Spiel '02 - print version

This is a plain text version of my article on the new games at this year's Spiel games fair. It should print fairly neatly onto A4 paper.

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If it's October, it must be Essen. Spiel '02 took place at the Essen Messe (Exhibition halls) on 17th-20th October and, as usual, featured an awful lot of new games. I attended for three days: enough time to play just a small fraction of the games. I look forward to trying a lot more over the next few weeks - and will add more material in here as I do so. So here are my notes on the new games and what was going on at the show.

It is part of the appeal of Spiel that most companies retain the same stands from year to year, so you always know where to find them. This year it was quite noticeable on first entering the halls that there were several new names on show: Kidult Game, Globopolis and Vivendi, for example. The last of these had a huge area in the main halls for computer games - the first time computer games have had such prominence. The re-organisation also extended to shifting the Comic Action part of the show into Hall 8, with the flea market of secondhand stalls brought into Hall 9. Hall 6 remained the preserve of the role-players and CCG enthusiasts, while Hall 4 had all the children's play area - bouncy castles galore!

It is very difficult to capture the scale of Spiel for those who haven't attended. This time, I've tried a couple of panoramas - using a feature of my nice new digital camera. The first shows the view from the steps at one end of Hall 11: this shows the special Alex Randolph exhibition on the left, the Ravensburger stand in the middle and the white block is the top of the organisers' (Friedhelm Merz Verlag) offices. Ravensburger has one of the largest stands at the show, but Amigo now have twice the space - they do, after all, produce the German editions of Wizards of the Coast products (i.e. Magic: the Gathering, D&D etc).

The second picture is of Hall 4, just after closing time, with a deflated bouncy castle in the foreground. The apparatus on the background is harnesses suspended on bungees for kids to bounce around on. Between them, these two photos show about a fifth of the area taken up by the show. I mentioned the Alex Randolph exhibition above. This was a special show to honour the veteran games designer in his eightieth year. In the last 40 years, Randolph has been responsible for over 100 games: from TwixT in 1962 to Die Grosse Rüsselbande and Zirkusferkel in 2002. A range that includes lots of classics and favourites. I'd pick out Code 777, Die Heisse Schlacht am kalten Buffet, Hol's de Geier, Inkognito, Rasende Roboter (or Ricochet Robots in English), TwixT and Würmeln. It was great to see this recognition being given to a games designer.

But on to the games. To give some sort of structure, I'll run through this in alphabetical order of publisher. Each game that I've played will be given a score out of 10, according to what I think of it. Note that these scores are deeply subjective!

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Start here

The man with the green hair (aka designer Friedemann Friese of 2F Spiele) did us proud this year with two new games. Fundstücke is a limited edition card game. The theme is scavenging furniture that's been thrown out. It's another game of guessing what numbers other players haven't played. Those who play a card successfully collect furniture cards: the bigger the number card they play, the more pieces they can take, but the later they play. Playing a zero allows you to steal furniture from others. The aim is to fulfil one or more of the contracts on display. This is pretty good, particularly as the use of tie-breaking numbers prevents continual ties: 8/10.

The second game is a 'proper' board game, Fische Fluppen Frikadellen. The theme is anything but: players are trading to collect fetishes (little wooden things from the South Seas). Scattered around the board are a dozen shops and traders - selected from the total available. Players move round the board, seeking to buy and sell or trade goods with the various merchants. The aim is to build themselves up from nothing to having the various sets of goods needed to trade in for a fetish. First to three fetishes wins, but getting them is progressively harder. This is a clever, entertaining game that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was also a very close result: 9/10.

The unique feature of the game is that it can be played by up to 15 people across three boards. There are three 'flavours' of the game, each different in detail, so that they can be put together without confusion. One of the actions available to players then becomes moving to a different board - though without scouting it out first. I can see this creating complete chaos, so I look forward to trying it out.

Abacus had Rüdiger Dorn's Emerald, a game familiar to me as it's one of the tournament games for this year's European Championships. Packed in Abacus's traditional full-size but shallow box, this is a quirky game. The theme is knights wresting treasure from a dragon, but the game is pretty abstract and centres on collecting (sets of) cards. It has some interesting game mechanics that provide tactical options and throws in a few elements of luck as well. Not a deep game, but entertaining enough: I give it 6/10.

Adlung is well-known as a producer of card games and generally has several new titles each year. This year was no exception. Bayon is by Wolfgang Werner, with an exploration theme - the setting is Cambodia. I haven't played it yet, so I can't comment. Alan Moon and Aaron Weissblum have adapted their board game San Marco to create a two-player card game version: Canal Grande. The aim is to win elections in the six districts of Venice through card play. Most cards are votes in a district. Then there are gondolas to move in votes from others (the equivalent of bridges in the board game). Other cards allow players to gain extra cards, steal them from others or trigger scoring. A second pack of cards is numerical - the first to get 10 points is penalised. In play, one player takes cards from both decks and divides them into two sets. The other player chooses one set and plays first. The first player gets to play the remaining set. Then they switch roles. A clever game that captures much of the decision-making of the board game: 7/10.

Express is a word game from Reiner Knizia, which is immediately interesting. However, I'm not sure this would work for English players - and Adlung only provides rules in German, which suggests the company agrees. Perhaps we'll see an English language version from another publisher. I skipped the other two games, Mal mal (Annette Birlenbach) and Sambesi (Jens Rademaker) as they both look to be aimed firmly at children.

Alea followed its usual practice of showing a prototype of its new game for next spring. This year it was Edel, Steine & Reich, a card game that looks simpler than alea's usual strategy board games. It will be worth investigating once it's available. The game for this year was, of course, Andreas Seyfarth's Puerto Rico, about which enough has been written already! Click here for my review of Puerto Rico - the game gets 10/10 from me.

As far as I was concerned, the most interesting thing on the Amigo stand was the prototype of Bohn Hansa. As the name suggests, this is another in Uwe Rosenberg's series of bean games that started with Bohnanza (spot the pun!). However, this one is played on a board and is a delivery game. The idea is to buy goods (beans) in certain cities and deliver them to others against contract. Central to the game is a clever mechanism based on keeping your cards in sequence. These are played in order to move, but include your contracts. So contracts will disappear if you don't deliver them quickly enough. I look forward to seeing the production version of this next spring. A provisional 9/10.

One board game that is readily available is Piratenbucht (Pirate Bay) from Paul Randles and Daniel Stahl. This is intended as a family game: the players move their pirate ships from island to island, collecting gold and treasure chests. Players can spend to improve their ships (more guns, bigger carrying capacity and so on). Very useful if they meet another pirate at an island and have to fight. You also have to watch out for the dreaded Blackbeard, who's tough to beat, not to mention the Royal Navy! You don't have to think too hard about this game, but it's good fun. I give it 7/10.

Also of note was a card game from Messrs Moon and Weissblum again. This one is called Im Schatten des Sonnenkönigs (In the Shadow of the Sun-King, I'm told). In their turn, players lay cards of the various suits in front of them. Holding the majority in any suit allows you to use the appropriate special power. Much of the game play centres on taking gold and power chips away from other players - people can be knocked out. This is a game I need to play again as I'm not sure I understood it when I played it at the show. Provisionally, I'd give it 7/10.

There were lots more new games on the Amigo stand. Lots of D&D, Pokémon and Star Wars stuff plus other licences and children's games. Of more interest were a German edition of Guillotine (Paul Peterson, originally published by Wizards) and a new version of the classic Ogallala (also known as Blackfoot) by Rudi Hoffmann. Amongst the several card games was Ehre der Samurai, which appears to be a German language edition of Scott Kimball's Honor of the Samurai, originally published in the US by Gamewright.

Sports games have been the remit of AZA Spiele and they are continuing with this. The new game on show was a prototype of GolfProfi. As the name suggests, it's a Golf game. I'm afraid this was enough for me to turn tail: Golf has no interest for me. And this game appears to be attempting a board game simulation of the real sport - apparently players increase their handicap (and the number of dice they roll) as they get better. I will be interested to see if AZA can make something of this, as previous attempts at a Golf game have died a death.

Bambus Spieleverlag is Günter Cornett's publisher for the games he designs. This year's game is Arabana-Opodopo. This is a 3-4 player version of the earlier Arabana-Ikibiti (also published by Kosmos and Rio Grande as Kahuna). I didn't try it, so I won't comment further. Bambus also had Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Wolfgang Werner, apparently a re-working of his earlier Twilight. According to the information I have, the game is played in teams of two, the goal being to take Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde to victory over the other self. But Dr Jekyll players will also have to play Mr Hyde cards and vice versa. Successful play requires careful communication with your partner, as well as good tactics. It sounds interesting, but I didn't get to play.

A new kid on the block was BeWitched Spiele, publishing a new game from designer Andrea Meyer. Ms Meyer is a friend and colleague of Friedemann Friese (2F Spiele), who encouraged her to publish the game (I wonder if he had anything to do with the green box?). The game is ad acta, a cynical look at the working life of the civil service. Each player is a department and has a number of files to get processed and filed away (each file scores different points according to which specific cabinet it ends up in). However, the processing has to be done by the other departments (players). So, in your turn, your actions are telling the other players to get on with things and deal with the files in their in-tray. As they'll only handle things in strict sequence, there's some horse-trading to be done. It's a clever little game and created quite a buzz at the show. I haven't actually played it yet, so I'll reserve giving it a ranking. Latest news is that the 500 copies of the first print run sold out and a new edition is planned for December.

