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For the
record, I'm terrible at this
game, but love playing it. I'm sure several pets out there could
beat me at it.
CAESAR & CLEOPATRA by Wolfgang
Ludtke is a card game where the players are fighting for the
independence of Egypt with one player taking the role of Rome
and the other playing the Egyptians. Players attempt to influence
a group of patricians through the use of special cards and actions.
The card play allows for some interesting tactical play where
some information is hidden and other information isn't. In the
end, the side with the most influence over the patricians wins.
The game hums along just under 45 minutes and given the amount
of choice players have, has great replay value.
HERA & ZEUS is a relatively
new game by Richard Borg (see Larry Welborn's review in Game
Notes #6). The theme for this one is an Olympus size feud between
Zeus and his jealous wife Hera. Players represent the two sides
that are represented by a deck of cards showing other Greek
gods and heroes. Each player creates a grid of his cards (3x4)
face down and then attempts to attack the other player's resources
in an attempt to find one particular card - Zeus is searching
for Io and Hera is searching for Argus. The game feels very
much like Stratego with cards, but plays much deeper than that
as players use other cards for special actions. There are several
ways to win the game with playtime ranging from a few minutes
to around 40. As with the other games, the initial rules are
very simple, but the different cards and actions allow for a
deeper level of strategic thinking and the Greek theme is great.
This has rapidly become a favorite two-player option for me.
Finally, the latest game in the
Kosmos/Rio Grande Games two player series is THE REEF. I have
to admit that I haven't played this game yet so I'll let you
be the judge, but I strongly suspect that once again the rules
are easy to pick up, and game play will be just over a half
hour.
So, the next time you hear someone
ask, "What do you want to do?" pull one of these off
the shelf. To beat a dead horse, they are quick - all playing
under 45 minutes, have a fun theme, and are simple to learn
and play while offering a very good level of strategic choice
and tactical decisions. These games really do pack a lot of
bang for the buck and they beat the heck out of watching the
Weather Channel.
Craig
Massey is from Wakefield, MA and is the Boardgame Chair for the
Strategic Game Society. He enjoys a huge variety of games and
plays with several Boston area groups. In his spare time when
not playing games, he often watches the Weather Channel.
NEW RELEASES BY SPLOTTER
by Joris Wiersinga, Tamara Jannink, Herman Haverkort
Splotter
is a small gaming company, founded by three Dutch students (Joris,
Tamara and Herman) in 1997. We publish games that have been
developed and play-tested at the Leiden Gaming Society `Het
Duivelsei' (co-founded by two of us in 1994). We have published
8 `public' games in the past three years, mostly in limited
print runs (25-100 copies). We used to make these games by hand,
printing them on our ink jet printer and cutting them in tedious
weekends, packing them in the car driving to Essen, and selling
everything out on the second day... This year, we will be
publishing three of our most succesful games in a larger print
run (150-500 copies).
ROADS
& BOATS
ROADS
& BOATS is an epic game in which players build up a civilization;
to do so, they must develop roads, donkeys, steam ships, woodcutters,
a stock exchange... Unlike most strategic games, ROADS AND BOATS
is not about territory. In fact, there is no true concept of
territory-nor can you truly `own' any of the resources. Instead,
the game is about developing a strong infrastructure of roads,
factories and transporters.
As ROADS & BOATS is played
on a variable map, one can play a myriad of different scenario's
(16 are included) which require completely different strategies.
The game lasts about 4 hours (or more if you are inexperienced),
and is quite complicated.
We designed ROADS & BOATS
over a period of years, but never intended to publish it. In
fact, we thought a game like this could not be sold, certainly
not at the high price we're forced to ask. We were very surprised
last year to see our limited print run sell out in Essen before
the fair had even started! This year, we've designed a new,
larger box; printed and cut all pieces professionally; and made
500 copies, which we hope will be enough to satisfy all those
gamers out there!
BUS
Our
second game is called BUS. This is a game in which players
develop a bus route through an ever expanding city.
