Nail-biter @ Northampton

Kevin won a real nail-biter of a Puerto Rico game last night. Final score in this five-player game was 50-49-47-42-39.

There were several interesting and remarkable things about this game; the number of players (we rarely play with 5), the high scoring (was the tightest score I can recall in a while), and some of the strategies used.

Starting with myself in 1st seat, I opened with Settler/Quarry, then I bought the Hospice for the first time as my first building after Indigo plant. This was unusual for me, I thought I would try to see if I could avoid pulling the Mayor in the game, and benefit from the extra colonist when Settler is pulled. Later I purchased the Haceinda, and with it's bonus plantation pull each round, was able to have 12 spaces full at the end of the game. I used the Harbor, and was able to get ahead of Kevin to my right with Corn, Indigo, Sugar for 30 points. But despite having 9-buildings, was only able to cough up 17 more and no Large building meant no bonus. I came in third with 47 points.

Dave in 2nd seat went with a simple coffee-sugar play, and as it was his new game played mostly obvious options, and benefited from some nice trader-pulls, and did a fair amount of shipping with his Wharf purchased @ mid-game. Dave finished a respectable 39 points.

Jared played third seat, and with Indigo, Coffee as his main-stays, tried a hard-core quarry strategy. He ultimately had 4 quarries, and 2 large buildings - but was limited due to seating position and following Dave to only shipping 9 points. He bought 2 Large buildings, and if the game had gone another turn might have been able to buy a third (!) if there had been one available.

Kyle played 4th, and he took advantage of the "right-hand" effect, being a move ahead of Kevin in 5th seat. He started with Sugar, then moved to Tobacco, Kevin's cash crop. He bought the Wharf after Kevin's Harbor, never got shut out of shipping, and managed 2 Large buildings due to some good trader play as well. But he finished with 49!

Kevin, amazingly, pulled out a 1-point victory after counting his one large-building bonus, and 29 shipping points. Shut out most of the second half of the game in a large tobacco boat, he could not get more goods after Craftsman, because Jared and Kyle taking it all before he could produce. Therefore he could not clear the boat to put more in play, and never got to do much with his Corn.

But by enabling his early harbor, and shipping like mad in the beginning of the game, he was able to squeak out one of the best games of PR I've ever played. A real nail-biter! Good game Kevin!

Carcassone on 360 for FREE

Just saw this post over at Boardgamenews.com, and I had to pass it along.

Carcassone is FREE on November 15th, and 16th.

Check it out here.

New Catan on the way

New version of Settlers of Catan on the way... Here's the box cover:


There some interesting information on the Mayfair Games website about the new version. Check it out here.

One very interesting rule change (from Mayfair site):

Q) Are there any rules changes?
A) "No" is the short answer. We have cleaned some text up in the rules for Cities & Knights, and we have changed a rule for The Settlers of Catan to match the new international standard. The changed rule affects the robber: "The robber may now return to the desert even after moving out. Thus, a player may choose to move the robber back to the desert rather than to an opponent's hex, if the player chooses to do so."

Your thoughts on this change?

Mom wins Catan

Played my fancy new "collectors" Catan, the monster hand-painted "treasure-chest" edition, in Toledo this weekend. And Mom won!

My parents have been played the Xbox 360 edition on-line, and have logged over 100 plays. I could tell in our 3-player game, both parents played a very solid game. Dad and I battled it out for longest road, he with brick-port and a nice 13-segment road. I had triple-ore (with city and settlement) on a "5"-spot, and an 11-segment road with Sheep and Brick port. The Longest Road bonus traveled back and forth between us until Dad finally yanked it permanetly away.

But Mom landed spaces on both 8's, both 9's and drew enough sheep and wheat that using her 3-1 port she was able to get to "7" and had 3 "1-point" development cards for the win.

It was a lot of fun playing on the 3-d board, and it did enhance the experience to for although my folks said that the poor visibility on the numbers made it a little difficult for them.

