Boardgame talk for Meeple & People
Building a dynasty of nobles, how much drier can the concept of a game possibly sound. Have children, marry them to other families, repeat until rich and and famous. I was happy to find out that this prejudice was dead wrong. Despite its theme, Among Nobles is anything but dry, it has a great balance of simple rules, strategic decision and player interaction.
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I admit, I didn’t expect that one day a traditional, competitive eurogame would be in the majority for the Kennerspiel des Jahres selection. But here we are, next to Pandemic Legacy and T.I.M.E. Stories, both cooperative games with a limited number of replays in the box Isle of Skye is the only competitive game with virtually unlimited replayability. Lets have a look if it’s worthy of the nomination.
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World War 3 has come and gone, and to everyone’s surprise we’re not extinct. But the planet is not a great place to live any more, except for those select few that secured a space in the Golden City, the last beacon of civilization in the world. All the wastelanders want to live there, and the players in Raid & Trade actually have the chance to achieve that dream, if they find the right mix between cooperation and ruthlessness.
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Anyone who grew up with a sibling will know the situation: there is ice cream, or cake, or something to be had, one of you had to split it and the other one would get first pick. As it turns out, that system not only works for ice cream but for exploring space ships as well, because that’s how you get your actions in Andromeda.
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Being a merchant in the bazaar of Istanbul is a demanding job, and some days you just can’t do it without some chemical stimulation. With the new expansion to Mocha & Baksheesh, you can finally have your coffee in Rüdiger Dorn’s Istanbul. But it’s not for you to drink and gain energy for additional actions, it’s another commodity for you to trade in on your quest for rubies. But does coffee really make everything better?
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It’s time for some nostalgia. A long time ago, all was still right with the world in ancient Greece. Then, the city states sprang up and started expanding, building stadiums and temples all over the place, inventing modern civilization. That must have been around 2003, at least that’s when Attika came out, a boardgame about the ancient Greek city states.
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Potion delivery is big business. A bit like pizza delivery, only with more magic, and on broomsticks. That is your business in Broom Service, but the competition is tough and you won’t have time to let your brooms cool down before the day is over. So keep a close eye on what your opponents are doing and use your witches and druids to deliver the most potions before the game is over.
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Usually, when a game tells you to create your own legend, it doesn’t mean you should kill the people participating in it. But when the game is named after the Greek underworld for heroes and demigods it was predictable that they would have to get there somehow, and the usual way is dying. But at least they will contribute to your legend and maybe help secure your place on Olympus.
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Bruno Cathala and Days of Wonder take us to Naqala, a magical kingdom straight out of Arabian Nights if Arabian Nights had included meeples. Which it should have. Five Tribes is one of the most talked about games of the last year, and after testing it extensively we understand why.
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A huge Empire without a permanent capital is something that is hard to imagine today. But in medieval Europe, the Staufer emperors had their itinerant court, they would travel around their empire and rule from wherever they just happened to be. That way, everywhere in the empire could have the glory of hosting the emperor, and he would get first hand knowledge of what was going on everywhere. In The Staufer Dynasty, you are a member of the court of Henry VI, working hard to get members of your family into influential offices all over the empire.
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