Convention Preview: Nuremberg 2010 – Publishers L-Z

Inspired by the conquest of the West, Dakota is a game with linear mechanics but with a great attention to the thematic element. Players will take the control of a group of settlers or a tribe of natives. Each player will cooperate and compete with all other players to increase the status of his own faction, competing for natural resources which will have different values for settlers and natives. The settlers will try to exploit the territory in order to make it productive for industry and agriculture while the natives must make all efforts to keep the territory virgin as long as possible, while at the same time using its resources for the susteinance and prosperity of their own tribe. An intelligent mechanism allows players to play in a balanced way, even with a different number of settlers and native players – the allies and enemies are not always the ones that someone would imagine. Dakota will be the first game published by NG International using the "Tenki Games" brand, recently acquired by the company.

Letters from Whitechapel is a crime and investigation game, created by the same game designers of Garibaldi and Mister X: Flight Through Europe. It replicates the Jack The Ripper’s murders and the desperate attempts by Scotland Yard to stop his bloody killings. Night after night, the player who controls Jack commits a new murder and try to reach his hideout, while the other players, in the role of detectives, try to track him down, collecting clues that can lead to his capture. Letters from Whitechapel is a tense game with an accurate historical setting and very intense artwork and graphics.

Magestorm, created by Piero Cioni, is a new fantasy board game series. Mighty armies will clash on the field of battle, while, at the same time, powerful magicians wielding god-like powers will call storms of fire from the sky, move hills, raze woods, invoke fear into the hearts of hundreds of enemies. The victory can only be achieved by the perfect combination of magic-using and military skill.

The game is set in a world with two continents, one of them populated by multiple breeds of humans and the other by creatures like elves, dwarfs and other mythical creatures. A big cataclysm in the human continent forces the humans to start migrating to the other continent to colonize it, starting a big clash with the original people living there. The first boxed set is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2010 and features two armies – the human Kragis (a former mercenary army with late-medieval armors and weaponry) and the elves Láusjan (a wild and very warlike people, quite unlike the more traditional Tolkienian breed of elves) and four mages (the Fire Mage, the Air Mage, the Druid and the Fate Guardian).

Magestorm was created from the idea of a tactical game where the player, commanding his army, would, in the words of the author Piero Cioni, "suffer as a soccer coach on the bench." The player has a "limited control" of an army from his command post, when the troops are facing a battle.

Beside this "limited army control" concept, the key feature of the game is the power of the magic involved in the battles. The wizards have really great powers, and the game play combines one Mage with one Army. Both are equally important, even if it's the army who in the end must win the battle. The first boxed set will include two complete armies and four mages. Each combination plays very differently from any other one, and the future expansions will add other armies and mages, increasing the combination possibilities. The game must be also expanded in many other directions, with new game elements like sieges, underground warfare and more.

It is known far and wide that the country gentleman Don Quixote has a very particular attachment to windmills and knights. So he is now not only attempting to provide his little principality with two fortresses, some churches, and orderly roads, but a complement of knights and windmills as well. Each player has an identical set of 24 tiles and, in the course of the game, places these on designated fields of his (initially empty) principality. The fields are covered in the identical order for all players, so there’s an almost exactly level playing field. Whichever player connects the fields of his principality the most ingeniously and protects his castles and borders with knights will receive the most points, emerge victorious, and perhaps even win the heart of fair Dulcinea one day...

The magical land of Kadab has been plagued by incompetent warlocks who have permanently distorted the region. Now, the people are looking for a worthy successor to rule the land with a strong hand. And that ruler could be YOU! Your task as a minor member of the landed gentry is to increase the size of your barony, and to get the over 200 inhabitants of the land to fight for your cause. Do not be astonished should your army consist of elves, dwarves, dragons, flying squirrels, dinosaurs, killer penguins, Eskimos, and a host of other creatures, all having their own special abilities! The design of this fantasy classic has been completely redone. Acclaimed illustrators Claus Stephan and Martin Hoffmann have brought new freshness to the characters while still retaining the spirit of Tom Wham's original design.

A super-simple implementation of Ligretto in dice form, one of those "hey, I could have done that" designs that in fact I couldn't have done as doing so never crossed my mind.

Anyway, the players randomly divide 24 dice amongst themselves; the six-sided dice come in four colors. Someone says go, then all players start rolling. Your goal is to get rid of all your dice by placing them on the gameboard. You must place a die in the row of the same color, and dice can be placed only in ascending order, with the 1 being place first, then the 2, etc. Roll, roll, roll, place, place, place – I win! The player who goes out scores positive points equal to the number of dice not placed, while everyone else loses points for the number of dice they hold. After 6, 9 or 12 rounds, the player with the highest score wins.

The players are apprentices to a Master Wizard and need to recover objects lost in said magic labyrinth before M.W. notices they're missing and transforms the apprentices into sticks of butter. Problem is, the labyrinth is hidden from view and you learn where the walls are only through trial and error. Each player's figure has a magnet on the bottom of it and a metal ball is connected to that magnet through the gameboard. As you move across the board's surface, the magnet will fall off if it hits a wall in the labyrinth, forcing the player to start over. Remember where the walls stand, however, and you'll sail through the labyrinth and avoid being applied to panckes in future breakfasts.

