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Monday Brews 1-13-14
Welcome back to Boards and Barley! I’m so glad you’re here. Every Monday I write an article that let’s you know what beer and board games I enjoyed over the last week. I also give a little insight into my design ventures of the past week. It was another slow week in terms of beer and games, but the game design portion of my life picked up a bit.
Let’s start with the Barley…
The Barley:
That’s a chair I could sit in!
Gray’s Busted Knuckle Irish Ale: I enjoyed this Wisconsin brew while my brother visited. We got some amazing fried cheese curds and a beer. This was an enjoyable Irish ale that I would get again.
Fleming’s Scotch Ale: I had another of my homebrews. I think it is now stronger than the original 6.6%abv. I might have to measure that again. This one really packs a punch.
New Glarus Spotted Cow: Another Wisconsin beer was enjoyed while a friend was over. We watched some football and enjoyed a beer and some ranch pretzels. That makes for a pretty good evening.
Deschutes Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale: I am not an IPA or Pale Ale guy in general. I don’t care that much for hoppy beers. But this one was quite good. It wasn’t too hoppy overall and it had a hint of a sweet finish with a mild floral aroma. I would drink this again and I think it could be my gateway to IPAs.
Capital Winter Skal: I enjoyed this while playing Nothing Personal. This is a mighty fine brew from a local brewery.
The Boards:
Nothing Personal: My friends played this at GenCon while I was on a panel about Protospiel. They have played it several times since then. I finally got to play it last night. And it was awesome! Nothing Personal has an amazing level of back-stabbing, promise-breaking, deal-making interaction that I haven’t seen in any other game. There is a lot to keep track of in this game and it would be easy to make mistakes and get left behind. I’m glad I finally had the opportunity to play it because it was a lot of fun.
Tenzi: I got my friends to try this out last night. Each player has 10 dice. You roll them and try to get all of your dice to be the same number. The first player to get all of theirs the same is the winner. There are a bunch of variants in the rules that you can try out. But this was a thoughtful Christmas gift from my mom because she knew I wanted dice for game design purposes and she got me dice that are also a game. Thanks mom!
Designer’s Corner:
This prototype box will suffice for now.
Last week I worked a little bit on Quantum Orcas. I want to put together a version that I can purchase from The Game Crafter. It is amazing how much artwork really goes into a game. Not only do you need art for the cards, chits, tiles, etc. You also need artwork for the box and the rulebook. Then if you want to have a nice sales page on TGC you need artwork for that page. There is a lot of behinds the scenes artwork that is needed to complete a game.
So last week I put together a bunch of art and Quantum Orcas is getting closer. I still need to do more playtesting to make the game go from playable and “not bad” to something that is enjoyable that people will want to play. I’ll keep you posted.
The other progress I made last week was to come up with new mechanics for Brooklyn Bridge. I have shared the concept of the mechanics with several friends and none of them said it sounded awful. So I might have something there! I am pretty excited about the new utilization of workers. Brooklyn Bridge is a worker placement game, but it uses workers in ways I have not seen before. So I’ll plow forward with this to make it playable in the near future. My goal is to have tested it several times before Protospiel-Milwaukee in March.
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So that’s the Boards & Barley I enjoyed and the game design progress I made last week. How was your week?
Monday Brews 1-6-14
It is -16 degrees out (as of 7am) and I’m happy that I don’t work outside. I think I’d rather have a foot of snow than -16 degrees. Never the less, today is Monday, so I am reporting on the Boards & Barley that I enjoyed last week, which sadly were few.
The Barley:
Redhook Game Changer: I had the privilege of a private tour (my wife and I were the only guests on the normal tour, so I can refer to it as a private tour) at Redhook in 2010. It is a really awesome brewery in the wine country region northeast of Seattle. They also have a restaurant, which was greatly enjoyable. At the time they did not offer The Game Changer. But I am glad to have tried it. It is a “sessionable” ale according to the website, with 25 IBUs and 4.6% abv. I’d get it again if it happens to be present.
