Moving on, I was of course very happy to see a positive review and high scores (one 7, six 8s and three 9s) for the Portuguese history themed Navegador, a game Mac Gerdts first presented at LeiriaCon, Portugal’s largest boardgame meeting.

Another of this issue’s delights is a small advert for the appropriately-named Alea Apartments in a Greek island, where holiday makers can use the owner’s boardgame collection.

The issue’s contents is as follows, with underlined games getting high scoring reviews.

• News:
  • the As d’Or goes to Skulls & Roses, while 7 Wonders receives a special award
  • the 23rd Hippodice contest and its strong winner, Afrika 1830, a game about the ruthless colonial politics and exploitation in Africa
• Long reviews: Settlers of Catan–The quick card game, 1655–Habemus Papam, Black Friday, Firenze, Grand Cru, Navegador, The Great Fire of London, Skull & Roses, Alien Frontiers, Key Market
• Short reviews: Water Lily, Take it or leave it, High Five, Busstop: the Boardgame, Alex & Co
• Children’s games: Flucht vor dem T-Rex, tiptoi–Die Englisch Detektive, Was ist das?, Domory, Der Waldspaziergang
• Profiles:
  • interview of Ulrich Blum, author of Grand Cru
  • interview of the spokesman of the Spiel des Jahres jury on the creation of their new award “Connoisseur Game of the Year”
• Reports:
  • 14 pages about the board and card games at Nuremberg’s Toy Fair, with comments on expansions and remakes
  • 15th anniversary of the German edition of Wizard
• Edition spielbox 92: Great Western, a railway game by Martin Wallace for 2-4 players
• History: Meltdown, a not very good game about management of nuclear reactors
• Books: “Five cows walking on a road…”, a book for training creativity by Joachim Zischke, author of expensive topological games
• Playing better: player aids for Black Friday and Troyes

The report on Essen also includes a short profile on Jussi Auto and his Finnish company, Tuonela Productions. Moreover, I couldn’t help notice a 2-page advert for Korean games in this issue. One of the reviewed games (K2) is Polish. And past reviews include Czech game, for example. Boardgame design and publishing is definitely becoming global and (sometimes, as in the case of Caravelas and Vinhos) multi-cultural.

Apropos Vinhos, its failure to be sold at Essen due to production delays was apparently not a single case. This issue’s editorial notes that more than a dozen (!) of the games bought for the spielbox office had production problems: defective boards, missing pieces, etc. The editorial notes how many publishers (especially new ones) are pressing themselves to present one or more novelties at each SPIEL and thereby run into all kinds of quality problems (e.g. rules with errors and omissions) to the point of having no game to present, in the extreme cases. Why gamble on quality when there is so much competition nowadays?

The issue’s contents is as follows, with underlined games getting high scoring reviews.

• News: the Asmodée/Staupe conflict and the role of publishers in defending designers from copycats
• Long reviews: Asara, Pillars of the Earth – The card game, Safranito, K2, LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts, Thunderstone, Dominant Species
• Short reviews: Chicago Express expansion, Hexenflug, aufRuhr!, Perpetual-Motion Machine, Sticht oder nicht, Stich-Meister, Cinco
• Children’s games: Die kleinen Zauberlehrlinge, Kleine Froschmusik / Karla Kuchenfee, Mit Felix durch Deutschland, Käse Kaos, findevier
• Profiles:
  • interview of Wolfgang Kramer about Asara
  • interview of Michael Rieneck about Pillars of the Earth – The card game
• Reports:
  • SPIEL’11 in Essen (over 20 pages!)
  • a new series of classic games from around the world, chosen by children
• Edition spielbox: Christmas Tree, an expansion for Zooloretto
• History:
  • oldie: Tyranno Ex!, the not so serious game about evolution
  • word games, part 2: some curious word games, which e.g. combine mechanics from other types of games

The report about the UK Games Expo concludes that while it won’t become a competitor to SPIEL in Essen, the Expo’s small size makes it a better alternative to try out prototypes and talk to game designers.

The commentary on Germany’s Game of the Year Award points out that the only constant throughout the years is the unpredictability of the jury: this year a communication game (Dixit) won the award, while in past years that kind of game often didn’t even make it into the jury’s recommended games list.

