Monthly Archives: March 2016

One play: Through the Ages - A New Story of Civilisation

Posted on by
Reply

It says a lot about a game when it spends 10 years in the Board Game Geek top 10 list despite being four hours long and fundamentally flawed - a fact recognised by even its most dedicated supporters. Welcome to the world of Through the Ages.

The version I have previously reviewed (link below**) was the second edition, released in 2007, but the changes from the first edition were largely cosmetic (such as a pretty big upgrade in component quality). But in 2015 Czech Games Edition and designer Vlaada Chvatil decided to revisit the game more thoroughly - with another component upgrade, but also some pretty big changes to the rules.

Having reread my original post, I feel no need to do another full review. Almost everything still stands: it’s still epic, complex and long, but totally rewarding. It still shouldn’t be played with any more than three (unless you’re happy with a hell of a lot downtime), but if you have a liking for ‘heavy’ euro games or civ-style games, it’s at least a must-try.

You can also play online, for free - including the new version - at Boardgaming Online. Not only is this a strong implementation of the game, but the users also deserve kudos for being a large part of the testing group for this new third edition.

Through the Ages: The military problem

A pretty common complaint with the older versions, and one I agree with, is military strength was overpowered.

There have several changes that help tone this down a little, with much less reliance on luck of the draw with your military cards.

For example, when defending aggressions you can now discard any military cards (up to your number of military actions) to add to your defence cards. Also you no longer have to rely on drawing the right tactics card if someone else has already put it into play - there is a common area for all tactics cards played, meaning you can adopt a strategy earlier played by an opponent.

In addition, during both wars and aggressions you are no longer allowed to sacrifice units to add to your military strength. Wars can still be devastating if you don’t at least keep close parity with your opponents, but as long as you’re within touching distance you should be able to cling to a lead. Personally I’d still like to see a cap put on the amount of benefit you can get from military cards, but these are all big improvements.

Significant tweaks: Turn sequence and card balance

In older versions of Through the Ages there was a very fiddly turn sequence where it was quite easy to be caught out by ‘corruption’ (the loss of building materials, which could be devastating), especially for less experienced players. The new version has streamlined this beautifully and turns now flow smoothly, giving you your turn to fix any corruption issues as they happen near the end of your go.

Another issue was that many cards were simply better than others and there were a lot of cards experienced players would never even consider playing. Most have been balanced now; either toned down, tweaked up or at least made useful in certain situations. I’m now seeing cards being played that never used to be and it’s great to see whole new strategies becoming viable for experienced and new players alike.

A New Story of Civilisation: Component upgrades

While I wasn’t unduly worried about the art and component quality in the second edition, the new edition blows it out of the water.

The card art is now lovely (rather than passable), the player boards are both functional (including a handy play sequence) and attractive, while the cubes are less small and fiddly.

The rulebook certainly benefits from the simplifications in turn sequence but is undoubtedly better across the board; while all the player boards look great and can be organised in a way that suits your player numbers and table space. And across the board everything is more colourful, but not in a way that detracts from its functionality. There are even some rather pointless stickers to put on the player markers, if you’re so inclined.

Through the Ages: Will we need a fourth edition?

At the time of writing, the third edition of Through the Ages was already up to number 11 in the BGG rankings - just six places behind the original with an average ranking of 9/10 from close to 2,000 votes - a whole point above its predecessor (a big part of the BGG ranking is number of votes - in which the original outstrips it about 10 to 1 for now). I’m sure it won’t be long before it deservedly overtakes it.

The game has been high in my Top 50 games list since it began and I can’t see it ever dropping off that list, despite the fact I’m terrible at it. The one problem I have is simply my own, not the game’s: it’s a little too heavy for me to be any good at because once the mid game comes along I tend to lose touch as the decision space becomes a bit too much for me. The fact I still enjoy it despite almost guaranteed defeat speaks volumes!

Is the game perfect now? No, I don’t think so - but its close enough that I can’t see Vlaada and CGE returning to it for more big changes. I would still like to see a version of the game where military can be de-scaled a little more, but not completely: where you could ignore it to a large extent because you knew there was a cap on how many points you could be hit by during a war. I think leaving the war cards out is too strong the other way, but a points cap on their effectiveness (at least as an option) would be appreciated.

