Oly Boardgaming!

October Games: Sunday the 14th!

2007-10-10T21:13:00.000-07:00

This October we'll be featuring a couple horror games as well as several games by one of our favorite designers, Friedemann Friese. That's him up there with the green hair. Friese will be the international guest of honor at this year's BGGcon in Texas. Zach and Lindsey are planning to meet him there so we'd thought we'd honor him by playing a whole bunch of his games.

October Games: Power Grid

2007-10-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the first of four featured Friedemann Friese games; the beloved Power Grid!

October Games: Formidable Foes

2007-10-10T21:11:00.003-07:00

One of the characters makes her way through the dungeon. This will be played during the first session.

October Games: Funny Friends

2007-10-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

Here's cards showing a few things that can happen in the game. This will be played 2nd session.

October Games: Fearsome Floors

2007-10-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot of the game in progress with the Ferunkulus Monster front and center.

October Games: Fearsome Floors

2007-10-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot of Herr Friese with his Fearsome Floors game.

October Games: Last Night on Earth

2007-10-10T20:28:00.001-07:00

We'll be playing Last Night in the first session. Here's a shot of some of the folks who worked their booth at a game con. The cards use photos of real people in costume but I don't know if these two are featured on the cards or not.

October Games: Last Night on Earth!

2007-10-10T20:27:00.001-07:00

I like this shot of the heroes ready to escape in their truck.

October Games: Betrayal at the House on the Hill

2007-10-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot of the hapless heroes as they explore the house. We'll be running Betrayal in the second session.

Games for the 16th -- Mississippi Queen

2007-09-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a close-up of a Mississippi Queen race. Is the red steamboat going to stop and let those lovely lasses on board?

Games for the 16th -- Thurn & Taxis

2007-09-13T16:04:00.000-07:00

The Thurn & Taxis board is real purty.

Games for the 16th -- Shadows Over Camelot

2007-09-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot of all the stuff. Nope, they don't come painted like this, but Ted has also done a nice paint job on his.

Games for the 16th -- El Grande

2007-09-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

Here's the El Grande board.

Games for the 16th -- El Grande

2007-09-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a dramatic shot of a player putting three cabelleros in the Castillo.

Sign up for Junta on Sunday the 16th

2007-09-06T01:09:00.000-07:00

THIS COULD BE YOU!!!

4 to 7 lucky Olympians can have the chance of becoming El Presidente de la Republicos dos Bannanas! And who wouldn't want to jump at the opportunity of draining a small dictatorship dry while pumping the money into your private Swiss Bank Account? Of course, to do that, you'd have to go to the Bank, with it's infamous Lobby of Assassins, who smoke cigars, drink espresso & wait for you to show up with your big wad of cash. Don't let that happen! Party at the Nightclub! Visit your Mistress! Or just hunker down in your Headquarters, plotting the coup that will finally bring freedom & democracy & the ability to send your political rivals to the Firing Squad! Yes, life is cheap in the Republic, and shots will be fired. But no one is ever out of the game, alliances are constantly forming & breaking, and everyone has an equal chance of retiring to that idyllic villa on the French Riviera. So join us in a very fun, very fast & fluid game of JUNTA!!! http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/242

Sunday, September 16th -- your next game day at Plenty

2007-08-31T03:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Gamers of Olympia,

Our next game day at Plenty will take place Sunday, September 16th!

We'd like to get some feedback on what games you'd like to see offered in the next several months. Below is the master list of all the games we've ran at game day. A few of these games are no longer readily available to us, but I've included them all for the sake of completeness. Of course, there are many games that we haven't ran before that we are likely to play, but I always wonder if we don't repeat games enough. A lot of games are more fun the 2nd time you play them after all. Please let me know if there are any of these that you'd like to see offered again.

For more info on the games visit boardgamegeek.com and enter the game title in the search field.

Roborally

Ticket to Ride

Settlers of Catan

Zombies!

Pirate's Cove

Axis & Allies miniatures

Shadows Over Camelot

In the Shadow of the Emperor

Carcassonne

Battlestations

Pirates of the Spanish Main

Conquest of the Empire

Bang!

