Message:
Chess is a great game. Rondels are beloved by some.
But, Chess is NOT made better by adding Rondels, or Worker Placement, or a sliding Market deck. It has been refined and "honed" to it's perfection.
We all know this of course.
So, I found myself at a gaming table with three gentlemen ... three of the four of us own the amazing game "Alien Frontiers". (And likely the 4th will get it as well.) We had 1.5 hours remaining.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/48726/alien-frontiers
I've played the game maybe 50 times. It itches the scratch. And, what I found was that the base came is near perfection for a board game. Great Theme. Amazing Style. It refers to Stanislaw Lem (A Polish Sci-Fi author of some delight).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem (IYKYK).
Once you know the game, it is a symphony. Pitch some dice. Move your ships. Preach the gospel of colonization for the betterment of mankind. Hallelujah Brother, Yankee ingenuity with a little bit of cultural appropriation.
(No real aliens were harmed in the razing of the planet.)
Land your colonies. Score tight points. Win.
It reaches that crescendo of analysis in the final round that can be mastered by almost anyone. How do I get the most points!!!! Crush the others I say. Breach the protective dome of their ships.
Run Runner Run. (Sorry, different game.)
But, if the race to in fact gain more actual money, the creator added "expansions". They are mediocre at best ... crap at the worst. (Most were small, a card or two but the big changes ... my friends ... they add just "more complexity" and slow down the poetry.
Would you add more lines to a Haiku?
“After Killing a Spider” by Masaoka Shiki
After killing
a spider, how lonely I feel
in the cold of night!
No, I say. No. It is perfection in it's perfection-ness!!!!
(Buy them of course, analyze them, and then add them to your IKEA shelves as a promise that was not kept.)
So, two of the others insisted we add "ALL" the expansions. "FOOLS I yelled. You damn us all to the flames of ... uh ... no way we get this done in 1.5 hours". (Well it sounded better when I said it.)
But, the Samurai bends to the wind if the wind wants it's thing. How the F would I know what a fricking Samurai does. They wanted the expansions because that's what they've been told they want.
So, 40 minutes later, we have finally figured out ONE of them. And, it was an expansion of utter randomness. Roll a die and if the die comes up "Asteroid", the new market of five cards shift down a track of four slots. The cost of the cards changes by the position of the track. The cards have random powers on them. Random cards. Random track. Random slidey slide.
Even if your mind could model such a thing (and we know people who can) WHY would you do such a thing. Spend it on curing cancer of the Fermat's last theorem. Not on slidely, dicey, random, horse feces!!!!!.
In protest and to save my sanity. I declared the track an illusion to them. I would not use it. Fie on thee I say. I will use the game as intended.
“losing its name” by John Sandbach
losing its name
a river
enters the sea
As the river gives up its very identity to contribute to the sea, it reminds us of the importance of selflessness. After all, “no man is an island” and we are all parts of a bigger whole, aren’t we?
As the clock struck doom, the game was done but incomplete. Gamers hate that mess.
But, we wanted ... But, it's only 43 extra expansions ..... you have brought your own doom to this place.
There is truly no joy in
"I told you so." so I didn't.
The kid was ahead ... joyous ... I had a card to take it from him. I let the river flow to the sea. Some good could come from this abomination.
Leave Chess alone. Really. It's Chess. It's fine.
Yours,
IronConrad
11-Dec-2025