The Fiction of the Filler

There's been a bit of debate on BoardGameGeek about whether a filler like Dominion should be ranked as highly as it is. There are a number of wild assumptions in that debate, such as:

• Dominion is a filler
• Fillers do not deserve to be rated highly
• Proper games are long or heavy games

That's all crazy talk of course. BGG has a very strong bias towards heavy games - not ASL heavy, but Puerto Rico heavy. BGG's audience loves that sort of game, and people who love that sort of game are attracted to BGG, so it's self-reinforcing.

It's also reinforced by the point of view that if a game is light it's not a proper game. I know a couple of guys who like to play at least one meaty game per game session (and strangely, they all agree that it should be Power Grid.) I almost agree with them. I certainly like to play games that require some thought, and an evening of dexterity games and Bohnanza would underwhelm me. However I do see value in a lot of shorter games which require thought - Hey! That's My Fish! is a perfect example.

However games like H!TMF! get lumped in with games like For Sale! as "fillers", which is almost a derogatory term. What does "filler" mean, exactly? I was under the impression that it was supposed to mean "a game that you play to fill in time while waiting for other players", but I also recently saw it defined as "a game you play to relax between meaty games". That second definition is biased towards meaty games in the extreme... if you never play Power Grid is there no reason to play For Sale!?

The first definition is pretty weak as well. This is what happens at Critical Mass where I experience most of my multi-table gaming... four players complete a game of Reef Encounter. At the other table, phase 3 has just started in Power Grid so they won't be much longer, so when they're done the tables can cross-pollinate. The Reef Encounter people decide to play Ingenious as a filler. Two of the players haven't played Ingenious before so the rules need to be explained, then a great deal of thought is put into each move of Ingenious. The Power Grid people finish, and notice that the Ingenious game is only half over, so they start Through the Desert. And so the evening passes without anyone swapping tables at all.

Obviously, the Reef Encounter players may as well have just started Key Harvest instead of falling for the filler fiction - Ingenious is just as much of a game as any other, and it probably takes 45 minutes no matter how quick you imagine it might be.

The only games that PROPERLY work as fillers are games that can be abandoned in an instant. At Critical Mass I often set up one of these as people are arriving, with the intention that when people come in there's something to play, and they can peel off to other games when they get organised. Games that work in that way are Set, My Word!, Bamboleo and Ricochet Robots. Tsuro is almost as good because the games are over quickly, players can learn the game by watching, and it plays from 2 to 8, so when one game is finished some people can leave and others can join the next game. However almost anything else is not much use as a filler.

As for Dominion, it's a great game, but it doesn't perform many of the functions that I need from a filler. Some people may classify it as such, but they probably like Power Grid anyway.

Tsuro is the secret game of Metro

Once upon a time, CyberKev and I were discussing how I had won three games of Metro in a row and hence for the fourth game I was viciously targeted and completely annihilated. I don't know whether I really was good at Metro, but it felt like it to me - I knew what I was doing and played with confidence. I also remarked that apart from the obvious techniques of keeping your own tracks alive and screwing other players there was some sort of area control element to the game that I hadn't quite sorted out yet.

For example - your track is in the 2x2 area in the corner of the board. Say I can't (or choose not to) play a tile to terminate your track earning you only 3 points, but I may be able to play a tile such that there are no paths out of that area. (Note that there still may be paths in - in Metro, paths in (INs) and paths out (OUTs) are separate.) If I do that, you're as good as screwed. Inevitably your track will wander around that 2x2 area no matter what you do. The best bit is unless you understand the secret game of Metro you won't even know that I did that, and you'll think later it was just bad luck :-).

It's extremely hard to do this in Metro, because you only get one tile at a time, can't rotate it and you have so many things you need to achieve. However it's nice when you pull it off. Also, I'm not yet experienced enough to easily recognise the IN and OUT tracks.

Tsuro is an abstract game which is similar to Metro in some ways - you lay tiles with tracks on and your track terminating is bad. However in Tsuro you can turn the tiles any way you like, you only get one life and when you lose it you lose the game, and there are no INs and OUTs - a tile can switch INs and OUTs which can result in players colliding with each other (and that's bad for both of them). Also, you get 3 tiles to choose from, but only one place to play them, which is where you're going next.

