enhance the experience.

I own several games which purport to do this, but there are only a few which leverage the above concepts of simulation and theme in ways that make the experience unique and exciting. I recently bought a game called Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition. The game can be considered an off-shoot, or smaller brother, to the successful game Terraforming Mars. When Ares Expedition came out, I thought  I was just looking at yet another expansion of sorts. A money grabbing exercise not so much different from the steady stream which floods the gaming market. In this case, I could not have been more mistaken. Ares Expedition is not an expansion, it is a standalone experience.

However, before we go any further, a word or two about the original Terraforming Mars is in order. As the name suggests, in Terraforming Mars, you play the part of a powerful organisation competing with others to reap the benefits of terraforming the red planet. You will do this by taking actions to increase the temperature of the planet and plant vegetation in order to increase oxygen levels. During the course of the game, players will draw project cards and then select one of 5 possible actions, per turn, in order to achieve their individual goals. What this means is that during any given turn, some of the available actions will be executed while others will be left out depending on the choices made.

At its core, Terraforming Mars feels like a race with the principal objective of coming out on top. Yet when you look closer, you realise that there is more, so much more to this. Each action you take or project you play to your personal tableau, will help you build a virtual engine from which you will obtain the necessary resources. Some project cards will benefit you early on when the planet is still hostile, cold and depleted of oxygen. Others will make more sense once the planet gets warmer and oxygen levels increase and start sustaining life. 

The theme here is a strong one and ever present. Miss an important project card on your turn and your engine may not generate sufficient resources. Yes, there are standard projects you could appeal to when you have no cards to play, but these come at a cost which may not be sustainable in the long run.

The game offers various paths to victory and the competition aspect plays a strong part throughout, yet this game does not feel like it is only about the win. Every game you play, you will find yourself thinking about what could generate the best combination of heat and vegetation and which project cards will aid your terraforming objective. Basically you find yourself strategizing, feeling engaged in this well-crafted simulation. Then there are the colonies or cities, you want to build these as they will increase your  presence on the planet, earning you more Terraforming Points and possibly victory. If you allow it, this game can become extremely engaging for all the right reasons. Here is a puzzle that will draw you in, leading you deep into its world  through its well crafted rules.

Then we have the Ares Expedition. This has all the charm and theme which made Terraforming Mars such an incredible game but it purposely cuts down on the former's sprawling game time. Terraforming Mars can actually last 3 to 4 hours, a timeframe not many casual gamers can afford. Ares Expedition on the other hand, promises a similar experience in around a third of the game time. That is not to be taken lightly. 

In Ares Expedition you still get the project cards, and you still get corporation specific benefits, yet there are differences. While your objectives to increase planetary temperature and vegetation are still key aspects of this game, you no longer have cities to concern yourself with or forests to place on the main map. The notions are dealt with differently, not removed mind you! You get to terraform sectors on the main map (albeit a much smaller one) and to score points on the terraforming track. So ultimately the feel remains true to the spirit of the original game.

Component-wise the game is well presented. The large stack of project cards are all linen finish. The copper, silver and gold tokens are made from colourful translucent plastic. Everything has a proper place inside the box. The cardboard used is of good quality and the player boards have nifty recessed “scoring tracks” which help you keep your cube markers in their right place during the game.

The rules, while straightforward, have a minor issue which has put me a bit off. I feel that It is not clear when points need to be moved along the scoring tracks (on the player boards), and when I should be adding points to the credit, heat or vegetation pools. Still, I have resolved to give the ruleset another, more thorough, reading. The fact that I will even bother to better understand the ruleset, is proof enough of how appealing I find this game and my eagerness to dive into this incredible experience.

Going back to the claimed game duration, Ares Expedition appears to have achieved a goal which few other games of its ilk can lay claim to. This is because there is a market for medium duration games like Ares Expedition. Games with longer playtimes are fantastic for hardcore gaming groups which are commit to regular gaming sessions. This however, isn’t the reality faced by most board game aficionados. Typical acceptable game durations for board games stand at between 90 to 150 minutes. There will be circumstances where games lasting 180 minutes will be tolerated but normally, casual gamers will prefer shorter games.

From the thematic standpoint, both Terraforming Mars and Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition could not have come at a better time. Mars has never been so present in the collective consciousness. Elon Musk is targeting Mars for colonisation and various countries already have separate exploratory missions on the red planet. Mars has become the embodiment of mankind's renewed desire to become a spacefaring species. It is indeed ironic that for most of the 90’s and early 2000’s, space exploration took a more back-burner approach due to other global priorities. Still, today in 2022, in spite of the COVID pandemic and other earthbound threats including wars, mankind is pushing steadily on the accelerator pedal of space exploration. These games I am writing about are one means of perhaps further solidifying this desire to reach up to the stars.

