30.12.2004	Just before the end of the year we have two new reviews of Essen 2004 releases: "Mall World", the latest game by Andrea Meyer provides plenty of opportunities for discovering tactics to those, who like tile laying games. A thinking man's game. "Boomtown" on the other hand delivers the usual share of chaos one expects from a Bruno Faidutti game. A fun game.
29.12.2004	It took a while but here it is: the new version 1.50 of "Sankt Petersburg" for PC. Besides a number of small bug corrections there is a greatly improved 2 player AI now, plus a new "puzzle mode", the purpose of which we will reveal later. Here is the link to out new download page.
28.12.2004	Most of us are familiar with this very satisfying pastime, which by all means does require a certain length, width and angle of a member of our body. And now there is a matching game: Popeln. Walter wrote our review. On a more abstract level does Destino come along.
26.12.2004	While our "Goldbräu" review does fit at least somewhat into the season (people celebrate in beer gardens, too), one cannot really state this about the game "Ideology". Walter wrote the review.
18.12.2004	Two new reviews just went online. The long awaited "7 Ages" finally was available in Essen this year and after some extensive playing Moritz wrote his review. The second review is about the "Advanced Game Expansion" for "Quest for the Dragon Loards".
November Niagara	The coolest things are the Petri dishes. The Petri dishes constitute the "river": Each dish is one area where players' canoes can be. At the end of each turn, the "river" advances: New dishes arrive upstream and push the old dishes (and the canoes on them) towards the fall. Due to an ingenious mechanism the dishes fall alternating from the left and the right fall. This game offers fun and some challenge for seasoned players, and it can still be explained to beginners with no trouble. Gameplay is very quick since you cannot forfeit your moving allowance. And the haptic/optic impression of Niagara is excellent. Niagara can be recommended wholeheartedly to anyone.
November Anno Domini	"Anno Domini" has truly earned the title "gem", as it is regularly played in our group, mostly at the end of an evening of games. Based on a simple gaming system (a combination of bluffing and historical quiz game) it is equally enjoyed by the professional and the casual gamer, because it is quick to explain and very communicative. This is also a game which really thrives on expansion sets - there are countless variant sets on the wildest themes that are also relatively cheap to buy. The sheer amount of cards and their combinations is so immense that repetitions like in other quiz games almost never occur (and "Anno Domini" is not REALLY a quiz game - even the unknowing contestant can be successful). Therefore it is our opinion that this game should be present in each collection!
06.12.2004	Ralf Burkert's second game "Im Schatten des Kaisers" is his debut at Hans im Glück Verlag. Walter writes about our impressions in his session report.
05.12.2004	After "Atta Ants" Richard de Rijk of The Realm of Fantasy has published a second game in the same format: "Black Molly". Our review describes our impressions of the game.
October Liar's Dice	"Gem" also means "durability", and if any game has ever deserved the coveted title of "durable evergreen" it is "Liar's Dice". It is, together with "6 nimmt", our most often played "finisher", but we also know that we are not alone in this opinion. "Liar's Dice" is simple and intriguing at the same time, the rules are immediately transparent even for newbie gamers, but the possibilities of bidding and bluffing are literally endless and always create new strategy discussions. There is no end to bluffing ("Bluff" is the German name of the game), this is why this game deserves our crown here. We are always playing with the "open dice reroll" variant, which makes the game much more interesting!
27.11.2004	Sold out in Essen this year Oltre Mare is now available as a second edition. It is getting rave reviews throughout the comunity, but how well does it do in our group? Walter describes the details in his session report.
20.11.2004	Today we have three new reviews of Essen 2004 releases. "Neuland", a new game by Peter Eggert (to our knowledge not a relative of the Westpark Gamer Moritz Eggert), "In 80 Tagen um die Welt", by Michael Rieneck and "Niagara", the first game of Thomas Liesching.
16.11.2004	We were anciously looking forward to playing the games of the new publisher "Argentum" from Cologne, who characterize themselves on their homepage: "Argentum offers games to wrack your brain and test your nerves. Our goal as a company is to share our love of new game ideas and mechanics. We aim to make our games both accessible and fun.". Walter reviews two of their three new games "UFOs! Fries from Space" and "The Garden Gnome Society".
15.11.2004	After a number of excessive game sessions last week we have the first three (of a total of five this week) reviews of new games online: Ozeanien, Fib Fab and Waz Baraz.
11.11.2004	"At the very end of the slowly abating hype about the tremendously successful "Lord of the Ring" movies a game comes along unexpectedly..." That's how Moritz begins his review about "The War of the Ring", a very nice adaptation of the subject released by Phalanx Games.
08.11.2004	Two of the new releases of Essen 2004 have been on the table: "Bootleggers" and "Struggle of Empires". Moritz describes our impressions in his reviews.
06.11.2004	Because of the many new releases we brought back from Essen this year we decided to organize more than the usual one gaming session per week. Consequently, we have more new reviews as well: "Jambo", "Candamir", "Reef Encounter" and "Dancing Dice". Not an Essen release from this year but still missing a review from us is "Chariot Lords" which makes it the fifth review of this weeks!
01.11.2004	Two new reviews of Essen new releases have just gone online here: "Druids" published by Kidult and "Camelot Legends" published by Z-Man Games. Have fun..
31.10.2004	We've finished our first few game sessions playing the new Essen 2004 releases. And here is our review of "Ins Innere Afrikas" (Heart of Africa) by Andreas Steding and published by Phalanx Games.
30.10.2004	Our Essen Report from the one-day visit on Saturday is finished. Unfortunately, one day was way to short to get a look at all the good games of this year let alone play them. Rhat's way the report contains onl a subset of all good games available at the show. Expect our first reviews here soon.
September Grand Canyon	There has been a flood of various trick taking card games in recent years, so it seems a good time to remind everyone of this "gem". "Grand Canyon" is a re-release of the 3M game "Bid & Bluff" by F.A. Herschler with a new theme and an expantion set designed by "Mick Ado" (Peter Gehrmann). It merges several interesting game mechanics, it is a combination of a) traditional card game (several trick-taking rounds, changing trumps) b) race game (the number of guessed tricks determines the movement rate) and c) character game (at the beginning of each round the players select character cards that have different special abilities, at least if you use the recommended expansion set). It doesn't hurt a lot that the native american theme seems slightly slapped on, as it fits the racing through narrow waterways. The combination of elements fully works, though, and because the game is played again and again in our group it definitely deserves the coveted title "gem of the month".
