The competition is looking very healthy on the whole, the board has 7 unique winners, so nobody was really dominating the competition. Moreover, of 14 competitors, 11 scored points with two of the scoreless only competing in 2 games or less and thus having a significantly smaller chance of scoring points in the first place. Perhaps best of all, 4 out of 9 events (5 arguably), were won by people who were playing that game for the first time that night. Of our top four, two of them got all their points off of games they were playing for the first time that night. Dani and I try to design the competition so that someone completely unfamiliar with all the games can roll in, learn them, and triumph, and this was certainly borne out this year.
This goes back to what I regard as the primary purpose of the decathlon, to introduce people we know to games they might not ever play otherwise, and continue to build and expand our fun community of gamers and friends. Dani for the record, views the event more as a competition first, so she keeps me grounded from getting too touchy-feely with how the competition is run. However, she is onboard with my idea to offer free point next year to anyone who brings a new person not on my invite list for at least one event. I think the competition is in a good place to expand it, but we'll address that next summer.
So, every year we aim to replace at least two events and one award, what games are on the chopping block at the end of this year? Let's start with:
The Mainstays
Scythe
Machi Koro
Small World
Settlers of Catan
These games will never leave the competition. Scythe to me is the perfect mid-high level strategy game that's easy to pick up. Since players can score off of 6 events at max (and that will generally be the most I let someone sign up for), we always aim to have 6 events in the competition that can be picked up and learned in 10-20 minutes. However, for the other three, I like to make them all "high-level" strategy games that reward the really experienced board gamers, and with their inclusion, reduce sign-ups among this group for some of the less complex games and make it more likely a new player can win them. Scythe perfectly straddles the line, where a new person can join in and still reasonably be able to figure out what they're doing, while at the same time appealing to this more experienced crowd.
Machi Koro was one of the first games Danielle and I bought together, and has always been extremely popular with our friends. It's beginner friendly and can be run as a bracketed game without it taking too long, giving us a lot of flexibility with how many people sign up for it.
Small World is one of the few "simpler" games that is a true war game - and keeping at least a couple non-Euro style games is important because these games fuel the award nominations in a way worker placement games do not. Besides that, this game is consistently popular, and serves as the venue for players to get to see the previous winners of the Decathlon (represented as in-game races), and get an idea of the stakes for landing that Golden Sailboat.
Finally, Settlers of Catan is a game that everyone is likely to know how to play before coming into this competition, and for that reason always has a high number of sign ups. It's also pretty adjustable as a game I can bracket, and can take up to 12 players. It typically gets the most sign-ups of any event, and for that reason, I like to put it as the final event of the competition as a last minute free-for-all opportunity for even the most behind player to run up the score and make into the top 4.
So, now for the games on the chopping block.
The Variables
Seven Wonders
Shogun
Alhambra
Evolution
Eclipse
So, three of these games (Seven Wonders, Alhambra, and Eclipse), were first time additions this year. Evolution was a break-out success that has proved extremely popular with people. I also really love it because among a host of games that encourage empire/city/civilization building, this one has radically different theming. It also is easy to bracket if need be, as games will typically run for an hour or so, even with 6 players. For this reason, there is an excellent chance this game will be promoted to mainstay status and is safe for this year.
Seven Wonders is similarly unlikely to leave the competition anytime soon, and indeed I really like it as the first event. It can take a high number of players (up to 14 when bracketed), plays fast, and can be understood with relative ease. It also features only indirect player conflict, which is good for a first event when people are still trying to figure out what's going on. More likely to leave (because the theming for the game very much overlaps with Machi Koro, Small World, and Settlers of Catan. But safe for now!
Okay, now the actual three we're thinking about cutting.
Alhambra
So, Alhambra is a fantastic game, easy to learn (this year it was won by a first time), easy to bracket, indeed it has many of the qualities that make me favor Seven Wonders and Machi Koro.
However, like many of our more Euro-style games, it doesn't produce many opportunities for people to do notable things that win awards. And, moreover, it's a empire/civilization/city-building game in a competition already glutted by them. So, not a bad game, and I'm not unhappy with how it went this year, but it's on the short list to be cut because its too similar to other games we have in the competition that people simply like more.
It is one of the the six "simpler" games though, so it will need to be replaced by something similarly straightforward.
Eclipse
I love this game, truly. It is maybe not the best Decathlon event game though. Even for high-level strategy games, it has a true glut of mechanics and interactions to learn. It's also long, can't be bracketed and can foster a lot of animosity between players. This is not necessarily the worst thing, and the game routinely produces a lot of award nominations with it's big memorable moments and inter-player conflict.
The thing is, if I do replace it, I want it to be with another high-level strategy game. So, depending on if I am able to find any of those in the next year, the game may remain in the competition.
Shogun
We're considering dropping this game for all the same reasons as Eclipse, although Shogun is a less engregious offender in almost all regards. It's complex, but simpler than Eclipse, it's long, but not as long as Eclipse. You can only take 5 players in it, but I really don't mind having 1-2 five player only games in the competition. Likewise, it would need to be replaced with a decently high level strategy game, which may prove difficult. For these reasons, this one is on the short-list to be replaced, but likely the only ones we replace will be Alhambra and Eclipse.
So, what are we considering bringing in.
The Candidates
We really want to bring at least cooperative game into the competition. These presented a challenge to us to figure out how to score, but we've settled on having people sign up as teams and having the teams compete against each other by a common scoring rubric. Our three options are as follows:
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Pandemic
X-Com
X-com is perhaps my favorite of the three, but the downside of it is that you really need a referee there to make sure people are abiding by the time, and it's not as beginner friendly. The time pressure is likely to cause tempers to flare too. Pandemic is perhaps the simplest choice, and is relatively easier to balance and score, but unlike the others, Pandemic is susceptible to one person alpha-gaming the table, and we truly want this event to be a team effort.
For these reasons, we're likely going to make Sentinels of the Multiverse the cooperative game next year. It's difficult to alpha-game, easy to learn, and offers a lot of fun possibilities for players to tailor their teams and develop fun synergies. It will be difficult to score, and I'm putting a lot of thought into figuring out how to balance the villian deck and what villain to choose, but I think of the three it would be the one players enjoy the most. It's also been very popular with our friends, so there's that.
As far as other new games from our collection, I like the idea of replacing one of our strategy games with a miniatures strategy game. Star Wars Armada is way too difficult to pick up quickly, but Heroscape would be quite doable, and is even approachable by a complete newbie. The only issue is the potential length of games and the problem of finding the right competition format for it.
At any rate, finding a new high-tier strategy game may prove difficult, but I am already really looking forward to hosting Sentinels next year. It's been a great competition this year, and look forward to continuing to host this little shin dig next summer.
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