www.spielbox.de o jek re > a PVE Tong (rT Coe Log ee Po) POU RET 2th | omg lincludeds q B12247 € 8,00 (Europe) € 9,60 (Overseas) -ESSEN 2019- , a LA ATE AN RR DAG VK MAVIENVAflepitoriat tubbomness isn't necessarily a neg: ative trait. Afterall, this attribute of British rime Minister Winston Chur chill saved Europe from the Germans. A good three quarters ofa century ago, his nation stood solidly behind him ~ which is understandable, given the existential threat back then. The situation that his three most recent successors in office have been confronted with ~ Brexit ~ is totally different. The British people ae far from a feeling of unity, and on the 31st of October ~ or after one of the next post pponements- half the citizens will remain frustrated, What does allthis have to do with games? Actually, quite a bit. Right row, with the SPIEL fair in Essen being just around the comer, just imagine the situation the numerous British exhibitors ate, IFthe effective date were one week earlier, they would be bringing their prod Uucts into an EU country and then, on their way back, be faced with import duties or taxes. Extending their stay in Germany by ‘one mare week isnot desirable this year either for British exhibitors ofr fair visi tors, And on the other side ofthe English Channel, problems will probably arse with regard to the UK Games Expo which has also become a big and interesting event due, in part, to the postive recep tion of continental European participants, The continental European games buyer is likely to be affected as wel, even if he isn't a fan of Games Workshop or doesn't cider something dectly from Great Bit: ain, Several so-called fulfilment partners for Kickstarter projects ship “eurofriendly" from theisland to backers inthe entire EU. Inthe future, these backers would have to patiently go to the customs office ~ and incur additional costs, Esdevium, a whole saler and distributor belonging to the same enterprise as Fantasy Fight Games and Asmadee, also delivers from England ‘to a great number of EU countries That this malaise could happen and run such a course shows that the three mast recent British prime ministers obviously have no inkling of the world of games, ‘As a game designer, David Cameron ‘would have failed completely. Tying to strengthen the UK’s negotiating postion within the EU (which wasn't too bad since Margaret Thatcher's “I want my money back’), he failed to prevent a deadlock, Nothing would have been easier than requiring a two-thirds majority fora dec: sion of such consequence and explosive power. And one wouldn't ike to see Cam eron as a fellow player who gets up and leaves if things don't quite go according to his wishes. Considerably more liked at the games table would be Theresa May, although her strategy relies on nothing better than to reroll the dice in Yanrzee fashion ~ sooner or later, things wil work out... The highly intelligent and hard: bolled Boris Johnson would certainly be an enrichment to any game group ~ play Le) Se ers would have to reckon, though, that he ‘wouldn't stick to the rules and would use his gambling debts as leverage. This is a bit surprising since the term “fae play" originates from English. But maybe not, there probably is a reason why it was cre ated in England, ofall places. The fact that David Cameron lost his gamble is to be welcomed, since this means that a persistent inhibitor wil bow out of the EU who would never have ful integration ofthe national states into a better whole, From a play es perspective, the 31st of October wil bea day of mourning, Great Britain won't become Atlantis or the SIst state of the USA, but it wil drift away ftom the cont nent a bit more. However, a considerable part of what was praised for a while as ‘German games" and later on was rightly labeled as “euro games” has British roots. I don't question the skill of game authors such as Kramer, Knizia or Teuber and of their French, Italian or Polish colleagues, but there must have been somethin: brought them into game playing in the first place. And there is a good chance that British publishers and/or designers played an important pat in this. Considering the epic drama that we are witnessing right now, itis almost sur prising that we probably won't see many Brexit games at the Essen fait. But per: haps this is understandable: If they stuck closely tothe theme, nobody would know ‘what rules ultimately apply; and in the end, all players would lose anyway ‘Matthias Hardel/sbw = & spielboxwv [[contents {5 \ 2019 1 4 Back tothe Roots Die Beteung der Rietburg 6 | Coal, Steel and Draft Beer Brass Lancashire Birmingham 9 | An Expedition Mancala Style Humboldt’ Great Voyage 12 | A Lot of Bling-Bling Vietrian Masterminds 16 | Escape Agent in Final Exodus Space Gate Odyssey 20 | The Bearable Lightness of Being Tui 24 | The Chaotic Side of ondon Kensington 30 | Adventure Walk Adventure Games ‘The Dungeon / Monochrome in 42 | Rude, Cruel and Anti-Social Senators 46 | Cube Metamorphosis vine 48 | Combat Pigs Against ‘Arthropods Tsukuyum = Full Moon Down 52 | Fora Fistful of Victory Points Western Legends 1 14 No One Wants Your ' & spielbox ‘Stinking Sheep Gen Con Indianapolis ‘Nothing New in the North Champions of Midgard 25 Years of Avoiding Bullheads 6 nimmt! Silver Anniversary ‘More in Detail Later SPIEL"9- New Antvals Not a Portrait The Games of lacques Zeimet Better Than Cramming for the Citizenship Test Helvetiq 7 Wonders: Armada 54 54 56 56 37 58 59 60 a 2227 Valle ofthe Vikings Hexe, Tir .. wer fet denn hier? Stuffed Fables Talisman - Legendary Tales Zombie Kidz Evolution Itchy Monkey Revolution of 1828 Draftosaurus Subtext Short Notes ‘Tweaks and Variations ContactDET ELS cTee Tip : Suleae to the Roots ‘Seven years have passed since the legends from the land of Andor first came before our eyes and onto the gaming table, Let us review: The castle of old King Brandur was threatened by malicious creatures. Brave