''Niagara'' is a

German-style board game A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...

Thomas Liesching Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

and published in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Zoch Verlag The Zoch Verlag is a Munich-based publisher of games. Its pivotal point is games of skill made out of wood - or with a high proportion of wood — for children and families. In addition, it has games in which the tactical skills of the players ar ...

and

Rio Grande Games Rio Grande Games is a board game publisher based in Placitas, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games. History In 1995, Jay Tummelson began working for Mayfair Games. At that time, May ...

. In ''Niagara,'' which is set in the

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

, players collect, transport, and steal gems. Upon its release, the game won several awards, including the 2005 ''

Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...

''.

Gameplay

The game is played on a hinged board designed to sit atop the game box and represent Niagara Falls as a flap hanging over the box edge. The river is represented using clear plastic discs in a grooved surface, allowing board spaces to move downstream toward the waterfall. Nepomuk 027 - Niagara a Trans Evropa

Players collect gems along a river. Players move canoes to transport the gems, and can steal gems from other players' canoes. They may also influence the speed with which the board spaces move downstream. The first player to acquire four gems of one colour, or one of each of the five colours, or seven gems of any colour, is the winner. Although the game box states that gems closer to the waterfall are of higher value, the game treats all colours equally.

Expansions

Diamond Joe

Given away at the

Spiel Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, often called the Essen Game Fair after the city where it is held, is an annual four-day boardgame trade fair which is also open to the public held in October (Thursday to the following Sunday) at the Messe Essen ex ...

2005 game festival, ''Diamond Joe'' adds another canoe which is controlled indirectly by the players, and which participates in trades, generally bringing the harder-to-reach gems upstream.

Spirits of Niagara

Released in 2006, ''Spirits of Niagara'' adds double-capacity canoes, pieces for a sixth player, additional paddle cards with new actions, and a whirlpool which pushes canoes downstream. It also adds two "spirits" of the river: the "Bathing Beaver", which resets the flow of the river to normal, and the "Hurried Elk", which allows a player to move their canoe faster if they reach the gems on the edge of the waterfall.

Awards

In 2005 ''Niagara'' won the ''Spiel des Jahres'' and was one of the winners of the Mensa Mind Games competition. It received 2nd place in the ''

Deutscher Spiele Preis __NOTOC__ The Deutscher Spielepreis (, ''German Game Prize'') is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine ''Die Pöppel-Revue'', which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals ...

'' and 3rd in the ''

Schweizer Spielepreis The Schweizer Spielepreis is a Switzerland, Swiss board game award, awarded since 2002 in three categories: German-style board game, Family games, Children's games and Strategy games. The game is awarded yearly at the ''Schweizer Spielmesse'' in O ...

'' for Family Games. The game was also reviewed in ''

Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

.''

References

External links

''Niagara'' home page
at Zoch zum Spielen * {{Spiel des Jahres Mensa Select winners Spiel des Jahres winners Rio Grande Games games Board games introduced in 2004