Day 3 and final thoughts

Day 3

The final day was upon us. To me it felt like we had done more then 3 days, just on the amount of stuff we had seen and done. I also finally got organised. A bit late I know.

I went through the convention programme I had gotten on the Friday, the articles were in German but the listing of games and stands were in English. There was a weird mix of German and English when it came to menus and signs at Essen. I made a note of where certain games where and hoped to tick them off the list during the day.

It was going to be a shorter day as we planned to leave a bit earlier as we had a long journey ahead of us. Because of this we agreed to split up and meet up later on. We all had either things to find and buy or games we wanted to try, so splitting up was the sensible option.

Generally I would say that when going to a gaming convention, going in a group is by far the best way to do it. However, at the Essen fair, going around by yourself doesn't put you at any disadvantage. Because there are no game events as such and demos are done on a first come first basis, you can happily walk around and get games. As there is no opening gaming you aren't missing out on anything in the evenings. I believe there are meet up groups, so getting in on one of them shouldn't be a problem.

So the first game I went looking for was Coaster park, Andy joined me for this demo.

Coaster park 

Coaster Park was one of the games I was looking forward to trying. A game were you construct a roller coaster and test it with a marble sounds like a lot of fun.

Well it should have been, but it wasn't. I think for a lot of games when all I have is theme to go on my expectations are rather high.  It is all too easy for my internal "hype machine" to kick into overdrive.

There are two parts to playing Coaster Park.  The first part of the game you buy the coaster parts. The actual coaster parts are made from a pair of think cardboard. Each part has a letter to identify it and they come in a number of heights and different shaped bumps/curves/parabolas.

During your turn you take a card that represents one of the parts. The card can be used in one of two ways. You either buy the part or buy a consultant/expert. The consultants give you bonuses (e.g reduce the cost by 2 of all parts).

You pick a card and then announce how much you will buy it for, setting the price. That card then gets offered to all the other players in turn order at that price. If they don't buy it you have to buy it at the price you stated.

It is an interesting mechanic with some strategy involved with what you state the price of the card to be. If you get a consultant/expert card you just keep it next to you. If you get a coaster part, you find the appropriate pieces from the box and start to construct and add to your roller coaster. Once you have 7 pieces ( one of which must be a start piece) you can test/activate/use your roller coaster by sending a marble down down it. Every section the marble safely goes over scores you points.

This second part of the game is where all the disappointment lies. I mean this is the part of the game you have been waiting for, the reason you wanted to play the game in the first place. It just didn't work.

Coaster park is a game of simple, common sense physics. A taller pierce connects to a smaller piece, that connects to a smaller etc.

In the demo neither side's marble got past the first section. We were convinced it should have. We asked the demo person and they told us you were allowed to give a the marble a push, which we did, it didn't help.

Maybe our coaster designs were poor and you needed to choose smaller sizes then we thought, but if that is the case then it causes certain problems in my mind. Firstly predictable repeat play. If only only piece A works with piece D and piece E works with Piece C, then your games are going to get very samey. It will change the way you price cards, making certain pieces/cards worthless.

The game is two dimensional, just in a different plane. Sure you make a free standing cardboard roller coaster model. Once it is built, it isn't actually that exciting. I admit that part of the problem was that my imagine and expectations based on the description I had. I was really expecting something more akin to mouse trap, some sort of kit that creates sweeps and loops etc. I think I would be better off playing roller coaster tycoon.

Next I went looking for a game called 10 minute heist: The wizards tower. I knew nothing about the game but it's name had got my attention. I am always on the look out for light fun games with a  short playtime. I need a game (or games)that can be played in 20 minutes or less. A game to play while waiting for other players to turn up to RPG night or a game to play between longer heavier games for a change of pace.

I got to the stall to find it wasn't being demoed. A guy at the stall was kind enough to explain the game. It was about getting in to the tower and getting out, a game of risk and reward with point collecting. I didn't want to buy without a demo and to be honest I wasn't taken with the theme and what I was being told about the game play. I decided to continue with my quest for more demos.

