As I type, we are in the midst of yet another Pacific storm front moving through the area. It's 8 days into June and we've had over three inches of rain (not counting the current downpour). We normally get something like 1.25 inches in June. Also of interest is that we have yet to reach an 80 degree day for 2010, which if we don't get it today, will break the record for the latest point in the year. They're expecting 80 degrees on Saturday.
In the past, I've been able to live with the idea that it's Rose Festival time in Portland, and that means grey skies and rain. You'd think that the people who planned this might have lived here for awhile and were used to the weather patterns, but I guess not. However, we've had nearly unrelenting rain since mid-April, and it's starting to harsh my biking buzz (I don't like riding in the rain, primarily for safety reasons). I expected to have gotten in around 15 or so rides in by now and have my distance up to 20+ miles, but I've been out only four times and 14 is the most I've done. I think I got one ride in during May, none so far in June.
This is a bit of a problem, as my biking goal for 2010 is to make the 135 mile Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway ride (as Terry Brooks did recently for the Oregonian, our local paper) in late August. I picked late August as the weather is least likely to get hinkey and it's before the college football season starts (which increases the danger in and around pretty much every city and town we ride through). I will have a good 11 weeks to train, assuming the weather gets good enough for me to be out and building up my endurance (and hill climbing, although there are only a couple of mile-long hills on the route). If it's still raining like this in July, then I may have to push this trip out a year.
I guess I'll have to stay inside and game instead...
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Monday, June 07, 2010
I Had A Great iPhone 4.0 Post, And Blogger Ate It
After spending an hour blogging about the new iPhone OS and hardware, Blogger asked me for my login info, rejected it, and ate the post. Apparently there's a problem with the "new" editor.
Fine. I'm looking for an excuse to move to a different platform that will support the iPad better anyway.
In the meantime, let's just say that I'm very happy with the new feature set on the iPhones, largely because of video and the improved camera, plus my old iPhone is 2.5 years old, practically a Methuselah at this point. No 4G, no service other than AT&T, but otherwise I'm happy with them and I'll be preordering early in the morning on June 15th (they come out on the 24th). I'll be getting the 32Gb versions for Mel and myself, which are $299 each. Thank goodness the data plan will be half the price.
So now the hunt begins for a new site host. A shame, Blogger has done a lot of things right, but if I can't use the iPad to blog and if it eats my posts, it's useless to me. Any recommendations are welcome.
Fine. I'm looking for an excuse to move to a different platform that will support the iPad better anyway.
In the meantime, let's just say that I'm very happy with the new feature set on the iPhones, largely because of video and the improved camera, plus my old iPhone is 2.5 years old, practically a Methuselah at this point. No 4G, no service other than AT&T, but otherwise I'm happy with them and I'll be preordering early in the morning on June 15th (they come out on the 24th). I'll be getting the 32Gb versions for Mel and myself, which are $299 each. Thank goodness the data plan will be half the price.
So now the hunt begins for a new site host. A shame, Blogger has done a lot of things right, but if I can't use the iPad to blog and if it eats my posts, it's useless to me. Any recommendations are welcome.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
iPad Euros
I've been enjoying a lot of the Euros that are available for the iPad, here's a list of what I've tried and how I think they stack up:
Mu: Maybe my favorite. Mu is a great card game for five, but it has the downside of having a bit of a learning curve. You see, you bid to communicate, not only to get to declare trump, but also to let the high bidders know that you might make a good partner for the chief. The problem is that it takes a few hands to get used to the system, and it's hard to explain, harder yet to figure out in the first place if you can't practice.
Now you can. I've played two games to 500, each taking about an hour to complete, losing both (taking second and third). The first game I lost when I somehow ended up being "on the hook" after my bid, which I didn't realize I was doing. Don't expect the game to coddle you too much, although there is a "Shake-a-Hint" system. You can set the computer player skill level, points to win, and how many players are in the game. I don't think you can play it over a network, though.
I should mention that the game does *not* support the "Mehr" part of the boxed game, however.
Now if they could just make Tichu an iPad/iPhone app...