The online second edition version also includes a second set of cards and I’d love to see something like this released in physical form for the tabletop version. I guess it would be a lot of testing for very little profit if just released as a card expansion, but as this is clearly a game the designer still has a lot of love for I wouldn’t rule it out. A true classic.

—

* I would like to thank Czech Games Edition for providing a copy of the game for review
** My full review of the previous edition: Through the Ages: A four-sided game review

Board game design: Five reasons to co-design

Posted on by
Reply

Game design can be seen as a solitary endeavour, but it’s no surprise the current top three ranked board games on Board Game Geek were co-designs.

I’ve worked on six co-designs so far, three of which have been picked up by publishers - so what are the key advantages of jumping into bed with a partner in game design crime?

1) Motivation

Much like any creative process, it can be hard to find your design mojo on a regular basis - especially during the inevitable boring bits. It’s even harder when you’re not being paid and in an industry where financial successes are few and far between.

With a co-designer you’ll always have that little voice in your mind reminding you it’s not just you you’re letting down if you don’t pull your finger out - or a slightly louder voice in your inbox asking where the promised Excel spreadsheet update is!

2) Do what you’re good at…

Unless you’re some kind of freak of game design nature, you’re going to have your strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you’re the queen of theme or the master of maths, but you’re unlikely to be all things to all games.

Finding a co-designer that compliments your skill set is an obvious reaction if you want to make games at the peak of your potential. Maybe you’ve got a great basic mechanism but can’t get the right scoring balance; or you have a working abstract concept that needs a more exciting framework to sit in. It’s likely two heads will be better than one.

3) … but pool your resources

Working with a co-designer is also a great way to learn. Those things you’re no good at? It may simply be a lack of experience, the need for a guiding hand, or some flaws in your processes. Don’t just pass off the jobs you’re not great at - learn from your partner.

The same goes for further game industry knowledge. From social media to testing groups, getting together with a co-designer means the possible opportunity of tapping twice as many Facebook and Twitter accounts, twice as many potential play-testers and twice as many industry contacts.

4) Quality control

Speaking of play-testers, twice the number of designers means twice the number of people with opinions of the game that you can’t ignore. Being blind to problems with your designs that really need to change can be a massive problem: so who better to fight the other corner than a co-designer?

When you’re together you can discuss your direct experience with each test, but equally invaluable are the times you’re apart - when you can double your test group and get twice as many ideas tried and opinions received. And it’s two brains getting your heads around tester comments that may not be immediately obvious - and two sides arguing is more likely to come to the best outcome, even if some pride is a little hurt along the way.

5) Sharing the worst bits

And finally, no one ever claimed game design was glamorous. We seem to spend as much of our time cutting games out as we do playing them - no fun if you’re designing games with hundreds of cards, or that you keep having to re-sticker. Grabbing two pairs of scissors while having a chat and beer certainly makes the task easier!

And this extends across the board (no pun intended). For example, you have no idea how much smoother publisher meetings go if one of you can chat while the other sets up; or if you can bring several designs to one meeting to help save both you and the publishers valuable calendar time - not to mention that shot in the arm of confidence a bit of moral support can give you, as well as feedback afterwards on pitching technique.

—

Co-designing games won’t be for everyone, but if you have some ideas that are on-hold because you’re stuck with them, why not cast around for someone to bounce ideas off of and potentially come on board to help you get the game really moving forward again? But for now I best be off - I’ve got some prototyping to be getting on with before I get told off by a particularly demanding co-designer…

The Prodigals Club: A four-sided game review

Posted on by
Reply

The Prodigals Club*, designed by Vladimír Suchý, is the spiritual successor to the same designer’s popular 2011 release ‘Last Will’.

The original game took its thematic cue from classic comedy Brewster’s Millions, with each player in a race to squander their fortune as quickly as possible.

The Prodigals club takes the idea a few steps further, with you also trying to lose political influence and your friends in society, along with all of your worldly possessions.