Next on my list was Noria

This was one of the games that was getting a lot of buzz before the start of Essen and I was interested to see it in action.  I arrived too late to get in on the demo just starting, but I hung around to watch the game explanation.

Maybe it was because it was the last day, and the person giving the demo had already given many demos of the game during the week-end, or they were hungry, or just fed up, either way they didn't seem that enamoured with the game that day.

They started by telling the table the the rule-book wasn't very good and difficult to follow.
The "thing" about Noria is it's action wheel ( not actually sure if it's call an action wheel)

3 wheels, on 3 different levels, that spin around that have spaces to hold circular action tokens. You place the tokens in the wheels and these move around, actions that line up can then be activated. You can use special actions to switch action tokens around.

I wasn't able to follow all the rules explanations, due to not being sat at the table. The action linking seemed interesting and fun. The action wheel itself was a bit of a mixed bag. It can be hard for a board game component to be considered a essential part of game rather then just a gimmick. The action wheel walks very close to that fine line I feel. It is neat, and while there could have been a way to do it on a flat player board, the moving circles are the easiest way to do it and the most engaging.

The downside comes in it's construction. The 3 rings of cardboard fit over a single formed piece of plastic. Now the problem that happened at the demo was that the small tokens would vanish under the rings every now and again. It wasn't a major problem, as it is easy to tell when it happened, but I think it would get annoying.

When it comes to components I find myself comparing this game to T'Zolkin. Looking at the demo of Noria I really want the the wheels to have the same feeling of sturdiness, of feeling like a permanent part of the board and play experience I get from using the gears in T'zolkin. But I don't think they do.

It is a pretty minor point, and I think Noria is a good game, it was selling like hot cakes at Essen. The only reason I have gone on about it is because at the start of the weekend I was sure I was going to buy it. But the demo made me hesitate. I find myself thinking that it maybe worth waiting for the 2nd print run ( or perhaps even a 2nd edition). I chance to clean up the rule book and maybe alter the design construction of the wheel slightly to make it a bit better.

It's funny how demos go sometimes. It wasn't a badly done demo at all, and the person giving it was good at explaining the game, and to there credit they were honest about parts of the game that had problems i.e the rulebook. The demo just left me with doubts that I probably wouldn't have had a chance to have if I had just walked in to a shop and bought the game. Like I said I think it is a good game, it might even be on the cusp of being a great game, but for me the doubts raised by watching the demo meant I no longer felt an urgency to own. As I wasn't playing I didn't stay for the whole demo and went to find the next game to try.

Okay the next 2 games I am not actually sure if I played them on the Saturday or the Sunday. I tried a lot of games in a short space of time, didn't take nearly enough photos and I just can't recall what I did when.

Kingdomino 

Technically the demo wasn't for the game Kingdomino, but for a rules/ game aid app. The app demo was just using Kingdomino, but since we hadn't played the game either it was a double demo.

The app itself was pretty good. We were left on the table with a game we hadn't played before and an Ipad. The app was more then just a rule book. It broke down the turn by turn actions giving pictorial examples, it kept the score and randomly chose first player. You could go back to certain rules, or skip parts as you got to understand the game. By the end of it the app had taught us how to play the game.

I can definitely see this becoming more common place with board games. It goes beyond just being an electronic rule book to being a game aid. Now Kingdomino is a pretty simple game, which helped. With more complex games ( like Noria ) I think it be a great thing, but it would possibly be a bit slow and a bit long.

Kingdomino itself was a really good game. I would consider it a really great gateway game, especially for kids.

We didn't know it at the time, but Kingdomino won the Spiel des Jahres, so that should tell you how good a game it is. I didn't pick up a copy myself because I really don't need a gateway game, it is a simple game that is geared towards family and I prefer to play games with more complexity. 

There is a related game called Queendomino, which adds in some extra options and increases the level of complexity. If you are already a gamer with a gaming group then Queendomino is the better option.

