Back from Essen - the first impressions

Here's a bunch of games I played in Essen:

Hell yeah!
Chaos in the Old World
Luna Llena (Full Moon)
Azteca

Promising
Kill the hippies
Megacorps
Bushido
Dope fiend


Well alright then
Shipyard
Dungeon Lords
Tammany Hall
Obscura Tempora
Modern Society
Caterpillar
Rice Wars

Leave alone
Days of Steam

Also picked up copies of Maria, Warhammer Invasion, Hell of Stalingrad, Inquisition and Kingpin, and these all look promising. However, it was hard enough trying to play some of the above games out of the box, so we couldn't get it all done in three days.

Also looking promising is Martin Wallace's God's Playground. I overheared him explaining to a visitor: "well and then there appear the Jesuits and they take over the school system and instead of teaching them something useful they focussed on theology..." (or in similar words). Don't know when we get it to the table, but this just might be a hit (among misses)

I'll get busy writing up more elaborate reviews tomorrow. Now I'm just nackered.

Jur, I think you should consider submitting your reviews/thoughts in a front page article.

Gary Sax wrote:

Jur, I think you should consider submitting your reviews/thoughts in a front page article.

wilco

Yeah would be interesting to hear about Essen from a more Ameritrash perspective. Frankly when I read all the threads and geeklists on the other site, I see a bunch of boring games I couldn't care less about. This is the main reason that I never been to Essen despite it being a short trip.

Jur wrote:
Dope fiend
[/quote]

Im suprised they got it to Essen this time. Its a nice game, it actualy has some nice mechanics for being light game, in the way of munchkin and others. The game designers main point was to make game that sounds very strange if overheard. The legality markings thou are from Finnish standpoint, and I dont think they have updated them with the new printing to match current laws so some of the legals are now illegal in Finland

KJ869 wrote:

Jur wrote:
Dope fiend

Im suprised they got it to Essen this time. Its a nice game, it actualy has some nice mechanics for being light game, in the way of munchkin and others. The game designers main point was to make game that sounds very strange if overheard. The legality markings thou are from Finnish standpoint, and I dont think they have updated them with the new printing to match current laws so some of the legals are now illegal in Finland

The game is called Bilekuosi. Not too hard to pronounce is it? If any foreigner could actually pronounce the real Finnish. It was sold by Tuonela Games (also Finns).

Well, illegality is different in many countries, so it would be difficult to get it right for everyone playing it. But of course they should change it for the 2nd edition! Maybe you can start a BGG thread demanding replacement cards.

ALso, the dope cards show what is illegal and what is not, so it doesn't impact the game.

Jur wrote:

Here's a bunch of games I played in Essen:

Hell yeah!
Chaos in the Old World
Luna Llena (Full Moon)
Azteca

Azteca? As in, Azteca publiched by Tilsit in 2000? Or is there a new game named Azteca?

Mad Malthus wrote:

Jur wrote:

Here's a bunch of games I played in Essen:

Hell yeah!
Chaos in the Old World
Luna Llena (Full Moon)
Azteca

Azteca? As in, Azteca publiched by Tilsit in 2000? Or is there a new game named Azteca?

No the Tilsit game it was. Showed lots of promise. Possibly an overloooked AMeritrash gem

Thanks for the report Jur. I just got back myself and to keep all the Essen stuff in one place I figured I'd share some of my thoughts about this year's show here. Listed below are games that either I actually played, demoed, or I've read the rules to.


Must Haves:

Ghost Stories: White Moon - I wonder how the hell we're supposed to win now. The Repos guys updated their Ghost Stories 3D set and it looked awesome. The new Kung-Fu School tile looks to be pure awesomeness. White Moon will definitely hit the table ASAP.

Dungeonlords - Yes it looks euroish from just reading the rules, but I'll give Vlaada a chance. I remember wondering where the game was as I read the rules to Galaxy Trucker and that turned out to be a real winner.

Arena: Roma II - Roma rocked and this looks to be even more intense. There's even rules included to combine Roma II with Roma. Good stuff.

God's Playground - This is the most rules heavy Wallace title yet. However it looks like there's a lot of battle, screwage and negotiation under the hood. I really want to get this played.


Dissapointments:

Stronghold - I don't care what the kool-aid drinkers say. €42 for a box, board, rules and a bag of colored cubes is a rip-off. I was already skeptical after reading the designer's diaries and when I actaully saw the production this game went from the "maybe" categorty into the "hell no" one. I think Portal missed an opportunity to do something really special here. If I play this, it's definitely going to be someone else's copy.

Colonia - I like Queen. I like Dirk Henn. I thought maybe I'd like Colonia. I thought wrong. Sure its pretty and it all works as a game. The problem is that Colonia dosen't feel very inspiring or innovative. Maybe if I'd never played a worker placement game before. Did I mention it was pretty?

El Paso - Silly game with a push your luck element to it. I live in El Paso, so I had to try it once. And that's all I'm likely to every play it.


