The Art of Boardgames

Round the World

Paul M. — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:30:48 +0000

Round the World: Europe

Here is another card game game from the Pepys/Castell Brothers collection. According to the boardgamegeek entry the publication year is 1961. This is curious because a key feature of the game, including the box art, is the use of the Concorde plane. The Wikipedia entry for the Concorde states that construction of prototypes didn’t start until 1965, its first test flight was in 1969, and that it wasn’t ready for commercial service until 1976.

Round the World: Asia

An apparent and intriguing anachronism then…!
I guess it’s possible that there was some early publicity about the Concorde design way back in 1961 and that the (uncredited) game designer/artist was/were simply forward-looking and imaginative enough to feature it so early into this game.
Or maybe the first edition of Round the World did not feature the Concorde card at all and this set is actually an updated edition from the 1960s or 70s (the rules sheet and box for the game have no date printed anywhere).

Round the World: Americas

Or, maybe the boardgamegeek entry is simply a mistake.
If anyone can shed any light on this minor mystery, please add a comment here or send me a message through the contact form. It would be appreciated!

Round the World: Africa

Anyhoo, let’s take a look at the game. Simply, this is another version of Uno or Crazy Eights or, according to the Pepys box and rule sheet, their game “Speed”. It has the theme of world travel pasted on flimsily, making it playable by the kiddies and vaguely educational (ie., because of the geographical and cultural features on some of the cards). But it is the kitsch, period artwork on the cards that make this marvellous to look at. Granted, some of the drawings are a little flat and uninspiring. But some are just the opposite – The Great Wall (China) and Panama Canal cards are nice stand-outs for me. Various other cards show stylised stereotypes that are unrealistic but still attractive – Kenya, the Canadian Mountie, the Old West (USA), and the Mount Fujiyama (Japan) scene, for example.

Round the World: Australasia

Some are actually quite odd and seem a little out of place – in particular the Le Mans 24 Hour Race (France) and the Melbourne Test Match (Australia), and the yellow sky over the Sydney Harbour Bridge makes me think that possibly the artwork on this card wasn’t finished or that maybe something went wrong in the offset printing process?
More games to come in the Pepys collection.

Masterpiece

Paul M. — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:30:26 +0000

Masterpiece board

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640): Le Chapeau de Paille

Today’s game is more about great works of art than actually being one itself. But I figured that a collection of great board game art ought to feature somewhere a board game about art. In fact, there are several games that fall into this category. But it is this game that seems to stand as the contemporary exemplar, dating originally back to 1970, with at least three editions released since then in multiple languages. It appears that each edition has a different collection of artwork cards therein.

Meyndert Hobbema (1638-1709): The Avenue, Middleharnis

Giovanni Antonio Canaletto (1697-1768): Venice: A Regatta on the Grand Canal

I have not played Masterpiece myself, but having read the rules, there really is not much to them, or the game play. A gamer friend of mine scores it at a mere 3 out of 10, which places it in about the same category as (or barely above) traditional Monopoly in terms of gaming interest. It might be worth taking it for a spin one night with family members, where the goal is simple socialisation rather than having compelling board game experience.

Alesso Baldovinetti (1426-1499): Portrait of a Lady in Yellow

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519): Cartoon: The Virgin and Child with SS.Anne and John the Baptist

The interest here of course is in the artworks displayed in the game. Twenty-four individual paintings by great Masters, printed on postcards. When each becomes available through the game play, the paintings are set up set up in little stands to be on display, as part of each player’s collection and available for auction. In most cases the player auctions for the paintings are blind, so really the game value of each is largely a guess. But the players’ appreciation of the pictures themselves would no doubt influence the subjective, perceived value of each one, and maybe this is where some of the gaming interest and fun comes in.

Everyone’s tastes are different of course. It would be too much to reproduce here the entire 24 artworks from the game, so shown here are just a few that I like…

Express

Paul M. — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:30:14 +0000

Express station fold-out cards

Express card set 1

Since dipping deeper into the art of games recently, I’ve discovered a wealth of games – card games in particular – produced by the company Pepys in the UK during the middle of the 20th century. I’ve been playing games all my life, more deeply in the hobby for about 20 years, but only become aware of some of these gems in the past few months. And there are plenty more to come…

This post features another classic from the Pepys collection, Express, in which players form sets of train cards and progress them through a station. According to the entry on boardgamegeek.com, it appears there are two editions published of this game.

