This page contains information about all non-tournament events and activities that will be happening at EuroQuest
| Home | Tournaments | Competitions | EQ Presents | GM Info | Open Gaming | Vendors | Other Information | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2003-2007 |
| Euro Quest - Presents This page contains information about all non-tournament events and activities that will be happening at EuroQuest |
|
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
EuroQuest Presents is a brand new feature for EuroQuest 2011. Under this umbrella, we will be bringing you a wide variety of events outside of the scope of our regular tournament play.
Some of these events will be familiar to long time EuroQuest attendees, while others are brand new this year!
We will be updating this page with new details and new events right up to the convention, so bookmark this page and check back often.
For now, we're happy to tell you about just a few things we have in store for you.
To see an updated list that includes all the times for demos and all EuroQuest special events in one place, right up to the day before the convention starts, click here.
Among the new games being featured at EuroQuest 2011 are the following six titles from Tasty Minstrel Games. These games include Eminent Domain, Belfort, Homesteaders, Martian Dice, Train of Thought and Jab: Real Time Boxing. There is a teaching demo of Eminent Domain, which has recently been selected as the Hot New Game for the Wild Card Event at EuroQuest 2011, scheduled for 11 AM Friday (GM: Don Poletti). Homesteaders (2d edition) will be featured in a 1 PM Friday demo (Patrick Chambers). Belfort, a worker placement game with gnomes, elves and dwarves, will be demoed by Mike Brazinski at 5 PM Friday. A demo of Martian Dice is scheduled for 6 PM Thursday (Cody Sandifer). Demo times for the other Tasty Minstrel Games will be announced as they are scheduled. The EuroQuest organizers wish to thank Tasty Minstrel Games for their support of EuroQuest 2011. These games will be available from the EuroQuest Games library for everyone to try during the course of the convention. Expect to see copies included in the Prize Drawings as well.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
RAILS OF NEW ENGLAND: Players in Rails of New England each represent a particular state during the 19th century -- Connecticut and New Hampshire with two players, with Vermont added for three players, and so on -- and start with two or three businesses in play under their control. Your goal is to have more assets than other players at game end, as determined by cash in hand, cost of businesses owned, special routes completed and state subsidies acquired. As the game progresses, the players pass through time time periods, with different businesses being available in each. The first period focuses on crafts and farms, for example, while the second introduces more industrial businesses such as shoe and textile production. When passing from one period to another, players must choose to make some of their existing businesses obsolete. Since a player can manage only eight businesses, however, you'll likely want to make room for more profitable ventures anyway. Scheduled Demo: 7 PM Friday (Tom McCorry)
Courtesy of
Stronghold Games,
there will be a copy of the remake of this
old classic Cold War two-player confrontation game,
Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War.
Demo times TBA.
Wargames Factory Miniatures & "Leviathan intro- the not yet published board game from Catalyst Games. (Get a first look!)" James Goss of Wargames Factory will be demoing these as-yet-to-be published miniatures on Friday and Saturday afternoon. Scheduled demo times: 1:30 PM Friday and 1:00 PM Saturday. Sorry, no photos available, so you will have to come see them for yourself!
Note, we have already scheduled demos for four new titles added to the Wild Card event for this year, for details see the Wild Card page.
Power Grid: First Sparks: We expect to have at least one copy of this "hot" new Essen release available in the library for demos during the convention. Demo 2 PM Friday (Jeff Thornsen).
Description (from BoardGameGeek website): To celebrate the tenth
anniversary of the original Funkenschlag, designer Friedemann Friese
will take you back in time and let you relive the early beginnings of
mankind. True to the name of the German edition (a literal translation
of which is "Flying Sparks"), it is time for
Funkenschlag: Die ersten Funken, or "The First Sparks."
The First Sparks transports the Funkenschlag mechanisms into the Stone Age. The order of phases during a game round, the player order, the technology cards: you know all these parts from Funkenschlag. But what is new? What is different?
The First Sparks is much faster and far more direct. You are immediately part of the action. Each turn, each decision is important. As a clan leader you decide on the well-being of your clan during the Stone Age. You need to develop new hunting technologies and get new knowledge - to successfully hunt food or to learn to control fire. With the help of these skills, you will harvest enough food to feed your clan and spread it far enough to reach new hunting areas.
