Category Archives: Monday Brews
Monday Brews: 10-28-13
Happy Monday everyone! Well, Spiel at Essen is over and from what I’ve seen it looked pretty awesome. Some day I’ll make it over there. Some day. But since I didn’t attend I can’t provide you with an awesome recap about the convention. So it’s another typical Monday Brews article today.
However, I am adding a new section to the Monday Brews articles called The Designer’s Corner. This is a small area where I can discuss the design efforts I’ve made in the past week. Often there won’t be much in this section and I often work piecemeal on design. But it will at least give you a chance to see what I’ve been up to.
So without further adieu I present to you the Boards & Barley that I enjoyed last week…
The Barley:
Point Oktoberfest: Sadly this is likely my last Oktoberfest of the year. It’s been a good run as I had numerous varieties of Oktoberfests and even attended an Oktoberfest festival with three fellow game designers. Until next year, Oktoberfest!
Lake Louie Reserve Scotch Ale: I love Lake Louie’s Warped Speed scotch ale so I figured I’d try their reserve scotch ale that is only seasonally available. I wasn’t disappointed. This was stronger and more full of body than the Warped Speed and was highly enjoyable. Nicely done Lake Louie!
Homebrew Black Ale: I was also able to enjoy a fellow homebrewer’s Black Ale. It was delicious.
Tyranena Rocky’s Revenge: This is a bourbon barrel aged beer, but unlike last week’s episode with the Kentucky Ale, this one was actually enjoyable. The bourbon effect on this beer is pretty mild and doesn’t overwhelm the beer. The Rocky’s Revenge is a beer with a hint of bourbon, rather than the Kentucky which is more like bourbon with a hint of beer.
Newton’s Oatmeal Stout: This is my third homebrew and I was finally able to have one last night. And I was not disappointed. It had excellent character. It was mildly smooth and malty. It was not overly bitter. And coming in at 4.2% ABV I know I can enjoy a few without feeling the effects. I’m looking forward to more.
The Boards:
Settlers of Catan: I finally got to put my Catan Board to use. The verdict: it was nice. The reality: It’s not necessary. Sure, it keeps the board nicely in place. It lets you move the board if you need to. It helps prevent roads from being moved. But I wish I hadn’t spent $35 on it. Oh well. That’s partially due to the fact that I have an older version of the game and the ports in my version are still the hex tiles rather than the little chits that drop nicely into the Catan Board.
Keyflower: I was pretty excited to play Keyflower since it sounded like a game right up my alley. There is worker placement in the game, but it’s not used in the usual way. It’s more of a placement auction mechanic where players are placing workers as bids for buildings. Unfortunately we had a long gap in our play where we were having a discussion about awesome stuff. So when we got back to the game we had sort of lost track of where we were. I suppose that means I’ll just have to play it again 🙂
The Designer’s Corner:
I had a pretty good design week for two games: Quantum Orcas and Brooklyn Bridge.
QUANTUM ORCAS: On the QO front it was less about the game and more about the artwork and, potentially, how I might post it on The Game Crafter. I knew that the logo needed revising and so I sat down for a while and threw this together:
I might add a warp hole through which the orca is exiting.
I’m pretty happy with that, especially compared to the previous version, which can be seen in my Twitter photo roll. The game is coming along. There just seems to be something missing. When I have the breakthrough it requires I’ll be sure to let you all know.
BROOKLYN BRIDGE: I decided to change my approach slightly, to great results. I was pondering creating a quad-fold board for the playtesting. That would have been pointless. Instead I utilized some blank jumbo cards that I got from The Game Crafter at Protospiel-Milwaukee and turned each card into one round in the game. Each card then shows all of the worker placement locations available during that round. I think this will make playtesting much more accessible and I’m excited to get it to the table. I want to add another resource to the game so that I can make some interesting interaction between the goods and then it’ll be hitting the table!
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So those are the Boards & Barley I enjoyed this past week, and the game design progress I made. What did you enjoy last week?
Monday Brews: 10-21-13
Though over half of Monday is gone already, I’m finally able to post my Monday Brews article. I hope your Monday is going well. As per my usual approach I present to you the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed this past week:
The Barley:
Delicious!
