function from chipboard-type terrain overlays found in other games, such as MARINE: 2002 (1979), BATTLES AND LEADERS (1981), or more recently, LA CITTA and TIKAL. While their transparency is unusual, they are - in fact - covering nothing the players need to know (the game board is nothing more than a collection of hexes, void of any informational content); they simply subject planet location to a pseudo-random process.
     I had hoped for more, I suppose. When it comes to wargames, a common quote in their defense is "those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it". I mean, that's one of the reasons we play wargames, isn't it? Funny as it may sound, this should not apply just to playing wargames, but also to designing them. I don't, as a rule, have a problem with game designers "adopting" methods originally pioneered by someone else, if the application of the method differs in some significant way, such as lifting Dunnigan's combined movement-combat system from NEXT WAR for use in, say, interstellar movement. What I do have a problem with is buying a "new" interstellar-conflict game that amounts to nothing more than an ala carte collection of pre-existing mechanisms (good and bad). When STELLAR CONQUEST covered much of this same territory over twenty years ago, it was considered somewhat ground-breaking. When JUMP does it all over again, the comparisons are inevitable, and the salient conclusion must form as the question "Why bother?" I suppose there is a small but non-zero chance that the Niecikowski boys thought they were really coming up with something new, but then they do call themselves the "Evil" Polish Brothers. Hmm.
     All this being said, I can definitely recommend against JUMP INTO THE UNKNOWN for the grognard. For someone relatively new to wargaming, the recommendation would be to play someone else's copy before you spend your own money on it.

     Darrell Hanning lives in Jacksonville, Florida, welcomes any and all feedback on his opinions about boardgames, and can be reached at darrellkh@aol.com. He has been playing strategy games since 1962, wargames since 1968, and is currently addicted to German-style games.

THE ORIGIN OF "MORISI"
by Corné van Moorsel

     In October a new Cwali game will be released. The name of the game is MORISI, which is the 2, 3 and 4 players version of the 2 players game ISI (sold last year). In MORISI the players try to connect cities (tiles) by their trade routes. These routes go through 5 types of land (tiles). Before players can build trade routes, they must acquire knowledge about the trade in the different types of land. To get that knowledge (symbolized by corresponding coloured blocks) the players travel through Morisi. A player can use his collected knowledge to build trade routes (symbolized by sticks in your colour). By connecting cities by trade routes players get more power in these cities (symbolized by own-colour houses). The goal is to get many houses in the biggest cities and to have houses in many different cities.
     June 1999 I attended the Gottingen meeting where at about 150 tables people show their new and less new games. It is a good opportunity to get attention for you're new games or games in development. It also is an inspiring meeting to see so many games there and I took the opportunity to play many games. The new ideas can be inspiring but my experience is that the inspiration mostly is caused by the things that are missing in games or the things I would like in an other way. After the Gottingen weekend I had a strong feeling about the game I wanted to make. A clear combination of your actions on micro-level and the influence of your actions on the macro-level of the game, a combination of theme and player-actions which is visual and explainable in one sentense and an easy mechanism for planning far forward in the game combined with influenses on your planning by the moves of your opponent(s) were the things I desired the most after the Gottingen weekend.
     So what I wanted to get in a game was more a feeling than a defined set of rules but it only took a few weeks to find a set of rules to cause the right feeling. At that point an addiction to that game started. Then you feel contentment about making a game that fullfills your wishes but in fact the long traject of improving the game little by little then starts.
     Besides inventing games which I like myself I also sell the games and the Essen-Spiel-fair was not far away. It became my third year with a booth in Essen so I already learned that the production of games is a combination of what you want and what you can do and what the visitors of the fairs want. That's how the 200-copies-edition of ISI emerged.
     In the paragraph above you may recognize a way of attempting the development of new games. My thematical games are in most cases a combination of a theme on 'macro-economical' level and clear (and visual) micro-economical actions by the players (see also OCEAN and SMART). My interest goes to combining the micro- and macro-level, in a way that players don't feel those two parts are seperated in the game.

