The Year in Review

As is my custom, I find it helpful to reflect upon the good and the bad of 2023.  I start the year with goals; this post looks back at some of them and considers other factors we experienced this year.

Our year was defined by two factors:

- home improvement

- church involvement

As mentioned last year, our kitchen flooding (plus supply chain problems) meant we didn't get that fully fixed in 2022. Thankfully, we finished that project in March 2023. Then it was on to the basement, which we tackled this summer with a lot of help from friends. We rounded out the year fixing the porch, replacing the worn (and increasingly dangerous) wood with trex material. Let's hope next year sees less home projects; it was good, but exhausting.

For church involvement, my wife and I increased our responsibilities. She is on two teams handling various aspects of church matters; I became an elder, continued leading the men's ministry and a community group, and led a Sunday school in the fall. These efforts are 'joyful burdens,' and though they can be heavy, we pray that we can help.

On to goals:

Spiritual
My goals here:

- Be disciplined in prayer.
- Overcome two besetting sins.

Prayer was pretty consistent when in my routine, but easily dropped when 'out of sync' due to illness, vacation or other factors. I need to be better about keeping the first things first, even when the day is abnormal.

I did make some progress in besetting sins, so that was encouraging, but more progress is needed. 

Nutritional/Fitness

My goals here:

- Get (and keep) weight under 185 lbs.
- Complete 240 workouts (run, bike, gym, hikes, etc.).
- Eat more fruit/vegetables.

I didn't meet the weight goal, though I had dropped to 192 by early December, the holiday excesses have me now at 197 lbs. My goal remains 185 lbs, and I've learned that it can be achieved only by dieting: eating a lot less (generally around lunch), snacking less, and so on.

I was diagnosed with a partial tear in my shoulder and moderate/severe arthritis in my knee, which did minimize my running and affect my workout approaches.

I did complete 298 workouts (not counting PT sesssions or basement hours), which is satisfactory. I am still "fit fat," meaning I'm in decent shape and can do cardio and weights without problems. I just need to lose some pounds. Most workouts were runs, gym, bike rides, and yardwork. My gym workouts 'shot up' as I did them more frequently for shorter time periods. As with last year, I incorporated a healthy dose of ab/core focus into what is typically upper body-focused. Included 2022 totals for reference:

2022: 38 runs for 91 miles, 113 gym workouts, 68 bike rides for 1061 miles, 7 hikes for 30 miles, 43 mow/yardwork, 5 misc.

2023: 22 runs for 54 miles, 182 gym workouts, 58 bike rides for 623 miles, 15 hikes/walks for 55 miles, 21 mow/yardwork, 113 hours spent working on the basement.

My diet was marginally better but could still use improvement.

Reading
My goals here:

- Read 40 books.
- Focus on American authors/topics.
- Pick another topic and 'get smart' (i.e. read a few books) on it. Probably humor.

No problem here; I read 50 books, and kept my 'owned but unread' pile at a pleasant number (down to about a dozen until Christmas). My post here caps this year's book recommendations. I made an American Reading list (see the link in the prior sentence) and chipped away at that. I did attempt to find books on humor, but there is shockingly little out there. Overall, I'm satisfied.

House

My goal here:

- Finish the basement.

We did it! We actually did it. I spent August blogging about what it took; this summary post links to the others.

Language
My goal here:

- Continue studying Spanish.

I did Spanish until April, then switched to Latin for a month or two, then went back to German until November, when I quite DuoLingo altogether (I explain my frustration here).  They didn't send me statistics for the year, so I don't know how much time I put into it. Language is valuable, and I will seek another means of practicing in 2024.

Games
My goals here:

- Minimize clothing.
- Minimize game collection.

I did minimize clothing over the summer, which was helpful, but I've noticed it crept back up to the point where drawers are stuffed. Need to clean up again. 

For games, my time was focused on minimizing my Magic collection. I sold 10,000 cards from there and got a nice return. 

Conclusion
Looking across the six categories above, it was a pretty good year. The main thing that stands out as needing improvement are spiritual goals and the weight. Here's to a better 2024. "Never stop starting."

Thus Concludes 2023

Another reading year "in the books." This post recaps the year and presents what I consider the best of the bunch.

I read 50 books this year, totaling 13,067 pages—about 36 pages a day. My average rating was 90.7/100.

Of the 50 books, 0 were audiobooks, 1 was an eBook, and 15 were borrowed from the library or friends. By genre, I read 7 fantasy books, 9 on religion, 3 graphic novels, 16 literature, 4 history, 2 humor, and a smattering of others.

I formed a 200-book American Reading List (presented in three parts: here, here, here) and read 16 titles on those lists. I dabbled in humor (here and here), though I didn't study it as thoroughly as I intended. And I read down my 'owned but unread' pile, getting that down to about a dozen books (before Christmas swelled that back into the twenties).

Here are my top ten reads from this year:

J.L. Carr: A Month in the Country

Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird

Michael Palin: Erebus

Peter Beagle: The Last Unicorn

Robert McKenzie: We the Fallen People

Anthony Doerr: All the Light We Cannot See

Dane Ortlund: Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners

Thomas Harris: The Silence of the Lambs

Brandon Sanderson: The Hero of Ages

K.A. Kitchen: On the Reliability of the Old Testament

On the whole, this was a good reading year. May 2024 bring further works of excellence. Happy reading!

Marvel Dice Throne

Today's review is of the 2022 release, Marvel Dice Throne. For 2–6 players, it takes 20–40 minutes.

