Videos from Spiel 2014 XXXVI: Murano, Patchwork, Johari, Fleet Commander, Speakeasy & 1944: Race to the Rhine

Videos from Spiel 2014 XXXVI: Murano, Patchwork, Johari, Fleet Commander, Speakeasy & 1944: Race to the Rhine

Board Game: Murano

• My initial plan of posting all of the game demonstration videos that BGG recorded at Spiel 2014 by BGG.CON 2014 seems ever more laughable given that we're nearly out of December at this point, but never mind! The end is in sight, and we'll push through.

German publisher Lookout Games offered a range of titles at Spiel 2014, with the biggest one being Murano by Inka and Markus Brand. This video starts with a short history of glass manufacturing in Italy, which is relevant as Murano is the place where that manufacturing took place, and since Murano is a series of islands just north of Venice, you bring gondolas into the picture, and the game emerges from there.

Board Game: Patchwork

• I previewed Murano in September 2014 after getting a look at the game at Gen Con 2014, but that preview also covered Uwe Rosenberg's two-player Patchwork, which I actually played at that con. Based on that single playing, I thought Patchwork was an excellent design and found it reminiscent of the best of the KOSMOS two-player game series, with this being an open information design with no random elements.

Board Game: Johari

• Instead of pushing out everything about Spiel in 2014, Lookout Games released a pair of titles earlier at Gen Con 2014, with its U.S. partner Mayfair Games debuting the designs. Carlo Lavezzi's Johari comes across like a typical Lookout design in how players need to manage the actions available to them each day in order to get things done.

Board Game: Speakeasy

• Speakeasy from designers Aurélien Bidaud and Henri Redici and newcomer Capsicum Games was immediately tagged with "Is this Stratego?" questions as soon as it was announced, and yes, the publisher says that the design is based on Lu Zhan Qi, an earlier Chinese design that Stratego also derived from. In Speakeasy, players have more freedom of movement while also having safe houses on the board where their pieces can't be attacked.

Board Game: Fleet Commander: 1 – Ignition

• Capsicum Games also featured a very different type of game at Spiel 2014: Fleet Commander from the design team of Bergerat, Charpentier, Redici and Schindler. This two-player space combat game relies on dice to determine which actions are available on a turn — but players choose which dice they want to roll each turn, therefore giving them the chance to play the odds and possibly take many actions or play it safe and be assured of getting to do what they want.

Board Game: 1944: Race to the Rhine

• BGG recorded an overview of 1944: Race to the Rhine at Spielwarenmesse in early 2014 when the game bore the preliminary title 1944: Monty vs. Patton. That title makes the design sound like a two-player game, in addition to having other unwanted associations, so PHALANX and designers Andruszkiewicz and Gumienny made the right choice with the current handle.

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