Zooloretto-Spiel des Jahres 2007

So, last night, my lovely wife and I popped into Blue Highway Games, our favorite local game store, to play a game.

Normally, this consists of us staring at the library wall for a while until we make a decision. I saw a game I secretly wanted to try, but was a bit embarrassed to. And that game was Zooloretto. I had really not wanted to play the the game, because, well, as you can see, it’s a kids game. But, it did win the coveted Spiel des Jahres Which is the german “Game of the Year” award. The likes of while Scotland Yard, Carcassonne, Catan and others all won. Nominees generally see their sales go up to 10K, while winners can expect an easy 300K to 500K. So, I turned it over, and saw, “Hey! This is a really simple Zoo Tycoon!” A game my wife and I love to play. So I said to her, ”Hey! This is a really simple Zoo Tycoon!” We decided to take it over and sit down and read through the rules. VERY EASY!!  We played through it, and were too tried to play through again, so we went home, but more than anything, a fun game. 

So here’s the premise: You’re building a Zoo. 

This is pretty easy. Very little money floats around, which limits what you can do, but of the most part, you load up trucks, and then, once you’re ready, you take a delivery. Problem is, now you gotta find somewhere to put the Concession Booths and Animals that come on the truck. You’ve got some time though, animals with no place to go stay in the Barn awaiting moving. Problem is, getting animals is free, and moving them costs money. Expending the size of your zoo to accommodate also costs money. And, animals in the barn can be stolen, nay, purchased. You pay your opponent one coin, and a bank one coin, i.e. 2 coins total to take a single animal from their barn. I discovered this is a good way to make money. Deliberately take an animal on a truck you know your opponent wants, and put it in your barn, i.e. a fertile animal who when used with another fertile animal of the opposite sex, makes an instant, free, baby animal. Once all the tiles are used up, the game ends, you count up victory points, minus anything still in the barn, and see who wins. 

This was a great game. I’ll buy it in about ten years.

Woah, wait a minute, ten years? Why the wait? 

Well, that ’s because I don’t have kids yet. My wife and I would definitely get bored real quick, even though there is that real tempting second expansion out there which included a whole bunch of little add-ons. But back to the topic. We don’t have kids yet. It will probably be about five years or so before that happens. “Hey wait, isn’t Zooloretto a 8+ age range?” Why yes it is. But our kids are going to be game playing geniuses playing Carcassonne from year 3 on. I think they mismarked the age range. The game is perfectly suited to younger audiences, depending on the mental capacity.

The nice thing is, the game is a non-competitive game. Kids can play and feel like they are building a zoo, and adults, i.e. the two parents, can play against one another and not feel like they are simply moving a gingerbread kid past the clutches of Lord Licorice. If I was playing with parents and little children, I would have it so the kids are not charged points for still having animals in the barn. This way, the adults loose points and kids don’t. You might also add up your points and then half them, announce what they are, and then minus the barn animals from the points. Chances are then, you’ll lose royally, but it’s all about the gameplay, and the kids, isn’t it?

Definitely worth getting if you have kids under the age of 12. If too many of them are older, probably not. But at the same time, perhaps you want to spend some one-on-one time with your youngest. Get this game, and put their name on it so then can jealously guard it as their own. Then offer to play it with them regularly. 

Have a good Sunday,

-Game Gorilla

Race for the Gravity

So, I played “Race for the Galaxy,” last night. On Board Game Geek it takes 10th place which is pretty good. My thoughts:

Have you played Puerto Rico? In which case, have you played San Juan? Both are also Rio Grande games. Reason I ask: San Juan

 is a simpler, card based version of Puerto Rico. San Juan is a quick pick up game, or, perhaps after a few beers, you would do better to hold cards than little pieces. So, why do I mention this? Because Race for the Galaxy is basically San Juan on Crack. I can play San Juan and enjoy it well enough, but I could probably really enjoy Race for the Galaxy. That being said, I will probably not play it again. Had we had time to play it again last night, we probably would have really gotten it. But the fact is they took the game San Juan, added some nice complications to round it out, but instead they took it to “11.” I guess because eleven is better than ten? They did a wonderful job of making every single card self-containing, thi

s means each player should be able to look at the card, slowly decipher it, and then run with it. Hard to explain, I know. Its complicated.

