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D&D Theory: Dungeons & Dragons Over The Years: Part I of III

Dungeons & Dragons is rapidly approaching its 50th anniversary as a franchise and what a glorious 50 years it has been. Over the decades D&D has enjoyed immense success in just about every medium, but of course, the pencil-and-paper RPG is what makes this wheel spin. At no time that I recall has D&D seen more success than in recent years, the hobby has absolutely exploded in popularity and it’s in part because of its appearance in various tv shows, but certainly primarily because of the incredibly successful 5th edition released in 2014. The game has enjoyed many versions and variations of the game, each one a variant of what came before and if you really count some of the sub-edition and in-between stuff there is actually, even more, to choose from than might be immediately apparent.

Now modern gamers are going to play modern games, it’s natural as you enter the hobby, you go for the latest and greatest which is not only expected but recommended. That said, as a guy who has played every edition of the game extensively and is a huge history buff, I’m always excited to talk about what has come before and why modern gamers might want to take a spell and consider some of these past additions for their table even today.

5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, the latest version of the game made great strides in an attempt to solidify past and present editions into a single system to satisfy the many growing issues that have crept up in modern designs which include 3rd and 4th editions of the game. It’s by far and wide the most popular modern edition of the game with past generations of gamers as well as obviously, modern games (can you say 50 million people playing D&D!?).

Contrary to popular belief, past editions of the game as compared to modern games are not some old relics to be discarded and forgotten. Any one of these old editions can create amazing table experiences and I would argue are worth exploring even today. In fact, most complaints about modern games stem from certain gaming elements that were already tested, identified and resolved in old systems that have crept back into the modern game design because when you don’t know your history you’re doomed to repeat it, yes I’m looking squinty-eyed at you Wizards of the Coast!

With that little enticement, in today’s article, we are going to travel back in time and talk about each edition that came before, what you might find in between the pages and why it might just very well be worth your time to explore it.

Enjoy the article, it’s a big one!

Dungeons & Dragons: Original Edition

The original game was reprinted in a deluxe box set in 2013 as part of D&D’s 40th year anniversary. This classic, despite its age, is still played today.

We can only speculate as to what was going through Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson’s minds when they created the original white box set, after all, they were paving the way into uncharted territory perhaps not even aware that they were about to create an entire genre of gaming and franchise that would last for decades. Interviews in hindseight make them appear almost like geniuses who percieved a whole new genre of gaming but the reality is they were just a couple of nerds that like to make games.

The original game is perhaps best described as a proof of concept. Many of the ideas that would evolve from this 1st version of D&D were very rough in this original edition and while I would like to tell you that every edition of the game is worth exploring, this one included, of all the editions that followed this one would probably be the most alien to modern gamers.

For one the game was in its infancy and much of the terminology and concepts that would define D&D as the game we know today were yet to really be coined. There were only three classes in the game, The Cleric, Fighting Man and Magic-User initially and the game was very much about free-form role-playing with the absolute minimum of rules beyond some basic combat execution mechanics. Notably by modern standards, I think most would view some of the mechanics as odd at absolute best, in fact even among OSR (Old School Revival) circles the original game is considered a bit of a quirky historical reference.

D&D inspired an entire golden era of early PC gaming including classics like Bard’s Tale. Just like D&D, retro gaming and revivals of classic games from the 70’s & 80’s is common in PC games as well. We got the whole Bard’s Tale trilogy remastered in 2018.

For example, the damage characters could deal in combat was based on their class, not their weapon, there were no skills, feats or special powers and while there were 3 classes in the game with a 4th coming along later (Thief), for the most part, the game was very close to a completely rule-less system depending very heavily on DM adjudication, yet the game was very procedural at times as well bringing it much closer to what we could call an adventure game rather than a role-playing game today. Something I don’t doubt purist would wholeheartedly disagree with, most who played it leaned on the adjudication over structure element of the game.

Today there is still a fan base for this original style of play which was very much narrative storytelling focused. There are retro-clones available today like Swords & Wizardry which is a compilation and organization of the game into a single volume done by the famed OSR designer/writer Matt Finch who is among a small group of people responsible for the creation of the OSR as a concept. As such you don’t have to go through the trouble of hunting down original copies; versions of this game that are effectively replications of the original rules are available in print today through sites like RPG Drive Thru.

Swords & Wizardry is just one of several retro-clones of the original game available today. This one is hailed for its amazing line art and organization making the game a lot easier to understand than the original printing.

Why Play It Today?

I would be hard-pressed to give an exact mechanical or even conceptual reason to play the original game. I suppose you could say that if you like free-form role-playing where rules are more often improvised than stated, this might be a reason to try this one but I think most gamers today would probably want more mechanics than this game offers, both DM’s and players alike. If free form is your thing, you could just as well ignore rules that exist in your game than play one where they are missing when you want or need them.

I think the only real reason to try this original classic is just to get an understanding of the history of D&D, where it started, where it came from, and how the design evolved. This game is still played today, but unlike many of the versions that followed, the OSR community existing today that plays this game is made up predominantly of people who played the original way back in the 70’s. That is not meant to discourage or disparage the game, it is a classic, an original to be preserved and held high for its achievement, but still. Original D&D is to RPG’s what cave paintings are to art, an interesting historical reference but not exactly something that is going to teach or introduce modern gamers to anything that hasn’t been done better in games that followed.

Nostalgia certainly plays a role in D&D communities, but even when we look back, it’s rarely original D&D that is being presented, more often it is 1st edition Basic/Expert or Advanced Dungeons and Dragons that serves as a way back machine. Original D&D is just too far back to be relevant nearly 50 years after its release. A fate I fear will befall B/X & AD&D some day as well.

For me personally, it’s one of the few editions of the game I find difficult to recommend, it was kind of a trial run and while I think it has a lot of historical relevance, in practice, it’s pretty rough as a game system and much of the games core premise while familiar is actually quite distant from how both RPG’s and specifically D&D evolved. It’s a curiosity, certainly worth a read, but I personally never felt drawn to run it.

It’s a game you play to get a look through the lens of the origins of the game.

1st Edition Basic / Expert

1st edition Basic/Expert rules had several subversions over the years but the most often referenced and perhaps the most well-known is the 1981 Moldvay box set. For many D&D generations, this box set defines classic D&D for them.

Contrary to popular belief D&D actually evolved from two separate core games that while reasonably compatible had a vastly different approach conceptually.

1st edition Basic & Expert rules were released alongside 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and while one was intended as a starting point for the other, the games evolved along different paths and in a sense became two simultaneous editions of the game.

There are a number of core differences between 1st edition B/X and 1st edition AD&D.

First and perhaps foremost, 1st edition B/X was structured as an adventure game first and RPG second. A core of the game was that there were defined rules that structured elements of the game like the exploration of dungeons, wilderness adventures and adventures on the high seas. This concept I think would be quite unique to modern gamers who see the “adventuring” part of the game as a free-form role-playing concept, rather than a structured element of play which is exactly the case in the B/X system.

The concept of D&D as an adventure game is differentiated by the structure of play outside of combat. In an adventure game there are rules that govern all aspects of the game creating emergent stories and while the principle between adventure games and RPG’s are so similar it’s almost impossible to tell them apart, they are in fact quite different in practice.

In B/X time is tracked in actions even during adventuring periods and this has a procedure that is different for each of the types of “zones” of adventure (Dungeon, Wilderness & Waterborne adventures). Just like in combat, each initiative players take an action, which results in a “round” taking place and just like combat, this can have different effects on the game from torches going out, spells expiring, wandering monsters and other effects like getting lost in the woods, running out of food and so on. Not all that different than any other D&D game, but the tracking of time and the governance of rules of how to manage is mechanically driven.

Another core feature of B/X is that there are no race & class combinations, instead, races are their own classes. This is also wildly different and is exclusive to just this and the original edition of the game not to be repeated in any future editions barring reprints. Race as class (Elf as a class for example) I think is something that would raise the eyebrows of modern gamers but the premise here is that, in B/X, D&D is a very specific type of fantasy. In fact, B/X as a system is directly linked to a setting called “The Known World”. The known world would later evolve into the “Mystara” setting which evolved further with the releases of the Companion, Master and Immortal rules, effectively advanced B/X rules as strange as that sounds which is in contrast to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. This setting is built around a very Tolkien-like fantasy setting and the classes in the game are structured to depict that fantasy exclusively.

No version is influenced more by Tolkein fantasy, which includes the original edition of D&D than 1st edition Basic/Expert rules. Tolkien fantasy is built right into the rules and many of the core abilities and structures are designed intentionally to replicate middle-earth sensibilities.

This is a bit confusing but you can think of it this way. Initially, B/X was created to be a basic starting point and AD&D was where players were expected to graduate. I don’t think TSR expected that the B/X rules would gain their own, separate following and this resulted in a demand from this new B/X community for expanded content. They wanted more advanced rules, but not in the form of AD&D, but rather expanded rules for the B/X game system as its base. I will talk more about the result, BECMI (Basic/expert/companion/master/immortal) rules a little later.

The third thing that really made B/X unique is that the game assumed a sort of meta-game infrastructure. The game was really designed as a challenge to players, rather than their characters and to support that concept several meta-game rules existed that worked together.

For starters, the players were assumed to be treasure hunters. This is why we had structured adventuring rules, but there are also rules for rewards that support this. For example, XP for monsters was very low, but you would earn 1 XP for every 1 gold piece (treasure) you found. The idea was that players were motivated to travel across the landscape (Wilderness & Waterborne Adventure Rules), go into dungeons (Dungeon Adventure Rules) and find treasure (1 gold = 1 xp). This is how you advanced in the game and was a measure of your success.

The depiction in Strange Things in which players huddle together, form plans, roll dice and seemingly are playing a game more than role-playing may seem strange to modern gamers, but if there is a version of the game that depicted this element it would be Basic/Expert rules where the feeling of winning in an RPG was kind of real and very player centric.

Additionally, character classes were very minimal, you gained very few powers and much of your strength was based on the equipment you carried. Magic equipment was of course the best way to empower your character but the only way to get magic items (which could never be purchased) was to go into Dungeons and find them.

B/X as such was a very structured adventure RPG quite different from Original D&D which was very free form and future editions of the game that were very narrative and character-centric. B/X was a very player-centric game with a very firm meta-game motivation built into it.

The final thing about B/X, oddly enough even though it was a game designed with new players in mind, though it had a simple ruleset was incredibly difficult to be successful in. The game while being structured, meant that rules governed a great deal of the outcomes of the game which means dice rolls. This combined with the incredible deadliness of the game made the actual gameplay for expert (veteran) D&D players.

Using player meta knowledge and past D&D experience, really playing D&D as a player skill set was both encouraged and expected under 1st edition B/X rules. “Good Players” were far more likely to succeed in the game than “New Players” who lacked past experience. It was an odd position the game took from a design perspective given it (B/X rules) was designed as an introduction to Dungeons & Dragons.

