Is a Hamburger a Sandwich?

This is such a wonderfully inane topic that has spawned a 4000 post thread on my message board.  Its great because people get to be the cliche' internet arguer on something that inherently doesn't matter.  I mean really really doesn't matter; it matters less than if Justin Bieber is bigger than Kurt Cobain.   Clearly it's Cobain, coming in at 5'7", but that can change in a couple years as Bieber (5'5") grows up.

So the 3 broad arguments that have been recycled

Populist

This is the primary argument of the Burger Separatists.  No one in their right mind EVER orders a hamburger sandwich.  Just listen to Morgan and Chuck in Good Will Hunting sound like total idjits.

 

Seriously, who calls a burger a sandwich?  I don't.  The only time I would ever do that is ironically and at a restaurant one of my message board friends owns, just to see if he would really refuse me service or would we get a good laugh out of it.

This is kind of a hard argument to counter because you come off as the guy who eliminates Scrabble words because they aren't in the dictionary.  But common usage does not equate reality.  It's like knuckleheads that dismiss evolution as 'only a theory'.  Look up theory in the dictionary sometime genius.  There is a difference between a scientific theory and a conjectural theory.

Speaking of Evolution

The most compelling argument of the Burger Separatists is that a burger may have once been a sandwich but after several generations of eating them, they have evolved into their own class of cuisine.

This is completely anecdotal and inconclusive to boot.   Burger Deniers have linked menu's of several restaurants that list burgers and sandwiches in the same section, sometimes only with the heading of sandwiches!  Burger Separatists counter with their own string of menus.  Both sides have conducted unscientific polls and asked food bloggers with the mixed results continuing.  

Construction  

This is the go to move for the Burger Deniers.   A sandwich is some kind of filling, generally but not limited to meat, surrounded by slices of bread.  

Or as a dictionary defines it

1.  two or more slices of bread or the like with a layer of meat, fish, cheese, etc., between each pair.

While a hamburger bun is not strictly bread, it certainly is 'or the like' since it is also baked flour and yeast.  So unless you are eating a patty plain, and I pity you if that's the case, then a hamburger must be a sandwich.


Which Internet Cliche' was Darren?

I was argue with a fencepost guy.  A burger is a sandwich, but I didn't argue that way for months simply because I wanted to continue stirring the pot.

F@#$ Amun-Re

Amun-Re

Plot:  Egyptian themed; become the most prestigious noble by acquiring wealth and building pyramids.  The theme isn’t well integrated; it’s just there to give the mechanisms a name.

 

Goal:  It’s a game about victory points.  Building pyramids is the chief way to earn VP’s but most money and certain provinces count at end game.

Mechanics: 

The game is played in two eras, with 3 turns per era.

There are 5 phases per turn, and timing matters.  Power cards can only be played in the specific corresponding phase.

Phase 1:  Roll out provinces.  Flip over one province per player to be auctioned.

Phase 2:  Auction the provinces.  The cost has a track based on the Triangular Number Series, or 0, 1, 3 , 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36…

Each province is a little different.  Some give you free resources upon buying.  Some give you recurring money every term, some give farms (which is also recurring money but requires additional investment) and a couple give temple spots which is VP at the end of the era.  Everyone will get exactly ONE province.

In 5 player, all provinces will be used, but in 3 or 4 player some will not be played.

Phase 3:  Buy and build.  The game gives a specific order, but the only thing that really matters is that you buy cards first because you can play those immediately.  The resource prices follow the same Triangular Number track as the auctions.

Power cards provide exceptions to the core rules.  Like a pyramid costs less stone, or if you want to over bid me during the auction you have to spend even more money.   You can’t play duplicate cards in the same turn, and you need to pay attention to the corresponding phase they are played in.  For example, cards with a green background are ONLY played in round 5, the harvest.  Cards with a white background are played in this phase.  Some cards give extra VP’s depending on your province lay out.  Like all 3 provinces by the Nile gets you points, or all 3 provinces on the red side of the board.  These VP cards can be combined, although quite a few are mutually exclusive.  You are capped on the number of power cards you may purchase; the number is determined by which provinces you own.