The problem really is, the cards have trouble really getting across some of the more complicated cards. Now there is an index in the rules (Revolutionary!) but this index doesn’t really elaborate on what the cards contain in themselves. One of the main problem with new players on this game, is that each person should keep track of their own cards, and simply declare during phases, “Give me five cards.” Not

, “How many cards do I get?” Not as bad as someone saying, “Yeah, is a 10, jack, queen, king, and  Ace. Good?” But still a bit irritating. Not to insult those I played with. We were all gamers, it was just hard to play. This is why I won’t play again. I won’t buy it, because this would mean playing with new players again, and having to explain some real abstract concepts, such as the use of face down cards as money, goods and other such things. I mean, I do enjoy explaining some harder concepts. I mean, I’ll play Twilight Imperium with newbs a million times, I loke the game too much!

I did see the inherent “fun-ness” in the game. This means if anyone else ever says to me, “Hey, Gorilla, want to play Race for the Galaxy?” And when I ask them if they have played before they say “Yes” then I will play, and have fun. But I will not buy the game. If someone you know has it, by all means, play it. Buy San Juan, good pick up game, I must say. Just don’t go out on a limb and play it without having played it. Those are my thoughts.

-Game Gorilla.

Christmas and what it holds

So, its almost Christmas. I think you can expect as Christmas comes and goes, an increase in posts will occur. You see, I am in retail. Having just moved to the Rainy City (Not as bad as people make it out to be thus far.) and working two jobs in order to put money in the bank, and newly married, I have had little time for any computering. But this will change! I will be switching to just one job, as that one is likely to offer me some much deserved promotions. The other one would like to keep me, but when you tie the “politics” of a large department store, and shove them into a store the size of a small one room apartment, it tends to get to you. 

Well, this year I lucked out. Who knows how? I’m the new guy over here. But I’m getting the 24th, the 25th and the 26th off from my morning, and likely, both the 24th and 25h off form the other. Nice, eh? This is also the first Christmas my wife and I have actually spent together. The first Christmas, two years ago, we had only just started dating, she went home to spent time with Family. 

The next year I had to work, so while she went home again, I stayed at home and worked. Now we finally get to sped the holiday together. 

What does this have to do with you? Well, my wife has to work the day before and after. This time alone, will be partially spent writing stuff for you to read on your time off!

So, while I have run out of time today, you’ll get some good, honest to goodness game writing in the very near future. 

What a Weird world of gaming we live in

Yes, I am back. Surprise!! Of course, I’m more than aware of the loss of readers I will have suffered having written for a week, and then disappeared off the face of the earth. But I have my reasons. That reason? I moved!

Yes, I took what was going to be a weekend in Seattle, to find a job, and rather than coming back the next week, I simply stayed with my wife, and several friend’s houses for a month while we looked for jobs, and an apartment. A month later, we went home, got all our stuff over a weekend and moved back to Seattle! And what an adventure. 

During these two months, I’ve thought of a lot of blogs I could write, all of which I’ve forgotten. But one thing remains: Irritating people still irritate me! So, with out further adieu, my two months of discoveries:

I have recently started three separate jobs, at once. (I left one, the Calendar Store.) Now I’m working at Barnes and Noble, and the Lego Store. And what a mix of odd people come into this new facet (to me) of the gaming culture.

I m normally exposed to gaming of the right side of the brain. Gaming, creation, roleplaying. Now I’ve been exposed to the left side of the brain, and geeks I’ve never met. Now, I work in Bellevue, which means I sell Lego to the children of Microsoft employees, and the employees themselves. They are rich. Period. They may argue otherwise, but if they can afford Legos and I cannot, they are rich. These employees invariably play WoW, and I can figure out the true games, the board-gamers. But here, they get something to really stretch their minds.

Where’ the irritation? You ask? Women. That’s right women. 

These women walk in, look around exasperated, and then walk up to me and in the snottiest voice possible (money does that to you) Where are you GIRL legos.

Of course, up to this point of question, I had not realized it was my fault. But sure do now. All I can do is look around and say, “Well, all of these! They all help to stimulate creativity.”

To which they roll their eyes and inform me I, myself, need to tell Lego what to do. 

Now, if there are any women out there who are now disagreeing with me, tough luck! Legos are a boy dominated culture. And, in fact, when Lego does try to make girl legos, and they put it to test market, it is not GIRLY enough to draw girls in, and girls who do play lego prefer the older styles anyway!!

