[brydeemer]

What are you buying?

Listen here

Bry

[Marty Devine]

Previews, 'tis the monthly little Christmas day again!
Yes, I get that excited reading a freking catalog every month.

[nweathington]

Two things I'm surprised you didn't mention, Bryan: It Was the War of the Trenches by Jaques Tardi and Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers by Matt Kindt. Those are the two books in Previews I'm probably the most excited about.

[BillDoughty]

Previews, 'tis the monthly little Christmas day again!
Yes, I get that excited reading a freking catalog every month.

It is a bit like the old Sears Wish Book or JC Penney catalog, isn't it? Only without all the boring clothes and even more ladies in their underwear.

[brydeemer]

Two things I'm surprised you didn't mention, Bryan: It Was the War of the Trenches by Jaques Tardi and Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers by Matt Kindt. Those are the two books in Previews I'm probably the most excited about.

I have Super Spy on my list. I think Pants reminded me.

I'll have to look into the other book. It sounds awesome.

Thanks for the heads up,

Bry

[dbm]

Stan wanted the Usagi plush to be 'cute'; personally I prefer the non-cute version, but I guess I'm not the intended audience:

http://usagiguy.livejournal.com/45006.html

[Wood]

Two things I'm surprised you didn't mention, Bryan: It Was the War of the Trenches by Jaques Tardi and Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers by Matt Kindt. Those are the two books in Previews I'm probably the most excited about.

Excellent choices. The Kindt book is more of a "B-sides" compilation than new material, but any Super Spy goodness is worth buying in my book. As to the Tardi book, I must admit to having missed that in my first pass through, but then Vince B talked about it on our show two weeks ago and I zeroed in on it. Looks fantastic.

[David D.]

I definitely agree with Bryan that the new Joe Kubert graphic novel is the most important book of the month. I think it is a shame that it is not getting more attention.

[Wood]

I definitely agree with Bryan that the new Joe Kubert graphic novel is the most important book of the month. I think it is a shame that it is not getting more attention.

David, let's flesh this one out a bit. I know you take great pride in choosing your words carefully, so I found it interesting that you called it the most important book of the month. As someone who is looking forward to the work, I struggle with classifying it as "important" per se, at least in the context of many other works that could spark an interest.

For example, I'm personally most looking forward to the Jonah Hex OGN with interiors by Tony DeZuniga. To me, seeing Tony doing interior work is more "important" in that we don't get to see his greatness much anymore, than Kubert who has continued to put out work (at an admittedly high quality) for most of his life.

[David D.]

David, let's flesh this one out a bit. I know you take great pride in choosing your words carefully, so I found it interesting that you called it the most important book of the month. As someone who is looking forward to the work, I struggle with classifying it as "important" per se, at least in the context of many other works that could spark an interest.

For example, I'm personally most looking forward to the Jonah Hex OGN with interiors by Tony DeZuniga. To me, seeing Tony doing interior work is more "important" in that we don't get to see his greatness much anymore, than Kubert who has continued to put out work (at an admittedly high quality) for most of his life.

I think that is another fair contender, and I am also similarly psyched for DeZuniga's Hex OGN. But I guess, as it is an OGN fully cartooned by one of the last living legends in the industry, and the choice of subject matter (not that I don't like Hex) that makes it a more important work to me. I speculate that, decades from now, some of Kubert's OGNs, perhaps including this one, will be mentioned in the same breath as Eisner's graphic novels. And that is why, to me, the Kubert book is big news.

[darrel]

The most important book is the Deadpool corps coming out. Im relieved to see that were finally getting some Deadpool on the stands

[Wood]

I think that is another fair contender, and I am also similarly psyched for DeZuniga's Hex OGN. But I guess, as it is an OGN fully cartooned by one of the last living legends in the industry, and the choice of subject matter (not that I don't like Hex) that makes it a more important work to me. I speculate that, decades from now, some of Kubert's OGNs, perhaps including this one, will be mentioned in the same breath as Eisner's graphic novels. And that is why, to me, the Kubert book is big news.

