Monthly Archives: November 2014

El Gaucho: A four-sided game review

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El Gaucho is a light set collection board game that plays in about an hour. It’s light and family friendly, while offering a little more than traditional set collection games such as rummy.

The (mostly pasted on) theme backs the family game credentials, with players taking on the roll of Mexican cowboys (gauchos) tending to their herds (cows, represented by tiles).

Its cartoony art style is really charming, with each cow oozing personality. It takes two to four players, with a two-player game with experienced players running as fast as 30 minutes.

El Gaucho’s board is also very well drawn, while the cardboard ‘dice rodeo’ (fenced area to roll the dice) adding a nice bit of unusual bling. Throw in seven dice, custom meeples and a well laid out rulebook and you have a package well worth the £20 price tag.

In terms of play, in a round one player will roll the dice (two per player, plus one) and then each player will choose two to use. Dice can be used to claim cows of relevant values, but also to claim action spaces. Some of these actions allow you to mess with other players or give other extra roles/abilities in later rounds, while helping to negate the problem of low roles (you can’t be blocked out of an action space by other players).

The scoring is ingenious. Each cow of a breed (think card suit) scores the same value as the highest value same breed one in your herd: so if you have the 1,3,5 and 12 black cows, they are worth 12 each. This encourages players to save sets with a high numbered cow to score more later - but leaves the danger of another player stealing your prize beast before you do. In this example, losing your 12 would see your score cut from 48 (4×12) to 15 (3×5) - but you do at least score 12 in compensation when it’s stolen.

Teaching

As you’d expect from this kind of gateway game, teaching El Gaucho is a relatively simple affair. Turns are fast and all player information is open, so it is simple to give advice and reiterate things as you go.

There are a few key points that need explaining well: gauchos played onto action spaces can never be used in the same round they’re placed, for example, or that if you steal a tile from another player they will be compensated its value.

Also, cows are only claimed when all of those in a particular row on the board have been claimed. This can be important to set collection, as if you claim one out of sequence you must start a new set in that breed and score the old one (one action does mitigate this). But generally the rules are very simple to grasp.

But there are some subtle and interesting moves to be made. For example one option is to lay ‘lazy gauchos’ onto cow tiles, essentially reserving them for later. This action can be manipulated to several ends - reserving, blocking, forcing rows to complete, or to save yourself a dice. But you should let your players discover these nuances for themselves, as this should hold the attention of more experienced gamers.

The four sides

These are me, plus three fictitious amalgams drawn from observing my friends, and their respective quirks and play styles.

  • The writer: I’m a fan of set collection games and went into this year’s Essen looking for lighter fare after a few years collecting some great mid-to-heavyweight euros. This and Johari seemed to fit the bill and both proved great buys. El Gaucho is very light, but there are interesting decisions to be made and games tend to be won by the person making the best calls throughout. And while not everyone has rushed out to buy a copy after playing, there have been no complaints either.
  • The thinker: While I won’t be demanding this particular hour of my life back, I also won’t be rushing forward to play another game of El Gaucho any time soon. There is nothing wrong with the game, but despite all the bells and whistles (read: dice and actions) this is still a one-dimensional set collection game. At least Ticket to Ride has you building routes, giving some room for a long-term strategy; this is just rummy on steroids. Which is fine, if you like that sort of thing (which I don’t).
  • The trasher: Cutesy art set collection doesn’t make me sit down with a great deal of confidence, but I had a surprising amount of fun with this one. While stealing people’s cows or claiming ones you know others want (to try and get them to oust you for cash) isn’t as much fun as shooting their spaceships in the face, it is fun. And it doesn’t even have to be the act of stealing - just putting one of your gauchos on the steal space is enough to set fear into the more timid players. Not a game I’d clamour for, but one I’d be happy to play any time - but not with AP gamers…
  • The dabbler: El Gaucho is an absolute treat! The cows are gorgeous and funny, the board adds to the theme and the game is simple - but with a bit of depth. Super fast turns make it zip by and everyone is engaged throughout, as you need to know what’s going on with other players’ herds. And the dice rodeo is fab! It’s just a small thing, but works perfectly (dice flying everywhere can be a problem in games!) and helps add a little uniqueness to proceedings. The threat of thieving gauchos also ads to table banter, with everyone suggesting other players to steal from once someone goes into that action spot. Great fun.

