Entry 37: Trick of Treat

            

            Since today is Halloween I figure that I should write about a few games that would be great to play on this “spooky” day. There are a bunch of games that people typically recommend for a Halloween theme but I will highlight the ones that we have and have enjoyed playing. 

            First, I am going to refer everyone to Entry 18 which is all about the games from Façade Games. From the witches of Salem, to the town of Deadwood, and the plague in Bristol, these games all can fit a dreary theme (if you want to dress like a pirate then Tortuga can fit into the category too I guess).

 

BETRAYAL AT HOUSE ON THE HILL 

            Second, If you want to play a fun game that is fun for up to six players which also has 50 different “haunts” that you can trigger, look no further than Avalon Hill’s Betrayal at House on the Hill. 

            What I like the most about this game is that everyone starts off working together to explore the house finding various things like omens, items, and traps. Each person selects a character they want to play and each one has different stats such speed which lets you know how many spaces you can move. Whenever you get an omen card, you must make a haunt roll. Based on the results, it may trigger the haunt or not. If it is triggered then you look up which of the 50 haunts you are doing by looking at the chart and matching the omen card and the room that you are in. 

            Some haunts you have an “outside” enemy which keeps your team together to fight the enemy and some haunts one of the characters will take the roll of the enemy. I won’t say anymore about this leaving you ready to explore the House on the Hill for yourselves.

MYSTERIUM 

            The next game that we have and played (but it has been a while) is Libellud’s Mysterium. A game for two to seven players in which one person plays the role of a ghost and the rest are mediums who are cooperatively trying to “help” the ghost to “rest in peace. 

 “Unable to talk, the amnesiac ghost communicates with the mediums through visions, which are represented in the game by illustrated cards. The mediums must decipher the images to help the ghost remember how he was murdered: Who did the crime? Where did it take place? Which weapon caused the death? The more the mediums cooperate and guess well, the easier it is to catch the right culprit.” (from BGG)  

            This game has many different combinations that can be made from the cards so the replayability is high. The game has a Clue feeling because you are trying to deduct the details of the murder that occurred but without moving game pieces across a board and working alone. 

            Mysterium also has an expansion and a bunch of promo cards that can enhance the “spookiness” of the game. 

HORRIFIED 

            The last game that I am going to talk about is Ravensburger’s Horrified. This is the game that we will be playing tonight after our family dinner. This is what the publisher has to say about it… 

“The stakes have been raised. Imagine living in a place so wretched that it's not plagued by one, two, or even three monsters — but seven of the most horrifying fiends! 

In this game, you'll come face to face with them all as you work together to rid the town of the maniacal or misunderstood creatures…before it's too late. 

Horrified includes high-quality sculpted miniatures (Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon). Its innovative, easy-to-learn, cooperative gameplay has players working together against the monsters with varying levels of difficulty. Just as each monster is unique, they require different strategies and tactics to be defeated.” 

            In the game that my wife and I played ahead of time so we know the rules when teaching my family, we had found that the look and the theme of the game is, well, pretty horrifying. The cards, game pieces, the board itself all fits nicely with the theme. As the description stated, it is a game in which we work together to accomplish the goals of ridding the town of the monsters. 

            This is a game that I could see us playing year after year as a new Halloween tradition. What is also great is that Ravensburger just released the follow up game to it called Horrified: American Monsters but everywhere I checked has it out of stock. 

TOGETHERNESS 

            Like most major holidays, it is always nice to spend them with friends and family. What better way to do so than to enjoy a good meal, have good conversations, and enjoying playing fun games. 

            All the games (not counting the Façade Games) that I “spooked” about today are cooperative ones. Working together to accomplish a singular goal involving some form of ghastly or ghoulie objective. After all, they do say that two heads are better than one. 

        

             Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween.

Entry 36: "Serial" games

            Let me clear right away, I am not talking about playing games with Fruit Loops, Cheerios, or Lucky Charms. This blog is about games that belong to a series that fit nice together in sequence and/or follows a “story” line, even though a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles sounds good right now. 

