Spiel: Boardgaming in the UK

I’ve resisted ordering anything from Germany for quite a while now but, having just sold a bunch of games, I decided I could afford to put in a small order of new titles. That said, it does push my unplayed games total back up from 65 to 71.

Anyway, the order arrived today courtest of 12spiel.de and you can see what I received from the picture to the left. I am particularly looking forward to the new Alea release, Glen More, and Wolfgang Kramer’s 11 Nimmt – although this latest game only takes up to 7 players, as opposed to the 10 players that 6 Nimmt can accommodate.

Just a reminder that my latest batch of games for sale on Ebay will finish on Thursday. Take a look here for some good bargains, such as Antler Island, Alexandros, Strozzi, Wasabi and Kanaloa.

I’ve put another batch of 11 games up for sale on Ebay:

• Alexandros by Leo Colovini
• Aquadukt – the game of irrigation in ancient times
• Antler Island – the Lamont brothers’ game about rutting stags
• Strozzi – the third in Reiner Knizia’s Medici/Strozzi series
• Wasabi – the beautifully produced sushi game
• Dragonriders – Klaus Jurgen Wrede & Jean du Poel’s fantasy race game
• Kanaloa – the multi-player version of the brain-burning Kahuna
• Maka Bana – Francois Haffner’s beautiful island paradise game
• Terra Nova – a cut-throat territorial game from Winning Moves
• Feurio – Heinrich Glumpler’s fire-fighting game
• Once Upon A Time – the classic story-telling game

The auction ends on Thursday 20th May.

Last night, Jan and I had an enjoyable game of Zahltag, a 30 minute card game about fulfilling building contracts, designed by Franz-Benno Delonge and released by Ravensburger.

Players employ up to 10 in total of four different types of workers, whom they are hoping to utilise on building contracts. Each turn, a card is turned over from the contracts deck and normally it reveals a building contract that requires a specific combination of workers to fulfil the job. Players then examine their hand of worker cards and secretly bid how much they require to be paid to complete the job. The lowest bid gets the job, receives immediate payment, and sets aside the workers needed for that job. These are then tied up until the start of your second subsequent turn, meaning your ability to meet the requirements of contracts arising in the meantime is more limited. Working out when only you are able to fulfil the worker requirements is key here as then you can demand the maximum Eu 8m payout. Mixed into the contract deck are six payday cards, at which point all those players with more unemployed workers than the person with fewest unemployed need to pay Eu 1m per excess worker. Once the fifth payday card is revealed and dealt with, whoever has the most money wins.

The game plays pretty well with two and turns move along very quickly. I suspect the game would play better with three or four players as the bidding would be that bit more competitive. As it was, Jan surprised me by accumulating more cash than me by game-end, as I had thought I’d been a bit ahead of her most of the way through. However, we both enjoyed the game and both rated it a 7.

There’s a new UK blog / podcast about boardgames called The Little Metal Dog Show, although thankfully it seems to be about games other than Monopoly so far. Michael Fox is the blog’s creator and is an enthusiastic writer. So far it looks pretty good, although I’ve not listened to the first podcast yet. The article on Matt Leacock’s upcoming Forbidden Island was particularly interesting. The site is here.

18 games up for sale and, with only 2 days left to bid and very few bidders, this could be the time to grab a bargain. Fancy Sid Sackson’s BuyWord? Or Stefan Dorra’s Salamanca? Or Dirk Henn’s Gardens of the Alhambra? Take a look here.

Martin Wallace’s Treefrog Games (formerly Warfrog) has a brand new website. On it, there are details of Martin’s next three games, although the release date for A Few Acres of Snow shown on the games listing page is a year out (But then it wouldn’t be Martin without the odd printing error, would it?)

Age of Industry is the first release in June – at UK Games Expo – and the rules are online here. It is a streamlined version of Brass that supposedly plays in 90 minutes. The next game is London to be released in October and finally the aforementioned A Few Acres of Snow in March 2011.

A better month this time for reducing the unplayed list, helped to a degree by some Ebay sales. Anyway, during April this happened:

5 new games acquired (Mystery Express, Cheeky Monkey, Fresco, Samarkand: Route to Riches and Foosball);

13 games no longer unplayed (Strand Cup, Mystery Express, Cheeky Monkey, Burger Joint, Court of the Medici, Null & Nichtig, Gipsy King, Basket Boss, Perry Rhodan: Die Kosmische Hanse, Carrousel, Cardcassonne, Fresco and Foosball);

4 games sold (Meine Schafe Deine Schafe, Die Knastbruder, 8 1/2 and Petri Heil).

This month is Beer & Pretzels, which gives me another opportunity to get a few games off the list. Let’s see how far below 60 we can get by month end.

The 21st Beer & Pretzels Games Weekend 2010 is 15th and 16th May at the Town Hall, Burton on Trent.

Open 10.00 – 10.00 on Saturday, 10.00 – 7.00 on Sunday. Tickets £4 per day or £7 for both, available on the door or in advance from Spirit Games.

More details are available here.

Less than 24 hours left on my latest sale of games and there are plenty of bargains still to be had. For instance, no bidders yet on Die Goldene Stadt or Formidable Foes, Cartagena 2 and a couple of classics I was sure would attract some interest: Schoko & Co and the best version of Sid Sackson’s Bazaar i.e. Bier Borse. Finally, somebody’s got to want Ta Yu, the beautiful original version of the abstract path-building game. The list is here.