Der Turmbau zu Babel
We played the nearly finished version yesterday (March 7, 2005)at “Hans im Glück”:
This is is an incredibly solid offering bei Reiner Knizia, with all the good and bad things that come with it. It certainly is a flawless and elegant design, with an interesting mechanic at it's core (completing wonders by collecting cards offered by other players) and the game play is fast and keeps your interest. But one should also note that this is yet another “majority-in-an-area/VP track” game. Perhaps we have become a bit jaded- 5 years ago this would have been considered an exceptional design, but one slightly wonders if something apart from this basic game idea wouldn't be something that could be explored by the highly talented Knizia in the future. At least one would hope so.
Still, another winning entry for the high-quality line of games that “Hans-im-Glück” produces.

Edel, Stein & Reich
Unusually random and light fare from Alea, plays more like a family game than a real challenge for geeks. The basic mechanics are perhaps more fully realized in other games, and the draw of event cards introduces a high luck element that can either lead to incredible gains or totally useless cards. The trading phase is the most interesting aspect of the game (when two players have played the same action, they have to negotiate who is actually going to do it). Not a bad game at all, but not a GREAT one, as one has come to expect of Alea.

Raja
A wonderful offering of Kramer and Kiesling, that has many things going for it. The rules are logical and concise, and the use of the different characters and the order of victory point scoring is handled very cleverly. The visual design is simply stunning, rarely has their been a game of equally flawless designwork. And it is an interesting game full of nail-biting decisions, with even an element of travel planning thrown in for good measure. Beneath it all it is another German abstract majority-in-an-area scoring game, but it rarely gets better than this.

Coloretto: Amazonas
The main question that arises after playing this boring and totally luck-of-the card-draw driven game is: Why did they bother? “Coloretto” is a wonderful light, quick and anything-but-dumb game, so if you want to profit from it's name, why invent a game that a) has nothing to do with coloretto except vague similarities in card scoring b) is reminiscent of the most basic rummy-like card games one remembers from your misspent youth? Players draw cards and put them in collecting rows, if you don't have anything that furthers your collection you play a card in an opponent so he loses cards. That's about all the strategy involved in this game. The cards are nice though, and kids up to 10 might like this game because you have to look for cute animals.

Australia
This game does to Australia what “Africa” did for Africa. Which means – nothing at all, at least regarding the slapped on theme. This is a quite cerebral exercise of area enclosure and scoring, certainly not without it's charm, but with little to none theme flavour. The system is very elegant and unfussy and the game is quickly under way, but the more geeky the players are the slower the pace. Choosing your actions carefully is the main brain teaser in this game, and there are many scores to calculate and decisions to make before you do the “perfect” turn. But undeniably this is a game that works well and for that it can't be really faulted.

Viking Fury
Super new game by the legendary Ragnar Brothers. Epic in scope with astonishingly short playing time, this game recreates the life of the Vikings in a strangely entertaining way. Many interesting game mechanics (finding the best possible move with limited actions is a lot of fun), the only aspect of the game which might turn off some is the immense power of some rune cards. Our solution is to simply leave away some of the more harmful cards, which is easily done.

Betrayal at House on the Hill

This game works relatively well as a traditional exploration/character advancement game, but really kicks into gear when it comes to the second part, where one player will be the evil traitor and the other players fight together to overcome one of 50 totally different evil scenarios. Some of them play like little wargames, others demand deduction and skill. Great fun for everybody involved, as the game really depicts the theme well, and the scenarios have been lovingly crafted to represent every imagineable haunted house story/cliché.The replay value is high, as the endgame is always different, but the exploration stays a bit samey. The game would profit from expansions, which could easily be integrated. Great design with wonderful atmosphere, easy to pick up, relatively short playing time – what doth the geek wanteth more?

WPG ranking: Basti: 8, Andrea: 9, Moritz: 9, Aaron: 8

Paladin

What might have been a mildly interesting game is ruined by the fact that the paladin cards are drawn at random, and that there is no game mechanic that can overcome the malady of drawing low cards. Imagine playing “Corruption” (a similar, much superior game) with randomly drawn money cards instead of equal hands for each player. Players place their cards trying to overcome adventures, but this is handeld in a totally abstract and uninspired way. What is essentially a very boring game is not saved by the fact that it is also very simple and easy to explain.

WPG ranking: Basti: 3, Andrea: 3, Moritz: 3, Aaron: 3

Windschatten

Amazingly good as an advertising game (that came free with a certain brand of mineral water), but if you had bought it you probably wouldn't have been wowed. This is a solid racing game design that takes elements from many similar games and weaves them together to form a relatively satisfying little game. But don't expect anything radically new here. Might lure some health freaks to become gamer geeks.

WPG ranking: Basti: 4, Andrea: 4, Moritz: 5, Aaron: 5

Hier ein kurzer Report über die von Günther und mir gespielten Spiele gestern:

“Reef Encounter” : Günther 8 Moritz 7; (hat uns beiden gut gefallen!)

“Der erste Weltkrieg” : Günther 4 Moritz 5; (etwas enttäuschend)

“Dr. Jekyll und Mr. Hyde” : Günther 7, Moritz 7; (nettes, leicht grüblerisches Stichspiel für Freaks)

Außerdem wurden gestern beim äußerst netten Abend bei “Hans im Glück” von Günther und mir gespielt:

1) YS
Bewertung: Moritz 7, Günther 7, Michael 8, Henning 8
(Günther abgeschlagen hinten (!), Moritz sehr knapper Sieg vor Henning – Super Spiel!

2) Medici (Knizia)
Bewertung: Moritz 7, Günther 8, Dieter 8, Michael 8
(Günther wieder untypisch weit hinten, Sieger Michael knapp vor Moritz)

3) Oltremare
Bewertung: Moritz 7 (etwas abgewertet), Günther —, Michael 7, Dieter 4
(Wieder Michael Sieger, gefolgt von Günther, Moritz vollkommen abgeschlagen auf dem letzten Platz mit einer “Piratenstrategie”: möglichst viele Minuspunkte mit Piraten gesammelt! Das Spiel war zwar nach wie vor gut, seltsamerweise war das Handeln aber im Gegensatz zu uns total öd – es wurden keine Karten verschenkt, und irgendwie kam das Spiel nie richtig in die Gänge, hängt anscheinend doch sehr von den Leuten ab…)

Loredana/Peter haben meines Wissens folgende Spiele gespielt:
“Zoff im Zoo”
“Flaschenteufel”?????
“Kohle, Kies und Knete” (erstaunlicherweise gab es weder eine Schlägerei noch wurde es jemals an dem Tisch laut, so weit ich beurteilen konnte. Das ist fast unheimlich! Am Ende gewann wohl souverän Loredana)
“Titan – The Arena”
Vielleicht kann er ja noch ergänzen
“Hans im Glück” – recommended!
Ergänzung von Peter:

Also, wir spielten
– Fugger (ganz gut)
– Zoff im Zoo (göttlich)
– Kohle, Kies und Knete (wir haben überhaupt nicht gestritten, aber das Spiel ist nicht gut)
– Titan – The Arena
und an mehr kann ich mich nicht mehr erinnern

Zusammengefaßt von: Peter

1) “Hektor u. Achill”

Wir haben gestern “Hektor u. Achill” gespielt, sehr gutes 2-Personen-Spiel.

Keine Wertung.