Essential bridge links

Bridge continues to be popular! I've assembled some bridge resources for you to enjoy.

FREE bridge games and demos:
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Easy Bridge - This game is rather old, but it is free and functional. Mark reports that the computer bids "crazy" about 25% of the time. I would say that it does not respond well to preemptive bidding. If you pass low point hands it seems to get to it's contracts okay. Only plays rubber bridge, or single hands (part-game, game, non-trump, slam). Great for non-trump play and slam bidding practice.

Wbridge5 - This game apparently won the ABCL 2008 computer bridge tournament, and it's free (!). It's written by a French programmer, but although a little more "stark" that Easy Bridge, it's apparently much more powerful.

Bridge Baron - This program is $64.95, and is a very polished and professional package. It has a suppliment book available for purchase, and you can also purchase ABCL tournaments from past years to play against, just as if you were a participant - you get the same duplicate deals, and it shows you how you would have faired against competition in the event. It is slick, and in it's 19th version appears to have everything but the kitchen sink included. The free demo is worth checking out. As of 12/7/08 there is apparently a $5 discount available at Amazon.

Online Play
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Bridge Base Online (BBO) - This free site is apparently part-owned by Bill Gates. It's been around a while, and has a slick interface, unlimited free play (with registration), and plenty of (free) tournaments to join. It is registered with the ACBL, meaning you can play in tournaments to get Master Points. There is generally a small fee to play in ACBL events. You can rent ($3/month) "robot players" to play against, or take empty seats if you wish. Excellent site, although somewhat minimalistic, and the help screens are worthless. You'd have to play at a bridge club or be quite well-read to understand all the screens.

Bridge Info
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Northeast PA Bridge (nepab.com) - Home page of NEPA bridge. Nice page detailing what's happening in the area. Also has details of the March 2009 Steamtown tournament...

ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) - This site is the granddaddy of the bridge world. Has a lot of useful information here. Necessary to have a membership to accumulate Master Points in tournaments. Home of the official rules of bridge.

Bill and Warren play bridge

Did you know that the two richest men in the world play bridge?

Nice article here about Warren Buffet and Bill Gates and their exploits in the world of bridge.

Warren apparently played 4,800 hands in one year online at www.bridgebase.com , which I understand Bill is a part owner now.

Bridge

What is the best card game ever invented? Hands down, it's contract bridge (pun intended).

I learned to play bridge back in the early nineties, teaching myself with a number of books (Joy of Bridge by Audrey Grant, On Bidding by Alan Truscott, and the "Bridge in the Fifth Dimension" series by Victor Mollo). I had only one opportunity to play against humans, drafting a spades player named Todd Stokes who was a fellow-volunteer at Watchtower Farms. We played against another couple, who happened to be married, and who were quite good. We got our clocks cleaned.

The Macintosh computer was my partner after that, as I never got around to teaching bridge to my friends (although I may have tried to show my family once). I got a kick out of the game, and would occasionally try game out eventually against a program called "Easy Bridge" (available free on the 'geek).

Recently I introduced the game to my Texas Hold'em group, as we were all seeming to experience fatigue after monthly play since last December. It's been a hit with Mark, Chris, Jamie, Trudy, and Colin. We've played weekly on Friday nights, and have had a blast! We've played 4 nights so far, and we're building our player base and expertise.

I stumbled accross a book called "The Backwash Squeeze, and other improbably feats" by Edward Mcpherson. Reading that lead me to bridgebase.com, where I've played a few tournaments online. Turns out that bridgebase is apparently part owned by Bill Gates (!?), and is a fantastic site, with thousands of serious bridge players on from around the world at any one time. Pretty cool.

I managed to finish 14th out of 140 in a recent tournament (see screenshot above, I am "Phunt0m"), so I'm getting better...

Got web game?

Addictive flash games are back...

Gotta check this one out.

Spiel '08

Updated 11/1/08

Essen Links:

Nice Essen Gallery

Biggest Surprises

New games @ Essen, sorted by ranking

Kulkmann's G@mebox

Official Spiel page

ESSEN, Germany. The Spiel. From Wikipedia:

"Spiel

Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called Essen after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day game trade fair held in October (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen exhibition centre in Essen. Many german-style board games are released at the fair.

Unlike the other major German game fair, the Nuremberg International Toy Fair, Spiel is open to consumers as well as publishers and designers.^[1] The fair often has over 130,000 guests with 151,000 in 2006, although numbers were low in 2007 due to a German rail strike.^[1]

The Deutscher Spiele Preis, the International Gamers Awards, and Essen Feather are presented at the fair.

