Power Grid - Review

Sometimes we take electric power for granted. I woke up this morning to the
beeping of my electric alarm clock. After hitting snooze, I finally got out
of bed to my electric coffee maker and started the morning brew. When I
came into the store today, I flipped the switch and the lights came on, just
as I suspected it would. I powered up my computer today and started this
review, all thanks to the magic that is electricity.

However, how often do we stop to think where that power comes from? I mean,
it really isn’t magic, is it? Friedemann Friese and the good folks over at
Rio Grande Games offer us a great game that takes us inside the world of
supplying power to the masses. From coal to solar, from oil to fusion,
Power Grid offers us a chance to build an energy empire, and empire building
has never been so much fun.

Power Grid’s premise is simple: supply power to the most cities to win.
Players not only need to purchase power plants and the necessary resources,
but they need to build substations in the cities in order to power them.
The game quickly becomes a delicate balance of shrewd investment and money
management and it is that tension that makes the game so enjoyable.

Each turn is comprised of five phases. First, players bid on the power
plants that will supply the power to their cities. While this sounds easy,
players do need to weigh their options carefully. For example, a coal plant
might be the cheapest option there, but it will cost more to power in the
end. The wind power plant might cost more today, but since wind is free, it
offers certain cost benefits in the next phase of resource purchasing.

Speaking of which, resource management offers another set of management
possibilities. Often a player will avoid a certain type of resource just
because all the other players invested too heavily in it. For example, if
you are the only player with a nuclear power plant, you may have the
opportunity to power many cities for a low cost later in the game when
Uranium becomes more plentiful. Proper money management in this phase is
crucial.

Next up is building of the substations. In order to expand your power
network, you need to pay the initial building fee plus the connection fee
from a city you already have a plant in. If a player has a plant in Kiel
(on the German map) and wants to go to Flensburg, they would pay 10
“electros” plus a 4 “electro” connection fee. This is another area that
requires proper planning, as some of the connection fees are quite high.

Once you’ve built, you power the cities to receive money for the next round.
While it is advantageous to power as many cities as possible, the game
builds in law of diminishing returns. Sometimes, later in the game, it
becomes more advantageous not to power all your cities if it will cost you
more to replenish the resources than the payment for powering.

As you can see, the game contains many tough decisions for the player to
decide. It’s not a tough game to play, but it is one of agonizing
decisions. Since you never have enough money to do everything you want to
do, deciding what to do is the core of the game. This balance of ensuring
all facets of your energy empire creates an enjoyable tension in the game
and one that I quite enjoy.

The game board itself is standard, with pleasing artwork and well laid out
spaces for the various facets of the game. The power plant cards also
sturdy and should hold up well. The resources and substations are colorful
wooden pieces that are very nice. Admittedly, I am a game snob so wooden
pieces add a lot to a game for me, but having the resources in various
colors and different shapes makes the game not only more enjoyable but
easier to play. At a glance, I can tell what resources are in the bank
along with on my opponent’s cards.

If I have one complaint about the components, the paper money comes with the
game shows wear quite easily. Money frequently moves from the bank to the
players hands and back again during the course of a game and the paper isn’t
designed to hold up to the handling it gets. I would not let this deter you
from picking up the game in the least, but I would plan to replace the money
at some point (Monopoly money would work great).

I could fill this conclusion with lots of funny puns relating to the
electric industry or some bad reference to this being a “powerful” game. I
will spare you my lame attempts at humor because this game is just that
good. At the end of the day, I used to recommend four games that everyone
should have in their game libraries. Now, I recommend five. I don’t think
it takes a powerful brain to figure out what the newest entry is.

Ingenious - Review

Tile laying games are nothing new. From Chicken Foot to Mexican Train,
games involving dominoes as the tiles remain popular for young and old
alike. It is somewhat surprising that more designers have not attempted an
update to the classic game of dominoes. Well, the brilliant mind that
brought us Loco, Samurai, and Fish Eat Fish has once again given us a
fantastic game that is summed up well in one word: Ingenious.

Ingenious is an American reprint of a German game by Reiner Knizia called
Einfach Genial (literally “Simply Ingenious”). The game comes with a board,
120 tiles in a cloth bag, four tile racks, four score cards with scoring
markers, and the rules. The tiles are two hexagons (six sides) joined on
one side with a “suit” on each portion of the tile. For example, a tile
might have a blue star on one half of the tile and a red sun on the other.

