Mr Skeletor's Mailbag, 18th July

I better get off my ass and do this before Franklincobb starts cracking the whip again:

Panzer “I sent this in 3 weeks ago you lasy bum!” Patching writes:

Hello Mr Skeletor, just a couple of completely un-connected questions for
you:

Why isn't RISK more popular in Mongolia? Let's face it, the Mongols are the
only nation who've managed to hang onto that big scoring Asian continent for
any amount of time. Do you think it's becasue the unimpeded winds of the
open steppe play havoc with the plastic pieces?

Is this you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Z24Z3o5gM

Why is it that whenever a games company makes it big (or indeed if a games
company was already big) it becomes physically impossible to say anything
remotely positive about them without hordes pf people jumping over
themselves to be the first to slag them off? I'm thinking primarily of
Games Workshop and Avalon Hill here. Mark my words, it's only a matter of
time before Fantasy Flight joins this elite crew.

Regards

Panzer-Attack

I’ll label my answers with numbers which correspond to the questions which you didn’t number. Or something.

1) In order to answer this question lets look at what Wikipedia has to say about Mongolia:

Mongolia (Mongolian: Монгол улс) is the world's second-largest landlocked country after Kazakhstan. It is typically classified as being a part of East Asia, although sometimes it is considered part of Central Asia, and the northern rim of historical Mongolia extends into North Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. Mongolia's political system is parliamentary democracy. Its capital and largest city is Ulaanbaatar.

Now, we all know Kazakhstan is famous for being the home of Borat, but what that has to do with your question I don’t know, I’m just biding time while desperately trying to think of something witty to say, and failing miserably. When I was in Hong Kong I was locked in a room in a nightclub with 2 Mongolian chicks once for three hours while the cops searched the entire club, so maybe that has something to do with it. Or maybe not. Let’s just leave it as “I have no fucking idea” and move onto the next question.

2) No, I am not Keven Conn, who recently retired from the “Unemployed Skeletor” bit. If it was me there would be a hell of a lot more swearing. I like his taste in women though…

3) The reason people slag off Avon Hill and Games Workshop is because their games have too much flavour and not enough meeple. Actually it’s probably more to do with the fact these guys pretty much stopped making boardgames all together didn’t they? You have to admit, both companies are no where near as good these days as they use to be (kind of like BGG – ohh feel the burn!) I myself will refrain from slagging off Fantasy Flight games however, as if I do Thaadd wont give me anymore precious spare parts after my dog eats them.

Jar82@verizon.net writes:

It seems a lot of American-style games lately have been incorporating Euro-mechanics into their rules. While this has been hailed as a good thing by some at Fortress Ameritrash, I can't help but wonder how much better some games could've been without them.

Now I love Twilight Imperium, but wouldn't it be better without the Puerto Rico-style Strategy Cards? Just let every player do everything in phases a la Civilization. And Age of Mythology would have been just wonderful had it used an actual map so your plastic minotaurs and mummies could be fighting over actual physical space.

What do you think?

Clarus

For starters Jar82 I, unlike my peers here, do not believe in this ‘hybrid’ bullshit people bandy about. A game to me is either a Euro or an AT, even if they are borrowing from the other genre. Warrior knights may have many ‘euro like’ mechanics, but it’s still firmly an AT game. It’s the end result that matters – Just because you stuff your roast with organic salad it doesn’t mean it’s a hybrid vegetarian meal.

Games have been developing innovative mechanics and pinching innovative mechanics long before the Euro was a gleam in some young punk German’s eye. So why shouldn’t they pinch the good stuff Euros have, especially if they can make a better game out of it. Euros didn’t invent the Auction after all!

In response to your examples – I haven’t played TI 2^nd edition which sounds like what you described, so I don’t know if dropping the strategy cards would improve the game. Your Age of Mythology idea sounds similar to Titan, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Maybe someone should design this variant?

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