Boardgamecafe.net in Essen Spiel 2013 – Day Two (25/10) Part 1
By jack208

EXCERPT
The first part of our Day Two report covered mostly games from indie publishers with some notable ones being Drei Hasen in der Abendsonne (we liked their booth deco!), Dobutsu Shogi, Japon Brand that gave us Machi Karo, Jolly Thinkers, an OTK fave Cafe Melange, and Mike Hutton’s 1862.

After a hectic first day picking up pre-orders and rounding up the major publisher/distributor booths, Day Two was spent mostly to round up as many games as we could, and also to revisit some of the Day One booths.

If you have not yet read about our Day One exploits, you can do so here (Day One Morning) and here (Day One Afternoon).

MATAGOT GAMES

CORTO

We went back to Matagot / Asmodee booth to take another look at CORTO. On our first round here yesterday, we didn’t see any open set of CORTO in play (for us to take pics).

This time round, there were CORTO sets in play.. and even a giant-sized set (similar to ORIGIN) in display / play at this booth.

CORTO looks beautiful with bright colors and a snappy feel to the graphics.

Strangely, this game didn’t receive much love outside of Europe. It’s very “quiet” in BGG and we are partly guilty as well since we’ve not even broken open our copy for a play-run at OTK. 😛

LOGIS GAMES

DRAGO-TUKU
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/154723/drago-tuku

This was the Logis booth with their latest offering DRAGO-TUKU. A lot of these games won’t see much exposure outside of Europe, much less in USA and hardly mentioned in our part of the world.

LOGIS offering some of their older games at promo (below).

If you go check them out in Boardgamegeek, you would find most of these games unrated, and without any comments or feedback in their BGG page.

This year, we might want to (randomly) pick up a few of these titles to add to the library. They are not expensive and some of them might be fun to play.

OTHER PUBLISHERS

A quick pictorial round-up of other publishers. That’s HCM Kinzel‘s booth below.

Not impressed with HCM Kinzel. I understand some of the people they got in to help staff the booths could be volunteers but at the very least, get volunteers who really love board/card games, not someone who just stood there talking among themselves but otherwise contributing nothing.

waiyan trying to check out one of the games in the HCM Kinzel booth but no one bothered to explain it to her. 😦

HABA

We passed by HABA (but would return for more pics later)

Above: This appeared to be the Award Nominated Games booth. Just saw open sets of the above games available for anyone to play here. No one here to teach you the rules though.

BRUGES, one of Feld’s 2013 releases.

PALACES OF CARRARA – supposedly a 2012 release but we’ve seen a number of open sets in play here. Likely becoz it was nominated for the 2013 IGA and Kennerspiel awards.

The next publisher is an interesting one (at least from waiyan’s boardgamekids perspective).

Drei Hasen in der Abendsonne

This publisher has a very nice cosy booth set up last year. Plus they have friendly folks there who were always willing to show you their games (HCM? ahem ahem).

She was going thru this game with the above gentleman when we arrived. Later she walked us thru the game again.

An interesting game for young children. waiyan did ask her for the title of the game and I think she replied with some “german” title. 😛

The 2013 titles from Drei Hasen nicely displayed on a painted wall in their booth. We liked the blue soothing wall.

They also carried some other re-printed titles.

We really liked the deco of their booth! Nice soothing colors…

Seems like Drei Hasen already have three new titles (above) slotted for 2014. Would certainly look out for them again this year. I thought we saw TALO in 2013 (or maybe an early copy).

GRANNA

CV was a game with an interesting concept. It’s a card game – with dice – that gives you the opportunity (or illusion) of designing your life’s CV.

Game is based loosely on the Yahtzee dice rolling mechanic. You roll dice to collect symbols to allow you to grab one of those cards available on the board tray (below).

The rolling and re-rolling of dice is similar to the ROLL THRU THE AGES. There’s “good luck” and “bad luck” symbols in the die. Roll 3 “good luck” and you can buy any card on the board!

The game is played over a series of rounds – childhood, young adulthood, middle age and old age. 🙂

Three gentlemen – one well-dressed – trying to recreate their life CV in Spiel last year. 😛

Promos from GRANNA during Essen Spiel 2013.