Overview

Even friends fight sometimes. In Marvel Dice Throne, you are each a superhero determined to be the last one standing. Each of you starts with 50 health (in a 2-player game); reduce your opponent(s) to 0 to win.

In this game, each player has their own hero, complete with hero board (with attack an defense options based on the dice you roll), hero leaflet (with tokens you can add to your board, granting more abilities), deck of cards, and dice. You also have a combat point meter and life meter.

game setup for two players; image from here

At the start, each player sets their combat points (CPs) to 2 and draws 4 cards. On your turn, you have the following phases:

1. Upkeep phase

2. Income phase (gain a CP, draw a card)

3. Main phase 1 (spend CPs to play cards from your hand, or 'sell' [discard] one or more cards to gain that many CP)

4. Offensive roll phase (roll your 5 dice in up to 3 roll attempts. Then activate an offensive ability on your hero board based on the dice you rolled.)

5. Targeting roll phase (for multiplayer only)

6. Defensive roll phase (if you activated an attack, the defending player may have a defensive ability they can roll to activate)

7. Main phase 2 (exactly like main phase 1)

8. Discard phase (sell one or more cards to discard down to 6 cards)

For more details, see the rulebook here.

Players take turns until someone is reduced to 0 health.

Review

With a deck of cards, dice, hero board, and hero leaflet, this game seems complex and overwhelming at first, but it is surprisingly straightforward and easily grasped. There are a lot of options, but that gives the game meaningful decisions to complement the heavy luck component (from the dice and card draws). There are echoes of King of Tokyo here, with the yahtzee-style dice rolling and symbols that grant different effects. The defensive rolling phase is a nice feature, as it gives you the ability to minimize damage (or gain some other benefit). The game is superbly packaged, with each hero getting its own encapsulated tray with everything you need, making for easy setup and storage. Overall, it is a fun experience, and I look forward to trying out the different heroes. 

Rating: A

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)

Blood Meridian follows 'the boy' through various terrors and hardships, mostly in the 1850s Mexico/American West. He falls in with a small gang of men who get paid to protect villages from Indians; they get paid based on the scalps they bring in. Sometimes the gang does scalp the intended targets; other times, they massacre innocent villages. They meander through this region committing various atrocities until the boy eventually finds his way to California and elsewhere, eking out a more honest living even as he remains among the scum and villainy. 

On style: this was my first Cormac McCarthy book. I didn't care for it much. It was unusual and hard to follow. He seldom uses any punctuation outside of periods and the occasional comma (dialogue, which is rare, isn't in quotes). Some chapters have breathtaking run-on sentences. Sometimes he switches to Spanish for a few sentences without translating. He rarely uses names (sometimes you learn of them only as a character is dying). It is mostly a series of declarative statements of events, though he does 'sidebar' into lengthy descriptions of weather and terrain. His vocabulary is impressive. I appreciate that he is a talented writer; I just didn't appreciate his style. 

On subject: McCarthy paints a poignant portrait of a terrible time. The desert is harsh and unyielding; its inhabitants the same. The violence is portrayed without regret or compassion; the nonchalance of the main characters reveals that they know nothing different. They just exist and go on. The point of the work appears to be stated near the end, where 'the judge,' a most intriguing character, tells the boy (now in his thirties) that life is "a solitary game, without opponent . . . you of all men are no stranger to that feeling, the empitness and the despair. It is that which we take arms against, is it not?" And looking around the room of a typical western saloon, he goes on as he picks a man at random, claiming that "his life is so balked about by difficulty and become so altered of its intended architecture that he is little more than a walking hovel hardly fit to house the human spirit at all." McCarthy rightly diagnoses the human condition—for that I commend him—but he paints a picture without hope. 

Rating: C

Images in the Margins (Margot McIlwain Nishimura)

This "book is intended to evoke the rich and varied world of the Middle Ages as seen through the lens of manuscript illumination." This is a book of marginalia, "a modern term that refers to words or images in the margins of a page . . . [which were] especially common in English, French, and Italian manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries." In "the margins of illuminated manuscripts lie a world of inviting images equally at odds with the solemnity of their settings . . . you will find a surprisingly fresh array of the fantastic, the real, and the ridiculous among the images in the margins." You will find a mixture of sacred and profane surprising to modern readers—yet humans are no stranger to bizarre, hilarious, and often irreverent pictures. In just 75 pages, this book walks the reader through a brief history of marginalia, looking at topics, placement, and meaning (where known) of these delightfully weird images.

not in the book (image from here), but gives you an idea of what marginalia is

In 2015, I read the first book in this series: Beasts Factual & Fantastic. Like that volume, Images in the Margins is done well, intriguing, and too short. Personally, I enjoy absurd humor, and marginalia is right up my alley when done to that effect. I like the more serious depictions, too, and wonder what might have been behind the chosen scenes. Some are symbolic and instructive, others appear to be inside jokes, and still others may have been the modern equivalent of playfully poking fun at friends, society, or life in general; a visual satire, perhaps. Whatever the reason, there is a 'tale within a tale' in old manuscripts, and I enjoy studying such scenes whenever I come across them.

Rating: A-

Sentinels of the Multiverse

Today's review is of the 2011 release, Sentinels of the Multiverse. For 2–5 players, it takes 30–60 minutes.

Overview

You and your friends are superheroes, each with your deck of cards granting you special abilities (like high-damage moves) or features (like artifacts, equipment, etc.). You are cooperatively against a 'bot' villain (with his/her own deck), and play at a location (with its own deck, too). After all heroes, the villain, and location are chosen, decks are shuffled, players draw initial hands, and the game begins.

