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Bohnanza for the Younger Crowd
3 hours 45 min ago
Featured at: Spiel 2010
German publisher Amigo Spiele will release Uwe Rosenberg's Bohnanza: Fun & Easy in September 2010. What's different with this version of Rosenberg's classic Bohnanza card game? Shortened game stages, special event cards, and a lower barrier to entry, according to the publisher's description. Oh, and the familiar bean types have been replaced with rocker beans, skater beans, burger-eating beans, etc. Is this one Bohnanza too many? Has Rosenberg's Bohnanza gone the way of New Coke?!
(This title was previously listed as Bohnanza Youngster.)
Categories: Game News
Amigo Teaches Pillow Fights to the Youngsters
4 hours 8 min ago
Featured at: Spiel 2010
In Liesbeth Bos' Kissenschlacht – aka, Pillow Fight – youngsters learn how to conduct pillow fights, a skill that will serve them well in later life once they start attending sleepovers.
The box bottom serves as the bed, and each player has a catapult of sorts that they'll use to launch their four pillows onto the bed. Place a pillow on the bed, and you can place one of your three figures on the corner of the bed as a bedpost; if an opponent knocks down this figure, then you'll need to remove a pillow from the bed and launch it once again. Be the first player to land all four pillows on the bed and you win.
Or keep playing until someone gets hit in the eye with a pillow and starts crying – that's the outcome that I always remember...
Categories: Game News
Pentactic – Another Take on the Pentominoes Game
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 11:35pmGame name: Pentactic Designer: Néstor Romeral Andrés Publisher: nestorgames — July 2010
Pentominoes have been part of the common vernacular since Martin Gardner wrote about them in 1957 in his "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American. U.S. publisher Kadon Enterprises was founded on Kate Jones' Quintillions in 1979, and that game has remained in print for more than thirty years.
The latest ludic take on pentominoes is Néstor Romeral Andrés' Pentactic, published through his own nestorgames. The game board in Pentactic features three playing areas: 8x8, 7x9 and 6x11. In the basic two-player game, one player controls the pentominoes and the other controls a set of eight stones. The stones player removes a pentomino from play, then players take turns placing pieces on one of the playing areas. The stones player must place each stone in a different row and column to try to block the plays of the pentomino player. When no more pentominoes can be placed, the pentomino player subtracts the number of unplaced stones from the number of unplaced pentominos for a final score. The players then switch sides and play again; the player with the lower score of the two matches wins the game.
Additional rules cover solo play and games that can be played with multiple Pentactic sets.
Categories: Game News
Larry Levy: Gulf Games Goodies, Part 2
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 9:50pmGulf Games Goodies, Part 2
Last week, I talked about some of the new games I got to play at the most recent Gulf Games that I really enjoyed. Here are some other new games I tried out, most of which were also well worth playing.
Deeku: This was the other Kenichi Tenabe design that Joe Huber showed me. It’s a 2008 game themed around rebuilding castles in 17th century Japan. The rules are short and the game plays very quickly. Players place or move their pieces on the locations and if they have a majority there, they can rebuild the castle. Gameplay is interesting, but it’s pretty abstract and that’s usually not my favorite kind of game. Additionally, it seems that one of the major skills is searching the semi-random setup for efficient ways of moving and gaining influence and that’s just not something I find that enjoyable. It’s a solid game and I’d have no trouble playing again, but I don't think this will ever be a favorite of mine. I liked Inotaizu much more.
Numeri: This is a redesign of a 1973 Rudi Hoffman game (which also had another version, 1998’s Fröscheln). This is part of Schmidt’s EasyPlay line and it certainly is that. Each player has pieces numbered 1 through 5 which move on a linear track. On your turn, you roll a die (which has an asterisk in place of the 6) and move the piece of that number to the first open space on the track (you choose which piece to move if the asterisk comes up). On a 3-5, you can move two of your pieces if their numbers add up to the roll. Additionally, if you get three in a row, you take another turn. About half of the spaces have a value and to get your score, you multiply the number of your piece by the value of the space it’s on and add them all together. Some people won’t like the arithmetic necessary to determine the scores, but outside of that, this is an appealing family game. It’s very easy to understand, plays fast, and even has a reasonable amount of decisions. It’s also a quintessential Hoffman design.
