Osaka Game Day: January 6th, 2013

Come and join us for the first game day of the new year!  It will be held at the Naniwa-kumin Center in Osaka from 9:30AM to 9:30PM.  The theme for the day is "New Games".  Bring all of the new games that you've gotten for Christmas or try out someone else's new games.

For more info, click here.

Kyoto Game Day: December 23rd, 2012

We'd like to invite you to the last game day of the year.  It will be held in Kyoto on December 23rd, 2012 at the Iki Iki Okazaki Center (point B on the map) in Kyoto.  Gaming will start at 10:00AM and end at 5:00PM.  Come and join us for a bit of holiday gaming!

For more info, click here.

Osaka Game Day: November 4th, 2012

We will hold an Osaka Game Day on November 4th, 2012 from 9:30 A.M. to 9:30 P.M. in Namba at the Naniwa Kumin Center.   The theme for the day will be card games.  We'll have everything from traditional card games to card-based board games to living card games.  All nationalities are welcome to join.  We hope to see you there.

For more information, please click HERE.

Some of the games that will be appearing are:

Giants

At the Kyoto Game Day this month, we had the chance to play the game Giants by the French publisher Matagot.  This is a beautiful board game based on the construction of the Moai on Easter Island.  Check out some shots from the game.

This game basically has two stages.  In the first stage, there is an auction for the Moai, the statues that Easter Island is famous for.  You have to be really careful, because to win the bid you have to offer up your workers and your tribe markers.  However, if you overbid, you won't have the workers to carry your Moai in the second stage.  It's a very delicate balance.

In the second stage, you need to transport your Moai to designated spots on the island.  This is where the game gets really interesting.  If you try to carry the statues by yourself, it will take a very long time to build your statues and it will be difficult to accumulate points.  However, if the players work together, then they can build their statues more quickly.  Be careful though, every time you use another player's worker, you give that player points!  The balance between using other players' workers for your benefit verses giving them points for doing so made this a really fascinating game.

If you have a chance, try it out at an upcoming JIGG Kansai game day.

Osaka Game Day 2012

We'll be holding a game day in the Namba area on October 7th, 2012 from 9:30AM to 9:30PM.  A wide variety of board games and card games will be available for play.  For this game day, we have a special theme--horror and the supernatural.  Get ready for the Halloween season by facing your fears on the game table.  For more details, click below:

October 7th, 2012 Osaka Game Day Details

Here is a small sample of some of the board games that will be played:

Kyoto Game Day: September 17th, 2012

Come and join us in Kyoto for a day of board gaming and card gaming on September 17th.  We welcome gamers of any nationality.  The Kyoto Game Day will be held in Kitaoji at the Kita Bunka Kaikan from 1:30 PM to 9:30 PM.  For more details go to the link below.

Kyoto Game Day Details


Here are some of the games that will make an appearance.

And of course many other games will be there as well!  

Osaka Game Day - September 2nd, 2012

We are having a game day in Osaka on September 2nd, 2012 from 9:30AM to 9:30PM.  Come and join us!  Beginners and all nationalities are welcome.  For more details, check out the link below:

Osaka Game Day - September 2nd, 2012 Details 

Day of Destruction--Twilight Imperium Day 2012 Report

The very stars shook at the cascading explosions as fleet after fleet blossomed into vapor.  The molecules of once brave soldiers blasted in every direction to join the cold vast eternity of space.

On August 5th, we held a Twilight Imperium Day in Osaka.  Four empires stepped up to claim the imperial throne--The Yssaril Tribes (Diz in green), The Winnu (Kohei in purple), The L1z1x Mindnet (Kristos in blue), and the Emirates of Hacan (Keith in Yellow).  At the beginning of the game there were two bold moves:  The Yssaril Tribes took advantage of their fast carriers to take Mecatol Rex in the first turn and the L1z1x Mindnet took advantage of a defensive weakness to invade the home system of the Emirates of Hacan.  

Hacan seemed to be in a terrible position, with only a few measly ships left and no space dock for a few turns.  In order to stop the onslaught, Hacan negotiated a deal that highly favored the L1z1x Mindnet.  Run away to fight another day.  The Winnu had a very tough choice, go after Mecatol Rex and take on the Yssaril Tribes or go after the lightly defended home territories of the L1z1x Mindnet.  Eventually, the Winnu went for one of the victory conditions and attacked Yssaril.  The Yssaril Tribes were deeply distraught by this move as they were planning to attack the weakly defended home systems of the L1z1x Mindnet.  This act of treachery solidified the Yssaril Tribes into a policy of revenge.  To make matters worse for the Winnu, the L1z1x Mindnet decided to attack the Winnu at that time, now that the Hacan were dealt with.  A vicious three-way battle began, which led to the destruction of the Winnu war making capacity for the rest of the game.

