Classic WGR Review - Power Grid

My wife suggested I work on slowly migrating some of the reviews I had originally posted on the Windsor Gaming Resource Forum over to the new blog. Seemed like a solid idea so here's the first one. One of my favorite games of all time Power Grid. This review was originally written by me July 18th 2006

Quickly: it lives up to the hype. Probably the best game I have tried this year. A great game.

Summary: players compete to build power plants to supply cities with power either in the US or Germany. The game starts with an auction phase where players bid on power plants. Each of these costs a different minimum bid and provide power for a set number of cities while requiring various resources to run (Coal, Oil, Solar, Garbage or Plutonium). The plants start out inefficient and cheap and grow to more efficient and expensive as the game goes on. The next phase is the buying of resources. Resources vary in price depending on demand, and players buy in a set order, making buying first a huge advantage. The next phase has the players building grids. Players purchase 'houses' in cities they wish to supply power too. The cost for this varies depending on the connection between a city you own and the city you wish to purchase, some connections are very cheap, others are very expensive. Also at the start of the game only one player can supply a city, later int he game a second player can purchase a 'house' but at a greater cost. In the endgame a third player can set up shop in that city as well, but this again is more expensive then the other players had to pay. The last phase involves players spending resources to power their plants and getting paid for the electricity they have supplied. Turn order is determined by who is closest to achieving victory and reverses for many phases. Thus the player who has the most 'houses' bids on power plants first, but then they buy resources last. The game lasts about an hour or two and turns are fairly quick.

The Good: the components As with many eurogames put out by Rio Grande the board and pieces are top notch, including wooden 'counters' for houses and all commodities. The board is excellent looking and has two sides (which I love). The only complaint was the money (see the ugly). The variety of great game mechanics in one game was amazing. The auction phase was typical of a eurogame but usually this is a games only mechanic, in Power Grid it's just the first step. The way the resource price scaled as the game went on with supply and demand was unique to me and worked very well. There were times when you would buy resources just to drive up the price for other players. It's also interesting the way the 'higher end' commodities star off very expensive and slowly drop in price as time goes on. The way the power plants scale is also excellent, with near useless plants being replaced by powerhouses that can supply 6 cities with only one resource. The building phase was also interesting just due to the map. I have no clue how they determined how much it costs to link individual cities, but they way it is set up with a few pockets of cheap grids then leading out west being a huge expense is very well done. Without going on to much, I will just say this was a very fun game with a ton of variety in the strategies that one could play. I don't think any two games would ever be the same due to the variety of options and the power plant generation method.

The Bad: Due to the number of commodities it can be hard to keep everything on the board in the right place. The first thing I thought when we had to add more resources to the stock at the end of the first turn was this would be a great computer game, as there was quite a bit of standing up little wooden counters along a crowded track. It seemed like this may be a game where steamrolling occurs. That meaning that once a player gets the lead they continue to keep it. The person with the most cites and best plants just keeps getting more money than everyone else every turn, allowing them to just keep building more cities and getting more money, etc. There didn't seem to be a good way to 'stop the leader' There was definitely some jockeying for position, but once one or two people got about 3 cities ahead, it didn't seem like the other players could do much about it.
The Ugly: the presentation and components in this game were top notch, except for one thing. The money. Power Grid had the worst looking money I have seen in a game since monopoly It was also incredibly thin. This is a game where a ton of money changes hands and I can't see it lasting long. Now the game I played the owner (Sinister) had fixed this problem by using poker chips, which worked great, but it would have been nice to see something better included. It is possible in this game to shoot yourself in the foot. To the point where you can no longer play the game. If you spend too much on power plants and forget to save money to buy resources you can basically oust yourself from play. Now I am sure some people like this, and really it's just part of the game, but I am sure it's not fun to sit and watch the other players finish up while you do nothing turn after turn.

Overall: a game that definitely belongs in the top 10 boardgames. This is pretty much on my must have list now. I would love to head downstairs and play a game right now. Great components, interesting and good working mechanics and a variety of strategies make this a winner.

