What Board Game Are You Currently Playing?

[chas]

Hahma,

Thanks for the info. Certainly an interesting design, and a good score for free!

Yes, I just taught five new people Fire and Axe, and declared that they were too nice to be Vikings! But we had a good time with it, at our new board game group meeting. I'm trying to keep the games I bring light for them, but plan to slowly bring them over to the dark, er I mean, the more meaty games. Yeah, meaty, that's it...

[Hellfire]

I'm looking forward to this one.

[Hahma]

I'm certain that 2 or 3 of my friends will be getting this, so I hope to give it a try when they get it.

[Yodaking]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is my next game purchase. It looks like a game I would enjoy.

[Porkins]

The picture doesn't work for me (work filter??). What is it?

[japes]

Star Wars Rebellion. It's a video.

[Hahma]

@chas

From the designer of Quartermaster General and published by PSC Games. Has add-ons for The Great War and Tank

Kickstarter

[chas]

Hahma,

Actually, I printed out the long playtest version of Victory or Death a few months ago but never got around to it! (I had playtested QMG:Air Marshal here with the designer once). It certainly looked interesting on a quick glance. But I'm getting pretty tired of Kickstarter and its accursed "exclusives!" Especially after running down almost all of them for Blood Rage!

Speaking of which, my final two KS should be out around late March/April:

Age of Conan: Adventures In Hyboria Expansion
Mare Nostrum Empires

Almost all of my half dozen or so Kickstarters have been purchased for special reasons. In the cases above, I already have the old FFG core game for AOC. I only once got to play the old MN at a Con, since it was never released in the USA. It was always for me "the one that got away." And the new version looks to be even better.

I'm also waiting now for more news on the new John Carter of Mars board game! I just read a great book on why the movie tanked. But JC will always rise again!!! After 100 years, he's still pretty durable as the original pulp super hero.

[Johngee]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Chas,

We (the 5 of us) did enjoy it, and have in fact been discussing it on facebook. We played pretty "nice" to each other, but agreed that we need to be more cutthroat.
<~snip/snip~>
There are a couple countries in Africa that have slaves as resources.
<~snip/snip~>
The game is pretty elegant, with mostly simple mechanics of Resource Management, Role Selection and Diplomacy. But lots of important and challenging choices that make it pretty neat.

Also, while it was published in 2011, it was an Essen release (Europe's GenCon). Sometimes those games take a while to get over here. It's also not a non-gamer game, so it's not going to be plastered all over the place with tons of people talking about it.

This games sounds very interesting. Personally I like ones that have historical themes and some modicum of educational value, along with "elegant" designs and "simple mechanics." However, in spite of any negative effects on the Diplomacy Track to simulate the international emancipation movement, I'm afraid that it may *NOT* do well here in the USA. It seems that any mention of "slaves" or "slavery" has become taboo and tends to be boycotted by the Political Correctness Nazis. Europeans and even South American have a totally different outlook on those historical events which some rabble rousing factions have made a profitable business out of refusing to ameliorate. Didn't the game Puerto Rico get a Bad Rep and get ejected from many gaming tables for using BROWN blocks to represent the Worker Resources (i.e. slaves) in the those colonial fields?

[Johngee]

Yes that new "Star Wars: Rebellion" game from fantasy Flights does L0^0K very *A*W*E*S*O*M*E* - I've been salivating over it for a long time and passed up the new Hasbro "Star Wars: RISK" version, intending this to be my next purchase. However, since ...

Originally Posted by Hahma

I'm certain that 2 or 3 of my friends will be getting this, so I hope to give it a try when they get it.

... in addition, I hope that logic prevails over emotion and I actually TRY it before I BUY it, so that it doesn't end up like the also awesome FF "Star Wars: Imperial Assault" which has been put away in the closet and hasn't been touched in months.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Johngee

This games sounds very interesting. Personally I like ones that have historical themes and some modicum of educational value, along with "elegant" designs and "simple mechanics." However, in spite of any negative effects on the Diplomacy Track to simulate the international emancipation movement, I'm afraid that it may *NOT* do well here in the USA. It seems that any mention of "slaves" or "slavery" has become taboo and tends to be boycotted by the Political Correctness Nazis. Europeans and even South American have a totally different outlook on those historical events which some rabble rousing factions have made a profitable business out of refusing to ameliorate. Didn't the game Puerto Rico get a Bad Rep and get ejected from many gaming tables for using BROWN blocks to represent the Worker Resources (i.e. slaves) in the those colonial fields?

Well in this game, there are a ton of resource types, with 1 od them being slaves, and only 2 spaces where they can be gotten. Each of the resources in the game have a circular space that fits your player discs, where around the circular image is a color ring specific to that resource. That color ring is really all you need to pay attention to for the purposes of seeing who has or takes over the monopoly of that color. All resources are equal in value for shipping and trading purposes.

2 spaces out of easily 25 spaces are for slaves and the whole game is based on history. So if people have an issue with it, then their dumb assess don't need to buy or enjoy it.

[chas]

"The only solution is education."
--Dr. Martin Luther King

Yes, its very interesting. Uwe E. of Academy Games just changed a resource in Mare Nostrum Empires, from "Slaves" to "Gladiators." I disagreed with him that such a level of PC was necessary. On the other hand, I have no problem with his Freedom, his game about the Underground Railroad conceptually (though I haven't seen or played it).

But its very complex. At a Civil War museum in Philadelphia a few years back, a guide told me a Black man visiting was incensed over calling the troops of the time US Colored Troops, although the Black men of the time were proud to use that official title.

So history and PC are all mixed up at this point. People need to discuss these things with a cool, rather than an ideological or emotional head. When I used to teach "Cultural Diversity" (not "Political Correctness"), we had some fruitful discussions among people of many different backgrounds. But I can think of three times over those years when I myself made someone else unhappy with something I said myself, even though I won a NYC award for my work. Its all about how you approach it, rather than what you say.