Inspired by the Geek Hierarchy the Japan Hierarchy takes a humorous look at Japanophilia.

Recently I went to Con on the Cob where I wandered into a Game of Rail Road Tycoon the Boardgame. All in all a very fun game, but a rather long game since it lasted for about two hours. Naturally the goal is to gain the most victory points at the end of the game, but this simple goal is complicated by the fact that you don't start with any cash and you have to get capitol by selling stock in your railroad. Each stock certificate raises you 5 grand but subtracts a $1000 from your your income and subtracts a VP at the end of the game.

Gameplay: As I stated above your goal is to gain victory points. And you gain victory points primarily from delivering cargo cubes to the proper cites. The cubes are distributed at the beginning of the game, each city gets a specified number of random cubes(blue, red, purple and yellow).

The turns are cut in two three round where you can do one action each round. The actions include picking up an event card, laying track, upgrading your train, building a transcontinental link, delivering a cargo cube, Urbanizing a city(Develping an undeveloped city) and probably something else that I've forgotten. In addition you can sell stock as much stock at any time. (usually something that should be kept to a minimum) At the end of a round you collect you income - $1000 for each stock certificate.

As you connect cites with your track and depending on the level of your train you can move the cubes from one spot to another. Unfortunately you must be able to move a drop a cube in one move, so if you need to move a cube two cites down you track and you only have level 1 train your out of luck until you upgrade your train.

There are also cards that end up adding some spice to the game. Some will add cubes to the board, other will mention special shipments such as "be the first to make shipment to Mobile and pick up 2 point". Some cards allow you to build free track or even five in stead of four track pieces a turn. These cards add more variation to the game.

I felt the board was quite cool. It is a map of the Eastern U.S (plus Toronto) in what looks to be around 1840 or 1850. The only complaint I have is the blue and purple colors are far too similar. A minor quibble would involve the size of the board, you need a lot of space to play this game since the board is quite large.

Sadly my only game ended with me coming in second last(out of five players), but I tell myself in consolation that I was the only newbie there so I think did okay considering I at least made a profit on my railroad. This came game has acquired my seal of approval and a recommendation to any board game enthusiasts in need of some thrills.

So far I've been blogging a week and it hasn't been all that hard. It just takes some willing to sit and type out stuff as opposed to ranting at the ether. Maybe I ought to try and get people to actually read my blog... hmmm....

Super Kim the video. Sadly this art is far too close to reality. The Highlight of the video is Kim's super special awesome move. lol. (Those who sayeth that Germans don't have a sense of humor, never saw this video.)

 

First of all the movie wasn't as entertaining as the last time I watched it. Maybe I just wasn't as appreciative of the concept, which really is interesting and was probably why I enjoyed it last time. I seem to recall not particularly caring for it when I was a kid, though I could mixing in memories of the bizarre sequel(s?).

Simple summery. We follow a little boy, Bastion, who is bullied by the other boys(perhaps representing "the man") After one such episode of torment he hides in an old antique shop where his sticky fingers end up pocketing an old book. (nothing like steeling from old men to improve you self esteem) Then using his 7331 ninja skills he slips into the school attic where he is pulled into Fantasia. (It seems some of the teachers like to collect skulls and other odd things, which makes me wonder where the skulls came from. Old occult sacrifices or just something more ordinary like plague victims?)

It seems the land of Fantasia, is being destroy by the Nothing. After meeting some random denizens of Fantasia we shift to the palace of the Where we meet Atreu the hero of our story who has been really job. After being mocked by everyone around because he's short(a non hairy hobbit?) he has search for a way to save the world with neither weapons nor any clue on where to start. Things get off to a bad start when he loses his horse and only friend is lost in a swamp (of Despair?). Luckily after being blown off (literally) by ancient turtle Atreu is saved by a luck Dragon. (YAY) who takes him to a professor and a witch who help him upon his quest by pointing him to an Oracle. After some trouble with unclothes sphinx statues the oracle tells him the princess needs a new name from a Human child outside of Fantasia. Naturally Atreu is amazed a what lousy hand life dealt him, but he heroically flies off find a way out of fantasia.

As you can imagine he fails a is lost by his dragon friend. But after confronting and killing a bear (servant of "the man" or more likely a personification of Bastion's fears) with a sharp rock(would it have been better if he'd been aloud to bring some weapons with him?) He is found by the luck dragon and they fly back to the empress( she of too much eye makeup). There empress tells Atreu that she can be saved if the human child would give her a new name. Bastion, after some moments of angsty disbelief shouts out his mothers name (I wonder what Freud would think), Moon Child (Must sound better in the original Klingon German) as the empress new name and saves the day. Then the viewers are treated to happy scenes of Fantasia back to normal. (Including Atreu the hobbit with his horse bounding across the plains) And in the real world the bullies(Brownshirts) are chased by Bastion and his luck dragon.

Now if I understand the movie, now that humanity has moved into modernity this has caused the common man to lose interest in Fantasy. Thus causing Fantasia to disappear. Naturally the "Man" (Government? Corporations? T.V.? Aliens? oshiro-sama? ) is malevolently causing Humanity to become separated from Fantaisia so they will be without hope and easier to control. This seems to fly in the face of reality where people tend to be quite caught up in their fantasies weather it is fantasy Sports, the internet, Conspiracy Theories, and the ever present T.V. I suppose I'm probably thinking too much about a children's story, but sometimes you have to wonder what poisonous substance the writer was smoking...

This weekend's experimental Excursion was to Con on the Cob, a gaming convention located outside of Kent. There was anime, movies,games and naturally a room full of stuff to buy. I'd only heard about this convention because Jen and Jon from Anime were involved in running the movie portion. At the con I met up with two other members of Ze Anime group, Elaine, and Jessica.

After meeting up with the girls(oddly I arrived first.) we wondered into the room O (capitalist pig dog) Stuff. The room O Stuff was filled with art and games. Sadly I wasn't really into buying art though there was picture or two and none of the games really caught my eye. Which was too bad as my parents and I could have tried one today. :( Then after ze girls had bid upon some pictures it twas off to the movie watch weird stuffs.

We came during the start of Neverending story and stayed through some anime about a chinese chef who has fill his mothers shoes as the greatest chef in all China. Naturally this caused much hunger and so it twas decided to head out for food. We ended up going to Mikes place which seemed to be a hangout for colledge kids near Kent The prices were reasonable, the food wasn't bad and it had an X-wing out front, what more could you ask for?

Upon our return it twas back to ze movie room for some Full Metal Panic and Kino's Journey. Then I'd tried watching stuffs, and headed to the game room for something more interesting. There I wondered into a Game of Rail Road Tycoon the Boardgame. Very fun game, though unfortunately I was far to profligate in my bidding for first player and I got saddled with too much debt early in the game, from which I was never able to recover though I at least managed to make a profit and only came in second last out of five people.

In conclusion I had a good time at the Con and hopefully I can go again next year. I kinda regret not spending more time gaming, but well you can only do one thing at a time.