            In the beginning of my collecting of board games I was just thinking that I would stick to a whole bunch of “one and done” type games and be happy with that. I also play Magic: The Gathering which does follow story lines I thought getting into board games that does the same might not be what I want to do. Wrong answer! Dominion was our first serial game that we dove head first into and to top it, Rio Grande Games has announced the next expansion is set to be released in December, Dominion: Allies. I won’t talk more about this game since I wrote about it in Entry #4. 

            Now let us take a look at a few other series that have drawn my attention that we own and/or started to collect. 

CLEVER SERIES 

            Ganz Schön Clever (That’s Pretty Clever) and Doppelt So Clever (Twice as Clever) are the first two in the roll and write Clever series. The third one that was just released a few months ago is called Clever Hoch Drei (Clever Times Three) continues the roll and write series. 

            What we really like about this series is that by choosing the various colored dice you can focus on the handful of different objectives on your game board. Each game in the series follows the same basic gameplay rules making it easy to go from one game to the next. 

            Shh… don’t tell St. Nikolas that I know that I will be receiving the third game on his day this year. December 6th is St. Nikolas Tag but I am sure I will be writing about this special day in an upcoming entry. 

NORTH SEA SERIES 

            Garphill Games published this series which is based around the Vikings of old. 

            

            Shipwrights of the North Sea is the first game in the series in which you must collect resources to build the best Viking Fleet. The setting is earlier Viking times. By constructing ships and buildings you gain victory points and the game ends after the first player(s) build their 4th ship. This game does have a mini-expansion and promo cards to enhance the game. 

            

            Raiders of the North Sea is the second chapter in the series, set in the middle Era of Vikings and is the one that has gotten the most attention. It is also the first game in the series that we picked up (got a great deal on the secondary market). There are two main expansions and a lot of promo cards for this game. 

            In Shipwrights you build the ships and village and in Raiders you are now trying to impress the Chieftain by using your workers to prepare for and raid other locations. There are multiple win conditions for this game. 

            Explorers of the North Sea is the conclusion of this trilogy. Set in the latter times of the great Vikings, you are now charged with settling new lands, raid other locations, and attack other ships. The game ends after 48 turns (48 tile placements). Are you strong enough to because the fiercest Viking in the land? The game has one main expansion and one mini-expansion. 

WEST KINGDOM SERIES 

            Also by Garphill Games, the West Kingdom games are set in Western Europe. 

            Starting with Architects of the West Kingdom set at the end of the Carolingian Empire, players are the royal architects trying to appease the King by building various landmarks and working on the cathedral. A strong worker placement game will leave you wanting to do more. A lot of promos and two main expansions complete the first chapter in this series. 

            Paladins of the West Kingdom is chapter 2 and is set a short time after Architects in West Francia (Western France). Trying to defend yourself from outsiders, you will gather workers and carry out various tasks. The game ends after seven rounds of play. A handful of promo cards and one main expansion complete this chapter of the West Kingdom. 

            The newest and last game in the series is Viscounts of the West Kingdom which is set just over 100 years after the first game. This time you will work in the castle for the king, gain additional workers, and complete other tasks. Will you keep the Kings favor and stay true and loyal? A few promo cards and two expansions finish off the last chapter of the West Kingdom. 

SO WHAT ELSE? 

            Final Frontier Games has the Five Realms series that I plan to dive more into in a future blog post. There are also games by Deep Water Games that publishes a Temple series which they brought over to the United States from an Asian publisher that we played a few of the games. If I think more about all this, I am sure I can come up with more games that we have that fits our “serial” category. 

            I honestly do enjoy playing games that are part of a series. Yes, playing games that are “one and done” are just as fun, but seeing a continued progression of a game is just as fun. 

            My family loves playing Cartographers and really soon the next game in this series (Heroes) is out (Kickstarter shipping soon). From the same company is Roll Player which the next part of this series is also shipping soon. Since we backed both on Kickstarter they will ship both at the same time to save on shipping costs. The picture below is the collector's edition box that combines the two Cartographers games.

            Bottom line, find games that you and your gaming group will enjoy playing together. Now, let me check to see if we have enough milk for a bowl of cereal. Those Cocoa Pebbles are begging to be eaten.

