Last time we talked about playing online, today we go back to the realm of cardboard, plastic, and wooden bits. We’re going to branch into some mid-weight games. I’m sure some of you are wondering what this weight I’ve mentioned before means. It’s a measure of how complex the ruleset of the game and the interactions are. As an example, checkers is lightweight, chess is mid-weight, go is heavy. Other terms to reference heavier games include brain burner or “thinky” games. They will generally focus on efficiency and planning ahead, with less random elements. Now that you know that, let’s get into some mid-weight games:
Game 1: Avoid angering the gods – Tzolk’in (2-4 players, 5 with an expansion)
Tzolk’in is a game of timing, efficiency, worker placement, and corn. The rules of the game are fairly simple, each turn you may either put workers onto the gears, or you may pick workers up off of gears and take an action available to that worker. After all of the players have taken their turn, you turn the center gear one crank, which moves all of the other gears one step forward. There are six gears in the game, five of which can hold workers, with the center one timing the game. The game is played over 27 turns broken down into 4 periods. Each gear focuses on different items:
- A gear for getting wood and food, the higher up the space, the more wood or the more food you get
- A gear for getting other resources, the higher up, the better the resources you acquire
- A gear for moving up in technology, building buildings or monuments, or moving up the temple tracks
- A gear for getting more workers, or exchanging corn for other items
- The final gear for placing crystal skulls for points and temple steps
As you place workers, you need to put them in the earliest open space on the gear. So if you’re the first to place a worker on a gear, you place it in spot 0. If you then place a second worker on the same gear, you place him in spot 1. You must pay corn for placing in any spot other than 0, and for placing more than 1 worker a round. When picking workers up, you only need to pay if you wish to backtrack spaces on the gear (taking the action at spot 2 when you’re at spot 4 would require you to pay 2 corn). You can pick up all of your workers in one turn if you wish (and good players try to plan it that way for the last turn of the game). At the end of each period, you also must feed your workers who require 2 corn each. If you can’t feed a worker, you lose 3 points per starving worker. There are multiple ways to get points:
- Placing Crystal Skulls on one of the gears
- At the midpoint of the game and the end of the game, you will score points based on how far up the three temple tracks you are with bonuses for being the highest.
- Certain buildings give you points
- Technologies can give you points
- Monuments are worth points at the end of the game
At the end of the game, all of your resources get traded for corn, and every 4 corn is worth one victory point.
Game 2: Building a bag out of workers – Orleans (2-4 players, 1-5 with expansions)
Bag building, the kissing cousin of deck building (which I’ll be getting to soon). The premise of both systems is that all of the players start with the same resources, and through the course of the game purchase new ones that make their bags/decks better. In this game this is done by hiring workers. The game is played over 18 turns with the following steps being taken each turn:
- Flip over the top hardship tile (the one for the first turn is set)
- Draw a number of discs out of your bag based on your position on the Knight track
- Arrange your discs under the actions you want to take
- Starting with the first player take an action that have all of the worker places under them filled. The next player then takes an action or passes.
- Once all players have passed, pass the first player token to the next player
Most of the actions involve you purchasing a new disc and moving up the associated track. As you move up the various tracks you gain certain benefits. If you are ever at the end of a track, or there are no further discs of that type to take, you are unable to take that action. Other actions have you moving around a board, building trading houses, picking up goods, and increasing your position on the development track. The goods and trading houses are both worth points at the end of the game, and some of the hardship tiles will require you to give up certain types of goods tiles. The final type of action allows you to send some of your workers out of your bag by moving them to the beneficial deeds board. Here they will give you development points or coins. Through the course of the game, players will also acquire citizen tokens which will be worth points at the end of the game. Once the final round is completed, a citizen is awarded for the person with the most trading houses, and everyone scores their points, which are made up of the following:
- Money is worth one point each
- Goods are worth between 1-5 points for each tile
- Citizens and Trading houses are worth a number of points based on the threshold you’ve passed on the development track
- Some buildings award end game points
The player with the most points win.
