Game Notes Contents

Jon Waddington reviews AXIS & ALLIES: D-DAY. "If you know everything there is to know about the series, you basically don't have this one covered at all."
M. Barnes reviews Uberplay's HANSA: "I have seen it called a 'gamer's game', 'considerably deep', and prone to 'analysis paralysis', claims which I frankly consider to be ludicrous."
Darrell Hanning reviews SHARK: "It's Acquire, if Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko had designed it."
Steve Pfarrer reviews GUILFORD COURTHOUSE: "It may be the best of the American Revolutionary series for new players, and it's also a solid choice for people with experience with the system."
Scott Starkey ponders the wisdom of live action FISH EAT FISH.
Mark Johnson reviews DIE FUGGER: "Since we already have MEDICI, MODERN ART, and other boardgames on a similar subject, I guess it’s best that there’s now an inexpensive card game option."
Jon Waddington returns for a look at BLUE MOON: "In the same way that a Boris Vallejo wall calendar is out of place in a professional office or above the family dining table, the game's artwork may be off-putting or inappropriate."
M. Barnes reviews SAN JUAN: "Simplified? Reworked? Rehashed? Allow me to rephrase that. Streamlined. Lean. Perfected. And it's something fairly new."
Michael W. reviews FINSTERE FLURE": "The theme owes much more to the pulp comics of the 50's published by EC (Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt) than it does to Friese's previous work, and will likely be a hit with any horror buff."
Damon Asher reviews DWARVEN DIG!: "The progression through the various trapped tiles is reminiscent of DUNGEONQUEST, but this game is much fairer to the players."
Coldfoot reviews HOITY TOITY: "It was probably a great game, 15 years ago. Today it is simply average."
Clay Blankenship reviews QUEEN'S NECKLACE: "It works well as a two-player game and might be just the ticket for gamer/non-gamer couples."
M. Barnes completes his triptych with a review of three new releases from Leo Colovini: "You learn that his games aren't about what they say they are. They're about mechanics, first and foremost."
Dave Shapiro reviews CORSARI: "I wonder if the plethora of pirate games released this year is the direct result of the popularity of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie."
Kane Klenko reviews YINSH: "Was I coming full circle and coming back to abstracts? I decided to give it a try."
Kent Reuber gives us an early look at MEMOIR '44: "If you like BATTLE CRY, I think you’ll love MEMOIR ’44."

Norbert Chan reviews ATTIKA. "Say, have you built your fountain yet?"
M. Barnes takes a second look at ATTIKA. "This game is not the Second Coming. What Attika is, however, is the best European game since Puerto Rico."
Michael W. reviews INDUSTRIA. "I've enjoyed my outings to date, but I feel that the limited paths to victory will make the game good for a time, but make it feel formulaic with heavier play."
Steve Pfarrer reviews VON MANSTEIN'S BACKHAND BLOW. "Picking the chits is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game -- I love the one that says "Vodka" and gives the Russians a modifier to simulate their crazed, drunken attacks."
Scott Starkey speculates on secondary uses for all those plastic bits in CIVILIZATION: THE BOARDGAME, then takes time off from the drawing board to review O ZOO LE MIO. "My 6-year-old was able to grasp the game quite easily, and the theme was appealing to my kids."
Dave Shapiro reviews ANATHEMA. "Can you taste the difference between raw beef and cooked beef?"
Game Notes interviews designer Alan Moon. "It becomes very difficult to remember who did what on which game. And it really doesn't matter because when you design games with someone else, the result belongs to both of you equally."
M. Barnes returns for a review of DRACULA. "Michael Rieneck’s design has admirably managed to maintain not only the cat-and-mouse opposition of Dracula and Van Helsing but also a certain sense of atmosphere that tends to accompany the vampire story."
Damon Asher reviews CHRONONAUTS. "Too many holes have been punched in the space-time continuum and the universe collapses. Everybody loses, and I do mean EVERYBODY."

