European Designer Board Games and the Revival of Board Gaming
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Beginning with Settlers of Catan (and its expansions: Knights and Cities, Stone Age and Seafarers), and contining with other fresh approaches to board gaming as Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico and numerous other games; and card games such as Bohnanza, San Juan, or Lost Cities - German designers such as Klaus Teuber, Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, Reiner Knizia, Andreas Seyfarth, Wolfgang Kramer and others, have introduced a lot of increasingly popular games in the United States.These games are published in the U.S. primarily by Mayfair and Rio Grande Games.
- European Style Board Games (Wikipedia)
- Are European Designer Board Games about to Tip?
- What is a Game, Really? and What makes a Game? by Wolfgang Kramer
- Prototype... Prototype... Protospiel by Kes Sampanthar
- Joseph Huber's Game Designer Reviews
- The New Paradigm: Games that are a Hybrid of European and American Design
- Rediscovering friendships through games people play
- The Finer points of Teaching Rules by Mario T. Lanza
- The Games Journal Archives A large collection of articles on gaming from a now defunct webzine. Well worth your browsing!
European designer games are characterized by such features as simple rules, attractive components, relatively abstract designs, and a lack of direct conflict. Great care is taken with the look and feel of the game. They commonly have wooden pieces. These games have contributed to a revival of game playing by young adults. German games are usually multiplayer (though seldom for more thatn six players - and for this, sometimes expansions are needed) and can be learned easily and played in a relatively short time, perhaps multiple times in a single session. A certain amount of socializing and "table talk" might typically be expected during game play - players often get to "play" during other player's turns. A wide variety of often innovative mechanics are used, and familiar mechanics like rolling dice and moving, capture, or trick taking are avoided. They are usually designed around themes, but generally they are neither combatative nor attempting to create simulations. Most of these games are designed to keep all players in the game as long as possible, so it is rare to be certain of victory or defeat until relatively late in the game. Some of the mechanics, like hidden scoring or scoring at the end of the game, are also designed around this avoidance of player elimination. Playing time varies from a half hour to a couple of hours, with around an hour being typical.
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- Rio Grande Games US publisher of German designer games including Puerto Rico, Bohnanza, and lots, lots more. Look for English versions of Kosmos, Queen, Amigo Spiele, Tilsit, and Hans im Gluck games here.
- Mayfair Games US publisher of the Settlers of Catan series of games. They have some Catan variants. Mayfair does English versions of Phalanx and da Vinci Games.
- Phalanx Games (Netherlands)
- da Vinci Games (It) Bang! Card game and many more
- Days of Wonder Among their games are the Ticket to Ride series, Memoir '44 series and Cleopatra.
- Queen Games Among their games are the Alhambra series and Wallenstein.
- UberPlay Uberplay & Inspiration games - Ark of the Covenant (similar to Carcassonne)
- Tenkigames An Italian Company with several new games
- Ragnar Brothers UK
Some Current Euro Game Publishers
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Still here are the Avalon Hill Games I have and have always wanted to play - enough to wish I once again could be a carefree teen, in the days before computers . . .
The Games Makers:
Milton Bradley (est. 1860)
Starting with The Checkered Game of Life (1860), the Milton Bradley Company acquired McLoughlin Bros. (est 1858) in 1920. Milton Bradley introduced many games which have become classics, including: BATTLESHIP, CONCENTRATION, CONNECT FOUR, HANGMAN, THE GAME OF INDIA, THE GAME OF LIFE, OPERATION, PASSWORD, RACKO, SIMON, STRATEGO, TWISTER, and YAHTZEE (which MB acquired when it bought the E.S. Lowe Company 1973). Milton Bradley acquired Playskool in 1984. Then was acquired by Coleco in 1989 and then by Hasbro.
Parker Brothers (George S. Parker est. 1883 Parker Bros. acquired W. & S.B. Ives in 1887, when they published their first successful game MANSION OF HAPPINESS. Then came PING-PONG 1902 , PIT 1904, ROOK 1906, and MONOPOLY 1935. Other Classic Parker Brothers games include BOGGLE, CHIVALRY, FLINCH, THE MAD MAGAZINE GAME, MASTERPIECE, MILLE BOURNE (based on the game of TOURING acquired by Parker Bros), PAYDAY, PENTE (an ancient game revived in 1977 and purchased by Parker Brosin 1984), RISK, and SORRY. The company was acquired by General Mills 1968 and then by Hasbro in 1991.
Mattel (Harold "Matt" Matson and Elliot Handler est 1960) (Official Site) Maker of such toys as Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Barbie - Mattel is noted for the Othello and Uno Card Games. acq Radica Electronic Games 2006). In 1993 it merged with Fisher-Price then in 1996 it purchased Tyco Toys.
Hasbro [Hassenfeld Brothers est 1923 Renamed 1968 ] (Official Site)
Most notable Hasbro toys included: Mr. Potato Head, Twister, G. I. Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, Pokeman, etc. The company has absorbed into its various divisions numerous brands including Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, Kenner, Selchow_and_Righter, Avalon Hill, Wizards of the Coast, Playskool, Tonka- and is the largest toy and game company in the world.
Some books
The Avalon Hill Games I have always wanted to play, but . . .
The rule books were too extensive, the learning curve very steep, usually there were large numbers of card board counters, and they would take hours to learn and hours to play - still I had a fascination with them and accumulated lots of articles on their strategy and variations. Maybe it was the memories with the pleasures of the wargames of my childhood. I just never seemed to have the time to find someone of similar interests to tackle these games. I have stored away years of back issues of The General. I also subscribed to Strategy and Tactics and The Wargamer or a number of years - the later had a wargame in each issue. These are stored away with many years issues of Military History and American Civil War. These cardboard counter wargames became obsolete with the advent of computer wargames - and Avalon Hill eventually was absorbed into Hasbro's empire which kept Axis and Allies
in print, but little else. Advanced Squad Leader went to Multi-Man Publishing