Perpetual Motion Machine: Ted Alspach's latest non-Age of Steam game has little to do with breaking the laws of physics but instead is a nicely constructed cardgame. Each player has a display which shows different Poker melds (like 3 of a kind and Straight) and when you play a meld of the appropriate kind, you get to place one of your cubes next to that category on the display. As you place cubes, your abilities in the game increase. Abilities include things like your hand size, the number of cards you can draw from the stock, and the number of cards you can choose from the display each turn. The object is to be the first player to place all of your cubes.
The game has a sound foundation and makes a nice, if slightly long, filler. However, my game had 4 players and there's too much shuffling with that number (Ted admits the game plays best with 2 or 3). We also felt it took a little too long to get to the interesting part, where the players have more abilities. Perhaps the game would move more briskly if some of the in-between levels (where there’s no advancement) were omitted. But I still think this a good solid effort by Ted and the game was one of my prize table picks.
Pictionary Card Game: This is a party game by Brian Yu, Dale’s brother (although I don’t hold that against him), which will soon be published by Mattel (Brian is one of Mattel’s in-house designers). It takes the basic idea of Squint (a Charades style game where the presenter uses pre-printed cards instead of gestures to try to convey the clue), uses more detailed cards (like stick figures or a drawing of a house or airplane), and has teams trying to guess the Pictionary-type subjects. It’s not a startling advance in party games but it was good fun and a fine alternative for folks who like the idea of Pictionary but who just can’t draw.
Ad Astra: This is the Faidutti/Laget game that has been called “Settlers in Space”. The main mechanic is that players each have a set of actions and place them secretly in a central display (kind of like a one-dimensional Inotaizu, if you remember my description of that game from last week). Everyone gets to perform the actions, but the player who placed it gets to do it best (a la Puerto Rico–sort of). This seems like an interesting concept, but I didn’t like the way it worked with five players, which was the number in my game. Not only were there a large number of actions between the ones you placed, but we found it very difficult to guess what actions others would be placing. There was also a great deal of groupthink, so you’d see four “move” actions in a row, for example. Basically, with five, the action mechanism seemed to lead to limited control and much accidental assistance and the game suffered as a result. The ideas in the rest of the game are quite good, though, and the game is well regarded, so I'd like to try this again with 3. Not only will we all be placing a greater percentage of the actions, but we’ll each be placing 4 of them instead of 3, which should also help with the control issues.
Islas Canarias: This is a Colovini game that doesn't feel at all like Colovini, but sadly it displeased me as much as most of the rest of his designs. The basic idea seems reasonable: each player has an island with its own unique mix of terrain features. Each turn, you can play a card which lists the rules for building a house of a specific color. First choice might be next to a river, second choice might be next to a blue house, and so on. So you have some choice about how you populate your island, which is fine. But then you each contribute a card to the incoming “ship” and these also get built, sometimes in what seems very arbitrary ways. Additionally, advancement in this game is often punished, as a set of pirates attack the players who have the most number of houses of a certain color (and who very well may not be winning the game). The whole thing became more and more random the longer we played (which, unfortunately, was quite a while) and we were all happy when it was over. I do like a few of Colovini’s smaller games (like Corsari), but for the most part, his tastes and mine are not well aligned at all. Thus, avoiding Leo is usually my best course of action.
Categories: Game News
Four New Sports Titles from GTR, Ghenos Games
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 3:22pm
Alfredo Genovese loves sports games. As a designer, he's taken on rugby in Rugby World and auto racing in Bolide; as the co-owner of Italian publisher Ghenos Games, in addition to releasing those two titles, he's published the bicycle-racing design Giro d'Italia (both as board game and card game) and the sailing game Race the Wind.
Now Genovese and Ghenos Games will distribute four new sports titles in September 2010, three of them apparently being designs by Genovese himself. The games are actually published by GTR Entertainment, a Madrid-based company that licenses the right to use logos from sports leagues and the likenesses of sports figures in games. The titles coming from GTR Entertainment are:
- F1, a Formula 1 racing game
- NBA All-Star
- UEFA Champions League, with "UEFA" being the Union of European Football Associations
- MotoGP
No details about the games have been posted by either Ghenos Games or GTR Entertainment, although you can tell by the images posted on the Ghenos website that they all have a similar look, using painted plastic miniatures to represent the players or vehicles.
Categories: Game News
More Titles from Lookout Games
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 2:19pm
In addition to the previously announced Poseidon (described here), Merkator (described here) and De Vulgari Eloquentia (described here), not to mention the previously-announced-from-Phalanx German version of Automobile (described here), German publisher Lookout Games has even more titles on its Spiel 2010 schedule. The Agricola: Gamers' Deck is a medium-sized expansion that includes 120 new cards. Lookout's Hanno Girke says that the cards were developed and tested by Lookout's online test group; no other details about the cards have been announced.
