After a multi-year hiatus, Traders of Genoa (now known simply as Genoa) found its way back to the gaming table. For those gamers who seek fun and exciting themes, you might glance at the box and simply dismiss this game as yet another boring euro. That would be a mistake. This game’s theme is trading, and it quite possibly might be the best expression of that theme I have seen in a game. How the game works: Players take turns controlling the “tower.” The tower is a stack of wooden chips that are used to mark positions and track where the actions for the turn take place. The game board is comprised of many buildings and locations that provide some benefit to the person who is able to “use the action” there. The player who controls the tower sells the rights to use the action of each location. The sale price doesn’t work as an auction as you might think, rather it is an open negotiation that allows the selling player to make just about any deal that they can work out. A skillful player can assess what locations will yield the best offers from other players. As with many euros, there are a variety of ways to make money. The winner of the game is the player who has the most money, which seems appropriate for a game based on trading. Fun 10/10 I love the interaction and intense negotiation as players jockey to create the best deals
Dice Tower Award Nominees Posted
The Dice Tower has posted their Nominees for the 2011 Dice Tower Awards. The Dice Tower has a great reputation for providing objective reviews and advancing the hobby.
New Agricola Variant: Fertile Ground
Just posted a simple Agricola variant to make your 4-player Agricola games less constricted. We tried this out over the weekend and the 4-player experience was much improved.
GameChips Availability
I’ve received some questions regarding when GameChips are going to be available for purchase on this site now that the Kickstarter project has closed. Although I don’t have a exact date, I’m hoping that they will be available in late May or early June. I’m currently keeping a list of folks who have expressed interest so that I can send out a notification once I have more details. If you want to be added to this list, please send an email to alerts@gameknight.com and I’ll add you.
Dominion Card Storage
I saw a post on Dice Tower News that highlighted a storage solution for Dominion cards. I originally used the box insert with the labels like many folks do, but quickly decided that was rather annoying. I found that storing the cards in 3″ x 4″ ziploc bags works much better. Instead of using the card randomizers and then selecting the cards from the slots in the plastic insert, I simply pick 10 of the ziplocs at random. I still keep each set\expansion in their own boxes as I like to play the sets mostly self-contained. It’s quick, cheap, and works well.
Game component storage
Hopefully I’m not the only gamer who has a mild case of OCD about keeping game components organized. I found myself ordering large quantities of ziploc baggies. I usually end up removing the plastic inserts from game boxes and than using a combination of ziploc bags and other storage to organize the bits. The ziploc bags work ok, but I’ve found something even better. The issue with ziplocs is that you generally need to dump them out before play, and put everything back in the bag at the end of the game. When I ordered my custom set of Agricola clay components, they were packed in these great tiny plastic containers. They are called Lock Tight Compartments. They come in a couple of different sizes. The medium and small sizes are perfect for storing game components. They also offer a large size container that can fit many of the smaller compartments. Check out the picture of my Agricola components fully organized in one of the larger boxes. What’s really cool about these is that you only take out the ones you need, and you can leave the bits right in the boxes on the table without needing to dump them into messy piles. If you are looking for them…try the following link to www.consumercrafts.com Let me know what you think of them, or if you have found other great storage ideas.
Mage Knight: First Impressions
I spent some time getting to know Mage Knight. Before opening the box, I was cautiously optimistic about this particular game after reading several glowing reviews. On the other hand, I recently tried one of Vlaada Chvatil’s other creations, Dungeon Petz, and found it to be a bit too math intensive for me. Upon opening the box, I was very impressed by the quality of the components, fantastic art, and even painted minis. So far, things were going well. I grabbed for the rulebook and found two different versions. One rulebook is a game walk-through, and the other provides in-depth rules. The major issue is that the rules are printed in a tiny font, that makes it a tough read. I’d suggest reading them on your PC\laptop\etc where you can scale the print size up to a more readable level. Given that the basic walk-through took quite a bit of time to absorb, this one will take some time to fully understand all of the nuances. I would put the experience on par with Through the Ages, where there is a basic game, and then you can layer on more stuff in future games. If I have a nit to pick on this game is that it is possible that it might suffer from runaway leader issues. This might impact games where player vs. player attacks are allowed. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt until I have a few more games under my belt. That being said,
