The rules are easy and don’t change much. If you understand the base game the expansion is easy peasy to learn. Everything but the festival cards fit on the board so you need 20 cm^2 more space. The lake tiles I’ll keep for sure, they make the lake actions/Kodamas more interesting. The rocks as well, they are just extra rocks. The double cards are ok. Didn’t see them being overpowered yet. Festival cards I’ll use depending on the crowed. Some don’t like surprises. Maybe only use the blue ones for a nice play and only take the red against your archenemy. Furthermore the festival cards are with text (English and Spanish are sold together). Bitoku I like that much because it is language independent.

Well, this is the big question. I got a folded space so apart from the festival cards everything would fit. But the box design is lovely and I still got some space so it can stay.

Oath - this was the weirdest Oath game ever. 90 min, four players, 2 citizens. The Empire couldn’t move because it was so inflated. Weird cards on the board , restricting movement. Chancellor got rid of all sites just to keep his power. And he did. Time to strike again next time.

Agent undercover nice hidden role game. Still like it. Some players struggle to ask questions. Maybe some ideas could be exchanged at the beginning to help them out.

Arborea and Bitoku - twice and I won. What a weekend. Will keep playing these games cause they are so lovely. First time playing the Bitoku expansion. The Art on the double cards are more lively than the older ones. I like the lake replacements, the festival cards are ok. The mean ones could possibly stop too strong players, but not me 😎

Tiger and Dragon - won. Little bit of tile counting and luck. It was ok. Need to play again to judge.

Outlook: would like to try the Witcher again. Hope I get around.

Tikal - boardgame of the year 1999. Won the game. The box has way too much shelf presence for what it is. We played the base version with two players. It was ok but nothing I need to revisit.

Tribes of the wind - at two and four players. Won both times. Because I need to write a review a tried to look at it from different angles. I won with different Tribe leaders. Some combos of the leaders feel extra powerful. You really need to keep your eyes on your opponents boards to determine when they will pull the trigger to end the game. Winning the race to build the fifth tree seems a good winning strategy. At two players I like that your choice of cards will influence the second set of cards you’ll base your turns on.

Who did it? - I am not the fastes and I don’t like the theme but it is one of the best ice breaker and funny Absacker (drink or in this case last game of the night with no special requirements often fast and light hearted)

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza - in comparison to who did it is this game much more dangerous 😅 me and a friend hurt ourselves playing it.

Alhambra card game - I am a big fan of Alhambra. But we visited the in laws and even so they play games like clever, you need to bring new elements slowly to the table. Therefore I brought this lighter version as Bonn edition. They can identify cards and have fun talking about the locations and understand buying cards with different currencies. Next time I hope I can play the big game with them.

Qwinto and that’s pretty clever - always lose against the in laws. Maybe I try to hard to win. A good activity between two meals, cake and coffee.

Saturday

We arrived by car and got easy to the parking lot and only waited 20-25 min to catch a bus to the fair. I thought it was quite well organised for such a busy day. First hall we entered was 3. The hall for expert games. It was so damn crowded! The mood was good. People were asking were you found certain games. They sold the Voidfall galactic Box. A statement piece on your shelf.

The app to navigate through the Spiel was well thought out and helpful. Had everything written you needed to know. But can we please talk about the art they used?! AI pics of people playing with too many fingers? Artists are so important to game development and they advertise with bad art? Really puts me off. Use AI but please use it sensibly.

Unconcious mind and Floe - hands on a Kickstarter I backed and want to back was really cool.

Gay Sauna - as they explained to me: a WWII worker placement 😅 I am not a dungeon crawler fan but have people to try it out with. Let’s see if it is just a joke game or fun after all.

Nemesis I saw the prototype for a new one passing by. I am intrigued what new stuff they add after two pretty similar games (in my opinion)

The end I only bought few games, maybe because my main focus where the upcoming kickstarter

Arborea -backed and picked up

Satori - they explained it so nicely and with so much energy. Second game will be played tonight

Bitoku expansion - we finally have sticker for the meeple. Haven’t played yet but the cards which add drama do interest me.

The labours of Hercules - on bgg it has a lot of negative reviews but the art is nice. With the revised rule book it could be fun. Haven’t played yet though.