The news about a multi-player game timer that has come on the market makes clear it’s the ideal accessory for people playing with me, as Matt pointed out. Although he didn’t put it quite this way, he suggested I should buy it to work on my innate ability to take ages to finish my turns. I had to explain it was a deliberate strategy to nerve my opponents and obtain a competitive advantage to offset my natural tendency towards low scores.

The issue’s contents is as follows, with underlined games getting high scoring reviews.

• News:
  • the Game of the Year Award results
  • the DGT Cube, a multi-player game timer
  • the 29th edition of the Göttingen meeting gathers 164 game designers, and the 3000 Euro training stipend for yet unpublished authors goes to a school teacher
• Long reviews: Titania, Glen More, Long Shot, Velo City, Revolution!, Identik, Samarkand, Schlag den Raab, Workshop of the World, Tammany Hall, Asteroyds, Claustrophobia
• Short reviews: 11 nimmt!, Basket Boss, 20.000 Meilen unter dem Meer
• Children’s games: Schatz der Kobolde, Vampire der Nacht, Kleine Magier, Panic Tower, Mein Mäuschen-Farbspiel
• Profiles:
  • Bruce Allen and the story behind his first game, Tobago
  • Frank Czarnetzki, the owner of LudoArt, which tries to develop games that are art objects too
  • Harald Mücke, seller of game materials and publisher
• Reports: UK Games Expo 2010 in Birmingham
• Edition spielbox: Side Dish, an expansion for A la Carte
• History:
  • oldie: Dungeon and its successors (Drachen-Labyrinth, Dungeon Twister, Claustrophobia)
  • abstract games: where movement depends on position, e.g. Bantu, Ins+Outs, Energizer, LOA, Sabotage, Epaminondas, etc.
  • for collectors: seafaring games
• Variants: different winning conditions and a variant for Velo City

It’s also clear spielbox is covering more games that are not available in German, maybe because of the magazine’s English edition.

I couldn’t help noting that two of the games in this issue (Rattus and The Plague) are about an uncommon theme, The Black Plague, but I won’t take it as a signal that it will become popular

Another curious coincidence: a review on a game I just played two days ago, Ascension. The reviewer notes that the game lacks depth and that its fantasy theme is completely irrelevant, but praises the rulebook and the game’s simplicity, giving it a score of 7/10. I wholeheartedly agree with everything, except that it deserves such a high score.

The editor-in-chief comments on the German Game Award results, writing that the top 10 voted games make for one of the most uniform lists ever, with most games being of the VP-gathering kind, with similar mechanics; cooperative, communication or dexterity games are absent. The magazine presents the 2010 and 2009 lists side by side and it’s plain to see that last year was far more interesting, with games as diverse as Dominion, Le Havre, Pandemic and Small World. He also notes that the winner (Fresco) beat the second placed (Vasco da Gama) by the narrowest margin ever in the award’s history. Darn! Well, at least I did my bit by voting for VdG and Macao, which also made the top 10.

The issue’s contents is as follows, with underlined games getting high scoring reviews.

• News:
  • the German Game Award results
  • the world’s largest Puzzle: 32,256 pieces and 17kg heavy!
• Long reviews:  The Mines of Zavandor, Jerusalem, Vor den Toren von Loyang, Rattus, Cyclades, Frag Gold Edition, Shipyard, Snapshot, Catacombs, Horus Heresy, Settlers of America, Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer
  
• Short reviews: Dominion:The Alchemists, Wobble, Hotel Checkout, Caminos, Haflinger & Co.
  
• Children’s games: MauseSause, Pirate Plank, Die Alphas, Wortwal, Kim & Tim, Einfach klasse in Mathematik
  
• Profiles:
  • Claus Stephan: a graphic designer explains how he developed the art concept for Loch Ness
  • Inka and Markus Brand, a game designer couple (Guatemala Café, A Castle for all Seasons, etc.)
• Reports:
  • the opinions of players, authors and publishers on environmentally friendly games
  • the Wizard world cup final in Castle Frankenstein
• Edition spielbox:
  • The Plague, a Carcassonne expansion
  • ‘Revolution’, a special card for Wizard Extreme
    
