Essen 2013 watch out list inaugurated

I´ve put up my list of games to watch out for in Essen at boardgamegeek.com.

Serious gaming: playing King of Tokyo in bed

I have started with Pete Ruth's excellent report on GenCon and will add games from Eric Martin's preview list later.  I'm also adding opinions and reviews from some people who've played the games in the run up to Essen, so you might want to check back once in a while. Your suggestions are also more than welcome!

I will be tweeting from the show as @jurdj on the Thursday and Friday and post a few pics if time allows. And Saturday on the way home we will play a few of the games we bought. In the run up and afterwards I will also post here at Rear Guard Action.

A Quick One (before I'm away)

As I finish packing my stuff for Spiel in Essen.

The boardgamegeek page with Essen freebies and specials

And the plans for all the halls with the stands in detail. In case you can't aready find your way around blindly.

I'm a loser, baby...

This is also the moment to acknowledge failure. I didn't make my stated goal to play all Essen 2011 games before Essen 2012.

There are of course reasons enough, but our gaming appetite is always greater than the time available to play. Which has caused me to write this anguished post. Which, in turn, has not yet brought on a change of behaviour, and I dread the amount of stuff I´ll be bringing home this time.

But this year I did  manage around a dozen games of Civilization, as well as half a dozen games of Eclipse. So there´s a tendency as well to master one great game rather than discover as many new ones as possible. Not sure this is a long term shift or just a mood swing which will turn back in a couple of years time.

So I´m not much further than I was early September. Yes, René, it sounded really easy then. And I´ve been carrying Apokalypse around in my bag for 6 weeks, but I just couldn´t finish the rules in German. I will download them in English.

The structural boon has been to buy more shelf space, which was not immediately taken up by stuff stacked up in corners. I am still trying to clear away a few books, so let me know if you would like to send one to you for free.

The only thing I can do now is to set myself the goal to have played all games I am bringing home from Essen within one year from now. Let's call that minor project Essen 2012. That should make me think harder the next two days to set a realistic target. Obviously, just stating the plan hasn't worked to full satisfaction. Anyone have a suitable punishment if I don't make it next time?

Essen 2011: working my way down the list

Okay, so my minor boardgame project was to get as many of the games I bought at Essen last year played at least once before we move off eastwards again. Luckily, Matt Thrower threw a spanner in the works by focussing on why we do this to ourselves. Because it made me look at the stuff I've bought since Essen and this Essen 2011 list is in fact only the beginning. I need to cut down on buying games and make a better assessment of the likelihood a game gets played. Expect a post on this in the near future.

But first, back to Essen 2011. This should start of with the games that I bought at Essen and have already played. The first lot we managed to play at Essen in our three day gaming adventure, either at the convention, in the bar, in the roadhouse or in the hotel.

Lupin III by Pierluigi Frumusa (Ghenos)
We didn't get the rules on the first attempt, and they are not fleshed out. There's quite a learning curve due to all the equipment and special cards. But lovely concept of one player (the Commissary) planning defense, others planning the heist and the potential conflicts between Fujiko and the others. Would love to play again.

51st State New Era by Ignacy Trzewiczek (Portal)
The promise of more interaction than in the original got me tempted to buy it, because the setting and artwork are great, but the game doesn't seem to reward it. This is still a euro hidden beneath a veneer of trash.

Die Exorzisten by Henning Poehl (Sphinx)
I bought four games by German designer Henning Poehl just based on the fact that they look awesome and have really great theme. Got this one to play. Fun card game with a priest, an ex-nun, a voodoo priest and a horror movie expert taking on the possessed. Now some of the characters have the object to excorsize as many demons as possible, but others profit from helping or sabotaging these attempts. Great game to stitch each other up therefor. Beautiful cartoon art work.

Since then I've also managed to play the following:

A Few Acres of Snow by Martin Wallace (Treefrog)
I like this game a lot, despite the fact that some people argue the game is broken by the Halifax Hammer. There's a good tension arc through the game and the game is one of the first to really integrate a deckbuilder into a game, rather than being an end in itself. Played in January.

Blood Bowl: Team Manager by Jason Little (FFG)
I think I've played three or four games now and it's a real blast! It's mean, tactical direct conflict with a good question how you will pace your build up. Focus to much on fans early in the game and you won't be able to compete later, but ignore fans too long and you won't be able to catch up. Also they solved the puzzle of trying to cram a whole season into five rounds. Excellent design!

