Dale Yu: 2008 Essen Report: Part 2 of 2
Okay, the second part of my Essen report is essentially a photo essay. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and if that’s so, this is perhaps my longest article ever (even longer than the full 17-page massacre of the Agricola review) coming in at about 81,692 words…
Enjoy!
Valerie looking happy before the long, long plane ride to Germany.
Me – without the bedhead that I usually get on transatlantic flights
Me – with bedhead – waiting for the train and just about to break the first of many German laws that day…
The cathedral in Cologne. Can you believe they built it right next to the main train station?!
This is a very small part of the toy section at Galerie Kaufhof – a local department store
This was a new find for me – all the Alhambra games in one easy to keep box!
Now, here’s something that is distinctly European – the Big Brown Bike
A cool plaque in the sidewalk in Cologne so that you don’t get lost when trying to find all your historic spots
Me, a tour bus and a cool Roman tower
Strangely, this ice-cream cone was found on the roof of the local mall. Certainly not your usual signage!
Those Germans really know how to celebrate Halloween! (Is anyone else disturbed at the matching mother/daughter set of naughty nurse outfits?)
Scene from Cologne. When I see the narrow buildings in front of the church, I kept thinking to myself – these are just like the buildings in Hamburgum!
The nearly mythical “Halver Hahn” – a gouda and onion sandwich… Yum!
The cathedral at night. Whichever player takes the most blurry pictures of this building will get three extra black meeples to place in the next round.
The hugest playground slide I’ve ever seen.
Valerie trying to decide if it’s too steep or not
Well, someone decided to go down the slide after all!
You just kind pop right off the end of the slide and fly into the air!
The team introductions at the football match… Too bad you can’t zoom in and see the cool cheerleaders
Oh, wait a minute, yes you can!
How anyone can actually see the match through the mass of flags and scarves is beyond me
The exciting kickoff. The visiting team had apparently also been doing their community service earlier picking up litter from the Autobahn and had not had a chance to change their shirts yet.
That’s right – front row seats baby! (The best seats you can get for 42 euro)
We apologize for the fact that the camera is currently focused only on cheerleaders and attractive women in the stands. We are trying to fix the problem as soon as we can.
My friends Henning and Angelika and their newly purchased plot of land which will soon have their new house on it!
A view of the Fauna board… IF this game came out in English, I’d have a copy as soon as possible to play with the kids
The official Sushizoch action shot. Any rebroadcast, reproduction, or other use of the pictures and accounts of this game without the express written consent of BoardgameNews.com is strictly prohibited
The cool dude and die from Suleika. Too bad the carpets had a strong industrial smell which lingered for awhile after the game!
So, when you get a multiple scoop ice cream cone in Germany, they generally top it off with a mini-cone on the top. I’m not quite sure what the function of this cone is though!
This is the first pallet of Dominion to be delivered to Essen!
The very first game of Dominion played with my own set. Somehow my brother pulls out the win.
What my jacket looks like when I have two copies of Dominion stuck in the back pocket! (I don’t usually have such a badonkadonk!)
Me and esteemed internet journalist Frank Schulte-Kulkmann
Melissa and I – just before we start to work on sorting out about 2,500,000 different Le Havre and Agricola cards!
The no-smoking signs are not quite as standardized in Europe as you might think
Dominion at the press center
Zack and Pack from Kosmos – I think there may still be a fun game hiding in this box somewhere, but not with the rules as written!
I think we ended up playing a few rules wrong when we tried Der Schwarm. The eye on the box is a little freaky though. Don’t look too long at it.
Ghost Stories was one of the hits of the show – selling out by Saturday
Sylla looks to be another Ystari hit. I really like the cover art too.
WobBally – an interesting dexterity game where you try to not be the person that causes the tower to collapse as you remove a ball from the structure
Pictureka – a remake of Project X. Based on the artwork seen here, there is no change from the original version… You can find this one at your local Target though.
Traditional colonial guy standing next to Risk
Traditional hot army girl standing next to Risk – proof that funny hats and muskets are highly overrated
The Club from FRED – I haven’t had a chance to play this one yet, but I will try it soon!
The beautiful board from Die 3 Gebote/The Three Commandments
I should have zoomed in to get a better view of the cool three-sided dice
Though, of course, YMMV – the new graphics of Chicage Express seem to be a bit nicer than the Wabash Cannonball from which it came!
Tosti! A cute game about building sandwiches using transparent cards. This game was the designer’s first creation (and this was his first trip to Essen)
A really cool all-wood game that pretty much had to stay in Germany as there was no way I could bring it home (not even with the super jacket)
I was really interested in Heroes of the World when I read about it in the preview, but I never found time to make it to the booth to look at it. The people I know who saw it said it was like Risk, but a little more complex.
Dr. Yu and Dr. K hanging in the Press Center!
Not exactly the most enthused demo actor at the Press Room, but the game itself isn’t that bad!
Path is a neat little puzzle game that can be played by one or two players. There may be expansions in the future to allow more players to play at one time
Ah – beautiful Planet Steam. Is it any good? Who knows! I’ll hopefully get a chance to play it this week and tell you next Wednesday!
The new 60th Anniversary Jubilee Scrabble Board. Looks cool, huh? That’s mostly because one of the Yu boys worked on the design.
