While attending Gulf Games 5 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I had the opportunity to play many of the new Nurnberg releases, particularly those which will be in the Rio Grande line. This is due to the fact that Mr. Rio Grande Games himself, Jay Tummelson, was in attendance and constantly demonstrated and taught the games to the eager attendees. I've only played each of these games once, so the following is my initial impressions only. Further playings are required before my opinion will become firm. Kardinal & Koenig Designed by Michael Schacht, this was the best of the new crop for me, narrowly edging out Reiner Knizia's Taj Mahal for this spot. I was bit dubious at first as I am not a fan of Schacht's earlier effort, Kontor. Well, K&K is certainly NO Kontor ... and that is a VERY good thing! In K&K, players vie for influence over regions of medieval Europe by placing monasteries on key locations within the regions. These regions are connected by various roadways, and controlling a string of monasteries along these roadways yields even greater influence (and more victory points). Players may also senators in the courts of the various regions, again trying to capture the majority. Placement of these pieces is controlled by the drawing of cards, which limits a player's options. This is about the only complaint I have heard about the game is that the cards can be too limiting and players are subject to the luck of the draw. I frankly didn't experience this as I always felt I had enough options to pursue. The game has a strong feel of El Grande, which is a GREAT thing. What's more, it is very quick, playing in about 45 minutes, and the rules are extremely easy to understand. Nearly everyone was singing the praises of this game. It will be released in English by Rio Grande Games under the name of Web of Power. Taj Mahal Knizia's latest game does not disappoint. This time, the theme is set in India, and although it still isn't a perfectly matched and strongly tied-in theme, it is better than most of Reiner's thinly pasted efforts. The game board depicts twelve provinces, with struggles for each province being resolved in a definite order. For each province, players vie to capture the influence of various groups, represented by symbol tokens. Control of these tokens is contested by playing cards which match the symbols. Card play continues until a player is satisfied that he has achieved his objective, which is usually having played cards which give him the majority in certain symbols. He may then 'fold', taking possession of those symbols which he has the majority in and constructing a palace on one of the several locations within the region being contested. He is also then allowed to choose three of the nine (or ten ... I can't recall the exact number) face-up cards to re-fill his hand. Card play then continues until all symbols have been captured by the players. Construction of a palace is critical as players can earn bonuses for building on certain locations or capture certain tokens which can later yield points. Further, if a player is able to construct palaces in various regions which are connected via roadways, even more points are earned. Certain tokens captured allow a player to gain certain powers which can be used each turn until that power is stolen from them by another player (which is accomplished by ... yes ... capturing more tokens of the same color). This adds yet another objective to strive for. The game continues until all twelve regions have been resolved. This is the only complaint I have with the game. It is too long and gets to feel a bit repetitive. Our game took close to two hours, as did most of the Taj Mahal games which were played during the course of the convention. However, the mechanics of the game and the test of wills was so good I can live with the length. Taj Mahal has a strong 'poker' feel to it. One has to know when to fold and grab whatever tokens he can, or when to stay in the contest of card play and go for potentially greater rewards. This one seems destined for greatness. Ohne Furcht und Adel (Citadelles) Many folks had the opportunity to try this Bruno Faiduti title at last year's Gathering of Friends when it was in its infancy. I was one of them and wasn't as impressed as most. Turns out the reason is likely that I played the game with seven players and the game seemed to drag on forever. Jay brought the German version along and it was the first 'Nurnberg' game I played. This time my experience was much better as we had only four players and the game flowed much smoother and quicker. I was very impressed with the game, as were my opponents. Sadly, the game will not be released in English for what appears to be a VERY long time (but that's another story!), so I have already placed my order with Adam Spielt for several copies. The title means "Without Fear and Nobility", but will probably always be known as Citadelles for those who originally played it. The game borrows the central mechanism of choosing powers from Verrater, but vastly improves on the game play. Each turn, players choose a character, which conveys upon them certain powers. On a turn, a player may add buildings to his city, with the ultimate goal being to construct buildings of the greatest value. Of course, the more valuable a building, the more expensive it is to construct. So, players must balance the task of acquiring income versus constructing buildings. The powers add a neat twist to the game as, depending upon the character selected, players can steal gold, assassinate opponents, switch