The post The Gaming Sommelier’s Board Game Recommendations By Genre – 2023 appeared first on Pikes Peak Gamers.

Hello there, my fellow gamers! It’s again one of my favorite times of the year, just after the largest board game trade show has taken place in Essen, Germany. All of the latest and greatest games are presented there, and I’m now going to give my thoughts about them, as I prepare for the BGG.CON convention in Dallas, Texas. These are listed in order of my level of interest, which is certainly subjective. One of the primary things I’m looking for are games that have something unique to them. I have picked up a couple of games that are based on some games I already love, but I’m hopeful the new twists make them even more worth playing. Along with a brief description and thought of each game, I’ve included how they were received at the Essen fair, as well as the number of players and play time. I have three sources for my Essen ratings: FairPlay is a German board game magazine, GeekBuzz is boardgamegeek.com’s own rating system they set up there, and Hall9000 is Essen’s own rating system. Games ranked under #15 had high ratings but not enough to qualify for the top 15, and I only list games that made the top 200 in the GeekBuzz ratings.

Also, there were some games that are in the vault that did not make the list below, as I’m focused on games that I hope to play while in Dallas. These are Glen More II, Trismegistus, Barrage, Wingspan, and Doppelt So Clever.

Lists: Games I Must Play | Games I’d Like To Play | Games That Are Just Meh

Games I Must Play

Die Crew

Die Crew (actually The Crew, as Die is The in German) is a cooperative, trick-tacking game thatappears to be a legacy-style game as there are 50 missions to accomplish. I’m fascinated by it, and it appears that there is a translation of the flavor-text logbook from German into English. I’d love to play this!

• #1 FairPlay, #125 GeekBuzz, #11 Hall9000
• 2-5 players
• 20 minutes

Dreamscape

Dreamscape is a mostly abstract game where you’re building a three-dimensional tableau that represents the dreams you are trying to have. The theme is extremely well-done, and it’s a fantastic puzzle that you have to try and solve. I’m not sure there will be a copy at the convention, and analysis-paralysis seems to plague this game that I think I’d prefer to play it with 3 players instead of 4, but it just sounds like overall, this game would be entertaining to play.

• #18 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 60-90 minutes

Orleans: Stories

Orleans: Stories reimplements the bag-builder Orleans, but in what sounds like a legacy-style way, as there are multiple games, and each builds upon the next. I loved the original bag-builder, and having a narrative arc to connect multiple games of this sounds fantastic.

• #25 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 60-180 minutes

Azul: Summer Pavilion

Azul: Summer Pavilion is a tile-drafting game much like the two other iterations of Azul. While the tile-drafting mechanic is the same of the first two releases, this one allows you to gather all of your tiles from the round and then you place them on your board. There are also wild tiles in play here as well. I’ve enjoyed the first two iterations of Azul, and this one seems like it’s going to be just as fun.

• #4 FairPlay, #12 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 30-45 minutes

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace is a dice-placement game set around the time of the first World Fair in London (1851). This game seems to be quite tense and full of agonizing decisions, plus it got lots of buzz at Essen, being rated by all three sources of my review. It also seems like there are many ways to win.

• #2 Fairplay, #68 GeekBuzz, #2 Hall9000
• 2-5 players
• 90-150 minutes

Pictures

Pictures is a party game where you use a variety of materials to reproduce a picture and then players vote on the creation each player made. Someone mentioned that it might be a high-brow Cranium, and it seems that this will be an excellent change-of-pace to play at some time during the show.

• #20 FairPlay, #8 Hall9000
• 3-5 players
• 20-30 minutes

Kitchen Rush

Kitchen Rush is a real-time cooperative game where you are managing a restaurant. I believe that it hit Essen because this year brought a revised edition to the table. This is a light cooperative that has multiple scenarios to teach the rules and build up the difficulty reminding me of Magic Maze. I think we’ll really enjoy playing this.

• #10 FairPlay, #167 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 20-60 minutes

Cahoots

Cahoots is a co-operative card-playing game where you’re trying to satisfy a variety of different goal cards. You can’t communicate with the other players what cards are in your hand, but you can talk about what piles you’d like to play on, for example. This reminds me a bunch of The Game or The Mind, and I know that we’ll definitely get in a play of this.

• #10 Hall9000
• 1-4 players
• 20 minutes

Res Arcana

Res Arcana is a tableau-building game where you’re using cards in order to generate alchemical combinations. While not quite as amazing as Race for the Galaxy, there are lots of comparisons to it, and the combination of options that you get despite a small number of game elements creates a fascinating decision space. I’d love to get in a play of this, especially as it seems it will go quickly.

