A Visit to Myriad Games and the Live Free or Die State

I still owe a session report for last week's session.  We're playing an early session this week so I will combine last week's and this week's session report and post it later.

For now I'd like to quickly discuss a short trip I took this weekend.  My good friend Mike escaped the snowy embrace of Washington D.C. just in time to fly to the ironically less snowy state of New Hampshire for the Super Bowl.  I had plans for the game so I decided to come visit on Saturday instead.

Mike was staying with our friend Eric in Salem, NH.  I hadn't seen Eric in a while either so it was an all around win.  Jake decided to hitch a ride with me and suggested we bring some games and see if we might induct Eric and Mike into the cult of the Eurogamer.  Mike owns the Carcassonne Big Box but hasn't played at all.  He is a fan of Scrabble.  Eric is a big video gamer and is pretty open to other games.

When Jake mentioned bringing games it jogged my memory and I recalled that Myriad Games is in Salem, NH as well.  I listen to the Myriad podcasts and enjoy them a lot.  I've also seen pictures of the store and it looked really well stocked.  I decided long ago that if I found myself up that way again I would drop in and this was the chance.  I told Jake we had a pit stop to make.

I don't like paying list price for games because I buy so many and it would really add up over time but there is no sales tax in NH and I like to support good stores so I decided I would buy something while I was there.  Specifically I decided to look for some chapter packs for A Game of Thrones Living Card Game and the new Cosmic Encounter expansion Cosmic Incursion.  My reasoning with these choices was based on the overall cost and size of the games.  Cosmic Incursion is only $25 and is in a small box.  AGoT chapter packs are in tiny boxes and are $10 each.  The going price for CI online is about $17 and AGoT packs are $7.  If you add shipping and account for having no sales tax the difference is pretty bearable.

We hit the road around noon on Saturday.  I brought Ticket to Ride, Long Shot, and Dice Town.  I have read the rules to Dice Town but have never played so I asked Jake to read the rules as I drove.  After a short detour around the mall after I got off an exit early due to the retelling of a funny Patton Oswalt sketch we finally arrived at Myriad.  My head was pounding from lack of coffee and luckily Myriad is right next door to a Dunkin Donuts.  If this combination of stores was available in my town or nearby I would be in hog heaven.

The store itself was small but impressive.  I give them credit for having photos on the site that make the place look deceptively large.  There are shelves on all the surrounding walls was well as some free standing shelves on the floor and these shelves are absolutely packed floor to ceiling with games.

The store is extremely well stocked.  I cannot think of a game I could have wanted that was missing from the shelves.  Right as you walk in there is floor shelf with all of the very new releases on it.  Here I saw the Cosmic Incursion expansion as well as Macao which both came out just that week.  The store also has a section of main stream games to suit those unfamiliar with modern Euros.

I instantly recognized Dan's voice from the podcasts as he offered to help us find anything.  He was extremely knowledgeable and if anything offered almost too much information.  By this I mean for someone who doesn't shop constantly like me it would have been great "If you like X, you'll love Y too." sort of advice to which sadly most of my answers were "Sorry, already bought it.".

At one point my arms were loaded with games as I started to convince myself maybe I should buy The Adventurers because I could play it that day.  I also saw a copy of Prophecy and carried that around for a while.  I couldn't find the chapter packs though at first.

On my third or fourth trip around the store I spotted the chapter packs.  I had never seen one in person and they felt really insubstantial.  They are only 40 cards but I somehow expected more. Heft.  I decided not to pull the trigger.  I put Prophecy back because I realized that it's a long and light game which does not tend to be a favorite genre for our group.  More on that soon as we are going to bust out Talisman for the first time this week.

I spotted Sumeria which is a game I had often thought of getting but it is a tiny game and it was $35.  I also saw the new Rio Grande Ra and Priests of Ra.  I have the Uberplay Ra and love it but Priests of Ra intrigues me because of the simplified scoring.  I think I could bring that out with family successfully.  These games were also $35 but seemed more like $35 games than Sumeria.  I ended up walking out with Cosmic Incursion and an impulse buy of Tulip Mania by Scott Nicholson.  We'll see if this game flies with the group or not.  I am dreadfully bad at economic games and especially stock market games but I do tend to enjoy them.  We played a bunch of Owner's Choice last summer and it was fun.  That game may in fact be on the sale pile though because I thought it was pleasant but without any real spark.  Hopefully Tulip Mania won't be right behind it.

Cosmic Incursion looks like a good value.  For the price you get a 6th player option with home worlds, player cards, and ships, a couple of new game mechanics, and most importantly, lots of new alien powers to use.  Now maybe I'll actually get Cosmic Encounter to the table.  I really wish I knew someone who already knew the game.  The Fantasy Flight Rules confuse me even though the game looks really simple and I've been afraid to teach it.

I forgot to mention that there were a lot people happily playing Magic while we were there.  I know they also have other types of gaming at the store.  The play space was tight but substantial and everyone was having a good time.  At one point some games fell off the shelf and someone stopped their Magic game to help me pick them up.  I really wish I lived nearby or that there was a place like that near me.  It made me a bit sad to leave honestly.  So if you ever find yourself in that neck of the woods and you are a gamer or game collector definitely stop by.  This is clearly a game store made for the modern board game geek and I can't think of much I would do to improve it.  On second thought maybe I would try to get all of the card games into one place.  They seemed to be in a few separate regions of the store. 

Myriad Games gets a solid A from me.

When we finally got to Eric's we almost immediately pulled out Ticket to Ride.  We played once with Mike and Eric and then again when Sean showed up.  Jake wiped the floor with everyone both times.  During the first game I thought I had him but Eric prevented me from making all of my routes with a single placement and I spent most of the game working around it.  In the second game I couldn't put together any routes either.

We grabbed some food after this and when we got back we played Long Shot.  This went over even better and was very well received. by everyone.  I like this game quite a bit but I feel like either I am absolutely terrible at it or there is really no control at all over the game.  At one point I thought I had a first place horse so I had all of my money on it and I even sold back my second horse.  In the end the first place horse was constantly bogged down by other players and the horse I sold off ended up in third place.  So I think I had about $30 which was just cash I had not bet along the way.  I also had a lot of unusable cards in my hand during this run of the game which was similar to the previous game I played but very different from games before that.

In the end I think it is clear that Ticket to Ride is the undisputed champion of Gateway Games.  I don't think Carcassonne or Settlers of Catan can hold a candle to it in that respect.  This is owed primarily to the easy of explanation and the production quality I think.  I actually think the latter thing is what makes the game really come to life.  You might not think this by looking at the game but I have tried to imagine playing this game with components more like those in Transamerica (boring card art, a boring smaller board, and wood sticks instead of plastic trains) and I honestly think the game would not be nearly as compelling.  I think the components elevate Ticket to Ride from a good light game to a game for the ages.

I also now think that Long Shot is forever in my arsenal of Gateway Games as well.  This game has gone over really well with new players.  It has similar compelling production values, supports lots of people very well and can be explained very easily as you are playing the first round.  I'll have to figure out a good dice game and card game to add to the pack and start carrying these games with me wherever I go.  Right now I think that card game could easily be 6 Nimmt or Coloretto or one of many others.  The field is crowded.  The dice game field is crowded too but unlike card games I cannot think of a dice game that stands out as a great game that is also super easy to teach.  I'll have to give that one some thought.

That's it for now.  Keep on gaming!