Then obviously you have those who question why we spend the kind of money that is spent to reach an essentially uninhabitable planet. The question is legitimate but the truth is that it’s not the goal itself but the push we are seeing in other scientific fields that somehow are linked to it. I am here talking about communications, internet, networking, alternative energy production and advances in energy production through nuclear fusion. All these scientific achievements will be necessary on Mars if we are to turn it into a viable colony.

Ironically while trying to seek ways to make the unliveable, liveable, we may indeed find ways to correct those manmade problems that are plaguing our planet at the moment. Things like sustainable food production, renewable energy sources and nuclear fusion.

Terraforming is not instantaneous, if it is to be achieved at all, the effect will be felt over several generations, in the meantime we need to utilise an entire arsenal of technologies to make mankind’s stay over there possible. Technologies which are being developed or improved upon, now as we speak.

But I digress...after all Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition is but a game, a lofty mind game which in its own way contributes towards reminding us about what mankind could potentially achieve. It’s a thematic Eurogame that silently points a finger to the red planet inviting us to ignite our imagination.

…and perhaps one day, several decades into the future, colonists will be engaged in actual Terraforming, turning what is now but a game, or a mental exercise, into something tangible.

Abstract Strategy Games

Think of a board game, stripped down of any possible theme, just a concentration of simple rules with equally simple win conditions. What comes to your mind? Now hold on to that thought. Many of you will be thinking of Chess as the quintessential game that satisfies these criteria, others will mention Draughts or Checkers as they are known in the US.

Games like Chess or Draughts fall under a category of games collectively termed abstract strategy games (aka ASG). These are games which exist within an established gaming framework that has withstood the test of time and which adopts extremely terse rule sets. The beauty of these gaming constructs is not in their self-evident simplicity but rather in the myriad permutations to which each move is subject to. Taking Draughts for example, each piece can only move in very finite and simple ways. At the start of a game, each piece can move diagonally, either to the left or to the right, one space at a time. Alternatively a piece may capture another by jumping over it along the same, permissible, diagonal paths. Now fast forward to, say, half a dozen moves and suddenly the number of possible moves increases, as do the implications of each move executed. This complexity or increase in the number of possible permutations, is what makes these games highly replayable and timeless. Just to put you in the picture it was calculated that Draughts has ten to the power of twenty different possible board positions.

When it comes to game mechanisms, most of these games appear to follow the principle game concept of capturing the opponent’s pieces and you would not be faulted to think that this was the only game mechanism out there. In truth there are several variations when it comes to ASGs.

Area Control is another game mechanism that has been explored in classic ASGs. When this principle is followed, it is more about claiming territory and inhibiting the movement  of your opponent. In the classic game Othello or Reversi, players take turns trying to enclose lines of the opponent’s pieces between two of their own. When this is done, anything in between becomes spaces claimed by the active player. At the end of a match the player with most of their own pieces on the board is the winner. To achieve this effect players use special two-sided checkers with one side being dark and the other light. Yet while at face value you could still say that you are capturing pieces, in truth it is more an encroaching tactic since pieces are never truly removed from the board but only added. An even more ancient game called Go, hailing originally from China, uses a similar encroaching tactic until there is no more spaces to claim. Admittedly Go is infinitely more complex to both play and master, but the basic principle behind both is similar. Go has a strong  and passionate crowd of followers the world over and is considered by many to be superior to Chess. If this can be used as an indicator of the game complexity, the first AI win against a Chess grand master took place in 1997 when IBM's Deep Blue beat the world chess champion after six games with two wins, three draws and one win for the chess champion. Eventually AIs caught up with Go but that win had to wait nineteen years until 2016 when Google's DeepMind defeated the raining Go champion 4 wins to 1. You can have a look at a very entertaining video of Go over here.

Seeding games adopt a pool of common pieces, moving them along a common path leading to special designated areas where they can then be claimed and removed from play. Mancala is one such game. Tactics here involve moving pieces in such a way as to increase the chances of claiming them, removing them from play, while at the same time making it difficult  for your opponent to do the same. Interestingly, games like Five Tribes adopt this mechanism as part of their ruleset, proving that the  tactic can still be employed effectively in modern board games.

