Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Joe Krause's LiveJournal:

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Friday, December 4th, 2009
5:20 pm	The Holiday Board Game Buyers Guide, 2009 edition Ok, so back to what I was going to post a few days ago: the Holiday Board Game Gift Guide. My criteria are simple: games that my extended family will happily play, but that my boardgame snob friends won’t turn up their noses at. Bonus requirement: them must be small enough to fit in a stocking (or in your pocket, to play as you travel). Such games are few and far between, and nothing I’ve yet reviewed this year qualifies. But here are 5: Bananagrams Fairy Tale Incan Gold No Thanks! Times Square Bonus 4 – Grandma & gamers will play, but it won’t fit in your pocket: Ticket to Ride Ingenious Dominion Pandemic ( What They Are ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 30th, 2009
2:52 pm	Holiday anti-buyer's guide So I was going to write up a short review of 5 games that anyone should be happy to get in their stocking this Christmas. And maybe I'll do that tomorrow. But for now, here's my short anti-list: Do not purchase any product by or associated with Games Workshop ("GW") this holiday season. This includes anything related to Warhammer (Fantasy or 40,000), any of the licensed products put out by Fantasy Flight Games (e.g. Chaos in the Old World, the Rogue Trader RPG) or various video game companies (Warhammer Online, Blood Bowl, etc.) Why, you ask? Well, because GW has apparently entered into a new phase of their crusade to remove all fan-created content from the internet. Many of my favorite websites have been ordered to cease and desist from hosting "proprietary" GW content, including everything from home-brew scenarios, stories, player aids, and FAQs for games like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Space Hulk, to pictures of peoples' GW-related tattoos. Long-running sites which I have frequented in the past (e.g. FUMBBL, the online Blood Bowl league) have recently been threatened. Even boardgamgeek.com has been ordered to remove all proprietary IP, including, presumably, the picture of the front of the game box used in their rating system, as well as massive amounts of content of every variety. Well, enough is enough. GW has long had a ridiculously draconian IP policy, especially as regards internet sales, but making fans delete lovingly created content which in no way threatens (rather, it bolsters) GW's income stream takes things way too far. I am officially boycotting all GW-related purchases for the foreseeable future, and encourage you to do the same. Would that I could also get back the thousands of dollars I've poured into their coffers over the past 20-odd years. Methinks that it is ebay time. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
4:54 pm	#30-'09: TAMSK Next up is (old) game #2 in Project GIPF: TAMSK. As you will recall from my review of game #35, TZAAR, TZAAR replaced TAMSK, in large part because TAMSK demands 6-7 simultaneously-flowing sand timers and lots of speed, which is both out of character for the rest of the series, and expensive to produce. Read on for details of the only sand-timer-centric abstract speed game I’ve ever seen: ( TAMSK ) (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
1:25 pm	#31-'09: Boggle (+25) So if Blood Bowl was the year's big loser, Boggle is the big winner, jumping a stupid number of slots. I could review the game, but unless you've been living under a rock, you already know how to play Boggle: random 5*5 grid of letters, egg-timer, make words by connecting letters, cross-out words that other people also found, score points for remaining words based on length of the word.  And this is better than Blood Bowl, how? 'cause it's short (5 minutes), it's got some timer-induced desperation, scales to any number of players, makes a decent drinking game, and, most importantly, almost everyone I know really loves it.  For years, Boggle has been my go-to (short) word game (Scrabble being the go-to long one).  It suddenly has competition from Bananagrams, which I'll discuss on next year's list, but for the moment Boggle is the one game I can take to any game night, and it will actually get played.  Its sheer popularity  makes it deserving of a #31 ranking. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
10:28 am	#32-'09: Battle Line (-11) Battle Line remains an excellent quick abstract-ish 2-player card game, with some decent brain-burn.  But for whatever reason, it hasn't come off the shelf much lately, and loses 11 slots to games that have. (Comment on this)
