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Subject: [rec.games.board] "German" game FAQ
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THE REC.GAMES.BOARD 'GERMAN' GAME FAQ v3.0
(a.k.a. the "Designer" Game FAQ)
(c) 2000 by Keith Ammann
QUESTIONS
1. What are "German" games? What are "designer" games? What are "family
strategy" games?
2. What characterizes a "German" game?
3. Which ones should I get?
3a. A friend introduced me to ___. Will I like ___?
4. Where can I find them?
5. What is the Spiel des Jahres? What is the Deutscher Spielepreis?
6. What does that name mean? How is it pronounced?
7. Why Germany?
8. Hey! I bought this game you told me to buy, and the rules are in
German!
9. Where can I learn more?
ANSWERS
1. What are "German" games? What are "designer" games? What are "family
strategy" games?
They're all the same thing.
"German" games are a genre of board and card games that has recently
become popular in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and
elsewhere after years of popularity in Europe. They are commonly called
"German" games because most of them -- including the ones by which many
players have been introduced to the genre -- are designed and produced in
Germany. However, some "German" games come from France, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom or the United States. In its
end-of-year roundup, Games magazine refers to the genre as "family
strategy," which sums up these games' hybrid nature and crossover appeal.
In response to some dissatisfaction with the "German" label, a poll was
taken on rec.games.board in which "family strategy" and "designer" were
favored as leading alternatives. The term "designer" was suggested
because it alludes to the prominence of these games' designers and also
connotes quality, attractiveness and a "connoisseur" market. (The only
other strong finisher in the poll was "social strategy games," which has
not been widely accepted.)
2. What characterizes a "German" game?
"German" games are defined by what they aren't almost as much as by what
they are. They aren't simplistic, as are many games produced for the U.S.
mass market. They are not rules-heavy, as are many games produced for the
U.S. hobby market, nor do they take an inordinately long time to play.
They are not military simulations, owing in part to Germany's post-World
War II stigma against militarism in popular culture.
As for what they are: They are attractive, with a lot of attention paid
to quality of components and graphic design. They are accessible, with
rulebooks that top out around six pages and typical playing times of 30 to
90 minutes. They are easily grasped by older or smarter children. They
are involving, both strategically (there are always decisions to be made)
and socially (players are not left out of the action when it's someone
else's turn). They contain unusual and innovative play mechanisms. And
they're also a little expensive and hard to find compared with American
mass-market games, largely because they haven't been widely promoted or
distributed outside a core community of hobby gamers and the
rec.games.board newsgroup.
Finally, they're nearly always credited. That is, the designer's name is
printed on the box and is often a selling point. This is in contrast with
most games on the U.S. market, for example, whose designers either remain
anonymous or are buried in the back of the rulebook.
3. Which ones should I get?
Depends on your tastes and your budget. Here is a selection of the most
popular family strategy games (most of which happen to come from Germany),
based on Aaron Fuegi's Internet Top 100 Games List
(scv.bu.edu/~aarondf/top100). That list is not (and is not intended as)
an objective description of the relative quality of various games, but it
is a good indicator of which games are most popular within the gaming
hobby -- that is, among the people who play these games and know them
well. Prices given are U.S. suggested retail.
* Settlers of Catan (Die Siedler von Catan). By Klaus Teuber. Mayfair
(U.S.), Kosmos (Germany). $35. If any game can claim to have
singlehandedly opened the international market to German games, it's this
one. It's simple enough to learn by watching others play, complex enough
to pump up its replay value. The object: Outpace your opponents at
settling a (formerly) uninhabited island by gathering, trading and
consuming commodities (wood, bricks, stone, grain and -- this is the
stroke of genius -- sheep!). The board is made up of illustrated
cardboard hexagons that can be rearranged for a new experience every time.
Several expansions are available, the most popular of which is Seafarers
(Seefahrer, $35), which lets you move around from island to island.
* Tigris & Euphrates (Euphrat & Tigris). By Reiner Knizia. Mayfair
(U.S.), Hans im Gl�ck (Germany). $50. This is the upper end of the genre
with regard to complexity and length of playing time, but it's praised by
many as the most strategically sophisticated. The object: Triumph over
your neighbors as you sow the seeds of civilization in the fertile
crescent. Victory is determined by your ability to accumulate points in
four different categories at once -- whoever has the highest lowest score
wins! E&T is what's known as a "tile-laying game," meaning that one of the
elements of play is the placing of tiles on the board. Knizia is probably
the single most popular German game designer; he is certainly one of the
most prolific. His game Samurai (Rio Grande/Hans im Gl�ck, $40), set in
feudal Japan, shares the mechanisms of tile-laying and multiple-category
scoring.
