Jason Sato (aka Magic Rat), with whom I had the pleasure of gaming in Arizona last year, has a new weblog.

Every once in a while I get asked what chess books for kids would I recommend.  I haven't read too many, but here are a few recommendations:

• Starting Chess, by Harriet Castor.
• Checkmate at Chess City, by Piers Harper. This one is especially good if your child enjoys puzzles.
• Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, by Bobby Fischer.  This is not a good book to learn chess from, but a great way to improve skills.  Jacob just read this cover to cover and enjoyed working through the puzzles.

Jacob and I traveled across town to the Rude household for some Sunday afternoon gaming yesterday.  Matthew had a birthday party to attend, so it was a good chance to play some heavier four-player games.

New Eden

I've written about New Eden before - this is the prototype developed by KC Humphrey.  I'm going to be demonstrating the game for some folks later this week, so I wanted to brush up on my knowledge of the rules and practice teaching it to a group.  Ken, Brandon, and Jacob had not played yet, so this was a perfect opportunity.  I have described the mechanics of the game before, so I won't repeat any of those details here.

We had limited time for this game, so we only played one season (a normal game has two seasons, with a scoring round after each).  I found that I had remembered the rules well and didn't have to reference the rulebook very frequuently.  We used the small board configuration for four players, and started with half the fuel supply (21, though after talking with KC it should have been only 20).

The group enjoyed the game very much.  The end of the game found everyone thinking about strategies, how to take advantage of certain card combinations, etc. which is a very good sign.  I mostly avoided conflict and got three uncontested farms near a lake, but Brandon turned out to be the smarter player and finished with three more points than I, taking first place.

Amun Re

Ken was eager to bring out Amun Re, as was I, so that was our next choice.  Every time I play this game I enjoy it more.  Unfortunately, this time I had a similar result as the last time I played this game - very strong start in the old age, poor finish in the new age.

I exhausted my funds at the end of the old age via sacrifice, trying to maximize the scoring of my two temples.  I also drew no bonus power cards in the new age (I was able to score two of them in the old age, so I guess it evened out).

Brandon played a very strong game again, quietly gaining two temples, one bonus power card, and a temple majority on one side of the Nile.  He finished far out in front, beating me out by seven points.

El Grande

There wasn't much time left, but I was eager to teach the group how to play El Grande and at least get in a few rounds before taking Jacob home.  I really love this game (I've only played it 1.5 times though).  Very easy to teach and learn, beautiful components (perhaps the nicest I've ever seen in a board game), but challenging to play well.

We only played through the first scoring round, but Brandon completed his trifecta, showing up the adults one more time with a victory.  His victory was sealed when Jacob, Ken, and I all chose the same province for our Castille caballeros!

I can't believe I forgot to post this.  A while back I mentioned the latest PiecePack design contest, Solitary Confinement.  I even submitted a (very lightweight) entry, PieceGaps.  Earlier this month the contest results were posted, and Piece Packing Pirates is the winner.  I haven't played it yet, but I do hope to soon.

Jacob and I had some spare time this afternoon while Julie and Matthew went shopping for a birthday present.  Looking into the game closet for a two-player game, I pulled out Senjutsu, a two-player game we purchased at GenCon Indy last summer.  This game didn't receive broad distribution, but I have seen it locally at Rainy Day Games. I strongly recommend this game if you are a fan of chess or stratego - you can order it online directly from the manufacturer.

Each player has 10 warriors, 3 of which are officers.  Warriors can move orthogonally while officers can also move diagonally - officers also pay a better reward when eliminated.  At the start of the game, players arm each of their warriors with three weapons, resulting in a highly customizable setup (learn more at the Senjutsu home page).  Similar to Stratego, one of these weapons is a scroll that, if captured, results in an immediate victory for the capturing player.  There are three ranged weapons - swords, spears, and bows, each with their own abilities (bows are by far the most powerful but are also scarce).  You can also equip your warriors with armor (absorbs an attack), a counter-attack (used to win hand-to-hand combats), and a special Ninja that, when abandoned, acts as a bomb and will destroy a capturing warrior.  The arms are stackable blocks that are only visible to the owning player.