26.10.2004	A quick notice: there's a new language pack for our St. Petersburg PC version available now: Swedish.
25.10.2004	Just before we issue our Essen reports and reviews about the new games found there Peter provides an addition to our two-player games section: "Kahuna".
16.10.2004	Is the game Verräter immoral? We discussed the question after our last session where we played the game.
09.10.2004	It took more than two years for s to discover this real gem of Martin Wallace: "Tyros". The game is stil in print and is offered in a half-size box at a moderate price. Walter wrote down our opinions about the game and in addition provides a few tips regarding strategy and variants.
07.10.2004	If a non-soccer-fan is facinated about a soccer simulation, it must be really good. Peter reports his findings about the out-of-print game in his "Finale" review.
04.10.2004	Last week the new "Cthulhu 500" and the not so new "Nobody is perfect" were on our table. Moritz wrote the reviews.
30.09.2004	100.000 page views - rather a lot for a private website and a good reason for a little celebration. Just Games!
26.09.2004	It's been a while that we were only 4 players at our game sessions. So this time we took the opportunity to play "Ursuppe" again, which we like best as a 4-player game, despite the 6-player extension. Additionally, we had Kosmos' new "Saga" on the table for the first time. Walter wrote the reviews.
25.09.2004	"Caesar und Cleopatra" is the second game in our new 2-Player Games section. Peter wrote the review. As mentioned before, we are using a modified ranking system for this type of games. At the same time we changed the layout of our review table to make it easier to navigate between "2-player games" and "Multi-player games".
23.09.2004	Brian Walker's review over at Boardgame Geek has been discussed very controversally so that we played the new Ragnar Brothers' game "Viking Fury" ourselves to see how we like it. Moritz wrote our review. On the download page for our computer adaptation of the game "Saint Petersburg" you can now find language files for English, Italian, Dutch and French.
22.09.2004	Until now we have written only a few reviews about 2 player games - our group simply is too large to provide sufficient opportunities to play them. But since a while Peter and Loredana are spending some of their pastime with playing just these games. And they agreed to write reviews about them. At the same time we decided to modify our ranking system for 2 player games: we are now asigning 0 to 5 stars instead of 0 to 10 points. Their first review is about "Die Siedler von Catan - Das Kartenspiel".
18.09.2004	This month seems to become the month of playing oldies. Not really a surprise taking into account the shortage of new release just before Essen. So we take the chance to get some of our not so often played treasures out of the cabinet and test them again. This time "Boom Town" by Ian Livingstone and "Bazaar" by Sid Sackson were on the table. Find the details in our report.
August Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective	Obviously, German "Games of the Year" have to be family games. That's why many of these games appear a bit simplistic to real hard-core gamers. In 1985 - when Gorbatchev became General Secretary and Boris Becker won Wimbledon - a rather unusual game received the award: Sherlock Holmes Criminal Cabinet, despite the English title a German translation of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. The game principle of Sherlock Holmes comes close to a single-player fantasy roleplaying game ("You see a dragon in the rear. Do you want to attack, continue on p. 32. If you want to attempt to sneak past, continue reading on p.44"), however, it doesn't implement branches. Each section (called "clue"), corresponding to an address in London (e.g. the crime scene, the forensic institute, or the address of a suspect) is independent. You continue to read clues until you think you understand the case enough to answer the questions in the quizz book. A final score is calculated depending on how many clues you read and the number of correctly answered questions. The disadvantage of this game principle is obvious: a solved case is "used up" (unless, like we did, you rediscover the game after 20 years and for once enjoy your bad memory). The style of writing of the original game (yes, we played Consulting Detective) resembles that of Arthur Conan Doyle's. Most cases are designed well, some are a bit sloppy or far-fetched. But the same applies to Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, thus this also helps to recreate the proper atmosphere.
15.09.2004	Played already a month ago we are now able to publish our preview of "Sole Mio", the sequel to "Mamma Mia". We played the game combined with its predecessor as "Mamma Mia Grande". Walter provides the details. We also got to know the "wimp variant" of "Bluff".
06.09.2004	In order to have a wider selection of candidates for our "Gem of the Month" we had two older games on the table: "Magellan" and "Holiday AG". While we remembered "Holiday AG" quite well from gaming sessions more than 10 years ago, we looked full of expectations at "Magellan", whose designer had already enthused us with his game "Time Agent". Walter describes the details in his session report.
01.09.2004	It's public knowledge since only a few days: Brian Walker will revive "Games International", the journal of fun and games, by releasing issue #17 at the Spiel 2004 fair in Essen. We took the opportunity to talk to Brian, asking him for some background information. You can find the interview here.
30.08.2004	Beginning of this month we announced a PC version of Sankt Petersburg. In the meantime Günther has finished the program, which is available now as a free download. He managed to implement an excellent conversion of the boardgame with AI opponents that are really difficult to beat! You should give it a try! We would like to thank "Hans im Glück" for allowing us to publish the software as freeware.
21.08.2004	Early August Rick Heli of "Spotlight on Games" interviewed Moritz Eggert as the latest addition to his series of "Board Game Players Around the World". The result is an interesting dialog about German games and gaming in Germany compared to other nations.
04.08.2004	Last week we had the pleasure to not only look at the new 1895 game but also had the chance to play it with the guidance of its producer Helmut Ohley. Read what is new in this 18xx release and how we liked it in our preview.
July Ticket To Ride	Our expectations were not really high when we first played this game which looks like a bigger cousin of TRANSAMERICA. But then the game quickly got us into it's grip with addictive qualities. Is it the game material, with it's beautiful plastic trains, is it the intelligent card management, is it the ongoing race with the other players, which is always in the open? This is a nervewracking game, especially when your winning route is about to be destroyed by another player. TICKET TO RIDE is a good example for a game that does not break new ground but that becames a greater whole through the sum of it's parts.
July 6 nimmt!	This game just HAD to become GEM of the Month sooner or later, as it is one of our most played "end-of-session" games. For years (decades?) there are endless discussions if it is relevant if you select your cards at random or play them thoughtfully , there is even a total cult about the secret meaning of the "highest lowest card" that sometimes just HAS to be played. Only those who know this game know what we talk about out, there rarely ever was such a dichotomy between abstract theme and actual playing fun. This is a real evergreen that should be in all games collections!
02.08.2004	More news about Sankt Petersburg: Moritz wrote down his "ultimate strategy tips" ready for public discussions. In addition there are two new reviews: "Die verflixte 0" and "Mausen", both quickly explained, short games.
