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 

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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 receives 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.

You need some practice for a successful bar- Some topics seem to obvious and yet no- becue and that goes for this version, too. In body seems interested to do something your turn you must reveal the top challenge about them – we have built Villas, stacked card from the stack and place the food pic- chairs, pulled out and replaces wooden tured on the tile without dislodging some- blocks in all kinds of manners, but nobody thing from the grill. And that’s where our until now has come up with the idea to sim- barbecue is different from a real one: Over ulate the placement of barbecue food on a a bed of real charcoal it is not really best to barbecue grill. place corn on the cob vertically on a steak or to put the steak on top of some fish, but Now the idea has been picked up by a Ger- on this barbecue here you are allowed to man/Austrian team of designers, Stefan do that! Stacking is allowed, welcomed and Dorra and Manfred Reindl, and has been necessary, too, because, the absolute taboo turned into a game; and they idea got support from a star of the culinary side of Dagmar de Cassan things, from star and TV cook Johann Lafer, Dexterity in relation to reality – who has not already who‘s also an Austrian. He was reportedly fought with sausages on a barbecue grill? This is a witty smoke-free simulation which can make you sweat all the red-hot for the idea, and so the game about same mushrooms, sausages and corn on the cob was named Feuer & Flamme (Fire & Flame). So, man the barbecue grill and deal with is to dislodge something already on the appetizing things to grill – sausages, egg- grill. If something drops off all the same, you plants, burgers, corn on the cob, mush- discard one of your grill chips. rooms, steaks and fish must be placed on the grill with a pair of tongs. But just like a And of course there are more rules: You standard barbecue this one needs some can use the pair of tongs with one or both preparations, too – you have to spread hands, food can only be touched with the out the things to grill, assemble the barbe- the pair of tongs and you may move food cue grill itself from two supporting bases on the grill around, but again only with the

FEEDBACK TERRA MYSTICA A COMMENT

Comment: I would like to add a personal ones) providing th such a high enticement comment to the review of Terra Mystica“ in value to play it again and again and again, issue 450: no game is similar to another one. Thus multitude of possibilities is unequaled, This game is probably the best game of last despite the game taking about 3 hours to Essen’s crop of games and was given a far play it is never boring, interaction in the too low score, especially when in the same game is unusually intense for a develop- issue of WIN Catan“ and „Fremde Federn“ ment game. (which I wuite like, too) were awarded 6 out of 7 stars. Form e Terra Mystica is an absolute top For as long as I have been playing it with game which I would award 7 out of 7 stars friends we cannot get enough of it; and for without any hesitation. each game we are besieged by other players who want to play, too, or want to borrow Sorry, and no offence, Markus, you have the game. been too hard!  In my long career of playing games I have encountered very few games (mostly short Christoph Proksch

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 4 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at FEUER & FLAMME / GABIS t OUR REVIEW

GAMES BUYER INFORMATION SYSTEM - GABIS

STRUCTURE Each game review also features an evaluation which can help you to find the game that best suits your tastes. The color accompanying each game title represents the USER Group. The headline also contains icons for age and number of players. The BAR in the evaluation box displays color codes for up to 10 features of a game.

USER GROUP We have defined 4 target groups (color accompanying the head line)

Kinder: Games for children an educational games. Adults can play in a guiding function. Familien: Children and parents play together, all have the same chance to win and have fun. Freunde: Young people and adults play together as equals Experten: Games with special demands on rules and playing time. Especially for game geeks

Please note for the user groups Children, Family and Friends: Children who love to play can be ahead of their peers! Please note that our target group “families” does not imply the classical concept of „family games“! Furthermore, our user groups can overlap. The choice of suitable games always depends on your playing partners and your fun with games! Games that are especially eligible for Solo play or for 2 players or Large groups of players are marked with an icon.

FEATURES Each game targets preferences for different features in a player, therefore each game is not suitable for each player. We have listed 10 features players note when deciding on a game. Only if a player finds his preferred features in pair of tongs. When you drop a piece of INFORMATION a game he will enjoy the game. The color code marks the food between general supplies and grill you PLAYERS: dominant features. Educational games train the highlighted can pick it up again with the tongs and start Designer: Stefan Dorra, Manfred Reindl2-5 preference. anew. When the stacking seems absolutely Artist: Christian Opperer AGE: Empty boxes: This feature is neclectable or not present impossible you can use one of your bonus Price: ca. 30 Euro 5+ One colored box: This feature is present, but not essential Two colored boxes: This feature is present and important tiles, but unfortunately each can be used Publisher: Huch! & friends 2013 TIME: in the game only once. One of the tiles, “Break” allows www.huchandfriends.de 20+ Three colored boxes: This feature is dominant and essential you to skip your turn, you hand the tongs Chance: to your neighbor and he can fight with the The game is influenced by dice, cards or any other form of slippery sausage. Very useful is the “appren- EVALUATION random generator tice” tile, it allows you to drop two pieces of Tactics: Dexterity Take decision, short-term planning, planning based on food without penalty and also of tremen- Users: For families one move dous help is the third tile “Done!”, it lets you Version: de Strategy: Rules: de Think ahead, long-term planning, planning for several remove two pieces of food from the grill be- In-game text: no moves fore you place your piece of food. Comments: Creativity: Supported by TV star cook Johan The player has to provide words, phrases, images and other creative efforts You keep playing in this way, if necessary Lafer * Very pretty components * Nice adaptation of a standard mechanism * Knowledge: the discard pile of challenge tiles is shuffled Simple basic rules Cultural and educational knowledge, long-term memory for a new challenge stack. If you must dis- Memory: Compares to: Remember, learn by heart, short-time memory card your last grill chip, you must quit and All dexterity games involving stacking, from Communication: the last in play wins the game. Should you Jenga to Villa Paletti Talk to each other, negotiate, inform manage to place the last piece of food on Interaction: Other editions: Influencing each other, bluffing, auction the grill without something dropping off Currently none Dexterity you are a master chef and win instantly, but Motor skills Action: I have yet to see that happen. Body movement, balance and reaction

This kind of barbecue is fun, at is has a bit ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Version: The edition of the game on which the review is more relation to real life then some of the based other dexterity games, and it gives you an Rules: This lists the languages in which rules are available or are included in the game, often even more translations can appetite, too! Fun for all the family! Have be found on the web. a good barbecue and may your fire be In-game text: A YES marks a game with language- smoke-free!  dependent components that cannot be played without translation or knowledge of the language Dagmar de Cassan My rating:

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 5 OUR REVIEW u GOLDEN HORN

Walter took his ship with two orange sails FROM VENICE TO CONSTANTINOPLE and one blue sail, which was located in Constantinople harbor, and loaded the two green wooden cubes in the harbor onto his GOLDEN HORN ship. I immediately took the bag and blindly TRADE AND PIRATES draw two red cubes and put them on the harbor of Constantinople, so that there were again nine cubes available for the next In the Golden Era of the Doges players in shows one red, one blue and one yellow player. the guise as rich sons of La Serenissima try area on both sides, in different order. The The track route adjacent to Constantinople to arrange rewarding transports of com- other kind shows one orange, one green showed the areas red-blue-yellow and the modities from Venice to Constantinople and one pink area on both sides, again in next one the areas orange-green-pink. and back with their fleet of trade ships. different order. On each area only one ship is allowed, with But strong competitions threatens their the exception of the harbors: There is no success and pirate ambushes keep happen- Now each player puts his three ships into ing and result in plundering of ships. the starting harbors of Venice and Constan- Maria Schranz tinople, he has the free choice where to put Simple and yet entertaining game which is clearly targeted The cover of the box shows, in the fore- which ship. at families, but can be fun for more experienced players, too. If you only buy few games, one of them should ground, two trade ships sailing into the har- The 90 wooden cubes represent different definitely be Golden Horn. bor of Constantinople. commodities and are placed into the cloth After opening the box one must assemble bag. The starting player blindly draws nine the twelve ships, this can be rather demand- cubes from the bag und puts them on the ing; especially when closing the bow of the harbor tile of Venice and then he draws an- limit to the number of ships in Venice and ship it can happen that you damage them other nine cubes and puts them on the har- Constantinople; Modone has room for two slightly, but this does not really signify, and bor tile of Constantinople. ships in a game of two players, and three the ships really are a sight for sore eyes and The cards are shuffled and you deal five places for ships in a game of four players; very beautiful. cards face-down to each player. All cards remember, in a game for three players the So, each player has a fleet of three ships have a colored frame which corresponds to harbor of Modone is not in play. and a storage facility which also must be one of the six colors of track route areas and Areas that are occupied by a ship are simply assembled before you start your first game. sails. left out. The three ships and the storage facility of Walter moved his ship to the red spot; as the one color show an identical coat of arms; a You play in clockwise direction. The active first step of each turn is free you may put small point of criticism is that two of those player in his turn first decides if he wants to your ship forward to the next empty area coats of arms have a black background and initiate a pirate raid or if he relinquishes this this first move of a turn. Walter’s ship was can result in mixing up the ships if someone part of his turn. Then he must move one of now in the red area; he played a red card does not pay close attention. his own ships. and could move his ship to the blue area; The game box also holds a black cloth bag, I will come back to the pirate raid later, he as his ship showed a blue sail he was able 54 cards and 90 wooden cubes in six colors. works very simply; but first a short summary to move his ship without playing a card and On top of this the box holds four trade route of ship movement rules: In your turn you put it forward to the yellow area. He then parts, each showing three areas in different move your ship one step to the next empty played a yellow card and as a result put his colors on both sides and also three harbor area. If this ends on an area in a color that is ship onto the orange area of the next track tiles, for Venice, Constantinople and Mo- represented in the ship’s sails you can move piece and from there he then moved his done. the ship one more step; should the area ship forward again for free to the green area color reached be different from the sail(s) where he ended his turn. The three ships of a player all show three colors, you either stop or may play a card in sails. The first ship has three sails of the same the color of the area the ship stands in and I had placed my ship with three red sails color; on the second ship two sails have the move the ship one step. into the harbor of Venice and the other two same color, the third sail on this ship shows In a harbor you load and unload commodi- ships were located in the harbor of Constan- a different color and on the third ship all ties, you can load all commodities of one tinople. I took my ship with the orange, blue three sails are of a different color. color that is not represented in the ship’s and green sail, in Constantinople and load- Before you can start the game you must lay sails. ed it with the three red cubes in the harbor. out the track for the ships using the trade I moved this ship to the red are, played a red route parts. You start the track with the har- For an example I will now describe one of card and moved my ship forward to the blue bor of Venice at one end, then you place the our first games of Golden Horn. The players area. As my ship was showing a blue sail I track parts and finish the track with the har- involved were my husband Walter, my sister moved it forward for free. This area was yel- bor of Constantinople at the other end. Gitti, my brother-in-law Gerhard and myself. low, but I did not have a yellow card in hand In case of three players you use all trade Walter was the starting player, he had put his and my ship had no yellow sail, so I stopped route parts and also for a game with four ship with three sails of one color in Venice my turn on this area. As I had loaded three players and you insert the harbor tile for and his other two ships in Constantinople. cubes in Constantinople, Walter draw two Modone in the middle of the track. For two In the harbor of Venice there were three red, yellow and one green cubes for a replace- players you use only two trade route parts two blue, one yellow, one green, one pink ment and put them into the Constantinople and also insert the harbor of Modone in the and one orange cube. In the harbor of Con- harbor to replenish the commodities there middle of the track. stantinople there were three yellow, two to nine cubes. blue, two green and one red and one pink There are two kinds of track routes, one kind cube each. Now it was Gitti’s turn, she had placed the

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 6 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at GOLDEN HORN t OUR REVIEW

ship with three green sails and the one with Gitti took her ship with three sails of differ- the first area of the track adjacent to Ven- an orange, blue and pink sail in Venice har- ent colors in Venice and loaded the three ice, which was pink, so she moved the ship bor and her third ship in Constantinople. red cubes onto it. She moved her ship onto forward to the next area; as this one was

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 7 OUR REVIEW u GOLDEN HORN

orange she moved it forward again to the The game ended in the round in which Wal- The target group for this game clearly are next area, which was yellow and she ended ter, who had been starting player, loaded families, but the game offers enough ele- her turn on this area. the last cube in Venice harbor into one of his ments of interest to be fun for experienced ships, and we scored the game: players, too. Gerhard hat placed his ship with a red, pink Each cube in his storage facility earns the When playing with experienced players it and yellow sail in the harbor of Constanti- player one victory point, and you score ad- turned out that they rather often chose to nople. He chose it and loaded up two blue ditional points for sets: A set of cubes in six put into action the second of the two alter- wooden cubes. He moved his ship onto the different colors scores four bonus points, nate ways to end the game, that is, to an- red area and played a red card to move the a set of five different cubes scores two -ad nounce the end of the game if you have ac- ship to the blue area, and then played a blue ditional points and a set of four different quired at least one complete set of cubes in card and moved his ship onto the next track cubes one points. six colors. Contrary to this choice, in games part as the yellow area was occupied by my with more inexperienced players the game ship. He now played an orange card as well Gitti did win the game; at the end of the nearly always ended with the other alter- as he stood on the orange area with his ship game she had five yellow, four blue, three native – the bag of commodities is empty and moved the ship forward into the pink orange, three red, two pink and two green and someone loads up the last commodity area. In doing this the ship hat jumped the cubes in her storage facility – so she scored cubes in one of the harbors. green area as this one was taken by Walter’s 19 standard victory points for the total of ship. As pink was a color of one sail on Ger- her cubes and nine bonus points for her sets I can unconditionally recommend the game hard’s ship he moved his ship from the pink for a total of 8 victory points; in later games for families – design and components, the area into the harbor of Modone. In Modone we usually achieved a score that was sub- varied and interesting flow of the game, the harbor he draw one card from the pile, be- stantially higher. duration of approximately 45 minutes and cause his ship showed sails in three differ- the really simple rules, which all the same ent sail colors, and this ended his turn. The tactics component in the game is rather allow for a tactical/strategic game – are also high, as you have continually to consider if very well suited for families that only play Now each player had sent one ship each you want to use two cards for a pirate raid very rarely; all in all everybody should have onto its journey. It was Walters turn again or if you want to keep those cards for ship lots of fun with this game. and he chose, before starting the journey movements; the problem is that there is Conclusion: Piatnik has published a won- for a second ship, to instigate a pirate raid no long-term advance planning as there derful, varied and yet simple game that is a on Gitti’s ship with the orange, blue and are continually new situations due to ship real jewel for game play in families.  pink sails; this he simply did by playing two movements of other players’ ships. Strategic Maria Schranz blue cards from his hand – the cards can planning is necessary for the decision on be used for movement cards as well as for which color of cubes I load onto which ship pirate raid cards. He took a red cube from as a pirate raid on a ship with one color of INFORMATION Gitti’s ship and put the cube into his storage sails only is not as easily done as on a ship PLAYERS: facility. with three different colors of sails. Designer: Leo Colovini 2-4 The rule in general for a pirate raid: Such a Something else that you need to plan stra- Artist: Marko Fiedler AGE: raid on a ship is made by playing to cards tegically is which colors of cubes you will try Price: ca. 25 Euro 8+ in any combination of the sail colors of the to acquire by pirate raids and which ones Publisher: Piatnik 2013 TIME: ship and take any one cube from the ship you will transport with your ships. www.piatnik.com 45+ and put it into your storage facility. With this game of Golden Horn Leo Colovini In this manner we continued to play, from has managed to create a really nice, chal- EVALUATION time to time we instigated a pirate raid on lenging and varied game, by the means of Position, set collecting a ship or relinquished this opportunity using the basic mechanism that he devel- Users: For families Version: de because we did not have enough cards or oped for Cartagena and changing the goals Rules: de the necessary cards for this or because we and also introducing the additional action In-game text: no wanted to keep them for ship movement. of pirate raids. Comments: The graphic design, and especially the visu- Adaptation of the basic mechanism in Cartagena * Excellent family game * ally impressive ships provide a lovely nice Very attractive components that need Gerhard was the first one who managed to flair for the game and so you are pleased to some dexterity in assembling sail his ship with two blue cubes on board pick it up again and again for yet another Compares to: into the harbor at the end of the track, in game. Cartagena, Atlantis and other games with his case into Venice harbor. He took the two Of course, the game has a strong element card-driven movement in relation to field cubes off the ship and placed them into his of chance in what cards do I draw or which colors. storage facility. As his ship showed three dif- commodities will be available in my starting Other editions: ferent colors of sails he was only allowed to harbor when I want to set sails from there. Currently none replenish his hand with one card from the But due to the possibilities provided by the draw pile. pirate raids and the choice of which com- I was first to manage to sail a ship with three modities to load into my ship I can achieve sails of the same color into a harbor – in my long-term strategic play. case Venice - so I could place the two blue Especially the pirate raids can assist you cubes from my ship into my storage facility to acquire commodities that you urgently and was able to draw three cards from the need to complete a set of six cubes of dif- draw pile. ferent colors. My rating:

