Nova Luna

The moon has a lot of influence over things down here. It controls the tides. It affects people’s feelings. It grows people’s teeth and body hair – at least that’s what Ted Alspach would tell you. Now that floating piece of rock will even decide which tiles we’re about to pick in a game.
Okay, not really. Even the Nova Luna rulebook doesn’t go to much effort to explain the game’s lunar theme. Nova Luna is an abstract tile placement game, the moon is just there for the graphic design. Which is fine, I like abstract games and I like pretty games, so the combination is a win for me.

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Kilt Castle

Kilt Castle

From haggis to caber toss, Scotland is full of traditions that seem odd to an outsider. But the oddest tradition has recently been discovered by Günter Burkhardt: when the Scots build a castle for their clan, it’s not a collaborative effort like you would expect. Every builder wants floors in his or her own color to top of all the tower. The resulting castle is neither very hospitable to live in nor does it have great defensive value, but it is a home for your clan, and someone made a lot of money building it.

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Onitama

Onitama

There once was an onmyo master, a teller of fortune and summoner of spirits. This onmyo master had two children, both thinking only they deserve to inherit his title. And so the two children fight, with the spirits they summon, over who is the greater summoner and thus deserving of the title. That’s the short story behind the Onitama, an abstract game that barely takes longer than telling its story.

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Okiya

Looking through the window into the garden, you see two rivalling gangs of geishas fighting for control. Wait. WHAT? The setting doesn’t always have to make much sense for a beautiful game, especially not when it’s a very short and fun abstract.

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Codinca

Abstract games don’t have to be long and complex to be good, Codinca shows that it’s perfectly possible to make am abstract that you can teach in five minutes, play in thirty, and still have a great time the whole time.

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Wrong Chemistry

Wrong Chemistry

Something is wrong with Wrong Chemistry, and it’s not the chemistry. It’s about mad scientists, and not a single mention of world domination. I think these guys just don’t want us to know what they’re planning. But until we find out, lets go build some atoms!

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Strike Dice

Strike Dice is a game that promises epic conflict and adventure. After all, there are monsters on the box and the game board shows the conflict of Good vs. Evil. Also of Sight vs. Hearing, a conflict that recieves too little attention these days.

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Coerceo

Abstract strategy games for two players. There are many of them already, you could think that all the good ideas have been done. And then a game like Coerceo comes along, completely redefines how you use the board in a classic black-vs-white abstract game and is all fresh and exciting. You should never consider a genre complete, there are always great ideas still to be dicovered.

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Take it easy!

Take it easy!

Simple, abstract games can be so frustrating sometimes. You spend 10 turns, waiting for the right tile, and just after you decide it won’t come up and put something else in it’s place, it comes up. DO you know that feeling? No? Then you don’t know Take it easy.

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6 Nimmt!

6 nimmt! (or Category 5, as it is known in some parts of the world) is one of the great gateway games, a game that brings people who never played anything besides Poker (or Skat, or Mahjonng, depending where in the world you are) to modern games. And after years of playing, I still didn’t find the point where I’d get bored of it.

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