Waggle You Buggers, Waggle!

Ok, so the Waggle Dance is getting rave reviews from all over the place, really impressed with PR machine chaps, well done!!

However, it still needs some funding to get this game out into the world.

If you've never backed a kickstarter before then here's a helping hand;

1. go to the page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1811420414/wag... 

2. play the video... read all about the game... watch the 'final thoughts' video for an independent assessment - yes, he got sent a copy of the game but he didn't have to review it, and he certainly didn't have to like it as much as he obviously does!

3. decide whether you want to support a fledgling Cornish games producing company. This is their second project and they delivered a fine product first time round and on time too.

4. if you're still in then it's time to pledge some money. You don't get charged if the project fails. You only get charged on it succeeding, on Sunday 29th June 2014.

5. click on 'Back this Project'.

6. choose your pledge level - £22 for UK addresses, or £27 for EU, US and Canada, etc.

7. follow the payment requirements, nothing out of the ordinary of course.

8. spread the word... Facebook, tweet, all those things.

9. thanks!!

Boxes, Part One

There's been a discussion on BoardGameGeek about a new game called Splendor. Unusually, everyone seems to love the game. It's been well manufactured with great components, it's easy to learn and play, it has a good rule book and I picked up my copy for around £22, so very affordable I would say. The discussion however, has been about the size of the box. The photos illustrate the point. So, why is the box so huge?

 

The main responses centre upon having a box of 8.5"x11"x2.8" (21.5x27.6x6.7cm) that will sit prominently next to other games of equal stature. All very subjective I'd say but once I started thinking about it it's true. Any game coming in a smallish box, say the size of two packs of cards, can't possibly be anything other than a light filler, once of those games without much brain-power needed for the start or end of an evening. It'll last about half an hour tops and normally cater for up to six players. Anything that comes in a small, compact box simply cannot be greater than that.

Splendor with its insert, all very neat and tidy

Looking at my collection there are some gems to be had in small boxes. And yet they don't get the love they surely deserve. Is it to do with box size? Well, yes, perhaps it is. I'll list the following; The Great Heartland Haulage Co., Glen More, Lungarno, Aton. All punch well above their weight but I've struggled to get them played at the club.

There are then those that come in boxes way bigger than necessary, that confirm that the opposite is also true, i.e. the box is at least medium size and therefore the game must be a good strategic one inside. These would include Battle Line, Carcassonne, Race for the Galaxy, all highly regarded.

Interestingly, a lot of two-player games come in a standard, square box of around 8"x8"x1.25" (20x20x3.2cm). Your expectation of it being a two-player game is set up by the box size. You'd be surprised if it could play more. Balloon Cup is one such game, part of the publisher, Kosmos's 2-player series. Yet even the French guy who's picture I've stolen has made himself a very smart tin one to hold everything in.

On the other side of the argument are those games collectors who try to conceal the fact that they own too many games by decanting as much as possible into smaller boxes. You should see the expansions I have in my Carcassonne box, or Agricola, even allowing for my luxurious cotton baggies from www.thecleverbaggers.co.uk.

I guess that box size will also come into the equation of pricing a game. The smaller the box the cheaper it must be right? Yet, make it a medium size and charge low and the suspicions about it will escalate. There's no way they could have turned out a good game for that price in that size box, unless the components are sub-standard perhaps?

Anyway, I've got Henry of Grublin thinking about this issue now as part of the Waggle Dance manufacturing process. I'm sure he'll make the right call for the game!

Waggle, such a great word

Wow, don't think I've played so many games in one week, been very fortunate this last week. Up in Suffolk the children and I played Cuatro, Battle Line, Hanabi and The City multiple times. Then Wednesday night - board games at the London Apprentice with the IBG (Isleworth Board Gamers) - it was another Hanabi and Railways of North America. Yesterday, Tom and Ivy (age 19 months) popped over and we played The City again with Basti, plus Babel which I liked a lot, another Uwe Rosenberg game. Today Tom and Ivy picked me up and we went over to Andy's in Whitton for the afternoon and more new games to me anyway! Splendor I've ordered and playing it I'm glad I have, another game I enjoyed (must check to see if there are many I don't: hold on, Galaxy Trucker, Steam Planet to name but a couple!), followed by the prototype I've been sent by Grublin Games, and then Legendary, Marvel Heroes deck builder.

Railways of North America is an interesting expansion to the Railways Tycoon / Railways of the World series. After the original board, Eastern US, and the expansion, Western US, the North America was never going to be anything but Canada but I guess the US company couldn't lower themselves to calling it such in case their main buying audience in the USA were put off. Anyway, the Canada map is wide, and thin. It looked too small to play well with four but with four of us keen to try it we were able to disprove this. The box says it plays up to five, I think that would be very cramped but you never know. There are some pretty good unique features; the snow line, which adds to the cost of building per hex; the mines, which add additional cubes - 1 to 5 depending on your luck - to grey cities; and the ferry cards allowing you to connect to some offshore cities. We enjoyed it. We thought it was going to be expensive but in the end not that many loans were taken. The major routes didn't bring in many points and the proliferation of grey cities was interesting. This expansion also comes with cards and rules to combine West and East US maps, bring it on.