Players alternate taking turns where they can attack (optional), move 1 space (required), attack again (optional), move 1 space (optional), and attack (optional).  The board has a few obstacles - a palace in the center which blocks line of site and cannot be entered, and four forests that block line of site but can be traveled through (though you cannot attack from a forest nor end your turn there).

When a warrior is eliminated, he leaves behind all of his arms - either player may then recover these by moving a warrior to that space.  A warrior can only carry four arms at a time, though there are no stacking limits.

Finally, each player has a stack of clan cards that give special abilities.  Clan cards are awarded every time you eliminate an enemy warrior (only 1 per turn though).  If you eliminate an enemy officer, you also get to draw a replacement arm block and place it on one of your warriors.

Jacob and I had a fun match.  We both started defensively, firing long-range bow shots to try and pick off enemy units, though we had both put adequate armor on our front lines.  As we moved out to confront each other, warriors started to be eliminated - Jacob was ahead 1 or 2 warriors at one point.  I was able to penetrate deeply into his lines though, killing off a warrior and capturing his stack, then using that stack to eliminate two more close by and withstand a counter-attack.  This was the turning point in the game, as it was only a short while until I captured the scroll.

This is a very fun, quick two-player game that I highly recommend.  The parts are very high quality and it plays in less than an hour (15-20 minutes of that is setup time).

I checked out Greg Aleknevicus' Games for Sale list and found a few things I wanted for a reasonable price - plus he was having a buy 2 get 1 free sale!  So this is what I ordered; they arrived yesterday and I hope to play at least two of them over the weekend:

• Amazing Labyrinth - this sounded like a great, light kids game that the family would enjoy.
• Quebec 1759 - I'm becoming a sucker for those Columbia Games block games. I'm fairly certain this was the first block game published - this guy apparently agrees.  This one came out in 1972, and the version I got is the original.  Chris Farrell put together a nice “best of“ geeklist for Columbia Games.
• Tally Ho - Another of the Kosmos two-player small box games.  This was effectively my “free“ game.  Haven't tried it yet, but reviews are mostly favorable.

We had a fun weekend of gaming.  Julie and a friend made a date to go night skiing at Skibowl Friday night, so it was just the boys and me for some gaming fun.  Saturday evening, Ken and Brandon came over, with Brandon spending the night with Jacob and Matthew.  Sunday, while Jacob was at a baseball clinic, Matthew and I played a few two-player games.

Crokinole

My wonderful mother was kind enough to give me a $50 gift certificate at Amazon.  I have a huge backlog of books to read, so I immediately went to the Toys R Us section to see if there were any good deals on games.  I strongly encourage folks to periodically check out the Toys Outlet section - there are often very good deals to be found.  I recently mentioned the deal I found on Roller Coaster Tycoon, but I was also able to purchase a Crokinole board ($9.99 plus shipping) and the Attack! boardgame ($19.99).

OK, so why did I purchase a $10 Crokinole board?  Sure, it is no substitute for a “real” solid wood board, but all we currently had was a beat up square Carom board.  I figured this would be a great, low-risk way to see if the family enjoys the game before forking over $200+ for a good board.

This board is nice!  Sure, it isn't nearly as friction-free as a good board, but it works great for the kids and it has come out every day this weekend.  I taught the boys how to play Friday evening and we had some fun 3-player matches.  I recommend this board highly if you want to give this dexterity game a try.

Ricochet Robot

I borrowed this game from a co-worker, so Jacob and Matthew wanted to give it a try before returning it.  This is a puzzle game with very little interaction - you can see what the puzzles are like at the online site.  I enjoy the game, but would be just as happy playing solo as I would with a group.  I'm glad a tried this before buying it, since I doubt it would come out much at our house.  We stopped after 5 rounds (the pizza showed up!).

Attack!

After having some pizza, Jacob, Matthew and I dove into a game of Attack!, a pseudo-WWII game.  I place this squarely between Risk and Axis and Allies in terms of complexity.

One thing I like about this game (vs. Risk) is that it can be slower to develop, since the players (at least in the three-player game) can start to build up some buffer.  There are interesting choices every turn (moving, building, deploying a navy) and it was very easy for the kids to learn.  Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to finish this game, but I think it will come back out soon.

