My Experience With Geek Chic - Part 2

Several months ago I wrote about my initial experiences ordering a Geek Chic Emissary table. I promised a follow-up when it arrived, but I decided to wait a bit longer (which turned into a lot longer) before writing about the table so that I could give a better impression of what it's like to live with one. I've had my Emissary now for a little over 8 months, and while I love the table and I'm certainly glad I made the purchase, there are definitely some quirks that only become apparent after spending some time with it in the family.

The Table:

The table I purchased was a Walnut Emissary with a 6' x 4' play area and a bamboo vault surface with a plexiglass layer. I chose to forgo drawers in the table and opted instead for the rail system that allows accessories to latch onto the sides of the table. My main reason for this choice was that I play mostly board games and don't have much need for the accoutrements required for Role Playing Games.

The actual delivery of the table was scheduled about a week before the delivery date, and was set up by two friendly Geek Chic employees. Setup took less than 30 minutes, and was a fairly painless process. The fact that my game room is easily accessible helped. Someone with a narrow staircase, or tight turns in their hallways could potentially run into some issues due to the depth of the tabletop. After the table was assembled, I was told about its care and feeding and how to transform it into various configurations.

The table itself is well built, sturdy, and looks very sleek. The grain of the wood is almost iridescent, and reflects light differently from different angles - a very pretty effect that none of my simulated wood grain or veneer furniture possesses. Since walnut has different shades of color depending on where in the tree it comes from, the table has a lot of character.

After the table was assembled, we discovered that it was missing a couple of brass pins that belonged to a removable support structure that kept the table leaves from sagging. Since these pins weren't critical, Geek Chic had them mailed to me a few days later, which was a painless process. However, I also found that one of the leaves in my table was not lying flush with the surface of the table, and it appeared to be slightly warped. I was told that wood was malleable and would flex and change, and to invert the leaf and let gravity help get it back into shape. 

I was not 100% thrilled with this suggestion. After all, I had just paid $4000+ for a brand new table, and it seemed to have a flaw, but I took the advice and flipped the leaf. After a few months it wasn't warping as much, but it still wasn't lying flat, so I called Geek Chic and they agreed to replace the leaf when they had another delivery in my neck of the woods.

About 2 months later my new leaf was delivered, and it fit perfectly into place. This new leaf is a slightly different color than the others, but it was explained that the wood changes color as it ages, and since the rest of the wood in my table is 8 months older than the new leaf, it will take time for it to catch up. I'm sure the colors will mesh better as the table ages (even in the past few weeks i have seen a difference in the color of the leaf), but it still makes me a bit nervous and I wish that the issue was addressed by Geek Chic earlier in the process. (If it looks like one leaf is slightly off-color in the photos, that is why - it is not indicative of how the table arrived.) All in all though, it was a positive experience, and I'm sure if I had been adamant that the leaf be replaced earlier, Geek Chic would have accommodated me.

Features:

Rail System - Instead of drawers, I chose the rail system for my table. The rail system is a groove that extends along the side of the table, onto which different accessories can be attached. The only accessories I purchased were cup holders, but I can see myself ordering a few desk or bin attachments in the near future.

Because the rail is just a groove in the wood of the table, it can't support a lot of weight. This makes it perfect for cup holders, or other small accessories, but care would have to be taken with a desk or any other accessory that someone might be tempted to lean on. In fact, since the cup holders extend past the edge of the table when inserted into the groove, I've had a couple of close calls with people bumping into them with their legs while standing up, or walking past. This doesn't make them non-functional, it just means people need to take care when moving around the rail accessories.

Rail accessories come in two types: locking and non-locking. Locking accessories have a little latch that has to be pulled in order to remove them, or slide them along the rail, whereas the non-locking accessories do not. I chose the locking cup holders, and have found them to be very functional.

In what is a bit of a trend with the accessories for the Emissary, it is important to have a place to store the cupholders. While the wooden brackets can be stored in the closed table, the metal part of the cupholder is too tall to fit in the table vault, and will have to be stored elsewhere.

Table Vault - The coolest part of the Geek Chic Emissary table is the "Vault". This is a recess in the table where games can be left in-play, and then covered with the hardwood leaves. Since there are several inches between the surface of the vault, and where the leaves slide in, the game can be kept in stasis under the leaves, while the tabletop is used for other normal table-like activities (or another game!). 

