I recently picked up the Avalon Hill game Nexus Ops from Toys R Us (great deal - $19.99 with free shipping) and we all sat down to give it a try today.  The game is meant to be a fast-moving build-your-units-and-attack style game and it certainly achieves this goal.  Originally it was just going to be the three boys playing, but Jacob and Matthew managed to talk Julie into joining us.

Each player starts with some money (Rubium), with early player advantage offset by a lower starting bankroll.  On your turn you produce units, move them, flip over any discovered exploration tiles (which can be mines, new units, or both), resolve combat, receive income from mines, and finally draw a secret mission card.

The goal is to achieve 12 victory points (we set our limit at 10 to speed up the game), and you get victory points primarily by attacking and winning.  There are other ways to get points - Secret Mission cards - but most of those involve winning battles in certain locations, winning with certain kinds of units, or destroying certain kinds of enemy units.  Given that all players are racing to the VP condition, there's no way a player can turtle and build up and win the game.  This keeps the game moving quickly and encourages confrontation.

Matthew raced out to an early lead with 5 VPs while the rest of us were at 1 or 2.  The rest of us caught up quickly and we were facing a close contest with everyone in the 5-7 point range.  On what turned out to be the last turn of the game, Jacob asked me if I was going to be able to win on my turn (I think I had 6 points at the time) and when I said "no" he said "oh, I think I will then."  And he did, winning a few one-sided battles that triggered some 2 point secret mission VP cards.  Final score was Jacob: 10, Chris: 9, Julie: 7, and Matthew: 5.

Ratings on the game by the group were high - all 8s and 7s.  Given the short play length (easily played in an hour or slightly more depending on the ending conditions) I think this one will come out more than usual.

Time for a quick update on my unplayed games burndown project.  In my last update, I mentioned that I need to kick the playing and possibly the getting-rid-of into high gear.  I think I did pretty well in August and September.

The top line (red plus the blue) shows the overall size of my game collection that has been unplayed at some point in the year.  It dropped down significantly in August as I sold and donated a number of games.  It bumped up a bit as I picked up a few games: Antiquity, Roads and Boats, and Canal Mania, but net I made good progress.  I'm down to about 30 or so to play, so I should be in good shape by the end of the year.  The key, though, is this: not buying games at Essen that I don't play at Essen!

Nearly a month ago I spent the better part of a Saturday over at Doug's to play the Splotter game Antiquity.  Doug already did a great job of describing the session in detail, so I'll limit my commentary here to my impressions.

We started the game using the forgiving beginner rules - no polution, no famine.  As a group we decided to kick it in around the 5th or 6th turn.  In hindsight, it would have been better to start with those rules or not use them at all.  We just weren't ready to handle it, and as we scrambled to prepare a few of us came precariously close to a death spiral.  Much of my first town filled up with graves, though I built a second town in time to provide some space for new buildings.

Down-time can be a problem with the game if the players aren't taking about the same time for each move.  Even though much of the game can be played with parallel activity, I still found myself waiting quite a bit.  No dig on the other players at all - it is a very thoughtful game!  Still, I'm not sure a 3rd and 4th player adds much to the game, as you spend the first half in solitaire mode and the second half bumping into 1 or maybe 2 other players.  I think the right way for me to play this game is with 2 players - it will play faster and will be just as enjoyable.

As it was, we didn't manage to finish the game as I had to get home for some guests that were having dinner with us.  I felt liked I played the game enough to understand all the mechanics and look forward to trying it again, perhaps with Jacob or Ken.  This is a pretty brutal game as far as planning and forecasting go - I compare it to predicting cashflow in a business.  Matthew wouldn't be ready for it yet, but I think Jacob would enjoy it if he's in the right state of mind.

I'm running a weekly morning gaming class for kids at Archer Glen Elementary.  On this page you can find a list of games we'll be playing this year as well as links to Funagain Games where you can purchase most of the games.  Another local option for finding these games is the wonderful Rainy Day Games store in Aloha.  The SimplyFun games listed at the bottom can be purchased through my friend and SimplyFun consultant Mike Deans.  This is a page I expect to update from time to time, so I'll keep a permanent link on the home page.

From SimplyFun games:

I broke down and purchased the newest Ragnar Brothers game Canal Mania after reading the Counter review and seeing some positive buzz online.  Seeing that folks were comparing it to games like Volldampf and Ticket to Ride really piqued my interest so I took a chance.

The components are very high quality and I suspect better than any game Ragnar has done to date.  The board is thick with a linen finish and I found it fairly usable.  The main complaint is that it is hard to read the city names when you have barges and goods cubes on them.  Set in the late 18th / early 19th century, the game is about the frenzy of canal building that happened in England before trains took over.  But at its heart this really is "just another train game".

Each player randomly assumes the role of one of five different engineers that grant special abilities - these roles will change (view them as consultants working for your business and expect them to be hired away by the competition).  The basic idea of the game is to build canals between cities according to contracts granted by parliament (e.g., build a canal from Leeds to Liverpool).  Points are scored for using special kinds of canal tiles (locks, aqueducts, and tunnels) but not for the basic "stretch" tiles that are plain jane canals.  The catch is that you can never place two of the same kind of tile in a row along a canal.

