ENCAPSULATE 1998
1998
The millennium creeps closer but the nineties still has plenty to offer. Sit back and enjoy learning about the best that 1998 gave to us!
Words by Matthew Vernall
Nineteen ninety-eight: A year of sensational news stories! Michael Jordan played his last game for the Chicago Bulls, winning their sixth NBA Final, Bill Clinton’s affair with intern Monica Lewinsky nearly cost him his US Presidency, the “Good Friday Agreement” was signed in Northern Ireland, bringing a lot more peace to the region, and the Furby first appeared in toy stores, becoming the first best-selling robot pet. But enough of historical events, what about historical games?
REINER KNIZIA DOUBLE FEATURE
Right after the success of his Mesopotamian masterpiece Tigris and Euphrates, Reiner Knizia delivered not one, but two board game classics in 1998 – Samurai and Through the Desert.
In many ways these games shared aspects of his previous work, focusing on positioning and placement for success.
Samurai is the more obviously influenced of the two, where the objective is to claim favour with the castes of Medieval Japan by surrounding tokens with matching tiles in your colour. Some tiles are worth more than others, whilst others providing abilities such as being able to play two tiles at once, or swap an already placed tile to somewhere else.