GCOM - Supplementary Blog Material

Contact Us

2008-09-12T05:49:00.000-07:00

David Fair - Host @ Damascus
Bob Jones - Host @ Germantown
Scott Fisher - Host @ Middletown
Cynthia Lewis - Host @ Frederick
Karl Musser - Host @ Brunswick
Our Yahoo Group

Showmanager

2008-01-24T05:39:00.000-08:00

Showmanager is a game of producing Broadway and off-Broadway shows. The players put together four shows in any order. The four shows are Wolf (which has three roles available), Queenie (four roles), King Lear (five roles), and Ballet (six roles). Each player is going to put on each of these shows, and score points depending on how much better or worse your version is than the other players' versions.

You start the game with four shows to put on a sum of money to hire performers with. Four actors are turned face up onto the performers-for-hire board - the rightmost one is desperate for work and you can have him/her for free. The next one to the left costs 1,000 DM to hire, the next one 2,000 DM, and the left-most one 3,000 DM. On your turn you may hire any one performer you wish - or spend 2,000 DM to clear the board and bring out four new actors. Once you select one, those to the left of that empty space all move one space to the right, and a new actor is placed in the 3,000 DM slot.

Play continues around the board - on your turn you can either hire an actor or put on a show. You may not simply grab all the best actors for every show and save them all to the end, however. The game forces you to focus on one show by a simple rule: when you open a show, you may not carry more than two actors in your hand after playing the cast for the opened show. Thus, if you want to open Wolf, you'll have to do it with five or fewer cards in your hand. Once you've hired that sixth performer, you'll have to wait to do Wolf until you've opened something else first ...

Once you open a show, you write your total value (points of all the actors) on the card, and place it on the show board. If you are the first to open a show, you pick which city it opens in. If someone else has opened the same show earlier, you must put your musical on in the same city. There are five different cities (so one won't get a show) with different scoring values. If you think your show is very good, open in New York or Hamburg. If you think you have a poor show, open in Troisdorf or Bochum. (You could have a very poor show if you have to use an actor not suited to a role, by the way: zero points for someone not rated in a role, unless it's a provincial actor, who gives 1 point for any role at all.)

The six slots in New York are rated from 0 to 22 Victory Points. As a show is opened in New York, it gets placed in order by its value (with an earlier show winning ties). Thus, if my show is worth 18 points and I open New York, I put it in the top spot: 22 Victory Points. If you then open the same show with 19 points, you take my 22 VP slot and slide me down to the 16 VP slot. If a third person opens the show with 15 points, we both retain our top slots, and the third show goes in the third slot for 10 VP. And so on. The six slots in Troisdorf are rated from 4 to 14 VPs, by the way - I guess they're so starved for theater there they're not so fussy, but nor do they pay as much as New Yorkers.

The game plays very well, and it's better with more players than fewer. It moves at a good pace, so even with six players you're never waiting for your turn too long. It's a resource management game with lots of interesting choices - do you spend your money to get those expensive actors, or go for the cheaper ones, saving money for special occasions? You can hold two actors between shows - do you grab a 9-point star for a show you're not working on now, hoping to use him later, or are you wasting your time and money doing that? Someone else is going head-to-head with you to open the same show, and seems to be grabbing the best actors - do you just open it quickly with a low score in order to place it in Troisdorf or do you fight to the last? The game has lots of interesting choices with a good pace, and takes just over an hour.

Power Grid

2008-01-23T07:40:00.001-08:00

Power Grid is the updated release of the Friedemann Friese crayon game Funkenschlag. The latest cooperative publishing effort from Friedemann Friese and Rio Grande Games, replaces the crayon aspect from network building in the original edition with a simplified network of preconstructed connections, but it retains both the fluctuating commodities market and an intense auction round.

The object of Power Grid is to supply the most cities with power when someone’s network grows to a predetermined size. In this new edition, players mark pre-existing routes between cities for connection, and then vie against other players to purchase the power plants that are used to supply the power. However, as plants are purchased, newer and more efficient plants become available so you’re potentially allowing others to access to superior equipment merely by purchasing at all. Additionally, players must acquire the raw materials, like coal, oil, garbage, or uranium, to power said plants (except for the highly valuable ’renewable energy’ wind/solar plants), making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximum efficiency while still retaining enough wealth to quickly expand your network to get the cheapest routes.

