Author: ELDAR1986

The DC Museum Gamers have been busy in the month of May!

First, we held our inaugural monthly game day on Saturday, May 3rd. Overall a good time, and a success as we added a new gamer to our little group.

Attendees – Seven. Four Staffers and 3 Visitors
Of the three visitors, we had a returning gamer from TableTop Day, an new gamer and me.

Number of Games Played – Six games played a total of eight times

Activity per Gamer – 5.3   44 total plays played by a total of 7 gamers.

Games Played –
Takenoko
Splendor
Zombie Dice
Timeline Cinema
Timeline Inventions
Timeline Historical Events

New Games Introduced to the Group –
Takenoko
Splendor
Timeline Cinema

Overall a good showing!  Each new gamer added is a big win!

The DC Museum Gamers also participated in the Washington Rail Fest and History Fest on Friday and Saturday, May 16 and 17, 2014. Obviously the festival is focused on the railroad heritage in Washington, Indiana. DC Museum Gamers had five different Rail Road themed games set up on the second floor of the museum. Over the two days, we fielded several questions about the games, and managed to get in a few games.

Attendees – Well over a hundred visitors to the museum (final numbers are not in), but two staffers and two visitors played games

Number of Games Played – Two games played a total of four times

Activity per Gamer – 2.3    Eleven total plays played by a total of four different gamers

Games Displayed –
Ticket to Ride
Baltimore and Ohio
Trains and Stations
Empire Express
Trains

Games Played –
Trains
Baltimore and Ohio

While the two days were not a raging success, you have to keep doing outreach to lure in new gamers. Plus we got in a few games!

Next up, some of the DC Museum gamers have been attending Board Game Night at Legends in Vincennes, Indiana.  Currently, we have three of the Museum gamers attending the weekly event at Legends.  I will post a separate update about Legend’s Board Game Night in a separate post at the end of the month.

And lastly, two of your intrepid DC Museum Gamers went on the road on Friday, May 16, after the museum closed. We attended the monthly game night held by Saint Peter’s Church in Evansville, Indiana.

We played Timeline Diversity twice, and got to playtest a new game currently on Kickstarter, Evolution. Both of us liked Evolution very much, I came home and pledged to the Kickstart that night.

Evolution is a card based game in which you build different species of animals with different attributes, such as long neck, carnivore, burrowing, tree climbing, scavenger, etc. Each round, you can start new species, add attributes to your current species, up to three, and feed your animals. Again, I enjoyed the game very much. My only knock on the game is that it takes up A LOT of table space. But hopefully a design change will be made to the cards, which would reduce the space taken up by about 50%.

Evolution is, as of this writing, on Kickstarter, and is fully funded. The game is being published by North Star Games, the fine folks who bring you Wits and Wagers and Say Anything, among other games.

So, as I said earlier, a busy month!

If any of these events sound like a good time to you, (I know I have fun!), make plans to attend:

DC Museum Gamers Game Day – Held the first Saturday of each month from noon to 5 at the Daviess County Museum, 212 Main Street, Washington, Indiana 47501.  For further information contact the Daviess County Museum at 812-257-0301, or contact via e-mail at dchistory@sbcglobal.net

Saint Peter’s Monthly Game Night – Held the third Friday of each month at Saint Peter’s Church in Evansville, Indiana.

Saint Peter’s (Highland) UCC
7014 Darmstadt Road,
Evansville, IN 47710
Phone: 812-867-5271
Email: stpetersdarmstadt@att.net
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stpetershighland

Legends Board Game Night, held weekly on Wednesday’s from 5pm till 9pm.    Legends Family and Hobby Games  314 N. Harrison St., Vincennes, Indiana 47591  Phone 812-255-0574                                        https://www.facebook.com/legendsgames

Jeff Chattin

Great Gaming Gang!

“If it is to be, it is up to me” is a great line used often if various aspects of our life, and that is my gaming motto for the 2014. I’ve been at this board game thing pretty hard now for the past two years. As discussed in previous posts, I’ve always been a gamer, but the past two years have seen me going hot and heavy after the board game aspect of gaming, taking up a large amount of my leisure time. But gaming has always been hanging on by a thread, up until now that is. That thread has turned into several threads, and when wound together, have become at least a string, and maybe a cord.

