===The Zen of Boardgaming===

Some thoughts on 18MEX

2008-09-02T15:20:00Z

My first game of 18MEX was held at OTK, PJ last Saturday (30th August) with Norman, Jefri and me. The game ended with Norman in first place, me in second and Jefri coming in dead last.

18MEX is an 18xx game with an extremely terrain heavy map. Almost 98% of the map is covered in terrain with cost ranging from $20 to $120. One thing I realized about 18MEX is that in order for your minor to operate, you must have a corporation nearby to provide support to the minor as the terrain cost to lay tracks makes it impossible for the minor to operate by itself.

Also, the private company that grants 1 free share of Chihuahua Railways is quite powerful as CR comes with 4 stations and starts at a very lucrative position. This private company should never go cheap. Another private to look out for is the one that grants the player a president share of NdM. The NdM merger corp is quite powerful as it's train limit is 1 more than the other corporations. This coupled with the ability to have 4 stations + 2 more if there was a merger makes NdM a late game monster.

Other powerful starting corps include Mexican Railways, FCP, and Texas Mexican Railways.

In 18MEX, Mexico City is key. Token it early or risked being blocked out of it in late game.

The stock round makes for interesting but kinda long plays. This is especially true in the final stock round. In our game last saturday, Norman and I were trashing Jefri's stocks to make a quick buck. The ability to sell then buy in the same turn allows us to get rid of non-performing stocks (Jefri's) and buying stocks in high EPS corporations. Jefri's Mexican Central ended the game in the yellow zone.

Another feature of 18MEX is the fierce train rush after the first 4 train is bought as the purchase one train per turn cap limit is lifted. Consider this, there are three 4-trains (rusts 2 trains), two 5-trains (permanent), two 6-trains (permanent, first 6-train will rusts 3 trains; second 6-train will obselete the 4-trains), and only seven 4D trains. There are 8 corporations in the game, each can have up to 2 trains on grey except for NdM with a 3 train limit. Which means, there are not enough trains to go around. Some corporations will go without any trains, and most corporations will only end up with 1 train. The NdM usually gets the lion share (3 permanent trains) as it has the most money.

When playing 18MEX, beware of Hot Sun tactics (bound to happen in the game, considering the high cost of laying tracks and the limited number of permanents coupled with the deadly pair of 6-trains which kills off the 3's and 4-trains).

Till next time, Ding Dong and happy Train-ing...

Race for the Galaxy strategies for newbies

2008-04-21T06:34:00Z

Race for the Galaxy (2007, Rio Grande Games) is currently the 'new' hot game of 2007-08. At the time of this article, Race for the Galaxy is comfortably seated at #10, dethroning Age of Steam to #11 on the BGG ranking chart.

This is not a review of Race for the Galaxy (RftG) but more of an in-depth analysis after playing more than 50 games in 2 weeks.

As most RftG seasoned players would know, there are numerous paths (or ways) to win in the game. The beauty of the game lies in its deceptively simple yet deep and balanced gameplay. A typical game of RftG, whether if it is with 2, 3 or even 4 players, will take roughly around 30-45 minutes. Setup time is around 3 minutes.

The win strategies can be divided into 4 main branches : development strategy, military strategy, consume/produce strategy and trading strategy. Before we divulge further into each of the different strategies, I must stress again that there is no best way to win. Each strategy has its own strengths and weaknesses. So, for example, in game #1, military strategy was the game winner but yet in game #2, it was the consume/produce strategy.

Development Strategy

Development strategy is based upon Development Discount cards (-x to develop) and Development Phase Card Draws (draw X cards when develop etc.) to hasten the end of the game plus pulling out as many heavy hitters (development cards) as humanly can.

Strengths : Second fastest strategy and most of the 6-cost buildings score alternate v.p's for development cards in play also.

Weaknesses : Cannot settle or produce or even consume. Phase options are limited to Explore +1/+1, Explore +5 and Develop. Cannot outdraw Trading player (+3 cards vs +8 cards).

Military Strategy

Ideally, you should get New Sparta (+2 to military) as a starting planet and at least some +? to military cards in your starting hand before you embark on this strategy. Military is all about speed. Your opponents can't hurt what they can't see.

Strengths : The fastest strategy. Possible to win on turn 6. On average turn 10. Larger military planets score huge v.p's. Military planets must be conquered, thus you play them essentially for free. You can play military planets as long as your bonuses are equal to or more than the planet's cost.

Weaknesses : If you can't win by the 12 turn, you are as good as dead. The consume/produce and trade players would have eaten you alive with their 20+ v.p's generated from their card engines. Also, you don't get much options when choosing a phase to play. It is usually a toss up between Explore +5 and Settle. On rare occasions, you would go for Trade- Consume to draw 5 cards off your Alien technology buildings.

