Archive for the 'Essen Spiel 09' Category

Hansa Teutonica had a lot of good reports during Spiel 09, and even more afterwards.  It was on my list of games to check out but, at a glance, it looked a bit dry.  However, having played it now, Hansa Teutonica has a lot of really good things inside it and should not be missed.

The board shows lots of cities and routes in between them.  Each route has spaces along it which can be occupied by player’s traders (cubes) or merchants (discs).  Merchants are less numerous, can be used instead of traders, and for some actions only a merchant will do. Read the rest of this entry »

I admit it – I’ve never played the original Samurai game by Reiner Knizia which is a classic.  I’ve wanted to as I’ve always read that it’s a great game but I’ve just never had the opportunity.  So, I definitely wanted to play the card game version at Spiel 09.

In Samurai, there are two types of cards – a single deck of village cards and each player has their own deck of samurai cards.  The village cards show one, two or three shapes on them: circle, square and triangle.  When a village is placed on the board, matching shaped counters are placed on the card.  Each player is trying to claim these counters by surrounding the villages with samurai cards. Read the rest of this entry »

Letter of Marque is a very light and quick bluffing game with players launching ships laden with treasure and hoping they reach port safely whilst trying to steal other player’s treasure.

Each player starts with 5 ships, 5 treasure cards and 3 cannon cards.  Two of the ships have cannons marked on their undersides (these are defended ships) and the other three are blank (which are undefended).  The treasure cards are numbered 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

On their turn, a player can either launch one of their ships, bring one of their ships home or attack an opponent’s ship. Read the rest of this entry »

Cardcassonne is a light filler game of timing and set collecting.  Players lay and collect cards and the core play is whether to claim now or wait for more cards but risk someone else claiming what you want.

At the start of a round, each player has one meeple and a hand of cards (the number of which is based on the number of players, i.e. 5 cards each round in a 4-player game).  During play, there are four coloured rows on the table into which you can place cards – red, blue, green and yellow.

On your turn, you can either place a card at the end of a matching row (i.e. red card at the end of the red row) or you can place your meeple at the end of a row.  Read the rest of this entry »

There were quite a few stands at Essen with people in costume promoting games and the chef on the A La Carte stand was a memorable one.

A La Carte is part-dexterity and part-push-your-luck.  The goal is to score the most points or complete 3 recipes perfectly.  Each player has a stove on which to cook and a small saucepan too.  These are fantastic as the stove is a 3D hot plate constructed from thick card with a dial for the heat setting, plus the saucepan is a mini, metal saucepan.  In addition, there are 4 small seasoning bottles which each contain plastic, pea-sized nuggets – each bottle starts with 15 nuggets of a single colour of seasoning (black, red, yellow or green) and 5 clear nuggets (representing salt). Read the rest of this entry »

[This is the final part of my three-part Stronghold Replay post (part one and part two) which is a more in-depth look at Stronghold and is a follow-up to my initial review.]

Please note that the Valley Games version of Stronghold (released March 2011) has massively updated rules to make them clear as the original rules were very confusing and had many conflicts.

HEROES
The defender has two heroes who enhance the troops at a wall.  These are very useful, especially as they can not be killed.  One can increase the strength of the units on a wall, and the other adds some strength and can kill an invader unit before the assault.  Of course, both of these special effects cost hourglasses, but can make a big difference.

FLIPPING THE PHASE CARDS
The reverse side of the phase cards works really well.  At the start of a turn, the invader can flip any of their phase cards over to use the options on the back which are different to the front. Read the rest of this entry »

[This is a follow-on from yesterday’s Stronghold Replay post (part one) which is a more in-depth look at Stronghold and is a follow-up to my initial review.]

Please note that the Valley Games version of Stronghold (released March 2011) has massively updated rules to make them clear as the original rules were very confusing and had many conflicts.

TRAPS AND BRIDGES
Most of the pathways to the castle can have either a trap (placed by the defender and which will kill some specific enemy units if they use the path) or a bridge (placed by the invader and which mean no trap can be placed there).  Once they are placed, they can not be undone and remain there for the game.  These seem relatively small but, once laid, the paths and traps really start to define the battlefield.  Obvious routes that the invaders troops will probably follow start to form and this starts to determine which walls will be the preferred targets.

I thought this was a really nice gameplay mechanic and I would look to lay down traps or bridges earlier in future games. Read the rest of this entry »

Please note that the Valley Games version of Stronghold (released March 2011) has massively updated rules to make them clear as the original rules were very confusing and had many conflicts.

Stronghold is an epic game.  It is filled with relatively simple options and decisions but there are lots of them and no definitive answer as to which will be right or wrong.  The players act and then re-act to one another and there is little (or even no) downtime as play passes back and forth between invader and defender.

Having played Stronghold a couple of times, I thought I would post some further thoughts on the game  (following-up on my initial review.)  I discovered that not only is Stronghold epic but the length of this post was to become similarly epic too.  So, below is the first of a three-part Stronghold replay report. Read the rest of this entry »

When I heard the designer of Carcassonne had a new game, I knew I wanted to check it out.  Players build forts and towns in the land of Albion (Roman Britain) where the south is tame but the north is inhabited by the Picts who are less welcoming to the Romans.  Each player controls Settlers (who build buildings and collect resources) and Legionnaires (who increase military strength in their region).  The first player to complete three level 4 buildings (including one in a far North region where it is most hostile) wins.

MOVEMENT
An interesting gameplay mechanic is movement.  Each turn, a player can move as many of their own units as they want.  The number of regions (distance) each unit can move is dictated by what buildings the player has built.  At the end of the player’s turn, all settler units are returned to a home camp. Read the rest of this entry »

El Paso is a push-your-luck game where players are cowboys who are trying to loot towns and get away before the sheriff arrives. The players loot 7 towns one after the other. Each town contains loot tiles which each display one of 6 loot types (cattle, gambling, horse, cash, saloon, gold) and a number from 1 to 5.  Each turn a player either commits to a turn of looting, or moves on to the next town.

LOOTING
All players that decide to loot lay one of their cards face down – each card shows a type of loot and a number from 1 to 8 – and these show what loot each player will try to take.  Then, the dice are rolled – each dice shows 2 cattle brands, 2 dice icons and 2 sheriff stars. If any sheriff stars are rolled, these dice are frozen for this town. If all 5 dice now show sheriff stars, the sheriff has arrived – any players who are looting are caught and must discard all loot tiles in their possession (victory points are unaffected). Read the rest of this entry »