Today is the last day to enter the contest, I've had a surprisingly low number of entries despite some real good site stats lately. Perhaps no one wants Battlelore expansions which is too bad as I have a bunch of these to give away. Regardless if you want a pretty good shot at winning this, currently 1 in 25 or so, then get your entries in by the deadline tonight.

I'm starting to see a let up in my daily workload which will hopefully allow me to get some content I have been working on up on the site. I've been spending my spare time painting my Descent figures, which is something I started a while back. I'm about 90% done and I am by no means a master painter of miniatures. Whats weird is something that should be stressful do to the details involved is a huge stress reliever for me. I think that is due to the fact that there is alwasy an end in site, which is something I don't have with a few of my current clients.

I'm behind in a review for Gameshark, I'm not going to say the name of the game yet but I'm having a hard time with it because I don't like it very much. There are so many issues that I would consider things you would find in the last decade of gaming. For example its a isometric shooter on rails and forget about it if you accidentally go too far to one side of the screen and miss and item, there is no going back.

I've been playing some Rainbow Six Vegas 2 lately, a game which I enjoy and I just picked up Viking for the 360 as well. There is some joy in slicing limbs off of opponents I'll admit. Because I got stuck in Cleveland last Thursday do to a snow storm in Chicago I missed game night so I didn't get a chance to play any of my new games. Here is hoping nothing happens this week.

Today is the final question of the contest, I'll also be opening up entires today through midnight CDT on March 31st. Remember the title of your email must be Goblin Contest Entry and then just list the answers as follows:

1. Answer
2. Answer

etc.

If you don't submit like that you won't be entered.

Question 6: Battlelore is part of the Command and Colors System. Who is credited with designing this system and what was the first game published in the system? Hint: It was published in 2000

Good Luck

Unfortunately this week is going to be light on postings as it's crazy busy at work and I am traveling for business again. I'll try and make up for it next week with some good content.

Regardless here is question #5

There were a few promotional creatures released for Battlelore, name one of them.

Going to be an extremely busy day at the real job so here is question #4.

Name one of the roles a player can be in the upcoming Galactic Emperor game.

Also a reminder, please don't send me any answers yet, I will be opening up the entry portion of this contest this weekend. if you have previously sent me an entry it is not valid.

As you can see by my recently playing list I received the Descent expansion along with a few other games I just ordered. No, I have not played them yet that little mistake in my recently played list comes courtesy of Board Game Geeks forms.

Anyway I now have all the Descent expansion and main game and let me tell you transporting this is going to be next to impossible. I also picked up Mare Nostrum and the Mythology expansion for it based on some positive feedback by Bill Abner.

Bill and I have know each other through the inter webs for a long time and I find that his tastes often run in line with mine so if I hate this game, which I doubt from my reading of the rules, then I'll be sending him the bill.

Also scored a copy of Key Largo which was designed by Paul Randles and was his last game before passing away. There is an interesting post on BGG about how this game final got completed and made it to print. I'm a fan of Pirates cove and so is my wife so I decided to pick this up, alas it needs at least 3 to play. It looks like a very fun game so I'm looking forward to getting it on the table, I can't wait until my oldest daughter who will be 5 in May can start to join us on some of these games.

Now for the most important news of the week, we beat Pandemic on Thursday night. Four player game with only 4 Epidemic cards but hey I'll take a win. Strangely winning the game didn't do anything to lessen my desire to play it, which is a good thing.

Currently the only game I have on pre-order is The Last Night on Earth expansion called Growing Hunger and I'm not even sure when that is going to ship. I'll also be putting an order in for Galactic Emperor as well. It's going to be an expensive summer, I should have stuck with video / computer game reviews as you got those copies for free, but you have to do what you love.

What new nation is joining Axis & Allies in the upcoming Anniversary Edition?

Today we have an interview with Adam west who is the designer of the much anticipated Galactic Emperor. This interviewed occurred a few days before Adam announced that pre-orders are now open for the game.

OBG: Today we're talking with Adam West, one of the founders of Crosscut Games, about his upcoming board game Galactic Emperor. Crosscut games has created some real quality computer games in the past like Runesword 1 & 2, even a game called Bronze Dragon which I recall playing on an Apple computer back in my teen age years. Adam thanks for taking the time today to discuss the game with us.

