Fads will do you in

This was the official word from Eagle Games (see "Oh No!", a previous post). It would appear that the recent Poker playing fad did for Eagle Games in the worst way. This is a pity. Eagle made a few clunkers but had a great record overall, as the numbers might attest below. This is Glenn Drover's statement on Boardgamegeek.

The problems that arose in 2005 were primarily related to poker software sales and the ramifications of a drastic slow-down in sales that affected our banking relationship and access to capital. Sales of our boardgames were very constant and growing. Estimated sales of each title were (off the top of my head):

War! Age of Imperialism 15,000
The American Civil War 15,000
Napoleon in Europe 10,000
Sid Meier's Civilization 75,000
Attack! 30,000
Attack! Expansion 10,000
Age of Mythology 50,000
Conquest of the Empire 15,000Railroad Tycoon 15,000 (limited distribution because of late arrival in 2005/2006

While creditors inevitably lose money when a company goes out of business (it happened to Eagle several times in our five years), there is no evil intent or swindling going on. Moreover, if the Eagle brand is supported by new owners who acquire the assets in a public auction (note the word public, this is no insider deal), and continue to publish new games, I plan to work with the new owners to the best of my ability as an outside consultant, and use half of my profits (out of my own pocket) to repay any of Eagle's creditors that I am able (and that deserve it).

The choices in bold are the titles I own as well as the games KING OF NEW YORK (a crime family game) and BOOTLEGGERS (a game about rum running and speakeasies). It's a sad story, and I hate to seem them go. However, they did bet the company store on a fad (poker) which now seems to have (thankfully) had its day. It was pretty easy to see the writing on the wall when you could buy giant ornate poker sets at Wal Mart in the discount aisle for five dollars.

Oh, no!

This was noticed in the CHICAGO TRIBUNE CLASSIFIEDS recently:

9. NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF
NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE OF COLLATERAL
BY ORDER OF SECURED PARTY
Pursuant to Uniform Commercial Code 9-610, thefollowing personal property of Eagle Games, Inc. (Borrower)will be sold by Amcore Bank, N.A., the Secured Party (SecuredParty), at a public sale on August 4, 2006, at the hour of 10:00a.m. at Tishler & Wald, Ltd., 200 South Wacker Drive, Suite3000, Chicago, Illinois 60606:
All of Borrower's inventory and all tangible and intangibleproperty rights of the Borrower arising out of, or relating to, itsownership in certain of its inventory, including all relatedtrademarks, trade names, copyrights, licenses, contracts, tradesecrets and patents (collectively, the Collateral) of theBorrower, which is a publisher of high-end board games.Expressly excluded from this sale is Borrower's equipment,furniture, website, webstore, and all rights and interestsassociated with these excluded assets.
A list of the Collateral to be sold may be obtained bycontacting Mr. Jamrozy at (815) 741-7196.
The Collateral will be sold in bulk. The Secured Party hasreceived a cash offer in the amount of $75,000 in totalconsideration for the Collateral. The next acceptable bid must be$85,000 and subsequent bidding shall be in increments of $5,000.
The sale will be conducted in accordance with the provisions ofthe Illinois Uniform Commercial Code. The bid price must bepaid in certified check or cashier's check payable to the order ofAmcore Bank, N.A. Fifty Percent (50%) of the successful bidprice will be paid at the time of sale and the balance must be paidwithin one (1) business day of the sale or longer in the solediscretion of Secured Party. If the successful bidder defaults onthe unpaid balance, the Secured Party may retain the initialdeposit and, at the Secured Party-1/8s option, sell to the next highestbidder. Secured Party reserves the right to bid part or all of theamount secured by the Collateral being sold without certifiedcheck or cashier's check as required for other bidders. TheSecured Party reserves the right within one (1) business day ofthe completion of the bidding to reject all bids. The SecuredParty reserves the right to adjourn the sale to another datewithout further publication or notice by giving notice at the timeof the sale.
If the Secured Party accepts a bid, the bidder will receive aSecured Party Bill of Sale of the interest of the Secured Party inthe Collateral purchased, subject to the terms hereof and subjectto any and all warehousemen liens. THE SECURED PARTYMAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES AS TOTHE CONDITION OF THE COLLATERAL AND THE SALEIS AS IS, WHERE IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS.
For further information, please contact Kurt M. Carlson,Tishler & Wald, Ltd., 200 South Wacker Drive, Suite 3000,Chicago, Illinois 60606 (312) 876-3800, counsel for SecuredParty.