01.08.2004	Our fascination about "Sankt Petersburg" by Hans im Glück is still undiminished. Continuously, we are devising new "killer strategies" only to prove them wrong during our next game - or not. Our last game session started with two games of Sankt Petersburg to test some new ideas. Walter describes what happened in his session report. Günther's PC implementation of the game is steadily gaining strength. Originally developed to test our game strategies it has now become a serious opponent and Günther is struggling to adapt his AI implementation to our increasing experience in playing the game. And finally we've added a new article to our series of  "Best of Games International".
25.07.2004	"Fliegen" and "Magdar" are two games with a playing time of less than an hour. Hence we had sufficient time left to challenge Walters building strategy in Sankt Petersburg. One thing seems to be clear by now: if several players follow the building strategy and only one player goes for the nobles that player will win. There are still a lot of things to try with this game...
June Sankt Petersburg	Following so many discussions we had about the game it didn't come as a surprise that "Sankt Petersburg" has been selected as game of the month June with large lead. Even if luck plays a considerable role it is quite a tactical game with its own fascination for mathematically oriented players. In the beginning you try to achieve the optimum payout with your selection of cards, then you discover the immense variety of cybernetics that happen on the market. Should I buy another card or better not? The effects on the next cards to be exposed cannot be predicted easily. These factors are a continuous challenge to understand the mechanisms of the game and to play it better than your competitors.
11.07.2004	With "6 nimmt" and "La Citta" we had twoclassic games on our table this week. Walter provides the details in his session report.
10.07.2004	This month's addition to our series "Best of GI" is Alan R. Moon's strategy article "How Sweet It Is!" about Schoko & Co.
03.07.2004	With some delay Walter completed the session report of June 2nd covering Goa and Sankt Petersburg. The reason for the delay was Walter's in depth analysis of Sankt Petersburg, which was triggered by the many discussions we had about the game. Here's the link to Walter's analysis of Sankt Petersburg. We are awaiting your comments!
May Maya	The race between „Maya“ and „Goa“ has already been very close last month, so it is not surprising that „Maya” easily claimed the title this month. “Maya” seems unspectacular at first glance, its mechanics seem well known, but on closer inspection the game develops its own peculiar charme, which is mostly due to its carefully balanced mechanics. Each phase is exciting – the players are always in competition for dominance while building pyramids and managing resources. Typical “German” game elements like in “El Grande” (i.e. the acquisition of “action tiles”) have been intelligently developed. The theme might be a little stale, but it would be a shame if “Maya” is overlooked because of superficially similar games like “Tikal” or “Mexica”.
May Titan	TITAN is not exactly an “overlooked” gem, to be honest. In fact it is THE legendary fantasy board game, highly sought after in collector’s circles, and truly beloved by it’s owners (I know of a gamer who actually keeps several unpunched versions of TITAN in his closet). The interesting thing is that there is truly no other game like TITAN. It is very abstract and very “real” at the same time, the combat mechanics are simple and extremely efficient, the graphic design is beautiful and unique. It also rewards skill more than other fantasy games...although many think it is luck-dominated at first glance it is not all so. If there is one reason we want to point our finger at this wonderful game it is the simple fact that it is not available at the moment. On any fantasy game afficionado’s list this is THE number one game that should be published anew. Hasbro/Avalon Hill take note– PLEASE REPRINT THIS GAME!!!!!!!!
23.05.2004	In our recent four player session "old vs. young" two not so young card games were on the table: "Kathai" and "Gargon". The young game was "Sankt Petersburg" which again triggered a longer discussion about the tactics behind this game. Walter wrote our session report.
22.05.2004	The nominees for this years "Spiel des Jahres" award have been announced. Here is the list of the nominated adult games: Dicke Luft in der Gruft (Zoch) Einfach Genial (Kosmos) Raja (Eurogames) St. Petersburg (Hans im Glück) Zug um Zug (Days of Wonder)
April Goa	You might have noticed that this game has gotten a lot of talk on our website recently - Walter's excelllent strategy article actually created a run on our website! So it comes as no surprise that this game is also our "game of the month", because everybody of our group who played it liked it instantly. "Empire Building" games belong to our favourites - "Goa" uses mechanics which allow interaction (through the bidding rounds), but also leave the fate of each player in their own hands in the long run. It is certainly necessary to "have a plan" and to do the most with your limited resources. Positively received was also the fact that the game is devoid of any "kingmakering" and the usual unfair event cards a la "With this card you destroy/steal XXXX from any fellow player". Although it should be mentioned that this game will mostly be liked by gaming "geeks" (others might find it a bit dry), it will certainly satisfy anyone who likes well designed games.
April Ra	This month's "Gem of the month" comment is taken from a review of Gil Hova from boardgamegeek.com: "When asked what qualities he looked for in a good game, Sid Sackson once said, “It should be easy to learn yet have infinite strategic possibilities, give you the chance to make choices, create interaction among players, and take a maximum of one and a half hours to play.” I wonder if, somewhere in that huge collection of his, Sackson had a copy of Reiner Knizia’s auction game Ra. I wonder if he ever got the chance to play it. If he did, I’m sure he would have enjoyed it. Ra not only scores for all the conditions he named, but it manages to snag the ultimate intangible: Ra is one of the most fun games I’ve ever played." (Gil Hova)
08.05.2004	It's been quite a while since a new release of Reiner Knizia has been on our table. Walter provides the details of "Einfach Genial", published this year in Nueremberg, in his session report.
02.05.2004	Since Walter's strategy tips on Goa triggered a lot of discussions, we decided to evaluate them in a small three-player session. Walter describes our findings in his session report. And as an addendum to last week's reports Walter provides a session report about "Zug um Zug".
01.05.2004	Here's another great article from our "Games International" treasure: Steve Jones' strategy seminar about "Civilization".
24.04.2004	On Monday Maya, SPY and Spooks were on the table. Moritz describes the details in his session report.
20.04.2004	Peter's idol Lewis Pulsipher, author of the legendary "Britannia", just published the interesting article "Ways to reflect the 'fog of war'" on his internet pages. And Peter bursts with pride to be cited several times...
17.04.2004	A 4 player evening devoted to the "Hans im Glück" new releases "Goa" and "Sankt Petersburg".
15.04.2004	Two new releases from Moritz' vast collection of American games were on the table: "Arena Maximus" and "The Haunting House".
