What Are 18Xx Games? Players Will Start the Game with a Certain Amount of Cash and Can Invest in One Or More Companies of Their Choosing

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#13 An Introduction to 18xx Games! UKGE Sneak Peek Simon Weinberg combines a whistle- TheUK Games Expo makes stop tour with a great introduction to a welcome return this year, 618xxthe 18xx universe, bringing us all up and Guy Allen got an early to speed on these oft-misrepresented behemoths look at some of the gaming of gaming goodness. Grab your ticket here, but delights heading our way! 57 Ticket to Ride this ain’t!

An Interview with Splotter Spellen Splotter is a Dutch publisher renowned for several complex strategic games, and Simon 14 Neale was fortunate enough to have a chat 20 with two of their lead designers... The Designers: Reiner Knizia Knizia is surely near the very top of the list when it comes to prolific boardgame designers, and Martin Griffiths has played a lot of Knizia games over the years... GAMES REVIEWED

IN THIS ISSUE 11 — An Introduction to the IGA: REGULARS International Gamers Awards Canvas 67 For two decades, the Awards have been 3 — Across the Board Crypt of Chaos 70 won by some cracking games. Alan How is 28 — Tabletop Love Letter the new IGA President, and tells us why we Howard Bishop finds the letters of a Harry Potter: Death Eaters should all sit up and take notice of why they Thousand Year Old Vampire – what could Rising 73 remain a prestigious commendation. possibly go wrong? La Granja 76 38 — Simon + The Mechanics 24 — It’s All in The Teach! Simon Weinberg kicks off a new series Marvel Villainous 80 A poorly taught first play can all but ruin looking at the development and history of Nanty Narking 84 a game forever for some players, which is some of our beloved game mechanics. In something Jim Marshall and the rest of us this issue: The Action Selection Mechanic Oath: Chronicles of Empire would really like to help prevent... 42 — Still Board? and Exile 88 We’re really excited to introduce this NEW On the Origin of Species 92 30 — So You Wanna Be A... Game and hopefully regular puzzle section, to keep ye olde brain clicking y’understand? Parks 95 Artist? Our cracking series covering jobs and roles 52 — RPGs Pax Pamir 98 within the industry continues, and this time Alex Bardy explores some of the readily Red Rising 102 Guy Allen talks to Sabrina Miramon, the available resources GMs and players can illustrator behind some of our fave games... obtain with minimal financial outlay... Winter Kingdom 106 110 — Spirited Snapshots Sample36 — ROOT - The ‘Ultimate’ Game? Simonfile Neale takes a look at Beyond the 46 — Three Semi-Abstracts Sun, Dragonwood, Solar Storm, CuBirds, FREE Giveaways and On The Underground. Abstract games can be a bit hit or miss for every month many boardgame fans, and here Mitchell 113 — Second Thoughts Thomashow lets you know how he got Guy Allen rounds up some thoughts and in 2021! on with Oganika, Otto Game Over, and opinions from our regular contributors on Mandala Stones... the games we covered last issue.

Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 — 2 — Editor & Layout: Alex Bardy Features Editor: Guy Allen Marketing/PR: Simon Neale

With huge thanks to our additional contributors for their ongoing help and support: Ben Bateson, Howard Bishop, Caroline Black, Robin Bott, Michael Clark, Jamie Hargreaves, Martin Griffiths, Alan How, John Humphries, Jim Marshall, Ocean Melchezedek, Mike Nudd, Stephen Owen, Mitchell Thomashow, Simon Weinberg, and Paul Willcox.

www.tabletopspirit.com Submissions Guidelines [email protected] We always welcome reader submissions, but please download our guidelines here for more information and advice about submitting material for the magazine.

