Valerie Putman: New To Me

Recently, at Origins, I had several people ask me, “What’s good?” At any show, it is useful to survey the crowd for the buzz in order to make sure that you haven’t missed something worth playing.  As I mentioned in my column that week, I thought that Phoenicia, Beyond the Wind, and If Wishes Were Fishes were new games worth trying.  Many others were talking about Duel in the Dark, and my husband bought it based on the good buzz.  But I didn’t even think of mentioning Yspahan, Caylus Magna Carta, Space Dealer, Age of Empires III, Zooloretto, and many others—even though they were “new” in the sense that this was the first American show for many of them—because they weren’t new to me.

I’m lucky to have the opportunity to try out a lot of games as prototypes or advance copies before they are available for sale.  I have lots of friends that order games from Germany, so I often get the chance to try new games shortly after they are available.  You might argue that most people attending game conventions are already familiar with the Yspahans of the gaming world—games that have been available since Essen in October 2006, available for online purchase at many venues, and even available to download and play on the computer.  Who would possibly consider Yspahan new in July?  But actually, Yspahan was requested often in the Origins Board Room, with CABS volunteers teaching the game to dozens of new players.  I’ve been attending game conventions for at least a decade longer than I’ve been involved in the online boardgame community—I certainly remember what it was like to use conventions to “try before I buy” and see all of the “new” games that had been available to others for months.  You are online reading this column—so you are likely not one of them.  But when I am walking around the show and someone asks, “What’s new?” I should consider the audience before ignoring the “almost new.”

New to me this week at Gulf Games
I also consider a game new no matter how long it’s been out if I am playing it for the first time!  Here are some new games that I tried this weekend:

Novo Dice:  Frank Branham has a difficult time finding games that are “new to him,” so when this showed up on the Gathering prize table and no one knew anything about it, he snagged it.  It’s a nice set collecting dice game that doesn’t wear out its welcome in 15 minutes.

Three Dragon Ante:  Dripping with theme, this card game is described as a betting card game played in the Dungeons and Dragons world (just as Liar’s Dice was portrayed in The Pirates of the Caribbean).  The game play could easily wear out its welcome since, in theory, the game could go on indefinitely.

Montage: This word deduction game is made fun (for some) by the use of creative clues.  Unfortunately, I don’t really enjoy games that rely on the creativity of the players to add fun.

Lokomotive Werks: This Winsome game was my favorite “new” game of the weekend.  This is engine building (a “snowball game”) abstracted to its purest form.  Players buy increasingly larger locomotives, purchase goods, and ship goods (competing with the other players as the customer demand fluctuates) while they race to be the first to earn $300.

Just 4 Fun:  I know that I wasn’t the only one who had never heard of this 2006 Spiel des Jahres nominee when it was announced.  Frustratingly, I could never find anyone who had a copy either.  This weekend I finally spied a copy amongst Craig Berg’s games, and I was determined to try it.  When it turned out to have only German rules, I was lucky again to find Joe Huber a willing player and rules translator.  The board is divided into squares with values ranging from 1 to 36.  The board is color coded so that darker squares correlate to higher numbers.  Players are dealt four cards from a deck with four each of the cards 1 through 12 and one each of the higher cards 13 through 19.  On your turn you can play up to four cards, adding up their combined value, to place a single marker in the corresponding square on the board.  Similar to Manhattan, all four players can place markers in the same squares, but once another player has two more markers in a square than you do, you are closed out of that square.  If a player has two more markers than all other players, the square is locked up and the other players’ pieces are removed from the game.  The game ends when one player has control (at least one more marker than any other player) of four squares in a row or when the players have placed all of their markers.  In this case the value of the squares controlled determines the winner.  The game was light and quick with enough “fun” value and a fair dose of educational value (for parents looking to reinforce adding skills). 

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