basket_boss

Basket Boss, from Cwali, designed by Corné van Moorsel (as all Cwali games are), is that rare sports game that is a Euro-strategy game (and not a trivia, roll-and-move, or dexterity game).

The basketball-themed game looks a little like Traumfabrik (aka Hollywood Blockbuster), with players available for auction each round. Each player plays deterministically better or worse in each season and also brings in better or worse income. There are a few extra bonus people around, such as referees, but essentially, you score points for the best team each round. It may present a challenge to Knizia, designer of Traumfabrik and the current king of light auction games.

In addition to Basket Boss, Cwali/Moorsel is releasing other new games and several expansions to existing games. The other new games are Antarctica 2090, an area control game, and Tricky Trek, a blind bidding race game, where the bidding chips are added to the spaces at the end of the race track and you pick up the bidding chips you land on as you go. Both come with teensy ceramic animals from the dollar store.

tricky_trek