At some point during the weekend we played BADASS FORCE

This was a party/ multi player card game, it wasn't out for sell it was a kick-starter project happening in Jan 2018. There were a few people who had bought their kick-starter projects. It was nice to see these projects in the 'flesh' so to speak, rather then rely on videos and photos on the kick-starter page.

Badass force was a fun game. Below is the description from boardgamegeek and here is the link to the page Badass Force

You have been selected to participate in the shooting of the greatest action movie of all time! Each at the head of an international stars's cloning unit, your goal is to prove that your unit is worthy to enter the Badass Force!

In Badass Force, the goal is to be the first to achieve 16 victory points on the badassometer. Points are earned by eliminating the opposing characters but a player is NEVER ELIMINATE from the game.

At the beginning of the game, 7 different characters are selected from the 10 in the box. Each player will retrieve a copy of each of these 7 characters and a weapon card. Players then choose a character from their hand and put it face down in front of them.

In turn, a player will increase the level of charge of their weapon AND choose an action from 4 options (changing weapons or characters / fetching ammunition by launching the 2 weapons dice / using their weapon / announcing a Character to use their power): everyone plays in turn order until a winner is declared.

Badass Force is a thematic game, with a strong interaction where one must use bluffing, guessing, hand management and a little tactics to succeed in leading his unit to glory!

It is a fun bluffing game with a number of cool mechanics, chiefly the no player elimination. Each of the different characters has different abilities that effect the game/players. At the start everyone discards a card at random without looking. So at some point you will have to bluff. You are also watching how close the players next to you are getting to charging their weapons.

I really liked the game, it is one of those game you start and/or finish your gaming night with, it has good player interaction with a quick play time and the theme is a lot of fun. The theme may also be the games biggest problem.  

The game is called Badass Force, but I am fairly confident everyone is going to be calling it "Expendables the card game". I know very little about image rights, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if you want to use the image of a big movie star you kind of need their permission. Sure these are caricatures but I think it leaves the game on murky legal grounds. It may be okay, I don't know, which leaves me with a hesitation in backing this on kick-starter. Lets be clear here, I like this game a lot, and will be checking it out on kick-starter I just hope that there are no legal issues that could throw a spanner in the works. A simple re-skin could work, but then you lose out on the theme and the theme is a big part of the game.

Pulsar 2849 

Everything about Pulsar 2849 is great. You should get it, at the the very least play it.

Pulsar 2849 was one of the games on my list to try. I got in a demo of it with some guys who had also traveled from the UK, we played a 5 turn version of the game, by turn 3 I knew how to play the game and also that I was going to buy it.

Before I get into the game, I want to say that the demo given was probably one of the best of the weekend. Rules where added in increments, we were encouraged to  just start and dive in. The demo person hovered in the background and would step forward when needed. It was an enjoyable experience.

Pulsar is a mid to heavy euro game that at it's heart is a VP collection game. There is a lot to explain about the game, which I won't do here, I'll just try to give a short over view and then go into why I think this game is the mutt's nuts. Also link to Pulsar 2849 rulebook

The game is played over 8 rounds. in each round there is a dice phase, an action phase and a production phase.

In the dice phase a number of dice are rolled and then put on the corresponding number space. The dice board has 2 trackers. one for who is first player and one for engineering cubes ( a type of currency in the game). Once all the dice are place you work out the median point and then draft  a dice in turn order.

When you take a dice you move your marker on one of the trackers left or right depending on where the dice you took was in relation to the median point. You draft 2 dice so move on both trackers, you get to choose which tracker to move. ( it is much easier to play then explain)

In the action phase you use the dice you drafted to perform actions. the actions available are:
Move your ship - explore planets or claim pulsars
Develop pulsars - these get you points
Build arrays - cards that get you points/ cubes/ bonus die ( player boards called HQ also have these arrays )
Patent technologies -  another way to get different VP bonuses at different stages in the game.

Another thing you can get are tokens that change the value of the dice. Which are really useful.

In the production phase you collect your cubes, points and set player order.

