Before Next Month’s SPIEL, We Take A Look At Current Trends In Boardgaming

by MonkeyMagicSeptember 16, 2019

You may or may not know that the modern boardgaming world is actually a massive industry. One of the best ways to see this demonstrated is at the planet’s biggest boardgame event – SPIEL. This event, held in the city of Essen in Germany, is an annual pilgrimage for both the companies and designers who make games, as well as the many geeks who play them. At last year’s event in October of 2018, 190,000 gamers roamed the 80,000 square metres of the fair to check out 1,150 exhibitors attending from over 50 countries to showcase their latest releases.

With such a large array of new games being released each year, it’s possible to detect trends in the ever evolving hobby. Now that nearly a year has passed since the last SPIEL, the dust has settled and one can step back and get a feel for the titles that have remained standing. By looking at the games released at the fair that have continued to capture the attention of players and find their way to the table we can spot some of the current memes in the gaming hobby that are still going strong as we approach SPIEL 2019 next month.

Asymmetrical Play

While not a new concept, some of the games making a big impact recently have this element as a dominant feature. In asymmetrical games, every player is given a ‘faction’ that has a distinct way of interacting with the game and the other players, often resulting in a unique approach to achieving victory with that faction.

One of the hottest games in this genre would have to be Root. Following a successful international Kickstarter, this game saw its German language premiere in Essen. On first glance Root appears to be a fairly cute kid friendly animal game with some beautiful art from Kyle Ferrin showing animals such as birds, cats mice, rabbits and even a raccoon. However, don’t be fooled, under the hood this is essentially a war game. Each player controls a different faction of woodland folk vying for dominance of the forest. Players build buildings, recruit warriors, and engage in combat to control the various clearing on the board. Each of the four factions in the base game plays completely differently including how they move around the board, what kind of buildings they build, how they get more units on the board, and crucially, how they score points. While you can dive into this game without too much thought, play becomes so much more rewarding when you not only learn the intricacies of your own faction, but also how the other factions tick, allowing you to interfere with their plans while nurturing your own to fruition.

That desire to master all the factions, combined with deep but rewarding gameplay means that there is a lot of play here and Root has really stood the test of time. Since SPIEL in October it has seen a hugely successful Kickstarter for a second expansion with more than 20,000 backers pledging over 1.7 million dollars. It has also won a host of awards including a 2018 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year and 2019 UK Games Expo Best Board Game (Strategic Style).

Another highly asymmetrical game sitting in the all time top 20 on boardgamegeek.com currently is Spirit Island. It already had a strong following from its 2017 release but also saw the German language version premier at the SPIEL. In this reversal of the traditional colonisation theme players are working together to support the indigenous people of an island being invaded by new world explorers. You each take on the role of a spirit and must synergise to beat back the colonists either by directly attacking them, empowering the natives to push them back or simply by instilling so much fear in them that they turn tail and abandon the island themselves. Different spirits will focus on different strategies and they all have a unique play style. This is a fairly deep game that rewards repeated plays as you learn the strategies and try out all the different spirits.

Mind Reading

Working with or against other players using limited communication, often non verbal or even borderline telepathic, seemed to be another theme that came through at the fair, and has shown no sign of dying out yet.

In the co-operative game The Mind the players all try to synchronise their thoughts into one single hive mind. The premise is simple. There is a shuffled deck of 100 cards numbered from 1-100. Each round an increasing number of cards are dealt out to each player. All the team have to do is play those cards on to the table in ascending order. The catch is, you are not able to communicate with each other in any way. You need to go with your gut as to how long to wait before you play your card. Let’s say you have the 42. You will sit and wait for quite a while before putting it on the table to allow a player who is holding any of the 41 cards lower than yours to get them out first. Of course if someone plays, say the 39, you are not going to delay much longer before tabling your 41. Play a card too early and the team loses a life. If the whole team manage to play all their cards then that Level is over and you move up to the next Level, with each player starting the round with one more card than in the last Level. If you ever make it all the way up to the final Level (10 in a three player game) then you have mastered the game. I’m yet to get beyond Level 5.

While The Mind came out earlier in the year the buzz that had already been created meant that it still hot at the SPIEL and both it and the expansion that launched there, Level 13, sold outduring the show.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the exhibition halls another game from the same designer was being premiered. In Fuji the team of players are trying to move their pawns across a series of tiles to all escape the island before being consumed by lava. Each player secretly rolls a set of dice which have different coloured numbers on them. Each tile they want to move to has different dice requirements. You can only successfully move there if you meet those requirements better than your neighbours. The rub is again that you can’t just discuss this. While in Fuji you are allowed some communication, you are not allowed to discuss the specifics of the dice you have, only suggest how strong or weak your collection of dice are for the requirements of a given card. Again in this game you will only succeed if the team all get into the same head space. You can talk about being ‘fairly weak’, ‘quite strong’, ‘very strong’ and so on. Our group felt that both our effectiveness and our enjoyment was enhanced if we adopted the ‘bear scale’ – if I tell my team that my dice are “as strong as an adolescent bear with a hunting knife” on one spot, but as weak as a ‘”baby bear still in nappies” on another, then they have a reasonable idea how I am positioned. This game has probably hit the table more times since the SPIEL than any other game we picked up.

Other honourable mentions from the fair requiring you to get into someone else’s head include the ingenious competitive deduction game Cryptid and the team based game Shadows: Amsterdam where you play in real time giving non verbal picture based clues to your team mate.

Unique Games

A new genre of games emerged for the first time in 2018, the unique game, where every single copy of the game differs from the next.