Guards!Guards! by Leonard Boyd and David Brashaw (Z-Man)
This one I played before the summer. My first impressions are here.

Tikal II by Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer (Gameworks)
Played at the club this summer and was a good deal of fun (I knew that already, because I playtested, but it's a bit different now). It's pure euro and it's a combination of paddling down the river at the edge of the board picking up actions, which then help you explore the temple in the centre.

Strategy is based around a good mix of victory point scoring. The first is based on exploring of rooms. Access to rooms in the temple is based on their colour and whether you have keys in that colour. It's pretty easy to get hold of keys, but you can also use them for victory points. The third way to score is through sets rooms of the same colour you have explored.

Rare artifacts that you have picked up on your riverine tour can be sold as a fourth source of VP. And there's some additional points in the event deck. As you can see, there's a lot to keep track of, and the last turns can while a bit when everybody plots their optimal move.

By the way, the rulebook is great. I love how they introduce the game by a four page comic book intro, with all the designers involved as main characters.

So that leaves:

Apocalypse by Henning Poehl (Sphinx)

Bann der Mummie by Henning Poehl (Sphinx)

After Pablo by Nate Haydn (Blast City)

Earth Reborn by Christophe Boelinger (Z-Man)

Resistance: expansion by Don Eskridge (Indie Boards)

Dos de Mayo: Assault on Grimaldi Palace expansion by Daniel Val (Gryphon)

Revised board for Friedrich by Richard Sivel

This will be a pretty tough challenge. I might get Apocalypse, Bann der Mummie and the Resistance and Dos de Mayo expansions played in an evening, but it will be harder to get a game of After Pablo in, let alone Earth Reborn. And there's only going to be three or four occassions to do it in the coming weeks.

quick update

Won't finish my Italian review tonight so just a quick update of what's going on in various projects.

WWI

In the works are three reviews of books on Italy around WWI, spanning the period from 1815 to 1922. I will publish them at the Maximum Effort blog.

Dark Ages

I also have a review of a book on the Low Countries in the Roman age in preparation which also gives pointers to the Dark Ages, with interesting implications for Post-Roman Britain.


I've found somebody to paint my Dux Britanniarum troops, and they are under way as we speak. The first game of Dux was played last Saturday at my club, Murphy's Heroes in Delft, and the impressions were favourable. I'm anxious to join in. By the way, there's a few nice new early Saxon models coming out through Musketeer miniatures. Especially Hengist and Horsa look awesome.

Vietnam

I've now shifted to reading stuff for the upcoming megagame Lost Youth on operations in Vietnam (London, September 15th). The stack of books waiting is higher than I can take on in the three weeks left, so I will pick and choose. Started out in Michael Herr's Dispatches and it's cracking. Halucinatory. I'll definitely be in the mood for that game.

Essen 2012

Also coming closer is Spiel in Essen, late October. Probably won't manage to play all the stuff I picked up last year (that lesson has been taken on board), but I've already made a first pick of games I will be checking out. See my geeklist on boardgamegeek. It's a work in progress, as the list of releases for Essen is not complete yet. More suggestions are welcome, of course.

Waterloo

I've talked to my friend who's writing the biography of the Prince of Orange and we're concocting a devious plan, which might alter my future. I'm very excited about it and I hope everything will come up sixes. So far I'm mostly collecting books, but in 2013 I aim to start reading them.

Essen 2011 - Games that I played

Before I get to the games from Essen 2011 that I still need to play, let's look at the stuff I did play. Apart from the stuff that I bought, there's a number of games I played but didn't like or that one of my friends bought. I put some quick thoughts on Twitter, and it's probably best to stick to what my first impressions were then. I've ordered them from Wow! to Meh.


Cave Evil by Mat Brinkman, Jochen Hartman and Nate Haydn (Blast City Games)
A real blast! Necromancers slugging it out underground, cool monsters, nice combat system. Was the first wizard to get killed, but had a neat kill pile!


2019: Arctic by Andrzej Kurek (Sinonis)
Political-economical conflict in the Arctic after global warming. Influence Russia, Norway, EU, US and Canada like in Imperial, but without the rondel. Sink a few ships and oil rigs. Incite strikes. Ameritrash in disguise. My hidden gem for Essen 2011. Should have lots more fans!