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 8 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at GIZA t OUR REVIEW

the 3 player game if necessary. FIRST AND SECOND DYNASTY At the start one pyramid “basement” block is placed on each of the four quarry cases, GIZA just on top of the sled: each player then BUILD THE GREAT PYRAMID takes 3 Art and 8 Food tokens (that they will hide behind the screens) and 8 workers (10 when playing the 3 players game) that he When we go back 5.000 years or more to the I discovered all the subtleties of this game keeps in front of him. Five extra workers per great Kingdoms of the Egyptian age I am and we were able to play GIZA many more player are set aside and will be used on the always fascinated whatever the medium: times (in Modena and at my club) with high- turn track. Finally one worker is placed on book, film or game. I like reading of Egyp- er satisfaction. the case “0” of the Victory Points (VP) track. tian history and I have many books discuss- ing life, politics and warfare of that time, but In effect the game is interesting and very In turn each player places 2 workers on as an Engineer I am mainly interested in the interactive and thus was it worth the time the board in any case he wishes (support building capacities of our ancestors. spent to clarify all the rules. It lasts 10 turns camp, transport road and/or lift road) but at divided in two rounds (Eras) called First Dy- the game start it is not suggested to place Egyptians did not know the “arc” but they nasty and Second Dynasty. The player with blocks on the Temple or on the lift cases as were able to erect magnificent construc- most VP at the end of the 10th turn will be they will not be used in the first turns. Then tions and all their buildings were based the winner, even if the Giza pyramid is not on strong foundations, while their stabil- completed (this may happens if players are Pietro Cremona ity was assured by well disposed “weights”: not so keen to cooperate and but more ori- An interesting Worker Placement game with a different pyramids were no exception and their ented in attacking the others, thus slowing taste and high interaction “geometrical form” was really necessary down the complete process). in order to build and “keep” such huge gi- all place again 2 workers, and so on until all ants. Of course the ancient engineers and Opening the box we find a very “particular” the 8 workers are on the board. architects knew very well how to prepare board, designed in old Egyptian style, with strong foundations, and therefore they a lot of hieroglyphics on the score track (all Typically the workers are initially placed on usually selected sandy terrains where con- around the board) and drawings with “side the sleds to push them towards the Pyramid struction was easier and the terrain more shown” workers driving oxen, building ob- site: but each sled may host a maximum of stable. Initially everything was not too com- jects, moving blocks, etc. A very nice graphic FOUR blocks per case (regardless of the plicated: huge stone blocks came from the touch! In the middle of the board are de- color) so it is important to understand from Northern region (directly cut in the sides of picted four tracks, each one composed of 4 the beginning that each pyramid block the mountains); then they were loaded on cases (a quarry and 3 moving spaces), then may move only when is “pushed” by at least ship and brought to the Delta of Nile; finally on one side we have an area called “support THREE workers and that when it arrives to they were transported on the construction camp” (divided in three zones: farm, temple the construction site it gives VP only to the site and lifted to their place with wooden and artist study), and on the other side we players whose workers are on the sled. If a cranes. see the pyramid site, a lift slope (divided in block has workers of one player only he re- two cases: middle lift and capstone lift); a ceives an interesting bonus (extra VP) so it But when the pyramid started to increase turn order track (the “motor” of the game) is very important to cooperate, not only to in height it was necessary to prepare large completes the board. share the VP, but also to negate those bo- climbing slopes to rise the stone blocks, nuses to a competitor. using oxen and special sliders. Then each The other components are not so beauti- block was moved on its final place with a ful: 64 “ugly” wooden blocks (WORKERS) in Ok, all is ready now and we may start to give wooden crane. Thousands of workers were the players four colors (blue, red, brown and ORDERS to our workers so let’s focus our used for this task: some of them were slaves, natural); 56 cardboard FOOD round tokens attention to the TURN ORDER TRACK. It is but most of them were employed with a sal- (value 1 and 5); 28 cardboard ART round divided in 5 columns (one per turn) and 8 ary: a sort of “cooperatives” were created to tokens (value 1 and 5); 4 square cardboard rows (4 Moves actions, 3 Production actions handle this job and to distribute salaries. SLEDS (to transport the components of the and one “no action” row) that may give a bo- pyramid); 4 player SCREENS (to hide the to- nus to the players who select each of them. GIZA THE GREAT PYRAMID is a game that kens) and 9 plastic PYRAMID blocks (4 base- Unfortunately during each Era you cannot depicts the construction of one of those gi- ments, 4 intermediate and 1 capstone). A select the same row twice, so it is very im- ants, the most famous of them and the big- cardboard rectangular tile, used to modify portant to understand what you need and ger: when Dagmar brought it to Modena, the turn order track on Era 2, completes the when: then you will plan your moves ac- during PLAY 2013, I was very interested in components. cordingly in order to be sure to get the right testing it immediately and so we … started, row in the right turn. Of course the other but at the end of the first game we were Players should cooperate to transport the players will try their best to get the same quite deceived as rules were not so clear 9 blocks to the construction site and then good cases and therefore competition and and we were obliged to often go back to to build the pyramid but … attention, this interaction are very high. them and search for an answer. Finally we is not a cooperative game as each player al- realized that we made all sort of mistakes, ways try to help the others just to get more The first player select one row, places his mainly because we were unable to easily victory points, as we will see shortly there- worker on the case corresponding to the understand the rules !!! Before classifying after. The game is much more interesting first column and takes the bonus (if avail- it as a “lost investment” I took the “task” of if played with four “architects” so I will de- able): no one else may use the same case. reading again and again those rules until scribe only this option, with some notes for The other players do the same until we have

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all the four blocks on the turn track. Then slope: as the only other way to move work- to try to climb on a sled already advanced). the turn is played, starting with the first ers on the lift slope is after a successful - Farm for Food: you take as many food to- block from the top of the column. The fol- transport of pyramid blocks, this bonus is kens as you have workers in the Farm case lowing turn order will be chosen in reverse very important especially on the final turns of the camp (but if you selected row 7 you order, starting with the first block from the of the game. For that reason on Era 2 one of may perform this action twice) bottom of the column. the two Quarry move rows is cancelled by a - Fish for Food: you take HALF as many food second Lift move tokens as you have workers in the Farm case It is very important to understand the dif- of the camp (but if you selected row 1 you ference between “turn moves” and “row The player’s turn is divided in three steps: may perform this action twice) bonuses”. In your turn you may select any - Make Art: you may take as many Art tokens one action that you wish (see below) but STEP 1: you may perform THREE actions per as you have workers on the Artist case of the during the turn order placement you must turn, but only once each, selecting between camp, but you must pay 1 food for each to- use the bonus of the selected row immedi- the following: ken ately after your placement or you lose this possibility: if, for example, you selected row - Support Move: you may move one of your STEP 2: you must now nominate a pyramid “6” (Quarry Bonus) you may immediately workers already in the support camp from block to be pushed (if it is in one of the four move 1 of your workers between quarry one zone to another (Farm, Temple, Artist). the transport tracks) or lifted (if it is on the tracks and camp; if you selected the Farm - Quarry Move: you may move 1 of your two lift slope). Remember that each block x2 Action you may perform TWICE this ac- workers between the support camp zones can be nominated only if it has already 3 tion (but you cannot perform the Fishing and the quarry spaces. workers: if you do not have workers on action); etc. - Quarry Track Advance: you may move one any block you are obliged to select a block of your workers from one case of the trans- controlled by your opponents. Also note Row 5 (Lifter Move) is special: its bonus al- port to the following one in the direction of that on the transport tracks you may have lows you to move a worker into the lift the pyramid site (you typically use this move a maximum of 4 workers per case, while

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 10 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at GIZA t OUR REVIEW

on the lifting slope there is no limit to the cide to offer just “1” food in order to lose the food to push or lift and you must collect it in number of workers that may coexist on the bid and to eliminate (starved) one worker of time, but you also need workers on the lift same case. the opponent and have the opportunity, on slopes if you want to score VP. You also need the following turn, to get extra VP. The more to have some workers in the temple just - To PUSH a block you need first to … feed you know the game, the more this may hap- in time to finish a tier of the Pyramid (and the workers: all players may BID a certain pens … life was hard and competitive for thus to score some extra VP) but special at- amount of food for the nominated block. Of the architects of the Egyptian age!! tention should be paid to the Capstone: its course if you do not have workers on that lift and decoration may assign 20 VP to the case you will bet “0” food, but if you have at EXTRA VP are assigned when a pyramid sec- player who has most workers and most Art- least one worker you must consider all the tion (two adjacent blocks) is built: ist … so by turn 7 you have to understand if options before bidding, as this is the real - DECORATING THE BLOCKS: all players (not the capstone will arrive in time to be lifted “heart” of the game. If the total amount of only the ones that made the move) may se- on top of the pyramid (this happens 60% of bid food is 3 or less the push fails and the cretly bid “Art” tokens. The winner, as usual, the games) or not. The answer to this ques- workers starve (see below). With 4-5 food will get 6 VP, the second 3 and the third 1 tion will guide you on the last two turns to the sled is moved one case, with 6-7 two (nothing is due to the fourth player) move workers and to buy art tokens. cases and with 8 or more three cases. - DECORATING THE CAPSTONE: as before, but all players may get VP (10-6-3-1). GIZA cannot be considered a “family game” - To LIFT a block you use a similar bidding in large sense, as younger players will not be system: with 3 or less you fail and the work- EXTRA VP are also assigned three times able to make all the considerations about ers starve, while with 4 or more the lift is during the game: when the four basement the placement on the turn order track and successful. You may lift the intermediate blocks are built, then the four intermediate on the collection of tokens, therefore I think blocks only if there are already some base- blocks and finally the capstone: that this game should be suggested to play- ment blocks in the pyramid site. You may lift - PRAYING AT THE TEMPLE: when a tier is ers 14 years old or more. the capstone on the Pyramid only if you first completed players should count the num- lifted it to the higher case of the slope and, ber of workers that they have in the Temple But if have to test the game with some second, if all the others blocks have already zone of the camp. The winner gets 6 VP, the friends in regular gaming sessions I will been mounted. others 3 and 1, as usual. suggest to try GIZA at least a few times as it could become a “nasty” but interesting STEP 3: If a pyramid block arrived on the site Each time that a sled unloads its block all the game …  (the four basements) or on the slope (the players who pushed it have to decide where Pietro Cremona four intermediate blocks and the capstone) they wish to move their workers. Then the or if it was successfully lifted you may score sled is placed again on the Quarry starting VP: case and loaded with a new pyramid block. INFORMATION - 6 VP for the player with most workers All workers eventually waiting on those cas- PLAYERS: - 3 VP for the player with the second most es (with a maximum of 4, as usual) are au- Designer: David Heberer 3-4 workers tomatically assigned to the new load (now Artist: David Cochard AGE: - 1 VP for the player with the third most you know why you should select the Quarry Price: ca. 30 Euro 12+ workers action sometimes). Publisher: Mayfair Games 2012 TIME: - 4 extra VP are added to the player’s score if www.mayfairgames.com 90+ he moved a block with only his own work- The game immediately ends after hav- ers. ing placed and scored the Capstone OR at Tied players divide the VP of the related po- the end of the 10th turn. The winner is the EVALUATION sitions (if, for example, two players tied for player with most VP. In case of tie the winner Worker Placement second position they get 3+1 = 4: 2 that is is the player with most Food and Art tokens Users: With friends Version: en two VP each). behind his screen. Rules: en In-game text: no If the capstone is lifted on the pyramid the As you understand from those notes the Comments: players who did bid for this lift get points as game is not too difficult to learn, once you Rules not easy to understand * Once understood they result in an interesting follows: 10-6-3-1 passed the problem of the “not-so-easy-to- and challenging game * Recommend- understand” rules. But you have to think ed for players of ages 14+ If a move was unsuccessful the player who well before starting your turn, as interac- Compares to: bided less food lose 1 worker (he starved tion is very high and you should consider Cairo and other games with a pyramid build- and therefore he is placed on the Farm case all the alternatives: otherwise your “perfect ing topic of the camp). plan” may be easily crashed by one of your Other editions: friends. Currently none Note that bids are “open” (you must show the food points that you bid) and are made The First Dynasty turns are mainly used to in turn order, starting from the player to the move the blocks to the pyramid site in or- left of the active one. The latter has always der to get as many VP as possible, without the opportunity to see what the other play- thinking too much about the lifting (even if I ers do and decide accordingly: sometimes prefer to place a worker or two there by the players are tempted to bid “0” food in order end of turn 5th). to oblige the active player to spend those precious food tokens, but this can be dan- It is during the five turns of the Second Dy- gerous because the active player may de- nasty that play becomes harder: you need My rating:

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Among the Stars is a card game, and our WONDERS IN SPACE goal in this game is to construct a space station by placing cards which show different stages of extensions and development, AMONG THE STARS basically a self-sufficient town around a cen- SPACESTATION BUILDING WITH CARDS tral energy supply. Each card costs money to place, sometimes also energy (cubes)

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 12 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at AMONG THE STARS t OUR REVIEW

