Spiel Preview Thoughts

As everyone lucky enough to make the trip heads to Essen for the 2015 Spiel game fair, I quicly scanned through the incredibly extensive geeklist created by W. Eric Martin over at BoardGameGeek & despite the surface look, I still saw a ton of interesting things that I'll be waiting anxiously to see if they show up ion the various vlogs & podcasts I follow. Here's what I'd be looking to buy and looking to check out if I were actually lucky enough to be flying to Germany this month:

September Acquisitions

My attempts to slow down the number of new games coming in met with mixed success last month – while I still obtained more games for my shelves, I did also clear some space thanks to the flea market at TBGT. And luckily, the order I made on CoolStuffInc during September after winning a giftcard didn’t actually arrive until October 3rd which makes this list look a little better!

New Games Obtained in September
Arboretum (gift)
Chicago Express + expansion
Cyclades
Discoveries
Kigi (Chinese edition)
Legacy: Gears of Time
Mountains of Madness expansion for Eldritch Horror

Games Sold in September
Ascension base set (plus assorted promos)
Cubist
De Vulgari Eloquentia
Fresco
Ingenious
Lagoon
Quiddler
Skyline
Smallworld
Tiny Epic Kingdoms

Eldritch Horror Case - the Lower Workings

I was finally able to come back to this project, and start work on the lower level. Unfortunately while working on this part of the case, I realized I was going to end up only able to fit the Mountains of Madness components into my plan, and not the upcoming Pyramids release. But having the case able to store the base game, 2 small box expansions and 1 large box expansion seems pretty good to me, so it is what it is.

TBGT Numbers & Superlatives

The event is over & recapping is going to take a while, but here are some initial stats.

Twitter-sourced Gaming - Weekend Gaming Recap

Apparently this week was in fact destined for lots of gaming opportunities as multiple invitations were extended on Twitter for the weekend. As a result I got to game on both Friday night & Saturday afternoon. 

TBGT - Flea Market Prep

This Saturday morning at TBGT is the Flea Market, a chance to move out some games that have been sitting unplayed and hopefully snap up a few deals to replace them. I've been meaning to better curate my collection for a while, so these are the games I have that are hopefully destined for somewhere else:

Opened & Unpunched

• Dreaming Spires - $40
• De Vulgari Eloquentia - $25

Opened & Unplayed

• Cubist - $25
• Garden Dice (with Card Expansion  in box) - $25
• Island Fortress (with KS promos) - $20
• Lagoon (with KS wooden pieces) - SOLD
• Rise! - $5
• Skyline - $10
• Tessen (damaged box corners) - $5
• The Fittest - $5
• Tiny Epic Kingdoms - $5

Played - Condition Varies

• Ascension (good condition - 7 promo cards included) - $20
• Fluxx (beat up box - anyone need cards for protypes???) - $2
• Fresco (played once - has expansion modules 1,2, and 3) - $30
• Ingenious (box has shelf wear) - $10
• Oz Fluxx (played once) - $5
• Quiddler - SOLD

First dibs goes to locals & event attendees as I don't really want to deal with shipping. After the event, I may open it up if there's a bunch left over.

I may be adding more games later but we'll see how ruthless I'm prepared to be as I get ready for TBGT.

TBGT - Games I Want to Play

Next week is That Board Game Thing (TBGT), a 5 day invitational gaming event here in NC that offers a great opportunity to get a bunch of games to the table. The focus is just on playing games, this is the first year they'll have multiple (as in 3) vendors on-site, so I usually get a long list of titles played & learned during the event. The fun starts Wednesday so (partly as reference for myself) here's the list of games I'm hoping to get in:

Labo(u)r Day & beyond - Monday & Tuesday Gaming Recap

I managed to play games Monday & Tuesday which was a very welcome change from my typical once (maybe) a week gaming opportunities, especially given that minor surgery a few weeks ago had resulted in a gaming hiatus. Not only did I get to game more, but I got to play nothing but really good games making it a very successful couple of days. I was remiss in writing up each day's gaming at the time, so you're getting them in one long post instead.

Island Dynasty - Wednesday Gaming Recap

Wednesday night at the Armory was my first gaming in a while (excluding a few rounds of Tides of Time) & it was nice to sink my teeth into some tricky decisions in both of the games we got to the table.

