Rick Thornquist: Games I Would Never Give Up / Jenseits von Theben

I’ve amassed quite a large game collection by now and it’s getting to the point where I have to bite the bullet and get rid of some.  I have both walls of my office on either side of my desk completely lined with bookshelves, and they are filled to the brim.  My recent trips to Origins and Gencon have yielded more games than I have shelf space for and they have started piling up on the floor.  As I receive even more games, the piles on the floor are getting bigger and are actually starting to close in on me.  Remember the ‘garbage masher on the detention level’ in Star Wars?  That’s what my office is starting to feel like.  Unfortunately, I can’t call on C-3PO or R2-D2 to stop the games from closing in.

The obvious solution is to get rid of some.  This takes time, though (something I don’t have much of), and, for some strange reason, I find it tough to part with any of my games even if I doubt I’ll ever play them again. 

Back in April I actually did get rid of some - the drekest of the drek - at the Gathering of Friends flea market.  Of course, I should have known better than to try to sell crappy games to such knowledgeable gamers.  Most of the patrons simply looked at my offerings and laughed, or gave me looks that said “are you serious”?  Fortunately, the guys from the Columbia Area Boardgaming Society took pity on me and bought the lot for their game library.  Good riddance to Crocodile Pool Party!

I do have to get rid of more, but there are a few games that I would never give up.  I’m not at heart a sentimentalist, but there are a few games I will hold on to for sentimental reasons.  My very first purchased German game was Tikal, which I bought from Funagain sometime in 2000.  This game was my introduction to the hobby - I could never give it up.  It’s a great game, too! 

While at the above-mentioned Gathering of Friends I played a game of Die Maher.  I was the winner of the game and the prize was a mint copy of Extrablatt - a fairly rare game.  That would be enough for me to never want to part with it, but I was also presented the game by none other than designer Karl-Heinz Schmiel.  For that reason it’s mine forever.

In spite of all the games I have, I’m not really a “collector”.  I almost always open and punch games when I get them.  I think games are to be played, not to sit on a shelf as some kind of trophy.  That being said, I found a mint copy of the Avalon Hill game Titan at a game store a few years ago and they were selling it for far less than it was worth.  I picked it up and I still have it - in unpunched, near mint condition.  I’ll never play it, but it’s nice to have on my shelf. 

There were two other games that I bought more for the collector value than anything else.  While at the Kublacon game convention a few years ago I went to the flea market.  Most of the stuff there was just junk - piles of dilapidated copies of Panzerblitz or Richthofen’s War.  I was just about to leave when I spied, hidden under a pile of old D&D Monster Manuals, two White Wind games - Tricks and Phantoms of the Ice.  I was surprised, to say the least.  I dug them out and asked the guy how much he wanted for them.  He said two bucks a piece!  Amazingly, I was able to keep my cool and pony up the four bucks for what I knew to be quite valuable games.  Stupidly, I did take the shrinkwrap off of them (force of habit) but they are still unpunched, unplayed, and happily sitting on my shelf.

The last category of games that I would never give up are good ones that are now hard to find.  With most of the best German games being reprinted by English companies there aren’t many left in this category, but there are a couple I would never part with.  Capitol is one of them - a fantastic game.  My copy of Union Pacific will never leave me - another great game.  Showmanager is another - a very good game that works very nicely with six players (Atlantic Star just isn’t the same).  Web of Power is one more - though China is available, I like Web of Power better (and that may be sentimentality talking).

Now I have to get started on a list of games I would give up!

Games Played
Due to circumstances beyond my control (my car crapped out and has been out of commission for most of last week) I didn’t get much gaming in last week.  Before the car died I was able to attend two game sessions and play Pepper, Jenseits von Theben, Geschenkt, Ra and Emira.

Jenseits von Theben
A few words about Jenseits von Theben.  The nominees for International Gamers Awards were announced and as I’m on the jury, I need to make sure I have played all of them before voting.  Jenseits von Theben was one of two nominees I had not played before (the other is War of the Ring: Battles of the Third Age and that one is set up on my table right now).  Patrick Korner has one of the few copies of Jenseits in existence and he was kind enough to teach me the game.

I won’t go through the gameplay, as much has been written about it already, but suffice to say I was very impressed.  The mechanisms are neat, simple, innovative, and work with the theme quite well.  There is only one real drawback, but it’s a biggie - the luck is huge.  I mean, really huge.  This is enough for me to bump it down my voting list, which is too bad because the rest of the game is so good. 

We now know that Queen is going to be picking up the game and publishing it next year.  Hopefully they’ll fix the luck factor.  If they do, this one may get my vote for the next year’s awards.

That’s it for this week!

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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Comments:

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I agree with you about Jenseits, Rick--incredible theme, but really luck-ridden.  I’d be a bit surprised if Queen modifies it (development doesn’t seem to be their long suit), but I hope they do.  It wouldn’t be too hard to reduce the luck factor without affecting the main, highly thematic elements.  Even an official variant would be most welcome. Posted by Larry Levy on Sep 5, 2006 at 08:20 AM | #

Rick & Larry, And here I thought I was the only one who felt this way.  Everyone I know who had played the gamed loved it.  I played it once and had such incredibly bad luck during my game, that I crossed it off my must-have list, even though I was impressed by the theme and the general idea of the gameplay. I don’t mind some chance in my games, but I have friends in my gamegroup who will refuse to play games if they are whallopped by “LUCK”. Posted by Scott Tepper on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:36 PM | #

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