Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
GMT Gives Free Games for COVID Job Loss
During these plague-filled times of dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic and all of the life changes that it has involved, I’ve been lucky. And I know it.
My wife and I both still have our jobs and while I’ve been working from home since March 16, my job has almost become busier.
I know that a lot of people haven’t had that luxury and have been laid off or had hours reduced or whatever.
It’s been a tough time for a lot of people.
Readers of this blog already know that I’m a big fan of GMT Games, even though I don’t really play war games. They do have a pretty good catalog of other games that I do enjoy and I just enjoy the idea of playing war games too.
The June 24 Update from GMT had some surprising, and really cool, news in it, however.
“We know that this virus, in addition to the threat it poses to our collective health, has had a negative economic impact on many of our customers, as well. As with so many social or economic problems, it’s not within our power to provide big fixes—to restore lost jobs, retirement funds, or lost earning power. But we’ve decided, as we did numerous times in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, that we can show support for those of you who have lost jobs by giving you a free game or two. I know it’s not much in the greater scheme of things, but we want you to know that we are thinking of you and that your welfare—including the ability to de-stress and decompress from the pressures of the world by playing games—is important to us. Here are the details:
Eligibility: If you have lost your job due to shutdown-related layoffs or closings since March 15, 2020, you are eligible to get one (non-US customers) or two (US customers) free games from us, from games that are in stock now. We’d love to give an extra game to international customers as well, but the spiking shipping rates overseas limit our ability to do so.”
Yes, that’s right.
If you’ve lost your job due to the current COVID crisis, you can get two free games (or one if you’re an international customer) that they currently have in stock (other than the now-shipping Imperial Struggle, which they are currently running out of even though they printed tons of them).
It’s not going to put food on your table, but if you are a gamer and you use games to help get away from your struggles a little bit, GMT has your back.
So get that game that you’ve been kind of salivating over but your recent loss of job is going to prevent you from springing for.
It’s not going to solve all of your problems, but if it helps relieve some of the stress you’ve been under for at least a couple of hours (or 6-12 hours if you do Here I Stand!), then isn’t that a good thing?
Kudos to GMT for looking out for their customers.
I obviously won’t be taking advantage of this offer, but hopefully a number of people do.
Give yourself a few hours of stress relief.
Boardgame Geek Top 100 – Played or Play? #40-31
Another week, another look at the BGG Top 100.
I’m really loving the response to these posts. It really heartens me and makes me want to keep going (even though this is the first post since the last Top 100 post, which isn’t necessarily a good thing).
One thing this whole project has instilled in me, though, is the desire to try new things.
And the big one for me is actually buying a Living Card Game and seeing if it’s something that I might enjoy.
Who knows? By the time we get to Arkham Horror: the Card Game, I might actually have played it since I bought the core set and we’re going to see how we like it.
That’s what gaming at home with the wife does: try new things and see what lands!
So many of the campaigns for the game are between printings or whatever that it’s hard to know where we’re going to go next with it (if it happens). People always suggest getting the whole campaign before you start it, which is the expansion itself and then a bunch of Mythos packs that will end the campaign.
Are we up for it?
I will report back when we know.
But I’m psyched!
Yes, I know this gif is all over Twitter, but it’s the first time I’ve used it, so who cares!
Let’s get on to the next 10.
Boardgame Geek Top 100 – Played or Play? 50-41
It’s another week and another look at the BGG Top 100 games and which ones I’ve played (or may want to play).
It’s interesting, but when I started this series with #100-91, I didn’t really think about how much movement there could be within the various ranges.
Sure, a couple of times I had to change the order of a couple of titles because they switched after I did the “mechanical” work of listing them all (before I actually write the important parts of the post).
But looking at the Top 100 now and the first batch of games, three of the games I talked about are no longer there. There are three new games in their stead, and there’s been a bunch of movement.
Not so much in the other ranges, which is nice.
But these lists are a snapshot in time so even though three games are no longer “relevant” to that post, it’s still nice to see what was going on when I actually did write it.