60606

That's definitely NOT good news. I loved (most of) Eagle Games' output: I own CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE and WAR! AGE OF IMPERIALISM.

I hope they can restructure somehow and not just go away.

SGMT

It's IGA time again

Already??

A long while back I got invited to work the historical wargaming selections committee for "The Gamer's Choice Awards" which morphed into "The International Gaming Awards". We actually take this duty fairly seriously. Well, it's decision time again, and we had to submit our top ten list of the games that were published in 2005. This will be winnowed down to a top 3.

My preliminaries (note that this is not in any order):

Conquest of the Empire (Eagle)

It's a reprint, yes. However, the addition of the Martin Wallace rules makes a simple plastic piece pusher into a very interesting strategic game with loads of eye candy.

Wellington (GMT)

Hands down my favorite wargame of 2005 (personally). Mark McGlaughlin's succesor to the Nappy Wars system surpasses the parent in a CDG system game that is just a pleasure to play.

Empire of the Sun (GMT)

Mark Herman (my old Booz Allen colleague!) is a wargame designer of note, who is constantly breaking new ground. Empire of the Sun is deserving of praise..

Men of Iron (GMT)

I usually like Berg's designs, and I really enjoyed playing this particular one. A bunch of smallish battles with a funky initiative system..

Bonaparte at Marengo (Simmons)

This game is in contention for top spot in my mind. On the face of it, it seems very simple block pushing game with the regular fog of war. The addition of the unique terrain rules really makes it a contest.

Down in Flames WWI (Verssen)

I am a big fan of the Down in Flames WW2 series from GMT and was very disappointed it never got published as a commercial product. However, Dan Verssen's new DTP company is cranking out professional looking products that require a little assembly.

Fire in the Sky (MMP)

MMP's translation of Tetsuya Nakamura's Pacific War game received a lot of raves in 2005, and with some justification.

Battleships at War (Minden)

Seems like this is pretty old for 2005, because I remember buying it a while ago. In any event, I'm a big fan of both Minden and their miniatures style ship system. Battleships at War basically is minis with paper, combining just about everything that's been published in the series so far.

Silent War (Compass)

Even though the game is hideously high priced (in my own opinion) I can't deny that Compass Games has finally put out a game that I have been jonesing for since the late 90s.

Gazala 1945 (avalanche)

This is my personal favorite of the "modern micros" that Avalanche has been publishing lately, most of all because it's not about the Eastern Front, but also because I love the graphics work done on this design. The map is wonderful.

2005 was a great year for wargame designs, which made my choices a lot harder than in years past.

I peruse blogs quite a bit and interact with a buttload of boardgaming blogs. This seems to be the time of year for people to wistfully proclaim what they played and didn't play in the previous year. Well, I can't do that. At least, I can't present a detailed gaming diary like some of my compadres can, come 01 January. What I can do is talk about trends in gaming, as it applies to me.

Looking back upon the previous year I can see that my boardgaming hobby is starting to overtake the miniatures hobby somewhat. I still love to collect minis, paint minis and run games, but it's so much work any more, I just don't have the time I used to have to do it. So I played in more miniatures games than I ran and I ran less than I did last year.
A disturbing trend.

Boardgames got more play this year, and card games before boardgames. Why? Well, that's simple. I play mostly with kids these days, and they have the attention span of chipmunks. So games that can be resolved in an hour or less are preferred. Big hits in 2005: Wings of War (particularly with Garrett), Balloon Cup (several plays), Battleground: Fantasy Warfare (three plays so far), Cheapass' Give Me the Brain and Very Clever Pipe Game, Castles (I didn't care for it, the kids did), Before I kill You Mr. Bond (it sucks, but the kids like it), Fluxx, Nanofictionary, Once Upon a Time, Cthulhu 500, Gloom.

