Everything aligned just right to allow me to once again make the journey to the Mecca of the gaming world: the Spiele Faire in Essen, Germany. This time, Craig Berg of Kitchen Table Gamers fame joined James Miller and I for the pilgrimage. To view the 100+ photos from our Essen sojourn, please visit our gallery at: boardgamegeek.com/gallery/
MONDAY - TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20 & 21, 2003
The three of us met at Dulles airport in Washington, DC and endured the long flight over to Deutschland. Sandwiched between two in-flight movies, Craig and I enjoyed a tight game of the Battleship Card Game. I am still enjoying this light and entertaining game from Hasbro.
After arriving in Frankfurt, we quickly cleared customs and secured our rental vehicle - a strange looking Renault. There was plenty of room for us, but we were quite perplexed by some of its features. First, it took us quite some time to locate the correct mechanism that allowed the front seats to be adjusted. Our next challenge was locating the emergency break, which was most certainly NOT located in the usual place by the stick-shift. Fortunately, the vehicle had some sort of automatic break that prevented it from rolling away when idling or parked. The final perplexing feature was the cup holder, which was located directly below the protruding stick-shift console. Try as we might, we found it physically impossible to fit any type of cup or bottle into the holder. We did discover that the holder was removable, but we failed to locate any other place where it could be attached. Strange. Very strange.
Tuesday was spent traveling up the Rhine river, enjoying the truly wonderful beauty of the region and its amazing attractions. After browsing the delightful, atmospheric streets and alleyways of Rudesheim, we trekked our way through three different castles. All were wonderful, but our favorite was Castle Rheinfels, located above the historic town of St. Goar. The castle is massive and mostly in ruins. It is filled with enticing and mysterious tunnels, passageways and hidden rooms. We wandered for hours and could have easily spent the better part of a day there. It was truly amazing.
We then headed for our hotel in Dusseldorf. Exhaustion had overcome all of us, so James was forced to constantly talk to me in order to keep me awake. We thought Craig was silently enjoying the scenery, only to discover that he was sound asleep in the back seat. After a dinner at an Italian restaurant located next to our hotel, we managed to get 7 hours of sleep, which would prove to be the most we would get for the remainder of the sojourn.
Thanks to some passes, we were able to enter the Messe Halle on Wednesday. This is really a neat experience, as the halls are bustling with activity as the hundreds of dealers are scurrying about setting up their booths. Since there aren't very many people in the halls, it is easier to meet up with various folks and spend some time catching-up and chatting. We met Ward Batty, who spent the rest of the convention with us. Ward is so much fun to be with and he kept us laughing the entire time. It is also a good time to browse through the “used games” booths before the throngs descend on Thursday. Unfortunately, we learned that the halls are also open to those with passes on Tuesday, which meant that several dealers (Hi, Bob & Jeremy!) had beaten us to the booths and scooped a ton of games! Fortunately, there is quite enough to go around, so we found most of what we were looking for, as well as a few surprises. Craig even managed to secure a copy of Space Hulk for 30 euros. Not bad.
On Wednesday afternoon, we met at the Warfrog booth to play Martin Wallace's new Princes of the Renaissance. Ward, James Craig and I were joined by Rick Thornquist for this most fascinating game. James Hamilton of the Warfrog crew taught the game to us and made sure we were up and running before moving on to instruct another table. The game itself is fascinating and filled with tough choices and important decisions. Players participate in bids to acquire various characters and personalities who are citizens of one six cities in Italy. Cities go to war, which can result in their prestige being raised or lowered. Money is earned from these wars and players gain victory points based on the status of the cities. We had to abort our game a bit early as Rick had a 4:00PM appointment, but we were all favorably impressed. This appears to be another winner from Martin and the Warfrog team.
Before the close of the hall, I joined Mik Svellov and Stuart Dagger for a game of the Bridges of Shangri-La. We were taught by Jeremy Young, who was familiar with the game as he will be releasing it under the Uber Play Games label. The three of us played to within a turn or two of completion, but the closing of the hall forced us to end a bit early. The game is very abstract, which isn't very surprising since it is a Leo Colovini design. The object is to procreate your pieces and get as many on the board as possible. On each turn, you can either place new pieces in locations where you already have a presence, or add duplicate pieces on top of your already existing pieces. The reason for doing this is so that these pieces can migrate across the bridges to adjacent locations. These migrations usually result in identical pieces of your opponents being removed from the location to which the pieces were migrated. Once a migration occurs, the bridge is removed, so as the game progresses, movement becomes more and more restricted. The game ends when all but a few locations are isolated. At that point, the player with the most pieces on the board is victorious.