and earns you points, sometimes instantly, „Garrn’Athak’Nok” can once per year (= might be better to exchange the one I hold sometimes at the end of the game. round) look at the hand of another player, for money instead of handing it on to him. After four rounds (= years) the space station remove one card and give him one of his is finished; on a small game board that only own). The rules are extensive, precise and don’t shows players‘ scores (somewhat unclear) leave any questions unanswered; looking and the current round you can easily deter- Now for the game itself: up is easy and quickly done, the rules are mine at any given moment you is in the lead At the start of a round players are dealt six nicely designed, even picturing the fictive and will win in the end. cards each and 10 money units. All players Aliens, but they are only available in English, At the start of the game each player choses now choose a card and lay it out face-down. and the card texts are in English, too, but a race and a color and places his Main Reac- The remaining cards are handed to your left always short, and very minor knowledge tor Card on the table. Next to this card you neighbor (the direction changes in each of English is sufficient to understand them. round), then the hidden card is reveals and Aside from the cards the components com- Christoph Proksch now allows each player one out of three dif- prise cardboard money pieces and clear Among the Stars is a very well-done variant of „7 Wonders“, ferent possibilities for an action: plastic energy cubes. with quite a bit more fiddling and puzzling, and therefore a 1) The card is placed into your space station These game from Greece is a favorite pres- somewhat longer duration. and you pay the cost (exactly here, if not be- ence on our games table, the replay value is fore when choosing a card the pondering very high; some friends do to like the pon- can place other cards which form the space starts. How can I with which card accrue the dering, others like exactly that character- station. The trick in this game is the WHERE maximum of points where??) istic. The duration is definitely longer than of each card placement, as cards yield a 2) Build another power reactor; this costs the 30 minutes named on the box, we take higher score in some positions or additional one unit of money and the card you chose is approx. 70 to 90 minutes for a game, but we points at the end of the game. discarded. On the new reactor card you put are considered to be slow players. The game comprises 156 square cards; on 2 energy cubes, just as you did at the start top the name of the card is given, and to the of your game for your main reactor. Some Compared to „7 Wonders“ the longer dura- right the cost for placing the card; under- locations (cards) not only cost you money tion must be emphasized, but especially neath you see a picture of the location and but also energy expenditure to build them. due to this players who like a more long- beneath this a bar with text explaining how 3) Cash in the card you played for three units term planning prefer „Among the Stars“, al- you can rise the points listed in the top left of money. beit the fact that this game does not have corner. The statement could, for instance, When all actions have been implemented the elegance and all-over perfection of the be that there will be two more points when the victory point marker of each player is archetype.  this card is placed next to a certain other adjusted accordingly on the victory point Christoph Proksch one; if this text has a yellow background, track. Remember: There are no victory the points are generated at the end of the points for Actions 2) and 3). INFORMATION game. Now you choose another card from the five PLAYERS: you received from your right neighbor and Designer: Vangelis Bagiartakis 2-4 Some locations can only be placed once the pondering and fiddling starts again, and Artist: Stamoglou, Papantoniou, Vargia AGE: into a space station, others raise in value so on, until all cards have been used. Well, Price: ca. 35 Euro 12+ when they are present several times. Some- does a bell ring for the experienced players? Publisher: Artipia Games 2012 TIME: times additional points are limited (for in- “Among the Stars” is a somewhat adapted www.artiiagames.com 30+ stance, “One victory point for each blue card clone of “7 Wonders”. laid out, maximum eight”). The location cards are color-coded for five A new round begins: New money, six new EVALUATION categories: Administration – Blue, Business cards, our space station keeps growing. With Development game with cards – Yellow, Military – Reed, Recreational – Pur- time it is getting bigger and bigger, expand- Users: With friends Version: en ple and Diplomatic – Green. ing in different directions – but: If you run Rules: en Other cards ( so called Objective Cards) out of space you cannot keep adding there. In-game text: yes – there only a few of them on display in a This is one of the differences to Bauza’s mas- Comments: game – define targets which score addition- ter piece, but much more important is the Easy access * Keeps its entertainment and replay value * Takes longer to play al points for a player who achieves them (for fact, that not only the choice of the right compared to statement on the box instance “5 victory points for the player who card causes you some headache (“This card has most yellow cards in his station”). would be of most use to me, but should I re- Compares to: 7 Wonders An additional version of the game – which ally leave that one to my neighbor who has we did never use at all – allows you the good use for it??:: but also the question of Other editions: implementation of so-called conflict cards “where does the new card yield the highest Currently none (Dispute): They cost money, too, and a score and do I have room left there?! …). player scores additional points which are deducted from another player’s score (max- When playing „Among the Stars“ you should imum 4). keep a careful eye on what your fellow play- And, not to be forgotten, besides the main ers are up to; when one of them, for instance, reactor you can acquire and display addi- lays out mainly blue cards, because there is tional energy-reactor cards. an „Objective Card“ on display yielding additional points for that should I compete The races mentioned in passing at the start with him or would it better to build more have different characteristics, which yield yellow ones that also earn additional points; bonuses, too, albeit small ones (for instance, if one already has several multiplier cards it My rating:

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is in the eye of the beholder and so you may SKYSCRAPERS FROM DICE like it or you might not like it. I would have chosen some more appealing images.

SKYLINE The status board is placed in the middle of COLORFUL BUILDINGS OF DIFFERENT HEIGHT the table. Dear Reader, please forgive me if I do not translate all terms or try to replace them with proper German ones, this would Dice game are usually not my kind a game, freshen up one’s knowledge of English a cause more bewilderment than benefit. but if one is part of a gaming community - bit by reading game rules. One never stops This status board shows a round track on this is what I call my family here to stick to learning, after all, and one can also have the top, until number 9. You place the black the „beautiful“ new German – with players Laptop run a translation program on the marker on number 1 of this track. of different age group then one has to try side. out this genre, too, in order to find out what Below this track an overview of the build- every single player likes. The game is packed into a box that nicely ings that you can play is displayed, and the fits the amount of components, but does board also lists the four possible moves. Furthermore, is cannot be a bad thing to not really entice one by its graphics. But art The left side shows the Construction Yard

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 14 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at SKYLINE t OUR REVIEW

(Bauhof) and on the right sight the Aban- Construction Cards to end your turn. Other- quick access to the game. doned District. I have found lots of sug- wise, your turn ends if you have no dice left. gestions for a translation, for me the most It is important to mention that you need not The only drawback in the game is the logic and fitting one would be „verlassener roll all dice again; you can leave one or the round marker. We are experienced games, Bezirk“, but let’s stay with English here- other on the table which might be useful in but even we kept forgetting to advance case of Penthouse dies, because those are the marker at the end of a round. That the In the Construction Yard dice are separated not easy to roll. marker is black is an additional draw-back, a into three categories: Dice that can only be “loud” color would have been better. used as a basis for a building (Ground Floor When you use a Ground Floor Dice for build- Dice), then the dice representing the dif- ing a new building is started; there is now Skyline works with all numbers of players ferent upper levels Upper Floor Dice) and, limit as to how many buildings you can that the box cites. Solitaire, in case you a the third category, Penthouses (Penthouse start. In case of choosing an Upper Floor die lonely, but a game of four takes a tad too Dice). You place one die from each of those you either complete a purple building or ex- long for an entertaining dice game. I think categories into the Abandoned District. pand a blue or yellow building; Penthouse it is most appealing for three or four players. Dice complete blue and yellow buildings. The rounds go smoothly and the game end You can build three different kinds of build- is achieved quickly. ings- Purple (Low-Rise) which can have a When a building is finished, a purple one with two dice, a blue one with 2-4 dice and What’s interesting about Skyline is that you Kurt Schellenbauer a yellow one with 3-6 dice you put the dice have the impression that you can use some A quick dice game that allows you a bit of tactics, but most back into the Construction Yard and you get tactic in the game and are tempted to try of the games in the end are decided by the luck of the roll! the corresponding building tile with victory a different approach in the next game; but points. You cannot remove dice in a building at the end of the day Skyline is a dice game from the skyline and a building can only be and remains a dice game and dice do dam- height of 1 or 2 dice, Blue (Mid-Rise) with built in one color. age any tactics, good as they may be. a maximum height of 2 to 4 dice and Yel- low (High-Rise) buildings, that can reach a The game ends when the 9th round has To sum it up, Skyline is a good first effort, height of 3 to 6 dice. When the buildings been completed or when a player has con- which was fun and which we have played are finished you put dice back into the Con- structed a yellow building of 6 dice (maxi- quite a few times already. It is ideally suited struction Yard and are given a cardboard mum height). In this case the round is fin- for a starter or a knock-off game at the end building for them which shows the height ished so that each player did have the same of an evening, also for expert gamers.  of the building and its victory point value. number of turns. Each purple building with Kurt Schellenbauer only one die is changed into a building tile At the beginning the starting player is given of value 1 and the victory points on the tiles INFORMATION a Ground Floor Die with a yellow base, the are added for each player. Those tiles have PLAYERS: second player receives a die with a blue values of 1 / 4 / 9 / 16 / 25 / 36 depending Designer: David Short 1-4 base and the third player in clockwise direc- on height. Artist: Gavan Brown AGE: tion a purple die. The fourth player misses Price: ca. 24 Euro 10+ out on starting dice. If you play a game for For a solitaire game you try to get as many Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games 2013 TIME: two, the surplus die is put into the Construc- points as possible to earn yourself a title like www.tastryminstrelgames.com 15+ tion Yard. Those dice are also the first parts City Planner or Project Manager and the de- of the new city. signer of the game also provided scenarios that you can complete. EVALUATION At the start of his turn you either take three Dice game dice of your choice from the Construction Maybe somebody has asked the question of Users: For families Version: en Yard or all dice from the Abandoned Dis- David Short, do we know him? Up to Spiel Rules: en trict. There can be more than three dice 2012 he was not on the radar, at least not In-game text: no in the Abandoned District, but never less. in Europe. But he has published two more Comments: When they are taken you replenish the games besides Skyline, Bomb Squad and Simple rules * Short duration * Easy Abandoned District according to the set-up Ground Floor. He is American and his propo- access * Simple tactics of the game. sition is to develop games that are easy to Compares to: access and provide fun for all the family. Yahtzee or Kniffel, Ground Floor for the Then you roll the dice and you have several topic choices of how to use one or more of those I have previously mentioned that the graph- Other editions: dice: You can place a die into the Aban- ic design of the game is a matter of taste, Currently none doned District, this brings the number there and definitely not to my taste, but the dice up to four, or you use one or several of your are properly made and – as there are 60 of dice in your city (skyline) or you place one them – also comprise the majority of com- or several dice into the construction yard – ponents in the game. this comes at the cost of a finished building or all dice in a building under construction; The rules don’t leave anything up for ques- you have to tear it down and and return the tioning, but – in my opinion – is not precise dice. enough in several points. You must really work through the complete example of a Should you then have dice left over you can game at the back of the rules to be aware roll again or put the remaining dice into the of all niceties and that does not make for a My rating:

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 15 AUSTRIAN GAMES AWARD 2013 Golden Horn Placement and collecting game for 2-4 players, ages 8+, by Leo Colovini atPiatnik 2013, ca. 45 minutes

You lay out a trade route between Venice and Constantinopolis with a rest stop in Modone, with different length according to the number of players. You move your ships between both cities and try to acquire useful commodities in those harbors or - in the guise of pirates - to steal them from the ships of other traders. In your turn you can play pirate cards to hold up a ship on the high seas and then you must move one of your ships; in the harbors you can load all commodities of one color that is not on the ship’s sails into your ship; if it reaches the end of the route you store the commodities in your storage facility and get new cards. En route you can also play wind cards for additional ship movement. In the end you score commodities in storage.

Feuer & Flamme Wunderland Bennis bunte Blumen Dexterity game for 2-5 players, ages 5+, Placement and collecting game with the flair of Roll & move game for the most beautiful by Stefan Dorra and Manfred Reindl (with Hamburg’s world-famous tourist attraction, for flower garden for 2-4 players, ages 4-8, assistance from TV Cook Johann Lafer) 2-4 players, ages 8+, by Dirk Hillebrecht by Thomas Daum and Violetta Leitner at Huch! & friends 2013, ca. 20 minutes at Pegasus 2013, ca. 60 minutes at Haba 2013, ca. 15 minutes

Kakerlakak Move & Twist Auf Teufel komm raus Action game with a cockroach whirling about, Actions game on crawling lady bugs, for 2-6 A game bidding against the devil for coals for 2-4 players, ages 5+, by Peter-Paul Joopen players, ages 5+, by Kerstin Wallner and Klaus by 2-6 players, ages 10+, by Tanja and Sara at Ravensburger 2013, ca. 15 minutes Miltenberger at Beleduc 2012, ca. 15 minutes Engel at Zoch 2013, ca. 40 minutes AUSTRIAN GAMES AWARD 2013

Augustus Rondo Bohn to be wild! Placement and collecting game, set in ancient Placement game on colored numbers and New card game in on occasion of the 15 Year Rome, for 2-6 players, ages 8+, by Paolo Mori number chips, for 2-4 players, ages 8+, Jubilee of Bohnanza, for 1-7 players, ages at Hurrican (Asmodee) 2013, ca. 30 minutes by Dr. Reiner Knizia at Schmidt Spiele 2012, 12+, by Uwe Rosenberg at Amigo Spiele 2012, ca. 30 minutes ca. 60 minutes

Brügge Die Legenden von Andor Spartacus Development game with traders in the Cooperative adventure game for heroes in the Development game on schools for gladiators medieval town of Bruges for 2-4 players, ages Land of Andor for 2-4 players, ages 10+, by in ancient Rome, for 3-4 players, ages 16+, by 10+, by Stefan Feld at Hans im Glück 2013, Michael Menzel at Kosmos 2012, Sean Sweigert and Aaron Dill at Heidelberger ca. 60 minutes ca. 90 minutes 2013, ca. 180 minutes WIENER Our 4 User Groups SPIELE We assign our award winners to four user groups:

AKADEMIE For children: Games for children, and educational games; adults can, but need not play. For the 13th time Wiener Spiele Akademie has announced its Award Winners on June 24th, 2013. For families: children and parents play on an The Österreichische Spielepreis is awarded equal footing, all have the same chances to win. annually. Spiel der Spiele is the game which is considered ny the Spielekommission to be espe- With friends: Adolescents and adults play on cially entertaining and in accordance with times, equal footing, all players age of ages 12+. every interested player should have played it. Each award-winning Spiele Hit chosen by our experts For experts: Games with more complex rules and mirror the multitude and diversity of games avail- a higher level of access, offering lots of interesting able from game shops. play, especially for experienced players. Members of the Spielekommission, chaired by Dipl.Ing. Dagmar de Cassan, are: Please note, that user groups may overlap; children Dr. Gerhard Bergauer, Prof. Samy Molcho, Dr. who love to play can be ahead of their peers as Christoph Proksch, Gert Stöckl and Kurt Schellen- regards to game play. bauer. Additional Information on the games award Tzolk´in Der Maya-Kalender can be found at: www.spiel-der-spiele.at „For families” is not the equivalent of the classic A turning worker-placement game for 2-4 term “Family Game”! The right game for you is players, ages 12+, by Daniele Tascini and All award-winnings game are available from solely chosen by your fun in playing! Simone Luciani at Czech Games Edition 2012, your specialty games store which will be ca. 90 minutes pleased to help you! AUSTRIAN GAMES AWARD 2013 PLAYED FOR YOU u ALI / AUF TEUFEL KOMM RAUS

thieves but the one who made INFORMATION the mistake choose one trea- PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: ALI sure card. When Ali stops the 3-5 8+ 15+ THIEVES AND TREASURES says “Open Sesame” and he and all thieves share the treasures, Designer: A. Bauza, C. Lebrat in turn choosing one card from Artist: Stéphane Poinsot Price: ca. 14 Euro 45 treasure cards including nine turns up one of the special trea- Ali’s hand. In case of three mark- Publisher: Libellud 2013 shiny, noisy and encumbering sures, Ali takes a corresponding ers for Ali the thieves share the www.libellud.com treasures and the Chief Thief alarm marker. A round ends in treasures, choosing one in turn. card. In turn, one player is Ali and one of three ways: A thief makes All players stack their cards face- EVALUATION the others are thieves. Ali turns a mistake, Ali has collected three down. Then the next player be- up treasure cards one by one identical or three different mark- comes Ali, and so on. When the Memo, collecting Users: For families and takes them up; after each ers or Ali voluntarily stops turn- Chief Thief turns up the game Version: multi card the currently active thief ing up cards. When the round ends at the end of this round; Rules: de en es fr nl must repeat all treasures uncov- ends with a thief’s mistake, Ali the Chief Thief card is handled In-game text: no ered so far, in any order, identi- chooses three cards from his like a treasure card. Should the Comments: cal treasures are added up! If Ali hand and then in turn Ali and all draw pile end in this round, too, Nicely adapted standard mechanism of „I put into Ali is supposed to have stopped my suitcase..” * Topic and voluntarily. All now score one mechanisms fit well to- point for each kind of treasure in gether * Very pretty drawings * Handy take-along-sized box their stack, not for each treasure Compares to: card! In Variants you need to list All memo games with a listing treasures in correct order or add mechanism an adjective to each treasure. Other editions: Ali is a very nice version of „I put Currently none into my suitcase …“, offering a little bit of tactic to the Ali player. All in all a very attractive family game! 

