Rick Thornquist: Nuremberg Games / Through the Ages

Last year’s crop of Nuremberg games was a disappointment for me.  There were very few standouts and those were lost in a huge morass of average games (fortunately the bumper crop of very good Essen games came to the rescue).  This year’s Nuremberg crop, on first glance, is not looking much better, though there are a few possibilities…

I played Notre Dame, the newest Alea game, at Essen and found it to be quite good - that one is a buy for me.  Colosseum, the upcoming Days of Wonder game, I actually played as a prototype years ago.  I found it to be typically Kramer - lots of interesting mechanics layered on top of each other - but at the time it was just too lucky for me.  I’m sure it’s been changed since then and I’m looking forward to seeing how the final product plays.

Hans im Gluck games are always worth a look and they have three coming out - Ponte del Diavolo, Thurn und Taxis: Glanz und Gloria (the Thurn und Taxis expansion), and Wikinger.  I’m very interested to see how Thurn und Taxis: Glanz und Gloria turns out.  Seyfarth is quite the perfectionist and it usually takes eons for him to come out with a new game - I can’t see him as being the kind of guy that churns out endless expansions (witness the dearth of Puerto Rico expansions from him).

Anno 1701: Das Kartenspiel from Kosmos tempts me.  The boardgame was just okay, but Teuber did a good job with the Catan card game and this one is billed as being like it.  I’m always looking for a good, deeper, two player game.

Talking about two player games, for some strange reason I’m interested in seeing how the Kosmos two player game Sakkara turns out.  This maybe just a morbid fascination, though.  Years ago the Kosmos two player series spawned some of my favorite games - Lost Cities, Flowerpower, Hera and Zeus, Elchfest, Kahuna, etc.  Recent years have not been kind to the series and we’ve had to put up with such drivel as Gone Fishing! and the infamous Crocodile Pool Party.  Here’s hoping that this game revives the series.

The new version of Jenseits von Theben from Queen is wholly welcome.  It’s about time this very good game got a wide release.  Here’s hoping there are a few tweaks for those of us who found the luck a bit much in the game’s initial release.

There are a few others that are possibilites, but those are the main ones I have my eye on.  I should be playing quite a few of them at the upcoming Gathering of Friends gaming get-together, which starts at the end of this month.  I’ll be looking to report back on any standouts I may find.

Through the Ages
After playing the basic game a number of times, I finally got the chance to play the advanced game of Through the Ages (or, as it’s known around here, ‘Larry Levy’s Favorite New Game’).

I’m with Larry on this one - it’s very, very good.  I’ll forgo going into detail about the game mechanics - that’s been done to good effect elsewhere - but I do want to point out a few things to those who may be interested in the game.

Firstly, it’s long.  Our four player advanced game, had we finished it, would have run around four hours. (We were about a half hour before the end before we had to call it - the game store was closing!) I can imagine that had we opted for the full game, it would have come in around the six hour mark. 

Now long games don’t bother me, as long as they are engrossing, and Through the Ages is consistantly engrossing.  Here’s a testament to how engrossing the game is: we had a spectator who sat with us and watched the entire game! 

Secondly, it does have downtime.  You can plan somewhat when it’s not your turn, but there are times when you are just waiting.  I didn’t find the downtime too problematic as I was otherwise engrossed in the game.  I think Larry mentioned the game is best with three players and I can see that, though I would still play it with four.

Thirdly, there’s not that much interaction.  There are enough interactive elements to make it worthwhile, but much of the game is concentrating on trying to build up your own civilization.

Aside from these drawbacks, I found it to be a very good game. All the players enjoyed it tremendously and we were already talking about getting together for a full game at some point.

So, the game sounds great and now you want to buy it, eh?  Well, as you may know, there’s a problem with that - the game is just really hard to get a hold of now.  Here’s hoping that Czech Board Games can get more copies printed and available in North America.  This one is just too good to have so few copies available.

That’s it for now!

© 2007 Rick Thornquist

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It is language dependant? Posted by Mario Aguila on Mar 6, 2007 at 04:55 AM | #

Yes, everything is written in English on the cards… although I don’t know how it is with the Czech version… Posted by Carl Samuelsson on Mar 6, 2007 at 05:08 AM | #

I like to watch… Hah!  I was the spectator Rick mentioned, and before you all think I’m some deviant or something let me explain why I sat there as long as I did. I had previously heard and read quite a bit about TtA, so I was both interested in learning more about it and knew how unlikely it would be that I’d get the chance, any time soon, to see the game up close and personal as it were.  When I arrived at the store I saw Rick setting a game up that look suspiciously like the elusive TtA.  He already had his three other players, and they were going to be playing the Advanced game, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to actually play the thing.  I stood around a bit with another spectator while Rick explained the rule changes from the Basic game, and by the time he was done I knew I had to see the game in actual motion.  Soon I pulled up a chair, Rick was kind enough to hand me the rules, and as I watched the game unfold I would periodically read bits and pieces, clarifying for me the actions the players were taking that I didn’t quite understand.  Don’t get me wrong, the game, though detailed, isn’t really all that complicated or difficult.  There’s a lot to digest, but it all seems to work very well together.  There are so many choices to be made each turn that simply watching which way the different players were taking their civilizations was fascinating.  In the end I think I got a much better overall understanding of the game by watching four different players and figuring out why they were making the choices the were.  Had I actually played I think my focus would have been too strongly on my own choices and I would have missed a lot of the finer points in the game.  Not to say I got all the finer points either, but I definitely got a better overall understanding of how the game works. So after being a spectator for such a long time I came to a couple of conclusions. One, I want a copy of this game.  My favourite game, and it has been for over twenty years, is Civilization by AH.  TtA captures quite a lot of what I like about Civ while giving a richer experience in less time with fewer players.  What more could I ask for? Two, watching a game while scanning the rules is a great way to quickly, relatively speaking, learn how to play a game as detailed as TtA.  It also helped that if I ever had a question Rick was always willing to answer, and for that I’m very appreciative. I will, if the game gets reprinted, be buying a copy.  While I wait, does anyone know five or six other people with nothing to do for eight to ten hours who would like to play Civilization?  No, I didn’t think so… Posted by Danny Perello on Mar 7, 2007 at 12:26 AM | #

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