New Game Round-up: Nürnberg 2014 — Hans im Glück Brings Sun, Sheep and Stadte, While Teuber Sets Sail

New Game Round-up: Nürnberg 2014 — Hans im Glück Brings Sun, Sheep and Stadte, While Teuber Sets Sail
Board Game: Carcassonne: Expansion 9 – Hills & Sheep
• Now that Spielwarenmesse — the annnual toy and game fair in Nürnberg, Germany — has opened, more information about new games has been revealed by publishers previously holding things close to their chests. German publisher Hans im Glück and designer Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, for example, will extend his Spiel des Jahres-winning Carcassonne with the ninth boxed expansion: Schafe und Hügel (Sheep and Hills) — and why not since seven millions copies of the base game and its many expansions have been sold since Carcassonne debuted in 2000.

Quote:
In Carcassonne: Schafe und Hügel, players now get to be shepherds on the hills in addition to the usual bandits, guards and so on. By placing the tiles in this expansion, players build hills and vineyards, trying to plan ahead to claim the sweetest meadows for points-bringing sheep and shepherds while keeping watch for the wolf that waits to be drawn among the tiles...
• Hans im Glück has two other titles in the offing for early 2014, one being Brügge: Die Stadt am Zwin, an expansion for Stefan Feld's Bruges. No details about this one yet, but ideally I'll get a peek at Spielwarenmesse.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
• The third title from Hans im Glück is Helios, a standalone game for 2-4 players with a 60-minute playing time from Martin Kallenborn and Matthias Prinz. Here's a summary of the game:

Quote:
In Helios, players are high priests of the Greek sun god Helios, and the power of the sun drives everything in the game as players try to build temples, expand cities, and make their civilization flourish.

Development can succeed, though, only if you've secured a supply of the limited raw materials available, and the more that you've built of your temple, the more expensive the remaining parts will be. Glass manastones are the game's currency, and with them you can acquire people, increase the number of points you'll score, and more.
Board Game: North Wind
• While I hope to see the game firsthand in Nürnberg, Germany at the Spielwarenmesse and record an in-depth demo, for now you can take a peek at Klaus Teuber's Norderwind, coming in March 2014 from KOSMOS, in a video posted on Hessischer Rundfunk(which I believe to be a German news program). The demonstration of Norderwind starts at about 14:00.

• The German branch of Mattel is continuing its experiment with more involved family games — started at Spiel 2013 with Brian Yu's Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister! and Kronen für den König — with Bania, a reworking of Yu's Desert Bazaar, which first appeared in 2006 from Mattel's U.S. division. Says Yu, "The game has been reworked to increase the push-your-luck aspect and give players more control."

In Bania, which has artwork from Miguel Coimbra, players place tent tiles on the game board by using die rolls, cards in hand, and previously-placed tents — all with the goal of scoring points in various ways. I have an appointment with Mattel to look the game over in more detail at Spielwarenmesse, but since I can't take photos or video in the Mattel press room, you'll have to settle for this press image for now:

Board Game: Bania

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