Vasco Da Gama

ISSUE 413 -SEPTEMBER 2010 ISSN 0257-361X Volume 34

THE GAMES JOURNAL www.gamesjournal.at

INTERNATIONAL EDITION: IN THIS ISSUE WE PRESENT 36 GAMES OUR TEST u VASCO DA GAMA

THE NEW ROAD TO INDIA VASCO DA GAMA Worker placement with time markers

When Caylus by William Attia was published acquiring the rights for the German edition. the game. The actions of the areas are im- in 2005 the world of board games was en- Two to four players adopt the role of Portu- plemented in the order of the time markers. riched by a wonderful new mechanism. Each guese explorers trying to find a new road to Of course, in general, it is better to have your player has at his disposal a certain amout of India. turn early as you have a wider selection at workers which are placed on action areas Vasco da Game is played in exactly five your disposal. But be careful, not all actions to implement the action available there. As rounds which are segmented into several are free. In each round there is a limit. Actions Caylus was a very well made game all around phases. The most interesting one of these carrying time markers equal to this limit or there really was nobody around involved in higher than the limit are free. All actions with gaming who could ignore the new prodigy. Markus Wawra a time marker lower than the limit must be Since then many games have been publis- Vasco da Gama was one of my surprise hits of 2009. It is paid for, the price is equal to the difference a beautiful well-working game that fascinated me at the hed who did take on the mechanism of beginning with its interesting mechanism. This euphoria between the time marker and the limit. If the worker placement. The common game geek disappeared quickly, the long-time interest in the game limit is 8, for instance, action 2 costs 6 units quickly got used to it. No bigger display of is limited. of money. interest than “oh, its worker placement again” Should you be inable to finance an action is normally heard at the games table. Unless or – for whatever reason – not want to im- it is a game that is nearly perfect in total, as phases is the first one. In this phase, as is to plement it, you can renounce it and receive was Agricola, or something else is different or be expected from my introduction, players money instead – 1 unit of money for actions a new game offers an interesting variant of in turn place workers. There are only four are- #1 to #5, 2 units of money for actions #6 to the worker placement mechanism. And thus as for the placement of these workers and #10 and the full amount of 3 units of money we have arrived at Vasco da Gama. each of these areas can only accept a certain for actions #11 to #20. Vasco da Gama was presented at the Essen amount of workers in relation the number of This implementation of actions is done in Fair of 2009 by the Italian publisher What’s players. The new feature and the highlight of phase 2 of the game. In order of the time Your Game? , and very successfully, too, be- this placement is, that you must place a so marker values, starting with #1, the corre- cause sold out very quickly. This fact made it called time marker with your worker. These sponding player is asked whether he wants easy to find a publisher for other language time markers have values of 1 to 20 and are to implement the action or if he renounces it versions. Hutter Trade was successfully in available from a general stock at the start of to earn money. If you implement the action, you pay the difference to the time limit – if applicable – and then immediately implement the action. As already mentions, there are only 4 areas of action: 1 – You can recruit seamen and / or captains. Seamen are available in four different colours. You can take any number of seamen from one of four areas. In an area you can have 5 seaman. The more different colours you pick the higher is the price you pay. If other players were before you, you must make do with what is left. In addition to seamen or instead of seamen you can take a captain of your own colour, his price s the same as you did pay for your seamen – if you did not take any seaman the captain is free. 2 – You can choose a character. These yield various advantages, as there are additional actions, the role of starting player or a fifth colour of seamen embodying missionaries, the characters and their advantages remain with the player until another player claims them. 3 – The area “buy projects” is refilled at the end of each round with 7 new projects. These projects come in the shape of tiles and repre- sent different kinds of ships. You can buy these projects via actions and then launch the ship by discarding the appropriate number of seamen in the colours depicted on the tile. The launching is marked by turning over the

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 2 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at VASCO DA GAMA / 40 ZEILEN FÜR MEEPLES t OUR TEST

tile to the side showing the ship. The ships parts: Beginning with a pre-set starting value have different values for navigation and can a number between -3 and +3 is added after earn you income or victory points in each the placement phase, but before the imple- rounds, later more on that. mentation phase. Players can guess at the 4 - These ships can be sent to one of the har- actual limit, but don’t know it exactly. bors within the navigation range, using the This of course invites speculation. You can action “expediton”. To do so a slot must be play for safety and get at the end of the available in the harbor of your choice and the line with your action or take a risk in the full navigation value of the ship must be equal to knowledge that you might not be able to or higher than the value of the harbor slot. implement the action. The little money you Furthermore you need an individual captain get for this failed implementation is not re- for each ship. The captain is placed on the ally a consolation. But I do not mind this little ship tile and so marks ownership of your ship. amount of chance / luck and it fits nicely into The navigation value of the harbor spot is this allover rather dry game. immediately credited to you in the form of My first impression of Vasco da Gama was victory points. Furthermore, the harbors yield very positive; after a first introductory game additional advantages as there are money, the interest to play again soon was very high. seamen, captains or new projects. But unfortunately this interest dwindled When all actions have been implemented, quickly after a few games. There are now the third phase begins. Players receive for diverse strategies to try and the tactical con- all ships in the navigation range the coins siderations get repetitive, too. The unusual and victory points depicted on the ships. game mechanism is not strong enough to Following this, all fully occupied harbors are countermand that and loses its attraction rat- 40 Lines for Meeples emptied. Players receive again the victory her quickly as well. The only variety comes Dagmar de Cassan, Editor-in-Chief points for each ship. Should there be empty from the interaction with other players. This slots available in the next harbor – harbors does not change the fact that the game is This is the second edition of WIN The Games are arrainged in a chain – you can move the very good and works very well, but it will be Journal that is published in an English, too. ship there, if its navigation value is equal to played again rather rarely by me. But tastes The positive reactions to the first edition or higher than the navigation value of the differ and Vasco da Gama is always worth at have strengthened our resolution provide free slot. If no slot is available or the harbor least information on good games monthly in being emptied be the last one in the chain, [email protected] English, too. We might not always manage the ship is discarded, the captain goes back 40 pages, like last time, this depends on our to its owner. VASCO DA GAMA reviewers, too, and like all of us they wait for Then the “end of round” is implemented, the Essen fireworks of novelties. comprising preparations for the next round, Designer: Paolo Mori Welcome to our pages this month, too, and some players now score bonuses for their Artist: Mariano Ianelli we hope we may inspire you to a spontane- characters. Distribution: Hutter Trade ous game, we hope you share our fun with If the round was the final one of the game, a Price: ca. 40,00 Euro games and play with us. You find ideas and a few more victory points are given out for mo- Publisher: What’s Your Game? 2009 wide selection of games in our Journal. ney and ships launched, including captains, www.whatsyourgame.it We love games and especially the brand new and the winner of the game is the player with games, read about these games and play most points. them, be a cosmopolitan and play games Vasco da Gama is a beautiful game all from all over the world. around. Graphics and components are excel- EVALUATION PLAYERS WIN is published monthly, 12 times a year lently done and the mechanics of the game Optimization game 2-5 (resulting in more than 600 game reviews) seem polished and complete. The game and is supplemented by two special editions For experts AGE works very well and is very balanced. The Worker placement published on occasion of the Nuremberg rules, too, are excellently written and leave 12+ and Essen Fairs (presenting more than 1.200 nothing unanswered. But you should plan for games). Read our Journal regularly! Comments TIME a longer introduction / explanation time be- Excellent mechanism 120+ Finally we would like to state for our edito- fore your first game. It takes a while to grasp High interaction rial office – since this is necessary for some Chance sometimes a deciding countries – that nobody in our editorial office the unusual mechanism. Once you have it factor fixed in your mind, the game flow is fast and Lots of tactics, no strategy receives benefits in kind, money, services or smooth. Playing time, accordingly, gets shor- Beautiful components other remunerations from game publishers. Well-structured rules ter with more experience and games played. All games for reviews are provided by the The unusual mechanism using time markers Compares to Austrian Games Museum and returned to it. to decide the sequence of actions makes Fresko, Tribun If you like our WIN: The English version is the game attractive. In the first game some available as PDF for free download under brain racking and mistakes are unavoidable http://www.gamesjournal.at – there will be lack of money, because it will And we do more than publish a Journal: come in the next action, or a ship cannot be We are the Foundation Spielen in Österreich. made ready before the expedition action is Visit our web-site. Take a look at our Games My rating implement, because the action of hiring se- Companion 2010. amen comes afterwards. The limit value for http://www.spielen.at the action is determined by chance in some See you next month!

www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 3 OUR TEST u FRESKO

DON’T PICTURE THE WORST! FRESKO Restoration by moody painters

„Get out of bed, you good-for-nothing sleep- points, at the starting position. tured nicely, pretty and functional by Oliver yhead! The market isn’t open all day long!” Schlemmer, very fitting for a game with a – “Yes, Master (yaaaaaaawn). I’m awake …” The small town depicted on the board is topic of painting where your eyes come into You should be well rested when you trans- dominated by the big ceiling fresco in the play, too. fer yourself for one and a half hours into the cathedral that at the start is covers by 25 Good morning! renaissance in the guise of a fresco painter square tiles. These show colour pots which to help restore the ceiling fresco in the ca- denote the combination that you must dis- The early bird catches the worm, so to say, thedral. card to take the tile and score the victory and that is the case in Fresco, too! At the start But before we can start and 2 to 4 opponents points stated on it. When the tile is taken off of each round we must fix the time to rise can prove their abilities in Fresko, we have the board, a part of the fresco becomes vis- for our own assistants in the hostelry. The to place a few things on the double-sided ible in all its glory. That’s nice to look at and player with fewest victory points starts and board (one side is meant for the four-player makes the complete fresco visibly step by places his painter onto the corresponding game, the other one for three players). A step during the game – an aesthetical feature spot. This sets the player sequence for the big wooden painter figure for each player that perfectly mirrors topic as well as aim of following round. If you rise early, you move is placed for a night’s rest into the hostelry, the game. early, have free selection on the market but another one into the theatre. pay more than the sleepyhead who pays The theatre mirrors the actual mood in your The colours necessary for the restoration of painting studio – malcontent, nagging as- the fresco are available from the market. The Stefan Olschewski sistance work badly and less effective, which four stalls of the market on the top edge of A well-made optimization game, well balanced with lots of cunning ideas and a nice “flow”. results in disadvantages – just as in real life. the board offer each round a randomly The third and last painter ends up where drawn selection of colours. The workshop after 80 minutes the decision will be made holds the colour supply in the shape of col- one coin for the meager colour pot that is who has impressed the bishop most: On the oured wooden cubes and the atelier, where left on the market. But not only sequence of victory point bar, which surrounds the board you can paint portraits and thus earn a little play and price are determined by the time in the best Kramer tradition. At start however, extra money to butter your bread, complete to get up, but – logically – also the mood of painters assembly pointlessly, that is without the layout of the town. All this has been pic- the assistants. If you had to rise at 5 a.m. for weeks, you probably are rather mis-motivat- ed as time advances. The consequences: The mood gets bad and in the worst case one of the assistants leaves and does not work for you anymore. On the other hand, when the mood is extremely good, you maybe acquire an additional assistant, which gives you an additional action in the round. And with that we have arrived at the game play itself! Good planning is already half of what is necessary to win.

