Board Game To Do List

1) Finish learning my new games so that I can be prepared to play them when the opportunity arises.

• Shogun Finish reading the rules, then either browse a FAQ online or play through a practice round depending on how difficult the game seems.
• Battlestar Galactica I've read the rulebook to this title twice already but I certainly don't have a firm enough grasp on how the game works to be able to teach it. I definitely need to play through several rounds on my own to understand Battlestar enough to get it to the table.

2) Get the most complicated games off my list to the table.

I will need to review the rules to both El Grande and Puerto Rico before introducing them to a new group.

3) Brush up on the rules to a few underplayed games that I'd really like to focus on in the coming months.

• Netrunner I loved this game back in the day but it has been so many years since I've played it that I really need to reread the rulebook cover to cover. I have two decks assembled that I could try playing with right away, but it may make sense after relearning the game to sift through all my cards and create some new ones. This will allow me to better understand some of the individual cards as well.
• Chaos in the Old World A combination of area control and combat with some clever mechanics, Chaos has only hit the table two or three times and I certainly will need to brush up on a number of details. I'd definitely like to see this one played five to ten times this coming year.
• Le Havre This is a fairly new addition to my collection that has seen only one play, a shortened learning game with the Mrs. Le Havre may be slightly weighed down by being best for three players--it seems we generally have four or five at the table. Despite this, I have a feeling I will love Le Havre and I'd like to give it a full trial--ten or more plays next year.

4) Delve more deeply into Lord of the Rings: the Card Game.

I've now played it twice solo and would like to get at least one more play logged to familiarize myself with the cards and mechanics before I involve any other players. In the near future I would like to buy a few more adventure packs and start to dabble in deck building with more than one sphere.

5) I would like to continue to pursue the construction of the two Magic: the Gathering cubes on which I've been working.

The commons cube should be fairly easy to finish, I just need to order a bunch of cards that I'm missing from an online store. Since they are all commons I should be able to complete it for a pretty small amount of money. Once I have a working cube, Magic will be another option to play with the in-laws, as Jean, Tom, and the Mrs. all know how to play and Mike could probably be convinced to jump in if we were all up for a big session.

6) I recently posted a list of a few games I was looking forward to purchasing, but I really need to examine my collection and decide what types of games I should buy.

I'll delve more deeply into this topic in a future post.

Chaos in the Old World

Finally brought Chaos in the Old World to the table Saturday night. Dave, Monica, the Mrs. and I worked through the rules and made it through a couple of rounds before we called it a night. Armed with a better understanding of the rules, we met up again the next night, minus Monica, and played through a full game.

Dave & the Mrs. seemed to think poorly of the amount of luck in the game (because of die rolls as well as card draws), but I feel that the vast quantity of decisions in Chaos in the Old World more than makes up for this. One of the major benefits a board game gains by having luck elements is a need for players to adjust strategy as conditions change unexpectedly. This is certainly a quality I enjoy in games, and after one play I think there is an appropriate amount of luck present. (Though, of course, this opinion is subject to change, and certain other players in the room may strongly disagree!)

There is a lot going on here: players can win either by advancing their own personal victory dials to a certain level, or by achieving a certain threshold on the common victory point track. VPs themselves can be gained both through having a strong military presence in a region (by dominating the area), or by corrupting a region with one's rather weak cultist figures (eventually ruining a region and gaining large numbers of VPs). In Chaos, players must balance their personal victory goals with paying close attention to the other players' goals as to block them from advancing too quickly.

As in El Grande (another area control game), there does seem to be a disadvantage in building a strong early presence in the game, as the other players are very motivated to take down the leader. I felt in this first play I established myself a little too early as the leader and paid for that fact throughout the mid-game. Dave, through some good late-game die rolls and maximizing his victory dial bonuses, ended up the winner, but if one roll during the last turn would have landed differently the game would have gone an additional round and anyone could have been victorious.

I eagerly await our next play of Chaos in the Old World, as it is a deep and intriguing game, both very thematic and seemingly well balanced.

According to My Notes...

...I am ready to play Chaos in the Old World. Now I just need to feel better enough that I can reenter the land of the living. Hopefully that will be soon!

I actually found the rules to Chaos in the Old World to be very well written. The basic rule set has a number of different phases that are a little complicated, but the order of everything in the game seems very clear, and there are numerous examples detailed throughout the book. I remember being completely bewildered after reading through the Fury of Dracula rules (another heavy strategy game published by the same people as Chaos, Fantasy Flight Games).

Either these rules are better arranged or the game is simply not as fiddly as Fury of Dracula. I suspect a combination of each is responsible, but I suppose I find out when I play!