Dale Yu: First Impressions of Da Yu: Flood Conqueror and Flip 9

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Dale Yu

 

 

Sometimes, it’s funny how things work out.  I was going thru the BGG Essen Preview (written by fellow OG contributor, W. Eric Martin) – and I noticed that there was a game called Da Yu.  Surely, with a name like that… the game was destined to be good, right?  In the comments, an old friend of mine posted (tongue-in-cheekly): “I’m looking forward to Dale Yu’s review of Da Yu.”  As it turns out, the manager of manager of Taiwan Boardgame Design started a conversation with me, and before I knew it, a box full of games from Taiwan was on my doorstep.

 

To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect.  My experience with games from Taiwan is very slim, but my trips to the past few SPIEL fairs in Essen has taught me that there are a lot of good games being made out in the world outside of the traditional sources.

[Note: Normally, I prefer to play a game at least three times prior to writing it for the blog. However, given the time pressure coming up to SPIEL ’14, I have written up my thoughts on a number of games based on only one or two plays in order to cover as many new games as possible prior to the show. I fully admit that it is often not possible to see the full breadth of a design in a single play, and thus I shall not give a final rating to any game at this stage with such a few number of plays…]

 

Da Yu: The Flood Conqueror

  • Designer: Kidd Hsu
  • Publisher: Twoplus
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: 30-45 min
  • Times played: 2, with a review copy provided by Taiwan Boardgame Design

dayu Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2014, First Impressions | 3 Comments

Liga: Dungeon Bazar preview with some designer notes

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Andrea "Liga" Ligabue

DungeonBazarDesigner: Simone Luciani, Daniele Tascini e Paolo Cecchetto
Publisher: Cranio Creations
Players: 2-5
Ages: 8+
Time: 50 minutes

(preview from the rules and play-test on an updated version of the game)

I’m really curious about Tzolk’in theme new design so I tried to get as soon as possible informations.Since I’m sure I’ll not be able to play the final version of Dungeon Bazar before Essen and it is now quite different from the prototype I got months ago I decided to go throuhgt the rules (English and Italian) and ask Lorenzo Tucci Sorrentino (publisher and also deeply involved in the development of the game) something about this interesting Euro in a typical Cranio’s outfit.

Overview of the game
Players are merchants trying to get the right equipment to sell to heroes willing to enter a dungeon and fight the dragon. The board is a 9 tiles randomly assembled map with each room connected to others by open/closed doors. Inside the rooms weapons, spells, armors and other equipments. During the turn a player can make up to three actions and the round goes over until all player pass. Action are movement, open closed doors and place goblins. Goblins actually are used to control an area and, in the end of turn, the player with most goblins will get the better cards. Cards are objects that will be sold to the heroes revealed in the beginning of the turn. So, summarizing, you have to look what heroes are looking for and compete with other merchants trying to get the best cards and make the best deal. Ogres, dragons, including the baby-one, and accountants make the whole thing a bit more lively. Than a second seasons: new heroes and new equipments and than a third one. In the end the richest merchant will be the winner.

DB_Mercanti1
Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2014, Preview | 2 Comments

Dale Yu: Review of Camel Up

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Dale Yu

 

Camel Up

  • Designer: Steffen Bogen
  • Players: 2-8
  • Ages: 8+
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Times Played: 4 (2 at Gathering of Friends, 2 with review copy provided by Z-Man Games)

camelup

Camel Up has slowly made its way to the North American market. I was first introduced to the game back in April at the Gathering of Friends. I was lukewarm on the game at that time, but fellow OG writers (namely W. Eric Martin and Ben McJunkin) were raving about it. As it turns out, they were more in tune than me – as Camel Up went on to win the 2014 Spiel des Jahres.

Back in April, there wasn’t an EN version of the game, and I was unable to have a copy brought over at that time. Since then, Z-man has signed on for the English language version, and it is supposed to be available around the second week of October (i.e. very soon). So what is the game all about? Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2014, Reviews | 5 Comments

Dale Yu: Review of Onirim, 2014 Edition (Z-man Games)

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Dale Yu

Onirim

  • Designer: Shadi Torbey
  • Publisher: Z-Man games
  • Players: 1-2
  • Ages: 10+
  • Time: ~15 mins

 

Times played: 2 with newest edition, at least 10 with original version

 

Onirim is a clever solo/2p card game where the player(s) work against the game to try to get 8 door cards on the table so you can escape the labyrinth that you are stuck in…

onirim Continue reading →

Posted in Essen 2014, Reviews | 2 Comments

Italian Games of the Year announced

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Andrea "Liga" Ligabue

GiocoAnnoAnd the winner is …

Just a little break in the endless rush of Essen preview/review to announce the best Italian award …

Two years ago Italian publishers and Lucca Comics & Games staff had a meeting concerning the evolution of Lucca’s best of show. They shared the idea that Italian market needs something different; something closer to Spiele des Jahres that can have a real impact also on non-games-related media and on the market.

So they wrote the criterions and the first one was “the ability to be a gateway into the games world and push gaming as an important characteristic of the society”. They than built up a jury including jourmalist and reviewers as much as possibile inserted in non-games-related media. They also included my daughter Caterina, from father in the messe series, to have also young people represented.

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Last year the award gone to Augustus. This year the 5 nominated were: La Boca, Carcassonne: South Seas seas, Eight-Minute Empire, Steam Park and The Little Prince: make me a planet. And the winner is ….

Continue reading →

Posted in Best Of, Site News | 2 Comments

Liga: Review Bim Bum Bam

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Andrea "Liga" Ligabue

BimBumBax.BoxFrontDesigner: Lorenzo Tucci Sorrentino
Publisher: Cranio Creations
Year Published: 2014 (Essen release)
Players: 1+
Age: 7+
Playing Time: 5 minutes

Who is going to start a game is one of the hardest problem gamers has to face before actually starting the game session. Some years ago Ted Alspach solved the problem relasing Start Player but probably that wasn’t enogh for a such big dilemma and now Cranio Creations published Bim Bum Bam trying to offer the final answer. (We all know that, the real final answer is 42!)

It is just the same mechanic: flip a card, read the text and determinate the starting player. Where Bim Bum Bam and Start Players differs is in cards’ requests and graphics.
Continue reading →

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