March San Juan	For some reason there are several succesful card game versions of german board games, more than the other way round. It worked with “Settlers of Catan” and even “Starfarers of Catan” (most people even argue that the card game versions are much better), why not “Puerto Rico” as well? “San Juan” is easy to pick up for all who know “Puerto Rico”, but it plays quicker and in a more relaxed way, like a card game. There is less decision as the game is somewhat dependent on card draw, but it’s easier to develop a stategy based on buildings, which sometimes can depend on the actions of the other players in the original. There are also enough new ideas and mechanisms in there to make this game an interesting one. That’s why we recommend it!
March Titan - The Arena	Already one of the most sought card games on ebay, this game has a very persistent history in our gaming group, getting very regular replay over the years since I introduced it first to the group eight years ago. For some reason the tinkering by Don Greenwood with the original by Knizia was the perfect combination: The game achieves the perfect balance of neither being too “German” and abstract nor too random or chaotic. The monsters have flair, the game moves at a quick pace and usually remains tense up to the end. There are many cries to republish this game, as it arrived at a point where AH was already nearly bankrupt so it couldn’t save the company. It looks like Fantasy Flight will produce a new version of it, although doubts remain as another “new” version (“Galaxy - the Arena” by GMT) didn’t fare too well....Let’s just hope the best and let us celebrate one of the best fantasy card games ever published: “Titan – The Arena”!
04.04.2004	Our series of "Best of GI" articles has been extended by Graham Staplehurst's view about Britannia.
03.04.2004	1830 was back on our table. As usual, we played without the PC moderator program, hence the game lasted just over 4 hours. And as usual things went different than planned. Walter describes the details in his Spielbericht.
28.03.2004	Some games claim to be exciting and new, for instance "Arne total" from Belgium. Walter's review describes our opinions about the game.
14.03.2004	Just in time with the selection as our "Game of the Month" I completed the review of "Rumis".
13.03.2004	Four player game sessions, which were rare in the past, are now happinging more often. This provides ample opportinizies to put some of our treasured "4 players only" back on the table. This time we chose "Chicago", a game that we own both in its original "Flying Turtle" version and the Ravensburger version with slight rules improvements. As a second classic "Favoriten" by Walter Müller's Spielewerkstatt was on the table followed by our favorite closer "Bluff". Walter describes the evening in his session report.
Rumis	This game reminds one of "Pueblo" at first glance, but the big difference is that the players attempt to build their 3D blocks in a way that makes them as visible as possible. "Rumis" also doesn't have an interim VP count like "Pueblo" (which in the latter game sometimes works unfairly), which speeds up the game considerably (one game should take no longer than 1/2 hour). Through the use of variable boards, each demanding a totally different strategy, Rumis develops a unique charm that elevates it from the flood of recent games. It's very simple rules make it a very good "closer" of a games evening. The game rewards clever imagination, and this is something we like!
Lords of Creation	This "easy-going" wargame - one of the first games by Martin Wallace - was published twice by his original publisher "Warfrog", the second time around in a colourful professional version that should still be traceable. The game is a kind of "mini"-Civilization - the players beging building a variable world and then try to colonize and civilize it. Two interesting mechanisms are the cards that bring counters into the game (which also determine turn order), and the simple but very effective combat system. Whoever accepts a slightly longer game time (3-4 hours) will like this "battling-dice" game, that plays in a much more relaxed and less aggressive way than others in this particular genre.
07.03.2004	Our "Best of GI" series of articles has been extended by Derek Carver's Designer's Notes about Blood Royale.
06.03.2004	"The Hell Game", one of Moritz' discoveries in Essen, was on the table - a much hyped game. He describes our impressions in his review. But the game of the night was "Spooks", which this time we played with the full set of rules.
29.02.2004	It has been quite a while since Martin Wallace's "Lords of Creation" was on our table. Walter provides some analysis of the game in his report.
Material World	Material World's clever game mechanics allow for two completely different strategies (the hare and the tortoise). The resulting multitude of game experiences increase its replay value significantly. Unfortunately, the startplayer position is extremely important and military struggles seem a bit callow as the winner must feed the population of the vanquished without getting anything in return. Like our monthly recommendation "GAME OF THE MONTH" we want to publicize our special discoveries - who knows, perhaps one or the other game gets belated cult status…
14.02.2004	Three new releases from Essen 2003 were on the table: our "Game Of The Month" "Attika", "Piraten & Papageien" and "Zauberschwert & Drachenei".
Attika	Our first "game of the month" - no surprise here, this addictive tile-laying game has already found many friends internationally, although it has just recently been published. The players represent greek city states which conquer a modular hex board. Who is the first to connect two temples? Who has built all his buildings first? To win one has to use actions most efficiently and foil the building plans of other players. The rules are simple, tactics complicated. Surely a game that will keep freaks busy for a while, because one always strives to "do it better next time". And another success for "Hans im Glueck", one of Germany's best boardgame companies.
07.02.2004	In these days Wolfgang Kramer celebrates his 30th anniversary as a game designer. We take the opportunity to publish in our "Best of GI" section an interview he gave 15 years ago in 1989.
01.02.2004	We are happy to announce that we got permission the publish material from the long deceased games journal "Games International". On a regular basis we will add articles from GI issues to our "Best Of GI" section. Please note the new menue item on the left for easy access.
31.01.2004	This time the de luxe edition "Sac Noir" of "Bausack" by Zoch Verlag was on the table. And Walter describes his impressions of "Princes of the Renaissance" by Martin Wallace.
24.01.2004	As an addendum to our gaming session on January 7th Moritz wrote a review about the Japanese cardgame Masquerade, which was published for Essen 2003.
20.01.2004	Few of our reader will remember "Games International - The Journal Of Fun And Games"; a British boardgame magazine which published its first issue in 1988 and disappeared from the market after only 2 years. In many ways GI was different and special so Aaron wrote a little homage about the magazine, including an interview with Brian Walker, the former editor of GI.
12.01.2004	It has finally arrived: Hans' review about the excellent Material World game.
11.01.2004	Peter wrote a detailed review about "Hispania" and Hans added a playing aid for it, which should help clarifying a few rules ambiguities. And we've added an article by Peter describing his views on Risk-like games.
09.01.2004	After our last session Walter did some analysis of "Traumfabrik" and describes possible strategies .
08.01.2004	We had a look at "King Arthur", Reiner Knizia's latest offering. Also new is "SPOOKS" released by "Steve Jackson Games".
26.12.2003	Some time ago we promised a review of "Who Stole Ed's Pants". Here it is.
25.12.2003	At last found some time to write some still outstanding session reports. New are "Finstere Flure", "Karriere Poker", "Once Upon A Time" und "Ein solches Ding".