Although the game works and there are interesting decisions to be made, we all found the game to be very dry and abstract. It just failed to excite us. It somehow gave me the feeling of Muscat, but I enjoy that title much more. I'll play the game again, but I felt no urge to purchase it.
Craig, James, Ward and I headed over to Hotel Handelshof, where the crew from Counter magazine and several of their British compatriots were lodging. We socialized, had dinner and played several games. My first game of the evening was Nobody But Us Chickens, which I enjoyed with James Miller, Alan How, Matt Leathwood, Gary and Mike Clifford. Alan jumped out to an early lead, but Matt finished strong to capture the victory.
Finals: Matt 69, Alan 60, Greg 53, Mike 46, James 29, Gary 29
I then taught Scream Machine to several folks, including Ward Batty, Martin Leathwood, Mike Clifford and Richard Breese. We all found the game to be enjoyable, but several folks did have a bit of trouble with the color schemes used on the cards. I personally thoroughly enjoy the game and was pleased to see it being sold at several locations during the Spiele Faire.
We managed to get about 3 ½ hours sleep that night before heading back to the Faire on Thursday morning.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23rd
After a bit of browsing, we headed to the 2F booth for our 10AM appointment to play Friedemann Friese's new game, Finstere Flure. We were fortunate to have Friedemann himself teach us the game. He has such a great personality and his enthusiasm for his games clearly shows.
The theme is a loose continuation of his previous title, Fische, Fluppen & Frikadellen. The players are being chased by a hideous monster and must escape from the castle before being devoured. Each of the player's pieces has a defined movement allowance, but this changes after each turn. The monster moves according to movement tiles, and turns and heads toward the closest potential victim. He checks for the closest victim each time he moves a space, so his movement is often erratic and surprising. He can also exit the board and reappear on the other side, which can be quite startling.
While there are some tactical choices to make when moving, the game is largely a "light" affair. Although it has more decisions than most lighter games, it still has a "beer & pretzels" game feel to it. That's not necessarily bad . I was just expecting a bit more. I am a huge fan of Funkenschlag and was hoping for something on a similar level from Herr Friese.
The terrified participants were Craig Berg, Ward Batty, Mik Svellov, James, Miller Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Tom (??) and I. Several players got close to getting two of their characters safely off the board, but the ravenous monster made a sudden appearance near the exit and devoured several characters. This left an opening for me to scurry through and claim the victory.
Initial ratings from the participants: Mik 10, Craig 8, Ward 7, James 7, Greg 6
Later in the afternoon, we (Ward, Mik, James and I) had the privilege of being taught Alexandros by its designer, Leo Colovini. Like most Colovini designs, including the Bridges of Shangri-La, this one is very abstract, but contains some interesting choices and options. The idea is to move Alexander around the land in such a way as to form territories, then claim those territories where advantageous . and possible. Card play dictates the movement of Alexander and the controlling of provinces, so the cards you hold do limit what you can do on each turn.
I found the game to be interesting, but very dry. After one play, I'm sitting on the fence on this one. I have to play it again before forming a firm opinion, but am willing to wait for the Rio Grande version.
After rushing to an early lead, James ruthlessly eliminated some of my units and denied me control of a vital territory. This was enough to allow him to capture the victory.
Finals: James 65, Greg 60, Mik 53, Ward 46
Ratings: James 7, Ward 7, Greg 6, Mik 6
After hours of further browsing and schmoozing, several in our party were tired and wanted to rest. Fortunately, there were several tables open at the massive Amigo booth, so we decided to grab a table and see if we could learn a few new Amigo titles. The bonus was that the college girls working at the booth were all very attractive!
The first game we learned was Yellowstone Park. I had the pleasure of visiting the magnificent Yellowstone Park a few years back and will once again be vacationing there in June of 2004. So, a game bearing its name is quite intriguing. Yes, I was forewarned that the game is on the lighter side, but I was hoping there would be enough "theme" there to make it attractive. Sadly, there isn't.
The game is essentially a tile-laying game using cards. The board depicts a grid (I don't recall the exact size), with the columns dictating the number of the card that must be played there. Once a card is played, the remaining cards played in that column must also follow the color. The idea is to play cards into a 3 x 3 pattern. If you are forced to play outside this pattern, then you are essentially forming a new 3 x 3 pattern, but must take all cards that fall outside this new pattern. Taking cards is bad, as they will score negative points at game's end.