You know that little niche game Magic: The Gathering, the one that has been on the go for 26 years and made Hasbro $2.45 billion in net revenue last year? Well it’s designer, Richard Garfield (featured in Geekscape 519) had a brand new card game to show the world last year, and there was a premier at SPIEL, just days before its full worldwide release. That game was KeyForge. The core gameplay has similarities to Magic: The Gathering, with two players putting creatures on the table that then attack the other players creatures. There are some interesting fundamental changes including the main goal of collecting Aember rather than dealing damage, and the way players pick one of their three ‘suits’ and then play and activate all cards in that suit, and only that suit, for that turn. But what really makes this game stand out are the unique decks. Unlike in Magic there is no deck building, players buy one or more pre-constructed decks which cannot be modified in any way, but every single deck in the world will be completely unique. Using procedural generation to ensure that all decks have an appropriate mix of different card types and a reasonable balance of three of the ‘suits’ (as well as a procedurally generated name) there are more than 104,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible decks. This intriguing concept results in a focus on getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of your own individual deck and the resulting fresh perspective combined with solid central gameplay has kept KeyForge alive, with one expansion out already and a third one set to release in time for SPIEL 2019.

Also showcasing at the fair was another unique game by another high profile designer, Corey Konieczka, famous for titles like Star Wars: Rebellion, Battlestar Galactica and Eldritch Horror. Discover: Lands Unknown is a co-operative game in which players find themselves stranded in the wilderness and must team up to find food, water and tools with a view to their ultimate goal of surviving. Published by the same company as KeyForge similar technology has been used to ensure every copy of this game is also unique. While one game might be set in the desert another might be in the frozen tundra or the jungle. In addition the combination of items and encounters is also unique to each box. Although this game generated a lot of buzz at SPIEL, subsequent reception has been a little lukewarm. While this game itself may not still be getting played in a few years time, more unique games will almost certainly be around the corner and that alone is an exciting prospect.

Roll and Write

Everyone has heard of the great granddaddy of roll and write games Yahtzee, and although it has been around since at least 1956, this genre as a whole has suddenly exploded in the last twelve months, while SPIEL 2018 being a clear indicator of the year that changed.

Like Yahtzee, the central mechanic of a roll and write game involves rolling a set of dice and then taking the results of those dice and writing them down in some way to maximise your score. Looking at That’s Pretty Clever, one of the biggest successes, in more detail is probably a great place to start. This was another title that was available earlier in the year, but really took off at the SPIEL. It now has multiple awards nominations as well as successful mobile OS ports. On your turn your roll six different dice, pick one of them to use on one of five corresponding coloured areas on your score pad and write the result in the appropriate box. Each coloured area works differently either scoring points in some way, or giving you power- ups to use later in the game. You then roll the remaining dice and pick another result, and repeat. Crucially all other players are involved during your turn (and vice versa) as whatever dice you don’t use they get to use for their score pad. The game strikes a great balance with quick and intuitive play but also meaningful choices.

Elsewhere in the halls, a pre-release version of Rolling Ranch was available to play. In this game each player is building a farm – putting up fences and building while placing animals within the enclosures. This time only two dice are rolled and all players use the same results to write on their farm pad. However the combination of numbers and icons on each die means that there are multiple possible ways to use the outcome of the roll and each player makes their own decision. The simultaneous use of the same die roll means that there is no down time with all players active all the time. While fairly simple in terms of choices there are just enough there to hold the interest on repeat plays.

Yet another new roll and write release was Railroad Ink, available in Blue and Red versions. It has a similar shared dice result mechanic with 4 to 6 dice being rolled for everyone to use each turn, all of which show different road or rail sections. The goal is to use the results to build a transport network on the dry wipe grid in front of you, scoring points for connecting exits, entering the middle of the grid and having the longest routes, while losing points for dead ends.

Elsewhere in the same hall was a roll and write game with no rolling. Welcome To… uses what is essentially a roll and write mechanic, complete with disposable player score pads and multiple different scoring options, but replaces the dice with a deck of cards. Again there is a shared pool of results to use from across three cards flipped each round, meaning play is simultaneous. Players are building houses in a suburban neighbourhood, and deciding when to add features like fences and pools. While this game lacks the physical neatness of other games that only have dice, a handful of pens and a scoring pad, it makes up for it by, for me, having both the deepest and most rewarding gameplay as well as the strongest theme of all the roll and write games I played at Essen.

What Next?

With all these games going strong almost a year down the line there is no sign of the associated mechanisms losing their buzz. In fact Root, Spirit Island, The Mind, That’s Pretty Clever and Welcome To.. all have expansions in the pipeline. We will see many of these at SPIEL 2019 in just over a month, but what will be more interesting to look out for in Essen will be the discovery of the next step in ongoing evolution of boardgames.

SDCC 2017: We Tried The ‘Final Fantasy’ Trading Card Game! Did Square-Enix Summon A Hit?

by Josh JacksonJuly 28, 2017

With as many properties that have developed card games over the years, it was only a matter of time before Final Fantasy got in on the action. With decades worth of characters, creatures and lore to pull from, it seems natural that players would want to gather their favorite heroes and do battle with fancy, glossy decks. At the Square-Enix booth at San Diego Comic Con, the company offered demos to new players who wanted to see how well the game translated to the TCG format. Not being one to shy away from a new card game, I took the time to see what kind of spells I could conjure the heroes from Final Fantasy IX.

