Board Games Books

The book is really well done, excellent illustrations, but, unfortunately, it wasn't what I was looking for. It really is a superb coffee table book or an adjunct to get design ideas. I happened to be looking for a book with the code behind the graphics. I am only giving it 3 stars because I don't think it covered what was advertised.

This book is sort of a Klutz Book of Board Games for a slightly younger audience. The components are nice, and the boards are pretty big -- 13" x 11". The rules are usually fairly easy to understand, but more care could have been taken in to avoid ambiguities (for example, in the rules for The Jungle Game, they forget to mention that a player's pieces may enter their own traps without being weakened, although their suggested strategy would not make sense without this rule). The sixteen games are: Achi, Seega, Cliffhangers (a Chinese Checkers/Halma varient on a triangular board), Horseshoe, Jumpers and Starters (Alquerque), Poindexter (Solitaire), Baffles (a Go-Moku varient), Fox and Geese, Mu-Torere, Bandits (simplified checkers), Wari, Checkers (Draughts), Nine Men's Morris, Reversals (Reversi), The Jungle Game (AKA Jungle/Animal Chess) and Go (8x8 board).

This book is roundabout for me.
Because I just want to know vocabulary for Toefel.
However this book gives a lot of questions ,then select the answers. It is kind of text book to use for school(ESL).
I am looking for vocablary for Toefel, not test book.

is a good book, but far from being one of Bruna's best. It is not as conceptually interesting as his Miffy's Birthday (a jigsaw book printed in the UK) or What Time Is It, and the printing job is less impressive than his flip book series.

Demonstrating errors in fundamental methodology while containing a wealth of empirical data; the book: 'THE PHILOSOPHER'S GAME: Rithmomachia in Medieval and Renaissance Europe' (2001) by professor Ann E. Moyer [with an edition of Ralph Lever and William Fulke, 'The Most Noble, Auncient, and Learned Playe (1563)] "is at times as much about the history and significance of the teaching of Boethius's ARITHMETIC as it is about the game itself." (p. 13)

Indeed, the book appeared to be mis-titled as the author seemed to digress away from Rithmomachia and onto Medieval and Renaissance European reaction to Boethian mathematics via the Philosopher's Game.

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (d. 524 A.D.) whose two major texts, the ARITHMETIC (a loose translation of writings by the second century scholar Nicomachus of Gerosa); and the DE MUSICA (which was heavily based on the "Pythagoreo-Platonic concept of numerical ratios of the musical scale"); were the main text sources for the Quadrivium, the curriculum of monastic schools, cathedral schools, and somewhat in the newly formed universities (studia generalia). It is Dr. Moyer's contention that "rithmomachia had arisen with the promotion of the quadrivium in 11th century-education, so the game's disappearance helps mark the end of this long era of European learning and culture". (p. 123)

Yet a few problems of consistency arose within THE PHILOSOPHER'S GAME which impaired her thesis; as Dr. Moyer stated in her proem that "Rithmomachia was played as long as Boethius's ARITHMETIC was taught; the game and the curriculum disappeared together" (p. 13) which contrasted sharply with her observation of Renaissance Italy where "Boethius's ARITHMETIC did not hold there the place it had held traditionally in northern Europe ... Boethian influence remained as only one aspect among many of mathematics and related studies." (p. 123)

The Renaissance Italians, first exposed to Rithmomachia in Florence "in the social gatherings at the Racellai gardens" (p. 115), were entirely ignorant of Boethian proportions and his text, the ARITHMETIC; and felt "the key to correct proportion is Pythagora's system of musical harmony." (Wittkower, 'Architectural Principles' p. 33). Rithmomachia was played in Italy (and England) as the 'Pythagora's Game', and Francesco Barrozi (c. 1560), modified the rules by Boissiere by totally eliminating Boethian proportion to expedite the beginner to the game. Obviously, in contrast to the author's assertion that the game was played as long as the ARITHMETIC was taught, it is apparent that Rithmomachia was sometimes played in total ignorance of the ARITHMETIC, or independently of Boethian mathematics, and well beyond the life of the Quadrivium curricula.

Depending heavily on a secondary source, Arno Borst, to claim that Rithmomachia, the 'battle of numbers' was invented c. 1030 in a German monastic school by a monk named Asilo, who "made use of Gerbert's SCHOLION on Boethius's ARITHMETIC in comprising his rithmomachia" (p. 20), Dr. Moyer made no effort to document another possible inventor, Herman Contractus, simply understating his contribution. With Dr. Moyer's emphasis of the interest also taken in chess, she took no consideration of the indigenous games of Northern Europe and their possible influence on Rithmomachia. For example, the Viking game 'Halatafl' (fox & geese) dating back to before 400 A.D. and played until the 17th century, where the geese are to capture the fox by surrounding him on all sides so it cannot move, is 'a fortiori' reminiscent of 'Ambuscade' found in the Philosopher's Game!

