After returning from the beach on Sunday afternoon, Jacob suggested we give Wizard Kings a try.  I love the block game format and picked this up on eBay with the hope that Jacob might be drawn to it because of the theme.  We played a short introductory scenario with just two boards and with the standard armies supplied in the basic game

Jacob prepares to move his elf army.

The rules were very easy to learn (Jacob taught me this time), especially having just played Gettysburg: Badges of Courage which has the same basic mechanics but is quite a bit more complex. Jacob is still learning some of the basics of strategy and tactics with these block games and is a bit too aggressive in his attacks.  I pummeled him pretty hard just sitting back and defending, then built a dragon and started swoopoing into his cities and cutting into his production.  I won very easily but I'm sure he'll give me a stronger match next time.  Thumbs up on this one and I look forward to trying this with some more chaos units mixed in.

Last Tuesday night I hosted the RipCity folks as part of a new rotation we are doing.  I argued for some more events on the southwest side (mostly Mike Deans and myself) and for some mid-week choices besides Thursday.  Of course this means I need to get on the hosting rotation which I'm happy to do, though scheduling can be tough with my travel schedule.

Doug, Mike, and Jake joined me, and Doug suggested and brought Candamir.  This is a Klaus Teuber game set in the Settlers of Catan universe, but it borrows very little from that series other than some trading.  Of the games I've played lately this is most like Runebound - a sort of role-playing game where you build up your character by going on quests and collecting goods.

There are some nice elements to the game - the theme is interesting and it was nice to see a game like this not set in a typical dungeons and dragons universe.  There are some strategic elements to the game as players can compete for dominance in certain areas on a main board which allows for some longer-range planning (but not much) and light tension, but overall the game was too long.  Maybe it is better with three players (I had exactly the same feedback on Runebound and would never play it again with four players).  I think everyone was ready to be done with an hour still left in the game.  Downtime isn't terrible but can be a factor, and it is much harder to "pipeline" player moves in this game than it is in Runebound (we always play with the next player making his dice roll right after the current player chooses his move).

Doug, Mike, Jake, and I play Candamir.

There is also very little player interaction in the game despite the ability for players to trade with each other.  The game has great production elements though and I'd like to try it again with only 2 or 3 players to see if it can be played in 90-120 minutes (our game took about 3.5 hours).  In this genre, however, I think I prefer Runebound.

After returning from my trip to Israel, and thanks to a rare lack of scheduled baseball games, we worked in a weekend out at the beach.  The weather was spectacular, giving us the opportunity to take a hike up at Drift Creek Falls and spend some time at the tidal pools below the Inn at Spanish Head.

Jacob, Julie, and Matthew on the beach.

This is a great beach for agate collecting and searching tide pools for critters.  It usually best to go at very low tides.  Speaking of critters, there were a ton of sea stars, hermit crabs, sculpins, and anemones in the pools.

This was a particularly cool scene - drooping anemones clinging for their lives.

I brought out a few games to try, including the new release Caribbean.  Jacob, Matthew and I gave it a try one of the mornings.

Mathew, Jacob, and I giving Caribbean a try.

My reaction to the game was "eh", but Matthew and Jacob were pretty fond of it.  Players vie for control of a fleet of pirate ships trying to steal booty and deliver it to safe havens; you control a pirate by making the most substantial bribe of rum to a ship.  Each player starts each turn with same available set of cards and allocates each one (numbered from -1 to 5) to a particular pirate ship.  Obviously the higher number gives you a better chance of influence that ship.  The number played also determines the number of spaces that ship will be able to move.  This is where the -1 tile comes in - you can't win influence when you play a -1, but you subtract one from the movement for that ship.  Points are earned by picking up treasures and by delivering them to your own safe haven.

I found the game a bit too chaotic and I've never been too wild about the try-and-outguess-everyone-else mechanic.  However, it played quickly (about 40 minutes) and was some good light fun, so I'll definitely play it again if the boys ask for it.

I've been on vacation and very busy with work and assorted volunteer stuff.  I expect to make several postings over the weekend, including:

• Keuka Lake vacation wrapup (caught some cool fishies this year)
• Several gaming session reports (including a Candamir session this week)
• My thoughts on the big three boardgame-oriented Podcasts (GeekSpeak, Dice Tower, Boardgames-To-Go)

Saturday was our one day off and a chance to see some interesting sites in Israel.  Jerusalem was on the top of my list, plus I contacted Yehuda Berlinger of the Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club and arranged for a face-to-face visit.  Our morning started with a 9am departure from Tel Aviv to make the 45-60 minute drive to Jerusalem.  We found a nice place to stop for some pastries and coffee along the way (not sure where we were, but there was an IDF military museum with a tank static display right near the store).

