Name Your Zombies
I’ve never been satisfied with the concept of the tone poem. If anything, it feels like a descriptor we resort to when there isn’t anything better at hand. When it comes to But Then She Came Back, the horror board game by Amabel Holland, well, there isn’t anything better at hand. Unlike most of Holland’s oeuvre, it’s an impressionistic lament to the toxic relationships we left behind, probably well after we should have. Very much like some of her work, it’s also a game that gives back what you bring to it.
Gnobody Gknows
All I play anymore is trick-taking games. Except I’m not so sure Gnaughty Gnomes really qualifies as one. Like Matthias Cramer’s Pies, the card-play is closer to an auction than anything resembling a trick.
But never mind that. I’m having such a good time getting these gnomes high as a kite that I couldn’t care less about where it hangs within some ill-defined genre’s orbit.
Wouldst Thou Like the Taste of Margarine?
What happens when multiple covens of witches come together to determine which among them is most powerful? Why, chase victory points, of course! Stefano Di Silvio’s Evenfall won’t be winning any points for originality. Its best bits are mined wholesale from other tableau- and combo-builders. But it’s a slick package all the same, even if it seems to cast an enchantment of forgetfulness after each appearance on the table.
SDHistCon 2023
Apart from one local con, I haven’t attended a convention in years. They’re uniquely wearying, like swimming freestyle in a petri dish. So when a friend mentioned they would be attending SDHistCon, an annual historical gaming convention in San Diego, and wouldn’t mind splitting a room, I declined. Then Harold Buchanan, the con runner and designer of Liberty or Death, mentioned that he would like me to participate in a pair of panels, and would reimburse me some small amount. I declined again. It took pressure from two further acquaintances before I booked the flight.
I’m glad I did. SDHistCon was the most enjoyable convention I’ve attended by a mile. What follows are the eight highlights of the show.
It’s Not a Lake
Every so often, a board game will produce a firecracker of an idea, even if its execution doesn’t fully make good on that promise. Maps of Misterra, designed by Mathieu Bossu, Timothée Decroix, and Thomas Cariate, is one such title. An untouched island has been discovered. Nice. Now it’s time to map the thing. The only trouble is that your patron has some rather harebrained ideas about what an untouched island will look like.
Winds of Change, Part Three: Kenya
It’s all too easy to think about colonialism as something that occurred centuries ago, resolved in the dim twilight of history and bearing little import on current interests. But as we examined in our last two entries on Stephen Rangazas’s The British Way, both the Palestinian and Malayan “emergencies,” as they were euphemistically known, are relatively fresh historical atrocities whose reverberations can still be felt today.
The same goes for British imperial behavior in Kenya. Indeed, the imperial incursions into Kenya were a 20th century phenomenon. Missionaries and British corporate interests began settling East Africa in the late 19th century, but the incorporation of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya only occurred in 1920. Over the next three decades, British abuses reached a fever pitch. It was no surprise when an undermanned and underequipped group of rebels named the Mau Mau began to terrorize the countryside.
The Suns of Malvios
The suns of Malvios are dying.
I haven’t a clue what that means. Evocative, though. I wouldn’t expect any less of Peter C. Hayward. He created That Time You Killed Me, which featured some of my favorite writing in any board game to date. Give me one good sentence over a languid storybook any day.
Converge is the card game equivalent of one good sentence. Maybe four good sentences. This is a Button Shy production, and like all Button Shy productions it’s an 18-card wallet microgame. Except there are three wallets plus a solo mode, and they can be mixed and matched. Purists might argue that this pushes it past some self-imposed boundary of microgamedom. Good thing I’m no purist, because Converge is possibly the best microgame I’ve had the pleasure of playing.
Never Home
There’s a common misconception that “light” means “good for non-gamers,” with the flawed corollary that the lighter a game, the better it is for newcomers.
Forever Home, designed by Lottie and Jack Hazell, has exactly the right setting for drawing in the curious. As the operator of a dog shelter, it’s your task to train your doggos for placement into welcoming homes. It’s a lovely concept. The trouble is that it’s so light as to be insubstantial.
Space-Cast! #34. Bees & Dragons
Which is more unexpected, science-fiction bees or realistic dragons? For today’s episode, we’re joined by Connie Vogelmann to discuss that very issue. In addition to discussing Apiary and Wyrmspan, we also dig into how these games came to be, the benefits of grounding a setting, and the behavioral biology of leaving negative ratings on a game one hasn’t played.
Listen here or download here. Timestamps can be found after the jump.
Dragons Greater and Lesser
It’s an odd thing to say, given that Connie Vogelmann’s spinoff of Elizabeth Hargrave’s Wingspan is about fictional creatures rather than real-world birds, but Wyrmspan benefits from its sense of grounding.
Yeah, yeah, I know. But it’s true. Wingspan, which I’ve always had a fondness for, requires some degree of acceptance. You’re arranging its avian wildlife into three rows that represent… sanctuaries? Bird-watches? Meals? I couldn’t tell you. By contrast, Wyrmspan settles into a fiction of carving dragon nests into a primeval mountain. You feed the beasts, fill their hoards, raise their hatchlings. It’s every bit as pleasant and appealing as Wingspan, but heftier and more established.
Also, it sends my ten-year-old into paroxysms of joy. So there’s that.
SPACE-BIFF! 