While all this was going on, the Hacan were left to themselves to rebuild their empire.  The Hacan were able to negotiate some limited battles with the Yssaril Tribes and the L1z1x Mindnet.  Trading small battles for trade goods.  This ended up being a big mistake for those two powers.  While they were distracted with the Winnu, the Hacan were slowly building up their victory points.  As the Hacan were building up their empire, they began to amass a huge amount of trade goods, which they in turn used towards victory conditions.  The power of Hacan was unstoppable.

As Hacan was nearing it's victory, the L1z1x Mindnet went into hyper aggressive mode by attacking and taking Mecatol Rex from the Yssaril Tribes.  The power of their war suns and dreadnoughts were more than the Yssaril Tribes could handle.  In the meantime, the L1z1x Mindnet continued to hammer the Winnu.  No one could take on the Mindnet.

Eventually, the game ended with the Imperium Rex card and Hacan turned out to be a winner.  By exploiting the pity of neighboring empires due to its bad opening, Hacan was able to build to a peaceful trade victory supplemented with some small negotiated skirmishes.  The moral of the story?  Next time, show no mercy.  

Early Report on the August 5th Game day!

Twilight Imperium 3 was the big game today, there is no doubt about that. While the TI3 players battled their way to galactic supremacy the rest of us worked our way through Descent 2nd edition, Dixit, Battlestar Galactica Express and several other games. Still the battle raged on in the field of TI3.

I'm hoping soon we'll hear from some of the players regarding their experience with the game!

Twilight Imperium Race Preview

On August 5th, 2012, we will be holding our Twilight Imperium Day in Osaka.  As there will be many new players to Twilight Imperium Third Edition, I would like to introduce the races that are available to play and my thoughts on how suitable those races are to play for a first time player.  We will be using the races from the base game and also from the Shattered Empire expansion.  Without further ado, let's look at the races of the Twilight Imperium universe.

The Winnu

The Winnu are the custodian race of the ancient empire.  Now that the empire has fallen and the imperial race has disappeared from the universe, the Winnu have upheld the lore, tradition, and culture of the old empire.  Although they had hoped that the imperial race would return and restore the glory of the empire, they have started to lose hope in that dream.  Now many of the Winnu feel that they are the rightful successors to the Empire.  Now is the time to put an end to this age of chaos and return the universe to it's former glory.  The Winnu will protect and honor the heritage of the empire forever.

Special abilities:  the Winnu always add the influence of their home system planet to votes, even if the home system planet has been exhausted.  This gives them a bit more political power than other races.  Also, if they have at least one ground force on a planet, it is immune from the Local Unrest Action card.  This prevents you from losing planets due to this pesky card.  Finally, you don't need to spend a command counter to execute the secondary ability of the Technology Strategy.  This gives you a minor boost in developing technologies.

Suitability for new players:  Medium.  Immunity to the Local Unrest Action Card will keep you from getting blindsided in some cases.  Also, the boost in technology can be a big help. 

The L1z1x Mindnet

The remnants of the imperial race, the Lazax, fled from imperial space when the Empire fell.  Cursing their fate, they initiated a program to remove all weakness from their race.  This involved the extensive use of implants to the point that many races question whether they are still the Lazax or not.  It could be said that the Mindnet are more machine than man, which is displayed in their cold and emotionless efficiency.  However, not much is know about this race since all diplomats that have been sent to deal with them have disappeared.  The L1z1x Mindnet is set on eliminating the chaos of the universe by all means necessary.  If that means destroying all of the other races in the universe, then so be it.  Then tragedies such as the fall of the Empire will never happen again.

Special abilities:  Dreadnoughts (big, bad ships) are cheaper for you.  Your dreadnoughts also get +1 during space combat, and your ground forces get +1 during invasion combat (assimilation!).  Finally, you get an extra command counter when you start the game.  Basically this is an attacking machine.

