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The SPIEL 2000

26th to 29th of October 2000


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Saturday, 21st of October 2000

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Okay, the micro is open, spots are on and the cameras are running:

Folks, here is Essen / Germany !!!

Once again, after the SPIEL 98, I will try to entertain you for the duration of the Convention with news, pictures and other things. At the beginning of next week, I will take you into the convention halls to give you some previews of the preparation-phase when the exhibitors are still building up their booths, and then the first highlight is due on wednesday, when the awards ceremony for the DEUTSCHER SPIELE PREIS will take place. Also, I hope to get some attractive new game sponsored by one of the exhibitors, so that I can run a prize-draw. But enough talking for now. Have a look at the pictures below - everything is still quiet and peaceful. But this will change dramatically when the Convention will open its gates on next week thursday.

So stay tuned to Kulkmannīs G@mebox !!!

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Monday, 23rd of October 2000

Okay folks, the week has begun ! Sneaking into the Convention Area, I was able to have a look at the beginning of the preparatory phase, observing the first companies while building up their booths. All the major producers have already progressed quite far with their preparations, whereas most of the smaller ones have not even started yet.

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This year, by far the biggest area is held by the German publisher Amigo. Occupying nearly half of a hall, it seems that the popularity of the Trading Card Games Magic - The Gathering and Pokemon is still at its peak.

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Concerning the used games area, there seems to be quite an early start this year. The first two exhibitors have already mounted their booths on sunday, and today others have started to assemble their shelves as well. I expect that the first real trading between the collectors will already start tomorrow.

Furthermore, the first visitors are also arriving. So I met Lee and Rick of Funagain Games today. Both of them have come well prepared, and I guess that there will be quite a few satisfied Funagain-customers when these two guys come home again after the convention.

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Tuesday, 24th of October 2000

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT !

Fritz Gruber from Kosmos Spiele has sponsored a copy of the new German edition of the LORD OF THE RINGS boardgame for a prize-draw at Kulkmannīs G@mebox. So, if you want to participate, please go to my Index Page and make an entry into my Guest-book (it can be found in the counter bar at the bottom of the screen). There is no regional limitation - players from all over the world can participate (however, I will probably ship via surface). All entries into my guestbook which have been made during the time of the SPIEL (including Sunday) will participate.

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Thanks very much to Kosmos for making this Prize Draw possible !

Hi again !

Going into the Convention area again, I spent the morning visiting the area where the Used Games Traders are setting up their booths. Whereas some earlybirds had mounted their booths already on sunday, today was the day when the mass of the traders started to arrive. Coming with truckloads full of boxes, soon an area of realative chaos was created.

However, not everything is running smoothly, a fact which is partly due to the convention organisators. So many of the booths had not yet been furnished, and the games which had been unloaded had to be placed on the floor for the time being.

Nonetheless, one fact which can be observed is that the used games area seems to be bigger than 2 years ago. My friend Lee had told me that it had grown considerably last year (while I was in Newcastle and thus couldnīt attend), and it seems like this trend holds true. Still, the question may be asked whether this trend should be welcomed. Having had a first look at the prices of the games offered, it is certainly true that the competition between the traders served to lower the prices for most of the usual games. However, the relative high price for renting a convention booth (about 1200 German Marks - 550 US$) has forced many of the traders to abort their former policy of specilizing themselves. The used games area has virtually been flooded with more common games, and it seems that a result of this is the relative rareness of unusual titles. This, in turn, has reinforced prices on these rare items, so that collectors this year will have to spend more to get items they are looking for.

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Wednesday, 25th of October 2000

Today at 11 AM I attended the Press Conference held by the Friedhelm Merz Verlag, the traditional opening ceremony for the Convention.

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The introductory words were spoken by Mrs. Geu, greeting the big audience of journalists. The conference for the first time was oganised with some form of visual presentation. Later questions were answered by Mrs. Metzler and Mr. Pohle, speaking for the Fachgruppe SPIEL.

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For the 18th time (all started 1983, in the Volkshochschule Essen - in 1985 the con moved into the Messe Essen), the SPIEL convention is guest at the Messe Essen. The grounds for having the convention at the schedule are easy: games are of high popularity, and to have this unique convention is a perfect addition to the program of the Messe Essen. Especially the headline "Komm - Spiel mit !" shows the special character of the convention, since the visitors not only see gams but are invited to play as well, thus allowing the visitors to take an active part in the convention.

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Following its original character as a convention for private visitors, the SPIEL also serves other functions. This year, 560 exhibitors from 18 nations are present, occupying 10 Halls. In comparison to last year, the total space occupied by the convention did grow by 11 %. Interestingly, many foreign companies have decided to take the step to Essen without having any retailing partners in Germany, hoping to be able to introduce their games to the visitors without such backing by a German company.