Each player starts with a deck of exactly 50 cards made up primarily of Forward and Backup characters. Forward characters are your main line of defense, taking the front of the field as they use their abilities and strength to fight off the opposing deck. Except for the first turn, players can summon as many characters as they want as long as they have the CP for it. This number, which is at the top-left of every card, shows you how much you need to pay, as well as which element it needs to belong to. The exception to this rule are Light and Dark cards, which can use any element. CP is gained by either dulling, (the FF equivalent to tapping), or discarding cards from your hand to gain 1 or 2 CP respectively. From there, your line of defense is set.

Fortunately, unless the character has the Haste ability, each new summon suffers from summoning sickness, which is TCG speak for not being able to act on the turn they’re summoned. When they can act, you have the option to either defend, which subtracts from their HP for that turn only, or take the damage, which results in you taking one damage point. The first player to deal seven points of damage wins, but each time a player takes damage, they get to draw one of seven damage cards that they set aside at the beginning of the match. If that card has an EX Burst ability however, they can trigger that move immediately without cost, potentially turning the tide of a game. Even when you see an opening, you might want to be careful about attacking with your whole party. Each Forward that attacks becomes dulled, meaning they can’t act until their next turn. So if you attack with everyone you have, that means you won’t have any way to defend yourself if the opponent mounts a comeback.

Aside from the main characters, Summons are one time use characters that disappear after being brought on the field to use their powerful abilities. Most Backup characters feature the DS remake versions of the Onion Knights from Final Fantasy III filling the roles of generic jobs like Monks, Thieves and Mages, with their own abilities to trigger if not being tapped for CP. This helped make every card feel special, even the ones that might serve as fodder for your Forwards. Speaking of special, although the cards that I’ve seen break away from conventional TCG thinking by having no holographic versions, each one uses thick, glossy paper with some of the most iconic art from the series taken from the games.

In my brief time with the game, the only major concern I have is the flexibility allowed to customize your decks. In the game that I played, many of the Final Fantasy IX characters relied on each other to get stronger. For example, Stiener’s strength increased depending on how many IX characters fought alongside him, while Zidane had a similar skill. In other words, they would be far less effective if paired with a mixed deck. I hope that the booster packs allow for more flexibility than I’m seeing here, but either way, the game was a blast to play.

I’m looking forward to seeing the game’s growth in North America and seeing what the cards can do once we have all of the expansions. For now, I’ll just wait patiently for a Final Fantasy VI deck and dream of the day I can clean house with Celes. Do you have room in your binder for the Square Enix’s card game? Share your thoughts with us below!

Geekscape 415: Freeing Ourselves With José Pablo Castillo And Jeff Levine!

by JonathanJune 7, 2016

You might know actor José Pablo Castillo from his rolls on popular shows like ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘Sons of Anarchy’ but you’d never guess that he loves designing games! That’s right! And now José and his friend Jeff Levine are guests on Geekscape to talk about the card game that they co-created: ‘Free Me’! This is a quick turn based game that makes fun of Social Media in the process! The more followers you lose, the closer you are to winning! We play a few rounds on the show and José and Jeff talk me through creating the game! PLUS! José and I share our continued thoughts about ‘Preacher’ and I tell you why the new series ‘Outcast’ is a must watch! Enjoy!

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SDCC 2014: Konami Tips The Scales With ‘YuGiOh’ And Pendulum Summoning

by Josh JacksonJuly 31, 2014

At Comic Con, Konami’s booth was a giant celebration of all things YuGiOh. Everywhere you looked, all of the best cards, characters, and even a con exclusive Kaiba themed play mat were on display for new and old players to see. But the main focus wasn’t on the past, but on the future of the game, starting with the newest game mechanic, Pendulum Summoning.

Debuting with YuGiOh: Arc-V, the new anime series that saw its debut back in April, the 2014 starter deck was the first chance that North Americans got to try out the new monster type. Having only been released recently, the card game experts at the booth had numerous tables set up for the demonstrations as to how these monster turned spell cards have the potential to completely change the way the game is played.

The most immediately noticeable change is the color of the card. With its orange top half and its green bottom, color schemes that are typically reserved for effect monsters and spell cards respectively, this visual difference further illustrates the hybrid nature of these new cards. Featuring attack, defense and spell effects, duelists have the choice of playing them like normal monsters, or using them in one of the two new Pendulum Zones. While placed on these spaces, players can use its spell effect once per turn until the card is destroyed. Essentially becoming a Continuous Spell Card, it avoids many of the counters that are designed to stop these effects , since the new cards aren’t classified as any existing spell. Not only that, but when they do get destroyed by an attack or monster effect, they go face up on top of your Extra Deck, keeping them out of the graveyard. Why does it matter? That’s where their real power comes in.

Pendulum Monsters each have a value that can differ depending on which one of the two zones they’re placed on. Now, once one monster is placed on each side, their respective values come into play, potentially allowing a Pendulum Summon. What that means is that any Pendulum Monster that is between the levels of the two cards’ values can be special summoned to the field from your hand or Extra Deck on that turn. For example, if one monster has a scale value of one and the other is six, you can potentially fill your field with level two through five beasts, all while the potential spell effects of the two monsters on the scales can still be used. The best part? Each summon is a standalone move, so to my understanding, cards like Solemn Judgment, which negates the activation of a card before destroying it, would only affect one summon. The rest are free to win you the game.

Of course, this is with the best case scenario in mind. While the mechanic is still in its infancy, if Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz Summoning are any indication, then it’s safe to say that this new generation will add tons of support cards that will make us forget that these other summon types ever existed. But until then, the future looks exciting for the next stage in the popular card game’s evolution.

