by W. Eric Martin • Birthday celebrations often involve chocolates, so perhaps it's not a surprise that Austrian publisher Piatnik is offering a game titled Chocolates in the year of its 200th anniversary. How did the company begin? Map...
• Birthday celebrations often involve chocolates, so perhaps it's not a surprise that Austrian publisher Piatnik is offering a game titled Chocolates in the year of its 200th anniversary./pic7877927.jpg)
How did the company begin? Map painter Anton Moser founded the business as a manufacturer of playing cards in 1824 at a time when playing cards were painted by hand. After Moser died in 1842, according to Wikipedia "his professional colleague the Hungarian-born Ferdinand Piatnik (1819–1885) took over in 1843, marrying Moser's widow a few years later." Bold move, Mr. Ripley — er, Mr. Piatnik.
In 1882, the company name changed from "Ferdinand Piatnik in Wien" to "Ferd. Piatnik & Söhne, Wien" as Piatnik's three sons were now part of the business. Piatnik died in 1885, but the company kept growing. To quote from the Piatnik website:
Piatnik quickly expanded beyond the borders of Austria through takeovers of other playing card manufacturers and the founding of new playing card factories. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the name "Piatnik" became the epitome of the card game. So much so that the name of the company founder, colloquially referred to as "Heiliger Piatnik" ("Saint Piatnik"), found its way into the vernacular of Austrian card players: "Heiliger Piatnik, schau oba!" is to be understood as an appeal to higher powers for a turnaround in your sorry card luck.
Piatnik started producing board games in 1956 and jigsaw puzzles in 1966.
As for Chocolates, the description of this 2-4 player game from Jean Paul and Ségolène Monnet is vague, but let's start there:
When the contents of a box of chocolates are completely unknown, the discoveries can be exciting...
In the game Chocolates, you want to explore the chocolate tiles bit by bit in order to make the right claims at the right time: Are exactly three white chocolates in the box? Or are they on the outside? How many triangular chocolates are there? More than round ones? Are there adjacent milk chocolates?
You try to find out these and many other tricky questions in order to score the most points. Let the delicious gambling begin!
In the game Chocolates, you want to explore the chocolate tiles bit by bit in order to make the right claims at the right time: Are exactly three white chocolates in the box? Or are they on the outside? How many triangular chocolates are there? More than round ones? Are there adjacent milk chocolates?
You try to find out these and many other tricky questions in order to score the most points. Let the delicious gambling begin!
This image clarifies things:
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You apparently have a hand of cards or draft cards that feature logical conditions, e.g. round candies in all four corners, that you can then play in the affirmative or negative based on what you've seen in the box and what you can deduce. Seems like a design along the lines of Bag of Chips, in which weighing the odds on what can happen takes you only so far, leaving you to gamble on what will turn up.
• Chocolates is due out in January 2024, as is Alpino from Mads Fløe:
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As in Cascadia, everyone builds their own individual animal habitats in this 2-4 player game, but here what others build can impact your final score:
In Alpino, you draft and place domino-style tiles, competing to make the most spacious habitat for each of the alpine animals. They will inhabit only the largest habitat made for them among all the players, and if you manage to make that habitat, then you alone score all of the accumulated points for that animal type at game's end.
In more detail, in each round players draft and place a tile, and while you want to group animals together, you must match the tiles by color/territory when placing them to link your growing habitats together. The tile that remains unchosen each round increases the value of one of the depicted animals, with the round's last player deciding which creature gets the bump.
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At the start of play, you receive a secret tile that lets you know two of the animal types you might want to focus on while building habitats. In the last round of the game, you place your secret tile, ideally surprising everyone by boosting your habitats ahead of everyone else's.
In more detail, in each round players draft and place a tile, and while you want to group animals together, you must match the tiles by color/territory when placing them to link your growing habitats together. The tile that remains unchosen each round increases the value of one of the depicted animals, with the round's last player deciding which creature gets the bump.
