Season 3, Week 2: Formula D, Splendor, and Junk Art!

The second week of the Table Top Game Club brought in large numbers once again.  I’ve decided that for the foreseeable future, featuring two games (one for larger groups and one for four or less) should be able to accommodate the turn-out of enthusiastic gamers.  This week we featured Splendor and Formula D.

Last year, we played Formula D in Week 27.  Here is what I wrote then:

 In anticipation of the bigger group, we were ready with another game featured on Table Top, Formula D, a racing game for up to ten players.  Formula D is a wonderfully tactile game, with tiny model cars and personal dashboards complete with moving stick shifts.  The game uses a very clever technique for movement.  Although it looks like a simple roll-and-move mechanic, different gears are represented by different polyhedral dice (fans of Dungeons & Dragons will recognize these right away).  The lowest gear represented by a d4 and the highest represented by a d30.  As players shift up and down in gears they get to roll different dice.  The dice are also numbered specifically to represent a range of numbers.  For example, unlike a typical d6 that is numbered 1-6, the d6 representing second gear is numbered 2-4 (2,3,3,4,4,4).  That way gearing up to higher levels guarantees a decent amount of movement (you’ll never roll a one on a d20 for example; its range is 11-20).  This simulates the anticipation and excitement of being able to open up the engines on straightaways, but as the saying goes, “speed kills”.  Turns on the track are dangerous.  Players must stop a prescribed amount of times at each turn, for overshooting a turn causes stress and damage on the vehicle.  In a one lap race there is no pit stop, so there is a great sense of risk and reward.  Open up the engines into a higher gear to speed ahead, or play it safe and let your opponents flame out before the finish line.

This week, the game was enthusiastically enjoyed by the players, especially our German exchange students.  A couple of the German students knew of the game from before.  Formula D has been a staple of European gaming since the 1990s.  There is something exciting about playing the game with a group of enthusiastic students from another country.  It seems fitting that a game about Formula 1 racing in Monaco inspires excited table talk in a variety of languages, giving our race a real international flair.  In the end team Germany finished 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd, with team Canada trailing behind.  Alas, but it was still a very fun session.

The other table had three students and our library-tech play a few games of Splendor.  I love Splendor.  I find the game scratches a similar itch as Ticket to Ride, and considering they both involve set collection, the comparison makes sense.  Splendor, like Ticket to Ride, is also a wonderfully tactile game.  The goal of splendor is to purchase sets of cards, each card featuring a gem (red, green, white, blue, and black).  To purchase the necessary cards, players collect gem tokens that are printed on colourful poker chips.  The poker chips have great “heft”.  They are solid, weighty, and since they must be organized quickly, they are also stackable.  Through purchasing certain gem cards, the players earn “prestige” which are the victory points of the game.  The early rounds of the game are very relaxed, but as the collections get bigger and the prestige points are awarded, the tension begins to mount.  It’s fun, challenging, and also plays relatively quickly, so multiple games can be accomplished in our two hour session.  The students really enjoyed it, and a couple had played it the year previous, so they jumped at the chance to replay an old favourite.

I knew Friday’s session would be sparsely attended due to a massive field trip for music students, so I took the opportunity to test a new game. There was six of us, so we decided to try JunkArt.  The game is a fascinating experience that is simple in its design, but very engaging in execution.  Junk Art comes with a massive selection of wooden blocks.  There are sixty blocks in all, fifteen shapes in four colours.  The shapes are designed to be stacked, but only if you have skilled hands.  These aren’t Jenga blocks or Lego.  Some look like tiny flowerpots, others like miniature barbells, etc.  The game comes with a deck of cards representing the pieces, and a second deck representing a number of cities.  Each city card features a set of specific rules for that round.  A typical game consists of three rounds, or three city cards drawn at random.  This is a clever mechanic to increase replayability.  The core mechanic of the game is to stack blocks and build sculptures on a small wooden base.  One round might have players draft cards and use corresponding pieces to create a sculpture.  Another round will have all the players building a common sculpture, eliminating one another through fallen pieces.  A great variant has the players start a sculpture, and then switch places to continue building on someone else’s work. 

It’s a fun game with the right players.  That’s the tricky part.  This is not a good game for players who fidget or are hyper-active.  Touching the table or fiddling with the pieces often results in toppled sculptures.  We had a couple instances of players losing in frustration and then tossing their pieces back into the pile, only to have them ricochet into another sculpture.  However, if everyone can keep their wits and energy in check, it’s a clever, fun, and engaging game.

Thanks for reading folks!  See you next week for our club's coverage of Five Tribes, Camel Up, and Codenames: Pictures.

SEASON 3, Week 1: The Return!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back.

Hey folks!  It's been a while, but I have returned to update the blog.  Now that Summer is over, the school year has been underway for three weeks.  I held off restarting the club until we had our first full week of class.  Holding off on our first session allowed me to get my courses ready, but also allowed me to do a little advertising for the club.

This is the third year in a row I've been running the Table Top Game Club, so I'm going to call it Season 3.  If you're reading this and you want to review how my first and second seasons started, you can check out the Board Game Geek forum here for Season 1 and the start of Season 2, and look at this blog's archives for most of Season 2.

