This is the eighth of twelve articles on "German Game" authors. I am not an expert on board games, nor am I a collector. I just happen to play them. This article represents my own opinions only. Some opinions are based on only a single play; some informationis based on hearsay. I always recommend playing a game before buying it. My personal suggestion for buying German board games: As a first option, support a good local retailer - Rio Grande and Mayfair are making many German games available in English through the normal distributors. When local doesn't work, there are many mail order sources available - Fine Games, Boulder Games, The Games Store, Board Not Bored Games, FunAgain Games, Small Furry Creatures, Spirit Games, Adam Spielt, Games People Play, and so on - any reasonable attempt to find retailers will produce a wide range to choose from.

Credits of Alan R. Moon:

Airlines (Abacus), Andromeda (Abacus), Bidwise (Games Magazine), Black Spy (Avalon Hill) (a.k.a. Gespenster - Hexagames), Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire (Han Heidema), Elfengold (standalone game) (White Wind), Elfengold (expansion for Elfenland) (Amigo), Elfenland (Amigo), Elfenroads (White Wind), Elfenwizards (White Wind), Fishy (White Wind), Freight Train (White Wind / Mayfair), Good Dog Carl (with Mark Hauser) (Ravensburger), Knights of the Rainbow (with Aaron Weissblum) (FX Schmid USA), Madeline & the Gypsies (with Mark Hauser) (Ravensburger), Mush (White Wind), Pacific Theatre via Midway (Avalon Hill), Pony Express (Abacus), Rainbows (White Wind), Reibach & Co. (FX Schmid) (a.k.a. Get the Goods - US Games), Santa Fe (White Wind), Starting Lineup Talking Baseball (Parker Brothers), Strings (Games Magazine), Superstar Lineup Talking Football (Parker Brothers), Tricks (White Wind), U.F.O.s (Hexagames), Union Pacific (Amigo / Rio Grande), War at Sea II (Avalon Hill), Wer hat mehr? (Piatnik), Whoa Nelie (FX Schmid),

In the way of explanation, this is a series about "German Game" authors, not German authors of games. In that light, Alan Moon fits right in - he's received three nominations for the Spiel des Jahres, winning once, and in various roles he has been instrumental in introducing "German Games" to an American audience. Much as is seen with Knizia, Alan's big releases seem to generate excitement even before they arrive - Andromeda (to be released soon at Essen) is among the most eagerly anticipated upcoming releases.

Alan is one of the few authors to challenge Knizia in his re-use of game ideas and mechanics into multiple, independent games. One good example of this is Elfenroads / Elfenland (FunAgain, $35 / Adam Spielt, 39.50 DM) / Elfengold (Elfenland expansion) (FunAgain, $10.95 / Adam Spielt, 15.90 DM). Elfenroads remains my favorite of Alan's games to date; it's different (the traveling salesman problem is not one commonly used to build a game), requires careful tradeoffs (between the roughly exclusive cash/token and card resources), and usually leads to a close, satisfying finish. Elfenland removes the problem of limited resources, leading to a reasonably satisfying family game that finishes in much less time. Elfengold effectively restores the game to Elfenroads, but with some new random elements and a smaller board. Each game has a different audience, really. I prefer to play Elfenroads myself, but I'd play either Elfenland or Elfenlandgold in preference if the audience or time requirements demanded it.

Union Pacific (FunAgain, $28.95 / Adam Spielt, 39.50 DM) is the most similar to it's parent game, Airlines (FunAgain, $37). There are minor rule changes - all easily applied to Airlines - but really only one major difference (the presence of Union Pacific stock) and much nicer components. That said - and with the understanding that I've only played Union Pacific once, having no great desire to repeat the exercise - I find Airlines to be the superior game. The rules changes generally do improve the game, but they are easily applied to Airlines. And while I'm not fond of the Union Pacific stock, it too could easily to grafted on to Airlines. However, I found the elimination of route numbers to make board play less interesting, the graphics on Union Pacific to be inferior (and I can't say I think much of those Airlines sports), and most seriously Union Pacific has the possibility to last too long. The one time I did play, because of the Union Pacific stock (the acquisition of which slowed down the game) and the final scoring card being nearly the last card turned, players were forced to build up other player's routes, and we very nearly reached the point where there was no legal play - no route could be played anywhere on the board. In my mind, this is a fatal flaw - I have little enough time for gaming that knowing I might find myself in this situation two hours into the game is sufficient reason for me not to play it, particularly when Airlines offers the same - or superior - pleasures without the problem.