In a July 2010 announcement, Girke also mentions a quick-playing card game "that will win the hearts of railroad fans." Lookout Games also lists Konzern as a board game scheduled for release in October 2010, but has no other details about the title. There needs to be a Bohnanza expansion somewhere in the mix, too, right?
Categories: Game News
Pics Posted for Stronghold's Survive
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 1:24pm
Stronghold Games has released images for its new version of Julian Courtland-Smith's Survive: Escape from Atlantis! For those not familiar with the game, here's a recap of game play from the April 2010 game announcement on BGN:
In Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, players are tasked with escaping from an island that is slowly sinking into the sea. Players control a number of stranded citizens who must escape to islands surrounding Atlantis. Along the way they can be helped by boats or dolphins, but danger lurks everywhere! Sea monsters, whales and sharks can stand in the way of escape. The island sinks in a different way each game, so players must adjust their strategy from game to game. Head for the high ground if you must, but be prepared to make a desperate swim for safety!
Such a blast from the past to see this game board. I can easily picture my brother and I loafing around the living room after school, indulging in soda and huge piles of cookies while playing this game over and over again...
Categories: Game News
Kevin Schlabach Asks, Why Don't You Play Games Publicly?
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 1:13pmKevin E. Schlabach at Seize Your Turn is pushing a "Play in Public Campaign" to promote awareness of modern games among the U.S. mainstream:
[T]he PiP Campaign is about raising the awareness of games to the point where customers ask their local toy and book stores why they don’t stock games for adults. It’s about bridging the gap between good local adult game stores and their community. It’s about expanding everyone’s inner geek to include gaming at a time when being a geek is a popular. It’s about pulling families away from the TV and back into interacting with each other. It’s about connecting friends together and enabling them to have more fun at home around the dinner table than in an expensive bar scene where only superficial relationships can form.
All very idealistic, yes, but the U.S. has been in this situation previously, something Schlabach overlooks in this paragraph of his post:
[T]he expansion of board gaming seems to be at an all-time high as the ripples continue to spread outwards from the introduction of Settlers of Catan years ago. The question I ponder is whether Catan will simply be another Trivial Pursuit. Trivial Pursuit was a game that triggered a wave of great party games and then the market plateaued. Will it all just be another fad of pop culture? Or can adult gaming finally resonate with the common public and stick around long term?
Thirty years after its debut, Trivial Pursuit is still a force in the game industry, with current owner Hasbro pushing new editions of the game year after year onto a public that identifies TP with boardgaming. If Catan reaches the awareness level of Trivial Pursuit in the U.S. mainstream, that would be a great thing for Klaus Teuber and Mayfair Games. Whether that level of awareness would spread to other mainstream-friendly titles is unclear, although titles like Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne have already made inroads down this path.
In any case, I'm a longtime practitioner of playing games in public – not so much to be an advocate for modern games as that I just like playing games whenever and wherever I can. If I were still in the P.S. (pre-son) era, I'd be playing in bookstores and cafés all the time...
Categories: Game News
Norenberc, Coming from Steding and White Goblin
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 2:31pm
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Here's a description of Andreas Steding's Norenberc from the publisher:
In Norenberc, each player represents an ambitious merchant trying to gain influence in the town council of Norenberc. To do this, players must win over the craftsmen of the city's various guilds. The player who manages to win over the most (and the most influential) craftsmen will be the one who wins the game.
Every round consists of one or more turns. Every turn, all players simultaneously select the guilds at which they wish to take actions, limited by the number of agents at their disposal. Actions include buying and selling goods, and hiring guests that are lodging at the guilds: various craftsmen and also townsmen with useful special abilities.
At the end of each round, the guild master of each guild will select a favorite from among the players: the one owning the most of that guild's goods. The favorite of each guild will claim the loyalty of its current guild master and earn one of that guild's crests. The most important guild in the city will also bestow one of the valuable prestige crests upon its favorite.
At the end of the game, players will compare their amassed craftsmen, crests, money and townsmen to see who has won the game!