Suitability for new players:  High.  The special powers of the L1z1x Mindnet make it easy to attack, which makes it a lot easier to get victory points.  Other players will be nervous about starting hostilities with you, so you will have an upper hand in negotiations if you don't mind threatening violence.

The Naalu Collective

The Naalu are a race of snake women.  They have remained hidden from the rest of the galaxy for much of its history.  It turns out that the Naalu are highly telepathic, with the ability to wipe the minds and control those who get too close to their secrets.  They tend not to speak and communicate through telepathy.  The Naalu highly value beauty.  Their home world of Druaa is a veritable paradise.  When Naalu look at other species and other world, they only see chaos and ugliness.  Now is the time for the rest of the universe to submit to the order, tranquility, and beauty of the Naalu Collective.  If they will not submit, they will be destroyed.

Special abilities:  You have an initiative of "0", which means whichever strategy card you chose, you will always go first.  In other words, you can act before others because you can read their minds and react before they even have a chance to act.  You can also retreat in battle before taking any damage.  Other races must take a round of battle damage before they can retreat.  This means you can withdraw your ships easily if you think you don't have a good chance to win.  Finally, all of your fighters receive a +1 on combat rolls in space battles.

Suitability for new players:  High.  The chance to preserve your fleets through retreating will help you preserve your fleets in no-win situations.  This will make it easier for you to negotiate or to regroup and re-attack later.  Also, the fighter bonus is quite good as fighters are very cheap to buy.  With the Naalu, your meat shields will have some bite.

The Yin Brotherhood

The Yin Brotherhood is a weird religious group in which all of the members are clones from a single genetic source.  They worship this source as the "Yin".  Their devotion to this source is what drives them to spread across the universe.  They scour the universe to convert other races to their faith and their ultimate goal is to bring the light of Yin to all in the universe and to establish themselves on the Imperial throne so that the Yin will be properly revered by the lower races.

Special ability:  before invasion combats, you can make a die roll.  If you are successful, your opponent loses one ground force and you gain one ground force (conversion!).  Also, in space battles, immediately before the second round of combat, you can chose one of your destroyers or cruisers and discard it to automatically inflict a hit on a ship of your choice (kamikaze!).  Finally, once per turn you can place your control marker on an unexhausted planet you control--until the end of the round its influence and resources are reversed.  

Suitability for new players:  Low.  The number of invasions in a game isn't that high, so in order to take advantage of the Yin's special ability, you have to push for invasion combats, which are more difficult to produce than it sounds.  This race is only recommended for advanced players.

The Universities of Jol Nar

The Jol Nar are masters of science and technology.  Their technology is the most advanced in the universe.  The Jol Nar are a diminutive aquatic race, so to counter their physical weakness, they place great importance on developing the mind.  They are proud of their intelligence and their technology and scoff at the thought that any other race would be considered as a good choice for leading the galaxy.  If the galaxy is to advance, it is only natural that the most intelligent should rule.  The Jol Nar will not respect a lesser intellect as their leader.

Special abilities:  when executing the secondary ability of the Technology Strategy, you also execute its primary ability.  This means that the Jol Nar can advance their technology at double the rate of other races!  Also, they may spend a command counter to re-roll any of their die rolls.  They start with a minor disadvantage, -1 to space combat and invasion combat rolls.  However, this disadvantage only lasts for a round or two as the Jol Nar increase their technology faster than other races.

Suitability for new players:  High.  Advancing your technologies will give you a big advantage over other races later in the game.  Lay low and be friendly at the beginning, but once your technological machine is built, it will be tough for other races to withstand your power.

The Sardakk N'orr

We are bugs.  We no like people messing with our nests.  We're hungry.  Our swarm will bring peace to the galaxy.

Special abilities:  +1 to all combat rolls during space battles and invasion combats.

Suitability for new players:  Medium.  This is a very simple race to use, so if you are already overwhelmed by the rules of the game, this might be a good one for you to use.  Not many moving parts and the special ability will help you to be aggressive.  The thing to be careful of is not falling behind in technology.  If you fall behind in technology, then your special ability will be negated.  In that situation, the Sardakk N'orr are useless.

The Mentak Coalition

The Mentak Coalition is an alliance of space pirates.  Outcasts and criminals made up of all races, the Mentak Coalition is the most diverse "government" in the galaxy.  The Mentak Coalition is on a mission of revenge, as their ancestors were banished to their remote region of space by the establish races of the universe.  No more living on scraps--these pirates are out to take what is rightfully theirs.  Down with the powers that be.  We'll laugh as we pillage, conquer and enslave them.  Yo-ho!

