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This is another great expansion from Stonemaier Games, with  lot of extra bits to change the game, but not too drastically.
To start with and importantly for me is the fact that it all fits in the main box and you get a new card holder that is more like the one that you get with Wingspan, to replace the old smaller holder.

8
You gain 5 new guilds and their cards. You also gain a whole load of Dragons that have some cool new powers which can make putting them in Caves easier if you reach the requirments. one of the new dragon types is called a fledgling, these will make your games that much more interesting. As with most expansions or games for that matter it is best to explore the game and see how you can make the most of them. If you do not like the game, then I am afraid but this wont fix that, but it will make the game more complex and fun.

I will highly recomend this expansion and you can order it at: https://www.bgextras.co.uk/wyrmspan/wyrmspan/wyrmspan-dragon-academy

You love board games. You probably also like music. Let’s combine the two into an immersive playlist for Weimar: The Fight for Democracy (Matthias Cramer, Capstone Games/Skellig Games/Spielworxx). Have it gently play in the background during your next session of Weimar for the full period immersion!

First things first: Here’s the playlist!

Before we dive into the content of the playlist, some general observations:

• All of the songs in the playlist were popular during the Weimar Republic (1918—1933). Yet as music recording was still in its infancy at that time, many of the songs in the playlist are later recordings (and some rare ones were recorded even before 1918!).
• As the playlist is only 2:21 hours long, your Weimar game will probably last longer (if you don’t crash the republic on the first or second round), but there’s no reason not to listen to these songs two or three times – they’re fascinating historical documents.
• The playlist is thematically sorted. That helps you find similar songs, but makes for somewhat monotonous listening (until you come to the next group of songs). I therefore recommend you turn shuffle on.

Now, what awaits you in the playlist?

#1: The National Anthem

It seems like a no-brainer to include the German national anthem of the time, yet it’s not so simple: The Lied der Deutschen (Song of the Germans) had been written in 1841, but had since then only been a patriotic song among many – until the first president of the republic, Friedrich Ebert, declared it the national anthem in 1922. The song’s three stanzas were variedly popular: Ebert favored the third stanza with its liberal ideals of unity, justice, and freedom, his right-wing opponents preferred the “Deutschland über alles” (Germany Above Everything) first stanza. I have included an instrumental version. If you feel patriotic, you can sing along.

#2-9: The Old World

The Weimar Republic did not come into existence in a vacuum. It inherited German cultural traditions like folk songs (“Wem Gott will rechte Gunst erweisen” (Whom God Wants to Favor), song #2).

And, of course, the Weimar Republic succeeded the German Empire with its national feeling (“Die Wacht am Rhein” (The Guard on the Rhine), song #2), dominant Protestantism (Martin Luther’s classic “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God), song #5), and monarchy (“Heil dir im Siegerkranz” (Hail to Thee In the Victor’s Crown), song #7 – the quasi-anthem of the German Empire).

The republic’s midwife was the First World War – whose experience shaped its veterans and provided the cultural context even for those who had not been adults during the war yet (“Wildgänse rauschen durch die Nacht” (Wild Geese Rush Through the Night), song #8, written in 1916, was immensely popular among the Weimar Republic youth movement). The war also cast its shadow over Weimar Germany as many had lost their husbands, sons, fathers, brothers, and friends in the war (“Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden” (I Had a Comrade), song #9, the traditional German soldiers’ lament).

#10-15: Satirical Coping

The liberal republic proved fertile ground for satirical treatments of the new developments: Otto Reutter made fun of the big and small war profiteers with “Seh’n Sie, darum ist es schade, dass der Krieg zu Ende ist” (See, that’s why it’s a pity that the war is over, song #10), and Claire Waldoff called for replacing the men in power with women in “Raus mit den Männern aus dem Reichstag” (Kick the Men Out of Parliament, song #11), playing on masculine anxieties after the introduction of women’s suffrage.

#16-25: Pop!

Even in a time and place as politically charged as the Weimar Republic, not everything was politics. The average Hans and Gretel may have cared less about their preferred ideology and more about how to have good time on a Saturday night… and the new cultural scene, especially in the big cities like Berlin, provided ample opportunities.