A character in B/X would instantly die when they hit 0 hit points and at 1st level characters rarely had more the 2-8 hit points. A single blow could end a character’s life, not to mention how deadly traps and other effects could be. By and large, despite being aimed at new players, 1st edition B/X was the deadliest game in D&D history and remains today as the core of the OSR community for that very reason. A game designed for newbies was ultimately adopted as the foremost example of master-level role-playing aficionados who love a challenge becoming the foundation system for the OSR.

While B/X box sets and rules are still available today through sites like RPG DriveThru, one nice thing about B/X rules popularity among OSR designers is that it has become the adopted love child on which many games are based. The result is that there are various re-edits and retro-clones of B/X, my personal favorite being Old School Essentials by Necrotic Gnome. This fantastic re-edit of B/X not only gives you the core rules in a really great edit but the game is expanded with several source books that take you beyond the basic B/X rules to include more classes and more advanced optional rules. As well they do some optional math reversal for you to get rid of the dreaded THAC0 and descending armor class so you don’t have to. Really great stuff!

Old School Essentials is just one of many retro-clones and remakes of 1st edition Basic/Expert rules, but it’s by and large the most popular, and this is likely because it stays honest to B/X rules as closely as humanly possible while correcting and expanding the game in ways that is very commonly done in house rules. It is in my opinion the best version of B/X rules out there today.

Why Play It Today?

There are actually quite a few intriguing reasons to play Basic/Expert edition Dungeons & Dragons, but I would still argue that modern players might see the game as quirky if not outright strange.

One of the main advantages of 1st edition Basic/Expert rules, setting aside the challenge level of the game (as a game) is that the rules are very simple to learn/teach. Far simpler than anything we have in modern systems. This simplicity is combined with existing familiarity anyone who plays D&D would have compared to modern games, meaning that if you know how to play any edition of the game including 5th edition D&D, you already know 90% of the system (B/X) because by far and large it is the basis for all other editions of the game.

This simply means that you can get the game to the table very easily with any sort of player group even complete novices. No one is going to struggle to understand how to play and everyone can get right to enjoying the game without the need for elaborate explanations often required to grasp modern games.

This simplicity is furthered combined with unmatched support for the game in particular in the form of adventure modules and unique variations on the system all of which are compatible with each other. In the nearly 50 years that D&D has been in development, this version of the game has continued to receive new content thanks to a thriving community and immense 3rd party publishing support. There are more adventure modules created for 1e B/X rules than all other editions of D&D combined. It is the most well-supported D&D system today, even more so than modern/current editions like 5th edition D&D.

A big part of why Basic/Expert rules are so flexible is the incredible compatibility it maintained long past its lifetime. 1st and 2nd edition adventures including all AD&D content are 100% compatible while 3rd and 5th edition modules are incredibly easy to adapt. The only rough spot is 4th edition which is generally incompatible with all D&D systems.

The next big sales pitch, which speaks to me personally has always been the structured and clear goals of the game for players. One very common issue with D&D is the absence of a common definition of what you are supposed to be doing in the game and understanding it as a game and as a concept. Modern games have this “it’s anything you want it to be” approach to playstyle, but this is particularly unhelpful and problematic when you sit down with five players and a DM to whom “anything you want it to be” is different for each person. Finding common ground, a gaming group where everyone is in sync and creating an experience that satisfies everyone at the table borders on an impossible achievement in modern gaming. It’s why despite the popularity of modern systems, the complaining from the player base is so excessive you would think they hate their hobby the way they speak about it.

1st edition B/X is a system that has clear goals, clear direction, one playstyle and no apologies, no excuses and no fancy philosophies. There is only one right way to play 1e B/X and the game tells you exactly what that is in no uncertain terms with no interpretations required. Certainly, it’s not a take-it-or-leave-it deal and you can and are actually encouraged to mess with the system, but at least you are on solid footing when you read the rules as written, there is a clear starting point, there is no confusion about what the deal is. Love it or hate it, it is what it is.

One additional element that has been lost in D&D is the ability to play the game as a pickup-and-go as well as a one-shot system. B/X combat is fast and snappy, its mechanics simple and it’s core gameplay clear. The result is a system that very happily supports the idea that you can pick up the books and say “let’s play D&D” and be up and running in 10 minutes or less. It’s ideal for 1 shot and pick-up games where you can simply play anytime you feel like it with anyone. This is because B/X is built on emergent story and gameplay concepts, meaning that you don’t need to do much prep work to get a very functional and entertaining game night, creating the story is built right into the system for you.

While AD&D (1st & 2nd edition), 3rd and 4th editions were all far too complex games to make either good introductions or be flexible enough for pick up and play games, with 5e thanks to introduction boxes like D&D Essentials Kit, picking up a game with little prep is again possible. This may be why 5e D&D is so popular as it goes back to its roots as a game in many ways and being easy to pick up is one of them, an idea founded in 1e B/X rules.

Finally and like anything this too is a matter of taste and preference is the fact that B/X 1st edition is effectively a D&D construction kit. If you ever wanted to create your own version of D&D, there is no system more modular and more adaptable than B/X 1st edition. This is a D&D lego set and while the core system has clearly marked boundaries, you cannot break the game, it’s so incredibly flexible you can take any other edition of the game, take any rule you want from that game, including any spell, feat, power or whatever, add it as written into B/X and it works without a hitch. Naturally, your power levels will fluctuate as a result, but there are not going to be any mechanical compatibility issues, it just works. It’s a creative DM’s dream come true as a system and it’s a lot of fun to do. A system that is firm in the layout of what it is, but infinitely modular to be anything else you want it to be while always remaining approachable to and by anyone.

1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

AD&D 1st edition was reprinted by Wizards of the Coast in 2016 without edits, a tribute to decades of fandom.

I think most D&D players, even modern gamers know a thing or two about Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, while it is not the first edition of the game it is considered to be the granddaddy of D&D written by the god-emperor himself, Gary Gygax.

AD&D 1st edition however is actually one of the most problematic games in the D&D line up, which is not to say it’s bad, it’s actually quite phenomenal, but it requires a very stern hand to wrangle this beast and an open mind to its core concept. There is no question that this is one of the most complex versions of the game to learn, to run, and ultimately to master, definitively earning its unique title as Advanced D&D. In fact, it’s a rare DM who can fully grasp the core of the rules and implement them efficiently fully as written. RAW 1st edition AD&D games were rare then (70’s-80’s) as they are now. It really takes a true master to run a good 1st edition AD&D game which might explain why so many players and DM’s have a love-it-or-hate-it relationship with the game. In the hands of an inexperienced DM it can be a disaster, in the hands of a master DM, it is nothing short of a work of art. It’s a game that embodies the soul of D&D in a way that no game before or after ever could, but one must be a soulweaver to bring that essence to the table.

1e AD&D under TSR’s banner gave birth to all of the classic settings that are staples in the community today. Dragonlance is just one among many that created fantasy fans all over the world. Playing in this setting under the original system is an experience I would recommend to every D&D fan without hesitation.

AD&D shares many similarities with B/X, the two games are designed to be fully compatible and they are, but AD&D features a number of unique departures as well as much deeper and more fleshed out concepts that you will not find in either B/X or any other version of D&D that had come before or would come after.

First and foremost the rules of the game are hidden from the players very intentionally, documented in a massive and secretive tome in painstaking detail and frank commanding language known as the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide. A book that I both personally consider the first and definitive final word on how to be a Dungeon Master and one of the most confusing reads you will ever experience, spectled with brilliance and nonsense in the same breath.

This book not only defines every conceivable element of the game but it does so with flavor and a deep meaningful understanding of fantasy, an edgy abstracted realism, and a firm hand. It’s a book that declares the Dungeon Master god of the game in no uncertain terms, the great creator tasked with entertaining and challenging players in the most devious and detailed oriented ways possible.

The result is a system that is explicit, yet flexible, mysterious, yet self-aware and most of all, it creates a gritty, believable fantasy world in stunning detail if and its a BIG if you can wrap your head around all of the wisdom it passes on and be open-minded enough to embrace it.

The 1st edition DMG to me is the bible for Dungeon & Dragons, running D&D having never read it means you are always going to be a lesser DM than you could be. It is priceless information you will never find in any other book written for the game.

Now that is a very colorful way to describe AD&D and I will admit, no matter how many times I open the pages of the AD&D DMG, I can’t help but be swallowed whole by the mystique of it. It’s inspiring. That said, its a read riddled with issues, in fact, in a lot of ways, its approach as a whole is an issue to some both conceputally and mechanically speaking. Its perhaps best described as a confounding experience, you will either find its soul or be confused by its intention.

Still, D&D is a game and AD&D is a version of it, so the question is, what does it do differently, what aspect of the game may be worth exploring if you’re a modern gamer. Why go back to it?

Like B/X this is a game that is going to have a familiar surface, looking at the character races and classes, stats and hit points, armor class and sub-systems while some of them will feel like quirky versions of what you are used to they are not going to be alien to you.

There are however three core things that really separate AD&D from any other version of the game for better or for worse, you decide!

The first is the focus on the mundane, administrative elements of medieval life. AD&D as a system really tries very hard, successfully in my opinion, to make players feel the hardship of a medieval fantasy world. Your resources are limited, your powers are limited and it all amounts to the game being a brutal struggle for survival.

There is a harshness to everything with no video game structured answers or hand-waving of the elements of the adventuring life. You are as likely to die in the woods of dysentery as you are at the end of an orc’s blade. AD&D wants you to worry about how sharp your blade is, how clean your water is, how many arrows you have in your quiver, how heavy your pack is, how many spell components you have remaining and all sorts of other resource issues that drive your actions and decisions. No matter where you look in this system there are uncomfortable limits and restrictions. There are no character “builds” that let you circumvent the harshness or avoid the discomforts. The result is that players form comraderies in much the way soldiers do in war because the only way to truly survive, maybe even excel is through teamwork, the only way players can accept their circumstances is by suffering them together.

This of course can be seen as a major drawback as well. Adventuring heroes suffering anti-climatic deaths does not exactly make for a tolkein fantasy or fond memories. Sometimes the game is just a bit too real to be fun, a not all together uncommon complaint about AD&D.

The 2nd main focus of the game is emergent narrative storytelling. AD&D has a lot of charts and DM’s are often asked to let the events of the game unfold through the use of tables, encouraged to embelish these events and allow the chips, or dice as it were, to fall where they may. That is not to say that everything should be randomized or that the game is pure random chance, but the game is setup in such a way as to ensure the players are working against a structure rather than pure DM fiat.

These rolls are often measured against character attributes and abilities, which ties into the 3rd unique element of AD&D I will talk about in a minute, but the principle concept is that you do not just roll when you “do stuff” to see if you succeed, but you often roll to see “what happens” in general, how the world around you responds.

You open a chest, what is in it? Is there a trap on this chest? Is there an Alchemist in town? How does the merchant you just met feel about you? Do the Orcs run or fight this round? Rolling the dice isn’t just to see if you can disarm a trap or if you can find it, its very existance may be left to chance. This emergent concept is a foundational element of AD&D.