Money: Definitely down the scale of complexity, this is still a fun 20 minute "filler" game. Again, you can set your opponent difficulty and the number of players. While I like this app, I like playing with real people better. One rule I'd forgotten: You can swap out with one of the sets your opponents put on the table, not just the two pools on either side of the draw pile.
Small World: I don't have this game, as I preferred Vinci over the remake, even with the static map. I hear it's good, but there's no AI and so I'm unlikely to use it.
Keltis: This is the game that eventually became Lost Cities: the Boardgame. I think. You can play with up to four players in a hotseat configuration, which would be very useful for trips. Again, not something that I've tried out much yet, although now that I've got Mu down this will be the next thing I try.
Poison: Definitely a game that's better on an iPhone. A great time-filler, and this was my go-to game until I figured out the interface for...
Zooloretto: I love the board version of this game, and I love the iPhone version. It takes a while to learn the interface so that you can see what your opponents are doing, but once you do it's perhaps my favorite iPhone game.
Catan: I'd like this more if the computer players would trade with me. Even using a "dice deck" the numbers still seem to come out in their favor. I also got a random board that took forever to play because it was so hard to get wheat (3, 11, 9), and the one good wheat space got towns on either side early. This game needs a Conquer rule.
Ingenious: Also an iPhone app. I like this, but it only plays with two (although it can be AI or hotseat). Also, the Tournament settings don't work on my iPhone for some reason. You can adjust AI skill, or even give the game a time limit if you are feeling masochistic.
There are quite a few I haven't gotten around to playing yet, but (Small World aside) these are all on my iPad, and a couple on the iPhone as well.
Mu: Maybe my favorite. Mu is a great card game for five, but it has the downside of having a bit of a learning curve. You see, you bid to communicate, not only to get to declare trump, but also to let the high bidders know that you might make a good partner for the chief. The problem is that it takes a few hands to get used to the system, and it's hard to explain, harder yet to figure out in the first place if you can't practice.
Now you can. I've played two games to 500, each taking about an hour to complete, losing both (taking second and third). The first game I lost when I somehow ended up being "on the hook" after my bid, which I didn't realize I was doing. Don't expect the game to coddle you too much, although there is a "Shake-a-Hint" system. You can set the computer player skill level, points to win, and how many players are in the game. I don't think you can play it over a network, though.
I should mention that the game does *not* support the "Mehr" part of the boxed game, however.
Now if they could just make Tichu an iPad/iPhone app...
Money: Definitely down the scale of complexity, this is still a fun 20 minute "filler" game. Again, you can set your opponent difficulty and the number of players. While I like this app, I like playing with real people better. One rule I'd forgotten: You can swap out with one of the sets your opponents put on the table, not just the two pools on either side of the draw pile.
Small World: I don't have this game, as I preferred Vinci over the remake, even with the static map. I hear it's good, but there's no AI and so I'm unlikely to use it.
Keltis: This is the game that eventually became Lost Cities: the Boardgame. I think. You can play with up to four players in a hotseat configuration, which would be very useful for trips. Again, not something that I've tried out much yet, although now that I've got Mu down this will be the next thing I try.
Poison: Definitely a game that's better on an iPhone. A great time-filler, and this was my go-to game until I figured out the interface for...
Zooloretto: I love the board version of this game, and I love the iPhone version. It takes a while to learn the interface so that you can see what your opponents are doing, but once you do it's perhaps my favorite iPhone game.
Catan: I'd like this more if the computer players would trade with me. Even using a "dice deck" the numbers still seem to come out in their favor. I also got a random board that took forever to play because it was so hard to get wheat (3, 11, 9), and the one good wheat space got towns on either side early. This game needs a Conquer rule.
Ingenious: Also an iPhone app. I like this, but it only plays with two (although it can be AI or hotseat). Also, the Tournament settings don't work on my iPhone for some reason. You can adjust AI skill, or even give the game a time limit if you are feeling masochistic.
There are quite a few I haven't gotten around to playing yet, but (Small World aside) these are all on my iPad, and a couple on the iPhone as well.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Dating Chuck's Ugly Girlfriend
I have a love/hate relationship with Twilight Struggle. I know a lot of people love it, but then there are people who thought that The Kaiser's Pirates is a nice light card game that lasts for three hours, has great decisions, and is fun. They're right about the three hour part.
