Comments
10 Days in the USA
Aaron Weissblum
Alan Moon
Out of the Box
2003
| Y
| 2-4
| 30
| 6
| Essentially the same game as Europa Tour with a couple of changes. First off, the production from out of box is a higher quality production. Larger board with a slight laminate film on it, wooden tile holders (although they are two seperate pieces instead of one), better packaging. With two changes to the system, it seemed 'easier' and not as interesting. The first change was the automobile for going from one state to another via a third state replaced the boats. While it makes it easier, it kind of kills off the travel theme as you could drive from Oregon to Washington via Idaho...why would you? Secondly, the special treatment for Alaska and Hawaii via planes just seems silly. Why not just give them a color with a plane, and then they bheave the same as all the other states when using plane travel. The larger board and tileholders are welcome, but the gameplay seems to suffer a bit vs. Europa Tour. Review Date:11/24/2004
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6 Nimmt!
Wolfgang Kramer
AMIGO
1994
| Y
| 2-10
| 45
| 5.5
| Essentially, this is a 4-way game of chicken, with players needing to figure out when they should take points (before they become too large) vs. trying to dodge everything. Since it is unlikely you'll always be able to dodge, the good player will take a few poitns early, in order to setup thier hand to be able to get rid of the high point cards (at someone else's expense later). It does have the advantage of supporting up to 10 players, although 5-6 seems like it would work best. Unfortunately, there are just enough little gotchas in where the cards must be played (which set), that newcomers to the game will need to be reminded. Not a big deal with a few players, but with 8 or 10 new players, it could prove unwieldy. In any event, worth trying out to see if it catches your fancy. Review Date:11/3/2005
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Acquire
Sid Sackson
Avalon Hill
1962
| Y
| 2-6
| 90
| 7
| Classic from Sid Sackson...originally published in 1962. Should have become more popular than Monopoly as it is a much cleaner, better game. Have played several times and gotten beat soundly each time. Game is about forming companies, buying stock, and position for takeovers/stock value increases. Review Date:9/23/2004
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Africa
Reiner Knizia
Rio Grande Games
2001
| Y
| 2-5
| 60
| 7
| This is sort of an exploration game combined with a set collecting game. Players move around a map of Africa exposing tokens and hoping to create groups of the same animals, or gather gems/trade items. There are some interesting decisions to be made in the use of camps, and the never known end of game adds some anxiety as well. Certainly not a difficult game (except the trading rules for the trade items) that moves along at a nice pace. Much like Transamerica, while it seems like luck has a lot to do with it, the better players at this game will win more than thier fair share. Certainly a nice 35-45 minute game that's different from most of the typical games of that timeframe. Review Date:2/4/2005
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Age of Steam
Martin Wallace
Warfrog
2002
| Y
| 3-6
| 120
| 8
| Railroad game where you attempt to create chains of track where you move goods to increase your income level. There is the equivalent of a tax system so that the higher your income level, the farther it drops after each turn. You must be extremely careful as there is definitely a chance to go bankrupt in this one, and forward thinking (and experience) will be needed to get past the 3rd turn. Review Date:10/24/2003
Larry: Age of Gas
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Alhambra
Dirk Henn
Queen
2003
| Y
| 2-6
| 60
| 6.5
| This is an extension to the Stimmt So! game done previously with some tetris-like additions. In the game you need to draw money (of 4 different types) to buy buildings in 6 different colors in order to build your palace. roughly 1/3, 2/3 and end, there are scoring rounds with points for 1st and 2nd place in each color of building. The twist on the buildings is that most tiles have walls, and they limit where you can place buildings...but you get bonuses for long connected wall segments. The drafting of money/building purchase is very interesting as you can take an extra turn if you have exact denomination for the building, so you want to maximize that, and yet if you wait too long, someone else will get the building you want and then the money you want extra...so timing is of the essence. And while the whole matching of the tiles and walls isn't my favorite type of thing, at least in this game the orientation of the tiles is fixed, making the problem of seeing the connections much easier. Review Date:5/28/2004
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Alhambra - The Dice Game
Dirk Henn
Queen
2006
| Y
| 2-6
| 60
| 7
| Dice game adaptation of Dirk Henn's (seemingly endless) Alhambra. Although this CAN be used with the base Alhambra Game, it IS a standalone game. As a dice game, not only does it work well, and does give the feeling of the Alhambra fight for majorities of colors. Players roll dice up to 3 times and get a score in 1 of the 6 colors. Ingeniously, tiebreakers are handled via fewer # rolls to achieve the same result with the board having space for markers to show this. Once players have taken turns placing all of thier markers (different for different #'s of players), then each color has a 1st and 2nd place player. 1st place either moves thier token up 2 spaces on a dominance track, or takes a special token (randomly drawn) and 1 point on the track. Scoring for each color occurs after rounds 1, 3, 5 with various payouts (as in Alhambra). Gameplay is clean, relatively easy to explain, and since with more players you place less markers/round, the game does not seem much longer than with 2-3. A nice touch as the the 'robot player' Dirk works well in this incarnation, and is not burdensome to setup at all. Anyone who likes dice games will at least enjoy trying this one, and many will enjoy it. Review Date:8/13/2007
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Alibi
Markus Nikisch
Adlung-Spiele
2001
| Y
| 2-5
| 45
| 5
| Interesting card game where you're trying to play clues to matchup with 1 of 4 suspects. Points are awarded based on how many matching clues have been played once a single suspect has 5 or 6 matching clues. Plays pretty well with 2 or 3 players, 5 players not so well as it is typical for the criminal to be found after 2-2.5 times around the table, making most players get 0, 1 or 2 points. There are some special cards to allow 2X cards played, or give one suspect an Alibi. It's a much better game with 3 players than 5. The above rating reflects the fact that it doesn't play well with numbers > 3. Review Date:10/24/2003
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All-American Football (1965)
N/A N/A
Cadaco
1965
| --
| 2-2
| 60
| 5.5
| Relatively simple fun. Basically, this is a game with some limited play selection (offense and defense) using round discs. A spinner for each generates play results, including having the Defense nullify the offense, penalties, etc. Since your play selections effect probabilities, this is not a complete luck game...although good spinning does help. Once you get the hang of it, a game should easily play in 40 minutes or less. Good for what it is, but I do prefer NFL strategy as a better, cleaner solution to the genre. Review Date:11/2/2005
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Amun-Re
Reiner Knizia
Rio Grande Games
2003
| Y
| 3-5
| 90
| 6.5
| Knizia building game set in ancient Egypt. Unlike many Knizia games, this one falters quite a bit with less than the maximum 5 players. Players bid on locations, then develop them, and then score points. The problem lies in the fact that there are bonus cards, which depend on the province locations...and so if you don't know which provinces are available, it's hard to assign a good cost to them simply because you don't know how to factor in possible bonus points to the value. In addition to this, it has just enough fiddly rules that you can't quite just play, with occasional lookups to the rules needed for the first 5-6 plays. Again, very unlike Dr. Knizia. Still, the game has good production values, and the appearance of a PBWEB implementation on SpielbyWeb will ensure that this game gets a fair amount of play...even if auctions are not a good item to implement in a PBWEB interface. This is worth a spin, but won't be for everyone. Review Date:11/2/2005
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Aquadukt
Bernhard Weber
Uberplay
2005
| Y
| 2-4
| 30
| 5.5
| Similar in some ways to Santiago. Players are trying to create towns? whatever and connect them with water. On your turn you can either place a spring, extend water, or place houses. Placing houses is done by die roll, with the board sectioned into 20 regions. Houses range in value of points from 1-4, and you score only houses connected to water supply. While there are some caveats on what is watered, and you must place the lowest point building left in your supply next to springs, the key point of the game - and the problem lies in rolling a die to place. While the ability to stop placing houses in a spot based on the die roll can keep you from losing houses that are not watered (they are removed when a region is filled), it also stops your turn. Thus, the typical problem occurs that you want to place in region X, but the die roll gives you region Y. With the extra complexity (and subtlety) in the rules for canals themselves, it seems a more elegant solution of placing houses other than die roll could have been found. Although, to be fair the game may have been far too prone to analysis paralysis and so the die roll was contrived. In any event, there is nothing exactly wrong, but the game is not quite as elegant as it could have been. Review Date:6/21/2007
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Architekton
Michael Schacht
Queen
2005
| --
| 2-2
| 45
| 6
| Another 2 player Michael Shacht game where you lay tiles. In this game, there is a delicate balance between hurting the other player/helping yourself. While you lay tiles for a short-term gain (or loss), in the long term you are trying to create a chain of buildings for yourself that will score...and this is the essence of the contest. A good player will try to create a chain so that an opponent would need to breakup thier own chain in order to break yours up. Leaving an option to breakup your chain plus extend thier own would be a disaster. The drafting mechanism allows some forethought into yoru selections, which is a good thing in this sort of game. Interesting choices, but may (ultimately) not be enough difference in choices from game to game. Review Date:11/2/2005
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Ark
Frank Nestel
Doris Matthaus
Rio Grande Games
2005
| Y
| 3-5
| 45
| 5
| Card game by Doris and Frank about animals getting ready to go away on the Ark. It is an interesting topic to try and build a game, and there are some nice thematic touches. However, there appear to be 1 or 2 too many special rules, which make the 1st or 2nd playing of the game harder than it should be. Add to this that player aid cards were not included (they were on a later expansion) and it can be frustrating fr new players. Perhaps a simplification of the game restrictions on placement would have been better as often times it takes a while to determine that yes, I have no legal placements. Art is very nice (as usual from Doris). Review Date:12/19/2006
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Arkham Horror - 2nd Edition
Kevin Wilson
Richard Launius
Fantasy Flight Games
2005
| --
| 1-8
| 120
| 6
| Having never played the previous game, and not really aving any interest in Call of Cthulu, the ambiance of this game did not really grab me. As such, to me it was simply a game of moving/vanquishing foes by managing cardplay and the abilities of your character. Thankfully, I played with people who had layed the game before, so it was very streamlined and moved quickly. Alas, as most cooperative games tend to go, there is a lot of group decision making to decide what to do...and it's really counter-prodcutive to not go along with the majority most of the time. As such, I felt like I was merely rolling dice and making 3-4 decisions for the entire game. Perhaps it is better as a solitaire game, or a game with less players (we had 5), but it seemed like most of the real decisions centered around when to try and heal up and the rest just kind of happened. Review Date:11/3/2005
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Around the World in 80 Days
Michael Rieneck
Rio Grande Games
2004
| Y
| 2-6
| 60
| 6
| Race game to be like the great race. The first player to finish is not necessarily going to win the race as you must take less days than everyone else. The game uses a drafting mechanism where you get a card + action. Cards are used to travel around the world, with certain combinations (pairs) taking half the normal time. You must balance your need to get sets with using the specials to keep you close in the race. Each location gives a bonus to the first player to get there and the last player..so some dawdling could help, but too much will cost you as the first player across the finish line starts a counter that adds 1 day/turn to everyone else's finish time. It's possible that there is too much incentive to be first (ie: too much penalty to the middle players), and the game requires an entire complement of players for all of the special options to show up. Still, this is an interesting concept for a race and should be tried by most players. Review Date:11/2/2005
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Atlantic Star
Dirk Henn
Queen
2001
| Y
| 2-6
| 60
| 7
