Publisher: Nexus Editrice
Designers: Bruno Faidutti & Serge Legat
Release Date: October 2008

Okay, so this game should really be on the Spiel 08 preview instead of here, but Ad Astra (called Cassiopeia when I spoke with Roberto di Meglio in October 2007) will be shown at Nuremberg, so it’s fair game. Ad Astra is a game of space exploration and the first title in Nexus’ new Designer Games series; titles in the series will more biography and background on the designers.

Publisher: Nexus Editrice
Designers: Roberto di Meglio, Marco Maggi & Francesco Nepitello
Players: 2-4
Release Date: June 2008
Link:

When first announced in Spring 2007, Age of Conan was for 2-5 players, with each player controlling one of Aquilonia, Nemedia, Hyperborea, Turan or Stygia. Nemedia has now been stricken from the game (sorry, Nemedians!), and with only four kingdoms in the game the player number has changed to 2-4. As before, the hero Conan is not tied to any kingdom in particular, but he may help those who are skilled in obtaining his cooperation—and somehow managing him.

The kingdoms were chosen both for their importance in the Robert E. Howard stories, as well as their differences in terms of the attitude and skills needed to run them. Each kingdom has a unique Kingdom Deck that includes characters, armed units, spells and special events to recreate its character in the game. Other, smaller nations will be represented in the game through a deck of cards that introduce political, commercial and religious events and give player short-term targets.

Conan is pretty much a “force of nature” which players try to push in the right direction through an auction system. While the ability to control Conan could help guide you to victory, it’s not essential to have the big guy on your side—and he could become a threat to your realm if you’re not careful.

According to Nexus, the mechanisms in the game were inspired by their own War of the Ring, but taken in a different direction since the player’s goal is to increase power and influence, not fight a complete war. In addition to lots of dice for various actions, the game includes hundreds of miniatures with different figures for each army.

Although the details of the game have changed over the past year, here’s an excerpt from an interview with Roberto di Meglio and Francesco Nepitello that appeared on Fortress: Ameritrash on June 28, 2007:

F:AT: Your next release appears to be Age of Conan, a game that many of us are anticipating, but details have been precious and few. Can you give us any Fortress: Ameritrash “exclusive” details about what to expect from that?

Roberto: We are now getting closer and closer to opening the “beta” testing, so I think we can tell something.

Age of Conan will be a game for 2 to 5 players, with players taking control of a major power of the Hyborian Age: Aquilonia, Nemedia, Turan, Stygia, Hyperborea. As a ruler, you will have two main type of units under your control: armies, which you use to crush your enemy, and emissaries, which you use to create alliances and treaties, or to wrestle the alliances of your opponents.

The game is set between the youth of Conan and the time he becomes king, so this is not really a time for an all-out war, world-conquest style. The nations of Hyboria have their own “agenda” for becoming a stronger power, but none of them is set to conquer the other nations. This is reflected by a dual system, where you can either develop your power through military conquest—but this is of course a bloody and costly effort—or using more subtle and treacherous ways.

We are using many elements of War of the Ring as “building blocks”, so people who are familiar with War of the Ring will catch up with Age of Conan fairly easily, but all mechanics have been re-visited with many original twists.

Francesco: With Age of Conan, we are trying to blend the adventures of Conan and the political and military efforts of the kingdoms of the Hyborian Age, as we were able to reproduce the progress of the Fellowship and the military events of the Lord of the Rings on the same level in War of the Ring.

You guide your kingdom’s rise to power, as Conan forges his myth across the Hyborian kingdoms. From time to time the two paths cross, as Conan fights in your armies, or raids your subjects. You generally try to benefit from his intervention, but the barbarian is dangerous as a double-edged sword…

Thanks to Ken Bradford for permission to reprint this excerpt.

Publisher: Nexus Editrice
Designers: Ugo di Meglio & Sergio Guerri
Artist: Mike Doyle
Players: 2+
Ages: 12+
Playing Time: 90+ minutes
Price: €79.90
Release Date: June 2008

Here’s a description of this game from the Spiel 07 preview:

Nexus presents the starting point of a new board game series, called Battles of Napoleon. The new series, featuring an easy-to-learn game system, hundreds of detailed plastic 1/72 scale figures and historical accuracy, will attract new players to Napoleonic wargaming and at the same time will surely satisfy the “grognards”, the veterans of the wargaming hobby. The first set, The Eagle and The Lion, will include French troops (Infantry, Light and Heavy Cavalry Units, Field Artillery, Command Group) and their valiant opponents, the British, including Rifles, Scots, Hussars, Artillery, and more. The game includes 200 miniatures, 55 cards, 6 modular playing boards, dice and cardboard counters.

Nexus CEO Roberto di Meglio had samples of the figures at Spiel 07, and they were amazingly detailed, with a number of different sculpts for the same type of figure. Each of the officers also had its own design.

Mike Doyle has written about his design process for The Battles of Napoleon on his blog, Mike Doyle’s Art Play. As he points out, this box is enormous, bigger than Roads & Boats even…

Pictures: (Click on the picture to see a larger version)

Sample cards

Three levels of leaders and assorted infantry

Publisher: Nexus Editrice
Release Date: Q3/Q4 2008

A new 35mm line of prepainted figures that enable you to bring wargaming to the Hyborian Age. The first release in the series will be Cimmerian Rage, and additional figures from the Conan storyline will be sold in supplemental packs.

