Euro Quest - EssenFest at EuroQuest
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EssenFest at EuroQuest

New for EuroQuest 8!

With the move to spacious new surroundings for this year's EuroQuest, the EuroQuest organizers are pleased to announce an expanded presence for new games from the international Essen games fair at this year's EuroQuest. With just two weeks between the Essen convention and EuroQuest 8, this will represent the first opportunity for many of you to try out the cream of the crop of this year's new games from Essen. To assist in this regard, four GCOM members led by GCOM Vice President Michelle Hymowitz are going to the Essen convention and returning with many of the top "hits" of this year's convention. These games will then be available for EuroQuest attendees to play during the convention. But that's not all, folks.

As gamers at EQ play one of the designated Essen games, they will be encouraged to rate the game (based on initial impressions) using the BoardGameGeek rating scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high). In addition, raters are encouraged to include their name and badge number on the rating forms. These ratings will be deposited in a ballot box-type receptable, and the results will be compiled and posted shortly after the conclusion of the convention. Please, each person should rate each game played only once -- no stuffing of the ballot box! But that's not all, folks.

At a designated time on the final day of the convention, there will be a prize table drawing that will include many of the Essen games being featured this year. The name and badge numbers of the lucky winners will be read off, and you will have one minute each to claim a prize before the next winner is read off. As in the past, we expect to have some gift certificates and other prizes in addition to the Essen games. We will continue drawing from the Essen ratings until all Essen game prizes have been claimed. If, at this point, other prizes are available, there will be a random drawing from all EQ 8 attendees. The more Essen games you play, the more chances to win , but please note: There will be a limit of one prize per person, and EuroQuest convention organizers will be ineligible to receive prizes.

Additionally, Alliance Game Distributors will be appearing at EuroQuest for the first time this year. Alliance is planning to demonstrate the following games, among others: Merkator, Phantom League, Railroad Barons Card game, Target Earth, Trench Zone and the Wings of War starter kit.

Games to be Demoed and Won as Prizes

Game lists, game availability, and prizes are subject to change.
7 Wonders

Designer: Antoine Bauza
Publisher: Asmodee
BGG Link: 7 Wonders 7 Wonders: Manneken Pis Promo
Number of players: 2-7
Language: German. Small amount of in-game text requires translation. Most text is building names, which may need to be matched between cards. English rules will be available.
Play length: 60 minutes
Description: 7 Wonders lasts three ages. In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, choose one of those cards, then pass the remainder to an adjacent player, as in Fairy Tale or a Magic: the Gathering booster draft. Players reveal their cards simultaneously, paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways. (Players have individual boards with special powers on which to organize their cards, and the boards are double-sided as in Bauza's Ghost Stories.) Each player then chooses another card from the deck they were passed, and the process repeats until players have six cards in play from that age. After three ages, the game ends.
Includes the Manneken Pis Promo
 
Cafe Race

Designer: Fran F G
Publisher: Homo Ludicus
BGG Link: Cafe Race
Number of players: 3-6
Play length: 20 minutes
Description: Each round, throw as many dice as there are players. The results are the speeds at which the players may move their pawns. The players bid for these speed dice in a blind auction. Once all the speed dice have been distributed, the pawns are moved. After any movement, a check is made to see if your worker has kept his balance; if this check fails the coffee is spilled and one marker is lost. Play continues until a player crosses the end line. The player with the most points is the winner.
 
Furstenfeld

Designer: Friedemann Friese
Publisher: 2F-Spiele
BGG Link: Furstenfeld
Number of players: 2-5
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: As a young sovereign, you are cultivating your small Furstenfeld to supply goods to the local breweries. But you still miss your greatest dream: your personal palace. Your status will finally rise high enough to leave the vexed farming behind and to demand taxes from the surrounding rural population, so you can finally live in peace. You harvest hops, barley and spring water and increase your wealth with a growing agriculture. Additional buildings help you to get the necessary funds for building the desired palace.
 
