Pizza Box Football and Doom: the Boardgame

Turns out I'm the Geek of the Week over on Boardgamegeek. Check it out and feel free to ask some questions.

Time to catch up on some session reports. Two weekends ago, the boys and I broke out Pizza Box Football to play during the conference championship games (Tivo'd, of course). We played a simulated playoff (Steelers vs. Broncos, Seahawks vs. Panthers) and Superbowl using the expansion rules and teams.

This is a great little game - one of the best football simulations I've played. I'm not sure the expansion rules add much other than confusing extra cross-references, though the choices of more offensive plays (play action, screen, draw) and higher risk defenses (blitzes) are a nice touch. Some may say simulation is too strong a word for this game as it doesn't even try to simulate individual player actions. What the game does simulate is the play-calling of football.

Yes, there's a decent amount of luck in the game. I was reminded of this repeatedly in my game with Matthew.

Yesterday the boys and I tried out scenario 2 of Doom: the Boardgame. This game hasn't seen very much action, partly because it is a bit longish and partly because it seems pretty hard for the heroes to win. I've also been seriously thinking about trying to trade it for Descent, a game I think would come out more frequently.

It was rough going for the marines this time around; perhaps I was too hard on them but I just can't hold back. They made it to section 2 but were soon overwhelmed and I accumulated 6 frags to end the game. It was a fun experience and I don't want to sound too harsh on the game.

1st Annual Jack Weeks Challenge Cup

It has been almost a year since I posted anything about the chess program I run at Archer Glen elementary here in Sherwood. We just kicked off tournament season and had a warm-up session last week during school with the two other Sherwood elementary schools at the local YMCA. Chess is a big deal in Sherwood, largely through the efforts of Jack Weeks, retired school counselor who initiated the chess programs in the local schools. It therefore seemed appropriate to award the Jack Weeks Challenge Cup to the school that wins the tournament each year.

I ran the tournament team swiss style and we managed to squeeze in seven rounds between 9am and 2am. I was only able to attend until about 10:45am, but we had more than ample adult support on hand to keep things running smoothly. Jacob and Matthew both had solid days, scoring in the 3-4.5 point range. One of Jacob's best games was a match against Hopkins Elementary's best player - you can see the endgame below where they squared off with K/R and two pawns each. Jacob got his rook lured into a trap in the back corner and lost it, leading to a loss in a well-spirited game.

Matthew did very well and finished in the top 3 for third graders. This is his third year playing in the tournament circuit and should be a powerhouse by the time he hits the fifth grade.

Archer Glen pulled out the team victory as well as the top 2 individual players. This coming Saturday is the big regional Chess for Success tournament. If we can pull out a 1st or 2nd place at regionals then we'll advance to the state championship.

Another SimplyFun Night

Julie and I attended a SimplyFun party last Friday night at Eric's house, with Mike Deans providing the consulting power. I didn't expect to see much new but I did want Julie to experience one of these parties (she missed mine). Plus, well, it was an excuse to hang out with friends and play games.

We started out with a game of Handy. I'm generally a big fan of dexterity games, but this one just doesn't do it for me. It is the type of game you play through a round and say "Oh, I get it. Can we play something else now?"

While half the group played a game of Walk the Dogs (you can clearly see one the players employing the infamous poodle strategy)…

we gave the new(er) game Texas Roll'em a try. This is a Richard Borg design and derivative of the classic Liar's Dice (which is itself derived from Perudo). The theme and bits are cool, but the game fell flat for me. What's different from the original?

• There's more open information in the form of a "flop" of three dice that are use in conjunction with the rest of the hidden dice. I suspect that the net effect of these additional dice is nill, but I'm not a statistician and I might be missing something.
• Anyone can call "bluff" (or "liar") on a bet, not just the next player in sequence. This isn't a bad variant.
• After a bluff has been called, two more dice (the river I guess) are rolled and are added to the total. This adds a level of randomness to the game that, in my opinion, takes away from the elegance of the original design. Especially as the total number of dice decreases and these two become more impactful.

The final game of the night for us was the new Darryl Hannah design Liebrary. This is a derivation from the classic parlor game "dictionary", aka Balderdash. The difference here is that players are given the title and author of a literary work (in one of several categories, including classics, kids, horror/sci-fi/fantasy, and a few others) and must come up with the first line of the work. The judge player takes all the submissions and reads each one aloud along with the actual first line. As expected, you get a point for guessing correctly and for each other player that chooses your fake answer.

I found the game to be more challenging than Balderdash as you need to try and mimic the voice of the author. It won't be right for everyone, but I enjoyed it enough to make it my only purchase of the evening. The components for the game are very cool - the box looks like a giant book that folds out to reveal the card holders and the game board.

Strike One Off the List!

I showed Julie the game Ido tonight, recommending that she use it as a combination art literacy / gaming session at the school. As we were fiddling with the pieces, admiring the cool abstract art aspect of the game, we decided to go ahead and give it a try. Strike one game off my list! Woot!

Ido is a an abstract game with very simple mechanics - start a new piece, move pieces on the board, or shift a black square frame one segment on the board. The goal is to move four of your pieces off the diagonal edge of the board.

There are some surprises and challenges in the game - we were both a bit baffled at times about the impact shifting the frame would have on the shape of the board. The game played quickly, about 15 minutes, but we both agreed it would be more interesting with 4 players.

Harbor Seals at Salishan

I thought I'd share some nice photos taken last Sunday morning at the northern tip of Salishan spit. This is where the harbor seals and sea lions like to congregate, and there were a bunch of them on Sunday.