Nürnberg 2013 Photo Report, Part II: 76 Pics of 24 Gamer's Games

This is the second part of my overview of the games I saw at Nürnberg 2013, an overview I've split in two because of the sheer mass of photos included.

After the first post of children's and family games, here follow the games for gamers. Again, I hope you enjoy your tour! If you think I've missed a game, it might be included in the other post – or I might have just missed it, too...

• After the 2012 release of Saint Malo and Las Vegas, alea was showing a more classic "alea game", and since it has been on the BGG hotlist for weeks and the rules are online and everything, you might have heard of it already. Stefan Feld's Bora Bora has created some hype, so here's my photo bounty from Nürnberg, concentrating on an "overall view" of the game components:

• Asmodee had a combined booth, so to say, showing a mixture of all kinds of games of which the company is the original publisher, as well as games from other publishers of which Asmodee is collaborating as the distributor, such as Bombyx, Ystari Games, Libellud and Lookout Games. Thus, I'm grouping them together here, but separating each original publisher.

—HomoLudicus / Lookout Games: Finally Castaways! This game had a small self-published prototypish edition in 2010, was tested hundreds of times since then by dedicated players, and is now seeing the real public light of day. The guys from HomoLudicus explained this game to me at Spiel 2011, and I've been intrigued ever since. It is a semi-cooperative game in which players are castaways on a small island. They have to take actions for the group to survive together and get rescued, while also thinking about themselves, "writing down" their adventures. When they are rescued, the winner of the game is the one who wrote the best novel/memoirs. One of this year's must-buys for me.

—Libellud:

Marcel Duchamp
in 1924 as his
"female alter ego"
Rrose Sélavy

No sign yet of Seasons: Enchanted Kingdom, but the publisher did have a fun team game by Loïc Lamy with simultaneous gameplay on two sides of the game table: Ladies & Gentlemen.

Players go through one week of sophisticated, arrogant victorian upper class lives: Each "day" (six in a complete game) one player of each two-player team is the "lady", choosing her favorite shop, selecting clothes, and being aware of her opponents. Being in the same shop restricts the choices of both ladies. Meanwhile, the other player as the "gentleman" is making business at the stock market, looking for the best items to fulfill certain orders faster than his opponents and make the most money. At the "evening phase" of each day, the lady hands her clothing choices to the gentleman, who decides which of these he is able (and willing!) to buy, which one is going back to the shop, and which item is laid aside for a later purchase (for a little extra money).

At the end of the sixth day, there is a great "ball", and all ladies reveal their clothes, jewelry, and accessories. They have to fit together (style-wise) and of course, each lady is able to wear only one of each kind of item (a gown, for example). The best dressed lady wins the game for the team. There are some more things going on – servants helping their ladies, a mistress to accommodate an odd number of players – but what makes this game really stand out is the "acting" part of it. A game for all the "Rrose Sélavy"s of the world...

Overview and cards for jewelry, clothes and accessories

Female side (shops) and male side (stock market)

—Ystari Games: William Attia is back. And steampunk as a kind of "fresh" thematic background is becoming more and more present. Spyrium is played in rounds, with players performing one action on their turn until no one is able or willing to perform an action. Each round has two phases. In the first phase, players may place one of their workers in between the buildings/cards:

Overview of the presented prototype

Each player decides for himself when to change into the second phase (so different players may be in different phases). In the second phase, players may purchase any card they have one of their workers at by paying a price and taking back the worker. The price of the card is a combination of its base price and the number of opponent workers placed by the card.

Cards are placed on the two sides of the players' board in rows. The more cards you have there, the more expensive it is to place a card in the next slot, so you may want to place a card on another card from a previous turn, using the same slot again. Victory points on covered cards don't count at the end, though...

Also in the second phase players may perform actions from the cards purchased before that are still visible. This gets you more workers, more spyrium (an energy crystal that the whole game is about), more money, or different kinds of special abilities and triggers, benefits, and so on. When the last player finishes his second phase, the next round begins by replacing the cards in the middle with new ones from the deck(s).

There are, of course, a lot of details. The whole game is quite challenging with a highly interactive central mechanism, but less heavy than, say, Caylus.

Details of some cards, Spyrium (prototype!)

• After the release in 2012 of Yedo, Qin, Spectaculum and Milestones – not to mention the repeated success of Village – eggertspiele seems to be relaxing a little bit in 2013 – they deserve it! – with one expansion and one reworked title from 2006 being shown. That said, there are some surprises to come for sure in Essen.

Village: Inn adds a brewery and an inn onto the board, plus the possibility of a fifth player. Since you need different cemetery and chronicles for that, these are placed outside the board now, and the new buildings nicely added onto the board:

Brewery and inn on the board - prototype!

Back in 2006, eggertspiele published Space Dealer, which suffered from some title copyright and seemed to be a bit ahead of its time, adding sandtimers for actions and a fixed playing time of 30 minutes as determined by a soundtrack CD. These things were kept for the reworked Time 'n' Space, but Tobias Stapelfeldt changed so many other things that it is an overall new game about business in space. The game was presented only in a dimly lit glass cabinet at the Pegasus stand, so it was hard to take any shots at all.

