Category Archives: The Boards
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Building Buildings – A Review of The Builders
A bored European on the cover?? I’m In!
My level one friend Jeremy went to Essen last year and hoped to pick this game up but unfortunately it wasn’t available. So I picked it up a few weeks ago. Packed in a nice little tin is a really enjoyable game. I’ve played two times, which is enough for me to review it.
Let me remind you that I review games after 1 or 2 plays because if it stinks after 1 or 2 plays then I’m not likely to play it again. So games usually have to make a pretty good impression early on for me to desire more plays.
So today I present my opinions on The Builders!
In The Builders players are racing to 17 points. Points are earned by completing buildings or tools, each of which can be worth points. Players will utilize their workers by sending them to work at their buildings that are under construction. Once the resource requirements for a building are met with workers or tools then the building is completed. The player will earn coins instantly and points which are counted at the end of the game.
The Builders set up for three players. Image via BGG user Spielemitkinder
At the start of the game each player will begin with an Apprentice card as their lone worker. Five buildings and five workers will be placed on the table. Each player will also begin with 10 coins.
On your turn you can do three total actions, choosing from the following:
- START CONSTRUCTION: Take one of the five available building cards
- RECRUIT A WORKER: Take one of the five available worker cards
- SEND A WORKER TO WORK: Place one of your workers next to one of your unfinished buildings
- TAKE COINS: Take coins
Those are the four actions you can choose on your turn. You could do the same action all three times if you so desired. There are a few rules with how choosing the same action works, but I won’t get into that here.
Basically you go around and around until someone gets to 17 points. Then you finish the round and score it. Pretty simple… but is it any good?
Here’s What I Like:
ARTWORK: Amazing! The artwork for the buildings in this game is so vibrant and colorful that they really pop on the cards. If I were an artist I would want to make things look like the buildings in this game.
EASE OF GAMEPLAY: Since players only have three actions per turn, and since there are only four options from which to choose, this makes for pretty simple gameplay that is easy to understand. It’s also very easy to teach this game, which allows me to play with non-gamers or baby gamers.
Here’s What I Dislike:
ACTION CLARITY: What I’m referring to is when you choose the same action several times. For instance, when you place two workers on the same building in the same turn there is a compounding of actions and money that isn’t completely clear in the rulebook.
Designer Perspective – What Would I Change?
This is an all around solid design. That makes it tough for me to think of something I would change. One thing I would change is to add female workers to the workers deck. There’s no reason they all have to be male. Perhaps the biggest thing I would change would be to add bonus points for building similar types of buildings. So players could purposefully try to build a church and a cloister and earn bonus points. Those types of combos could be very interesting, especially if similar types of buildings required different resources.
Beer Pairing
This is a simple, light game with nice deep decisions. So it calls for a similar beer. One that comes to mind would be the La Trappe Tripel. Most tripels seem to have two taste components. When you first take a sip you get an excellent character of quality beer. Then after you swallow you typically experience floral overtones. That’s similar to The Builders in that The game is so simple and exhibits an “excellent character.” Then once you’ve played it you can see some awesome depth, similar to the floral overtones.
Overall Rating:
I really enjoy The Builders. It is fun, quick, and yet has compelling and interesting decisions throughout the game. It is a test of optimization, to be fair. But I ignore math when playing games and focus on fun instead. And this game is a lot of fun. I’m rating it 8 out of 10 according to the BoardGameGeek.com rating scale.
Very good game. I like to play it. Probably I’ll suggest it and will never turn down a game.
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!
I’m Pulling for Him – An Interview with Chevee Dodd
Available via Kickstarter!
Today we have the first ever interview on Boards & Barley and I’m happy that it is with the magnificent Chevee Dodd of West Virginia fame and folklore. Chevee currently has a Kickstarter campaign for his awesome trick-taking card game, Pull! I played it in March at Protospiel-Milwaukee and I recommend it!
Chevee is the designer of Scallywags by Gamewright. Has has also designed several games that are for sale on The Game Crafter that are worth checking out. My personal favorite is Tuesday Night Tanks.
I have had the privilege of enjoying an Oktoberfest celebration with Chevee and consider him a good friend. If you have not had the pleasure of meeting him, seek him out some day. Or twitter stalk him. (@cheveedodd). But enough rambling… let’s learn about him and his campaign.