Game 3: You can’t win with Green power – Power Grid (2-6 players – recommended for 4-6)
This is one of the first economic engine games I’ve touched on. In this game, each player represents a power company working to power cities through connecting them to their network, purchasing power plants, and buying the fuel the plants need to operate. This is done through several phase each round:
- Power Plant auction – Starting with the first player, a player may (except for the first round, where they must) put a power plant up for auction. Each plant has a number printed on it, which is the minimum price of the power plant
- Purchase Resources – In reverse player order, players purchase resources to power their plants
- Expand network – In reverse player order, players pay to expand their network to other cities
- Power network – In player order, each player decides which plants to run, and how many cities in their network to power (which generates income)
- Bureaucracy – More resources come into the market, power plants get moved around, and player order is determined by number of cities in each player’s network, with ties being broken by the numbers on their highest numbered power plant.
The game does a decent job of simulating a market with a set number of resources coming out each turn and watching players value plants differently based on what other players have been buying through the game. There are coal plants, oil plants, garbage plants (natural gas in different versions), nuclear plants, and green plants (which require no resources). The end game is triggered when a player has a certain number of cities in their network (the number is based on player count). However, the winner of the game is the one who can power the most cities in their network, with the tiebreaker being remaining money. As each player can only have 3 power plants at a time (and they’re public knowledge), you can see how many cities each player can power. The only randomness in this game is the order in which the power plants come out, which is mitigated by them being placed in numeric order, and which ones can be auctioned off.
Hopefully you haven’t been run off by these more complicated games, and at least one of these piques your interest. Again, feel free to bring up questions or complaints below, and I’ll be back next week with some games that you can play on your Android (and iOS) devices.
Game 3: You can’t win with Green power – Power Grid (2-6 players – recommended for 4-6)
this looks pretty good. added to cart.
It’s a great game. If you want to try the basics of the game, and keep it a bit simpler, there is a card game version of it at a lower price.
you can win with green if it isnt bid up too high
i usually win with nuke, with you can avoid competetion for the fuel.
I usually win with at least two nukes. By phase 3, the resource cost makes it very worthwhile.
Does it give access to those sweet sweet subsidies? I am not seeing that in the rules. That and a greasing politicians and regulators round of play.
Is Hawai’i still there, or did the Senate get smaller?
It’s still there, but I don’t currently have any plans to talk about that game. I’ve only played it a couple of times.
Someone call Hank Johnson and tell him it tipped over.
Look, I can deal with HVAC and Catalonian politics, but i draw the line at board games.
How about anice 9.7% Bitter Ale?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/d7emqacPWl4Nm4bh2
yum. needs to come in a bigger bottle. I like big bottles, magnums if possible
avast, computer dorks
is it normal for older hard drives to misreport temps?
i have a little hardware monitor widget, and i rebuilt my pc and moved a bunch of drives around… and i noticed 2 older ones are running absurdly higher than average (~50c vs. 25-30 for normal ones). Wondering if its just that these are older (they are) and don’t report accurately…or are actually degraded and run hot?
whoops. didn’t mean this as reply
The Thermistors are dirty, really when they get dust on them it acts as insulation, messing with your readings,
/Controls Dork
Fair point … that too.
Depends on what you mean by ‘older’. In general, older models of drive need better cooling because they’re less energy-efficient, plus you have the possibility of bearings wearing.
The spec sheets for the drives should tell you if they’re rated to run at that temperature. 50C isn’t outrageous, it’s way under the curie temperature, even allowing for the platters being hotter.
… although over 55 or so and you’re probably starting to hit the edge of reliable operation.
i just found the spec sheets for the specific drives, and yes, both have “average operating temps” with a low around 40-45C. they’re normal, its just newer drives seem to run cooler
2 500gb drives that are both probably ~8-10 years old. one was in an external drive enclosure which was used purely for backup/storage, and never had many run-hours (i.e. it was off for most of its life), the other was a system drive from an old PC.
i actually think its probably their ‘normal’ operating temp. i put my hands on them while the system was on for a few hours, and they really feel just as cool to the touch as the drives reading 30c. I think the HW monitoring is just shit, frankly
If there’s no appreciable difference in the ‘touch’ temperature, you’re probably fine, especially if it really is 30 degrees.