As a team leader we must plan the optimum use for our – usually mediocre tempered – five wooden assistants behind our screen. In this we are assisted bei a board that shows the location of the big board and where we place our assistants. Each location may be visited in each round by a maximum of three assistants. So five locations and five assistants demand good planning to be at the right place at the right time! Then the screen is removed and the locations are dealt with in the order given by the rules. This also is started by the player who has risen the earliest – an advantage that can be easily planned, if you want to use it. Directly after getting up go walk yawning to market to buy colours or – to be bit nasty early in the morning – to close a market stall. This is free and thus available also when you are short of money

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 4 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at FRESKO / GABIS t OUR TEST

and can put quite a spoke in the wheels of known mechanisms that neatly and well bal- the other players who have speculated with anced that Fresko in total is more than the GAMES BUYER INFORMATION SYSTEM - GABIS certain colours. sum of its components. STRUCTURE

In the cathedral each assistant can restore a Each game review also features an evaluation which can tile that scores him the victory points noted Two are missing one help you to find the game that best suites your tastes. on the tile, and, laid out face up, earns the re- Oh, by the way, Fresco can be played by two. The colour accompanying each game title represents storer one additional coin at the start of each In theory, at last. In practice you once again the Target Group. The headline also contains information on age and number of players. round. If you happen to manage to restore a meet a neutral imaginary player, here at least The BAR in the evaluation box displays colour codes for tile that carries the white bishop or is adja- called Leonardo, who is moved alternately by up to 10 features of a game. cent to the tile carrying the bishop you score both players in addition to their own move. TARGET GROUPS a bonus of three or two points, respectively. That mechanism feels very artificial and only If you are not satisfied with the income from assists in printing “2-4 players” on the box. In We have defined 4 target groups (colour accompanying successfully restored fresco parts you have game play the 2-player version definitely the head line) the chance to cash three additional coins for loses in comparison to the 3- and 4-player Children: each assistant in the studio before you enter game. Games for children an educational games. Adults can the workshop. There the acquired colours play in guiding function Families: can be mixed. Ant his is urgent and neces- Conclusion Children and parents play together, all have the same sary, because the really valuable fresco tiles The are few games that appeal to casual chance to win and have fun demand green or purple cubes and those gamers as well as to heavy gamers. The much Friends: can only be acquired by the right mixture of applauded Finca is one of them and Fresco Young people and adults play together as equals Experts: primary colours. now joins the ranks. The lack of almost all Games with special demands on rules and playing time. Giddy up! Raise your spirit! chance interests tacticians and strategists, Especially for game geeks the beautiful components and the easy-to- Games that are especially eligible for Solo play or for 2 Time for relaxation is scarce in all that bus- understand rules in the face of a complex players or Large groups of players are marked with an tle and so it is a good idea to grant yourself games entice even a games-interested family icon. Please note for the target groups Children, Family or, even better, grant your assistants a visit to play. And should it get boring, eventually, and Friends: Children who love to play can be ahead of their peers! Please note that our target group “families” to the theatre. This improves the temper by there are always the three expansions. An- does not imply the classical concept of „family games“! two notches and if the mood has topped the other three are in the making, so the pub- Furthermore, our target groups can overlap. The choice scale even yields an additional assistant – so lisher says. But those come comme il faut as of the suitable games always depends on your playing that you can send out six assistants in the separate expansion in their own box. partners and your fun with games! next round, which in turn raises the spirit of [email protected] FEATURES the player directing them. By the way, the spirit at the table was ab- Each game targets preferences for different features in FRESKO a player, therefore each game is not suitable for each solutely positive an all of the test games. player. We have listed 10 features players note when Despite the complexity, that is definitely in- Designer: M. Ruskowski und M. Süßelbeck deciding on a game. Only if a player finds his preferred volved, functions and flow of the game are Artist: Oliver Schlemmer features in a game he will enjoy the game. The colour code marks the dominant features. Educational games logical, realistic and easy to understand, so Distribution: Piatnik train the highlighted preference. that very few questions remain. This is also Price: ca. 35,00 Euro Chance: thanks to the well-structured and nicely il- Publisher: Queen Games 2010 The game is influenced by dice, cards or any other form lustrated rules that manages to explain the www.queengames.com of random generator game completely on only 8 pages- Tactic: Take decision, short-term planning, planning based on one move All is well that ends well?! Strategy: Well, when there are only 6 or fewer tiles left EVALUATION PLAYERS Think ahead, long-term planning, planning for several moves in the cathedral, the last rounds begins. Play- Strategic optimization game 2-4 ers can in this round work twice at the fresco Creativity: With friends AGE The player has to provide words, phrases, images and to have a final go at improving their score. collect and mix colours other creative efforts. Finally, remaining coins are changed into vic- 10+ Knowledge: Comments tory points and if you after that have most of Cultural and educational knowledge, long-term Winner of DSP 2010 TIME memory the victory points, you win. Good design 60+ Memory: That ‘s been that. Or not. Because contrary to The high quality components Remember, learn by heart, short-time memory invite to play the common practice of publishing expan- Communication: Perfectly constructed and Talk to each other, negotiate, inform sions a few months later for good money, balanced mechanisms Lots of depth for simple rules Interaction: the publisher has packed three additional Good both for families and Influencing each other, bluffing, auction modules into the box, which make the game experts Dexterity: Motor skills more tactical but at the same time less clear Compares to Action: and more of a thinking game. Surely ideal Cuba, Im Schutze der Burg oder Body movement, balance and reaction for heavy gamers, to families I would recom- Stone Age, other games with mend the basic game, which has its quali- worker placement and changing Colours in the Bar of components into victory points ties without and be even because of lacking Empty boxes: This feature is not present or minimal further colour mixes, Bishop’s demand tiles or One coloured box: This feature of the game is present, portrait cards with special abilities. but not essential My rating Two coloured boxes: This feature is present and impor- The designers Marco Ruskowski and Marcel tant in the game Süßelbeck did not use really new elements Three coloured boxes: This feature dominates for their first game, but have interlocked well- www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 5 OUR TEST u DIE SPEICHERSTADT

CITY AT THE QUAYSIDE DIE SPEICHERSTADT Ships, lofts and fires

The lofts at the quays of Hamburg a renow- The commodity cubes for the commodities Supply ned sight, the famous buildings still let you coffee, tea, saffron, carpets and rubber are The board shows 6 water spots for trade fell their importance in an earlier age as a placed in the bag. cards. Depending on the number of players central market place for coffee, spices and Each player starts with a market hall card, the cards are placed from left to right on the other wares. Stefan Feld’s game tries to catch four workers and five coins, the rest of the water spots, 3 cars for 2 players, 4 cards for the flair of days gone by and to let players coins is set aside as bank. The board is placed 3 players, 5 cards for 4 players and finally 6 achieve economic success in the role as head on the table and equipped with trade cards cards for 5 players. of one of the big merchant houses. according to the number of players, clearly The earliest time for ships to come into play Players must win shiploads in auctions, sell marked on the board. One worker of each is spring. Ships have room for 3 commodity wares and fill demands, often hindered by player is set on the 0 spot on the scoring bar. cubes. If a ship is laid out in the supply phase fires that happen in the lofts. So you need to A nice idea, but not always feasible, is the way the starting player draws three cubes from invest in a private fire brigade to avoid dama- how to determine the starting player, the role the bag and places them on the ship card. ge to your enterprise. goes to the player who has been in Hamburg To prepare the game the trade cards are se- most recently. Demand parated according to their backside in the This phase starts when placing of the trade four season stacks spring, summer, autumn The game is played in rounds, and each cards has ended. Above each card are 8 po- and winter. The autumn cards are shuffled round comprises five phases: sitions where workers can be placed for the and places face down on top of Fire Card 4, 1. Supply auction. Beginning with the starting player then you shuffle the summer cards and place 2. Demand in turn all players place a worker on the first them face down on top of the autumn cards, 3. Acquisiton free position above a trade card. Where you followed by the spring and winter cards – the 4. Loading place a worker is entirely your own choice. game starts in winter and ends in the au- 5. Income When all workers are placed, there are rows tumn of next year. of different numbers of workers above each

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 6 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at DIE SPEICHERSTADT t OUR TEST

trade card, and of course, if you like, you can that lets you sell single commodity cubes. I want to spend and how many do I need to place several workers in a row. Cubes that you cannot sell and not place keep for next round, when I am starting pla- on demand cards or the market hall go out yer and so have first choice – which also can Acquisiton of game, they do not go back into the bag. be a drawback as the others can rise my price. This phase is done in order of the trade cards, Sold commodity cubes also go out of the In that aspect the last player of the round has from left to right of the board. The player game. When all players have distributed or a distinctive advantage. owning the first worker in the row above disposed otherwise of the commodities, the The graphics of the game are okay, noting the first card is asked if he wants to buy the loading phase ends. special, but work well for the game – the flair cards. And here it gets interesting – because of the game is nice and really lets you imagi- Income ne being a trader in old Hamburg. The game Maria Schranz Each player receives 1 coin from the bank. play for 2 works exceedingly well, it is a lot Die Speicherstadt offers a very interesting bid/auction If a player could not buy a trade card in this more tactical and strategic as well, because mechanism that you should try for yourself! round he gets an additional coin. The star- you can estimate far better your chances to ting player marker is handed on and a new get a certain card. round starts with placing trade cards. If one the price is equal to the number of workers season is used in the middle of laying out Resumee in a row! So the price can be between 1 and cards you simply go on with cards from the A well made game with nice components, 8 coins. Here I have to note that lack of coins next season. the time to play is short and the rules are sim- is a standard situation in the game! ple and quickly explained. It is not primarily If you pay the price you take the card and Evaluation a game for strategists or tacticians, but is all other workers in the row go back to their So far we have neglected the Fires. They turn fun to play and I recommend it to all players owners. If you do not pay the price you take up once in each season stack and interrupt interested in new and uncommon mecha- your worker back and the player owning the play immediately, and there is a fire at the nisms. Due to the simple rules, families can next man in the row is offered the card. For end of the game. Firemen are also available play as well. him, the price of course is one coin less than from the trade cards and you should try to Discerning players like it too, because after a for you. This is continued till the card is sold. buy at least one. When a fire turns up it is few games you know roughly which cards to Should no one be interested the card goes scored: The player with the highest total of expect when and can try to save your coins out of the game. firemen points scores the value of the fire – for the really important cards like the storage When all cards have been dealt with this pha- 1, 2, 3 or 4 points for the final fire. The player barn. se ends. Should ships have been among the with the least total of firemen loses the same [email protected] trade cards, the player also gets the commo- amount of victory points, nothing happens dity cubes on the ship card. to the players with firemen of values in between the two extremes. DIE SPEICHERSTADT Loading It is not necessary always to have the best fire This phase can happen first in spring, as there brigade, but it is disastrous to lose all four fire Designer: Stefan Feld are no ships in the Winter trade cards. If ships scorings – this costs you a total of 10 victory Artist: Michael Menzel, Harald Lieske were offered and sold, players who bought points and definitely any chance to win. So Distribution: Berg Toy those ships and / or players who have com- keep your eyes on the fire brigades of your Price: ca. 25,00 Euro modity cubes from earlier rounds can place fellow players! Publisher: Eggert Spiele 2010 them on demand cards, the storage barn or www.eggertspiele.de the market hall or sell them. During the game victory points for the pla- Demand cards are trade cards that have been yers can vary wildly as only completed de- bought in the acquisition phase, the can mand cards score victory points. The basic earn you 5, 8 or 11 victory points, but only, mechanism of the game works very well, EVALUATION PLAYERS if you have placed all commodities depicted the auction mechanism is interesting and Auction game 2-5 on them at the end of the game. For 5 vic- new – but you cannot really estimate or plan For families AGE tory points you need 2 commodities, for 8 which trade cards you will able to acquire. So Bid for cards, meet demands points 3 and for 11 points for commodities, the game is all tactics and not much strategy, 8+ of course in the corresponding colours. with one exception – keep your eyes on the Comments TIME The moment you have placed commodities fire brigades! But take care – always having Good and functional compo- 45+ on demand cards, you cannot take them off the best brigade might not be sufficient to nents Short, good rules any more and if you cannot complete the win! Very good for two players demand these commodities are lost. The One good possibility is to focus on the place- Gets more interesting with each market hall you received at the start of the ment of your last worker and to use the first game played game, allows you three possibilities: 1 - You two to rise prices for the other players. Some Compares to can store 1 commodity cube for later use on demand cards already come up in winter, but Medici, Dschunke demand cards or sale. 2 – you can exchange the first ships appear in spring, so acquiring any 3 commodity cubes for 1 selected cube early demand cards is mainly a question of or 3 – you can sell 2 commodity cubes for luck as you cannot determine that early if you 1 coin. will have a chance to meet these demands. It If you did buy the trade card “storage”, you is certainly a tactical possibility to crab what can store 4 commodity cubes there for later you can get cheaply and see what you can My rating use. If you have cubes left in storage at the do with it. end of the game they score 1 victory point The one thing that really needs planning is each. For each commodity there is also a card management of your coins – how many do www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 7 OUR TEST u MEGA CORPS

