Neuland Review by Derek Carver

Some games come to our attention as a result of a flurry of rave reviews but then inexplicably disappear from public awareness no more than six months later. “How can this happen?” we ask ourselves. “Why did we all rush to buy this game yet now nobody wants to play it – not even a single bid when put on eBay!” We’ve all been there and as I write this I can see a host of examples on my shelves that I’ll refrain from listing!

But there are other truly excellent games that sort of creep into our awareness. Hardly anybody mentions them on the various boardgame sites. It is as though they never happened, yet as the months – even years - go by more and more people get talking about them. Three immediately spring to mind that I’ve no hesitation in naming. One was ‘Die Macher’, another was the cardgame ‘Der Flaschenteufel’, and the third is ‘Neuland’.

‘Neuland’ has just been reprinted (which is why I am writing this piece) in a much more colourful format. But interestingly enough it was because it looked so terribly dull in its first publication that I bought it. Not that it was badly made. It was simply extremely dull to look at. But with so much competition to get a game published, I thought, a game looking as dull as this must be really special in order to have found a good publisher! So I bought it. And how pleased I was that I did. I have always regarded it as being one of the two best games of its year (2004) and I couldn’t understand why people weren’t raving about it.

What I didn’t know at the time, of course, was that only a very few copies had been printed – somebody told me 500. So it wasn’t surprising that it was little known. (I seem to remember that this was the number of the first printing of ‘Die Macher’, which also wasn’t reprinted for several years.)

But now the demand for ‘Neuland’ has grown sufficiently to justify a reprint. When I commented on this to a well-known German reviewer he said how delighted he was because this was one of the very few games that in his review he had ranked 10 out of 10.

There is no point in taking up space with a detailed explanation of how it is played because this information is now available elsewhere. But if you are familiar with the Splotter ‘Roads and Boats’ you will instantly recognise a similarity (although ‘Neuland’ plays in a far shorter time). In both games players can build manufacturing facilities but these facilities, once built, can be used by any player – not just the builder. And unlike games such as ‘Caylus’ the builder of the facility derives no benefit if others make use of it. What is more – and here I’m back talking about ‘Neuland’ – since only one person can occupy the facility at a time you’re a fool if you build the thing and then fail to have any action points remaining that turn in order to place one of your pieces on it.

In a nutshell it is a game of progressive development. You start off with some basic commodities that you then use to convert to something higher up the scale, which in turn – and in association with other commodities – convert into something even better. The aim is to finally acquire the more abstract concepts of a civilised society and so win the game. And if, like me, you are getting fed up with felling timber to build your hut to house your cow, to sell your milk, etc. etc., don’t be put off; you’ll find ‘Neuland’ rises above this now rather tired concept. There is also a very clever and most original ‘movement’ system, which you’ll discover if you play the game.

At first sight the aim seems to be so very daunting you can’t ever imagine getting there without a considerable amount of brain-ache. Certainly a degree of brain-ache is involved but nothing excessive (after all, my brain has now been round a very long time but it can still cope with ‘Neuland’ OK). In fact, if you enjoy a challenging game you’ll be delighted. A few weeks back I introduced it to a player who is known as being “not easy to please” to put it mildly and he instantly placed an order for the upcoming version, proclaiming it as being the best game to come his way for a very long time. So there you go.

It is for four players maximum and it plays equally successfully with three – maybe better because your turn comes round more quickly. I’ve not played it with two so can’t comment.

I suppose it is important to stress that all of my comments relate to the original version. The reprint, which is due to arrive in the UK any day I’m told, has added more colour to the components and might or might not incorporate some changes – we’ll need to wait and see. But the game was so excellent that I can’t imagine it has been radically changed in any way.


Derek Carver

Battle for Hill 218 Review

Battle for Hill 218 review by Count Zero

Battle for Hill 218 is the latest offering from Your Move Games, there most popular game so far has been the Battleground series but I think things may change now.

For your money you get a single deck of cards in the standard cardboard box, similar to a deck of Magic cards. Opening the box you get a small paper instruction manual, two decks of 26 cards one set blue and the other is green. Finally there is the Hill 218 card.

Each player has the same set of 26 cards; these are split into the different troop or equipment cards that make up your army. These are infantry, heavy weapons, tank, special op's, paratroopers, artillery and final air strikes.

Setup of the game is very easy, the hill 218 card is placed on a table. It's more of a marker and serves no real purpose in the game other than as a visual aid. Each player then takes there two air strike cards and places them on their side of the table. There deck of cards is then shuffled and five cards are drawn. From these five two are discarded.

