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× Talk about Eurogames here.

Lost Treasures of the Eurogames Reclamation Project

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22 Jul 2014 17:57 #182724 by Michael Barnes
As BFKiller suggested, I've broken out a discussion that started out about Isla Dorada but wound up being more about lost treasures that came out in the era of the Euro/AT War...games like Deadwood or Lords of Las Vegas that maybe don't get the recognition here or elsewhere they might have. We all know what the GREAT games are...but what are some of the lowercase g great games from this time? I'm looking for those marginal titles that just didn't pick up sales traction. Those oddball Kramer games that slipped through the nets. The clearance rack classics that you can pick up on the cheap. The family games that came out in the time of the FFG coffin box and were ignored by the dudebro masses looking for moar plastic or the Eurogamers who sniffed at anything less complicated than Agricola.

Deadwood would be one that I'd list, which I've already written about...and Black Gold as well.

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22 Jul 2014 18:31 - 22 Jul 2014 18:34 #182725 by bfkiller
In the Shadow of the Emperor (2004) is a hugely underrated game.

Two games by the brilliant and criminally underrated Richard James: Lords of Scotland (2011) and Court of the Medici (2009). Super highly recommended.

Not as highly recommended, but two games by the designer of the _____retto games that are easier to grasp than James' games: Call to Glory (2012) and Bull in a China Shop (2006), the latter of which has been rebranded as Quietville.

Fjords (2005) is a pretty good 2-player tile laying game: part Carcassonne, part Go / Through the Desert.

Jambo (2004) is a really great 2-player card game. There's a new game by the designer, Asante (2013) that's both a standalone game but can also be integrated with Jambo. I haven't tried that one.

Libertalia (2012) reminded me a lot of Citadels but with a lot more roles and more forward-planning. The first game's a bit of a challenge, though, because there are so many roles to learn on the spot.
Last edit: 22 Jul 2014 18:34 by bfkiller.

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22 Jul 2014 18:48 #182728 by scissors
I haven't played it although I own it and am looking forward to it... Santiago ?

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22 Jul 2014 18:53 #182730 by SuperflyPete

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22 Jul 2014 18:59 #182731 by trif
I'm not a big fan of Santiago but it has a following amongst my friends.

A game that has always been successful (and is considered a classic by my lunchtime group) is Witch's Brew. For some reason it's out of print, though it should be a perennial as far as I'm concerned. It's a weird combination of trick taking game, resource collection and role selection that lasts just long enough - it's about 30 minutes.

Palastgefluster - not available in English, but has English rules, is like Love Letter on acid. Our group loves it but I've played with people who prefer Love Letter. They have no soul.

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22 Jul 2014 19:01 - 22 Jul 2014 19:45 #182732 by VonTush
Las Vegas is the game that I think that most everyone on this site would enjoy. You have six casinos numbered 1-6. Each round each casino has money placed on it, usually in the neighborhood of $50-110k. On your turn you roll your handful of dice. You pick one of the numbers that show up and place all dice with that number on a casino, this is your "investment" into the casino. Everyone else does the same, the next round you roll your dice minus the ones you already have assigned. You keep going until everyone has their dice assigned, then you go casino by casino and hand out money, whoever has the most gets the highest bill, next most gets the next highest bill, tied with someone and no one gets anything. Don't let the Alea label or the designer's name fool you, this is a simple game, highly interactive, lots of screwage because as your dice supply goes down, so do your options and usually you end up with your only option of deciding who you want to screw with. Easier than King of Tokyo and would appeal to the same crowd.

The Bugman's Game, this is for the UK F:ATties who can make it up to the GW fortress, can't remember which one off hand but the one with a restaurant and bar attached to it. This game is only available there. The premise is you're a dwarf in the bar with your other dwarf kin and you're beer-bitch. You've been tasked with running back and forth to the bar grabbing food and booze and brining it back to your table. It hast he old-school GW charm of randomness and humor. You can skid across vomit, get into fights with other dwarves, play pool and harass the beermaid. And did I mention that you have to visit the loo to replenish your hand of cards? Big thanks to Dogmatix for trading this to me years ago.

Cube Quest has been mentioned before, but I'll reiterate it again. Quick (as in a few minutes) fun of flicking dice across a board trying to knock your opponent's dice off. Wait for the new edition with the semi-rolled mats, I had to get replacements because the folded ones I bought had permanent ridges in the mouse-pad material causing issues with a dice flicking game.

There are others that I'm sure I can think of later, but the family just walked in and time to make dinner.
Last edit: 22 Jul 2014 19:45 by VonTush.

