Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
My brother is a board game geek, the side effect of whihc is that every time I am back in town, inevitably we will sit down to numerous family board games. And I am not talking the suckass commerical types either. I got suckered into playing Monopoly a few months back, and damn if I hadn't forgotten how much that game sucks. Everybody bought up the properties, then there was a a big round of trading that left me with all the yellows and reds (Marvin Gardens etc.), someone else wiht the greens and purple and light blues, soeone wiht all the utilities and railroads, and the eventual winner wiht Boardwals/Parkplace and then Baltic/Mediterranean. then we sat around adn rolled dice until somebody accidnetally hit Boardwalk and got crushed, and then I hit Boardwalk and got crushed etc. Yay!
In any case, when I say my brother is a board game geek, it is not for those sorts games that you buy at Toys r Us. It is for a much superior breed of game frequently imported from overseas (the Germans are particularly big gamers). He will still occasionally break out some of the superior commerical products -- Axis & Allies, an old fun catch the thief game named Scotland Yard etc. But for the most part he owns dozens (if not hundreds) of much more serious board games. I've played many of them, and a lot of them are a real blast. Hence the theme tonight is: Best Boardgames You're Never Heard Of*
* (my Ivy League profs would be aghast at that dangling preposition but it just sounds better than "Best Boardgames of Which You've Never Heard).
Cisco ( A- ) -- hyperactive to start this one, to both good and bad effect. The good was that he was our most effective starter, and attacked the Pacers throughout the first half. Also worked well with Brad per usual. The bad that he was bouncing around so much on defense that he was forgetting the basics of staying between his man and the hoop, and the result was an even bigger first half by Dunleavy. Was frequently thrown into basically a PF position in a game in which the smallballing got way out of control and Reggie declined to play ANY big off the bench in favor of Kevin. But Cisco came up big on the glass (and the Pacers played it smallish themselves and pretty much sucked on the boards) and was really our engine during those minutes when Kevin was on the bench. Missed some shots down the stretch and was generally shakier in the last 6 minutes than he had been the rest of the game. gets the lower grade than Kevin here despite the much better rounded numebrs due to minutes (35 to 28) and circumstances (Kevin's first game back). Seems every game of late we've had one or more guys coming up wiht these sorts of minutes. Of course it does not hurt those chances that every game we've got 3 or 4 guys playing 40+ minutes.
Puerto Rico -- this is a truly grand game that came out about 5 years ago. All the players are plantation owners with their own boards. You then choose roles every round that give you special abilities -- you can be a builder for intance to put up a building, or a captain to ship off the goods you are produciing etc. But the key to this game's wild popularity is the variety of strategies to win. You can try to follow a money strategy (my own preference), load up on quarrys to build things easier, expensive goods to sell etc. You can try to follow a trading strategy, or a shipping strategy (my brothers' favorites), and every game you can tweak things, follow a different path, buy different buildings (of which there are a limited supply and not enough to go around), and come at it from an entirely different direction. Not much randomness, which of course I love. Its a strategy game all the way. But with 3,4,5 opponents, your own strategy is constantly being countered and effected by your opponents. Can play this one many times in a row without tiring of it.
Moore ( C ) -- did little as a fish out of water in the first half, and us super-smallballing most of the way. Came back in the second half to give us a little boardwork at least, but was still mostly ineffectual and he was droping balls again. Reggie just benched him and ran four guards basically the entire stretch run. Wonder how much more the minutes might be cut as Reggie flails about looking for minutes once ron and Mike return?
Galaxy Trucker -- and I think this one just came out a year or two ago. In it your job is to construct a spaceship that can survive the rigors of a long voyage and carry goods to the far side. It uses a unique realtime mechanism that seemed like a really really bad idea when I first heard the rules read, but turned out to be a helluva lot of fun. You basically have a spaceship template (several of them actually -- get bigger and more complex each round), and then hundreds of tiles face down in the middle of the board. The tiles are things like guns, engines, passenger compartments, cargo containers etc. etc., all with their own special abilities. And then a timer is flipped and everybody starts grabbing them (one at a time) to try to build the best ship with. All the tiles have varying connectors that have to match up when laid down, and so ships are hard to build, and no two are ever the same. Then you go on your voyage, and cards are drawn bringing you cargo stops at planets (have to have cargo containers in the ship you built) asteroid storms, pirates, abandoned stations etc. etc. The fun part is that as these things are drawn, if you are not ready for them your ships slowly get blown apart piece by piece. That asteroid slams into your crew quarters and that tile is removed from your ship, along with anything connected to it. And you try to get your rambling wreck home to score some points before it is completely destroyed. Fun fun, even while losing, and never the same twice.
