The Games Journal

ISSUE 452 -JUNE 2013 ISSN 0257-361X Volume 37 THE GAMES JOURNAL www.gamesjournal.at INTERNATIONAL EDITION: IN THIS ISSUE WE PRESENT 56 GAMES OUR REVIEW u WUNDERLAND another strip of water there is Scandinavia; WE TRAVEL IN GROUPS but travelling is hypothetical anyway and the card is an exact copy of the Wunderland installation. All in all we have eight such WUNDERLAND areas and several location in each area; for FROM KNUFFINGEN TO SCANDINAVIA seven of those areas there are stacks of picture postcards which are placed open-faced on the corresponding storage areas on the „Oh no“, somebody is groaning in my group, from Scandinavia to the USA on 1300 m², board. Each player is dealt two destination „not really a travel game! Those are prehis- and we want to simulate a journey around cards which he keeps secret, but you your- toric game mechanisms, taken from ‘Reise Wunderland. self can check them anytime. One player durch …’, don’t tell me that we need to is handed the big brown locomotive for reach certain destinations and might even The basic mechanism really is that of all a starting player token and all players put have to collect souvenirs and answer ques- other travel games, you need to reach pre- tions to get those souvenirs?”“ set destinations and bring back souvenirs, Dagmar de Cassan in this case picture postcards. But that is al- If you like logistics and tactical planning with just the right „Oh yes, we must!“ - at least travel game ready the end of similarities! Let’s start at the amount of luck/chance, you will be happy trundling along and collecting are a fact, but there is no beginning! the tracks of Wunderland. trace of prehistoric in the manner of roll & move, answer questions, get the card for a We look at a map/board which shows a rath- their eight markers on Knuffingen, the start correct answer, and so on. We are looking at er random arrangement of geographical re- and finish location of each trip. the game version of Miniatur Wunderland, gions; Austria, for instance is situated next to the world-famous, huge model train instal- America, only separated by a narrow strip of In his turn the active player must move one lation in Hamburg that presents landscapes water, and on the other side of the US and or several of his markers, he can choose to Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 2 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at WUNDERLAND / 40 LINES FOR MEEPLES t OUR REVIEW move one or two steps, always along the So you must consider carefully how many lines; he can move any number of markers markers to take along and if you want to provided the start at the same location and collect post cards on the way. This group end the trip on the same location; he need travel also introduced a certain element of not move all markers that he has in location chance or luck; depending on the distribu- he wants to start the movement from. For tion of destination cards you might be lucky instance, he can move three of the eight to group-travel often and thus complete markers in Knuffingen two steps into Air- cards quicker or you might have to reach port & Bayern; the rest remains in Knuffin- your destinations alone and step by step. gen and he must place all three markers into the second location and cannot place Despite its topic Wunderland is more of a one on the first location entered in this logistic game than a travel game; the inte- move. When the starting player has moved gration of the tourist attraction is very well his markers, all player who have markers done and especially manifests itself in the in the starting location of this move can picture postcards which show details from decide to join the active player and move the installation. The hypothetical winning one or several markers the same distance strategy to concentrate on collecting four to end in the same location as the markers postcards per area and collect them en bloc of the active player. The active player may without completing destination cards is complete destination cards and/or collect possible in theory, but in practice not pos- picture postcards before or after his obliga- sible due to other travelers tagging along tory move. with the same idea. But you should collect the same number of cards from each area 40 Lines for Meeples Destination cards show different numbers to realize the best possible score from the Dagmar de Cassan, Editor-in-Chief of locations; to complete such a card you cards, which takes us back to tactics which They couldn’t be more different, the three must have at least one marker in each loca- is definitely possible but not absolutely games nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2013, tion. If you do so and you want to complete necessary in order to have fun in Wunder- Augustus, Hanabi and Quixx, and our Spiel the card you reveal it and put one marker land. This is a wonderful family game with der Spiele, Golden Horn. But all show very from each location on the card back to enough depth to interest experienced gam- clearly what you can expect when opening Knuffingen; you instantly score the points ers, too. the box. from the card on the score track and you Dagmar de Cassan Augustus gives you a lot of components, lav- lay out the card openly. If you have one or ishly illustrated and waiting to be laid out at several markers on a symbol spot during INFORMATION the start. All cards are elaborately designed, your turn, you can take a corresponding PLAYERS: but only two of the commodities are used in picture postcard and put a marker from this Designer: Dirk Hillebrecht 2-4 the tame, Gold and Wheat, all seams geared spot back to Knuffingen. Collected cards Artist: J. Nocoň, H.-G. Schneider AGE: for a first expansion. are stacked face down. You can collect any Price: ca. 25 Euro 8+ In Hanabi we encounter Buddhistic simplic- number of cards from a given spot, but will Publisher: Pegasus Spiele 2013 TIME: ity in the components and the rules more or only score four cards per area. www.pegasus.de 45+ less tell you to play the game as you want to, When you complete your fifth destination anything is possible. card the game ends immediately. A player And, finally, in Quixx, the scoring sheets are can also end the game as soon as he owns EVALUATION the important component, announcing the postcards from all seven areas and reveals Travel, placement, collecting end of play or work to do for copying after a them; you may do this, but need not do so. Users: For families few games. Version: multi As soon as the game ends no marker is Rules: de en es fr it nl SPIEL DER SPIELE 2013 is GOLDEN HORN by moved anymore, but all can once final time In-game text: no Leo Colovini, a family game in the tradition complete destination cards and/or take Comments: of Atlantis and Cartagena. We hope you will postcards. Marvelous design correlated to Minia- have fun with it! tur Wunderland in Hamburg * Alluring Where you can play with us you can see in Then you score postcards as regards to travel mechanism * Tactic possible numbers per area; for cards from an area despite random assignation of destina- our event calendar on where you have most cards you score 1 tion cards * Excellent family game http://www.spieleclub.at! Just stop by! point per cards, for cards from the area Compares to: Games can be checked in our games data with second most card 2 points, etc. If you All travel/logistic games base LUDORIUM: http://www.ludorium.at. achieve the highest total you are the keen- WIN The Games Journal is available now also Other editions: est tourist in Wunderland and win. Currently none as an eBook and as Kindle in German and English and so can be even more easily read „Oh yes, a travel game“, albeit a very mod- then a PDF on the respective modern devices. ern one; the destination cards remind me When you like our WIN, please become a sub- a bit of Ticket to Ride, but the absolutely scriber! We have a PayPal account, so the pay- felicitous core of the game is the sophis- ment of € 6,00 for an annual subscription can ticated group travel mechanism. Not no- be made easily and safely, see also ticeable at first glance but essential to the http://www.gamesjournal.at game is the exact planning of your trips for Our Games Companion GAME BY GAME 2013 completing destination cards, as you must is available from SPIELBOX-SHOP. leave behind one marker in each location. My rating: Info: http://www.gamescompanion.at WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 3 OUR REVIEW u FEUER & FLAMME / TERRA MYSTICA and the grill itself, which is a piece of card- FISH ON TOP OF STEAK! board. The challenge cards are shuffled and stacked face-down. Each player then re- ceives three different bonus tiles providing FEUER & FLAMME some assistance and also three grill chips of BARBECUEING STACKS his color, and now we are ready to start.

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