Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by and tell us about your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper. Newcomers may notice that many who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
Last weekend, Ann and I were able to play a “heavy Euro game” with friends quill and pdxteacher; Trajan. You might ask, what is a Euro game? Well, in gaming parlance, it is the opposite of Ameritrash games that involve a lot of conflict and luck. After WWII, game playing in Germany veered away from anything smacking of military conquest and toward economic type puzzle thinking. So Euro games tend to involve the building of an economic engine and rely upon strategy rather than dumb luck. Come the 21st Century, and that style of game has just exploded. There are enormous conferences built around new board games — in Europe and here in the U.S. as well. I saw somewhere that Essen Spiel 2017, one of the huge conferences in Germany had a gate of over 180,000 people this year. And why not? What a lovely hobby, encouraging exercise for the brain while in the company of friends. Or family. I love it!
A popular designer of Euro games is Stefan Feld, math teacher by day and superstar of game design at any other time. He is prolific and all his games are well received. But Trajan appears to be a particular favorite because of the complexity and balance of the game’s mechanics.
Here is a little (and quite geeky) taste of this particular game:
And a dissenting view:
Now I know Tom Vasel doesn’t think there is any theme in Trajan...but to me, there is. The Emperor Trajan was said to be one of the “good” emperors — because he focused on building projects that benefited the Roman people as a whole, not just palaces as some other emperors did. He is also reputed to have looked after social welfare — all while expanding the empire. This can’t have been easy. To me, it is kind of interesting to reflect upon the notion of good government in a vast empire, especially as we are living in such (as the Oriental curse goes) “interesting times” ourselves. Here is a little something on Trajan’s works:
We may play Trajan again this weekend — especially if it is going to be a cold and rainy weekend (as it promises to be). Please share your plans, your day, your menus! This is an open thread.