Two weeks til GoF5

November 11th is fast approaching!

Early scenes from Essen!

Wait til you see what is coming out of Essen this year. Rick Thornquist is reporting the new games he is seeing first hand in Germany at the annual convention on his site, www.boardgamenews.com.

Surf over to this link and feast your eyes on the incredible looking new titles the Europeans already have, and will no doubt be shipped to the US later this year. Also, have a look at some intriguing Geeklists that showcase some of the games from this years crop:

Geek list #1, pre-Essen
Geek list #2, Essen French games
Geek list #3, big list of new games for '06 including Essen

And check out this video from the show floor! The Germans are unbelievable in their love of boardgames...

GoF5 Schedule: Google spreadsheet

The tentative schedule for Gathering of Friends 5 is now online! This is an experiment with google spreadsheets, check out the link here (you will need to create a Google account to view or edit, takes a minute):

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=o08736252620782211311.7899015944153427286

This will take to an online (and editable) version of the schedule. I've invited a several of the friends scheduled to attend, and would love to have everyone enter the games that they'd like to play right into the spreadsheet! Check it out.

News from Rio Grande

Just received this email from Rio Grande. Their house email newsletter, it has some really interesting new games in it. I have added the hyperlinks to these games on Boardgamegeek.com, click any of the highlighted titles to check them out. I've also added some comments in brackets, "[]". Please add your comments below (by clicking "x comments")!

"Gloria Mundi [looks good, attractive board, theme and pieces] and Cartagena [new version has some upgraded artwork apparently] released last week.

Alhambra: City Gate, Alhambra: Thief’s Turn, and Alhambra: Calif’s Treasure Vault, Taj Mahal [I've been wanting this for years, and Kevin has it on his list I know], and Dancing Ducklin’ (the expansion for Chicken Cha Cha Cha) have arrived in the US. Unfortunately, they have been held by US Customs for longer than expected. We are told they will be released to us this week or next and we will ship them immediately upon receipt. We apologize for this delay. Barnyard Critters and Augsburg 1520 have shipped from Germany and are expected to arrive in the next week or so. Thurn & Taxis and Lost Cities have been reprinted and shipped from Germany. They will arrive here before the end of October. Printing problems with the cards for To Court the King have delayed this game, but we expect it to be here in late October or early November.

We expect to release the following games in at Essen and will have them in the US in November: Medici vs Strozzi, Cartagena II, Imperial [know little about this one but sounds good], On the Underground [comparisons made to Ticket to Ride, but apparently has different mechanisms despite theme similarities], Power Grid: Benelux & Central Europe [reported about before, only questions is will someone pick it up before GOF5?], Hermagor, Yspahan [looks good], and Fiji [from same designer as Power Grid, are you listening Doug?]. If Wishes were Fishes, Ruse & Bruise, and Taluva [photos of this one remind me of Tikal and Java, a Good Thing] will not be ready for Essen, but should reach the US in late November. The re-release of Medici will occur in January.

Thanks for your interest in Rio Grande Games."

New Version of PoF

Check out the old and then the new version of Princes of Florence (#6 in the world according to the Geek):


Old.


New.

Awesome.

Check out the full page from the publisher here.