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Chief EGG Head
United States
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I started playing boardgames waaay back in the mid 90's after The Settlers of Catan first came out. Since then I have managed to collect a few games. I have collected games for lots of different reasons I like old games that no one has heard of before, games that have "classic" status, games with mechanisms I admire, games with great graphics or art, and I love games that challenge me and give me brain burn.
I thought I'd run through some of my favorite games from lesser known companies.
Here I'll talk about Bambus Spieleverlag. They should be well known for publishing the first editions of some re-released games. They published The Bottle Imp aka "Flaschenteufel" my favorite trick taking game as it incorporates theme into a basic card game so well. Based on Robert Louis Stevenson's short story, players try and avoid ending with the bottle. The deck consits of 3 suits with values from 1 to 37. You must follow suit if you can. The highest value card played wins the trick. Trump is any suite which is the highest number below the value of the bottle which starts at 19. The bottle's value then becomes that number. The bottle can get you points if you win the trick with it, but if you end up with it at the end you get negative points. I actually like the original art from Bambus best out of all the reprints of this game. I kind of like the crazy little bottle imp.
Hey, That's My Fish! aka "Pingvinas" was also originally published by Bambus. For laughs read my very early review Pingvinas for  back when was a rare commodity. Ok, amazingly I can't find a picture of the original that really shows the oh so chunky wooden ice floe pieces so let me take one
Next up is Chinagold, one of my favorite 2 player abstracts, which currently comes in a few editions. A nice but heavy handmade wood version or the more portable faux leather version. You can try it at www.Yucata.de.
The components consists of 91 gold tokens. These are nice wooden discs with a yellow sticker that goes on one side, 3 "dice" really just a flat rectangular piece of wood with the Chinese characters for 1/0, 2/0, and 1/2, and the faux leather board with green areas or "mountains" and blue lines or "rivers."
The goal of the game is to collect the most gold. One player gets mountains and the other rivers. The gold tokens are placed face down on each point on the map. The rivers and mountains have multiple points in common. The first players rolls the dice and may flip gold tokens equal to the sum of the dice or flip a gold token back over so it is face down again. The tokens must be in a straight line. Then the next player goes. If the river player flips all the gold tokens on every point on a river that player collects all the tokens along that river. If the mountain player gets all the gold tokens flipped up in a mountain area, then those are collected by the mountain player. If a player at the same time completes an opponent's section, then the opponent may collect those tokens after the active player. When the number of unflipped tokens reaches a point where there are less than 5 in a row the 1/0 die is no longer used and when there are unflipped tokens less than 4 in a row the 2/0 die is removed, the 1/0 die is put back into play with the 1/2. When only 3 unflipped gold markers remain as the longest chain, then the players may flip either to the 1 or 2 on the 1/2 die. The game ends when all tokens have been claimed.
Kanaloa not to be confused with another reprint of Bambus Spieleverlag game by the same name.
This one is about pleasing the gods and trying not to make Pele, Goddess of the volcanoes, angry. This game deserves way more attention. This game is about pleasing the gods and trying not to get Pele, goddess of the volcanoes to angry. Kane is the presiding god and his powers come into play during end game scoring. The other 4 gods Ku, Lono, Pele and Kanaloa will offer certain powers to the player who has made the most offerings. Second place in offerings will earn protection from the gods. The powers are only active if the offerings to the god equals the offerings made to Kane. The players travel from island to island following the fishing routes and picking up offerings. The little trick is the direction of these routes change to the opposite direction after they have been used. When players give offerings to the gods the build temples which determine the winner. During the game the volcanoes will erupt giving Pele her actions. After the 10th volcano is drawn the players score and the temples that are equivalent to Kane's temple earn points. Most points win. It's always interesting to see how players use the favors and generally quite a battle over the gods, but you have to be very careful to try and earn equal favor for the end game.
Finally, I'll mention Autoscooter, one of the few simultaneous action games that can play 6. It's about Bumper Cars. It also came in 2 editions, one with a really heavy-duty nice wooden board and another with a faux leather board. It's fun and silly.
Honorable mentions Kahuna which they published as Arabana-Ikibiti and Down Under a nice little tile game.
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You can try it at www.Yucata.de.
