Leap Day!! Since this day only happens every four years, I can’t let it pass without a post. So how about something on games?
Last weekend, my buddy Matt drove down from Nashville for Con Nooga. Con Nooga is one of these alternative culture conventions: cos players, board gamers, fantasy & scifi fans, steam punk fans, comic book aficionados, roleplaying gamers… That kind of thing. I’ve always loved the idea of these sorts of gatherings. On one level it’s a big middle finger to the tut-tutting of puritanism. I consider myself a christian, but definitely more in the Matthew 7, verses 1 – 2 camp. Sure, what could be more “frivolous,” than writing fan fiction for Buffy the Vampire Slayer or spending months sewing and putting together a steam punk outfit or min/maxing the statistics of an imaginary character? None of that activity is going to put food on the table or get you ahead at work or mitigate global warming.
On the other hand, imagine a society in which everyone was passionate about something and those passions involved participating in creation. That’s what these Cons, at their best, remind me of. People doing things, not to make a buck or to exert dominance over someone else, but simply because they are excited about the opportunity to give voice to their imaginations. Sure, in the U.S. everything has been commoditized, and that goes for imagination. Disney is a company built on the commoditization of imagination. Also, some of the grossest displays of rampant consumerism I have ever seen take place at another con I’ve attended, GenCon. There, crowds of con-goers (many dressed up as elves, pirates, and Storm Troopers) stampede to buy things in a way that is no different from the worst Black Friday crowds. Walk the halls, and there are times when it feels like a scene from an opium den – individuals collapsed against the walls of a hallway in a sort of orgiastic bliss, surrounded by piles of purchased comics, games, figurines, and books.
That’s the stereotype, I suppose, and yet it’s apparently acceptable to get excited about the Super Bowl every year, and really, how is that any different? Talk about a monument to consumerism. And at least no one who is excited about Star Wars is rioting after a loss or running around beating up fans of other films.
Anyway, like I say, for me, being a fan of something – whether it be bread making, gardening, democracy, fantasy fiction, board games, being a dad – it’s all about the act of participating in creation. Imagining something, and then trying to turn elements of that imagination into reality. There’s something kind of glorious about that attitude.
As far as Con Nooga, though, Matt and I pretty much stuck to playing board games. We started out with Forbidden Desert. Forbidden Desert is a cooperative game, in which players have been marooned in desert. A sandstorm is raging, and the players need to discover the pieces of a flying machine, assemble it, and escape before dying of thirst / running out of time. The players either win together or all lose together. It’s a cute game. Each player has a special trait (e.g., clear sand faster, move diagonally, carry more water, etc), and as a team it’s important to make the most of each other’s strengths.
After a meal at Southern Star with my folks, it was back to the con to play Quartermaster General. Quartermaster General is a WW II-themed game. Three axis countries (Germany, Japan, and Italy) take on three allied countries (UK, U.S.A, and the Soviet Union). There’s a board that pieces get played out onto, but mainly the game revolves around playing cards. Each country has a unique deck of cards that allows for units to be built, for units to attack, responses to be cued, and so forth. The trick is that only a single card can be played per a country’s turn. So the Soviets might have a response that they would like to cue up (e.g., “If an axis country attacks Ukraine, block the attack.”), but meanwhile they really need to send more troops into Russia which just lost all of its troops to a German attack. Also, once a card is played, it’s likely never coming back because a country’s deck is only gone through once. So, maybe it would be best to hold off playing a particular card, and to save it for later. If you are in to “battle”-type games, Quartermaster General is a very tight and compelling game. In Matt’s and my game the Axis countries ran out to a big lead in points, and the Allied countries only managed a last ditched victory on the final turn of the game with the last few cards of their decks.
On Saturday, after the Chattanoogan Hotel failed to give Matt hot water (as it did for the entire weekend), we returned for more gaming. Con Nooga has a small but nice gaming library. Check out a game for free, and go play it. So, Matt and I checked out 7 Wonders Duel. Over on Boardgame Geek, I once wrote a review of 7 Wonders that you can read here. 7 Wonders Duel is a 2-player version of 7 Wonders that plays out in a quick 30 minutes. Basically, each player drafts cards into a tableau that represents their “city.” Some of the cards will produce resources (clay, stone, etc.). Some are “cultural” and give victory points, and some are “wonders” that provide a one-off or on-going benefit (e.g., take another turn, get a big influx of coins, etc). Like all games of this sort, there is a bit of learning about the iconography of the game. Symbols on the cards provide a sense of how the card can be used, and Matt and I got confused about this in our first game. But after that, man, this game is fast and enjoyable. I think we ended up rattling off three games in a row.
After 7 Wonders Duel it was time to break out Pandemic Legacy. Matt’s son, Hank, had given him this as a gift, and given the coronavirus news, we had to play this. We played twice and basically got crushed both times (although a misunderstanding of the rules in the first game allowed us to win). Ominous? Pandemic Legacy is like Forbidden Desert in that it is a cooperative game. Players act as a team and essentially try to defeat the game. In this case, the game is a cruel god. Viruses sprout up around the world, outbreaks spiral out to nearby cities, and the players run around the board trying plug up an increasingly “leaky dike.” Since this is a “legacy” game, the rules and boards change from one game to the next, and the game tells a story over plays. For example, in the middle of the first game, we learned that one of the viruses was now impervious to all vaccines. And before the second game our characters formed relationships with one another that allowed for special in-game tactics.
Anyway, after getting kicked around by viruses for a few hours, our brains were hurting, and it was off to Community Pie for some pizza. We came back later for one more game – Memoir ’44. Memoir ’44 is another WW II “dudes on a map” game. As far as these types of games go, Memoir ’44 is pretty rules light. The game board has three zones, and each player draws a hand of “orders” from a common deck. On any given turn, a player puts down a single order (e.g., “move and attack with a single unit in each zone”), draws back up a full hand, and that’s basically it. What makes the game shine are the scenarios…that and the fact that a game never lasts for more than about an hour. The scenarios refer to a particular historical battle, but in game terms, present a tactical puzzle for each player. In Matt’s and my case, we played the Operation Cobra scenario. For the Allied player, the puzzle is all about dislodging the Axis units that are well covered in the hedgerows. There’s no easy approach that isn’t going to leave units out in the open, and armor’s strength is hard to bring to bear. For the Axis player it’s all about stalling the Allied units and managing covered retreats. In our game the Axis looked like it would achieve a quick victory, but ran out of crucial orders for the right flank. The Allies then managed a sudden (and lucky) break through on their own right flank that led to victory.
And that was Con Nooga. Matt stayed another night at the Chattanoogan (again with no hot water), and after a breakfast at Rembrandt’s café, he headed back up to Nashville. All in all, a really nice weekend, and what gaming is all about as far as I’m concerned – goofiness, thinking through things, and catching up with friends.