Player one now starts, he draws two cards from his deck and places one of his 5 cards. The first placement needs to be on his side of the Hill 218 card. You have to imagine that the board is made up of a grid of spaces. Each space being able to take one card. The spaces on opposite sides of the Hill 218 card represent your base. Your objective is to place one of your cards in your opponent’s base space. Sounds easy, but it can take a bit of effort.

Player two now takes his turn, he draws two cards from his deck and places two on the table. From this point on, both players take turns to draw two cards and place two. These can be either from their hand, or one of their two airstrike cards. The rules of placement are simple; each card has an image showing its supply route. This is represented as arrows running from a square. Cards can only be placed if they can trace a line back to your base. So for example, an infantry card will show supply routes North, South, East and West. You could place another infantry card next to this card in any of those spaces. Most of the cards have this same supply rules except for paratroopers who can be dropped into any space on the board.

Once a card has been placed it has the opportunity to attack. Again a small image will show the attack directions that this card can use and whether it can destroy a card or will need support to help it. The bigger unit cards such as tanks and artillery can destroy cards. So for example a tank can destroy a card to its North, South, East and West. So place it in front of an enemy card and it will destroy it. Most of the other cards need help to destroy your enemy’s cards and this is where the support rules come into place.

The final image on the card shows what support that the card can play, it will again have markers pointing North, South, East, West or in all directions. If a card is placed that requires support in order to destroy the enemy card the cards next to it are checked. If they can offer support then the enemy card is removed. Sounds a bit complicated, but after your first game you will get it.

The final type of card is the airstrike; by playing one of your two airstrike cards you can instantly remove one of the enemy’s cards from the board. You only have two of these so you need to use them wisely.

First player to place one of their cards into the opponents base square wins the game. It's a quick game that last about 10 minutes, so you will be playing multiples of the game or usually a best of three games to determine the winner.

I have found that the player who starts second seems to have a bit of an upper hand. But I am expecting this to even out after more plays. Hill 218 is a good quick game; it's one of those games that will surprise you with its unexpected complexity. From the start it seems pretty easy, but after a couple of games the strategies start forming.

As a bonus, your move games have put a free java version on there web site. It's easy to install and allows you to play the game without spending any money.
The link is here http://www.yourmovegames.com/pages/hill218.html

Summary

Presentation
Card stock is good with a nice shiny finish. 8/10

Clarity of Rules
Rules are pretty clear, after a game you will not need them again 8/10

Game Length
Games last about 10-20 minutes, so you can play a few quickly 8/10

Value
It's a pack of cards 7/10

Overall
An abstract game with a WW2 theme, quick to play and allot of fun (8/10 not an average)

Hey! Thats my Fish review by Count Zero

Hey! that's my fish review by Count Zero

If you are not fed up with watching Mumble dancing away in happy feet and can squeeze in more penguins then Hey! that's my fish is worth a look. Don't be put off by the child friendly cover, this is a great game that will get your brain working.

Opening the box you get 60 hexagonal ice flow tiles, each depicts a number of fish from 1 to 3. You also get 16 wooden penguins in 4 colours. Not a huge amount of pieces but its fine for the money.

Setup is very simple, the ice flow tiles are placed in a grid of 7 hexes by 8. They are staggered slightly so that the hex pieces work. There is a good diagram in the manual showing how you should do this. There is also a good play sheet available on board game geek to help kids set the game up. Once the ice flow has been put down players take it in turn to place one of there penguins on ice flow pieces that only contain a single fish.

Once all the penguins have been placed the game starts. Taking it in turns a player moves one of his penguins any number of spaces in any direction from his ice flow hex. The only limits are that they cannot move over any penguin including there own, or over an empty space. Once the penguin has been placed on its new hex the player removes the starting hex and places it next to him. So after a few moves you will see the ice flow starting to diminish as hexes are removed.
This can help or hinder you by allowing you to either cut yourself off or cut other players off. Sometimes its not the best strategy to go for all the 3 fish pieces.

Play continues until you cannot make any moves, you are now out and the other players continue until everyone can no longer make a move. The tiles your penguins are left on are now taken away and added to your collection. Add up all the fish you have and the winner is the one with the most fish.

As you can see there isn't a great deal to the rules of Hey! that's my fish but its a quick game to get on the table, teach and play. The game box recommends it for children aged 8 and above, but my younger kids enjoy playing it, even if they don''t get the strategy just yet.

Summary

Presentation
Quality pieces and well put together. The penguins look good as well. 9/10

Clarity of Rules
Rules are very well put together, colourful and full of examples you will be playing in minutes 8/10

Game Length
Games take about 20 mins, so there is always time for another 9/10

Value

Good quality pieces that feel good 7/10

Overall
Don't be deceived by this game, it's not just for kids. A fun light game abstract game that will played again and again (8/10 not an average)

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Infinity Games UK - Newsletter - January 2008 Edition

Happy New Year All!

