Recently it seems solitaire games have been making a bit of a comeback. During the golden days of Avalon Hill them and many other companies put out a good amount of these games: Mosby’s Raiders, Raid on St. Nazaire, Carrier, Tokyo Express and Ambush just to name a few. But during that time as computer games started to rise in popularity, the demand for solitaire games started to diminish and it is easy to see why. To design a good solitaire game there needs to be a challenge for the player to learn and overcome. The game needs a system to act as an artificial opponent that acts rationally but in also an unpredictable manner. Where a computer games take all that work and put it “behind the curtain” so to speak, solitaire boardgames puts that behind the curtain work in the hands of the player. In addition solitaire games typically take a lot more development time to really come up with a good system as well as a system that holds up to repeated plays. But all that said there are a handful of those that offer some engaging game play but is also pretty simple and don’t bog down in mechanics and minute details and B-17: Queen of the Skies happens to be one of those games.

B-17:QotS finds you in the pilot seat of a B-17 Bomber during WWII. Taking off from a base in England you cross the English Channel and penetrate into France and portions of Germany to bomb various airfields, industrial complexes or other targets of priority to help slow the German Warmachine. I suppose piloting is used loosely because the plane flies itself and you and your fellow crewmates are pretty much along for the ride. This game reminds me more of one of those Chose Your Own Adventure books rather than a game; decisions are pretty minimal and the book, or in this case the game, decides what happens to you. Instead of giving you a “Which do you choose: A - Go to page XX; B - Go to page XX” option the story is told through rolling on lots of charts. Everything for weather to take off to fighter cover to enemy fighters to damage to the accuracy of your bombing run is all handled by rolling on appropriate charts. You as the player have limited options in the game and those are pretty much restricted to what gunners fire at what targets and should (actually when) your crewmates or plane suffer damage you do get presented with a few options.

What I really like about this game though is the narrative that develops as your plane starts to fly more missions. You start to get attached to your crewmates as “competition” starts to form for example between the ball gunner and turret gunner and the number of kills they have. You feel some mild panic as enemy fighters damage your tail gunner’s compartment and he’s prone to frostbite unless you drop your plane down to a lower altitude which in turn opens your plane up to more damage as it loses the “strength in numbers” that the other bombers in your wing offer.

I remember one mission I was flying where a wave of enemy fighters shot my plane up pretty good and ended up killing my radio-man, which game-wise didn’t affect the plane that much. I continued onto my target causing minimal damage due to the bombing zone being cloudy and my bombardier’s target being obscured. On the way back another wave of enemy fighters approached peppering my plane some more and the ball gunner’s compartment was hit causing it to lose heat. Dropping the plane low really wasn’t an option for me because frostbite and the gunner possibly losing a few digits cost way less than losing the whole plane. Lucky for him though we entered an area that was void of fighters and he was able to drag the radio-man’s body out of his compartment and plug his suit in preventing frostbite. During that time, me as the fictional pilot felt genuine concern over the well-being of this person. What helped strengthen that concern though was all the different positions on my plane were manned by my friends and family. I could have named people Tom, Dick and Harry but being able to put a face with everyone onboard my fictional craft makes an interesting dynamic where when my radio-man took a bullet through the skull I felt sad because my good friend would not be making any more flights with this crew. This emotional bond really makes the game interesting and very narrative.

As I mentioned the game has you rolling on lots of charts so no two flights will ever end up the same and because of that, the game tells a detailed story for you. And to me makes it an excellent solitaire game because the system is not a clunky or confusing one, or one that requires lots and lots of rules. After one quick read-through of the rules the charts walk you through the process and the game pretty much goes on auto-pilot (sorry for the pun) from there and you just sit back, roll some dice and enjoy the flight hoping everyone makes it back safely.

My closing thoughts on the game are these:
-Don’t cheat: At times you’ll be tempted to say “I don’t like that result” and try to blow on one of the d10 in an attempt to get the face to change. Just don’t. The fun is finding out who makes it, who doesn’t and why. Making sure your plane and everyone onboard “makes it” just lessens the experience.
-This game isn’t for everyone: I know solitaire games aren’t for everyone in general and games that have the player rolling dice time and time again grate on people. If you don’t like either than don’t bother. Also a lack of actual decision making in this game will turn a lot of people off as well.
-Make your crew relatable: I first tried to get into the game a few years back but just named them generic names and thus I just didn’t get into it at that time. This go-around, when I pulled the game out I made sure I had faces to tie with the names and the pride when someone did well and sorrow as someone is killed or injured adds so much more.

With your average flight lasting 30-45 minutes once the rules get solidified this is a great game to bust out and play when you find yourself with a free hour or two and I personally find it more interesting than a lot of tripe they put on television these days and I’ve developed bonds with my crews that are way stronger than any video game character I’ve played as.