Publisher: Nexus Editrice
Other Publishers: Fantasy Flight Games
Designer: Gabriele Mari
Players: 2-6
Ages: 10+
Price: €39.90
Release Date: Released / April 2008 (see below)

Garibaldi was released in Fall 2007 and sold at Spiel 07, but now Nexus is releasing an international version of the game this April so that you can now catch Garibaldi in many languages. Fantasy Flight Games has posted a May release date for the game in the U.S. Here’s the description that I ran in the Essen 2007 preview:

On the 200th anniversary of his birth, Giuseppe Garibaldi—a military hero who helped create a united Italy—is being honored with a board game reenacting his flight from Austrian, French and Spanish soldiers in 1849 after the fall of Rome. Garibaldi, whose wife Anita died during this trek, traveled to New York before returning to Italy in 1854 and returning to battle in 1859.

Garibaldi: La Trafila is played in the style of Scotland Yard and Fury of Dracula, with one player (representing Garibaldi) against everyone else (representing Austrian troops). If Garibaldi makes it to safety, his controller wins; if he’s captured, the other players win.

Publisher: Nexus Editrice
Release Date: May 2008

A racing game that includes miniature motor bikes—not working ones, mind you.

Publisher: Nexus Editrice
Release Date: Q3/Q4 2008

BGN doesn’t normally cover miniatures games, but it does cover Nexus, so in brief: Operation World War II is a game system that’s evolved from the wargame Operation Overlord, designed by Massimo Torriani and previously published by Italeri. In addition to the full-color rulebook, you receive a deck of cards used to give orders to your units. Supplemental Battle Books, with a new one appearing each quarter, provide scenarios and combat situations and will be accompanied by a new series of 1/72 scale figures and vehicles, created by Italeri.

Publisher: Nexus Editrice
Designers: Marco Maggi, Francesco Nepitello & Roberto Di Meglio
Players: 2-4
Ages: 12+
Playing Time: 180 minutes
Release Date: August 2008

Once it became clear that War of the Ring: Collector’s Edition wouldn’t be released at Spiel 07 as originally planned, the release date was changed to August 2008 to coincide with Gen Con. As Nexus CEO Roberto di Meglio pointed out, this is truly an item for devoted game fans, so it needs to be released at a convention where these fans will be present.

This edition will contain an even larger gameboard than the original, painted miniatures, and special rules based on the players’ FAQ. The entire package will come in a wooden box with Elvish writing.

Pictures: (Click on the picture to see a larger version)

Rohan Leader

Rohan Regular

Rohan Elite

Publisher: Nexus Editrice
Release Date: See below

Rather than list each of these Wings of War-related items individually when so little is known about them, I’ll cover them all at once here:

• February—Flying Legend and Eagles of the Reich, two booster packs for the WW2 series; also, a miniatures package of WW1 airplanes
• April—Immelmann and Dogfight Squadron, two booster packs to add more planes to the WW1 series
• June—Fire from the Sky, a new game set for the WW2 series; also, a miniatures package of WW1 airplanes
• October—Flight of the Giants, a new game set for WW1 that introduces a nunmber of bombers
• December—Balloon Busters, a boxed set of WW1 miniatures that will include models for Drachen Caquot/AE800 and Nieuport 11 in two different painting schemes

Publisher: Parker (Hasbro)
Designers: Arno Steinwender & Wilfried Lepuschitz
Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 45-60 minutes
Link:

This is the third title in Parker’s Autorenspiele series following Tal der Abenteuer and Origo. Here’s a description from the publisher:

Sail over the seas of ancient Greece to honor the Gods! Fulfill the orders that Zeus gives you and persist through the numerous adventures that await you!

The Gods have spoken: It’s your job to fulfill the orders of the largest hero in Greek mythology! Sail as Persues, Deukalion, Achilles or Hercules over the Greek seas to establish settlements, seize treasure and overcome the terrible hydra.

Frank Schulte-Kulkmann has pictures of the prototype and speculation on the game play in his Spiel 07 report, about halfway down the page.

Publisher: Parksons Games & Sports
Designers: Jens-Peter Schliemann & Kirsten Becker

Publisher: Pegasus
Designer: Jeffrey D. Allers
Players: 2-5
Ages: 10+
Price: €39.95
Release Date: 2008
Link:

A description of the game from designer and Boardgame News columnist Jeffrey D. Allers:

West of the Mississippi, the grasslands of Middle America contain some of the richest farm land in the world, producing corn, soybeans, wheat, hay, and livestock. Purchased from France as part of the Louisiana Territory in 1803, the region was divided into square mile plots for the settlers from the east. In this game, players take the role of these settlers, developing the plots of land and establishing farms in America’s “Heartland.”

Heartland is a three-dimensional tile-laying game. Each tile contains two types of crops to be planted as well as a certain number of barnyard points. When placing tiles, players must always choose between scoring immediate “harvest” (victory) points or developing their farms through the barnyard points, which will provide victory points over the longer term. In addition, there is a race to the top of each barnyard point track in order to acquire the most valuable animals for the farm. Players may also “rotate crops” by using their tiles to cover up fields that bring their opponent’s points, possibly expanding their own farms in the process. This translates into an hour-long game aimed at families and gamers with multiple paths to victory.

Note: The cover image here might not be the final one.

Publisher: Pegasus
Designer: Lutz Stepponat
Release Date: 2008

A new expansion for Return of the Heroes. Designer Lutz Stepponat says, “Nibelungen is only an add-on, like the Grail Search [Die Gralssuche, a earlier RotH expansion]. I tried to translate the original story to the RotH universe. You are a follower of one of the main characters (Siegfrid, Hagen, Kriemhild), and you help them fulfill their tasks, but the others try to get your character: Hagen wants Siegfried, Kriemhild wants Hagen, Hildebrand wants Kriemhild, gunter wants Etzel, and Etzel Gunter. And all of them want part of the treasure of the Nibelungen. As in Grail Search, there are some new mechanics and new characters. All together it works well, and for me what’s important is that as you play the tale, it becomes your tale.”