• #7 FairPlay
• 2-4 players
• 20-60 minutes

Maracaibo

Maracaibo is an action selection game set in the Carribbean. It’s pretty complex, and it appearsthat you have cards that you play to set up actions and those change over time. It’s been compared a bunch to Great Western Trail, except that all your options are available to you at thestart, and while being less elegant, it sounds like there are lots of options and interesting choices.

• #13 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 60-150 minutes

The Taverns of Tiefentahl

The Taverns of Tiefentahl is a dice-drafting deckbuilder where you’re managing a tavern. Gameplay seems quick and there are multiple modules to tweak the level of complexity. It just seems like a solid game, and I’m especially interested to see how drafting cards to the top of your deck plays out.

• #6 Hall9000
• 2-4 players
• 60 minutes

Aquatica

Aquatica is a deckbuilding game where each card you get allows you to take actions as you build up your underwater kingdom. The game is a bit light and fast, but sounds like fun as there are a bunch of combinations that you can try, plus you have a mechanism of sliding cards up your tableau in order to score points.

• #17 FairPlay
• #2 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 30-60 minutes

Games I’d Like to Play

Cartographers

Cartographers is a flip-and-write game. In other words, you flip cards and then draw what it tells you. Many people refer to another game I’ve really enjoyed this year called Welcome To. It also has some variable scoring goals. There’s an interesting interactive, take-that element where other people get to draw ambushes and monsters on your board, and I’d like to see how that pans out.

• #12 Fairplay, #64 GeekBuzz
• 1-100 players
• 30-45 minutes

Silver & Gold

Silver & Gold is another flip-and-write game where you’re finding treasures on an island. Really, you just have treasure map cards and try to cross them off, based upon what possible shapes the round card gives you. This plays fast and seems like it will be a bunch of fun.

• #5 Hall9000
• 2-4 players
• 20 minutes

Die Inseln im Nebel

Die Inseln im Nebel is a tile-laying game where you’re piloting a hot air balloon in the fog and exploring an island. While there was not a ton of information on this, it sounds fascinating, as you roll a die that determines the direction of the wind. You then have a very limited amount of energy that you can use to go in a different direction and either shorter or farther than the prevailing wind. You then draft tiles and place them on to your board. The game has a fun roll-and-write feel, but lasts longer and just seems like it brings something unique to the table.

• #4 Hall9000
• 2-4 players
• 45-60 minutes

The Magnificent

The Magnificent is a dice-placement game where you’re setting up a carnival show. The art is beautiful, although apparently the theme is weak. It seems interesting that as you collect more dice, they make your actions stronger, but they are also more expensive.

• #1 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 60-90 minutes

Team3 Pink (or Green)

Team3 Pink (or Green) is a party dexterity game. In a team of three players, you are trying to build blueprints. One person can see the blueprints but can’t talk, one person can build but can’tsee, and the other person is relaying information between the two. This game looks like it would be some good silly fun, especially if we end up with six players. The pink edition just has different cards than the green one.

• #8 Fairplay, #17 GeekBuzz
• 3-6 players
• 30 minutes

Palm Island

Palm Island is a solo card game, where you hold the deck and manipulate the cards in order to build an island and maximize your victory points. I’ve put this on my list because I’m fascinated by its quick play time and portability, and there may be a short break with some downtime where it would be fun to pull this out and learn it while waiting for some friends to free up from a game elsewhere. It does offer a couple of 2-player modes, although those do not sound like where this shines.

• #15 FairPlay, #145 GeekBuzz
• 1-2 players
• 15 minutes

Draftosaurus

Draftosaurus is a drafting game where you are drafting dinosaurs and placing them in enclosures on your board according to restrictions imposed by whatever someone rolls on a die.It seems like a decent filler, and given that it’s quick and the pieces are cute, it’s worth giving it a shot.

• #172 GeekBuzz, #12 Hall9000
• 2-5 players
• 15 minutes

Alubari: A Nice Cup of Tea

Alubari: A Nice Cup of Tea is a worker placement game where you’re building up a tea estate in India. It has drawn many comparisons to Snowdonia, where instead of using coal with the railway, you use tea instead. I enjoyed Snowdonia the couple of times I played it, and feel that this would also be worth a play.

• #16 FairPlay, #31 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 45-120 minutes

City of Big Shoulders

City of Big Shoulders is a heavy economic game where you’re building up companies in Chicago and investing in them in order to become the wealthiest player at the table. It’s been compared to a slightly lighter version of the extra-heavy, very competitive and unforgiving 18xx games, but the options you take with the companies here have more of a Euro feel. It’s also shorter, although it still has a meaty playtime. I’d like to play this, just to take on the challenge of something this heavy, but it definitely would be important to find the right time – and players – when we decide to tackle this one.

