Spiel.digital Tips

Posted on October 21, 2020 by lornadune

Spiel.Digital Tips

So normally a lot of us here at Opinionated Gamers would be writing about traveling to Essen and getting our shopping and demos done. Since Spiel.Digital is new I thought maybe a help list might be needed. 

The first thing I noted is it’s hard to actually find the registration page. Here is a link https://bit.ly/37qz5rl that I hope works. You’ll then receive a confirmation email. You also need to be able to access Tabletopia, BoardGameArena and Discord if you want to play games. Of course awesome reviews from Opinionated gamers and others can found as well discussion with designers and publishers. 

As an added bonus, Registered visitors will find the premium accounts for Tabletopia and BGA via their SPIEL.digital user accounts – this means that you can play all the games for free during the days of SPIEL.digital!

Some publishers like CGE, Heidlbar and Horrible Guild have a separate free sign up https://ti.to/3d-booth/spiel2020 and again you will need Discord.

Some publishers like TaiwanBoardGame Design have a schedule to sign up on already and are playing games now through their Discord server. More info here https://www.tbdgames.com/?lightbox=dataItem-k02h2odu2

Bezier seems to be running everything via their Discord server and Meetup. 

https://www.meetup.com/beziergames/events/

The hardest thing for some of us is knowing when to show up.  It appears that most events are listed in UTC.  In case you need help, either Google it or use https://www.worldtimeserver.com/convert_time_in_UTC.aspx

And, since we’re also the Opinionated Eaters – https://tasty.co/recipe/tornado-potato

Please comment if you have any other tips to share!

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Opinionated Gamers Spiel Want Lists Part 6

Posted on October 21, 2020 by lornadune

Tery’s Top Essen Wants

Here are the games that I would likely have bought if I was at actually at Essen. They are in no particular order.

Cloud Age: I have yet to meet a Pfister game I don’t like, so seeing his name immediately puts a game on my radar. This one has engine building and deck building, two mechanisms that I especially enjoy, so I am really looking forward to this one.

Monster Expedition: I am always on the lookout for quality games that can be played in a short amount of time; it used to be to serve as a filler at game day and is not for when we have 45 minutes before dinner and want to play something. This is Pfister, so that’s a plus, and it sounds like Can’t Stop with some monsters added, so I am in.

Monasterium: They had me at “innovative dice mechanism”, and it’s from dlp, a publisher I have generally enjoyed. The theme of the game sounds interesting, and I am curious to see the dice mechanism. I’ve only played one other game by the designer – Pagoda – and I thought it was a very interesting design, so that adds to my interest.

Bonfire: Feld is somewhat hit or miss for me, but the hits are great and the misses are never painful, so he is generally a must-try for me. I like the sound of the puzzle aspect for this one.

Castles of Tuscany: I love Castles of Burgundy (a Feld hit for me), so I’m interested to see how this one differs. 

Influentia: I am a big fan of trick-taking games and am always on the lookout for new or innovative games. This one sounds interesting – trick taking with card activations. I am not sure when I’ll be able to get this to the table, since it is a 3-4 player game, but I am still interested.

Faiym: I am intrigued by the idea that you play your cards, and then you play them again in reverse order, and it’s an engine-builder by the designer of one of my favorite engine-builders, Power Grid, so this immediately landed on my list. 

Orleans Stories 3 and 4: I really enjoyed Orleans Stories 1 and 2, but it hasn’t been hitting the table since the novelty has worn off, even though the stories are definitely replayable. I look forward to seeing what the new stories bring.

Adventure Game; Grand Hotel Abbadon: This one sounds like an interesting game experience to me. Cooperatively explore and solve a mystery with your fellow players, I like that it combines elements of a puzzle hunt and an escape room, and I have a particular group of friends I think this would be especially fun with.

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The Opinionated Gamers cover SPIEL.digital 2020!

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Dale Yu


If you are new to the blog – welcome! We have been writing about games since 2011 at this site, and we have over 1,300 reviews posted and maintained online!

A few quick pointers:

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Click here to find the full list of SPIEL.digital blog posts

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Or check out some of the highlights of our coverage from SPIEL 2020!

And, once it goes live, you can click here to get to our page on the SPIEL.digital website!

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Brandon Kempf – Three Games of Essen 2020 (A little bit heavier this time, but not a lot)

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Brandon Kempf

I have a lot of games. A lot of games that are on my shelves, or on my table being played, that I have told myself that I want to review at some point. For one reason or another, this doesn’t always happen. My goal here on The Opinionated Gamers is that I want to get about one review out per week, but I’d like to write about more games. So I’m taking a page out of Patrick Brennan’s playbook, and we’re going to start writing about games in threes, in snapshot form. This should be a good way for readers to get to know me and my gaming tastes a bit better, and also another way for me to talk about games that I maybe don’t really want to dedicate two thousand words to. Welcome to Three Games.

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Whistle Mountain (Game Preview by Chris Wray)

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Chris Wray
  •  Designer:  Scott Caputo & Luke Laurie
  • Publisher:  Bezier Games
  • Artists:  Mila Harbar & Taylor Bogle
  • Players:  1 – 6
  • Ages:  12 and Up
  • Time:  60-90 Minutes

Whistle Mountain is a worker placement game designed by Scott Caputo and Luke Laurie.  Published by Bezier Games, the game is one of the more anticipated Essen 2020 titles, and it’ll be hitting store shelves in coming weeks.

Though Whistle Mountain shares some theming with Whistle Stop, a 2017 game designed by Scott Caputo and also released by Bezier, that game was more of a pickup and deliver game, and this one is more of a worker placement game.  Gone are the trains, and in lieu there are airships!

As I recently said in my one-line summary of the game, this is “a fun, heavier-than-expected polyominoes-meets-worker-placement game that is going to have an enormous amount of replayability.”  The game is a nice mashup of several different mechanics, and though I’ve only played a couple of times, I can already tell that Whistle Mountain is going to be one of those games with a lot to explore.  

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Dale Yu: Review of Cantaloop (Spoiler Free)

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Dale Yu

Cantaloop

  • Designer/Author: Friedemann Findeisen
  • Publisher: Lookout Games
  • Age: 13+?
  • Time: 2-3 hours
  • Times played: 1, with preview copy provided by Lookout Games

I was surprised to see Cantaloop show up on the SPIEL game list as I went through my final preparations for SPIEL.digital.   The last time I had talked to the folks at Lookout, they were thinking 1Q 2021 for a release; and as such, I had put any plans of a review off for a bit so that I could cover the newest and greatest from SPIEL 2020.  Welp, things change, and I’m dealing with it (by staying up late and writing a review when I should be sleeping!)  So… I’m not even sure if Cantaloop will make it into the BGG database. It is an adventure book, and by the definitions of BGG, it might not even qualify as a game there.  I don’t care so much for the definitions, and I had a great time working my way through the book, and I wanted to share my experience in time for you to read about it at SPIEL.digital 2020.

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