Dale Yu’s: Haiku-Fu / Little blurbs and lots of laughs—Essen Game Review

Annual attempt:
Seventeen syllables to
give “full” game review!

Rank Order Thus Far
Hansa Teutonica First
Colonia Next

Dominion: Seaside
26 new Kingdom cards
Cards affect next turn

No fanfare prior -
Hansa Teutonica is
Essen Game of Show

Point hand, add fingers
Indonesian Finger Game
Great fun for car/plane

Shipyard - new Czech game
Build crazy ship, sail for points
Box o’ thousand bits

Mosaix - roll dice
Draw shapes on board, try to match
groups of at least five

Get cubes to make chits -
ship for cash, then buy relics -
Queen’s Colonia!

Different improvements --
now with horses and fuel costs
Farmers of the Moor

Die Siedenstrasse
Move caravans on Silk Road
Collect jewels to win

San Fran Cable Car -
Comes with Metro in the box
extra is stock market

Flip big block of Cheese
Score points based on how it lands
Wish it were more fun

Trader - French card game
Collect shares, sell for profit
Seen last as Combit

8 dice, 16 tiles
Mini Heckmeck crams all this
in small metal tin

Magnet pushes pawn
Vampire der Nacht—get garlic
out of castle now!

Toss coasters in ring --
Beer and Pretzels proves that Ted
is not one trick pony

Lay track, deliver goods
Better graphic design now!
“Days of Steam” on box…

Plant fields, harvest things
Gates of Loyang from Uwe
Better than the ‘Gric?

Greed, Inc. from Splotter
Trade, bargain, negotiate --
Lather, rinse, repeat.

Play Food cards; place huts
in Assyria, wells and
Ziggurats score points

Atlantis - play card,
move to matching color tile
pay toll to cross lake

Hotel Amsterdam
Turn tiles to attract tourists -
Needs good memory!

Tante Tarantel --
anticipated reprint—
Escape the web first!

Fight creepy creatures
exploring isle of Insula --
Beat Dark Lord to win!

Car(d)cassone by Schmiel
Awesome set collection game
Many ways to score

Colored plastic fiefs
Stake control of Europe map
Day-Glo Gonzaga

Nakakabilib!
Filipino Fruit Market
Two great trick takers!

Jaipur: Two players
Collect sets of goods to sell --
Camels help as well

Tichu in a tin
Dragon printed on one side
Phoenix opposite

Letter by Theta
Like Scrabble on LSD --
Tiles are diff’rent size!

Pick up and deliver -
Koplopers and Dwarsliggers
On Dutch railway map

Build Opera houses -
Fill with six composers’ works
Must stick to budget!

In Peloponnes -
Vie for folks, wealth and power…
Civ game in one hour!

Strada Romana -
move wagons to and from Rome
Watch for traffic jam!

More Fragor racing
Ostrich in Savannah Tails
You can design track

Deduce treasure’s place --
it’s somewhere in Tobago
Trinidad’s ignored.

Ubongo 3D --
Puzzle game… some say too hard?
Answer key in box!

Macao: Goal for player --
Get the right cubes on right days
Use septagon well…

Korean kids’ game --
Penguin C has cute graphics
and sweet dice tower!

More complicated
version of Coloretto --
King of Fishermen

Build team through auctions --
Special characters help too…
Be the Basket Boss

Race to front of line,
Eating things in Tricky Trek --
Looks better than plays…

Numeri - roll die,
move pawn(s) on track towards goal.
Not enough fun here.

Yet another clone --
Take It To The Limit is
Knizia’s try

Unanimo is:
flip card, write seven words down
score for matched responses

Vasco De Gama
Didn’t bring a copy home
Soon from RGG!

[Couldn’t play them all --
Had to bring in guest poets
To cover the rest]

The BGG Game -
Sell games, buy others, make sets
Best with 5 or 6
(by Jon Theys)

Terminally bland,
Factory Manager proves
It ain’t Power Grid
(by Jon Theys)

Dungeon Lords - Good stuff!
Thinky game with great humor
“Build, fight, build, fight, score.”
(by Jon Theys)

Next, Carson City.
Roles, worker placement, and tiles
Guns resolve conflict
(by Jon Theys)

Can you haiku too?
Go ahead and try your best
Post in comments here

Hope you enjoyed it!
Until your next appointment
The Gaming Doctor

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