Adam: Happy to be here!

OBG: Can you tell us a little about yourself and crosscut games?

Adam: Sure. I'm the President of CrossCut Games, a tiny game company located in Indianapolis, Indiana USA. Dan Schnake is the co-founder and all around great guy. We're long time friends and have been running CrossCut for over 10 years now. Prior to that, we were called Commonwealth Software. So we've been making games together for about 25 years. We've published several computer games and are now getting ready to launch our first board game.

OBG: How long have you been designing games?

Adam: Since grade school. Well before I had a computer. My friends and I use to play home made games after school. Dozens of the things. Some I still have in my basement.

OBG: How long have you been into board games?

Adam: I can remember playing Panzer Leader in the late 1970's. I played Risk. I played D&D for the first time about then as well. I still have an original copy of the Chain Mail rules! Man, those were good times.

OBG: What was it that made you make the transitions from coding computer games to designing a board game?

Adam: I've really been back into board games for the last 7 years or so
and the games today are incredibly fun and very different from games
many of us played when we were younger. So after getting back into board games, I began thinking about board games again. Really, all my computer games were made so I could play board games by myself - specifically D&D by myself. So in a sense, I'm going back to my roots.

OBG: Is Galactic Emperor your first board game design?

Adam: It's my first intended for retail sale. But I've designed zoodles of board games.

OBG: How would you describe Galactic Emperor?

Adam: It's a very fast playing 4X board game of galactic politics and conquest.

OBG: I like the concept in GE on roles and how every player gets to take an action with each role, but only the player with the throne can use that roles special action. Can you gives us a quick run down on one or two unique roles in GE and which one is your favorite early in the game?

Adam: There are 7 roles in the game: Explorer, Steward, Merchant, Engineer, Warlord, Regent and Scientist. The person who chooses the role gets to use the special ability - a bit of a bump for the chooser if you will. That's just an incentive to pick a role rather than letting someone else do it for you. So the optimization here is deciding which role benefits you the most at different points in the game or hurts others if you choose a role they are not ready for. Early in the game, Explorer is pretty much a no-brainer since getting good sectors early (those with a nice amount of resources) is important. That depends a bit on what sectors are available of course. Also, Scientist is important early since there are limited technologies and Scientist goes out of the game about 2/3's through. A Regent is a good choice (if you didn't get the throne) so you can control the flow for a few rounds.

Hmm. I guess it depends!

OBG: If GE were a computer game, would you consider it a 4X game? If not what kind of game would you equate it too?

Adam: Yes, it's a 4X game - but without the micro-management. In fact, while we were making the game we looked up 4X on wikipedia and we meet all the attributes very well. Think of GE as a lighter 4X game - all the X with less fat.

OBG: Is there a lot of combat / conflict in a typical game of GE? Can you briefly describe how conflict is resolved?

Adam: That's something we worked on through out development. Early on, combat didn't happen too often - maybe only at the end of a game, some gigantic clash. So we had to tune the game over time - loads of play testing - to get combat to happen at the right time in the game. Now the economy is turned up so you can afford to have combat and you can get all your ships into play if you work it right.

Conflict is resolved by rolling dice - the big dreadnaughts roll 3, crusiers roll 2 and fighters roll 1. It's resolved in phases - dreadnaoughts fight and remove casualties, then crusiers fight and remove casualties, etc. So if you've played for example Nexus Ops or Axis and Allies or other American games, you'll quickly pick up what happens. But a given battle resolves in just a few rolls - it doesn't go on and on.

OBG: From reading the rules it sounds like every game of GE can play out differently. By that I mean there is not set opening strategy and a player could win by brute or diplomatic force. Would you consider that a correct statement? If so how much time was spent in play testing GE to make sure if had that dynamic nature?

Adam: Yes, I think that's right. That's been my goal too - to allow for various strategies to be viable. It starts pretty easy - find sectors, take them over. But as the galaxy unfolds, things begin to settle in, you need to start on a path that will work for you. For example, maybe you have several food sectors. Then playing the market is your best bet - since you get money for food and can control prices. And then you have to think about technologies that fit that strategy. In general, you have to always watch out for a balance in economics, warfare and politics. I've seen players win without a single combat, I've seen them win with loads of combat. The best strategy is playing what's in front of you - and figuring out your opponents.