* El Grande. By Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich. Rio Grande (U.S.),
Hans im Gl�ck (Germany). $40. Kramer and his partners have put out a
number of games involving the distribution of pieces around the board for
the purpose of amassing "influence." El Grande is the earliest in this
series. The object: To curry favor with the king in medieval Spain. To
gain influence, you have to get soldiers ("caballeros") onto the board.
But the system for bidding on action cards, which allow you to pull
various stunts in the hopes of gaining the upper hand, poses a dilemma:
The more likely you are to get the action card you want, the fewer
caballeros you can raise. In addition, a movable pawn representing the
king freezes the action wherever it's placed, because you can't let the
king see what connivers you all are! There are also several El Grande
expansions, which Rio Grande is marketing in the United States as one $25
set.
* Modern Art. By Reiner Knizia. Mayfair (U.S.), Hans im Gl�ck (Germany).
$30. Another of the "first wave" German games (along with Settlers),
Modern Art is built around an ingenious auction mechanism. The object:
Make a pile of dough by buying and selling works by several pretentious
painters. But you have to judge whether you'll make more money by
collecting the works of a popular artist and cashing in on them or by
being the one who sells them at outrageous speculative prices. A
fast-moving game with a lot of appeal for "non-gamers."
* Tikal. By Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling. Rio Grande (U.S.),
Ravensburger (Germany). $45. This game takes the influence-building of
El Grande, dumps the action cards and tacks on a scoring method in which
you're never 100 percent sure when you'll get to collect your points, so
you always have to be on your toes. The object: Amass prestige by
digging up Mayan relics in the Central American jungle. To get the
points, however, you'll have to have laborers keep watch on the sites
you're excavating, lest one of your rivals swoop in and grab the credit
for himself. A limited number of "action points" each round keeps your
options few and hard to choose from. More strategic and abstract in feel
than many family strategy games. The same design team is responsible
for ...
* Torres. Rio Grande (U.S.), FX Schmid (Germany). $40. Torres combines
the influence-building, the scoring rounds, the action cards, the limited
action points and the movable king from El Grande and Tikal and throws in
a funky scoring system based on both how broad and how tall you can build
the castles that give the game its name. The rules also include a
"master" version that awards bonus points for getting pieces lined up in
certain configurations.
* Through the Desert (Durch die W�ste). By Reiner Knizia. Fantasy Flight
Games (U.S.), Kosmos (Germany). $38. Another tile-laying game, only in
this case you lay the tiles before the game starts. The object: To
control land in the desert by surrounding it with your caravans. The
caravans are made up of pastel plastic camels, the sort of oddball yet
charming design decision (cf. the sheep in Settlers) that characterizes so
many "German" games, particularly those actually originating Germany.
* Ursuppe. By Doris Matth�us and Frank Nestel. Doris & Frank (Germany).
Import only; no standard U.S. list price. Speaking of oddball, how about
a game in which you play amoebas eating each other's excrement? The
object: Outlive all your one-celled competitors, either through strategic
evolution or relentless multiplication. (The name of the game means
"Primordial Soup.")
* Vinci. By Philippe Keyaerts. Descartes/Eurogames. $30. This is about
as close to a theme of military conflict as "German" games get -- then
again, its designer is Belgian, and its publisher is French. The
object: Gain the most points by expanding your fledgling nations and
conquering their neighbors. The plural is important there, because as
soon as it's obvious that a nation can grow no further, it's thrown on the
scrapheap of history and replaced by a new one.
* Bohnanza. By Uwe Rosenberg. Rio Grande (U.S.), Amigo (Germany). $15.
The leader of the pack among "German" card games. The object: Make money
by raising and selling different kinds of beans. Since you have to plant
them in the order you get them, you have to trade off the ones that are
getting in the way of your profits. Sometimes, to avoid premature harvest
of potentially valuable bean fields, you have to offer your opponents
incentives to take the unwanted beans off your hands! Bohnanza is very
easy to learn and play, making it another favorite among non-hobbyists.
(The name is a pun on the German word for "bean.")
