Convention Report: Essen 2006: October 20, 2006 (Day 2)

By Rick Thornquist
October 20, 2006

This is my report from the second day of the Essen 2006 - Friday, October 20th.  In this report I’ll talk about games as well as some of the other goings on at the fair including the International Gamers Awards presentation.

After getting up and madly getting yesterday’s report finished, I worked on getting the downloadable versions of the video uploaded.  This time it worked - I didn’t do anything different, I guess the Internet was just in a better mood today.  If you watched the YouTube version and want to see a higher resolution version of the video, you should go to the Convention Report: Essen 2006: October 19, 2006 (Day 1) - Video news item and download the large file.

After I got the report and the video uploaded, I wolfed down breakfast and headed for the Messe. 

Fürchterliche Feinde / Formidable Foes
I got to the Messe just before it opened and snagged a table at the Rio Grande Booth so I could get in a playing of Fürchterliche Feinde / Formidable Foes.  I was joined by two Dutch gentleman and Scott Tepper kindly taught us the game.

Formidable Foes is basically a dungeon crawl.  You have your guy and you move around a dungeon fighting monsters - each monster you defeat gives you gold.  Whoever gets the most gold wins.

The board shows a dungeon with chambers and passageways.  All players start at one end of the board and the board is seeded with a couple of easy monsters.  Only when these monsters have been defeated and the players can see down the passages behind them, more monsters are revealed.

On their turn, a player can either move six spaces and fight a monster, move twelve spaces (and not fight) or take power tokens.  The power tokens are used in the battles.

Talking about battles, this is a simple dice rolling thing.  The monster has a die and the player has one - they are rolled and if the monster die result is larger than the player die result (which it usually is), the player has to pay the difference in power tokens to kill the monster and get its gold.

There are fifty monsters in all and once the last two (the two strongest) are vanquished the player with the most gold wins the game.

This all sounds pretty straightforward, but I found the rules to be a little on the fiddly side - there are a fair amount of little rules and exceptions.  I found the gameplay to be only okay - each turn is basically move and fight, then move and fight, then move and fight and that got a little repetitive after a while.  We also found it hard to catch up with the leader.  The game does take some time to set up as well.  On the upside, the art from Maura Kalusky and Fréderic Bertrand is outstanding - wonderfully whimsical.  The game may play better with more players (we played with three) but I can see the downtime increasing with more players.  In the end, I just found the game just to be okay.

After Formidable Foes, it was time for lunch.  The International Gamers Awards jury had scheduled a lunch for today and I took the opportunity to attend.  With members from so many far flung countries, this is the jury’s only real opportunity to get most of the group together and chat.  For me, it was an opportunity to meet some of the members face-to-face that I had only been in contact with online.  We chatted about various issues relating to the awards and traded tips on what games at the fair were good and which ones to avoid (a very common thing when chatting with people here).

Mr. Jack
After the IGA lunch, I wandered the hall for a while to pick up some games.  I came across the French Connection - Bruno Faidutti, Bruno Cathala and Serge Laget - at the Phalanx booth showing some prototypes.  I was looking to play Bruno Cathala’s game Mr. Jack, so when they were finished Bruno and I headed to the Hurrican booth for a game.

This game has an interesting history.  The game was originally published as Une Ombre sur Whitechapel by Neuroludic in France.  Only 250 copies were produced and the word was that the game was very good - they sold out almost instantly.  Bruno shopped the game around to various game companies and though they thought the game was good, none of them wanted to do a two player game that came in a big box.  New Swiss publisher Hurrican took up the challenge and the game is now available as Mr. Jack.

Mr. Jack is a two player deduction game, but it is quite unlike most deduction games I’ve played.  In this one, one player plays Jack the Ripper and the other player is trying to find out which of eight characters on the board is Jack.  The board is a hex grid and shows a neighborhood with buildings, sewers and street lamps.  The eight characters start out at different places on the board. 

To start the game, the Mr. Jack player chooses a card that shows which character is Jack.  Then the game goes in eight rounds - in each round four characters are moved, two by the Jack player and two by the other player (each character has a special power they can use as well).  At the end of a round, the Jack player reveals whether the Jack character is in the light (beside a street lamp or another character) or in the dark.  This is how the detecting player can start to narrow down the suspects.

If the detecting player figures out which character is Jack before the end of eight rounds, he wins.  If the Jack player prevents this, he wins (an alternative victory condition is if the Jack player exits the Jack character off the map he can win).

Most deduction games feel very dry but in this one, the movement of the characters on the board plus their special powers as well as the alternative victory condition add a whole new level of strategy upon a basic deduction game.  I found the game to be excellently designed, very nicely produced, and wonderful to play.  I’m not normally one for deduction games, but this one felt like a deduction / strategy hybrid and I was completely engrossed throughout.  I loved it and think it’s an excellent game - my favorite of the fair so far.  Kudos to designers Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Mautblanc plus publisher Hurrican.

