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- Ice Cream
Joe Huber's latest card game continues the journey to America's
yesteryear begun with
Scream Machine.
But now we have left the noise and color of the carnival for a
quiet Sunday in the park. Whether it's a young couple in the
first pangs of love or a happy family of four, we can be sure
that they're all looking forward to the same thing: that's
right, the ice cream. And that's where the players come in for
we are vendors of the tasty stuff. In an old style game the
important issue might be location or attractiveness of
display, but here it's flavor availability, as not only are ice
cream gallons hard to come by, but also the customers are extremely
choosy. The game proceeds in a repeated series of the same two
phases. In the first, players take turns constructing orders
– an interesting collaborative process – in which they seek
either to create orders that only they can fill, or to stay
viable in as many orders as possible. In the second phase,
they take turns filling orders, probably acquiring new ice
cream along the way. In both cases we're operating under
imperfect information and what we're doing is contingency
planning or finding the slight advantage between two mostly
similar alternatives. It's sort of a game of inches in that
sense, which means that the audience is limited in some ways.
Fortunately it works well for me, but
tacticians won't normally be able to find the big tactical
play they're looking for and evaluators may feel forced to
operate in too much of a fog. The small shelfprint game has
a nice production, especially for an American game, with
delicious artwork, though I find the black cherry color
over-saturated. The rules are short and easy to understand,
though the section about one's options is a bit succinct and
deserves careful reading. Game play is generally fast and this
should finish in a half hour or less. I hope that Joe is able
to continue in this too-little-utilized Americana vein for many
games to come.
Joseph Huber; Face 2 Face Games; 2005; 3-5
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Low; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 7
- Icehouse: DNA
Interesting abstract in the Icehouse series. Two or three players have three
different sized pyramid pieces to use and exchange on a chessboard.
The interesting element is that board positions may mutate.
[Looney Labs]
- Icehouse: Martian Chess
Mindbending
Chess-like
abstract in which one tries to give away
rather than take pieces. Interesting how small the world has become.
Time was, when someone wanted to call something "weird", one said
"Chinese" as in
Chinese Checkers.
But these days it's necessary to go offworld and call
it "Martian". Average abstract for fans of the type.
[Looney Labs]
- Icehouse: Zendo
Kory Heath's logical induction game based on the idea of Robert Abbott's
Eleusis,
but employing the Icehouse components set.
One player takes the role of the master, thinks up a rule and
demonstrates it with the pieces while the others try to set
up other pieces and thus guess the rule. The substitution
of the colorful pieces for playing cards is simultaneously
more visually arresting and more concrete as now the number
of conditions is finite. Speaking of conditions, it is helpful
when players are presented the full list to keep in mind during
play. Otherwise there is a strong tendency to dive into a deep
analytical pool and ignore an otherwise simple rule. This very
elegant system is almost an anti-game in its rejection of the
usual tropes. Even though the thought will horrify some fans,
it could also be developed further to make more of a traditional
game. For example, a wider context
could look at incorporating difficulty levels as a strategic
concept. Perhaps the total number of conditions in a rule
might be restricted, or the number could be announced, or
points could be given for guessing the number, etc. More
development along these lines might gain a wider audience.
Otherwise, very interesting for those in search of something
very outside the usual well-trod path.
[Kory Heath]
- Ido
Abstract game for two to four which originally appeared under
the title Mondrian, rather apropos
as the ever-changing board rather resembles a work by the famous
modern artist. Play of the game is clean and interesting, but
with four players is unfortunately marred by almost inevitable
kingmaking. The two player version is slighly less interesting
as it can become more of a race than anything else.
- I Doubt It
Traditional card game of the climbing type. In this version, the players
often must bluff when they do not have any cards of the next in sequence.
Opponents must then decide when and whether to challenge this declaration,
which is sometimes easy if one is holding the cards being declared, sometimes
necessary if a player is about the end the game, but often difficult to know
for sure, especially as the penalty, taking the stack, can be onerous.
- Igel Ärgern
Delightful Doris and Frank light game has sometimes been translated
as "Hedgehogs in a Hurry." Very quick turns and yet interesting
decisions are the key to the fun in this one. A cornucopia of variants
help keep it fresh over the long run. There is surprisingly something
quite realistic as one can just see these hedgehogs wrapped into a ball
trying to get past their fellows.
Doris & Frank
- Ilium
This game of excavating the site of ancient Troy features
forty-five wooden archaeologist pieces... per player! Coming
all in one bag as they do, you can have a lot of "fun" just
sorting out 180 pieces. Oh wait – there's no need,
actually, to separate in advance: one uses only one, two or
three at a time. Their placement is driven by revelation of a
random card from the player's personal deck. They go onto the
paths that belong to the network depicted on the board. A
network node holds some treasure markers, each in one of five
colors and having a value of one to five items. The paths are
composed of three to five spaces, each of which can hold one
player-turn's worth of tokens. When all spaces in a path are
full, the player having the majority takes the lowest count
item from either end while the second-placed player takes the
same from the other (so long as his value reaches at least
half the first's). The goal, as in
Tigris and Euphrates,
is collecting complete sets in all five types. There are three
additional wrinkles: (1) minor points are awarded for
attaining the majority in each color; (2) each player has a
secret color in which his best item is lost; (3) play can be
prematurely ended, at the current player's option, after some
particular items have been taken. This
one seems to be getting at the same issues as this inventor's
Tower of Babel.
There is cooperation amid competition and one wants to time
completion just right. Claim too early and the item isn't
valuable enough; too late and the one wanted is gone.
Complicating all of this is that one might not have drawn the
right number of archaeologists for the most pressing job at
hand. While the pieces are numerous, attractive and
well balanced – a pleasure to use – the board,
though functional, is a drab brown on brown. The cards are a
bit plain as well. But it's the ideas that feel old while the
them is very artificial: excavation at Troy was never
conducted by competing teams and anyway, the connection with the
majority control mechanism seems quite a stretch. Apparently
this hasn't found any German publisher. Has it been
kicking around looking for one for quite some time? It does
follow on in the same vein as this publisher's previous
offering,
Portobello Market.
Reiner Knizia; Playroom Entertainment; 2008; 2-4
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 5
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Im Auftrag des Königs
Knights competing for the favor of King Arthur forms the back story of this Adlung
card game, but its systems are redolent of the warmer climes of a
Puerto Rico
or a
San Juan,
only stripped way down. Features like variable phase order and
permanent abilities cannot fit in this small package, leaving
decisions around drafting in the main. Points are scored in
three ways: completing quests (requiring a start quest card,
items, a horse and a complete quest card); winning tourneys
(blind bidding of the most weapons); and bringing a book to the
judge. Which one is available for each player depends greatly
on the turn order, based as it is on the current standings,
which unfortunately must be recorded on paper. Although there
is some variability introduced by the tourneys, much is decided
by which quests are available – how much they are worth
and how well they fit one's hand – when one's chance to
pick one comes 'round again. Moreover, this is a game that
demands players pay a lot of attention to what cards others have
taken, i.e. memorization. Even if hands are left open there is a
problem because then much study of others' holdings is required.
