Zeppelin Attack! Review

I actually had a Kickstarter arrive on time, so I got to play Zeppelin Attack! over the weekend

We had a lot of fun, and aren't sure whether the few snags we hit were intentional or whether we just had poor strategies. Reactions around the table went from "When can we buy this?" to "I probably won't ask to play it, but I will happily play it again." So I will call this a win for my need to pick up more games that are lighter in mental load than what I generally enjoy playing.

My wife and I played with another couple, and all of us are regular board gamers, and we get together regularly to play games - everything from Firefly to a bunch of smaller games. Being the new game in the house, I explained the rules (as best I understood) and we were off.

The first few rounds were frustrating - none of us could reliably attack (Snag #1), and the mercenaries for purchase were relatively expensive - I think the cheapest was a 7 or 8 (Snag #2). This meant that we had several rounds of desperately trying to find the two Fate Point cards that would allow us to buy stuff (Snag #3).

As noted, there were a few snags, and whether these are issues baked into the design or just us playing the game for the first time, I'm unsure - we'll be playing again, so I'm sure we'll figure it out.

Snag #1: None of us could reliably attack. I went into the game expecting to land hits reliably, and discovered that it was going to be rare for me to do so. It seemed like unless we ganged up on one player, there were enough spread defense to ensure that attacks just didn't land often. Or we just had bad luck in picking who to attack.

Snag #2 and 3: Probably could be the same snag - we start off with one 3-point and one 4-point Fate card, the currency that allows us to buy cards. Unfortunately, unless you manage to pull them both together, you'll have one sitting in your hand taking up space while you wait for another card - and the two operative cards that allow you to generate more cards were relatively slow to fill.

I think this is where our inexperience with the system bit us - even if you want to play a more aggressive deck, you need to buy a fair number of operative cards to generate sufficient Fate points to purchase - and being as the Fate cards range 2-5 points, and the cards generally run 4 (rare) to 6-8 (normal) to as much as 9 or 10 (rare). So you need to have a good engine for obtaining those cards.

Like you do in any deck building game - it is just that the variance obtaining the points is a bit higher in Zeppelin Attack!

My only other critique of the game is the rule book - it is generally fine; however, the back page is an ad, while the "Summary of turns" is inside the front cover - this meant that at the table I had to constantly open the book to reference the book. Big deal in the end? Nope. Annoying? Yup. I'll probably be printing out, or modifying the summary page from the online book for this purpose.

While the game ran long, everyone had fun. My wife wasn't having as much fun, and then she had a single turn where her massive 4-zeppelin armada wrecked destruction across the table and her sounds of delight could only be heard by bats and other small animals.

Why I Don't [Want To] Play BSG Much Anymore

So there was a game of Battlestar Galactica at Madicon a couple weekends ago, and I realized, after a few moments, that I had no regrets that I missed it as I swooped by the game and chatted with the folks there.

Part of the reason was that it was Madicon, and I'm all about the shortish games (generally) and socializing and talking with my old friends and meeting a few new people.

But really, as I thought about it, it was the fact that while I love the concepts of the game and how it plays out for the early and mid-game, the end-game is just frustrating and drawn out, especially if the cylons are winning.

Admittedly, the Exodus expansion fixes some of this, and is why I won't generally play a BSG game without it; however, it is a band-aid to the core the problem that the cylon's best play is to drag out the game as long as possible, turning it into a grueling 3 hour+ game. And occasionally that's fun, but regularly? Not anymore, I don't have the time for not knowing how long the game is going to go.

What does the the fact that hidden cylon's win by "drawing the game out", it means that there is almost always an optimal solution, and that anyone who doesn't choose it is at risk of being a cylon, and especially if they are president (or admiral), should be removed from that role because it is a larger than average risk. For example, if your admiral does a short jump or two, then remove them, it could be that they got bad draws, but really, it is more likely that they want the group to take more jumps to suffer more crises and suffer that slow trickle. If they turn out to be human? Ah well, sorry the percentages weren't in your favor.

Except. And there's always an exception, and the one exception is that when you are playing with players relatively new to the game. They add a random variability of chance and unknown factors, because you can't assume that everyone at the table, human and cylon, are playing the optimal strategies for victory.

And playing in that grey zone of wondering whether someone's an ally or enemy, and/or just really bad at determining what the best play is? That's what makes the game fun for me, and I just can't get that when everyone knows what the best play is for their role.

Board Gaming: Focus on the Tactical

I'm going to throw out a hypothesis that a good board game requires you to make decisions that you are going to regret later.

If you don't regret the decision later, then either everything can play out from the beginning with you knowing all the events that will happen, or there are some choices that are so optimal or so sub-optimal that you can continue to just follow the same path time and time again to succeed.


This is why I am still enjoying Race for the Galaxy because with the economic decisions it places on the players, you have to make meaningful choices from the very first hand. Okay, admittedly sometimes you can futz around for the first few rounds trying to figure out how to win, but really once everyone playing gets to a familiar level with the cards available if you aren't moving on your strategy by the second or third round you've lost.

I'm trying to figure out what it is that hits the sweet spot because I don't want to be limited to just one or two games every week. Okay, I've got several games on my shelf and can rotate through them with ease. But I'm always hungry for the next game, or a different feel. For example, I was introduced to Power Grid this past weekend and it reminded me how much I enjoyed auctioning mechanics, I like that sort of social back and forth with another player at the table to change the nature of the game.

The only trick is finding a game that scratches that itch without too much of the extraneous stuff that interferes with the enjoyment of the game.