We hope to have some more detailed, hands on impressions with Pendulum Monsters, including a full breakdown of the Starter Deck, in the near future. Until then, stick with Geekscape.net for the rest of your Comic Con news!

SDCC 2014: ‘Outcast Odyssey’ Gets Us Excited For A Mobile Card Game

by jake108July 30, 2014

Card games are and will always be popular among geeks everywhere. With the advent of mobile gaming, card games quickly invaded our mobile devices for the better. However, after many iterations of this genre of game, the field has gotten a little stale. Enter Outcast Odyssey, a game that rightfully dubs itself an evolution mobile card games.

I’ve played my fair share of mobile card games, but I find that each one does not keep me playing longer than a couple of months. This is mostly do to repetition and the ever-increasing pressure to conduct in-app purchases in order to avoid the risk of hitting a wall. This is where Outcast Odyssey sets itself apart.

The game features a blend of RPG, exploration, and traditional card game aspects to form an experience that will allow players to easily immerse themselves in this universe. Outcast Odyssey features a sort of open-world in which players can navigate through worlds by tapping dark squares that represent plains. For example, when a player chooses to see what exists on that plain, that player may find a monster. Rather than automatically engaging with said monster, players have the option of trying to bypass it. This, in turn, adds another layer to exploration. Players may have several reasons to do this, such as not having enough energy, monster is too high of a level, or even too low of a level. Regardless, how many times have you been locked into a battle you didn’t want to be in?!

The game’s art is something to admire. Each card features a dynamic display with VFX. The game features artwork from both Warren Louw and Chuck Pires. Each card’s art also comes into play as each card upgrades. With each level-up and upgrade, the art on the card will change.

Above all else, it’s easy for me to say Outcast Odyssey will be an instant-hit for fans of the card game genre. Look for Outcast Odyssey on your iOS and Android devices this fall!

http://youtu.be/z9yp4WkaXyY

Essen Recap: The BoardGame Geek Convention – Part II

by MonkeyMagicMarch 27, 2014

So you join us fresh from Essen Part I. If you have not been there first this may not make much sense.

FRIDAY

Day two of the fair started with another early morning tactical table grab. This time we went for Kohle & Kolonie. It looked like a heavy game we could sink our teeth into. All about coal mining. As soon as the rules started we knew it was going to be our kind of game. We only played a partial game but got a good feel for it. It is a complex and heavy game. Not in so much as the rules are very complex, but the interplay of mechanics makes it a nice challenge to see just how to best play. Reminded me a little of a classic by the name of Brass. I didn’t buy a copy immediately due to fear it might hurt my head just a little too much. Went top of my shortlist though.

We managed to get a couple of other quick games in before it was time to head over and demo for Portal Games. Two of us were on shift at once demoing the previously mentioned Theseus as well as their other new release Legacy: The Testament of Duke de Crecy. The latter is a fun family building card game where you all try and develop the most well renowned family by facilitating your family members having children, marrying of these children to different characters, buying property, holding social functions and so on. It is an enjoyable game with a strong narrative. When teaching I saw a number of players making little stories as they went. “We are poor so have to marry the shoemaker”, “the bakers daughter is very fertile and so we have an extra child”, “his wife dies in childbirth, no problem, he will get married again”. The character art also works well. It was always interesting to watch all the guys crane across to get a better look every time the attractive and mysterious “Pirates Daughter” was placed on the table. There would always be some disappointment when one of the other players took her as a bride.

It was a fairly intense but still enjoyable 4 hours of demoing running up until the doors closed for the day.

... in a big ass hall — … in a big ass hall

As it was Friday night we decided to go out for dinner. One of the traditional locations is The Mexican, no idea what it is actually called. After a couple of games of Donburiko we were ready to go. When we arrived it wasn’t looking good. It was very busy and we were 8 people. More importantly cocktail happy hour was about to end. We managed to shoehorn ourselves onto an undersized table some friends were leaving and maximised our cocktail order about 3 mins before half price cocktails was over. This meant two pint of cocktail per person. Excellent. Cocktails arrived and we placed our food order. Then disaster struck, the kitchen was too busy to take any more orders. We had about a litre of cocktail to drink each and no food. We could not leave, but it was almost 10pm, we needed food. In the end we managed to get two sharing platters between the 8 of us. There were some hungry tums after that.

As the evening went on the conversation deteriorated. After the great story of the friend who ordered a thousand chicken nuggets at McDonalds, we moved onto to the popular dinner table topic of “Most Embarrassing Shit”. This was not about the turd whose shape and consistency one was most ashamed of, but the most embarrassing circumstances in which one had laid a devil cigar. Favourites included the one that plopped out of the bottom of the bus while everyone was loading their luggage at the station, the chap out in the forest who knocked on the door of a nearby house to find it was a show home and so peeled the cellophane off the pan but discovered that there was no water plumbed in to dispose of his good work and had to simply re-wrap the toilet with a gift inside, and the turd that wouldn’t come in the airplane toilet so had to be sucked back into the gentleman’s body in time for landing after which his friends had to leave him at the airport to allow him the time needed to get the task completed. Next one of the larger gents in our group managed to convince pretty much all of us that he could beat two of the more lithe chaps in a 25m sprint. Sadly this was subsequently proved to be incorrect in a sprint across the wet central town square of Essen.

