Dice Tower Awards - 2010

The Dice Tower 2010 award nominees have just been released. It's a bit of a mixed bag in my mind. There are a few that will definitely get my vote while others I really want to try.

String railway and Dominant Species both sound really good, but its impossible to get a copy so I doubt I will get to try them some time soon.

Best game for me, 7 Wonders. I have played this game so many times and still enjoy it. As for the other categories, I need to think a bit more.

Orc Rush in the cold

Another night another game meet for the P.O.B. group. Last night I managed to get a game of Ur in. It's a new game to me and one that I have just started playing on mabiweb. To be honest I was confused on the online version but after the game was explained to me it made more sense. I came last mainly due to building two Zigurats near the start on my Agriculture tiles and then shafting my cube production. Live and learn eh!

Next up was Thunderstone, second play and it really clicked this time. I lost by 1 point but it was an enjoyable game. We used the starting set of cards again as I was the only player out of the three who had played before. The Sphinx card has tripped us up both times now. Needing a magical attack of 8 seems really harsh. We all struggled to combat her and having the thunderstone behind it made it the game winner. I bought as many fireballs, wizards and flaming swords as possible but they just didn't hit my hand at the right time. In the end I ended the game using the Elf wizards ability to put a monster to the bottom of the deck. I thought I had killed enough monsters but hadn't leveled up enough of my hero's. A really good game and I will look out for the expansion now.

Lastly I managed a game of Summoner Wars. This is getting lots of love at the moment. The Dice Tower guys really like it and with the Dice Tower awards being revealed soon I am sure its going to get something. It got my vote!
It's a nice quick miniature battle game that uses cards instead of miniatures. Contradicted myself there but it works really well. The rules are simple but playable. However the Orcs seem to have won every game so far. I am not sure what I am doing wrong with the Elves. I know they have better range attacks but its difficult to get them in position without being overrun by the Orcs. More plays and a rethink required on this one.
The play mat still annoys me on this one. For the cost of the game I would prefer something better but then games seem to be getting more expensive anyway.

Civilization with dice

It's been a busy month with work and home but a few games have been played. I was lucky enough to get Endeavour and Roll Through the Ages last week as presents. Endeavor looks amazing and it should get its first play tomorrow night. RTtA has been played and I am pretty impressed.
i haven't yet played its grown up companion but there is a very good game lurcking in the small box.
First play was against Dobbie and we quickly started rolling the lovely wooden dice. I went for getting a few early developments while Dobbie wanted more cities and the great wall of China. the dice were rolled and after 30 mins I checked over the winning conditions. First to 5 developments, wait up I have 7 already. Ooops. Dobbie had finished his great wall so we decided to have two more rounds then score. We both then went for pure score with me finishing a hanging gardens while Dobbie went for everything else.
I won 33 to 27, Dobbie would have won but he had more disasters than me.

I am going to give it another play tomorrow but first impressions were very good. there is a free expansion available for it as well that adds a bit more meat to it, but I think I can live without that for a bit.

I have also finished painting the robots from my Robo Rally set. They look pretty good, so I will post some pics of them soon. Until then, I need to re-read the Endeavor rules as I don't want to miss the game end conditions on that one.

The Dice Tower Awards

The 2008 Dice Tower Awards were revealed last week. For those of you that don't know the Dice Tower is a podcast hosted by Tom Vassal and covers board and card games. It's a good listen with some good humour and lots of information on new and old games.

This year I was asked to be on the panel and I jumped at the offering. After the initial selections were made we all had to vote on the different categories. I managed to get plays in on most of the games in the categories which helped out.

Anyway, the categories and winners are

• Best Game of the Year , Dominion
• Small Publisher of the Year, Fragor Games for Snow Tails
• Best New Designer, Donald Vaccarino for Dominion
• Best Reprint, Formula D
• Most Innovative, Space Alert
• Best Expansion, Descent : Road to Legend
• Best Artwork, Battlestar Gallactica
• Best Family Game, Formula D
  

I am pretty happy with the games that won, they are all good games and ones that I enjoy playing. I think Dominion was going to win Best Game hands down, its one of my favorite games of the year and I haven't even used any of my Intrigue cards yet.

Formula D also did very well, its another good game that has benefited from the reprint. I wanted it to win Best Artwork as well but Battlestar is a worthy winner.

Gaming has been a little light at the moment, but a session has been planned for next week so hopefully some new games will hit the table. I am dying to give Dominion: Intrigue a play, so we shall see.