TS *is* a great game. It's been republished repeatedly, almost unheard of in the wargame industry, it's a fantastic entry point for games like Washington's War or Hannibal, and it's on a subject that we rarely get to game on in a serious fashion.
It's also incredibly fragile, being quite prone to the vagaries of the card draw and how the scoring cards come out more than anything else. We never had multiple scoring cards in our hands (we got within two turns of the game end and Matt felt he not only didn't have a chance as the USSR, but also it was getting late). If you end up having to play multiple scoring cards out of your hand, especially if you've been Red Scared/Purged that turn, it can make a slightly bad situation into a game ending situation pretty quickly.
That's not to say that the game won't see the better player win most of the time, especially if you bid Influence for sides at the beginning, just that there can be games where being the better player won't matter much.
At our regular game session, Matt G had asked if anyone was willing to play, assuming enough people present to support it, and I was very willing to be his opponent as the only person who knew the game well. This was my first experience with the "Deluxe" edition, which has a mounted folding mapboard which is very nice, the new optional cards (which I think are supposed to help the USSR, but am not terribly sure as they aren't mentioned in the rulebook at all), and the Influence counters that clearly and easily show who controls what country.
Interestingly, Cooley's Second Law held in this game as well. I'd mentioned a couple of different things that Matt needed to be aware of, the most important of which were the various events that give your opponent OPs during your turn. If the Defcon is at 2, and Matt gives me an OP, I just play a coup in a Battleground state, assuming there's one that's not in the three prohibited Regions, and the game is over with Global Thermonuclear War with me winning. Of course, about midway in, he did exactly that when he played the CIA card. Fortunately, he had played a different card with fewer OPs for Space Race just before, so we just switched the cards and he was fine. Still, a brutal play that most novice players will miss.
For the unaware, Cooley's Second Law states that no matter how carefully someone explains a game or points out a critical rule, someone involved in the game will either miss it, forget about it, or not fully appreciate how important it is. I am currently working on Cooley's Third Law, which will involve game companies not responding to customer inquiries.
That's a joke, btw.
TS *is* a great game. It's been republished repeatedly, almost unheard of in the wargame industry, it's a fantastic entry point for games like Washington's War or Hannibal, and it's on a subject that we rarely get to game on in a serious fashion.
It's also incredibly fragile, being quite prone to the vagaries of the card draw and how the scoring cards come out more than anything else. We never had multiple scoring cards in our hands (we got within two turns of the game end and Matt felt he not only didn't have a chance as the USSR, but also it was getting late). If you end up having to play multiple scoring cards out of your hand, especially if you've been Red Scared/Purged that turn, it can make a slightly bad situation into a game ending situation pretty quickly.
That's not to say that the game won't see the better player win most of the time, especially if you bid Influence for sides at the beginning, just that there can be games where being the better player won't matter much.
At our regular game session, Matt G had asked if anyone was willing to play, assuming enough people present to support it, and I was very willing to be his opponent as the only person who knew the game well. This was my first experience with the "Deluxe" edition, which has a mounted folding mapboard which is very nice, the new optional cards (which I think are supposed to help the USSR, but am not terribly sure as they aren't mentioned in the rulebook at all), and the Influence counters that clearly and easily show who controls what country.
Interestingly, Cooley's Second Law held in this game as well. I'd mentioned a couple of different things that Matt needed to be aware of, the most important of which were the various events that give your opponent OPs during your turn. If the Defcon is at 2, and Matt gives me an OP, I just play a coup in a Battleground state, assuming there's one that's not in the three prohibited Regions, and the game is over with Global Thermonuclear War with me winning. Of course, about midway in, he did exactly that when he played the CIA card. Fortunately, he had played a different card with fewer OPs for Space Race just before, so we just switched the cards and he was fine. Still, a brutal play that most novice players will miss.
For the unaware, Cooley's Second Law states that no matter how carefully someone explains a game or points out a critical rule, someone involved in the game will either miss it, forget about it, or not fully appreciate how important it is. I am currently working on Cooley's Third Law, which will involve game companies not responding to customer inquiries.