If you deplete your hand of cards, you can refill it from either the draw pile or from the cards you have previously taken. This is the way to reduce your "penalty" pile, so depleting your hand of cards is very important if you have previously taken penalty cards.
I found the game to be pleasant, but devoid of any real decisions. Your plays are dictated by the cards you hold and the layout of the board. There doesn't appear to be any room for clever tactics or play. The game plays you . not the other way around. I was disappointed.
James, Ward, Craig and I played and I don't exactly recall who won. My rating would be a '5' at best.
We managed to learn one more Amigo game prior to the hall closing for the evening. Die Sieben Siegel is yet another trick-taking game. My first reaction was "No, we don't." Fortunately, this one has a twist that makes it worthwhile. Not only do you have to predict the number of tricks you will take, but you must predict the number of tricks in EACH suit you will take! You can predict that you will completely avoid all tricks, too. When you make a prediction, you take the appropriate number of tokens (seals). These tokens are limited, so if the supply is exhausted for another player, he must take those tokens from his opponents, replacing them with a "wild" seal. These wild seals can be used for any suit, making it easier for that player to fulfill his prediction. This makes making the predictions tougher for the players.
We played two hands before having to halt due to the closing of the hall. All of us were very impressed, prompting most (if not all) of us to purchase a copy the next day.
For dinner, we headed to Drago's, a popular restaurant located just across the highway from the Messe Hall. A large group was present and the atmosphere was jovial. It is always a great time to share a meal with good friends. The size of the group, however, meant that it took quite awhile for us to get our food. Rick Thornquist's meal was inadvertently delivered to Trond Braud, who didn't realize the mistake until after he had taken a few bites. No matter, as Rick simply retrieved the meal and consumed the remainder! Gotta watch out for those hungry Norwegians!
Following dinner, many of us convened at the infamous Jung Hotel, home of the wacky Warfrog crew and assorted other characters. The Jung has become quite the hot-spot for gaming - and adult beverage consumption - and the attendance has quickly outstripped the breakfast room that serves as the gaming room. We managed to shift the furniture about and pilfer some chairs from the attached kitchen in order to squeeze in our contingent.
After an aborted attempt to learn Lucky Loop from the German rules, the group opted to play Attribut - over my objections. The game is very similar to Apples to Apples, a game that I find to be, well, not really a game at all. Still, the company was sterling, so I acquiesced. Ward Batty, James Miller, Gary Lloyd, Trond Braud, Craig Berg, Kjell (Kit) Inge, Heli Bartheu and I quickly slapped cards and hoped we guessed correctly. James proved the most adept.
Finals: James 10, Gary 7, Greg 7, Craig 7, Heli 7, Trond 5, Ward 2, Kjell 2
My rating would be in the neighborhood of a '3'.
Heli was then kind enough to translate the rules to Lucky Loop for us. Unfortunately, the late hour forced several in our group to head for bed. Those left behind to perform on our air show stunts were Trond, Craig, James and I.
Lucky Loop is part of the new Queen line of games and was designed by Karsten Hartwig (Chinatown) and Wolfgang Panning. It is a dice game, with players attempting to successfully complete four different air shows. Each show requires the players to perform certain stunts - dives, loops, etc. Dice are rolled and the difficulty level of the stunts must be met or exceeded. The decisions center around how best to use your dice to successfully perform these stunts, and whether to attempt to improve your score in a previously completed show or move on to a new show. Lots of dice rolling with fun, light decisions. I was pleasantly surprised by Lucky Loop and immediately purchased a copy the next day.
Craig proved to be the best stunt pilot.
Finals: Craig 75, James 63, Trond 41, Greg 39
Ratings: Craig 8, Greg 6.5, Trond 6.5, James 6
The hour was once again exceedingly late, so we said our "good-byes" and headed back to our hotel. We managed 4 hours of sleep, which was a far cry from being enough.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23rd
Back to the Messe early for our 9:30AM appointment at the Cwali booth to play Corne von Moorsel's latest design, Logistico. Corne graciously taught the game to Ward, Craig, James and I, with Mik Svellov observing.
The idea behind the game is to deliver goods to their destinations using three modes of transportation: boats, planes and trucks. Players move their vehicles about the board, picking up goods and making the deliveries to their required destinations. Deliveries yield a profit, but the greater the distance traveled, the greater the costs. The payoffs for deliveries increase as the game progresses, and each player has three secret destinations that provide even higher yields. The idea is to set up routes and coordinate the movements of your vehicles in the most efficient manner possible so as to minimize costs and maximize profits.