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
11:01 am	#33-'09: Blood Bowl (-27) So the big loser on the year is Blood Bowl, down 27 slots from #6.  This drop comes from a 2-part realization.   1)      Blood Bowl is far more fun in a league than as a 1-off game.  27 slots more fun.  Rookie teams are boring.  Single games are boring.  And less tactical.  The true fun of Blood Bowl comes from watching the story of an entire season develop – rivalries, injuries, surprising rises to stardom, press-gangings at inopportune times… these are the things that make the game great, and create years of stories. 2)      My local friends have no interest in, and I have no time for, participation in such a league.  Yes, I know that there is a new computer version, and that I could play remotely.  But it’s not the same.  Nor do I have time in the 2-3 hour chunks the game demands (the 5-minute round timer is a brilliant idea, but it also means you can’t walk away and come back).  Small child == no big blocks of time for things like yoga, running, 3-hour games, etc.   So, until my situation changes, Blood Bowl drops from #6, which is where it would be if I were playing in a regular league, to #33, which is how much I enjoy the occasional 1-off game. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
2:08 pm	#34-'09: RoboRally (-11) Dropping 11 slots, it's the game of chaos incarnate: RoboRally.  Watch your carefully programmed route to victory fall apart before your eyes as some tiny thing goes wrong, spiraling you out of control.  This is just as fun as it was a year ago, and I have managed to get in several games of it since then.  Nevertheless, 11 new games I like more have edged it out this year. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
4:58 pm	#35-'09: TZAAR TZAAR is the 7th game in the 6-game GIPF series of abstract games.  It replaces game #2 (TAMSK), and plays vaguely like a cross between DVONN and ZERTZ, played on a GIPF board with a hole in the middle.  Confused by acronym-sounding names yet?  If so, read on!   ( TZAAR ) (Comment on this)
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
12:00 pm	#36-09: Warhammer Fantasy Battle (-8) I haven't played Warhammer Fantasy Battle in several years (though I finally have a new opponent), so this -8 drop has nothing to do with the quality of the game, and everything to do with 8 new games I really like making an appearance higher up this list. I hope to get in at least 1 play of WFB before April 1, 2010, (Dark Elves v. High Elves, most likely), so as to provide a better-informed rating next year.  Hoepfully they won't come up with yet another version of the rules before then.  I play so rarely that they almost always revise the rules between games. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
12:16 pm	#37-09: Ticket to Ride: Europe (-20) Two -20's in a row!  Ticket to Ride: Europe loses out for a very simple reason: original Ticket to Ride with the 1910 expansion is the superior game.  Tougher decisions, more tension, etc.  Now, if Europe didn't have that silly station rule to keep you from getting blocked off, I'd probably like it more.  We'll see if my opinion changes when the Europe: 1912 expansion comes out (today, I believe, at Essen Spiel). (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
2:55 pm	#38-'09: Beyond Balderdash (-20) ...and dropping 20 slots this year is my favorite party game, Beyond Balderdash.  So why is it down 20 slots?  Because I don't actually like party games very much. (Also, the whole "obscure words and definitions" thing doesn't work so well when you're surrounded by tons of people steeped in knowledge of dead languages.  It makes them too good at guessing). Still my favorite game to play with 6-8 intelligent, verbally creative, intoxicated types.  Which I can assemble once a year, if I'm lucky. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
6:27 pm	2009 #39 – Descent: Journeys in the Dark Descent: Journeys in the Dark is a (very successful) attempt to recreate a Dungeons & Dragons-style “dungeon crawl,” sans role-playing, character creation, story writing, etc.  You’ve got 1 player who is the “Overlord” trying to kill everyone, and 2-4 “Adventurers” who are fighting monsters, acquiring treasure, etc., on their way to a show-down with the “boss” monster.     ( Descent: Journeys in the Dark )   (Comment on this)
Monday, October 12th, 2009
