Column

Kris Hall: Family Game Mainstays

Small WorldBecause of a recent vacation, I haven't played any games in the last couple of weeks with anyone outside of my immediate family. And that means playing games that my elementary-school-age daughters enjoy, and that my wife and I can tolerate. Here are four of our mainstays:

Zooloretto (designed by Michael Schacht) – Zooloretto is too simple a game for the Appalachian Gamers to enjoy, but it is just fine for kids. Although my daughters are sometimes more interested in producing baby animals than in developing a winning score, this is a game in which the kids can sometimes beat the parents.

The mechanics of Zooloretto are quite simple. On his turn, a player can spend his cash to perform an action, or pick a random tile and place it on a truck, or claim a truck and the tiles on it. Once a player claims a truck, he is finished for that round. The goal of the game is for players to collect animal tiles, and fill zoo enclosures with animals of one species. Animals that can't be fitted into an enclosure will count against a player at the end of the game, but players can pay cash to get rid of unwanted animals.

Players can also buy an animal from another player's zoo, but we play a variant that ignores that rule (If I bought a baby panda from my daughter's zoo, the screams would be fierce and the tears copious). There is a strong luck element in the game, but it is not entirely brainless. You need to pay attention to what animals other players need so that you don't accidentally fill up a truck with tiles that will give them the game. Zooloretto plays in forty-five minutes or less, and we can sometimes play two games in an evening. Read more »

News

Look for a Bonus Musketeer in Essen

Mousquetaires du RoyYstari Games plans to start taking reservations for its forthcoming Mousquetaires du Roy in September 2010 – check out this preview on BGN for details about the game – and as an incentive for buyers to purchase the game at Spiel 2010, Ystari's Cyril Demaegd says "we'll release the game in Essen with a special gift for our buyers. Each buyer will be given a special 'fifth Musketeer' (Treville) with his figurine and player sheet. With Treville, players will be able to play with six players (or to replace another musketeer, of course)."

In addition, says Demaegd, "We'll give away a really cool T-shirt of d'Artagnan. Stocks will be limited, so reservations will be mandatory."

(Obligatory disclosure: I was paid by Ystari Games to edit the English rules of Mousquetaires du Roy.)

News

Whales Beat Squids in Survive; Squids Appeal

Survive – Escape from Atlantis!What's a good way to generate publicity for an upcoming game? Survey the gaming populace and invite their opinion on important topics. Stronghold Games did just that for its version of Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, asking people whether the game should include a whale (as in the original Parker Brothers version of Survive!) or a giant squid. (Did I say "important topics"? Never mind what I said...)

In the end, the whale reigned supreme, besting the giant squid in two matches out of three. The giant squid put up a good fight, though, and to honor its valiant effort to become immortalized in plastic, Stronghold Games has decided to offer the giant squid as a bonus for anyone who preorders Survive: Escape from Atlantis! Says Stronghold's Kevin Nesbitt, the piece will come "with special rules for inclusion in the game simultanously with or instead of the whale."

Under Stronghold's current preorder system, only 500 preorders will be taken and preorders can't be taken from outside the U.S. (Stronghold has not yet launched the preorder window for Survive.) To accommodate those outside the U.S. who want to see a giant squid destroying boats and chomping on helpless swimmers, Nesbitt says that "the Survive: Escape from Atlantis! – Giant Squid Expansion will be made available for purchase at Essen in limited quantity. This will be a separately bagged expansion from the base game. These will be made available on a first come, first served basis."

For a first look at Survive's whales and squid, check out the CGI rendering below: Read more »

Game Announcement

Climb or Die – or Maybe Climb, Then Die – in K2

Game name: 
Designer: 
— October 2010 no
Players: 
1-5
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
60 minutes
Language: 
English
Language: 
Polish

Polish game retailer Rebel.pl is making the leap into publishing, with Basilica (described here) being one of its releases and the board game K2 from Adam Kałuża being the other. Here's a lengthy description of K2 from the publisher:

K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth as well as the second deadliest. It's known as the Savage Mountain, as it kills one person for every four who have reached the summit...