There are good ideas here, but it seems they are really too large
for the box they arrive in. With more cards and maybe tiles,
more could have been done. Tactics and logistics are the order
of the day – there is little long-term strategy. Most will
prefer to stay with
San Juan.
Title means "On Behalf of the King."
- Im Jahr des Drachen (In the Year of the Dragon)
This one depicts the life of a magnate during twelve months in China
around 1000 AD. The year 1002 was a year of the dragon, but
perhaps it's meant more metaphorically as a year in which many
things happen, though then "Year of the Rat" (as it happens, the
current year at the time of this writing) might have been more
appropriate had it not already been used (for a game about
Vietnam). This is another in the school of scarcity,
or hardship, games, of which
Notre Dame
is also one. In such games the player is always running out of
something or having to deal with non-player threats to his
fortunes. Here they are in the form of events such as drought, plague
(strangely translated for the English edition as "contagion"),
Mongol raid, etc., in fact one per month. The order of these
is random, but all are laid out in advance so that players
know exactly what's coming. Each turn, before the event,
players get to take one action and draft one new worker.
Actions come in seven different types and workers in nine.
The action one chooses cannot be chosen by anyone else without
payment of an extra fee; a drafted worker never returns to
availability. These two rules provide the only real player
interaction. There is a strong correspondence between actions
and workers: for each action type there is a worker type that
augments the effect of the action taken, varying directly with
the number of such workers the player employs. But workers are
not simply retained; their numbers are limited by having to be
housed in palaces, which players can build and/or expand. Nor
is this the end of the ways in which various design features
are integrated. There are buddhist priests who provide victory
points based on palace size. There are rice tokens, fireworks
tokens, gold tokens and dragon tablets. Workers themselves
come in two varieties, one of which is more effective, the
other giving better advancement on the track which determines
the turn order. Presentation is very attractive and clear with
a great many components, almost to the point of making set-up
and tear-down an unwelcome chore. This is the rare German game
that might benefit from a counter tray. The various chits are
thin and have a shiny rather than matte finish, but are quite
usable. In what seems a botch there appear to be too many
palace markers – however nicely they fit together to
form pagodas – and too few dragon tablets, the supply of
which the instructions assure are unlimited. Perhaps one
should just use one to represent the other. Thematically it's
a bit strange that choosing an action locks others out, as is
knowing all the events in advance. Happily the latter is easily
addressed by turning event tiles upside down until needed.
Probably having a two-turn lookahead on this would work best.
It's also difficult to play well the first time; experience
teaches that some items are more valuable than others, particularly
gold, while things like warriors and fireworks much less so.
What disappoints most is that there is so little that can be
done to hamper a leader apart from taking away the action or
worker that is best for him, which might well be less than
useful for oneself. This can develop into a blackmailing
situation in which every player can either do what he needs to
personally and thus the leader prevails or he takes one for
the team, hurting the leader and also himself, to the
advantage of the rest. When there are only a few players there
is also a good deal more luck as the actions are grouped with
several in each – the luck of how these come out can
make a big difference. It's also disturbing that every playing
seems to end with the victory of the first player to act. This
player begins by drafting a money generator and then buys a two
victory point value privilege (which for the cost of a mere six
yuan will ultimately yield twenty-four points). They then always
choose a high value worker and use helmets to retain the initiative
every turn. The narrative feeling in this sort of game is a
bit disappointing as well; rather than achieving something
great the winner at the end only feels that he has managed to
suffer less than others. In the world of the imagination that's
not much to crow about, is it. Still there are plenty of
excruciating decisions amid a simple framework, a lot of artistic
flavor and plenty of strategic approaches. A near miss.
Language and design note: readers with some German might have
expected the title to be "Im Jahr des Drachens". The reason it
isn't is that German uses a different ending to differentiate
meaning with the similar word "Drachen" which means either "kite"
or "quarrelsome woman". Now which designer can create a game using
this meaning?
Strategy: High; Theme: Medium; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 5
Stefan Feld; Alea/Rio Grande; 2007; 2-5
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Im Schatten des Drachen (Under the Shadow of the Dragon)
This follow-on to
Return of the Heroes
can cleverly be used both as a two-player standalone game or
as an expansion to the original, permitting a total of
six players. The artwork and feeling of play continue on
at the same high level of quality and the instructions are a
great improvement. It must be admitted that the original's
cross-referenced two booklets, plus pontifications by the
designer, the designer's friends, the publisher and interested
onlookers have created quite a mishmash of the rules online, so
the new single booklet is quite a welcome change. The only
minor issues are related to how some of the old items, e.g.
the Teleporter, work with the new boards, but these are
usually not difficult. Added are nine new boards to take the
alphabet up to Z, thus having a combined 5x5 board size.
Some of the new ones have interesting challenges like the
desert where characters lose a health each turn or the maze
where they teleport around at random.
Also added are three of the characters we've been
awaiting: the orc, the halfling (not a hobbit due to the
Tolkien estate) and the paladin (who has a useful ability to
heal just about anywhere). There are also new tasks and
artifacts. If the magic broom was my favorite from the
original game, this one features my absolute least favorite:
the camel, which speeds up movement by two, but fails on a die
roll of "1". I know one is only supposed to see a "1"
every six turns or so, but why does it seem like every other
turn in my case? Eventually I dropped the camel off so it
could frustrate someone else. Finally there's the title
character, the Dragon which is the new enemy and in the
combined game, represents a new way to win. There are new
quests which are oriented to the dragon; completing one and
then defeating the dragon ends the game just as defeating the
Nameless did before; one can go either way. This is probably
less exciting as a two-player game, but should at least have
the virtue of being shorter. The combined version on the other
hand, which could already be quite long, gets even longer as
there is more distance to traverse. Five hours is certainly a
possibility. But players wanting a short
game should probably get the fourth product in this line,
Die Gralssuche (The Search for the Grail) which is said
to complete in just forty-five minutes. Unfortunately, this
and the third in the line
Helden in der Unterwelt
(Heroes in the Underworld, which features a lot of Greek
mythology) are apparently not getting English treatments,
though the amount of German text on components
is rather light. By the way, the German title sounds very fun;
it almost rhymes. Unfortunately when it comes to this there's
no way to translate.
