Essen - what to play?

Okay, so I'll have two days in Essen. It is a great opportunity to spot new games and try them out.

My question is, what should I go and try out, either because you think it is a brilliant game, or because you think it might be a good game and appreciate if I did some recon.

The things I've decided so far I will have a look at are (if available of course):

Ameritrash goodness:

Arcana and The Adventurers by Alderac
Chaos in the Old World, Middle Earth Quest and Warhammer: Invasion by FFG. Hopefully some copies at the Heidelberger booth.

Kingpin by Kuznia Gier
Caligula by Elfinwerks
Modern Society by Tuonela/Gryphon
Zombiaki 2: attack on Moscow by Portal. Zombies in Soviet Moscow!
War for Edadh by Warrior Elite. Thanks to Michael's review

Wargames

Eagle & the Star. Polish CDG of 1920 war against the Soviets
HEll of Stalingrad by Clash of Arms. Thanks to Matt's review.
Maria by Histogames. on pre order


Euro's with interesting theme, maybe not bad games

Rise of empires, God's Playground and Waterloo by Martin Wallace. These are some possibly high conflict games where I hope Wallace is in old form. Don't get my hopes up too high, though
Inquisitio by Tuonela (Finnish)
Shipyard by Czech games
Stronghold by Portal. Is it really that bad?
Veritas by Rio Grande. Theme sounds good, but is it tacked on?

The programme is

Thursday: leave very early and arrive in time for the opening. Play games, buy a few. To hotel and play games.
Friday: Play games, buy a few more. Back to hotel and play games.
Saturday: Drive part of the way back, Play more games in roadhouse. Back home by dinner time. Maybe go see Archive at night.

So far this is what's on our list to check out/buy/demo at Essen:

God's Playgroundand Waterloo from Treefrog/Martin Wallace - I really liked After the Flood since it felt like old-shool Wallace. God's Playground is this year's entry in the 3 player game category and the subject matter is interesting to me. I'm not sure they will have any copies of Waterloo left, but I'd like to check that game out too.

Dungeon Lords- Vlaada Chavatil's new game seems like it took direct inspiration from the old PC game Dungeon Keeper. Although DK had a good premise to work off of, it was a big steaming pile of shit. I have faith that Vlaada will keep up his winning streak and Dungeon Lords will rock.

Ghost Stories - White Moon Expansion - Ghost Stories is our favorite co-op from last year and has seen tons of table time. As an entertainment purchase it's been worth every penny. We'll definitely be buying a copy of this.

Stronghold - This game sounded like it had promise when it was first concieved but as the development went on it's become a watered down AT-euro hybrid that will please no one. I might be wrong so we'll go give it a look.

Maria - The 3 player game based on The War of Austrian Succession. This is from the same designer that brought us Friedrich, so this has a lot of potential.

Endeavor - Even though it's misspelled, I'd like to try this game out. It may be a crappy Goa clone or it might actually be fun. Z-man has a big booth at Essen and it's always nice to stop by, say "Hello" and try out his new offerings for the year.

And as always I love cheking out the used game dealer booths. Last year I scored a copy of McMulti and an in shrink Giganten. This year I'll be on the lookout for a copy of Fluch der Mumie and any other bargains that come my way.

-Will

Jur wrote:

HEll of Stalingrad by Clash of Arms. Thanks to Matt's review.

Clash of Arms is going to be in Essen?

Schweig! wrote:

Jur wrote:

HEll of Stalingrad by Clash of Arms. Thanks to Matt's review.

Clash of Arms is going to be in Essen?

I'm quite sure they won't be. But there's a few traders that bring along wargames. I hope they bring it along.

There are more cases like that, such as War for Edadh, because I'm not sure WarriorElite will be around. FFG also won't be at Essen, but are available (mostly) from Heidelberger.

Bulwyf wrote:

God's Playgroundand Waterloo from Treefrog/Martin Wallace - I really liked After the Flood since it felt like old-shool Wallace. God's Playground is this year's entry in the 3 player game category and the subject matter is interesting to me. I'm not sure they will have any copies of Waterloo left, but I'd like to check that game out too.

My sentiments exactly

Dungeon Lords- Vlaada Chavatil's new game seems like it took direct inspiration from the old PC game Dungeon Keeper. Although DK had a good premise to work off of, it was a big steaming pile of shit. I have faith that Vlaada will keep up his winning streak and Dungeon Lords will rock.

The reference to the Dungeon Keeper computer game makes me curious as well

Ghost Stories - White Moon Expansion - Ghost Stories is our favorite co-op from last year and has seen tons of table time. As an entertainment purchase it's been worth every penny. We'll definitely be buying a copy of this.

I don't know the basic game, but was interested by some of the remarks I read and heared. However, I'm a bit full with co-ops (Pandemic, BSG, Fury of Dracula) and not sure what this adds. I'll try and find out

Endeavor - Even though it's misspelled, I'd like to try this game out. It may be a crappy Goa clone or it might actually be fun. Z-man has a big booth at Essen and it's always nice to stop by, say "Hello" and try out his new offerings for the year.

Did I look at this last year in a different edition? I was underwhelmed. As a theme, explorer games have just become to dull. Age of Exploration was an exciting game, not some streamlined euro with elegant bidding mechanics.

For that reason I also do not care for the new Vasco da Gama game.

And as always I love cheking out the used game dealer booths. Last year I scored a copy of McMulti and an in shrink Giganten. This year I'll be on the lookout for a copy of Fluch der Mumie and any other bargains that come my way.-Will

I like to sniff at the second hand shops, but it is like online shopping. My eyes get bigger than my stomach and I just give up. Unless it's second hand books of course.