heroes rushed in to help. Ina joint effort, they finally managed to avert the danger and even kill the pow: erful dragon Tarok. They then made their way to the north, then to the south of the country, where they continued their adventures, told in other legends. ey Ce Coa) ee een Peay story is told by other means. There are no large-scale game De cd creatures, no heaps of tokens, ey ty eee anges Pee ee oa See rat) Peery eee ee ad eer oon Rietburg from the evil crea eee ee sy See ce COCO eee) ea coe ae Re er meas eer iy at least one, but usually several so-called eee et ea ee Ty Se ee Cee aren OCs eee ee es Cee ey ceca oe ee Se ey eed to the team of four fom the base game Cece ona RU Red Be en ed Pe es ee ey See eee See oa eae CeO a Caioee ce ets De ay eames eee eae act éo. ee ee eee Cee aes arn is eee pee eee oe have been used, you eee a eT ee eS ees ety etd cer refresher also brings eects ere ee ae co Senos eaters ee ce os Ce eae of creatures advance on the board, and Bee cy ee eer eee ee) Seer aa id Pe) Ce a an replaced by a stack of narrator cards. At the beginning of the game, they ensure Cee Se! with each hero refresher, another card ee ne creatures to the board and increasing Cs ead heroes have not reached their target by the time all cards ae flipped ovr, they ioe Cay ees aes ee anaes See ea The cards are face-down, with various Dee een face-up as well as face-down. Uncovering something hidden is one of the possible actions on the hero cards, but not on all Sens Die ea ny ee ad strength is enough here, no dice required But tis not actually that simple Orfen isthe only hero who can make his way to ST ee es eee eos Dee eee ee ns Ce cna tad Pee ee Cee ee eee nerd defeated by just one fighter. But as you know, Anoo is a cooperative game, so the heroes can team up. In the beginning COO ee a ees eee rs character closer. It only costs the other player one card to take part in the fight ee eg Forexample, in a move the heroes can not Ce a nee eas ee ee Pee ee ee) Se Cee ees ‘are concerned, Chada, the archer from Core eu) arrow rather than her fists. But fist she has to collect the quivers with the arrows. Oe ue Cee eee Ca a coe cCouL Ca his axe should be ere eres Cree nrg ered ey Pea a the encounter cards provide gold as soon Deen Pe eos ees ea eens Coes eo count of up to four eee Cue acer) ce ces Pores cece ccc) contrast to the “big” em Cees pee male and female, which would have Cee men Cece Cee ey oe ne eee eu ea ee eo Se ee ee nes eee Pee teat same atmosphere as its great cousins eer as See limited by the cards n fact, they leave eee ed cre ee read ee eee eer OY OU PROTECT EARTH PREM MANKINEP= COME AND TRY!" | r emcee ued ee eet ee een ee eed and explore their various relationships ferences must be taken into account. To give just one example: Mission cards can eee ey ee Reece can only be revealed by Soe mee ees See ec ann Sees ere et ight location ros erty oe Coe aera ee es Rae ee et ead stimated. It is eported that the designer himself takes only 20 minutes on Michael Menzel, but Gerhard Hecht. Four years ago he contributed his fst game to Pee ere a PSN Ne) ees in there and will continue to ma cessful contributions to the Andor story eee ee eee ee ered ee een | am already looking forward See ue ozs ny Playing appeal Coal, Steel and Draft Beer Martin Wallace is without a doubt one of the busiest board game designers worldwide. More than 50 entries can be found in his ludography, showing an impressive thematic breadth: Zombies and Space Travel, Western and Ancient Times. One topic, however, he seems to love like nothing else, the industrialization with all ofits historic facets: Sreau, TINNeRS' TRA, STEEL Driver, First Train To NUREMBERG, AUTOMO! 1 Brass, you play your way through the Industrial Revolution in North England. Fitst published in this game is available in several different versions. Les take a look at the two most recent: BRAss Lan: casiine and Brass BIRMINGHAM, published by Roxley Games. Brass LANCASHIRE is a Ver: industial f steel and spinning mils, and ports. The goal isto score the building tiles fast in order to incre income and gather victory points. Mines and huts elivercoal a nstructing other lites like coal mine steel, which are used for buildings. Th isthen also counted, Building construc tion requires suitable building sites and building material, and takes place in aso tree in a certain and BRAss. first weaker buildings, later more lucrativeones, rk is created between the industrial plants, frst con sisting of canals, later railway lines, b which you transport coal, deliv goods, and earn points The driving force behing all th rds; you play two per round, and they limit ys can be built, and then the rain phase, which focuses on rail taf fic. In between, you clear the board for the most part and start setting up again | Pattern of high complexity of building Sort paths grows quickly into high complexity, Building requires lca tions and resources. Coal and cotton get tothe «prices rise and fall. Some build ings primarily bring money, others vic tory points. The level of intr: action is high as nobody can master the complete infa- structure individually. You obtain resources from your ‘opponent, use ther delivery routes and ports, and fight them over building sites and trade routes. Bass LANCASHIRE, compared to its pre ecessor from 2007, is aesthetically a whole class better: The components are wonderfully handy, valuable, and finely illustrated. Spacious tableaus make the placing of the tiles easier and, though it- was dificult to differentiate the front from the back of the industries in the original, here the design leaves nothing to be desired, Only a few things were changed in the rules (for Brass veterans: the bizare Birkenhead-Liverpool excep tion was removed), Allin all, a more than successful new edition, In 2018, Baass BiewincHas followed, and along with Lancashire, further developed the original idea. Gavan Brown and Matt