• History:
  • oldie: Crokinole
  • word games: Scrabble, Typ Dom, Boggle, Runes/Buzzle, etc.
  • an overview of several Carcassonne expansions (part 2)
  • the roots of Martin Wallace’s London
  • for collectors: the games of publisher Bütehorn (late 70s and early 80s)

The spielbox reviews are just one reviewer’s opinions, while BoardGameGeek provides many reviews on the same game: one gets a diversity of opinions that spielbox simply can’t compete with. Also, BGG doesn’t have space constraints: many reviews are considerably longer, and hence more detailed and in depth, than the 1 to 3 page reviews in spielbox. Last but not least, I often don’t quite understand the game descriptions in spielbox; maybe my German is not good enough, or the limited space forces the reviewers into terse descriptions, but I certainly don’t have a such a problem with the many great BGG reviewers.

I would therefore like spielbox to provide me the overview, the ‘backstage’ and the historical perspective on games, their designers and the industry, that the many scattered forums of BGG can’t. BGG is full of nice trees, but spielbox could show us the forest. Alas, most readers said in the last spielbox survey they wanted more reviews. The editor in chief then commented on the survey, remarking that the reviewers of spielbox have decades of professional experience and insight that most BGG users haven’t. Now, in this issue’s editorial, titled  ‘Our ordeals with the scoring’, he justifies how more and more spielbox collaborators don’t provide a numeric score (from 0 to 10) on the game they try out, because with so many more games to review, it’s hard to play each one often enough to give it a fair score. Also, with more games on the market for the spielbox reviewers to cover, it becomes harder for a game to get more than one score (the one from the review’s author). I rest my case on spielbox vs BGG.

So, it will be bye-bye from me to spielbox in 2011. I shall miss the non-review articles, but the scant pages (and getting fewer…) dedicated to them are not worth  €46 a year.

Well, back to this issue. The contents is as follows, with underlined games getting high scoring reviews.

• News:
  • the re-edition of the 1980s Magier trilogy by the Rüttinger brothers
  • the Children’s Game of the Year Award goes for the second time to Manfred Ludwig and for the third time to Haba
  • Charles S. Roberts, the first to publish a wargame, dies at 80
  • issue 50 of the German Culture Committee newsletter includes articles on games
• Long reviews:  Chocolatl, Drachenherz, Saustall, Mystery Express, Don Quixote, The Club, Na so was, Level X, Recicle, Age of Industry, Innovation, Stronghold
  
• Short reviews: Valdora extra, Martinique, Langfinger, Schweinebande, Krysis, Der Heidelbär
• Children’s games: Mäusezocken, Würfel-Memo, Erzähl doch mal…, Inspektor Hase, Shaun das Shaf – Echt Shaf!
• Reports:
  • Origins 2010 and how it differs from Spiel in Essen
  • Game designer meeting in Göttingen: the harsh reality of getting your games published
• Edition spielbox: Balneator, a race game for 2 players by Andreas Rhode
• History:
  • several relatively recent abstract games: Dvonn, Diam, Gygès, Ponte del Diavolo, etc.
  • an overview of several Carcassonne expansions (part 1)
  • for collectors: the games of Wolfgang Grosskopf, a teacher in the former German Democratic Republic
• Variants: for Revolution

The chief editor criticises the Spiel des Jahres jury for this year’s selection of light-weight nominees and for muddling things up with yet another special award, ‘Spiel des Jahres plus’, instead of separate family and hobby games awards.

I think that Macao received an unfair review, complaining about the complexity of cards and the tendency for paralysis and loosing the overview of other players’ strategy. The same could be said of many other well-received games…

Last but not least, there is a Dominion-campaign design competition: readers are invited to submit rules for a campaign of 4-8 games that must be thematically bound through some background narrative. The rules must specify which cards are used in each game and how the ownership of some cards or the points obtained in one game influence the succeeding games. The campaign may use any existing Dominion cards, but also other material (dice, meeples, etc.).

