Archive for the 'Strasbourg' Category

The competition has now ended and the finalists have been picked.  (Finalists were picked at random and the winner was picked at random from the 4 finalists.)  The 4 finalists of the Strasbourg competition are:

• Yvan Norsa (via bdg.ms)
• Geocentrix (via Twitter)
• Ernie Lai (via Metagames Blog)
• Keith Bryson (via BoardGameGeek)

AND THE WINNER IS… Ernie Lai who will receive a copy of the SdJ-nominated Strasbourg.  Congratulations, Ernie.

My thanks to Pegasus Spiele for providing the prize for this competition and to everyone who entered by all the various means.

James.

To celebrate reaching 500 Twitter followers, Metagames is giving away a copy of Pegasus Spiele’s SdJ-nominated Strasbourg this week.  I reviewed the game a few week ago and really enjoyed it.  You can read the Strasbourg rules here.

HOW TO WIN
The winner will be randomly selected from one of 4 finalists.  Each finalist will be selected by a different method giving you 4 ways to earn a chance to win:

TWITTER
Anyone who is following @Metagames twitter account and has re-tweeted the competition phrase that I tweeted (which says I would like to win a copy of Pegasus Spiele’s SdJ-nominated Strasbourg).

– It’s important you re-tweet the @Metagames tweet so that I can see your entry.

BDG.MS
Anyone who shortens a board gaming link using bdg.ms from Monday 20^th June to Midnight PST Sunday 26^th June 2011 (you will need to register which is free and takes 20 seconds – simply click on ‘Register’)

– What’s bdg.ms?  It’s like bit.ly and tinyurl.com but just for boardgames with a list of all the latest links
– Only board game related links will be allowed
– Shorten a link to your site, a recent article you saw or your favourite board game (please don’t just shorten the link to Strasbourg on BGG)

METAGAMES BLOG
Anyone who posts a comment on the Metagames review of Strasbourg saying, “I want to win a copy of Stefan Feld’s Strasbourg”.

BGG
Anyone who has entered the competition using the competition page on BGG (being made live in the next 30 minutes)

To maximise your chances of winning, you can enter using all 4 methods described above.  The finalists will be announced on Monday 27^th June and the winner selected at random on the same day.  Note that multiple entries using the same method (i.e. re-tweeting multiple times, adding multiple comments) will not count.

My thanks to Pegasus Spiele for providing the prize for this competition.

Good luck,

James.

REVIEWS
The Spiel des Jahres nominees were revealed last week.  Below is a list of the nominees with easy links to reviews of most of them.

Spiel des Jahres
Asara
Qwirkle
Forbidden Island

Kennerspiel des Jahres nominees
Strasbourg
7 Wonders
Lancaster

Luna was also on the list of recommended titles.

THOUGHTS
As far as my thoughts go, Read the rest of this entry »

The rules of Strasbourg immediately caught my attention as the game has an unusual but simple bidding mechanic as well as some placement too.  During the game, players use their influence to affect the guilds and score victory points (VPs).  At the start of the game, each player can keep 1 to 5 secret objective cards which earn VPs at the end (or -3 VPs if not fulfilled).

Each player starts with a deck of 24 influence cards (4 x values 1-6) which they will use over the game’s 5 rounds.  Each round, players draw as many cards as they like (one at at a time) from their deck into their hand.  Then, each player arranges their cards into any number of face-down stacks of their choosing.

Next, players bid for various items.  During each auction, the first player chooses whether to bid by turning over 1 of their card stacks and the rest of the players have the same choice.  The player with the highest total bid wins the benefit of the auction plus the 2nd and 3rd placed bidders may also win benefits too. Read the rest of this entry »