WHO HOLDS THE REINS? MEGA CORPS The big companies, of course

Our world is complex, but must that be so try you are limited to drawing one card, and the industry that pays out, and of course he or could it be different? This game shows should you control 2 or more countries you will choose the branch where he has most several possibilities and pulls the legs of se- do not draw a card at all. The remaining cards companies and is represented alone, if pos- veral conglomerates, or does it? How do we are the draw pile for the game and also func- sible, as payout not only earns him money, know that governments rule the world and tion as a kind of round marker, but more of but also for all opponents. The amount paid not the conglomerates? This game points out that later. out depends on the number of rivals in this how it could be! Imagine the Mouse Com- industry. pany coming from a democratic China and The number of MegaCorps owners deter- But note that each free spot is considered a producing the best games in the world. Or mines the number of cards that can be in this rival as well as opposing companies present. Windoze treading new paths and investing deck. Should four MegaCorps rival for power, When the number of rivals has been coun- in oil and Nonnintendo leading the way in 16 event cards make up the Event Deck. Each ted, you check the payout bar on the board the software sector. The game shows us that player has a start capital of 40 Euros and a for the multiplier to use on your number of media rule the world, they decide if a country mercenary for use in his wars. Finally, before companies in this industry. Say, you have is a democracy or not. If you want to change the fight for power can begin, we place two 3 opponents in the media industry, so you the world invest in media, no wonder that of our own MegaCorps markers = companies multiply your companies in this industry by Mokia rules the world. on the board. The first round goes clockwise 6. These three factories earn you 18 Euros re- from the starting player, the second one venue; the other companies earn 6 Euros, as Obviously, the game’s topic is economy as counter-clockwise, till each player has placed they only have one company in the industry. ruler of the world and who is leading the both company markers. Thus, you have two After Payout you receive the Paid card; you economy has the most influence on our company markers within different industries cannot choose another payout while you world. But economy cannot be conquered at the beginning of the game, hopefully tho- hold this card. in passing, good and diligent groundwork is se that bring the most revenue and therefore essential to be in front! At the beginning you are promising to invest in. But as things are not always what they seem have to decide which branch of business you and everyone has their fingers in every pie, want to start with, do you want to make films As already mentioned, the power struggle the selection of actions also offers the possi- or produce computers. Based on this decisi- is played out in rounds that all follow the bility to initiate a government intervention. on you choose your favorite MegaCorps. A same scheme: At the start of the round the This intervention has the purpose to steal representative of this MegaCorp is thrown in start player draws 1 Event Card and follows companies from other MegaCorps in cer- a cup with all the other representatives and its instructions. No other player is allowed to tain industries. But you can only choose this one is pulled out to decide the starting pla- draw an event card, only the starting player action if you control a country yourself. You yer. The owner of this representative receives may do so! Then each player in turn has one choose a company in your country to remo- the Active Player card. Then the representa- of six possible actions. When each player has ve it from the control of its owner. How this tive is thrown back into the cup, because we finished his action, the round ends and a new is done is determined by the government need to draw one again to determine who round is started by handing the Active Player in this country, whether it is a democracy, a controls ASEAN and draw again to determine card to the player next to the current starting dictatorship or a so called Kleptocracy. who controls the African Federation, the re- player. Before I describe the possible action I spective MegaCorps markers are placed on need to mention that in each round the ac- In case of a democracy the MegaCorps mar- the board on the spot next to these coun- tion Payout can only happen once! ker is taken off the board and its owner is tries. refunded his investment of 4 Euros. If it is a Now the possible action of a round in detail: Kleptocracy you steal the company from the This brings us to the board; It shows a grid of The first of these actions is buying a new MegaCorps and simply replace it with your columns for industry branches and rows for company. This costs four Euros and you own MegaCorps marker. The player control- countries. There are 12 industries, each has choose a free spot on the board that is neit- ling the country simply attains control over 5 boxes in different countries. And there are her nationalized nor syndicated to place your another company by stealing it from another 12 rows for countries, mostly big industrial MegaCorps marker. MegaCorps, the other player is not refunded countries like China, Japan or India, but also and loses his investment. If the country is a country conglomerates like EU or the above The next possibility for an action is Payout, dictatorship, the company is nationalized by mentioned ASEAN. Each country row has a only possible once in a round, as already the government intervention; this company different number of industry boxes. Some mentioned above. This earns money for does not earn any revenues for anybody countries are controlled at the beginning by the MegaCorps, earning money from your and is also not counted as an opponent in already-printed in MegaCorps markers. companies can happen in three ways du- the Payout action. ring the game, payout is one of them. The Then event cards are drawn from the stack, others are playing an event card to that effect A fourth choice of action, for defense purpo- the number you may draw depends on how and finally, at the end of the game, there is ses, is the hiring of mercenaries that go to many countries you control. If you do not a payout for all companies and industries, war for the MegaCorps. You just have to an- have any countries to control you draw to but more on that later. Back to payout: The nounce that you hire a mercenary. It is of pa- cards. If you exercise control over one coun- player who decided on payout determines ramount importance for this action that you

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 8 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at MEGA CORPS t OUR TEST

have a minimum of one company in the de- The game ends when the event cards are work well for yourself – which sometimes fense industry, because for each company in used up. Then a final payout happens, all causes playing of the cards just to get rid of this industry you receive one mercenary for industries are paid out once again. Whoever them without using their full potential. And, free. If there are nationalized or syndicated has now most money, wins the game. interestingly, the option stated at the end of companies present in the industry, you pay the rules that you make any trade with any 1 Euro per mercenary you want to hire. You Top and foremost, my criticism goes to the player any time do barter, buy, sell or swap can also negotiate with the heads of other rules of this game, I find them inscrutable and was not used at all in our games, we all pla- companies in the industry if they are willing not well-laid out. Some topics are mentioned yed mostly to ourselves. to sell one of their mercenaries; the sale price superficially and three pages later the topic is is jointly determined by both parties intensively taken care of. This is irritating and The same imbalance governs the distributi- uses up a lot of time. I have tried to present on of powers as regards the EU and China, And what would you need mercenaries for the game in a more structured way, but not both defense and attack powers of these but to launch a war? Therefore the fifth pos- completely – I have restricted myself to the countries are so big that they surely will ne- sibility for an action in a round is to launch most important parts of the game, to the ele- ver be attacked, which directs the game in a a war. With the help of war you try to free ments that govern the game, everything else certain direction. I think, if you control EU and other countries from the control by opposing China you do not have to worry about war players or to obtain control over still uncon- Isabella Schranz and will probably very far advanced in the trolled countries. To choose this action you An interesting topic; not optimally transferred to the game final scoring. My conclusion is, the game was board. But try it all the same, it has a certain attraction. must have a minimum of one mercenary. marketed in a stage far from finished, there You choose the country you want to go to are too many small defects and there are far war against. All mercenaries of the defending more possibilities in the mechanisms than country are involved in this war as well as all have been brought into play, developers your own mercenaries. Nobody else but the you can read up during the game. have only scratched the surface, there is not attacking and defending parties is involved much depth in the game. Which definitely is in the war, but other MegaCorps can offer as- Another point for me is the different valency a pity, as the topic is fascinating and could sistance in the shape of mercenaries to the of industries, some industries are more im- have yielded a much more complex play. So warring parties. portant than others. One of these industries you end up with the feeling that something And how do you war? The attacking player is the media industry, which influence elec- is missing despite the loving care that went adds all his attack points – these come from tion. They determine who has control and so into funny details like the names of the Me- the attack points of the country that you use can decide outcome of the game. Another of gaCorps. to attack with and from your mercenaries. these industries is defense, as you must have [email protected] The defender does the same and adds the a company there to get a free mercenary or defense points for his country and the values to be able to hire mercenaries. This makes the MEGA CORPS of his mercenaries. If the attack value is high- game unbalanced and you can see rather er than the defense value the attacker wins early in the game who is going to win. Designer: Greg Costikyan the war and takes control of the attacked Artist: David Monette country and places one of his MegaCorps A positive element of the game are the event Distribution: Pegasus markers there. If the defense value is higher, cards, they change the flow of the game and Price: ca. 35,00 Euro the attacker loses and the defender retains introduce interaction. Especially in the first Publisher: Z-Man Games 2009 control over his country. five to seven rounds players restrict them- www.zmangames.com selves to investing and don’t scheme and Regardless if you win or lose the war, some that loses the game a bit of fun. And that is or all of your mercenaries are lost, depending especially important as fun and interaction on the actual situation: If only the attacker are rather lacking in the flow of the game, be- EVALUATION PLAYERS used mercenaries, he loses one of his mer- cause of the way the rounds are structures – Placement game 3-6 cenaries. Should both parties have used mer- one player has his action, then the next – the- With friends AGE cenaries, the player who has used the smal- re is little communication and that detracts Optimal revenues ler amount loses all of them and the other from the attraction of the game. On the other 13+ Comments player loses this amount, too. For instance, if hand, you cannot always use the card in an Interesting topic TIME one party used 3 mercenaries and the other optimal way and you rarely get cards that Funny details, like the company 90+ party 5, both parties lose 3 mercenaries. names Rules badly structured At the end of the war there is an immediate Distribution of powers is imba- government intervention, if the loser owns a lanced company in the country. Compares to The last action you can choose in your turn Economy games as regards to is to pass. topic, otherwise placement games with optimization and event cards. Players hold event cards either from the start of the game or get one when they are start player. These event cards need not be played immediately when you receive them, you can use the cards whenever you deem My rating it necessary. Once used, they are effective immediately.