Crokinole

On Saturday night when Ken and Brandon joined us around 4pm, we brought out Crokinole first.

This was followed by a no-limit hold'em tournament that Ken won (the tourney finished with me heads up against Ken but with over a 4:1 chip lead, so I conceded).

Liberty

The kids went upstairs for some three-player computer action (mostly Age of Mythology, but a bit of Call of Duty as well), so Ken and I took advantage of the quiet to play a heavier two-player wargame called Liberty.  This is also a Columbia Games block game, and the more I play in this system the more I like it.

Liberty is a wide-scale American revolutionary war game, where one player plays the part of the British (and American Indians) and the other plays the Americans (and friendly French).  I seem to recall that the Americans won this war, and the game may be tilted to produce this outcome as well.

This game is rough going for the British (similar to the position the Scots have in Hammer of the Scots) - they need to capture a good part of the eastern seaboard to win, and it can be extremely difficult to eliminate the opponent given the flexible retreat rules.  My strategy of running away from most of the fights unless I had a clear advantage worked well, and I was gradually able to eat away at Ken's cities, nearly getting a decisive victory myself.  It became clear though (after 4+ hours of playing, but this was a learning game) that the game would most likely end in an American victory so we stopped early.  We both enjoyed it very much though and look forward to another play where we switch sides.

Crokinole

Matthew and I had a few hours together alone on Sunday, so we tried a two-player game of Crokinole to 200.  Matthew is improving rapidly, but I managed to beat him by about 50 points in this game.

Magic: the Gathering

Around New Years I picked up two starter decks for the Mirrodin Expansion, a cool set of cards centered around artifacts.  Using pre-constructed starter decks is a great way to continue to enjoy this wonderful game system without shelling out $100s to build competitive decks.  We played two hands, with the black-red deck winning both times (we traded decks between games.

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers

This has been sitting on my shelf for quite a while without a play, so we broke it out to see how it compares to the original.  This is a fun expansion (actually an entirely new game) that I highly recommend.  The scoring is much simpler and the artwork is beautiful.  Matthew claims that he likes this better than the original Carcassonne.

Jacob and Matthew have been practicing with the Sherwood youth wrestling team a couple of times a week.  This is a low-key affair, and they are doing it primarily to stay in shape for other sports.  Plus, you never know what might stick and what they might take too, so Julie and I feel strongly about exposing them to as many different sports and activities as is reasonably possible.

On Saturday there was an open youth wrestling tournament in Tualatin, and the coaches indicated that this was a good even for first-timers.  Jacob and Matthew decided they wanted to enter, so we got over there around 7:30am for weigh-in and registration.  Their first matches were at about 10am.  The event was run very efficiently considering how many kids there were.  It was set up as a double-elimination event, which was perfect since we didn't expect them to do very well and it would be over quickly in that case.

Jacob fought hard in his matches, but had a hard time getting any advantage on his opponents - Jacob is very strong but needs to work on his quickness.  In his first match he held off his opponent for most of the match and was only down 2-0 near the end of the third round when he was finally pinned.  He was pinned pretty quickly in his second match.

Matthew isn't as strong as Jacob but is more agile - his matches had more chasing, spinning, and athletics.  In his first match he spent most of his time getting thrown down and was quickly behind 8-0, ultimately getting pinned.  His second match was better - he lost on points but score three himself, getting a take-down and escape.  I uploaded a short Quicktime movie of Matthew that you can watch.

The boys are not sure if they'll try another tournament, but they will definitely continue to practice and work on their technique.

Our new friend Kevin McKenzie was still in town on business (we gamed with him last week), so we invited a few folks over for some gaming at our home on Wednesday night.  Attendees were Ken and Brandon Rude, Mike Deans, Kevin Graham, KC Humphrey, and Kevin McKenzie.

Domaine

KevinM, Julie, and I played this last week, and Kevin was eager to give it another try.  I was of a similar mind, but Bus sounded even more interesting to me so I passed and Mike Deans joined in.

I don't have a lot of detail on how the game went, but it sounded like a struggle between Kevin and Julie.  Julie discounted her chances as the game drew to a close, but apparently a mine monopoly belonging to Julie that they had forgotten to score turned out to be the clincher - Julie won the game.

