Café de Nuit

I've had this one on my shelf for a while, but just got to play it this past weekend. It's a clever little German card game called, Die Kutschfahrt zur Teufelsburg, which translates as "Coach Ride to Devil's Castle". It's been re-printed in English, with some revised rules as "The Castle of the Devil," but to me it will always be "Die Kutschfahrt" to appease my inner 12-year-old, and my love of games I can't pronounce properly.

I won't go too deeply into detail. You can find pictures and other reviews here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/ ... -the-devil

But I just wanted to point it out to the Ravenloft fans since it has a great Ravenloft-ish vibe. The idea is that 3-10 players are together in a carriage, on their way to the "Devil's Castle" (read: Castle Dracula or Castle Ravenloft, your choice.) What they will do when they get there and why they are going are not important. More important is that each of the riders is a member of one of two secret societies, The Order and The Brotherhood. Societies so secret, that they don't even know who else in the carriage belongs to which one. Also on board the carriage is everyone's luggage, and amongst the luggage are some objects of power: 3 keys and 3 goblets. The keys belong to the Order, and the goblets belong to the Brotherhood.

The object of the game is to win . You win (as a team) by identifying the members of your society, making sure that they hold the 3 items they are looking for, and declaring publicly that this is so. If you're wrong, you (and your team) lose. (good day, sir!)

The game is a bit complicated to learn, but it's a blast to play. Everyone is sneakily trying to get information, while not giving information away to the other team, but since you don't know the teams, everyone is paranoid of everyone else. Then, once the allegiances start to be come clear, there's a mad dash for the items and the win. (I just can't help but laugh at picturing all these classic victorian archetype characters switching from veiled hints and secret hand signs to wrestling with each other over the luggage, while the whole carriage careens through treacherous mountain passes.)

Anyway, I liked it a lot, and can't wait to play again. Thought some here might be interested, so I figured I'd plug it.

Wrestling? Over items of power? Pffft. There would be daggers and poison needles unless they are really pacifist orders with a secret agenda to bring peace to the world (without killing everyone). And no pacifist order would have half their members on a carriage to castle Ravenloft.

I'll ask my friend MIke if he has this one and i f not. .... I'll get it!

It looks like a good game to me, considering I have played a gazillion games [over 250 easy in the past 5 years]


SOme good ones I like are Alhambra[all 4 together or just the basic game - even the dice game is fun for two ]

Cities and Knights expansion for Settlers of Catan. I recently played the Settlers of AMerica and it is very good!

tarlyn wrote:SOme good ones I like are Alhambra[all 4 together or just the basic game - even the dice game is fun for two

I still haven't done more than crack open most of my Alhambra expansions, sadly. We usually have too many n00bs playing to spring the expansions on them, though I almost never play without the Vizier, especially with >4 players.

Cities and Knights expansion for Settlers of Catan. I recently played the Settlers of AMerica and it is very good!

Regrettably, I'm kind of worn out on setters. I love C&K, but rarely have the right crowd for it, and we've played Settlers, Seafarers, Starfarers, C&K, Das Buch, Settlers of the Stone Age, Candamir, Troy, Great Wall, Cheops, Nurnburg, and Rome so much that I just can't get excited enough about Settlers of America to give it a try. I still haven't touched most of the stuff in the Atlantis box, nor my fishermen of Catan mini-expansion, nor have we finished a full game of Elasund (that one nearly ended some friendships; It's nasty! )

For the past couple years, we've probably played more Dominion than any other game (or maybe all others put together!). Macao is a recent fave too, it makes my brain hurt in all the right ways.

I think Mike has Macao but we haven't played it. Dude, Dominion is da bomb! You have to so open Arabian Nights and play it or buy it and play it, You won't regret it. Yeah, Settlers is the game where you can't play it a lot, but once in a while. Some games are for some people and some are for others.

Hey, have you played Goa and Santiago? What about Ra?

As for Alhambra, yes we love the Vizier. Try the dice game.

I also find that you have to give a game two tries to see if you really like it

tarlyn wrote:You have to so open Arabian Nights and play it or buy it and play it, You won't regret it.

Definitely on the to try list, but we're trying not to buy anything new until we get our "played/owned" ratio up a bit higher.

Hey, have you played Goa and Santiago? What about Ra?

yes, yes, and yes. Goa is one of my favorites. I always wish we could play it more than we do. A very, very good game. Santiago we played once and enjoyed. I mean to get back to it someday but don't remember much about it. Ra's a classic. A very odd, but very good auction game. Don't be fooled by the egyptian theme, it's pasted on at best, but the game underneath is great.