www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 9 OUR TEST u CHOCOLATL

COCOA BEANS SACRIFICED TO QUETZALQUOATL CHOCOLATL Be rewarded with huts, points or pyramid stones

I want to start this review with a selection are repeated and illustrated. A high card would yield lots of victory points of a few randomly selected thoughts and * Back to the topic. The game’ topic is the at the end of the game, but will be sorely remarks that came up while unpacking and time of the Middle American Aztecs, who missed during the game when bidding, as setting up the game and reading through constructed impressive pyramids and who the bids are the core of the game. I think that the rules. held cocoa in high esteem as an important you should, especially in a first play, decide * At the very start I want to note that in this part of their culture. on a card of middle value. game for 3-5 players by Günter Burkhardt at * Therefore I think that the title is more than Quined Games great care was taken to make justified, and, considering the multitude of Then preparations are made for the start the game transparent for players. More on games published, a good choice because of the round, this also happens in all of the that later! there cannot be many games with this title other rounds. Three dice are rolled to de- * A few of my fellow players, remarked that or a similar topic. termine the harvest of cocoa beans. Then the game is far away from ist title, I cannot one bid card from each of two stacks, one follow this argument, because But now to the game! In my opinion it is an of them with slightly higher values, is placed * Chocolatl seems to be also an other name entertaining game for a short 45 minutes. on station 6 of the board. Stack is maybe an for one of the old Aztec gods, the feathered The number of rounds is variable due to a exaggeration as at the start the stack holds 6 snake god Quetzalcoatl. choice of end-of-game conditions, but there cards. A black die is placed, according to the * I definitely must remark on the absolutely are never more then 7 and so it is a very rules it can show any of its faces … but it is high quality of the rules despite there being straightforward game. of utmost importance to move the round in- a few tongue-twisting names straight out of During the game you offer sacrifices to the dicator, because this gives different amounts Middle America’s ancient history in the text gods by bidding with bags of cocoa, repre- of points in each round. – the already named Quetzalquoatl, plus Ch- sented an identical deck of cards for each olulu, Tenochtitlan and others. player. Straight at the start you sacrifice And now we can start. * Another positive feature of the rules is the one of the 13 cards of value 0-13 by setting You place your secret bids under a scheme of absolutely clear and well-formulated descrip- it aside face down; this card yields victory the 6 stations, which can yield victory points tion of the game – the rules have an extra points at the end of the game. Already this in several different ways. Both the highest bid column where the most important elements can be used for a little tactical consideration. and the lowest bid bring advantages/victory

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 10 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at CHOCOLATL t OUR TEST

points or disadvantages for the bidder. And The fourth station takes us at long last back gratified the gods and wins the game. that is the point where you could try to place into the era of the Aztecs, because now we your bids according to your strategic priori- build pyramids. At this station the winner of In a 3-player game it can happen that the co- ties – if you can talk about strategies in this the bid may place 2 markers into the pyra- coa harvest plays a rather unimportant part game, because basically the game is rather mid if the difference between his bid and the in the game, if you roll rather similar values. simple and suitable for beginners, and can A note to dedicated gamers: If you have 45 absolutely be played on a gut level. Anyway, Hans Mosteböck minutes to fill, this game is ideally suited you have two cards each for the 6 stations, Chocolatl offers a quick game for experienced gamers and a as a filler or as an entry or final game at an beautiful game with interesting mechanisms demanding a the card values are added when the bids are little tactic and empathy for a family. evening of games. The interesting point is evaluated. that you should be able to read your fellow Depending on the position of the leading players to influence the outcome to your ad- player one of three bidding methods is used. vantage at some of the important stations. If the leader stands on red and for the first second highest is equal to or higher than 3. Distributing cards evenly will – especially in round the following method is used: You These markers earn bonus points for the a game with the maximum of five players – place all 12 cards – 2 each to every station – player who contributed most markers when not be successful. If you like to see emotions beneath the scheme of stations. If the leader a level is finished. Ties here are also decided as a consequence of successful or unavailing stands on a golden spot, you bid for each sta- by Chocolatl. Furthermore, the markers score action you will like the game. tion separately, after each bid the bids are one victory point per marker at the end of turned up and evaluated. If the leader stands the game and a bonus of three points for the Finally, I would like to remark again on the on a green spot, you place one card each for player with most markers. When the differ- absolutely fabulous clarity and clear arrange- each station, then all these cards are revealed ence in the bids is lower than 3, both players ment of the game – there are even 6 scheme and players place a second card, again face can place markers; the player with the higher boards for five players, which illustrate the down. This is the variant that best allows you bid decides who goes first – this can be of im- stations and their properties clearly and to take into account possible strategies or portance in case of levels being completed. briefly. As most players have used their own tactics of your fellow players. At the end of the game there can happen a board to deposit the bids, one can place the tie for the allocation of the bonus. spare board in the middle of the table for all The objects at the first station are “Chocolatl” My personal opinion: Pyramids are not the to see. And if despite everything, you have a and “Old Man”. The highest bidder immedi- method to win the game. question, the rules will answer them quickly ately wins one victory point and receives and clearly. Chocolatl. Chocolatl is a tie breaker to the Why? Well, because already at the fifth sta- Hans.Mostbö[email protected] advantage of his owner for the rest of the tion we play for valuable victory points, es- round. The player with the lowest bid re- pecially in the first rounds. The amounts of ceives Old Man, he has the effect to lower victory points up for the bidding dwindle CHOCOLATL the following bids by one, but he gives you every round. In the first round the winner of a bonus in the first bid of the next round, the bid receives 8 points, the second 4 points. Designer: Günter Burkhardt where he is again an object of the bid. In round 2 and 3 you can still get 7/3 and 6/2. Artist: Ryan Laukat In case of ties involving only players without From round 4 on only the winner of the bid Distribution: Piatnik Chocolatl the bid goes to the player furthest scores points, 5, 4,3 and 2. But take care! The Price: ca. 35,00 Euro behind on the victory point scale, and in a player with the lowest bid must accept two Publisher: Huch & Friends / Quined 2010 further tie the one whose marker is on top. minus points at this station. www.huchandfriends.de

Then we move to the second station, where Finally, we have reached station 6 and have three players can earn victory points. This is mentioned nearly everything that is of im- also the moment where the cocoa harvest – portance for the game. At this station your EVALUATION PLAYERS determined by the three white dice rolled at goal is, mainly in the first rounds, to receive bidding and optimization game 3-5 the start of round – comes into play. The re- more valuable bidding cards to be able to For families AGE sults of the roll are the victory points and are discard the lower ones, especially the Zero Bid for stations / advantages allocated to the three best bids, respectively. card. These higher bidding cards can give 8+ you enormous advantages in the following Comments TIME At the third station the winner of the bidding rounds. If you still have your Zero card in the A nice filler game with a good 45+ has two options. First, he can build a hut. This fourth round, you will have trouble to bid mixture of chance and a little tactics hut earns him +1 in any bid at any station successfully at important stations! Components fit the topic very for the rest of the game, with the exception well of station 3 itself, as here the huts must be At the end of the game player score the Very good family game preserved and to pay for this upkeep the bid points for the pyramid. The player holding Compares to is lowered by one. The second option is to Chocolatl scores 3 more points and the play- The Pillars of the Earth for take a black bonus die, which can either be er holding “Old Man” loses 3 points. The card resolving stations, generally all bidding games rolled anytime to enhance a card bid by the sacrificed at the start of the game is turned result, or rolled once at the end of the game up now and each player scores its value. The for victory points. If building a hut, the player player who was most generous with his sac- deposits one of his markers to indicate the rifice receives a bonus of 3 points in addition bonus, and in addition to that he also re- to the value of his card. If you have a spare My rating ceives a tile. SO forgetting the bonus should black bonus die you roll it now for additional be impossible. victory points. The player with the highest total has best www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 11 PLAYED FOR YOU u ARIMAA / ATLANTIS TREASURE

move backwards. In your turn INFORMATION you move a maximum of four PLAYERS AGE TIME- ARIMAA steps, either with one piece or 2 10+ var DECEPTIBLY SIMPLE ! with several pieces. You can pass on some of the steps, but must Designer Omar und Aamir Syed move a minimum of one step per Artist: Karim Chakroun Some games one simply has to bits to the opposite side of the turn. Stronger pieces can move Distributor A: Pegasus present, even if they already a board. Each player has 8 rabbits, weaker pieces, either pushing Price: ca. 35,00 Euro few years on the market, and of 1 elephant 1 camel, 2 horses, 2 or pulling them. Stronger pieces Publisher: Z-Man Games 2002 these games is this chess variant. dogs and 2 cats, in analogy to also keep weaker ones in place www.zmangames.com But is this a chess variant ? chess pieces. Gold starts and when they stand next to them. A Arimaa in any case is an abstract distributes his figures in any way piece that pushes cannot at the position game, simple at first he wants on the first to rows of same time pull. There are four EVALUATION sight, but with unfathomed tacti- the board before him, then silver marked trap spots on the board. cal and strategic depths. The aim does the same. All figures move IF a piece moves on a trap, it goes abstract position game For experts of the game seems simple – be the same way, any distance or- out of the game, unless your own Move pieces, reach border the first to get one of your rab- thogonally, but rabbits cannot stronger piece stands beside it to Comments protect it. If you cannot move be- Based on Chess cause all your pieces are frozen Indipendent rules, different board you have lost. Many strategic and tactic possibilities Easy to learn A fascination abstract game, based on chess, already unfath- Compares to omable by the changing starting Chess positions of the pieces. Children can play, but mastering the game will take you a very long time. And despite all the similari- ties, it is not chess !

the compass is taken off the INFORMATION board and the submarine con- PLAYERS AGE TIME ATLANTIS TREASURE tinues moving in the direction 2-4 9+ 30+ TREASURE HUNT AMONG CORAL REEFS indicated by the compass till it encounters another obstacle. Designer: unstated Obstacles can be removed using Artist: unstated Treasure hunt among the coral one direction and a die action. the die action fire torpedo: The Distribution: Speciality stores reefs around the sunken temple Possible die actions are placing torpedo hits and removes the Price: ca. 25,00 Euro of Atlantis! Players navigate their a compass, relocating a coral reef first submarine, the first compass Publisher: Lego Spiele 2010 submarine around the reefs and or firing a torpedo, if you want to. or the first coral reef in its line of www.spiele.lego.de collect treasures. They use com- Movement of the submarine is sight. If you hit a submarine, you passes, block fellow players and blocked by another submarine, a collect one of it’s treasures and fire torpedoes to remove obsta- compass, a coral reef, the edge of your move ends. If your subma- EVALUATION cles in their way. the board or the temple of Atlan- rine encounters a treasure, you In your turn you have two ac- tis. There is a special rule for the take it and your turn ends. The Adventure game For families tions in any order: Move your compass: When the submarine first player to collect three treas- Roll die, move, collect treasure submarine as far as possible in encounters a compass, it stops, ures wins the game. Comments Atlantis Treasure again offers Buildable Die a fabulous implementation of Fantastic components a standard topic using Lego Mechanisms fit the topic very well Players are encouraged to invent blocks and the buildable die. variants The rule suggests variations for Compares to using coral reefs or compasses Other Lego games and you can publish your own ideas for the game on the Lego home-page. The treasure hunt among the coral reefs is fund and the additional rules allow for some tactics.

