I hope. It has been a traumatic few months: a bad bike crash; having my wallet, keys, phone and design notes stolen in the British Museum; and finally a water leak which, uncannily, homed in on some of my favourite books - mainly the big, expensive ones with pictures. This latter event gave rise to all sorts of emotions, none good, and of course a frantic effort to save what I could. Despite this, I now have several crinkly paper doorstops lying around.

All of which is the main reason for my tardiness. The other reason was a writer's block of enormous proportions, lasting over two months. It started to ease last week, and 11,000 words later here I am. I'll try not to let it happen again. As if I knew why they happen in the first place.

Do I blog? No, if the paltry number of my inbound blog links is anything to go by. My natural rhythm... Read More...

Many apologies for the delay. January is always busy to the point of running out of time. This year was worse. Then I got ill. Anyway, plenty to write about.

Regular readers will remember that I got to play this game last year at Essen. Then it was a game about collecting, tentatively entitled Sammelsurium. Now re-themed, and published in a professional package, we have Tribune. And it remains a very good game indeed.

To head off the inevitable 'pasted-on theme' comments, I would say that the new theme is actually ... Read More...

To sunny Eastbourne on Britain’s South coast for the regular post-Essen get together organised by Mike Clifford and myself. Twenty five or so gamers leave their other halves looking at the calendar, with a sense of deja vu, and whizz off to a small hotel to enjoy four days of fish & chips and solid gaming – hopefully ticking off most of those titles unplayed and bought in the previous month. Uncannily, it runs at the same time as bgg.con, and we like to note that we are the senior event, if somewhat smaller in scope (!). And it was sunny. I don’t know how, but it was. A few hardy souls were sea swimming in late November.  

Another year, another Essen. That may well be a cliché, but so quickly do the shows come round that it seems as if just weeks are passing in between. Getting old, I guess. But not too old to enjoy myself for a few days at the biggest game fair in the world. At one point Eric Martin introduced me to his wife as an "Old One", which made me smile, and sound like some sort of mythos creature. In reality, it probably applies to anyone who was playing German Games, B.S. (Before Settlers). As I approach my twentieth Essen anniversary, I rather like the idea of being a boss card in Arkham Horror.

If you want me to give you some general impressions, and I'm sure you do, then they would be that prices were up, smoke and crowds were down and that there were quite a few no-shows amongst the games scheduled to appear. The latter is down to the usual ... Read More...

Because I haven’t yet got a copy of this game (where are they?!), I can’t do the full review I would like to. But I have played twice, and I thought I’d give you the heads up. In short, this has all the signs of an interesting game and I am in no doubt that this is the best that Phalanx have so far produced. It is going to annoy some, because we have seen the theme before – buying goods to load onto ships. Personally, I will take ten games on this same theme if they each give me a clever new mechanism or two (check), nice graphics (check) and a solid game (check). Inevitably, comparisons with ... Read More...

Gamer’s Notebook May 2007

This is part two of the extended Gathering and Eastbourne report.

I liked this one. It’s quick, it’s quite light, yet it makes you think a bit. It may prove to be clever in a ‘sub-system looking for a bigger and better home’ way, but I doubt you will find one play a negative experience. I for one will enjoy pushing it to find the game’s limits, and to dig around for tactics that may help get me there.

Simply, you are testing, making and ‘patenting’ potions. Each potion recipe needs cubes to concoct, and given a good stir and bubble, it will produce different cubes and VPs – so the cauldrons are really li... Read More...

Gamer’s Notebook, April 2007

What follows is a round up of the games played at three conventions that saw me occupied for no less than eighteen days of twenty five in March and early April. These were in Eastbourne, at The Gathering and the Cambridge Boardgame Club. Encouragingly, I am not in the least gamed out and will be back for more in two days time. There are however so many games to cover, that this report is going to be a two parter. Look for the balance in a couple of weeks.

For some reason, the Nuremberg releases were both few and delayed this year. Retailers could not satisfy our cravings at our mid-March mini-con in Eastbourne. The only ‘new’ game we had was Pillars of the Earth (Mayfair’s English version – identical otherwise) which I had managed to secure pretty much off the boat – ... Read More...

This month’s column will comprise four main parts: a round up of the Essen releases, either played or re-played; some relevant sports reporting; a short review of the best game of the year; and finally The Sumos – a list of my favourite games for 2006. But first, the weather.

It is very mild in England. We had a short winter, on December 9th, but otherwise I have not yet needed my gloves or a second fleece. I take this as incontrovertible (is that really a word?) evidence of global warming, I expect the Gulfstream to stop at any moment, and it is also how I ended up playing softball in November. This is what happened.

