We were looking for a very special gem, a gem that, according to rumours, promised eternity. Nobody knew exactly where it could be found - or rather, when, because this gem was lost in time. We opened portals like doors in a chronological corridor, using our technology to help us speed up our search, but to no avail - we are always a heartbeat too late. We were in a battle, chasing each other through ancient eras, sabotaging each other's signals, and stealing minutes. Yet, at last, I knew I had done it. The clock had finally aligned. I reached out, my hands shaking, and finally won the gem of Eternitium by Thomas Carlier from Haumea Games with art by Baptiste Perez.
Steam is having a sale on board games, and I’m debating whether to buy any. I’ve mainly not been too happy with board games on steam (see Mr. President and Space Corp), but for the price of a decent lunch having a game I might spend 20-100 hours on seems reasonable, so I’m considering getting one or two.
Also,GMT has announced a digital version of Space Empires 4x (dropping in June) That could be excellent as the real problems with the game were the accounting (and related errors) and digging up a bunch of counters without revealing what you were buying … both of which should be easily fixed by being on a computer.
“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if you only try.” Party games often get short shrift. But it’s a difficult genre for innovative work. The majority of titles in this category are word games springing off the popularity of Codenames, or selection and…
You love board games. You probably also like music. Let’s combine the two into an immersive playlist for Imperial Struggle (Ananda Gupta/Jason Matthews, GMT Games). Have it gently play in the background during your next session of Imperial Struggle for the full period immersion!
First things first: Here’s the playlist!
Before we dive into the content of the playlist, some general observations:
Of course, there was no music recording in age of Imperial Struggle, so all the songs in the playlist have been recorded in the 20th or 21st century.
The playlist is only 1:45 hours long, so you might need to listen to it several times during your game… unless France stomps over Britain in the first turns.
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?
#1-3: Religious (classical) music
Imperial Struggle begins after the age of the great confessional wars in Europe, but religion still played an important role in people’s lives, from the lowliest peasants all the way up to kings. Their week culminated in a Sunday service and their year was interspersed with religious events. Composers wrote pieces specifically for a religious holiday (like Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” from which #2 is taken), or were dedicated to comprehensive religious teaching (like Händel’s “Messiah”, premiering on Easter 1742 in Dublin, from which #3 is taken).
#4-12: Secular (classical) music
The Baroque saw music as universal. Religious and secular followed the same conventions, and thus the same composers wrote pieces for the church and for worldly courts, like Baroque grandmaster Johann Sebastian Bach (Toccata and Fugue in D minor, #4 and Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, #6) or Georg Friedrich Händel (Sarabande from Suite No. 11, #5). The classical (in the narrower sense) music from the mid-18th century on left this universal view behind. Composers now focused on either one or the other, with most of them following the more fashionable and more lucrative secular path.
Some composed for a court whose lavish entertainments always required music (like the 1773 wedding of the French prince Charles Philippe, the later king Charles X, for which François Francœur arranged the music from which #9 is taken – thus the title Symphonie du Festin Royal (Symphony of the Royal Feast)). Others became freelance musicians (like Mozart, who could (for some years) live of the proceeds of his concerts and operas, #10-12).
#13-16: Folk songs
Not everyone went to a church where the latest compositions were played on Sundays, and of course most people were far removed from attending any court festivities, let alone royal weddings. But people made and listened to music. The easiest, most affordable way to do so was to sing. The 18th century is rich with folk songs, some originally written at the time (like Frère Jacques (“Brother James”), #15 or “Ye Jacobites by Name”, #16), others older, but first put down to paper at the time (Au Claire De La Lune (“By the Light of the Moon”, #13, and Over the Hills, and Far Away (#14)).
#17-23: Patriotic songs
We’ve heard in #16 already how political events seeped into popular songs. Others were written specifically to rouse patriotic feeling, an emotion which came into its own in the 18th century: “Rule, Britannia” (#17) expressed confidence and pride in the Royal Navy to protect British freedoms, “The British Grenadiers” (#18) praised the courage of their counterpart by land.
That these songs could be re-interpreted and turned against their original intent shows “Free America” (#19), written in 1770, which uses the same tune as “The British Grenadiers”, but its lyrics extol America’s freedom (which turned out to be freedom from Britain).
