Pre-Essen Rumors 96

Article by Ken Tidwell

Just a few more bits and pieces that have been floating around:

It looks like Reiner Knizia's long awaited gamer's game, Tigris & Euphrates, will be delayed by Hans im Glück until next February. Apparently they are concerned, perhaps wisely so, about competing with their current Game of the Year, El Grande.

Karl-Heinz Schmiel will release a kid's memory game. This is in keeping, I believe, with his usual cycle, alternating each year between very adult, strategy games and lighter, family fare.

Rumors from KMW's Spielplatz

Here are some additional rumors garnered from KMW's Spielplatz (but machine translated hastily into English for the bi-lingually challenged, myself included):

At least two new games from Abacus: Downtown and X X L. Downtown is a big business board game with big components. X X L is a cardgame by Hajo Bücken and Dirk Hanneforth with six sub-games covering a wide range of card game possiblities - trick, point, rummy, etc - and a card deck reminiscent of Double.

Ravensburger will release a German edition of Klutz Press' excellent board game book by Sid Sackson and edited by Erwin Glonnegger.

Franjos will also release two new games. Pow Wow by Ronald Corn is a movement game in which players try to move their Indians through a complicated dance. First Indian to get safely to the bar wins it (should have set this one in a disco!). Sabotage by Robert Abbott is a cardgame that uses a board. Players try to construct complex pipelines while disrupting or, one might say, sabotaging their opponent's pipelines. The game is played in a two player version and a four player partnership version. Apparently, Abbott's cardgame book includes this one as Leopard.

Amigo has a number of new games and a few reissues, as well.

Doris & Frank's Mü & More will be released in a new edition by Amigo with some small changes. The characteristic hedgehog suit has been replaced by fish and two games, Wimmüln and Der letzte Panther, are more no more. Clearly Doris & Frank have allied with Amigo to take advantage of the popularity this game will enjoy since its nomination for both Game of the Year and German Game Prize. Bonus points to all the collectors out there who manage to find the 10+ new games at Essen featuring artwork by Doris!

Stefan Dorra's Black Market is a business game set in post-war Europe. Each player holds merchandise that is in short supply. A different set of cards determine the current demand. On their turn a player can either accept the current price for their merchandise or drive that price higher. Unfortunately, all the other players get a chance to take that price before you can unload your goods. Sounds like good fun!

KMW managed to melt down my translator on Bohanza, a very original sounding cardgame. Apparently players try to meld bean cards into various fields. Each field may contain only one color of bean cards. Fields may be borne off for cash, but there is some trade off about saving fields to produce more beans that I'm afraid I couldn't follow. One interesting constraint is that players must play the cards out of their hands in the same order that they were picked up: first in, first out. I'm sure we'll hear more about his one post-Essen.

Janus is another new(ish) cardgame by Lothar Hannappel. The cards are printed with symbols both front and back. Both sides of the deck contain the same symbols but in different distributions. During play your opponents can see one side of your cards and you can see the other. Through transactions players attempt to form triplets. This is similar to a previous cardgame by this designer released by Triangle Team Games.

Amigo's last two games are a new edition of Can't Stop and a children's game, Wichtel Willi.

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell