tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7403342761692609812011-07-07T19:32:42.312-05:00Gaming reports with strategy tips, reviews, and just a little bit of everything else pertaining to board games.Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-56267522176524804882010-04-21T09:20:00.001-05:002010-04-21T09:20:38.862-05:00

Jonathan, Chris, David, Manny, and I sat down at the table around 1pm with the board already set up. Jonathan and David hadn’t played before (though I found out later that Jonathan had read through some strategy articles in preparation), so I briefly went through the rules. We played the Sun map, and I established my position mainly in southwest with a small presence in the southeast while Manny

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-13135981698062772752010-03-05T13:43:00.002-06:002010-03-05T14:17:17.247-06:00

I started a contest to determing the best Heavier Gamer in our group for several reasons:I'm hoping that it will give participants a reason to attend more often and increase interest in the club in general.I'm hoping that the way that I've structured the contest will encourage participants to get to know the 10 games that we're using in depth instead of playing a whole bunch of games one time.

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-66741274093946044772010-03-05T11:47:00.003-06:002010-03-05T11:50:11.436-06:00

First of all, sorry that I haven't posted in a while. I'm going to be hosting a gaming tournament over the next 6 to 8 months and hope to chronicle the games here with session reports, etc, so look for new content fairly consistantly in the near future.Our gaming group, the SouthWest Area Gamers (SWAG), has a decent number of members, but we have a hard time getting a lot of participation outside

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-64888703215310215502009-04-13T10:21:00.003-05:002009-04-13T11:29:19.839-05:00

I've now played Ticket to Ride 4 times, and I have yet to win. Is it that the game requires a lot of luck or am I following a failed strategy?On our Saturday, 4/4, meetup, Mandi joined us for six player Apples to Apples but left us on our own when we started playing the more complicated games. That means we had 5, Manny, Erin, Richard, Nora, and myself for the rest of the day. It made no sense

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-75910707716815536172009-04-01T14:07:00.002-05:002009-04-01T14:10:52.685-05:00

Richard, Manny, Cruz, and I played Shogun last night. It was a fun game, but it ran an hour past the 2.5 hours that it was supposed to take. I need to remember to add in serious time for teaching and for the fact that everyone moves slowly until they figure out what is going on. Additionally, there were several rules questions that came up during the game that I had to try to figure out, and I

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-46736524561350245692009-03-25T10:00:00.002-05:002009-03-25T10:07:24.623-05:00

Manny, Richard, Nora, and myself met last night to play Power Grid, ranked the 3rd best game in the world by the members of boardgamegeek.com.It was only my second session of PG, and it turned into my second loss. Hopefully, my mistakes will help you learn what not to do.In my first game of Power Grid, I narrowly lost due to not having enough capacity on the final turn to power as many cities as

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-59796553874115623752009-03-24T11:42:00.003-05:002009-03-24T11:46:05.899-05:00

I haven’t played Chess seriously since college. At that time, I met Dave Dawson. I helped him out with his Mechanical Engineering homework, and he, being a near master level player, tutored me in Chess.We started right after my first ever Chess tournament. Going in, I thought that I was hot stuff. Most people that I had played barely could stay on the same board with me. Surely, these players

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-72441582508734464042009-03-23T10:42:00.003-05:002009-03-23T11:08:23.351-05:00

The meetup on Saturday was a bit of a letdown. 6 people showed up, not a bad turnout, but everyone left after 2 hours. All we had time for was one game of Apples to Apples and two of Scattergories. I don't consider either of those games to be worth a post.My wife, Mandi, came to the rescue, though. She pretty much hates gaming, but, when she learned that I didn't get to play any games that I

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-66641345884914578902009-03-20T10:17:00.000-05:002009-03-20T10:18:16.859-05:00

I’ve been playing a lot of Dominion online at BrettspeilWelt, so my knowledge is increasing at a pretty good pace. The game changes dramatically depending on which 10 action cards are in play, so I figure the best way to improve is to get a good grip on how and when each card should be used.My take on the 25 Dominion Kingdom (Action) cards:Adventurer – (6, Reveal cards in your hand until you

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-14623356820446559372009-03-15T12:15:00.001-05:002009-03-15T17:58:57.110-05:00

Though the title sounds like the hot new German game in town, it isn't. Brettspiel is a free online gaming site that features many popular board games. I've seen Carcasonne and Stone Age, and I've played, to this point, 26 games of Dominion - only winning 11. YIKES, tough competition.BGG has a nice primer on it here. I would recommend checking it out before creating an account because the