Categories: Game News
Return of the Inca Empire
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 2:22pm
Featured at: Spiel 2010 Publisher: Z-Man Games — October 2010
Featured at: Spiel 2010
Inca Empire is a slightly revised version of Alan Ernstein's Tahuantinsuyu, published by his own Hangman Games in 2004. This new version includes revised artwork, language-independent cards that use iconography instead of text (with card explanations in the rulebook, and roads created by components placed on the game board instead of being drawn on with markers. White Goblin Games, which is in charge of the production, has also created a double-sided game board – one side for four players (shown right), the other for three – instead of using an overlay. As for the game play, here's a game description from the publisher:
In Inca Empire, the players are "Apus" – that is, leader of one of the four regions/suyus. Your job as an Apu is to increase your status in the eyes of the devine emperor, "Sapa Inca," by doing the best job of expanding and improving the empire. Each Apu begins with the manpower of their region of the original empire. They build roads and conquer neighboring regions, increasing the manpower and resources available to them. Apus are awarded for each new region they add to the empire and for improvements such as terraces, garrisons, cities and temples. The player who has the most victory points when Pizarro arrives in the Inca capital at Cuzco wins the game.
White Goblin Games expects to release this game at Spiel 2010, and Zev Shlasinger at Z-Man Games has confirmed that release date for his company, too.
Categories: Game News
Stronghold: Undead
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 1:59pm
Featured at: Spiel 2010
For now the Stronghold: Undead expansion has been mentioned only in blog posts by designer Ignacy Trzewiczek – such as this one from June 4, 2010. The gist of the expansion remains the same as in the base Stronghold game: The skeletons are attacking a castle and must breach the walls prior to the end of eight rounds or else the rising sun turns their bones to dust.
Update, July 28, 2010: Trzewiczek has passed along a somewhat more detailed description of this expansion, which is designed for only two players:
The brave defenders of the castle must now stand against the forces of the undead. Glory no longer matters in this game – instead, both opponents fight for time with the game lasting eight rounds. The Necromancer must defeat the men or else his army will vanish once the sun's rays hit his forces. In game terms, from the sixth round on, the invader's power starts to diminish, with the Necromancer needing to pay to keep his forces in fighting form. Defenders die on the castle walls; the Necromancer's power wanes as the battle continues – once dawn comes, who will still be standing or who will be dead?
The Stronghold: Undead expansion includes a new set of buildings for the castle, 24 new spell cards for the invader, new rules to track the fear level and leader board, and more.
Note that the cover image above – the unfinished one with all the white space – is only a draft for now. You probably already figured that out for yourself, though.
Categories: Game News
Julius Caesar
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 12:57pmReviewed game: Julius Caesar
In 49 BC, when Julius Caesar crossed the river Rubicon in northern-central Italy with the legendary 13th legion, he wasn't only setting up a nice phrase for future generations to use at decisive moments in their lives. Going against the ruling of the senate, Caesar initiated one of the bloodiest civil wars the Roman Empire would ever know.
Columbia Games' Julius Caesar casts two players back to that troubled period, as Caesar and Pompey – with Cleopatra in the middle…
The game is played with wooden blocks on a beautiful, elongated point-to-point map of the Mediterranean and the surrounding territory. Seas, roads and cities are the significant pieces of information, but the rest is very pretty to look at.
While possibilities exist for a sudden-death victory, the game is designed to unfold over five years, each composed of five game turns. The engine that drives the action is a 27-card deck made up of 20 command cards and seven event cards. A command card features two values – one for move and one for levy – while each event card sports a unique event.
At the start of every year, each player is dealt a hand of six cards, one of which must be discarded. Then it's on with the show.
A turn is initiated by both players simultaneously revealing a card selected from their hands. The card with the highest move value indicates the player who will go first during that turn. (Ties are broken in Caesar's favor.) That player uses the values on his card to move his units, then brings replacements onto the board.
Each movement point (between 1 and 4 of them are found on each command card) allows the player to activate one city, which enables any and all blocks in that city to move to adjacent cities. Each unit is moved individually and can move a maximum of two cities, provided neither of those was enemy occupied. If the first city contains enemy units, the block must stop – and that first move becomes an attack. No attack is possible on a block's second move within the same turn; in other words, attacks are only allowed from adjacent cities. Naval movement functions the same way, with navies permitted to perform a double move only if they don't attack.
After all movement is completed, player 1 brings replacements into play using his card's levy value (from 1 to 3). Each levy point allows the placement of a new cadre unit or the addition of one step to an existing unit.
Then it's on to player 2, who performs the same actions as player 1, with the exception that some of his attacked units are not allowed to leave the city that's being assaulted. When player 2 is done with his moves and levies, combat erupts in each city that contains blocks belonging to both players.