Several 100 game tournaments are due to take place, and quite a few new games (about 200) will be introduced for the first time to the public. Being an international meeting point for the games-scene, authors will get unique possiblities to exchange ideas, trends will be set for the comming games season (with a special view to the Christmas sales). Even more important, the SPIEL offers to possibility to bbuy production licenses from foreign companies. These licensing partnerships mak foreign games very attractive (especially concerning the retail prices), since the production of essential parts can usually still be left to the original companies, thus saving on costs for creating new moulds and print-layouts).

Hasbro has decided to give a special gift to 50.000 visitors. At the weekend, visitors coming to their booth with their entry card will be given a fully interactive Abalone game.

A special highlight tonight will be the awards ceremony for the Deutscher Spiele Preis and the Goldene Feder (for best rules). Both prices this year will go to the game Tadsch Mahal from Alea / Ravensburger.

A fact which canot be repeated often enough is that the SPIEL is unique in the world, and that many other convention organisers worldwide are quite envious of its popularity. Following the games sales from the first 6 months of the year 2000, Eurotoys reports a total increase in toy-sales of 1 % (last years sales where about 650 to 700 millions German Marks), in more classical toys even of 14 % (which is much carried by children's games and the Pokemon trading cards boom). Having a look at prices, it was stated that the games prices would be stable in comparison to the years before.

A fact which cannot be denied is the fact that the games-news of the previous years are forming bridges into other cultures. With problems like hostility against foreigners and racism, games are doing their part in aquainting young and old people with foreign culture etc...

After the Press conference, the News Show was opened, showing all the news available at the Convention.

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At this show, I was already able to make out quite a few interesting products which are certainly due to attract quite a bit of attendance. Looking at the bigger presentations first, two quite outstanding products were presented by Kosmos. On the one hand there is - of course - the new Lord of the Rings boardgame. I was able to have a first more detailed look at it, and I must confess that it looks quite intriguing.

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Another item of interest is the Settlers book. Many people might think that this is just another Settlers item, but I guess that this would be total prejudice. The book-box contains quite a few sheets featuring additional tiles and other items, and it thus offers quite a few variants to standart Settlers.

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Another new item which many people were awaiting was Keytown, the new Richard Breese game by R & D GAMES. Itīs the newest item in the series which had already contained the titles Keywood and Keydom, and from its looks itīs certainly once again a game of outstanding quality ! But buyers beware ! Itīs once again a limited edition, so you have to hurry to the first Convention day if you want a copy !

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Finally, I also had a look at a new Thomas Fackler game: Troia is a game about excarvations and archaeological digging in ancient Troy. The game looks simply marvellous, and it also has a quite interesting background. Itīs creation was sponsored by the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation, who also had for a long time been sponsors of the real excarvations in ancient Troy. You will hear more of this game soon !

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Finally, I met quite a few well-known people today. So Mik Svellov, publisher of Brett & Board, came by together with Lee and Rick from Funagain. And at another booth I met Allan Moon and Mary from Discovergames.

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Thursday, 26th of October 2000

Today finally the SPIEL 2000 did open its gates for the private visitors. At the opening time at 10 AM, thousands of people were streaming into the halls.

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However, let me first give you some impressions from the Deutscher Spiele Preis Awards Ceremony which happened yesterday evening. In fact, the whole awards ceremony was a big triumph for two authors and one publisher.

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With Tadsch Mahal by Alea (which is part of the Ravensburger Publishing Group), the first price went for the third time to a game designed by Rainer Knizia.

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However, the first prize was not the only game from Ravensburger which did earn an award. With Torres and Die Fürsten von Florenz (both designed under participation of Wolfgang Kramer), two more titles went to Alea and FX, so that in the end ranks 1 to 3 all went to Ravensburger.

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When asked, a representative of Ravensburger told that actually the label FX will be discontinued at the end of the year. In the tightening game-market, Ravensburger decided to keep only to its old label Ravensburger and also Alea.

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The Awards Ceremony also was a triumph for Wolfgang Kramer. Not only did he participate in the creation of the games which were ranked 2nd and 3rd, but also his childrenīs game Piraten Pitt was awarded the special awards for the best Childrenīs game.

But now returning to the first day of the Convention, one game which I checked out today was the game Troia about which I told you already yesterday.

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The game Troy by Thomas Fackler is definately one of the outstanding new games of this yearīs SPIEL. Not only that the game itself has an interesting background and rules, but also the story of its creation is quite unusual.

