New Game Round-up: Spiel 2014 – Pharaohs of Catan, Hunters in the Stone Age, Discs in Many Colors & Camp in Power Grid

New Game Round-up: Spiel 2014 – Pharaohs of Catan, Hunters in the Stone Age, Discs in Many Colors & Camp in Power Grid
Board Game: Catan: Ancient Egypt
Board Game: Jäger und Späher
• Time for another dose of games that will be headlining at the Spiel game convention in Essen, Germany in October 2014, even though in some cases these games will be released a bit earlier, as is the case with Klaus Teuber's Die Siedler von Catan: Das Alte Ägypten, due out on October 10, 2014 from German publisher KOSMOS. This game, tagged as a limited edition on the cover, takes the action of Catan back to the time of ancient Egypt, with players using their oxcarts to move resources to build settlements and temple towns. No other details from KOSMOS yet as to how this year's flavor of Catan might differ from in years past, but we have nearly four months to go until Spiel opens, so we'll give 'em a pass for now.

• Designer Gerard Hecht debuted in 2013 with Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße from KOSMOS and his sophomore release is a new entry in that publisher's revitalized two-player line. Here's a short description of Jäger und Späher, also due out in October 2014:

Quote:
In Jäger und Späher, each player leads a tribe in Stone Age times. Each turn, he decides which character card to play or whether to recall all of his traveling tribe members to the village. For his tribe to grow larger, not to mention survive, hunters must be sent out to collect meat and skins, and scouts must collect raw materials in order to produce valuable goods. The varied characters ensure an exciting and variable game.
From gallery of W Eric Martin
Board Game: Machi Koro
• The semiannual KOSMOS abstract title is 7 Steps from the, as far as I know, first time pairing of designers Michael Kiesling and Reinhard Staupe. The short description from KOSMOS gives off a Pagoda vibe, which is not a bad thing from my POV:

Quote:
In 7 Steps, everything revolves around the number seven, with seven fields in seven colors, and seven discs available to each player each round that can block any number — and by blocking columns on the fields rise higher step by step up to a maximum height of seven discs. Newly placed discs score points for the placer depending on the level where the disc was placed in the column. Only the one who can place his discs cleverly and use the special tiles well will win this game.
• Other titles coming in the latter half of 2014 from KOSMOS include German versions of Masao Suganuma's Machi Koro, Pierre-Yves Lebeau's Nosferatu, and Matt Hyra's The Walking Dead Board Game: The Best Defense.

Board Game: Legends of Andor: Journey to the North
• Slightly more information is available for Michael Menzel's Die Legenden von Andor: Die Reise in den Norden. Here's the updated description of that expansion, which is due out September 2014:

Quote:
After many years of peace, the heroes of Andor have received a cry for help from Far Hadria, and they immediately undertake a perilous voyage to the North. On board an old sailing ship, they travel to foreign islands and struggle to protect the coasts from terrible sea monsters. What's more, time and time again they find themselves challenged by raging storms and the unleashed power of the sea itself.

Die Legenden von Andor: Die Reise in den Norden, the first large expansion for Legends of Andor, includes a new map of the northern region of Andor, new legends, and more.
• And to look at a non-KOSMOS title for a moment, I previewed Friedemann Friese's Funkenschlag Deluxe: Europa/Nordamerika in April 2014 after looking the game over at a convention and getting more details of how this tenth anniversary will differ from the base game. Now publisher 2F-Spiele has revealed the cover of the game — which in English will be titled Power Grid deluxe: Europe/North America — as well as the long list of publishers that will release this game in October 2014, ostensibly on the same date that the game debuts at Spiel 2014: Edge Entertainment will have Spanish and French versions, Arclight Japanese, Giochi Uniti Italian, Ideal Board Games Romanian, 999 Games Dutch, and Lautapelit.fi Scandinavian. Quite the Homer Simpson vibe from this worker, although he's far more relaxed than old Homer ever was.

I know that many have already expressed reservations about the laid-back look of this cover, but I'm far more disturbed by the lower-case "d" in "deluxe". What's the deal with that?!

Board Game: Power Grid Deluxe: Europe/North America

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