THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Okay, so we didn’t end up working on the revisions for the Simpsons’ opening.  Apparently there were quite a few re-writes.  I kinda liked the way it was. I got a chance to see it a few days ago and saw that they’ve added a lot of new things and the opening seems longer this time.

The new opening is  going to surprise a few people.  Some people will be thrilled that the opening is new and different after 20 something years.  Other people will probably complain about it.  It’ll be fun to see peoples reactions.  I’m sure the new opening will grow on me.

In other news, we ended up working late again on Thursday and Friday because we got taken off the show we were working on and put on the DVD menu animation for the next box set.  I guess it was do right away and the stuff we had to do was really complicated.  It was very hard work.

Since I stayed late on Friday, I wasn’t able to get home to play any board games with Andy last week.

THE HORROR…the horror!

FAMILY

Eduardo (my daughter’s Godfather), celebrated his birthday this weekend.  We went over to his birthday party and had fun eating and playing games.  At night, many of us got together and played a game of Texas Hold ’em.  I played better than usual, which is to say, I won more often than I lost and didn’t lose all my chips like I usually do.  Alesha did surprisingly well as well.  She pulled off some really good plays.  It was a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Eduardo!

BOARD GAMES

The Pictures of the game below, I got at Board Game Geek.

Okay, so last week I wrote about Dreamblade, one of my two favorite games. Today I’ll write about Chase, my other favorite game.

What’s it about?

Chase is an abstract strategy game that’s played on a hex board and it shares some similarities with Chess but uses dice as it’s game pieces.

What similarities does Chase share with Chess?

Well, like Chess, Chase is a perfect information game whose pieces move designated ways.  Many Chess strategies like “pins” and “forks” can be used in Chase.  Thinking a few moves ahead is also a must, as is having control of the center. Like Chess, Chase has no element of chance.

How is Chase different from Chess?

You can see from looking at the game that the board is a hex board and the pieces are dice.

The dice are never rolled. The pips on the faces of the dice, on each side, must add up to 25 and stay that way through out the game.  This means that when one of your piece is captured, the number of pips showing on the captured piece, must be added to die with the lowest pip that you own. The point of the game is to capture enough of your opponents pieces so that they can no longer assign pips to their dice without going over 25 pips.

The number of pips showing on the face of your die, is the “speed” or number of spaces in can move. It has to move exactly that much.  If there is a piece in the way, your opponent’s or yours, that prevents that piece from moving it’s full movement in that direction, it cannot move in that direction.  If an opponent’s piece is exactly the number of moves away as your piece can move, you may capture that piece.  If YOUR piece is exactly the number of moves away as your piece can move, then you can land on that space and “bump” your piece over to the next hex.  This can be used to capture opponent’s pieces (by bumping them into your opponent’s piece) as well as helping set up pieces that aren’t quite where you wanted them to be.

Also, when you have two of your own pieces adjacent to each other, instead of making a move, you can adjust the pips on both the adjacent pieces so they show what ever number of pips you want, as long as the sum of both pips add up to the same amount as they started with.  For example, if you started with a die showing 2 pips and another showing 4 pips, you may change the pieces to show a 1 and a 5 or a 3 and a 3 or you can even switch the numbers so the lowest now shows a 4 and the other becomes a 2.

The board is interesting as well, the left and the right side of the board, “raps around”. In other words,  if you start your movement on one side of the board  you can end it in the other side of the board. Meanwhile, on the top and bottom of board, do NOT rap around but rather, the pieces are allowed to ricochet off the walls.  This means that if your piece hits the bottom or top of the board. it continues moving in the direction of the board that would make the move into a  “V” shape (or an upside down “V” shape if you hit the top of the board).

Finally we have the Chamber.  The Chamber is a hex directly in the center of the board, which is usually darker than the others.  When a piece moves into the Chamber, it splits into two pieces, each, half the amount of the die that went in.  So if you put 4 speed piece in, it spills out the Chamber as two pieces with 2 pips showing.  A five would come out as two pieces with one showing  2 pips and the other  3 pips.

So that’s a quick overview of the game. For the full rules of the game Click Here.

Why do I like it?

First I have to say that I don’t actually own a copy of this game. I’ve only played the game online so my experience with this game is a little strange.  It’s out of print but you can easily find a copy on e-bay. I could easily make this game at home  too but I really enjoy having the time to think about my next move when I play online.

Once again, like with Dreamblade and Chess, this game has pieces with variable “powers”, which I’m a huge sucker for.  Not only that, but having the ability to change the speed (“power”) of your pieces, just makes it even cooler.

Chase is by far, one of the most creative abstract games I’ve ever played.  It’s very difficult to predict your opponents moves, only because the options are sometimes really overwhelming.  It’s not very often that you get “stuck” for a move to play.  There is always something strange or unpredictable that you can do to turn the game to your own advantage. It’s a very “open” game for your creativity.

Also, one of the things that’s amazing about playing Chase, is the way you often WANT your opponent to capture your pieces. Sometimes your opponent’s apparent strength is he’s biggest weakness.   A lot of this game is about positioning your pieces to take advantage of getting captured. It’s also about using you opponents best moves against him.  Taking his move and turning it to your advantage.

Not only that, but the Chamber plays a huge part in the game.  Being able to get you pieces back by splitting them, is a big deal. Games often turn into enormous Chamber Wars, where many pieces are set up to make Chamber moves (if you make the right moves) while others are ready to nullify the moves as soon as they happen.

Chase really sticks with me when I play it.  I often find myself spending hours thinking about my best move and my opponents best counter move so I can then make the best next move.  Often getting stuck because there are waaaay too many good moves to make, making it difficult to predict which one your opponent will choose. I often find myself completely surprised after seeing the move my opponent made, only because it never occurred to me that they could do it. Just when you think your winning, POW! “Holy cow! Where did that come from?!” Then you start desperately studying the board in order to come up with something equally as crazy.  It’s sooo fun.

After playing this game, I’ve found Chess very restrictive.  Last time I played Chess, I found myself wishing I could bump a piece with another or exchange the movement of two adjacent pieces.  I was wishing I could turn the game in my favor by sacrificing a piece to buff up another.  I was even wondering if I could stick a Chamber somewhere so I can get my pieces back.  Chase really spoiled me.

I love this game, I highly recommend it.

If you want to lose a game to me play a game against me, you can join the Super Duper Games site and challenge me to a game.  It’s free and easy to sign up. It’s turn based, which means,  you get an e-mail letting you know when it’s your turn. My site name is “Daarck”.

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