Special abilities:  you start the game with one additional command counter in your fleet, so you'll have a bigger starting fleet than other players.  Before a space battle, you can fire with up to two cruisers or destroyers in an ambush.  Any ships destroyed in this way are unable to return fire.  Finally, during the strategy phase, you can take one good token from up to two different players as long as those players have at least 3 trade good.

Suitability for new players:  Medium.  The com at ability is quite good, especially if you are lucky with dice rolling.  The trade goods ability doesn't get used much though because other players know you will take trade goods, so they tend to spend them before you can take them.

The Barony of Letnev

A militaristic race that makes its home on a rocky asteroid floating in the darkness of space.  The Letnev are focused on the colonization of other lesser developed worlds and impose strict bureaucracy and discipline on those worlds.  As a subterranean race, they have a weakness to light.  Only those in the military who have achieved great victories may advance to the highest levels of society.  The Letnev are very ambitious and they are not afraid to use their military to achieve their ambitions.  The more war, the more glory.

Special abilities:  your fleets always contain one more ship than the number of command counters in your fleet supply.  This means you'll have bigger fleets than other races.  Also, before a space battle or invasion combat, you may spend 2 trade goods to give all of your spaceships +1 or all of your ground forces +2 on their combat rolls for that combat round.

Suitability for new players:  High.  Larger fleets make it easier to be more aggressive.  The ability with the trade goods can help out in a pinch, but you have to be sure that you have some on hand for big battles.

The Xxcha Kingdom

One of the first great civilizations of the galaxy.  These space turtles are peaceful and prefer to solve problems through diplomacy rather than through violence.  In the fall of the Empire, they were caught weaponless and defenseless, which led to the destruction of one of their home worlds.  Although they prefer the path of peace, the Xxcha do not want to suffer such a tragedy again.  Therefore, they have focused on developing strong defenses.  In order to insure a peaceful galaxy for future generations, the Xxcha have no choice but to take the Imperial throne for themselves and make war a thing of the past.

Special abilities:  when executing the secondary ability of the diplomacy strategy, you may execute the primary ability instead.  This give you more political power and you have a better chance to enact laws that will put your opponents at a disadvantage.  Also, when a political card is drawn and read aloud, you can spend a command counter to have that card discarded and have a new one drawn.  With this power, you can eliminate rules that would hurt you.  Finally, all opponents receive -1 to their combat rolls during the first round of combat.

Suitability for new players:  Low.  The Xxcha focus on political abilities, which can be random and may or may not help you.  In addition, the defensive advantage is only for one round.  Combats usually go for a few rounds, so this is not such a good ability.  Finally, you don't get any victory points for being defensive, so unless you play them skillfully, the Xxcha can fall behind in victory points easily.

The Yssaril Tribes

The Yssaril are a tribe of super stealthy chameleon-like creatures.  They are skilled as spies and as assassins.  Masters of information, they know EVERYTHING.   Nothing gets by these little guys.  Of course, no one knows what the Yssaril are doing.  In fact, none of the other races even bother to think about what they are doing.  They seem so unassuming.  Won't they be surprised to find out that the Yssaril are building a secret fleet to take over the Imperial throne.  After all, it's all part of the plan.

Special abilities:  you may skip your action turn during the action phase.  Normally, when you skip your turn, you can't take any actions after that.  The Yssaril can continue playing after skipping.  That way, they can see what others are doing before they take their actions.  They cannot skip twice in a row, however.  Also, you draw one extra action card during every status phase, and you have no hand limit for action cards.  Action cards will give you the power to surprise others, so this is very powerful.  Finally, once during every Strategy Phase, you can ask to see one other player's hand of action cards.  It will be hard to surprise you.

Suitability for new players:  High.  Action cards are very powerful.  Other players will think twice about attacking you since you can surprise them, and since you can look at their action cards, they can't surprise you. 

The Federation of Sol

Humans!  We rock!  The most populous race of the galaxy.  We're everywhere!  Majority rules, right?  What do you mean no?  We're tired of taking orders from you weird aliens.  We've got the most soldiers, so we're taking over.  Any questions?

Special abilities:  as an action, you can spend one command counter to place two free ground forces on any one planet that you control.  That means you don't have to worry about ferrying soldiers around as much as other races.  It also makes your planets much harder for other races to invade.  Basically humans are the rats of the universe.  Also, during the status phase, you receive one extra command counter.  More command counters, means more action.  Let's move out, boys!

