Essen 2000 - report from a Newbie (long)
Carl-Gustaf Samuelsson
and I finally arrived at the largest game fair in the world. I've been
looking forward to this for a long time and fortunately it wasn't too hard
to persuade Christina to follow me, although she is not as crazy in board
games as I am.
Thursday 26th of October
-----------------------------
Easy to reach the fair by underground from the station (where we had got a
hotel nearby). Long queues to get in, although it didn't take that long
time. At the wardrobe were they also very quick, although I wished that they
had more boxes instead, which would make it easier to put in games you've
bought.
Anyway, finally into the first large hall, which already was full of people.
One of the first exhibitors we found was Kosmos and one of our targets was
to test Knizia's "Lord of the Ring". We quite soon found the "English demo"
by David Farquhar, Reindeer's co-designer. Some were already playing the
game and we studied them for awhile before we made an appointment for the
next demo. Reiner Knizia himself was a spectator for a while and we
exchanged some words with him.
The next hour did we mostly more or less randomly browse through the 2 first
halls (of altogether 6). Seeing games like, "Keytown" (felt a bit confusing
about it), "Troia" (an archaeological game, which had got some prize). We
went through several of the large exhibitors like Amigo, Ravensburger, Hans
im Glück, but also several smaller ones. Quite a lot of people and it was
amazing to see the large areas of tables, which were full at the most
exhibitors. Felt sorry for some small, who actually had empty tables, but
their games were probably less known. Some exhibitors were specialised in
children's game and other in puzzle games. It was also fun to see
"RoboRally" live! Christina promised to be the robot, if we had the time
and opportunity to play it (although the time passed away too quick for it).
Finally back to "Lord of the Ring", which was a fantastic experience and
both did we fall in love with this masterpiece, although it helped to be a
Tolkien fan. The game rather told the story and everyone played one of it's
Hobbit characters. On the different places should you collect cards and
tokens which could help you to survive all the way to Mount Doom, but more
important, co-operate and even sacrifice yourself for the group and
especially for the current ring-bearer. Probably not a game for hard-core
gamers, who are too competitive! We succeeded to come about halfway on the
last board, so it wasn't that bad. But the game requires that you can read
all the text on both the boards and the cards, so I have to wait for the
English version will come to Sweden. I heard that it would come to the shop
'Tradition' Gothenburg within a couple of weeks, so I've just booked it.
Although it costs more than any other game I've bought (645 SEK = 146 DM!).
It's even worse than the "standard price" for imported games here, which is
up to 500 SEK (112 DM). But on the games official home page, it's sold for
30 GBP (around 95 DM), so the Swedish prize doesn't surprise me. Actually
most of the games on the fair is 2/3 down to half of the price.
A day later on Christina had a talk with David Farquhar, who told here some
about the game. First of all that he worked halftime for Knizia with
preparing of material and play-testing his games. One interesting thing in
the testing of this game was that he had tested on a group of hardcore
gamers, which completely had lost early. Then later on tested it on his
neighbour family, who wasn't that used to games and they succeeded much
better already the first time, as they directly grasped the idea of
co-operating! He was totally surprised how many Germans, who had read the
books wanted the English version instead of the German one! Anyway they will
try to come back with the game to Essen next year, as they count on an extra
mutual promotion with the new movie "Lord of the Rings", although these have
no connection at all.
Then I had an appointment with Ronald Hoekstra. It was great to finally see
the face behind one of my net friends. He had already bought 20 games, but
he should only be there until Friday and had a car with him. He had some
tips to give, before he had to leave.
Then we went to the "used games shops" at the other end of the exhibition.
There did I find a couple of games I've been looking for a while: "Magalon"
(60 DM) and "Wiz-War" (39 DM). Later on I realised that they were really
overpriced! Particularly Wiz-war, as I found that the Chessex counter sold
original games for half the prize! I'm too used to the overprized Swedish
game market, so I didn't react, except when I hold another game, which I've
been looking for: "La Vallée des Mammouths" for 160 DM! I couldn't believe
it. Particularly as I knew that Bruno Faidutti will come out with a revised
and probably better version soon! So I released it reluctantly.
Anyway the last hall contained otherwise a lot of miniature games (i.e.