Other classic ASGs like Hnefatafl, also known as The Viking Chess Game, adopt an asymmetric approach where one side is trying, in this instance, to help a King escape while the other will do its utmost to stop him from doing so. Have a look at this gorgeous digital adaptation from Rain Games, available on Steam. Then if you would like a decent presentation on the history of asymmetric board games including Hnefatafl, have a look at this excellent video.

Yet ASG’s are not something you can compartmentalise as being something from the past. There are many game designers out there coming up with some brilliant ASG’s. Just consider Hive for instance. This is an ASG that does away with a board focusing instead on hexagonal tiles with a “capture the queen” objective. Some may argue that there is a theme, insects but the same can be said for Chess in that case.

Another intriguing modern ASG is Tzaar. This game, designed by Kris Burm, is part of a series of ASGs known collectively as the GIPF project

published by Rio Grande Games. Tzaar is a game which invites players to make choices throughout. There are three types of pieces and they must all be represented on the board if you want to win. It is part capture and part positional in that you can try to manoeuvre your opponent into a position where he cannot make legal moves and therefore lose.

Personally, when I think of ASGs I think of them as game mechanisms laid bare, stripped of all that would otherwise obfuscate their simple, elegant geniality. Here you have all the elements of a game, all the strategic depth in one beautiful package. This is why many have survived the test of time or have been transformed or are still being transformed one generation after another. Most people will forget the number one board game of 20XX but tell them to sit down and show an ASG like Chess or Draughts  and you will most likely find that they know the game.

That is all I have for you today. Now I will take my leave, I’ve just loaded Viking Chess and I think I will take it for a spin.

Upgrading your Hobby

When it comes to the fairly modern phenomenon of commercially available board game component upgrades, your attention becomes equally drawn to the fact that game designers these days feel a growing need to differentiate themselves from competition through either some gimmicky component or other trendy game design feature. This is a perfectly natural progression to the design process, since it is only by standing out from the crowd that one can hope to get noticed. 

The issue however is that the more sophisticated your board game becomes and the more components you cram into your box, the more expensive the product gets going to retail. Personally, I feel that this matter has deteriorated (depends obviously on how you look at it) with the advent of Kickstarter games. Most Kickstarter products feel intrinsically premium in their overall design. In many cases designers will beef up products with a substantial number of upgraded components, frequently trading cardboard counters with all sorts of plastic equivalents, metal coins and, in some cases, neoprene mats instead of cardboard game boards. In doing so, the price of the product increases but since these games are aimed at fans, the latter are often willing to fork out the price. 

Yet before I dive into this subject matter any further, let’s consider where this all started. This is because to be fair, in the past people still upgraded their favourite games, or created souped up versions, just that they were all homebrew productions, carefully and lovingly crafted. I have seen gorgeous 3D renditions of such popular titles as Settlers of Catan, Talisman and others. All clearly the product of very artistic folk but not commercially available. If they were, they would most probably cost a fortune. If I were to speculate here, I think that it’s precisely these homebrew ideas that gave designers of kickstarter products ideas for embellishing their published games. Yet they weren’t the only reason I am sure, the crux of the matter I guess was that in order to add value to the rather pricey kickstarter products, designers had to offer something that went beyond standees or cardboard cutouts. 

Where does this leave the more mainstream (non-Kickstarter) offerings? In most cases these products are published in various formats, from an entry level, mass-market package that follows traditional production formats, to premium versions aimed at hobbyists. For instance, if you were to Google “Hanabi”, a popular set-building game, you would be surprised by the number of variations the search will come up with. At its most basic level, Hanabi is just a card game which may or may not employ counters to maintain tallies. As you go through your search results however, you will also find a version that comes in a tin box and another that has totally replaced the cards with Mahjong-style, chunky, plastic tiles. Obviously, the latter is significantly more expensive than the card-based sets.  

Now, the million-dollar question, does it pay to purchase a premium version of any given game? The answer is a bit complicated and must be summed up in two words, basically “it depends”. 

Some will argue that any board game is the sum of three key features namely: - 

• Gaming mechanisms and quality of play 

• Design and friendliness of the user interface and 

• Replay value. 

The first point, that is, gaming mechanisms and quality of play are indeed fundamental. If this aspect is spot on, minor design flaws (we are talking aesthetics not related to core game mechanisms) could be overlooked to an extent. As an example, I would like to point out the game Ethnos by CMON games. In terms of game play and replay value, the game is great, yet its design is minimalistic at best and generic when it comes to the fantasy art employed on the in-game cards. Do I still consider it an enjoyable game, definitely. This is because the user interface, though plain, is spot on and everyone knows what he or she should be doing next. While games like Ethnos could benefit from upgraded artwork, it would be more a “nice to have” in this instance. 

