Spiel or Essen 2012 is just around the corner (about 2 weeks away?) and Boardgamegeek, the site I frequent, has a preview list of games that will be released at Essen. You can find the list here
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/142246/spiel-2012-preview
There are SO MANY games that will be released that its really quite crazy how many new games are released in a year. I believe this year has a bumper crop of games and my wallet is already protesting! Not to mention my cupboard space! Nevertheless, lets take a look at what games that are coming out that excite me:
AZTLAN
I had a demo of this game at GENCON 2012 and its a light-medium worker placement game with a lot of interaction. The components do look nice except for the scoring pieces which are quite small and maybe a bit impractical. But otherwise, seems like a well designed game.
AMONG THE STARS
Hmmm city building... well spaceport building that has mechanisms similar to City Tycoon. I am probably going to pass on such games until I try it first. I do still want to have a good city building type game in my collection but I want to be more discerning now.
SUBURBIA
Another of those city building games which seems to have a same concept as City Tycoon. Place a tile, see what adjacent tiles it activates and score points. Difference is each player has their own area to manage and grow. I will have to give this a try first before I buy.
1969
Space race game with nice cardboard rockets! I have been wanting to try High Frontier (after playing Bios Megafauna and owning it) but I was not too sure if I had the group of people to play it with me several times. I am hoping this is like High Frontier light and will be a new theme for me to try out.
SHEEPLAND
Another game I tried at GENCON 2012 and it is a light game with nice sheep-ples. Should appeal to casual gamers and new gamers alike and its easy to teach and play.
TZOLK'IN: THE MAYAN CALENDAR
This game has been getting a lot of buzz in the podcast scene due to the presence of connected gears on the board representing calendars. Apparently it is advertised as having a dynamic worker placement mechanism. Should be interesting to see how it all works. I am particularly interested in how it is all kept or if the wheels are installed permanently onto the board the first time.
SHADOWS OVER CAMELOT: THE CARD GAME
I have always wanted to play more of Shadows over camelot but I don't have a copy and well, it did not appeal to be enough to warrant me to get a copy. Well Days of Wonder will be releasing the card game version which plays 1-7! I have started to play boardgames solo recently and this will be right up my alley. Hearing the initial reviews and comments, it seems like a must buy for me.
KAKERLAKENPOKER ROYAL
Ever since I played this game at my friend's place I have been hooked. I went to get a copy and have been bringing it out regularly as a starter or an ender to a long day of gaming. It is fun, light, easy to play and I am pretty excited there is an expansion for this that add some interesting new rules! Definitely a must buy for me.
SPELLBOUND
Latest game from the Fragor brothers. The components, as usual, look really good. Gameplay wise probably will not really appeal to me. But I am lucky to have a friend that managed to get onto the order list and I will look forward to playing her copy :)
TOKAIDO
Saw this at GENCON 2012 and I was itching to have a play. After observing it though I am not too sure if I will enjoy the gameplay. It seems to be a light game and the artwork is so awesome. Light, clean but aesthetically pleasing. I would definitely get it if just for the art alone but when i saw the copy at GENCON, it did not look like they were high quality components. I do hope what I saw was just the pre-production copy. *Cross Fingers*!
SUPER FARMER
Something about farming, rearing animals and cute cute components (hmmm I am sensing a trend here....) I will keep an eye out for this but not sure if I will get it.
OHNE FURCHT UND ADEL
This seems like Citadels version 2. I have always been looking for an improved version of Citadels and reading the description makes me want to grab this and see how much better it is. Citadels was one of the few boardgames that I started with and owned and it sure would be nice to see a newer version with new rules to spice things up!
AGRICOLA: MEHR STALLE FUR DAS LIEBE VIEH
I have been enjoying Agricola:All Creatures Big and Small and this seems to be an expansion for it! Additional special buildings and more things? Must buy for me!
LE HAVRE: DER BINNENHAFEN
Le Havre, a game that I was initially apprehensive about playing because it seems a very thinky and super euro game. Well I am glad I took a step and learnt how to play and to my surprise I love the game! I even have the iOS version and play the solo game regularly. This is the 2 player version and if its like Agricola:ACBAS, I am sure it will be a good game. Must buy!
IRON SKY: THE BOARD GAME
What? There is a board game based on the movie? SERIOUSLY ? Well if you have not watched the movie, go watch it. It is surprisingly funny and not too cheesy with nice special effects. I wonder how the boardgame will be like though. Intriguing....
THE GREAT ZIMBABWE
On a whim I decided to trade for Antiquity and gave it a go. OMG it is so stressful playing the game as I feel so bad destroying every piece of land I harvest resources from. This is the latest release from Splotter and is supposed to be faster version of Antiquity. Indeed I hope so as my first 2 player game of Antiquity took me almost 3 hours to play!
MAGE KNIGHT BOARD GAME: THE LOST LEGION
I still haven't played enough of my copy of Mage Knight and there's an expansion coming out? Still this will be a must buy for me seeing how I am enjoying solo play of Mage Knight. I will have to try to bring it out 1 day for a 4 player game at least to see how things go. The expansion increases the player count to 5 now and I am not sure how long that will take! Box says 6 hours though (OMG)
STAR TREK: FLEET CAPTAINS - ROMULAN EMPIRE
Sigh... I still have not played my copy of Fleet captains. Expansion is only available for demo at ESSEN but this will probably be a must buy for me. I'll probably just play with the miniatures and fly around my room :)
OTHERS:
Did anyone else noticed that there seems to be a lot of city building type games being released? Its as if the designers were all given a common theme to create from some secret boardgame consortium else they will no longer be allowed to design or something!
Also there seems to be a few games based on the Aztec/Mayan theme. I wonder if boardgame designers / publishers deliberately implement these themes to capitalize on current trends. Hmmm.. interesting food for thought.
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