| A set collection game where you are trying to make a series of cruises by collecting ships to make the journeys. There is much to recommend this game. In particular, the method of determing points by choosing riskier (higher top score), and conservative (higher bottom scores) based on columns the players choose. Additionally, the option to reduce the value of a cruise to gain cash, but only 1/type/player, and only when there are still cruises left to be filled works very well. While not the best, the 2/3P rules work well, and may actually be best for beginners since they will effectively complete 2 games. The only rough spot in the game, is the rule whereby you may have at most 2 cards left in hand after playing a cruise. I'm not sure whether this in fact works better than a simple hand limit...but it's just difficult enough to articulate/plan for, that it can cause some problems for beginners. Many people prefer Showmanger as a better theme, but otherwise they seem to be close enough to not make a distinction between the two. Review Date:3/10/2006
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Aton
Thorsten Gimmler
Queen
2006
| Y
| 2-2
| 30
| 6.5
| 2P game by Thorsten Gimmler, ostensibly set in Egypt I suppose. Players have 4 cards per round that they play face down onto 4 spaces. The space played determines what happens, where pieces can be placed, etc. Although the game is very straightforward, there are a multitude of things that can happen depending on the order of the cards and thier values. There are also several methods of winning the game, not counting winning by points, and it is sometimes difficult to see where a quick victory could be obtained. While the method of card play limits your play, as you get used to the game, there are more options than appear at first. This is a game that probably needs to be played 2-3 times to really get a good feel for it. However, the timeframe should be around 15-25 minutes, and this game works well in that timeframe. I think most people would enjoy trying this game. Review Date:12/19/2006
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Attika
Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle
Rio Grande Games
2003
| --
| 2-4
| 60
| 7
| This is a game that I didn't try for quite a while, but once tried on BSW, I decided to purchase. This is a dual goal building game (although my frank opinion is that the winning by connecting monuments should just be tossed out) where you're trying to build up your city of 30 tokens. The game is a balancing act between having resources in hand, trying to get buildings built touching/in the proper order, and utilizing/managing your hand of resources and the resources on the evolving board. When to draw tiles, from what pile, where to place a new terrain tile, should I build fast but pay resources, how can I block? All of these questions must be answered, although some can be thought out and planned ahead of time. I suspect that over time, this will be best as a 2 player releatively quick game (30-35 minutes). Review Date:7/28/2004
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Attila
Karl-Heinz Schmiel
Rio Grande Games
2000
| --
| 2-5
| 45
| 6
| This is a game about extending your influence in different regions/tribes. I played it only once, and thought that the game was pretty good except for one facet, the scoring. I have yet to come up with a better way to do it, but what they have is horrible insofar as the tribe influence goes. The players are in 5 different colors (cubes) and the tribes are also in the same 5 different colors. That means, to advance blue 1 on the tribe scorecard for the red tribe, you say move blue up one on red. If I can ever get an elegant way to do this, it may get played more often. I'm also not too thrilled about the region scoring either as you essentially end up counting every single piece on the map to do scoring as well. Review Date:11/2/2003
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Auf Achse
Wolfgang Kramer
Rio Grande Games
1997
| Y
| 2-6
| 45
| 6.5
| Transportation game that reminds somewhat of Monopoly in that you roll a die, move, do (or not) something based on where you land, may draw event card on some spaces, etc. However, there is strategy in that you are trying to get from 1 location to another to deliver goods, there are opportuinties to bid for new contracts, and trucks can block other trucks (1 way streets) which you can use to delay / cause opponents to go different directions. Fun if kept under 2 hours for 6 players (we were right at 2 hours including 15 minutes for rules). The cool trucks with their cargo bins really help with the flavor of the game. It probably is not as much fun with < 4 though as there will not be much competition for the roadways. Review Date:10/28/2003
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Australian Rails
N/A N/A
Mayfair Games
2000
| --
| 2-6
| 120
| 6.5
| One of the Mayfair crayon rail games. The actual gameplay is not super difficult (which surprised me). Basically this is a pickup and deliver game where the routes are built by each player for thier railroad. The gameplay is straightforward, and money is tight through the early game. Played with a variant that Rick Heli uses to have a draft mechanism for the delivery contracts worked well. One thing that would have been very helpful is a card with a miniature map showing all the city locations (and numbering them) to easily cross-index and see where the two cities for a contract are. Something akin to the new cards done by the Rail Baron fanatics where each railroad card shows the route on a miniature map. If this could have been done on the contract cards somehow, (difficult with 3 potentials/card), it would have been ideal, and eliminated much of the time the game takes to play (IMO). Since it's a race to income, with the only requirement being to link up the 5 major cities, there is not much inclination to build in the North/Northwest parts of the map unless you happen to be in the vicinityu and a big contract comes up. I also wonder if overhead projector pens could be used instead of the crayons. All in all, a good game, but learnign the city locations would go a long way to speeding up gameplay, which seems like it could be a bit slow with lots of players. Review Date:5/19/2004
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Backgammon
N/A N/A
N/A
200
| Y
| 2-2
| 30
| 6
| It's a classic, but like a lot of classics, it really has two main advantages, which do not necessarily make it a great game. 1) it's easy to teach/remember how to play. 2) It's a somewhat non-threatening game, so it's easier to get people to play.Since I don't typically gamble when playing games, the doubling cube has precisely 0 allure for me. You may as well just ask someone if they'd like to resign thier position. Otherwise, it's a good example of a roll & move game giving options to the players, and certainly skill can overcome some of the dice when played. Review Date:1/3/2006
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Bamboleo
Jacques Zeimet
Zoch Verlag
1996
| --
| 2-7
| 30
| 5
| Dexterity game which not only requires some dexterity to play, but a surprising amount to setup! It is basically a game with various shaped blocks/items that need to be placed on a saucer. The saucer stands on top of a cone with a rubber ball at the top. The more interesting you try to make the setup (items far from the center), the harder it is to balance initially. Gameplay is fairly straightforward, but the aggravation of setup may steer some away. Worth trying, but will not appeal to all. Review Date:3/10/2006
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Bang!
Emiliano Sciarra
daVinci Games
2002
| Y
| 4-7
| 40
| 6
| This is a game where you try to hide your identity while trying to fulfill your victory conditions. 1 player is the Sheriff (known), and the rest of the players (up to 6 others) are either the Outlaws, Deputies, or the Renegade. Basically, cards can be played to shoot other people, and once everyone is dead, the winner(s) are declared. Since everyone cannot shoot at everyone else unless they have the weapons to do so, there is some strategy in hidiing your identity as long as possible. Pretty good game for 7 that plays in ~45 minutes. Review Date:11/22/2003
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Banque Fatale
Stefan Dorra
Bambus Spieleverlag
2002
| Y
| 3-4
| 60
| 6.5
| This is a somewhat bizarre closed bidding game where you are trying to obtain cards which act like stock. Each player starts with 2 stones of each color that can be on the cards, and a stock market type situation happens depending on the bid. Since cards can have 1 or two colors on them (even two of the same color), the market price for the card plays into your bid decison as well as how many the card supports. It's a closed bidding system, and the person who bids the most stones gets the card. Prices are adjusted : the color with the most stones bid goes up 2 (all tied colors also go up two), any color with at least 1 stone bid, goes down 1, any color with no stones bid goes to 1. The stones are the re-distributed to the players with each player in turn selecting one of any color until they run out. Then, the player who selected the card for auction can sell a card they own...but only if it didn't increase in value that turn. Any holdings that reach 11 or 12 pay a dividend of 5 or 6, and reset to a value of 6. At the end of game you sell holdings, and the highest money wins. The interesting part of this game is that it's easier to control a price drop, vs. predict/maintain a price increase. You need to pay attention to common holdings between you and other players to try and predict what they will do and counter it. The length is a brisk 30 minutes, and it does well in that timeframe. I would rate it higher if the # of players allowed by the game had a wider range. Review Date:10/15/2004
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Basari
Reinhard Staupe
FX Schmid
1998
| --
| 3-4
| 45
| 6.5
| Basari is a game where you move around a board (roll & move), where you end up in a market that offers gems. Once you are at a location, you have 3 options, which all players will simultaneously bid on using tiles. First option is to take the indicated gems on your space. Second option is to take the indicated number of points on your space. Third option is to roll the die and move/score. Roll a 1 and you move 1 and get 5 points, roll a 2 move 2 and get 4, etc. If 1 player only chooses an action, then they get that action. If 3 or 4 choose the action, neither gets to take the action. If 2 choose, then they must bribe the other player with gems in order to take the action. A scoring round ends when a player makes it around the board (each player has a start marker), and all players who do so will get 10 bonus points. When scoring, whoever has a majority in each gem type scores points, but will lose 3 stones after scoring. A little easier to explain than the subsequent Edel, Stein and Reich, it may be a better fit for the american gaming public. There are only 3 options instead of 4, and the roll/move mechanic is much easier to explain. Unfortunately, I found that the extra time it took me to look for a pawn, then look for the correct player and thier gems detracted from the game. In ES&R, there is no board, and players have cards in front of them representing thier options which is much easier to see who needs what and why. Still, this is well worth playing and certainly I can see some people having a preference for this one. Certainly there is a fair amount of luck in both since you could get nothing if too many people pick the same thing, but overall your choices do matter, and bargaining is really where the game can be won/lost. The other downside to Basari is that it is strictly a 3-4 player game, which could very well limit the opportunities to bring it out. Review Date:6/5/2006
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Battle Line
Reiner Knizia
GMT Games
2000
| Y
| 2-2
| 30
| 8
| This is an excellent card game for 2 players. It's kind of like playing poker with 3 card hands. Easy to teach and learn. Has a great quality in that you must make very difficult decisions on how to proceed since you could give someone a winning position on a flag and remove your ability to discard 'garbage' cards. You need to capture flags with higher hands than your opponent and either win 5 of 9 or 3 right next to each other (breakthrough). Review Date:10/24/2003
Larry: Battle Whine
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Betrayal at House on the Hill
Bruce Glasso
Avalon Hill
2004
| --
| 3-6
| 60
| 5
| Very much a theme game, this one takes players on a trip through some weird mansion. Players try to obtain artifacts/improve thier characters in preparation for the house being 'haunted' by some creature(s). Along with the haunt, one of the players becomes a turncoat. At this point, a scenario is picked and each side tries to fulfill the victory conditions. Alas. So far, it seems that the scenarios are very unbalanced as well as being poorly organized/written. While the base system/game works well, perhaps someone can spend some serious work trying to balance out the scenarios. In particular, there appears to be no balancing for the number of players in many of the scenarios. On the bright side, the game moves along fairly quickly, and generally finishes in 45-75 minutes. This is much faster than most games of this type, and welcome. Review Date:3/11/2006
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Black Vienna
Gilbert Obermair
Kosmos
1987
| Y
| 3-6
| 60
| 7
| Pretty good deduction game whwre you get to ask players if they have suspects in thier hands based on cards that have 3 victims' last names. It is critical that everyone answer correctly by looking at thier cards, otherwise the solution becomes impossible. Hard to find, this one is often made up by people to play. Unfortunately, no reprint is on the horizon. Review Date:11/22/2003
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Blue Moon
Reiner Knizia