Funagain.com still has copies of the 3-d game of Catan, check it out before this hand-painted beauty is gone for good!

Chess: touch and go

Love this article about a guy who makes $200 / day with a portable chess setup.

Too many games?

Great article over on boardgamenews.com about the subject of "too many games." As a person with 140+ games in his collection, I've asked myself this many times. W. Eric Martin tackles it here, with the intro quoted below.

"W. Eric Martin: Too Much Is Never Enough

Occasional BGN columnist Ryan Bretsch took on the role of firestarter recently in an online mailing list about games and posed the following questions:

1. Are there too many boardgame companies out there today?
2. Are there too many game releases coming out each year?
3. Do you feel the games hobby industry can support the number of new game releases that are now appearing each year?
4. Do you feel that newly released games are labeled as “hot,” then quickly supplanted by the “next big thing”?

My short answers to these questions: No, No, No, and No. My long answers to these questions are more nuanced..."

Want list...

Boardgamegeek has a great "wishlist" feature that allows you to rank (1-5) your interest in any game on the site. As I become aware of new titles (usually through Boardgamenews or by surfing Thoughthammer) I'll head over to the 'geek, check them out, and rank them.

Here's some games that I am tracking and would like to own:

1. St. Petersburg Expansion
Expansion to the excellent St. Petersburg card game. Haven't played this face-to-face much, but I love the game on Brettspielcafe, probably have played it more than any other game than Settlers on-line. This inexpensive expansion is a must have, although not released yet from Rio Grande.

2. Roads and Boats
I was all pumped to get this when it was re-released last year. It's a monster game, that I've heard compared to SimCity, without the computer managing all the tiny details. I have too many complex games that never get played, but some day I have to get this nuts-and-bolts game and try to play it.

3. China - Das Duel
This two-player conversion of the 3-5 player China (Michael Shacht, developer of Hansa and Spiel de Jahre Zooloreto) is a must-have. I have an extra copy of China's pieces mounted in a shadow box in my game room along with the map in a frame.

4. Gipf Project - set 1
I love the Gipf series of abstract games. They are elegantly designed, beautifully constructed games that play in under 20 minutes. They can be connected together to form one large game by the use of "potentials", pieces that stack and connect various moves from other games in the series. There are three small expansions, and although I am not sure I'll get to play with them often (until Grayson gets a little older perhaps) they are inexpensive and easy to integrate.


5. Space Dealer
This game sounds wacky. Uses sand timers to control turns in some type of space-ship assembly game? I'm in!

6. Pitchcar
Racing game where you "flick" the cards around the track, and the bounce around off of rubber-band "walls". A dexterity game that has a couple of expansions (including a loop, and jumps), and sounds like a hoot! Would be a great ice-breaker for our Gathering of Friends.

7. Sid Meier's Civilization: the Card Game
Can only get this game inside a deluxe edition of the latest computer game. Someday perhaps it will be sold off the shelf, or I can grab it on closeout somewhere. I love Civilization, have played all it's versions on the computer, have the Avalon Hill edition, the Eagle Games edition... why not a card game?

Magna Carta now in stock

Magna Carta is here!

Xbox, the new boardgame system?

My brother downloaded the Xbox version of Settlers of Catan just released, and has even played some games versus my dad. Now I hear Carcassone has been released!

Is the Xbox the new "boardgame system"?

Gaming routine

Quiet on the posting front, and not much activity from me in the board gaming area lately. Thanks to some increase responsibilities as of late, and a decline in interest for some reason from my 9-year old (the first real decline since we started gaming when he was about 5 years old).

We broke out the Carrera slot cars also, which killed a couple of weekends.

There's a session planned for Saturday, which looks like an all-day affair... Kevin is asking about playing Twilight Imperium... now we're talking!