It is currently the biggest gaming convention for board gaming, RPG, ect. in the world, followed by Gen Con Indy in Indianapollis, Indiana. It is reputedly the biggest and best public show for boardgames, card games and CCGs, with designers and publishers demonstrating their newest games, retailers selling games at discount, and a large fleamarket with a wide range of new and used games. In addition, there is usually a hall of comic book sellers, and one or two halls with RPGs and live action material, and a hall of large inflatables and activities for kids. The show sometimes has computer games, but these are unusual.

The exhibition centre is called the Messe Essen. It is in an area of Essen called Margarethenhöhe, in the South of the city."

Reports (with photos) have started to make their way across the gaming universe...

St. Pete expansion finally here?

Thanks to Boardgamenews for this article, detailing the cards of the new St. Petersburg expansion.

I like St. Pete a lot, but have played it face-to-face maybe twice? I have played it probably 100 times on brettspielwelt.de. I have been getting beat regularly lately too... Maybe this expansion will give me a better chance online (I doubt it).

Who's buying this expansion when it's available? Leave comments below and let's discuss.

Uwe interview

Interesting interview of Uwe Rosenberg (creator of Agricola) can be find here. Uwe really has a smash hit on his hands, Agricola is clearly a world-wide phenomenon. And he has a new game coming out shortly: Le Havre.

When asked about it, he said: "I hope, that the friends of complex games, also like LE HAVRE. But the target audience is a bit smaller than for AGRICOLA, even if the rules are explained faster."

Solitare Agricola

I've logged about 10 full games of solitaire Agricola now, and am having a lot of fun. I cracked open what appeared to be the "E" deck (which stands for "beginner" for some reason), and played about 6 games. I discovered quite a few more "E" cards in the shrink-wrapped pack of "I" cards, and have played 4 more.


So far my scores in the first four games are: 60, 63, 70, and now 76. I kept the Carpenter from the first game, Chief from the second game, Plow Maker from the third, and will be keeping Seasonal worker from the fourth.

What is fascinating is the different shortages and challenges you are faced with in the game as you progress. Food is scarce in game 1, then stone begins to become an issue. Depending on what occupations come up, you may have problems finding reed or clay - or at least "over-spending" for them and facing a lower score.

Reading some posts on the 'geek, I've taken a much more critical eye on the benefits (or lack) from different minor improvements and occupations. For example, Wood Cutter sounds like a good deal (+1 wood each time you pull wood) - but when you count the fact that you are only pulling wood 4 times in a game, and you must spend a action +1 food to actually place the Wood Cutter - you might as well just pull wood a fifth time and save yourself the 1 food!

Plow Maker is an awesome occupation, as it clearly saves you 1 extra move, usually two. You can plow three times and place 6 fields, saving you 2 full actions for the cost of 4 food (1 for the placement of the Plow Maker, and 1 each for the 3 extra fields you generate). That is a clear winner, and so much better than Mushroom Collector, Clay Mixer, Hedge Keeper, etc.

An exception is Stone Carrier, which might pay you out only 2 stone for the cost of an action and 1 food - this is probably well worth it if you plan on a high score, as stone is the ticket to Well, Stone Oven, Pottery and all the other "bonus" Major Improvements.

I did not do very well in my first game of Agricola with Kevin, but after 10 solo games I think I will be very competitive the next time we square off in this one...

What's latin for fun?

What a good time I am having with Agricola! Single player, unfortunately. But I have really been getting a kick out of "puzzling-out" different strategies, trying to optimize my score under different conditions.

I haven't timed myself yet, but I am thinking it's taking me about 30 minutes a game. Most of the early moves are easy of course, which is a great thing about Agricola that clearly will make it more approachable for young people and non-gamers. Rosenberg has made the game extremely scalable by using cards to carefully increase the resource production for 1 - 5 players. Since the different options are introduced somewhat randomly (4 different cards revealed in the first round, 3 in the second round, etc.) and one at a time, the players are shown progressively more options.

Advanced players can fuss about what cards come next, but even a successful guess may only uncover a small advantage. Newer players can blissfully take the most obvious choice, and as long as the keep the overall goal in focus, should feel like they are making progress.

And the gorgeous theme of the game means that players who are not into competition can feel like they are just "bettering their best score" with each game, not even competing.

I'll give it a few more weeks, but I am thinking this game moves to a nine on the 'geek in my ratings.

Check out this excellent single-player "record sheet" available on the 'geek.