24/7 - The Game
I spent the next while wandering the halls getting more pictures.  I came across the Sunriver Games booth and spotted a free table with their new game - 24/7.  I couldn’t resist giving it a try.  I was joined by designer Carey Grayson, who kindly taught the game.

24/7 is an abstract game.  There is a gridded board and players get a hand of numbered tiles.  On your turn you place a tile and draw a tile.  The idea is that you want to place a tile so that you create rows of sets that score.  For example, if you place a 9 tile so that there is a 10 tile and a 5 tile in a row beside it, you score as one of the scoring combinations is a row that adds up to 24.  You can score for consecutive numbers, sets of the same number, etc.

The game is not long but it can require some thought as to where optimally place your tiles.  No one took too long on their moves in our game and it went fairly quickly.  I’m not normally a fan of abstracts but I quite liked it - it’s easy to learn and interesting to play.  The bits also deserve mention - the tiles are nice chunky plastic.  A good solid abstract game.

International Gamers Awards
My next stop was the International Gamers Awards ceremony.  A group had assembled at the Caylus booth and after a quick introduction in French by jury member Frederic Bizet, chairman Greg Schloesser took over and introduced the winners. 

The winner in the General Strategy - Mulitplayer category was Caylus - the award was accepted by designer William Attia, Ystari publisher Cyril Demaegd and Rio Grande Games publisher Jay Tummelson.  The winner in the General Strategy - Mulitplayer category was Twilight Struggle and though co-designer Jason Matthews was at the fair, he must have gotten lost and missed picking up his plaque (the last I saw him he was playing the Monkey Tennis game Affentennis, maybe he didn’t want to leave).

After the ceremony I got a chance to meet up with lots of people in the gaming community that I don’t often see and many I met for the first time.  It was a great pleasure to meet and chat with Andrea “Liga” Ligabue from Italy as well as Olivier Reix from France (as well as many others).

Midgard
I then left the ceremony to keep an appointment with designer Eric Lang.  Eric wanted me to try his new game from Z-Man games - Midgard - which he had a pre-production copy.  I’ve been very much looking forward to playing this one so we sat down with one of Eric’s compatriots and gave it a try. 

Midgard could be described as halfway between a typical big box Fantasy Flight game and a German game.  There is a map that is divided into areas and each player has a set of armies that will flood the board.  There are three sets of cards - move, attack and special cards - and each player gets a set of these to start.

In the first round of the game, you keep your own cards but in subsequent rounds there is a card drafting mechanism where you choose one of your cards and pass the rest to the next player.  This continues until you get your last card (similar to Fairy Tale).

Then the players take their actions by playing cards one at a time in turn and executing the action on the card.  These allow players to move their armies on the board, attack other armies, and do other special actions.

At the end of a round, the areas on the board score in an area majority manner.  There are a number of other scoring opportunities as well.  After three rounds some bonuses are calculated and whoever ends up with the most points wins.

I’m glossing over many details in my description - there are many subtleties in the game, but it’s not really complex at all.  I found the game fairly easy to get into.  There is a lot of interaction here, it plays fast, and there is tons of strategy.  The production is first rate as well - it looks like a typical beautiful big box Fantasy Flight game.  I thought the game was very, very good - the only downside is that it’s not available yet (perhaps in December).  I’ll be first in line to pick up a copy.

After Midgard it was getting close to closing time so I headed back to the Rio Grande booth to collect my stuff.  I came upon Moritz Eggert, who you may know from his presence on the Internet as well as his excellent commentaries on The Dice Tower.  I’ve never met Moritz before and it was great to get to know each other - he’s a very interesting guy.

When the show closed, Moritz and I headed to the Phalanx booth where they were having a fifth anniversary party.  We stayed just for a few minutes (I declined the champagne and cake) and grabbed Henning Kropke and headed out for dinner.  Henning’s wife Angelika joined us and I had a very interesting time learning more about Germany from everyone.  I really have to get here sometime that is not during a game convention just to look around - there are many interesting things in Germany I’d love to see.

Die Säulen der Erde
After dinner, Moritz and I headed to the common room of the Jung Hotel where people were playing games.  I spied a copy of Die Säulen der Erde, a game that was getting great buzz here, and sat down with Moritz and Andy Parsons to play.  Moritz taught us the game and did a great job reading the rules of a new game and while simultaneously translating into English (not an easy job!).

Die Säulen der Erde could be described as a light version of Caylus, but there is a lot of unique things here.  The game is fairly involved but once we got going it was clear sailing.

The idea is to get the most victory points.  There are various phases in a turn.  First, players can acquire craftsman and resource cards - the craftsman convert resources into victory points or money and the resource cards give you resources like wood or stone.  Then players then take turns putting makers on the board in different areas on the board which allow you to do different things - become the start player, buy and sell resources, avoid paying taxes, get money, get victory points, and other things (this is reminiscent of Caylus).  These are then resolved and players get to do the different things.