The more sophisticated artists like the Comedian Harmonists succeeded with witty wordplay and erudite vocal harmonies. Others played on the classics – alcohol (“Wir versaufen unser Oma ihr klein’ Häuschen“ (We Blow Grandma’s Little House on Booze, song #19) and sexual innuendo („Fräulein, Woll’n Sie nicht ein Kind von mir“ (Miss, Don’t You Want a Child By Me, song #22). There was even the equivalent of a (generalized) diss track: “Du bist als Kind zu heiß gebadet worden” (You Have Been Bathed Too Hot As a Child, song #23) indicates that this neglect of bath safety led to lasting brain damage in the interlocutor.

#26-33: Film, Theater, and Opera Music

The Weimar Republic’s vibrant cultural scene led to cross-pollination between diverse forms of artistic expression. The new medium of film was pioneered in Germany, and once it had left its silent infancy behind, movie songs became hits. Marlene Dietrich, starring in The Blue Angel, enticed with “Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt (I’m Set to Love From Head to Heel, song #26), but warned “Nimm dich in Acht vor blonden Frau’n“ (Beware of Blonde Women, song #27).

More traditional art forms like the theater also adapted. Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera)’s acerbic critique of capitalism would not have been as successful without its catchy songs, the most famous of which is the “Moritat of Mackie Messer” (Ballad of Mack the Knife, song #31).

Even the most classic and highbrow form of entertainment modernized: “Jonny spielt auf” (Jonny Plays It Big, song #33) introduced jazz into the world of the opera… which brings us to our next category.

#34-41: Jazz and Blues

Traditionally, the United States had received and emulated European fashions, not the other way around. Yet by the early 20^th century, America had become the largest economy in the world, its war entry in 1917 tipped the scales of the war further in favor of the Allies, and the increased presence of Americans in Europe meant that the United States turned from an importer to an exporter of culture. Jazz took Europe by storm – both in the form of American (and nascent European) bands and by the new medium of the music record. The Weimar Republic was no exception. Jazz fueled the parties in any larger city of 1920s Germany.

Of course, not everyone loved jazz, and the controversy over its unorthodox dissonances, the more expressive, individualistic, and eroticized dancing style accompanying the music, and, of course, the race of its performers entered the contemporary culture wars – exemplified by Weimar’s double use of Louis Armstrong, illustrating both the SPD’s “The New Rhythm” and the DNVP’s “Nicht Deutsch” (“Not German”) event cards.

The “Tiger Rag” (song #41) is also used in The Tin Drum, German writer Günter Grass’s epic about the rise, fall, and persistence of Nazism: The youthful protagonist Oskar Matzerath who always carries his eponymous tin drum plays the Tiger Rag at a NSDAP rally in his hometown Danzig. The mesmerizing rhythm has the audience sway and dance, exposing the Nazis to ridicule.

#42-47: Workers’ Songs

The aggressive ethno-nationalism of Nazism was one of the two most dynamic political movements of the Weimar Republic (at least once the 1929 crash had plunged vast parts of the German population into a crisis of material and identity). The other was the workers’ movement, both in its reformist Social Democratic and its revolutionary Communist form. As the workers had been traditionally excluded from the public in imperial Germany, dominated by aristocracy and bourgeoisie, they created their own political parties (SPD, later USPD and KPD), economic associations (the trade unions), and social and cultural associations – from workers’ sport clubs to workers’ singing societies. Their milieu was bound together not only by their shared economic experience, but also by this cultural connection, of which the workers’ songs formed an important part.

Classics from imperial times like “Die Internationale” (The Internationale, song #42) remained important, but the movement also adopted new songs written by the numerous socialist poets and composers like Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, or Ernst Busch. Whereas some of these became new classics (like the “Solidaritätslied” (Solidarity Song, song #46), others aged badly: “Der Marsch ins Dritte Reich” (The March to the Third Reich, song #47) poked fun at the alleged inability of the Nazis to take power after their electoral setback at the Reichstag election of November 1932. First recorded in December 1932, the song was horribly overtaken by events just a month later when Hitler was elected chancellor in January 1933.

Thus, we conclude our playlist. It contains the traditional and the modern, entertainment and politics, left and right – except for the very right, but I don’t want to listen to Nazi songs while playing board games, and I’m sure that neither do you.

Do you like to play music in the background while playing board games? What’s your favorite song from this playlist? Let me know in the comments!

