While I have been writing a lot about how games have evolved, and whether older games stand the test of time, there are two games I want to call out as surviving the aging process better than most. One game that aged like a fine wine is Merchant of Venus, originally published in 1988. It is a pick up and deliver game, where players drive a ship between different planets trying to make the most money. Everyone starts with a crumby ship, and very little money and must scratch their way up to a space age fortune.

At first glance the game has a lot in common with other games I have criticized from that era. Roll and move is one of the central mechanics, so luck of the dice is definitely in play here. However, many of the aspects of the game are ahead of their time. There is a fantastic sense of exploration, as the 14 different cultures are randomly assigned face down to different board locations for each game. This provides not only variety, but creates an opening of the game where players must strike out and find the different cultures to make successful trade routes. In the mid game there is a risk reward factor, as to whether you want to keep exploring, or stick to the few planets you know to continue your trade routes.

There is also a great ship upgrade system. You can buy new, bigger or faster ships or install shields to protect your ship from grazing asteroids. Most critically, you can upgrade your ship’s drive, which helps offset that crumby dice luck that I mentioned earlier. You see, every space on the board is either red, blue, or yellow. If you install a red or yellow drive, you can skip those colored spaces, and all of a sudden your ship is 33% faster than before. Install a  red/yellow combo drive and you are just zipping around the galaxy, but these drives take space and require an investment that might put you behind the chase to be the richest space merchant… so there are tradeoffs to consider.

Merchant of Venus also has a fantastic sense of humor. The products that different cultures sell always make me chuckle. Apparently Earth’s main export in the space age is rock videos, while other cultures sell things like impossible furniture or living toys. Very strange stuff, but who am I to second guess a successful business venture?

The game was out of print for decades after its initial publication, but built up a fanbase that was reverent enough to start putting together their own custom copies, painstakingly printing out custom boards, chits, and other components to recreate the original. Finally in 2012 Fantasy Flight put out a new edition that contained both the original and an updated version with new rules and gameplay in the same box. Even twenty years later there is still an audience for this unique board game.

Another game that stands the test of time is a little bit younger, from 1995, but was born out of the same new Euro style game movement that gave us Catan. That game is El Grande by Wolfgang Kramer. El Grande is what’s called an area control game, and was one of the first to introduce this new gameplay mechanic.  In El Grande players take on the role of Lords in medieval Spain vying for power to become the next king.  The basic goal of the game is simple; have the most cubes (which represent knights called caballeros) in as many areas as possible when those areas score. The actual mechanics that drive this simple goal are what makes the game brilliant. While the theme, similar to Catan, is not going to light the world on fire, the gameplay runs like a clean, cutthroat machine.

One element that holds up even after 20 years are the two different card systems that drive putting additional knights out on the board. Each round of the game five different action cards are available that let you put out one to five knights respectively. The more powerful the ability of the card, the less knights a player can place out. In other words, the one knight cards have really awesome special actions, but players are giving up presence on the board to execute that power. Players bid for card selection using power cards numbered one to thirteen. But these, too, are a compromise. Higher cards make sure you are more likely to pick first, but lower cards let you recruit more knights to put out onto the board. It is common for players to voluntarily go last just got build up a pool of territory. to claim territory in the future.

Another great part of El Grande is a chaotic element called the castillo. Every time players put knights out on the board they can choose to place them in a cardboard tower announcing how many they have placed. Once the knights are in there however, they are hidden, and it’s easy to forget just how many knights you or other players dropped in the tower. During the scoring round it’s always a surprise to see who wins scores for the castillo area of the board. Then to add just a little bit more fun players simultaneously select another location on the board to place those castillo knights, which can shift the balance of power quite a bit! My friends and I call this dive-bombing, and it’s fun to picture stodgy Spanish gentleman parachuting in on horseback, a lovely Don Quixote-like moment.

There are countless other classics that stand the test of time. While there are fantastic new games coming out every week, and the hobby itself has seen tremendous growth, sometimes it’s nice to play a game with proven staying power. Other pick up and deliver and area control games have come out since Merchant of Venus and El Grande, but each of these games still has an original spin on the formula that holds up decades later. What are some of your favorite classics?