The commodities and their delivery locations are set-up randomly, which should make for a different feel each game. Although decidedly dry, I found the game quite stimulating, with the planning required to establish efficient routes and deliveries challenging. I was impressed enough to purchase a copy. I guess it didn't hurt that I overcame an early lead by Ward to capture the victory.
Finals: Greg 90, Ward 64, Craig 54, James 50
My rating is a 7.
We then scurried to the Bewitched booth for our 11AM appointment to play Andrea Meyer's new game Schwarzarbeit. Last year, Ad Acta was one of the hits of the Essen show for me, so I had high hopes for Andrea's next release.
The previous night, however, I was told that the game was a deduction game - a clear warning sign for me as I am not normally a fan of deduction games. There are some exceptions - most notably Sleuth and Mystery in the Abbey - but for the most part, it simply is not a genre I enjoy very much. So, I approached the game very cautiously and with subdued expectations.
Andrea explained the game to James, Craig, Mik, Mike Bialecki and I, and I was lost from the beginning. Oh, I understood the rules. I just had no idea how to track the information needed to successfully score points. Not a good sign.
From my sketchy memory of the game, players represent families employing domestic help. There are three cards for each of the helpers, with 20 or so different helpers in all. Two cards are dealt face-down to each player and a number of cards are dealt face-up to the center of the table. The object is to try to discern the identity of the two cards that are employed by each of the players. This is accomplished as players take their turns either employing new help from the face-up stack, or declaring one of those cards to be an “illegal”. If a player feels a card available in the center is not already employed by an opponent, he can take the card and place it face-up beside his “home”. If he believes a card is already employed by an opponent, he takes the card and places it face-down next to him. Players can challenge an opponent's selection by placing one of their “lawyer” tokens on it. At the end of the game, points are awarded or subtracted depending upon whether the player's selections were correct or incorrect.
Since players are forbidden to take any notes, the game not only involved deduction, but memory as well. I never could get the hang of just how to track the relevant information. I simply found the game to be beyond my grasp. I'm sure the severe lack of sleep didn't help matters, either! I certainly can't state that this is a poor or bad game. It probably is a wonderful game for folks who enjoy deduction games. It simply isn't my style of game.
Mik and Craig seemed to master the concept, with Mik taking the narrow victory.
Finals: Mik 21, Craig 19, James 11, Mike 9, Greg 8
Following our game, I headed for a lunch appointment with other members of the International Gamers Awards committee who were in attendance at the Faire. Ben Baldanza, Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Stuart Dagger, Ronald Hoekstra, Alan How, Mik Svellov and I discussed some IGA business and plans, as well as enjoyed some discussion on games and other topics. As we were adjourning, we were joined by Derek Carver, a fine gentleman who I've had the pleasure of corresponding with but had not previously met.
Following lunch, I met up with Mark Johnson and his lovely wife Candy. This was Mark's first Essen experience and came at the end of a 2-week European vacation. It was good hearing about their experiences and spending some time browsing the booths.
After some browsing, it was time to change into more proper attire in preparation for the presentation of the 2003 International Gamers Awards. The presentation was held at the Alea booth, with awards being presented to Reiner Knizia, Kosmos and Fantasy Flight Games (Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation); Andreas Seyfarth, Alea and Rio Grande Games (Puerto Rico); and Martin Wallace, Warfrog and Winsome Games (Age of Steam). As is the custom, I delivered the presentation speech in German, undoubtedly mangling many of the words. Still, the audience seemed to understand the speech, as they laughed and clapped at the appropriate moments.
It was a great thrill to present the awards to these prestigious designers and the company representatives. It was also a great thrill to see that several booths were displaying the IGA logo in recognition of their games that had received a nomination.
After the presentation, Mark Johnson, Craig, James and I headed over to The Realm of Fantasy booth to check-out Atta Ants, a game being touted by Stuart Dagger and Alan How. The game's designer, Richard Rijk, taught us the game, which we easily understood.
Each player represents a small colony of ants attempting to gather food and increase their population. To acquire the food, players must send forth their ants from the safety of the colony and safely get the food back to the hill. The danger is the appearance of the spiders, which just love a good meal of ants. Each player takes turns moving the spiders, which must move towards the space containing the greatest number of ants. Get caught by a spider and your ants are consumed. The idea is to increase your population of ants, with the winner being the first to have all of his ants on the board.
The real secret to getting the food back to the hill is creating a line of ants. Ants move two spaces each, but can hand-off leaves to fellow ants when occupying the same space. Thus, a sort of relay race can be run to quickly get food back to the hill. Of course, leaves can also be stolen from other ants, so the idea is to quickly transport the leaves back to the hill once you grab them.