Stepponat notes that Pegasus is unlikely to produce English versions of the two previous RotH expansions—Helden in der Unterwelt and Die Gralssuche—so it’s unlikely for this expansion to show up in English either.

Thanks to Jonathan Franklin for getting the scoop from Lutz.

Link:
Publisher’s game page

Publisher: Phalanx Games
Designers: Leo Colovini & Giuseppe Baü
Players: 3-4
Playing Time: 60 minutes
Release Date: May/June 2008

A short description of the game from Phalanx:

The topic is the history of the Netherlands in the 17th century. The game is played on a large game board of the Netherlands, divided into provinces. In addition, there are boxes for the East and the West Indies. The aim of the players is to make progress in as many fields as possible. Progress can be achieved in culture, in arts, in trade, and in the colonies.

Publisher: Phalanx Games
Designers: André Zatz & Sergio Halaban
Artist: Francois Bruel
Players: 2-5
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Price: under €20
Release Date: March 2008
Links:

Phalanx has stated that Sultan will be shown at Nuremberg to its publishing partners and in stores in March, so don’t expect an English-language version of this from Mayfair immediately (or, possibly, ever). Here’s a description of the game from the publisher:

For quite some time the famous and respected sultan is
looking for a husband for his only daughter who suits him. In order to
check the large number of candidates, he has prepared a test: Each
candidate receives the same amount of gold. They now have to attend the
various city bazaars to acquire the most beautiful and costly jewels.
The one who is able to present the sultan the most expensive collection
of jewels has proven that he is skilful enough to manage the sultan’s
fortune and will win the hand of his daughter.

In Sultan the players take the role of candidates to win the hand of
the sultan’s daughter. Who will be able to pass the test under the
eyes of the stern sultan?

Phalanx has released more details about Sultan, and right now it sounds like a simple blind-bidding game. Here’s what’s what:

A game of Sultan consists of three game rounds. Each game round consists of five hands. At the start of a game round each
player draws the five topmost gold cards from his deck of 15 cards. At the beginning of a hand the starting player takes the bag and draws four jewels. He selects one of them and puts it back into the bag. He puts the other three jewels onto the three bazaars.

Beginning with the starting player, and continuing in clockwise order, each player selects one of his gold cards and places it, face down, next to one of the bazaars. This is the amount of gold that a player plans to spend for the jewel at that particular bazaar. Once all the players have placed a gold card, turn all cards over. If there is only a single gold card at a bazaar, the owner of that card receives its jewel. If there is more than one gold card at a bazaar, the player who played the gold card with the highest value takes the jewel. If two or more gold cards are of the same value, the player who played his card first takes the jewel. Place all the jewels you acquire behind your screen. Keep them there until the end of the game.

Publisher: Pro Ludo
Designer: Wolfgang Kramer
Players: 2-5
Ages: 12+

Altura: Die Hauptstadt von Alturien is a reworked version of Kramer’s Big Boss, first published by Kosmos in 1994. At heart the game play remains the same, with players laying down cards in order to start or expand buildings on a snaky trail through the city of Alturien. This version adds bridges to the mix to break up the one-dimensional nature of game play.

Pro Ludo will be showing a prototype of Altura during the Nuremberg convention, in addition to Flinke Feger, the German version of Wicked Witches Way.

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

Prototype at Spiel 07

Publisher: Queen Games
Designers: Dan Glimne & Grzegorz Rejchtman
Artist: Michael Menzel

This is a heavily reworked version of Moderne Zeiten , which was published by Jumbo in 2002. As is standard for Queen, there’s no other info for now.

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

Sample tiles

Gameboard section

Sample cards

Publisher: Queen Games
Designers: Stefan Dorra & Manfred Reindl

Part of a new line of children’s games from Queen, sure to be packaged in tiny blocky boxes.

Publisher: Queen Games
Designer: Birgit Hähnle

Part of a new line of children’s games from Queen. Searching for info on Birgit Hähnle brings up the rules for a game called Give Us the Fish! on the Beleduc website—yet Beleduc has no such a game listed in its catalog, Hähnle’s name is also absent, and there’s nothing on the Geek about her. The game Her mit dem Fisch is listed on Spielwiese.at, but perhaps I’m leading all of you down a false path...

Publisher: Ragnar Brothers
Designers: Steve Kendell, Phil Kendell & Gary Dicken
Players: 2-4
Ages: 14+
Playing Time: 80-90 minutes
Release Date: April 2008

The Ragnars are aiming for an early Spring release for Monastery, although the game won’t be fully launched until the UK Games Expo on May 30. If you’re interested in preordering the game, write to Gary Dicken for price info. Here’s a description from the publisher:

Monastery is a tile-laying game in which players construct different parts of a medieval monastery. The work is done by the monks of a player. The monks may move from tile to tile and in addition to building work they can also study, toil or pray. In the “icon” game monks can also make use of the special properties of some of the tiles.

The tiles vary in value ranging from one-point field and path tiles to five-point Chapter House and Library. The higher the value of tile the more monks are needed to build it. Players can build independently, but often they are required to work collaboratively.

The game spreads over two days of monastic life, with turns being allocated as time for study and toil or for services in the abbey. At each service a new abbot is elected and apart from going first in the turn the abbot also has some significant powers.

In order to win the game players must collect the letters of the abbey’s motto “Libera Nos Quaesumus Ab Omnibus Malis Amen.” The letters become progressively more expensive and players must decide whether to buy letters or recruit extra monks.