06.12.2003	It has been more than a year that one of our favorit games was back on the table: 1830. Walter analyses the results in his detailed session report.
22.11.2003	And our second game session of the week was dedicated to Fantasy Flight Games Essen 2003 release "A Game Of Thrones", which Moritz describes in his review.
21.11.2003	This week we played quite a few of the Essen 2003 releases. Peter describes in his session report his impressions of "Railroad Dice", "Alexandros" and "Feurio!".
16.11.2003	Finally, I completed the review of "Monkeys On The Moon". And we played "Marchands d'Empire" again - this time using the correct set of rules.
09.11.2003	...and we have a review of another Spiel 2003 release: Maya, one of the Essen favorits.
08.11.2003	Friedemann Friese's "Finstere Flure", 2F-Spiele Spiel 2003 release, was on our table. Read more about the game in our review.
02.11.2003	After building the downloadable boardgame "Marchands d'Empire" we were all rather curious to see how it plays. Unfortunately, three wrong interpretations of the rules resulted in rather mixed feelings. Read more in Walter's review. "Shipwrecked" was our closing game for the evening.
01.11.2003	Our second Spiel 2003 report is complete. This time it's in English.
31.10.2003	As one of the first Essen 2003 releases "Princes of the Renaissance" was on the table. Moritz describes our impressions in his detailed review.
26.10.2003	Just back from Essen's Spiel 2003 here is our first review about "Atta Ants" by Richard de Rijk. Also brought back from Essen and soon to be reviewed: "Monkeys On The Moon" and "Who Stole Ed's Pants", both by Jim Doherty of Eight Foot Llama and published last year and the year before last, respectively.
22.10.2003	Being a composer and pianist himself Moritz had a completely new look at Rudi Hoffmann's "Maestro". Read more here...
05.10.2003	Also "Manhattan" and "McMulti" have not been on the table for a long time, "Manhattan" has been game of the year in 1994 and "McMulti" is one of the nowadays rare Hexagames releases of the 1980's.
28.09.2003	With "T-Rex" and "Star Wars: Epic Duels" two of our more often played "classics" have been on the table. Moritz describes our impressions in his session report.
22.09.2003	Judging by the hit counter our stratgy tips seem to be favorites amongst our web pages. Today, Moritz wrote down his collection of tips for "Princes Of Florence" and "Titan - The Arena".
21.09.2003	Last week we had the pleasure to not only look at the new 1844 game but also had the chance to play it with its designer Helmut Ohley. Here is our preview.
16.09.2003	Despite of all the negative reviews Time Control has received so far we decided to give the game a try. Moritz studied all reviews published until now and devised some rule modifications, which actually turned out be rather good. They are decribed in his detailed rule variant.
14.09.2003	One of our much too seldom 4 player sessions had "Titan - The Arena", "Maestro", "Ra" and "Traumfabrik" on the table. Read our impressions in this session report.
13.09.2003	Recently we learnt that 1844, a new member of the 18xx railroad game family will be released in Essen this year. 1844, designed by Helmut Ohley based on some early map work of Peter Minder, is located in Switzerland. It uses some of Helmut's 1862HO concepts but includes innovations and reactions to player demands which make it a whole new game. The game will be available in Essen at or next to the Winsome or Moskito Games booth. Expect to find a preview on our pages soon.
17.08.2003	Once again "Tutanchamun" was the first game on the table, just so that Hans could prove his recent strategy tips. It was followed by a "Flying Turtle" game of the mid 80's: "Restaurant". In his session report Moritz writes why this game turned out to be a mega flop. Lucky, Günther had brought "Medici" by Reiner Knizia, which we liked better than we did when we played it last time. And as usual "Bluff" closed our session.
03.08.2003	"Andromeda", too, is currently on sale in Germany and Alan R. Moon as the author guarantees some value for money here. In his session report Peter descibes his views about the game. After only a short time "Tutanchamun" was back on our table, another Knizia game without any elements of luck, and Hans provides the details in his session report.
02.08.2003	At long last Peter, our Knizia fan completed his review of "Stephensons Rocket". Not without reason did we recently see this game on sale.
26.07.2003	At last I found a site search engine that indexes all of our pages. So from now on you will find all Westpark gamers pages for a search phrase. Our thanks go to www.picosearch.com.
17.07.2003	Our list of strategy tips is growing constantly; this time we provide inside information into two recent games, Alhambra and Transamerica. And we have a review of one of our oldtimers "S.P.I.V.'s" by Nick Sewell.
12.07.2003	This time on the table: "Shark" published by Flying Turtle and later by Ravensburger. Moritz writes about his impressions and provides useful strategy tips.
24.06.2003	A little belated due to my vacation comes the news about the winner of this years "Spiel des Jahres" prize: Alhambra von Dirk Henn (Queen). Here is our opinion about the game. And we have new session reports about: Amun-Re, Coloretto, Löwenherz, Quirks und Sharp Shooters.
06.06.2003	Out of this year's selection list for "Spiel des Jahres 2003" the jury has selected three nominees: Alhambra by Dirk Henn (Queen) Clans by Leo Colovini (Winning Moves) Die Dracheninsel by Tom Schoeps (Amigo)
31.05.2003	Out of this year's selection list for "Spiel des Jahres 2003" we had two candidates on our table: Alhambra and Amun-Re - our session report has the details.
20.05.2003	Here's this year's selection for the German "Spiel des Jahres 2003" prize in alphabetical order: Alhambra by Dirk Henn (Queen) Amun Re by Reiner Knizia (Hans im Glück) Attribut by Marcel-André Casasola-Merkle (Lookout Games) Ballon Cup by Stephen Glenn (Kosmos) Clans by Leo Colovini (Winning Moves) Coloretto by Michael Schacht (Abacusspiele) Die Dracheninsel by Tom Schoeps (Amigo) Die Werwölfe von Düsterwald by Philippe des Pallières und Hervé Marly (Asmodee) Edel, Stein & Reich by Reinhard Staupe (alea) Fische, Fluppen, Frikadellen by Friedemann Friese (2F Spiele) Paris Paris by Michael Schacht (Abacusspiele) Richelieu und die Königin by Michael Schacht (Ravensburger) Rumis by Stefan Kögl (Spielwerkstatt Murmel) And we've added a review about "Elemental".
13.05.2003	Günther took our recent discussions about strategies in "Bluff"/"Liar's Dice" as a trigger to write an article about optimal winning strategies in a 2-player game of "Bluff".
09.05.2003	Our game session report of this week includes strategy tips about "Outpost" plus a review of the famous "6-Tage Rennen".
