Wooden Cubes & Iron Soldiers: “Origins, Gencon, BGG.CON, Essen, and ConsimWorld Expo!” Episode 7
“Origins, Gencon, BGG.CON, Essen, and ConsimWorld Expo!”
Welcome back for our seventh episode of Wooden Cubes & Iron Soldiers!
In this episode we spend the first two hours covering a wide variety of games and topics, discussing everything from what makes a game “gamey”, to Wil Wheaton, TableTop, and some of the pitfalls and trappings of being a board game reviewer. For the final six hours (just kidding)… In the last 45 minutes we cover a bunch of information about the upcoming convention season. I think we covered just about every large gaming convention in existence in this episode.
During the show we make mention of a couple of Youtube Video series. For any listeners that want to check them out, here are some links.
Emerald City Comic Con (famous voice over actors re-enacting the first Star Wars movies) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo5HuKNbF5E
PAX Prime 2011 (Wil Wheaton and the PAX gang putting on quite the D&D show for a live audience) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmTINEnGwnc
As before here is the list of games we cover:
Operation Barbarossa 1941, Samurai Battles, Village, Key Market, Helvetia, 7 Wonders, Battlestar Galactica, Power Grid, The Russian Campaign, Conflict of Heroes, Band of Brothers, Lords of Waterdeep, Rolling Freight, Dice Town, Dungeon Lords, Mage Knight, Stone Age, Feudality, Quarriors, Urban Sprawl, Caylus, Nefarious, Grave Business, Silent War, Virgin Queen, Civil War Commander, In Magnificent Style, Nuklear Winter ’68, Nations at War: White Star Rising, Pirate Dice: Voyage on the Rolling Seas, Warlords of Europe, StelCon: Infinity, Goa, VivaJava: The Coffee Game, Conquest Tactics, Sidibaba, Bomber Command, Napolean’s Triumph, FAB: The Bulge, Thirty Years War: Europe in Agony, 1618-1648
~ Joel Eddy
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Latest posts by Joel Eddy (see all)
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Hey Guys! Great episode, as usual. I was thinking about your gaming the game comments, and thought of an example that explains that idea for me. I was playing God’s Playground with two other friends. In this game, you are working together to try to keep the invading hordes from overrunning Poland, while at the same time trying to win the most glory in battle, and building up your private estates. The game requires cooperation, or the invaders will burn everything the players have built and worked for to the ground, so there is always an uneasy truce throughout the game, while players fight for their own interests as the opportunities arise. In the game, there is an action you can take called building Jesuit schools which is a minor action you can perform to gain some VPs. The more schools you open, the more points you will receive. Now to the gaming the game. My one friend saw this rule, and rode it like a rented mule all the way to victory. He did not contribute once to the defense of Poland, and had no estates, so he did not care at all what happened to the estates or the country. There was nothing wrong with what he did in the context of the rules. He found a thread and pulled at it, and rode it to victory even though it kind of broke the game thematically. When a rule like this is exploited to the point that the theme breaks down, or the game breaks down, that, to me, is gaming the game.
Leave your response!