In the satisfyingly weighty box (well worth the £30 asking price) you’ll find around 100 cards, 33 wooden tokens and a tree’s worth of cardboard (14 boards in various shapes and sizes and 100 tokens). The art and component quality is great throughout, perfectly catching the light-hearted theme.

As you’ve probably guessed from the component list this is very much a euro game, with worker placement being the key mechanism. And there’s a lot to think about on every move, making this one fall solidly into the ‘medium weight’ euro category. It plays two to five players (more on that later).

The box claims 45-90 minutes, and at the shortest game state we’ve had it as low as 70 minutes - but that in no way includes setup/take down (it’s fiddly). With four or more and with all three boards you’ll likely be running two hours plus, even with experience.

Teaching

As is often the way with euro games from Czech Games Edition, Prodigal’s Club is simpler mechanically than it may lead you to believe at first glance.

Despite a plethora of moving parts and a fiddly set up/round reset, the game’s is actually pretty straightforward. A bit of a brain-burner for sure, but that’s in how you use your actions rather than their individual complexity.

Each player will have a certain number of errand boys (read: workers, represented by top hats) which they will place onto the board, one at a time in turn order. These will either give you an immediate action, cards to play at the end of the round, or a token (varying uses). After errand boys are placed, players play as many of the cards they’ve picked up (and any tokens collected) as they like to further (or lessen?) their cause.

You can play with two or three of the included game boards (possessions, society and election), while anyone owning Last Will can cannibalise it for a fourth option. In each one you choose you’ll start with a certain number of money, friendship or votes accordingly. All your actions see you losing them in some way, with the winner being decided as in classic abstract game Ingenious: the one you’ve done worst at (so your highest remaining score) is your final score.

I’d agree with the suggested idea of using just two boards for teaching, as it reduces play time a little as well as the decision space. But in my experience the possessions and election boards are a little easier on the brain for beginners - which goes against the selections in the rulebook.

As mentioned, the basics of the game will be easy for anyone with worker placement experience - but it’s the complexities that make the game shine. For example there are symbols across all the game boards, cards and various tokens (wine glass, horse, dog, mansion etc) that often help trigger actions: perhaps a card will let you lose one vote for each dog symbol you have.

When you play your cards at the end of the round, you can do them in any order - so it is often possible to manipulate your position cleverly to trigger this type of card to better effect as you play. So you may be able to use one card to move a person on your society track down to a space where it occupies a dog symbol before you trigger your ‘dogs lose votes’ cards - then move that society figure down further to help trigger another card.

The four sides

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

  • The writer: One of the keys to this kind of game is not being able to zero-sum situations, and The Prodigals Club solves this by letting you keep up to four cards in-hand each round. Not only does this let you puzzle out some fun and clever combos, but also keeps your opponents guessing in terms of what your true game position is at any given time.
  • The thinker: While I like that a euro game has taken the Ingenious scoring idea, I can’t help missing the abstract purity of the original. The real key to Ingenious was spotting the tipping point at which you started to block off a player’s chances to score a colour. Here that is negated by having just 2/3 scoring charts, plus a plethora of ways to reduce those numbers. But it is still a solid, thinky euro game with many more good points than bad.
  • The trasher: I didn’t like this one at all. It’s hard to get your head around and repetitive, meaning if you don’t start off liking it you’re unlikely to change your mind. It’s also a bit solitary, and missed the chance at adding things to hit others rather than just helping yourself all the time (maybe an expansion?). Sure you can block board spaces or take cards other’s want, but the symbols mean that you’ll often be taking a card that is pretty useless to you which just wastes your own turn.
  • The dabbler: From the board art to the fabulous top hats, The Prodigals Club is a thematic breath of fresh air. But that said, I really feel it could’ve taken it further. As much as it would seem to carry its theme, I’ve seen precious little table talk in character. Because I think that, despite its Brewster’s Millions veneer, this is an deep abstract euro first and a thematic game second - and a bit too much for me because of it. There’s just a bit too much going on, as in many of CGE’s games: a few less symbols and wrinkles would probably have made it both more fun and accessible, without losing much in the process.