Railroaded at Northampton game night

Kevin and Marci hosted our 3rd Northampton game night last night. I arrived late, they had just finished a close game of St. Petersburg, Kevin winning by just 2-3 points over Dough. Kevin had 10 aristocrats, Doug had 8 in their four-player game with Caleb and Kim.

After a wonderful dinner, and some kidding around at Willie-Joe's expense (thanks Mike!), we got down to a 3 hour game of Railroad Tycoon, originally published by the defunct Eagle Games. Designed by the great Martin Wallace (Age of Steam, Struggle of Empires) this game ranks 19th on the geek, and is know for a huge board and great pieces.

Long story short, Caleb ran away with it, dominating in the Northeast. I built from NY to Boston, buy he controlled the NY to Philly to Baltimore/DC area, and was able to cheaply and steadily out-earn us all until his was buying level 5 rail upgrades for cash.

I was able to fulfill my secret objection (level 6 trains), and Doug racked up some great local bonuses. Kevin built junctures to some key routes and was carried along by his opponents needing the to finish longer lanes. Mike stayed in the Atlanta area.

Caleb won by what looking like 20 points ahead of the rest of us, who were clustered more tightly together. One of the key advantages he had was getting 4 moves in the first move due to the advantages of his age (lowest goes first) and a double-move card at start. We all agreed to play the game again, but bid for the right for first turn to eliminate any advantage here.

Thanks Kevin and Marci for a wonderful evening!

Java Crazy

Okay, okay... I've been going a little crazy with the Java games. Here's one more (and then I promise to take a break):

Spikey's Bounce Around

Silversphere

Clever puzzle java game with techno sound track and sharp graphics. Give it a try! (click the screen shot to go to the site)

New Tigris and Euphrats art

Tigris and Euphrates is being reworked into a new version, I am really excited about this.

This game is ranked 2nd on the Geek, and has been for many years now. I've played around 50 games online, play-by-email on the Geek, and a few face to face at the Gathering of Dayton a couple years ago.

It's certainly a more serious game (rates 3.6 on a 5 point "heaviness scale", with El Grande at 3.18, and Settlers at 2.3), and it rewards concentration not negotiation or trading.

Fancy Pants

Neat little side-scroller called "Fancy Pants". Use the arrow keys, plus the "s" key to jump.

Tower Defense

I know I've been posting a lot of these Java games lately, but I can't help it! This one, called Tower Defense is really cool... Tab and I had a discussion about the fact that once you have a computer and high-speed connection, you really would never need to buy any entertainment ever again... there are so many cool things out there on the web for FREE.



Can you beat my score of 70?


Update: Ben got to 72, and I did several times as well, and finally got to 73 tonight. Screenshot of my accomplishment:



Here's what I've learned so far...

The Blue towers can reach to each corner when fully upgraded if positioned where they appear in the screenshot.

The Green towers are the "most efficient" in terms of the damage that they put out compared to the price.

The Flower appears to be worthless, as it has a slow rate of fire, short range (150 compared to 300 for a fully upgraded Blue tower, for a total cost of only 3360 compared to the flower at 3,000). I have not yet upgraded to the second level tower (it costs 5,000), but it reduces range and damage only increases by 50%. It appears that two Green towers, fully upgraded cost less than 5,000 total, so unless the third upgrade for Flowers does something really impressive, it must be about positioning now.

Updated 3/14: Got to 76 with the following layout (Green towers are the most cost effective in the game)

Sand game

Doesn't look like much... but this is a very interesting little... "game"... click the image to check this little time-waster out...

Rick T. plays Caylus Magna Carta

Rick Thornquist (formerly of boardgamenews.com) has posted a nice (brief) review of the new card game version of Caylus Magna Carta.

Here's a snippet from his review:

"This is basically a card game version of Caylus. The major changes involve using cards for the buildings instead of a board and tiles, simplifying the rules, and shortening the playing time.

