Games as Art

Tammy was kind enough to help decorate my new "boardgamecafe" in the basement. She framed the map of Hansa (one of my favorites), and also made a shadowbox of the bits. Art? Yes.

She also framed China, Merchants of Amsterdam, and Struggle of Empires, all stunning.

This "geeklist" has 90+ titles suggested as excellent looking maps to frame!

Weekend in New York

A rare opportunity is spend a weekend in New York with Mike.

Good food will be involved in any event, but with the holiday weekend I doubt there will be opportunities to do any shopping. One store I thought of visiting? The Compleat Strategist.

We may visit Times Square (saw a movie there with Mike last year), and will certainly walk through Brooklyn Heights.

I've been trying to introduce Mike to gaming, and have been successful in introducing Twixt. Perhaps I'll bring San Juan, Lost Cities, Canasta Caliente, or Abalone?

Very helpful Play Aids

I spent a few hours hunting through various Play Aids from Boardgamegeek. I received Sid Meier's Civilization : The Boardgame as a gift from my wife last week, and hunting down information on the game I discovered new "tech trees", rules summaries, an excellent comparison of rules editions, a beautiful 2-page handout, and even an excel spreadsheet for managing each player's position and resources in the game!

I wanted to include a few links here, for you to check out some interesting and help links to some popular games that many of us own. Thanks to the Geek and to the authors of these amazingly helpful tools:

* Risk 2210 Turn Order and Commander rules summary
* Power Grid Summary Aid
* Puerto Rico 1-page Rules Summary
* Alhambra Player Aid
* Star Wars: Queen's Gambit Summary

There are many many more of these on BGG- have a look and let us know if you discover something particularly helpful.

Tab put on a Settlers clinic at the Gathering in Dayton. Stay tuned for his strategy guide, detailing his exploits and hints for how you to can go 12-0 in the Klaus Teuber classic! 

Puerto Rico: position matters

There has been some debate about the importance of seating position in Puerto Rico. Results from the World Boardgaming Championship just held in Lancaster, PA seem to back this up:

#1 indigo: 42.18 ppg (11 wins)
#2 indigo: 41.77 ppg (13 wins)
#3 corn: 44.79 ppg (27 wins)
#4 corn: 43.71 ppg (23 wins)

These results were based on 74 games (1 game having double winners due to no tie-break being declared), and clearly indicates a big advantage for corn players in 4-player games.

Now, what to do about it... A monetary balance reward? Or perhaps a bonus victory point for players in the first and second position? (Source: John Weber, WBC GM @ BGG)

11/20 Update: I emailed John about the subject, and he took the time to craft a response. He gives an excellent proposal involving bidding. Take a look by clicking on "x COMMENTS" below.

Archives work, and other fixes/wishes

Well, I'm in the middle of a 3-week vacation of sorts. Part of my to-do list includes fixing the archive function of the blog. I've been storing the blog on my free webspace at Adelphia.net for almost a year now, and have never been successfully able to figure out the path for my blogger archives. I've toyed with the idea of hiring a web expert to assist, I've tried email and live chat with Adelphia. Finally, I decided to let Blogger to the hosting. You'll see them at the top of the blog now, a necessary evil.

Voila! You can now access blogs of the archive on the right hand side, by month. I may change this in the future, but for now, you can get a quick snapshot in 30-day increments. Also, by clicking on the "previous posts" on the right, you can view articles by header instead of having to scroll all the way down. I plan on reducing the number of articles displayed at one time to reduce load time.

Interestingly, I've discovered a new service called Google Analytics, which lets you research the hits on your website. It's scary the amount of information that you can harvest about someone based on a simple script that you paste into your HTML. The neat thing for me, is I can get some idea of who is lurking out there, reading but not posting, and from where they are from!

I've long planned on keeping this blog small and discreet. The intended audience is family, really, and friends. I asked Kevin and Tab to assist with some articles if and when they can find the time. Really, the blog is a convenient way for me to post some of the interesting things I come across in my daily websearching, and an outlet for all the boardgaming thoughts I've had over the years but never have been able to write down.

My new job will allow me significantly more time for the most important things in my life, but this little hobby will get a quality upgrade this year too. I'd like to post more in-depth articles, statistics, and analysis of various boardgame topics. I'd also like to expand this as a location for our groups to link up and discuss games to be played, along with post mortems, etc. I still have some good content from my efforts in 2003-4 that need a home. A new organization method of all of the posts, perhaps by subject would be helpful. And I must figure out how to increase the font size of the names on the contributors on the right! (Anyone know how?)

