Georgia Boardgames Association

Me and one of my son’s just played Days of Wonder Pirate’s Cove through about six months (six rounds).  Can’t go much into it now, but I can see a lot of potential here.  The combat is simple, but the method of choosing makes the game interesting. Again, I’ll have to get into it in an upcoming review.  I’m interested if any of you have played this board game and what you think.

I’m never sure what board game to buy for our game days, so I thought I’d open it up for suggestions.  Does anyone have a favorite they’d like to learn?  Also wanted to drop a quick note that we are working on our podcast and that a review of Augsburg 1520 is in the works for the boardgame blog.  I’ve got my pictures, but the review will take a while to write.  I also need to play it some more to write an intelligent review.

The board game podcast format will be simple with an introduction, two game reviews, and an ending.  I think that it will be about 15 – 20 minutes to start with, so it will fit it nicely when you have a shorter commute or only have a little bit of time to listen.

I have name for it, but that will have to wait until it is released.  No promise on the date yet or how many shows we’ll commit to.  Five sounds like a good first run, maybe more.  I’d like to finalize membership in the Georgia Boardgames Association first and that also takes time to do.  Any suggestions are welcome.

There is always a tendency to in the review world to write on the latest and greatest.  After all, we live in a culture of news about the entire world in sixty seconds.  If it happened 120 seconds earlier, it may no longer be news at all.

But with some things in this world, you can write about and enjoy it even if it is “older.”  Books lend themselves to this easily, but I’ve found that another item, boardgames, do quite well with discussion.  Boardgames do not tend to be old news as quickly as video games, for example.  No one is discussing Pac Man for the Atari 2600 (okay someone probably is somewhere on earth), but I be you can find active board game discussions for Monopoly and Scrabble.  You’ll also find many discussions on games such as Settlers of Catan, Shogun, Twilight Emperium, and ton of other board games.  So, while I want to review the newest games, I also want to talk about some games that are not so new anymore, but still very good.  That’s what you’ll see here in the future – reviews young and old.  And, if you have a request, just drop me a email and I’ll be happy to try an review it. 

Remember, boardgames don’t depend on the latest hardware or technology.  They only depend on you.

Lately, I’ve been lazy, not playing many board games, but not playing video games or anything else either.  I don’t know if it’s work or because I’m enjoying learning about podcasting and video editing.  I recently got a Macbook Pro and have revived my interest in audio and video broadcasting – they were taking over.  But last night I decided to stop procrastinating on a game I’ve been wanting to play, Richard Borg’s Wyatt Earp.  I hope you’ll find this review interesting.  I know the game is a little older, but unlike the latest technology, board games have a life all their own and can sustain many game technology transitions – the benefit of being non-digital, I suppose.

For those who don’t know, Richard Borg is one of the “big names” in the board game industry.  He’s made some other board games you may be more familiar with like, Memoir ‘44 and Battlelore.  In fact, I had no idea he had made any other games until I read a recent issue of Knucklebones concerning his board game design history.  In that article Wyatt Earp is mentioned as one of his “best games.”  I liked the look of it and bought it.

Now when I classify things, I like hard and fast categories, but that’s a little difficult to do in board games.  On the other hand, I’m not sure it it matters for board game enthusiasts.  It seems that players simply put all “analog games” that you play on a table as a board game.  I agree, but my point here is simply to point out that Wyatt Earp is primarily a card game.  It consists of 78 cards which contain Outlaw sets and Sheriff action cards, with Outlaw placards used as place holders for bounty money.  If you’ve never seen the game that won’t make much sense, so let’s look at the pictures below:

The Outlaws surround the money and the draw and discard pile, contents, and rule book:

The gameplay is simple.  You each have ten cards and attempt to create sets of outlaws.  When you create a set, depending upon how big that set is, you place a certain amount of money, measured in thousands, on the Outlaw’s set you just collected:

Here’s an Outlaw up close:

Here’s the money up close:

At its heart, Wyatt Earp is a set collection and hand management game. Here is a picture of a set, which must contain at least three. Also notice how the game is color coded, each outlaw with their own color:

But up till now you may be asking, so what? You collect sets like Rummy and whoever gets the sets gets money, right? No.  Actually, sets only place money on that Outlaw’s wanted poster. You have to get something called “Capture Points” to get the money. And the money is just as liable to go to your opponent, or a share of it.  The money distribution is based upon how many capture points there are total between all players and the difference between your score and the other players. First, look again at the picture above of a set. See the numbers in the upper left? That’s a capture point.

Now, I’m not going to go into the math of the game, but essentially there are three scoring tests to figure out who gets the money on an Outlaw wanted poster, using simple addition and subtraction.  Of the three posibilities, the money on an Outlaw is either left until the next round (hand), taken completely by a single player, or divided/shared amongst players who have a common set. Here a picture of money on an outlaw to show what’s at stake:

In the scoring phase just described, the players move to each Outlaw, scoring sets and determining bounty money distribution. The object is simple: Whoever gets to $25,000 first wins. When I played a two-player, this took two hands. That may not sound like a lot, but it took over 20 minutes. Hand’s don’t end until one person discards the last card (with a few exceptions.)