Eldritch Horror Case - the Top Level

For this project I'm using some pretty basic materials:

• This artist's case purchased from Hobby Lobby in 2012 (if you want one, you may want to find a less scummy source if their behavior appalls you).
• 5mm black foamcore
• X-actor knife with a supply of fresh blades (change often)
• Metal ruler
• Elmer's Glue-All (basically an all-purpose white glue)
• Dressmaking pins (used to temporarily hold joints in place until the glue sets)

For construction, I decided to start with the top layer of the case that I had wanted to hold the cards and bits accessed throughout the game. My hope was that as I created dividers and cubbies, I might be able to store extra pieces on this layer that I had earmarked for the lower section. Sure enough, I was able to move the dice and miscellaneous tokens (omen track marker, 1st player marker, etc.) to this layer fairly easily. The biggest factor in my fitting in more stuff was that I chose to make some areas two-layer, stacking storage boxes on top of each other in order to have wider openings (easier to scoop chits out of) without taking up huge amounts of space in the box.

Hunting & Building Out West - Wednesday Gaming Recap

Wednesday night at the Armory (of last week, yes I'm behind thanks to some minor surgery) was a chance to learn a couple of new games and play a couple of "old" favorites. We started the night with a quick 8-player round of Codenames while waiting for various people to arrive. This game remains as much of a hit as ever, and in fact my copy saw other plays later in the night while I was doing other things, which lead to a few strangers thanking me for bringing it & requesting I keep doing so.

Eldritch Horror Case - Planning & Resource Gathering

First step of the project was to figure out how everything would fit best within the case. I basically pulled out everything I had and started just putting it in and out of the case in different configurations. Of course then I realized one flaw in my thinking - I wasn't considering expansions! I know it's only a mater of time before I buy Mountains of Madness & the recently announced Under the Pyramids expansion is also shaping up to be a must-buy, and who knows what will come next...

Eldritch Horror Case - Introduction

So years ago I bought an artist's case online with a vague idea that I would turn it into a thematic container for my copy of Arkham Horror (and possibly Elder Sign also). For a while I even stored AH within the case in an effort to spark enough inspiration to get started, though when we bought our house the resultant move meant the game returned to its original box for safe passage.

Fast-forward to now & that case has sat in the closet with my crafting stuff since we moved into our house a little over a year ago. Not only that, but while I enjoy AH, Eldritch Horror has pretty much replaced it as my solo game of choice. For one thing, I've even purchased both of the small box expansions & keep looking longingly at the Mountains of Madness - my AH is still only the base game, as the relatively few play opportunities & table-hogging nature of the game conspired to prevent my justifying adding to it. So clearly, when I found the artist's case again while sorting through some boxes, it was time to revisit that old project but with a new game destined for such special treatment!

Now I have never attempted a custom insert before & my only use of foamcore was to make a dice tower a long time ago, so do not assume I'm an expert. But as I work through this project, it's incredibly satisfying to see some fairly impressive (for me) results, so I figured I'd document the process here:

Introduction (this post)

Planning & Resource Gathering

Phase One - the Top Level

Phase Two - the Lower Workings

Phase Three - the Inner Lid (coming soon)
The Final Product (coming soon)

Nonsensical NC - Monday (& Tuesday) Gaming Recap

In an amazing twist, I managed to game 2 nights in a row this week! I know, it's almost unheard of outside of a convention, but there it is. And speaking of conventions, both nights offered the chance to play more of the goodies that had worked their way back to NC from GenCon. Not only had the games traveled in recently, but Matt of The League of Nonsensical Gamers was in town for a week of training for his real job, so he had put out the call for NC gaming & we were glad to answer him. As a result, this recap is going to be a long one, so feel free to go make a coffee or something before I get going.

On Monday night, we met at the Atomic Empire to start the week off right. The turn out in general was pretty impressive for the store's weekly open board game night & a good number of us had made sure to be present to welcome Matt to one of our FLGSs so the place was pretty packed. Matt & I started with a game of Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn while we waited for the others to arrive - Matt then switched out/teamed up with Chris when he arrived so he could also learn the game. I had randomly grabbed Maeoni Viper's starting deck, and thanks to a couple of pumped-up Silver Snakes (and the use of counter-spells) was able to destroy Noah Redmoon before Matt & Chris were able to get more than a couple of wounds on my phoenixborn. I thoroughly enjoyed the game and am looking forward to exploring some of the other decks. I don't know that I'll ever deck-build as there's plenty in the box to keep me occupied for a while. Though, saying that, I may check BGG to see if anyone's suggested a good deck to try out Dimona Odinstar, the promo phoenixborn I received as part of the pre-order.

My snake on the right is getting pretty big... and will only get bigger

After that Burke joined us, and we moved to Chris's bag of GenCon goodies, opening up his still-in-shrink copy of Artifacts, Inc for a 4-player game. I was nominated to read & teach the rules, which is always a bit nerve-wracking, but this game isn't particularly complex so we were able to get going fairly quickly. We did have a few questions that we couldn't find answers for (for example, do bought cards refill immediately or at turn-end?), but we just house-ruled & kept going. I ended up pulling out the win, but the scores overall was fairly tight. It was a solid game & strategy-wise, definitely a step or two above Machi Koro, but I don't know that I'll be searching a copy out any time soon - it was good, but not great & honestly, Ryan Laukat's art-style is pretty enough but just doesn't do much for me. The downtime was also a bit much, though I've been informed since that there's an official variant on BGG that may fix this.