Now. Don’t get me wrong. The question is not a bad one to ask of me, but not once have I had a nice woman approach me, and humbly say, “I’m hoping to get all my Christmas shopping done in your store. I have three boys who like legos, and a girl too. But I’m afraid I don’t see any feminine sets. Do you have any suggestions?”

My jaw would drop. Good, we’re in a position where I can make solid suggestions. Now we’re getting somewhere. If customers were less @$$-’oles we’d be in better business, but alas, what’s a store without idiots walking in the door. 

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll talk about the idiocy of Christmas shoppers, and why they are the problem. That sounds like fun.

Game Gorilla out.

How to Paint Miniatures

So, I have decided to give my knowledge to the masses. How do you paint models? I have been doing so for over 11 years now, and I consider myself good, and fast. This is not a blog on how to assemble models. I will cover that on a later date. And whether you belong to the school of thought that paints before or after assembly, is your problem, not mine. Let’s begin.

First question: What paints should I own?

Eventually, I hope, you will own an entire line of paints, but lets consider that you own none. You need the following: Black Matte Spray, Black, White, 1 Dark Brown, 1 other Brown, 1 Silver, 1 Gold, 1 Gray, 1 flesh color. Any other colors you ged are up to you, and depending on what colors you want your army to be. Such as an army with the colors of blue and red. If I was doing blue and red, get a dark and bright of each one. 

Given that you own these colors, you first must spray them. There are two schools of thought, white or black. Go somewhere else if you want to spray white. I tried it, I hated it.  Spray your models black. 

Once your models are black (even if they are going to be painted white in the end.) Next, you need to lay a “depth base.” this is important. If you have someone wearing red, and you paint red directly over black, it will look fake. I take a look at my model, and paint anything that is “cloth” with dark brown. When you paint red over brown, it is softer, and warmer. So, paint everything that is cloth, brown. If you want something bright (like armour that will be ice blue, or the color white.) Paint these with the dark gray you purchased. Leave all “metal” objects such as metal, swords, straight armour, black. Also, paint all skin with your dark brown. 

Now, the other reason you are dong this, is to create shadows. When you paint skin, you don’t fill all the cracks with the skin tone, you paint all but the recesses, then you have good shadows. 

Now, for the most part, paint the colors you want where you want them. It’s that simple. I don’t highlight much, and if you’ve never painted before, do not worry about it until you’ve painted for longer. 

However, there is one more very important painting tip. Drybrushing, wet and dry.

What does this mean? Dry brushing, in theory, consists of dipping your brush in the pot, scraping it off on the edge of the pot, and then lightly wiping it across a paper towel. Then, wiping it across the figure. This causes a frosted look. You could use a bone white over skin to cause a weathered look. 

Now, I am going to coin a new phrase (probably not the first to say it.) Wet drybrush. Some people try to gather the exact amount of paint onthe brush, and then touch it to eh model perfectly. I will instead, wet drybrush. This means you scrape it very well off on the paint pot, and not on the paper towel. Then, you wise it across the nose of the figure (with skin tone) and you leave the brown next to it. This way, you aren’t frosting the figure, but painting them without having to be exact. Beware, this may take a few coats of paint. But it’s safer than painting all wet-like.

 

Those are my thoughts. If I get enough replies, I may expound. 

–Game Gorilla

My Dice Monkey Guest appearances

Hey, just so you all know, I’m also a guest writer for Dice Monkey, my brother, who is now a member of the RPG Bloggers site! So read his too. I am sitting on the second half of my Twilight Imperium Review right now,and that will be posted as soon as possible. I’m also in the middle of a hectic move to Seattle, and that is occupying my every thought right now. Sorry. In other news, I taught my wife how to play Privateer Press’ Hordes last night! Hoorah for Gamer wives!!

Appaloosa

Okay, so, this may be a bit off the beaten path, as this is a Game Blog. But I just came home from the movie Appaloosa. Directed and adapted by Ed Harris, starring the same, as well as Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger, and Jeremy Irons. 

(Here of course is where I insert the gamer mention. I have met Viggo Mortensen twice. And I have to say, he is a quietly understated, larger than life individual. A real Cowboy King. I had the urge to bow to him. It really was like The King of Gondor is standing in front of you.)