The game turns are straightforward:

- the villain goes first, playing the top card of the deck and doing its effects

- each hero goes in clockwise order, playing a card and using an ability

- the location goes, playing the top card of its deck and doing its effects

game in progress; image from here

Generally, the villain deck will put out artifacts or powerful cards that are effectively shields for the main bad guy. The goal is to destroy all the artifacts and the villain before all the heroes die. Heroes will play cards that do damage, enable more actions, or do other things. Can you all succeed in time?

Review

This is a nice game. There are lots of options for villains, heroes, and locations, enabling good replayability. The villain, hero, and location decks remind me of a more complex version of Marvel United. As there isn't any licensed property here, the heroes/villains are all 'knock-offs' with clear equivalents in mainstream culture. The art isn't great, and the cards can be wordy. Still, it's a solid offering, and a definitive edition of this game (released in 2022) might have improved the presentation. Overall, I like Marvel United better, but this is worth checking out.

Rating: B+

On the Reliability of the Old Testament (K.A. Kitchen)

Is the Old Testament (39 books of the Bible) reliable? A concept known as "Biblical minimalism," starting in the 1870s (and gaining popularity in the 1990s), argued that the Bible is not reliable as history, and in fact even the concept of "Israel" should be disputed. Minimalists view the OT has being written 400–200 B.C., well after the events they cover. In addition, they argue that the books are basically fiction, with "no roots in the real history of the Near East during circa 2000–400 B.C." Is this true? Along similar lines, one school of thought believes Deuteronomy was "fraudulently cooked up in 622 [B.C.] by priests wanting temple reform . . . and that this then became the fount of everything else similar in the Hebrew Bible." Again, is this worthy of trust? 

In On the Reliability of the Old Testament, scholar K.A. Kitchen disagrees vehemently with the minimalist position (he is a Biblical maximist), and presents his case for the historicity of the Old Testament. His approach is to "go back both to the writings of the Old Testament and to the very varied data that have so far been recovered from the world in which those writings were born, whether early or late." This 'very varied data' includes external records (writings found in Egypt, Assyria, and so on) and Archaeological evidence. And then he compares all against each other to see what results. Put another way, in each chapter, he examines "first the actual physiognomy and contents of the biblical account, and then its wider literary, conceptual, and archaeological context." A summary follows. 

---------------

Kitchen starts with the 'most recent' (930–400 B.C.) and works backwards.

A good percentage of Near Eastern history in the years 930–580 B.C. is provided by Assyria and Babylon (to the east) and Egypt (to the southwest). Biblically, this time frame corresponds to the divided monarchy or two kingdoms (Israel and Judah) period, which lasted from 931–722 B.C. (Israel) and 931–586 B.C. (Judah). He argues that the extant Egyptian records complement what we find in the OT (specifically, 1 and 2 Kings) quite well, both in terms of rulers and historical events.

Aside: some people argue that the mention of a deity in a writing invalidates the possibility of historical accuracy in the account. Kitchen argues, looking across multiple cultures of the age, that "the ancient writer's theological beliefs in each case have nothing to do with the reality of the events—only with the imputed cause behind the events."

From 600–400 B.C. (the period of exile), we have good and complementary records from Babylonia and Assyria.

From 1042–930 B.C. is the period of united monarchy (under Saul, David, and Solomon, respectively). There is not a lot of external evidence from this time period, though there is external mention of the House of David, and what little does exist realistically agrees with known "practical and cultural aspects" presented in the Biblical accounts of that era. 

From 1210–1042 B.C. is the Biblical period of the judges (as discussed in the Biblical books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and 1 Samuel 1–10). Like the united monarchy, "there are almost no external sources that mention people and events that feature in the books of Joshua and Judges." Why? Kitchen argues that Assyria, a major source of documentation from that time, was well east of the region and no interest in (nor reason to comment on) affairs in Canaan until centuries later (when they would invade). Egypt had more control/interest, but focused on the productive coastal regions, not the poorer highlands where Israel would settle. In addition, "tented wanderers like the Hebrews (and others) have commonly left no surviving traces." However, there is some evidence: Egyptian mention of the people of Israel in 1209/1208, and "many features of the narratives in Joshua (and Judges) find direct echoes and counterparts in texts and representations in their surrounding world." 

Continuing going back in time, we reach the Exodus, that famous episode where Moses leads the Jewish people out of Egypt. There is not a lot of evidence here, either, in part due to terrain: Egypt's East Delta, where Israel would have been, is stone-free, muddy, and subject to frequent flooding. Poor conditions for survival of (say) papyri. Comparing the OT 'oath narratives' with their Egyptian counterparts, and restricting timelines further based on places and people groups mentioned (or not) across several sources, Kitchen places a potential oppression period and Exodus around 1320–1260/1250 B.C. All else that can be said about this is "that the existing Exodus narratives fit readily into the general East Delta topography as presently known," and "their correspondence with not just attested realities but with known usage of the late second millennium B.C. and earlier does favor acceptance of their having had a definite historical basis."  

Now we're back to the Patriarchs: the time of Abraham and Genesis. Looking at a variety of factors (to include inheritance procedures, names, cultures of the age, the use of divination, animals, and more), Kitchen dates Abraham to Joseph as 1900–1600 B.C. And "the patriarchal narratives do retain much data faithfully preserved from the early second millenium." 

Kitchen then 'fast forwards' to look at the prophets who worked across the centuries. These were recorded, intentionally and faithfully, to check against their later fulfillment. And, not surprisingly, the prophetic books in the Bible "are inextricably linked to the limited historical periods in which they are set."

