Achievements in Gaming: The Oscars; "Nice work, turkey!"

"Oscar Goldman" #$&@#& I can't believe I forgot that Oscar. The 6 Million Dollar Man was a motivating factor to rush home after school and finish my homework so I didn't have any reasons to miss each episode.

Oscar Goldman: "Steve Austin, astronaut: a man barely alive
Gentlemen we can rebuild him. We have the technology.
We have the capability to make the worlds first bionic man.
Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before
Better, Stronger, Faster!"

While I love movies, I rarely ever watch the movies that win an Oscar. Although "Skyfall" did win an Oscar for Original Song. My favorite movies from this past year were "Skyfall, The Avengers, and Moonrise Kingdom."

The theme of movies and the Oscars has lead to several board games. Many if not most are trivia based. However, there is one game that is strategic and somewhat interesting. It is called Hollywood Blockbuster aka Dream Factory. It was designed by Reiner Knizia, and published in 2000 by several different game companies.

The goal of the game (aside from winning!) is to produce the most valuable movies over the course of four rounds. The central game mechanics are auctions and set collections. The game plays 2 - 5 "directors" who bid on actors, cameras, effects, music, guest stars and agents in the quest of completing the most valuable movie.

Some of the movie titles included are Star Battles, Tomorrow's Golden Eye Never Dies, Silence of the Cannibals, Dances with Buffalos, Raiders of the Lost Biblical Receptacle, and Gopher Shack! Silly stuff indeed.

This past Sunday, I had the chance to play a new game called Kemet. It is an Egyptian themed light war game that uses area control, and worker placement. It plays 2 - 5 but might suffer from "king-making" in a 3 player game. It uses a common but not overused mechanic of battle cards to resolve battles. Each player has the same set of 6 battle cards. Each card is either strong in attach, damage or defense while being weak in an opposite category. Which card will your opponent play? Will they attack in strength or go for damage. Each player chooses one card and blindly discards a second battle card. Thus through use of clever hand management, can you defeat your opponent and gain a victory chip?