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 12 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at CAESAR & CLEOPATRA / COMMANDER KIKERIKI t PLAYED FOR YOU

ish your hand and then turn up a INFORMATION vote-of-confidence card. Action PLAYERS AGE TIME CAESAR & CLEOPATRA cards – spies, scouts, wrath of 2 10+ 30+ WHO WINS THE FIGHT FOR EGYPT? the gods, switch, assault or veto - are implemented immediately. Designer: Wolfgang Lüdtke If you have most influence at the Artist: Franz Vohwinkel Caesar and Cleopatra quarrel a hand card stack, you cannot stack in a vote of confidence you Distribution: Kauffert about Egypt. Using legal and less look at the reserve stacks again win the topmost patrician. When Price: ca. 20,00 Euro legal means they try to twin he after setting them aside. Finally, the orgy card appears, there is no Publisher: Kosmos 2010 real powers in Rome, the patri- you draw your special task from vote of confidence. 8 influence www.kosmos.de cians, for their cause. These pa- the “influence bonus cards”, the cards next to a stack also initiate tricians are laid out in five stacks rest of these cards is taken out of a vote of confidence. When all together with a stack of vote-of- the game. patricians have been given out EVALUATION confidence cards. Both players Cleopatra begins. You play one or if a player is out of influence have an identical deck of cards face-down or two open influ- cards, the game ends. You score Card game for two with For families that they must separate to their ence cards to a patrician’s stack, victory points for patricians, ma- Play cards for majorities own taste into reserve stacks and may play an action card, replen- jorities in groups of patricians Kommentar and influence bonuses. New edition, first published 1997 In this new edition the game Simple rules - Gut, fast game for 2 has been packed elegantly in a Luck and tactics are well balanced tin box under the heading Classic Vergleichbar for Two. An absolutely appropri- All placement games with direct comparison for ate heading, the game is 13 years majorities after its first appearance still one of the best card games for two, with a good mix of luck and tactics and good rules, interesting for beginners as well as experienced players.

tray! Move your catcher up and INFORMATION down in order to push the eggs PLAYERS AGE TIME COMMANDER KIKERIKI into your cart to slide them into 2-4 5+ 15+ STOP THE ALIEN CHICKEN! your catcher. Eggs that fall off Alternate name: Cosmic Chicken the slide are placed back into Autor: nicht genannt the egg tray. When all eggs have Grafik: nicht genannt The spaceship from Planet Chick- the cockpit. Four Astro slides are been collected, the player with Vertrieb A: Hasbro Österreich en, piloted by the Evil Chicken situated radially around the sta- the most asteroid eggs in his Preis: ca. 25,00 Euro himself, wants to spread asteroid tion, including carts and Asteroid catcher wins. For a reward he Verlag: Hasbro / MB 2010 eggs around in order to take over Egg Catchers. At the start of the may press the blue button on the www.hasbro.de earth. Players try to collect the as- game place all twelve eggs into spaceship and send the evil alien teroid eggs to ward off the inva- the egg tray. Each player choos- chicken back into space. sion. To set up the game adult as- es one of the catchers and sits For years Hasbro has been amus- EVALUATION sistance is necessary. On a central down in front of his own catcher. ing children with ever new and space station the spaceship from Now the station can be switched funny ideas for games, realized Action- and acquisition game For children Planet Chicken is docked, with on. As soon as the spaceship lifts with gimmicks that are lavishly Move bowl, catch eggs the evil alien chicken sitting in off asteroid eggs roll out of the and painstakingly put together. Comments Cosmic Chickens fits well into Adult assistance necessary for this parade that has also featur- assembly ing Loopin’ Louie or Giggle Wig- Funny idea Lavish game unit gle. The mechanism is similar to Very simple rules that of Hungry Hungry Hippo, Batteries needed but the game offers a funny Compares to story, a fascinating gimmick and Hungry Hungry Hippo and very good training of hand-eye- other action games with marble aquisition coordination, spatial sense and controlled movements.

www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 13 PLAYED FOR YOU u DIE MAGIER / GRIMAFFEN

for a card and a magic roll. There INFORMATION are only 2x7 cards available for PLAYERS AGE TIME DIE MAGIER three players, so you have to 3 10+ 60+ RIVALS FOR THE KING’S FAVOR confront other magicians to win cards from them. The dice Designer: M. und J. Rüttinger have the shape of rune sticks, Artist: not stated Die Magier is the first game in a game and a game for only three show eyes and symbols and are Distribution: Simba Toys lovely, attractive series of games players. thrown. You take the dice, make Price: je ca. 30,00 Euro linked by design and theme, Players are magicians on the an eye throw and move your Publisher: Noris Spiele 2010 together with Feuersalamander hunt for the 7 lost cards from magician and your apprentice. www.noris-spiele.de and Das Blaue Amulett. All three the King’s tarot game. They are The apprentice moves the sum games were first published be- accompanied by their appren- of the eyes thrown on the paths tween 1985 and 1987 and have tices and search for the cards at and may enter magic squares. A EVAULATION been re-published in nearly 7 magical locations. The basic magician jumps from one magic identical design on occasion of mechanisms are rolling the dice, square to the next and may not Dice and set collection game For families the 25 year jubilee. Die Magier is move your magician and/or ap- step on the paths. He moves the Move, confront other magicians still a beautiful game, still a good prentice, fight another magician number of eyes on the stick of his Comments colour. If magician and appren- Re-Edition for the 25 year jubilee tice meet on a magic square the For three players only magician gets a card. If a magi- Very pretty design Standard mechanisms cian fights another the winner gets a card from the loser. Finally Compares to Basically All dice and set the apprentice can make a magic collection games throw on symbol spots. Due to the number of players alliances change continually in the quest for the tarot cards. If you own a complete set of 7 cards you have won.

monkey business on the disc INFORMATION you turned over. When you have PLAYERS AGE TIME GRIMAFFEN finished, you turn the disc face- 2-6 5+ 20+ CLAP YOUR HANDS, SHOW YOUR TEETH down again. All other players in their turn roll the die and turn up Designer: Reiner Knizia a corresponding disc. If a stack is Artist: Dynamo The monkey gang in the zoo roll the die and turn over the finished, choose any other stack. Distribution: Speciality store monkeys about! Players embody top disc from the stack in the You add the new disc face-up to Price: ca. 13,00 Euro the funny little monkeys and try colour shown on the die. If you the row of others and must now Publisher: Selecta 2010 to imitate sounds and gestures roll a banana you may choose mimic all the monkey business www.selecta-spielzeug.de and funny faces as exactly as a disc. Disc colours correspond on all face-down tiles in correct possible and in the correct order. to different kinds of monkey order. If you manage all monkey The image discs are sorted ac- business: Monkey around with business correctly you turn the EVALUATION cording to their backside colour your hands, make the noise, pull open-faced tile back over and and stacked face down. monkey faces, make the animal pass the turn to the next play- Memory and mimicking game For Children If you are the last one to have sound or monkey about with er. If you make a mistake you Perform mimicking tasks in order eaten a banana, you begin: You your arms. Now you mimic the are out of the game! The next Comments player continues with the tile Simple mechanisms you turned over! The last player Pretty, self-explaining motives still in play wins the game and is Series Clevermacher Lernspiele Multilingual rules crowned Monkey King. Grimaffen is a nice fast game. Compares to The monkey faces are fun to Grimassimix make, the images on the discs are self-explaining and the correct mimicking is easily checked by the other players. Motor skills, observation and memory are the skills trained in this game within the Clever maker learning game series.

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 14 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at HORSE FEVER / KARIBA t PLAYED FOR YOU

action cards that you hold. Then INFORMATION a second betting round follows. PLAYERS AGE TIME HORSE FEVER The race is a two-part affair. First 2-5 10+ 90+ GETTING RICH BY BETTING ON HORSES the action cards with the horses are turned up and implemented. Designer: L. Silva, L. T. Sorrentino Then horses are moved by turn- Artist: G. Ghigini, A. F. Ferrara Players are rich and want to be- stables, assistants, target cards ing up one movement card after Distribution: Heidelberger come the „Best Better Ever”. So or action cards and take out the other, horses are moved ac- Price: ca. 35,00 Euro you try to place the best bets in loans; 2 – Betting and race fixing; cording their odds, as stated on Publisher: Cranio Creations 2009 a pre-set number of rounds to 3 – Race and a 4 – Auction, you the card. After each card the two www.craniocreations.com win victory points and money. can sell or buy a victory point for Sprint Dice are rolled and the re- To do so you must fix races, buy money in auctions. The interest- sult is implemented. When each horses and stables, pay your as- ing features are the fixing of the horse has passed the finish line, EVALUATION sistants, win auctions and take race and the race itself. Fixing the bets are paid out and then out loan from the bookies. The happens by playing action cards the odds adjusted for the next Horse race game With friends rounds comprise the phases next to the horses after the first round. At the end you pay pack Buy and run horses, fix race, bet 1 – Purchase , you buy horses, round of bets. You must play all the loans plus interest; if you do Comments not have enough money, you Topic very nicely transferred to the lose immediately. Then victory game - Good, compact rules in four points are scored from all your languages - Well-working simulation Variants for a family game and a party assets. The rules list variants for a game shorter family game and a party Compares to game. Win, plae & Show, Kopf Horse Fever is a very well made an Kopf and other horse and well working simulation, racing games with the right amount of luck thrown in and a lot of tactics, combined with period touches and lots of fun, especially in the party variant.

immediate neighbouring posi- INFORMATION tion be empty of animals, you PLAYERS AGE TIME KARIBA cannot chase away any animal, 2-4 7+ 15+ JOSTLING FOR ROOM AT THE WATER as any animal can only chase away its direct neighbour. BUT Designer: Reiner Knizia the mouse with 1 chases away Artist: unstated African animals meet at Lake the elephant. Cards are shuffled the elephant with 9. If you were Distribution: Piatnik Kariba. Space is scarce and the and 5 dealt to each player, the able to chase away animals, you Price: ca. 25,00 Euro animals jostle and push other rest is stacked for a draw pile. pick them up and place them on Publisher: Goliath Toys 2010 animals away to reach the wa- You play one or several cards of the table in front of you. At the www.goliathgames.de ter. 72 cards show 9 different the same animal and place them end of your turn replenish your animals, each animal is marked in the grass at the position with hand to hold 5 cards again. with a number – the higher the the animal’s number. If three or If you play your last card, you EVALUATION number the stronger the ani- more of these animals are now end the game, the player with mal! Numbers begin at 1 for the present, they chase away weaker the most cards before him wins. Card collecting game For families mouse and go up to 4 for the animals of a lower number di- The rules recommend to play 3 Play, take other cards as a result Zebra or 6 for the buffalo to 9 for rectly next to them. Should the rounds and to make a note of Comments the number of cards. After three Very attractive components rounds the player with the high- Well-known topic ideally imple- est total score wins. mented Simple rules Kariba offers a very nice and at- Nice family game tractive variant of a well-known Compares to mechanism. It is fun to play and Variants of Scissor-Stone- a little planning is possible, if Paper you pay a lot of attention and try to count the number of cards played. This will enable you to make good use of your cards at the right time!

