I wonder h
ow many board gamers have been thinking about their respective strategies to the Pandemic board game, during the recent outbreak of Swine Flu?
If you haven’t played the game yet, you should give it a look as instead of the player competing against each other you compete as a multi-skilled team against the game rules of the virus. This might sound easy, but as those who have given it a go will well know (and believe me it is humiliating to be beaten by a board game!) it can be quite difficult to win.
Given that this is my only experience of containing a global outbreak of a virus (!) I was expecting Swine Flu to immediately take hold and spread exponentially (as does the virus in the game). Now,don’t get me wrong I am very happy that the significant threat hasn’t really surfaced (as yet!). Perhaps the virus may re-assert itself after summer and let’s hope that it doesn’t - in the meantime, have a look at this game and test out your virus containment skills!
Ok, so Steve S won the 2008/09 league with style…. Congratulations Steve…
Now we are going to fiddle it (errr) for next year to encourage greater focus on longer games. Last year it was felt that the scoring was a little too weighted towards playing many short games in a evening and quickly building points (anyone for a quick game of Aquarius Mark!). The new scoring system, as approved by Scott is;
- Short Games: (<20mins) 2 points first place, 1 point for taking part
- Longer Games: (<2hours) 5 points 1st place, 4 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd and 2 for taking part
- Mammoth Games: (> 2hours) double longer game points
- Games With Only One Winner (ie no second or third place): First place points for winner, all other players get half winners points – rounded up (if necessary).
OK - you got that, it’s a shame it isn’t simpler.
The key thing is that the format of the league table will now change so as to not confuse with so many columns as you can imagine to incorporate this into a broken down league it just would get ridiculous. So the new table will show just the number of games played and the total points. This will enable those in the know can still work out that very important statistic (total points)/(number of games played) to work out who really is the best!
For a few happy moments, while on a commuter train on the way home from work, I had a ponder….and this ponder led me to remember my favourite games from childhood. Being born in the very early 1970s I remember a cracking selection of games for kids, and, amazingly many of the games I remember are still mainstream and you can still buy (but so much has happened over the last 40 years!).
Take for example, the Mousetrap game. I still consider this game my best Christmas present of all time (bought by my grandparents for a very grateful 8 year old who had been wetting himself with excitement for what felt like months!). I loved the way you built the mouse trap while navigating the board, the wobbly man on the diving board and the ball set to roll down the staircase, great stuff. I’m sure I’m not the only person who set off the trap by accident while playing the game! You can still buy this game today and it still looks much the same today as it did 30 years ago. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_Trap_(board_game))
Microdot was a Parker game from 1975 which involved your agent completing a mission to bring a diplomatic bag from enemy territory and to reveal a code which was made up of small letters on the game cards only readable with a magnifying glass (although most people could read them without!). I remember the plastic revolver and the wire clippers, which if I remember correctly were used to cut yourself out of a prison camp but I had more fun shooting my brother with the revolver! A great game which was played many times. (Check the link on the geek http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9415)
Also there was another game I was particularly fond of. It was a two player tank battle game and it was played on (what felt like) a huge battlefield board with holes which tanks sat on and plastic plungers (which were operated with strings which when you pulled them in the right way used to send the plungers upwards causing your opponents tanks to shoot up into the air). I think it was called ‘Tank Commander’ - but I can’t find reference to it on the internet at all 
. I used to love this game but always got beaten by my older brother - but still regardless I plugged away.
Great games, great memories…!
If you’ve read this blog before you know that we at Underground Gamers don’t like to take ourselves too seriously. If you want a detailed analysis of board game mechanics, then I think you’ve probably come to the wrong place and, additionally, you should think about finding something else a little more useful for your mind to ponder, such as alchemy or the mysteries of eternal life.
If I’m not too serious about gaming then what are the board gaming things on my mind right now:
1. I must write a review of High Society the card game. Absolutely cracking… one of the best filler games played in a long time.
2. How should the league be scored next year so that we are more encouraged to play the longer games? At the moment our scoring system gives too much emphasis on the number of short games played not on winning a monster 2-3 hour game.
3. I need to play test two sports games that I have created - both look very good games on paper, one a football game built to give the experience of wheeler dealing in the transfer market, the other a racing game which is faster than falling eagle poo for up to 16 players!
4. Coming soon to Underground Gamers, a board game swap facility. Think of Saturday Swapshop but for board games. Are you a little bored of a game then swap with someone for another game. Simple!
4. Why is it that more men than women want to join in and play games?
Given that the ratio of men to women in our group is roughly 6 to 1 then I would think that any women short of a Valentine’s Day date should get themselves down to their local board gaming group pronto. Even though there are many of us who are attached (myself included), a good 3 or 4 out of our regular attendees are single men and they are better looking than a pork scratching and bright enough to play games (but alas not clever enough to be leading our league table!). So ladies, get yer arses down to gaming to find your (nearly!) perfect St Valentine’s Day date rather than moaning that you’ve not got anyone to go out with. Simple really, just that if you’re not already with us you mustn’t be thinking straight….!
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