Forbidden Lands reminded me a great deal of AD&D 1st edition and it shows that there is still a place in gaming for harsh and ruthless survival stories and emergent storytelling. It is a great example of an OSR throwback and might serve as a much easier alternative to teaching the many lessons of AD&D.

With AD&D there are rolls that determine the input or outcome of a narrative. Maybe killing the chieften scares the rest of the Orcs and they run away, maybe it makes them even more angry and they attack with barberic ferocity! The DM is encouraged to let a big part of the story be told by the dice, far larger chunks than one might be accustomed to in a modern game. This in turn creates emergent stories, unexpected events, things the DM could not himself plan or would have even considered adding into the game. This aspect of AD&D creates a sense of danger and the unknown, not just because you as a player don’t know what will happen, but you know the DM doesn’t either. In AD&D very often, the dice do the storytelling.

This too can be a problem, encountering deadly traps and finding nothing in treasure chests while stumbling across random encounters every time you open a dungeon door can be daunting, brutal, unfair even. AD&D run as designed, can be quite suffocating and demoralizing. Some will see it as a challenge, others as unescessary cruelty.

The 3rd and final unique element of AD&D is that the games classes are definitively archetypical and each class deals with a very specific element of the game, offering a group an advantage in the area filled by a character of that class. This is true in B/X as well, but in AD&D there is a far more granular game, hence the class abilities are equally more granular increasing the complexity and types of class roles. A group without a Ranger is likely to get lost in the woods more often, have food shortages when traveling, have longer travel times and so on. A group without a Cleric is going to have a hell of a time crawling through a crypt filled with undead and recovery of the groups health will be dauntinly slow. A group that has a thief will likely end up with a lot more treasure, a lot fewer casualties as a result of traps and will be able to access parts of dungeons inaccessible without their skulldugary skills.

Some cross over exists here and there, but each class plays a key role and in the end each adventuring party will always be missing some element that is relevant to the adventure, some unfilled gap that they will struggle against.

Making each role a pivitol part of an adventuring party means that each player is a critical to the success of the troupe, everyone’s lives are easied by their presence against the horrific struggles of the medievil world you face together.

This aspect of the game is so refined, so poiniant that its become a staple in the gaming world in particular in MMO’s, yet oddly enough as editions progressed forward the game of D&D has slowly evolved away from this principle element to a point where in modern editions of the game its practically non-existant. A party of adventurers in 5e for example will not have a gap in the groupes capabilities because a Ranger, Rogue or Cleric are not part of a party.

This element also adds an aspect of meta strategy. Players that gather to form adventuring troupes are going to be very aware of their shortcomings and their strengths, they will devise group strategies that favor those strengths and avoid exposing their weaknesess, creating a kind of a game within a game. The composition of your party will and does dramatically change how you approach the whole concept of adventure.

Again there are drawbacks to AD&D’s archetype enforcement. At times you might sit down at an AD&D table and be forced to play a Cleric because the party needs one even though you actually want to be a thief, but the group already has one. Their is inflexibility in this rigid structure, the modern game favors players running whatever character class they want and in this is a kind of joy. Sometimes in AD&D, the struggle begins even before you start playing as players bicker over what the party needs as oppossed to simply creating whatever character you want.

Why Play It Today?

For me AD&D does two things, both of which give this game justification as a game to try today, but I would simultanously caution modern gamers that this is a very brutal game, much like Basic & Expert 1st edition is but unlike B/X it’s also very complex and can be a chore to learn and run.

The first thing is that I think the concept of emergent gameplay is applicable to modern games, though modern games don’t encourage or teach it, even though they are perfectly capable of the execution. AD&D teaches you how and when to do this well, so the experience of running AD&D as as DM makes for an exceptional education you won’t find in any other game on a subject (emergent gameplay). In my opinion emergent gameplay is not optional, it is a required element of the game that must be included for the game to be meaningful. The players must know that the fate of their characters isn’t just a DM decision, that the world around them is a living breathing thing, random as it may sometimes be. This is one thing I feel is worthy of your time and effort to learn and learn well and no game will teach you emergent gameplay better than AD&D 1st edition.

Emergent gameplay is an amazing seasoning to narrative constructs because as much as DM’s often think themselves briliant story designers, the truth is that most of us are not. Emergent gameplay creates a natural way for amazing stories to evolve (emerge) and with the right set of tools which the 1st edition AD&D DMG most certainly is, the creations will always be wildly unique inspiring stories you would have never thought to create yourself, acting as a platform for your own inspiration.

The second thing AD&D does really well is that it teaches you why limitations are better than options, a lesson you will never learn from a modern RPG, quite to the contrary most modern games very mistakingly teach the oppossite. AD&D shows you how you can play a straight, tough game, one that might almost seem mean to the players and end up with an amazing gaming experience in which your players flourish despite the hardships. This is because the reality of games of any kind is that victories that are tough to achieve, inspire players to be smarter, better, proactive, involved and curious to test their metal, all elements that become rewards in their own right. The side effect is failure but if you know anything about drama you know that traggedy and struggle produce the best stories which ties in nicely with the concept of emergent gameplay.

I really enjoy Pathfinder 2nd edition as an alternative to D&D, but this is a game that really shows how unwieldy and generic a game can feel when it has too many options and it’s reach to broad. When everything is possible and everything is unique, nothing is unique, the fallout of option overkill.

For me personally AD&D 1e holds a very special place in the DM arsenal. It is chalk full of lessons that simply aren’t taught anymore and should be to both players and DM’s. It is a game written with the voice of a true master storyteller, someone who understood the principle foundations of narrative role-playing.

It does however require an open mind as some mechanics have not aged well (I’m looking at your THAC0!) but a bit of math is a small price to pay for a great gaming experience and the truth is that most of the mechanics that aged poorly, can be easily corrected with a few house rules.

Some of these house rules, corrections and clarifications can be found in OSRIC, a retro-clone for AD&D that makes the game a lot more approachable. I would personally argue OSRIC fails to contain the same mojo of the 1e AD&D DMG, but it does, in plain language sort of explain things that are sometimes heavily hidden in the flavor text of Gygax’s quirky writing and as a practical matter this is quite useful.

Like Old School Essentials which retro-clones B/X rules, OSRIC is a re-edit of the 1e AD&D rules making it far easier to consume and understand the core rules, in essence making AD&D 1st edition far easier to run. You lose that Gygaxian writing that makes 1e AD&D such a fun read, but as a rule reference is really great.

Conclusion

That concludes our first part of the walk down memory lane of D&D gaming history. Clearly, like any fan of D&D I have my opinions and it’s certain to trigger disagreement, but I feel quite confident having played these games extensively I have nailed at least my own experience and perceptions.

Part II is coming soon where I will dive into 1st edition BECMI (Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal) rules, 2nd edition AD&D and then switch gears to the birth of the modern D&D era with 3rd edition!

4x Science-Fiction Civilization Building Games: Part I

At the start of this summer, I wanted to have a writing project for the blog, something unique to work on when those rainy days come or when I’m up late with a cold beer after the family has gone to bed.  It’s something of a tradition for me and has produced articles such as my Battletech Guide series (Part I, Part II & Part III) and my Star Wars: X-Wing guide (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV & Part V) for example.  

This year’s summer project is to evaluate and write a comparison article on Science-Fiction 4x civilization-building games, a topic that is something of a passion of mine.  I have always been a big fan of monster games in general as far back as I can remember, getting my start with classics like Advanced Civilization, Axis & Allies and Shogun back in the 80’s.  My love for SF 4x games however comes from the world of PC games with classics like Master of Orion and Galactic Civilization series of games.  

For years Twilight Imperium has been the ruling king of the hill of this genre in board game form, it has floated around in my top 10 best games of all time since I started it nearly 10 years ago and remains the mecca of this genre in my opinion.  Equally, for the same amount of years I have searched for alternatives for Twilight Imperium if for no other reason than the simple fact that Twilight Imperium is a real pain to get to the table despite its many positive elements.  Simply put, it’s a very long, very heavy and conceptually complex game to get into.  It demands a bit more than most gamers are willing to give and so I have searched for alternatives that might bring the 4x experience to the table more often with a wider range of players.

My hope was that if I explored this genre in detail, I might find some 4x games that might be a bit more approachable.  Going into this project I have no expectations that any of the games I will try will replace Twilight Imperium for me as my ruling favorite, but I am hoping to find some new 4x games to explore.

My research has shown that there are quite a few potentially great SF 4x games in the board game world and it’s my intention to go deep with this article series and do some detailed assessment of what I believe are the most popular of these games that will hopefully act as both a buying guide for those looking to get into the games and a sort of review for each individual game.

The List & Why

There are quite a few games that could go on this list, in fact, arguably to be a proper assessment of the whole genre I think a list of 10-15 would be needed but I wanted to narrow it down to the most widely popular games and I wanted to have some games that hardened veterans of the genre would also approve of which is to say, games that might be more obscure to general mass markets but the experts within consider staples of the genre.  This I felt was important because the goal here is to expose you, the reader to something new and interesting and battle-tested, not necessarily a comparison of the most known games.  

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition

The ultimate 4x science-fiction epic, it is considered by many to be the king of the 4x genre.

Twilight Imperium was a very obvious choice, it is considered a hallmark of the genre, ask any fan of SF 4x civilization building to make a list for you, and this one will always be on it.   It is widely accepted as one of the best in the genre, arguably the one by which all other games will be judged so it had to be on this list.

Eclipse:  Second Dawn For The Galaxy

Many argue that Eclipse is the Twilight Imperium killer, a more refined, faster playing 4x game.

Eclipse is perhaps the second most widely known and accepted game in the genre and actually has even broader mass market appeal.  More importantly, it’s considered the most natural competitor to Twilight Imperium by the gaming community even if the publisher makes no such claims.  It is also highly disputed by Twilight Imperium fans as a contender, some argue for it’s shorter play time while others insist it comes up short.  I love a good controversy, so it had to go on the list as well.

Star Trek: Ascendancy

A relative newcomer by 4x standards, but this 2016 release has made a splash with 4x and Star Trek fans alike often compared to Eclipse.

A very popular franchise but a less commonly listed game, Star Trek: Ascendancy is a full-fledged 4x game that has had quite a bit of buzz among 4x fans and has seen a number of reprints since its 2016 release which means people are still playing & buying it. One really interesting element of Ascendancy is that many argue its a better, albeit less refined Eclipse and there is a lot of debate about its quality that seems to have created a sort of Ascendancy vs. Eclipse grudge match.  From that, it was an easy decision to include it.

Exodus: Proxima Centauri

While my first experience with this one was less then stellar, it’s a community favorite and many argue that it is a far more competitive and varied game in direct competition with Twilight Imperium and Eclipse.

I was very hesitant to add this one to my list mainly because I own it, I have played it once and neither my gaming crew or I thought much of it.  Despite this among 4x circles, it’s considered a staple and standard for the genre and it’s been compared to Eclipse and Twilight Imperium in countless reviews, many feeling this is the superior game.  While I have my doubts, the evidence is in its success.   It has also not only remained in print but has received a 2nd edition and been nominated for some prestigious awards including the 2013 UK Games expo for Best Boardgame of the year.  It’s clearly a competitor, it had to go on the list.