Key observations

There are two main concerns I’ve seen so far, and it seems contradictory to try and disprove both, but I’ll give it a go anyway…

First is the complaint that there is not enough here - that it’s ‘just’ a set collection game; a glorified filler. But I don’t think the game pretends to be much more than this - and as long as you don’t play with AP prone players the game plays very quickly. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the players who rate this with low scores say it is too long, while those rating it highly describe it as a fast game…

I think the large box, worker placement aspect and tiles, dice etc lead to a misconception about what’s inside - which is a shame, because played for what it is this is a solid and fun little game. But then taking El Gaucho is a glorified filler, isn’t it too expensive for what it is? Why pay so much for a game which is so fast and basic?

I’d argue the game’s strong gateway potential, but also that £20 isn’t a high price for any well produced board game. What about Can’t Stop, or King of Tokyo? The components here are easily worth the game’s price.

Conclusion

While El Gaucho isn’t for everyone, it easily found a place in my stock of gateway games. It’s different enough (and shorter) when compared to the likes of Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Settlers, while offering a lot to new gamers and just enough to more seasoned ones.

Would I want to play it every day? No. Do I think it has hidden depths? Nope. But not every game has to, does it? Taken on its merits, it’s a fun and easily accessible game that doesn’t outstay its welcome.

Except of course for when it does. Each game of El Gaucho I’ve enjoyed has been played in the right spirit, with players largely skipping through their turns and playing with smiles on their faces. But I’ve seen others playing in silence, staring at the board trying to grok it to death - and for those players, it must’ve been a truly miserable experience.

If you like lighter games, in particular set collection ones, then I’d certainly advise you to get a play of El Gaucho - but terminally serious AP gamers need not apply.

Books wot I red: Chang, Collins, Gorman

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I finished the last ‘Books wot I red‘ post back in January… which means it has taken me a frankly ridiculous nine months to do the next post. In fairness I’ve actually read four since then, one of which was essentially a textbook.

The next book I read was actually ‘The Little Prince’ by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, but as I covered that in my book/game review I won’t retread that ground here - except to say you should read it, if you haven’t, no matter what age you are; a truly magical little tale with an equally amazing historic story behind it being written.

I followed a children’s classic with what is essentially a textbook; Can’t Stop Won’t Stop by Jeff Chang. It’s a fantastic achievement, covering the history of everything associated with hip hop (music, style, dancing, graffiti and gang culture).

It’s a book that could only have been written by a fan, but that has pluses and minuses. On the plus side he gets the tone right. He drops in slang to ‘keep it real’ which could’ve gone horribly wrong, but works. And more importantly the level of detail is truly remarkable.

On the downside this reverence often clouds his judgement on issue such as gangs, to the point where he’s essentially making excuses for the terrible violence and mayhem many of the participants caused in these communities. It’s fine to champion something you love, but to be taken seriously you have to be realistic.

While no one is going to claim these were anything other than horrendous living conditions imposed by corrupt and/or misguided officials and politicians, it’s not as if this is an excuse for turning the neighbourhood you live in into a war zone; plenty of people lived through these conditions without turning to crime and violence.

While I found the music side fascinating, from the roots of hip-hop in Jamaican reggae culture through Grandmaster Flash and Bambaataa, to NWA and Wu Tang, I did find myself skipping sections on graffiti and break-dancing as they simply don’t interest me.

But this was no fault of the writing, which was consistently high quality throughout. If you have any interest in the roots of hip hop and rap culture, this is a must-read.

—

For a while I did dip out of ‘Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop’ for a light break, reading the concluding book of the Hunger Games trilogy; Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I’d heard consistent reports it was the worst of the three, but that wasn’t about to stop me completing what had been a very enjoyable series.

Unlike the first two books it starts at a gallop, getting straight to the action. This final book has a completely different scope outside of the games themselves, which initially filled me with optimism. But as the pages dragged (and dragged) on it became clear why this instalment is considered a little below par.

What Collins does well in the first two books is portray emotions it’s hard to conceive, due to the horrific nature of what’s going on. But here the plot turns to media and psychological manipulation, as well as more militaristic elements; areas she seems less confident with and which the reader is more familiar.

It must be reminiscent of the situation CS Lewis found himself in with Narnia’s; ‘The Last Battle’, or the end of ‘Harry Potter’. Things need to grow up, get dark and get BIG; but how do you do that and keep the character of the series? It’s also something Pullman struggled with in ‘His Dark Materials’, but where I think all of them got away with it with varying degrees of success, unfortunately Collins really drops the ball here.