 

 

I wanted to write about two quick hits from this weekend’s gaming explorations:

The first is Tragedy Looper, the game I mentioned in my SWA Game-a-thon write up. Initial impressions on this one are… a bit mixed.

The game boils down to a puzzle where the time traveling players try to suss out what role each character has, and what scenario the opposing mastermind has set up. There are four variables at play that the mastermind or players tweak on each day (turn) of a particular loop. These are panic, goodwill, intrigue, and the physical location of the cards. So if for example the police officer has 3 panic, and is in the city, on the third day a certain event will happen.

It all felt very mechanical, and not terribly dramatic. Perhaps this was just because our mastermind for this session didn’t really tell a story using these different elements, but this felt like a case of seeing the wizard behind the screen and not feeling terribly invested in how things played out.

It was also repetitive. To be fair, that’s inherent to a game whose structure is built on going through the same “loop” multiple times to solve the puzzle. But is frustrating to ALMOST solve the scenario, only to have the tragedy occur and have to repeat 90% of your previous actions with one small tweak. I suppose I know just a little bit more about how Bill Murray’s character felt in Groundhog Day.

Still, there was a seed of something amazing here, and perhaps with the right group and a little bit more drama and roleplaying, this could be a great experience. Since we are all relatively new, we were playing the introductory scenario, which was a bit dry. This may be a game where practice makes perfect, but I am unable to tell whether it’s worth that commitment.

The other game I wanted to discuss is called Moons. It combines two of my favorite things, astronomy and trick-taking games (like Hearts or Spades). There are four suits, based on the four gas giants in our solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Each rank of card is represented by one of the many moons of that particular planet, including uber-nerdy flavor text about that moon. The basic gist of the game is to try to win tricks with the highest card in order to take planet tokens that are worth points at the end of the game. The wrinkle comes in that playing the lowest off-suit card can also win you tokens. Classical trick taking gambits are on full display here, and knowing when to lead, how to draw out cards from other players and when to relinquish control are all critical to success.

Still, it’s hard to improve on the classics like Hearts. The art and theme go a long way, but we’ll see if has the staying power once the new coat of paint wears off.

It’s always fun to discover new games, I am looking forward to checking a few ones out this coming weekend and will definitely share them here if they make the cut!

Looking to learn some new games or a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon? Schenectady Wargamers Association, the same folks that organize the annual Council of Five Nations gaming convention, hosts monthly Game-a-thon events at Proctor’s in Schenectady.

These happen on the second Saturday of every month. This month’s schedule looks to have some fantastic board games on the docket.

 

In the morning schedule:

Imperial Settlers is a great, cutthroat engine-building card game where players build up a village of structures in order to raze and pillage their opponents. It features multiple different civilization-based factions, from Egyptians to Japanese samurai. Definitely fun for gamers who like a more confrontational game, but also very skill based with minimal luck outside of the draw of the cards.

 

 

Tragedy Looper is the game I am most excited to try. The premise is that players are time travelers and they need to work together to prevent a tragedy from occurring. The game plays out in loops where players go through the same scenario but make different decisions. This repetition not only captures that sense of time travel, but is also an interesting gameplay mechanism. One player is the mastermind behind the tragedy and the other players try to solve it, combining cooperative and deduction like elements. Imagine Clue stuck in a timeloop.

 

In the evening schedule:

Colosseum is a fantastic classic about putting on a show in the Roman colosseum. This includes hiring performers from gladiators to comedians, and impressing the nobles. Tasty Minstrel  just reprinted this game after it being out of print for nearly a decade, and it’s great to have it available in the market again.

 

 

 

Village is possibly the worst name for game since Chess 2 (yes, really), but is a great game. Players choose what their villagers do throughout the town in order to score points. It’s got the classic worker-placement mechanism, where players decide what each family member does by placing that villager on a certain location on the board. However there’s a twist, time passes, and you villagers eventually pass away. How they die and how they are remembered is a morbid but intriguing way of scoring points!

 

There is a small fee to play each game which goes towards renting the space at Proctors. Make sure to sign up in advance if you would like to save a spot in a certain game. There is also a board game flea market this weekend, which is a great chance to pick up gently used game, or sell some that are getting dusty on your shelves. I hope to see you all there!