The Mine Shaft Gap

What follows is a chronological collection, for the record, of some email back-and-forth on “that Dune session” - perhaps henceforth to be known as the “infamous Dune session of twenty-ten”.
Thanks most especially to Brad, who kicked things off here:

Brad, Tue June 8:
Dune requires its own special write up.

Dune, the greatest game ever, apparently, according to some.

6 players were either dragooned or volunteered to play.

As Alex would only play the game under the basic rule set (no optional or advanced rules at all), Richard & Ed, in appeasing Al & wanting to get their Dune fix, agreed. This brought about their cries of anguish & disbelief every 5 minutes for the lost optional / advanced rules, to which Al stoicly replied, “is it in the basic rules? No, so we’re not playing it.”

Personally, I think Dune lacks spice so to speak without some of the optional rules, after all, who is the Kwisatz Haderach? In the basic rules, it would seem no one is.

Anyway, with the first Shai Hulud card, alliances were formed, Neil “Sugar Daddy Emperor” & Steve “Guild Rent Boy” kept wads of cash between them. The Vickary Bros created the unholy alliance between Richard Atreides & Ed Harkonen while the only natural alliance being Alex Fremen & myself BG.

The game trundled on, with no alliance being in a position to get & keep 4 red sites, because as soon as someone was, the other 2 alliances were always powerful enough to ensure that it never came off.

So that was then pretty much 7 turns of the same thing, over & over for 3 hours, ad nauseum, Alex & I beating our collective heads & looking longingly at other games, such as Samurai & other Knizia bastard children.

A Turn 8 Shai Hulud saw a change in the alliances with the Emperor divorcing his Guild Rent Boy & the sides were now evenly split down the middle. The new sides were the Emperor, Fremen & BG against the Atreides, Harkonen & Guild. The former alliance almost pulled off the victory on Turn 8 (which was the turn that the BG had predicted an Emperor victory).

It was then another 7 turns after that of inevitability, plodding to the Turn 15 auto win for the Guild. At Turn 9, Al & I were happily prepared to concede this. However Richard & Ed were convinced they could manufacture a win before then.

3 hours later & 7 turns later, it was proven they couldn’t.

Turn 15 came, the Guild won by default.

In essence then, Dune really does need the optional & advanced rules as the game is just too evenly balanced for 6 players with the basic rules only. And it took 6 hours of my life to prove that. The optional & advanced rules upset the balance of power allowing concentration of force at certain points so someone can actually force the win rather than put everyone through 6 hours of grinding out to Turn 15.

Because it’s Dune, because it’s one of the best themed games ever, I’d play again (after a period of therapy), but only with certain optional & advanced rules added but not all of them. Thus the debate begins as to which rules to include & which rules to exclude…..

Cheers
Brad
–
Don’t like my attitude? Call 1-800-Get-A-Dog
(Dream like you’ll live forever, live like you’ll die today)
—–

Pat, Tue June 8:
All I know is that everytime I looked over, the folded arms to unfolded arms ratio was way up there :-)
—–

Alex, Tue June 8:
lol,
well ‘Dune’ is like a lover you know is going to make you hurt (and not in a good way). I have to say I liked the basic game a lot more than the advanced, and most of the rules left out were just chrome (even if i missed some of it myself). If anything the kwizats haderach should be Freman… i mean, have you read the books ?;D. All in all advanced is just a hooker version of your little black dress number (too much make-up, keep the lights low and part with the readies). Probably as richard said it’s a better 4 player (but you only really wanted to ditch the bene and guild which were long play focused), which really means 2 player team. I’m not sure I can resist her allure again, but I’ll hate myself in the morning.

Alex.
—–

Andrew, Tue June 8:
Alex is clearly making a late play for Richard’s “most extended analogy” award!
—–

Richard, Wed June 9:

Alex Filewood wrote:
> I have to say I liked the basic game a lot more than the
> advanced, and most of the rules left out were just chrome

First let me correct Brad’s record. We played TWO games of Dune.
One won by the Atreides in turn 1 (modesty forbids me to mention…)

The other an interesting, but over-long, tactical grind to a Guild victory - precipitated by an unexpected nexus due to Alex’s mis-counting, leading to Steve “the Evil Bastard” back-stabbing his way to solo victory, based ultimately on the back of on an alliance set-up by Brad “the Puppet Master” seven turns earlier which forced Alex and Neil together so that Brad’s prediction could go off.

