Last night some friends and I had a conversation over a board game, as is our tendency. The chitchat wandered over to games that for whatever reason we didn’t like much. Eventually this turned to my well-documented dislike for 7 Wonders. Most people at the table weren’t big fans of the game either, but none of them had quite the depth of my own antipathy. So for the sake of conversation, one of my friends began to offer up counterpoints to my complaints, just as a way to show me that it’s not as bad as all that. One of his points is that the game is so well-loved that it clearly struck a chord with a lot of people, which is true though not much of an indicator of quality. But thinking about that got me unreasonably annoyed. Rather than just not liking 7 Wonders and moving on with it, I found myself getting irritated that there were people out there who do like it. This is, of course, asinine. There’s no reason why other people enjoying a game should bother me. And yet I still found myself just a little resentful that a game I didn’t like was successful. My perception clearly doesn’t match with the prevailing opinion. As a game, I would call 7 Wonders “overrated”.

Don't read this Cracked LCD column until you read Grindhouse chief grinder Jim Bailey's blog about distribution at the Incursiongame.com website.

Wade and Marc take a look at the trio of Dudes on a Map (DoaM) games from Matagot that often don't play anything like that type of game.

We know what you're involved in.  It's a spiritual warfare that you can't win alone.
Don't be like Marcie.  Read DANK BASEMENTS and change your life!

It was about one o' clock in the afternoon when the regrets of insomnia set in - I had slept too late yet again and barely managed to budge myself out of bed, shower - and get ready for what I was unprepared for - by far the longest game of Talisman I had ever played - but also the most brutal session of Tekken 6 I had ever experienced. But we did more than that, my friends, oh yes, we did more.

First of all while I waited for my friend Mr. S to arrive, let's call him Mr. S because his true identity is that of a man of mystery - for truly a man of mystery is the only one who would stay up for all hours waiting for the World Cup Final and still make it to my house earlier than five o' clock. Round about three he arrived, and he brought with him a can of whoop-ass which he delivered in Tekken with a brutal efficency - to see him play Tekken was to experience the futility of human evolution - you felt like you were embarrassing Darwin to the point of him turning in his grave by playing Tekken against this fighting-game Ubermensch. The flurry of blows as he rained down punches and kicks on man, woman and beast - no matter what character I selected I always failed to beat him except with a few lucky strikes. Three matches won by me. Thirty by him.

 At one time, if you'd ask me to rattle off a list of the companies I considered "Friends of Ameritrash", Days of Wonder would have been right there on the list.

These days, they seem to be taking criticism from quite a few AT fans.  The question is, what happened?

Get a fucking clue. 

Some of you who remember the early days of the Ameritrash "movement" on BGG probably remember me offering little quality commentary or insight, but a vast quantity of unwanted opinions, insults, pictures of bombs, chicks, off topic off color youtube videos and other worthless drivel.  

When the Fortress: Ameritrash blog was started, I was one of the original eight - the bunch that came together and decided to start the blog that eventually became this website.  This column, and the columns to follow, explain why until my blackbeard review, you haven't seen much of me on this site. 

What follows is investigative journalism, an expose on a degenerate, perverse, corrupt, demented and disgusting subculture of board gaming.

Its going to take a while to tell the full story of everything that happened and what I saw.  Some of it is still hard for me to talk about.  These articles are going to serve not only as an expose on a depraved subgroup of gamers, but as a record of what happened to me, a biography of one of the most bizarre experiences of my life.....  going deep undercover to unmask the devils in our midst.

A group of people who can not remember to move out the car at the foot of a driveway, before attempting to back out the car at the head of a driveway, should not play fiddly games unsupervised.

Play responsibly. Appoint a designated turn marker mover.

This is a copy of an article originally published on the old F:AT blog. Read original comments . 

One of the better, but often undersung, experiences in the story of 2-player minis combat.

30-40 years ago many hobby game players looked for gameplay depth (and occasionally narrative depth) in their games. Now most game players don’t look for gameplay depth but look instead for variety, which is quite a different thing. Many more people now also look for narrative in their games, but I’m not sure whether they’re looking for narrative depth or narrative variety. Game playing has become much more passive where long-term decision-making is concerned, and that's incompatible with gameplay depth. Yes, there's lots of activity in many kinds of video games, and short-term decision making, but the decisions and choices often don't really matter in the long run.

This picture makes me dizzy.

Anyway, it must be dungeon crawl month here at F:AT because we've been talking about RAVENLOFT, DESCENT, DUNGEONQUEST, that terrible-looking game Loter went all Loter on, and we're already discussing WRATH OF ASHARDALON.

All of this got me thinking more critically about DESCENT, and the breakout of anti-DESCENT sentiment in the ASHARDALON thread made me finally come to terms with a fact I've been dodging for a while. I really don't like DESCENT.

Say all you want that it's fun with the right people or played a certain way, but fucking CAYLUS is fun with the right people and in a certain way. The problem is that DESCENT is built wrong from the ground up, the pacing is a nightmare, and the efficiency/optimization angle is a foundational element of the gameplay.

So I wrote about this at Cracked LCD this week just to get it out of my system.

It's probably terrible advertisment, but if anyone wants to buy my DESCENT collection let me know. Base game, ALTAR OF DESPAIR, WELL OF DARKNESS, ROAD TO LEGEND, and a bunch of Plano boxes. Miniatures unpainted. $125 shipped.

Another week begins, and another great user-submitted article to kick things off.  This week, Jorge Arroyo gives thoughts on conflict, theme, and Ameritrash.

I find I'm attracted to boardgames in mainly two different ways. Either the game has some puzzle like quality that intrigues me (this set of games is composed mainly of strange abstracts and the occasional euro) or the game has an interesting theme and manages to integrate its mechanics with its theme (this set is composed mainly of AT games).

There is a reason I usually refer to this last group as "Heavily Themed Games" instead of just AT, and that is because there are games in this group that lack some of the main aspects of AT games, especially direct conflict.

So in a surprising bit of news, it was just announced that Z-Man games has been bought by French Canadian publisher Filosophia. Is Zev imploding? What does this mean for all the great games he has in the works? Did Earth Reborn and all the dummies that haven't bought it bankrupt this once glorious publisher? I spoke with Zev and had him clear up a few things for us. We also talk about some of the new Z-Man releases to look for in the coming months.

Despite obvious Witchwood encouragement, Secret Paladin is still not a thing.

    Ladies and Gentlemen, here is your daily boardgame trivia question: what is the property that comes just before Free Parking?