Boardgame talk for Meeple & People
German cities tend to have a long and eventful history. Germany is also one of the origins of modern boardgames. It comes as little surprise that many German cities have already been used as setting for boardgames. Cologne has Colonia, Hamburg Hamburgum, Trier Porta Nigra, and the list goes on. One city not so blessed so far is Ulm. Until now, that is, because now there is Ulm, a medium heavy strategy game Günter Burkhardt designed around the city.
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Naples, the birthplace of pizza, is being invaded. Local businesses selling pizza are under attack by a foreign product: French Fries. Papà Paolo, the master pizzaiolo, is obviously offended by foreign food trying to take over his city. Up to four up-and-coming pizza bakers compete to become the great baker’s successor in Papà Paolo. They don’t actually beat back invading fried potatoes, but they will build their own, little pizza empire. And in the end, that’s what really counts, right?
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Many of us gamers have spent countless hours of our lives fighting the Great Old Ones. But do we even know why? Have we done the research on that one? Maybe under the reign of Cthulhu, Azathoth and their like there would be free cotton candy for everyone. You now have the chance to do that research. But be careful, the knowledge of the Old Ones quickly leads to insanity – as you will find out when playing Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc’s Pocket Madness.
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The right combination of two familiar game mechanics can create something new and fun. Sea of Clouds combines a drafting game with a press-your-luck mechanic. If you enjoy only one of those, then this game is definitely worth your time because it combines the best parts of them. And it does that while letting you loot the skies as a flying pirate, if you needed any more convincing.
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Our first review of a 2016 Essen game is, by necessity, of a light game. We have to play it a couple of times, after all. Futschikato / Fuji Flush, a card game by Friedemann Friese, is as light as any game we ever reviewed, but nevertheless is a really fun game. That’s all thanks to one small twist: low cards can gang up on high cards. No matter how good your card is, you can never feel safe.
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Some might find a game where one player is literally Hitler offensive. I’m not one of them, and I’m glad, because that would keep me from a great hidden identity game that has tiny bit more structure than other games in that genre. At least for me it makes a huge difference.
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The problems with building pyramids don’t start with stacking big stones on top of other big stones. Sure, that’s one problem, but when you get to that point you solved a couple of other things already. Like how to get big stones when all you see around is sand. That part of the operation is the focus of Phil Walker-Harding’s Imhotep: get stones from the quarries down the Nile and to the construction sites, on ships you have to share with other architects working on the same project.
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