Clementoni is not a company I have associated with board games, let alone good board games, but they seem to have a winner this year. The game in question is by Wolfgang Kramer and is called Wildlife. This bears a superficial resemblance to Evo, as the board features an island divided into half a dozen different terrain types. Each player is a creature, adapted differently to the terrain. Some areas are inhospitable, some the creature can move through, some it can breed in (and move through) and some it can attack in (and breed in and move through). Players play cards to do things - getting additional pieces on the board, moving around, attacking the others, change their adaptation to the terrain and even evolve (gaining special abilities). There are several ways of scoring points, but essentially each player wants to expand. This is a clever game that requires some thought, some decision-making and taking account of what other players are up to - a typical Kramer game. I liked it: 10/10.

Cwali is the vehicle for Corné van Moorsel's games and he had two on show. Street Soccer is a two-player game with chunky wooden pieces that attempts to simulate a kick-around football game. It seems pretty straightforward: roll a die and move one of your men that number of spaces. If he reaches the ball, he kicks it for the spaces he hasn't moved yet plus one. If the ball arrives at another of your players, he can kick it on - again at remaining spaces + 1. A strong element of luck, then and, I think, mostly of interest to football fans. Not my cup of tea at all: 5/10.

The second game comes in Cwali's usual drum-shaped box and is ZooSim. Like van Morsel's other games (or at least those I've played), this is a very abstract game, with thinking required. However, it is very accessible: the complexity lies in the options and tactics that the rules make available to you. In the game you are trying to build up the most popular zoo. You do this by laying rectangular tiles (sections of your zoo), carefully linking them by the paths shown - already you have a spatial element as you work how/where you can add a tile to your zoo. Tiles show animals in two of the several groups - reptiles, mammals, fish etc. - and a star rating. The player with the most stars in a group gets two 'people' pawns to show that s/he is best - second place gets one. But you only add up the stars if the areas are adjacent to each other. You can also get pawns for having the most trees and you get one for each loop of paths you create (a very useful bonus). Tiles are auctioned to the players one at a time. After each five, players score the current position (weighting the scores, so that later rounds are more valuable) and gain more money. The game ends once all 25 tiles have been sold and the player with the most points wins. This is a sophisticated little game with a lot of subtlety in it, but relatively easy to understand. 9/10

DaVinci Editrice is an Italian games company that is distributed by Heidelberger and their game Bang! (designed by Emiliano Sciarra) was to be found on the Heidelberger stand. This is a card game themed round a Spaghetti Western. Each player starts with a character, giving them a special ability and a number of 'hits', plus a role. Only the Sheriff reveals his role: his job is to get rid of the outlaws. The Deputies support the Sheriff and win (jointly) if all the bad guys are dead. The Outlaws win if the Sheriff is killed. And the Renegade wins only if he is the last man standing! In turn, players draw cards and then play. As many as they like, but only one 'Bang!' (unless they have a special ability or card that lets them play more), which is a shot at another player within range. Each successful 'Bang!' reduces the targets hits by one, and you're dead if you run out of hits. The cards are great fun: play a Mistress and steal a card from another player; play a Beer to regain a Hit and so on. The game is reminiscent of Family Business, but is its own game and is great fun to play: 10/10.

Don & Co is Kris Burm's vehicle for his Gipf project: a series of two-player abstract games. Kris was much in evidence demonstrating his games and attracting plenty of attention.

One of the American companies at the show was Eagle Games, who had a sizeable stand in the middle of Hall 9. The company was showing its big-box wargames with lots of pieces (think Axis & Allies). They are attractive looking games, but the new one was rather different. This was Sid Meier's Civilization - the Boardgame. Yes, a board game based on a computer game (allegedly) inspired by a board game. The game looks rather like the Hasbro Avalon Hill version of History of the World: a big, coloured board of the whole world and lots of interesting plastic playing pieces. It's a game I'd be interested to try - though I doubt it will dislodge the original Civilization in my affections!

Eight Foot Llama (no, really) was another of the American contingent and publisher of Jim Doherty's games. On show were last year's game, Who Stole Ed's Pants?, and this year's title, Monkeys on the Moon. Who Stole Ed's Pants? is an entertaining card game of trying to pin the blame for the eponymous crime on other players. This is done by planting evidence on them or changing the facts. When the game ends, the player in the middle of the frame gets the blame. It's good fun, but I found I kept having to think about the mechanics of the game. 7/10 as far as I'm concerned.

Monkeys on the Moon is a different kettle of fish (or barrel of monkeys?). The game defies succinct description, so let me just say that it's a game of multiple levels. That is, you do one thing, in order to be able to do another thing in order to get what you need to win. Except that this is also influenced by what you did in the first place. Very clever stuff with intriguing game play and a truly silly theme: what more could you want? Well, a bit more of a challenge: 8/10.

