Famed designing duo Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling will have a new title out from German publisher Ravensburger in time for Spiel 2010: Asara which is subtitled Land of 1000 Towers. The archetypical dude with blueprints on the box cover is doing his job of overseeing the construction watching the solar waves bathe and caress the magnificent spire before him ? which is apparently supposed to distract gamers from noticing that said dude is standing on a tower even taller than the one being supervised. We're on to your tricks Johnny Blueprint! Ahem as for the game play designer Bruno Faidutti played a prototype of the game at his 2010 Ludopathic Gathering and has already added it to his Ideal Game Library. Here's a summary of his somewhat detailed game description: Asara ? displayAfter the first explanations of the rules I was less enthusiastic. It's workers placement even when the usual worker meeples are replaced by cards. Nothing new here. It's palace building somewhere in Fantasy Land in the Far East or in Renaissance Italy. Nothing new here either. But after all it's Kramer and Kiesling so let's give it a try. I played it and it was tense deep unforgiving. Asara is a cleverly-designed and finely-balanced German gaming machine and much more of a gamers' game than it seems at first glance. Description written by W. Eric Martin and used with permission of BoardgameNews.com

Age range: 9 and up / Number of players: 2 to 4 / Play time: 45

Manufacturer: Ravensburger USA