Larry Levy: Things to Check Out at Essen
Once again, I will not be traveling to Essen (I’ve never been there and I don’t really have a burning desire to go), but I know a lot of people who are going. A couple of folks from my gaming group asked me what I thought would be some good, lesser known games to check out. I figured the best ones to look at are the ones that won’t be coming out from American publishers in the next month or so (apologies to my non-American readers for this chauvinistic view, but it’s just common sense for us). I thought this might be useful to others as well, so here’s the list (with commentary, of course).
Down Under (Bambus Spieleverlag): Tile laying game from Gunter Cornett, one of my favorite designers. Only demonstration games will be available at the fair.
Gipsy King (Cwali): No real information about this title, but a van Moorsel design is usually worth checking out.
Territories (Cwali): An area claiming two-player Van Moorsel abstract; you can try it
out at www.mastermoves.eu.
Galaxy Trucker, League of Six (Czech Games Edition): I expect you’ve heard plenty about these two in recent days.
Antler Island (Fragor): Deer sex. Hmmm…
Black Box+ (Franjos): Most of us have played the classic Black Box from the seventies; this is an expanded version by the original designer that uses hexes instead of squares.
King of Siam (Histogame): An area control game with action cards and variable victory conditions; it should eventually be distributed in the US.
Master of Rules (Japon Brand): An unusual card game from Susumu Kawasaki, designer of R-Eco and several other fine games; Eric just gave it a thorough preview.
Origin of Failingwater (Japon Brand): Unique, brainburning deductive trick-taker; I played an early prototype and while there were some rough spots, it showed great promise.
Macht & Ohnmacht (JKLM): Two-player conquest game with two types of forces by the designer of Kogge.
Agricola (Lookout Games): A very intriguing building card game from one of the masters of the genre, Uwe Rosenberg. Rosenberg’s been without a hit for quite a while, but this could get him back in the winner’s circle. For English speakers, the preponderance of German text could be a major problem, but Melissa Rogerson’s tireless translation efforts should make this easier. To me, the most fascinating thing about the design is that there’s over 160 Occupation cards and more than 130 Minor Improvement cards (with about 95 unique copies of each), but each player only gets seven cards from each deck for the entire game! Talk about replayability!
Rise of Nations (Pro Ludo): An “improved” version of Eagle’s “Sid Meier’s Civilization” game (Glenn Drover was not involved in the changes). It might not be ready for the fair.
Giganten der Lufte (Queen): One of the more remarkable stories of the fair. With absolutely no advance notice, here comes this game by Andreas Seyfarth, who’s only created about half a dozen other titles, most of which have won major awards. All I know about it is that it involves blimps! Queen’s games are usually distributed by Rio Grande, but I haven’t heard whether this one will be or not.
Auf Achse (Schmidt Spiele): A revised version of Wolfgang Kramer’s second SdJ winner, a pick up and delivery game that is shorter and has less luck than the original.
TZAAR (Smart): The last (we think) GIPF game, with a limited number of pre-release copies signed by Kris Burm available for sale.
Chang Cheng (Tenkigames): An area majority game in which the players build the Great Wall of China.
Holidays (Tilset): A new version of this light Leo Colovini card game, first released in 2005.
Kingsburg (Truant/KDS): A building game with an innovative dice-rolling mechanic. Definitely looks worth investigating, but an English version from new Mayfair spin-off Elfinwerks may be available soon.
Brass (Warfrog): A Martin Wallace economic game that, unlike most of his Warfrog designs, has no combat. The rules look interesting, but it’s hard to tell how the game will play. Valley should be distributing this in North America eventually, but the timeline for that is uncertain.
Mordred (Warfrog): A much nicer looking redesign of Wallace’s 1999 dicefest, his first game to explore the concept of variable victory conditions.
That’s my list. Can any of you think of any games I’ve missed?
© 2007 Larry Levy
Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 13, 2007 at 01:20 AM in Columnists, Larry Levy / 2314
Comments:
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Larry, apologies if I gave you the wrong idea on the Agricola cards - All the occupation and minor improvement cards are unique, there is no duplication. A truly astounding piece of work. Posted by Melissa Rogerson on Oct 13, 2007 at 04:26 AM | #
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giganten der lufte involves blimps and dice. lots of dice. and blimp captains with mustachioes. I can say no more… Posted by Dale Yu on Oct 13, 2007 at 07:38 AM | #
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You forgot to mention the new book of games from Peer Sylvester and Guenter Cornett’s Bambus Verlag. Guenter brought some copies to our group Monday. They include articles about the gaming scenes in different countries as well as games inspired by those countries that people can play with game pieces and cards they already have--and YOU have a game in there as well!
