[PB74] Tarkeel and civacs Game of the Year

[Tarkeel]

Spiel des Jahres is a German jury award for board games, running from 1978. The award is typically given to light/medium weight family-style games, with occasional special prizes for more advanced games. From 2011-onwards this was formalized into a separate "Kennerspiel/Connoisseur" award, while children's games has been a separate category since 1989. Any game that makes the shortlist (usually top-3) is worth checking out, and will form the selection for cities. I'll mainly be picking games that I've at least played, and preferably own.

[Tarkeel]

Password is 'spiel'

Placeholder for index.

[Tarkeel]

Civac reached out after I posted this last night, and was interested in tagging along but also unsure if he was up for a big investment so soon after PB66. I offered him the chance to tag along for as long as he wanted and no hard feelings if he wasn't ready for it just yet. It won't be a casual game with him on board, but that's also good as we make a pretty good team together, even if we have a tendency to discuss irrelevant minute details just because we can.

[Qgqqqqq]

I like seeing players who work well together as teams. Reminds me of some of the great pairs of old, like Gaspar and Noble.

[Tarkeel]

Thanks for he kind words and comparison Q. I mentioned to civac that I think the reason we have good discussions is that neither is interested in winning.

With first wave of picks on the horizon, it's time to start thinking about what we want. This will work very similar to PB59, except that everyone except Commodore gets three leaders to choose from. One thing to note is that with a large (or worse, huge) map, starting techs matter even more than usual, and I picked Egypt solely because Agriculture fitted the start. (I thenk proceded to completely misplay FIN and lose the neighbor lottery, but my attention was in PB58). For traits I'd like to try out PRO, but we'll have to see what comes our way.

[Tarkeel]

Gavagai is Huayana Capac OR Hannibal OR Victoria of Maya
Superdeath is Frederick OR Louis XIV OR Asoka of Native America
Greenline is Mao Zedong OR Mansa Musa OR Lincoln of Persia
Magic Science is Ramassess II OR Willem van Oranje OR Ragnar of Mali
Commodore is Justinian I of Carthage
Dreylin is Mehmed II OR Gilgamesh OR Montezuma of Portugal
Plemo is Stalin OR Churchill OR Catherine of Firaxis Scandinavia
Scooter is Pericles OR Elizabeth OR Washington of Japan
Bing is Alexander OR Napoleon OR Lieu Ye (ORG/PRO) of Babylon
Piccadilly is Tokugawa OR Sitting Bull OR Bismarck of India
Miguelito is Hatsheput OR Darius OR Roosevelt of Egypt
Tarkeel is San Martin (CRE/CHA) OR Julius Caesar OR Isabella of Germany
General Kill Cavalry is Nebuchadnezzar (PHI/IND) OR Hammurabi OR Suleiman of France
GT is Brennus OR Kublai Khan OR Charlemagne of Zululand
Pindicator is Shaka OR Zara Yaqob OR Saladin of Sumeria
Hubabl is De Gaulle OR Augustus Caesar OR Qin Shi Huang of Khemer
Xist10 is Pacal II OR Wang Kon OR Cyrus of Rome
Donovan Zoi is Boudica OR Genghis Khan OR Suryvarman II of Inca
Amicalola is Gandhi OR Peter OR Joao II of Arabia

Not sure I appreciate all the picks being public, but oh well. For leaders, we have:

San Martin (CRE/CHA) which is slightly anti-synergistic. Not a leader I particularly want.
Isabella (EXP(SPI) has a decent early game, and SPI is something I'd be interested in trying out at some point.
Julius Caesar (IMP/ORG) is probably the best leader in CtH for EMP difficulty; ORG loses some value at MON. Pairs nicely with Germany though...

I'll see if I can predict some of the other picks later.

[Tarkeel]

With the difficulty vote stalled at 8-8 with GKC yet to vote, I'm sorely tempted to swap my vote and lock in EMP, if for no other reason than to get it decided already.

[Tarkeel]

Locking in EMP after choices were available felt too scummy. We're most likely to lock in Julius of Germany, barring a start that's very incompatible. Both of us would rather play PRO over ORG, but with this format you have to take what you can get.

If we end up as Germany, the theme will be Spiel des Jahres.

[Tarkeel]

In completely unrelated news, we're already trailing in the view-count war against Commodore, pindi and scooter, which is to be expected as they all draw in a crows, but also against Greenline! Good to see him going

Not that much more to say before starts are posted; I don't have anything unsaid on traits and I'll leave the opponent overview until picks are in.

[Tarkeel]

I'm putting my prediction bets on:

Gavagai is Huayana Capac (FIN/IND) OR Hannibal (FIN/CHA) OR Victoria (FIN/IMP) of Maya: Hannibal of reroll
Superdeath is Frederick (ORG/PHI) OR Louis XIV (CRE/IND) OR Asoka (SPI/ORG) of Native America: Reroll
Greenline is Mao Zedong (EXP/PRO) OR Mansa Musa (FIN/SPI) OR Lincoln (PHI/CHA) of Persia: Reroll
Magic Science is Ramassess II (IND/SPI) OR Willem van Oranje (CRE/FIN) OR Ragnar (AGG/FIN) of Mali: Willem or Ragnar of Mali
Dreylin is Mehmed II (EXP/ORG) OR Gilgamesh (CRE/PRO) OR Montezuma (AGG/SPI) of Portugal: Mehmed or Giggles of Reroll
Plemo is Stalin (AGG/IND) OR Churchill (CHA/PRO) OR Catherine (CRE/IMP) of Scandinavia: Stalin of Vikings
Scooter is Pericles (CRE/PHI) OR Elizabeth (FIN/PHI) OR Washington (CHA/EXP) of Japan: Most likely a reroll,
Bing is Alexander (AGG/PHI) OR Napoleon (CHA/ORG) OR Lieu Ye (ORG/PRO) of Babylon: Lieu of Babylon
Piccadilly is Tokugawa (AGG/PRO) OR Sitting Bull (PHI/PRO) OR Bismarck (EXP/IND) of India: Bismarck of India
Miguelito is Hatsheput (CRE/SPI) OR Darius (FIN/ORG) OR Roosevelt (IND/ORG) of Egypt: Roosevelt of Egypt sounds fun!
General Kill Cavalry is Nebuchadnezzar (PHI/IND) OR Hammurabi (AGG/ORG) OR Suleiman (PHI/IMP) of France: Hammurabi of France
GT is Brennus (CHA/SPI) OR Kublai Khan (AGG/CRE) OR Charlemagne (IMP/PRO) of Zululand: Kublai of Zulu
Pindicator is Shaka (AGG/EXP) OR Zara Yaqob (CRE/ORG) OR Saladin (PRO/SPI) of Sumeria: Shaka of Sumeria
Hubabl is De Gaulle (CHA/IND) OR Augustus Caesar (IND/IMP) OR Qin Shi Huang (IND/PRO) of Khmer: Reroll
Xist10 is Pacal II (EXP(FIN) OR Wang Kon (FIN/PRO) OR Cyrus (CHA/IMP) of Rome: Pacal of Rome
Donovan Zoi is Boudica (AGG/CHA) OR Genghis Khan (AGG/IMP) OR Suryvarman II (CRE/EXP) of Inca: Sury of Reroll
Amicalola is Gandhi (PHI/SPI) OR Peter (EXP/PHI) OR Joao II (EXP/IMP) of Arabia: Joao of Arabia


Honestly, I can see Gav going for any of these leaders, but I had to pick one
Greenline's playing Mao in PB72, otherwise would pick that I believe
Scooter might find Washington of Japan interesting