The remaining issue’s contents is as follows, with underlined games receiving great reviews:

• News:
  • 3 page add-on to last issue’s Nuremberg Fair report: party, dice and card games
  • the German Game Archive moves to Nuremberg but faces uncertain future
  • the main character of a new thriller novel is inspired on Alex Randolph, who was a code cracker during the war
  • the nominees of the Spiel des Jahres award
  • Ravensburger opens a museum  of the company’s history at its head quarters
• Long reviews: Knizia’s Jäger und Sammler, Feld’s Die Speichersatdt and Macao, Fresco, Assyria, Power Games, Friese’s Factory Manager, Cable Car, Maria, Giants, The BoardGameGeek Game
  
• Short reviews: Dominion Seaside, Klimapoker, R-Öko, Welt der Türme, African Park, Galaktico
• Children’s games: Schollenhüpfen, Schatz-Alarm, Hexenduell, Diego Drachenzahn, Kraken-Alarm
• Reports: Cashflow, the game and the economics seminars based on it
• Edition spielbox: Spuk um Spuk, a cooperative ghostbusting game for 1-4 players by Matthias Prinz
• Profiles:
  • Donald Vaccarino, the former computer programmer who invented Dominion (and expansions) in one weekend
  • Doumen, Wiersinga and their game publishing company, Splotter Spellen, best known for Roads & Boats and Indonesia
• History:
  • Spider & Fly, the 1977 MB game that inspired Kranen-Alarm
  • the roots of: Egizia, i.e. games that have the Nile as theme
  • for collectors: games based on arithmetic
• Variants: for Cable Car

• News:
  • 13 page report of the Nuremberg Fair: more remakes, more expansions, more square boxes
  • the 22nd Hippodice game author contest
  • a new online publisher of crowd-sourced games
• Long reviews: Egizia, Seeland (the new Kramer game), Ad Astra, Raumpiraten, Gonzaga, Greenrock Village Tatort: Hotel, Colonia, Schinderhannes, Havanna, Dungeon Lords, Warhammer: Invasion,
• Short reviews: Frauenpower & Verflucht (two Small World expansions), Chigago Gansters, Square on sale, Jaipur, Chronicle
• Children’s games: Shaun das Schaf: Kuchen-Chaos, Die kleine Raupe Nimmersatt (the game to Eric Carle’s book), Das magische Labyrinth Kartenspiel
• Reports: Tom Felber returns home to Switzerland after playing around the world for 2 years
• Edition spielbox: El RazuL, expansion to Finca
• Profiles:
  • Günter Burkhardt, co-author of Seeland
  • Wolfgang Discherl, recipient of the 2001 game author stipend and has since then author of over 30 children’s games for HABA
• History:
  • Orient Express, the 25-year old detective game that inspired Greenrock Village – Tatort: Hotel
  • the roots of: Vasco da Gama
  • for collectors: the publisher Schmidt-Spiele and its first and most famous game, a variant of Pachisi still selling after 100 years
• Variants: for Gonzaga

The issue comes with a mildly useful Dominion add-on: a cardboard to put your draw and discard piles on and not confuse both. The issue’s contents is as follows, with underlined games receiving great reviews:

• News:
  • Zoch (known for its Heckmeck line of games) was bought by major toy group
  • Derek Carver (game author and contributor to Counter magazine) became 80
  • The Settlers of Catan and expansions sold 10 Million copies in Germany alone
  • Geocaching is the theme of a card game, First to Find!
    
  • the German Post issues a stamp featuring Parcheesi
  • In Canton, China, council tenants who play Mah-jong in public get 5 penalty points, the same as for throwing garbage out of the window! They risk being evicted when reaching 20 points.
    
• Long reviews: Vasco da Gama, A la carte, Endeavor, Darwinci, Alcazar, El Paso, Atlantis, Carson City, Day&Night, Last Train to Wensleydale, Greed, 2 de Mayo
• Short reviews:  Die Chinesische Mauer & Die Super-Ereignisse (In the Year of the Dragon expansions), Auf Messers Schneide (Pandemic expansion), Winkelzüge, Wazabi, Mausgeflippt, Abriss, Ubongo 3D, alea iacta est
• Children’s games: Busy Bee, Nelly, Muh&Mäh! (cows and sheep, as you may guess), Määh! (only sheep), Die lieben Sieben – ab auf die Wippe! (children game titles use lots of exclamation marks!), Schatz der Mumie
• Reports:
  • brief impressions from the Nuremberg Toy Fair: more of the same
  • Tom Felber plays around the world: this time he attempts to play games in buses
• Edition spielbox 88: Schwere Schritte, a race game for 2-6 players by Tobias Thulke
• Profiles:
  • 30 years of publisher Amigo
  • Haim Shafir (author of Galli Galli, published by Amigo) and Ariel Laden (author of children’s and abstract games), two game designers and publishers in Israel
• History:
  • Nim-inspired abstract games like Nimbi, Quarto!, Isola, Blokus, etc.
  • the roots of: Monopoly City
  • for collectors: the games of International Team, an Italian publisher in the 80s
• Variants:
  • Endeavor for 3 players
  • Suleika without dice