Let the Summer Games Begin! © 2021 Tabletop SPIRIT and Alex Bardy All rights reserved. Products, logos and titles appearing Welcome to yet another bumper-sized, packed, FREE in this publication are copyrighted or trademarked by their respective owners. No part of this magazine may issue of Tabletop SPIRIT! We honestly didn’t intend be used or reproduced in whole or part without the to put together another HUGE magazine so soon after written permission of the editor. All contributions remain the property of the the last one —that was our Christmas issue, btw (#11)— respective creators. Opinions expressed in this but as the UK Lockdown finally eases, we’re as keen as Tabletop SPIRIT is a FREE quarterly publication, and everybody else to get out there and enjoy the things doesmagazine NOT carrymay not any reflect sponsored those content. of the editor. we love: playing boardgames across a real table with Disclaimer: Although Tabletop SPIRIT magazine does other boardgamers, so we wanted to spoil you! accept review copies of games (without prejudice), we are an independent magazine, so any subsequent review will be purely the opinion of the individual reviewer. In truth, I’ve been feeling very fortunate to have grabbed any social time for boardgaming these last few months, with all manner of things making it difficult to do so. However, I have managed quite a lot of playtesting for other people, and enjoyed every precious moment of those sessions - there is something hugely rewarding about being a part of someone else’s creation, moreso if I can contribute something that is potentially valuable to the designer(s). That said, I know there are a LOT of boardgamers out there (incl. many of our own team of volunteer writers) that have been hitting the tables hard, and I take my hat off to each and every one of them for doing so. Keep that flag flying, folks! As I write, we are just over 6-7 weeks away from this year’s UK Games Expo and I’m very excited to see how things go — Cover by Sabrina Miramon, clearly it could be scaled down a bit in terms of attendance Photosynthesis (2017). figures and exhibitors this year, but that might not be such a bad thing given the thronging masses of previous Expo Photos on pg 21-22 c/o Henk Rolleman events! Images on pgs 30-35 c/o Sabrina Miramon Guy Allen and I will be there, and what’s more, we’re putting All images of Mandala Stones (pgs 47, 50-51) together a UKGE Boardgame Preview of our own which will c/o Wouter Debisschop, Tabletopping be available for FREE download around the middle of next With thanks to Gabriel Torrent, Caroline Black, month (July 2021) - a few weeks before the event itself, and Daniel Frank, and Dorthe Bøttger for additional early enough to get you salivating at some of the delights on images and permissions. offer at the show! We’ve given you a sneak peek of that on page 57Sample of this issue, ‘cos we’re just good like that! Many of the gamefile and box cover images are courtesy of the publishers and www. And finally, you liked the crossword so much last issue, we boardgamegeek.com have gone ahead and included an extended set of puzzle Other images/logos designed and provided by pages for you this time round, and invite you to print them off Alex Bardy or the individual contributors, unless to enjoy at your leisure. A good word, that... ENJOY! otherwise stated.

Alex Bardy, Editor — 3 — Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 Tabletop FREE Giveaways every month!*

Exclusively for our subscribers! Since December 2020, we’ve been giving away games to registered subscribers EVERY MONTH, and will continue doing so throughout 2021 in our FREE GIVEAWAY DRAWS! Subscribing to Tabletop SPIRIT is FREE, too, just click here >> June 2021 We have got together with the marvellous Avallone brothers for a fantastic giveaway prize from the PLAAY and PLAAY NOW games collection, EXCLUSIVELY for our US subscribers! TWO lucky winners will get the opportunity to choose ANY GAME from either company and have it shipped directly to their home...

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* Geographic restrictions may apply to some draws. These draws will take place on the 22nd of every month, and winners will be contacted by email in the first instance.

Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 — 4 — July 2021

TUNGARU sets players as early Polynesians in this dice placement and resource conversion, medium- weight euro game. Players will jump from island to island in an effort to recruit Nomads as new tribe members, colonise land, spread their culture and exchange goods.

August 2021

Let the show begin! You have only one goal in MEEPLE CIRCUS... Entertain the audience! Once the circus music starts, all eyes will be upon you! In short, MEEPLE CIRCUS is a dexterity game in which you do what all gamers do when setting up a Samplegame: Pile up your meeples! file

— 5 — Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 An Introduction to 18xx games!

