Spiel des Huh?

In 1996 the Spiel des Jahres nominees included El Grande (winner), Get the Goods, Mu & Mehr and Carabande.

One year later, Bohnanza, Expedition, Lowenherz and the Settlers of Catan Card Game were in the hunt.

Elfenland (winner), Basari, Caesar & Cleopatra, Durch die Wuste, Euphrat & Tigris, Gipf and Die Macher were all in the race in 1998. My god, look at those titles! Only as I'm sitting here typing this do I realize that three of my top ten games of all time were released and nominated for Spiel des Jahres '98. Whew!

Let's look at the list for 2006:

• Aqua Romana (Queen Games)
• Blue Moon City (Kosmos)
• Just 4 Fun (Kosmos)
• Seeräuber (Queen Games)
• Thurn und Taxis (Hans im Glück)

I've heard of Aqua Romana, but it hasn't delivered enough buzz to inspire me to play it. That's not a knock against the game. I don't know anything about it.

I avoided Blue Moon City because I wasn't exactly knocked out by the cardgame bearing the same name. I've recently learned that the games are alike in title only, so I'll be needing to give BMC a try. Besides, Chris Farrell gives it high praise, and that's good enough for me. Chris is one of the few voices in the game community who could have convinced me to give Beowulf a second chance. I haven't done so, yet, but I haven't sold it away, either.

Just 4 Fun? Horrible, horrible name. Unfortunately, that's all I know about it.

Seerauber? Never heard of it. Of course, that's not meant to be an indictment against it. I guess I'm just not getting around.

Finally, there's Thurn und Taxis, the little game that could. Living under the shadow of Caylus all these months can't have been easy, but if all goes as planned, it should have the last laugh. I didn't find it to be particularly compelling, but I'm having a bad year.

So, where is all of this leading? I suppose I have to admit that, for the first time since I became a Eurogamer back in 1996, I could really care less who wins the Spiel des Jahres this year.

And it bothers me that I don't care.

It's not the jury's fault. 2005 was not a great year. It pains me to say this, but they're just not making them like they used to. We're seeing alot of recycled mechanics and systems. The fresh ideas that turned me on only ten short years ago have become stale and tired. I have to ask you Eurogames, "What have you done for me lately?"

I have many friends who have huge game collections. Due to the understandable desire to play the latest and newest titles, many quality games get precious little table time before the next new batch comes along. Sometimes we kiddingly suggest how nice it would be if the game companies would stop printing games for a year or two so we could catch up. To those friends, I would suggest that it's happening now. The games that are coming out today are not the ones we'll be talking about tomorrow. We're in a holding pattern, churning out the same basic games until some worthy design team can make us gasp and exclaim, "Wow, I didn't know a game could do that!"

You can't blame the game companies. They have to publish something. They can't just say, "Well, we couldn't find any monumental advances in game design, so we're going to take the year off." They have to publish what they think will make money, and their only indicators are what has sold well in the past. So you end up getting expansions, rethemed Knizias, or the latest Frankenstein's monster (Carcassonne meets Settlers meets Bohnanza...).

So who do we blame?

I think we have to start with the designers. Naturally, I will include myself, although in the scheme of things I'm still learning to crawl. Without naming names or going into details, I've found myself scratching my head when reading the rules to many new games. In many cases I've felt like the designer has settled for something much less than he or she had the ability to deliver. I think to myself, "Wow, if I had designed this, I wouldn't be very excited about showing it to a publisher."

But these games get sold and published. Every time I see one I'm tempted to pull out my bottom shelf prototypes. These are prototypes that work properly, are more-than-slightly derivative, and have absolutely no zing!

zing (n): That undefinable (!) quality in a new game that makes your heart pump just a little bit faster.

You know zing when you feel it. It makes you sit up in your chair and smile. It makes you excited about playing a game a second time, even before you've played it once. You know it's going to be that good. Zing has balls enough to say, "Look I know you've already got three hundred games in your closet, but there ain't nothing like me!"

Yes, as a new designer, I've designed many a zing-free game. And some might argue that I've even got one or two published.

Getting back to the topic at hand, how many of these current SdJ nominees have that zing? Well, given that I've only played one of them, I can't fairly say. I can tell you that my hopes are not high.

I hope I'm wrong.

Rapture

Everett and I finally got a chance to play this last night. I must tell you it was one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I have had in quite a long time. We both enjoyed it. The game did have a few swings, but I think the U.S. (me) only had the lead one time. Toward the end of the game I realized that I had no shot of winning unless I made a mad dash to control Europe. Naturally, this meant I had to forsake the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the U.S.S.R. (Everett) played a well-timed OPEC card that sealed my fate. How ironic that I was seriously considering shutting down the OPEC option just a turn earlier. Ah well. It was great fun.

