Strategy players fight for the German championship in Hanover
Hanover. The chase with the Star Destroyer right at the beginning of the first “Star Wars” film, the battle for the Death Star, the final duel of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader – all these are scenes that are etched into cultural memory. And always the question: What would have happened if …? Now there are games that allow alternative trajectories to be practiced, and they are so popular that there are even world championships. The German preliminary round takes place this weekend in Hanover.
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The location is not a “Star Wars” location, but the “Star Event Center” is. The organizers are expecting a good 200 participants for the tournaments in “Star Wars: X-Wing”, “Star Wars: Armada” and “Star Wars: Legion”. The winners will be invited to the World Cup in the USA next year.
German championship expanded to include “Game of Thrones” game
At the request of the fans, a German championship was set up at short notice in “A Song of Ice and Fire”, the game based on George RR Martin’s fantasy epic, on which the series “Game of Thrones” is also based.
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All four games are so-called tabletops: strategy games that are played out with miniatures on sometimes elaborately designed model landscapes. For a long time, these eked out an existence in the niche of niche parlor games. And now they are benefiting from the great gaming boom, which has been intensified by the lockdowns of recent years.
Board games are a mass phenomenon
“Board games have become a mass phenomenon – and then people see what else is out there,” says Robin Decleur. He is spokesman for the organizer Asmodee Germany based in Essen, the local branch of the world’s largest game publisher. Hanover was chosen because of its good accessibility.
So that visitors can not only watch others play, but also play themselves, Asmodee offers a number of other titles from the portfolio. These include many games for well-known licenses such as “Marvel: Champions” and “Marvel: Crisis Protocol”, “Stranger Things: Attack of the Mindflayer” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game”. The publisher’s current hits can also be tried out, “Top Ten” and “Dune: Imperium” – they were among the nominees for the game and the Kennerspiel des Jahres 2022. Because one thing is clear: “A license helps with awareness,” says Explanation. “But the game also has to be good.”
Tabletop: contact points in Hanover
Not all tabletop fans have the space, time and leisure to set up a gaming landscape at home. Among other things, in 2010 the association Table-Top-Treff Hannover (3TH) was founded, based at Vahrenwalder Straße 90. Guests are welcome, but only by arrangement for Corona reasons.
The same applies to the Hannoversche Tabletopfreunde club (Rebhuhnfeld 16), which meets every Thursday from 6 p.m. to play. You can try it out at any time, play along after registering.tabletopfreun.de
This is another point of contact “Warhammer”-Shop in the city (Lange Laube 1/1a), one of hundreds of branches that the leading Games Workshop operates worldwide. Of course, this is only about your own game systems.
And finally Hanover with the “Fantasy-In” (Hildesheimer Straße 11) one of the most important specialist shops for fantastic games in Germany.
From Friday, July 29, 10 a.m. to Sunday, July 31, 6 p.m. in the “Star Event Center” (Alter Flughafen 11a). Tickets (2 euros plus fees) at Eventbrite. community.asmodee.de
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Three Star Wars games
When “Star Wars: X-Wing” first appeared ten years ago, it turned the tabletop games market upside down: the miniatures come assembled and painted, instead of a thick set of rules with hundreds of pages, there was a thin booklet of several. The players found all instant information on cards, markers and symbol dice. Tabletops had never been so beginner-friendly.
In the meantime, a lively tournament scene has formed, which fleas through every expansion for the best cards and tricks. However, the current starter box (Atomic Mass Games/Asmodee, for two people aged 14 and over, around 54 euros) is still a good start for people with less sporting ambitions who can reenact skirmishes between space fighters such as those X-Wings and Tie-Fighters .
Popular Tournament Game: View of an “X-Wing” party recreating space battles in the “Star Wars” universe.
© Source: manufacturer
The big bangers get their turn in Star Wars Armada. For example, even the basic box (Atomic Mass Games/Asmodee, for two people aged 14 and over, around 115 euros) contains a massive star destroyer.
![The big hitters: In](https://www.haz.de/resizer/uIjzArixuxnKoTmerYfur511RHg=/428x241/filters:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/madsack/322U6JFWQ3WEI5A67YSC64XY3U.jpg)
The big hitters: In “Star Wars Armada”, here is the content of the basic box, whole Star Destroyers fight.
© Source: manufacturer
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Ground battles between Imperial troops and Rebels or Separatists and clone troopers are at the center of “Star Wars: Legion”. There are two basic boxes, one for the first and one for the second trilogy (Atomic Mass Games/Asmodee, for two people aged 14 and over, around 115 euros).
The design philosophy is similarly beginner-friendly for all three games. And there is a constant supply of well-known and lesser-known characters from “Star Wars” films and series.
“A Song of Ice and Fire”
“If you play the Game of Thrones, you win or die” – this quote from the series “Game of Thrones” is now part of pop culture heritage. It also applies to the characters in A Song of Ice and Fire, which is based on George RR Martin’s novel of the same name.
Entire troops go into battle here against each other. A special feature is a separate area next to the actual playing area, where characters from the novel who are not actively involved in the fight spin their intrigues.
![So much colorful plastic: A look at the figures in the basic box of](https://www.haz.de/resizer/FELMqbB6_mN9ruIfUjGOhyHhyq0=/428x241/filters:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/madsack/I2WWYCRXGLZY2FDVJ7E6NVGVLU.jpg)
So much colorful plastic: A look at the figures in the basic box of “A Song of Ice and Fire”.
© Source: manufacturer
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The massive basic box (CMON/Asmodee, for two people aged 14 and over, around 164 euros) lets the noble houses Stark and Lannister loose on each other.
These games are also available – a selection
The most successful and most widespread tabletop worldwide is “Warhammer 40,000” from the official manufacturer Games Workshop. Above all, the Space Marines, human super soldiers from the game, have become iconic and have now found their way into video games, comics and novels. Battles are played here in a distant future.
“Warhammer 40,000” was originally just the science fiction version of Games Workshop’s “Warhammer” (also called “Warhammer Fantasy Battle”). That has since been discontinued and replaced by Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, which is about larger-than-life fantasy worlds.
But there are dozens of other alternatives, in the science fiction area, for example, “Infinity” from the Spanish manufacturer Corvus Belli with a design based on manga, in the fantasy area, “Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings” from the Greek publisher Para Bellum.
In recent years, historical tabletops have also become more popular in Germany, such as “Saga: Era der Vikings” by Stronghold Terrain and “Bolt Action” by Warlord Games, which is set in World War II – there have been war games of this kind in this country for a long time and out understandable reasons certain reservations.
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And there are also German tabletops: “Freebooter’s Fate” by Freebooter Miniatures lets pirates compete against goblins and ghosts in fantastic South Sea regions. Neverrealm Industry’s Summoners is also very original. The special feature here: At the beginning there is only one figure per side on the field, the so-called “Summoner”, who first has to summon magical beings as his troops.
By Stefan Gohlisch