You love board games. You probably also like music. Let’s combine the two into an immersive playlist for Weimar: The Fight for Democracy (Matthias Cramer, Capstone Games/Skellig Games/Spielworxx). Have it gently play in the background during your next session of Weimar for the full period immersion!

First things first: Here’s the playlist!

Before we dive into the content of the playlist, some general observations:

• All of the songs in the playlist were popular during the Weimar Republic (1918—1933). Yet as music recording was still in its infancy at that time, many of the songs in the playlist are later recordings (and some rare ones were recorded even before 1918!).
• As the playlist is only 2:21 hours long, your Weimar game will probably last longer (if you don’t crash the republic on the first or second round), but there’s no reason not to listen to these songs two or three times – they’re fascinating historical documents.
• The playlist is thematically sorted. That helps you find similar songs, but makes for somewhat monotonous listening (until you come to the next group of songs). I therefore recommend you turn shuffle on.

Now, what awaits you in the playlist?

#1: The National Anthem

It seems like a no-brainer to include the German national anthem of the time, yet it’s not so simple: The Lied der Deutschen (Song of the Germans) had been written in 1841, but had since then only been a patriotic song among many – until the first president of the republic, Friedrich Ebert, declared it the national anthem in 1922. The song’s three stanzas were variedly popular: Ebert favored the third stanza with its liberal ideals of unity, justice, and freedom, his right-wing opponents preferred the “Deutschland über alles” (Germany Above Everything) first stanza. I have included an instrumental version. If you feel patriotic, you can sing along.

#2-9: The Old World

The Weimar Republic did not come into existence in a vacuum. It inherited German cultural traditions like folk songs (“Wem Gott will rechte Gunst erweisen” (Whom God Wants to Favor), song #2).

And, of course, the Weimar Republic succeeded the German Empire with its national feeling (“Die Wacht am Rhein” (The Guard on the Rhine), song #2), dominant Protestantism (Martin Luther’s classic “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God), song #5), and monarchy (“Heil dir im Siegerkranz” (Hail to Thee In the Victor’s Crown), song #7 – the quasi-anthem of the German Empire).

The republic’s midwife was the First World War – whose experience shaped its veterans and provided the cultural context even for those who had not been adults during the war yet (“Wildgänse rauschen durch die Nacht” (Wild Geese Rush Through the Night), song #8, written in 1916, was immensely popular among the Weimar Republic youth movement). The war also cast its shadow over Weimar Germany as many had lost their husbands, sons, fathers, brothers, and friends in the war (“Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden” (I Had a Comrade), song #9, the traditional German soldiers’ lament).

#10-15: Satirical Coping

The liberal republic proved fertile ground for satirical treatments of the new developments: Otto Reutter made fun of the big and small war profiteers with “Seh’n Sie, darum ist es schade, dass der Krieg zu Ende ist” (See, that’s why it’s a pity that the war is over, song #10), and Claire Waldoff called for replacing the men in power with women in “Raus mit den Männern aus dem Reichstag” (Kick the Men Out of Parliament, song #11), playing on masculine anxieties after the introduction of women’s suffrage.

#16-25: Pop!

Even in a time and place as politically charged as the Weimar Republic, not everything was politics. The average Hans and Gretel may have cared less about their preferred ideology and more about how to have good time on a Saturday night… and the new cultural scene, especially in the big cities like Berlin, provided ample opportunities.

The more sophisticated artists like the Comedian Harmonists succeeded with witty wordplay and erudite vocal harmonies. Others played on the classics – alcohol (“Wir versaufen unser Oma ihr klein’ Häuschen“ (We Blow Grandma’s Little House on Booze, song #19) and sexual innuendo („Fräulein, Woll’n Sie nicht ein Kind von mir“ (Miss, Don’t You Want a Child By Me, song #22). There was even the equivalent of a (generalized) diss track: “Du bist als Kind zu heiß gebadet worden” (You Have Been Bathed Too Hot As a Child, song #23) indicates that this neglect of bath safety led to lasting brain damage in the interlocutor.

#26-33: Film, Theater, and Opera Music

The Weimar Republic’s vibrant cultural scene led to cross-pollination between diverse forms of artistic expression. The new medium of film was pioneered in Germany, and once it had left its silent infancy behind, movie songs became hits. Marlene Dietrich, starring in The Blue Angel, enticed with “Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt (I’m Set to Love From Head to Heel, song #26), but warned “Nimm dich in Acht vor blonden Frau’n“ (Beware of Blonde Women, song #27).