Now, I pose a few questions. Do you like Cowboy movies? Do you like good drama? Do you like good directing? Do you like good camera work? Do you like understated violence? This is the point where you expect me to say: Then don’t see this movie. WRONG!! This movie was amazing. they had to work very hard (throw in one too many F-bomb, but no more than that, one booty shot, a bit of gratuitous blood {no more than CSI}) and that’s how they got an R rating in order to make it an adult film. But my wife felt very relaxed the entire movie. Not sleepy, relaxed. Everything was understate. It wasn’t all adrenaline. When the gun fights came, they weren’t heart-pounding (for more than say, 60 seconds) They didn’t kick you in the head with adrenaline. Just a good solid dose that kicks you in the rear, and satisfied. I won’t say when it is, but the fastest draw I have ever seen in my life blew me away. Please see this movie. I don’t like Hemingway, but it reminded me of that understated dramatical side that snide remarks almost go unnoticed, and you kind of smile in that Ed Harris way and walk away from it. 

Appaloosa may replace Tombstone as my favorite Western. And Tombstone is one wild and wonderfully campy (good, A-list camp of course) western. 

Don’t miss this one in theaters.

The Order of the Stick: The Dungeon of Dorukan: The Board Game

Hey, there. This is the Dice Monkey. You can visit my blog here DiceMonkey. I’m the Game Gorilla’s brother, and I’d like to tell you about a little thing called “Order of the Stick”. Now, if you’ve ever in your life played a Roleplaying Game, you need to read “OOtS”. It’s a webcomic about a group of adventurers in D&D, who know they’re in an RPG. Cue hilarity.

The Order of the Stick Board Game continues in the vein of OOtS. It is designed for each player to take the role of one of the characters in the Order, as you wander the Dungeon of Dorukan (the first large plot arc in the comic), seeking to overthrow the evil Lich Xykon.

I have never played the Order of the Stick Board Game.

Let me explain:

My wife has read some of the OOtS strips, and finds them very funny. We were at a game store, saw the game, and decided to pick it up. We were looking forward to playing, but by the time we got home, we decided to hold off until a day when we had more time. So we put the game away in the game closet.

For two months.

Two weeks ago, we were bored, had a couple of hours of free time, and decided to open up the game. I puled it out, read through all the cards, getting all the jokes, then pulled out the rules. I began to read over them. It stated that the “short version” of the game was going to take between… hold on, lemme read it here…

WHAAAAAA?!

THREE TO FOUR HOURS?! The SHORT VERSION?!

The conversation followed like this:

Her: “Ugh…”

Me: “Hmmm…”

Her: “Hmmm…”

Me: “Wanna play Fluxx?”

I’m sure the game is fantastic. And if I had a few friends over and we had the time, I’m sure we would have a great time. But note that this is NOT a pick-up game. You can’t expect to sit down and play with only an hour or two of free time.

Other than that, the art was nice, the pieces were nice, and the box was nice. If you’ve read OOtS, you should definitely pick it up.

And clear your schedule.

Twilight Imperium Review

Twilight Imperium is my favorite game. Back when I worked in a game store, nothing made my day feel more complete than selling Twilight Imperium set to a customer or two. 

I will be giving some plus and minuses to the game. There are some downsides. So, to be fair, let’s just analyze this from the buyers point of view.

So, you first enter a game store. You’re looking for a game to play with several friends. Guy behind the counter asks, “You play a lot of games?”

And to which, you reply, “Why yes. Many!”

“Well, do you play Settlers of Catan? Puerto Rico? Magic? Axis and Allies? Diplomacy? Cosmic Encounters?” To which you reply, “Most of those, yes!” “Then I have the game for you. How about a game in which you get to play all of them at once! Not parts of one of them at a time, but all at once! You are playing and trying to win as Axis and Allies, while I try to win at Diplomacy. Sound like a game you would like?”

“Hells yeah!” You reply. He takes you to a very large box and says, “This is Twilight Imperium.” You look first at the artwork. Lots of Aliens on the outside. Cool. Then next to it you see an expansion called Shattered Empire. “What’s This?” you ask. And the store worker says. “Oh ho ho. That is the expansion. You’ll eventually need that.” Then you look at the price. Wow. $70 for the first and $45 for the expansion. A lot of mulah for a game you haven’t played.  

After much debating, and maybe later a little buyers guilt, you decide to go ahead and buy it and take it home. You arrive home and open the box. Lots of parts. Lots of bitty parts. You assemble them (cut them off the sprue) and then open the rule book.

