Monthly Archives: January 2017

Building Skyscrapers 

Fenland Gamers, Game day, Uncategorized

Mention building skyscrapers in New York to most people, and the majority of them will picture the sort of images below from the “golden” era of constructing the Manhattan skyline.

Indeed the cover of New York 1901 tries to invoke that very imagery.

Which is not a big surprise considering that is when the game is set!

Yesterday Les and myself met up to play a learning game of New York 1901.

Did it capture that golden era? It certainly does in the game components and art work. From your workers that you place on the board having girders, to the player score markers being these rather cool little skyscrapers. 

I think less so with the game mechanics. At the moment I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe I’ll be able to put into writing what is just on the edge of my consciousness after another play.

I enjoyed New York 1901 as a two player game. But we didn’t have much competition for spots to build our buildings. With not much incentive to use our action cards. I can see this game being very cut throat, and competitive for spots with more players. 

The game does try and force that situation in a two player set up by removing the pink cards from the game. Which reduces the space players are building on and competing for. And in say a game like Kemet (yes I know a completely different style of game) where they do something similar in reducing the playing space for lower player count games. That approach works in Kemet and reduces the playing space significantly to make a difference. In New York 1901 I felt it wasn’t as effective at what it was trying to achieve. 

So before giving final thoughts on the game I’d really like to try the game with three or four players. I think it will play completely different. I also think my final conclusion will be that although playable with two players, don’t. But let’s wait for me to get this to the table with more players. 

Playing New York 1901 reminded me of a “soft” challenge I had set myself last October. Which was to get all of the city building style games I have to the table.

So within the BG Stats app I have now set up a new challenge to actually track my progress.

Technically it should be showing Dice City as played. However I played it before records began! So this challenge will be an excuse to get the game to the table again.

Sauron’s 2017 Gaming Predictions

Predictions

Using the Palantir hidden in the depths of the Wisbech Castle dungeons, Sauron has shown me images of what is to be in the coming year!

This is what Sauron showed me:

  • The Asmodee borg collective will assimilate more companies. Ok this is almost a given. I think the bigger shock would be if they didn’t. Asmodee are currently still digesting their latest meal F2Z. But I’m pretty sure they have dessert already lined up.
  • Boardgaming fans will be in uproar (again) over some of their favourite games being dropped by the Asmodee borg collective. I’m sure if my memory isn’t playing tricks on me, Tom Vassel has said there is a review going on, and that they will be concentrating on a few key titles. Which says to me there will be casualties. Which will I’m sure will upset fans of those games. It also means the second hand copy market price will shoot up.
  • The issue of supply of “popular” games to the UK will get worse. We have seen the UK in the past couple of months get short changed on the number of copies of particulate games it receives. The Scythe board extension and Inis are two examples. There are various theories floating round the internet as to why. But I can’t see this improving.
  • Pandemic Legacy Season 2 will not be as well received as Season 1.
  • There will be at least three big release games (not including the one from Portal Games) that use apps as intergral parts of the game.

PS yes I know that is Saruman in the picture. 

New Year – State of the Union Post

Uncategorized

Decided I better update the sites header image before I forget to. Otherwise before I know it, it’ll be Easter and the header would still be the Christmas one. And things would just look messy and that I don’t care.

Now we have a nice bright looking gaming related header image. A new tag line to go along with it also. 

I’m not changing the theme for the blog, I like the layout. But who knows that may change at anytime.

One thing that won’t change is the content of the blog. Yes it will still be poorly written, it will not (hopefully) use tired, boring tropes, it will be opinionated, but it will be all me. 

It may not be obvious but I write a good 99% of this blog, do all the photos and image editing on my iPhone 6! So yes there will be errors in my posts from autocorrect that slip past the checking. Yep that surprised you, I do check before posting, but things get through. 

But I have set myself the goal of improving the quality of my writing! Yep that’s a massive task I know.

I know this is very much a niche blog within a niche hobby. It doesn’t conform to the usual hobby tropes. Mainly because so many others do it far far better than I could. So it’s never going to be massively popular. I write for me, and then hope that others may find my ramblings of interest. Luckily a handful of people do.

I’m going to be trying new things out on the blog, such as a “why I bought this” section. Dropping others like the Week Starting (WS) posts, well technically I’ve already done that. 

If I can crack the problem of YouTube you will see more video from me in the coming year. I’m going to use the term again, and it’s a recurring theme of this post, but I want to avoid the tired old tropes of current videos and podcasts.

I suppose that’s the over all aim of this blog to discuss passionately the hobby of board gaming but in a unique, refreshing way. I’m along way from achieving that aim. But I will get there.

So a big thank you for those of you that have joined me on this journey. Hopefully it will remain interesting and entertaining for you.