For years now the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation had been sponsoring the archaeological digging at ancient Troy, and now they finally wanted this fact to become a bit more public. They thought on how they could best reach some publicity, and in the end they came up with the idea that a game might be most suitable for this purpose. Thus, they hired Thomas Fackler (who so far has been an author of some quite eclusive games), and they set him to the task about designing a game before this backfround.

The game Thomas Fackler came up with is definately a striking piece of work. Based on the fact that the ruins at ancient Troy do not just date back to one period, but that they are in fact ruins from seven different periods which can be found layer over layer, the game is centered on excarvating finds from these different layers. At the beginning of the game, a big stockpile of terrain pieces is formed. This is done in a fairly random way, although - like in reality - the oldest pieces come into the lowest level, whereas the newer ones come into the levels above it. In his turn, a player basically can decide whether he wants to do some excarvating (taking terrain pieces from the dig) or whether he wants to investigate what he has found (taking pieces into his expedition tent). These investigated and researched pieces can be published by the player and thus placed onto a layout board for pieces of the corresponding period. When publishing pieces, the researcher will get fame, depending on how many adjactent pieces he was able to publish. If he publishes more from this period than all players so far have, he can make a major publication and will get additional fame points, whereas in all other cases he will just do a minor publication. If one researcher should reach the same fame level as another, the other researcher will lose his rank to the newcomer, thus moving back a level.

Despite its easy rules, the game for me seems to be one of the best items which were released. First off, already the background against which this game has been released should be praised, and furthermore the game itself seems to be a quite good simulation of real archaeological digging. In fact, thatīs not only my view, but it has been confirmed by the real researchers at ancient Troy who greeted this game with quite high praise. Luckily for US-customers, I found out that Funagain games was able to secure a few copies of the game, and thus it will be available also to US customers.

Perhaps a final remark for my german readers: If anybody should have some further interests in Troy, you should visit the exhibition Troia - Traum und Wirklichkeit. It will be in Stuttgart (17.3.2001-17.6.2001), Braunschweig (14.7.2001-14.10.2001) and Bonn (16.11.2001-17.2.2002).

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Furthermore, I simply had to get some more details about the new Knizia game Der Herr der Ringe which has been releaseb by Kosmos.

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To be honest, I was quite anxious to get to know the mechanics of that game. As some of you might have noticed, a part of Kulkmannīs G@mwebox is dedicated to reviewing boardgames based on Tolkienīs Lord of the Rings, and thus you might perhaps understand my eagerness to see whether this new game could stand the competition of some of the older, established titles.

The most interesting feature of the game actually is that it is a game which requires co-operation between all the players. As a matter of fact, all players are taking up the roles of different Hobbits, trying to reach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring, whereas the role of Sauron is not taken by any player. Instead, the Evil Forces are simulized through a deck of cards.

Basically, cards are the real motor of the game: Hobbit-cards, Special-cards, Gandalf-cards and Character-cards. A full review would become too long at this place, but from my first experiences with the game I think that it can be recommended and that it is definately one of the best Lord of the Rings Games ever produced. Knizia actually succeeded in finding a fitting game format for Tolkienīs epic work. Many personalities and events from the story have also found a place in the game, and this actually adds to a quite dense and interesting atmosphere which can be experienced throughout the game.

Perhaps one final word to the design: The artwork is really outsanding. The maps perhaps are a bit strange, since they are no maps in the true sense but insteat the pathways are drawn on scenes from the book, but the cards are stunningly beautiful, showing quite a few of the well-known characters.

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Finally, today I had the pleasure of meeting Corne van Moorsel, author of last yearīs hit Isi. He has come back to the convention this year with his new release Morisi, a multi-player version of his last-yearīs hit.

If you wantmore infos, you can visit his homepage.

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Friday, 27th of October 2000

Hello again ! As a start for today I have chosen to give you some more details on the new R & D game Keytown by Richard Breese. It is the latest game in his series of Key-games, and it was produced in an edition of 500 copies

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Keytown is the centre of commercial life in Keydom, the land founded and first ruled by Keywood - all those games ago.

In the game Keytown, each player controls a team of the townsfolk. In the 'olden days' (in the game Keydom) these teams specialised in different activities: mining (black), fishing {blue}, forestry (green), brewing (red) and farming (yellow). With the passing of time the townsfolk became skilled in each of these activities. They the aspired to gain further skills and experience as churchmen, councillors and tradesmen. With these new skills came seniority, prestige and high standing amongst their peers. After four generations one of these teams was destined to emerge as the new leadersof Keytown - but which one?

In the game the townsfolk are represented by tiles ad their seniority by the numbers one (least senior) to five (most senior).

Keytown is played over four rounds. Each round represents a generation in the lives of the townfolk. In each round the townsfolk may work or study in the resource locations, gain new skill in the church, council or market, or start a family in a cottage.