Suitability for new players:  High.  More dudes, more actions, more fun.

The Clan of Saar

A highly mobile and nomadic race.  They don't stay in any one place for long.  They pick up and move everything with them.  These nomads have long been kicked around by more established races, but this has made the Clan strong.  The Clan is at home anywhere and are good at salvaging on planets they conquer.  Now that the Clan is strong, it is time to take some bigger prizes--perhaps the biggest one of all, Mecatol Rex.

Special abilities:  gain one trade good every time you acquire a new planet.  Also, your space docks have a movement of one.  Other races can never move their space docks.  This allows you to move your unit production closer to the front lines, which makes it easier for you get your units into action.  Finally, you may fulfill objectives even if  you don't control your home system.  That means you can move your civilization anywhere you want on the board.  If the area around your home system is low in resources, just move out and take over someone else's area.

Suitability for new players:  Low.  To take advantage of the moving space docks requires a bit of planning.  The moving space docks are weaker than other space docks, so newer players are more likely to get their space docks destroyed when play the Clan.

The Embers of Muaat

The Embers of Muaat are a mysterious race.  Their bodies are always on fire, so no one has seen them outside of their specially constructed suits which they have built to interact with other races.  In the past, the Muaat were enslaved by the Jol Nar to develop a technology to convert energy into mass.  The Muaat eventually rebelled against the Jol Nar, and in the process took control of a Jol Nar prototype--the War Sun.  Armed with this super weapon, the Muaat have sworn never to be enslaved again.  To ensure this, they will use their War Sun to take control of the galaxy.

Special abilities:  you start the game with a War Sun!  This super weapon cannot be built by other races until they develop the technology for it, so you'll have 4 or 5 turns to run rampant with it.  Take advantage of this and play aggressively in the beginning.  Also, as an action you can spend a command counter to place two free fighters or one free destroyer in a system where you have a War Sun.  This allows you to constantly generate meat shields to protect your super weapon.  Finally, you can move through supernova systems.  Other races cannot do that.  This gives you move freedom of movement.

Suitability for new players:  High.  Use that War Sun as much as you can.  Don't let it rust.

The Emirates of Hacan

These space lions are the masters of trade.  Your smugglers and traders have infiltrated every corner of the galaxy.  If there's any business going on in the galaxy, it's guaranteed that you have your paws in it. The Hacan always have an abundance of trade goods and have the power to help out other races or to hurt them severely when trade is involved.  The Hacan never have to worry about having enough resources to build units and can use their trade good to bribe other races to agree with their policies.  Nothing personal, it's just business.

Special abilities:  your trades do not require approval during trade negotiations.  You are the master of trade.  You do not need to spend a command counter to execute the secondary ability of the Trade Stategy and when you receive trade goods from the Trade Strategy, you receive one additional trade good.  Also, no other player may break a trade contract with you except by war.  Finally, during the Status Phase, you can trade action cards with other players.

Suitability for new players:  High.  Lots of trade goods make it easier to build units.  Resource poor races will be eager to follow your suggestions if you grease their palms.  Also, you can prevent other players from trading if it suits your strategy.  Finally, trading action cards (you are the only race that can do this), can help you get the cards you need for your strategy, and in turn you'll know some of the strategy cards held by other players.  Information is power!

So, this concludes the race preview.  Which race are you interested in playing?

Takatsuki Game day report

Takatsuki game day occurred with free air con, obscene dice rolls and fun had by all. First off, thanks to Matt Rooks for organizing the event and inviting us all. Secondly, thanks to the Takatsuki City Exchange Center (高槻市立総合市民交流センター) for allowing us to use the space and air conditioning. Lastly, thanks to all the attendees for creating a successful event and fun atmosphere.


The day started with Gavan and Matt setting up War of the Ring while Julien and myself mulled over what to play. War of the Ring is an epic scale Lord of the Rings themed wargame. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to ask either fellow many questions about the game. So I don't have much to report on how their two games went but maybe they will post some info. in the comments section. The Shadow Armies won in the morning with Gavan acting as Sauron. Then in the afternoon Matt "Mojo hand of Doom" Rooks led the dark forces to victory again. The game itself looks fantastic and Matt bought some hand painted models to further enhance the beauty of the game. There are a few pictures of the game being set up and played on the JIGG Facebook page.