Rating: 4 out of 5

‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: B-17 Queen of the Skies, Games - Historical by LordVonTush
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I haven’t played this yet, so don’t expect a review…

As I was reading through the rules to BlackBeard, I couldn’t help but just shake my head in wonder. Being a game about pirates, booty is an accurate and way of describing loot, gold, treasure, with a period term that has character. Most everyone should also know that booty is an alternate term to describe one’s backside and a pretty tame one at that. But for whatever reason the designers/rules author decided that they needed to clarify that “Booty” referred to treasure and not one’s backside because, as they describe “this is a family game”.

So for the record I just want to get this straight:
-Booty does not equal family game when it could be possibly confused to mean one’s backside
-Stealing, killing, raping, looting, burning, destroying and kidnapping equals a family game provided it doesn’t include “booty” in reference to one’s backside

Perhaps this isn’t the forum for this topic, but are we this fucked up in society that the possibility that booty could mean ass could derail a game from being considered “family friendly” but the average life of a pirate, which you’re playing in this game, is perfectly suitable for family play? There is an action called Debauchery and Revelry for fucks sake! How do you describe that to kids? “Well since these pirates are at sea for so long, they often miss their birthdays so when they get back into port they hire the local baker to provide a three layer yellow cake covered in chocolate icing and have a birthday party for the entire crew. They also hire clowns to entertain the crew with balloon animals and magic tricks”.

When you break down and look at the definitions of “debauchery” and “revelry” it sure sounds like a drunk and naked fuck fest with plenty of booty to go around (and I’m not talking about the treasure kind of booty).

I’m confused…

‘Till Next Time – Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: BlackBeard, Games - Historical by LordVonTush
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Since the New Year, I’ve been going about gaming a little bit differently. A few years back I was buying any and all games that I thought was interesting. As I shuffle through my collection these days I keep asking myself what I was thinking buying games that at best could be average. There was a period where I would have actually classified myself as a “game collector” rather than a gamer. But as 2008 drew to a close I made my resolution to actually play the games that I own rather than buying new games that would gather dust. Sadly a side effect of that is I haven’t been trying many new games these days and the ones I’m playing more and more these days are ones that I’ve already wrote upon.

One game that I have tried (sorta) recently is Conquest of Paradise (CoP) by GMT Games. But at this point I’ve only managed to give it one go so I wouldn’t call this a “review” but more of an “impressions” article.

CoP covers the exploration and expansion of Polynesia circa 500AD. This is a topic that I personally knew little about before the game and I will say that I only know a little bit more afterwards. But, the game does provide a pretty nice historical guide to the period along with the game, which I will admit that I’ve only skimmed, and provides more details about various culture and lifestyle aspects of the peoples during this time period.

For the most part the game revolves around exploring the unknown and unmapped Pacific Ocean looking for islands which were large enough to support life. Each player has a scout ship that they move around a hex board. Each hex they enter to explore causes the player to draw a chit at random from a cup. This chit will tell you if you found an island or open ocean and how long your voyage took in the form of knots on a rope on the back of the counter. There is an entertaining push-your-luck element in the form of the amount of knots you accumulate during an exploration turn. If you gather up too many knots you could be delayed a turn or even worse, lost at sea.

After exploration you gather your resources from the islands that you population and start buying troops or expand existing settlements. During our first game what we found out is expanding the village seems like the way to go. To us running a military campaign and attacking opponents, after looking at things like unit costs, chances of success and what other logistical elements are needed to move these troops around just seemed too costly.

Overall my impressions on this game are mixed. Sending the scout ship out to sea looking for new land to conquer and islands to hop is very fun. The push-your-luck element is fun and shouldn’t case much in the way of problems unless someone just refuses to bring their scout ship in for a turn. Combat on the other hand fell flat. As I mentioned the cost for units and setting up the infrastructure to move them to where they need to be just didn’t work during that game. What also didn’t help the matter was once we were at a point where the map was mostly explored and we could start getting a sizable navy built due to producing a good amount of resources, the game ended.

GMT markets this game as a family game on their site and after playing the game I can see why. Conflict in this game is low because the cost for a military operation did not seem to be surpassed by the benefit of a successful operation. It was one of those things where it just didn’t feel right, and usually with that feeling comes a misreading or missing of a rule. A missed rule was not the case here.

What is also nice for the family is the historical references and notes that are included with the game. I’m sure many kids (and I’d even venture to say adults) have little exposure to this period in history and the game provides enough resources to help familiarize people with this interesting point in time.