On a player’s turn, they select a tile from their hand and play it on the
game board. To score their play, they look at each half of the tile and
count the number of matching items that fall in a straight line from each of
the five sides. For example, if Bob placed a tile with a blue star, he
would count the number of blue stars that fall in a straight line from each
side of the tile. It is a bit confusing to explain without the game in
front of you, but the rules do a great job of showing you how you would
score a tile. After determining the score, Bob moves his blue scoring
marker forward the number scored.

Quite reminiscent of dominoes, the goal is to have the best score at the end
of the game. What makes this a bit different is that having the highest
score does not necessarily guarantee you victory because your lowest suit is
your actual score of the game. If a player’s lowest suit is green circles
with a six, then they score six in the final game scoring. The player with
the highest score wins the game.

It is this unique twist that makes Ingenious so, well, ingenious. The need
to focus on all the suits means that a player cannot just focus on one suit
to win the game. It also means that a major scoring play for one player
does not necessarily eliminate everyone else playing. Since the game isn’t
over until the last tile goes on the board, it keeps everyone playing and
interested throughout.

Fast paced, a two-player game with a fair amount of analysis takes only
around 30 minutes. My wife and played for the “County Championship” one
evening and easily played three games in about 90 minutes, including breaks
between the games. (For those of you keeping score at home, I won two games
to one!) I imagine that a four-player game should take about 45 minutes as
the box suggests making this a great game to pull out after dinner for the
family.

In addition, the game is one of a handful that scales well between one and
four players. That’s right, the rules contain instructions on how to play a
solo game. Along with that, the game board comes colored slightly
differently to indicate the playing surface for a two, three, or four player
game. Additionally, the rules contain directions on playing a four player
partnership game along with the aforementioned solo rules. Again, this is
nice to have so many options spelled out for players right out of the box.

The components are nice, but nothing spectacular. Especially nice is the
bag that comes with the game as it makes it easy to randomize the tiles.
Made of sturdy plastic with vibrant colors, the tiles themselves are both
nice to look at and easy to work with. The board is standard for a board
game with nothing particularly special or disappointing. Clearly written
with good examples, the rules make this an easy game to pull out of the box
and play right away.

If there is one thing regarding the components that is a concern, it is the
placement of the orange and yellow scoring tracts next to each other on the
player’s cards. While the tiles are quite clear (the shapes help), it would
not take much to mistakenly move the wrong marker when scoring. It is just
puzzling that Herr Knizia would not notice that and put something
contrasting between them. Despite that small concern, it certainly isn’t
something that should keep anyone from picking up this game.

Once again, the good doctor Reiner Knizia shows us why we still love a good
game. In particular, those who enjoy dominoes should stop and look at this
game, as they will find game play familiar yet decidedly different. Quite
simple to learn and play, yet with a level of strategy and decision-making
found in few games, Ingenious offers a great time to anyone who picks up the
game and plays. And in the end, isn’t that why we play?

Blokus - Review

Over 2,500 years ago, someone in China developed Go. 250 years ago, William
Payne wrote Treatise on the Game of Draughts and brought Checkers into the
modern era from it's humble beginnings in ancient Egypt. Backgammon, the
king of all racing games, dates back some 5,000 years. Chess is over 1400
years old after someone invented the game in India in 600 A.D.

So what's up with the history lesson? Every so often a game comes along
that is destined to survive well into the future. As our examples from
antiquity demonstrate, these timeless games all share common ingredients:
basic pieces, simple goals and game play, and ease of learning with mastery
a challenge. In 2001, another simple yet challenging game came onto the
scene and it is destined to be played well into the future: Blokus.

Blokus is a simple game of territory control similar to Go or Pente. The
difference is that rather than small stones to mark your territory, you use
various shaped colored pieces of plastic. Each of these piece resemble the
falling blocks in the computer game Tetris. The object is to simply get
your 21 pieces on the board while blocking your opponents who are trying to
do the same thing. On each players turn, they place one of their pieces on
the game board.

The trick is that after the first piece is played in your corner of the
square game board, you may only play a piece if it touches another piece of
your color. To further challenge you, you can only play that piece so it
touches on the corner of the piece you've already played. Game play
continues until you either place all your pieces on the board or cannot play
a piece due to space constraints. Each piece has a point value and players
receive points based on what pieces are left. The player with the lowest
total wins.

The simplicity is what makes this game so appealing. The box says that kids
as young as five can play and based on staff experience, that holds true.
The very youngest might need a little direction, but those who can play
chess or checkers should find this game easy to play. But as a customer so
suciently put it, “The levels of strategy are so deep that it makes it an
incredible game to play over and over again.” Truly this is a game that
appeals to young and old alike because it is as complicated as you wish to
make it.