Puerto Rico

Arkham Horror

Fearsome Floors

Wings of War

Tigris and Euphrates

A Game of Thrones

Primordial Soup

Dungeon Twister

Turn the Tide

Railroad Tycoon

Princes of Florence

Clout

Memoir '44

Tikal

Amun-Re

Junta

Condottiere

El Grande

The Great Space Race

Thurn & Taxis

Fury of Dracula

Mystery of the Abbey

Tempus

Marvel Heroes

Power Grid

Plunder

Samurai

C&C: Ancients

Reef Encounter

Formidable Foes

Fire & Axe

Chrononauts

Hansa

Friedrich

Catan: Struggle For Rome

Funny Friends

Winds of Plunder

Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper

Race the Wind

Shogun

Cosmic Encounter

Mississippi Queen

Freya's Folly

Meuterer

Lemme know if I forgot any!

The games for Sunday, August 26th

2007-08-22T04:29:00.001-07:00

Dear Gang,

Rather than repost my whole email, I decided to just include the game descriptions and some photos. Please email me to reserve a seat!

Wings of War

2007-08-22T04:27:00.000-07:00

The Game Schedule for Sunday, August 26th:

1st Session, 3:00 pm:

Ted will dog fight with up to Five (5) other WWI aces in Wings of War !

In Wings of War each player is a crazy WWI ace performing daredevil flying stunts and trying to shoot down the enemy. Being shot might just damage your plane or send you down in flames. Don't worry, you can float down with a parachute, jump into a new plane, and re-join the fray. Each plane flies a little differently due to having a unique movement deck. This deck is used to plan your movement three moves in advance. Should you shoot ahead? Turn left? Perform an Immelman? There's a great element of trying to guess where your opponent(s) will be so you can position yourself for the kill. I expect Ted will probably play this with teams.

This is Ted's first time offering this game with gorgeous miniatures. They don't change the game materially but they do make it feel more like you're a kid gaming with your toys. Hooray!

Carcassonne

2007-08-22T04:25:00.000-07:00

1st Session, 3:00 pm:

John will try to out-meeple up to Four (4) others in Carcassonne!

Carcassonne is considered one of the gateway Eurogames that are often recommended to people new to the hobby. It's a tile placement game in which the map is created as you play. Every turn you pull a tile from the pool and place it against one of the previously played tiles. If you start a new object (city, road, farm or monastery), you can place one of your "meeples" to mark it.

As subsequent tiles are arrayed on the board, objects get bigger or even merge. When roads or cities are completed, or a monastery is surrounded, the meeple is returned to you and you score the points. However, farmers are not returned and will score points at the game end.

Therefore, it's possible to have all of your control markers locked on the board on incomplete objects, and not be able to convert them into farmers later in the game. You must balance the need to score points during the game, and the need to score farmer points at game end. Carcassonne won the 2001 German Spiel des Jahres.

The photo shows Carcassonne being played at Carcassonne.

Shogun

2007-08-22T04:21:00.000-07:00

1st Session, 3:00 pm:

Frank will challenge up to Four (4) other Daimyo for the title of Shogun !

WARNING: THIS GAME WILL LAST THROUGH BOTH SESSIONS!
The game might only last three hours, but it is expected to run too long for players to play in a second game.

Shogun is set just previous to the unification of Japan in the 1500s and the players are competing to determine which one is the best "unifier".
Every turn players select different actions for their many provinces. Your actions include "requisitioning" rice and gold, military recruiting, building important structures, army movement and combat. The order in which the actions occur is randomized every turn so sometimes you don't know if you'll have enough money by the time you have an opportunity to buy that nice temple you've had your eye on. There's a lot going on but it's all pretty logical and the game is relatively easy to learn.

The amount of combat you might see varies greatly on your positioning and your strategy. In my last game, one player attacked every turn, while a different player only took over neutral provinces.