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Santa Fe variations

Clippers is a new board game from French publisher Eurogames, who nowadays produce English language editions of their games from the start. It is an Alan Moon design and fans of his games will recognise it as a development of Santa Fe (interestingly, GMT has just produced another version of the game, Santa Fe Rails). The original game was about building rail networks across the USA. This is about sailing routes across Polynesia. The various clipper lines start their routes in the eastern Pacific and players can extend any of them along the links shown on the board. You gain money for placing the first route to an island and money adds to your points at the end of the game. Points are scored for those islands at which you have a base: the value of the island multiplied by the number of different clipper lines that reach it. You will not be surprised to learn that the islands increase in value from east to west across the board. Players start with a couple of bases on the western edge, giving them a target to aim for.

At the start of each turn, players choose an option and then get two turns of adding links to the clipper routes. This is done by placing a couple of wooden sticks (about matchstick size - not unlike the roads in Settlers) on the board. The option a player has chosen can change this. S/he might be laying lots of links, but not scoring, adding a new base or starting a branch from one of the lines, for example. Each option costs money, so you have to weigh up what is worth paying for. I found that the 'lay twice as many pieces and gain double bonuses' option was well worth doing early on as a way of building up cash reserves. However the other options all have their tactical value. As the game progresses you need to get your bases down, and deciding when to do this is important. Too early and people will steer the clipper lines away from your bases; too late and the best spots will have gone. As there is a set number of pieces for each line, you also need to keep track of how far the lines can go. Once a few branches have opened up, the pieces can get used up very quickly.

This is a clever strategy game with plenty of tactical subtleties. The one problem is some aspects of the production. While everything is high quality, the cardboard dots that are the bases are fiddly to use - and very easy to lose. The lines on the board are drawn close together, making it difficult to see whether a particular route is single or double once a piece has been laid. So players need to take a bit of care with the game, but it repays the investment. A good 8/10.

There was a new game from Valentin Herman and Fanfor, too. This is Life is Money. An intriguing title, but I'll have to wait to find out more.

Franjos had a new edition of Billabong (designed by Eric Solomon) on display. The game is that rare things, an abstract game that works well for more than two players. It's about jumping your kangaroos the board (the billabong's in the middle) and has no luck element.

Another newcomer was Gecko Games, sharing space with Doris + Frank, who didn't have a new game this year (their new 'production' is Jari Timmo Nestel, was born on 13th May 2002 and made it along to the show for a while). Gecko's game was Trias by Ralf Lehmkuhl. The game features dinosaurs and continental drift! The board is made of hexagonal tiles that gradually move apart. This is game I really want to play, but didn't get a chance at the show. Opinions from others were mixed: some enthusiastic and some disappointed. Definitely one to try.

And then there was a British firm in amongst everything. Gen Four Two are the people behind Hive, a two-player game by John Yianni. The pieces, on smart, hexagonal, wooden blocks show pictures of various insects. Each has a different move, so game play is a bit Chess-like as the two players jostle for strategic (or tactical) advantage. Very interesting and another game I look forward to getting a chance to play.

What can I say about Globopolis? Well, the company had a big stand in the main halls and plenty of ancillary marketing as well. The game is produced by an ex-pat American based in Munich and he's clearly spent a lot of money on Globopolis. On the production of the game's components as well as the marketing. It has a big, solid board, lots of plastic pieces, cards and dice. The spaces on the four sections of the track represent countries (grouped by continent/colour), guilds (that produce resources) and spaces where you pick up a card. Players get a card for each country they 'own'; this shows - among other things - the "conference fee" another player has to pay if s/he lands on that country. The amount depends on whether the country is undeveloped, developed or super-developed.

Sound at all familiar? This game clearly started as a Monopoly variant, but has been developed a long way from that. In fact, it's a wargame. The other thing players can do when they land on someone else's country is attack it! The attack comes from anther country (within constraints) and is resolved by rolling dice - though the actual mechanism is innovative. The other key element in the game is resources. Each country starts with some and a full set means that it's developed - two sets for super-developed. Resources are generated when people land on the right space and can be traded between players. Players score points for each country they own, and more as these are developed. There are a number of other ways to score points and the game ends when someone reaches the target number - most points wins.