Local Warmachine/Hodes group sets up Facebook page

Hey Windsor Hordemachine players (I know most people like to call it Warmahordes but I much prefer Hordemachine)!  The local Privateer Press gaming community has finally joined the 21st century and has created a Facebook group just for fans of these two great games.

This group was created by the players who get together at least weekly at FLGS extraordinaire Hugin and Munin. Regular gaming events are held every Sunday but pick up games occur throughout the week.  I know they just finished a big local tournament and they are always looking for new players. So check them out at their new Facebook home:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Warmachine-Hordes-in-Windsor/513866351971641?ref=stream

D&D Encounters: The War of Everlasting Darkness - Session 2

I just got home from session two of Dungeons & Dragons Encounters. The same four players from session one returned for this one so I must be doing something right.

We started a bit early and made sure everyone had leveled up. No one is using a character builder this time around and I've got to say it now feel odd leveling a D&D 4e character without it. It's also odd to level up after every session. This whole highlight reel thing is taking a bit to get used to but it's playing out very well.

This week we join the heroes just weeks after they witnessed the release of the everlasting darkness. You can check out my first session report for details if you wish. During that session the group heard about a pending Orc attack on Winter Edge and this session the group rushed to get there before the orcs.

The group found Winter edge a city in chaos. The inhabitants were all very well and good scared and creeped out by the blackened sky. The sound of orc trumpets in the distance didn't help at all. The group met with Goodwife Winnestorm (Goody Winn) who calmed the people down and came up with a plan. She would evacuate the village. Leading them to Quaervarr at the player suggestion they would hold up there and potentially fall back to Silverymoon if necessary.  Meantime the party would head north to the Orc lands, to Dark Arrow keep and negotiate with the Orc King determining why they have broken a long standing and documented truce. To aid in the negotiation the group would work with Half Orc, Rhupp who shared the royal blood.

There was a rather amusing scene where a half-elf girl tried to gift the groups Paladin with a woodden doll. The vampire in the group recognized it as a magic item that could cast a Sunlight spell and convinced the group that the item was cursed.

Then the first of the Orc raiders arrived as the villagers started their evacuation. The fight was quick and bloody and gridless, and got the adventure moving at a good pace.  The long journey to Dark Arrow Keep was mostly glossed over except for some building tension of orc patrols and roleplaying with Rhupp. Arriving at the keep I got to play dramatic and have Rhupp get laced with arrows and the group captured and brought before the king. The thief rocked this part having already faded from the group and hanging back in the shadows.

So now there was tons of roleplay as the Orc King boasted in front of the assembled tribes and the group tried to convince him that allying with the Drow was not the answer. There were lots of bad rolls, lots of bad rolls things weren't going well. So the thief decided it was time for action. Picking out one of the Orcs that seemed to be sowing sedition in the group, an enemy of the King, an assassination attempt was made. Unfortunately for the group she underestimated the toughness of an orc tribe leader. The attempt failed and sparked a grand orc brawl. One of the largest of all time. The group woke up two days later battered and bruised.

Allies of the Orc King, wishing for peace, or at least no alliance with the Drow worked to find a loophole in order to sway more tribes but still keep the King in good standing. Their plan was to appeal to the Shaman of Gruumsh and try to arrange a test of might in the Pit.  The group agreed and the stage was set, for a pit battle. Between the groups champion, the Elven Thief (I'm still surprised it wasn't the Paladin). A rather fun climax ensued with the Elf batting a well trained Guard Drake while the rest of the group helped from the crowd, trying to hide their efforts. Hilarity happened when the Dragonborn Paladin rolled consecutive 1s while trying to mimic drake commands. The Cleric after doing some healing got caught interfering was tossed in the pit along with two orc challengers. The Vampire also found himself tossed it but not before probably saving the Elf with a distracting gaze on the drake. Overall really fun fight that was a bit of a nail biter for a couple of turns. This was also our first time fully using the 4e grid rules, which took a bit to get used to for the players unfamiliar with the system.

