Gaming Biodiversity

There are times, in the past, where I have been unjustly accused of being too negative about a game.

 

Well, perhaps 'accuse' is a bit of a strong word, but I do receive feedback in the comments section, verbally and in letters to the Gormenghast Times to the effect that I need to lighten up a bit and give designers some room.

Personally I think that I give quite a balanced views of the games I have been playing. I try to cover the good, the bad and the ugly - of course if a game has very few redeeming features then my hands are somewhat tied.

 

Even when I do say I quite like a game, many of the BGG acolytes have a tendency to leap on the negative bits that I have pointed out.

I suppose it proves the old adage that you have to say seven positive things in order to outweigh a single negative.

 

The other thing, though, is that 'the boardgaming community' is astonishingly sensitive to constructive criticism. It's almost as if dissent is a personal attack on fans of the genre.

 

But I like debate. I like to weigh up the merits of things.

Above all else I like standing amongst the cheering crowds shouting "The King has no clothes".

 

So, anyway, in the spirit of homing in on the good, let me say this: I had a cracking games session last night.

 

The Halfling made a rare appearance (he's not been spending much time at his Hobbit-hole, of late) and was immediately declared the S'mellier for the night. From under his mithril coat he pulled out the mighty Acquire and we sat down for a spot of company wheeling and dealing.

 

Acquire is a true classic, in my mind. Simple rules but real depth of play. Enough luck to shake things up a bit (sometimes you really can get hosed by your tile draws) but sufficient control to allow for strategic shenanigans. 

 

In a superb piece of preliminary wormtonguing, Grima pretended to not know the rules, so it took a while to get underway as the Halfling patiently explained them again. It turned out to be a funny old game with no mergers early on and a total of only three or four by the end. Everyone seemed to be blocking everyone else's juicy takeovers with the result that there was very little cash flow until we got into the final stages.

I ended up coming out a clear winner holding the most stock in the two giants that had gradually sprawled across the board under their own steam.  

 

From old to new, we switched to Snow Tails; surely no one can deny that this is a modern classic?

 

If Acquire is Holst's "The Planets" then Snow Tails is Half Man Half Biscuit's "27 Yards of Dental Floss".

A cheeky little game where the players spend more time on their feet as their team of huskies race their sledge around the pack ice, felling saplings, crashing into solid walls and each other, or (in one extreme case, in the last race) taking off and flying over a ravine.

 

Win or lose, I always enjoy this game -which is a good job as I only managed joint third in the first race ("The Hobbit's Entrails") and second in the final race ("Grima's Revenge"). To be fair, one of my huskies had a cube splinter, stuck into his front nearside paw, which made it difficult turning.

 

As I said, a mighty fine evening of gaming.

No new rules to learn (unless you're bluffing) and a couple of top notch games from the cerebral to the adrenalin fueled.

 

As a bonus, for the night, both Grima and the Halfling got into the spirit of the Great Gormenghast Game Sale.

Each bought a couple of games from me.

This was a result as

a) It saves me having to get them posted on eBay

b) The games will still be locally available for playing

c) I now have some spare space and cash.... but for how long?

 

I really don't understand what Bob Geldof had against Mondays.