New Belgium Fat Tire: A classic, solid choice for a beer. Enjoyable.
Ale Asylum Madtown Nut Brown: I enjoyed this with my boss and several colleagues as we greeted a former student who has returned to town. On tap it’s a pretty decent brew.
Rathskellar Red: This beer is produced by the UW Union and was very enjoyable as well.
Abita Fall Fest: I’ve had better beers and I’ve come to realize I don’t care for any from Abita. But if you’re in the mood for some New Orleans style, then Abita is for you!
Tyranena Painted Ladies: I’m a sucker for pumpkin beers and this one did not disappoint. Unfortunately it appears the season for Oktoberfests and Pumpkin beers is waning despite Halloween still over a week away.
Left Hand Brewing Nitro Stout: This milk stout was more enjoyable than the MKE Brewing Polish Moon Milk Stout that I wrote about previously. This was was much less “Earthy” tasting, thankfully!
Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale: I’ve decided that I do not care for strongly aged bourbon barrel beers. If I want bourbon I’ll just drink bourbon. This beer was overwhelmingly bourbon-y. I hate to say this, but I would have rather had a PBR.
North Coast Brother Thelonius: I enjoyed this while being a guest on the Building the Game Something from Nothing podcast that aired last night. It was a mighty fine brew in a delicious Belgian style that I will likely drink again!
The Boards:
Amazing artwork and awesome gameplay make Farmageddon a great game!
Farmageddon: I broke this out at Board Game Night and it was thoroughly enjoyed for its cut-throatty awesomeness. We played a tight game that ended up being not so tight as the winner had 46 points and last place had 16. This was a very fun game and I highly recommend it!
Scoville: I got to play my game again! I taught two new players and they both enjoyed the game. Scoville will be up on Kickstarter to coincide with BGG.con in November! I don’t think I could be more excited! Here’s another exclamation point just because!
Long Shot: We played with 8 players and utilized a few house rules to speed things up. The result was that we played the game in 35 minutes! The house rules included being able to bet $10 at a time and rolling both dice twice on your turn so horses move faster. It’s such a fun game and these rules made it more enjoyable since it didn’t take an hour and a half.
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So those are the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed this past week, What did you enjoy?
Also, is there any interest in having a “Designer’s Corner” section in these articles where I discuss the designing work I’ve done each week??
Monday Brews: 10-14-13
Welcome back to Boards & Barley! So glad to have you here. Last week I posted an article about using Inkscape to make icons for your game design prototypes. It appears that the article was pretty well received. If there are other things you’d like me to show how to do in Inkscape, just let me know!
Today is Monday, so I present to you the Boards & Barley that I enjoyed in the past week:
The Barley:
Freshly bottled awesomeness!
First some news: last night I bottled my third batch of homebrew. It is an Oatmeal Stout and will be named after Sir Isaac Newton. So in a few weeks I’ll be able to enjoy some Newton’s Oatmeal Stout. The picture shows the beautiful bottles of awesomeness. They will be waiting patiently in my basement.
New Glarus Spotted Cow: Yum.
Tyranena Rocky’s Revenge: This is a very good beer that comes from Lake Mills in Wisconsin. The upside is that it reminds me and my friends of the great Beer Run event that the brewery holds each November.
Hinterland Oktoberfest: Not good. This hoity toity beer was not a good Oktoberfest. It did not even taste like an Oktoberfest. Served in 16 ounce bottles at a high cost by a brewery that thinks it’s high end, I expected something better. Disappointed with this one.
New Holland Dragon’s Milk: Wow! Not necessarily a good “wow.” Just Wow. This beer is potent. I’ve been wanting to try it for a while and it lived up to expectations. This beer had a ton of character.
New Belgium 1554 Black Ale: New Belgium has some interesting beer styles that I don’t always enjoy. However, the 1554 Black Ale is definitely one that I do enjoy. I have to wonder, though, if that’s because it makes me think of Euro style games. This beer could have a theme based on the black plague. All it would need is some bored looking dude on the label!