Finally, he looks at the Biblical beginnings (Genesis 1–11), covering a period likely before 2700 B.C. (and beyond written records). It is obvious that these chapters are "a very characteristic literary composition . . . which shares this particular schema with a small group of related compositions in early Mesopotamia, all of which were of a type in vogue in the early second millenium B.C., and seemingly only then."

His basic point in summary: if the OT narratives were written centuries later and largely invented, "how come so consistent a correlation emerges between the "tales" and the archaeological sequence if they were separated by many centuries? . . . It is easier to accept that the "tales" contain a basic history, faithfully transmitted via these books, either themselves written quite early or else written later but drawing upon earlier source data." He argues that from the divided monarchy onward, there is a "very high level of direct correlation (where adequate data exist) and of reliability . . . when we go back (before ca. 1000) to periods when inscriptional mentions of a then-obscure tribal community and its antecedent families . . . simply cannot be expected a priori, then chronologically typological comparisons of the biblical and external phenomena show clearly that the Hebrew founders bear the marks of reality and of a definite period. The same applies to the Hebrews' exodus from Egypt and appearance in Canaan, with one clear mention, of course (Israel on the stela of Merenptah). The Sinai covenant (Deuteronomy included) has to have originated within a close-set period (1400–1200) —likewise other features . . . [all told] we have a consistent level of good, fact-based correlations right through from circa 2000 B.C. (with earlier roots) down to 400 B.C."

---------------

Agree with him or not, Kitchen is certainly thorough. This book is 500 pages of text, 100 pages of notes/citations, and 40 pages of figures. The reading is systematic and dry; he presents as much as the archaeological field knew at the time (2003). He also looks at all literary/textual aspects: names, people groups, cultures, elements like pottery and tabernacle styles, terrain/livelihoods, literature characteristics, population explosion during a certain era, and more. Overall, he does a great job, and this is an excellent reference. Unless a plethora of additional material turns up (and it just might), there is a lot we will not know for certain . . . but there is good reason for confidence in what we have.

Rating: A

Ex Libris

Today's review is of the 2017 release, Ex Libris. For 1-4 players, it takes 45 minutes.

Overview

You are a book collector, always looking to expand your library. Across the six genres of books, collect the most varied collection, arrange it alphabetically, make sure your shelves are stable, avoid the banned books, and grab as many as you can of your preferred genre (a secret card given to you at the start) to win!

Ex Libris is a worker placement and set collection game, featuring different locations and abilities. On your turn, you will 'send out an assistant' (place a worker) to one of the available locations. Each location has a special ability, but limited slots per turn, so make sure you stop at your preferred places before they fill up. The abilities might allow you to draw cards, discard them, shelve them (see next paragraph), or rearrange them to your liking. Once a player has shelved 12 book cards, the game ends at the end of that round and final scores are tallied.

some game components; image from here

Each card in the game has 2-4 books on it, of varying genres, along with a letter and sequence at the top left. To shelve a card, you put it in somewhere in your existing stack, but be warned: cards out of alphabetical order won't count at the end of the game. But you can't rearrange shelves once placed, and you get points if your shelves are stable (in a rectangular grid) at game's end. So arrange and place wisely!

At game's end, you get points for a variety of categories, as hinted in the first paragraph.

Review

I enjoyed this game. The alphabetization/shelf placement component is an interesting twist to the set collection/worker placement mechanic. Visiting various locations (randomly chosen out of a large pool) makes for a different experience each time. You can pick it up pretty quickly and it is solid overall, if not spectacular. 

Rating: B+

Birds of Prey

When the Joker breaks up with Harley Quinn, she struggles to find her purpose and (now-unprotected) way in a city where almost everyone hates her. But a new mission is on the horizon . . . Roman Sionis and his cronies are after a diamond, which (due to some bad choices) is in the stomach of a young girl. Harley tries to help her, but she can't do it alone—she'll need Huntress, Black Canary, and even a cop to help her. Together, can these Birds of Prey save the day?

Told through Harley Quinn's snarky viewpoint, this movie had some potential but didn't quite deliver. There are flashes of greatness here in dialogue, characters, message, and sets, but the goodness is overshadowed by the typical pitfalls: overly fast development, plot leaps, and so on. I couldn't quite buy Huntress; she seemed more like an angsty teen in need of therapy than a polished assassin. The others were better, though I thought the child would have more of a role. And the assembly of the team was way too rushed. This is a short film, so they could have added some content to improve in these areas. Ultimately, the message seems to be a line Quinn delivers near the end: "you made me want to be a less terrible person." And that's not bad, though it's also clear Quinn still wants to be bad. Just not *so* bad. Meh. It's better than both Suicide Squads (films with similar tone), surprisingly, but not what it could be.

Rating: C+

Elminster: The Making of a Mage (Ed Greenwood)

Elminster's life changed forever the day the dragon came. Helpless, he watched as its rider destroyed his parents and village. Left for dead, he vowed to get revenge on all the archmages in the realm . . . even if it took years to do so. But with their cruel hold so securely on the lands, what chance would he have?

The Making of a Mage traces the backstory of Elminster, a well-known character in the Dungeons & Dragons (Forgotten Realms) universe. The novel is told as a series of snapshots in his past, looking at how he spent time as a thief before being trained in magic by the elves and (then) a powerful sorceress until he became a great mage himself—strong enough to take down those who subjected his kingdom. For Elminster is also a prince.