When we got back to the hotel it was late and we were not at our mental pinnacle. Two of us tried to master the fairly hefty Cornish Smuggler. We struggled through what was probably a very reasonable rulebook and played a few rounds. After a spell I realised I had backed myself into an untenable position with no way to sell the goods I had smuggled across half of Cornwall and no money left to make a different play. With our brains aching we decided to call it quits while we still could. Despite this the two of us decided to play Lost Legacy in the room. It is based on a game we know very well called Love Letter that plays in about 2 minutes. Reading through the rules it all sounded good, although the fact I fell asleep briefly and dropped my card as my companion drew his first card was a bad omen. Then, after scrutinising them for a while he declared that he could not legally play either card. Soundly beaten by the fatal alcohol+fatigue+Essen combo we gave up.

SATURDAY

The must play table dash this morning was Amerigo, designed by Stefan Feld, the man responsible for the classic that is In the Year of the Dragon. It had some clever mechanics and we all enjoyed it as a good solid effort, but nobody was totally wowed.

We had another good day getting in quite a few reasonable titles. Just after a game of L’Aéropostale we saw our 3rd chair-destruction-by-overweight-gamer. Comedy value was added by the fact that despite not actually being that massive they did a great beached whale number on the floor, I think more due to low IQ than high BMI. They need to get stronger chairs next year. Or scales at the door.

The highlight of Saturday at the fair was SOS Titanic. A co-operative game where you try and evacuate the passengers off the Titanic onto the lifeboats before it sinks. It has a Solitaire/Patience mechanic at it’s centre with each passenger represnted by a card that you have to line up on the deck of the Titanic. It has some really nice touches that make decisions tough but avoids the one player dictator problem some co-ops can have. It is also beautifully presented with a ring bound book representing the Titanic that sinks as you flip the pages with the progress of the game.

Back at the ranch we played Northern Pacific. A game we have had to class as Broken AND Genius at the same time. There is a map with a rail network across America and the train will make it’s way from one side of the board to the other without ever doubling back. On your turn you can do one of two things – place one of your cubes in a city the train has not yet been to, or chose which city the train goes to next from its current location. Every time it reaches a city with a cube in it each player gets their cube back and one more from the supply. The player with the most cubes when the train has completed its E to W journey wins. Unless no one has more cubes than they started with in which case the game wins! Crucially each city will accommodate one less cube than there are players. Consequently someone will always be left out. So if players 1, 2, and 3 load up a city that the train can go to next, player 4 will move the train to one of it’s other possible destinations, meaning all the other players have made a cube loss. So when player 1 places in A, player 2 might decide to join them or might decide place in city B. Player 3 must decide whether to join in the fun in A or B. Or maybe they will speculate on C, the common location the train could go to next after A or B. And so on. On the one hand it feels like there is no game and there will be a solvable “best move” each turn, on the other each situation seems different and one player can suddenly change the landscape completely with a single cube placement. Despite the concern that we were the ones being played, I have tabled this three times and it has been played 4-5 times in a row each time. The fact in plays in 10-15 minutes helps this, but it is very addictive.

We then had a game of what we call Wobbly Ship, officially know as Riff Raff. Why describe it when a video speaks a thousand words.

Finally we played the catchily titled Geistesblitz 5 vor 12. Place a selection of 8 wooden items on the table – a ghost, a mirror, an owl and so on. Flip a card. First player to grab the item from the card that matches one of those on the table, same item and same colour, wins the card. Get it wrong and you lose a card. Simple. But…

– If there is no exact match then you must grab the item which has neither it’s colour nor it’s likeness on the card.
And then add the advanced rules
– If there is a ghost with a clock grab nothing but shout the time on the clock
– If there is an item reflected in a mirror grab that item regardless of colour
– If there is an owl on the card shout the correct item rather than grabbing it
– If there is a mirror and an owl shout the colour of the item in the mirror
Stand back while your brain melts.

Need sleep.

SUNDAY

As we entered the final day I still had a certain emptiness. While there had been some excellent filler and party type games I was still looking for my Game Of The Show. A classic 90-120 minute medium to heavy weight game that I might continue to play for years to come. Each Essen should have at least one.

Our last great hope was Nations. We had been too slow to get a table Saturday morning so got in extra early and sprinted right there. Having secured a table we were then lucky enough to be taught by one of the game designers.

This is an epic 40-60 mins per player civ game, a bit like Civilization the computer game. You build up your empire by buying different cards from a common board and placing them on your own board. There are the key commodities of grain, stone and money, which have different uses. There are also tracks for books (knowledge), military strength and stability. Each track has its own rewards and opens up various options. How much you have of any of these variables is determined by the cards you buy for your board and in some cases which cards you deploy workers to. And of course there are VPs, both earned during game and at end game scoring.

Initially it sounds pretty simple; the rules are pretty elegant, if a bit solitaire. But it’s not. Other player actions are crucial. You are frequently in direct competition on the three tracks, with absolute score on any track often much less important than position relative to other players. Also you frequently really want 2 or 3 cards from the common pool and will agonise over which one might still be there by the time it gets round to your turn again. One player’s move can often have a huge impact on your plans.

At last. Game of the Show. Several copies were bought and I felt satisfied. So far it has stood the test of time. Mission accomplished I felt free to wander the halls aimlessly. We then stumbled across a free table. It was a slightly odd setup being a shop booth, rather than a publisher booth, but it had a single gaming table tacked on to the edge. And what was laid out but Coal Baron. Or in German “Glück Auf”. Sounds a bit like “F**k Off”, which is enough to be mildy entertaining to our childish brains. More importatntly it was one of the few remaining games on my list to try. As icing on the cake a charming and pretty young lady was waiting to teach us.