The goal of the game in Tsuro is to stay alive, or alternatively, to make your opponents dead. You can achieve this by squeezing them for room in a Tron light-cycle like fashion, so there's nowhere for their track to go, or by simply avoiding them and hoping they crash first. In my experience, the two player game rewards aggression, and there's a slight resemblance to Hey! That's My Fish! where you're trying to claim territory. However, unlike Fish! and light cycles there are paths to escape from a blocked off territory. As your opponent, I want to minimise your escape paths if I can.

The two player game is strategic, as players compete for space to move in. The game takes up to 8 players, and as you add more players there are more interferences between players. If I place a tile that will determine where you go next you'll almost certainly be eliminated (sorry Scrabblette), so if you must be near someone try to make it a player on your left! I found that with more players the game was more chaotic as lots of players get forced into small spaces.

Tsuro is indeed the game I was thinking of when I hypothesized there was more to Metro than meets the eye. Surely with this extra experience I truly will become the Metro Master!

P.S. the kid says "um goin back 2 france tomorrow, colleseum wasnt that amazing roof that michealagelo painted wasnt that cool either. I think i like france better! (except the damn Keyboard!) Oh byea and wats Tsuru? How is Cartehgana 2?"

Hey! Some Of Those Are My Fish!

I played Hey! That's My Fish! against Scrabblette and my sister the other evening. At the beginning sister suggested that they gang up on me. As I squeezed her penguin for room she remarked "he's like a gang all by himself". I isolated one of sister's penguins very quickly and she saw how it was done. The two of them then played pretty well eventually leaving one of my penguins on an ice floe by himself. I tried very hard to carve out a good territory for myself but they wouldn't let me. It was very close.

For the final scoring, I noticed that there were 6 fish in the box (unreachable, so nobody scored them). That left 94 points in the game, and I had 32. The pigeonhole principle tells us that for me to win, they had to have 31 each. Scrabblette announced she had 31. Woohoo!

I like H!TMF! a lot but I wonder how deep it is. I suspect very very good players are only a tiny bit better than very good players, unlike Chess for example. There are certain principles that you need to play by and once you've mastered those you're basically competitive. Let's see which I can remember:

1. Realise that if a penguin is on a space that space is already taken.

2. Fracture the ice so that you have more penguins on the big side.

3. Interpose your penguins so that your opponent has to go around them instead of past them, because that will cost them an extra move and you can be doing something else in that time.

4. Always cramp your opponent for room.

Other ideas welcome.

Critical Mass All Day Gaming

The kid and I went along to the Critical Mass all-day meeting yesterday and played a few games. We played from 10am till 10pm, in fact. It was a long day! How do those Gathered Friends do it for day after day? I took along a few older games which didn't get played and some of the newer ones which did. Here's what we played and my impressions.

TransEuropa - Even though I got fairly badly beaten, I still like this game a lot. In fact, the previous time we played Scrabblette beat me. It's always an interesting puzzle.

Portable Adventures: Lair of the Rat King - This one seems to be more luck-based than its sibling, Battle of the Bands. In BotB, quiet but steady play can sometimes win the game for you. When you venture into the Rat King's lair you can win 2, 3 or 4 of the required victory points in one adventure, so if someone gets lucky they can win by mistake. I claim that's exactly what Mikey did. But still, it's not a game to take seriously.

Hey! That's My Fish! - What a good game this is! I taught it to half a dozen people or so through the course of the day, and in most cases I beat them soundly in the first game and then played a second game where they knew What Sort Of Game It Was. I particularly enjoyed the second game against the Evil Count von Walduck where I knew I was up against a particularly cunning opponent, and the game started to feel very abstract indeed.


Give Me The Brain - A stupid game, yes, but there were a couple of kids playing.

On the Underground - It's quite hard work to play this with an upside-down map! Nevertheless, Daniel was upside down and he won. It seemed his line up to the north-west was useful enough to win for him. I'd like to play more to see if I can see any strategy.

Under Cover - (This is also called Heimlich & Co.) A simple and fun game for the 6 players we had. It's very simple, and I notice there's an Advanced section in the rules so I'll have to look to see what that's about.

Mystery Rummy: Al Capone - I've liked all the Mystery Rummy games so far, but this one left me cold. With two players there were going to be 20-something cards in play, but there are 10 different gangsters to be melded. It could well be that some of them never turn up during a game. A lot of the gavel cards which involve taking other cards in play were totally useless. Did we play this right?

For Sale - An oldie but an almost goodie.

Set - I love this brain-burner! Almost nobody else does though :-(.

Villa Paletti - Brought along by Bertie Beetle who likes dexterity games he went to funagain and bought all of them. This is a game I need to play a lot more of because I did such a crappy job this time! I'll have to give it as a present to somebody. Or else hang out with Bertie a lot more.