Fantasy Flight Games
2004
| --
| 2-2
| 30
| 5.5
|
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Blue Moon City
Reiner Knizia
Fantasy Flight Games
2006
| Y
| 2-4
| 60
| 6
| Reiner Knizia game of rebuilding a lost city (I suppose). The game is essentially a card management game, with the objective of moving on a map and completing sections of buildings using the cards. Ultimately, you will gain crystals which will then be used to build an obelisk - which is a race against the other players. Each color of card has some special abilities for the low numbered values, as well as some cards being able to move dragons around. The dragons allow you to gain scales, and ultimately, extra crystals. Since you may play as many cards as you want in a turn (although moving only once), it is possible to hoard cards and do quite a bit of building at one location. However, only with a special card may you build a 2nd piece in 1 turn at the obelisk. So care must be taken to nat fall too far behind or you will not be able to catch up. The game seems fairly balanced, with close games the norm. Certainly worth trying by most people, but may not become a favorite of very many. Review Date:8/15/2007
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Bohn Hansa
Uwe Rosenberg
AMIGO Spiele
2002
| --
| 3-6
| 90
| 4
| Game of trading beans by fulfilling contracts which specify that a city needs certain combinations of beans, using a cart with limited capacity to haul around your beans. Uses the Bohnanza method of having a hand of cards where the order of the cards is preserved as you play and put them back in hand. Basically, you move around the map buying beans and obtaining contracts and trying to fulfill them. Since it costs money to move across the map, and money is the determinant of winning, it helps greatly to have contracts that are near you (or where you have to go to get beans in the first place). The supply/demand is nicely done on map as each purchase will drive up the price of beans while additions to supply will drive down the price. Since you can always sell beans at the game's end in a city, buying cheap beans is always a good idea unless you know you need the space for another bean and a lucrative contract. Also, if you end up in the same city as another player, you can trade with them, thus making it even more useful to have cheap (for you) beans on hand. While there is some level of management as far as keeping your inventory, deciding when to pay for extra movement, etc... the game really comes down to about 80% being the luck of the draw in the contracts that you get. Also annoying is that the bean colors don't really match the color of the tile, causing double-triple looks to make sure that you have a green bean even though the tile is white. Review Date:10/28/2003
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Bohnanza
Uwe Rosenberg
AMIGO Spiele
1997
| Y
| 3-6
| 45
| 5
| Enjoyed by several of the relatives on a weekend game playing trip, but I'm lukewarm on it. I just don't really like the making sure cards are in order, and the sometimes interminable wrangling to get a deal done. I do enjoy the art though. Review Date:12/3/2003
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Bridge
Harold Vanderbilt
Rio Grande Games
1999
| Y
| 4-4
| 30
| 7
| Probably the definitive partnership cardgame. There is a somewhat intimidating learning curve involved to get bidding down pat, but once that part of the game is honed, the actual card play is straightforward with the exception being that the winning team gets the dummy hand face up on the board, and thus knows half of the cards in play. Obviously, this is a huge advantage, and therefore, getting the bid more often than not will garner you points (as long as you're not overbidding). There are many variants, with Rubber Bridge being the most common, and Duplicate being used for major tournaments. There are several good programs available on PC to help with your playing/bidding. Bridge Baron is the one I use. Review Date:1/5/2004
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Bridgette
Joli Quentin Kansil
Mayfair Games
1959
| Y
| 2-2
| 45
| 5.5
| A 2 player 'version' of Bridge. It has a couple of special cards, but the cool thing is that, bidding, scoring are the same and the special cards provide some of the spice. Pretty decent if you just have to sit down and keep in Bridge shape with only 2 players, but I find that playing on a computer is actually much better for your game. Still, a nice, unique effort. Review Date:12/11/2003
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British Rails - 2nd Edition
Elaine Henninger
Joe Ronznai
Mayfair Games
1984
| Y
| 2-6
| 360
| 8
|
|
Buccaneer
Stefan Dorra
Queen
2006
| --
| 3-5
| 30
| 8
| Stefan Dorra game about pirates. Essentially, you create stacks of pirates (each player has discs which are the pirates they control) in order to eventually board ships and plunder them for gold and goods. In a neat twist, the person who controls the stack (pirate on top - ie. the Captain) can choose which ship to plunder. All pirates in the stack that do not belong to that player get payouts based on thier value and the ship. Then, there are two types of treasures which are given to the captain and the first mate which is part of a set collecting portion of the game for bonus scoring at the end of the game. Anyway, it's a fun game, not too hard to play, with enough meat on it to try some different methods of creating stacks that help you more than hurt. I'd be interested in trying to create a nice 2P variant for this, although it seems to me that the easiest would be for each player to simply use 2 colors instead of one to have enough pirates to get to plunder the larger ships. Review Date:8/28/2006
|
Cabale
Roland Siegers
Goldsieber
1999
| --
| 2-4
| 60
| 5
| Abstract game of capturing./blocking/holding territories. The pieces and look of the game overall are very nice, and the game plays with no rules issues, but doesn't seem really 'fun' to me. Essentially, you try to hold onto higher value scoring spaces while eliminating the other player's pieces or limiting them to the lower scoring hexes on the map. The extra twist is that players may place walls to help limit where the opponent can go, and also limit thier ability to capture pieces. You also need to pay attention to make sure you don't inadvertently lock yourself into a small corner which will (basically) eliminate you from the game unless your opponent does a capture to let you out. Would probably take 2-4 games to wrap your head around the strategies needed. Review Date:7/21/2004
|
Caesar and Cleopatra
Wolfgang Ludtke
Rio Grande Games
1997
| Y
| 2-2
| 60
| 6
| This game has many similarities to Battleline. There are ongoing battles going on in 5 different colors. Each color can be one a differing amount of times (3-5) with winners of a battle gaining a point for each 'Patrician' they win and a bonus point to thier total if they win a majority of any one color. In addition to this, there is a 2 point secret bonus that is randomly drawn - essentially you must complete a majority in a specific color for bonus points. The tension of forcing opponents does not seem to be present, as there is no way to force a scoring of a particular color unless there are a total of 8 cards in play (both sides). Also, since there are many take that cards, which can even reverse the winning from high count to low count, there are wild swings possible in the outcomes based on the Action cards. It's different, but seems perhaps a bit too chaotic with the action cards. Review Date:8/17/2005
|
Cafe International
Rudi Hoffmann
Mattel
1989
| Y
| 2-4
| 50
| 6
| Can you fill a table with equal number of men and women, and group nationalities together? Essentially, this is a tile laying game, with weird rules. Not very politcally correct, but the pictures on the tiles are pretty funny. The American man is a cowboy, the woman is a 'starlet'. Not a whole lot of thinking, it was a Spiele des Jahres winner in 1989. Still plays pretty well, but it's age is showing. Review Date:11/22/2003
Larry: Dining at Denny's
|
California
Michael Schacht
Uberplay
2006
| Y
| 2-5
| 60
| 7
| Game by designer Michael Scacht which follows the principles of Euro gaming. Simple gameplay, easy to explain, enough strategy to affect the outcome with some luck thrown in. Has not gotten a lot of buzz or gameply, possibly because the theme is decorating mansions in California. However, it is a clever and easily taught tile placement game with variable costs - and no bidding! On each turn, players can shop at 1 of 2 stores for either flooring or furniture/accessories for thier mansion...or take 5 dollars from the bank. The cost of the tiles is equal to the number of '5' coins in the bank, which starts at 4. So on each turn, the player is faced with the quandary of getting income, or buying. The day ends when either the bank is out of coins, or one of the stores is empty. There are some bonus tiles that player try to complete (like 3 of 1 color or some specific combo's) which may make it more/less important for people to get certain tiles, as well as some floating bonus points you obtain for having multiple visitors come to your house. It's a clean design, and clearly has been overlooked but should be looked at by more people. Review Date:8/22/2007
|
Can't Stop
Sid Sackson
Parker Brothers
1980
| Y
| 2-4
| 45
| 7
| An all-time classic dice game where evaluation of risk, and taking gambles on your turn are the means to victory. You try to move 3 markers to the top of columns in the values of 2-12 (combinations of 2 dice). You roll 4 dice and get your pairs and move up. You can only have 3 simultaneous markers moving on a trun, and if you can't match any of those (or an available number later in the game) you lose all forward progress on that turn. You decide when to stop and keep your gains. Very good game for anyone. Review Date:10/24/2003
Larry: Should Stop
|
Canal Grande
Alan Moon
Aaron Weissblum
Adlung-Spiele
2002
| Y
| 2-2
| 30
| 6.5
| Card game version of San Marco. I think the translation of the same principles to a card game went very well. With the two types of victory possible, and the 'flavor' of scoring via the Doge, this is a pretty nice little game. As in the boardgame, the art is terriffic. The only complaint I have is that there are two types of cards with slightliy different backs (black and white). It would have been so much better if they had done one of the cards in reverse (ie: mostly white) so seperating them would have been very easy. Review Date:12/4/2003
|
Canal Mania
Steve Kendall
Phil Kendall
Ragnar Brothers
2006
| Y
| 3-5
| 90
| 7
|
|
Carcassonne
Klaus-Jurgen Wrede
Rio Grande Games
2000
| Y
| 2-5
| 60
| 5.5
| Tile laying game where you get to place Meeples (my people) and score for cities, fields, etc. Nice, elegant game. Scoring is a bit convoluted. The new version (Hunters & Gatherers) seems to have a much better scoring system. Not convinced it's worth purchasing...especially since this one doesn't get played too much. May pack it up as a XMAS gift. Review Date:10/24/2003
|
Carcassonne - The Discovery
Leo Colovini
Klaus-Jurgen Wrede
Rio Grande Games
2005
| Y
| 2-5
| 30
| 6
| In some ways, this game completes the circle of the Carcassonne titles. It has returned to being a simple, easy to explain game as opposed to all the different scoring methods, add-ons, etc. To me, this is a much easier to understand and explain starter game for the series, even if the art is somewhat poor. The simplification of the scoring (remove a meeple to score) is a huge improvement to the basic game in the context of explanation for beginners. It can certainly be recommended for that audience, or any audience who argues about WHICH carc to play. If you're a hard-core Carcossnne player, this may be a pass since it simplifies the game a great deal as well as removing the all or nothing aspect. Review Date:3/10/2006
|
Carcassonne: The Castle
Klaus-Jurgen Wede
Reiner Knizia
Rio Grande Games
2003
| Y
| 2-2
| 60
| 6.5
| This is a version of Carcassonne by Reiner Knizia, and it has a few significant differences from the other versions that make it more appealing to me. Primary reason is that you no longer need to match all adjoining sides...only the roads need to matchup now. This allows you to close off buildings much easier/better, and allows a much better tactical effect in regards to the courtyards. Also added is a frame for the game which serves as both a scoring track, and a bonus point allocation track, whereby you can pickup chits by getting scores which land you on the corners. A nice side benefit of the game is that since it has a frame, the game will always fit on the table. Review Date:12/11/2003
|
Caribbean
Jens-Peter Schliemann
Michail Antonow
Rio Grande Games
2004
| --
| 2-4
| 30
| 6.5
| This is essentially a blind bidding game of getting Pirates to grab gold for you and move it to your base. The basic mechanic is that there are 6 ships numbered A-F and you have a clever stand where you place your markers (as a bid) for each ship. Your markers are numbered 0-5 + a -1 marker , the extra marker being a tie-break marker. Whoever has the highest marker moves the ship that number of spaces, with any -1 markers being played reducing the spaces moved. You basically grab treasure/steal from other ships and try to deliver to one of your home spots. The game is very attractive, and has a high fun factor. The blind bidding mechanism is clever, and works well. This one should provide a lot of enjoyment as a 20-30 minute filler. Review Date:12/30/2004
|
Caylus
William Attia
Ystari Games
2005
| Y
| 2-5
| 120
| 7.5
| Almost perfect information game about building parts of a city. You must pay to use buildings, and buildings create goods which can be used to make other buildings, get victory points, ets. Uses some interesting methods of determining cost of producing goods, player order, etc. Unfortuately, the only downside is the inelegant use of money. You need to pay to activate buildings, and the costs are different depending on whether you own or not, and whether someone has passed thier turn which increases costs. You really need to keep an eye on costs, and make sure people make thier payments. Otherwise, a nice effort that seems to take about 30-45 minutes longer than it should. Plays well with 3P, drags a bit with more IMO. Still, a very solid game. Review Date:12/28/2006
