Even with a list of 27 games from Essen that I wanted to try, City Tycoon wasn’t on the list and ended up potentially being my favorite game from the new crop. The first is City Tycoon, which I’ve only played 4 times, but which has come out of nowhere to really impress me. Two more traditional German-style games are in the running as well, although one is from Poland and the other from the Czech Republic. However, Summoner Wars is not alone in the game of the year conversation. The blend of long-term strategic decisions and short-term tactical decisions is excellent, and the urge to play again and again with different faction match-ups is powerful. Suffice it to say, I’m on the Summoner Wars bandwagon despite my longstanding desire to avoid games with many expansions ever since quitting Carcassonne expansions years ago. I’ve previously gone into some detail on my feelings, mostly positive and some critical, on Summoner Wars as appended to Mark Jackson’s review of the game, so I won’t repeat myself here. With so few games hitting 10 plays ever, let alone in the year they’re released, Summoner Wars clearly has that special hook that makes it addictive and replayable.
With 19 plays of Summoner Wars already and many more to come surely, it’s easy to understand why it needs to be in the game of the year conversation. The underlying system was there in 2009, but the fully realized award worthy game didn’t arrive until 2011. The much improved components (namely the board) nicely complement the increasingly diverse array of faction decks introduced in the Master Set. I realize this is somewhat suspect since earlier versions of the game were originally released back in 2009, but the game has really come into its own with the release of the Master Set. The Summoner Wars: Master Set is my early leader for 2011 game of the year. While it’s too early to pick a game of the year since there are still new releases to be tried and many to be played at least a few more times, I’ll handicap some early favorites along with a brief look through the games that saw the table most frequently. And of course 2011 has been capped off by the 2nd edition of War of the Ring finally being released, which should help get this masterpiece into many more hands and onto many more tables. 2011 was helped out nicely by the belated yet very welcome release of the Master Set for Summoner Wars, along with a nice Essen crop in October, featuring great Czech, Polish, and French designs to complement the German staples. Fortunately, the year recovered nicely during the summer and fall from the earlier depths of Artus, Strasbourg, and Pergamon. 2011 got off to a disappointing start with a slew of underwhelming Nurnberg releases that I discussed back in June. As the end of the year approaches, it’s a good time to look back at the past year in gaming.
0 kommentar(er)