More traditional art forms like the theater also adapted. Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera)’s acerbic critique of capitalism would not have been as successful without its catchy songs, the most famous of which is the “Moritat of Mackie Messer” (Ballad of Mack the Knife, song #31).

Even the most classic and highbrow form of entertainment modernized: “Jonny spielt auf” (Jonny Plays It Big, song #33) introduced jazz into the world of the opera… which brings us to our next category.

#34-41: Jazz and Blues

Traditionally, the United States had received and emulated European fashions, not the other way around. Yet by the early 20^th century, America had become the largest economy in the world, its war entry in 1917 tipped the scales of the war further in favor of the Allies, and the increased presence of Americans in Europe meant that the United States turned from an importer to an exporter of culture. Jazz took Europe by storm – both in the form of American (and nascent European) bands and by the new medium of the music record. The Weimar Republic was no exception. Jazz fueled the parties in any larger city of 1920s Germany.

Of course, not everyone loved jazz, and the controversy over its unorthodox dissonances, the more expressive, individualistic, and eroticized dancing style accompanying the music, and, of course, the race of its performers entered the contemporary culture wars – exemplified by Weimar’s double use of Louis Armstrong, illustrating both the SPD’s “The New Rhythm” and the DNVP’s “Nicht Deutsch” (“Not German”) event cards.

The “Tiger Rag” (song #41) is also used in The Tin Drum, German writer Günter Grass’s epic about the rise, fall, and persistence of Nazism: The youthful protagonist Oskar Matzerath who always carries his eponymous tin drum plays the Tiger Rag at a NSDAP rally in his hometown Danzig. The mesmerizing rhythm has the audience sway and dance, exposing the Nazis to ridicule.

#42-47: Workers’ Songs

The aggressive ethno-nationalism of Nazism was one of the two most dynamic political movements of the Weimar Republic (at least once the 1929 crash had plunged vast parts of the German population into a crisis of material and identity). The other was the workers’ movement, both in its reformist Social Democratic and its revolutionary Communist form. As the workers had been traditionally excluded from the public in imperial Germany, dominated by aristocracy and bourgeoisie, they created their own political parties (SPD, later USPD and KPD), economic associations (the trade unions), and social and cultural associations – from workers’ sport clubs to workers’ singing societies. Their milieu was bound together not only by their shared economic experience, but also by this cultural connection, of which the workers’ songs formed an important part.

Classics from imperial times like “Die Internationale” (The Internationale, song #42) remained important, but the movement also adopted new songs written by the numerous socialist poets and composers like Bertolt Brecht, Hanns Eisler, or Ernst Busch. Whereas some of these became new classics (like the “Solidaritätslied” (Solidarity Song, song #46), others aged badly: “Der Marsch ins Dritte Reich” (The March to the Third Reich, song #47) poked fun at the alleged inability of the Nazis to take power after their electoral setback at the Reichstag election of November 1932. First recorded in December 1932, the song was horribly overtaken by events just a month later when Hitler was elected chancellor in January 1933.

Thus, we conclude our playlist. It contains the traditional and the modern, entertainment and politics, left and right – except for the very right, but I don’t want to listen to Nazi songs while playing board games, and I’m sure that neither do you.

Do you like to play music in the background while playing board games? What’s your favorite song from this playlist? Let me know in the comments!

Long ago, spirits and demons stirred in the land of the rising sun, wreaking havoc upon crops, rivers, and villages, unseen and unstoppable. As an Onmyoji, a practitioner of ancient cosmology, you learned to capture these restless entities, restoring balance where others faltered. Yet word came that your own village suffered, and another Onmyoji had been called to intervene, an affront to your duty and skill. With careful calculation and swift action, you must outwit your rival, claiming mastery over chaos. You must ensnare the seven spirits, the Yokai Septet by Muneyuki Yokouchi from Ninja Star Games with art by U.

The post Yokai Septet (Saturday Review) appeared first on Tabletop Games Blog.

Recently broke 50 (FTF) games of 1846 … I counted all of 18xx for one entry for my 50 by 50 project, which was kind of a cheat (I suspect I have 50 plays of 1830, but most of them before I started logging), but not I definitely have two titles with 50+ plays, as 1862 was already past.