Tolman took the core mechanisms from the original, and enhanced them with new industry tiles and delivery mechanisms. Beer is added as a thitd material in addition to coal and steel Ports and shipyards no longer exis, instead, potas and facoties appear and in addition to cotton, thet products are delivered 10 the merchants on the edge of the game board. On the one hand, these changes bring new constants as deliveries of gods, in addition othe usual delivery route to the customer, now generally requie beer in ade to hep the this suppliers hap. | Predatory capitalism (On the other hand, the task gets a little easier as more buildings aaa types are available, which allows for more flexibility with the available building sites and delivery routes. ‘Aesthetically, BIRMINGHAM is on the same excellent level as Lavcastine Both variants of Brass are ‘tough economic games that do not forgive mistakes and mercilessly show players their limitations. Everything is scarce: money, building plots, delivery routes, and if you don't have a long-term strategy, you will soon be left behind, How can | increase my income? In what atea do | concentrate my transport net- ‘work? How and fram where do | get coal to transport to my construction sites? What goods do | produce and where do I sell them? These questions have to be asked right from the first move, because big mistakes in the beginning will affect you for a long time. To make matters worse, Brass is not forgiving if you choose to only focus on your own strategy. In each and every move, you have to keep an eye on the actions of your oppo: nents and adjust your own tactics© & spielbox ‘accordingly. Materials are sold out from under our noses, prices change to our disadvantage, industial sites are being built on, routes ‘are opened or cut off, and the deliver of our goods thwarted, You, more and more, get the feeling of falling victim to the predatory capitalism of the 19th century. Brass an extremely interwoven and demanding game that calls for your full attention over the not particularly short playing time of 30 to 40 minutes per person. In addltion, there is a real danger of analysis paralysis as the visual complexity of the building and trade route network, as well as the extreme importance of timing, is considerable, and can push even the most experienced playets ofthis genre to their limits, In dicect comparison between Lancasiine and. BiRMINC: Ham, there is no loser. Externally, both are excellent and far superior to their common predecessor. LANCASHIRE seems to have a bit more bite: The choice of buildings is more limited, the transport network, especially in the frst half of the game, tighter and more restricted, but atthe same time, slightly clearer, However, after sev- eral games, a kind of standard sequence emerges, which you should emulate in ‘one way or another if you want to have a chance to win. | More rope Biunoran gies you more options which means, a rs, more ope to hang Yourself. The advantage of this i that there are more paths to vitory and you fee! ss under pressure wth your actions ituildng type A doesnot wor, then you can try building ype B. The topic of cap italsm and market economy shines even more here: Players can decide if they want to focus on head ‘on competition with their competitors ori they prefer moving to other markets. Martin Wallceis an author somewhat like Fiedemann Fese: Few highlights outshine. a lot of solid, party mediocre plain fare ‘and, especially with brand new titles, you always have to be a bit careful But one thing is for certain: Brass is, next to the great STEAM, one of the two unbeatable mas tepieces of this author and a feast for expert players. The luxurious. Kickstarter Deluxe versions that come with heavy poker chips are mastly out of stock, but the stan: dard editions av ing in the shops these days leave nothing to be desired. If you like challeng: ing economic games with high player interaction and excellent thematic ‘immersion, you will be well served here, Gerald Rischer/dm ney CT ene) eee ercanaed) eo) Pe fone owt aera Cet about 55 € oe Cr rs Coos es Pier fed Playing appeal Stuart W. Dagger* Stefan Ducksch Oliver Grimm=* 9/9 Matthias Hardel 9/10 * The ginal (Tefog) edition of ‘assis probably my fovonte game of the ast 15/20 years, one of the few to ‘which Td grea 10. The Roxlyedtons ofboth the orginal game and its new Companion are cleanly labos of love by al cancemed Iam not as enamoured 25 many fo are by the darkness ofthe Colour paete chosen fr the boards, but that does devact fom the playin ony way A great dea of thought has gone into the design and functionality ofthe Components, and the production is top hotch Theron clays that come withthe delue ection are the icing on the coke ** Binuncuan sight) weaker = 10/10 9/9An Expedition Mancala Styl On4une 5, 1799, the figate Pizarro started out, eaving the harbor of La Conufia one more crate in the northwest of Spain and setting course in a southbound direction. On of any kind board the ship sailing under the Spanish flag were French physician and bota- The ships not only nist Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland and German natural scientist Friedrich give you fame lhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt. Their destination: South America. but also connect, This was the beginning of Humboldt’ great voyage. you to influential personalities who then H umboldt was bom 250 years remaining disks stay in @ small vewet become your acquain ago. He wrote, “Every man has bag. On his turn, the active player picks tances. To ths end, you need to collect the duty o seek the place in his up ll disk from one location and follows knowledge disks. This can be done during life from where he can best serve his gen- a route prescribed by arrows. Ateach new the active player trip: Each ofthe other eration” Humbolt's place was to explore location he places one disk, preferably in players may pick one disk from one of the nature, its flora and fauna and ~ most the same color asthe city he is about to lacations that the active player has visited importantly to him ~ “the synergies of Visi. Only ifthe colors match may he take provided there area least four disks at the powers, the impact of the inanimate a cargo tile in that cola. that place ~ and immediately place the creation on the ving world of animals and plants" In Hunsow's Grear Voce, 1 Ships for fame players follow his jourey from Europe and contacts to South America and to the stilyoung On ther discovery journeys, Humboldt Usa and Bonpland collected, clesied, and There snot only thestart in a Corufa, described samples, and shipped them to the stopover on Tenerife, and the anval Europe, for instance to Car Ludwig Wil in Bordeaux in 1804, There are also the denow,dizector af he botanical garden in locations ofthe Orinoco expedition after Bet, Willdenow published these discov. their anval in South America inthe Ven- eres and thus raised Humboldt’ fame. As ezvelan town of Cumand, the stopover such it isthe story to load crates onto in the Caribbean, the second expedition ships to bring the natural and cultural (the Andes expedition), starting fom the treasures to Europe ~ and give the explo Colombian town of Cartagena, the explo- es (ie, players) fame points. The objec: ration of Mexico from Acapulco to Vera tive i tobe the most famous explorer of Cruz, and the voyage home via the USA, alll (ie, the player with the where Humboldt was a guest of President Thomas Jefferson in Washington and Philadelphia. Each ofthese six stages is marked with its own color. For Humbold’s ti, Remo Conzadori and Nestore Mangone (the later already had play ers, in the role of scien tists, travel across Europe in Newrox) have chosen one of the oldest mech anisms ever, originating most fame points) in the end. The ships from Manca the bean game. In the need to be equipped differently: A ship ew game, the locations correspond to that is worth fout fame points requires the hollows of the classic game board, one green cargo tile forthe geen crate, and the beans are now called knowledge for example, and another one of any éisks. There ae 96 of them, 16 in each kind. The twelve point freighter has more color initially, depending on the number detailed requicements fr instance, a box of players, 60 to 66 disks are randomly of rum from the stopover in the Carb distibuted onto all 16 locations. The bean and a painting rom the US, plus -chosen disk on one of his own ships. The acquaintances can help you collect cargo tiles during the game or give you points in the end, Each setof four differ ent personalities is wath ten points atthe final scoring ~ a pretty attractive score. In addition, you can get a few points for goods that you havent shipped OF course, explorers also need luck onsuch an expedition. "At the Atabapo river, where the savages usually suffer fiom typhus fever, my health withstood Lunfathomably wel” Humboldt reported in a letter home, He was lucky more than once. When Hum boldt leamed, after his last crossing of the Andes, that he would not be able to continue the journey with the French crcumnavi (gator Nicolas Baudin, since Baudin changed his route, Humboldt noted down, "But | had the rare luck of experiencing a bright day in the fog lands of Lower Peru In Callao, | observed how Mer cuty passed the solar disk: an observation that Became of some importance for the exact determination ofthe longitude of Lima and the southwestern part of the New Continent. o, the complication of serious circumstances in life often produces the seed ofa satisfying compensation Now, on the tail of Humbolat’s great voyage, expedition members at the table who are not that lucky won't get a nasty disease but wl, ta minimum, soon lag behind and then maybe not be able to enjoy any nce astronomical observations. ‘And you need alt of ick That begins at the very beginning of turn ~ everybody seesimmediately herehe would ike to start the current leg, for instance because one back two yellow, and one brown disk of the six knowledge disks ying in Cartagena promise the optimal viele Butitsnot aseasy | “ 25 that now the lat. | | tery begins When |\|\@ O% You need a lot of luck | —it’s your turn, you draw one knowledge disk out of the above-mentioned velvet bag and place it on the travel jourmal, thus determining the starting location of the MaNcALA trip. But the disk is not black, which would match the color of Cartagena, but green. Too bad, green gives you only one cargo tle. Atleast, you have a second chance to make your luck, But this time, it must be @ black knowledge disk. It just must! Hope and fear. Your hand, conjuring like part of a fictitious Inca tite, delves into the bag and... brings red disk to light = which, in the current situ ation, is even worse than green, But there is no way out; you may not choose which of the two disks to pick but you already have to make your dec sion after drawing the fist disk. So, ome. times your turn is sub-suboprimal. And if that happens twice in the four times you are the active player in the fourplayer ‘game, you can be pretty sure that you won't become the explorer with the most fame in the end. No control over your own turn ‘Another element of luck isthe ships cargo. It is also unfortunate if you def | itely need the green tile withthe curare ] bottle for your point ship, but it everis | on display on any of your turns, and you never draw this accursed cargo tile from the facedown pile either ~ especially if the option to replace it by any three cargo tiles just feels like lost time since you don't have crates fr the other ships. And the ships even are a third luck element that might play into your hands - or not At some point, you just can no longer maneuver against a series of unfortunate events. Then it doesn't make sense any more to take a yellow cargo tile (eg, from Mexico City) with the