Stellaris Infinite Legacy

Based on one of the most popular 4x games in modern times, this new kid on the block is making a lot of bold claims about being an evolution in the genre and we are going to give it, its shot to prove it in this competition.

The final game on the list comes from Academy Games which attempts to create a board game version of one of the most popular modern 4x PC game franchises in existence, the fan favorite and beloved Stellaris.  I know very little about this one but I felt strongly that if someone is going to try to re-create a board game version of one of the best 4x PC games on the market today, it needed to be on the list.  

That’s your list, 5 games.  I’m committed to play each game a minimum of one time, though it’s likely I will have a couple of plays of each game before this article is complete and I have the advantage of having played some of these games already before I even start.  I have no idea how long it will actually take me to complete this article series, but I’m hopeful that it will make for some fun gaming and writing.

How they will be judged

I think it’s important to establish some method or standard for how all the games will be judged to ensure not only that the competition is fair, but that there is at least a general understanding of what the expectations for a 4x game are.  Each game will be rated from 1 to 5 on each of the following categories.

Is it a true 4x game

The first category simply ensures that the game meets its advertised goal which is to be a 4x game.  4x is a reference to the four key elements of a science-fiction civilization-building game.  

Exploration

Does the game have a fun/interesting exploration mechanic, after all this is a game about building a civilization in space and exploration has to be a part of that.

Expand

This is a bit of a tricky one as the word is intended to have multiple meanings.  It’s a reference to the civilization-building component of the game and covers anything that helps to build your civilization from a fledging single planet to a mass empire.  Science research, fleet and base building, economic engine growth and really anything else to do with the construction and forward progress of your civilization.

Exploit

Similar to expanding in a way, exploiting is about making sure that the galaxy itself is the source of the struggle in the game and that it breeds player competition for resources to ensure players are forced out of their comfort zone of their homeworld.  Exploitation is about the economics of the game and the road to confrontation and the final and arguably most exciting element of the 4x genre, war (Exterminate).

Exterminate

In the end, the exploration, expansion and exploitation of the galaxy should put the players into conflict with each other and lead to the expected eventual outcome which is war.  All good 4x games are in the end in some shape or form war games.

The Extras

While the 4x civilization-building genre is very specific, many of these games include concepts like politics, diplomacy, trade, espionage and other elements often associated, but not directly mentioned as part of the 4x mantra.  These extras should count and hence they get their own category in the evaluation.

Competitive & Fun

This second category is a bit more opinion driven, it’s about a general judgment and comparison of how competitive and fun the game is.  Does it hit those joy centers with its mechanics, do players walk away satisfied, is the game balanced and fair and of course naturally how does it fair in general as a gaming experience.

The Event Status & Presentation

Civilization-building games should be an event, a robust, full-fledged game that everyone is excited about and builds a foundation for a great gaming event.  This combines its visual appeal and presentation, its replayability and its status as a game around which an event can be played.  4x games shouldn’t just be board games, they need to generate a much higher level of excitement beyond just a simple game night, they should feel epic in size and scope.  This category is a measurement and discussion of its status as an event game and includes its presentation.

Deliver On The Promise

This one is important mainly because I don’t think a game should be judged solely on the expectations and desires of players, but on what the game actually promises.  Whether it’s by advertisement on the box or website, we use that information to determine how well it delivers what it promised.  Does the game do what it said it would?  That is the question we are answering and rating here.

Strengths vs. Weakness

This is the only category that will not be scored so much as listed.  I will attempt to outline each game’s strengths and weaknesses and help guide players to the game that is right for their group.  

Comparison Ranking

Finally is the comparison ranking.  This category will not be included with each game, but rather be an article in its own right where I compare and contrast all of the games and come to a conclusion about where they ultimately rank in this competition.  It will be a definitive, top 5 of the best from this list of SF 4x civilization-building games.

Conclusion

Ok so that is the setup for this article series, we have our game list and we have our established method of judgment.  I’m uncertain exactly what order these articles will appear or even what approach I will take beyond these simple goals but the plan is first to play all of the games so that I have a strong basis for assessment.  I expect this series will go well beyond the summer to complete, but keep an eye out for it in the near future.

BOARD GAMING SUPER WEEKEND 2022 EDITION!

The sacred annual event known as Hassela weekend in my gaming circle is a staple of my gaming group’s gaming life.  We look forward to it all year long, the holy event is a 4-day gaming excursion where my buddies and I hide away in a small remote Swedish town and do nothing but drink beer, BBQ and play board games. It is sacred, it is glorious and it is a board gaming super weekend.

This year’s event was overflowing with amazing gaming, so much so that I kick-started this article only an hour after I came home still buzzing from the countless mini experiences of playing classics and new gems alike.

Get ready for the list, because it’s quite meaty, in no particular order.

The Pillars of The Earth by KOSMOS 2006

Designer: Michael Rieneck, Stefan Stadler

The Pillars of the Earth is among the first board games I bought and introduced to my new Swedish friends when I first moved to Sweden. In fact, it’s among the first reviews I did for this blog (The Pillars Of The Earth Review). My first gaming group was a mixture of gamers and non-gamers, it would be a couple of years before our gaming crew really formed, so I needed an easy-to-learn and teach game that non-gamers could get their head around while being interesting and fun for board gamers like me in the group. This one came highly recommended but wasn’t the usual recommendations I had heard for introducing people to gaming like Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride. Nothing against those two, but I always felt like while they are introduction games, they aren’t that interesting for more seasoned gamers.  

The Pillars of The Earth is a very pretty game, with a theme based on a book that gives it a sort of regal and intelligent presence and it was very easy to learn and teach so no one is going to get overwhelmed. It was quite perfect as an introductory game and even to this day when someone comes to me wanting to take their first venture into board gaming, I find it to be a great choice.

This is a really pretty game with a lot of color and thought put into aesthetics, so despite the rather odd theme of being about 12th-century architects building a cathedral, it has a lot of personality.

That however is not why it’s still in my collection years later and why it found its way to our Hassela weekend. Despite its simplicity, this is a very elegant Euro that really stands out and will challenge veteran gamers.

It’s a simple worker placement and resource management game on the surface, which is to say, the standard formula in which players place workers on limited spots, get resources and use those resources to score points.  Nothing too fancy…

The twist is that in addition to managing the resources needed to score points you have money that is used in a pre-round auction of sorts where you draw “worker” tokens out of a bag and if your color comes up you have to pay the current cost of putting your worker on the board or pass your chance to put down a worker until the end of the round. This means that having more money gives you a better chance of getting your workers on the board first, which is a huge advantage, and being broke is equally really, really bad.  It is in this mini-management element of the game a lot of the planning magic happens.

It’s a struggle between doing what you want, doing what you can and doing what you need to do while competing for the best spots on the board and finding victory points wherever you can. It’s a pretty tight game, so every inch you claim counts. Additionally, the method of scoring points is all about having the best craftsmen cards that convert resources into points, but getting those also costs money and there is a very limited supply of craftsmen available in any given game.

The whole thing boils down to a thinky resource management puzzle, not so difficult that you don’t understand what and how to do it, but always challenging to do it well.

The Pillars of the Earth is a stone-cold classic in my opinion, it’s a straight-to-the-point Euro that uses well-established worker placement mechanics but does so in a unique way that even nearly 20 years later it still holds up in veteran gaming groups in addition to being a very serviceable introductory to board games-game.

It’s still in print and available today, this is a real gem and comes highly recommended if you are looking for a good gateway game that carries over to more serious gaming tables.

Root By Leder Games 2018

Designer: Cole Wehrle 

Root has been on my must-play list since its rise in popularity over the last couple of years, I’m certainly a late comer to the experience, but someone brought it so I was excited to finally have go.  Root already has over a dozen expansions, it has been converted to a digital game and clawed its way to the 28th spot on boardgamegeek.com.  Impressive resume for a game about cute woodland creature cartoons fighting in a forest.

Despite its endearing art and theme, Root turned out to be a pretty complex gamer’s game with what I can only describe as extreme dynamics and asymmetry.  Each player in the game takes control of one of four or more available factions (depending on expansions) in what can best be described as a sort of quasi-war mini-series. Each faction not only plays wildly different but has entirely different game mechanics and methods of scoring points.  Some factions don’t even have units on the map, some have entire armies, while others are essentially solo adventurers who wander around the map causing trouble.

It’s a pretty crazy setup, so nutty it’s difficult to fully express but I suppose the best way to describe it is that every player is effectively playing an entirely different game (quite literally).    Each faction has unique rules for the game and while there is a lot of interaction in the game between players, which is great, this extreme asymmetry can be a bit confusing when you are learning to play the game.

It’s probably not a great idea to do what my group did which was play a 5 player game with expansions on our first go (or at least my first go).  That likely complicated the matter unnecessarily.

When we played it took us quite a bit of time to get the game going and even though I found my faction to be quite straightforward (I played a Vagabond, essentially a solo adventurer), I didn’t have a bloody clue how anyone else worked or what the hell they were doing until the late game when it all abruptly ended.  It felt a bit anti-climactic and I was a little disappointed, but I don’t think it illustrated a flaw in the game, just the unexpected reality that despite being about adorable little forest creatures, this game is a fairly robust and serious gamer’s game.  I don’t think describing it as a war game is unfair, though perhaps not 100% accurate for every faction, yet despite its cuteness aesthetically the game was quite brutal.

This game’s adorable theme is in stark contrast to its rather harsh, take that gameplay.

It’s difficult for me to form an opinion on a game this diverse after only one pretty wobbly play.  What I can say is that I was immediately sold on the theme, concept, and mechanics and definitely excited for another go, so the game certainly didn’t turn me off.   For me this was the surprise discovery of the weekend, to be honest despite a kind of lackluster first go, I really liked it quite a bit and I was hoping that we would get a second play during the weekend but we never got to it.

All the buzz on this one is warranted I think, looking forward to taking another crack at it again in the near future.  

Hansa Teutonica by Pegasus Spiele 2020

Designer: Andreas Steding

Originally released in 2009, this is something of an old-school Euro classic with a pretty impressive list of prestigious game awards.  We played the re-printed 2020 big box release which I think is largely unchanged from the original but comes with several expansions packaged together. 

Our game took place on the German map and going into this one I didn’t really know what to expect, I had never even heard of it and at a glance, it looked like a rather boring Euro cube pusher.  I was not terribly excited, my relationship with cube-pushing euro-classics is a bit of a mixed bag.

I swear I have nothing against a good Euro cube pusher, but I find for every 3 or 4 I play, I find one I like and the rest are meh… so I tend to be a bit skeptical.

Fortunately, Hansa Tuetonica turned out to be a delightfully simple, yet very thinky and clever game with tons of player interaction and wonderfully streamlined mechanics.  Everyone at the table took to it right away, there was none of this “now that I know the rules, I will be able to do much better next time” kind of talk after the game, it was crystal clear what you needed to do to win from turn one, the challenge was figuring out how to do it well.