The whole display prototype, and a player board

• The Hans im Glück booth is something special at the Nürnberg fair. Why? Because Schmidt (as the distributor) is presenting all the games of Hans im Glück in its large area, the guys (and girl) from Hans im Glück are not doing all the "business stuff", but instead have two tables at one corner of Schmidt to show and play their one game each year. This time, it is Stefan Feld's Bruges. As a game designer, showing the only alea and the only HiG title at Nürnberg, you are kind of hot, I'd say. Unfortunately, I was not one of the lucky people having enough time to sit down and play a real game. Too many other things were to be done; more info about this dice-placing, card-management strategy Euro will follow soon, I'd say...

Overview during gameplay (the plastic containers are NOT part of the actual game) and the board

The highly detailed market place by Michael Menzel and some cards

Aside from the game demonstration, in 2013 Hans im Glück was the first publisher to receive the "Publisher Award" from Spiele-Autoren-Zunft (Game Designer's Association) because it presents game designers as the creators of their works in an exemplary manner. Since 2012, Hans im Glück has been presenting the game designers on the back of the box with a photo and some info about the designer. Other publishers, please follow this example!

From left to right: Michael Feldkötter (SAZ), Christian Beiersdorf (SAZ), Moritz Brunnhofer (HiG), Harald Mücke (SAZ)

One person is representing Hans im Glück in a very special way, so I like to share this picture of Jasmin Weigand, who has worked for the company for a long time now - probably many of you have met her at Essen in previous years:

• Similar to Asmodee, Heidelberger Spieleverlag is a publisher in its own right, but also the distributor of several publishers, especially from outside Germany. On display was DreadBall: The Futuristic Sports Game, which has enough photos and info on BGG already, and another game ready for wider distribution: Desperados by Florian Racky, published by Argentum Verlag, but not on the radar of too many here. A Western-themed game with the players as co-operative outlaws, but with one player as the marshal opposing them. The marshal tries to outguess where the outlaws will move (cards are played simultaneously, face-down), placing his sheriffs accordingly. With a sheriff at the same spot at the end of a turn, outlaws are put into jail; otherwise they can rob banks or do other things outlaws do for a living. At the end of the game, either the outlaw group wins because it got enough money, or the marshal wins for hindering them from reaching that goal.

Overviwew and cards/tiles

• The French publisher IELLO specializes in card and smaller games with extraordinary art and nice boxes – think of Biblios! – but it showed some heavier games, too, including Innovation: Echoes of the Past, an expansion for Carl Chudyk's highly praised Innovation, which was first published two years ago, but got a complete overhaul regarding the art.

Board Game: Innovation: Echoes of the Past

Box and cards of this artistically new approach

Titanium Wars is a card game plus tokens. Players have a leader and purchase several enhancements, units, buildings, and so on to conquer planets rich in titanium (another energy crystal, like Spyrium). Tactic cards offer even more variety. Aside from all the sci-fi battle things (and negotiation, too), some parts look again rather steampunkish...

• To be honest, the line between "family game" and "heavier game" is rather blurry. I put KOSMOS' Legends of Andor expansion in the other post because it says "ages 10+", but some others are here. Well, separating lines are for people who need them...

Asante by Rüdiger Dorn is a "two-player game set in the world of Jambo and Waka Waka". Players are merchants in an African marketplace who sell and buy different things, have different abilities, and so on. Asante can even be combined with the two games above to create a huge overall market...

Overview of the display at the fair and some of the cards; Menzel goodness again here!

You will need a huge table for the expansion for CATAN: Catan: Explorers & Pirates. Only one island is known at the beginning of the game; the shape of the other ones are "explored". Ships set sail, pirates are waiting, spices are target goods – five different scenarios guarantee huge replayability.

Overview at the fair, with Menzel once again; this man is working a LOT!

Harbor city and ships transporting people and different goods

Kosmos is always looking for attractive licences, as you might have noticed already, so here is the latest pick of that kind of "game associated with the film of the book": The Hunger Games: District 12 Strategy Game was published in 2012 by WizKids (I), and Kosmos showed the German version of this game.

Board Game: The Hunger Games: District 12 Strategy Game

Overview and closer look at the board

• The Mayfair Games booth is rather small, with a cabinet to talk in silence and a table in front. Games from the recent catalogue are displayed, but no upcoming games, so I asked and Alex Yeager was kind enough to get a copy of the latest expansion for Steam, remove the shrinkwrap, care for some better lighting, and give permission for a shooting session. This third expansion, Steam: Map Expansion #3, has a two-sided board: One with maps of Japan, Hokkaido and Singapore (the smaller ones especially for 2-3 players), and the other side of the American West (up to six players), making it a kind of pioneer game. Here is the result:

Overview of all the material: board front (Japan, etc.) and the Westward Ho! board back

Singapore and Hokkaido for 2-3 players

Japan and the punch board with the track tiles

Alex also opened his notebook for me, showing some stages of the cover development of Andreas Steding's Five Points: Gangs of New York:

Board Game: Five Points: Gangs of New York

Thanks again, Alex!