|
Caylus Magna Carta
William Attia
Rio Grande Games
2007
| Y
| 2-4
| 45
| 6
| A slimmed and trimmed down Caylus - at least that is the feel. Players have identical decks of buildings which they will put into play with only a few cards in hand. One option is to pay to draw a card, or you can discard your entire hand at game start for a new draw, so it does not seem that this would be a real problem most of the time. Unfortunately, the 'full game' incarnation is overly long, particularly moving around the provost which seems mostly unused in this incarnation. I prefer the basic game as there is no building upgrading, scoring is simpler, and the game is very streamlined. Still, it's not as good a game as Caylus, but not bad in the beginner version. I'd likely rate this higher if the 'standard' version did not exist. Review Date:8/22/2007
|
Chess
N/A N/A
N/A
1475
| Y
| 2-2
| 60
| 7
| Long time classic abstract game. It has some faults that cannot be overlooked - chief among them that it is a bit more complex than most abstracts, and that a better player will simply win to an alarming extent over a worse player. Not only that, but there is really no satisfaction whatsoever in beating a player who is worse than you. Unless the player you are playing against starts to improve and at least get thier game close to yours, there will continue to be no/not much enjoyment from the game for either player as eventually, most players tire of getting beaten all the time or 'working' on the game. That being said - if you can get players of close to equal skill, there can be a tremendous amount of enjoyment for both. One variation which seems like it was designed to address this is speed chess where players must play so fast that better players are mroe likely to make critical mistakes which brings thier level of game down and makes it possible for inferior players to play with them. When I have done this we played with 10 minute time limits (5 per player) and I actually had a chance to win versus some pretty good players. Review Date:6/21/2007
|
China Moon
Bruno Faidutti
Eurogames
1996
| --
| 3-5
| 35
| 5
| Move frogs around, jumping over other frogs, gaining flowers, jumping on springs, etc. It's a somewhat interesting 'race' in that you do get additional points for getting frogs to the finish fast (and you could win that way I suppose), but that seems more likely to be a decisive condition in 3 player games. This game is very chaotic as you can move opponent's frogs as well as your own. Review Date:1/13/2004
|
Chinagold
Gunter Cornett
Bambus Spieleverlag
2004
| Y
| 2-2
| 30
| 6.5
| 2 player abstract from Bambus. The game board is a leather rollued up map with a series of marks on it (for gold) and territories either in blue or brown. Players basically throw some wooden chits that have marks on them, add up the total and flip contiguous gold markers in a straight line. If all the markers are flipped in a colored region, that player (the one playing the region) gets those gold nuggets. Alternately, players can unflip a single nugget as thier turn - which seems to be more useful later in the game. In any event, the game is elegant, and there's definitely strategt involved. The only part of the game that is not elegant is that players must keep an eye on how many places a max number in a straight line exist as when it's < 5 or < 4 or < 3 the number/type of chits thrown changes until it finally gets down to players doing a single marker at a time. Fun, fast and easy to teach. The only real downside is that it takes a fair amount of time to setup the nuggets. Review Date:6/21/2007
|
Citadels
Bruno Faidutti
Fantasy Flight Games
2000
| --
| 3-7
| 60
| 5
| I'm still not sure what to make of this one. I suppose there are not many 7 player games around, but this one seems to drag with more than 5. 4-5 players seems optimal, but I'm still not all that thrilled with it as a game. I won't huff and puff too much if someone wants to play it, but I don't think I'd suggest it unless the alternatives are pretty bad. Review Date:10/24/2003
|
Clash of the Gladiators
Reiner Knizia
Hans im Gluck
2002
| Y
| 2-5
| 60
| 7.5
|
|
Clocktowers
Alan Moon
Aaron Weissblum
Jolly Roger Games
2004
| --
| 2-4
| 20
| 6
| A simple drafting/building card game. While it plays fine with 2 players, I have some severe doubts as to the suitability of this game to work with more than 2 players. Also, the decisions are fairly rote, and it seems extremely difficult to make up lost ground. It works...but I'm not sure that's enough in this day to get a game to the table. Review Date:11/2/2005
|
Clue - The Card Game
Philip Orbanes
Winning Moves
2002
| Y
| 3-5
| 45
| 6.5
| This is an interesting take on the old classic, with cardplay taking the place of rolling/moving. There are tiles that represent some of the locations, and during the game you make assertions of how the suspect made thier getaway. Some cards allow you to ONLY use your current location for this assertion (or allow you to change location) and others allow you to change + assert at the new location. So there is some management that needs to be done with respect to your location. There are also some cards that will give everyone hints, and some that are secret. The game moves along very well, and a 3P game plays in about 25-35 minutes. Children should also enjoy this game, and I would definitely recommend it as a holday game to keep around the house as it can be taught in less than 10 minutes. Review Date:11/2/2005
|
Coda
N/A N/A
Winning Moves Games
2004
| Y
| 2-4
| 20
| 5
| Very simple deduction game - so simple even I can do well. Basically, everyone has a numbered sequence in front of them (hidden) arranged from low to high. There are white and black numbers from 1-11. On your turn, you draw one of the remaining tiles and try to guess someone else's tile. If successful, you can guess more tiles of the opponents, or stop and place the acquired tile into your set (hidden). If you make an incorrect guess, you must place the acuired tile in your sequence so it is visible to all. Eventually, you'll get to a winner after all the tiles end up exposed. OK filler, and perhaps the wild cards would add more to it, but it's unlikely I'll spend much time playing it. Review Date:3/29/2004
|
Code 777
Robert Abbott
Alex Randolph
N/A
1986
| --
| 2-4
| 60
| 7
| A game where you have 3 cards (out of a fixed amount) in various numbers and colors, but you can't see them. You can see your opponents' cards, and though various clues (answering questions) about the other persons' cards, you try to deduce your numbers. Interesting game in that some of the numbered cards come in more than 1 color, so some of the questions provided are: Do you see more black or red? The person who can effectively eliminate numbers based on these clues will likely win. A good diversion. Review Date:10/28/2003
|
Coloretto
Michael Schacht
Abacus
2003
| Y
| 3-5
| 45
| 6.5
| Fairly simple collection card game. Each player can draw and place onto a collection pile (the # of piles are = # players) or pickup a collection pile. The goal is to get up to 6 cards in 3 different colors and none of the other colors. The English rules in my copy do NOT state that each player starts with 1 color card, but the same box includes German which DOES say to start with a card. Review Date:12/25/2003
|
Colossal Arena
Reiner Knizia
Don Greenwood
Fantasy Flight Games
1997
| --
| 2-5
| 45
| 6
|
|
Conquest
Donald Benge
Donald Benge
1972
| Y
| 2-4
| 90
| 6.5
| A game of combat (ala chess) with action points. It's actually pretty clever as for each capture, there is an option for the non-moving player to make a re-capture on the capturing piece. Although the mechanics are not hard, and the game with metal pieces (which I own) is pretty nice, there is one issue that takes careful paying attention to keep track of. Each piece has a unique # of points of movement it can expend/turn. But you can move pieces in any order, so it's not too hard to forget how far you've moved a piece. Add to this, the fact that a capture w/o the opponent recapturing will reset the unit's movement to full, and it really takes both players payign attention to make sure the per unit movement restrictions are not bypassed. Still, I like it, although I haven't played in quite a while, and also have the 4P version. Review Date:3/10/2004
|
Corsari
Leo Colovini
Rio Grande Games
2004
| --
| 2-4
| 30
| 5
| Card game where you try to get two suits of cards with no overlapping numbers, plus a third suit which matches a changing (open draw pile) suit that will dictate the third suit. It's fun, although the rules are a bit hard to interpret without playing as the scoring after someone decides to end the hand depends on what cards other players could use on the player ending the hand. The art is fun, but the quality of the cards is horrible. This is a Piatnik game, and they are very, very, VERY flimsy. I wouldn't be surprised to see people bend cards thier first shuffle. They are bad enough to distract from the gameplay significantly. Review Date:10/15/2004
|
Cribbage
Sir John Suckling
Public Domain
1630
| Y
| 2-4
| 45
| 7.5
| Classic card game with wooden board where you score your points. Game plays out in 3 phases, putting cards into the crib, laying cards trying to score on combo's or getting closest to 31, and then final points for the hand. A good game that's portable, and I find it works well with 2, 3 or 4 players (partnership). Review Date:1/9/2004
|
Crocodile Pool Party
Rudi Hoffmann
Kosmos
2003
| Y
| 2-2
| 25
| 6.5
| Pretty good, straightforward game that can be explained and played in under 30 minutes. May not stand a lot of repeat plays, but could definitely be a good filler as it moves along faster than LOTR: Confrontation, is easier to explain, and is much easier to remember the rules. Should be an excellent game for people new to these types of games. Review Date:1/13/2004
|
Das Ende des Triumvirats
Max Gabrian
Johannes Ackva
Lookout Games
2005
| Y
| 2-3
| 60
| 6.5
|
|
David & Goliath
Reinhard Staupe
Playroom Entertainment
1998
| Y
| 3-6
| 60
| 6
| This is a wierd trick-taking game where the person who plays the lowest card gets the highest card in the trick...the person who played the highest card gets the rest of the cards in the trick. The odd part about this is that the scoring (for each suit) works like this: If you have 2 or less cards in that suit, add up the value of the cards. If you have more than two cards, each counts as 1 point. Since card values (depending on # of players) can go up to 15, you really need to decide for each suit if you're going to only take a couple of tricks or go whole hog and just get a bunch of cards. Interesting, but not sure I'll get to play it very often as it's OOP...so don't know that I REALLY like it. Review Date:11/26/2003
|
Derby
Dirk Henn
db-Spiele
2000
| Y
| 3-5
| 90
| 6
| This is an interesting take on horse racing where you have a stack of movement cards that have different move values for 6 (out of 9) horses. The 3 horses which do NOT have movement values on the card are ones where you can exchange your bet. All players have a stack of cards (identical) that say how many of the 6 horses (from top->bottom) on the movement cards will move. You select your card, or place it on the bottom and take a random card. You then either take one of the 2 face up movement cards or a random one and then move the horses. After movement you can swap one of your 3 bets which are on the bottom of the movement card. You're trying to manipulate the horses and your bets so that you get maximum payout. The game system is actually fairly clean, with the exception that it's a pain to keep track of your 9 different bets (1/horse). I'd like to try something where you only have 6 bets and can swap a different color for one of the 3 colors you are allowed. Faster lookup, and more flexibility in how you can exchange your bets. Review Date:10/24/2003
|
Diamant
Alan Moon
Bruno Faidutti
Schmidt Spiele
2005
| --
| 3-8
| 30
| 3
| This game just did nothing for me. Not only was it monotonous, but once someone makes a good guess (ie: gets a larger payout), then most of the rest of the decisions are really in relation to the leader(s). Particularly later in the game, the decisions are not much of decisions, as trailers almost always must stay in the cave for a chance to win, which allows the leaders to stay in longer as they have (not much) to lose. Review Date:1/3/2006
|
Die Fugger
Klaus-Jurgen Wrede
Adlung-Spiele
2003
| --
| 2-4
| 45
| 5
| This is a card game where players place goods types down until there are 5 of one type. At that point, the market prices are set with prices going up multiple levels for the 3 (or more as ties cause prices to go up) types with the most markers, and down 1 level for the others. The price wraps from 10-->1, but stops there until the next pricing. There is some initial randomness, but the game seems mostly dry and calculating to me. I think I like it better with 3 as there is more randomness than with 4. With 4 it just seems like you're adding/subtracting without much hope of actually pulling off any surprises. Review Date:3/17/2004
|
Don
Michael Schacht
Queen
2001
| Y
| 3-6
| 30
| 6
| Weird auction/collecting game. You are trying to get sets of cards with the same colors via an auction. However, when it comes time to bid, you may not bid any amount that ends in the same digit as one of the Chicago Neghborhoods you already have. Also, when the auction is complete, the money is either paid out to all players, or to the player with more of the ending digit porperties than anyone else. You must balance where the money is going, versus what you get, versus how what you get will influence your future bidding options. Really a pain when someone says 2, and because you have 3-6 you must up your bid to 7. There's a lot going on that can bite you. Review Date:5/24/2004