You build canals by playing cards from your hand that can be drafted during your turn.  Similar to Ticket to Ride, the general idea is that you can draft cards or build canals but not both on a given turn.  So... the basic way to score points is to pick up contracts (you must always be working on at least one contract, but you can hold no more than two)and build canals to finish the contracts.  Contracts don't score points directly, but there's a nice bonus at the end (depends on the number of players) for completing the most.

The other way you can score points is by transporting goods.  At the end of your turn you can transport a good between two towns.  The last link followed by the good must be one of your own, but it can pass through others' towns along the way.  The restriction is that a good can only go through each color once, including the start and end town (I believe there are six different colors).

Instead of doing an action in a phase, you can always choose to draw a card from the top of the face-down build deck.  So if there are no goods to transport, you can always take a free card.

I played with KC, Rita, and Carey, and KC stomped us.  He mostly raced ahead through shipping goods, taking advantage of the replenishment rules that keep bringing goods back to towns that are connected to canals.  I didn't really think that through and left some goods around in my towns, wanting to wait until the routes got juicier and would score more points.  I didn't take into consideration that it would be fairly easy to get goods back (goods replenishment is triggered by picking up build cards with a goods symbol on them) into those towns, so I probably wasted 3-4 turns about about 6-12 points being cautious.

I'm pleased with the game overall and think the team did a good job with development - it is fairly streamlined and easy to play once you get past a few of the special rules.  I would put it in between Age of Steam and Ticket to Ride in complexity, and probably closer to the Ticket to Ride side of the spectrum.

Chris Palermo does an amazing job with INDEPTH, the free PDF gaming magazine from the Long Island Boardgamers.  I worked with Chris on setting up an RSS feed for the magazine, and it is up and working.  If your feed reader supports auto-downloading of enclosures you can aggregate the PDF files right onto your desktop.

At Origins earlier this summer Tom Vasel was kind enough to give me a copy of Gemblo Lite, the smaller version of the Korean game Gemblo. The publisher is trying to increase awareness of the game by getting world-famous game reviewers and bloggers to talk it up. Tom apparently couldn’t find anyone that met those criteria, so he handed me a copy.

A couple of weeks ago Jacob, Matthew, and I sat down to give it a try.  At first we assumed it would play just like Blokus, but there's a subtle difference: in Gemblo, you can play off of any edge of a piece, whereas in Blokus you can only play off the ends.  Other than that, the games are very similar though Gemblo does a much better job of dealing with variable player numbers.

I can't comment on the differences between the light version and the original big version, though I do like the fact that the box fits very nicely on my standard gaming bookshelf.  The components in this version are nice, with good contrast between the different player colors and an easy-to-use board that shows what to use for different numbers of players.  Our game played in about 30 minutes, and I suspect we could play in 20 now that we know how to play.

If you like Blokus, you'll probably like Gemblo but... I'm not sure why you would need both as the games are more alike than different.  One consideration is this: Gemblo Light is smaller and supports up to four players, while the smaller version of Blokus (Blokus Duo / Travel Blokus) only supports two.  So if you want a smaller box game in this genre, Gemblo Light is the way to go.

Julie and I launched a new program for the boys last night – it will officially kick in on Oct 1, but they got the program last night over dinner and seem to be pretty excited about the plan.  This is adapted from some of the teachings of personal finance guru Dave Ramsey, who has been instrumental in guiding our philosophy about money management and debt avoidance.  I took the $ amounts out, so if you want to adopt something similar just substitute in what you think is appropriate based on your situation.

I especially like the fact that the boys are already talking about some savings goals and what they would like to buy with their own money (with cold hard cash).

The Goal

To develop healthy money management habits, learn how to save for the future, pay cash for purchases, and how to earn money for needs and wants without borrowing money.

The Basics

Jacob and Matthew will earn $x per month in base salary, payable on the 1^st and 15^th of each month.  This base salary is for the core set of responsibilities that both boys have as part of our family:

·         Making your bed each morning after you wake up

·         Setting and clearing the table at meals

·         Taking care of food and water for pets

·         Keep room and game room straightened up (CDs away, etc.)

·         Keep bathroom in decent condition (wiped, straightened, etc.)

·         Miscellaneous odd jobs as requested by mom & dad

Commission Earning

In addition to the base salary, Jacob and Matthew can earn extra money by taking on extra jobs that earn commissions (“fees for services rendered”) according to the following commission schedule:

Savings and Giving Expectations

Jacob and Matthew are expected to set aside some of their salary and commission so that they can give to those in need and save for items that they want to buy with cash.

Giving

Jacob and Matthew will set aside at least 10% of their salary + commission for giving.  They will each decide on a charity to give the money to on a quarterly basis.

Saving To Buy With Cash

Jacob and Matthew will set aside at least 10% of their salary + commission for savings.  As an incentive to save, mom and dad will match up to $x each month of the money set aside by the boys for savings.  The only catch is this: the savings + match must remain in savings for at least 90 days after saving or the match will be forfeit.  This is an incentive to save for long-term wishes and delay gratification.