Alright. So I thought "ah, there won´t be that many people in Essen, I´ll just walk in there, get what I want, maybe look around a bit and be on my way an hour later".
I waited around the entrance with about fifty billion other people for an hour because those guys in Essen aparently thought the same thing I did and were totally overrun by people wanting to buy tickets. Kinda fun though since the crowd cheered louder each time the convention-guys did something right like opening more than ONE fucking ticket booth.
Anyway, 51st State, 7 Wonders and the german version of Thunderstone (cause one of my boardgame buddies doesn´t speak english and get´s nervous if he´s forced to read something aloud) are mine now and I´m happy about it. But man are there some strange and ugly people on this planet...I´m a fucking beautyqueen in comparison and size...
Nice atmosphere too. People sitting around everywhere playing games, designers chatting with fans, a very calm and friendly convention, lots of families too. People with lots of suitcases, bags, packed like a mule with games they bought there...nice. I guess I´ll go again next year...but then I´m gonna use the press-entrance and go right in.
Sadly no, I could hardly move my arms in the "line" which was more a kind of molloch than anything else. Inside...I simply forgot But I´m sure, boardgamegeek will supply us with plenty of pictures later this week
I just love buying boardgames, I think it has something to do with the smell of wooden components or maybe that´s just some chemical fumes...now onward to reading lots of little rulebooks. The guy that sold me 51st State was funny too...I stood in line and the guy in front of me wouldn´t stop talking and talking about something completely unrelated with the booth-guy and I guess the other guy heard my angry growl or something with made him laugh and take me to the side.
He (in a nice polish accent):"Anything I can do for you?"
Me: I just wanna buy 51st state but...*points to the guy still wasting everybody´s time*
He: Quick and simple *grabs one over the talking guys head* here you go!
Made me laugh somehow. Also he was nice enough to mention the missing bits in the game and how a I can order them for free once the game is officially published. Points for honesty I´d say
Back on topic though I have been on a big Defenders of the Realm kick. You and 3 other players work together to defend Monarch city from 4 monster generals (orcs, undead, demons, dragons) and their minions. You win the game if you manage to kill all 4 generals, you lose though if Monarch City has 5 minions in it, 12 taint markers are placed on the board, if you 24 of a type of minion are in play, or a general enters monarch city. After every player's turn more minions appear on the board and there is a chance the general can move further along the path to Monarch City.
best shot I could find online for this game was this one:
Back on topic though I have been on a big Defenders of the Realm kick. You and 3 other players work together to defend Monarch city from 4 monster generals (orcs, undead, demons, dragons) and their minions. You win the game if you manage to kill all 4 generals, you lose though if Monarch City has 5 minions in it, 12 taint markers are placed on the board, if you 24 of a type of minion are in play, or a general enters monarch city. After every player's turn more minions appear on the board and there is a chance the general can move further along the path to Monarch City.
best shot I could find online for this game was this one:
I was looking at this game at the store a few weeks ago and it seems like a blast.
I want it too and I know the guys and gals would love it (cause they fucking love Pandemic) but 60 Bucks is a lot of money...could´ve gotten one at the convention but I thought it was too expensive. 40 would be nice.
Finished my testsession of 51st State against Bizarro-Oxblood and we both think it´s pretty sweet. It´s all about making the most of the stuff in your current turn, creating good combos while making sure your opponents don´t leech off your cool locations...though if they do, you get another worker/slave/mutant, get two and you can get any resource with them.
Example for those who care:
Spoilers!
I as the Apalachian Union (Easy building but bad reach) built a Generator which produces 2 extra guys each turn, means I already have 5 guys (3 from my base +2 from the Generators). B-Oxblood had no such manpower so he sent a guy over almost every turn to get 2 in return and I had 6 Guys. Now I could use 2 of those to activate the Barracks and steal 2 of B-Ox´s Ressources which in turn could then be used to either generate other effects or score Points in the corresponding buildings all while having a shitload of guys to send on errands or use B-Ox´s buildings to get Bricks for example.
3 Turns later, one of my Point-Buildings was exhausted (each of them can only generate Point 3 times, a balance-thing I like a lot) so I grabbed one brick from my opponent and spent it to level the Point-Building and rebuild a better one on top of it which I normally wouldn´t have been able to build because it´s distance was too much for my building-action to handle.
That´s just a few turns into the game and only a fraction of the things I did in my turn. Granted, it would´ve been more fun if I wasn´t playing against a variant of myself since we kinda know what the other thinks (who would´ve thought that?) but still, it´s enough to get a grip on the mechanics and get a first impression if the game is good or not. It´s pretty good.
I like it quite a bit, now all I gotta do is find one or three other guys to play it with.