New Glarus Cabin Fever Honey Bock: For a New Year’s party we were hosting I chose to purchase an assortment of local New Glarus beer. This Honey Bock may be one of my favorite beers. It is very clean and has an excellent taste. The honey presence is very mild, but adds significantly to the beer. I wish this were offered year round, though it is probably good that it isn’t.
New Glarus Snowshoe: The other seasonal New Glarus brew I purchased is the Snowshoe Ale. It is an Irish Amber and is deeper in color than the Honey Bock. It is also a very enjoyable brew. New Glarus’ two winter seasonals are outstanding!
The Boards:
Kingdom Builder: We played this on New Year’s Eve with 8 people. And it was pretty awesome. We played with teams where you would site opposite your teammate and you would both play at the same time. We also expanded the board to have 8 sectors instead of 4. I got some cubes from my design supply for the extra players. Overall it worked pretty well with 8. Since the scoring conditions are public knowledge there isn’t a huge disadvantage to any player in the game. And, as with all games of Kingdom Builder, it does sort of come down to the terrain cards that you get.
Balderdash: With the right group Balderdash can be really fun. We had the right group on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately I am terribly bad at being the reader. I laugh way too hard and people can tell that when I’m laughing it’s not the right answer. But overall, this game can be a lot of fun.
Designer’s Corner:
It was a pretty low key week for me overall. On the design front I came up with two new ideas, neither of which I really want to pursue. One was about a game themed around the White Pass & Yukon Route but focused on how many horses you can keep alive. The other was about the Phoenix and the game would revolve around the idea of the Phoenix dying several times in the game and being reborn, which would change what you can do in the game. So you would have to maximize what you accomplished right before the Phoenix died.
While I think those are both awesome game design concepts, you will recall my article last week about my goals for the year. I’ve already got 6 games that I want to “finish” in 2014. If I start to take on new game concepts then I’m afraid I wouldn’t end up completing any of them.
This week I plan to incorporate some bonuses to Quantum Orcas that will help incentivize players to visit the wormhole locations. If that works well enough, then it will be time for 20 playtests. After 20 playtests, if the game works and is enjoyed by players, then I’ll put together the artwork and post it to The Game Crafter. That is my path forward with Quantum Orcas.
Also this week I plan on moving ahead with a full Trading Post redesign. A while ago I tweeted an image for the redesign:
What I want to accomplish is to make the game centralized on the concept of obtaining goods and trading them. So i now have different areas of the board where your workers can go to obtain different types of goods. They then bring them back to the trading post and trade them for points/abilities/bonuses. Also, the trading portion of the game is now extended to player-to-player trading, which is something that should have been in the design from the beginning. So I’ll sit down and work on the overhaul of Trading Post and see if I can turn it into something fun and awesome!
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So that’s what I’ve been up to. Did you enjoy any Boards or Barley last week?
Monday Brews 12-30-13
Welcome to the final Monday Brews of the year! Oh what a year it’s been. Last year this blog didn’t even exist. And now I have tens of readers a day. The three of you who keep refreshing the page are awesome!
But seriously, this blog has been a lot of fun to write and I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read it. I only hope that you’ve learned something about board games and beer. I’ll have a “2014 Goals” article later this week which will cover my big plans for 2014. But today is Monday, so let’s see what Boards and Barley I enjoyed in the past two weeks (I was traveling last Monday):
The Barley:
Have you ever had a smoked beer?
Alaskan Smoked Porter: I enjoyed this beer and the Paulaner while listening to bluegrass at an awesome local establishment. I think a full glass of a smoked beer is about twice as much smoked beer as I can handle. It was a pretty solid smoked beer, though.
Paulaner Salvator: I used to think I liked this beer, but I didn’t care for it during the bluegrass. I’m wondering, now, if the smoked beer beforehand wrecked my palate.
New Glarus Fat Squirrel: A local brew that was brought to a game night, this brown ale is an excellent cold weather beer.
Gray’s Bully Porter: Didn’t I mention a few weeks ago that I thought I was all Portered out? Oh well. This was also available at game night so I gave it a try. It was pretty good.