www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 15 PLAYED FOR YOU u KÖNNEN SCHWEINE FLIEGEN? / MY VERY FIRST GAMES

player may place all his chips, but INFORMATION only one chip can be placed on KÖNNEN FLIEGEN? PLAYERS AGE TIME SCHWEINE a card. 2-4 5+ 15+ DISCOVER ANIMALS AND Then you control the answers in THEIR CHARACTERISTICS the solution booklet: For each Designer: Sonja Häßler correctly marked characteristic Artist: F. Scheinberger, R. Mörtl 24 characteristics are listed in the Within the circle you place the you advance your pig one step, Distribution: Kauffert game, connected to varying as- track. Each player takes a pig for each falsely marked charac- Price: ca. 20,00 Euro pects of animal life: It lays eggs, and four chips of the same col- teristic you move one step back. Publisher: Kosmos 2010 has 2, 4 or 6 legs, has a fur, can fly, our, the pigs are placed on the The player farthest advanced on www.kosmos.de lives in groups, has a peak, is an cloud spots of the track. In each the track after five rounds wins endangered or extinct species, round one animal is turned up the game. The rule book states has a carapace, is night-active from the stack. If you discern a variants for younger players from EVALUATION and so on. These characteristics fitting characteristic, you place age 3 and for getting acquainted are laid out in a circle within easy your chip on it. When two play- with the game. Quiz game For children reach of all players. The animal ers want to mark the same card In this edition, too, this game is Mark animal characteristics cards are stacked face down. the faster one may do so. Each ideally suited for a family game Comments a fast and highly interesting in- New edition - Lots of information in troduction for children into the the solution booklet - Self-monitoring fascination world of animals. The is possible - Trains observation and reaction game also is. For the first game with children of preschool-age Compares to Können Schweine fliegen supervision is necessary, you Small game, othe quiz need to explain the character- games on animals istics. The solutions can be used and understood without reading abilities. With some animals speed is essential, because for them very few characteristics are listed.

fits. The first player to be rid of his INFORMATION animal wins. PLAYERS AGE TIME MY VERY FIRST GAMES Gute Nacht – A role playing 1-4 2+ 5+ GAMES FOR TODDLERS game as a bedtime story and Alternate Name: Meine ersten Spiele two colour dice games: 1, 2, 3 Designer: Haba Team Schlaf, Träumerle, schlaf – you Artist: I. Frömelt, S. Krinke The series „my very first games“ colour. 1, 2, 3 – große Sammelei: roll the die and place Träumerle Distribution: Game stores features simple games to teach The animals are stacked accord- on this cloud bed. If a star is on Price: je ca. 20,00 Euro adhering to rules and to train col- ing to colour. You roll the die and the bed you take it. When all Publisher: Haba 2010 our recognition, fine motor skills take the top piece for this animal. stars are given out, the player www.haba.de and symbol and pattern recogni- When all pieces are given out, with most stars wins. Sternen- tion. Materials and components the player with most pieces wins. himmel – all stars are distributed are made fitting to age and are Und weg ist das Tier: Each player among the players, you roll the EVALUATION lovely to touch and feel. gets a piece in each colour and die and place Träumerle on the Bauen & Stapeln Zoolino uses sets up the animal. Then you roll next cloud of this colour. If a star Würfel- und Lernspiel Für Kinder a die and three animals made the die and may set aside the top is on the cloud, you may set a Verschiedene, meist Farbwürfel up from three pieces 1 in each piece of your animal, if the colour star into the sky. If you are out of Comments stars first, you win. Supervision necessary Stoff-Memo Paulina – Beauti- Components adapted to target ful cloth pictures and two sets group age Very simple rules of rules: Paulinas Pferdeparade – Trains first adhering to rules one image of a pair is turned up, Compares to the other one turned over. You Other games of the series point to an open card and turn up one of the covered ones. With very small children you can turn up a covered one and let them point to the open one. Paulina- Memo uses standard memory rules.

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 16 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at MEINE FREUNDIN CONNI / MIMIK MEMO t PLAYED FOR YOU

picture and marked with the INFORMATION magnifying glass. In a variant all PLAYERS AGE TIME MEINE FREUNDIN CONNI search simultaneously for the 1-4 3+ 10+ CONNI IM KINDERGARTEN item. Lustige Fotosuche uses Designer: Kai Haferkamp the topic ring to determine an image, this image must be set Artist: Freudenreich, Wenzel-Bürger Conni is a character in the stories a collecting game, the spinner into the picture. A variant uses Distribution: Kauffert by Liane Schneider, published points at a shape in the topic the „teeming“ pictures too. Im- Price: ca. 25,00 Euro at Carlsen Verlag. After „Conni ring. If the shape is missing you ages are hidden beneath them Publisher: kOSMOS 2010 kommt in die Schule“ a second can place it. If is not missing any- and are asked for if you do not www.kosmos.de game now features Conni in a more, you can look underneath find them under your own pic- collection of educational games, the crocodile – if you find Cat ture. Flinkes Aufräumspiel is called „Conni kommt in den Kin- Mau you may take any item. a memory game. Conny points EVALUATION dergarten“, aimed at pre-school Conni findet was is a move and out a colour in the topic ring, children and offering training of search game. Conni points to an A set of educational games players try to find the colours on For children shapes, colours and motor skills. item on the topic ring. This item the back sides of the items, cor- Combine colours and shapes Bunte Kindergartentasche is must be found on the “teeming” responding items are placed into Comments the bag board. Conni as identification character On the spinner, crocodile Fri- Beautiful material, good to handle Pretty design and components dolin always sits above the cor- Variants listed rect picture or image, this self- Canbe played alone monitoring mechanism is very Compares to attractive and easy to handle. All Other educational games the games are simple and easily on the topics understood, the components are pretty and made to children’s needs and Conni as an identification character makes the games more interesting.

did not find a pair, you roll the die INFORMATION and the monkey moves along PLAYERS AGE TIME MIMIK MEMO the banana path. If all pairs are 2-6 3-8 15+ TRAINING FOR LIP AND TONGUE found before the monkey reach- MOTOR ACTIVITY es the end of the path all players Designer: Markus Nikisch have won together. Artist: Annet Rudolph At long last making faces is al- Theatre you pick out the same 8 For a play of Who will be Ba- Distribution: Game stores lowed! 16 different animal heads animals twice, shuffle all of them nana King? you place 8 animal Price: ca. 6,00 Euro make the most diverse, diverting and place them face down de- tiles face down, the green tiles Publisher: Haba 2010 and different faces, each of them pending on colour border. 15 ba- for the same animals are placed www.haba.de is in the pack twice, once on a tile nana cards are placed in a row to open around the blue tiles, the with a blue border and once on a make a path; the monkey stands monkey starts on any green tile. tile with a green border. Further- on the first card. You turn up a You roll the die, move the mon- EVALUATION more, there are one dice, one green card and all players make key and make the face of the an- monkey pawn and 24 banana the face from the card. Then you imal reached. Then you turn up Cooperative memo/mimic game For children cards in the box. turn up a blue card. If you have one of the blue tiles and receive a Make faces, find pairs For the game variant Monkey found a pair, you keep it. If you banana card for each pair found. Comments If you turned up a wrong animal, Nice combination of mechanisms all players imitate the face of the Cooperative control of the faces - animal on the blue card. The first Difficulty level adjustable by number of cards player to have collected three Compares to cards wins the game. Grimassimix and other Mimik Memo offers a very well- mimic games made combination of the easy memo mechanism with training for lips and tongue, the mirror offers the opportunity for children to play alone and to control the faces.

www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 17 PLAYED FOR YOU u SECTOR 41 / SPACE PIRATES

board. You also can fold space INFORMATION by using the Mother Ship tile to PLAYERS AGE TIME SECTOR 41 push forward a complete col- 2-4 12+ 90+ THE GLYNIUM WARS umn and then place the pushed- put tile in front of your Mother Designer: M. Lachtanksi, D. Long Ship, which is then back where Artist: not stated Sector 41 is a dangerously insta- Ships carrying explorers start it was. An explorer moves in any Distribution: Verlag ble galactic sector and nobody in the middle of the four sides. directions, can turn up tiles and Price: ca. 35,00 Euro knows whether it is supposedly You transport Glynium to the implement them. The Guardian Publisher: Scimitar Games 2009 cursed since eternity or if you can Mother Ship with your explorers is a random factor, he acceler- www.scimitargames.com a very instable and immensely and score points for the Glynium ates during the game, turns up valuable element there – Glyni- colour. tiles and can remove Glynium um! Players are rivalling races on A turn has the Phases Mother or explorers from the game. The EVALUATION the hunt for Glynium. The board Ship, Explorer - with Combat and game ends, when nobody can is laid out from 81 face-down Glynium transport - and Guard- catch up with the current leader, SciFi themed game With friends tiles, the middle on is turned up ian. The Mother Ship moves up or when all Glynium has been Move, use tiles, collect items and holds the Guardian. Mother to two steps along the side of the collected. The player with most Comments points wins. Variable board Topic and basic mechanisms English language edition only aren’t new, but nicely combined. German rules available Short basic rule, lots of tile explanati- Folding space and the Guard- on - Can be lengthy towards the end ian are especially neat and can Comapres to wreath havoc with your plans. All SciFi-Games Tiles are text-free and you must consult a list to find out what they do, it takes a few games to remember their functions and to be able to plan a bit. All in all a neat game that can get lengthy in the end. The rules list some variants.

partially or completely covers INFORMATION a freighter, you have entered it PLAYERS AGE TIME SPACE PIRATES and search the load. Goods you 2-4 8+ 60+ THE UNIVERSE IS YOUR HUNTING GROUND keep, an asteroid damages your Alternate Name: Raumpiraten ship and you may encounter Designer: Christophe Boelinger the Galactic Police. If you meet Artist: C. Madura, F. Condette Players are space pirates and an energy card and first enact the police you can do nothing Distribution: Hutter / Piatnik chase space freighters to loot the events noted on the card. else but fly to the next shipyard Price: ca. 30,00 Euro their load of minerals, precious Then you move your ship using and pay your penalty to get rid Publisher: Sirius / Zvezda 2009 metals, high-tech components movement tiles as stated on the of the police. If you are out of www.hutter.net or diamond salts. The universe is cards. You place them starting energy cards or a blocked your laid out randomly on a smooth at your ship next to each other, ship drifts. In the shipyards you surface, pirate ships start in the each one can be shifted a maxi- can buy the yard or look at mar- EVALUATION space shipyards. And here comes mum of 90° compared to the ket cards, sell you load or fuel the first surprise of the game, the previous one. So you lay out the your ship. If you own a shipyard SciFi-Tabletop With friends freighters are moved by snipping flight path and move your ship and have amassed a capital of 20 Move ship, use cards them across the table. You play to the end. If a movement tile Mega-Credits you win. Comments This game basically uses stand- A fun and interesting combination of ard topics with standard, card elements driven mechanisms. But the fun Very beautiful components Good rules lays in the tabletop elements of moving the ships. The snipping Compares to Tabletops, SciFI games and of the freighters influences the all card-driven games game massively. You can place a freighter ideally for your ship to encounter, but can take penalty for overturning the freighter or shooting it out of the known universe.

