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“Airlines Europe” is our Game of the Month

As also new editions of old games can become „Game of the Month“, “Airlines Europe” is the worthy new winner of this title. Alan R. Moon’s game can easily be called a “classic”, and also in the new version the mechanics – which served as a model for other great games like “Ticket to Ride” or “Union Pacific” – can still convince. The new version also plays more fluidly and the sabotage (deemed unfair by hardcore Eurogamers) is gone. Very recommended!

“Airlines Europe” ist unser Spiel des Monats

Da auch Neuentwürfe alter Spiele „Spiel des Monats“ werden können, kommt dieses Mal „Airlines Europe“ in den Genuss der Ehre, unser Siegerkandidat zu werden. Alan R. Moons Spiel kann ohne Zweifel als „Klassiker“ bezeichnet werden, und auch in dieser neuen Version wissen die Mechanismen – die Vorbild für viele weitere schönen Spiele wie zum Beispiel „Zug um Zug“ oder „Union Pacific“ waren – nach wie vor zu gefallen. Die neue Version spielt sich noch ein wenig flüssiger und manche unter Hardcore-Eurogamern als unfair empfundene Ärgermöglichkeiten (Sabotage) sind weggefallen. Auf jeden Fall empfehlenswert!

New Names for Games – 3: “Paranoia Games”

Transcript of the podcast published on August 28th, 2011.

This time I am going to talk about another new game genre that I will tentatively call “Paranoia” games. Again this subgenre can hold many games that can be quite different from each other, but that all have the common element of a creating a feeling of fear that something bad/ominous/dangerous etc. is happening.

Let’s take “Battlestar Galactica” for example – of course it is a cooperative game, but the element of the Cylon traitor creates a tension that can only be described as paranoia. Who can you trust? Can you trust anybody? You can’t even trust yourself, as you might turn out to be the traitor in round 2!

I remember a memorable game of “Battlestar Galactica” at Boardgamegeek where one player built up the trust of all players including me. Because of this he was entrusted with a nuke in a crucial situation, a decision that was also supported by me (I was playing the president). I suddenly had this feeling of something not quite right about his eagerness, but it was too late – he nuked us all into oblivion which came as a total shock to everybody. The player actually felt embarrassed about his successful deceit, but I think it was excellent and in the spirit of the game. This is what I call paranoia, and I love it!

There are other examples of new games using this mechanic. “Werewolf” is of course very popular, but also its related game “The Resistance” manages to create the same feeling of mistrust.

But what was the first game ever that brought paranoia to the game table? The answer is perhaps surprising – very probably it was poker, or any luck game involving three crucial elements:

1)      other players that you are competing against instead of competing with luck itself

2)      bluffing, i.e. lying about one’s hidden assets

3)      something at stake, i.e. lots of money that you are risking.

Actually it is very insightful to compare the two unlikely games Battlestar Galactica and Poker. In Poker you are competing with other players for a pot of money, in Battlestar Galactica you are battling for the survival of the human race. The latter is of course only a fantasy for the sake of creating tension, but one can compare the dread of losing real money to the dread of risking the whole human race in your imagination.

In Battlestar Galactica the players you compete with are the Cylon traitors, it is not only an anonymous game system. Once you enter the bidding in Poker a situation is created that is actually very similar to a round of playing cards to resolve an event in Battlestar Galactica. Some players will be honest – their cards are really valuable or they do their best to save the day in BGG. But there will also be players who only pretend to go with the flow, who have the hidden agenda to cheat you. Of course this is where the similarity between these two games ends big time, but the feeling while playing the game is not entirely dissimilar. And there is also the meta-element: once you mistrust a player you will tend to mistrust him again and again – a trap that many poker players will fall in again and again.

Not surprisingly the rise of advanced paranoia games comes roughly at the same time as the height of paranoia in recent history – the Cold War. Diplomacy – perhaps the grandfather of all paranoia games – was created 1954, which I think is very telling. But it was the 70s which really brought the concept to the fore. I would immediately think of 2 highly influential games that involve paranoia: in 1978, Junta players are at the whim of a merciless and often crazy dictator who might murder them at a whim. Hey, they might even be that dictator. The game is mostly meant in fun, but some players actually get very upset about it!

In Dune from 1979 players always have to fear that Baron Harkonnen has bribed their leaders. One also can think of the role playing game “Paranoia” which was the first role playing game to give players hidden agendas and which encouraged the game master to make the players mistrust or kill each other constantly. Later “Republic of Rome” came along; a game so full of paranoia and machiavellism that the rules say that it makes “Diplomacy” (already a vicious game) like “Snakes and Ladders” compared to it. And the list goes on.