Where I stand with this game is at a crossroads. As I’ve mentioned, the combat feels lacking which is snuffing out the fire to play this game again, but the exploration is exceptional and very fun, albeit random and a little luck-of-the-draw. It almost seems as if the game should be longer and it took a page sadly out of many other Euro/Family games where right when I feel the game starts to get interesting it is over.

To me, Conquest of Paradise just feels like it is off balance; not only the balance between exploration and combat but the balance between the board size and the victory conditions. I feel as though if the board was smaller it would cause people to be more packed in and create an environment that would cultivate more confrontation between players, or the flipside where if the victory conditions (a number of victory points determined by the number of players) were higher there would be a period between the time exploration for the most part is complete and people need to have conflict if they want to expand their borders.

The game is full of potential (which is a topic I was thinking about writing later) yet feels like it fails to deliver. As I said at the beginning though, this is just one game that I’ve played and my thoughts after that one game and at this point I couldn’t even tell you if I’d recommend the game to people. At the very least I’d say it is worth taking a further look if it sounds like something that you have some interest in.

‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: Conquest of Paradise, Games - Historical by LordVonTush
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So, it seems as of late my muse has left me. I’ll be honest and say that I’ve started this article on at least three different occasions, but the words just were not coming out the way I wanted them. But enough about my woes, its time to ramble on about a game that I’ve been getting into lately: BlackBeard by Avalon Hill. This game had been sitting on my shelf for at least two years and well before GMT announced that they’d be reprinting the game and today I’m kicking myself in the ass for letting it sit for so long. (Just to get this part out of the way now, I have not played the GMT version and from the articles I’ve been reading about it, I have no desire to because it sounds like they’ve taken away everything about this game that I’ve come to love).

This game has rocketed into my top ten (which by the way is very much a dynamic entity). Not because it is a tight design, not because it is simple, not because the components are all that great to look at, but purely because the game is flat out fun, which strangely is an item that I’ve found to be missing from a lot of games I’ve been playing over the past three or four years. Not to say that I haven’t enjoyed my gaming experiences, but this game brought me back to my early grammar school days while learning Axis and Allies, Fortress America, Mighty Empires…Etc. There was an innocence back then where competition wasn’t paramount and just getting together with the buds was the primary reason for gaming…And hell isn’t that one of the primary reasons why we all started gaming in the first point? Something to use as a reason to get together with friends, share a laugh and spend a weekend together (or at least the games I was playing then took at least a weekend). Truth be told, I don’t even remember finishing a bunch of those games back then but I sure as heck remember the experiences. BlackBeard brings me back to those days.

In BB you play as one of twenty or so pirates from The Golden Age of Sail raiding merchant ships and ports, running from Warships and King’s Commission ships, getting drunk, torturing captives …etc. You know; all the fun stuff that recently caused Pirates to be romanticized in modern culture. During the course of the game these actions will provide your pirate with notoriety and once a pirate reaches 100 notoriety that pirate wins. In practice this is very difficult to achieve. The more likely condition is each player is allowed to activate three pirates during the course of the game (though only two can be activated at the same time). Once a player has had his third pirate killed then the player with the most Net Worth stashed is the winner (there’s more conditions then that, but for the sake of the article it isn’t worth going into).

BB isn’t without its faults. The game uses an interesting card drawing system, but cards are being flipped a lot. This causes a lot of randomness to happen in the game and at times there is a slight feeling that the game is playing itself and you’re just there for the ride. This randomness is very hard to create tactics for, if not impossible, but it is reflective of life on the high seas at this time where your fortune falls where the wind takes you. The activation system is also a little strange where you could potentially have a player activating about three or four times in a row before anyone else is able to act. Though unlikely it is possible and not a pleasant experience when it does.

I will admit this game isn’t for everyone. There are rules that I’ve committed to memory that haven’t had to be used, and I still can’t play without the rulebook sitting out to reference back to all too often to really keep a flow, but with time that rulebook has been used less and less and I’m starting to see ways that the rules that I’ve committed to memory can finally be used in the game. It is also a long game where a good long sitting is needed (or a few consecutive short ones) and usually the randomness doesn’t have the “better player” winning. If those don’t sound like your cup of tea, then pass this game on and perhaps look into the GMT Games version where a lot of it has been “streamlined”, but from what I understand, at the cost of the character that I find so dear in the Avalon Hill version.

Though with its faults, I’m able to look past those because of the feeling this game invokes within me, but of course it is hard to capture that feel in words. With life, family and work making free-time a premium as I get older it is nice to bring out BlackBeard and just game. Not to overanalyze, over think, over plan. Not worry about who wins or loses. Not worry about if the game has perfect realism or not. It is nice to just sit back with a few buddies, share a laugh (and now that I’m of age, a beer) and just have fun with a game.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT

Filed under: BlackBeard, Games - Historical by LordVonTush
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