So, I’m back, and some of you may be looking for recommendations on new boardgames. Well, in typical Snap Review fashion, here’s my quick impressions of nearly everything I played. I have excluded prototypes, tournaments, and my own games from this list. If you want me to elaborate more on what any of these games are like, or have any other questions, please feel free to ask in the comments.
HITS
Space Dealer: I’m glad I was able to get a copy of this off the prize table. This real-time strategy boardgame that I’ve talked about before lived up to my expectations. It is not without issue that needs to be fixed, but I look forward to playing it often. (I also look forward to hearing the 30 minute soundtrack that comes with it.)
Notre Dame: If I had to pick a hit of the Gathering, it would be this game. (Last year’s hit was Thurn und Taxis, and previous to that Louis XIV.) I thought it was a good game, with a drafting mechanism I really liked and a lot of ways to do good things for yourself. However, I can’t see it standing out from other games to hit the table.
Die Kutschfahrt zur Teufelsburg: AKA The Fart Game. Actually a werewolfish card game, where you are trying to figure out who your teammates are and who has the objects you need to win by Diplomacy-style fighting.
Zooloretto: The Coloretto boardgame. I was a big fan of Coloretto, but Zooloretto takes the basic mechanism and adds in some more interesting scoring that involve tile placement, money management, and yes, hot monkey love.
Taluva: An interesting Carcassonne style tile-placement game with a minor 3d element. Enjoyed it four players, not so much two, and it may have some problems.
Tales of the Arabian Nights: An older adventure game that ended up being my favorite game of the Gathering. Anthony Gallela taught the game very smoothly, his stickered copy of the German edition was very nice looking. The game essentially is multi-player choose your own adventure boardgame. So many interesting stories unfolded during the course of the 3-4 hour game that it had us discussing it for hours afterwards.
Loopin’ Louie: 2nd place in the tournament… so close! It’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.
Mr. Jack: Werewolf in two player boardgame form. Sort of. Initially I didn’t think I’d like it because I’m not a big fan of deduction and I generally don’t play two player games, but it had a lot of interesting stuff going on. What was really cool was that I had guessed the identity early of who my opponent had selected as Jack the Ripper before I had the concrete proof.
MEHs
Yspahan: A really neat dice-rolling mechanism wrapped in an extremely German optimization game. If the mechanism had been used more interestingly I would have liked it more, but the rest of the game was blase to me. I’d play it more if someone else owned a copy, but I doubt I’ll pick it up.
Emerald: Maybe it had something to do with getting my ass kicked, but I didn’t find a whole lot there in this game, and knew I was losing early on and there was nothing I could do.
Factory Fun: I don’t think I can play this again without some rules tweaks. The core of the game seems to be in rearranging your factory floor to fit an optimized arrangement, so it’s like playing a big puzzle every turn. That doesn’t appeal to me at all. However, I did have fun taking tiles, and then running pipes all over the place. I don’t think I’ll enjoy the game as written, but as game designers, we already have some ideas of how to fix it…
Rum & Pirates: Yarrr, this game be too long, says I, with the bunk-rules being too complex for the high seas.
Things… Humour in a Box: Thankfully this game was Canadian and not English. Some very funny category prompts like “Worst things to say to a police officer” and “Bad things to do in Church.” But the actual game part is actually something of a memory game, which makes it difficult as late night party game fare. Scoring was strange too.
Maskenball: Another fun party game with weird scoring and a memory element. (OK, maybe it’s not much of a memory element, I just suck.) But scoring and rules explanation took far too long for what it was.
Alchemist: A game with some simple yet interesting mechanisms, which was much better than I was expecting. I’m just not sure how much game is actually there. I will have to play this one again to get a real impression.
MISS
Blue Moon City: Seemed to have some flaws. I wanted more hand management and less wacky card combining and luck issues.
On the Underground: It’s a bad sign when you play through an entire game and still don’t understand the rules. I like the metro idea a lot, but I think it can be done much simpler. (Also on the miss pile because it features the London Underground.)
Kill Dr. Lucky (Titanic Games edition): Spite Tokens are a nice addition, but still dragged and had some confusing rules.
Gloria Mundi: While I’m bagging on James Ernest… (just kidding, he really is a good game designer and a good guy.) This game just wasn’t to my taste. An optimization game with some really nasty destructiveness to it that depends a lot on the person sitting to your right.
Fiji: I usually like blind bidding, but this one decided to go totally chaotic, with all sorts of wacky scoring stuff in every round. I didn’t feel like my bids mattered at all.
Shab al-Hiri Roach: (My first Gathering rpg!) A game that I had heard many good things about ended up not living up to the hype. Though I had fun, I can’t say that the system contributed to that fun at all. Plus, it really sucks to have an ancient Sumerian cockroach invade your brain on the last round and cause you to not win because of what card you drew.
Gheos: Some tiles are better than others, so it sucks to not draw them. Also a case of too many options to make an informed decision.
Poker: This game is obviously broken.
MUST BUYS
As in, You Must Buy. There were two games that I worked on that had their early production tests at The Gathering: Uptown and Covert Action. Both should be out in a few short months. When they do, You Must Buy them.
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