[summary]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: High; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 7
Lutz Stepponat; Pegasus; 2004; 2 (1-6)
[Buy it at Amazon]
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Im Schatten des Kaisers (Shadow of the Emperor)
This time, Ralf Burkert, inventor of Die Magier von Pangea, has created
one on the Holy Roman Empire, a most gameable topic considering
the votes of the seven electors, the jockeying to control them,
the family alliances, etc. Mark McLaughlin's Thirty Years
War game Holy
Roman Empire took on the topic two decades earlier,
featuring society game elements such as auctions and voting. The
game at hand omits war, but there are elements borrowed from Kremlin
such as leader aging and advancement up the hierarchy as well
as Aladdin's Dragons in
the way that different seats confer special powers, mostly minor
increments on normal abilities. The point is to earn points:
by becoming an emperor, by replacing an elector, by voting for
the winning emperor, by giving away daughters in marriage (which
gives the recipient an extra vote) and from cards, the drafting
of which is a major portion of the game. I am somewhat concerned
about the balance in this phase. Ideally it would be just as good
to go first as last, but the fact that cards and spaces are finite
means it's rather hard to win from the fourth seat. This player
needs to become emperor, but choosing last all the time may make
it too difficult and if the player to his right does not bail
him out, he may be out of luck, even if the score ends up fairly
close. Although the challenge is mainly tactical reaction, it can
go a little long if players get too involved studying their many
options. There is nothing wrong here, just nothing spectacularly
innovative or exciting. Actually, Die
Magier von Pangea was better in that respect. This one
is made for the same kinds of logistical fine tuners who
enjoyed St. Petersburg or Goa.
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Im Wald da sind die Räuber
"There Are Robbers in the Woods" is the first from this
publisher to go beyond mere cards. As we've come to expect, there
is a distinct Anglo-American flavor to this German game.
During play a map of paths through a forest formed of
hexagonal tiles is slowly constructed. Each new tile tends to
receive one or two tokens from the bag which the player
attempts to pick up using his action points to move his
wooden robber pieces and bring the tokens back to his base.
But beware the watch who continually wander the woods
under the control of one player or another and force players
to disgorge their stolen items. Players are mainly engaged in
set collection with some extra points available for special
delivery of the little girl and for claiming inns in the last
rounds. Most of this sounds fairly American, but a German
feature are the one-use-only player tokens that permit
doubling action points and stealing from an opponent's
robber. While there are plenty of tactics, there's not a great
deal of strategy here. One tries to create a private little
area which is compact rather than elongated, but so much of
that depends on the right tiles appearing. Moreover, having a
steady supply of booty depends on drawing the right tiles as
well. Which booty tokens are drawn out makes a big difference
as well. Finally, it doesn't seem quite right that one's
holdings count three times; certainly it tends to the
rich-get-richer syndrome. All of the art and materials are
well done; maybe more communication design could have been
included to help remember the functions of the various tile
types. From a design perspective, the absence of new
mechanisms or combinations is noticed. It seems to work a
little better with fewer than the full four players as well.
is somewhat restrictive as well. The inspiration stems
from the German folk song of the same name.
Mark Sienholz;
Krimsus Krimskrams-Kiste; 2008; 2-4
Strategy: Low; Theme: High; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 5
- Im Zeichen des Kreuzes
Society game on a military topic: the medieval Crusades. "In the
Sign of the Cross" was the first of the Queen games to employ a
"cube tower", in which battles are resolved by counting which side
had the most cubes fall through its baffles. But the Crusaders
do not combat one another. Rather they travel through Europe
conquering non-player cities – even holy Rome!? –
thereby earning troops for the final assault on a well-defended
Jerusalem. The first in this race to thus succeed wins. Much
has gone awry here. Although Crusaders did sack Constantinople
in 1204, the wholesale conquest of Christian Europe depicted in
this game really does a lot of violence to the theme. Too bad,
as it would have been so easy to posit the playing area in Asia
Minor and the Levant instead. Some areas of the map like Lisbon
and Granada are real backwaters too and woe betide anyone left
with nothing but that to conquer as from there it's a long way
to the game and it will take a lot of luck to draw the movement
cards which are the only engine of travel. That these are mixed
in with
"take that!" cards
means a
player can end up stranded for a long time. Cards giving extra
rewards for Iberian conquest constitute a half solution, but
as their owner might not begin in that area or may draw only
them long after having left, it's more likely they'll never be
used. On the other hand, a card which will always be used is the
one that reduces a player's morale to 1. As it takes 8 or more
to attack Jersualem and only 2 points can be regained per turn,
this far too powerful card means the player does nothing for four
rounds or more. Other cards which merely chip away at an opponent
are less dramatic, but in their own way just as problematic. It
makes little effect to play such a card on a very strong opponent,
but they are very effective against someone whose position is
barely tenable. So guess who gets hit? All of these factors
make matters very fragile and it's not hard for more than one
player to fall completely out of the running long before it's
officially over. All of this could probably be patched, more or
less, but still leave many disappointed as players hardly affect
one another except via the aforementioned card play. (Tower
effects tend to be mainly accidental.) Presentation is superb
in this very large package of wonderful art and bits. There's
a lot of excitement too in the tower drops, But it took
Wallenstein
to actually deliver on the promise. Unless someone has a good idea for a radical variant
that is ...
- Image
Early 3M card game with no credited designer is more of a party outing.
Cards representing various qualities of famous personalities, e.g.
musician, author, 17th century, etc. are available. Players must think
of a personality who matches a set of characteristics and then play a card
which contains the first letter of their last name. An interesting idea
which combines strategy and historical knowledge, ultimately
it flops as a serious game due to being too unconstrained
(who is famous, who is not, who belongs in which century,
etc.) and to vaguely-written rules. One clarification (from r.g.b):
the number of cards on the board will increase as the game goes on. Just
replace the cards which were used during a player's turn.
Designer unknown (uncredited in the rules).
May actually have been a traditional game at some point somewhere.
- In 80 Karten Um Die Welt
"Around the World in 80 Cards" is a board game race made with cards.
Several years of playing games by
Krimsus Krimskrams-Kiste
have revealed their subtly-unique nature. The goal is simply fun without trying
to force it down anyone's throat the way a party game often does. On the other
hand, the humor is far gentler than the biting satire of Cheapass Games.
Instead, these tiny boxes open up a basic atmosphere to which the players are
free to supply the rest of the fun according to their own personalities.
It's not unrelated to the kind of enjoyment one can experience in a well-run
role-playing game, only with far fewer rules of course. In this Jules Verne
take-off, players pilot their silly WaLaMobs (Water-Land-Mobiles) over the
different terrains of the world amidst many colorful characters and ridiculous
equipment, including outlandish weapons like explosive balloons and earth
torpedoes. There are many incongruous possibilities such as a local guide with
a goat who can nevertheless show you a shortcut across the ocean. Perfectly
preposterous, but completely thematic in this steampunk setting. The mechanism
is basically that of the
"Take That!" card game
with some extra rules for maintaining ever-declining steam pressure.
It's in this area that there are just two objections. The first applies only to
non-Germans who may not be able to read the many cards. This one uses much
more iconic "language" than in past years, and this is a great help, but
unfortunately there are still some cards which only feature text. The other
problem is that sometimes it can be impossible to draw the coal cards required
to increase pressure in the boiler and without this, virtually all options
and movement cease. We have had success with a house rule which permits a player
to discard not one but two cards during a turn.
As always, the cards by Carta Mundi show artwork that is attractive and
humorous.
Using this game as intended, the right group can no doubt have a lot of fun.