I want to play Gamma World real bad. I think Fathom showed me this site a while ago but I was finally bored enough to read this article and all of its glory. http://www.headinjurytheater.com/gammaworld.htm
Alright, I found the "Pate" Boardgame in stores today ("Der Pate" is simply the Godfather in german and yeah it´s a license game for some reason) and...it´s suprisingly good. Quick, rather simple with enough player interaction to keep you on your toes. I even like the mechanics. Basically you just roll 4 dice and use them to do different things on your dice-board.
You must pick which businesses earn money that round, but do you use your black 5 for that or do you save up the black dice to kill off a competitor later on? But then you´d owe him for killing one of his family and if he decides to call in a meeting of the bosses later on with his dice, you´ll have to pay up. So maybe you´d rather want to tip off the cops and let them bust all gambling operations in town to weaken the competition? Or you´d rather concentrate on advancing your prestige track so your kids marry into other families and you get special Allies that way? Rolled shit again? Use the cops to reroll. Or maybe you just want to scare away the other families by riding into their neighbourhood with that nice black....err...wooden little car which also protects your own businesses if placed right...
Roll your dice, use the 4 different colors and values for different things, rack up the most money after round 7 and pay attention to the winning condition (either influence or prestige). Plays really well.
I gotta go to trollandtoad to check it out. The godfather game looks pimp.
It is. It´s really fast once you know what does what.
I roll, I make sure you guys don´t get shit out of your businesses, I manipulate some sport bets and make 4000 bucks, next I draw my gun, your guy´s dead, I´m taking over your gambling den and finally I´m gonna put that annoying dude in jail and recruit a friend of the family into my ranks. Doesn´t take two minutes to do all that which is really nice.
I wonder if they´ll release it in the US with all that different copyright-stuff and shit.
Alright, time for more Boardgame-evening news on what my players thought about the games I brought.
1. A touch of evil: Very nice components, everything has this laminated feel to it. The game itself is a real alternative to Arkham Horror, even though it has more of a Sleepy Hollow feel to it...but it doesn´t take 5 hourse to play. The versus-variant that we played was a bit rough, we´ll try the cooperative version next time. All in all: Very nice game. Not available in german though but that´s not your concern of course
2. Runewars: Played a two-player game a few weeks ago. We were both really stunned how well the mechanics work. Great game with great components and a LOT of stuff going on without overwhelming since you only have one order per turn anyway. Very good. Again, not in german but who cares.
3. Dust: Slight dissapointment about the short length of our game, it was over in 4 turns. Definetely a good game but not with two players. I guess four will make this what I think it is: The way Risk should´ve been. No text on the components so it´s multilingual.
4: Crunch: Now this was a suprise. We fucking loved it. I can´t remember the last time there was so much laughter at the table. The theme is spot-on, the game mechanics are very cool and if you play the full game, you get to hide all sorts of cards on your body (which is neccessary to win btw). A very clever Card game that every gamer should own, even if he doesn´t care about the financial crisis it is based on. The downside is the quality of the cards. We played about six or seven sessions and the cards feel like they´re 10 years old...which is kinda cool for some reason.
One word on Crunch if you don´t know what it is: In the game, each player is the boss of a multinational bank spiraling towards total bankruptcy so you know the whole thing won´t end well right from turn one. Your job is to get as much money on the side as possible, either but granting yourself and all other bosses a nice fat bonus or but outright stealing the money (by hiding it on your person). On your turn, you manage your workforce, give out loans while hoping that they will pay off later on. After that you just draw an event and your turn ends. What´s cool about it is that you can really press your luck with the loans. Will you use the money from your hand to keep in business if the feds check up on you or do you use it for loans (as the banks did prior to the crisis) in the high risk market and get massive payoffs...or not. Your choice.
It´s kinda hard to explain for me in english. I AM a banker, but I don´t know the vocabulary for all the financial stuff.
Bottomline: Get Crunch or if your hesitant, watch this:
And concerning Junta: I really wanna play the game but it seems to be out of print here...the only thing I can get is the sequel which is not that much fun at all if I can trust the reviews.
Race at breakneck speeds without knowing what´s ahead of you, try not to crash into cows and blockades while trying to run over pedestrians (grannys score the most points) and wrecking the competition with your vehicle weapons. Machine Guns, Missile Launchers or Chainsaws (Bonus against pedestrians), Snipers, Exploding Schoolchildren, Oilslicks, Free Candy (Bonus against Schoolchildren ).
Fast, good mechanics, short rounds, funny theme and easy to learn. I like it a lot.
I just wanted to add that I finally managed to get enough people to play a few games of Chaos in the Old World a couple months back, and I loved it. Some of the pieces were a bit too fragile for my liking (like those cultists' staves), but still loads of fun.
For the men, at least. All the women who played the game said it was too confusing.
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Dr. Boogie: Everything is so simple when you have a rocket launcher for an arm!
But I´m sure, boardgamegeek will supply us with plenty of pictures later this week 
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