But to break up the set collection into something more fun, Wyatt Earp has something called Sheriff cards, what I called action cards. This allows for more interesting hand management and adds a risk factor to gameplay. In addition, there are several actions one Sheriff card may have, and based upon a random draw from the deck, some actions may be worth more. Consider the Wyatt Earp card (hey, it had to be in there somewhere). It has three possibilities:

Notice the last one action, “after successful shot.” To make a shot, you draw a card from the supply. If the card has a bullet hole, that’s a successful shot, you get that action. Notice the bullet hole on Jesse James, which makes a successful shot:

Other action cards add to the capture points of an opponent or can keep an opponent from using capture points in the scoring phase of the game. Here are all the cards types together:

In summary, the ease of understanding set collection, the monotony breaker of Sheriff cards, the risk factor of successful shots, and the nice western theme of bounty collection, creates a game that will not be placed on your boardgaming shelf for very long. It’s packed with strategy and tactics and sure to get great reviews from your family and friends, and while I consider it more of a filler than not, it’s not so lite that I put it in the For Sale category (another great game I hesitate to call a filler.) Enjoy!

And, and, this drew me out of my board game fog.  I think I was just lazy.

John Marchant
Georgia Boardgames Association©
“Together time all the time…”™

This gem is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  I love the secret deployment mechanic employed by this game.  The theme is also a high tilt factor for me.  Well thought out rules, nothing hard to understand, bluffing (secret deployment), and good graphics, make this board game a must have.

Did I mention this is a Dr. Knizia game? If that’s not enough, the rules are perfect. I have yet to find any special circumstance that has not been covered in the rule book. I don’t have the new version, that is, the deluxe confrontation version, nor do I think I need it.

Another item I enjoy is the bluffing aspect, and using that to my advantage. When I was younger, I remember a chess tournament that had a “real” grandmaster playing. There was also a young man playing him, and I remember someone commenting that the young man beat the grandmaster all the time because he played him so much. You see, he knew how the grandmaster played (the GM was his teacher). It’s the same with bluffing with the secret deployment. I play my son and I know him and he knows me. Unfortunately, for him, he doesn’t understand yet, not fully any way, the psychology behind this. He does pick up on it some. I get comments like, “I KNEW you were gonna do that.” and others where he’s been fooled. Kind of like Captain Riker versus Locutus – okay, that was way out there, I’m digressing – I know.

The movement mechanics are also flawless. Not moving sideways into the mountains causes the player to make a guess or calculate the best time to move through. Is Balrog waiting? If I move into the mountains will the other player attack? This plays nicely with the special abilities written on units. How this special ability can be used to the advantage of the player takes time. I personally like using Pippin to move forward to expose my opponent and quickly retreat backwards (his ability.) The game seems especially well balanced.

The replayability, theme, play time, and small form factor of the board game make it an ideal companion to for travel and good to take out when you want a good strong game, but don’t have a lot of time to play. Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation is one of those board games that is neither fluff nor intense, but still fun. You will not find that you’re wasting your time.

Did I mention I purchased this board game on ebay for $9.00?

Only played a few games, so I’ll try and revisit this.

I like the addition of cards, compared the board game, but have a hard time with the dicefest this game quickly becomes.  Kids love it because of the miniatures.  I like the minis, but the play is a little stale.  It could be the theme.  I’m just not a World War II board game buff.

Interesting game.  The components are nice and the game play exciting for an abstract.  I’m a big chess fan, so I have a high tilt towards this type of board game.  I’ve played several games of Blokus and have not been able to discern any beat all moves.  The diagonal strategy towards the middle of the board is reminiscent of chess, and the corner remind one of Othello.  And, yes, of course it looks like Tetris.

 Update:  I just found Blokus Online Play.  I lost, but it was fun.  Found the original post for this here.

One son loves this, but I’m still striving to understand why everyone appears to love this game so much.  I have been told that historically it was the first of its kind.  I’m just not getting the attraction, but it is somewhat entertaining and easy for younger children, even though, it is not a child’s game.  I have been told that expansions are more fun.  I’m hoping someone can tell me the attraction.  Are other tile laying board games better?

I’ve played a few games of this now and while I like the game components. I’m not sure I understand why the game is rated so high.  Is it because I have only played two player games?  I’m not really getting the strategy here.  For example, the roles are random so what good does it do me to build one color or another?  About the only strategy I am discerning so far are two things.  One, because of the randomness, one must use logic to determine who might be whom and this would be better with more players.  And, two, whether or not to build large districts with good purple cards.  I have played a lot of San Juan, so I do not know, yet, if I like the random roles.