Congratulations to Codenames for winning SdJ and Isle of Skye for winning Kennerspiel!

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Dale Yu

The prizes were announced this morning –

The Spiel des Jahres was given to Codenames

2016_codenames

 

The Kennerspiel was awarded to Isle of Skye

2016_isleofskye

 

So – in our predictions, we’re one for two…  Luke, Joe H and Jonathan F were the three writers who correctly picked the pair of winners.

 

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TANKS – The WWII Tanks Skirmish Game (Review by Matt Carlson)

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Matt J Carlson

TANKS: Panther vs Sherman Starter Box
Designers: Andrew Haught, Chris Townley, Phil Yates
Publisher: Gale Force Nine, LLC
Players: 2
Ages: 8ish
Time: 30 minutes

(review copy provided by publisher)

TANKS is a new, lightweight system of miniatures from Gale Force Nine, focusing on (surprise) the tank battles of World War II. The idea is to have a fast-playing miniatures wargame to serve as an introduction to the hobby. This is the first wargame by Gale Force Nine, who produce a prodigious amount of pre-painted battle terrain, presumably usable in TANKS games as well as the more complex Flames of War game owned by GF9’s parent company, Battlefront Miniatures.

TANKS Bits (2)

My assembled tanks.

Continue reading →

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The Opinionated Gamers take on the Spiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres 2016

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

The short lists have been out for a few weeks now, and the writers here at the Opinionated Gamers have had a chance to play the games and try to guess at what the real jury will select for the award winners.  The press conference is set up for this coming Monday, so this seems to be a good time for us to publish our poll.

In this year’s version of the proceedings, the OG writers were simply asked to predict which game they thought the jury would give the awards to – NOT what the writers wanted to win.  There is room in the comments for our personal choices.  We had 26 writers vote this year, which may be our best SdJ turnout ever!

So, without much further ado – let’s start with the Kennerspiel this year….  In a runaway victory Continue reading →

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YINSH (Game Review by Chris Wray)

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Chris Wray
  • Designer: Kris Burm
  • Publisher:  Huch! & Friends; Don & Co.; Rio Grande
  • Players:  2
  • Ages:  9 and Up
  • Time:  30-60 Minutes
  • Times Played:  > 10

YINSH

Note: We’re focusing on reprints, re-themes, re-releases, etc. this month.  Since YINSH was recently reprinted, this entry is part of that series.  

YINSH was the fourth (arguably fifth or sixth) game published in the GIPF Project, an award-winning series of six abstract games by Belgian designer Kris Burm.  Burm first published the game through his company Don & Co. in 2003, with Rio Grande also releasing an edition that year.  It was later picked up by SMART for a revised multilingual edition and Rebel.pl for a Polish edition.

The entire GIPF series went out of print a few years ago, but HUCH & Friends has started reprinting the games with a fresh look, beginning with GIPF and YINSH.  That endeavor will culminate in the release of a new GIPF Project title next year.  I interviewed Mr. Burm for the most recent edition of Counter Magazine (April 2016) as part of my series on the history of the winners of the International Gamers Awards, and I wrote a history of GIPF yesterday on this site.

Continue reading →

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GIPF (Game History and Review by Chris Wray)

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Chris Wray
  • Designer: Kris Burm
  • Publisher:  Huch! & Friends; Don & Co.; Schmidt Spiele; Rio Grande
  • Players:  2
  • Ages:  9 and Up
  • Time:  30-60 Minutes
  • Times Played:  > 10

GIPF2016Cover

Note: We’re focusing on reprints, re-themes, re-releases, etc. this month.  Since GIPF was recently reprinted, this entry is part of that series.  I’ve included updates on the reprint below.    

GIPF is the first game in the GIPF Project, an award-winning series of six (arguably seven) abstract games by Belgian designer Kris Burm.  Burm first published the game as an independent in 1997, but a few months after its initial release, he came to a partnership with a German publisher.  The game and its successors in the GIPF Project have been released worldwide by a few publishers in the nineteen years since.  Even after all this time, GIPF still stands as one of the most revered abstract titles in our hobby.  

The entire series went out of print a few years ago, but HUCH & Friends has began republishing the games with a fresh look, starting with GIPF and YINSH.  That endeavor will culminate in the release of a new GIPF Project title next year.  I interviewed Mr. Burm for the most recent edition of Counter Magazine as part of my series on the history of the winners of the International Gamers Awards, and he gave me some great details about the origin of GIPF.

What follows is my history of GIPF, plus a short review with thoughts from all of the Opinionated Gamers.  

Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: Essen ’16 Preview of Power Grid: The Card Game

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Dale Yu

 

Power Grid: The Card Game

  • Designer: Friedemann Friese
  • Publisher: 2F
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: ?
  • Time: 30-45 minutes
  • Times played: 2, with publisher’s prototype copy at the Gathering of Friends

pg tcg box

As I alluded to in my Gathering of Friends report – there is a new card game coming in the Power Grid family. Now that the embargo has been lifted, I will give a bit more detail about the game. I had the chance to play it a few times at the Gathering, and after glancing through the rules, it appears that there were not any major rules changes from the version that I played.

Power Grid: The Card Game (PG:TCG) is a streamlined version of the full game where you get a lot of the feel of Power Grid but in about a third of the time. This version of the game focuses on power plant acquisition and the resource market – but takes out the map play. This version of the game also uses some of the rules changes that were introduced to the Power Grid system from the Power Grid Deluxe release from a few years ago. Continue reading →

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