     That inductive and deductive approach to the theme combined in one game is the way I handle a theme and in my opinion also the way which attracts attention to games. At one side you are strongly aware of what you are doing in the game (in ISI/MORISI you travel through the land, visit different types of land and build routes between the cities), at the other side you see what the influences of your actions are on a bigger thematical level (the cities grow, symbolized by houses and you see which cities develope to become the most important cities in the land, determined by favorable positions for cities in the landscape and by the actions of the players).
     After the Essen fair the first playtest of MORISI, with hexagon tiles and 2 or 3 or 4 players, started. I had no expectations about that at all and made many new rules but during the experiments it became clear that it worked good without many changes. The game still has no luck and the victory still seems to be uncertain untill the last moves in most sessions.
     One important change is the use of own-colour houses. That makes the most difficult part of the game much more easy. The screens for the players are also an improvement in MORISI. Besides the rule changes caused by the changing from squares to hexagons and the change from the two-players-game ISI to the more-players-game MORISI, I added a new variation-rule: The cities have names in MORISI and the players can try to predict which cities become the biggest cities. You hold your predictions secret and you get points by good and half-good predictions at the end of the game.
     More than three years ago I started to buy carton, paint, glue and more, made a game and a puzzle with that and hired a simple standplace at the saturday market in Maastricht. The puzzle attracted the most attention and it sold quite a bit. Since then there was a progressive growth in the production. This year I started to make 1000-copies-editions, first started with the small abstract game DUTCH MOUNTAINS. The larger editions make other ways of production possible. That's where a large part of my attention went to this year. ISI had an abstract appearance. I hope players will like the new MORISI also for the artwork this time.

     Corné van Moorsel is the head of Cwali and the author and publisher of MORISI and several other innovative and delightful games.

YEAR 2000 - A MID-YEAR REVIEW
by Greg J. Schloesser

     With the much anticipated Essen Toy Fair approaching [okay-so this issue of Game Notes is way past due -Ed.], complete with its flood of new games, it's time to take a look back at a selection of the games which have been released so far during the millenium year. Well, so technically this isn't the millenium year, but it sure sounds good to say so.
     So, here's a brief assessment of the year's games, with a quick rating. I've tried to indicate if my experience with the game has been limited.
     DIE FURSTEN VON FLORENZ: Fabulous. Along with TAJ MAHAL, this is the best of the year so far. It's a shame that it didn't even receive a Spiel des Jahre nomination. The game melds quite a few mechanics and forces players to make lots of tough decisions. Another hit for Herr Wolfgang Kramer. Rating: 9
     TAJ MAHAL: Without reservation I recommend this one as one of Knizia's best. There are so many strategies to pursue, so much tension involved in the game, that it is a true joy to play. I'm not a Poker player, but I can appreciate the distinct Poker feel to the card management and play involved. This one is a gem. Rating: 9
     WEB OF POWER (KARDINAL & KONIG): This is a very good game which plays in less than an hour, which is a rarity in a game with such depth and various strategies to pursue. The board play does get a bit limiting in the later stages of the second round, but the strategy involved and brevity of time it takes to play will make this one a regular visitor to the table. Rating: 7.5
     CAROLUS MAGNUS: Very tactical game requiring a great deal of thought before each move. It may be a bit 'dry' for some tastes and can be a bit prone to the 'luck of the dice', but there are several easy variants to reduce this luck factor. A big feature is that the game plays wonderfully with three players, a true rarity. For this reason alone it should see repeated playings. Rating: 7
     DIE KAUFLEUTE VON AMSTERDAM: First playing left me cold, but I've since played many more times and have come to greatly appreciate the game. It isn't an all-time great, but it's good. Fun auction element which can actually be quite tense, but the meat of the game is in the choices of where to allocate the tokens. I still don't know why some folks didn't like the clock mechanism. To me it adds tension to the proceedings. Rating: 7
     LA CITTA: What a gorgeous game this is, but the board does get a bit cluttered and busy as the game progresses. The biggest complaint against the game is that it is LONG, usually 3 - 4 hours. There's a lot to think about and proper planning

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