(Update) Field of Glory: The Card Game Back on for Essen

Update: just got word from Martin Wallace that the issues had been resolved and the game would be available at Essen.  I'm guessing we will never know what was going on, but it's good to know the game is on its way.

In weird and depressing news, since I was interested in the game, Treefrog just posted this on their web page:  

Slitherine, the licensees of Field of Glory: the Card Game have requested that we remove all mention of the product from our website and destroy the recently printed copies. Consequently, this game will not be available for sale, either at Essen or from our website. We have also removed all mention of the product from this website.

I'll note that the game has also been removed from the Boardgamegeek database.  I've got requests in to both Treefrog and Slitherine for comment.  I'll update this post when I learn more.  

Update: Marco from Slitherine sent me this email this morning:  

Hi Danny, thanks for pinging me.

The situation is fluid right now, so it’s a ‘no comment’ for the moment.

I’ll keep you posted on that.

By "fluid," can we hope that there is a way the project could still be saved?  Hopefully, we will get a better idea when we here from Treefrog.

Music of the Spheres: SF & F Inspired Rock

Rock & roll seems to have always been accepting of Science Fiction and Fantasy.  Without even considering novelty songs of the fifties and sixties, there are plenty examples.  The Byrds were singing about spacemen and had adapted Clarke’s “The Sentinel” in the sixties.  By their second album, Zeppelin was rambling through Middle-earth.  Nearly everybody has heard, or at least knows, Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”  Nowadays, you got your Muses and Radioheads and even your Katy Perry-types chiming in.  The point being, it’s not new and there’s really too much out that for one soul to find on his or her own.  Luckily, this being the information age and all, most of the hard work has been done for us.

The following lists provide a variety of styles and artists.  There’s some overlap, of course, and there’s some wtfs.  All in all, however, they are worth a look. 

1. 100 Albums Every Science Fiction and Fantasy Fan Should Listen To  You may not have to go further than this one from i09.  This is actually the first of several articles covering a super-varied list.  There's artist here I've never heard of, and soundtracks I would never have considered.  From Ayreon to Ziggy, it's here. 

2.  Top 10 Best Sci-fi Inspired Rock Albums  No R&B or soundtracks here, just rock.

3.  The 23 Greatest Sci-Fi Songs of All Time I don't necessarily agree with its title, but the list is pretty solid and varied.

4.  The 15 Greatest Science Fiction-Based Pop/Rock Songs  Okay, this one has "Purple People Eater" on it.

There’s some missing items, I know.  I plan to address some of those at a future date, but please let us know any you happen to see missing.

Enjoy.

Apps for the Conscientious SF Reader

Call me old fashion, but I take pride in knowing the Biggies of SF & F.  As such, I try to stay well-versed in the “classics.”  That in itself is a mighty undertaking, nearly impossible for one reader to do.  One tact, of course, is to immerse oneself in the award winners, but even that is a task that requires some scholarship and digging around.  Naturally, with all the tech that’s out there, the astute reader can find shortcuts.  Two handy ways I’ve discovered are the SciFi Booklist and the Sci-Fi Library.

The SciFi Booklist is essentially two lists: Hugo and Nebula novel winners.  With this app, all you have to do is scroll down the list to see all the winners.  Touch a title and you are taken to a screen where you can id the book as “Own It” or “Read It.”  There are also links to the novel’s Wikipedia page and Amazon.com.  At the end of the list are some stats that let you know what percentage of each that you’ve read and own.  It’s neat, nice and very easy to use.

The other, the Sci-Fi Library, offers several more options.  In addition to Hugo and Nebula winners, the SF Library includes World Fantasy Award winners.  Choose “Awards” on the menu at the bottom of the screen and you’re taken to another menu which can take you to a separate list for each award.   Choose a title and you can mark it as “No” (haven’t read), “Want it,” “Reading,” and “Read It.”  Below those options is a toggle for “I own this book.”  Below that is a link to Amazon.com. 

