Reviewed: Santorini: New York

 Santorini: New York is another game from the pile of new stuff this holiday season.  As avid fans of the original we were very excited to give this one a try.  Read on for some more thoughts.

 The first aspect of this updated version that catches your eye are the skyscrapers: giant golden buildings!  These beefy golden components not only look awesome but they play a key role in the game and we were excited to get to place them on the board!

 Gone from the original is the perfectly square map and in it's place is a New York shaped map.  This fits the theme but I feel like it gives up a bit of the "chess like" feeling of the original.  There are nooks on the board that a player will get stuck on (or at least did in our first couple of games).

 Also added to this version as a required feature are role cards that are played each turn that require/allow a player to take a unique action.  The twist is that if the card says "must" the player "must" take the action or lose a worker.  Simple to start but later in games this can be a real problem if, for example, you only have Subway Operators left and there is no free spaces to move to... goodbye worker (of which you only get two!).  

 The roles add some variety to the game and unlike the original where the cards were optional rules they are a core part of New York.  This makes the game a little harder to teach to anyone that has never played Santorini but for our family who are Santorini veterans it took no time to pick up.

Grrrrr... Statue of Liberty!!!!

 One annoying mechanic in New York is the Statue of Liberty.  The player that plays the highest numbered card that turn gets the statue.  You MUST have the statue in order to take a winning move.  If you can take a winning move (of which there are multiple in this version of the game) but don't have the statue you can't win.  I don't feel this really works and in our experience elongated games and punished players who were unlucky in the cards they were dealt.

 In summary the game is fun, but would not be one I recommend someone get if they don't have the original.  The original is superior; mostly for the "no god/role cards: version that is easy to teach/hard to master.  With that said, if you own the original and enjoy it, then New York is worth getting as it kicks it up a notch. 

Reviewed: Planted: A Game of Nature & Nurture

 Planted: A Game of Nature & Nurture was another board game in the pile of new games for the family this holiday season.  Here are some thoughts.

 In Planted players are raising house plants and working to keep them fed and watered so they grow up and score lots of points. Throw in some decorations (pots, shelves, hanging baskets, etc) for bonus points.  The game is played over four rounds in which players select a card before passing the remaining cards left or right similar to Sushi Go.

 Our family really enjoyed the game. It is light weight and plays quickly (~30 minutes in our experience).  It is easy to learn but requires some skill in planning out what you want  to focus on each turn.  

 Only persistent cards like tools carry over between rounds so each turn is mostly self contained.  This can frustrating if the cards dealt that round don't support what you are working for with your plants, but there is a catch all mechanic where unspent resources at the end of the round can be turned into extra victory points through a mechanic known as propagation.  This was very useful in the early rounds when I didn't have many plants and thus wound up with more resources than I could use and when victory scoring came it was the difference that put me over the top!

 The artwork and components are top notch.  We especially loved the water tokens.  The plants featured are all real and we found a few of our own houseplants dwelling in the mix.  "Hey is this the plant we gave grandma?" is the quote of the night; thats how good the artwork is of the plants.

 Over all a big thumbs up for Planted.  Anyone looking for a light weight family game this is it.

Reviewed: USPS The Great American Mail Race Board Game

 USPS The Great American Mail Race Board Game was gifted to our family this holiday season and we've had a chance to sit down and play a couple games.  Here are my thoughts on the game.

 The first thing I noticed about the game were the components.  Mail trucks, an eye pleasing board, package/letter/postcard cards, and best of all: the postage slips and stamp!

 To fast forward to some final thoughts; the components make the game.  The game itself is simple and after a few plays the strategy is limited.  But the satisfaction from stamping your slip when you complete a delivery?  It feels awesome.  Every. Single. Time.

 Components aside the game itself is easy to understand and teach.  It plays quickly (~30m now that we know what we are doing) which makes this a great holiday game to play with family.  We are looking forward to playing with my brother-in-law who is a true blue USPS mailman but doesn't play games; that is approachable the game is.

