Convention Report: Essen 2007: October 19, 2007, Part 2 (Day 2)

By W. Eric Martin
October 21, 2007

The second half of Friday started with a trip to the Land of Yellow, aka HABAville…

HABA

I’ve played only a few games with my niece and nephew and with random other children that people keep bringing into my house, and to my untutored eye, children’s games seem to be nothing more than memory variants, dexterity challenges, and observation tests. Even with this minute amount of experience, though, I can appreciate the difference between good and bad memory variants, dexterity challenges, and observation tests.

HABA has a stellar reputation, so Dale Yu and I took a look at the company’s fall lineup to see what stood out. Dale will likely be reporting on these games in more detail, so I’ll mention only two titles:

Kapt’n Kuck: I wasn’t clear how the game would play from the brief description that I saw before the show, but once you see the game in person, it all becomes clear. You play the game in rounds, and in each round all players but one don an eyepatch, then cover their remaining eye. The one active player lays out a number of cards face-up on the maplike gameboard. Once he’s ready, the other players get to look at the gameboard through a telescope of sorts which allows the player to see only a tiny portion of the board. The players must scan the board as quickly as possible, and when time runs out, they try to name the cards that they saw.

Geisterjäger: This title was actually a Nuremberg release, but only now in wide release. The gameboard looks like a diorama, with a flat scoring trail for the players to move along and a vertical section that depicts a house with a dozen or so windows. Players take turns choosing one of 12 ghost disks, inserting it in a hole in the back of the gameboard, and using a magnetic wand to move the ghost through the house. The other players have to figure out which one of the 12 ghosts is haunting the house, looking for details on the token such as whether its key is facing left or right. When one player thinks he knows, everyone has to guess a ghost using a hidden wheel, and players score points if they’re correct.

Spielplatz Ltd.

This new Korean company had two games on display: Battle of Kingdom and Garden of Eden. The BoK tables were busy, so Linda and I sat down to learn more about Garden of Eden. After a long description of the cards and a very thorough scoring explanation and many details about the benefits of throwing the thick, plastic-coated cards with force onto the cloth table, we finally learned what the game was about: matching cards already in play.

Learning how to push people to get to the point is a skill I need to develop for future conventions. Time’s a-wastin’!

TenkiGames

Luca and Claudio Pansecchi had planned to reserve one table for business, one table for older games, and the remaining tables for Chang Cheng, the company’s first large strategy game. That plan fell through when all the tables were taken over by Chang Cheng players, but that’s a nice problem for a publisher to have. Liga and I reviewed Chang Cheng on BGN prior to Spiel, so head to the link if you want to know more about the game.

Nexus

Roberto di Meglio took some time from his busy day to talk about Nexus’ plans for the next 12 months or so:

• Age of Conan: The game design is in its final stages, and playtesting will begin in November 2007, with an eye towards release in late spring/early summer of 2008.

• War of the Ring Collector’s Edition: Once it became clear that this special edition wouldn’t be ready for Spiel, Nexus rescheduled its release for the next big gamer convention: Gen Con 2008. As di Meglio says, this is truly an item for devoted game fans, so it needs to be released at a convention where these fans will be present.

• Battles of Napoleon: The Eagle and the Lion: Although this game was due for a November 2007 release, it will instead be out around April or May 2008. Di Meglio showed off the 1/72 figures and they were amazingly detailed, with a number of different sculpts for the same type of figure. Each of the officers also had its own design.

• Moto Grand Prix: Nexus is adding a racing game to its line-up that will include miniaturized motor bikes.

• Wings of War: More miniatures will be added to the Wings of War series, with World War II designs starting to appear in the second half of 2008.

• Cassiopeia: Perhaps the biggest news from Nexus is that the company is broadening its line of titles to include Eurogames, starting with a title from Bruno Faidutti and Serge Laget. The theme of the game is space exploration, so it still fits thematically with Nexus’ other offerings. Cassiopeia will be the first in Nexus’ new Designer Games Series, which will include more biography and background about the designers of the game within the package.

I have one more day to report on, and I aim to finish that off tomorrow, despite the Spielengrippe I developed during the course of the event. Too many handshakes, smoky days, and late nights…

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	Two Alturien titles: one released, and one not-so-released
	A closer look at Die Hauptstadt von Alturien, the revised version of Kramer’s Big Boss. This is a model for the press and not how the game will appear in print. You do get to see the promised bridges, however.
	One board from the new Beowulf: The Movie Boardgame, which plays along the lines of Reiner Knizia’s Kingdoms
	Portal Publishing’s Ignacy Trzewiczek showing off Neuroshima HEX on a giant-sized board
	Designer Adam Kaluza and the all-wood version of Glik, which is limited to 100 copies. A non-wood, non-limited version of the game has also appeared from Portal Publishing, and that’s what those outside of Spiel will likely be able to buy.
	A demo game of Dominotion, which combines die-rolling with domino play as you construct the dominoes based on the die rolls

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Cassiopeia - It sounds like Faidutti and Laget finally found a publisher for Space Station Argo, which was originally supposed to be done by FFG in 2005, delayed, and then recently cancelled due to their incredibly ambitious schedule.  Bruno describes the game as a cross between Castle and Doom! Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 21, 2007 at 03:03 PM | #

"Age of Conan: The game design is in its final stages, and playtesting will begin in November 2007, with an eye towards release in late spring/early summer of 2008.” So, around the same time Funcom might get around to releasing the PC MMO then. :) Posted by Tor Iver Wilhelmsen on Oct 21, 2007 at 03:46 PM | #

Nope, Cassiopeia is an economic game. Posted by Oskari Westerholm on Oct 21, 2007 at 06:48 PM | #

Any word on new Selecta games?  I cannot think Haba w/o thinking Selecta. How about the Scribabs game Star System or Isensee’s Ramses? Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Oct 22, 2007 at 03:33 PM | #

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