It’s a game about mining. Expand your mine, mine your coal, obtain orders for different kinds of coal, fulfil you orders. After we had got over our excitement at the little lift in the middle of each player board that actually slides up and down, accessing different levels, we got stuck in. What a great game. Simple, intuitive, and fast paced but with plenty of interaction and tough choices. My number two big box game of the show. What a day!

As time was ruuning out it was important to complete the Essen experience by visiting the visiting the Geek section. Yes, even as a bunch of geeks travelling across Europe to a boardgame convention, there is a subsection even we find too Geek. The cosplayers and LARPers. In one part of the hall you can find massive arrays of weapons for sale, both foam and metal, stunning armour, booths selling mead for the drinking, pixie ears and so on. And some pretty intense costumes.

Skaven I believe [image - JPWatts] — Skaven I believe [image – JPWatts]

And so we played a couple more games before we exited the hall for the last time and made our way to the car for the long drive back to Paris.

Once again our journey took us through godforsaken Belgium where we bookended our weeks awful diet with another MacD’s. It did however bring us a sweet reward from the petrol station were we found some neat little limited edition Lego cars to bring home for the children. As we struggled to stay awake in the dark we had plenty of time for post match analysis of this year’s Essen.

It is always hard to judge the games in the bigger scheme of things until they have had time to settle in to their place in the wider pantheon of boardgames. Some years produce classics that still have a place many gamers all time top 10’s. For example 2007 gave us In the Year of the Dragon and 2008 Tinners’ Trail both of which still have a warm place in many of our hearts. Will Nations be viewed through rose tinted spectacles in the brave new world of 2019? Over all the impression was that, yes, this had been a good year for games. From fillers like Donburiko and Pick-a-Polar Bear to the bigger boxes of Nations and Coal Baron. We both felt satisfied that our games booty would get some good mileage in the future. The experience in the fair each day had also been good. The new halls worked fine and, with the exception of awkwardly placed toilets, the layout seemed to work. We also felt as though, unlike some previous years, we spent very little time wandering around unable to get a table when we wanted to. The group size worked out well too. Eight is a good number as two groups of 4 is the ideal split (a lot of games will not take 5 or more players). Although we got into a habit of sticking in the same 4s for the whole show, this was partly due to taste in games and beer-game priorities, and we did manage to mix it up a bit. Maybe most importantly the company was good and there was a lot of laughing. We laughed while playing games, laughed with good games, laughed at bad games, laughed between games and laughed at plenty of really bad chat. And there were some really embarrassing shit stories. Probably the only thing missing was sleep.

Within a few days of getting back I had already booked us 4 rooms for 2014…

I had to fit the left hand tower of 25 games in my suitacse

A Beginner’s Guide To Board Games: What To Play & How To Learn!

by MonkeyMagicSeptember 19, 2013

So. What kind of geek are you? Comic? Movie? Video game? There is another kind of geek out there. There are many similarities: we collect stuff, we get excited when new stuff is coming out, follow its progress on the internet, post pictures and speculate, pre-order, get tempted by limited editions and bonus stuff. There are celebrities with their own followers who crave their hero’s signatures upon shiny new releases. There are different genres with their own sub-groups of devoted fans. There are lame in-jokes. And there is the mother of all geek conventions, Essen, in Germany every October. Bigger than Comic-Con (130,000 geeks), Comikaze (45,000) or E3 (48,200), with 149,000 geeks visiting 827 exhibitors over 4 days. These are the boardgamegeeks.

Wait. Before you dismiss it as a totally ludicrous hobby for people that even geeks think of as freaks, let me tell you about our world. Follow me. Come closer. Maybe I can persuade you to put cardboard to the table.

But before getting a taster of some of the 66,449 boardgames available to you, there is one key question. Why bother?

WHY?

For most people, the number one reason is social. It’s a fun thing to do together with a bunch of people, friends or not-yet-friends. There’s usually lots of banter, and in our group well mannered cussing, creative swearing, and inappropriate urban dictionary style sexual references. It can be a chance to flex your mental muscles and get heavily competitive, a chance to get stupid and childish, or a chance to get lost in theme and atmosphere. It all depends what you choose to play, what pops your wheelie.

And that’s what I’ll try to dip into next. To give a flavour of some of the different itches that can be scratched.

WHAT?

Board (and card) games can be categorised in many ways. Like with anything, put enough geeks together with keyboards, and some of them will get into pointless internet arguments. You can categorise by mechanic, theme, number of players, designers…. you get the idea.

I will try to go through what I feel are some of the main styles that may attract different players for different reasons.

1. A BIT SHIT

So in my opinion, this is where Monopoly sits, and to a lesser extent some of the other ‘classic’ games. Don’t get me wrong, these games had their time and place in history, but have just been superseded. Personally, I had not played Monopoly for about 20 years but didnt remember it being that great. However I decided to give it another go a year or so ago. The first 45 minutes was actually quite fun – properties came up, there was some ineteresting bidding, decisions to make on where to develop. Then there came the next 2h 15 mins. For this whole time we could all see who was going to win, which to guys were screwed and the other 2 guys who would kind of be in the running for another hour or so. We could do nothing to affect the outcome and just had to watch painfully as the poor got poorer and the rich richer. It may be an accurate simulation of life but it was truly awful.

Having said all that, if you love Monoploy and get a kick out of it every time, more power to you. But be aware, in my books you are missing out on the Class A stuff.