However, at its heart the game depends on who lands on what spaces on the board. For example, military units are crucial to combat - and are lost when you lose a battle. There is one space on the board that brings new military units into play. One in about 70. Even though a player can move their pawn several times in a turn, not many military units are going to appear in the course of a game. Add to this a number of problems with the rules and the result is an indifferent game. The marketing muscle that was visible suggests the game will be in the stores, but it's not clear who it's aimed at. It's too luck-based (and clunky!) for hobby games-players and too complicated (and long!) for the mass market. 4/10

GMT Games was another visitor from the US, their second year at the show. On display was the SF-themed, two-player card game, Flagship, that I saw in prototype form last year. Players pit their spaceships fleets against each other, playing cards to enhance their weaponry and shields and damage their opponent's. A solid 7/10 from me. I've mentioned Santa Fe Rails earlier. This is Alan Moon's development of his earlier Santa Fe. It retains most of the original game: players lay pieces to represent the railroad lines of various companies across America in an effort to link them up to the cities they hold cards for. This is an excellently-produced version of a minor classic: 8/10. Finally from GMT we have Rome, a stand-alone edition of one of Reiner Knizia's games from his earlier compendium, Neuen Spiel im Alten Rom.

The selection of games from Goldsieber was not very inspiring. They all seem to be aimed at children. The most interesting of these looked to be Philippe des Pallières's Mein schafe, dein Schafe (originally published as La Guerre des Moutons by Asmodée in France), one of several sheep-themed games at the show. The one 'big' game was Wolfgang Kramer's Goldland - another game I'm looking for an opportunity to play.

After the success of Carcassonne last year, Hans im Glück had both an expansion set and a new version of the game. The expansion set adds extra features to the original game. The new game is Carcassonne - Jäger & Sammler (Hunters and Gatherers). In this game players are laying square tiles to build up a map of a prehistoric landscape, divided between grassland, forests (the equivalent of towns in the original), rivers (roads) and lakes (which divide rivers). As in the original, players gain points by having pieces on completed rivers and forests and in grassland at the end of the game. However, the points for grassland depend on the number of animals shown on the tiles - except for tigers (sabre-toothed, of course), which eat deer, reducing the score. There are also different pieces to play: huts that go on river and lake complexes. At the end of the game, these score for the fish in the interconnected lakes. The final difference is that incomplete forests and rivers do not score points at the end. So, an intriguing variant of the original game, but not really that different. 6/10.

Tom Lehmann's Magellan (alias Pizarro & Co in the English language version from Rio Grande) was another game on the Hans im Glück stand. This is a clever bidding game with a two-part board that allows four different variations. What you're bidding for is a stake in six different explorers: up to three players can share to start with, using their hand of gold cards (everybody starts with the same values) to bid. In the second round, only those already involved can bid to advance further. The third round is shorter still as the two left bid for the final spot. Each explorer either scores points, provides players with extra gold cards or both, with some interesting variations (for example, one version of Cook scores lots of points, but costs an extra card over and above what you bid). To add extra spice, gold cards are worth points at the end, too. This makes for an excellent, highly competitive game from a pretty straightforward set of rules: 9/10.

And finally Hans im Glück had Reiner Knizia's Kampf der Gladiatoren (Battle of the Gladiators is Rio Grande's English language edition). This is a strange little game in which the players have teams of gladiators fighting each other and wild animals in a Roman arena. There are five different kinds of gladiator, each of which has a different advantage. Players put together teams of four, which take on other players' teams. If you've lost all your gladiators, you get to attack with the wild animals that are scattered around for variety. The different gladiators don't seem to make much difference: they basically add one to you or subtract one from the enemy. So the game boils down to lots of dice rolling and I find it unsatisfying. 4/10.

JKLM Games is the vehicle for Markus Welbourne's games. New this year was Zwergen (or Dwarves in its English incarnation). The game didn't look like much at first sight: a dark and dingy background and amateurish artwork. But there is a clever game lurking under the unprepossessing covers. Central to the game is a set of hexagonal tiles, which can be blank or show gold or one of a number of gems. These are set into the board in several layers to start the game off. Gameplay revolves around card play. Players play cards from their hands to gain special actions and pick up tiles from the board - but only tiles that are visible. Some of the actions allow them to exchange tiles for others. The trick is that all these actions allow players gradually to build up their collection of tiles. They score points for these at the end. Plus, each set of gems (diamonds, rubies etc) has a picture on the back of the tiles. There are bonus points for getting bits of the picture that fit together - especially if you get the whole thing. This is a very clever game that rewards strategic play and provides players with a challenge. It's a bit too abstract for my taste, but still worth 8/10.

Looking at the Jumbo stand, I thought they only had children's games this year. However, I'm told I missed Line Up. Unfortunately I don't know anything about it, so can't comment other than to say it's for 2 players only.

As I mentioned earlier, Kidult Game was new to me. They had a large stand next to Jumbo where they were showing two games: Diceland and Dice run, both designed by Spartaco Albertarelli. Diceland is two-player only and I didn't play it. However, it contains lots of dice as well as board tiles showing pieces of countryside. Dice run also has a heap of dice. These are in several different colours and move 'forward' in a race. Moves are dictated by card play and can be all of a colour, a number or a group. The effect is not unlike Formula Motor Racing, except that you start with all the dice in one group that gradually gets spread out into several groups and can have gaps between the groups. When a scoring card comes up, the lead group is evaluated against each player's target chit: colour and number. (For example: if your target is blue 2 and the group is a blue 2, a blue 3 and a green 2, you get 2 for the 2s and 2 for the blues: 4 overall.) Players get chips according to their position and then take a new target. After the last scoring, the player with the most chips wins. This is a nice lightweight game - though the size of the box suggests something bigger. My only problem with it is that nudging the table can disturb the dice! I give it 7/10.

