Brettspiel Advent Calendar 2015 - day by day

[kettlefish]

Rokoko : the authors of this game live not far away from my town. I met them when there is an game event here in my region.

[Paul]

Rokoko : the authors of this game live not far away from my town. I met them when there is an game event here in my region.

That is awesome!

I never had a chance to meet the author of my childhood favourite board game of Dungeon Quest (the original Swedish version) but my sister did.

Tempted I am to move to Germany and learn the language, for it seems that this is the home of board games. 

[kettlefish]

Rokoko : the authors of this game live not far away from my town. I met them when there is an game event here in my region.

That is awesome!

I never had a chance to meet the author of my childhood favourite board game of Dungeon Quest (the original Swedish version) but my sister did.

Tempted I am to move to Germany and learn the language, for it seems that this is the home of board games. 

Yes - in Germany you can find many authors and graphics artists...
I've met KJW, Bernd Brunnhofer, Michael Menzel and Luis and Stafan Malz (Rokoko), Dennis Lohausen and some more people...

[Paul]

December 9th



Today's expansion is for the board game Zooloretto adding only one stinking animal! Literally. 

A review even a child could understand of the base game can be found here:


Content (calendar expansion)
1 new animal tile (skunk)

The Rules
This is meant to be played with the base game only, but can be tweaked to adjust for expansions. The game follows normal play with the skunk tile placed in the middle of the table for all to see.
  The first player who fills his or her housing area with six slots takes the skunk tile and then have a chance to do an action of discarding all animals of one type (now or later during any of his or her turns) from player's own barn which will allow any player to buy these discarded animals and those not bought removed from the game. This action is a one-time deal throughout the game.

Rules in German: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Zooloretto_AK_2015_Regel_DE.pdf
Rules in English: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Zooloretto_AK_2015_Regel_EN.pdf

Link to the base game on BoardGameGeek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27588/zooloretto

[CKorfmann]

Yay!  The first of the ones that I have.  Thanks so much for doing this!

[Paul]

December 10th



A busy board may not require more features, but who doesn't love expansions, even if they fail!
*whispering The Catapult and giggles* 
Orléans is one of these busy games on its own and today it got even busier!

Content (calendar expansion)
1 Christmas Market tile with II backside
2 coin tokens valued at 20 each

Requirements
1 1d6 (standard six sided dice)

The Rules
This tile lets the player roll the dice and get a resource depending on the outcome rolled. If rolled a 6 you get to move your merchant to an adjacent town and collect resources along the way.

A video of the base game review can be found here:


Rules in German: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ORLEANS_XMas_DE.pdf
Rules in English: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ORLEANS_XMas_EN.pdf

Link to the base game on BoardGameGeek: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/164928/orleans

[Decar]

FTW - Thanks Paul 

I enjoyed Orléans, although player interaction was limited.  I'm looking forward to giving 'The Invasion' Expansion a go.

[Paul]

FTW - Thanks Paul 

I enjoyed Orléans, although player interaction was limited.  I'm looking forward to giving 'The Invasion' Expansion a go.

You're most welcome! It's really amazing how these games can vary. I hope someday I get to try at least half of these games. One of the local stores had Zooloretto of all. One copy left. But 50 Euro was a bit steep. (Bought another game. Yep Carcassonne! 

[Paul]

December 11th



Is it a Caverna? Is it an Agricola? No... It's... Glasstrasse expansion!
English title is Glass Road and in German it's Die Glasstraße but can also be spelled with 2 s like above for those not familiar with the universal characters

To type these special characters, you have a variety of options and they do vary depending on software and hardware using. But the best method, that works on all computers is using the Alt-codes.
  For the ß you can hold down left Alt and while keeping it down press on the numeric keypad (the calculator numbers on your right) 0 2 2 3 and then let go of the Alt key.
  You won't notice anything while typing in the numbers, which can be weird at first, but it's as simple as that.

Content (calendar expansion)
4 bonus tiles:
• 1 Rebuild - Can be placed on one of the starter building to score 3 points
• 1 Stockade - By the end of the game, if your landscape board has all spaces occupied you score 4 points
• 1 Christmas Market - For each building on your landscape board, you score 1 point
• Guesthouse - When built you can use a processing building on the building board (as many times as you want) until done. This can only be done once.

Requirements
The base game. 

My own thoughts
At first I thought it was an expansion for Agricola. It follows the same theme, not just the game but the graphic style. And this is a good thing, the graphics that is. Makes you feel like you're part of one big landscape. Or in this case, Germany.  Most of these games seems to follow the theme of being played in this country and being based on some history. That's kinda deep ya know. 
  I do not own Glass Road but I do have Agricola and hope to try that some day.