Thanks to everyone for sending feedback last month. The suggestions were great and we'll be trying to implement as much as we can over the coming year.

We have another Give Away and a January Sale, check out the details below...

• January Give Away – Age of the Rag'narok Confrontation
• January Sale - Grab A Bargain!

January Give Away – Age of the Rag'narok Confrontation

We're giving away a copy of Age of the Rag'narok Confrontation Starter, everything you need to get started with a 2 player game!
Click here to sign up!, we just need your email address and if possible a small comment on what games you are looking forward to in 2008.

The winner will be notified in February.

Congrats to matherd who picks up a copy of StarCraft The Boardgame from December's Give Away!

January Sale - Grab A Bargain!

We have lots of items on offer with great reductions.

Sale ends 31st January!

All the Best for 2008!

Beyond Thebes Review by Count Zero

Indiana Jones always made archaeologists look good, and now its your turn to be Mr Jones. Thebes brings archeology to the games table in a light but fun way. Players each play the part of an archaeologist spending up to three years researching, digging for artifacts and put on exhibitions, all in the quest to get the most victory points and win the game.

Opening the large box you get a playing board depicting Europe and some of the middle east. This is nicely produced and features the 5 cities where you do your researching (London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Moscow) and the 5 locations for your digs (Crete, Greece, Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia).
A stack of cards depicting exhibitions and knowledge improvements as well as a couple of other types. 5 cloth bags, 1 for each of the dig site. A host of counters depicting treasures and artifacts as well as dirt. Some wooden figures and markers and finally 4 time wheels that have to be punched out and put together.

Setting up the game is pretty simple, all the tokens are put into there respective bags and placed to the side. Each player takes a coloured adventurer and places him on the Warsaw location and a matching coloured marker goes on the outside time track.
The cards are shuffled and separated into three stacks. The exhibition cards are then placed in these stacks and they are finally all stacked on top of each other. The top 4 cards are placed on the board in a marked area.

These cards are vital to the archaeologists, they show a number of bits of information. At the top is the location on the board where this card can be found. Also, how many weeks it will take to get this card and finally what the card gives the archaeologist. This is generally knowledge of a particular dig site. Its all colour coded to make life easier. So for example you may see a card with a yellow book on it, the top would read London, 2 . This would mean that if the archaeologist travelled to London and spent 2 weeks there he would take the card and it would give him 1 knowledge point of Egypt.
As well as the colour specific knowledge cards for the 5 dig sites, there are also general knowledge cards that provide knowledge for all of the dig sites. These are highly sought after, but they cost much more in time to research them.
Other cards give the players assistants that must be collected in multiples to give knowledge bonuses, shovels that give dig bonuses, several transport cards that cuts down the travel time for players, finally there are rumour cards which are like the book/research cards but are one use only.

After the board is setup players can perform one of three actions, they can either travel to a city and spend the time required to pick a card, travel to Warsaw and swap the 4 displayed cards for 4 new ones or finally travel to a dig site and perform a dig. Whatever is chosen italways takes time, and this is recorded on the time track around the board. Time is a big factor in the game and it also determines the playing order. Whoever is behind plays next. In some cases this allows a player to take multiple turns. For example if player 1 decided to spend 10 weeks in Egypt looking for artifacts he moves his token on 10 weeks plus the travel time to get to Egypt. This gives player 2 a number of weeks to play his turns until he is inthe lead on the time track. So he could go to London and research some knowledge on Crete for 2 weeks, then move on to Paris for 4 weeks of research on Greece.

When you decided to visit a dig site and look for artifacts, this is where the luck part of the game comes in. You count up the number of knowledge points you have on the location, this can be made up of specific and general knowledge as well as from other bonus cards. This value is selected on the dig wheel, this will display a column of numbers. You now need to scan down the column looking at the number of weeks you are spending digging, this will give you a value. This is the number of tokens you can pull from the locations bag. Any artifacts you keep, blank or dirt tokens are put back in the bag. It may sound a little tricky, but the mechanism works really well. The luck factor can be a pain, after spending 10 weeks and drawing 10 blank tiles you know you have wasted a huge chunk of the year.
There is a limit on the number of digs you can do a year, its one per location. This is enough as you will generally not have enough time inthe year to continually dig for treasure.

About half way through the card stack exhibition cards will start to be drawn. These represent a location and again the number of weeks required to win the card. They will also depict a number of artifacts that the player is required to own in order to put on the exhibition. There are only 10 of these cards in the game and as they are one of the revenues of victory points they are always sought after.

After 2-3 years of hitting the books and digging in the deserts the game will end and its time to add up the points.
Players get points for the artifacts that they have found. For the exhibitions they have put on. Congress cards give points depending on the number you own and finally the player who has the most specific knowledge in each site gets bonus points. The player with the most points wins.