Julien introduce me to three new games: Volta, Don Q. und die Vermessung von La Mancha and Innovation. Volta is simple and seems like an abstract sumo match to me. It was easy to learn but hard to beat Julien; his deft finger flicking won the day. Julien remarked that Volta's publisher had a habit of releasing strange games. To illustrate his point he broke out Don Q. which is a very abstract information reveal game. It was much more complex than Volta and Julien was once again victorious in the games we played. It was a little tough to wrap my head around this but I enjoyed it. I failed to see a real connection between the theme and game-play other than the story set up by the rules. I guess the game needed to get its name from somewhere though. The last game of the morning for the two of us was Innovation. This was my favorite of the three. Its a civilization/empire building themed card game. There are 10 epochs separated into individual piles, starting from 1 (Prehistory) and ending at 10 (The Information Age), and each epoch has 8 or so cards in it. Players start drawing cards from the lowest numbered epoch. Each card grants a technology/innovation which players can use to build their empire. Players can also choose to "score" cards. Each card has a point value equal to its epoch (so all Prehistory cards are worth 1 point for example) and as your score increases you can gain achievements. The player to reach X number of achievements wins. One of the really interesting aspects of play is seeing the character of your empire develop as you lay down cards. Julien quickly took the lead in our game with an aggressive group of zealot builders preying on my nomadic river traveling farmer-philosophers. Fortunately I was able to outpace him and layed down a combo of cards that quickly earned my enough achievements to win.

Before our game finished Diz and Kohei arrived. They worked in a couple games of Volta, winning one a piece, and a game of Yomi which Diz ended up winning. Yomi is a fusion of Street Fighter and rocks, papers, scissors. It is fun and has a high replay value. The four of us finished our games around the same time and chose to play Mousquetaires du Roy. Kristos rocked up before we started and joined Kohei, Julien and myself to stop the evil plots of Diz's Milady.


This was a very fun cooperative game with a great theme. Each player takes a musketeer and balances working together to complete a set number of quests while simultaneously preventing Milady from succeeding in her wicked plans. Unfortunately, the taint of evil lingered from Gavan's victory early in the day and the musketeers failed miserably during the first game. Encouraged by the fun we had we decided to play again. As we started Kohei asked for a rules clarification which made us realize Diz had made a mistake in the previous game that made it very hard for us to win. So emboldened by our new knowledge we began. Things went well for a turn. Then things got worse: Porthos failed to beat a nemesis in a duel that was supposedly easy and Constance began to be strangled by Milady. Surely our fate would change in turn 3. Athos and d'Artagnan rushed to save Constance but were foiled by a lack of skill and the villainous Rochefort. Porthos failed again despite seeming to have an advantage. Aramis succeeded in completing a quest and La Rochelle was going splendidly. However, Constance was still having trouble breathing. Still plenty of time to save her though as she had 4 life left and Diz was only rolling 4 dice. Turn 4 started and d'Artagnan dies followed quickly by Porthos. Athos beats a quick retreat and attempts to out duel Porthos's nemesis and does! Aramis moves to fight Rochefort and succeeds in fending him off. The way to Constance is clear! We just need to save her next round. La Rochelle is holding strong. Everyone was pretty happy. Then on his turn Diz rolls 4 swords and kills Constance. Game over man, game over. As frustrating as the game was for the musketeers it was still a blast to play.

It was getting late in the day so we split up. Diz, Julien and myself played Innovation again. Through a bit of luck, I built a card combo similar to the one I used in the first Innovation game and won again. We had a bit of time left so Julien broke out a prototype game he wanted us to try. We played around with it a bit and suggested a few things to tweek or think about. Kohei and Kristos started Reef Encounter as we started Innovation. Kohei caught on to the pretty quickly and was able to beat Kristos. By the end of their game it 5 o'clock so we straightened up the room and called it a day.


Don't forgot Twilight Imperium Day: August 5th, 2012 is the next game day. Hope to see everyone there.





 

Summer Gaming

This summer we have quite a few gaming days coming up.   Join us for one or all of these events:

Takatsuki Game Day:  July 24th, 2012 will be held at the Takatsuki City Exchange Center from 10:30am to 4:30pm.  The theme of the day is two-player games, but there will probably be some multi-player gaming going on as well.