04.05.2003	We've introduced a few small enhancements to our web site. First, there is a new "Articles" section where every now and then we will publish game related articles. And secondly, we have introduced a possibility to add comments to our reviews, session reports and articles from now on. At the end of each new text you will see a link to a comment entry form (unfortunately the text in this form currently is in German only - I hope this can be changed soon). If you have Java-Script enabled you will also see the number of comments already entered. Our thanks go to Arne Pottharst for this great feature.
01.05.2003	"Magna Grecia", this year's new release by Clementoni was on our table together with "Pueblo", which already last year earned some rave reviews.
26.04.2003	Since there is only little information to be found in the WWW we were rather curious to see how Yaquinto's more then 20 year old "The Roaring 20's" would play. Walter wrote down his impressions here. And Moritz continues our series of strategy tips with his ideas about winning The Valley Of The Mammoths".
24.04.2003	Moritz found a very well made role-playing site on the web, and we want to share this information with you: "Sryth: The Age of Igtheon". Made in the style of the "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" gamebooks players find a huge world full of adventures and other characters.
21.04.2003	This week we added two more games to our steadily increasing list of strategy tips "Kings & Castels" and "6 nimmt".
18.04.2003	Every now and then we engage into fierce discussions about a game oder a game concept. In future we will publish these in our new Forum and we would like to invite all readers of Westpark Gamers to join in. Our first entry is a statement about "Racism in Games" that we received recently.
13.04.2003	It's been a long time that we had a game session with only four players. Consequently, we decided to play Trias again after we found it a bit chaotic with five players. Walter provides some tips about how to win. Moritz brought some not so usual games this time: Cavetroll and The Maze Of Ishtar.
30.03.2003	Are marketing games always that bad? This time "Anaconda" by Siemens Business Services had to prove its qualities. And we managed to play the long awaited "Keythedral" by Richard Breese.
23.03.2003	This time the cult game of "Kohle, Kies & Knete" was on our table. After an early eskalation due to the game mechanics our group decided to abort in mid-game. Walter has the details (in German).
17.03.2003	After a 3 weeks break induced by Walter's vacation and a heavy workload of the remaining gamers we had two new releases on the table: "Mare Nostrum" und "Coloretto"; followed by an experiment in the small hours: to play two different games simultaneously - a challenge yet to be mastered...
22.02.2003	Moritz wrote down his ideas about how to win "Sticheln", one of the games of the Deutsche Brettspielmeisterschft this year. Also on the table was "Hare and Tortoise", one of Walter's favorit games. Here is the report.
07.02.2003	This time we had one of Moritz' favorit games on the table: "Cosmic Encounter", the 6 player version of Mayfair Games to be precise. Here is the session report.
02.02.2003	Since we liked TimJim's Time Agent a lot we tried another game from the same publisher: "Outpost". Walter wrote the report...
26.01.2003	In view of the soon to start qualifications for the "German Boardgame Championships" we had a sort of "training session" with two of the games played there - "Emerald" and "Puerto Rico". This time Moritz wrote our session report - adding interesting and new strategy tips for Puerto Rico.
19.01.2003	Our second game session this year brought us two older games on the table: T-Rex and Linie 1. Here is our report.
14.01.2003	Due to the holiday season it took some time until we had our first game session in the new year. This time we had "La Città" on the table and Moritz wrote the session report. He also updated our game ranking list.
25.12.2002	Due to the usual pre-Christmas hectic it took a while until the update of our webpages could go online. New additions are the report of our second "Tomb of Horrors" session as well as game session reports of "Fische Fluppen Frikadellen", "Mogul" and Reiner Knizia's "Imperium". Seasons Greetings to all players worldwide.
30.11.2002	We liked "Age of Steam" a lot when we played it for the first time some weeks ago and decided to play it again - this time in a group of six. Hans has writen the session report. And I found a newsgroup posting of Ron Magin, Marketing Director of Eurogames USA, with a prerelease of the english version of the "Mare Nostrum" rules. A PDF conversion is here.
26.11.2002	Moritz invited us to our first role playing evening. Here is his report.
24.11.2002	Trias and ZooSim were on our table the second time and still liked a lot. More in our session report.
23.11.2002	To give the Westpark Gamer's website a "face lift" we decided to take some photos during our game sessions. The results can be found at "Who are we?" and our "Desert Island Games".
15.11.2002	In our latest "Orc session" we played "Saloon" again followed by "Plague", "Quests of the Round Table" and "Epic Duels" as our new closing game.
12.11.2002	Again a few Essen 2002 releases on our table: "ZooSim", "Trias" und "Guillotine". Walter's session report has the details.
10.11.2002	From today all our game reviews and session reports are kept in one single table, which is alphabetically sorted and should therefore ease navigation and reading.
07.11.2002	Last week's session had the two new Essen 2002 releases "Quest for the DragonLords" and "Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom" on the table and this week Günther brought another Essen newcommer: "Age of Steam" by Martin Wallace. Besides the usual session report Walter wrote a full review about the game. The new menu item is called "Game Reviews".
03.11.2002	Last week we had two game evenings: one Globopolis session with the designer of the game and on Halloween one of our "Orc sessions". For all of you who wonder what the odds of winning in a Globopolis battle are Günther has calculated some tables of probabilities.
25.10.2002	It's been a long long time since we played 1830 - at last this week the time was right. Walter writes about our interesting game with a rather surprising end in his 1830 session report.
20.10.2002	Five games on our table in this game session: "Das Amulett", "Im Zeichen des Kreuzes", "Drakon mit Expansion Set", "Powerplay" and last but not least "Bluff". Moritz wrote the session report. Because the English version of the "Globopolis" rules book is rather chaotic, I wrote an "Avalon Hill style" Rules Summary. This should help the more experienced gamers to get into the game a lot faster.
13.10.2002	In our last game session we had two of our older games on the table. Here are the reviews of "Family Business" and "Hecht im Karpfenteich".
12.10.2002	In the meantime we could clarify some ambiguous rules of Globopolis. The results are this errata sheet and these rule variants. For all visitors of Essen's Spiel 2002 we repeat our tip from last year: you can buy the tickets already in advance at any travel agent having a START booking terminal. The advantage is that you do not have to wait in the line in front of the fair and that you get free public transportation to and from the fair.
06.10.2002	Lots of new stuff today: in 3 game session reports we wrote reviews about "Zaster", "Gespenster", "Globopolis", "Rise and Fall" and "Herr der Ringe: Die Gefährten". And like always we have updated our Game Ranking List and we provide game aids for "Nightmare House", "When Darkness Comes" and "Rise and Fall".