ESSEN FAIRLPLAY RANKING

We paused by the Fairplay Ranking board to take a quick look to see who’s leading the pack… CONCORDIA’s doing strong and some surprise titles in the Top Ten. Then again, it’s only Day Two.

Z-MAN GAMES

ROBINSON CRUSOE: VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE EXPANSION

Available from both the Z-man and Pegasus Spiele booths. We picked a copy for our library, didn’t take any for preorders as we assumed under Zman this should be made readily available after Essen; thought wrong and it was not available from Zman until much later in 2014. Haiz.

VOYAGE was also available at other publisher’s booth (ie Pegasus Spiele, Portal) for non-English versions. If like us, you are looking for the English ver you have to get it from Z-man.

TASH-KALAR, a highly anticipated game from Vlaada.

I think Z-man did very well to have the English version ready for Essen Spiel. We did pick up some preorder copies for our local customers.

FERTI GAMES

TALUVA was an old 2006 game – the first copies that landed in Malaysia came from Rio Grande – but it went OOP very soon.

Those few who had played it earlier love it’s brutal gameplay and nice wooden game pieces. So it was good to see FERTI reprinting this game!

We had a quick look at the components and I think they looked identical to the Rio Grande edition.

FERTI was the publisher of COMPLOTS (below), the game that started the COUP craze!

FERTI also released three other games in 2013 – one of them being the highly anticipated COUP: REFORMATION expansion. The other two being YOKAI NO MORI – a re-package of Dobutsu Shogi (Japanese chess) – and COUNCIL OF VERONA.

This year (2014) Ferti is announcing the Collector’s Edition of COMPLOTS (the original version of COUP)! You don’t want to miss this if you are a COUP fan.

NUMBSKULL GAMES

Numbskull Games is one of those low-profile indie publishers with some non mainstream games worth checking out. One of the games they’ve in their list is BLOCKADE RUNNER (not a 2013 release) that appeal to my interest.

BULLFROG GOLDFIELD

BULLFROG GOLDFIELD is another example. It’s a 2011 game, but hardly known outside Spiel / Europe.

It’s a gamer’s game set in the gold rush era of Nevada. It has trains, gold, stocks & shares. What’s not to like? 😛

BLOCKADE RUNNER

BLOCKADE RUNNER is about the dangers of making money in the shipping industry during the American Civil War.

The theme – shipping, business, some war-related risks – appeals to me. Obviously the game board and the miniatures made the game look good.

If they accepted credit card, I would have picked up a copy. 😛

They do have an interesting game released this year and we’ll likely see it at Spiel 2014 ie CC HIGGINS RAIL PASS.

INDIE BOARDS AND CARDS

FLASH POINT: EXTREME DANGER EXPANSION

Ever since coming off the Kickstarter programme in 2011, FLASH POINT has continued its successful run with more and more expansions.

2013 was no different; with two expansions released ie EXTREME DANGER (above) and DANGEROUS WATERS.

And yes they’ll have another expansion available this year (2014) ie HONOR & DUTY (which was kickstarted). If you are a FLASH POINT fan, surely you need this for your completion? 😛

COUP: THE RESISTANCE

Indie Boards have also re-implemented Ferti’s COMPLOTS into COUP: THE RESISTANCE with a different artwork.

While Ferti has the REFORMATION expansion available (limited copies) for Complots in this Spiel, Indie Boards was planning to kickstart their REFORMATION Expansion via Kickstarter later in 2014.

INDIE BOARDS & CARDS had some great promo packages at Spiel…  and if you are looking to pick up ALL their titles, their EU150 deal looked super!

JAPON BRAND

Finally we came upon one of the more popular Asian booth… JAPON BRAND. They’ve had a good run in 2012 with TRAINS and LOVE LETTER.

This year (2013) I think they brought in over 10+ titles including popular ones like MACHI KARO, SAIL TO INDIA, etc

For a moment, I thought there’s a new publisher for these games… and the publisher’s name being “SOLDOUT”. LOL.