And while you may think that I'm just making this all up, you can look at
their multitude of awards including the coveted Spiel des Jahres award for
German game of the year along with a place on the Games Magazine top 100 of
2002 and 2003. Mensa, Dr. Toy, Family Fun and many others have all given
this great game their stamp of approval. This puts Blokus in some elite
company among contemporary games and solidifies it among the all time
greats.

Although the game is 100% plastic, it does not detract from the quality of
the game. The colorful molded plastic pieces are sturdy and will hold up to
heavy play. The board is solid plastic and sturdy enough to survive a
person leaning on the board with all their weight (don't ask). Storage is a
breeze with a divided plastic storage bin with areas for each color.
Assuming you put each color in it's place and don't do the shake and bake
with the box while putting away, you should have no problem simply opening
the box and playing the next game.

So why the history lesson again? As I said last year, in 100 years people
will still play chess, checkers, go, and backgammon. I can't say that in
100 years that people will play some of my other favorites from 2003. But I
think I can safely say that in 100 years people will still play Blokus.
With all the ingredients of a timeless classic, Blokus is poised to remain
playable and approachable many years to come.

Nexus Ops - Preview

I received a packet of informational materials on Nexus Ops, a new strategy
game from Avalon Hill, and I must say it looks pretty good for a basic beer
and pretzel kind of game. While the demo is stripped down, I got a good
feel for game play and it isn't too bad. It looks like a nice balance
between attacking your opponents and gathering resources to build more
units. You win by collecting victory points from either completing missions
or winning battles.

Combat looks pretty tight and overall it looks like a fun table top war
game. I look forward to seeing more about it.

Apples to Apples - Review

In life, we have to compare things. The fine folks who wander into a Games
by James store often ask me to compare games to each other. They will also
ask me to compare games to such adjectives as “popular” or “best”.
Interestingly enough, that sort of activity is exactly what one would do in
the game that I answer more often than not to those questions. The game is
Apples to Apples and despite an initial aversion to words like noun and
adjective, the game is indeed quite enjoyable.

Game play for Apples to Apples is shockingly easy. At the beginning of the
game, each person receives six red apple cards. The dealer then takes the
first turn as Round Judge. Turning over a green apple card, the judge reads
it aloud. In a recent game, the word “Adorable” came up as the green apple
card for the round. Everyone except the judge then looks in their hand for
a red apple card they think matches the green apple card. I quickly chose
“Teddy Bear” and slapped it face down in front of the judge, certain of my
impending victory.

Once everyone has had a chance to play a card, the judge then discards the
last card played. It not only pays to have a good card but also to play it
quickly. The judge then takes the remaining cards and mixes them up so he
or she will not who played which card. Now the fun begins with the judge
reading aloud each of the cards that were played. Again, during that game
such cards as “Rainbows”, “Sunsets”, and “Puppy Dogs” were played against
the one card that went completely against the grain: “Pond Scum”.

If you’re sitting there wondering why anyone would say pond scum is
adorable, you’re not alone. That is the most enjoyable aspect of the game:
the judge is under no logical explanation as to why he or she picks a
certain card. During the decision making process the judge is encouraged to
anguish long and hard over which card is deserving of the winning award.
During that lengthy deliberation, the players are encouraged to lobby or
table talk to convince the judge that a certain card is the perfect (or
imperfect) pick. Once the judge has made his or her decision (in the above
case Pond Scum did win), the player who played the winning card for the
round receives the green apple card. Play proceeds around the group with
each player taking a turn as judge. The first player to accumulate a
certain number of green apple cards wins the game.

The game itself is a tremendous value, especially if have the new party box
that replaces the crate edition. The party box contains the base game along
with the first two expansions. That means you will have almost 1,000 red
and green apple cards for countless hours of entertainment. Due to the
random nature of the game, repeat play is virtually limitless.
Additionally, the company offers four booster packs with plans for more on
the way. The cards are of reasonable quality for the price and should
withstand the repeat playings this game will receive.

You don’t have to take my word for the greatness of this game, either. Not
only has the game won the Games Magazine Game of the Year award, it’s shown
up on no less than ten other award lists including Mensa. Further, the game
’s overall popularity attests to the enjoyment of the game and it remains
one of Games by James’ best selling games year round. Finally, my dad, who
thinks that if the game does not have dice, play money or standard playing
cards it is not worth playing, actually played and enjoyed the game. If
that is not a ringing endorsement, I do not know what is.