And K2 has never been climbed in winter.

Now your team stands in its shadow, ready to climb for fame and glory. You know the dangers of K2 all too well: Extreme weather with frequent and deadly storms; exposed, steep, tricky routes; and lack of oxygen await you on your way to the summit. You will test your climbing skills to the death, trying to outsmart the ever-changing weather and always worrying about the acclimatization of your two mountaineers. Also, there are the other teams ready to take the glory for themselves.

K2 is a board game in which each player controls a team of two mountaineers, trying to climb to the summit of K2 before the other players' teams, and descend before the mountain kills them. Every player uses the same deck of cards. Every turn, players simultaneously choose three of their six cards from hand to play. Cards let them move their climbers or give them always needed acclimatization points. You can also use movement points to set up a tent which helps with acclimatization, but naturally the tent stays in one place throughout the game.

K2 – weather board

Game Announcement

Reach for the Stars – or at Least the Ceiling – in Basilica

Basilica – logoless cover

Game name: 
Designer: 
— October 2010 no
Players: 
2
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Language: 
English
Language: 
German
Language: 
Polish

Polish retailer Rebel.pl has released localized versions of a number of games – including Dungeon Lords, Jungle Speed, Ghost Stories – but now Rebel.pl is making a move into publishing original game designs, with two titles on its release schedule for 2010. One of those two games is Basilica, a two-player design by Łukasz M. Pogoda, and here's a game description from the publisher:

Basilica presents the duel of two medieval master masons who are ordered to build a medieval cathedral together, plan its layout, and oversee work at the construction site in tandem.

Tiles placed on the table form the plan of the cathedral. These tiles, distinguished by four colors, represent different elements of the cathedral. Later, the players place pawns on the tiles – these pawns are the teams of builders: foremen, masons and carpenters, who will make the design a reality. The players strive to achieve two goals: to lay their cathedral tiles so as to create the largest possible areas representing a single architectural style, and to have more pawns in these areas than their opponent.

The passage of time in the game is represented by a special King pawn, which moves along the scoring track. Every few moves, the King pawn comes to a space indicating a royal visit to the cathedral. During each royal visit, the progress of work is assessed and Victory Points are assigned to the players. The number of VPs each player is awarded depends on the size and number of the areas controlled by their pawns. The more areas the player controls, and the bigger these are, the greater the reward for the player. At the end of the game, the winner is the player who has claimed more Victory Points.

Game Announcement

Invent Your Way to Success

Era of Inventions

Game name: 
Designer: 
— October 2010 no
Players: 
3-5
Ages: 
12+
Playing time: 
90 minutes
Language: 
Dutch
Language: 
English
Language: 
French
Language: 
German

The only info on this title comes from coverage on Bordspel.com of the Chocolatl opening day events held by Quined Games. Erwin Broens mentions that Era of Inventions is a working title for this economic development game.

Update, Sep. 2, 2010: Quined Games has now posted more information about this release. Here's a brief game description from the publisher, part of which is translated from Dutch:

Explore the lives and minds of Alexander Graham Bell, Karl Benz, the Wright brothers and other pioneers of invention and experience the thrill of the industrial revolution. Be there when the cash register, the sewing machine, the typewriter, the telephone, the gramophone, the camera, the car, the steam engine and the plane are all invented again in Era of Inventions. This time you will be the inventor who creates, patents and introduces these inventions to the markets and the world!

Era of Inventions – Factory card
Factory card, back and front

The goal of Era of Inventions, which lasts 8-10 rounds, is to gain as much influence in the industrial revolution as possible. In each round players use several actions to drive their business forward and gain influence, such as building factories, buying or producing raw materials, or inventing devices and bringing them to market. Time is short, so your actions are limited. The player who best handles his action discs, money, materials and development will carry the most influence in the game and ultimately find himself the most influential inventor!