Power Grid has proven so popular since it was first released in 2004, that players clamored for new ways to play. The original game had 2 maps (the US and Germany) and there are now two other map sets available (Benelux/Central Europe and Italy/France) and an alternate Power Plant Deck.

Can't Stop

2008-01-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the most clever game designs are those that take a solid, yet tediously common, mechanic and add a slight tweak that transforms the mundane into the sublime. Sid Sackson achieved perhaps the greatest example of this design principle in his game, Can't Stop.

Can't Stop! is unabashed in its treatment of the dice. The game is essentially only dice, along with some markers to track results of rolls. Each player comes into the game knowing that his or her success ultmately rests in the fate of the dice, the unrelenting assault of randomness. This is the same way humans have played dice games for thousands of years: understanding that the fundamental element is pure chance.

Sid Sackson, in all his game-designing wisdom, saw fit to add one minor twist to the old standby that elevates Can't Stop! to the level of the sublime. Players roll four dice, and divide them up into two pairs of two, giving two results in the familiar 2-to-12 spectrum. Why is that so important? It provides strategic manipulation of the dice results, and adds some actual decision making into the process.

This Sid Sackson classic was actually released in the United States, but it never did well enough commercially to stay in print for more than a couple of years. The idea is quite simple. There is a board with all the possible results of two six-sided dice: two through twelve. The object of the game is to move a little marker to the top of three columns by rolling that result, but you need many more sevens than you need twelves, based on the likelihood of each result. During your turn, you roll the dice and place temporary markers onto the board. You can continue moving these markers until either none of your dice match (your turn is over and all progress you've made is gone), or cut your losses and end your turn (placing a permanent marker in your rows). A nice light filler for opening or closing a session.

Review - Le Passe-Trappe

2008-01-22T15:40:00.001-08:00

I wrote this review a long time ago, but I thought it would be good to add it here...

Le Passe-Trappe
by Jean-Marie Albert
Published by Ferti
Review by David Fair

Although the game rules are in French, and there is no translation yet available, my wife and I purchased this game some time ago. The game is very simple to understand and play is fast and fun.

There are two versions of the game available, Petit or Grande. Petit is about 2-feet long by 14 inches wide and Grande is over 3-feet long by just shy of two feet wide. I have only yet played on the Petit board. In either version, the board is made of a green, plastic-coated surface that is somewhat slick. Around the board is a handsome wooden (birch?) frame that rises about 1.5" above the board surface. The corners are toungue-and-groove and the construction is well done. Also going across the board in the middle is a wall that seperates the board into two areas, one for you and one for your opponent. In this wall is a hole just slightly wider than the disks. The sides of the hole are rounded to aid players who mis-aim slightly.

Also included are a 45-second sand timer, 6 scoring pegs which fit into conveniently drilled holes in the top of the frame, and 10 solid wooden disks (approximately 1.5" by 3/16"). Finally, the frame also includes two long elastic strings that are stretched across the width of the board and just about 1" in front of the back of each players "field".

To play, you place 5 disks in your play area while your opponent does the same. Then you start the timer and grab a disk. Placing it against the elastic and pulling back slightly, you attempt to send it through the hole in the wall, while your opponent does the same. Whoever has the fewest disks on their side when the time runs out gets a peg on their side. The winner is the first player to get three pegs.

The game is a lot of fun to play, and play is fast and laugh-inducing. The shot is just hard enough to make to make the game fun without it being too difficult. The fun of watching the disks fly back and forth and sending it back into your opponents area as it come flying through usually makes both players laugh.

We often play this at the end of the evening to end on a high-note, and sometimes open the nights with it when someone arrives early, or several are late. We would like to try out some of the variants listed in the included rules, but I have not been able to find a French-speaking person to translate them for me as of yet.

