LIEBE & INTRIGE rocks!

Last night I played that so-called "Jane Austen Game", LIEBE & INTRIGE. Frank Branham had a copy of this thing, which comes in a box styled like a big pink book, sitting right on top of his pile of 5,000-odd games. Tanktop gave it a full endorsement and Robert Martin pitched a fit and refused to play.

The game is _great_. Yes, it's probably the best Eurogame I've played since- I don't know- THEBES? It's totally thematic, has a lot of interaction, nastiness, dice, and even kind of a very light RPG-ish element.

You have three daughters that have stats indicating their moral reputation (ahem), their beauty, and their education. You send them around to various venues where they can increase their stats while meeting gentlemen suitors who are looking for brides with certain qualities. Some guys want the foxy slut, others want a learned shrew, and so forth and the harder-to-please gents net more points at the end of the game. When you collect three cards of one gentleman, you can get married and start looking for her sister a man.

There are action cards so you can give another lady alcohol poisoning or show composure when someone tries to steal one of your suitors. If you go to the park, you might wind up in a compromising position with Casanova. Go to the tavern and you might wind up drunk, stupider, _and_ in a compromising position with Casanova.

There's lots of interaction, comedic turns of events, and quite a bit of narrative. I spent the first half of the game pursuing the absolutely dreamy Wilhelm Von Whatshisname, trying desparately to get that third card and marry him. Tanktop was after the same man and he had two cards too. He never turned up, so both of us had to settle for lesser men.

The game is really fun- yes, it's a totally girly theme but it also really captures the Jane Austen thing so you can make the excuse that it's a literary theme. And it's not farming rutabagas or impressing Burgomeisters- it's a pretty original theme. And the thing is, it's actually pretty AT feeling in a lot of ways.

The only strikes against are that some folks are just going to be too macho to get with the theme (which is kind of understandable given all the pink and the pretty heart on the box) and it is just a little too long- it was about an hour and some change, and the depth of the game runs out after 45-50 minutes. But those 45-50 minutes are really good.

It'll likely never come out here in the US...which is a shame, because it's a hell of lot more fun and interesting than most of the Euro stuff that publishers shovel on to the shelves here.

Goldsieber games don't get much love from the Euro crowd---which is odd, because we were all about the line when it came out---except for the Dreadful Edison & Company.

Euros have really pushed out the classic German family games that drew most of us to German games on BGG.

Step back 8 years, and the German games we were getting commonly included dice, luck, viciousness, racing, and stronger themes.

Sadly, Settlers is really to blame. Its popularity allowed folks to publish more complex games---pretty much spawning the Euro thing. Tikal pretty much cemented it--a complex game with 37 million different ways to score points so that you are never totally screwed---just massively, horribly screwed into getting 6 points instead of 7 on your turn.

If anything, that last bit is what is wrong with many games today.

I would love to play this game! It's kinda like those Japanese dating sim video games. Tokimeki Memorial rocks! Granted your a dude trying to court a chick, but I'm still game. Plus I think my wife would really dig the theme. She loves Jane Austen. I bet anyone with a good sense of humor and a female companion would enjoy this game.

Glad to see it's appreciated here as well. It is a total Euro, but the theme is awesome. We had some of the best trash talk during this game.