Express card set 2

Express card set 3

A look at the artwork on my set, including the neat, fold-out station cards (see first pic, top left), indicates that mine is the first edition, published in 1947. A glimpse at some of the artwork from the second edition (circa 1955), shows that this appears to be even richer than the first.
Sadly, although I haven’t played the game myself, a glance over the rules indicates that is little more than set collecting, a-la Happy Families, etc., with the extra novelty of having to play signal cards to advance your train through the station.

Again, the artwork is uncredited (and so is the game designer), which is a pity. The clickable pictures here reveal most of the cards artwork in the game in low-mid resolution. Both editions of the game looked to be inspired by a real train-spotting spirit and I imagine there would be a lot of British train fans that would have a copy of this game in their train memorabilia collection.

Express "GWR" engine card

Express card set 4

The cards, especially the station fold-outs, look fantastic, and hark back to a (mythically) more innocent and gentle time. The train drawings themselves are simply and beautifully rendered, with a colourful shading technique that is a joy to look at.

Stone Age

Paul M. — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:30:42 +0000

For this entry on board game art we return to more modern times and, paradoxically (or ironically), to pre-historic times!
Here are two items from my contemporary collection that are both concerned with pre-historic man.

Stone Age board and components

Stone Age board

The first is Stone Age (2008), designed by Michael Tummelhofer. The artist is the prolific Michael Menzel, who is responsible (alone or in collaboration) for the artwork in nearly 120 games and expansions. Although a large proportion of these are single-illustration pieces (like individual cards), Menzel’s output is extraordinary. A glance over the quality of his work across his collection serves as acknowledgement that he is one of the greatest board game artists of our time. Other game artwork highlights of Menzel (for me!) include In the Year of the Dragon, Maori, and the marvelous Vikings (all with Harald Lieske), Batavia, Shogun, Thurn and Taxis, and the astonishing Pillars of the Earth, which I hope to feature here in its own right some time soon.

Stone Age board close up

Sample of game cards from Stone Age

Stone Age is a marvelous game of pre-historic resource competition, management and set collecting, and fully deserves its high rating in boardgamegeek. The board is beautiful, depicting a small village population and surrounding areas from which the game resources (wood, clay, stone and gold) are collected. The separate player boards, hut tiles and game cards are all done in a consistent style and are just great to admire. And the game includes, for gimmick value only (although one of the best gimmicks you’ll find in any hobby board game!) a genuine stitched bovine hide (that’s real leather, folks!) dice cup.
Stone Age is truly worthy of any game collector’s shelf.

Lascaux box cover

Lascaux game cards and components

The second title I wanted to mention was Lascaux (2007), artwork by Harald Lieske – coincidentally the occasional co-artist with Menzel on some of those other games I mentioned above. Anyone familiar with the ancient cave art of Lascaux ought to agree that should make for a fantastic theme for a board or card game. The subject matter just cries out for that treatment and exploration!
This game works, but only in the light family games category that you might play once a year at most. The results seem to be just too “random” for players to be vested in any decision-making going on in the game. But the card art is nice and reminiscent of the actual cave paintings of animals. Together with the (real) stones that are used as bidding chips, one gets a bit of a sense of earthy pre-history.

Sample Lascaux cards showing the six animal graphics

Lascaux game components close up

However, it’s all a little disappointing in the end, because the theme of the original Lascaux cave art is so inspiring and full of promise. The game is nice to look at, but I can’t help thinking that the title deserved to be so much more. Not necessary for your average gamer, although fans of pre-historic art could keep this as a curiosity on their bookshelf, next to their tomes on (the actual) Lascaux and other prehistoric art.

Cities

Paul M. — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:30:32 +0000

For this post we’re still on nostalgic card games, but we cross the Atlantic from the UK to the USA for Cities. This is yet another set-collecting game of the Rummy class.

The artwork is rather art deco, reminiscent of the era – the original publication date is 1932. I really love the drawings for the card art, although it is a pity that production was done in monochrome only. I think this game would have been sensational if it had been produced in full colour!

Certainly the box cover art is a stand-out. Shown here in the sixth image is the digital re-touching job I did on this – the before and after images overlaid with a short delay between.

The full card collection for my copy is also shown in grouped sets here. Click on the thumbnails to see them bigger but in lo-res.
The fifth pic is a close-up of one card, the card back, and the rules sheet cover with advertising on the back. Again, there is no named artist credited for this work, and as usual I welcome any further information on the game and/or the artist!

