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International Toy Fair Nuremberg 2007
Internationale Spielwarenmesse Nürnberg 2007

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Queen Games

On a map of Europe two to four archeologists are trying to excavate old treasures in Greece, Crete, Egypt, Palestine and Mesopotamia. Travelling costs time which is marked with a players token on a track around the board that has 52 positions (1 year). Four players play two years, two players 3 years, and 3 players two and a half years. Each excavation requires an amount of knowledge. This knowledge is represented by cards, and the colour marks for which location a player collects it. In  a turn a player may take a city card by moving to that city and take the card. He moves his token accordingly on the track around the board; or he may organise an exhibition with his collected treasures; or he excavates on a site, or he travels to Warschau to change his town cards.

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x When excavating, a players knowledge for that site determines how many treasures he may take from one of the cloth bags for  that location; this amount can be read out from a separate disc. The points drawn from these bags are different for each location, so there are more profitable ones, but also zero point discs can be drawn. The current player always is the one who is lowest on the time track, so it could be possible for a player to have multiple turns. What sort of exhibition a player must hold, is represented by three cards that have the amount and colour of the treasures on them.
An exhibition also costs some time, but it will bring a player points. There are congress cards that can be collected and give increasing points. Other special cards are the assistant, an additional excavation that allow a player to do a second excavation on the same site, which is normally only allowed after one full year, or additional general knowledge. The adoption of this game by a larger publisher will certainly do much good for its name and appreciation. Succes lies ahead for this completely reworked (graphically and editorially) and now polished game!

Jenseits von Theben, Peter Prinz, 2-4 players, 10 years and up, 45-60 minutes
x More on the fun side is ‘Fangfrisch’, a lively auction game. Collect the auctioned fish (cards) in two of your wood crates, put them on ice, or throw them in the bin. Each crate can only hold one type of fish. The auctioneer has the possibility to sell fish from his crates or ice. After he has sold, the other players must throw away the same sort of fish that the auctioneer just sold, but only the top card of a crate. For each fish card in the bin must be paid 1 gold at games end; the player with the most money has won.

Fangfrisch, Andreas Pelikan, 3-5 players, 8 years and up, 30-45 minutes
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Schmidt Spiele

Build stands in the various streets where the London Portobello Market is daily held. In a turn, a player may choose form three chits: 2, 3, or 4 actions. Once he has used any one of these, this chit is turned face down and can only be chosen a second time when all other chits have been chosen. A player either builds a stand in a street next to the quarter where the policeman stands, or he draws a token from the cloth bag; these can be either citizens or assistants. Streets are scored when they are full of stands and on either side is a token, with different bonuses for the several combinations of the two tokens.

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x The policeman can be moved, this may cost a player victory points if the policeman moves across a street where a player does not have the majority of stands; other players benefit from this with victory points. With the x2 and x4 action chit a player may place it in a quarter, all stands in adjacent streets are scored double. The game ends when one player has used all of his stands, and this may come quicker than desired!

Portobello Market, Thomas Odenhoven, 2-4 players, 8 years and up

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The Game Master

Players try to manoeuver their ships into the harbour of Rotterdam in such a way that they arrive at their desired destination. Four different types of goods: corn, oil, fruit, and containers must be brought in. At the start of the game, each of the players place their ship on a start position and place a good on it; this is repeated each round. Preprinted water ways direct the ships to their destination, with coloured intersections on the way where a possible other route can be followed. But there is little choice, as an active player announces a colour, and all players have to move their ships to that colour, if applicable. This way ships may get on the wrong destination. Blindly drawn production cards order you to produce some kind of product with a raw good and deliver it at the right spot. There is a trade phase, where players can trade their producton cards; ship cards enable a player to change goods at certain positions, or remove a ship from an opposing player, The game ends when a player has assembled 12 points.

Rotterdam, prototype, Hans van Tol

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An expansion on ‘De Ontembare Stad’ ('The Untamable City') gives players an opportunity to take on the role of the dark side, on which points can be earned also. All of the players know: someone, at some time, will walk across. Who will do it when, and: can I beat him by doing it first?

Het Verraad, prototype, Hans van Tol
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Winning Moves

Collecting spices on a tropical island. The overly colourfull board shows an island with many dotted tracks that players will have to follow in order to get those spices.

Zanzibar, prototype, Franz-Benno Delonge, 2-5 players, 10 years and up

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