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22 Jul 2014 20:06 #182733 by Michael Barnes
I hear Santiago brought up a lot as a surprisingly good (and potentially nasty) game...it looked pretty dull and I never tried it. Might have to check it out, seems like one that would be fairly inexpensive (or maybe not...).

Cube Quest definitely interests me, but I want to make sure I get the updated one...sounds like a cool game but those mats were a disaster. I requested a review copy a long time ago, I bet I didn't get it because of the production problem.

Played a ton of Jambo back at the store, that was one of the best of that line. Fun little trading game. Haven't seen the new thing, sounds good though.

Las Vegas is the Ravensburger thing, right? There's actually an IOS version, I think.

Good stuff!

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22 Jul 2014 20:08 #182734 by Gregarius

scissors wrote: I haven't played it although I own it and am looking forward to it... Santiago ?

Santiago is excellent, but it demands five players.

It's so hard to tell what is a "lost" treasure these days. It's even harder to tell what is going for cheap. The market is very unpredictable on these things.

Industrial Waste is probably a good one to seek out. It offers some surprisingly subtle ways to screw your buddies.

Medina is a gorgeous and good game, but it might be expensive. I have no idea.

Uberplay is a now-defunct re-publisher that put out several good ones. I'd bet that most of their titles could be picked up cheaply. For Sale and High Society are excellent fillers.

Arkadia is good one I wish I hadn't sold. Probably could be picked up cheaply.

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22 Jul 2014 20:10 #182735 by Michael Barnes
Jambo is Rudiger Dorn? How did I miss that? I think it's the only Dorn game I like!

How about the expansion? Waka Waka?

Think I might want to get a couple of these. African theme rules.

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22 Jul 2014 20:12 #182736 by Michael Barnes
Well shit, Jambo is one of those ones with the artificially inflated price. Damn. I was selling it for $14 back in the day...

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22 Jul 2014 20:15 #182737 by ChristopherMD
Witches Brew is definitely on my forever shelf. I even sleeved it.

Jambo hasn't held up for me long term. Ultimately it suffers the same issue I find with most of the two-player Kosmos series in that every game feels kind of same-y. Like just going through the motions. Only the Knizias seem to avoid this.

I like Around the World in 80 Days as an unknown for this genre, but I recall Barnes giving it a bad rating over on BGG. I've played it with lots of different folks though and they all liked it.

Only other non-popular classic Euro I have is probably Goldbrau. I like the Octoberfest theme. Its a decent game that didn't bring anything new to the table for its time so got tossed aside.

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22 Jul 2014 20:23 #182738 by RobertB
Fire and Axe. Might be tough to scare up a copy. For bloodthirsty Vikings, there isn't a lot of conflict, but there is a little bit. Like practically all of my favorite games, it plays best with four.

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22 Jul 2014 21:29 - 22 Jul 2014 21:30 #182739 by VonTush

Michael Barnes wrote: Las Vegas is the Ravensburger thing, right? There's actually an IOS version, I think.


Huh...I didn't realize that there was an IOS version. I can't imaging that being very fun though, the interaction is what makes the game fun, playing against AI opponents or others online just doesn't sound fun.

And I just noticed that's a Dorn game as well.

Jambo I just picked up from my FLGS for $25. Plus the first expansion (he was all out of the second one though). I had it, traded it, liked it enough to figure I'd snag it because worse case I could flip it for profit. He still has copies of the base game.

Arkadia is one that I've been interested it, seemed interesting but ultimately seemed too Euroy for me, since I'm right now leaning towards the lighter games.

Dice Town is another great one that if you're not playing you really should be.

Around the World in 80 Days I have coming in from a trade, if this jackass ever sends me shipping information I'll know when.
Last edit: 22 Jul 2014 21:30 by VonTush.

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22 Jul 2014 21:35 #182740 by VonTush

bfkiller wrote: Fjords (2005) is a pretty good 2-player tile laying game: part Carcassonne, part Go / Through the Desert.

Libertalia (2012) reminded me a lot of Citadels but with a lot more roles and more forward-planning. The first game's a bit of a challenge, though, because there are so many roles to learn on the spot.


Fjords is one I regret trading away. It was abstract and I liked the two phase aspect of it.

I heard good things about Libertalia when it came out, and it is one that I've seen pop into discussion every so often. So I need to give that one another gander I think.

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22 Jul 2014 21:37 #182741 by san il defanso
Tobago is a good one that VonTush recently informed me is out of print. I'm pretty sure Zoch doesn't have an American distributor anymore, because none of their games are in English anymore.

Wyatt Earp is a fun game that I am mentioning so you will buy my copy.

I never did like Jambo much, but I agree that African themes are underused. Santiago is really good though.

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