Josh makes his move (Photo from @dicehateme)

After Artifacts Inc, we pulled out Riff Raff & swapped Josh in for Burke. This is my favourite dexterity game (though I'm not really all that good at it) & I was glad to finally break out my copy. As ever, the game draws a crowd, and so, after Chris had won our game, 4 new competitors were quick to jump in and play a game of their own while we moved on to another GenCon purchase - a 5-player game of Warehouse 51. This is a game I will absolutely be adding to my wishlist in the hopes of adding a copy to my collection. It's an auction game, which normally isn't my thing, but the addition 2 twists made it a game I really enjoyed: the addition of counterfeit items (known only to a few people) & the money for successful purchases being paid to the next player both add a social element to the game that works extremely well.

I played Oksana Kasperskaia in Warehouse 51 - LOVED the art

In an effort to cram as much gaming into Matt's NC trip as possible, some of us decided to meet at the bar in his hotel on Tuesday night to play some more. We started by setting up a 4-player game of The Village Crone, figuring out the rules & then abandoning it for another table where we played 2 rounds of Codenames 5-player - Adam & I vs. Chris, Matt & Josh. BOTH rounds ended with the assassin being guessed which was just insane! However, based on multiple sessions, I will always choose to team with Adam for this game - for some reason we do really well (other than that whole assasin thing, sorry!).

Then we moved back over to The Village Crone - Adam chose to spectate/eat/read rulebooks while the rest of us played. Our game went faster than I'd expected based on other peoples comments, but there wasn't much counter-spelling in our game which was likely why, as that would have considerably lengthened the game. In the end Matt reached the point goal first, ending the game. I have mixed feelings on this one and want to play at least once more now that I have a better idea of the value of different ingredients - who knew soil was so valuable?! My initial impression is that the game doesn't quite live up to its potential.

My view of the village

Finally Adam taught us how to play Chicago Express which he described as being to 18xx games "what Ticket to Ride is to Euro games" - having now played both, I can see that's a fairly accurate statement. I really liked how the action selection worked and the game as a whole was a lot of fun. The board was tough to read, even after we moved the table a few feet to get better lighting, and I misjudged the timing of a large purchase which took me out of the running, but I can't wait to get another chance to play this economic game as I'm sure I could significantly improve my performance.

Check the mood lighting - & Josh's murderface (photo by @dicehateme)

In all over the last 2 days I got to play 7 games, of which 4 were new to me & 5 were GenCon releases. Ashes, Chicago Express, & Warehouse 51 were games I want to add/am happy I added to my collection, while Artifacts and The Village Crone will stay firmly in the "meh" camp until I get a chance to play them again & see what a second round does now that the teaching game is out of the way. But really overall, a successful couple of days gaming and a really great couple of days hanging out with friends old & new.

Games Played: Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, Artifacts Inc, Riff Raff, Warehouse 51, Codenames, The Village Crone, Chicago Express
New-to-Me Games: Artifacts Inc, Warehouse 51, The Village Crone, Chicago Express

Spies in the Trenches - Wednesday Gaming Recap

Wednesday night at the Armory was the night for all of our local GenCon attendees to share their new purchases with those of us who weren't able to make the trip to Indianapolis. Everything I played was fresh from the con, so it was nice to experience a little bit of what I'd been hearing about.

GenCant - Sunday Space-faring

For the last day of GenCant, I had arranged to spend the bulk of the day playing Forbidden Stars with Eric, Chris M, and Burke. Since we were meeting when the hall opened at 1pm, I was able to sleep in after Saturday's late-night long movie marathon. I got up & grabbed food on the way, ensuring that, by the time everyone arrived, I was caffeinated, fed & ready to go.

GenCant - A Chill Low-Key Saturday

GenCant is the con of sleeping in for me apparently - I lay in bed enjoying a coffee & playing Alphabear for some time before eventually hauling my lazy ass out of bed to get moving (thank god for coffee delivery-men). It was then time to get Deefer all set up with her badge at Registration, so she could join in the GenCant fun (and enter Ichi's contest).

First task for the day was to check out the Plague bin - a tub full of dice (& germs) to scrabble through looking for gold. It wasn't nearly as large or as disease-ridden as the GenCon version, but the dice selection was pretty neat. There's a post here detailing exactly what was in the bin. After that, we made our way to a local bar for a few beers, some delicious food and a couple of games of Jaipur. We each won a game 2-1, and declined to play a tie-breaker game as we had been camped out in the booth for a while and needed to make our way home while driving was still a viable option.