What we end up with is a soggy middle which drags inexorably towards the largely telegraphed conclusion, via needless par after needless par of increasingly unlikely emotional Katniss breakdowns. That said, I bet this will work well in the film versions.

—

I felt the need to go to a banker next, so grabbed the copy of Dave Gorman vs The Rest of the World I’d picked up for a quid in a charity shop - sorry Dave (I’m sure he’s reading). A very funny man talking about playing games - what could go wrong?

Nothing, as it happened. I was relaxed into it from the first few paragraphs and kept a pleasant smile on my big, fat, entertained face throughout.

The book is a nice mix of travel writing and examination of the (peculiar English) human condition, brought together with our Gorman’s rather lovely idea of going around the UK playing games with strangers. Ranging from darts to Frisbee to ‘proper’ board games (such as Catan and Agricola), it’s charming and amusing in equal measure - and more importantly very well written. There’s even a twist at the end…

While games are the driving force behind the idea this is definitely a book about people, so don’t be put off if you don’t like games in any form (it’s just that if you do like games, you’ll probably get a bit more out of it).

Mostly the ‘action’ centres around travelling to interesting places and meeting interesting strangers; and he stumbles on more than his fair share of characters. Sadly he’s not taking requests from gamers to meet up any more. I can hardly blame him, but I would’ve loved to share a pint and a game with the man. If you’re reading Dave (and I’m sure you are), drop me a line eh?

What’s next on the list?

Managed to read two of the previous Top 5 this time, but they were the books in fourth in fifth - hence the two new entries. If I don’t do at least one of the top three this time, you have permission to tell me off and be very cross:

  1. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. Its second time at number 1, having now been on four of these lists. And I really want to read it too; what the hell is going on?
  2. Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky. Still at 2 after also being on four of these lists - and still here for the same reasons: “How to make a better world. I think it’s probably important to get up to speed on this.”
  3. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Second list at number 3. Was blown away by the film and told the book was even more remarkable, but in a different enough way to be a separate entity. Still waiting on the shelf.
  4. Paperboy by Christopher Fowler. New entry! I wouldn’t normally consider a ‘memoir’, but this one is written by the author of my favourite ever series of books - the Bryant & May crime novels. Has to be worth a try.
  5. Teach Yourself: The Cold War by CB Jones. New entry! I’ve just got a copy of the amazing board game Twilight Struggle, set in the cold war, and want to put it in proper context. I really should know more about this history I lived through.

Bora Bora: A four-sided game review

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Bora Bora is a board game from renowned German euro game designer Stefan Feld. It’s certainly not a game for beginners, but still falls into the ‘medium weight’ category - largely due to play time (under two hours) and familiarity (anyone used to playing euro games will be on safe ground).

It plays two to four players with very little discernible difference in play between numbers. The art style is consistent and high quality throughout, while the components are standard if not spectacular; so well worth the £30 price tag.

In terms of mechanism, Bora Bora follows in the seemingly limitless line of Stefan Feld designs that combines dice rolling with action selection, resource gathering and multiple ways to score points (or “just another Feld point salad game”, if you’re one of his detractors). So what, if anything sets this one apart from the rest?

Each player rolls three dice on their turn and will use them for actions. High rolls tend to make actions better, but you can only place dice onto action spaces if they are lower than any already there - making low dice good blockers. But there are plenty of ways to mitigate this, meaning it tends to be more of an inconvenience than a deeper frustration. You then get to do up to two extra actions, depending on who you have added to your tribe during the game.

Like any good euro game, the real problem is wanting to do way more in each turn than your limited actions allow - other players may get in your way, but your frustration with yourself is likely to be higher than with others. It can be hard to stay focused on what the right options are to maximise your points, and when to do them, while keeping an eye on possible blocking moves and ways to mitigate against them.

Teaching

Thanks to an intuitive board layout, great icons and actions that make at least basic thematic sense, Bora Bora is relatively easy to teach to semi-experienced gamers. This isn’t a thematic game by any stretch, but nothing about it jars.

While the iconography is good, the player boards have pretty much all of them squeezed on, making them look daunting rather than informative. They’re useful after a play or so, but at first it’s best to steer player attention away from them!