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-41779556562288252702009-03-12T09:53:00.003-05:002009-03-12T15:51:33.351-05:00

I played Stone Age with Nora, Manny, and Mando at the last meetup. For some reason, I'm enjoying playing it less now than I did at first.I pursued my typical strategy of taking what was given to me. My priorities, in order, are:Moving up the food production track.New Meeples, but don't stretch food too thin.Good cards for low resource cost; late in game, cards that give me a lot of points

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-59530598654625410302009-03-11T10:40:00.003-05:002009-03-11T11:31:48.427-05:00

At the last meetup, I played Modern Art again and won easily. From the standpoint of determining play strategy, games typically fall into one of three categories:It is difficult to figure out how the game mechanics interrelate and thus hard to determine what moves to make. There is a natural progression where I figure it out more and more as I gain experience.It feels intuitive to me.Games in

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-29163558907933701372009-03-09T14:00:00.004-05:002009-03-09T14:28:20.419-05:00

Dominion is THE hot game for our meetup group, and I got a chance to play two more sessions last Saturday.The first game pitted myself against JM, Mando, and Nora. I chose to pursue a Chapel (costs 2, trash up to 4 cards from your hand) strategy this go around. Not only was it successful, but it completely fit my style of play.I started with my normal buys of a Village (costs 3, +1 card +2

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-13981896044738619202009-02-22T17:58:00.003-06:002009-03-11T10:40:15.290-05:00

At our last meetup, I had the opportunity to play Dominion three times, two times using cards besides the beginner version. I've refined my play somewhat and will share with you some of my thoughts.The basic strategy is to get enough gold in your hand to buy a Province. Failing that, buy a gold if you get 6 or 7 treasures. If less than 6, buy a silver or a card that's better than a silver.My

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-53921191474579571132009-02-18T18:10:00.004-06:002009-02-20T18:21:46.889-06:00

No Thanks! is simple to learn and quick to play, a perfect filler game.Each player is given 11 chips, and a turn order is established. A card is them flipped up in the center of the table. The first player has the option of taking the card or placing a chip on it to pass it to the next player. Each card counts against you based on the numerical value on its face, and each chip takes one from the

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-12617356812501153842009-02-18T18:00:00.003-06:002009-02-18T18:09:08.579-06:00

Pandemic is a unique game in that it's cooperative. It pits you and your friends against the game itself, and, let me tell you, it's not easy to prevail, even on the medium difficulty level.You and your team represent the Centers for Disease Control and must fight to stop outbreaks of different viruses. Each of you has special powers to help contain and cure, but the little bugs spread fast and

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-6755555210068054322009-02-17T22:02:00.003-06:002009-02-17T22:17:31.729-06:00

While I can be a bit ambivalent toward card games, I generally love auction games, and JM introduced me to a gem of one last meetup, Modern Art. He also messaged me to let me know that it's on sale for half off at Barnes and Noble here in town and to admonish me for being so slow to update my blog. Sorry!I did indeed enjoy the game and intend to pick up a copy ASAP. Each player represents a

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-58485933378010418292009-02-15T12:35:00.002-06:002009-02-17T22:02:26.413-06:00

Take 6 is a card game in which each player receives a hand of numbered cards and four cards are placed face up in the center of the table. Taking turns, the players place cards on the table next to the face up cards with the caveat that each one has to be placed next to the one that is closest numerically to it without going under. If you place the sixth card, you have to take the first five

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-50446045236737576112009-02-15T09:32:00.003-06:002009-02-15T12:35:06.686-06:00

At our last meetup, JM brought out On the Dot and Jungle Smart. I'm reviewing them together because a) we played a lot of new games that night and b) the two are both puzzle games.In On the Dot, players are given four transparent cards with colored dots on them. A card with a pattern of dots is flipped up, and players must manipulate their cards to replicate that pattern. The first one to do

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-77153145700080336772009-01-11T10:54:00.002-06:002009-01-11T11:07:26.720-06:00

After everyone else left Thursday night, Mando and I played Race for the Galaxy.Frequent readers of this blog (I think that that pretty much means Ed) will remember that Race is one of my new favorite games. It's quick to set up and play, easy to explain, but the strategy is complicated and varied enough that it keeps me interested.For this session, I pursued my standard produce/consume strategy