Wow. You are confused. This brings us to the first flaw in the game. The rule book is utterly, terribly, designed. It is horrendous. Fortunately, the rules are intuitive, and which each time you look up a rule, you will pretty much remember it, but know this. You will never learn the game from reading the rulebook. I do suggest you get two serious game buddies and beat through the rules over the course of three or four hours. Don’t plan on it finishing. Just beat through it. Print off another copy or two of the rule book, and play through it. The thing that will seem most scary is the Battle System. Don’t worry. It’s not as bad as it looks. It’s axis and Allies. Not hard at all. Once you have beat through with two friends, never play a 3 person game again. 4, minimum. With the awesome expansion, 8 max. (Though, I would love to run a 14 player game someday.)

You need the expansion for one reason alone (lots of other good reasons too.) When you play without, each race has some slight variation to them. But for the most part, the technology race could win through war, or trade, and not really care about tech. With the expansion, you get race specific Technologies that make your race ROCK in their particular field. you also get four more cool races for your pics. I like the game for several reasons, for one, it is complicated, but intuitive. by this, I mean you are playing against the other players (hoping that laws that are put into place don’t bog you down from your goals, {yes, that’s right, you get to change the rules as you go through senatorial decisions.}) and each game, especially when you randomise races, forces you to learn a new way to play. Once you have the rules from the main game down, introduce a new variant rule from the original, or expansion set. I’ve yet to use them all yet, but I will in time. 

There is one race I highly suggest pulling out (except to seriously hinder someone from having a powerful race) and that race is the Sar’lakk. They suck. There is no advantage to them whatsoever. Don’t even bother. 

Now, one potential problem is game length. With a 4 player game, it might easily take 4 hours. Go up to 8, and you’re talking two or three days. I suggest, for diplomacy sake, that you schedule a friday night, followed by saturday afternoon, and either sunday evening, or the next weekend to finish. This is for several reasons. One, gaming all night makes you sick as a dog (does this to me every single time.) And secondly, allows players to speak with each other via e-mail and phone while away from game. when Joe takes Ben aside to “speak” with him, its apparent what is happening. From home, a phone call can seal a deal.  

I have more to say, which I will save for my next blog. In the next blog I’ll explain how to help your players understand the logic behind the game better.  Thanks for reading, and go buy Twilight Imperium. You may not play it often, but you will enjoy it when you do.

Who Am I?

Now, this is not reference to a Jackie Chan movie, but it is an answer to a question.

Who Am I? I am a gamer, first and foremost. I’m an artist. I draw, I paint and sculpt miniatures. My life goal, as of right now, is to be a professional game designer. I’m discovering more and more how difficult this will be, but I intend to accomplish this goal, no matter what it takes. 

That being said, what kind of games do I like? What do I hate?

My number one, most hated game is Apples to Apples. I hate when people say, “hey, let’s play a game! A fun one that everyone can agree one. How about Apples to Apples, the game of forces arbitrariness in which we goof off and nothing is accomplished!” Not to say I don’t like games without a point. In fact I’m designing a game right now that is all about arguing to an arbitrary conclusion. But that fact that everyone deems Apples a true game gets on my nerves. Call me an elitist if you will. I am, in fact, that. Proof? When I say I design board games, and someone says “I love playing board games! Scrabble(which is fine), Clue, Monopoly. I love those!” Inside I roll my eyes and groan at the lack of knowledge they possess.

My number one favorite game? This will prove my elitism. “Twilight Imperium.” I love this game to death. I wish I could play it more. Take ten of the ten awesomest games (and a few less cool one) and wrap them up into one game in which you are playing them all, at once? This is Twilight Imperium. I will go into an indepth coverage of this game at a later date. 

Carcassonne and Catan, I love those. Don’t give me basic, give me every expansion. That is the only way to play. Completedness surrounds my being when I play all expansions. 

I intend to keep this entry short, so I will put a small mention into Wargaming. I have played for ten years now, I have a Tau Force, (of the unknown Naga’ruku Sept) that has won me appearance awards. I also am now fully into Warmachine, playing a Cygnar group. My wife is about to start a Circle of Orboros group, and I am starting a Karchev Man-o-War/Berzerker Khador force soon. 

That’s all I got for now. You’ll discover the rest about me through my blogs. 

Have a good day.

Game Gorilla. 

(Game Gorilla is currently listening to D6 Generation Episode 9.)

http://www.thed6generation.com

Also, read my brother’s blog.

http://dicemonkey.wordpress.com