Luckily the main board itself is more useful. One whole area is dedicated to the end of turn sequence, while the actions you use during a turn are straightforward. Hidden information is limited to a few cards and these are also relatively simple to grasp - plus there are only a few different types on offer.

Another plus is that each player starts with some objectives, one of which they’ll need to complete in the first turn to score some points. This immediately focuses the mind on an objective, giving new players a route to take in what otherwise could’ve been a pretty bewildering set of choices.

At the start of each turn, all players roll their dice then take it in turns to use one each to do an action. This means turns are snappy and players soon get to see how each of the available actions works. Yes, there is a lot going on - but if you encourage players to hone in on the things they need to do to score their tiles in the first play it will focus minds.

The four sides

These are me, plus three fictitious amalgams drawn from observing my friends, and their respective quirks and play styles.

  • The writer: I’m always charmed by this kind of colourful island setting in a game (Maori is another great example), while I’m also a pretty big Feld fan, so Bora Bora was always likely to be a winner. And while it doesn’t add much that’s new I do find it has a unique tension, cleverly exacerbating the ‘want to do everything’ feeling with the promise of end game bonus points. Sure, I’d prefer a shorter set up time but once the game gets going that little bit of effort seems well worth it.
  • The thinker: In terms of balancing strategy and tactics, this could well be Feld’s best design so far - although I can see it being a little busy for some, who may prefer the more mechanically streamlined Luna. But as a fresh challenge, once you’ve got past the graphical bombardment to the game’s subtleties, I think this is one of the designer’s finest achievements so far. There may also initially be a little too much luck for some, but I haven’t found it stops the best player winning - it just presents some interesting problems in achieving it.
  • The trasher: While Bora Bora definitely isn’t my kind of game, there is some solid space for screwage; especially when thinking about turn order. You get one new end-game tile per round, chosen in turn order, so a late choice can leave you high and dry. These are worth six points each, which is a significant amount, so you have to keep your eyes peeled. But overall I can take it or leave it and certainly won’t care if I never play it again.
  • The dabbler: I don’t think people expected me to like this one, but - surprise! The lovely artwork and colours drew me in, then the gameplay hooked me; love it. It’s not a game I do well at, but that said it’s one I’m determined to improve at. You learn a little something each time you play and can see where you’ve gone wrong; nothing in the game is complex, it’s more about managing your own expectations and not trying to do too much. There’s also more interaction than it at first seems, with the dice placement and turn order jostling creating a nice game atmosphere.

Key observations

The most common complaint you can see coming a mile off - nothing new, boring, just another euro/Feld, themeless etc etc. Well done for playing a game (you were pretty sure you wouldn’t like anyway) once and walking away before really giving it a chance.

However I have seen arguments that there’s a pretty clear winning strategy that makes the game a little formulaic once you’ve discovered it. However this isn’t oft mentioned and I can’t say I’ve spotted it yet (which will come as no surprise to anyone who plays with me!). Even if this is true, I think it will only be an issue for a certain type of hardcore gaming group - and they are very much in the minority.

Another criticism is the game’s components are overly busy and that Bora Bora is a very fiddly game (even for Feld) - or that the artwork is garish and annoying. I think these are fair arguments (the art style is purely a matter of taste) and if I could have a version that was slightly less graphically bombastic I’d take it. But after you’ve played half a game I don’t think it gets in the way any more. Overblown? Yes. But a long term problem or barrier to play? Not really.

Conclusion

Bora Bora has already taken its place alongside my older Stefan Feld favourites (Notre Dame, Macao, Castles of Burgundy, Rialto) as one of my collection I regard most highly. It’s intelligent, colourful, fun and engaging in all the ways his best games tend to be.

Is it a point salad? Yup. Is it typically Feld? Abso-bloody-lutely. Sure, it’s not going to change the hearts and minds of those who aren’t fans of his work, but what do I care? As long as there are still Feld fans to play with (and there always will be), I’ll be happy.

If you’re a fan of the likes of Trajan, Macao and Castles of Burgundy this comes highly recommended. If you’re new to the designer and looking for a good starting point, I’d say this is great for a semi-experienced gamer or above - but if not, perhaps Castles of Burgundy or Notre Dame may be better places to start your Feldian adventures.

More Stefan Feld game reviews:

My Essen Spiel Wishlist 2014: The follow up

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So, it’s time to compare before and after; to look back at my pre-Essen itinerary and see how many of the games I managed to get played - and how they were. Were my pre-Essen instincts sharp, or shambolic?

