Category: Snippets

The third JKLM release at Essen this year is the delayed Huang Di, designed by Bryan Johnson. It was originally scheduled to appear at this year’s UK Games Expo but got held up due to production issues.

In Huang Di, you play one of 2-6 master builders chosen by the Emperor to help construct the Great Wall of China. Your goal is to become the most distinguished master builder in China with the help of your taskmasters, workers and the Emperor himself.

Further details about the game, including information about pre-order discounts, are on the JKLM website.

John Yianni is the designer of two excellent, beautifully produced abstract games: Hive and Army of Frogs. At this year’s Essen, he releases a new game: Logan Stones, which is base around the familiar rock paper scissors mechanic with a Connect Four objective.

Further details about the game can be found on the Gen Four Two website.

The second game to be released by JKLM Games at Essen is Tulipmania 1637, designed by everyone’s favourite video-blogger, Scott Nicholson.

In Tulipmania, you are playing a wily investor who has a network of buyers and colleagues, all of whom are also trying to become wealthy. Your goal is to make smart investments, artificially raise prices, fleece your network at the best time, and then make your escape from Tulipmania with the most money. Eric Martin from Boardgamenews has compared the game to Reiner Knizia’s Modern Art, which definitely suggests it’s worth a look.

Further information is available on the JKLM website, including details of a pre-order discount.

JKLM Games have three games debuting at Essen 2008. The first is Ascendancy , designed by Nigel Buckle. Ascendancy is a game of galactic empire building for 2 to 4 players that can be played as a short game (6 rounds) in one hour or a long game (9 rounds) in two hours.

Further details about the game, including a pre-order option with 20% discount, can be found on the JKLM website.

Martin Wallace is releasing an extra game in the Treefrog line at Essen this year. This will be the third Treefrog game and is called Steel Driver. It is a railway game for three to six players and takes around 60 to 90 minutes to play.

Further details including the opportunity to pre-order are on the Warfrog website.

The next session of the Shrewsbury Boardgames Club will be on Friday 3rd October 2008 and will be at Garry’s house.

Peter Burley is the designer of one of my favourite multi-player puzzle games: Take It Easy. He has a new pure abstract game coming out at Essen this year called Kamisado. The game looks very attractive and colourful and, on reading the rules, it appears quite deep and chess-like in that it rewards the ability to look forward several moves.

The game is published by Burley Games and further details can be found on the Kamisado website.

The winners of the 2008 IGA have been announced. In the multi-player category the winner was Agricola, designed by Uwe Rosenberg and published by Lookout Games / Z-Man Games. The winner of the two-player category was 1960: The Making of the President, designed by Jason Matthews and Christian Leonhard and published again by Z-Man Games.

Both games are excellent and their choice as award recipients does not come as any surprise. Congratulations to the designers and publishers. More information about the awards can be found on the IGA website.

The next session of the Shrewsbury Boardgames Club will take place on Friday 26th September 2008 and will be at Garry’s house. If there’s eight of us this week, which seems likely at present, I’m planning to split into two tables of four.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right now, I’ve got four games on Ebay due to end on Tuesday. These are Goldland, Santiago, Nautilus and Cheops. Get them now while they’re still cheap.