OBG: So would you consider GE a streamlined alternative to TI?

Adam: Absolutely! You know this has come up many times now and I really do like what TI has done in board gaming. It's really epic - and there's a place in my heart for those types of games. Unfortunately, I can almost never play them. Partly because I can't find the amount of time that a game like TI requires and partly because my patience is shrinking over the years. So yes, GE is trying to fill my need for a galactic conquest game in a reasonable amount of time. It's epic in scale without an epic time commitment.

OBG: I know many of my readers might want to pursue getting a game published someday wit that in mind. How long did it take you to go from original concept to sending the game to the printer? How much play testing did you do with GE?

Adam: Hmm. I think it was about a year. The original concept was put together in about a week. But then we went into play testing. And that's where we've spent our time - a year of play testing. Hundreds of games with loads of different people. Game clubs, conventions, strangers - gamers from all over the world. I love the internet!

OBG: Did you do all the art work yourself?

Adam: I did everything but the box cover. That beautiful box cover is from Hugo Award Winning Stephen Hicks. Amazing and perfect for our game. I love the box.

OBG: Was there some information out there to get you started down the right path to self publishing a game?

Adam: There's been a few other pioneers, so I drew from their experience. On Board Game Geek (BGG), several folks have posted their experiences. And then there's Peter Morrison, the designer and publisher of Viktory II. If you haven't seen his web site, you really should. He poured himself into the effort and describes every part of it. So that was really inspiring. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I wanted CrossCut Games to have a top tier product with high quality production values. If we're going to do board games, we need to have the components that make it lots of fun. So that's why I went with a complete outsourcing of printing. No regrets at all. The game will be of the same quality as any AAA game - something I could never hope to do in a computer game.

OBG: What was the one thing that surprised you the most in getting a game self published?

Adam: Many folks have heard I made a board game and say, "You know, I've got this idea for a board game...." And really, it's a ton of work. It takes far more than a great idea. It's not like you can just send the stuff off and everything is done. And marketing, distribution, selling the thing - that's also a ton of work. I like it all right now - but it's so very much more than just a good idea and a color printer.

OBG: How did it feel to get that final production copy in your hands?

Adam: I don't have that feel yet! I'm still awaiting that feeling - and I long for it. I hope it's really as good as I think it will be. I'm pretty certain about parts of the product - but other parts - we'll just have to wait and see!

OBG: Many board games are making their way onto Xbox Live and doing quite well. Catan and Carcassone have been pretty big hits and there are rumors of more games on the way. Do you think this is a good thing for the hobby? Do you think a game like Arkham Horror for example could be put into that environment?

Adam: I do think this is a good thing. It exposes more players to the games, it explores interactivity, it gives players opportunity to play with lots of other people. It's fantastic for the console market - hopefully, console and computer games designers will wake up to what's going on in game design! I think a game that is more heavy on theme will translate less well. The mechanics are part of those games, but really, they are about the feeling of the game. So something like Arkham Horror or Descent - they have to compete more directly with other classic computer games. And you can get that same feeling with other computer/console games.

But Catan, Carcassone - these are perfect choices. They are simply great games.

OBG: When do you expect GE to be available?

Adam: June? I really hope June. I actually hope for sooner. But let's stick with June.

OBG: At what price?

Adam: $54.95 MSRP.

OBG: Will it be a limited print run?

Adam: It's just a very small run - 1,000 copies. I have a sinking feeling those will sell out too fast - that's actually one of my worries right now.

OBG: Will you be selling it at Origins or GenCon?

Adam: Naw, it didn't seem like a reasonable thing to do just yet. First, I don't want to be stuck in a booth during those conventions - I want to be playing games! Second, we only have the one board game right now - so it probably doesn't justify the booth cost. I do hope somebody else will have us on the shelf at those venues. We'll see!

OBG: Finally top 5 board games you enjoy right now that weren't made by Adam West?