In a game of The First Sparks you are always confronted with many decisions: Which technology cards offer you the biggest advantages? When is the right time to spread your clan on the game board? Which hunting areas will grant the most food? Reaching new hunting areas or trying to secure parts of the game board for your own clan are important factors for your strategy. Empty spaces are cheaper for you to settle compared to spaces in which other clans are already settled. If you are the first to increase your clan size to 13 clan members, you win The First Sparks.
Kingdom Builder, the latest from the award-winning designer of Dominion, Donald Vaccarino, will be another of the new Essen releases featured at EuroQuest 2011. Demo set for 10 AM Friday (Larry Loiacono).
From the description on BoardGameGeek:
"In Kingdom Builder, the players create their own kingdoms by skillfully building their settlements, aiming to earn the most gold at the end of the game.
Nine different kinds of terrain are on the variable game board, including locations and castles. During his turn, a player plays his terrain card and builds three settlements on three hexes of this kind. If possible, a new settlement must be built next to one of that player's existing settlements. When building next to a location, the player may seize an extra action tile that he may use from his next turn on. These extra actions allow extraordinary actions such as moving your settlements.
By building next to a castle, the player will earn gold at the end of the game, but the most gold will be earned by meeting the conditions of the three Kingdom Builder cards; these three cards (from a total of ten in the game) specify the conditions that must be met in order to earn the much-desired gold, such as earning gold for your settlements built next to water hexes or having the majority of settlements in a sector of the board."
Fortuna: A demo copy of this game has been made available through Alliance Game Distributors. Scheduled Demo: 9 PM Friday (Jeff Thornsen)
Description (from BoardGameGeek):
Fortuna is situated in the Roman Empire, during Caesar's reign. The players are ambitious Romans striving for influence in the Roman Empire. While striving for power, happiness and wealth, they leave their own village and travel towards the City of Rome. The road to Rome is long and there are many ways to reach your life purpose. As a hardworking farmer you can work the land and grow large quantities of grain and wine. A clever farmer irrigates the land to improve the yield of his harvest. Trading your harvested goods for the best price may bring you the means to move up the ladder of the Roman hierarchy. When will you decide to move on and buy yourself an army of Centurions? Or will you choose the sacred way of Religion and serve the ruthless Roman Gods? Along the way, you will have the opportunity to find happiness and wealth in marriage. Will you take this chance to become happy or not? If you contribute well to the Roman Empire, you will grow in the favor of the Emperor and move further to Rome. Will the citizens of Rome welcome you jubilantly?
Singapore: A demo copy of this game has been made available through Alliance Game Distributors. Scheduled Demo: 12 Noon Sunday (Brian Stallings)
Description (from BoardGameGeek):
In Singapore players are rich merchants who are trading to develop that small outpost into a metropolis. Players own one building at the start of the game, and each round they take ownership of a new lot -- with the player who has the fewest points determining who gets which land -- and erect a new building. Each building has one or more streets connecting it to adjacent locations, and after building you can move 1-2 workers along the streets to take actions in up to three buildings; these buildings provide a small amount of resources or allow trades of resources/VPs/money for some better combination of resources/VPs/money. A number of the buildings are black market locations that tend to be more powerful than legit businesses, but carry the possibility of stinging you in the end. Each time you build or use a black market building, you draw a chip from a bag. If the chip is black, keep it; if white, the player who has the most black chips and opium is fined and loses half his opium stash. Opium can be quite profitable, but will the cops catch you with dirty hands before you unload the goods? In the end, the player with the most victory points wins so find the right balance of aboveboard business and criminal doings.
Walnut Grove: A demo copy of this game has been made available through Alliance Game Distributors. Scheduled Demo: 4:30 PM Sat (Michelle Hymowitz)
Description (from BoardGameGeek):
Walnut Grove could be described as a light mashup between Carcassonne and Agricola. The goal of the game is to develop your own ranch. Better the ranch, the more points you will score at the end of the game. Players can improve their ranch during the game by adding new land tiles to it, hiring more workers, building improvements, etc.