See… there’s definitely a new publisher who’s printing all these great games. They just happened to call themselves “SOLD OUT”. 😛

Think JAPON BRAND had another amazing SPIEL with so many titles sold-out – and this was just Day Two.

Seems the only game they didn’t sell out was ONE NIGHT WEREWOLF. And maybe that’s becoz Bezier Games has their ONE NIGHT ULTIMATE WEREWOLF to offer as option.

These year, last I checked they already have 7 titles lined up. Interesting to see if they’ve another SOLD OUT year.

JAPANESE SHOGI ASSOCIATION

The next booth is an interesting one – it’s hosted by the Japanese Shogi Association. Firstly to promote Shogi and secondly to showcase Madoka Kitao’s reimplementation of Shogi in a simpler version called Yokai no Mori (which is published by Ferti),

YOKAI NO MORI

The first version of Madoka’s Shogi was a simple game called DOBUTSU SHOGI, first released in 2008 and then reprinted in English as LET’S CATCH THE LION.

Above: The first simpler Shogi version LET’S CATCH THE LION.

A deluxe version of Dobutsu Shogi. This simplest version of the game uses only 4 animals per player, and plays on a 3×4 board.

There’s now a more advance version of the game GORO-GORO DOBUTSU SHOGI which gives each player 8 animals and plays on a larger 5×6 board.

Above: waiyan learning the differences between Goro-Goro Dobutsu Shogi played on a larger board, and the simpler Dobutsu Shogi which she has been using in her boardgamekids sessions.

Goro-Goro Dobutsu Shogi is aimed at getting young children (or adult) acquainted with SHOGI and serves as an introduction to the more complex world of Shogi. It’s also a natural step-up from those who started with the simpler Dobutsu Shogi.

Therefore this game is getting lots of support from the Japanese Shogi Association as it’s a gateway game to their world of Shogi. 😛

Above: waiyan with the travel edition of Dobutsu Shogi.

The list of games in this series; from the simplest Dobutsu Shogi (3×4) to the more advance Goro-Goro Dobutsu Shogi (5×6) and now they have the “animal” version of Shogi in a 9×9 board (known as Dobutsu Shogi in the Greenwoods).

The designer Madako Kitao, a happy face at the Shogi booth attending to customers and fans. Pity waiyan didn’t get the chance to take a pic with her. 😛

Wait-a-minute, this section was supposed to be about YOKAI NO MORI. How come I ended writing all about Dobutsu Shogi instead?

Okay okay.. Yokai no Mori is essentially a compilation of both Dobutsu Shogi (3×4) and Goro-Goro Dobutsu Shogi (5×6) into a single package and published by Ferti.

The Yokai no Mori page in BGG
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148641/ykai-no-mori

Plush toys to pimp your copy of Dobutsu Shogi? haha

MUCKE SPIELE

COUNCILS & CONTRACTS
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147892/councils-contracts

This is a card game (from an indie publisher Mucke Spiele) that came in a very small gamebox (see above).

We picked up a playset and we played it sometime back. Didn’t leave much of a strong impression but it does have some nifty mechanic worth taking a 2nd session.

CLICKER SPIELE

CAFE MELANGE

We came across a vivid looking game with the cafe theme that’s appealing to us (we are fans of the now OOP CAFE INTERNATIONAL).

Pretty board, wooden pieces and we were certain coming from an indie publisher this is another game not likely going to see wider distribution.

The designer Stephan Riedel was hanging around the booth and I took the opportunity to have a chat with him about this game, his plans and how the design came about. He told us he’s only printed 900 copies.

We bought a playset – which we then proceeded to unbox and played in the evening session – found the game engaging (slightly heavier than Cafe International) and actually came back to Clicker Spiele the following day and picked up 6 copies to bring home.

Above: CK with Stephan Riedel (left) the designer of Cafe Melange

If you wish to find out more about how the game plays, our BGC Retreat Game Two report has a more detailed write-up.

THE NET

The next booth featured a card game called “The Net“. I tried to search for it on Boardgamegeek but nothing turned up.

Of course nothing came up in my search, this game is under the radar and offline!