help of a suitable acquain tance that you got in exchange for 2 blue know! edge disk Maybe you want to use the acquaintance in order to secure the muchdesired Maya calendar, but other than that, for the final score, the various acquaintances are too valuable to do without. And so, it sometimes becomes apparent very eatly whois likly to win Humboldt's great race, In 2014, Five Tries (that is, Bruno Cathale’s version of MANCALA, set in the sultanate of Naqala) already beamed the bean game mechanism into the age of cultivated board games, and in a con siderably smarter fashion. In that game, you were not onlythe master of djinns but also of your entire turn: where to start, ‘when to move, and where to end up. Hum oto's Grea Vovace could just as well be decided by dice rol. And as much as the Mancata mechanism theoretically seems ta be a suitable vehicle fora journey from one location to the next, it nonetheless feels technical, not as if an explorer sails from Caracas to Trinidad, but ike going to the next station by public transport. ‘And a spirit of adventure doesnt sur face either. “For four months, we have been sleeping in the jungle, surrounded by crocodiles, boas, and jaguars, consum ing nothing but rice, ans, manic, pisang, Orinaco water, and, occasionally, mon keys.,”" Humboldt wrote. In the game, players always ust try to place knowledge disks in the right colors in order to obtain cargo tle, That is far less exciting than Humboldt's journey certainly was, So, in appreciation of Humboldt’s anniversary year, | want to end ths arti dle by quoting another one of his smart thoughts: "The most dangerous one of all views of the world is the worldview of those who have never viewed the world Andreas Becker/sbw Reviewer Playing appeal Matthias Hardel...... 7 Pitts cio} wwwhorribleguild.com www-horrible-games.com4 merrmervictzmeray | REVIEW ar Finally, something different! No collecting of resource cubes in order to feed the population or produce goods. No exploring and conquering of foreign countries in order to please an aging ruler so that he will appoint one of the players as his. ‘successor. Players don't plant any Terris beds in their garden and delight in the blossoming splendor. Nobody intends to save the world from catastrophes or sttive for other noble goals - to the contrary: Everybody is evil! ae ee ee Jf Victorian Mastermnos play 1s are ingenious. superil BE iains trying to spread chaos all around the world, For this, you use any means possible You kidnap Scientists and use them for your purposes. You take possession of famous landmarks and buildings inthe world’s metropolses, ‘And you collet materials for building a Gigantic extermination machine with unimaginable destructive power. Do you remember the huge and heavily armed metal spider in the movie Wild Wild West? This conveys a vague idea (of what you're infor. | Wide range of facilities To begin with you have ony a blue print ofthis extermination machine, a Construction sheet. t shows the individ ul parts your apparatus wll consist of and what you need for completing itn coder not to make this to complicate, the constuction materials axe imitedto copper plates and bots Each individual segment, be it an ammuni tion chamber, 2 monitoring room or even a power generator, is cof use as soon ast has been built in, Besides a gym and a galley, there is even a garden on board Bizare. All these are just examples, of facilities in different extermination ‘machines. Six machine sheets are avail able; one of them is a giant spider, but this has nothing to do with the one from the movie, At the beginning, each player hhas to decide which ofthese machines he wants to construct. All of them are differ ent; therefore, forthe fst game, itis best tohand the sheets out random. To collect the construction mater als, you send your agents out into the world. The oblong central board shows five capitals with slots for the landmark of the respective metropolis and other buildings. At the setup, the structures, shaped in comic style, are placed in these slots, making VicroRan MasTeRMNos. an eye- catcher, The agents that each player gets are almost as remark able as the structures: They are designed as big gears with litle portraits in the middle So, on your tum, you send ‘one of your agents to one of the cities, For the time being, nothing happens. Only when a third agent (the gears are stacked) has reached a city, the players represented inthe stack can do their jobs, The one who arrived fists the fist to act Each city allows you to take a piece of construction material. Fora copperplate, you have to go to London, for bolts, to Washington; the other cities provide dif: ferent spoils that | will mention below. Besides taking this simple material-col lecting action, each agent has a special ability. The Henchman, for example, is able to steal a building from a city. At the end of the game, this increases your number of Mayhem points, here tantamount to victory points plus, during the game, you get additonal goodies for the con: struction of your extermination machine. | Big Brother is watching However, such building thefts don't go unnoticed Everything that'sgoing onis monitored by the ominous Secret Service wise level of research and strength is indicated on an extra board that is strikingly reminiscent of the floor indicator above old ele vator doors. Every time 2 building is captured, the pointer is moved Cone level forward, Only if your own. firepower exceeds or at least equals the current level of the Secret Service may you take possession ofthe building, Consequently, itis important to enhance this ability = for instance, through a trip to Moscow or also with the installation of certain components in your extermination machine, ‘And then there are the abovemen- tioned scientists; you can get them by stealing a university or by visiting Pats The-scientists are usefulin several respects: ‘Among other things, they