For the main Thebes is a pretty light game, its fun to play without being too much of a brain burner. Luck plays a part with the digs, but half the fun is rummaging around in the bags looking for those elusive artifacts. The game is put together very well with great pieces

Summary

Presentation
This is a very well produced game. Queen games have used quality components, the bags and wheels add to an already theme oozing game. 9/10

Clarity of Rules
The rules are pretty basic and quick to learn. You should be up and running after a quick read 8/10

Game Length
The game length is altered depending on the number of players, but on average a 3 player game takes about an hour and a half 8/10

Value

You get allot of game for your money, its well worth the price tag 8/10

Overall
Thebes is a great game and one that I think would make a good gateway game. The luck factor has given it some bad comments on the geek but if you can handle a bit of luck then add it to your basket now (8/10 not an average)

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Rulebook Review

With this Second edition by Black Industries, one of the most respected RPGs has been completely reborn.

The original WFRP was a cult classic. Famed for its excellent career system, its grim and dark work, its emphasis on role-playing, and its lethal combat system, it was played by many until its last publishers, Hogshead, went out of business.
Now, finally, the game has been brought up to date with a second edition, the first in twenty years. And what an update.

For those who have never played WFRP or its tabletop counterpart, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, fear not. There is plenty of background information and an introductory adventure in here to get you started, and even more adventures are freely available on the Black Industries website, so you don't need to know the setting before tou start- which is quite a feat, considering the amount of published information about Warhammer's Old World.
For those veterans of the first edition, fear not. None of what you love has been removed, except possibly the 'peasant' career. But almost every aspect of the game has been completely reworked- and all for the better.

Character creation is an entirely random process- you're allowed to choose your race and gender, and everything else- from your starting characteristics to your career to your eye colour- you get to roll for. The careers are worth special mention - your character can start as anything from a hubmle rat-catcher or a simple grave digger to a wandering duellist or imperial soldier, and progress to be a mighty wizard or gladiatorial champion. And actually, thats fun. Sure, it means some characters are weaker than others to start with- but as previously hinted, in WFRP, the emphasis is squarely on role-playing, and by the time you've got some experience, you'll soon work out that everyone in the group has their own important role to fill... even when it comes to combat, which is the meat of many systems, let’s be honest.

Combat is actually pretty simple. You have a % chance to hit based on your characteristics, and if you hit, you just roll a D10 and add your strength. That’s how many wounds the target takes, minus any armour or toughness bonus. If he drops to 0 wounds, he starts to take critical hits until he eventually dies horribly. But you won't ever have a lot of wounds to spare- it’s quite feasible to drop a foe with a single attack, even from a humble sling. And again, that makes the game fun- your characters are not muscle-bound heroes- you're just trying to survive.
There’s a fun magic system too, which few characters can access without a lot of dedication, but which offers great power- and substantial risks. Failure to cast a spell can mean your wizard gets sucked into another world, the daemonic realm of the Warp, and if he’s not dead, then he's certainly insane.

What makes the whole system work so well though are its underlying mechanics. Everything in the rules *makes sense*, which is a rarer thing than it might sound- if you're ever stuck for a rule, chances are you can work it out pretty easily, because every part of the mechanics follow a central logic that’s really easy to grasp for both players and GMs, and never becomes too complex or cumbersome for the game to run smoothly- and never feels too simple, either.
WFRP turns out to be, overall, a stunningly put together game. Its productions qualities are top-notch, rivalled only by the excellent content on offer here. WFRP is well worth a look for any fantasy role-playing fan, especially those looking for something that’s maybe a little darker and a little more daring than the standard D20 fare.

Summary
Presentation: A tough hardback cover with some lovely artwork that’s marred only by the cheesy text on the back cover houses a lavishly presented, full-colour book with a wealth of good quality artwork. 9.0/10

Clarity of Rules: The rules follow a core mechanic that’s simple to grasp but allows the game to be flexible and varied enough to withstand long campaigns. They’re also presented in a very logical format, so it’s never too hard to find that rule you’re looking for. 9.5/10

Value: With a character career system that spans everything from rat catcher to noble and expansive career advancement options, you’ll not run out of things to do here. The main rulebook really does contain everything you need to play any type of character in the Old World- supplementary books add further options, but there are no glaring omissions here. The GM’s section is a little sparse, particularly on world background, but the inclusion of an intro adventure helps things along. 8.9/10

Overall: WFRP has always had a special place in many gamers hearts, and this second edition is head and shoulders above the first edition. There’s no excuse not to step into the grim world of perilous adventure now. 9.6/10 (not an average)

Reviewed by: splinter