Radlands - my personal favourite 2 player game. Tower defence with cards. Design a mix of borderlands meets Mad Max

Aeons end - not two players but works really well at 2. coop card game against a nemesis. Multiple expansions available. Many characters and card combinations. This game is a close second in my two player list.

Shadows of Kyoto - a game from emporers4, and I have to admit I like their games. Two player slightly asymmetrical trying to get your spy to your opponent site or try to catch their spy.

Hanamikoji - trying to get the favours on the right site with only four possible turns. Kosmos has it too, and it is language independent, no need to get it from Taiwan if you have better access through them. Geisha‘s road is pretty similar.

Shottentotten - name could be more sensible but a quick to learn Poker with multiple games one plays at the same time

Finally I had the time to play the new games we got at the Spiel

Arborea - 3 this week, 4 games in total. Played with 2 and 4 players. I am so glad I backed it. The mechanics of the game are pretty unique in my collection. Putting workers in but not immediately activating them and hoping they will be pushed further until it is your turn again is exciting and interesting player interaction. The shared resources I like most. I like the idea to produce and if you can’t or don’t want to use them the player is rewarded with points. The owls seem very powerful, hard to get but work nicely if you have your gift set-up up and running. I haven’t tested the rule cards yet, but they could add a little twist to the game. The midnight expansion is cool, need to use the fish more next time.

Satori - from a score board of over 300 we come to max. 40 points. It is cute, shared workers with few possibilities and each time you do a combo you feel like a pro. I like that you can annoy your opponents with evil moves. With 2 players the board is a little bit restricted. Would like to test with more players.

Eleven - well. I am not into sports, the flavour seems nice. The game play is meh, in my opinion. The matches are too fiddly in my opinion. An overlay for the cards with markers to show if a goal was scored would be nice.

Witcher the old world retail edition - I do like the card combo effect. The little links to do combo attacks. The flavour text is loosely webbed into the game. The text reads nicely (German edition). Player dice poker against the other players is like real gambling and as far as I know there is no way to cheat (yet). The end came a bit sudden (2 players). Would like to test with more players.

Drums of war - what a downer. I either don’t understand the game or it really is a lame game. Didn’t like it. Art work is okish.

Bite - cute quick game with high value double sided paper tokens. Easy to learn. Hard to master. A good small game.

After the Spiel, is before the Spiel.

I played my newly purchased Arborea. Kickstarter funded. First game with 4 players. All new to the game. After some rule hiccups we figured out all the little rules quickly. Everyone had fun and liked it. Nice Artwork , good quality, apart from the missing cube and the misprinted inlays.

Hollywood: nice social detuction game. Nice Artwork. Again a with Dutrait art. I have to admit, that his art work pops up everywhere right now.

Wizard: I won. Still believe that the only acceptable way to play this game is with mismatched tricks and first card to the forehead.

Next week I hope I have played all new games

I am still on a boardgame weekend, but so far I have played this week Root twice. I have never seen the board so dominated by the Lizard Cult. Followed by the Riverfolk. Both players played Root the first time and played each faction really well. The Riverfolk was the perfect car(d) dealer from the start.

Treehouse Diner: cute but one bad decision killed the game for me 🥲

Bitoku: still a cool Game

Temple of Secrets

Fake artist

The week started with

Flamecraft. Still cute. Still like the game.

Thursday a brand new Kickstarter was played:

Voidfall. We only managed 2/3 since it was for all players their first game. Once you get the hang of the game each turn plays smoothly.

Cabo. There is always time for a quick round and the opportunity to play a kamikaze move. And fail miserably.

Fort. Introduced the game to two new groups. Everyone just likes this entry friendly game.

Terraforming Mars. When is the right time to buy into the goals? I still don’t understand it 🥲

Cosmoctopus: a friend got the Kickstarter. Nice engine builder and resource management in mini. Theme looks nice but has really nothing to do with the game play. It is nice, I would play it again but don’t buy it. Keep the heros out: second run. Also a cute Kickstarter. The design is cute, the theme is there. I played the mice and the slime and like both but the mice like a little bit more. Nice coop game. Would play again (also not my game) Root: I love this game so much. But each time I play a different faction. And each time I forget a crucial part of the factions rules. For the first time ever I saw the eerie not go into turmoil. The game is only complete if you own all 3d printed third party extras. It adds soooo much.

I am the same. I prefer Ares. It is so much better in my opinion.