At the start of play, you receive a secret tile that lets you know two of the animal types you might want to focus on while building habitats. In the last round of the game, you place your secret tile, ideally surprising everyone by boosting your habitats ahead of everyone else's.
• 2gether is a two-player co-operative game from designers Arthur Anguilla, Antonin Boccara, and Jules Messaud that debuted from French publisher OldChap Editions in 2022 under the name Complices, as in "accomplices".
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Here's what you're trying to do:
As thieves in search of loot, you and your partner stand in front of a mansion and rub your hands. Heaps of money are said to be behind these walls, money that you would only love to steal — even though both of you are anything but professional thieves. You want to try your luck, but the rooms are equipped with numerous lasers that must be avoided, and you must work quickly before time runs out...
In this co-operative game, players have two minutes to steal as many coins as possible without hitting the security lasers present in the room. To do this, each player puts on glasses with a red or blue color filter that prevents them from seeing one of the types of lasers. The player with the red glasses must then trace a path in the room with the marker in order to recover the coins and treasures, while the player with the blue glasses is their guide.
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Components and gameplay example
Communicate as well as possible to avoid obstacles! Each coin recovered is worth 1 point, while each laser hit causes you to lose 1 point. If you collect enough coins to fill your hideout after four rounds, you win the game.
The game contains sixteen rooms in four levels of difficulty, with new laser shapes and new mechanisms for each level.
In this co-operative game, players have two minutes to steal as many coins as possible without hitting the security lasers present in the room. To do this, each player puts on glasses with a red or blue color filter that prevents them from seeing one of the types of lasers. The player with the red glasses must then trace a path in the room with the marker in order to recover the coins and treasures, while the player with the blue glasses is their guide.
Communicate as well as possible to avoid obstacles! Each coin recovered is worth 1 point, while each laser hit causes you to lose 1 point. If you collect enough coins to fill your hideout after four rounds, you win the game.
The game contains sixteen rooms in four levels of difficulty, with new laser shapes and new mechanisms for each level.
• Increasing the game title count by one we come to 3Motion, a two-player abstract game from Robert E. C. Coleman:
3Motion features eighteen pieces in three different shapes and colors. Your goal is to move three pieces of the same color or shape into one of the 2x2 marked squares on the game board inside of the box bottom.
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When you move, however, you can't move a figure of the same color or shape as the one moved by your opponent on the previous turn.
When you move, however, you can't move a figure of the same color or shape as the one moved by your opponent on the previous turn.
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Zany zoo-dwellers are parading around the pool in their bikinis. That's just plain weird. Some other animals are completely naked. That's less weird — or is it weirder? Not sure. Clearly, you want to be first to be free of these crazy animals. Ironically, or perhaps coincidentally, one thing that may help you do just that is a zucchini. What? You were expecting a cucumber?
On a turn, you draw one card from the deck, then play up to two cards from your hand on the discard pile; each card you play must match the top card of the discard pile either in animal type or in what the animal is wearing (or not wearing). For example, if the top card shows a flamingo wearing a zebra bikini, you may play:
—Any flamingo
—Any zebra
—Any other animal wearing a flamingo bikini
—Any other animal wearing a zebra bikini
On a turn, you draw one card from the deck, then play up to two cards from your hand on the discard pile; each card you play must match the top card of the discard pile either in animal type or in what the animal is wearing (or not wearing). For example, if the top card shows a flamingo wearing a zebra bikini, you may play:
—Any flamingo
—Any zebra
—Any other animal wearing a flamingo bikini
—Any other animal wearing a zebra bikini
• Additionally, Piatnik will release the J. Evan Raitt title Shifting Stones that Gamewright debuted in 2020 as Hidden Stones, with the game carrying rules in German and Hungarian. Featherweight Fiesta from Julien Prothière, Juan Rodriguez, and Gigamic will be released as Federflink.
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