Thursday, September 27, 2007

Sumo/Counter Hall of Fame

For those not steeped in boardgaming culture, the name of the post may be a bit misleading. We're not talking about Japanese wrestlers & those little clicker things that they use at the entrance to sporting events... Sumo & Counter are gaming magazines.

Sumo is long gone (sigh) but you can still read the archives of many of the articles at The Game Cabinet. (The Game Cabinet was the Boardgamegeek of it's day - back 10 years ago. As far as I know, it was the first really serious website about what are now called "eurogames" or "designer games".) Sumo was primarily the baby of Mike Siggins, who is still one of the best writers about boardgames out there.

Counter is still alive & kicking... it's a very well-done "fanzine" chockful of reviews, commentary & discussion about boardgaming.

In a number of ways, Counter has tried to pick up where Sumo left off... and one of those ways is the Hall of Fame. It's a listing of modern classic games - which means less than 50 years old. Here's the status of the Hall as of 2006:
  • 1829/30 (owned & played)
  • Acquire (own & played)
  • Airlines/Union Pacific (own & played)
  • Bluff/Liars Dice (own & played)
  • Bohnanza (own & played)
  • Can't Stop (own & played)
  • Carcassonne (own & played)
  • Civilization (owned & played)
  • Cosmic Encounter (played)
  • Crude/McMulti (played)
  • The Princes of Florence (own & played)
  • Die Macher
  • The Settlers of Catan (own & played)
  • Diplomacy (own & played)
  • Dungeon & Dragons (owned & played)
  • Through the Desert (own & played)
  • Elfenroads (I own & have played Elfenland, the successor to Elfenroads)
  • El Grande (own & played)
  • Euphrat & Tigris (played)
  • Funkenschlag/Power Grid (played)
  • Hare and Tortoise (own & played)
  • History of the World (own & played)
  • Lost Cities (own & played)
  • Magic: the Gathering (played)
  • Medici (own & played)
  • Modern Art (owned & played)
  • Ra (own & played)
  • Railway Rivals (played)
  • Win, Place & Show (own & played)

If you'd like to vote on this year's two entries to the Hall of Fame, you can go to the voting site on Mik Svellov's Brett & Board. (Mik, btw, is a delight to game with...)

I guess I ought to finally break down & play Die Macher... it's the only one on the list I haven't played. And looking over the list reminds me that I need to bring Win, Place & Show to the table some night when we have 5-6 players.

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2 comments:

  1. JasonB6:55 PM

    Die Macher is a good game, but it does take a certain taste to appreciate. Let me know and I'll come up to Fresno for a game sometime. :-)

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  2. Mark (aka pastor guy)7:08 PM

    I've played one round of Die Macher - a group of us at Gulf Games 2 played through the first turn to try & get a feel for the game.

    Honestly, it probably wasn't the best time to do it - late Sunday morning after 2 very late nights of gaming. What I remember is that there was so much going on that I couldn't follow it.

    I need to give it a try when I'm:

    a) well-rested
    b) have someone there who knows the game well enough to help out the newbies

    And, Jason, of course you're welcome to join us in Fresno for gaming. It's been a long time since we took potshots at each across the table - ah, Nashville.

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