Essen review

I just posted this on the spielfrieks mailing list and thought I'd
post it here as well.  Sorry that it's not in Finnish...


Essen kicked butt.  It was my first time going and it was even better
than I had imagined.  Here's an overview of all the brand new games I
played, in descending order of my first impressions.  Please note that
most of these games I only played once, so these are mearly first
impressions and not real reviews.  Sorry that I'm not going into
detail over each game, we'll leave that for Rick Thornquist. :-)

INCREDIBLE GAMES

None.
Essen was incredible but as most people agreed, there wasn't one game
that was just earth-shattering.  No 10's from this year's Essen IMO
(at least, no 10's that I played.)  Alea's "Louis XIV" got a lot of
buzz but I could never get in on a game.  I heard some great reviews
about it and some mediocre reviews.  It is another influence game,
maybe that's why some gave mediocre reviews.

GREAT GAMES

Im Schatten des Kaisers (HiG/Ralf Burket)
Probably my favorite game of the fair, but not by much.  This game has
a lot of potential, we only started to see the strategies towards the
last couple rounds.  Steep learning curve, don't get discouraged until
we played it one time through.  I really enjoyed the unique people
simulator mechanics/theme in the game.  You have nobles, they can get
married, they can have kids.  If you have a girl, she can get married
to another single male on the board (not your own noble).  They can
progressively get older and eventually die.  They can become lords,
bishops, even the king and queen.  Each round, the players vote on a
new King, I really enjoyed this voting mechanic but it's kinda broken
with 3-players.  This IMO is a 4-player-only game.  The jury is still
out on this one, I need to play it another time through before I can
really rate it properly, but I suspect it's gonna be great.

Tanz der Hornochsen (Wolfgang Kramer/Amigo)
The 6 Nimmt! board game, I loved it.  Not everyone else is going to
share my feelings but that's okay.  If you love the purity of 6
Nimmt!, this may not be for you.  The core game is still 6 Nimmt!: You
play a card (a tile) face down then everyone flips them over.  It is
then placed on the board in normal 6 Nimmt! fashion, except that if
you "underbid" (for lack of better words), your tile goes next to the
highest tile on the board.  What's also cool is that this can be
played with 2 or 3 players, something that I don't usually like to do
with 6 Nimmt - and like the original, it can play up to 8 players and
MAY be less chaotic with alot of players.  Also, in order to get new
tiles, you need to buy them or completely run out of them.  Anytime
during the game, you can buy up to 3? (or was it 2?) new tiles for 1
point a piece OR if you completely run out, you get 6 for free (tough
to do).  My second favorite game of the fair.

Karabik (Winning Moves)
Another one of these 45 minute games with a bit luck, a bit chaos, and
alot of fun.  You do this kinda blind-bidding (and I usually hate
blind bidding) to move around pirate ships, get treasure or steal
treasure from another boat, then get it back in your safe haven.  It
was a riot, lots of yelling, laughing, and cursing - my kinda game. 
You have to out guess your opponents, which can be very frustrating at
times, but it works very well.  Highly recommended.

The Gardens of Alhambra (Queen/Dirk Henn)
One of those games where it's so simple, you wonder why you didn't
invent it first.  Seriously, if it wasn't for Dirk winning Spiel des
Jahres in 2003, this would be my early guess for SdJ 2005.  You can
teach this game in 90 seconds.  On your turn you take a facedown tile
and place it on the board, that's it.  It plays fast (30-40 mins),
great for girlfriends and families and gamers too.  It reminded me
alot of Carcassone and Metro - I think if you like either of those two
games you'll enjoy this one.  Another winner from Dirk, I enjoyed this
one more than the original Alhambra.  Plays great with 2-4 players,
probably optimal with 3.  However, some may not like this as much
cause there is really nothing "new" with it.

Niagara (Zoch)
The most beautiful-looking new game of the fair.  It takes just 60
seconds to explain the rules, you move your boats up and down the
river and try to collect gems.  First one to meet one of three
gem-collecting conditions wins.  But at the end of the round, the
water starts moving depending on weather and cards people have
played....and your boat may go over the falls!!  It's a total
family/kid game but enough tactics for gamers.  The box says 3-5
players but, it's probably best with 5 - the less players meant less
control and more boats over the edge.

