By Peter Neugebauer

Successful games are often classics or titles that have won the Game of the Year award. As they are so popular with gamers, publishers are keen to exploit this advantage and offer players a range of new ideas based on these games. On the one hand, they build entire game families around the base game by developing junior versions, card games or even risking a shift in the theme. These are standalone games. On the other hand, publishers also release expansion sets that can expand, refine, and sometimes make a basic idea even more challenging. What this entails is adding elements to the original base game. In any event, customers can access familiar, proven mechanisms – which they really appreciate.

Classics – standalone games

No quarter. UNO Show ‘em No Mercy from Mattel takes the classic UNO card game to the extreme. It goes without saying that, as is traditional, you have to put a single card from your hand onto the discard pile, but only if it has a matching colour, number or symbol as the card on the pile. The winner is the first person to get rid of all their cards. But wild cards can stir up the action. In this game, the obligation to draw new cards is taken to the extreme. You may have to take four, six or even ten new cards! Things can turn quite grotesque. If a player ever has 25 or more cards in their hand, they are out of the game. The course of the game is at first very familiar, but it comes with a twist that can be hard to take. The game itself shows players no mercy.

Striking out. Monopoly Knockout from Hasbro takes an unexpected turn in the long history of Monopoly spin-offs. In the past, the classic game spawned a veritable cornucopia of country and city editions and was linked to all kinds of licences. More recently, though, some new mechanisms have been added to the familiar rules instead. The latest idea combines curling with financial events. On an elongated board, sliding tokens are pushed into the target fields. Each player tries to reach prestigious spaces such as Mediterranean Avenue or Old Kent Road and avoid going to Jail. As in the original, other players may be pushed away from lucrative properties. So, here, too, the emphasis is on jockeying for position. But is this really still Monopoly?

Exposing intrigue. Clue Conspiracy from Hasbro takes the classic detective game to a whole new level. The murder hasn’t yet been committed, so it’s down to the group of well-meaning friends to find out who is planning evil, where and how, before the assassination actually takes place. Unfortunately, the conspiracy has quite a few members: a mastermind and his accomplices are hiding and covering up their own plans. On top of that, deadly traps are being set all over the resort. The identity of each player is randomly assigned and kept secret. During each round, there is intense communication, speculation and suspicion. Both groups have different goals. The game is designed for five to ten players who must be open to taking part in the interactive events. The key question is…who is lying?

Modern classics – standalone games

Contemporary Catan. The Settlers of Catan, Game of the Year in 1995, revolutionised the gaming world 30 years ago. In the meantime, a wide range of expansions and new games have been added to this great idea, often with historically significant themes. With the new edition, Catan has finally arrived in the here and now. Catan – New Energies from Kosmos is set in a world in which the villages have grown into research centres, thus increasing their need for energy. Players can choose between investing in fossil fuels or renewable sources of energy, which are more expensive. With increasing use of fossil fuels, environmental pollution increases, too, which can cause the game to tip over. The game feels very similar to Catan, but it includes innovations and provides information about what causes climate change. Very modern indeed.

Sail boldly into the wide blue yonder. Everdell is a successful game with several expansions in a tranquil forest world, where cute animals go about their daily lives and cultivate their own village community. Farshore by Pegasus is the settlement on the northern coast of these village communities. It’s a rough world out there. On the one hand, you have to live with the tides and make use of the scarce resources that the sea offers. On the other, the coastal dwellers also want to explore the islands out at sea, where treasures beckon. Everyone wants to get their hands on them. This standalone game is reminiscent of the elegant base game. The mechanism with the sophisticated card management is adapted to fit in with the seafaring plot. The new process is essential for it to be considered a standalone game. 

