Dale Yu: Nuremberg Preview Review (Part one of two)

Well, it’s almost time for that other gaming Christmas – the Nuremberg trade show.  This is the other major event on the German gaming calendar other than the Spiel Fair at Essen.  In the past, Nuremberg seems to get a little less attention perhaps because it is only a trade show.  It is not generally open to the public, and most of the new games that are introduced there are not directly available for sale at the show.  In fact, many times the new Nuremberg games are not quite yet available – with release dates reaching into April or May at times.

However, the intrepid staff at Boardgamenews.com spares no expense in its coverage of the new games.  Just like Essen, there is a great preview of the games to be shown at the Fair. (Publishes A-M & Publishers N-Z) And just like the Essen preview, I’d like to go through the list and look at the highlights (at least from my perspective).  Much of this is really just supposition on my part as there really isn’t a lot of information out there right now other than flavor text from the boxes it seems!  This week I’ll look at games in the first part of the preview…

Aquaretto (Abacus/Rio Grande)
I’ll quickly admit that I’m not a big fan of Coloretto and Zooloretto was only a mild improvement for me.  The newest addition to the family is slated for release in the late spring.  It supposedly can be either a standalone game or used as an expansion to Zooloretto.  Thematically, it doesn’t make a lot of sense as an expansion because how many zoo/waterpark combination attractions can you think of?  However, it appears to be more of the same – collect tiles, try to match male and females of the aquatic species and spawn babies.  If you’re one who liked Coloretto, it looks like it just expands on the initial idea and gives one or two twists.  It’s still a bit unclear what the additions will be as the ruleset has not yet been uploaded to the Abacus or Rio Grande site as best as I can tell. 

I’m generally a bit suspicious of Spiel des Jahres expansions as they often have a “sophomore slump” feel to them… The original game is obviously popular given the fact that it won the SdJ in the previous year.  I often feel that companies then try to get out an expansion quickly to try to capitalize on the grand success of the SdJ winner.  Of course, I theorize that this leads to quickly invented and not-fully developed expansions as there is a race to get things done in time for the next major show.  This is not to say that there haven’t been good expansions/follow-ups.  I like the 64 new versions of Ticket to Ride and Carcassones that have arrived, for instance.  However, I have been less thrilled with the expansions to Niagara and Thurn and Taxis, not to mention the slew of Alhambra expansions, in recent years.  But business is business, and I can certainly see the attraction to trying to generate a valuable and successful franchise out of a game.  And, despite my misgivings, I am usually one of those gamers that ends up buying the expansion just to make sure that it isn’t the next best thing… so my behavior pattern really only reinforces the idea that it makes good economic sense to keep producing those sequels!  Hopefully this one will make American soil by April so that I can take a gander at it at the Gathering.

Wie Verhext! (Alea)
Nuremberg is usually the time when Alea introduces their new game for the year.  In the Year of the Dragon did break this pattern by being released at Essen – but this game fits their usual time frame better.  Interestingly enough, this one doesn’t appear to have been picked up by anyone else other that Alea yet (and I’m not sure what, if anything, this means). 

The designer, Andreas Pelikan, is a relative unknown to me – he only has one other game to his credit that I can find (Cash-a-catch).  The game appears to be a light card game which involves changing roles.  I’ve always been attracted to this mechanic (Verrater and Meuterer work really well for me, and Citadels can work as long as there aren’t too many players), so I’ll be interested to learn more about it when the game becomes available.  Though I was almost ready to give up on Alea from about Fifth Avenue onward, the games of the Alea line of late have been more to my liking. 

Elfenland JubiläumsboxElfenland Jubiläumsbox (Amigo)
It looks like it’s the same game but in a special box.  While I really like the game, I’m still holding out hopes for an updated version.  I may or may not have seen a prototype of a new version of Elfenland, but I don’t think that this is what I may have possibly seen.

Die Sieben Siegel (Amigo)
Another Amigo re-release.  I will admit I’m intrigued by Eric’s comment that this is a “smaller version of a previously released game”.  I really don’t know how it could get much smaller.  I suppose if they got rid of the saboteur cardboard stand-up thing as well as the scoring tokens and made them into cards, they could get the game into a smaller box – but really, the game seemed compact enough!