The townsfolk who work in the resource locations will receive payment for the labour from the resources contained in that location. These resources are represented by wooden cubes. Other townsfolk in these locations may study and gain knowledge about these resources. This knowledge is represented by the counters. These counters may have the effectof increasing or decreasig the value of the resources.

In each generation some townsfolk will attempt to gain experience and seniority in the church, the council and the market. However, only two or three townsfolk in each generation will be successful in increaing their seniority, with the hitherto least skilled townsfolk being those most likely to be succesful. Those townsfolk who do not manage to increase their seniority will usually receive gifts of resources.

The townsfolk face distractions as they make their way through life and may be tempted to abando their chosen task in order to start a family. These distrations are represented by purple tiles which, in the game, may be used to tempt an opponents' townsfolk from their appointed task to a cottage where they may raise a family. Other townsfolk may also chose to raise families in the cottages. New additions to a family are represented by extra number 1 tiles in the colour of the least senior parent.

Keytown is a law abiding community and the townsfolk are careful to undertake their activities in the prescribed order. However, by making a payment to the treasury, conventiion alows the player to decide which towsfolk will be next to undertake their allotted task.

The winner of the game is the player whose townsfolk are collectively held in the most esteem at the end of round four.

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Keytown definately can stand any comparison with its predecessors. Once again Richard Breese succeeded in establishing a quite intersting and entertaining game mechanism, and the game surely will become as much a collectorīs item as the others already are.

The game was produced in an edition of 500 copies, and Richard already sold all copies which he brought to Essen. However, here is some good news: 50 copies are left which can be ordered from Richard Breese directly !!! So if you are interested, write him an email to rbreese@msn.com

Another game which I had a closer look on today was the new Queen-Games cardgame Lift Off - Planet Erde 2317.

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Lift Off is a very interesting, fast-playing cardgame about Space colonization for 2 to 4 players. The most interesting attribute of the game is the fact that the players do not take turns, but that instead all players operate simultaneously. At the beginning, all players have a stack of exactly the same colonization-cards, consisting of Settlers, Power-units, Lift Off cards and three different action cards (Mining, Stealing, Terraforming). Each player mixes his stack, and on a given start-signal all players start turning over and placing their cards. The number of planets available depends on the number of players participating in the game, thus keeping the game intersting despite varying numbers of players. When a player has turned a card over, he may decide whether he wants to place it next to a planet, below his stack or whether he wants to discard it. If he places it next to a planet, he has to observe certain rules: Only Settlers and Power Units may be placed at the first stage, and this stage may be ended by a Lift Off card. And only after a lift off has been placed, the different action cards may be played. Especially the placement of these action cards needs good calculating. Planets do have varying amounts of minable resources, so that not an indefinate number of Mining cards can be played. Likewise, the terraforming is different on each planet. Furthermore, it is important to keep a good look at how many Power Units have been placed into this mission, since the action cards usually demand a certain amount of power for activation.

When the first player has used up his stock of cards, the card placing is stopped and the planets are evaluated, one at a time. Alternately, the players now use up the cards placed at the planet to be evaluated, one card at a time. Victory Points are awarded for Settlers on a successfully terraformed planet and for successful mining.

To my mind, this new, easy cardgame by Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle is an outstanding piece of work. With the rules providing for simultaneous play, the game cannot be compared to usual tactics-games where players have all tht time needed to work out how to proceed. Like in a real race for the stars, players have to make fast decisions, while always keeping an eye at the progress of the enemy. Rounded up by efficient and attractive artwork, this game is one of the real highlights of the SPIEL 2000.

Definately some good news are also due from Mayfair Games. After a production period of nearly two years, Mayfair finally finished Cities & Knights, the english version of the last Settlers of Catan expansion Städte und Ritter. Prototypes were available at Essen, and the game will ship on 6th of Nevember.

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Talking to a Mayfair representative, I also found out that the Settlers-book which has been released at Essen is unlikely to make it to the USA. This Settlers expansion - based on ideas and scenarios created by Settler-players - not only consists of a book but also of several sheets of additional tiles and counters. According to Mayfair, it would be too bothersome to produce all these counter-sheets in a format compatible with the Mayfair version of Settlers. Thus, only owners of the German Settlers edition by Kosmos can fit the new items into their game without problems (well, apart from the fact that all the rules are given in the book, and it is - of course - in German).

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Another thing which I really like about Essen is the fact that you can meet many authors of games which have become quite famous. Today, I bumped into Klaus Teuber (Settlers of Catan) and also into Wolfgang Kramer (Torres). If these people are not too busy doing public relations, most of them are quite nice and really enjoy talking to other gamers.