The ceiling in the cathedral is getting on a bit and is in urgent need of restoration. The bishop is awaiting important visitors and wants to show off his church from its best side. The players slip into the role of the fresco painters in this colourful family game and have to prove their abilities: But only the player who plans cleverly can win!

This fascinating game already contains three expansion modules which can be combined with the basic game in any desired manner to influence the scope of the game. Elaborately structured game cards, additional coloured pieces and lots of bonus counters provide even more excitement!

New York in the early 1930s – the city is in the middle of a construction boom. Skyscrapers are shooting out of the ground like mushrooms. As a player, you get involved in all the planning and building work as you help to create a fascinating metropolis bit by bit!

The easy-to-learn playing mechanism of this independent game is based on Alhambra, the Game of the Year 2003 by multiple award-winning bestseller game designer Dirk Henn.

Rich merchants and their families ply the Silk Route of the Orient with their caravans in order to make lucrative business. The players assume the role of traders who marry into other families to extend their influences. Who will be the richest merchant?

Samarkand is a family game with its simple to understand rules and fast access to play.

Anton, the adventurous anteater, is out looking for food. Nosy as he is, he sticks his long nose into every termite hill he comes across, and it’s not just edible things that he turns up either. His main objective, however, is the termite queen and her general. They earn the most points at the end.

Can Anton throw his dice so skillfully that he can return from his adventure successfully at the end and win the game?

• A basic game with the fewest rules for families.
• The basic game plus an expansion "Of Stewards and Records"; Kramer notes that experienced players should begin with this version of the game.
• The tactical game, which is played on the reverse side of the gameboard and which reduces the role of luck to roughly 20% of the game under Kramer's estimation; Kramer notes that this is his preferred way of playing.
• The tactical game with a variable arrangement of starting tiles so that each play is different.

Each player has a set of eight command blocks, numbered from 2 to 5 (just like the ones in Waterloo!). As an action a player can place a command block on the map. This allows him to place order discs in later turns. Order discs can be used to activate units in the vicinity of the command block. Once the number of order discs matches the value of the command block then no more orders can be issued until the block has been removed (along with the order discs) and replaced with a new block, which uses two valuable actions. The key effect of this system is the stutters it creates in controlling your forces. The enemy may have left himself in a vulnerable position but if you are not able to issue the orders to take advantage of that then you will miss that opportunity. The Confederate player has the advantage of being able to issue a certain number of double orders. The Union player is at a disadvantage in that he has a small number of order discs and if he leaves too many on the map then he will be forced to pass for a number of action rounds, which could be fatal.

Assault combat is similar to Waterloo. The main exceptions are that the attacker and defender use different morale check tables. The defender is more likely to retreat than be eliminated, but there is also the chance of a counter-attack to throw back the assaulting forces.


The Confederate player wins by taking two starred areas, or Little Round Top. Each day is divided into four periods and the key locations must be held by the end of one period, so the Union player has the chance to fight his way back into the lost terrain.

Overall the game is simpler than Waterloo, mainly because there are not the complications associated with the interaction of three formations (infantry, cavalry and artillery). Cavalry does appear in Gettysburg but it fights in the same way as infantry, although it does benefit from being able to bug out rather than take damage.

You have control of a number of different types of Moongha monsters. When you sit down to play, the side of the board closest to you is your monster display. There you will see the seven different types of monster. You will place your monster counters in these boxes. Note that some monster types have more than one counter.

The game will last either eight or nine turns, depending on the number of players, although it may end before then if a player manages to get down all twenty of his damage cubes.

At the start of each turn a random number of actions are made available. Three of these actions relate to the monsters and allow you to create, attack, and move them. These actions are represented by orange, white, and purple tokens. There are three human action boxes: one that allows you to place a hero, with the other two allowing you to place military counters.

To create a monster you have to place a certain number of orange tokens in the monster box. Once the monster has been created you place it in one of the twelve cities on the board. When you do so, you place the monster on its hidden side. The monster is alive but as yet the world does not know of its presence. While hidden a monster is safe from attack and can build up its strength so that when it does attack it will cause carnage. Another player may attempt to reveal your monster by placing a hero counter in the same city. Each monster type has its own special abilities.

Only three monsters are powerful enough to destroy entire cities. These are the Bloob, Mechoor, and Moogre. When you attack a city, you mark the damage you do with your coloured cubes. At the end of the game you will score victory points depending on how many cubes you have in a city.

Military units will try to destroy monsters. When you place a military unit or a hero, you can then attack with all military counters in that city. When a monster attacks a city armour units will attack it first, then, after the attack has been completed, any surviving infantry units will attack. All combat involves rolling dice and in all cases a roll of four or more is successful.

At the end of the game players score victory points depending on how many damage cubes they have in each city. Players also score points for the cities that were randomly assigned to them at the beginning of the game, depending on how much damage they have suffered. Points can also be scored for having vampires on the board and for killing other monsters with your Moogre monster.