Games Workshop) and a lot of stuff for live role-playing. On the way back
did we try the well-critiqued game "Morisi". It was a simple and clever
game, without any luck involved, but we didn't like the scoring system. It
made it too complicated to see who was in lead (at least in a 2-player game,
as that was the only we tested). But it's nice to see that one alone person
has made such a good effort in game designing! I'm sure he'll get rid of
most of his 1000 copies.
I heard that Mayfair had copies of "Iron Dragon", which I've been interested
in after trying the PC game demo of this game. But after seeing that it
would take at least 3-4 hours, I realised that cobwebs would cover it, as my
gaming friends prefer quicker games. I know what has happened with both
"Civilization" and "Vikingatid", although I would like to play them again.
We found a really lovely designed card game at the stand, called "Elixir".
We asked for a demo, but the way of the terrible girl at the stand didn't
really encourage us to test it. Anyway it seemed to be more like a "party
game", so it was probably not my cup of tea anyway!
Then we found 3 Germans, who wanted to test "Cartagena" (by Leo Colovini,
the designer of "Carolus Magnus" - a favourite game and the new "Doge"). It'
s a really simple game, but we realised soon that it was an extremely good
game, which would be a good game to fill up with when everyone still want to
play another game, but everyone is too tired for the heavy artillery. It
ended up that both the Germans and we went to buy a copy each (29 DM, as 3
copies gave a reduction).
We went to the hotel an hour before closing time. A quick dinner at a nearby
restaurant as we had to catch up with some lost sleep.
Friday 27th of October
--------------------------
It looked like it was fewer people today (still very full). First we went to
Amigo to try out the card game "König der Elfen" (King of the Elves), as we
both are enjoying "Elfenland" with the "Elfengold" expansion very much. But
it was difficult to find someone, who could explain the rules in English,
because as usual they didn't have any English rules. After a short
explanation and some try did we gave up! Actually they seemed to be quite
uninterested in helping us, although it wasn't that many people there for he
moment..
To the Gold-Sieber stand. We were lucky, as a German woman was sitting alone
waiting for someone to play with. We tried out "Doge" and one of the staff
helped us through the rules in English. Great receptions after being at the
"Amigo" stand. The game had a good interaction and I really liked the game.
The bidding mechanism was simple and clever. I later bought the Rio Grande
Games English version for 59 DM.
After the woman left us, we didn't have to wait long until a Dutch couple
arrived, who wanted to play with us. Fortunately the guy was both good at
German and translating them to English. We tried out "Kardinal & König"
("Web of Power"), but none liked this game. The first half of it felt mostly
like placing out pieces more or less randomly (which isn't really true). The
other half was connecting the territories.
The next game we tried with the Dutch couple and a friend of them, who
joined us, was "Wongar". The theme was about Australian Aborigine
ceremonies. It was great and although a bit messy in the beginning and a bit
luck-based, it was appreciated. (Actually the game has advanced rules, which
eliminate some of the luck.). After heard that I could find English rules on
the net, I bought it for 55 DM.
After a pizza slice did we go to Ravensburger, where we wanted to test "Die
Fürsten von Florenz". This time was we lucky to find an empty table and a
girl in the stand was good at English, but she had to call for a colleague,
who knew the game, but was bad at English! They were so service minded, so
they helped us through the rules together! I thought it was pretty good, but
it can be too much downtime between the players and not really any
interaction between the players.
After that it was time to search for Fréderic Taton (another net friend) and
his wife Solange. They were in the middle of a game of "Lord of the Ring".
It was a good repetition to help them through the last part. Afterwards did
we follow them to the restaurant "Istra" nearby, where a lot of gamers had
gathered for the evening. I had Scott Alden ("boardgamegeek" site) besides
me. There were also Aaron Fuegi (Top 100 list) and some other, whose name I'
ve forgotten. Bruno Faidutti joined us later, after meeting with some
publishers. After the dinner did we go to the Hotel Jung, where people
either went to the bar or (like us) went up to a large room to play some
games. We played with Frederic, Scott, Will and his wife from Texas some
lighter games. First a co-operative memory game "Märchenwald". After that
asked Bruno Faidutti us to test a game prototype, which we didn't mind. It
was a bluffing game called "Macao". You went around 13 casinos with your
piece, to try to earn money. You had 3 cards to play (police, vamp and x2)
to get more money on your own target space and destroy the possibilities for
the other to earn money. It's not bad for a bluffing game, which is not my
first choice of game type. Easy rules and quite good flow, but I prefer his
card game "Citadel". Then we tried a prototype game called "Gossip", which
Will and his wife had brought. But it was a messy catastrophe. Finally we
played the strategy game "Sumera" together with Fréderic and Scott. It was a
nice, all wooden game and it seemed to have a good potential, but I won to
quick and easy. Then the owner realised that he had forgotten one of the
most important rules. Anyway I think I can recommend it. After a quick
brainteaser game called "Flick Werk", Fréderic and Solange drove us back to
our hotel around 2 am.
