miscellaneous

The Lazy Gamer

I often say I am less and less interested is new games and prefer to play older games and games I already own. Reasons include wanting to spend more time per game to get to appreciate the games better, having become jaded and indifferent to new games / game ideas / game mechanisms because of having experienced so many of them, and simply missing some old but good games. I think there is another reason - I am just being lazy. 8+ years of reading about boardgames and chasing the latest trends have muted my enthusiasm. I rarely read game rules for fun nowadays. It now feels like work unless I'm really keen about playing a game. I rarely organise game sessions with a big group now. Usually I just drop by OTK (Boardgamecafe.net) or I do two-player games at Allen's place.

I find that I'm also lazy to organise longer game sessions that require significant preparation. My copy of Paths of Glory, which I decided to buy because I managed to play a 9-hour game of Here I Stand and enjoyed it immensely, is still unplayed. Well, at least I managed to bring Rommel in the Desert to the table recently. The short scenarios are only 1-2 hour affairs, but still it's something slightly out of my comfort zone. I still have yet to play Wilderness War, purchased about 8 years ago. I have been thinking about getting one or more of the Axis & Allies games to the table again, but I still have not got around to it.

Boardgaming is a leisure activity and I shouldn't make it feel like work I need to do. I will get to play these games I want to play eventually, when I get into the right mood. Meanwhile I shall continue to enjoy some 1-2 hour Eurogames and perhaps some older games too.

Gaming with the Children

Shee Yun (7) is playing Halli Galli at adult level now. Sometimes we play it as a two-player game (which it is not designed for). I have to play seriously to be able to beat her. I'm sure she can beat adult newbies. I also recently taught her Lost Cities, which she liked. She beat me in both games that we played, and in both cases I scored negative points! OK, that's probably me playing badly than her being a genius. She scored negative too in one of the games. Somehow I couldn't adapt to her play style (she explored most of the locations), and ended up taking risks and running out of time to play the cards I was holding.

Shee Yun playing Lost Cities.

Chen Rui playing A la Carte.

We played some Mamma Mia together with Chen Rui (5). Chen Rui can't hold 7 cards in her hands properly yet, so she puts her cards facedown in front of her, and looks at them one by one. I don't think she counts the ingredients that have been played. She seems to just enjoy playing multiple cards of the same ingredient into the pile, and rarely plays her recipe cards. Sometimes I need to remind her. Anyway, she enjoys the game, and that's what counts.

Race for the Galaxy

I used to play a lot of Race for the Galaxy, and own all three expansions. I have been waiting for the next expansion Alien Artifacts for a long time. This is an expansion in a different story arc which doesn't mix with the other three expansions. Recently I played Race for the Galaxy again and still enjoyed it very much. I bet there are many strategies I have not discovered, because I almost exclusively play it against my wife. The game is still a 10 for me.