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Perhaps one final observation can be made after two days of the Convention. From making an estimation and drawing back on personal experience, I guess that the convention cannot keep its visitor numbers from the SPIEL 99. Thursday and Friday usually are the more quiet days, but still I got the impression that there were not as many people attending as in the years before. Talking to friends owning stalls at the used games section, they actually did confirm this trend with me. Many of them tolk me that the business seemed to be not as good as in the years before. However, the weekend still may prove that this perception was wrong.

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By the way, this evening I went into a nice hotel just up at the end of the road, where quite a few of the convention visitors are staying. I met quite a few friends there, and I must confess that I am always greatful for the convention that it leads together quite a few people from different parts of the world. Alan Moon and Mary from Discovergames were there, and also Mik Svellov (Brett & Board), Lee Harper (Funagain) and Richard Borg (Battle Cry, Wyatt Earp), who were enjoying themselves with a game of Star Trek Tribble Hunting.

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Saturday, 28th of October 2000

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Today, I have chosen the game Wyatt Earp as an item of special interest. It is the next game to be published by Alea / Ravensburger, and it is set up - as you might guess - in the Wild West. Authors of this game are Richard Borg and M. Fitzgerald, and I had the pleasure to be able to give it a pre-sale test during the days of the SPIEL.

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Stefan Brück from Alea, and to the right is Richard Borg

All the players in this game take up the roles of Sheriffs, and in several rounds of play they have to capture Outlaws and thus earn rewards. The game is purely card-based, and two different types of cards exist. On the one hand you have the Outlaw-cards, and whenever a player places such a card in front of him the reward of thew corresponding outlaw will increase. However, cards cannot be easily played: so players need to gather at least three cards in order to be allowed to play them. The playing of Sheriff-cards on the other hand allows certain manipulations to the game. So the reward on an outlaw can be increased, or some outlaw cards can be removed from play etc.

The most important strategical element in the game is the timing when to play which cards. A player may play as many Outlaw-cards in his turn as he desires, but only one Sheriff-card per turn. To end a round of the game, a player has to get rid of all the cards on his hand. If this happens, all the Outlaw-cards placed before each player are evaluated. Depending on the proportions of how valuable the cards held by each player are, the rewards are split or may even be kept by one single player. In the end, the player who first has 25.000 $ at the end of a round wins the game.

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For me it seems that the release of Wyatt Earp is a quite clever move by Alea. The game is a very clever cardgame which will certainly become quite popular. An intersting side-fact is that the box-size for the game will be different from the Alea games released so far. It will come in a smaller box, bearing the number 1 on its side. Thus, it will be the first game in a new Alea-series for smaller cardgames.

Also, I could not refrain from visiting some more foreign games companies today. I made a start with Warfrog, who were presenting two news in Essen: Way Out West and Empires of the Ancient World. These two news actually deserve some special interest because the publisher actually has chosen a quite uncommon way to produce his games. Both of them come in bi-lingual versions, featuring both english and german rules and boxes and they are printed in Germany.

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Way Out West is - like you might have guessed by its title - a game about life in the Wild West. In the game the players try to score points by owning essential buildings (Hotels, Jails etc.) and Trains and Stagecoaches and also cattle in major towns. The most important part of each playerīs equipment however are his Cowboys, by which a player can protect his own goods but which he also can use to try to steal some goods owned by another player: Robbing his Bank, stealing his cattle or killing his Farmer.

Basically, each player can spend two action points each turn, and these he can use in a number of ways: he can place new Cowboys or move old ones, he can build new Hotels, Jails or Banks, he can place or move Cattle, he place a Farmer or he can initiate a Gunfight. However, there is a limit on how often each action may be performed each turn, so that actually not all players will have the possibility to pursue their most preferred actions. But since the starting player changes every round, all players will have an equal chance to be the first one who chose their desired actions. The most essential action is however the initiation of a gunfight. These usually will start when two players have several Cowboys in one town, and the person starting such a fight usually aims at stealing some property of the other player. Basically, each Cowboy of each player gets a shot, and every dice-roll of 5 or higher means a kill. The shooting is continued until one side loses all its Cowboys or withdraws from the fight. If the attacker is victorious, he will get what he desired.

However, a special role in this game is assigned to the different kinds of buildings which a player may erect. Not only do some buildings count for additional firepower in case of a gunfight (for example the jail), but they also have a major impact on each playerīs income. Whether these buildings will create income essentially depends on the availability of Cattle in each town. For each unit of Cattle in a town the owner will receive money during the income phase, but further income is created through buildings. So a store will provide additional income for its owner for Cattle owned by other players, while a Train will actually double the income created by each unit of Cattle.

