Monopoly? More like monotony.

It's been a while! I'll break up my adventures into multiple posts. I'll start off jabbering about board games for a while, I think.

While I was in Waterloo, one stop I was intent on making was to J&J to pick up some board games (since I brought a Wii to Waterloo for Andrew, I had some space in my luggage I had to fill up). I bought Dodge City, an expansion for Bang, a two player abstract game called Hive, and a starter deck for the Harry Potter TCG.

Hive has turned out to be a pleasant little suprise. I've played it a few times and have managed to lose most of those games, but it's a really nice little game. It takes no setup time whatsoever, and can be taught in about three minutes. Once you've played for five minutes and "get" the game, you can throw some interesting strategy into it right away.

I haven't played a game of the Harry Potter TCG yet, but I'm already looking to acquire some more cards. I can get 24 or 36 booster packs (11 cards each) from ebay or other online sources, but the shipping to Canada costs more than the cards themselves. I don't really know what to do about that.

I've already got a nice little list of games on the proverbial chopping block (or shopping block if you will). I suppose I've gotten most of my geek talk out of my system. I'm looking at Alhambra (for a good light 3 player game), one of Shadows Over Camelot or Arkham Horror (for a pseudo-RPG co-op game; the latter has decidedly heavier gameply and takes longer but has a nice theme), and I've been interested in HeroScape for a while (but I feel like I already have so many 2 player games that never get played).

I got a lot of game time in while I was in Waterloo. I played three games of Catan (one with 3 players, one with 5, one with 6), two games of Bohnanza, a game of Monopoly, two games of Mario Party 8, lots of Smash Bros, some really good 4 player Wii tennis, a few games of Hive. That's quite a lot of gaming in one weekend. Even after all those games of Catan, I'm still ready for more! It gets a lot of table time on Tuesdays, so I'm sure I'll get into another game soon.

I'm not really sure how many games I'll have in my collection before I think that I have enough games. I have a ton of games that I rarely play (I don't want to introduce too many to my friends at once), but there is always a set of games that I want to purchase. I really hope that once the Game Shelf gets a website up, I can hook up with some more hardcore gamers. I might even be able to come across a few gamers in the math department at Lakehead. Until then, I'm going to have to try to mold my Tuesday night crowd into hardcore gamers.

Listening to... Opeth - Deliverance
Link of the moment... HeroScape even has a nice little community and is loaded with customized scenarios.

Memoir '44 is out of stock? GAH!

I must be the target of a conspiracy...everytime I go to J&J with one game in mind, they don't have it in stock! It happened first with Thurn and Taxis (which I eventually got a hold of (but have yet to play)), and now it's happened again with Memoir '44! They say they're getting a Days of Wonder shipment in this week, but they're not sure if Memoir '44 will be in it. I hope so, because I'd really like to pick it up before I leave Waterloo. It seems like the kind of game that Adam would be interested in, and I don't have any wargames in my collection (besides Risk 2210, blech). I also had hoped to pick up Kill Doctor Lucky and Bohnanza, but they only had the latter in stock (I guess one out of three aint bad?).

I've also been thinking about picking up a mixed lot of Magic cards on eBay, or a starter set. No matter how many games I get, I'll never have enough to satiate my thirst. I certainly have no hopes of being one of *those* Magic players. You know, the ones that buy booster pack after booster pack, hoping to score one of those rares that they need to have an unbeatable deck. No, I just want something I can divy up between some chums and play when I need my nerd itch scratched. I mean, MTG has been around as long as it has, so the gameplay must have some sort of redeeming qualities.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to include more links in my posts. I don't suppose any of you have said "jeez, I wish Kevin would direct me to a page with more information about his favourite board games", but you never know. If I can infect one of you with my gaming disease, I'll consider it a success.

While I'm (still) on the subject of games, let me tell you a little story. When I last played Catan with Jordan and Katie, they mentioned that they were walking through the V1 cafe one day, when someone asked if they wanted to play some guy's game. They told me that he had gotten it published. This had reminded me of some guy who was showing off his game at a WATSFIC games day, saying he was trying to get it published. Long story short, they were one and the same. Having played the game, I didn't think it was that great. Someone (Andrew?) said I shouldn't trash talk him, since he got his game published, something I probably couldn't do. Since then, I've been trying to get inpiration to design a game of my own, and I think I've finally got something workable. I'm working out the kinks, but so far I'm thinking of an old west theme, with "simultaneous action selection" (ala Diplomacy). We'll see if I can make something workable out of it.

I've also been looking into Arkham Horror, but I'm not sure how much use I would get out of a 3 hour long, heavy weight game that requires a few playthroughs to get used to. Ok. I'm done talking about games for a while. Thanks for letting me indulge.

Listening to... The Offspring - Something to Believe In
Link of the moment... I have SERIOUSLY got a one-track mind