Boardgame News

Convention Report: GAMA Trade Show 2006 - March 14, 2006 - Part 1 (Day 2)

By Rick Thornquist
March 14, 2006

Today is day two of the GAMA Trade Show. I’ve got quite a bit of Days of Wonder scoop this morning, so I decided to post this right away before going back for more.

My first order of business this morning was to head down to the open gaming area to see what was going on. The room was fairly empty, but started to fill up quickly with people chatting and grabbing some of the available free foodstuffs.

I had hoped to play some games, so I went on the prowl to find a publisher with a game I could borrow. I finally ran into Eric Hautemont of Days of Wonder and scored big - a copy of Ticket to Ride - Marklin Edition. I brought it back to the open gaming room and grabbed a few players. Actually, getting players was pretty easy - I held up the box and was pretty much deluged with people who wanted to play it.

Ticket to Ride - Marklin Edition
Ticket to Ride - Marklin Edition is the third game in the Ticket to Ride series. This one has a map of Germany and adds a few unique rules to the Ticket to Ride system.

Firstly, there are a few new cards - +4 Locomotives, which can be used as wild cards but only on routes of 4 or more spaces, and passenger cards, which are used with passengers (more on those in a minute).

There are two decks of tickets - one for short routes and one for long routes. When you chose tickets - at the beginning and during the game - you can take from either deck.

The board has some routes that into neighboring countries (Austria, etc) and some of the tickets require you to connect to these countries. This is similar to the Switzerland map in the computer version of the game,

The biggest addition is the passengers. Each player gets three of these guys. At the beginning of the game, the cities on the board are populated with merchandise tokens - these are small markers with numbers on them. When you place a route, you are allowed to place one of your passengers on either end of the route. On a future turn, you can move your passenger along your routes and pick up these tokens. Each token is worth the face value in points. You move your passenger as far as you can in your turn and when you finish moving your passenger, it’s out of the game.

Remember I mentioned that there are passenger cards? These cards allow you to move your passenger along another player’s route.

I played a full five player game. I very much enjoyed the game - the passengers add a nice level of strategy. Deciding where to place and when you move your passengers can be crucial to get the most points. Mark Kaufmann of Days of Wonder characterized this one as the gamer’s Ticket to Ride and I agree with him.

I really only have one complaint about the game at that is the merchandise tokens that the passengers pick up. They do take a minute or two to set up and they are a bit fiddly to pick up, especially with lots of trains on the board. This is a fairly small complaint, though, I otherwise found the game very interesting and very enjoyable. From now on this will be my Ticket to Ride game of choice.

With perfect timing, my game of Ticket to Ride - Marklin ended right at noon - just in time for the opening of the exhibit hall. I grabbed the game and got in the line-up just as people started filtering in. Funny thing, actually, I was accosted by quite a few people who saw me carrying the game, offering me various things (some illegal) if I would give it up!

Days of Wonder
Once I got in to the exhibit hall, my first stop was Days of Wonder. I dropped off the game and talked to Eric Hautemont and Mark Kaufmann about what they have coming up.

A quick note on Ticket to Ride - Marklin - Eric said that the game should be available by the end of March 2006.

Days of Wonder had a prototype of Cleopatra and the Society of Architects on hand and let me tell you, people who like bits are going to love this game. The game comes with a pile of plastic pieces - some quite big!

The idea of the game is that players play architects constructing a sort of a temple for Cleopatra. You collect resource cards that are used to build various portions of the temple - walls, sphinxes, a pedestal, a throne, obelisks, etc. When you build something you get money and the player with the most money at the end of the game wins.

The resource cards are interesting in a few ways. At the beginning of the game resource cards are divided into two piles and then they are shuffled together with one pile face up and on pile face down. Yes, you read that correctly. Three piles of cards are then made for players to draft from - this makes some cards in the piles face up and some are a mystery until you pick them up.

Some resource cards are regular resources but some do have special powers that allow you to do unique actions.

Some resource cards, when you use them, will give you corruption points. You will collect these points during the game, putting them in a cardboard pyramid. I suspect the better cards give you the most corruption. Here’s the deal with corruption - whoever has the most at the end of the game automatically loses (shades of High Society)!

Mark told me that the game plays like a family game with 4 or 5 players but with 3 players it becomes more of a gamer game. I can say that it does look incredibly cool and, hopefully, I’ll be able to give the game a try while I’m here. The game is to be released in June 2006.

Now onto other Days of Wonder news. The next Memoir ‘44 expansion will be Memoir ‘44 Pacific Theatre. It will be similar to the Eastern Front expansion, except this time will introduce the Japanese. New terrain (such as caves) and landmarks will be added, along with ships (which will be counters, not plastic). There will be special rules for the Japanese (who can move between any cave on the board in one move) as well as new rules for Marines. The expansion is due at the End of June 2006.

There will also be a ‘Special Big Memoir ‘44 Thing’ (as Eric calls it) that is to be released in September / October 2006.

There is to be another small Ticket to Ride expansion. This one will be somewhat bigger than the Mystery Train expansion and will be for the original Ticket to Ride game. It will cost 10 US$ and will be released at Essen

I asked Eric about the Pirate’s Cove expansion and he said that it’s been pushed back to next year.

And one more thing from Days of Wonder - in Cleopatra there is a teaser card showing a bit about another upcoming game. I took a picture of the card - check it out below. Let the speculation begin!

That’s it for now - stay tuned for part 2!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	Ticket to Ride - Marklin Edition - shortly after the beginning of the game
	Ticket to Ride - Marklin Edition - halfway through
	Ticket to Ride - Marklin Edition - at the end of the game
	A close-up Ticket to Ride - Marklin Edition
	The main hall shortly before the teeming hordes are let in
	The main hall shortly after the teeming hordes are let in
	A line-up at the Wizards of the Coast booth
	The Days of Wonder booth
	Cleopatra - component holder, player aids and rules
	Cleopatra boards and cards
	Cleopatra component holder close-up
	Cleopatra player aid card close-up
	Cleopatra board close-up
	Cleopatra board close-up
	A tease from Days of Wonder