»Obsession«: Magnificent country estates, finest marriage material
If you're sitting on a tight living space and wondering whether the toilet door could still be opened if you squeezed a shoe cabinet into the hallway niche opposite, this game comes at just the right time: first-class escapism. We don't lack space. We can happily consider whether we still need a tennis court, a greenhouse or a representative dining room on our estate in Derbyshire in the middle of the 19th century. In making this decision, we are guided above all by the thought of what activities we can use to attract the hottest marriage candidates in the area to our sociotope.
Only servants, you guessed it, are hard to come by. However, good staff is indispensable, otherwise you can't use the premises properly. And the entire social success depends on this: the right guests only come if we can look after them appropriately. Speaking of guests – we also have to be careful with their selection. There are bores who only flourish when we have interesting bachelors to offer. There are rich American women who are bad for their reputation, but good for their finances – there's a lot to think about.
The rule even offers a nerdy pie chart on the victory point overview. This shows how important attractive extensions of one's own estate are, how social connections and well-trained staff are on the books, and what prestige and successful courtship promise for marriage candidates. A glossary offers deeply researched backgrounds, game variants provide variety – and the beautiful material creates the right atmosphere at the table.
However, a large part of the joy that a good board game can bring is not in the box: it sits at the table, and the selection of players is at least as relevant as that of the game. With the right people, »Obsession« can be a conversation that doesn't have to take a back seat to a binge-watching session »Downton Abbey« or a cosy evening with a Jane Austen novel.
By Dan Hallagan, for one to four people aged 14 and over, 60 to 90 minutes
Hand on it: »Downton Abbey« fans, castle in the air planners, style lovers
Hands off: Role cliché haters, convention despisers, wedding allergy sufferers
»Ticket to Ride Legacy«: Voyage of Discovery on Rails
"Ticket to Ride" is a classic. In the railway game, you build routes on maps and try to build the most lucrative rail network. There's a plethora of plans, variants, and spin-offs – and now a legacy game that outshines all previous versions and is one of my best gaming experiences this year.
Legacy means: During the game, which is designed for twelve chapters and tells a continuous story within this framework, rules and material change. You open boxes that remain locked until the respective game and have to change the material irrevocably. At the end of the legacy campaign, you'll have a custom game that you can bring to the table again and again, but the appeal of the campaign remains unmatched. It starts with simple rules and gradually becomes more complex; exemplary guidance guides you through all the steps.
Sometimes rules are added, but some are also dropped again and again, so that it always remains clear. Who will take the overall victory in the end remains pleasingly open until the end. Large rounds are fine, but it also works great in pairs. The composition of the players can be changed, but this is not recommended. It adds a lot of fun to experience the whole story together.
Because the game is so great, I'd love to write about all the things there are to discover. The very first bonus box... – don't worry, spoilers are forbidden. That's why I can only say: It's worth it. It's expensive, though. At this point, therefore, I would like to point out the CCP value, the "cost per play": If you play through all the chapters (and you will want to do so), you have to invest less than 2.50 euros per evening and person with four people. Attention: You need a large table (the area should be at least 90 by 120 centimeters, more is much better).
By Rob Daviau, Matt Leacock and Alan R. Moon, for two to five people aged ten and over, 20 to 90 minutes per game
Hand on it: Fixed games (friends or family), railway fans, surprise bag friends
Hands off: People who will not find twelve dates together stress-free in the foreseeable future
»The Hour of the Mouse«: Journey through the Cuckoo Clock
Attention, cuteness alert! Each of us controls a small clan of mice, which runs through an impressive (well, from our mouse's perspective) cuckoo clock and collects prey in the process. Our four different mice have different abilities and can ride along on the minute hand of the clock to reach the best squares. There they can loot things, complete tasks, fill their own trophy tableau and trade them with each other.
The game board with the moving hands is an eye-catcher. Particularly adorable: an ambitious little extra mouse crawls up the pendulum of the cuckoo clock. It collects extra points there if you play skillfully. For five "hours", the minute hand rotates in one lap at a time. After each one, all loot spaces are replenished and an intermediate score is made. It's over at midnight – whoever has the most points wins.
We'll have to use our mice wisely and make sure to collect the right items with the right mouse to score the best. However, the minute hand is not a safe place. It can happen that another mouse pushes us down and we end up in a field where we can't do much. But the rounds are short, and we end up with several mice each; So hardly anything can happen to us in the clock that completely spoils the fun for us.
Well balanced, exciting, but always in the feel-good zone. A wonderful Christmas game with well-written instructions.
From Sawyer West, one to four people aged ten and over, about an hour
Hand on it: Relaxed casual gamers, toy enthusiasts, collectors
Hands off: Ornamental opponents, hard-core strategists, hunters
»Castles of Burgundy«: Pure luxury on the gaming table
We are all princes and seek to make our principalities grow and prosper. This sentence, if you think about it, has a certain universality. In the context of this building game, however, it is particularly coherent: Our realm is a colorful plan of hexagonal squares that we want to fill starting from our first castle.
Since its release a good twelve years ago, »BvB« or »BuBu«, as the fans call it, has gathered a loyal community. The game is extremely good: it combines the luck element of rolling the dice with a wealth of tactical options that allow the numbers rolled to be used and modified in a variety of ways. We build building tiles on our board, which grant special abilities and points, send ships on their way, sell goods and collect coins for which we can purchase more tiles.
We are in direct competition with each other, but we cannot destroy each other, but at best take away options for action. That doesn't sound like much, but it can be game-changing – and it's enough in terms of interaction; as a prince you already have both hemispheres of your brain full to do.
The classic has now been re-released in a »Special Edition«, which not only enriches the game with a lavish expansion and a new solo variant, but also takes it to a new level in terms of equipment. The castles are impressive little miniatures, the tiles larger, the player boards double-layered, so that nothing can slip. It's a feast. However, the magnificent new edition is expensive and only worth it if you already know that you will pick up this game more often. But there's nothing wrong with wanting to do that: with every number of players, you have an experience on the table that is exciting in every new game.
By Stefan Feld, for one to four people aged twelve and over, around 90 minutes
Hand on it: Frequent gamers and friends of festive tables
Hands off: Equipment trackers and people with little shelf space
»Scrabble«: Dark wood, rotatable plan
You don't have to say much about »Scrabble« – which doesn't mean that you can't still say some of what I've done here. To mark the 75th anniversary of its first release, a new luxury edition is on the market, with a rotating game board made of dark wood. Do you need them? No. On classifieds portals, »Scrabble« games are often available for as little as ten euros, sometimes even for free, and if you don't like to read overhead, you can get a practical »Scrabble« turnstile for the game board at a reasonable price. The same applies here as for the »Castles of Burgundy Special Edition«: completely unnecessary for purists, but for some the atmospheric extra kick on the gaming table.
By Alfred Mosher Butts, for two to four people aged ten and over, approx. 90 minutes
Hand on it: Performance Scramblers and Material Fetishists
Hands off: Critics of consumerism and savers
Background: Product tests in the Testing department
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