Let’s try a definition: “Paranoia games are games that involve hidden agendas and which make mistrust, secret dealing or bluffing so much a part of the game that they are integral to the game experience”.

Moritz over and out.

“Strasbourg” is our Game of the Month

If you know the other games by Pegasus you might be in for a double surprise – “Strasbourg” is neither a fantasy game nor a historical roleplaying game (which could have been expected) but a real Euro with an ingenious bidding mechanic. Because all players decide for themselves how many bidding cards they draw and use each round each bidding round turns into an exciting battle for key acquisitions. As it is already fiendishly difficult to earn money in the game one could even call it a “dearth game”, because one has to use the limited resources (bidding cards, money) to utmost effect. A challenge for pro gamers and lots of fun!

If Pegasus has intended to reach a completely new market for their games – the critical Euro gamer – they have been very successful indeed!

“Strasbourg” ist unser Spiel des Monats

Wer die bisherigen Spiele von Pegasus kennt, wird von Strasbourg gleich doppelt überrascht werden – weder ist es ein Fantasyspiel noch ein historisches Rollenspiel (was man bei Pegasus eher hätte erwarten können) sondern ein waschechter Euro mit einem genialen Versteigerungsmechanismus. Da alle Spieler selber entscheiden, wie viele Bietkarten sie ziehen und verwenden wollen, werden die Bietrunden zu einer höchst spannenden Angelegenheit, die wirklich Spaß macht. Da es sehr schwierig ist, an Geld zu kommen, kann man auch von einer Art „Mangelspiel“ sprechen, in dem es darauf ankommt, seine begrenzten Ressourcen (Bietkarten, Geld) so gewinnbringend wie möglich einzusetzen. Das fordert auf jeden Fall den Profispieler absolut heraus und macht großen Spaß!

Wenn Pegasus vor hat, mit diesem Spiel den Markt der ambitionierten Spieler zu erreichen, ist es ihnen großartig gelungen!

New Names for Games – 2: “Loud Games”

Transcript of the podcast published on August 2nd, 2011.

Continuing my talk about new names for game genres I will now introduce a second genre, the “loud” game (as opposed to the “Schweigespiel” or “silent” game from the last segment).

Let’s immediately try a definition:

Loud games are games that not only encourage verbal communication between players but also make it a central part of the game, either because it increases the enjoyment of the game or because a specific verbal communication has to be heard and understood by a greater number of players.

There are several subdivisions of loud games in my opinion. One is obvious: party games. Party games very often involve quiz or guessing elements, very often the player to most quickly give a certain piece of information is rewarded, so they tend to be loud as players make themselves heard over others. In addition party games often involve humor or hilariousness, and they encourage the socializing aspect of mutual laughter, for example by using jokes. Examples of this would be “Wits & Wagers”, “Apples to Apples” or even the rather grim “The Resistance”. An interesting variation is “Werewolf” which has alternating silent and loud phases. The werewolves usually kill in silence, but then the accusations start and the game suddenly becomes very loud.

The second subdivision is trading phase games. Here very often the goal is to make oneself heard with a very good offer or to demand a certain combination of goods from another player. For this one has to be loud. A prime example for this is “Settlers of Catan”, in which the trading phase is usually very loud, so shy or meek players don’t stand a chance. The first game in which a non-organized, non-sequential trading phase became the central part of a strategy board game is probably “Civilization” by Francis Tresham, a game which can be considered the godfather of Settlers in many ways. Trading is actually the vital part of “Civilization”, as it not only enables players to buy advances but it also introduces the mechanic of deftly trading catastrophes as well. As long as the trading phase goes its course a catastrophe received by another player can still be traded to someone else, so the trading phases of “Civilization” tend to get louder towards the end, when players realize it’s their last chance to get rid of the epidemic card.

Auction games can be loud, but only if they have a free-for-all auction phase in which bids can be made non-sequentially. Sequential bids, like in “Modern Art” or “Princes of Florence” don’t get loud usually.

The third subdivision is chatty games, games in which the description of things plays an important part. “Such A Thing” is a case in point, or also last Spiel des Jahres winner “Dixit”. Very often the chatty game involves comments of other players, like in “Anno Domini”, when everybody tries to use their limited historical knowledge to influence others. “What? Beer is around for millennia, not only since the Middle Ages!” would be a typical “Anno Domini” comment.