Game Announcement

Regular Sharing Not Good Enough for Alspach

Really Friendly Sharing logo

Designer: 
— October 2010 no
Players: 
2-10
Price: 
Free (see description)
Language: 
English
Language: 
German

As described on BGN, designer Ted Alspach previously announced a bonus Age of Steam / Steam map called Sharing for those who order the Essen 2010 Map Pack through his Bézier Games. But philanthropist that he is, Alspach has decided that mere Sharing is not good enough – after all, you share train lines with others, but the game still has only one winner. For those who frown on such things, you'll be delighted to know that you can flip over that nasty Sharing board and instead share a communal hug around the game board for Really Friendly Sharing. Here's Alspach's description of this sugary confection:

What if Steam / Age of Steam were a truly cooperative game, like Shadows over Camelot without a traitor? Or if no one had to die in Clue, so you could just mosey around that neat mansion talking to your friends? Or if there were no diseases in Pandemic, or no ghosts in Ghost Stories? Wouldn't that be fun? Sure, it would!

Ted Alspach's Really Friendly Sharing is for 2 to 10 players who don't have some horribly recessive competitive gene. In Ted Alspach's Really Friendly Sharing, you work as a team to build a railroad. Many of the aspects that cause unnecessary tension in Age of Steam have been removed, like money and the AoS auction, so you can focus on laying track, making deliveries, getting VPs and having fun!

Really Friendly Sharing – game board

Column

Shannon Appelcline: The Games of Stefan Feld, Part 2

In my last column, The Games of Stefan Feld, Part 1, I talked about the originality underlying Stefan Feld's designs, highlighting four of his publications from 2005-2007. This time around I'm going to look at his more recent fare, from 2008-2010, and again discuss what I think makes them really stand out as innovative and original designs.

In this article, I'm going to be covering Stefan's four most prominent designs from the period. If you'd like to talk about a game that I left out from 2008-2010, I invite you to make use of the comments, below.

New Feld: 2008-2010

The Name of the Rose (2008). Because of Feld's amazing record with alea, every time I play one of his games from another publisher, I wonder, "Was this originally intended for alea?" This one certainly has the right depth, and there aren't any alea games like it, so who knows. In any case, in The Name of The Rose, you're trying to catch a murderer. Actions you take over the course of the game increase or decrease the evidence against one of the monks. The trick is, you're secretly one of the monks. At the end of the game, everyone tries to guess who everyone is. Correct guesses increase evidence and then the the secret player of the monk with the least evidence against them wins.

It's a little convoluted, so let me say, whew! Read more »

Game Announcement

A Handful of New Races for Small World

Designer: 
— 2010 no
Players: 
2-5
Ages: 
8+
Playing time: 
40-80 minutes
Price: 
$20
Language: 
English
Language: 
French
Language: 
German

Days of Wonder will release a new smallish expansion for Philippe Keyaerts' Small World before the end of 2010. Here's a description from the publisher of the Be Not Afraid... expansion:

There are many frightening inhabitants of Small World, but to survive you must Be Not Afraid...! This new expansion for Small World includes a nasty lot of five new Races including Barbarians, Homunculi, Pixies, Pygmies, and greedy little Leprechauns. You'll also get five new Special Powers which allows you to leap over regions to conquer new lands. Be Not Afraid... requires the original Small World board game to play.

I've seen an estimated release date of November 2010 listed by retailers, but nothing official from Days of Wonder yet.

News

Media Watch: Games Not a Long-Term Brain Drain Deterrent

Neurology logoSolving crossword puzzles and playing games has been touted in the media as a way to prevent the onset of brain degenerative diseases. Here's one such claim on the Alzheimer’s Association website:

Mental decline as you age appears to be largely due to altered connections among brain cells. But research has found that keeping the brain active seems to increase its vitality and may build its reserves of brain cells and connections. You could even generate new brain cells.