It’s funny, because at least one of the new entries (Paladins of the West Kingdom) I would have loved talking about, but it wasn’t in the Top 100 when I did that.
Oh well, you can’t have everything.
Just like my Top 25 games ever played was probably outdated as soon as I wrote it!
That’s the life of a blogger, though, and it is what it is.
Anyway, let’s start the first part of the Top 50 now, with a wonderful drafting card game that would probably make no sense to those who are not true gamers.
Because really…Science!
(Two pictures above the fold? Yes, I have been drinking…)
Queen Games Gets Mysterious
Since I’m a bit behind on this week’s BGG Top 100 post (tomorrow I promise! Hopefully), how about a quick one about some boardgame mystery.
Yesterday on Twitter, Queen Games posted the following:
One Designer – One Publisher – One Grand Project: The “Stefan Feld City Collection”… #StefanFeld #CityCollection #QueenGames #Spiel20 #FeldMeld pic.twitter.com/19cEc6yZDp
— QueenGames USA (@QueengamesUS) June 16, 2020
Everybody’s speculating on just what the hell this might be referring to.
It’s talking about noted game designer Stefan Feld, so it sounds like it might be really cool.
I love it when game companies get mysterious.
What could they be talking about?
Bruges? Strasbourg? Some other city that I can’t seem to find in his repertoire?
Let me know what you think.
Or, if you happen to know, how about letting me in on it?
I promise I won’t tell.
Cross my heart.
More New Characters for Talisman Digital!
It’s June and Nomad Games has released another trio of new characters for the digital version of Talisman.
Recently they released the Satyr, the Vampire, and the Pilgrim as characters you can play, all coming with their own little unique aspects that are pretty cool overall.
That being said, I have to wonder about the AI implementation of at least one of them.
How do these match up with the others?
The first trio of characters were good, so what about these?
Let’s take a look.
The Pilgrim is the most basic but yet he may be the most fun of the three.
The best thing about the Pilgrim is that you can avoid all of the “Miss your next turn” notices.
Terraforming Mars Big Box Kickstarter is Live!
After much hullabaloo, and a really nice chat with Stronghold Games President Stephen Buonocore, the Terraforming Mars Big Box Kickstarter is now live!
And wow, is there some cool-looking stuff in there.
First, I’m very glad to see that there is a pledge level that’s just for the tiles and a box to carry them in. So if you already like your game storage solution, just spend $79 and get the tiles and their box.
You’ll be carrying two boxes around when you bring the game to game day, but both may be the equivalent of dragging the Big Box around anyway!
App Review – Viticulture
Viticulture is a great game about running a vineyard. Please note: it’s running a vineyard, not necessarily making wine (though there is plenty of that too).
The game, designed by Morten Monrad Pedersen, Jamey Stegmaier, and Alan Stone with art by Jacqui Davis, David Montgomery, and Beth Sobel and published by Stonemaier Games, is a worker placement game with some interesting mechanics.
Even though it is a game I love, I haven’t actually played it since 2016, when I played it 5 times.
That’s just not cool.
Thankfully, Digidiced has my back, as they have now released the game in a cool new app version for iOS and Android (Steam to come later, apparently).
How does it look?
Let’s take a look.
Fireside Games Listens to Their Fans – Cancels Castle Panic Deluxe Edition Kickstarter
I love it when game publishers listen to their fans.
When I heard that Fireside Games was doing a Deluxe version of Castle Panic, with plastic miniatures, retooled artwork and cool wooden tokens to be placed in the bag to draw, I was kind of excited but unclear whether they were doing just the base game or what.
Yesterday, two days into the Kickstarter for the Deluxe Edition when the campaign started and it was confirmed that only the base game was being done (which I kind of figured considering they just announced 31 miniatures), Fireside announced that they were cancelling the Kickstarter campaign after hearing from numerous fans.
I added an edit to my original post about the Castle Panic Deluxe Edition Kickstarter that Fireside Games was doing, noting the cancellation, but I decided last night that I wanted to comment on it further.