Desert Island games

This was a popular "geeklist" a while back if I recall. Playing Agricola with Kevin and discussing whether it was better than Puerto Rico led me back to wondering what my absolute favorite game would be, if stranded on a desert island.

Of course, we'd have to assume that we had (ahem) and adequate number of players available. And I supposed that would make you think about the conditions you'd be playing in (a tent? under a coconut tree?), etc.

But check out the poll on the right side, and if you see a game that you think significantly out-ranks the others, give it a vote. Then click "comments" below and lets discuss it. ;)

X-deck

Thanks to BGG for point this out... there's a new deck coming for Agricola in the next issue of Spielbox. Check out this article.

Agric-o-lah

It's here. Possibly the greatest game in the world, Agricola (apparently pronounced "Agric-o-lah", latin for "farmer").

First play at Kevin's on Wednesday, 3-player "family" game, plus 3-player "occupation/minor improvement deck" game. Kevin, Jared and I faced off in Northampton.

I was thrilled after the first game, and immediate felt the influence of Princes of Florence, Caylus, and Puerto Rico, as well as a little Age of Empires. Had the same desire for replay as I did after my first game of AoE, with no negatives like I felt with Caylus (length, dry).

The pieces were excellent. Kevin had the highly controversial "pre-order" edition, with the extra cards (called "z-cards" for "z-man games" edition), and the "ani-meeples", or animal pieces. His instruction was outstanding, I didn't pull the manual once, and only had to ask a couple of clarifying questions during the game. The game felt very "natural", and the theme was very rich and made actions very intuitive. Your goal to enlarge your farming family, grow cattle, sheep, enlarge your farm and plant fields for victory points was interesting and fun.

Playing my second game with the expansion deck was not quite as impressive as I hoped, in that it made the game somewhat more "solitaire" than it felt in the family version. Each of us chose our own path and I can only remember one move in the entire game that one player could dramatically affect another (and he ended up choosing a different space anyway). In the first play, because of more limited choices (no cards), it felt that your move choices could block out those of your opponents, making the game more like Caylus or even Puerto Rico in that respect.

In any event, I rate the game an "8" immediately, and suspect it could climb to a "10" and take out Puerto Rico (or at least tie it) for me.

============

There is more "buzz" about this game than any I can remember on the 'geek. The number of forum posts, reviews, articles and photos for the length of time this game is on the market is unbelievable. As I write this the game is battling for first place on the boardgamegeek ratings, a legitimate contender to take out Puerto Rico for number one in the world, a feat that I would have thought impossible for several reasons.

There is a site that apparently will be producing more of the wooden animal pieces, which do a lot of richness to the visual nature of the game, and make it more conversational for non-gamers here. Apparently, you can purchase plastic animals from Target, and maybe from craft stores as well.

State of BSC

Here's what's been going on this year at Brett Spiel Cafe. I originally built this site for three basic reasons: 1. To provide a place for friends to gather and discuss boardgaming. 2. Provide a central location for game news that I uncovered during my routine surfing and scouring the web. 3. Provide an outlet for my creative writing "itch", and exercise my web skills.

In the last several years, there has been a huge increase in the amount of material available on the web about boardgaming. A google search today nets 214,000 hits just on the word "boardgaming", and 89,000 on Klaus Teuber (of Settlers of Catan fame). NOTE: I used the "10-year anniversary" google search on 10/08/08, and 10 years ago, there were only 1,080 hits on "boardgaming" and 3,590 for Klaus! Boardgamegeek.com has improved tremendously as a resource for gamers, and has had some major technological improvements that make it not just the best boardgame site on the 'net, but one of the best catalog/archive/information/community sites on the internet.

Boardgamenews.com is another fantastic site that has had a major facelift, and now supported by advertising and a large list of news contributors has done a fantastic job on highlight what's new and upcoming in the hobby.

During the last few years before these sites really took off, I would use them and others as a place to find news and nuggets of gaming info, linking to them from Brettspielcafe. Eventually their content grew to a point where I could not keep up with them, and it seemed they were a better source of regular direct news for myself and our readers here.

I made a decision to close Brettspeilcafe.net to outsiders for a while in 2006, and it seemed that this eliminated several regular readers, and comments on my posts began to disasppear even after I reopened the site as an open one a month later.

Time has limited my "creative writing" this year significantly, and has even cut my actual boardgaming down one session perhaps once a month now.

What's the future hold for Brettspeilcafe.net?