This turns out to be only half the picture. In research published in Neurology and reported on by Business Week, while it is true that "mental activity may slow declines in thinking and memory during normal old age...folks who loved these pursuits actually displayed a hastening of their mental decline once symptoms of dementia began to set in." Here's an excerpt from the Business Week article:

The researchers found that increased cognitive activity among normal individuals – things such as listening to the radio, watching television, reading, playing games and going to museums – meant that they were less likely to experience cognitive decline over several years.

Specifically, for each gained point on the cognitive activity scale, the rate of mental decline fell by 52 percent over 6 years.

But the opposite was true for those who did go on to develop dementia – in that case, people who had loved mentally challenging activities actually showed a quicker mental decline after the illness took over. In fact, the rate of decline accelerated by 42 percent for each point on the cognitive activity scale, the researchers report.

Game Announcement

Walking and Mapping Japan in Kaigan

Kaigan

Game name: 
Designer: 
— October 2010 no
Players: 
3-4
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
60-90 minutes
Language: 
English

The number of good games entering the market from self-published designers is staggering, and the sad part for gamers is that all too often we don't even become aware of these titles, much less have a chance to play them to see whether they fulfill the designer's promise. Sometimes, though, such a self-published game will trickle down from one gamer's hands to another until someone finally decides that the gaming world needs to see more of this design.

Such is the case with Kenichi Tanabe's Inotaizu. Former BGN columnist Scott Tepper played a friend's copy at a convention, then managed to snag the game from a prize table as something had triggered in his head. Now, months later, the renamed Kaigan will be the first release from Tepper's Ascora Games with a Spiel 2010 debut.

Kaigan – map game board
Map game board, showing the rounds, actions and endgame points

Kaigan is themed around Tadataka Ino's efforts to survey and map Japan starting in 1800. The players work for Ino, and they have surveyors in their employ to map the shoreline and bring honor to them. To start the game, ten map tiles are placed on the map game board in pairs; each map tile has a value of 2-4 along with an artist, government or travel icon. Read more »

News

Design a Logo and Make Your Hand Visible

Game Designer Wannabe ex-logoMichael Keller, who runs the Game Designer Wannabe blog, is putting out an appeal for logo designs for his forthcoming game publishing company, Visible Hand Games. The designer of the winning logo will receive one copy of every game that Keller ever self-publishes – and if VHG never gets off the ground, the winner will receive one copy of a Keller prototype of his choice.

A peek at Keller's own attempts at logo design shows that this contest is a good idea. Stick to your strengths, and all that. The deadline for entry is September 30, 2010.

Game preview

Mousquetaires du Roy

Previewed game: 

Game Announcement

One Against All, All Against One in Mousquetaires du Roy

Mousquetaires du Roy

Game name: 
Designer: 
Designer: 
— October 2010 no
— 2010 no
Players: 
1-5
Ages: 
12+
Playing time: 
90 minutes
Language: 
English
Language: 
French

Ystari Games will release a new semi-cooperative game in October 2010, a game from François Combe and Gilles Lehmann that's based on Alexandre Dumas' novel Les Trois Mousquetaires, known in English as The Three Musketeers.

In Mousquetaires du Roy (which translates as "The King's Musketeers"), most of the players take the role of one of the famed Musketeers: Athos, Aramis, Porthos or the hero d'Artagnan. As in the novel, they're trying to recover the jewels that the Queen gave to her lover, Duke Buckingham, so that she can wear them at an event brought about by Cardinal Richelieu. The jewels were originally given to the Queen by her husband, King Louis XIII, and should she show up without the jewels her infidelity will be revealed. The Cardinal knows this and wants to bring about the Queen's downfall, so he brings in a special agent of sorts, someone who will obstruct the Musketeers and send them on other missions that the Musketeers must counter. This agent is Milady de Winter, ex-wife to Athos, and she's played by one player who works against all the others. If Milady can keep the Musketeers from returning the jewels in time – or if she completes one of her other missions – then she wins the game.

