Tag Archives: Nova Luna

Next Meeting, 24th March 2026

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 24th March 2026 at the Horse and Jockey Pub.  As usual, we will start playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.  The pub is doing food, so those that are eating will be arriving from around 6.30pm.

This week, the “Feature Game” will be SCENERY, which is a tableau building, tile laying game where players are creating hiking routes through a hexagonal landscape with tiles of varying altitudes (rules).  The game is by the same designer as Nova Luna, Habitats, Powerships and Waddle, Corné van Moorsel.

SCENERY
– Image from kickstarter.com

And speaking of hiking…

Jeff was planning a trip in the northern Cascades and he was really hoping his friend Joe would go along.

“Sounds great, but I’m not sure I can afford it, or even get the time off work,” said Joe sadly.

“That’s a shame, I had some hikes planned and really wanted you to come along,” answered Jeff.

“It sounds a lovely idea—I’m sure you could find someone else to go with you though.” replied Joe.

“Oh, but I really wanted YOU to go,” Jeff went on.

“Well, I’d love to, I mean, we always have so much fun when we are out and about, don’t we!” added Joe.

“Well, yes we do, but it’s not that,” Jeff explained, “I read that you should always go hiking with someone in worse shape than yourself—there are bears out there…”

Spiel des Jahres Nominations 2020

This year, many things are different: the UK Games Expo was postponed and then cancelled and today it was announced that Essen has gone the same way.  The most prestigious awards in board gaming, the Spiel des Jahres are not unaffected either.  The Jury met online and likely some struggled to play the games; the award parties will probably also be affected.

Spiel des Jahres Committee 2020
– Image from SpieldesJahres on twitter.com

The nominations have been announced as usual though.  There are three categories, the Kinderspiel (children’s game) , the Kennerspiel (“expert’s” game) and the most desirable of all, the family award, the Spiel des Jahres.  The nominees for this year’s awards have been announced as:

  • Spiel des Jahres
    Spiel des Jahres 2019My City by Reiner Knizia
    Nova Luna by Uwe Rosenberg and Corné van Moorsel
    Pictures by Daniela and Christian Stöhr

In previous years the group has picked out the eventual winner well in advance even of the nominations, however, last year the games generally seemed to be light, almost party games.  These are not our usual faire, and in recent years, the Kennerpiel des Jahres has been a better fit.  The Kennerspiel nominees are not especially complex games, but are typically a step up from the light family games that are now being nominated for the “Red Poppel”.

– Image by from spiel-des-jahres.de

Last year the winner of the Kennerspiel award was Wingspan which also picked up our own “Golden GOAT” Award at our Un-Christmas Dinner.  With all that has been going on, however, we are unfamiliar with almost all the nominees this time round and likely won’t get the chance to play any of them until after the winners have been announced (20th July in Berlin for the Kennerpiel and Spiel des Jahres Awards; 15th June in Hamburg for the Kinderspiel des Jahres).

Golden GOAT - 2019
– Image by boardGOATS