• #18 FairPlay, #134 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 120-180 minutes

Marco Polo II

Marco Polo II is a dice-placement, action selection game. It seems to share most of the concepts from the original, with some slight differences, adding a new currency (jade) as well as making traveling a bit easier. I did really enjoy the original, and this is quite similar, and seems almost certain to be a good time, although I’m not sure that it has enough new here that I absolutely have to play it.

• #3 FairPlay, #91 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 60-120 minutes

Walking in Burano

Walking in Burano is a card drafting game where you’re building up a cityscape in Burano to attract tourists. While there doesn’t seem to be anything super new or compelling here, the game is beautiful and it plays well with 2. I think I’d like to check it out just for those aspects.

• #14 Hall9000
• 1-4 players
• 20-40 minutes

Rune Stones

Rune Stones is a deck building game in a fantasy setting. Each turn, you play two cards and have to trash the card you play with the higher value, and it’s really that mechanic that seems to provide some interesting tension for the decisions that you need to make each turn. Some have said that the game doesn’t really build up over time, but it seems overall to be light and a nice change of pace.

• #11 FairPlay, #30 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 60 minutes

Coloma

Coloma is a worker-placement game set during the California Gold Rush. You choose your actions simultaneously and depending upon whether or not you choose the same actions as other determines whether it is a Boom action and you get a bonus or not. There also is a semi-cooperative element of holding off the outlaw gunmen that are coming after the town. This all sounds quite good, but the one thing that holds this back from being higher up the list is that it seems to have a higher amount of luck for a game with this level of depth, but I’d still be willing to try it.

• #29 GeekBuzz
• 1-6 players
• 90 minutes

Cooper Island

Cooper Island is a worker-placement tile-laying game, where each person is building their own island. I didn’t get lots of information on this; someone mentioned that this game provided some new challenges, which has me a bit intrigued. Many people complained of the multiplayer solitaire and the lack of variability with the setup, as well as there being some downtime. I’m torn on this, but if we get a chance, I’d like to try it.

• #13 FairPlay, #7 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 60-120 minutes

Realm of Sand

Realm of Sand is a tile placement game. Thematically, you’re a magician to stabilize the magic in the realm of sand, but ultimately this is an abstract game. Over time, you unlock more and more of your board to be able to place tiles, and it has many comparisons to Splendor as you use a couple of different colored tokens in order to place your tiles. I think this would be a solid game, even if it’s nothing super special.

• #9 Hall9000
• 1-4 players
• 30-60 minutes

Bruxelles 1897

Bruxelles 1897 is a card game based on the original Bruxelles 1893 board game. Like the original, you are selecting actions from a tableau, just this time using cards instead of markers on a board. Overall, the selection of your actions amounts to a form of area control and bidding in order to take them. I’d like to try this, just to see if I enjoy this streamlined version of the original, but don’t feel compelled to play it.

• #6 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 40-60 minutes

Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North

Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North is a tableau-building, resource-management and card game. It is slightly different from the original Imperial Settlers and has some new factions and introduces a couple of additional options, including sailing. Some consider this game much looser than the original, but considering I was very frustrated by the lack of available resources in the original, this seems like it would be more fun. Overall, it sounds promising, but I have to admit that I’m not sure that there is a ton new here in this one.

• #22 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 45-90 minutes

Last Bastion

Last Bastion is a cooperative game where you’re a band of heroes defending against monstrous hordes. It’s very similar to Ghost Stories, where you move around the board and gaining various bonuses and using the dice to kill enemies. I enjoyed Ghost Stories when I played it, and this is probably fun, but I don’t see that I have to play this.

• #14 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 45 minutes

Games That Are Just Meh

It’s a Wonderful World

It’s a Wonderful World is a card-drafting game. It’s been compared much to 7 Wonders, although you get to play all of your cards at once. However, you don’t really interact with your opponents. While it sounds like a decent game, there’s nothing new or compelling here.

• #5 GeekBuzz
• 1-5 players
• 30-60 minutes

Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon

Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon is a tile-placement game where you’re building the Gardens of Babylon. While you are drafting tiles from a rondel, it seems like it’s fairly luck based and there’s not great control over what you can do. I’m interested to try it and see if the criticisms are well-warranted, but I don’t feel compelled to play it.

• #23 GeekBuzz, #41 Hall9000
• 2-4 players
• 45 minutes

Terramara

Terramara is a worker placement game where you’re developing your clan in Northern Italy in the late Bronze Age. Apparently the interesting mechanic here is that keeping your workers on the boards longer makes for more powerful actions; in practice, though, it generally seems that you don’t really want to leave your workers out there if you can help it. It sounds to me like other games do this set of mechanics better (e.g. Tzolkin), so I’d likely pass on this one.

