German, Polish and Spanish Belfort Admirers?

Well the German language and Polish language version of Belfort is now out as is evident by a few reviews that are popping up online. Pegasus Spiele has partnered with Tasty Minstrel Games to publish the German version (along with new box art) and Lacerta partnered with TMG to publish the Polish version.

Here’s a video review of the German version by Spielama.de. If anyone out there speak German can you let us know what they thought of the game?!

Here’s a video review of the Polish version by Board Times. If you can understand Polish – then let us know what they’re saying!

Here’s a Spanish written review of Belfort (the game wasn’t published in Spanish – so they were playing an German version of the game) by Alrededor de la Mesa. Google Translate helped us out with this one! While he thought that with some players the downtime can be too much, he did say,

“I think a great Belfort game mid-level majorities the right amount of interaction between players.” (thanks Google Translate!)

And finally, if you only speak English, well here’s a review from play board games that also gave Belfort a favourable review!

So thanks to everyone around the world for playing and reviewing Belfort! It’s great to know that people in other parts of the world can now play our game!!

-Jay Cormier

Major Fun Award for Train of Thought

Train of Thought has been awarded the Major Fun award from Majorfun.com! You can read the full review of the game here.

Here is the criteria they have for awarding the Major Fun award:

• clear and comprehensive rules that can be read in 5-15 minutes
• played in under an hour
• fun enough to play over and over again
• suitable for a wide audience
• easy to store
• made to last
• uniquely fun
• tend to make people laugh
• deep enough to withstand a lot of changes

It’s nice to see Train of Thought still being appreciated by new gamers!!

-Jay Cormier

Totally Rad Show Reviews Belfort

The three amigos of the the Totally Rad Show give Belfort a playthrough and a positive review.

Enjoy the episode – I know I did!

~ Sen-Foong Lim

GAMES Magazine

We already posted about our review in the April issue of GAMES Magazine – available in stores now – but we didn’t have a picture of what that issue of the cover looked like…and now we do! So now if you see this magazine on the shelves, pick it up and flip on over to page 75 to see Belfort first printed review!!

Also – for movie lovers, on page 76 is a really fun and challenging contest/puzzle. I managed to figure it out – but had to have IMDB open throughout!

-Jay Cormier

Belfort’s First Printed Review!!

Went to the book store today as I was hoping the April edition of GAMES magazine was out. It was…it is! What’s so special about the April edition you ask? We got our first printed review of Belfort in this issue!

WOW!

Supercool. The review was written by their resident board game reviewer, John J. McCallion who wrote reviews for 8 games in this issue. John does a great job at giving you an idea of how the game works, but I’m in awe to read his opening line:

Jay Cormier and Sen-Foong Lim make their GAMES debut with a worker placement masterpiece that even veteran designers could boast about.

That’s pretty amazing to read! Thanks for playing and for the kind words John! So check out the first, and currently only printed review of Belfort out there in the April edition of GAMES magazine!

-Jay Cormier

Wow – 4 more positive reviews of Belfort!

I’m ecstatic to see that there are still more reviews coming out for Belfort, and that more and more people are enjoying it.

The first review comes from someone that’s been outside of our expected target demographic: Moms (well, maybe besides our own!). The website A Mom’s Take does a review from a Mom’s perspective and said:

We played a 3-player game of Belfort and we were all able to grasp the concept and actions in the game really quickly which meant even the first time playing the game was really fun!

Next up, we mentioned previously that Bruno Faidutti liked Belfort, and now he’s done his official review and has even included it in his Ideal Game Library! Wow! Here’s an excerpt:

All this sound, and is, very typical, but the game is richer and deeper than it looks, while still being fluid and fast paced.

Thirdly, a pithy review from the site Dice Slam with these fine words:

Belfort is deceptively complex looking because there are three game boards (Calendar board, Resource board and the main Game Board), but is quite intuitive to learn.

Finally a review popped up on Snackbar Games website. He even picked Belfort as his #3 game of 2011! Nice! Here’s a sample of what his review:

There’s a lot going on here, obviously, but every aspect of it adds up to one of the best experiences I’ve had in gaming all year. Put your elves, dwarves, and gnomes to work (no trolls allowed!) and seek out this game as soon as possible.

Unbelievable. Thanks so much to everyone for playing our game and for your kind words. We’re stoked that you’re enjoying it!

-Jay Cormier

Faidutti a Fan!

If you haven’t played a game designed by that prolific Frenchman, Bruno Faidutti…where the heck have you been?  He’s the man responsible for some very popular games like Incan Gold, the beautiful Ilsa Dorada, and the classic title Citadels.  He’s also 1/2 of the team behind other notable games like Mystery of the Abbey, Mission Red Planet, and Ad Astra.  Chances are, you’ve played a game that Bruno designed and you may not even be aware of it!