Next you buy farmers.  A farmer gets you cash in harvest phase.  The exact amount depends on the temple phase.

Finally you buy stone.  Stone is used to build pyramids.  3 stones = 1 pyramid, although an action card does discount the price.  It doesn’t take additional actions to convert stone to 

pyramids.

Phase 4:  Donate to the temple.  Secretly donate cash to the temple.  

1)      The higher the grand total from everyone, the more farmers will earn

2)      The person that donates the most gets 3 free things in any combination, 2^nd place gets 2 free things, and 3^rd and 4^th gets 1 free thing.  The ‘most donated’ player also goes first next turn.

3)      Instead of donating, you can play a “-3” card.  By playing this card you lower the grand total by 3, gain 3 gold, and forfeit any free stuff you would get by actually donating money.

Phase 5:  Harvest.  Farmers earn money based on the grand total donated in temple phase.  IF farmers only earn $1 or $2, camel provinces earn money.  These are marked right on the province.  Some provinces just give you cash regardless.  Total everything up and get ready for next turn.

Scoring

Scoring happens at the end of turn 3 and turn 6.    At turn 3 the provinces are reset.  They are no longer owned by anyone and the farmers are swept.  Pyramids built stay.

Score a point for every pyramid.

Score 3 points for every complete set of pyramids.  A set is a pyramid in each province you own.

Check for the province that has the most pyramids on both sides of the Nile.  The winner gets 5 points.

Score VP cards, detailed in phase 3.  These all count as 3 VP each.

Score temples.  Temples earn VP dependent on the donation phase, determined exactly like farmer values.

At turn 6, count money.  The winner gets 6 points, 2^nd place gets 4 points, and 3^rd place gets 2.

Tactics

Very preliminary based on 1 game played.

Power cards seem a lot more important in the first era than the second; you keep your hand.  Duplicate VP cards are worthless in the 2^nd era, but if you get them in the 1st you can at least carry them to the 2^nd.

‘Most pyramids’ is pretty important.  It’s single handedly worth the most points, and if someone gets these points from both sides of the river he will probably win.

Review:

I liked it and think this game will have good replay.  It was reasonably quick paced and the decisions were pretty good.  There might be a Stone Age/Fresco fatal flaw forthcoming, but as of right now it will be fun finding out J

F@#$ Counter Intuitive Strategies (and maybe some other game play fallacies)

Last week, NF played Bohnanza, and the post game analysis got me thinking, Bean game is actually quite counter-intuitive.

#1 - you can't be a dick.  Normally people I would play with would rather cut off their own arm then help their opponent.    And you just can't be that demanding in Bohnanza.  You absolutely have to lose some trades to get to where you want to be.  And if you screw someone, you got to do it in a way that the victim either doesn't know or won't embargo you.



#2 - a card 5 plays deep in your hand is not an asset.    You MUST get it out earlier or switch your focus.  It's counter intuitive, because what if that is something you really want to plant?  Doesn't matter.  If it is buried that far back, it will take way to long to get into play, the opportunity cost is crippling. 



So what are some other counter intuitive games?

Scrabble!

See Mike's post for the exact strategery, but the winner of scrabble is often NOT the guy who plays the longest words.  It's the guy who takes advantage of the triple word and letter scores.

No Thanks!

You are trying to achieve the lowest score and cards count against that.  Why would you want to take cards?  Here's why.  No one is going through the game without taking cards.  With that caveat, it is to your advantage to take the 15, because that allows you to safely take the 14 or 16 later.


Next these aren't quite counter intuitive in my opinion, but some common game fallacies.



Tunnel Vision



Ticket to Ride -  the connections.  Connections are important, but a lot of players neglect the lucrative 6 spot rails to make sure they get connected.  It's opportunity cost again.  By getting locked into one aspect of the game you lose your chance at even bigger points.

Too much money

Race for the Galaxy, Brass and probably a dozen more economic based games.  There comes a time when you have to stop focusing on money and start focusing on victory points.  Failure to make this 'turn' will cost you wins.