Unpublished Prototype - The Evil Count showed me the game he's working on. He has some very cool ideas! I hope it continues to prosper.

San Marco - I've wanted to play this for a long time because of the divide-and-choose mechanism, but after you get past that it's still an area majority game. There's a lot to like about this game, e.g. the surreal illustrations on the board, but I'm not sure I want to play it particularly often.

Anyway, the kid is having chocolate for breakfast. I'd better prepare myself.

First Plays and It Never Rains But It Pours

Many of my unplayed games are kids' games, and with the kid here all weekend and no Scrabblette I had a perfect opportunity to play some of them.

First up was Careers, an old game which I picked up at the Lifeline Bookfest. It's the one where you decide your goal which is a combination of happiness, fame and money and then choose your careers to achieve that goal. The kid enjoyed it a lot and though the first time that he'd not known enough about defining goals to be competitive so we played again. He'd certainly learned all of the tricks I knew for the second game but lost a lot of cash in a hailstorm and I beat him for the second time.

Next was Upwords which I've always thought of as a children's word game. Maybe so, but it's a bit difficult and rewards thought. I'd like to play it again with Scrabblette when she gets back. The kid can't compete with me.

Last time we were in Melbourne we found a copy of Booby-Trap in a toy shop and the kid put on his pleading face until I bought it for him. We set it up last night and played 5 games in about 15 minutes. We agreed it was kinda boring and needed to be traded. The main feature of the game seems to be that it explodes and sprays bits all over the room which is not a strong point in my book. Nephew might like it.

The kid was sick this morning so I stayed home to look after him. We played Under Cover with 2 real players and 2 fakes. It was clearly going to be a race between blue and orange (me). The kid caused blue to win, and then revealed that he was purple, who'd come last. Huh? Tell me about the strategy? OK, maybe 7 players would be better.

We then set up 13 Deadend Drive (which I traded from schlappy) only to hear a tsunami warning for the entire east coast of Australia. We live 2 or 3 kilometres from the beach so it was of some concern to me. As we played the game we kept the TV news on, and I kept checking the web for news of whether any places further north had been washed away. As the game wore on the putative tsunami failed to arrive further and further down the coast, until by the time the game had finished I'd decided we were safe. The kid managed to kill one of his own people, and the last two alive were both mine. I can't remember whether the gummy old gardener or the seductive maid got rich. I hope it was the maid...

Next up was Cluedo: the Great Museum Caper. I've owned this game for many years and although I've played it quite a few times, I don't remember who with. The kid has wanted to play it for such a long time, but when he used to ask all the time he was too little to be able to. In our first game I managed to catch him after he wasted time wandering around the museum stealing no paintings. Then I escaped with 2. I think it was during this game that we heard the side gate close, so I went and told the dog that someone had invaded her territory. It was a parcel delivery man who'd delivered some games from unhalfbricking.com.au. I opened it to take delivery of Cave Troll, On the Underground, Hey! That's My Fish! and Funny Friends.

Then ensued several hours of punching and bagging, punctuated by a mysterious phone call from the nursing home where my mum is very sick and a trip to the shops to get some superglue to repair the chandelier from 13 Deadend Drive. I set up Hey! That's My Fish! and defeated the kid soundly. He challenged me to another game and I beat him even more soundly. I need Scrabblette to play that one too.

I had intended to play Cave Troll but when we got back from the shops there was a small parcel in the mail box - the Portable Adventures card games from Third World Games - Lair of the Rat King and 8th Grade. As if I hadn't unpacked enough games today already! We played two games of Lair of the Rat King. In the first, I was very badly beaten, but the tables were reversed in the second.

Phew! I feel like I've done nothing but play games all day, but of course I prepared 3 meals and cleaned up the kitchen and all the other domestic things as well. My Friendless metric was as high as -11 at one stage during the day, but I suspect with all of the new unplayed games (well, just 3 of them) it has dropped again.

Oh yes, we managed to fit a couple of games of Connect 4 and one of Hamsterrolle in there as well. It's been a busy weekend. I'm going to bed to relax with a Dungeon Master's Guide.

On Order

Scrabblette is off to the U.S. on a taxpayer-funded junket, but she's bringing back games for this particular taxpayer so let's not bitch too much. Here's what's on its way to various locations around the U.S. for her to collect.