It's important to note that the leaves do not fit together tightly enough to make a waterproof seal. If you plan on using the table for dinner, I would definitely suggest using a tablecloth with a waterproof liner. A spilled drink would still leak into the vault and cause all sorts of destruction. I don't actually eat at the table, so spills aren't too much of an issue for me, but the kids often do their homework on it, and so I will often find a million little eraser shavings in the vault when I open it. While the Emissary is very effective at its dual purposes, little things like that can be frustrating and being preventative can go a long way to restoring sanity.

The vault also has the option for a plexiglass sheet that fits over its surface. This is really nice for multiple reasons. First of all, it can be written on with wet or dry erase markers. This may be more of a feature for the RPG gamer than the board gamer, but it's still really neat. Second, people who enjoy playing games that use paper maps or boards will find that putting them under the plexiglass will keep them flat. I've found this incredibly useful when doing reviews, and taking photos of wargames and print & play prototypes.

The plexiglass will have to be removed from time to time and cleaned. It is inevitable that little pieces of dirt and dust will find their way between the plexi and the vault surface. Geek Chic includes a cool suction tool to remove the plexi (It looks like something James Bond would use when he's cutting a hole in an alarmed glass case), although moving a 6' x 4' piece of plexiglass is still quite a task.

Leaves -The 5 leaves that cover the table vault are all made of solid hardwood. They look really nice, but are surprisingly heavy, and need to be stored somewhere when the vault is in use. I usually just set them up against the wall (although if warping is a concern, or the vault is going to be open for an extended period of time, they are probably best laid flat on the floor.) They can be somewhat cumbersome to move, as well. When looking at the pictures, it's sometimes hard to remember that each leaf is 6 feet tall.

I especially like that the leaves can be arranged in different configurations. When all five are on the table, it's a typical wooden tabletop. When all the leaves are removed, the entire vault area is available. My favorite configuration, however, is when two leaves are left on the table as "desks", and a portion of the vault is left visible.

This separates a player's personal play-space from the common play-space. Reaching things in the center of the table can sometimes be a bit difficult from a sitting position, but in this configuration, players can keep all of their pieces and player boards close to them, and only need to reach when interacting with the main board (plus it just looks cool).

Now, simply leaving two leaves in could cause issues, because pieces could accidentally get pushed under a leaf, or a player could lean against the leaf and push it forward, spilling their components into the vault. But, luckily Geek Chic has a solution to this with two long wooden pieces that fit into the leaves to close the gap and stabilize the leaves.

If a player leans against the "desk" that is made from a leaf, it is still possible to push the guard out of place, and cause the leaf to slide forward (I tend to do this rather frequently because I'm an "elbows on the table" type person), but it does keep the leaf much more stable, as well as making the table more attractive in this configuration.

Since the Emissary is in "Normal Table" mode most of the time, the 6 foot leaves can tend to sag in the middle. Geek Chic combats this problem through the use of a wooden bar that slides into the center of the table on two brass pins, when the vault is not in use. This keeps the leaves supported in the center, and helps them keep their shape.

There is a bit of a storage issue with the cross-bar support and the leaf "desk" stabilizers. The stabilizers can be stored in the vault when not in use, but only if the cross-bar support isn't installed. This means that someone who has both has to make a decision between safety of the leaves or storage convenience. It's not too hard to find a place to store the stabilizers; they are long, but not bulky, so fit easily into a closet. However, it would have been nice if there were some sort of integrated storage solution to keep all of the parts of the table together when it was closed.

Conclusion:

I am very happy with my purchase. Aside from a couple of hiccups with a missing part and a warped leaf, the purchase experience was great. I'm very happy with my table; it's well built, and looks great. In fact, the Emissary is probably going to be the driving force in upgrading the other furniture in my game room, because everything else looks cheap in comparison.

The only big issue I have with the table is one of storage. The cupholders cannot be stored in the table and the leaf shelf supports cannot be stored in the table while the crossbar support is in use. Since I don't want my leaves to warp, it means I have to store the long shelf supports in the closet. It would have been really helpful if the Emissary had some sort of rack or a set of hooks on the bottom of the table to store these pieces along with the table.