Key observations

My biggest problem with The Prodigals Club is the amount of choice in setup. I realise this goes against the grain of the common ‘replayability is all’ mantra nowadays, but I really don’t buy that.

Two boards or three? And what is better with X players? Crikey - it’s your game, damnit, you tell me! You should know after all - you designed it! With two players, for example, its easy for both players to get to below zero on both tracks but there is only an ‘official’ way to track this on one of the boards. Otherwise it says ‘keep a note of it’. Great - in a game with this many components, you want me to grab a pen and paper…?

At the other end of the scale, the game is a massive table hog. With three boards in play and five players you’d need a massive table - and a good three hours - to make it happen. I can’t help thinking that if it had been two to four, with two boards of three (and no extra board option) they could’ve made a tighter and slightly better board game. I really don’t think the third board adds that much (if anything) to the play experience, so why give me the choice of adding it? I’d sooner have the game the best it could’ve been.

I’ve come to find my sweet spot with The Prodigals Club, but that took patience and several plays. Many people are going to be (and have been) put off of this on their first play purely because of this rather botched attempt at reaching for ever more ridiculous ways to shoehorn in replayability and a bigger spread of player numbers. Ironic, no?

Another issue for some will be the randomness of how the cards come out. As the thrasher mentioned above, some combos will come out that clearly favour an opponent - but by taking them (outside of a two-player game) you can really weaken yourself, so everyone else benefits. Unfortunately, if you don’t have the right position to make them work, some cards are very weak to some and awesome to others.

And finally, the game can definitely be seen as a little dry, puzzly and mathy, which in the theme fails to suggest - or does it? What could possibly be more calculating than trying to lose all these things? I guess the only thematic issue is the humour - something the game only demonstrates in the artwork and some of the card names.

Conclusion

Despite some early reservations I’ve ended up becoming very fond of The Prodigals Club.

It gives your brain a good workout (there’s a strong puzzle element) while not really punishing you in a competitive way - pretty typical mid-weight euro stuff.

But the great theme and novel scoring, plus the mix of immediate actions and end of turn planning, take it a cut above the average in a very busy marketplace. Not a keeper for me, but it was a very, very close run thing! If I wasn’t handing it off to someone in my local gaming group, I doubt I would be parting with it. A really good game, despite a few annoying issues in setup.

* I would like to thank Czech Games Edition for providing a copy of the game for review.

Zombie tower 3D: Kickstarter goal reached, five days left to back it

Posted on by
Reply

Just thought I’d do a quick post to update the crowd-funding situation of Zombie Tower 3D, a game I reviewed back in February.

I’m not mad keen on the whole Kickstarter thing, but this is a game that’s already out in Japan so I know what I played is what you’ll get in the box, with a few improvements.

They’ve already passed their funding goal and still have a few days left before the campaign ends, so if it’s something you liked the look of when I reviewed it I’d suggest you take a look at their Kickstarter before it wraps up on March 16.

The game is a co-operative one but the twist is you can only see your own section of the tower (which is where the 3D bit comes in). This means you don’t have the alpha player problem of many co-ops, where one person (normally with the biggest mouth, but not always the biggest brain…) takes over and spoils the fun for everyone else.

Here you have limited knowledge of what everyone else has to do. Even though you can chat as much as you want, it’s impossible to convey your exact situation so people just get on with fighting their own fires while asking for help when needed (you can trade goods with each other through holes in the walls between players).

The game is also very light on rules, being more of a puzzle, so there’s very little barrier to entry. And don’t be put off by the theme: the zombie thing is very cartoony, so it’s not one you’ll have to hide from the kids. In fact they’ll probably love the manga-style artwork.

So if you like manga, zombies, co-operative board games or all of the above, I’d suggest giving it a look. The price tag of £30 seems reasonable, while some of the next few stretch goals look like they will really enhance the game experience.

One is a full co-op mode which will take away the clunky ‘one player will ultimately win’ idea that we frankly ignored - but it would be nice to be able to ignore it officially! And others include a few new items and hazards which can only help replayability.