Points at game end are also awarded for the “blessings” which players can collect throughout the game.

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Kai Haferkamp
Players: 1-4
Ages: 4+
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Language: German
Price: €17.99
Link:

Here’s a translated description from Ravensburger:

Billy Beaver painstakingly guards the wooden logs piled in the river—yet the impudent beaver children try again and again to snatch the logs away. Carefully they push one out of the pile. With sensative fingers and a bit of skill, they’ll manage to grab one or another trunk successfully. And if it falls? The wood pile might suddenly collapse, and if it does Billy Beaver will see whose claws are holding the trunk. Who will capture the most trunks without being seen?

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: KRAG Team (Wolfgang Kramer, Hans Raggan, Jürgen P. K. Grunau)
Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Release Date: March 2008
Price: €29.95
Link:

Get out your forklift! In this diversified building game, the call goes out: Who will use tactics and good luck with the cards to erect the most valuable towers? Who will clear them out and collect the most points? And who will throw the other players from the playing field at the right moment?

Wolfgang Kramer has posted images from playtest sessions on his website (linked above), and he notes that the game is an equal mix of luck and tactics. Your goal is to construct ever-higher towers over four game phases, clear them off again, and strike opponents from the board. You receive scoring chips for all these actions, and the player with the
most points wins.

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

Back cover

The prototype

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Heinz Meister
Players: 2-4
Ages: 4-8
Playing Time: 10-15 minutes
Language: German
Price: €11.99
Link:

Here’s a translated description from Ravensburger:

It’s Fridolan Frog’s birthday! His friends want to surprise him with a garland of colorful water lily blossoms. They take turns throw a ball into the water and—splash!—knocking blossoms out of the pond. Who will have the luck and skill to complete the first garland?

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Marcel-André Casasola Merkle
Players: 2-5
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 30-45 minutes
Price: €20.00

Deep in a pyramid’s interior, courageous adventurers search for hidden treasures—yet they didn’t reckon on the mummy! It roams through the pyramid and wants to chase away the intruders from all the treasures.

One player takes on the role of the mummy, while the others are the treasure hunters. On the double-sided gameboard, the players move their magnetic game figures through the corridors of the pyramid. If the mummy encounters a treasure hunter, it sends the player to the dungeon. Bluffing and memory are required in this tricky tactical game.

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

Part of the board

Sample cards

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: David Parlett
Players: 2-6
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Release Date: February 2008
Links:

David Parlett’s Hase und Igel, winner of the first Spiel des Jahres award, is returning to print in a new version that melds previous looks and game mechanisms with new changes:

• The artwork will be similar to Ravensburger’s first edition in 1979, which has a more pastoral look than the more modern take used by Abacusspiele, which published the game most recently.
• The first lettuce space will be 10 spaces from Start, a change introduced in the 1987 Gibson Games edition and used since then.
• The options for “jugging the hare” will change yet again. Parlett noted in a post on rec.games.board that he rethought this aspect of the game after reading a post by Kevin Maroney and comments from many others. Writes Parlett, “The general consensus of opinion was that (a) the method of rolling a die, adding its number to your position in the race, and reading the result off a table of instructions, was better than Ravensburger’s method of drawing a card and following a single instruction, because the former tended to favour players lagging behind over players lying further ahead in the race; (b) any instruction that caused you to change your position by moving somewhere else could unfairly spoil an opponent’s strategy, and (c) drawing the instruction that enabled you to chew a lettuce was far too powerful and manifestly unfair.”

  In the new version of the game, jugging the hare will affect only the number of carrots held by the jugger, although the outcomes will still tend to favor tortoises over hares, which is what Parlett always intended. Sample actions include “Give 10 carrots to each player lying behind you in the race (if any)” and “Draw 10 carrots for each lettuce you still hold”; the actions will be on a deck of 15 cards—with one card that shuffles the deck—and you can see all the jugging possibilities on David
  Parlett’s website.

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Gunter Baars
Players: 2-4
Ages: 6

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Gunter Baars
Players: 2-4
Ages: 4-7
Playing Time: 15-20 minutes
Price: €5.99
Link:

A translated description from Ravensburger:

How did the Indians live? What is a tomahawk? Do the Indians have red skin? With knowledge, some luck and a good memory, children will gather chips—and incidentally learn about the exciting life of the Indians.

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Philipp Sprick
Players: 1-4
Ages: 10+
Price: €4.95

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designers: Jack and Andrew Lawson
Players: 2-4
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Link:

The same game from 2004 in a smaller package.

Publisher: Ravensburger
Players: 2-8
Ages: 8+

“Memory Europa"—you need more explanation than that?

Publisher: Ravensburger
Players: 2-4
Ages: 14+

Publisher: Ravensburger
Players: 2-4
Ages: 14+

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Gunter Baars
Players: 2-4
Ages: 4-7
Playing Time: 15-20 minutes
Price: €5.99
Link:

A translated description from Ravensburger:

What does one need for riding? How is a horse maintained? What does one see at a horse show? With knowledge, some luck and a good memory, children will gather chips—and incidentally learn about the exciting life of the horses and ponies.

Publisher: Ravensburger
Players: 2-6
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 60 minutes
Language: German
Price: €12.99
Link:

Phase 10 with more demanding phases and more than twenty action cards.

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Werner Schöppner
Artist: Sheepworld
Players: 2-4
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 20-30 minutes
Language: German
Price: €16.99
Links:

Ye olde Ravensburger game of Malefiz/Barricade with a new branded theme.