Each block features several steps displayed on the edges of the block, one step per side. Those represent the number of dice a unit will roll in combat, but also its general shape, for each hit rotates the block one step down, until it loses its last step and is removed from the board. Each block also sports a combat rating: A, B, C and D. Those indicate the order in which blocks get to fight. A before B, B before C, and so on, with the defender's units going first. That rating also shows a number, from 1 to 3, showing what result (or less) constitutes a hit for that unit. A unit with a rating of 2, for instance, will score a hit on a roll of 2 or less.
So in each contested city, blocks have at it. The defender's A-rated units fight first, rolling their dice and forcing the opponent to rotate his toughest unit one step down for each inflicted hit. Then it's on to the attacker's A-rated units, and so on all the way down to the attacker's D-rated units. This goes on until one side is wiped out, or the battle lasts until a fourth round, at which point the attacker is forced to retreat all of his remaining units.
Instead of a command card, a player can decide to play an event card. Those seven powerhouses create some serious chaos in the game and can give a significant edge to the player laying them down. Their effects range from a first strike capability in an upcoming battle to an enemy block defecting to the other side. Those powerful effects are mitigated by the lack of move and levy values on event cards, and also the fact that the player of an event always goes first (thus leaving room for the opponent to react – possibly with a strong command card – before all hell breaks loose). If both players decide to play an event card, both cards are cancelled and the turn ends immediately. This sometimes makes for very fast, very short years.
At the end of a year, units must retreat to big enough cities to survive the winter and live to fight another year. Stacking limits – normally non-existent in the game – come into play with sometimes devastating effects for the unsuspecting player.
Each conquered city and eliminated leader block is worth victory points, and a player wins as soon as he hits 10 VPs. If the game runs its full course, whoever has the most victory points by then is the winner, with a tie going to the player who holds Rome.
War Production
Columbia Games' offerings are usually very pleasing to look at, but Julius Caesar is the most beautiful of their games to grace my table so far. The map is easy to read, with very little clutter, and yet it stands out. Just like its predecessors, the cardboard map is not mounted but of good quality, and will not necessarily need to lie under a plexi to remain flat.
The board does feel a little small, however, as it positions some of the adjacent cities very close to one another. This becomes a problem when several blocks get parked on the same spot – and since the game enforces no stacking limits (except during winter), some areas of the board get clogged up pretty fast. After a few games you'll get used to it, but a bit more breathing room would have been nice.
I also found myself instinctively looking for a scoring track somewhere on the map but to no avail. Because the value of each city is usually buried under a handful of blocks, it's impossible to tell at a glance where each player stands as far as victory goes (until you learn city values by heart, that is). We ended up solving this minor problem with two 10-sided dice. (Of course, we chose ones that matched the colors of the blocks!)
The cards are the best Columbia Games cards so far: good stock, beautiful art (both front and back) and with round corners, which makes them much easier to handle and shuffle than their counterparts from previous games.
And the stickers that go on the blocks are just gorgeous. I thought Richard III looked really nice, but this one takes the cake.
Rules of Engagement
Wargamers who have played previous titles from Columbia Games' catalog (such as Hammer of the Scots and Richard III) will be familiar with the basic movement and combat systems found in Julius Caesar, as they show up here with a few tweaks to better fit the venue.
As usual, the rules are short. This rulebook runs eight pages with plenty of room to breathe, a slew of examples, and even historical tidbits sprinkled throughout. There are no exceptions to speak of and the mechanics are rather intuitive. Whether or not you're familiar with the system, you'll be up and running in no time – provided you don't make the mistake I made in my first game: All coastal cities are ports, not just the ones with a little ship icon!
Fun Factor
Some players complain about the fact that many Columbia Games' titles are similar in terms of game mechanisms. My take on this is that if you happen to like those game mechanisms, it should only make getting into the next game easier and faster, using a system you know you already enjoy.
Plus, there's always a surprise just around the block (yes, that silly pun was intended). In this case, there is a Cleopatra block – of a neutral color – that starts in the Pompey camp but can switch sides if defeated. In essence, Cleopatra never dies: She immediately joins the opponent as soon as she loses her last step. This makes for interesting reversals, and while Cleopatra is not an all-powerful unit, she can make a difference at times.
Naval battles (gotta prevent those amphibious moves!) are a lot of fun, and winter is indeed a harsh mistress. Be particularly wary of leaving navies out on the open seas when the cold winds start racing across the Mediterranean.