enable you to play agents specifically (whereas you normally have to pick them randomly) ot use several ones at a time. So there is a lot to do and to consider in order to gain ~e‘world supremacy and be ahead of the other vil: lains. And | haven't even mentioned yet the library ‘on your board that you can fil with books, and the mission cards that you have to com: plete in the cities ‘As | have said in prev us reviews in spielbox, | have a weakness for Steampunk themes and ‘graphics. Therefore, Vic TORAN MASTERMIND also (grabbed my interest. The illustrious characters on the box cover, reaching for global dominance, ate just marvelous. The positive impression persists inside the box, ings await to be used, ‘among them, landmarks such as a slighty fattened Eiffel Tower and a spit ‘open Colosseum. The twelve quirky scien tists complete the image. Fabulous! The fact that there are more extermi nation machines in the box than needed for one game is another plus. This makes for variety, especially in the engine room sector that can be extended after the engi- reer agent has activated it. The machine segment pieces, however, are relatively small and look a bit cheap; they are the construction material you need for assem: bling the machine. And other components to grimace at are some of the mission cards that you can fulfill only after com: pleting certain segments in your machine: This is shown on your board by plain sym: bols (cross, cice, triangle, square) that look pretty contrived ~ as if they were left ‘over from the game's prototype. 1 Routine sets in The placement rule for the agents is original. One agent alone at a location can't do anything. When a second one joins him, stil nothing happens (except in the two-player game). Only the third ‘one activates them all; now they act in the order they arived, If somebody aims we - ji an sh aii for the mission card ofa city or RA for a specie bung the order of anval plays an important role: Once i's gone, it’s gone. And the Saboteur brings a touch of nastiness into the game: The agent who takes his action after the Saboteur can't use his ability anymore, but the player doesn't know that when he postions his agent, since all agents are placed face down But these are the only possibilities to rain on another players parade. And so, the actions are limited tothe collecting of ‘segment pieces and Mayhem points that are lying on the board in different forms. Despite their variety, routine sets in after a while, Without the attractive presenta tion, VICTORAN MASTERMINDS would lose a lot ofits appeal. Difficult decisions are not required. Although it first seems an ‘expert game, itis not. At least, there is no idle time, since you often don't have much to decide on during your tur. And luck is only involved, if at al, when new mission cards are revealed, So each player has his fate in his own hands ~ and is finally well and happy if he has com- pleted his machine and can thus end the ‘game. Afterall, by then it wil be about time to resume life as an honest person, KMW/sbw > patuRing Til Reece) Cee ry Artist: Davide Tosello Cee ear) Poe ee acy me Reviewer Playing appeal CChrstwart Conrad «0.0.00... 6 Wieland Herold..........20.. 7 Stefan Ducksch* 7 Gerald Riischer**.... 7 * isthe atmosphere that does it There fore, my rating includes a bonus point forthe equipment. Funny, excelent integrated theme,B® spielbox fjrerort [Gen Con indianapolis Gen Con in Indianapolis is the largest non-electronic games fair in the USA. Can it keep up with the SPIEL in Essen, or will even outpace the game days in the Ruhr area? Pethaps this is the wrong question to ask, for both events differ considerably when it comes to their significance for the board gaming sector. ‘en Con Indy ~ subtitled: The Home of Tabletop-Gamiing ~ has been around since 2003 and {goes back to a wargame and role-playing event established in Wisconsin in 1968, This origin i stl recognizable in the halls ‘and seminar rooms today. It is comple mented by live roleplaying events, cos play and anything related. And although boatd games form a vety important part of the convention, they do not command the same status as at the Essen “Spiel tage’, established in 1983, The “Spiel des. Jahres’ association was also present in the huge Gen Con exhibition hall this year, but jammed in between three booths selling fantasy art and similar items. f you want to go from fone board game publisher to the next, you will always find these other offers as el, offers that in Essen are more likely to be found on the sidelines. Atleast the corridors are far less crowded than at the Ruhr consumer fair~the whole infrastruc ture atthe Indiana Convention Center is far better geared to large visitor numbers than the Essen Messe hall. But Gen Con is far more than just this exhibition hall, as Scott Alden explains to me, for it takes place all over the city, Alden owns the internet platform which has also been present for several years in Essen now. In the Gen Con hall, BGG sell their own ‘merchandising and run a profesional lvestream, inviting designers and other {quests to ther laige gaming table. They also operate the "Hot Games Room” at the Hyatt Hotel, with a large library of new games on hand at any time of the day. “People can play all night at all the hotels," says Scott Alden, And Gen Con is present everywhere in Indianapolis with many other activities, which Alden con: siders the most significant difference to the "Essener Speltage’ An entire downtown dominated by gamers If you leave the fairground in Essen, you will certainly fnd alot of player in the adjacent cistct and in some of the hotels. But even with the best of inten: tions nobody can claim they are dominat: ing the city. The situations quit different in downtown Indianapolis: While the area maybe smaller than downtown Essen, fat more than 90 percent of the people walk ing there have a Gen Con badge dangling around their