Get Me a Great Board Game -- Stadt!

I recently picked up a board game called The Speicherstadt. It's a new effort from designer Stefan Feld, the designer behind other fantastic games including Notre Dame, In the Year of the Dragon, and Macao. The Speicherstadt is another outstanding game, but especially commendable for being so much simpler than those others.

Players auction their way through a deck of cards that are each potentially worth a variety of points. The cards are auctioned only a few at a time (the exact number varying according to the number of players), and in a very interesting manner. Each card has a column of spaces above it where players may place one of three pawns he has. Play proceeds around the table, with each player placing one of his pawns in the unoccupied space closest to the card he's bidding on. If someone has bid there before you (including yourself), you place your new pawn above any others there.

Once all pawns are placed, cards are auctioned off in order. The player whose pawn is closest to the first card may buy it -- at a cost equal to the number of pawns there (including his own). He may have been first, but if three other pawns were placed behind him, the cost of that card skyrockets to four. If he declines (or can't afford the card), then he removes his pawn, and the next person up the chain gets a shot -- with the price appropriately reduced by one for the cost of the now-missing pawn.

There are a few rules associated with how the cards score points, but essentially, that's the entire game right there. Easy to explain and understand. But incredibly deep in its strategy. I haven't even begun to crack all the nuances to the pawn placement stage of each turn. Possible strategies include obscuring your true intentions, bidding twice at two different times on the same card (for a variety of reasons), extorting a player for a card he really wants, trying to bid up the leader to balance out the game, forcing a situation where an opponent must pick between two cards for lack of money... the list goes on and on.

I suppose the only bad thing I could say about this game is that perhaps it wouldn't be good for people who take their gaming too personally. There is a lot of screwing your neighbor in this game. I happen to think the way it works in this game is fun and not annoying, but I suppose I could imagine the intense sort of gamer who might take this very personally.

A simple, fast-paced, deep game that plays in under an hour? That's pretty much the holy grail of board gaming right there. I'm thoroughly enjoying The Speicherstadt.