Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Table Top Day 2017

Posted on by Tim Porter

The VCSB meetup on the 11th of April has been moved to Ted’s. We will have the usual limit of 24 at Ted’s. People will need to bring chairs, and park up the hill etc.

As a bonus, Greg will host on the Monday before i.e. April the 10th. Greg and Sudro are plotting a game of Britannia for that Monday.

 

On Tuesday we had a smaller group than normal in Newbury Park with 21 attendees. Even so, a wide selection of games were played, including three games of Battlestar Galactica. Liz was a cylon in all three games. David M was the victor in all three games.

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VCSB 28th March 2017

VCSB 28th March 2017 Montage 1
VCSB 28th March 2017

Games played on Tuesday included: Britannia, Acquire, Russian Railroads, Great Western Trail, Wizard, Stone Age, Qwixx x4, Ticket To Ride, Red 7 x2, Trans Europa, and Battlestar Galactica x3.

 

Last night was Wednesdays at Carrows. This meetup is going from strength to strength with attendances around the mid teens. Thanks to Matthew and April-Lyn for the info and pictures.

Games played: Great Western Trail, Chaosmos, High Frontier, First Class, Burgle Bros., Blood of an Englishman, The King is Dead and Crisis.

Burgle Bros
Burgle Bros
The King is Dead
High Frontier

 

Table Top Day is a month away on April the 29th, we are planning a bigger and better Table Top DOG than last year. This will be the 4th year that we have organized an event. This year we will be back in Oxnard, we lots of space for all types of games, and gamers. Stay tuned for special events on the day. 

Please RSVP if you want to attend, here is a link to Table Top DOG 2017 on the VCSB meetup group. There is also an event on the official TableTopDay website.

To give an idea of the shenanigans of Table Top Day. Here are some montages from last years Table Top DOG 2016.

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Table Top DOG 2016
Table Top DOG 2016
Table Top DOG 2016

 

 

 

Gamer fatigue and the growth of the hobby

Posted on by Tim Porter

Some interesting points on the growth of the hobby. As a lifelong board gamer I want the hobby to grow steadily without a bust cycle. We will have to see how the growth curve progresses.
Tim

Gil Hova's avatarFormal Ferret Games

In a recent episode of Breaking Into Board Games, we discussed our predictions about 2017. One of my predictions was that we would start seeing a cap on attendance at larger conventions. I wanted to continue on that subject with a wider lens, looking at a possible scenario we may be facing in the coming years.

The board game industry is growing at an explosive rate (revenue from hobby board games grew 56% from 2014 to 2015; I’d expect similar numbers when the numbers come in for 2016), and I’ve heard a few pundits indicate that there’s no end in sight. As an independent board game designer/publisher, I certainly hope that’s the case.

But I always try to plan for contingencies, and part of that is planning for the possibility that this explosive growth slows, stops, or even reverses.

To be honest, I would expect the hobby to continue…

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10×10 Challenge update and Upcycling Punchboards

Posted on by Tim Porter

The page with my latest 10×10 Challenge for 2017 has been updated. I am making progress but I have concerns on making all of the categories.

IMG_2715
10×10 Challenge

Christieann took some photos of used punchboards being used as drawing templates in her classroom. It is a great example of upcycling. You can find out more here.

Upcycle board game punchboards
Upcycle (or resuse) the punched countersheets as drawing templates for younger kids.

 

Mid-Week update – 22nd March 2017

Posted on by Tim Porter

Along with a recent update on the gaming last Saturday at Game Empire, I recently finished an article on Analysis Paralysis, the article is long and I found myself rambling on, as I often do. I hope people find it useful as it does contain some useful tips on redicing the effects of AP. A poll on the BoardGameGeek page on Facebook was created to gather peoples opinion of games that suffer from AP.

I recently meet a game designer, Chris Renshall, at Carrows the other week, he’s a nice lad and we have started a friendly rivalry after he beat me at Qwixx by one point. I have added Chris’s website to the Useful links page.

We had a good crowd last night in Newbury Park with 27 in attendance. Despite the threat of rain, Mark drove down from Goleta.

A recent newcomer to the group, Spenser, is having a blast with every new game he plays. After extolling the virtues of BSG to him last week. I was happy that we roped him into a 6-player game of Battlestar Galactica (aka BSG). Teaching BSG is tough. The mechanics are quite simple, yet the permutations are huge. It does require a lot of regular games to get good at BSG. We play BSG a lot, it is one of our go-to games, so hopefully he will become a regular cylon player.

Larry taught Greg how to play the new version of Through The Ages. I am interested in learning this, yet have yet to take the plunge.

Games played last night included:

Strasbourg, Star Wars Rebellion, Through The Ages, Power Grid, Ticket To Ride, Terraforming Mars, Concordia, Clank!, and Battlestar Galactica.

VCSB Meetup 21st March 2017
Some of the games played at the VCSB Meetup 21st March 2017
montage 2
Other games played at the VCSB Meetup 21st March 2017

 

Tim

 

 

Game Empire, Pasadena – 18th March 2017

Posted on by Tim Porter

My regular wargaming fix is to meet with a bunch of fellow historical game enthusiasts once or twice a month at Game Empire .

Game Empire, in Pasadena, is a central location for fellow gamers coming from around the Los Angeles area, and beyond. After arranging things about a week in advance. People drive in from all directions. My drive is about 50 miles which by no means the furthest distance that attendees have to travel.

With 10 in attendance we had enough players to break out a mix of two-player, and multi-player games. Here are some photo montages of the game played.

GoG Capture
Guns of Gettysburg
RPC montage 18-march-2017
Red Poppies Campaigns
misc games montage Capture
Other games played on 18th March 2017

Games played included: Fury of Dracula, Wellington, The Wings for the Baron, Twilight Struggle, Guns of Gettysburg, and two games of Red Poppies Campaigns.

Karl and myself were both rusty at Red Poppies Campaigns… let’s just say the second game went better for the attacking Germans. The lesson learned was to attack on a narrow front with adequate reserves to exploit a breakthrough. A little luck is also needed in creating an opening to exploit. Both the attacker and the defender have to take risks, and therefore take causalities. Although the British are outnumbered, they have reserves that can move quickly to reinforce any weakened areas.

Wings For The Baron is a fun, historical economics game. I do have a problem with the variations in the cards for the Allied Fighter Effectiveness. The game can go into a race condition where it is impossible for the players, as aircraft designers, to match the Allied Fighters. Even so, it is a fun game where I enjoy having to modify my strategy due to the change in the fortunes of war. Having four different game-end conditions allows for a nice amount of variety in how the game progresses.

Tim
21st March 2017