Interview with Chevee Dodd
Boards & Barley: Why did you start designing games? Why is this one of your passions?
Chevee Dodd: I’ve explored dozens of creative outlets in my time. Typically, I try something new and then get bored with it and move on. Games have been the one constant in my life since early childhood. I started designing because I found inspiration in James Earnest and his then startup, Cheapass Games. Suddenly there was a way for the little guy to do something on his own and succeed, so I went for it. I found that the creative outlet was extremely satisfying because I get to flex all sorts of skills: writing, design, crafting, and art. It encompasses so much of what I love to do.
B&B: We first met at Protospiel-Milwaukee last year. What do you think are the biggest benefits of designer conventions like Protospiel and UnPub?
CD: Meeting people like Ed P Marriott.
Seriously, there is a great bunch of people at these shows that are more than willing to help test and refine. They love being creative together and some awesome projects have come out of that community… but for me, it’s the people. In fact, I generally have to be coerced to test my own games at these shows. I’m there to form relationships. We are all building something much larger than a few games. We are building a collective that will herald each others efforts for years to come.
B&B: What is your favorite non-Chevee game that you love playing more than anything else?
CD: Acquire is my all-time favorite. I would play multi-day marathon sessions of Acquire and never get tired of it. Also, Tichu. Oh my Tichu. With the right teammates, we’ll run it back to back to back. Best of 7? No problem!
B&B: Other than Pull!, which is your favorite Chevee game and why?
CD: Leathernecks ‘43/Princess Fairy Rainbow Unicorn dice is the only other Chevee game I’d actively ask someone to play. I generally don’t enjoy playing my own stuff but that design, and PULL! have both surprised me. I feel like I was able to inject just a touch of interaction into press-your-luck that makes the game something more without tacking on a bunch of thinking. I’m pretty proud of it.
B&B: If you could have a PBR with any two game designers, who would they be and why?
CD: Michael Schacht and Antoine Bauza. I’d love to have a PBR with Sid Sackson, but I don’t think that’d go over so well. Bauza and Schacht both design the types of games I love: simple rules with deep decisions. I’d love to talk shop with them… but being that they are both from more cultured areas of the world, I have a feeling they’d balk at my PBR.
B&B: What are your three favorite pieces of advice for new game designers?
CD: 1) Fail. Fail often. We learn so much more from our failures than we do our successes. It’s hard to know why something works, it’s easy to spot why it’s flawed.
2) Try. You can’t fail if you don’t try. Talking about designing games is way different than actually doing it. Just try. Get out the pen, paper, and scissors and go at it.
3) Ask. Get help. You can’t do this alone, no matter how great you think you and your idea are. You WILL need people to help you with the design and it’s better to start early than late.
B&B: I love your “Open Source” game design approach where you utilize open source software and like involving other people. Where did this philosophy come from?
CD: I’ve been a hacker of sorts all my life. Not a hacker in the movie sense of someone that breaks into banks security systems and steals money… a hacker that makes things by learning and deconstructing. I started writing software when I was about 8 years old… that was before the Internet as we know it today… and I relied heavily on books to teach me what I was doing. When services like American Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe came along, it was like opening a floodgate for me. Suddenly there were all these free references and resources available for me to learn from and my progress with software increased rapidly. I like giving back for this same reason. If I can help someone else through my stories and tribulations, I’m all for it.
B&B: You utilize The Game Crafter for prototypes and components quite a bit and I know you have a few games available on the site. Do you have any other “go-to” resources for game design components?
CD: The dollar store. Most of what I work with outside of printed components are things like sharpies, tape, paper, pens… all the stuff that’s readily available at a dollar store. But also, you can find stuff you didn’t think about there like glass beads and other trinkets that make great game components. I like to look everywhere I go for things that inspire.
B&B: What was the inspiration for Pull!?
CD: PULL! came about during a lull in my creativity. I asked the Twitter community to give me some ideas and it was the one that stuck out. I tried working through some of the other concepts, but this one just wouldn’t’ leave my head and I had to make it.
These awesome duck tokens are only a $5 add-on! Bump your pledges, people!
B&B: What sets Pull! apart and makes it awesome?