This was a game about building trade routes and controlling buildings by placing down control cubes. The tricky part is that if someone placed a cube into a route you want to control, while you can kick them out, it costs you an extra cube to do so and gives them 2 cube placements elsewhere on the board for free.  So the game is all about players trying to get under each other’s feet to get the free rewards and then use those rewards to outpace each other.  Each player also has their own gameboard and you can upgrade various properties of your little business to improve the sort of actions you can take which opens up various advantages as well as scoring you additional points.

It’s really a victory point race as you might expect from a Euro, but highly interactive and cutthroat and there is a kind of sense of urgency with everything as the board fills up over time and your options start to slim down as the game progresses.  The game had really good tension and unlike so many of these old-school Euro games, you didn’t feel isolated from the other players, quite to the contrary, it all felt very crowded.

Really enjoyed this one a hell of a lot more than I thought I would when it came out of the box, another of a long line of pleasant surprises this weekend.  I think it’s difficult to offer a comparison for this one, I suppose you could say in a way it’s a worker placement game but that would be a real stretch of the term.  I do think like The Pillars Of The Earth, this is a good example of a game that is going to be very newbie friendly while having plenty of steam for the more seasoned gamer.   Really nice find!

Dune Imperium by Dire Wolf (2020)

Designer: Paul Dennen

I never did a full review of Dune Imperium and I probably should have, but it did appear in the number 9 spot of my Top 20 Best Games of All Time list  I did earlier this year so that should tell you a little something about how I feel about this one.


To make it short and sweet, this is hands down among the best games that came out in 2020 and remains one of my favorites to put on the table. It was no surprise to me that this one found its way to the Hassela super weekend rotation, I’m fairly certain most of my crew enjoys this one as well.

We played Dune with the new expansion (Rise of Ix), which has not received particularly high marks and was rumored to be very poor so I was mildly concerned about adding it into the mix.  Boy are those reviews wrong!

Dune Imperium – Rise of Ix was a fantastic expansion that vastly improves the game, in particular in the variety of viable strategies for winning.  Without the expansion, the method of winning is pretty strict, you must get lots of influence with the different factions and you must win a few victory point-based battles, else your chances of winning a game of Dune Imperium are slim to none generally reduced to a lucky intrigue card draw.  

I played a lot of Dune, it’s a fantastic game and I’m always weary of expansions for games I already think are amazing. A game that was nearly perfect already gets better with Rise of Ix, its a must-own for any fan of the game.

With the Rise of Ix the game opens up a great deal proven by my own victory which I achieved without ever winning a single battle.  The combination of interstellar shipping, technologies, new faction cards, dreadnoughts and various micro additions, there are a lot more ways to score points so the game is just a lot less linear.  Perhaps repeated plays might reveal some flaws, but from where I was sitting, the game not only felt even tighter but there are more ways to make a comeback.  Our game ended with 3 players achieving 10 points and the 4th sitting on 9 at the end of the game and the tie-breaker was a technology card I picked up earlier in the game.  One of the most exciting and closes games of Dune Imperium I have played yet.

The expansion does complicate the game ever so slightly but really one play without the expansion should be all the education one needs before adding it in, it’s really not that substantial rules-wise.

If you haven’t played Dune Imperium yet, this is a combination of worker placement and deck builder no serious connoisseur can live without, it’s a must-play game in my opinion, without question among the best games in my collection.

Imperial Struggle by GMT Games (2020)


Designers: Ananda Gupta, Jason Mathews

On the first day of the Hassela, a buddy and I were the first arrivals and we had a chance to play a couple of two-player games, so I did not hesitate to bring what I consider to be THE best two-player game in my collection.

I have hummed the praises of Imperial Struggle in my Review earlier this year, a game that received 4.4 out of 5 stars and landed in the number 3 spot on my Top 20 Best Games of all Time list this year.  

To put it plainly, I adore this game, it’s incredibly challenging, deep and thematic while being reasonably short for a two-player historical board game affair.  It doesn’t hurt that the influence struggle card-driven mechanic is one of my favorite mechanics in board games and I have collected quite a few in that category for comparison and this one remains my favorite among them (List includes Washintgons War, Ceaser: Rome vs. Gaul & Twilight Struggle…. So far).

This can however be a pretty frustrating and unforgiving game, it is not for the faint of heart.  A couple of bad decisions can quickly break your momentum and lead to ruin, in particular if you’re facing a clever opponent who knows how to leverage errors in judgment.  I have played about a dozen games of Imperial Struggle at this point and it really doesn’t get any easier over time either.  This is due in part that the game has a lot of dynamic elements that can really alter what strategies will be effective and these dynamics really push you to constantly think globally.

I could probably write several blog posts about my theories and ideas for strategies which are probably all terrible, but that is really the beauty of a game like this is that you never really stop thinking about it and trying to figure it out.

I would not recommend this as a first venture into the influence struggle card-driven genre unless you are a board game veteran, there are lighter games like Twilight Struggle and Washingtons war that make for much better starting points, but to me this is the final word in the genre, the standard by which all others are to be judged.

Love it!

Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy by Lautapelit (2020)

Designer: Touko Tahkokallio

Eclipse was a smash hit with the entire gaming crew in Hassela and really the highlight of the weekend, we actually ended up playing it twice with everyone nodding in approval.  I picked this game up as this summer I took it upon myself to write an article about 4x science-fiction civilization-building games and Eclipse was a natural contender for such an analysis along with games like Twilight Imperium.

I played the original Eclipse and it triggered two articles I did back in 2015 called Top 5 Games That Were Almost Great and my Top 5 Popular Games You Can Skip.  Suffices to say I saw a lot of potential in the game but it had a few flaws that just made the game pretty stale after repeated plays.  I think at the time I was probably a bit more sensitive about the sales pitch as well which suggested that this was a faster, lighter Twilight Imperium which really is just objectively false advertising.  It was for all intense and purposes a cube-pushing Euro disguised as a Twilight Imperium wanna-be.

I will be the first to admit I may have been a bit elitist and harsh in my assessment of the original Eclipse and while I still don’t think Eclipse is even in the same class as Twilight Imperium as a game, at least with Second Dawn the game delivered on the promise of a proper fully fleshed out 4x science-fiction civilization building game that can be played in a reasonable amount of time.

The game has been streamlined generously, on our second game when everyone knew the rules and we just setup and played, we finished a very tense and very exciting game in a little over 3 hours which is at least half the time it would take to play Twilight Imperium if I’m being generous (probably more like 1/3rd of the time).

More than that though the game just had a rhythm that worked.  Turns were fast, there was always some action on the board each round, the game felt tight and uncertain and you really had to take some gambles in response to other players’ activities.  There is a lot of tension in this game, you can’t sit on your butt and just build-up, you have to act; the game feels, because it is, extremely short.  It was just a really fun and exciting game.

There is a lot more I want to say about this game, but I’m saving that juice for the big 4x article I’m working on, so for now I will just say that all the accolades this game has received over the last couple of years is well deserved, this is a really great 4x formula that delivers on the promise of a shorter yet very robust 4x empire building game. I don’t really remember the old game enough to specifically point out which changes made the difference here, but clearly, the game is a lot more streamlined that is for sure. Loved it, can’t wait to play it more!

Nidavellir by Grrre Games (2020)

Designer: Serge Laget

A curious little game about recruiting dwarves destined to fight a big dragon, though in practice it’s about creating a point-scoring engine driven by a competitive blind auction for point-scoring cards.  I honestly thought I would like it a lot less than I ultimately did as the rules were being explained to me, but the game is very short and quite clever, it was a nice distraction and worked well with 3-players which was our player count at the moment it hit the table.

Very nicely published for a game this simple with great components and pretty art.  I think this would make for a really good family game with kids, this is a concept anyone can pick up instantly and it demands a bit of math which is a good way to sneak in some education for the youngsters.

At a table full of veteran gamers it was quite well received, maybe a bit too robust to be called a filler, as it required some explanation with some of the specialty hero cards, but once you know the game I would be surprised if it took 3-4 players more than 30-45 minutes to play.

I liked it, if you’re looking for a light family game this is a really nice pick.

Star Wars Jabba’s Palace Love Letter & Lovecraft Letter

Designers: (Star Wars): Justin Kemppainen & Todd Michlitsch

Designers: (Lovecraft):  Vincent Dutrait, Kouji Ogata

We played not one but two different themed versions of Love Letter, both of which I found to be fun takes on an established classic.  Love Letter is a sort of take-that player elimination game where you attempt to knock out the players with various card effects to be the last man standing.  It’s a very simple game with a bit of deduction strategy and psychology playing into it.

The Star Wars Love Letter featured two different factions which played off each other a bit and included some special mission cards that created alternative winning conditions.


The Lovecraft one used an insane mechanic that worked similarly to factions (sane and insane) and had some alternative winning conditions to the standard love letter rules.

All and all both of these games were really fun just like the original Love Letter is.  Each had a unique thematic take on the concept, but ultimately these were just additional layers on a game that just works really well.  

I’m not a huge Lovecraft fan and I am a massive Star Wars fan, but if I had to choose between the two-themed versions I actually thought the sanity mechanic in Lovecraft letter worked a bit better.

Love Letter is a really great game and there are so many different themes for it, so you pretty much just pick a theme that speaks to you and buy that version.  There really isn’t much more to say about it, I have always really liked this game and having some fun themes like Star Wars and Lovecraft adds a bit of flavor.

I’ve never met a person that doesn’t like Love Letter, the only real downside to the game is that you really want at least 4 players, it loses a lot of its tension with 2 or 3 players.  No gamers collection is complete without Love Letter in it.

Smartphone Inc by Cosmodrome Games (2018)

Designer: Ivan Lashin

This little sleeper hit I think is one of the most underrated games on boardgamegeek.com, sitting in the 399 spot it’s practically criminal.  This is without question one of the most unique Euro’s I have played in years, it never disappoints.  Actually, I would argue if you are looking to become a board game designer, this is a must-play game because it proves that game designers are still coming up with original ideas despite the tens of thousands of games released each year.

In Smartphone you are running a mobile phone company, producing and selling phones on a global scale.  It’s a simple combination action selection and area control game with an economic twist, but the real brilliance of the game is how you define your actions.  Players have two, two-sided game boards which they must secretly layer over each other to determine what sorts of actions they will take during the execution phase of the game.  The rules here are simple, but this a brain teaser that will have you tearing your hair out and it’s absolutely brilliant.

I adore this game, don’t let the hipster on the cover distract you, this is a polished gem that exemplifies great game design.  It has a fantastic, albeit simple aesthetic which some might find a bit pedestrian but the level of streamlined play here is a real achievement in my opinion.

Don’t miss out on this one, games this original don’t come every day, this is a must-play, it will make you a believer! 

Tsuro by Calliope Games (2005)

Designer: Tom McMurchie

This one made an appearance last year and really my opinion on it has not changed in anyway so for posterity I just copied the same thing I wrote about it last year!

I’m not a huge abstract gamer, looking at my shelf I can count the number of games I have in this genre on one hand minus a few fingers, but every once in a while a game comes along that I find irresistible (I’m looking at you THE DUKE).