All good choices.
9.7% is a bit high for a Bitter, but I’d give it a try.
It’s not like Fosters Bitter, I wouldn’t call it one myself, but it drinks light a light Ale, which is Dangerous considering the ABV at 9.7%
it’s about 3.9/5.0
The oldest board game in the world is essentially about drawing lines to control territory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(game)
How about a Catalonian HVAC game where you plot a secession but have to do it in a way to not disrupt the economy so much it makes heater filters scarce?
I haven’t played board games in decades. That will soon change since we have had the arrival of 7 grandchildren in the last two years.
Got me to thinking…my own son has an uncanny head for business. On his own he has built his own business from the ground up before his 25th birthday. He is building a second location as I type this and it will open in about 2 months. The guy is making himself into a millionaire before his 30th birthday. I think his uncanny head for building and running a business could be because of the many hours he spent playing SimCity and his endless fascination with fantasy sports games during the years when his brain was developing the most. I dont remember the sports games as I had no interest but he tried to explain it to me once. I got the notion it was similar to SimCity in that you had to build something from the ground up, go through endless statistics and numbers, understand how the many parts of that entity are interconnected and affect each other…
I think the ol’ “Those darned kids today and their video games!” crowd is wrong. I think we are getting smarter.
I love this anecdote and agree 100%.
+1 Last Starfighter
Board game.
http://media2.popsugar-assets.com/files/2011/06/26/4/301/3019466/b098c22681d51c45_GirlTalk/i/90s-Boardgames.jpg
Board game.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/H8o88HHa1WU/hqdefault.jpg
Board game.
https://i.imgflip.com/20ud8q.jpg
Board game.
http://www.searchamateur.com/pictures/electronic-mall-madness.jpg
I think my wife must have owned that one.
My sister had it.
Shouldn’t those all have been broad games?
During my undergrad years I was playing chess against a woman I knew during a party. I beat her the first game. The second game she opened up her top to reveal lots of cleavage. I lost that round.
What? Are you saying that your male gaze actually gave you less power?
I was once young, dumb, and full of cum. Now I’m just dumb and full of cum.
Is that real?
Yup. A little after my time, but not by much. Girls a few years younger than me played it.
Its no wonder I’m in favor of fracking and perforating ANWR- I had this game:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2608/king-oil
Are you using the Same Handle over there? I’ll friend ya
I appreciate the gesture, but I only used the link as a citation- Im not a member there.
As much as I liked that game, I didn’t become T. Boone Pickens. Obviously.
Well, you should, there are a few Glibs there, we can form our own group
V For Ventilation!
^ This guy gets it ^
I thought it was V for vulva.
Oh, wait. This isn’t the “Girl Talk” sub-thread.
Smartass!
I need to get the model # from my girlfriend’s antiquated Johnson Controls furnace, and pick the brains of a qualified HVAC person here on the site. I want to make sure the filters are correct. Yusef? Can you recommend anyone?
If serious, let me know, if not, Fuck Off! and don’t waste my time
Oh, Tulpa.
A family board game for glibs.
Fuck you CPRM.
Now I’m down a rabbit hole of College Humor videos. I didn’t even know that website was still around. Pretty funny stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJNXCpfDrNo
Oh, and tying this into the last column I wrote, Tzolk’in is available to play on both BoardGameArena and BoiteAJeux (although I greatly prefer the implementation on BoiteAJeux).
Thanks for the article! Haven’t played the first two yet. I love board games but have a hard time finding people who are willing to put in the hours and effort required to play the good ones.
Twilight Struggle has been one of my favorites for a long time. I picked up High Frontier 3rd edition a while back; played it only once with others and had a blast but lost bigly. It’s one that can get really complicated really fast.