The basic game vs optional/advanced is fine, I’ll take my Dune in any position, but the problem is the game generally requires some house rules.
I play that the stronghold player limit is 3 rather than 2 for 5+ players. This would have prevented some dodgy blocking and surely seen an earlier win in game two.

I think a 4 player game is optimal and should run 1-3 hours. Leaving out the Bene Gesserit and Guild is easy because in the basic game, it is a long time before either faction becomes a major player.

But fellow sand-dwellers, remember what the Fremen say….
“al-raqs quddam alumi majhudan la yura amal-u”
- dancing in front of the blind is an effort that goes unseen
`r
—–

Brad, Wed June 9:
If it is 3 units allowed to biff it out for a Stronghold fight, then yes, we would have reached a decisive result long before I believe rather than the grind to default conclusion we all have to endure (which may not in itself necessarily be a strategically incorrect thing, a Guild player can legitimately say that that was what his goal was.)

The first “game” was surely a reminder of the rules & refresher for those who haven’t played in sometime? hehe
—–

Neil M, Thu June 10:
I enjoyed Dune (even if it did take a big chunk of game time, at least
one game I play at Contrail seems to).

Yep, if you play with 3 players allowed to contest a stronghold, then
the game probably won’t go to Turn 15 (is that an optional rule :)

Thanks to all for good gaming, Paul for organising venue, Brian for
Sunday breakfast and lunch, Euhan and Richard for transport.

Cheers
Neil Mack
—–

Alex, Thu June 10:
One last comment on that. Why have a limit at all? I mean if you are going to extending to three… to make it less pus-able, making 3 teams more likely… why not extend it to greater number and stop the pus-able option completely (after all it is only pus-able if non-allied allies work together to stop a mutual enemy winning, which is pretty daft “or a feature”) thus allowing even solitary players a chance to win (woo hoo). working on the “last word” award as well :)

Alex.
—–

Steve, Thu June 10:
Can’t we just wait for FFG to release the expansion for their upcoming re-themed Dune which fixes all the broken rules?
—–

Neil M, Thu June 10:
Could be waiting some time for FFG.

I guess the 3 allowed in a stronghold allows for some blocking but not to the extent we saw in Saturday’s game (trying to get the last word in :)
—–

Pat, Thu June 10:
> Could be waiting some time for FFG.
They’re still working out how to fit it into the Battlelore system.
—–

Neil M, Thu June 10:
Or Battle Star Galactica.
—–

Brad, Thu June 10:
I don’t think there was enough counters in the last FFG release, so they’ve gone back to the drawing board to try & complicate things with more counters.

Cheers
Brad
—–

Alex, Sun June 13:
*sigh
Alex.
—–

PM: Alex, I think neither a sigh, nor signing your name counts as the last word. Sorry.
—–

(Cut-and-pasted from an email by Richard V., June 7, 2010…)

And the winners of these prestigious awards are…….

Worst Prediction: Don: “The no missing card variant of No Thanks! can’t possibly work” - before we played two hysterical games of it

Stealth Annihilation: Euhan: “Oh - I don’t know the game well, you’d better check the rules for me” - before destroying Brian and me in Samurai

Added by Andrew:
Fixed that for ya:
Stealth Annihilation: Euhan: “Oh - I don’t know the game well, you’d better check the rules for me” - before destroying Brian and Andrew in Brass
(unless he used the same tactic twice, hmmm)…
&roo

Added by Euhan:
Dang! My stealth annihilation strategy has been exposed.I will have to think of another strat for next contrail!

Gratuitous Swearing: Paul: “Because I f**&^ng can!”

Superlative Diplomacy: Pat: “I’m really sorry I can’t play Descent, but Brian asked me to bring 1960 and I’d feel bad if he missed out on the chance…”

Art Lover: Jeff: “I’m just going to keep all these Rembrandt guys chained to the easels making money for me” - Dutch Golden Age

Pessimist: Ed: “What’s the mercy rule again? I’m going to need it!” - Fresh Fish

Evil Bastard: Steve: “I guess that means maybe I should break our alliance; especially as you let me mind all your money!” - Dune

Weak Stomach: Brad: “No, I am good for Samurai. No, actually I am a bit queasy. But hang on, I might be alright. No, I think I’d better bail…”

Boomerang Bullet: Brian: - in dodging Descent winds up in a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill fighting evil and loathing… (of Hasbro’s semi-co-op)

Clark Kent: Craig: - never seen in the same game as me…

Hush Hush: Andrew: “If I was a table-talking guy, which I am not, I would tell you that there is a move that you could do that would really help your position. [silence] But as I am not, I can’t tell you…”

Golden Grumble: Al: “Ah good, you have brought the bin. Just throw in Dune for me will you” - shortly after crying over one missing Dune counter

Mr Nice Guy: Neil: “Why is everyone so evil?” - Dungeon Lords, as his nice guy dungeon with it’s impish Passion Pit fails to arouse much adventurous interest…

Optimist: me: - for bringing Beowulf

…Disclaimer: some words may have been altered by the effects of beer and sleep deprivation-induced memory loss or the desire for a cheap laugh..