Ubarose wrote:

I'd like it if you could get at peek at A Brief History of the World

I wasn't a fan of the original HotW (and I used to have the edition with the cloth map!) but it won't hurt seeing what they did to it

Wolf Fang (another Polish company) is doing a game called 7. It looks like a fantasy questy game.

Altair Publishing (Czech) is supposedly doing the Dorn expansion.

I have played Dungeon Lords once. IT is a bit more Euro-y that many of Vlaada's other games, but I want one badly.

Alderac has another game called Thunderstone. This looks like Dominion crossed with a Dungeon Crawl.

Jur wrote:

Schweig! wrote:

Jur wrote:

HEll of Stalingrad by Clash of Arms. Thanks to Matt's review.

Clash of Arms is going to be in Essen?

I'm quite sure they won't be. But there's a few traders that bring along wargames. I hope they bring it along.

German war game retailer UGG and the German consim club (GHS) will have a booth together, but they usually don't demo games. You can probably buy it at UGG, while the guys from GHS will try to recruit you as a member. I don't want to be mean, I'm a member, too, and bought games from UGG, but Essen is a war game desert. (That's why I would gladly rather attend any major US convention instead of Essen.)

By the way, I'm not going this year, else I could offer to shop and ship games for other F:ATies again.

Try Thunderstone and tell us how it goes. :3

Sadly, MILCH UND GHERKIN will not be ready for Spiel '09. It is still in development. Playtesters have identified several imbalances in the pickle barrel to milk jug ratio as well as some quirks in the worker placement/rondel synthesis that I have devised. It will be ready by Nuremburg, I promise...and completely, 100% balanced in every way.

As for Spiel '09. Not a damn thing looks interesting to me so far. Maybe I'm getting more and more jaded, but none of this looks exciting. More games where you do the same things in other games that you own. "Now with new mechanics!" I'M BORED. This stands for both the AT and Euro releases...nothing I'm seeing there _moves_ me. I feel like I'll never be excited when another fantasy quest game comes out again...between MEQ, MYTHGARDIA, and the TALES reissue, why would I want another one this year?

DORN expansion, that will be pretty cool though...the base game was great, and very different than most games of its class.

DUNGEON LORDS, maybe, I don't know. Still not excited about it though.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WORLD is possible, but is it going to be a Euro'd up version of the older game? Who wants that?

Michael Barnes wrote:

As for Spiel '09. Not a damn thing looks interesting to me so far. Maybe I'm getting more and more jaded, but none of this looks exciting. More games where you do the same things in other games that you own. "Now with new mechanics!" I'M BORED. This stands for both the AT and Euro releases...nothing I'm seeing there _moves_ me. I feel like I'll never be excited when another fantasy quest game comes out again...between MEQ, MYTHGARDIA, and the TALES reissue, why would I want another one this year?

Look buddy, I was jaded long before you figured out how to spell Knizia. But since nobody is sending me their games for free or comes over to my place to spill exciting non-disclosure breaking news on the next Game Z, I will actually have to go out myself and find out what is promising.

If you choose to sit high on your poopstool, that's fine with me, and rest secure in the knowledge that, and I'm speaking from experience here, even jaded arrogance will become BORING someday. I hope you regain your ability to get excited and derive fun from playing games quickly, because it sure looks a pain to be a professional writer and not enjoy what you're writing about.

I tried Rise of Nations - Wallace about a year ago. At first I thought it was an interesting approach to civilization games. But about 2/3 the way through the game I realized it was a 2 1/2 hour game with a bunch of Euro mechanisms thrown together in blender with a civilization theme pasted on it. It was a cross between Vikings, Age of Empires, Tempus, Princes of the Renaissances, blah, blah, etc. Even with that I'd still like to try the game again when it comes out to get a better look at it.

The combat system was pretty unique. I can't remember for sure but I think you end up drafting your combat odds. The card you draft gives you odds like 3-2 or 3-1. So you lose 2 guys and the other guy loses 3 guys.

But if I had a choice of which Wallace game to play, I try Gods Play ground over Rise of Nations.

I'd like to try Caligula by Elfinwerks if it gets a XXX rating or Kingpin if it gets a R (no one under the age of 17 without an Adult) rating.

It's not like that Jur. I love games and I'll have fun playing practically anything as long as I'm in good company. I love to game, that will never change.

However, I do also view games as a creative, expressive medium and I do analyze them at a level beyond "that was fun". To that end, I have a great appreciation for designs that surprise me, that break new ground, or recontextualize established gaming concepts. And when I see an Essen crop filled with a bunch if games that sound a lot like games I already own and enjoy I'm not too excited- I'm more disappointed.

I'm done with Waterloo games, for instance. I've played a couple of really great ones and now I don't want to do that any more. I want games where I'm doing things either thematically or mechanically that I've never done before. The best games are those, where we're doing something for the first time. SPACE HULK. DUNE. SETTLERS. CIVILIZATION. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

But some of these games might turn out to be surprises, and I hope that's the case. Forgive me if I'm just not excited by the routine concepts I'm seeing on the Essen role call.

Maybe take a look at Rush 'n Crush , and while you're at the AEG booth check out The Adventurers . 2nd one looks silly, maybe silly enough to be good.

Are you planning on doing an "Ameritrash Essen" report on this site later on? Would be great, if so. Don't let us hanging with a gazillion geeklists, with headings like "What I bought in Essen, pt. 7 (pt. 8-11 upcoming)", "The German post screwed me over - 100 € for 2 suitcases of games!?!" and "Most elegant mechanisms in games I played at Essen". There are a couple of games on your list that would interest me as well.

I did a short overview of what I played last year, but I'm happy to do something more substantial this time and offer it as an article.

That'll require me to take some notes etc, but that's all a matter of preparation.

I'll add Rush n Crush to the "watch out for" list.