I read my first Forgotten Realms book a few years ago and was pleased. This one wasn't as good—it was far too fast-paced for my liking. In each snapshot of the past, there are a lot of characters without introduction or backstory, making me wonder if the author was referencing characters familiar to those who play the roleplaying game. They weren't to me, so I felt lost part of the time. I was also confused by the way the magic system worked (though I also enjoyed it)—apparently every wizard knows different spells, and has finite ability to use them in a given situation (I guess they can run out like arrows can). Interesting but mystifying at times. Overall, it's not bad, but I enjoyed the Drizzt tale more.

Rating: B-

The Hero of Ages (Brandon Sanderson)

The Mistborn trilogy concludes! Shortly after The Well of Ascension . . .

Vin and Elend, victorious yet deceived, rally their forces to consolidate those who remain and brace for what's to come. As they scramble and plan, small victories are met with further defeats and shocking revelations. It seems that the world is truly ending . . . is there any point? Is hope dead?

I can't say much about this work for fear of spoilers (indeed, I'm afraid I already said too much). I'll say this: this felt like a 750-page climax to a much longer story (much longer than the preceding two books). Sanderson took a story some would tell over five, seven, or ten volumes and did it in three (I'm not complaining; better rushed than dragged out). The entire book was filled with suspense and unexpected turns. Mysteries from prior volumes were cleared up at breakneck speed. It was beautiful in places, bizarre in others (the theology of this fantasy world has some profound reflections of real truth—and some decidedly wrong ones). Overall, it was intriguing, well-done, and enjoyable.

Rating: A

World's Fair 1893

Today's review is of the 2016 release, World's Fair 1893. For 2-4 players, it takes 45 minutes.

Overview

You are an exhibitor at the famous World's Fair. Your goal is to gain influence and acquire exhibits across five areas (transportation, manufacturing, fine art, electricity, agriculture). Smart choices will gain you a nice variety of exhibits, key to gaining points at the end. But along the way, you can also pick up points by area control and ticket collection. Do you have what it takes to stand out?

3-player setup; image from here

Play is straightforward. On your turn, place one of your cubes in one of the five areas on the board. Take the corresponding cards; if you took any tickets, advance the ferris wheel car that many spaces. Draw three cards from the top of the deck and place one in each area going clockwise from the area you selected. If a given area already has the maximum number of cards, place the card in the next available area.

If, on one turn, you pick up one or more influential figures, you must play them on your next turn in addition to playing a cube. These can give you the bonus of placing an extra cube or moving a cube.

When the ferris wheel car has completed one rotation, scoring happens for that round. 

- the player with the most tickets gains a 2-point bonus

- every player gets coins equal to the number of their tickets

- the player with the most cubes in an area on the board gets a 2-point bonus and can discard one or more cards that matches that area's color to gain a token of that color

- all ticket cards are discarded

- the next round begins

After 3 rounds are over (each with scoring as described above), a final 'set collection' scoring happens, where players get points based on the diversity of tokens they have collected (each complete set of 5 a player has is 15 points, each set of 4 is 10, and so on, as indicated at the bottom of the board). Final scores are tallied; highest score wins!

Review

Quick to learn and simple to play, I would call this game solid but unspectacular. It is a combination of mechanics: worker placement, area control, and set collection. The combination itself is fun, but each element is rather standard. The theme is also cool, but pasted on, and (as my friend pointed out) won't hold interest in repeated plays. The beginning seemed liked 'points salad,' meaning you could score many different ways and it was hard to strategize, but subsequent rounds tightened up and had meaningful decisions. I don't dislike the game, but other games do each element better, so this won't see a lot of play. It is a great gateway game for those getting into the hobby, though.

Rating: B-

Mists over Carcassonne

Today's review is of the 2022 release, Mists over Carcassonne. For 1–5 players, it takes 35 minutes.

Overview

Like its parent, this is a tile-laying game. On your turn, you will draw a random tile, add to the existing map by placing it appropriately (it must not 'disrupt' any existing feature on the map), place a worker if possible/desired, and (in some cases) score points. That's all like normal Carcassonne. What makes it unique?

Mists over Carcassonne is the first variant (I think) to be cooperative. Here, you are playing against the game. When you place a tile, it may have 1–3 ghost symbols on it. Place that many from the ghost pool on that tile. Then play your turn as normal. If, on any turn, you complete a segment with a worker, you have a choice:

- gain the points earned (as normal), or

- remove all ghosts from one tile from the map, returning them to the pool.

You can also remove all ghosts from a completed mist region automatically (like completing a city).

game in progress; image from here

Your collective goal is to score 50 points before you run out of tiles or run out of ghosts. (If, at any point, you have to place a ghost and cannot because the pool is empty, you lose.)

There are variants you can play that add graveyard tiles and other ways of scoring. The options are described in the rulebook.

Review

I love the concept. I'm uncertain about the execution. This game is hard. The tradeoff between scoring points or removing ghosts is certainly a meaningful decision with a 'push-your-luck' element. It just seems, in the games I've played, that the ghosts are placed too quickly, forcing you to always choose their removal, so you never get close to scoring enough points to win. We may have been unfortunate in our tile drawing, but it seems harder than it should be. Perhaps the variants are easier. My initial rating is based on the difficulty; I may raise it later if subsequent plays show more promise.

Rating: B

DC Deck-Building Game

Today's review is of the 2012 game, DC Deck-Building Game. For 2-5 players, it takes 45 minutes.

Overview

You are a superhero, intent on taking down super-villains. But your foes (other players) are too . . .

can you have the most victory points at the end of the game?