When a fixed amount of turns is over, the winner will be found by making a final calculation. Here the player owning most money will not necessarily turn out to be the winner, although he will be awarded quite a few victory points for having hoarded the biggest fortune. However, further points are awarded for buildings and cattle and also for Wanted-Markers (which can be earned by winning gunfights). In the end, the player with most Victory points wins the game.

To my mind Way Out West offers some quite clever playing mechanisms. It is true that it is a relatively easy and not very complex game, and the author was definately correct in comparing its complexity to the complexity of Settlers of Catan. However, due to the options open to the players and the scoring mechanisms involved, the game actually succeeds in creating a quite dense and authentic atmosphere. Many elements known from classical Wild West Films are included in the game, and this largely adds to its attractiveness.

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Another game presented at Essen by Warfrog is Empires of the Ancient World. Due to the fair amount of games already available on the topic of warring nations in the ancient meditarranean area, I was quite curious to see whether this game actually succeeded in offering anything new.

When seeing the game for the first time, a certain feeling of dissatisfaction certainly is caused by the gameboard. The map given of the meditarranean area certainly looks a bit dull, and the player will directly think whether he can remember any games featuring at least a more attractive gameboard. However, to my mind such a preliminary rejection of the game would not in any way reflect the value the game gets by its rules. True enough, the rules once again are not nearly as complex as rules from any usual wargame, but on the other hand the game is not a usual wargame at all.

At this place im a going to skip commenting on some standart rules like Revolts or the collecting of trade income, and I will directly go over to the centerpiece of the game - the action rounds. In each action round a player may basically perform only one action of his choice: The more easier actions are the placing of additional trade markers or fortifying conquered areas. The more intersting ones are the collecting of cards (reinforcing the playerīs army) or combat itself. However, first a word must be said about the concept of an army in this game. On the gameboard, the players do not move armies in the sense of a typical wargame - instead, they simply have occupation markers in the territories which they own. When a player wants to invade another playerīs province, he simply declares such an attack into one of the provinces neighbouring his own. When the attack is declared combat arises, and this will be simulated through the playing of cards.

At the beginning of the game, each player owns a set of standart empire army cards which he can use in battle (consisting of some standard units like swordsmen, spearmen or skirmishers). However, by the drawing of additional army cards through the draw-cards action, players may get a whole variety of additional units into their army: Cavalary, Artillery, Archers, Siege Towers, Elephants, Military Leaders etc. To prepare for combat, each player now secretly choses five of his available army cards and sorts them into his battle pile (the order of which may not be changed during combat, and certain rules have to be observed - so fast units always go first etc.). When both players have selected their units, they simultaneously turn over the upper cards of their battle-decks and work out the combat between these two units. For working out the combat, a delicate system of special skills held by all the different units has been introduced. A unitīs basic strength typically depends on a dice roll, but certain types of units get an advantage (modificators) over others, while other units are strong but risky to deploy. The winner of this skirmish temporarily gets one point of battle advantage. This he may lose again if the other player wins the next card duel, or he may increase his lead by winning the next duel and thus getting another point. After all five duels have been worked out, the player with most battle advantage wins the battle. However, if ever a player should possess three points of battle advantage, the enemy will be routed and the battle is over.

At the end of the battle, the winner not only occupies (or defends) the province in which the battle occurred, but furthermore both sides actually my lose units from those participating in the battle, depending on the number of successful blocks issued in this battle by the opponent. For each such a block a card is randomly drawn from the playerīs cards which participated in the battle in question. However, the player may keep the card if it is just one of his standart empire cards. He only has to discard the card if it was one of his special cards which he had acquired through drawing cards.

In the end, players score victory points for controlling provinces, and whoever player has most points after four turns has won the game.

Just like Way Out West, this game also features some quite clever playing mechanisms, especially in the working out of combat results. However, some minor criticism is appropriate here. Despite the complexity of the possible combat results, the finally victory in a battle is difficult to calculate. Constructing the card-deck for the battle is somewhat difficult, since players have to prepare for many eventualities which simply cannot all be covered. But apart from this element of randomness which is foreign to fully-pledged strategy games, the game offers a strong and well-thought playing mechanism. Also, it still keeps an efficient balance between luck and strategy (I would perhaps draw a comparison to Axis & Allies by MB), so that many players definately will see the attractiveness of the game.

To sum it up, I must confess that I was quite surprised by the quality of both of these Warfrog games. They not only feature an attractive design (especially when considering that Warfrog still is a small company), but - and thatīs even more important - the playing mechanisms of both games also are well constructed. The games are fun to play and offer some real innovations, so that I can only express my hopes that Warfrog will keep the high level which they have established by these two games in later products.

