In the Interests of Unbiased Journalism

I got home yesterday and the lovely Scrabblette had cooked me dinner and put Jambo on the games table. I've only played Jambo twice previously with the kid and it seemed like it had potential but it also seemed like the kid didn't want to play it again. I had to install a new DVD burner in my home PC and upgrade the Linux on it (the old burner couldn't read the installation DVD :-( ) so I did that quickly and surprisingly easily and we settled down to Jambo.

Scrabblette started by not coping at all with the limitations of the market stand and was going backwards for a while. She seemed to be trying to win by gaining 1 gold per turn by not using her last two actions. I got three utility cards into play quickly, but she killed the best one (one gold for one card) with a crocodile. I was left with stupid drums that let me trade a ware for a card and a tiger statue that let me buy a ware for 2 gold. The tiger statue was very handy when I could find an appropriate wares card. Scrabblette got a Supplies utility into play (draw cards until you find a wares card) which was very useful to her. I had a handy lead which evaporated when she bought 6 and sold 6 wares in the same turn. With careful trading we were both within striking range of finishing the game.

Finally Scrabblette announced she had reached 62 gold. I had 50 gold, and one more turn. As her last action, Scrabblette played a psychic who looks at the top 5 cards of the draw pile and keeps one and replaces the others. I had lots of wares and one card to sell 3 of them for 12 gold, so I needed to make one more sale to win the game (ties are resolved in favour of the first person to exceed 60). I spent 4 actions drawing cards but couldn't find a wares card to make a sale. I made my sale, got to 62, and Scrabblette won the game on the tiebreaker. Then she told me that the psychic had taken a wares card which I could have used... so the psychic won the game for her. Well played, but arrgh!

Umm, as I write this I realise I could have won the game. Can you see how?

Designers That Are Not As Good As Kris Burm

There are a few designers that get me excited - Bruno Faidutti, Friedemann Friese, Doris & Frank, Mike Fitzgerald, and of course Kris Burm. Reiner Knizia does not - I've played too many of his crappy card games to not be wary. Klaus Teuber doesn't either - although Settlers is a masterpiece he seems reluctant to try something really new. Wolfgang Kramer doesn't either - although he's made some masterpieces such as Tikal and Gulo Gulo, he's made some dross like Australia and 6 Nimmt! as well. However there are a number of designers that I just can't get emotional about either way, and it's those that I'd like to discuss today.

Rudiger Dorn (Goa, Jambo, Louis XIV, Traders of Genoa) - I own 3 of Dorn's games, and have played Louis XIV as well. Strangely, Goa and Traders of Genoa are games that I've only ever played with the kid, and been unable to motivate or organise myself to play with anyone else. My favourite of his designs so far is Jambo, and it's by far the simplest as well. Maybe I find his games a bit too complex?

Martin Wallace (Railroad Tycoon, Age of Steam, Runebound) - due to his tendency to design long train games, and my loathing for them, it's a wonder that I'm including Martin Wallace in this list at all. However it's an enigma to me that he also designed Runebound, probably my favourite high-Ameritrash game. I should keep an eye on his releases in case he comes up with another gem. (Note that Francis Tresham is not on this list at all.)

Dirk Henn (Alhambra, Metro, Timbuktu) - I used to own Alhambra, but it has the distinction of being the first game I ever traded away. I just thought it was boring. Timbuktu looked very exciting but three and half hours later I'd played more of it than I ever wanted to. However Metro is quite a neat little game although it's in the class of "CyberKev owns it so I can play his copy enough to satisfy me". It's possible that one day there'll be a Henn design that I really really love.

Alan Moon (Ticket to Ride, Diamant, Elfenland, Happy Dog, Pony Express, Union Pacific) - I've previously blogged about Alan Moon and his train games. The poor gentleman suffers from choosing a genre I don't like very much, as demonstrated by my very high opinion of Diamant and Elfenland. Sadly Happy Dog was an unfortunate Kniziaesque crappy card game. (Crappy card game is almost a genre by itself, isn't it? I might write more on that one day.) Maybe one day Mr Moon will design something that really hits the spot for me. Maybe San Marco is it?

Sid Sackson (Acquire, Bazaar, Can't Stop, I'm The Boss) - OK, so the man is a legend, but so is Boy George and opinions vary on him as well. I find Acquire to be mostly a bookkeeping exercise, which is not really what I want in a game, and Can't Stop gets a bit dull after a while - I find Diamant to be a much more interesting example of that genre. However I like Bazaar a lot, and I'm The Boss is a very clever and fun game. I look forward to trying out more of his designs.

Stefan Dorra (Amazonas, For Sale, Hex Hex, Pick Picknic) - I like Amazonas a lot - nobody on BGG rates it higher than I do. It feels a lot like Elfenland or Ticket to Ride with a theme that I enjoy. For Sale and Hex Hex are a bit worn out for me, but I still like Pick Picknic. My nephew thinks I gave it to him for Christmas 2005, but if so why does he only play it when I'm around? A Dorra design is always worth investigating.

The designers I've discussed above have some good designs - enough to keep me interested - but not enough to get me really excited about a new release. Maybe they have great games that I haven't tried yet? If so, please let me know and I'll hunt down a copy.