Miller ( C+ ) -- Difficult game to grade. Got off to a sloppy sloppy start, making passing TO after passing turnover as we racked up 11 TOs in the first quarter alone, and Brad had 5 of them. Was big on the glass to be sure, and kept hipchecking himself into position against a curiously pliant Pacers frontline. But it was a mess overall. Compunded things by not being able to hit his jumpers, and began to look like tentative Brad once again with both his main weapons (jumper, pass) misfiring. Still managed to make several good passes to cutters, and made a late pass through traffic to Salmons for a three to give us (false) hope. Did outplay Jermaine O'Neal, who was just awful fro three and a half quarters before waking up just in time to contribute to the Pacers victory, and that is probably enough excuse for me to bump his grade a little higher than maybe such inefficiency deserves.
Vegas Showdown -- in this one you play a new casino owner. You start with a blank board, and some cash, and then every round a new set of components become available to bid on. Things like slots, restaraunts, lounges, high rollers rooms etc. Each has a starting minimum bid value, higher for the better ones, that slowly goes down every round that nobody buys it. And each gives you something for you casino, whether it be fame, money, foot traffic etc. They also are all rooms with certain connecting doorways. So you attempt to buy up the best set of rooms and place them connected across your board to from a winning casino. Another free form building game where there are any number of ways to win, and you cannot always outbid people for just the room you want and have to constantly adjust strategy. Lot of fun.
Salmons ( C ) -- struggled for the most part in the first half. Got sloppy and started forcing in the 2nd quarter in particular, and his game did not half the well roundedness from last time out. Improved I thought after the break, but at no point was he anything more than average, and had little if any impact on the game. Looked noticeably unsure of how to play with Kevin on several occasions. Did step up to hit a three late int he game after Brad waddled into the lane and dribbled it toward him. But it was a rare bright spot on a pretty drab turnover-infested outing.
Maya -- this fun little game seems ridiculously simplistic when you first see it. There are a quartet of Mayan temples laid out, each with rows of empty squares on them going up the pyramid (i.e. the bottom row might have 10 squares, the next 8, the next 6 etc. as you ascend). You take your little colored influence blocks and take turns with your opponents putting them onto the various pyramids. The trick is that you only score if you have the most, or second most (or tied) blocks in a given row, and you get bonus points for having more than half in a given row. In between placing rounds, you acquire more influence blocks by trying to win one of 6 special chits with a hand of cards. You play your cards facedown, so does everybody else. You play a 6 for instance under one of the chits, your opponent comes along and dumps down a card there too. You don't know whether its a 6, a 7, an 8 or whatever. So do you waste another card trying to guarantee your victory in that column, or diversify and try to win more than one? The answer could mean you have more or less influence to place the next round. In any case, looks simple and straightforward, and is. But things are never predictable and you are constantly having to adapt.
In any case, when I say my brother is a board game geek, it is not for those sorts games that you buy at Toys r Us. It is for a much superior breed of game frequently imported from overseas (the Germans are particularly big gamers). He will still occasionally break out some of the superior commerical products -- Axis & Allies, an old fun catch the thief game named Scotland Yard etc. But for the most part he owns dozens (if not hundreds) of much more serious board games. I've played many of them, and a lot of them are a real blast. Hence the theme tonight is: Best Boardgames You're Never Heard Of*
* (my Ivy League profs would be aghast at that dangling preposition but it just sounds better than "Best Boardgames of Which You've Never Heard).
Cisco ( A- ) -- hyperactive to start this one, to both good and bad effect. The good was that he was our most effective starter, and attacked the Pacers throughout the first half. Also worked well with Brad per usual. The bad that he was bouncing around so much on defense that he was forgetting the basics of staying between his man and the hoop, and the result was an even bigger first half by Dunleavy. Was frequently thrown into basically a PF position in a game in which the smallballing got way out of control and Reggie declined to play ANY big off the bench in favor of Kevin. But Cisco came up big on the glass (and the Pacers played it smallish themselves and pretty much sucked on the boards) and was really our engine during those minutes when Kevin was on the bench. Missed some shots down the stretch and was generally shakier in the last 6 minutes than he had been the rest of the game. gets the lower grade than Kevin here despite the much better rounded numebrs due to minutes (35 to 28) and circumstances (Kevin's first game back). Seems every game of late we've had one or more guys coming up wiht these sorts of minutes. Of course it does not hurt those chances that every game we've got 3 or 4 guys playing 40+ minutes.