A few topics in the instructions are unclear. Email from the inventor
indicates the following:
(1) Turning an expended Improvement means you can keep it, maybe to use
it with a "Gewichtsverlust" [Ballast Tossed] or against a "Schlechtes
Material" [Inferior Materials];
(2) A Sprengballon [Exploding Balloon] can hit its owner if he is stupid
enough to move it onto his own square or to move his WaLaMob on the
Sprengballon's square;
(3) Panzerung [Armour] only helps against weapons used against the boiler;
(4) Geheimpfade [Secret Shortcut], Günstiger Weg [Favorable Path] and
Umweg [Detour] could all be used to evade a Sprengballon – same for
Sprungfedern [Springs].
[cards translation]
Krimsus
- India Rails
The
Empire Builder
system game set in India
seems to tolerate a lot of players. Beware of skewed scale
in the north-south direction in comparison with east-west.
Because of the large distances involved, it is probably advisable
to start each player with a Fast Freight which does not seem to
change which tracks are built at all, but speeds up play by
as much as an hour.
[Traveling Merchant Games]
[variant]
[chart]
A
- Indonesia
Dutch inventors Jeroen Doumen and Joris Wiersinga
(VOC)
continue their overseas exploration in this multi-player game
chronicling developments in the former Dutch colony which is now
the fifth most populous nation. Players are entrepreneurs buying
companies which produce rice or spice – later rubber, oil or
TV dinners. Cities sprout up on their own even though players have
some control over where. There are also shipping companies which
place the ships that constitute the sole means of transport as
players try to sell their wares. Ships are usable by all, but for
a flat fee, but this is not too bad for the Indonesian Onassis as
producers must always ship if it is at all possible, i.e. if their
produce can reach an unsaturated market. Probably the most
interesting play decision is the chance each turn to improve one's
capabilities, albeit in one area only. Categories including the
ability to act first, the number of companies one can own, the
number of items one's ships can carry, the rate of expansion or
the size of mergers one can make. This last leads to the second
most interesting decision: when and what to merge, for, most powerfully,
a player may propose merging any pair of like companies or
conglomerates, regardless of their owners and auction them off to
any player. There's a procedural matter here which annoys some:
bidding must be in increments ("oh excrement!") of the number of
installations in the merged company, so players find themselves
calculating multiples of awkward factors like 7, 9 and 11, well
into the hundreds. Afterwards too they need to calculate what is,
say, 4/11 and what 7/11 of the final bid because payoffs are
strictly proportional. I wonder that an easier solution couldn't be
found, short of including a cheap calculator in every box. While no
doubt the single most important consideration, the merger system
has a bit of fragility, especially for new players. For example,
midway through a three-player game it's possible for one player to
take control, irrevocably, of every last shipping company, possibly
even by accident. The trouble is that such a monopoly is so valuable
that no player has enough money to make the auction winner pay all
that it is worth (no deficit spending here). A player
accomplishing this trick can claim victory right there, shaving an
hour off the 3.5 hour playing time. There is a great deal of
monetary evaluation in the auctions, in the hundreds, as one
considers the probable profits and losses. In its last phases there
is a lot of fiddly calculation as well, figuring out the shipping
paths of many products and subtracting out the shipping costs from
the profits. On the other hand it's nice to see a game on Indonesia
which has been little treated so far (cf.
Java),
but aside from the map and
product types, there isn't much thematic feel. Why do cities arise
where they do? why the merger rules? why the limits on number of
companies owned? There are no real world equivalents. One can't
even relocate shipping after merger has rendered it redundant.
By the way, there is also some trouble about initial setup – if
players are not careful all the first cities can end up in the same
corner of the world, a too prosaic beginning. All of this can work
for those evaluation fans who don't mind a long outing. Tacticians
will probably enjoy thinking up clever mergers. Others will mind
the theme issues and heavy amounts of calculation involved. It's
not in the category, but I somehow suspect that 18XX fans will like
this, probably
Age of Steam
fans as well.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: High
[Splotter Spellen]
- Indus
Multi-player game of archaeological excavation of the ancient
Harappan culture, which along with the Egyptians, Sumerians
and Chinese, constitutes one of the first ancient flowerings,
although apparently the
only one lacking a written language.
This is by Wolfgang Panning who also created
Olé!,
Kardinal,
Lucky Loop,
Paparazzo
(with Friedemann Friese)
and more than one Alhambra expansion.
The nature of excavation seems to be "pick a likely spot and
see if you can find something." In this sense mechanics reflect
theme as players line up their tokens around the edges of the
gridded board and roll a die to see on which find they land.
There is choice since one has multiple pieces and because some of
them permit extra rolls. Having a choice helps because features
are valued variously and must be competed over. Another player
may have already double-stacked a square and thus have it locked
up, but on the other hand a single token may be sandwiched and
thus claimed for a point. Strategy lies in noticing which die
rolls will be productive for you and finding the new location
that best covers the rest. With this approach one should win
the majority of playings over the long run, but it's still
quite easy to lose individual playings due to the vagaries
of a few die rolls. Presentation is adequate with the fact
that the board is somewhat difficult to decipher made worse
since the features are always getting obscured by the tokens.
Perhaps a larger board or smaller or translucent tokens would
have helped. Multiple sub-boards permit more variety from
playing to playing. Artwork could be more inspiring. Points
are awarded by handing out a lot of specially shaped tiles
that match the board illustrations. As all of this happens at
the end of the game, it's a totally impractical conceit, but
I suppose it is in keeping with a certain "treasure hunter"
school of excavation with its emphasis on getting the goods.
As with Tally
Ho!, enjoyment requires the ability to enjoy the theme
and planning aspects without being too dismayed if things don't
go well, although it would be better if it finished slightly
faster than it does.
Strategy: Low; Theme: High; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium
- Industria
Michael Schacht auction game seems to lie at the high end of a
continuum that includes
Kardinal & König: Das Kartenspiel,
and
Kardinal & König.
These two employ drafting and drafting-placement respectively
while the new one uses bidding, but the concept key to all is
synthesis. Here industries, technologies and raw materials pop
up in the random lots famous to the Knizian tradition (cf.
Medici,
RA
et al.), but are limited to a single era, anywhere from early
industrialization to modern genetics and nanotechnology.
Synthesis can take many forms. Lines connect industries from era to era
and holding both ends confers points. There are similar lines for technologies.
Playing an industry has a base and materials cost – if you already produce the
material, you save on the cost. Industries appear as one or more categories
and points are won for each if the player buys and plays one of the
corresponding victory point tiles. Then there are items like Bank that act
like the quarry from
Puerto Rico
and always reduce cost.
But always there is the issue of having enough money to pay for it all.
Payments remind of
Traumfabrik
in that there is an almost-closed economy with payments going to another player,
in this case the auctioneer. "Almost" because there are periodic equal fund
infusions as well as small materials payments from individual to individual.
The auctioneer owns a very powerful ability,
that of claiming any item without paying for it, for which he pays only the small
price of giving up the job. This may well be unbalancing only because a player
may thus easily take an item which someone else desperately needs, regardless
of whether the cause is malice or poor play. Auction fans will probably enjoy
this. I am not one of them particularly, but found this more interesting
than other recent auctioners
Magellan (Pizarro & Co.)
and
Amun-Re
which got a lot of acclaim, so maybe this is an auction game for
non-auction fans. I can imagine replays trying various approaches
such as going for all the raw materials industries – or none
of them. How well would strongly focusing on technologies work?