I hope to keep the site open as an archive for our past events, and some opinion pieces and post-mortems I am proud of and would like to stay up. I suspect that in the next year or so there will be a resurgence of "Euro" or "German" style gaming in my home and in my group of friends. This might give me the "boost" that I need to start writing again.

In the meantime, please check us out at least once a month. Feel free to comment on any posts you enjoy. Create a profile on boardgamegeek.com and join me there for a game of Tigris and Euphrates!

Quiet

It has been a while since I've posted, and there's a reason for that... I have not been boardgaming very much! Some different things going on have kept me away from it, unfortunately. A game of Chess here or there, played Probe the other night with the family (Tammy crushed us). That's about it. Agricola is on it's way apparently, that will no doubt inspire a get-together.

Texas Hold'em has been popular, and our once-a-month gathering with 6-8 people has taken care of a lot (most?) of my table time I suppose. I keep finishing in second place, I think 4 of the last 7 times we've played. I cannot seem to figure out how to win the game 1-1.

I still played Tigris and Euphrates on the 'geek, checking that site every day. It is one of my two
"perfect 10" rated games, along with Chess. My"9's" are: Bridge, Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed., Puerto Rico, and Mare Nostrum.

Ticket 2 Ride: XBox Live

Yet another boardgame conversion. Another good article on the subject, thanks to BGN.

Check out the early review of Ticket to Ride, Xbox Live edition here.

Lost Cities : found on Xbox Live

Excellent Knizia game, Lost Cities, is coming to Xbox Live.

Thanks to BGN for the tip - apparently Knizia's name is nowhere to be found on the game. Also, the card game is 2-player, but it appears to be "vision enabled" and up to 4-players on the Xbox 360 version.

No word on how many points, but I will check it out for sure. It's supposedly available on Tuesday, April 23rd.

Mike Doyle

Thanks again to BGN for this link to a cool interview with Mike Doyle on his thoughts about boardgame design.

Boardgamenews

Boardgamenews.com has done a fantastic job of keeping me up-to-date on the latest in the world of "brett spieling". When I started the Cafe back in... 2004? there were a few sites with board gaming information, but they were spread all over and even Boardgamegeek was perfecting it's content.

Anyway, looks like Lost Cities is making it's appearance on the Xbox, and there's no way I'd ever have know about this without it being pointed out by BGN. Thanks guys!

Giveaway... of the day!

This site was giving away a free copy of Ingenious (by Knizia), and see other cool stuff on here now.

Play Catan?

Play Catan is Klaus Teuber's answer to Catanonline and Catan Xbox, and is launching in English sometime this spring.

There are many ways to play Settlers of Catan online for free right now, so I am not sure hope popular this will be ultimately, but they claim to have 12,000+ players, and 1500+ paying members.

The one that catches my eye is the ability to play Seafarers and Cities and Knights, which can be done if you are a member of Play Catan apparently. Perhaps Teuber cleverly withheld these expansions from Microsoft and Brettspielcafe to create interest and addiction in the series.

Ultimately, I am glad to see Catan in the mainstream of gaming. The more the merrier, and the better for all of us boardgamers!

Gathering of Friends 6

GOF 6 POSTPONED due to illness.

-----------------------------------

Previous GOF winners:

GOF 1: Michael S., March 21st, 2004
GOF 2: Doug F., December 24th, 2004
GOF 3: Taber O., Novermber 11th, 2005
GOF 4: Caleb O., March 4th, 2006
GOF 5: Kevin F., November 11th, 2006
GOF 6: ???, ???, 2008

The activities are tentatively:

Gathering of Friends 6 Tournament

Grand Prize: Choice of Age of Empires Deluxe PC game or Louis XIV (board game)
Second Prize: Louis the XIV or AoE PC

Three rounds, winners advance to more complex games in 2nd and 3rd round.


Round 1, 3:00 PM
------------------------

Settlers of Catan, 4 player, 3 tables

Winners from round 1 not play at the same table with each other in Round 2.

Round 2, 5:00 PM
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Power Grid (1-2 tables)
Puerto Rico (?)
Acquire / Vinci / Antike (depending on who he can talk into playing, Dave will run one of these)


Dinner @ 6:00 PM


Round 3, 7:30 PM
----------------------------


GOF 6 championship

Age of Empires (5 player) -

Winner of this game wins a copy of AoE for the PC Deluxe Edition, or Louis XIV
Second place wins a copy of Louis XIV or AoE PC.

5 players for the championship determined by players who have won 2 games, plus player(s) who have won at least 1 game and come in 2nd in another.