Every player plans their actions at the same time so there is minimal down time in the game.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Shogun is the amazing combat tower. If you attack someone, you add your attacking armies to his or her defending armies and drop them all into the combat tower. Some of the armies will remain trapped inside the tower, while others that were already inside will be knocked loose. When the armies exit at the bottom, whoever has the most armies is the winner of the conflict. In the last game I played, one province got swapped back and forth about five times.

Shogun is another of those Euro/Ameritrash hybrids (like Friedrich and Conquest of the Empire) so there is a wargame element. However, the complexity of the wargame element isn't much above Risk so don't let that scare you off.

Power Grid

2007-08-22T04:19:00.000-07:00

2nd Session, (roughly) 5:15 pm:

Zach will compete with up to Five (5) other power brokers in Power Grid!

Power Grid is one of those rare cross-over games that is actually popular. Heavy gamers like Power Grid. Light gamers like Power Grid. Eurogamers and Ameritrash fans both like Power Grid. And Electrical Engineers love Power Grid because it is a game about generating and distributing electrical power after all and there aren't too many of those.

Each turn flows in a logical pattern: you decide if you want to build a new power plant or not, you buy fuel for your power plants, and you decide how many cities you'll provide power to. Then those cities pay you some lovely money. Hey! Don't spend that on cheap garden equipment and $5 osculating fans! You need to invest that money back into your infrastructure dude! As the game progresses, new types of power plants are available that will power a larger number of cities. Will you be the first to use nuclear power? Perhaps you want to avoid pollution and stick with wind power -- the fuel cost is sure cheap that way.

The game can meander along fairly peacefully but gets more frantic as the end looms. Then usually at the end of the game there's a mad rush to power as many cities as you can with at least one person caught thinking they'd get one more crucial turn.

For those who love playing Power Grid the designer has produced several alternate maps for variety. There is also an alternate power plant deck coming out in the near future.

PS There isn't any real electricity in the game so don't expect powering your cities to look exactly like it does in the photo.

Plague & Pestilence

2007-08-22T04:17:00.000-07:00

2nd Session, (roughly) 5:15 pm:

Scott will go bubonic on up to Five (5) other players in Plague & Pestilence!

Plague & Pestilence is "a light card game involving the build-up and destruction of medieval towns. In the Prosperity phase, players attempt to build up their populations via stealing from other players or via improvements. Then the Death Ship arrives bearing the plague! In the Plague phase players attempt to kill off other players by playing war, pestilence or other deadly attacks. The cards contain illustrations reminiscent of medieval woodcuts featuring the Grim Reaper."

Each player has a city. Each player rolls the die each turn to see how fast their city grows. The cards you're dealt can be played to improve your city with things like aqueducts, or to damage someone else's city. You can even start wars! When the plague starts, your population will drop. The winner is the last city with any population left.
This game is now rare and has been sold on ebay for nearly $300! Yikes! So be nice to Scott's cards. Being nice includes not stealing them.

2007-08-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The next game day at Plenty will be on Sunday, August 26th!

Strap on your katana and lead your samurai to victory or death in Shogun!

We will be playing other games as well, of course.

2007-08-04T06:58:00.001-07:00

Here's a view of the famous tower in Shogun in which the armies are dropped to determine the winner of a battle. There are tiny ledges inside on which your armies can catch -- or be dislodged. It's the coolest battle randomizer ever!

2007-08-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Our next game day at Plenty will be Sunday, August 26th!

Start your props spinning and prepare to duel in the skies in Wings of War!
Ted got these beautiful minis for the game and is looking forward to showing them off.

We will be playing other games also, of course.

Sign up info for Game Day on July 29th

2007-07-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Gang of Gamers,

Come to the land of beer and pretzels where the themes are strong and the gaming is sweet.
This month features games that focus more on fun themes and "chrome" than on subtle European game mechanics. Be a superhero! Be a pirate! Be an alien! Be Jack the bloody Ripper! It's Halloween in Gameland so dress the hell up if you feel so inclined!

Game day is this coming Sunday, the 29th, at Plenty and will run from 3:00 PM to 7:30 PM as per usual. Plenty is across the street from Danger Room Comics, on the corner of 4th and Columbia in downtown Olympia.

