Episode 29: My Hacienda For A Vowel!

29: My Hacienda For A Vowel!

Release Date: May 14, 2007

Running Time: 80 min.

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Download: Enhanced Version - MP3 Version

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ep 29

Fire up those branding irons! There's livestock to round up and words to bluff or spell when we play Hacienda and Letterhead.

News & Notes: Arkadia, Valley Games new releases, Visa sponsors LIFE
The List:
Hacienda, Letterhead
Backshelf Spotlight:
Quarto, Flinch
Truckloads of Goober:
Ponte del Diavolo
Game Sommelier:
Five games to play with co-workers at lunch
Mail Bag:
Locke's board game, Hordes of the Things, Sayings with meeples in Dutch

Complete Show Notes continue after the break.

 

Game News & Notes

Arkadia Link

3-D castle building game with cool components.

Valley Games Releases BGN report Valley Games site

Over the next year, Valley Games plans to bring six classic board games back into print: Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, Titan, Big City, Republic of Rome, Liberté, and Extrablatt. They also have three original titles scheduled for release, too: Containers, Municipium, and SuperNova. Ambitious, but great if they can pull it off!

Talisman Trailer online link

Neat little multimedia promo, plus a tour of the components at the end.

Visa + Life equals Barfola link

A new version of the classic game Life without cash, sponsored by Visa. Keep your corporate synergy out of my games!

The List

Hacienda BGG entry

Buy land and animals, drive your critter to market, build a hacienda and watch the victory points pour in!

Letterhead BGG entry

A word building card game with a fun bluffing mechanic. Includes rules to 14 complete games!

Backshelf Spotlight

Mystery Connection Contest
Can you find a connection between these two games? We find a mystery connection each episode and challenge you, the listener, to hunt for it! Post your guesses to the Forum . Find the connection and you could win a pair of custom Spiel dice !

Congratulations to David Siskin in Playa Del Rey, CA our winner for episode 28!

Quarto Link

Deceptively deep abstract strategy game where you hane your opponent victory, literally!

Flinch Link

Over 100 years old, a classic game of building card stacks from 1 to 15.

Truckloads of Goober

(submitted by David Siskin)

Ponte del Diavolo BGG Entry

A twist on Twixt and based on an actual bridge in Tuscany.

pont 1

diavolo

 

Game Sommelier

The Challenge: find five games to play with co-workers at lunch

Thanks to listener Andy Miner in Madison, WI for this challenge

Stephen's List

Dave's Vote

For Sale Thumbs Up
Poison Thumbs Up
Fairy Tale Thumb Sideways
Tsuro Thumbs Up
Hive Thumbs Up

Next Challenge: find five games for a Cub Scout Troop to play on a camping trip. Submitted by Brad Sanford

Mail Bag

New donors to The Spiel!

Brandon "The Caballero" Pennington

Viktor Haag sent in a link to a pic of Locke playing the board game

Norman Johnston recommends Hordes of the Things, a fantasy variant to DBA. He also says this site is a great resource for learning the game.

BJ in The Netherlands has a great saying, "Een meeple maakt nog geen winnaar." "One meeple doesn't make a winner." Everyone needs a geeky slogan. Right on, BJ!

 

Errata

I'm sure there are some other goofs in there somewhere. Let us know if (when?) you find one!

Comments

Honestly, I wasn't all that impressed with the preview. It was a decent power point-like movie that really didn't give a good idea as to what the elements looks like. *shrug* Typical GW: whole lot of hype surrounded by very little substance.

"To alcohol! The cause of and solution to all of life's problems." -- Homer J. Simpson

Yeah, the trailer is a little short on actual details, but I think they deserve some kudos for trying a new way to market the game.

And while it still is GW at it's heart (meaning I am prepared to be disappointed), I do like what I have heard about the new edition (updated rules to make it less rol-and-move and more interactive).

 

Great review of Hacienda - I'm going to give it a few goes on Spielbyweb and then, if still excited, probably invest in a copy.

I'm a little alarmed that you felt the need to tell us all what the Pampas was - could you elucidate on its relationship to the other great continental grasslands such as the Prairie, Savannah etc ?

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We don't stop playing games when we get old...... We get old when we stop playing games

Every single episode, there are two or three games that I may have been on the fence about, and you guys talk about them in such a way that I can't help but buy them. I should send you my $150 / month game bill.

I especially need Ponte del Diavolo, and I need it now...

Maybe you can make a deal with the devil - He will hook you up with every game you ever wanted and you will give him that soul he missed out on so long ago!Wink

We should make this a forum topic at some point...

My "lunch" can be anywhere from a few minutes to like 5 hours at my job.  I work overnights at a Denny's.  Only on weekdays (Sunday night through Thursday night).  Depending on when customers come in I could be bored for a long time...or not really ever or at all.

We started playing games because I tend to always have a deck of cards on me or in my car and a while ago we started playing Eucher. Most of us knew how to play and we keep teaching more people. Eventually we got some people that didn't want to learn or just weren't fun to play with and I brought in an Uno deck.

Say what you will about Uno, but it can be pretty good if you're possibly busy at any moment and the game can keep going without you, or not. Also it's something that passes the time with or without a lot of attention paid.  Also it's a vechicle for conversation which can be good.

Recently' I've been teaching some of my coworkers Guillotine, and I just Rage.

I am going to try to get my cook (who is there all night with me, instead of leaving at 2am or 3am like the others) to play Blue Moon with me.  Which would allow me to play that game a lot more often than I get to otherwise.

"W"