Finally, national anthems also came first into existence in the 18th century: Brits sang “God Save the King/Queen” (#22 – I took the liberty of choosing a not-quite-traditional version). France only got its first anthem (La Marseillaise, #23) with the French Revolution which bookends Imperial Struggle… at least until Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews get around to do a Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars expansion!
You love board games. You probably also like music. Let’s combine the two into an immersive playlist for Imperial Struggle (Ananda Gupta/Jason Matthews, GMT Games). Have it gently play in the background during your next session of Imperial Struggle for the full period immersion!
First things first: Here’s the playlist!
Before we dive into the content of the playlist, some general observations:
Of course, there was no music recording in age of Imperial Struggle, so all the songs in the playlist have been recorded in the 20th or 21st century.
The playlist is only 1:45 hours long, so you might need to listen to it several times during your game… unless France stomps over Britain in the first turns.
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?
#1-3: Religious (classical) music
Imperial Struggle begins after the age of the great confessional wars in Europe, but religion still played an important role in people’s lives, from the lowliest peasants all the way up to kings. Their week culminated in a Sunday service and their year was interspersed with religious events. Composers wrote pieces specifically for a religious holiday (like Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” from which #2 is taken), or were dedicated to comprehensive religious teaching (like Händel’s “Messiah”, premiering on Easter 1742 in Dublin, from which #3 is taken).
#4-12: Secular (classical) music
The Baroque saw music as universal. Religious and secular followed the same conventions, and thus the same composers wrote pieces for the church and for worldly courts, like Baroque grandmaster Johann Sebastian Bach (Toccata and Fugue in D minor, #4 and Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, #6) or Georg Friedrich Händel (Sarabande from Suite No. 11, #5). The classical (in the narrower sense) music from the mid-18th century on left this universal view behind. Composers now focused on either one or the other, with most of them following the more fashionable and more lucrative secular path.
Some composed for a court whose lavish entertainments always required music (like the 1773 wedding of the French prince Charles Philippe, the later king Charles X, for which François Francœur arranged the music from which #9 is taken – thus the title Symphonie du Festin Royal (Symphony of the Royal Feast)). Others became freelance musicians (like Mozart, who could (for some years) live of the proceeds of his concerts and operas, #10-12).
#13-16: Folk songs
Not everyone went to a church where the latest compositions were played on Sundays, and of course most people were far removed from attending any court festivities, let alone royal weddings. But people made and listened to music. The easiest, most affordable way to do so was to sing. The 18th century is rich with folk songs, some originally written at the time (like Frère Jacques (“Brother James”), #15 or “Ye Jacobites by Name”, #16), others older, but first put down to paper at the time (Au Claire De La Lune (“By the Light of the Moon”, #13, and Over the Hills, and Far Away (#14)).
#17-23: Patriotic songs
We’ve heard in #16 already how political events seeped into popular songs. Others were written specifically to rouse patriotic feeling, an emotion which came into its own in the 18th century: “Rule, Britannia” (#17) expressed confidence and pride in the Royal Navy to protect British freedoms, “The British Grenadiers” (#18) praised the courage of their counterpart by land.
That these songs could be re-interpreted and turned against their original intent shows “Free America” (#19), written in 1770, which uses the same tune as “The British Grenadiers”, but its lyrics extol America’s freedom (which turned out to be freedom from Britain).
Finally, national anthems also came first into existence in the 18th century: Brits sang “God Save the King/Queen” (#22 – I took the liberty of choosing a not-quite-traditional version). France only got its first anthem (La Marseillaise, #23) with the French Revolution which bookends Imperial Struggle… at least until Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews get around to do a Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars expansion!
I saw many new games, but I suspect that most (or all) of them are easily skippable. It did warm my heart to see a bunch of “Play this new game, let us know what you think, and you might win a copy” going unplayed, because they didn’t seem any good at a glance.
However, one game that did catch my eye is Giants Moving Tiny Furniture, which has a bunch of small cute furniture and you (and team-mates) have to move around on top of the box. I only watched ten seconds, but it seemed like a delightful idea, sort of like a pop-art Jenga. From glancing at the BGG page, after I left, it sounds like Welcome to the Dungeon (which I haven’t played but picked up a copy at the bazaar) where there are things to do and you bid on less and less time (etc) to finish it.