Tsuro however was not one of those games and though I really didn’t see anything particularly wrong with it as it was clever, simple and quick, exactly what you want an abstract game to be, it’s not the kind of game that floats my boat. It’s not an issue with the game, but rather just my general gaming preferences, in fact, I would argue that if you like abstract games, this would probably hit the spot just right. From what little I know of the genre, this game seems to have that puzzle element I think abstract gamers are looking for. When we played it I’m not joking when I say the game took about 10 minutes to complete multiple times, it was a very quick game.

Undaunted by Osprey Games (2019)

Designer: Trevor Benjamin & David Thompson

I liked this game quite a bit when I first played it a couple of years ago, but I haven’t seen it hit the table again until now and I have to wonder why not?  This two-player part tactical war game, part deck-building card game is elegant, pretty and fun.  It has great tension, a push-your-luck element, lots of little clever tricks you can pull and alternative strategies you can deploy.  All that wrapped up in a game that can’t possibly take more than 30 minutes a match to play once you know the rules.

There are different scenarios for the game and arguably some are a bit more lopsided than others but from what I have seen of the game, there aren’t any obvious flaws.

We played the Normandy variant which is the original game but today there is already an expansion for it (North Africa) and another on the way (Stalingrad).  I doubt that will be the end of it, this one has picked up something of a following and it’s no surprise to me, this is a really fun two-player game that borders on filler speed and simplicity while having a bit of meat on the bones.

I really loved this one, I definitely would like to see it hit the table more often, in fact, this weekend’s experience had me seriously considering adding it to my collection because while the theme is war, it runs like a fun two-player family game, something I can see myself playing with my daughter.

This is good old fashion fun gaming.

The King Is Dead by Osprey Games (2020)

Designer: Benoit Billion

Originally released in 2015, I picked up the 2nd edition of the game and packed it with me for the weekend, I thought it could act as a little filler and distraction as we knew going into the gaming weekend that we would be at 2 and 3-player counts for a part of the weekend and this was a strong recommendation as a 3 player game.  

This one has a bit of a Condottiere vibe which is one of my all-time favorite trick-taking card games, though The King Is Dead leans a bit less on card play mechanics and a bit more on being an area control game.  As a general premise however this is a game of strategic maneuvering, the whole thing is basically a brain-teasing puzzle where you are trying to arrange control cubes to favor your own position with limited card play.

It’s a really quick and straightforward game but like Condottiere it relies a lot on the psychology of the players and trying to predict what people will do while thinking several moves ahead.  It’s very clean and fun, and easy to understand.  I like it quite a bit but Condottiere is in no danger of being replaced in this kind of funny sub-genre of games.

A fun little distraction, not sure it’s a full recommendation because honestly if I was going to recommend a game of this type I think I would argue for Condottiere over this one.

Star Trek Fleet Captains by Wizkids (2011)

Designer: Mike Elliott, Bryan Kinsella, Ethan Pasternack

I’m a huge Trekkie, always have been, always will be so Star Trek Fleet Captains is a game very close to my heart.  I did a review for Star Trek Fleet Captains back in 2015 and I have not changed my mind about this one in the slightest.

This IS Star Trek in a box and very much like War of The Rings or Star Wars Rebellion, this is a game all about the theme which it nails with perfection.  

While the game can be played with 3 or 4 players using the expansions (Romulans & Dominion) both of which I have, ideally this is a 2 player game which is how we played it this weekend.  It’s a game that is part adventure game, part ship-to-ship battles and part sort of a bit of everything else.  You fly around with your little Star Trek ships, you play cards to add crew and equipment onto your ships, you have encounters and eventually, you scrape phasers and shields against your opponent.  It’s all very … Star Trekie.

A big part of the appeal in Star Trek Fleet Captains is that they went to extreme lengths to include the most iconic elements of the tv shows and movies into the game via various mechanics.  Every time you pick up a card, if you’re a Trekkie like me, you immediately connect the card to an episode of Star Trek be it the original or the next generation.  The cards themselves are all still photos from the shows and movies, which normally I would complain about but in this setting that actually works really well.

I’m not sure I would describe the game mechanics as “good”, in fact, arguably they could probably use some work and the components for this game given its price are pretty flimsy, but I know of no other game that embodies the Star Trek experience like Star Trek Fleet Captains.  It’s a nostalgia-fueled trip into one of my favorite tv series of all time and I love that about playing this game.

This one has been out of print for quite a while and the re-sell value on it is a bit extreme likely putting you back 250-300 dollars to get the game and all three expansions.  My recommendation is that you only do it if you are a crazed fan like me, this is nothing to dabble into unless you love Star Trek madly!  If you do, however, this is the single best Star Trek game ever made, hands down!

Conclusion

What can you possibly complain about after a 4 day board gaming weekend with your best buds, limitless beer and top-notch BBQ? It was an amazing weekend filled with awesome gaming, I can’t wait until next year.

That said to me there were a couple of omissions that require a minor complaint.

This year Game of Thrones the board game did not make an appearance and it was sorely missed. Some of my favorite memories of these big board gaming weekends is playing a massive 5 or 6-player Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, we spent the majority of the weekend in a 4 player group and there just was no opportunity to get it to the table. It was really too bad.

I also felt the absence of The Sheriff of Nottingham. This game has appeared in the Hassela super weekend several times and it’s always a hilarious blast. When my friends get this game on the table the ridiculousness of our outrageous humor has no boundaries and I’m usually laughing until my face hurts.

Well that is it for this year super board gaming event, see you next year!

1830 Railways & Robber Barons by Mayfair

Designer: Francis Tresham

Originally released in 1986, Railways & Robber Barons by Francis Tresham is more than just a classic, it’s a game with a Mono Lisa-like legendary status in the board gaming world. That said, for anyone who has ever actually seen the Mona Lisa in person, you were probably surprised to find out it’s actually a tiny painting perhaps not living up entirely to the namesake of one of the most well-known paintings in the art world. Now I’m not saying that 1830 is or isn’t a good game with that statement, I guess what I’m saying is that like the Mona Lisa, a painting like any other, 1830 is a board game like any other. Much of the hype, applauding and mystique surrounding this classic game and the 18XX series it spawned is driven by a kind of mythological stature given to and built up by its fan base. At some point however you sit down to play it and you come to the stark realization that this is an economic train game and though it comes with a lot of hype by the community that adores it giving it that cult classic status, it really is just one game in a sea of games.

For me personally, 1830 falls into the nostalgic classic category as a game, I’m reviewing it now because I have recently introduced it to my gaming group and I like to do reviews when a game is fresh in my mind, but the truth is that I have spent quite a few hours, decades ago, hunched over this one even before the Mayfair reprint (using the old Avalon Hill version). Suffice it to say, back in the day, I loved playing this one and I can understand the communities affection for 1830 Railways & Robber Barons.

As I look at 1830 today however I look at it with decades of board gaming experiences, with a more critical eye and a higher understanding of game design and perhaps more modern expectations. That means this old classic is getting reviewed in the backdrop of the modern board gaming era, so the question here really is, does this classic still hold up today!?

Overview

Final Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star (3.9 out 5) Great Score!

In 1830 Railways & Robber Barons, as the title suggests players take on the roles of fat cats from the 1830’s who are running railway companies in a cut-throat competition to make the most money. Manipulating stock markets, building railways, trains and train stations, players are essentially building up companies so that their stock shares payout, stocks being the primary source of earnings in the game. In this process, players are buying low and selling high, trying to stick it to each other guy through pretty cruelly ruthless methods like stock dumping to make company values drop as they exit investments and seek out new ventures and many other “business transactions” that raise many ethical question marks about the very nature of capitalism.

This is a tough game with quite a few pretty mean-spirited take that moves that are made by players as they maneuver their investments around the stock market trying to leverage their winnings while torpedoing the earnings of others. The game is very much about timing as you can imagine, getting in and out at the right time, often coming down to a kind of game of chicken between players to see who will make the big plays and when. Much of the game is about controlling turn order in the stock round where the really big plays actually take place and trying to control the speed at which new trains enter the game resulting in older trains “rusting” (leaving play) which in turn creates horrific consequences for companies using aging trains. The whole experience is truly brutal, it’s the sort of game that I think really requires a very particular group who can take that cruelty with a light-hearted approach rather than getting upset.

It’s also a very long game and though I would not call the mechanics complicated, the strategies involved most certainly hit that high-level veteran style of game, not for the faint of heart. You can expect a typical game to exceed 6 hours pretty routinely.

The question here however is, does all that translate to being a good game? What I can say is that to me and my friends, games with a sharper edge like this, where we can really stick it to each other tend to make a really great impression with us. This is the sort of gaming we like, betrayal games are always popular in my gaming group, games like Game Of Thrones the board game is a huge hit with us predominantly because of the way you can really screw each other over so yeah, for a group like ours this one fits like a glove. We also have no issue pulling an 8-hour session to play a game, we do it routinely, we make the time for good games and so again, the length here is not an issue for me. I don’t negatively judge games that are intentionally long for being long, it is what it is.

This is a very intimidating looking game, the map is busy, there is a lot going on here but it really is not difficult to get your head around, its far simpler than it looks.

All that said, I would definitely say that this is not a game that will speak to the typical gaming group of the modern era. By modern standards, this game will be seen as “complex” mechanically, way too vicious and way too long even for the most patient of groups. This is, however, my review and I’m judging it based on my own standards here so as you read this review, remember, who the audience is, really matters here. You have to like long, complex and mean-spirited games to like this one, if that doesn’t sound like you, this should be a really hard pass. If that sort of thing is music to your ears, however, you’re in for a real treat because frankly, this is an absolutely astonishingly amazing game and I can fully understand why it has this legendary classic game status, it earns it tenfold!

Components

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_star

Pros:  Very pretty, big visual improvement over the Avalon Hill version, good quality components typical for GMT games.

Cons:  Misprints & pretty poor manual detract from the experience.  The use of paper money makes the game unplayable requiring you to seek out an alternative.

I remember the Avalon Hill version of this game and all I can say is that I personally, with zero artistic ability and an ink printer, I could create a vastly superior product than Avalon Hill managed back in the day. I mean the Avalon Hill version looked like a really shitty prototype on its best day.

This pretty ugly Avalon Hill version would be outright rejected by modern standards, but surprisingly much of the 18xx community stands behind this old school look and its still a sought after version of the game.

Seeing 1830 by Mayfair bring the production level to modern standards is an absolute delight and they have done a fantastic job with the components here for the most part, both preserving the very important visual queues and functional approach the game needs while offering tons of extras based on years of player feedback and wrapping the whole thing up with beautiful art. Unfortunately there are some chinks in the armor and though no game is perfect, its a tragedy when you have to reference an old version of the game to get the correct information about its deluxe reprint.

The hard-mounted two-sided board is gorgeous with perfectly executed organization and iconography that really helps to both smooth gameplay and initial teaching of the game with the most important information/reminders on the board itself. The mounted board is two-sided because it includes the classic 1830 map of the original game and on the other side an expanded version of the map for a larger and more varied game. This is absolutely fantastic in particular in combination with all the different variants for the game that includes a wide range of unique tiles and alternative setups to give you a tremendous amount to explore and ways you can customize your experience.