Therefore the book THE PHILOSOPHER'S GAME is not a definitive work, and contained a number of non-sequiturs, unreferenced claims, foot-noted digressions, 'cum hoc' fallacies, a resort to determinism, and internal inconsistencies. Despite the large number of useful sources, the author would have made her work more rigorous if she included in her bibliograhy translated copies of her secondary sources along with William Fulke's manual.

A work which should be read in conjunction with Professor Ann Moyer is: ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES IN THE AGE OF HUMANISM (1962, 1971) by Rudolf Wittkower, where in chapter four is found a scholarly in-depth treatise of Renaissance Italy's dependence on Plato's 'Timaeus'; Pythagorean number theory; and Plato's musical scales, for the practical application of Renaissance architectural ratio and proportion, without Boethius's ARITHMETIC; while, unintentionally, providing clear and precise explanations of the ratio formulas and proportions found in the rules of Rithmomachia.

This good work: THE PHILOSOPHER'S GAME by Dr. Ann Moyer, is useful to anyone studying the historical influence which the Boethian text, ARITHMETIC, had on a Quadrivium education; but (at $65.00 and 205 pages) might disappoint the serious player of Rithmomachia.

I bought this book hoping to get some help with my new SoundBlaster card. The words "making waves" in the subtitle led me to believe that these authors were going to explain wavetable sound synthesis that current SoundBlaster 32/64 cards employ. Don't be misled by the title the way I was! This is probably a good book for owners of old SoundBlaster 16 cards that use FM synthesis, but it will not help you figure out your new soundtoy.

This book presents 58 games, all played by Gary Kasparov, that either start out as or transpose into the English opening. Gary played both sides of the board roughly equally, 30 games as white and 28 as black. He won 15 as white and 13 as black, lost only four (2 as each), and naturally drew the rest. All of this is fine, I now have 58 games played by Kasparov (from the years 1978 - 1991) against opponents of similar skill. The problem is there isn't much more to the book then that.

The title says there will be commentary, and there is. The editor comments on how deadly Kasparov is while either playing or playing against the English opening. The editor comments about the lack of up-to-date scholarly analysis of the English opening. The editor includes a response to an article (and the original article itself) that states the above. All of this is very interesting, don't get me wrong, but I got the book to help me learn the English opening. What I was expecting when the title said commentary was annotations and comments about the various moves in the games themselves, and that I didn't get. In the editor's defense he was very up front about this and about why he didn't include them, unfortunately that was in the introduction. It is difficult to read a book's introduction when you are buying it on line.

So am I happy with the book? Overall, yes. Do I find the book helpful? Again, yes. Is it for the casual chess player? Well, for the novice and the casual player, there are probably much better books to start with. If you are interested in studying some interesting games using the English opening, you could do a lot worse then this book.

PBMs are different from most games by the fact that you should expect the unexpected. You receive a set of rules in the mail, rules that you've probably never heard of, you try your hand with the first couple of turns, you interact with the numerous in-game personalities, you have fun. This sort of game does not need a guide. Half the fun of such game lies in figuring out the details of the rules, the EXPLORATION of your freedoms. If you buy a guide to a PMB, first of all you will have an unfair advantage over other players, second of all you will ruin the game for yourself. Buy at your leizure only if you want to acquaint yourself with the genre, not with the game. As for the GUIDE TO PBMs, I'm waiting for it with all my heart so I won't have to play a macabre version of a "search and destroy" game as I'm trying to find another game to join.

This product is purely a straightforward down to the point book of creatures with stats, nothing more. There is hardly any interesting tidbits about the monsters and their behaviors. No ecology or terrain types or lair fluff and barely any aquatic monsters which irked me.

The tactics are clearly laid out. While the stat blocks are interesting in keeping the players on their toes the creatures themselves are more like video game automatons with push button type functions (much like the player characters). Not recommended for those who love interesting juicy monster books. Considering the thickness of this volume most of the space is consumed by stat blocks making this volume a snore to enjoy outside of DMing sessions.

The other reviews are right. This is no longer D&D, it's simply a board game. A board game involving stats. The monster manual has virtually no actual description of the monsters. No ecology, no habits, no history... just numbers. I was looking forward to this... extremely disappointed. Basically all I paid for is a bunch of pretty pictures. The 4th edition should have been released as a separate product from D&D. Maybe as an add on. If you don't have the time to play a real D&D game, you could play this board game version. The 4th edition is nothing but a waste. It really is a shame.

I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons since the first boxed set and I have looked forward to each new version and this is no exception. Each new version has tried to improve on the core Dungeon and Dragon experience until now. This new version is not really a new version but an entirely new game with very little of the flavor or magic feeling of the original. Now it feels more like a version of WOW or another of the online games. I am not knocking the online games they can be great if that is what you want to play but if you are looking for an intense good old fashioned role playing session with a group of your friends this new version is not for you unless you are under 12. If you are an experienced role player I would suggest that you save your money and stick to 3.5 there should be a lot of second hand material for that around and several other good companies are still supporting it like Necromancer Games. I wish those people bought Dungeons and Dragons as they know what D&D should feel like. Also look for the games put out by pazzio publishing the company that used to put out the Dragon and Dungeon. In short if you are a veteran of the Dungeons and Dragons and enjoyed the old game save your money or better yet spend it elsceware there are a lot of fine games out there unfortunately this company is no longer make such products.