The players were victorious in The Pit, which allowed the shaman to declare them as Gruumsh watched and worth listening too. Multiple Orc tribes now backed the King and his aversion to the Drow Alliance. The group had completed their quest.  But we weren't quite done yet. After a feast they were warned of a potential assassination attempt as well as the location of the Orc armies next target: Mithral Hall. Disguised as Orcs the group fled Arrow Keep, violently at first (taking out the first patrol of Orcs they found) and then stealthily at the very exit.

Overall this was another great session. Again I'm surprised by how much we are able to get done. This session ran about an hour and a half and we had plenty of roleplaying along side multiple combats, including one rather long climatic Pit battle. This, so far, is the best season of Encounters to date.

So I got to try Eclipse last night

Last night, thanks to a friend and fellow local gamer, I got to try out Eclipse. Eclipse is currently ranked as the #5 game in the world on Boardgamegeek.com and is also the #5 Strategy game of all time.  It's been listed on The Hotness since being announced and I wanted to see if it lived up to the hype.

Start of the game, I was playing the Yellow Humans

Eclipse is a space exploration game along the same lines as long time favourite Twilight Imperium or Galactic Emperor and has quite a bit in common with both games. Each player takes on a race and starts in their own region of space. The galaxy is formed with hex tiles that include victory points for control, planets providing up to three different resources (Money, Technology and Resources) and worm holes along some but not all edges.  Unlike the other games mentioned, the galaxy isn't set up before hand but discovered through play. Each player gets a starting system and a play board that varies by race. When we played we took the suggestion to all be humans. I apologize now for the quality of pictures my iPod touch takes, it's what I had at hand during the game.

Gameplay sounds complicated but is rather simple once you pick it up. Each turn players in sequence get to choose to do an action or pass. Each time they do an action they move a disc to the appropriate area on their player board. As discs are moved a cost is uncovered, this the money you will need to spend at the end of the round to pay for your actions. Discs are also used to assert influence over a star system so the number of systems you can control and the number of actions you can complete are dictated by your income. You get income and resources by building colonies on planets, these are the cubes. As you remove cubes from your play board larger numbers are uncovered giving you more income each turn. It's a rather elegant system. Actions include exploring, researching technology, using researched technology to upgrade your ships, changing how your influence is spread, building things and moving.

Initial Exploration

Exploring is what you do to spread out from your initial colony and also what builds the board. When you choose the explore action you pick a wormhole on the edge of a tile you control and draw a new hex tile from a pile based on how far it is from galactic center. Tiles closer to the center tend to be better tiles but are often guided by the Ancient Race. When the new tile is placed a wormhole must be placed adjacent to the one explored through. Note not all edges have wormholes which really makes things interesting. Due tot this mechanic tiles that are right next to each other on the table could actually be multiple hexes away. We all really enjoyed how the map got built as we played and how players we expected to be neighbors were actually so far apart that they barely interacted.

My Interceptors loaded up with Alien Tech

Research and upgrading I think are worth talking about as I thought this was one of the best parts of the game. One of the actions you can take is Research. When you take this action you can buy new technologies of a central technology board. What is available changes as the game goes on (with tiles drawn out of a bag). There are three different tech trees you can work on and specializing gives you not only a discount on each future tech but victory points if you buy enough of each type of tech. Some new technologies give you instant bonuses like being able to settle more planets, or being able to build orbital space stations or Monoliths (there's stars in there). Most though are equipment upgrades for your fleet. When you buy these you don't get anything right away, you need to use the upgrade action. When you do this you get to add two components to your ship diagrams located at the top of your player sheet. You have three types of ships and a space station that can all be upgraded with new weapons, more power, faster engines and more.

The big fight for galactic center.