Or how about monopolizing the victory point markers which was the
road to victory in one playing? There may also be a cash-hoarding
approach that's viable. As always with Schacht, mechanics are
very clean and intuitive. The artwork is attractive although
not always functional as there are some railroads which look
like connectors, but aren't. There are not real dependencies for
non-German speakers apart from the item names which are anyway
pictured – make a game of guessing what they are. Queen's
box packaging leaves something to be desired. Thematically,
players seem to represent dynastic industrial families seeking
the most fame and power from era to era, which might actually
exist in Europe. In terms of playing well, I offer just one tip:
become expert on what others are likely to bid because one's
choices as auctioneer appear critical to success and if no one
bids you'll have to eat it yourself.
- Infection
Game about the taxonomy of diseases includes both strategy and
medical trivia. Players move a pawn around a board heavily
influenced by
Monopoly
and all the others which have come since. Here, many of the spaces
pertain to drawing disease cards which count against a player,
or getting rid of them. Trivia enters in when the player is given
the chance to draw a card and name any of the cause, symptoms or
cure and from this another player must name the disease. There
is some stimulating calculation here in guessing which of the
three is most obscure. As players come around to the start of
the board, they receive cash in direct proportion to the number
of diseases they have. So, strategically, one doesn't want to
cure diseases very much initially, but instead gain more so as
to gain a lot more money and then try to cure all or most of
them in one fell swoop. But there is a tradeoff since too many
diseases means the player is eliminated altogether. Works best
with four players or less as otherwise there is too much waiting.
Players are encouraged to provide their own pawns as the ones
supplied are cardboard chips which blend in to the board so well
as to be nigh invisible.
Earwig
- Inferno
This Italian negotiative card game is similar to
Kremlin,
as players secretly allocate values, here to eighteen
notorious figures of history from Attila the Hun to the Empress
Tzu. Themewise, these numbers represent how evil each character
is throught to be while in game terms the players are trying to
maximize the number of points they collect. The deck contains
two cards for each character which are dealt out and displayed
face up. Players then engage in completely free-form turn-less
trading for three expirations of a sand timer. And that is
basically all there is. A few special cards let players force
through a refused deal, start a general card pass or make another
lose seven victory points. Although the selection of characters
is interesting, including a number of obscure Italians, the
artwork is nowhere near the standard set by the collectible card
game industry. What remains is for someone to further develop
the interesting ideas of individual unknown victory conditions
and trading to resolve each player's interests. More structure,
mechanisms to discover part of another player's goals, etc. would
be helpful additions to start.
[Venice Connection]
- Inkognito
Logical deduction game by Alex Randolph and Leo Colovini
posits masked international agents
in Venice during Carnival.
Each player has four pawns to move, but which one is his
true identity, and the identity of his partner is secret.
Thus players must land upon one another to request information
and make deductions. Movement is regulated by shaking a masked figure
from which various marbles show, a mechanism similar to those
later adopted by
Ab die Post
and
Die Sternenfahrer von Catan.
Atmosphere is greatly enhanced by a wonderful map and plastic masked
pawns (box should have said "some assembly required").
It is possible to have very good or bad luck in one's initial showing
and some missions are easier than others, but there are interesting
situations, particularly in trying to figure out what is going
on just by observing the behavior of the pawns on the board. Frequent
communications between two particular players may be a reliable
indication that they
are partners, or are they merely bluffing? Overall, most interesting for
those who like logical deduction and strong theme.
Later also done in less-dramatic (but more portable) card game version as
Mini Inkognito.
The 2001 edition rules suggest that a player may meet multiple
agents during a single turn, which for balance and downtime
reasons does not seem wise.
[Buy it at Amazon]
[translation]
[passport translation]
[Winning Moves]
[Venice Connection]
- Input
Abstract Milton Bradley game from 1984 for two players. Each player
has six pieces which contain "programs" describing how they must
move during their life on the board. These pieces try to land on
opposing pieces and thus capture them. Capturing all of them gives
victory. The game has an interesting idea,
but successive games all seem to play the same. Perhaps if the rules
had permitted faster introduction of new pieces and if there were more
pieces and a larger board there would be more sustained interest.
If the player could make his own programs on the spot it might be even
better.
- Intrige
Stefan Dorra's presentation of negotiations in Renaissance Italy.
Players send out their relatives to work in opponents' Palazzi,
but must offer bribes (not to mention threats and pleadings) to secure
placement which is entirely at the employer's whim. Whoever earns the most,
and pays out the least, wins. Since player holdings are secret, shares with
Modern Art
the essential skill of always having a good feeling about how each player is
doing, and based on remaining relatives and their professions, how well he is
likely to do! Thus it is rather vulnerable to a table mixed in experience levels.
There tend to be quite different approaches: some trying to keep matters
balanced, others playing entirely by feeling. As these two groups never see
eye to eye and since losing out is such a major event, setup seems almost
intended to create argument and bad feeling. Apart from the players often not
knowing what job they are applying for and the fact that bids are unfortunately
public, it seems to be a good look at the sealed bid process, however.
- Inventors, The
Parker Brothers board game from 1974 is part of the general efflorescence of
games that occurred in America during that decade. This one was not as successful
as others, but did contain some interesting ideas. Players compete to create
the most successful crazy invention. Came with a cute gadget
mostly unnecessary for play of the game. Nice graphics and atmosphere, but
no real challenge or strategy.
- Iron Dragon
This Empire Builder series
entry set in a fantasy world is probably the most challenging
overall as it has the most features, the greatest distances and
is the most demanding. The only possible objections are that
as it's entirely made up, the players don't learn any geography,
and that it tends to take considerably more time. There are lots
of innovations here including foreman cards (elves, dwarves,
orcs, trolls, catmen, etc.) that help connect various types
of terrains and an interesting drafting system for acquiring
these cards. Also new are boats, jungle dots, teleportation,
underground railways and more. Is also the most tolerant
about playing with the full complement of six players.
[Traveling Merchant Games]
[variant]
[chart] Published for the computer
as well.
Tom Wham
- Iron Horse (Metro)
Pipe-connection game akin to Ta Yü and Linie 1/Streetcar. As in
the former, the player has very minimal holdings to pick from
when making a tile placement, which makes one feel there is
very little control. It lacks the fun of Ta Yü's
partnership rules and nice components as well. In addition,
there are several inelegant limitations on placement. Compared
to Streetcar, this game appears to more strongly
reward negative placements than positive ones. Should
appeal to those who get a kick out of destroying others'
plans more than those who enjoy finding creative solutions
to problems. Follow-on Metro edition is very smartly
produced.
Dirk Henn;
db-Spiele
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Iron Road (TransAmerica)
Game for children which holds interest for adults as well.