Puerto Rico -- this is a truly grand game that came out about 5 years ago. All the players are plantation owners with their own boards. You then choose roles every round that give you special abilities -- you can be a builder for intance to put up a building, or a captain to ship off the goods you are produciing etc. But the key to this game's wild popularity is the variety of strategies to win. You can try to follow a money strategy (my own preference), load up on quarrys to build things easier, expensive goods to sell etc. You can try to follow a trading strategy, or a shipping strategy (my brothers' favorites), and every game you can tweak things, follow a different path, buy different buildings (of which there are a limited supply and not enough to go around), and come at it from an entirely different direction. Not much randomness, which of course I love. Its a strategy game all the way. But with 3,4,5 opponents, your own strategy is constantly being countered and effected by your opponents. Can play this one many times in a row without tiring of it.
Moore ( C ) -- did little as a fish out of water in the first half, and us super-smallballing most of the way. Came back in the second half to give us a little boardwork at least, but was still mostly ineffectual and he was droping balls again. Reggie just benched him and ran four guards basically the entire stretch run. Wonder how much more the minutes might be cut as Reggie flails about looking for minutes once ron and Mike return?
Galaxy Trucker -- and I think this one just came out a year or two ago. In it your job is to construct a spaceship that can survive the rigors of a long voyage and carry goods to the far side. It uses a unique realtime mechanism that seemed like a really really bad idea when I first heard the rules read, but turned out to be a helluva lot of fun. You basically have a spaceship template (several of them actually -- get bigger and more complex each round), and then hundreds of tiles face down in the middle of the board. The tiles are things like guns, engines, passenger compartments, cargo containers etc. etc., all with their own special abilities. And then a timer is flipped and everybody starts grabbing them (one at a time) to try to build the best ship with. All the tiles have varying connectors that have to match up when laid down, and so ships are hard to build, and no two are ever the same. Then you go on your voyage, and cards are drawn bringing you cargo stops at planets (have to have cargo containers in the ship you built) asteroid storms, pirates, abandoned stations etc. etc. The fun part is that as these things are drawn, if you are not ready for them your ships slowly get blown apart piece by piece. That asteroid slams into your crew quarters and that tile is removed from your ship, along with anything connected to it. And you try to get your rambling wreck home to score some points before it is completely destroyed. Fun fun, even while losing, and never the same twice.
Miller ( C+ ) -- Difficult game to grade. Got off to a sloppy sloppy start, making passing TO after passing turnover as we racked up 11 TOs in the first quarter alone, and Brad had 5 of them. Was big on the glass to be sure, and kept hipchecking himself into position against a curiously pliant Pacers frontline. But it was a mess overall. Compunded things by not being able to hit his jumpers, and began to look like tentative Brad once again with both his main weapons (jumper, pass) misfiring. Still managed to make several good passes to cutters, and made a late pass through traffic to Salmons for a three to give us (false) hope. Did outplay Jermaine O'Neal, who was just awful fro three and a half quarters before waking up just in time to contribute to the Pacers victory, and that is probably enough excuse for me to bump his grade a little higher than maybe such inefficiency deserves.
Vegas Showdown -- in this one you play a new casino owner. You start with a blank board, and some cash, and then every round a new set of components become available to bid on. Things like slots, restaraunts, lounges, high rollers rooms etc. Each has a starting minimum bid value, higher for the better ones, that slowly goes down every round that nobody buys it. And each gives you something for you casino, whether it be fame, money, foot traffic etc. They also are all rooms with certain connecting doorways. So you attempt to buy up the best set of rooms and place them connected across your board to from a winning casino. Another free form building game where there are any number of ways to win, and you cannot always outbid people for just the room you want and have to constantly adjust strategy. Lot of fun.
Salmons ( C ) -- struggled for the most part in the first half. Got sloppy and started forcing in the 2nd quarter in particular, and his game did not half the well roundedness from last time out. Improved I thought after the break, but at no point was he anything more than average, and had little if any impact on the game. Looked noticeably unsure of how to play with Kevin on several occasions. Did step up to hit a three late int he game after Brad waddled into the lane and dribbled it toward him. But it was a rare bright spot on a pretty drab turnover-infested outing.
Maya -- this fun little game seems ridiculously simplistic when you first see it. There are a quartet of Mayan temples laid out, each with rows of empty squares on them going up the pyramid (i.e. the bottom row might have 10 squares, the next 8, the next 6 etc. as you ascend). You take your little colored influence blocks and take turns with your opponents putting them onto the various pyramids. The trick is that you only score if you have the most, or second most (or tied) blocks in a given row, and you get bonus points for having more than half in a given row. In between placing rounds, you acquire more influence blocks by trying to win one of 6 special chits with a hand of cards. You play your cards facedown, so does everybody else. You play a 6 for instance under one of the chits, your opponent comes along and dumps down a card there too. You don't know whether its a 6, a 7, an 8 or whatever. So do you waste another card trying to guarantee your victory in that column, or diversify and try to win more than one? The answer could mean you have more or less influence to place the next round. In any case, looks simple and straightforward, and is. But things are never predictable and you are constantly having to adapt.
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