My simple notepad about the board and card games I play and gaming in the UK
Today saw two deliveries from Germany of new games, which has pushed my unplayed list back up to 28 – it did get as low as 19. The ten additions to the collection were:
Asteroyds (Ystari), Bombay (Ystari), Ca$h ‘n Gun$ (Repos), Der Goldene Kompass (Kosmos), Hab & Gut (Winning Moves), Jager und Sammler (Amigo), Pingu Party (Amigo), Schweinebande (Hans-im-Gluck), Snapshot (Kosmos) and Wurfel Ligretto (Schmidt). Ca$h ‘n Gun$ is the one I’ve played before.
I’ve done a bit of house-keeping with the archive session reports to split them by year (the complete list since July 2001 was getting a bit long). Hopefully, everything still works ok but, if you spot any errors, please let me know.
And as a challenge, can you identify the pictures for each year on the main archive sessions page?
Picked up this very interesting solo / two player co-op game published by Z-Man Games. Tried a solo play of the basic game on Wednesday evening and really enjoyed it (even though I don’t tend to play solo games – hey, I was in a hotel in London so needed something to fill the time). Lost by one door – trying to get to eight before the deck ran out. The rules don’t help to sell the game but once you get into it, it’s a very clever puzzle with some anguish when the dream cards turn up when you don’t want them to. Really good and it will be interesting to see both how it plays as a 2-player co-op and with the expansions included in the box.
We tried out this Reiner Knizia game published by Playroom Entertainment last night. It turned out to be quite a bit more thinky than I had expected. On your turn, there are lots of places to play and you want to be sure that you’re not setting someone else up to freeze you out of claiming a tile. And the scoring has got that typical Knizia wonkiness that gives you even more to try and work out. We quite enjoyed it and Chris managed to pip me on the tie-break for the win by a single artefact symbol.
Shaun Derrick emailed me to let me know what is happening with the next expansion to his great football (soccer) game. This is what he said:
“Expansion set 6 is in the design process. It will include:
Expected release date is 30 September.”
Having mentioned that the nominees for the IGA were announced in the latest issue of Counter, it’s a bit remiss of me not to actually publish the details. Well, I was actually waiting for an official announcement from Greg Schloesser to appear online, which has now happened so I can now confirm that the nominees for the two awards were:
General Strategy Games – multi-player
General Strategy Games – two-player
I think the winners will be announced around the end of September with the awards being presented at Essen.
Three days left to go on my Ebay sale which includes:
You can see all the items up for sale here.
The fourth English issue of Spielbox has now arrived. This time, there is a report from UK Games Expo (including slightly cheesy photo of the Ragnars); a report on the Spiel-des-Jahres result; reviews of Glen More, Long Shot, Samarkand, Asteroyds, Titania, Workshop of the World and 11 Nimmt, among others; plus a free expansion for Spiel-des-Jahres nominated A La Carte.
Further information is available on the Spielbox website.
The next release from Fragor Games at Essen 2010 will be Antics! – a game about, well, ants.
Prey and leaves abound nearby – if only those other ants would not take what is rightfully yours. Players attempt to have their ants bring back prey and leaves to their anthill. Only the best ant colony will survive and the winner proclaimed The Ant Queen. The game is for 3-4 players, ages 10+ and lasts for 60 minutes. It features Fragor’s “ant-hill system” – a revolutionary new game mechanic.
The game will cost 35 Euros and can be preordered at the Fragor Games website.
The 50th issue of Counter magazine arrived yesterday with a glossy full colour cover to celebrate the fact. I just wanted to congratulate Stuart, Alan and Mike for reaching this milestone and giving me endless entertainment with the great writing that goes into every issue. Thanks also to the various contributors over the years for making an indispensable quality gaming publication. I still remember receiving the first issue way back in May 1998, when there was little else to read on the international gaming scene – even BGG was not yet born. Great stuff guys.
This issue includes the IGA General Strategy Nominations (Multi-player and two-player); a report on Origins; a celebration of Leisure Games silver jubilee; a preview of Martin Wallace’s London; reviews of 11 Nimmt, Age of Industry, Egizia, Fresco, Glen More and Workshop of the World among others; and the usual letters and general gaming articles.