The Opinionated Gamers

Another October, another Essen … Thank goodness that Boardgamegeek is once again streaming game demos direct from the fair to keep all of us addicts feeling connected! It’s great to see the same people (and the same jokes about FLAGGO!) every year, and to welcome people who are new to the livestream.

I’ve not seen as much of the feed this year as I would have liked, due to teaching load / school concert / game night, not to mention needing to actually work on my research during the day, but I’ve caught the middle of the last couple of days. Tonight, I’m settled in the living room with the TV showing the feed, my MacBook showing the backchannel chat, a sofa blanket keeping me warm, and a good supply of snacks. Doing the feed properly requires planning. Continue reading →

I know we’re all excited about the goings on at Essen.  But this is the time of year in which Fairplay announces the winner of the a la carte for the best card game of the year, so I wanted to spread the news.

Every year since 1991, the readers of Germany’s Fairplay magazine have helped choose the a la carte award.  The list of winners is long and prestigious; in my opinion, no other gaming award may have gotten it “right” so often.  In most years, there is a dominant card game and the a la carte unerringly picks it out.  This year, though, there were two outstanding, world class games played with cards:  SdJ winner Codenames and 7 Wonders: Duel, the acclaimed 2-player version of 7 Wonders.  In what is probably a mild upset, the award went to the latter game.  When the vote totals are released a bit later, I’ll be very curious to see how close this contest wound up being.  Congratulations to designers Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala, and consolations to Codename’s designer Vlaada Chvatil (who must be satisfied with the oodles of extra sales the SdJ brought him).

Here are the top 10 vote-getters, together with their designers.  I’ll follow the list up with some fun facts about each game.

1. 7 Wonders: Duel  (Antoine Bauza, Bruno Cathala)
2. Codenames  (Vlaada Chvatil)
3. Die Holde Isolde  (Nicolas Poncin)
4. Oh My Goods!  (Alexander Pfister)
5. Die Fiesen 7  (Jacques Zeimet)
6. Agent Undercover  (Alexandr Ushan)
7. The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game  (Stefan Feld)
8. Kobayakawa  (Jun Sasaki)
9. 3 sind eine zu viel!  (Reinhard Staupe, Christoph Behre)
10. Die Portale von Molthar  (Johannes Schmidauer-Konig)

Continue reading →