hands of cards with opponents, protect buildings, construct extra buildings, etc. No one is quite sure which of the 8 powers is active each round, which adds a nagging sense of uncertainty to one's plans and actions. One's best laid plans can be wrecked by a nasty play of an opponent. The game was extremely fun to play and with four players lasted just under an hour. I give this one high marks. Carolus Magnus This title is being distributed by Rio Grande Games, but will not bear its label. It is being released by Winning Moves and Venice Connection. It is designed by Leo Colovini, who co-designed Europa 1945-2030 and Die Oster Insel. The game is very abstract and the theme is, well, non-existent. Well, that's not exactly true. It exists, but bears no relation to the game whatsoever. So what. The game itself is very good, albeit a bit susceptible to mathematical over-analysis. The theme, such as it is, is to safeguard the provinces of Charlemagne's empire by the construction of fortresses. In order to accomplish this, players need the support of the noble families, who send knights to the courts. The game board is not really a board, rather a series of 'island' provinces formed in a circle, but not connected. The game pawn is hopped from province to province by each player depending upon the movement token he has played. Each player has numbered disks ranging from 1 - 5. Every turn, a player places a disk face up in front of him. Other players must play a disk of a different value. This determines the player order, as well as the number of spaces a player may move the token from province to province. The game is played using colored wooden cubes (gee, there's a surprise!) and towers. After the turn order is determined via the playing of the tokens, each player takes his turn. First, the player allocated five cubes to either his court or the board. Cubes allocated to the court are placed so they correspond with the color shown on the player aid chart (the court). Cubes placed on the board are placed in whatever provinces the player desires. If a player has the majority of one color allocated to his court (example: more blue cubes in his court than any other player has in his court), he now 'controls' blue. Thus, any blue cubes in the provinces are under his control and count towards a majority in that section. After allocating cubes to the court or provinces, a player moves the game pawn a number of spaces equal to the token he played. At that point, if he has a majority in the province the pawn is located in, he may build a fortress, which is permanently under the control of the player. If another player subsequently gains control of the province, your tower is evicted and replaced by the newly conquering player. If a player manages to gain control of two or more adjacent provinces, these provinces are slid together and joined. This, of course, makes it more difficult for an opponent to wrest control of that new, larger province. Following movement and placing of a fortress (if any), the player then rolls five colored dice and takes the appropriately colored cubes from the general supply and adds it to his supply of nine cubes. The game ultimately ends when one player has placed ALL of his fortresses or there are only three provinces remaining on the board (the smaller ones having been joined together). If the game ends due to this latter condition, the player with the most fortresses on the board is victorious. Confused? Yes, it was a bit confusing and the game does take awhile to get your mind wrapped around the mechanics, but once done, the game does become very calculating and tactical, with constant struggles occurring over control of the various colors and provinces. Another big plus is that the game plays extremely well with three players, which is how I played it. With more than 3 players, there are partnership rules, which I don't think I'd be partial to. As mentioned, my only problem with the game is it is prone to over-analysis as players mathematically calculate the impact of their potential moves and allocation of cubes. Advance warning of this potential to the players may help alleviate this situation. In spite of this, however, the game is very tactical, challenging and competitive. Again, this one is a winner. Time Pirates This was probably my biggest disappointment in regards to the new Nurnberg games. It is an Alan Moon / Aaron Weissblum design, with artwork by Franz Vohlwinkel, whose work I usually admire. However, I was disappointed by both the game and the artwork. I loathe aborting games which I have begun. I always feel that you should play a game through at least once just to get the full flavor of it and a better understanding of how the various mechanics meld and play out through an entire game. It is rare, indeed, when I support ending a game pre-maturely. Well, all six players involved in our game of Time Pirates heartily agreed to abort the game after only one round of a three round game. Mark Engelberg aptly described the game as "having all the fun sucked out of it". It simply wasn't fun. Every player took his turn, performed the action(s) and play rotated. There was literally no suspense or excitement. The theme is intriguing: To fill orders of art dealers, Time Pirates are hunting for artifacts in various historical periods. These artifacts can then be "sold" (exchanged, actually) for good money at the bazaar at the end of time. The Time Guard tries to keeps the artifacts where they belong. On your turn, you can do two of the following actions: 1) Move to another historical period (following