Yet there are games, which already have great design and artwork, but which would offer a better player experience if the quality of one or more components were upgraded. We’re not talking about components that would change the game mechanisms in any way whatsoever, other than from a tactile perspective. For instance, using metal coins when these are intended as the counter type within a game can be a very pleasant tactile experience for the players concerned.  

Companies like “The broken token” in the USA have in fact specialised in offering upgraded coin options for some of the more popular game titles including, among others, Lords of Waterdeep, Viticulture, Scythe and Seven Wonders. In most instances the upgrades can come with a steep price tag (when compared to the core game), so that they may not be for everyone’s pockets. Still, if you are passionate about a particular board game or other, having bought all available expansions, the next step could well be upgrading some or all its in-game components. 

Alternatively, components could be upgraded through other means if you happen to have the tools and artistic disposition. At the simplest level, players could decide to manually paint in-game miniatures to make them more appealing. This, if done properly, can add more depth to the pieces used in play, though care should be taken to ensure that any paint applied to the miniatures is durable and can sustain some measure of handling.  

If one were to take board game component upgrades seriously, 3D printers would be another way one could use to produce game tokens. Over recent years, the cost of entry-level 3D printers has dropped significantly. You can now find basic, 3D plastic filament printers, selling locally for around €200. The benefit of using these printers is that all you need to produce multiple copies of a given token, is a good 3D model file and plastic filament.  Once you load the file, all the printer requires is a clean environment where it can be left alone to perform its magic. The quality of the final product depends on the printer’s resolution as well as on the quality of the filament used. Both aspects need to be considered when purchasing these materials. 

Given the investment necessary I think that only genuine board game hobbyists will really consider going to such lengths. If you love a particular game, chances are you will go out of your way to get the best version of that game. Consider Chess boards for instance, you can well enough play with a €15-30 set but you will find hardcore chess players willing to spend thousands on a luxury set and custom table. I think that it is all about the enjoyment you derive from the game itself as well as the disposable cash you are willing to spend on your hobby. The more enjoyment you derive whilst playing, the more likely it is that you will spend money to get the best possible experience. 

Given the reality of today’s global situation, no discussion on this topic can be complete without discussing the logistics behind purchasing and getting any upgrades. Due to the global pandemic and now, very unfortunately, also because of the disruptions that are being experienced in relation to the war in Ukraine, global transport logistics have suffered a heavy toll. As a consequence shipping goods around the globe has become increasingly expensive. Getting single items to your home has never been costlier. I will talk on a personal level here and say that my board game purchases from abroad have gone down to zero over the past 24 months. At the moment, I am more likely to tap into the local market and purchase goods from local suppliers, who still somehow manage to keep costs per item low by aggregating their shipping. For now this stratagem appears to be working for the local importers as the prices are indeed competitive and comparable to online prices.

Yet having said all this, it all really comes down to personal taste and the pleasure one derives from playing a well presented and upgraded game. Clearly, if board games are not your thing, or you just happen to be a casual player, then upgrading games will not appeal to you. If on the other hand, you do consider yourself a hobbyist in addition to enjoying board games in general, then upgrading game components will definitely add to the experience. 

Two Player Games

Whoever happens to be moderately interested in board gaming, will tell you that player count can be a serious matter when it comes to what games you can actually play. From my own experience, even putting together four players over a number of regular sessions can be problematic. Thankfully with the richness and variety of games out there, issues with player counts can be mitigated.

The still ongoing pandemic, which began in 2020, brought the matter of player counts and the impossibility of meeting up during the various lockdowns, to the fore. Even gamers who had a network of interested players, who could therefore engage in playing diverse titles, found themselves unable to continue to pursue their hobby on account of social distancing. This meant that many found themselves limited to playing exclusively with members of their own family or perhaps with those in their same bubble. For these reasons they tended to favour games with lower player counts and, in most instances, that meant either two-player games or solo games.

Solo games deserve a blog of their very own, given the growing body of titles that are now available. For the purpose of this blog however, I will focus on two-player games and particularly on titles I own. 

From personal experience, 2-player games are games I have played with some regular frequency over the years. The reason is simple. At home it was mostly me and my sister, which meant two-player games were easier to bring to the table. Ironically while my father and mother pushed board games in our direction from an early age, they seldom joined us in the games. I felt that the message back then, was more along the lines that games were for kids and that adults had more lofty aspirations. Obviously that was a whole lot of hullabaloo. 

