The Art of Magic the Gathering: Dominaria

Last month, I looked at a Magic art book centered on the Ixalan expansion.  Today we have another such art book, about Dominaria.

Dominaria was Magic's original 'plane'- the world on which all expansions were initially based.  From Mark Rosewater, Magic Design Architect:
It "was a frequent setting for the first fourteen years- around forty expansions take place on Dominaria or places that would eventually be identified as part of Dominaria."

Eventually be identified- that's a key phrase.  A bunch of later expansions would be identified as taking place on Dominaria, after the fact.

Originally, Magic wasn't nearly as well organized or planned as it is today.  Ixalan, for example, was a world created from nothing with a very specific and intentional theme.  So too were Innistrad, Mirrodin, Ravnica, and Zendikar.  But in the beginning, the designers hadn't yet fleshed out this idea, so Dominaria was a de facto location for many sets- a 'hodgepodge', per Rosewater.  This specific book covers the art and backstory of the Dominaria expansion, which came out this year and commemorates Magic's 25th anniversary with a return to the world that started it all.

The designers looked into Dominaria's varied past and pulled key elements from it to create this expansion.  And "in this book, you'll get a chance to see what Dominaria once was and what it's become.  You'll see a world that's been through wars, invasions, temporal disasters, magical climate change, planar overlay, and more worldwide threats than any other plane in the multiverse, and come out the other side a happy, thriving world."  Accordingly, the Dominaria book is wide in scope.  The writing is on par with the Ixalan book (informative, repetitive, vanilla).  The art is great.  I liked this, but its lack of cohesive theme (compared to Ixalan) knock it down a notch.

These Magic books are fun, but what I'd really like is a definitive/official history of the game in this format, complete with art from every expansion.  That would be amazing.

Rating: A-

Discoveries

Today's review is of the 2015 release, Discoveries (The Journeys of Lewis & Clark).  For 2-4 players, it takes 60 minutes.

Overview
You are part of the famed Lewis & Clark expedition, charged to explore the Louisiana Purchase.  To do so, you'll use your dice to recruit Indian tribes, explore terrain (mountains and rivers in different combinations), and journal about your discoveries. 

Each player has 5 workers (dice) in their color.  To start the game, each player rolls these dice and places their workers in their main supply area.  On your turn, you either place workers or 'rest' by getting dice.
- you can place the workers, based on their face, on appropriate spaces to recruit Indians, explore terrain, etc.  You can place only one type of face at a time (though you may place multiple dice of that face) and take a specific action (like recruiting friendly Indians) only once per turn.  Once you spend your dice, they go to either the right or left banks of the board (as indicated by their face). 
- you can rest by taking all workers (regardless of color) from the right bank (regardless of color), left bank (regardless of color), or all your color dice back (regardless of location).  You roll them and place them in your supply.  Thus, you could end up with some of your opponent's workers, or neutral ones (which are introduced as Indian tribes are recruited).

game in progress; image from here

Ultimately, the game is about completing exploration cards (some combination of mountains and rivers), which grant victory points or scientific finds (like new flora and fauna).  Once the card deck is gone, points are totaled based on stated victory points on the cards, number of teepees (differing values are found on each Indian tribe), and sets of scientific finds.  Highest score wins!

Review
Last year, I read an excellent account of the Lewis & Clark expedition.  Ever since, I've been drawn to Lewis & Clark board games (you'd be surprised how many there are), though I didn't get a chance to play one until yesterday.  I was looking forward to this, but sadly disappointed.  The art is great, the dice 'rotation' mechanic is novel and interesting, I like how Indian tribes are incorporated, and there are some cool history-based things included.  But as a friend said, the overall gameplay feels dry.  A good strategy wasn't clear, either- I was convinced I was getting hammered, but ended up winning.  I don't know what else to say about it; it doesn't grab you like a good game should.

Rating: B-

MTG Arena

Magic: The Gathering Arena is a free* digital/online PC version of the collectible card game.  Wizards of the Coast has several online offerings over the years:
- the Magic 2015 app, available for mobile devices
- Magic: The Gathering Online, which is a decidedly not free online version of the card game, where you buy digital packs, have a digital collection, can trade with players and do everything you could with the physical version
- Duels of the Planeswalkers, two releases (2009 and 2012) for PC/Playstation/Xbox that simplified several facets of the game