Apples to Apples remains one of the best games around. Clever, witty and
enjoyable, the game appeals to game hobbyists and casual players alike. If
the green apple card is fun, three guesses what red Apples to Apples card I’
ll play. And no, it isn’t pond scum.

Something Funny...

Last night after playing Ingenious with my darling wife, she looks at me and
says, "Maybe we need to get a different bag for the game."

Puzzled, I asked her what she meant. "Well, maybe a nicer one. You know,
like a velvet or satin type bag." (This may not be a direct quote, but you
get the picture).

I stifled a laugh. I often suggest replacing game components with nicer or
more durable pieces. She usually scoffs at me. Now, here she is doing the
same thing. I guess I've fully converted my wife into a Game Snob.

Isn't life fun?

My Ratings System

I just realized I added something about my ratings system and I haven't
really explained it. Here goes...

I borrow this heavily from the RPG system, Fudge. Fudge, unlike a lot of
RPG's, uses adjectives to describe the characters. Hence, I think it is
quite helpful in describing games, movies, or pretty much anything else you
care to compare. So, without further ado, here we go:

Legendary - A game that belongs in everyone's collection. Less than 1% of
all games make this grade.
Superb - A game that is in the upper echelon of gaming and is a true
classic.
Great - A game that is significantly above average.
Good - A game that is above average.
Fair - An average game. Nothing spectacular or special, but nothing
necessarily wrong with the game either.
Mediocre - A below average game. One that has some sort of problems with
the overall execution of the game.
Poor - A game that is significantly below average.
Terrible - A game that is in the lowest rung of gaming. Broken, boring, or
just plain bad, these go here.
Abysmal - See legendary only in the reverse.

Here are some examples (in my opinion):

Superb - Settlers, Puerto Rico, Ticket to Ride, Carcasonne, Power Grid
Great - Alhambra, Blokus
Good - Ingenious, Apples to Apples, Tikal, Quiddler
Fair - Attack, Balderdash
Poor - Clue, Mystery of the Abbey
Terrible - Yahtzee, Easy Come Easy Go, Catch Phrase
Abysmal - Bunco, LCR, Farkle

These are my tastes entirely. I know a lot of folks like Clue, but I really
don't care for it. Anyway, now you know how I rate games. I never said it
was a Great system...

Ingenious - Session Report

Something about this game from Herr Knizia reminds me of the Guinness
commercial where the guys keep shouting "Brilliant!" Or "Ingenious", take
your pick.

Julie and I sat down and played three games (I took two out of the three,
but who's counting?) of this new game tonight and I must say, I like it. I
like it a lot. It is definitely in the top five new games I've played this
year so far and will probably give Blokus a run for it's money as a favorite
on my game table. I'm not sure I like it more than Blokus, but I think it's
a better game than Blokus on several fronts:

- Plays faster than the box says (about 30 minutes for the two of us and we
both tend to over analyze games when we play)

- Easier to explain and grab onto than Blokus was.

- End game scoring is easier to figure out as well.

I don't know, though, that the comparison to Blokus is fair or not. They
are both abstracts, so the comparison is there whether we want it or not.
But I will say that the game is fun to play, a good mix of strategy and
luck, and easy to learn.

Ingenious gets a rating of Good on my ratings scale after the initial
evening of fun. Look for a full blown review coming soon to a blog near
you...

Ark of the Covenant - Session Report

I forgot to mention that after getting my hat handed to me at Power Grid the
other day, Julie and I played Ark of the Covenant for the first time. Let
me just say that this variant of Carcasonne is a fantastic version that
might see more plays than the original.

Quite similar to original Carcasonne, Ark has many variations that the
expansions add but keeps the tiles down to a reasonable level. After
opening us with a brief passage from Scripture (thus ensuring I would go
first), we glanced over the rules and found the differences to be minimal
but I would recommend a full read through of the rules to ensure you play
this version right.

Of the things I especially liked, the sheep and wolves stood out along with
the Temple rules. Originally we played them like a Cloisters in the
original game, but I realized about half way through that we were wrong.
We'll have to play it again to make sure we get the game correct.

Overall, I liked the variations Ark brings forth. It provides for more
options and strategy out of the box than the original game, but it still
doesn't overwhelm you with a multitude of tiles and cause the game to drag
on for hours. I like it, not just because I'm a Christian, but because it's
a tight and fun game.