A video of the base game review can be found here:


Rules in German: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/glasstra%C3%9Fe_adventskalender_deu.pdf
Rules in English: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/glasstra%C3%9Fe_adventskalender_eng.pdf

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143693/glass-road

[Paul]

December 12th



It's no Targarian but it does have a desert theme. An expansion for Targi!
This Saturday I'm going to be busy so this has been edited and posted around 3 am. 

Content (calendar expansion)
8 tokens (4 for each player):
• 2 Joker goods tokens
• 2 Targi tokens (1 each in blue and white)
• 2 Tribe marker tokens (1 each in blue and white)
• 2 Waiver tokens

Requirements
• According to BoardGameGeek there are no expansions for this game other than this calendar one so if owning the base game your collection is easy to complete.
• This game is intended for 2 players only.

The Rules (expansion)
Each player takes 4 tokens, one of each and then chooses (secretly) three of them to keep and discard the fourth. After they have discarded the token they reveal which ones they kept. Then, during game play, a player may use a token (one time only for each token) for various effects.
  The joker can be traded in for a merchandise of his or her own choosing (dates, salt or pepper).
  The extra Targi and Tribe tokens (blue and white) can be used as extra of each counterpart after the main 3 from each player has been played for extra bonus effect.
  The last token is a waiver token that let's the player pass on benefits from a Tribe card to be rewarded 2 extra victory points during end of game scoring.

My own thoughts
The rules (for the base game) seems just crazy to try explain without any visual aid so for these I would refer to the video below!
  The game sounds like a fun thing to play when a friend comes over for a cup of coffee to just chill and talk. It also doesn't seem to take up much space but still, I would've liked the cards to be smaller to be adjusted for the road, playable in the back seat or on the train.

A video of the base game review can be found here:


Rules in German: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Rules-Targi-Adventskalender-final.pdf
Rules in English: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/englishRules-Targi-Adventskalender-final.pdf

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/118048/targi

[Paul]

December 13th



Today's expansion is for The Abyss!

Content (calendar expansion)
• 5 Monster key tokens

Requirements
• The base game, which has five different box covers but from what I've read, all of them have the same game content, rules etc.

The Rules (expansion)
Preparations and play for this expansions is quite easy. Just shuffle them into the monster pile and whenever one of these (expansion tiles) are drawn the player keeps it and can later use it as a key to take control of locations.

My own thoughts
The game components and idea is not that grand and that's not a bad. It seems to have a solid foundation for a good play. Unfortunately, us Swedes have this priced at 50-60 Euro (without shipping for domestic orders) which is too high of a price for a game that has a play time of 30-60 mins and only allows a maximum of 4 players. Then there is the consideration of actually playing it more than once a month which can be tough having so many other games out there!

A video of the base game review can be found here:


Rules in German: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/goodies_abyss_GER.pdf
Rules in English: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/goodies_abyss_US.pdf
Rules in French: http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/goodies_abyss_FR.pdf

[quevy]

Paul, thank you for the beautiful advent calendar that we're doing live

[Paul]

Paul, thank you for the beautiful advent calendar that we're doing live

Most welcome! 

[Paul]

December 14th



So what's behind today's hatch? Something that will stir things up... An expansion for VivaJava!
Nothing like having the morning coffee to write today's calendar expansion. Am I right or am I right? 

Content (calendar expansion)
• 4 Research tokens

Requirements
• The base game
• 1-4 players (yes, can be played solo!)

The Rules (expansion)
These research tokens are mixed in with the other tokens as far as I can tell with 3 of the tokens able to force another player to, for example, discard a Blend (this: in-game terminology)
  If you look at the image above, you'll also notice something rude (and hilarious if you ask me!) in one of the token names.

My own thoughts
This is, to me, yet another odd game I probably won't get a chance to own. But if I do find a really cheap sale on this I might consider it.
  The game mechanics is quite interesting for it allows simultaneously game play for several (all?) players to minimize the waiting during others turn.
  There is also co-operation interactive to share some of the scoring opportunities.

And, as a bonus, it has some Carcassonne similarities such as a cloth bag and coasters (ideas). 

Game versions and box arts
There are several VivaJava games. This expansion is for the dice game with round board tokens. Also, the box graphics differ depending on the year / country it was released (in).

A video of the base game review can be found here:


Rules in German and English (one .pdf file): http://frostedgames.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/VivaJava_AlGusto_Promotableau1_Regeln.pdf

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/139899/vivajava-coffee-game-dice-game

[Fritz_Spinne]

  If you look at the image above, you'll also notice something rude (and hilarious if you ask me!) in one of the token names.

I think you speak of "Muckefuck", it is a german expression for grain coffee / malt coffee / barley coffee, a coffee substitute. There's no sexual meaning though.