I especially like the requirement for some blocks to join the action in a specific city, which must be friendly. So unless you retake Utica, that elephant block you were counting on will be a no-show…
Parting Shots
Julius Caesar is fun and plays surprisingly fast. Even when two events cards don't cancel each other out (and thus move the game forward at an accelerated pace), the action is lightning-fast and reaches a conclusion in less than two hours, sometimes much less – which from time to time makes it possible to enjoy two helpings of Julius Caesar in a single evening.
Now you're talking.
Categories: Game News
Dale Yu: Review of Fresco (Queen Games)
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 1:00amReview of Fresco (Queen Games)
I know that I’ve been talking a lot about the new games that I’ve played recently without getting into too much detail. Over the next few weeks, I hope to rectify that by writing a series of reviews (some short and some full) on these new finds. The first game that I will talk about is the Spiel des Jahres nominated Fresco from Queen Games. I have liked this game ever since I was able to play a late prototype version of it last November, and the finished version is a polished game which is definitely worthy of the SdJ nomination. As I had mentioned in my SdJ award preview column, Fresco was the one game out of the five nominees that appealed to me most as a gamer.
Fresco
Designers: Marco Ruskowski and Marcel Süßelbeck
Publisher: Queen Games
Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Time: 45-60 minutes
MSRP: $59.95
In Fresco, the players take on the role of church painters, each of them striving to restore the painted ceiling of a cathedral – which is depicted on the game board. In order to do this, the painters must carefully look at the sections that need to be painted (tiles on the board) to decide which colors of paint they wish to have with them. If they have the right colors of paint, they can repair a particular section (and collect the tile from the board and earn the number of victory points printed on the tile). The theme of the game is well integrated into the mechanics, as I am about to describe.
[It should be noted that the game has a “basic” version explained in the rules as well as three different expansion supplements that can be added in piecemeal as the players wish. I have mostly played the game with all three expansions, so I will describe the game including all of these parts. While I have found that the “basic” game is a great way to learn the basic mechanics of Fresco as well as a good way to teach the game to players who may not have a lot of experience with Eurogames – the game is much deeper and more interesting with the three expansions added in.]
Each round in the game is split into two phases. In the first phase, the players determine the turn order for that particular round. Then, once the order has been set, players secretly and simultaneously choose their actions for the second phase of the turn – which are then carried out in the order determined in the first part of the turn. I really like the mechanic of how to determine turn order. There is a chart on the board which specifies the 5 different times that the players can wake up (5am, 6am, 7am, 8am, and 9am). Each player must wake up at a different time from all the other players. Going in reverse order of score, players choose what time they will wake up that round. The earlier your wake up call, the earlier in turn order you are for the turn. So, the player with the lowest score does not always go first in the round, because he might choose a time that better suits him. Why wouldn’t you always choose to go first? Well, the earlier you wake up, the grumpier you are – just like real life. Your artist’s mood can swing 2 points negative for a 5am wakeup call to 1 point positive for a 9am wakeup time. You want to carefully monitor the mood of your artist because you will be less productive (i.e. lose an action a turn) if your mood is too foul, but you can also gain an extra action a turn if you are really happy. Furthermore, the earlier you wake up, the more expensive it will be to buy your paint that turn – I guess that the folks in the market aren’t ready to haggle at 5am!
Picture of the wake up board, taken by BGG user Ikarus
Once turn order has been decided, then each player chooses what actions he will take this round. To do this, there is a order board where players secretly and simultaneously place their workers to signify what actions they want to take. Normally, you get to take 5 actions each round, though again, this number may change based on your mood. The options available to you include: 1) going to the market to get paint, 2) painting a portion of the ceiling, 3) working in your portrait studio, 4) mixing paints to get new colors, 5) going to the theatre to relax and improve your mood. Each of the 5 different action options are completed in turn order before moving onto the next – so everyone gets a chance to buy paint and then everyone can paint a portion(s) of the ceiling then…
Action board, hidden behind a screen, taken by BGG user toob
Going to the market is the main way to acquire more paint (cleverly represented by small wooden cubes painted in those colors). You mostly acquire paint in the primary colors here – red, yellow and blue – though there are a few secondary greens and oranges that will appear for sale. There are four different markets on the board, which have anywhere from 2 to 4 lots of paint (each printed on a tile) available. You choose a market, buy one lot per action you have allocated to buying paint, and pay the price as determined for each by your wakeup time. No one else may buy at that particular market this round, so you can also use an earlier position in turn order to block later players from buying particular colors.