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 18 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at SPIEL DES WISSENS PLANET ERDE / tiptoi t PLAYED FOR YOU

You roll the die, move and an- INFORMATION swer a question. A wrong answer PLAYERS AGE TIME SPIEL DES WISSENS ends your move immediately 2-6 8+ 60+ PLANET ERDE and you must either stop on the THE QUIZ GAME FOR ALL THE FAMILY small spots, or go back two po- Designer: unstated sitions from a so called explorer Artist: unstated In this special edition of Spiel des cave world, deep sea world and spot or even go back 7 position Distribution: Gubic Wissens, based on the BBC TV desert world. On each question from one or the world spots. In Price: ca. 20,00 Euro series and the film of the same cards questions are separated your turn you can up to three Publisher: Jumbo 2010 name, players travel round our into an easy and a hard section, times roll the die, move and an- www.jumbo.eu planet. To be able to travel the two in each section. At the start swer correctly. If you manage must be able to answer ques- of the game players decide to- that, you get another free roll + tions. In this edition questions gether who gets which difficulty move. If you reach a world spot, EVALUATION come from a general category level throughout the game. Be- you must stop and – in case of called Nature and from 6 spe- fore each question the player de- a correct answer – you can pick Quiz game For families cial so called worlds – mountain cides if wants to answer question up a world ring for your pawn. Roll, move, answer correctly world, jungle world, ice world, 1 or question 2 on the card. Special rules apply for the finish Comments area beyond the deep see world. Special edition for the series If you reach the finish first with 6 Well-known basic mechanisms rings on your pawn you win. Rules in the shape of a table Questions in two levels of difficulty Spiel des Wissens is and has been always a good game, and Compares to Other editions of Spiel des so is this special edition. The se- Wissens and other quiz and lection of questions is especially trivia games good and interesting here. And having to move back for a wrong answer really hurts! A nice detail is the rules table for what happens on what kind of spot in case of a wrong or right answer. All in all the game is as interesting and informative as the series.

newly developed Wieso? We- INFORMATION shalb? Warum? Books, five edu- PLAYERS AGE TIME tiptoi cational games and even an 1-4 6-10 var AUDIODIGITAL LEARNING interactive globe based on the puzzleball system. Designer: several For easy entry into the system Artist: several Learning system with self-mon- based on OID technology. The two starter sets are available, one Distribution: Ravensburger itoring of answers have for dec- optical sensor transforms invis- pen+book, one pen+game. If Price: ca. 20,00 bis 40,00 Euro ades been favourites for children ible codes into sound. you want to use further books or Publisher: Ravensburger 2010 and parents alike, already since If you tap on book pages or games, you download the neces- www.ravensburger.de the times of Elektrokontakt – if game boards with the tiptoi sary files via USB-cable onto the you touch the right contacts, a pen, the pen asks questions, pen, free of charge. The book little lamp alights! confirms correct answers, tells starter set includes Entdecke den EVALUATION Ravensburger has now trans- stories, relays information and Bauernhof, the titles of the other ferred this basic principle for leads through challenging puz- books are Die Welt der Musik, Educational system For children the 21st century – tiptoi is an zles and scanning games. Sicher im Straßenverkehr and Use pen, react to pen audio-digital learning method The pen can be used for four Entdecke den Flughafen. Comments The game Die Englisch-Detektive New technology is included in the game starter Impressive combination of possibili- set, the other games are called ties to use Easy to play alone Das Geheimnis der Zahleninsel, Magors Lesezauber, Reise durch Compares to die Jahreszeiten and Abenteuer New product Tierwelt. Of course book and game from the starter set are available without pen. The globe adds the challenge of first puz- zling it together correctly. tiptoi is a fascinating system al- lowing for individual speed and self-reliant learning and provid- ing lots of fun. www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 19 PLAYED FOR YOU u TOMB: CRYPTMASTER / VOLLDAMPF VORAUS!

dispel curse . Turn actions again INFORMATION are either card actions or any PLAYERS AGE TIME TOMB: CRYPTMASTER of the following: draw, recruit, 2-6 12+ 120+ RAID THE CRYPT. GAIN EXPERIENCE move, heal, pickpocket, return to the inn (flee) or raid a crypt. At Designer: Brent Keith the end of the turn mercenaries Artist: Carl Frank und andere Tomb Cryptmaster is another The crypts are prepared at the are paid and team members are Distribution: Pegasus game in the Tomb series, inde- beginning of the game and you replaced or dismissed. Combat Price: ca. 47,00 Euro pendent and yet fully compat- recruit your team in the inn. This and other decisions are based Publisher: Alderac 2009 ible with the original game. You is also the place to study new on the roll of dice and character- www.alderac.com lead a team of adventurers into a tactics, learn spells, gather equip- specific values. When all crypts tomb to explore ancient crypts. ment or plot against other par- have been raided and are empty, This version puts the emphasis ties. A turn consists of: Use free the game ends and the winner is EVALUATION on the Crpytmaster opposing actions, use turn action and End the player with most experience the players and introduces two of turn. Free actions come from points. Fantasy Dungeon Crawl With friends new card types – Curses and your hand or are standard ones Tomb: Cryptmaster seamlessly Move, use actions, follow cards Overlords. like equip, share, bank, rest or fits into the series of all those Comments Fantasy Dungeon Crawls, that StandardDungeon Crawl try since the appearance of Dun- Beautiful components and graphics geons & Dragons to bring the Lots of in-game text English edition only role playing games of that gen- re to the board with a sensible compares to amount of time needed to play. Doom, Descent and others Tomb Cryptmaster is beautifully made, with attractive components and a good rule, a worthy addition of the library of any fan of dice- and card-driven Fantasy Dungeon Crawls.

up a card and then choose one INFORMATION of the four cards. When the first PLAYERS AGE TIME VOLLDAMPF VORAUS! player has a complete train on 2-4 5+ 15+ TRAIN READY FOR DEPARTURE! his card, he stacks the wagon cards next to his board and takes Designer: Thilo Hutzler the wooden engine. Any other Artist: Peter Braun The three train engines on the to the corresponding engine on player completing a train stacks Distribution: Game stores station board of each player your station board. A crane car is it in the same way; the second Price: ca. 9,00 Euro need wagons. The game holds a joker and can replace any wag- and third trains are stacked on Publisher: Haba 2009 tiles with the three different on; a junction operator allows top of the first stack. After each www.haba.de kinds of wagons, plus three con- you to steal a card from a fellow completed train the stacks are ductors, two crane wagons and player. Then the operator is dis- compared and the wooden en- two junction operators. All wag- carded for this round. A wagon gine goes to the player with the EVALUATION ons are shuffled and placed face card showing the conductor highest stack. When the third down, four cards are turned up. cannot be taken; it stays on the conductor is turned up, the Set collection with railway topic For children You start the game by taking one table face up. The next and all round ends. The player who cur- Place tiles for complete trains wagon card and placing it next other players after him first turn rently holds the wooden engine Comments receives a glass nugget. All cards Rather abstract set collection despite are reshuffled for the next round. railway topic - Very pretty components - Random mechanism only You win the game, if you collect Comapres to your second nugget. Each random set collection games Volldampf voraus is a very simple easy game with very simple rules and a random only mechanism. This simple mechanism allows children to play alone after having the game explained, or younger children can play when assisted.

Colour codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 20 ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 22 and 23 www.gamesjournal.at WILDE BANDE / ZOOLORETTO MINI t PLAYED FOR YOU

group on tourist or animal group INFORMATION on animal group. If you cannot PLAYERS AGE TIME WILDE BANDE play any of these cards you pass 2-4 5+ 15+ KROKODIL DOES NOT GO WITH ELEPHANT for the round and keep your remaining cards. The last one Designer: Haim Shafir in play receives all cards in the Artist: Jackie Stafford two discard stacks. Then all take Distribution: Berg Toy Lion, elephant, crocodile, giraffe, an animal on one of the stacks up their cards again for the next Price: ca. 10,00 Euro shark, zebra and ostrich banded and draws a card. You must place round. When the draw pile is fin- Publisher: Amigo Spiele 2010 together and roam the savan- an animal that is the same as one ished play goes one till someone www.amigo-spiele.de nahs, but for tourists they smile on the stacks. You can also place wins the two discard stacks. This peacefully for a picture. The a tourist as a joker or play the player also gets all hand cards cards are shuffled, each player card with the animal group to from all players. You win, if you EVAULATION receives 6 cards. The first two change the kind of animal you have most cards. need to play. Of course you can The common mechanisms to Card placement game players place one animal each For children from their hand on the table. play tourist on tourist or tourist discard cards has been varied Place cards on demand on an animal group or animal very nicely, the discarding in turn Then in turn each player placed Comments takes away the hurry. The solu- Series: Der kleine Amigo Spielspaß tions for not being able to play für Groß & Klein - Very pretty version any card as well as for the end of of a well-known card placement mechanism - No speed factor the round and end of the game are very nice, too. This sweet little Compares to Uno and other games with and quick card game fills exactly discarding of cards on the demands set for the series demand “Der kleine Amigo Spielspaß für Groß & Klein”: Simple rules, lots of fun, nice design, easy to carry around. And as in all games of the series the fluffy plush star mascot is included.

and put it on any of the wagons. INFORMATION If you take a wagon you must PLAYERS AGE TIME ZOOLORETTO MINI place the animals on it in your 2-5 7+ 30+ ERDMÄNNCHEN, GIRAFFE OR IMPALA zoo, following detailed rules. If two animals of a kind are to- Designer: Michael Schacht gether in an enclosure they pro- Artist: Design/Main You own a zoo and try to fill the player you place a transport duce offspring. If you fill the last Distribution: Piatnik enclosures with animals and to wagon on the table, the number spot in an enclosure, you have a Price: ca. 16,00 Euro beautify them with landscape of available animals is adjusted bonus action. When all players Publisher: Abacusspiele 2010 tiles to score points. Spare ani- to the number of players and have taken a lorry, a new round www.abacusspiele.de mals must be placed in the barn you also prepare an end-of- starts. When the first tile of the and deduct points from your game stack of tiles. end-of-game stack is turned score at the end. You play in rounds: Each player up, the round is finished and EVALUATION Animal and landscape tiles are must either place a tile onto a then the game is scored. Each shuffled face down into a com- wagon or take any wagon and enclosure scores you points de- Placement game For families mon pile, the offspring animals pass for the round. To place a pending on the kind animals in Place tiles, score points are placed open-faced. For each tile you draw one from the bag it, each landscape scores you 2 Comments points. Animal or landscape tiles Short version of Zooloretto that you had to place in the bard Without money, visitors ore expan- reduce your score by 2 points for sions Very easy to play each tile. Short playing time Zooloretto mini is a simplified Compares to version of Zooloretto. The money Zooloretto, Aquaretto transactions have been left out, as have been the visitors and the zoo expansions. This short version plays simpler and more clearly laid out, it is a fantastic fast family game and a good entry game into the Zooloretto Universe. www.gamesjournal.at ISSUE 413 / SEPTEMBER 2010 21 NEW ARRIVALS u A QUICK LOOK ON THE LATEST GAMES

