Board Gamers of Singapore #2: CX a.k.a Chuan Xin (The Undefeatable)

In the board gaming hobby, there are various kinds of people you will meet and like the cartoon, The Transformers, some are more than meets the eye. This is the experience I got from my time getting to know the man and legend known as CX.

CX is a board and video gaming enthusiast who works in the Tech industry. He first got into modern designer board games in the 1990's through the Richard Garfield megahit Magic: The Gathering. After that, video games took over most of his time until 2010 when he was introduced to the card game Race for the Galaxy.

The game impressed him so much that he continued to look for more games and found the ever popular game of Dominion. From there, he started to go a board game meetup at Kembangan and the rest is as they say, history. 

CX who has a sizable collection of 269 board games also has past links to ToyTag in that he bought his recommended game of the day, which we will get to later from an online board game retailer called Bogas, which will become ToyTag in years to come. 

Upon meeting him, the first impression you will get from CX is that he is of a quiet demeanor and one that probably only wants to play very strategic games, and even though he does prefer those games, he states he definitely does not mind playing lighter games but with the right crowd.

As you get to know the board gaming community more and ask about CX, there are usually three common threads that will come up. Firstly, he almost never loses, secondly that he is a master of rules and third if there is a hard to get Japanese game, CX will usually have it, like the above pictured Wind the Film.

The amazing thing is that his winning streak does not just apply to strategic games due to his good planning but also to luck and dexterity games, which almost seems unfair in a fun way.

As for the teaching of rules, he is one of the rare people many will trust to teach a game literally out of the box and not having seen the rules at all before. Which he does with surprising accuracy and little mistakes.

Related: Boardgamers of Singapore #1: Dion Garner (The Ambassador)

Overall, CX is a friendly person who is always a good choice to teach games upon request and is a amazing strategist/tactician always willing to teach you how to improve your game. Playing with CX, you will learn how he got his well earned 'undefeated' status and strangely after the experience, you will find how losing has never been more fun. 

His recommended game of the day is the Mage Knight Board Game, which is one of his favorite games. The Mage Knight board game plays up to four 4 players and puts you in control of a Mage Knights as you explore (and conquer). Gameplay is done by getting cards into your deck to build your army and using your deck's cards to do actions in the game. 

The reasons CX likes Mage Knight is all the characters and scenarios play uniquely, it is a game that emphasizes skill over luck and yet tells a characterful story that progresses with your character as he/she goes on adventures. 

Now that being said, Mage Knight also has some con factors that has given it a certain reputation as CX points out. These are factors such as the game being a long one time wise, sometimes upwards of 5 hours and it is extremely rules intensive.

Thus although CX loves Mage Knight, it is a game he recommends for more advanced gamers and if possible taught by someone who knows the rules of the game well. 

E: huibin@toytag.com

Zhou Huibin is a smith of words who majored in Philosophy & History from the University of Western Australia and whose life has followed the flow of his hobbies. He seeks continual contentment in his ponders, reading, writing, painting and board games which fills almost all of his time.