Combat is quick and brutal and happens whenever, at the end of a turn, there are pieces of two different colours (players) on a sector tile. Initiative is determined by ship speed based on upgrades and weapon type. Missiles fire first and then other weapons. All attacks are done using d6.  The basic rule is that you roll 1d6 per weapon and rolls of 6 cause a hit. One hit does one damage and destroys a point of hull. If there is no hull the ship is destroyed.  This is all modified greatly by the technological upgrades players have applied to their ships. By the end of the game we had ships rolling four orange, two damage, missile attacks the first round against ships with five hull and two sets of red, four damage, lasers that had +4 to hit. Combat goes back and forth until one side is wiped out or retreats. Colonies need to be attacked before the sector swapped control and we all found that the Neutron Bomb tech really helped with this. Overall combat plays out very fast and furious and is hugely based on the technologies that each player chooses to research and then equip on their ships. Participants in combat each will get to draw victory point tokens from a bag. Each player gets one token for being in a battle and players who destroy enemy ships get extra tokens. The tokens are numbers 1-4 and you only get to keep one toke out of all of the ones you pull.

The other phases include building which lets you build new ships, starbases and orbital stations or monuments if you have the right technology developed. Movement lets you move your ships around hex by hex with speed set by the drive unit equipped on each ship. Influence lets you abandon sectors and take over new ones. The first player who passes on their action becomes the start player for next round. In an interesting twist even passing doesn't necessarily take you out of the game for the round. There are three reactionary actions you can take even though you've passed. These are reduced versions of move, build and upgrade.

How the board looked at the end of the game

Eclipse is played for a total of nine rounds and it's the player with the most victory points at the end of those nine rounds that wins. Players get victory points for each sector they control, technologies they have developed far enough down each of the three trees, trade agreements and victory tokens collected through conquest. In the game we played victory was determined by two points.

Obviously there's a lot more to the game than this, but I figured I've already typed enough already. There's alien ships that guard some territories, some sectors give a bonus to the first player who settles there, the galactic center is guarded by a big space station and more. If you have any questions about anything in particular please feel free to ask in the comments.

Overall I had a great time trying this well regarded game. Eclipse seemed like it took the best concepts of Twilight Imperium and Galactic Emperor and combined them into a very quick, very refined and balanced game. Rules explanation took a long time and it looked like there was far too much to figure out but by turn three we all had it figured out and the game flowed great. While Eclipse is shorter than it's predecessors it's still not what I would call a short game. Our game went over 4 hours, almost five with rules set up and explanation. I fully expect we could cut that down to three easily now that everyone knows what they are doing. We also had a couple players who are known for analysis paralysis so I would expect the game to be quicker for other groups.

I think the best thing that can be set about how much we all enjoyed the game last night is that we are all trying to figure out a way to play again today. Also we are all still talking about it. We've been on Facebook saying "you know when I attacked Green, I should have waited one turn to..." and "Why the heck didn't I set up that treaty earlier, I knew ..." To me going to bed thinking about what could have been is a good sign of a great game.

Boardgames Are Really Fun - Nov 23rd at Villains Beastro

B.A.R.F. - Boardgames Are Really Fun
Theme: Fantasy

The Windsor Gaming Resource and Villains Beastro are proud to announce a Boardgames Are Really Fun event scheduled for November 23rd running from 6PM until Midnight.

The Villains Beastro is a unique, funky, weird, mystical, fun, serious, laid back, Viking-feeling, pub-looking rock n’ roll type place that has offered to open their doors for us. It’s the perfect spot for a group of geeks to hang out and play some games. There are plenty of tables of all sizes, a well lit stage area, some great beers on draft, a selection of harder beverages and a selection of great tasting sandwiches. Villains has agreed to give us the space for free and I encourage everyone to support the venue by buying food and drink.

The theme for this event is: Fantasy. We are looking for games with a fantasy theme. Games like Dungeon! Castle Ravenloft, World of Warcraft, Game of Thrones, Runebound, Descent, Talisman and more. Note we encourage you to stick to the theme but it's not necessary and we aren't going to kick you out if your favourite game is Catan and you choose to bring that.

This is an open non-competitive gaming event that anyone is welcome to attend. Any form of games are welcome, board, card, rpg, miniatures, whatever you want to bring we are willing to have you. We encourage people to bring games that fit the theme but if there's something you just have to share, feel free to bring it. We aren't rule lawyers. You are welcome to bring your own games or share in some of ours. Everything we bring we are willing to teach and no experience is necessary. The goal is to get as many local gamers out as possible to enjoy some good food, some good company and some good games!