Consume/Produce Strategy

This style of play is all about playing planets and developments that would give you tons of v.p's from consuming goods and of course, playing production planets, ...lots of them.

Strengths : Once the engine is on-line, you can choose Consume/Produce each turn, oblivious to what the other players are doing. You have multiple options on what phase to pick each turn, you can utilize all the phases to your own advantage.

Weaknesses : Very slow in reaping the rewards. By the time you generate your first few v.p's the game might be entering its final few rounds. Need at least a 3-5 card combination to make it work. And 7-10 cards for it to run at its optimum capacity.

Trading Strategy

The Trading player draw multiple cards from selling his/her goods during the Trade/Consume phase. From the cards drawn, he/she could play more developments and planets that gives +$? to trade to even draw more cards when trading. Drawing 10 cards a turn is the norm for players employing this strategy.

Strengths : Draw lots of cards. More cards = more and better options. You can leech off other players as you have enough cards to develop and settle on the same turn. Does not need much cards in play to get the card-drawing engine going. On average 2-3 cards which gives trading bonuses and a yellow production planet.

Weaknesses : Quite slow to win. Cards in hand do not generate v.p's unless you have Merchant World or Deficit Spendings in play. Picking the Trade/Consume role might benefit the Consume/Produce players.

In conclusion, the strategy that you pick really depends on your starting planet, starting cards in hand and what you drew over the course of the game. You then pick the best strategy with the cards that you have in play and in your hand.

Sessions Report : Petaling Jaya's Boardgame Meetup

2008-02-25T04:52:00Z

Gamers present that day : Jerry, Alan, Carmen, Sendi, and Marcus.

Games Played : Hameln, Carcassonne with Inns and Cathedrals and Traders and Builders (3 plays)

Marcus was the first to arrive (at 7:50pm). Then 15 minutes later, Alan came in. Carmen was next. Then, it was Sendi and lastly Jerry. Jin couldn't make it as he had to attend a B-day party. Michelle, Jasmine, Gloria and Jess turned up as we were wrapping up our session at 11pm. Cheryl and Triona couldn't make it at the last minute.

First up was Hameln (Marcus, Alan, Carmen and Sendi). Marcus and Alan took an early lead due to the fact that the girls were a bit blur on the rules. By the end of the first round, the girls were still blur, so we decided to play Carcassonne instead. Jerry joined us for Carcassonne.

First game (basic set with no expansions) was just an introduction. Marcus quickily pull ahead with quick castle points and road building. The girls were cooperating and building mega castle projects. Alan has bad tile draws and Jerry was basically playing with himself. Marcus did some vicious Farmer placements to win the game. Final score : Marcus 85, Sendi 54, Carmen 52, Jerry 49, Alan 45.

Second game was more vicious (with Inns and Cathedrals expansion). At some point during the game, Jerry placed a Cathedral tile on Carmen's castle. But luckily, she managed to finish it before game end, netting her 27 points. Final score : Carmen 78, Sendi 67, Jerry 55, Alan 53, Marcus 49.

Third game was a typical boys-vs-the-girls scenario. Alan, Jerry and Marcus cooperated to built their mega castle project but unfortunately was stopped short of finishing it by a clever tile placement ('kena blocked') by Sendi. Still, the castle score 18 points each for the boys at end game. The girls were furiously helping each other throughout the game ("here, you need this tile to finish, I'll help you"). Final score : Jerry 70, Marcus 66, Alan 65, Sendi 45, Carmen 51.

At 11pm, after our 3rd game of Carcassonne, we decided to call it a wrap and head home.

Till next week. Zen Emono.

How to be a playa or Why do some gamers get all the girls...

2007-08-17T05:22:00Z

Boardgamers are a sad lot. Most of us can't even hold a decent conversation with the opposite sex let alone go pass the strikeout stage. But, there is still hope.. a certain ladies man cum boardgamer has decided to let other boardgamers in on his secret on how to go for the homerun stretch. Let's name him Datuk L for now as he wishes to remain anonymous.

Me : Good morning, Datuk L.

Datuk L : Morning, Fried.

Me : So, I understand that you are a ladies man and here to save the entire boardgaming race from extinction. Am I right?

Datuk L : Yes, yes. I like it when you go straight to the point. Women like it too. *batting his eyelashes*

Me : Err.. ok, so, please continue..

Datuk L : Well, first of all, girls absolutely dig guys with a bad boy attitude. A boardgamer who throws tantrums when he is losing at games would definitely impress a lot of girls especially the ones in the next table. *He looks at the bevy of farangs in the next table and winks at them. The caucasian girls actually smiled at him back. Imagine that.* Extra brownie points for the gamer who overturns the table in mid game just as the other player is going for the win.

Me : Why is that? Please, Datuk, do explain.