Central Waters Mudpuppy Porter: I love the name Mudpuppy. And the beer was pretty good, like the Gray’s. Unfortunately all these porters I enjoyed are all blending together and I can’t quite recall if one was better than the others.
Leinenkugel’s Snowdrift Vanilla Porter: Well, this one stands out from the other porters since it has the vanilla flavor. It also has a nice crispness to it. Or perhaps it stood out in my memory because I enjoyed it with my in-laws during our Christmas morning. Newton’s Oatmeal Stout: This homebrew of mine will sustain me over the winter. (4.2% abv)
I love the bottle label!
Fleming’s Scotch Ale: This homebrew of mine will make me tipsy over the winter. (6.6% abv)
Sierra Nevada Celebration: They love a good IPA or Pale Ale over at Sierra Nevada Brewery. But this IPA isn’t so IPA-ish. It doesn’t seem as hoppy as some of those hop-forward breweries who push the limits of the IBUs in their beer. I think I liked it, but I’m not sure I would drink it again.
Monk’s Stout DuPont: The typography on the bottle is awesome! The beer inside in interesting. Made in Blegium at Brasserie DuPont, this is the first beer I’ve had from the brewery. I think I need to try it again before I really form an opinion, but I think I liked it.
The Boards:
Too awesome to NOT make a game about them!
Sequoia Grove: This was supposed to be an entry into the Dice Hate Me 54 Card Challenge. The premise is that you are a researcher of trees, otherwise known as a Dendrologist. Your goal in the game it to grow the largest, widest sequoia tree possible. You can add height and girth to the tree during the game. My entry worked and was playable, but wasn’t up to the high quality expected in the Dice Hate Me line of games.
Backyard Astronaut: This is my friend Adam’s entry into the 54 card challenge and it IS up to the high quality of the Dice Hate Me line of games. It is a fantastic game and I believe it has a real shot in the contest. Nicely done A-Game!
Viticulture: Other than some cards being more valuable than others I think this is a pretty enjoyable worker placement game. It won’t take the place of Stone Age, but this is definitely a game I’ll play again. I like how you have to “save” some workers for the winter phase of the game.
Qwirkle: This game has made many a showing in 2013 and I imagine it will be the same in 2014. It is easy to teach and understand. It plays quickly. And if you have the travel size you can take it just about anywhere!
Compounded: I’ll write more about this game in tomorrow’s article. Over Christmas I was able to teach this to a new player and she won the game. It is easy enough to understand, it has a lot of awesome interaction and the theme is great! If you haven’t played it I highly recommend picking up a copy.
Dam It! Redux: You can learn more about my beaver game on it’s page. I tried reducing the game for the Dice Hate Me 54 Card Challenge and I succeeded… sort of. I successfully reduced the game to 54 cards. The game worked and the few playtesters that I played with said it was fun. But as a designer I knew it just wasn’t quite there. So I didn’t send this in. On the upside I do think this is something that I can finalize and put for sale on The Game Crafter.
Le Havre – The Inland Port: I received this for my birthday back in August and finally got to play it. It is a very interesting game of resource management that I royally lost. I’ll probably trade this game since it doesn’t get played very often. It just seemed like it was an abstract game in the Le Havre theme.
Agricola – All Creatures Big and Small x2: This game, however, had the awesome feel of Agricola. It was tight. It was nerve wracking. It was a nice mental battle. And it has the nice elements of Agricola without the fiddly cards and the need to feed your family. I’ll be keeping this one and I hope to play it again soon.
Kingdom Builder x2: I was able to set up and play a 6 player game of Kingdom Builder. The house rule for this is to add two more kingdom boards so that it is a 2 wide by 3 high board. Since all the scoring conditions are shared there is no real disadvantage to anyone by bumping it to six players. I hope that Queen Games has a few more expansions up their sleeves for this one.
Missing 14 years worth of cards.
Ultimate Outburst: My mom got me this game for Christmas because 1) I don’t own it, and 2) it’s not like all those thinky games I have. We played it together as a family and it was actually quite fun. We played men vs women and the women won. The big downside to the game was that its from 1999 and the information on the cards reflects that.
