Lost Treasures of the Eurogames Reclamation Project

yeah I think Municipium is one of those Knizias that got forgotten but I always read a lot of good things about it. I think Nefertiti is in that group that fits into "lost treasures" though, I only read great things about it when I see it reviewed, but its never mentioned in a more general sense otherwise

While I haven't read through this entire thread it pleases me to see people embracing these simpler designs. Things that usually ends up wearing me out on this hobby are the extensive rulesets and constantly learning new games. So over the past year or so I've really gravitated towards the lighter Euros and AT games.

Here are few 'lost treasures' that I didn't see discussed too much over the 30+ pages in this thread.


Cargo Noir – Barnes and Co. claim to be on the lookout for these German style family Euro games...well take note of Cargo Noir. I ain’t shitting you. This game was panned by folks on TOS. Judging by reviews this was because the cool theme was wasted AND it was deemed too simple. No you don’t feel like rival cartels buying loot from all over the world. But the game only lasts 10 rounds and if you’re a fan of auction/bidding games then this is a home run. It’s distilled down to the bare essentials. There are no special powers for each different cartel (though you can buy a few upgrades). Everyone is given the exact same resources and you have to outplay your opponents. It’s very simple, looks beautiful and is a family favorite around my house. Glad I saw through the TOS bullshit and took a flyer on this gem.


Ad Astra – This is a great game that is worth tracking down. If Mission Red Planet was Faidutti’s take on El Grande, then this is his take on Settlers. Really cool game, that like Mission Red Planet was kind of miss-marketed. The box makes it look like a TI3 clone. If it had some artwork more in line with Alien Frontiers...you know, that cool retro sci-fi shit...this game might have stayed on more people’s shelves. The fact that NEXUS went under shortly after its release means it has become a bitch to find. Snatch up a copy if you see it...especially if you like Settlers.


Feudality – I struggled to figure out if this game is actually a Euro. After hemming and hawing a bit...I think it is. You’re all building a fiefdom, collecting resources and trying to score points...typical Euro stuff. The game just has dice and the chance for actual player interaction. I’ve mentioned this game a few times over the years and I think it’s one of the best light Euros out there. There is no downtime, plenty of different tactics to try out and delightful Tom Wham artwork. This is on my forever shelf.


Aladdin’s Dragons – This old RGG game is LONG out of print. It’s an interesting game of blind bidding and with the advanced rules, some rule breaking magical items. The game has very cool components and it is worth taking the time to hunt down.

Egg, one of the reasons I started the ERP was because I looked at my game shelf and apart from maybe 10 titles, every other one of them was something that we were going to have to effectively re-learn _and_ set aside 4 hours or more to play. And would not likely play again soon enough to warrant re-learning the games. Like Runewars, for example. I remembered being more into the simpler, shorter Eurogames in the late 1990s and how refreshing it was to get out of the tyrannically complex Avalon Hill games and other hobby designs BC (before Catan) and into games where FUN, not complexity, was paramount.

I haven't even thought about Cargo Noir, but yeah, it did take a beating from what I understand. Looks like a pretty decent light auction game to me...that came out at the wrong time. 2011 was not the best year to put out that kind of thing, folks were still head-up-ass over complex games both on the Euro and AT sides of the fence.

I thought about looking at Ad Astra, but yeah...expensive.

Aladdin's Dragons was pretty good, I haven't played it in years but the times I did I enjoyed it. I'd probably be willing to get it on the cheap.

Nefertiti is a very good auction game that came around 10 years too late. It has a clever closed system and each auction has slightly different rules. I'd put it above Modern Art and below Medici, the gaming community as a whole was simply past 45 minute auction games when it came out.

That's what I'm finding out about a lot of post-2007 Eurogame designs...once Vlaada and Agricola hit, that entire area of Eurogames took a hammering. Nobody wanted the sub-60 minute, single mechanic style games anymore. They wanted big, fatty, greasy meals that were supposedly better because there was more of them. The later Knizia falls into that...he sort of went out of favor with the Eurogames crowd because even at his most complex (something like Amun-Re), that was still WAY, WAY simpler than Vlaada's games.

But I think it's turning around, I think we're going to see fatigue set in even more over the next year or so. More games like Machi Koro, Splendor, Sail to India, etc. and less games like Caverna or Terra Mystica. Thank god.

Great post, Egg Shen! I also skipped Cargo Noir based on middling reviews, but considering where those reviews were coming from, I should've known better. There's a copy gathering dust at the FLGS; maybe I'll pick it up.

