Convention Preview News: Two New Titles from Czech Board Games

You might have experienced a bit of déjà vu after reading that title because BGN published a similar news item just two days ago. That announcement was for Czech Games Edition, however, and not Czech Board Games.

Yes, the number of Cezch publishers showing their games at Essen will double in 2007. “Czech Games Edition was established by people who did a lot of work for CBG last year, but who did not want to continue with the non-commercial work of the association, which has a goal of helping the authors and the games in general,” says Pavel Prachar of CBG. “CGE decided to go on a strictly commercial way, and we wish them good luck. There is no connection between CBG and CGE; we have different approaches and different goals.”

Those approaches include meeting with multiple authors at different times of the year. Prachar says that CBG met with 20 game designers with roughly 30 new games. “These all are being put in a brief database, which will be soon made public at our webpage,” he says. “We also plan to establish a disscussion forum for foreign gamers to ask about the Czech gaming scene and particular games.”

As for the titles CBG will release at Essen, there are two:

• The Guild of Merchants, by Zbynek Vrana, designer of 2006’s Legion— Each player leads a minor guild which is trying to expand into new territory. To do this, the guilds try to take control of provinces in the kingdom, gain valuable items in the auction hall, and sell their goods during the great market in the capital city. Proper assessment of the other players’ moves plays a vital role in the game. Says Pavel Prachar of Czech Board Games, “The game might offer conventional game mechanics, but they’re seen and combined from a new point of view.”

• Laboriginals, by brothers Tomas and Jakub Uhlir—The title creatures have lived an odd and unusual life because they’re by-products of mysterious scientific experiments. Every moment of their lives presents a new threat due to the laboratory environment they’re in, so their goal is simply to survive as long as possible, perhaps even having a bit of fun along the way. “This is a very interesting and extremely original family game, which uses an interesting mechanic of dice rolling and also the element of memory of the players,” says Prachar.

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