All in all, I'm very happy with my purchase, and plan to enjoy my Emissary for years to come. In fact, I'm already counting my money trying to find a way to get one of the smaller coffee table sized pieces into my living room. If you are in the market for quality furniture that will fit your gaming needs, as well as go incognito as a normal kitchen table, the Emissary is just the ticket.

Titans of Industry - Kickstarter Preview

I recently had the opportunity to check out a prototype of a surprisingly fun new game designed by Brian Lewis and published by Gozer Games called Titans of Industry. Titans is a worker placement game set in the industrial sector during the roaring 20's, and is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. As of this writing, Titans is almost halfway to its funding goal, and has a little more than two weeks to raise the remaining funds.

I really enjoy Titans of Industry, and I feel that it is a game worth Kickstarting. Even in its prototype form, Titans of Industry delivers solid gameplay and sells its art deco theme well; I expect finished artwork and professional printing will really allow the game to shine. (Due to the fact that the copy of the game I played was in prototype form, I'm presenting this as a preview instead of a full-on review, so keep in mind that the components seen here are handmade and use art that may change.)

The Game:

Titans of Industry puts players in the spit-shined shoes of a corporate magnate during a seven year period in the roaring 20's - a time when the production volume of factories was rapidly accelerating due to technological advances in manufacturing, and the skyline of urban America was changing as glittering structures were being erected from steel, glass and concrete, and dared to touch the sky with their art deco spires. Embroiled in the middle of this new prosperity, players in ToI are attempting to grow their companies by accumulating resources and erecting ever taller factories and businesses.

Titans of Industry's core game mechanics revolve around worker placement, and while the worker placement mechanism has become almost ubiquitous in modern games, I'm still surprised at the unique style and interesting play that continues to be produced in the genre. Titans of Industry embraces the spirit of the games that have come before it, without retreading the same ground. While Titans builds on some of the cardinal concepts of worker placement, it hits a sweet spot for me with its combination of resource utilization, building upgrades, and non-confrontational player interactions. In a way, it feels a bit like a cross between Caylus and Seven Wonders, utilizing the worker placement and variable structures of the prior with the empire building and social feel of the latter; players not only manage their own empire, but find that they must strategically utilize the services and buildings of their competitors in order to succeed.

Components:

Since the copy of ToI I have is a prototype, I am not going to address the component quality or specific art details individually, but the general art direction of the game, even in it's prototype form, gives the game a unique look and feel. The components are all designed with an art deco flair that really personifies an era. It's a style that is woefully underrepresented in board games, so it's a special treat for me to see it presented so boldly in this game.

Cards: The game utilizes 3 decks of cards throughout gameplay, one deck represents factories that players may purchase and upgrade, the second contains businesses that players may purchase, and the third represents "Corporate Strategy" - special goals that the player can acquire, which will give him bonus points should he reach them.

Workers: Being a worker placement game, the workers are a central part of the game. The prototype copy I have utilizes typical meeples in the 5 vivid player colors. There is also a grey meeple which can be co-opted as a "temp" worker during gameplay.

Tokens: Tokens are used to represent the seven different types of goods that players can collect during the game: Wood, Stone, Brick, Tar, Concrete, Steel, and Glass. Each type of resource token is color coded, and displays an icon identifying the resource. Money is also represented with tokens instead of flimsy paper bills, which scores bonus points from me.

Board: The game board is large, and manages to capture an art-deco feel in the shape and structure of the office that it represents. This makes the board clear and understandable, as well as pleasant to look at.

Gameplay:

Gameplay follows the standard worker placement model, with a few twists. The game takes place over 7 years, with each year equating to a game turn. Each game turn is further split into phases: purchasing buildings, placing workers, resolving workers, and cleanup.

Each turn starts with the opportunity for players to purchase factory and business cards. These cards represent buildings and upgrades that generate goods, money, and victory points for the player. The buildings that the player chooses to buy can have a large impact on how the game plays out. During the course of the game, players will usually find themselves utilizing their opponents' factories and businesses in order to generate and sell resources. This means that purchasing buildings that are in demand can net the player a lot of victory points - however, he needs to be careful not to become too reliant on others in the process.