That's a joke, btw.
Good Heavens, Lovey, A Yalu Man!
Now that I'm trying to access most of my wargame rules via the iPad, I'm learning some interesting things. First off, the rules for The Burning Blue, which look fine on my Mac in PDF format, look like Latin on my iPad, probably a font thing (and I plan to try a PDF reader other than GoodReader to see if that's the problem).
But the most hilarious thing I've seen yet is the rules for Yalu, from Compass Games, published this past spring (2010).
Yalu was originally published in the 70's, and covers the Chinese reaction to the UN forces in Korea crossing the Yalu River after decisively whupping the North Korean forces after the surprise landings in Inchon. The new edition includes the original edition, a move I applaud as it gives those of us interested in the design process a chance to see exactly how a design can evolve over time. The original map, rules, and even the counters (albeit on the flip side of the new counters) are all in the box.
However, the rules are organized so that if you start at one end of the rules, you get the "Classic" version, and if you "flip" the rules over, you get the "Deluxe" version. That means at some point in the middle of the rules book you get both sets of rules/notes but one is upside down.
When Compass put out the rules in PDF format, they didn't remember this part, so they used the rules as printed. That means the Deluxe rules are right side up, and the Classic rules are, well, upside down.
You can change this pretty easily in most PDF readers, of course, but it's kind of funny.
What's even funnier is that on an iPad, your first response is to turn the iPad upside down to read the different ruleset. Of course, if you haven't locked the screen not to rotate, it flips the copy around to the original downside up orientation in a helpful and pretty hilarious manner. Actually made my wife laugh about a wargame, which is fairly hard to accomplish. You have to lock the screen to read the Classic rules, which is easy to do, but I could see some barely computer-literate wargamers struggling with this even on a PC.
I let Compass know about this and they were unaware of the issue, probably because few people have bothered to try to look at the Classic rules in PDF form, or else just worked around it. While they may or may not do something about it (it would required taking the existing rules and separating them, requiring that they do an extra step every time they publish a new version of these rules, which I consider to be unlikely), but it's nice that they took the time to at least answer me. I can name at least a couple of other wargame companies that aren't that responsive unless you mention that they're unresponsive online.
That was a joke, btw.
But the most hilarious thing I've seen yet is the rules for Yalu, from Compass Games, published this past spring (2010).
Yalu was originally published in the 70's, and covers the Chinese reaction to the UN forces in Korea crossing the Yalu River after decisively whupping the North Korean forces after the surprise landings in Inchon. The new edition includes the original edition, a move I applaud as it gives those of us interested in the design process a chance to see exactly how a design can evolve over time. The original map, rules, and even the counters (albeit on the flip side of the new counters) are all in the box.
However, the rules are organized so that if you start at one end of the rules, you get the "Classic" version, and if you "flip" the rules over, you get the "Deluxe" version. That means at some point in the middle of the rules book you get both sets of rules/notes but one is upside down.
When Compass put out the rules in PDF format, they didn't remember this part, so they used the rules as printed. That means the Deluxe rules are right side up, and the Classic rules are, well, upside down.
You can change this pretty easily in most PDF readers, of course, but it's kind of funny.
What's even funnier is that on an iPad, your first response is to turn the iPad upside down to read the different ruleset. Of course, if you haven't locked the screen not to rotate, it flips the copy around to the original downside up orientation in a helpful and pretty hilarious manner. Actually made my wife laugh about a wargame, which is fairly hard to accomplish. You have to lock the screen to read the Classic rules, which is easy to do, but I could see some barely computer-literate wargamers struggling with this even on a PC.
I let Compass know about this and they were unaware of the issue, probably because few people have bothered to try to look at the Classic rules in PDF form, or else just worked around it. While they may or may not do something about it (it would required taking the existing rules and separating them, requiring that they do an extra step every time they publish a new version of these rules, which I consider to be unlikely), but it's nice that they took the time to at least answer me. I can name at least a couple of other wargame companies that aren't that responsive unless you mention that they're unresponsive online.
That was a joke, btw.
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