Adam: Puerto Rico, Settlers of Catan, Memoir '44, Age of Empires III and up and coming is Race for the Galaxy. Age of Empires III came out of nowhere for me and I really love it. Race - I wanted to hate it, but dang it, it's just a flat out great game. I admire it - let's put it that way. I enjoy playing anything new too, so maybe "any new game" is #1 for me.

OBG: Anything else you would like to add?

Adam: If you want a galactic conquest game that plays smooth and fast, go get Galactic Emperor!

I'd liek to thank Adam for taking the time to answer a few questions and if you interested in Galactic Emperor you should head over to the cross cut games site and pre-order a copy now.

If you've followed my recent links to the Descent:RTL previews this one should be easy. In case anyone is confused all of these questions will be board game related and the Geek is a good resource. Anyway...

What is the name of the town that you Heroes have been visiting in Descent when taking a town action?

(I have to start making these harder.)

I'll be posting an interview with Adam West creator of the upcoming Galactic Emperor game. Adam and I discuss the game and a few other various topics.

Also a hint about question #1, it's a game i recently discussed in a new brief.

In what game can you find a nurse named Becky, a drifter named Jake and a farmers daughter named Jenny?

This month I'll be giving away a copy of the Goblin Skirmishers Battlelore expansion. For the next two weeks on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I will be posting a trivia question. I will then be taking entries from March 29th - 31st.

Only one entry will be accepted per email account, I will then take all the people with the most correct answers and randomly select a single winner from those people.

I want to be perfectly clear, I will only be accepting answers on those 3 days. Your single entry email should contain all 6 answers, have your name and return email and be titled Goblin Contest Entry. Any emails sent before or after that date, will not be accepted. Bottom line folks is if you don't get all 6 right, chances are you won't be in the random drawing. Also you need to be located in the United States to enter this contest.

Good Luck

FFG has changed the status on their upcoming and I must saying highly anticipated expansion pack for Descent to shipping. That usually happens once they have it in their warehouse. Figure it will get to distributors next week and then to retailers, I'd say if you're lucky you may have it by the end of next week but more then likely the following week.

There are only 3 days left to get in on the Cuba give away contest over at BGG. I've played this game a few times already an to be honest I am unsure how I feel about it. but the giveaway is for a special Cigar box edition which gets the collector in me interested.

Ahoy,

Check this out, I don't think it is associated with the board game of the same name, but a new game is coming this summer called Plunder. Sounds right up my alley, Abner book me for the review!

One of my favorite games of Last year was Last Night on Earth something I stumbled on at GenCon. At the time my friends thought I was nuts to drop $50 on this little game but I'm always on the cutting edge.

Anyway the game is pretty popular now and the first expansion is on its way. The company who makes it Flying Frog has opened it up for pre-orders. I was kind of hoping to snag one at GenCon but it seems like this will be a limited quantity shipment so I may have to order one.

Another title I'm excited about is called Galactic Emperor by Adam West. I don't know Adam personally but I have played many of his PC games and did some testing for one of them back in the day. It sounds like a shorter and frankly more enjoyable alternative to Twilight Imperium.

I didn't forget about the contest I am just working something out, look for it this week.

Well after 3 nights of trying to figure out why Civ IV would reboot my system after playing it for 5 minutes and give me Blue Screens turns out that one of my nvida.dll files was corrupt. After much research I see this is a common problem.

Removing this and reinstalling yourself has a smaller success chance then me running off with Jessica Alba. After hours of troubleshooting I spent $10 on a little utility called Driver Cleaner and followed the instructions provided in its helps file and now my system is back to 100%.

Anyone who knows me realizes I can't put a problem down without some kind of resolution to this was my entire night time existence for the last 3 days.

So in what little free time I have this week I have been playing Hannibal which is just a fantastic game. Spending so much time looking at the board got me thinking how I wish I had a version of the map framed as a poster. Which in turn got me to thinking what a fabulous idea for decorating my bare gaming room walls.

I figure I could fit 4 or 5 framed pieces of art down there so what would they be. I'm open to suggestions, of course trying to get some of these framed is going to be next to impossible but don't let that limit your top 5 list.

Whats mine? Well I haven't thought of the top 5 yet, but I know two of them.

1. The Hannibal Map
2. Tide of Iron Box cover

Neither of those are great shots but they get the point across, now the question is what to use for the other 3.

