MahJong, only pictures

In Red Baron's time

Misty morning. The wind, cold and damp, blows from the North. I button up the leather jacket and fit the gloves. The boots step onto the grass, still wet. I get to the dirt road. On the track, the triplane, now painted in red. A last check. The usual touch on the wings. I slip into the cockpit and put the goggles on. Engine running. The bird trembles and advances, preparing for the flight. Could be just another training session, or a weekend flight over the green fields. I sigh. We're in 1917, and the world is at war.   

“If I should come out of this war alive, I will have more luck than brains”, Manfred von Richthofen, aka the Red Baron.

This is a game that recreates the aerial battles of World War I.  No board, no parts, no maps.

Ace of Aces uses only two small books, one for each pilot, filled with images that show the views from the cockpit.

And adopts an ingenious system of cross-references, allowing to connect the pages of both books, and so to keep the reciprocal views of each plane on the other, whatever the maneuvers performed.

In the simplest version of the rules, needing no notes or records on paper, it's a perfect game to play when travelling.

With different levels of complexity, and optional rules, is suitable for different tastes and an episodic or systematic approach.

A must have game, if only for the originality.

View point from an Allied plane. In front, on the left, the German triplane.

Below the cockpit, the entire range of possible maneuvers, since simple turns to aerobatics or even stall; from low speed to full throttle.

And an indication of the page references to use, in conjunction with the one of the opponent, to determine the new relative position of the aircrafts and, hence, the new book page.

In line of sight. Firing.

Scoring a hit!

Being hit!

After the introductory game it is time to move to the next level: simulation of combat aboard some of the planes at the time.

A dozen models to choose from, each with different maneuverability abilities and speed allowances!

On one side, the choice lies between the Nieuport (11, 17, 28) and the Sopwith (Triplane, Camel, Snipe). On the other, between the Fokker (D III, DR I, DV III) and the Siemens-Shuckert (D I, D III, D IV).

It's a whole new learning, in that the choice of an action is limited by the previous manoeuvre and speed. Banking the plane to the left, for example, prevents to immediately follow it with a right turn. If you stall, it is not possible to perform a subsequent manoeuvre at high speed.

But that's not all.

For those who are keen for more complexity, there are also advanced rules. Adding the vertical dimension, with climbs, dives and the recording of the aircraft altitude. Or where it is necessary to determine the consequences of each shot: damage to enemy weapons, hindering the ability to manoeuvre, causing a fuel leak, hitting the pilot. 

And then there's still the campaign mode, in which each player leads a flying squadron, with named pilots, evolving throughout the campaign in accordance with the results of each dogfight. It's time to call von Richthofen, Georges Guynemer or William Barker.

Now, just clouds.

Tomorrow will be a brand new day.

Leonardi, Alfredi, Ace of Aces - Richthofen, Manchester, USA, 1986: Nova Game Designs Inc. Emithill Limited.

PAW in Florianópolis, Brasil

PAW in Brazil.
From Florianópolis, the capital of the State of Santa Catarina.
With a view to the Hercílio Luz bridge, between the island and the Mainland, in a photo by Ricardo Junior. 

A journey that continues, by the hands of Bianca Melyna.

On the table "The voyages of Marco Polo", with the expansion "Companions" and the mini expansions "The secret paths of Marco Polo" and "New Characters". 

Score: 105 x 40.

Thanks Bianca!

Step in and leave your PAW print - Playing Around the World - and follow the PAW tag.
Send a photo of a gaming session, the game title, your name, city, country (and, if you feel like, a short sentence about the game and or a photo of the city) to gamesinbw@gmail.com.

In the front line

Wargames with miniatures.

Complex simulations. Movements gauged with a ruler, with movement allowances dependent on the specific characteristics of the vehicles and the very nature of terrain. Combats solved with dice and tables, many, depicting the different armies, the different weapons. Visibility, moral, chain of command, weather conditions. Infantry, artillery, armor, air support.
 
More than games these are game systems and scenarios, already made or to be designed, recreating historical battles or just fictionalizing. A long learning curve, requiring regular play and steady partners.

Two WWII examples.

Amorim, Victor, Jogos de Guerra [Wargames], Revista História (1978-1984), Portugal

Chadwick, Frank (1986), Command Decision, Game Designer’s Workshop

That's Life!