necks. They ate roaming the strets, gathering at the street food matket or ambling between the buildings of the congress center, the large mall and various hotels via the airconditioned sky- walk. n fact, nobody actually hast leave the considerably cooled down rooms during the four Gen Con days at all ‘According to Scott Alden, for four do lars everyone can play two hours in the Hot Games Room. This is the usual price for sitting down at any of the tables in many of the Gen Con rooms. In add tion, attendees pay 110 dollars for thefour-day Gen Con pass. At 37 euros, the Essen ticket is much cheaper, and playing (games is included inthe price. Both fits are also organized differently At fist glance, the booths look similar. only notice the difference as | sit down at a table, beckoned by a promoter from the French publisher lello, who draws my attention to a free seat. Many publishers have brought forward the street dates for their new releases by almost three ‘months, so they can present atleast the English versions at Gen Con, Which means am able to try out Le ‘Vuace in the USA, while the German version is only going to be launched at Essen in October, Ute Vit: Luce is @ very simple worker placement game that takes about an hour. Not for our group, though: The game, professionally explained by the ello promoter, is stopped after 20 minutes and we have to vacate our seats. At Gen Con, players do not actually play, I's game over after the demo- ing. At the SPIEL, this only happens for (games that would take several hours If you really want to play, you have to go elsewhere, Some board game publish es have their own halls within the Con vention Center where you can actualy enjoy their new games in full length, free of charge. Others merely baok some rows of tables in one of the huge halls and reserve them for specific games. Exhibiting and playing ~ activities that are wholly integrated in Essen ~ ate largely sep arated in Indianapolis, But this does not nec essarly create a quieter background: Ina fully ‘occupied ballroom, even comparatively quiet gamers can considerably raise the noise level Compared to that, the impressive atmosphere in the 70,000-seat Lucas Oi Stadium, home venue of the NFLteam Indianapolis Colts, is faitly relaxed. It is connected to the Convention Center by an underground passage way. The stadium roof is closed during Gen Con, and the covered artificial turf taken over by game tables - com plete with @ games library, where players can try out the new releases ofall pub lishers if they purchase a ticket fora fixed time slot. The Gen Con schedule lists a total of almost 20,000 individual events, most of them for role-playing, and all on individual tickets Approximately 190,000 vistors attend the SPIEL in Essen, and 70,000 the Gen Con Indy. But these numbers do not reflect the respective fais’ significance for the board gaming scene and industry. Because in Essen, people are counted at the entrance gates, while in Indianapolis only a few halls have access control. For the rest, everyone simply shows thei pas, and the organizers base their figures on the sales of these fourdayrtckets. Day passes are uncommon, and on Saturday ‘morning | saw *Sold out” signs all over the city Relationship expressed differently The SPIEL in Esenisrightflly subtitled “International game days" and will con: tinue tobe the war's leading consumer and trade fait. Visitor numbers from al over Europe havesignificantlyincreasedin recent yeas, and a considerable number of gamers are now also coming from overseas, Gen Con, on the other hand, is almost exclusively an American aff But notwhen itcomes to exhibitors: More and more European publishes are sizing the opportunity to present their products to an expanding and enthusiastic US mar ket. The big Caran booth was not only demoing the games, but also running a large and profitable merchandising shop with funny Tshirts ("No one wants your Stinking Sheep"), caps, scarves, mugs and ‘much mare. It seems in Germany the int mate relationship with our favorite games is expressed differently, but that might change in the future, Harald Schropers/cs & © spielboxREVIEW Space Gate Odyssey The mad rush to escape Earth has begun and to do so people need to move via space stations to then teleport to new worlds. Each player is building a space station to help with this task, working as an escape agent so to say. fact Gate Oovssey combines a S ate eh st tion and area majority, Most of the victory pints are awarded for getting colonists fo the new worlds. The constuc tion aspect comes from building your cn space station, which are room tiles in three different colors with diferent numbers of exits (connecting condor) Initially you have a small space station witha central rom and afew room mod ules to begin wit. You need toad com partments that provide gates to different worlds where you will send your colonists. There are thre types of room modules with theirown functions Atock ring in people from Earth; {soon as they are fully occupied, space gates trans port the colonists to new worlds, and odyssey mod: ules. provide additional engineers and robots ‘who work in the control center In the control center, the actions are determined and, ‘on your turn, you move one ‘of your engineers to one of the rooms which indicate what action will be taken. One room brings new batches of people {from Earth to fill each airlock, ‘one room allows new mad: ules to be added to your space station, and three rooms (one in each of three colors) determine which adjacent colored room colonists can move to, ‘The actions are more interesting as the strength ofeach action is decided by how ‘many engineers and robots are present in the section of the control room you choose to activate, For example, higher strength allows more colonists to be ‘moved, or more modules tobe added. But the other players in that module ae also activated according to their strength