JESS: Made In Spain Games (I)

Some worldwide well known European, Asian and American boardgames are published in Spain, by different companies, in Spanish editions – and if not, hard core gamers can buy all kinds of games directly from other countries on the Internet.

But here we also have a couple of… Made In Spain Games.

Let’s take a look over the more important Spanish games of the day. You never know, you might find a game you’ll fall in love with…

In this article, I am only interested in commercialized games, not in other, more or less, self-published games or those not published commercially. We do, in Spain, have a tradition of war games, and there are many Spanish war-games, some of them are really good, however I am going to concentrate on card and board games more in the German euro-game style (or, as Alan Moon (and me) prefers to say, Designer-Games ;-)

These games can easily be found online on Spanish game-shops sites, so I will emphasize how much language dependence is relevant to the game components, for possible buyers. Most of them are good games, others have been published for commercial reasons only. If you are especially interested in any of these games, I can, of course, review them in detail, (all you have to do is ask!).

We will have more than one single Gaming Tales chapter about Spanish games, so, we are going to begin the first part with…

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- Anima: La Sombra de Omega (Anima: Shadow of Omega) by Anima Studio, Publisher by EDGE (2006).
This card game is part of the main Edge project: Anima Beyond Fantasy. In their words, it has a roleplaying game system which mixes the best of Japanese and Western games. Edge has published a roleplaying game, a miniature game (Anima Tactics), and a card game, at least for the moment.
This card game is for 2 to 5 players, with 110 cards outstandingly illustrated in the usual manga style, plus some dice and markers.
In the Anima universe, there are different razes and fantastic monsters. In the card game, you control a group of heroes fighting against Omega, an evil force captured in an ancient prison, who is now trying to escape. You must be the first to complete your missions, competing against other players. Managing your hand of cards, you can move your team between different locations, trading in markets and fighting against monsters or other teams. Combat is based on a simply 1D6 die roll, plus modifier cards.
The game web-pages of EDGE are always impressive, and this time ANIMA even has an English version - English, Italian, French and German editions will be published – The English one being distributed by Fantasy Flight in the USA is just released.
Some Spanish players complain about some of the details in the rules and some of the text on the cards. I think these minor problems will be amended in future editions and extensions, and in international editions too. With 4 or 5 players, game can be too long, but a new expansion will change this too (Edge said). The cards have Spanish text on them, so hang on in there for the coming international editions.
Anima: Más allá del bien y del mal (Anima: Beyond good and evil) will be the next non-collectible Anima card game, an expansion but also a stand-alone card game.
Anima is a big project of Edge, an international business-rising. We will see where it goes…

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- Café Race, by Fran Garea, published by Homoludicus (2006)
This game is made by well know Spanish gamers – the author (Fran Garea), the producer (Pol and Aidi from HomoLudicus), the draftsman (BasQ) and the editor (Antonio Catalán from Games and Co). Homoludicus is a new game publisher, associated to laPCra, a Spanish on-line gameshop - and they also have a ‘real’ shop in Granollers just inaugurated.
The artwork on the game is nicely jolly, a job well-done by BasQ. And the components production, pretty perfect (what you need to play is there - Maybe too thin cardboard for the figures...? Forget it, it doesn’t matter).
The game lasts about 15 minutes, for 3 to 6 players. Inside a small box you get a board (representing a staircase in an office building), six 2-D figures and their bases (the different characters), six dice in different colours (one for each character), two white dice, six black dice and coffee markers (and two croissants, but they are a joke without gaming influence :-)
It is a race game, but the winner is not the person who finishes first, because it is also important who finishes with more coffee - You begin upstairs with five coffee markers, and surely you will have less than five at the end.