This deck-building game works like most in this genre. You start with a deck of 10 cards, drawing 5 to form your hand. The cards grant power (and sometimes other abilities), enabling you to buy cards from the central row ("lineup"): heroes, equipment, locations, superpowers, even villains. You will buy cards from the lineup, replenishing that from the main deck, each turn. Cards you buy, plus any in your hand or played to the table that turn, go into your discard pile. Then draw 5 cards to prepare for your next turn, shuffling your discard pile to form a new deck as needed. Play passes clockwise.

Setting up the game; image from here

You can also use power to fight super-villains. (The game comes with 12 but recommends you play with 8, placed in a stack next to the lineup.) If your power on a given turn equals or exceeds the super-villain on the top of the stack, you defeat them, putting them in your discard pile (yes, this means you can use them on a later turn). Once all super-villains have been defeated, each player tallies their victory points (printed on each card) to determine the victor.

Finally, you each have a unique superhero that grants specific abilities. Batman, shown below, grants +1 power for each Equipment you play during your turn. So the player with Batman will want to buy as much equipment from the lineup as possible during the game.

Review

I really like this game. It is easy to learn and fun to play. The thing that threw me was being able to buy villains from the lineup and use them in your deck—that felt weird (though understandable to more fully represent the DC universe). The other odd element was having multiple copies of cards in the main deck: multiple heroes (like Robin), villains (like Scarecrow), or equipment (like the Batmobile). From a gameplay perspective, that made sense, as it gave multiple players a chance to pick up key cards. From a thematic standpoint, it was strange, and it limited the characters in the game (my boys and I would have loved to see more heroes and villains from the Batman universe). Those quibbles aside, though, this is a winner.

Rating: A-

Ghostly (Audrey Niffenegger)

Ghostly is a collection of 16 ghost stories from 15 different authors (including stalwarts like Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, M.R. James, Neil Gaiman, Rudyard Kipling, and Ray Bradbury). The tales were selected, and each introduced, by Audrey Niffenegger. (Some of her illustrations feature throughout, too.) From her overall introduction: "Ghost stories are a literature of loneliness and longing." "The stories in this collection are English and American and range across more than 170 years. They are not diverse or representative; they are only stories I have chosen because I like them . . . [due to] their vivid evocations of order disrupted, sudden awful knowledge, . . ." and more.

I was pleasantly surprised with this collection; I really enjoyed most of the presented stories. Ghost stories as a genre are writings I think I like—I want to like—but often feel let down upon reading them. (I'm the same with folk tales.) There are a lot of bad ghost stories out there, but a lot of good ones, too, and I was impressed here. What grabbed me—and what makes a ghost story truly spooky—is what Niffenegger calls "their vivid evocations of order disrupted." It isn't tale of vampires, ghosts, or other such things. Rather, it is the evil in the world—and in me. The imposter we know shouldn't be here yet pervades this life. And, it is the consequences of evil that leave us empty and longing, and (when no solution is presented) can end in breakdowns and insanity. The tales presented here do a good job of exploring these difficult topics, even if they don't offer any solution (and indeed, many tales end in a state of uncertainty, which I found maddening but also appropriate). Overall, this is recommended.

Rating: A-

Tabletop Games Gift Guide

men playing chess; image from wikipedia

Black Friday! Christmas season is almost here. Need gift ideas? Consider a tabletop game. There is a lot of good in games as a hobby (and my game page has more information). This post offers suggestions on what to buy and where to buy it.

What to Buy

Below are 11 games I would recommend for nearly anyone who enjoys this hobby. The five criteria I apply: it must be solid, available, accessible, alternative, and fast.

• Solid
• It is highly regarded. BoardGameGeek (BGG) permits user ratings; an average rating of 7 or higher is a safe threshold (though there are some great games in the mid-6 range).
• Available
• It is still published. It is readily available at or under MSRP at local game stores, online sellers, etc. There are many good games that are out of print and thus insanely expensive (or difficult) to find. 
• Accessible
• It is relatively simple. All games have a learning curve, but some require a lot of investment. As with ratings, BGG lets users rank games with a 'weight' from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most complex to learn. I look for games with an average weight of 2.5 or lower.
• Alternative
• It is not a common game. Not "old-school" games like Monopoly, Sorry, or Risk. And not industry staples like Catan, Carcassonne, or Dominion. These are good (or great) games, but very common, and a lot of people have them already. 
• Short
• It plays in an hour or less. (Once you get the hang of it, anyway. Those first sessions always go longer.)

With these in mind, here are 11 games (in no particular order) that I recommend. The link goes to my review.

Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure

2–4 players, 30–60 minutes

BGG Rating: 7.8

BGG Weight: 2.24

A deck-building game combined with dungeon crawler.

Isle of Skye

2–5 players, 30–50 minutes

BGG Rating: 7.4

BGG Weight: 2.25

An auction tile-placement game set in the Scottish Highlands.

Marvel United

1–4 players, 40 minutes

BGG Rating: 7.6

BGG Weight: 1.82

A cooperative game where you each are a Marvel hero battling against a foe of your choice. 

Parks

1–5 players, 30–60 minutes

BGG Rating: 7.7

BGG Weight: 2.13

You control two hikers exploring national parks.

Space Base

2–5 players, 60 minutes

BGG Rating: 7.5

BGG Weight: 2.12

A "dice chucker" where even your opponents' turns matter.

Oltree

2–4 players, 60 minutes

BGG Rating: 7.5

BGG Weight: 2.32

Cooperatively restore a fallen kingdom, using your specialty to great effect.

Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done

2–4 players, 40–60 minutes

BGG Rating: 7.5

BGG Weight: 2.45

Expand influence in Medieval Europe as one order of Knights preparing for the Crusades.