Entry #35: Secret Santa’s & Gift Giving

            I hopped on to Boardgamegeek.com to do a character development vote for a Kickstarter game that we are backing and the backers are helping with creating and building a new character for the game. It is for a game that my sister is excited to play when it arrives so being a part of the process like this is fun. But anyways, not the point of this blog entry. What I am trying to lead into is that I got a message from BGG stating that the registration for the 2021 Secret Santa exchange is open. AWESOME!!!! 

2020 SECRET SANTA 

 

            My wife and I participated in the event for the first time last year and was glad that we did. The game we received from our Santa was Architects of the West Kingdom which had been on my personal wishlist for a while. Unfortunately, we have not tabled the game yet because we are trying to get through many of our other “to be played” games. Yes, it is nice being able to receive a gift but for me, the greater joy was being able to give the gift. 

            The person I was assigned to had a certain game on their wishlist that was not a retail released game but one that was a deluxe Kickstarter edition. It just so happened to be one of the games that we already own (with another copy coming when one of the next Kickstarter’s from the company arrives). The game that my Secret Santa recipient wanted was ThunderGryph Games’ Iwari. 

            Since I am friends with a few people at ThunderGryph, I reached out one of them to find out if I would be able to order a deluxe edition of the game and have it sent to my Secret Santa target. I received a message back saying that my request would be granted at X amount of Euros to cover the cost of the game and shipping. I immediately paid and sent them the shipping address. 

            A few weeks later when I checked the BGG Secret Santa “results” page in which people are supposed to share what they received (which acknowledges participation), it was nice to see that my target was happy to get the game. Which was made possible from making friends with the right people in the board game industry. 

2021 SECRET SANTA 

            Even though this year is still tough because of the COVID pandemic is still going on and mixed in with the shipping crisis (see Entry 33) and other economic woes happening across the globe. My wife and I decided that participating in the Secret Santa again would be a good thing. 

            Here is a big reason why. You do not know what the Secret Santa target has been through this past year. They may have lost their job, had family member ill or they have been sick themself, lost a parent or relative, been displaced due to natural disaster such as a hurricane, tornado or wildfire, or one or more of many other woes. Sending them a gift of a boardgame that they have wanted for a while maybe the one thing that lifts their spirits during the holiday season. 

            In regards to receiving from a Secret Santa this year, I do have a few games from last years wishlist that I picked up this year (removed from the list after I got it) and a few still left over that is for this years list. Do I care what game I get from the exchange? No, not really. Just knowing that other people who share the same interest as I do is willing to share a gift with me feels nice. 

REGULAR GIFTING 

            Secret Santa gift exchanges are fun because your only connection with your target is the mutual love of board games. Gifting games to friends and family who share the interest is a bit different. A person can take a chance to get the receiver something that they haven’t played in hopes that it would be a hit. 

            I admit that I have received some games from others that are either unplayed (because of various factors) or wasn’t a hit at all and we played it once and it is on our shelf. Doing this is always a risk because you do not know how they would react to it. They may show gratitude but then behind your back they may feel like it is a thoughtless gesture if it is a game the don’t enjoy. 

            How does my wife and I remedy this situation? What we do typically is have a game night and introduce family to various games to find out if they like a particular game as much as we do. If the answer is yes, we ask them if this is a game they would want in their personal collection to play whenever they want. Still yes? Then we take note as to what the game is and pick up another copy to give as a gift to them. 

            I can tell you that on numerous occasions while playing games with my mom she would tell us that she would like a copy of the game (if it is a small box game due to the storage space she has) which then my wife and I usually order a copy for her (Roll for It! Deluxe Edition comes to mind). 

            If it is a larger boxed game and if she is in the mood to play a certain game, she requests that we bring it over. Not a problem for us. An example of this is the game Cascadia; after playing it just a few times, she had requested we bring it over because she really wanted to play. This brings us much joy and happiness because we had “spread the love” of board games. 