I found the game to be easy to learn and containing some nice tactical movement options. It plays quick - 20 - 30 minutes. I think this will make for a nice “in-betweener”, which are those situations wherein you need to occupy some time while waiting to start a larger game.
Mark Johnson and I managed to maneuver the spiders so that they cornered numerous ants of Craig and James, ultimately devouring them. I located food on the far side of the board and ran an ant relay to get the leaf to the hill and capture the victory.
My initial rating is a '6.5'.
About an hour or so prior to closing, Ward suggested that we head back to the Amigo booth and learn Santiago. Ward's secret reason was that he wanted to sit down for awhile and enjoy the company of the lovely Amigo ladies! James, Craig and I joined him.
Santiago involves bidding for plots, then attempting to convince the controlling player to extend the irrigation canal by your plots so the crops will be watered. Each turn, a number of plots equal to the number of players are revealed, and players go once around the table offering a bid. The bidding allows for players to state any amount, so long as it is greater than or less than previous bids. So, one player can bid '5' and a subsequent player can bid less. Some found this to be faulty, but I honestly didn't see a problem as I found it made you think very carefully before naming your bid. High bidder selects and places his tile first, with players taking tiles in descending order based on their bids. Each tile can accommodate 1 or 2 workers.
The first player to have passed is the “controller” and will ultimately decide where the next irrigation canal will be placed. Canals must be placed next to the original source or continue existing irrigation canals. Each player makes an offer to the controller and indicates where he wishes the canal to be placed. A player can increase the offer of an opponent if he desires the canal to be placed in the same place. The controller then either accepts one of the offers and places the stream where requested, or places the stream where he desires at a cost of one more than the highest offer. Once per game, each player may place their special canal piece in order to irrigate a vital plot.
If a plot is not adjacent to a canal, then one worker will depart. If all workers depart, the tile will devolve into arid land on the subsequent turn. The game ends once all canals have been placed. At that point, players score points based on the size of adjacent plots containing the same type of crop the number of workers they have on that large plot. So, if five adjacent tiles are all producing corn and the player has 5 workers on those plots, then his score would be 5 x 5 = 25.
The idea is to maneuver your workers into large plots and to make sure the tiles you acquire get irrigated. Knowing how much to bid is vital, as over-bidding can be disastrous. Each player only gets three new coins each turn, so fiscal conservation is critical.
A few folks - most notably Richard Dewesberry and Christopher Dearlove - found the bidding system to be faulty. I've only played once so far, but I didn't have a problem with it. Neither did my fellow players. However, perhaps Richard and Christopher are spotting something we didn't. Future playings may reveal a flaw, but for now, I just don't see it.
EDITOR'S NOTE: It turns out Richard and Christopher were taught incorrectly and missed a few important rules that likely would have greatly changed their opinion of the game.
Ward was in command of two large plots, but was strictly concentrated in those areas. I managed to connect quite a few workers to those large plots, too, and also had a presence in several other modestly sized plots. This was enough to earn the victory.
Finals: Greg 111, Ward 104, James 71, Craig 68
My initial rating is a '7'.
We finished up 5 minutes or so after the hall's official closing time, so we rushed out and headed for the Jung Hotel. Our engagement this evening was a large dinner organized by Warfrog's Geoff Brown. Each year, a group gathers at a nearby Croatian restaurant for some great food and fellowship. This year was no exception, as over 40 folks enjoyed the event. My quick tally revealed that we had gamers present from 7 different countries. I spent most of the time chatting with the folks seated nearby, including Richard Dewesberry, Christopher Dearlove, Henning Kröpke and his fiancé Angelica. I did manage to move around a bit to chat with some folks, including a large contingent from Italy.
The meal was fantastic, but I just couldn't finish the huge portion of meat that was offered. Martin Hair spotted my dilemma and offered to liberate the meat from my plate. He was later appalled, though, when I ordered dessert, claming that my mother must not have taught me that I couldn't have dessert if I didn't finish my dinner! This reminded me of the Pink Floyd lyrics, “How can you have any pudding when you ain't eat your meat!” My philosophy is that there is always room for dessert!
Due to the late hour, we ferried Mark and Candy Johnson back to their hotel and headed back to our room to get some sleep. Of course, we remained awake for nearly another 2 hours chatting, meaning we only managed to get another 4 hours or so of sleep.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24th
It was difficult to believe that this was our final day at the Spiele Faire. 4 days just isn't enough. As I've mentioned, one of the absolute best things about attending Essen is getting to meet and socialize with so many outstanding folks from around the world. The saddest thing about Essen is departing, knowing that you will not see most of these folks again for a year or more.