The playing surface has just started to show a little wear, and we have taken to waxing it with a high percentage carnuba wax (car wax) like is often recommended for Crokinole boards. This has to be done carefully so that you don't overly speed up the game-play or cause drag. I am sure that careful and judicious use of Mespi powder on the disks or board could help as well.

All told, this is a great game that my family and friends really enjoy. Crokinole, PitchCar, and Le Passe-Trappe make up the top three dexterity games, to me, and you can sometimes find all three in play at once after a long night of heavier games at my house. The components are top quality, and although the price is a bit steep, it is in line with other well-made wooden games.

Review - Senator

2008-01-22T15:37:00.000-08:00

Another older review, reposted here...

Senator
by Eric Lang
Published by Fantasy Flight Games
Review by David Fair

I have played this game three times thus far, with 3, 4, and 5 players. I am not a huge ancient Rome aficionado, but the theme, with each player taking on the role of a Roman Senator, and vying to claim credit for advancing certain Agendas, while backstabbing your opponents attempts to do the same, did intrigue me.

First, the components: Fantasy Flight Games have done an excellent job with components lately, and while this is no War of the Ring, the components are quite nice. The Cards are sturdy and thick, though they would benefit from a linen or other finish, and everything else is made from heavy-duty chipboard. The graphics are appealing and very well done. The numbers are the Cards are particularly easy to read, even at a large table.

The goal of the game is to complete the most Agendas in three turns, when the game ends.
To begin the game, each player takes all the Cards of a color and a scroll marker. The Event Cards are shuffles and placed to one side, and the Agenda tokens are shuffles and placed in a pile. There is also a veto and two Consul tokens which are placed near the Event Deck.

The games is played over three rounds, and each round is played in three phases: Setup, Debate, and Clean-Up.

In the Set-Up phase, a number of Agenda tokens are pulled from the pile, turned face up, and placed in a line. This is called the Docket, and determines what will be available to the players this round. After that, the top card of the Event Deck is revealed.

In the Debate phase, players use their individual Decks to attempt to win an Agenda token. Each player has seven Cards: two 1’s, three 2’s, one 5, and one Assassin (marked with a Gladius). On the first turn a player chosen at random, and on subsequent turns, whoever was last to win an Agenda token, chooses a token (Agenda, or Consul) and may play one or more Cards. Each player in clockwise order may play one or more Cards or pass, and once you pass, you are out, though you leave your played Cards on the table. You may play additional Cards if your bid has been raised when the auction gets back around to you, but you cannot “make change” with the Cards already on the table. This play continues until one player remains in and is awarded the Agenda token, or an Assassin is played.

If an Assassin is played on the auction, then the auction is dead, and no one is awarded the token. If an Agenda token was the subject of the Auction, it is returned to the pile. If a Consul token was up, it is turned over (revealing a red “X”) and is unavailable until the next round. Everyone who played any Influence Cards must discard them, including the player who played the Assassin. The player who played the Assassin then selects the next token to put up for Auction. It is important to not that a player may select a token and immediately play an Assassin on it, to make it unavailable this round to anyone else. This can be a good idea if there is one token that benefits the other much more than it does you, or if it would be particularly bad for you to end up with.

When a player wins an Agenda, he is immediately able to exercise that Agendas special power, and then he may award it to any player (including himself). Each Agenda conflicts with 2 others (except for the Imperial Agenda, which does not have any conflicting Agendas). The awarding may cause a conflict with another Agenda that is not yet complete (completed Agenda are free from conflicts). If a conflict is created, the player with the newly awarded Agenda must discard the new Agenda and any existing Agenda in conflict with it. Ouch!

The winner of the auction then discards the Influence Cards used, and the others return their Influence Cards to their hands.

When a player wins a Consul, he moves all of his incomplete Agendas to the area behind his scroll, indicating that they are now complete (and free from potential conflict). He then discards the consul token; it cannot be used again this round. The winner of the auction then discards the Influence Cards used, and the others return their Influence Cards to their hands.

If there are remaining Agenda and/or Consul tokens, and at least one player still has Influence Cards, then there is another debate, other wise, you proceed to the Clean-Up Phase.

