I'm a confirmed cartophile, which
is to say, I love maps. Give me an atlas and I'll happily browse
the pages for hours on end. This interest extends to the boards
used in games and while they needn't necessarily be a map, I really
appreciate one that has been well designed and attractively
rendered. Here then are ten game boards that I'm especially fond
of...
| Aladdin's Dragons |
| Artist: Doris Matthäus |
|
A lot of games use a board merely as a
placeholder for pieces and settle for a simply matrix of boxes.
Not so with Aladdin's Dragons—each of the 15 boxes is a
wonderful depiction of a mythical Arabian city, from the dragon
caves to the marketplace to the many palace rooms. |
| Don Pepe |
| Artist: None listed |
|
One of the qualities of an especially attractive
board are those little extra features hidden around. Even better
are when those features are actually part of the game and this is
the case with Don Pepe. Scattered around the dining table are
guns, knives and glasses. Each has a specific purpose (a glass
allows you to poison that gangster, you can guess what the guns
and knives are for). |
| EastFront |
| Artist: Eric Hotz |
|
One problem that wargames face is that real maps do
not always conform to the requirements of a hex grid. So, the
graphic artist is usually faced with the choice of making the map
attractive or functional. Eric Hotz managed both with EastFront
and at first glance
you could almost miss the fact that there's a hexgrid at all. |
| Elfenland |
| Artist: Doris Matthäus |
|
Another Doris creation and another
example of a game with very simple requirements but a masterful
execution. Each of the 21 cities are unique and have their own
flavour—it's easy to imagine a whole history and back story
based on this fabulous map. |
| Elfenwizards |
| Artist: Doris Matthäus |
|
This is perhaps my favourite board of all. There's something
quite evocative about the mist covered tree that I find very
pleasing. Especially nice are how the little extras are fit into
the overall scheme. For example, the turn round marker (upper right
corner) is nicely detailed as a wooden board attached to one of
the tree's limbs. |
| Entdecker |
| Artist: Franz Vohwinkel |
|
I love maps in general and there's
something about one that slowly emerges during gameplay that I find especially
satisfying. I really like the fact that even functionally
identical tiles in Entdecker are rendered a little
different—it adds verisimilitude to the notion of discovering a
collection of small islands. |
| Formula Dé |
| Artists: Bernard Bittler, Guillaume
Rohmer |
|
Many racing games make do with a very
plain grid on which to play, but not Formula Dé. All of the
many available tracks have detailed renditions of the surrounding
track and countryside. A few points are lost due to the the oversized cartoons
but the tracks are still wonderful to race upon. |
| High Kings of Tara |
| Artist: None listed |
|
I'm a fan of Celtic knots and so this game, which
uses them as a central mechanic, was a natural. The small
tiles that create the knots are a little fiddly to place but I'm willing to
overlook that as the results are so beautiful. The very colourful
border is also puzzle cut allowing multiple copies to be combined
into even more elaborate boards! |
| Mystery of the Abbey |
| Artists: Julien Delval, Emmanuel Roudier,
Cyrille Daujean |
|
Any of the big box games from Days of Wonder could
have made this list but the one I especially like is Mystery of
the Abbey. It captures the feel of Eco's The Name of the
Rose which was the inspiration for the game. |
| Roborally |
| Artists: Tom Wänerstand, Daniel Gelon,
Anson Maddocks, Maria Cabardo |
|
There's an awful lot of detail on
the Roborally boards and it all works very well to evoke
the theme of hapless robots caught in a demented and dangerous
factory. It's impossible not to start humming Raymond Scott's Powerhouse
when riding the conveyer belts through the Cannery Row board. |
| Space Hulk |
| Artists: Richard Wright, David Gallagher |
|
I've detailed my obsession with Space
Hulk elsewhere, and every
time I play I still appreciate the incredible detail that went
into the design of the puzzle-cut tiles that make up the playing
surface. |
| Tikal |
| Artist: Franz Vohwinkel |
|
Franz Vohwinkel is my favourite graphic
artist; his work is absolutely stunning. The Aztec themed elements
on Tikal's board are wonderful but what I like best
is how the board resembles a jungle slowly being cut away to
reveal the hidden temples, matching the game's narrative. |
- Greg Aleknevicus
|
