My First Game of Diplomacy

Well, I played my first game of Diplomacy yesterday. I got Austria-Hungary. Yeah, I know a new player with one of the hardest nations. I also had one of the strongest players as a neighbor in Turkey. However, I was saved by the fact that Russia and Italy were single-mindedly intent on destroying Turkey and not me. I was also lucky enough to time a backstab on Italy at a moment when most of her units were around Turkish waters - leaving the Italian pennisula mostly empty. Needless to say, the 3-way alliance that Russia, Italy and I had fell apart after that. I was fairly confident that Russia and Italy were both weaken by the war and Turkey was still contained in the corner. I would have loved to see how it ended, but I had to leave early - another player stepped into my spot so I'm curious to hear if they renegotiated the alliance or what.

I can see why people don't like the game. I had fun even though I was pretty stressed out most of the time. Given what it is, Diplomacy is a fun game. But I don't think I'd want to play it all the time - I don't think my heart can handle it.

New School Semester...Must Be Time to Play Games!

Classes started up again this last week. And what a long week it was too. Being an old fart (at least these kids make me feel like one some days) can really be a drag some days. On a more positive side, I joined the university's Master Swimming program (5:30 AM workouts! YIKES!!). It has been years since I swam competitively and it was nice to get back in the pool - I kept thinking: "I sure hope the lifeguard is awake. He might have to earn his pay this morning!"

I've set a goal for myself to not only do continue doing good in my classes (last semester went GREAT!), but to also do the "Brute Squad" workout by the end of the year. For those interested in what that means (and if you are familar with swimming terminology) you can see what that entails at www.wsumastersswimming.org/news/brute.html

And on an even more positive note, the new semester has brought back the gaming folks! Yea! Eight of us showed up this Saturday for some gaming. Unfortunatly I couldn't stay long, so I only got two games in: Tikal (which I had be itching to play for a long time now) and a lightning speed version of Carcassonne. I lost horribly in both games. I was greatly impressed by Tikal, and it could very easily become a top favorite.

I also learned more about the history of this particular gaming group. It turns out they started as a Diplomacy club. I think they still might play every now and then, but I haven't seen them play since I joined up with them. Maybe they are keeping me away out of fear of my superior negotiating skills...yeah, right... Before I came along, it looked like they mostly played games like Settlers (K&C mostly), Carcassonne, and a wide variety of Steve Jackson games - mostly Munchkin (shudder).

It's fun to see them come up and ask what I brought in my bag of goodies this week. Since none of them had heard of BGG (nor have any joined even though I continually mention it - slackers) most of the games I bring are new to them...and they really enjoy them. Still, it's a fantastic way to spend each Saturday morning: teaching new games, playing new games, getting stomped in previously mentioned games, etc...

Rethinking the Desirability of My Collection

I have been wanting to re-rank my games for some time now. I dropped my one "10" game and was trying to think about what should take the top spot. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of one...

What?! I can't come up with a favorite game? So I sit down and stare at the screen filled with the titles in my collection in an attempt to discover a game I enjoy playing over anything else. Still, nothing! The best I could come up with is: "Well, I really love playing this game with these people, but not with those - I must rather play that instead."

Okay, I realize a lot of the enjoyment I get from playing games comes from how much the other players are enjoying themselves. So where does that leave me as far a ranking my games? Well, what if I rated them as if I had the perfect group for that particular game. Much more reasonable as that would let me decided which game I prefer.

Then the next problem arises: I haven't played some of these games in so many years that I begin to doubt if I would have as much fun now as I did then (Advanced Civilization jumps immediately to mind). Is that indicative of a lower rating? I'm not sure. If I look at games I play the most nowadays - namely Heroscape and Battleball - they are far from the most enjoyable games I own, each for different reasons.

Appeals to the BGG rating scale descriptions offer some guidelines, but are a little vague - I don't see how they could be anything else though. It's all so subjective. I firmly believe that they have to be ranked in relation to other games.

I'm at a loss.

Maybe I should stop being a !@# lamer noob (got called that in some online game and I found it funny enough to remember) and get over the fact that it's just game ratings I'm worrying about. But I know myself. I'm too anal-retentive to let it drop. Gotta have it all neat and orderly so I can say this is my favorite game!

On the up side, the rest of my life is going so well that I have the mental/emotional wherewithall to have this be something worth thinking about. And yes, ranking your game collection is an emotional process. Come on! Admit it!

Cub Scouts and Collecting

My church's cub scout pack had a meeting tonight. The theme was "Collections". One of the adults knew I had a large (to them anyway) board game collection and invited me to show it off tonight. Soo...I hauled all my games down to my car, packed them in as best I could, slowly drove to the church and set up.

I was surprised at how many tables I took up. It's a lot more impressive looking when they are all spread out. It was fun to answer a bunch of questions (mostly from the parents) about games and over all I had a good time. It sure was different from the usual baseball cards, beanie babies, pokemon cards, etc that were there - although I have to admit there were some pretty cool collections as well.

Probably the most frequent comment made was: "Games at our house never last that long. The kids destroy them." or something along those lines. When that happened, I turned to my kids who accompanied me (none are old enough for cub scouts yet) and asked them what "Dad's Rule" was. They promptly took on serious faces and replied: "Don't touch Daddy's games!" Then I smiled. I never let on what condition their games were in...

No Gaming This Week

Maybe everyone used the excuse of the holiday on Thursday to go home. Don't know - but nobody showed up this Saturday to game. I'm pretty bummed.

Gaming is like air and sex - you don't realize how much you need it until you're not getting any.

Oh well, Thanksgiving is coming up soon and we've got certain family members (who LOVE to play games) who will be in town for two weeks!