Risk Legacy by Rob Daviau and Chris Dupuis (Heidelberger)
awesome. Intro game played in under an hour. Got to name a continent. What more can you want?


Iron Sky by Juha Salmijärvi (Revision Games)
It doesn't get more Ameritrash than Nazi's on the Moon. Based on the upcoming movie. The game prototype has some nice mechanics, eg the combat cards, which are quick and clear. But right now it doesn't reward aggression, which is totally the opposite of what it should be. Slogging, bloody, destructive.... Nazi-like!


Dominant Species by Chad Jensen (GMT)
A brutally competitive evolution game, which is cool. Nice mechanics, but takes way too long.


Flash Point by Kevin Lanzing (Stronghold)
Nice coop game on firefighting. Some specialised tasks, some ideas on HazMats etc.


Evolution: the Origin of Species by Dmitri Knorre and Sergey Machin (RightGames)
Nice card game. You try to give your species extra survival traits that might help reproduction, predatoring or survival.


7 Wonders by Antoine Bauza (Asmodee)
A euro for a change and neat design although it doesn't get my blood flowing, despite me winning.


Rumble in the House by Ken Rush (Flatlined)
Fun filler with great cartoon artwork.


Heroica by Nicolas Assenbrunner and Cephas Howard (Lego)
Lightest of light dungeon crawlers but probably good fun for 7 year olds. And forget about the rules in the box. Lego wants you to make your own. Use the convertible dice! As long as you have fun.


Ventura by Alberto Menoncin and Silvio Negri-Clementi (Stratelibri)
Simple Italian renaissance game, but with room for conflict rather than impressing the king. Bit too abstract for me, though.

Test of Fire by Martin Wallace (Mayfair)
What a disappointing grind! Nuff said.

A weekend's worth of gaming including Guards!Guards!

On Thursday I visited a game shop in Utrecht, which I hadn’t been before: Subcultures. I was really impressed! Apart from some Warhammer stuff, and the basic boardgames, it has a really good collection of miniatures (eg Hasslefree, Warlord, Perry, FOW) and attributes, and good selections of boardgames from FFG and other Ameritrash publishers. There was even some LARP equipment, rules and literature. I will be back there for sure.
I also picked up a leaflet on Army Painter and I think there’s still a lot stuff I can learn about painting miniatures. Even though the intention is to outsource miniatures painting, a bit of handwork might still be necessary at times.
But the best part of weekend was the gaming itself.

On Saturday night we played a great management game about a financial institution trying to balance growth and risks. The mechanisms were really good, the material outstanding and the challenge daunting. Although we managed to expand out portfolio by a great number of mergers, we were late in getting rid of our risky assets, so at some point the regulators stepped in. Great game.


After that we tried Guards!Guards!, one of the two Terry Pratchett games released late last year. This edition is published by Z-Man Games. The game looks good, materials are good quality, the references to the Pratchett books are nice and the plot of the game is believable in the context of the Discworld novels.
The third or fourth time I´d been overrun by the Luggage

Although the object of the game is obviously to draw in the large fanbase for all things Pratchett, the game is not easy. There’s quite a lot of rules and there’s a lot to take in: movement, actions, volunteers, spells, that need to be collected, brought back to Unseen University and then there’s a challenge to be surmounted. And there’s dragons and cultists, and the Luggage, and saboteurs. Pffew! Indeed the game did prove longish and hard work. A trained crew could do it in 2 hours, but we didn’t get it finished in 2 and a half.
Not an unqualified success, but it is the first of the Essen 2011 games I had not played. A first milestone therefor on that project.



In the mail I received Angola, a rerelease of the 1988 version by MMP. It’s a four player game covering the 1970s civil war in that country with inspiring faction names like MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA.

Also, there was Eight Banners and Green Flag, about the Ming/Manchu army of the 17th to 19th centuries. I am still intreagued by Eastern armies, but I have no handle to take them on at this time. So this one will be on the stack but will not get read soon. This is a publication from the Pike & Shot Society, of which I'm a long standing but passive member. I have no problem, however, subsidising them and their excellent magazine Arquebusier.

And finally, Too Fat Lardies has given July 30th for the release of Dux Brittaniarum! There's also suggestions that there may be a SAGA event in the Netherlands at some point, but that's in the "maybe, possibly' category as of yet. So get busy y’all!