There was a lot of new stuff to see on the Kosmos stand. The big game was Abenteuer Menschheit, which looks to be a prehistoric Settlers game. Designed, of course, by Klaus Teuber. The company also had several Lord of the Rings tie-ins.

One of these was Das Duell, a two-player game by Peter Neugebauer themed around the fight between Gandalf and the Balrog on the bridge in Khazad-Dûm. The game has a little cardboard bridge, which looks good, but doesn't add an awful lot. However gameplay features a more interesting mechanism: players compare the adjacent sides of the cards they've played to see how many hits they score on their opponent. These reduce the characters' strength on a track and thus indicate who wins the round. Unless one player has an overwhelming win, the game is fought over three rounds, followed by a final duel. The luck element is less than you might think as players will get to play just about all their cards. In each of the three rounds, they take a hand of nine cards (of 27), play six and keep three for the final. In the final, they play all nine. With the sudden death ending, players have to balance the risk of losing outright against keeping good cards for the final. Of course, you might risk going for a sudden death win if you think you can pull it off. With special action cards in each deck that are similar, but not identical, for each player, there are some subtleties to this game. I like it: 9/10.

The other Kosmos game I tried was Odins Raben (Odin's Ravens) by Thorsten Gimmler, another two-hander. Everything seems to work, but there's not a lot to the game. Players play cards to move their raven pawn across the landscape provided by a different set of cards. They can also use cards to interfere with their opponent and/or save cards for later (these can be played in addition to cards from your hand, but you have to remember the sequence!). There are lots of special cards that let you do other things than just move your raven. Move the landscape, for example. The first to reach the end of the landscape scores the difference in positions - plus a bonus for playing more of certain types of card (chosen by a random card at the start of the round). The first to 12 points wins - my experience is that this takes about three rounds, which feels the right length. The memory element is light enough not to be a problem, but the game just didn't appeal to me: 5/10.

The third two-player game from Kosmos was Hellas by Franz-Benno (Big City, Trans America) Delonge. This looks interesting, but I didn't get a chance to play it. Reiner Knizia's Lord of the Rings expansion, Sauron, was also on show, along with the uncredited Die Zwei Türme (The Two Towers), a movie tie-in. Der kleine Prinz (The Little Prince) by Kai Haferkamp is a game based on Saint-Exupéry's children's novel. And that's as much as I know about it, except that it's for 3-6 players and aimed at the 10+ age group.

Nautilus (by Brigitte and Wolfgang Ditt) has been around for a few months. It's an interesting logistics/exploration game as players build up the eponymous underwater research station and sent out subs to explore the deep. It's been described as Outpost light and there is some justice in this. Players have to decide which kind of research they want to do and which of their 'abilities' they want to develop. The aim is then to follow this strategy to better effect than your opponents. It's a good game, but not great: I give it 6/10.

Another game that's been around since the Spring is Alles im Eimer - another fast-moving, fun game and is familiarly known as the bucket game. Designed by Stefan Dorra, it features lots of cardboard buckets in five colours. Well, cardboard pieces with pictures of buckets on, anyway. You start with three buckets of each colour, which you arrange in a triangular formation (5-4-3-2-1), and a hand of cards. The cards show a number and have the same five colours as suits. Now the game starts: in turn players play 1-3 cards and then pick up one. You must follow suit and must beat the (total) value of the cards laid by the previous player. If you can't, you lose a bucket of the appropriate colour. If it's 'supporting' other buckets in your triangle, you lose them too. Oops! Then you start the next 'trick'.

Depending on the number of players, the game is over when a certain number have gone out. The winner/s is/are the player/s with the most buckets left. There are some tactics to this game, but basically it's just fun. It moves pretty quickly, too, and proved a big hit with the people I was playing it with. 9/10, because I like this kind of game.

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Tell us about Spiel, Baron

I didn't get to the Krimsus Krimskrams-Kiste stand, but one of their new games is a German language edition of Hogshead's Adventures of Baron Munchhausen by James Wallis: a game of telling tall tales, much enjoyed by role-players. Das ERSTE, by Ralf Sandfuchs, is an introductory role-playing game. Other new titles were: Am Rande des Gletschers (At the Glacier's Edge) by Anja and Patrick Menon and Höhlengrölen by Mark "Krimsu" Sienholz. The former has the theme of tribes trying to survive in the Ice Age. The latter also has a prehistoric feel, but the anachronistic theme of forming bands by collecting musicians (cards).