We drove straight to the Old City and parked near the Zion Gate (no particular reason - the parking was just easier there).  Jerusalem is striking as you enter it, even the newer portions.  The city planners work hard to keep the old city look and feel, and many of the buildings have a tan stone facade.  Erich and I opted to go it alone without a tour guide, or rather, Erich volunteered to be my tour guide as he had visited about 2 months prior.

Our first stop was the Christian quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  There was quite a bit of activity here, clearly across a wide range of Christian denominations.

The Greek Orthodox chapel in the Church.

It would have been beneficial to have a guide or at least a detailed guidebook, as I probably missed a number of the more revered locations in the church.

The dome within the Church.

The most interesting parts of the Old City (to me) were the plethora of markets and shops, mostly Arab, featuring touristy goods and some very decent food.  I picked up a nice silver necklace for Julie and Erich and I sat down for a rest and some lunch (humus, falafel, pita, etc.).

A market within the Arab quarter.

Erich and I both wanted to visit the Dome of the Rock, but unfortunately that wasn't an option on Saturday.  We did visit the Wailing Wall, but took no photos as it was still Shabbat.

Some ruins in the Old City just beyond the Wailing Wall.

At around 1pm, Erich and left the Old City for our car and ventured up to the Mount of Olives, famous for its wonderful view of the city.  At the base of the Mount of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane.  The views were spectacular from there, affording us our best view so far of the Dome of the Rock.

The view from the Mount of Olves.  You can see the ruins pictured in the above photo in the middle left of this shot.  You can also see the Jewish cemetery at the bottom of the photo

Erich was keen to ride what is probably the only camel in Jerusalem.  He didn't actually ride it - he just paid to get on it, stand up, then sit back down.

Next it was time to try and navigate our way to Yehuda's home.  Our drive away from the Mount of Olives took us to an interesting surprise in East Jerusalem:

The security wall being built to encompass East Jerusalem.

There were quite a few (10-15) IDF soldiers patrolling this end of the wall.

Yehuda gave us some fine directions from Tel Aviv, but that's not where we were coming from and Jerusalem is, shall we say, a bit difficult to get around.  Erich has a fine memory though and remembered some street signs to a common landmark from Yehuda's directions, and we were able to find our way there right on time for our 3pm arrival.

3pm on Saturday is still right smack in the middle of Shabbat for Yehuda, and we had discussed ahead of time what this specifically meant for his family.  We decided to take a short stroll to see the area surrounding his neighborhood, and he took us to a beautiful park overlooking most of Jerusalem.  We returned from our walk and jumped right into some gaming (you can also read his session report).  First up was a playtest of Yehuda's prototype cardgame.  This is a fine little game themed on learning eletricity safety (sounds right out of KC's playbook!) that involves collecting a set of numbered cards, where cards are generally purchased in auctions.  I've simplified it a bit but don't want to give too much away.  The theme needs some work but the mechanics are solid and Yehuda should continue to develop this one.

Michael and his son Elijah arrived and we decided on El Grande.  This is a game I love but get to play way too infrequently; in fact, this was only my third play.  Erich, new to these types of boardgames, was a quick study and was in contention for the entire game.  Yehuda made a huge comeback in the second scoring round, going for a wide range of second- and third-place showings rather than concentrating on controlling provinces.  This was in contrast to Erich's strategy: focus on controlling 2-3 valuable provinces at any cost.  Between the last two scoring rounds, Erich (I think - it might have been Michael) bought the card that scores first place across all the provinces.  This helped Erich the most, helped me a bit, but crushed Yehuda as he was not in first in any of the provinces.  This turned out to be the difference in the game, allowing me to eke out the victory with Erich a fairly close second.  Erich loved the game and asked where he could purchase it back in Portland... perhaps another closet gamer drawn out?

Next up was a splendid dinner with Yehuda and his family.  Their hospitality was unsurpassed and it made our journey feel like we were visiting old friends down the street.