I went to an afternoon/evening 'party/barbeque' for my godson's 17th birthday. It featured a dozen or so work-shy, but sociable, teenagers. They all had better iPods than I have, and one had such a cool mountain bike that I almost bought it from him.

We went to the park to kick a ball around and then play softball. It was agreed to... Read More...

I am just back from Germany, the country where smoking, a 100% meat diet, and red trousers for men are still apparently acceptable. It has saving graces, though, such as Spiel. And decent beer. The biggest games scene in the world. The Audi TT. And some very attractive women.

Okay, okay. I love it.

I had, as usual, a fine time wandering around the halls of Essen, trying and buying games, looking at new products, chatting to old friends, marvelling at the range and quality of games we can now buy, and frantically taking notes for this report. The usual stats apply: over 350 games released at the show, displayed in ten massive halls, and around 150,000 people coming to check them out.

The big difference to The Olden Days is that there are now so many new games that it is impossible to assess, or even find, everything. Paradoxically, this takes the pressure off when compiling a report. One cannot hope to be comprehensive, and it makes no sense to ... Read More...

Recess (Atlas Games) is the first published design by Morgan Dontanville, a frequent contributor to various internet forums, and consultant for Café Games. Morgan always has some insightful and often pointed views on games, and design, so it was with some interest that I sat down with the shiny, bright blue box. How would the established critic negotiate his own stated preferences and attitudes, and what sort of commentary could he expect as feedback? I really ask because I am in the same boat…

I was three lines into the rules introduction when the two fateful words appeared – ... Read More...

Okay, let me get this out in the open. Emira (Phalanx Games) is one of the funniest games I have played in some time. I will get in trouble for saying that because it revels in pre-PC sexism, has more double entendres than an Austin Powers movie, and a decent running gag about Palace Size, but never Palace Envy. UK readers should just imagine Carry On Caliph. I am convinced the designers, and definitely the rules translator, have milked what they can from the scenario and all inhabit some weird 1970’s time bubble, or perhaps have read too much Loaded or Maxim. In truth, I enjoyed the temporary juvenile freedom, the journey back to a time before PC, and the shocked reactions from women playing on neighbo... Read More...

There is now no getting away from the fact that Fantasy Flight are a major player, and I am actually pleased that is the case. After several early forays that marked them out as ‘just another American boardgame company’, they have seemingly cracked the difficult task of presenting a steady stream of gorgeous looking, hefty and sometimes rather long games. These are provided at surprisingly reasonable prices, pushed out the door in numbers, and seem to preserve a viable business plan at the same time. The latter one is key, as anyone at Eagle Games will tell you. For these achievements alone, they should be congratulated.

They also have some real winners in their line-up. As a result, even I am tempted by their prodigi... Read More...

As the summer hots up, and work on my new house -- Sumo Towers -- at last declines, my thoughts immediately turn to long bike rides in the English countryside, blockbuster movies, barbeques, gardening, kite flying, and of course quiet afternoons sitting in the courtyard reading or painting. There is even the odd game session available for anyone not sunning themselves. Were it not for work and mortgage sticking their oars in, things would look pretty idyllic round these parts.

But Mike, we want to hear about games. Okay. The Nuremburg releases have been and gone, and outside of Thurn und Taxis and Um Krone they raised barely a ripple -- but as ever, there have been a couple of notables which deserve comment. Plus, there are some games from The Gathering still unreviewed. I have also been lucky enough to enjoy some good two player sessions recently (s... Read More...

Some of you will already know me, through Sumo or The Game Cabinet, in which case you pretty much know what to expect. Some may have heard of me, perhaps through BoardGameGeek, which is at least a start. Others, and very much the majority, will not know me at all, in which case hello. This is a new column that picks up on my past efforts – writing for Games International, G3 and Games & Puzzles, publishing Sumo magazine, running The Rules Bank and being lucky enough to be around when the German Game invasion was just getting underway. Sumo magazine displayed my ability to waffle on about games and other good stuff at great length, and now I am about to do it again. Sometimes, there are even points of interest if you look hard enough.

I am going to be writing about boardgames in the widest sense, through discussion, analysis and in depth reviews, and always with something positive to say. For any number of reasons, not least beca... Read More...

In the 1990s, one of things I most looked forward to was the arrival of a new issue of Sumo. No matter what, when it arrived, I'd stop what I was doing and sit down and read it from cover to cover. Because for me, Sumo was, and still is, the best gaming magazine ever.

Now Funagain is bringing Sumo, otherwise known as Mike Siggins, to cyberspace and back to the gaming world. With wit and sarcasm and in wonderfully understated, often rambling, English prose, Mike will once again be writing about games, movies, books, sports, his life, and life in general. So be prepared for a real treat. I'm so excited, I already can't wait to read column number one, coming in June.

Alan R. Moon