now the elephants

Watch Your Six components: wooden cubes, polyhedral 7-die set for each player, and skull counters—a ridiculous bargain at 25 for $1.99. (Taken with instagram)

The cubes were borrowed from Carolus Magnus, a terrific Euro abstract strategy game that Deke has absolutely no interest in ever playing, so they won’t be missed. The skulls will lend a bit of a sinister edge that will be sorely needed to counter the cuteness of the Lego minifigs we’ll be using for character pieces.

And the dice? Well, they’ll be needed for darn near everything, so rather than putting a random collection of stuff cobbled from other games, I thought I’d spend a few bucks so something in the game (beside the board) would feel distinctly new. Still, we’re at about $19 in production costs for what would probably cost $50-$60 in the store.

The real problem now is that the rules—though chock-full of things he likes to do—are having the aggregate effect of feeling like a game of Calvinball. (Or, as Kim astutely put it, “you’ve invented True American the Board Game.”)