This is the best of the 4e core books for me, but still left me feeling a bit sour.

First the good. In the tradition of the 1st edition AD&D Monster Manual, this book dispenses with lengthy descriptions of monsters and instead focuses on stats. Only in rare circumstances do we get lengthy prose regarding a monster's motivations outside of being fodder for the adventurers to beat up on. Filling in the details is left to the DM. The new stat blocks are straightforward and much easier to use than their 3.5 counterparts. Special abilities are in the stat block rather than hidden amongst the monster's descriptive text. That's a welcome change indeed. Also, one of my favorite things from the last two 3.5 MM's is carried over: knowledge checks to see what our heroes might know about their current foe. All in all, this is a very easy to use book.

Then there's the bad news. There are a lot of monsters missing from this book when compared to its 3.5 counterpart. Yes, some of the new core monsters were pulled from books other than the first MM, but leaving out monsters as classic as metallic dragons reeks of a mandate from marketing. Just like with the PHB, things many veteran players expect have been left out for the sole reason of saving them for another book to sell. You want your metallic dragons and the rest of the giants? Buy `Monster Manual II'. Then there's the artwork. A friend and I spent about 10 minutes playing `spot the recycled art' with this book. Roughly 10-15%, maybe more, is culled from 3.5 books. Were the contracted artists unable to meet their deadline for new artwork, or did someone at Wizards decide to cut the budget? You be the judge.

So what we're left with is a very well designed Monster Manual that's easy to use, but missing a significant number of iconic monsters and wholly original artwork. That's good for a 3 in my book.

the book is by far the weakest of the three core books.

The good:
The new mechanics focus on the "screen time" devoted to each monster and keeps things simpler. Most entries provide knowledge check info with DCs and useful info. Book is colorful and includes lots of creatures and variations

The bad:
Other than the DC check knowledge, background info on the creatures is really sparse. In some cases variations in a entry don't even have a phsyical description of how they are different. Templates would be better served in here than in the DMG (though that's a minor quibble).

Overall, still well worth the money if you are going to run a game.

I am a USCF expert and have read many books on tactics. I have struggled trying to find a starter book on tactics for my elementary chess club students. Most books have problems that are too hard and text that is too long for 7-9 year olds and they only get frustrated. My second grade daughter (USCF 300) is able to pick this book up and read it by herself. After Simple Checkmates, by Gilliam, this should be the next book a young player reads.

I was looking for some thing that would teach me tactics in openings or when I would be at any point of the game. I was very, very disapointed when I found this book didn't explain things very well.
Well here I go, one,two, three (I hope you give me a good review for being telling you as a 5th grader about writting a review because I am doing this review because I am in a summer scool class),
Number One Thing:
It does not tell almost every time were the person who made a mistake made it. I want this so I will not make the same mistake.
Number Two Thing:
I ran out of things to learn much. I wanted to see more stuff and things. The book is SKIPPY. It doesn't expain WHY!!!!
I want a book that TEACHES ME TACTICS, ESPECIALLY WHEN I START A GAME IN THE OPENINGS WHERE TRAPS ARE USED.

This book is lame in my opinion because,
Number One - I found some mistakes in it that no writter or publisher should miss,
Number two - There isn't enough actual stuff in it. It will take someone in my grade who has learned to play no time to go through it and be bored stiff if he has been playing chess in the club at there school.
Number three - Overgrown sizes of diagrams just take up space. This book look like the company that published it got the material and had to make it BIG to make it into a book instead of a booklet.
Number four - Judge this book by its cover and you will not want it! I gave it away to a friend so I can beat him. Maybe not so nice, but this book actually teaches you some incorrect stuff!!! My other book by the David MaKay Library by another writer was very good, just not this one. So don't judge a book by its publisher, but by its author is my advice.

I own more than two hundred chess books and I've been teaching chess to kids in both public and private schools in California for ten years. In my opinion this book gives very clear explanations of the concepts behind many of the most basic chess tactics. Tactical puzzles are organized by theme so that the student can learn one type of tactic at a time. Games are included that show how the various tactics can arise from typical chess games played by kids. This book is not for students who are just learning how the pieces move, but it is an excellent work for students who have learned how the pieces move
and want to move on to the next level of chess. Another excellent work for that purpose is grandmaster Daniel King's book How To Win At Chess, The Ten Golden Rules.

This is a very, very basic book on tactics. It is just ok for someone that has just learned how the pieces have moved.
I found that there was not enough examples of problems to make this book worth while. There explanations are not very good and not as clear as my other two chess books on tactics and traps in the opening (they all had a lot more material too). I felt that the diagrams were much bigger than they needed to be and that a lot of space was wasted on the pages. I have looked at the McKay Chess Library for Kids and they don't seem to have anything beyond super beginner stuff that is the same style.