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A Gaming Life
Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road & More Coming to Kickstarter in October
Just saw this on Boardgame Geek over the weekend and since I loved Hanamikoji, I am definitely interested in the new sequel game called Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road.
Designed by Jerry Chiang and Eros Lin with art by Maisherly, the game will be published by Emperor S4 Games.
In this game, you’re not trying to attract the most prestigious geishas to your establishment.
Instead, you are trying to support a few geishas on their journey from apprentice (maiko) to full geisha (artist), and maybe even have them become owner of their own establishment!
At the end of the game, whoever provided the most support to each geisha is recognized and will score for that one.
Even better, it’s been confirmed that the original game will be available during the Kickstarter (it’s out of print and currently going for major bucks) as well as the seven mini-expansions that I had never even seen before.
I will definitely be checking this out!
What do you think of this game? Interested in Geisha Road? Or even just Hanamikoji, which is amazing all by itself?
I’m in for the mini-expansions for the original as well as this one.
It sounds like it will be very neat.
Of course, we’ll have to see what the Kickstarter says. Right now, we don’t know a lot about it.
Come late October, I will be there!
Friday Night Shots – Score Sheets for Games
Welcome to the first of what could be a series of posts, or might just be a one-shot.
Basically, it’s Friday night, I’ve had a couple of drinks, and maybe it’s time to visit a pressing issue in the boardgame industry.
Or maybe I just need to get something off my chest.
Consider this kind of “guerilla blogging,” as while I am editing it to make sure it makes some kind of sense, I’m basically posting it as is.
What’s the first issue I want to talk about?
Scoresheets (or lack thereof) in boardgames.
This came to mind with most of my favourite Garphill Games entries, but also with a few other games as well.
You’ve just bought a game. It’s a relatively standard Euro game where you total up a lot of points through a bunch of different means.
And the game board doesn’t have a score track for some reason. Instead, you just have to do all the math in your head.
What????
Or, you know, grab a piece of paper and write things down.
But it’s still annoying.
Even my favourite games have had this problem.
Read MoreThe Fox in the Forest Goes Electronic From Dire Wolf Digital
A rare double post day, but when you discover some news right after your scheduled post for the day goes out, you have to do it!
Dire Wolf Digital announced today that on Monday, October 18, they are releasing the really great 2-player trick-taking game, The Fox in the Forest to PC, phones and tablets!
How is that not a good thing?
I reviewed the card game so hearing this news just made my mouth water.
Dire Wolf already has a great history with apps, from Raiders of the North Sea to Root to Sagrada and so many others.
If you’re curious, you can see how to play by clicking on my review. It is an excellent 2-player game, though. I love how you’re trying to take a bunch of tricks but not too many. If you get greedy and take them all, you won’t score anything.
Will it have asynchronous play?
It’s Dire Wolf, so probably.
Does it need it?
It’s nice to have the option, as always. I will love it if it’s in there.
But it’s a quick game and logging into the app just to play one card (and maybe two if you win the trick) does seem like it might get tedious.
But people do it!
Hell, I do it, and probably will with this one too.
Very cool that Dire Wolf Digital is doing this one.
You can wishlist it on Steam (Edit: it appears to be $6.99) and pre-order it on iOS right now ($4.99 US) and it will be available on both platforms and Android on Monday, October 18.
What do you think of this one? Are you excited?
Let me know in the comments.
Review – The City
This review actually has more twists and turns than a City Council meeting trying to issue a policy that will please all of its residents.
I guess I should identify the game I’m talking about first, though.
The City is a tableau-building card game designed by Tom Lehmann with art by Klemens Franz and João Tereso. It’s been published most recently by Eagle-Gryphon Games, which leads me to the story of this review’s genesis.
Early in the Summer of 2020, Eagle-Gryphon Games sent an email to its boardgame content creators list, asking if anybody would like to review a few games.
I had had a decent first experience with The City so I thought “heck, why not ask for a copy to review?” as it was on the list of games they would be willing to send to reviewers.
They sent it out very promptly (June 8, 2020).
And I waited…and waited…and waited. I kept checking the tracking, and it was in Customs. Not sure if it was United States Customs or Canadian Customs, but it was just sitting there.
And sitting there.
It never moved.
I inquired with Canada Post about what the tracking designation meant and they basically said that it meant they hadn’t received it yet and who knows how long it will take?
Finally, I just gave up on it. This was in October or November, I can’t remember when the last time I checked it was.
It wasn’t moving and it seemed to be just lost in Customs.
I didn’t think anything of it. I had given it up for lost.
One day fairly recently (maybe in late August?), a package appeared on my doorstep. I had no idea what it could be as I wasn’t expecting anything.
I opened it up, and there was The City!
Holy crap, I thought. I’d better review this, eh?
So let’s see how it looks.
Read MoreNew To Me – September 2021
Another month and another “New to Me” games post.
This is the 50th!
It feels so good to finally be playing some new games. I’m trying to play some of the many games I bought during the worst of the pandemic (so this is probably where I shouldn’t say that I just bought five more games, right?)
The Cult of the New to Me has been pretty quiet during the height of the lockdowns and everything. They kind of understood that it was really hard to play some new stuff. I wasn’t playing many games in general, much less new to me ones.
But now that things are starting to get back to some semblance of normal, they are getting restless again.