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Gunter Baars
Players: 2-4
Ages: 4-7
Playing Time: 15-20 minutes
Price: €5.99
Link:

A translated description from Ravensburger:

Why are bananas crooked? What’s life in the desert like for children? Who lives in an igloo? With knowledge, some luck and a good memory, children will gather chips—and incidentally learn exciting facts about the world.

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designers: Reiner Knizia, Bernhard Lach & Uwe Rapp
Players: 3-6
Ages: 50+
Release Date: March 2008
Price: €20.00

Okay, you don’t really have to be over the age of fifty to play this game, but Verdrehte Sprichwörter—or, as the title might be translated, Skewed Sayings—is part of Ravensburger’s Game & Pleasure line for older folks. In this game, you have 150+ cards with the beginning and ending of proverbs, and you want to combine them in creative and clever ways to score points. Sounds like yet another take on Apples to Apples...

Publisher: Ravensburger
Designer: Marco Teubner
Players: 2-4
Ages: 4-7
Playing Time: 20-30 minutes
Price: €10.99
Link:

A translated description from Ravensburger:

How much do the pears cost? Where can we get sausage and ham? Do you have enough money for the tomatoes? Whoever is sent out shopping will soon return home with full pockets. Children playfully learn the shopping process; they’re in contact with wares and money and learn to compare prices, which is an important step towards independence.

Publisher: Repos Production
Designer: Ludovic Maublanc
Release Date: 2008
Price: €10.00
Link:

At Spiel ‘07, Repos Production gave away a gray foam Uzi to everyone who had preordered a copy of Yakuzas, the first expansion for Ca$h’n Gun$. Couldn’t make it to Essen? No worries—you can still partake of the Uzi in a future game night since Repos is releasing the Uzi as the second expansion for Ca$h’n Gun$.

The Uzi expansion pack, which retails for €10, comes with the weapon itself (in black) and the special power card that can be shuffled into the main deck. The Uzi turns its holder’s Bang! cards into Bang! Bang! Bang! Itchy trigger finger, and all that. This expansion is limited to 2,000 copies, and there’s no word on distribution outside of Europe at this time.

Publisher: Repos Production
Designer: Reiner Knizia
Release Date: March/April 2008

Repos has passed on nothing more than the info shown for the moment. Trying to imagine a Knizia title in the Repos line-up does have me scratching my head...

Publishers: Rio Grande Games / Hans im Glück
Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
Release Date: February 2008 (for HiG)
Link:

For details on this game, head to the Carcassone: Graf, König und Konsorten listing under Hans im Glück.

Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
Players: 2-5
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 30-45 minutes
Price: $24.95
Release Date: 2008

The Carcassonne basics have been transferred to the North American continent, circa 1660s, with players starting from a fixed East Coast and expanding westward by laying down tiles.

Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Designer: Bruce Whitehill
Release Date: 2008

For details on this game, head to the Change Horses! listing under eggertspiele.

Publishers: Rio Grande Games / Hans im Glück
Designer: Din Li
Release Date: February 2008 (for HiG) / March 2008 (for RGG)

For details on this game, head to the die hängenden Gärten listing under Hans im Glück.

Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Designer: Sébastien Pauchon
Release Date: 2008

For details on this game, head to the Metropolys listing under Ystari Games.

Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Designer: Michael Schacht
Release Date: 2008

A new version of this title, which was previously released by Schacht’s Spiele aus Timbuktu.

Publishers: Rio Grande Games / Hans im Glück
Designer: Michael Tummelhofer
Release Date: March 2008 (for RGG)

For details on this game, head to the Stone Age listing under Hans im Glück. 

Publishers: Rio Grande Games / Hans im Glück
Designers: Karen & Andreas Seyfarth
Release Date: March 2008 (for RGG)
Link:

For details on this game, head to the Thurn & Taxis listing under Hans im Glück. 

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designers: Brigette & Wolfgang Ditt
Players: 2-5
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Languages: German, French, Italian, Dutch, English, Spanish
Release Date: February 2008
Link:

Create a snaky row of colorful chips, then take turns moving one of the five pawns towards the goal. A pawn has to stop on the first chip of its own color, then the moving player gets to collect one of the adjacent chips. As pawns reach the goal, they’re placed on the scoring device, which determines the value of each colored chip. Black and white chips are worth as many points as the number of other colors you gathered.

Poeppelkiste.de has a huge preview of Big Points with designer interviews and much more, all in German.

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Link:

A new edition of an old Schmidt Spiele title.

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designer: Wolfgang Lehmann
Players: 2
Ages: 8+
Release Date: February 2008
Languages: German, French, Italian
Link:

Here’s a translated description from the publisher:

Each player constructs his own castle complex. Wall piece by wall piece, buildings and towers will be linked together. Scoring at the right time is the first step on the road to victory. A strategic dice game that offers much interaction.

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

Sample tiles

Part of the gameboard?

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designer: Grzegorz Rejchtman
Players: 2-6
Ages: 8+
Language: German, French, Italian
Release Date: February 2008
Link:

Here’s a translated description of the game from the publisher:

A game with a brilliant mixture of feverish fun, puzzle passion, and logical thinking. The die indicates which tiles may be used to solve the puzzle, and the challege is for everyone to quickly find and place the correct parts.

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designer: Wolfgang Panning
Players: 2-6
Ages: 8+
Release Date: February 2008
Link:

A dice game in which you want to collect dragons, which regrettably might be stolen away by opponents.

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designer: Hartmut Kommerell
Players: 2-4
Ages: 8+
Languages: German, French, Italian, Dutch, English, Spanish
Release Date: February 2008
Link:

The description on the Schmidt Spiele website is total fluff, so let’s just assume the cover reveals this game’s bingo-like nature and leave it at that.