In Caylus Magna Carta, each player gets their own deck of building cards. You start with three in your hand. A couple of neutral buildings cards start on the table to start the road - the rest of the buildings will be built from the player’s hands. On your turn, instead of placing a worker, you can draw another building card, exchange all of your building cards for new ones, or build a building by playing one from your hand to the table at the end of the road. "

And his summary:

"It might be useful to make a comparison to some other games that have card game versions. For example, I found Caylus and Caylus Magna Carta much closer to each other than Puerto Rico and San Juan are." "I think this would be a good game for those who want shorter, simpler version of Caylus. I would prefer to play Caylus, but if I was pressed for time I would be quite happy to play Caylus Magna Carta."

There you have it. No word on availability yet, but I am sure it will be soon. And you know it's on our wish lists, right Kevin?

The Police

Not game related, but certainly from the 80's, my formative years in gaming.

The Police. Madison Square Garden. August 1st and 3rd.

Be there.

Alert: Barnes and Noble clearance!

Just spotted this Geeklist over at Boardgamegeek - apparently it's finally time for Barnes and Noble to blow-out all those Euro games that they've been sitting on since the holidays. Word is that they are starting at 50% off - adding 6% sales tax, that's still cheaper than Thoughthammer.

Several spot-checks there in January by Kevin and myself indicated that the staff had no idea of what they were going to do with games, and we heard claims that they could not send them back to their distributors.

There are several games that would be of interest to us, including Puerto Rico, Settlers, Roborally, etc. Check out the Geeklist for descriptions and ratings, and report back if you find any!

CATAN LIVE is coming

Well... it may be time to think about getting an Xbox 360. Catan is coming to Xbox arcade.

Here's a quote from their home page:

"As announced at the recent Leipzig Games Convention, Settlers of Catan, the legendary board game from the mind of Klaus Teuber, is coming to Xbox Live! Arcade. Developed by Brian Reynolds and Big Huge Games, Catan is slated for release in Q1 2007.

Catan places the player in the role of colonists on the newly discovered imaginary island of the same name. Through strategy and trading, 3-4 players vie for control over the valuable territory and resources of this uncharted wilderness. With ten million copies already sold, Settlers of Catan is the rare board game that appeals to casual players as much as hardcore enthusiasts."

Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II and Rise of Nations computer games, was spoken of very highly by Settlers of Catan designer Klaus Teuber: "I had no doubts that Brian Reynolds would do a great job, and the first version of the game exceeded my highest expectations. The AI is so clever that I even lost several games in a row! Hands down, this game for the Xbox Live! Arcade is an amazing achievement."

Here are some of the features of the game:

• Precision AI offers realistic challenges to even the most seasoned players.
• Immersive 3D "Living World" environment.
• Addictive and fun gameplay for up to 4 players.
• Play online versus friends or go up against 8 unique AI personalities.

The screen=shots are pretty awesome... I really like the 3d view, and the animation and sound will no doubt be excellent.

Perhaps the best feature that is missing from the Zone.com version ("Catanonline.com") is the fact that it is only 3 players - "Catan Live" has 4 player implementation.

There are some icons that you earn for accomplishments in the game, which I assume will appear in your game profile, such as number of games won with the "largest army" and "longest road", and also the number of opponents defeated and such which is also a nice touch.

It remains to see what the cost of the game will be on Xbox Arcade, but if this and the rumored Alhambra and Carcassone games also come to the 360, it makes it very tempting.

Power Grid: Britain

All you Power Grid fans... must check this out.

Games played 2007 Geeklist

I created a Geeklist for the games I played in 2006, along with comments about the experiences. Very cool feature of Boardgamegeek, check it out at the link below:

*** Link deleted, due to a system crash at boardgamegeek.com on 2/8/07

8-player Nexus Ops?

This clever dude has put together a nice article on how to play Avalon Hill's Nexus Ops with 8-players, using a second set. Kevin has a copy, I have 2 copies, Tab has a copy... hmmm...

Several photos in the article about possible set-ups, and a discussion of the implications of various features of the board.

