Naturelich Games

PC version of Yspahan by Günther Rosenbaum

Günther Rosenbaum has released another board game for the PC: Yspahan, designed by Sébastien Pauchon and published by Ystari Games. This game is available as freeware for download (officially sanctioned by the publisher). The game comes with an artifical intelligence allowing players to compete on multiple difficulty levels. For beginners (like me) the highest difficulty is pretty challenging. This is similar to Günther Rosenbaum's PC version of Sankt Petersburg.

If you do not want to compete against the computer, the game also supports a manual mode.

The game is currently available in English and in German via download at:
http://www.westpark-gamers.de/download/yspahan_pc.php

Posted by Naturelich at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hooray, we just completed our first game of Hansa at MabiWeb. MabiWeb is a great sites for online play that allows for asynchronous play. This means, each player can take their time to do their turn. Once finished, the system automatically sends an email to the next player. The current game status is visible at all times. It's completely different than fast-paced, online Ticket to Ride. At first, I was a little bit sceptical as to how MabiWeb can keep me excited. But after the first game, I think it's a fun experience. Maybe my impression is supported by the fact that Hansa is a slower paced game that rewards and encourages careful thinking. So, why did we start playing Hansa anyway?

I had recently bought the game and introduced it to my co-players. We all seemed to like it and I was aware that a site existed where Hansa can be played online. Registration is simple and I encouraged (or directed, begged, moved, forced -- whatever) for a little while until Shelak and Raven joined the party. Hey, it's an opportunity to play a long-distance online game and we can't miss out on this, can't we?

So how did the game go? You can read it all in the MabiWeb game log.

Hansa at MabiWeb - Final results
Shelak (44) - Raven (38) - Naturelich (56)

Anyone else care for a game? :-)

Posted by Naturelich at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Hans im Glück Verlag has started a map editing competition for Wolfgang Kramer's Hazienda. The competition is based on the free Hazienda map editor, created by Westpark Gamers. To enter the competition you need to send one and only exactly one game board map to info|at|hans-im-glueck.de with a subject line of "Hazienda Wettbewerb" - deadline is April 31st 2006. Additionally, both information on the number of players as well as a title for the map need to be provided. Be sure to include the .haz file created by the map generator.

Game designer Wolfgang Kramer and Hans im Glück will select the best maps and publish them on the German Hans im Glück web page. Any entry is eligible to win a signed copy of Hazienda or a set of games.

Click here for more details on the competition (in German only).

Posted by Naturelich at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Naturelich plantation in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico by Andreas Seyfarth is the game with the highest rating on BoardGameGeek. The game from alea spiele has recently been adapted for the PC. Since I had not yet played Puerto Rico before (yes, yes, it is true -- unfortunately -- I can't deny my failings), I took the chance to get the board game as well as the PC game.
After studying the rules and the PC game tutorials I started playing two three-player games. I played against one beginner- and one amateur-level computer opponent. I won on both occasions, which makes me think that the AI on those levels is not all too good if a newbie can easily defeat them.
I enjoyed Puerto Rico quite a bit, although I believe Caylus is still a little bit better for me (and, hey, I have played both games both for the first time in the last four weeks. Note, I also believe the final battle between the two games has not yet been decided for me - so we'll see). The next step is to read up a little bit on Puerto Rico strategy on BGG and challenge the AI on professional level. If that does not help, the PC game also promises to have an online mode...

Posted by Naturelich at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click the image to enlarge

The Ticket to Ride PC game has recently been published in the United States. While it is on the market in Europe for a while the destination tickets have not yet been published officially. erps has gathered detailed information on the tickets and their distribution. The picture above gives a good impression of the route distribution.

Continue reading "T2R PC: Destination tickets on the Swiss map" »

Posted by Naturelich at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Memoir '44 in VASSAL - Playing under a high resolution (1920x1200)

This evening Shelak and I started our first online game of Memoir '44 via VASSAL. We decided to take an easy scenario first to get acquainted with the VASSAL user interface and playing options. It took us a little while to understand all the options. The UI is not self-explanatory, but Brummbär's tutorials and hints were enough to get us going eventually. After the first hurdles were taken we immediately started playing. Since we had started a little bit late in the evening we were not able to complete the game, but I have added some images which might give you some impression of how lucky the dice were already rolling for me...

Continue reading "Memoir '44: Sainte Mère-Eglise" »

Posted by Naturelich at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

How cool is this?!!
Memoir '44 can be played online via a game engine called VASSAL (by Rodney Kinney). It just needs a little program which can either be launched in your webbrowser or installed on your computer (Windows, Mac, Linux). VASSAL allows you to play quite a diverse set of wargames.

To play Memoir '44 one needs a particular module. This module is available for download at the excellent website of Brummbär 44. You will also find a great tutorial on Brummbär's site.

I have just set this up and I am now waiting for an online Memoir '44 challenge... :D
Oh, and, BTW, I'd still like the expansions as a birthday present...

Posted by Naturelich at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Earlier today, I was wondering about the creation of a GeekList-Aggregator. Many people were complaining about GeekLists being totally spammed: too many lists in the style of Games I played on Saturday make useful GLs difficult to find. Let's try and put a spotlight onto some GLs which are really useful.
Naturally, by useful we all mean something different. This blog will be a harbor for what Naturelich finds useful. The Naturelich Games GeekList Aggregator will be subjective. It will perhaps contain GLs you already know. Be aware: I am relatively new to BoardGameGeek. I am very new to GeekLists. Please bear with me for the next few aggregations before you start flaming :-). Needless to say: comments, additions and hints are always welcome.

So here we go with the first post: GeekList Aggregator #1...

Continue reading "GLA #1: Board games and the computer" »

Posted by Naturelich at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)