Board displays a United States map, the cities dots joined
by rail line segments. Players are dealt one city card from
each of the five regions and take turns placing one or two
tracks trying to be the first to complete a network joining
all five. There is not that much strategy in this simple game,
but what there is lies in intelligent placement of the starting
location, seeing how the networks of others can be used and
avoiding others being able to do the same to you. Many players
seem to enjoy placing at the board corners, but I find this
counterproductive. It seems much better to connect to others
early and have more options to develop wherever it is most
needed and also to ignore that which others are likely to do
on your behalf. Alert players who can detect which cities the
opponents have completed and which not will find more success as
will intuitive ones who can determine what track is about to be
built. There is also some room for subterfuge. For example, in
one game for which we happened to use the board and pieces from Expedition (as a variation),
I had one more site to capture when I noticed that others seemed
to be driving right to it. So, instead of placing a segment in
this direction which would give me away, I instead made a useless
play, connecting a city which was already connected. So by not
divining my intention, opponents continued playing as they had
previously and got me to my destination more quickly than I would
have otherwise. Overall it's a very elegant system that moves
quickly and as such, appears to be the most likely winner of the
Spiel des Jahres award at the time of this writing (May 2002).
Hardcore players will find the game acceptable, particularly if
they like Streetcar, but may
eventually wish for a touch more strategy and a little less luck.
Perhaps someone can come up with
a decent variant to raise the challenge a notch. [Holiday List 2002]
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Ironman Football
Several hour game for up to eight players about the earliest
days of American professional football. As in most games
by this publisher, the challenge is to survive
on very limited resources. Each player runs a team which
plays twelve games per season; each match includes
about twenty-four dice rolls per match. Despite all of the
rolling, players can enjoy the "experience" of this game
which feels very real. At the end one can tell a story
about the game experience in real life terms which is a
feature just not there with many other games.
[Simulations Workshop]
- Isi
Very interesting two-player game about the build up of a countryside.
In some respect something like a quick version of Railway Rivals.
Players build up track to connect cities and win by being the most
connected. Predecessor of the four-player
Morisi.
[Cwali]
- Isis & Osiris
Michael Schacht-designed game set in ancient Egypt is very reminiscent of
Knizia's
Auf Heller und Pfennig.
Each turn the player places onto a grid either a chip or a
randomly-drawn scoring tile. However the tiles never multiply,
only adding or subtracting points in the range -3 to +4.
The system is workable enough and the components nicely made, especially
the very thick tiles, but seems rather dry and mostly determined by
luck of the draw. One feels the lack of a some special twist in the rules
to challenge the gamer's imagination. There is also a middleweight memory
elment with which to cope. Playable by as few as two.
[Ancient Egypt Games]
- It's Mine! (Her Damit)
Reiner Knizia set-collection card game in which ownership is determined
not by auction but by who is fastest to slap a pad on the table. Although
the illustrations of silly humanoid figures are nice to look at, the dexterity
nature of the proceedings prevents regarding this game reminiscent of Slapjack
from being taken as a serious offering. Potentially physically
painful if your opponents slap hard enough.
[Winning Moves]
- Ivanhoe
Re-working of the Knizia-designed
Attacke
varies the composition of the suits and adds a great number of special cards.
As each suit now represents a different type of combat, viz. hand-to-hand,
joust, broadsword, battleaxe, morningstar, the card distribution will vary
accordingly. For example, the joust cards very widely while the hand-to-hand
cards are all valued at 1. Other suits are somewhere in between.
While some issues such as when to draw cards, the problem of running
out of cards and the six unbalancing cards have been successfully addressed,
there are now so many special cards that
the results seem overly random. Although a card named "Ivanhoe" is included —
it is basically a cancel card — there is little connection to the Scott
novel
and could just as appropriately have been named "Medieval Personal Combat".
Would have been nice if the card drawing phase could have been moved to the
end of the phase so that others need not wait while the current player reads
the new card.
[GMT Games]
- J -
- Jactus
Dice game played in taverns by the Ancient Romans —
Catullus
writes about it. Players take turns rolling five dice
trying to obtain a five-of-a-kind. Players may build on
their predecessor's results, but this game can go on for a long
time. Also, can be virtually sabotaged by someone who doesn't wish
to play along. More of a curiosity or light gambling game.
The Venus Throw, a mystery novel about Ancient Rome,
gives a good feeling about what it must have been like to play
the game in dark taverns. Certainly it appears that the Roman
numbering system left something to be desired as it's not easy,
when one is well into the one's cups, to distinguish a IV from
a VI. This goes for this edition as well.
- Jam Dudel: Die Fliegenden Händler von
Karthago
Michael Schacht card game for 4-8. Each player begins blind bidding
with identical cards and in order to avoid elimination must not be
the low bidder. This continues until finally it may come down to two,
at which point the single higher card wins. This is repeated ten
times to find the overall winner. What I have observed is that on
round 1 the first players to drop out bid about 9. Then
pretty much every round the minimum number to bid goes up by 1.
This escalation tends to stop for a while at 15, but by the very
last round even a 15 is not enough to stay in the early rounds.
Some interesting last rounds can occur when all but one player
ties and this player bid more than all the rest. So this is at
least as interesting as a study in human behavior as for its play
value. Sometimes it's a little boring for those who are eliminated
in the first round so a variant that addded a loser's bracket
competition for, say, a half point, might be useful. Overall the
value is mostly in having a vehicle that works well for eight when
the group doesn't want to split into two games. Obviously intuition
plays a strong role while complexity does not, so it is also comfortable
for the less experienced. Title means The Flying Merchants of Carthage.
[More about the Jam Dudel book]
[Bambus]
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: High; Personal Rating: 6
- Jamaica
You've played
Puerto Rico;
you've played
Cuba
and now we're coming up on Jamaica. Can Trinidad and Tobago
be far behind? Already it's quite a Caribbean islands theme
night one can hold. In accord with the island's piratical past, this
one is not the economic engine game the others are. Rather
it's a far more freewheeling affair which even includes
combat. The far-fetched idea is that ex-pirate and now Royal
Governor Henry Morgan is conducting a race around the island
in order to re-live old times with his pirate pals. Each
player has an identical set of cards, each of which is divided
into two halves, representing the two halves of the sailing day.
The starting player rolls a pair of dice, assigning one to
the morning, the other to the afternoon. Each player
simultaneously chooses a card from the subset of his deck that
he has in hand and reveals. Cards denote
various activities including moving forward or backward or
collecting food, gunpowder or doubloons. The amount that a
player can do of each is indicated by the dice. Moving
backwards should usually be avoided as this is a race and the
further advanced one is when it finishes, the more points
received. Acquiring items is restricted by a limited number of
holds and the rule that a hold of a different type must be
dumped in order to take on a new load. Landing on an opponent
causes a battle which is resolved by committing gunpowder and
adding to the total a roll of a special die. Many board spaces
also include costs that must be paid for ending there, either
doubloons (ports) or food. A player unable to pay must move
backward to the first free space, many of which contain
treasures of unknown value. This leads to a strategy of
traveling light so as to be able to frequently move backwards.