Last up was a four-player game of Puerto Rico with Yehuda, his wife Rachel, and friend Nadine (Erich sat this one out to learn).  I didn't know what I was getting myself into - these folks are sharks!  They've clearly played this game enough to know a wide range of strategies, something I clearly have not done (nor do I ever expect to).  Yehuda (aka Jon) won a fairly close game.  He was kind enough to leave my score off of his session report.

Rachel, Erich, Nadine, and Yehuda playing Puerto Rico.

All in all, our visit was a great day of site seeing and friendship.  We returned to Hasharon in Herzliya that evening around 11pm we quite a bit of work to do in prep for the next day, but it was worth it and I'm glad we took the time to visit Jerusalem.

... by reading the Sherwood Historical Society Weblog.

Erich and I arrived early Thursday morning at about 4am local time.  We weren't terribly well rested but got to the Hotel Sharon in short order and managed a couple of hours of sleep before our meetings were to begin at 8am.  Our hotel was completely booked for Friday night, meaning we would have to check out Friday morning and move to a new hotel in Tel Aviv for Friday evening, then return to Hasharon on Saturday.  This hotel is situated on some amazing Mediterranean coastline, but the amenities were somewhat utilitarian.  This is a theme throughout Israel - not much gloss with a focus on the pragmatic.

View from my second room at Hasharon.  That's the lifeguard station down on the beach.

We spent a full day in prep meetings on Friday, finishing at 7pm.  I took a quick swim in the indoor pool then Erich and cabbed it over to the Marina in Herzliya for a nice meal in this shopping district.  Thursday evening is the start of the weekend in Israel, with Fri/Sat being the traditional days off.  We still had a lot of prep work to do so we worked through most of Friday with our partner, finishing about 4pm.

Our partner was generous enough to provide a company car for us to use to get into Tel Aviv and then tour Jerusalem on Saturday.  We grabbed our luggage and took the 20 minute drive into the beach area in Tel Aviv to check in at the Sheraton Tel Aviv.  This is a very nice hotel situated right in the downtown beach area, and shortly after check-in Erich and I strolled down to the water.  I swam for about 15 minutes - the water was very nice and relatively calm thanks some rocks/reef to break the tide a ways offshore.

Erich and I strolled out on a jetty to watch several fisherman.  The tall building in the background is our hotel.

That evening we enjoyed a meal at the Old Port Tel Aviv, a boardwalk area with some decent restaurants and immense nightclubs.  We aren't exactly the clubbing types, so we stuck to dinner and some ice cream afterwards and returned to our hotel to catch up on some sleep.  Saturday was spent in Jerusalem - more on that in my next post.

Saturday evening through Tuesday were spent back in Herzliya.  The days were packed with meetings with our prospect and we were fairly exhausted by the end of each day.  We did manage to get out to the beach on Sunday after work.  The swimming wasn't as pleasant - there's a significant undertow that made me a bit uncomfortable (this is a popular surfing spot - there were always 10-15 surfers offshore).

Erich and I enjoying a beer after taking a swim.

Tuesday evening our flight departed Ben Gurion airport at about midnight.  We managed to get a bit of shopping in, and it was in the duty-free toy store that I had my first glimpse of games offered in Israel.  I had visited two shopping areas around Tel Aviv and failed to see anything resembling family strategy games.

Looks like Hebrew versions of TransAmerica and Chicken Cha Cha.

As you can see, a limited selection.  But still, would you ever see TransAmerica in an American airport?  Doubtful...

I had hoped to post some of this trip content while on the road, but generally poor internet connectivity in my rooms in Israel combined with an extremely hectic work schedule precluded me from doing so.

My colleague Erich and I departed for Israel last Tuesday.  Lufthansa has a daily non-stop flight to Frankfurt that is quite convenient and allowed us to connect into Ben Gurion airport with only one stop.  The downside (sorta) is a 12 hour layover in Frankfurt.  Rather than sit around the airport for the day, Erich and I ventured into downtown on the S8 subway to the Hauptwache stop, conveniently located near the Zeilgalerie.  This is a vibrant shopping area and was a great place to shop, people-watch, and hunt for some games.

The game selection at the Gamestore in the Zeilgalerie.

Only a five minute walk from the subway stop is the Gamestore in the Zeilgalerie.  This is a traditional hobby game store like you might find in the US, with a broad selection of RPGs, miniatures, CCGs, and family boardgames.  Prices were very comparable to the US but I found a few decent deals on card games.  I picked up Sticheln and Geschenkt for a total of about 13 euros.