CD: It plays like a trick taking game, but not like any you’ve tried before. There is a deck of cards driving each round instead of the players winning the lead and those cards also score you points. On top of that, there are two tricks each round instead of just one. There are many different levels of decisions that go into each card play but it’s not so complex that you can’t just sit down and enjoy it. In fact, I’d say it feels less challenging than most trick taking games even though it offers significantly more decisions.
B&B: What are the best ways for people to share the Pull! campaign so that we can get it uber-funded?
CD: Facebook has brought me the most backers. Simply hitting the Facebook “Like” button under the Kickstarter video has had a great impact on the campaign, but also unlocks a stretch goal! For all of Facebook’s reach, however, there are more communities that are actively involved in gaming like Reddit and Google Plus. Sharing there and talking about the game all over the internet is going to help bring backers our way. So far, I’ve been extremely humbled by the support I’ve received from the backers.
Some cards and the game box.
B&B: What have been the most challenging aspects of putting together a Kickstarter campaign?
CD: Simply the sheer volume of work. Putting together all the graphics. The copy. The videos. The art. I started months in advance and I’m glad I didn’t wait until the last moment! So many campaigns are obviously thrown together, I really wanted the PULL! page to shine and I spent many many hours editing.
B&B: Do you have any sources of advice for the Kickstarter campaign? Jamey Stegmaier’s blog, for example, has a ton of great Kickstarter information.
CD: I think I’ve read most of Jamey’s posts… TWICE. Seriously… there is a ton of stuff there to think about. I don’t agree with all of Jamey’s advice, but that’s not the point. The point is to get you thinking about all the aspects of the campaign. Other than Jamey’s blog, I listened to most of Richard Bliss’ podcast and spent Monday’s researching the previous week’s campaigns. I spent a great deal of time analyzing both successful and unsuccessful launches for anything I could use to my advantage.
B&B: Do you have any personal advice to offer people that will be setting up their own Kickstarter campaigns? What key aspects of a campaign shouldn’t be excluded?
CD: The biggest piece of advice I have is to have an audience before you launch. Kickstarter is NOT a marketing platform and you need to sell yourself WELL before the campaign. I’ve spent the last two years building myself up and that got me nearly 70 backers on the first day. Now that the campaign is in full swing, they are barely trickling in… and most are finding the campaign because of my awesome backers sharing the campaign. Very few are coming in from Kickstarter alone.
As for exclusion: be transparent. Don’t hide any aspect of your game or the production. Even if there is something you are embarrassed about, you need to point it out. Dont try to trick people into backing your project. Let it sell itself. Be 100% transparent, good or bad. It may not pay off on this campaign, but it certainly will in the future!
B&B: Game design, Graphic design, Woodworking. How is the best way for people to reach out to you for design advice or graphic design work?
CD: I answer Twitter more than anything… and quickly. The notification sound for Twitter is my favorite on my phone. I grab it up as soon as it goes off. After that, email is the second best method… and my gmail account is also linked to my phone.
cheveedodd [at] gmail
B&B: What other great things can we look forward to from Chevee Dodd over the next year or so?
CD: I designed a pretty neat 2 player zombie game that’s coming up. The artist that’s working on it is doing great stuff and I can’t wait to share it with the world. I designed it for Jayme though, so I’m not letting anyone else have it before her. I’ve considered bringing it to Kickstarter also, but it’ll likely be up as a print and play and maybe at thegamecrafter.com long before. I can only handle so much stress in one year.
Other than that, I’ve hinted at a secret project a few times over the past few months. The announcement of that should come mid-July, and it should be fun. Mayfair is still plugging away on developing Hedeby. Even if they greenlight the game, I doubt it will be out in the next year, but who knows?
B&B:Anything else you want people to know?
CD: I am forever indebted to this community and am constantly humbled by the support I receive. I would like to thank each and every person individually, and in person. I hope one day we can meet to make that happen!
Thanks, Chevee, for the interview. I wish you the best for the rest of the Pull! campaign and I hope it does really well for you. For those who read this, if you haven’t backed the project, go do so now. If you want to learn more about Chevee and what he does, head on over to his website: cheveedodd.com.
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.
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So those are the very few Boards & Barley I enjoyed last week. What did you enjoy?
Boards and Barley 