Your one sentence movie reviews, expanded!

Kung Fu Panda — Pretty good if you can stand the ‘Jack Black fanboy’ schtick.

Wall*E — An OK Pixar movie, which makes it better than most, but I we’re not sold on getting the DVD.

And, if you want a full paragraph or so.

KFP — No pop culture filler (yea!), some really good actual (non-CGI) animation ala Samurai Jack, decent action sequences (given that it’s CGI). Jack Black. You should know whether you like that last part or not. Several good jokes.

Wall*E — Not nearly as much of a kid flick as I expected. My son (5 years old) was begging to leave with 30 minutes to go. I think it probably could have been trimmed a bit, although I enjoyed the length it didn’t feel as tight. I suspect my daughter enjoyed it, but she wasn’t raving. Action sequences weren’t as strong as the Incredibles, but how could they be? (Ditto Character Development/Ratatouille or Monsters, Inc or Nemo) On the other hand, I’m comparing it to the other movies by the greatest animation studio of my lifetime …. and the short was pretty good, too.

BTW, you Koldfoot should do a passenger poll for every movie.

Recent Actual Gaming

Apart from Bridge and Rock Band, a few other games have managed to hit the table.

Notre Dame remains a nice middle-length game from last year. Requires a little bit of thought, but isn’t really taxing. The sad part (for me) is that N.D. seems to have a ‘one-true path’ to victory. Actually, it’s more of a “one path to avoid.” Early game victory points are rarely worth forgoing resources for. (In last night’s game, I got 5 VPs in Turn 5, doubling my score, and won by a dozen points).

In the “Blast from the past” category (one that’s showing up more often) is “Two Hedgehogs #$(*ing in the dark.” [One point of Geek-cred to any who explains where I got that title from]. I’ve no doubt that the sheer number of included variants means that there’s one combination of 2+ variants that makes this the greatest game ever made. Sadly, the sheer number of included variants and my rate of play means the universe will end before I’ll discover it. So I’ve settled for just owning an amusing filler.

I don’t remember the last game’s name, but it’s a “Think of objects the fit the category.” Everyone gets 30 seconds to write down the answer, and then secretly bids a number they think they can read. Players read from low-number to high (with ties broken clockwise by the moderator, who moves around the table). And it’s boggle-style. Once someone says an answer it’s done. But whoever bid lower gets to score it. If you make your bid, you get it. If not, get zero. This scoring could be transported to any boggle-style game.

I should play Ticket to Ride:1910 more often. I slightly prefer Marklin, but 1910 has a much simpler setup. I also tried a second game of Nexus Ops, which works by giving plenty of incentive to expand and attack, and (almost) no incentive to turtle. Other designers should take note.

Dominionus Previewus

Aviday Airfay posted a dominion sneak peak at la geek. As I may have said before, I thought the idea was intriguing but I wasn’t hooked (after one game). Still, there has been a lot of development work done and many of my (remaining) faithful and loyal readers are avid supporters, so feel free to ooze enthusiasm (or hatred) in the comments.

What bugged me about the game? In my pondering afterwards, I thought it’s an economic game with a) a growth curve b) randomness in opening resources and c) unequal number of turns. Everyone will earn 7 gold in the first two turns, but those could be divided 5+2 or 3+4). Now, since you don’t get your stuff until turn 3, it doesn’t matter if you are 5+2 or 2+5, but depending on the action cards available 5+2 or 3+4 could be much better. (Not all cards are played each game, imagine a great combo that involves a 3 cost and a 4 cost card out for one game). But mainly it just felt like the same damned thing over and over. An impressive feat for a 30 minute game. Each turn you look at your hand, play one (sometimes more) of your action cards and make the best purchase. There’s a hell of an optimization idea here, and absolutely nothing that links turns together. Maximize your turn, toss away unused cards, draw for next turn. Of course, if all your opponents are buying the “Thief” cards (or whatever) you’ll want to buy “Anti-thief” and that’s interesting, but turns are “Fire and forget.”

Wii are finally amused

Although wii are also out $150, thanks to Rock Band. Although if you have the ability to create a personalized character (ala XBox version) then I haven’t noticed it (either in the rules or menus). Is that an unlock-able? Don’t know.

Sometime soon someone is going to make a video game that teachs actual instruments and makes it fun. (I’ve seen videogames that do just that, but they were poorly executed). Arguably Rock Band does just that for the drums (It sure looks like the same skill set to me, apart from reading music, but I’m not a drummer …). Until then we’ll always have Sousaphone Hero.

Fast Food Franchise

You know, until today I don’t think I’ve ever played FFF two-player. I expected it to be fun (and was surprised that “She Will Soon Be Nine, Don’t Forget Presents” suggested it). One of the subtle design decisions was, no doubt, making Ice Cream a suitable two-player option, since no child will open a chain of salad restaurants.

I’m preaching to the converted, I know. But for any heathens reading, get a copy. It’s a crying shame how few games are logged on BGG.

Wii are still not amused

My loyal and faithful readers have never led me astray.

Sadly, several of you have now lost your “loyal and faithful” status, as my copy of Boom Blox shipped sans fun.I mean, it was more fun than a tie or shirt. But I was happy to turn it off after 30 minutes both times I’ve tried it. The kids seem amused, though. (I’ll admit that the competitive games may be fun, if I were playing against an adult).