Karma to you good sir I didn't want my reply to seem as though I was dismissing Kubert's OGN, particularly when I know we both share a love for tales of the Vietnam conflict. I just found your choice of the word important to be noteworthy, because you're like the E.F. Hutton of comics forums. When David D talks, EVERYONE listens.

[Apreche]

Dominion: General Strategy

If you are buying more than three or four action cards total in the entire game, you are doing it wrong. Most of the time you should be buying silver/gold. Then you buy provinces until there is a winner. Cards like the mine, moneylender, etc. are the most powerful cards as they help get you more money sooner. If you ever have $8, buy a province. If it's late in the game, and you've got lots of money (like the dreaded $7!) get dutchys and dukes and such. Otherwise the people with the provinces will crush you. If the game is going to be over before you reshuffle again, you might as well get an estate as it's 1 point, and can't hurt you if you never shuffle it.

Dealing with the witch:

First of all, make sure you don't have too many curses in the game. You don't use the entire stack of curses, you use less depending on the number of players. When they run out, they run out, and that's that. It's a lot less troublesome when using the correct number of curses. Remember the game ends when three stacks are empty, and the curses are one of those stacks! So if curses, dutchys, and witches run out, game over.

If the witch is in the game, you should buy it as quickly as possible. Buy two if you can. If you have the witch before everyone else, you will use it more, and everyone else will be hurt more by it.

If you can't get the witch first, and you're getting cursed, try to use a card that lets you trash curses, if one is in the game.

The best thing you can do against other people's witches is to buy a moat or two. The moat is very powerful protection. Read it carefully, you only have to reveal the moat in your hand to stop the witch, you don't have to play it. That means that if you have one moat in your hand, you are protected from all attacks until it is your turn again. Then you get to draw two cards! And the moat only costs $2, very cheap!

As for Thurn and Taxis, it's a solved game. There is always an optimal and obvious move, or at least an easily calculable risk/reward tradeoff. Winning and losing comes down entirely to the randomness of which cards show up on which turns. Very similar to Ticket to Ride mathematically speaking.

Keep talking about the games at the end of the Previews episodes. It's good stuff.

This post has been edited by Apreche: 19 January 2010 - 08:15 PM

[brydeemer]

As for Thurn and Taxis, it's a solved game. There is always an optimal and obvious move, or at least an easily calculable risk/reward tradeoff. Winning and losing comes down entirely to the randomness of which cards show up on which turns. Very similar to Ticket to Ride mathematically speaking.

Keep talking about the games at the end of the Previews episodes. It's good stuff.

I disagree with the notion of a "solved game." The path to victory is totally dependent on the decisions the other players make and options available to you at the time. No two games ever play out the same way twice.

Also, Endeavor is an awesome game and should be played by everyone.

Bry

[bamfbamf]

female kato is travesty!!!!!!!

bruce lee is spinning in his grave!!!

why can't they make the green hornet female? we all know kato is the lead in this duo!!!

[bamfbamf]

i saw the green lantern on CN this weekend as well...

it was okay

story was kind of weak, but the animation was well done

killawog (spelling?) was cool

and i liked the space squirrel

[BillDoughty]

For my money, Mike Norton drawing Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam is only a good thing. The book's been great from the beginning, but the art has been inconsistent since Mike Kunkel left and Art Baltazar & Franco came on for writing duties only. He's been been posting sample images here and there on Twitter, and they've been great, fitting the tone of the book but still sufficiently Norton-y.

As for Girl Comics, what got lost in all of the online brouhaha over the title was that Marvel published a book called Girl Comics back in the Timely/Atlas days, so not only is it descriptive of the content, but it has a historical connection to the company.

[David D.]