Datuk L : It's simple. Every girl dreams of taming a bad boy. Or else, why do you think aanemesis is so popular with the girls. He is the epitomy of a rebel without a cause. Smoking his cigarettes, while playing a game of Arkham Horror, with a devil may care attitude. Come what may, with a come hither stare. And a really cool pair of sunglasses to boot.

Me : I see. So, what else? Please continue, sir.

Datuk L : Girls also swoon over gamers who know their stuff, know what I mean. *Datuk L briefly turn his head around and tip his top hat at a passing Eurasian girl. The girl then smiled and toss her name card to him. Then, I heard her whispered to him "Call me, please".*

Me : Umm.. actually, no.

Datuk L : Hmm... let me put it this way : girls are impressed by any gamer who knows the Advanced Squad Leader rulebook from front to back and can play the 18xx series really well. Also, it helps to speak the gaming lingo. Words like "Hot Sun", "Double Time", "Clear LOS to target" are generally the 'hot' words, if you catch my drift.

Me : That's so deep, man. But yeah, go on.

Datuk L : As I was saying, that's why, I'm the playa and you are just a gamer. *smirks*

Me : I see. Thank you for the insight.

Datuk L : No problem. Also another thing, girls generally go for guys who can splurge on boardgames, especially the rare and OOP ones. For example, if you are a girl, would you prefer a guy who has Age of Empires III, or the rich kid who owns Union Pacific, 1829 and Dune?

Me : I would definitely go for the rich kid... that is, if I were a girl, of course.

Datuk L : Yes. Yes. See my point here? It is very logical, no? Imagine if you are hitting on a girl in a certain gaming cafe, and you went "Hey baby, I just got Age of Empires III, wanna play?" The poor girl would probably go "Ewww.. AOEIII has really bad reviews, no thank you, sir. And get that ugly game out of my sight." But, if you went "Hey sugar, you so fly. I really dig you, lady. Why not you and me head over to that table over there and play my new '7 Ages' game. I heard it has sweet reviews.", there is a good chance that she would agree to play with you.

Me : Alright. Point taken.

Datuk L : So, anyway, I have to go now. Need to call someone really quick. I'll see you at the next boardgame meet, ya?

Me : Yes, O'Captain, my Captain. And thank you for taking time off your busy schedule to be interviewed.

Datuk L : The pleasure is all mine. It feels good to save you poor sops from extinction. Hehe.. Anyway, gotta go. Ciao!

So, there you go, I have divulge the secret to scoring with hot, unattainable girls. And we, at boardgamecafe are lucky enough to get the inside scoop (first hand) before it is presented to the rest of the gaming world. At least we are getting first dips here.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get 'em, Tiger.....

Till next time, people. Zen Emono.

Beginner's Primer to Age of Steam Part 1

2007-08-10T11:27:00Z

Why Money Is So Tight In Age of Steam?

Money is a fundamental commodity in any rail-based games that we play. In AoS, it is no different. Money is used to bid for player order, build tracks and pay your expenses.

Age of Steam starts each player out with expenses of $3 (2 shares + level 1 locomotive). Each share gives the player $5 to play with, so, each player starts out with $10. Expenses must be paid out every turn and in the first turn, your expense is already $3 if you didn't increase your expenses by :

a) Issuing more shares
b) upgrading your locomotive.

Also, in AoS, each link you deliver will only net you +1 income (unlike in railroad tycoon, where the first link you deliver in the first turn nets you $3).

To make things even tighter, shares can only be issued at the beginning of each round!

Let's see where the $10 (starting money) goes to in the first turn :

a) Bidding for turn order - Money is used to bid for turn order. The highest and second highest bidder pays in full, while the rest pays half of their current bid (round up) and the last player (first one to pass) pays nothing. Remember you cannot take out more shares at this point to pay for your bid as you can only issue shares at the beginning of each turn.

b) Building tracks (up to 3 hexes, unless engineer role is selected) - During this phase, the highest bidder builds first (unless someone takes first build, then he/she preceeds the highest bidder). Track costs are as follows (price are per hex) - Simple tracks - $2 for normal green hexes, $3 for rivers, $4 for mountains. Complex crossing tracks - $3 for normal, $4 for rivers, $5 for mountains. Complex co-exist tracks - $4 for normal, $5 for rivers, $6 for mountains. Upgrading a simple to complex (counts as track laying) - $3. Building through towns - $1 + $1 for each track leading out of town. Upgrading town hex - $3. So, if you want to build a 3 hex link using simple tracks on green (normal) hexes - it would cost you $6 and that is the bare minimum. Most AoS boards are loaded with mountains and rivers.

c) Pay expenses - At the end of every turn, you must pay $1 for each share taken and for each level of your engine. For example, if Player A has taken out 4 shares and owns a level 3 locomotive engine. He must pay $7.

Doesn't sound much does it? Well, there is one more thing. Delivering cubes to their respective cities using your own tracks (ala Railroad Tycoon) is the only way to generate income. But you can only do this twice a turn.

