16
Jan

The Vintage Gamer #2: Demonlord and Dwarfstar Games (BG)

   Posted by: Jim   in Board games, Podcasts

In this episode, I discuss the board game Demonlord, originally published by Dwarfstar/Heritage in 1981. It is currently out of print, but you can download scans of the board, counters and rules at the website listed below.

Show notes:

  • Some comments on feedback (both responding and requesting)
  • Detailed description of Demonlord
  • Brief session report and general thoughts
  • Mentions of the remainder of the Dwarfstar line
  • How to get most of these games at The Maverick’s site (see below)

Links:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2006 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Board games, Podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 comments so far

Jay
 1 

Jim,

I listened to your Vintage Gamer 2 pod-cast during my morning commute. Great overview and summary of the game, I particularly like that you found another person to play the game with face to face and based your review on that. As you stated, many wargames are played solitaire.

I also thought the publishing history of the game, the company and the sister games in the series was a worthwhile digression and hope you do more of this in the future.

I’ve owned the game for years but have never found an opponent to play it with me. I’ve never tried it solitaire either. You pod-cast has prompted me to think about pulling it out and playing it with one of my sons.

I also listened to and enjoyed the Vintage Gamer 1 pod-cast last week. As above I enjoyed the overview, history and comments regarding the game.

We played this off and on in the middle 90s but haven’t played it since. Your pod-cast has renewed my interest in the game and I hope to pull it out again soon.

Regarding pod-cast length. The length of the pod-cast is not an issue for me. I have a 35 min commute one-way so have plenty of time to listen. I thought the length for episode 1 and episode 2 were appropriate for the games being discussed. I would encourage you allow the length of the pod-cast to be determined by the subject matter and not by a predetermined set time.

Keep up the good pod-casts; I’m looking foreword to number 3.

Jay

January 18th, 2006 at 3:46 am
Bill Hoyt
 2 

As far as commutes go I also fall into the 1/2 hour + one way. So i like the 20 – 40 min podcasts myself. But go with whatever fits your time!

Tthis episode? issue? was a good one. An interesting game choice and one that I had downloaded(and the others available) sometime a go, but they had fallen to the way side (needless to say I never read the rules & printed the parts). But you have rekindled my interest enough in some of this series that I plan on trying one out this weekend (Barbarian Prince -solitaire) & maybe Grav-Armor if I can tear a friend away from the TV long enough. Anyway, you did a fine job of providing quite a bit of detail and background interest for the game.

I’m pretty excited to see what other gems you dig out of the past.

~Bill

ps. Do you have a big library of older titles? Or just access to them? I’d love to see a list of what you have sometime.

January 19th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Jim
 3 

Normally I like to give a game at least two plays before commenting on it, so doing a fingers and toes test with another person is a bare minimum. I wish I did have the time to play it out to the end, to get some sense of what the endgame is like. However, since the game is essentially free (other than construction time), my sense of guilt fades a bit.

Speaking of the endgame, I’m not sure I explained how you score victory points — you gain them every turn (after each player has played, that is), and they accumulate. You get one point for: control of the most fortresses, fewest allies, no use of reinforcements (yet), most kills and captures this turn, and each enemy city controlled. It seems as if one player gets a decent lead it would be hard to catch up, but I’m guessing that in that case you’d still get a win without scoring victory points.

And I’m glad to be an inspiration to play some of these old games. Obviously we need to keep buying new games so that the hobby grows, but sometimes its good to go back and play the old favorites.

Thanks for the comments — I’ll definitely keep them in mind as I go forward.

January 19th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Jim
 4 

Sorry, Bill, I missed your comment before.

As (I think) I mentioned in the podcast, I’m looking forward to trying out Barbarian Prince myself, and Star Smuggler when it becomes available. The whole series has some nicely themed games.

We don’t have a huge library of older titles — just those we’ve collected here and there throughout the years. I am going to be dumping some we don’t play and pick up a few older ones that I’m interested in, but overall I think there will be enough. I’m also planning on covering a number of ‘classic’ games, so that fills in a lot of shows.

January 20th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
Ranson
 5 

I just found your podcast (through Geek Fu) and have to congratualte you on a good idea for a new ‘cast. I like the descriptions, but personally prefer more analysis. I always try to judge items for myself after playing, but I like to hear what others really think.

As to podcast length, I actually get to listen at work on my PC, so length is not an issue. I actually prefer longer ‘casts (my favorites tend to be an hour or more) simply because it’s more disruptive to my work flow to stop and queue up more.

All in all, I like what you’re doing, and have a couple of more to listen to right now. Good luck!

January 26th, 2006 at 11:40 am

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