DONATING GAMES AS GIFTS 

            The last type of giving I want to briefly address is that of giving to toy donation drives like Toys for Tots. I personally feel that you cannot go wrong donating games during the holiday season to charitable organizations that help those you may need it. 

            I have worked with the underserved population and the majority of kids would love to get some games; from Chess to Checkers, and Candy Land to Jenga any thing that they can sit and play with parents, guardians, mentors, and friends are loved. 

            In two weeks time (right after Halloween) you will start seeing the holiday donation bins pop up all over the place. If you are able to, give a little, not only will your world light up but also someone else’s as well.

Entry 34: Hits and Misses

Authors Note: This article is NOT, I repeat, NOT about the game Battleship. 

            We are always searching games that would be fun to play with our friends and family. Some of the things we look for is theme, mechanics, re-playability, and difficulty in learning. While we do find “gems” from time to time, we have also found some hits and misses in our collection. Games that my wife and I enjoy are not necessarily one that my mother and sister like (or our friend that games with us); for my dad, most games are misses since he is not big on playing board games. Let’s look at a few games in each group.

MISSES 

            Because our game collection is always growing, we can not guarantee that every game we get will be one that we all enjoy. Some games have formulated a big “I don’t see us playing this much” because it fell short in our eyes. 

 

Migration Mars 

            Migration Mars is a game that we backed on Kickstarter. At the time we backed a few space themed games that looked like it would be fun to play. Well, this one should have stayed on Mars. 

            The colony (city) building game fell short because the way you collect resources is not the traditional worker placement way. You roll two dice to move your rover (1 die) clockwise around the board and collect the number of resources from the second die. There is a chance that you may be collecting more of one resource and not getting what you need to build. This phase is also what you do at the end of your turn so it doesn’t sit well with our style of game play. 

            In the first phase you can trade resources with other players to get what you need to build the required buildings but depending on if your opponents need the resources themselves, they might not want to trade with you. There are also action card that do various things that just didn’t mesh well for us. 

            There are other things about the game that also doesn’t sit well with us but that was the biggest reason why the game fall short to us. 

Brikks 

 

            We normally really enjoy roll and write games because you can typically get a larger group together and everyone can play. This game you can only play with four players. What makes this game fall short for us is that if we wanted to play the classic video game Tetris we can easily do so. This game is essentially Tetris on paper. 

            You roll two dice to select the shape that everyone needs to “drop” onto their game paper and fill up the rows to earn bonus points. That is the game in a nutshell. Sounds fun? Well, not really. There are a bunch of other roll and write games in which you essentially do the same thing. 

            The designer, Wolfgang Warsch, has designed about 20 games which most are a hit and the ones that we own and have tabled we really have enjoyed so far, however, this one did fall short in our eyes.

            Out of the 600+ games we own, these two have really left a memorable mark as ones that we will not play that often. If someone would like to try them, we will not deny the opportunity of playing a game with friends. 

HITS 

             This section is all about games that my family members would play over and over and even games that they want to add to their personal collections. The best example of this would be playing Tang Garden with my sister. Once she got the “bug” she wanted a copy for herself and for her birthday this year I was able to secure a copy of the full Kickstarter version with the exclusive expansions. Now to look at a few other games that have become hits with us. 

My City 

            We had introduced my sister to the legacy mechanic by playing the new game My City. Once you get to a certain point in the legacy format of the game you can switch over to a “standard” version that can be replayed over and over. The actual campaign is played in eight chapters with three episodes in each (24 total games from start to finish). 

            This game was such a big hit with her that we ended up purchasing another copy of the game since the price of the game is below what most legacy games are. Why would we want another copy? Because my sister wanted to play through it again to try to beat her previous score. We haven’t started the second run through because we are currently playing another legacy game in which she has also taken a liking too.

Play Nine 

            I know I had spoken of this game in previous entries and the reason why it is a big hit for us is that everyone in my family will play it, yes, even my dad will play it on a regular basis. 

            Because it is a just a card game and not one that has any extra pieces or player boards, it is a simple enough game that young and old can play and enjoy. Sometimes it is the simple games that can garnish the most attention. 

HIT AND MISS 

            As I had said before, we don’t always find games that are a hit with our family. I know there are few games that come to mind but I will only talk about the most recent one we played. 

