Long Distance Gaming: Tabletop Simulator!

Long Distance Gaming: TableTop Simulator! 

So maybe it's just because I've been thinking about how crappy it's going to be when I move to graduate school and don't get to play boardgames with my girlfriend all the time, but I've recently been thinking about how to do long distance gaming.

Last week over spring break, Jess, Sam, Leah, and I skyped in our friend, Megan to play Betrayal at House on the Hill with us. It was okay, but we had to communicate the board to Megan by tilting the computer and pointing to certain areas and saying, "This is where you are; this is where the traitor is. You could go to the library if you wanted?" I feel like Megan probably just agreed with whatever we said so that the game went smoothly and probably didn't understand a good portion of what was going on.

So I was talking to one of my other friends, Joyce, about board games, and she introduced me to the idea of the tabletop simulator (which can be bought here for $15). Joyce and her long-distance boyfriend use the simulator to play games.

I haven't purchased the simulator yet, but I have played around with it on Joyce's computer. You can download different game packages to play with your friends as long as they also have the simulator. The physics of the simulator are very interesting.

For example, I player can flip the entire table and destroy the game set-up if they want to dramatically show how upset they are. The controls can be difficult to learn, but I think that the wonky physics are one of the best features for comedic affect.  

Overall, I would recommend this simulator to people who are really into board games/want to hang out with their friends long distance/like wonky physics weird computer stuff. I think it'll be a good way to communicate with my friends and a nice way to continue to play boardgames with my family and friends.

Mind Bending: Pentago

Mind Bending: Pentago
Overall Rating: 5 out of 10

Type: Board Game? Strategy Game? 

Suggest Ages: 6+ (That seems young though??)

# of Players: 2 players

Playing Time: 3-30 minutes

Replay-ability: 5 out of 10

Expansions available: No (Different Versions available: Multiple Player Game)

Cost: Approximately $38 

In Pentago, players attempt to get five of their marbles in a row. The version I played had only two players, one with white marbles and one with black marbles. The concept of the game is very simple; however, the game strategy is quite complex. Most of the complexity lies in turning one of the small squares. On their turn a player will place a marble into one of the four square quadrants and then rotate one of the quadrants 90 degrees. This turn changes the alignment of the marbles and can cause players to win or lose the game. 

This game is very compact and could travel well because the container holds all the marbles and only takes up a small, flat square of space. The replayability would probably drop dramatically after players learn the different strategies (kinda like Tic  Tac Toe). My girlfriend disagrees with me, she believe the game play would progress like Connect Four and no one would get tired of it. (But it's all speculation because we haven't played it enough times.) 

I am not very good at this game because it's a bit too much visualization for me to manage, but I think once I become more familiar with it, I could become a lot better at it. I think it could be a good game for children to learn strategy. Overall I think this game is really interesting. It's definitely not in my top five, but it's an interesting alternative to longer games and could have a much calmer game play than other competitive games. 

[I will post photos later.]

Treasure Grabbing: Forbidden Island

Treasure Grabbing: Forbidden Island

Overall Rating: 7 out of 10

Type: Cooperative, Board Game

Suggest Ages: 10+ (Probably could do a couple years younger though??)

# of Players: 2-4

Playing Time: 30 minutes

Replay-ability: 7 out of 10

Expansions available: No

Cost: Approximately $17 (AFFORDABLE!)

Forbidden Island is a co-operative game designed by Matt Leacock (also the designer of Pandemic). The game mechanics of Forbidden Island are very similar to Pandemic. Their are different roles with special abilities, one way to win, and the players are fighting against the game.

The different player roles. Special abilities listed on cards. My favorite is the Explorer who can move and shore diagonally!

Each player can take up to 3 actions during their turn. These actions can be movement (only up, down, left, or right: NOT diagonally), shoring tiles (to "shore up" means to un-flood tiles), give a player on the same tile a treasure card, or to capture a treasure. After their 3 actions, the player draws two treasure cards (hand limit = 5 cards) and then the player draws flood cards equal to the water level (similar to infection level in Pandemic).

To the left is the water level meter and to the right is the flood deck with a few discard flood cards.

At the start of the game you lay down the tiles to form the island, making a four by four square and then placing two additional tiles on each side of the square. You then flip over the first six flood cards in the flood deck and flood the corresponding tiles. You can begin the game on any number of water levels from novice to legendary. Players also start with two treasure cards. Some treasure cards represent the elements and others are special event cards that cannot be traded. These cards can be played at anytime; they are the Sandbags card (which is used to sandbag an island) and the Helicopter Lift card (which flies a pawn or pawns on the same tile to a different tile, BUT this card is also used to win the game).

The very start of the game with six flooded tiles. Also the starting shape.

The game after a few tiles have disappeared. Oh no!