* Ohne Furcht und Adel/Citadelles. By Bruno Faidutti. Hans im Gl�ck.
Import only; no standard U.S. list price. The names belong to the German
and French versions respectively; an English version isn't available yet.
Threatening to take the leader of the pack title away from Bohnanza. The
object: Foil your neighbors' plots and build the most powerful and lavish
walled city. Each turn a player chooses a power, personified as a member
of his court, that allows him to interfere with other players' plans, and
the powers are kept secret until they're used.
These are the "stars," but there are many, many other popular and easily
obtainable family strategy games, including Medici (Knizia, Rio Grande/
Amigo, $30), L�wenherz (Teuber, Rio Grande/Goldsieber, $40), Elfenland
(Alan Moon, Rio Grande/Amigo, $40), Roborally (Richard Garfield, Wizards
of the Coast, $40), Ra (Knizia, Rio Grande/Alea, $35), Acquire (Sid
Sackson, Avalon Hill, $40), Web of Power (Michael Schacht, Rio
Grande/Goldsieber, $30), Aladdin's Dragons (Richard Breese, Rio
Grande/Hans im Gl�ck, $40) and Get the Goods (a.k.a. Reibach & Co., Moon
and Mick Ado, U.S. Games/FX Schmid, $6). The majority are imported or
reprinted in the United States by three companies: Mayfair Games, Rio
Grande Games and Descartes/Eurogames.
3a. A friend introduced me to ___. Will I like ___?
"German" game designers shamelessly pillage mechanisms from both their own
games and others'. This results in a number of games' having a similar
feel. If you like the feel of one game, you may enjoy another that shares
the same mechanisms. Here's a sampling of games that can be considered
members of the same "family":
Settlers of Catan, Settlers of Catan: The Card Game, Settlers of
Nuremberg, Starfarers of Catan
Torres, Tikal, Java
Tigris & Euphrates, Through the Desert, Samurai
Medici, Quandary, High Society
El Grande, Carolus Magnus
Ohne Furcht und Adel/Citadelles, Castle
Reibach & Co., Freight Train
Tikal, Fossil, Ra, Time Pirates
El Grande, Ra, Aladdin's Dragons
Manhattan, Big City, Acquire
Chinatown, Rette Sich Wer Kann, Bohnanza, Quo Vadis
Entdecker, El Caballero
If this approach strikes you as high-risk (and well it may, given the
price tags that these games usually carry), visit the Board Game
Recommendation System at boardgamestuff.com:8000 (yes, that's a Web
address). The BGRS takes input on which games you like and dislike,
matches your tastes with those of other registered users and provides
recommendations based on those users' opinions. The results are fairly
reliable. (Mainstream games and old-school hobby games are included in
the system as well.)
4. Where can I find them?
Typically, family strategy games, especially the imported ones, are
available only through hobby stores (the ones that also sell wargames,
role-playing games and/or collectible card games) and "specialty" game
stores (the ones that also sell traditional games, such as chess,
backgammon and go, as well as more mainstream family games). If you're
looking for a particular game, check the Game Store Database
(boardgamestuff.com/cgi-bin/gamestore.pl) or the manufacturer's Web site
for a retail store near you. (Because I'm writing this FAQ, I get to plug
my favorite: the Old Game Store, Manchester, Vt., 800-818-GAME.) If
there's nothing close by, try one of the following online retailers:
Boulder Games, www.bouldergames.com
Fair Play Games, www.fairplaygames.com
Funagain Games, www.funagain.com
Sundown Games, www.sundowngames.com
For customers in Canada:
The German Boardgame Co., www.germangames.com
Secondhand games are frequently offered for sale on
rec.games.board.marketplace.
5. What is the Spiel des Jahres? What is the Deutscher Spielepreis?
Board games are a big enough industry in Germany that awards are given
out. The Spiel des Jahres ("Game of the Year") is a juried industry
award, sorta like Cannes. The Deutscher Spielepreis ("German Game Award")
is primarily a critics' award, sorta like the Golden Globes. However,
unlike their analogues in the movie world, the SdJ tends to reward simple
games with mass-market or family appeal, while the DSP favors "gamers'
games" with more challenging rules and unusual mechanisms.
Most of the games listed above are either winners or nominees of one or
both awards. You can look up past award winners and current nominees at
www.spiel-des-jahres.org (English, German) and
www.kmwsspielplatz.de/spielarchiv/indxtemp.html?/spielarchiv/dsp.htm
(German only).