Thread One – D&D – I have been running a D&D campaign for the past 34 years with my wife and my three kids, with various others thrown in due to moving six times during my adult life. We averaged playing at least four times a year during that span, with spurts playing once a month. Right now we are at about four times a year, adding my son in law and our two grandkids as regulars.

Thread Two – Extension – The same group above also played board games as a natural extension of family activities. We played basic board games such as Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Axis and Allies, Taboo and so on. My son in law brought in Zombies to the mix, and later Settlers of Catan.

Thread Three – Miniatures – My son and I started attending miniatures conventions together  in 1999  when he was thirteen. Over the years, we have attended about 30 various cons put on by Historical Miniatures Gaming Society, Great Lakes, of which we are both members. During that time, I took various co workers to one day events, including one who would later become my son in law. While we haven’t been to a con in 4 years, we all have various miniature armies, including DBA, Napoleonics, moderns, Starship Troopers, Star Wars miniatures, Uncharted Seas, Warhammer, and Firestorm Armada. We play these about three times a year.

Thread Four – Legends – Board gaming became my number one activity when, in the span of a month, I saw the first two episodes of TableTop, found Board Game Geek, read a review of Quarriors on BGG, and went to the game store owned by the author of the review, Legends,  met the author, Jason Cline, and played Quarriors with him.  I walked out that day with three games, and I was in deep.  At the high point of my Legends obsession, I was at the store four to five times a week.  We had a core of four gamers that showed up each week for Board Game Night.  Then Jason sold the store and moved, and activity dropped off to just one visit a week with one other core player, Travis Price.  Looked like this thread would be broken, but we stuck with it, and participation started to increase in Game Night.  We are back up to four core members, and have moved nights to accommodate more players.  We are on the rise again.

Thread Five – Immediate Family Activities – Our immediate family, my wife and I, and our two daughters and son, all live in different towns, but we plan family activities together once a month.  Gaming is the center piece of those activities.  On a recent get together for my Grandson’s birthday, we got in 19 games over the weekend.

Thread Six – Spreading the Love – I visit my daughter Chris’s house once a month to put on a game day for friends of hers.  Last month Chris bought a new dining room table and chairs specifically for her game days, great comfortable chairs, and the table has rounded corners so she can get more people around the table.  My other daughter, Hailey, called me and discussed starting a board game group at work during lunch.  We came up with a list of easy to learn short games, she bought some games and I gave her a few, and she is off and running with her lunch time group.  My son John has an extensive group of friends he gets together with, and he often takes Cards Against Humanity, which is a big hit with this crowd.

Thread Seven – Extended Family Game Night – Once a month, my brother and his kids and friends get together for a game night.  We started having the night at my house, but we now rotate venues.  We have a family calendar with the game night scheduled on it, and game night has been a big success.  We had had as many as 18 family and friends attend.  Every once in a while other things come up and we are forced to cancel, but we usually manager to get in 5 game nights every 6 months.

Thread Eight – DC Museum Gamers – The local Daviess County Museum participated in TableTop Day in 2014.  When I found out, I visited the museum and offered my services to assist.  The museum director declared TableTop day a success, and has started a monthly gaming group to play at the museum on the first Saturday of each month.  One of the TableTop attendees, Andrew Brochin, has become a regular at our weekly game night at Legends.

Thread Nine – Traveling – I was invited to attend a monthly game night At Saint Peter’s Church in Evansville, about an hour away.  The host, Jim Jones, saw my post about DC Museum Gamers on a guild on the Board Game Geek website and extended me an invitation.  After my first visit, having a great night of gaming with friendly folks at a fine facility, I have added the monthly event to my calendar.  I have also committed to participated in their annual fundraiser for the ExtraLife charity, which is held each October and benefits Riley’s Children’s Hospital.  Jim also informed me about a Sunday game day held weekly at a local game store, The Gaming Guild.  I plan to attend as many of these as possible, hopefully at least once a month.

Thread Ten – Participating – I have recently joined an RPG of Serenity, and am soon participating in a Warhammer summer league.  Both will stand on their own for fun, but at the same time I am spreading my contact net a little wider and helping the game store at the same time.