Next, the players will place their workers. Players may put workers on one of the many spaces on the board which allow them to gain basic resources, bend certain rules, acquire new goals, or gain new workers.  Players can also place workers on their own buildings, or their opponents buildings. Utilizing these buildings is the very core of Titans of Industry.

Divided into two types, Factories and Businesses, the buildings drive the producer-consumer economy of the game. Factories generate resources for the player using it, while businesses consume the resources and reward the user with money or victory points. It is to the player's advantage to select the factories and businesses that give him the best payout and align with any special goals he may have. However, he must be careful - when a player places his worker on a business or factory that doesn't belong to him, the owner of the factory automatically receives some victory points. This can make for tough decisions when a player has to decide if the benefit of using the building is worth helping his opponent in the process.

After everyone has placed their workers, the player's actions are resolved. This happens in an order that moves roughly clockwise around the board. During this phase, players receive goods, sell goods, and gain special actions or cards based on the actions that they have taken.

On certain years, players must pay rent on the buildings that they own. This happens after all actions are resolved, during the upkeep phase. Hopefully the player has earned enough money to cover these costs, otherwise he is required to take out high interest loans that must be repaid in order to avoid a stiff victory point penalty.

Play continues this way until the end of the seventh round, when players count up the victory point value of all of their buildings, goods, money, as well as any bonus points they have earned from successful corporate strategy goals.

The person with the most victory points is the winner and can revel in his obscene wealth - for the next two years, at least - until the stock market crash of 1929 causes him to lose the shirt off of his back.

Conclusion:

Titans of Industry is a solid game that really deserves to be made. With so many worker placement games out there, it is sometimes hard to look at a games description and immediately see it's potential - but ToI definitely has it.

Surprisingly, Titans turns out to be a very social game; even though the rules expressly forbid direct trading, the fact that players must utilize the other players' buildings to succeed introduces a definite social element. This aspect of the ToI reminds me a lot more of games like 7 Wonders than Caylus. While Caylus has a similar mechanic where players must pay rent to use opponents' buildings, Titans does it in a way that is much more congenial. In fact, the mechanics in the game that govern businesses actually reward players who choose to cooperate, by awarding a bonus when multiple players are on the same building. This design choice transforms the entire nature of the game from a cutthroat competition to a more subtle balancing act. That's not to say there isn't plenty of opportunity for backstabbing or opportunistic play, it just manifests itself in a way that isn't as obviously antagonistic as many other worker placement games.

Players that like to build economic engines will especially enjoy Titans of Industry. The process of purchasing and upgrading buildings, producing resources, and turning those resources into money really speaks to the part of me that loves civilization building games and likes to pump out long card combos in Dominion. It feels odd to say that, because Titans of Industry is very much in the Economic Worker Placement camp and shares very little in common with Dominion or Civ games; yet it somehow manages to scratch that itch for me.

I really appreciate the art style and theme of Titans of Industry as well. Watching it evolve from a spartan prototype with an almost monochromatic color scheme, to the colorful art-deco inspired incarnation that it is today has been exciting. I can only imagine the potential that the game could reach with the proper funding to be professionally printed.

I fear that with only a little over 2 weeks left in its Kickstarter campaign, Titans of Industry may face an uphill battle to secure the rest of the funding it needs. It is a game that really deserves to be played, and I am glad that I was given the opportunity to purchase a prototype copy. If you are sitting on the fence about this one and like worker placement or economic games, I would urge you to head over to Kickstarter and pledge for a copy of your own. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Last chance to get in on Shadow Days Kickstarter

If you are in to fantasy card games, you might want to take a look at Shadow Days, which the creator’s describe as a deckbuilding fantasy game.  It is in its last three days of a successful Kickstarter campaign, and the creators are offering some great incentives to those who donate.  Though it didn’t turn out to be a game that appealed to my main game group (stinky Euro-gamers, all of us), Shadow Days is an interesting, dice-based combat game that could scratch the itch for players looking for a 100% confrontational card game where you win by one method—destroying your opponent.  If that sounds like something you would be interested in, head over to the Kickstarter page and help bring the total up to the final incentive level.