• #14 FairPlay, #10 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 120 minutes

Carnival of Monsters

Carnival of Monsters is a card-drafting game where you’re building up a tableau of monsters. Overall, there seems to be little that is really new or special in this one, and so I think I’ll pass on this.

• #6 FairPlay
• 2-5 players
• 45 minutes

Ecos: First Continent

Ecos: First Continent is a tile-building game where you are forces of nature creating a continent. Someone takes an element from the bag, and then you all gain that resource on one of your cards, which then ultimately allows you to play a tile on the tableau. This bingo-like game reminds me of Rise of Augustus, but with a longer playing time, I’m not that excited at all about playing it, as I don’t think it will be worth it.

• #9 GeekBuzz
• 2-6 players
• 45-75 minutes

The post 2019 New Finds: Essen and BGG.CON Preview appeared first on Pikes Peak Gamers.

I hope that you all are as excited as I am that we have some vendors at the convention this year. One of our vendors, Four Levels, will be bringing a demonstration of their eponymous game to PPG CON here in a week, and I had the privilege to playtest it.

It’s an abstract game, like checkers or chess, where the game doesn’t really have a theme, but you’re just trying to accomplish the objective. In this case, it is to get four of your pieces in a row. On your turn, you simply play your next piece on any square on the board. There are three kinds of pieces – a cube, a square with a hole in it that the cube can fit into, and a solid square. Cubes and holey squares can share the same space; otherwise, there can only be one piece per square. There are four, four-by-four grids stacked on top of each other where you can play your pieces, and four in a row can mean horizontally, vertically, diagonally, and in either two or three dimensions.

To make a really great abstract game, you need three elements. First, you need a simple ruleset. A simple ruleset lets you focus on the strategy and also makes it easy to find opponents. Second, the gameplay needs to have depth. A game worth playing needs to have interesting choices. Third, it should have an unusual look. Done right, an uninitiated person walking up in a coffee shop will ask what you’re playing because they want to understand the mystery presented by the bizarre object on the table. This game does all three items well. In particular, I find the strategy quite interesting because after just a couple of moves, you’re locked in a tense battle where a false step has you lose the game but you need to find the edge required to defeat your opponent. I admit that I’m not very good at it, but that has not deterred me from enjoying every play of it.

The game is currently in late-stage development, and so Jack, the game developer, has some interesting ideas to make the game even better. Among them are a three-player variant, a scoring system, and perhaps having a game last until all the pieces have been played, so as to maximize the number of four-in-a-row combinations. I highly recommend that you check out his booth and support his upcoming Kickstarter, which is scheduled to start July 1, 2019!

Four Levels: Website | Facebook

The post Vendor Playtest: Four Levels appeared first on Pikes Peak Gamers.

1. The Mind

The Mind seems like it was created by a challenge to have a game with the simplest rules. You have a deck of cards from 1-100 and all you have to do is play them in order. But trick is that you can’t talk or come up with a convention about how or when to play the cards. On the surface, this sounds like a totally boring activity, either ridiculously easy or practically impossible since how can you really communicate? Yet I found it incredibly fun, and wanted to play it over and over again, as in the right spirit, everyone is making body language and gestures, trying to get a feel for how big is the gap between the last card and what to play when. It’s short and sweet, gets everyone involved, and the longer you play, the tenser it gets, as you want to make sure you’re playing when you’re supposed to.

2. Reef

Reef is a simple abstract game about playing coral reef pieces in order to score points. Everything is in fours here: your board is a 4×4 grid, the coral pieces can be stacked up to 4 high, and you can only hold up to four cards in your hand. How many different colors of pieces are there? That’s right, four! On your turn, you either pick up a card or you play one. When you play a card, you add reef pieces to your tableau and then score combinations. What I love about this game is how to plan what cards you get and how to score them in order, so that the pieces you’re adding on one card will help you when you score the next one.

3. Vast

Vast is a game about a dungeon. On the surface, Vast is not particularly complex, but it is a bit daunting to learn from scratch. You see, each player has their own role with their completely independent ruleset for how to play. One player is the knight, another is the goblins, a third is the dragon, yet another is the dungeon itself (referred to as the Cave). There is also a thief, a character that seems to be most interesting when you have 5 players. This game is a challenge for design, as each player is really doing something quite different. I thought that some players would get stuck and not have a chance to win, and while that might be the case partway through your first game, after a couple of plays, I think you can understand all the different ways your role can influence the game. I found how asymmetric this game was to be fascinating, and it was clear that there was a lot of thought and playtesting that went into balancing the various roles. It did take us a while to play as everyone had to learn their own roles, but I look forward to playing this again, from a different perspective.