The game play is divided to eight Years, and each year is divided to Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter phases. During Spring, players add land tiles to their ranch. During Summer, players place their workers to gather resources from the fields. When the Autumn comes, all players get to visit the city. Finally, during the Winter phase, players need to feed their workers and heat their homes.
In the city you can hire workers, trade goods to coins, build improvements, and so on. Each player may do only one action in the city though. The city is kind of a rondel that is divided into halves by a river. Each time you cross the river, you have to pay a coin. Therefore it is wise to move as slowly as possible on the rondel, but then again, you have consider what actions you want to take!
The land areas will produce resources, when you place the workers there. Also, the tiles do not need to match, but you want them to, as larger areas of the same type will give you greater production.
Spring, Summer and Winter phases can be done simultaneously, providing fast game play. The game works also nicely as a solo game.
Arcanum: A demo copy of this game has been made available through Alliance Game Distributors. Demo Time: TBA
Description (from BoardGameGeek):
Arcanum is played with a regular Tarot deck, used to move the game
pieces on the board. There are four noble Houses, fighting for power
and supremacy in a medieval city. They are named after the four Tarot
suits: Pentacles, Chalices, Swords and Wands. Players will represent
different paths for Fate, and will try to shape the destiny of those
Houses to best suit their goals.
The game is played over 6 or 9 turns, and at every turn each player has the opportunity to hide one (and sometimes more) cards under the board in front of him (this is called "influencing" the Houses and it's like a hidden bet on the house, trying to get control over it) and to play cards for their effects (Major Arcana cannot be hidden but have stronger effects). Playing cards will impact, among other things, the ranking of the Houses in terms of prestige. To optimize point scoring, a good player will try to gain influence over "winning" houses without wasting too many cards for acheiving that, and/or to influence Houses in the lower positions with little effort. Experienced players will learn how to deceive their opponents about their real intentions.
Skill, bluffing, intuition and reading your opponents' moves are all skills required to gain victory.
Last Will: Scheduled Demo: 11 AM Saturday (Kerrin Addis)
Description (from BoardGameGeek):
In
Last Will, each player starts with a certain amount of money, an
individual player board, two errand boys and two cards in some
combination of properties and helpers. At the start of each round, lay
out cards from the appropriate decks on the offering boards; the four
regular decks are properties, companions, events, helpers and expenses,
with special cards forming a deck of their own. The particular mix of
cards varies by round and by the number of players.
Each player then chooses a plan for the round, with each plan
indicating the number of cards the player draws (drawn immediately from
the four regular decks in any combination), how many errand boys he can
use later (one or two), the number of actions available to him that
round, and his spot in the playing order that round. In the playing
order for that round, players then take turns choosing an action with
their errand boy(s). Players then take actions in the playing order
for that round, with each player having as many actions as indicated on
his plan. Actions let you play one-time events (which have a cost,
possibly variable); helpers and recurring expenses (which are placed on
your individual player board); and properties (which cost money and may
depreciate over time). You can often play companions with events or
recurring expenses -- of course you should bring a date to the opera or
a horse on your yacht! -- to increase their cost. You can also use
actions to activate cards on your player board, possibly with one or
more companions and always with the goal of spending money. Helpers and
special cards can provide you with unique powers to further boost your
profligacy. If a player has no money and no properties, he declares
bankruptcy and the game ends at the conclusion of that round; otherwise
the game ends after seven rounds. The player who has the least money
(or even who is most in debt) wins.
Core Worlds: A demo copy of
this game has been made available through Stronghold Games. Scheduled
Demo: 8 PM Friday (Doug Faust)
Description (excerpted from BoardGameGeek):
Core Worlds is a deck-building card game for 2-5 players. Each player controls a barbarian Star Empire represented by many cards. Throughout the game, players will invade Worlds and draft new Units and Tactics into their Empires. Each card lists its Empire Points in the upper right corner. The player whose Empire contains the most Empire Points at the end of the game is the winner!
Ristorante Italia:
A demo
copy of this game has been made available through Alliance Game
Distributors. Scheduled Demo: 7:30 PM Saturday (Mike Brazinski)
Description (excerpted from BoardGameGeek):
In Ristorante Italia, each player owns an Italian restaurant, a restaurant that he wants to make better than everyone else's in order to have the most points at the end of the game. To do this, a player must set up the menu, draw recipe cards, go to the town markets to collect needed ingredients, improve and enlarge the restaurant, improve the staff's cooking skills (as indicated by the cook-o-meter), and otherwise do whatever is necessary to have the most exemplary restaurant in the city. The game can be played in two versions: Recipes for Novice Cooks (lighter version) and Recipes for Great Chefs (complete version).