18xxSimon Weinberg What are 18xx games? Players will start the game with a certain amount of cash and can invest in one or more companies of their choosing. It is usually of interest to own a 18xx is the generic name for train games company you are investing in and so players will which were inspired by the original game of often bid for different companies, each of which has 1829, see below. In 18xx games, players must its own characteristics which may be linked to its build track on a map consisting of hexagons real history (or not!). Once a company has enough representing flat land, mountains, rivers and cash in its coffers, it is allowed to float on the stock so on. In most games building through difficult market and buy and run trains, paying out profits to terrain is financially penalising. The games its shareholders if the director so wishes. have eras, in each of which only certain track tiles may be played, with the track getting All 18xx games feature a phased introduction of more interesting as the game progresses. trains which also determines the phasing in of The tracks showing towns or cities have an new track tiles mentioned earlier. Initially in the associated income: when you have built track early game players will run small trains for small between towns you may run your company’s amounts; as the game proceeds and these smaller trains over these tracks and earn the money trains are all purchased, new trains appear on the indicated; but each train you own must run on market which can go further and thus earn you a differentSample track. more. One of the tense elementsfile of the game is the ‘rusting’ mechanism: as train technologies Before doing any of this, you first have to have advance, older trains are put out of service and a train company to run. In 18xx games the your company is obliged to spend its money to buy ownership of a company is decided by auction newer, more expensive trains. Further tension is or by purchasing shares in a turn by turn fashion. linked to how much money each company pays out

Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 — 6 — to its owners and other shareholders: the more the In 1986, Francis’ next endeavour was published better, because the player with the most money by major American company Avalon Hill, to great wins; but if a company doesn’t keep some cash acclaim. Having an American map, 1830: Railways in reserve, it will not be able to buy new trains to and Robber Barons was the breakthrough replace those that get rusted. In most games, if 18xx needed - this game has been republished this happens the owner of the company has to fork numerous times since, and remains a very out their own hard-earned cash to buy a train, with popular one. It addresses to an extent some of a resulting and sometimes disastrous reversal of the mechanisms which slowed down the original their fortunes! game, including the unrestricted sale of the major companies from the start of the game and the 18xx is a tense and strategic genre of games ability to sell Private companies that you own to a which everyone should try, and preferably more major company that you own for an inflated price, than once because the first game will always be which means you rapidly have more cash to play a challenging one. It should be noted up-front with. It also simulates the crookedness of the that most 18xx games are very long and include American railway barons to an extent, particularly some maths which is best alleviated by using a with the stock market ‘shenangans’ that players spreadsheet and poker chips, rather than paper can perform. Again, more about that later. .. cash! Or better yet, use a website, more about that later... ;-) A third game from Francis, 1853, appeared soon afterwards. Set in colonial India, the game professes to focus more on track-building and A brief history of 18xx less on stock market japes, and as such, rather Way back in 1974 Francis Tresham, a British game designer, produced the first ever18xx game and thus began a genre of boardgames which currently seems to be experiencing a revival. 1829, the first of Francis’ published games, featured a number of elements which together endeav- oured to simulate the initiation, development and running of a railway company in the steam train era. Not only did it allow players to be Directors of one or more train companies, but it also simulated the stock market with buying and selling shares in the game, the rise and fall of smaller and larger train companies in England and Wales, and the competitive building of rail track which eventually can cover the entire map. 1829 was very much a simulation of the real history of the railways, and included the small so-called ‘Private’ companies which ran small local lines here and there; as well as a phased-in appearance of majorSample train companies, in historical file order. The game took between 4 and 10 hours to play and this in itself would be quite off-putting for beginners if the game was still available to buy today.

