Larry Levy:  More on the SdJ Nominees

Sorry this is late.  This last week has been busier than ever at work.  Fortunately, we just received an extension on my proposal, which means I actually get to take off two thirds of the three day holiday weekend.

One nice thing about the delay, though, is that I can follow Rick’s lead and devote my column to more analysis about the just announced SdJ nominations.

The first thing the nominated list brings to mind is the hopeless task of trying to anticipate these selections.  Many folks came up with predicted lists, but I’d be absolutely shocked if anyone came up with the correct five games (I’d be impressed if anyone got four of them right!).  The SdJ Jury marches to its own drum and any attempt to classify their selections is ultimately an exercise in futility.  (Which doesn’t mean I won’t do the same thing next year, since it’s so much fun!)

Of the games most often mentioned as predicted winners (Thurn und Taxis, Nacht der Magier, Masons, Hacienda, Hey! That’s My Fish!, Mesopotamia, Elasund, Aton, Roma, and Oltremare), only T&T made the nominated list and only Mesopotamia and Roma got recommended.  Nacht der Magier did make the Children’s list, where it is no doubt favored to win.  But the surprises outnumbered the favorites on the list of games eligible to win the big prize.

The common wisdom will no doubt be that, given the list of nominees, Thurn und Taxis is a shoo-in for the award and I can’t say I disagree.  But recent history suggests that there’s no such thing as a certain winner when it comes to the SdJ’s.  Remember 2002?  Although everyone was rooting for Puerto Rico that year, no one thought it had a reasonable chance, which meant that one of the early favorites, TransAmerica, was the sure bet.  No one dreamed that the other nominated game, a little known design called Villa Paletti, would come out of nowhere to win the award.  So don’t go giving the prize to T&T just yet.

Let’s look at the surprises first.  Seeräuber is a Queen small box game (another feather in the cap for what is rapidly becoming a respected line of games) by Stefan Dorra.  It’s actually a rethemed version of a ten-year-old Dorra design called Die Safeknacker.  It’s early ratings have only been so-so.  In spite of that, it’s nice to see more recognition for a veteran designer like Dorra.  In fact, it’s Dorra, and not Reiner Knizia, who has received the most SdJ nominations without winning an award.  (Okay, that’s cheating a bit, since I’m eliminating Knizia because of the Special Award he received for Lord of the Rings.  But Seeräuber is still Dorra’s seventh nomination and only four other designers have received more.)

Aqua Romana also sports mediocre ratings on the Geek, but it also has quite a few fans there (and a number of folks who don’t care for it at all).  At least some gamers feel the game is more than just an aquatic version of Metro, in that it features more forward planning, so there’s a bit of a fan base.  The designer, Martin Schlegel, is probably best known for creating “Mâ€? six years ago (he also designed this year’s John Silver).

Just 4 Fun is this year’s version of Verflixxt, the out-of-leftfield game the Jury occasionally sneaks in.  Not much to say here, because so little is known about it.  The designer is Jürgen Grunau, who is best known for his children’s games, especially his collaborations with Wolfgang Kramer and Hans Raggan.  Gulo Gulo is their best known creation.

I don’t think anyone seriously thinks any of these games stands a chance of winning (although we’ve all heard that song before—just before a shocking winner is announced).  Instead, it looks like a good old two horse race between the favorite, Thurn und Taxis and the long shot, Blue Moon City.

The latter game is certainly intriguing.  What gives it interest, of course, is that it’s yet another chance for that eternal bridesmaid, Reiner Knizia, to finally get into the SdJ winner’s circle.  BMC is Knizia’s thirteenth nominated game (hmm, lucky 13 perhaps?)—only Kramer, with 16, has more.  Is it an SdJ-type game?  Hard to say.  It’s a middleweight, like all the other nominated games.  Thanks to the artwork and the tie-in to its successful predecessor, Blue Moon, it feels less abstract than much of Knizia’s other work.  It plays fast and should work well for families.  Like Reiner’s last nominated game, Einfach Genial, it’s a less than ideal SdJ game that nonetheless has a genuine chance of winning (EG might have indeed ended the Knizia drought had it not had such stiff competition in Ticket to Ride).  It’s a good game that would represent Germany and the world well as Game of the Year.

Still, the smart money (and mine) is on Thurn und Taxis.  It’s not only a solid game with more depth than is first apparent, it just feels more like an SdJ game (and I can’t really tell you why it does, it just does).  Its ace in the hole is probably its theme, with its historical link to one of the grand old families (and companies) of Germany.  Either game would make a worthy SdJ winner, which is more than I can usually say at this time of the year, so I have to congratulate the Jury for that.  As for the final result, we’ll just have to wait until July to see.

The recommended game list is probably more notable for its omissions than for the included games.  No mention of pre-award favorites like Hacienda, Masons, Elasund, Aton, or Oltremare.  Nothing of such lighter titles as Märklin, China, Ark, Raubritter, California, or a goofy one like Ca$h’n Gun$.  And certainly no representation from the heavyweights like Antike, Beowulf, Big Kini,Il Principe, or PÃœNCT.  There’s really no gamer’s games in the recommended list—probably the heaviest design there is the remake of Dirk Henn’s Timbuktu (one of four Queen games to be cited).  Mesopotamia, Roma, Fettnapf, Hart an der Grenze, and Hey! That’s My Fish! are all good games, but the Jury’s swing toward the light side is growing more extreme with each year.

