One day, a few years ago, I reduced my game collection in quite a drastic measure, and left the world of gaming to more fully engage in writing; or so I thought. As it turns out, if you're going to write, you're going to do it whether or not you're gaming at the same time. And like everything else, balance must be achieved; if you haven't got balance, you haven't got anything else.
Of the influences that got me back into gaming, I must count the oddest as being my iPhone. I actually did not have a smartphone for quite some time, but I recently got my shiny refurbished iPhone 4GS (I think it is) with 16GB of storage because I wanted to start playing more iPhone board games. Le Havre had caught my eye, and I saw quite a few of them---San Juan, Carcassonne, Lost Cities. Old friends, although Le Havre was new to me at the time.
Playing Le Havre, with its jaunty little soundtrack, was amusing, but as anyone who's ever tried to play the game on the iPhone knows, it's pretty difficult to read the cards, so I was playing solo almost blindly. And I thought, that's it, I'm going to buy the game. I could have bought an iPad, but a game's cheaper, even one as apparently out-of-print at the moment as Le Havre, and I already have my Nexus 7 for my tablet needs.
It wasn't my first game in years, but it was the first game I bought ever since a relationship of mine, which came up in the years between, fell apart. I guess screwing up a relationship is causing me to rebound on my true love of games, eh? Oh well.
Anyways, Le Havre is also my first big Uwe Rosenberg game. I'd played Bohnanza many years before and didn't much care for it. I did play Babel and enjoyed it. And I remember, at the last Gathering, seeing someone play Le Havre, which was full of pieces. Serious amounts of resource chits, and I shyed away from it at the time.
So this was new.
When I received Le Havre in the mail, oh, I was so excited. My first big Eurogame in some time! (Have we consigned that Eurogame/Ameritrash war to the black hole, where it belongs? No? Oh well.) Punch, punch, punch. Inhale the scent of new cards. Lay out the rather large amount of board. Play through a solo game, experiencing the tactile joy of wooden pieces, cards, and chits.
A peace settled in me, then. One that had not been present for a long, long time.
And I thought, this Uwe Rosenberg fellow. I must play more of his games. I tried Ora et Labora and quite, quite liked it. I started getting involved in gaming nights again.
I've even picked up Agricola, even though the way I was introduced to it years ago (non-family game, K deck in play, no instruction) resulted in an unpleasant experience I swore not to repeat. Even now I'm quietly constructing tuckboxes for the decks from Agricola and The Goodies instead of playing it, but I really must play it some time.
At any rate. I'm back. And I have a stack of Rosenberg games to prove it.
Of the influences that got me back into gaming, I must count the oddest as being my iPhone. I actually did not have a smartphone for quite some time, but I recently got my shiny refurbished iPhone 4GS (I think it is) with 16GB of storage because I wanted to start playing more iPhone board games. Le Havre had caught my eye, and I saw quite a few of them---San Juan, Carcassonne, Lost Cities. Old friends, although Le Havre was new to me at the time.
Playing Le Havre, with its jaunty little soundtrack, was amusing, but as anyone who's ever tried to play the game on the iPhone knows, it's pretty difficult to read the cards, so I was playing solo almost blindly. And I thought, that's it, I'm going to buy the game. I could have bought an iPad, but a game's cheaper, even one as apparently out-of-print at the moment as Le Havre, and I already have my Nexus 7 for my tablet needs.
It wasn't my first game in years, but it was the first game I bought ever since a relationship of mine, which came up in the years between, fell apart. I guess screwing up a relationship is causing me to rebound on my true love of games, eh? Oh well.
Anyways, Le Havre is also my first big Uwe Rosenberg game. I'd played Bohnanza many years before and didn't much care for it. I did play Babel and enjoyed it. And I remember, at the last Gathering, seeing someone play Le Havre, which was full of pieces. Serious amounts of resource chits, and I shyed away from it at the time.
So this was new.
When I received Le Havre in the mail, oh, I was so excited. My first big Eurogame in some time! (Have we consigned that Eurogame/Ameritrash war to the black hole, where it belongs? No? Oh well.) Punch, punch, punch. Inhale the scent of new cards. Lay out the rather large amount of board. Play through a solo game, experiencing the tactile joy of wooden pieces, cards, and chits.
A peace settled in me, then. One that had not been present for a long, long time.
And I thought, this Uwe Rosenberg fellow. I must play more of his games. I tried Ora et Labora and quite, quite liked it. I started getting involved in gaming nights again.
I've even picked up Agricola, even though the way I was introduced to it years ago (non-family game, K deck in play, no instruction) resulted in an unpleasant experience I swore not to repeat. Even now I'm quietly constructing tuckboxes for the decks from Agricola and The Goodies instead of playing it, but I really must play it some time.
At any rate. I'm back. And I have a stack of Rosenberg games to prove it.