So, on the first turn, if you didn't take out any additional shares, didn't upgrade your engine, bid $3 to start second, build 3 tracks only on green hexes, and managed to maximise your delivery (2 cubes delivered) (a very unlikely scenario actually), you would end up with no money : +$10 (starting money from the 2 shares) -$3 (your bid) -$6 (track building cost) +$2 (Good delivery income) -$3 (Your expenses) =$0.

So, you are left with no money and laden with an expense of $3 to foot in your next round (and every round after, unless you increase your debts, whcih means, you have even more expenses to cover). Looks like you have to issue more shares and get laden in more debts. Sounds very promising, doesn't it?

Also, when you reach a certain income point on the income track, an income reduction will occur. Anywhere from -2 income reduction ($11-$20) to -10 income reduction ($50+) will be deducted from your income track every turn as long as you land on the income reduction track.

Next article : How do you break even towards the last few turns? Or must you enter a spiral of debts until the end?

A Quick Analysis of Age of Steam : Ireland

2007-08-10T09:35:00Z

Age of Steam : Ireland comes into a two map expansion, produced by Warfrog in 2002. This expansion was number Expansion #1 and is the first of four official expansions released by Warfrog/Winsome Games LLC. There are only 2,000 copies of this expansion in the world, due to short-sightedness of Winsome and Martin Wallace on the popularity of the game. Incidently, there are only 3,000 copies of the 1st and 2nd edition of the Age of Steam base set in existance. This, coupled with the game being in the top ten of boardgamegeek ranking for donkey years, contributed to the sky high prices of the game and its expansions. Furthermore, the rift between Martin Wallace (AoS game designer) and Winsome Games have provoked price hikes on every available copies on sale. The announcement of the 3rd edition of Age of Steam didn't help either, as it will be produced by Mayfair games and will introduce a number of major changes that made the game evolved more into Railroad Tycoon than the Age of Steam that we know and love.

Based on the 2 plays of the Age of Steam Expansion #1 (Ireland/England) I clocked in so far, I can safely say that Ireland map is designed for 3-4 players in mind, while the England side of the map is designed for 5-6 players. For this article, I would presume that you already know how to play Age of Steam and since this article is about the Ireland map, I will leave out the England map for now. It will be covered in future articles.

There are several notable changes to the rules for the Ireland map. I have listed them out below.

a) Locomotive Action - This action has been changed to upgrading your locomotive twice but at the cost of moving goods (forfeit both move goods action during the move goods phase).

b) Deurbanization Action - There are no New Cities, so urbanization is not used. Instead, Deurbanization allows a player to remove one cube from any one city and put it back into the bag. This action must be performed at the beginning of the deliver cubes phase and is done twice (two cubes per round).

c) One Round Less - There is one less round to play when playing with Ireland map.

d) Brown Cities - Each brown city starts with a predetermined number of cubes. There shall be no more cubes appearing in these cities throughout the game. Cubes can pass through these cities but cannot end their movement there (Brown Cities are considered colorless).

e) Ferry Links - Ferry Links can be built to several (five) off-board locations. These links cost $6 to build and you can only build one of these per round. Building these links counts as one of your track lay and counts as 1 v.p. at the end of the game. All yellow, red and blue cities can only be accessed by ferry links.

That's it. Those are the rule changes for the Ireland map. Now we get nitty and gritty, analyzing each and every aspect of this map.

First up.

Deurbanization

This action, in my opinion, is the most powerful action in the game. This not only allows you to remove another player's 5 link delivery cube (and you get to do it twice too) but also force the other players to deliver cubes using your link, since all the other cubes have been deurbanized.

Ferry Links

Costing $6 to build a ferry link can be quite pricey, especially in the first round. But the only way you can access the yellow, red and blue cities is by building a ferry link. Each offboard city is linked by only 1 ferry link, except for the Blue/Red city, of which, two links can be built. So far, I have never seen anyone won by not building a ferry link. Ferry links are very important, especially in the late game.

Brown Cities

There are quite a number of brown cities on the map. The rest are colored cities, there are 10 of these colored cities in total (5 of them are off-board cities, 2 of them will have no new cubes place on them as they are not numbered). The Brown Cities are not numbered and instead have 2-3 cubes each at the start of the game. Once the cities dry up, there will be no more new cubes appearing in these cities. Cubes cannot end their movement here but can pass through these cities. These cities are not that important but are still needed as once all of the colored cities are taken up, you are forced to build into these cities.

In order to play this map really well, you must understand several things. That one : Deurbanization is very improtant and is usually the first pick (ask phuah or aanemesis). Two : Locomotive is a lot weaker in this expansion (AyHeng should know). And Three : Always build ferry links when you have the chance to. You might regret later if you don't.

That is all for this installment of The Zen of Boardgaming. Any feedbacks or ideas are appreciated.

