Alphabet of Games

A few of my favorite things, alphabetically:

Above and Below | Among the Stars
Betrayal at House on the Hill | Between Two Cities | Blood Rage
Carcassonne | The Castles of Burgundy | Castles of Mad King Ludwig | Caverna: The Cave Farmers | Citadels | Codenames
Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game
Eldritch Horror | Elysium
Flash Point: Fire Rescue
Gold Mine-ish
Hanabi-ish
Imperial Harvest-ish
Jenga-ish
Kingdom Builder
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game | Lords of Waterdeep
Machi Koro | Mage Knight Board Game | Mice and Mystics | Mission: Red Planet (second edition)
Neuroshima Hex!
Orléans: Deluxe Edition
Pandemic | Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 | Patchwork | Puerto Rico
Quarto! | Quests of Valeria
Race for the Galaxy | The Resistance | The Resistance: Avalon | Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island | Robo Rally
Saboteur | Salem | San Juan (second edition) | Small World | Splendor | Sushi Go!
Takenoko | Tiny Epic Defenders | Tiny Epic Galaxies | Tiny Epic Kingdoms | Tsuro | Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar | Terra | Terra Mystica
Ultimate Werewolf: Deluxe Edition
Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Wizard-ish

Yardmaster Express-ish
Zombicide: Black Plague

The Great Philosophical Shuffling Debate - Can I Shuffle One Card?

The Great Philosophical Shuffling Debate: "If you play a game with cards, and the game instructs you to shuffle your deck, and your deck only has one card in it, can you do it?"

Deep Thoughts.

My favorite responses:

"As a computer scientist, I can shuffle a deck with zero cards."

"If I can shuffle a deck of 52 identical cards, I can "shuffle" a deck of one card, which has exactly the same effect."

International TableTop Day

Geek and Sundry Announces this Saturday, April 30th, 2016, is the International TableTop Day.

In celebration, Amazon has huge discounts going on for TableTop games:

"For a limited time only while supplies last, up to 40% off strategy board games for TableTop day. Discount is only applicable to items sold by Amazon.com. Also, for an even greater value, take advantage of FREE Shipping (restrictions apply) and Prime (restrictions apply)."

 List of retailers observing International TableTop Day.  Find Community Events near you.

Utah Gamers

Utah Gamers

Picked up their info while at SaltCON.

Dominion Expansion Sets

Expansions

An overview of each expansion:

• Intrigue: The first expansion, and the most natural. Comes with another set of Treasure/Victory cards, allowing you to support multiple games and/or a 5-6p game (though 5-6p games of Dominion are generally not that much fun). Focuses on interaction and card choices.

• Seaside: Focused on duration cards, which last between turns. Along with Prosperity, has probably the most powerful Action cards.

• Alchemy: Introduces Potions, a different kind of “currency”, and emphasizes Action chains, leading to much longer games. Probably not a great first expansion.

• Prosperity: Adds Colonies and Platinums, and a lot of other over-the-top cards. Probably the most popular expansion, and certainly the most well-received.

• Cornucopia: A small expansion that focuses on card variety. A more advanced set.

• Hinterlands: Introduces cards that trigger when you gain or buy them. A more advanced set.

• Dark Ages: The most complex set so far, with a big emphasis on card interactions. It introduces many new mechanics (including gaining from the trash).

Releases

	Name	Re­lease Date	Type	Cards	Kinds of King­dom card	Theme
	Dom­in­ion (Base game)	Oc­to­ber 2008	Stand­a­lone	500	25	The ori­gin­al game.
	In­trigue	July 2009	Stand­a­lone	500	25	Decisions among multiple possible effects. Hybrid cards that are both Victory cards and another type.
	Sea­side	Oc­to­ber 2009	Ex­pan­sion	300	26	Cards with effects that happen on the player's next turn.
	Al­che­my	May 2010	Ex­pan­sion	150	12	The Potion Treasure as an alternate card cost, with cards that require a Potion as well as Coin to be bought. Decks with large numbers of Action cards.
	Pros­per­i­ty	Oc­to­ber 2010	Ex­pan­sion	300	25	Expensive cards and Treasures that do something when played in the Buy phase. Higher-value basic Treasure and Victory cards. VP tokens.
	Cor­nu­co­pi­a	June 2011	Ex­pan­sion	150	13	Cards that are more useful when there is variety in the player's deck.
	Hin­ter­lands	Oc­to­ber 2011	Ex­pan­sion	300	26	Cards that have an additional effect when bought or otherwise gained.
	Dark Ages	August 2012	Ex­pan­sion	500	35	Cards that have an additional effect when trashed. Cards that care about the Trash. Cards that upgrade themselves. Ways to upgrade other cards.
	Guilds	June 2013	Ex­pan­sion	150	13	Coin tokens that can be saved to spend later. Cards you can get more out of by paying extra for them.
	Adventures	April 2015	Ex­pan­sion	400	30	Cards that can be saved for the right moment. Events, which give you something to buy besides cards. Tokens that can modify cards.
	Base Cards	June 2012	Re­place­ment Cards	250	0	(A set of all the basic cards—Treasures, Victory, and Curse cards—from the standalones and expansions with new design and different art. No Kingdom Cards.)