It was thanks to my aunts and uncles from my mother’s side of the family, that I learnt the real value of group card and board games. Mostly it was cards, but we did also indulge in very animated, neverending games of Monopoly, as well as a slew of other board games like Draughts, Chess, Ludo and Snakes & Ladders. It wasn’t easy, growing up, to bring more than two players to the table. The situation improved somewhat later in life, during the earlier years of my marriage when we hosted numerous game nights. Then came the kids and it was back to struggling just to keep some semblance of a social life going, let alone organising game nights. That’s a pretty normal situation from what I have heard.

Thankfully, I now have a six-year-old who, with some help, can indulge in games that are technically beyond his years but which he follows through and plays enthusiastically. It’s thanks to him that I have been able to explore some modern titles, when COVID practically wiped out any possibility of holding even an occasional game night. 

So without much further ado, let’s go through some interesting titles which I own and which either work better with two players or are intended as two-player games.

To be clear, I will not review the game mechanisms or gameplay in detail, just the salient features which make each title unique or better suited as a two player activity.

When I sifted through my collection, I was quite surprised to find that I have a substantial number of board games which are either two-player by design, or work well as two-player games. The point is that given my current tally of titles, recalling which board game works best as a two player game, requires going through the titles and recalling past matches that can justify my claim. I will start with those that are two-player by design.

7 Wonders Duel, is the first game I would like to quote from my collection. It is strongly derived from the original award-winning game, 7 Wonders, but game play has been heavily streamlined to favour the two-player format it advocates. There are fewer boards and more cards in this two-player variant and the emphasis is on using a witty, card blocking mechanism that allows access to only a handful of cards during the drafting process.  More cards become gradually avialable once those exposed are taken by the players. The objectives are still essentially the same, though the science, military and civic paths to victory are somehow better presented.

The next are the various deck builders which have “realms” in their title. These include the perennially popular Star Realms, then Hero Realms, Hero Realms - Ruins of Thandar and Cthulhu Realms.  All four are deck builders with roughly the same gaming mechanism at their core.The best among them must be Star Realms, with all the subsequent add-on and stand alone packs that came out under this title. These titles are squarely 2-player games, though it is technically possible, for instance, to play Star Realms as a four-player game though the game does become unwieldy.

Epic is a living card game (LCG) which borrows some elements from Magic the Gathering (MtG) but does away with the latter’s Land cards. It is a two-player game which offers a series of rather quirky tropes, mish-mashed into one game. The artwork is derivative at best, there is some attempt at a story but it somehow becomes irrelevant the moment you sit down to play. Not one of my favourite two-player games but it is definitely designed to be so.

Legend of the 5 Rings Card Game is another LCG in much the same vein as MtG but which then leverages an honour and dishonour track. The game’s theme is clearly inspired by mediaeval Japanese history, though the designers stirred away from turning this into a historical game. This game is strictly two-player, comes with some exceptionally beautiful artwork and a rather complex gaming structure. Players can achieve victory through diverse paths, a military win is only one of the options. A lovely game and one I wish I could play more.

Onitama is a two-player chess-like game where pieces are ascribed 5 moves from special cards drawn at the beginning of the game. The moves are shared between both players ,making this a very interesting game. 

Othello or Reversi as some might know it, is a simple territory/area control game for two players. Ingenious and simple in its own right, this is a classic two-player game. 

Quarto is a board game that uses an interesting mechanism whereby you offer the next move to be played to your opponent. Very pretty to look at and deceptively simple but can be an intriguing puzzler for two. 

Tsar is one of the most innovative, two-player games I have come across in a long while. There are four types of pieces on the board and you win by either depleting one of the opponent’s, or else by forcing your opponent into being unable to make a legal move. 

Stratego is an old game where essentially two armies are lined up in front of each other but  neither side initially knows the nature or position of their opponent’s pieces. Strictly a two player and one which feels like playing a two-player version of  the old Windows Minefield app. 

Hive is a truly unique abstract strategy game, played with hexagonal tiles and no true board to speak of. The theme is insect-based and during their turn each player will place new tile pieces onto the gaming area, or move those already in place, in order to completely encircle the opponent’s queen bee. Hive can be a very short, intense tactical game but one that is fairly easy to teach and bring to the table.

Mastermind is an old, 70’s, code-cracking game which never really went away. It’s a delightful brain teaser for two, with either players taking turns being the code-maker or code-breaker. 