Thread Eleven – Stay Informed – I listen to the Dice Tower each week, watch each new episode of TableTop, watch Board Game Breakfast each week, and listen to the Blue Peg Pink Peg podcast every other week.  I watch game reviews from various reviewers, and spend at least 15 minutes a day on Board Game Geek.  I can talk intelligently about this hobby of ours by staying up to date.  I have fielded requests about what games would be good for church groups, lunch time games, and games for kids.  I have had coworkers ask me about board games and what I do with them.  I am always happy to indoctrinate, err, I mean discuss, board gaming.

Thread Twelve – The Gift of Gaming – I give board games as gifts whenever possible.  Everyone in my family who has received gifts from me in the past two years has received some of those gifts as board games.  I have given them away as birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, conformation gifts, thank you gifts, going away gifts, and wedding presents.  I put board games in the Toys for Tots barrel at Christmas.  The more games that are out there, the more gamers that I can game with!

While I did not start all of these threads, I am sure taking advantage of them.  I am always looking for more threads to add to my string, or cord, so that someday it will be a rope. I may have to cast 1000 times before I get a nibble, but it is sure satisfying when I do get that bite!

We are living in the best time ever for board gaming, games are more innovative, are based on more diverse topics, have better quality components, and better licensing agreements.  I mean to take advantage of what we have to make my hobby the best I can for me!

Jeff Chattin

Great Gaming Gang!

I’ve come to this point in my gaming life largely due to Legends Family and Hobby Games in Vincennes, Indiana, and it owner at the time, Jason Cline.  I had always been a gamer, as detailed in a previous article on this website, but I do not believe I would have risen to the level of gamer goodness (or the depths of gamer despair, depending on your outlook) if not for a visit to Legends in June of 2012.  When I saw a picture of their board game collection on their website, I realized they were more than just a Magic shop.  I read an article Jason had written about Quarriors, and decided to visit the shop.  Jason greeted me when I walked in, I told him I was interested in Quarriors, and he said if I had a few minutes, he would play the game with me.  Two hours and four plays of two different games later, I walked out with 3 games and a smile. The rest as we say, is history.

Over a period of the next year, I became very involved in Legends and gaming.  I often visited the shop 6 days a week, playing in two board game nights, two role playing games, pick up games and other events.  I was in gamer paradise!

Then over a period of months, things started to change,  Jason and his wife, Jamie, had their first child, Betty Jean.  Then Jason got a better job (he ran the shop on the side), and moved out of the area.  He sold the shop to his manager and another gamer.

The shop slowly started to slide away from board games, focusing more on Magic.  Less board gamers were coming in.  It became increasingly difficult to spend money there, as the inventory dwindled, they were always out of soft drinks and snacks.  The store became cluttered, disorganized, and dirty.  The limited staff often couldn’t help with product questions as the owners were off at some Magic tournament.  Soon the small group of active board gamers dwindled to two, meeting one night a week.

Then the shop lost its lease, and had to relocate.  Leaving Main Street in Vincennes, they moved to a location, while closer to the Vincennes University, had limited parking, and if you didn’t know exactly where it was, would drive by it. The shop quickly became a carbon copy of the previous location, cluttered, disorganized and dirty.  And DARK.  Travis and I both had trouble reading card text and rule books.  The only time they had new games in stock was when they ordered it by mistake.  If you ordered a game, you were lucky if you got it in 6 weeks.  I’m still waiting on a game I ordered in December, that I paid for up front.  Lots of excuses, its everybody’s fault but theirs.

Travis and I saw the writing on the wall, granted we are a bit slow.  We started discussing our options for playing somewhere else on Thursdays.

Then things changed.  One of the two owners left and moved north.  I came in 3 weeks ago, and the shop was clean….and organized.  It is still dark, but they are working on that.  I got my game.  I was approached to play on Tuesday nights in a role playing game.  The next week, I was asked to participate in a Warhammer league on the weekends.  The shop has also started a Pokeman league, and expanded their Magic play.   Travis and I have renewed hope for the survival of the shop.

Up to this point, you might think that Rebirth refers to the shop, and to a certain extent it does, but I am really talking about me.  At the beginning of the year, I sat down and wrote goals for the year, and a 5 year and 10 year plan.  (Yeah, I’m one of those).  It has personal, family, financial, and health goals.  My wife and I sat down in early January to finalize them.  And yes, I have gaming goals.  I have a 14 in 14 for games, 5 Jeffcons, (solitaire game conventions), purchasing targets and overall game play.  One of my goals was to start a game group in Washington, and it looks like that is going to happen via the Daviess County Museum.