Struggle of Empires (Warfrog/Martin Wallace)
I'm not big into war games, if I was, I'd be estatic about this one. 
All of us playing this one don't usually like war games but really
enjoyed this.  Fans of Wallenstein should look into it.  The rules
seemed a bit confusing at first, but after one round the rules were
very clear - the strategies were not, this game is very deep but with
only two actions to do per round, it wasn't very taxing on the brain.
 The coolest aspect of the game was how the alliances are formed.  At
the beginning of each war, the players are seperated through this
bidding system.  Your country will join either Alliance A or B, so
your enemies and allies change throughout the game.  It's often you'll
want to attack someone but, d'oh!! ...they're in your alliance!!  I
predict we're going to be hearing big things about this one.  However,
it's basically an influence game - Have the majority (or 2nd or 3rd)
in a region and get VPs.

Piranha Pedro (Goldsieber)
A board game that's more like a party game.  Plays up to 6 players and
the more the better.  Pedro is trapped on this island and dies if he
drowns in the water or gets eaten by a piranha.  Players all place a
card face down, then the starting player places his face up and moves
Pedro according to the card he played.  If Pedro moves over water, the
player must place one of his stones on the water so Pedro can stand,
this stone remains for the game and can be used by other players. 
When Pedro dies, everyone removes all the stones they have and gets
new ones depending on which cards you have in your hand.  If you use
all your "good" cards during the round, you won't get as many stones
back.  If you use your "bad" cards and take risks, you'll get more
stones.  Great game, lots of fun, lots of yelling/cursing/moaning
..highly recommended.

GOOD GAMES

Flandern 1302 (Queen/Wolfgang Panning)
Barely didn't make the "Great Games" list but after another try, I
could see this rating going up.  Again, this one has a bit of a
learning curve I think, we all kinda played it "wrong" for the first
two-thirds of the game.  Yes, it's another influence game and there
isn't much new with this one, but it all worked so well together. 
Very balanced, almost TOO balanced.  There is this "dummy-player"
aspect to the game which adds some uniqueness to it which I really
liked.  I seemed to like it more than others, some thought it was just
"okay."  Maybe it's cause I won!?  I dunno, I was all excited about it
but the other mediocre opinions made me wonder.

Geschenkt (Amigo)
A card which is taught in 30 seconds.  Lots of luck with this one, but
lots of excitment and agony as well.  Tons of fun but not to be taken
seriously.  I thought there was little strategy with this one, but my
co-worker kicked our butts twice in row - so maybe there is!  For 5
euros, this one is a steal.

Jambo (Kosmos/RGG/Rudiger Dorn)
Only played half a game of this, I was lucky enough to get the RGG
English copy of this before they ran out.  I was hoping this was going
to be some San Juan-esque game with many paths to victory, but it was
kinda repetitive with lots and lots of special action cards with lots
of text.  Don't buy the German version of this.  Beautiful artwok,
game definitely has some potential but I only got in half a game.

OKAY GAMES

Candamir (Kosmos/Klaus Tueber, The Settler's Prequel)
It's a light RPG game with beautiful bits and beautiful illustrations.
 Rules seem quite complicated at first, but it's actually a very
simple game.  During the first few rounds, we were all excited about
this one.  Then after 45 minutes or so of the repetitveness and
solitaire, we got bored and actually ended the game early.  The
movement system is quite unique and the luck in the game (there is
lots of dice rolling) isn't that bad actually, but we just didn't feel
any real "progression" in the game.  It reminded me alot of Annos
1502, but I liked this much more, although I hate Annos.  Because of
the length and solitaire factor, this game probably plays best with
just two players, in fact you could probably play it by yourself and
see how many rounds it takes for you to finish...then try to do it
again in less rounds.  I thought there would be alot more trading in
the game like in Settler's, but not really, we only traded when we had
too many cards in our hand and didn't want to just throw them away. 
If you're looking for a relatively lengthy family light-RPG, this
could be perfect for you.  Although there's lots of German text, you
didn't really need to understand it, a simple summary card in English
would be just fine.