Ticket To Ride - Review

I am jealous of the Europeans. No, it’s not the fancy berets they wear in
France or the watches you can get in Switzerland (although some fish and
chips from England would be mighty tasty right about now). No, it’s not the
majesty of the ancient buildings of Athens and Rome nor is it the breakneck
speeds one can travel on the Autobahn in Germany (although that could have
come in handy on my last trip to Gen Con). No, I am jealous of the Europeans
because they still travel on trains, that majestic iron horse that here in
America has fallen to it’s most utilitarian of roots. However, if you are
like me and yearn for the days of yesteryear, noted game designer Alan Moon
has given to us a new reason to shout “all aboard!”

Ticket to Ride is the latest offering from prolific game designer Alan Moon
(New England, Ten Days in the USA). The concept of Ticket is quite simple:
earn the most points by claiming rail routes across the American
countryside. You claim routes by collecting cards of various colors. In
order to claim the route between Los Angeles and El Paso, for example, a
player needs to collect six black or wild cards. This gives the game an
almost rummy feel that many people will find familiar and easy to
understand. Further, with wild cards in the hands and spaces on the board,
it provides a great deal of flexibility during game play.

Once you claim a route, you place your train cars to signify the route is
yours. The longer the route, the more points you earn. Claiming the route
between Portland and Seattle, for example, is one square and gives you one
point. The route between Los Angeles and El Paso, however, is six squares
long and earns a whopping 15 points. Since claiming six short routes might
only net you six or twelve points, it is usually advantageous to save your
cards for a longer route, unless you need the shorter route to complete your
Destination Ticket.

What are those, you ask? Players earn additional points by completing
Destination Tickets, which players usually receive at the beginning of the
game. A destination ticket card shows two cities and a point value. The
player then receives those points at the end of the game if they have
claimed routes that completely connect those two cities. That’s the good
news. The bad news is if you don’t connect them, you lose that number of
points at the end of the game. In a game where every point counts, it
becomes critical to connect those cities.

Actual game play is very simple as a player chooses between three things
each turn. A player may either draw cards to their hand OR play cards to
claim a complete route OR draw additional destination ticket cards. Once a
player has taken one of these actions, play goes to the next player. When a
player depletes his or her train car reserve to two or fewer pieces, each
player gets one additional turn. Once that player has one additional turn,
the game is over. Each player then award (or deduct) points for destination
cards and the player with the longest continuous track receives one final
bonus. The player with the most points wins.

Overall, the game becomes a delicate balance of hoarding cards and
preventing one’s opponents from claiming routes. While it is easy to be too
aggressive in claiming routes, the converse is true as well as a passive
player might find themselves locked out of the routes they need to connect a
destination ticket. While this balance provides for a great deal of tension
and strategy, the game itself isn’t complicated. Some might call the game
simplistic, I tend to call it elegant.

The game checks in at a hefty $45, but when you open the box, you’ll
understand. The board is a gorgeous, stylized map of the United States with
the scoring track along the board’s edge. Made of sturdy plastic, the train
cars will survive repeat playings. Almost casino like in their quality, the
cards will also survive the repeated beatings this game will receive. Yes,
$45 seems like a lot of money compared to Candy Land or a deck of cards, but
the quality certainly justifies the price (and this coming from a confirmed
cheapskate!)

If I have one gripe about the components, it’s the map on the board.
Someone should take Mr. Moon aside and give him a proper geography lesson.
I won’t tell you where the mistakes are, but I can spot at least two glaring
and two additional subtle mistakes in the game board. While I’m sure the
subtle ones are due to the nuances of the game, the glaring mistakes are
such that someone in production should have caught and corrected them.

Oh, and speaking of Europeans, this fine game just received the Spiel des
Jarhes award for 2004. For those of you who don’t know, the SDJ is the
gaming equivalent of the Nobel Prize and puts this game in the company of
Carcasonne and Settlers of Catan. So you don’t have to take my word for it,
you can take the word of a bunch of game crazed Germans as well!

So, yes, the Europeans have berets, the Autobahn, fish and chips, and great
watches. However, they no longer have a monopoly on travel by train, even
if it is just in our imagination. Ticket to Ride is not only a great game
for the train enthusiast; it gives a great game experience to anyone who
plays it, including those who don’t know they like games yet. Easy to learn
and fun to play, Ticket to Ride offers a little bit for everyone to enjoy.
Let’s let the whistle blow and hop aboard, because just like the Beatles, we
have a great Ticket to Ride.