So what makes Arena different?
- there's no simplification of the rules
- it's free to play
- it has cards only from Ixalan set forward (MTGO has all or most expansions)
- you have different daily quests (like "cast 20 creatures" or "win 5 games") to unlock points, which you can use to open packs and grow your collection
- no player card trading and, at present, no choice of opponent (future releases will allow you to play with friends)

a game in progress; image from here (which also has a good review of the game)

screenshot from one of my games in progress

Currently in open beta (it had been closed initially), it's an attempt to reach a more casual MTG audience.  I've tried Duels and Magic 2015, and I much prefer Arena.  Deck building is pretty easy, and the gameplay is fast and intuitive.  You get preconstructed decks right off the bat, and earn more soon after.  The points you get for victories and quests are adequate to get a decent number of packs to grow your collection.  I love being able to sit down and play a quick 10-minute game (and the kids enjoy watching).  It would be great for beginners, and fun for casual players like me.  It's greatly improved my skills and understanding of different card interactions and certain game rules.  All in all, I highly recommend it.

Interested?  Check it out the trailer here and official site here.

*there are optional in-game purchases

Fury of Dracula

It's only appropriate- my 13th post in October is on Halloween and reviewing the 2015 release, Fury of Dracula (third edition).  For 2-5 players, it takes 2-3 hours.

Overview
Dracula is loose in Europe, intent on dominating the continent (which, here, means gaining 13 influence).  Four vampire hunters- Lord Godalming, Mina Harker, Van Helsing, and Doctor Seward- are determined to stop him.  Who will prevail?

Fury of Dracula is played over a series of days and weeks.  One player is Dracula; the others are the four hunters.  There are always four hunters [regardless of player number- some players may have additional hunters to control].  This is a one vs. many hidden movement game- Dracula's location is hidden, indicated by location cards placed face-down on a 'trail' on the side of the board.  Hunters move around the map of Europe searching for the vampire, and on each of Dracula's turns, he'll move by placing a new location facedown on the trail after sliding the existing ones down one space.  If any hunter lands on a location present on the track, Dracula must reveal it.  If a player lands on Dracula's location, a fight ensues.

the game board; image from here

The game starts on Monday, during the day [note the 'wheel of time' in the above map]. The hunters go first, each taking one action during the day (actions are described below).  The game proceeds to Monday night, where the hunters again each take an action.  Then, before Tuesday morning, Dracula gets a turn.  He chooses a new location to move to, slides his cards down the trail, and seeds an encounter card on it.  Then it's Tuesday morning, and the hunters go again.  Turns proceed in like fashion- hunters (day action), hunters (night action), Dracula- through days and weeks until Dracula wins or is killed.

Hunter actions are varied.  They can:
- move by road, rail or boat (all during the day only- no moving at night),
- supply (drawing item and event cards- only if in a large city),
- take a train ticket (to move by rail on a later action),
- rest (heal),
- trade (items with another player in the same city),
- search (if at a revealed Dracula hideaway with encounter card), or
- do a special action (each hunter has special abilities; event cards can grant special actions too)

Dracula gets points primarily through encounter cards.  If a location on the trail 'matures' by sliding off the board (the track has six spaces), and that location has an unrevealed encounter card on it, Dracula can reveal it and potentially gain influence points.  In addition, he gets points through 'biting' opponents during combat or defeating them.

a game in progress; image from here

Combat is interesting.  When it happens, a player takes three 'standard' fight cards, combines it with any item cards they've collected, and secretly chooses one.  Dracula has his own deck of cards and does the same.  Both combatants reveal their chosen card at the same time, and one or both is resolved depending on the icons present on each (it's similar to rock-paper-scissors).  Players keep choosing and revealing cards until combat ends (after six rounds, or one person dies, or one person escapes).


Review
This game is a mixed bag.  Pros: the map is beautiful, some mechanics are interesting, they capture the elusiveness of the vampire well, and it's suspenseful.  Cons: some rules are hazy or oddly presented, there are lots of things to remember, Dracula can't go back to a location until it slides off the hideaway track, and the game is looooong.  I like it in a 'once a year on a spooky night' kind of way.

Rating: B

Balkan Ghosts (Robert Kaplan)

In Balkan Ghosts, journalist Robert Kaplan delivers a 'political travelogue' of the Balkans, looking at the national problems of each country therein.  After one chapter each on Croatia, Serbia, Albania, and Macedonia, the bulk of his book (40%) looks at Romania, and the remaining 30% at Bulgaria and Greece.  I summarize each country below.
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Croatia: Catholic; hates Serbia.  One Croat leader in the WWII era was blamed for helping (or not hindering) the murder of thousands of Serbs in a concentration camp.