4. Teotihuacan: City of Gods

Teotihuacan: City of Gods is a really well-designed worker placement game. It bundles a number of elements that I enjoy into a great package. You’ve got a rondel, and you’re moving your workers around it. One space lets you acquire technologies. You’re collectively building a pyramid, so the acquisition of resources and deciding where you place the tiles on the pyramid generates some interesting choices as well. If that wasn’t enough, the number of players at each location influences how much it will cost, and how many of your own workers impacts how rewarding the location is. To top it all off, your workers become more powerful over time, and you then have to decide when to reset them and take advantage of the reward. Since you have to feed your workers, gaining a bunch of workers is not necessarily the best and winning strategy. I think I just loved how much was going on in this one. I’m not sure that anything individually was new, but I hadn’t see them bundled in quite this way. Certainly this is a game that will appeal to heavy gamers.

5. Gaia Project

Finally, I got around to playing Gaia Project. I thought it would just be a rehash of Terra Mystica, but in space. I love Terra Mystica, but what would really be new here? For those unfamiliar to Terra Mystica, you’re claiming places on the board by terraforming them, and then building buildings on them. Each player is their own race, which gives an asymmetric aspect to the game. You move up temple tracks as another way to score points, as well. Being next to players is beneficial, as it provides you power that you can then use for bonus actions. In Gaia Project, the board is made up of modular pieces covered with planets that adds to more variety, and the various “temple” tracks have been converted into more interesting technology tracks that enable you to make real progress in the game. The use of power in this game is much better, as you don’t have to be quite so close to take advantage of it, and you have fewer pieces to play. Since you only occupy planets in this game, and not every space has a planet on it, there are some empty spaces that force you to have to spread more along the board. It just makes for a more dynamic game. Anyone who likes Terra Mystica will surely enjoy this, and if you missed out on Terra Mystica, Gaia Project is an excellent game for the uninitiated as well.

Bonus Reviews: Dinosaur Island & Cacao

I did want to close just by saying that as much as I’m a lover of lots of games, not everything I play is great. I also recently got the opportunity to play Dinosaur Island. I know that there’s lots of love out there for this, and the game’s theme is great, as are its production values. However, I couldn’t help thinking there was too much luck in it, but maybe that’s me. I also played Cacao, a tile-placement game where the meeples are printed on the cards, unlike in Carcassonne. It was somewhat interesting, but I felt like there needed to be more variety to the types of tiles available in order to make for a more compelling game.

Anyway, I’m thankful for all the opportunities to get my game on lately. Until next time, happy gaming!

– Smiley

The post Board Game Roundup: Smiley Reviews 5 Newly Played Games appeared first on Pikes Peak Gamers.

Die Macher

Before the convention, I signed up for this classic gaming monster. It’s a game about the German election, it’s complicated and epic. The game takes place over six rounds, each having an election in a different German state. The last round has two state elections back-to-back. The order of a round is that you bid on turn order (which is very important, as you can get to see what other people do first), and then change your party’s platform to match that of the people and take secret actions in each of the states. Then you form coalitions with other players, and you need to, because it’s rare to win it alone. You can control the media and change what issues the people want. You “hold meetings”, which are basically just putting out some cubes.

Next, you bid on the opportunity to publish opinion polls, which influences either your party’s popularity or another party’s. You can even bury the poll and not publish it at all! After all of that, you can convert those “meeting cubes” into actual votes. Finally, you conduct the election and get victory points and money. Before the start of the next round, you decide whether or not you want party contributions (think of it like a PAC). Money’s always good, but it means that some people will leave your party. At the end of the game, you tally up how well the national agenda (which is based on how each individual state went) with your agenda. In all, it’s just a ton of moving parts. I played with a fun group, it took us the entire morning and even into the early afternoon, but it was delightfully challenging, even if it’s not for the faint of heart.

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra

If you haven’t played the original Azul, this one is much like it. You get the opportunity to draft pretty tiles from several central groups, trying to use them to score points. Rather than making a mosaic, like in the original, each row is a pane of stained glass. The twist in this game over the original is that you have a figure above your board in this one that indicates which row you can add tiles to. You can move the figure to any row to the right, but if you want to add to a row to the left, you have to pass and move your figure back to the left-most row. This makes for a slightly more thinky game, but overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

credit: daloester

Hokkaido

I was not impressed by this follow-up to Honshu, as the ideas here were not all that fresh or original. This is still at its heart a type of card placement game, where you’re playing overlapping cards to build a city in a tableau. However, rather than the innovative possible trump and trick-taking/drafting mechanism in Honshu, this is just a simple card draft, and here you just turn in resources in order to slightly alter your map. This does add a mountain range to the game so that you’re balancing your city on either side of it, but that’s really the only thing I like about this implementation. I do recommend that people try Honshu if they have a chance, as it was a quality title.