Cells. Life. Birth. Multiplication. Evolution. Death. This is the basis of the Game of Life, created by the mathematician John Conway. A solo game, in which the Creator introduces an initial form of life, a mere set of cells, and then becomes the Observer, applying the laws governing this world, and determining the development of these cells.

The American programmer Don Woods, a fan of games, turned this solo life into a life requiring two to play. With, not one, but two populations, represented by different colors. And with a profound change: the evolution no longer takes place in isolation; each player adds a new element to his own population, an immigrant, every 10 generations. A very limited action, in space and time, but with the potential for causing a global and long term effect! It becomes thus possible to try to rebalance, unbalance or stabilize populations. But it is also possible that the result is full extinction, arising before the possibility of a new intervention. This game is called Immigration.

Let's move on to the laws of Life. The fate of each individual only depends on the number of neighbors in the eight surrounding spaces, whatever the population to which they belong:

Death by isolation: zero or one neighbour.
Survival: two or three neighbours.
Death by overpopulation: four or more neighbours.

And there are also Births: the emergence of a new individual in each empty space that has, exactly, three neighbours. This new individual will belong to the population that has the majority in this neighbourhood.

Deaths and births are considered simultaneous events. So, they just have an effect on the ensuing generation (turn) neighbourhood count.

An initial position

Red: Deaths. Blue: Births.

To play you need a large board with a grid, preferably more than a Go Board (19 x 19); enough markers  of two colors to represent the populations; additional markers in another two colours, to mark births and deaths; a marker for keeping track of generations (or a sheet of paper).

Setup: players place, alternately, 5 members of their own population.

In each generation, perform the following actions, covering all elements of the populations already on the board,  and all empty spaces, in a systematic way to avoid errors:

1) Mark the pieces having 0 or 1 neighbors (deaths by isolation) or more than 3 (deaths by overpopulation);
2) Mark, in a different colour, the spaces with 3 neighbours (births);
3) Place new population tokens (births) of equal colour to that of the majority population surrounding the space;
4) Remove the deceased parts.

Immigration: every 10 generations, each player adds a new element to his population, placing it in an empty space of his choice, starting with the player with the larger population. In order to provide a better balance, it may be preferable to invert the order.

Win: when there is only one population left at an Immigration moment.

Draw: both populations have gone extinct between two moments of immigration. 

You may try other rules, for example, assigning a draw when a stable form (which does not generate births or deaths) is reached, or, in this case, assigning victory to the larger population.

The solo game can be used as a first approach, and to an introduction to the patterns that emerge:

Stable forms, still life, not generating births nor deaths.

Oscillators, periodically alternating between two shapes.

Shapes that seem to move across the board.

Formations that quickly become extinct.

Two still life forms and two oscillators

References

Berloquin, Pierre (1981), Découvrez … la vie, seul ou à deux, Jeux & Stratégie, n.º 9, Junho-Julho.

Don Woods, http://www.icynic.com/~don/

Gardner, Martin (1970), MATHEMATICAL GAMES - The fantastic combinations of John Conway's new solitaire game "life", Scientific American 223: 120-123.
http://www.ibiblio.org./lifepatterns/october1970.html

Time Ages in a Hurry

Our time is running out

The title of Antonio Tabucchi’s book sets the theme.

Time. Passing time. In a hurry. Time becoming old. Fast.

Time flowing. Time jumping. Time flying.

Time measured in many ways.

Ages, years, days, hours, minutes, seconds, fractions, plays.

Perceived time. Lived time.

Infinite time made of finite times.

End of run, end of line, end of the game.

Time that melts into writing, music, photography.

Time. Times after times. Different times.

This is the end, my only friend, the end

A river running wild that will create, An empire for you

He’s been waiting for the turn of the tide

And another one gone, another one bites the dust

Nothing left, nothing left, nothing there, nothing there

By harvest time she knows the score

As time goes by

The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older

Chess, Time is Running Out, Muse

Civilization, Empire, Of Monsters and Men

Flamme Rouge, The End, The Doors

Advanced Squad Leader, Back to the Wall, Barclay James Harvest

Ace of Aces, Another One Bites the Dust, Queen

Alhambra, Unthought Known, Pearl Jam

Agricola, Mistress of the Salmon Salt, Blue Öyster Cult

Dixit, As Time Goes By, Frank Sinatra

Photosynthesis, Time, Pink Floyd

Tell me stories

A game of storytelling.

Well, not complete stories. Maybe some "shorties".
Maybe phrases, words, one word or even an onomatopoeia.