Taluva - I just can't get those sexy bits out of my mind, I must have that game! When I went to place my order last week it was out of stock at Boards and Bits. Then it came into stock but I had to wait for Scrabblette to decide whether she wanted to buy anything. Then it went out of stock again. I ended up ordering it from Amazon instead. I didn't want to.

Urland and its expansion - For some reason, I decided that because I couldn't get Taluva I had to order this from Boards and Bits instead. I have Primordial Soup and EVO, it would be silly to not get the second game in the trilogy, huh?

Runebound expansions - Yes, I do like Runebound and I intend to play some of it with myself while Scrabblette's away. I ordered the Sands of Al-Kalim and about 6 smaller expansions. I've avoided the class decks because they're not so useful if you play solitaire.

Fiji - My Friedemann fetish continues. My kid is starting to love him too.

Hey, That's My Fish! - Scrabblette likes abstracts, and this is the highest rated abstract I don't already own. Oh yeah, this and the next 3 games are coming direct to me from the FIGS in Melbourne. B&B didn't have this in stock the first time I looked, then unhalfbricking got it, and I decided that since Julian games with me and Tom doesn't make it over here so much, I'd get it from Julian.

Cave Troll - I'm not sure I'm going to like this one, but I'll see. I first tried to order it with Orcz and Arena Maximus, and they both turned out to be turkeys, so I'm scared.

Funny Friends - I need my own copy so CyberKev doesn't know when I'm holding my swingers' parties. Baby psychotic tornado sister liked it so much she'll demand we play it next time she visits. Which reminds me, I'd better order some food in for Pete.

On the Underground - Yes, it's another train game! I like Trans Europa a lot, so I thought I'd push my luck.

Portable Adventures: Lair of the Rat King - I have Battle of the Bands which is a very good silly card game that the kids like a lot. They LOVE Santa Claus becoming a junkie and the producer dying in a bus crash (game after game) and all the other nonsense. This and the next game are in the same series by the same designer, so I'm expecting good things. I ordered these from the publisher's on-line store.

Portable Adventures: 8th Grade - My nephew is in 1st Grade so he may not understand this one and may not be able to read the cards for a while yet, but my niece is in 7th Grade so this should be right up her alley.

I Can't Wait for Scrabblette to Come Home

Because frankly, as good as CyberKev is at Rheinlander, I don't want to play Footsies with him.

Scrabblette is STILL overseas visiting family. How many families does she have? Doesn't she know I need someone to organise my life so that the game-playing and the housework happen in sensible proportions? Actually, yes, she does know all those things and we're constantly in touch and she'll be home soon. I'm looking forward to it and I've been thinking of games I'd like to play with her when she gets back.

I know what you're thinking, but no, this is not one of those horrible double entendre articles that make you alternately snigger and grimace. I'll do one of those later if I can figure out how to write it without offending my audience. This is a serious list. Scrabblette has decided that her favourite types of games are word games and abstracts. They're two of my favourites as well, but I also like deduction games, dexterity games and whatever that type is that includes Tikal, Domaine, Rheinlander, Bridges of Shangri-La, Tigris & Euphrates and Trias. But still, I have a lot of word and abstract games to play with her.


Through the Desert - Besides being a beautiful game, this is quite a lot like Go but without the intensity.






Taj Mahal - I haven't played this yet, but of the two Indian themed games in the BGG Top 50 this seems to be the lighter. Also, the little taj mahals look really nice. Maybe not Scrabblette's type of game, but I think she'll like the theme.




Hey, That's My Fish - This is the highest ranked abstract game that I don't own, which is good incentive to buy it. As well as playing it with Scrabblette, the kids might like it.





Scrabble - I have to confess that we haven't actually gotten around to playing this yet. We've played Scrabble Cards and several other word games, but not this one.





ZERTZ - We played GIPF once and she seemed to enjoy it, and ZERTZ is probably just as good. Furthermore it doesn't have a board, in fact everything is made of Bakelite, so we could play this at the beach or in a park or in any number of romantic places. Besides, I'm really itching to play it again.



Tigris and Euphrates - Gentlemen, now you see just how attractive this woman is :-). Yes, there are some women out there who will play E&T, and I'm yet to see whether Scrabblette is one of them, but I have a kinky fantasy where she enjoys playing this. You have to admit that's pretty kinky. If she doesn't like it I'll try to play it with my brother-in-law, although he's a bit hairy.


Now, I know what you're all thinking. What about Lost Cities? I have had good experiences with Lost Cities in the past, but I think Scrabblette is more capable than that. We'll see when she gets back, in 222 hours.