— 7 — Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 like in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the 18xx genre thus earning money; players must also carefully and its fans were split into two sects between the optimise which goods to move and when to bring 1829/53 crowd, and fans of the 1830 variants of the new goods into play to maximise their incomes. game. 1853 features two different railway gauges Trains are upgraded during the game which itself and various other tweaks with respect to 1829, can be taxing on the players finances. including a different map, of course. The second genre of 18xx-style games puts more And then... the flood began! Hans im Glück emphasis on the stock aspects of the game and published the first18xx game not designed by less on the track-building, and includes titles like Francis in 1990, although Francis was still credited Chicago Express, Irish Gauge, Ride the Rails as co-author. The game was set in Germany and and Mini Rails. This genre was pioneered by featured a third kind of train company called a John Bohrer. In these games, players place cubes ‘minor’ company which could be merged with a or trains on a map to link together towns and major company when the two lines were joined. gradually buy shares in one or more companies. This was quickly followed the same year by two The tension here is more about which shares to other 18xx games, 1881 which was licensed by buy and when and how to manage the company’s Francis, and 1847 which seems to be linked to 1835 supply of cubes or trains, which is limited and often although designed by a different author. different depending on the company. After that… well, there are now currently over 200 18xx games listed on BGG (www.boardgamegeek. How to play 18xx com)! Some are extremely long, with many more At the beginning of this article I mentioned that companies to buy and bigger maps - one recent 18xx games are enjoying a revival. Well, to be fair, game I have played is 1822: The Railways of they definitely never went away, but this revival is Great Britain which is a bit on the long side, but in my view provoked by two significant factors. The very engaging. Other games are more attractive first is the pandemic we’ve all been living through, to the beginner - such as Steam over Holland, which has driven more people online to get their 18Chesapeake and Shikoko 1889, and there are game-playing hours in. The second is the most also 18xx games more suited for 2 players, such as significant: the advent of the website18xx.games . 1860: Isle of Wight or 1862, for example. There are of course, also some 18xx games that play up to 7 and can last a whole weekend, such as 1817. Print and play versions of 18xx are also available; and the publishers vary from high-volume ones such as Lookout Games (1830, 1844/54, 1853, and 1861: Railways of the Russian Empire) and GMT Games (1846, 1833, 1848, 1862); and small custom- made publishers who are currently expanding rapidly (All Aboard Games and Deep Spike Games being two examples with a broad range of 18xx games). A history would not be complete without mentioning the spin-offs from 18xx. These encompass in my view two genres of train-themed games... The first is the pick-up-and-deliver games such as Volldampf, Railroad Tycoon or Age of Steam, mostly pioneered by Martin Wallace, in which there is no real concept of ownership of a railroad company, but rather a set of networks which you own, with building actions financed by loans from theSample bank. Track tiles are similar to 18xx ones - file curves, straights, and some overbuild tiles, but without the phasing-in of tiles in eras that 18xx has. Players bid competitively for actions which allow them to be the first to build track or move goods cubes from a start town to an end town,

Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 — 8 — One of the many helpful tools on the 18xx.games website...

Prior to this, the number of 18xx games you could software keeps track of everything for you, and play online was very small and the ease with informs you very clearly of the state of the game: which you could play them was equivalent to using it’s really just a wonderful site. Luckily, in addition, Windows 3.1, if you can remember back that far. many of the main game publishers have licensed This wonderful website burst onto the scene in the site to implement their games, and I assume early 2020 and has not looked back... have seen a rise in orders themselves as a result. Speaking personally I have gone a bit mad and It’s free to play, although if you use it I would bought about ten 18xx games since I started encourage you to sponsor it via Patreon; and playing again on the website with a few friends. the people behind it are incredibly active: in just I also dug out and played my copy of a very old over a year they have implemented 34 different Tresham design called 1825, and concluded that 18xx games and in addition seem to make daily it wasn’t as good as some of the new titles I was improvements to the interface! Playing a game playing online, and sold it (for a very large sum) online is easier than in real life because the terrific to someone in the USA - just so I don’t feel guilty about buying those 10 games at all! Where to start? If anything in this article has tempted you to have a crack, or another crack, at 18xx then I suggest you get together with a few friends and start with 18Chesapeake or 1889 on the website: https://18xx.games Both these games are relatively straightforward implementations which are not too long and will Sampleget you used to the rules offile track laying, buying and selling shares, and the timing of train purchases and paying out or withholding profits. You can even play live to start with and then finish a game asynchronously if you want. The wonderful Blackwater Station resource...