It is up to each player, whenever assuming the role of Narrator.

To give the motto, the Narrator selects one card from his six cards hand.

Just a single card, among a total of 84 available, with beautiful illustrations by Marie Cardouat.

Go for the overall picture or focus on a mere detail. Something concrete or more abstract. An association of ideas. Leave it to the imagination.

"I had a brilliant idea," announces the Narrator, after choosing his card for the round.

Each player then selects one of his own cards, based on the same theme, and delivers it, hidden, to the Narrator.

After collecting a card for each player, the Narrator lays them in a row, faces up.

It’s time to try to guess which one is the Narrator card, by voting simultaneously and in secret.

Two votes in the second card from the left. One vote for a possible brilliant escape idea.

It's time to count the points.

If all hit or all fail the Narrator card, he gets no points, and each of the other players receives 2 points.

If some, but not all, get it right, Narrator and players who guessed right will receive 3 points.

Interesting compromise between too-obvious clues, clues over elaborated and what each player knows about the others!

Additionally, each player, Narrator non-included, receives as many points as votes obtained by his card.

Guessing the narrator’s choice and, at the same time, trying to divert votes for our own cards!

And then just add the points, rabbit-hopping around, in the kingdom of imagination.

This is Dixit. A game that makes pleasant evenings. Good choice for players of any age, any playing level, any origin. And I would dare to say: for all players, regardless of their gaming preferences. A safe bet!

Roubira, Jean-Louis. Dixit. Poitiers, 2008-2012: Libellud. Morapiaf.

PAW in Estarreja, Portugal - Time, Space, Matter

PAW in competition mode.

National Teams Competition, 2nd League. Day 5 in January. Playing at home, in Estarreja, commanding the black forces. Photos reproducing some of the game positions.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5. The Albin counter gambit. A less frequent choice, to push the opponent away from the comfort zone. Goal achieved! And black swiftly took the initiative.

With initiative came Time: faster development, helped by inaccurate white moves; after move 12 an advantage of, at least, 3 tempi.

Time turned into Space, with a King protected but ready to spring into action, a controlled center, and an attack in the Queen’s side, where the opponent's King is exposed.

Space turned into Matter. Black knights (they always look better in the movies, right?) prevailed. 40% of total game moves were horse riding, including five in a row. Concentration of troops, threats, diversion of defenders, breaking point. First, a pawn advantage. Then, another one.

The outcome seemed inevitable, being only a matter of care and time.

White just moved the tower. Find the solution for the problem: Black to move; mate in 2.

Victory after just over 2 hours and 30 minutes of play.
Mission accomplished.

Step in and leave your PAW print - Playing Around the World - and follow the PAW tag.
Send a photo of a gaming session, the game title, your name, city, country (and, if you feel like, a short sentence about the game and or a photo of the city) to gamesinbw@gmail.com.

Jeux & Stratégie, n.º 8

This no.8 was my no.1. The first Jeux & Stratégie magazine. 1981. April-May Edition. The gateway to a whole new world of games! Board games, but more than those.

A magazine published only every two months. A time interval more than enough to explore in depth the nearly 100 pages of each issue.

To imagine some of the games described, learn rules and strategy, solve puzzles. To pull-out the central pages, containing a brand new game, with a board to unfold, parts to cut and assemble, and finally play it.

And then, start waiting for the following issue. And so it went, including the move to monthly edition, to a new format and to the end of J&S.

I am still able to quickly find some of the articles from those days.

A varied menu, as always.

The award of the Golden Pawn to the game "Étoiles Filantes". Some news from electronics, with the arrival of the Atari console to France. The presentation of new games: Quad-ominos, Magellan, Kamicubes and Zodiac.

An introduction to Backgammon, with a bit of history, rules, basic principles of strategy and tactics, an annotated match and a problem to solve. An approach repeated, in each issue, always featuring new games.

Then the problems of logic, in a spacial adventure format. This is how I became friend with Centaurians, some of them always saying the Truth, others telling Lies, others still ever Changing and even some that didn't make any sense!

An article on the theme of colours as gaming core material, in a set of easy enough games to DIY, not necessarily easy to play, including the front page super cube, and the instructions to build the 64 required mini cubes! I didn't go that far.

Another usual section, games for calculators, with all the lines of code needed for the HP34C or TI 58/59. Just press those keys.

Also the playing cards, with the Liar Poker and the Trianon.