Karma to you good sir I didn't want my reply to seem as though I was dismissing Kubert's OGN, particularly when I know we both share a love for tales of the Vietnam conflict. I just found your choice of the word important to be noteworthy, because you're like the E.F. Hutton of comics forums. When David D talks, EVERYONE listens.

Aww. Thanks. That is very kind.

Now, here's hoping the book lives up to expectations! Psyched about the DeZuniga Hex as well. I know 2010 has been a watershed year for OGNs, but it looks like 2011 is off to a great start.

This post has been edited by David D.: 20 January 2010 - 01:16 AM

[Apreche]

I disagree with the notion of a "solved game." The path to victory is totally dependent on the decisions the other players make and options available to you at the time. No two games ever play out the same way twice.

Sorry, but it's a mathematical thing. For example, Checkers was somewhat recently solved. Here is a link to the relevant paper. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1144079. If two players always make the exact right decision in Checkers, the game will always end in a draw.

A great example of a solved game is Connect Four. There are only 7 possible decisions during any given turn. It is very possible for a human being to memorize all of the possible patterns. The result is that the person who goes first in Connect Four can always force a win with optimal play, regardless of whatever decision the second player makes. Lesson to learn: always go first in Connect Four. Refuse to even play if you have to go second. It's mathematically pointless.

The best example of a solved game is Tic-Tac-Toe. This is a game that most people have actually solved. There are only 9 possible decisions for the first player on the first turn. But really, since the board is symmetrical, there are actually only three possible decisions (corner, side, center). Everyone knows that if you play tic-tac-toe perfectly, it always ends in a draw.

The thing is, the vast majority of game players out there do not analyze their games mathematically. The decisions they make are not even remotely close to optimal. Also, many games like Chess, Go, Tigris and Euphrates, etc. are so complex that a human brain, or even an electronic one, can not compute the solution. In some cases we can not even compute whether or not a solution even exists. Because of this, solvable or solved games, like Checkers, will not seem solved when played by human beings.

Now, Thurn and Taxis in particular, I do not know if it is truly mathematically solved. However, whenever I or my friends play with strangers, we always win 100% of the time. When we play with each other, we can always pinpoint some random factor that allowed the winning player to get an advantage, such has drawing exactly the cities they needed. Also, we usually win by extremely small margins of points, since we are all playing extremely well. So even if we haven't mathematically solved it well enough to write a scientific paper, it's solved in the sense that the game no longer holds any mystery for us. The decisions we make on our turns are obvious to the point where we can all tell exactly what the other players are going to do. When we play the game effectively becomes CandyLand, where players make no decisions whatsoever. They simply turn over cards until they discover who is the winner.

Other Eurogames we have "solved" include Settlers of Catan, 3-player Puerto Rico (not 4 or 5 player), Scotland Yard, San Juan, Ticket to Ride, and a few others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solved_game

What is the moral of this story? The moral is DON'T LEARN THESE THINGS. INGNORANCE IS BLISS. I used to have a lot of fun playing all sorts of games. Now that I understand how a lot of games work mathematically, a lot fewer games are actually fun anymore. I can't have fun playing Settlers because I don't make any decisions. It's just automatic. Even worse, the best decisions remove all the fun from the game. Want to win at Settlers? First thing you need to do is never trade with anyone, unless you're ripping them off (I'll give you one wood for your whole hand!). Of course, the game is not fun at all without trading. How did I end up like this? I played games too much. I played Puerto Rico nearly five times a day for a whole summer. Sounds like fun, but trust me, stick with infrequent game nights.

This post has been edited by Apreche: 20 January 2010 - 01:38 AM

[Paul]

Excellent choices. The Kindt book is more of a "B-sides" compilation than new material, but any Super Spy goodness is worth buying in my book. As to the Tardi book, I must admit to having missed that in my first pass through, but then Vince B talked about it on our show two weeks ago and I zeroed in on it. Looks fantastic.

I agree 100% Wood. Even B-Sides Kindt is like a fine single-malt scotch, something to be savoured and enjoyed!