Besides the award winners on the main menu, you can go to your history, wish list or what you’re currently reading.  There’s also an “Explore” option that lets you search for books by title or ISBN. 

Both are great in their own way and easy to use, but more importantly, both are free at iTunes.  So why not get both to play around with and see which best fits your needs.

Sci-Fi Library

Compatibility: Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.    

SciFi Booklist

Compatibility: Requires iOS 4.3 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Four Musical Recommendations for the Middle-earth Fan

I've always loved songs inspired or about Tolkien's Middle-earth, and there's more out there than you can shake a staff at.  Most of you have probably heard one or two by Zeppelin whether or not you realize what it’s about, a few may have heard Rush's, but how many can name that Middle-earth ode penned and performed by Joe Walsh?  Well, I’m going to save that for another post (or four or five or an on-going series).  What I thought I’d tackle here are four works completely devoted to Tolkien from start to finish. Yeah, I know I’m leaving out some, and yeah, I probably don’t know about some.  Let me, therefore, go ahead and encourage you to post, fuss, and discuss all about those in the comments below.  What I present to you are four very interesting and very diverse works (in no particular order).

Bob Catley’s Middle Earth

Bob Catley is most well-known as the front man to the melodic metal band Magnum.  Magnum released a slew of album’s in the seventies and eighties with the typical English flirtation with fantasy and science fiction themes.  In the late nineties, Catley released a series of solo albums and marked 2000 with the release of Middle Earth.  The album – and yes, I’m showing my age but that’s what I still call them – was written and produced by Gary Hughes, front man of Ten.  It’s original title was Lord of the Rings, and that pretty much sums it up.  It begins with Frodo’s flight from the Shire and ends with his return.  This album remains one of my favorite Tolkien-inspired pieces.  The music is melodic and powerful and echo the story as envisioned by Hughes.  Catley’s voice hasn’t changed too much from the Magnum days and here it’s as strong and reliable as ever.

Recommended Tracks: “City Walls” and “The End of Summer (Galadriel’s Theme).”

Click the picture to hear "City Walls."

Bo Hansson’s Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings

Hansson is a Swedish instrumentalist who is most well-known for a series of progressive albums in the seventies, the first of which being Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings.  Each track is composed around a scene in the novel.  The music, dominated by the Hammond Organ, captures the themes of those scenes quite nicely if, and I stress if, you tend to like psychedelic-tinged progressive instrumentals.  I get the urge to listen to this one from time to time (and his Music Inspired by Watership Down), but to this day, my good buddy Craig claims the worst headache he ever had in his life occurred while listening to this album while we were driving home from college. 

Recommended Tracks:  “The Horns of Rohan & the Battle of the Pelennor Fields” and “The Black Riders.”

Click the picture to hear "The Black Riders."

Blind Guardian’s Nightfall in Middle-Earth

Blind Guardian are a German speed/power metal band that rose to fame in the early nineties.  They touched on Tolkien in a song or two previously, but it was their sixth album that made Tolkien fans rejoice.  (The ones who are appreciated speed metal anyway.)  1998 saw the release of Night Fall in Middle-Earth.  Not only was the entire album inspired by Tolkien, but it’s entirely based upon The Silmarillion!  From what I understand, this album was a bit more melodic than their previous works.  The music is definitely powerful and fast at times, but always melodic. 

Recommended Tracks: “Nightfall.”

Click the picture to hear "Nightfall."