Tenzi x20: A while back I bought Farkle Party at a thrift store but it had no dice in it. (It had jewelry). I wanted the dice for prototyping purposes. My mom bought me Tenzi because instead of just 40 dice, it is also a game. You must roll your dice so that they all come up the same value. First person to get all their dice the same wins. It was a very thoughtful gift and I am happy to have the dice for design purposes. Thanks mom!
Carcassonne – The Discovery: This is an interested take on the Carcassonne world. You only have four followers and you don’t get them back right away when something is finished. That’s because you can remove them before their thing is completed, or simply wait and never remove them. I’m not sure if I liked it so I’ll have to play it again.
Scoville: I played with my family and was able to play with “final” artwork that I had printed out. While I didn’t have all of the final artwork I had enough to realize that it’s gonna be awesome! Hopefully the art can get wrapped up so we can launch the Kickstarter campaign in January, but at this point I’m not holding my breath.
The Little Prince x2: This is one of those game I was happy to get at GenCon this year. The gameplay is awesome. However, I have no nostalgic connection with the book on which the game is based, so I would prefer a retheme. Make it about colonizing Mars or something like that.
Euphoria: The second Stonemaier Game on the list and another worker placement game. This time your workers are dice and their values matter. I’ll definitely play this again as the first play was steep with learning. Overall I thought it was fun and I think that will be the case after a second play.
Designer’s Corner:
Quantum Orcas is getting there!
I have recently been making excellent strides in the design department and I owe it all to the 54 card challenge. That challenge really lit a fire under me and I tried as hard as I could to come up with something worthy of the challenge. I now have a new mechanic that I plan to utilize to the fullest in a future game design. It may or may not be awesome, but it is at least innovative.
Also I designed a card game version of Scoville that plays quickly and has the feel of Scoville. I already have it prototyped and I’ve soloed it twice. The next step is to put it in front of my friends for their analysis. I’m really excited about it.
I also worked on Quantum Orcas. It is now a better game, which wasn’t hard to achieve. I added oceanic wormholes (think of them as eddy currents) that open up the game quite a bit. I also changed things up a bit to eliminate the All-or-Nothing nature of ties. I’m hoping to submit my friends to this one as well. This is a game I would probably put up for sale on The Game Crafter, but probably not pitch to publishers. We’ll see where it goes.
And I’ve got big plans for 2014. I’ll have an article on the 1st about my Boards & Barley goals for the year, so you can look forward to that.
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There you have it… the final Monday Brews of 2013. What Boards and Barley did you enjoy over Christmas?
Monday Brews: 12-16-13
Can you smell it? No, despite copious amounts of buffalo chicken cheese dip this weekend that’s not the smell I’m thinking of. I’m referring to the smell of Christmas. My days lately are filled with the wrapping of presents, driving to see Christmas lights, and the over indulging of Christmas cookies. Yes, my house has smelled like a full-on bakery lately, which is pretty awesome. The downside is that the Christmas season usually gets really busy so I don’t get to game as much as I would like. Never the less, I managed to enjoy a few Boards and Barley this week. Check them out:
The Barley:
Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout: I enjoy the Samuel Smith beers. The IPA is even a very drinkable IPA for a malty (non-hoppy) guy like me. Fortunately a friend had several from a specialty pack that we could enjoy. And enjoy them we did!
Chocolatey and delicious!
Rogue Chocolate Stout: This was a decent chocolate stout. I am not sure the style is my favorite, but I did enjoy drinking this one. I don’t normally buy these types of bottles because they cost more than a 6-pack. But I bought one for the Board Game Day that we had, and then proceeded to forget to bring it to Board Game Day.
Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale: I also enjoyed this offering from Samuel Smith. Delicious.
Sierra Nevada Porter: I had this porter during an awesome Christmas Party where we have a Christmas cookie contest. It went well with the ham and potatoes that were part of the meal. It also went well with some of that buffalo chicken cheese dip that I mentioned above.