18XX, I'm Hooked On You....

2007-06-27T10:06:00Z

I have been a huge fan and one of the biggest avocate of the 18XX game series ever since my first introduction into the wonderful world of 18XX (many, many thanks to Shyam (Houston Gamers) & Champion Eternal). Hence, from that day forth, I have been clocking in more than 30 games of 18XX, averaging out to 4-5 games per month.

So, why do I love the 18XX series so much? It is very simple actually. 18XX combines the best mechanics from stock market games (think Indonesia), the tightly oiled train operational mechanics from the very best train games around (e.g. Age of Steam) and coupled with the no luck factor, you will easily see the draw/beauty of the game. 18XX is the soccer of the gaming world. La liga bonita (the beautiful game), some would say.

Everything from its no mess private companies auction to the round by round operations of mega train corporations, it is all faithfully replicated here. If a CEO can syphon money out of his company into his own private account in real life, you can do it here also. Almost everything a railroad company CEO can do in the real world, you can do it here also (abeit in a smaller scale).

Thus, 18XX is like an onion, peeling off a layer will reveal the next layer. And there are many layers waiting to be peeled off, like an onion. So, in short, it is a very deep game with many intricate layers and multiple workable strategies. There is no wrong or right when playing this particular genre. What might work previously, may not work this time. The best 18XX players will tailor their game plan to the current situation in the game and not just stick to one.

But, be forewarned, 18XX is not an easy game to get into. It will probably take at least 2 games for you to learn how to play it. And probably another 4 games for you to learn how to pull off brutal plays in the game. Still, it will take at least another 30+ games before you know how to play fairly well.

Ever since the first 18XX game (1829) was released years ago, there are now numerous kits available for purchase and play in the 18XX series. Basically, 18XX is a generic name for the many kits that derived itself from the original 1830 and 1829 games. Each kit are essentially different with only the core mechanics being the same. The more complicated kits have merger companies, government loans, bank loans, ferry lines, conversion from 5 share to 10 share companies, company destination objectives, 2D share market with yellow, red and black zones, etc.

At this moment, the only 18XX games available for play belongs to Champion Eternal, jack208 and me (all hardcore Boardgamecafe kaki's). For more details, please see the 18XX forum in www.boardgamecafe.net for a complete list of 18XX games that we have. If you are interested in either watching a game or actually learning how to play it, please feel free to contact any one of us and we will gladly organise a learning session just for you! Please give us at least a week's notice in advance as we need to fit it into our gaming schedule. A learning game of 18XX will probably take at least 3-4 hours. Till next time...

Happy 18xx-ing!!

The Dawn of a New Imperium

2007-06-20T05:04:00Z

"Sir, we are approaching target, T-15 seconds"

"Bring the shields down 50%, activate the ion deep space cannon" barked Captain Johnson.

"10-4" retorted Lieutenant Smith.

As they drew nearer, the other officers in the control room gasped loudly.

"It is huge... almost the size of our home planet!!" exclaims Petty Officer Dawson.

"Now is NOT the time to panic! Get ready, men. We will take that beast down." Captain Johnson replied nonchalantly.

As the vessel drew nearer, the mammoth sphere structure eclipsed the twin suns of Mecatol Rex. At that moment, the vessel was plunged into total darkness.

"FIRE!!!"

The first bolt of blue beam cuts through the emptiness of space, finding its way towards the mechanical planet-like ship. The bolt hits its target dead center. Then, there was an akward silence. No loud explosion. Nothing can be heard at all.

"Impossible! Nothing can withstand a Lazzax Dreadnaught's Ion Blast at almost full power." retorted arrogant arrogant Captain, "Bring the ship's main shield and power down by another 30%, set thrusters to minimal and concentrate all power to the ion cannon."

"But, sir..." answered a visibily shaken Smith.

"Just do it!"

"Affirmative, sir." replied Lieutinent Smith with a heavy heart "All set."

"FIRE!!!"

Again a flash of beam energy is fired from the vessel, it was twice the size and speed of the previous beam. The bolt hits the planet sized ship dead center. This time, however, an explosion was heard, somewhat muffle but it was clear that the monster had taken a direct hit.

A few moments later, a loud explosion was heard, and in a flash of blinding light, the beast disintegrated into nothingness.

"We did it sir, We took it down." said the Lieutenant.

"Hm..." was the Captain's only reply.

The Captain was a man of few words. He was respected and feared throughout the known Imperium as a master tactician and warmonger. But at that very moment, he was puzzled, very puzzled. He thought to himself, what or who made this must be insane and how was it possible - a ship the size of a planet. So many questions, so little answers.

"But... how are we going to get home? All of our fuel cells are almost depleted." Dawson asked, breaking the Captain's chain of thought.

The Captain answered calmly, "Radio for help. They should be here in a minute or two.."