ACTIVITY MY FIRST GEOMETRY PIRATES MINI Publisher: Piatnik Publisher: Haba Designer: Hablit, Eberl, Catty Designer: Wolfgang Dirscherl The elephants „Lila“ and „Grün“ are on their way to A set of games on the topic of geometry in the se- the lake. The variable board allows a short or a longer ries „LernSpielSpaß“, based on the game „Geometry game. Children play in two teams following the usual Pirates“. Players have found the treasure of Pirat Geo- rules of Activity. When the term is guessed correctly metricus and play several games with it. Depending the elephant goes to the next colour square corre- on the game you use area shapes or spatial shapes, sponding to the one shown on the card. Terms are the games demand either finding of shapes using a illustrated with pictures. Activity My First is a very well memo mechanism or recognizing forms when asked working version for small children, which also should or finding / recognizing which forms are missing. For work well for children in their first years of school. an advanced version the area and special shapes can New edition of “Activity Kinder”. be mixed. Alternate Name: Geometrie-Piraten

A game of communication for 3-16 children, ages 4 and up A set of learning games for 2-4 players, ages 5 and up

HALLI GALLI DELUXE MAGIC POTION Publisher: Amigo Publisher: Fun Frag Designer: Haim Shafir Designer: Veronique Debroise A pretty and colourful fruit salad of bananas, straw- Magic Potion is a wonderful childrens’ version of Mas- berries, plums and lemons is distributed among all termind. Players are supposed to find the secret for- players. You turn up the top card of your stack. When mula of the magic potion. The potion always contains you spot five identical fruits around the table, you a toad, a leaf and a flower, either in red, lilac or green. must hit the bell instantly. The fastest player receives Merlin gives hints, if a recipe is correct. Therefore you all open discard piles and places all cards under his need a maximum of 9 recipes to find the correct for- stack. If you make a mistake, you must give one card mula. Players alternate in being Merlin and setting to each player. If you are out of cards, you must quit task for the other player. Merlin answers to a formula the game. When only two players are left, they play card with number cards 0,1, or 2 depending on the for the two remaining stacks. After that the player number of corresponding ingredients. If you need with most cards wins the game. Luxury edition in a fewer questions to find 3 recipes you win. tin box. Alternate Name: Potion Magique A game of reaction for 2-6 players, ages 6 and up A game of logic for 2 players, ages 7 and up

NMBRS! RUPERT BÄR DOMINO Publisher: A&JK Productions Publisher: Schmidt Spiele Designer: Korneel Joppe The game comprises number cards from 1-100, each 28 domino cards feature Rupert Bear and his friends with a scoring value between 1 and 3. You start with Edward, Bill, Ping Pong, Raggety, Ming und Miranda. 7 cards and a score of 50. You must lay a minimum As in any other domino game the tiles are dealt to of three cards in a logical sequence, e.g. 2-4-8-16. You the players, depending on the number of players you may add cards to already laid-out sequences and you receive between 4 and 8 cards. One player starts the may connect sequences. If you have laid out cards, gamy by placing one tile, the others place tiles at eit- their scoring value is added to your total score. If you her end of the queue. If you cannot place a tile, you lay out all cards you end the round and all players de- draw a tile. You win, if you are the first to place all your duct the scoring values of their remaining cards from tiles. Edition packed in a tin. their total. If you reach or top 100, you win.

A game on numbers for 2-8 players, ages 7 and up A game of placement for 2-6 players, ages 3 and up

SET SMARTPHONE Publisher: Ravensburger Publisher: Smartgames/Jumbo Designer: Marsha Falco Designer: Raf Peeters 81 cards differ in number, colour, form and filling of A logic puzzle in the shape of a folding telephone the symbols. A set exists if on three cards each of the- and bearing a name that is program: Smartphone. 32 se four characteristics, scanned separately, is either puzzles are listed on four cards, always in the shape completely identical or completely different. Players of a 5 digit number and a name. The number must look for sets in a display of 3x4 cards that is always be formed by moving parts on the keyboard of the refilled when a set is taken away. Not an easy game, phone. The puzzles are assigned to difficulty levels as it needs a lot of getting used to controlling each from Starter to Master. A fun and challenging set of characteristic separately in this challenging game of puzzles, for in between or on the road, easy to carry observation and fast reactions. and hard to solve.

A game of scanning and logic for 2-8 players, ages 10 and up A set of logic puzzles for 1 player, ages 7 and up

TOP TRUMPS SPECIALS BEN 10 ALIEN FORCE WOALEY Publisher: Winning Moves Publisher: Grubbe Media

Choosing your card’s best attribute, beating (trum- Edition SOS-Kinderdörfer – Games around the World ping) your opponent’s card, and winning the cards – Sierra Leone: A version of Hus - Mancala – Oware played in the round – already a Classic! Cards are – Bao, very often also called pit or bean game, wide- dealt evenly to all players. The active player chooses spread in the tropic belt around the world. You start an attribute on his top card (no shuffling of the deck!) with 5 pebbles/beans/shells/pieces per pit. In your and calls out the corresponding value – all other play- turn you take all items from one of your pits in the ers check their cards for the value for this attribute – row in front of you and distribute the items one by the player with the highest value gets all cards of this one counter-clockwise to the following pits. When round. In case of a tie cards go on the table and the the last item ends up in a opposing pit with less than winner of the next round receives those too. 4 items, you take the content of that pit. You win, if Many theme sets, this edition: “Ben 10 Alien Force”. your opponent is out of items. Rules variants are listed. Card/Quiz game for 2 or more players from age 8 A game of placement for 2 players, ages 6 and up

Colour codes for target groups (Headline Colour) Colour codes for features (Bar in Evalution box) GABIS explanation on page 3 22 For children + learning With friends Chance Strategy Knowledge Communication Dexterity For families For experts Tactics Creativity Memory Interaction Action HIGHLIGHTS AMONG GAMES t FROM THE MUSEUM

RECOMMANDATION #55 HUGO KASTNER RECOMMENDS PLAYERS Designer: Thomas Fackler 2-4 Price: € 30,00 AGE TROIA Year: 2000 9+ Publisher: DaimlerChrysler AG Excavation through 5000 years TIME Dear readers! Not only the history of Troy is The more such finds you manage to achieve 60+ unusual, but also the history of how this game and the earlier you are able to publish, the of the same name, dedicated to archeological higher is the scientific value and your reputa- research, has come into existence. „Troia“ owes tion and success in this game. To begin with, Tactics Info+ Luck its creation by Thomas Fackler to an initiative the finds hiding valuable secrets of the dig „Troia“ is a well working mixture of tactical con- of the Daimler Crysler AG, an international cor- are carefully hidden behind a screen from the sideration, lucky moments in actual digging for wall parts and the well timed release of poration, that has been supporting digs in Troy eyes of your rivals in this archeological race. information in the shape of publications, The since 1988. And Crysler has not been stingy in What makes your job so immensely difficult allure of this archeological board game, that has been awarded a price for its elegance is the scientific support for the game either, be- is that you always may only pick up loose exceedingly high despite the unusal topic. cause an international team of archeologists, chunks of detritus. But your reward is huge, Hugos EXPERTTIP lead by Prof. Dr. Manfred Korfmann, has tested because step by step in the light of your pub- In deviation of the usual routine an advice con- cerning the ambiance for the game. Light is parts of the game on location. As regards to lications as a hobby archeologist an image essential for digging enthusiasts, otherweise historical authenticity Troy needs not fear any forms of the many-layered floor plans of this the level curves on the dig tiles are hard to dis- comparison. Thus the game has more than ancient settlement! Let yourself be inspired cern. In any case a glass of wine for the mature experts on the digging site cannot come amiss. earned the special award „History in Games“, by the transcendence of this archeological Furthermore, Troia is ideally suited for a rival dig- awarded by the “Jury Spiel des Jahres“ in the time travel. ging “pas a deux”, I would recommend 2 per- sons as an ideal number for a first game of Troia. year 2001. A final remark: 1966 the countryside Hugos FLASLIGHT near Troy was declared a historical National Remarks to: [email protected] „Troia“ is a real eyecatcher that can trigger a Park, the location itself was added in 1998 to Homepage: www.hugo-kastner.at real feeling of discovery with the right playing partners. This also thanks to the won- the honourable UNESCO list of „Cultural Herit- derful information brochure on the subject age of Mankind“. If you are looking for a real and the drawings of the historic floor plans rarity among games, you are cordially invited of this ancient settlement, that have been integrated into the game. A simple but fit- to a dig at the Austrian Games Museum in Le- ting mechanism allows each family member opoldsdorf. to delve deeply into the fascinating world of archeology ater a first training dig. Website: www.spielen.at PREVIEW: TEXAS HOLD `EM With more care and effort than usual the Start of the Pokermania cone of light must illuminate the appropriate finds during the troublesome digs in the mythical Troy. You, in the guise as a hobby archeologist, try in one hour of game play to reveal the secrets of Troy using a combination of luck and deduction. Finds are researched, floor plans reconstruction, research results published, just as in real life. Your goal is to be before your rivals, especially in case of the main publications. This is not easy, because the digs on the hills „Troia I“, „Troia II“ and on top of that „Troia VI“, „Troia VII“ and „Troia VIII/IX“, too, at first do not seem to be more that a mountain of debris. What else can you expect after 5000 years of history for this settlement? Each archeologist receives a license to dig and furthermore some maps that enable him to publish important finds. IMPRESSUM Offenlegung nach dem Mediengesetz: Medieninhaber, Eigentümer, Verleger und Hersteller: Verein „Österreichisches Spiele Museum“, vertre- ten durch Obfrau Dipl.Ing. Dagmar de Cassan, Raasdorferstrasse 28, 2285 Leopoldsdorf im Marchfelde, Telefon 02216-7000, Fax 02216-7000-3, mail-to: [email protected], Internet: www.gamesjournal.at - www.gamesjournal.at - Chefredakteur: Dipl.Ing. Dagmar de Cassan Blattlinie: Die Blattlinie ist die Meinung aller Redakteure, freien Mitarbeitern und Gastautoren. Die Spiele zur Erstellung der Rezensionen stellt das Österr. Spiele Museum für die Dauer der Arbeit kostenlos zur Verfügung. Niemand erhält Sach-,Service-, Geldleistungen von den Verlagen. (Alle Rezensionen zu den Spielen in ALLES GESPIELT und in NEU EINGETROFFEN sind von Dagmar de Cassan) Deutsche Ausgaben Version 1.0 Copyright (c) 2010 by Spielen in Österreich - Die Spiele Collection, Spiele Kreis Wien, Österreichisches Spielefest, Spielefest, Wiener Spiele Akademie, Spiel der Spiele und zwei Spiele-Symbole sind eingetragene Warenzeichen. Ihre Email-Adresse: Wir versenden oft an unsere Mitglieder, Abonnenten und Interessenten eine Erinnerung für Termine und sonstige Infos. Wenn Sie noch nie eine Email von uns erhalten haben, fehlt uns Ihre Email!

Icon explanation GABIS explanation on page 3 Solo Play Two Players Large Groups Recommended Minimum Age 23