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designer: Torsten Landsvogt
Players: 1-5
Ages: 8+
Languages: German, French, Italian, English
Release Date: February 2008
Link:

A fast reaction game in which players have to grab as many cards as possible, yet the only cards that can be taken are those that differ from the previous card in at most one way.

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designer: Reiner Stockhausen
Players: 2-8
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 10 minutes

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designer: Andrea Meyer
Players: 3-20
Ages: 8+
Language: German, French, Italian
Release Date: February 2008
Links:

A new version of Andrea Meyer’s Hossa!, previously published by her own BeWitched Spiele. Note that the Schmidt website lists only the languages above for the game while the cards also include text in English. Make of that what you will…

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

First you’re a baby,

Then a youngster,

Then married,

And finally a captain

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designers: Andrea Meyer, Marcel-André Casasola Merkle, Freidemann Friese
Players: 4-8
Ages: 8+
Language: German, French, Italian
Release Date: February 2008
Links:

A new version of the game previously released by the designers in 2006 through their own companies.

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designer: Steffen Bogen
Players: 2-4
Ages: 5+
Release Date: February 2008

Publisher: Schmidt Spiele
Designer: Steffen Bogen
Players: 2-5
Link:

Publisher: Scribabs
Designer: Paolo Vallegra

A title, and nothing more—at least for now.

Publisher: Scribabs
Designer: Paolo Vallegra

Nothing more than a title at the moment...

Publisher: Scribabs
Designers: Enrico Pesce & Federica Rinaldi

Most likely the fourth game in the Le Saghe di Conquest series—following the initial title, Tempus Draconis and Daemonibus—the board game MuddleMaze will be shown to distributors at Nuremberg.

Publisher: Scribabs
Designers: Christine & Laurent Journaux

A board game that will be shown to distributors at Nuremberg. No further details right now.

Publisher: Selecta Spielzeug
Players: 2-4
Ages: 6+
Playing Time: 20-30 minutes
Release Date: February 2008
Price: €34.99
Links:

You need to get your fruit to market so you load it into a couple of baskets—hiding it, of course, so that others don’t see what you’re carrying—and start your journey. As you make your journey, however, a monkey hanging from a branch that connects two trees might steal your fruit—or you can use the monkey to steal the fruits of your competitors. To do this, you move the palm trees that hold up the branch and find out whether the monkey’s magnet will attract any magnetized baskets below. Stay away from the coconuts, though, as they penalize you at the end of the game. (Coco Razzi not endorsed by the Coconut Information and Promotion Association.)

Publisher: Selecta Spielzeug
Designers: Gattermeyer & Kapp
Players: 2-4
Ages: 9+
Release Date: February 2008
Price: €39.00
Link:

Players take turns placing their pieces on the points in an 8x8 grid, and each time that a player creates a square—no matter the size or orientation—he scores one point. The game ends once all the pieces have placed on the board, and the player with the most points wins.

Editor’s note: I know that I’ve read about or played a game that’s extremely similar to this, but I can’t think of what it might be. Randy Schmucker suggests Quadrature ( ), which naturally follows the Q-led naming pattern of abstract games. In Quadrature, you create squares, but with an opponent’s piece as one of the four corners so that you capture it. Any other suggestions?

Publisher: Spel-Maker
Distributors: Spezet Puzzle Production (NL) / Californian
Products (DE)
Designer: Bas Kesting
Artist: Marc Bosman
Players: 3-6
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 60-90 minutes

Here’s the translated introduction to the rules:

The citadel of Saladin is famous due to the towers of Babylon. Templars, Crusaders, Frenchmen and Englishmen all failed to conquer the citadel. In 1192, Saladin the wise and Richard the Lionhearted of England signed a peace agreement.

But in 1193 Saladin, the sultan of Babylon, died. The once-powerful citadel towers are still defended by the last brave black knights, but without Saladin the citadel will likely be taken over soon. Who will become the new king of Babylon?

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

The Dutch cover

Lots of tower power

Illustrated example

Publisher: Surprised Stare Games
Designer: Alan Paull
Players: 3-5
Playing Time: 120-150 minutes
Release Date: May 31, 2008

Here’s the publisher’s description of this “moderately complex board game,” which will debut at the 2008 UK Games Expo:

In the Celestial Empire of the Ming Dynasty the leading families vie with one another for political power and influence over the Imperial government. They do not compete by brazen force of arms, but within the confines of Confucian philosophy. Subtle influence is wielded, gifts are given and received, setting up a network of relationships that will lead one family to dominate the government under a benign Emperor.

Players of Confucius participate in this discreet and delicate struggle for power. As well as influencing the three principal ministries of government, leadership of the great exploration and trading fleets will bring renown to the one who heads them, and glory attends the general leading invasions of foreign lands.

As designer Alan Paull clarifies, players don’t turn their armies against each other—because they’re all in the service of the Emperor—but rather against the barbarians in foreign lands. “There is a time limit for Chinese armies to invade each foreign land,” he says, “and if insufficient armies go, then the invasion will fail.”

Publisher: Tilsit Éditions
Designer: Michael Schacht
Players: 2
Ages: 12+
Link:

A remake of Kontor , published in 1999 by Goldsieber and expanded by multiple releases through Schacht’s Spiele aus Timbuktu website.

Publisher: Tilsit Éditions
Designer: Michael Schacht
Artist: Hans-Joerg Brehm
Players: 2
Ages: 8+
Price: €20
Link:

A remake of Schacht’s Frankenstein , which was self-published by Schacht’s Spiele aus Timbuktu. You must move around the jars of body parts in order to assemble new creatures, but there are rules for moving what where, so take caution and hands off Abby Normal’s brain.