Game day should be relatively cool temperature-wise (high of 71* is predicted) so you won't be going to the lake anyway. Let's stay inside and play with toys instead.

Please see below for sign-up protocol's and belower for our schedule of games.

How to Sign Up For Games:

Everyone is encouraged to email me their choices at anytime after receiving this email, but you must CONFIRM ON THE DAY OF PLAY. In other words, no reservation is sacred without confirmation from you on Sunday by 2:30 pm.

I still would really like people to reserve in advance. That way we get an idea of how popular a game is going to be, or if we need to add more total games for the day. It also gets you first in line to play the game(s) you want. If you are relatively sure you will make it this Sunday, please reserve in advance. To reserve, just email me your choices.

Of course, even if you haven't reserved that doesn't mean you can't show up and see if there's a seat available.

Typically, our game days are scheduled in two separate two hour sessions (roughly 3pm - 5:15pm and 5:15pm - 7:30pm).

To Confirm: You cannot confirm your seat until the day of play, in this case, July 29th. You can confirm by email on that day (olympiagamers@gmail.com) up until 1:00 pm. You should get an email confirmation back from me if you do so. You can call Danger Room (705-3050) or stop by between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm where Connor will add you to the sign-up list. Note that if you have reserved a seat, your reservation is only good until 2:30 pm -- you must confirm by that time to keep your reservation.

Even if confirmed, please do not expect the game start time to be held more than five minutes if you are late. If you are running behind, you can call Plenty and have them page me. It's okay, don't feel bad.

Please do not try to contact me about the games at any other email address other than the one noted above. I won't be offended, I just might not see the emails in time.

There you have it. Sorry to get all "rulesy" on you but I promise it's for the greatest good to the greatest number in accordance with solid enlightenment era thought.

Send me an email to sign up:
"Hey Frank, please sign me up for whatever you are running because you are awesome. If that's full though, then it really doesn't matter so sign me up for whatever is available. Thanks, and by the way, you are very attractive."

Then send an email (or call DR after 1 pm) to confirm on the day of play:
"Hey Frank, I'm writing again on Sunday morning to confirm I will attend game day today. Also I'd like to confirm that you are still a handsome fellow. Are charm and good looks your secret alien power?"

The Game Schedule for Sunday, July 29th:

1st Session, 3:00 pm:

Robert will use his powers to thwart up to Three (3) other teams of Marvel Heroes!

WARNING: THIS GAME WILL LAST AT LEAST PARTWAY THROUGH THE SECOND SESSION!
The game might only last three hours, but it is expected to run too long for players to play in a second game.

It's Clobberin' Time!
" Marvel Heroes is a game set in the Marvel Universe for 2 to 4 players, with plenty of opportunities for cooperation and competition between the Super Heroes controlled by the players. Players take control of a group of Super Heroes (X-Men, Fantastic Four, Marvel Knights or the Avengers) as well as the Nemesis of one of the other player's group (Magneto, Dr. Doom, Kingpin or Red Skull). During the game, each player finds allies, enemies and power-ups, and face the menacing Super Villains controlled by the other players.
High-quality plastic figures of many of the major Marvel Super Heroes, including Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and The X-Men, as well as of the Nemesis characters, are included in the game. Each character featured in the game is represented by a detailed 40 mm plastic figure and an accompanying character card describing the character's special abilities. Power-ups can be added with special effects, which are different depending on who is acquiring these bonus items, so that all the different incarnations of the character can be played."
By the way, this was not designed to be a kid's game and is actually fairly complex. Several people have compared to other heavily themed and moderately complex games like Fury of Dracula and Arkham Horror.
Robert really hopes to have every seat filled for this game so all four superhero teams can be fielded. Also, he says the more players there are, the more exciting the villain round is. Bring on the Bad Guys!

Ted turns pirate again (along with up to Four (4) others) and rides the Winds of Plunder!