• News:
  • Tom Werneck leaves the Spiel des Jahres jury, which he co-founded
  • travel agencies organize game-themed trips to India and China
    
• Long reviews: Hansa Teutonica, World without End, Peloponnes,  Sherwood Forest, Masters of Venice, Waterloo
• Short reviews:  Cir*Kis, VerTIPPT – nochmal!, Greedy Kingdoms, 13, Mosaix
• Children’s games: Wo war’s?
• Reports:
  • 28 pages presenting the new games at Spiel 2009 in Essen
  • Tom Felber plays around the world: this time he attempts to learn the Argentinian national card game (Truco) and plays in Buenos Aires’ only boardgame club
  • Moritz Eggert describes his misfortunes in being consultant to a TV show about boardgames
• Books: after the first two editions in 1989 and 1999, the third edition of Glonnegger’s classic games book appears
• Edition spielbox: promotion pack of Ultimate Werwolf, with cards to play basic 5-player game and one variant
• Profiles:
  • games designer and publisher Phil Orbanes (author of Cir*Kis, co-founder of Winning Moves)
  • award-winning games designer Jens-Peter Schliemann and his ‘game inventor studio’ in Cologne
• History:
  • group games: from Mafia to Werevolves of Miller’s Hollow et al.
  • the roots of: Shaun das Schaf – Köttel-Alarm and other games based on animal excrements
  • for collectors: games based on fantasy, myths and fables, exhibited during Spiel 2009

The magazine comes with a small expansion for Carcassonne, by one of the magazine’s regular reviewers. Moreover, thinking of the future generation of gamers, the children’s section looks at games for 2-year olds. The issue’s contents is as follows, with underlined games receiving great reviews:

• News: Count Ludo, the German award for game graphics, was awarded to the graphic designers of Nicht zu fassen (children’s game) and Bonnie and Clyde
• Long reviews: Donna Leon: Gefährliches Spiel, Tobago, Opera, Montego Bay, Die 3 Gebote, Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! – Russia 1941-1942, Sylla, One more barrel
• Short reviews: Cuba: El presidente, St. Petersburg expansion, Keltis: Neue Wege, neue Ziele, Zooloretto: XXL, Tribun: Die Brutier Erweiterung, Galaxy Trucker: The Big Expansion, Kingsburg: Die Erweiterung des Königreichs, Zooloretto: exotic, Sia Sola, Uruk, Ra: The Dice Game
• Children’s games: Bauernhof memory, Stoff-Memo Baustelle, Tier-MixMax, Erster Obstgarten, König Kasimir und seine Tiere
• Reports:
  • Tom Felber plays around the world: this time, very funny musings from crossing the USA with a car boot loaded with games
  • interview with the Vohwinkels, a graphic designer couple living in Seattle
  • portrait: the graphic artist, book author and game designer Dominique Erhard, author of Sylla, Serenissima, Condottiere, etc.
• Edition spielbox: The Tunnel expansion for Carcassonne, by Christwart Conrad
• History:
  • oldie: Dragonmaster
  • the publisher Edition Perlhuhn and its founder Reinhold Wittig (part 2)
  • the roots of: Dixit
  • for collectors: some of the 600 games published within 10 years by ink-maker Pelikan
  • abstract games: games where pieces must be kept in contact, incl.Wabanti, LOA, Hive, The Game of Kingdoms, Uisge, Watubi, Arktia, Karo, Blox, Bango, Six, etc.
• Variants: Automobile, Steel Driver, One more Barrel