Other strategies are to race quickly ahead or to lurk about
attempting to steal treasure via combat. Not all treasures are
of purely monetary value; some do things such as add to
combat, add an extra hold or even harm the player (cursed
treasures which players try to give away by winning a combat).
Thematically it's too bad that a fictional race was used as
there were many historical races in nautical history, but the
presentation here is extremely attractive all around. Many
will want this one just for the way it looks alone. The fact
that it does have strategic possibilities, albeit amid large
helpings of luck along the lines of a
Sindbad,
will keep it off the shelf and on the table. By the way, it's also
possible to play a variant where cards are chosen sequentially
rather than simultaneously, which reduces the luck a little and
yet feels just as fun.
Strategy: Medium; Theme: Medium; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 7
Bruno Cathala, Sébastien Pauchon & Malcolm Braff; GameWorks SàRL/Pro Ludo; 2007; 2-6
[Pirate Games]
- Jambo
Card game by Rüdiger Dorn, part of the
perennially successful Kosmos two-player series. Other
firms have folded up their mano a mano series,
but the Kosmos one, also the oldest one, just keeps on
rolling. In Jambo
[yahm bo],
they have found one of the better offerings in some time.
The setting is Central Africa, which is mostly
gloss. While the title is Swahili for "hello",
the true name of the game is card management. There is
also item management as cards permit purchase of various
commodity chips which are placed on limited-capacity
market cards. Later players hope to acquire a card
demanding these items so that they can sell for a big
profit. It's possible to buy more markets as well and
then there is a very wide array of special cards, some of
which are re-usable, but only to a limit of 3. Deciding
just what are the most useful three is one of the major
challenges.
Strategically, players
will eventually discover a key in one's current card
collection and try to tune it for the stage of the game.
Early what's needed are cards that give more cards, next
one needs wares and toward the end, cards that confer
gold. Constantly evaluating one's current powers and
deciding whether it's the right time to change them is
the fascinating programming decision that pervades the
experience. There are also possibilities for, akin to a
collectible card game, developing a "killer strategy" based
on a particular combination, although probably it's not
feasible for this to go overboard.
It's not enough to just have these three,
however – they require action points to utilize, as does
playing cards. Bedeviling dilemmas attend. Then in a nice
rules, it's possible to abjure two of one's actions and
thereby gain a gold – finally a rule that (potentially)
encourages quicker player turns! Card illustrations are
above average artisticaly and could have been a bit
better on the communication side as the narrow strips
of bamboo that denote the utility type of card can be
difficult to detect in low light situations.
Overall this should find a ready audience for just about
everyone – there is even the occasional auction –
except that theme fans have only the illustrations to go on.
Strategy: High; Theme: Low; Tactics: High; Evaluation: Medium
- James Clavell's Noble House
From the novel of the same name, set in Hong Kong's 1960's
business world. Nice concept and realization apart from some
logistical problems and one or two other minor difficulties.
[more]
- James Clavell's Tai-pan
From the novel of the same name, 1840's trading in Canton, Hong
Kong, India and Europe. Players sail clipper ships from England
to India where they buy up opium, from India to China where they
sell the opium and pick up silk, tea and spices and then race
back to England. Each clipper sailing is a race in which greater
profits are realized for coming first, and realized in ways that
are very sensible for the theme. Arriving in England first means
one gets to sell at the highest price and then lower the prices
of whatever was sold for the next clipper. But clipper speed
is dependent on card play, cards which also affect prices, the
faster the card, the more it lowers prices. A very nice tradeoff.
Another tradeoff is deciding to skip buying opium and sailing to
China directly in order to be the first to buy there. In China,
it is not simply a mechanical matter, but instead one actually
directs three small lorcha boats to the various Chinese ports to
discover what commodities are available and at what prices. There
is also a wares auction at Canton (later Hong Kong). A large
number of flavorful event cards also make things interesting,
although some may complain that there is too much luck in the
"take that" cards. Definitely the best entry in the James Clavell
series. [Pirate Games]
- Jardin, Le
Web-published game
about players as landscape designers trying to please a
noble owner of gardens. Contact the designer to get a
version of the map which will print at a large enough size
to be usable. At the time of this writing is scheduled to
be published in physical form as well. Play is pleasingly
elegant and the game rollicks right along. Works well,
but perhaps there is too limited a control with five players?
Requires that players watch what others are doing very
carefully and it can be a bit of a problem if not everyone
is good at that. Perhaps the map could be clearer in the
sense of better indicating the status on each project.
Strategically, as the rules mention, the squares which are
"downstream" from the already-purchased squares are very
likely to sell first.
rules translation
- Java
Third in the series from the creators (including
artist Franz Vohwinkel)
of
Tikal
and
Torres
is the most ambitious
to date. Set among the villages, rice terraces and palaces
of Indonesia, players compete to place and control the
most valuable tiles. Just as in Torres, it is played in
three dimensions with the players racing for the high
ground. But its overlapping one-hex,
two-hex and three-hex pieces appear to be entirely
new to gaming in general. The possibly three-hour experience
can be divided into three stages: building the map, defining
palaces, final scoring. This is an interesting design
decision as part one could well have been replaced by a
random setup process as in a game like
Durch die Wüste.
Actually, it's a manifesto: "we are making something for
you, the hardcore strategist". All of the rest is in line
with this. There is almost no luck apart from a little
bit of chance in the festival cards (using an auction system
reminiscent of
Taj Mahal)
and just as in Torres, a strong
need to pay attention to what downstream neighbors can
do. The system is wide open with options all over the
place. Would be ideal for the proverbial deserted island
as repeated play would reveal many hidden depths. The unique
tile placement system no doubt builds new brain synapses
as one struggles to think in a novel way. On the other
hand, the end may find some players feeling tired from
overanalysis of their many options, as well as from the
impatience of waiting on opponents. The many options
tend to weaken the theme somewhat as there is no on board
"base" as one might expect. Strategically, it's probably
best to save the very valuable one hex tiles and extra
actions for the end as final scoring can be almost half
the total. Very nicely made as usual by Ravensburger with
thick tiles and brilliant colors, giving rise to a spectacular
tableau as the island comes to life. Recommended for
strategists who liked Torres and appreciate deep studies such as
Chess
and
Go.
More intense than Tikal and more thematic than Torres,
may end up in that very strange category of being more admired than
played. One question lingers: is it true that it costs an action point
for a figure to change terrains because he needs to change his pants?
- Jenga
Dexterity game of removing and piling wooden blocks until they crash to
the table.
A
- Jenseits von Theben
Game of the early days of archaeological excavation and exhibition.
Player pawns roam Europe drafting research and other cards and then
travel, as the title has it, way beyond Thebes, to Greece, Crete,
Palestine, Egypt and Assyria. Rearch plus time is applied to
digging which at the site is represented by drawing a number of cards
from a deck which both contains a lot of blanks and has had several
cards randomly removed so that no one knows exactly what it may hold
– a true-to-life mechanism if ever there was one! But the best
innovation is in the treatment of time. Movement between the
capitals of Europe, acquisition of more knowledge and digging all
require discrete numbers of weeks. But rather than players
performing it week by week, they record the entire amount for the
activity all in one go. In this way the player who has used the
least time may get to perform several actions until such time as he
has caught up. Of course,
Neuland
has something similar and the idea depends somewhat on the fact
that players tend not to interact with one another all that much.
