May I draw your attention to a truly superb but little mentioned trading game that appeared at the last Essen. It is Kogge by Andreas Steding published by JKLM Games.I won't go into details of play, etc. because if you are at all interested you'll easily be able to track down information elsewhere - Mik Svellov's Brett 'n' Board site for example. It is simply that games that are often reviewed tend to be those that are produced by the larger firms and, consequently, are more widely available. But we as a hobby greatly benefit from these privately produced games (or games from smaller publishers) who deserve support if the product merits it. With small production runs, and not needing to work within the same constraints that the more popular market imposes on the bigger firms, they can often offer truly "gamers' games". As a game Kogge operates on several levels and you really need to get your head around the possibilities open to you each turn. So in this respect it is not a game to rush. Certainly no end of evening closure! One thing we found is that it gives the impression of being thoroughly playtested -not always an easy thing with such a multi-faceted game. I have no idea how many copies are still available, but I do earnestly draw your attention to it should you feel it could be your sort of game. We in our group can't praise it too highly. Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 2 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com