Publisher: Tilsit Éditions
Designers: Bruno Faidutti & Serge Laget
Players: 2
Release Date: Q1 2008
Link:

Here’s a description of Kheops from Bruno Faidutti’s website:

In Kheops, players are rival architects taking part in the building of the great pyramid. In turn, player place tiles—rooms and corridors—and pawns—workers, priests, mummy and even the Pharaoh—on the pyramid building site. Of course, some tiles have special features, like sarcophagi or curses. There are even rumors of rotating corridors and secret networks.

When the pyramid is built, the player controlling the longest networks is named Pharaoh’s architect, while his rival is fed to the crocodiles. Yes, you may already have heard this in some other game.

Faidutti notes that the game will be shown at the Cannes game fair in mid-February, then available for sale a few weeks afterward. His Kheops webpage also includes a history and a pic of the prototype.

Publisher: Winning Moves Germany
Designer: Rüdiger Dorn
Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Price: €18.95
Release Date: March 2008
Link:

Rüdiger Dorn takes over the captain’s wheel for the third Cartagena game. Players are now in the role of pirate captain and must hire pirates from a dive and gather island cards before starting to dig up Gold Island.

Publisher: Winning Moves Germany
Designers: Fabiano Onça, Maurício Gibrin & Maurício Miyaji
Players: 2-6
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Price: €29.95
Release Date: February 2008
Link:

Vineta was one of the winners of the 2004 Concours International de Créateurs de Jeux de Société under the name Waka-Waka Island. Winning Moves Germany has changed the title, but hasn’t released other details about the game yet. Here’s a description of the original game from BGG:

On Waka-Waka Island, someone has clumsily broken one of the oldest relics, infuriating the gods, who will seek vengeance upon the people (and maybe even nail the guilty party in the process). However, every deity wants to maintain a healthy group of faithful followers.

The players portray the angry gods, each with her own secret objective. The gods destroy portions of the island, each one trying to sink as many of the heathens as possible, while protecting her followers, as well as her place of worship, which is hidden in one of the nine portions of the island. Even the gods are not above bluffing a little!

Editor’s note: I was able to try a prototype of Vineta at Unity Games XIV, but since the game wasn’t in finalized form, I’ll give only an overview. Players are gods who are peeved at the ill manners shown by the inhabitants of the island Vineta and eager to teach them a lesson. Well, not all of the inhabitants. Each player is trying to protect one region from being sunk; do so, and you’ll receive a bonus at the end of the game.

Vineta wasn’t bad, despite the grumbling from two of the players, but it did feel like a game I’ve seen before. Here’s hoping the published game offers something slightly different...

Publisher: Ystari Games
Other publishers: Rio Grande Games / HUCH & friends
Designer: Sébastien Pauchon
Artist: Mathieu Leysenne
Players: 2-4
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 45-60 minutes
Languages: French / English / German
Price: €36
Release Date: March 2008
Links:

Sébastien Pauchon was one of five winners of the Concours International de Créateurs de Jeux de Société (International Competition of Boardgame Creators) in 2005 for Yspahan, which was then released in 2006 by Ystari. Pauchon won the Concours International again in 2006 with Oklahoma, and once again Ystari will bring the game to print.

Metropolys, which was briefly called Parys, is a bidding game with a geographical component. Each player has a set of bidding tokens numbered 1-13 in three different heights. The start player of the round places one token in some region of the board; a subsequent player can raise the bid by placing a higher numbered token in an adjacent space. Anyone wanting to beat this bid must place adjacent to this new token, which means the bids blaze a path across the board each round. Once all players but one pass, the winner flips his winning token face-down (to hide the number) and all other tokens are returned to their owners. Bonuses and hidden goals drive player actions during the game, and the player with the most points wins the game.

Editor’s note: I played the prototype once at Spiel ‘07, and Metropolys feels more abstract and refined than other Ystari releases; it’s less busy in terms of possible actions, although players still have many choices to make during the game. After a couple of my moves, I could immediately see how poor they were as my opponents took the bidding in directions I hadn’t anticipated, benefitting them far more than me.

The only hidden element is the goal cards that each player receives at the start of the game, so almost everything is out in the open, allowing you to try to suss out the opponents’ goals and keep them from winning the areas they need.

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

Dale Yu (right) jealously eyes brother Brian’s holdings	City layout
One bonus card...	...and another	Skyscraping

Publisher: Z-Man Games
Co-publishers: eggertspiele / Hutter Trade
Designers: Tobias Stapelfeldt & Peter Eggert
Players: 2-4
Ages: 14+
Playing Time: 60-120 minutes
Release Date: March 2008 (for Z-Man)
Price: $59.99

For details on this game, head to the Neuland listing under the co-publisher, eggertspiele.

Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designers: Josh Cappel & Adam Gertzbein
Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 30-45 minutes
Release Date: Q2 2008
Price: $34.99
Link:

If you had to name two things that come to mind when you think of Japan, there’s a good chance you’d say “giant robots” and “sushi.” Strangely enough, these two items are connected in the development of Wasabi!, the first published game from designers Josh Cappel and Adam Gertzbein.

“We’ve spent many years tinkering as a hobby with a vastly huge and complex fighting-robot game,” says Cappel. “It’s a monster: hundreds of components, hundreds of rules, and dozens of exceptions to rules; tedious setup time, totally inaccessible to a casual gamer, too long to play and too long to teach with quite a few gaping loopholes in mechanical logic. We love to play it, but it’s an unpublishable beast in its current form. Wasabi! began its journey as an attempt get as far away as possible from that.”