In the Clean-Up phase, everyone returns all discarded Influence Cards to their hand, and the Agenda tokens are shuffled again.

Event Cards
There are 6 Event Cards, and each of them affects all players: One adds additional Agendas to the docket, one causes the losers of a debate to have to discard their played Cards, one disallows Consul to be selected, another remove imperial Agendas, one restricts each player to playing no more than 2 Influence Cards, and the last requires the players to play at least 2 Influence Cards.
Likewise, there are 6 different kinds of Agenda tokens, though there are 5 of each kind. Each Agenda has it’s own special power: One allows you to recover a discarded Influence card (but not an Assassin), one allows you to discard a second Agenda (or Consul), one allows you to take a second Agenda, without gaining it’s power (it cannot be a Consul), and one allows you to force all your opponents to discard a card type you name. The final one, Imperial Agenda, is only able to be given to the person who won it, and they receive it already complete; i.e. behind their scroll.
The game was fun, overall, though I disliked the Event Cards, feeling that they added little to the game. We all felt the game was fun, and the auctions were tense and filled with tough decisions. I liked the game best with 4 players. With five, there were too many Assassins, and with three, it was often easy for one player to let two others fight in the early auctions until he could win the final ones relatively cheaply.

The game box says it plays in 40-60 minutes, and all but our first game came in at under 45 minutes. Overall, it is a decent, though not great, filler game, and well worth the prices you can find it for online.

Blue Moon City

2007-10-02T07:05:00.001-07:00

A game about reconstructing the ruined city of Blue Moon, a fantastical place inhabit by many alien species, each striving to help in their own way.

Blue Moon City provides players with a tense race to be the first player to contribute the most to the rebuilding of the city, thereby gaining support of the people and becoming the new ruler. Each turn, players play cards from their hands that represent various alien races, and the help those races provide, and attempt to fulfill building requirements on the 20 buildings. As each building is completed, everyone who helped build it is rewarded, with a special award going to the player who contributed most. As you collect enough rewards, you can use them to rebuild the most important building, the Crystal Obelisk. Once a player has contributed the winning amount to the Obelisk, the game is over and the winner is declared the new ruler of Blue Moon.

Based on the Blue Moon card game, Blue Moon City provides players with many options and tough decisions. each card can be used for building, but also for other special effects. You only get two cards each turn, so manage your hand wisely or you will get stuck rebuilding your hand for several turns. The amazing art by noted illustrator Franz Vohwinkel adds the the atmosphere, but the great gameplay keeps bringing players back for more.

Winner of the 2006 Meeples' Choice Award (Spielfrieks Readers Game of the Year award) and nominated for the 2006 Spiel Des Jahres award (Germany's Game of the Year award).

Ticket To Ride

2007-06-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

A game about traveling the rails in the early days of the American Railroad.

Ticket to Ride can be learned in 3 minutes, but still manages to provide players with intense decisions every turn. Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come when they fulfill Destination Tickets – goal cards that connect distant cities; and to the player who builds the longest continuous route.

Ticket to Ride continues in the tradition of Days of Wonder’s big format board games featuring high-quality illustrations and components including: an oversize board map of North America, 225 custom-molded train cars, 144 illustrated cards, and wooden scoring markers.

Winner of the 2004 Spiel des Jahres (Germany's Game of the Year award).

Alhambra

2007-06-01T11:56:00.001-07:00

A game about building Moorish fortress complexes in Granada, Spain.

Alhambra is a tile-laying game set in Moorish Spain, wherein the players compete to build the most impressive fortress complex, using 4 different kinds of money cards to buy tiles depicting a variety of towers, palaces, gardens, etc., and from 0-3 wall sections. Buying can be done by overpaying, but if you pay by exact price, you get a chance to buy again, so be careful and don't overspend, unless you have to...

A game of Alhambra can be played with 2-6 people, and scales very well within that range. Unlike many games that play well with up to 6, this one even plays well with 2, by playing with an imaginary 3rd player. Another bonus to this game is that adding another player doesn't seriously extend the game's playing time. Six people can play Alhambra nearly as quickly as four. The game only takes 45 minutes for experienced players and not more than an hour regardless of experience levels.