Next comes the ceiling painting. If you have the right combinations of paint in your supply, you can claim any of the tiles on the board. The game starts with 25 tiles on the board with different color combinations on most of them. For each painting action you have allocated, you can turn in the matching colored cubes for the tile from the board and collect the tile. This tile will give you victory points equal to what is printed on it. You can also score three or one extra points depending on how close your tile is to the bishop pawn on the board. If you choose not to paint a part of the ceiling (or you don’t have the right colored cubes), you can also do an altar painting where you trade in three different colored cubes for a much smaller VP reward. This is something that (in my experience) is only done near the very end of the game when you are just trying to score something for the paint cubes you have collected.
Example of the game board with the tiles, taken by BGG user toob
The third action option is working in your portrait gallery – I suppose that artists couldn’t survive only on religious commissions, so they had to work a bit on their own to make ends meet. For each action you have spent here, you could simply collect 3 coins. You also have the option of painting one special portrait (depicted on expansion cards flipped up from a deck). These special portraits have a variety of special abilities – some of which recur each turn (such as one extra coin in income each turn) while others give a one-time use bonus (such as immediately increase your artists mood to the maximum level of happiness). In general, I’ve found that almost every card here offers you more than the basic reward of 3 coins, but sometimes, you just have to have coins in hand and must pass on the cards.
Once you’ve finished the drudgery of making money, you can go and mix paint. Again, you mostly get primary colors from the market, but the ceiling painting needs a lot of secondary and even tertiary colors to look right. For each action you’ve chosen to mix paint, you get to make two color combinations (using the cubes previously collected) in your supply. You can use a newly made paint color from the first mixing in the second one.
Reference card from the game showing the different color combinations, taken by BGG user tasajara
The other two expansions (in addition to the special portraits) come into play mostly in this phase. The tertiary colors of brown and pink are added to the game with one expansion. The final one adds in special bonus VP tiles which can be acquired once you have three tiles from the cathedral ceiling that use the same secondary color. If you choose to take a special bonus VP tile, you do this in lieu of your two mixing actions. You put the three tiles back in the supply and take the new bonus tile in their place.
The last action available is going to the theatre. As I mentioned earlier, the mood of your artist is important to manage because you can lose actions each day if you are in a foul mood or you could have an extra action each day if you are really happy. Each action spent at the theatre will improve your mood by two steps.
After all of the actions have been taken, players receive their income for the round which is equal to one coin for each completed ceiling tile they have in front of them. The bonus VP tiles also provide one coin of income, but they also provide a paint cube each round. Once income is taken, you then look at the scores to start choosing wake up times for the next round. The final round of the game occurs when there are 6 or fewer tiles left to be painted at the start of a round. The game ends at the end of that round, even if all the tiles are not completed. The only endgame score is 1 VP for every 2 coins left over at the end, and whichever player has the highest score wins.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I do very much enjoy the game, and it would have been my vote for Spiel des Jahres if I had had a vote. The different mechanics all weave together well with the theme to give a great game experience. The game can be played at a few different levels though, and I think my enjoyment of the game would change depending on which route the other players want to take. When the game is played quickly, I am constantly involved and never feel like there is a lot of downtime. However, I have played a game where all the other players were taking a long time – because each was trying to remember which cubes the other players had so they could best choose their own paint colors / ceiling tiles – and the game might not have enough to stretch out to two hours of playing time. But when it is played quickly (more in a family atmosphere than an ultra-competitive one), it is a great game.
The expansions also, for me, are a must have for the game. The base game – which does not include the tertiary colors nor the special portraits and bonus VP tiles – can be a little too simple for my tastes. The added options presented with the expansions add enough heft and variety to the game to keep me coming back for another play. That being said, if I were playing with less experienced gamers or younger children, I would likely stick to the base game.
The game is well suited for families. The rules are well laid out and easy to learn from. There is an option (the base game) for a simpler game as well as the ability to spice things up with the expansions. While there is some indirect competition for spaces/resources – choosing which market to buy paint at, possibly taking a ceiling tile from someone else based on turn order, having first crack at doing a special portrait – the game pretty much lets players operate in their own space, and I have found that this sort of game generally goes over very well for families or more casual gamers.