I played a surprinsing amount of board wargames last year, but didn't keep a diary or anything. Standouts in my memory are FRIEDRICH (multiple plays), WELLINGTON (multiple plays), BONAPARTE AT MARENGO, REVOLUTION: THE DUTCH REVOLT, LILY BANNERS (multiple plays... for a magazine article), 3DOG version 3, GRINGO, DOWN IN FLAMES, FLYING COLORS, WARP WAR, OGRE/GEV, ICE WAR, and quite a few others that I haven't recalled. I seem to recall a spate of pulling out SPI games very early in the year, and playing some S&T games, but I can't remember which.

I played an even larger portion of either Euro, Family, or borderline strategy or fantasy/sf games last year: ACQUIRE (many times), ARKHAM HORROR, WAR OF THE RING, CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE, BOOTLEGGERS, KING OF NEW YORK (yes, I have a weakness for plastic pieces), but also SETTLERS (for the first time) METRO, ARENA MAXIMUS (sucks), CIRCUS MAXIMUS, PLUNDER, and quite a few others that aren't on the forefront of my brain.

PBeM is down, via utilities like Cyberboard and ADC2. PBeM via Web or just via Email has gone up to a great extent, due to the convenience factor.

I've done a lot of solitaire gaming, but very rarely with solitaire designs. Most of this was to try out a scenario at least once for a review I was writing. Sometimes it was something small, like a magazine game (Catherine the Great -- the jury's still out) or playing myself in a microgame (I still like these). I don't have a dearth of opponents, but I do have a dearth of time to get out except for maybe, possibly once a week if I am very lucky. One final thing about 2005-- once again I was not a flavor the week kind of gamer. I played a lot of older products last year.

So those were the prevailing trends of my 2005 gaming.. for what it's worth.

This is around the time of the year I get more new wargames/history games than any other. Sometimes I get review copies (not the 'freebie' you think they are, there's a lot of work involved in these game reviews!). Sometimes I get birthday presents. In any event, here are some recent real wargame acquisitions and my first glance opinions about them.

(have patience... Blogger, for some reason, squishs layout tables and starts them halfway down the page... fie, blogger, FIE!)

First of all, there's REVOLUTION: THE DUTCH REVOLT by Phalanx. A very interesting game (on a small map) on a somewhat neglected subject. Revolution simulates the Eighty Years? War between Spain and the Netherlands. This epic struggle lasted from 1568 until 1648 and eventually brought independence to Holland and the northern provinces. In the south, the revolt was less successful and Belgium did not emerge as an independent state until after the Napoleonic era. Revolution is a game I have been wanting, because I love obscure subjects for wargames, and I like Phalanx as a company. This is one of their more "wargamey" wargames, with the exception of perhaps A HOUSE DIVIDED. It looks like it will be a real hoot to play, if somewhat longish.
The New version of ROMMEL IN THE DESERT (Columbia Games) showed up. This is a great block game simulating a simpler approach to the North African war using blocks to retain fog of war. This game is a closer cousin to HAMMER OF THE SCOTS than, say, EAST FRONT. Logistics cards are very important, much like the strategy cards in Hammer. My only problem with this is that I already own the earlier version of the game! I guess I can trade it off.
BEYOND NORMANY is the British addition to the Panzer Grenadier system by Avalanche Press. This is my first exposure to the system, which looks reasonably straightforward and a heck of a lot easier, than, say Advanced Squad Leader or Tobruk. I intend to give this one a try. The bits are lavish; nice (somewhat glarilnly yellow) folded maps, the standard isometric squad view counters. Surprisingly thin cardstock, I thought, but the art is wonderful. Oh, it comes with 42 carefully researched and playtested scenarios...
Last, and maybe the best acquisition of the bunch, FRIEDRICH by Histogames. I've been wanting to get this one since I played it at PREZCON last February. The system is unique, colorful, easy to play, easy to teach a newbie, but loaded with options (and, yes, a lot of luck of the draw). That's okay with me, I know it's a hoot to play.
And so, with these recent acquisitions, plus the recent CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE, I suspect I've acquired more WARgames than I can play in a year. I hope I can get at least one session in with something soon, and if I do, you'll read about it here.

