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International Toy Fair Nuremberg 2011
Internationale Spielwarenmesse Nürnberg 2011
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Kosmos
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Not quite a new game, as it was already published in 2000 by Kosmos and many other publishers.
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The game has a lot to offer, and this all needs to be handled: three pages for the game components. two pages for the character, Gandalf and Legend cards, and the rest for the game itself, totalling twenty pages of rules!
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The object of the game is to destroy the Ring while surviving the corrupting influence of Sauron. Each player plays one of the Hobbits in the fellowship, each of which has a unique power. The game is played on a number of boards: the main board that indicates both the physical progress of the fellowship across Middle Earth and the corrupting influence of Sauron on the hobbits, and a number of scenario boards which detail the events and adventures of particular locations. Progression across the boards is determined by playing cards, many of which represent the characters and items of Middle Earth, and the effects of corruption are represented by a special die.
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The game is lost if the ring-bearer is overcome by Sauron, or won if the ring is destroyed by throwing it into the volcanic fires of Mount Doom.
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Der Herr der Ringe, Reiner Knizia, Kosmos, 2011 - 2 to 5 players, 12 years and up, 180 minutes
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Imagine this: at night the animals in Australia change into dream birds and fly around the holy mountain of Uluru. When they land, they have specific wishes next to whom they want to be. As we all know, Australia is at the opposite site of the globe from us, so apart from the dream birds, things go a bit different there: you do not collect points, you merely try to avoid minus points!
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Each player has eight dream birds and a player board with the Uluru mountain on it. At the start of a round, eight wish cards are drawn and placed on the main board. Now an hourglass is activated and all players simultaneously try to position their birds on their player board according to the wish cards of the main board before the hourglass runs out.
The results for every position are compared; when a player could not fulfill the wish, he gets a minus point.
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This is repeated five times, the game then ends and the mnus points are counted.
The wish cards come in five, increasing in difficulty, categories. A '1' wish card automatically is accomplished; other cards require a bird to sit at the long side of the Uluru board, or just by itself, specifically next to an other specific coloured bird, at least two seats apart from a specific coloured bird, and so on.
There is a variant for more experienced players, as well as advanced game rules set that goes yet a bit further in complexity.
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Uluru, Lauge Luchau, Kosmos, 2011 - 1 to 5 players, 8 years and up, approx. 30 minutes
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There is a mystery to solve in the old abbey. It's about a secret word, consisting between five and ten letters. All the hints to this word are hidden in the large dusty books of the abbey. As a merited abbot you and the novices are out to air the secret.
With the aid of two tokens a player tries to find the books in which the hints are hidden. The monk may be able to read the books, he will never carry them. Besides that, he can only walk two steps at the time. The novices on the other hand can walk up to four steps ánd carry all the heavy loads, but read, no, they cannot read.
The abbey consists of buildings and fields. Players start at the inner courtyard between the kitchen and the stable.The first six books are scattered in the surrounding buildings at the outer wall. Novices can get bread from the dinner room so the monk can walk one step further. Some of the doors have a peculiar behaviour as they can only be passed in one way.
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In the mysterious library with its four towers another four books can be found. It's a long distance and entrance only is possible through the secret passage on the graveyard - if one has a key. The novice can take care of this by getting them in the church and handing it to the monk as only he may enter the library. A monk who is in the library only may read one book at a time, after this he must leave to the herb garden.
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Of course the abbot is not the only one investigating. Other monks have noticed the search and also take part in it. Soon it's rush hour within the walls of the abbey: novices carry books and monks study more diligent than ever. One has to take care that others do not snatch away a book from right under you! But when the black monk appears, the square is cleared in an instance. Don't be disheartened, the riddle lures!
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These riddles are on cards that are put in a sort of reading device, a mini library. When a monk is on a place with a book, and he has not moved this turn, the player may read that book, sliding the corresponding number on the mini library open and making a note of the revealed letter. The more letters a player has been able to reveal, the more likely it will get he will be able to solve the riddle.
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The riddle has ten positions. The player that wishes to make a guess, or is quite sure to have solved the riddle, makes this announcement at the start of his turn. If he was right, he has won, otherwise he is eliminated from the game and the others proceed to solve it. Of course there are various riddles to solve, each consisting from five to ten letters.
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Abtei der Rätsel, Thomas Fackler, Kosmos, 2011 - 3 to 5 players, 12 years and up, 45 minutes
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I don't hold much with religion, and certainly not if this involves stupidity such as believing we were somebody else, in a former life, and that we will change into somebody better or worse after our current life. Correction: not somebody, but some other animal. Getoutahere!
Luckily we can see for ourselves how easy it is during our current stage of reincarnation by playing 'Mieses Karma' which in fact means 'lousy karma', where the karma part is technical language for the true believer.
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All players have their own karma board, and keep score of their karma with a Buddha token. Each turn a player can do the following, in any order: place a card from his hand onto his lifeline or discard it; use the special ability of an animal; ask for fitting life cards. When the active player has no life cards on his hand or a Grim Reaper card is in his life line, his animal dies and he will be reborn as a new animal or human.
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Each animal has a special ability that can be used once a turn. The back of the cards state how much karma one needs to get reborn as this animal. Cards placed on the lifeline must have a similar symbol with the previous placed card. When a player dies, the lifeline gets scored: the buddha's on the cards score one point, and each four similar and/or different symbols may be put on a personal score pile on his karma board. The game ends when a player has a human that dies. After this, players count their score: each collected karma counts as one point, each life card 2 points, and a human card counts between two and six points
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Mieses Karma, David Safier, Kosmos, 2011 - 3 to 5 players, 10 years and up, 30 minutes
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A new module for the recently introduced Catan card game for two players.
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This victory points counter may be a bit over the top, it sure is a nice gimmick.
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Die Siedler von Catan - Erweiterung Finstere Zeiten, Klaus Teuber, Kosmos, 2011 - 2 players, 12 years and up, no game length indication
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Catan - the quick card game for two to four players. So, what makes it quick, as we all know, a game of Catan could last at least 90 minutes?
Well the game now has a draw pile as well as a display of resources, from which players can get cards. In a turn, a player may swap a card with the draw pile if he has no roads. If he has one or more, he may swap a card with the draw pile, the display or another player.
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The game introduces new/old city extensions, but what's really new is that they score 3 or 4 victory points.
There is a fate card that comes into effect when there is no street or knight card in the display; the ownership of the street or knight changes to the current player according to the fate card.
A player still needs 10 points in order to win, but with the points for the city extensions this will happen sooner than in any other game, so yes, this is the quicker game of Catan.
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Die Siedler von Catan - Das schnelle Kartenspiel, Klaus Teuber, Kosmos, 2011 - 2 to 4 players, 8 years and up, no game length indication
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