Dale Yu: Review of The Lie [Essen SPIEL 2024]

Posted on October 11, 2024 by Dale Yu

The Lie

  • Designers: Eloi Pujadas, Eugeni Castaňo
  • Publisher: Devir
  • Players: 2-6
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 20 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In The Lie, all the cards lie! The cards show numbers from 1 to 4, and they are in four different colors. However, when you turn each card over, you will find something has changed: either its color or number. You must be clever in choosing your combinations in order to play a higher number of the same color. Whoever is able to play all of their cards first wins the match, and whoever has the most points after a certain number of matches wins the game.

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Dale Yu: Review of Exit: The Game Advent Calendar – The Missing Hollywood Star

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Dale Yu

Exit: The Game Advent Calendar – The Missing Hollywood Star

Designers: Inka and Markus Brand

Publisher: Kosmos

Players: 1+

Time: 5-10 min/day x 24 days

Played with review copy provided by Thames and Kosmos

Amazon Affiliate link – https://amzn.to/3XNrSu4

Advent calendars are a well-entrenched tradition in Germany.  Each October when I head to Essen for SPIEL, the stores are already jammed packed with Advent calendars of all types.  The first printed Advent calendar originated in Germany in the early 20th century with Gerhard Lang. When Gerhard was a little boy his mother made him a calendar with 24 small candies attached to cardboard, one for each day before Christmas.  Lang grew up to operate the Reichhold & Lang printing company where he printed the first Advent cardboard calendar with 24 little pictures. A few years later, the company printed the first calendar with the little doors that everyone loves to open.  The first chocolate Advent calendar appeared in 1958, but it was in 1971 that Cadbury joined the race and launched its own version in the UK. Cadbury produced Advent calendars intermittently from 1972 to 1986, but it wasn’t until 1993 that they finally became a mainstay.

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Mycelia Wins Austria’s Spiel der Spiele Award

Posted on October 9, 2024 by huzonfirst

The results of the Spiel der Spiele, Austria’s national game awards, have been announced.  The Game of the Year is Mycelia, designed by Daniel Greiner and published by Ravensburger.  The SdS also honors games in six other categories; here are their recommendations, along with the game’s designers.

Games for Experts:  Sabika, designed by German Millan
Games for Friends:  Marsch der Krabben, designed by Julien Prothiere
Games for Families:  Featherweight Fiesta, designed by Julien Prothiere and Juan Rodriguez
Games with Cards:  Finito, designed by Garrett Donner, Brian Spence, and Michael Steer
Trendy Games:  Bag of Chips, designed by Theo Riviere and Mathieu Aubert
Games for Children:  Garden Heist, designed by Fabrice Chazal and Anthony Perone

Congratulations to all the winning games and their designers!

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White Castle, Thunder Road, Sea Salt & Paper, and Blob Party Win 2024 ATA Awards

Posted on October 9, 2024 by huzonfirst

The American Tabletop Awards have been around since 2019 and they just announced their winning games for 2024.  The ATA’s honor games in four categories, focused at four different styles of gamers; here are the winning games, along with the other games that got mentions in each category:

EARLY GAMERS
Winner:  Blob Party, designed by Pam Walls
Other Mentioned Games:  Chicken!, Deep Dive, Turbo Kidz, Maple Valley

CASUAL GAMES
Winner:  Sea Salt & Paper, designed by Bruno Cathala and Theo Riviere
Other Mentioned Games:  Dorfromantik, Next Station: Tokyo, Fit to Print, My Island

STRATEGY GAMES
Winner:  Thunder Road: Vendetta, designed by Rob Daviau, Justin Jacobson, Noah Cohen, Brian Neff, Dave Chalker, Brett Myers, and Jim Keifer
Other Mentioned Games:  Daybreak, The Fox Experiment, Forest Shuffle, Kinfire Chronicles: Night Fall

COMPLEX GAMES
Winner:  The White Castle, designed by Israel Cendrero and Sheila Santos
Other Mentioned Games:  Nucleum, Earth, Dune Imperium: Uprising, Motor City

Congratulations to all the winning games and their designers!

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Nucleum Wins 2024 Jogo do Ano Award

Posted on October 9, 2024 by huzonfirst

Well, the last few significant gaming awards of 2024 have trickled in, so let’s summarize the results in a few posts.

First, Spiel Portugal, a leading Portuguese gaming club, announced the results of their Jogo do Ano award today.  The award focuses on heavier games and the winner this year is Nucleum, by designers Simone Luciani and David Turczi, and published by Board&Dice.  Earlier, Nucleum won the IGA’s Best Multiplayer Game award and was one of four winners of the Meeples Choice Award.  It’s the second JdA victory for Luciani (he won previously for Barrage) and he sixth time he’s been nominated in the award’s 18 year history, more than any other designer.  It’s the first JdA nomination and win for Turczi.

Nucleum beat out four other excellent games which were nominated:  Evacuation, Hegemony, Horseless Carriage, and Scholars of the South Tigris.  Congratulations to Luciani, Turczi, and Board&Dice!

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Dale Yu: Review of That’s Pretty Clever! Kids

Posted on October 9, 2024 by Dale Yu

That’s Pretty Clever! Kids

  • Designer: Wolfgang Warsch
  • Publisher: Schmidt / CMYK
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 5+
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Amazon Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3Y0In7n
  • Played with review copy provided by CMYK

You want to get your hands on everything you can at the birthday party: balloons, gifts, candles, and mountains of sweets! Will you be able to grab more than all the other partygoers?

This game is similar to Ganz schön clever, with one player rolling dice on their turn, then choosing what they want while everyone else gets something from what’s left behind.

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