 The game play is straight forward and comparable to Ticket to Ride.  You get letters/packages that need to go places and you can draw cards that let you move across the board to get them to those places.  Postcards are on the board and once passed they are gained by the player.  The board is split into different regions and delivering packages from/to different regions gains additional points.

 Best of all as players complete the deliveries and actions on the board they get to stamp their little postal slip and that is so satisfying it has brought my family back to the table multiple times.  I personally love the stamp!

 There is a bit of player on player competition as well in the game.  If you are passing another mail carrier you can either take one of their deliveries or give them one of yours.  Have a long haul package destined for Alaska?  Drop it on another carrier!  Have the travel cards to grab a package from another player and delivery it?  Then sneak in for the steal.  The only downside is newer players will get picked on by experienced players, but it is one of the most fun aspects of the game. Without "assisting another mailman" this game would be far too basic.

 My biggest complaint about the game is that there is not variable rewards as far as distance for a delivery.  A delivery that requires you to go from coast to coast is worth the same as one you can complete in the same turn.  This is OK if you have the stronger travel cards such as planes or trains, but if you don't... well you either have to swap mail with other players and try to stick them with the stinker package or you need to spend your turns trucking it out to its destination; either way its the same reward.

 Another nitpick I have is that the next letter/parcel/postcard that will replace a delivered one is visible to all players.  This is too much information for players to plan moves.  Having the "next up" be hidden somehow instead of face up would add some much needed randomness to the game.  With that said the cards being face up does allow a bit of skill in chaining deliveries together.

 My last comment will be on the rules.  They are well laid out for the basic game but they offer nothing for the scenarios or questions that pop up regularly.  For example: what does "passing through" really mean?  If I stop on a spot but don't end my turn there is that passing through?  Or is passing through just when I move through it?  Does the hot air balloon count as passing through or not because it says "go over"?  What happens if a postcard appears on the spot I am already at?  Do I just get it?  Questions I am not alone in asking as evidenced by Board Game Geek's rules sub-forum for the game.

 Over all the game is a gem and far too good considering it is literally licensed by USPS.  Have you played it?  What are your thoughts?  Leave a comment and I'll assist you with delivering it!

Monitoring our 13 year old's game time and software to limit time spent on his computer

 As my oldest has hit the teen years (13!!!!) we've needed to better manage his electronics time.  After all we cannot have him becoming a real gamer like his old man... at least not until it's on his own dime and time.  So I've been on the look for technical options that offer management over the home network and scheduling aspects whereby we can let him have his space but have a say in when he can "game on".

 What I ended up with and what we are trialing right now is the Time Boss Pro software.  This software

Example schedule from Time Boss website.

allows you to set a schedule per user on up to three PCs on the home network.  It also has features to monitor further with event logs and such, but that's over the top for our use case as we engage with our son on what he is doing, who he is talking to and so I turn it off.  

 I really keyed in on the scheduling aspect of the software.

 In the software I can set time per day and total time per week.  I can do that whether on his gaming laptop ("his" aka the one he took over from dad now that I don't travel much) or from my main home computer.  There is a clear visual display on his end of time remaining and a built in warning system.  There is also the ability to get and give bonus time.

 Some parents may say this is overboard and "helicopter parent-ish", but I'd disagree.  One of our key jobs as parents is to prepare our children for the real world.  Regulating and managing your time and using tools to do so is a key to success as an adult.  Kids also need to learn and a tool like this helps them learn what, for example, "an hour" of actual gaming is. 

 Thinking everything can be solved through "just talking to your kid" is fine, but you cannot always be there to talk to your kid.  And as they get older the ability for them to have their own space is critical (and heck as parents we need our time apart).  Tools like this help build that trust from a distance.  Note: it still critical to talk with your kid about what they did, who they are talking to, and all that good parenting jazz.  Otherwise how else are you going to stay hip to the Minecraft lingo?

