REVIEWS
AFFEN TENNIS Jürgen Kohl - Braunkohl verlag www.affentennis.com The playing surface is a bright red felt cloth overlaid with hexes and marked with lines that befit a tennis court. The cloth is roughly the same size and shape as an original Subbuteo pitch. The AFFEN TENNIS players are two identical (apart from the bandana) monkeys. The ball is a medium weight plastic sphere, much about what you would expect a ball to be, although its size in comparison to the players and their racquets makes it more equivalent to a medicine ball than a tennis ball. The actual "racquets" are rubber-band propelled catapult "fired" through a wooden block and prevented from continuing through by a small metal hook to which the elastic (rubber) band is attached.
Along the edge are boxes with the regular 15, 30, 40, Advantage scores clearly marked (one of these box sets faces each player) and also three boxes marked 1, 2 and 3 for the games; each player has 2 wooden counters, one for each box series. The final pieces of equipment are a solid wood wall, a thin, narrow wooden strip, and a smaller solid wall. These are creatively used for lobbing and smashing strokes at applicable moments during play. The central part of the tennis court has an understitched thickening material which forms a raised area that counts as the net. The court is laid flat on the table and the counters positioned ready for use. The two players approach from either end of the red clay court, the sun coming down over the shoulder of the player to the west reflecting the glint of concentration in the facing monkey. Monkeyta Sellas stares across the net at her opponent for the day, Marmoset Navratilova, and prepares to serve. Ms Sellas pulls the catapult back to strength 3, she doesn't want to reveal all her power on the first serve. The hammer strikes the ball and it zips across the felt but fails to climb over the net and roll into Ms N's serving area. First Serve! Nerves jangling Ms S winds up the catapult to 4 whilst Ms N moves a little closer to the net. The hammer strikes, the ball crosses the court on the diagonal, traverses the net and passes Ms N to the left, coming to a halt 3 hexes behind the returner. Ms N curses and runs backwards, using up her movement allowance and borrowing energy to reach the ball. She does so but can only pass it straight back across the net. Ms S has already perceived where the ball will be aimed and has moved accordingly. Ms N fires the ball across the net, it is short and in bounds but in easy reach of Ms S. This is going to be a long diagonal shot and as long as it stays in bounds the first point of the match is going with the service. AFFEN TENNIS looks remarkably silly! The "racquets" are rubber-band catapults and the "players" are boggle-eyed monkeys on a red Subbuteo felt pitch with additional markings. It's like flick football meets shove-halfpenny. It's the sort of game hi-brow boardgame players wouldn't touch with a barge pole. It's also the most amusing, enjoyable and hilarious tabletop sports simulation you could wish for. Every home (with a large enough table) should have one. That little phrase in parenthesis is the only possible negative of this great entertaining game - you need a very large table on which to play. Not much of a negative point is it ? I would love to see this at GenCon and UKGamesExpo being run as a tournament throughout the weekend. It is bright, plays quite quickly and virtually anyone can play (as long as they are capable of pulling back the hammer of the catapult). Here at Games Gazette we have introduced AFFEN TENNIS to lots of our friends and have yet to find one who wasn't ready to go again the moment their game ended, win or lose. It has longevity, entertainment value, tournament and casual play possibilities, and it all comes in a neat felt bag no larger than a training shoe bag. The designer has got the game right, the pieces right and the packaging right. All it needs now is more exposure. Check it out on the internet and ask your local game store if they have it or can order it. You won't be sorry. Please Note: Photographs shown were scanned from www.Boardgamegeek.com which in our opinion is the best internet website for game rules.
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