Isla Dorada

Designer: Andrea Angiolino, Bruno Faidutti, Alan R. Moon, Pier Giorgio Paglia
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
BGG Link: Isla Dorada
Number of players: 3-6
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: In Isla Dorada, players will have to move an unique pawn portraying the expedition of explorers. Each player will collect cards of different kinds (movements, actions, destinations, curses, destinies, bonus or malus cards) and will have to build the best hands turn after turn (time is limited to a certain number of game turns) to be able to chose the expedition destinations in a succession of bids and negotiations. Doing so, the players will try to put their hands on treasures while avoiding their cursed destinations and trying to block other player's objectives.
 
Magnum Sal

Designer: Marcin Krupiski, Filip Miuski
Publisher: Gry Leonardo
BGG Link: Magnum Sal
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: Magnum Sal is a eurogame about exploration of a salt mine (second oldest still operating salt mine in a world). Each player takes the role of a foreman - the manager of a mining team. During the game, players will try to extract salt most efficiently from the mine, sell their "white gold" at the market, and above all complete the king's salt orders. The player who earns the most money from extracting salt receives the title of Royal Steward and wins the game.
 
Merkator

Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
Publisher: Lookout Games
BGG Link: Merkator
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 120 minutes
Description: Merkator is about the rise of Hamburg after the Thirty Years' War. You visit cities to collect goods or fulfill orders. The collected goods are added to the cities when a player visits a neighboring city. Fulfilling an order provides you with another better, but more complex order additional to the fulfilled order which you keep and can fulfill again, although the number of orders you can own is limited. Each order itself is worth a certain amount of points at the end of the game. Also you can exchange these points for special cards which provide additional goods in certain cities or more victory points if you fulfill certain conditions at game end.
 
Navegador

Designer: Mac Gerdts
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
BGG Link: Navegador
Number of players: 2-5
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: There are several undiscovered lands that allow players, once discovered, to found some colonies there. Colonies exist in different places where sugar, gold and spices are available and can be sold to the market to make some money. Money is used to build ships, erect buildings such as factories, shipyards and churches, and to get workers. Workers are necessary to found colonies or to acquire buildings and privileges, which exist in five categories and therefore encourage players to follow different strategies competing with each other.
 
Olympus

Designer: Andrea Chiarvesio, Luca Iennaco
Publisher: Stratelibri
BGG Link: Olympus
Number of players: 3-5
Play length: 120 minutes
Description: In the Ancient Greece, the polises (city-states) thrived increasing their population and culture, occasionally waging war against each other, erecting buildings and celebrating ceremonies to get the favour of the deities abiding on Mount Olympus. The players will lead one of these city-states (like Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, Argos and others) expanding it and worshipping the various gods in order to become the hegemonic power of the Peloponnesus! Olympus is a deterministic (no randomness) strategy game, based on worker-placement, resource management and building an efficient engine to score Victory Points. It also features a few more aggressive options than the average game based on the same premises (but the savvy player knows how to defend against them, if he prefers to quietly develop his own position).
 
Porto Carthago

Designer: Bernd Eisenstein
Publisher: Irongames
BGG Link: Porto Carthago
Number of players: 3-5
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: During 5 decades, each a game round, players use their servants to earn income or position them to obtain goods and load the goods onto incoming merchant ships - or even take the risk of chartering a private vessel - all with the goal of buying influence in the palace. Influence in the harbor can also determine where the best ships will dock, and the path of intrigue can provide yet another way into the palace courts. Only the player who develops the best business - through any means necessary - will end the game as the most influential senator.
 
Poseidon

Designer: Helmut Ohley, Leonhard "Lonny" Orgler
Publisher: Z-Man Games
BGG Link: Poseidon
Number of players: 2-5
Play length: 120 minutes
Description: Two to five players act as leaders of different peoples and command them to explore, send out fleets, build trading posts, and generate the highest possible profit. Poseidon contains most of the basics of 18xx games and due to the relatively short running time of two hours is as suitable for 18xx-newbies who want to explore this wonderful world as it is for experienced train gamers.
 