If your bet was lower or equal INFORMATION to the highest total of coals you PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: AUF TEUFEL KOMM RAUS keep your stake and take the 2-6 10+ 40+ CHALLENGE THE DEVIL same sum from the bank; if you FOR GOLD OR COAL did bet the exact total you get Designer: Tanja und Sara Engel double your stake from the bank. Artist: Benedikt Beck Price: ca. 30 Euro Gold from coal – you need to be fire: You turn up coal pieces – If your bet was higher you lose Publisher: Zoch Verlag 2013 an alchemist or challenge the even if you could not bet due to your stake to the bank. For the www.zoch-verlag.com devil! 48 coal pieces showing a lack of money – until you either highest total in coals and most devil or numbers between 10 stop or a devil appears. If you pieces of coal you get a bonus EVALUATION and 100 are placed face-down stop you take all revealed coal of 50 from the bank. Finally, all into the oven. Now you play four pieces and name the total. If you add the values of their chips and Betting game Users: For families phases per round: For the Devil’s turn up the devil you take coal place their marker between the Version: multi Bet you secretly bet how much and devil face-down. This does corresponding numbers on the Rules: de en fr it coal any player can take out of not affect winning your bet! board or on the correct total - if In-game text: no the fire before revealing a devil. When all are done with taking you are alone in last place or at Comments: Now players take coal from the coal you determine winnings: 0-50 you get 50 from each player Pretty components * Topic goes well with the mecha- who turns up a devil. Coal for a nism * Very nice family new round is prepared. When game * Lot of fun to play the total value of a player’s chips Compares to: reaches or tops 1600, the game All collecting games with stop-or-lose mechanism ends and you win with the high- Other editions: est total. Currently none What a hellish thing, those dev- ils – what kind of risk will I take? It might be best to bet low and stop early – but that means the others could win, too – hellish, devilishly risky and good and also a lot of hellish fun! 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 1218 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at BABAR UND DIE ABENTEUER VON BADOU / BACCHANALIA t PLAYED FOR YOU

ture card it is put underneath INFORMATION the corresponding number card, PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: BABAR provided the spot is still empty; 2-6 5+ 15+ UND DIE ABENTEUER VON BADOU DAS when the position is already filled KARTENSPIEL or the card does not fit you set Designer: Steinwender, Lepuschitz it aside open-faced on your dis- Artist: The Clifford Ross Company Price: ca. 9 Euro Badou loves to go out searching Ten Adventure cards are shuffled, card pile and you draw the next Publisher: Huch! & friends 2012 for adventures to master in Ce- two of them are randomly and card. If you make a mistake you www.huchandfriends.de lesteville and its neighborhoods secretly set aside and the rest must take all cards placed so far in the company of his friends; but is stacked face-down. Now you for this adventure and put them EVALUATION not all friends can always take the turn up the top adventure card underneath your draw pile. Ac- time to go with him, so players and put it on the table; it shows tion cards can be used to make Card placement game Users: For children help him to find friends to keep Badou’s friends in ever-changing a player lose a turn or to cover a Version: de him company. Number cards 1-5 order. Now all players at the same friends card beneath a number Rules: de are laid out; Friends cards and Ac- time and using one hand only card and place the friend again. In-game text: no tion cards are shuffled together turn up the top card from their When the necessary cards are Comments: and dealt evenly to all players. stack; if the card fits the adven- in position and the adventure is Simple rules * Easy to take along * Familiar license complete you remove all used characters cards from the game and turn Compares to: up the next adventure card. If you All simple card placement are out of cards you win instantly; games otherwise you win if you have Other editions: Currently none fewest cards left when all eight adventures have been played. This is a fast adventure for in-between, with familiar characters and simple rules; and on the go you train motor skills and speed of reaction. 

drinking and other trappings of INFORMATION an orgy. You draw cards from a PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: BACCHANALIA deck; the game holds two kinds 3-6 18+ var FLEE AND FEAST of cards – Deus cards with characters and Umbra cards with Designer: Paul Czega, Michele Gelli symbols. The rule state exactly Artist: Claudia Cangini Price: ca. 12 Euro Bacchanalia is a role playing for instance no curses or no ex- how to distribute cards and also Publisher: Narrattiva 2012 game based on a handful of plicit sexual descriptions or no the kind of scenes resulting from www.narrattiva.com cards and intended for adults details on violence in crimes. which constellation of cards; for only! You are a stranger in Ro- At the start each player invents instance, a Satyrus card demands EVALUATION magna fleeing from accusations his character, describes him and a tale including change of loca- of offenses against the law of his current location as well as tion and descriptions of unre- Storytelling, Role play Users: With friends the Empire and encounter gods his fictive partner and the real strained scenes at the new set- Version: de en in the hills looking for amuse- or alleged crime. The very first ting; Pluto demands inclusion of Rules: de en + fr it ment. All players together de- player must also introduce a a crime and description of your In-game text: no cide on a timespan for the game description of the Bacchanalia, involvement, if any; the content Comments: and on regulations for the tales, that is, a scene involving singing, details are up to the players. Aim For adults only * Rules need preparation time * of the game is to escape dangers Cards determine kinds of and to find your fictive partner; if scenarios, not content * In you manage to leave the Empire cooperation with the City of Bertinoro with him or her, you win. The Compares to: game ends in any case when Other narrative games each player has arrived an end- Other editions: of-game scene. Italienisch/Französische Ausgabe An absolutely unusual game where all players need to know exactly what they are getting into; also a game that only reveals itself in playing, some role playing experience could be of advantage. 

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 1319 PLAYED FOR YOU u BEJEWELED / BENNIS BUNTE BLUMEN

on. Finally, you refill the board INFORMATION with jewels drawn from the bag, PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: BEJEWELED this by and by brings the special 2-4 8+ 30+ THE APP GAME TO TOUCH jewels onto the board. When you can take off a special jewel with Designer: not stated a chain you score an additional Artist: not stated Price: ca. 30 Euro Bejeweled is an app game and chain of three, four or five jew- point. Three such coins of the Publisher: Hasbro 2013 now is given a non-electronic els of the same color. When you same color form scoring set. At www.hasbro.at edition for your games table. A form such a chain you take it off the end of your turn you put the board of 8x8 squares has room and earn coins of the same color, jewels that you have taken off EVALUATION for 64 of the 78 jewel pieces; at one coin for three jewels, two for the board back into the bag. If the start you place them well- four and three for five. Then you you are first to win three scorings Placement, set collecting shuffled to fill the board, the slide the remaining jewels in the sets you win the game. If nobody Users: For families special glitter jewels and surplus row towards the opposite side of can form a chain you replace the Version: de jewels go into the bag. the board until the gap is closed; four middle pieces on the board Rules: de You interchange two jewels and should this result in formation of with new ones from the bag. In-game text: nein try to form a horizontal or vertical a new chain you take it, and so When a chain is formed while re- Comments: Board game based on the filling the board you must draw app * Very attractive com- another jewel for refilling. ponents * Short, concise, Very pretty to look at! Very easy clear rules to play, very attractive game play, Compares to: Other placement games with row very good game play, you really formation want to handle those colorful Other editions: pieces and to collect them. And Hasbro USA of course you must pay close attention, because if you miss a chain the next player can take if off the board before he does his regular turn! 

your squirrel back on the path; if INFORMATION you roll the butterfly you can PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: BENNIS BUNTE BLUMEN choose one, two or three steps 2-4 4-8 15+ SEEDS, WATER, FLOWERS for your move. When the symbol die shows green petals you can Designer: T. Daum, V. Leitner turn over a blossom tile; if you Artist: Antje Flad Price: ca. 24 Euro Benni Hörnchen and his friends your squirrel and sowing seed, have found a blossom of your Publisher: Haba 2013 want the most beautiful flower the symbol die the additional color you set it down open-fac- www.haba.de garden in the Squirrel Wood. actions. First, you move your es; others are turned back over Blossom tiles are distributed squirrel the amount of steps in- again. If you roll the watering can EVALUATION green petals side up on the dicated by the greed die: When you can water one of your seeds; board. You put your seeds on the move ends next to an item it grows into a plant, that is, you Roll & move Users: For children your squirrel and put the squir- of your color of next to an empty take on plant part and place it on Version: multi rel in front of its tree house. brown earth hole, you can sow: top of one of your seeds. For the Rules: de en es fr it nl You roll the green dot die and To sow a seed you move your rain cloud on the symbol die you In-game text: no the blue symbol die; the green squirrel on top of the hole and can let all your seeds grow into a Comments: dot die regulates the moves of let a seed drop and then you put little plant. When the symbol die Plant growth enchantingly presented * Also illustrates shows the sun your plants flower the game progress nicely * – you can take one of your blos- Wonderful components * soms and put it on one of your Simple rules plants. When all you your plants Compares to: Other roll & move games have blossomed you quickly run Other editions: to the treehouse; if you are first Currently none to reach it you win. This is „only“ a simple roll & move game, but it enchantingly illustrates the live of a plant from seed to blossom and also dem- onstrates the progress of the game! Simply beautiful, simply felicitous. 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 1420 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at BILLY O’SHOE / CAVEMEN t PLAYED FOR YOU

„bad luck“ spots: If you roll white INFORMATION you move to the next free white PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: BILLY O’SHOE spot, but you are not allowed to 2 3+ 10+ WOODEN FEET AND A COLOR DIE place a foot there, even when the spot is free. And to make matters Designer: Norbert Proena worse, your opponent can place Artist: Cristiana Giuriato Price: ca. 20 Euro Little millipede Billy has very wet your opponent’s marker on the a foot now next to any empty Publisher: Beleduc 2013 feet after being out in a squall of spot you move on to the next spot. Again the winner is who www.beleduc.de rain and is in no mood to take free spot of the color rolled. The could place all his feet on Billy them off; so players must assist track is a circular track along Bil- first. EVALUATION him to get rid of his shoes. You ly’s body, head and tail are turn- In another version each player roll the color die and place your ing points. If you are first to place chooses one half of Billy, either Color dice game Users: For children marker on the next spot of this all your feet you win. the red or the blue on, marked Version: multi color in the direction given by In a version you play adhering by the arrows. Again you play as Rules: cn de en es fr it nl the arrow. If there is no foot at to the same basic rules as in in the core version of the game, In-game text: no this spot you can add one of your the core game, but the white each player places feet on both Comments: feet next to it. Should there be spots on Billy’s body are now sides of Billy’s body, and white Pretty design * Nice background story * Good game spots are not “bad luck” spots; for first rules adherence the winner in this version is the Compares to: player whose side of Billy is first All color dice games completely filled with feet! Other editions: Even when Billy Millipede has Currently none only 24 feet, he provides an enchanting idea in enchanting implementation; the wooden feet with a handle are funny and the simple rules even allow for first tactical considerations on where to best place a foot in the white = bad luck version. 

you and each bid must be higher INFORMATION than the previous, one. Then the PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: CAVEMEN holder of the conch pays one 2-5 13+ 60+ THE QUEST FOR FIRE food for each cavemen, all other players pay one feed. If you do Designer: Dan Cassar not have enough food you must Artist: Claus Stephan + Team Price: ca. 23 Euro Players are pre-historic leaders of If you hold the conch you are discard a caveman. Publisher: Rio Grande Games 12 their tribes, you hunt, grow your starting player, also for choos- In the Action phase you choose www.riograndegames.com tribe and develop new technolo- ing cards from the pool, and you one action from Recruit, Hunt, gies; if you are first to discover do an extra action at the end of Invent, Forage or Explore. In the EVALUATION fire you win. Resources in the the round. At the start of each Discard Phase the player to the game are teeth and food. Teeth round a certain number of cards right of the conch holder selects Card drafting, auction Users: With friends earn you prestige and you use is drawn for the pool in relation cards from the pool and discards Version: de it to pay for cavemen and caves to the number of players. Then them until only three are left; fire Rules: de and bid with them for the conch; all players bid with teeth for the must be shuffled back into the In-game text: yes food keeps the cavemen of your conch, if you pass you can re-en- pile. When you are the conch Comments: tribe alive. ter the bid when it gets back to holder and your inventions add Expensive advantage for the starting player * Re- up to at least the cost for fire you sources management and have invented fire and taken your using of card advantages tribe into a new era. are deciding factors and allow for lots of strategies The 21 inventions in the game Compares to: and the different abilities of tribe Card drafting games using card rela- members make for a sophisticat- tions and resources management ed game with several possible Other editions: strategies and a well-working Currently none interaction of topic and mechanism, including the very expensive advantage of the starting player in choosing cards first from the pool. 

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 1521 PLAYED FOR YOU u CHICAGO / CONSTRUCTION ZONE

tion and you deal with the con- INFORMATION sequences of this snitching: The PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: CHICAGO snitch draws a chip from the bag 3-4 12+ 60+ CASINOS AND MOONSHINE – if it is a normal policeman he can be bribed; if it as Untouchable Designer: Gin’ichiro Suzuki the snitch chooses a player who Artist: Takumi Suzuki Price: ca. 40 Euro You are boss of a syndicate in you must pay for; you can only loses all casinos, distilleries and Publisher: Show Enterprise 2012 Chicago, making money with fight if you can pay for potential minions and you also remove a www.gamers-jp.com/japonbrand Casinos and moonshine und de- funerals; 4) income from con- normal policeman. Players always ploying your henchmen. trolled areas; casinos double the keep their money secret and can EVALUATION In each round of the game you income of the respective area, a lie when asked for their balance; have one turn of six facultative moonshine distillery doubles the but at the start of round 7 and Worker Placement Users: With friends phases: 1) Bail out henchmen total income; 5) build a casino or 10 all players must name their Version: jp from jail; 2) use three action distillery or 6) donate to charity. cash total correctly. After twelve Rules: de en fr jp points to recruit, place or move After one turn for all, the poorest rounds prohibition ends after the In-game text: no henchmen; conflict – killed player turns Snitch. The Snitch last player turn, the Snitch phase Comments: henchmen need funerals, which decides to who he gives informa- is not implemented. The richest Wittily adapted standard mechanisms * Special player is arrested and half of his touch from the game-end money is confiscated; the player rule for the richest player who is now richest – usually an- * The game comes with Japanese rules only, other languages other player – now wins! available as download A game on a Chicago topic as Compares to: many, but the Al-Capone-similar All games with Chicago/gang/Mafia end gives it an unusual touch. So topics Other editions: staying demurely in the back- Currently none ground could win you the game, provided the others leave you to your business and you can use Untouchables against them. 

a building you lay out and then INFORMATION discard the combination of ma- PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: CONSTRUCTION ZONE terial cards shown on the build- 2-4 8+ 30+ WHO IS THE FASTEST BUILDER? ing card. It is possible to overpay, but do not get back any change. Designer: Oliver Sihiveer Later in the game special build- Artist: G. Rudzītis, A. Rocēns Price: ca. 12 Euro You want to be the fastest build- building material draw pile. In ings can also appear in the draw Publisher: Brain Games 2012 er of all! In each turn you receive your turn you draw two cards pile, as the joint discard pile is www.brain-games.com resources that you collect and from the display and replenish reshuffled for the new draw pile. then use by and by to set up the display with cards from the Those cards can be taken like ba- EVALUATION buildings. The card stacks for draw pile; then you may swap sic cards from the display or can special buildings and necessary two of your cards from your be acquired by swapping two Collect, swap, place Users: For families building materials and a display hand for one building card and cards from your hand for such Version: multi of building material cards are may then set up a building – you card. If you are first to set up 5, Rules: de en prepared according to the rules; can choose any one of the three 7 or 10 buildings in case of 4, 3 In-game text: no each player begins the game face-up top special building or 2 players respectively, you win. Comments: with four cards from the basic cards in the stacks. To set up such First of all you notice the pretty Lithuanian Publisher * Good, compact rules * and attractive graphics in this Standard mechanisms * game from Lithuania, and then Very attractive graphics the compact rules that leave Compares to: nothing to be desired; the game All games on collecting and swapping card combinations itself is an ideal family game us- Other editions: ing standard mechanisms which Currently none are easy to explain, easy to understand and easy to implement. Not a “great” game, but a nice family game and a well-made example for the still very new game production in Lithuania. 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 22 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at COSMIC EMPIRES / CRAZY LAB t PLAYED FOR YOU

or fields without a presence. In INFORMATION the turns for each player follow- PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: COSMIC EMPIRES ing the collective round you can 2-5 12+ 90+ SECRET AND PUBLIC MISSIONS either 1) use all of your own ac- tivated fields and 2) move your Designer: Alexander Gyulai fleet, reveal fields and resolve Artist: Benjamin Carré Price: ca. 35 Euro Planetary natives defend a still and thus win the game; each their effects – if you encoun- Publisher: Innovative Games Creation 12 independent system against of the factions has special abili- ter pirates, combat ensues in- www.ingc.de the take-over efforts of interga- ties and characteristics. During stantly; this also happens when lactic conglomerates and against the game player turns alternate ships of different factions meet; EVALUATION the Galactic Empire as well as with collective rounds. In those combats are resolved by rolling against pirates and explorers collective rounds you explore dice for hits and assigning dam- Development, resources Users: With friends on the search for resources and the game board: you receive in- age. Instead of ship movement Version: multi new technologies. You take up formation and can either take a you can use diplomacy or build Rules: de en the role of one of those factions look at one face-down board tile ships. Planets can be conquered In-game text: yes and want to be the first the = field or exchange a fields. The exclusively by diplomacy. Event Comments: implement your secret mission fields are either planets, stations cards come from activation of Bilingual components * Modular board and chang- event planets or exploration cen- ing roles allow for variety * ters and from completed public Agreeable duration orders, won combats and defeat- Compares to: ing of neutral pirates. All Sci-Fi games with explore/conquer/defend topic Cosmic Empires offers and am- Other editions: bitious space encounter with an Currently none agreeable playing time and a nice mixture of tactics and luck of the dice roll, with a slight empha- sis on the chance element; the modular board and changing factions offers an ever-varying flair. 

turn over the top card of this INFORMATION trump deck to determine the PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: CRAZY LAB trump color for the round. In 3-5 10+ 30+ RED=PLUS, GREEN=MINUS turn all players play any card of their choice, there are no rules for Designer: G. Morales, J.Gene color or tricking or using trump. Artist: Marek Blaha Price: ca. 8 Euro In Crazy Lab you play with nega- to three colors showing individ- The highest card in the current Publisher: Amigo Spiele 2013 tive colors and positive colors. ual values for each of the colors trump color wins the trick; in www.amigo-spiele.de For each player there is a stack on the card – and now chooses case of a tie the winning card is of four scoring cards; on one side his positive color and lays it out the one played earlier. Should EVALUATION those cards show one of the four negative side up to keep it se- there be no trump card in the colors in the game, this is the cret. From the remaining cards trick the highest card wins the Trick-taking card game Users: For families plus side, and the same color on in the scoring deck you now trick regardless of color. If you Version: de the negative side. Each player is choose two colors for trump to win the trick you take it, turn over Rules: de dealt ten cards from the trick- be shuffled and set down face- the next trump card and lead a In-game text: no taking stack – number cards in down for a trump deck. card for the new trick. After ten Comments: all colors, most of them show up At the start of each round you tricks you win with the highest Multiple colors make memorizing cards rather total from points in your posi- tricky * Interesting mecha- tive color minus points in your nism for choosing scoring negative colors in all your tricks. and trump colors * Only the negative color of each player is Why the game is called Crazy lab known is not mentioned in the rules; Compares to: but at least the game is tricky Other trick-taking card games with and takes some consideration choice of scoring or trump colors Other editions: as to which colors one chooses Currently none for trump and which card to use when to trick; memorizing cards played might be tricky because of the multiple color cards. 