---

Conquest of the Empire Saga Concluded

Going out for the paper this morning, this is what I found! Hey, wait, what's written on that sticky note? Reckon I can just make it out if I click on the picture to zoom in...

Tally HO!

I just checked with FEDEX, and they told me Conquest of the Empire had moved on from China and was heading for the Western Hemisphere at high speed.



Mind you, my birthday was last Friday, but let's not quibble!

Checking in...

I just got a report on how CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE is doing from the package tracking system. Apparently the lovely Bjork, from the SugarCubes, is currently treking the Great Wall of China and has courteously volunteered to haul it in her carry-on luggage for a while, which I thought was awfully nice of her.

Vene, Vidi, Vici

You may have read the previous post that was ruminating on what to purchase for myself for my own birthday.. Twilight Imperium III or Conquest of the Empire II? In true Republican style, I polled the audience, and the responded somewhat enthusiastically. I realize that this is somewhat tongue in cheek (duh, of course) but the process illustrates how I decide what game to buy. The important points-- playing time, a designer I like, are touched upon. The fact that TI was about ten bucks more expensive factored into things, too.

I have heard the evidence presented below (from my Consimworld BLOG)...

Eric Miller: Get 'em both

Ron Wuerth: I have neither game so in true CSW fashion, I think I am most qualified to speak here ... but I wont! Well, I guess I could tell you that from the descriptions of the two, I'd go for "Conquest of the Empire", but that is solely based upon my preferences, without casting judgement on either game.

Peter Card : I've played Twiglet Emporium Three a few times, and its not bad. The illegitimate step-child of Puerto Rico and a giant space battle game with plastic spaceships. The great Imperial Strategy debate still rages, but there are official and unofficial variants out there that fix it in various ways. That's all by the by though. The main thing is that if you work hard and eat right you get to build death stars and obliterate inhabited systems. What's not to like? Playing time is long, but you can get a 4-6 player game done in 6 hours, maybe a little less, maybe a lot more, depending on playing styles. The plastic bits twist off with minimum pain and effort, whichis nice. Once everything has been twisted or punched you can fit everying in an A4 size file box and use the giant box it came in for temporary accommodation.

Mike Reed : Buy "Twilight Imperium" first...Fantasy Flight has a better track record on these types than Eagle...not to mention the production quality looks a bit better... Purely subjective and unsubstantiated on my part, but you asked.

Alex McCusker: I've played Twilight Imperium twice. Very enjoyable with a lot of clever tricks. It takes a long time to play - 5 of us took 8 hours.

Todd Goff: I think CotE would be a good, light game. Play it the old way or with the new, Martin Wallace inspired rules. I'm not especially fond of space/sci-fi games anyway.

Peter Card: Ah well, the Martin Wallace element does make Conquest of the Empire more attractive. I may have to get it myself at Essen.

Pat Osika: Walt...Definitely get Conquest of the Empire. I got my copy last week and it is a winner. All the game bits are pre-bagged by color so no wasting time with sprues. The original game is pretty much intact except for using hit dice a la Battle Cry, so the age of super destructive catapults has finally ended. The COTE II rules look interesting involving card play and a time limit for the game but I haven't had a chance to try them yet. I admit to liking the original despite the quirks but the new version looks to be a nice improvement.

Jason Schmidt: The new rules (advanced rules) are supposed to be Struggle of Nations (Empires? I can't remember) in a new guise, and that seems to be a pretty well-recieved game both here and on BGG for what it's worth.

TS Wilde: CotE2 has had some positive noises in OOTW too. I'm definitely interested if the map really is more appealing in real life than in the rather garish online photos I've seen.

