And I say it again...You had to come here. I had to say it. To the best board game ever.

And so it begins, the whole point away from my rant, the all-important engagement on the prime purpose of this design blog itself, beyond being the advertising front of my future company. We speak of right now, my current project, a board game that I can't help but feel for what it promises: a lot of fun with a huge cheque behind it. Seriously, this has been one of my most exciting and interesting of ideas at present. And will that ever be surpassed, I wonder?

So what exactly is this "best board game ever"? Look, I even cringe when I read that, because there isn't a very fair system to judge qualitatively on that, but what I am suggesting is that the way this board game came together, that just even the slightest of investigations into its mechanics and framework, would have you remarking it is an inspired work at the very least. And a contender for best board game, which I have to confess that a large part of establishing this blog is about that reason.

And we have to get on to the meat for this grinder.

First of, the inspirations, the process that led to its conception, what it is based from, and any influences that has affected its development, or which it holds some derivation from. And all the above questions are resolved with the words: "It is based structurally adapted from the board game, Nexus Ops."

It is at this point, I can't help but feel the need for another rant. Note, I am only using the word loosely, for I don't have it exactly in my vocabulary, given my belief that I never "rant", but let's skip the pedantics. The rant in question is the basic introduction of what went on in me and without, in regards to this game, which my friend says is his favourite, out of the few board games he has played with me, of which are all from my collection.

Now, to get to this story, of how I learnt of Nexus Ops in the first place, That itself requires a rather long exposition, which I have done with on the boardgamegeek site. I should place the link here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/1396840/3-player-game-victory-second-session-china-shop

And you will notice it begins with nothing to do with Nexus Ops. However, for the sake of the continuity of this post, it is imagined you have taken the liberty of reading that very extensive rant, (and I am admitting to that really), so you have a basic idea that I learnt of Nexus Ops from association with StarCraft the Board Game. Story cut short, I was at the hobby shop I mostly frequented back then before its closure, and saw the StarCraft Alternity game, and many years later, had it googled and realised at that point that there was a StarCraft board game that was not to do with Alternity, and of course as Providence had it, and many intelligent progressions from there, I ended up making the decision, (the part where intelligence came in), of buying that damn beautiful board game called StarCraft the Board Game, and in the later year or so, buying the Brood War Expansion at a ridiculously cheap price of an 80% discount during a warehouse sale of that same shop I bought the StarCraft the Board Game from, because the hobby shop I previously mostly frequented beyond the others, had that closure which I have spoken about, and the Brood War Expansion just costed me $20, but was offset by my other purchases which mounted to roughly about 400 in total. Who's complaining though?

I played the game wrongly for the first ten times or so, because I was wondering how you ever accumulated Conquest Points, if there's only so many Conquest Point Areas you can control. So I thought up the houserule which was actually the right way to play, of having the Conquest Points provided by those areas to be incremental with each Round. Even then, it was still a blast to play, with my only issue being how it is not entirely balanced in a way that left certain units not attractive and cost-effective choices, lacking any real worth or value in getting, at the expense of other more functional and useful choices. And I was initially discouraged by the way combat works in the game, and developed a system that revolved around my (misconception), of how you could spend those Conquest Points that accumulate, to make strategic moves in battle, under the idea that you are micro-controlling your units, in a 4x8 (or 4x4?) grid.

I came up with some ideas along that line of thought, which could be used and implemented for another board game, when I came to see some strong merits for the use the system already in place and established in StarCraft the Board Game. Depending on how you work or view it, it is a succinct system that works well enough, and by its design, should at least be presented in the way it has been designed to work. I saw its merits, and instead of following along my intial design variation, I came to work within the design mechanics already present, with the chief aims of making the game more fun with interesting Techs, and also to balance those choices that were never practical, simply because they are not worth getting for what they do. They weren't workable, and in the spirit of invention, I made the necessary changes I thought would balance out those issues. Unfortunately, I have yet to have the chance to see them playtested. That's another story, when I buy over both Blizzard and FFG, and have them produce a second expansion for StarCraft, that I call The Antioch Chronicles. I will need to link up with Zeus Legion and Auspex Turmalis too, so any of you guys reading this, help me on that, will ya?

At this point, I am not sure if I should begin a new post, to explain that "best board game evar design", and have your patience tested by its repeated suggestions. Then again, maybe my writing is entertaining enough, as it is? Do tell, by which I mean comment on my posts.

That best board game evar starts on the next post, and you damn sure I said it.