— 9 — Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021

Shenanigans Either way, allow at least 3 hours for your first game Some of you may enjoy games which allow you and settle in. Be careful - you may easily get hooked! to mess with your opponents, others may not. For example, in many games where you are a Director you may be able to sell all your shares Further reading in a company once you have fleeced it of all its To learn more about the history and details of 18xx, resources (by selling your trains to another of check out the Blackwater Station website: your companies), and thereby leave someone http://www.fwtwr.com/18xx/index.htm else holding the baby. Or you may be able to de- value someone else’s company by buying shares which, while now outdated in places, is a fantastic in it and then selling them off, which causes that resource to trace the different families of 18xx and stock to move down in the market. The 1830 some of the history I have touched upon here. This family of games involve more of these so-called site is currently being modernised, but I would like ‘shenanigans’ with the stock market than either of to acknowledge the article on that site by Stuart the two rather more 1829-like starter games I have Dagger, who has written brilliantly and knowledgably mentioned above; so if a bit of ‘take that’ is your on the 18xx subject since, well, before I ever set 1825 thing you may want to have a first crack at 1846 — a eyes on my first ever copy of in a London shop brilliant implementation of 18xx by Tom Lehmann in 1998, when Francis Tresham was still publishing which is somewhere less extreme. Alternatively, his hand-made games. just jump in at the deep end and go for the original Links to all the rules for the games on 18xx.games and ruthless epitome of Railroad Barons-style can be found on the website itself; as well as links to robbery and shenanigans, which is 1830. the supporting companies where you can buy your own physical copy of their games.

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Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 — 10 — www.internationalgamersawards.net

An Introduction to the IGA: International Gamers Awards by Alan How, IGA President

Initial ideas and building the IGA Judging the Games In 1998, Greg Schloesser created the We decided that any member could add a game International Gamers Awards. It was initially to a (very) long list in order to bring them to our called the Gamers Choice Awards but the name collective attention, but we needed a way to was changed as there was a challenge to the reduce this list to a shortlist, and then a voting starting name. The intention was to create a system to decide a winner. game Award that spanned gamers from several continents, as most if not all Awards were focused The voting system that we chose was the single on a view from one country. I think this attraction transferable vote (STV) system. How it worked was spawned by the Spiel des Jahres and Greg’s in practice was that we voted on the long list, first visits to Essen Spiel, though there was never ranking our own top choices with 10 (best) to 1 an intention to rival that prestigious Award. (lowest). The points for each game were then accumulated, and the top 10 or so games became our short list. We knew this in August so had The first thing to establish was what the Award about 6 weeks to try out all these games. It wasn’t would represent. This boiled down to a Gamer’s as hard as it sounds as it was likely you already Game and a War Game. So two distinct groups had six or more of these games (and had played were created, with Greg leading the Gamer’s them), especially if there had been some buzz Game Award. With the War Game section around them. We then ranked these games using disbanding early on, the focus of this note is the STV system, ranking them highest to lowest. the Gamer’s Game section. There would be two The people who voted for games that ended up Gamer’s Game Awards: General Strategy - Multi- bottom in the first round of assessing the votes player and General Strategy - 2 Player (for strictly now used their second choices. This would add 2-player only games). to the existing set of games, and the next bottom game would be dropped, transferring the votes The timing of presenting the Award was set at from those members to the next game in their list, a future Essen Spiel which led to the year of until one first placed game gathered a majority of coverage being July to June, with some leeway votes. because the timing of receiving games varies across the world. This allowed for the Award to be The advantage of presented at Essen Spiel in October each year and this system is that included games that were distributed in recent we ended up with months. the game that most people chose as a This worked out pretty well, with the members best on their list. The we had in our initial group being mainly from results suggest that NorthSample America, Europe and Australasia. Inevitably we got it right for file games would get to these places at different many of the years. times, so we allowed some flex about which games to include. Let’s look at the IGA winners...