Thanks everyone for the insanity, jocularity, and sportsmanship.
Thanks Paul for inspiration and Brian for perspiration.

ciao
Richard

Venue: Paul’s place
Present: Brad, Jeff, Alex, Pat, Brian, Tommy, Craig, Don, Mark, Matt, Richard, Paul
Played: Homesteaders, Factory Manager, Amyitis, Chaos in the Old World, Fairy Tale, Wars of the Roses, Ave Caesar, Lascaux.

A new ‘52-week high’ turn-out at Thornleigh, in which we welcome Don Bone (of Sunda to Sahul and Freya’s Folly fame).
Tonight we also welcomed Rostum to capture on video some of the ’secret men’s business’ of our gaming tribe. Coincidentally, at home we just stumbled across this link to an upcoming documentary film… about boardgames: Going Cardboard. The final product also apparently features some very high profile names in the games industry. One curiosity is that in the trailer piece, at 0:39, for a fraction of a second, on the right edge of the screen walks a dude with outrageously green hair, who must be Friedemann Friese. (I also like the guy’s t-shirt at 0:25.)

Homesteaders: From a distance this one looked intriguingly like a game about the economic management of a farm. An interesting and under-used theme. I’d like to have a go at this one soon…
Results: Matt: 54. Alex: 48. Jeff: 46. Pat: 42.

Factory Manager: Brought over by Don (I think).
Played by Richard, Don, Brian and Craig.
Results: Richard: 177. Don: 119. Brian: 109. Craig: 94.

Amyitis: [Correction to original post: Played by Pat, Craig, Don and Richard. Apparently won by Richard, but scroll down to comments to see a full synopsis...]

Chaos in the Old World: Tres cool. Four abominable races vying for control of an ancient mythical land through combat and corruption. One funky feature is the dial system embedded in the board for tracking each players’ power progress and providing other individualised chromy benefits. In this game each player (race) has different conditions for advancing the dial. Eg., the Khorne had to defeat opponent character markers, whereas the Tzeentch had to corrupt regions primed with magic markers and stones.
Not until at least half way through did I think I could be competitive on the score chart. But the score leaps and bounds once the individual regions are fully corrupted. Since I was driving corruption as much as I could manage, I picked up a wadge of points as the first few regions finally fell over (hey - I must be thinking of Friedemann again…).
Apparently this is the third time in a row the Tzeentch have won, which will have some wondering whether the character powers might not be balanced (especially since it was me!). I’m not qualified to answer that one yet and obviously more plays are required to flush this out.
Although this title falls clearly within the Ameritrash (or more politely, Americhrome) camp, the genre I’m normally not that interested in, there’s a lot to like and there seems to be a lot of scope for creative play. I’ll rate this highly and look forward to giving this another run, even as a different race type.
142 mins start to finish, including maybe 20-25 mins for rules and setup.
Results: Paul (Tzeentch – blue): 60. Tommy (Nurgle – green): 45. Brad (Slaanesh – purple): 44. Mark (Khorne – red): 21.

Fairy Tale: Filler stock for those who must.
Results: Jeff: 42. Pat: 37. Alex: 35. Matt: 32.

Wars of the Roses: We see that Brad’s pre-order from the Jan expo has finally made it to the table. And he wasn’t even able to play his own game! A huge, huge game.
With this result and Homesteaders, it’s obviously been a great night for Matt.
Results: Matt (Henry VII – Lancaster – blue): 128. Jeff (Edward IV – York – green): 122. Alex (Richard III – York – yellow): 95. Brian (Henry VI – Lancaster – red): 94.

Ave Caesar: I wandered in to witness the hilarious final lap. The usual whipping rule applied, as well as a few other variants.
Results: Richard (red): Crosses the line first. Brad (grey): 2nd. Don (green): 3rd (on foot). Craig(brown): 4th (on foot). Pat (blue): Collapses due to exhaustion a mere one space before the end. Tommy (yellow): “…run down like a dog.”

