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unthinkable in Germany. But at least the Dutch have a heart for the incontinent and offer them a daily flat rate.
On the Saturday evening, players con- tinue gaming late into the night in a hotel close by. Explainers from 999 Games and the nationwide operating games club Ducosim provide the necessary support.
The history of this gaming spectacle would be inconceivable without Michael Bruinsma, owner of 999 Games, who ini- tiated it in 1992 (see also sb 3/2014, p. 47). The mid-90s were all about Magic, and the usual board game fan could be disappointed at times. An industrious activist in the Dutch gaming scene, Erwin Broens, also a blogger (www.bordspeler .nl), Ducosim member and founding member of the Nederlandse Spellenprijs, countered this trend effectively by orga- nizing board game animations in cooper- ation with Ducosim and returning to the origins. After Settlers of Catan had also arrived in the Netherlands, Ravensburger put out their feelers in 1999 for the first time, and had a stunning success with Tikal: visitor numbers doubled to 7,000. In 2000 Frank Eimers took over the orga- nization and professionalized the visual presentation. Even the game masters themselves had to adapt and are now running around in a thematically more fit- ting, if not always more comfortable, kit.
After a massive success (14,000 vis- itors) Eimers quit in 2003 and went on to Elf Fantasy Fair. The event location in Eindhoven survived until 2006, although in the later years some cutbacks had to be made because of a failure in Flanders. Beginning in 2007 the organizers Libéma Exhibitions shifted the event 150 km to the north to Zwolle, which left the Flem- ish players really unhappy. Although the fair was off to an impressive start there, demand soon started to drop off; booth owners complained about declining sales coupled with increasing costs. In 2010 Libéma and 999 Games declared in a joint press release that the fair was discontinued. Frank Bunnik, who was recruited by Frank Eimers at the Elf Fan- tasy Fair, brought the Spellenspektakel back home to Eindhoven in 2012, start- ing small again with only 3,500 visitors. Today the largest Dutch board game fair has finally entered calmer waters again.
Christwart Conrad/cs
Iended my review of Haspelknecht (sb 1/2016) by saying that the game deserved to be successful.
Presumably it has been, since it has now been given a multi-part expansion. There are three elements, the first of which is a new collection of develop- ment tiles. These are tiles that are put together in a 4-row array in the middle of the table. The players’ main objec- tive in the game is to mine the coal on their land, but almost as import- ant is to claim the benefits and points offered by these tiles. The tiles are of four levels, with the cost and benefits
differently than those from the standard game and offer greater benefits, but to reach them you need to work your way through rows 1 to 4. Since the game still has just the three “game years”, the result is that it becomes much harder to achieve all your aims, and you will be forced to make choices about which of them are more important to you.
Module 2 is “Iron”. This one does increase the playing time, from three game years to four. The tunnel sec- tion of your board is increased in size, meaning that there is more coal to be extracted, and some of the props
TO BE CONTINUED
Haspelknecht: The Ruhr Valley
increasing as you move down through the rows. Each tile’s position in its row will vary from game to game, but all the tiles are in use in a 4-player game. The result is that although there is some variety from game to game, there isn’t a lot. For groups like mine this isn’t a problem, for we have a butter- fly approach, flitting from one game to another and back again. However, for those who like to focus on one game and play it intensively, the sameness of the scenery could be an issue. The new tiles deal with this.
The other two elements are modules that extend the basic scenario and give you a bigger strategic space in which to operate. They can be played singly or together.
Module 1 is called “Black Develop- ments” and consists of a fifth row of development tiles. These work slightly
needed to shore up the area are now iron rather than wood.
For me, the key question to be answered by any expansion is, does it improve the game, or is it just a case of variety for the sake of variety? In my view, this is the former: an already good game has got better. We haven’t made use as yet of the new development tiles, but we have played both modules singly and together, and in future we are unlikely to play the game without including at least one, and preferably
both, of them.
Stuart W. Dagger
Haspelknecht: The Ruhr
Valley (Quined Games)
by Thomas Spitzer; for
2–4 players, about 12+ years; duration: about 90–120 minutes; price: about 25 €.
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