David Arkenstone’s Music Inspired by Middle Earth

With an name like Arkenstone you’d think this guy would have devoted his entire career to Tolkien, but sadly there’s only the one album I can find.  This Grammy-nominated instrumentalist has had quite the varied career: he’s recorded oodles of new agey albums, world music, TV and sports themes, and music for World of Warcraft.  I first encountered his work in the form of a couple of concept pieces that were collaborations with fantasist Mercedes Lackey.  Overall, his music can be guaranteed to be melodic, moving, powerful – all three most times – and always enjoyable, but it was with this album that he won me over completely.  This album is more like a musical score for the motion pictures.  I can’t help but wonder if he tried for that coveted position and lost to Shore, or if this was simply a work of love.  Whatever the case may be, this is undoubtedly my favorite Tolkien-inspired piece.  It’s like listening to the official soundtracks, but because there were no restrictions about following the pace of a film, there’s no boring bits.  Sadly, this is the hardest one to obtain now.  It was hard enough to find back in 2001, but I’m pretty sure it’s out of print. 

Recommended Tracks: the entire album.

Click the picture to hear "The Quest."

The Best and Worst of the “BEST BOARD GAMES OF THE CENTURY” (2002-2009)

Well, that title is a bit confusing. In case you don't recognize it, the “best game of the century (of the year)” is a take on Dan Patrick's bit about how ESPN and the rest of the mainstream sports media hypes at least one college football match up every year as the “game of the century.” We are guilty of that on the board game front also. Since I started writing about the hobby in 1994, we have gone through just about one collectively-endorsed “best game of all time” every year, judging by the hype on rec.boardgames, spielfrieks, and, eventually, Boardgamegeek and /r/boardgames. I thought I'd take a look back at some of those games. As time passes, other games distinguish themselves as the actual best game of a given year, so it can be a bit hard to recall which game had the hype in a given year. Still, I'm pretty sure that the list here reflects the zeitgeist of the years in question.

• (2002) Puerto Rico by Andreas Seyfarth. The hype surrounding this game was enormous. It  was the first game that really rocked the hobby game world in the way that Settlers of Catan did in 1995 (though I guess it is unfair to skip 2000's Carcassonne). Puerto Rico didn't see that kind of mainstream success, but it was a huge hit with euro gamers and was the perfect game to accompany the rise of Boardgamegeek.com which was initially just a new, better home for the guys who hung out on Spielfrieks. I had as many as a dozen gamers tell me Puerto Rico was the best game they had ever played before I even had a chance to buy it. Does the game still live up to that original hype? I'd say, yes. With repeated play, the game becomes a bit programmed, and there is a huge problem if you follow an idiot less-experienced player in turn-order, but until you have played it to saturation, it is a deep, rewarding game with multiple paths to victory and some really synergistic mechanisms. We have put the game away for a while, but I'm to the point now that I'm ready to dive into it again over the next year. You don't have to take my word for it. Eleven years after its release, the game still sits at #4 on Boardgamegeek's board game rankings. My favorite game from 2002, however, remains Age of Steam by Martin Wallace which only doesn't make this list because the Puerto Rico hype was bigger and louder.

• (2003) New England by Moon and Weissblum. Wait, maybe it was Santiago by Hely and Pelek. Or, was it Merkle's Attika? In actuality, Age of Steam probably occupied the minds of more gamers during 2003, but I'm trying to stick to release dates. That said, I thought New England was boring and dry the one time I played it. I still plan on picking it up at some point to give it more of a fair shake, but the fact that it is ranked #939 on BGG at this point doesn't suggest it has aged well. Santiago and Attika are both good, but never grabbed me. It may be a bit of a cheat, but my favorite game of 2003 was Sid Sackson's I'm the Boss. It is the first English language edition of an older design, but, hey, it is my list.

• (2004) Ticket to Ride by Alan Moon. Finally, a game to challenge Settlers of Catan for mainstream success while also capturing the Internet mindspace. Is it as good as it is successful? Sure. I've played around one hundred games of it over the years. I'd play it again whenever anyone asked. I don't feel the need to own it (still really hoping to stumble on it at a thrift store or to get it in a lopsided trade), but it really is a great gateway game and a great beer-and-pretzel game for gamers. My favorite game for 2004—Power Grid by Friedemann Friese. Geeks agree with me here. Power Grid is #7 game on BGG while Ticket to Ride sits at a respectable #80.

