Today I got to observe a game of Dwarven Dig, a board game I've had for at least a few years, which occasionally gets played. I'm not sure how those playing felt about the game, but I thought it was excellent fun. Roughly, the goal of the game is to dig into the treasure chamber (at the center of the map), grab a treasure, and make it back outside, which incidentally means you can use any entrance, not just the one you came in. The game starts by laying out the hexagonal tiles which form the board, and in such a way that you get to place good tiles near you, or bad tiles near paths which others may have to take. This is only the beginning of the antagonism between the dwarves.
I think what I observed in this game that I found enjoyable to watch was the same quality I have seen in Munchkin: there's a whole lot of backstabbing that goes on, to try and stop whoever seems closest to winning from actually doing so. This is helped by one of the dwarves abilities, which is to cause a shockwave which not only damages the hex they are in, but also nearly any target hex on the board. This can be done even at the start of the game, when the different dwarven digging parties are across the board from each other. I had great fun trying to convince people to use this ability, which culminated (though probably not directly, as I think at that point Mason had already committed to using it) in a beautiful shockwave which took out three dwarves at once (each player starts with 4), including the miner which initiated it. (At least, I'm remembering it was the shockwave that cut those groups down to size, correct me if my memory is faulty. I do know that miner died while doing a shockwave, it was an excellent way to go).
So, this is a random post about a board game I observed this evening, so while I'm here, I will mention some other ones: I really want to play a particular board game again, but I can't recall what it was called in order to find it. I played it with Jon and two friends while we were visiting for the wedding. It was based on a gangster-run moonshine operation, where you tried to get as much hooch as possible sold from the different nightclubs and speakeasys. There was bidding for trucks to transport the booze, you could buy more manufacturing capability, and to get first selling rights at a speakeasy, you had to have the most gangsters in the back room. It was an excellent game, but I can't recall what it was called.
Also on the board game news front, Carcassone was released for the xbox 360, so I may give that version a try, the regular game is excellent and moves pretty well. I'm also trying to locate a copy of Overlord for the 360, but no luck with that so far. That's not a board game though, so it deserves another post if I do ever get it.
2 comments:
I think Dwarven Dig is an excellent game, and I similarly like the backstabbing. Our game yesterday was even longer than a certain game of Munchkin we once played...
I had indeed committed to the shockwave in question on my own --- it was the clear choice for that particular guy. I was hoping the miner wouldn't die, as then I would have continued to use him for shockwaves every single turn while he lived. So I guess he would have gone that way eventually and taking out two dwarves with him was awesme. Still, I thought maybe I could do enough damage with him to subsequently go and steal the gold with the help of my banshee moss.
The one negative about the game is that we can only accomodate 4 players and I tend to feel bad playing such games when there are more people around who I'd like to have the chance to participate in the board gaming should they choose to. That's basically the only thing that keeps me from playing it more often. I've enjoyed it quite a lot both times I've played. (Maybe it's three times? I only played it on 2 different days, but I don't remember if I played one game or two games on the first occasion.)
Bootleggers is the game we played w/ Dom and Patty right before my wedding.
Having played the demo of Carcasonne, I think it's really good; I haven't bought the full version yet (the demo doesn't include farmers, and only lets you play a limited number of rounds). The cool thing (and the thing which makes it much cooler than the Arcade Settlers of Catan) is that you can play with multiple players without having to use XBox Live. (this is, of course, because there's no hidden state that other players can't know about).
Post a Comment