Wizards Of The Coast Announces Exciting Eurogame, ‘Oregano And Penguin’
Posted on January 2, 2010
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RENTON, Wash. — American publisher Wizards of the Coast announced Tuesday the release of a brand new European-style board game.
The new game, “Oregano and Penguin,” follows the European trend in board games of placing less emphasis on theme and more on game elements such as trading and resource management.
“In our exciting new game, players trade and manage resources to collect the most oregano and the most penguins,” said spokeswoman Tina Gaffney.
“Each round, players bid on oregano. Players also bid on penguins. Skillfully trade oregano for penguins and penguins for oregano with your opponents,” Gaffney said. “You can expect to hear a lot of players saying, ‘Who will give me three oregano,’ or ‘Who will give me two penguins,’” she said.
The Eurogame trend in board games is marked by the critical acclaim of such games as “Settlers of Catan,” “Puerto Rico” and “Caylus.” These games often feature wooden blocks to represent various commodities. In “Oregano and Penguin,” black wooden blocks represent oregano. Dark blue wooden blocks represent penguins. “Players will have to carefully manage their resources in order to win,” Gaffney said.
“You’ll have to make sure that you build enough warehouses to store your oregano and your penguins,” Gaffney said.
Gaffney said that an important part of a Eurogame is that no player is eliminated before the game is over.
“In fact, not only is there no player elimination in this new game, but there isn’t even any elimination of penguins,” Gaffney said. “There are no guns or magical spells or tanks — just a lot of the great elements that make a terrific European-style game with commodities represented by pieces of wood,” she said.
Another important aspect of Eurogames is that they strive to ensure that players are always doing something, even on other players’ turns.
“Each round, you have to choose an action, but you aren’t the only one who benefits from the action you choose,” Gaffney said.
“For example, when you choose the Craft action, everyone but you gets to build a warehouse for their oregano and penguins,” she said. “Or when you choose the Sell action, every other player makes money,” she said.
But money isn’t what the game is about, Gaffney said.
“Money, which is represented by indigo wooden blocks, is actually worthless in this game,” Gaffney said. “Remember, this is a game about flightless birds and herbs, not money,” she said.
- Jan. 30, 2007
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5 Responses to “Wizards Of The Coast Announces Exciting Eurogame, ‘Oregano And Penguin’”
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What about worker placement and bidding
does wotc even produce such a game? right now this reads like a critique of german-style board games
Um… I want to play this. NOW.
Worker placement is in the expansion.
I heard there are advanced rules where you have to keep the Penguins from eating the Oregano by building walls of Money. I can’t wait!