too, 50 part of the game is determining what actions other players will want to take and leaving enough of your staff to get what you need when they activate that room | When to put the modules? When you add new modules you take them from a 3-by3 display and ad them to your space station, The number of rooms you take, a5 said, is determined by the strength ofthe action, though you can ce though a pile of rooms by using one of the action points. At fist this seems prety easy as you need to get colonists to each planet, and each space gate only teleports colonists to a specific plane, so you probably think you'll need one of each of the three types. But then where do you put it? Ifyou place it ideally) next to an airlock you minimize the distance that each colonist needs to travel. You also need to consider wiat color of room to take as this could slow down or speed up your movement if placed in the best place in your space station But you also need more engineers and robots for your contol room to get better value for your actions. Some modules add chief engineers (worth two action points) so these are more desirable while the robots from some modules do ‘ot move when placed s0 provide 2 permanent action value in that location of the contol room. Finally, when you ee” _-Escape Agent in Final Exodus add a oom module you need to activate it which is performed by the fist clonist who enters that module, indicated by fp ping the tle tits usable side. That coo nists used up in this effort, So all the time you are trying to be more efficient with your choices. Espe Gilly dificult is the placement of modules as you realize that you have created an_ inefficient ‘ monster space. sta tion. The designers recognized this and included a reorga nize tle that each player can use oS ‘once to mag ically trans form their space station. Itis needed as you are very likely to have a design that causes more time loss than you think It takes a while until you start getting rewarded for all the various actions. ach planet has a different way of scoring points, which is interesting, and these points are scored when all of its spaces ate fully occupied. Then the teleport link ‘moves to another planet to allow settlingofthe new planet. When al of the planets ate fully colonized the game ends. Points are also scored for having the ‘mast madules in your space station of cone color. These are awarded at the end of the game, and each color is worth a variable numberof points based on where each module color ends on a track. This ‘an earn up to seven points for a color or zero iFthe marker is on the lowest part of the track, I'm not sure that this adds much to the game as the points are not very significant, and there are already enough in the game to consider without wor rying if you have the most of a certain color module in your space station, But it's there Finally you reduce your score for each ‘pen corridor that does not connect to another part ofthe space station. These points seem more congruent tothe theme ofthe game but become another thing to worry about as you construct your space station ‘The production Values of the game are worth highlighting. The engineers, colonists and robots are all attractively produced in plastic but are small Partly that's because they need to be to fit onto the planet tiles, but this also makes them some wirat difficult to distinguish, There is @ cardboard holder for the 3-by3 gid of modules. It needs to be constructed (no glue required) and presents the room modules well and with careful pack ing can tore the modules back in the bax as assembled. I've not seen this device before, but it works wel The rulebook is clear and well laid out. | found it easy to pick up the rules, and during the game the only referenc ing | cared out was to remind play ers about the ways that each planet scores. The varity in the game is suf ficient to allow plenty of replayability, and there are eight planets to choose five from so the scoring options will change ‘each game as well as the sequence in wich they aise. | Plenty to consider The game focuses on eficiency of pay How do you create an efficient space station to minimize the routes that your colonists must take to reach the space gates? Which modules do you choose when adding additional modules to your station? If you like this kind of puzale to solve then Seace Gare Oossey could be ust the game for you. The style of game is cfferent from most inthe Tas few years 0 it has es compe tition in this puzze-tke segment of the market. 1 have enjoyed it and would play it again, but warn new players of the ltl hood that their designs will need the magic rebuild tile as you learn how not to construct your space sta tion. The game merits replaying as you start to make progres in faster and more cffcient waysin your fist Few games, and there is some enjoyment when you plans work out and another player hes you take an action that you are keen totale. 1m There's plenty to consider, but its not overwhelming to understand what's going on, and the game plays in about two hours or less with four players. Alan How Title Publisher Ludonaute Persaud Atst: oy oer 2-4 srs Pec er oy Rees Reviewer Playing appeal Alan How. 7 Udo Bartsch, CChrstwart Conrad” Stefan Ducksch** Wieland Herold. Gerald Riischer Harald Schrapers*** * atthe Begining, is fun to develop {your space station. But the more yeu Droge, the more troublesome, fedious, ‘nd repetitive i ges At the end, youre lad is over Best with three players: the four player game hast longueurs. Towards the en, it goes sight downhill since everybody stereotypically goes through ‘thr point potent procedures Vey nice components. ee after no more than one or t80 SoS ames ye informal et the oN feeling that you cant discover 2 ‘anything realy new anymore ‘mn outer space ~ you could ‘only stil optimize your stra ‘xy, but this might unduly increase the idle time forthe other players 3 & spielbox