" One of the most unexpected and delightful discoveries we''ve made since being in Switzerland has been the unwiderstehlich attraction of German board games. Regular visits to the local Gemeinde library usually bring home in addition to the handful of kids'' books some game or other that my wife likes to figure out and have the kids play on Sundays as a good family activity. I''m used to this; she''d already been doing that in the States. One day in June 2000, a year after our arrival in Switzerland, she brings home another game, ""Zicke Zacke Hühnerkacke."" ""Dad, wanna play with us?"" ""No thanks, I''m trying to figure out this SonntagsZeitung .... oh, all right"". (see, I''m usually a pretty sober guy, for me watching TV and reading fiction are modern forms of torture). Hey, listen, it wasn''t bad. The following week: ""Labyrinth."" I''m curious now. I help set up the pieces while my wife figures out the rules. I end up playing with a bit more concentration than a dad should allow himself in deference to his Nachwuchs'' tender self-confidence. Next, ""Zauberwald."" Of course this time I''m reading the rules; the exchange of roles is permanent... The rest is history. I''m impressed by the quality of the components and artwork, the atmosphere and mood of the themes, the inventiveness and variety of the gaming mechanisms, the family orientation. For 30 to 40 francs, these games are always a good value. By October, I started paying attention to what I might find out about the board game industry in the German-speaking world. The yearly flood of new games is impossible to keep up with. More than 300 new games appear on the market every year through 80 or so game publishers; they can rely on a dependable market of buyers to cover the business risk. Two game awards bestow special distinction on the yearly crop: the Spiel des Jahres Preis, and the Deutsche Spielepreis. The Deutsche Speilepreis follows popular taste; awarded based on reader polls and votes from gaming clubs and journalists. Started in 1985. The Spiel des Jahres Preis is awarded by a special committee of 10 board game connoisseurs. It''s like winning the Oscar. This award has been around since the late 1970s. A Spiele des Jahres award can boost a game''s sales from a typical average of 10, 000 to 30,000 copies to over 300,000. (You''ll see on the game box a ""Spiele des Jahres"" wreath for games that have won this distinction.) There''s actually a 3rd distinction, the Deutsche Kinderspiele-Preis. The 2000 winner went to ""Piraten Pitt."" The industry supports a handful of professional game developers who do this full-time, with room enough for lots of amateur inventors. Reiner Knizia, Wolfgang Panning, Michael Schacht are some big names, for example. At least 2 major magazines, the ""Pöppel-Revue"" and ""spielbox"" cover the board game industry. Major newspapers offer editor reviews on newly-released games (NZZ has one about every other week in the Lebensart section). NZZ even dedicated a special Folio issue to ""Spielzeug"" in December 2000 (from which I got some of this information) I could go on and on, but you get the point. The German crowd take their board games seriously. Yves (looking into interesting things since 1838. The year steamship operators blew off 10 meters of the Schiller Denkmal in the Urnersee, shortening it to 25 meters, due to danger posed by falling rocks.) "

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" hi, thanks for the informative email. i guess there are no french versions of these fun games. do you have an particular favorites/suggestion for an evening with 4-6 adults? "

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