Try the dice game.

I'm not a big fan of dice games, but if the opportunity presents itself, I'll give it a try.

I also find that you have to give a game two tries to see if you really like it

I usually give it 3. But I'm more forgiving than most.

I love Ra. Speaking of Egyptian, have you tried Cleopatra? I liked it.

I also enjoyed Collusseum[sp]

Speaking of card games, I guess you tried a few Munchkin card games? My pal Mike named his dog after it LOL!

tarlyn wrote:I love Ra. Speaking of Egyptian, have you tried Cleopatra? I liked it.

Yup, played it once at a con a couple years ago. I enjoyed it. Considered getting it, but it hasn't made the cut yet.

I also enjoyed Collusseum[sp]

Yeah, I have it. I like it a lot. Need to get that one on the table again soon.

Speaking of card games, I guess you tried a few Munchkin card games? My pal Mike named his dog after it LOL!

heh... yeah, I like the humor of them, but I'm not a fan of playing them. I've given it the 3 chances, and each time it was interminable... Funny cards, painful game.

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:heh... yeah, I like the humor of them, but I'm not a fan of playing them. I've given it the 3 chances, and each time it was interminable... Funny cards, painful game.

Yeah. I am presuming you like Arkham Asylum? I find that not every board game player likes it.

I also like Mystery of the Abbey [The movie is fantastic btw] and Touch of Evil with the expansions is great, especially for Halloween.

tarlyn wrote:Yeah. I am presuming you like Arkham Asylum? I find that not every board game player likes it.

I assume you mean Arkham Horror. (though as a Batman fan, I'd probably love an Arkham Asylum game. ) Sadly, I don't. I've given it 2 tries and hated both, though I feel as though I should like it. In isolation, the parts seem like things I'd like, but as a whole, it doesn't come together for me. 1 more try and it goes on the trade/sell pile. I think I need to play it with a group who knows and likes it, since it seems like it's very dependent on the crowd.

I also like Mystery of the Abbey [The movie is fantastic btw] and Touch of Evil with the expansions is great, especially for Halloween.

Mystery of the Abbey was... just ok, the one time I played. I'd try it again sometime. ToE is great. (co-op style. Competitive style fell flat with us.) I need to try the expansions soon.

Other games I like with a Ravenloft-ish vibe include Mr. Jack, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the U.S. version boardgame. believe it or not, it's pretty good. Apparently the U.K. one is crap.) and of course, Betrayal at House on the Hill.

ETA: Then of course, there's Castle Ravenloft, but that probably goes without saying.

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:

tarlyn wrote:Yeah. I am presuming you like Arkham Asylum? I find that not every board game player likes it.

I assume you mean Arkham Horror. (though as a Batman fan, I'd probably love an Arkham Asylum game. ) Sadly, I don't. I've given it 2 tries and hated both, though I feel as though I should like it. In isolation, the parts seem like things I'd like, but as a whole, it doesn't come together for me. 1 more try and it goes on the trade/sell pile. I think I need to play it with a group who knows and likes it, since it seems like it's very dependent on the crowd.

I played it with people who like it so it helped.

I also like Mystery of the Abbey [The movie is fantastic btw] and Touch of Evil with the expansions is great, especially for Halloween.

Mystery of the Abbey was... just ok, the one time I played. I'd try it again sometime. ToE is great. (co-op style. Competitive style fell flat with us.) I need to try the expansions soon.

Mystery of the Abbey is a once every blue moon game tbh.

You'll like all the expansions for ToE

Other games I like with a Ravenloft-ish vibe include Mr. Jack, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the U.S. version boardgame. believe it or not, it's pretty good. Apparently the U.K. one is crap.) and of course, Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Not tried Mr Jack. Liked Betrayal and will look into BUffy.

ETA: Then of course, there's Castle Ravenloft, but that probably goes without saying.

Sadly I tried it and it does nothing for me heeh.

tarlyn wrote:

Other games I like with a Ravenloft-ish vibe include Mr. Jack, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the U.S. version boardgame. believe it or not, it's pretty good. Apparently the U.K. one is crap.) and of course, Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Not tried Mr Jack. Liked Betrayal and will look into BUffy.

Buffy benefits a lot from familiarity with the show. I played it once before watching and was only marginally impressed. I played again after becoming a Buffy fanboy, and it was a different experience.

Sadly I tried it and it does nothing for me heeh.

Yeah, It's not for everyone, but enjoy it for what it is, while simultaneously wishing it was what I wish it to be.

Being a BUffy fan thenshould help

As For Castle Ravenloft, it wasn't aimed at us RL fans so it's kind of understandable.