We may have to try this at the next GOF...

Struggle for Rome... new Catan!

Update, 1/31: Game is now available on Thoughtammer!


Mayfair games has announced that a new Catan game, Struggle for Rome, has been finished and will be released in January. Here's a snip of their press release:


"Production on the Struggle for Rome has been completed early. Shipping on the game will begin the end of January. The new game, designed by Klaus Teuber, will now be available at your local retailer February 1st. We are very excited to be bringing this new historically-themed Catan title to Catan and history fans early!

Klaus Teuber brings the fall of the Roman Empire into the world of Catan. Struggle for Rome lets players experience the turmoil that plagued the end of the Roman Empire through Catan game mechanics. The Romans rule over an enormous empire. But now, Rome holds its imperial breath. The empire is weak. Wild barbarian hordes surge across the frontier.

You rule one of those Barbarian hordes. Your noble tribe is strong, but rival princes stand in your way! Are you wily enough to outmaneuver them? Will you have enough wealth from plundering to found your own kingdom? Your fate is in your hands: civilization is ripe for conquest! Will you forge a mighty new kingdom? Will you be the one to inherit the storied glory of Rome? "

Thoughthammer has it for $34.30 - retail is $49.

Castle Smasher

Saw this over on digg.com, it's called Castle Smasher, and it's a clever Java game that is strangely addicting...

The Great (but short) Space Race

My son and I decided to play the colorful Great Space Race a few nights ago. He chose the Manta (-1 Damage) and I chose the Space Guppy (+3 Shield recharge rate). The game is technically 3-player, but we've played it twice with 2, adding a couple of mines to the cargo bay and it's worked well.

It Begins
Manta started in position 1, and Guppy started in 3. Manta moved forward drew a Repulsion Cannon (move opponent within 2 hexes 1 square on a roll of 1-5, move yourself on a 6). Guppy moved forward, turned left and dropped a couple of mines.

Turn 2, Guppy pulled the Dimensional Rift Event (move opponent 3 hexes) and Wormhole. I moved Manta back three squares, 2 spaces from the wall, and popped a wormhole in front of him, and the exit 5 hexes back around the first corner. If he moves forward he jumps back, and possibly slams into the wall. If he slips right or left, it's a short trip to slam into the wall.

Wisely, he burned a "command" counter, turned right and moved forward avoiding my little trap. He did detonate a mine, doing 3-1=2 damage to his shield. Guppy continued moving, dropping mines along the way, and worked on widening his lead.



Mid-Game
A Major Event was pulled, and the Acidic cloud appeared. Manta put it ahead of us in the corner of turn 2. As in the last game we played, it bounced around in the corner, and was never really a factor in the game. Perhaps it mean more with more players, but we were able to easily avoid it.

We both continued to move around turn 2 then three, and Manta continued to play equipment cards, which allowed me to extend my lead. He played Robot Co-Pilot, then picked up an Atomic Device. He burned a couple more command counters, and eventually the Robot card, trying to avoid all my mines and the wall.

Another wormhole appeared, around turn three, and Guppy received an Atomic Device as well. He hit me with a Stowaway, we both reloaded mines.

During his second lap, he finally did hit the wall at speed 5, and rolled and 11-1=10 damage, burning down his shields and his hull down to 2. Fortunately, he played a Shield Up on the turn right after or he was in real danger with mines all over the board.

As Guppy began his final lap, about 20 hexes separated the two ships. I decided to drop my atomic device right near the start area. With the first wormhole within the blast radius I hoped to catch Manta in the blast and maybe even create a black hole in the narrow neck of the first turn. There's a 50-50 chance of this happening, and avoiding the hole with slow him enough to likely insure a win.

On the same "impulse", right after I drop the mine, he plays equipment, and draws a Guided Torpedo. He had a bizarre set of Movement cards, and twisting around on the next couple of impulses, ends up right in front of my soon-to-detonate Atomic Device, and fires his Guided Torp right at it, eliminating it. Perfect timing!