paths on the board); 2) Pick up an artifact from the space you are on (there are several choices of artifacts in each 'period'); or 3) Deliver an order by exchanging a set of artifacts you have collected for a 'fee' (represented by a point token). Players may also 'fill up' empty artifact spaces in the period they are in, in which case they are rewarded with a third action. However, when drawing new artifacts from the bag, the Time Guard may be drawn, in which case his token is moved to an adjacent historical period (space) according to the directions on the chit. If he encounters a Time Pirate and he is in the same period as the Time Pirate at the start of that player's next turn, the pirate loses one of his artifacts. In reality, this is a very paltry penalty to pay. Players may steal artifacts from other players by surrendering certain artifacts they have collected, but a wise player usually protects himself against such an occurrence. That's about it. The game was very unexciting with little real thought involved in the game. Since there are a limited number of Time Guard tokens in the bag, it is very easy to discern which tokens remain and therefore predict with reasonable accuracy where the Time Guard will move. Thus, it is fairly easy to avoid him. But even if caught, the penalty isn't all that severe. In spite of getting one rule wrong (we were placing 'cashed in' artifacts back into the bag, when in reality they should be left out until the beginning of the next round), the game likely wouldn't play better with the correct rules. I was sorely disappointed. The artwork also does nothing to evoke the feel of the theme. It is quite garish and bright and I, for one, had absolutely no feel of being an actual 'time pirate'. The theme is neat, but the game in no way conveys the feel. A shame. Vampire Yet another card game .. and yet another game from Herr Knizia. This one is going to rank very closely at the top of any list of games having virtually nothing to do with its theme. It is a Rummy-style game which could have just as easily had any type of theme adhered to it ... even 'bunnies', as suggested by buddy Mark Jackson. Players chase vampires in Transylvania, routing them out of six different locations. Cards represent six different types of vampires, each of which is haunts one of the six locations. On a player's turn, he may do one of two actions: Draw two cards from the face down draw pile. If he does this, he must then discard one card to the proper location, or 2) Pick up all the vampire cards from one location, add them to his hand, and then lay down in front of him a meld of at least four identical cards. If a player lays down a meld of cards of a type he already had played, he must discard the meld with the lower number of cards in it. The game ends when the draw pile is exhausted or one player succeeds in laying melds of all six vampire types (colors). As is traditional with Knizia, there is a scoring twist. At the end of the game, the player who has the fewest cards in front of him of each color discards these cards and does not score points for them. Then, all players add the value of the cards laid to determine the winner. Umm ... that's it. There really isn't much to this game at all. It, too, was unexciting and, frankly, uninspiring. A disappointment from Knizia. Morgenland (Aladdin's Dragons) This is the revamped re-make of Richard Breese's much ballyhooed Keydom. Jay Tummelson said that the revised edition 'fixed' the many problems I (and others) had with the original game, including the length of the game and the endgame kingmaker problem. Well, he's right. These problems appear to be fixed. Sadly, the revised edition created a new set of problems. First, one of the spaces the players compete for is the right to have the 'start' token, allowing that player to place his tokens first. Well, in our game, we found that going first is actually a disadvantage, NOT an advantage. Thus, one of our players got stuck with the 'start' token and never relinquished it, much to his detriment. So, it was a wasted space. Another problem was that magic in the game appeared to be fairly weak since an attempt to use magic can be vetoed by players who possess a 'veto' token. The main problem I have with the game is that I just don't seem to enjoy the basic mechanic of allocating tokens face down and then revealing them once everyone has placed all of their tokens. This seems to be such a crap shoot that it really mitigates any careful and precise planning. Many seem to enjoy this mechanic. I don't. So, if you are a Keydom fan and are looking for a version you can play MUCH quicker, then Morgenland is for you. Otherwise, I'd pass. Schweinnes Gallopp (Galloping Pigs) This is a light, yet entertaining card game of racing pigs. I didn't know pigs could race, yet along gallop. I've since been informed that pig races are quite common at mid-western fairs. I guess if we can race crawfish at local bayou fairs, they can race pigs! Cards are set out in a circle path, with the six colored pigs set in a line ready to race. Players are each dealt colored cards which match the colors of the pigs. On a player's turn, he plays a card, causing the corresponding pig to move one space ahead. If this would force him to land on a space occupied by another pig, he leaps ahead of that pig, or any other pig ahead of him until he reaches a vacant space. I guess pigs are too big to have more than one fit on a space! Each time a player plays a card which leaps that pig into the lead, he takes a food card. This procedure continues until all