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 23 PLAYED FOR YOU u DINO PARK / DOODLE JUMP

you stop, you take completely INFORMATION filled cards; incomplete cards PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: DINO PARK with adventurers on them stay 1-4 7+ 20+ HUNTING WITH CAGE AND ROPE in the display. If you cannot set aside a die you lose your turn; if Designer: Reiner Knizia there should be a full card or sev- Artist: not stated Price: ca. 10 Euro Hunting for dinosaurs – you use to, re-roll the remaining ones, eral full cards at that point they Publisher: Piatnik 2013 curious means like a rubber ham- set aside at least one more and are discarded, incomplete ones www.piatnik.com mer or a butterfly net besides again re-roll the remaining ones, remain in the display. If you have ropes or traps to hunt dinosaurs etc., or you can stop. You can only set aside all dice and at least two EVALUATION and try to catch the most valu- set aside items that are shown of them show binoculars you can able ones. The Dinosaur cards on one of the cards on display re-roll all five dice, but can only Dice game Users: For families are shuffled and stacked face- and you place an adventurer on take a card that is already full Version: multi down, then you turn up and lay a corresponding item on of the if you stop your turn. When all Rules: cz de en fr it hu sk pl out three of those cards. three cards for each die you set cards have been taken you add In-game text: no You roll all dice, set aside at least aside. When you set aside the the values of your cards and win Comments: one of them and can, if you want binoculars, nothing happens. If with the highest total. For a soli- Pretty design * Simple rules * Nicely varied stop/risk- taire game you take the top card mechanism from the face-down stack and re- Compares to: move it from the game after each All dice game with a stop/ voluntary end of a turn. risk mechanism Dino Park is a nice dice game Other editions: Currently none for all the family; the dinosaurs are fantastic, the rubber ham- mer is cute and the stop-or-risk mechanism has been attractively adapted; who wants to leave a nearly complete dinosaur card to the next player? 

of levels by one position, taking INFORMATION off levels without Doodlers or PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: DOODLE JUMP rolling unused dice again. After 2-4 8+ 30+ THE BOARD GAME A) or B) you decide if you want to roll again or if you stop. If you Designer: Max Kirps stop your Doodler remains on Artist: Ideenfabrik Brigitte Hurter Price: ca. 25 Euro In analogy to the app your Doo- reachable for your Doodler, later the pad you reached. Publisher: Ravensburger 2013 dler wants to get to the top and in the game all pads directly ad- Whenever you roll and cannot www.ravensburger.de you win, if he manages this first. jacent to the Doodler’ position jump or use the symbol die your The stairs are set up and are within his reach. To jump to Doodler falls, straight down to EVALUATION equipped with randomly drawn a pad you add any number of the nearest empty level. When power tiles. You roll all dice and dice for a result equal to a num- you jump on a pad with another Dice game Users: For families the roll is successful if you can ber on one of the reachable doodler this doodler is pushed Version: multi A) jump to a pad or B) use the pads and put your Doodler on and falls. When your Doodler Rules: de en fr it nl symbol die. this pad; dice used for this are lands on a power tile, you take, In-game text: no Jump to a pad: At the start all set aside. The symbol die allows use it – depending on the sym- Comments: pads on the lowest level are you additional numbers, shifting bol on the back – instantly or Well-made adaptation of the app * Very nice family later in the game and replace game * Good, well-illustrat- it with a tile from stock. Power ed rules tiles allow you different kinds of Compares to: jumps or a shield against falling. All dice game with result parameters and penalties for missing parameters In the advanced game you must Other editions: shoot at monsters and expert Currently none tiles are introduced. This is an absolutely well-made adaptation of the app, the ten- sion and challenge in the jumps and the falling off are nicely imi- tated by rolling dice, a fun game with a very actual and therefore interesting topic for all the family. 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 24 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at EVOLUTION THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES / FILLY WITCHY t PLAYED FOR YOU

this first expansion into the INFORMATION core game and play with six PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: EVOLUTION players. The basic rules remain 2-4/6 8+ 30+ THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES unchanged, but thanks to new PLUS EXPANSION TIME TO FLY characteristics the course of the Designer: D. Knorre, S. Machin game changes. New character- Artist: Dmitry Knorre Price: ca. 20 / 13 Euro You breed your own species and take one food marker per round. istics are, among others: Shell - Publisher: Rightgames 11, 12 must make do with different If animals are not sufficiently fed stays in play even after extinction www.russianboardgames.com amounts of food. Each round they become extinct, including of the species and can be taken comprises the phases Develop- all their characteristics, and are instead of food; intellect - can eat EVALUATION ment, Food supply, Food and Ex- discarded. When all cards are animal with only one protection; tinction plus drawing cards. Each gone, you score for surviving Angler fish - can be played only Card placement game Users: For families phase is resolved by each player. animals and for each of their as an animal; special character- Version: multi Or development you play cards, characteristics, with bonuses for istics is used in the food phase; Rules: de en fr + cn kr ru using them either as animal or special characteristics. Trematodes - uses rules for Pairs In-game text: yes as characteristics. Food is deter- In Time to Fly we go on breed- as a parasite; or Flying, Ambush, Comments: mined by dice roll. To feed you ing species and can now shuffle Ink Cloud or others. Multi-language edition * Card texts in English with The use of the respective abilities leaflet for translations * of your species must be well- Good for families with considered; carnivores are hard some gaming experience to defeat, but lack of food defeats Compares to: Bios Megafauna for the topic every species! All in all a game Other editions: with quite a lot of tactic, a little In Russian mitigated by the luck of dice for food. Another hint: Simple flying creatures are also hard to defeat. So the overall impression is that of an attractive game that very nicely implements the topic. 

of spots you can move your filly INFORMATION horse on the path; you need not PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: FILLY WITCHY use all steps and can stop your 2-4 4+ 20+ HEXENTANZ IN ZIMSALA turn earlier. You can switch from one ring to another using the Designer: not stated spots that are marked with a Artist: not stated Price: ca. 16 Euro The little plush ponies, called Fil- tric rings in five colors, switching colorful jewel, called a diamond Publisher: Noris Spiele 2013 lys, have now arrived in a witches between rings can speed up in this game. Those diamonds www.noris-spiele.de setting. Filly Witchy is the latest your journey to the witches. are marked with numbers and background story for the little Each player chooses one of the to use a diamond for switching EVALUATION horse princesses. In this roll & pretty Fillys who all war glittering you must roll a number that is move game the Fillys want to Swarovski jewels in the clutches higher than the number on the Roll & move Users: For children wend their way to the powerful of their cloaks, and puts it one diamond; you cannot use the Version: de witches Abra and Cadabra and of the four starting spots which diamond for changing when Rules: de follow the path on the glittering are surrounded by flower gar- your move ends on a diamond. In-game text: no magical rings. Those rings on the lands. Then you roll the die: The When your move ends on a path Comments: board are made up from concen- result determines the number spot with another Filly this Filly is Pretty components * Fillys are miniatures of bigger moved to the next outward ring collectible horses * Very and thus falls back in the race. If simple rules * Good for an you are first to reach the center introduction to rules games spot with Abra and Cadabra you Compares to: Other toll & move games win the magical journey to the Other editions: witches. Currently none This is a very pretty game, like all games from the Filly universe. The game itself is a nice variation of the roll-move-send-down-if- possible mechanism and purely chance-driven, but an excellent introduction to rules games for small children. 

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 25 PLAYED FOR YOU u FLINKE FLIEGER / GEISTESBLITZ 2.0

fast as possible; Tiefflug – you INFORMATION go down on all fours and crawl, PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: FLINKE FLIEGER balancing the seagull in one 2-8 5-10 10+ TO THE NEST AT LOW ALTITUDES hand; Backwards – you move backwards and only turn shortly Designer: Gunter Baars before the nest; Trudelflug - you Artist: Oliver Freudenreich Price: ca. 7 Euro Two seagull families must move is given a seagull mounted on a move forwards and must do a Publisher: Ravensburger 2012 to a bigger nest, because they stick and a randomly chosen egg full turnaround at least twice; www.ravensburger.de have laid too many eggs. This is placed face down on the ruck- Sideways – you walk sideways, turns into a race to reach the sack on the seagull’s back; the choosing real sidestepping or EVALUATION new nest before the fledglings color of the rucksack determines crossing your legs. If you lose hatch. The nests in the box bot- the nest where the egg should the egg, you and your team must Balance, Race Users: For children tom and the starting line are end up, and the spinner deter- quit for this round. If you reach Special: Many players prepared; the starting line is at mines the kind of movement to the nests and slide the egg into Version: de about 4 m distance from the transport the egg. On a signal the correct one you saved it for Rules: de nests. Players form two teams. both players start the race using your team and the seagull fam- In-game text: no The active player of each team this movement: Turboflug – as ily. When the egg slides into the Comments: Series Spiel aktiv * Good wrong nest the opposing team movement game * Needs a will be happy! When both eggs bit or room, but can easily end up in a nest, regardless in be played indoors which one, the faster team is re- Compares to: All race/balance games warded with a bonus egg. Other editions: When less than three eggs re- Currently none main each team counts the fledglings underneath its eggs and the team with most fledglings is the winner of the race. Diligent, quick, and active, just as the motto of the series Spiel aktiv demands, good for indoors as well as outdoors, and a lot of fun. 

the brush in red, green is a miss- INFORMATION ing color and the missing item is PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: GEISTESBLITZ 2.0 the frog, and as one of the items 2-8 8+ 30+ GREY GHOST AND RED BRUSH is a green frog you grab it. You -> GREEN FROG can only grab for one item in a Designer: Jacques Zeimet round; if you take the correct one Artist: Gabriela Silveira Price: ca. 10 Euro Once again Balduin needs help and stacked face-down. The you get the card; if you make a Publisher: Zoch 2012 with his pictures, as his enchant- top card of those image cards mistake you must give a card to www.zoch-verlag.com ed camera often does produce is turned up and all players try the player who reacted correctly. images in wrong colors. This time to grab as quickly as possible When there was no correct reac- EVALUATION he makes a ghostess disappear, the one item from the card that tion the card is placed beneath as well as a red towel, a green is depicted in its correct color. the draw pile. In versions you Reaction Users: For families frog, a blue brush and a grey If no item is represented in its can name the item in German or Version: multi bathtub. Those items are ar- correct color you must grab the another, previously determined Rules: de en fr it ranged in a circle and the image item that is not depicted and has language, when the frog is vis- In-game text: no cards for those items in varying the missing color. So, when the ible, or grab an item in relation Comments: color combinations are shuffled card shows the ghost in grey and to the towel. When all cards have New edition of Geistesblitz with new items * Can be been taken you win if you col- combined with Geistesblitz lected most cards. If you like to * Rules for versions and play an even more demanding combination with Geistes- blitz are included game you can combine Geistes- Compares to: blitz 2.0 with Geistesblitz! Geistesblitz and other reaction games The name of the game is pro- on the topic of missing elements gram, you really need a kind of Other editions: brainwave for each new card, Currently none and also a good amount of concentration throughout the game which provides witty and jolly brain training for your mind and reaction. 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 26 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at GENTLEMEN CAMBRIOLEURS / GOBLIN’S INC t PLAYED FOR YOU

Helping Hand tokens to move INFORMATION one of the special markers, tun- GENTLEMEN PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: CAMBRIOLEURS nel, car or lock. A tunnel connects 2-5 10+ 45+ GENTLEMEN THIEVES two locations to form one location, the car relocates one token Designer: Dumas, Chevallier, Pelemans to to the location with the lock Artist: Christophe Madura Price: ca. 26 Euro The game is meant to pay hom- alliance space and three into the token and the lock token stops Publisher: Bombyx 2012 age to Arsène Lupin; you should black one and thus forms two splitting of the loot at its loca- www.asmodee.de follow in his footsteps, become alliances – two burglars versus tion. Each location can only hold the king of burglars and collect three. Then – in the Burglary Ac- a maximum of three tokens of EVALUATION most loot. The game is set up actions phase - you take turns and the same kind. When there are all cording to specifications, equip- either take one equipment token five kinds of equipment at one lo- Placement, collecting Users: For families ment tokens are placed next to from the board and put it next to cation – gloves, rope and anchor, Version: multi locations. Each round begins a location (it is instantly replaced lamp, mask and stethoscope – a Rules: en fr with the formation of alliances: from the draw pile) or draw the burglary happens. The loot goes In-game text: no The starting player puts two top token from the face-down to the alliance with the majority Comments: character tokens into the white draw pile or use one of your of tokens in their color there, to- Elegant, beautiful design * Simple rules * Very tactical kens turn into loot and are split with the right amount of within the alliance. In case of a chance from the equip- tie for the alliances nobody gets ment marker drawing loot. When the Brigadier appears Compares to: All placement-for-majorities games the game ends, you reveal your Other editions: identity and win with most loot Currently none tokens- An elegant, classy game in which the forced change of alliances and the need to try to glean optimum profit from this change result in a very tactical game that is nicely counterbalanced by the random drawing of equipment tokens. 

which you draw seven cards. In INFORMATION the building phase you alternate PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: GOBLIN’S INC as designer and constructor for 2-4 12+ 60+ ONE DESIGNER, ONE CONSTRUCTOR choosing and placing of robot parts: The first designer draws Designer: Filip Neduk five tiles – there are weapons, Artist: D. Cochard, F. Murmak Price: ca. 35 Euro The Boss of the robot factory is each player has secret goals armament, engines and decora- Publisher: Heidelberger / CGE 12 retiring and decides about his which he wants to achieve in tion and hands two of them to www.heidelbaer.de successor with a competition order to impress the boss, and the designer of the other team. for building the best and most of course his temporary partner The builder must add those tiles EVALUATION resilient robot. In each of the two does not know those plans and to the robot on any free spot; rounds you are art of a team to- goals. Players of a team sit next to after 20 tiles the combat phase Placement, Strength comparison Users: With friends gether with another player. You each other, a randomly decided begins; players alternate as pilot Version: multi build a robot together and then starting player begins the game and tactician for directing the ro- Rules: cz de en fr get into a firing match with the as planner. One blue print card bot and choosing combat cards. In-game text: no robot from the other team. But is revealed and you have your Three tactics cards are on display Comments: – and, of course, there is a But, own deck of secret goals from and you choose actions, cause Plays very differently for two and for four players damage and inspect your robot * Cute, witty, well-written for inability for combat. Combat rules including expert and results are evaluated according party versions * Plan for one trial game to familiarize yourself to your secret goals. with the concept Goblins Inc. Is a funny chaotic Compares to: game in which the biggest ku- All placement games with evaluation dos go to the rules of the game; of position, placement and strength Other editions: they do present the game very Bei Iello, Mindok und Rio Grande wittily and comprehensively; in Games a game for four players the construction is harder to plan, in a game for two a tactical melee ensues. Finally, some intelligent goblins! 