So here's my wishlist for 2006:

1) One in-depth article per month, on an advanced topic.
2) More posts from Tab and Kevin (can I get one a quarter guys?).
3) A subject tab on the right where articles can be stored and referenced by subject, not just date.
4) Links to previous and future "Gatherings" (e.g. Gathering in Clarks Summit, Gathering in Northampton, Gathering in Dayton, etc.)

That's probably enough for 2006 - Any comments would be appreciated! (click "x comments" below!)

Thoughts about G.i.D.'05

A few days before our Gathering in Dayton 2005, I posted a list of things I was looking forward to. How did it pan out?

Seeing Tab's Settlers record fall - did not happen. Tab crushed us in two 4-player games. It really wasn't close in either one. He has a real feel for the game, no doubt about it. One unusual aspect that I believe he benefited from was the "tournament start". Every player began with 1 Settlement and 1 City, and a 3rd road. Negotiation was minimized somewhat, and with excellent starting locations, and a balanced board, no one really struggled to get resources. Tab went right for development cards both games, and won with the largest army both games as well...

Revenge in Serenissima. We never seemed to be in the right cycle for a tough long game (2+ hours), so this never hit the table. I did scan the rules a bit with Tab one night, but I came away thinking we needed to print some play aides, and he needed to do a trial run to teach it to us as it's been years since I've played. One concern for me is the weird bonuses for exclusive use of ports and such - the game has little margin for error, and it seems that if you get behind, it may be extremely tough to catch the leader. I may need to set up a demo game solo, before taking on Taber...

Delighting them with... Through the Desert? Dad forgot to bring it, Mom brought my copy of Empire Builder (yuck) that I left there a month ago. Roborally? Kids did enjoy it, we only had one small game with adults. Should have left it for Tab to try with the kids again. E&T? I loved it, Bob found it interesting, Dad is still trying to figure it out. Tab? Not sure - he was so tired by then, I wonder if he even remembers our game... Nexus Ops? Needed one more play, with everyone awake. I think everyone enjoyed it, not sure if the group will be clamoring for it next time, as there are so many other good titles out there.

One monster game. Nope. Never made it. We talked about it, but never had the strength to break one out. Sigh.

The kids. Did great really. Grayson had most of his fun riding bikes, as did the twins. Austen did very well, playing China (twice), Roborally, Carcassone, Edel Stein & Reich, and Cartagena. Kim and Tab did tease him about "playing by mail" on his Cartagena game, as he could not sit still long enough during his downtime, and kept wandering in to watch the Muppet Show DVD that I had brought... I look forward to more playing with the younglings.

LPH: Our Laughs Per Hour meter shot the highest during... Pass the Pigs and Foosball. Translation? Keep the games on the simple side, and short. Odds are good we are never going to get enough sleep and have enough time with the diversity of our Dayton group to get a Monster Game in.

Pit at Gathering in Dayton - the cat won this one...

G.i.D. Day 4 and Wrap

Somewhere during day four (my mind is still a blur), we played Pit, and Pass the Pigs. Pit only lasted a few rounds, but of course was hilarious. The kids struggled a bit, as they hung on to too many single cards in their semi-paniced state: there was a lot of shouting as there always is in Pit. We ended after only a few rounds because of this, but it was fun while it lasted.

Pass the Pigs was next, and turned out to be the final game of the weekend. I won a quick intro with Bob and Austen, then Tab joined an won our four-player. The highlight of the day was Austen's yelling "soooooeeee" and correctly guessing one of Tab's final rolls, sending him back 10 points and Austen ahead 10. For naught, as Tab won anyway, but it was a fantastic moment...

What an enjoyable four days. Grayson had a great time with the kids, we both got to visit Mom and Dad, Bob, Tab, Kim and the boys. Kim and Tab were fine hosts, and it was a really fun time.

Thanks to Julie for her famous salsa sent with Bob, and for the few cookies that Bob left us! And Bob for all the liquid refreshment...

Enjoyed the study, and meeting at the Miamisburg congregation, friends were very nice.

We finished Sunday evening with an excellent whupping of the Browns by our beloved Steelers, and got to witness Hines Ward's record-breaking catch against them. He is now the number one Steeler all time in catches, ahead of John Stalworth, and Lynn Swann. Joe Green, and Lynn were at the game, but I didn't catch Stalworth or any other old-timers on TV (although they may have been there). We learned that Troy Polamalu lands on the SI cover this issue.

We'll be packing up and heading home Tuesday, was great seeing everyone.

Tab is Lord of Catan and King of Pigs!

Yes, he won the big Settlers battle, not just one but two 4-player games! He also won Pass the Pigs, Nexus, Foosball, and Gobblet. Nice work, Tab!