There’s a couple of online sites (referenced in my last post, and last write-up) that allow asynchronous play that I’m a fan of. I’ll also give credit to Asmodee for really pushing hard on online gaming (I mean, who would expect Scythe on Steam this year)?
So after multiple Bloody Marys, I’ve been putting on an Anti-State show for my wife. She is quite amused and thinks I should do a YouTube video. Of course she’s been drinking my closest version of a Mai Thai I could do given our ingredients at hand. No board games but I’m sure naked twister in future.
Oh and Amazon Prime just delivered the best calzone in town Woohoo.
Anarchy, calzones, mai Thais, and naked twister –
Can I come to your house?
Lol. All are welcome:)
I’m staring at a set of unopened playing Cards, the Grand kids all want to play Monopoly, I want a Game of 500 Rummy
This place has a lot of Board Games for online play, Clunky site, but it works,
http://www.boardspace.net/english/index.shtml
These Guys went nuts on Risk variations,
http://www.conquerclub.com/public.php?mode=home
SugarFree has some competition ….
For the shock sites aren’t you supposed to entice the people to click? I mean if you had said:
Don’t you think you’d get more clicks?
Truth in linking. People would expect even more boobies.
Power grid looks interesting.
If any of you Glibs want to play Smallworld 2 online, post up your username and I’ll invite you to some games.
link?
Assuming Sean is talking about the mobile version, here is a link. I’m on the Asmodee online world with the same handle I use here. This includes Jaipur, Carcassonne, Splendor, Ticket to Ride, Small World 2, and probably a couple other I’m missing.
I don’t like tablet games that much, I like my Real estate, widescreen monitors are good for Old folks
Tablet. Pure luxury! Most of my mobile games get played on my phone. But if you’re looking for the same game with more screen, Smallworld is also on Steam.
Steam is the Google of Game sites, or is it the Gillespie of Games sites? Either way, I don’t/won’t use them again
I play on my kindle:
https://smile.amazon.com/Days-of-Wonder-Small-World/dp/B00H8ORLK8
Apple:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/small-world-2/id364165557?mt=8
You only need the base version to be invited to games. I have the three expansion sets, but you don’t have to purchase them to play them when invited to games where the person who sends the invites already has them.
OT: Chelsea Manning has filed to run for the Senate in Maryland.
This should be awesome.
Can she? Her sentence was commuted, but not pardoned. right?
I actually don’t know how this would work.
I was hoping for maximum lulz that she filed as a Republican, alas not.
Thank you God. I keep encouraging them to double down. Instead they are tripling down. Send in the clowns.
I hope a vet who was deployed when he was treasoning runs against him.
I guess their septic tank was full?
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/01/children-placed-storm-drains-hawaiian-residents-receive-ballistic-missile-alert-video/
Not sure about the outrage concerning this. As long as the weather’s pretty dry, a storm drain makes a shitload of sense. It’s probably as safe as you can get if you have a couple of minutes and no way to get to a shelter.
You know how outrage works. No matter what happens, somebody’s gonna have some.
Shit load, Lol!
sorry to OT
Mic with the hot take on the HI false emergency alert
Well, Trump is expected to, in a situation like that, get to Hawaii and personally knock the ICBM’s down with a yuuuuge, gold-plated, tennis racket.
Gold Plated Driver, He golfs…….
and it was someone on the island’s fault for sending that. Trump didn’t do anything.
Yes he did! He….. Truuump!!!!
But just because we don’t know Trump wasn’t behind it, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
/democrat
Appeasing sworn enemies who swear to kill you always works so well. I swear to god fucking pinkos have dogshit between their ears.
Kinda like BO hand delivering pallets of cash to our pals in the mideast.
What a fucking knuckle dragging moron. Peace now? What does she think would achieve that? Rolling on her belly and surrendering to the Norks or turning the northern part of the Korean peninsula into Seoul’s newest and largest glass parking lot? Between that, there isn’t peace to achieve quickly. Not to mention, apart from Rocket man’a launches, there aren’t current hostilities. These idiots would prefer that? Apparently.