Until it came back up online – or I acquired Level 7 hacker skills – we’ve only pictures to show you for now. 😛

STEP PUZZLE

A series of games for young children. Most of them in a glass display and not available for open play. There was only one game – KATZE & MAUS – available for open play (above).

They are labeled as 3D games, and not without good reason.

KATZE & MAUS – this game was available in their booth for demo.

JOLLY THINKERS

Based in HK but with games from a German designer (Torsten Landsvogt), Jolly Thinkers have been making waves with their fun & cute PICK-A-ANIMAL series of games.

PICK-A-POLAR BEAR

Picking up from Pick-a-Dog (or Pick-a-Pig depending on which version you bought) in 2012, Jolly Thinkers’ offering for 2013 was Pick-a-Polar Bear.

It’s essentially the same game (as the earlier PICK-A series) but with two variants added in. Their 2014 release would be PICK-A-SEAL which allows you to extend Pick-a-Polar Bear to play with up to 8 players.

KAYAL GAMES

Kayal Games have a couple of 2013 offerings that looked interesting. Both also to be distributed by Eagle Games in the USA.

FRANCIS DRAKE

You can’t seem to go too wrong when selecting the voyage to Spanish Main as your theme, and FRANCIS DRAKE is about the race with your fellow gamers to acquire the spoils and prestige of reaching Spanish Main first.

It’s a huge game board… and factoring the spaces you’ll still need to play your player boards, expect to play this on a large dining table. No, the coffee table won’t do.

A worker placement game, with some twists in the sequence order when making your selection in the above tracks.

Each player has their own player board.

We’d wanted to bring some stocks back but since the game is HEAVY and it’ll be distributed thru Eagle Games, we didn’t take any as we should be able to bring this in thru our regular import process.

TRIASSIC TERROR

Kayal Games apparently had another 2013 title ie Triassic Terror which I dun think we spotted at the Kayal Games booth. It’s designed by Peter Hawes, the same designer for Francis Drake.

waiyan, would be worth searching for it the next time we stop over at Kayal Games booth to add to our dinosaur collection.

GOLDEN EGG GAMES

CITY COUNCIL

Hmm.. this was the game that Kaz told us to check out. We did but for some forgotten reason, we didn’t pick a playset back. Neither did Kaz. 😛

This is a city building game themed along Urban Sprawl and Suburbia.

Sadly I didn’t get to know more about how it plays (maybe that’s why I didn’t dip).

Golden Egg Games are releasing an expansion for City Council this year (2014), and also two Kickstarters which we are supporting ie HISTORIA and FLORENZA. So we might just end up with a copy of CITY COUNCIL this time around.

SPROCKET GAMES

Sprocket looked like a new publisher with their first game (in 2013) called FOX & CHICKEN, which was kickstarted successfully last year.

I heard they are coming up with more games in 2014! Good luck to them!!

1862: RAILWAY MANIA IN THE EASTERN COUNTIES

Back to Mike Hutton’s booth to take a closer look at his new 18xx, set in the eastern counties of UK.

This 18xx game plays up to 8, and you can see that supported by the enlarged number of private & public train companies in the game.

The game map surprisingly looks smaller than I’d thought for a 8-player 18xx. I did ask Mike Hutton – he was playing in a current game session – but it was noisy and I couldn’t hear exactly what he told me.

Has a Bankruptcy slot… so aha this is more 1856 than 18TN and if you are not careful, bye bye Mr Chairman.

Strangely, I still didn’t pick up a copy! haha…

BGC Essen Spiel 2013

• Spiel 2013 – Day One 24/10 Morning
• Spiel 2013 – Day One 24/10 Afternoon
• Spiel 2013 – Day Two 25/10 Part 1
• Spiel 2013 – Day Two 25/10 Part 2
• Spiel 2013 – Day Three 26/10
• Spiel 2013 – Day Four 27/10

Related reads

• Boardgamecafe.net’s Essen Spiel 2013 Loot
• Eric Martin’s Spiel 2013 Preview
• BGC Boardgame Retreat 2013 – Essen in Green
• Boardgamecafe.net Essen Spiel 2012
• BGC in Essen Spiel 2013 – The Day Before (17/10)

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