|
Drachenland
Reiner Knizia
Ravensburger
2002
| --
| 2-4
| 45
| 4.5
| So, I guess the neat part of this game is that it has a dice tower. However, it's about as plain a dice tower as I can imagine. If you need to roll two dice, get the 'Patented Patent Picker Move Maker Machine' from and old copy of the Inventors. Otherwise, you simply move around collecting gems of different colors with a couple of special actions available per game. Not all that interesting. Review Date:10/28/2003
|
Drahtseilakt
Reiner Knizia
AMIGO Spiele
1999
| Y
| 3-5
| 30
| 7.5
| Title roughly means Tightrope in English. This is a card game where you are trying to balance out your points by being the highest card in some tricks, and the lowest card in other tricks. For each trick, the values of the sticks you collect (the points) are varied from 1-9...except that they may also be zero. Since the entire deck of cards (numbered 1-50) is not used, AND there is this variable amount of red/blue points in the deck, it makes it difficult to decide for sure what you're going to do. Works very well with 3 players, and the little red and blue sticks go well with the idea that you're balancing on a tightrope. Review Date:11/26/2003
|
Dreizehnte Holzwurm, Der
Wolfgang Kramer
Michael Kiesling
Queen
1998
| --
| 2-6
| 45
| 6.5
| One of the most difficult things to do in a card game is figuring out how to make a game work regardless of 'good' or 'bad' card draws. Essentially, you're playing onto multple 'tricks' changing the positive/negative value of those tricks for whomever ends up taking the trick. Since the player who goes out gets 30 points, there is a definite tightrope to walk here in regards with trying to go out vs. not taking any tricks. This game does a nice job of allowing low cards to have some value vs. the high cards since it is not uncommon for a player with low cards to quickly force an end to the hand while people with high cards are still holding them and giving them a large number of negative points. Nicely done, and certainly worth a look if you know someone who has a copy. Review Date:3/27/2006
|
Duell
Reiner Knizia
Ravensburger
1998
| Y
| 2-2
| 30
| 7
| An updated version of En Garde. This is a deceptively fun game, where your actions need to take into account cards you have, cards you have seen, and the likely odds of your opponent doing what you anticipate. The new version has a fairly compact box, with very nice figures and comes in many languages. They extra optional rules they throw in seem of dubious benefit, and I suspect that most people will play the game as-is without using them. They essentially change the scoring, method of play, etc. with a card draw at the beginning of each round of fencing to see which will apply. Unnecessary in my opinion. Review Date:10/15/2004
|
Dwarven Dig!
Anthony J. Gallela
Kenxer and Company
2003
| --
| 2-4
| 45
| 1
| I feel obliged to put a lot in for a game that I will not play again to detail exactly why I don't like it. My thoughts on the Dwarven Dig come down to about 3 major issues (at least for me). This is setting aside the whole tiles moving, bringing a sheet of plexiglass, etc.1) Getting grit (which = general usefulness, power, etc.) for failing an actioncheck. I know that it's probably a mechanism to balance out players who are not doing well....but it's just plain wrong.2) Waaaaaaayyyy too long. The primary factor of this is the fact that you needto roll the die twice under many circumstances to get a result. If you just used2 dice, didn't try to give everyone their own colored die, and adjusted thenumbers to get the % chances you want, you eliminate a lot of time rollingagain.3) The chits, through the wall markers, monsters, etc. just clogged up the board.I'm not sure, but I think the game would've looked much better with all plasticusing real items for most of these items/events.4) OK, one more. Waaaaaay too many phases for this type of game. Given that your best plans always have a 1 in 6 chance of failing, why create all these phases? Couldn't many of them have been combined/re-ordered? In particular, I think combat should be first vs. move as you can only catch people at least 2 hexes away from the exit with the current scheme.I could go on, but I've now added to the 2 hours the game took and it's notreally worth it.Yuck. Review Date:10/28/2003
|
Dynasties
Al Newman
Jolly Roger Games
2005
| Y
| 2-2
| 30
| 6
| Two player abstract card game ostensibly about winning districts in China. Basically, each player has a deck of special cards plus cards numbered 1-6. Players play face down in 5 areas, with special cards being used once and discarded, and 1-6 being re-usable. The game plays in 9 rounds with scoring done for the majority in each area every 3 rounds. One of the nice touches is that there are chits to draw for each region giving different scoring possibilities that change from game to game. All in all, it's worth playing, although I would recommend the basic game only as I feel some of the cards are too unbalancing in the advanced game. Comes in a small box format, although the gameboard quality is not very good. Review Date:8/28/2006
|
Easy Come, Easy Go
Reiner Knizia
Out of the Box
2004
| Y
| 2-4
| 30
| 7.5
| Reiner Knizia's take on the dice rolling for combinations (ala Yahtzee). Knizia's version is streamlined, and yet contains the essence of Yahtzee...completing a specific goal. In this case the goals are prizes which the special dice (0-5) are used to gain. Instead of getting 3 rolls, the requirement is that you must lock down at least 1 die/roll, and locked dice may never be re-rolled. So a turn can be 1 roll or up to 4 rolls. In a twist, all 4 dice must always be used for a combination, which adds some interesting twists. Seeming like there may not be any strategy at all, this one has a fair amount as your selection for locking dice will limit your possibilities. Keeping as many options open until the last 1-2 rolls is the way to go here. With play times of 5-10 minutes, this game will not overstay it's welcome. The production is very nice as the box is plastic laminated to help keep liquid out. As well, the prize tiles are substantial and also laminated, making this very friendly for a variety of locales. It seems that this could be extended to support 5-6 players easily with house rules as well. Review Date:5/23/2005
|
eBay Electronic Talking Auction Game
N/A N/A
Parker Brothers
2001
| --
| 3-4
| 20
| 6
| This is actually a pretty good game. It's a bidding game where the auction is run by the electronic gadget. Players have money in various denominations that con only be played once (no change). You are trying to get sets, bonuses, etc in the items you buy, which have values that don't always match thier estimated values. The auction machine will decide when the auction is ended, etc. and say which player's turn it is. Pretty good and plays in about 30 minutes or so. Was on sale for $5.69 at Amazon for several months. Review Date:12/4/2003
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Ebbe & Flut
Wolfgang Werner
Adlung-Spiele
2000
| Y
| 2-2
| 20
| 7
| This is very nice twist on what you can do with a card game. This is a 'war' between the water and the land (Sand & Surf is the rough translation of the title), where you are trying to walk your cards over to the far corner. This is done via a grid (bounded by, basically, and out of bounds/play sideline). Each card has a letter and number. You can move any card in the same column or row with a matching letter or number either horizontally or vertically depending on which way the match is (ie: horizontal match moves vertical, vertical match moves horizontal). Since cards can cover other cards, you see water creep over sand, sand creep over water, sand uncovered, water uncovered. Very nice 2P game. Review Date:12/4/2003
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Edel, Stein & Reich
Reinhard Staupe
Alea
2003
| Y
| 2-5
| 60
| 7
| This is a remake of Basari without the board. You are trying to gain money (points) by either obtaining majorities in gems, or via action cards (certificates or other bonuses). Players blind bid for what they want to try to do, and if they are alone, they do the action. If two players pick the same one, they barter for who gets to do it by bidding gems. If 3 or more pick the same action, no one gets the action. The fun comes in trying to guess what your opponents will do, gauge what your best action is and weighing whether you should take a less optimal action versus your best so you don't lose a turn. Can be frustrating when you seem to always have two other players in the same action, but overall enjoyable. Particularly interesting is the method of barter where # gems offered is high...but if same # gems, then the ranked order of gems breaks the tie. It adds some thoughtfulness to everything as the higher valued gems also give more points in scoring rounds for majorities. Review Date:8/26/2004
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Eketorp
Dirk Henn
db-Spiele
2002
| Y
| 3-6
| 45
| 6
| This one could go higher after more plays. The system is pretty clean, and easy to remember the details (bonus). However, the # of battles to be fought can certainly drag down a couple of rounds per game, which is the only thing that makes the game hold on a little longer than it should. All in all, pretty enjoyable, and there are some interesting thoughts on when/whom to attack, and whether you should attack the leader, or just better your position. Also, the mechanism for card exchange and the possibility of paying VP's for limited blind draw capability help keep one person from just steamrolling people in battle. The simultaneous planning phase is nice, as it allows the game flow to keep up during planning. Review Date:1/20/2004
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El Grande
Wolfgang Kramer
Rio Grande Games
1995
| Y
| 2-5
| 90
| 9
| Plays much better with 3 or more but is still a good game for 2. No dice, interesting strategy game of influence in middle ages Spain. Lots of cool wooden block pieces. Excellent game that takes about 1 complete playing to really get a feel for it. This was my first area influence game, and so far, the best. Is a little daunting for newcomers. Review Date:10/24/2003
Larry: Taco Grande
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Elchfest
Hermann Huber
Kosmos
1999
| Y
| 2-2
| 15
| 5
| Finger flicking game where you try to get a moose across the table to another bank. Basically, you try to flick disks and create stepping stones for your moose, and perhaps make it harder for your opponent. Not much brain power needed here, and probably best for children in the 5-9 year old range. Can be fun if you're in the mood for some light fun, and is very portable. Review Date:6/5/2006
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Emerald
Ruediger Dorn
Abacus
2002
| Y
| 2-5
| 45
| 6
| This is a fun game, although the later players are at somewhat of a disadvantage when playing, particularly in a 4-5 player game. A move/collect game with the neat twist being the dragon that stalks the cave trying to eat the dwarves. Production values are high, and it's a very nice looking game as well. Not too difficult, and usually moves along at a very nice pace with 5 player games clocking in around 45 minutes. Review Date:10/24/2003
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Empires of the Ancient World
Martin Wallace
Warfrog
2000
| Y
| 3-5
| 150
| 8
| A light wargame set in the Mediterranean world. There are 4 turns of 10, 9, 8, 7 rounds each, with scoring after turns 2-4. This means there is a total of 34*Num players Actions in the game, plus extras for attacker breakthroughs. Scoring is based on value of territories held, and based on 'trade' marker majorities which score half the value of an area. Basically you have a hand of cards (which you can expand) which has your Armies/Navy. They can be anywhere and combat is done by selecting 5 cards in a general order based on the speed of the unit. Cards are compared 1 at a time, most times a die roll for one or both of the cards and a result. There is some strategy, a fair amount of luck. Over the course of a game, the luck should even out and planning/use of the trade markers should give enough points to overcome bad die rolls. Seems like a good game, but need to play at least two more times. Review Date:11/6/2003
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Entdecker - Exploring New Horizons
Klaus Teuber
Mayfair Games
2001
| --
| 2-4
| 90
| 5
| Game of Exploration by Klaus Teuber. This version is the Mayfair release and they add the native trail tracks to it. The basic way the game works is that players purchase a number of either unknown, or known tiles, and then draw/play what the can with the ultimate goal of completing islands (with thier explorer/forts) on them. I found the game dragged on a bit, as well as the income system being problematical. It would be interesting to play one of the earlier ones to see how it worked as far as flow and timeframe, but this one was not a favorite for me. Review Date:11/23/2004
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Euphrat & Tigris
Reiner Knizia
Hans im Gluck
1997
| Y
| 2-4
| 70
| 9.5
| This game is 'da bomb! I can't wait to get this one moved over to the own side of the ledger. This is a tile laying game of developing 'kingdoms'. While the kingdom aspect (theme) is somewhat weak, to me, it does not detract one bit from the game. The production quality of the German version is first rate (haven't seen a US version yet), the temples are very cool, and the mechanics (after about 2 plays) are 90% easy to remember/do. I especially like the fact that, while scores are hidden, a look at the board can still give you a real good idea of what colors other players are lacking. The treasure interaction is nice, and really gives each (except the farmer) leader a somewhat different flavor/importance. First playing on an actual board took about 1:10 with 3 players including going over the rules and 2 of the players being new. Certainly a game which I will happily play if it's suggested. The PBEM on the 'Geek is also very nice, as I have now played several times there. Review Date:11/2/2003