An interesting case are games that are not chatty by nature, but which become chatty because a great number of players has nothing to do from a certain point on and the game doesn’t hinder them talking with each other. Take “Citadels” – once you have selected your role you can do absolutely nothing until all players have selected their role. One player after the other will join the growing group of players who have already selected their role, and selecting can sometimes be beset by analysis paralysis in this game, so all these players usually begin to chat with each other out of boredom. I found that most games of “Citadels” are spent talking about something not even game related, like also in “Liar’s Dice”, where the players who have been kicked out of the game because they lost their last die begin to chat with each other.

Bluffing games are another subdivision – the bluffing itself is usually silent, but once the bluff is out the players usually react with a verbal burst of “I told you!”, “You liar!”, “I can’t believe it!”, etc.. These shouts can even be heard in pro poker games on TV.

Another subcategory is what I would call “anger games”, games like “Risk” for example in which trashing one player often results in whining, complaining and the inevitable table flip

Finally we have a very special subcategory, one which I would call the “cheering game”. Here players become loud because they either have to cheer on somebody or simply because there is nothing else to do really. The best example is “Battling Tops” – once the tops are spinning wildly you can do nothing but watch what will happen, so people usually begin to cheer their top, which of course doesn’t make any sense at all. Strangely enough “Battling Tops” is the loudest game of them all, something that any visitor to Boardgamegeek Con can attest to.

All in all the effective loudness level of a game is very dependent on the group of players – if they are very social or more introvert, if they know each other well or not. For most gamers though the so called “trash talk” or cheering and screaming are an important element of their enjoyment of games, so it should play a role when describing a game.

Next show I will talk about “Greedy Games”.

New Names for Games – 1: “Silent Games”

Transcript of the podcast published on July 5th, 2011.

I think that newcomers to Boardgamegeek probably find it increasingly difficult to understand what the heck we are talking about. The forums are proof to this, with newbies asking eternally the same questions: what is a “Euro”? What is “Ameritrash”, and why do so many people love them? What is AP (Analysis Paralysis), is it some kind of gamer sickness? What is a grognard, what is a meeple, what is a Kramertrack?

In addition there are a huge number of genres – anyone who ever tried the advanced search engine of the geek can attest to this. There are roll-and-move games, war games, empire building games, tile laying-games, crayon games and so on. There is a problem with all these terms, though. Although they describe exactly what a game uses as a mechanic they say very little about how it feels to actually play the game.

To give you an example: In a way “Groo the card Game” is an empire building game, like San Juan or Puerto Rico, as one tries to lay out cards to form a village with different buildings. But in contrast to these games Groo is a chaotic affair in which you randomly attack your neighbours and in which there is no perceivable strategy to how you build your village, because Groo will come and destroy it anyway. The most useful term for these kind of games is of course the good old “Beer & Pretzel”, a term which simply says: “relax, venturing gamer, this is not a serious or brainy affair, it is just a free for all entertainment in which the main goal is to annoy your fellow players and have fun”.

For some gamers this exact description is a caveat, for others – especially for lovers of the game “Munchkin” – it is a badge of excellence. Whatever the case, the limits of the term can quickly be demonstrated by mentioning a very different game, ”Junta!. “Junta” is – at its heart – a chaotic Beer & Pretzel game, as there is no dedicated strategy to win, there are lots of random events and decisions, and very often you will be at the whim of other players’ decisions. But at the same time “Junta” involves real diplomacy, backdoor dealing, and in parts it is also a real war game with meaningful tactical decisions. So what is it?

I find we are missing terms for what games really are, so I would like to start a little series where I will try to invent some new terms for the BGG database.

My first term is simple, “Schweigespiel”, which means “silent game” in German.

What, you may ask, is a “Schweigespiel”? I try to give a definition: silent games are games that tend to inhibit verbal communication between players because of their sometimes secretive and brainy nature and also because of the moves of the players themselves ARE the communication. Silent games will very often be played with little to no talk during the game.

I don’t know if you ever had this experience: you play a game and suddenly you notice that you are so much in your own little world of thought that there is this all-pervading silence all-around. Every time we notice this in our gaming group we call out – “Schweigespiel!” and everybody knows immediately what is meant.