Point Oktoberfest: This is a passable oktoberfest, which is saying quite a bit compared to the Hinterland oktoberfest listed above. It’s not my favorite oktoberfest, but I’d drink it again.
The Boards:
Camel tokens from Yspahan are awesome!
It was another down week for gaming. But this week we’ll be having a game night, so hopefully I get a few more games in this week.
Kingdom Builder: Somehow I sneaked out a win over my wife. With a final score of 84 to 81 it was a closer finish that I was expecting. I was surprised when I saw how close she was.
Yspahan: I got to play Yspahan for the first time this past week. And I snapped this awesome picture. The game is a really cool game design despite the possibility of dice results ruining it. I pulled off a big win and really enjoyed the game.
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So those are the Boards & Barley that I enjoyed last week. What did you enjoy?
Monday Brews: 10-7-13
Happy Monday everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. Last week was a good one for me. My son turned 2, our group had a game night, and the weather is getting nice an Autumn-y! The downside was that I only played three games.
Since it’s Monday, it’s time to blog about the beer I drank and the games I played in the past week. So here’s the Boards and Barley I enjoyed last week:
The Barley:
2 year old boys love it! (The box art, that is!)
Sand Creek Oscar’s Chocolate Oatmeal Stout: My son chose this beer at the beer store. We walked up to the beer section and he started going bonkers over it since it had a big bear on the cardboard. So it was an easy choice. Pleasantly enough it was a decent beer that I would drink again.
Southern Tier Warlock: This is an imperial pumpkin stout and it was a doozy! It was almost like drinking a pumpkin beer shake. The smell was a little interesting, and not necessarily in a good way. I don’t think I’d drink it again, but I was glad to have had a taste.
O’so O-Toberfest: Another Oktoberfest under the belt. I think that’s the 5th or 6th Oktoberfest style I’ve had this season!
Homebrew Black Ale: I was able to enjoy a friend’s homebrewed black ale while playing a game this past week. It was delicious!
New Glarus Spotted Cow: A staple in my beer diet, this is an always enjoyable beer!
New Belgium Giddy Up: A lemon-peel espresso infused ale from New Belgium is an interesting experience. It was a little too out there for me to enjoy, but, like the Southern Tier Warlock, I’m glad I was able to try it.
Milwaukee Brewing Polish Moon: MKE brewing out of Milwaukee is a fun newish brewery located in an area of Milwaukee that is undergoing a revival! This particular beer, a Milk Stout, was enjoyable, but not my favorite milk stout that I’ve had. It is a little too earthy tasting, or at least has too earthy of an aftertaste. But MKE Brewing is doing good things!
The Boards:
Rhome: This is an awesome “rhombus” based game from esteemed designer Brett Myers (@BrettSpiel). It is a really great game that I believe will have a great published career at some point. The tile placement mechanic is awesome and tight. There is a lot of anxiety and tension in the game, which is fantastic. And like Hedeby and Baron Age that I mentioned last week, this is a game that I will be owning!
It’s Hoof Hearted making a tight first turn!
Long Shot: A horse racing game? Blegh! Oh wait… what’s this?? It’s fun? Okay. When you’ve got Pony Danza heading off Harry Trotter and the Horserer’s Stone along the final stretch, then this game can be a lot of fun. Okay… Pony Danza and Harry Trotter are made up names from my gaming group. But they make the game more fun! While there is a lot of luck in the game, it can be a ton of fun with a big group. It plays up to 8 people, which makes it a nice alternative to 7 Wonders of Robo Rally. Check it out!
Attika: My friend Jeremy got this game in the Math Trade at GenCon and we finally got it to the table. I really enjoyed it! There is a cool mechanic in it that allows players the opportunity to make some big moves. If you can chain the right buildings together you can really get ahead. I’ll definitely play this game again! And I’m not just saying that since I won.
Monday Brews: 9-30-13
Today is the last day in September. Where did this month go??? Well, at least it is ending nicely by attending Protospiel-Milwaukee this past weekend! So I had the opportunity to play some unpublished games, including some that I really really enjoyed.