So, I am very optimistic.  Other than my limit of purchasing only 14 new games in 2014 (I’ve already missed that target, don’t tell my wife 🙂 ) I’m on target to hit my gaming goals.  I have a tendency to be positive, but I feel really good about the future on all fronts.

I feel reborn!

Jeff Chattin

Great Gaming Gang!

I’d really like to title this “Hot Lava Birth” but that might be pushing it just a little.

This is to announce that the Daviess County Museum, 212 Main Street, Washington, Indiana,  will begin hosting a monthly

GAME DAY

To be held on the First Saturday of the month, at the Daviess County Museum, from 12 pm to 5 pm.

The first GAME DAY will be held on Saturday, May 3, 2014.

Based on the success of the museum’s participation in International TableTop Game Day, Vince Sellers, Museum Director, has announced the monthly gaming event.  The Daviess Room on the second floor of the museum is a spacious area with 11 tables available for gaming with room for over 60 gamers.

Traditional board games, modern board games and children’s games will be provided along with a knowledgeable staff to teach the games.  All are welcome.  Bring your favorite game, bring a friend, bring the person you want to trounce in a game, but come!

Smiles, laughter, good natured taunting and fun for all available to all who attend!

For further information contact the Daviess County Museum at 812-257-0301, or contact via e-mail at dchistory@sbcglobal.net

Great Gaming Gang!

OK, I have been a major slacker and not posted in a long time, letting fellow gamer Travis handle all of the duties with his excellent “After Action Reports”.  No excuses, consider me kicked out of Tokyo with no life points.  I’ll try to begin making restitution today with a few posts.

About two months ago I started checking the TableTop Game Day map to see what game stores in my area were going to be holding events, secretly wishing, hope against hope, that Legends, the closest game store to me, would pop up.  For about 2 weeks, the closest event was in Evansville, at Comic Quest.  Then Game Knight in Ferdinand popped up, closer but still not Legends.  Then on a Saturday I bring up the map, and there is a golden meeple hovering over Washington!  No way!  Inconceivable!  So I clicked on the meeple and it comes up the Daviess County Museum.  A museum?  A game store, a library, a community center I get, but how did a museum find out about TableTop Day?  So I read the info on the site and find out they are looking for games, they have a few but are looking for more.  To steal a phrase from Travis, “Now we’re cooking with butter!”, because I have a few games.

The following Tuesday I stop at the museum, just to make sure its not a mistake, and to offer my services and games to the cause.  I meet Ken Graber, the Assistant Director/Docent/Man of Many Hats (Travis later told me a Docent was a person who gives tours at a museum).  After a short discussion, I was “In Like Flint” . Ken is a big fan of the TableTop web series, and convinced Vince Sellers, Museum Director, this would be a good event to participate in. We exchanged e-mails and met several times over the next month, planning and introducing games to the team at the Daviess County Museum, Doug and Joe Burke, Sarah Roberts, and of course Vince and Ken.  Many thankless hours were spent playing games that would be available on TableTop Day to make sure we would be ready.  (At least that is what I tell my wife, how much work it was to get ready 🙂 )

We really didn’t know what to expect for turnout.  Flyers were put up in Washington and Vincennes, Ken had a couple of articles in the Washington Times Herald, and Vince  talked about TableTop Day on his video posts on YouTube and on the radio show Take 5 For Your Community on WAMW.  And I talked to anybody who would listen about the event.

TableTop game day came and the museum was ready.  Joe and Doug had eleven  tables with chairs set up, Ken had card holders on each table with description and information about the games, and the games were set up in all of their glory.  At noon Vince came down to check on us and the first game began.  The first game was all staff members, Joe, Sarah and new volunteer Kim Ridge started rolling dice in Zombie Dice.  Several shotgun blasts and brains eaten later, Joe was the winner.  He asked his usual question, “What do I get for winning, a million dollars?”  Alas, I had left my checkbook at home, so Joe had to settle for candy bars as his booty.