2. THE EURO

So without boring you with the history, probably around 20 years ago boardgames began to evolve. Many of the issues with Monopoly and other similar games were ‘fixed’. These games mostly came out of Germany, which probably is still the heart of the modern boardgame industry. As a consequence these games are called Eurogames.

Typically a Eurogame will have the following. A clearly defined game end, making play time predictable, usually between 60 and 120 minutes. It will have multiple different strategies that can be effectively employed to win the game. There will be no player elimination. The game will often try to avoid the problem of a runaway leader. Or instead there will be hidden victory points so people can enjoy the game through to the end before they realise they are being royally humped. Oh yeah, and there will be brightly coloured wooden cubes.

Puerto Rico

You are all settling in the New World in the age of discovery, constructing your own buildings and plantations, populating them with ‘settlers’ (clearly slaves), producing goods and then selling them or shipping them back to the Old World. One of the central elements is that on your turn you selected one from a limited number of actions remaining that round and carry it out. The rub is that everyone else gets to do the same action you choose. You get a special bonus for choosing the role, but it could still benefit another player more than you. Do you really want to start a round of producing goods when the next guy is going to start moving them on to the ships, leaving them full and your goods wasted. Even worse if they have a special building that allows them to move extra goods. But if you dont they might choose it themselves, get the perk of the role, and leave you last to produce goods and finding them all gone. Oh, the sweet agony. A classic 90 minutes for 3-5 players.

Power Grid

Supply electrcity and make the most money. Simple. Bid for different power plants, buy the fuel for your plants, build into the cities you want to supply, fire up your plants and get cash. Rinse and repeat. Easy eh? But which plant to you put up for auction, maybe the one you dont want to get someone out of the running and maybe get a better one into the market? But you might be lumbered with it if nobody else wants it. How much can you afford to spend on that plant and still leave enough cash left to buy the fuel for it? And do you take the lead and face being the last one to buy fuel at the highest prices? Or do you hang back to get the perks of last place, hoping to can predict the game end coming, and leapfrog into first place at the crucial moment? A great game to teach new players as it’s so easy to get the basic flow of the game, and yet full of strategy and player interaction.

3. AMERITRASH

Yet another topic boardgame geeks can argue endlessly and tediously about – what is Ameritrash? The name is clearly derived from the hybrid of American and trash. Get it? They usually originate form American and are trashy in as much as they can be a more about style than substance, and are hence looked down on by some. Common elements that are found in Ameritrash games are as follows. A large quantity of highly detailed plastic miniatures, lots and lot of bits, dice, a strong theme which will usually be of a fantasy or sci-fi nature, a reasonably hefty rule book, high quality art.

Arkham Horror

This is a fairly good example. There is a lack of figures but it otherwise fits most of the criteria. You each play an Investigator trying to hold back one of the Great Old Ones from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos world. Characters move around, having encounters, getting tooled up, fighting bad guys by rolling dice and trying to seal the gates the old ones threaten to burst through. This game has a fucking gazillion bits. With all the expansions it could just about take an hour to set up and fill a 10 seater dining table. But it drips with theme and is a really fun ride.

Most would also class Civilization as Ameritrash. It a pretty accurate simulation of the PC game many of you will be familiar with. Develop your civilization in a struggle against your opponents to be the first to claim a military, economic, scientific or culture victory.

4. CASUAL

Some games are well suited to the more casual experience. They usually play in under an hour, have fairly simple accessible rules, feature a slightly higher luck / lower strategy ratio and often have a light, humorous theme. These a great ‘gateway’ games. The kind of soft drugs that get you hooked and make you move on to the hard stuff. While I love them in their own right, I will also often pull out one of these games to pop the cherry of the boardgames virgins.

King of Tokyo

You are an oversized monster trying to wreak havock on Japan’s capital, kaiju style, to become the King of Tokyo. You win by having the most points or by kicking everyone else’s asses and being the last beast standing. The play centres on rolling and re-rolling special dice, Yahtzee style, picking the ones you want to heal, damage other monsters, get points or collect energy to buy power ups. While undeniably light there is definite strategy there. The power up cards feature entertaining art and titles that kind of tempt you to read them in a stupid movie voice. ‘Giant brain’ ‘It has a child!’

Cockroach Poker

A very simple game about lying. Pick a card from your hand and pass it face down to another player making a claim about what it is. ‘It’s a fly’. They have two choices. Call you – truth or lie. If they are right the card goes back to you as minus points, if they are wrong it sits in front of them as minus points. Or they can look at the card and pass it on making a claim ‘It is indeed a fly, Andy would never lie’ ‘Do not believe him, its a bat’ [It’s actually a toad]. Genius. Do you have a good lying face?

5. HARDCORE

You toked on the mellow of the casual game, experimented by popping a few Euros, now you find yourself drawn into the sordid world of the Hardcore from which there is no return. These games are heavy duty. They will usually take 2-3 hours or more to play. Have a fairly complex ruleset but a much more complex interplay of tactics and strategy. These games can make your brain hurt but give you serious satisfaction once you get your head round them.