What did I get played from my pre-Essen ‘top 10’ wishlist?

Between Essen and a London on Board trip to Eastbourne a week after my return, I’ve managed to get more than 20 Essen releases played - not bad. And that included seven of my pre-Essen top 10 ‘want to play’ list.

I unfortunately managed to miss out on Red 7 (sold out - but I could’ve got a copy if I’d remembered. Grrrr), Progress: Evolution of Technology (was always packed - want to try it) and Versailles (overheard a rules explanation and watched a bit of play, but wasn’t inspired - I’d still like to get a play).

Johari and El Gaucho featured in my ‘Biggest hits of Essen‘ report - while sadly Imperial Settlers, Amber Route and Madame Ching all featured in the ‘misses’ section of the same post - so I won’t go over that ground again here.

Which leaves two. If I was a lot newer to gaming, or didn’t have many gateway games, I probably would’ve come home with a copy of Mangrovia. It’s a really pretty and well designed light euro game with an interesting turn order/action selection mechanism - but not enough else to make it stand out for more experienced gamers.

But I did pick up First to Fight after a fun demo with one of the design team and one of his friends. My initial concern was, will it work? And if I’m honest after two plays I’m still not 100% sure. But I’ve seen enough so far, and had enough fun, to warrant it having been my one slightly risky buy.

What did I purchase from my ‘will purchase’ list?

I had six games and four expansions on my ‘will purchase’ list, and managed to come home with all but two of them.

Sadly Pocket Imperium didn’t make it to Essen, while I was only going to buy Bakerspeed as a set with Paititi if they had a deal on - which they didn’t, so I stuck with just getting the latter (I’ve downloaded the English rules but not yet played it).

Romans Go Home and Sail to India were games I’d played before and wanted my own copy of. Both came home with me, and both were better than expected for different reasons: Sail to India was free (thanks AEG!), while the new rules and art for Romans Go Home made it even better than the version I’d played previously. Again, Steam Donkey featured in my ‘biggest hits’ post linked above.

The expansions for CV, Can’t Stop, Snowdonia and Stone Age all made it into the suitcase too, but none of them have been played yet - too many hot new releases to get through first! But as they add to four of my favourite games it’s only a matter of time before they hit the table (although I helped test the Snowdonia one, so I’ve played it really).

Did any ‘also rans’ turn out to be winners?

I mention a raft of other games at the bottom of my Essen preview post, which turned out to be a right mixed bag. Unfortunately I managed to totally miss The Battle at Kemble’s Cascade, League of Hackers, Ucho Krola and The Golden Ages but had more luck tracking down the rest.

Having had a rules run-through or watched demos of Planes, Essen 2013 the Game and Onward to Venus I didn’t pursue them any further; none of them seemed like my kind of games and with limited time I set my sites elsewhere. I also ignored La Isla as I know several people who bought it; hopefully I’ll get a game in soon.

The big pluses from this list were Deus and Ancient Terrible Things - but without wanting to sound like a broken record, may I refer the honourable gentlefolk to the ‘core blimey Charlie weren’t they marvellous’ post linked above. The latter I picked up at the show, the former will be mine by Christmas or I may blub like a baby.

Office 21 is actually pretty charming and if I didn’t already have Love Letter in the ‘five minutes of nonsense’ category I’d probably grab a copy. The choices seem a little more involved - you have three cards instead of two, for a start, with no cards that force you to do anything. But at the same time the right move is usually pretty obvious - and games can be brutally, ridiculously short and scripted (but in a funny way).

Which just leaves The Castles of Mad King Ludwig - the game I’ve been most on the fence about from this year’s crop of releases.

One thing’s for certain - it’s a good game. The rules are simple, the puzzley aspects engaging and it seems well balanced. It doesn’t outstay its welcome, has plenty of variety and keeps you guessing to the end. And I won my first play - and I’d play again. So why don’t I like it?

Personally, my problem with Ludwig lies in the one interactive element of the game. If you’re start player (which changes clockwise each turn), you get to draw some random tiles and place them in an order of your choosing - going up gradually in cost, with you getting all the profit from the round when other player’s buy things.

It’s important to say here that the game needs this kind of element - otherwise it would be a totally heads-down solo experience. However, the final result just doesn’t work for me. First, I didn’t enjoy making these decisions when they came to me. Second, I felt that poor decisions by other players probably led to my victory - putting tiles in cheap spots that gave me easy points. This didn’t feel satisfying, but is certainly a personal opinion - many enjoyed it and I’d certainly recommend people to play it and make their own minds up.