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 27 PLAYED FOR YOU u GOLD AM ORINOKO / IRON SKY

In your turn you decide on one of INFORMATION your adventurers and move him PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: GOLD AM ORINOKO over the logs; an adventurer can 2-4 7+ 20+ RIVER CROSSING ON LOGS step from the bank onto the first log from any spot on the bank; Designer: Bernhard Weber you can only move horizontally Artist: Michael Menzel Price: ca. 25 Euro In the ruins deep in the jungle player rolls both dice: The white or vertically across the logs, and Publisher: Haba 2013 on the other side of the Orinoko die determines the number of on each square on a log only one www.haba.de river treasure of gold coins has steps for your adventurer, the adventurer is allowed. Occupied been located which can only be brown die the distance you can spaces are jumped over horizon- EVALUATION reached by crossing the river on push a lumber log. You choose tally or vertically and you do not lumber logs gliding downstream. the order in which to implement count them for your move allot- Racing, collecting Users: For families The lumber logs are placed next those actions. When you push a ment. On the other side of the Version: multi to the rock head and the coins log, two logs next to each other river you can only enter a temple Rules: de en es fr it nl are distributed on the temple must overlap by at least one wall spot if it has a coin on it, you In-game text: no wall, half of them face-down, square and you cannot push a then get this coin. When all coins Comments: the other half face-up. The active log beyond the end of the river. are taken or the remaining coins Adaptation of an old arcade game * Topic goes can’t be reached you win with nicely with the mechanism the highest total of coins. * Mechanism well adapted If you experience a bit of a déjà- * Interesting due do aiming at defined targets vu, you are correct; there have Compares to: been other games using the Frogger, Flößer am Katarakt, Ach du mechanism of crossing on mov- lieber Biber and other placement ing parts, but the adaption has games with moving locations Other editions: been cleverly done, the topic Currently none fits the mechanism nicely and the exact and scoring landing is a special challenge, mitigated by the luck of the dice roll. 

the next is begun. Resources are INFORMATION provided by territories you con- PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: IRON SKY trol. Actions are implemented 2-6 12+ 120+ THE BOARD GAME using Command Cards – you can, in any order, play command Designer: Salmijärvi, Kolunen cards, use orders for Regroup or Artist: Salmijärvi, Lehtiniemi Price: ca. 45 Euro Based on the film of the same the same faction. All players of a Request Help and share resourc- Publisher: Revision Games 2012 name and set in an Alternate faction implement their moves es with others, while you have www.revision-games.com Reality, an Invasion is started by at the same time; you can hand resources left. Combat resulting the Fourth Empire in order to over money and units to other from Actions is resolved with EVALUATION conquer territories and coun- players in your faction and can Combat Cards. When the End tered by the United World Con- use resources and armies in of Game Marker is drawn the Conflict simulation Users: For experts federacy who must fend off the the same round. All players of game ends, usually after eight Version: multi invaders. Each player is part of a factions play simultaneously, complete rounds; with the Game Rules: de en + fi se a faction and is responsible for as active faction, the phases Re- End options it can take between In-game text: no one continent, but he can inter- sources, Command and End of seven and ten rounds. At the end Comments: act and plan with other players in Turn, all finish one phase before all members of a faction together Alternate-reality topic * Based on the film of the win with points from controlled same name * Coopera- territories damage and secret tion of faction members is Commander Operations. There needed are three levels of difficulty and Compares to: Dust and other conflict simulations you play with with two, four or with a fantasy topic the optimum of six players. Other editions: A dense, gloomy simulation Currently none which does not concentrate on characters like the film but on the conflict; basic mechanisms are known from other simulation, the intense cooperation of players of the same faction is an interesting element. 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 28 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at KREUZWORT / LA BOCA t PLAYED FOR YOU

or make sense in each direction. INFORMATION The question mark on the white PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: KREUZWORT die can replace any letter with 1-4 8+ 20+ DICE FOR LETTERS TO ENTER the exception of diphthongs and ß; those letters in words are Designer: Bernhard Lach, Uwe Rapp replaced by ss, ae, oe and ue, that Artist: Bluguy Grafikdesign Price: ca. 10 Euro Everybody knows crossword of the letter dice. The result of is, you need two dice results for Publisher: Kosmos 2013 puzzles, but here we play cross- the black dice determines the a word with those letters. After www.kosmos.de word dice, but without black valid letter dice for the round; 25 dice rolls and entering of the boxes in the grid. Each player each player chooses one of the corresponding letters all rows EVALUATION is given a sheet showing a grid two letters showing on the dice and columns are scored. You of 5x5 boxes. In turn the active in the colors given by the black score the longest word in every Dice, vocabulary Users: For families player rolls all five dice – one or- die and enter this letter into their row from left to right and in ev- Version: de ange, one yellow, one white and grid into any empty box of their ery column from top to bottom, Rules: de one green letter die and one choice. Contrary to a standard adhering to the usual Duden In-game text: no black die carrying six combina- crossword puzzle the letters rules for flections and spelling. Comments: tions of two colors in the colors need not result in a valid word Words of two letters are worth Pretty, compact box * Can be played with more than one point, words of three letters four players * Dice results 3 points, words with four letters are dominant, a good six points and for a word with vocabulary is helpful five letters you score ten points. Compares to: All word-forming games using Kreuzwort is a mixture of chance randomly selected letters and vocabulary; it takes some Other editions: time to get used to the not-all- Currently none directions-need-to-be-correct rules and you must actively ne- glect or destroy some rows or columns in favor of others, but the deciding factors are the dice results. 

a player’s side of the card when INFORMATION looked at by him. Players may PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: LA BOCA talk to correlate the construc- 3-6 8+ 30+ COOPERATIVE CONSTRUCTING tion, but can only look at their own side of the template card. Designer: Inka + Markus Brand Blocks need not be aligned in Artist: Franz Vohwinkel Price: ca. 30 Euro La Boca, named after a borough round. Team members share line, the construction may not Publisher: Kosmos 2013 in Buenos Aires, is a construction one template card, showing a exceed the 4x4 grid and must www.kosmos.de game based on template cards; different construction on each be without gaps under a block it is played by ever-changing side, that is, different views of or blocks; there can be gaps be- EVALUATION teams of two players, teams one construction. At the start tween blocks! All blocks must be are determined by turning up of the game all players decide used and of course you can turn Abstract construction Users: For families partner chips: Each player holds if they want to use the standard a block any way before placing Version: de a color chip for every other cards or the more difficult card it. When both have signaled that Rules: de en fr it player; the active player turns set. Now both players must use they are done, the construct is In-game text: no over a chip and thus determines all blocks together to achieve a checked and both players score Comments: his team-mate for the current construction that corresponds to points related to the time need- Good mixture of logic and communication * Precise ed. When all partner chips have information is necessary * been used each player has part- Good for fans of abstract nered each other player twice games * Some waiting can occur due to chance partner selection and you win with the highest Compares to: score. Make ‚n‘ Break and other build- La Boca is an abstract construc- accoreding-to-template games tion game, yes, but is much more Other editions: Asterion Press, Filosofia Edition, a fast communications game; the Z-Man Games quicker you can tell your partner the necessary positions of blocks the more points you will score. In interesting well-working idea for fans of colorful patterns and quick reactions. 

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 29 PLAYED FOR YOU u LINUS DER KLEINE MAGIER / MAYAN SUN AZTEC DESTINY

tured on the top square search INFORMATION tile on the stack. Then you lift PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: LINUS DER KLEINE MAGIER the Linus figurine again: When 2-5 3+ 10+ MAGICAL MAGNETIC TOYS the tile sticks to Linus you have found one of the bewitched toys Designer: Wolfgang Dirscherl and take both the toy tile and Artist: Rolf Vogt Price: ca. 17 Euro A magical and magnetic game non-magnetic ones for each the search tile and put it down Publisher: Drei Magier Spiele 13 and a new addition to the series kind of toy, Bat, Ball, Frog, Cat, on the table. If the tile does not www.dreimagier.de of games featuring Little Magi- Dice and Potion - are spread out stick, the turn passes to the next cians: Linus the Little Magician open-faced on the table and you player, and you should remem- EVALUATION has accidentally bewitched stack the square spotting tiles, ber this tile so that you do can some of his toys, and they got there are three of them for each disregard it in the next search for Memo and searching Users: For children mixed up with the ones that kind of toy. this kind of toy. When all search Version: multi have not been affected by Linus’ In your turn you take the Linus cards have been used, you win Rules: de en fr it nl spell, so players help him to sort figurine and place it on one of with most pairs of toy tiles and In-game text: no out his toys. 30 round toy tiles – the round toy tiles that are still search cards. Comments: three magnetic ones and two on display for the toy that is pic- Simply enchanting, enchantingly New game in the series of Little Magicians * Very simple – exactly the right thing cute, nice drawings * Good for a toddler, providing an early mechanism for toddlers * and easy experience of a rules Trains motor skills, concentration and memory game and of playful training of Compares to: motor skills, concentration and All searching games using magnetic memory. The drawings are really effects nice, my favorites are the bat and Other editions: the pull-toy cat, and Little Magi- Currently none cian Linus himself is absolutely sweet. The magnetic effects are most interesting for toddlers and the 3:2 ratio is gut, but a challenge for their memory. 

each seed must be harvested INFORMATION four months after planting. Af- PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: MAYAN SUN AZTEC DESTINY ter harvesting you use the crop 2-4 12+ 60+ HARVEST AND END OF THE WORLD to feed your villages and use an eventual surplus to build new Designer: Nate Hayden villages; then you score victory Artist: J. Lunders, W. Weibert Price: not stated As astronomers players read the influence the end of the world. points and earn destiny markers Publisher: Blast City Games 2012 stars and use the Mayan Haab You either play the basic SUN which are scored when star pat- --- calendar from about 500 BC to game or the advanced DESTINY terns of their color match in the find the best time for sowing game. calendar. EVALUATION and then assist villages in ritu- SUN is played in two rounds = In DESTINY you use the Aztec als to ensure growth and good years, you have three seeds for Part of the board and play again Development game Users: With friends harvests; but those rituals can in- different crops and must plant two round = years, but a round Version: en fluence other villages and catas- each one in a different month now comprises eight phases – 1) Rules: en trophes can occur. At long last, of the 18 month Haab calendar; Destiny with placing markers for In-game text: yes players turn into prophets bet- then you have actions to ma- the date and the kind of the end Comments: ting on the future and trying to nipulate the calendar by rituals; of the world, 2) Planting Seeds, Inspired by the Mayan calendar and prophecies 3) Perform Rituals, 4) Harvest, 5) on the End of the World Feed and build villages, 6) Proph- in 2012 * Sold out, but ecy, 7) Score Villages and 8) Pre- available as a Print & Play edition * Attractive mechanisms, pare for the New Year. At the end interesting topic of Year Two you score Destiny Compares to: Markers and Date Markers. Tzolk’in for topic, in general other The idea for this game is obvi- development games Other editions: ously based on the Mayan end- Print & Play of-the-world prophecy for 2012; the game itself is part of a handmade small run and is no longer available; it is presented here due its quality and due to its availability as a Print & Play edition. 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 30 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at MERCURIUS / MERLIN ZINZIN t PLAYED FOR YOU

up to three commodities or shares INFORMATION markers out for selling in the next PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: MERCURIUS round. With Dividend you choose 3-5 10+ 60+ EAST INDIA COMPANY AND STOCK MARKET a chamber (= Town) that has not yet paid dividends and cause it to Designer: Łukasz Woźniak pay. News can be played instead Artist: Jarek Nocoń Price: ca. 35 Euro A a wealthy powerful Dutch or – instead – playing Black Mar- of the Price Change card, News Publisher: rebel.pl 2012 burgher in the 17th century you ket or Dividend; 2) Playing a Price is laid out face-down and moves www.rebelgames.eu speculate on the Amsterdam Change card from your hand 3) with the Price Change cards, but Stock Market, by investing in the Adapt prices of shares and com- does not influence prices. EVALUATION Dutch East India Company and modities accordingly 4) Draw You continue to play until all in commodities imported by the a new price change card. Each playes are left with three Price Trade game Users: With friends company. player also holds three special Change cards in hand and then Version: Multi A player turn comprises 1) three cards – Black Marked, Dividend you add up the values of all your Rules: en pl financial actions, that is, buying and News; each of those cards shares and commodities at cur- In-game text: no or selling shares and/or com- can be used once in the game: rent market prices and win if you Comments: modities at current market prices Black Market allows you to place are the richest player. Very good rules * Impres- sive designs * Allows a Mercurius is a hidden jewel of a variety of strategies game, offering lots of strategies as Compares to: you know prices for two rounds in All trade games based on advance and you know that cards changing shares and commodities prices for each of the chambers – each Other editions: chamber offering two commodi- Currently none ties – regulate prices in anti-cyclic patterns; share prices are apt to rise during the game, commodity prices to fall. Buy? What? Wait?! But not too long, if you speculate in commodities! The God of Trade, Mercurius, is well-disposed towards Mercurius! 

the character is caught and the INFORMATION game is lost. So all must cooper- PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: MERLIN ZINZIN ate to be faster than the cat! 2-6 7+ 15+ SPELLCASTING BY PUFFING OR SNIPPING After checking the timer you roll the die and move the spell chip Designer: Annick Lobet on the spell board in the way in- Artist: Stan & Vince, T. Rochon Price: ca. 25 Euro Merlin the Little Magician has Beginner spot; after a few games dicated by the die result. When Publisher: Blackrock/Fragames 12 stolen a grimoire from his fa- you can let it start on Initiati = chip movement ends on the www.blackrockeditions.fr ther and was caught by Witch Advanced or Virtuoso = Mas- green border, there is an instant Morphage. His four friends have ter. The timer is turned and you effect according to the top ef- EVALUATION freed him and all must get back start immediately. In your turn fect card. When the chips shoots to the village of Brocéliande you must first check the timer, off the board it is turned over; Cooperative action game Users: For children without being caught by Mor- then cast a spell and implement should all three chips be outside, Version: fr phage’s monstrous cat. the effect of the timer. When the cat advances one step. When Rules: fr pl ru The five character markers start the timer has run out, you say the chips hits one of the nine ar- In-game text: yes on Morphage’s house, the „Cat“ “meow”, turn it over and advance eas you succeeded and either Comments: timer begins on the Novicius = it one step. If it meets a character move the respective person or Based on Merlin Zinzin by Marc Cantin * Felicitous mix move one character along a se- of action and cooperation cret path across a pond or turn * Cat timer is a very cute over the timer without moving it mechanism or turn a character chip to invis- Compares to: Cooperative games with action and ible or move Lancelot to Guine- speed elements vere or vice versa. Other editions: Simply cute! Based on a French Hobbity, Poland; Magellan, Russia comic you do cooperative magic in the guise of a well-working mixture of action and consideration of how all could cooperate best to get to the village; the “Cat” timer is an especially witty idea! 