Calling Shadow Days a deckbuilder stretches that term quite a bit.  It actually has more in common with tableau games like Race for the Galaxy than deckbuilders like Dominion.  Instead of drafting a deck, players draft a collection of five cards into a tableau in front of them.  These cards are mostly creature, but can also include magic items to be used in battle and strongholds which can protect “bench” creatures and give bonuses to active creatures.

A quick description of game play should let you know if this is a game for you.  Players take turns choosing one of their creatures to attack one of their opponent’s creatures.  Creatures have an attack value that must be rolled on a twenty-sided dice in order for the attack to succeed.  If the player rolls that number or higher, the opponent’s creature is killed and the player loses life points equal to the life-point value of that creature.  The game continues until all but one of the players is reduces to zero health.

That is basically the game.  There are items that provide alternative attacks and opportunities to switch out creatures, but the game is in its essence a back-and-forth dice fest.  When I read the description it anticipation of receiving the playtest copy, my heart sank.  This just isn’t the type of game that appeals to my main play group.  It would be greatly appealing to my D&D group, but I knew that that wouldn’t be meeting during the Kickstarter campaign.  My main game group likes heavier games and dislikes the randomness of dice rolls, so it simply wasn’t a good fit with them.  They simply didn’t feel the game offered enough strategic decisions to make it feel like they had earned a victory rather than lucked into it. 

I was ready to just pass on recommending the game until I got in a few games with my daughter.  She loved the game and my young son even joined in.   The strange thing was that I really enjoyed it also.  I can’t remember the last game I played and enjoyed with so large a random element.  Probably, only the classic Nuclear War, which comes to the table occasionally, is as dependent on dice rolls as Shadow Days among the games we play.  But, for what it is, Shadow Days is an enjoyable romp.  If you are a fan of Steve Jackson games and similar designs, I think Shadow Days will appeal to you.   While struggling with how to express what I thought was good about the game without recommending it to readers who might not enjoy it, I was so glad to watch Shadow Days reach its Kickstarter goal.  This is a well-designed and attractive game which, though maybe not for everybody, should be a big hit with its target audience.  

Thunderstone Advance Compatibility Guide

AEG continues its tradition of paying attention to player's wants and needs with a handy compatability guide for mixing the previous Thunderstone cards with the new Thunderstone Advance.  I have a shrink-wrapped copy of Thunderstone Advance staring down at me as I type this, but I likely won't get to play it until late Saturday, and I'm a long way from wanting to mix in all of the old cards.  Still, it's great to know AEG has thought about this stuff and are willing to put in some extra work that has no direct financial gain attached to it.  Thanks, AEG.  

The Thunderstone Compatability Guide is here.

Game of Throne's Melisandre (Carice van Houten) is no stranger to the dark arts.

The second season of HBO's Game of Thrones is just around the corner. We will soon get to see two of the pivotal character's introduced in the second volume of George R.R. Martin's gripping series—Stannis Baratheon, Robert's brother and possibly rightful heir to the throne and his mistress, Melisandre, priestess of R'hllor. Both roles have been filled using actors with genre experience, which seems to be the rule rather than the exception on Game of Thrones.

Stannis, the humorless, downright grumpy middle Baratheon brother will be played by Stephen Dillane, who nerds might remember as Merlin from the Clive Owen King Arthur. Of the new actors joining the case, this is the only one that gives me pause. Dillane is a fine actor who has been good in some good movies and the best thing in some awful ones (I'm looking at you Red Mist), but he doesn't seem a good fit physically for Stannis. Of course, his acting chops are more important than his physical presence, especially since that is something that can be pretty easily faked, so I'm certainly willing to give the guy a chance to prove me wrong.

 

More spot on is the casting of Carice van Houten as Melisandre. Not only is she a perfect match for the Melisandre I pictured while reading the novels, she has also had solid genre experience (in a film with poor Eddard Stark, nonetheless). The Dutch actress first came to my attention as the purported necromancer in Christopher Smith's underrated Black Death.

As a pagan sorceress protecting her village from the encroaching plague, van Houten is alternately charismatic and frightening. It is not too hard to imagine the producers of Game of Thrones watching Black Death and seeing this beautiful woman in red sacrificing Christians and thinking, “There's our Melisandre!”

As we approach the premier of season 2, we will be continuing our look at the new cast members.  Check back soon.