Oh, and you have to use only your pinky? In teams?
I arguably could have played more games, but 2 days is enough for me.
Update — More Thoughts
There were quite a few new “ginormous overproduced games” being played. (At least) one of which was being promoted by the creator/designer/publisher, but they just all gave off the feel of “You wouldn’t look at this twice if it was cardboard chits, and it you shouldn’t look at it twice just because it doesn’t.” There were a number of boxes that looked to be a cubic foot (roughly). Just hulking square boxes taking up space.
Amusingly, one of those was … Food Chain Magnate Deluxe Edition! But that box at least still has the retro 50s artwork that might make people take a second glance instead of “Pew Pew Space-ships!” or whatever. I keep saying I need to put FCM back into my bag (although the new Indonesia is getting good reps this last month), but I’m happy with the old edition, which takes half the space even if I bring the expansion box.
Speaking of “Cool!” (that is in fact, not). The organizers piped in “Geek Music” to the venue. By which I mean …. Movie Themes. Oh, its the Imperial March! Lord of the Rings! Harry Potter! Superman! I may be in the minority, but I hate that. The music is fine, but two days of that got old quick. If people want music, they’ll bring it themselves.
It would be rude if I took out my air pods and played X music on speakers because I thought it better fit the mood (whatever that was), unless I asked everyone. Normally I would have just moved away to a quiet area, but the open gaming was pretty much right up against the speakers. The local game store also does it, and I get it for a game store, where most people are wandering in and spending a few minutes browsing (or playing games for a few hours)23, but for two days it gets old fast.
I believe that I read somewhere (probably in Why we Buy by Paco Underhill), that piped in music does lead to more sales, and stores often carefully curate their sounds. So that makes sense even if I personally hate it. But a convention is a pre-sale buy a ticket thing. ︎
Although now that I realize that Underhill makes his living on consulting for this kind of stuff (coupled with the replicability study in psychology) I wonder if that is in fact true, but I suspect enough companies have A/B tested the hell out of that to verify it. ︎
On a lovely sunny summer's day, we decided to go out together as a family. We wanted to see mice, shrimp, hedgehogs, fish, foxes, seals, lions, polar bears, crocodiles, elephants and orcas, but we wanted to avoid mosquitoes. So we all went to Frank's Zoo by Frank Nestel from Heidelbär Games with art by Doris Matthäus.
This is an interesting game set on the island of Shikoku, this is a more little bit more complex game than the original Tokaido but it is actually still a fun light game. This has a more in depth map than the original game has and the complexity is in how you use the extra two figures you each have to get the most out of your play. As I have stated unlike the original game each player has three tokens to move and play (a pilgrim an artist4 and a merchant) and a number of zones to do so, they include four mountain towns while the outer zones include temples, gardens, seashores, coastal towns and hot springs.
The aim of the game is points collecting. You collect points in a number of ways and work out at the games end who has won. As in the original you can’t land on an already occupied space so that can be annoying!
Survive the night with your The Bloody Inn rules summary!
If there’s one thing that attracts me to a new game it’s a distinctive theme. Based on the true story of L’Auberge rouge (The Red Inn), where in 1831 the inn’s owners were guillotined for multiple murders, not to mention other dark deeds, The Bloody Inn is a great game that mixes dark humour with European gothic.
Definitely not the same old themes here then! Players are family members competing to make the most francs by hosting guests at the inn – though it’s far more profitable to just murder the guests and bury them somewhere in the yard. And you will have to bury them, because leaving bodies around is a sure way to get nabbed by any police that show up at the inn, though you can always bribe the local gravedigger to get rid of the evidence at the last minute.