Well, we’ve played and enjoyed a bunch of his designs and co-designs.  In fact, I’m particularly fond of Dragon’s Gold.  And now, he’s returned the favour and played one of *our* games – Belfort.

Bruno was the first one on Boardgame Geek that figured out that “Belfort” is an actual city in France.  Mr. F described the real Belfort as “boring” when he heard we were naming a game after it.   After reading his impression of the game, I think it’s safe to assume that Bruno enjoys our version of the city much better than the real one – there are elves or dwarves in *our* Belfort!

Our map is also prettier.

MTV Geek Takes a Peek at Belfort!

And they liked what they saw!

 

MTV Geek gave Belfort a very positive review, stating that Belfort is a good replacement for Stone Age and a great way to introduce novice gamers to meatier (but not overwhelming) Euros.  They also gave big thumbs up to Josh’s graphic design, stating that it’s refreshing when form meets function.

Well done, Team Belfort!

Belfort makes Garrett’s Games and Geekiness Best of 2011 List

Garrett’s Games and Geekiness posts a weekly audio podcast on board games and has posted 296 episodes so far. The 296th podcast is a review of their favourite games of 2011. They broke things down into 5 categories: Feld, Heavies, Medium Weights, Card Games, Fillers.

Feld refers to Stefan Feld who had a 1-2 punch this year with Trajan and Castles of Burgundy (I’ve yet to play either as I haven’t been able to find them locally yet).

Heavies consists of 4 games: De Vulguria Eloquentia, Vinhos, Florenza and … Belfort!

He was torn about where to slot Belfort since it’s not as heavy as those other three, but he wanted people to know that the cartoony art might make some think that it’s not a deep game – but it is deep. So that’s really cool!

To finish off his list, his favourite medium weight games are Asara, Crows, Principato, Casa Grande, Firenze, Sun, Sea and Land, Ticket to Ride: Asia. His favourite card games are Biblios, 23, Stich-meister. His favourite Fillers are Kingdom Builder, Paris Connection, Burdigala, Arriala, Cambria, Color Stox, Mondriaan 2020 and Super Rhino!

Great list Garrett! Looks like there’s a few on there that I’ll have to check out.

-Jay Cormier

Most Anticipated Games – Results…and another 2 reviews!

The Most Anticipated Games of 2012 poll on boardgamegeek is now over and the results are in! I’m happy to report that the currently unnamed Belfort expansion made the list…twice!

It’s the 10th most anticipated expansion that’s due out this year. That’s pretty stellar as we’re in ridiculously fantastic company with the rest of the list comprised of expansions to these games:

1. 7 Wonders
2. Race for the Galaxy
3. Alien Frontiers
4. Quarriors!
5. Dominion
6. Galaxy Trucker
7. Cosmic Encounter
8. Eminent Domain
9. Summoner Wars
10. Belfort

Wow! Those are all huge games and we’re stoked to be included in this list! See full list here. But it doesn’t stop there. We were also the 9th most anticipated Economic game. Economic games are Euro-styled games that involve producing and managing resources and income of some sort – which is definitely what Belfort is all about. Here are the results for this category:

1. Merchants of Venus (Stronghold edition)
2. Merchants of Venus (Fantasy Flight edition)
3. Alien Frontiers: Factions
4. Agricola: Cave Farmers
5. Goa
6. Vinhos
7. Kings of Air and Steam
8. Crude: The Oil Game
9. Belfort expansion!
10.  CO2

Again, what a list of amazing titles (if I do say so myself!). Very cool and very exciting. See full list here. Thanks to all those who voted!

Here’s another review of Belfort. This time by Opinionated Gamers. The main review was written by Matt Carlson and he seemed to really like it. I really liked this statement he made:

I’ve got quite a few plays under my belt now, and I still haven’t tired of Belfort.

As that shows that there is re-playability to the game! It’s also worth noting that Belfort isn’t a game for everyone, as not all of the Opinionated Gamers liked it. One of the reasons why I like Opinionated Gamers so much is that they don’t just give you one opinion – they give you many!  So 4 of them liked it, 1 was neutral to it and 3 said it wasn’t for them – which is fair. Check out their review here. Thanks for playing it…and for you opinions!

The next ‘review’ is more of a summary and thoughts on their most recent play of the game. Geek Insight, over at Giant Fire Breathing Robot continues to like the game, even though he got smacked around by some Interactive Guilds this time! He points out a few new learnings about the advantages and disadvantages of going last on the final turn! Thanks for playing!

-Jay Cormier