Have any of you guys played Dorra's Razzia (not the Knizia title of the same name)? The gameplay sounds fun as hell and it has an amazing Silver Age artwork style. The Late Summer of Stefan Dorra needs that thing.

Here are a few more 'lost treasures' that don't appear to have been heavily discussed:

Dragon’s Gold – I think this is right up there with the best negotiation games. The combination of its simple rules and easy to grasp scoring makes the game a big hit for me. It was recently reprinted but from the looks of it, the game isn’t that easy to get your hands on. If you’re a fan of negotiating this is a must have. The best part is you only have 1 minute to strike a deal. Also you can be a complete dick and just flat out refuse to bargain. The game is ruthless in this aspect and tends to need a strong group of people to succeed. I also dig the magic object cards that give the game a twist. One of them is the Filch flare ability from Cosmic! Score!

Dice Town – Not quite old enough to be in the discussion of that classic era, but it doesn’t seem to get talked about all that much. Also, I think games like King of Tokyo and Quarriors came along and made it obsolete to most folks. Fuck those people. Dice Town is still in a class all by itself. Great western motif, easy to play and lots of FUN keep it getting played routinely by my friends.

Discworld: Annk Morpork – Yeah I think this game is overlooked and deserves a bit more love. It’s playing cards that do shit mixed with area control and hidden roles/end conditions. The absolute best thing about this game is the different end game conditions. Since you have no idea who is trying to do what, you really need to pay attention to what other players are doing on their turn. This means you're trying to deduce their hidden agenda while further your own. This game is highly interactive and VERY simple to play. When the Discworld license is gone and this game goes OOP, it will be a game people want to get their hands on.

Bohnanza – Fuck Agricola and its top 10 BGG ranking. I’d rather play this Rosenberg game 100 times before that sister porking farming disaster. It’s a game filled with wheeling and dealing, but it’s not the mean variety. I can’t explain it...you’d expect a game entirely about trading to be merciless...but it’s not. I think the fact that you can donate cards to generate good will helps. It's just a fun card game that my friends really enjoy. One of the best games you can buy for less than $20.

Egg Shen wrote: Here are a few more 'lost treasures' that don't appear to have been heavily discussed:

Dragon’s Gold – I think this is right up there with the best negotiation games. The combination of its simple rules and easy to grasp scoring makes the game a big hit for me. It was recently reprinted but from the looks of it, the game isn’t that easy to get your hands on. If you’re a fan of negotiating this is a must have. The best part is you only have 1 minute to strike a deal. Also you can be a complete dick and just flat out refuse to bargain. The game is ruthless in this aspect and tends to need a strong group of people to succeed. I also dig the magic object cards that give the game a twist. One of them is the Filch flare ability from Cosmic! Score!

Dice Town – Not quite old enough to be in the discussion of that classic era, but it doesn’t seem to get talked about all that much. Also, I think games like King of Tokyo and Quarriors came along and made it obsolete to most folks. Fuck those people. Dice Town is still in a class all by itself. Great western motif, easy to play and lots of FUN keep it getting played routinely by my friends.

Discworld: Annk Morpork – Yeah I think this game is overlooked and deserves a bit more love. It’s playing cards that do shit mixed with area control and hidden roles/end conditions. The absolute best thing about this game is the different end game conditions. Since you have no idea who is trying to do what, you really need to pay attention to what other players are doing on their turn. This means you're trying to deduce their hidden agenda while further your own. This game is highly interactive and VERY simple to play. When the Discworld license is gone and this game goes OOP, it will be a game people want to get their hands on.

Bohnanza – Fuck Agricola and its top 10 BGG ranking. I’d rather play this Rosenberg game 100 times before that sister porking farming disaster. It’s a game filled with wheeling and dealing, but it’s not the mean variety. I can’t explain it...you’d expect a game entirely about trading to be merciless...but it’s not. I think the fact that you can donate cards to generate good will helps. It's just a fun card game that my friends really enjoy. One of the best games you can buy for less than $20.

Wow, games I've actually played.

Dragon's Gold is good, it's timed bargaining is the real fun part here, but that got old to me after several plays, though I don't typically care for Faidutti games.

Dice Town is such a frustrating game, there will be many turns you'll visit Doc Badluck because your turn accomplished literally nothing. This game just isn't any fun to me.

Ankh Morpork is just a mess, the cardplay is too swingy and the secret win conditions are poorly implemented. This game is won by the player whose opponent sitting to his right lets them win.

Bohnanza is an incredible trading game. I love it and want to play it all the time, you can make some pretty creative deals. Gets real good at 5-7.