Mark Johnson reviews Uberplay's WILDLIFE. "A couple of my local players really couldn’t see the theme shining through, and one went so far as to say he only really “got” the game when he discarded the theme altogether!"
M. Barnes reviews Fantasy Flight's A GAME OF THRONES. "...the first few games seem to suffer from that “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing so I’ll try this” sensation."
Jon Waddington reviews Eagle Games' ODDS'R. "If you're a bit party-game averse, like me, by now you're wondering when the list of annoying features will start."
Game Notes interviews designer Martin Wallace. "The unique challenge is trying to recreate some small element of a particular period with the simplest of rules."
Scott Starkey wonders what to do with all of his corn from PUERTO RICO.
Steve Pfarrer reviews Multiman's MONTY'S GAMBLE. "Some complained that the rules, many of which were taken verbatim from BREAKOUT NORMANDY, were confusing and off-putting to beginning wargamers."
Norbert Chan reviews Rio Grande's COLORETTO. "This game is extremely easy to learn, simple, but yet full of tense decisions."
Dave Shapiro reviews MAMMOTH HUNTERS. "A wild wooly and several cavemen adorn the cover of Mammoth Hunters drawn with an in-your-face approach and this too captures the feel of the game."
Game Notes interviews ConsimWorld's John Krantz. "...it was kind of cool to see Curt Schilling mention ConsimWorld as one of his favorite web sites in ESPN magazine, May 28, 2001."
Game Notes interviews Rio Grande's Jay Tummelson. "There were just not enough good games here on the market and I saw a way to change that."

Darrell Hanning reviews Eagle's AGE OF MYTHOLOGY. "Slamming Glenn Drover is about as rewarding as playing a funeral dirge to Flipper."
M. Barnes reviews Eagle's AGE OF MYTHOLOGY. "...a creation that borrows much from its European sources while integrating them into a familiar 'wargame' milieu to arrive at something of a syncretic masterpiece."
Game Notes interviews Peter Schutze (Schutze Games)."Insomnia is not such a bad thing ... many a counter sheet has been created at 3am."
Tom Vasel reviews Eurogames' LAWLESS. "Players will find themselves talking in a western drawl and making sound effects as they shoot each other's cowboys, rustle cattle, and rob banks."
Steve Pfarrer reviews GMT's ARDENNES '44. "By one count, the Bulge has been the subject of 32 games,..."
Game Notes interviews Jeremy Young (Uberplay). "He kept bugging me and bugging me to play these games with him and I couldn't imagine sitting down to try to play these board games!"
Scott Starkey pokes a little fun at gamers with his Cartoon.
Michael Debije reviews Cwali's ZOOSIM. "The aficianados of games such as CARCASSONNE will welcome the tile laying, but soon will realize this one is more of a mind bender."
Game Notes interviews Norman Smith (Saxon Games). "I think the team at Command Magazine really showed the wargame world how to use the new technology when they produced 'Kadesh' in the early 90's. Those counters made you say wow (then)."
Jon Waddington reviews Rio Grande's AMUN-RE. "Rest assured, this is no Phantom Menace. The emperor has struck back, and he's at the top of his game."
Game Notes interviews Andrew Looney (Looney Games)."Kristin and I used to work for NASA. In our free time, we played at running a small game company."
Tony Nardo promotes WINDS OF PLUNDER, a new offering through GMT's P500 program. "The game marks a new direction for GMT, as it is a previously unpublished Euro-style design."
Greg Schloesser takes a look at the 2003 Winners of the International Gamers Awards. "Martin Wallace's AGE OF STEAM edged out Reiner Knizia's AMUN-RE by one vote for the title."

Greg Schloesser investigates the "year of the remake" with a review of Spiel des Jahres winner ALHAMBRA.
Darrell Hanning blindly explores the high seas in his review of VOC.
Boulder's Sharon the Shipper tries to teach our llamas a thing or two.
BSO Games provides some background info on THE LAST CRUSADE: THE BATTLE OF NICOPOLIS.
"El Cheapo" himself - James Ernest - gives some insights about the making of CHEAPASS GAMES.
Henry Vogel speeds through a whopping 13 reviews in his overview of racing games.
Our editors respectfully request submissions for the next issue of Game Notes.

Our shipping department offers to take back the GOATS shipped by mistake.
Darrell Hanning reviews URLAND and muses on what the Christian Right might come up with in response.
Norbert Chan lists the TOP TEN ways you can tell you are at a boardgaming convention.
Greg Schloesser does a quick Gomer Pile imitation and critiques a few PLEASANT SURPRISES.
Justus Van Oel tells us about MEANDER
Ivo Orlovic provides a promo blurb for FUBI
Jeremy Kraybill sugests a few fixes for SID'S CIV.
Jon Waddington reviews LIBERTÉ.
Marty Sample provides a playtester's report on THE KILLING GROUND.
Steve Pfarrer reviews PRUSSIA'S GLORY and REDS!
Mark Jackson reviews GOLDLAND.