Pompeji (Amigo)
I was disappointed with this one.  The game is split into two halves,
the first half you place your people in the city using this boring
card-driven system.  Then the volcano errupts and you got to get the
people out the doors, the lava slowly moves around the city gobbling
up the people.  I dunno, I think alot of people will quite enjoy this,
but it got repetitive even though it was only 45 minutes in length. 
The scores were real close in the end however which made for an
exciting finish.  It says it's for 2 but I'd definitely play it with 3
or 4.

Mall World (BeWitched/RGG/Andrea Meyer)
Don't listen to my medicore review on this one, everyone else seemed
to really like it except for me.  It's very unique and quite clever
and has a very steep learning curve.  I really shouldn't comment on it
until I have played it again.  I was kinda hoping for some sort of
Mall game but the theme is clearly just pasted on.  Plus the
blind-bidding aspect didn't thrill me either.

Bootleggers (Eagle Games)
A mobster theme is always cool and this one had the potential to be a
great game.  You first make the whiskey, then load it on the trucks,
ship it to the "Speakeasys" (a new word for me) and sell it for
profit.  But the luck through dice-rolling and "Take That!"-kind of
action cards turned me off.  It seemed kinda unbalanced with just 3
players.  I enjoyed my playing but didn't see myself playing this on a
regular basis.

Kablamo (Gigantenshop)
Great idea for a game, russian roulette on a board game.  But it was
80% luck and 20% memorization.  Plus, it had very fiddely gameplay
which slowed everything down, even once we got used to it. There is
one card in the game that makes you switch two player's playing
boards, so then it's 100% luck and 0% memorization.  Definitely fun in
a silly way, and if it wasn't for the 35 euro pricetag, I may have
bought it.

Cockroach Poker
The first one to have four of the same insect in front of you loses. 
On your turn you offer another player (any player) a card facedown and
tell them that it's a certain type of insect.  You could be telling
the truth, or you could be lying.  The player then has 3 choices - 1)
say that you're lying and flip the card.  2) say that you're telling
the truth and flip the card. 3) Look at the card then give it to
another player face down and repeat what the previous player did.  If
you choose actions 1 or 2 and are wrong (for instace, the player says
it's an "ant" and you say "No way!" and you flip it over and it is
indeed an ant), you keep the card and place it in front of you.  If
you are correct, the player who handed you the card keeps it in front
of himself.  It's a total drinking game and we had fun with it, cool
illustrations.

Frantic Frankfurt
A speed game, be the first to get rid of your cards.  Cool
illustrations but I'm just not into these real-time games.

GAMES I WISH I HAD A CHANCE TO PLAY

Louis XIII (Alea/Rudiger Dorn)
Probably the hardest game to get into at the fair, you had to camp out
at the tent for an hour then 10 people will fight to sit in 4 chairs.
 Lots of buzz about this one.

Goldrbau (Zoch)
Got an explanation of the rules, seemed very cool, I don't know what
was with the initial medicore reviews but....I didn't get to play it.

Carcassone: The City
I knew I was going to buy it as soon as I heard about it, so didn't
bother trying to play it first.  Beautiful wooden box.

Ottlemire (Mind the Move)
It sold out!!  ...and they had a lot of copies there.  Luckily my
friend picked up a copy.

BIGGEST SURPRISE
Tanz der Hornochsen

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Pompeji

GAME THAT I KNEW WOULD BE GREAT AND IT WAS
Im Schatten des Kaisers

GAME THAT I KNEW WOULD BE JUST OKAY AND IT WAS
Candamire

GAME THAT I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT IF I HAD HAD MORE SPACE IN MY LUGGAGE
Goldbrau

GAME THAT BGGers WILL RATE THE HIGHEST AFTER A FEW MONTHS
Struggle of Empires

GAME THAT I RATED HIGH BUT WILL BE RATED LOW ON BGG
Niagara

GAME THAT I RATED LOW BUT WILL BE RATED HIGH ON BGG
Mall World

GAME THAT I WISH I COULD HAVE PLAYED BUT DIDN'T
Louis XIII

GAME WITH BEST ARTWORK
Jambo

COOLEST INFO I GOT
Eagle Games is working on "Railroad Tycoon" by the designers who did
Bootleggers, hopefully out by next Essen.





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