6. What does that name mean? How is it pronounced?
A lot of gamers refer to German games by their German names. Here's a
handy guide for English speakers (pronunciations, especially of umlauted
vowels, are extremely approximate; some of these games' English editions
go by different names, as noted):
(Die) Siedler (von Catan) [dee ZEED-ler fawn ka-TAHN]: (The) Settlers (of
Catan)
Seefahrer [ZAY-far-er]: Seafarers
St�dte & Ritter [SHTAYT-uh oont RIT-ter]: Cities and Knights
Die Siedler Kartenspiel [dee ZEED-ler KAR-ten-shpeel]: The Settlers Card
Game
El Grande
K�nig & Intrigant [KER-nikh oont in-tree-GAHNT]: King and Conspirator
Grossinquisitor & Kolonien [GROSS-in-KVIZ-i-tor oont ko-lo-NEE-en]:
Grand Inquisitor and Colonies
Durch die W�ste [DOORKH dee VISS-tuh] (not "Durch die Wurst"!): Through
the Desert
Ohne Furcht und Adel [OH-na FOORKHT oont AH-del]: Fearless and Ignoble (a
pun on the German phrase "Ohne Furcht und Tadel," which means
"Fearless and Irreproachable"; a.k.a. Citadels)
Ursuppe [OOR-zoop-puh]: Primordial Soup
L�wenherz [LUR-ven-hayrts]: Lionheart (absolutely not to be confused with
Hasbro's ultra-crappy Lionheart!)
Pfeffers�cke [FEFF-er-ZECK-uh]: Peppersacks (a.k.a. Medieval Merchant)
Rette Sich Wer Kann [RET-tuh ZIKH ver KAHN]: Every Man for Himself
Hol's der Geier [HOHLSS der GUY-er]: The Heck With It (a.k.a. Raj)
Dampfross [DUMPF-ross]: Iron Horse (a.k.a. Railway Rivals)
Entdecker [ent-DECK-er]: Discoverer
Verr�ter [fer-RAY-ter]: Traitor
Flinke Pinke [FLINK-uh PINK-uh]: Quick Cash (a.k.a. Quandary)
Adel Verpflichtet [AH-del fer-FLIKH-tet]: Noblesse Oblige (a.k.a. By Hook
or by Crook)
Igel �rgern [EE-gel AIR-gern]: Mad Hedgehogs
Klunker [KLOONK-er]: Jewels
Wettstreit der Baumeister [VET-shtrite der BOW-mice-ter]: Contest of
Architects
Druidenwalzer [DROO-ih-den-VAHL-tser]: Druids' Waltz
Freibeuter [FRY-boy-ter]: Freebooter
Um Reifenbreite [oom RY-fen-BRY-tuh]: By a Tire Width
By the way, it's Klaus "TOY-ber," not Klaus "TOO-ber." Also, Knizia is
pronounced "k'NEET-see-a."
7. Why Germany?
The best anyone can surmise, Germany just happens to have a long tradition
of game-playing. Combine that with a long tradition of high-quality
design and manufacturing, and you have a market for well-designed,
well-manufactured games.
However, as a number of people have pointed out, the fact that Germany has
the most robust adult/family board game industry in the world doesn't mean
that board games are a form of mass entertainment in Germany, on par with,
say, television. It's a hobby there, just as it is in other countries.
It just happens to be a much bigger hobby.
8. Hey! I bought this game you told me to buy, and the rules are in
German!
Many imported "German" games are available in translated editions, but
many are not. Fortunately, the board gaming community has made a number
of rulebook translations available on the Web. The Gaming Dumpster
(www.gamingdumpster.com) has a large selection of archived rule
translations. In addition, most of the companies that import and/or
reprint games from other countries have rule translations available for
free.
9. Where can I learn more?
Luding (SunSITE.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE/luding) is a database of game
information with links to reviews in German and English.
Board Game Geek (www.boardgamegeek.com) features lots of news and reviews,
along with a comprehensive guide to game mechanics.
--
"Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do
nothing whatever to increase consumption." -- "Brave New World"
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Live with honor, endure with grace "I notice you have a cloud of doom.
Keith Ammann is
[email protected] I must admit it makes you seem
www.enteract.com/~geenius * Lun Yu 2:24 dangerous and sexy."