I was surprised to find Phalanx Games on the Amigo stand, but apparently they have a distribution deal with the major company. Phalanx's speciality is beautifully produced board wargames - think Avalon Hill with German production values. The new release is Waterloo by Alexander S Berg. Coming soon is a multi-player game of intrigue and conflict in ancient Rome: Nero (also credited to Alexander S Berg) is set in the "year of four Emperors".

Queen Games had one brand new game, Krone & Schwert (Crown & Sword) by Klaus-Jürgen (Carcassonne) Wrede. Another game I didn't have the opportunity to play, this is for 3-5 players aged 10+. Other games from Queen this year include Dschunke (Junk - in the oriental ship sense), Wallenstein, and a children's game with a frog theme, Freche Frösche. The only one I've played is Dschunke, which is a typically clever design by Michael Schacht. The game involves placing goods in various of five junks sitting in the harbour, while trying to out-manoeuvre your opponents so that you get the opportunity to score points. It's a bit too intense for me, so it only gets 6/10. Dirk Henn's Wallenstein is set in the Thirty Years War and has been getting some good press: one I'm looking for an opportunity to play it.

Richard Breese was present as R&D Games and had brought lots of copies of Keythedral along. Many of these had been pre-ordered and the rest sold out on the first day. It's an interesting game; one which I think is best summed up as 'intricate'. The rules are fairly straightforward, but dovetail and interconnect so that the effect is like opening up a watch to see the complex interplay of the simple components inside. Basically, players are competing to gain the tiles that represent parts of the cathedral. Getting these requires resource cubes of various kinds. The basic resource cubes come from the fields that make up the 'board', while others are bought with basic resources.

The 'board' is formed from octagonal tiles representing fields. In the gaps between these are the diamond-shaped tiles of the players' cottages. Each cottage allows a worker to be deployed into a neighbouring field so that the player can get the appropriate resource. The order in which this is done is chosen by the players each turn, so players can try to block each other - particularly when certain resources are in demand. On top of this, cottages can be upgraded to houses, allowing two workers to be deployed. Players can also build fences to cut off other players' cottages. And then there are 'law' cards, which can be bought with resources and give the player some special advantage (extra resources or a cheap trade, for example) when played.

The game impressed me on first play, though it seemed to be over surprisingly quickly. I suspect that subsequent games will take longer, as players realise the significance of their actions - particularly the set-up - and think harder about each one. 9/10 provisionally.

Given how big Ravensburger is, it was surprising to find just a couple of new games on its stand. The first of these is a card game tie-in to Die Zwei Türme (The Two Towers) by Reiner Knizia, aimed at a 9+ market. Kopfsalat by Bertram Kaes has the interesting minimum age of 16, which suggest a more adult theme. Puerto Rico was also in evidence (alea being a Ravensburger subsidiary) and there were a number of games released earlier in the year.

Pueblo (Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer) is an interesting multi-player abstract game. It's played with plastic blocks: these are built up from four cubes such that there are two cubes in each of the three dimensions (I know this doesn't make sense, but it's the best description I can manage!). You start with a number of blocks in your colour plus the same number in a neutral beige. Everybody plays in turn (alternating between their colour and neutral), adding a piece to the pile in the middle of the board. Then you move a pawn round the outside track and score penalty points against the players whose colour is visible along that row/column. It's a brain-burner, but not as bad as some! Hence it's not really my thing, but I give it 7/10.

To me, Schmidt Spiele is best known as distributor for Hans im Glück. But they do publish their own games. This year these include ReAction by Maureen Hiron. This is a fast and furious, Racing Demon-type game. Players get a hand of cards, each with a number and letter on. Control cards indicate what players can play. For example, = means same letter or number: so if one player plays D3, others can play Dn or x3. Alternatively, + means one better: so onto that D3, you can play En or x4. The idea is to play quickly - this usually involves much clashing of hands! The first to get rid of all their cards wins. I think the person who played last has an advantage and can get rid of several cards in sequence before anyone else gets in. However, it's not a game for thinking about, it's a game for doing! 7/10

Also on show from Schmidt was Lumberjack, a dexterity game from Alan Moon and Aaron Weissblum, and a couple of kids' games by Reiner Knizia.

Michael Schacht's own imprint, Spiele aus Timbuktu, had a three-piece set of new train games: Crazy Race, Mogul and Station Manager. I saw lots of British players carrying the shrink-wrapped sets, and I expect to get a chance to play them soon.