Larry: Twin Creeks
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Euphrat & Tigris - The Cardgame
Reiner Knizia
Hans im Gluck
2005
| Y
| 2-4
| 45
| 5
| Hmmm...let me say that again...hmmmm. I'm not certain there really is a need for this game. It is not (in my opinion) streamlined much over E & T, and it has several limitations on play that do not seem to help it much at all. The linear kingdoms, the single way to connect, the limit to connecting kingdoms until they're a certain size, you cannot collect points wthout cards even if you have the boat (temple). All of these things detract from the ease of placement that is evident in E&T, and yet there is still the same combat to go through in it's sometimes complicated manner. It is LESS elegant to me, which is bad when the game is also more limiting at the same time. Others may differ on thier opinions here, but to me, E & T is clearly so much better, that having a small version doesn't really seem to be enough of an advantage to get it played. Review Date:1/4/2006
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Europa Tour
Alan Moon
Aaron Weissblum
Schmidt Spiele
2003
| Y
| 2-4
| 30
| 6.5
| Many have described this as similar to Rack-O, and I have to agree. The idea is to swap tiles in your holder with tiles available (there are 5 face up and a draw pile) and complete a contiguous trip across Europe, with the ability to utilize ships for particular routes, and airplanes (of the correct color) for a flight between two countries. The game is not difficult, and plays quickly. The only problem I see is that the board is just palin too small, and there are a few annoying errors where the German is on the international side of the board and vice-versa...making it somewhat difficult to find a few of the countries. The plastic holders for the player tiles are also a bit flimsy. Review Date:6/23/2004
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Evo
Philippe Keyaerts
Eurogames
2001
| --
| 3-5
| 120
| 5
| Game about Dinosaur evolution. Setting aside the scoring track markers (why not use a flat disc?) this was fun the first couple of times. However, the extreme randomness of some of the cards is difficult to deal with. Still., even with all that, it would be OK except it tends to drag quite a bit in the middle stages of the game. Would be a good game if it consistently clocked in under 70 minutes, but it doesn't. Review Date:11/2/2003
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Expedition
Wolfgang Kramer
Queen
1996
| Y
| 2-6
| 60
| 6.5
| Affectionately known as the arrow game. This is a game where you place arrows and try to reach the locations shown on your expedition cards. Making loops, and/or paying can give you extra moves and chances to grab money on the map. Pretty simple game with a moderate amount of strategy/tactics. This is one I may pickup if I see it on sale or want to get a little extra into an order. Review Date:10/24/2003
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Express
Darwin Bromley
Mayfair Games
1990
| --
| 2-6
| 45
| 5.5
| This is kind of a set collection / hand management game, with some odd twists thrown in with hazards and cards to counter hazards (a-la Mille Bornes). You are trying to build up trains with identical cars in them, and scoring increases with the # cars in the train. So getting many of the same cards is preferable to getting only 3-4 of a card. The most interesting part of the game to me is the interaction of your hand and the train engines you use, as they can be used to hide cards from opponents, or to stash cards for yourself that you might use later. Considering when it was first published, the design holds up pretty well overall, and while I might not call for it to be played, it's certainly not a game that I would mind playing. Review Date:5/19/2004
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Extrablatt
Karl-Heinz Schmiel
Moskito
1991
| Y
| 3-4
| 90
| 7.5
| This is a pretty nifty tile laying game where you run a newspaper and need to try and maximize your readership by getting the largest (in-depth) articles for each story/news section. There are doubled values for the headline section, the opportunity to play adverts or 'ducks' on other people's papers. But above all, you have to do a good job lay9ing out your paper for maximal effect. The theme matches very well, and while it takes one playing to get the feel for the game, I would expect that further playings would move along at a brisk pace. Review Date:11/6/2003
Larry: Tricky Tabloid
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Factory Fun
Corne van Moorsel
Cwali
2006
| Y
| 2-4
| 45
| 5
|
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Familienbande
Leo Colovini
Winning Moves
2004
| Y
| 2-4
| 30
| 5.5
| A game about creating a genetic chain of children to pass on your secret trait through 5 generations, with the latest generations scoring more points. The art is very nice, highlighting the genetic traits in a humorous manner, particularly when a person has the triple trait (ie: huge ears, huge lips, etc.). Players take turns either playing a child of a married pair, for which scoring occurs, or playing a card to create a marriage. The theme works well, but the luck of the draw may be too much to overcome in this game. Ostensibly a 20 minute game, it's much more likely to take ~45 minutes, which may be too long for the amount of control available. It's probably worth looking into because of the way the theme is handled and how it works, but will likely pale after a few plays. Review Date:1/4/2006
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Felix: The Cat in the Sack
Friedmann Friese
Rio Grande Games
2007
| Y
| 3-5
| 20
| 5.5
|
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Feuerschlucker
Reiner Knizia
Ravensburger
2003
| Y
| 3-5
| 30
| 5.5
| Card game where you're trying to get customers to come to your Circus. There are a variety of acts and a few special cards available. You can steal other players' customers by playing an identical act, and there are other methods of causing players to lose customers. Hands end when all the customers are at a circus. We played with 5 players, and perhaps this is too many as we ended up doing a lot of passing customers from player to player trying to get our circus higher. Possibly this game would be better with 4, and I believe significantly better with 3....but the rating likely won't change since it IS designed for 3-5. Review Date:5/28/2004
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Fiji
Friedmann Friese
Rio Grande Games
2006
| Y
| 2-5
| 45
| 6
| A game that is somewhat similar to Edel, Stein, & Reich in that you are trying to collect gems in sequences by making blind bids. The difference being that there are translation steps based on the blind bids, and they lead to an ultimate goal. Since the translation steps and the ultimate goals are randomized each game, there will never be a single strategy. But...since the game utilizes blind bids, it is possible to go through a sequence doing nothing more than losing gems for no gain..ultimately making the endgame more difficult. It is a different take on the mechanism of trying to get the most/least etc, and collecting shrunken heads is still kind of cool. However, it fits that uneasy space between an easy to understand/play game and being a bit heavier...which is always a tough place to excel. Too many casual gamers will probably not want to play it, and the hard core gamers will want the game to be over sooner than it is, given all the randomness involved. Review Date:7/14/2008
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Finstere Flure
Friedemann Friese
2F-Spiele
2003
| Y
| 2-7
| 90
| 7.5
| This is a cool game where each player has 3 (or 4) people that are trying to escape through a dungeon to the opposite corner without getting eaten by a monster. The monster can be put together from many pieces, and have different looks which is cool. There are also extra sets of stickers for the people, so if you wanted, you could get a few more wooden disks and add a couple more sets. The people move orthogonally the # spaces on thier disk and then they flip over. The disk sides have numbers that add up to 7... like 1 & 6 or 4 & 3. There are walls to puch around, blood to slide on, and advanced rules for teleporting. The key to the game is understanding how the monster moves, and the fact that the monster moves according to strict rules means that you COULD play this as a solitaire game if you wanted to...although that may not work well as the monster moves 7-10 spaces on a turn..or moves until he devours 1 or 2 people. Howver, I think if you used 8 counters, and the goal was to get 4 of one set out, that would be a pretty good solitaire game. Review Date:11/25/2003
Larry: Lunch with Lurch
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Fische Fluppen Frikadellen
Friedemann Friese
2F-Spiele
2002
| --
| 2-5
| 90
| 5
| This is a move, create goods by where you move, purchase/gather, sell somewhere else, use money to buy, sell, create, etc. All the while moving around the map and (eventually) collecting the right combination of items to collect 3 fetishes. I did poorly on my first play, as there is quite a lot going on all at once. Unfortunately, to do well, you really need to be cognizant of not only your position, but every other player position, plus where they could move on their next turn. I could really see this taking a long time with some players. In any event, the system is moderately clean, although there are so many possible things to do when you get to one of the 'shops' that it's really easy to forget something. There are also some wildcards that can really swing things as well, which could ruin a lot of your planning. Review Date:11/6/2003
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Fish Eat Fish
Reiner Knizia
Out of the Box
2003
| --
| 2-5
| 40
| 5
| This is a game where you move your piece orthogonally adjacent to an enemy (or your own) piece and attack. Resolution is done via cardplay (everyone has an identical stack of cards), with used cards being discarded. Stacks > 4 have the bottom fish removed (and will be scored). This is an OK, but not great game, with somewhat drab board/pieces. Will look like a kid's game, but is very cutthroat. Review Date:1/9/2004
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Fjords
Franz-Benno Delonge
Rio Grande Games
2005
| --
| 2-2
| 30
| 6
| This is a relatively simple tile placement game where you (ultimately) want to place farmhouses on fileds which will allow you to choke access from your opponent. The problem lies in the fact that you must place your farmhouse on a tile you just drew, but that the nature of the tile placement rules makes it very difficult to decide where the fjord will eventually go. This uncertaintly, would probably get better if you played enough to memorize tiles (as some have done with the Carcassonne series), but I don't think this game warrants that type of dedication. I also do not think it needs 3 rounds of playing. What is the point of that? Play once, and if you like, play it a 2nd time. Annoyingly, my start tiles do NOT work properly as they cannot be fit together per the rules of the game no matter how I turn them. Either one of them has the wrong back, or it was mirror imaged. This being the case, I'll probably need to use a tile draw bag and exchange for the correct tile to start the game. Otherwise, this one may work well for newer boardganme players. Review Date:11/2/2005
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Flaschenteufel
Gunter Cornett
Bambus Spieleverlag
1995
| Y
| 2-4
| 30
| 6.5
| This is (so far), one of the oddest trick-taking games I've ever seen. Basically, you have different values of cards in 3 different suits. There is a set aside initial trick (supplied by the players) which will go to the owner of the bottle at the end of the game, and count as NEGATIVE points. Also players will pass a card to thier left or right neigbor. Cardplay seems straightforward. Play a suit, and all players must follow suit....if you cannot follow suit, play any card. Now the weird part is that, the winner of the trick is the one who played the highest card...unless someone plays a card < the current bottle price. If that happens, then the highest card < the bottle price wins the trick (and the bottle). It's weird, bizarre, but it fits the story to a tee. In fact, the only way I can remember it is to think of the story. I'm not sure how well this would go over with more traditional card players (ie: it may be too weird for them), but it is worth the effort of playing several times if you want an interesting experience. Review Date:5/13/2004
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Foppen
Friedemann Friese
2F-Spiele
1995
| Y
| 3-6
| 30
| 6
| Not really very good with 3, and it's a bit of a pain to keep passing the Fool token around the table. Plays fairly quick, but after some drinks, it's just too much of a pain passing around the Fool. OK, not great. Review Date:11/9/2003
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For Sale
Stefan Dorra
Ravensburger
1997
| Y
| 3-5
| 15
| 8.5
| This is a very nice short game. Hard to believe that you can squeeze legitimate decisions into a 15 minute game. Works very well with 3 (why are there so many good card games for 3 and not many boardgames?), and is so easy to remember that you can come back to it after a layoff with minimal rules tuneup. The more I play, the more elegant I see the game being, and the more often I want to pull it out. Highly recommended. Review Date:11/25/2003
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Fowl Play!