Having same further looks for smaller foreign publishers, I was also able to locate the stall of Locust Games and Up & Away Games. Despite the organisational effords associated with being present at Essen, more and more small publishers actually decide to go on the voyage - a fact which can only be appreciated and which should be given special attention.

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Locust Games and Up & Away Games brought with them two of their games, Lunatics Loop and Balmy Balloonists. Both of these games are quite cute in their outer appearance, and spectators directly can see that some effords have been made when the games where produced.

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Some other news can be given concerning the publication of a further product based on Tolkienīs Lord of the Rings. Because of the movie being released next year, Decipher Games (Publisher of the Star Wars Collectible Card Game) has announced the release of a new Collectible Card Game based on the Lord of the Rings. This game is due in winter 2001

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For a final comment today I have chosen one of the funniest parts of the SPIEL. Some publishers actually have decided to get some of the visitors involved into some kind of spectacle. For this reason, they have created life-size versions of some of their games. The visitors are enjoying these live-games quite a lot, and it is definately some strage feeling to stand on a gameboard !

Sunday, 29th of October 2000

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Today, I decided to dedicate a major feature on a game which has been released in Germany already last year, in the USA even sooner. The game I am talking about is Diskwars by Fantasy Flight Games / Amigo. You might ask why I did consider this game worth for a lengthy feature from the SPIEL 2000, but the reasons for this are easy enough to give.

On the one hand, I consider Diskwars to be a remarkable example of a co-operation between an american and a german games producer. Originally Diskwars was created in the USA, but soon the german publisher Amigo learned about its qualities and decided to publish a german version of it. Due to the uniqueness of the gaming concept, both versions if the game are perfectly compatible, so that collectors from Germany can actually take up contests with US collectors. However, even more remarkable is the fact that the co-operation between both publishers has been established so far that they actually share one stall at the SPIEL 2000. At this booth, a counter for Fantasy Flight Games has been established, where they do not only present Diskwars to interested english-speaking players, but where they also demonstrate and sell other games from the Fantasy Flight Games productions. At the other half of the booth, people from Amigo are likewise busy teaching Diskwars, but this time to interested german spectators. I think that this kind a good co-operation between two companies from different continents is the best example for how game companies can co-operate without trying to take each other over, and for that reason I wanted to cast a special spotlight onto this unusual relation.

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The other factor which influenced me to write about Diskwars is the fact that I did never get around to playtest the game. Regarding my special interest in Fantasy Games and Fantasy Wargames, I couldnīt tolerate the present state any longer, and for that reason I simply had to launch a review of the game.

When opening up a starter box for the game (there exist 8 different starter sets, all of them fro different races), the first question you can only ask yourself is whether the game you are holding in your hands really is a fantasy tabletop wargame. Being used to playing such a game with miniatures and thus in a 3-dimensional setting, it seems strange that a similar playing atmosphere should possibly arise from using flat cardboard disks. Each army in the game consists of a number of different disks, all graphically differently designed, possibly differing in size, attributes and special abilities. Basically, each piece has three essintial values: attack, counterstrike and wounds. Furthermore, there may be different abilities like spellcasting-skills, the possibility to fly or to conduct ranged combat or the skill of a swashbuckler. And additionally to these skills, units also may possess unique special abilities, allowing them skills not usually provided for in the rules.

At the beginning of the game, both opponents set up a number of their units on opposite sides of a table to begin the battle with. Additional disks may come in a reinforcements later on the game, depending on how many units each player has brought into the battle (each unit has a value). During his turn, each player may activate a number of his units, and normally he will move them to face the enemy. When moving the units, the unique feature of the game becomes visible: Instead of depending on a ruler or something else to measure the length of movement, units are simply moved by flipping their disks a certain number of times. When a unit overlaps an enemy unit after such a move, combat arises and will be calculated depending on the battle-values of each unit (there is no element of luck in the combat, since no dice are thrown). The rules for combat are well constructed, providing for situations like multiple overlapping or other multi-unit situations.

Furthermore, a number of additional rules gives the game even more atmosphere. So there exist flying units which can simply be moved over another playerīs units, continuing on their way until they have made their maximum movement or they meet another flyer. Furthermore, some units actually have the possibility to conduct ranged combat. Here the inventors of the game have developed another quite nice feature. Depending on the type of unit and the weapon used, a number of small missile-counters is placed on an unused disk. This disk is held ca. 30 centimeters over the target, and then it is turned so that the counters drop down onto the battlefield. Whenever the missiles come to rest on ANY unit, they will score a hit against that unit, even if it is an united which was not aimed at. This may cause some unwanted results, but is a quite realistic simulation of how unreliable a number of ranged weapons works. Also, each player may have spellcasters in his units, and he has chosen theis spells before the battle. These spells he can use in a number of ways, possibly influencing the outcome of a combat by changing an unitīs characteristics or by allowing some other special moves.