Tulsi Gabbard is a grifter. The knuckle dragging morons are the useful idiots that keep putting her ass in that seat. The left loves anyone that hates western enlightened nations. As pointed out above BO got caught giving billions in aid to the Iranians. He got caught that time. How many times do we not know about?
power grid: how,many times have I lost because I was one electro short on a key turn?
Yes, but you can’t blame that on randomness. It does help if you play with the same group enough to learn patterns, such as the fact that I can easily bid up the girlfriend on green power plants.
Cheater! i do that with my family in Rummy games
Right now, I’m taking on all comers for Yahtzee, ELO is up and down..
ELO?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXpjF1qtpt0
I was hoping it was this
that should light the HM Signal.
Without clicking, no. It’s your Game rating
I don’t get it. Are we talking about games? I’m about 30 hours into AC Black Flag. An old game. What are these games you speak of? Is this stuff pre-paleolithic or what?
Sounds about time to punch out that fucker Rackham.
“Of the few infamous pirates to call the West Indies his birthplace, Jack Rackham was born in Jamaica at the height of Port Royal’s boom as a den of scoundrels. This would likely explain his atrophied moral compass, for he was frequently drunk, rarely serious about anything, and always chasing women. ”
I don’t see anything to not like about this guy.
It’s the fact that they basically rendered him as Russell Brand in the game.
I played AC Black Flag a few times. It came with my XBox One oh so many years ago. I saw you mention it before, and I agree, sailing the ship around was the best part. I find games like that don’t hold my interest unless my son is around to tell me how to play it. I don’t have the patience, or maybe the smarts to figure it all out. That and there are no automatic weapons. Sad.
The berzerk darts are pretty good though.
It’s 1715, of course there are no automatic weapons. You can attack with cannons on your ship pretty quickly after you upgrade them and your crew enough and with your swords once you have enough skills.
You had to wait till 1779 for that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girandoni_air_rifle
Well, if you’re Irish, you get a Puckle Gun. Upgrading to that as early as possible saves you a lot of on-deck action. In all other respects, Rogue was just colder and more Celt.
posh. the swivel guns are repeaters.
*disclosure: AC4 was probably the only game other than fallout (3, vegas, 4) + borderlands that i’ve played over the last 10 years. And yes, i liked the ship-to-ship combat the best.
Got my raspberry pi setup today. 8,000 retro games. ???
My girlfriend is geeking out playing Castlevania.
Another example of the difference between city folks and country folks.
There was a wolf/car accident in sort of southish Alexandria, Minnesoda. Well beyond what the traditional range of the “endangered” wolf is. Trooper shows up and takes pic because it is unusual. Posts pics to FB. Hilarity ensues
Thank doG they didn’t post any of the “outrage”, just the poor guy trying to explain himself.
“Dances With Traffic”?
“I wasn’t smiling because I was happy the animal was dead. It was quite the opposite, it was a sad situation,” Kavanagh said. “Wolves are awesome creatures….”
He’s a cop. It looks like a dog. Discuss.
Given the way they’ve already crammed the MRAP into the garage, I predict a dead guy, a dead kid, and lots of dead dogs. But everyone will get home safe.
http://www.whio.com/news/crime–law/update-standoff-involving-year-old-hostage-enters-16th-hour/SiZ5d6wq2xFZNq9XdfwU3J/
My hometown of 30,000 did the big unveil of their blacked out MRAP about a month ago. It’s going to be hilarious when they roll it. In other news, my state, Idaho through beaurocracy alone seceded it was ending titling of military vehicles manufactured after 1967. Seriously, there is no where to run to anymore.
Fuck Off!
/Normal Greeting
Eat it, Tulpa.
I swear I’ve never been in any German porn.
Agricola… I’m both obsessed and in dread about that game. Motherfuckin Agricola.