 Long term the goal is to get our oldest to a point of self management with no tools, but until then I will keep working on technical solutions on top of talking/teaching about healthy habits.  That may even require me to be a little more conscious about my own gaming/electronic habits so I can lead by example. Quick don't let my wife see this post.

We gave our 13 year old a phone for Christmas

 We gave our 13 year old a phone for Christmas.  We went with the Pinwheel phone for the parent portal and controls.  It is an extra cost but worth it for peace of mind.  No gaming on this phone though (mobile gaming is terribad anyways).

Sunday 12/25/2022 Post (Merry freaking Christmas)

Merry freaking Christmas folks! 

The Green Bay Packers play off chances are looking:

 

 

Defense in the first half... meh.

Defense in the second half... oh yeah.

 

Cold. No power.

Happy holidays y'all!

Happy Holidays from the Battlefield team!

 Saw this and figured I'd share and maybe someone can explain to me the context for the penguin?

Monday 12/19/2022 Post

 A day-ish late but not a dollar short!  Still in the play off hunt BABY!

New World COMMUNITY QUESTION: What do you want to see happen with the Territory Game?

 

 First, watch the embedded video from the New World developers on the territory influence system.  Then read on for my thoughts and my answer to the question posted to the community.

The video covered

• Leaderboards and how they will track influence related data points
• They talk about timing windows for pushing influence to compress the action for attackers and defenders
• They are in early (EARLY was stressed) concept phase of control point activities for influence pushing

 The changes mentioned between timing windows and control point activities are steps in the right direction, but they are small changes on top of a system that is fundamentally not fun.  The missions are boring run here and then run back.  It is too easy for one side to out zerg the other sides.  Once a player dies they are worthless for PvP experience for a good bit so it gets really annoying having to kill someone over and over and over and over and over and over and over and what was I talking about again?

 Oh right! The territory push via PvP missions is crap. Which brings us to the community question: What do you want to see happen with the Territory Game? 

 First and foremost this system has to become more about the faction and not just the individual company.  No offense but my faction's companies are equally as likely to screw me on taxes as any other faction so why do I care... at all.. about the system?  The Territory Game needs to be more about the broader faction than single companies.

 We also JUST started getting way from super companies with shell companies owning the entire map.  Even with the changes there is still examples of large companies still owning more than makes sense.  These large companies already organized and plan territory pushes so they are really setting "timing windows" already.  Official timing windows just means they can take a breather until the actual window and be even more prepared for it.

 And this goes right back to point number one: the territory game is for the elite WAR gang.  So the answer to the question, in my view, STOP MAKING THE TERRITORY GAME ABOUT ONE GOSH DARN COMPANY!  Make the territory game relevant faction-wide!

 A few ideas (outside of getting rid of the idea of companies owning towns since that is not on the menu):

• Give all faction members a clearer reward and benefit for a territory being owned by that faction (tax break, access to a unique crafting station, free fast travel, etc). 
  
• Add aspects to territory influence that are not tied to combat and boring missions; involve the crafters and gatherers.  With more wide reaching rewards for the faction this gets more players involved.
  
• Update the taverns to be full of cool stuff for the controlling faction; stop in to get unique food and music related buffs.
• Instead of the repeatable faction quests; just give every player in the faction a set of task-like quests to complete when the influence window opens.  Then let players share these quests with other faction members so they can be completed. Once the window closes the quests go away.  The key is faction members get them automatically so they know there is something to go do.  Some examples:
• Gather 10,000 X resource that can only be gathered while PvP flagged in the zone and prevents fast travel.  The resource drops if you get killed and the defending faction can also turn it in.
  
• Kill "named boss" while defending faction has "defend named boss" (boss would have to be unique to the territory game)
  
• Capture points; goes with the boss suggestion
• Remove companies from owning towns (sorry couldn't resist); let home owners elect governors
   

How would you answer the community question?  Leave a comment and tell me.