Terra Evolution: Scheduled Demo: 11:30 AM Saturday (Larry Loiacono)
Description from BoardGameGeek:
Terra Evolution
is a fast-paced strategic deck/world-building game
about species evolution, cataclysms and extinction. Build your world
continent by continent as they rise above the ocean, then conquer them
with your evolving species. The game is easy to learn, yet it has
strategical and tactical depth which makes it challenging, fun and
addictive. The game has tons of replayability value since it can be
played with so many styles and ideas and with deep strategical
planning.
Terra Evolution is a deck-building game - yet it has a strong and exciting interaction between players. Try to defeat your opponents with skillful deck-building decisions, clever population/resource management, proper timing of cataclysms, and countless strategical and tactical choices. Use your resources and your population to defend your species from extinction, as your opponents start planning ice ages, volcanoes, asteroid impacts or numerous other cataclysmic attacks against your precious species, which only wants to survive and evolve into a more victorious species.
Harness the primeval forces of nature for your victory. The prosperity of your species rest in your hands.
Settlers: Aufbruch der Handler: Scheduled Demo: 9:30 PM Saturday (Larry Loiacono)
Description from BoardGameGeek:
Die Siedler von Catan: Aufbruch der Handler is a twist on the 2010 release Settlers of America: Trails to Rails from designer Klaus Teuber and publisher Mayfair Games. Game play is similar in both games: Players start with three locations on the game board, collect resources depending on a die roll, spend resources to move and build, and branch out to new locations with a long-term goal of delivering goods to opponents' cities. The first player to deliver all of his goods wins the game.
Instead of being played on a fixed game board showing a Catan-ified map of the United States, Die Siedler von Catan: Aufbruch der Handler is set on a Catan-ified map of Europe -- which isn't a surprise given that Kosmos is a European publisher. Instead of moving from east to west to mimic the settling of the U.S. by Europeans, players start in the middle of Europe, namely Germany.
011: A demo copy of this game has been made available through Alliance Game Distributors. Scheduled Demo: 9 PM Thursday (Eric Haas)
Description from BoardGameGeek:
It is the year 011 of a uchronic 19th Century. ... Captain Snowy,
Princess Lilja, the brilliant inventor Pahlsson, the detective
Koleberg, the charming Lady Lewis, the Monodist Professor Johnsson, the
unforeseeable Mr. Vidal and the phantasmagoric Doctor Vikstrom: eight
lives to chose the world's destiny... But one of these souls has been
possessed by the spirit of Fenrir, who needs a physical form to seek
out the Chosen One and kill him!
The battle for the final truth has begun: The ancient feud between good and evil is poised to begin. But how does one tell who is the champion of one, and who fights for the other?
The game uses a new "mechanical" action selection system and intrigues players with a paradox: the eight characters are all working together to stop the Ragnarok but only one player can achieve victory! The characters in the game share names and faces with the members of the Symphonic Metal band Therion, and the game is officially supported by the band.
Sake & Samurai: A demo copy of this game has been made available through Alliance Game Distributors. Demo Time: TBA
Description from BoardGameGeek:
In SAKE & SAMURAI you are a fierce and thirsty samurai warrior, willing to do anything to get the last cup of Sake. The winner is the most drunk samurai (in game terms, the player who has collected the most Sake drink counters) at the end of the Sudden Death round. Be wary, though, for drinking too much will dull your wits and mastery with the sword. Each drink of Sake prevents you from using one of your resources, be it a weapon or an item, or even your personal skill! You must always be wary not to drink too much or you risk becoming a defenseless soak in the hands of your enemies. On the other hand, you will be able to burn up some of the Sake you have drunk to obtain significant bonuses which may well save your life. Show yourself as the wise warrior you are and balance your strategy with care, not burning up too much Sake, thus finding yourself in the rear at the end of the game, when the Masu is empty and the Sudden death round begins.