And I think that the designers for the Wii really need to understand — I don’t play video games so that I can go through a menu every 1-2 minutes. This isn’t rocket science.

Rock Band appears to be shipping for the Wii next week, though.

Race — Terraforming Robots

Since I haven’t done any race in a while…

Terraforming Robots 3 Cost Development (2 VP).
Settle — Draw a card after you settle/conquer a planet.
Consume — Consume a rare good for 1 VP + 1 Card.

Alexfrog, in his card-by-card guide, says:

Terraforming Robots (3) */*
Until the expansion is out, this is overcosted. You’re basically paying one extra card for the fact that it says ‘Terraforming’. That makes it harder to make use of. However, it can be good, in military or production strategies that want a brown consume power. Or with New Economy, to score. I’m sure its better in the expansion when there are terraforming cards.

I’m not sure exactly how Alex gets overcosted … If you develop this, then you spend 3 cards (including this one) to get this out. If you hit this early enough, then you’ll probably get your money back from settle rebates. Still, with the “time value of money” earning back your income may not be particularly good. Getting double your cards back is better.

First of all, let’s look at the mining worlds. There are 13 brown planets (6 production, 7 Windfall). Of those, exactly one has a consume power — New Earth. Apparently mining planets export, require a destination. Terraforming Robots will be a big interest to Alpha Centauri or anyone going the brown route. The real downside for Terraforming Robots, from Alpha Centauri’s point of view, is that it isn’t the Mining Conglomerate. The conglomerate earns income faster and triggers many more six developments (Mining League, Trade League; both score for New Economy and Galactic Federation). The conglomerate works less well in a diversified economy, whereas Terraforming Robots are fine with a single mining world. It won’t score VP for Mining League, but it does consume efficiently.

The Conglomerate is a “brown pioneer” card. Assuming you have the most mining worlds, you’ll get two extra cards per produce, an extra card per trade, and be able to consume with your spare worlds. The Robots are metallic leeches. If someone else consumes, you get a card + VP. You get an extra card whenever you settle, which lets you leech a military sprinter. Neither leeching role is amazing, but opponents tend to stop calling roles where you can leech for huge draws (unless they have a monstrous setup). How much would you have to be getting to call produce if it triggered someone else’s mining conglomerate?

As Alex notes, A military strategy will happily play this card. Conquer a world, draw two cards. You’ll probably luck into a military world every 3rd turn you do that (or get enough to pay for a six cost development).

Terraforming Robots will improve in the first expansion. I honestly don’t remember what the Terraforming Guild does. You can’t just slap down the Robots, but they work in a reasonable number of situations. If you’ve got any mining planets at all and are short of consumption powers, they’re dandy, you’ll consume an extra good and earn several cards back, not to mention rebate cards. A reasonable middle game card.

Update: I do, however, remember that the expansion contains another development that combines well with this … Improved Logistics. Since the card hasn’t been spoiled (that I’ve seen), let’s just say that it combines well. (I.L. is a game changing card, to be sure).

This thread on BGG mentions what the Terraforming Guild does … 2VP for each Terraforming card or windfall, and an extra rebate after each settle, and produce on a windfall world.

Kids Games, etc.

Pastor Guy (Mark Jackson) is counting down the his top 100 kids games. Anyone who names R4TG as his game of the year should be heeded, I say.

Speaking of Race, I noticed that 25 players now have 100+ games logged (and soon the Top 50 players will all have 75+ games logged). That’s slightly better than Carcassone, (which has been out 8 year, but presumably got most of its plays before BGG started logging games).

Chris Farrel reviews the remake of In Teufels Küche. There seem to be quite a few rules changes. “Press one … two … three, pop go the Nazis!”

As for me, I just picked up Hamsterrolle, Das Amulett, and the Jambo Expansion in a math trade, so there may even be new content eventually.

Me likey IMPS

Quick bidding question — what’s your plan with

Ax
KJxx
AKJxx
Kx

Answer — Learn to count to 19. Yes, your humble narrator stopped counting at 16 points, which was not the correct answer. I saw the King of Clubs, but declined to assign it any value. I specifically thought “AKJ twice is sixteen.” Needless to say that cost me a cold (vul) game. Minus 10.

Despite this disaster, I managed a second overall (out of 30 pairs) when none of my other decisions were particularly bad (I gave away an overtrick here and there — me likey IMPs), and several were good. Several gifts were donated, of course, but generally a solid game. I believe this ranks as my best tournament finish.

Which is just a roundabout way of gloating and way of mentioning why I’m not discussing other games. So … no new content for you!

Bridge Experts

Just watching the Vugraph for the USBF and saw the following amazing disaster.

Howard Weinstein opens 1 with

Axxxx
xx
J9x
AJ9

Partner wheels out a 5 bid.

After careful consideration, Weinstein passes. Apparently he thought he was being asked to bid 6 hearts with a top heart.

Gartner held

KQJTxx
—
AKx
Kxxx

As it turns out, the grand slam makes when clubs behave nicely.

One day I hope to be good enough to have my bridge lessers make snarky comments about my bidding disasters. To be fair to Weinstein, I’ve never heard that auction and “Super Splinter” wouldn’t be the first thing to pop into my head.

Update: Michael points out this page, positing the Law of Total Trumps (“You should have more trumps than they do”) and showing numerous violations at high levels.