La Havre

Sometimes I daydream and I think to myself, "wouldn't it be awesome if you could combine this one thing and another thing?" Those things tend to vary terms of genius or insanity. Combining curry and cream cheese? YAY. Combining Hilary Clinton and a velociraptor? BOO. Combining Helen Mirren and Helen Hunt? SORT OF WANT. Clearly someone, namely Uwe Rosenberg, thought to himself at some point that combining Agricola and Caylus would be grand, and thus La Havre was born.

Le Havre is a game of resource gathering, city building, and investment. It also rivals Agricola and Homesteaders in the amount of bits that the game comes with. There are no less than eight different base resources, and those base resources can be upgraded to better or more valuable resources. There's also money, and buildings, and all the while you must feed your growing workforce every turn.

The game can be challenging for those with little patience. Gathering enough resources to construct buildings can take some time, as every player is very limited to what they can do with a given turn. The game also rewards adaptability, as a plan can change drastically in a given turn. For a game that at times seems to move at a snail's pace, things can quickly require a shift in a player's whole strategy.

All of this is done with more or less the same amount of actions throughout the game. Unlike Agricola, players can't "grow your family" or gain more actions at any point. They have to rely on better buildings to allow themselves more efficient actions, and sometimes must wait for those building to become available.

Yes Le Havre looks all nice and relaxing from the box, but you can quickly plummet into a never-ending spiral of despair, as opponents take the stuff that you had your eye on and build the buildings that you were saving up for. It's a secretly insidious game, and I love it.

THIS JUST IN - New Twilight Imperium Expansion Announced!

Details here and here.

It's no secret that Twilight Imperium might be my favorite game of all time. It's definitely the board game I've played the most, and this new expansion is a fantastic announcement. I can't wait to try it!!!

Thanks to Jon for the tip!

Midnight Movie Review - Sucker Punch

State of the Game: D&D

I play D&D and I'm quite fortunate to play a lot of D&D. I'm also VERY fortunate to be friends with a good number of creative and awesome dungeon masters, all of whom run their own games for my characters to fight and die in.

Just to give you a sense of scope, here's a list of all my currently alive D&D characters in no particular order.

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Name: Rogor Alwin Stoneblood
Race: Dwarf
Level: 12
Class/Paragon Path: Fighter/Dreadnaught
Campaign: Fall From Heaven

To call this cat "unkillable" would be glib, since he's still just a mortal dwarf. Granted he is very tough to kill, but he laces up his boots and sharpens his axes just like a lot of other dwarves. Also, to call him a cat would be a mistake, since he's clearly a dwarf. Rogor is descended from a long Dwarven line of master crafters. He is one of the few of his lineage to take up arms and defend his Dwarven home of Khazak. He is not known for his diplomacy, unless you consider attacking and killing hostile ambassadors to be "diplomacy". His rage on the battlefield often leads to the mistaken notion that he is an uncivilized barbarian, but his taste for fine goods and opulence is just as honed as any dwarf. Despite his temper, he is fiercely loyal to his team and his Dwarven people. He is the driving force in the fight against the evil Calabim empire that threatens to enslave the fledgling Dwarven nation.

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Name: Red Rock AKA "Hunt's End"
Race: Goliath
Level: 12
Class/Paragon Path: Barbarian/StoneBlessed
Campaign: Brigadoomed

Red Rock is a barbarian in every sense of the word. He was born to a particularly brutal tribe of goliath, thus his violent upbringing and perilous adventuring career belies his surprisingly soft spoken nature. Currently he is in the Feywild defending The Crystal City from a relentless seige, but he hopes to one day return to his people as the strongest goliath in the world.

***

Name: Sobek Marwan
Race: Dragonborn
Level: 2
Class: Bard
Campaign: Dark Sun

After the people's uprising in the now free city of Tyr, former officials of the previous god-king are largely unwelcome and shunned. One such official is the bard Sobek, who took a guard position on a the first caravan out of town. Sobek's life wasn't always so chaotic. His family was well-to-do, and his father had taught him the arts of song and sword. Still it was good to get away, even though his journey since has been filled with hardship and loss. Fortunately Sobek has realized that the best songs are about pain, suffering, and heroism. Perhaps he will live long enough to write songs about all three.

***

Well, those are my guys. I've got a couple more in a campaign that's probably on permanent hiatus, but they're not that interesting. You might notice that I have no portraits or drawings for any of my dudes. Sadly, I'm not an artist, so I can't translate the way my characters look in my head to picture of any kind. If someone wants to help me with that, let me know. :)

A pretty good summary of my last couple of months

Mecanisburgo (yep we're back)

Thanks for sticking around!

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Hello?

*crickets*

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:P

Yes, we're back. Read the following review, and you'll get a reward!



Have you ever suffered through the beginning of a movie or book and were absolutely sure you were going to hate it, only to find it fun and rewarding in the end? Initially, the first game of Mecanisburgo that we played felt very much like that. By the middle of the very first round, I was bemoaning the terrible art, the hyroglyphic terminology, and the apparently needlessly complex mechanics of conflict resolution. FFFUUUUCK, I thought. This was going to be a grind.

Here's a little backstory: When we first saw Mecanisburgo sitting on our buddy's gaming shelf, it captured our imagination. "Cyber Velociraptors?!?! SIGN ME UP", was the reaction of several of our friends, including my neighbor Ryan. Despite the enthusiasm, finally took Ryan buying the game for himself for our group to finally give it a try.

Despite our vast collective board gaming experience, the game was difficult to initially wrap our heads around. Coupled with art that looked like it was straight out of middle school, we were not having a fun time. People were frustrated, murder was in our eyes and things looked like they were going south fast.

Never the less, we powered through the session and in the end we commented on how much fun the game actually ended up being. Granted some of the mechanics are complex for complexity's sake, but you're bound to get over it. Clearly this game is not for new board gamers in general, and even seasoned players could probably use a game or two to fully grasp the mechanics. Still, it made for a fun albeit long session. The game is highly expandable, and that should help the game's longevity.

Now for your reward, here's a Fark thread chock full of hot cosplayers.