Before arriving at the Faire, however, I need to relate a funny story. Both James and Craig expressed a desire to secure some more euros, so I asked the hotel clerk where the nearest ATM machine was located. Fortunately, there was a bank a block or so away from the hotel, so we headed to the bank. Unfortunately, the ATM machine was located inside of the lobby and the bank was closed. However, there appeared to be a slot wherein a person could slide in a credit card and gain entry. I had noticed on many past visits to Europe that folks would do just that. However, I assumed that the card they were using was some sort of access card issued by the bank.
So, we decided to walk across the street to a pharmacy and ask the clerk there if she knew of another ATM machine nearby. I can speak conversational German, but getting into a lengthy conversation tends to be too much for my brain to register. I understood the clerk when she informed me that we could go to the bank we had just left. I informed her that it was closed and we didn't have a card to get inside. She had a quizzical look on her face. I asked her if there was another ATM machine nearby, so she gave us instructions to a different machine, but it was too far away.
As we were walking back to our car, Craig suggested that we might be able to gain access to the bank lobby simply by using our credit card. Sure enough, it worked. D'oh! Now I understand the confusion that the pharmacy clerk must have been experiencing. She must have been wondering why on earth we would want to go to an ATM machine if we didn't have a credit card to get inside the bank!!
The folly continued, however, as the ATM machine inside the bank would not recognize either Craig's or James's card! So, we settled on driving to the Messe Halle and using the ATM machine located outside of it. We had intended on avoiding that machine as usually the line is long and it frequently runs out of money. Fortunately, we were early enough to avoid long lines. Even then, Craig's card still would not be recognized.
We had arranged to learn new San Juan card game for 9:30 AM at the Alea booth. To our surprise, Andreas Seyfarth himself arrived to teach Craig, James, Frank Schulte-Kulkmann and I the game. This is one of the most surreal experiences of attending Essen: getting to meet and learn games from their actual designers! Amazing.
San Juan, which won't be released until February, maintains much of the feel and atmosphere of Puerto Rico, but doesn't have as much player interaction. There isn't a large degree of “hoseage”, as all players can sell when the trader is chosen. There is also no shipping of goods phase. Basically, players manage their own hand of cards and decide which cards to build and which powers to select. Still, the game was quite fun and felt a bit like Ohne Furcht und Adel (Citadels).
The start player is known as the governor, but we adapted this to “governator”, using our best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice. About ¾ into the game, Andreas finally got the joke and laughed uproariously! He remained with us throughout the entire game, offering helpful hints and clarifying some of the German text on the cards. We were truly honored.
Other than Frank, who searched and searched for a particular card, the rest of us ended the game extremely close score-wise. I managed to edge out a victory.
Finals: Greg 38, James 37, Craig 36, Frank 23
I'd rate the game a “7.5” so far.
Later that afternoon, we headed for the Yun Games booth. I'm not familiar with their games, but their appearance had caught my attention during the week. The games are heavily laden with wooden tiles and make a very attractive appearance. Mik Svellov had informed me that their Gold Geier game was worth investigating, so I had scheduled an appointment to play the game. I was joined by Craig, James and Ward.
About a hundred or so wooden tiles are placed face-down onto the board, which represents 8 different levels of a mine. Players represent miners digging down into the mine in search of treasure. Players use action points to dig down into the minds, but must use ladders to move up or down levels. Only a limited number of ladders can be carried in one's knapsack, so frequent trips must be made back to the surface to acquire more supplies and to store your gold in the bank.
Many tiles result in gold finds, but others reveal hazards such as rocks, water or even explosions. One needs dynamite to get through some rocks, while others are completely impassable. A diving helmet is needed to pass water, while explosions cause the player to lose all gold he is carrying and spend a turn recuperating on the surface.
The decisions to be made mainly center around what types of equipment to purchase with limited funds and whether to keep pressing on in your digging efforts or return to the surface to secure found gold. Still, these decisions are minor and the vast majority of the game is simply dependent upon turning over tiles and hoping to get lucky. It is so easy to be hemmed in by rocks and water, while an opponent gets lucky and finds one mother lode after another. The game has an interesting concept, but involves little more than blind luck. We were all very disappointed.
James was the ultimate winner. Finals: James 10, Ward 3, Craig 0, Greg 0 My rating would be a “3”.
