Zoch Verlag Welcomes 2018 with Witches, Cows, Ghosts, Monsters, and Tall Cylinders

Zoch Verlag Welcomes 2018 with Witches, Cows, Ghosts, Monsters, and Tall Cylinders
Board Game: Menara
• German publisher Zoch Verlag has released info on a half-dozen titles that it plans to release in the first half of 2018, and as is often the case for this publisher, the games are a mix of family-friendly titles and games aimed at children.

The most eye-catching game of the lot is one that will immediately have you thinking of an older Zoch title: the 2002 Spiel des Jahres-winning Villa Paletti from Bill Payne. Unlike that stacking game, however, Menara from Oliver Richtberg is a cooperative game, with a player count of 1-4 and a playing time of 10-60. You're still stacking things, after all, so you can likely crash to failure within minutes! Here's the short description of the game that we have for now:

Quote:
As a tight-knit team in Menara, players use pillars and wondrously-shaped temple floors to build a spectacularly soaring structure full of nooks and crannies. Cooperation and static skills are in demand since for each mistake in construction, you have to add another floor to the temple.

A steady hand, an alert mind, and mutual assistance can help you successfully complete what seems to top out at dizzy heights...
Board Game: Menara


Board Game: Rock the Bock
Christwart Conrad's card game Rock the Bock had me looking up what "bock" means: "Bock is a strong lager of German origin." Well no wonder I didn't know that; my knowledge of beer rivals my knowledge of wargames. Of course the German word "Bock" also means "buck" in English, and that makes a bit more sense given that players try to get animals into play to score points — but the game is set at a festival where bock would likely be served, so kudos to Zoch for working more word play into another title, a specialty of theirs. As for the game:

Quote:
Today, the horse goes hog wild, and the deer dances with the cow. If you want to get the last tickets for the animal festival, you better rally at the round-up!

In Rock the Bock, the player who gets the most animals from their hand onto the festival grounds wins. Groups with too many animals have to stay out, though. A good connection to the black market and a cleverly used VIP pass can't hurt.
Board Game: Rock the Bock


Board Game: Saus und Brau's
Saus und Brau's from Thomas Daum and Violetta Leitner follows a couple of other Zoch traditions: rhyming game titles (as with Rock the Bock above) and witches as main characters. A game overview video will probably add a lot of context to this description:

Quote:
First she breezes, then she brews! On a wild whirling flight, Winnie the witch follows the tip of her broom. The ingredients for her favorite potion are widely scattered across mountains and valleys. To collect them, players let Winnie spin around until her broom determines the direction of her flight route. If you can elicit the right witchy magic from the magical folding books, you'll collect the ingredients the witch has flown over — but jinxed books swap places...

In Saus und Brau's, children (but also adults!) can combine the magic power of their fingertips with the sharpness of an alert mind.
Board Game: Saus und Brau's


Board Game: Geistesblitz Junior
Board Game: Flick Fleck
Board Game: Monster Meister
• Other titles coming in early 2018 from Zoch are Jacques Zeimet's Geistesblitz Junior (so that players of all ages can learn how to slam the table in frustration); Michael Kallauch's Flick Fleck, which challenges players ages 4 and up to create nice black-and-white patterns on cows via tile-laying; and Monster Meister from Maja and Amelie Dorn, about which I know nothing.

As is the case with many upcoming games from German publishers, BGG will be at the Spielwarenmesse trade fair in early February 2018 to record overviews for you, our faithful readers. (Undependable readers can also watch these videos, of course. YouTube takes all eyes...)

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