Overall, the stats for the day are as follows:

Attendees- 20  Seven staffers and thirteen visitors played games

Games Played- 25  Thirteen different games were played a total of twenty five times

Activity per Gamer- 3.8   76 total plays played by twenty gamers (ex: a gamer plays 4 games, activity per gamer would be 4.)

Fun- Countless   Many smiles were seen, numerous dice rolled, cards drawn, laughs heard, and such things as “Don’t touch my cards, you are cursing them!”, “I didn’t see that move!”, “I don’t want to die!”, “Not another Water Rising card!”, and the often heard “I win!”

Humility- One gamer reportedly played fifteen games and only won two, including losing six straight games of Hive.  This gamer shall remain nameless, but it is reported he ate a big dish of crow when he got home, served by his loving wife.  It is also rumored he brought all of the games he lost.

The Best News- Every attendee was told the museum wanted to hold a regular Gaming Event, possibly once a month.  If they were interested in participating, there was a sign up sheet they could put their contact information on.  EVERYONE who attended signed up with contact information.  More on this in another article.

So what’s the feeling about how it went?  Was it the dream of people milling around waiting for a game to end so they could start a new one, with all of the tables full? No.  Did some people come to the museum who hadn’t visited before?  Yes.  Did the event generate any new members for the Daviess County Historical Society?  Yes.  Did the event generate any new volunteers for the museum?  Yes.  Did Joe get his million dollar prize money?  No, I still can’t find my checkbook.  Did some previously unknown to each other gamers meet and make plans to game again?  Yes.  Is the museum going to have an event they can add to their calendar on a regular basis?  It looks that way.

That’s four yes’s, a no, an “Its never gonna happen, Joe’s going to figure out another way to get a million bucks”, and an “it looks that way.”  So I guess it depends on how you look at success.  If your an all or nothing, hare to the tortoise, go big or go home kinda guy, then it was not a success.  But if you are like me, a tortoise to the hare, something is better than nothing, I’ll get better at Hive kinda guy, it was a success.

Lao-tzu, an ancient philosopher once said, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”  We have taken that single step.

Great Gaming Gang!

As humans, one of our instincts is to belong to a group, to fit in, to feel special.   Originally, it was a survival mechanism, groups can support each other, look out for each other, and utilize each others’ skills for the benefit of the group.  I feel that boardgaming furthers that instinct.

Take kids as an example.  If you have any, you know as soon as they are born, they need attention, want to be held, want to be close to others.  As they get older, they start wanting to be part of what the parents are doing.  Even if you don’t have any kids, I’ll bet you can remember a time in your younger days when you wanted to be part of what ever your parents were doing.  Why not get them involved in gaming as soon as they show an interest?  The benefits are endless.

My two grandsons, Garrett, age 5. and Troy, age 3 are already avid gamers.  They get games as presents for birthday’s, Christmas, and just because.  Within an hour of my wife and I visiting them, they are pulling out a game and asking us to play.  When they visit us, they soon are asking me to play Toc Toc Woodman with them.  As they get older, the games will advance in complexity, and someday we will be playing Dominion, Agricola, or Paths of Glory together.   And then, in their teens, cars and girls will arrive in their lives, and the games will go away. 🙂  But then, if my own kids are any example of what will happen, they will be back, wanting to play games again.  And for certain favorite games, they may never go away completely.

So, what do you start with?  I am by no means and expert, but I can tell you what works for us.

1- Let them roll dice….lots of dice, big dice, soft dice.  In our family, both the boys, when they were only a few months old, had the ritual roll of a d6.  Granted, it was little more than putting the die in their hands, and eventually they drop the die (maybe it wasn’t really a roll), but it counts!  The die my daughter found somewhere, it is about a 3″ cube, and made of foam.  By the way, Garrett rolled a 4, and Troy a 6.  As they get a little older, let them roll dice for you in a game (make sure you watch them closely so they don’t eat the dice).

2-Get a copy of waterproof UNO cards, and play.  Basically the boys are just trying to match colors initially, and later colors and numbers.  All of the skip and reverse cards we just use to match colors and symbols.  The waterproof cards are great for spills and getting chewed on.  Initially, when they’re attention span wanes, let them stop.  But as they play the game more, make them finish the hand before stopping.