24.09.2002	Our current favorite "Star Wars - Epic Duels" was back on the table together with the new release "When Darkness Comes". Moritz describes the details.
15.09.2002	A very old favorite of mine was on the table: the German "Öl für uns alle" (literally: "Oil for all of us"). Not having played it for over 25 years I was in for a surprise. This and the reviews of the other games we played can be found here.
08.09.2002	After a short break for vacation I've added two new session reports from Moritz with reviews of 6 interesting games. Details can be found here and there.
21.08.2002	Yesterday's game session was our first "orc evening", i.e fantacy games were on the table. In his session report Peter descibes what happened.
19.08.2002	If you are able to read German I strongly recommend that you read Walter's response to Moritz' review of "Castle of Magic" together with Peter's and Moritz' replies. Its interesting, partly mean and certainly rhetorically brilliant fun.
16.08.2002	One of those few gaming sessions that only saw German language games on the table. Consequently, Moritz decided to write the session report about "Medici", "Vinci", "...und Tschüss" and "Bluff" in English. Have fun reading this one! As usual here is our updated scoring list.
12.08.2002	Besides our usual "last orders" game of "Bluff" we played two games by American publishes: "Falling" and "Castle of Magic". Here is our game session report.
17.07.2002	On our recent gaming sessions we had some new releases and a few classics on the table.
30.06.2002	On our last game session we had two classics on the table: Illuminati and Canyon, the latter being a conversion of the abstract "Bid & Bluff" published 1971 by 3M. Flickwerk by Fiedemann Friese, our first game of the evening was not convincing, though.
24.06.2002	Surprise!? Not really. Although Puerto Rico scored highest in our Mini Poll as the favourit for the "Spiel des Jahres 2002" award it probably appeared a bit too complex for the jury. Hence "Villa Paletti" receives this year's award and deserves it just as well. Congratulations to the author and the publisher.
03.06.2002	The list of nominees for this year's "Spiel des Jahres" award has been published: Puerto Rico by Andreas Seyfarthpublished by ALEA/Ravensburger Trans America by Franz-Benno Delonge published by Winning Moves Villa Paletti by Bill Payne published by Zoch The winner will be announced by the jury during a press conference on June 24th.
16.05.2002	The list of finalists of this year's "Spiel des Jahres" has been released. The finalists are: ALLES IM EIMER, Stefan Dorra (Kosmos) ATLANTIC STAR, Dirk Henn (Queen Games) BLOKUS, Bernard Tavitian (Sekkoia/Heidelberger) DER HERR DER RINGE - DAS KARTENSPIEL, Reiner Knizia (Ravensburger) DSCHUNKE, Michael Schacht (Queen Games) DVONN, Kris Burm (Don & Co/Heidelberger) KUPFERKESSEL & CO., Günter Burkhardt (Goldsieber) MAGELLAN, Tom Lehmann (Hans im Glück) PUERTO RICO, Andreas Seyfarth (alea/Ravensburger) SAN GIMIGNANO, Duilio Carpitella (Piatnik) TRANS AMERICA, Franz-Benno Delonge (Winning Moves) VILLA PALETTI, Bill Payne (Zoch)
05.04.2002	It's been a while since we played Vinci - see Walter's report (in German) about our latest gaming session.
27.03.2002	...and its Puerto Rico again. Hans added some hot strategy hints to our review.
24.03.2002	Puerto Rico is certainly one of the current highlights of our game sessions. Besides a new session report (in German), which also includes a session of Acquire we produced a complete Puerto Rico review in English.
08.03.2002	Puerto Rico arrived on our table and here is a report of our very first game (in German). Conclusion: this one we definitely want to play more often. Warhamster Rally on the other hand was not as much fun as we had hoped.
03.03.2002	Read our new review of an old favorit: Showbiz by Derek Carver. There is also a new game session report about Evo and Euphrat&Tigris
24.02.2002	Three of us (Günther, Moritz and Peter) took part in the qualifying of the German boardgame championships - with moderate success: Moritz' and Peter's team (OpenGL) got second but last while Günther's team (Spuiratzn) reached second place.
17.02.2002	Just added a new game session report and an updated version of our games ranking list.
14.02.2002	Peter must have been so impressed by our yesterday's gaming session that he spontaneously decided to write his first game review of Titicaca by Corné van Moorsel (Cwali).
10.02.2002	There doesn't seem to be any information about Calder Craft's game 'Robin Hood' on the web, so I decided to write a short review (in German) about it and included some photographs. Unfortunately, this game is out-of-print since quite a long time.
09.02.2002	For all fans of Dune and Titan, boths classics from Avalon Hill, there is the possibility to play these games on a PC. Both programs come as freeware implementations. The Titan clone "Colossus" is implemented in Java and the simplest way to execute it is using Java Web Start. Dune is a straight forward executable and does not require any specific type of installation. Titan provides a computer AI which permits games against PC opponents and the Dune emulator supports network and "hotseat" games against other human players. Here is the link to the Dune emulator: http://homepage.eircom.net/~monalisa/Dune/ and here to the Titan clone: http://colossus.sourceforge.net/. There is also a new game session report.
26.01.2002	Hasbro decided to hand over the Avalon Hill games section to Wizards of the Coast which are also owned by Hasbro. Strategy gamers and grognards will certainly like this move as WotC is a lot closer to the genre of AH games than the mass market oriented Hasbro. There is also a new game review of Corruption, a game by Bruno Faidutti plus a new game session report.
19.01.2002	What are the game we would like most to take to a desert island? We answer this question in our new section Desert Island Games. Also there is a new game session report of Superpower and Anno Domini as well as an updated rating table.
13.01.2002	Just completed the review of the Knizia cardgame "Der Herr der Ringe - Die Gefährten".
12.01.2002	Moritz wrote a review about Steve Jackson Games' Munchkin. We also added a game session reports section with some first impressions of the games played.
06.01.2002	At last there is a new review available: Bruno Faidutti's "Das Tal der Mammuts".
16.12.2001	Since Lycos' htmlGear seems to have gone offline I had to change the provider for our guestbook. Our new guestbook is now hosted by Bravenet, the same service which already hosts our Link Exchange List and mini polls.