Richard Breese
R&D Games
2006
| Y
| 2-4
| 60
| 5
| 2006 entry from Richard Breese. He has been doing better productions, and this one is done fairly well. This is a game of foxes running around eating birds, with each player trying to protecting certain types, and get all others. The game essentially boils down to a set collection game, with needing to not take too many of of the bird type that the player is trying to protect. IMO, the scoring system is too complicated, and doesn't really add all that much to the game. The game itself flows well, with the exception of the rules on where birds can move in relation to the foxes. All in all, it is certainly not as good as Reef Encounter, or IMO Keythedral. Not bad, but somewhat of a disappointment for me as I really liked the previous two efforts. Review Date:8/8/2007
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Frank's Zoo
Frank Nestel
Doris Matthaus
Doris & Frank
1999
| Y
| 3-7
| 60
| 6
| The artwork on this card game is very neat, and really helps the game out. Essentially, it's a 'beat the last card(s) played' game ...but since the cards all have animals with relationships, it's an interesting twist. It would have been much more boring with just some numbers and special cards. The way tricks can loop around is also interesting and adds to the game significantly. It's fun, and relatively quick. Unfortunately, it needs at least 3 players. Review Date:8/17/2005
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Friedrich
Richard Sivel
Histogame
2004
| --
| 3-4
| 150
| 5.5
| This is a light wargame, but using decks of cards for battle results. Basically you move unints on the map (which are army groups) at a fixed movement rate based on major road/minor road, and supply markers. If you are adjacent to an enemy you attack. Using cards from your hand, you must play the correct suit to match the grid location, and herein lies part of the problem. It seems that the allies simply need to position themselves such that most possible conflicts are in a similar zone...in fact doing so with just 3 conflicts can put the Prussin player into a spiral where they use up cards much faster than they can replace, or they backpedal. If they backpedal, the alliance can then pick and choose the battleground, to again deplete the Prussian card supply, etc. The way combat is carried out is interesting, and the scenario itself is a good change of pace, but it in the end turns more into a card management game than a true wargame. Also, the starting positions and victory objectives seem to favor France by quite a bit, making it unlikely that the method of determining a single victor in the alliance is balanced. So, best to just have alliance/Prussia victory in my opinion. Some may like it a great deal, and others may be turned off by the hand management (too much???), and downtime can be a problem in > 3 player games. Review Date:2/28/2005
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Fundstucke
Friedemann Friese
2F-Spiele
2002
| Y
| 3-6
| 30
| 6.5
| Reminds me of Sanford and Son, in that you're basically collecting junk to fill contracts for points. Each turn there is a randowm amount of items available, and some # of contracts. You can elect to try to cart off a lot of stuff with a big vehicle, but you'll get a later pick of the goods as a smaller vehicle will pickup first...or you can attempt to steal from your opponents. If multiple players play the same vehicle/steal card, the lowest does nothing (there's a chit that everyone has for breaking these ties) and exchanges with the winner...other players with the same selection do nothing.This is a very small print run game, and everything is in shades of green. I thought it played pretty well, and the mechanics were very smooth including the tie-breaking mechanism. Probably will play very different with 3 players vs. 5 or 6. Review Date:12/11/2003
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Garden Gnomes Society, The
Roman Mathar
Argentum Verlag
2004
| --
| 2-6
| 60
| 5.5
| There is much to like in this small publisher game, although the idea of breeding gnomes seems somewhat ludicrous. Cattle? Race Horses? Anything else would have seemed much better. Anyway, this game has you managing a 'stable' of gnomes with options to pimp out your gnome as breeding stock (taking payment via a blind auction), trying to entice a gnome, etc. The goal is to either breed/create the Golden Gnome, or amass a fortune before someone else gets to the Goldnen Gnome. Unfortunately, the mechanics are a bit fiddly and quite a bit of time is done doing somewhat mundane things. For instance, when breeding, you take the top card off one of the piles. Then you go through your personal stack and find the same gnome color you just bred. Then you need to place the drawn card back in the stack and re-shuffle the stack. Unfortunately, this is a fairly common occurrence, and so it could become tedious with a full 5P. Also, it is certainly possible to have a surprise winner as the last two breeding stacks have the elusive golden gnome...so a lucky player could barely get his gnome up to standards and make the lucky gnome, even if other players were ahead. As a note, the publishers 2P rules seems to work well and are recommended if you like the game and wish to place with two. All in all, it's a good effort with a lot in this small box (200+ cards, some cardboard betting chips), but not quite where it needs to be. Review Date:5/23/2005
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Geschenkt
Thorsten Gimmler
AMIGO Spiele
2004
| Y
| 3-5
| 20
| 6.5
| This reminds me a lot of Mogul by Michael Schacht - but streamlined. It has the method of bidding until someone takes the card (which is generally bad), but gaining all of the money with it. You are trying to either get no cards, or cards in sequence because then only the lowest card counts. Complicating this, there are 9 cards out of 33 randomly removed each game. Also, money at the end of the game counts, so it's certainly possible to make up quite a few points by hoarding chips and taking some cards that others aren't interested in. It's light, has a push your luck combined with can I force someone else to do something they don't want to game. The way money works, and the bidding (go around the table adding a chip) adds to this gradual ratcheting up of tenseness for who will ge the card. All good stuff. Review Date:2/4/2005
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Goa
Ruediger Dorn
Rio Grande Games
2004
| --
| 2-4
| 90
| 5.5
| A combination auction/resource management/race game. The premise is that you're trying to build up your colonial trading base. You do this by advancing on development tracks...which is fueled by items (goods, ships or colonists). Goods are generated by plantations (which you can purchase through auctions), advancing on the development track uses goods/ships, and colonists are used to attempt to get colonies. The tiles at auction are different types of plantations, ships, special cards, etc., and the auction itself is not quite straightforward. There is a grid where you set an acution for the start marker (which allows you to go first, and get an extra action), and then it moves out orthogonally from there. Since the next placement can be moved if there are no legal spaces to put a subsequent auction, this seems to me like a needless complication since you cannot REALLY deny opponents in a 4P game...it's just convoluted. Anyway, you get points for moving along each development track, points for collecting sets of cards, points for # colonies, so it's really all about maximizing the total # actions you get in the game. It's OK, and looks terriffic, but the horrible rulebook definitely detracts from the gameplay. I need to play again with more than 2P, but it doesn't seem like this game has energy or excitement to me. Review Date:7/14/2004
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Goldbrau
Franz-Benno Delonge
Rio Grande Games
2004
| --
| 3-4
| 60
| 5.5
| I'm still trying to figure out what is is about this game that is so 'pedestrian'. It combines elements that are familiar from several games: Blind Bidding for action (ala Edel, Stein & Reich), expanding zones (ala Lowenherz), and majority domination for the pubs and breweries. The interaction between the pubs/breweries is interesting, but I don't think I'm as fond of how the boss changes/gets selected. Also, the barmaid/drunk movement and behavior seems to be a fairly random item that is hard to plan for/use. It also (like many economic games) seems to have a problem pulling back a leader if they can get a large beer garden early with 3 shares on it. The game works, the mechanics fit together well and make sense, but the sum of the parts does not seem to be any better than the parts alone. Review Date:11/23/2004
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Graenaland
Vladimir Chvatil
Altar Games
2006
| --
| 3-5
| 90
| 6
|
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Great Balloon Race, The
Nik Sewell
Parker Brothers
1991
| --
| 2-6
| 45
| 6.5
| A roll and move game with some bluff. The goal is to get 3 balloons through the course to the end of the race. Each player gets a card which shows 3 balloon colors that they are trying to get to the finish line. On a players turn, they roll and can move ANY of the balloons in the race...so you need to bluff a little, and try to get people to move your ballons mistaking them for ones you don't care about, etc. The balloons are some of the coolest pieces I've seen in a game, and this is a game that also plays well with kids. Review Date:12/11/2003
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Grosse und das Kleine A, Das
Wolfgang Kramer
AMIGO Spiele
1996
| Y
| 3-9
| 45
| 6
| Also known as Big A, Little A - has recently been reprinted as Who's the Ass (but minus the little A card). This is a once around trick game where the goal is to simply go out. Hands are valued only on the basis of X matching cards, where you either pass or play higher (ie: three 9's are better than three 8's). On the very first trick, the winner gets the little a card, and the second trick gets the BigA. These cards can only be played (led) if you have won a trick since acquiring them. The LittleA goes to the player who playes the lowest card on the trick, and that player gets negative points for the value of the cards in the trick and the LittleA is out of the game. The BigA can pass from hand to hand, and only be played after winning a trick as well. When someone goes out, everyone with cards left in thier hand scores them, low score wins. It's easier to grasp for trick takers versus some others, and the cards can be either humorous or disgusting depoending on the crowd. Worth it if you can find it for a reasonable price. Review Date:8/25/2004
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Guatemala Cafe
Inka Brand
Markus Brand
Eggert-Spiele
2007
| Y
| 2-4
| 45
| 7
|
|
Gulo Gulo
Wolfgang Kramer
Hans Raggan
Zoch
2003
| Y
| 2-6
| 20
| 6
| Simple game that I do agree is better played when anebriated. Basically you have a shallow bowl with different sized/colored eggs in it and a wooden stick with an egg on top that will topple it over eventually. You have to pick hexes to move to and get the right color to move there, etc. A manual dexterity game, but don't play it too drunk or you'll lose one of the eggs (like I did). I need to re-count, but I definitely need to replace one of the purple eggs. Anyway, it's a game that kids can play easily, so could be good for families and the occasional silliness. Review Date:3/10/2004
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Hacienda
Wolfgang Kramer
Rio Grande Games
2005
| --
| 2-5
| 60
| 6
| Game about creating connections to markets, large herds of domestic animals, and connecting to water. This is basically an action point type of game where you have to maximize the potential point gain based on cost not only in turns, but in money since it takes money to do things. It is also available as a PBWEB game at which is very well done and players play a lot. Not precisely my cup of tea, but worth trying out for a lot of players. Review Date:6/21/2007
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Halali!