Jerry Capria’s cartoon mixes Poker and Collectable Card Games.
Darrell Hanning reviews TENJO. "They remind me of kittens in other, less flattering ways, too. The way they focus all of their energy in that dramatic pounce on the mundane. The way they sometimes chew on things they shouldn’t. And the way they back into conclusions that aren’t necessarily logical."
Jeff Suderman reviews CAPITOL. I have seen wins occur as a result of severeal differing strategies; power on the board, wise use of fountains, monopolizing amphitheatres or using temples."
Frank Branham tells us how WARHAMSTER RALLY came to be. "...beginning life as a game called Rally Macabre about the dead rising from their graves to race hot rods between the tombstones of a graveyard."
Paul Rohrbaugh reports on playtesting SWITZERLAND MUST BE SWALLOWED!. "Swiss headline: Germans Re-enact Custer’s Last Stand With Tanks Outside Bern!"
Neil Carr searches for CIV-LITE. "Many a gamer has fond memories of this truly epic game detailing the development and rise of ancient civilizations..."
Shawn Metcalf promotes his new game SUMO ARENA. "Deep in the wilds of Ohio, the ground trembles as Master Li and his equally chunky students vie for Sumo supremacy."
Chris Hall reports on a couple of LONGBOW gaming sessions. "...wiped out another crossbowman, and left Prince Eddy all alone way behind French lines. ‘Eh, look, wot is ‘e doin!?!"
Jim Doherty provides designer notes for WHO STOLE ED’S PANTS?."Rather than having players trying to solve a crime, I was looking for a game where they were trying to frame each other for it."
Jeff Suderman counts down the 10 ways to recognize a German boardgame addict. "6. They often refer to the money in their wallet as Ducats or Florin."
Brandon Einhorn reviews WILDERNESS WAR. "... it helps to have cannon fodder along such as Indians and provincials (Americans)."
Steve Pfarrer reviews KASSERINE and WILDERNESS WAR. "I have a sense Borries had some disagreements with the GMT development team on the final version..."
Jon Waddington compares AXIS & ALLIES PACIFIC with PACIFIC VICTORY. "The principal downside to PV is the lack of the Chinese theater ..."
Brett Simmons reviews STAR WARS: THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT. "You can hear the hum and clash of lightsabers and smell freshly roasted Gungan. I bet Gungan tastes just like chicken!"
Mike Bialecki reviews MYSTICK. "... the perfect meeting ground for boardgamers and burnt-out CCGers."
Paul Rohrbaugh offers commentary and variant rules for PATTON’S FINEST. "He suffered from delayed stress syndrome, and apparently I was the only one with whom he ever discussed any of his war experiences."
Dan Verssen promotes FLAGSHIP. "This gives the game the advantage of playing like a classic card game and being playable as a CCG ..."
Philip Eklund tells us about AMERICAN MEGAFAUNA and THE ARTIFACT. In this world, manta rays might actually develop wings to fly from ocean to ocean, bears can evolve flippers, and velociraptors can change into acorn-nibbling woodpeckers."
Daniel Broh-Kahn introduces VEX. "... from the word vexillology,the study of flags ..."
A Letter from Fen Yan
Deutscher Spiele Preis 2001