Bruno Faidutti had mentioned that the new Tilset game Maya Bana was quite good. I had seen the game and have to admit that the bits were very attractive. So, I convinced the group to head on over to the Tilset booth and try to find a table. We were very fortunate in that a group was just departing, so we grabbed the table. We were doubly fortunate in that one of the players agreed to teach us the game. Very, very nice of him.
Players are setting up resorts around the lush tropical island. Each player will play three cards to indicate the location he desires to place a resort. Each location has three defining characteristics: the name of the beach (there are 4 beaches), the terrain (rock, grass or sand) and the flora (three different types). One of the three cards each player lays must be face-up. After surveying each player's face-up cards, players then place their tiki idol on one location on the board. The idol blocks anyone from placing a resort on that location this turn. Players then reveal their cards and place resorts if they are able to do so.
Each player also has two nasty cards that allow them to replace an opponent's resort with their own. This is played when playing the three cards.
The game ends once one beach is completely filled with resorts. The idea is to get a string of resorts together and to have a majority of resorts on as many of the four beaches as possible. At game's end, players score points for their resorts. A single resort scores 1 point. If a player has 2 adjacent resorts, he scores 1 + 2 points. If he has three adjacent resorts, he scores 1 + 2 + 3 points, and so on. Bonus points (I believe “4”) are scored for controlling the majority of resorts on a beach. Most points win.
The game involves quite a bit of guessing as you attempt to guess where your opponents are going to place their resorts. This mechanism is neat, but is used over and over again and, for me, wears out its welcome. It is a game that I didn't mind playing, but it just didn't excite me too much. Had the price been $15 or so, I probably would have purchased a copy. At 25 euros, however (about $30), I passed.
Rick Thornquist proved to be my nemesis, constantly playing his tiki on the location where I wanted to build. Darn Canadians. Craig proved to be the premier resort builder, capturing the victory.
Finals: Craig 20, Greg 15, James 13, Rick 10, Ward 10
Ratings: Greg 6, James 6, Craig 6, Rick 5.5, Ward 2 (he must hate beaches!)
Bruno had also been touting Coyote as his favorite game of the show. Coyote is a “Liar's Dice” spin-off being released by Kid Adults Games. At one point, he declared that this was his “favorite game of the show”. Well, I really like Bruno and thoroughly enjoy his company, but often our tastes in games don't exactly coincide. Still, it was worth giving the game a try.
The game is basically a Liar's Dice variant. There is a deck of cards with various values, ranging from -10 on up to a positive 20 (if memory serves me correctly). Each player straps on a ninja-style headband, then sticks a card into the band so that their opponents can see its value. Each player, however, does not know the value of the card stuck in their own headband. Play goes around the table with each player trying to guess the value of the sum of the numbers without exceeding it. Eventually, someone will claim that the total is not as great as the previous player's estimation, at which point all players reveal their cards and they are totaled. Whoever was incorrect has a coyote token stuck onto the headband. Get 3 tokens and you are out. Last man standing wins.
The game has elements of guessing and bluff and is amusing. A little. Although it is funny seeing everyone wearing ninja headbands with cards stuck in them, the game itself is no where near as entertaining as Liar's Dice. We all gave this one a pass. Oh, Ward did outlast Craig for the victory. My rating would be a “3” for a party game.
The final game at the show for us was Feurio, a game about which we had heard some positive buzz. James, Ward, Craig and I headed over to their booth and were quickly taught the game, with some assistance from the designer, Heinrich Glumpler (who also designed Fette Autos).
The game involves fighting forest fires in medieval Europe. It is fairly abstract, but quite clever and very challenging. The numerous hex tiles carry values from 1 - 6 and have spaces for 1 or 2 firefighters. Some tiles also contain water sources, which are very important for scoring purposes.
A tile must be placed so that it touches the “hottest” spot of the fire, which translates to the spot where the adjacent tiles total the greatest value. This forces the fire in certain directions. The player may then place zero, one or two firefighters onto tiles already on the board. The idea is to get a string of adjacent firefighters and have them all connected to an external water source. When the game ends, scores are tallied for your firefighters that have access to an external water source. If they don't, they don't score. Players tally the value of all of each group of firefighters they have in adjacent tiles, then divide this total by the lowest number found on these tiles. The result is the score for that group. Thus, it is important to try to form large groups with high valued tiles, but also have at least one tile present that carries a low number, preferably a '1'.
When placing tiles, players may opt to place the tile as a fire-break, which carries a value of zero. This reduces the “heat” at that location and may force the fire to follow a different path.
I found the game to be quite challenging and clever. We were all impressed and each of us purchased a copy.
