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Convention Report: GAMA Trade Show 2006 - March 14, 2006 - Part 3 (Day 2)
By Rick Thornquist
March 14, 2006
I posted part 2 of today’s report and then headed back into the exhibit hall to touch base with my last publisher for today - Asmodée. Later in the evening I got the chance to play the upcoming Phalanx / Mayfair game Bison.
Before we go onto other things, I wanted to mention a couple of things about Days of Wonder that I missed posting this morning.
Firstly, Days of Wonder is relaunching Gang of Four. The card game has gotten a graphic facelift and will include multilingual rules. The game is also getting a reduced price - 14.95 US$.
Secondly, they informed me that First of Dragonstones and Queen’s Necklace have both gone out of print.
Thirdly, they announced that their Ticket to Ride series of games has now sold over half a million copies. Wow.
My next stop was Asmodée. They had their line of games on display including Dungeon Twister and its expansions, Mall of Horror, and Mission: Red Planet. They were also showing Mare Nostrum and its expansion (Asmodée is now distributing Eurogames).
I had talked with Stephan Brissaud of Asmodée just a few weeks ago at the New York Toy Fair, and got most of the new news there. This time I just got a few tidbits plus a couple of updated release dates.
Asmodée’s next game will be Mission: Red Planet and that one is now due in Late Q2 2006. Dungeon Twister - 3/4 Players and the Dungeon Twister - Goodies Pack #1 (for those who run organized play tournaments for the game) are both going to be released in Late Q2 2006.
Next up will be the board game Renaissance. This is a 2-6 player game for ages 10 and up that plays in 2 hours. The game deals with the struggle of power in Italy in the mid to late 1400s. The game comes with a board showing the Italian peninsula plus dice, battle cards, and castle, rampart and palace miniatures. The game is due in Q3 2006.
The next Dungeon Twister expansion, Dungeon Twister - Fire & Water, is due in Q3 2006.
Iliad is card game that is for 2-6 players ages 12 and up and plays in 45 minutes. The one has an ancient Greek theme. The game was designed by Dominique Ehrhard and is based on his game Condottiere. The game is due in Q3 2006.
All that Stephan would tell me about the next game is that it will be a ‘Big Box Game’, but he was very excited about it. I hope to get more information on this one soon. It’s to be released in Q4 2006.
Lastly is another Dungeon Twister expansion, Dungeon Twister - Forces of Darkness. This one is due by Christmas 2006.
Just as I was finishing up my chat with Stephan, the exhibit hall was closing. I left the hall with Ward Batty and ran into Derk Solko and Scott Alden (of Boardgame Geek fame), who I had heard were at the show but hadn’t run into yet. We headed over to the Circus Circus for dinner and had a nice chat about the boardgame world. I had to leave them, though, and head back to the convention area as I had an appointment to play a new game…
Yesterday I ran into Will Niebling of Mayfair and we chatted about the possibility of my getting to play some prototypes. The game that I was mainly interested in playing was Bison - a game co-produced by Phalanx and Mayfair that was designed by Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Kiesling. We set a time to play the game and the time had now arrived!
Before I explain the game, note that we played a prototype. The rules are mostly set but there may be some changes before the game goes to press. We played a full game.
Bison is an area majority game. The board is made up of tiles and each tile has three areas of terrain - plains, rivers and mountains. Each type of terrain gives up a different type of food - bison in the plains, fish in the rivers and birds in the mountains.
The game starts with just a few tiles making up the board. There are four ‘seasons’ in the game and in each season each player gets four turns (in a four player game). In each season, each player will add one more tile to the board and, along with it, some of their Indian pieces. On a player’s turn, he can add a tile to the board (along with some of his Indians), move his Indians, build teepees (in the plains and mountains) or build canoes (in the rivers).
The whole idea is to have the majority in each of the areas at the end of each season when the scoring takes place. Having the most Indians in an area is good, but building teepees is better and is worth more when determining majorities (it’s the same with canoes in rivers). Whoever gets the majority in an area gets food in the area - the bison, fish or birds. The second player gets half the food, etc.
Players have a limited number of actions. You can only do each type of action once per season so you have to plan carefully exactly when you use it. Also, you have to pay for your actions with food so you have to manage your food supply to make sure you have enough to do what you want to do.
In the end, I liked the game. I’ve played a lot of area majority games and though the genre is crowded, I felt this one held its own. It definitely is a thinker, especially towards the end of the game where you really have to plan your moves carefully. I’m looking forward to trying it again when the final version comes out.
One more thing: The game was explained to us by William Niebling of Mayfair and I gotta say, he’s a great rules teacher. I’ve had William teach me games before and he always does an excellent job. Thanks, William!
After finishing up Bison it was time to head up to my room to type up this report and get some shut-eye after a long time. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!
| Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version | |
 | Asmodee |
 | Dungeon Twister and expansions |
 | Mall of Horror |
 | Mission: Red Planet |
 | Mare Nostrum and expansion (Asmodée is now distributing Eurogames) |
© 2006 Rick Thornquist
Posted by Rick Thornquist on Mar 15, 2006 at 03:16 PM in Special Features, Convention Reports, Convention Report: GAMA Trade Show 2006 / 2535
Comments:
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I hadn’t heard about Iliad before, so I checked out its entry on the Geek. It sounds very interesting. I really like the card play in Condotierre, but there are problems with the board play in both editions. Iliad actually sounds pretty different from Condotierre, but the same basic idea of card play battles is there. I’m definitely looking forward to it. Posted by Larry Levy on Mar 15, 2006 at 04:25 PM | #
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Larry, the game is already out in France. I have not tried it yet but there are a few opinions on Tric Trac (scrool on “Les avis des joueurs� ) :
Posted by Olivier Reix on Mar 16, 2006 at 02:51 AM | #
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