And before you ask, no - they didn’t ask me to write this post or pay me to do so. It’s a game I genuinely recommend and that’s still sitting on my shelves as one of a very small number of co-operative games that made the grade.

SorCon 2016: Board gaming bliss… in Basildon?

Posted on by
Reply

At the start of the year I promised myself I’d go to at least one new board game convention. And after asking around with friends about who was going to what, the list soon narrowed itself down to one: SorCon.

Now in its ninth year, SorCon sees a couple of hundred hardy souls getting together in Basildon’s Holiday Inn for three days of gaming.

The location itself is far from salubrious, being bang in the middle of one of those concrete edge-of-town hell holes bereft of soul but chock full of chain restaurants - and the obligatory cinema and bowling alley. That said, the hotel itself was nice, the staff friendly, the food/drinks pretty good and the conference room perfect for gaming.

There’s something nice about gaming in a big space - especially one with reasonably high ceilings and good light. There was always a pleasant hum of chat (not an unpleasant hum of stink) and it helped you feel part of something, rather than being funnelled off into small rooms where you may as well have just stayed at home.

Another real key to my enjoyment off the weekend was how friendly everyone was. I only knew a couple of people when I arrived (with a special thanks to Keef and Claire, my surrogate parents/chauffeurs for the weekend). But everyone I spoke to was fun and accommodating - and my Facebook friends list is now all the better for it.

Gaming highlights: Old favourites

Thankfully, like me, Keef and Claire love their mid-weight euros so my suitcase was brimming with some of my most loved games.

I got games of Concordia, Macau and Deus in and they were all close. Deus saw the three of us separated by just two points; Claire pipped me by six points in Concordia, but I returned the favour in Macao.

I managed three sessions of Codenames, all of which were a good laugh (including one with a doctored version with more adult themed words, courtesy of Phil, Jen, Hannah et al), as well as The Boss (a rare win), Love Letter (a schooling from Craig) and several games of Empire Engine (I think I managed two wins in four games, all against new players - I don’t think I’ll ever be any good at it!).

Gaming highlights: New favourites

The only ‘new’ game I was determined to play over the weekend was Mombasa, which we played the Friday when we arrived. I’ve always found it best to get the one you’re learning from the rulebook out of the way while everyone’s fresh!

I really enjoyed it and we (read: me) only got a few rules wrong - none of which would’ve prevented Claire from taking John, Keef and me to the cleaners. It’s a really solid euro game with a larger than usual take-that element in the area control and a nice thinky discard/deck building system. I’m looking forward to playing it more.

I like to play at least one heavy euro game at each con I go to and this time (thanks to Jennie and Richard) I got to try out Food Chain Magnate.

I would say I learnt it, but that would be a reach! It was my third euro of the day, having taught two already, and it’s fair to say that by the time I started to catch on (despite a great rules explanation) I was dead and buried. It’s a great game though, but mean as hell and totally unforgiving.

It was great to try the recent Pennsylvania map for Ticket to Ride, which adds a stocks element to the mix. I can’t really justify adding another Ticket to Ride map to my collection right now, but it is one of the most fun ones I’ve played.

And an honourable mention for Think Str8! - an abstract game that crosses Hanabi with competitive deduction mechanics. It was ugly as hell, but a really good puzzle game.

SorCon 10: Will I be back in 2017?

Most definitely, life permitting. Having gone with a couple of friends this year I’d now be more than comfortable going on my own if need be. The price is very reasonable, the people are great and I didn’t have a negative thing to say by the end if it (I haven’t even mentioned the pancake machine at breakfast. Oh my…).

If you’ve considered going to a smaller board gaming convention I’d highly recommend this one. As well as open gaming there was a quiz on the Saturday night, a retailer there all weekend if you wanted to buy any games, plus a bring-and-buy area for second hand games. And if you wanted to pop out for a while, there was all kinds of multiplex ‘fun’ to be had on the doorstep.

If you’re considering it, alongside the website linked above there’s a Facebook group for the event which you can sign up for to keep up to date with the various announcements (dates etc). See you next year!