Finale
The distance stayed roughly the same as I refilled mines, Guppy had a few "difficult" Movement card pulls. Manta frantically tried to keep up, and then the big one hit:

Manta pulled the Major Event, 42 - Terrible Secret of Space (Douglas Adams tribute card). Three more Major's were pulled, Interstellar Slime (all ships go to speed 1), Asteroids (divy up all the Asteroid counters and distribute them around the board, 4 hexes away from each other and ships), and then... SPACE GOATS.

Each player must roll 2d6 for damage, and lose two speed factors. The goats then "fly away".

With only 2 hull left, and 6 shields, Manta rolls a 10-1=9 damage. Kaboom! Guppy rolls a 3, not even cracking the shields.

This ended the game mercifully, as the Guppy was well in the lead on the final lap with no hull damage.

Game conventioning

Fascinating article mentioned on boardgamenews.com, regarding the canceling of GenCon So Cal, or GenCon Southern California.

Peter D. Adkinson was one of the founders of the powerhouse company, Wizards of the Coast, a millionaire because of his companies success in collectible card games. They bought TSR games, Hasbro, and got involved in many other ventures in the late 90's. Their founder left the company, spent a year rock climbing in France and touring the world. Then he bought the rights to run Gen Con, originally the convention hosted by TSR for role-players, dating back to 1967.

Okay, so this guy Peter (a millionaire) decides to run Gen Con in Indianapolis, and also Star Wars Celebration. (poster for the European version in 2007 below) I know about SWC because my brother attended it when living in Dayton before the release of episode III.

Anyway, Adkison toys with the idea of running gaming conventions in Europe, and talks about why this would not work. He then opens a convention in Southern California, and this is the main scope of the article.

If you have an interest in the business of the games industry, or have ever been to a game convention, you will find this article about his experiences a fascinating inside look into the process.

The End of Gen Con So Cal

Games played, 2006

List of games played in 2006:

ZÈRTZ	14
Carcassonne	10
Star Wars Miniatures Starship Battles	10
DVONN	8
Alhambra	6
Capitol	6
Chess	6
Race Day	6
Settlers of Catan, The	6
Canasta Caliente	4
Cosmic Encounter	4
Starfarers of Catan	4
TAMSK	4
Through the Desert	4
Euphrates & Tigris Card Game	3
Hansa	3
Mykerinos	3
Ticket to Ride	3
Cartagena	2
Caylus	2
Great Space Race, The	2
King's Breakfast	2
Lost Cities	2
Masons	2
MLB Sports Clix	2
Nexus Ops	2
Pente	2
Puerto Rico	2
Railroad Tycoon	2
Stratego	2
Formula Dé	1
Liar's Dice	1
Pinochle	1
Power Grid	1
San Juan	1
Scrabble	1
St. Petersburg	1
Taboo	1
Vinci	1
Zathura: Adventure is Waiting	1

Twenty-six times I played something from the Gipf series, Zertz, Dvonn or Tamsk. Looking at this in early January, I decided to buy Gipf in January at the Compleat Strategist in NYC, and I am glad I did. Grayson took to it immediately, and I am pretty sure these games will be the most played in 2007. They take 15-20 minutes if you don't take terribly long to contemplate your moves, and they can be connected together to form a larger game with the use of "potentials".

Carcassone was the second most played game, surprisingly we only played it 10 times. We played only the standard game, but one of the main expansions. I like Traders and Builders the best.

Star Wars Minatures and Race Day, both collectible minatures games, came up 16 times total. Fun for a month or so, I am not sure we will get back to them in 2007. Perhaps if Tab takes an interest.

The "big" games, Caylus, Puerto Rico, Power Grid, and Railroad Tycoon came up only a few times this year, which I guess is not that surprising. Given a choice, I could play just the games for the next 10 years. But they are heavier, and finding adult opponents is the challenge. Perhaps in 2007 this will change.