More colourful card games – Wild Flower Sevens

Paul M. — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:30:30 +0000

Wild Flower Sevens - circles

Wild Flower Sevens - squares

There is an enormous variety of “generic” card games that is amenable to custom artwork – Happy Families or Go Fish have been mentioned here, but also trump games and Sevens. In Sevens, the deck comprises standard numbered suits – it doesn’t matter what the suits are, they just have to be different and distinguishable. Players try to deplete their hands by building sequentially on revealed cards in the middle of the table, starting with the sevens and building up and down either side.
Not a particularly interesting game given the spectrum of different trump and rummy variations out there, but a harmless diversion particularly for kids.

Wild Flower Sevens - diamonds

Wild Flower Sevens - triangles

I could devote an entire website to just different versions of generic card games. In fact some already exist – pagat.com perhaps the most comprehensive of these (although pagat is concerned with rules sets and not the artwork!).

Here then is another example of a colourful deck with unique artwork on every single card, (click on thumbnails to see lo-res images). This Wild Flower Sevens card deck was published by Castell Brothers (Pepys). There is no date on the box of this set or the rules booklet, but my guess is that it is 1960s vintage. The artist is also uncredited.
Any further information (publication date info, artist name, etc.), is always appreciated!

Belisha

Paul M. — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 10:30:01 +0000

While we’re on the card game theme here’s another piece of nostalgia from 1930s Britain. Belisha is a Rummy variant, based on the theme of a motor trip from one end of the UK mainland to the other.
The other important part of the theme is motor and pedestrian safety, and this game was apparently designed also as an educational aid primarily for children.

The rather odd name “Belisha” comes from Leslie Hore-Belisha and the Belisha Beacon – the traffic signal for pedestrian crossings named after him. Hore-Belisha was a British politician and an fierce activist for road safety in the first half of the 20th century. The Belisha Beacon is the orange bulb thing in the corner of some of the cards in the set, and is also the bent pole in the picture on the blue 3 card.

Belisha yellow/blue suit

Belisha red/white suit

A current trend in games publishing is that the designers of modern games are always credited, usually on the box cover itself, like the authors of books. Occasionally you will see the artist’s name too, although this is more usually found in the credits section at the back of the rule book. Unfortunately, it was not a common practice for games of this era, so yet again we have a game with an uncredited artist. If anyone has information about the artist for this (or any other uncredited game here), I’d love to know – please use the comments section or the contact form!

Belisha blue/white suit

Belisha red/yellow suit

Like many of the pieces featured here, the attraction of the art is more for the historical, cultural, and maybe geographical interest. The pictures containing people are cute cartoons and, although they are all colourful, for the most part the location images are nothing special when looked at individually. On the other hand, some are really attractive and appealing, like Aberford, Luss, and Buckden Palace.

Shown here is the whole set of cards (click the thumbnails to get a little closer to the low-resolution pics). This is another collection that in hi-res, and cleaned up a little, would make for a nice wall poster, attractive in its own right, but also as a little slice of British cultural history!

Les Mammiferes – The Mammals

Paul M. — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:30:30 +0000

Les Mammiferes box art

Or more correctly, Les Mammifères (<- note the little grave mark on the “e” in there…).
This card game is a recent acquisition, originally from France and undated, although at a guess looks to be 1950s vintage.
The name on the box hints that the artist is Fernand Nathan. However, those who know the games industry well will spot that this is in fact the name of the publisher. The artist, sadly, is uncredited.

Carnivores and Insectivores

This is another example in which the individual illustrations are themselves not timeless or brilliant pieces of art.

Pinnipeds, Cetaceans and Rodents

Rather, the whole collection together is a wonderful little time capsule of illustrations made primarily as an educational aid for children.
While some of the drawings in this set are a little flat, others are quite lively and project the personalities of the animals right out at the viewer. My personal favourites are the Lion, Tiger, Polar Bear, Walrus, Hippopotamus, and everything in the family “Ongules a nombre impair de doigts” (Ungulates with an odd number of digits – Elephant, Rhinoceros, etc.).

Ungulates with 2 digits (persistent horns, other ruminants), Ungulates with 4 digits (pig family)

Oh – and I can’t help passing a comment on the picture of the Echidna, that has what appears to be a couple of pine trees in the background. Presumably the artist caught this image of the animal in an enclosure at a European zoo, rather than in the Australian bush.

