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More Gaming
Jul. 23rd, 2005 11:04 pmWell, my week of fun & game is now complete.
Usually when I'm gaming, I prefer the shorter games. Wednesday was pretty close to my ideal gaming evening because I got to play four good multiplayer games (Tigris & Euphrates, Quo Vadis?, Web of Power, and Basari) in three and a half hours or so. And I did indeed have a lot of fun Wednesday evening.
However this week I was also feeling an unusual hankering for longer games. At first I didn't realize why, and then it finally hit me this evening. With short games I can relax and play at something that requires casual thought. My brain can rest. Conversely longer games can scratch a different itch, where I can totally immerse myself in something and just tune out the rest of the world. So this week I played Wallenstein on Thursday, which ran a very long 4+ hours, then today, while playing hookie from RPing, I played Empires of the Ancient World at 3+ hours and Princes of the Renaissance at a sprightly 2+ hours.
Empires and Wallenstein are both war games. For some reason most of the heavier games are war games. Like pushing pieces around the board gives enough variety of action to go into the longer game length while most other game play styles don't. (Does it really or not? I dunno.)
I liked Wallenstein quite a bit. It's got a lot of fun game systems, including action preprogamming and a couple of ways to emulate "Fog of War", all wrapped around a combat system, where you really have to think about whether you want to take countries, because you have to feed them. Empires of the Ancient World was pretty good, but I was really getting clubbed by the end, so my enthusiasm waned a bit during the last hour of play, when things kept getting worse and worse for me. I think I'd enjoy it more with a less unfortunate endgame. And finally there was Princes of the Renaissance, which sort of looks like a wargame, but is actually auctions top to bottom, as you try and manipulate the influence of various Italian cities through warfare and other mechanisms. (And, I do indeed find it more repetitive than the more combative mechanisms.)
My brain was a little spacey today, and I wasn't doing that good at planning ahead, and so I didn't do great in either of the long games I played. I ironically did much better in the two short offerings (Rumis and Jambo). In any case, it was good.
And now Wallenstein and Princes of Renaissance, which were both mine, will probably go on the shelves for a while, because I don't haul out games like those very often. But I'll keep them around my desk for the next week or two, in case I decide to review either ...
Tomorrow: raw relaxation. I'm nearing the end of my Flash read, as I'm now around #158 or so, almost the end of the Mark Waid run. I'll be into the Geoff Johns issues tomorrow. And I'll probably watch more Enterprise. I just started on disk #4 tonight.
Usually when I'm gaming, I prefer the shorter games. Wednesday was pretty close to my ideal gaming evening because I got to play four good multiplayer games (Tigris & Euphrates, Quo Vadis?, Web of Power, and Basari) in three and a half hours or so. And I did indeed have a lot of fun Wednesday evening.
However this week I was also feeling an unusual hankering for longer games. At first I didn't realize why, and then it finally hit me this evening. With short games I can relax and play at something that requires casual thought. My brain can rest. Conversely longer games can scratch a different itch, where I can totally immerse myself in something and just tune out the rest of the world. So this week I played Wallenstein on Thursday, which ran a very long 4+ hours, then today, while playing hookie from RPing, I played Empires of the Ancient World at 3+ hours and Princes of the Renaissance at a sprightly 2+ hours.
Empires and Wallenstein are both war games. For some reason most of the heavier games are war games. Like pushing pieces around the board gives enough variety of action to go into the longer game length while most other game play styles don't. (Does it really or not? I dunno.)
I liked Wallenstein quite a bit. It's got a lot of fun game systems, including action preprogamming and a couple of ways to emulate "Fog of War", all wrapped around a combat system, where you really have to think about whether you want to take countries, because you have to feed them. Empires of the Ancient World was pretty good, but I was really getting clubbed by the end, so my enthusiasm waned a bit during the last hour of play, when things kept getting worse and worse for me. I think I'd enjoy it more with a less unfortunate endgame. And finally there was Princes of the Renaissance, which sort of looks like a wargame, but is actually auctions top to bottom, as you try and manipulate the influence of various Italian cities through warfare and other mechanisms. (And, I do indeed find it more repetitive than the more combative mechanisms.)
My brain was a little spacey today, and I wasn't doing that good at planning ahead, and so I didn't do great in either of the long games I played. I ironically did much better in the two short offerings (Rumis and Jambo). In any case, it was good.
And now Wallenstein and Princes of Renaissance, which were both mine, will probably go on the shelves for a while, because I don't haul out games like those very often. But I'll keep them around my desk for the next week or two, in case I decide to review either ...
Tomorrow: raw relaxation. I'm nearing the end of my Flash read, as I'm now around #158 or so, almost the end of the Mark Waid run. I'll be into the Geoff Johns issues tomorrow. And I'll probably watch more Enterprise. I just started on disk #4 tonight.