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-67192844618924098052009-01-10T15:39:00.003-06:002009-01-10T19:27:17.878-06:00

After Ticket to Ride (see this post), the five of us played Wits and Wagers.Though I prefer games that require a lot of strategy, I don't necessarily dislike party/trivia games. For example, I love Taboo and have been known to play some Trivial Pursuit in my day. This game, however, doesn't do it for me.The entire game consists of 7 trivia questions that each have a numerical answer. Each player

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-27888844652253350902009-01-10T13:54:00.004-06:002009-03-25T10:08:40.412-05:00

JM arrived at game night Thursday after we had started Dominion, so, for our second game, we needed something that would accomodate 5 players. Ticket to Ride fit the bill in that regard and is considered to be a gateway game, perfect for a new group.In this game, players draw Tickets that grant points for completing a route between two North American cities (other sets use different areas, such

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-36167240920063713262009-01-09T20:21:00.002-06:002009-01-10T12:57:32.403-06:00

Mando, Patrick, Dani, and I all played Dominion for the first time during the Thursday evening meetup. Based on this one play, the game lives up to it's top 10 rating on Board Game Geek.It's easy to explain, quick to set up, and has such an original feel to it. If you've ever played collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering, you'll especially appreciate the game play, but such experience

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-42140986622976714232009-01-04T11:28:00.004-06:002009-01-04T11:42:17.280-06:00

The concept of the Expansion Strategy is to seek a balance of resources and try to expand rapidly early in the game.In order to win, you’ll need to: Get most of your points from settlements and cities. However, it is unlikely that you’ll be able to build 5 cities. The additional points, obviously, need to come from longest road, bonus points, or largest army.Since you’re likely to have a good

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-16040743732306908002008-12-09T11:11:00.003-06:002008-12-09T19:09:37.422-06:00

If there is one game that I don't seem to be able to figure out, it's St. Petersburg. I'm not sure why, but the strategy doesn't seem as clear to me as the ones for most of the games that I play. Since I haven't devoted the time necessary to overcome my deficit in understanding, I tend to shy away from participating when this title is called out. Steve wanted to try out the 5 person expansion,

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-21776558737242434072008-12-08T18:16:00.004-06:002008-12-09T19:02:28.870-06:00

It's been awhile since I made an entry because I haven't been to a game night in the last three weeks. Fortunately, Ed and I were able to make the one at Ray's on Saturday, and our first action was Shogun. Steve had just purchased it and was eager to play. He, Dee, and Ben joined Ed and I.I had read about the Shogun's combat mechanic, but this was my first experience with the combat tower, which

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-49256200942010935152008-11-13T13:11:00.001-06:002008-11-14T16:31:48.518-06:00

The concept for the Development Card Strategy is to ignore wood and brick completely when you are placing your initial settlements. Instead, you want, in order, Ore, Wheat, and Sheep. Cities and Development Cards are your friends.To achieve 10 victory points, most of the time you'll want to: Establish one settlement in addition to your starting 2. You'll need to trade for the Wood and Brick that

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-8551077513750494582008-11-09T12:39:00.003-06:002009-03-25T10:09:14.043-05:00

The second game that we played at game night, with the same crew - Dee, Ed, and Joe, was Age of Mythology. Though Ed and I had gone over the rules previously, it was our first time to actually play.There was a slight misunderstanding with the rules at the beginning; I thought that you could only harvest resources if you had a peasant present, so I produced two houses at the beginning. I was a bit

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-59187587840985757052008-11-09T12:19:00.002-06:002008-11-09T12:39:12.864-06:00

At the latest game night, I played Race for the Galaxy with Dee, Ed, and Joe, and my winning streak was snapped with authority.I started out following a very focused strategy of playing only worlds that gave me either a produce power or a consume power. I had 7 cards played and was getting my engine going when Dee ended the game. The points produced by his 12 cards easily dwarfed mine.The first

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-4439598576804465912008-11-06T16:30:00.003-06:002008-11-07T12:31:36.644-06:00

I have identified three strategies to use while playing Settlers of Catan:Development Card Strategy - Focus on Ore, Wheat, and Sheep, and buy lots of development cards.Port Strategy - Settle a 2-1 port and concentrate on that resource.Expansion Strategy - Expand as far and as fast as possible. Focus on Wood, Brick, Wheat, and Sheep.My plan is to play 100 games against 3 computer opponents (1