Saturday 28th of October
-----------------------------
Today did we start at Hans im Glück stand. Just beside had Amigo a
roleplaying demo and I just wonder why the Hans im Glück hadn't strangled
them with their microphone wire yet? They were really noisy! Although it was
even more people at the fair today, it didn't seem as so many had found this
stand. A nice guy there, called Roland, helped us with "Attilla". Actually
he even wanted to join us in the whole game, as he hadn't tried it since the
play testing. I thought it was a beautifully designed game. Quite nice
strategy game, with a mix between "Risk" and a stock market game. But
Christina thought it was rather boring. It was too much about placing pieces
on the board and then scoring now and then. In between conflicts to secure a
province. The designer of the game was also in the stand.
During the game did Will and Scott arrive. We played "Ohne Furst und Adel"
("Citadel") with him and Roland (although Will had played it a lot before).
This was really a great bluffing game. I can realise that Bruuno Faidutti's
was nominated for the game of the year. It was quite easy to get a feeling
of how to play the game and still I could feel that it had much more
potential below the surface. I'm looking forward to play this at home. I
found it later on for 15 DM and I knew that the rules were on the net.
Some food into the stomach and strolling around for a while, before we went
back again. We found a table and a German girl joined us for a test of
"Carcassonne". An easy, but quite clever tile laying game. You build up a
map with the tiles with roads, towns, meadows and monasteries. You try to
control them by playing one of your 7 followers on them and when an entity
is completed, you score it and take back it (if it hasn't become a farmer,
which is scored at the end). We were sure it would be a great filler for the
late game evening, so I found a copy for 23 DM.
We continued with the game "Morgenland" (Aladdin's Dragon). As Roland didn't
know this game so much, so he fetched it's designer Richard Breese, who
explained it for us. It was a beautiful bidding game, which particularly I
become found of, although I didn't manage so well. Anyway it's definitively
worth 45 DM. Richard had a spare copy of the rules, so it would be easier to
play and interpret the spell cards.
After buying the games, was it time to leave. In town was there an Asian
circus on Colosseum Theatre, which we really enjoyed. This was the best
circus we ever had seen (and particularly Christina has seen a lot). It was
a total experience with great dancing and other performances by the acrobats
between and during the different numbers. All the shops in the centre were
opened late this evening. The light decorations in the streets, which Essen
is well known for, were turned on for the first night this autumn. The theme
of the decorations was all the "Bundes republicen" in Germany and they all
had their own marketing cottage in the streets. The city gave a much better
impression than we had anticipated before!
Sunday 29th of October
---------------------------
Back to the last day of gaming. Today it was once again a lot of people. We
found a couple of English guys called Andy and Martin at a Ravensburger
table, with whom we played "Java". The rules were in German, French and
Italian, so we had to struggle through a translation of the French rules
(why not English rules?). A Ravensburger guy came and asked if we wanted
help, when we had reached the last page! Only the "festival cards" give any
luck in the game. Otherwise it is only skill. Although you think the design
looks a lot like "Tikal", it's a completely different game. The 6 action
points mostly feels quite enough, compared to the 10 in "Tikal". It's a good
game, but without that many interactions. It flowed quite well for us, but
with players who always think a lot, it will be terrible, with much
downtime.
At Schmidt Spiel we did run to a table, which just became free. A friend to
Andy and Martin joined us as well. There did we try a game called
"Eschnapur". It was a nice game, which looked very tempting. The bidding
and negotiations were a bit confusing and the drawing of cards made the game
too luck-based, so it became soon less interesting.