players have played all of their cards. If the last card played by each player caused that pig to leap into the lead, then that player gets to keep all of the food cards he collected and score points for them. If, however, the a player's final card played DID NOT cause that pig to leap into the lead, the player loses ALL of his food cards and scores zero points for that round. Three rounds are played and the player with the most food wins. Yes, the game is light, but does require a modicum of thought and planning. And ... it is fun, which is more than I can say for Vampire and Time Pirates. It is certainly a cute game to play with the family. Solche Strolche Run away ... run away fast. This is a quick time recognition game, the type that drives me to the brink of suicide. In fact, I'm sure the name translated into English probably means 'Severe Pain'. A bunch of cards depicting various animals in different colors are scattered about the table. Then, one player turns over a card depicting four animals, each of a different color. The idea is to quickly recognize which animal and which color is not depicted on the card, quickly locate that card amongst those scattered about the table, then grab it before any of your opponents. This quick, mind-crushing exercise is continued ad nauseum until the deck is depleted. The player collecting the most cards is victorious. As soon as Jay began explaining the rules, both Jason Matthews and I let out a low, guttural moan, the pain already beginning. Sure enough, it was pain. Hopefully, I'll never have to play this again. Das Riff Are there any more possible themes that can be created? Here's a game whose theme is about spawning fish. Yep ... players must get a male and female fish of the proper type together, send them off into the seaweed for a little fishy fun, and spawn baby fishies. Sounds like something they'd play at the Playboy mansion ... without the fish. This one is joining the line of Kosmos' 2-player games. The game is amusing, but, as is, has some problems. Fortunately, Jay Tummelson is aware of the problems and is planning on correcting them in the Rio Grande version. Players are fishermen among the colorful coral banks. Their objective is to catch fish to breed even more colorful fish according to customer demand. 32 'reef' cards are placed in 4 rows. The 2 middle rows are placed face down, while the exterior rows are placed face-up. Players each are given one boat card which is placed beside the first card on their side of the row of reef cards. Each player also receives a 'coral' card, which is where they can send the two adult fish to spawn. Four fish cards are turned face up. These fish cards depict dual-colored fish and are the various combinations which the players must create. Thus, if one of the cards depicts a orange/yellow fish, players must 'hook' both a orange and a yellow fish. Of course, one fish must be male, while the other must be female. I know this is politically incorrect, but as Celine Dion says, "That's the way it is!" On a player's turn, he rolls two dice and takes the appropriately colored worms from the general supply. He then may perform as many actions as he wishes, but actions cost worms. The actions are: 1) He may turn up one of the face-down reef cards IF it is in the same column as his boat (this costs 1 worm); 2) He may snag a fish, shark, coral or clam from the column where his boat is located .. IF he has a colored worm which matches the color of the fish being snagged (this costs 1 - 4 worms, depending upon which row the fish is in); 3) He may purchase a NEW boat and place it on the second column, next to his other boat. I believe a new boat costs 4 worms. If a player reveals an open water card, it flows off the table and all other cards behind it move up one space. Once a certain number of cards have been removed in this fashion, the draw pile is reshuffled and the four rows are replenished. If a player snags a reef card, he places it with his other reefs and thereby has more places wherein to breed little fishies. However, a player may only possess five coral reefs. This is one of the flaws in the game, as once both players possess five reefs, the other reef cards become useless and can cause a block, prohibiting other cards to move along. An easy solution, of course, is to make these cards act as free flowing water once both players have five coral reefs. A clam card can be used as a 'wild' worm, being used as any color the player decides. A shark can be used to remove a fish from an opponent's coral reef or from the board. Once a player successfully snags two fish of the needed colors, they spawn and the player captures the appropriate 'little fishy' card. The first player to spawn five fish wins. The game is cute ... but way too long for the pleasure derived. I'd recommend playing to only three or four spawned fish. Another problem I have is that the game is hugely dependent upon the luck of the die roll, which determines which worms you can take. For instance, I simply needed one orange worm to win the game and literally went for six turns without rolling an orange worm on two dice. This allowed my opponent to catch up and win the game. There should be a mechanism wherein you can exchange a certain number of worms for a worm of your choice. As is, the game is a cute game to be played with family. Even in that environment, however, these fixes are needed. Although the game is OK, it is not one to rush out and purchase. Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 10 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com