The "Maybe" category:

Assyria - A very Ystari feeling game. If you liked Amyitis, then you'll like this. The theme is similar but the mechanics are very different. In Amyitis you were trying to build a single monument/ziggurat, in Assyria you're trying to develop an entire city-state. The mercenary-like way players use their huts/villagers to gather resources is amusing. Lot of floods and famine keep the population in check and make you feel like you're keeping the little man down. I wish the rules were written a little better as there's some confusion about what it is exactly you can do in the action phase of the game. At €30 the price was outside of what I wanted to pay for it, so I'll wait for it to be realeased in the US or trade for it.

At the Gates of Loyang - Supposedly this is the final chapter in Uwe's Agricola trilogy. This time we're farming for profit in China. To do that you grow the right combination of crops on the right fields to satisfy customers at your market stall. It's not as structured as Agricola and I like that. I also like the idea of farming for cash rather than to avoid my families starvation or end up with the most "efficient" farm award. A word of warning about this one. Have someone teach you the game. The rules are a complete mess and deciphering their meaning is a painful 45 minute waste of your time.


Suprises:

Last Train to Wensleydale - I don't ususally go for Martin's economic games but this one suprised me. I sat in on a demo and I really dug how the players represent companies that are in it for short term gain. Your motto is get in, pillage the countryside for all the $$ you can and then get out. It takes a while to teach LTtW but once your up to speed it moves along and there's only 4 turns. Did I mention you get to boot troublesome farmers off their land? Imminent domain for profit is fun.


Games I didn't get to try but wanted to:

Macao - There were a lot of people playing this. Seriously. Nearly every table at the Alea and Ravensburger booths were dominated by this game. Kids, adults, guys and gals were playing and all seemed to be enjoying themselves. Unfortunately it was only available in German. There's a rumor that Rio might have the english edition available by Nov/Dec. Really I should just improve my German.

Factory Manager - It might be fun. It might not. I'll have to give it a try to be sure.


That's about it for now. We had a really good time at the show and visiting Germany. If you have a specific question about a game post it here and I'll try to answer it as best I can.


-Will

God's Playground:
I was playtesting 4 player variant for polish edition.
good game, full of negotiation and backstabbing. pretty AT for an Euro.

Does anyone know anything about the game Caterpillar: Age of Tank? The photos and name got me thinking about what it could be, but then I saw the new BGG page.

From the BGG entry:
"After colliding with asteroids, in 2030, Earth was nearly destroyed. Earthquakes and tsunamis swept away all the cities, and few people survived. Transportation was almost impossible because most of the roads were gone, and tanks with caterpillars became the major transportation system; the shortage of fuel made people develop a solar engine.

Within ten years the survivors built four new cities. Your job is Tank Master -- deliver resources safely from city to city, compete with others for jobs, and harvest natural resources to gain victory points."

Did anyone get a chance to play it? I don't mind Euro games as long as they are quick and have that important fun factor. Or is this just more of the same but in AT dress?

This one was on my list of games to check out but I just didn't get around to it. Sorry.


-Will

I've put up the game and now some pictures from it on BGG. You have five action cards, with fronts and backs, that you choose two different actions from each turn. You place a tank counter on the card you just used, so you can't use an action twice, and neither can you use the second action of the previous turn as the first action of the current turn. You can flip any card you're not on before moving to it, but it might cost you one won. Each of the five cards can be upgraded.

You have a die for movement, but you don't roll: instead, you start with 6 energy and for each hex you move, you reduce your energy by the hex cost (but you always have a minimum of 1). Since the tanks are solar-powered, you can recharge them depending on the weather, but if it's raining or snowing, no recharge is possible. The weather cards let you see what's coming, and also serve as a turn counter and limit the length of the game -- fewer cards, shorter game.

The game offers multiple goals: you get money for delivering stuff from one city to the other, which lets you buy upgrades. You can also attack other tanks and steal their stuff and deliver it yourself -- each successful attack gets you VP, but the other guy has 3 shields on his tank. This is the only time a die is rolled in the game: you roll, and if the location matches a shield, that shield goes away and you get nothing; if there's no shield, you steal cubes.

You also get VP for harvesting resources on the board, for having the most successful attacks, and for having the most goods of any color delivered. Upgrade cards also bring points. Money is worth very little VP-wise but very much during the game.

The map may look plain but is very well designed, with harsh penalties for the shorter routes, so it didn't seem anyone had an unfair advantage by playing the "short side" vs the long side.

Caterpillar sounds great. I'll have to try and track one down.

I've been promising myself to get Azteca to the table for about an year now. The downside is that we are occasionally infected by Barnes: Must Review list. And the fact that Avery has forsaken us. Azteca got a stellar review from Games Magazine. (While their reviews are so short and with such cutesy text as to be little more than promos, the folks writing and picking the games do have good taste. The reviewer remarked to me that it was one of the most fun games he had played that year---but that the game had a healthy disrepect for balance and planning and more on beating up opponents so you can capture and sacrifice them.