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 31 PLAYED FOR YOU u OH NO … INVASION!!! / POLIS

from the monster deck. The INFORMATION aliens have shape and color as PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: OH NO … INVASION!!! a symbol, a direction to fly to 3-5 12+ 30+ ALL AGAINST ALIENS and a text balloon which holds his attack orders. An alien that Designer: Joost Das you just drew can be zapped Artist: Joost Das Price: ca. 20 Euro Somewhere in a dead-end cor- from the resistance stack and and discarded with a weapons Publisher: FableSmith 2012 ner of the universe a few lonely take it up or you can use the card of the same color. Station www.fablesmith.com space stations are targeted by Transport Hub and give cards expansions bring additional ac- an alien invasion; so take up the from your hand to another play- tions and black weapons can EVALUATION cudgels and fight back! Expand er. Then you can lay out cards be used against any kind of your station and collect weap- to add modules to your station alien. Shield aliens protect the Card placement game Users: With friends ons for the final conflict with the and, finally, you can play weap- Spawnmonster, when all eight Version: multi Spawnmonster! ons cards to remove aliens from are drawn we lose together. The Rules: de en fr + nl In your turn you start off with the station. active player can call for the Final In-game text: no two actions, twice the same if But: As soon as you did such an Conflict, and each player faces a Comments: you want – you can draw a card action you must draw a card Kamikaze alien; if you can de- Cute illustrations * Funny, nice rules text * Somewhat stroy it you can then destroy a confusing at the start shield alien; if not you must quit * Close cooperation is the game. When all shield aliens necessary are destroyed you can attack the Compares to: Card placement games with card Spawnmonster, if you manage interaction and player cooperation this all win together. Other editions: Funny, cute, colorful and not dif- Currently none ficult; you just need to pay close attention and use every opportunity to cooperate and deflect, the aliens are rather happy to multiply! So don’t wait too long to call for Final Conflict, because otherwise you face too many shield aliens. 

each additional action. When, at INFORMATION the end of the round, both sides PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: POLIS have more than eight units in 2 12+ 120+ FIGHT FOR THE HEGEMONY the same region a battle ensues which is fought using combat Designer: Fran Diaz cards, followed by end-of-round Artist: Marek Rutkowski Price: ca. 40 Euro In the time of the City States in and try to win conflicts and also actions. At the end of a round Publisher: Asylum Games 2012 ancient Greece, shortly after the to win prestige. projects are finished, you pay www.asylumgameseditorial.com Persian Wars which united the In each round players alternate wheat for population, if neces- two big blocks of city states for their turns until both of them sary augmented by prestige, EVALUATION a short while, a conflict arises pass. You choose on of twelve then you can invest wheat for between the two leading cities possible actions – four each of population growth; each Mega- Historic simulation Users: For experts of Athens and Sparta. You rep- development actions, military polis earns you prestige and you Version: multi resent one of these states, try to actions and political actions. must halve your stores of wine, Rules: en es win over other cities to your side Military actions cost you pres- oil and wheat and, finally, you In-game text: yes using diplomacy and good ad- tige. When one player passes, can spend prestige in order to Comments: ministration, you trade for wheat the other pays one Resource for demand taxes from allied states. Two introductory scenarios * Some gaming experience When you lose your capital or all necessary * One or two trial prestige the other player wins games might be advisable automatically; otherwise you * Nice components, beautiful design score population, prestige and Compares to: prestige for posterity. All historical simulations for two A dense, nicely made simulation players for specialists with gaming expe- Other editions: rience; therefore two introduc- Currently none tory scenarios are provided, the Corinthian War and Second Pelo- ponnesian War that allow you to get familiar with combat system and strategies of the game. 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 32 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at PRO & CONTRA / QWIRKLE ERWEITERUNG 1 t PLAYED FOR YOU

steps indicated by the counter. INFORMATION When the term has not been PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: PRO & CONTRA guessed after six arguments the 3-16 14+ 60+ THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERYTHING term is not scored. In a game of individual players one player al- Designer: Helmut Walch ternates stating pro and contra Artist: not stated Price: ca. 28 Euro Arguing – phrasing – discuss- term or parts of it – which is arguments. The team or player Publisher: Piatnik 2013 ing – these are the mainstays of rather simple for atomic energy whose marker reaches the finish www.piatnik.com Pro & Contra, which you play as or all-day school, but how about first, wins. individual players or in teams of creases or one-way streets? After This is a very well-implemented EVALUATION two. In a team game one player each argument stated the coun- game idea; the number of ar- of a team represents Pro, the ter is advanced one step and guments is perfectly chosen to Communications game Users: With friends other player Contra. The team the other teams try to guess the avoid the game turning into a Version: de draws a card with a term and tern; when the term is guessed heated free-for-all and is recom- Rules: de must now alternate in naming correctly bot arguing team and mended that you accept syn- In-game text: yes pro and contra arguments for correctly guessing team advance onyms or similar terms as cor- Comments: this term without naming the their markers the number of rect solutions for the term. The Witty adaptation of the Activity/Taboo mechanism guessing teams of course must * Good for large groups * pay attention to the keeping to Excellently chosen terms the argument rules and protest Compares to: if necessary, protest instantly, Activity, Tabu and other guess phrase games because when the next argu- Other editions: ment has been given you cannot Currently none protest against the previous one. And discussion is also invited on rules infringements and protests! A lively evening is in the offing and some cogitation, too, who finds an argument against a petting zoo? Or against home- cooking? You need creativity and quick repartees! 

star discs; then you place tiles INFORMATION as usual; if you cover star spots ERWEITERUNG 1 PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: QWIRKLE you take the star disc and can 2-4 6+ 45+ SELECT AND/OR CONNECT use such a disc later in the game to remove a tile from the board, Designer: Susan McKinley Ross but not out of a Qwirkle and you Artist: not stated Price: ca. 18 Euro You form and expand rows of the only once. Newly placed tiles can use only one disc per turn. Publisher: Schmidt Spiele 2013 same color or the same shape must be in contact with already Gaps that ensue using a disc are www.schmidtspiele.de to achieve the highest score. placed tiles, but not necessarily of no moment and can be filled You draw six tiles at the start. In with each other. You score for again later. EVALUATION your turn you can then add one each tile in each row that you Qwirkle Connect is played on or more tiles to a row and draw extend or form. The expansions the green side of the board, Placement Users: For families new tiles or swap 1-6 tiles for are played using the basic rules which is again assembled as you Version: multi new ones. In rows of each color of Qwirkle with some additions: like. At the start you place ran- Rules: de fr it each shape can be present only For Qwirkle Select you use the domly drawn tiles on the black In-game text: no one, and in rows of identical blue side of all board pieces, spots of the board. When you Comments: shapes each color may appear the board is equipped with place tiles on numbered spots Two expansions * The expansions can be combined you earn bonuses, but only once, * Very few additional rules even if the tile should extend two Compares to: rows! Qwirkle and other place- Those expansions can also be ment games with covering bonus spots, e.g. Scrabble combined, you choose any side Other editions: of each of the four boards. Bonus Currently none spots that you free by removing a tile can be filled again to earn the bonus. In this version, too, Qwirkle stays the same – a fantastic, fast game for all the family, a new game with every game, challenging and abstract pure fun to play! 

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end of the game, when nobody INFORMATION can play another card, you score PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: RULE THE ROOST one point for each hen in a barn 2-4 8+ 15+ HENNEN JENNEN where you have the majority of roosters. When an opponent Designer: Steffan Ros plays an egg card in your turn, Artist: Uco Egmond Price: ca. 10 Euro Odynauts are aliens which pro- hens to the barn, the fox is look- you must discard the card you Publisher: Odynaut Games 2012 duce hormones necessary for ing for dinner and the farmer is chose to play; two egg cards www.odynautgames.com their survival when they win chasing the fox! played by different opponents games – they have landed on You start with three rooster cards cancel each other and the active EVALUATION our planet and are looking for and draw two cards from the player can play his chosen card new games … This time they mixed stack of hen, egg, farmer and has another turn. Fox cards Card Game Users: For families have invaded a farm, in which and fox cards. Then all in turn are scored at the end and eat one Version: multi hens are the price for a high place one card face-down next hen each. Farmers are played Rules: de en nl stakes games on majorities and to one of the three barns and face-up and allow you to check In-game text: no a kind of rock-paper-scissors draw a card. You try to achieve a the cards beneath a barn of your Comments: mechanism! Roosters try to lure majority at a bard because at the choice and to relocate a card; Witty drawings * Nice background story * Very simple then the farmer is discarded. The rules * Small, easy-to-take- farmer with the key enables you along box to look at a barn that has been Compares to: locked with the padlock card; the All placement games with action cards padlock card is immune against Other editions: an egg card. Currently none A funny, quick card game, along the lines of “well, no rooster for you, because I play an egg card, oh, this other guy played one too, so I will have to put a fox into in your barn….” – a nice family game with a touch of holiday feeling. 

ers; with four or five you can use INFORMATION both tracks of a double-track, PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: TICKET TO RIDE with two or three only one. You 2-5 8+ 60+ THE HEART OF AFRICA begin with four out of 48 Des- MAP COLLECTION 3 tination cards and keep two of Designer: Alan R. Moon them. New are 45 Terrain tiles – Artist: Julien Delval Price: ca. 28 Euro Basic mechanism of all Ticket uninterrupted tracks according Desert & Savanna, Jungle & For- Publisher: Days of Wonder 2013 to Ride editions is to connect to your destination cards and the est and Mountain & Cliff, each www.daysofwonder.com as many cities as possible with longest uninterrupted route. You type correlates to three track your Train Cars. In a turn you win with the highest score. colors. You are dealt one Terrain EVALUATION can draw train cards or claim a The Heart of Africa is played on card, two are always on display. route between cities by placing a map for part of Africa, from When you draw a Train Car card Railway track building game Users: For families one of your cars on each track latitude 20 degrees South down you can choose to draw a Ter- Version: multi section and discarding the nec- to South Africa and from longi- rain card instead; for claiming Rules: de dk en es fi fr it nl no se essary cards in the track color tude 10 degrees East eastward routes you can use Terrain cards In-game text: no or draw a destination card. You including Madagascar. The map to double the value of of a route Comments: score for routes between cities, is designed for two to five play- of the same color; depending on Interesting variant * Needs core game to play * New the length of the route you need Terrain cards for optimum one or two cards. You can use Lo- use of tracks comotives for Terrain cards, too. Compares to: Destination cards to Madagascar All other editions and expansions of Zug um Zug / Ticket to Ride can be completed by one of the Other editions: two tracks; multiple tracks into Currently none other countries are dead ends and not interconnected. The Heart of Africa again offers an interesting novelty, you have to plan the use of Terrain cards very carefully! A must-have for fans of the Ticket to Ride system. 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 34 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at TRANS-SIBERIAN / VANUATU t PLAYED FOR YOU

from the bank. In the course of INFORMATION the game the east gets more and PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: TRANS-SIBERIAN more interesting, but building 2-6 10+ 120+ RAILROADS ACROSS THE TAIGA towards the east is expensive, so you try to use alternate transport Designer: Harald Enoksson possibilities, but finally you will Artist: Harald Enoksson Price: ca. not stated Mondainai is entering rails and finally discard two cubes to lay resort back to tracks, because Publisher: Mondainai Games 12 makes us trade and build rail- track! Suddenly, colors of cubes everything else is much too ex- --- ways. In each round you receive are important, you need blue pensive. one resource which you can cubes to build from Moscow into A player’s turn comprises 1) draw EVALUATION stash for future use or trade for today’s Russia or yellow ones to one resource from the bag, 2) other cubes when your cube build in Kazakhstan, etc. When travel, with our without railway; Railway Users: With friends is in demand in your location two cities are connected you 3) trade and growth of towns Version: en or wait yet another round. But travel cheaply between them, and 4) Building tracks. When the Rules: en as the grass usually is greener you pay only one money unit free resources have been used In-game text: no somewhere else, or at least trad- for tile that you cross and for one you score two victory points for Comments: ing conditions are better, you will cube you get 10 money units each section of track you built, Handmade limited edition * Availability not known * one victory point for each re- Very concise rules * Rules maining resources cube and 0,1 allow quite a lot of strategy victory point per money unit. Compares to: As in all games by Harald Enoks- Other railway games with resources management son the casually written, witty Other editions: rules hide a good interesting Currently none game, which starts rather easily, but soon proffers its strategic and tactical possibility; funnily enough it reminds me both of Empire Builders as well as of the more simple versions of 18xx, all in all real railway flair for railroad gamers! 

in order to protect the islands by INFORMATION setting up dikes. PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: VANUATU In rounds 2, 4, 6 and 8 the water 3-5 12+ 90+ THE RISING WATERS rises. The starting player of the round rolls the die and thus de- Designer: Alain Epron termines the number of actions Artist: Cédrick le Bihan Price: ca. 10 Euro Sandy beaches, coconut trees, tion per round and cashing in for players before the water rises. Publisher: Inspira fish, wrecked ships and tourists of rest tiles. Ten units of money If you choose the action Building, Krok Nik Douil 2012 – if you want to earn money you are automatically changed into you can build a house and/or a can catch fish, salvage antiquities five prosperity points. After eight dike, when your boat is next to EVALUATION from wrecks or look after tourists. rounds and a final scoring you the island. The costs are 3 vatus In turn all players complete the win with most prosperity points. for a house and 1 vatu for a dike. Resources management Users: With friends phases of a round – Preparation, In the expansion Vanuatu The A dike can be built without own- Version: multi Selection of a person, Choice of Rising Water Vanuatu is threat- ing a house on the island. After Rules: en fr actions from nine possible ones ened by Global Warming and the implementation of all actions In-game text: no by placing five action markers islands are in danger of being each side of an island that is not Comments: and implementation of one ac- flooded. Players must cooperate protected by a dike is marked First expansion for Vanuatu * Needs Vanuatu to play * with a water marker. When the Adds cooperative element fifth marker is placed the island and also a dilemma of is flooded and is taken out of the personal interest vs. end of game due to lack of cooperation game. Compares to: When three islands have been Vanuatu and other resources man- flooded the game ends and all agement games players have lost together; oth- Other editions: erwise water markers on islands Currently none with houses lose their owners points. Rising Waters provides an attractive expansion with well-implemented flair and the dilemma of cooperation vs. personal inter- ests. 

WIN The Games Journal now also available as eBook! www.gamesjournal.at For all information on that check our website. ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 35 PLAYED FOR YOU u WIND RUNNER / WINTER TALES

of seven cards. When all have INFORMATION played a card, the cards are re- PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: WIND RUNNER vealed and, beginning with the 3-5 7+ 20+ RACE THE WIND AND YOUR OPPONENTS starting player, implemented in clockwise direction. Depend- Designer: Min-Ho Seok ing on your card you advance Artist: Sung-Jin Joo Price: not stated A race game with a simple goal the start of the game. straight or diagonally or move Publisher: Deinko 2012 for all players in the game - cross You play as many rounds as sideways or swap places with a www.deinko.com the finish line first and win! The there are players, and each placer or reverse wind direction question is only, will you make round comprises six turns or protect yourself from the wind EVALUATION it to the finish line, because this and in each of those turns you or relocate a barricade. Then you race is reserved for very slim move twice: First, the starting move all markers in turn for the Race game Users: For families people and they could be blown player for the round rolls both wind values, effects of barricades Version: multi away by the wind. The markers dice to determine direction and markers in the same lane Rules: en kr for all players are at the starting and strength of the wind; then are taken into account. After six In-game text: no line, barrier pieces and dice are all players play one card face cards the round ends and you Comments: placed at their allocated spots for down choosing from their set take back all cards in hand for Unusual background story * Nicely combined the next round. standard mechanisms * As regards to mechanisms Wind Especially for collectors Runner is a standard race game; and players interested in Asian games the blockade effects from bar- Compares to: riers and other runners are not All race games with marker move- easy to anticipate and the differ- ment in combination of cards and ences in game culture are inter- dice Other editions: esting to observe, for instance Currently none characters are not athletes, but salesman, student, delivery man, housewife and grandfather. Wind Runner all in all provides a good example for games from Korea! 

characters and try to complete INFORMATION quests; for this you play cards PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: WINTER TALES and use the images as fonts for 3-7 10+ var ALICE VERSUS SNOW WHITE ideas; for a completed quest there must be more cards played Designer: Matteo Santos, Jocularis for the faction of the active play- Artist: Hide, Jocularis, Fab Price: ca. 40 Euro Winter Tales is a story-telling should weave the stories of their er than for the opposing one; Publisher: Albe Pavo 2012 game; as a player you are a characters into a joint sequence other players can step in, initiate www.wintertalesboardgame.com member of one of two faction of events and accept and inte- battles or spring traps in order and either represent one of the grate ideas and suggestions. to hinder the active player. Each EVALUATION characters fighting for the return At the start you decide on a fac- completed quests becomes a of Spring or you are one of the tion, in case on an odd number Memory which influences the Story telling game Users: For experts Soldiers of Winter who wants of players one player takes up course of the game. When there Version: multi to extinguish all remnants of the role of Writer who represents are enough Memories the Epi- Rules: en it Hope. Each game is different, as characters from both factions. logue is triggered and who wins In-game text: no you always tell a new story with a Each chapter is divided into the Epilogue wins the game. Comments: jointly created story line. Players turns, in which players activate This is a game that you must Wunderschöne Aus- stattung * Schwer zu try out, to describe the rules or beschreiben, erschließt sich the game itself would result in nur durch Spielen * Zeich- another story; components and nungen auf den Karten liefern Ideen für die Geschichten details are overwhelming, famil- Compares to: iar characters like Pinocchio or Fabula, Rollenspiele, Once upon A Dorothy, come back from Oz, Time, aber im Grunde genommen populate Wintertown and you erstes Spiel dieser Art need quite some gaming expe- Other editions: Currently none rience and a lot of creativity to tell a coherent, successful story. One cannot really tell about the game, the game will reveal its flair only properly when you play it! 