Essen Spiel 2014: My 10 biggest hits (and misses)

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It’s three weeks today since I played my first demo game at Essen Spiel 2014. Since then I’ve been to Edinburgh, been to Eastbourne, been to bed with the flu, and been maniacally trying to remember what I do for living after three weeks off work. Hence a lack of content about Essen. Sorry.

So to get the ball rolling again I present, in no particular order, a pithy report on the 10 games from this year’s fare that had the biggest impact on me - both positively and negatively. Longer reviews to come on the good ones once I’ve had a few more plays.

Hits

Deus was everything I’d hoped it would be; a tableau building euro game with plenty of room for clever combos that doesn’t outstay its welcome. Some will say its a little too puzzley and heads-down, but while there’s not a lot of interaction you do need to be careful of both players’ board positions and how their tableaus are set up in terms of ending the game (a little like Race for the Galaxy and a player’s 12th card).

El Gaucho is a very pretty board, dice and tile game game that is, at its heart, a rummy variant with a few bells and whistles. I think the bling is leaving some a little disappointed at its lack of depth, but that’s looking for complexity where none was intended. Taken as a simple set collection game, embellished with actions to mitigate bad rolls, it’s a nice quick gateway game that plays in an hour.

Ancient Terrible Things takes the basic Yahtzee idea and throws in a comic book Cthulhu theme and special items/tokens, making a one-hour push-your-luck dice fest I’ve found thoroughly enjoyable so far. It’s definitely over produced, and maybe too expensive for the depth in the box, but with a nice amount of variety in the box and an expansion on the way I think there should b more than enough here to keep me entertained.

Johari is another one-hour set collection game, this time sticking to cards but keeping action selection and adding a few special powers - plus a strong turn order mechanism that really drives the game. The jewel trader theme is a bit done to death right now, but don’t let that put you off; this is a clever little brain burner that’s deceptively tricky to get right - especially with the pesky inspector having away with your fake gems.

Steam Donkey is a small box card game from the ever so slightly bonkers Ragnar Brothers. The thin theme sees you building a Victorian seaside resort (including Eastbourne) steam punk style… The basics see you spending cards to lay other cards into your tableau to score points, with the ‘advanced’ game adding some interesting player powers and interaction into the mix. Daft but clever with a unique theme.

Misses

Imperial Settlers should’ve been another Deus. Tableau building, resource manipulation, a bit of player interaction - right up my street. And it seemed that way, until about half way through when the gaping holes started to appear. Overpowered cards you may or may not see but that will win or lose you the game; plus repetitive actions to nowhere that got boring even before the end of our first play. A terrible waste of a good idea.

Madame Ching also started promisingly; a clever card game with interesting decisions to make about how to score your points (quick risky and often, or slow and more measured). But once we started to see some of the ‘special’ cards come into play it soon became clear they were totally unbalanced and game breaking. This kind of chaos works in some games but is totally out of place here, where planning should be key but can be destroyed by blind luck.

Amber Route was probably the most beautiful game at Essen. The art is incredible, the bling off the chart (real amber pieces, anyone?) and the race idea on a constructable board good one. In fact I had to play two disappointing demo games just to make sure I didn’t want it. Why? Because it was ridiculously easy, making everything you did seem pointless. Again, what made it more disappointing was how close it was to being cool.

Murano is a beautiful island just outside Venice. Murano the game is the driest of dry euros which started to feel old during the rules explanation and outstayed its welcome soon afterwards. an hour or so later it was over; I don’t even remember who won (it might have actually been me). Maybe I’m just done with this kind of game, but I found it totally cold and heartless. Some enjoyed it a bit, but average at the very best.

Grog Island has been chosen to represent all the games at Essen this year (and there were many) that added one interesting mechanism to the cannon - then forgot to do anything interesting with it. The idea of a bidding mechanism using different coloured dice rolled each round is ingenious; making the boring resulting marker placement/secret scoring cards game even more disappointing. Hopefully this mechanism will be back.

The Confusing Hierarchy of the Board Game Community - a reply

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This is in response to this fantastic article:

http://whoseturnisitanyway.com/the-confusing-hierarchy-of-the-board-game-community/

I’ve been a journalist for 20 years.

