Convention Report: The Gathering of Friends 2006: April 12, 2006 (Day 6)

By Rick Thornquist
April 12, 2006

It’s day six of the Gathering of Friends 2006.  Today I played a game which is a yearly tradition for me at the Gathering - a big game of Die Macher.  I also played Seismic, an upcoming game designed by Ted Alspach as well as an interesting newer game that you may not have heard of - a Dirk Henn game called Cherubim.  I also played a new game from Asmodée in France called Carrousel.  Here we go!

Die Macher
After typing up yesterday’s report it was time for an annual Gathering tradition for me - a game of Die Macher.  At my first Gathering, Tom DeMarco, Ralph Anderson, Paul Skrabut and I got together to play a the game and we’ve been doing it every year ever since.  Last year and again this year we were happy to have Mark Delano join the group.

Die Macher is one of my favorite games and playing with these guys is always a pleasure.  They know the game well and are tough competition.  This year’s event was made even better by the presence of Karl-Heinz Schmiel, the designer of the game, who was attending the Gathering.  Karl-Heinz watched us play for a while and was helpful when it came to the few rules questions we had (there’s nothing better than having the designer there to answer rules questions!).

Karl-Heinz also contributed something very special - a mint copy of his game Extrablatt to the winner of the game.  This was very special indeed - Extrablatt is very hard to find these days and is a highly prized collectible among some gamers.

The game was hard fought and in the end I won the game.  Winning the game was pleasure enough but getting Extrablatt as a prize from Karl-Heinz, well, that was icing on the cake.

Seismic
After Die Macher, it was time for something a little lighter.  Atlas Games and designer Ted Alspach were kind enough to send me a prototype of their upcoming game Seismic.  I had played the game at the GAMA Trade Show and reported on it then - I was keen to give it another try.

Seismic is a fairly simple tile laying game that is a close cousin of Carcassonne.  There are a set of hexagonal tiles which are mostly road tiles - straights, curves, criss-crosses, etc.  Players take turns placing them on the table next to each other.  When placing a road tile, you can place a marker on it to claim ownership of a road.

There are also intersection pieces - these end the roads and have point values.  In addition, there are earthquake pieces - these shake things up by destroying some of the tiles emanating from the centre tile. At the end of the game, you score for completed roads that have intersections at both ends - one point per tile plus the point values for the intersections at the end of the road.

When I played at GAMA I liked the game - it was simple and had a little bit of strategy.  This playing of the game didn’t work as well as my GAMA game, though.  In this game we only had two earthquakes come up and one was the first tile of the game and didn’t do anything.  We were all looking forward to the earthquakes shaking things up but they really never did.  Also, I never did pick up an intersection through the whole game so I was unable to complete any of my roads.  I got completely shut out in my scoring.

These circumstances made the game much less than enjoyable than I think it could have been.  Hopefully, this game was an anomaly - I think that normally it would make a nice light game.

After a quick game of Poison it was time to peruse the prize table.  This is a Gathering tradition where everybody brings a game or two and puts it on the prize table.  On Saturday evening, we all get together and Alan Moon does a presentation where everybody gets to go up to the prize table and grab a game.  Tournament winners get first pick and then names are drawn out of a hat for everybody else.  In the end, everybody goes home with two or three new games to play.

There are always some highly desirable items on the prize table and this year is no exception.  There are copies of rare games like McMulti, Black Vienna, Code 7 (a version of Code 777), the original printing of Cosmic Encounter, as well as some big items like Settlers 3D.  There are copies of new Nuremberg games as well as piles and piles of other games.

I’m hoping to do a video on Saturday to cover the prize table presentation.

Cherubim
My next game is a bit of an unusual game.  Cherubim is a new Dirk Henn game (not a redo) released at this past Essen.  It wasn’t published by a regular game publisher, however, it was published by missio - a branch of the International Catholic Church that does charitable work.  Under these circumstances you may expect a simple family game but Cherubim isn’t that - it’s actually quite a good middle weight game that could very well appeal to gamers.