3-Space Rockets, the card game.  This is the card game War, with cool rocket pictures on the cards.  (We do model rocketry as a family also).  They are out of print, but available on ebay.  I sleeved them and away we go.  At this point, we do keep score, and have winners and losers.

4-A themed dominos game.  Matching characters, like Cars, Spiderman, or such on the domino’s.

5-Toc Toc Woodman.  We, as adults, follow the two swing rule, but initially, let the boys swing until they knock out a core piece.  At first, we also give the boys points for each piece of bark they put on the core when reassembling the tree.  Then, an amazing thing starts to happen, as they get older and play the game more, on their own, they start only taking two swings, because that is what the adults do.

6-Can’t Stop.  Rolling dice again. As adults, we follow the rules.  So far, we let the boys roll the dice until they can’t place the dice, with no penalty.  As 3 and 5 year olds, they don’t understand the chances of rolling certain combinations are more difficult than others.

7-Dino Dice.  The boys love dinosaurs, so this is a bit hit.  Initially, we let them roll with no penalty.  But slowly, they start to realize that the adults are playing by different rules, and change on their own.  Garrett is at this point, Troy is not there yet.

8-Swipe. Rolling lots of dice, and getting to steal dice and chips from Grandpa is a huge plus!  One thing that this game helps teach, more so than the games above, is sportsmanship.  At first, it is hard for them to have dice and chips stolen from them, but we keep reinforcing that it is part of the game, and you have to be a good sport if you are going to play games.

9-Sorry Sliders.  Another great dexterity game.

10-Blokus.  Garrett asked to play this game, there is a version of it at his pre-school.  He actually does pretty well, but he hasn’t won yet.

11-Monster Chase.  A memory game.  What the boys like about this game is when they make a match, the get to yell “In the closet, monster!” and banish the monster from the game.  They absolutely love this part of the game.

12-Ninja vs Ninja.  Garrett is a ninja fanatic, so I picked up this game for him.  While it is a very simple game, it is a little advanced for him, because you have so many decisions to make.  So, right now, I show him his different movement options.  I am confident, that soon, he will be seeing those options on his own.

Other games Garrett has played recently are Castle Panic and Sentinels of the Multiverse.  Obviously, at 5, he doesn’t have the reading ability for either game, so we help him by explaining to him what options the cards he has have give him, and let him make the decision on what to do.

As you can see from above, we make rules adjustments to the games for the boys.  As they develop, they start to understand the concepts better, and so far, have advanced on their own.  I do feel that you have to have winners and losers, so they understand that winning and losing are part of playing games. We stress finishing the games and good sportsmanship.  I will admit, I have put off winning, such as rolling again in Can’t Stop, to give the boys more opportunities, but I only do it once in a while, and usually when the boys have had a lot of bad luck.  I will, at some point in time, stop doing this.

Develop a gaming relationship with you kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews.  Be a Big Brother/Sister and introduce them to the wonderful world of boardgaming.  You will educate them, teach them important life lessons, improve their self esteem, and develop a much closer bond with them.  And along the way, your will receive all of these  benefits in return, and just maybe, find a gaming partner for life.

Next blog; “Everything Deserves A Second Chance”.

Jeff Chattin

Great gaming gang!

Most humans are guilty of being at least a little superficial.  Our initial reactions to pretty things are usually favorable.  Test after test have shown that corporate hiring managers will lean toward an attractive candidate over a less than attractive candidate even though the less than attractive candidate was slightly more qualified.  More attractive, “slick” politicians more often than not win over more qualified less than attractive opponents.  When my wife and I go into Wal Mart, we head our separate ways to get supplies and cut down on the time spent there.  While picking up my products, almost every time I will walk into an aisle with a young mother with a child in it, the mother takes one look at me and takes her child’s hand and leaves the aisle (the unattractive aspect of my appearance).  When I finally find my wife, she is usually “holding court” with two or three other people, chatting away….about half of the time she doesn’t even know who she is talking to (the attractive aspect of her appearance).   I am guilty of being superficial also, especially when it comes to games.  Stone Age, Mice and Mystics, Dungeon Command, and any game by Fantasy Flight Games makes me drool.  I just want to dive in give ’em a go!  Less attractive games, and boxes, usually get shoved to the back of the playlist.  Fellow gamers, if you are guilty of this, you must resist this superficial urge!!

