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May 7, 2007

UK map for Power Grid

tags: Expansion - Funkenschlag - Map - Power Grid - UK

Chris Jones has designed a wonderful UK map for Power Grid (Funkenschlag) and published it to BoardGameGeek.com. He has posted more details here. A full (low-res) image of the map is available here and the high resolution images are available here:

Each file should be printed 26cm wide by 36cm tall (the exact dimensions of the Power Grid board). It would be best to get the file into a graphics editor, half it, and printing each piece onto A4 paper (for those not in the US).

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January 5, 2007

Power Grid - Map of Canada

tags: Canada - Expansion - Funkenschlag - Map - Power Grid


Power Grid (Funkenschlag) is a very popular game with multiple expansions. The latest official addition was the map of Benelux / Central Europe. The game is supplemented by several unofficial, fan-produced expansions as well. I while ago, I had reported on Attola Modulis which is a very flexible map customization system. However, this design is completely fictional. If you are interested in something more realistic you might also want to try the inofficial Power Grid map of Canada.

This map was designed by BGG-User IntvGene in an extremely professional design. The map displays power plants in Southern Canada with export cities in the Northern United States of America.

The map is not yet completely finished: both the connection cost as well as the initial market setup rules still need to be defined

You can download the map file from BoardGameGeek here.

Additional information on special rules can be found on this forum thread.

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August 2, 2006

Thurn und Taxis: Stand and Deliver variant

tags: Hans im Glück - Thurn und Taxis - Variants

Niclas Stenberg has come up with one of the first variants for Spiel des Jahres 2006 Thurn und Taxis. His variant is called Stand and Deliver.

To use this variant you need a playing piece representing the band of Highwaymen controlling the roads surrounding a city.

Additional rules
Before play starts reveal and discard the top card of the drawing deck. Place the Highwaymen figure on that city on the board.

No routes may be built into a city controlled by the Highwaymen, i.e. no player may play that city card down in front of them while the Highwaymen control it (you may still claim the route if you already have the card in front of you and place an office in the city).

Instead of taking support by an "official official" a player may, before he picks a card, talk the leader of the Highwaymen into taking their business elsewhere (this Leader of the Highwaymen is an "inofficial official"). The player must then place the Highwaymen figure on another city. He may discard and replace one card on the board picturing that city.

The original forum post at BGG can be found here.

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May 10, 2006

Attola Modulis expansion for Power Grid

tags: Expansion - Funkenschlag - Power Grid

powergridattolamodulis.jpg


Today, I found out about an inoffcial expansion to Power Grid (Funkenschlag). Having played the original game a couple of times, recently, I was browsing Power Grid images on BGG and found several being entitled Attola Modulis. This extension has been published in French by Jean-Claude Adelmand on his website . It is also available as a separate game entry on BGG, here.

Attola Modulis is a modular game allowing players to enjoy a totally different map every time they play. 11 tiles can be used to create a huge number of different atolls with cities that needs to be supplied with energy. The rules basically stay identical to the base game. A rulesheet explaining the game setup is available in French, English, German and Italian.

Tinkering the atolls seems to be my new project after I have tried all the official Power Grid maps...

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December 14, 2005

Expansion to Sankt Petersburg

tags: Expansion - St. Petersburg

The new issue of Spielbox magazine contains an expansion to Sankt Petersburg. The expansion is called The Festival (Das Fest) and contains three regular cards and nine special cards, e.g. Black Market, Cash Cow, Pickpockets and many more.

All rules and further details are available online at the Spielbox site (in both English and German language).

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December 7, 2005

New buildings for Elasund

tags: Elasund - Expansion

Elasund expansion
The barracks and the castle

A new expansion for the second installment of the Catan Adventure series Elasund: The First City of Catan has been published on Klaus Teuber's website. The expansion adds a few new buildings to the game:

  • Castle:Once, at the end of the turn, the owner may either draw one card of power (from the stack) instead of drawing 2 gold or may pick any card of power instead of taking 2 gold. This action takes place at the end of ones turn as a second, additional bonus action.

  • Barracks: If the dice show a number which results in the barracks being valuated, the barrack owner may choose to take one gold or one card of power.

  • Warehouse: The player building the warehouse scores one additional trading point.

These new buildings are recommended for more advanced players. A nice idea to expand Elasund with new buildings. This will keep the tinkerers among us happy... ;)

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December 4, 2005

GLA #8: Boardgame expansions

tags: BoardGameGeek - Carcassonne - Expansion - GeekList Aggregator

Time to aggregate more GeekLists. This one deals with game expansions. Among gamers this is a very hot topic. Some like 'em, some hate 'em.

Pro
I noticed people like expansions to spice up a game they like *a lot*. The expansion brings something new, yet retains enough familiarity with the original game. Probably, the game group has already invented some sort of house rule, scenario or modification to keep the game interesting. The expansion comes at the right time to add new spice. Expansions make it easy for game publishers to sell to an exisiting customer base and are probably very popular from a commercial perspective.

Contra
Other people argue that expansions are basically the same game with some small modifications. Some even argue it is swindling or thievery by the publishers as they try to sell the same game twice. It is a more philosophical standpoint dealing with originality and other games which should also get published. Some also argue this makes the boardgame scene too uniform.

Good examples for expansions in general are the Carcassonne and Alhambra family. The Settlers of Catan probably also qualify. These games generated a huge fan-base which is easily exploited by offering the third or fourth expansion. But are all expansions worth buying? Are some even necessary for the original game to improve it? Let's find out in

GeekListAggregator #8: Boardgame expansions

Continue reading "GLA #8: Boardgame expansions" »

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August 28, 2005

Unofficial extensions for Carcassonne

tags: Carcassonne - Expansion - Variants

Carcassonne is a great and commercially successful game. The publisher (Hans im Glück Verlag) and author(s) have provided many add-ons to the original game and even created a few siblings. But there are quite a few inofficial (=fan-produced) extensions available on the internet. I am trying to compile a comprehensive set of reviews of each of the expansions on this blog. Knowing me, this will certainly take a while so it will probably make sense to check back every once in a while. If you come along any missing extensions, please leave a comment below and I will add the extension here.

Carcassonne Extensions

Carcassone variants

  • Carcassonne Vanguard by Jonathan Wu gives players different strengths and weaknesses at the beginning of the game

Carcassone clones - Not playable with original Carcassonne

  • Pirates and Plunder - A pirates-style standalone Carcassonne clone by Brian L. Bird and Richard Thames Rowan

Extensions for Carcassonne - Hunters and Gatherers (Carcassonne - Jäger und Sammler)

  • The Stonewall - In principal, this is The River for Hunters & Gatherers; by jeuxparje

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May 25, 2005

Summary of Ticket to Ride unofficial expansion maps

tags: Expansion - Map - Ticket to Ride - Variants - Zug um Zug

Since the number of unofficial maps for Ticket to Ride keeps expanding and expanding I found it necessary to add a summary entry here which links to all the articles I have written about these fan-made maps:

Cities

  • Lyon by François Haffner, JeuxSoc

  • Hamburg by Johannes Göbel

Countries

March 29, 2005

Bohnanza fan page

tags: Bohnanza - Expansion

Link of the day


Das Leinhaus contains a lot of information on Bohnanza and all it's expansions - even some inofficial stuff like Vatibohn - Ehre dem Bohntifex Maximus or various variations of the game.

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