Category Archives: Monday Brews
Monday Brews – Cinco de Mayo 2014
Hola! Welcome back to Boards & Barley for an awesome Cinco de Mayo! According to Wikipedia, Cinco de Mayo is also known as El Dia de la Battala de Puebla (Day of the the Battle of Puebla). It celebrates the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over the french forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5th, 1862. Now we commemorate by eating lots of chips, salsa, and guacamole and enjoying oversized Margaritas. Bummer… now I’m hungry for quacamole.
It’s Monday so here on Boards & Barley I like to recap the games and beer that I enjoyed in the past week. I’d love to hear what you enjoyed this past week. Feel free to leave a comment below! Let’s start with the Barley…
The Barley:
Belgians brew great beer!
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT: Karmeliet Tripel
I had never had the Karmeliet Tripel before, which is a travesty for someone like myself who really enjoys the Belgian Tripel variety of beer. The new local establishment that I keep mentioning had this on tap and served it in the glass shown in the picture. It was an excellent beer and I would definitely enjoy it again.
- NEW! Duchesse de Bourgogne – Another amazing Belgian Beer! I think I could easily get by with Belgian beer if it were the only country from which I could enjoy beer.
- Spaten Optimator
The Boards:
No spotlight this week. I played a few games but would rather just list them.
- Crokinole – Played with 4 players (6 discs each). We added a cool scoring rule where you score 10 points for each opponent’s disc that you knock out of play. However, if your disc also goes out of play on the same flick then it is a scratch and you do not get the points. This added a fun level of play to the game.
- Unpublished Prototype – This is a four player 4 card game that I don’t want to say too much about other than it is really awesome.
- Unpublished Prototype – I played a friend’s co-op game about healing patients. This game was very enjoyable and had an interesting and dynamic time aspect.
- Unpublished Prototype – This was a stock market game that had some interesting elements and worked well. I sure would love to see a different theme, though.
- Forbidden Island – I played with my kids and we lost on the VERY FIRST flood card (Fool’s Landing). I’ve never lost that quickly. You’ve technically only got a 19% chance on losing on the first draw of flood cards (16.7% on first card). And those percentages are ONLY if Fool’s Landing was one of the first six flood cards during setup. After we lost we reset the board and played again. But my kids lost interest before we could finish even though we had three treasures and a very good chance of winning.
Designer’s Corner:
I worked on Brooklyn Bridge this week. However, I have a problem in that there are about four different routes I would like to try with the design. I have several large changes that I would like to get playtested, which means my road to a “completed” game is going to be a much longer one that it was for Scoville. That’s fine though since I think this game has a lot of potential. Currently, however, it is more “Large Chunk of Stone” rather than “Finished David Sculpture.” I’ve just got my work cut out for me.
I also really want to dive into the design for Armada Galactica. I’m holding back on this because I don’t want to get into a cycle of 50% completed games. I’d rather keep my focus on Brooklyn Bridge and get that to the state where I could show it to a publisher with confidence. Sorry Armada Galactica… you’ll have to wait.
Also, I came up with what I believe could be a REALLY interesting tactile abstract game. I think this has the potential to be in the Qwirkle or Ingenious realm so I’m not going to give away any details just yet. Unfortunately this too will be waiting in the design queue for Brooklyn Bridge to progress.
Alright everyone. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed some Boards or Barley last week. If you tried something new that was awesome, let me know!
Monday Brews 4-28-14
Monday in Madison is rainy. Yesterday was rainy. Tomorrow will be rainy. Wednesday and Thursday will be rainy. And people wonder why Spring is my least favorite season. Oh well… at least we have board games to keep up happy during depressing weather like this.
So here we are starting another work week. While it’s dreary outside let’s look back and the Boards & Barley I enjoyed last week. That might brighten my mood.
The Barley:
So good! So smooth! So luxurious!
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout
I enjoyed this on tap at a new local establishment in the glass shown in the picture. It is chocolatey, smooth, creamy, and delicious. I recommend you try it if you are a fan of any beer styles what-so-ever.
- Homebrew: Oatmeal Stout
- Hofbrau Original
- Lakefront Cherry Lager
- Lake Louie Warped Speed Scotch Ale
- Homebrew: Scotch Ale
The Boards:
Small tin, Big game!
BOARDS SPOTLIGHT: The Builders
I picked this up for several reasons. The artwork is awesome. The game has been getting a little buzz from Euro lovers. And it was only $18.