I have an opinion about writing about unpublished games. Here it is:
If you loved the game, write about it. If you did not love the game, don’t write about it. Negative press for any game that potentially could be published as anything other than the form you played it is just bad business.
So while there were other games I played that I enjoyed but the designer will be changing, I will not be writing about them. I don’t want to be unfair to any designers whose games may change for the better. But I want the games I played that I thought were awesome to be noted as such.
Alright, here’s the list of the Boards & Barley that I enjoyed this past week:
The Barley
I wish I had these glasses to further my enjoyment of pumpkin beer!
O’Fallon Pumpkin Beer: This beer has a lot of pumpkin attitude in it. There’s nothing subtle about the amount of pumpkin in this one. It was enjoyable, but be warned that it is heavy on pumpkin.
New Glarus Totally Naked: I used to dislike this beer for some reason that I cannot remember. But when I had a bottle of it that was leftover after the latest game night I found that it was quite enjoyable. It’s just an enjoyable brew.
Milwaukee Brewing Sasquash Pumpkin Porter: Wow. Now this was an enjoyable beer! I was glad my friend Ben brought it over for us to enjoy. Want to learn more? Check out this article by Chris Drosner of the Wisconsin State Journal.
New Glarus Staghorn Oktoberfest: I enjoyed two of these excellent beers while attending the New Glarus Oktoberfest celebration with fellow game designers: Brett Myers (@Brettspiel), Chevee Dodd (@cheveedodd), and Dave Ross (@ddgdrs). The pretzel bigger than my head and the delicious brat were excellent as well!
Pearl Street El Heffe: This was enjoyed at Protospiel, in a glass, because we bring glasses to Protospiel because beer is better in a glass than the bottle. It was a fine wheat beer, though my attention was more on games than beer.
The Boards
X-Wing: I played my second game of X-Wing while brewing a Scotch Ale on a chilly Wedndesday night. It was beautiful! However, my experience was enhanced by my ability to roll only hits and critical hits. I think I only had three dice results all night that were misses.
Scoville: While at Protospiel I was able to teach a 4 player game and to partake in a 3 player game. The 4 player game had three first timers, so it took a little longer than I would have liked, but afterwards one of the new player said they’ll be backing it when it goes up on Kickstarter! So that was pretty awesome. And in the 3-player test I got a lot of good feedback which I will be mentioning to the publisher.
The blurriness is due to the Orcas jumping across time!
Quantum Orcas: Yes, this is the game that I made up last Friday in my Design Me article! I mocked it up and it actually got played 4 times during Protospiel. That was partially due to it being about a 10 minute game. It got comments like, “It didn’t suck,” “It was playable,” and “It was really interesting.” So I’m pleased that a game that was less than a day old was not broken and actually worked pretty well.
The City Beneath: Designed by my friend Adam Buckingham (@adambuckingham) this is a game about a heist crew who has stolen some stuff and now are trying to get away. In the game players begin with limited skills. Throughout the game they can increase their skills and be able to elude the police more efficiently while placing the blame on the other players. There are some really awesome social aspects to this game that make it quite enjoyable. Adam has put in a lot of effort and this game keeps getting better and better!
Hedeby: Chevee Dodd cut my first play of this short when he taught it at Protospiel-Milwaukee back in March. This time around, with the game being an insane overhaul of awesomeness, we were able to play the game without him ending it. This game is really fantastic! You are Vikings who are trying to raid and build a town. The engine building portion of the game is totally awesome and it gives you the means of decreasing the luck of the dice as the game progresses. I will be owning this game when it comes out!
Baron Age: By the designer of Coin Age, Adam McIver (@ad7m), this game has some of the feel of Coin Age, but it is ramped up in a most amazing way. In Baron Age players try to control areas to earn points. On it’s own that doesn’t sound that different or unique, but the way it is utilized in the game is awesome. Players each have their own scoring condition that is secret. Throughout the game you are rolling and placing dice onto a map with distinct regions, each with a different number of sections. Three dice can be placed in each region. But depending on what the die results were the player gets to do different things. I won’t give more details here, but like Hedeby, I will be owning this game when it comes out!
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So that’s the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed this week. What did you enjoy this past week?
Boards and Barley 