Well I was feeling run down all week never really 100% from last weekends bout with the flu. Last week was a rough one at work and I didn't get a lot of sleep. I woke up Friday morning about 2 am and proceeded to get sick all over the bed after a few hours of that I passed out. Yesterday I was running close to a 103 fever all day, I got out of bed twice the whole day thats how wrecked I felt. Today I'm running on about 60% engine power, it's amazing when I lived on the east coast I never got sick but since moving to Illinois I've been prone to more illness, maybe it's a sign we should get out of here.

Anyway while I was down for the count the Descent:RTL rules were posted, haven't had a chance to read them myself yet but I put this in with a big order I placed on Tuesday this past week so I'll be getting it for sure.

Pandemic hit the table at game night this week and we lost again, everyone at the club is complaining the game is un-winnable, yet every time I turn around someone is asking to borrow my copy. The same people walking away complaining are the ones playing it all the time. Personally I like how hard it is and it's ok to lose, that makes winning so much sweeter but thats just me I guess.

Finally got to play Britannia this past week, we only played half a game since the playing time is so long and 3 of us were playing for the first time. I really enjoyed the mechanics of this game and I hope to get a shot at playing a full game come convention time.

Well thats it for me today, I'm going to take it easy this weekend but i will be back with the Battlelore contest rules on Monday.

Upon hearing the news yesterday of Gary Gygax’s passing I was a bit surprised at my reaction. While I always take a second to pause when I hear someone has lost their life it is usually just that, a second. However the news of Mr. Gygax’s passing stopped me dead in my tracks, it was possibly the busiest day of the week for me at my day job and I just sat there for several minutes motionless.

It wasn’t shock that stopped me in my tracks as I didn’t know him personally. It wasn’t grief, while I admit I was saddened by the news, he was not a family member. What it did for me was jar memories, lot of memories, lots of good memories.

Back in 1980 I was a freshman in high school, I played 3 sports and was pretty good at two of them and I had been playing D&D for several years. I started by playing Chain Mail, then went to boxed sets of D&D. From there I moved up to AD&D, then version 2 of the rules. I had a very active imagination and Dungeons & Dragons allowed me to express that part of me. I can credit D&D for starting me down the path of gaming, a path that led me to Top Secret, Star Frontiers, Traveler, Diplomacy, Paranoia, Advance Squad Leader and tons of other games that still liter my closet and basement to my wife’s dismay.

I can remember a lot from high school, big games I had on the baseball field, proms, girlfriends and special moments like graduation. None of these are as vivid in my mind as the ones I have from gaming sessions. We had a core group that gamed together weekly pretty much from the early 80’s until the time I move to Chicago in 1990. That’s almost 10 years of gaming, people came and went in our group but there was a good core of 5 of us who were there from beginning to end. I can’t speak for them but it is something I have been unable to capture again in my life time.

I can recall one time in the early days just playing with my friend Dave, he was controlling one guy and I decided to run him through a little module I just bought. That module was the Tomb of Horrors, imagine that two guys playing that module. He was controlling one PC and I was the DM, anyone with a slight knowledge of that module knows that it is impossible to play that module with one guy. There lies the beauty of D&D, while there are rules and there are certainly rule whores as we liked to call them, the game was about so much more then rolling dice and checking stats. The game when played the way it was meant to be played, at least in my mind, was about letting go, being free and having a good laugh with your friends.

Should Dave of gotten through that module, not a chance in hell. But my choice was guide him through it, adjust encounters and have a good time or kill him in about 5 minutes and then figure out what the hell to do next. So I guided Dave through that module and we had a blast and when he met mean Mr. Lich at the end and there was no way for him to win, he was battered down to 1 hit point and I said “Dave the only way you can win this is if you roll two 20’s in a row, if that happens we’ll say you severed his head”

You can guess what happened next, he rolled two twenties, we laughed, he gave a yell it was a blast. I’m 41 and if I called Dave today and just started talking about D&D the first words out of his mouth would be “Two twenties baby!”