Space Maze: A demo copy of
this game has been made available through Alliance Game Distributors.
Scheduled Demo: 7 PM Saturday (Eric Haas)
Description (from BoardGameGeek):
Space Maze is a eurogame with an alien theme. In the game each player represents an alien species. The goal is to steal an ancient relic from a massive structure floating in space. The players compete against each other, all trying to bring home the Relic. The game has a capture-the-flag system.
Because of the limited availability of some of these games, and the ever expanding list of games available at Spiel 2011, details on many of these games will not be available until shortly before the convention.
 |
Potion-Making: Practice In the card game Potion-Making: Practice, players take on the roles of apprentice mages studying in a Magic School. Each player tries to gather the necessary components in order to produce magic elixirs, powders, talismans and even magical creatures. For each completed creation the player scores points -- and the harder the task, the more points a player scores. In 2010, this game won an award as the best Russian boardgame published in the last five years. Scheduled Demo: 11 AM Sunday (Norman Rule) This game is a Director's Choice selection for this year's EuroQuest. | |
|
The Kingdoms of Crusaders In The Kingdoms of Crusaders, players assemble units to create armies and overwhelm opponents competing for the same territories. The game includes components for a two-player game; by combining two sets, up to four players can compete. This game won an award as the best Russian boardgame in 2007 (Russian language edition) and is now available in English. Scheduled Demo: 2 PM Friday (Brian Stallings) |
 | |
 |
Evolution. The Origin of Species In Evolution: The Origin of Species, players do the work of nature, putting animals into play and evolving them trait by trait to help them survive and thrive. Each player starts with a hand of six cards that feature an animal on the back and one or two traits on the front. This game has won three different awards as the best Russian boardgame of 2010. Scheduled Demo: 3 PM Friday (Jeff Thornsen) | |
|
The Enigma of Leonardo In The Enigma of Leonardo, players try to collect keys by creating patterns in the cards before them on the table. Demo Time TBA |
 | |
Where do new games come from? How are they
developed? Who thinks up these great ideas? Here's your opportunity
to find out!
This year at EuroQuest, we are honored to have several designers coming in to demo and talk about their recently and soon to be published games. We anticipate seeing several games that are "in the pipe line" at a major publisher that are slated for a 2012 or 2013 release.
Bill Crenshaw (a name many of you will recognize from his work here as a long-time assistant GM, from losing to him in tournament, and from his 2005 GMT release, Manifest Destiny) will be presenting his new creation -- still in prototype form -- Entrepreneur.
Bill is planning on running a scheduled demo of Entrepreneur on Friday at 6:00 PM.
Entrepreneur (sorry, no pictures available yet) is a game of investment, production, contract fulfillment and market domination. This intriguing combination, along with starting positions that differ each game, requires players to respond to the different opportunities presented rather than use a predetermined strategy.
Each player is an entrepreneur who acquires companies, invests in markets and attempts to complete private and government contracts to earn money and victory points. Each turn, players choose 4 or 5 actions from among the following available actions, but may not take the same action twice: (1) investing in new or open markets by picking a resource (blue collar workers, white collar workers, lumber, oil, technology and gold) produced by the market and paying the investment cost; (2) producing resources in open markets in which the player has invested; (3) selecting private or government contracts (that require a certain number of resources to complete and generate cash and VPs when completed); (4) buying companies that provide a benefit and may reduce the number of resources needed to complete contracts; (5) raising money in the venture capital market; or (6) selling and buying resources in the resource market.
Players control a market when they have the most number of investments (and at least 2) and receive VPs for markets and regions controlled at the end of the game. Players also receive a VP for each $50 in cash at the end of the game.
The game is played by 2-4 players and takes approximately 30-40 minutes per player. It has both a Base Game and an Expanded Game that includes additional options, including auctions of companies and government contracts. The game lasts 5 turns for 4 players and 6 turns for 2 or 3 players.
Entrepreneur is scheduled to be published by Mayfair Games in late 2012 or 2013.
Matt Calkins (pictured at left) will be appearing at this year's EuroQuest
and offering two different game demos. On Thursday at 6:30 PM, he will
be demoing Sekigahara (depicted at right), recently published by GMT
Games. Sekigahara is described as a low-complexity, block wargame that
does not use any dice. The game is based on Tokugawa's campaign in 1600
that would unify Japan for over 250 years. Cards represent the motivation
of various armies to engage in combat , and loyalties of the various
forces can come into question, so the outcome is never certain.