Rudi Hoffmann
Kosmos
2000
| Y
| 2-2
| 20
| 6
| This game reminds me of those little slide puzzles where you move a block around and try to get the numbers in order. Basically, you start with an almost filled grid and flip counters over. Some can be moved (by each side) and some only by one side, and some not at all. One side controls the animals (Foxes and Bears) out to beat the bad old humans. The only twist in the mechanism for capturing other pieces is that the Hunter's guns are always pointed one way while moving around. Thematically, it's awful, but in the game context, it is the single most critical item...and it makes Halali a game, versus merely an excercise. Not particularly to my taste, but a pretty good game nonetheless. Review Date:4/30/2004
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Hamburgum
Mac Gerdts
Rio Grande Games
2007
| Y
| 2-5
| 75
| 7.5
|
|
Hameln
Gordon Lamont
Fraser Lamont
Fragor Games
2006
| Y
| 3-5
| 60
| 7
| Game based on the Pied Piper. Refreshing to see a game based on a theme - and the theme actually works. Players try to marry, occupy houses, have children, produce etc. The end goal being to garner points in many categories. Working houses brings mice - too many of which overrun the houses and eventually signal the Pied Piper to coume and round up the mice. And - like the story he will take the children with him unless paid. Very nicely done how things intertwine, and a satisfying length of time (at least in a 3P game). There may be too much luck in the drawing for children, but otherwise a fine effort and the production is nice for a smaller print run game. Limited edition of ~ 1000 copies, prices are a bit high due to the low print run. Worth trying by most players, but possibly too much going on for casual players to enjoy. Review Date:6/21/2007
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Hammer of the Scots
Jerry Taylor
Columbia Games
2002
| Y
| 2-2
| 120
| 7
| This is one of the Columbia Block 'light' wargames based on the Scottish fight for independence from Britain. The system itself is fairly elegant, and there are few (but some) rules ambiguities. In essence, it is a fight for area control using a very wargamish combat system. However, there are 3 twists that make this game somewhat unique. First, is the fact that you randomly start with event/number cards and each player secretly selects one to play. Depending on what you play, you can move 1 or more groups of your armies, create an event, or end the game year prematurely if both players play an event card. This is important, in that the second interesting item is the fact that all Scottish leaders must return to their home province during the winter. Lastly, tied to these two is the fact that a Scottish leader who returns to a home area occupied by the opposite side will turncoat! All in all, it's an enjoyable game, if a bit of a brain cruncher. Fans of wargames might want to try this on for a 2-3 hour shot at a wargame vs. a longer outing for more traditional style wargaiming. Review Date:4/5/2006
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Hansa
Michael Schacht
Uberplay
2004
| Y
| 2-4
| 45
| 7
| Michael Scacht game of pickup/delivery. As with most of his games, the mechanics are very straightforward, easy (with the exception of selling), and turns are quick paced. The object is to maximize points by 'sailing' from port to port, buying/selling goods or setting up trade markets. The different methods require different things :Buying requires moneySelling requires goods & marketplaceSetting up a marketplace requires goods. An elegant solution to the value of goods proposition is that when a player sells goods of a certain color, other players must discard one of those goods if they have it...simulating market demand I suppose. The game clocks in ~45-50 minutes with 3 players, and played well with 2. I suspect that in the long run it may play best with 2 as there is some predictability and ability to 'force' your opponent to take routes/actions that might benefit you as well as the opponent. A very solid game, worthwile to play, although it may not grab everyone. Review Date:5/19/2004
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Hare & Tortoise
David Parlett
Rio Grande Games
1974
| Y
| 2-6
| 45
| 6
| A rabbit race game where the fuel is carrots.This is a race game with forced pitstops and a little math thrown in. Basically, you are trying to move from point A to the end, using a limited supply of carrots. Going farther costs a lot more than small hops (ie: 1 space = 1, 3 spaces = 6, etc). In addition to this, you need to make 3 stops during the game to eat your lettuce. There are various ways of getting additional carrots (some squares are predictors of current position in the game, you can go backwards to hedgehog spaces, or sit on carrots gaineing/losing). The twists are twofold.1) You must end the game with < 10 carrots per place finished (ie: 1st <10, 2nd < 20, etc.)2) There are wild spaces where you draw a card/roll a die and consult chart (depending on version) for a special result (free move, free carrots, lost turn, etc.). There is a very good PBWEB version located at:http://www.ludagora.net Review Date:5/19/2004
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Havoc: the Hundred Years War
KC Humphrey
Sunriver Games
2005
| Y
| 2-6
| 60
| 6
| This is essentially an extended poker game with 6 card hands instead of 5 card hands...which has just enough subtle differences in ranking that players will make mistakes. That, and the fact that cards are heldover and used in later hands, and players lay cards down during a battle some at a time trying to win without using all thier cards makes this poker with hand management. It is similar in that regard to Taj Mahal - with the same kinds of pitfalls. Spending lots of cards and losing will also hurt in forthcoming rounds, and possibly weaken you to the point where you can no longer compete. This will turn some players off, and so this game can have very mixed reactions. Review Date:6/21/2007
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Hearts
NA NA
Public Domain
1900
| Y
| 3-7
| 30
| 6
|
|
Hellas
Franz-Benno Delonge
Rio Grande Games
2002
| --
| 2-2
| 60
| 5
| Nothing really special here. This is mostly a steamroll your opponent game ala Risk. While there are special cards that can swing the balance of a given battle, over time, if you can get a large battle won, you will be able to overcome your opponent while they take time to recharge as you will have the initiative. Right around 7 or 8 cities per side is about when this will happen. It's unlikely that the card draws or a single round of rebuilding will be enough as you will be vulnerable at several points when this happens. The temples appear to be a mechanism to get player to explore more, hence thier bonus. I'm not sure I like them as it's such a random occurrence, that 1 player could get two, the other 0 in two voyages, and then the player who got them both would be at a huge advantage getting 2 more items/recharge phase. Review Date:1/20/2004
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Hera and Zeus
Richard Borg
Rio Grande Games
2000
| --
| 2-2
| 30
| 6
|
|
Hermagor
Emanuele Ornella
Mind the Move
2006
| --
| 2-5
| 90
| 5
| Another game by Emanuele Ornella, it's not exactly a bad game, but rather a game that is perhaps trying to do too much. In particular, two things stand out. First, the method of getting goods to trade/generating income. Placing markers on spaces of a grid (points really around a grid) and then exerting dominance on items to gain them with the side effect of placing in straight lines giving more income. It seems like he tried to do something different to make the game unique, but simply ended up adding a step that was needlessly complicated, and which really only added a take that effect which almost doubles the game play time. Second is the 'grab one gold if someone already has a marker'. Throughout the game, it probably comes close to even, and certainly was not worth the effort to keep plucking out dollars here and there throughout the game. Certainly this is a game that will have mixed reviews. Review Date:8/13/2007
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Hick Hack in Gackelwack
Stefan Dorra
Zoch
2001
| Y
| 2-6
| 30
| 6
| A lot of the game is trying to divine the personalities of those playing and trying to guess what they may do based on the grain in each location, and thier position point-wise. Fun and fast, and I have talked 4 people into buying it so far. This game will be pulled out fairly often due to it's small size, quick gameplay, and the fact that it's not completely brain-dead. There's an online version (1 player vs. 5 computer players) available. Review Date:1/7/2004
Larry: Cluck You!
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High Society
Reiner Knizia
Uberplay
1995
| Y
| 3-5
| 25
| 7
| A short auction game where you have a set of money denominations in hand that you use to bid on luxury items (no change is ever allowed). The twist here is that the game end is variable, and the person with the least amount of money left at the end of the game automatically loses. Since there are cards which double points, cards which halve points (with everyone paying thier bid except the person who loses the auction), there are lots of opportunities to gain ground by trying get someone to spend thier cards to the point where they can't do anything (or run them to last place in money). It's a fine effort, but I dislike the tiles in the Uberplay edition. Not only do they not fit well in the box, they are harder to mix up, and really add no value over just having cards that I can tell. That in turn would have allowed a much smaller box...although I suspect they put them in so they could charge more. Even 2" tiles and a tile bag would have been acceptable. Review Date:12/16/2003
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Hispaniola
Michael Schacht
Cafe Games
2004
| Y
| 3-5
| 30
| 5.5
| First trick-taking game by Machael Schacht. Follows most trick taking rules with trump being bid by players (blindly) selecting one card, high card will be trump, all bid cards removed from hand. Otherwise must follow suit if you have a card, trump/play a different suit. The interesting mechanic is the way you populate the pirate ships based on the color led of the trick. So figuring out how to get things setup for you to get the last trick of a color on a per-hand basis is nicely balanced by the pirates being thrown overboard and a queue of negative points (increasing from 1-4) until you can finally shove a pirate through at the end and back into your hand. The option to pass the trick taken, or your entire set of cards currently held seems unnecessary - although it does add one more chance to get the leader. Unfortunately, in a 4-5P game, the leader may be across from you, and you can't directly effect them with this. It works better in a 3P game...but the rest of the game seems to work much better with 5. I'd suggest that you only pass cards in the 3P game. It works, and works fine, but doesn't really have that WOW factor. Review Date:12/30/2004
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History of the World
Gary Dickens
Steve Kendall
Avalon Hill
1991
| Y
| 3-6
| 180
| 7.5
|
|
Hoity Toity
Klaus Teuber
Uberplay
2004
| --
| 3-6
| 60
| 5.5
| Essentially a race game, where you have two decision trees, and then a tactical option based on the first decision tree to gain items/ground. The premise is that you will try to get lots of art to be able to setup displays and move forward. The primary catchup method is the Detective, which can allow a player to move up to 6 spaces forward if they're the last player in a 6 player game. Since the endgame starts at square #27, that is a substantial mechanism. However, even with this mechanism, it's easy to still go way behind if |