12.12.2001	We just received a letter from Friedhelm Merz Verlag with the sad news that the "Die Pöppel-Revue" will cease to exist end of this year. The reason given is that their chief editor Matthias Hardel leaves the Pöppel-Revue by 31.12.2001. So after more than 20 years of existence the German "Das Fachblatt für Spieler" says good-bye to its readers. A definite loss to all gamers! In the letter it is explicitly stated that next year's paperback "Spiel" will be published and, even more important, that Friedhelm Merz Verlag will still organize next years "Internationalen Spieletage" in Essen.
11.12.2001	Luding, the online games database maintained by Stefanie Kethers and Joerg Henrichs, can now be reached with the new and shorter URL http://luding.org. All previous URLs continue to exist permanently.
25.11.2001	For all those who like business simulation games here is the review of Hans im Glück's Müll + Money (Industrial Waste), release at this years "Spiel" in Essen. For all of you who like to play boardgames online I'd like to point you to Brettspielewelt, a German site with lots of online versions of good boardgames. Getting into the user interface of this site takes some time even for Germans therefore Mark Johnson produced a "Quick & Dirty Guide to BSW" in English, which should give you an easy start.
18.11.2001	At last we finished another review about one of our "Essen 2001" games: Vom Kap bis Kairo published by Adlung Spiele.
31.10.2001	Just completed the review of another "Essen" game: Urland. If you like playing Ursuppe, the previous "Ur" game by Doris&Frank, you will also like this one. The game mechanics are completely different although genes also play a role here. Playing time is shorter and the game principles are easier to understand, but expect a similar learning curve as with Ursuppe.
29.10.2001	Today I completed the review of UR - 1830BC. For all friends of the 18xx game series this very good game is a new challenge.
21.10.2001	Like every year the Spiel 2001 fair in Essen was so packed with visitors on Saturday that I had no chance to play all the games I had on my list. My Top Three this time were: UR - 1830BC by Splotter Spellen, Urland by Doris & Frank and Titicaca by Cwali. To play Ur or Urland on Saturday was hopeless - all tables were permanently booked. And there is a new review by Walter of 6 nimmt (Take 6).
14.10.2001	Starting Thursday until Sunday this week the Spiel 2001 fair in Essen will take place. A little hint for those who are planning to buy their tickets in Essen at the fair: it is possible to get tickets from German travel agents who have a START booking terminal. Advantage: you do not have to wait in the somewhat longish queues in Essen at the Gruga halls and the public transport to and from the fair is already included in the price at no extra cost (quite an advantage if you are travelling from Düsseldorf airport to Essen!). It took me a while to convince the lady at the travel agent here in Munich that there is a fair in Essen called Spiel 2001 and that it is possible to buy tickets via START but in the end she believed me and I got the tickets. This week we reviewed "Ohne Furcht und Adel".
07.10.2001	This week we reviewed "Rette sich wer kann". Unfortunately this game is out-of-print and may be hard to find.
01.10.2001	A lot of new stuff today: 3 short reviews (Britannia, Supremacy und Overthrone, an update of our ranking list and : every now and then a little opinion poll with changing subjects. I've tried to implement this as unobtrusive as possible (pop-up window in the background). Tell us what you think.
30.09.2001	Our goal to publish at least one review per weeks at last shows some effect: "Royal Turf" a nice little game published earlier this year by Alea/Ravensburger.
25.09.2001	...and yet another new review: "Drachengold".
24.09.2001	The jury of the Swedish "Game Of The Year" award announced this years winner: Diceman by Stuart Teperman. Also new: a review of "Die Erben von Hoax" (Legacy of Hoax) plus an updated ranking list.
23.09.2001	Added a link to Crisis, a 18xx variant still under development. Instead of railroad corporations players are operating subway lines. A special is the usage of square (instead of hex) track tiles. More information about the game and its availability on Robert Jasiek's Homepage.
17.09.2001	All votes have been counted: the winner of this year's "Deutsche Spiele Preis" is Carcassonne. A complete ranking can been found here.
12.08.2001	The Dutch games company Splotter Spellen will present their 1830 variant "Ur - 1830 B.C." during this year's Spiel 2001 in Essen. Although inspired by Avalon Hill's 1830 this game is not about railroads and corporations (B.C.!) but rather about building irrigation systems for farmlands. You can find more details on Splotter Spellen's web site or at Luding.
11.08.2001	Craig Tomarkin pointed me to his baseball game Guru's FAMOUS Baseball Game. You can download the rules and the game components from his web site.
24.07.2001	Just added a new review - Chill published by Pacesetter (unfortunately OOP).
15.07.2001	Here is an update of our ranking list.
25.06.2001	The winners of this years Spiel-des-Jahres awards have been announced: "Carcassonne" wins the "Spiel des Jahres" award, the special award "Literature in Games" is awarded to "Herr der Ringe" and the new award "History in Games" is given to "Troia". Childrens game of the year award is given to "Klondike". Congratulations to the authors of these games.
24.06.2001	In view of tomorrow's announcement of this year's winner of Spiel-des-Jahres I added a review of the Goldsieber game "Das Amulett".
19.06.2001	The jury of Spiel-des-Jahres has published their list of nominees for this year's SdJ: nominated are "Carcassonne", "Das Amulett" and "Zapp Zerapp". The winner will be declared on June 25th.
15.06.2001	Moritz sent his review (in English!) of Euro Games' latest release "Evo". Have fun reading this one! There's also an update of our ranking list.
01.06.2001	The Strategy Gaming Society announced the winners of their "2001 Gamers' Choice Awards". Find the details on their homepage and at Westbank Gamers.
29.05.2001	The Auswahlliste of the German "Spiel des Jahres 2001" has been published.
12.05.2001	Added the possibility to add your own site to the Links section.
30.04.2001	Moritz wrote a new review: "Princess Ryan's Star Marines" by Avalon Hill.
25.04.2001	Request-A-Review! Having access to a large number of German and English board games we want to offer you a new service: if you like to see a review of a particular game just drop a note in our guestbook. If we can get hold of the game we'll put it on our "to be reviewed" list. So: let us know what you want to see here!
22.04.2001	Junta review added.
15.04.2001	Added the Westpark Gamers Score List. The list shows the games we played with player names, dates and individual scores (1 meaning worst game ever up to 10 meaning best game ever). "Cartagena" review added.
08.04.2001	Made some layout changes to improve navigation and readability.
05.04.2001	Review of "Viceroys" added. Press Release 2001 Gamers' Choice Awards Nominees of the Strategy Gaming Society
14.03.2001	In addition to links and information about the games of the 18xx series we decided to add reviews of games we play at our Westpark Gamer's meetings. We decided to publish reviews of German games in English and vice versa.

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