So if I ever do a sixty by sixty a) I’d only need to add 10+ plays to 51 odd games and b) someone shoot me.

Played another game of Moon Colony Bloodbath. Still indifferent, but fine in a once in a while kind of way. Unlike my first game (where everyone survived until the “end game” event) this one ended with two players losing on the same turn, with the winner having one surviving colonist, presumably with a harmonica.

Played Knarr. It was fine. Actually, I was pleased with game, which packs a reasonable number of decisions into a quick time. But the obvious strategy I tried won easily my first time playing, so I’m not sure there’s much depth. So — Indifferent but might play again. It keeps showing up to game night ….

As per my “No prototypes at conventions rule¹” I haven’t played Dark Pact, but its Tom Lehmann and appears to be an autobuy when I see it. Not sure any other games coming recently/soon are.

So, open thread …. what are you getting for Christmas (or slightly later).

1. Although these days its really more of a guideline. ︎

Recently broke 50 (FTF) games of 1846 … I counted all of 18xx for one entry for my 50 by 50 project, which was kind of a cheat (I suspect I have 50 plays of 1830, but most of them before I started logging), but not I definitely have two titles with 50+ plays, as 1862 was already past.

So if I ever do a sixty by sixty a) I’d only need to add 10+ plays to 51 odd games and b) someone shoot me.

Played another game of Moon Colony Bloodbath. Still indifferent, but fine in a once in a while kind of way. Unlike my first game (where everyone survived until the “end game” event) this one ended with two players losing on the same turn, with the winner having one surviving colonist, presumably with a harmonica.

Played Knarr. It was fine. Actually, I was pleased with game, which packs a reasonable number of decisions into a quick time. But the obvious strategy I tried won easily my first time playing, so I’m not sure there’s much depth. So — Indifferent but might play again. It keeps showing up to game night ….

As per my “No prototypes at conventions rule¹” I haven’t played Dark Pact, but its Tom Lehmann and appears to be an autobuy when I see it. Not sure any other games coming recently/soon are.

So, open thread …. what are you getting for Christmas (or slightly later).

1. Although these days its really more of a guideline. ︎

You might want to wait to include your holiday gaming, but if you can’t, our annual Year Stats are available now!

After all the options added last year, still more is possible this year! Optionally change lists to Artists, Categories and/or Mechanics.

When you’ve updated to version 6.7, you will see the Year Stats banner on the main overview screen of the app. Tap this banner to go directly to your Year Stats! (depending on your stats and device this may take a little while)

The Year Stats will be created from your Insights, with the period 2025. The default sorting of the list of games will be on Play count.*

You can go to Insights from your Year Stats, change any filters you want and go back to the Year Stats through the Share menu, option “Year Stats“. Here you can for instance use the new Digital play tag!**

If you’ve accidentally closed the banner you can enable it by going to Settings –> View and Share your 2025 stats.

Don’t forget to mention us and use #bgstats when you share!

_{* Your previously selected Insights settings like filters and sorting are temporarily replaced. When you leave the Year Stats and Insights screen without making adjustments, the next time you open Insights your original settings will be restored.
** available with the Power expansion.}

Options on the Year Stats screen

The options on the Year Stats screen are the same as on the Stats-o-grapic. You can read all about these options here: Stats-o-graphic. Below the differences and new options are described. These new options will also be available on the Stats-o-graphic from now on!

Background

Year Stats have their own background. You can choose to keep this (Option ‘Standard‘) or change it to the option ‘Game‘.

• Game: the background will automatically be generated from the cover image of your top game.
• Standard: choose this to use the standard Year Stats background colour.

New list options

Two options are added. Here you can select what is to be displayed in the top and bottom lists. When opening the Year Stats the app estimates which list could be interesting for you. You can always change this:

Display (top)

Here you can select the following options:

• Bar chart
• Designers
• Artists
• Categories
• Mechanics

And (bottom)

Here you can select the following options:

• Designers
• Artists
• Categories
• Mechanics

Combining lists

Really only interested in one of the list options? Select it for both the options and the lists will be combined.

How are Designers/Artists/Categories/Mechanics calculated?

The percentage shown for these is over all your unique played Games, not plays.