Lake Louie Milk Stout: This is a solid milk stout from a local brewery. Despite that I find I am already Stouted and Portered out and I am longing for warmer weather so I can properly enjoy a lighter beer.
Uncle Zeke’s Belly Warmer Imperial Cherry Stout (Homebrew): My friend Mike is a homebrewer and offered some of this cherry stout during the Christmas cookie party. It was a very nice stout. The level of cherry in the beer was just about perfect. It was neither too cherry nor too absent. Nicely done Zeke!
The Boards:
You’ve gotta try Lewis & Clark! You’ll get a history lesson if nothing else.
Lewis & Clark: I loved it! It was our first play and I thought it was a really enjoyable game. The weight didn’t feel too heavy, but the decisions you have to make get pretty intense. I loved the interesting combos you can make between your cards. I can’t wait to play this game again.
Backyard Astronaut: This is a Dice Hate Me 54 Card Challenge entry for my friend Adam. It played well and we were able to provide good and hopefully useful feedback. I’m looking forward to playtesting it again for him.
Farmageddon: The Honorable Grant Rodiek‘s game is pretty fun. In fact, it is my favorite “take that” game out there. On your turn there’s this immense feeling of helplessness with the crops on your own planted fields. The game is almost more about how can you prevent other players from doing awesome things. I merely try to scrape together a few measly points when they come my way. Very fun game! I recommend you pick this one up for Christmas!
Russian Railroads: I played this for the first time yesterday and really enjoyed it. I thought it worked really well and I had a dominating performance. I do have one issue with the game, which I mentioned to my friend Jeremy at the time. If players diversify and attempt all three tracks equally they will likely lose. I would almost recommend that people playing for the first time agree to eliminate one of the bottom two tracks. The bottom line for me, though, was that I really enjoyed the game and I hope to play it again soon.
Designer’s Corner:
I am pleased to announce that I came up with what I think is a really cool mechanic that I plan to use for the 54 Card Challenge. I don’t want to give anything away right now, but I plan to do so after the contest has concluded.
It has been difficult for me to participate in the challenge because it has limited me in ways that I don’t normally limit myself. When I design games I typically come up with a theme and then add mechanics to make that theme fun as a game. With this challenge all you have are cards. So I cannot just add mechanics unless they only use cards. So I have been trying to come up with a few new ways to utilize cards and I think I’ve done just that.
Now all I need is a new theme that will work well with the mechanics. And then I need to prototype it, playtest it, and send it off as my entry!
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Have you been enjoying any Boards or Barley?
Monday Brews: 12-9-13
4.3 inches of snow fell overnight. But that won’t stop this from being an enjoyable recap of the games I played and the beers I savored last week. And since I was part of a Board Game Day, which my group does twice a year, I was able to play some games that I normally do not get to play.
Here are the Boards and Barley I enjoyed last week…
The Barley:
Ommegang Abbey Ale: I don’t normally buy beer in any size other than 12 ounce bottles, but I made an exception. This is an exceptional beer worth making an exception for. I was exceptionally well pleased with my making of an exception.
Tyranena’s The Devil Made Me Do It Imperial Chocolate Oatmeal Porter: So thick and creamy and rich and flavorful. So delicious! The name speaks for itself.
Hinterland Oktoberfest: If you want an oktoberfest that tastes unlike an oktoberfest, then might I recommend this one? I won’t be having this oktoberfest again. It has a really weird farm-y flavor/aftertaste.
8 Beers at once! Putting “double fisting” to shame!
Granite City 8 Beer Sampler: On Friday my wife and I enjoyed a meal apart from the kids. We chose Granite City since it was close to the area where we were doing some Christmas shopping. As my dinner beverage I chose the beer sampler, which came with 8 different beers. What’s nice about Granite City is they have their own craft beer. What’s not nice is that I don’t particularly enjoy any of their beers. What’s also not nice is they serve ONLY their own beer. On the upside I was able to try 8 different kinds of beer!