The card stock is firm and artistic, with a glossy finish making the handling of stock certificates a pleasure. The tokens and tiles are on firm cardboard made to last. It’s worth noting that the tiles are all two-sided as well with the new Mayfair art on one side and the old Avalon Hill art on the other. I don’t know exactly why they would want to preserve the old Avalon Hill art as it’s really generic and boring, but I imagine perhaps it’s because some old-school fans might be used to it I guess and prefer it. It doesn’t negatively affect the game in any way so it’s a none issue for me. My issue is that there are a number of errors in the reprinted tiles, nothing that ruins the experience, but its hard to imagine when you have a correct version of the games tiles in the original, how you could print the wrong tiles in the reprint, its kind of sloppy especially given this games nearly $100 price tag.

The corporate cards are also of good stock with a nice mat finish and everything fits neatly into the box. Again, I have to complain, two of the corporate cards have misprints that actually mislead you into thinking they have 3 stations when they actually only have 2. A foolish blunder that caused me to have to research why I have 2 station tokens for a corporation that claims to have 3 stations on the card. Turns out its just a misprint, again, very sloppy for such an expensive game.

Finally and it’s a really big one is the use of paper money in the game. This is a game where you manipulate money constantly, making change and making payouts, simply and frankly put you can’t play this game with the paper money included, it’s just, utterly unmanageable. Quite literally with the use of paper money, this game will take 12+ hours to complete and half that time will do nothing but fumble about with paper money. This is a real black mark against the game, but it’s one the community has generally fixed for themselves as it’s an issue with all 18xx games. The community consensus is that Poker Chips should be used and after doing just that I agree whole heartedly. The use of poker chips not only makes exchanging and paying out money very fast and hassle-free, but it feels great at the table. Of course, I can’t give 1830 credit for this as poker chips are not included, but all I can say, either get poker chips with this game or don’t get this game at all. With paper money this game is unplayable. It is not a great look for a $100 dollar game to be completely unplayable with the components included, requiring an upgrade to components on top of your initial purchase.

While their is a classic quality about the use of paper money and it looks nice on the table, in practice this is a very difficult, I would argue unmanageable way to play the game. It sucks up waaaay to much time. You need poker chips!

I could complain about a rulebook here as well because it’s not entirely clear or particularly well written. It makes a lot of sense once you learn the game so in hindsight, it’s a great reference for the rules, but in practical terms even understanding something as simple as the sequence of play is poorly explained. There are also a number of very misleading rules that you will discover are actually quite different from the original game and its unclear whether this is intentional or if it is just poorly worded in the Mayfair version. Research revealed the latter.

I would use an online tutorial or have someone teach you this game because while the rules are actually quite intuitive once you understand them, the rulebook seems to be written with the assumption that you already know how to play, a tragic state that seems to plague all the 18xx games. Its a bit strange, but generally not great even though it’s a nice rulebook in terms of quality of print.

All and all, in terms of quality its a mixed bag here. Generally the components themselves are of very good quality, and very pretty but between some of the very obvious misprints, a rather confusing manual and the paper money this is a game that is going to make you work a lot harder than you should have to, to get to the table, especially for a $100 game, I’m being very generous with 3 stars for this one.

Theme

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star

Pros: Great execution on the theme combines perfectly with the gameplay.

Cons: The early-mid game excitment is in stark contrast to the slow and almost unbearably boring end game.

If you know anything about economics and in particular about the economics of the 1830’s which I imagine isn’t going to include too many people, this game actually is spot on thematically. I mean it covers all of the really nasty economic tricks pulled by these unscrupulous businessman of the early 19th century as well as the issues of railway construction and company management. It’s all very intuitive from a gameplay perspective however so knowledge of the historical foundation here is completely unnecessary which I consider a major plus but I would imagine anyone with an economics degree is going to do a hell of a lot better in this game than those without one. I would argue that when you play this game, you can take just about any mechanic in the game and explain why its there due to the theme and that just feels great.

Historical relevance aside, thematically this game is about buying and selling stocks, managing railway companies, building railways, and trying to find those perfect train routes and all of these things are not only handled with relatively simple mechanics but there are constant carrots in front of you that are both engaging and exciting. It’s a beautiful thing to see you predict what will happen to a company a few turns from now and leverage that knowledge and watch it payout or dump stock at the right time to watch an opponent’s company unravel at the seams. It’s mean-spirited that is for sure, but this too is part of the theme here, you’re meant to be these rather unethical cut-throat businessmen and this game gives you a real sense of that. In fact, the experience is almost surreal and really makes you question the whole concept of capitalism as many of the nasty activities reflected in 1830 are very much part of modern world economics.

In the 80’s and 90’s you didn’t see very many board games become PC games, but 1830 was just popular enough to get a digital version. Its aged quite poorly, but if you can deal with the graphics, this old dos game version does a decent job of being a near direct translation of the game.

The game makes you feel like greedy businessmen and you are rewarded for your greed, it’s a brutish game, but that is the world 1830 represents and thematically it nails it!

If I have any complaints is that the games exciting core gameplay does not extend to the end game. It starts out as this action packed stock trading, business management game where players are making big plays, taking risks, speculating, just in general fully engaged but the game ends in a rather slow moving and very boring end game where all you do is run train routes until the bank runs out of money. There is a real stark contrast between early to mid game and the end game. The latter being rather anti-climatic to such a degree that the community uses spreadsheets and other aids to help expedite this boring end game. You might think this complaint belongs in the Gameplay section, but it actually hurts the theme a lot more in my opinion. You go from being cut-throat Robber Barons fighting for every dollar you make, to effectively becoming a lifeless administrators managing spreadsheets. It sucks all the energy out of the room.

Gameplay

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star

Pros: A deep well of strategic gameplay, combined with highly addictive and dynamic mechanics makes this one hard to put down.

Cons: The game slows down over time until it comes to a near grinding a routinely boring halt.

1830’s Gameplay I would categorize as moderately complex and its strategically quite demanding. That said its intuitive and much of the gameplay feels natural, easy to get used to. Still playing the game requires a pretty high level of concentration, a lot of foresight and an intricate understanding of every single mechanic in the game and while there aren’t a lot of mechanics to learn, the impact of these mechanics can be deceptivly important, things that seem very innocent are actually quite crucial and not everyone is going to pick it all up on their first go.

There is good reason why this game and game genre (the 18xx series of games) have become a sort of lifestyle game sub-genre in board gaming because you really can spend an enormous amount of time and energy analyzing what is really going on in this game. There are so many unique and interesting puzzles to unravel here that I don’t think it would be possible for me to really do the game justice in a review while keeping the review reasonably readable to explain it all, but perhaps I can illustrate with some smaller examples of what I mean here.

One of the things you do in this game is buy stock. Each company that someone buys a president share (the first stock in the company) gets to set a price for that company. When 60% of the shares of a company are sold to players the company “floats” and begins to operate in the operating round which is a complex way of saying that it has the potential to start making money (building tracks, buying trains, running trains etc..).

When that first president share is bought it seems like a very simple matter. After all, players are here to buy and sell a stock, it seems like a thing to do. The meaning behind this and the consequences for this action however will echo throughout the game from that point forward. Which company was chosen has an immense impact on how the game will unfold. The price set for that company has an enormous impact on the game, when the company floats and which players buy into it by picking up shares and how those shares are distributed among the players is all of critical importance. Understanding why these things are important would require countless pages of text, but what I’m trying to illustrate here is that the game is afoot almost immediately with what appears to be largely a trivial action. A player buys 1 stock and it triggers countless events in the present and in the future of the game that might very well define the entire direction of that game.

1830 revolves around the stock market and players will give this silly little table a tremendous amount of their attention. Buy low, sell high is a lot more complicated than it sounds.

One good example of what can happen is that a player sets a high price. When a player does that it means that when the company does float it will have a lot of capital to spend on building it up as how much cash a company gets when it launches is based on its initial stock price. If the share price is high however which means that investing in it drains more of player cash, if its low it means more people might see it as a great opportunity creating many investors. But in either case, depending on the circumstances at the table it has the potential for being both a big payout or a big disaster. What if you buy into the company and it doesn’t float. Now you have money invested in a company that is doing nothing for a round, already you are falling behind compared to players who have floated companies that will make money. If the company does float what if that player intentionally tanks the company because he is setting himself up for a different investment down the line, or what if that player uses one of the tricks like selling of a private company to the railroad company to pull cash out and then sells all his shares tanking the share price and leaving you with a company that has no money to spend.

So much can happen from such a little event like buying a stock and this is where the gameplay of the game really shines, where you are rewarded for clever decisions and making smart plays and the wonderful thing is that your reward is more money, fuel for making even bigger plays in the future.

But what if you fall behind, are you out? Not at all and this is the other great thing about 1830. You can go from rags to riches pretty quick, just buy some stock in a new company, build it up and start over. There is a limit to how many times you can really fail, but suffice to say, one setback isn’t the end of the world and inevitably you will suffer some in the course of a game, there are always routes to success you just have to be clever enough to find them.

Stocks are your investment, but they run the risk of being both your path to victory or road to ruin. Cash is king but cash does nothing until you invest it somewhere to make it grow.

I’m sure this is all very confusing when talking about a game you don’t know the rules for, but the main thing I’m trying to illustrate here is that I can talk about the game without explaining the rules and the terminology and the economic concepts are actually quite literal translations of the real thing. Buy low, sell high, invest in good companies, watch for unscrupulous activities in which players intentionally bankrupt companies and try to sink you with them. These things from an economics standpoint, have some universal understanding and when teaching the game you can speak about it in these terms and most players will understand, while the mechanics that govern this are relatively straightforward and naturally intuitive.

The other big play element beyond stock trading and stock market manipulation happens in the operating round. Here players manage companies that have been “floated” (60% of the stock shares bought by players). Each round players lay track, build stations, buy trains and run their trains. This sometimes feels like mini game in 1830 because while its a very critical part of the game, defining which companies are successful and which are failures, its usually not the focus of players attentions. What players are really looking for is to determine what the intentions of a player is with a company.

On the surface, its obvious that the most invested player will want to have a successful company so that dividends pay out and they make money. There is a lot of deception here however because it is not too uncommon for players to build up companies with bigger and more devious plans in mind. Its a funny thing that happens at the table because everyone is watching the person operating a company like a hawk, but they aren’t really watching what he does with the company but trying to read between the lines.

There are also some pretty nasty tricks that can be pulled in the operating round when it comes to laying track and building stations. Companies can block each other with tracks and stations, very rapidly turning a high profit company into a dumpster fire waiting to happen. Even nastier still is the train “rusting”. Each acting company has the opportunity to buy trains, but when certain trains are purchased, old trains become obsolete and are removed from play. This can and often does result in some companies having no trains and because its a requirement for all operating companies to have trains, those that find themselves without must replace them. If a company can’t afford the newly available trains which are always more expensive then the last generation of trains, the CEO (Biggest stock holder in the company) becomes financial responsible to replace the trains, meaning he may have to use their own money.