Posted by Jeff Allers on Oct 13, 2007 at 08:18 AM | #
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These days it’s so hard to come up with a list of Essen games that won’t soon be available in the US, so I’m impressed that you came up with so many. I hope you’re wrong about a few (or many) of these though and they do find their way stateside in not too long. No burning desire to go?! Posted by Tom Rosen on Oct 13, 2007 at 10:55 AM | #
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Melissa: So even the cards added in for more players are different than the base set of cards? That’s...amazing. Rosenberg said he did most of the design work in a two-month period--did he not sleep? This game has really got me charged, language issues or no. It’s the first game I’ve ever asked someone to pick me up at Essen; with any luck, it’ll be in my hot little hands in a couple of weeks. Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 13, 2007 at 12:14 PM | #
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OK, so I’m now excited about Agricola (I somehow missed this was a Uwe design) and Giganten der Lufte (a Seyfarth design with dice & a wacky theme?!) Posted by Mark "Fluff Daddy" Jackson on Oct 13, 2007 at 01:06 PM | #
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Quoting: “Can any of you think of any games I’ve missed?” Yes :) Don’t forget to check out Polish Neuroshima Hex. Posted by Lukasz M. Pogoda on Oct 13, 2007 at 01:21 PM | #
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Dale: Well, the duck just came down, so you must have said the magic word: dice! Back in February, 2006, BGN mentioned that Italian publisher What’s Your Game? would have a Seyfarth design ready for that year’s Essen fair. It was a medieval themed game called Ora et Labora. I did some poking around and found a web page that mentioned it featured players rolling dice to try to achieve certain goals, which would give them abilities. At that point in time, To Court the King was on the verge of coming out and I even emailed Tom Lehmann, hoping that his game would be published first, since there seemed to be some similarity in the two designs and the attention given to a Seyfarth game could overwhelm another title. Well, of course, TCtK arrived soon after that and continues to be well regarded, while the news on Ora et Labora mysteriously vanished. Based on Dale’s uttering of the magic word, I suspect this is a rethemed version of the earlier design. Still, I know nothing else about it, but I do look forward to trying it. Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 13, 2007 at 02:06 PM | #
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Jeff: Yes, Peer contacted me about a year and a half ago, asking for permission to include Deduce or Die in the book, which I happily gave. He emailed me last week, telling me that the books would be available at Essen and that he would send me a couple of copies to thank me for the submission. Guess I better pick up a good German/English dictionary! As for English rules to the game, they can be found at the game’s entry on the Geek: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/19765, along with other goodies posted there. Of course, if anyone wants a copy of the rules to the game, I’d be happy to send it to them. Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 13, 2007 at 02:18 PM | #
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Lukasz: Good catch, as this 2006 design has made quite a name for itself. It’s publisher, Portal, has stated that it should be available in the U.S. within a few months, but those who can’t wait or don’t want to take the chance should probably check this out while they’re at the fair. Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 13, 2007 at 02:26 PM | #
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Others: Medievalia (Giochix) Booth 4-43 - Language-independent efficiency engine card game, looks good Star System (Scribabs) Booth 9-42 - Two player deduction game based on who is starring in your opponent’s movie. By Obert Midgard (Phantasischase Spielewelten) Booth 9-116 - Advanced Return of the Heroes by Lutz Stepponat of RotH fame. Animalia (Hurrican) Booth 10-34 - The animal set collection filler originally designed for a Swiss Insurance company offering pet insurance. Heartland . . (Pegasus-Spiele) Booth 12-01 not sure if it will be there. A Jeffery Allers design. 3D tile laying Mr. Jack - Carriage Expansion (Spielbox April 2007 issue) - 11-50 (Not included with the other Mr. Jack expansion, which will be distributed by Asmodee in the US) Perry Rhodan (Kosmos) Booth 12-17through20 Formerly Venus Connection - Sounds like a mini-Merchant of Venus in that it is a sci-fi pickup and deliver. Not sure how language dependent it is. Phenomena (Gylendal) Booth ? - Listed on Spielbox as no booth - Norwegian dungeon/adventure game. Please post if any of these are going to be domestically released. Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Oct 13, 2007 at 06:14 PM | #