Twilight Imperium Day: August 5th, 2012 will be held at the Naniwa Kumin Center from  9:30am to 9:30pm.  The main focus will will be Twilight Imperium, an epic game (8 hours) of galactic conquest.  For those who aren't interested in joining such a long game, many shorter games will be available to play.

Kobe Game Day:  August 19th, 2012 will be held at the Higashinada Kumin Small Hall from 9:00am to 5:00pm.  A wide variety of board games and card games will be available to play.

Gaming is the perfect way to escape this summer heat, so we hope to see you at one of our game days this summer!

July Osaka Game Day
Date: Sunday, July 1st
Time: 9:30am to 9:30pm
Place: Naniwa-kumin Center
Map: Directions can be found here.
Participation fees: 500yen
Room capacity: 18 people


The theme for the day is Role Playing Games!

There will be some RPGs organised for the day that people can sign up for and games with a RPG feel will be welcomed. However everyone is free to bring whatever board games they like to play.  The RPG theme is a suggested theme only.  Players are not obligated to play an RPG or an RPG themed game.  Bring whatever board and card games that you would like to play!


Three role playing games are being planned:  Hollow Earth Expeditions, D&D 4th Edition, and Pathfinder.  DMs will be bringing pre-generated characters, so all you need to do is express an interest in playing.

Game Report #1 - Agricola Part 1

This game was by far one of the most interesting games of Agricola that I've played to date. Time and again strategies failed, players were fooled and players fought to survive. It was played at boiteajeux where you can play for free:

You can buy the Japanese version of the game from Amazon.co.jp:


But it is highly language dependent.

The three players were Diz (BLUE), myself (RED) and Tim (PURPLE) (now living in Australia). As we sat at our respective computers Diz won the roll and got to take the first turn. A lot can be revealed by the first turn - if they take an occupation it can immediately tell you what their strategy will be, if they take grain they probably have some sort of baking minor improvement and so on. The penalty for going first is that you start with one less food than the other players, this is something to keep in mind, but seldom a problem.

Diz moved to play his first occupation, 'Fieldsman'. The Fieldsman lets you sow an extra two resources when you sow one field - a powerful card if you're only going to play a few fields. Ah ha! I thought - obviously he's going to be taking grain and plowing soon. Knowing what your opponent is probably going to do lets you prioritize your actions. I took 3 wood then Tim took 2. I was aiming to get my first room built before stage 2 started so that I could get a third worker as quickly as possible. It's a risky strategy since you can't tell exactly when the family growth card comes out, but it can pay off nicely.

Diz ploughed a field, I played Field Watchman (which lets me plough a field everytime I take grain). This meant that I could stop Diz in his plan while getting both grain and fields. An evil move for sure. Then Tim took the 'First Player' action. Now he was going to go first each round.

As everyone is posting the upcoming games days I thought I would post about the next Osaka day as well. As I mentioned to some of you at the convention there will be a Game day at the same venue on the first Sunday of the Month from now on.

June Osaka Game Day
Date: Sunday, June 3rd
Time: 9:30am to 9:30pm
Place: Naniwa-kumin Center
Map: Directions can be found here.
Participation fees: 500yen
Room capacity: 20 people

Something I would like to do with these Game days is to have a theme to each of them, just to keep things interesting. For the first one the theme I have chosen is this.

Each person attending may only bring 1 (one) game to the event.

This means that (hopefully) we will be able to play every game at least once. Many of us have a favourite game that never makes it to the table, some of us even bring them to games days time and time again to watch them get passed over. This is your chance to play!


<Copied from BGG>

Golden Week Convention: May 3rd - 5th

We are happy to announce that JIGG Kansai will be holding it's annual Spring Convention from May 3rd to May 5th this year.  Join us for board games, card games, miniatures games and RPGs in downtown Osaka.  We will be playing all kinds of games.  Everyone is welcome to join.  If you have friends or family who are interested in gaming bring them with you.  We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Dates:  May 3rd-5th, 2012
Time:   9:30 - 21:30 every day
Place:  Naniwa Kumin Center

To see more details in Japanese and to see the games that will be there, click here.

See you at the convention!

A new writer appears

Good evening everyone. My name is Luke and I have been grandly sent forth to become what I like to call a "staff writer" (surely the role of JIGG editor can't be too far away!) for this Blog.

From the start I'd like to apologise that I will not be writing in Japanese (As I cannot) but I hope that my English comments, reviews, musings et al will suffice.