You may have noticed the poker chips in the photos.  When we were in Vegas recently for Christmas, I was hell-bent on picking up some high quality poker chips.  After some research and advice, we discovered the Gamblers General Store and found a great set of chips (these aren't cheap!).  Besides using them for card games (mostly Texas Hold'em), we also use them as replacement money for games that have cheap currency (paper or cardboard money usually).

Bus

This was on my must-play list, mostly because it is so highly regarded by Mikael Sheikh, with whom I gamed in New York City last summer.  He even implemented an online version of the game that I am now ready to try.  KC has had this game on loan for quite a while and he offered to teach Ken, KevinG, and I how to play.

This is similar to some of the other transportation-oriented games I've played, and it reminds me the most of Paris Paris (though Bus is a bit deeper with more choices).  It has some very interesting mechanics.  The basic idea of the game is to provide bus transportation for folks in the city by building routes that connect to buildings (homes, offices, and pubs).  Depending on the time of day, all of the people on the board will desire to go to one building type (morning - work, evening - pub, night - home).  There is a great description of the mechanics of the game over at Funagain (read Ben Baldanza's review from Counter), so I won't go into much more detail here.  I like games with an economy of difficult choices and the opportunity to look ahead a bit and strategize.  Bus certainly has this, and I liked it very much.  I found myself trying to predict what moves the other players would make and trying to optimize my moves.

I got off to a decent start and was in the lead or close to it the entire game.  I made some bad building choices towards the end, and on my last move I really needed to move 3 people to their homes to guarantee at least a tie.  Unfortunately I could only move 2 of them, and my efforts to disrupt Ken's last move didn't pan out because he had a solid backup plan.

I'd like to pick up this game, but I'm very frustrated with the production quality (I'm having similar reservations about the game boards in Columbia Games' block games).  The boards were very warped, hardly stayed together, and were difficult to read.  Have the newer printings of the game improved on this at all?  Leave me a comment if you have opinions either way.

Pizza!

KC (man this guy is prolific!) introduced another one of his game prototypes - presumably he dreamed this game over just in the past week.  I didn't play it, but it looked fun and on the surface seemed to have some similarities to Mamma Mia!.

From the comments I heard during and after the game, this sounds like a good one and will be worth a try in the future.

Scream Machine

I read some favorable reviews of Scream Machine in the recent issue of Counter so I requested that this come out.  KevinG owns the game and offered to teach Julie, KevinM, and I.  The theme is building a theme park that will attract the most visitors - that's how the scoring track goes.  This is a card game that has some interesting mechanics, but unfortunately the card design makes it very difficult to keep track of ride types and scoring.  The designers could have spent some more time thinking about the human factors.  A fun little game though, but probably not one I'll be interested in purchasing.  I actually prefer Roller Coaster Tycoon to this game, and I know the kids would as well.

Board games have been coming out a lot at home so far this year.  Last weekend, we brought out Age of Mythology again.  One of my goals in playing the bigger wargame-like board games with the boys is to get them to start comprehending strategy.  Not specific strategies, but rather just the notion of having some long-term goals, and devising some short-term plans to achieve those goals.  All too often in these games they just start attacking without thinking about the consequences.  In three player games this can be a major weakness, because often the player who avoids conflict will come out on top.

Jacob, at least, is starting to grasp the concept.  There was much less fighting in this game, and he set out to try and build the wonder by the end of the game.  I opted for my usual strategy of building the most buildings and largest army (mostly by not fighting very much).  This was the closest game to date - Jacob finished with the largest army and came close to building the wonder at the end.  If I hadn't converted favor into victory points late in the game, forcing it to end a bit earlier, Jacob would have caught me and won the game.

We were given Metro by some friends for Christmas and it quickly became a favorite of Julie and Jacob.  This is the sort of game they will bring out after school when I'm not even around - that's how I know it's a favorite!

This is a fun, quick, light game that I simply have not figured out.  I've come in last or second to last every time I've played, and have never been in contention.  Maybe I just think too much.  Jacob's strategy of ignoring all but 1 or 2 of his lines, and striving to maximize those seems to work pretty well.