F&#( Online Alternatives

Part of the enjoyment of a board game is the board.  And the bits.  And the table.  And particularly the people sitting around it.  Board gaming is a social activity.  Sure I like the competitive side, but I really like hanging out with my friends, laughing, cracking jokes, etc.  Nonetheless, I find some good games play much better online.

Brass:

I think that walrus is dead, i wonder how many people airports kill each year. 

I hate waiting.  So much so in fact, the airport is one of the most detested places on the planet for me.  Why?  Because typically you spend almost all your time at an airport waiting.  And until the advent of the smart phone, a book was about your only recourse.  Just thinking about the airport is starting to make me crabby, so let's move on.  Brass suffers from a lot of analysis.  It's not "analysis paralysis" persay because there's really not that much information to churn through in order to come to a decision, it just takes a bit of time to digest it all and figure out what you want to do.  And it's not just the guys typical prone to it that take the long turns, it's really everyone with a prayer of competing.  It just takes a few minutes to access the board and make your move.  And there's no need to analyze and reanalyze the board as your opponents take their subsequent turns, because it's all going to impact you and change the scenario enough to that you might as well wait until your turn and analyze it once then.  And you can bet that unless your going back to back, your first chioce of actions is someone else's first choice of action and won't be available by the time it comes back to you.  Same goes for your second choice.  It doesn't matter how the board got the way that it did since your last turn.  It is what it is now.  Absorb it all, make your decision, and take your turn.  Because of all that, Brass turns out to be a good game to play online with notifications by email.  As long as you can check your mail a couple times a day, it plays in a week or two.  The experience is pretty satisfying as far as online board games go.  It's a hard, complex game, so winning is more satisfying.  As a social experience, not so much.  There's a place for posting comments, but there isn't typically anything there.

Dominion:

I have a set of four ceiling cats.

Dominion was innovative, some of the best parts of a CCG boiled down and put in board game form.  So many cards and options, every game is different, many strategies are viable in any given set up.  But what makes Dominion interesting is also its problem.  It takes time to determine the card set you're using and set up the rest of the cards correctly per number of players.  Setup can take 10 minutes, while the game itself might only take 30.  And unless you use the same card set, clean up and setup for a second game might take longer.  It can be mitigated though, if everyone is helping and there's a system for selecting a new card it can go pretty fast.  But there's a second problem - the really fun decks are the ones the cycle.  And keeping track of actions, and buys and coins in a cycling deck is a nightmare, especially when the other players are trying to follow along with you.  Now compare these two problems to the online game.  Setup and clean up online just takes a second.  And it's new and fresh every time.  And buys and actions and coins are tracked for you online.  In fact it's right there for everyone to see.  Games online take 10-20 minutes and you fl through half a dozen without blinking.

Tigris & Euphrates:

I played this game a few times with my friends before eventually swearing it off.  It's just too deep.  Or so I thought.  And teaching it was time consuming.  New players were easily frustrated because when they instigated a battle, it typically didn't turn out even close to how they expected.  Resolving fights takes a while anyway because there is a lot of calculation and explanation.  I couldn't get around the mechanics to think about the game in terms of strategy.  Mostly I was just trying not to blow it.  Recently I played it on the iPad with Jason, and it was much more satisfying.  I haven't played in more than 5 years, but it only took about half a game (less than 15 minutes) to figure it all out again.  And we played three times in less than an hour (three players, two real and one AI).  The game is just much more accessable as a computer version.  Battles are calculated and executed for you in a second.  You can play, make mistakes, and play again in a short amount of time.  This makes the learning curve is much more reasonable.  Look forward to playing again, but not on the table.

This is irrelevant but I'm adding it anyway.

Of course beating some faceless sod online is not a substitute for sticking it to your friends.  But these options might help hold you over between game nights.

F@#$ Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

How the hell have I gone 6 months without reviewing Puerto Rico?



Plot:  colonize Puerto Rico building up your plantations.


Goal:  Its a game about victory points.  You get VP's by shipping goods and purchasing buildings.   Special end game buildings are expensive, but are worth lots of victory points.

Mechanics:  Lengthy rules here

Pick a role.  First person to pick, the 'governor' rotates from player to player, turn order is predictable but not always the same.  The person that picks a role gets a bonus, but everyone may get a chance to participate.  No one is guaranteed participation, but multiple people may go on the role selectors turn.