Ungulates with an odd number of digits, Quadrumana (4-handed primates), and the "Extraordinary Mammals" (Marsupials)

The game itself is just another incarnation of Go Fish, or Happy Families – Jeu des Familles in the French – so nothing special.
Shown here are the images from all the cards in the game – clicking the thumbnails will show the pictures closer but in low resolution. I think the hi-res images would make for a great wall poster, although in this case I will need to seek permission and a license from the copyright owner. Furthermore, I expect I would also need to demonstrate that demand exists for such a thing before proceeding. So as usual, I welcome any comments in that regard…

Agricola

Paul M. — Thu, 26 May 2011 10:30:55 +0000

Most (but not all!) of Agricola's main components

For this entry we return to the 21st century (contemporary) collection to feature a modern classic.
Agricola was first published in 2007 by the German games company Lookout Games and co-published for the English-speaking market by Z-Man Games in the US. It has won numerous awards, including the elite Spiel des Jahres “Complex Game” prize for 2008. It hit the top of the favoured the games list of boardgamegeek.com in 2008 and is still currently in the number 3 position of this which at the time of writing comprises over 51,200 titles.

Suffice to say it is a brilliant game, although one that I seldom get to play these days.
The artwork on the individual components of Agricola is, admittedly, not spectacular. The pictures on the cards are gentle and cartoony, but certainly contribute centrally to the game’s theme of 17th century farming in Europe. However, Agricola is artistically significant in the boardgaming world for two reasons.

Agricola Major Improvements

The first is that the overall game is itself a work of art, and Uwe Rosenberg, the game designer, deserves to be considered an artist.
I have no desire to start or continue a debate/flamewar about whether boardgames themselves can be considered art. This is already argued for and against by commentators more knowledgeable on the subject than me. (Eg., google Roger Ebert and check out the numerous bloggers who have responded on both sides of the discussion. Note that the original debate was about video games rather than board or card games, but the arguments can be simply and readily extended to cover these.)

Agricola Occupations and Minor Improvements

On whether Agricola could ever be considered a work of fine art, perhaps that will depend on how well it stands the test of time. It will probably never be on display at le Louvre. But I could easily imagine it being an exhibit at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum or any of its equivalents around the world, or even the Smithsonian in Washington, in say 50 or 100 years time.
On the argument that art is just a subjective call anyway, I always come back to Gelett Burgess: I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like.

A growing Agricola farm with Minor Improvement

Anyhoo… The second reason Agricola is artistically significant for a boardgame is the sheer number of images incorporated into the game collection. I say game collection because only a limited, relatively small number of these images ever appear in a single playing of the game. In the basic, “vanilla” version of Agricola, there are 360 game cards that provide 349 images, including 308 separate graphics of Occupations and Minor Improvements, all prepared by artist Klemens Franz. Furthermore, there are another 10 expansions to Agricola that Franz has prepared the artwork for, comprising a total of at least another 372 pictures, for a staggering total of over 730 illustrations. That doesn’t include miscellaneous board art, card backs, etc, or the photo image renderings in the L-deck.

More Agricola Minor Improvements and Occupations

And Klemens is certainly prolific beyond the Agricola franchise, credited with the artwork on another 30-odd games, including Bohnanza, At the Gates of Loyang, Neuland, and Le Havre.

To reiterate, Agricola is a modern classic of boardgame art. I’m proud to give it a spot here, as well as on my own games shelf.
And regardless of whatever else they achieve, Uwe Rosenberg and Klemens Franz have cemented themselves a fine legacy.

A few site updates

Paul M. — Mon, 23 May 2011 11:45:38 +0000

Regular readers, especially those in the southern hemisphere, may have been aware of inconsistent performance from ye olde boardgameart.com over recent weeks. This has been a major source of frustration, affecting not only the ability of regular and casual surfers to load the site, but also google searching and advertising has been affected.

The problem was apparently related to the connectivity of the data centre hosting the server. Well, I’m pleased to report that as of two days ago, I successfully completed the migration of the site to a data centre with improved and more stable performance. I’m hoping – expecting – that the previous poor performance of boardgameart.com will not be seen again. Hooray!

While I was working on configuration issues I tidied up the front page also, so that only the first few lines of each post are displayed. I’m hoping this improves the overall appearance for the casual reader, while allowing those more interested in any given post to dip into the whole thing just by clicking the “Continue reading” button.

Feedback, questions, comments, always welcome.