— 11 — Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 www.internationalgamersawards.net

I think the set of Award-winning games shows enjoyable event. In the early years we only had a that we picked a really good game each year. In small number of people at the event so we held 2003 we had a dead heat and could not split the it at the winner’s booth. When we had too many winner for the Multi-player category, so we had a people for the booth, the Spiel organisers asked discussion in the group on how to separate them, us to move to a 1,000-seater hall, but that was but decided to make two Awards that year for far too big! The compromise and best solution as both these outstanding games. it turned out was to host it at the Boardgamegeek booth, which had all the advantages of being If a new gamer was to start a collection of games, based in the halls, as well as being featured they could do far worse than pick our winners on the BGG streaming service. We’ve had this forSample these years. The Award ceremonies have file arrangement as a fixture for many years now, been well attended by the committee members though in 2020 with the COVID-19 problem, we as well as by the winners, of course, along with streamed it to the net remotely. a sizeable crowd from Essen Spiel making it an

Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 — 12 — www.internationalgamersawards.net

Leadership change At the moment we are debating which Awards to create or extend, the year of coverage, and In October 2020, I took over from Greg so we what happens to the situation for 2021 if Spiel had to concertina our time scale and agreed not does or does not take place. Though it looks more to Award a 2-player game as time was against likely now that it will take place. Of course we are us. We also had many members retire from the playing games, though more electronically than committee. This meant recruiting another set normal, but there could be an increase in face to of committee members from around the world face gaming in the coming months with some luck. with credible board gaming backgrounds. The criteria were broad: experienced gamers, from It’s great to continue with the Awards that Greg many countries, and I added that we wanted a Schloesser created over 20 years ago, and to better gender mix. In 2020 this was 17 men and 1 maintain relevance in a new decade when board woman, and now it’s 6 women out of 23 members. gaming is booming and the choices so wide. I think

our Awards will continue to present great games As head of a new committee (9 new members) I to those people who need help in choosing from have held email and Zoom meetings to discuss our the plethora of games out there today. backgrounds and allow introductions. English is our common language, but not the first language for some. Our geographic spread (North America Alan How to Europe, to South Africa, to Japan, and to If you would like to find out more about the IGA, Australia) means we span many time zones so we then please visit the website at: have held several smaller meetings so far, and I am impressed by the pedigree of people who have https://www.internationalgamersawards.net agreed to join our committee. or join our Facebook Group at: https://www.facebook.com/InternationalGamersAwards

The International Gamers Awards were founded in 1999 for the express purpose of recognizing outstanding games, their designers, and the companies which publish them. The Awards have gained widespread acclaim and have helped bring these outstanding games to the public’s attention. Sample file

Simon Weinberg (left) interviewed Alan How (right) about his new role with the IGA, and some of his ideas for the future... [from the IGA website] — 13 — Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 the designers: REINER knizia

We continue our series on ‘The Designers’ where contributors are invited to tell us about their favourite game designers and why we should give their games a try. This issue, Martin Griffiths explores the huge design ludography of arguably one of the most popular and prolific designers still working today...

On the question of who is my favourite designer, rivals are on a mere 20. And extraordinarily, that’s the numbers speak for themselves. I’ve played just still less than a fifth of the published games he’s shy of 100 games by Reiner Knizia while his nearest credited with on BoardGameGeek. Knizia is best known in the hobby for a run of still- revered games through the mid-90s and early- noughties, and for his ‘auction trilogy’ (Ra, Medici and Modern Art) and ‘tile-laying trilogy’ (Tigris & Euphrates, Samurai and Through the Desert) as well as countless beloved two-player card games like Lost Cities, Battle Line, and the influential early co-op Lord of the Rings (2000). These games practically defined the style now often known as ‘classic’ or ‘old-school’ Euro, in contrast to the more complex, often less interactive ‘modern’ Euros that followed from designers like Stefan Feld, Uwe Rosenberg, and Alexander Pfister. An interesting recent geeklist (https://boardgamegeek. com/geeklist/284612/era-classic-euro- alternative-bgg-top-100-limited-y) catalogued the highest-ranked 100 games from the period 1995- Sample2004 when this style was dominantfile -- no fewer than 18 of the games were designed by Knizia! So what are the hallmarks of a ‘classic Euro’ and why do I love Knizia’s games so much? For me the most Image kindly supplied by important is the way players interact. Knizia hardly BGG user: EndersGame. ever —in a ludography so large there are always

Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 — 14 — Babylonia — one of Knizia’s most recent Euro-style game designs...

exceptions— has players focusing on complex and tension of the best card games. There’s nothing individual tableaux; instead he prefers them to live quite like initiating a multi-way conflict, hoping that alongside each other on a central board. The two the tiles shielded behind your screen are going to be famous ‘trilogies’ mentioned above are all games enough to bend it your way. in which every action has immediate ramifications With all this talk of abstracts, you might be forgiven for all the other players at the table, rather than for thinking Knizia doesn’t care for theme. Indeed, ones you can play as a ‘heads-down’ optimisation one of the most common criticisms levelled at him exercise. is that his themes are merely ‘pasted on’, often by In contrast to the ‘modern’ style they’re also the publisher, rather than being integral to his design relatively simple games rules-wise and don’t tend to process. I’m not going to say that this is never the last longer than an hour. That’s not to say they aren’t case, as the multiple re-themings of some of his deep or strategic though; another important property designs attest. But for me his best designs get at the of Knizia’s best games is that tough decisions and heart of a theme, not by putting thematic-sounding complex situations emerge naturally from a simple actions on to worker-placement spaces, but by set of rules, just as in the traditional abstracts that capturing the feeling of a theme. A great example is have endured for centuries. I believe Knizia designs his first big hit,Modern Art (still in print 30 years his games to be played repeatedly, gradually later), which lampoons the contemporary art market revealing their subtleties, rather than learned and for being driven by perception of value rather than churned as it feels like today’s habit can be. inherent quality - just as relevant today as it was then with the emergence of non-fungible tokens and Unlike Chess and Go, however, Knizia almost always the rest! And it does that not by telling the players spices his designs with an element of randomness what is happening with flavour text, but by letting and risk-management (as befitting a former banker). them participate in those dynamics for themselves. This Sampledraws criticism from some gamers who prefer file more control, but for me it provides some of my The general perception in the hobby is that Knizia most exciting gaming moments. Tigris & Euphrates went ‘off the boil’ after around 2005, though the is my all-time favourite game because it combines reality is that he moved to designing for different the emergent spatial tactics and strategy of a classic (and likely more lucrative markets), including abstract board-game with the hidden information children’s games and mobile apps. That’s not to

— 15 — Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 say this period didn’t produce some games worth designs. Each of your tile placements impacts the the attention of gamers though. He revisited and other players in multiple ways through interwoven reinterpreted many of his earlier classics, and won scoring routes: you’ll sometimes give more points what is scandalously his only Spiel des Jahres to your opponents than you do to yourself, but that award in 2008 for Keltis, the ‘boardgame’ remake might even be a good move! of Lost Cities. Others I enjoy from this period are Babylonia also shows off a hallmark of so many Municipium, a brisk area majority game featuring of my favourite Knizia games. Rather than lengthy some charming wooden ‘laurel wreaths’ with which turns following through a complex list of phases and to crown your meeples, and Orongo, a closed- a smorgasbord of choices, he invites the players to economy auction that’s another example of his just pick one or two actions from a small menu. Yet skill at matching mechanisms to themes (here the somehow those decisions are always agonising, and decline of Easter Island as more and more resources always leave you desperate for one more action than went into erecting statues). is available to you. But with The Quest for El Dorado in 2017, Knizia The game does offer a few concessions to the announced that he was back designing games for modern Euro style, with more of a ‘point salad’ of gamers and adopting modern innovations such scoring options than a typical Knizia game, plus a as deck-building into his designs. This period has set of enticing special powers the players can gain. been dubbed ‘the Reiner-ssance’ and as well as Frankly it’s a masterpiece, and has taken a spot in El Dorado it has brought us a new trilogy of great my top three Knizias alongside Tigris & Euphrates shared-board tile-laying games (Blue Lagoon, and Ra, the best of his auction games. Yellow & Yangtze and Babylonia), as well as Knizia’s first legacy game, My City, which was nominated for the 2020 Spiel des Jahres. Where to now? So what’s next for Reiner? A couple of recent My Favourite Knizia... industry stories suggest there might not be quite the market for his classic designs there once was, For me, the crowning glory (so far) of this period is as thousands of releases from traditional publishers Babylonia, which feels like it brings together all the and Kickstarter compete for attention. Z-Man Games elements that made his classic Euros such enduring