Also in the treasure deck, there are Water Rising card. When these cards are drawn, the players move up the water level (drawing more flood cards each turn) AND reshuffle the discarded flood cards and place them on top of the flood deck. Water Rising cards are the game mechanic that make sections of the island disappear. If players lose their way to the Fool's Landing tile, they lose. If the water level gets too high, they lose. If a pawn is standing on a tile that sinks and all the tiles around them have also sunk and they have no way back to the rest of the island and they drown, everybody loses. (Thanks, Matt Leacock!)

All the different kinds of treasure cards!

The treasures!

How to Win:  Players attempt to steal four pieces of treasure: The Earth Stone, The Statue of the Wind, The Crystal of Fire, and The Ocean's Chalice. To steal a piece of treasure, one player must have four matching treasure cards with the corresponding element and then go to corresponding treasure tile. So to steal the The Earth Stone, a player must have four earth treasure cards and be on either The Temple of the Moon tile or The Temple of the Sun tile. It then costs the player one more action to discard those four cards and actually receive The Earth Stone.

Once all four treasure are captured, the players must all make it back to Fool's Landing and use a Helicopter Lift card to get off the island. Then they win!

Overall, I really like this game. It's simple and quick. You can play multiple games in a row because your role changes, the island never stays the same, and you can experiment with trying harder levels. The game isn't as much fun to me as Pandemic but it has the same feel to it. I think it could be really good for teaching 10-12 year olds teamwork? (But I don't hang out with children very much so maybe that's a lie?) I also adore the tin it comes in because it packs everything up SO nicely! And I like how affordable this game. It's definitely worth the $17.

Say Yes to perfect organization! And an adorable tin!

No time for the Tulips: Dutch Blitz

No time for the Tulips: Dutch Blitz

Overall Rating: 6 out of 10

Type: Card Game

Suggest Ages: 8+

# of Players: 2-4

Playing Time: Dependent on Players/Can go to certain score or number of rounds

Replay-ability: 5 out of 10

Expansions available: Yes, Cost = Approximately $10 (Not really Necessary!)

Cost: Approximately $10

 

Dutch Blitz is a pretty simple game. Each player gets a deck of cards that has a unique symbol on the back. The count out 10 cards to put in their "Blitz Pile" and flip the tenth card so that the color and number are facing up. Then they place three more cards face up next to their pile. These three cards act as a card stream. 

 

 

The object of the game is to be the first person to get rid of their blitz pile. When the game begins any player with a #1 card throws it into the middle of the game. Players then play on these number 1's starting with to going to 10. The card played on top of the number 1 must be a number 2 card of the same color. When a player plays the number 10 card, they flip the card over to signal that no more cards can be played on that pile. 

 

Players play the top card of their blitz pile or a card in their stream first. If there is no place on the table for any of these cards then the player picks up their deck (this is the deck of cards that was left after counting ten cards into the blitz pile and three cards into the stream). The player counts off three cards from the top, and flips these cards over on the table in front of them, if they cannot play the top card, they flip three more, etc. If they can play the top card, they do so, and then they either play the next top card or flip three more over. 

 

 

 

Players also have the option to stack their cards. Cards can only be stacked on top of the other cards in the card stream. Cards must go in descending number order AND must be stacked in a pattern of Boy-Girl-Boy-Girl or Girl-Boy-Girl-Boy. (There are girls and boys in the upper corner of the cards.) Once a card is stacked on top of a card stream card, the bottom card cannot be played until the player can remove the stacked card. 

 

The two stacked cards are descending number order (3, 2) and Boy-Girl order.

 Each player gets 1 point for every card they play in the middle of the table (ie the stacks from 1-10) and a NEGATIVE 2 points for every card left in their blitz pile. The negative points are why it is important to get rid of the blitz pile. When a player does get rid of their blitz pile, they yell "Blitz!" and that round of the game is over. You then tally points. The game can be played to a certain point count (we usually play to 100 pts) or a certain number of rounds. 

 

There are NO TURNS in this game. Every player is playing at the same time which means that even if you've been waiting for someone to play the green 3 in the middle of the table so that you can play your green 4, someone might beat you to it or not play it on purpose so that you can't do anything. 

 

This is probably the most annoying and frustrating aspect of the game. (I can no longer play with my S.O. because I get too angry. Oops.) But otherwise this game can be a quick break from other games or a game played when you don't have much time. I would not recommend this game for people who are sore losers or become frustrated easily. I would also not recommend buying the expansion pack because they used the same symbols but mixed up the colors which could make it hard for you to separate out the cards to determine points when the round ends. (By same symbols I mean someone has the original red wagon and another person has the expansion yellow wagon. So it would be easy to just think, "Oh, I have the wagon" and then forget which wagon.) The expansion also runs a little higher in cost than the normal game so you might as well buy another deck of the same cards and mark them with marker or some other words to distinguish them. 

 

Confusing Expansion Pack Colors and Symbols. (Left is original; Right is expansion.)

I was introduced to this game by my friend, Leah. Her whole family usually plays (I'm assuming in rounds?) during the holidays. I'm sure it's super intense. I like this game a lot, but I generally prefer more chill cooperative games.