After returning to the hall, Deefer and I played a few games of Fetch the Orange Ball while listening to podcasts. I had planned to play some solo Eldritch Horror but ended up watching a ton of GenCon 2015 coverage before settling down to watch some movies - specifically Hot Fuzz and The Two Towers. So not a ton of gaming but since I had already scheduled a Forbidden Stars game for Sunday, I wasn't too upset.

GenCant Pic - What's In The Box

For the GenCant photo contest, I put together a small scale version of Chessex's infamous Plague Bin - the huge mass of dice and germs to scoop through and buy by the pound. The resulting photo ended up something of a fun photo puzzle too.

The GenCant Plague Bin

GenCant Coverage - Friday

I was slow to get moving on my first full day of GenCant - I was tired & achy from the last few days of work, so I decided to treat myself and hit snooze a few more times. This con isn't really about getting in early or rushing to a particular booth first, so I could afford that simple luxury.

Once up, I donned my PJ pants and wandered in the direction of coffee - this con's lax dress code is a winner in my book! I then settled down to catch up on the latest gaming news, tuning into W. Eric Martin & the Board Game Geek crew on Livestream as they shared live interviews from some other convention going on in Indianapolis, or some such place. I haven't been to it, so clearly whatever this other con is, it's not that special. While watching the latest releases, I caught up with some fellow GenCant attendees on Twitter and made plans to meet up at one of the con's satellite locations for some gaming after lunch.

Tons of parking outside Hall GA

More coffee and a quick lunch of delicious nachos later, it was time to put on real pants & make my way to the gaming. When I arrived at the satellite gaming area (a short drive), I was happy to see there was plenty of free parking close by. This meant I was first to arrive, and so I was able to grab another coffee and ponder the games for sale in this area. Once Daniel and Linus arrived, we settled down to teach Daniel Abluxxen. The scores stayed close during the 3 rounds, but in the end, Linus pulled off the win with scores 30-26(Daniel)-20(me). We then set up a 3-player game of Yspahan, got through the teaching, and started the first turn when James walked in. Luckily it took just a few min to shift the set-up for 4-players and get him up to speed so we could restart to include everyone.

Setting up Yspahan

I've wanted to learn Yspahan for a long time and so I was really glad to get it checked off the list. I really liked the dice mechanic for determing available actions, and had fun figuring out the nuances of different strategies. Daniel destroyed us, but I felt like I performed relatively well and am determined to get another game of it in the near-ish future if at all possible to see if I can beat my score of 56 with more experience (& possibly better rolls). Next we pulled out Arboretum in which I failed to score much of anything but did manage to stop others scoring many of their high-potential paths, so at least that was something. This game is gorgeous, and the component quality was impressive - I'm just glad the gameplay seems to hold up to the promise of the bits,

Akrotiri mid-game

By the time we finished Arboretum, Falcon and Eric had arrived so we split into two groups - the others started Viceroy while Daniel taught me Akrotiri. This 2-player game from Sen-Foong Lim and Jay Cornier was sooooo good. The randomness of the tile draws was frustrating but in a good way, as all of the water icon-containing tiles apparently ended up on the bottom of the stack, which made it super tricky to excavate temples in relation to those. Plus we had a ton of islands that were literally impossible to reach making it tough to find an open island on the map. I ended up buying a TON of maps in order to increase my chances of getting all my temples down, despite those issues and in the end I was able to pull out the win. This is one game I will almost certainly be adding to my collection at some point.

The final map - with my excavated temples & goal cards in front

After grabbing some food, I joined in a 6-player game of Age of War which is actually the only game of the day that I'd actually played before. After that, I headed back to grab a cup of tea and watch some of the streams & videos from GenCon. All in all, not a bad first full day of GenCant, and I have plans in place for Forbidden Stars on Sunday so I know I'll be getting some more good gaming in this weekend. Hopefully there'll be more tomorrow but with a Beer, Bourbon & BBQ festival going on this Saturday in the area, I may have to take a break & check that out.

GenCant Coverage - Arrival at the Convention Hall

I had to work Wednesday/Thursday, so didn't make it to GenCant until late Thurs evening, when things were already in full swing. Upon arriving at the con, a short walk down some stairs from my room, I immediately headed for registration to pick up my badge. This con is so fancy, by the way. you get a choice of badge design - I grabbed 2 so even if mine flips around, people can still see my name. Registration was still open despite the late hour which was super convenient, & there wasn’t too much of a line (most of the other con-goers I saw were busy grabbing food & at this point) so I really didn’t have to wait long at all before being able to enter the hall & scope out the amenities.