Pinocle

I was recently invited to Bill K's bi-weekly Pinocle group, after he discovered our mutual interest in cards. It's been a privilege to attend twice now, and has been quite entertaining.

I am more comfortable with bridge, spades, hearts and their ilk in the trick-taking family. My pioneer partner and I played pinocle back in 1991 for a short while, after I discovered the game in a book by John Scarne. (Scarne invented a few games too, and was very famous back in the 40's and 50's for his card tricks and being an expert in how to detect a card cheat).

I came in 4th of 7 the first time I played, and was "set" twice. Last night I was only set once after I made a mistake in under-bidding a double-run (A-10-K-Q-J twice), but improved my defensive play, and managed to bid and make a 215 point contract with 55 of 144 pointers (minimum being 37, the highest taken last night being about 65).

Next time I play, I will certainly not get set back, or misdeal (which I also did both nights), which should allow me to compete for a win.

Here's how they play:

For every player over 2 they add an extra deck, and remove the 9's. This means 6 decks in a seven player game, A-10-K-Q-J. So there are 12 of each card in each suit, 240 cards in a deck. 33 cards are dealt to each player, and 9 are dealt to the middle as a "kitty".

Bidding starts at 50, increments of 1 till 100, then by 5. Players must bid or pass for the right to chose a trump suit, and also exchange 9 cards in their hand for 9 cards in the kitty which is turned face up, then exchanged face down. If aces are buried they must be called out (this has not happened yet).

Meld is worth the following:

A's = 10, double 100, triple 300
K's = 8, double 80, triple 240
Q's = 6, double 60, triple 180
J's = 4, doubled 40, triple 120

Runs (A,10,K,Q,J of trump) are worth 16 single, 32 double. Double runs are worth 150 IF AT LEAST 150 IS BID BY THE THIRD BID. If a player melds a double run but does not bid 150+ by the third bid, the double run counts only as 32. Note: This is a very important rule, and probably the only "gut-check" made during the bidding process, unless a player is taking a wild chance due to the scoring situation).

Pincole (Q spades, Jack diamonds) 4, double 40, triple 120
Marriages, 2 non trump, 4 trump

Must have at least a marriage in trump to take the bid.
Must have at least 20 meld to lay meld, and must take at least one trick for meld to count.
A hand dealt with a player having no aces is handled as a mis-deal. Dealer loses 50 on a misdeal and deal is passed.

Game is made @ 250 times the number of players minus one, so 1500 for a 7-player game.

Bidder lays first card, and must take 37 pointers out of 160. To this they add their melded points, and if this exceeds their bid they score their total points. Non-bidders play against the bidder, and it's a team effort to try to take him down.

Squares

Neat little Java game called Squares, check it out:

Supernova

This new game (yet unpublished) looks fascinating... Check out this description at the geek:

Supernova is a game of space expansion and exploration. 5 civilizations are abandoning their solar system to escape the upcoming supernova of their sun.

Conquer new solar systems by taking over planets, mining moons, and building the most powerful fleet of ships by upgrading your Weapons, Shields, Communications or Engines. Capture the most space by the time the star goes Supernova to be proclaimed the winner!

This game features some set collection, area enclosure and tile placement on a completely modular board. Play a short or a long version of the game without changing the board. Possibly the first space exploration game where 3D space not only matters, but could be the key to your victory!

This game is not yet published. The pictures are of a prototype and it is undergoing rigorous playtesting. It will be available to play at GenCon 2006 in November in Los Angeles."

It's going to be published by the same folks that produce Die Macher, looking forward to this one.

10-20-08: update, the rules are now available here.

Colorado Lightshow

This video below shows a Russian satellite part reentering the atmosphere over the Colorado sky... Wow.



Links to versions with some commentary...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWtqD_30-jU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH-NTr4cc04

It's coming...

Asteroids!