Season 3 brought some interesting challenges and changes.  Going into this season, we knew we lost only one or two grade 12s due to graduation.  A couple members from last year moved away, so I wasn't sure what the turnout would be like.  We also lost a staff advisor who is taking a year off to travel.  If our weekly turnout is large, I would need another staff advisor to teach games and oversee the operation of the club when I can't make it. 

In the first two weeks of class, word started to get around that the club was returning.  New grade 9s started asking me about when the club starts, and I realized that I may have an overwhelming number of players for just one advisor.  I also knew that the first couple of games we feature should be playable by larger numbers.  Lucky for me, an additional advisor arrived, courtesy of a retirement from last year.  Our previous library technician retired, which meant we had to bring in a new staff member.  As it turns out, our new library tech is a huge fan of board games, and offered to help out with the club.  Thank goodness, because the turnout for the club was big this week.  Luckily, we were ready; we featured King of Tokyo and Diamonds.

I'm not going to go into the specific details behind King of Tokyo.  Next to Catan and Ticket to Ride, King of Tokyo might be the most recognisable title in the gaming community.  I chose it because it has instant "wow-factor" (standees, big fun dice, monsters), it's a very easy game to play, and it plays six players.  The students who played were really into it, and I know when a game works when afterwards they're still talking about the game, and strategies for "next time".  I don't think I've ever encountered a player who hates King of Tokyo, and I'm eager to try the expansion King of New York: Power Up.  This expansion will add Evolution Cards to the KONY monsters, and allow them to be played in KOT!  I can't wait to show the club.

Diamonds is a fantastic trick-taking card game that has a nice twist on the suits and taking tricks.  Diamonds comes with a deck of sixty cards in the classic four suits (although there are no face cards).  The centrepiece of the game is the collection of gems, a nice pile of "diamonds" and "rubies" (five diamonds = one ruby).  Diamonds also comes with six cardboard standees called "vaults".  Each player has a vault that acts like a miniature shield, sort of like a tiny GM screen.  While playing and taking tricks, players either score points by grabbing diamonds from the pile, stealing diamonds from other players, or securing diamonds into their vault.  The game-play is elegant, easy to learn, and wonderfully tactile. For added flair, I purchased a large piece of black velvet for the gems to sit on, making them look like a display in a jewellery store, adding to the theme of the game.  Students like this game, as classic card games like Hearts and Kaiser are big in Saskatchewan.  The crew felt at home with the mechanics, and the diamond scoring system is brilliant.

Friday's open gaming session brought three surprises:

1. Germans!!!  This year, a number of students, veterans of the club, signed up to be partnered with German exchange students.  They brought the German students to the club, and big surprise....the students from the country that brought us Essen Spiel and the board game renaissance we are experiencing today LOVE board games.  Their enthusiasm, energy, and overall joy towards the games is an exciting addition to the club.

2. Citadels.  I know nothing about the game.  I don't own it nor have I ever played it.  I have heard positive rumblings about the 2016 edition due out later this year, so it is on my radar.  However, our library tech owns the game and offered to bring it to the club.  This is great, in that it allowed us to split the turnout into two groups, and she knows her game like the back of her hand.  An extra expert makes a game session smoother, and students can seamlessly move from one game to the next.  It also allowed me to focus on surprise #3....

3. Spyfall.  This game came to my attention this summer when I started listen to the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast. I picked it up because the podcast discussed game sessions they've had with the game, and that it accommodates up to eight players.  The rules are incredibly easy to learn, and it can expand from a single eight minute round to a longer session effectively.  Players can drop in and out to try the game once an eight minute round is over.

The game play is fairly easy to learn; the dealer hand out cards from one of thirty small deck.  Each deck features a location and occupations found in that location.  For example, the Hotel deck features occupations like a maid, a security guard, a guest, etc.  One card in each deck just says "SPY".  Players can look at their cards to reveal the location and their specific occupation, but their cards are hidden from everyone else.  The goal of the players with the location is to find the spy.  To do this they must ask each other subtle questions that only someone in that location would answer.  Say you are at the theatre, you might ask "So...Mike...How do you like your seat?"  Mike could respond, "It's great...and considering what I paid for it, it should be!"  Based on Mike's answer, you have a decent idea that Mike knows you two are at the theatre.  The spy, who has been listening to this exchange, might think the group is at the theatre...or...an airplane?...a train?  The group wins if they can identify the spy, usually because they answer or ask a question one would not make at a given location. For example, if the group is in a submarine, why would someone complain about the rude customers?  That person is definitely a spy!  The spy wins if they can guess their location based on people's questions and answers, or if no one is able to identify the spy by the end of the round.

We loved this game.  It was a great game in learning the art of subtlety.  The students had to really think about their words, and there were quite a few moments of a player (me mostly) stopping the clock, revealing they are the spy, and declaring with great confidence and swagger "I'm the spy, and we're at the circus!", only to have the students flip over their cards and raucously reveal that in fact we're at a corporate party.  It was tremendous fun, and a great exercise for our EAL students.

It's good to be back.  I bought a few new games for the club over the summer, and I can't wait for them to hit the table.  I'll do my best to keep up with the blog and weekly or bi-weekly reporting.

Thanks for reading!