Cherubim is made up of three boards, each with a set of tracks that surround some areas.  Players have stones that they can put on these tracks and while doing that, place markers in the areas next to the tracks.  The areas all have tracks numbered 1 to 7 - the first time you place a stone next to an area you put it on the 1 space and in subsequent placements you move up the marker.  At the end of the game, each marker is worth two points and whoever is highest and second highest on the track in each area gets bonus points. Whoever has the most points wins. 

I think we all were pleasantly surprised by this game.  It works quite well, is fairly straightforward, and has some nice strategy.  I’d be interested in getting a copy, but that may not be easy.

Carrousel
Stephan Brissaud of Asmodée has been busy at the Gathering demoing his upcoming game Iliad, but he also had with him another game - the fast speed card game Carrousel.  As with Iliad, he had a French version of this game (though only the rules are in French).  Note that though Iliad is going to be published in English, there are not plans currently to publish Carrousel in English (though, if we bug Stephan enough, that may change).

Carrousel is a card game with a small round board.  The board has a circle of spaces which hold a number of differently colored horses.  Each player gets dealt five cards, put face up in front of him, and each shows three horses in a certain order - say, red, green, blue. 

When someone yells go, players try to move the horses so they are in the same positions shown on one of their cards.  There are specific rules for how you can move the horses - you just can’t move them willy-nilly and breaking these rules gives you a penalty.  If the horses are in the same positions shown on one of your cards you score the card and draw another card.  As soon as one player scores a certain number of cards they win.

Note that this is all happening simultaneously for all players.  You’d think that this would be chaos, but it’s not - it takes a few seconds of thought to figure out how to maneuver the horses correctly.  Still, it’s a fast, furious game.

The game actually worked very well and was very fun.  I think it would work great as a quick filler that is fast but requires some thought.  The game was recently released in France - it comes in one of those tiny square Asmodée boxes (the same size as The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow.  Hopefully, Stephan can be convinced to do an English version.

After Carrousel, I played two more games before calling it a night.  I played a four player game of Domaine, one of my favorite strategy games, as well as a raucous game of Smarty Party that was a great way to finish off the day.

Tomorrow, more games.  See you then!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	My games played today… The Die Macher group with the designer - Rick Thornquist, Ralph Anderson, Mark Delano, Tom DeMarco, designer Karl-Heinz Schmiel, Paul Skrabut
	Die Macher
	Karl-Heinz Schmiel gives me my prize - a copy of Extrablatt
	Cherubim with Dan Blum, Richard Glanzer, Lorna Wong and Michael Green
	Cherubim box
	One of three Cherubim boards
	Carrousel with Me, Lorna, Luke Hedgren and Scott Tepper
	Domaine with Scott Tepper, Richard Spoonts and Evan Tannheimer
	Some pictures from around the Gathering… The designers from the Spiel des Afternoon show off the components to be used for next year’s game design competition
	A close-up of the components to be used for next year’s Spiel des Afternoon game design competition
	The Prize Table - left side
	The Prize Table - more on the left side
	The Prize Table - middle
	The Prize Table - right side
	The Prize Table - smaller games
	The Gathering of Friends - mid-afternoon
	The Poker tournament
	A game of Carcassonne with all the expansions including Carcassonne: The Tower
	A closer view of a game of Carcassonne with all the expansions including Carcassonne: The Tower

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free!

I’m very impressed that a copy of the Deluxe Settlers is on the prize table. I assume that it will be the first to get picked… Posted by Tom Vasel on Apr 13, 2006 at 03:39 PM | #

Surprisingly Tom, it was not the first to get picked.  If memory serves, it was picked third of fourth. Posted by Craig Massey on Apr 16, 2006 at 07:54 PM | #

Lexio was the surprise first pick. Posted by W. Eric Martin on Apr 16, 2006 at 08:05 PM | #

I actually was the one who put Lexio (black version) on the prize table (as well as one of the copies of Showmanager, and the German copy of Taj Mahal).  That was a very interesting first pick.  The black version is a little bit harder (or maybe a lot harder) to obtain in the US right now. Posted by Ava Jarvis on Apr 17, 2006 at 03:06 AM | #

< Back Home