‘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.
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“Pantheon” is our Game of the Month
Many prude American gamers are put off by the cover of the game (I can only say: honi soit qui mal y pense), but they are missing out on a great new Tummelhofer game that really rocks! “Pantheon” is a game that is easy to get into. Like in all good games there are several ways to victory, and through the effects of various people and the gods there is also a slight flair of “History of the World” involved (even though there are no battles). A bit of luck is also needed, but skillful play is rewarded, in so far the game has to be viewed as an advanced family game more than a game for hardcore eurogamers and VP counters. But as a whole the feeling is fresh, not entirely the usual fare, and most important: fun to play!
“London” is our Game of the Month
At first glance this is a small card game in a big box. But the built-in mechanics pose a real challenge for everyone, even more so against one’s own desires. Frivolously, we may be tempted to create a mighty card display as a source for victory points, but in consequence poverty increases in our district and threatens to suffocate us with its burden of negative points at game end. Modesty rules and we need to apply economic reasoning when using our cards. Everyone for himself, yet logical, varied and creative. A real Martin Wallace hit.
“Poseidon” is our Game of the Month
The 18xx craze never ends, and after seeing railway empire building games taking place in Cyprus or even the asteroid belt we now have a game that doesn’t even have trains but is – all things considered – a fully-fledged 1830 variant. ‘Poseidon”s design goal was to reduce complexity and playing time in contrast to the original game, and also reduce some of the cutthroat tactics that turns off so many inexperienced players once they have been dumped the worst and unprofitable line through stock market machinations.
In fact the stock market part of the game has been reduced to it’s bare bones because – let’s face it – there really was no stock market in Ancient Greece. Players try to create trading routes instead of railway lines, with the added bonus that it is possible to travel through a blocked tile. Technological competition comes in the guise of better galleys and triremes. All in all Poseidon manages to make the 18xx system relatively accessible to newcomers, but it is still not a completely easy nor quick game. As a good entry game into the 18xx universe it is highly recommended, though.
“7 Wonders” is our Game of the Month in October
Games for 7 players that play fast and are not boring are pretty rare: but “7 Wonders” manages this beautifully. Using an attractive card drafting mechanic (lent from the game “Fairy Tale”) every player is always active and has to make decisions, the cards themselves are then played simultaneously while conflicts and trades are resolved with your direct neighbors only (which can happen simultaneously in larger rounds as well) without slowing down the action. The Empire-Building aspect is also excellent – the game manages to convey the feeling of leading different ancient civilizations with unique abilities quite well. Apart from the high cost this game can be heartily recommended and is definitely one of the highlights of Spiel 2010.
Analysis Paralysis
I already mentioned the “Black Arpad” a while ago – a hideous chess figure which we simply place in front of the player who is paralyzed. Usually this is regarded as suitable threat to move on. But thinking about it seriously I think the best way to get players going is acting like a teacher who tries to get the right answer from his class. A teacher would start giving hints, so what players should do is to publicly and calmly talk about the options available to the paralyzed player. This might give the player a new perspective on things, on the other hand you might even make him do what YOU want instead of what is best for him, but that is left to your own Machiavellian inclination I think. But never try to put pressure on such players, otherwise they will simply shut down and play even slower.
Game to play with my spouse
When my wife was pregnant, I used to play endless games of Chaosium’s and Avalon Hill’s “Dragon Pass” with her. Perhaps not the best game to play with your spouse, as it is a complex fantasy wargame, but I have so many fond memories of the various homebrewn scenarios and variants that we tried out that in my mind it is a game of love and good spirits in a relationship. Beat that, “Lost Cities”!!!!
Games on ipad
I am momentarily absolutely obsessed with games on my iphone. I mostly play the excellent “Carcassonne” app, and recently made it into the top 100 players of the world. At least for a day! Also recommended is the “Neuroshima Hex” app, which is excellent, as well as “Tichu” and “Wabash Cannonball”, also excellent conversions of excellent games. The iphone is like crack to any boardgame player – don’t buy it or you will seriously lose a lot of your free time!
Westpark Gamers are on Facebook
All new Westpark Gamers’ blog posts will now also be published on Facebook.
NB: earlier problems with postings appearing on Facebook are solved.
Our Game of the Month July 2010: Fresko
Games with artists as protagonists have a good tradition in European gaming, if one thinks of classics like ‘Princes of Florence’ or ‘Leonardo da Vinci’. There are also many games, in which artists (or at least artistically ambitious craftsmen) play an important role, like in ‘Pillars of the Earth’. It’s a well-liked theme, which perhaps can be explained by the special role of art itself in European history.
In ‘Fresco’ players emulate Michelangelo and mix their colour pots to create a huge ceiling painting. Important for this is not only good action management but also to keep one’s artist happy and inspired (that one cannot be happy and inspired with too little sleep should be common knowledge). ‘Fresco’ is one of those rare games in which theme and mechanics blend well. In fact the game is explained very easily because everything is logical and clear. In a wonderful way it is equally good as a family game (buying and mixing colours is fun) but also as a freak game (action optimizing) – therefore it can be wholeheartedly recommend to all kinds of gamers.