Moskito

I'm not sure how long Hans im Gluck has been around, but it's been quite a few years as I have a couple of their games dating back to 1984. A complete list might be hard to come by.

Moskito is easier. As far as I know Karl-Heinz Schmiel releases one game per year at Essen. Mike Siggins in Sumo has a running line that you can gauge the quality of Essen in particular each year and European games in general by the Moskito release, and he maintains that it alternates in quality. He lists Moskito's line as follows:

1989 - Tyranno Ex

Game of survival of the fitest. Players try to manipulate conditions on the planet so that the prehistoric creatures they hold survive to the end of the game. Later picked up and reprinted with some changes by Avalon Hill.

1990 - A La Carte

Try to put together the correct ingredients that match recipes of various value. Game contents include toy frying pans and salt and pepper shakers. Part of the game involves physically trying to get the right amount of salt or whatever into the frying pans ... too much ruins the recipe. Can be right for non-gamer crowd that wants something light and silly.

1991 - Extrablatt

Players put together the various elements of a couple of newspaper pages with points awarded according to the mix of stories and placement of articles. There's some good player interaction as you try to spike other peoples' hot stories or steal their scoops. Better than it might sound, although the scoring system is a little overbearing and the game runs a bit long.

1992 - Packen Wirs

Never actually played it, and have only seen it once. Has something to do with moving day and comes with a boxload of doll furniture that gets pushed around the board. Haven't heard a lot of good things about it, and rumor is it was thrown together at the last minute for Essen that year.

1993 - Was Sticht

Excellent card game. Probably cancels out the luck of the draw factor better than any card game. Players pick counters at the beginning that each describe tasks that must be accomplished during one hand -- like Take Last Trick, or Take No Blue Cards, or Take Most Tricks, etc. Cards (four suits 1-9) are then dealt face up in a grid pattern, and players take turn choosing, row by row, the cards they want in their hands. Choices are of course made according to the task counters to which players are committed. One player during this phase is always the trumpmaster (the only one who knows at the outset what trump will be for that hand) and he or she tells after each row is taken up which player would have taken the trick if the cards in that row were played in the order selected. This eventually allows all players to figure out what trump is that hand. Then the hand is played out with everyone but the trumpmaster trying to accomplish one the task each has selected for that hand, and the trumpmaster trying to prevent everyone from reaching their goal. The trumpmaster can get credit for accomplishing a task if he or she manages to also attain one of the other players' goals as they fail. First person to perform all the tasks they've selected wins. If more than one reaches this goal on the same hand, the tiebreaker is the highest sum of the point values assigned to each task. These are rated according to difficulty.

The Game Cabinet - [email protected] - Ken Tidwell