In the campaign, Fireside mentioned that the reason they were doing just the base game is because the base game far outsells the expansion and they wanted to get people in on the ground floor.
However, many gamers (including me) who are fans of the franchise believe that the game truly comes into its own with the Wizard’s Tower expansion. Without it, the game is a nice family-friendly cooperative game but there really isn’t a lot to draw the “true” gamer to it.
With the Wizard’s Tower expansion, it becomes a “gamer’s” game and it’s a lot more interesting.
I’m glad that Fireside actually listened and decided to retool the whole campaign. I know a number of people, a number of owners of the regular game who would have jumped on this, decided not to because they’d just be getting the base game. And it is impossible to play the Deluxe version along with the basic expansions. You really need the whole thing.
So now Fireside is going back to the drawing board, probably going back to the plastic people and saying “we need all of this as well” and the new Kickstarter campaign (when it comes out) will be really expensive.
Hopefully they’ll have tiers where, if you just want the base game, you get the base game. If you want just the base game with Wizard’s Tower, you can get that. You can basically pick and choose your expansions and get the miniatures and other stuff for what you want.
It may be really expensive (if just the base game is $99 US, I can’t imagine how much multiple expansions will add to it), but that’s what the fans want.
Their base goal for this Kickstarter was $5000 and they easily surpassed that. The goal’s going to have to be higher considering the cost of everything else, but I think they could easily hit the high six-figures if not perhaps seven-figures with a campaign that can possibly include everything.
This is their first Kickstarter campaign, and this shows that they are willing to learn and retool. At least it wasn’t a disaster like some other first campaigns.
Hell, they could have had a campaign with a ton of really bad stereotypes and got run off of Kickstarter and Twitter.
At least they avoided that.
I’ll check out the tiers and the prices of the new campaign and see if I want to bite.
I know I wasn’t on this one, though.
This reminds me of when Stronghold Games pulled Aftershock after that hullabaloo.
I love it when companies listen and are willing to change.
What other examples of this type of thing can you think of? Are you happy about this? Are you maybe interested in a full deluxe version of everything Castle Panic?
Let me know in the comments.
Boardgame Geek Top 100 – Played or Play? 60-51
With this post we’re half-way through the BGG Top 100 and I have to say that this has been a fun project for me. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.
One thing going through this list does for me is show me just how few games I’ve actually played compared to a lot of people out there.
According to my BG Stats app (a must-have for anybody who actually tracks their plays), I’ve played a total of 383 games and that’s mostly true (I think there are a few games that I played before I started recording). When I think about most of the boardgame content creators out there and how many they’ve played, I kind of feel like a blogging pretender in a way.
That’s why I make my Top 10 “games I played that year” rather than “best games of the year”. I don’t have any way of knowing how the ones I’ve played compared to all of the other ones.
So it’s nice to just take a look at a bunch of games that may not get covered on this blog much.
Considering the response to this series, I’m having an understandable reaction.
Hell, I even got into a nice discussion with a brilliant game designer!
Anyway, this week is a good one with lots of stuff that I’ve actually played.
And I can’t wait!
Oh yeah, it’s right here below. I guess no waiting involved.
Let’s get started!
Viticulture Digital – Out Now!
Quick post today because I have to spend time doing tomorrow’s “BGG Top 100 post”.
Yesterday, to the surprise of many (except for maybe those who paid attention to Digidiced‘s press releases), Viticulture appeared on the iOS App Store and the Android store as well.
Yes, that’s right. Jamey Stegmaier’s classic wine-making game (though it’s more about running a vineyard than actually making wine since you can win without making much) has now reached the digital realm, courtesy of Digidiced.
It was announced back in August but I hadn’t heard much about it recently other than it was in beta and that it looked good.
I really love Digidiced’s apps, mainly because they do a great job with asynchronous multiplayer (though there can be some hiccups) and the apps usually come out very polished.
Dude! Take Your Turn! 