As with Airlines and Elfenroads, I have a preference for the original Freight Train (FunAgain, $13.95 - Mayfair version) over the derivative Reibach & Co. (FunAgain, $12 / Adam Spielt, 15.95 DM) / Get the Goods (FunAgain, $4.95). Freight Train is a game of hand management, where players must work to both keep their own trains in order and leave few (or undesirable) options for the next player. In Reibach & Co., the hand management spects have mostly been eliminated, though the collection and acquisition portions of the game largely remain. I find Freight Train to offer far more to do, and far more ways to do it - in Reibach, there is much more often a clear and obvious choice. Additionally, I find the 2x cards (which double the scoring of a set) in Reibach troublesome, as the rules as written make them far too powerful - the person who gets the most will usually win - and most rule adjustments I've seen haven't quite managed the trick of making them playable. Still, most of the adjustments help, and Reibach makes a fine lunchtime game - but given the time I still prefer Freight Train.

Alan has designed a number of card games, most of them with a familiar feel to them and all of them reasonably enjoyable, if not standouts. Black Spy is an interesting hearts variant, somewhat troublesome in that it's very hard to get off lead, but still enjoyable and better suited to odd numbers of players than the original. Rainbows (FunAgain, $12) is a derivative of rummy, with the twist being that scoring occurs in two different, independent ways. Tricks (FunAgain, $12) is a trick taking game with a twist; it's not bad, but it's niche (partnership card game that handles 5 players) is better filled with other games, as a result of which it slipped on to my trade pile relatively quickly. Wer hat mehr?, which has been cited by Alan as his favorite of his own games to still play, is an enjoyable Oh H*ll! variant with perhaps the worst graphics of any card game I've ever played.

Besides Elfenroads and Freight Train, there were five other big-box White Wind games published, four of which I've had the pleasure of playing. Santa Fe, which uses a mechanism derived from Wildlife Adventure in a new and innovative setting, is among the best games I've played. It offers the tension game designers stride for - nearly every turn offers a tough decision as to whether to go after immediate returns or long term gains. Elfengold and Fishy (FunAgain, $20), the original White Wind releases, can't match Santa Fe but are enjoyable games in their own right, and well aimed at the family market. Both are at heart bluffing games, and good examples of the genre. I didn't particularly care for Mush, Alan's cleverly themed dog sled race game, but in general dice games don't tend to be favorites of mine. Between that and the negotiation aspect of the game I've never been tempted by Elfenwizards.

Three of Alan's games are consistently on my top twenty list, and therefore easy recommendations: Elfenroads, Santa Fe, and Freight Train. Given the price difference, Elfenland plus the Elfengold expansion makes a perfectly acceptable substitute. I'd also recommend Airlines, though given its availability and the popularity Union Pacific has had elsewhere, it's probably a more reasonable option. Finally, while none of Alan's card games stands out to the extent his boardgames do, all of them are enjoyable and worth considering for fans of the genre.

For additional information, I recommend the following WWW sites:

Luding (http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/luding/) The best place to go for links to reviews of board games.

The Gaming Dumpster (http://www.neonate.org/) One of the two key sites for English rules translations.

The Game Cabinet(http://ww.gamecabinet.com/) The other key site for English rules translations.

Brett & Board (http://hjem.get2net.dk/Svellov/) The best place to go for the latest news on German board games.