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Patrick Korner: Essen Report - Wednesday (Press Day)
After waking up much refreshed and partaking in the first of several wonderful breakfasts at the Hotel (they may not have wireless internet access where promised, but by gum the Germans know how to put on a breakfast spread), it’s time to head out to the fair, rolling suitcase in tow. Of course, my rolling suitcase is rather rull - a pair of games I’ve arranged to sell / trade as well as the binders of Magic cards I mentioned from my last missive.
And I have to take this rolling behemoth on the train.
Yippee.
Thankfully, there isn’t much traffic this early in the morning, and I manage to make it through the gauntlet unscathed. The German train system is wonderfully organized - the train I got off and the one I want to get on nearly always ran on the exact same track, often arriving within minutes of each other. Efficiency is a wonderful thing…
Arriving at the fair, I manage to wangle permission from Jay to store my suitcase in the RGG booth - a good thing, since it’s rather, um, unwieldy, And then to wander the halls for a while before the press conference / new game show starts. You see, I’ve sort of forgotten what time the press shindig starts, and I’m about two hours early. Oh boy. A chance to swing by a couple of booths, at least, picking up my pre-ordered copies of the Reef Encounter expansion. And wonder of wonders, there are 40 extra copies of Fowl Play! Which means I get a copy after all. Sadly, my luck runs out with Fragor, as there are apparently not only no more Hamelns available for purchase, the number of pre-orders exceeds the number available! Sigh.
Soon enough it’s time to go upstairs to the press conference - except that we don’t want to necessarily go to the press conference, as it’s an awfully dry affair, and entirely in German. Fine for me, but Rick and co. won’t get much out of it. So we wander towards the new releases hall instead, only to be told that it won’t open until the press conference is over. Fine, whatever, I’ll go wander the halls for a little longer. At least I got a snazzy Haba bag out of it all, complete with apple inside with the Haba logo screened onto it! This, you see, is a Happle. Why is Haba giving out Happles? Because it’s the 20th anniversary of Obstgarten, a fruit-themed kid’s game that is apparently very worthy of celebration via apples.
What to do while waiting? How about playing a game? And since the RGG booth is full of tables and has English language games nearby, why not play On the Underground?
On the Underground is the latest offering from JKLM Games, this time with full-on Ludofact production and co-produced with RGG. The game is a bit of a train game, but has a few other things going on that make it somewhat different - for one thing, moving passengers around the board is a major component of the game instead of an afterthought.
The game board shows the London Underground in all its glory, with the various express, smaller and terminus stations shown with differing iconography. Each player gets a set of wooden bits in two colours, which represent the two lines they will control over the game. Running between the stations are links that said wooden bits can be placed on - in most cases just one, but double, etc. lines are also present.
Three pairs of special bits are placed on the board - when players manage to link the matching sets they will score victory points. The other ways to score victory points through laying track are to connect to terminus stations or link to regional stations. Each player gets a set number of actions per turn, which they can use to build track. Or, if they choose, they can forego a build in order to get a branch token - without using those, players can’t place track in anything other than a single line. If you want to branch out, you’ll have to use the branch tokens, which usually means passing on a build. You can also get a branch token by connecting to a terminus station - although since those are dead ends, you’re still paying a bit of a price.
Once a player is finished building track, they get to move passengers. There are two passengers on the board, represented by large white pawns. Each turn, four stations are revealed from a deck of cards with station names on them. The active player must choose one (an express station if one is available) and move a passenger to it using the most efficient (read: least amount of walking) route possible. Each player whose track is used in the journey will score a point. Then, provided that the first move was to an express station, the player gets to do it again, this time to a regular station. So, depending on the mix of cards available, players will move one or two passengers, scoring points not only for themselves but for the other player(s) as well.
I played a game with Valerie Putnam, Brian Yu, John Palagyi and Rick Thornquist, although Rick had to leave early to try and catch the new release show. We actually called the game to follow him a little while thereafter, but not because we didn’t find the game any good - quite the opposite. I found the game to be very good, and will definitely be picking up a copy (I tried getting one late in the show, but hadn’t enough cash on me, and ended up not getting a chance to get back to the JKLM booth. Good thing RGG will have it available in North America as well.). The only quirk is the passengers, which can be a little uneven since some players will get to move two and others will only get to move one. This can be evened out after repeat play by knowing how to expand your network (so that you get points even when others move the passengers), but the initial plays made it seem a little unfair. I’m looking forward to playing it again so that I can figure out how better to build my track.
It was then time for the new releases show. This is a very useful time in a press person’s life, since all the new games are all in one place. And if you’re lucky, like this year, you get to wonder just what a pair of contortionists in pink outfits have to do with the new Taboo XXL release… I ran into Scott Nicholson, looking completely overwhelmed, and managed to catch up with a number of other folks I haven’t seen in a while.
One interesting bit I learned from Pro Ludo is that Ave Caesar will be getting the Formula De-style treatment as far as new tracks are concerned - that is, you can expect a new double-sided track board for the game on a yearly basis. Some of the tracks will also feature new rules and such, including (so I’m told) lions that jump on your charioteer’s back and must be whipped off post haste. Pro Ludo also mentioned something about two new English-language publishers they’re about to enter into partnerships with, but insisted on playing it coy when I tried to press for details. Oh well, a little news is better than none!
Back down to the fair, where most of the rest of the day was spent in a buying and wandering frenzy. I didn’t manage to play too many other games this day, at least not at the fair. Later on in the day, I ended up at the Savoy where I tried to teach Gloria Mundi to a table full of people who’d never played it before, including on Alan Moon. And you know what? Speed-reading rules in a bar is a bad way to try and learn a game. I pooched an important rule, we all thought the game stank, and never got past the second round. Sigh. I’ve since figured out what I did wrong and while the rules don’t leave me panting with anticipation, I’m quite hopeful that the game is decent and will not mock me with its enormous box every time I look at my gaming shelves.
But I’m getting ahead of myself a little. What did I do the rest of the day? Mostly caught up with people I know - Friedemann Friese, whose green hair was as green as ever, and some of the folks from the publishers I do translation work for. Even this early on, it seemed clear that there were many promising new games out there, and it was going to be a lot of fun trying them out over the next few days! My initial purchases included the aforementioned Reef Encounter expansion and Fowl Play, and I also picked up copies of Gloria Mundi and Leonardo. In hindsight, I should have bought more this day, in order to leave more time for playing over the next few, but I must have been a little rusty after not having gone to Essen last year. Thankfully, this was rectified on Thursday with a vengeance, when I got to play some very cool new games and buy a whole pile of stuff!
But that, as they say, is another story…
pk
© 2006 Patrick Korner
Posted by Patrick Korner on Oct 26, 2006 at 04:00 AM in Patrick Korner / 1449