 
Quick roles here.

Settler - grab a plantation, the picker may get a quarry instead.
Mayor - get guys.  Picker gets an extra guy.
Builder - buy buildings if you can.  Picker spends one less.
Trader - sell goods to the auction house.  Picker gets +1 money
Captain - everyone ships goods for victory points.  Picker gets +1 VP for the first good he ships.
Craftsman - everyone gets goods.  Craftsman gets an extra one.
Prospector - there are two of these in 5 player.  Sole role that ONLY the picker participates in.  Get 1 money.

After all players have picked a role, the remainder are bribed +1 money as an incentive.  It is possible to get quite a bit of money from bribed roles.


The plantations.  There are 5 plantations worth 0-4 in trade value.  In ascending order, corn, indigo, sugar, tobacco and coffee.  Corn is special that it needs no production building.  Or you can possibly get a quarry.  A Quarry drops the price of buildings.



The buildings.  There are 2 types of buildings, production or violet.  Production buildings are paired up with plantations, both need to be manned when craftsmen hits to make goods.  Violet buildings provide some kind of rules exception, like more money with trades or more victory points when you ship.



Game Play:  Game play is slow.  There are quite a lot permutations and variables to figure.  It is a deep game though, there's a lot of guessing what your opponents would do and trying to thwart their moves.

Review:  Ten years ago I found this game revolutionary.  The whole role rotation thing, the bribing of unpopular roles, the player interactions was fantastic.  Unfortunately, this is another game with really good computer implementation.   I played it lots via computer, and it goes a whole lot faster.   We haven't played this face to face in years.

Tips:

* be careful when picking mayor and craftsman.  Those are the most advantageous for the players who did not pick that role and the extra guy or extra good are often not worth it.

* defensive captain.  Use captain to thwart trading especially if you don't have the high value goods.

* the winner is most often the player who gets the most and/or best synergy with the 5 end game buildings.  It's not a lock though, a shipping VP win is still very possible.  You can find the void.

F@#$ Tobago

Tobago

Plot:  You are a treasure seeker in a race for artifacts.

This gets a few more words than my normal plot sections because this one actually works.   The game play, board and pieces all work together well with the theme. 

Goal: 

Grab loot!  Loot may as well be called victory points because it has no impact on game play like most games involving money do. 

Mechanics:

The hexagonal board has several different terrain types and 3 different landmarks.  On the map, you place 3 huts, 3 palm trees and 3 statues.  Statues require a specific hexagonal facing because they do something special later in the game.  Huts and palm trees do nothing except provide points of reference.

Each player picks a starting point for his SUV, and is dealt a hand of 4 clue cards. 

Clue cards narrow the locations of the 4 treasures; each treasure has a corresponding color attached to it, black, white, yellow or brown.

A turn you can do 3 things.

1)      Play a clue card.  A clue card MUST narrow the possible locations by at least one to be played.  These cards read something like “This treasure is in the largest jungle”, “This treasure in not in the scrublands”, or “This treasure is within two spaces of a hut”.  Strings of clues will ultimately be played, so mark yours.  Helping narrow down the location guarantees you a share of the loot.

-          Treasures can only be retrieved when the search has been narrowed to 1.  Duh.

2)      Move your SUV.  This might be hard to explain with words but here goes.  An SUV gets 3 moves.   Moving within a single terrain type counts as a move, and crossing into a new terrain type counts as a move.  So you can start on the far side of the jungle, and drive 6 spaces to a new border for a single move.  But crossing over from the jungle to the beach is one space and counts as a new move.  Then you can move anywhere into the beach for the final move. 

-          Picking up a treasure kills the remainder of your SUV’s move.

3)      Discard your clue hand and draw 4 new cards.

Scoring

Picking up treasure starts the scoring phase.

Each loot card has a value of 2 through 6.

Each player that helped narrow the search gets a share of the loot, and the player that picked up the treasure gets an extra share.  Order of who played the clues matters too, first one in gets first choice.