Easy to overlook options

Picture grid

• You can tap the grid to hide a picture. Other stats are not recalculated when you do this.

Stats grid

These options are also available in the green gear menu on the Display line.

• Tap Players to toggle between named players and all players.
• Tap the Hours/Days row to get the option to hide it.
• Tap any list to toggle between showing/not showing “(uncredited)”

BGI 397 The One About

Board Games Insider – Join our Guild on Board Game Geek Guild | Like us on FB

Social media:

Ignacy Trzewiczek / Portal Games: website | FB | Twitter | Youtube

Corey Thompson / Above Board TV:  website | Youtube

Stephen Buonocore / “The Podfather Of Gaming”: website | FB | Twitter | Youtube

Intro Music: Happy Rock – Bensound.com

It was like herding cats. As soon as you put one kitten down, the two nearest to it moved further away. The same when you tried to add a cat to the bundle of feline fluff. Some of the cats and kittens even decided to jump off the quilt completely. It was impossible to get everyone on there at the same time. What was cute though, was how each cat and kitten tapped their noses together and went Boop by Scott Brady from Smirk & Dagger Games with art by Curt Covert.

The post Boop (Saturday Review) appeared first on Tabletop Games Blog.

BGI 397 The One About

Board Games Insider – Join our Guild on Board Game Geek Guild | Like us on FB

Social media:

Ignacy Trzewiczek / Portal Games: website | FB | Twitter | Youtube

Corey Thompson / Above Board TV:  website | Youtube

Stephen Buonocore / “The Podfather Of Gaming”: website | FB | Twitter | Youtube

Intro Music: Happy Rock – Bensound.com

Balance in board games is one of those much-talked-about topics that keeps cropping up. Some people want games to be perfectly balanced, so that players' only advantage comes from their skill and hours of practice and graft. Others relish highly unbalanced games, where it's nigh-impossible to win, but when you do win, it feels amazing. Yet, balance in board games is much more complex and subtle than that. In this article, I want to look at the role that balance plays in board game design.

The post Losing Balance – the role of balance in board games (Topic Discussion) appeared first on Tabletop Games Blog.

I mentioned Feral Historian last month …. his video on Buckaroo Banzai pointed out something that I’d never noticed (despite many rewatches, including one during Covid): It is a Cold War Allegory. The Red and Black Lectroids fight using proxies, but the proxies are the US (via Buckaroo) and the rest of Earth. The US is forced into the war by the “good” side threatening nuclear annihilation unless they are appeased.

“never ask a highway engineer to dispose of a whale corpse. Those are words I live by, every single day.” — Dave Berry

“It’s time to move on, it’s what Shelly would have wanted…. Well, Shel said the only person I could move on with was Keira Knightley …” (British Commercial-slash-RomCom)

Google is no longer avoiding evil (as per their original slogan), but still sometimes does good (or at least tries). Google aggressively going after text messaging scammers. Also, I didn’t realize that private parties could bring RICO suits.

It’s time for your pet Racoon — Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication (Sci. Am).

Good news — Scientist have figured out how super recognizers are able to distinguish faces with such accuracy. Bad news (same article) — it seems to be at the retinal encoding stage, not something you can learn. More Bad News — You can’t learn it, but computers can. (Then again, since that particular genie is out of the bottle, at least it may prevent the number of false accusations based on bad facial recognition that have made the news).

An article (and paper) arguing that between 700 and 1850 there was a large growth in genes that lead to educational attainment, priming the Industrial Revolution. Also, the Black Death might have helped.

Begun, The Orca War Has … (Episode IV, Episode V)

A new paper showing that AIs vary their strategy (in the game theory classic “Guess 2/3rds of the average guess”) based on who they are told their opponents are, and that they view themselves as most rational, other LLMs as mostly rational, and humans as irrational, and that this is an argument for self-awareness.

Marginal Revolution links to a study showing that those who are wrong are often more confident and includes a reminder that “A Bet is a tax on bullshit.” (“Caplan’s law”).

Also Marginal Revolution — UC San Diego students (many of whom got As and Bs the entire way, including pre-calc and calc) can’t do elementary school math. Seriously, go look at some of the problems and pass rates. Some of these students are trying to be engineers. This is making the rounds. Slashdot story. Actual report from UCSD

Anton Video — Math suggests We May Be The Only Intelligent Life (also discusses some rebuttal papers). The very next day — A Sabine video highlighting a model suggesting the opposite (by asking “if we assume that each planet has the same independent chance of life, what are the odds that it only happens once.¹”

AI Tools are making (some) people hyperproductive. Related — My Programming Career is a Historical Artifact.