The Builders is a game about building buildings. Each turn you have three actions which you can use to hire workers, begin construction, send workers to build the buildings, or take money. Play continues until someone reaches 17 points from their completed buildings or tools.
This game plays quickly and includes a plethora of interesting decisions. I played it twice last week and I’m looking forward to playing it again!
- Glass Road
- Crokinole
- NEW! Unpublished Prototype
- NEW! Thebes – I love the theme of this one. Doing research and then visiting archaeological dig sites to search for artifacts is great! But the way this game manages the time aspect adds a very interesting concept. While I thought the artifact digging added a little too much luck, I found the game to be very enjoyable and I’ll play it again.
- NEW! Hab & Gut – I’m not normally a fan of stock market games. Money is a very bland theme for me. But this game, with it’s lingering concept of player elimination for the lowest charitable donor, and its hidden information market manipulation aspects made this a love-hate game for me. I wanted to know more information than I knew. I actually thought the design of this game was really clever. I would definitely play it again.
I didn’t do any design work last week. I really need to finish reading Words of Radiance so I can get back to spending my free time on game design. But that book is so good. What Boards & Barley did you enjoy last week?
Monday Brews 4-21-14
Welcome back to Boards & Barley! I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter weekend. It was a VERY slow week in terms of enjoying Boards & Barley. So today’s Monday Brews will be very short. Let’s start with the Barley…
The Barley:
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT: St. Bernardus Abt 12 Quadrupel
I enjoyed this fine beer on tap from a new local establishment that has an outstanding list of beers on tap. Most of them are European beers. Many of those are beers I haven’t ever seen on tap. I will definitely be going back there to enjoy more awesome tap beers!
The Quadrupel was quite exceptional. But weighing in at 10% abv means it should be a slow drinking beer. I didn’t drink it slowly. It was too good to drink slowly.
The other beer I enjoyed last week was a Belhaven Scottish Ale on tap at the same establishment (another reason I should have enjoyed the Quadrupel a little slower!). I’ve enjoyed Belhaven from a nitro can in the past but to have it on tap (nitro tap!) was awesome. It’s such a smooth beer with an excellent flavor. Yum!
I did happen to have a New Glarus Spotted Cow while I was working on my garden bed last week, but Spotted Cow is not close to those other two tap beers.
The Boards:
BOARDS SPOTLIGHT: Tessen
Tessen was the only game I played last week. The rest of my free time was spent on building my garden and reading Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance, which is amazing.
I taught Tessen to my brother-in-law who after the weekend was over mentioned that he wanted to play it more. It’s such a fun, light, and quick battle game that has you feeling tense as you are trying to collect sets of animals. If you’ve never played it, go pick it up from Van Ryder Games.
Designer’s Corner:
Since the garden and Words of Radiance were so prevalent last week I didn’t really do much game design. However, I did sit down for a while and put together some good ideas for Brooklyn Bridge. One of the things I’m working on is how to make the tower more appealing to build.
In the playtests that I’ve run so far it seems like it is VERY slow to develop. Players don’t seem to be incentivized enough to build the towers. And the whole point of the game is to build the bridge. SO I needed to come up with a better way to incentivize the actual building of the bridge. I think I figured that out last week. I’ve got a much better system in place that I’m hoping to try this week. Instead of having scoring bonuses for “area majority” in each section of the bridge I am switching it to physical rewards like an extra brick, money, or perhaps an advance token. This will also make the game move along more quickly. People will build. People will earn rewards. Rewards will help people build faster. And so on.
Hopefully I can revise my prototype this week and get it to the table.
And then I also hope I can work on Armada Galactica. I think this game has a potentially larger audience and it would be fun to design an awesome space-themed game. I’ll keep you posted.
***
So those are the very few Boards & Barley I enjoyed last week. What did you enjoy?
Monday Brews 4-14-14
Happy Monday everyone. I hope all of you that attended PAX East of the Gathering of Friends had a great time. I attended neither, babysat Saturday evening, and played one game all weekend. But that’s okay.
Today is Monday so I present you with me recap of the Boards & Barley I enjoyed last week:
The Barley:
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT: Wisconsin Brewing Co. Porter
I enjoyed this Porter at a dinner on Sunday evening with my wife for her birthday. The Porter is from the still new Wisconsin Brewing Co. I found it to be a very nice porter with characteristics one would expect from a porter. I would drink it again as it was easy to drink and enjoyable to taste.