Games to be Demoed

These games are from the private collections of GCOM members. They are provided for your enjoyment but will not be distributed as prizes. Availability is subject to change.
 
4 Monkeys

Designer: Toni Serradesanferm
Publisher: Homo Ludicus
BGG Link: 4 Monkeys
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 20 minutes
Description: A deck of cards contains various sets of colored figures. Monkeys will have to do their best to quickly try and identify specific combinations of symbols and colors. If they do it right they get some bananas. Each game lasts for 3 rounds during which players will try to score as much as possible. The player with the most points at the end of the game will be the winner.
 
Alchemicus

Designer: Andrzej Kozakowski
Publisher: Sinonis
BGG Link: Alchemicus
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 60 minutes
Description: Transformation of metals into gold? Its possible any physicist will say nowadays. In the 16th century, alchemists made attempts to do that in their laboratories, aspiring to gain wealth and never-ending fame. Some, as Edward Kelley, thanks to royal sponsors, achieved all that, nevertheless they never succeeded in transmutation of metals In this magical game that you are holding its very simple. Build a laboratory and collect the necessary products. And transformation of metals? If you manage to adjust to the changing moods of the Spirit of Transmutation, then its really not complicated at all. So, what is the game about? You have competition in your town other alchemists who also know the right technology. Only the one of you who is the most efficient will win recognition and fame. It will surely last until the next game, or, who knows, perhaps eternally...
 
Antics!

Designer: Gordon Lamont, Fraser Lamont
Publisher: Fragor Games
BGG Link: Antics!
Number of players: 3-4
Play length: 60 minutes
Description: You play an ant colony. Prey and leaves abound nearby - if only those other ants would not take what is rightfully yours. Players attempt to have their ants bring back prey and leaves to their anthill. Only the best ant colony will survive and the winner proclaimed The Ant Queen. Gameplay is straightforward yet rich in challenging decisions. Do you concentrate on building your ant-hill only to discover that others have got to the food before you ? Or do you go and grab the food only to find yourself outpowered towards the end of the game ?
 
Black Friday

Designer: Friedemann Friese
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
BGG Link: Black Friday
Number of players: 2-5
Play length: 120 minutes
Description: Black Friday is a stock trading game with a built-in bubble to explode. The players are buying shares on a growing stock market, but at one time in the game the prices will crash. The players try to find out the right time to sell their shares and buy gold and silver (These are the victory points), before the market crashes. The actions of all players change the probability of the crash. When they start selling, the probabilty of the crash will get higher. If they only buy shares the crash will come later. To win the game, you have to have a close look on what the others do to be in the position to sell the highest share at the right time, to get the most money, but the silver/gold price will raise too, and you can also win by buying silver/gold early in the game.
 
Caravelas

Designer: Gil d'Orey
Publisher: MESAboardgames
BGG Link: Caravelas
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 60 minutes
Description: The players place their wood ship piece in the board in Lisbon and start navigating. If they follow the sea currents marked in the board, they can do it "free of charge" and endlessly. But they wouldn't go very far. Every time a player wants to go in a different direction than the one indicated by the sea current, he has to use a navigation disc from his player card. When all the navigation discs are used, the player turn stops. So, in each turn, a player can go against the currents at most 9 times, thus determining how far he can go. During navigation, players arrive in ports. If they are the first to get there, that is, if they are the ones that discover that local, they can place their coloured marker in that port and register the number of VPs marked for that port. If the port is a "trade port" (there are 8), the player can also collect the respective merchandise and place it in his player card.
 
Charon Inc.