Dutch company Splotter Spellen rolled up with three new games, the most interesting of which seemed to be VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie - Founding the Dutch East Indies Company) by Jeroen Doumen and Joris Wiersinga. The game is based around the struggle to control the fledging company and dominate trade with the East. The other two were Cannes - Joris Wiersinga, Jeroen Doumen, Tamara Jannink and Herman Haverkort - and Oraklos by Tamara Jannink and Joris Wiersinga. For some reason I've never got into the Splotter games and have not tried these.

I'm afraid the Warfrog guys have come up with my game of the show for the second year running. This was Age of Steam and is the latest development by designer Martin Wallace of the game system that started with Lancashire Railways and New England Railways (both published by Winsome Games) and progressed through Volldampf (from TM Spiele). Production is up to German standards, with a full colour mounted board and lots of good, thick cardboard pieces and wooden blocks. Apart from one unfortunate printing error on the board, the only thing that lets the game down is the rules, which suffer from typos and a lack of structure. The game, however, is terrific. Like the others in the series, the heart of the game is generating income for your 'company' by moving goods from town to town along your railway lines. The destination of the goods is indicated by their colour, which allows some planning ahead. What's different is that in this game you build the track between cities by laying tiles (in good 18xx style, though less complicated). In the previous games, it's been a question of bidding for pre-defined sections of track.

Around this central mechanism is a lot more. To start off with, players bid for turn order. However, the first thing they do after this each turn is choose one of several special actions, which include building first and moving goods first! Another action is Urbanization, which allows a town on the board to be upgraded to a city. This introduces a new destination for goods (in fact some goods can only be moved to an urbanised town as there isn't a city of that colour on the board at the start). Laying track on the board must be paid for by cash, which is raised by issuing shares. However, dividends must be paid out on each share after the company has received its income each turn. With ongoing costs, companies usually need to issue more shares in the early turns just to cover their costs. Key to success in the game is judging this correctly. The key to failure is never breaking even!

I could go on at length about this game - click here for my review of Age of Steam - but suffice it to say that it gets a resounding 10/10 from me.

The big news at the Winning Moves stand - apart from the success of Trans America - was Leo Colovini's Clans, even though it was only on show in prototype form. Several visits to the stand didn't get me an opportunity to play the game, so it will have to wait for the production version to arrive.

Trans America (by Franz-Benno Delonge) is licensed from Winsome, who published the game as Iron Road. An English language edition of Trans America is available from Rio Grande. The game's board is a map of the USA, showing a number of cities across the country, set into a triangular grid. The cities are colour coded into five groups. At the start of the game, you are dealt a card in each of the colours, giving you a set of cities that you need to connect.

Each turn you play a couple of pieces ('matchsticks') onto the board along the grid. From your chosen starting point you extend your network, joining up with cities and lines that other people have laid. Once you are linked to other people's networks, you can extend anything you're connected to. This usually means that things build gradually until the interconnections are made and then expand rapidly. As soon as somebody connects their set of cities (which can be on someone else's turn!), play stops. The other players score penalty points for each additional piece they still need to play to link up their cities. If nobody's reached the critical number, another round is played. The critical number is reduced after the second round, so a game usually lasts two-three rounds. Of course, it's the player with the least points who wins. The game is not too demanding, plays quickly and is fun. There's clearly a luck element in the cities you get dealt (some are closer than others), but it doesn't overwhelm the game. I give it 9/10.

Warfrog's US ally is Winsome Games and they had limited supplies of a couple of new games. Lokomotive Werks by Dieter Danziger and Max Michael's Roundhouse both sold out by Friday.

Zoch were making much of their Spiel des Jahres prize for Villa Paletti and this game had a stand all to itself. On the main stand Zoch had two new games. König der Maulwürfel is a children's dice racing game from Günter Burkhardt; Virus & Co is a card game by Frank Stark and Jörg Spiegelhalter.

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Final round-up

Let me finish with a quick round-up of a few other notables at the show. Francis Tresham was in evidence, but without anything new for us. As usual, he was on the Mayfair stand; they were showing off some of their new English language editions of German games. I should also mention that I hardly ventured into the large areas of the show occupied by the RPG and CCG games companies. My forays indicated that there were even more stands catering to live action role-players: supplying latex (I hope) weaponry, costumes and props. I was impressed by a large new stand for Tilsit Editions, the French company best known for big semi-wargames (Joan of Arc etc). This seems to mark a major new marketing push from them, but I didn't identify any new games apart from several licences: Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Angel and others. Interestingly, the big player in France, Descartes (who publish board games under the Eurogames label), was distinctly low key this year. Games Workshop was very noticeable, showing off a new range of Lord of the Rings material.

I'd like to conclude with my thanks to the organisers, Friedhelm Merz Verlag, for another fine show. The figures show that some 148,555 people attended the fair over its four days. They got to see 578 exhibitors, drawn from 21 countries. I can't speak for the other 148,554, but I'm definitely looking forward to the next Spiel: 23rd-26th October 2003.

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