The Quacks of Quedlinburg was named Connoisseur Game of the Year in 2018. After two previous expansions, Quacks: The Duel has now been released by Schmidt Spiele. It’s a standalone 2-player variant, in which the two players act as quacks in the village square and advertise themselves as healers of patients’ ailments. As in the base game, having a good selection of different ingredients in your bag is vital. They have to be carefully drawn out of the bag and put into a conical flask, trying to avoid too many snap peas as they’ll cause an explosion! Every patient at the quack’s stand increases your reputation in the guild house for quacks. This version is as elegant as the base game.

Into the dragon’s lair. Wingspan was named Connoisseur’s Game of the Year in 2019. The game was all about the players getting birds to settle in their bird reserves as well as a clever constellation of all the animals in relation to each other. With two major expansions, diversity was added to the game. In Wyrmspan from Feuerland the line of wing-flapping games has now been expanded. The genre has undergone a radical change and it’s now dragons that are enticed into the caves that you’ve turned into a sanctuary for them. During the course of the game, you excavate additional spaces in your sanctuary and entice dragons to live there, chaining together powerful abilities and earning the favour of the Dragon Guild. The new game is an expansion of the basic idea. The simple rhythm – with only three possible moves – remains. However, the relationships between all the components are quite complex and the elimination of random elements makes dragon taming more tactical.

Expansions – only with the base game

A visit to the zoo. Ark Nova, recommended for the 2022 Connoisseur’s Game of the Year, is a complex game about building a zoo. The game isn’t just about capturing animals, locking them in cages and putting them on display for the delight of an audience. The game design places a great deal of emphasis on species-appropriate animal husbandry, linking zoos up all around the world and scientific collaboration. All these components make it very complex, which, nevertheless, generates a great deal of gaming pleasure. It comes as no surprise, therefore, to find that Ark Nova: Marine Worlds from Feuerland was developed as the game’s logical expansion. New sea animals and aquariums complete the scenario. Additional action cards create a slight asymmetry in the game.

Build wonders of the world. 7 Wonders was named Connoisseur’s Game of the Year in 2011. There have been several expansions in the meantime, including the family-friendly version 7 Wonders: Architects launched three years ago. This game also deserves the new expansion entitled 7 Wonders: Architects – Medals from Repos, distributed by Asmodee. The seven known wonders of the ancient world were included in the basic game, and they are now joined by the Colosseum in Rome and the Ziggurat of Ur, each with their own effects. More important, however, are the new element of medals that reward speed and require different strategies. The beautiful feel of the game, with access to two stacks at all times, and the fast, streamlined gameplay remain the same.

The forest is alive! This year, a jury recommended Forest Shuffle for the Connoisseur’s Game of the Year. Soon after, a small box with additional cards was released: Forest Shuffle: Alpine by Lookout Games, distributed by Asmodee. The ibex and marmot are now to be found romping around in the local ecosystem and the larch is another tree species that’s been added to the game. The new cards can easily be integrated into the forest, adding even more variety to the game. The collecting game has rightly received high praise for the skilful way animal and plant cards are placed on designated trees and their relationships to one another. The increased diversity adds value to the expansion.

In Triqueta, the object of the game is to place animal tiles in multiple rows and then, at the right time, grab your favourite animal row for yourself. The aim is to always form a set of three for each type of animal. Three tokens of the same kind form a high-scoring “triqueta”. For more than three tokens of the same type, however, you will lose points instead. Very exciting, indeed. And the Triqueta: Hidden Wolves expansion by Deep Print Games, distributed by Pegasus is even more exciting with its shadow wolves which are worth a lot of points when they form a triqueta. However, the game with the hidden animals does carry the risk of breaking open another triqueta. A game of ups and downs. 

About the author

Peter Neugebauer is still a "big kid" through and through. In early childhood, his parents introduced him to board games. And games were obligatory and always welcome at Christmas and on his birthday. He didn’t stop playing, not even during his years of study or working life. Early on, he reviewed new products, initially in trade journals, then also in daily newspapers and, for almost 40 years, in industry magazines. He can’t live without playing.