I bought The Royal Game of Ur from the British Museum souvenir shop way back in 2006. This two-player game  is considered one of the oldest games ever discovered complete with rules to go with it. It is essentially a race game much in the same vein as Parcheesi or Ludo. This game found its way into my collection more as a sort of curio that intrigued me at the time. Here was what I considered the ultimate proof that board games have always been part of who we are as a species. Furthermore it also proved to me that board games were not simply intended for kids, but a social phenomenon that had been enjoyed by lay people and royalty throughout history. 

No list of two-player games would be complete without a mention of Backgammon. This is a classic, two-player game I really love and enjoy playing. I will be dedicating a future blog exclusively to this game so there will be that. Backgammon brings a good blend of tactical play and variance, which allows game progression to flow along at a good pace. When you’re in a match you feel totally immersed in the gameplay and the roll of the dice and calculated risk-taking add vibrancy to the overall challenge. 

The last two-player, abstract strategy game on my list is Dao. Dao is as simple as they can possibly get. Players have four pieces to play with and they must achieve one of four possible configurations on the board in order to win. A good example of a game where less is indeed more.

Now I would like to have a look at games which are intended for two or more players but which in my opinion play better at a two-player count.

Nmbr 9 is a polyomino style game where players draw pieces and place them simultaneously into their respective tableau, the higher you stack the piece the more points you earn.

Santorini is an abstract strategy game but dressed up in an attractive theme. Nominally you can play with up to four players but it’s at two players that this game really shines. Players take turns to either move their worker pieces or build a level on an available adjacent building space. Players can then climb up onto the levels they build, with the player first up on the 3rd level winning a match. This game is strategic and does require a measure of forward planning. While each turn is quick, playing with more than two players makes the game a bit more distracting. This is why I normally recommend playing this as a two-player game.

Next, I think I should follow through with the Ascension series of deck building games. Ascension is a game I love and understand. I have two Ascension packs from the series with the second (Rise of Vigil) being marginally more interesting in my opinion. This game can be played as a four player game but suffers from the same issues as other similar deck builders. Each player turn toward the end of the game becomes increasingly longer, forcing the other players into lengthy downtimes as they wait for their next turn. At two-player, the wait can be tolerated but as soon as that player count goes up to three or four, player downtime becomes stifling. 

The next triplet of titles I would like to talk about are Splendor, Cities of Splendor and Splendor - Marvel. These titles work well at player counts of up to 4 but if I must be sincere about it, I prefer playing these at two or three players at the most. At two players the game is highly tactical with players having a somewhat clear picture of what the other is trying to achieve as well as how he or she is trying to achieve it. However, as soon as another player enters the mix the game complexity increases, on account of an extra layer of variability introduced by the new player. Keeping tabs of what two other players might be trying to achieve before you get your turn can be difficult. At four players, the game becomes chaotic, at least for me. While I love Splendor, I still feel it’s best played as a two-player game.

 

MTG - Battle of the Planeswalkers is another desktop brawler, where players meet on common terrain, unleashing their planeswalkers into a battle royale of sorts. Theming is strongly derivative from Magic the Gathering but this is not MTG. It is possible to battle it out with up to 5 players, each taking control of a faction, but the truth is that at higher  player counts the game feels a bit messy. Two or perhaps three players at most work best. I prefer it at two though I am sure some will disagree.

Dungeon Mayhem and Dungeon Roll are the next two games I believe work best as two-player games. Dungeon Mayhem is more of a player brawl with a fantasy theme. Players get their own character packs and then slog it out until only one player remains. You can play it three player or four player I guess, but two player is more where this game is at. 

Dungeon Roll uses a deck of monster cards and special dice in order to simulate “delving” through a dungeon. Cards as well as loot earned during the delve can help you manipulate the custom dice in order to best the monsters faced. It’s very simple at heart but when one player goes through his turn, the other becomes the dungeon keeper, so to speak. While the dice are nifty and the theming is fairly good, it’s definitely not one of my go-to games. Still it is a two-player game and designed to be just that.

I would like to conclude this blog with some considerations of what I believe should make a good two-player game. First of all, the actions taken on each turn need to be intuitive while still allowing for interesting choices and decisions. The theme, if present, needs to be well integrated into the gameplay and not slapped on almost as an afterthought. Very importantly, there should be minimal downtime. Games with overbearing downtimes, or those which invite protracted contemplation between turns are not what I find enjoyable. Finally, a good two-player game should be complex enough to engage thought but light enough to allow for social interaction.

Until next time, have a good one!