Matt will also be demoing Tin Goose (formerly knows as Propliner), a game still in prototype form based on the nascent U. S. airline industry of the 1930s. This demo is scheduled for Friday at 7:30 PM.
The following description has been provided by Matt:
Tin Goose is a game of building airlines in the early years of commercial air travel. Players invest in new planes and technology upgrades but must beware of disruptive events like strikes and crashes. Plays in 2 hours.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Labyrinth: The War on Terror , 2001 - ?, takes 1 or 2 players inside the Islamist jihad and the global war on terror. The game focuses on political as well as military aspects and is played on a world map focusing primarily on 18 Middle Eastern stated. In this multifaceted simulation spanning recent history and near future, one player takes the role of jihadists seeking to exploit world events and Islamic donations to spread fundamentalist rule over the Muslim world. The other player as the United States must neutralize terrorist cells while encouraging Muslim democratic reform to cut off extremism at its roots. With the game's solitaire system, a single player as the US takes on ascending levels of challenge in defeating al-Qaeda and its allies.
Andean Abyss takes 1 to 4 players into this multifaceted campaign for control of Colombia: guerrillas and police, kidnapping and drug war, military sweeps and terror. Each of four factions deploys distinct capabilities and tactics to influence Colombian affairs and achieve differing goals. Players place and maneuver 160 wooden pieces across a colorful map and exploit event cards that cannot be fully predicted. Accessible mechanics and components put the emphasis on game play, but Andean Abyss also provides an engrossing model of insurgency and counterinsurgency in Colombia -- smoothly accounting for population control, lines of communication, terrain, intelligence, foreign aid, sanctuaries, and a host of other political, military, and economic factors. The game features unique mechanics relating events and operations that guarantee difficult player decisions with each card flip. Most of the game's 72 events are dual-use, representing alternative historical paths: players can choose either version of the event or from an array of operations and special faction activities. Every choice has implications for how the next card will be played. There is no hand management: the focus is on the map and on planning for the foreseeable -- and the unforeseeable. Die rolls are only a small part of game: the key to victory is not luck but the ability to organize the most effective campaign. Andean Abyss is slated as a 2012 release by GMT Games; come see the game at EuroQuest, including an as yet non-published system for solitaire play of certain factions.
Urban Sprawl: Scheduled Demo: 10 AM Sunday (John Weber)
From Chad Jensen, designer of the highly rated Dominant Species, Urban Sprawl is a 2 - 4 player game that puts you in the role of city planner, entrepreneur, tycoon and politician, abstractly simulating the growth of a small town into a city or thriving metropolis. Throughout the game players will gather valuable permit cards that will result in either a lucrative investment or the foundation of a new building contract. Players will strive to become dominant in one or more building zones in order to acquire beneficial political offices. The game uses an action point mechanic designed to provide players with a wealth of strategic options on each and every turn. The end result will be a vibrant metropolis that is revered around the world -- but only the player with the most prestige will be crowned the winner. For a detailed 58-minute (!) video preview of Urban Sprawl, click here.
Potion Making Practice: Scheduled Demo: 11 AM Saturday (Norman)
The game exchange is scheduled for Saturday at 4:00 PM.
For those coming on Thursday, the opening day of the convention, there will be a special "Early Bird" prize drawing at 8 PM as a little extra incentive to attend for the full four days.
The main prize drawings, from completed surveys, will take place at 9 PM Saturday. Our Saturday evening drawing will have "top shelf" prizes, including copies of some of the "hot" new games straight from Essen! These winners will be drawn from attendees who have completed a EuroQuest 2011 survey form (copies available at the front desk). This is your opportunity to help us improve the convention AND win a hot new game! (Remember, you must be present to win and will have a limited amount of time to step forward and claim your prize.)
If anyone has any other ideas for items to add to this page, please
feel free to contact convention Co-Directors Norman Rule and John Weber
(link to email addresses) directly.
Norman -- columbiagamers@gmail.com
John -- jcw222@comcast.net