They recently brewed a coffee porter that is only available on tap. I would definitely like to try it since I enjoy coffee flavored/infused brews.
- NEW! Founder’s Porter – I enjoyed this porter during Board Game Night. Not too much to say about it. It was decent.
- NEW! Saint Francis Gluttony – From a Milwaukee brewery that names their beers after the seven deadly sins. This was their Maibock. It was okay. I found it a little too sweet and not “Spring” enough.
- NEW! Penn Pilsner – It’s been a while since I had a straight up pilsner. This tasted like a pilsner, smelled like a pilsner, and was pilsner through and through. Yet I enjoyed it.
- Central Waters Mudpuppy Porter
- New Glarus Spotted Cow
The Boards:
US (Awesome) and German (Ugh) box covers.
BOARDS SPOTLIGHT: Eminent Domain
Eminent Domain has become my favorite deck builder. That’s probably due to the deck building portion being subtle. There are planets to colonize or attack. There are new planets to survey. There are new for of research to develop. There are so many awesome elements in Eminent Domain that the deck building portion is somewhat of a side thought. But that’s not to say you don’t need to consider how you build your deck.
For those who are sick of Dominion and don’t like the theme of Trains, I highly recommend Eminent Domain!
- Unpublished Prototype
- Dungeon Roll
Designer’s Corner:
The only design efforts I completed last week were from the Design Me article where I designed a new tile placement via dexterity game called ManHunt.
This week I hope to compile and balance the abilities in Brooklyn Bridge as well as make some modifications to how the Tower is built. These will make the game more “Euro” in style, which I am fine with.
I also have the necessary components to prototype Manhunt, which I just might do.
So those are the Boards, Barley, and Design Efforts I enjoyed last week. What did you enjoy?
Monday Brews 4-7-14
Welcome back to another awesome week on Boards & Barley. Don’t worry… I won’t fool you with that whole Hexes & Hops thing again. Two days ago, Saturday, was Table Top Day! I played no games on Table Top Day. Does that mean I have to turn in my gamer card? Instead I took my kids to my parent’s house and we all colored Easter eggs a couple weeks early. My kids loved it! And I found one of my first brews leftover at my parents house. It was one of my Alberti Ambers! I’m excited to try it a year after it was brewed and see if I still like it as much as I did a year ago!
Well I imagine many of you DID play games on Table Top Day. If so, let me know what your favorite game was!
Did you know that today, April 7th, is National Beer Day? From Wikipedia:
- National Beer Day is a celebration of the Cullen–Harrison Act being signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 22. That law went into effect on April 7 allowing people to buy sell and drink beer again as long as it was < 3.2% (4% ABV).
I did happen to have a few brews last week, though, so let’s start with the Barley.
The Barley:
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT: New Glarus Spotted Cow
This is one of the most popular beers in my locale. It is a farmhouse ale that is naturally cloudy. It reminds me of a cream ale or a Hefeweizen in its characteristics.
One of the reasons it is popular is because it is a really good beer. Unfortunately for you non-Wisconsin folks you’ll have to come to Wisconsin to get it.
Honorable Mention: 4 Brothers Sibling Rivalry
The Boards:
BOARDS SPOTLIGHT: Jaipur
This was the only game I played last week and I played it twice with my wife. The first time I dominated her. The second time, a few days later, she had thought about a new strategy and it worked as she dominated me.
In the game you are trying to collect sets of the same color which can then be turned in for points. A round lasts until two piles of point tokens are gone. Then you total the points you have and the winner gets a token to mark their victory. This is a best out of three game, so the first person to win two rounds is the overall winner.
For those who haven’t play Jaipur, it is a great two player game that is light yet fun. My wife and I enjoy it and I would recommend it!
Designer’s Corner:
I didn’t really do all that much in terms of design this past week. I did, however, put more thoughts together for that space/sci-fi game I mentioned last week. The most interesting thing about this current concept is that it has a terrestrial theme as the basis for the mechanics and I’m going to apply them to space instead. I normally don’t use mechanics from a theme without using the theme itself. The tentative title is Armada Galactica.
I’m actually really excited about this game. I think I’m gonna try to make it about a 1 hour game with an Ameritrash feel rather than my standard Euro feel. That means I’ll have a heavy Euro and a medium Ameritrash design going at the same time. That should keep things interesting.
There you go. Those are the Boards, Barley, and Design Efforts I enjoyed last week. What awesomeness did you enjoy? Did you dominate Table Top Day? Try any new brews?
Boards and Barley 