Das Magische Labyrinth

Das Magische Labyrinth

The new game I'm introducing this week is Das Magische Labyrinth, which means the magical maze in German. It's a new game published just this very year. The game is a memory game for children. I love this game at the first sight because of it's blue cover.

In the game, players are magician apprentices that have lost some objects in the magic maze. They have to find all of them before the master notice anything, but there are invisible walls in the maze. They have to remember the path and collect the objects fast.

The playboard of the game is not just a board. It's in 3D, and of the size of the box. Open the box and you can see the whole constructure. Take out the objects and the characters, each with a magnetic ball. There is the secret of the maze: wooden walls. hen the magicians are passing with their magnetic ball, the wooden walls are invicible for them and will make the balls fall , so they must remember them everytime the ball fall.

To begin the game, everyone put their characters in place, and the first player draw an object, find the picture on the board and put the object on the picture.

Then all the players take turn to find the way to the object and get it. If one hit the wall, one must go back to the starting corner. The first one to collect five objects is the winner.

As I said above, I love this game at the first sight. Last week, I finally got the chance to play it. It was interesting, but wasn't as attracting as I expected. I don't think I will buy one.

San Ta Si

San Ta Si

The game I'm introducing this week is San Ta Si. Try to pronounce the name. You may know what it means. It's a small game that can end in ten minutes, and it's for two people.

The game contains a triangle wooden board and tubes in two colors in various sizes. The Obeject is to let one's own tube be seen when the game ends. However, you can put one another's tubes also. The other things is that the tube you put on the board must touch the other tubes. It can only be a size bigger or smaller. The game ends when all of the tubes are all put.

It's a little game that two people can use to kill time. It's not my favorites though, with interesting players, the game can be interesting.

Set

Set

The game I'm introducing this week is Set. It's kind of like FITS that you can play it alone. I like this game a lot because I can kill time or wait for someone by playing Set, but mostly because it's like a puzzle game, which is my favorite game kind.


There are 108 cards in total. First, open 12 cards face up on the tabel, and then players has to find a "set". To explain "set", each card has four elements in three different kinds, which are number, shape, color, and shading. To complete a set, you have to find three cards in the twelve cards that has all of the same kind or all different kinds in each elements. When you find a set, yell "set", pick up the three cards, and show to others for them to check you're right. Then open three cards to make sure there are always 12 cards on the table.If you said "set" and found out you're wrong, move away a card from your pile, which means minus one point. If you can't find any, after all others are agreed, open another three cards. The game ends when all the cards are opened and there are no more sets on the table. After that count the cards you have, each card gets you one point.


I didn't often win, but I still like the game a lot. It's like training my brain and it makes me think. I even thought about buying one, but after few thoughts, I'll just play it in the store.


set:across and down

Qwirkle

Qwirkle

The game I'm introducing this week is Qwirkle. Don't ask me how to pronounce it. It's not important. It was published in 2006, but I haven't seen it until this summer when it's introduce to Taiwan.

The game has 108 wooden blocks with six colors in six shapes. Players take turns to put blocks of a kind(color or shape) on table and then immediately score. There can only be six different blocks in a row at most. The person who places the sixth block will get double point, at least 12 points.

The game is not only about scoring. You also have to try to prevent other players from getting points. Just be careful not to find yourblocks on yourself's way later.

I like this game a lot and I often play it. It's one of my favorite games. I won some time. Last week, I bought one, but I haven't open it because I still can play it in the store. I took those playing pictures above. It was my first play.

FITS

FITS (Fill In The Spaces)

The game I want to introduce this week is Fits. It is a new game published early in this year and has soon won a award.It looks like Tetris and has almost the same rules. The game can be played with more than one people. Everyone take a board and a set of pieces of their color, and then draw a starting card, which shows the first piece they have to put on the board, so that everyone won't have the same situation. Players put on pieces shown on the cards after every cards are revealed one by one, but you can't slide it horizontally like Tetris do. After every pieces are put, count the space on the board and score.

The game has four boards, with different rules and scoring, and there are more with expansions.

I have played it for some times and I thing I'm GOOD. It is also fun even if it's played alone. One of my friends won the first place in a contest, but after that he didn't win often. Maybe it's because the contest had the wrong rule, which we know after a while.

Thebes

Thebes

The game I want to introduce this time is Thebes. Players are archeologists that travel around Europe and Egypt's historical sites to explore ancient culture and artifacts, but before they do, they have to collect enough knowledge. The more "intelligence" they are, the more and faster can they excavate treasure artifacts. And sometimes, when there are exhibitions where you can have your artifacts in display.

The game is special with is that player don't take actions in the same "time." There is a time track on the game board which has 52 spaces that means 52 weeks of a year. Every action takes different time, so players may be in different week. The one that is the furthest back always act first.

The other special thing are the time wheels, which are not seen often. It shows how long and how many artifacts you can excavate depend on how much knowledge you have collected.

There aren't many action in a turn, so the game's is fast. It is also exciting when you excavates. You draw artifact tokens out from cloth bags, but the tokens are not all artifacts, dirt are blended in, so it is common that you draw five tokens and there are only one artifact. And then drawn dirt are put back in the bag. Therefore, the earlier you make an excavation, there are more chance to dig out treasures.

At the end, the player with the most valuable artifacts, the most knowledge, and the most exhibitions wins.