Diskwars definately possesses a number of outstanding features: the rules discussed above, the quality of its graphical design and the well-constructed starter-decks which allow an immediate start into the game. The random distribution of all special disks also gives the game some collecting value, and from my point of view all these features together guarantee that the game will be entertaining for a long time.

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A very cute cardgame which I could find at the convention today was Haps by Ralf Sandfuchs, published by Krimsus Krimskrams Kiste. In this game for two players, both players take up the role of a gang of sharks, and these two gangs are fighting for getting the best menu of the different creatures on the surface and in the depths of the Sea. The topic alone being funny, the design of the whole game is even better. The card illustrations and the comments on the cards are quite hillarious, and since the game is rounded up by a set of well working rules, the game can be recommended. A very good piece of work for a game sold at a price of about US$ 5.

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Another cardgame which is also produced by Krimsus Krimskrams Kiste is Strand-Cup by Mark Sienholz, a Beach-Volleyball game for 4 players. Designed at a very good graphical standart similar to Haps, Strand-Cup offers a very entertaining simulation of real Beach-Volleyball. The players are given all the possible moves which are known from the real game, and some special cards also offer extra-events which may bring surprising twists into the game.

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Having another look also for foreign publishers, I today paid a visit to GMT Games.

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They, too, were present at Essen with quite a few interesting games. One of these was For the People, a Civil War Wargame which was originally produced by Avalon Hill. The outstanding feature of this wargame is that - in contrast to many other games of the same kind - the actions possible to the players depend mainly on a card-based event-engine. This offers a somewhat faster and easier gameplay than most of the comparable games, so that For the People is definately worth checking, especially for Wargame Newcomers. Andy Lewis from GMT told me that this new playing system is quite well received, and that they would concentrate on publishing more games in a similar style.

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Andy Lewis from GMT and Richard Borg

Another old Avalon Hill title which GMT also has re-designed is Galaxy. This Rainer Knizia Game is basically the same as Titan - The Arena, although the gameplay has been slightly improved. After the convention Andy Lewis emailed me the following comments:

Galaxy actually was going to have been an Avalon Hill came bfore they were bought out by Hasbro. Don Greenwood had done work with Titan: The Arena to turn it into a new game - Galaxy. We did additional work on it when it was submitted to us.

The basic systems in Galaxy are the same as Titan: The Arena, but we have made two important changes. One, each card played represents a ship and has a power connected with it. This is different since in TtA only the creatures had powers. We've retained that aspect but added the ship power. Several of the ship powers allow combat against other ships and/or bases. Secondly, the bets in TtA were static; once placed they didn't change value. In Galaxy, bets are now called bases. They can be improved or damaged, increased or decreased in value.

These two changes while easy grasp change the game play significantly. Galaxy is not the same game as TtA. In my opinion, TtA players may initially have a harder time winning that players which never played TtA. My reasoning is that the strategies used to win TtA will not work in Galaxy because the bases (bets) are no longer static. This simple change makes a big difference in game play.

There will be players who prefer TtA to Galaxy, but we think a lot of people will really enjoy Galaxy. Actually, I was surprised by Galaxy's reception at Spiel 2000. I thought it might be too complicated for many of the average gamers and they would prefer our other offering Ivanhoe. In quite a few cases people Galaxy was prefered over Ivanhoe. In fact, German NDR-Radio (northwest Germany) has declared that Galaxy is one of the five most interesting games of this yearīs Spiel.

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Finally, I was once again able to meet a few other authors who a know quite well. So I paid a visit to Doris & Frank, and also to Jean du Poel.

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This image of Jean du Poel actually gives a quite good impression of a how a typical game from Jeanīs own company Historien Spiele looks like. He manufactures all his games himself, and they actually look quite different from his games which have been released by major publishers.

Well, and now the time has come to come to the end of this yearīs Essen SPIEL convention. On time at 6 PM, the convention closed its gates for this year, bringing my reports to their end.

I really hope that you liked the effords which I have undergone to bring you a bit of the flair of the convention. Although there are many more games presented at Essen, I triwed to bring you as much information and variety as I could. More details reviews of other news will follow over the next weeks, and so I hope that you will come by now and again at Kulkmannīs G@mebox.

Concerning the Prize-draw, the winner of the Lord of the Rings game will be found tomorrow. I want to give everybody still a possibility to enter the list on this final day, so be patient just for one more day.

Myself, I already say goodbye to all of you who followed my steps through the SPIEL, and I would like to ask you to come forward and write me an email with any suggestions or comments you might have !

Thanks for reading !

Frank

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Copyright © 2003 Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Trier, Germany