credit: jason2043

House of Borgia

This game is based on the classic Liar’s Dice, but with a bit more meat to it. You have a secret cardinal that you are backing for pope, and all the cardinals are in a tableau on the middle of the table. Each time you make a bet, if it’s unchallenged, you’re able to take an action with the cardinal. This means that your initial bluffs could not even be about what is on the collective set of dice, but just that you wanted to take that particular action in order to manipulate the order of the cardinals. Additionally, you also need to keep your cardinal secret, as if he’s exposed, you’re eliminated, so you can also bluff regarding the various cardinals. With higher player counts, I do think it’s better to play with the variant than an exposed cardinal costs you some influence rather than completely eliminating you, as it’s harder to bluff in that type of game.

The post Smiley’s BGG.CON 2018 Board Game Reviews appeared first on Pikes Peak Gamers.

Essen, Germany – Home to largest annual board game trade show.

The biggest trade show in the board game industry takes place in Essen, Germany, at the end of October every year. Every year, just before Thanksgiving, the good people that are loosely affiliated with the board gaming website boardgamegeek.com put on a convention, BGG.CON, that inspired our own PPG CON. One of the cool things that BGG.CON does is that they attend Essen and bring many of the latest and greatest games from Essen back with them, so that convention-goers can enjoy them. Some of these games haven’t been released in the U.S., and some might never even be.

As part of preparing and making the most of my time at the convention, I do some research on what generated buzz at Essen. Not everything is brand-new (one title came out way back in 2016!), but most of it is. As your sommelier, I’d like to share with you my thoughts in advance of attending. Sometime after the convention is over, and I’ve got some sleep, I’ll follow up with you on what I played and what I thought, and what I’ll be lobbying to try and get included in our collection for PPG CON 2019.

Before diving into the list of the games, I wanted to let you know that the numbers and rankings in parenthesis at the end of each game snippet is how well they finished as part of the buzz at Essen. Fairplay is a German magazine, GeekBuzz is something that boardgamegeek.com does while they are out there, and Hall9000 is the convention’s own rating system, if I’m not mistaken. I also give player counts and game length, according to what’s on the box. Don’t forget, this is just one man’s opinion, and happy gaming!

Lists: Games I Must Play, Games I’d Like To Play, Games That Are Just Meh

Games I Must Play

Ganz schon clever

Ganz schon clever is a dice-rolling and write game, ala Yahtzee. But way, way better. Toward the end of the game there are super-fun combos that you can generate that seem quite satisfying. Given the short and light play time, this is at the top of the list.

• #11 Hall9000
• 1-4 players
• 30 minutes

Coimbra

Coimbra is a Euro game where there are many ways to score (“point salad”). You are drafting dice in various colors and then obtaining cards from there. The interesting thing is that the values of the dice are how much the cards cost to buy and how well you are doing on the track corresponding to the color of the dice indicates how much of a reward you recieve. A solid, thinky game.

• #4 Fairplay
• #3 GeekBuzz
• #3 Hall9000
• 2-4 players
• 60-90 minutes

Belratti

Belratti is a cooperative game where you are managing an art gallery. The game is trying to introduce fake paintings into the gallery, and you have to collectively identify the forgeries and get them out of there! You also change roles from supplying the paintings to choosing the forgeries. Just seems like something where everyone would be engaged, and a delight to play.

• #1 Fairplay
• #108 GeekBuzz
• 3-7 players
• 20-45 minutes

Trick n’ Trouble

Trick n’ Trouble is a co-operative trick-taking game. I had no idea there was such a thing! It compares to Hanabi, in that you don’t have all the information but are still working together. This is something I really want to play; the only downside is that it only plays just 3.

• #13 Hall9000
• 3 players
• 15-30 minutes

Fuji

Fuji is a cooperative game where you trying to descend from a volcano before it erupts. You roll your dice to move, and then you have to decide where to go, and you don’t know exactly what other people have, and it’s only after you see what they’ve got as to whether or not you’ve successfully moved along, or if you lose some stamina. This sounds really interesting.

• #13 Fairplay
• #17 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 30-45 minutes

Men At Work

Men At Work is not about the 80s band that had great music. J Instead, it’s a beautiful title and a dexterity game. From the pictures, you’re building a structure with a whole bunch of construction workers on it. Seems like it would be fun.

• #125 GeekBuzz
• #4 Hall9000
• 2-5 players
• 30-45 minutes

Krass Kariert

Krass Kariert is a trick-taking game where you’re trying to go out first (like in Tichu). You can’t reorder your cards, though, but there is a bidding element I believe in this. Seems like it could be fun and different to try.