Roll Through the Ages( The Late Bronze Age)

The new game I want to introduce to you is Roll Through the Ages and it's new version The Late Bronze Age. The owner is my friend and my bf loves it so much that he really wants to buy one after his first play. I have played it for many times, most of the times are with my bf. He likes to research for new ways of winning and discuss them with me.

The box is not big, but it's heavy and it's full. It contains 7 dices, players' peg boards, marking peg, and a thick book of scoring sheet. It's simple and mostly wood-made, so many people just made one by themselves.

Players roll dice to obtain commodities and workers to build up their civilizations. Dice can be rerolled twice unless they come up as a hazard. Players use their workers to build infrastructure to support additional works or to build monuments that are worth points. At the same time commodities are gathered which allow your civilization to develop. Once all monuments or five (in new version seven) developments are achieved by a player the game ends at the end of the round, points are counted, and a victor is declared.

We have played it for not many times, but my bf loves it after his first play. He likes to think of new strategies and methods to win. He even borrowed it home and played it alone just to think and try new ideas. I think it's fun, too, but I haven't win many games. I think I'll have to think and pray more. After all, it's a dice game( winning depends mostly in luck).

Rummikub

Rummikub

The game I want to introduceto you this week is Rummikub. You may think it looks like Mahjong. And actually it is really similar with Mahjong. It has a nickname called Germany Mahjong while it was made in Israel. There are many versions of Rummikub of different countries, and of course the pirate version.

I like this game because it makes you think, but it not in a "strategy game" way, which you have to think of a lot of things. When Playing Rummukub, you just have to try to get rid of your tiles as soon as possible.

At the beginning of the game, every player take a rack and 14 tiles and put their tiles on the rack. And then try to form these numbers into runs of 3 tiles or more, or 3 to 4 of a kind, like it is showed on the box above. Played tiles will be on the table displayed and can be moved and the sets can be reformed.

I like to play this game, but it's hard to find someone to play with me. My friends likes to play games that are more complicated.

I have attended a formal contest of Rummikub, but I didn't win the contest. However, it feels good that so many people likes it and were together to play the game.

El Capitán

After my presentation on Tuesday morning, I think you all got my blogs point. The game you saw on Tuesday is the game I want to introduce this week, because I have it, and I kind of like it. because of it's art work, which is so gorgeous. The frame and the pictures are so exquisite like it was back in 15th century. The drawing is the only reason why I chose to get it at first because I have not heard or seen of it before.


One of the Extention Cities

Players play the role of a merchant during the 15th century, sailing to strategically important cities of the Mediterranean, building warehouses in these cities and fortresses to protect them. But making moves all costs money because you have to buy cards that function as tickets, so a bank for you to take a loan is definitely necessary when you're out of money. Only to pay it back as soon as possible, or you'll have to pay more! However, the game isn't without receiving money. Payday appears three times in the game and that's when your effort will be rewarded. You could receive money for the number of cities you have built warehouses, fortresses you've built and in each city you own the most or second most warehouses. At the end, the richest merchant is the winner.


I've played it once, actually it should be called testing. It was a 3-players game, my bf, an exhausted friend and me. During the game, we kept having small problems because I didn't remember all of the rule so we kept checking the rule book. That's why I call it testing.

I decided to build warehouses in cities as many as possible, so I can get more money when it was payday. And we found that borrowing money is necessary because at the beginning everyone one has only 20 Florins(dollars), which is definitely not enough to build all of the warehouses and fortresses. Each of us had borrowed money from the bank and payed all of them back after the first payday. During the second phase, I tried to build warehouses in more cities and tried to be the majority in cities. Each of us borrowed money again, but after the second payday and after we payed our debt, we had more money. On the third phase, which is the last phase, I finally got the proliferation bonus card, and I was the first one. It was 15 Florins(dollars). I spent money without hesitating and built warehouses in a fast speed. I was the one who finished the game by building all of the warehouses and fortresses. And I won the game by owning 220Florins(dollars) in total. I guess that's one of the reasons I like this game. The first game is like a first impression!

The Two Kinds of Loan Cards

The Proliferation Bonus cards

PitchCar

PitchCar

It took me some time to choose which game to be my first article. I chose PitchCar because I looked through all the pictures on BGG, and it is a game suitable for all ages and board game beginners, though the price isn't, for it's almost all wooden content. I have seen it and played a few laps at 2009 Summer Cool.Con. It was fun, simple and doesn't require much of your intelligence.

As you can see, the game is played by shooting your car using your fingers to flick. The first one who finishes the lap(s) wins. But stay in the track! Or you'll have to start over again.

Not only racing, but also building your own track is a interesting part of the game. The puzzle-like track pieces make set up fun, too. With extensions, you can have more gorgeious tracks, including bridges, straight long tracks and cross roads, etc.

The game requires space because you have to move around the tracks to flick your cars, like billiards. And big tables that matches your track, which means if have bought extensions, you'll need bigger or more tables. I once wanted to buy one but I really don't have the space for playing it.

On the other side, inevitably, due to my habbit, I thought of how many trees are cut. The heavy boxes are filled with almost all wooden content. Sorry for the heavy talk, but thats what I always think of.

I wrote it like an ad.= =

back of the box, with sample of tracks

*all pictures are from BGG, click here for more pictures of PitchCar