Die Macher

So if I asked you if you wanted to play a 3 hour game about German politics I might not be surprised if you told me you would rather stick pins in your eyes. But hear me out. In this game for 3-5 players you each take the role of a political party trying to achieve victory over a number of local elections. These elections are contested one after another but you can influence more than one at any time, if you are clearly going to tank in one you might focus on another instead. In each election the elecorate have certain preferences – they may pro-economy, anti-nuclear and anti-tomato (I think it is supposed to genetic engineering). You try to align your policies with theirs, by changing yours or perhaps by taking control of the media to change public opinion to match your stance. In each election you also try to improve the popularity of your party and maybe reduce that of others and hold ‘meetings’ to increase awareness of your party. Finally the votes are calculated and the winner decided. Or maybe winners if two parties chose a coalition, or even if one was forced unwillingly into a unwanted coallition. As the elections pass you gain votes, increase your party memebership and try to influence your policies and the global agendas to tie up. There is a lot going and many different ways to try and fight your way to victory. There is a lot of interaction between players with the appropriate amount of resultant name calling. Did I convinve you, or shall I get you those pins?

18XX

This game is so hardcore it is actually a family of over 50 games with running times between 2 hours and half a day. They may look like they are about building railway networks but are actually brutal stockmarket manipulation games. OK, and you build rail networks too. Each features a number of railway companies, a map and a crucial stock market track. Players buy shares in the rail companies. The companies can use that capital to build their network and buy trains in order to run routes and make money. The money can either grown the company or pay all the shareholders. Shares in the companies go up and down depending on how they perform. The player who makes the most money wins. Easy. I wish it was, I am awful at these games due to a lack of innate financial ability. Doing well is simple surely, buy low and sell high. Milk the company for what it’s worth then dump it on the other shareholders just as all its trains are about to rust leaving it bankrupt. I usual place last in these games but enjoy them just the same. Although they do make my head hurt. In a good way that is. I think.

Oh, and it’s a video game. Well there was a DOS version called 1830: Railroads & Robber Barons back in 1995. Anyone?

6. CO-OPERATIVE

For some this is the antithesis of gaming. No competition? Surely just an exercise in mutual masturbation? I’d hate to comment on that, but for me and many others co-operative games offer a different but very enjoyable experience. A team of you (if you wish it might be just two of you, or even solo) try to use you collective whit to beat the engine of the game, to solve the puzzle and choose the best moves under pressure. Some games add a secret traitor element to appease those with an irresistible competitive urge.

Ghost Stories

As the Taoist monks you must work together to hold back the waves of ghosts haunting the inhabitants. If you last long enough you will face the challenge of defeating their master Wu Feng, the Lord of Hell. Each turn you much choose which ghost to try and fight, protecting yourself, your fellow monks or the village buildings. Villagers can help you in different ways and you must choose wisely who you turn to and when, never knowing when they might be scared off by a haunting ghost. The game is accessible with simple but tough choices to be made, has great art, and is really damn tough. I have played it over a dozen times and have yet to beat it. I just keep going back for more punishment. Wu Feng, I will crush you yet!

Battlestar Galactica

GalacticNar has already written a nice piece on the BSG boardgame right HERE on Geekscape. You are all humans working together to lead Galactica safely to Kobol. Except some of the crew are actually cylons with a totally different agenda. Filled with paranoia, lying and deception it’s all about the table talk.

7. OTHERS

While I seem to have go on a bit there a lot I havent covered. The whole world of collectable card games that was kicked off by Magic: The Gathering. MTG itself is still going strong but has spawned a host of others. A notable mention is Netrunner, set in a William Gibson style future where one player is the massive Coropration and the other the hacker [Runner] trying to break into their servers and steal valuable data. Netrunner also follows a new trend of being sold in such away that expansion packs contain all the cards you need, for those of us who dont want to go bankrupt buying and trading in the hunt for those elusive rare cards.

Or solitaire games. A concept freaky and a bit sad to some but a hugely rewarding way to spend a quiet evening for others.

Or a diverse range of two player games, within which are many well suited to gaming couples where one partner, realistically often the lady, can be persuaded to join their geek mate and enjoying a shorter lighter morsel of gaming.

Or wargames, again a whole world in itself where the Grognards get down and dirty with their hexes, blocks and chits. Again these range from the softcore with plastic tanks and glossy cards to the hardcore extreme with rulebooks the size of War & Peace, expansive maps and stacks of cardboard counters

HOW?

So if you have read this far you are either very bored, morbidly fascinated by this apparent car-crash of a hobby or perhaps slightly interested. So how does one go about dipping the toe into these fetid waters.

GROUPS

You can find a local games group. The advantages are that you dont have to research any games, dont have to spend any money buying games and probably wont have to read any rulebooks.

The disadvantges are the unknown. They may not play the kind of games that you are interested in. They may be weird and socially awkward, although probably not more than you. They may have set up their group as a front to lure you in and harvest your organs.

However, in my experience gamers are a friendly and welcoming bunch who are usually pleased to see someone else interested in their hobby. We have a group of around 28 people at present, of which 10-14 will turn up on any given night. We have a website that is the main way new members find us and we try to play a variety of different types of games to suit the varying tastes in the group. And we have a strong tradition of bad chat.

To find your local group, try the Googles and have a look at this list HERE too.

DIY

Or do it yourself. Go buy some games, gather some mates and give it a whirl. When choosing what to buy one option is to browse boardgamegeek.com where you can read reviews, check out pictures and rulebooks or post in the forums for advice. There is an all-time ranking and a ‘Hotness’ section where inspiration may be found if needed. The site also features session reports, rules questions, random Geeklists and is home to a massive friendly and welcoming community.

The other option is to find your friendly local games store (FLGS) and asking them for advice. Don’t be shy, they are just like comic stores. In fact some of them also are comic stores. HERE is a list of stores in the USA, and HERE is one for the rest of the world.

So, does it all sound like a load of cock? Or have I convinced you? You tempted to try it out?

Flame me in the comments below or find me at BGG as MonkeyMagic!