Ward proved to be the most efficient firefighter.
Finals: Ward 22, Greg 19, Craig 19, James 17
Ratings: All 8's.
We departed the Messe Halle and headed for the Savoy Hotel to join up with Alan Moon, Richard Borg, Pitt Crandlemire, Jay Tummelson and Bob “FunAgain” Harrod for dinner and gaming. We also met up with Ralf Lehmüke, the designer of Trias, so he joined in the fun, too.
While waiting for dinner, Jay Tummelson taught us several games, including Iglu Pop and O Zoo Le Mio. Iglu Pop is a revamped version of Zapp Zerapp, which maintains the shaker mechanism. We first had to assemble the shakers by placing the beads inside and snapping the cap onto the igloos. Let me tell you … this wasn't easy! If you are not familiar with Zapp Zerapp, each shaker contains from 1 to 13 little beads. Everyone simultaneously grabs shakers, gives them some good shakes, and tries to correctly guess how many beads are inside. It is quite novel and entertaining.
In this new version, the board play is gone, replaced by cards. The cards carry values ranging from 1 - 13, with some cards having multiple numbers on them. As players shake, they must place their token inside the igloo shaker and place the shaker onto the card they feel corresponds with the number of beads inside the shaker. When everyone is finished, players are awarded points for correct guesses and lost points for incorrect guesses. Tokens from the players who guessed incorrectly go to the player who guessed that card correctly, or they are discarded if no one managed to put the correct shaker on a particular card.
The game is light and fun, but I wonder just how often it would get played. It is kind of a novelty item and I'm afraid the novelty would wear off after a few plays. Ralf proved to have superior hearing in our game.
Finals: Ralf 20, Greg 18, Jay Tummelson 11, Pitt Crandlemire 9, James 8
My rating would be a “5.5”
Next Jay showed us the O Zoo Le Mio, the new version of Cornel van Moorsel's Zoo Sim. The only difference is that the meeples are color-coded to match the exhibits and there are benches to mark enclosed areas. Other than that, the game is identical. James, Pitt, Ralf and I worked to establish our zoo, with Ralf once again emerging as the master.
Finals: Ralf 148, Greg 89, Pitt 67, James 63
My rating is “6.5”
My final game of the Essen sojourn was Carcassonne: Die Berg (The Castle, auf English). Jay Tummelson taught the game to me and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Earlier in the week, a few folks had expressed displeasure with the game, so I was a bit apprehensive. My fears were quickly washed away, however, as I found the game to be very similar to Carcassonne, but with enough twists to give it a fresh feel.
Unlike the free-form board that develops in the original, here the building ultimately conforms to the shape of the actual city of Carcassonne. The boarders also serve as the score track, which contains several special chips located at various points along the track. If a player's score marker lands on one of these chips exactly, he gets to take the chip and use it when it is advantageous. These chips usually supplement one's score, but aren't too powerful so as to skewer the game.
Although playing the original with only 2-players is enjoyable, I find this one to be superior with that number. I'm sold and await my English copy.
Jay grabbed a quick lead and held on for the victory. Finals: Jay 112, Greg 89. My initial rating is a “7”.
With the conclusion of our games, we bid our farewell and made our departure. We only had a few hours sleep before waking at 6AM in order to head for the airport in Frankfurt. Craig and I were homeward bound, but James wasn't scheduled to depart until Monday. He was able to spend the day relaxing and sight-seeing with Ward.
Attending the Spiele Faire in Essen is simply an awesome experience. To see so many people - average German families - playing and enjoying the types of games I so adore is heart-warming. The displays put up by the gaming companies are amazing and the ready availability of so many games boggles the mind. But the very best thing about attending the Spiele Faire is getting to meet and socialize with gamers from around the world. I consider myself truly blessed to have had the opportunity to once again make this journey and spend some time with some incredibly wonderful people. The problem is that I now have caught the bug and have the overwhelming desire and urge to attend again each and every year. I just don't know if that is feasible, but I'm certainly going to do everything I can to make it happen!
It was great sharing this experience with my good friends and travel companions James Miller and Craig Berg. Those two guys are just super and I regret that we don't live closer so that we could get together on a weekly basis. I treasure our times spent together. It was also great to hook-up with so many other great folks, including Ward Batty, who spent most of the time with Craig, James and I. The list of folks we met and chatted with would go on for pages and I would undoubtedly inadvertently forget dozens of folks. Rest assured that each of these moments was special and helped make this year's Essen journey a tremendous success and a memory that I will treasure forever.
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© Copyright 2004 by George Phillies.
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