Essen Around the Corner

Essen

It's that time of year.  All the gamers are getting envious of those few of us making the trip across the pond.  I've never been, and it's fairly doubtful I ever shall.  There are just too many solid conventions located right here in the Midwest to justify all the hassle of going to Essen.  I mean, we are pretty lucky.  GenCon is in my backyard and Origins is down the road a couple hours.  And we've even got a little local mini-con that gives us something to look forward to in the spring.

Even though, it's still fun to read about all the new releases making an appearance at Essen.  I try not to be too wooed by most of them.  Especially because if they woo me too much I might be tempted to pay the steep import prices on a few of them before somebody decides to release it in North America.

Anyway, here's a blip about a couple interesting ones:

Peloponnes

Okay, I love little 45 minute economic games driven by cards/tiles for randomness.  And this is exactly that, with a quick little quasi-auction.  I'd really like to have it.  But right now the author is only releasing it under his own label and I'd have to pay about US$70 after shipping.  *Sigh* Not worth it.  Maybe if Thor at gamesurplus brings some over or something...

Stronghold

I shit you not, here's a game with too MUCH information released about it.  They ran like a 20 part mini-series on boardgamenews.  And really, that much information just turned me off to it.  I couldn't make it through a single part of it.  I know something about asymmetrical sides and a VP track, and that's about it.  If it makes it into the BGG top 50 someday maybe I'll read more.

At the Gates of Loyang

Yadda yadda, 2nd sequel to Agricola.  Well, this one shows a bit more promise.  Still waaaay too many rules.  But at least it's *mostly* a card game and is *supposed* to take less than 2 hours.  Frankly, I'm still just going to wait this one out.  I mean, they gave Le Havre all those props last year, but who the heck is still playing the silly thing?


In Other News

I did flesh out one of the designs I mentioned and gave it it's own release thread.  Seeing as how it's roll&move racing, I think everyone promptly ignored it.  I'll see if I can think up something else to say about it and make another post on a Monday morning.  Anyway, here was the original marketing spread:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/446331

Played some more Factory Fun last night.  It's a real shame that one never got a wider release.  I think it scratches a lot of the same itch as Galaxy Trucker, but in much less of the time.  And really, the rules are a lot simpler actually.

Last night in our first game I was determined to play all 10 machines.  I did a valiant effort and got a ton of them chained together.  I ended with a big ol' score of 92.  But then upon review, it turns out that a trickle of brown goop was actually feeding itself.  That's a big no-no and disqualified me from the running.  (As my wife points out though, that's a sour way to tin.)

Anyway, I think it's a great game because of the need to dial down the compete-o-meter.  It's much more fun to struggle through the opponent's puzzle with them than remain aloof and watch them burn their brain.

Anyway, look for a review of Factory Fun in the near future.