Depending on who's left, remaining players will play for enjoyment:

Power Grid, Railroad Tycoon, Tigris & Euphrates, Risk 2210, Alhambra, St. Petersburg, Ticket to Ride, Scrabble.

==========

Thoughts, comments, etc. are welcome! Click "comments" to post!

Toledo - the board game

You've been waiting for it. A game to celebrate the great city of Toledo, Ohio.

Well, you'll have to wait a little longer, but you will get a game about Toledo, Spain.

From one of my favorite designers also, the great Martin Wallace.

Martin is responsible for Age of Steam, Conquest of the Empire (new edition), Railroad Tycoon, Struggle of Empires, and Tempus.

No release date yet, this one has been just added to the 'Geek.

Thanks to Boardgamenews for the heads up on this title.

Acquire is coming

Acquire is coming back, in a new $30 edition from Avalon Hill. Thanks to Boardgamenews for the tip.

Acquire is the 5th game listed on BGG, it's from 1962 and from Sid Sackson. 'nuff said.

Here are what some of my "geekbuddies" on BGG have to say about this game:

"Nearly perfect in every regard. This should be owned/played by anyone serious about boardgames. Unlike many modern games, Acquire has unlimited replayability and always will. Pure genius."

"Deceptively simple to learn, and decidedly impossible to master. There is an element of luck (who draws the merger tiles)but a classic game with excellent replayability"

"A classic in every sense of the word. One of the few games which always seems to get table-time over and over."

"A masterpiece. Wonderful, wonderful game and the new edition is awesome. What I think I like most about this game is the way the board evolves. It is almost organic, but at the behest of the players, so if you study the players' moves, you can tell which way it is growing. The game rewards you for paying attention. Also, there is blocking by holding the tiles needed to merge until the company you have can be safe. It's a cool game."

Was a formative game for me, it being introduced to my brother and I by my cousin Bob back in the late 1985 or so, when it was already 25+ years old... His copy had been played probably a hundred times, and we played it steadily through the early 1990's. Little did we realize that this was an ORIGINAL "Euro" or "designer" or "German" style board game. It was of course made by an American, but from what I recall was actually sold by Sackson to a European publisher, and 3M brought it back across the pond later to the U.S.

Perhaps I will drag this out at our next game party...

Bobby Fischer, 1943-2008

Bobby Fischer, the 11th world chess champion is dead at 64. He died in Reykjavik, Iceland where he moved in 2005 after being released from prison in Japan. An article at Chessbase tells the story here.

Fischer beat Boris Spassky to take the crown as the first perhaps "world-famous" chess champion. At the height of the cold-war between the United States and the Soviet Union, I remember learning chess from my dad when I was 4-5 years old, right around the time Fischer was making newspaper headlines. My dad was in his early 20's, and was playing chess and listening to jazz with a lot of other young men.

Thanks to Dad for teaching me the great game, which turned out to be a big deal for me. I was the best player in my peer group perhaps till I reached high school, and I developed a love for gaming from my early encounters with Dad on our Sunday night sessions after our family study.

Games played in 2007...

I shocked myself when printing this list. It really seems like 2007 was an "off" year for gaming. Here's my list of games and played:

Travel Blokus, 9
Carcassonne, 6
Star Wars Miniatures Starship Battles, 5
Alhambra, 4
Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, 3
Coloretto, 3
GIPF, 3
Puerto Rico, 3
TAMSK, 3
Great Space Race, The, 2
Hey! That's My Fish!, 2
Nexus Ops, 2
Pinochle, 2
Settlers of Catan, The, 2
Through the Desert, 2
Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery, 1
Antike, 1
Carcassonne: The City, 1
CATAN 3D Collector's Edition 1
Caylus 1
Caylus Magna Carta 1
Cities and Knights of Catan, The 1
Civilization, 1
Formula Dé, 1
Mare Nostrum, 1
Mykerinos, 1
Niagara, 1
Railroad Tycoon, 1
Saint Petersburg, 1
Star Wars Miniatures, 1
Ticket to Ride, 1
Traders of Genoa, The, 1
Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition, 1

That's 69 games played, and 32 different titles. Compare that to 140 games played in 2006, and 40 different titles.

Sorted by TIME, the list would look something like:

Twilight Imperium, 1 game, 9 hours
Caylus, 1 game, 4 hours
Pinocle, 2 games, 12 hours
Star Wars Miniature Starship Battles, 5 games, 10 hours
Puerto Rico, 3 games, 8 hours

Still... it was an off year for gaming. But the trend was obviously towards few, but longer games in 2007.