Sierra Nevada Porter: I’m not a huge fan of their Pale Ale, but that’s mostly due to the fact that I’m not much of a pale ale kind of guy. However, their porter was most enjoyable. I’ll definitely drink it again.
Anchor Brewing Old Foghorn Barleywine: This potent behemoth of a beverage weighs in at 9.4%abv. I had only had one other barleywine before this one and that first was was not enjoyable. But I figured I should try another. This barleywine was actually quite enjoyable. I would have preferred to have enjoyed it sitting around the fireplace enjoying a plate of Christmas cookies rather than during Board Game Day where it threatened to knock me out. It’s a beer that I will try again.
Leinenkugel’s Snow Drift Vanilla Porter: I enjoy this Wisconsin brew. I am sure there are better vanilla porters out there (I’m looking at you, Breckenridge Brewery!), but this one was a nice final beverage for Board Game Day.
The Boards:
Le Havre (iOS): I wondering if I should include iOS games in this list. My temporary conclusion is that I won’t list them anymore since I only ever play them solo and that’s not what board games are all about for me. Board games are about hanging out with friends, beating them to a pulp, and being humble in victory. And also being bitter in defeat.
Asara: This game is all about erecting structures. That’s all I’m gonna say.
Qwirkle: This may be my favorite abstract game. Though I don’t normally like to play abstracts, this one finds its way to the table quite often.
Viticulture: We played a learning game of Viticulture at Board Game Day and quit after we realized we were playing it incorrectly. The game seems like a lot of fun though and I’ll have to give it another try before I really form an opinion.
Guildhall Job Faire: I love the interaction of the cards in this game and its predecessor, Guildhall. The art doesn’t strike me as being awesome, but the gameplay works really well. Overall Guildhall and Guildhall: Job Faire are enjoyable games.
Bruges: I got Bruges to the table for the first time. We played one rule incorrectly in the first two rounds, but since everyone had done it incorrectly we simply carried on. My first impression is that this game seems to be really good. I love how you can make combos of cards to build a little engine. I love how nothing comes without a cost. There are tough decisions to make. And the best part is that this feels Feldian without being a huge point salad.
Skyline: It was cool that I showed the guys the picture of David Short on the back of the rules and could tell them that I had met and played games with David at BGG.con. Skyline is a really fun filler game that I think I will add to my Christmas list. It’s so simple, yet can be so rewarding. If you haven’t tried it, go find it at your FLGS (favorite local game store) and pick up a copy.
Toc Toc Woodman (Click Clack Lumberjack) x2: I have a love/hate relationship with Toc Toc Woodman. I love the premise. I hate how bad at it I am. We played twice during Board Game Day. The first time I ended with about -7 points. The second time I had 2 points. I won’t quite my day job to join the Toc Toc Woodman tournament circuit.
Kingdom Builder: This has been one of my favorite games in the past two years. It plays quickly. It is easy enough to teach. And since it is a game my wife will play that makes it even better. I’ve been really loving the Crossroads expansion lately. But that’s mostly because I love the cards that give you other scoring objectives.
Merchants & Marauders: This is perhaps my favorite pirate game out there. While the gameplay isn’t necessarily the best, what the game does well is immerses you into pirate-dom. I love how it seems I’m sailing around in the Caribbean trading goods or looking for someone to plunder. Unfortunately we only played a few rounds, but I still had the full experience as I was the only captain to die.
League of Six: I love Vladimir Suchy’s game Shipyard. This one wasn’t so loveable. It wasn’t a bad game by any means, but I just didn’t enjoy it all that much. That may have been due to the fact that I was hoping to play a different game about an expedition to the western portion of the country that may or may not have been launched by Thomas Jefferson, but I guess I’ll have to play that game some other time.
Designer’s Corner:
Last week I shared a design update so I don’t have much to add in this week’s Designer’s Corner. However, I did finally come up with a theme and some of the mechanics that I want to use for Dice Hate Me’s 54 Card Challenge. So I consider that major progress!
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I had a pretty good week in terms of Boards and Barley. What did you enjoy last week?
Boards and Barley 