Serbia: Once dominant in the region, points to its loss to Ottoman Turks in 1389 as their day of tragedy.  One region- Kosovo- is autonomous and full of Albanian Muslims, which really angers the Serbs.

Albania: Largely forgotten, descendants of ancient people (older than Greeks), often invaded or desired by Serbs and Greeks.  Lots of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, and ethnic Greeks elsewhere in the land.

Macedonia: A 'mixed salad,' dominated by various factions over the centuries.  Claimed by Bulgaria and fought over by them, Serbs, Greeks, and Turks.   An occasional hotbed of violence and instability as a result.

Romania: See themselves "as a Latin race, speaking a Latinate tongue, cast into a violent sea of Slavs and forgotten by the rest of the Latin world."  Committed many atrocities siding with the Nazis in WWII.  Kaplan spends time in its different sections- Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia, Bucovina - and how each suffered in ancient and modern times (being caught between three empires- Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Turkey, and Russia), focusing on communism.

Bulgaria: A powerful kingdom in Medieval Europe and birthplace of the Cyrillic alphabet.  Fell under Byzantine, then Ottoman, then Russian, domination.  Suffered worst (compared to other Balkan nations) under the Ottomans due to geographic proximity.  Allied with Germany in both world wars in an attempt to conquer Macedonia (with its large ethnic Bulgarian population).  Also fell under communist rule.

Greece: Often viewed in the West as a romantic birthplace of western culture and democracy.  Has a facade of a democratic tradition, but not much different than its Balkan counterparts.  Dominated by Ottomans for centuries.  Avoided falling under Soviet rule, but suffered under poor and autocratic leadership of its own kind in the twentieth century.  Has a "historic role as the ideological battleground between East and West."

Overall, Kaplan "defines the principal illness of the Balkans: conflicting dreams of lost imperial glory.  Each nation demands that its borders revert to where they were at the exact time when its own empire had reached its zenith of ancient medieval expansion."  And, the attempts to "erect ethnically uniform states" in the twentieth century caused no end of discord, since ethnic and national boundaries seldom align.
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Writing this in 1993- soon after the outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars- Kaplan quotes Shakespeare as a harbinger of the future: "So foul a sky clears not without a storm."  He summarizes the issue: "Conflicting ethnic histories, inflamed by the living death of Communism, had made the Balkan sky so foul that now, sadly, a storm was required to clear it."

This is a good book.  It delivers history through three mechanisms:
- the author's observations based on his travels and journalism work in the Balkans throughout the late Communist era
- the author's interactions with locals in each place (often people of relative prominence), getting their perspective (often ethnically/historically charged)
- bringing in outside historical data (often more objective)
It's a nice way to learn history.  You get a flavor not just for what happened but what the current people believe happened (not always the same thing).  It's well-written and informative.  The author is experienced (reporting on the region for decades and living in Greece for seven years) and appears fair in his treatment (if he has a slant, I couldn't detect it).  Though the account seems uneven (focusing more on Romania than others), it's worth your time.

Rating: A

The Art of Magic the Gathering: Ixalan

Magic the Gathering is an extremely popular card game and has been for 25 years now, with new expansions released every few months.  Expansions are typically set in a world or plane, with certain themes.  Recently, the makers of Magic have produced art books to:
- better showcase the art of a given block or expansion
- provide backstory of a world
- give insights into the design process

Today's review is of the Ixalan art book.  In a sentence, this world is "vampire conquistadors meet Aztecs with dinosaurs."  With pirates also lurking and merfolk protecting a lost city of gold, you know there will be trouble- and fun.

This book was mostly fantastic.  The art was amazing- so much work goes into each card, it's nice to see the art in more detail.  The writing was interesting and insightful, though a bit vanilla and repetitive.  It's impressive how much planning goes into a given expansion- the world-building sounds like a blast.  In all, this gave me an even greater appreciation for a game I already enjoy; I look forward to checking out other offerings in this series, and may even buy a few.

Rating: A

The Ashes of Jedha (Various)

In Rogue One, the Empire destroyed the royal city on Jedha using the Death Star.  It didn't obliterate the entire planet- just blew a chunk out of it- but it was enough to render the world unstable and send it into a slow death.  In The Ashes of Jedha, A New Hope heroes Leia, Luke, and Han travel to the world to help its survivors and prevent the Empire from strip-mining the valuable resources left in it.  They'll be tested to their limit and encounter mysterious foes; can they prevail?

Meh.  I had high hopes for this one, but the story was confusing in places and rushed throughout.  One cool thing: you get a hint of how the Rebellion managed to acquire a fleet.  That's the only reason I'd read this.

Rating: C