2019 Origins recap

Posted on June 16, 2019 by Dale Yu

Well, another whirlwind trip to Columbus for one of my favorite shows of the year, Origins. The show has undergone a kind of renaissance in the past few years – no longer is the exhibit hall shrinking – in fact this year, it was noticably more crowded. The “hallways” in the dealer hall were no longer extremely spread out. Things appear to be looking up for the flagship GAMA show.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to be at the show this year due to some family obligations and kid’s soccer – but as it turns out, we had a match near Columbus so I was able to sneak in for a quick look around.

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Tiny Towns (Game Review by Brandon Kempf)

Posted on June 16, 2019 by Brandon Kempf
  • Designer: Peter McPherson
  • Artists: Gong Studios, Matt Paquette
  • Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
  • Players: 1-6
  • Time: 45-60 minutes
  • Times Played: 6

“Do you think there is going to be a sequel where Cthulhu comes and takes over all these tiny towns and gets rid of all the anthropomorphic creatures? Those things creep me out.”

In Tiny Towns players are competing Mayors trying to build the best scoring tiny town. You do this by using resources placed in your 4×4 grid to build buildings that will allow you to score the most points.

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Meeples Choice Preliminary Round Voting Has Started

Posted on June 15, 2019 by huzonfirst

So the Spielfrieks user group has started voting for the Meeples Choice Awards, in which we select our three favorite games of the previous calendar year.  Right now, we’re choosing our 25 nominated games.  Next week, we’ll vote to weed those nominees down to the three winning designs.  If you’re a member of Spielfrieks, please help us out and head over to the Yahoo User Group to place your votes.  If you’re not a member, but would like to participate, all you have to do is send an email to spielfrieks-owner@yahoogroups.com and you will be signed up and ready to join us.  Keep an eye out for some Geeklists listing the nominated games and, eventually, the winning ones!  Thanks!

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Dale Yu: First Impressions of Space Gate Odyssey

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Dale Yu

Space Gate Odyssey

  • Designer: Cedric Lefebvre
  • Publisher: Ludonaute
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 12+
  • Time: 60-90 minutes
  • Times played, 2 with review copy provided by publisher

Space Gate Odyssey is a game set in the “not-so-distant future” where humans are working to colonize newly discovered exoplanets.  There is a new system of five planets surrounding a central one, named Hawking. Travelling to this system (Which apparently ignores usual space physics) is done through space gates, some sort of teleporter – which must be built in space.  The game centers around the activities on the Odyssey, an international space station. Each player controls an unnamed, but conveniently uniquely colored, confederation, trying to build the modules and control the settlement of the exoplanets – with the overall goal of being the most influential confederation, and thus being given control of the entire system when the colonization process is over.

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Dale Yu: Review of Neta-Tanka

Posted on June 11, 2019 by Dale Yu

Neta-Tanka

  • Designer: RV Rigal
  • Publisher: La Boite de Jeu
  • Players: 1-4
  • Ages: 14+
  • Time: 60-90 minutes
  • Times played: 3, with review copy provided by La Boite de Jeu / Blackrock distribution

The Neta-Tanka is the leader of the Frostrivers tribe, and when it is time for the current leader to pass onto the next world, there is a ceremony where the potential new leaders of the tribe compete to show who is best suited to be the next Neta-Tanka.  While this sounds a lot like the Hunger Games, it really is a much less violent sort of boardgame… Here, each player performs different actions which score them victory points, as this is obviously how the Frostrivers tribe measures greatness.

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2018 Meeples Choice Award Voting Process Is Beginning

Posted on June 7, 2019 by huzonfirst

Every year, the Spielfrieks user group conducts our Meeples Choice Awards voting, in which we select our three favorite games from the previous calendar year.  The process is beginning, as we’re deciding on the pool of games to vote on to come up with our 25 nominees.  If you’re a member of Spielfrieks, please help us out and head over to the Yahoo User Group to place your votes.  If you’re not a member, but would like to help us with this most awesome of responsibilities, all you have to do is send an email to spielfrieks-owner@yahoogroups.com and you will be signed up and ready to join us.  It’s a three-week process and the more the merrier, so we hope to hear from a bunch of you!

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