For those unaware, Twilight Struggle is a card-driven game based on the Cold War, 1945-1989. However, to say that Twilight Struggle is a wargame is kinda like saying Def Leppard was a heavy metal band. It walks the walk, but it doesn't exactly talk the talk, if you know what i mean. Really, it's an area influence game. Some have criticized it for being chrome-laden and fiddly. Perhaps, but I'm usually pretty sensitive about both of those characteristics, yet I didn't feel the game was overly burdened with either. As is typical with this type of game, the theme is injected rather artificially via cards. Read a card and feel the theme wash over you. Maybe not? Okay fine, but it was still a fun time. And it made both of us wish we had paid attention more in history class. Fortunately, the rules contain a brief history explaining the background of each card in the game. Nice touch, and something I'll be reading. Someday. Maybe.

Many have complained about the overriding luck in the game, and I'd be lying if I told you a bad hand couldn't severely punish you. However, as a lover of cardgames, I find this to be perfectly acceptable. I typically don't judge a game based on how likely it is that the best player will win. I judge it based on much fun I have wrestling with my fate.

I should mention that one of the reasons I love this game so much is because I secretly wish I had the stuff to be a wargamer. I'll admit it -- I just don't have the patience for the thick rulebooks and I certainly don't have the time to commit to such games. I do enjoy a game of Titan every now and then, but Titan has the advantage of not being tied to an historic theme, meaning that designers didn't have to crowbar a multitide of specific details to create a simulation. Anyway, while playing Twilight Struggle I sorta felt like I was playing a real wargame, even though in my heart I knew I wasn't. As simple as the game is (for a real wargamer) it ranks up there with the most complex games I've ever had the opportunity to play. I have played Hannibal and We The People (two other card-driven wargames) but I never was able to grasp the totality of those games. That wasn't the case with Twilight Struggle. It only took a turn or two before I was able to really see the game and not only comprehend its objectives, but formulate strategies on how to reach them.

Where In The Welt?

Do you know Brett Spiel Welt?

www.brettspielwelt.de

Otherwise known in the gaming community as BSW, it's the single greatest community for realtime online Eurogaming. The site is in German but you can find all you need to know in English at:

http://www.brettspielwelt.info/

My user name is 'Snoop'. If you're signed on between 11 pm and midnight (EST), chances are decent I'll be milling around. Look me up.

Oh, and if you play in the Welt, leave a comment here with your user name.

My Top 100 List

If you want to know more about the games I love, you can find my personal top 100 list here:

http://snoopslist.blogspot.com/

Know Thy Gaming Self

I'm finding that the more I get to play games regularly, the more I'm finding out which kind of games I really enjoy playing -- as opposed to the kind of games I *feel* like I *should* enjoy playing.

Case in Point: Struggle of Empires
I was really looking forward to playing this one. I read the rules no less than four times just to make sure I had a decent handle on how to play and how to teach. However, I still ended up having to read the rules to the other players, which is NEVER an ideal way to learn/teach a game. I think it must boil down to the fact that some games have just too many rules. Struggle of Empires is one of those games for me. Notwithstanding the fact that I sucked at it and found myself in a huge hole with at LEAST 90 minutes left to play -- the game just wasn't that much fun for me. There was just too much to think about. As much as I recognize the fine design of the game, it made me feel REALLY inadequate as a gamer, and that's not fun when that feeling lasts for 3+ hours. Having written this I'm kinda nervous about how I'll feel about Friedrich. Hmm. Anyway, this one is hitting the trade pile.

Case in Point: Il Principe
Here was another one that sounded REALLY clever when I read the rules, but became a tedious mess in practice. As Valerie very astutely observed, "there were just too many moving parts." I could not have said it better myself. All the mechanics were so tightly connected and there were about a buttzillion different ways to score. I felt like I was spinning plates on the Ed Sullivan show. Plus, my play area was too busy -- I needed room for my tiles, my cards (those on the table *and* those in my hand) plus the fact that some cards were face up and some were face down -- whew. All a whirlwind of activity that felt more like work than play. Trade pile.

Case in Point: Tichu
Now here's a game I love and that I really need to play more often. Yes, it's a bit rules heavy for a cardgame, but once you've got those rules down there's a wide range of options you can apply to each hand. This is the kind of game I could play at least once a week.

May 6 Game Day

MAY 6 GAME DAY

Greetings,

A big honkin' group of gamers showed up at my brother's place on Saturday. Let's get started, shall we?

On the table: All Wound Up, Covert Action, Domaine, Il Principe, Pickomino, Samurai, Struggle of Empires, Tichu, Ticket to Ride: Marklin, Traumfabrik, Vegas Showdown

At the table: Alec, Duane, Everett, Jake, Jim, Ken, Lisa, Snoop, Steve, Valerie

[Note: I'm recovering from a nasty cold, so these descriptions are going to be short and sweet.]

In Alphabetical Order [for your protection]:

Winner in [ ]

ALL WOUND UP

Players: [Steve], Alec, Everett, Valerie

This was going on in the other room while the *men* were playing a REAL game (Struggle of Empires). All I know is that there were some wind up figures waddling across the board. My only real thoughts were: "I can't believe it's taking so long."