After eating and strolling around for a while, Christina went to see a
handball match between Essen and Bayern in the "Bundeslige". I finally got a
table at Kosmos to play "La Città". I had got English rules (a printout from
Internet) from Andy before (Thanx Andy!). I had to stop several, who wanted
to have the table but not playing this game, before 3 Germans eventually
joined me for a game. I really enjoyed it! It gives a "déjà vu" experience
for anyone, who ever has played the PC game "Civilization". Expanding your
cities by building them large enough, so there is place for new citizens and
guessing what they would like (of health, education or culture) during the
current game year. (It costs 1 turn out of 5 to check it out.) See to that
the farms give enough food to the expanding population. Getting enough gold
through "building" mines. If your neighbour city/cities has more of their
current preference, one of your citizens will emigrate at the end of the
game year. Unfortunately it's quite a lot of text on the cards, so I prefer
an English edition (which costs 445 SEK (100 DM) at Tradition).
With a night train did we return to Sweden with 8 new games and 2 "wishes"
and I can summary the fair with:
- Don't expect cheap bargains among the "used games" section. You can even
find shrink-wrapped games elsewhere for the same price or lower!
- Print out English rules from Internet on every game that you expect to
try. Still I can't understand why the publishers don't have a few copies of
English rules at the stands. There is a LOT of English talking people around
and it'll give goodwill, as well as less work for those who are working
there.
- It's noisy and crowded. Particular in the entrance hall (no 12) and along
the main route to the other halls. You need to be patient and quick to get a
table.
- Even if you are alone or just 2 together, it's easy to find nice people to
play with.
- The fair had succeeded to avoid most of out-of-subject stands. Only a few
PC game sellers and one sweet merchandiser.
- They had mostly an effective queue handling for food, garderobe etc.
I'll definitively come back within some years, although it's a bit to
travel.
/Carl
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Mark Johnson
in <dqmM5.4050$jv2.4...@newsc.telia.net>:
>"La Vallée des Mammouths" for 160 DM! I couldn't
>believe it. Particularly as I knew that Bruno Faidutti will come out
>with a revised and probably better version soon!
Any more word on this? I'm also eagerly awaiting a revised version.
-MJ
--
"German" game mailing list http://www.egroups.com/group/spielfrieks
My own local group http://go.to/SantaClaritaBoardgamers
Michael Edwards
Must...make...Essen...someday...
--
Mike Edwards - Shoreline, WA, USA
Mik Svellov
Carl-Gustaf Samuelsson:
>Lord of the Rings
>English version will come to Sweden. I heard that it would come to the shop
>'Tradition' Gothenburg within a couple of weeks, so I've just booked it.
>Although it costs more than any other game I've bought (645 SEK = 146 DM!).
Now that Sweden has joined the EU you can save yourself quite a lot of money
buying directly in Germany and England via the Internet - without any hassle
from the customs. There are many good and trustworthy dealers on the Net.
>Then I had an appointment with Ronald Hoekstra. It was great to finally see
>the face behind one of my net friends. He had already bought 20 games, but
>he should only be there until Friday and had a car with him.
Not having a car is no excuse! (Especially not as the Nord-Express is always
half empty). All you have to do is to pack the smaller boxes into the bigger
ones. Cardboard inlays can be flattened out and placed in your suitcase with
your shirts for extra space.
>There did I find a couple of games I've been looking for a while: "Magalon"
>(60 DM).
Hey! Magalonians rules!
(or should that be "Never give a Sucker an even Break" ? :-)
I hope you didn't visit the Kaufhof in town afterwards.
Whoa! You didn't like K&K? Maybe you should try it again some day.
>The next game we tried with the Dutch couple and a friend of them, who
>joined us, was "Wongar". The theme was about Australian Aborigine
>ceremonies. It was great and although a bit messy in the beginning and a
bit
>luck-based, it was appreciated. (Actually the game has advanced rules,
which
>eliminate some of the luck.). After heard that I could find English rules
on
>the net, I bought it for 55 DM.
See my Games section on Brett & Board. (Incidentally I was carrying the
Danish translation for Loewenherz with me, but we never met).
>The rules were in German, French and
>Italian, so we had to struggle through a translation of the French rules
>(why not English rules?).
The English edition is being done by Rio Grande Games - I am not sure Jay
would like everyone to buy the cheaper German version.
>- Print out English rules from Internet on every game that you expect to
>try. Still I can't understand why the publishers don't have a few copies of
>English rules at the stands.