And many diverse puzzle, in the realm of letters, numbers and other symbols. Plus the pages of problems: chess, tarot, scrabble (in French, of course), bridge, French checkers, go.

The games of alliances were the main dossier, with emphasis on Diplomacy, a confrontation between the European Nations of the early 20th century, with a good set of ingredients: importance of geopolitics, being truly different playing with each of the Nations; need for alliances; negotiations in the open or in restricted groups; military orders written simultaneously for each player; afterwards, the simultaneous resolution, the real test for alliances and the revelation of betrayals. A “serious” and high voltage game!

Thanks to the possibility to request a revised set of rules, AM (ante mail), which contained the drawing of the map, and some, well, substantial, hand work, at the time, it was possible to recreate the board, and to play a game that wouldn’t arrive at Portugal for ages. But that's another story.

Beyond Diplomacy, featured in the article: Russian Civil War (SPI), Kingmaker (Philmar), Samurai, Hexagony, Machiavelli and Wizard's Quest (all from Avalon Hill).

Finally, last but not least, the original game that came in each issue. Here, Tetrarchy, by Joël Gourdon and Jean-Pierre Pécau, keeping in line with the main theme, diplomacy.

The Western Roman Empire the Eastern Roman Empire. Two sides, two Augustus, two Caesars and two Generals. And a power struggle even within each field, with each one of the 6 players trying to reach the end of the game as Augustus. Roman legions and hordes of barbarians at the gates of the Empire. Sending troops and fighting. Gold and tax collection. Religions. Epidemics, riots, famine, invasions, good or bad harvests. And of course, alliances, always temporary.

A game with some complexity and the need for six players.

A good start, this no.8 that was no. 1!

Xou Dou Qi

Xou Dou Qi or, more accurately, Dou Shou Qi. Or also Animal Chess, Jungle Chess, Animals Fight, among other names. It is an abstract strategy game, often presented as originating from ancient China.

Probably much more recent in origin, it is a variant of combat games, for two players, in here with animal armies in confrontation.

Each animal has a different strength, from the Elephant, with 8, until the Rat, with 1, and in descending order, the big cats, Lion, Tiger and Leopard, the Dog and Wolf, and the Cat.

Initial position

The Board is symmetrical, with a den on each side, protected by 3 traps (marked with "X" on the images). An animal that enters into an enemy trap sees his strength reduced to 1, and therefore is at the mercy of any enemy animal.  

The basic movement of each animal is the same: one space at a time, horizontally or vertically.

The two existing Lakes complicate the progression of animals or, at least, of some of them, demanding for different tactics: the Tiger and the Lion can jump over the Lakes, to the length or width; Rats can swim across; for all the other animals, these are insurmountable obstacles. 

An animal can capture an adjacent animal that has the same or lesser strength. But beware! The Rat may capture the Elephant (which as we know is afraid of Rats!), as long as it's not in a lake exit move, from water to land.

A swimming Rat

The objective of the game is to enter the opponent’s Den, which usually implies a combination of strategies of both animal capture and diversion of defenders. 

In the image below, the Green Tiger won't be able to defend his Den. He may capture the Wolf or the Cat, but not both.

A win for the Reds

It is possible to find several variations on the rules. For example, in some rules the Elephant cannot capture the Rat, which increases the strategic role of the rodent.

In the version distributed by Majora, a Portuguese publisher, dated probably from the ' 90, there are significant differences: the name used; a quite different starting position, with the animals distributed only by two ranks; and leopards that can also jump over lakes.

Initial position, Majora Edition

A game sometimes deceptively presented as simple.

For those who enjoy strategic fighting games for two players.

Xou Dou Qi, Majora.

PAW in Guimarães

Historic Centre of Guimarães, Portugal, World Heritage

Returning to the Craddle on the Holiday Season. The Historic Centre of Guimarães is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, since 2001 (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1031/).

On the table: Estoril 1942, a first; Pandemic, always a good choice, cooperative work to save the World; Tsuro, quick and beautiful, and with head on collisions assured in a 6-player game; and Photosynthesis, with four players, still needing to master the solar cycle and the flow of time!

Estoril 1942

Pandemic

Tsuro

Photosynthesis

Step in and leave your PAW print - Playing Around the World - and follow the PAW tag.
Send a photo of a gaming session, the game title, your name, city, country (and, if you feel like, a short sentence about the game and or a photo of the city) to gamesinbw@gmail.com.