Sources

• What expansions should I get? | Dominion Strategy
• Dominion (card game) - Wikipedia

The ABCs of Dominion

My coworkers have got me hooked on the game of Dominion. Dominion is a simple deck building card game. I think what makes Dominion fun is the rules are very simple to learn but the variations of game play are expansive, which follows the "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master" mantra.

Each turn involves 3 simple steps. You play an action, buy and then cleanup. What gives Dominion the game play variety are the various actions, and each new game played can use different action cards.

About.com succinctly summarized the ABCs of the game play rules. Your turn consists of four phases:

A)ction: You may play one action card from your hand. Follow the directions on the card, which may instruct you to draw additional cards, gain spending power for your upcoming Buy phase, or give you extra actions to play additional action cards.

B)uy: You may purchase any one card in a pile on the table. To do so, play treasure cards from your hand until the value is at least as high as the purchase price of the card you want to buy.

C)leanup: The card you purchased, all cards that you played, and any cards remaining in your hand, are all placed in your discard pile.

D)raw: Draw five cards from your deck to replenish your hand. If there are not enough cards in your deck, shuffle your discard pile, and it becomes the base of your draw pile.

Terraria Free for Android on Christmas Day at Amazon App Store

Terraria is free for Android from the Amazon App Store - today only!  This is part of a free daily package that includes a number of other games too.

Blizzard Epic Black Friday Sale

Blizzard's black friday sale has Diablo III and StarCraft II for 50% off the base games. (and 75% off on World of WarCraft, if you are into the subscription game). Sale ends December 2nd.

BlizzCon 2014 - Virtual Tickets

BlizzCon begins tomorrow (Friday, November 7th - Saturday, November 8th). For those who are unable to attend in person ($200 sold out), Blizzard is also providing remote virtual access to the convention. BlizzCon Virtual Tickets can be purchased for $39.

"The Virtual Ticket gives you a front-row seat at BlizzCon from the comfort of your own couch."

The Virtual Ticket Includes:

• Panels, Interviews, and Exclusive Content
• Contests
• BlizzCon In-Game Goodies
• Closing Ceremony - performance by Metallica
• On-Demand Replays - available for 2 weeks past the event

Video Games Live in Utah - Tickets on Sale Today

Video Games Live

Video Games Live is coming to Utah on September 6th.  Tickets have gone on sale today.  The event is being hosted by the Utah Symphony at the Abravanel Hall.

Tickets can be purchase for Video Games Live! at ArtTix.  There is an 11am and 8pm showing.  Prices start at $18.

Lego: Lord of the Rings - 100% Completed

Lego: Lord of the Rings - 100% completion

Tonight we finally 100% completed the Lego: Lord of the Rings game.  This means absolutely nothing to anyone else, other than to me and the love of my life (also my best friend).  We spent almost 37 hours together on local co-op, over the last two months, collecting everything the game had to offer.  We were then honored with a bonus end cut-scene (which you can watch online, without the actual work).  Now we need to find another similar co-op game to play together.

10 Best Graphics Video Games of 2013

Far Cry 3

I came across this review of the Top 10 Best Graphics in Video Games 2013 [1080p HD] - YouTube and found it informative (nearly 1 million views).

Honorable Mention: The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim (but requires mods installed) - available on Steam
# 10: Tomb Raider (the reboot) - available on Steam / Origin
#  9: Sleeping Dogs ("fulfills the I want GTA 5 now syndrome") - available on Steam / Origin
#  8: Hitman: Absolution - available on Steam / Origin
#  7: Max Payne 3 - available on Steam
#  6: Battlefield 3 - available on Origin
#  5: Far Cry 3 - available on Steam / Origin
#  4: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - available on Steam / Origin
#  3: BioShock Infinite - available on Steam
#  2: Metro: Last Light - available on Steam / Origin
#  1: Crysis 3 - available on Origin

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Another similar list of TOP 10 Best Graphics Games 2013  HD - YouTube (over 1 million views)

10 : Uncharted 3
9 : Sleeping Dogs
8 : Killzone 3
7 : ArmA
6 : Metro 2033
5 : Far Cry 3
4 : Battlefield 3
3 : The Witcher 2
2 : Skyrim & END MOD
1 : CRYSIS SERIES