There’s a lot going on here for a card game, but thankfully the cards fulfill multiple roles. You’ll discard cards to pay for accomplices, all of which have particular specialisations – bribing other characters, murdering guests, building annexes to bury the corpses under, and burying the corpses. But you’ll have to keep paying them to keep using them (though a couple of peasants will work for free, they’re discarded at the end of each round). To juggle this bunch of actions efficiently you’ll need to plan ahead, because you only get a stingy two actions per round. And this is where the real challenge kicks, in, because getting the cards to help you do those actions cheaply and actually doing the actions, is a tricky balancing act. On top of that, there are only so many francs you can accumulate before you’ll have to pass a turn and launder some of it into 10-franc cheques.
The Bloody Inn is one of those games where you always forget the rules each time you play it, so this rules summary should prove very handy for picking it up again quickly. But it’s always an entertaining game and its dark theme is played completely for laughs, like a 1970s comedy horror film. It’s all enhanced even further by the addition of The Carnies expansion which adds three modules to the game, including a bunch of disreputable folk from a travelling carnival.
Despite being a huge aficionado of horror cinema, I got around very late to watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – too late really, as unfortunately the transgressive, dangerous aura it had when I was young had long rubbed off by that time. This can happen as I finally get around to watching a few films that were once deemed ‘video nasties’, long past the cultural zeitgeist they were born in.
A lot of people would consider it their favourite horror film however, though my taste runs to the fantastical rather than slashers. Be that as it may, this board game version by the sadly defunct Prospero Hall studio could become a tabletop favourite. It’s a tight, lean, enjoyable horror romp in the old Sawyer house that nails its theme and provides lots of (nervous) laughs and tension alike.
One player plays the unhinged Sawyer family, the others the ‘trespassers’ – the clueless young people who stumble across the house and quickly learn the error of their ways. Most actions as a trespasser carry the risk of generating noise tokens that you may have to hand over to the Sawyer player as fear tokens, who can use them to power their actions. Not an original mechanic – The World of SMOG does something similar – but it works perfectly here.
The Sawyer player starts with just one character, but as the panic meter (a big cardboard chainsaw) increases, more characters emerge, culminating in the appearance of good ol’ Leatherface himself. At which point the trespassers are really in trouble. And while the trespassers can quite easily be killed (a clever system of drawing 4 different injury cards), attacking the Sawyers only reduces their number of actions. Everything reinforces the cat-and-mouse feel of the gameplay, as the trespassers uncover horror tokens throughout the house and can briefly hide in rooms for a brief respite from pursuit. The basic rules system is enhanced by several scenarios with different goals, plus a very simple legacy system that adds item cards left behind by previously killed trespassers to the common item card pool.
Unusually, there are no win conditions as such – the goal is simply to survive, which is thematic and all, but raises questions if one player is playing 2 trespassers, and 1 escapes – is that a win, or do you keep playing? One of the game designers told me players can come up with their own ideas about success, and that the goal was to make a game that felt like a horror movie. Which is fine, though this is still a game … anyway, it’s a small issue. There are also some omissions in the rulebook, but all that is fixed in my summary.
Overwhelmingly however, this is a huge success and a fitting swan song for the creative people at Prospero Hall, all of whom, I hope, are still gainfully employed in making more games that blend theme and gameplay with such success.
Day One’s entry is For Sale …. um, ok. It’s a fine game and all that; but I have no idea why it is a game that “made meaningful contributions to the board game hobby in the areas of innovation, artistry, and impact.”
Day Two is Puerto Rico … OK, this is the “We didn’t put this in the initial class for the reasons you expect, but we are putting it in” day.
Day Four is Love Letter … I like Love Letter and I think it’s a good game. I think it’s a bit wild that a small game from 15 years ago is in before …. lots of other games.
I’ll update this post as I notice the games this week (assuming I do).
Five months have passed since my original review of The Old King’s Crown. While the outside has grown colder and darker with winter, the inside is a different story. My appreciation for Pablo Clark’s ambitious game of throne-seeking has ignited. It’s stuck with me, claiming a seat in my top 10 of the year and…
The sun rises over the misty fields near Nagashino, glinting off armour and steel. The Takeda banners flap in the wind, a warning to the Tokugawa warriors holding the hilltops. Every decision counts, every step could tip the balance of power. As the leader of your clan, Takeda, you are seeking to reclaim glory and lead your samurai through the chaos. Now is the time to win this sandwich chess, this Hasami Shogi from Lemery Games.
Anmelden
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