Erich and I then proceeded to do some museum hopping, visiting the Goethe Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.  Both were OK, not spectacular.  The Goethe museum had too little content on his actual works, and too much content on the artists that surrounded him at the time.  The modern art museum had some interesting exhibits but was very small in comparison to others I have seen and nothing overwhelmed me.

Erich and I stopped for a drink at a floating bar/restaurant on the Main river.

We spent a good part of the late afternoon just walking around the city, especially the attractive waterfront around the Main river.  The city seemed to be much cleaner and vibrant than when I last visited in 1990.

We ended the day with some more shopping in the main department store at the Zeilgalerie.  Erich was looking for some action figures for his 5 year old son, so we headed up to the 6th floor toy section.  I was pretty blown away by the game collection there.

The game section of the department store.

The selection in this store was larger than that of the game store, with a wide range of games including a decent collection of American games.  There were some great deals here as well: New England for 10 euros, some good clearance items for 5 euros (I picked up Hellas).  These games certainly are more mainstream in Germany than in the US.  I wonder if we'll ever see a selection like this in a Target?

Next it was back to the airport to catch our flight to Israel.  More on that later...

I'm finishing packing and other prep for a business trip to Israel, departing tomorrow afternoon.  I noticed that Scott just posted his "travel profile" (ahem, I agree with his assessment on the city choices in the quiz).  Anyway, here's mine:

I'm sitting here in Columbus, OH (free wireless!) waiting for my delayed flight to Chicago and then home in Portland.

So, I'm looking out the window and lo and behold there's a C-5 Galaxy on the runway getting ready to take off.  There's a business-exec looking guy on a cell phone near me looking out the window, and he notices the plane too (hard to miss).  This is what I hear him say:

There's some sort of military plane here getting ready to take off.  I don't know what kind it is... but it looks sort of stealthy.

Hmmm.  Stealthy.  C-5.  Sure...

Time to play catchup.  Sorry, no photos in this post.

Our lunchtime gaming group at Corillian is really picking up steam.  We are averaging about 8 per week and I wouldn't be surprised if that number increases.  A week ago Friday, we split into two groups: 5 for Modern Art, 3 for Trias.  Unfortunately I had to teach both games (Eric was out) which made the start a bit slow and chaotic.  I helped jumpstart the Trias group then returned to teach and play Modern Art.  This was a first play of MA for me, other than a false start with my family last year.  We played the Mayfair reprint that I bought at GenCon last year.

Wow, what a great experience.  This is considered to be one of the purest of the auction games (the only mechanic in the game is the auction).  There was a lot of joint analysis by the 5 newbies playing around the value of pieces coming up for auction - these are bright people I play with and they catch on quickly.  I could give a summary here, but I suggest you read this fantastic review by Fawkes over at the 'geek.  I do think we all have a lot to learn in this game and I suspect it will come out frequently at lunch.  This group is starting to request repeat performances, which will be refreshing as we hone our skills on a smaller number of games.  Final scores: Arron 371 Jason 253 Tamara 448 David 441 Chris 523.

Last weekend Jacob, Matthew, and I played a three-player scenario of HeroScape.  Matthew and I as the attackers (or, rather, rescuers of a hostage) took on Jacob as the defender.  This was a fun romp, with the attackers winning due to a tactical error made by Jacob near the end (I had to exploit it... does that make me a bad father??).  He had the stronger forces remaining, but failed to keep an adequate defense around the hostage, allowing me to sneak in.  Fortunately, the victory conditions didn't require me to escape with the hostage - perhaps I was beamed up? - otherwise, I would have been disposed of quickly.

Last Friday at work we brought out Colossal Arena again (San Juan was played at the other table).  This game is always enjoyable, and I think the newcomers enjoyed it.  San Juan was a big hit as well.  Might be time to bring out Puerto Rico at lunch...

Finally, I thought I'd mention that Jacob and I are immersed in a game of Gettysburg: Badges of Courage.  This is a Columbia Games block game - my first glimpse was at Game Storm earlier this year.  Jacob just read Killer Angels, and I thought this would be a good way to tie some of the history into a light simulation.  He's loving it so far and is starting to ask about some of the other block games I own - I suspect Wizard Kings will be coming out soon.