boardgames – BattlePlay

Snakes & Lattes

Sep 042013

I recently had the opportunity to visit Snakes & Lattes Board Game Cafe in Toronto, Canada. The shop is a pioneer in the concept of a dedicated hobby game cafe that centers around game play while providing excellent food and refreshments to its patrons.

Snakes & Lattes is located on Bloor street in Korea town, I drove there from the Mississauga area and had a very easy time finding the store. If you are coming in to watch friends game or just to hook up with a new group and get in on some gaming yourself, there’s a modest $5 cover charge. If you plan on ordering some food or drinks, or to buy a copy of a new title, the cover charge is waived.

The interior of the shop is warm and welcoming, well organized with the right light to set the mood. To the immediate left is the sales counter which is attached to the small bar and food server. I was happily surprised to see a rather full house; various games were being played, food eaten and drink imbibed. The staff was friendly and helpful, immediately welcoming me and asking if I had been to the store before. After a brief exchange on the workings of the place I was informed that that evening was “designer’s night” at the shop. Designers had brought in their prototypes for play testing and feedback. Was I in for a treat!

I looked around the gaming floor while I waited for the next designer’s game to open up. The cafe has a well stocked board game collection with over twenty-five hundred titles available for use. This collection is always growing and the newer titles are always a hot commodity. I didn’t see any duplicates, so if you have a favorite that you and your group are intent on playing, make sure you get a stake on it or have a second choice in mind.

It wasn’t too long before one of the store employees pointed me over to an open player position for an unreleased game in play testing. I joined in with three other players one of whom was the designer. The game used worker placement and a bidding mechanism to simulate the job market. It was a great opportunity to see how the creative mind of a designer works by the questions he would ask of the players and the feedback he recorded at the end. If you have any opportunity to attend a designer’s night, I highly recommend it, particularly if you are interested in the game development process.

As for my experience with the food at Snakes & Lattes, I had a chicken salad sandwich and garden salad. Both were fresh and tasty. The service was easy and actually made the entire experience better; I placed my order at the bar and the food was brought to the gaming table. We were checked on several times by the staff and could refill our drinks as needed. At the end of the night I cleared up my running tab at the bar, stopped by the store area and picked up a new copy of Augustus to bring back to the states.

I left the shop thinking what a brilliant concept I had just experienced. As a long time gamer I have played at tournaments under bright florescence, at unsavory game stores awash with screaming adolescents, in inconvenient libraries and garages, and a dozen other less than adequate venues. This was truly my first gaming experience set in a location dedicated and designed to make the gamer feel comfortable, valued, and just as you would feel playing at a good friends home. Now, hearing all of the above you might wonder why this type of establishment isn’t more common. Given the growing popularity of board games and the recent resurgence in general hobby gaming activities, I think we will be seeing more of these board game cafe’s spring up. Actually, not to far up the road from me in Orlando, Florida, there is a nascent board game venue just about to sprout. Cloak and Blaster is being established as a gaming pub with an extensive tap, board game library, video gaming lounge, and a comfortable place to get your geek on. It’s scheduled to open its doors in 2014.

If you are anywhere near Toronto and enjoy hobby gaming, you must drop by and spend some time at Snakes & Lattes. I know you will not only be pleased, but most likely delighted; and if you are lucky enough to live nearby, I wager you will make them a regular feature in your gaming lifestyle. If, like me, you only have the opportunity to visit during a business trip or when other travel takes you through Toronto, check out the possibility of a similar venue opening up near you. If you live in a major city you may find that the renaissance in hobby gaming will bring forth its fruits to your hometown, and a board game cafe, tavern, or pub will be opening near you.

There is no stopping storage of this magnitude!

Board Games, General Gaming No Responses »

Dec 082011

Playing and owning boardgames is a wonderful hobby many of us share. Countless hours are spent on the logistics of this hobby: rules reading, setup, break down, and organization. For those of us with large, multi-piece board games organization can be a challenging task. The industry and our own invention has given us many techniques from the old SPI plastic counter trays, to zip-lock baggies. I remember back in the ancient days using styrofoam cups covered with tinfoil to keep counters organized.

Things become even more difficult when we want to take our favorite games on the road and play them at a gaming store or friends house, al the while keeping track of where the components are, having the ones you want handy at easy reach without everything becoming a complete pile of mess.

BattleLore from Fantasy Flight Games is a prime example of a board game that can go horribly wrong when it comes to transport and play away from home. The base game with a few expansion thrown in can grow to over 300 figures; along with the accompanying unit banners and game cards, the transport of the materials for a serious game session can be daunting.

Over at Board Game Geek you can peruse through the picture gallery for BattleLore and see what other players are doing for storage and transport. These ideas are not just for BattleLore, but they give you the capability to apply these solutions to any large scale board game.

After a bit of research and thought, we decided to go with the fishing tackle box as our form factor. For this we selected the Plano 7771 model. First and foremost it was selected due to its size. The 7771 is a ginormous (size here) with five primary storage
areas. Under the see-through top lid is a compartmented section with removable separators. To the right of this is a large compartment beneath a hinged lid. The top lid opens to reveal a tray for storage of flat items (rulebooks) and includes a small storage box. The central drop down transparent door holds four separate tackle boxes, all compartmented with adjustable dividers. To the right of the drop down door is another lidded storage compartment.

Being able to place the BattleLore mounted map board into the lidded tray was a must. The board almost fit within the try except two small plastic ribs prevented the map from sliding down into the case. Thankfully, the plastic construction was easily modified to remove the two ribs; an xacto knife and a little scoring along the edges and the ribs were easily and cleanly removed from the box. After this simple modification the map slid easily into place. These two cuts to remove the superfluous ribs were the only modification we needed to make to the 7771.

The four large removable tackle boxes provide an excellent way to store miniatures or other game components or tokens. The size of the pieces can be adjusted for by repositioning the separators to allow for more room. In the example of the BattleLore miniatures, greater space was allowed for the larger mounted units. Obviously, some units will be too big for these compartments. The BattleLore dragons are an example of this. For larger units the solution is to use one of the two large compartments to the right of the drop door or top lid.

Another very positive aspect of the Plano system is the removable tackle boxes. If needed, additional boxes can be purchased that can be used for armies (goblins/dwarves) or other figures and when they are required for a particular gaming session you slide out the boxes containing the figures you don’t need and slide in those that are. It’s a modular storage system!

Overall, the Plano 7771 worked very well for transport of our massive BattleLore collection. Transport of exactly what we need to play, plus all the extra doodads that do along with board gaming such as extra dice, pens, tools etc. can be carried with eas in one organized box.

The Plano 7771 will set you back around $65 US. Considering the use and reuse of this box, its an investment that pays off for the avid gamer on the move.