When this happens their can be terrible consquences, players can even go bankrupt if they can’t afford to replace a train. Suffices to say, avoiding this situation is on everyone’s mind as is trying to force that situation on people. The brutality of such a move is less likely in 2-3 player games, but in 4-6 player games, not only is this likely to happen to people but its almost a certainty. As such, a case can be made that 1830 plays best at 4 to 6 players because you really want this arch in your game, its exciting, its brutal and creates amazing table tension.

There is so much more to say about the gameplay in 1830, what I offer here are just some of the highlights but really this is a game where every action, every bought and sold stock, every lay of a track.. really anything players do changes the lay of the land and has players wrestling with decisions. 1830 has amazing table present once everyone really understands the nuances at the table and though it may take a game or two to get everyone truly vested, when you have a table full of players that all understand the subtleties of this game it really is an absolutely amazing gaming experience.

Now I mentioned the end game issue in 1830 in the theme section so I won’t harp on it too much here, but, yes of course, a slow, boring and rather anti-climatic ending of a game is never a good thing and I’m going to charge 1830 here as well.

There are solutions to this of course, one very obvious one is to play with a smaller sized bank, the less money the bank has the faster this end game will come. My friends and I however have experimented with some of the variants the Mayfair version of 1830 comes with and there are actually quite a few really good ones that help to both expedite the game in general but also make the end game at least a little bit more exciting. Its not exactly a fix, but I would encourage anyone who enjoys the game and finds themselves with the same complain to really take a look at the variants section of the rulebook. There is some really good stuff their and many ways that you can customize your experience.

Replay-ability and Longevity

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_star

Pros: Endless replayability and longevity proven by over 3 decades of continued “In Print” state, not to mention the spawning of an entire genre of 18xx games.

Cons: The only problem will be your addiction to buying more 18xx games, they aren’t cheap.

I’m going to make this very short and sweet. This game was published in 1986 and its still in print today and has become the founding father of what is effectively an entire genre in board gaming (the 18xx’s series). It would be insane for anyone to claim this game is anything but immortal in terms of replayability and longevity. This is a lifestyle game and while I won’t argue that it’s a lifestyle for everyone, for those that fall into it, it is an unlimited well of experiences expanded by a huge library of offshoots, variants and based on games in the 18xx series. You can’t ask for more longevity then the likes of 1830!

There are many games in the 18xx series and a wide range of guides on how to approach this genre. I say forgo all that and start with 1830, not necessarily because the others aren’t good, because they are.. but 1830 in the end I think is the best of the bunch.

Conclusion

1830 Railways and Robber Barons is a hallmark game, an example of what happens when a brilliant and passionate designer takes their time creating something truly magical. 1830’s status as a cult classic is well deserved and though it is not a flawless beast and certainly is not going to be for everyone, if you fall into this well you aren’t likely ever to claw your way out. 1830 and really the whole 18xx series becomes an addiction and while we are here to review 1830, it really is just the tip of the iceberg into a much larger and fascinating side trek into the world of board gaming.

I’m a fan, I love it and there are already a number of 18xx games on my shelf and each one is as unique and interesting as the next. 1830 is the core of this series however and while the consensus from the community is that 1830 is not a good place to start with the 18xx series I actually disagree. I find this one very palatable and much easier to teach than the rulebook suggests and learning from a teacher worlds apart from trying to do it from the manual. I recommend you find someone who already knows how to play, this makes a world of difference.

Flaws and misprints aside, this is a gem with some rough edges, approach with caution, but from one gamer to another, 1830 Railways & Robber Barons comes highly recommended.

Top 5 boardGames for Christmas Presents in 2021

While the year is certainly not over, given that everyone is frantically shopping for Christmas presents I thought it prudent to create a list to help potential shoppers out. Here you will find the best games I have played in 2021 and though, I make the disclaimer that some of these games have been released a bit prior to 2021 so it’s not exactly the best of 2021 but more like the best I played in 2021 with Christmas gifts in mind.

In either case, if you are shopping for a boardgame fan, these 5 games come highly recommended!

5. Great Western Trail (2nd edition)

New art, same game, Great Western Trail remains on my “play often” list and for good reason, it’s one of the best Euro games in the market today.

While the 1st edition of this game was released back in 2016 and strictly speaking very little has changed between the 1st and 2nd edition, I still felt it prudent to put this one on this list not only because it remains one of my favorite games to play with my daughter (14) but because it’s such an amazingly unique and fun game.

This new version is largely a cosmetic upgrade, is even prettier than the original if you can imagine that and comes with a few organizational bits that make setup and takedown a little quicker.

Overall Great Western Trail is kind of a uniquely designed game which makes it hard to compare with other games, but it has a very simple to grasp turn progression (you move a little meep each round on a track) so its a very easy game to grasp conceptually while the action spaces, the bread, and butter of the game create a highly cerebral strategic board game that can be played repeatedly with new experiences emerging every time.

Fantastic game that plays up to 4 players, but works great with 2 or 3. It’s just long enough to make an exciting board game evening with the family while short enough to not overstay its welcome. I have had a lot of fun with this one, makes a great Christmas present in the next level family game category, though it should be noted that there are a lot of rules in the game so I would not categorize it as a beginner game, this is more for that board gaming family who is already accustomed to playing modern euro games. Not for the Monopoly-RISK crowd, it’s a notch or two above that.

4. Vampire The Masquerade: Vendetta

In my humble opinion, the single best board game based on the world of darkness franchise and that is saying a lot as their are quite a few contenders.

My gaming group and I discovered this little gem during our yearly board gaming retreat and it stuck the landing like a pro with us. This rather simple card game falls into the “look them in the eyes” category of gaming as it’s really more of a game of bluffing, counter-bluffing and bluffing the bluff… point is there is a lot of bluffing.

Simple rules and premise, this is a game about using little to gain a lot by using human psychology of people against them. Each round players compete in a fictional world in which vampires rule cities as secret societies based on the classic tabletop RPG Vampire The Masquerade.

Naturally being a fan of the tabletop RPG is a huge boon here but even if you have never heard of the World of Darkness this is actually just a fantastic game in its own right and stands on its own. I would argue it actually makes for a great family game because it really is simple to teach and learn, while being very replayable and competitive, while remaining pretty short game, averaging around 30-45 minutes tops.

Great Christmas present if you want to surprise a boardgamer with something really unique this year.

3. Talisman

This stone-cold classic belongs on the shelf of every family board game collection along side Monopoly, RISK and Checkers!

The classic adventure game was released all the way back 1983, yet remains in print today and is every bit as fun as it always has been. I always say that if you have kids between the ages of 8-15 and don’t already own a copy of Talisman, this is a very easy decision. Far more interesting than the Monopolies of the world for a family game night, yet, so simple that rules explanation fits on a napkin.

These ultra-simple rules make this an adventure game that never seems to wear out its welcome with the board gaming world. In its 4th iteration, this latest edition still available today uses most of the original art retaining its retro feel for long-time fans, while still gorgeous laid out on the table for today’s standards.

Inspiring fantasy stories, the recognizable cast of characters with any generation and a sense of ownership and self-built into the game that draws players in as they struggle against the game itself while in competition with each other.

The great thing is that if you find it lands well and becomes a family favorite, it’s infinitely expandable which means every year for Christmas you can by any one of a dozen expansions that can create new experiences.

If you are looking for a great family boardgame this Christmas, Talisman has you covered.

2. Imperial Struggle

Without question my single favorite 2 player historical game knocking out its predecessor Twilight Struggle from the spot.

Ok this one is not for the family, this is a gift you buy for a purist board gamer with a love for history, in particular, if you enjoy games like Twilight Struggle or other 2 player competitive strategy games with a lot of depth.

Imperial Struggle for me personally is the unquestionable king of 2021, it absolutely blew me away and skyrocketed into my top 10 best games of all time like gangbusters!

There is so much to love in this complex strategy game for 2 players based on the historical conflict between Britain and France in the 18th-century colonial period. Yes, it’s heavy, complex, deep and can be quite lengthy (in the 3-4 hour range) but boy do I adore this game.

Of all the games I play this is the one I look forward to the most, it’s a true well of strategy, creating endless opportunities to fine-tune your game while at the same time the game is incredibly dynamic so there are no routines here like their often were in Twilight Struggle its predecessor.

If you have a gamer buddy who loves historical games, this is an auto-buy. It is a modern interpretation of chess if you ask me, the perfect 2 player strategy game.

1. Dune Imperium

No if, and or buts about it, this is the single best board game that came out in 2021!

Before I wrote a single word for this article I knew that Dune Imperium would be my no. 1 on this list and unless you have been living under a board gaming rock you already know that Dune Imperium IS the game of the year in 2021.

Dune is effectively a fine-tuning of 2 core game mechanics that have swept the board gaming space for the last decade, worker placement and dynamic deck building. It marries the two mechanics in a perfect union, layering it with an amazing science-fiction theme just in time to support the newly released feature film.

This infinitely replayable game is tightly woven which means that every game is going to come down to the wire, it requires deep planning, dynamic thinking and calculated risk-taking. Like all good Euro games there is very little luck involved and each time you play this game you will discover new strategies and opportunities that you will want to explore the next time you play.

The game is gorgeous on the table, very easy to teach and learn while offering wildly different experiences depending on how many players are sitting at the table. Weirdly while the experiences are different depending on player count, I can’t say that one is better than the other. Each brings something different to the table, requiring adjustment to strategies and approaches.

Super fun to play, love this one!

Honorable Metions

There were a few games I played this year that easily could have made this list if I expanded it to a top 10 or 15, so as an added bonus here I will throw out a few more gift ideas.

Vampire The Masquerade: Heritage: This was a really great legacy game based on the Vampire The Masquerade tabletop RPG. It requires a dedicated group to play it over time, but mechanically it’s full of surprises and true to its source material tells a great story of the world of darkness. Fantastic game, but definitely requires a regular group to really get the most out of it.

I’m not huge on legacy games but if any game will sell you on the concept it will be this one.

The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine: This cooperative trick-taking game falls into the puzzle category in a weird way. Essentially players are given missions that ask them to clear the board in a certain order and with specific instructions and the trick to the game is that players must communicate non-verbally through their actions while attempting to coordinate. Tricky but super fun game, great for the family.

It comes with 50 missions, each harder than the next and while the game starts out relatively simple, it becomes a real challenge in later stages making it a great game to learn together as a team.

Tapestry: While the rules of this civilization builder are simple, the strategy goes so deep it makes your brain explode all over the table. The paralysis analysis in this game is almost painful, but the game is just so good. I mean I find it difficult to recommend as a family game as it’s just a tad too much and it is a pretty long game, so it definitely falls to the hardened veteran crowd, but I haven’t played a game this good in years and it seems to have largely fallen under the radar. This game belongs in the top 10 board games on the geek, at 242 as of this writing it is criminally underrated.

It’s a civilization-building game but not in the Sid Meiers tradition, but more like a Euro version of the concept.