An important note: we are not a private club. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come out and join in the games. If you see someone playing a game and it looks interesting, ask about it. If you see a game on a table and you want to try it out, ask around and see if someone will teach it.

Villains is located Downtown at:
256 Pelissier
Windsor, ON N9A 4K3

Villains Beastro on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/villainsbeastro

The Windsor Gaming Resource Webpage:
http://w-g-r.com/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/windsorgamingresource/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on G+:
https://plus.google.com/b/114520579551583540642/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/WindsorGaming

The Hillfolk Kickstarter has gone nuts

So Robin Law's original kickstarter project, Hillfolk, was for one rather nice looking book. He had lots of game design celebs in the rafters waiting to beef up this book when stretch goals hit as well as some plans to open source the system. Then things went nuts N.V.T.S.!  It was funded in hours and the initial stretch goals were hit in days. Pagemageddon I happened as he hit the physical page limit for the book. Oh my! So a second book was added to the kickstarter for a miraculously low price ($16 for print). In addition to this Robin had to go out and find more gaming elite to add to this new book. This is about when I jumped on this crazy train.

Now it's only a few days later and there's still a day left in the kickstarter. Again Robin not only ran out off Gameratti but he has again ran out of room, in the second book! Pagemageddon II has happened. So he pulls in a few favours and brings in more big time gamer people and comes up with a new stretch goal. Those of us who have backed will continue to get pdfs of more content as more stretch goals are reached.

There's so much RPG goodness here that it won't even fit into two books! It's bursting with stuff from the who's who of gaming. Plus it's not done yet! Robin has managed to end up with the Reaper Bones of RPGs with Hillfolk.

I'm a backer, how about you?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robindlaws/hillfolk-dramasystem-roleplaying-by-robin-d-laws

Voting is live in the 24 hour RPG challenge

Voting in the RPGgeek.com 24 Hour RPG Contest is open. I encourage all of you to take part.

This was my first ever time entering this contest and really the first time I've tried to write an RPG since I was about 13 years old. It was a very eye opening experience and I strongly suggest everyone give this a try at some point in their life. No matter how the voting goes in this contest I will be glad to have taken part and now have something to be proud of, a role playing game I wrote myself.

My entry is The Diminutive RPG which features a unique system I called The Diminishing Dice Pool System. The game attempts to re-create the feel of books and movies like" The Borrowers, Tom Thumb, The Secret World of Arrietty, The Littles, or any other setting where small heroes do big things. The system is designed with this theme in mind where smaller is always better, A D4 is better than a D8 and you want to make your dice pool smaller and smaller. You strive to triumph over complications by getting rid of them, removing complication dice from your dice pool. Proper planning, traits and backgrounds help you triumph while hindrances make your life more complicated. Gather too many conditions and your life can become over-complicated.

Check it out and don't forget to vote:

http://rpggeek.com/thread/877644/2012-rpg-geek-24-hour-contest-voting-begins

D&D Encounters: The War of Everlasting Darkness - Session 1

Great session of Dungeons and Dragons Encounters this morning.

Had four players show up. One of which had never played an RPG before and one who hadn't played D&D since AD&D.

Got a ton done. Characters met up in a hunting lodge where they overheard rumors of ghost sightings in the town. After calming down the locals somewhat and getting some leads they decided to wait for the ghost to appear and follow it. Rumors were that it was travelling from the town to the ruins of Methergist every night.

The rumors appeared to be true as they followed the ghostly paladin through the woods. The group took a side track when the overheard voices in the woods. Investigating they found orcs from two rival tribes meeting with a Drow emissary. After stealthily listening in to hear about an impending attack on a nearby town they group ambushed the orcs. As the drow disappeared into the darkness the orcs were quickly dispatched and the group hurried to catch up to the ghost.