Rapscallion (Bezier)
A non-Age of Steam, non-Werewolf release from our own Ted Alspach and Bezier Games.  It sounds like an interesting Poker variant which I’m very keen on trying.  Of course, Ted has yet to send me my review copy, so all I can go on is the three sentences that he’s provided in the preview.  One of my favorite Saturday night poker variants is “Grocery Store” where the players auction off cards as they try to build their hands, and this may have a similar feel to it. 

Another note, I did learn in Essen that the pronunciation of his company.  It is named in honor of a French guy - Pierre Étienne Bézier (September 1, 1910 – November 25, 1999) who was a French engineer and creator of the Bézier curves and Bézier surfaces that are now used in most computer-aided design and computer graphics systems.and as best as I can tell, it is pronounced “BEH zee ay”.  That is your useless gaming-related tidbit for the week…

Serendipity (Drei Magier Spiele)
I have always been a fan of the Drei Magier Spiele games – though most of my contact has been with their children’s games – including Mouse Carousel and Funny Fishing from the most recent Essen fair.  Though not as well known as HABA, I find that the games from Drei Magier Spiele are of the highest quality component-wise and are very well designed.  This new release looks to be a interesting color matching game.  The graphics on the box cover are brightly colored, and I’m a sucker for tile laying games – which this appears to be! 

Neuland (Eggertspiele)
Another re-release – this time of a game that I think never got the acclaim that it deserved.  The original version of Neuland admittedly has about the most basic graphic design of any game I’ve seen in awhile.  This fact as well as a confusing rulebook may have turned off a lot of gamers when it first came out.  However, the new release is supposed to have a new re-written rule-book as well as graphics done by Klemens Franz – whose work you’ve recently seen in Agricola.  I hope that this re-release will get a bit more attention to this great engine building game.

Käseklau! (HABA)
There are a slew of games being released by HABA this spring, and this is the one that catches my eye the most right now.  The game appears to involve both risk-assessment skills which is a gaming skill I’ve really been trying to improve in my own kids.  Additionally, as it involves dice, it will help the little one win his fair share and keep him from being too frustrated when the older one wins all the time.

Carcassonne: Graf, König und Konsorten (Hans im Gluck/Rio Grande)
Didn’t I say something earlier about SdJ winners and expansions?

Hanging Gardens (Hans im Gluck/Rio Grande)
More should be available on this shortly – but I’d just like to point out that this likely signals the beginning of the next big thematic trend in Eurogames.  In past years, we’ve had a glut of games on Rome, Pirates, and Roman Pirates.  It appears that hanging gardens or perhaps Ancient wonders of the world is the next trend.  I understand there are five or six different games about the Library at Alexandria in the works

Next week, I’ll finish up the preview!

Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor

© 2008 Dale Yu

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Comments:

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Neuland an engine building game?  Nahh.  There’s no constructed engine which is later exercised for points.  Players don’t own buildings and will frequently use the buildings that other players have kindly constructed for them.  Neuland is a nearly pure competitive logistics game, ranking alongside Roads&Boats, Atta Ants, and Logistico. Posted by J C Lawrence on Feb 6, 2008 at 02:37 AM | #

Dale you probably wrote this before the links got updated but link to Nuremberg preview should be updated to http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/C127/ or something Posted by Lee Fisher on Feb 6, 2008 at 09:18 AM | #

Lee, thanks for catching that. Link has been updated dale Posted by Dale Yu on Feb 6, 2008 at 02:44 PM | #

No worries--your faithful Berlin correspondent is finally attending his first gaming convention and will have a full report next week.  I’ve got about a million game explanations and a lot of amusing stories in my head just waiting to be typed in.  Tomorrow’s my last day, and it’s been a great experience so far.  And there are certainly some new games being released or on the horizon that are worth a look.  More later… Posted by Jeff Allers on Feb 8, 2008 at 06:21 PM | #

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