One area in which they do, the exhibitions, can be a bit
problematic as their appearance from the deck is entirely random
and they may appear well before anyone can really use them. Or they
appear too late. This seemingly underdeveloped part of the design
can make an exhibition strategy difficult. There is also a set
collector strategy involving attendance of archeological
conferences. Ultimately everyone needs to dig as well, of course,
for what kind of archaeology game would it otherwise be? But toward
the end it's not so unlikely that none of these approaches are
viable and a player may discern ruin several turns before
proceedings are truly ended. But it's the theme which is the true
grail here. As a member of a couple of archaeological societies and
designer of a prototype on the same topic, albeit set in a different
part of the world, I can say that this game is not as knowing as it
could be about its subject. Exhibitions are not devised and only
then archaeologists show up with things. Instead, a lot of things
are found and then an exhibition is sponsored. It's also true that
while there was plenty of tramping about Europe, it was not after
gaining knowledge, but rather that infinitely more scarce commodity,
funding. It is quite nice however that color, named renderings of
the more important historical finds are to be found on the many
cards. Both the art and the communication design of of top quality,
especially for a small press production. My only quibble is that it
would have been clearer to allow the various expedition cards to
apepar where they can be picked (a smaller size might have been
necessary though, or a larger map). Many games depend on tactics or
evaluation. Some also depend on strategy. But very few, outside of
war games, put theme first and still incorporate the challenging
mechanisms of German-style games. This is rare enough that true fans
of theme will forgive a few deficits in the other areas. Others
will probably judge this an average find.
[Ancient Egypt Games]
Strategy: Medium; Theme: High; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Low
- Jewish Fluxx Expansion Card Pack
This is a seven card expansion kit for
Fluxx
– love it or loathe it – the additional
cards rewarding Jewishness. There is a rule card with
permits playing an extra card each turn if wearing a star of
David or similar. Another gives rewards for knowing any word
in Hebrew. Etc. Clearly this is a product just meant to reach
a special audience – the bar mitzvah gift market?
– and of no real interest to the general gaming public.
Actually, the title almost sounds like a medical condition.
"You don't look well. Is it the German measles?" "Nah, just the
Jewish Fluxx. Oy vey."
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: Low; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 3
Andrew Looney; Looney Labs; 2006; 2-6
[Buy it at Amazon]
- Jochen der Rochen
In this dexterity game for children, Jochen is the name of a
Rochen, i.e. a sting-ray, who is having a birthday party.
Jochen and his guests are represented by flat, wooden shapes
placed randomly on a plate-sized sturdy cardboard disk. This
disk is supported by a small base, which raises it a couple
inches off the table. By placing a
finger tip anywhere along the disk's edge, the player tilts it, scoring
points for each uniquely-colored fish that falls off, but not scoring
at all if any duplicates do. If the Jochen piece, which is larger,
heavier and faster to fall comes down, the opponents receive points.
Playing well is a tricky business as it seems nothing can be dislodged
without moving nearly everything. One can get better at it though,
learning that a gentle rocking motion gets results and that the finger
can be an obstacle for one fish, but not more than that. There are
tactics too in the way one puts the fallen fish back on the disk for
the next player. As a consequence this is usually won by the slow and
steady player who gets a couple fish every turn rather than the one
who keeps trying for that big score. Points are represented by
cardboard cake tokens so you can mystify your friends by asking to
play the "fish and cake game". While nothing is intrinsically
wrong here, it fails to be as exciting as the best of the dexterity
set and is probably best saved for young children.
Manfred Ludwig; Zoch; 2004; 2-6
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: Low; Evaluation: Low; Personal Rating: 5
- Journey to Tianzhu, The
Chinese and English game based on the Chinese national epic
Journey to the West was published in 1998 by C.C. Games of Hong Kong.
Players move their monk, monkey, pigsy and Shaseng pieces from Chang An to
Tianzhu (the ancient Chinese name for India) with rules similar to those of
Pachisi.
Pieces are plastic with colored stickers with the board made from
laminated paper.
Play is made more interesting by inclusion of special powers for each
type of piece which can affect each other type in special ways as well
as cloud paths which a player may attempt to use to evade his enemies.
There are also variant rules to change the victory conditions or play of the game.
Designer Bennie Lui was also art director for the John Woo film
A Better Tomorrow.
- Joust
Let's get into the mind of the medieval knight tilting at the
joust. What was he thinking? Ride hard and hold on tight to
be sure, but what about the the strategic choices? Aim for
shield? the helmet? Try to divert the opposing lance with your
own? Rather than "mickey mouse" all of these details, Joe
Huber's web-published design – Joe has also given out
a few handmade copies – distills them down to what can
be elegantly represented by a few cards. Although there are
antecedents in Knizia's En Garde
and Tor, it's an original
effort which also owes something to Rock-Paper-Scissors
in its repeated contests and the mind games that go with them.
Even if one doesn't find frequent replays very appealing,
it will make players think. It would be nice to someday
see this as a gamelet within a larger context – the
Black Shield of Falworth game? –
or even on the back of a cereal box where it would be
a lot better than what one usually espies there. [The Games Journal]
- Jumbo Grand Prix
Reiner Knizia card effort is reminiscent of his Vampire in being a
Rummy-like game, this time the collecting being on the
topic of autoracing. Possibilities seem a bit more constrained
in this one with luck increased.
- Jumpin' Java
This two-player affair is based on the mathematical game
Frogs & Toads which is described,
among other places, in the book
Winning Ways: for your
mathematical plays (volumes 1 and 2).
Here the competing frogs and toads have been converted to
coffee cups and saucers, two of each per player. Starting at
either end of a linear path, players strive to be the first
to park their items at the opposing side. However, a new
wrinkle has been added to the usual proceedings with the
addition of stacking rules for cups and saucers. In addition,
jumping rules differ for cups as opposed to saucers. The cups
and saucers are nicely-made small versions of the real things
in attractive earth tones. The "board" is a clever series of
round cardboard circles linked together by a cloth. All of
this comes in a wooden box with a slide top which may annoy by
sliding open too easily. The instructions printed on the
inside lid are a bit skimpy and, while clear, should really
have addressed the situation of stalemates. Probably a longer
board would have added the possibilities for fun as well.
Still, it's a reasonable lookahead game for two that can
challenge the brain cells, at least for a while. Considering
that games are so short, perhaps it would have done better as
a small package card game that would be easier to take along
to the coffee shop. Though as a game that a coffee shop can
buy and have available for patrons, it's close to ideal.
Strategy: Low; Theme: Low; Tactics: Medium; Evaluation: Medium; Personal Rating: 5
Don Green; Gigamic/Fundex/Front Porch Classics; 2003; 2
[Buy it at Amazon]
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