Their initial approach was to design a speed/dexterity game with players building sushi recipes simultaneously. “It would simulate the chaos of a busy sushi counter in the city,” says Gertzbein. “The idea sounded great on paper, but the prototype bombed totally.”

While keeping the idea of the game—completing sushi recipes—they reconfigured everything else: adding a turn structure, introducing a grid-based playing area, balancing the ingredients, and more. “One of the neatest features is the Pantry,” says Cappel. “Laid out attractively at the side of the board is every ingredient in the game, ready for choosing. After your turn, you can draw whatever you want to refill your hand. That pulls a lot of randomness out of the game—if you ever end up with a hand of tiles you’re not happy with in Wasabi!, you can be pretty sure that it’s your own fault.”

Players now share one gameboard (of variable size depending on the number of players), and the ingredients remain on the board once a recipe has been completed so that other players can build off what’s already there. When you complete a recipe, you receive a special action—Chop!, Stack!, Switch!, Spicy!, and Wasabi!—that can be used later, and these took a lot of work to balance. Says Cappel, “The five we settled upon confer a good range of interesting abilities and allow many creative options towards completing recipes, foiling opponents’ plans, and earning points.”

Asked how the number of players changes the game play, Gertzbein says, “We find that in a two-player game, the focus is a lot heavier on disrupting your opponent. Being delayed for a round or two makes a significant impact in Wasabi!, so if the recipe you’re building gets Chopped, Wasabied, or otherwise ruined before you can finish it, your opponent will spring ahead.”

“In a four-player game,” Gertzbein continues, “it is not as profitable to disrupt one other opponent. Sure, your effort might slow that one player down, but the other two players are unimpeded and can spend their own efforts on their own progress. The challenge becomes staying observant and flexible. More tiles hit the board between your turns, (and the board fills up relatively faster) so it becomes more important to make best use of what gets laid down by other players. If you can notice several parts of a multi-part recipe already out there and in sequence, you are better off using them than wasting your effort on placing duplicates.”

While the winner of most games will be determined by points, an instant win is possible if a player completes ten recipes. “It’s extremely difficult to achieve,” says Cappel. “Since the game design stabilized, we’ve seen only two instant wins in dozens of playtests.”

“In the end,” says Cappel, “Wasabi! ended up being everything we were aiming for: Easy to learn, fun to play, at the sweet spot on length, and enjoyable by all types of players. It is a game that you can definitely improve at and have strategy for, but it’s fun the first time you play it as well. It isn’t directly competitive all of the time, but as the board inexorably fills up and playing space starts to run out there are definite moments of heartbreaking (and frequently unintentional) screwage. Getting close to completing, say, a five-part Squid Salad Sandwich with style for an eleven-point leap is surprisingly nerve-wracking as you pray that nobody will interrupt your careful plans.”

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

What you work on

What you make

What you exclaim!

Publisher: Zoch Verlag
Designers: Jens-Peter Schliemann & Bernhard Weber
Players: 5
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Release Date: March 2008
Price: €16.00
Link:

In this expansion for Burg Appenzell, winner of the Deutscher Kinderspiele Preis in 2007, the greediest mouse under the cheese heavens sprints as quick as an arrow over the roof tiles. With his travel sombrero on, he’s immune to all the mouse traps—but all the other rodents have something to run for as well: a secret passage to the pantry that provides inexhaustible treats. And the siege tower will be used by the rodents only too gladly for a trip around the “largest mousetrap in the world.”

Cheesy Gonzola includes an additional set of mice so that up to five players can get cheesed off.

Pictures: (Click for a larger version)

Mucho mice

The tower

Publisher: Zoch Verlag
Designer: Jacques Zeimet
Players: 2-5
Ages: 5+
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Release Date: March 2008
Price: €32.50
Link:

Whether bumblebee, butterfly or hot air balloon, naturalist Florian Flügel wants to photograph everything that flies through the air. At the same time, though he often overlooks what lies before him in the meadow—which creates big fun for the horse and cows, who are happy whenever Florian steps in a cow pie or fresh pile of horse apples. Will he be able to snap photos of all the flying animals and things before his shoes are ruined?

The players move Florian over the gameboard and try not to let him step in the concealed (magnetic) horse apples and cow pats. A good memory is helpful here. To his benefit, the naturalist has a stool with which he can rescue himself at the last moment if he knows that the next playing space holds an unpleasant surprise. The player who snaps the most photos with Florian and can therefore discard the most playing cards has the best chance of winning.

Publisher: Zoch Verlag
Designer: Klaus Zoch
Players: 2-4
Ages: 5+
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Release Date: January 2008
Price: €32.50
Link:

Over the past decade, more than 700,000 copies of Zicke Zacke Hühnerkacke have been sold. That’s a lot of chicken feathers! In celebration of its tenth anniversary, Zoch is releasing this edition, which includes a baseball cap with a rooster comb. Stylin’!

Publisher: Zoch Verlag
Designer: Dominique Erhard
Players: 2-4
Ages: 8+
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Release Date: March 2008
Price: €30.00
Links:

A German version of Marrakech, which was released in French by Gigamic in 2007.

In a competition for the hand of a sultan’s daughter, the merchant players want to display as many of their fine carpets as possible in addition to having lots of lucre. Players take turns moving Omar, the sultan’s servant, around a playing surface, laying down rugs for sale that may cover half of an opponent’s. In time, the interwoven rugs come to resemble a giant carpet. You must pay to move Omar onto an opponent’s rug with the cost based on the size of the carpet’s total area. The player who performs the best wins.