There is then a tax phase where players have to pay money.  After that, players get their victory points.  This is done by using the resources you have gained and using your craftsman to convert them into victory points.  Different craftsmen convert different resources and some are more efficient than others and get more victory points for the same amount of resources.

At the end of the turn, a building piece is put in the cathedral in the middle of the board.  This is just a fancy way of counting turns - once the cathedral is done the game is over and whoever has the most points wins.

I can see why everybody seems to like this game.  It’s got lots of the good parts of Caylus plus some other interesting mechanisms, but plays in a shorter period of time.  There’s tons of strategy and lots of interaction.  The art is excellent, kudos to artist Michael Menzel.  I thought the game was excellent and I’ll be picking up a copy for sure.

Note that the game does have German on some of the cards.  However, the cards are all open and if you have a translation of the cards you shouldn’t have a problem.

And with that it was time for me to head back to the hotel to sleep.  Tomorrow, more games.  See you then!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	Pictures from around the fair - Hall 12 Pictures that I missed getting yesterday - Eggertspiele
	Cwali
	Hall 9 - Phalanx Games
	Kronberger Spiele
	Face2Face Games
	Reiner Knizia’s Genesis at Face2Face Games
	TenkiGames
	Nexus Editrice
	Fantasy Flight Games
	Pro Ludo’s Dungeon Twister booth
	Zugames
	Fragor Games
	Burley Games
	Don & Co
	Ystari Games
	Mind the Move
	Post Scriptum / Scribabs
	What’s Your Game?
	Z-Man Games
	Repos Production
	Matagot
	Khronos at the Matagot booth
	Some personalities from around the fair - Designer Simon Hunt
	Steve Zamborsky of Z-Man Games gets his point across to some customers...
	...and keeps going...
	...and going.
	Designer Jason Matthews
	Designer Kris Burm
	The French Connection - Bruno Faidutti, Bruno Cathala and Serge Legat - plus their tub of prototypes
	Designer Mario Papini
	Designer Eric Lang
	Publisher Peter Eggert and friend
	Publisher / Designer Günter Cornett
	Publisher / Designer Bernd Brunhoffer
	Publisher Chris Brooks
	Publishers Nobuaki Takerube and Takuya Ono of Japon Brand
	Game writer Andrea “Liga” Ligabue
	Game writer Mik Svellov
	The crowd assembles for the International Gamers Awards
	Game writer Olivier Reix
	The International Gamers Awards presentation starts - Frederic Bizet makes an introduction in French
	Greg Schloesser makes a speech
	The winners in the General Strategy - Mulitplayer category - Caylus with designer William Attia, Ystari publisher Cyril Demaegd and Rio Grande Games publisher Jay Tummelson
	Games Played - Fürchterliche Feinde / Formidable Foes
	Fürchterliche Feinde / Formidable Foes
	Fürchterliche Feinde / Formidable Foes Close-Up
	Mr. Jack
	24/7 with Cary Grayson, Heli Barthen, KC Humphrey and George Seary
	24/7
	Midgard - that’s designer Eric Lang on the left
	Midgard
	Die Säulen der Erde with Andy Parsons, spectator Henning Kropke and Moritz Eggert
	Die Säulen der Erde
	The Fairplay tote board at the end of the day

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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Comments:

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I had the opportunity to play a prototype of the game now called Formidable Foes and had a similar impression - just okay to somewhat dull if you aren’t in contention by the halfway point. The artwork does look phenomenal, though. Posted by Matthew Monin on Oct 21, 2006 at 02:34 AM | #

Funny but my greatest impression from today’s report is that Kris Burm looks *exactly* as one might expect: “The Mad Genius of Boardgames”! Keep up the great work, Rick! Posted by Marc Gilutin on Oct 21, 2006 at 04:48 AM | #

Hey Rick - could you tell if the game art on Santy Anno has been toned down a bit?  It sounds like a very fun game, but the artwork (while hilarious) makes it totally inappropriate for American kids. Posted by John Barnes on Oct 21, 2006 at 07:09 AM | #

Can’t wait for Midard.  Played it a few times at PrezCon earlier this year and had a very good time with it. Posted by Joe Casadonte on Oct 21, 2006 at 05:47 PM | #

I bought Mr Jack at the fair and me and my girlfriend find it to be very, very good. In our copy the author wrote a dedication and made a great drawing. It’s a wonderful game! Posted by Christian Becker on Oct 22, 2006 at 08:06 AM | #

John - I don’t see anything that would be innappropriate, the artwork is just goofy pirates (but then again, I don’t have kids...). - Rick Posted by Rick Thornquist on Oct 23, 2006 at 09:39 AM | #

Rick - I had seen images of a beefy looking pirate with the word ‘F*CK’ tatooed all over his body, as well as a couple of topless women. Ah well.  It’s nothing a Sharpie can’t fix! Posted by John Barnes on Oct 23, 2006 at 09:57 PM | #

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