Pandemic: Fall of Rome

1–5 players, 45–60 minutes

BGG Rating: 7.6

BGG Weight: 2.43  

Cooperatively stave off the barbarian hordes as they seek to destroy the Roman Empire.

Archaeology: The New Expedition

2–5 players, 20 minutes

BGG Rating: 7.1

BGG Weight: 1.28

This is effectively a variant of Rummy, with a fun theme and fresh twists.

Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game

2 players, 30 minutes

BGG Rating: 8.0

BGG Weight: 2.02

A fast-playing, two-player deckbuilder. 

Dragonwood

2–4 players, 20 minutes

BGG Rating: 6.6

BGG Weight: 1.35

Though its BGG rating is lower, I argue that this game is sneakly good, and great for kids.

Where to Buy

Your Local Game Store (LGS) is always the first recommendation. Keep these stores in business; they offer the community a place for people to gather.

If you have no LGS, there are a few online options:

Miniature Market has a ton of games and generally good prices;

Cardhaus is the same.

Boardlandia is recommended; 

Gamenerdz is too.  (I've never used these last two).

Happy gaming!

The Games of Middle Earth

Gandalf, researching in Fellowship of the Ring

I have reviewed a few Lord of the Rings board games in recent months, and others in the past. I am on a quest to find a satisfying game experience based on this franchise; there are good options out there but I am finding the 'perfect' experience elusive. That is, in part, due to the nature of the stories.

Tolkien created a world, complete with history, languages, and more. Collections of his voluminous writings are still being published, decades after his death. The main stories (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) are of course the best known, but even in those, there is an impression of depth impossible to ignore. Middle Earth is big and ancient. There are many stories therein. How can one game encompass it all?

Tolkien's goal wasn't just "make an amazing place." He also incorporated a lot of wisdom into his stories—something the fantasy genre is uniquely suited to convey. (I discussed this concept, focusing on Tolkien and Lewis, in this post.) Wisdom requires judgment, which in the gaming world means meaningful decisions. It also involves dealing with chance, as nobody has all the information when making those decisions. A good game should have a blend of choice and chance. This means following a well-known story creates a problem.

In sum, the challenge with any game set in Middle Earth involves these two factors: scope and story.

Putting these in question form:

• Do I want an epic experience or a tactical adventure?
• Do I want something that involves all of Middle Earth, or a 'skirmish' focused on specific elements?
• How immersive do I want either to be? The more immersive, the longer the game. 
• Do I want to experience in The Lord of the Rings story, other stories in Tolkien's writings, or simply enjoy the Middle Earth setting?
• A game focused on The Lord of the Rings story will be familiar to players but constrained; to be faithful to the texts, it must follow a specific track. It is hard to incorporate meaningful decisions into that construct.
• A game simply set in Middle Earth can more easily feature meaningful decisions and encourage exploration of the map. It hits against other challenges: should it include familiar characters or not? Should it incorporate other Tolkien writings? Should the goal be something familiar to players, or completely independent? Answering 'yes' to any of these will make it feel more authentic, yet also inject constraints similar to that mentioned above. Answering 'no' to all of them gives the most freedom, but at that point, it becomes a generic fantasy setting with no tie to the books.

As I reflect on this, I realize the problem: I want it all. I want to capture the epic nature of the books, but in an immersive way that "zooms in" to specific portions. I also want meaningful decisions, so I'm not treading a familiar road each game, but I don't want it to violate the spirit of Middle Earth's story. These things are all in tension with each other, and no game can deliver on all fronts. Each game must make high-level choices.

A final factor is the dual nature of the books. They feature both large-scale battles and the individual journey of Frodo & Sam. It is hard to capture both in one experience.

There are 350 games tagged 'Tolkien' on BoardGameGeek, but that number is misleading (it includes updated edisions of the same game or expansions of the same game system, for example). Still, it shows how often this property has been explored. Here is the list, in rank order. 

I have reviewed seven Lord of the Rings games on this blog, played a few others in my pre-blogging days, and am aware of other popular options linked above. Below I list 12 games, covering both the well-regarded and/or the most available, and categorize them using the following delineations:

- Epic or Tactical: Epic games try to encompass all of Middle Earth. Tactical ones focus on specific elements.

- Story or Setting: Story games follow events from The Hobbit and/or The Lord of the Rings stories. Setting games are set in Middle Earth but make little or no mention of them.

Epic/Story games:

War of the Ring. 

(Link goes to BGG site.) I used to own this but never played, as I was overwhelmed by the complexity and play time (3+ hours). This is sort of like Risk, with armies clashing across the map of Middle Earth, but with a separate component to feature Frodo & Sam's journey. It is very highly regarded, and I would love to try sometime, but doubt I will find anyone with enough time to do this in one sitting. 

War of the Ring: The Card Game

This simplifies and shortens the aforementioned board game, but remains a medium/heavy complexity experience. It is solid, but constraining it to the story and limiting what cards characters can play at a given location makes it frustrating at times.

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation

(Link goes to BGG site.) I have never played this highly-regarded two player game. It plays quickly and looks a bit like Stratego, with a heavy bluffing/deduction component.

Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game

This simple cooperative game takes a [literally] novel approach: break the epic story into 8 tactical skirmishes, each with unique rules and objectives. It is possible to play this in one sitting or do a few chapters at a time. While it doesn't capture the large-scale battles well, this unique approach does have value, and makes for an enjoyable, light/medium-weight experience.

Lord of the Rings

(Link goes to BGG site.) This cooperative game is similar to the Adventure Book Game, but with 4 game boards instead of 8. The focus is on the hobbits.

