Four days of overwhelming happiness in which I will be unable to participate. The hurt is mitigated by the fact that I’ve never gone to Essen, so I feel content in my ignorance.
Nevertheless, I’ve been going again and again to the radar to see what’s coming. I have a short list of games I’d love to try, and I’ll just hit some high points here:
Kaigan-Kenichi Tanabe joins a lengthening list of Japanese designers whose work is intriguing. I love this game for its theme: the 21-year, detailed mapping of Japan by Tadataka Ito.
De Vulgari Eloquentia-Another theme you probably haven’t seen before: the shift from Latin to the vulgar language–what became Italian–in Italy during the late Middle Ages. It’s the language the got Dante rockin’.
Grand Cru-Still in Europe, but with a more familiar theme: wine making. One of two heavy Euros about the fruit of the vine.
Braggart-And after all that wine and heaviness, something completely different. Or not so completely different. But a fun, new entry into the Aye, Dark Overlord, Munchausen, Once Upon a Time school of story games. And with delightfully cartoony art.
Basilica-Two words: dueling stonemasons. The early descriptions make this sound like a tight, tense, engaging game for two with both cooperative and competitive elements. Like this entry itself. I’m cooperating by bringing your attention to a new game, but I’m sticking a song in your head that you probably don’t want.
That’s just a very short list. I haven’t touched on Crows, Antics!, High Frontier, Defenders of the Realm, or any of the kids’ games I’m thinking about for my daughter. So let us know what we should be watching for!
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4 Comments
I've seen some advanced info on Antics! and I'm sort of curious as to how it's going to play. I like the art and the designer pedigree is pretty high but, in looking at the game board, I'm not sure what kind of game it will turn out as after multiple plays. Plus, when a new release is promoted as having a completely new mechanic – never seen before – I'm normally underwhelmed.
I really like Defenders although I'm the first to admit I'm not a big fan of Pandemic. I suppose I like Defenders of the Realm a lot more because I feel I'm a lot more involved in what's going on in the game than I have playing Pandemic.
Yeah, I'm waiting to see how new this mechanic is. But I've liked a few of their games. So…we'll see. What's got your interest? You've already picked up Defenders of the Realm, right? How does that look?
Now why do you have to keep hating on Pandemic? Seriously, though, I played it once with a research scientist who had done cancer studies. She took the game almost personally.
Antics! now… I've had a look at the rules, and from what I can see the "new mechanic" is this: when you gather food, etc, you add it to your anthill. The stuff you gathered–represented by joined double-hex tiles (like Ingenious)–also represent actions you can take. So as you build your anthill, your choice of actions changes. It's intriguing. Is it worth the hype? Again, I'll wait and see.