• (2005) Caylus by William Attia. This was the year Shadows over Camelot boosted the cooperative game movement and Railroad Tycoon gave us a glossy, mainstream version of the cruel Age of Steam, but Caylus had all the hype and it deserved it. It may be a tad bit on the dry side, but if you like thinky games with tons of moving parts and lots of paths to victory, this is the game for you. It is my personal favorite game of that year, also. The geeks at BGG.com still rank it at #13 all-time. If you haven't played it, you should remedy that as soon as possible.

• (2006) ??? This is the one year that seemed not to produce a singularly hyped game. Battlelore was hugely successful, but it was a two-player miniatures-based war game, so it wasn't for everyone. Twilight Struggle was clearly the best game, but as it has been pointed out to me on the Geek, the hype for that one came a couple of years later. It is also not a multi-player game, which dampens the overall hype considerably. Thurn and Taxis won most of the Game of the Year awards that year, but I could never get into that one and the hype seemed pretty subdued. Blue Moon City had a lot of fans, and Yspahan continued Ystari games run of very good games, but neither of them were the “it” game for that year. I guess my favorite game from that year was Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, but I don't even own that one any more, nor do I still think highly of it. Let's just call it a odd year and move on to a game that exemplifies the list:

• (2007) Agricola by Uwe Rosenberg. Please remain standing as I heap praise upon a game that is already rotten with it. Rosenberg had a huge, well-respected hit with the card game Bohnanza, but Agricola still felt like it came out of nowhere. Euro game themes are often dry and boring, but farming seemed like a strange theme for the new hotness, and it wasn't even cute bean farming. It was subsistence farming and sometimes you couldn’t feed your family. Fun. But, it was fun. After a successful German release and a series of write-ups and podcast mentions coming out of Alan Moon's Gathering of Friends, it seemed everyone was dying to get a copy of this game. I didn't want to bother with pasting up a German copy, so the wait for this one to come out in English was brutal. It was actually 2008 before it became widely available in English, so the game could fit this list in either year. Certainly, this was the most talked about game from Essen 2007 through the release of the next game on the list.

• (2008) Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino. There is not a chance anyone read through this list who isn't already familiar with Dominion. It is surprising to me that this is the first game on this list that was truly innovative, but, regardless, it certainly was. All of the other games were built on mechanisms found in other successful games. Dominion created a whole new genre of games with its core mechanism—dynamic deck building. I still remember going to Gen Con in 2009 and seeing dozens of games of this going constantly for the entire four days. It got hot quickly and stayed hot until, what, yesterday. Conversely, the game lost its appeal for me pretty quickly as multiple plays revealed ridiculously broken combos and led to a “if-you-don't-play-these-cards-this-way-you-will-lose” dynamic, but, heck it took people playing thousands of games to get there (I blame BSW, where it was possible to play five to ten games an hour). Though I enjoyed it, Dominion wasn't my favorite game of the year. Uwe Rosenberg's follow-up to Agricola, Le Havre took that honor.

• (2009) Hansa Teutonica by Andreas Steding. Hansa Teutonica's theme is so dry horny skeletons use it for lubricant. Wait, that doesn't make any sense. Let's go with Hansa Teutonica's theme is really dry. I actually bought the game based on the hype then left it in shrink because the theme was so boring. That was a mistake. When I got around to playing it, I found the game reminded me of some of my favorite German games from the early days of the hobby, especially Web of Power and San Marco. Hansa Teutonica isn't an area-control game like those two, but is has a similar feel and you claim routes and post representatives to offices. I've been told Endeavor would be a better game here by some of my fellow geeks, but I certainly remember Hansa Teutonica getting a bigger share of the hype. Plus, it was my favorite game of the year and I still haven't played Endeavor because it fits in exactly the same gaming spot as ten other games I love.