BURDIGALA
I was interested to read that a new (at least to me) publisher is releasing a game by Bruno Cathala at Spiel this year.  The game is Burdigala and plays 2-4 players.

The setting is Bordeaux in 56BC and players are constructing the port town.  The winner is the one with the most prestige points (PPs) which are earned by involvement in building construction, completing a building, merchandise and plot cards,  So, fairly standard sounding stuff so far.  However, the game sounds like it has  some neat game mechanics.

First, each turn players roll 2 dice and use one of the results to move one of their meeple to an unoccupied space on the board which have to one or two building sites next to them.  The player places a cube on the building site and scores a number of points equal to the spaces still left.  If the player places the final cube to complete a building they score PPs equal to the building’s value (and any players next to the district get a plot card which give their owners special abilities).  Not only do I like the sound of the simple but strategic movement system, but I also like how this system encourages players to get building.

If players throw a double, they have fewer movement options but get some extra options instead like using waterways, moving to an occupied space, etc.  Also, any player rolling a total of 7, can take a corruption token (I’m always interested in games that have corruption tokens) in order to place 2 cubes rather than 1 or gain a merchandise card.

When the game ends, players get bonus points for having sets of different merchandise cards and for plot cards to.  Also, players lose PPs equal to the value of the corruption tokens (which are secret until the end and score between zero and 5 corruption each) and the player with the highest corruption loses 5 more PPs.  (Interestingly, the corruption system is almost identical to one I have in one my game design ideas so it’s good to see I’m on the right track.)

So, Burdigala sounds exactly like the sort of game I enjoy and I’m looking forwards to playing it.  It can be pre-ordered for pick-up at Essen for 25 euros by emailing preorder.Burdigala@gmail.com

You can read the Burdigala rules here

KAHMATÉ
In addition to Burdigala, Id&al Editions have released Kahmaté – a fast, rugby game – which will be at Spiel too.  From the rules, the game sounds like a Blood Bowl lite style game with 6 players on each team and first to score wins.  Tackles are resolved by using cards – each player simultaneously selects picks a card from their hand, adding any player bonuses as some players are better at tackling, etc.), and the highest wins.  Each player has the same set of values in their decks and only get used cards back when their hand is empty – which reminds me a bit of Dungeon Twister.  So, Overall, the game sounds like a fun affair and not a rugby sim.  It was nominated as one of the best games of the year in 2008 by trictrac.net and now has an iPhone version too.  I shall be reviewing Kahmaté in the next few weeks before Spiel.

You can pre-order Burdigala & Kahmaté together for pick-up at Spiel in Essen for 40 euros by emailing preorder.Burdigala@gmail.com

You can read the Kahmaté rules here

James.