Mousquetaires du Roy – Athos character card
One of the Musketeer character cards Read more »

German publisher Kosmos has released a number of board games over the past few years that originated as text – Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days, Pillars of the Earth, The Swarm – but by no means does Kosmos have a lock on ludic interpretations of fiction. In late 2010, French publisher Ystari Games will reveal its first novel-to-game adaptation with the release of the semi-cooperative game Mousquetaires du Roy (which translates as "The King's Musketeers"). Why semi-cooperative? Because in the regular game one player works against all the others, but the game also includes rules that allow all the Musketeers to compete against the game system.

Here are the basics of Mousquetaires du Roy, which is designed by François Combe and Gilles Lehmann and based on Alexandre Dumas' novel Les Trois Mousquetaires: Most of the players take the role of one of the famed Musketeers – Athos, Aramis, Porthos or the hero d'Artagnan. As in the novel, they're trying to recover the jewels that the Queen gave to her lover, Duke Buckingham, so that she can wear them at an event brought about by Cardinal Richelieu. The jewels were originally given to the Queen by her husband, King Louis XIII, and should she show up without the jewels her infidelity will be revealed. The Cardinal knows this and wants to bring about the Queen's downfall, so he brings in a special agent of sorts, someone who will obstruct the Musketeers and create distractions that the Musketeers must counter. This agent is Milady de Winter, ex-wife to Athos, and she's played by one player who works against all the others. If Milady can keep the Musketeers from returning the jewels in time – or if she completes one of her other missions – then she wins the game. Read more »

Column

Dale Yu: What is your PopulistGamer score?

So, what exactly does the title mean -- what is a PopulistGamer score (PGS)?   Well, it’s a term that I just coined myself in the past 24 hours, and it refers to how many of the most “popular” games you have played and you have ever owned.  It’s a very subjective term and uses the Boardgamegeek.com user ratings to decide what games are popular.  I am using the number of users who have rated the game as the metric to decide popularity.  I like the fact that this metric uses the votes of gamers (I am making the assumption here that most Boardgamegeek.com users are gamers) - so it is a much better reflection of popularity than sales numbers - which could be skewed by all sorts of things.

Under this system, the most popular game is Settlers of Catan – which has 24,344 user ratings.  The average rating of the game is not important in deciding the popularity of a game… just the number of users who have rated it – which, to me, shows how many people have played the game.  For instance, some low-rated games such as Monopoly (average rating = 4.50) and UNO (average rating = 5.27) make the list of 100 most popular games, while some of the highest rated games such as Brass (8th by rating), Steam (13th by rating), Command and Colors: Ancients (15th by rating), Age of Steam (16th), Paths of Glory (19th) and Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage (20th) do not show up in the top 100 by popularity.  That's right - 30% or 6 of the top 20 rated games on BGG do not qualify amongst the 100 most rated. Read more »

News

Media Watch: Order a Drink at Snakes and Lattes

From an August 30, 2010 post by Steve Kupferman on The Torontoist:

Ben Castanie's new Koreatown café, at 600 Bloor Street West, just east of Palmerston Avenue, will emphatically not have free Wi-Fi. In fact, laptops and their attendant air of isolation are completely counter to what Castanie is trying to do. "I just don't want people sitting staring at their screens," he says. Then he starts explaining the system of categorization he'd used to organize his café's library of 1,500-plus board games...

The games on offer include many old favourites, but the catalogue runs far deeper than just the basics. Castanie is particularly proud of his selection of "Euro games," so-called because they tend to be designed and produced in countries like Germany and France. Euro games are characterized by their simple rules, and their lack of player elimination. They're considered quick and easy to learn, and they lend themselves to casual play. Settlers of Catan, a German game, is one particularly popular and well-known instance of the genre.