To give you some examples of a silent game, let’s begin with the most obvious prime candidate, and that is Chess. Chess has never been known to be a particularly chatty game, but this is because communication between players is abstracted and only takes place through the movements of pieces on the board. Also a lot of the strategy of chess comes through the fact that one doesn’t want to have the opponent know your secret plan. Chess is such a silent game, that there are actually rules which force you to talk and announce certain threats, lest you forget.

But there are also examples of games that are more our fare. Let’s take “Agricola” – a good example because it is also somewhat of a multiplayer solitaire game as well. Or “Euphrates and Tigris” – a game which gives you so many possibilities where to place your tiles and what to do with them that actually the Analysis Paralysis alone will keep you pretty silent most of the time. Or “Carcassonne, at least in its basic version. The excellent Carcassonne iPhone app has a chat feature, but most of the time one doesn’t know what to say except perhaps “wow”, when a huge city has been finished. Most of the time the communication is through the game, in a complex sign language of tile-laying. Most players hesitate to state the obvious, like saying “Ha, look, I just placed a meeple that will threaten your meadow domination in a very surprising way”. This is why iPhone Carcassonne players mostly use the chat for insults or complaints about lag (the many Dice Tower listeners I met through this app are absolutely not fitting in this category but have been friendly and ready to chat).

You may ask yourself: Are there any “loud” games? You bet there are, and I will talk about them next show…

Mit Lookout-Games und Ali Baba zur Agricola-WM

Der Spieleverlag Lookout-Games sucht die besten Agricola-Spieler. Bei der Weltmeisterschaft im November in Wien wird die Frage geklärt, wer der beste Landwirt des Mittelalters ist. Hier werden auch drei deutsche Teilnehmer um den Sieg kämpfen. Diese drei werden nicht einfach ausgelost, sondern bei bundesweit drei Turnieren ausgespielt.

Hierzu hat Lookout-Games mit der VHS Bremen und dem Ali Baba Spieleclub zwei Partner gefunden, die diese Qualifikationsturniere ausrichten. Jeweils eine Qualifikation findet in Bremen, Köln und Nürnberg statt. „Agricola ist ein sehr beliebtes Spiel und ich denke, dass die Turniere schnell ausgebucht sein werden“, sagt Hanno Gierke von Lookout. Denn bei den drei Turnieren ist die Teilnehmerzahl begrenzt.

Teilnehmen darf jeder, der Lust und Zeit hat. Das erste Qualifikationsturnier ist am 3. September in Köln, gefolgt vom Turnier am 10. September in Bremen. Abschließend finden die Süddeutschen in Nürnberg ihren besten Spieler beim Turnier am 8. Oktober. Egal, ob in Köln, Bremen oder Nürnberg, die Teilnahmegebühr beträgt jeweils drei Euro.

Allerdings ist eine Voranmeldung zwingend erforderlich. Dies geht über die Turnier-Homepage http://turnier.agricola.us. Nach der Anmeldung, bekommt jeder Spieler die entsprechenden Informationen zum Turnier zugesendet. Endgültig angemeldet ist man dann nach Zahlungseingang.

Neben der Teilnahme an der Weltmeisterschaft winken den besten Spielern der drei Turniere hochwertige Spiele aus dem Lookout-Games-Programm.

“The Castles of Burgundy” is our Game of the Month

‘The Castles of Burgundy’ is this year’s highlight from Alea. Players develop their princedom and try to be faster and better than their fellow gamers. Because new supply and possible actions are controlled by dice, players’ plans need to be constantly adjusted according to their respective capabilities. Originally, Stefan Feld’s much more complex design has been streamlined in cooperation with Alea’s Stfan Brück resulting in a challenging territory building game that lets us discover new development possibilities with every new play.

“Die Burgen von Burgund” ist unser Spiel des Monats

‘Die Burgen von Burgund’ ist das diesjährige Highlight aus dem Hause Alea. Es gilt sein Fürstentum schneller und besser auszubauen als die Konkurrenten. Dabei werden der verfügbare Nachschub und die möglichen Aktionen zufällig ermittelt – hierdurch bleibt die Spannung immer erhalten und die eigenen Pläne müssen laufend an die aktuellen Möglichkeiten angepasst werden. Stefan Felds ursprünglich weitaus komplexeres Spiel wurde zusammen mit Alea’s Stefan Brück stark vereinfacht und schließlich zu einem anspruchsvollen Spiel für Vielspieler weiterentwickelt. Ein Aufbauspiel, das uns auch nach vielen Partien immer neue Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten entdecken lässt!