Individual Entry: In Praise of Euro/German Games
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April 04, 2008

Games : In Praise of Euro/German Games

In 1995 Klaus Teuber developed “Die Siedler von Catan” (“The Settlers of Catan”) and the board game industry was reborn – at least in Europe (particularly Germany, although France and England eventually joined in). Before ‘Catan, board games tended to sell only moderately well, and rarely outside of their home country. Catan however was a smash hit, selling over 10 million copies around the world.

The success of Catan signaled to many designers that it was possible to create a hit game. As a result, more time, money and energy was invested in game development in the following years, and as more games were also successful, it became clearer that there was a new style of game that the public wanted. These are often called “German Style Games” or EuroGames.

What these games tend to have in common is:
- They support a variable number of players, so regardless of how many people you have, you can play.
- They don’t require a lot of education to play (simple math, etc.), people from a variety of backgrounds can play.
- No players are eliminated in the course of play. In the better games, this goes so far as to keep it uncertain who is actually winning until the very end, so it stays interesting for everyone.
- Multiple ways to win, so the game supports different play styles at the same time.
- Carefully balanced. Some of the more successful game designers are actually professional mathematicians who carefully calculate the odds of various forms of wins to ensure that they are all equally likely.
- Unusual game mechanics. Even when there are dice and cards, they tend to be used in unusual ways.

What has developed from this is a small list of very successful game designers in Europe (actually Moon lives in the US these days; but he started out in England):

- Klaus Teuber (The Settlers of Canaan, Entdecker, Die Neuen Entdecker, Löwenherz)
- Reiner Knizia (Tigris and Euphrates, Taj Mahal, Modern Art, Amun-Re)
- Wolfgang Kramer (El Grande, Tikal, Princes of Florence, Torres)
- Alan R. Moon (Down with the King, Elfenland, Ticket to Ride)

Kramer is probably my favorite of the bunch; but I strongly recommend any of these games. The US company Rio Grande games is in the business of importing these titles into America.

Posted by Steven at April 4, 2008 05:00 AM

Comments

The Settlers series (Settlers, Seafarers, Spacefarers, Children, etc, etc, etc) is decent, but you really should have 3 and maybe 4 to play them. Two loses too many pieces of the strategy... Even so, I was excied to see a board with 6" tiles at GenCon - each tile had sheep or twigs or something on it too.

Carcasonne is more interesting because it can easily be played by two.

But give me the card games coming out of the same German areas - Take 6, Bohnanza and its follow-ons. Though the Americans screwed up the translation of "Sechs Nimmts" (six takes it) by calling it Take 6 because you only take 5 cards. :-)

I also like Plague and Pestilence, Too Many Cooks, and... and... and what about Puerto Rico? That's from the Germans too.

Posted by: janbergs [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 7, 2008 08:02 AM

Yes, some of the games have minimums of 3 players; but that's better than Diplomacy. As you say, there are many more good games that I didn't list.

Posted by: Steven at April 7, 2008 08:43 AM