You can’t replace these kind of memories and you can diminish the effect a game like this had on people’s lives, D&D allowed you to be yourself and in high school that is a hard thing to be. If you think I was the most popular kid on the baseball or football team because I didn’t hide the fact that I enjoyed D&D or a good game of Axis & Allies you would be kidding yourself. The truth of the matter is I didn’t care what people thought of me, I only cared what my friends and family thought. That’s another lesson that I chalk up to Mr. Gygax and his wonderful game, be yourself and never hide that fact for anyone.

I think the best tribute I can pay to My Gygax and the game of Dungeons and Dragons is this. Today I received an email, from one of the old group’s members. We seldom get the chance to talk to each other anymore, it’s just a fact of life the older you get the busier you are. His email simply stated that the gaming world had lost a great innovator and it was copied to every core member of the old adventure gaming club. The first reply was from a particular friend I haven’t heard from since my wedding which was 10 years ago. He was in Paris on business and like the rest of us was saddened by the loss, but informed us that Mr. Gygax’s death was news in Paris as well. I think it’s the first time the 5 of us have all been involved in a single discussion since 1997, and we may even meet up at Gen Con this year.

So Mr. Gygax I want to thank you. Thank you for playing a small part in who I am today, thank you for some of the longest lasting memories in my life and thank you for inspiring me. You had no idea you had done it but that’s what great people do, they inspire without knowing.

To my old group I leave you with these names and quotes, let us not ever forget them.

Quill Nightshade, a ranger should never be that nice.

C the incredible thief who is still probably polishing his life sized gold statue

Tamchuck the grump dwarf who will always remember this line, “DON’T CUT THE STRING!”

Rob whose characters names escape me, mostly because they died once a session.

Ken whose guys was always away on a secret mission

Finally John, my friend who I heard from today after 10 long years, I have one word for you my friend:

“BEHOLD!” (with the double finger point of course)

Well as previously stated I had a hard time picking a winner, I got it down to 3 submissions and then down to 2. I just couldn't decided because I liked both so I let my wife mull it over for a night and she has ended the dead lock for me. Since I never asked permission to put the contestants names up here I will not be using a last name. The winner has already been notified by email.

The winner is Matt T. and his banner will be going up in the next day. So congrats Matt and enjoy Sins.

My review of Commanders: Attack of the Genos is up over at GameShark who I do an occasional review for. I liked this game but it's certainly not what I would call a hard core strategy game.

We picked the winner of the Sins contest and it was a really tough decision as I was torn on two entires. I announce it later today but I am going to do my best to get the second runner up some kind of prize because I could really use both of these banners.

I'll be back later in the day with some more news.

One of my gaming buddies passed this along. I'll post my thoughts when I have time, but best wishes go out to his family.

I've settled on 3 banners I really like, I wish I had a prize to give all of them but I don't. Because I can't decide which one works best I am going to leave it up to my wife. I'll be announcing the winner tomorrow night.

Days of Wonder has announced a Ticket to Ride Card game, I love TTR as much as the next guy and think the Swiss expansion is a must buy. But I wonder if this is just milking the name for some cash at this point.

Preview #7 is up over at the FFG site, this time covering monster I do believe. I must imagine this game will arrive very shortly to their warehouse to be promoting it this much. Also of interest while I was sick over the weekend, word has broke that an Anniversary Edition of Axis & Allies is due this year in October. This newest edition brings the number of Axis & Allies versions up to 1 million. All kidding aside here is the blurb found on the Geek.

The Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition will feature the debut of Italy as the third Axis nation, the introduction of the cruiser unit to the naval lineup, and the largest Axis & Allies board to-date measuring 24x46 inches. With over 600 pieces, players will be able to recreate and decide the outcome of WWII like never before. The Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition is designed and developed by Larry Harris, the original designer of Axis & Allies, and will release on October 23, 2008.

A&A was one of my favorite games when I was in college, we use to play it all the time. I don't think I've touched the game in many years but I will probably pick this one up. Another Avalon Hill classic being re-printed in anniversary form is Diplomacy, this is due out this month. I still have a version from when I was a kid, it has better bits then this new version.

Thats all for today, this months contest will run later in the month and it will be for one of the Battle Lore expansions, I'll post moreo n that later.

I'll be announcing the winner of the contest in a day or two, the flu has hit my household and my youngest daughter and I our the lucky winners of feeling like a train hit us. I'll try and get back in the swing of it tomorrow.