PROTOTYPE

Players: Snoop, Jim, Steve, Duane, [Alec], Jake

A prototype from Jacob Davenport. I don't want to post a description online because it is still in development.

DOMAINE

Players: Ken, Lisa, [Duane], Steve

This is the streamlined version of Lowenherz from Klaus Teuber. I've played Lowenherz several times and love it, but I cannot honestly recall whether I've played Domaine. Lowenherz is more cut-throat, and Domaine removes some of that tension. Still, everyone seemed to like it well enough.

IL PRINCIPE

Players: Snoop, Val, [Jake], Jim, Alec

What a disappointment. You can read my comments elsewhere on this forum so I won't repeat them. I will mention that my sister came into the room when we were starting this game and she had a friggin' parrot with her. That would have been fine except that the damn bird swooped down onto the board just as we were getting started and everything scattered. Thank goodness we weren't in the middle of our game, else it would have been impossible to reassemble. Sheesh.

PICKOMINO

Players: Everett, [Steve], Valerie, Alec

Dice-rolling filler from Knizia. Has a Can't Stop element to it. I'd rather play Can't Stop.

SAMURAI

Players: [Jim], Alec, Snoop, Jake

I taught this classic to Jake, since it was on his to-try list. Its brilliance did not disappoint. This is a wonderful game that scales beautifully for 2,3 or 4 players. One of my all time favorites.

STRUGGLE OF EMPIRES

Players: [Duane], Jake, Snoop, Jim, Ken

The BIG game of the day. I had been looking forward to this for so long, but it ended up being just a bit too much for me to handle (not the game's fault). You can read my other comments elsewhere on this forum.

TICHU

Players: Jim & Lisa vs. [Jake & Snoop]

Ah, now we're talking. Unfortunately, our opponents didn't have a very good time, as the final score was 1025 - 75. You can read my further comments elsewhere on this forum.

TICKET TO RIDE: MARKLIN

Players: [Alec], Steve, Valerie

The third rendition of Ticket To Ride. Alec has told me that this is his favorite version -- which makes sense since he is undefeated at it (2-0). So far I prefer the original.

TRAUMFABRIK

Players: Lisa, Jim, Duane, Everett, [Snoop]

Traumfabrik is affectionately known as the *fourth* game in Knizia's bidding trilogy (Medici, Ra, Modern Art). Much the same as Rheinlander is the *fourth* game in his tile-laying trilogy (E&T, Through the Desert, Samurai). At any rate, Traumfabrik is one of Knizia's best themed games -- you're trying to score points by producing the best films. The bidding evolution is very cyclical -- the winning bid is evenly distributed between the other players. In other words, if you win an auction now, it may be awhile before you win another. I paid a heavy price early in the game but it helped me snag the Best Picture vote two turns in a row. It also won for best Comedy, which pretty much sealed the deal for me. Lisa came close, though.

VEGAS SHOWDOWN

Players: [Alec], Jake, Val, Ken, Steve

Vegas Showdown is AH's attempt to Euro-ize their games. As I see it, Vegas Showdown is an attempted middle ground between Knizia's AMUN RE (which I don't like) and Kramer's PRINCES OF FLORENCE (which I do). I can't say I found it all that exciting, but it's nice that AH is moving in this direction. I was SHOCKED that Alec won the game so handily. He's a decent little gamer, but I would have thought Vegas Showdown would have been too conceptually abstract to maintain his interest. A proud papa, I am.

They Must Be Idiots

I just found out that You Must Be An Idiot! was submitted to Mensa for their Mensa Select Awards. You may have seen the sticker on some board/card games. Every year five games are chosen as Mensa Select Games. The bad news is that YMBAI was *not* selected to receive a Mensa Select Award. The good news is that at least one of the judges (Wei-Hwa Huang) rated the game the best of the competition, giving it 27 points out of a possible 30. While I am disappointed with the overall result, I have to admit that it's hard to imagine a group of Mensans enjoying YMBAI. Supposedly they know EVERYTHING, so it could be tough to pretend to be an idiot. Ah well.


Oh, I forgot... Wits and Wagers, designed by my good friend, Dominic Crapuchettes, was chosen to win a Mensa Select Award. The part of me that isn't jealous (hmmph!) is very happy for Dominic!

Blame Mr. Winky

Hello.

This blog is Ed Rozmiarek's fault. He e-mailed me asking if "Diary of a Mad Gamer" was dead already. Ya see, DOAMG was going to kick off with reports from the 2006 Gathering of Friends. When I could not get an internet connection in my room all week, the idea kinda fizzled, along with my motivation to create a regular gaming blog. See, by nature, I'm really lazy.

Anyway, I do post somewhat regularly to a few forums here and there. I'll repost the best of those posts here, as well as session reports from my local gaming group -- the Tidewater Strategy Group. You can find us on the web here:

www.tidewaterstrategygroup.org