Greetings and welcome back to another Tales of a Married Gamer (ToaMG). As the seasons have changed, the air gets cold and crisp, and it is the time of year where you hear the cry of students who have realized that their final exam is scheduled for Monday at 8 a.m.
Yes, we are about to start finals week here where I work, which means the students are emailing questions by the dozen, and faculty are busy in their offices drying out the world’s ink supply as we grade exams, essays, research reports, and so forth. Of course this means life gets busy, especially with the holiday season approaching, it is a time that we take a look at our to-do list and seeing if we can get everything we wanted to finished before the end of the year. Considering that I am assigning a lot of grades, I figured now would be the perfect time for me to consider my games list for this year, and start giving out grades. This may make some waves, so please send hate mail to Fiddleback. [What?! Wait, they can message you directly. Leave me out of this. -Ed.]
First off we will begin by considering the new games this year, and the grades I am going to give them. For those of you who do not know what to buy as gifts for the holidays, some of these might also serve as some helpful last minute shopping suggestions.
1. Masters of the Gridiron. My friend bought this game and begged me to play it with him. Despite the fact that when he described it as “American football meets Magic the Gathering”, I somehow agreed and avoided running away at high speed. The game is a card game where you play offensive and defensive players in opposition to try and win a football game. The game is of higher interest to those people who are actually fans of the National Football League, as the game uses real player and team names in the game. However, as we played the game all I could think about was how they got around copyright and player likeness issues without having a major lawsuit. For someone like me, this game did not really hit the gaming itch. Honestly it would be more fun to watch a real football game on television while playing Star Wars the Card Game by Fantasy Flight Games. Grade: C-
2. Sails of Glory. Okay, I did not actually play this game, so you can ignore this part of the review. All of that said, if you like games like Wings of War or Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures, you will probably like Sails of Glory. Sails of Glory is a naval ship miniature combat game where you get to fight opponents. I have seen people playing this game at my store, and I have to say I love the miniatures and it always looks fun. The fact that they actually play both skirmishes and campaigns at my local store makes me jealous that I am not part of the fun. The game is a little pricey, but if you love sailing ships and books by Patrick O’Brian you are sure to love this game. Grade: Not Available but I want to give it an A+.
3. Dreaming Spires. This game I Kickstarted, reviewed and raved about throughout the year. It is sort of strange that I get some level of satisfaction and escape from a game which is focused on trying to build the best Oxford college possible. Somehow the academic theme and multiple levels of resource management are fun, and the scoring is innovative. Grade: A for Academic.
4. Kremlin. It is not new, but Kremlin got a beautiful remake this year, and if you enjoyed the earlier game and its theme, you will love this game. If you are afraid the CIA will spy on you, and judge you based on your board game collection, this is probably not the game for you. While I enjoy Kremlin and the new art makes it fun, it was nowhere near the best game I played this year. The real problem is that there were a lot of errors in production including missing text, poor editing of the rules, and missing game pieces. Just did not seem like a finished game. Grade: D+.
5. Rolling Freight: Great Britain and India. When I looked at this game, I thought “Oh, another Ticket to Ride clone.” Honestly, the game (which is an expansion of previous versions) is a bit more complex than Ticket to Ride with various ways to move your freight around. You still get to play with trains, so if trains are your thing, this could be fun for you. Somehow, I came out of playing this game thinking that simpler can indeed be better. Thus, I just was not that big a fan. Grade: C+.
6. Reaper Miniatures: Bones II Kickstarter. Reaper Miniatures unleashed wave two of their Bones production line this year on Kickstarter, after bringing in millions of dollars of funding through the site. The miniatures look great in the pictures, but the launch date of September was never met as production delays kept piling up. Each week for the last 12 weeks I have logged on to my Kickstarter to see where I stand in terms of getting miniatures I put funding down for in 2013, and I see that it may be the second quarter of 2015 at this rate. As is the case when students fail to turn in their assignment, I will have to fail Reaper for this one. Though they might be able to make up the grade next year once I get my miniatures. Grade: F.
7. Fantasy Flight Games: Force and Destiny Beta Book. So the last of the three main core books for Fantasy Flight Games’ Star Wars roleplaying game came out in beta format. I have to say that I had high hopes for the book after the previous two, and I think they did a good job in regards to providing a book that focused on the Force, but did not make it too Jedi specific. For the RPG fan, a great book to have, but somehow I have not been playing it as much as the earlier two iterations. I am hoping that will change once the final version of the book comes out in 2015. Grade: A-.
This completes my list for 2014, I have a few games that I did not put on the list because I did not think they were worth talking about. Overall, it seemed to be a pretty good year in gaming, especially for roleplaying games and fantasy based board games. 2015 will be a really big year, as we have the new Star Wars Armada and Imperial Assault board games coming which will cost a pretty penny, but look to be poised to take fans by storm. If I had to give grades to companies, I would have to say that FFG would be near the top of the class in my book. I’ll be curious to hear how you felt about the year in gaming, and how you rated those new games you played. Also, start saving up that holiday cash for 2015!