The people who inhabit this city have a very boring life: they
work, drink and sleep
all year round. To go from the office to a
bar, and to go home
later in the evening, they need a good
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bus system.
Luckily, 3-5 players are developing just that. In fact, this
often leads to over-capacity, so that players have to compete
to attract the scarce passengers to their buses!
BUS is a game of smart tactics,
in which interaction is very important-but it is even more vital
to be able to outsmart your opponents. Players can invest in
buying buses, expanding their lines, get better time schedules
(that is: drive before anyone else does), or attracting more
passengers and/or houses, bars and offices to the city. This
makes for a large range of choices each turn, which have to
be carefully balanced, as your resources are very limited...
We've published BUS in a limited
print run last year, featuring a very nice city plan on which
all Splotter games and a lot of other famous games can be recognized...
We've redesigned part of the game this year, and improved the
quality of playing material. BUS is published in a print run
of 150 copies.
D'R AF
D'R
AF is a new (third) edition of the first game we ever published.
The first two editions were made by hand-this one has been printed
and cut professionally, in a (much) larger print run.
The game is about racing on a
crowded -and not very well-maintained-highway. This road is
laid down by the players, who use tiles to block others, or
to help themselves to speed up. Of course, the risk of accidents
is higher as the speedometer runs higher and higher... The first
car to drive off wins the game. Which, incidentally, is how
the game got its name: D'R AF is Dutch for `Off it'.
D'R AF was designed late at night
on a gaming weekend of the Leiden gaming society `Duivelsei',
by a group of five authors. It's a short, funny and very interactive
game, much less strategic than our other two releases.
WHAT'S TO
COME
After
Essen, we will be working on a horror card game (BEEST); a strategic
game on irrigation, called 1830 B.C. (inspired, as you may have
guessed, on the 18XX gaming system); an expansion set for ROADS
& BOATS; and a war game/railroad game called AFTER BONAPARTE.
Hopefully, these will become available in the course of next
year.
GAME GROUP BEGINNINGS
by Dave Bernazzani
I
have no specific game review this time around. Instead, I have
a story to relate - and possibly a source of inspiration for
those reading who do not already belong to a game group but
find the idea of starting one intriguing.
Last month marked the one year
anniversary of the South Shore Gamers - my game group here in
the south-of-Boston area. The seeds for the South Shore Gamers
were planted back in late 1998 when I picked up a copy of the
latest Games Magazine which featured the prestigiously titled
'Game of the Year'. It was called ELFENLAND and I was curious
about it. I remembered my youth of playing board and card games
with my family (and I was still playing lots of card games at
the time) and decided to plunk down the then $35 for it. It
was difficult - that seemed like an awful lot of money for a
single boardgame (and one that was not in English either!) -
I was accustomed to $12 for SCRABBLE sets at the local Toys-R-Us.
But it arrived two weeks later and soon I was hooked.
My (future) fiancee Jenn and I
played quite a bit that winter - and after Christmas I ordered
another few games - including TIKAL and EL GRANDE. I started
to see that most of these games don't shine with just 2 players
and it was then I realized I needed more people - hmmm... a
game group was in order! I started by looking in the local area
- there was one game store near me that played RPGs and MAGIC:TG
but very few boardgames and nothing that was terribly organized.
The local Barnes & Nobles stores had game nights, but mostly
SCRABBLE and CHESS (although we did go to some of those). Finally,
after not finding what I was looking for, I posted something
small on the rec.games.board newsgroup and was pleasantly surprised
that there was some group activity in the area, but much of
it was a bit too far from me to attend on a regular basis. So
I decided to form a small group in August 1999. Jenn offered
to help me - she has been ever supportive of the group since
before the beginning. Neither one of us were sure what it would
take to form a game group - and our hopes were not very high
when after a month I had no more than a couple of contacts.
I posted messages to rec.games.board, put out the call on my
webpage and Jenn and I posted small flyers in local bookstores,
game shops and libraries. After several attempts and plenty
of effort, we finally got some response and had a list of 6
or 7 interested people. But many fell off supporting the group
quickly (most of
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