Color codes, target groups, features, icons and GABIS are 36 ISSUE 452 / JUNE 2013 explained on page 5 and at the bottom of pages 38 and 39 www.gamesjournal.at ZEN GARDEN / ZIPPERS t PLAYED FOR YOU

randomly drawn patterns. You INFORMATION first place a landscape tile as in PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: ZEN GARDEN the Zen Garden game and then 2-4 10+ 30+ WATER, TREES, GRASS you can do two actions, choos- AND ROCK IN A GARDEN ing from 1) place a landscape tile Designer: H. J. Vanaise, C. Charlton or 2) play a pattern tile (back side Artist: Jared Blando + Team Price: ca. 12 Euro All players place landscape tile reveal your pattern you score 5 of a landscape tile) and place a Publisher: Mayfair Games 2013 to form a garden. In Zen Garden points and bonuses and stop to marker – the marked tile must www.mayfairgames.com you randomly draw a secret pat- play. All others score 4 points and be in a group of five or less, the tern tile and must form this pat- lose one point for each round landscape type of pattern and EVALUATION tern twice in the garden with the take without revealing their landscape tile must be the same two different types of landscape. pattern. When all have revealed and the number on the pattern Tile placement Users: For families In your turn you place one tile, or nobody has points anymore tile must equal the number of Version: en orthogonally adjacent to at least you win with most points. tiles in the group – or 3) score a Rules: en one tile in the garden or you re- In Rock garden you place land- pattern tile from your hand, the In-game text: nein place a lantern tile (joker) with a scape tiles and control such tiles pattern must contain at least one Comments: landscape tile. If you are first to with your markers, there are no tile with your marker. Then you Two entirely different games * In Zen Garden draw tiles in relation to the num- patterns are more easily ber of actions you took. recognized and therefore Zen Garden has an interesting easier to block; Pattern assignation is randomly and therefore scoring mechanism putting sometimes unbalanced you the dilemma of „do I have Compares to: enough points to reveal first or Carcassonne and other placement games with scoring of part of the should I wait for more bonuses?“. display for patterns Simple enough for beginners, al- Other editions: beit somewhat unbalanced due Currently none to the random assignation of patterns; Rock Garden is interesting enough for more experienced players. 

is the Presenting Zipper of the INFORMATION round and draws the bottom PLAYERS: AGE: TIME: ZIPPERS card from the stack and reads out 1-6 14+ 30+ ZIPPED-UP SENTENCES the text; if you can identify one or more items you put another Designer: Klaus Altenburger chip into the pot and receive Artist: M. Fahrenbach, F. Carey Price: ca. 9 Euro Everybody knows a zipper, but chips; eight Zipper cards are ran- chips from the pot for a correct Publisher: Heidelberger 2012 the system usually is not used to domly taken, stacked face-down solution. You can only one give a www.heidelbaer.de describe items from daily life. In and covered with the cover card. guess for one item at a time and Zippers we try to decipher such Answer card and separation can only make one guess at each EVALUATION descriptions: Two items or terms cards, marked with !, ? and ??, are item. You control your solution are described in one sentence. laid out. Zippers is played over on the back of the card with the Language game Users: With friends But those descriptions are not eight rounds; in each round you help of the red foil; if you want Version: de given in consecutive order, but use one of the eight cards in the to, you can use the separation Rules: de text blocks of both descriptions stack. At the start of the round cards to sort the cards you used In-game text: yes interlock like the cogs in a zipper. each player puts a chip into the into cards for which you found Comments: You begin the game with eight pot in the middle, one player both, one or none of the solu- A game for specialists in word games * Simple basic tions. Terms that are not on the rules * Fantastical mixed card but fit the description are sentences also valid as a correct solution. Compares to: An example: Due to this our First game of its game portion reserved for pedestrians Other editions: Currently none is hard and money produced by the road devalues. Solution: 1. Inflation, 2.Sidewalk . Impos- sible, hair-raising, difficult, a real challenge for fans of such mind bogglers! You need to thing in zippers, eh, unzipping! 

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LOST CITIES MAU MAU EXTREME NEUROSHIMA HEX! THE DANCER Publisher: Kosmos Publisher: Ravensburger Publisher: Portal Publishing / iello Designer: Reiner Knizia Autoren: Rustan Håkansson, Michal Oracz

15 investment cards and 45 expedition cards in five colours and The classic card game now with action and reaction elements The Moloch attack on Outpost’s laboratories has set free three of values 2-10 are laid out in ascending order as expeditions, one – you hold cards and try to shed them as fast as possible: Either strange, genetically altered creatures, Code name Dancer, who of each colour. You play a card and draw a card. At the start of number on number or color on color: special cards force others now begin a desperate fight for survival. The have great Tough- an expedition you can place investment cards to multiply their to pass or to draw a card; if you cannot discard a correct card ness and Healing ability and show strength in offensive and value, but cannot add them later in the game. Instead of placing you draw one and can discard it if it fits. Could you – out of should be laid out in the middle of the board and you should a card you can discard a card. Missing values cannot be added turn – play a card identical to the card just played you press the always move combined in strong configurations. The Dancer has later. The last card from the draw pile ends the game. A cost of buzzer and discard it; purple buzzer special cards can be played only HQ tiles and no Unit tiles, all tiles of the Army are action tiles 20 must be deducted from the value of an expedition, and for anytime; for a buzzer mistake you also draw a card. If you are first and each Dancer Object has 10 Toughness Points. expeditions without cards the value is 0. The player with the to shed all cards in three such rounds you win the game. Second Army Pack highest score wins. New edition 2010. Version: de * Rules: de * In-game text: no Version: multi * Rules: en fr pl * In-game text: no Version: de * Rules: de en es fr hu it kr nl und viele mehr * In-game text:

Card placement game for 2 player, ages 10 and up Card shedding game for 2-6 players, ages 6+ Expansion for Neuroshima Hex! for 2-4 players, ages 10+

POKÉMON SCHWARZ & WEISS PLASMA-STURM REVOLVER HUNT THE MAN DOWN STORY CUBES ENCHANTED Publisher: Pokémon Publisher: White Goblin Games Publisher: The Creativity Hub Autoren: Tsunekaz Ishihara, Jim Lin und Team Designer: Mark Chaplin Designer: Rory O‘Connor

Plasma Sturm is the 8th series in the Zyklus of Schwarz & Expansion 1.2 introduces two modules and with them a con- A small box holds nine dice, each dice features six different Weiß. It introduces a new kind of fighter troop – Team Plasma vict in a brutal Texan prison, who holds the key to McReady’s and unique images, abstract or not, that can be interpreted – as well as new Plasma Pokémon and Plasma Pokémon EX, downfall; Jack Colty is the only cowpoke who can spring or named in many ways. This gives you 54 images or terms to and also new trainer cards. There are more than 130 new Santiago out of this prison. play with: You roll all nine dice, choose any for the starting die cards in this expansion and the packages include code cards One module comprises Ambush card and Prison card; and tell a story. This story must feature all nine images on the for virtual cards. Ambush is added to the core set of cards and offers more dice in any order; You can play alone or in a group; in a group 2 Theme decks – Plasma-Klaue and Plasma-Schatten strategic options to the McReady player and Prison is a new each player tells a story and you vote for the best or each 4 booster in varying packages with 10 cards each battlefield with its own set of rules. player must continue the story by using one of the cubes. Version: de * Rules: de en * In-game text: yes The other module holds new cards and enables both players Enchanted / Verzaubert is one of three expansion packs with to construct their own individual deck and to try new tactics. three dice, images come from the magic/witch/sorcery genre Version: en * Rules: en nl * in-game text : yes Version: de * Rules: de en es fr it nl * In-game text: no

Collectible trading card game for 2 players, ages 10+ Expansion for Revolver for 2 players, ages 12+ Narrative game with dice for 1 or more players, ages 6+

TOP TRUMPS SPECIALS STAR WARS EPISODE I WARHAMMER INVASION ENDLOSER KRIEG YOOHOO & FRIENDS MEMO Publisher: Winning Moves Publisher: Heidelberger Spieleverlag Publisher: Noris Designer: Eric W. Lang

Choosing your card’s best attribute, beating (trumping) your KAMPF UM DIE ALTE WELT The well-known mechanisms for memo games are here applied opponent’s card, and winning the cards played in the round – The Core Set holds four pre-constructed card decks for Empire and with 54 cards = 27 pairs for Yoohoo & Friends, cute little plush already a Classic! Cards are dealt evenly to all players. The ac- Dwarves against Orks and Chaos. With Battle Pack cards you can adapt animals living in the virtual world of Yootopia and featured in tive player chooses an attribute on his top card (no shuffling Core Decks to your preferences and strategies. The card types in the a TV series focusing on the topics of environment protection, of the deck!) and calls out the corresponding value – all other game are Unit, Tactics, Quest, Support und Draft. Aim of the game is to harmony, honesty and courage. You play according to standard players check their cards for the value of this attribute – the set fire to two out of three regions of the opposing capital. The Cycle rules: In your turn you reveal two tiles. IF you have found a pair, player with the highest value gets all cards of this round. In Endloser Krieg/Eternal War is the 6th Battle Pack cycle. Kampf um you keep it and can turn up another pair of cards. If you have case of a tie cards go on the table and the winner of the next die Alte Welt / Battle for the Old World is the 3rd pack in the cycle turned up different images, you turn both tiles over again and round receives those too. with cards 41-60. A Waaagh! is a mind-numbing sight – an unstop- the turn passes to the next player. When all pairs have been Themeset: Specials Star Wars Episode I pable sea of green-skinned warriors chanting war-cries heralding found and taken you win with most pairs. Version: de * Rules: de * In-game text: yes devastation and ruin … Version: de * Rules: de en es fr * In-game text: yes Version: multi * Rules: de en fr it nl pl * In-game text: no

Card/quiz game for 2 or more players from age 8 Battle Pack for Warhammer Invasion, for 2 players, ages 13+ Memo game for 2-4 players, ages 3+

Color codes for target groups (Headline Color) Color codes for features (Bar in Evalution box) For children + learn With friends Chance Strategy Knowledge Communication Dexterity 38 For families For experts Tactic Creativity Memory Interaction Action HIGHLIGHTS AMONG GAMES t FROM THE MUSEUM

RECOMMENDATION #93 HUGO KASTNER RECOMMENDS PLAYERS: Designer: Jean-Louis Roubira 3-6 Grafik: Marie Carduat AGE: DIXIT Price: ca. 30 Euro 8+ Year: 2008 A FEAST FOR YOUR EYES Publisher: Libellud TIME: www.asmodee.de 30+ Dear reader! A bunny rabbit with a key ring, one and offers a comment which can be a magician on a globe, a sea of houses in words, terms, gestures, sounds or even the shape of an egg, an anchor in the desert a story. Then all other players are tasked Competence Info+ Chance – seemingly endlessly rich in images is the to find one card among their hand of six The kind of competence on demand in Dixit is imagination, with which French designer cards which they think fits the comment a high ability to associate and also to commu- nicate. Much depends on chance or luck in this Jean-Louis Roubira together with artist Ma- just made by the narrator best. Then all fantastically beautiful image assessment game. rie Carduat enchant us in this Game of the those secretly chosen cards are shuffled But this does not matter, because once again Year 2010 and its second edition Dixit Odys- face-sown und then turned up. All play- the valid motto is “The journey is the reward”. At the end all open questions on assessments will sey as well as a few expansions. A plethora ers but the narrator try now to mark the be answered and usually players at that point of images, a feast for the eyes of aficionados card selected by the narrator, using colored look forward to the next round. of creative, nearly surreal image cards. Some number tiles. When they manage to do so Hugos EXPERT TIP of those images could have been created by points are scored, when another card but You can set aside the original rules and simply Masters like Salvador Dali, René Magritte or the card of the narrator is marked its own- enjoy Dixit as a pure association game. For instance by asking: “What does XY associate with Giorgio de Chirico – that manifold are the in- er also scores because of the “misleading” the term ‘love’?” Lay out four cards and let all terpretations of that images that come up in comment of the narrator. This is repeated players give a secret guess. The XY in question our minds during a game. The game expert in turns until one of the rabbits on the scor- secretly writes down his own choice. If you guess correctly you score one point. This is only one of Christward Conrad believes the dated “Lexi- ing track (each player has one in his color) many ideas which you can implement with this con Game” or Urs Hostettler’s “Der wahre reaches or passes a certain value. Those excellent material for communication. Please let Walter” to be predecessors of the principle rabbits contributed a lot to Dixit being your creative juices flow untrammeled. that was so successfully implemented in taken for a children’s game which it is defi- Hugos FLASHLIGHT Dixit. All the same, the many awards for the nitely not, because the core of the game, I have seldom encountered a more beautiful game! But, as happens often, the enchantment game may be deemed to be well-earned the creative comments and the associative of images can dwindle if you adhere to strictly which is confirmed by Conrad in his elegant assignments demand certain intuition or to the scheme for connotation possibilities. So, comment: “It is less the original idea or the flair, sometimes even insight into human please, pay attention to the recommendation to leave room for free interpretation of the rules special mechanism of the game but exclu- beings. In the right group of players, with and to experiment as your fancy takes you with sively the range of images that turns Dixit the focus not on concentrated thinking the beautiful components. Dixit Odyssey, the second edition, already does show beginnings (Latin for “He said”) into a special game to but on relaxed guessing Dixit can enchant of creative rules. whose enchanting charm all those will suc- players. Who would not like to know what cumb who see a gorgeous piece of art in he said – Dixit! PREVIEW: each image.” Should you not yet be familiar Comments to: [email protected] LA CITTÀ AMONG ITALIAN PRINCES with Dixit, simply go and visit Österreichisch- Homepage: www.hugo-kastner.at  es Spiele Museum at Leopoldsdorf im March- feld for a visual feast. Website: www.spielen.at A greater wealth of images than dixit cards will rarely be lit up by the light of our lamp on a games table. And indeed, artist Ma- rie Carduat has opened up borderline worlds with her imagination, which elicits an astonished comment from everybody who is experiencing his first contact with dixit. And that despite the fact that the mechanism of this guessing/assessment game is basically very simple. From six big image cards in his hand one of the players, the current narrator, secretly chooses IMPRESSUM Offenlegung nach dem Mediengesetz: Medieninhaber, Eigentümer, Verleger und Hersteller: Verein „Österreichisches Spiele Museum“, vertreten durch Obfrau Dipl. Ing. Dagmar de Cassan, Raasdorferstrasse 28, 2285 Leopoldsdorf im Marchfelde, Österreich, Telefon 02216-7000, mail-to: [email protected], Internet: www.spielejournal.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 nicht namentlich gekennzeichneten Rezensionen zu den Spielen sind von Dagmar de Cassan) English Edition Version 1.0 Copyright (c) 2013 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 5 Solo Play Two Players Large Groups Recommended Minimum Age 39