Lascaux: Night finisher. Pat hates this game. But it looks nice. Will keep on the shelf for families only from now on.
7 mins rules; 23 mins game time.
Results: Pat: 16. Jeff: 13. Alex: 9. Tommy: 5. Paul: 2.

In posting this I feel a little like one of those people who forwards lame jokes in email around the office.
But this one seems to be going viral, albeit in the small-ish community of gamers. I’ve already seen a bit of discussion building out there on the concept of “strip Settlers” and “strip Agricola”.

Certainly this is not a hint to my usual circle of gamers that I have any interest in playing strip-anything with any of them. Although somehow combining it with Lightning Reaction could be interesting, in an weird, Abu Ghraib kinda way…
I have nothing further to say on this topic. (For now.)

Source: http://www.xkcd.com/.
Thanks Mark for finding.

Venue: Canberra
Present: The Australian gaming community and their families
Played: All kinds of stuff

Executive summary: Best one so far.
Last year’s expo was the first one co-located with CanCon in Canberra, having been migrated there from Albury by the Expo’s custodian for the past five years, Phil Davies of Mind Games. But this year they were able to expand their floor space to accommodate more exhibitors and more visitors.
Even more importantly, more of our own extended games group was in attendance for at least some, if not almost all of the event – to name a few names: Neil F., Alison and family, Richard and family, Pat, Brian, Craig, Brad, Alex, Jeff F., Rick D., Lindsay, Jeff G., Neil M. Tommy D., Steve Mc., Phil R., Phil H., Iain T. and Ed. I even bumped into Ken F. very briefly… Also in this year were our Vic-based friends Melissa, Fraser and family, Giles and (momentarily!) his new family, and Gregor. And I feel I have almost certainly left some important names off of this list – sorry.

Much of the first day – Sat Jan 23 – was spent getting orientated, catching up with people (ie., the names above), and keeping the kids entertained. One of the first attractions the latter were drawn to was the big novelty chess set. This successfully kept them amused until some socially inept spotty teenager decided to inject himself into the game, dictate proceedings and insult the chess-playing judgements of a seven-year-old. Oh well. But we all moved on.

For my first ’serious’ gaming experience of the weekend I got into a game (although, only the first two turns) of the brand new, yet-to-be-released Wars of the Roses, by Queenslander Peter Hawes (also the designer of Heads of State). This looks to be a fascinating, almost Wallenstein/Shogun-esque game of second-guessing movements for area majority scoring – I wish I could have played for longer. Wars is rich in theme with characters and places core to that particular era of English history, and Peter has obviously done his research thoroughly. Not that I’d know, of course, although I couldn’t help quoting the opening sentence from Shakespeare’s Richard III upon being dealt my character card. (Note that my RIII is not after the style of Sir Larry or Ian McKellan, but rather Peter Cook of Black Adder. But I digest…)
Anyway, four players each play for themselves, but two are Yorks and two Lancasters and bonus scoring is dependent on which family controls the majority of regions for the claim of King) at the end of each turn. This means that you will want to work with your ‘partner’ for the purposes of overall area domination, but in the grab for points even this player will become fair game in localised cases where the majority score doesn’t add to the likelihood of gaining the King bonus.
As mentioned, Wars isn’t available for purchase in Australia yet, but it’s good to know that one of our group (Brad) has put in a pre-order (at a bargain Expo price) – looking forward to that one hitting the table soon.

We moved on and wandered around some more – as usual the miniatures hall was just huge, with some fascinating looking stuff on some of the tables. Here are two shots from within the main hall, taken from different angles.
Back in the boardgames area the Settlers and the Carcassonne tournaments were well underway – here’s another pic.
After some more wandering we made it back to the more kids-friendly environment of the Expo and pulled up some chairs at the Dr. Wood stand. Two of the new titles on display here we already have (Super Farmer and Duck Duck Go!) and I’ve written about both of those here before. But this time we jumped into another also from this Granna series, called ”Hooop”. The temptation is to refer to this “Hoop”, as in something round and hoopy, but I am now convinced it is actually “Hop”, but with prolonged emphasis on the central “o”. Simple concept but plays quite well, with aspects that remind me of Dragon Delta, ie., the little bridges needed to jump from one island (lily pad) to another. Other than this there is no similarity, however.

Before days end we picked up a few games (except for Cardcassonne, nothing over $20) from one of the retailers.