Looming in the distance, unknown to the crew of "The Devourer", was another ship, identical to the one that they had just destroyed moments ago. But this time, it was accompanied by an entourage of 60 medium-sized ships...

A deep voice within the belly of the 'beastly' ship calmly proclaimed, in a very somber voice "Today, Mecatol Rex. Tomorrow the Galaxy... Hahahahahha...."

Welcome to the world of Twilight Imperium : Third Edition. The game of Intergalactic warfare, trade and politics for 3-8 players (The expansion adds two additional players).

The game is played out over a modular hex board, representing the known galaxy in Twilight Imperium. There are 14 unique races to choose from and control, forming the major races fighting for control over the galaxy. Each race has its own starting home planet, special abilities and starting race technologies.

The game comes in a really bix box, which is part of the Fantasy Flight Games big box series (the other three being Descent: Journeys into the Dark, World of Warcraft and Tide of Iron)

The box is jam packed with more than 300 miniature ships, 400+ cards, thousands of tokens, 4 ten-sided dice, counters (lots of them), and around 50+ hexagon tiles (to make the game board). It also comes with oversized race sheets, one for each race represented in the game, detailing the racial abilities, starting home planets, starting technologies, costs, movement and combat value of each ship found in TI3.

The rulebook is a massive 30+ full coloured book filled with beautiful illustrations.

The recommended length of play for the base set is around 3-8 hours, of which, is quite long but it is well worth your time.

In conclusion, TI3 is a massive and highly replayable game as each and every session is played very differently (modular gameboard, lots of races to choose from). And because of this, TI3 has a huge following here on BGCafe.net. Even I, have my own personal copy, complete with the expansion set. And it is, by far, one of the best space theme wargame out there.

So, are you ready to take on the known galaxy? Do you have what it takes? Play on and find out.

Walk the Talk or How To Look Like A Pro Gamer...

2007-04-16T05:54:00Z

“Do you know that there are more than 2,000 two letter words that are legal in a scrabble tournament. I will list them one by one now, so listen carefully. I will only repeat each letter three times....” ryhen, Scrabble King of Malaysia.

We are all boardgamers. Chances are, that if you are reading this article, you are already a full fledged member of boardgamecafe. So, the million dollar question is : what is a boardgamer? Yes, true, a big part of it, is of course, playing boardgames. Then there is also the physical aspect of it too. Below are some finer points on making your mark as a hardcore gamer. Follow these pointers and very soon, you will gain the ‘Respect’ of your non-gaming peers.

a) Personal Hygiene - Being gamers, we should never ever shower more than once a week (that’s what deodorants are for), bother to shave or even change our underwear. This is because, we as gamers will spend most of what little time we have, thinking about and playing boardgames. That’s how it should be. I mean, why waste precious minutes in a day to shower, shave or even bother to shop for new clothes. Games are our lifeline, and center of our universe. Everything else are just added distractions.

b) The Lingo - Gamers are a cool lot. We have our own group of ‘uber-cool’ gaming friends, so we tend to snub other non-gamers at our office, workplace, college and even at home. What is more cooler than having our very own language? Pepper your conversations and sentences with words like ‘Hotsun’, ‘Analysis Paralysis’, 18XX and ‘Eurogames’. And I can guarantee you that pretty soon, non-gamers will be intrigued to learn more about our exclusive hobby.

For example, if a colleague asked us a question like “What do you think of the meeting?”, we could reply with a simple “Well, it was like getting “Hotsun-ed” in 1856 right before the CGR was formed. And also, did you realize that the CEO of XYZ Corp was actually trying to pull a ‘Tempus’ on us? But we’re too smart for that, aren’t we? The things he spoke about was so deep that I was getting ‘Analysis Paralysis’ every 5 minutes. Did you see Chad, he was ‘Shanghai-ing’ poor Elisa in the boardroom, trying very hard to get a ‘priority deal‘ from her.”

See, it’s that easy...

c) Being Cool - Most ‘cool’ groups/cliques aren’t all that cool at all. Behind that facade of exterior coolness, lies an insecured, unintelligent, boring group. But, being part of the boardgaming crowd (especially the OTK group), we are fortunate because not only do we look so darn cool, but we are also cool inside (look at ryhen, he‘s the coolest of the bunch). So, stand tall and start walking like a boardgamer (legs apart, right hand above the chest with right wrist flicking furiously like you are rolling dice or shuffling some imaginary cards) and dress like one too (short, cream colored shorts with large pockets [make sure it is large enough to fit Twilight Imperium 3 in it], polo t-shirt with the words “boardgamecafe” on the front and “Memoir ‘44” on the back [you can order one from BGC or Jack208], and an extra extra large backpack to put your games in it [make sure it is spacious enough to fit Roads & Boats, Antiquity and Campaign for North Africa in it and still have enough space left for Descent : Journeys in the Dark]).

d) Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize... - A super-hardcore gamer’s arsenal includes (besides boardgames) a laminating machine (required), laminating sheets (preferably 120 microns and above), zip-lock baggies (small, medium, big, and extra large sizes required), ultra pro sleeves of all types and sizes, hot sealer (to laminate tokens, counters etc.), fishing tuck boxes of all sizes, card boxes (to house your cards), sticky wrap (to laminate 18XX tiles and gameboards), UV coating machine, and of course, the omnipotent heat shrink wrapper to turn your old junk into brand new games. Imagine this... with the uber heat shrink wrapper, you can bring a brand 'new' game to the gaming table every week. (eg. “Hey guys, wanna play with my ‘new’ Puerto Rico’ set? See, it‘s still in its shrink wrap, unopened...” “Darn, dude. That’s the 10th new in the box, shrink wrapped “Puerto Rico” set that you have brought out to play with us this month. We are really honored..”)

So, follow these pointers and in no time, you will become the ultimate geek gamer. Who knows, maybe one day you will even get a statue erected in your image with the words 'Ultimate Hardcore Eurogamer' etched on it. But one thing is for sure, you will definately be the envy of all your friends. Always remember: the smelly, twitching gamer always get the girl... Till next time - Zen emono!

=============The Zen of Boardgaming=============

Coming Soon - How to be a playa or Why do some gamers get all the girls...

Descent : The Ultimate Dungeon Crawl

2007-01-02T14:04:00Z

"I... cannot... must not... remember the horrors I saw that day...." Sir Valadir the Paladin.

Descent: Journeys in the Dark is part of Fantasy Flight Games's Big Box series. It comes in a hefty box (slightly bigger than the TI3 box) and weighs around 20 kgs (with the Well of Darkness expansion).

The game is choke full of miniatures (60 mythical baddies and 16 heroes in the base set, the expansion adds in another 27 monsters and 6 heroes) and filled to the brim with almost a thousand pieces of tokens, counters, character sheets, dungeon tiles, doors, etc. Everything in Descent spells big, even the name is a mouthful. The dragon model has a wingspan of at least 6 inches and a height of around 4 inches. Yes, the miniatures in Descent are that big!

The game centers around a bunch of heroes walking around in the dungeon in pitch darkness (hence the name Descent: Journeys in the Dark). A typical game session will see a hero being thrown into a pit, while another being chased by a giant boulder (Indiana Jones style), and the rest battling the big bad dragon and his buddy the Stone Golem while trying to avoid being sliced into half by the rotating blades on the dungeon walls. Along the way, the heroes will encounter kobolds, undead skeleton archers, evil sorcerers, giant spiders and even a Naga (a giant snake with a human head). There are more than 20 different types of monsters to be found and ..ahem .. slaughter in this game.

The game ending conditions are simple, heroes will win if they defeat the big boss of that scenario and lose if they run out of conquest points. Along the way, the heroes will gain (and lose) conquest points. One player will act as the Overlord (aka Dungeon Master), of which traditionally a short bald guy with funny robes will take that role. And the rest are the adventurers (or heroes) and take the roles of Rangers, Mages and Warriors.

Descent is very similar to Dungeon & Dragons as it is a dungeon crawl with lots of traps and very nasty monsters (Word of Advice : Hell Hound's bite is worse than its bark). But, the heroes can acquire magical items to aid them in their seemly impossible quest (there are 3 treasure decks from which heroes will draw from if they open a treasure chest; namely the Gold, Silver and Bronze decks). There are also a few very rare and powerful magical items (2 in the base set and 5 in the expansion) which are so 'bah-roken' that they will probably never see the light of day.

Combat is very similar to Doom : The Boardgame, where certain weapons will require you to roll certain colored dice. The range, amount of damage and number of surges are printed on each side of the dice. There is also a big 'X' on one of the side. When the 'X' side is rolled, the attack automatically misses. Surges, which are unique to Descent, are used to power up certain powerful abilities of a weapon, armour or item (eg. three surges = knockback target monster).

All in all, Descent is one of the better dungeon game out there. If you love AD&D but need help to visualise the dungeon, Descent is the game for you. But if you hate AD&D or any type of medieval-fantasy-dungeon-crawl type of games, avoid this at all cost! You have been warned.

"Is it hot in here or is it just me??" Tethery's Last Words, Slayed by a Dragon.

Happy Gaming! And have a great 2007!!

The Big Scary or the 18XX series

2006-12-27T14:24:00Z

Whenever the words "Let's play 18XX" are mentioned, images of big scary sessions and 2 hour long rules explainations are conjured up in the minds of most Malaysian players. This is especially true with my local playing group as I would only have to mention these 3 dreaded words and you will see my friends disappear one by one.

"Umm... I have to go home and spend time with my mother in law" Says one.

"Ahh... I think I hear my mum calling me for dinner" Says another (at 2pm on a Saturday).