At the point when I hear one of you extol Fist of Dragonstones, it's over.

I'll be watching.

Egg Shen wrote:
Dragon’s Gold – I think this is right up there with the best negotiation games. The combination of its simple rules and easy to grasp scoring makes the game a big hit for me. It was recently reprinted but from the looks of it, the game isn’t that easy to get your hands on. If you’re a fan of negotiating this is a must have. The best part is you only have 1 minute to strike a deal. Also you can be a complete dick and just flat out refuse to bargain. The game is ruthless in this aspect and tends to need a strong group of people to succeed. I also dig the magic object cards that give the game a twist. One of them is the Filch flare ability from Cosmic! Score!

Yes! I've been going on and on about Dragon's Gold since I started posting here. My girlfriend and I are introducing one of her friends to games, and on Sunday we busted out Dragon's Gold, For Sale, Love Letter and Can't Stop. Her friend won Dragon's Gold - despite having the black diamond - because she also had the Invisible Hand card and nicked a ton of gold before anyone noticed anything, then immediately requested to play again. Dragon's Gold is so damn fun and the magic objects offer nothing but screwage opportunities. Forever shelf + status.

Gary Sax wrote: At the point when I hear one of you extol Fist of Dragonstones, it's over.

I truly believe this is one of the all-time greats.

Bohnanza is one of the ultimate games. It is an absolute masterpiece, and one of the greatest games ever released, period. The trading mechanics are quite possibly the best there have ever been, including the donations...part of the tremendous fun this game offers is begging someone to take beans off your hands...and everyone refusing them, forcing you to till up a field before its time. It's strange to me that Bohnanza has sort of waned over the years, back in the late 1990s it was generally held in the same regard that Catan was. I think Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride sort of "replaced" it for a lot of folks.

I've actually worn out two Bohnanza sets, including one original German set I bought in 1997 at an outrageous import price. The set I have now is actually really ragged out. I've had some of the expansions over the years, but ever there were a game that didn't need expansions, this is it. High Bohn and Bohnaparte were kind of interesting, but they steered the game away from its simplicity.

Bohnanza was also the go-to game for freaking out your friends- "We're gonna play a game about bean farming". Followed by disbelief and dismissal, in turn followed by "let's play it again" and "where can I buy that?"

It's a shame Rosenberg went in entirely the opposite direction and started doing the BGG-pleasing ultra-complicated resource conversion games.

Guess the entire hobby went in the wrong direction when it assumed that long/complex was better than concise/focused. I'd rather play 20 games of Bohnanza than one game of Mansions of Madness or whatever. More interaction, more laughs, more fun, 100% less bullshit.

I'm going to do a full ERP article on it soon- maybe the next one, I'm hot to play it now.

considering where those reviews were coming from, I should've known better.

It's shocking how many great games suffer from low ratings (comparatively) at BGG. You see bullshit like whatever Kickstarter is currently hot, like Heroes of Normandie, ranked with average ratings of 8+ while stone classics and some really good games that have been around for 20 years are rated 6/7. Of course, numbers don't mean anything in the long run but it's a shame that the hobby leaves so much behind. This is, as I've said, EXACTLY the same situation as what was going on in 2003, 2004, 2005 when all of the good AT games were out of print and considered out of vogue.

I mean, fucking christ, REINER KNIZIA is a name that there's an entire generation of gamers don't even know other than through barely anecdotal comments like Rab Florence's thing about most of his games "sucking". All because he quit making "gamer's games"...likely because he realized what a clusterfuck the hobby market is. I think it says a lot that he's not a registered member at BGG and he doesn't participate in the online discussions and so forth like many designers do.

But yeah, I'm telling you...games ranked 6-7 are where the really interesting stuff is.

Every single Bohnanza game I've played has resulted in me sitting around while other players are trading stuff that I don't have. I don't know how much of this is bad luck vs bad skill, but empirically I have zero fun playing it.

Michael Barnes wrote: It's strange to me that Bohnanza has sort of waned over the years, back in the late 1990s it was generally held in the same regard that Catan was. I think Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride sort of "replaced" it for a lot of folks.

Back in my early-mid aughts college days, Bohnanza, 6 Nimmit, Coloretto, Wizard, No Thanks et. al. were all stalwart "closer" games. But since they're light, quick, abstract and were at one time ubiquitous (like, who circa early-00s didn't own a copy of Bohnanza), I guess it's easy to take Bohnanza - and, really, the whole Amigo card game line - for granted.