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!

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..."

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?