As always, the component quality is the high quality that I have come to associate with Queen Games. The board and cards have a nice finish to them, and all of the wooden bits are nice too. The rules are laid out in the usual Queen style with many illustrations to help you know what to do (and in multiple languages as well)! And, if the rules aren’t enough, there is a nice video tutorial – both in English and in German – available online to help you learn the game as well.
Until your next appointment,
The Gaming Doctor
Categories: Game News
Wallace's After the Flood Now Playable Online
Tue, 07/27/2010 - 5:00pm
Martin Wallace's After the Flood, a three-player-only game released at Spiel 2008 by Wallace's Warfrog Games, can now be played online in a turn-based (i.e., not real-time) basis through Jeff Huter's SlothNinja Games. Says Huter, "I have received permission for this implementation from Martin. It's currently free and likely to remain that way for the near future. I hope to add additional games in the future, but such releases will be slow in coming. I'm simply doing this as a hobby in my spare time."
If you're not familiar with After the Flood, you can download the rules in English or German from the games page on the Treefrog Games site in order to avoid random clicking and dim-witted meanderings while you play. Opponents hate that type of thing, so try to avoid it.
Categories: Game News
Wok Star
Tue, 07/27/2010 - 4:00pmReviewed game: Tim Fowers' Wok Star – Serve or Be Served!
Categories: Game News
Rabbits in a Can
Tue, 07/27/2010 - 3:00pm
Zoch Verlag released Markus Kropf's Hoppladi Hopplada in 2008, with 999 Games releasing a version in Dutch. Here's a summary of the game play from the BGN Spiel 2008 preview:
In this push-your-luck dice game, on a turn, you roll the seven dice, which show hares, hutches, a combination of the two, and carrots. Carrots are useless, and dice bearing them are removed from play. You must set aside at least one hare (worth 1 point) on a roll; if you roll a pair of hares, you can set both aside at once for 10 points. If you roll a double hutch, you can set that aside to double the points you currently have.
You can set aside only one hutch a turn, but if you reroll and have a triple hutch (and at least one hare), then you can set that hutch aside for triple your current points. Use all the dice, and you can reroll hares to try to nail hutches #4 and 5 , not forgetting that you need to roll hares at the same time. Whenever you stop voluntarily, you score points, and the next player can either start fresh with seven dice, or she can try to continue your turn from where you stopped. Continue play until someone hits the magic number.
Dutch retailer De Spellenwinckel has announced that 999 Games will release a miniature version of the game in September 2010, along the lines of the mini-Heckmeck am Bratwurmeck in a tin that Zoch released in 2009. Expect German rabbits to come in a similarly small package, too.
Categories: Game News
W. Eric Martin: Calling All Gamers!
Tue, 07/27/2010 - 12:08pmCalling All Gamers!
"If you build it, they will come."
Traffic is up since the debut of the new Boardgame News site on July 7, 2010, with more people visiting each day and those visitors spending more time on the site. Reader response to the design has been generally positive.
The only downside is that despite all the positivity, donations in 2010 are not keeping up with membership fees in 2009. I knew this might happen after switching to a donation model in March 2010, but BGN readers in a January 2010 survey had said they donated and paid for memberships more to support the site itself than out of a desire to see the Spiel and Nuremberg convention previews, which were locked away behind a paywall. So I decided to test that claim.
While I'd prefer to keep everything open on the site, if support continues to be low I'll have to start charging again for access to the previews and special features. Expenses are up thanks to a new dedicated server to handle all the nifty features on BGN – not to mention the wonderful surge in visitors.
If you spend any amount of time on this site reading about new games, checking out game news, or surveying the extensive convention previews, please donate to BGN. Your support ensures the survival of this site and the editor's ability to devote the time needed to post game announcements, reviews and other material.
Along those same lines, if you're a publisher or work for one, please look into advertising on BGN. If you're a designer, encourage your publisher to advertise on this site. That financial support is vital to BGN's survival, and you get to show off your creations to thousands of readers who want to know what's coming from you.
Thanks so much for being dedicated readers of BGN. I love having you here and hope to be able to continue serving you in the future!
Categories: Game News
Automobile Leaves Phalanx for Lookout
Tue, 07/27/2010 - 12:06pm
The new version of Martin Wallace's Automobile, coming from Mayfair Games in 2010 and previously announced with Phalanx Games as the publisher of the German version, will instead be released in Germany by Lookout Games. Since Lookout is licensing the game from Mayfair, this publisher switch-up should entail no changes in what Mayfair has previously announced about the game.
Old cover, old German publisher – time to bring in the new!
Categories: Game News