About Us

2007-05-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

If you're not familiar with the people who call themselves "gamers", let me introduce you to our hobby. We play games. Mostly board and card games, but also party games, dice games, trivia games, and word games. These games may be simple abstract games, like Chess and Go, or may be rich in theme including economic games, civilization or city building games, auction games, diplomacy and negotiation games, trading games, puzzle games, and many more. Most of the games we play are called EuroGames or, sometimes, Designer games, as they often come from Europe, especially Germany. These games aren't typically available in retail stores, but carried mainly in specialty stores and on-line. More info on some of our favorite games is available, just follow the links in the section titled Games To Start With in the far right column.

Club Info

This blog is maintained by the hosts of four separate, but related, "chapters" of the Games Club of Maryland. While each of these clubs is physically close to the others, the real connection is that we have many regular attendees in common, and all the hosts are friends who enjoy gaming together regularly. All of our groups are open to the public, free of charge, and welcoming of players of all ages and gaming backgrounds.

Brunswick

When Karl Musser moved to Brunswick from Silver Spring in 2005, he brought his game collection and love of games with him. He started the Brunswick chapter of GCOM shortly thereafter. Meeting in the Beans in the Belfry coffeehouse gives us a great place to play. Average attendance is often a more intimate and manageable 6-9, and the group gets together on the third Saturday of each month, from 1pm-7pm.

Damascus

In January of 2004, David and Noreen Fair began hosting boardgaming in their home on Friday nights. It took some time and effort, but eventually, the group became so large that they outgrew the confines of the Fair household, and in March of 2007, the group relocated to the Damascus Community Center. The group now averages between 20 and 30 gamers and meets every Friday from 6:00pm to sometime after Midnight.

The most popular game played here is Tichu, though there are enough gamers and enough varied interests that on any given night, almost anything can be played. David brings many games from home, and many of our attendees bring their favorites as well, so there are always favorites being played.

The facility at the Damascus Community Center provides ample table space, free parking, and a well-lit, air-conditioned place to play.

Frederick

Cynthia Lewis established GCOM Frederick in July of 2006. Gamers meet in Cynthia's home on the second and third Saturdays of each month to play card, board, word, and strategy games. Some of the games we commonly play include Aquaduct, Backgammon, Dominoes, Guillotine, Machiavelli, Poker, Pegs and Jokers, Probe, Scattergories, Trans Europa, and Upwords. Participants are welcome to bring their own games to teach the group as well.

The start time is 2 PM and the end time could be anywhere from 9 PM to well after midnight. Drinks are served free by the hostess, and gamers may bring snacks to share. Sometimes we order in or go out for dinner. The group varies in size from session to session, but the average since we've started is 7. We are actively seeking new participants.

Germantown

In September, 2004, Dave Fair and Bob Jones established GCOM Germantown which gathers in the Borders Café on the first, third and fifth Monday evenings of every month from 6-10PM. For the first couple of years our average attendance was 5-7 players but that number has grown to an average of 14 in 2007. Sometimes it's quite a challenge to find table-space for everyone, but we like the exposure of gaming in a public place. It is our greatest pleasure when someone sees us playing and stops to join us.

We tend to play medium-weight games like Blue Moon City, Web of Power, and Yspahan as well as quick filler games so that we can play several games in one night. Bob eventually took over full hosting duties while Dave continues to serve as co-host.

Middletown

Scott Fisher had been coming to Damascus every week for 2 years when he and David decided to modify the schedule there to meet on the last Friday of each month up in Middletown. The occasional change in venue allows for different games to hit the table, and is more convenient for some of our regular attendees. The group usually has from 15-20 gamers. Starting in 2008, Middletown will meet on the last Saturday of the Month.

Scott has a large and varied game collection, and many attendees bring their favorites as well, so the games typically played at Middletown reflect an eclectic mix of old games and new, short and long, lightweight and heavy. There is something for everyone.

More Info

You can find more information about gaming as a hobby, and about our groups in particular on the Internet. Some of the best places to look are in the sidebar, listed under the title "GCOM Links!"

Good Gaming!