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-3776263040766656022008-10-31T13:06:00.002-05:002008-10-31T13:34:19.614-05:00

Ed and I wanted to try some new, quick games, so I went to Other Realms and picked a couple up. For our first play, we went with Magdar. Overall, I had a lot of fun yelling MAGDAR! Other than that, there's not much to get excited about. The game seems to involve way too much luck based on random die rolls and no real strategy. There are some tactical considerations regarding which boulders to

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-43815114418987652062008-10-29T12:27:00.004-05:002008-10-30T14:06:41.490-05:00

Ed was busy trying out St Petersburg while I really wanted to get in at least one game of Stone Age. Since Steve had just finished playing a round with 3 other players and wanted to move on to another game, I was only able to corral two other players, Eve and Josh.Three player has slightly different rules than the four player version - out of food field, the mating hut, and the tool hut, only two

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-78975775780545200442008-10-28T11:52:00.005-05:002009-03-25T10:09:51.035-05:00

Ed had also been reading up on Agricola on Boardgamegeek.com and jumped at the chance to play it at game night. Dustin and Kwan, both experienced players, and Josh joined us.Since playing for the first time last week, I had done a little research myself and convinced the other players that we should draft cards instead of passing them out randomly. I always loved drafting in Magic tournaments and

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-19839560598931712082008-10-27T13:14:00.005-05:002008-10-28T11:52:51.795-05:00

Ed and I went to the club game night at Ray's place last Saturday night. Our first contest of the evening was Race for the Galaxy. Ed had read a lot about it on board game geek and wanted to try it out. Dee agreed to teach it to us, and Josh, who had played before, joined us as well.It took a turn or two to figure out what was happening with the different phases, but, by the end of the game, I

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-18396222456979334152008-10-27T12:51:00.002-05:002008-10-27T13:05:36.046-05:00

I've invited a friend of mine to add his voice to the blog. The plan at the moment is for him to contribute about once a week. His first post is below:Hello, my name is Ed. I share Brian's passion for gaming. Brian asked me if I'd like to contribute to his blog on board gaming. I, like him(well, because of him, really) have noticed that board gaming seems pretty under-represented on the

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-60563957610444865942008-10-23T13:28:00.005-05:002008-10-24T18:09:29.886-05:00

The last post covered strategy for the placement phase in Settlers of Catan . This one offers up some general strategies for the game:Do not discount how important it is to get off to a quick start. If you can place a third settlement significantly faster than your opponents, you gain the potential for more resources, helping you to outpace your foes even more. Your best bet is to carefully place

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-22494085733547824132008-10-22T14:27:00.006-05:002008-10-24T18:09:06.905-05:00

I've been playing Settlers of Catan often lately. Here are some of my thoughts on strategy.It seems to me that the game can easily be won or lost in the set up phase. Here are some of my observations:The first thing that jumped out at me, obviously, was the probability of each number being rolled. Fortunately, the game board does a lot of the work for you on this one. Each hex has dots

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-22462504297402033222008-10-21T14:29:00.007-05:002008-10-24T18:08:37.251-05:00

Prior to Saturday night, I had played Stone Age a total of three times and had not won once. Despite this losing streak, and I must admit that winning a game and enjoying a game are often much too synonymous for me, I found that it was rapidly rising up the list of my favorite games.I'm trying to figure it out why it is so much fun for me. Perhaps it is partly due to Ed's insistance on shouting

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-87233411008271721972008-10-20T14:46:00.006-05:002008-10-24T18:07:46.509-05:00

Last Saturday night was my first chance to play Agricola, a resource gathering and utilization game that is often compared to Puerto Rico.Since two of my opponents were Dee and Steve, both considered to be among the toughest competitors in the group, and it was my first time to play, I didn't think that I had much of a shot at winning. My main goal was to learn the mechanics and see how I liked

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740334276169260981.post-2687505228776683052008-10-19T14:11:00.005-05:002008-10-27T12:49:54.878-05:00

I've had an interest in board games for as long as I can remember. Perhaps my enthusiasm comes from the fact that I was a lot younger than my siblings, and they would never let me play with them when I was a child. In fact, until moving to Hawaii, I never found people who shared my passion for games that are heavily strategy oriented.Last March, I joined the Oahu Board Gamers Meetup Group, and

Brainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16785891565110055873noreply@blogger.com1