A kind of Magic

I've been playing Magic the Gathering since the revised edition. That'd make it some time around 1994 is memory serves. I've not bought more physical cards in a very long time but I do enjoy the occasional digital game.

Until today.

I picked up the very reasonably priced "Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013" as a pre-order because I have had some much fun with the earlier titles. And in the nearly 20 years I've been playing the game I have never been so bored as I was tonight.

It's not that it is a bad edition, far from it, the rules are enforced well, it is graphically and feature rich. But it also has a deck that while it may be incredible cleverly constructed it is just dull to play against.

This is the first battle you face in the 4 way free for all chain. I'm talking about Ajani, here's the game in action Yes that's him with 265 life and myself with 300. Now bear in mind you start with 20 and digest that for a moment. You can also see that he has 12 cards left in his deck and I have 62. You can win this game by not only beating your opponent into the ground but by making them run out of cards. What you can't see from this is the fact that he has a spell that when cast gets shuffled into his library, at the same time it's going to summon an army of cat people.

Now fair enough this is a perfectly valid strategy. He also has two creatures that heal him for each creature that enters play and another two that gain a token for each time he gains life. The animation time for one of these events is about a second give or take. Now he casts a spell that will bring in 21 cats. So we wait a second for the spell, then 2 seconds for each cat to give him a point of life and then for each point of life another 2 seconds to add the token to his creatures. EACH cat put into play takes 6 seconds so each turn I spend just over two minutes waiting for the computer to sort it's maths out with it;s fancy effects. The delay is important because you may be able to interrupt. When you don't want do, perhaps because it would give you no advantage, you just have to wait. And Wait. And Wait.

So the game is at a stalemate, neither can win until my card which grants me victory for having more than 40 life, is drawn. The fact that it awards you victory for 40 life and you can see my life is at 300 here should be a massive warning sign.

This is a great edition of Magic: The Gathering. But which idiot thought it was a good idea to put this deck in it?

Monday night is games night

I have a group of friends I regularly meet on Monday nights for gaming. I've known most of them in one form or other for going on 18 years now. We play all sorts of games from board games to RPG's, we even tested the 4th edition of D&D.

Until last Monday night we had never turned it into a digital gaming session.

It's more surprising when you look at the constituent parts of the regular group. Of the five present last Monday two make their livings writing software another maintaining network infrastructure. Of the remaining two, one collects all gadgets he can. Finally we have the one member who isn't a technophobe so much as one who would rather everything is powered by steam.

I sent out a message to the group to let them know Monday night was going to be different and each should bring a laptop and to prepare for some science fiction action.

This action was Artemis.

We used the TV of our host to be the Captains main view Screen while the rest of use crowded around the dining table and set up out laptops to be the crew.

This game is a network co-op game that simulate the bridge crew of a starship. Each player takes control of a station and is responsible for the operation of it with limited, if any, visibility of what the other stations are doing.

Never in my life have I seen a co-op game with such a necessary level of teamwork. Left 4 Dead doesn't even come close.

The Capitan has no direct control and can only view on his screen what his officers provide for him.

Helm can control the flight of the starship including warp or jump drive, depending on your settings.

Weapons is very self explanatory and is focused on dealing death.

Comms has to ordinate request for assistance from the allied ships and star-bases in system. They are also responsible for requisitioning supplies and getting enemies to surrender, or just winding them up.

Engineering manages the relative power levels and limited coolant based on the demands of the ship at that moment. They also can direct the damage control teams around the ship to repair systems.

The last station is science. They have the most powerful scanners that can view inside nebula as well as identifying the enemy ships from across the sector.

We had time to play three rounds with only one crushing defeat against us when we attempted a mission with a underspeced ship.

The real charm of this game was that someone not incredibly into PC gaming was immediately able to drop into the roll of Captain and start issuing orders. Next time we will try and get Helm and Weapons in front of the captain with the other stations behind him. That way Comms will have to talk to the captain directly and navigation decisions can't bypass him as easily as we did.

It's also very interesting to see how at different times people are dominant. Out of combat it's all Comms and Science plotting and scanning making demands of Engineering and Helm, Weapons will be sitting quietly loading his torpedo tubes based on the information about the next targets. As soon as the shields go up Helm takes over demanding bearings and ranges from Science, Weapons starts shouting to engineering for more weapon power and the two start to work as ruthless killing machine. There is nothing quite like plotting and executing a mid combat jump to drop you right on the tail of your pursuers.

Engineering has the most passive and relaxed station in my experience but they do grow obsessed with energy levels and wastage caused by frivolous use of warp speed.

I'm usually careful in my recommendations of games, everyone's tastes vary so much. But if you can get 5 or 6 people in the same room with laptops and a nice big screen for the commander (star fleet uniforms optional) then I urge you to buy it. There is a free demo which only gives you access to Helm and Weapons along with the captains view. The final reason you should buy it to give it a go they have a 100% money back guarantee, you don't like it say so and get a refund. It's pricey when seen as a bulk buy but it's not much between 7 of you.