I live in Nagoya but I am proud to call myself a member of JIGG Kansai (The Shinkansen to Tokyo is twice as expensive as to Osaka - easy decision!) but will focus more on the "Nagoya branch" of JIGG Kansai, along with a few updates from trips down to Osaka. I hope you are interested in what I have to say and the comments section is always open!

Kyoto Game Day: April 15th, 2012

We'd like to welcome everyone to join the Kyoto Game Day this weekend on April 15th, 2012.  It will be held at the Kyoto Kita Bunka Kaikan in room 1 from 13:00 to 21:30.   There is a small fee of 400 yen to help cover the cost of the room.

We hope that you'll join us to play games.  Everyone is welcome to join!

JIGG LOGO WINNER!!!

Hi All,

Thank you all for your help, and for all the awesome Logo Entries.
It was a tough choice for all of us I'm sure, as they all looked wonderful.

I asked all JIGG members from all regions to submit their votes, and allowed for 1 week for submission.  (and reminded them again and again :) )  From all the votes we received, we also received lots of great feedback and comments.

* We'll definitely include what JIGG stands for in English & Japanese on printed material with the logo.  (but wanted to the Logo to also be able to stand by itself.  In the future it might be as recognizable as the Nike/Adidas logo, or an Acronym as ATM, that you recognise straight away :) )

Without further ado (I know the suspense is intense....)
I'd like to announce our winner!!!

The winner!!! is DC

with his entry v04 : Meepling!

I'll be contacting DC via email about his wonderful win.

Thank you everyone.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

I'll try run another competition later on in the year :)

Osaka Game Day: April 1st, 2012

Spring is here!  Come and celebrate the arrival of Spring by joining our Osaka Games Day on April 1st, 2012.


The Place Naniwa Kumin Centre (Google Maps)

The date April 1st 2012

The Time 1:00pm to 9:30pm

There will be a small charge to help cover the cost of the room.  This is still being determined.


The room can fit 24 at full capacity so plenty of space for people.


We're looking forward to welcoming new members of all nationalities!




大阪JIGGゲームデー！

場所：浪速区民センター

時間：４月１日１３：００〜２１：３０

参加費：まだ決めていませんが、数百円がかかります。

ボードゲームが好きな人達：大阪のボードゲームイベントが４月１日に行います！色々なゲームをするチャンス、そして新しい友達に出会えるチャンスもあります。ボードゲーム興味の持ち方、是非参加して下さい！

JIGG LOGO - JUDGES TOP 5!! Please VOTE

THE JUDGES TOP 5!

Thank you to all the entrants and judges for their hard work.  The Logos submitted were awesome.   It was a really tough choice for the judges to choose their top 5.

Out of 7 judges, here are the Judges Total Top 5 picks.
(Each judge voted on a ranking scale which had a score, the final points were tallied and the Top 5 is what you see here.  It was an extremely tough choice as all the entries were really good.)Top 1: Entry

Top 1: 6 v08 - Score: 15

Top 2: Entry 6 v04 - Score: 14

Top 3: Entry 1 - Score: 13

Top 4: Entry 4E - Score: 11

Top 5: Entry 8a - Score: 9

Now it's time for you to vote!

You can choose to agree with the judges top choice (if you do, please still vote for that Logo), or choose another one you like.  Here are somethings to think about before making your choice.  Remember:   this Logo is to be used on Meishi cards, flyers, T-shirts, other media. 

• All JIGG gamers (incl. new members) may Vote.  (please vote :) )
• You may only vote ONCE.
• You may only vote for 1 logo.
• Email your votes in before Friday, Mar 9th : midnight.  (Since not every JIGG member is on BGG, I'll be collecting the votes via email & BGG Geekmail)
• Mail them to jiggtokyo (at mark) gmail.com  and include your name & JIGG area (I will crosscheck the names to ensure there's no double voting)

                  Subject: JIGG Logo Top 5 Vote
                            e.g. I vote for Top 3!
                                   Bob Smith  (JIGG Tokyo & Kanagawa)

Some things maybe to think about when voting.  The logo you are choosing
- represents JIGG as a whole
- looks cool & modern & stands out (they all do!!)
- will look good on a flyer
- will look good on a Meishi
- will look good on a t-shirt

If you have any questions please mail jiggtokyo (at mark) gmail.com

In case of a tie - the judges decision will be final
In case of bribes & petitioning - the judges decision will be final