Ted just got this new game from GMT and is dying to run it. Surprise! It's another pirate game!
"Winds of Plunder is set in the Caribbean at a time when pirates have naught to fear but each other. Winds of Plunder allows 3-5 players to compete for victory by a variety of means: plundering ports, spreading their fierce reputations in the Caribbean isles, finding buried Treasure, and boarding their opponents. Randomly placed Victory Point tiles dictate the value of each port and the location of Treasure Maps, while a unique tile rotation system helps keep game play fresh. Weapons, Crew, and Provisions may also be found in the various ports, each of which confers its own Advantages during the game and translates to VP's in the end. Action cards enhance a player's ability to gain plunder or to forstall his opponents. Wind Cubes permit players to vie over control over the winds that guide movement and the order of play for each game round. But the clock is ticking on the days of easy piracy! The game lasts 9 rounds, or approximately 60-120 minutes."
Zach won't be running a game this time but this is the game he plans to play. I thought maybe his fans would want to know.

David will help up to Five (5) others find a Cosmic Encounter!

This is David's first time running a game for us and I'm really happy he volunteered Cosmic Encounter. It's one of those classic games that we all should try at least once. The bonus here is that David has the Mayfair (good) edition of the game and not the recent (crappy) Hasbro edition. This is the game I'll be playing!
Here's David's description of the game:
Cosmic Encounter is a game wherein 4-6 players get together to try and dominate the galaxy. Wait, it gets better! Using strange combinations of alien powers (Whiner, Hypnotist, Filth, Virus, Berserker, etc (more than 50 total to choose from) to subvert the game's basic rules, the players connive, bluff, coerce and collude to achieve supremacy. Expect constant opportunistic alliances, crazy upsets and the low keening of tokens on their way to the Warp. Basic game rules have each player wielding a single power, but we'll be playing with three apiece for triple the fun! Games usually lasts between 60 and 90 minutes.

2nd Session, (roughly) 5:15 pm:

Frank will compete with up to Three (3) other detectives in Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper!

This is a themed rummy variant that a friend loaned me recently and that I've found really fun. It's a light game, but it clicks right along and still offers plenty of gameplay decisions along the way. This is also a great couple's game as it plays well with just two. My own girlfriend wasn't sure if cared for the game as she played her first hand but by the time she'd kicked my ass she'd become downright fond of it.
Each player attempts to collect sets of evidence, suspect, and alibi cards and play them for points. One of the tricks is that a Victim cards has to be played before any Evidence can be found, and there has to be Evidence played before there can be a Suspect or an Alibi. Logical, no? Of course, what everyone really hopes to pull off is to play the Ripper Escapes card once there are five victims already played and thereby get all the points for the hand.

Ted and up to Four (4) other players sail away in Race the Wind!

Here's Ted's description of the game:
Race the Wind recreates a sailing race, like the America's Cup races recently completed. Boats must maneuver for best position in the run-up to the starting line, then take advantage of wind gusts on the the water, and avoid lulls in the wind as they navigate around the buoys. Meanwhile, each boat must allow for possible shifts in wind direction, and try to force the other boats into penalty situations, or block their wind, while keeping clear of the other boats right of way. This game does a very good job of simulating the wind effects and right of way of a real yacht race, with a relatively simple set of rules. 2 to 5 players

Frank's Pick of the Day: Cosmic Encounter!
Beer & Pretzels Pick: All of them!
Best Game to Play in Character: Marvel Heroes!

I haven't scheduled our next game day yet, but I'm hoping for August 19th.
Ted is probably going to run Wings of War (with his new miniature planes) and I will probably run Shogun.

Even MORE info about the games:

For more info about the games we'll be playing, and on just about every game on the planet, visit boardgamegeek.com . Just enter the game title into their search engine and you'll be presented with reviews, articles, session reports, FAQs and other fun stuff. Some of the quoted material in the game descriptions above came from this website and so did the pictures I sourced.

Now let's hear from ya!
Frank

Yay For BOARDGAMES!

2007-07-15T22:52:00.001-07:00

This is the first ever post for the Oly Boardgamers, or their more official title, "Olympia Boardgaming Group". So hello, everybody, hello! We will be posting in this blog information about upcoming boardgaming days, boardgame SESSION REPORTS!!, boardgame reviews, and much much more.

Come here to learn, come here to love, come here to laugh, come here to play. Board Games.