Fire Tower 

            We backed the Fire Tower expansion on Kickstarter and got the deluxe version of the base game with it. I had thought that my dad might like the game because of the theme but it turns out he isn’t which is fine because my wife and I find the game fun to play. So last week we introduced the game to my mom and sister thinking they might like it because of the fire gems and ease of play. 

            Well, it turns out that we were wrong about it. Because the premise of the game is to cause the fire gems to burn down your opponent’s watchtower and make the fire spread away from your own tower they didn’t like that in the game because it is too “mean.” Oh well, can’t win it all. For a family who likes lighting campfires and fireplaces, the thought of spreading a blaze and “burning down the house” is apparently not cool. Maybe they will like Flash Point instead. 

FINDING TIME 

            With the holiday season now here, the weather is getting colder (in the northern hemisphere) and with families coming together from various locations across the country during these holidays. Finding time to sit around the table to talk and play some games is a novel idea. 

            That is the reason why I really enjoy playing board games. The social interaction with other human beings in the flesh is something our society has been drawing away from over the past few decades. People tend to send text messages and emails instead of calling you can interact with other while playing video games but you still miss out on the personal connection to others. 

            Even the workforce has changed drastically due to the Covid crisis in which people now work from home more and see coworkers less. Yes there are video conferencing but it is still not the same as being to able shake someone’s hand and look at them directly in the eyes. 

            This holiday season, get together with friends and family and find a game that everyone can play together. Introduce them to something new or if your tradition is to play The Settlers of Catan or even Monopoly, enjoy the time you have with your loved ones.

Entry 33: The Shipping Crisis

        

        Time magazine had just published the article “The Board Game Business Is Booming, But the Global Shipping Crisis Could Be Disastrous”  on September 28th. This article is spot on about how bad the shipping crisis is affecting the world as a whole and especially the board game industry. 

        Taking a quote from the article from Anne-Marie De Witt, the CEO of Fireside Games, she stated, “Before the pandemic hit, we were seeing 20-foot containers costing about $5,000 or so, which was up from about $3,000 in years prior,” De Witt says. “[W]e were fortunate enough to get one 20-foot container out at $9,000. Then our next two were $21,000 apiece… I’ve heard about some people paying $35,000 or even $40,000 for a 20-foot container. It’s just such a crapshoot.” 

        The article also mentions how it affects Kickstarter games as well in which backers need to be patient because most publishers are waiting for space on a ship or for costs to come down. From our personal experience in dealing with Kickstarter games, most of the companies are having to wait for space on a ship, wait for costs to come down, and/or having to wait and try to combine shipping with other games that are in production. I even heard that a few small companies are having to pair up with other companies in order to fill containers and split the cost of shipping across the ocean. 

        Is the shipping crisis limited to just loading containers on ships and sailing across the globe? I wish it was the case but domestically there is also a shipping crisis from the ports to the distribution hubs. There is a shortage of truck drivers to take the containers to their destinations. This is one reason why the cost of everyday products are going up as well. 

        

        As a result of all the factors in this shipping crisis, a lot of companies are having to raise their prices. This is noticeable in the game industry because games that were, for example, $9.99 are now being sold at $14.99. A previous $30 game is going for $40 or more at the moment. Maggie Clayton of Greater Than Games, the maker of Spirit Island, stated in the Time article that the retail price of the game is up around ten dollars due impart to the shipping crisis. 

        Recently I had the opportunity to meet up with Ray Wehrs from Calliope Games and had a nice discussion with him about the state of the game industry and a little about how his company was doing. He confirmed with me about how critical the shipping crisis is and the costs of publishing games going up. As with Greater Than Games, his company has had to raise prices in order to keep the company afloat. 

        A lot of financial analysts are predicting this shipping crisis will remain in place for a least five years or more before becoming stabilized. Will we ever see pre-Covid pricing again? More than likely the answer is no. 

        We can hope for the sake of the cost of goods overall that this will end sooner than later but just be prepared for prices (and lack of supply) for things like toilet paper to go up again.