All of which makes the two special awards given this year all the more welcome and significant.  There have been two great cooperative games released in the past five years and now both have won special awards from the SdJ.  It appears the Jury likes to encourage this sort of design, even though they feel that the games are a bit too much for their family audience.  It may seem a bit like second-class citizenship, but an award is an award and recognition for a game like this is always welcome.  Even better is the award for “Complex Gameâ€? given to the most notable release in the last twelve months, Caylus.  Given the game’s length, complexity, and tiny publisher, this obviously had no chance at the big prize.  But the fact that the Jury wanted to single it out anyway is a most promising development.  We can fantasize that an award for best “complex gameâ€? (i.e., gamer’s game) could become an annual event for the SdJ, but I doubt it will happen—history has shown that most of the special awards are just that, one-time affairs.  But any attempt by the Jury to highlight heavier games is a welcome one, particularly since it appears that they may vanish from the nominated and recommended lists for good.  Given that gamer’s games have no chance of winning, a special award for a particularly good title every few years isn’t a bad alternative.

© 2006 Larry Levy

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Comments:

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I agree 100% on your analysis. It now loos like a race between Blue Moon and T&T, where Blue Moon is a big dog. On the french side, we are very happy of the 2 special prices for the 2 heavy works Caylus and Shadow and the recommandation of the very original Was n’Das by Philippe des Pallieres (Objets Trouvés in french). Unfortunatly you’ll need to speak french orr german to play the latter (which is a “party” game). Posted by Olivier Reix on May 29, 2006 at 02:17 AM | #

I’ve never quite understood how Was n’Das works from its Geek entry, Olivier.  How is one supposed to convey the Seven Dwarves from an item like a toothbrush? It’s a curious game, as those who like it seem to REALLY like it.  Most reviews say it’s very group dependent.  Guess the Jury turned out to be the right kind of group! des Pallières is an interesting designer, coming up with a nominated party game after his much heavier Shazamm a few years ago.  He’s been around for 20 years (he co-designed Armada in ‘87), but his output has been much heavier since the beginning of the new century.  I wonder what’s up his sleeve next? Posted by Larry Levy on May 29, 2006 at 10:32 AM | #

To be fair, I am not found of his design, which are on the lighter side, generally speaking. The latest years, he has enjoyed a really good success in France with his Werewolfs and La Guerre des Moutons (Wooly Bully in the US). His latest release are (apart from Was n Das / Objets Trouvés) Amazones (Asmodée) a light game that I only played in prototype form 2 or 3 years ago and (as editor) a rerelease in french of one of its favorite games : Knizia’s Medici (with added variants cards and new graphics by Dominique Ehrhard). Posted by Olivier Reix on May 30, 2006 at 01:51 AM | #

The French version of Medici is news to me, Olivier.  Did the variant cards come from des Pallières or Ehrhard?  Have you played it?  If so, did you prefer the new version to the old one? Posted by Larry Levy on May 30, 2006 at 07:29 AM | #

http://jeuxstrategieter.free.fr/Medici_complet.php Variant cards come from Des Pallieres. What I like about the new version : - 3 of the 4 new cards are quite good (= one more good / choose the type of the good / break the ties), - the art is beautiful, mostly on the cards (see complains on board) - small box - a suggestion for beginner : do multiple turn auction (I have not tried but why not) What I do not like : - art on the board is good looking but confusing (stating places not indicated), - the rules have been as badly written as possible (the goal of the game is not even in them !). Also I remember that there was a small change in them that I did not understand (Knizia version : you can put as many cards on auction as you want, providing at least one player can buy them / new version : you can put as many cards on auction as _you_ can buy), - the 4th variant card is totally dumb and random (something like : take a card from one of your opponent and auction it !!!) Posted by Olivier Reix on May 30, 2006 at 08:25 AM | #

The cards are indeed a tremendous improvement over both the Amigo and RGG versions, mostly with respect to clarity.  However, I don’t think I’d like the multiple turn auctions.  Without the pressure to get to a true value quickly, players will often make minimum bids (i.e., 1, then 2, then 3, etc.), which can add a lot of boring time to the game.  It also takes away the “last refusal” advantage from the active player. As for the other change, players rarely draw more cards than they can buy, so the new rule seems unnecessary.  The only effect will be to limit players in the small number of instances where they’re willing to sacrifice their own buying power to freeze out an opponent. Finally, the fourth variant card doesn’t sound particularly random, but it might be overpowered (you can use it to re-auction any card, including one owned by an opponent).  On the other hand, the opponent losing the card will get the bid, so he’ll have some compensation.  At the very least, the card should certainly shake things up! Thanks for the response, Olivier--I bet very few gamers outside of France are aware of this new version of Medici. Posted by Larry Levy on May 30, 2006 at 09:58 AM | #

Larry wrote: “I bet very few gamers outside of France are aware of this new version of Medici.” Ah, perhaps you are unaware of Mark Edwards’ obsessive game-collecting efforts. In addition to more than a dozen copies of Acquire and every edition of Ra, he had to have the French edition of Medici to see how it compares to his stitched-together German/American version. His session report is available on the Unity Games Yahoo list: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Unity_Games/message/25678 Hope this link works for you! Posted by W. Eric Martin on Jun 1, 2006 at 01:15 PM | #

Thanks, Eric.  Not surprisingly, an entertaining session report from Mark.  But let me get this straight--he thinks the production values of the French version are worse than those of the godawful RGG version?  What, did they use chimps to do the artwork?  What is it with Medici--did Knizia piss off some seventh son of a seventh son back in 1995 and his curse is that no edition of this game will ever look any good?  (Actually, I checked out the link Olivier posted and the components looked fine.  But usability is another thing and that’s where all the Medici versions have fallen short.) Anyway, thanks for the link and the enjoyable glimpse into the wonderful world of Unity Games. Posted by Larry Levy on Jun 1, 2006 at 03:24 PM | #

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