Wolsung was a Polish game with a RPG like feel to it – I decided to pass on this one, and I await reports from others if it is any good or not.
Hanno Girke (from Lookout Games) posing as a 17th Century farmer playing board games on a barrel. They were getting a lot of space in the press room this year given their DSP win!
Hanno Girke and Uwe Rosenberg accepting the DSP award!
Herr Teuber and his cool metal pieces to the new Siedler version
Under that white sheet was none other than Dr. Knizia
I told you it was Dr. Knizia!
And though you can’t see it from any other picture, yes these are the feet of Dr. Knizia. And yes, his shoes don’t match.
The DSP is admittedly nothing but speech after speech in German. It seemed to affect Eric Martin a lot more than myself!
The front of the Duck Dealer line at 9:20 AM on Thursday. We’re all so happy…
Derk, trying to pay me off to get in the front of the line. Admittedly, he does look better with about $700 stuck to his forehead, but not quite enough to make me give up my place in line for him.
By about 9:55, let’s just say that the front of the Duck Dealer line isn’t as happy a place as it once was… Also, you can see that the Splotter folks were not expecting the Duck Dealers to last very long. All the other prices are in semi-permanent chalk. The Duck Dealer price (just below Indonesia) looks to be already erased – before a single copy had been sold!
One of the very good educational games from Korea. This is a game which teaches kids to multiply.
Art from a prototype game that I can’t tell you more about – but I am allowed to show you the awesome art. Hopefully Eric will have more news about this game in the coming months.
The Krakow 1325AD board
Friedemann Friese and myself enjoying a beer and German spam-loaf at the Hans im Glück reception on Thursday night.
Herr Kramer and myself after a nice discussion on Cavum
Christian Hildebrand from Huch & Friends at the Fairplay booth pointing at his two games ranked #1 and #5 on the list (taken on Friday afternoon)
From the SdJ dinner – Stefan Ducksch (the outgoing head of the SdJ jury) and myself.
Eggertspiele had this great horse that they would ride around the hall garnering attention for their site. I couldn’t wait to get my turn on the horse
However, it was clear that Valerie was able to have much more fun on the horse that I would ever be able to have!
Amerigo, the new card game from Din Li and DaVinci. I really liked Hanging Gardens, so I’m looking forward to trying this one out.
The inside of the BSW bus which is always in Hall 9.
The first look at the new version of Age of Steam which is being done by FRED. It looks very similar to the original board, except it is conspicuously missing a sticker on the Detroit Hex. At the current moment, it appears that this will be released in the 1st quarter of 2009.
Dr. Knizia can actually look pretty good when he takes the time to clean up!
Well, that’s all the pictures for now! Hopefully, I’ll have more time to actually play some games and tell you about them in the weeks to come!
And once you’re done with my truly amateur photo gallery, you can check out this one by Andreas Resch which is always my favorite post-Essen gallery to look at!
Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor
Posted by Dale Yu on Nov 5, 2008 at 01:00 AM in Columnists, Dale Yu / 2792
Comments:
You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free, but if you appreciate the news, previews, reviews and other material posted on Boardgame News, please consider becoming a member to keep the info flowing to your screen!|
Too fun! Thanks for all the inside views! One of these days, maybe.... Posted by Nathan Morse on Nov 5, 2008 at 08:10 AM | #
|
|
Nate, you really should try to make the trip at some point! It’s only a week - your kids won’t even miss you! <g> Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Nov 5, 2008 at 09:32 AM | #
|
|
Thanks for the photos Dale! &cetera for 25? I didn’t think that was even still available. It pops up on Boards & Bits every once in a while, but for $70-90 I think. Forget Duck Dealer, I’d line up for &cetera :) Posted by Tom Rosen on Nov 5, 2008 at 11:05 AM | #
|
|
Thanks, Dale, and great flavor text! Posted by Jeffrey D Myers on Nov 5, 2008 at 11:15 AM | #
|
|
Hee hee hee. I’m sure you’re right, Dale! Posted by Nathan Morse on Nov 5, 2008 at 11:16 AM | #
|
|
Tom—shoot, if I would have known, I would have picked up a few &cetera’s.... As it was, the Splotter guys were a bit incredulous that the first 4 people in line bought 10 Duck Dealers between them :) Jeff - thanks, I’m glad that at least someone reads the captions. Years of being a highschool yearbook editor-in-chief have finally been validated. Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Nov 5, 2008 at 11:43 AM | #
|
|
I’ve e-mailed the Splotter guys about sending some &cetera’s my way, so we’ll see, but if that doesn’t pan out, then hopefully there’ll still be some copies hanging around at Essen ‘09 when I hope to attend… Posted by Tom Rosen on Nov 5, 2008 at 11:46 AM | #
|
|
Yes, the Duck Dealer line was hilarious. Got me two and a &cetera on top of it ;-) Posted by Klaus Knechtskern on Nov 5, 2008 at 03:08 PM | #
|
|
Thanks for the pics. Great stuff. Posted by Robert Ramirez on Nov 5, 2008 at 03:17 PM | #
|
Next entry: Postcards From Berlin #32: After Essen
Previous entry: Steam, Now Due from Mayfair Games Q1 2009
