Voting for UK Games Expo Awards - Simurgh (and Mistfall)

UK Games Expo awards prizes every year for the best boardgame in one of a number of categories. For the 2016 awards they are likely to receive 120-130 games to assess, and several have already been sent to them by the publishers. I've offered to help by bringing games to Halesowen Boardgamers. Each game needs to be rated by around 8 people in total - ideally I'd find that many over two sessions at Halesowen, but even a single play with 4 would help towards assessing the game. The first game I'll bring is called Simurgh - a fantasy-themed worker placement game that should play in 1-1.5 hours. I'll bring it along to the next two or three sessions. All you have to do is play the game then give it a rating from 0-5 in five categories.

Another game from the same publisher called Mistfall has also arrived - it is a co-operative fantasy-themed game. If anyone is particularly interested in trying this, then I may be able to bring it along in early January.

Stats Catch Up

Just to note I've finally got round to catching up the stats for the last couple of months, still spending time playing games on my PC, rather than doing things board game related, except for posting about the new Fury of Dracula on BGG. Top game for October - Through the Ages: A New story of Civilisation. Top game for November - Fury of Dracula

See
Stats page for October
Stats page for November
BGG list of October and November.

Game Preview: Kingdom of Kiralysag

Kingdom of Kiralysag is a mid-weight euro game for 3-5 players. It is a retheme and redesign of a game of mine from a few years back set in medieval Hungary. After the Mongols had devastated the Kingdom in 1241, the Kings decide to repopulate the land with guests invited in from Western Europe. The various peoples - Saxons, Bavarians, Walloons, Flemish, Italians - work together to establish and grow settlements, while competing to dominate them. The game worked quite well, but was a little dry. By retheming to a fictional kingdom I have been able to introduce more variety e.g. with a random succession of kings, rather than the fixed order of the original historical game. I decided to go the whole hog and make it a fantasy kingdom with various races available to players. The game design is ready but now I'm working on the graphics, with the aim of having a play test kit finished for January.

A game of Kingdom of Kiralysag takes place over four Reigns. The four kings are selected randomly out of a total of eight. Each king has different attributes - Militaristic, Mercantile, Religious, Cultured - that affect the composition of the decks of Action Cards and Event Cards that are used for each Reign. In a 4-player game there are up to 6 Rounds per Reign (a king may die early, reducing the number of Rounds). At the beginning of each Round the next two Event Cards are placed face up. Then each player purchases an Action Card from among a row of 8 face up cards, which is then replenished. Each card has an inherent cost in coins and favour and an additional cost depending on its position - this mechanism will be familiar from Suburbia or Through the Ages. An Action card enables a player to settle 2 meeples among the 11 settlements in the Kingdom, "upgrade" an existing settler with a profession such as Merchant or Knight, or build a Temple or Ship in a suitable settlement. At the end of the Round the two events are resolved. Some of these events enable players to gain favour from the king and a small number of Victory Points. Other events impose a cost on players. Income is generated at the end of each Reign. A settler in a poor settlement may not provide any income, while a settler in a wealthy settlement may provide one or two coins. Merchants, Innkeepers, Temples and Ships generate additional income. Scoring occurs at the end of the 2nd and 4th Reigns. This consists of majority scoring for each settlement and also, in the final scoring, for money.