Playing the game (in brief): The black dice are rolled… Then the players secretly choose a number on their own coloured die. Beginning with the highest die number, each player chooses one of the black dice to move their own character. If you finish on a step of the stairs (not in a landing zone), you must check your transporting-coffee-ability throwing the two white dice and comparing them with your coloured die plus the black die you have chosen this turn. If you fail (more on the white dice than on your movement dice), you loose one coffee marker. I like when dice are well used, and this is a good example. One more thing: only two people can stand on the same step, and they block the way, so, if more people are running behind, they must suddenly stop and check their coffee ability. A very simple and short game, but can be good fun (you know, there are dice!).
At the last Essen fair, some Café Races were taken there to be played (just before the commercial units appeared), and in the evenings at the customary hotels around the Messe, the game created quite a few laughs. I even know some reputed game designers tried it and had some fun playing time with Café Race, trust me (Martin Wallace and Franz-Benno Delongue can tell you that it’s true!)
Spanish, Catalonian, German, French and English rules are included, so you can buy this game without any language problems. Recommended if you know and like the kind of easy boardgame are you buying – there are many simple fun games (and I already know many), but this is a Spanish new one (I could prefer to play it at live). And remember running is not always the best tactic, be careful with your coffee!

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- El Capitán Alatriste, by Antonio Catalán, published by Devir (2002).
Capitán Alatriste was a Spanish mercenary in the XVII century, working in the Spanish army or giving his sword to anyone who paid him enough money for the job. He became captain in the army, and now people call him thus. He lived through many adventures and intrigues in a special age for Spain, a rich country controlling an Empire around the world, but full of poverty and decadence. And Diego Alatriste was a man of his time, not a hero.
He is the main character in a very successful series of novels by Arturto Pérez Reverte – you could perhaps find some of these books in your nearest library, they have been published in English and other languages around the world. Alatriste is an fictional character, but many of the other characters in the books are real historical personalities.

We had a Capitán Alatriste gameboard in 2002. The author is Antonio Catalán, a former gamer who is also a professional producer now (with his company Games & Co working on games also included in this list, like Fuga de Colditz and Café Race). Alatriste wasn’t his first game published. The publisher was Devir, and it was their first own boardgame, without simply translating a foreign game - an important step for this company.
There has been a lot of Alatriste merchandising, including comics and a roleplaying game. As of last year, Alatriste is also a Spanish film, the biggest Spanish production ever – you could watch the film yourself in your local cinema, it will be released in the USA and other countries (however it wasn’t the Spanish candidate for ‘Best Foreign Film’ at the Oscars, the Spanish film academy chose Pedro Almodovar’s Volver – and they did right in doing so… Finally, Volver isn’t nominated, but Penelope Cruz is nominated for `Best Actress´).
Coming back to the Alatriste boardgame: It is a dice-rolling game, mixed with a pinch of role playing, on a board (similar to the typical Monopoly square-board structure) representing Madrid in the XVII century. You control your character and his different abilities (sword, fame, money and courage). You find allies and equipment to improve your character. The objective is to be the first to reach a level of fame worthy of getting you introduced into the royal court. The most fun part (almost the only one for me) is, of course, the duels between different players - Take your sword, voto a bríos! – resolved by dice rolling and the help of cards (You need roleplaying to have fun).
The game is a bit long (the box says 90 minutes) for what you get. In truth, nothing new or changelling will be found inside it. Go to the cinema to watch the (misconceived) film, or even better, read the books - and then I only recommend the boardgame for the biggest Alatriste fans – The game is covered in Spanish text, by the way.

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- Fuga de Colditz, by Major P.R. Reid & Brian Degas, published by Devir (2005).
I’ve already talked about this Spanish edition in detail. OK, this was not originally a Spanish game, but knowing about this new Spanish edition could be helpful – because old editions of “Escape from Colditz� are only available on e-bay or used-games shops. The Spanish Devir company wanted to make the ultimate edition of this game, working directly with the author Brian Degas. Maybe Devir didn’t achieve full-on perfection, but they got close. If you want a version of the new “Escape from Colditz� game, and you don’t have a problem with the Spanish cards, you should get this one. It’s a favourite of mine from my own personal gaming history, and now in a brand new edition ;-)
The question you are all dying to ask Devir: What about international editions of the game? – No news about this, but we know Brian Degas is very happy with this edition, and if any company in the world wants to make another language edition, must be a everything-the-same edition.

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To be continued…

© 2007 Jesús Torres Castro

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Comments:

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This is a very good report, thank you! I didn’t notice ANIMA was a Spanish game, and I think that now I’ll be glad to play a game of CAFE’ RACE (great theme for a racing game!). I’m looking forward for the next part of this report; in the meanwhile anyone wants to play a game of MUS?  ;) Posted by Silvano Sorrentino on Jan 30, 2007 at 05:19 AM | #

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