May was the month for another edition of RiaCon, held from the 19 to the 21 at the usual place, the Tulip Inn Estarreja Hotel & SPA, Estarreja, Portugal. Organized by the same team as always, but now under the seal of the brand new board game association RiaJoga – Associação Lúdica da Região de Aveiro. Time to get another stamp in the Passport of Board Game Conventions!
Saturday’s afternoon was filled with Donnerschlag: Escape from Stalingrad. The return to war games had long been promised to Augusto Cruz, and finally we made it! It is a return, as war games were, no doubt, the first complex games I played, back in the late 1970's, early 1980's, in this unique combination of strategy, tactics, and historical context, most often choosing World War II for the setting. I am certain there will be more sessions to come in the near future, because there is plenty of material to explore in both our collections.
Donnerschlag recreates an operation planned by the German forces to liberate their 6th Army, besieged at Stalingrad. Hexagons and counters. Asymmetrical forces and positioning. The use of terrain features, in particular rivers and bridges. Advances and delays. Increased mobility against reinforcements. Initiative and the time that is running out. Activation and combat cards. Combat resolution tables and dice. A hidden objective: the meeting point with the 6th Army.
The session lasted for the whole afternoon, not because the game play itself was slow, but because there were lots of ongoing conversations. Between the two of us, with those who stopped by out of curiosity for an unfamiliar game genre, with those more used to the cardboard battlefields, and with so many now familiar faces, present convention after convention. All these moments of sharing are one of the best features of such events! As for the game, the suspense on the outcome persisted until the final moment of the last turn: the German forces arrived at the planned meeting location but did not resist the Soviet's last breath.
Donnerschlag, a war game by Patrick Gebhardt and Pepito Shazzeguti, published by VUCA Simulations. As a side note, I made some comments to an earlier version of the rules, and so my name is featured in the acknowledgement's section!
there was nothing planned in advanced for Sunday’s afternoon. But then came the opportunity to playtest a prototype from the game desingers João Quintela Martins and Vital Lacerda: the Santa Justa Elevator. It was a three-way session, together with João Quintela, the author, and João Pimentel, in goos spirits and with a good discussion about the current stage of the game, design questions, suggestions, and potential for future developments. How I enjoy seeing, and being able to participate, in such projects under construction!
Cool things about these interconnected communities: a video shared by João Quintela Martins, a reaction from Julián Pombo, the Uruguayan game designer of Pampero (among others), who I met at this year's LeiriaCon while testing one of his latest prototypes, and an unexpected intercontinental exchange of greetings!
The sun is setting, and RiaCon will return next year, for sure. Until then, the Portuguese convention route continues. The next participation will most likely be at VianaCon. In the meantime, in these pages, there will also be flashbacks from the Cannes International Gaming Festival and LeiriaCon. I need only to find time enough to write them down.
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