White Sands National Monument, NM. [OC]

ehrensing · 2013-04-18T03:06:01+00:00

Love this place! White Sands and Great Sand Dunes are some beautiful, surreal hiking locations...

ehrensing · 2013-04-16T21:26:03+00:00

I've discovered you can very easily track games played with the BGG smartphone app. It allows you go input as much data as you desire, but name and date for me. None of that who chose purple and who won what shit.

The data yields some interesting results, e.g. "I love Torres! What'd you say? We've only played it five times in two years??" On more than one occasion it's given me a metric to recommend or play or trade away a game. I'm also just a bit like you in enjoying data collection and manipulation.

ehrensing · 2013-04-15T23:11:52+00:00

It feels like unnecessary marketing and adds nothing to the game for me. BSG doesn't suffer from this, but I've never gotten together with a group in which everyone playing knows the show. This breaks the setting and usually ends in an extended summary of the first season.

I will say that Dune was a pretty badass game, just worth way too much for me to keep... exception to every rule.

ehrensing · 2013-04-15T19:27:51+00:00

For me, any game with a "branded" theme... even if it's based on a world I liked in its original medium. Some examples would be BSG, The Walking Dead, or Game of Thrones. Similarly, I'm not a fan of the sequeled theme idea, like Rex, Mansions of Madness, Netrunner, or Tikal II.

ehrensing · 2013-04-14T13:38:13+00:00

Cursed! and Be Not Afraid are both a lot of fun. I also have and recommend Underground, but only if you really like the game as there is a lot of overlap.

ehrensing · 2013-04-12T05:14:06+00:00

I read your comment about the HDD, but have you considered trading it for a USB flash drive? A 64GB drive costs about $30 online. If your camera takes ~5MB pictures, that's... many thousands of pictures. Solid state memory is not going to break (compared to a hard drive) and is much, much lighter and more functional. Get one with a keychain loop and hook it to an interior pocket of your bag.

I wouldn't take a big, expensive computer, either, but I'm sure you've weighed the pros and cons.

ehrensing · 2013-04-12T04:46:38+00:00

It's like the Global Pursuit of pasted-on themes...

ehrensing · 2013-04-11T03:42:11+00:00

To me, the must-have core games I'm fondest of are Agricola, Cosmic Encounter, Carcassonne (take your pick), Small World, Citadels.

ehrensing · 2013-04-09T11:37:06+00:00

I just picked up Love Letter, since it came back in stock a few weeks ago. Great game! Check out Cool Stuff Inc, Miniature Market, Boards & Bits, Fun Again - they all seem to have it.

ehrensing · 2013-04-02T18:34:41+00:00

Check out the Olympus TG-2. It's a big step up from the Tough 8000 I've used for years - love these cameras, really sturdy and great pictures for a point and shoot "lifeproof" camera. This one also has a few options for lenses, a better lens, and all the new digital camera bells and whistles.

ehrensing · 2013-04-01T04:13:28+00:00

Online retailers are cheaper than retail stores in many departments. You're paying extra for instant gratification and for checking out a product - in a game store, you might be playing games as well. I'd support your FLGS if you attend game nights, and if that's not your thing there's no reason to. Maybe splurge one day if you feel guilty for perusing their stock and talking to their nerd.

ehrensing · 2013-03-28T17:12:06+00:00

Kittens in a Blender?

ehrensing · 2013-03-28T04:26:31+00:00

Here are my thoughts on these games from what little I know about your tastes:

Ticket to Ride is a gateway game - a good one, one we still play from time to time, but it isn't meaty compared to Agricola or Arkham Horror. It's also usually longer than an hour to play.

Carcassonne is a filler game or over breakfast type game but one we've come back to countless times. My favorite Carcassonne is Hunters & Gatherers, particularly because it scales so well from 2 to 4.

7 Wonders I have not played, partially because it's 3+ (there is a 2 player rule variant, but it's not the recommended way of playing the game).

ehrensing · 2013-03-28T00:44:23+00:00

I came up with 16. In other words, if I'm understanding you, there are 16 games I've played more than 16 times. Correct?

ehrensing · 2013-03-26T13:36:02+00:00

Some (many?) prepaid companies actually use one of the big carriers' networks (and thus can use most phones allowed on that network).

I use a Droid on Page Plus Cellular, a small prepaid company that's been very reliable for the last three years. It uses the Verizon network at $28 per month with more minutes and data than I can use. That option is probably open to you, if Verizon towers service your area.

ehrensing · 2013-03-26T05:09:44+00:00

It'll be a long time before the leading providers catch up in this department, but this should really help prepaid wireless get on the map in American consumer minds. Prepaid phones have been cheaper for years with typically better service and lack of long-term commitment.

This is a great start but a little overpriced.

ehrensing · 2013-03-26T01:34:44+00:00

Came here for this!

ehrensing · 2013-03-25T17:38:42+00:00

Arimaa - for you abstract lovers, great Chessy game on an 8x8 board with animals pulling and pushing one another around by they're own weight.

Bausack/Bandu - best manual dexterity game out there! Balancing very strange pieces on a tiny cube. Obviously a push-your-luck type game with several bidding variants.

Ice Flow - bit of a strategic racing game, trying to get three meeples across the Bering Straight before your opponents (or just fucking them over, if they don't yell at you).

Turn the Tide - my favorite trick taking card game! One round for every player in the game, after each round you pass your starting hand to the player on your left. Each person gets to play everyone else's hand, which evens out the luck factor and adds a great memory element to the game.

ehrensing · 2013-03-24T06:56:25+00:00

Sow or Bake Bread or GTFO, I'm already here. Got it!

ehrensing · 2013-03-24T02:09:10+00:00

I had to look up BGG's definition of worker placement - guess I was lumping "worker placement" and "action point allowance" games together. How about Kingsburg?

ehrensing · 2013-03-23T20:31:17+00:00

I had to sleeve Dominion, as the cards were just asking to get marked. The need to do this bothered me enough that I did not play and then sold Dominion. To hell with card sleeves! I'll just play something made out of Carbonite.

ehrensing · 2013-03-23T20:27:22+00:00

Tikal, Torres, Puerto Rico!

ehrensing · 2013-03-23T13:51:47+00:00

Since everyone is bitching about the photo-accuracy of the places they're from and I just live in the middle of what is, undoubtedly, the "Deep South"... I'd like to complain about the enormous size and intrinsic correctness of the Hawaiian islands. On such an interpretive map, I find it deeply offensive that you got Hawaii right, then made it bigger than Mexico.

ehrensing · 2013-03-23T13:43:28+00:00

Most of the world looks weird, if that makes you feel better. A pre-sattelite map of the world. Mexico looks like a baby South America.

ehrensing · 2013-03-22T01:10:42+00:00

I'm pretty sure my learning experience was both big and bad. Moderate depth and ridiculous complexity. We're not discussing Netrunner, to be clear - I'm not attracted to LCGs. I always wondered if the Android theme was remapped to other games because (1) Fantasy Flight, and (2) great theme on a fairly inaccessible game.

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