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Larry, the Agricola cards that are added in for 3-5 players *are* different from the base set - as far as I can tell, this is so that the appropriate resource mix and set of actions is maintained for the players (as each action can only be taken by ONE ‘person’ token, some are opened up with the new cards in the 3-5 player game). There are one or two that give 1 of a particular resource and these are duplicates of action spaces on the main board - but the rest are unique, at least in the combination of actions that they offer. And ALL the occupations and minor improvements are unique. The artwork, likewise, is unique for each card (except those that are copies of the action spaces on the board). Posted by Melissa Rogerson on Oct 13, 2007 at 06:24 PM | #
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A few others: Ramses (Isensee) Booth 10-48 - Museum directors collecting Egyptian artifacts. Age 8+ & 30min., so nothing heavy. Seems worth a 6 Euro flyer The Circle (C4) Booth 4-68 - secret society, bluffing(?) Bello (Adlung/Schmidt) 11-33 Knizia + Adlung = ??? Looks like a game for kids. Bohnroschen (Amigo) Booth 11-22 - Not sure how language dependent it is, but it has beaneeples Die Siedler von Catan scenario pack (Spielen in Osterreich) Booth 9-12 Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Oct 13, 2007 at 07:11 PM | #
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Jonathan, I’m almost certain that Heartland has unfortunately been delayed until next year (I’m sure Jeff could tell us!). I’d never leave Jeff’s debut game out and it’s one I’m interested in trying out. Perry Rhodan is another one I’m intrigued by, but the language issue could be a tough one. Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 14, 2007 at 01:41 AM | #
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Yes, Heartland has been delayed until Nuremberg. I’m not too disappointed, since I won’t make it to Essen but can probably go to Nuremberg in February. Bornroschen does have cute Beaneeples for each player, but the cards are very language dependent. They form a path of “contracts” that must be fulfilled in order for players to advance their Beaneeples to rescue Dornroschen (Sleeping Beauty). There are not many cards, however, and would not take long to translate and make your own cards or paste the translations onto the originals. Posted by Jeff Allers on Oct 14, 2007 at 04:48 AM | #
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Phenomena (Gylendal) Booth ? - Listed on Spielbox as no booth - Norwegian dungeon/adventure game. As mentioned in the BGN Preview, the designer Kristian Ostby is attending Spiel with a few copies in hand and interested parties should email him to arrange a pick-up. Eric Posted by W. Eric Martin on Oct 14, 2007 at 07:37 AM | #
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Hi, I would like to inform you that - although there are german texts on the cards of “Perry Rhodan - Die kosmische Hanse” - this should not be a big problem. There are eight different “interventions” and five different “technologies” described on the cards which should be easy to remember after one or two games. Even the german texts are more of a reminder than a full description. I am not yet sure when the english rules will be available but that they will be availabe that’s for sure. I am quite earnest about supporting english speaking gamers as can be seen by visiting this link: http://tinyurl.com/3ym33y (http://www.erlkoenig.net)
Best Regards
Posted by Heinrich Glumpler on Oct 14, 2007 at 07:41 AM | #
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Mik Svellov is VERY enthusiastic about Bohnroschen, which makes me think this might be the first Bohnanza expansion I’ll pick up since the first one. That’s good to hear about Perry Rhodan, Heinrich. I’ll have to put it on my wish list. At the very least, it should tell me something about this Perry Rhodan guy! Posted by Larry Levy on Oct 14, 2007 at 11:36 AM | #
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I would imagine that Bohnroschen would be available in English in the future anyway (as “Sleeping Beany” perhaps?) Posted by Jeff Allers on Oct 14, 2007 at 03:11 PM | #
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Unless Valley reserved their remaining copies for Essen, Mordred seems to be sold out and it was supposedly a one time print run. Brass will be sold after Essen, I believe, though I could be mistaken. Chang Cheng is already on Z-Man’s site with a late October expected release date. Posted by Greg Williams on Oct 15, 2007 at 10:03 PM | #
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