Author: The DM

We’ve played several games of [bgt id=48726] since July. Some of our Evansville friends
brought their copy up, and taught us one Saturday evening. It was also my first worker placement game. It must have made an impact on me. My first sincere foray into game development has me making a worker placement game.

Alien Frontiers is a worker placement game that uses dice as the workers/ships. Different
combinations of die results can be used in different locations, as players try to get the most points by colonizing areas of the alien planet. You get points for each colony you land on an area, plus you get a point for any area you have complete control over.

Those points can be taken away when another person takes control of the area. Various technology cards can be bought when you have certain combinations on the dice, which let you modify your dice, remove your opponents from locations you want to be, and sometimes even give you victory points.

I have to say this is probably one of my favorite games of the year. I’m looking forward to checking out some of the expansions. I managed to play it three times before breaking down and ordering my own copy.  Since then, I’ve managed to play it with several different
people. It’s not quite as simple as Lords of Waterdeep, but it’s a very straightforward game that is fairly easy to teach.

Shortly after the 2012 election, I had apparently not had enough of the election fervor. I picked up a copy of [bgt id=27708], and got to play it within a few days.

Since I’ve started following several board game podcasts (The Dice Tower, Ludology and On Board Games, specifically), [bgt id=12333] has been on my radar, but I couldn’t quite justify the expense, as I wasn’t sure I had someone to play it with. I learned that 1960 was out of print, and remembered that my FLGS still had one, so I pulled the trigger on it, reasoning that I wouldn’t have another opportunity.

The first thing I noticed was the production quality. This is a downright beautiful game. I’ve found Z-man games to be hit and miss, but this one is incredible. The board is large and sturdy, with one side for the Nixon player and one for the Kennedy player. A large bag for red and blue cubes represents the balance of political clout. Heavy cardboard tokens and a sizable deck of event cards round out the components. Overall a wonderfully put together game.

Within a few days of purchase, Jeff and I got the opportunity to play it. Jeff took on the role of Nixon’s campaign, and I took on the Kennedy side. The game plays over 10 rounds, each representing several weeks during the political campaign. Cards that you draw and play throughout the game will let you add cubes of your color to the bag. Cards are usually beneficial for you or your opponent, and you have the choice of playing them for their event, or as a simple political campaigning tool. However, if you play them for campaigning, your opponent may use them for their event, which may benefit them. Taking charge of issues and the regional media will also affect the balance of power in the states. It was a close race, but Nixon was able to secure the media influence and the East Coast, and managed to win the election. It was a great game, and took about 2 hours to play.

I have yet to play Twilight Struggle, but I understand that this mechanic is similar for both games. We enjoyed it enough that it will certainly make it to the table again, but only after we’ve tried it’s bigger brother, Twilight Struggle, which I picked up for Jeff for Christmas.

I hope this makes it back in print, as I think it’s a fascinating election to follow, the theme is really well tied to the game, and the gameplay makes a lot of sense.

This is my first review in this series. Thank you for bearing with me, as I’m sure I’m not the easiest person to follow, but I’m hoping the practice of doing this will help my writing skills.

2012 saw my hobby gaming focus change from RPGs and Minis to Board Gaming. I had already build a kinda insane board game collection, but in 2012, I think I about tripled it. Finding a few people who really enjoy playing those games helped, of course.

I didn’t get to play everything in my collection, but I made a very serious dent in it. In this column, I plan to talk about the games that I have played from my collection, and the ones that I really would like to over the course of the next year. I would love some feedback on each game, if you have any stories to share about them, or thoughts on if they’re worth playing, etc.

As of this writing, I have 216 board games, and 147 expansions, according to Board Game Geek. I will only be talking about the base games, but I will probably include the expansions in the discussion. Initially, I’ll work my way through the list alphabetically, but if any game strikes my fancy, I’ll get to it out of order.

Initially, this blog will be a place for me to talk about gaming, and the like without cluttering up the Legends blog with non-Legends related stuff.  However, I’d like to invite some other local gamers to share their thoughts here, as well.  I know we have a few people with something to say.

One of my goals of the last year has been to build a semi-regular gaming group that can get together at least once a week and play something new, or something old.  To that end, I’ve gotten to know some great people.  I’ll be contacting many of them, and seeing if they’d like to be involved in this project.

Personally, I’ll be talking here about general gaming.  Thoughts on types of games, discussion about upcoming games for the group, etc.

I have two other places that I’ll be blogging, as well.  Legends Family and Hobby Games is where I’ll be posting about things relevant to the shop.  Events, game day reports, and the like.  Dragon Pro Studios is where I’ll be posting about my work in game design, both traditional and electronic.  If I post anything that should be noted by more than one of these places, I’ll post it where it’s most relevant, and link to the entry from one or both of the other two.

I can probably start with my post yesterday at the Legends Site, as it probably would have been more at home here.

New Year, New (and old) Games

With that, I’ll welcome you all to the new Fort Sackville Gamers site.  Hopefully, we’ll be building a small community of contributors over the next few weeks.