• #24 Hall9000
• 3-5 players
• 30 minutes

Paper Tales

Paper Tales is a card drafting game like the classic 7 Wonders. The interesting thing here is that your cards age, so you only get to have them around for a round or two before they’re gone. Seems like an interesting twist on a well-known game.

• #13 Fairplay
• #192 GeekBuzz
• #28 Hall9000
• 2-5 players
• 30 minutes

Railroad Ink

Railroad Ink comes in either the Deep Blue or Blazing Red Editions. In this, you roll the dice, and you draw out a railroad network. This type of thing just really appeals to me, and considering its brevity, I would really like to play this.

• #9 GeekBuzz
• 1-6 players
• 20-30 minutes

X-Code

X-Code is a timed co-operative game where you are trying to come up with a code. It’s light and plays fast, so I’m sure I’ll get the chance to play it and see if it’s really too easy as to not be that interesting.

• #14 Hall9000
• 2-8 players
• 15 minutes

Blackout: Hong Kong

Blackout: Hong Kong is meaty Euro game set in Hong Kong. You play cards to select actions, then roll dice that determine what is produced, which you can tweak by spending some tokens or victory points. From there, you complete various objectives. It’s been compared to Great Western Trail and Mombasa, a couple of my favorite recent titles, so I’d really like to give this a shot.

• #5 FairPlay
• #6 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 75-150 minutes

Dice Settlers

Dice Settlers is a lighter, dice manipulation game. It plays quickly and you are accumulating your bag of dice from which to use, reminding me of Orleans or Altiplano, a couple of games I really enjoy. There have been complaints about the components not being all that nice, but it sounds like the gameplay here is quite good, moving it near the top of my list.

• #10 GeekBuzz
• #2 Hall9000
• 1-4 players
• 45-60 minutes

Games I’d Like to Play

Tudor

Tudor was hard to get a lot of detail on it. From what I can gather, the way in which you select actions is through the placement of them on various fingers and rings, and that is something that is pretty unique and original. The core part of the game, which is to collect cards and move up tracks, seems to be a bit uninspired, but I’d like to try this to see the novel action-selection mechanic.

• #7 Fairplay
• #167 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 90-120 minutes

Roll Player

Roll Player is a game where you’re rolling dice and manipulating for creating a character that would be used in a role-playing game (like Dungeons & Dragons), except all you’re doing here is building the character. Apparently, the dice manipulation is fun for gamers, I think it would been even more interesting, considering I played some D&D as a kid.

• #13 Fairplay
• #171 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 60-90 minutes

Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem is a tile placement game with a bunch of different ways to score points. It seems a bit light, just take a tile, place it on your board, and how you do so gives you a variety of different scoring combinations. Because Stefan Feld was the designer, I think it got a bunch of buzz. Because I like some of his other games, this is definitely something I’d like to try.

• #7 FairPlay
• #32 GeekBuzz
• #7 Hall9000
• 2-4 players
• 60 minutes

Brass:Birmingham

Brass:Birmingham is a card-playing, economic Euro game that is the modern update to the classic Brass (now called Brass: Lancashire). This supposedly adds more industries and variability to the play vs. the original, and the original is a solid, meaty Euro, so I’m excited to try this version.

• #14 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 60-120 minutes

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra is a reimplementation of the tile-claiming Azul. This one seems to be more gamey but definitely worth playing to see if it adds more meat to the original, or if it will leave me longing for the original.

• #9 Fairplay
• #1 GeekBuzz
• #6 Hall900
• 2-4 players
• 30-45 minutes

Wurffelland

Wurffelland (or Diceland, if translated to English) is also a roll-and-write game. Everyone marks a space on their board based upon whatever someone has rolled, and the first to finish the special spaces wins. The interesting thing is that there is a press-your-luck element to this, if you roll too many of whatever color you were looking for, you can’t use it! I think this will be light and fun.

• #25 Hall9000
• 2-4 players
• 20 minutes

Welcome To

Welcome To is another roll-and-write game, although in this one, you’re drawing tiles instead of rolling dice. Seems like it’s solid and fast, and the write-ups have generally been favorable.

• #13 Fairplay
• #171 GeekBuzz
• 1-100 players
• 25 minutes

Reykholt

Reykholt is a worker-placement, farming game in Iceland. Uwe Rosenberg designed this, and he’s one of my favorites. The tension is in making choices between when to harvest your vegetables and how much of an investment to make in future rounds. Longtime gamers will be familiar with Gates of Loyang, which this is compared to. There’s a “story mode”, which I’m not quite sure what that’s all about.

