If you're into boardgames then unfortunately for the most part, you are in the minority. Boardgames have traditionally been seen as a little lame with the exceptiion of during Christmas, which in my case resulted in members of my family huddled around a dog eared copy of Monopoly or Cluedo in an attempt to get on and have fun.

Results from this experience were normally pretty poor as "house" rule changes in part and dubious dice throws normally resulted in a pretty mean and unenjoyable game.

Monopoly had been known to take 6 hours to play !!! what with squables, food, drinks, toilet breaks, telephone calls, pets attacking the board and general conversation !!!. It was almost as the boardgame was merely a tool to keep people in the same room and act the "family". It was not uncommon for the game to not even finish !!!

Other experiences with boardgames at Christmas revolved around abstract games like Pictionary, Dingbats or Rapidough. I do like some of these games but as a die hard boardgamer I sought a less abstract and constantly uninterupted challenge.

For those that have read my Biography, you will have gathered that I moved on from the Monopolys to other levels.

Even in the days of buying games like Heroquest and Dragonlance from TSR, I was aware of the German company called Ravensburger who seemed to produce excellent looking games but at that time I was put off by the fact they were well German !!! and whilst I now speak a splattering, back then it seemed an impossible task to get to understand these games.

It was not until this year 1999, that I was finally introduced to these German Games. So what is all the fuss about ???

German Boardgames

Well first of all let me say that I am an avid boardgamer and have had the "benefit?" of playing a few in my time BUT nothing could have prepared me for what was about to happen.

In fact knowing what was out there from the more traditional suppliers like Waddingtons and Parker Bros etc made the shock factor that much more, than say someone who was relatively new to boardgames.

When I talk about German boardgames I need to explain that it would be more accurate to describe them as European Boardgames but the predominent country for these games is Germany and they were the Vanguard for the rest of Europe and set the standards.

German boardgames are in another league. The quality of the components, playing pieces and board are far above those you will have seen of late from the Waddingtons of the world. Boards are generally thick, one piece, beautiful graphically and heavyweight. Pieces are normally from coloured wood and of good quality.

Another key difference is that they are usually very easy to learn and can be completed in many cases in less than One hour and generally not more than Two.

Finally the mechanism of play rarely rely on Dice for movement, have a chunk of strategy and tactics involved with a variable helping of luck for good measure. All this is packaged around normally an interesting theme or subject for the game which adds to the visual and playable enjoyment of it.

BUT I hear you gasp, hold on a minute, we are talking German games here. How on earth do we understand how to play and read the rules ??

Luckily for us a great number of fine people like Mike Siggins and The Games Cabinet have steadfastly translated most of the games into English. When you purchase a German game you will have included in it, a set of translated rules in English.

Better still a company called Rio Grande have started to produce full English versions of the German boardgames including full rules in glorious technicolour !

Needless to say you will be impressed by these games.

Check out the Links Page to find out where to find out more about these games and where to play and buy them.!!