Designer: Emanuele Ornella
Publisher: Gryphon Games
BGG Link: Charon Inc
Number of players: 2-5
Play length: 60 minutes
Description: In the year 2288, off-world mining is now controlled by a few mega-corporations. It is no longer just people or nations that are subject to exploitation, but entire planets and moons. As the CEO of one of these mega-corporations, in Charon, Inc. you will vie against CEOs of other corporations as you exploit the planets resources and colonize Charon, the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto. You will stake claims to the various mining regions of Charon, acquire resources for building facilities, use special actions (fair and unfair) to gain advantages over other CEOs and build your empire to achieve victory in this fast-paced game of planetary domination!
 
Code 777

Designer: Robert Abbott, Alex Randolph
Publisher: Stronghold Games
BGG Link: Code 777
Number of players: 2-5
Play length: 60 minutes
Description: A reprint of the 1985 game. Each player receives a rack for keeping three tiles drawn from a pool of tiles, which are seven different numbers in seven different colors (28 tiles in total), however the rack is turned away from you. When players sit in a circle, each player can see everyone else's tiles, except their own. Each turn, players draw a card with a question like, "Do you see more yellow sevens or more blue sevens?" which should help the others' determine their tiles. Once you're reasonably sure, then you can take a guess. But if you're wrong, you have to start over with a fresh set of tiles...
 
The Great Fire of London 1666

Designer: Richard Denning
Publisher: JKLM Games
BGG Link: The Great Fire of London 1666
Number of players: 3-4
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: September 1666. A careless baker in Pudding Lane forgot to put out his fire and it spread creating an inferno which would destroy 13,000 houses and make 70,000 of Londons 80,000 population homeless. The Lord Mayor fails to act and it is down to the trained bands of militia led by a few worthies to fight the fire and finally put it out. To do so they must decide which districts to demolish to protect others. These same individuals own much of London and making such choices is painful. In the end though it is an opportunity for many. Someone is going to come out of this with the most property intact and someone will be seen to do the most to fight the fire. Could that someone have enough influence and popularity to become the next Mayor?
 
Inquisitio

Designer: Jani Ronkkonen
Publisher: Tuonela Productions Ltd.
BGG Link: Inquisitio
Number of players: 3-5
Play length: 30 minutes
Description: It is the year 1609 in Logrono, northern Spain. The Spanish inquisition has undertaken a campaign to root out witchcraft and massive examinations are about to start. You are a suspect. Will you be able to assure the interrogators of your innocence through cunning, resilience and skillful use of bribes? Or will you break under torture and end up being burned at the stake as a witch?
 
London

Designer: Martin Wallace
Publisher: Treefrog Games
BGG Link: London
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 120 minutes
Description: London lies devastated after the Great Fire of 1666. This is your opportunity to build a new city on the ashes of the old. It is up to you how you employ the talents of the people of London to this end. Will you favour the business classes, who will earn you money? Or would you prefer to spend more money than you can rightly afford on grand monuments and sumptuous palaces? You must also deal with the problem of rising poverty and how to employ the many paupers of the city. Throughout the game you will be forced to make tough decisions. To achieve one aim you must sacrifice another, which may open an opportunity for a competitor.
 
Luna

Designer: Stefan Feld
Publisher: Z-Man Games
BGG Link: Luna
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: The players move their novices over seven islands surrounding a temple island. The novices are placed according to the "worker movement" principle, i.e. they arent placed at the beginning of a round, but instead start where they ended the round before. Thus, novice movement is an important part of a round: Only if youre in the right place at the right time, youll gain the deciding influence points. Youll have to build new shrines, work at the temple, and participate in the Priestess divine services. But dont forget to recruit additional novices or win the favor of the local Priests - these are vital means to prepare and combine the diverse actions.
 