So, let me tell you all about the 'prototype game'. It's called 'Waggle Dance', great name. It's by a designer called Mike Nudd and Henry of Grublin told me it was his immediate choice for the publishing company's second game. It's bee themed, which I like. It contains 18 dice per player, which I'm often dubious about. Tom and I set it up yesterday but then missed the rules for the 'Queen Cards' so gave up at that point. I found them, on the back of the rules sheet, so played a four player couple of rounds early today and then at Andy's we played a full game.  Henry had told me that they were happy with game play and I have to say that everything worked well for us. It was tight on the scoring, and there are certainly a lot of decisions to make. The use of the dice is perfect for me. Plenty of choice as to which action you decide to allocate your dice too - like Castles of Burgundy for me - and the chance to tweak them with cards as well: excellent.

card backs, the 'worker' dice, pollen cubes and 'Queen' cards

Henry's questionnaire had us looking at the icons and rules. Both aren't far off but do need some improvements, which is what sending prototypes is all about. Am planning to play with the family over the weekend, will be interesting to see what Basti and Josie make of it. I've certainly bought into it. Andy earlier suggested that it offered nothing 'new', and I suppose he has a point. But then if you expect every new game to have new mechanics you're going to be disappointed. If I was looking for every new novel I read to offer something new... you get the point. For me, the mechanics and the play was great. There are a vast number of big decisions to make, several options to consider and most importantly you need to get your timing as efficient as possible. Indeed, it was heavier than I thought it would be, which is good. The rules are pretty straight forward after one game, I doubt you'd need to refer to much for following games. I'm excited by it. Keen to try it some more. Always good signs.

Weak Ends

Another weekend almost over. I can't wait. They've turned into this extended waiting game you see. I dare not commit myself to any of my own projects although there are a couple I really need to start on - the PGTLHE assessment predominantly - because I keep expecting to have to spend time in valuable family mode, especially as it's Mother's Day here in the UK. I thought we'd all be watching a  film of Mrs Hora's choice this afternoon, with tea and more of the delicious 'hidden tiger' chocolate orange and vanilla cake Josie's made. But Mrs H is 'up, up' in the land of jazz noodling. Josie made her breakfast in bed first thing, and then the three of them have been painting the new garden fence. Apparently it's a blue colour, looks pale green to me. It's nice though. The children have been told they can earn £5 per hour and that's got them doing something good at last! 

So, I've been messing around on the new laptop. Have to say the apple experience has completely won me over already, just over a week into it. A few odd bits, not sure i'm quite on top of my yahoo mail account as yet, seems easier to do that side of things on the iPad strangely enough. But for everything else, and in particular, the sharing of docs, the two are functioning brilliantly. I'm also getting used to twitter, not sure quite why I need it, seems the same as Facebook to me, and i'm not the best user of that I'm sure.

Back to what I have done this weekend. Plenty of shopping, food shopping that is. And cooking, still wading through the low-fat feast book and others, sticking to low calorie delights. Chicken with spinach and feta tonight. Tons of washing up. The others have forgotten it ever needs doing I think. Not that that matters. I don't mind getting it done and keeping the kitchen tidy, especially as I'll be cooking in it shortly. 

I've learned to play a new game I received from Germany yesterday, 'Cuatro'. A colourful, if simple, dice-fest - yeah, I know they're far from my favourite type of game - but this is ok. A grid of thirty-six squares with six different ways to score your five dice; five of a kind; four; three; two; three of one/two of another; run of five. You achieve what you can with up to five throws of your dice and then place a wooden roof on the grid. The interesting bit is being able to build on top of other's roofs. You can build on top of someone else if you match the dice throw, but have done so in only four rolls of the dice to build on the second floor, or three rolls for the third, and so on. The objective is have four roofs in a line, or have built on the three 'five of a kind' square, or by having the most points after fifteen rounds have been played. Again, the scoring is interesting with multipliers for the height of your roofs being the key factor. My practice game solo was pretty poor. I'm more hopeful it will be better with competition! 

Was emailed earlier by Henry of Grublin Games. They have a new game they're testing at the moment and he was hoping I might have been able to take it to the International Table Top Event next weekend in Reading. Unfortunately, we're at a family 70th birthday celebration and then i take the children for a few days in Suffolk with mum, so I declined. I offered to take the game to the IBG though, fingers crossed he lets me. Would be nice to test a prototype out, help them further with their plans.

Have spent the rest of the weekend dreaming that at some stage in my life I'm going to get into wargaming in a big way. And therefore, I should now be investing in some or all of the following; A Distant Plain, - about Afghanistan, I already have Andean Abyss and Cuba Libre in GMT Games' COIN [counterinsurgency] series - Sekigahara, - about the unification of Japan aeons ago - 1989 Dawn of Freedom, Labyrinth: War on Terror, and four of the Combat Commander series. They're expensive at £40 - £60 a throw, but are lavishly made and the rulebooks all well-written and they have beautiful maps and I really don't need any more games do I? But how long will these be around for, the print runs seem pretty limited by GMT. But am I ever going to play them? Doubtful, to say the least. There we go, mind made up!

Football's a bit lame for me this weekend too. Ipswich had two superb wins in the last week but could only manage a draw yesterday so remain in eighth position. Close to the play-offs but it may be too late. As for other scores, with the exception of Norwich and Chelsea losing, pretty disappointing. Was interested to read that an Italian referee changed his mind over the awarding of a penalty after some five minutes of discussion in a Roma game. Not good for football that.