Videos from Spiel 2014 XXXVII: Panamax, Diamonds, Kanban, Click & Crack, Nanahoshi & The Little Witches and the Mysterious House

Videos from Spiel 2014 XXXVII: Panamax, Diamonds, Kanban, Click & Crack, Nanahoshi & The Little Witches and the Mysterious House

Board Game: Panamax

• Okay, these first three game demonstration videos from Spiel 2014 are coming out particularly late given that these titles from Stronghold Games have been picking up tons of buzz, but in case you haven't yet heard of them — and with them being only two months old, they're still new to most people — you can now get a taste of these titles, starting with Panamax from Gil d'Orey, Nuno Sentieiro, and Paulo Soledade, with MESAboardgames being the originating publisher and Stronghold Games being the English-language licensor. Amazingly, we got all three designers in the BGG booth to talk about the game.

Board Game: Diamonds: Second Edition

• A few days prior to BGG.CON 2014, someone called me out for a game of Mike Fitzgerald's Diamonds at the con, and since I love trick-taking games and Mike and I share similar gaming tastes — such as our mutual adoration of Innovation and Impulse — I accepted the challenge.

Then I showed up in Dallas and promptly forgot all about it. Sorry! If nothing else, you (like me) can now watch Fitzgerald describe the game firsthand. It's almost like being there.

Board Game: Kanban: Driver's Edition

• Sandwiching the only new card game from Stronghold is the other beefy title that the publisher debuted at Spiel 2014: Kanban: Automotive Revolution from Vital Lacerda, who Stronghold's Stephen Buonocore briefly unchained from the demo tables so that he could talk about his creation on camera. I love staring at this cover and trying to imagine what's written on the paper that this woman is about to check off: "Blue laser? Check!"

Board Game: Click & Crack

• I got the chance to play Jun'ichi Sato's Click & Crack a few times prior to Spiel 2014 and enjoyed the game, finding it a clever mini-programming game that takes a few plays before you get a handle on the threats that other players can present.

Board Game: 小さな魔女とふしぎなお家 (The Little Witches and the Mysterious House)

• The Little Witches and the Mysterious House from designers Sayaka and Takahiro and publisher KogeKogeDo features a great gimmick for the pieces in the game, namely each player has two pieces that are tied together, with the string connecting them limiting their movement during play. As for the game itself, it sadly sits on my yet-to-be-played shelf along with far too many others. I am myself restricted with many strings, keeping me from the game table...

Board Game: Nanahoshi

• Nanahoshi co-designer Madoka Kitao is a professional Shogi player, and this new design — "Ladybirds" — retains some elements of Shogi in terms of the movement of the pieces, although the game itself is designed for a younger audience, similar to Kitao's Let's Catch the Lion!

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