Essen 2003 - the games I bought (and a few I didn't)
Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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A quick run-through of the stuff in the back of my car (mostly so I can remember what needs a translation and what doesn't).
ALL ratings where given are EXTREMELY provisional, based on at most one play through of the game (and in some cases a partial game) in circumstances where the rules, or even the whole way to play the game, can easily be misunderstood.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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I bought the Italian edition, Viva Il Re. Partly on price, partly because I actually prefer the Italian title. Oh, and the Italian edition includes English rules.
This was one of my first purchases, to give me something to play that evening. It's a lightweight filler, sort of like Quo Vadis meets Balloon Race. It won't win awards, but the fact that it's easy to learn and easy to play means that I expect it to hit the table quite a few times between now and Christmas. Probably only rates a 6/10 though.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Not exactly a tricky choice. Age of Steam is the best railway game around, period. Although the basic game has plenty of variety, the expansion is an inepensive way to increase the scope of the game. Rates an 8/10 before playing (because expansion sets aren't exactly innovative).
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Age Of Steam was always going to be a tricky act to fllow, but this is another strong game from Warfrog. There are many ways to pick up victory points, from bidding for them, buying citizens in the popular cities, and beating people up. A touch on the long side for regular play, though. 9/10.
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4.
Board Game: YINSH
[Average Rating:7.68 Overall Rank:65]
Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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I'm no huge fan of two-player abstracts, but the GIPF series has produced some of the best. YINSH certainly seems every bit as good as its stable mates. 8/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Attribute is the English-language edition of Attribut. I've not played it yet, but others were recommending it.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Carcassonne the Castle. As yet unplayed.
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7.
Board Game: Attika
[Average Rating:7.08 Overall Rank:252]
Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Attika is a great tile-laying game. A fair bit of German text on the components, fortunately for me none of it is functionally important. So far I'm rating it a solid 8/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Anno 1503, or "The Settlers of Puerto-decker" as it was quickly dubbed. I am told that it closely resembles the PC game of the same name - to me, it closely resembled all of Klaus Teuber's releases of the past 5 years or so. If there's any player-interaction in this game, I missed it. On the other hand, I'm a sucker for anything in those big, square boxes. 7/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Balloon Cup. OK, so I almost never get to play two-player games, but it turns out that I'm a sucker for those small, square boxes too. 7/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Dracula seemed to be trying to emulate the old Fury of Dracula boardgame, but without the Scotland Yard-stryle chase. Pity, as without that I found this to be an uninspiring memory game. 5/10, and I didn't buy it despite the square box.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Tin Soldiers somehow managed to miss the UK entirely, so I grabbed a copy off the nice chaps at Spielbar. Not played it yet, but I liked the tin. I bought it because Greg S thinks it's good, and I like trick-taking games.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Magna Grecia was a tricky decision - buy the bright yellow version, or wait and hope that Rio Grande Games improve the colours. In the end, the fact that it cost £12 at essen as opposed to what will be £29 in the UK shops made the decision for me. As yet unplayed.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Feurio is a four-player abstract game with an unfortunately topical theme. I particularly liked the way that players had a limited influence over the direction that the fire was taking. 8/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Atta Ants is an excellent example of why I go to Essen. It's a neat little game, inexpensive and unusual, and it would *never* appear in the UK shops. A light 4-player abstract game, short enough not to overstay it's welcome. 7/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Lucky Loop. A dice-fest about pushing your luck. It's an idea that has been done better before, but I have friends who will love the theme. 6/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Alhambra. Not played it yet, but Stimmt So was a nice game without too much brain strain, so I daresay I'll like the update. And bonus marks will go to Queen for making English rules available.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Industria is a new Michael Schact game, and he's fast become one of my favourite designers. Although we only played half a game, I liked this one a lot. Mostly about bidding to make the right connections, it's not dissimilar to Taj Mahal - and that's no bad thing. 9/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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China Moon is a decent little "race" game. I added the inverted commas as it took me until the final turns of the game to reaslise that it wasn't about crossing the finish line first. It is also unusual as it's a Bruno Faidiutti game without luck or chaos. 8/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Finstere Flure is a sort of Roborally/Ricochet Robots game - the players are trying to dodge a monster who moves according to a simple algorythm and can therefore be avoided with total predictability. In theory. In practice it's a bloodbath, as a miscalculation by just one player can lead the monster straight to you. Great fun. 9/10.
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20.
Board Game: Maya
[Average Rating:6.36 Overall Rank:1593]
Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Maya - this won a design competition, apparently. excuse the scepticism, as the blind bidding and points awarded for majority control are nothing new. The only new twist is the loss of control markers after each scoring round. It works well enough, but it lacks any real sparkle.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Logistico is a game I really wanted to like - the transportation theme is just crying out to be done well. Unfortunately at the end of our game, two players were seriously in the red, a third would have made more money if he'd sold his vehicles in the first turn and gone to bed, and the two players with a positive score had achieved it by being in the right place at the start of the game. 5/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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Maka Bana is a guessing game. By Tilsit. It's awful. There's a surprise. 3/10.
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Richard Dewsbery
United Kingdom
Sutton Coldfield
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I had high hopes for Santiago. Shame. Another game where players bid for the right to place tiles on the board, it was spoiled for me by the fact that the player to the left of current start player had no sensible option other than to pass (so he could be start player next round). Perfectly sensible bids by the following players could be trumped by the last to bid. Some rounds of bidding also threw up a rather odd turn order problem, in that the highest bidder placed first, but thereafter it got a bit strange if several players had passed. So I passed. 5/10.
I bought - and we played - a few others. I liked the Bridges of Shangrila and Rush Hour, I bought Turbo, Scream Machine, Die Fugger and Railroad Dice. I didn't like Alexandros.
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Sutton Coldfield