They’re actually starting to expect me to lead them again!
I bought them all tickets to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra reopening celebrations and that kept them all happy.
But it did have one bad effect.
Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have bought those new games.
Anyway, without further ado (all of my ado decided to go try to become a Japanese combat master anyway), let’s begin!
(See, Alex? I can spell it right)
Read MoreBoardgame Geek Top 300 – Play or Played – #210-201
Can it really be?
Yes, this is the last post in the BGG Top 300 series, first begun back in February.
It’s been a long, hard year with COVID being alternately defeated and then making a rebound and forcing people to still try and keep separated from other people.
With the vaccines, it’s good that we can finally return to a bit of normalcy, with our game group finally able to start meeting again back in August.
We’re not out of the woods yet, but some of us who actually are willing to do the right thing can get back to a little bit of normal.
It’s been quite the journey, though, and I thank you for sharing it with me (you know, the one or two of you who did actually read all of these)
I value all of you!
Yes, the love is truly there.
As I’ve said before, this will be the last series like this I do. I mainly did it to be able to explore boardgames while I wasn’t able to play that many.
Now that I am playing games again, I hope to have other content instead of just lists.
Like more reviews!
Anyway, the list I’m taking these from was downloaded on February 8, so needless to say, there has been some movement.
I’ll make note of that in the post.
And away we go!
Read MoreApp Review – Concordia by Acram Digital
“Trading in the Mediterranean” has become a bit of a cliche.
But look at designer Mac Gerdts breaking that cliche and making it interesting again!
The boardgame version of Concordia, designed by Gerdts with artwork by Marina Fahrenbach, Mac Gerdts and Dominik Mayer, came out in 2013.
The app version, however, comes out Tuesday, September 28 and is published by Acram Digital.
What a win-win!
Acram has done the brilliant Istanbul (though it needs the expansions!), the interesting 8 Minute Empire and a great rendition of Steam (not my cup of tea, but the app is great!)
The game itself is pretty fun, though it’s not my favourite (it’s probably up in my Top 100 out of 400+ games, though).
The app?
Oh my, it’s gorgeously done.
How does it play?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreBoardgame Geek Top 300 – Play or Played – #220-211
We’re heading into the home stretch with our look at the Top 300 games on Boardgame Geek.
I may even finish before October!
Wouldn’t that be a hoot?
I’ve actually really enjoyed doing this list, even as I stated last week that it just started as a way to get some content up here during the pandemic.
It’s exposed me to many games that I may have heard of but really had no concept about.
It’s shown me that I haven’t played as many games as I would like to have done. Something I need to improve on!
One more week after this one, so why don’t we get started?
Before we do, just a note to say that the list I’m basing these posts on was downloaded on February 8 (yes, it’s taken that long to finish this). I’ve noted the changes for each game.
Read MoreCombat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario A – Grassy Knoll
Another month and another great game of Combat Commander, this time of the Pacific variety!
Once a month, those of us on the Combat Commander ladder led by the illustrious Patrick Pence are able to immerse themselves in vicious combat against a very capable opponent.
If you have any interest in Combat Commander at all, I suggest you join the ladder. You might even get to play me!
September’s game was from the Combat Commander: Pacific game so it was a bit different than previous outings.
New rules, new cards, and forces from the Japanese, United States, and Commonwealth countries add some interesting things to the mix. Some of the Combat Commander: Europe stuff is completely changed.
It took a little getting used to (though I actually own Pacific, so that is nice at least).
(Incidentally, you can click on or tap each picture for a bigger view of it)
My opponent for September’s ladder game was Bill Simoni. He was the attacking American forces (green) and I was the Japanese (white), determined to defend the Grassy Knoll (no, this didn’t take place in Dallas).
This is how we set up.
The hex between two of my stacks of units, Objective 5, is worth 10 victory points. Very juicy! I control it at start, so if the Americans take it, that’s a 20-point swing (I lose 10 VP and then the US gains 10 VP).
As you can see, quite important!
The Americans are hiding in the jungle, determined to advance along the south. The north is not a consideration, but they do have reinforcements that could come in on the north edge, so I had to be wary of that.
I set up the main bunker and the only Japanese leader next to the objective hex with the other units in Foxholes or a Trench within command radius so they could all be activated at the same time.
I also have one team, one squad, a light machine gun, and some foxholes that can infiltrate somewhere on the map (where the “Sighting” marker is, which can change with each random hex draw) sometime during the game.
Read MoreBoardgame Geek Top 300 – Play or Played – #230-221
It was a close one this week.
Yes, I almost didn’t get this post done so that it would post this week at all.
That would break my streak and we know that we can’t have that.
But here it is!
We’re three episodes away from finishing the series, and my plan is to have it done by early October at the latest.
Let’s see if we can keep it up.
Am I going to do the Top 400?
Hell no!
I admit that these list posts were a way, during the pandemic, to actually get some content on here and keep me writing, or else this would have been a dead blog many months ago.
Now that I’m actually gaming again, I hope not to have to rely on stuff like this.
Hopefully, the next “Top 10” will be my Top 10 (or 5 if I haven’t played that many) games played this year.
And also, I think I’ve played enough games now and by the end of the year that I can do an updated Top 25 games played of all time.
Yes!
That will be fun.
Anyway, let’s get to this week’s list.
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 