Voyager I will be a light-day away from earth next year.

1. If you believe the rare earth hypothesis, then that’s a bad assumption, but ignoring that seems just a reasonable approximation as the Drake Equation and it doesn’t seem like you need a uniformly equal chance on each planet. I’m sure there’s some math handwaving I’m missing. ︎

The post Resurrection Games Opens Pre-Orders for the Iyanu Tabletop Game Collection appeared first on Graphic Policy.

Resurrection Games has partnered with Lion Forge Entertainment to bring the epic world of Iyanu to life

Before the fall fair and convention circuit is coming to an end, I had the opportunity to attend Süddeutsche Spielemesse (Southern German Game Fair) in Stuttgart. As when I went last time, it was a pleasant, laid-back experience.

The game fair is part of a conglomerate of hobby and leisure related fairs which are all held over the same long weekend in neighboring fair halls. As the ticket covers all fairs, you are free to explore everything. That’s great if you go as a group or family with differing interests: Your creative-minded daughter can get all inspired at the arts & crafts fair, your animal-loving son will try to make friends with the cats, rabbits, and camels at the animal fair, your gourmet spouse samples their way through the food fair, and then everybody meets at the game fair because you all love board games. Right?

With that setup, Süddeutsche Spielemesse’s target audience is broad, from the hobbyist to the very casual gamer. Consequently, you’ll find a lot of games outside of the hobby board game niche – from classics like chess and go over sports games to role-playing games. The exhibitors are usually either vendors (game test opportunities are rare), clubs looking for new members (like many of the role-playing clubs), or, my favorite, the big gaming island run in the middle where you can just borrow a game and play it free of charge which gives Süddeutsche Spielemesse a certain convention feel.

At this point, it is tradition that the gaming island remains open until 10pm on Friday, allowing for a beautiful evening of gaming. I met with a friend there and we played three different two-player games:

Rival Cities (Andreas Steding, Pegasus)

Northern German cities Hamburg and Altona try to outdo each other – yet while the usual victory point collecting occurs, these only matter if the game runs its full seven rounds. And it is much more likely that one of the cities will decisively outdo the other in one of the four areas of competition (alliances, ships, lawsuits, and prestige) and score an instant victory. With such a plethora of instant victory conditions, you will always feel the thrill of chasing one yourself and being threatened with another by your opponent.

In our game, we both started conservatively, getting a little bit of everything. Then my friend made a play for the alliances and was only one of them short of victory… but I could stave off defeat and counter-punch with ship dominance. I guess more experienced players would be at each other’s throat from the get-go which should make for exciting gaming and high replayability (at a very moderate complexity).

Solstis (Bruno Cathala/Corentin Lebral, Frosted Games)

Two players chart their path up a mountain built from a shared supply of tiles, each of which has a unique combination of a color (indicating its row) and number (indicating its file). Thus, you always know that a tile you took cannot be accessed by your opponent – and vice versa. This kind of very abstract game with almost-perfect information is usually not up my alley, and Solstis proved no different. We were both unenthused by its mix of logical planning and high randomness in the rare case of placing a nature spirit. However, each play only took 10 minutes, so we didn’t spend much time to gain the valuable knowledge of what’s not our jam.

Agent Avenue (Christian Kudahl/Laura Kudahl, Nerdlab Games)

Maybe our highlight of the fair: Agent Avenue pits its two players against each other as retired secret agents trying to catch each other. To unveil the other’s identity, they enlist their suburban neighbors, all of which are anthropomorphic animals, from daredevil wolves over codebreaker owls to double agent vixens. The recruitment comes by “I cut, you choose” – but as one of the two cards the active player offers to their opponent is face-up, the other face-down, there is a spy-appropriate amount of bluffing and deduction. Pair this with a varied, but not overwhelming amount of instant victory/defeat conditions and card effects, and you have a light, but tense contest which resolves in no time at all (we played three times in 40 minutes).

Any games of these that sound like your cup of tea? Have you attended any cool local conventions or fairs recently? Let me know in the comments!