6:19 pm	#40-'09: Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery (-29) AoE III (the board game version) has dropped precipitously in my estimation this year - from #11 to #40.  While I still enjoy the game, it has two flaws that really bug me. 1) There are fewer viable paths to victory than I believed at first.  Maybe 3-4, rather than 7+.  And, worse, to have a fighting chance, you must choose your strategy very early on, and not deviate from it.  This makes the first few turns interesting, and everything else that happens an exercise in predestination.   2) And speaking of fighting chances, one of these routes, what I’ll call “the soldier plan” (i.e. collecting lots of soldiers, shipping them to the New World, and executing all the other settlers) is actually an exercise in kingmaking – you might not win, but on the last turn you can kill enough people to decide who else will.  Not a mechanic that I am fond of.    Nevertheless, the game still has many strong points: it is very pretty, draws in new players, and is relatively easy to teach (compared to most other worker placement games).  This makes it an ideal (and unexpected) “gateway” game, and gets it to my table probably more often than it deserves.  A trait it shares with The Settlers of Catan. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 9th, 2009
3:48 pm	#41-'09: Poker (+10) Yeah, Poker.  Specifically, face-to-face Fixed-Limit Texas Hold‘em with 6-8 players, where all the players are reasonably experienced.  And where you’re playing for real money.  Why?  Read on.   ( Poker )   (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
6:09 pm	#42-’09: Hacienda Clocking in at #42 on the year, we have a board game (supposedly) about ranching on the South American pampas.  Or, more to the point, trying to monopolize space on the pampas.  In short, it is an area-control game with a light economic element, with big similarities to Through the Desert, or even Go.  There’s also an “empire-building” feel that comes with staking a claim to all that territory, which appeals greatly to players who likes games such as Ticket to Ride.  If that sounds like your cup of tea, read on.   ( Hacienda )   (Comment on this)
Monday, August 31st, 2009
6:01 pm	#43-'09: Amun-Re Once upon a time, Dr. Reiner Knizia designed a huge, complicated game set in ancient Egypt.  After having a change of heart about uber-complicated games, he threw out many of the mechanics for this game, and divided the rest into 2 separate games.  Both centering around auctions.  Both named after Egyptian gods.  And both are in my top 50.  The first of these, Ra, is further up the list.  The second, Amun-Re, ranks at #43.   ( Amun-Re ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
11:02 am	#44-'09: Kupferkessel Co. (-20) Kupferkessel Co. ("Copper Kettle Company"), as I discussed a year ago, is a great, light, highly portable little set collection/memory game.  I still love it, and its on my very short list of 2-player games I can stick in my pocket to play at the airport, etc. (or, most recently, in the hospital recovery room the day after my son was born).  It has dropped 20 slots on my list, not because I like it any less, but because I have played 20 new and even better games since April '08.  However, only 1 of those 20 games (Hive), is as portable as Kupferkessel Co., and since I don't actually own Hive, Kupferkessel Co. remains my go-to portable 2-player game of choice. (Comment on this)
Monday, August 24th, 2009
10:50 am	#45-'09: Stone Age The next game off the list is Stone Age, the latest in a growing line of “worker placement” games.  This time, you command a tribe of hunter-gatherers.   ( Stone Age )   (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
11:39 am	#46-'09: Reef Encounter Reef Encounter is a game about coral reef ecology.  Well, at least nominally.  Actually, it’s a euro-game with a strong puzzle/spatial element, a pseudo-stock market, and a wealth of strategic choices.  This one will make your brain hurt…   ( Reef Encounter ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
10:04 am	#47-'09 San Juan (-32) San Juan, you may or may not recall from last year, is the card game version of Puerto Rico.  Last year, I was quite enchanted with it.  Since then, however, I have made 2 discoveries: 1) one particular card is "broken," and unless you remove it from the deck, the game boils down to who can play that card first; and 2) Race for the Galaxy, another card game by the same designer (with very similar mechanics), is superior in almost every way to San Juan. San Juan is still a good game, and the game I would introduce new players to first, as it is simpler.  But this doesn't save it from the fate of dropping 32 slots on my list, from #15 to #47. (6 Comments |Comment on this)