Archive for the 'Essen Spiel 09' Category

Day & Night is a two-player only game which has already won awards.

Players take on the roles of Day or Night with the goal of building temples on the squared board.  At the start of the game, all tiles on the board are neutral but, during the game, these tiles will be changed into day or night tiles many times.  As soon as a player has an area of 9 contiguous tiles of their type, these become a temple and remain fixed from then on.  The first player to build two temples wins. Read the rest of this entry »

In my review about Strada Romana, I mentioned that I had some thoughts on how the two-player game may be better with a different scoring system and said I would post them here. Read the rest of this entry »

Games which are simple but have something different about them always intrigue me and the rules of Strada Romana sounded like it fit in that category.

In Strada Romana, players take turns moving carts which are crossing the board – some from left-to-right and some right-to-left.  The goal is to score as many points as possible, which are scored by completing contracts as well as correctly guessing which wagons will arrive first and some bonus victory points. Read the rest of this entry »

Playing role cards each round to perform actions isn’t a new idea but the fresh ideas in this game sounded like they would give it a new and interesting twist.

In Havana, players try to earn as many points as possible by using workers, cash and materials to build buildings.  Each turn, players will carry out two actions based on the role cards they have in front of them.  These actions include things like taking half the cash in the middle, gaining workers, stealing materials from other players, and more.  Each player starts the game with an identical set of role cards to pick from. 

Each role has a single digit on it and turn order each round is based on players comparing the two-digit number that these two digits create.  Read the rest of this entry »

When the Spiel Des Jahre nominees are announced, I always check out any games that I don’t already know.  Fits was one of these and, whilst it looked light, it sounded different and entertaining.

In essence, Fits is Tetris the board game.  Each player has their own board and will slide Tetris block shape tiles down their board until they can go no further – no horizontal movement is allowed.  The board is covered in a grid of dots and, when all the tiles have been placed, players score points based on what dots on the board are covered and not covered.  Each player has the same set of tiles (shapes) but each player has a slightly different situation as each player starts with a single random piece already on their board and each player’s starting tile will be different compared to each other.  Cards are then revealed one at a time showing a specific tile to be placed on the boards and all players place that tile.  Read the rest of this entry »

When I read the rules to this game some months ago, it sounded really fun.  So, Spiel was a great opportunity to grab a copy and I had underestimated just how funny it would be to play.

In Abandon Ship, the ship is sinking and the rats are fleeing up the decks to survive.  The rats are all different colours and each player is assigned three rats from which they will score points should those rats survive.  However, this information is secret and players don’t know which rats the other players will score from.  The first rat to the top deck gets squashed in the passenger panic (zero points), but the second, third and fourth rats to the top deck will score 5, 3 and 2 points accordingly.  Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve mentioned before that I’m always on the lookout for great 2-player games, so hearing that Jaipur was 2-player only got my interest. 

Players collect cards of goods and camels with which they will claim goods tiles to earn points.  In between the players are  five face-up cards and next to those are the goods tiles which are discs with points values on them.  The goods discs are laid out in order with each stack having the highest on the top and then decreasing.  Players take turns performing actions. Read the rest of this entry »

[Below is my initial review of Assyria.  A two-part interview with the game’s designer is available too:  Part One – Part Two]

Ystari games usually contain careful planning and thinking, so when we were at the Rio Grande Games stand we decided to give it a try.   Players place huts on a landscape featuring two rivers, supply their huts with food and can perform other actions too.  The goal is to score as many points as possible from building ziggurats, hut placement and winning favour with dignitaries.

The game lasts eight turns split into three reigns (lasting 2 turns, 3 turns and 3 turns each).  In the first phase of a turn, players select food from the cards available.   There’s never enough food for what you really want and the food you select will determine player turn order too.  Next, players place their huts on the board’s hex spaces.   Placing huts on rivers earns camels (used to perform important empire expanding actions later) and huts placed elsewhere earn points. Read the rest of this entry »

As someone who likes Power Grid, the idea of Power Grid: Factory Manager was very intriguing.  I wondered if it was like Power Grid, or would it be too like Power Grid?

The goal is to earn as much money as possible in a limited amount of turns.  Each player has their own factory and buys machines (to produce goods or improve efficiency) and warehouse space.  Each manufacturing machine uses power and require workers if they’re not automated.  Income is based on the lower of your manufacturing capacity and warehouse capacity, so you need to keep these two factors as balanced as possible and plan for expanding evenly too.  

Your limited amount of workers are under great demand as workers are not only needed to run machines but are also used to bid on the turn order cards.  Read the rest of this entry »

Peloponnes was another Spiel 09 game that I pre-ordered based on reading the rules.  I was also very interested because the designer created Maya, a game I really enjoy even though I tend to lose.

Peloponnes is a civilisation building game that lasts 8 short turns.  Players bid coins to purchase land or buildings tiles which generate resource income each round, plus some give one-off instant income.  If you exceed certain amounts of a single resource, you get luxury goods instead which can be used in placed of other resources and are an important game mechanic.

Read the rest of this entry »