It’s now just one day to Spiel in Essen and time has run out to write more previews of the games that have caught my interest.  In addition to those I have previewed, I have over 50 other games on my list too and there are bound to be more to discover during Spiel.  It seems this year is very strong for Eurogames which suits me very well.  Below is a list of some of the other games I shall be checking out.

Mangrovia [Zoch]
Very clever sounding eurogame.  Each round, players place their markers on one of the 5 islands which are arranged in a line – each island has two jetties (one on either side) which give different actions.  Then, a boat travels around the islands and a player can carry out the actions at the jetties on their island when the boat passes them.  The actions allow players to gain various resources (amulets, valuables, landscape cards) which they can use to build huts on the island (which is a grid and each space shows what the building costs and rewards are).  Building huts can score VPs but there are bonus VPs for things like having the most huts in a column, having huts in a specific area of the island, etc.

War Stories: Red Storm [Conquistador]
Relatively simple war-game with a few twists on game mechanics.

Gothic Invasion [Storyception]
Asymmetric Romans versus Goths game of playing cards to manoeuver armies and wage war.  The health of each army is represented by how many thousand troops it contains, which is nicely thematic.

Progress [NSKN]
Card-based civilisation game which could be good.

King’s Pouch [Divedice / Korea Boardgames]
Players draw tokens each round and choose where to allocate them to perform actions.  One of several games this year using a bag-building game mechanic.

Melee [La Mame]
Micro-game of attacking castles using a bluffing mechanic by the publisher that released Coup.

Village: Port [Pegasus]
I really like Village and its expansion Village Inn so a new expansion is a must for me.

Johari [Lookout/Mayfair]
I loved Oddville  and this by the same designer (and have heard good things about Johari).

Dolmen [Eggertspiele]
A new version of a relatively abstract game of placing obelisks to make stone circles.  The decisions required look really interesting.

Prohis [Blackrock]
I like Blackrock’s games, like the superb The Boss, so want to check out this new one of Prohibition-era smuggling.

New Dawn [Artipia]
Thematic sequel to Among the Stars with tiles being laid that interact with each others.

Fief [Academy Games]
Always liked the look of this when it was released in French a few years ago, so definitely want to check out the English version by Academy Games after their very good Freedom (although sadly Fief will only be for demo at Spiel).

Haru Ichiban [Blackrock]
Relatively abstract game by Bruno Cathala.

Akrotiri [Z-Man]
Sounds a little like Tobago with players trying to determine the location of treasure but a different game mechanic.

Mythtopia [Treefrog]
Apparently the core game mechanic is similar to the deck-building in A Few Acres of Snow so that sounds good.

Carcassonne: Gold Rush
Yes, it’s still essentially Carcassonne but I like the new theme and different rules.

Bruges: City on the Zwin [Z-Man]
I like Bruges so will be interested in this expansion.

Dragon Run [Blue Orange]
A simple short game or push-your-luck, and I liked last year’s game by Blue Orange (Longhorn).

Die Staufer [Z-Man / Hans in Gluck]
The photos I’ve seen interest me.