So for example, a treasure string has the pattern of blue, red, red, green, blue and then red picked up the treasure.  Blue gets two shares and first choice.  Red gets three shares and green gets one share for six shares total.  Seven loot cards are dealt; each player gets to peek at his shares worth (blue 2, red 3, green 1) with one remaining secret.   These are shuffled then revealed one at a time.  First player in (blue) gets to either take or pass on this treasure, and it works its way down the string, each player taking or passing in turn.  If no one takes, that treasure is discarded.  

At this point statues trigger.  Look at a statues facing, then travel along that facing till you reach the end of the island, at that spot an ‘amulet’ is dropped.  Rotate the statues clockwise for the next amulet drop.  An SUV must drive over an amulet to retrieve them, but picking them up does not cost moves like picking up treasure.  Amulets basically give you free moves.  If you play an amulet you can do any of the above 3 moves listed and go again. In addition, you can remove ONE treasure marker from the board.

After all loot is allocated, the player who picked up the treasure immediately starts a new clue string for that treasure.

Game play

Game play is surprisingly quick.  After the example turns I was absolutely convinced that this game would be an analysis paralysis nightmare.   Totally not the case.  First, you only have 4 clue cards to look at.  Second, chances are you can’t play at least 2 of them anywhere anyways.   Turns go pretty quick.

The tactical and strategic decisions are solid.  How much do I narrow down this treasure?  Which treasure do I narrow down?  When do I go and pick something up?  These are all interesting questions.

A couple of possible design flaws, one a little nit picky and one not so much.

Nit Picky:  Having a terrain type of lake that you can travel through and ocean which you can not drive through is needlessly confusing.   Once we adapt to that contradiction the game plays fine, but honestly, a million different terms for terrain in the lexicon and the designer picks lake.

Not so Nit Picky:  In 3 player, it looks as if the first player to go has a huge advantage.  Being first on the clue string is pretty important and player one gets to start 2 treasures.  In the two games we played, the first player to go won by 10+ points both times.

Tips

*Moving your SUV has huge opportunity costs.  Unless you pick up a treasure that turn, it costs you a loot card.  Have a good reason before you move.

*Amulets only get you one move.  So if you spend a move to pick up a single amulet you have effectively passed.  Only get amulets on the way to a treasure OR if you can get at least 2 with the same move.

*Early game, it looks like getting a lot of cards down early in a long clue string is a great move.  Once treasures start getting picked up, I’m not sure that the big strings are worth it.  But having 2 games total under my belt, I can’t say for sure what the ideal clue string is.

F@#$ Filler Games

Today I write a rambling stream of conscious essay on filler games.

What is a filler game, as defined by Darren?  

A filler game is easy to teach, easy to play and takes very little time to play, ideally 10 minutes or less.

Why these qualifications?  It’s how we play these games.  Let’s say we have 7 people attending a game night.  There are maybe 2 games we own that play 7, and generally don’t play 7 well.  It’s not the games fault either, that many players is unwieldy and it makes turns take forever.  I refer you to my “What makes a good game” post; I want it to be my turn lots, everyone else can F@#$ off.  So our solution in general is to split into two groups.  It is a guarantee that these groups will not finish at the same time.  So to avoid that stupid socializing and talking to each other, we play filler games.

Easy to teach:  These games have got to get going quickly.  If the game takes a half hour to teach, you won’t get through turn 1 by the time group 2 finishes.

Easy to play:  There should be no deep decisions.  Analysis of your move should take 5 seconds maximum.  Same reason, this is supposed to be quick so when the 2^nd group finishes you can move onto the deeper game fare.

Playtime :  10 minutes is my ideal, but a half hour is still doable in a lot of circumstances.

No Thanks! is probably THE fill in game.  It meets each and every qualification and is a fantastic game.  This is the game we fill in with most.

Some others, Dice of Cataan works, but Dice of Cataan is pretty dumb.  Same with Roll Through the Ages.  NF doesn’t own Wyatt Earp or For Sale, but both of those play well and qualify.

Lost Cities board game is border line.  Normally the game takes 90 minutes to play, but you can choose to play 1 round and that takes about 30 minutes.

I think Space Alert might eventually qualify too, but currently if we break out Space Alert we are playing that for at least 2 hours.