Head to the Snakes and Lattes website for business hours and pics of the interior shelves. Bring back something warm for me...

Game review

Sneaks & Snitches

Reviewed game: 

Game Announcement

Vlaada Chvátil Sneaks Out a Tiny Game

Sneaks & Snitches

Game name: 
Designer: 
— October 2010 no
— September 2010 no
Players: 
2-5
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
20 minutes
Price: 
$30
Language: 
Czech
Language: 
English

Designer Vlaada Chvátil is best known for big, highly inventive games that stand apart from others on the shelves, such as Through the Ages, Galaxy Trucker, Space Alert and Dungeon Lords, but he can go small as well, as with Sneaks & Snitches.

In this bluffing game, gems and other point-scoring objects are up for grabs at various locations, and on a turn each player will secretly choose to place a thief at one location and a snitch at another. Once the cards from all players are revealed, you find out whether your thief did indeed steal something and whether your snitch blocked someone else from stealing. You refill the cache of any location that had its goods snatched, and the game ends once the deck of goods runs out. Some colors of gems score only for those who obtained more than everyone else, while others pay off for the two, three or four players who have more of the color than anyone else. Whoever scores the most points wins.

Sneaks & Snitches – back cover

News

Werewolves Learn to Speak German

Lupus in Tabula – German versionItalian publisher dV Giochi has announced that it will release German language versions of its two werewolf games – Lupus in Tabula and Lupusburg – at Spiel 2010 in October. Lupus in Tabula is dV Giochi's version of the familiar Werewolf party game, while Lupusburg, which is designed for 4-8 players, throws a werewolf in the middle of town. Here's a description of that game from the publisher:

The village of Tabula, once famous for its case of lycanthropy, has become a rich town. But the people haven't changed their nasty habits!

At night, someone goes around howling, turned into a Werewolf, while someone else has dedicated himself to stealing from houses, searching for precious treasures. During the day, the Burgomaster tries to bring order back to the town's inhabitants – but what if he is really the Werewolf in disguise?

News

Preorders Open for Spiel 2010 Titles from White Goblin

NorenbercDutch publisher White Goblin Games has posted preorder information on its website for four Spiel 2010 releases, with bonus items listed for each title that's purchased via preorder or at Spiel 2010 itself. The games and the bonus items for each title are:

  • Inca Empire – four sun event cards (BGN preview)
  • Norenberc – eight bonus tiles (BGN preview)
  • Khan – four golden yurts (BGN preview)
  • Rattus: Pied Piper – four character cards, "containing none less than the likes of Robin Hood, Dracula, Joan of Arc and Merlin" (BGN preview forthcoming)

White Goblin Games has promised to make the rules for all four games available in the coming weeks, with preorders being available until October 17, 2010, whether for pick-up in Essen or shipment. White Goblin has also released a video teaser for Inca Empire that shows the bonus sun cards in the closing seconds: Read more »

Game Announcement

A New Look for Ingenious

Ingenious (2010 FFG edition)

Game name: 
Designer: 
— November 2010 (2nd ed) no
Players: 
1-4
Ages: 
10+
Playing time: 
45 minutes
Price: 
$40 / €32
Language: 
English
Language: 
German

U.S. publisher Fantasy Flight Games is relaunching Reiner Knizia's multi-award-winning game Ingenious with a new look and redesigned components. For those not familiar with the game, each player has a hand of domino-style tiles with a colored symbol on each half of the tile. As you place tiles on the board, you score points for the number of identical matching symbols in rows that touch the tile that you just placed. Reach 18 points in a symbol, and you take another turn immediately – but the goal of the game isn't to have the highest score or to get rid of all your tiles first. Instead, you want your lowest score along the six symbols to be higher than the lowest score of your opponents.

According to Fantasy Flight, the "updated components include new tiles, new score cards, scoring pegs, and tile racks." The new version of Ingenious is expected to be available in November 2010.

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