Essen Shills

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We’ve barely had time to recover from a serious bout of FOMO caught by NOT attending GenCon, when waddya know? Yep. Some fear the coming of Pollen Season, for us at CBQ the FOMO virus is set to strike again. Inoculation hasn’t worked for us (though you should still gets your kids vaccinated folks!), and so instead we’re trying an experimental therapy – roll with the misery. If we can generate enough excitement around some of the games on offer at Essen, it might just be enough to start synthesizing a cure.

So here’s our list of titles we’re keen to follow, and perhaps add to our always evolving list of acquisitions. Some of these games were on show at Gencon already, but given the sheer volume of what was on offer, we seem to have missed them. Others are titles that have been discussed for quite some time, but Essen will provide the first opportunity for greater public exposure. On to the games!

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Dice City is a worker placement game for 1 to 4 players from AEG. Set in the Kingdom of Rolldovia, the idea is to gain enough influence for your city to earn the right to become Rolldovia’s new capital. You’ll achieve this by rolling dice and using the results to build locations, which in turn provide tools to further expand your influence. There’s a Imperial Settlers with a Favour of the Pharoah’s feel to this one.

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Fram R’lyeh. What would a boardgame list be without a Cthulhu-themed title? Well, sure, this has the theme, but it’s actually a simple trick-taking game with nary a cultist mini or massive game board in sight. I’m keen to add a decent trick-taking game to my collection, and Fram R’lyeh may well be it.

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Waste Knights. Mad Max, the boardgame. Well, okay, not Mad Max, but set in a post-apocalyptic Australia. Card-drafting, resource management, hexagonal tiles – Waste Knights has been in prototype for a while now and if you can get past the theming being a little too ‘on the nose’ (with characters like Hugh Jackal and Kate Blanksheet), it’s an ambitious game with a ton of components and an interesting meld of mechanics.

 

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Clacks: A Discworld Board Game. It’s probably because I still can’t accept Sir Pratchett’s passing, or perhaps that the existing Discworld game’s possess a genuine charm to them despite not being particularly deep. Clacks takes inspiration from the semaphore messaging system, as illustrated in Pratchett’s Going Postal. Players compete against each other, or co-operatively against the game, by displaying their pattern recognition prowess.

 

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Celestia  is one of those that initially capture attention because of the gorgeous aesthetic, and then pleasingly promise to be a decent game too. For 2 to 6 players, this is a wagering/press your luck style game, as you journey through the cities of Celestia, deciding when to get off the aircraft and explore, or to stay on board for the promise of even greater riches.

 

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Trickerion. Here’s one I can clearly remember staring at the Kickstarter page for about a half-hour, being enthralled by the theme but not convinced enough by the publisher’s pedigree to take the leap of faith. Will I regret my hesitation? Well, here’s a worker-placement game about being a 19th century illusionist, and handling everything involved with putting on a show, from conception to performance. So yes, I’m regretting it already.

 

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Potion Explosion. In our ‘must have boardgame novelty of the summer’ category, Horrible Games bring us a final exams for all budding alchemists. And along with it, this awesome marble dispenser. Most boardgames that make use of a centerpiece tend to be press your luck a la Jenga and Click Clack Lumberjack, so it’s nice to see a game that taps into a similar vein but offers a more puzzle-oriented depth.

 

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504.  No list would be complete without, arguably, the title the entire community is watching. Potentially revolutionary, the core concept is that the game’s 9 modules represent a specific style of boardgame, such as pick-up & deliver, race, shares etc. For each play session, you decide which three of these modules will be combined to create one of 504 game combinations. Innovative, sure, but will it work? I can’t see every combination being a winner, so no doubt it will in reality be more like 101, but it remain a fascinating reach for gaming glory. Friedman Friese certainly has the ability to pull this one off.

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Pandemic Legacy. Hot on the heels of 504 in terms of hype, we have to mention Matt Leacock’s ambitious new project. Risk Legacy introduced the concept of using permanency as a mechanic to great success. Making tangible changes to the game state, such as destroying certain cards or marking the board were a thrilling new way to up the investment. Now, Leacock will attempt to do the same, only on the very familiar Pandemic platform.

 

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A Study In Emerald – 2nd Edition. Originally released in 2013, Martin Wallace’s design based off a Neil Gaiman short-story was the very definition of the marmite game. Some adored it, others hated it. Will a refinement of the system result in unified acclaim? Or was part of the original game’s charm the rough edges and unpredictability, which may be lost or smoother out? Time will tell.

Essen will also see a few highly anticipated expansions hit the tables, with Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Power Grid, Nations, Concordia, Abyss, Eclipse and Kemet representing just a sample of the additions that you’ll more than likely buy even though you haven’t played the base game more then 5 times.

Quick mentions for a last few we’ll be keeping a beady eye on: M.U.L.E, T.I.M.E Stories, Taverna, Clockwork Wars, Raptor, The Big Book of Madness. If you want an incredibly comprehensive list of what’s on offer at Essen, Eric Martin has compiled an exhaustive and impressive list over at BGG.

A brief tangent: reading through some post-GenCon coverage gave me the sense of a community largely disappointed. A lack of major announcements and the absence of a true ‘Game of Show’ title saw the rise of many a ‘not as great as last year’ sentiment. Understandable, as with all hobbies, being fully immersed in the daily happenings often dulls perspective. But trawling through a 31 page list of the games that will be on show at Essen, I’m reminded yet again that there is nothing quite like boardgaming. The components, the more frequently ubiquitous high quality artwork, the variation of themes – this is a wonderful time to be a boardgamer, let’s not lose sight of that with the ever-present distraction of hype.

As the wave of Essen hype hits this weekend, what coverage are you keen to see? Which titles are you hoping will have enough positive content to push you over the purchasing edge?