Several reasons for this: First of all are most of the new games barely
finished when revealed at the Spiel fair so no-one would have had a chance
to translate the rules yet. Secondly are the sale outside Germany counted in
o/oo of the German market, so the companies has absolutely no incentive to
waste money. It probably doesn't help either, that so many of us are willing
to do the job without payment anyway...
Rio Grande Games and a few others are doing a nice (but small) business
selling games with rules in English, but the profit is not nearly good
enough to entice the German publishers.
Mik
The Doctor
>
> - The fair had succeeded to avoid most of out-of-subject stands. Only a few
> PC game sellers and one sweet merchandiser.
So I guess you are not refilling your printers inkjet cartridges yet? ;)
//Doc.
Bruno Faidutti
Mark.E....@pobox.com (Mark Johnson) wrote (écrivait) :
> globetrotter@REMOVETHIS_crosswinds.net (Carl-Gustaf Samuelsson) wrote
> in <dqmM5.4050$jv2.4...@newsc.telia.net>:
> >"La Vallée des Mammouths" for 160 DM! I couldn't
> >believe it. Particularly as I knew that Bruno Faidutti will come out
> >with a revised and probably better version soon!
>
> Any more word on this? I'm also eagerly awaiting a revised version.
The new version, with a modular board and many minor changes in the rules,
is theoretically due for Nuernberg. Given the work that has already been
done, this seems a bit unrealistic. Next Essen is more likely.
BTW, I have still two shrinkwrapped copies of the original, not for sale
but for trade with games that are likely to cost less than 160 DM. I also
saw the copy at 160 DM at Essen, but I think it has not been sold.
Bruno
--
____________________________________________________
Bruno Faidutti
Games & Unicorns
12 rue Armand de Pontmartin
30133 LES ANGLES
faid...@free.fr
http://faidutti.free.fr/
_____________________________________________________
EYE of NiGHT
wrote:
>BTW, I have still two shrinkwrapped copies of the original, not for sale
>but for trade with games that are likely to cost less than 160 DM. I also
>saw the copy at 160 DM at Essen, but I think it has not been sold.
>
>Bruno
I saw Ave Caesar for DM130. Luckily I already have one. Are there
other OOP German games fetching these prices?
Claudia Schlee
EYE of NiGHT schrieb:
> On Fri, 03 Nov 2000 12:25:10 GMT, faid...@free.fr (Bruno Faidutti)
> wrote:
>
> >BTW, I have still two shrinkwrapped copies of the original, not for sale
> >but for trade with games that are likely to cost less than 160 DM. I also
> >saw the copy at 160 DM at Essen, but I think it has not been sold.
> >
> >Bruno
> I saw Ave Caesar for DM130. Luckily I already have one. Are there
> other OOP German games fetching these prices?
Next to Kohle, Kies & Knete and Ave Caesar, most of the older Kosmos titles get
high prices (Tal der Koenige, Ronda Magica, Das Spiel, Janus, Arbora, Hotu
Matua, Black Vienna, Tatort London, Queenspark Affaire), aswell as FAGUS-Games
or some Perlhuhn-Games.
--
Mit verspielten Grüßen,
Andreas Keirat (using the email-adress of his girlfriend =8-) )
&
Claudia Schlee
-Rezensionen im Internet-
Spielphase: http://Sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/keirat/
Urhixidur
Mark.E....@pobox.com (Mark Johnson) wrote:
> globetrotter@REMOVETHIS_crosswinds.net (Carl-Gustaf Samuelsson) wrote
> in <dqmM5.4050$jv2.4...@newsc.telia.net>:
> >"La Vallée des Mammouths" for 160 DM! I couldn't
> >believe it. Particularly as I knew that Bruno Faidutti will come out
> >with a revised and probably better version soon!
>
> Any more word on this? I'm also eagerly awaiting a revised version.
>
For the last four years, I've run Mammoth Valley at CanGames
(http://www.iosphere.net/~cangames/), always for a full table, and we've
always had an absolute blast (in 1999, the players had to be ranked using the
sequence in which they were eliminated by Mother Nature...). Consider this
an invitation for next year's CanGames (18-20 May 2001)!
Daniel U. Thibault
a.k.a. Urhixidur
a.k.a. Sire Bohémond de Nicée
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.