• #22 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 30-60 minutes

Illusion

Illusion is a light filler game where you are putting cards in order based upon how much color is in each card. Timeline does the same thing, but uses dates, and has a trivia element to it. I don’t think this is going to be amazing, but certainly seems like something fun to pull out and play.

• #21 Hall9000
• 2-5 players
• 15 minutes

Chronicles of Crime

Chronicles of Crime is a cooperative crime-solving game. A smartphone app with VR provides much of the content that you’ll need to figure out the clues and solve the crime. It sounds like you would only want 2 players, maybe 3 at the most, since much of the content is on the phone. I’m interested just to see how well it blends the digital and the physical.

• #13 Fairplay
• #5 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 60-90 minutes

Teotihuacan: City of Gods

Teotihuacan: City of Gods is a worker placement game, using dice for the actions to build a Mayan pyramid. It compares to T’zolkin, another game, and there is some debate as to whether or not it is a good as that game, and seems to be a bit more complicated than that one. I certainly am interested to see how this one shakes out.

• #13 Fairplay
• #2 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 90-120 minutes

Pulsar 2849

Pulsar 2849 is a dice-drafting game, with a sci-fi exploration theme. The better the dice you get, the more of a penalty you take in the action phase, which seems like it creates some good tension. There also is a bit of an exploration element to this one. It looks pretty cool, something I’d like to try. Apparently this was out last year, but still made some buzz even at this year’s Essen.

• #68 GeekBuzz
• #15 Hall9000
• 2-4 players
• 60-90 minutes

NEOM

NEOM is tile-drafting and then tile-laying game, where you’re building a city in front of you. It seems like a nice blend of 7 Wonders (for the drafting mechanic) and Suburbia (for the tile placement aspect). I think this game would be good.

• #4 Fairplay
• #54 GeekBuzz
• 1-5 players
• 45 minutes

Barrage

Barrage has a ton of stuff going on in it, worker placement for various actions, powers generated from building different building, rondel for resources, contracts to fulfill, and an income track. It’s a very heavy game about managing hydroelectric power. It looks fascinating. It’s also only on Kickstarter. I decided to back it, and although unlikely, it’s supposed to arrive in time for PPG.CON. I guess their prototype got enough buzz to show up on the Essen list.

• #15 GeekBuzz
• 2-4 players
• 60-120 minutes

Gugong

Gugong was hard to put my finger on. It seems that there’s a bidding and worker placement element to this in order to make your decisions. I think I’d have to play it first to see whether or not I like it.

• #13 FairPlay
• #7 GeekBuzz
• 1-5 players
• 60-90 minutes

Everdell

Everdell is a worker placement game that is really beautiful – all the information I read talked about how stunning it was. The theme appears to be a bit unqiue, as you’re creating a town of critters. From a gameplay perspective, it sounds like a fairly straightforward worker placement game, so I’m not sure how much is truly new here.

• #4 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 40-80 minutes

Newton

Newton is a game where you are selecting action cards, and as you get more cards in your tableau, the more powerful those actions become. There was some criticism that there are not lots of different ways to win, but perhaps there’s just tension to do the core thing in the game (in this case, publish books). Something I’d like to try, I guess.

• #8 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 90 minutes

Games That Are Just Meh

Rise of Queensdale

Rise of Queensdale is a legacy game where you are manipulating dice and managing resources. The story may be more interesting that the very popular Charterstone. Not something I’ll probably try at the convention, but might be interesting to buy and play within our group.

• #10 Hall9000
• 2-4 players
• 45-60 minutes

Underwater Cities

Underwater Cities is card placement on a tableau, action-drafting game. The information on this was mixed and not particularly striking, something that I probably would only try if someone else really wanted a go.

• #13 GeekBuzz
• 1-4 players
• 80-150 minutes

Farben

Farben is a party game where you get cards with colors and words, and then you tell stories to associate the colors with the words. At the end of the round, you then have to remember everyone’s colors. While an interesting party game idea, I’m not sure how much fun I’ll have with this, although if we have a bit of time to kill, I might end up suggesting it.

• #21 Hall9000
• 3-5 players
• 45-75 minutes

Ground Floor

Ground Floor is an economic, city building game. It uses worker placement in order to build up a company from the ground up. This is a new edition of a game that came out back in 2012. It seems that the highlight of the game, other than the puzzle of the resource management, is the various upgrades that are available to you. It seems like it would be decent, if a bit long.

• #8 Hall9000
• 1-5 players
• 90-150 minutes

Architects of the West Kingdom

Architects of the West Kingdom seems to me just to be a pretty generic worker placement game, and nothing special.

• #11 GeekBuzz
• 1-5 players
• 60-80 minutes

The post New Finds: Essen and BGG.CON 2018 Preview appeared first on Pikes Peak Gamers.