We were playing it wrong: Twilight Struggle

Just as the penitent suffers missteps during their journey toward, so to do I make tread the familiar ground of old mistakes.

The other day Alan and I were playing a game of Twilight Struggle. In a game-ending mistake, we resolved our Headline Phase cards in ascending numerical order, rather than descending numerical order, such that I ended up triggering global thermonuclear war. Sorry guys, my bad.

We were playing it wrong: Quoridor

Today's Victim: Quoridor!

This game is beautiful in its simplicity, but neither beauty nor simplicity is a match for my ignorance!

My error is one of zeal, I promise! Yesterday my cousin Catherine visited me and after I played hard to get, the little lady was begging me to play a board game with her (now if only I could get the ladies who AREN'T related to me to do that!).

Unfortunately, I've been divesting myself of some games lately and my holdings are a little bare, but after a bit of digging in the closet I pulled out this forgotten gem. Quoridor is a game with a simple objective and, joy of joys, that objective has nothing to do with victory points. Basically, you want to get your little dude from one side of the board to the opposite side of the board. Only your opponent gets ten walls they get to throw up in an attempt to impede your progress while you do the same to them.

Generally speaking, it's better to move forward than to try and screw somebody out of a move. Every wall laid down has to cost an opponent at least two moves to just break even, so they must be placed with care! It's also really easy to accidently block yourself. Finally, each player only gets ten walls, and believe, you'll never have any left over.

We played three games, Catherine won three times, but at the end I realized I had gotten a rule wrong: when I was explaining the game, I said pawns couldn't jump over each other. In fact, they can. Silly me! I was in such a rush to play the game I neglected to reread the rules.

We were playing it wrong: Power Grid

Today's Victim: Power Grid

This one is a blast from the past! Back in my salad days of college gaming, this one was a regular. To be honest, we've been playing it for so long that my memories of learning it are somewhat dim; I believe in this case we may have been taught it wrong.

In any case, we played the rules for phase 3 incorrectly for at least a year before being put on the right path my by good friend, the eminent pizza chef and fellow board game enthusiast, Newbius.

So anyway, we'd been playing it so that when phase 3 came out we would begin removing power plants from the cheap end of the market but failed to incorporate any other changes in the rules. As Newbius so kindly pointed out, when phase 3 occurs, the power plant market changes substantially; there is no longer any futures market and the overall size of the market shifts to 6 plants.

What's remarkable about this rule is that we played literally dozens of games of Power Grid spread over the course of nearly a year without being aware of it, simply by not reading the manual.

We were playing it wrong: Warhammer 40k (part 1)

Today's Victim: Warhammer 40k (5th Edition)!

First, a bit of foregrounding...

40k is the kind of game that only the British could make and only geeks can feel good about playing. It is a labyrinthine maze of cross-applied exceptions to a universal set of rules. It's the kind of game that hearkens back to the days when proto-GM basement-dwellers acted as referees rather than storytellers. People needed not only a neutral party, they needed the expertise in order to play a game.

So it should come as no surprise that my forays into this game resemble less a properly played game than a skittering half-formed abomination created through both my own faulty memory and misinterpretations of confusing rules that are, while we're at it, badly organized.

So anyway, my long-suffering opponent John and I took to the field this weekend for another round of what I have come to think of as Newb-fight: The Battle to hit Rock Bottom (Result: We both lost. Just like last week's installment.)

During the engagement, we committed the following play errors. Some are attributable more to one party than another, but I see no reason to split the blame.

1) During set up, we failed to determine whether or not terrain could be occupied and did not nail down fire port rule until set up was finished. Nice Job!

2) Jump infantry can move 12'' during movement and must make a dangerous terrain test if they land on difficult terrain. Jet Packs move 6'' but always get to move again after shooting (unlike normal jump infantry, who have to assault normally).

3)Marneus Calgar (pictured above) and the Terminators cannot deep strike in turn one--they have to wait for reinforcement rolls like everyone else.

4) Units possessing less than half of their original complement cannot regroup.

5) I forgot to check range for Night Fighting for my first turn.

6) A unit that disembarks from a transport can move and shoot, but in any case is considered as having moved for the purposes of shooting and thus cannot fire heavy weapons (such as markerlights and lascannons) during a turn in which the unit has disembarked. (Update 01/24/11: Apparently a transport can move flat-out and still allow its passengers to disembark.)

Update 01/24/11: 7) The statline for submunition rail gun shot is AP 4, NOT AP 3--this means that those Space Marines guarding the objective were entitled to an armor save. Obviously they would have failed their armor save, because John sucks at rolling armor saves, but I feel bad nonetheless.
That's all for now! I'm sure I'll be posting about 40k in the future, though!

We were playing it wrong: Balloon Cup

Today's Victim: Balloon Cup!

My streak ends yet again! I had occasion to play this with my uncle while watching Biggest Loser (a show I happen to enjoy watching whilst eating cheese pizza dipped in ranch dressing).

My error was small this time, and while I believe it contributed to relaxing the learning curve of this wonderful game, it was unintentional and thus is a mistake. So, in Balloon Cup you complete progress in different sections ("legs") of a balloon race by playing cards with different values, from 1-13 on them. Some races you want high numbers and others you want low numbers. However, each card also has a color suit (red yellow green blue gray).

Before a leg starts, the suit or suits of the cards which may be played on the leg is determined randomly, and each player may only play one card of a given suit on a leg that allows that color. As with many Euro games, the rules are less complicated in practice than in explanation. In this case, the proper rules made for a much more tactical and rewarding experience. It also put my uncle, once we started playing the correct rules, within shooting distance of a win. Great game!

We were playing it wrong: Tobago

...and we're back!

Today's Victim: Tobago

It's been a while, but that more reflects on my lack of gaming than interest in this blog. I did get some gaming in over Christmas break, but mostly they were tried and true favorites or games I did not teach and thus am not responsible for any errors stemming from bad instructions from the teacher.

My streak ends today, though!

Tobago is a fantastic little strategy game with excellent bits (it comes with little Tiki/Moab statues!). Basically, you're racing around a tropical island looking for buried treasure and trying to get more of it than anyone else. To do this, you narrow down where on the island it could be (For example: next to the ocean, but not within 2 spaces of a tiki hut). Once only one spot remains, the first person there gets to unearth the treasure and collect a finders fee. After the treasure is unearthed, the goods are distributed to players who contributed to the treasure hunt in proportion to their contribution--bigger contribution, more treasure!

The rub lies in these neat little amulet tokens that allow you to break the rules in little ways--play more clues, move further, protect from curses (did I mention there's CURSED TREASURE!), etc.

Here's where I went wrong: during the explanation, I said you had to stop on a space with an amulet in order to pick it up. This is incorrect. You merely need to MOVE over the amulet during move. You don't need to stop.

I botched this one, but we caught it before it became too great an issue. On the other hand, I went a whole 3-1/2 weeks without messing up a game instruction! New High Score!