icon for podpress  HeadGames Podcast Episode #38: EuroGames vs AmeriTrash [54:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Always ready to upset people, we spend this podcast picking apart the concepts of EuroGames and AmeriTrash. If you find that you agree with us, disagree, love or hate us, drop a comment on the site or shoot us an e-mail @ headgamespodcast[at]gmail[dot]com.

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Main Bit – Eurogames vs Ameritrash

  • German Game -> Designer Game -> Eurogame (no longer restricted to European releases, of course)
    • Minimal random elements – if there is randomness it is in the initial configuration (and several standard phases throughout), but actions always have consistent results.
    • Game is about playing the mechanics, theme is applied later (still usually quite abstract). Perfect example: Beowulf. Little to no ties to the actual story.
    • Odd names: “Hey, That’s My Fish!”
    • “Elegant” design is usually the description given – mechanics are streamlined, with few special cases or exceptions to remember.
    • Rewards careful planning and execution of strategy
    • Quick play times (90 min maximum). “Light”. Regarded by some as “filler” games.
    • Eventually predictable as a result? Can be optimized/exploited?
    • Seldom confrontational, players have minimal means to affect others’ performance – “a footrace where people can toss obstacles arbitrarily in others’ paths”
    • Notoriously “Euro” games:
      • Puerto Rico
      • Chess
      • Caylus
      • Ticket To Ride (a rather successful mass-marketed Euro, too!)
      • Princes of Florence
  • Ameritrash (a term coined by the BoardGameGeek community). Include Britain also (“Anglotrash”)?
    • Simulations rather than exercises in strategy?
    • “100-page rulebook”. Rules attempt to cover every single nuance of the theme, or handle every possible loophole/unique situation.
    • Numerous components, or “fiddly bits”. Game has a large scope.
    • Dicefests? Usually, but not always. But definitely luck is involved.
    • Confrontation!!!
    • Heavy on the theme. You know what mindset to be in when playing.
    • Longer play times (usually 2 hour minimums)
    • Rewards adaptation, preparedness, cunning, diplomacy
    • Ameritrash examples:
      • Risk
      • Munchkin
      • Titan (5+ hour game, players are eliminated throughout – some players knocked out in under 2 hours, and left to waste time)
      • Twilight Imperium (a gratuitous galactic space battle with loads of options.)
      • Settlers of Catan (originally Euro, now considered American style?)

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