Lord of the Rings: Adventure to Mount Doom

This very simple cooperative game follows the fellowship through the major locations of the books, forcing them to face familiar foes along the way. It is less faithful to the texts, and has a heavy luck component, but remains a light and fast experience, suitable for the whole family. It is very hard to win.

Lord of the Rings: Journey to Mordor

There's not much to this game, which tries to re-create the movies as simply and quickly as possible by rolling lots of dice. It is a "push-your-luck" racing game. Not recommended.

Tactical/story games:

Battle of the Five Armies

(Link goes to BGG site.) From the makers of War of the Ring comes a game focused on the final battle in The Hobbit. Like its parent game, this is complex and takes a long time (up to 4 hours). It is for two players only and is highly regarded.

Hunt for the Ring

(Link goes to BGG site.) Also from the makers of War of the Ring, this one-vs.-many game focuses on the Hobbits' flight from the Nazgul in The Fellowship of the Ring. It is complex and takes 2-3 hours to play.

Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game 

This story-driven collectible card game was done well, though you had to select (and build decks to) only one book of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Here, for the book you chose, there were 9 locations that your fellowship would travel, with your opponent trying to stop you at every turn. No longer produced, it is hard to collect today.

Epic/setting games:

Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth

This app-assisted cooperative game is epic (over many play sessions that make up a campaign) and not tied to the movies (though it features familiar characters). It is a fun way to experience Middle Earth.

Tactical/setting games:

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

This cooperative living card game has many expansions, each set in a different region of Middle Earth. The goal is to complete a quest, encountering varied threats, before your threat level increases beyond a certain point. It is fun.

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There are many other games I could mention, many of which have The Lord of the Rings theme pasted on an existing game system (like Risk, Monopoly, and so on). The above are the 'original' games players can try if you want to enjoy Middle Earth.

The Well of Ascension (Brandon Sanderson)

Shortly after Mistborn . . . [warning: the below review spoils events from that book]

The Lord Ruler is dead. Elend Venture, Vin, and Kelsier's ragtag band have proven victorious against all odds. But . . . now what? The Final Empire is in disarray, with its leader dead. The Inquisitors have disappaeared. Armies gather around Luthadel. Though Elend rules as king in Luthadel, setting up an idealistic government and proclaiming freedom to the skaa, there is terror without and traitors within. And the mists . . . the mists are becoming deadly. 

I started this book over three months ago. The first third was dreadfully slow, and felt more like a political discourse in a fantasy setting (yes, it is interesting to explore the aftermath of toppling a tyrant, but the political part of it didn't grab me). The middle third was better, if formulaic fantasy. And the last third was excellent, featuring all sorts of fascinating developments that I cannot speak of without spoiling it. I am surprisingly excited to read the trilogy's conclusion.

Rating: B+

The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game

Today's review is of the 2023 release, The Lord of the Rings Adventure Book Game. For 1-4 players, it takes 20 minutes per chapter. With eight chapters total, the entire experience could take almost three hours.

Overview

In this cooperative game, you and your friends will navigate through eight mini-games as you re-live The Lord of the Rings movies (yes, it is based on the Peter Jackson films). There are common and unique rules:

Common rules apply to every chapter. The basic turn structure is constant for each player: 

- Move: two characters one space each or one character two spaces

- Storytelling (do any of the following, in any order, multiple times if you wish): discard cards to move characters one extra space, complete challenges (see next paragraph), play special cards, trade one card with another player

- Draw 2 cards from the story deck

- Draw a plot card and do the action that correponds to its number on the chapter's plot chart

- Discard your hand down to 6 cards

Unique rules are chapter-specific. The game 'board' is a chapter book, with each chapter on a separate cardboard map. There are chapter setup and unique rules on the left, and unique challenges on the right. A chapter is completed when the challenges are completed.

Game contents; image from here

Each chapter starts with some characters (or tokens) from The Lord of the Rings movies being placed in their indicated spaces on that chapter's map. Each player draws four story cards and the round begins, following the common rules above and any unique rules for that chapter. Play proceeds clockwise until the chapter is over. Then remaining cards in hands are discarded, the story card deck is re-shuffled, the page is turned, you set up the next chapter, and the game continues.

A closer look at a chapter; image from here

Completing challenges generally have some side benefit, like drawing story cards or special cards. Special cards have powerful abilities, and better yet, they get shuffled into the story deck for future chapters. But that's not the only thing that persists from chapter to chapter . . . the corruption track marker, which can rise by using the powerful ring cards, also persists. If that marker ever hits 15, you lose the game. And, if you fail a chapter (by not completing it by the time all plot cards have been played, or by the chapter-specific failure condition), the corruption marker stays at the current value—but you have to return any special cards you gained that chapter to the special card deck. Thus, there is tension: you may need to use ring cards at key points in the game, but what brings you closer to victory also gets you perilously close to defeat. Can you manage to survive?

Review

This game, though produced by a major publisher and based on the beloved movie franchise, is supposedly available only at Target. (You can pick it up at the Ravensburger store, too, through Amazon.) I picked it up on a whim, and I am glad I did. This is an enjoyable re-creation of the movies in a multi-game format. The common rules were simple and consistent enough to ease play; the unique setup and rules were also straightforward. The miniatures are of surprising quality and detail. The corruption track is a good representation of the rising suspense in the films, and the plot cards are a nice feature.

You probably won't play this in one sitting, so have a method handy to track the corruption marker and chapter you're on. It is a light game, though not as light as the last LOTR game I reviewed, and I like it better—there is less luck and more meaningful decisions. Though playtime is longer, this is a winner.

Rating: A-