• Pegasus Spiele is another publisher/distributor showing a huge variety of games, both new ones and German versions from other publishers. Wider releases in Germany will be specifically done of the following games:

Overview and detail of Drako: Dragon & Dwarves

Overview of the display and German player board in Belfort

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island will get a revised rulebook and cards – not for content, but with a different structure for more clarity.

Board Game: Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

German components/character sheets

Some cards

Also, Pegasus will relaunch the classic Crude: The Oil Game, released in the U.S. by Stronghold Games:

And – surprise, surprise – the third Stefan Feld game for gamers at this fair, which is probably already well known by most of you: Rialto. Pegasus didn't yet have the wooden components, so it added some pieces from other games. What are you doing? Acquiring cards, playing cards, or activating buildings. This time, no dice. You may select from the three Felds, whether you want dice placement (Bora Bora), dice AND cards (Brügge) or pure cards and tiles (Rialto) – or any combination ...

Overview with added wooden pieces and pure board

Player board with buildings

• Lost Legends from Queen Games is a card Eurogame settled in a fantasy universe. Each player selects one of five heroes fighting several monsters, preparing for these battles with equipment cards. Equipment (and under certain circumstances even monsters) are drafted between the players. Winning battles against monsters gain you trophies and legend points ...

Two of the five heroes

Monsters and cards placed beneath the hero cards to keep track of trophies (?)

Michael Feldkötter's Via Appia offers a quite uncommon way to obtain stones for building Rome's most famous road: Buy a stone and put it on a small stoneyard platform to push it forwards, causing stones on the other end of the platform to fall down – these stones are now available! On the road, which is built by all players, a race between the players' pawns is happening ...

Overview and closer look at the road to build

The stoneyard platform in action and player screen

• Some publishers are small, some even smaller, and some not even in the BGG database. Well, I want to point your attention to two of these publishers in the latter category.

One is almost the smallest publishing unit imagineable: myself and artist Felix Mertikat. Here I do proudly present our "company": spielpunk. We had no booth, no, but we will start a crowdfunding campaign soon, and several people who heard about my activities were eager to try my game at Nürnberg: Dark Empire: Revolution. In this game, players start a revolution against the emperor of a steampunk world, a world connected to Felix' comic series Steam Noir. Each player has a secret faction he wants to lead to victory – but the emperor also takes action whenever a player plays his cards not to the benefit of the revolutionaries, but in favor of the emperor. When this happens too often, the emperor puts down the revolution at the end of the game, and the player whose faction has gained the fewest points during the game wins!

This leads to a very specific mindset: Players want all factions to gain at least some points so that nobody is too far behind and decides to become a traitor for the rest of the game! Since you gain additional points no matter which faction you strengthen, you mostly also play for the benefit of the others. The core of the game is negotation and manipulative table talk, aside from the different scorings during the course of the game.

Four-player game at the "Games Café" with (from left) Stefan Risthaus, Hans-Peter Stoll, Michael Geithner and Andreas Thiele (2nd pic) showing his most "innocent" expression.

Dietmar Bockelmann, Markus Hagenauer and Swen Jamrich after a three-player game, discussing the game, and the central second: Everybody playing simultaneuosly towards the revolution or the emperor.

Another rather small publisher that has had some hype already was Wisegames. Never heard of this publisher? My longer conversation with Pedro Pereira (BGG user Pedrator) was very interesting, and you might have even seen the game Trench already, a game inspired by WWI warfare, but being an abstract two-player battle of a classical look with similarities to Chess, Shogi and the like, played diagonally and with a special diagonal line in the middle, the trench from which the game takes its name.

Again, no time to play a game, but the game seems more than solid! The principles – that is, how the pieces of different height might move – are strictly logical, and so pretty easy to grasp. Gameplay, though, has a steep learning curve. The board is diagonally separated into the two terrains of the players. On the trench line, your pieces cannot be beaten from the opponent's side of the playing area – but they can be taken out from your own side! So when an opponent's piece manages to get into your terrain, beware!

The game was presented in a rather large, black-and-white booth with several tables

The prototype plastic pieces look gorgeous; the blurriness is just because of the lens focus – the pieces are "sharp"

This is the end of the 2013 Nürnberg photo report from my side, having covered 66 games with 136 pics. I hope you liked it – see you next year!

Nürnberg 2013 Photo Report, Part II: 76 Pics of 24 Gamer's Games

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Nürnberg 2013 Photo Report, Part II: 76 Pics of 24 Gamer&#039;s Games

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Nürnberg 2013 Photo Report, Part II: 76 Pics of 24 Gamer's Games

Game Previews from Nürnberg 2013: Ab in die Tonne, Family Farm, Säulen der Macht, Catch & Alles Käse!

WizKids Games Teases Mage Knight: Resurrection, Injustice, Trains and Stations & Hello Kitty

Game Previews from Nürnberg 2013: AMIGO Spiel – Crazy Lab, Kuddelmuddel, Pharaoh Code, Word on the Street & Flash 10

Links: Cathala Objects, Faidutti Laments, Wheaton Ponders, Siggins Touts & Allers Remakes His Pie