Orccon 2009 Live Blog: The Golden City, Diamonds Club and Der Elefant im Porzellanladen

It's getting late here on Saturday night at Orccon. I'm heading home tomorrow afternoon but before then, I'm getting some games in tonight and some demos tomorrow morning. This evening, I had another shot at Diamonds Club – a Rudiger Dorn tactical shopping game that I thought was just-okay at BGG.con. I'm not sure I've changed my opinion but I liked it a bit more the second go-round with everyone knowing the rules. We had to abort the game due to some tournaments, including my participation in a Der Elefant im Porzellanladen event. Okay, okay – it's Bull in the China Shop in the U.S. but I truly hate that version (a note I shared with M.S.) because the original German version was so lovely. I was horribly targeted because I'd played the game a few times and it gave my friend Paul (who was quiet about his one play of it at Essen a few years back) a chance to sneak in and win on the strength of one huge 40 point scoring round.

After this, I bolted over for Michael Schacht's other major new release, The Golden City. This one is a building game with various bonuses available from building from the ports on four sides of an island (each with different kinds of territory) through the fields and into the city for big bonuses. There are scoring opportunities every turn depending on where you place your shops and also which goods you have acquired. Players build by acquiring territory cards and if someone takes the pair you like, you can pay to grab it instead (and back and forth). Nice game and one that plays in about forty-five minutes.