Pat Osika: Tom..The map is much better than it looks on the Eagle games site, one of those big 3' by 4' three section jobbies. I think you're gonna need a bigger table...

Peter Card: Snuggle of Empires is an excellent game, Martin's best I think, so you can't go far wrong with CotE(II) But, darn it, Twiglet Emporium is neat too.

and even though there were a few good arguments made for Twilight Imperium, my final decision was to purchase Conquest of the Empire.

I tend to like historicals over SF stuff, that's just my thing.. although I'm not solely a historical wargame type. That wasn't enough of an argument, though.. it was the long playing time associated with Twilight Imperium and the Martin Wallace factor that made up my mind.

So... a largish package is now heading my way on camelback.



I shall have a jolly birthday! I hope this gets here in time for International Games Week, as I want to bring my entire collection of plastic piece games.

For the Senate and People of Rome,

Mr. Nizz

Happy Birthday to me

This being the week that I traditionally celebrate cheating the hangman for one more year, and it also being payday, I'm off to purchase my own self-indulgent birthday present for myself. I know, it's pathetic, but if entrust a gaming suggestion to my family, I'll get canasta (Here, you like games, right?). Might as well let the expert handle this...

Here are the two top contenders, both of which are giant plastic bit extraveganzas:

Conquest of the Empire, Eagle Games

In Conquest of the Empire, players are Roman generals vying to become Caesar about 150 years after the original. As much fun as the 1984 Conquest of the Empire was, it needed house rules to fix problems like the catapult being too powerful. Those fixes are already in place with this game. The rules have been redone by the designer of the original game, Larry Harris, with input from Eagle's Glen Dover. Players familiar with the original will notice that the most powerful piece is the most plentiful in this game, and that is probably the way it should be. The Roman Empire was build on the sweat and blood of the infantry. (Sweat being just as important as blood since the legions were also corps of engineers that performed amazing feats of engineering that were often more responsible for a victory than their fighting skills.)

or...

Twilight Imperium, Fantasy Flight Games

Shipping in an epic-size box, this new giant-size edition of Twilight Imperium features more than 200 masterfully sculpted oversize plastic miniatures—the typical TI units (Ground Forces, Cruisers, Dreadnaughts, Carriers, Fighters, PDS, and Space Docks) as well as two new units (the massive War Sun, and the Destroyer). TI3 contains new oversize board tiles, more than 400 cards, every known civilization of the Twilight Imperium universe, almost every expansion rule and component ever published for Twilight Imperium, a gorgeous graphical overhaul, and a full color rules set

(review blurbs copyright Boulder Games)

The jury is seated, and I am prepared to hear arguments before this learned court.

Conquest of the Empire

Well, I'm listening to the Dice Tower #12 and it's pretty clear that I'm not going to have CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE show up from Korea any time soon, drat!

(background: Joe and Tom were giving away Conquest on the Dice Tower show-- see the link to tune into their excellent podcast)



Actually, I intend to get this one soon. When the game came out in the first place back in the 80s, I was lusting after it, but it was in print for such a relatively short time that I missed my chance. That whole line of "plastic piece games" put out by Milton Bradley way back in the day (Shogun, Fortress America, Conquest and Broadsides and Boarding Parties) have been going for the cost of a major organ on Ebay for a long, long time. The good news is that Eagle Games (rapidly becoming one of my favorite publishers) is putting out CONQUEST OF THE EMPIRE again. And it's surprisingly affordable at sixty bucks.


Original Conquest from Milton-Bradley.. routinely going for about 80+ bucks on Ebay.



Ooooh... ahhh... check out those pieces!! They are head and shoulders above the old ones in the original game. We seem to be going through something of a plastic piece game rennaissance these days. Maybe I'll do a blog posting on all the plastic board/miniature fusion games I own one of these days. A considerable amount, actually!



So I'm not really whining, guys.. congrats to Wallace Freedle. I'm looking forward to getting this one through fair and honest means.