Jerry Capria's cartoon takes a look at the latest dice technology.
Darrell Hanning reviews this year's Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year). "If CARCASSONE was a precious stone, it would not be the biggest rock at the party, but purity and brilliance of color, and the excellence of the cut would make it a more coveted piece than many of the bigger stones."
Mike Bialecki reviews FLICKWERK and LIFT OFF. "I couldn't dismiss the feeling that I was taking some strange I.Q. test."
Brandon Einhorn reviews 1864 - YEAR OF DECISION. "Even McPherson's right hook through Snake Creek gap can go awry, as it did historically."
Dan Benge reviews DIA DELOS MUERTOS. "A trick taking game for the deduction fan."
Mojo Po provides a guidefor Diskwarriors. "Does an Elf poop in the woods? Of course there's magic."
Mark Jackson reviews DRAGON'S GOLD. "The focus on negotiation and the fine fantasy art would make it an easy crossover to those who are more interested in D&D than they are Essen & Spiel des Jahres."
Ray Smith reviews MONSTERJAGD and FINGER HOCKEY. "If you have ever enjoyed the ol' CROKINOLE board or the newer CARABANDE, and even remotely a hockey fan, this is a must buy."
Brent Louie's daughter discovers ATILLA. "... great strategy games like these, that can make children stop and think..."
Laurence Rusiecki tells us a little about his EAGLE DAY and ITALIAN CAMPAIGN. "Italy is still a hard nut to crack."
Kent Mitchell tells us how MATERIAL WORLD came to be. "In a fit of passion, we did a new take on a very old game."
Richard Berg describes his CONFEDERATE RAILS. "However, unlike most rail games, there is not only no line building, but the network is shrinking as the war progresses."
Phil Eklund tells us about his new zeppelins-at-war game FLYING FLATTOP. "The 1921 Naval Treatyseverely restricted the naval tonnage that could be produced, but Zeppelins, literally weightless, did not count against these limits."
Peter McCord reviews FALLSCHIRMJAEGER."This is the game for players who are sick and tired of playing German dominated games, where the German player mops up the whole map and he either wins or quits before the Allies can come back."
Larry Welborn reviews FORMULA MOTOR RACING. "...definitely a game that emphasizes fun over simulation."
Craig Massey reviews GALLOPING PIGS. "...works even better when you and the kids are looking to ham it up with a quick game."
Greg Schloesser offers brief comments about 18 or so games nominated for the 2001 GAMERS' CHOICE AWARDS. "This just has to win the award for the game that should have been published in English, but wasn't."
2001 Gamers' Choice Awards
Spiel des Jahres

Jerry Capria's cartoon takes a light-hearted look at balloon racing.
Rick Heli answers our questions about BALMY BALLOONISTS.
David Sidore reviews BALMY BALLOONISTS.
Darrell Hanning reviews STARFARERS OF CATAN. "The sound produced by the shaking bears a disturbing resemblance to the sound of a baby's rattle, and then the pretty-colored balls plop out the bottom. It's almost enough to make you want to teethe."
Darrell Hanning reviews CAROLUS MAGNUS. "....has terrific acceleration, excellent handling in the curves, but starts to shake uncontrollably at the higher speeds."
Peter McCord reviews SIMPLE GREAT BATTLES OF HISTORY and HANNIBAL AT BAY.
Mike Bialecki reviews MEUTERER.
Craig Massey reviews MEUTERER.
Larry Welborn reviews THE HILLS RISE WILD! "...this game is H.P. Lovecraft meets Deliverance."
Richard Grant suggests that the dramatic/episodic scale is a neglected factor in game criticism.
Dave Bernazzani reviews BABEL and SAN MARCO.
Frank Branham gives us the scoop on DIA DIE LOS MUERTOS.
Neil Carr suggest a few German Games that have some of the wheel and deal of DIPLOMACY.
Joe Willette reviews ROADS & BOATS.
Dave Richtmyer reviews DUNE.

Scott Reeves' cartoon examines the role of dice in American Civil War battles.
Larry Welborn provides a very good review of BATTLE CRY. (And, it goes well with the cartoon.)
K-ban seems quite taken with The Laughing Monk playing piece in ESCHNAPUR.
Greg Schloesser tells us about The Gamers' Choice Awards, and, never at a loss for words about Games, comments on the nominees.
Dave Bernazzani suggests multi-player games that are also good two-player games.
Scott Tullis lists the games he and his nine-year-old daughter enjoy.
Bruno Faidutti tells us how CITADES (or OHNE FUCHT UND ADEL)came to be.
Leo Colovini tells us the CAROLUS MAGNUS story.

Neil Carr tells you "How To Get Your Wargaming Fix Amidst A Sea Of German Games".
Mark Jackson takes a look at DILEMMA, OHNE FURCHT & ADEL, SCHWEINS-GALLOPP,
SOLCHES STROLCHE, TIME PIRATES, VAMPIRE, and WEB OF POWER.
Peter McCord reviews BRANDYWINE and DRIVE ON PARIS.
Greg Schloesser offers short critiques of last year’s Essen games.
Gary Graber, editor of PANZERSCHRECK, tells you about his DTP magazine with a game.
Joe Willette provides short reviews of SCHRILLE STILLE, STEPHENSON’S ROCKET, CARABANDE, and HELLRAILS.
John Leggat picks the 10 games he will have with him the next time he is marooned on a desert island.

K-ban looks at good German games in small packages and responds to Krasner.
Peter McCord reviews WAR IN EUROPE.
Greg Schloesser picks the best German card games.
Charles Vasey takes a look at the state of Desk Top Publishing
Bill Krasner proves, once again, that we pay him too much for his articles.