Arriving at the ruins of Methergist the party found that a rival group was already here. Figuring them to be tomb robbers the party ambushed the group. The fight was quick with two human hirelings taken out quickly and the more capable looking Dwarf and Elf taken hostage. After a lot of rather amusing roleplay it was decided the Dwarf and Elf would join the group in exploring the ruins for a 25% cut of any treasure found.

The ruins proved to be a small dungeon. Traps were found, the rival party was abused and left the dungeon (players tried to use them as hirelings from AD&D and use them as meat shields and trap finders and they would have none of it, aka some more good roleplay moments). A statue was found, the Tears of Helm were found, some Infernal Braziers were extinguished and the group banished an Imp by guessing what it was and what it's name was.

Then a rift opened in the ground and webs of darkness shot into the sky. The adventure ended with the group staring upwards as first the moon was blotted out then all the starts. The War of Eternal Darkness has begun.

The most impressive part to me was the fact we did all of this in 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons in about an hour and a half. That's unprecedented for Encounters. Their goal to try out the feel and some of the rules for D&D Next seems to be really paying off.

There's a new Dungeons and Dragons Next playtest pack out

I was checking my hotmail during lunch at work and I found out that there's a new Dungeons and Dragons Next playtest packet out. These things seem to be coming out more and more frequently. The last time I actually got a chance to run the playtest we were still playing around in the Caves of Chaos. 

I had a great time running the two games I got in back then as did all of the players. Even though it only went up to level 3 and we were stuck playing pre-generated characters. I think everyone at the table was excited for the new edition of D&D at the time and we all were looking forward to playing again.

Then another packet came out. This had character creation rules and went to level five and had a new module. I found this one hard to sell to my groups. Mainly because they wanted to continue the old game with the old characters playing through the old dungeon and really I don't blame them. I meant to re-pitch the event and have everyone just re-make their characters at level 2 and continue to run the caves.  Then reality happened.

Now it's only a couple of weeks later an there's yet another packet out. I haven't actually read this one yet but from the buzz online it seems you can go up to 10th level. I know there was a mini packet sent out at one point too with rules for magic items.  Seems I'm falling way behind here.

You can grab the latest and greatest files here: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDNext.aspx

What has been your experience with the playtest material so far?

Board Games at the Green Bean November 9th

The Windsor Gaming Resource returns to the Green Bean Coffee Co. on Friday November 9th

The Green Bean is an independent coffee shop that provides a wide variety of coffees, teas, lattes and more. They have a full menu that includes fresh made soup, paninis and some really tempting deserts. There's the option for a bottomless cup of coffee and they have free WiFi. For us gamers they have a wide variety of tables and a well lit stage.

This is an open non-competitive gaming event that anyone is welcome to a

ttend. Any form of games are welcome, board, card, rpg, miniatures, whatever you want to bring we are willing to have you. We aren't rule lawyers. You are welcome to bring your own games or share in some of ours. Everything we bring we are willing to teach and no experience is necessary. The goal is to get as many local gamers out as possible to enjoy some good food, some good company and some good games!

Games we've played at events like this in the past include: Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Scrabble, Ca$h and Gun$, Bohnanzha, Magic The Gathering, Carcasonne, Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico, Agricola, Chess and more.

An important note: we are not a private club. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come out and join in the games. If you see someone playing a game and it looks interesting, ask about it. If you see a game on a table and you want to try it out, ask around and see if someone will teach it.

The Green Bean is located near the University of Windsor at:
2320 Wyandotte St. W (Lower). Windsor, ON.
It's in the basement of the Church with the big sign that says "God Loves Students" on the side of it, next to Harvey's 

Note: The Windsor Gaming Resource has no political or religious ties to the Green Bean or the Church it is located in. It just happens to be an awesome place to play some games and meet other gamers.

You can find The Green Bean on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/greenbeancoffee

You can find The Green Bean on the web here:
http://www.greenbeancoffee.info/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/windsorgamingresource/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on G+:
https://plus.google.com/b/114520579551583540642/

The Windsor Gaming Resource on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/WindsorGaming/