Merchants of the Middle Ages

Designer: Wolfgang Kramer, Richard Ulrich
Publisher: Z-Man Games
BGG Link: Merchants of the Middle Ages
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 120 minutes
Description: Merchants of the Middle Ages is played over several rounds, each round with action phases. In these phases, players will purchase goods the cities on the board and store them in their warehouses, auction wagons for moving the goods, load goods onto the wagons, move the wagons toward other cities, alter the price of the goods, and ultimately sell the goods when the wagons arrive at a destination. Along the way, players acquire investment cards that give them special abilities through various phases of the round, and influence cards for one-time bonuses. The whole purpose of buying and selling goods is to acquire money that players use to elevate their social status, for it is social status and not money that is the ultimate determinant of who is the greatest merchant.
 
Mines of Zavandor

Designer: Alexander Pfister
Publisher: Z-Man Games
BGG Link: Mines of Zavandor
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 60 minutes
Description: 4 different gems are the currencies in this game. Trading these different gemstones with other players is an important factor if one wants to achieve victory. The players use those gems to either win new objects for their mine through simultaneous 4-way auctions, or to enhance their mines, objects and victory point count. On their way through the mountain, the requirements always change, and only the player who wins the sapphire auction knows where the next turn will lead to.
 
Power Grid: Russia & Japan of Zavandor

Designer: Friedemann Friese
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
BGG Link: Power Grid: Russia & Japan
Number of players: 2-6
Play length: 120 minutes
Description: Two new expansion maps for Power Grid: Russia on one side and Japan on the other. In Russia the market for power plants is restricted. Additionally, the standard rules for exchanging out of date power plants are changed, forcing the leading players to completely rethink their strategies. Based on the crowded geographical surroundings, the players can start two separate networks in Japan. The first connections are restricted to certain cities, guaranteeing a tough fight for the best networks.
 
Small World: Be Not Afraid

Designer: Philippe Keyaerts
Publisher: Days of Wonder
BGG Link: Small World: Be Not Afraid
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: This new expansion for Small World includes a nasty lot of 5 new Races including Barbarians, Homunculi, Pixies, Pygmies, and greedy little Leprechauns. You'll also get 5 new Special Powers which allows you to leap over regions to conquer new lands.
 
Small World: Necromancer Island

Designer: Philippe Keyaerts
Publisher: Days of Wonder
BGG Link: Small World: Necromancer Island
Number of players: 3-6
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: In Necromancer Island, one of the players assumes the role of a dreaded Necromancer who inhabits an island in the center of Small World's central Lake region. He captures the souls of all Race tokens lost to conquests, using them to progressively spawn Ghosts who invade the surrounding Regions. To make matters worse, his Powers grow as his reach across the land increases. If the Necromancer succeeds in bringing all of his Ghosts into play, anytime before the game's end, he wins!
 
Survive: Escape from Atlantis

Designer: Julian Courtland-Smith
Publisher: Stronghold Games
BGG Link: Survive Survive: The Giant Squid
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 60 minutes
Description: A reprint of the 1982 game Survive. An island made up of 40 hex-tiles is slowly sinking into the ocean (as the tiles are removed from the board). Each player controls ten people (valued from 1 to 6) that they try and move towards the safety of the surrounding islands before the main island finally blows up. Players can either swim or use boats to travel but must avoid sea serpents, whales and sharks on their way to safety.
 
Troyes

Designer: Sebastien Dujardin, Xavier Georges, Alain Orban
Publisher: Pearl Games
BGG Link: Troyes
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 90 minutes
Description: In Troyes, recreate four centuries of history of this famous city of the Champagne region of France. Each player manages their segment of the population (represented by a horde of dice) and their hand of cards, which represent the three primary domains of the city: religious, military, and civil. Players can also offer cash to their opponents' populace in order to get a little moonlighting out of them anything for more fame!
 
Two by Two

Designer: Rob Bartel
Publisher: Valley Games
BGG Link: Two by Two
Number of players: 2-4
Play length: 45 minutes
Description: The floodwaters are rising and the animals need to board the ark! In this deceptively simple game, players move their boats around a steadily deteriorating landscape, matching pairs in order to rescue stranded animals. Animals that are rare at the end of the game are worth more points than those that are common.