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Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 — 16 — announced they would retire their ‘Euro Classics’ line, leaving the original tile-laying trilogy as well as Ra and Taj Mahal at least temporarily out-of-print. And Grail Games (which has reprinted classic Knizias as well as launched new ones, including Yellow & Yangtze), said they will no longer be working with Knizia. On the other hand, Ludonova, the publisher of Babylonia and the recent Sumatra has a new Knizia co-op deck-builder on the way: The Siege of Runedar, while another recently-announced game Witchstone (a rare co-design, with Martino Chicacchiera) looks decidedly Feldian with individual player boards and complex action-chaining. Both games clock in at 60-90 minutes too, putting them at the top end of his usual time range. Never let it be said that Knizia is not adaptable!

If you like… Try… I won’t claim that Knizia has something for everyone —he’s never designed a full-on wargame for example— but his designs do cover a huge range, and here I’ve offered a few suggestions for Knizia novices based on the types of game you might already enjoy. Those that aren’t in print tend to be available for a reasonable price second-hand.

Train games: Stephenson’s Rocket Unusually for Knizia, this is a perfect information game, in which players build and invest in railway lines in 19th century England. The highlight is the tricky ‘veto’ mechanism which lets you spend shares to stop another player building a railway line in a direction you don’t like.

Trick-taking games: Voodoo Prince / Marshmallow Test A winning combination of trick-taking and push- your-luck in which you want to make sure you win three tricks before the end of the round, but you don’t want to do it too quickly.

Customisable card games: Blue Moon Knizia doesn’t often design complex card games with lots of special powers, but he went all out here with Sampleeight decks of fantasy races that can play off file against each other or be used to design your own decks. The original decks are now hard to come by but a reprint of the ‘all in one box’ Blue Moon Legends edition has been announced.

— 17 — Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 Negotiation: Quo Vadis A pure negotiation game in which players attempt to get their politicians elected to the Roman Senate.

Deck-building: The Quest for El Dorado The biggest hit of the ‘Reiner-ssance’, El Dorado ties deck-building to racing on a hex map, with the cards you buy allowing you to traverse the different terrains. You can try to make slow and steady progress or hang back, building up a strong deck for a late surge.

Area Majority: King’s Road A recent Grail Games re-working of one of Knizia’s earliest designs, it’s about as simple as area majority games get. The players choose cards from identical decks, trying to outguess each other.

Abstracts: Ingenious A pure abstract tile-laying game which re- uses the clever scoring system from Tigris & Euphrates: you score points in various different colours but at the end of the game your lowest-scoring colour is the one that counts.

Racing / Betting: Winner’s Circle Players make secret bets on a field of seven horses and then take turns moving them round the track according to a dice-roll. A great illustration of Knizia’s command of probability and risk management.

Dice-rolling: Pickomino Knizia literally wrote the book on designing dice games (Dice Games Properly Explained) and this is probably his most famous. The free print-and-play Reiner Knizia’s Decathlon is worth a look, too.

Legacy games: My City A polyomino-placementSample game played over file a campaign of 24 games allowing it to start very basic but gradually layer more rules to create a real head-scratcher.

Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021 — 18 — Click on this infographic to go to Martin’s interactive HTML version, and to check out some of the lower-rated titles in the chart. Most popular internet browsers supported.

A comprehensive infographic looking at the game ratings of many of Knizia’s most popular titles over time. Sample[As rated on fileBoardGameGeek.com]

— 19 — Tabletop SPIRIT #13 — Summer 2021