About three months ago, Jason and I were getting ready to jump into another game night.  Usually, the conversation goes something like: “What would you like to play Jeff?”  “I don’t care, I’ll play anything.”  But not this night.  He brought over a red and blue box with a locomotive on it and said “This is Empire Express, I played in a demo game at the Alliance Open House earlier this year, I think you’ll like it.”  He proceded to pull the cellophane off the ho hum looking box.  He opened up the box, and pulled out a very bland, jigsaw puzzle board, some not too exciting, kinda tan colored cards, paper money (which I am not a fan of at all) and some crayons.  I thought to myself, “Self, you are not going to like this game, its not pretty, and I gave up coloring a couple of years ago.”  Jason began explaining to me that this was a newly released, introductory version of a popular line of games beginning with Empire Builder, also know as the “crayon rails” games line by Mayfair Games, the people who bring us Settlers of Catan.  “I like Settlers of Catan, and it is my wife’s favorite, so I’ll give it a shot.”  “Plus, I did say I’d play anything.”  So we got right into the game, with Jason doing is usual exceptional job of explaining the rules.

About an hour later, after I got trounced by Jason, I asked him if he had a copy for sale, and picked it up.  This game is a gem!  The game components are vanilla at best as I already described.  But I really like the game play.  It is not a deep game, with lot of nuances, strategy and tactics, but you do have decisions to make on almost every turn that will effect the outcome of the game.  “Do I build that line from Indianapolis to Chicago for $27 million, or do I draw a different delivery cards?”

There are basically two aspects to the game, building track and delivering products from a production town to a delivery town.  When you complete a delivery order, you get money.  When you build track, it costs you money.  If you run on another players track to deliver or pick up products , you pay them cash, or they pay you cash if they run on your track.  The first player to amass a fortune of $150 million wins the game.  Basically, the game mimics the business adage, you have to spend money to make money.  So, as stated above, do I build more track, thereby reducing my fortune, to make more money delivering goods, or do I look for different delivery cards?  There is some randomness in the card draw, (delivery tickets) and there are several random event cards that effect players if their train is in a certain location, but I think it is the right amount.  The only down side to play is that there is not much interaction among players, you do your own thing for the most part.

The game has rules for the regular version and the starter version.  The starter version has a set of four pre drawn routes that players begin with, along with predetermined delivery tickets that ensure you start making cash right away.  It took Jason and I about an hour to play the game for the first time, but I could see this game taking about 15-20 minutes per player once everyone know the rules.  Starter game can play up to four players, standard game (in which you start out with no track, and $60 million in cash) plays up to six players.  The game scales well, I have played with 2, 3, 4, and 5 players, and the mechanics and flavor work well at all 4 levels.

As I said, this game is a gem!  I have it in my top ten games, rating it an 8 out of 10. While it is not as pretty, deep, or elegant as other games, it does what it does very well.  Empire Express is easy to teach and easy to grasp.  My son’s girlfriend Alia claims it as her favorite game.  I have taught it to 5 others so far, and all have given Empire Express a thumbs up.  As I stated earlier, there are several games in the “Crayon Rails” line, and I intend to buy at least 3 others in the next few months, Empire Builder, Lunar Rails, and Martian Rails.  Empire Builder is the expanded version of Empire Express and is the game that started the line of games, Lunar and Martian Rails being based on the Moon and Mars.

So fellow gamers, I highly recommend Empire Express. And strongly urge you to give each game a chance, don’t make the mistake of overlooking a great game based on its components.

Next times topic, “Get ’em while they are young”

Jeff

Great gaming gang!

PS – I still have a  brand spankin’ new copy of Zombie Dice to give away to the next person to say great gaming gang to me.

Hello all, like Alan and Travis, Jason has asked me to contribute my $.02 worth to the Fort Sackville Gamers page, blog, bulletin board, web page, whatever this is (as you can see, I am prehistoric when it comes to the social media, the internet and the new technology coming down the pipe).  I am not sure what I have to say is worth $.02, hence the name.  I am going to give a somewhat lengthy background about myself (my wife says I can’t answer a yes or no question in less than 10 minutes) to serve as a background and filter as to how I look at games. (more…)