It’s been a privilege to be paid to write for a living, despite not being paid to write about what I love. So I’ve written for free about music, travel and games when I get home at night, because I’m not competitive; I’m not going to fight the ‘careers’ for jobs I don’t quite care enough to fight for. I work to live, not live to work.

But despite that, I’m a reviewer - which means I’m an attention seeker because I want to be heard. I have an opinion, I think it’s worth something, so I put it out there with passion. Every reviewer wants to be heard - so every reviewer is an attention seeker. And that’s fine, it’s accepted, it’s the way of journalism. You have something to say.

I’ve been a game designer for a year or so.

It’s hard. You put your mind and soul into themes, mechanisms, ideas - and they die on their arse. But you stick with them, you nurture them, you iterate them to within an inch of their lives - and if you’re lucky, one of them becomes a game.

Then you show it to publishers and just maybe, one of them bites. And a year later suddenly you’re a game designer. You’re at Essen, walking past the AEG booth, watching people buy/demo/reject/slag off/fall in love with your game. You get invited to present your game on BGG TV and you thank all the gods in all the heavens that you have a publisher meeting for a new game so you don’t have to go and be on the tele because you’re a writer, and a game designer, but you’re not someone who wants to be on TV.

I’m not a pop star. I’m not a movie star.

You might be thinking, “no shit Sherlock”. But think about it - that’s what you’re really comparing here. You’re looking at main stream media and comparing it to board games. It doesn’t work like that.

Actors and musicians do things one way. They love to be on screen. They have EGO to burn. But what about authors? How many of them would you put up for people to recognise? Or screenwriters? The people who are, essentially, behind the scenes doing creative work that is never meant to be recognised in the same way?

PR = expense

Designers are poor publicists because that’s not why they do it. And it’s the same with most publishers. Stephen Buonocore is a rare exception, while some of the French designers are getting more media friendly. But do you think it’s an accident Stefan Feld and Mac Gerdts don’t have their own daily podcasts? No. They’re designers and their reputations will stand or fall on their creations. They’re doing the bit they want to do.

And PR is an expense. You need to put yourself out there. Tom Vasel makes a living from The Dice Tower - but do you think he’d entertain the idea of paying someone to appear on one of his cash cows? Of course not. Why should he? He’s an ego on legs, it’s about him and why shouldn’t it be? He has created a world in his image without any help from the industry beyond a few free games so good luck to him (and I genuinely mean that).

Your game is crap

Which moves us on nicely to dissenting opinions. I’d argue Tom Vasel has become that one guy that can do this for a living because he calls it likes he sees it - and there’s no better thing for a journalist to do. You simply need to be consistent and (mostly) right.

Any journalist, in any industry, who kowtows to the man instantly loses respect. All companies make mistakes and they know when they’ve screwed up; slate those mistakes and a good company will give you a pass. Because they know when they do good, you’ll give them the praise they deserve - and that’s golden from a respected reviewer readers/viewers know doesn’t pull any punches.

I wrote a while back here about video reviewers not being more ruthless; about them not putting the boot in but only reviewing things they like. And predictably they all pointed me to hard to find links to pages/blog posts they’d apologetically written about the games they don’t like - as if anyone finding them to read one review would ever find that page to find out what they really think as a philosophy. Guys, really - you should be linking to those pages on every video you publish as a disclaimer.

Trolls are pathetic - simply ignore them or you’re in the wrong business

Speaking of negativity, the first thing you need to adopt as any kind of artist or journalist is a thick skin. Ignore rude comments: or either reply politely then walk away (which will enrage them hehe), or let people fighting your cause handle the battles you can’t be arsed with (if you made a cohesive point, someone in internetland who has more time than you is likely to back you up).

Opinion is free and if you put anything anywhere someone will disagree with you. If you can’t be bothered to argue (and you can’t) just walk away - it’s not rocket science. I want to reply to every shit 5/10 review Empire Engine gets but do I? No. It would serve no purpose.

And finally, pay to play - really?

Your average journalist does their job because they’re opinionated; give them something to review and they’ll be honest. The ones that aren’t are totally transparent and anyone with an ounce of sense will spot their bullshit a mile away and vote with their feet sooner rather than later.

There will always be someone on the take from publishers; often because they’re sadly small time and can’t quite believe they’re getting something for nothing. But the simple fact is that this is the case in every single industry on the planet; you can’t expect board gaming to be any different.