"Oh wow, look at the time..." etc.

So, today, I'm here to dispel the notion that 18XX games are scary and induces A.P.'s (Analysis Paralysis, and not Approved Permits).

Lesson number one : 18XX games can be short - If you are playing 10 hour marathon games of 1889, then you are playing it all wrong. A game of 18XX is in fact made to be very brutal and fast with minimal downtime. The reason why your games take 10 hours is because everyone is too nice and accommodating. If you had never experienced being forced to buy trains when all your trains are obsolete, especially, when you are low on cash, then you have never experienced 18XX. And, if you have never played a game where a player dumped a 'dead' company on another player, then you have never even played 18XX the way it should. These games are made to be brutal, so stop playing nice!

Lesson number two : 18XX is a business oriented game - If you think 18XX is all about track-building and going round the V.P. track then you are gravely mistaken. The 18XX series are very different from all the other train games out there (eg. Age of Steam, Railroad Tycoon, Union Pacific etc.) as it integrates the operations part (eg. Age of Steam) of train games with the business part (eg. Acquire) of stock market driven games. Imagine a game without the need for V.P. but instead the winner is determined as the one with the most money at the end of the game. Just like in real life...

Lesson number three : 18XX is fun - The biggest misconception about these types of games is that it is very boring (Read : Not fun to play) and mundane. This is where the general gaming community is very wrong. Never ever judge a book by its cover. Just because it looks boring and has subpar components, doesn't mean that it is not fun to play. A typical session of 18XX involves lots of backstabbing, track blocking (forcing the other player's companies's track building to stop abruptly), stock trashing (sell ones shares when profitable, even if it forces that corporation to tank [bankrupt]), and forced train purchases (imagine: what would happen if your company has no money and all your trains are forced to retire early, so you are forced to buy new trains at sky-rocket prices). I guarantee you that when playing 18XX with the right company, you will be constantly at the edge of your seat.

Lesson number four : 18XX is deeper and more enjoyable than Age of Steam - Age of Steam only involves the operational side of actual train management but 18XX involves the actual buying up of stocks in a railroad company. So, the laying of tracks and generating income (operational round) only happens when you successfully float (start) your company. Also, there are the private companies up for auction at the beginning of the game. Some of these private companies significantly alter the way a player will play. This depends on which private company the player decides to get, as each of these companies have a special ability that breaks certain rules in the game.

So, with this, I hope to dispel some of the myths surrounding this great game. If you have any questions or feedback pertaining to any of the 18XX games or this article, please do write to me.

18GA or Why I Love 18XX

2006-12-09T04:45:00Z

Yesterday was my third time playing an 18XX game. This time we played with my handmade set of 18GA (Georgia). The game started after a good half hour of rules explainations and an 18 minutes delay when I realized I left my yellow track tiles at home (had to drive home to get it). Norman, Jack Teoh and I were on hand at Wolf's Game Shop to playtest this new 'monster'.

Norman is a seasoned Antike player, while Jack had played Railroad Tycoon so it wasn't long before they figured out the game.

Norman started first by aggressively bidding on all 3 available private companies. Jack bidded on two of them while I only managed to bid on one of them (free track tile lay company). In the end, Norman won two out of 3 bids and Jack won one. I was left with nothing. A bad start as I was unable to generate any revenues on the first operating round. So I went into plan B.

I ended up with the priorty card during the stock buying round. So, I bought up shares in Western and Atlantic (2 stations and starts in Atlanta which is near 4 cities and 2 towns) and set the par value at 90. Norman started the Central of Georgia company with Par Value at 55 (he was broke after the frenzied buying). While Jack went with the Atlantic Coast Line company with Par Value of 70. All of us managed to float our companies on the first stock round (which left Norman broke).

The next couple of rounds involved a race between me and Norman to control the Northwest part of the map. Somehow, I managed to get the upper hand as I have a higher Par Value (laying tracks first) and plus, W&A has a pretty good starting location when compared to CoG. Jack started in the Southeast, so he had no issues with the race up north.

By the 2 hour mark, Norman was getting bored. So, as always, Norman did the 'Conan', which includes trashing my stocks; causing the stocks to plummet and doing the 'hot sun' manuever on Jack (he bailed out of his CoG, giving control of it to Jack and bought up Georgia Railroads instead). Yeah, way to go, Conan.

By the 3 hour mark, Norman was way ahead and his bank account was even bigger than the bank (go figure). He even tried to loan money to Jack for a 200% interest. Conan won 5 turns later.

Lesson to be learnt : Never play nice. Especially with Conan. And when you see hot sun, put on a hat and run for shelter.

All in all, 18GA is a really good beginners map. It has a 3 dimensional stock market chart (but no red zone), a circular map with corporations starting at the edges and fewer trains. If you have not played or even heard of the 18XX series, maybe now is the time to do so.