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CastleTriCon 2020
Online Event

[CastleTriCon]

24th to 27th September 2020


G@mebox author Ralf Togler writes about the convention:

Covid 19 has brought us many new experiences, good ones and bad ones. One of the better things is that we have learnt we can consult together without meeting physical. OK, we knew that it could work before, theoretically, in terms of technic. But we didn’t think that it would be accepted. And we didn’t really know how to work with those strange video conference tools. But now, in my office, I sometimes use three different conference tools a day, consulting project partners from far away, sitting in their offices or dealing in from home. And it works! It isn’t perfect, and it isn’t the same, but it works.

So, it is the logical consequence that the game conventions would also go digital this year. Gencon has taken place and SPIEL.digital is ahead of us. Many of us are curious how this mega event will go digital. But there are also more and more smaller digital events from fairs and publishers in the shade of the big shows.

Heidelbär GamesCzech Edition GamesHorrible Guild

And one of these smaller events is CastleTriCon which is an offspring of the Castle Event back in the time of HEIDELBERGER, historically held at castle Stahleck in Germany. The old partners CZECH GAMES EDITION and HORRIBLE GUILD have joined HEIDELBÄR GAMES for that international board game convention. So let’s see how it works:

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

First of all I had to download an app to enter the 3D world of Confer-O-Magic, the platform for walking around, finding friends and staff (ErklärBär), chatting and watching press conferences and videos. To avoid traffic, I loaded the app very early the morning of the mediaday. But when I wanted to enter the convention that version was already too old for that. But hey, that’s another thing we have learnt during Covid 19. Don’t give up hope only because an digital thing doesn’t work at once. So, five minutes later and 400 mB more on my PC, I entered the world of CastleTriCon for the first time.

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

And hey, what an experience. I had expected to find some click and point panels. But instead I had too choose an Avatar, get familiar with moving and flying actions and was able to explore a huge digital world with castles, trees, rivers, picnic places and spawn points and portals to enter the different worlds of the three publishers. I could address everyone around me and in certain circles the app automatically started a video conference with people standing in the same circle. Who would have thought this to be possible at the beginning of this year?

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

But of course I was here to learn more about the new games from the three publishers. On the one hand this was solved in form of videos you could watch, but much better at certain spaces you could enter the world of Tabletopia, and if one of the many friendly ErklärBärs from HEIDELBÄR and staff from the other publishers was in the same space, he was able to enter the same game and at the same time consult with us players to explain and play the game. A great solution, although the connections were not always stable enough, so that the one or other person left the table unwanted. But even then, this person was able to re-enter shortly after that.

COYOTE

Ok, now let’s see what I have played. The first game was Coyote from HEIDELBÄR GAMEs that is a redesigned version of the classic game with the same name. The rules of the game are very simple: everyone draws a card and places it in such a way that all other players can see the value of the card except from the player oneself. Another card is placed face-down in the middle of the table. And then one player starts to make a bid, estimating the total of all cards. The next clockwise player either raises the bid or doubts it. In the first case the game continues with the next player making the same choice of either raising or doubting. In the latter case all other players must say if they believe if the total is above or below the last bid and then all cards are revealed. Depending on the result, players win or loose an eye card. If you run out of eye cards you are out of the game. Of course there are possibilities to look under the hidden card, and there is also a fox card for the looser of the round that enables the player to draw an additional card in the next round. But the game is that simple. Nevertheless it was great fun to play it. It’s one of those easy bidding games that benefits from talking loud and bluffing a lot. HEIDELBÄR GAMES has spent the game some great artwork that further contributes to the good atmosphere I felt while playing the game.

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

Anansi

The next new game, Anansi, from HEIDELBÄR GAMES is also a card game. A trick-tacking game in which the trump colour changes during the game depending on the side actions of the players. Those side actions, in which a card is placed aside and not played to the current trick, are necessary to score a trick won before. I think I saw a similar mechanism some years ago in a card game, but Anansi further developed this trump changing mechanism. Again this game has some great artwork and I was told that it was made by African artists. HEIDELBÄR GAMES follows the strategy that the artwork of a game should come from the same origins as the author of the game. Once again a small game that promises much entertainment and good game replayabity.

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

Under Falling Skies

After that I changed the world, moved my Avatar through two portals and entered the world of CZECH GAMES EDITION. The publisher came with two completely new game and some expansions. The first new game is called Under Falling Skies and is a solo game in which the player is asked to defend a besieged city. As the enemy is an alien, strong forces must be raised. The game looks quite interesting, but unfortunately I didn’t find a free table and hadn’t had time to wait.

Lost Ruins of Arnak

I was more lucky at the tables of Lost Ruins of Arnak, the big new game from CZECH GAMES EDITION. This game is basically a deck builder. But comparable to Clank you also have a board. In contrast to the dungeon crawling mechanism in Clank Lost Ruins of Arnak uses the board for worker placement elements. There are two important sections: one is a research area in which you can find new abilities, victory points, resources and helpers. The other one is a discovering area in which new spaces must be explored, monsters be fought and a general movement takes place. All of this is triggered by playing hand cards from your deck. As the game is a deck builder, a market for new cards mustn’t be missing. Artefacts and items can be distinguished. Most of these cards are unique, so there seems to be a lot of variety for many games. However, in contrast to most other deck building games, there is no discard pile for the played and acquired cards. Instead your deck is shuffled every new turn with a hand of five cards. As a result the personal deck will be much smaller than in other deck building games, but there is so much to explore on the board and you also have to manage four different resources that I don’t think that you will miss those many cards. I await eagerly to hold the hard copy in my hands and to play the game with some friends of mine.

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

Vampire: The Masquerade - Vendetta

That leads us to the last of the three publishers. Let’s there start with another card game: Vampire: The Masquerade - Vendetta from HORRIBLE GUILD. I think it is more than 15 years ago that I was playing a Vampire: The Masquerade title on my PC. I only remember that I was very bad in the game, and shortly after I gave up playing computer games, because my oldest son needed my whole attention. But I was always fascinated by the theme: Vampire clans fighting for influence, fame and wealth in the upper world. The card game evokes the same atmosphere and I was at once reminded of why I bought the old computer game back in the days. Every player plays one of the Vampire clans and gets a unique deck to achieve the aims. Every round cards are played at different locations where players fight against others for influence and allies. Most cards have special effects that are carried out once all players have placed their cards. It’s a game about bluffing, but most interesting for me were the various strategies you must follow due to the very different card decks of the individual vampire clans.

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

Unicorn Fever

Last but not least let’s enter the world of unicorns. Unicorn Fever seems to be a children game with the lovely unicorn game pieces and the shrill colours. But instead it’s a tactical betting game. A race of the unicorns that run on colourful rainbows. Players influence the speed, the individual abilities of the unicorns and much more details of the race, while at the same time they bid on the outcome of the race. The game doesn’t seem too complex, but it is definitely much more challenging than my first thoughts.

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

[CastleTriCon]

Click on image to enlarge!

Now, this ends my trip to the world of CastleTriCon. It was an interesting, funny experience. I met a lot of friends and was perfectly introduced to the games. Even if I look forward to a real meeting with the publishers and the games, I was quite confident with this experience. I only hope that the platform stays stable, when this weekend much more visitors enter the digital world. This was CastleTriCon, next digital experience for me will be SPIEL.digital. So stay tuned and enjoy the convention!


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Copyright © 2020 Ralf Togler & Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Essen, Germany