There is a bonus die that you can pick for the turn by linking arrays and from planets and patents. You can also spend 4 cubes to get one.

At the end of the game there are points to pick up from goal cards.

So why do I like this game?

Options. So many options.
Each turn you get 2 dice which equal 2 actions ( sometimes 3 if you get a bonus die), but there are more then 2 actions to pick from. This is a game about finding the path to the most victory points, but that path changes from game to game and even sometimes round to round.

This brings me to the other great thing about the game. The game has random elements like the dice and what arrays are available, but the choices you have and make are not random. The game has dice but there is no luck element to winning.

The technology patent boards are double sided, as are the HQs and the end of game goal cards, meaning there is a lot of variation available from game to game.

The only downside for me with this game is the amount of table space it takes up. Physically it is a big play area.

I have said that, for me, Dragon Keeper was the game of the fair and I still stand by that, but Pulsar 2849... might be my board game of 2017...

The final game we played at the fair was

Meeple war 

In Meeple war you are building your village and gathering your meeples to destroy the other villages. 

Your village has 3 hex spaces that you fill with abilities.
You can explore to make the map bigger to get new discover different resource bonuses or VPs. As well as start fights
You can build another ability hex ( up to 3)
You can build new meeples to add to your army.
You can perform a number of other funky things like teleport or kill all meeples in a hex.

Each ability has a number of turns it takes to activate. Moving meeples might take one turn, building a new ability hex might take 4 turns.

Combat is straight up attrition, who ever brings the most meeples to a fight wins.
Destroying villages is placing meeples in health squares of the hex, once the squares are filled the hex is destroyed and you get a VP for each meeple used to destroy the hex. 
First to a set number of VPs wins. Apart from destroying village hexes, you can get VPs for controlling specific hexes and winning fights.

I thought it was an okay game, it felt a bit long for what it was, moving 1 hex at a tine was a bit tedious. It reminds me of Smallworld, and to be honest I would rather play Smallworld, I think it does a better job. There is a lot of planning with meeple wars, you have abilities that activate at different times. You also have to choose which ability you want to use as most village hexes have multiple options. I also think that some village hexes are just better then others. You are also planning the movement of your meeples as well as trying to gather them in numbers to attack other players meeples or village hex.

We played the game on a supersized version of the game which felt epic and cool with the lrage hexes and meeples. The actual game itself is a lot smaller, and to me, feels a lot less cool/fun.

With that we left the fair and made our way back to the UK.

Walking out of the convention centre was funny as we noticed all the games we didn't try, or hadn't seen.

Other games that came across my radar during the week-end that I saw but didn't play were:

When I dream -  this game was being played a lot at the convention.
Azul - the demo tables were always packed
Cultists  -  Not sure if that is the correct name, and no idea how the game plays, but I really like the theme of the game. You play as the follower of one of the old ones and are trying to bring about your version of the end of the world while trying to prevent the other players versions of the end of the world from occurring. Also dodge those pesky investigators.
Photosynthesis - A game that had strong hype. but just couldn't find it to try it. In fact we only came across the stand it was at as we were leaving!

Final Thoughts

Essen was an amazing 3 days of gaming. Looking back I can't believe it was only 3 days, we fitted so much in. I really want to go again and next time get the Thursday in too. I would say you want to have a list of games going in you know you want to try, but also give yourself time to explore and find new games you won't have heard off.

The size of it is stupendous. There were so many stands and demos and games. Saturday is crazy busy.

It is also worth booking the restaurant you plan on eating at the night before, as a lot of people are eating out that week-end.

When going make sure you have space for the games you bring back and have a bag with you at the convention to carry stuff in.

Google translate can be a godsend.

Try and go in a group, it will be more fun and cheaper.

The 3 major conventions I have done now are UK Expo, Essen and Gencon. Expo is my favourite due to being in the UK, ease of getting to, knowing that 80% of my gaming friends will be there, the late night gaming and size. Out of Essen and Gencon, I think I actually prefer Essen.